Hero Chapter 2

I'm sooooo sorry!!! I meant to update my stories yesterday, but it was a crazy day. Any way, I will be updating The Third Earth and The Web of Colors even though I don't really know where I am going to go with The Web of Colors.. Meh, my nutty brain will come up with a strange plot. If you have any ideas... I'd LOVE to hear from you. 

Oh and thank you, KristaCary M, for the feedback! It is greatly appreciated!

 I was beginning to get uncomfortable. That morning I had mentally prepared myself for having a horrible time at this school, but I never expected it to be this bad. It was like all the things I dislike rolled into a one big Imani’s-bad-day cookie. 

After the Weird Wind episode, Mr. Glocks had quickly released us. He had mumbled something about getting the AC guy to fix the problems. But Zoe just stared at me. Frankly it was creepy. Her eyes that were typically warm, and friendly held a cold look that said, ‘I’m trying to figure out what makes you tick.’ It was a look scientists wore.

When Zoe spoke again, her words were careful as though she was completely out of her comfort zone, “Imani, were you in that- that- wind?”

“I think so.” I exclaimed, perplexed.

“Alright, is this some sort of high tech prank?” Zoe was fumbling trying to figure out some logical reason for the mysterious wind. “Seren, is this your prank on Imani and me?”

There was no reply.

Seren and the voice must be in some rude club- wait the voice! I wanted to smack my head for being so dumb.

Voice, buddy you there? I asked the voice.

It’s no prank. It’s your gift. The voice murmured softly.

What? But the voice stubbornly refused to say any more.

I sighed and ran a hand through my choppy blond hair. Once again the voice left me with more questions after the answer than before it.

“It’s no prank.” I told Zoe.

Her head snapped in my direction, a dangerous light in her eyes. “Do you expect me to believe that you have some sort of mysterious super power?”

Her breath was ragged, “Do you think that I’m an idiot?”

I backed up, “Whoa, calm down.”

“I know you guys know about it!” Zoe screamed her eyes wide, darting back and forth as though watching an intense game of tennis.

“I know you know my deepest wish!” she collapsed as though all the life had been sucked out of her.

I rushed to her side, “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Zoe stated plaintively, sitting up.

I studied her. Her breath was ragged, eyes slightly red.

For a few blissful seconds we pretended nothing was wrong. Then I got down to business.

“Alright, what’s the matter?”

“What do you mean?” Zoe replied.

“I mean, what happened to make you collapse like the London Bridge.” I reiterated.

She smirked, “Nursery Rhyme humor, I like it.”

I shot her a glare.

Her facet crumbled, “I like super heroes books. My greatest wish is to meet one. Or create one.”

I didn’t get it, “So?”

 “So?” Zoe stared at me, “You aren’t like embarrassed to be my friend?”

Now it was my turn to stare at her, “May be it’s different at this school, but at my old school the people who liked super heroes were the cool kids.”

Zoe smiled, a real genuine smile, “Really?”

“’Course, now I hate to sound selfish, but can you figure out what the heck happened when we ran!?”

“Right,” she said.

“Anything?” I asked. It had been one day since discovering my weird power, and we both had done research at home. While the other kids were eating their lunch, we were discussing the incident. My research had consisted mostly of asking the voice. But the voice only repeated, It’s your gift. Over and over like some weird chant. It got annoying fast. So I relied on Zoe for my information.

Zoe shook her head. “There’s a possibility you could have super powers, but usually the only way to get them is from heritage or an accident.”

I bit my lip, “My parents are normal, as far as I know…”

“But,” I continued, reluctantly “They have always been sort of weird.”

Zoe’s eyes narrowed, “How so?”

“We move around constantly, I have never been let into their office, and…” I hesitated, not wanting to sound over dramatic.

“This could be the key to finding out what’s going on with you.” Zoe encouraged.

 “They are hiding something,” I disclosed.

“How do you know?” She asked.

“When we looked into a house here, they already had one.” I swallowed. “Whenever we move to a new place there is a house waiting for us. Very similar to the previous one.”

“Suspicious.” Zoe commented.

“I’ve asked them before, and my dad said his work pays for them.”

She frowned, “I’ve never heard of that before.”

“Very suspicious.” We echoed in unison.

Zoe jumped up from her plastic –not gross- seat, “Okay, I know my parents said never to invite yourself over to someone else’s house, but can I come over to your house. For some spying?” Her eyes twinkled.

I stared up at her in shock, I hadn’t had a friend over since fifth grade. Then again I haven’t had a friend since fifth grade. But I didn’t know if it was such a great idea. Whenever we move, my parents get a little crazy. And busy. But they’ve always let Sara, my younger sister with the much more normal name, have her friends over. So I guess it was okay.

Yes, the voice murmured, keep your friend close.

What?

As was the normal, the voice didn’t speak any more.

DO YOU MIND BEING MORE SPECIFIC? I mentally screamed at the voice.

There was a voice, but not the voice.

“Is that a no?”

I jumped out of my thoughts totally forgetting about Zoe.

“Sorry, and no it’s a yes.” I frowned, confused by the words coming out of my own mouth, “You can come over.”

Zoe looked relieved.

“But be forewarned,” I proclaimed, “We just recently moved in, so it might be a bit of a madhouse.”

She grinned, “I share my room with Seren. Every morning is a flurry of makeup, hair spray, and screaming at me to get out of her room.”

I smiled back, “I would love to see her royal highness have the dishonor of sharing a room with another.”

She laughed.

DING-A-LING, the bell interrupted, DING-A-LING!

The Third Earth Chapter 3

Here it is, ladies and gentleman! The third chapter of The Third Earth. Hope you enjoy and don't forget to comment!!

I should have known. I was blind to the fact that my best friend -my boyfriend! He was the mole! Some small part of me knew there was no way I could know, but my mind kept replaying every time he acted strange. Every time he would give me a weird look. I should have noticed it then!

Then the good memories came. The first time we met. His chubby face asking me if I wanted to play with him and his friends. The first time we really connected. Our first kiss, how awkward it had been having our lips touch only knowing what to do from movies. Our first weeks as a couple -each of us trying to figure out how we were suppose to act now that we were “together”.

Was it all an act? I thought.

Wet beads of heartbreak fell down my face landing on the floor without a noise.

“Alby!” the same old man who announced my crimes called out.

I snapped my head in his direction sudden anger filling my emotions.

“What I did, I did for my planet. I have no need to make excuses for doing what is right.” I retorted at him.

“Ah, but it says here that you aren’t even from our little brother planet, Praeditos Terrae,” another Council member interjected, showing everyone a hologram image of me and my information.

I ignored the pictures and studied the woman who offered it to the rest of the council. She was old with stretched pale skin that sagged off her face in a way that resembled putty. Even from the distance of her position to mine, I could see her surprisingly blue eyes.  Cold calculating eyes that watched me while the other council members examined my profile. She was going to be someone to be trifled with.

“According to this database,” she continued, “You were born on Infantem Terra.”

The infant planet, the planet that Prima and Praeditos have been fighting over since its discovery --over four thousand years ago.

“And your dad…” the old woman smiled with a fake sympathetic demeanor, “He was born on Prima!”

I ground my teeth, this woman was revealing secrets from my past -things I would like to keep hidden.

“That doesn’t change my loyalties,” I turned my eyes to my boyfriend, “I am no traitor.”

Orin’s eyes were cold and his expression was blank.

The old woman started up again, “Yet it does beg the question, if your father was a Prima resident, how did you end up on Praeditos?”

I didn’t bother replying, she had already figured it out on her own.

“From various scraps of information-”

Stolen from Praeditos Terrae no doubt, I added mentally.

“-we have unearthed the true story.”

She glanced at her fellow Councillor members as though to see if they caught the joke.

When no one laughed, she awkwardly continued.

“We discovered that your father was once a loyal Prima citizen, but at the age of fourteen he went rogue.”

Just before his soul had to be implanted into a Figura Trebeas and you monsters turned him evil. I thought.

“He started to get his friends to follow along with his ideas -dangerous ideas. The leaders of his community had no choice but to punish him.” the woman continued, her voice getting strangely soft.

Pity, I observed, she pities me, just like the guards. They think I am some senseless child that does everything she is told.

“They cast him out of his city after he endangered half the community to the DD- 41,” the council gasped in perfect harmony.

I knew the creature she was talking about. I had heard stories of an outbreak of the Dæmonium a Diabolo back in the year 9780. How the creature destroyed millions of Prima residents until it was finally destroyed.  However, I didn’t know my dad was a part of it.

“For the following five years afterward, he travelled,” the old woman reported clearly fueled from her fellow councillors’ shocked expressions, “All around Prima Terra not staying in one place for more than a month. He managed to avoid the Transformation by avoiding every law enforcer and using his…”

She glanced at me, “...Unique skills.”

I suppressed a grin, “You mean his Praeditos Terrae gift? The ones that we have and with all your smarts you still have yet to replicate? Those gifts?”

Every eye turned to me. Every face glaring. It was like someone had suddenly held a blowtorch in my face, turned it on, then proceed to breath rapidly down my neck.

I smirked at their reactions.

For several seconds, time seemed to freeze.

Then the council member on the far right side coughed violently and the tension cleared.

The man who announced my ‘crimes’ muttered, “Annora, would you care to continue?”

His booming voice, even at a whisper, carried easily to my location.

Annora jerked away from her frozen position, “Yes well...”

She searched violently through her hologram tablet. Fingers flying across (and through) the device.

Well… I succeed in flustering her. I grinned, Point me!

“Yes, after the five years were up, your father disappeared.” She read from her tablet.  

Annora brought up a hologram of a file labeled Jeffery Alby.

“Eight years later, he was discovered on Infantem Terra.”  She pause.

“That’s when your mother was brought into the picture,” Annora frowned, “Poor thing. She knew nothing of our universe until your father came along.”

“She was a curious and foolish scientist. One that actually believed in the existence of other planets. He made her create for him a fake Infantem Terra ID so he could live comfortable there. Then he tricked her into marriage. Made her give up her job and everything.” Annora continued.

I glared at her head, wishing I could shoot laser from my eyes or something.

“A year to their marriage, you were born in an Infantem Terra hospital,” Annora looked up staring down at me from behind her long nose. “When you were born, something curious happened.”

My stomach dropped, my mouth somehow became a desert, and my eyes grew as she came close to spilling my secret.

“We didn’t understand it. Just a flunk in the systems, our experts had said. We, the council, came to a decision that whatever it was must be stopped. It took us five years to track it down.” Annora paused, “to track you down.”

NO! I thought frantically, this can’t be. They know the truth. They know everything!

My heart thudded unnaturally fast in my ears.

One of the other council members made a motion.

The jangling of keys against my cage made me jump. I realized the council member had motioned to the Figura Trebea who had brought me, to take me away.

They are going to discuss my sentence.

The Figura Trebea placed the blindfold around my eyes once again.

A series of twists and turns later, I was back in my cell. The uncovered light bulb welcoming me with its burning light. I closed my eyes.

Focus, how can you gain the advantage?

My power-- of course. My casting power could work for this situation.

I closed my eyes. The lightbulb above was so bright it burned through my eyelids. I pictured the room, envisioned the ten council members looking down at me with disgust.

Instantly, I was there. In the same spot as I had been at before. Staring up at the council members each of their mouths moving soundlessly. As though I turned on a TV with the mute on.

Back in the cell, I moved my arm moved toward my wrist watch and adjusted the strength of my power so I could hear their words. I grimace, my head ached from the effort. Controlling my body in this state was extremely strenuous.

I focused back on the room.

“--needs be contained. She is too dangerous.” the voice of a council member started

Another voice spoke up, “Not contained, she needs to die.”

“To die?” I the first old man, the one who announced my crimes said, “I think we can use her. To end the war for our side. She could be our secret weapon.”

Annora scoffed, “I doubt she would ever change sides. Besides, I don’t think anyone would ever be able to train her.”

“I will.” It was Orin.

Annora somehow managed to stare Orin down while being on the same level as him. “Let me remind you, Odee. You are still are still a Ossa.”

Ossa was the word used by the Prima to label those who have not been transformed into Figura Trebea.

Orin’s cold blue eyes barely even flinched, “And let me remind you, Croft, what power I have here. Who my father is.”

Wait, what? His father… Orin’s dad is dead! At least that’s what I had been told…

Annora stopped. A fearful look crossed her face.

In fact all of the Council had been struck with fear. The room had froze completely.

Only Orin moved, he sat back on his chair a smug smile on his tan face. “When I was on Praeditos I got to know many different people. I learned how to gain trust, about the psychology of a Praeditos brain. Regaining Alby’s shouldn’t be a problem.”

Annora spoke up, “R-Regaining?”

Orin just laughed, “Oh yes! DIdn’t anyone tell you? I was her boyfriend. Played her good. Her and her mentor. How do you think the information about her family came into our hands, huh?”

“No,” I said aloud. My brain jolted back into my cell. “No, no, no, no, NO!”

“It can’t be!” I repeated, staring hard at the wall.

“Orin betrayed me.”

I pressed my hands into my eye sockets so hard I was seeing spots of rainbow.

Keep it together.

I couldn’t.

The one person I thought I could trust was a traitor.

I curled into a ball and cried.

A Web of colors Chapter 2

Hey!!!
I got the second chapter of A Web of Colors done! If you like it please review. If you don't like it please review!!! Oh and if you have suggestions for a better title (for ANY of my stories) it would greatly appreciated if you let me know in the comments.

SCARLET CARMINE KNEW HER GRANDMA WAS STRANGE. Man, Ona had practically invented strange, but this crossed even her border of strange and completely loco.

Scarlet sat on the floor of their tiny apartment staring up at her grandma. Ona was singing and dancing as though it were a ball with dancers surrounded her, dancing to her music. But Ona was having a hard time keeping up with beats of her own music. Scarlet’s feet ached in sympathy for Ona’s imaginary dance partner, remembering then time she made the mistake of joining in. Despite her dancing ware of pink bunny slippers and a bathrobe, Ona still managed to pierce the feet of anyone dancing with her.

“La la la Love ain't here anymore.” Ona sung her favorite waltz music.

She continued to sing and dance to the imaginary music, while Scarlet mental rewound the last hour.

She remembered waking up to Ona’s wrinkly face framed by frizzy gray hair.

“Awaken, awaken, my child for day has not yet come so we must sing and dance to wake the sun from its own slumber.” Ona had said. She seemed to get crazier every day!

Scarlet knew she wasn’t going to school today. It was one of Ona’s bad days where her wits were nearly nonexistent.

Scarlet knew her friends; Jet, Violet, and Forrest; would cover for her as they always did. Sometime later in the day one of her friends would come over to give her the day’s homework.

It seemed like a cruel twist of fate. Scarlet would have to spend the next twenty-four hours making sure Ona didn’t decide to jump off a cliff while her friends got to dive into the abyss that was William Shakespeare’s works. Lucky.

Scarlet leaned back against the taupe wallpaper thinking, I wish I could turn this silent room into that classroom where- wait silent room?

She jerked up, eyes searching around the room to see Ona sprawled across the carpet.

“ONA!” Scarlet screeched pure terror in her voice.

Much to Scarlet’s relief, Ona jerked her head up almost banging it back down again on the coffee table.

“Oh dear, don’t be scared for me child, I was just staring up at the stars with Garnet, here.” Ona patted her clenched hand as though pointing out the person who she was holding hands with.

Only there was one problem, Garnet had been dead for five years. In one year, Scarlet had lost her parents and her grandpa. And if she wasn’t careful she was going to lose her grandma, too.

“No, no Puppy why must you leave me!?” Ona bawled, “You were so young, so YOUNG!”

Scarlet held back laughter. The only thing that stood in her way was five years of taking care of her strange grandma. But there were still moments when she could barely contain her laughter. Like now, with Ona on the floor cradling her purple puppy stuffed animal that their cat, Bebe, had “killed”.  Bebe sat on the couch now with a perplexed look on her calico face. Scarlet couldn’t blame her. If I was a cat and my owner was bawling all over my stuffed animal chew toy, I would be confused, too. No matter how often events like this happen.

“Why? Why? Why? WHY!?” Ona sobbed interrupting Scarlet’s thoughts by grabbing her shirt and sobbing all of it.

“It’s okay, Ona. Puppy is um in a better place.” Scarlet comforted stroking her grandmother’s hair.

Ona pulled back, her eyes rimmed red. “Bu- But” Ona bit her lip.

“Yes?” Scarlet prodded gently.
          “I want her back,” Ona screamed before bursting back into tears.

“Yes I know, I understand.”

“No, you don’t!” Ona cried stubbornly, “No one understands!”

“I do.”

“No, you don’t.” Ona declared almost challengingly.

“Yes, I do.”

“No, you don’t”

“Yes, I do.”

“No, you don’t!” The cat’s head swiveled back and forth as though watching an intense game of tennis.

“Yes, I do.”

“No, you don’t!”

“Yes, I do.”

“NO, YOU DON’T!” Ona howled with grief, “I am alone in my anguish.”

“Well then,” Scarlet smirked knowing how to get Ona back to her non-grieving self, “If you are mourning so much I guess you can’t eat this bag of MNM’s,” she sighed holding up a bag of MNM’S dejectedly as though it were a true tragedy.

Ona’s eyes watched the swinging bag greedily, her previous grief forgotten. “Gimme!” she pounced on the bag in a way that Bebe would surely be jealous of.

Ona struggled to open the bag using her teeth, but only succeeded in making it stretch, like taffy.

Scarlet sighed, “Let me see, I will open it for you.” She picked up the slimy bag and ripped it open to reveal a colorful variation of colors.

“CANDY!” Ona screeched practically popping Scarlet’s eardrums in the process.

She grabbed one handful after the other, shoving into her mouth with all the grace of a gorilla.

“MORE CANDY?” Ona asked spluttering sticky MNM’s all over Scarlet and the carpet.

“Gross,” Scarlet muttered brushing a stray MNM of her arm.

-BANG- -BANG- -BANG- -BANG-

“What-“Scarlet started.

-BANG- -BANG- -BANG- -BANG-

“Is-“

-BANG- -BANG- -BANG- -BANG-

“That?” she finished.

-BANG- -BANG- -BANG- -BANG-

Scarlet turned toward Ona who was happily playing on the floor with beheaded dog, completely unaware of the banging noise.

-BANG- -BANG- -BANG- -BANG-

“You stay here,” Scarlet ordered picking herself up from the floor.

-BANG- -BANG- -BANG- -BANG-

Ona looked up and obediently replied, “Okay! Puppy will keep me company!”

-BANG- -BANG- -BANG- -BANG-

Scarlet shot out their front door. Instantly she was blinded by a glaring light that seemed to take up the whole hallway. When her eyes got adjusted, Scarlet saw the hall.

Was a complete madhouse.

Some people ran in and out of random doorways. Others hid behind overturned furniture. Still others just stood still and screamed their lungs raw.

  And in the center of the storm was a robot.

It was easily the size of a small car with giant pincer-like claws on either end. They were intended for smashing prey, yet Scarlet couldn’t help but wonder how it held a pencil. However, its face was the scariest part. It was a swirling mask of horror that made Scarlet dizzy just looking at it. Trying not to get nauseous, she focused on the robot’s lower half. Its body was entirely made of glass, with a t-shirt covering its torso that boldly stated “Death to pepperoni! Taco is the king!”

That’s when Scarlet really got mad. “Oh, no! Oh you did not just insult pepperoni!”

The robot tilted his head –making Scarlet sick to her stomach- as though confused, “Why do you not lose your head, human?” It intoned.

Scarlet ignored its question. Still bubbling with anger, she ran toward the robot screaming, “For you, pepperoni!”

It reared up in front of her, before stating, “I will squash you like a bug,”

It’s speech isn’t very original, but it’s scary enough. I need to change my approach.

Scarlet darted into a nearby doorway looking for something to use as a weapon.

The first thing to hit her was the smell. It smelt nice, which usually when something smells good you don’t notice straight off the bat, but Scarlet did. She had lived in the same apartment with Ona for five years now, and in those years she had gotten used to the scent of disinfectant, and the slimy odor of the medicine Ona takes. This apartment smelled like caramel. Her mother had perfume that smelt like caramel. Scarlet’s eyes began to get watery thinking of her.

Focus! She told herself clearing away the unshed tears.

The apartment was so similar to her own it gave her the vertigo just by looking at it. It had same wooden flooring, but instead of taupe wallpaper it had blue flowery wallpaper with orange trim that made an odd combination. But the layout was the same: kitchen in the back left corner, bathrooms and bedrooms to the right, and a small living room nestled in the middle.

A broom and dust pan lay dejectedly in the middle of the floor, dust still floating in the air as though someone had just thrown it up in fright.

-BANG- -BANG- , the monster reminded her.

“Coming!” Scarlet muttered like an annoyed teen yelling at her parents.

She turned back toward the broom, and shrugged, “That’ll have to do.”

Seconds later, she ran out the door armed with a fearsome broom, prepared to dust the robot to death.

“Eat straw, Taco Man,” Scarlet yelled.

-CHOMP-

“Huh, you actually eat straw!” Scarlet deadpanned staring at the stump left of her broom.

The robot cackled, “HA-HA ha! You may be immune to the A-2243, but I will still destroy you the old-fashion way.”

Its claws begin to change into something much worse. Scarlet could only watch frozen in horror. Screams still came from the people around her, but somehow it all seemed distant like she was watching a movie about some stranger named Scarlet Carmine. Not living her life.

“I WILL DESTROY YOUR WORLD!” the robot intoned pointing the weapon at her head.