“Andora Ashton?” a man was pulling me aside out of the crowd going to lunch. I nodded, “Are you a journalist here to celebrate the two year anniversary of the Pathia incident?” I asked, the man shook his head, “I’m officer Holt. Do you know where your father is, Professor Acidus Ashton?” I stiffened, “What’s this about?” “Well I…” another officer came in and interrupted him: “Come on Holt, stop being so dramatic. Just take it in!” “ ‘It’?” I asked. Holt nodded, “Andora Ashton…” but he was interrupted again by my father. “Everything okay?” he asked, “Do you know where Professor Ashton is?” I tried to hint to my dad what not to say, but it didn’t work. “I’m Professor Ashton.” He said. Officer Holt jumped in as if to prevent any further interruptions, saying “Professor Acidus Ashton, we have a warrant for your arrest. You are being charged with illegal scientific experiments.” One of the officers tried to cuff me, but I pushed him away, my father pretended to trip and shoved a pendant in my hand before saying “Run!” I followed my father’s instructions and ran as fast as I could. I ran home, packed a bag and waited. A few hours later, Pyro came home. “What on earth is going on Pyro?” he looked at me incredulously, “You…you’re not at the lab with Dad?” “Is that what they told you?” “Well that’s what I figured, Ms. Harris went nuts looking for you, called the cops and everything. Let me call and let her know where you are.” He reached for the phone but I stopped him, “The cops want me. They took dad away arrested him for illegal scientific experiments. What are they talking about? The only thing Dad really messed with was… me.” Pyro nodded, “I’m surprised Dad didn’t tell you before.” He said. “That’s why you always sabotaged things – you didn’t want Dad to go to jail…so what do they want me for? And what’s going to happen to Dad?” Pyro shrugged, “I don’t know. Dad will probably be tried and jailed. They’ll probably do the same thing with you that they do with drugs: confiscate and/or destroy…” I turned quickly, “I need to disappear. Ho w long do you think they’ll keep Dad?” “I don’t know.” There was a sudden sharp knocking on the door. I snuck into a room and started to sneak out the back door. “Pyro Ashton? Do you happen to know where your sister, Andora, is?” asked a man, probably Officer Holt. “What do you need her for?” “Well we think that she and Professor Ashton, your father, would be… of great use and service to us.” Pyro didn’t skip a beat, “She’s upstairs, third room to the left.” The cops went upstairs while I snuck out the back. One of the cops heard the door slam and started to follow me. I ran fast and hard, and finally shook them off and even then I kept going until I literally couldn’t anymore; stopping in the middle of a forest I had never seen before. I didn’t hear anybody behind me so I climbed a tree and settled down to sleep.2
When I woke up, stiff as a rock, I straddled the branch and looked at the pendant my father had given. It was a typical leather thong with a silver outlined surf board pendant about one inch long. The surf board itself was a piece of blue abalone shell interior with a small dolphin in the center. On the back of the pendant I noticed an engraving that said, “To my Dahlia.” Indicating that it belonged to my mother. “Looks like you’re having a lot of fun in that tree.” Said a voice from below. I quickly fastened the pendant around my neck and cautiously peeked down below. “Ms. Ashton.” Said Officer Holt, “You’re not very hard to track down.” He said, “You ought to come down, we have your brother.” Holt made a motion and two officers dragged Pyro into my view. There was a dried trickle of blood on his face; he must have given the cops a run for their money. The cops had a piece of cloth across his mouth so he couldn’t speak but he still struggled fiercely. I stared at Pyro, gained his power and then said, “You ought to leave us alone.” I barely knew myself, feeling almost like I was watching myself making veiled threats at the police. Suddenly I hung upside down from the branch, did a back flip and landed on my feet. My hands, without thinking, shot jets of flame as I flipped. By the time I landed, all the cops were dead. Pyro melted his cuffs, ripped the cloth out of his mouth and ran over to where I had sunken to the round. He knelt down next to me, “You okay?” I shook my head, “That wasn’t me.” I said. Pyro raised his eyebrow, “What do you mean?” “It was like… it felt like I had stepped out of my body and watched myself kill those men.” I shuddered, “What’s happening to me?” Pyro shrugged, “I don’t know. If I was aggressive like that, I would saw your power had evolved and that you could power and personality morph. But I’m not like that.” “Do you think Dad would know, I mean after all he did… make me.” Pyro nodded, “He might.” “Look you’re probably going to be suspected for this, but we have to talk to Dad.” “It won’t be a problem; these guys weren’t even from our area. They weren’t cops- they’re probably from some other department. Dad’s at the local precinct so seeing him shouldn’t be a problem.” “But why would pseudo cops want to come after us?” Pyro shrugged, “I don’t know. Maybe this case goes further up and they just put Dad in the local prison temporarily.” “In that case we’ll have to hurry if we’re going to talk with Dad.” Pyro nodded and turned to leave, “Oh, Andora, I suggest you get somewhere civilized; your power doesn’t do you any good in the woods.” I nodded, “I’ll head to Castor.” Pyro looked at me incredulously, “Castor is miles away, besides do you even know what direction it’s in?” “I’ll risk it.” I said, “The farther the better right?” Pryo shrugged doubtfully, “I’ll see you in Castor then.” 3
My plan was to hitchhike down the road but I soon realized that a)that plan had an extreme risk factor of detection and
I was lot farther into the woods than I originally thought. Even when I got out of the forest I realized that I was on the wrong side; Castor was a big urban city and I had landed in the middle of suburbia. Whoosh! An arrow flew past my head. “Sorry!” I heard someone call. I immediately took a bandana out of my pocket and covered my hair with it. “Sorry about that.” Said a boy, approximately my age. “Not a lot of people randomly pop out of the forest.” He said sarcastically. “Castor?” I asked. “You’re a long ways off.” “I figured.” “You have a name?” the boy asked. I paused briefly, “Andie. And you?” “Archer” he said, slightly embarrassed. “Nothing wrong with that.” I said. Archer smiled, “Anyway, Castor is on the other side of the forest; do you want to rest at my place? It’s right across the hill and my parents won’t mind.” I accepted his offer, so Archer slung his bow and quiver over his back and led the way. “So, do you have business in Castor?” “I…I’m supposed to visit some family of mine. I haven’t seen them in a while.” Archer nodded his head, “After lunch my Dad could drive you there if you want.” “What does your dad do for a living?” “He’s with the local precinct.” I stopped dead in my tracks. “You dad hasn’t brought any people with streaks in has he?” Archer shook his head. “I was just wondering. I heard the cops were looking for Acidus, Pyro and Andora.” “Not my dad; never heard anything about that stuff.” “Oh. Heard it was interesting.” I muttered to myself nervously. I continued fixing my bandana over my hair so no one would see my streaks. After a light lunch we discovered the car was broken and so it was agreed that Archer would walk with me to Castor. I hoped to myself that every thing would go smoothly and would make it to Castor without having to tell Archer too much. 4Chapter 2: Attack of the Gulls5
Archer and I woke up the next day, a little stiff but none the worse for wear. We had some bread for breakfast then carried on. It was about noon when we heard some birds cawing in the distance. I froze. “Everything okay Andie?” I nodded, “I think so.” Suddenly a seagull came down and nearly collided with my head. “What’s a gull doing all the way up here?” wondered Archer as he looked at the gull sitting on a branch soon ahead. The gull started to swoop down again, faster this time. I started to dodge it but I separated again and watched as I snatched an arrow from Archer’s quiver, stabbed the bird and slung the carcass to the ground. Archer looked in surprise then said, “is there something you’re not telling me?” I shook my head, “No. I umm.. had a bad experience when I was younger with seagulls.” I was a terrible liar though; I could tell Archer wasn’t convinced. “Look. Just because my dad is a cop doesn’t mean that I’m a tattle tale.” I nodded, “It’s more complicated than that…see…” I was interrupted by the sight of hundreds of seagulls flying as hard as they could towards us. “Archer!” I shouted, “Shoot them.” The sight of so many where they never should have been, convinced him: he fired several accurate arrows at the birds. Under the flock was a man with snow white, shoulder length hair. “Hopefully I’ll be able to get the bounty.” He hissed. “What bounty?” asked Archer, “We haven’t committed any crime!” Before the man had a chance to say anything else I stole his power and sent the seagulls away. The man had tricks up his sleeves; he took a pocketknife and started running toward me. It happened again; I felt my body run towards a tree with the man close behind, up it, perform a flip over the man’s head. After I landed I swing my leg around, kicked the man in the head knocking him over and finally I stopped watching. “Andie, that was amazing!” said Archer. However he was celebrating too early: the white haired man started to get up. “RUN!” I ordered and we could have been flying we were running so fast. “What was that all about?” he asked when we were done. I shrugged, “Probably some… lunatic who talks to burds.” “You’re a terrible liar, Andie.” Replied Archer. “Look when we get to Castor I need to meet up with my brother. When I do, I’ll explain.” Archer shook his head and in an instant had an arrow notched to his bow, “I want an explanation now!” he said. “If I explained you wouldn’t believe me.” I said, stalling. “I’m an illegal experiment. That’s why the bounty hunter is coming after me. However, I do need to get to Castor and I do need to meet up with my brother.” Archer looked at me, “You’re not lying because you’re not blushing. But…an experiment?” he shook his head disbelievingly but he put away the bow. “Look, we’re getting close to Castor, about three miles, when we get there I want full explanations.” He said. I nodded, “Full explanations.”6
The rest of the miles went peacefully but I was wary after the sea-gulls. When we got to Castor I looked for the family pick-up truck automatically assuming Pyro had driven. However I didn’t see Pyro or the car anywhere. Archer and I went into a diner to eat something. “Excuse me.” I asked an employee, “have you seen a boy about me height, with red highlights in black hair?” the waitress thought for a minute “He same in here. Was looking for a girl came about three days ago. Left in a fury when he couldn’t find her.” “so where did he go?” I asked desperately. “Headed into the woods.” I started to thank the girl but stopped when I saw the giant shadow that was over the road. “It’s the gulls.” Said Archer, “But they’re not looking for us.” “Pyro.” I jumped up and started running after the flock. Archer followed a little doubtfully. I sprinted deeper and deeper into the forest and noticed that the temperature was rising the deeper I got. Soon I saw the Pyro shooting jets of flame at the gulls who were pecking him ferociously. “Archer!” I called, but he was already shooting arrows at the closest gulls. Pyro tried to fend off more but it wasn’t working so I power-morphed. I stared at Pyro, stole his power and helped fight the gulls. The bounty hunter came out, “So my little ruse worked.” He said. “The hounds to the hunters.” I stole his power and sent the gulls away. The hunter took out a knife, I started watching myself, and he threw it towards Archer. I watched myself run towards the knife, with one front-flip I caught it with my feet, with another I three it a hair’s breath away from the bounty-hunter and into the tree directly behind him. Finally I stopped watching and walked away from the hunter with my brother and friend. 7
After we had walked back to the truck, which Pyro had parked in the road nearby, Archer stopped. “I’m not going any farther. Andie, you promised me full explanations when we met up with your brother.” So, I told Archer everything. I told him about the experiments, my foster family, everything. Pyro summed up what our Dad had told him about the watching, “He said that it was probably some glitch in the formula. For some reason it didn’t show up until you were sixteen. What’s that on your neck?” he asked, suddenly changing the subject. “It’s a pendant Dad gave me when he was arrested.” I replied. “The reason I ask is because when I talked with Dad he said you had all the answers.” I took off the pendant and showed it to Pyro and Archer, “All it says is ‘To my dear Dahlia.’” Pyro looked at the dolphin in the center and tried pushing it like a button but it didn’t work. So I took it back and looked at the blue patterns wondering if the answer was written there. Suddenly Archer shouted in surprise, “Andie, your hair!” I looked at my streaks and discovered that they looked like the blue streaks in the pendant. “Try pushing the dolphin.” Suggested Pyro. I did and suddenly there was a projection of my dad in front of us. “If you’re seeing this then something and it’s time that you knew everything.” He said. “About twenty years ago, a government representative asked for my help. He thought it was time for some reforms to be made to the army. So he asked me to design some sort of invincible soldier that they could clone and thus build and army.8
“It took me a few years to get it right but eventually as you no doubt have guessed, the product was Andora. Unfortunately due to certain setbacks,” Pyro looked at his feet, “the government was growing impatient. That’s when Dahlia disappeared. I left Pyro with a neighbor and went looking for her. In the end I told Pyro she had died. Next thing I knew Andora was gone too. The rest, is they say, is history.” The projection of my dad disappeared and was replaced with a projection of the procedures to my dad’s experiments. I turned it off and said, “So I was supposed to be some sort of soldier?” “Well, at least that explains the ‘glitch’” said Pyro uneasily, “Just a glitch in a different kind of way than what we expected.” Archer piped up, “I always knew that politicians were double crossers, but wow!” “It all makes sense for the most part.” I said, “Pyro whisked me away; the government got made and has been looking for their ‘property’ ever since. It wasn’t until that whole thing with Pathia came up that they were able to get a pinpoint on my whereabouts. Now they want to claim me.” Pyro nodded, “The only thing that doesn’t make sense is what happened to Mom.” “We need to talk to Dad.” I said, getting into the driver’s seat of the truck. “Are you out of your mind?” asked Pyro, “You’re going to just walk into the police station?” I nodded, “Look, I don’t want to be running for the rest of my life and the only way to stop the problem is to go to the source and tell them that the deal is off.” I said, “We need to get Dad out and figure out exactly where his employer is.” “Sounds reasonable to me.” Said Archer, “After all, you guys have streaks and I have my bow.” Pyro was still a little doubtful, “Streaks doesn’t imply invincibility.” But in the end he conceded, “but before we do anything you should call your parents, Archer.” So we drove back to Castor and found a payphone for Archer to call his parents on. We stepped away while he made the call, however in a few minutes he came back. “That was short,” said Pyro, “Do your parents talk really fast?” Archer shook his head, “No, they’re disappeared.” 9
Chapter 3: Dee10
“My dad always told me that if I called the house and no one picked up something was extremely wrong.” Explained Archer, “Well no one picked up just now. So what does that tell you.” “We should go to the farm and figure out what happened.” I said. Before we could agree to anything a patrol car pulled up, two cop got out and we immediately jumped behind the car. “They were heading to Castor.” Said one. “I don’t see them anywhere.” “Just be patient, we’ll find them.” Said the other. The cops started walking to the diner when the bounty hunter strode in, “Are you tracking the power- morpher?” he asked. The cops, although they were slightly disturbed by the hunter’s appearance, nodded. “I’ve seen her. The skills are matured: she is dangerous.” “We’ll see how dangerous she is with a bullet in her brain.” Muttered the first cop, “Where is she now?” “The gulls are looking for her now.” I tensed and whispered “Get in the truck.” Pyro and Archer slid in. I crouched in the driver’s seat and turned, started the car and drove off. The police jumped in their car and followed. “They have guns! I think they might use them!” shouted Archer. “Pyro, drive!” I said after stealing his power. I climbed into the bed of the truck and tried putting a flame barrier but it didn’t work. Next the gulls started to attack. I roasted a few but most of them got past me and tried to block Pyro’s view. Archer leaned out of the passenger window and shot a few arrows at the birds, luckily when he hit his targets I was able to stare at the bounty-hunter long enough to steal his power and send the gulls away. Next the cops started shooting and Archer and I glitched, “Archer, stay in the car!” I knew the cops wouldn’t dare hit me, but they could hinder us. I sent golf ball sized spheres of flame at each of the approaching bullets, melting them in mid-air. However, before I let the bullets drop on the ground harmlessly I used the fire to mold them into spikes then lay them on the road. As I ahd expected they popped the tires on the police car and thus our pursuers were temporarily disabled. I climbed back into the car. “Where are we going?” asked Pyro. “Home.” I said as I stopped glitching. “I was afraid you were going to say that.” He replied as he turned toward our hometown. 11
“So, what part do I play in all this?” asked Archer when we drove into the police station, “I want to find my parents and something tells me that they’re with your mom. In other words wherever you guys are headed, I’d like to go too.” I smiled, “You can play whatever part you want to.” I said putting a scarf around my hair. We snuck into the police station without much trouble; finding my dad was a different matter entirely. “I don’t see him.” Said Archer: Pyro rolled his eyes. “Who are you looking for?” asked one of the inmates. “Acidus Ashton.” I told him. “Oh him. Took him away yesterday.” “Where?” asked Pyro. The man shrugged, “They couldn’t have taken him to Pluto for all I know.” Suddenly we heard people coming down the stairs to the jail. The three of us realized that there was no good place to hide so we pressed ourselves against the bars. No sooner had we done that, two cops came down my dad. “Too bad you don’t know where that thing you call your offspring is. It would have made the sherrif a lot happier.” Said one. My dad didn’t look too bad, a little tired, but that was all. The cops were in front of us when my dad elbowed the guards and turned to run. The guards recovered quickly and started to drag him down. My dad fought and one of them started to raise his baton. “Archer!” I hissed, he took his cue and shot an arrow into the baton, knocking it away. He took two more arrows and pinned the guards to the wall by their sleeves. Pyro took some handcuffs and cuffed the guards to a cell. I grabbed one of their guns and pointed it at them as a threat. Finally we started running out of the jail with my dad. “What are you doing here?” he asked as we ran to the truck. “We’ll explain later, come on.” Said Pyro as he shoved him and Archer into the car. I stayed in the truck bed just in case and finally we drove off. 12
After we had driven for a while with no signs of pursuit, we eventually stopped to rest for the night. “I thought I told you to stay in Castor, Pyro.” Said my dad. “It was my idea.” I interjected. “Andora, I thought I put more sense in you than that! When the cops have a warrant for your arrest you don’t walk into a police station!” he said. “We wanted to get you out so we could figure out how we could avoid living like refugees for the rest of our lives.” “So you wanted to accomplish that by almost getting arrested?” I heard the twang of a bow, froze, glitched and caught an arrow in mid-air. My dad looked at me slightly surprised, “There’s a note.” He pointed out. I read it out loud, “Our business is long overdue. The fact that this has become public angers me. Meet me and handover the merchandise.” Pyro looked at my dad, “Your employer?” he asked. My dad nodded absent-mindedly. “This is just the opportunity we were looking for!” I said, “We can go and tell him what’s on our mind.” “Are you crazy?” shouted me dad, “Don’t you understand? Once we go, we’ll never get out. I’ve been to his laboratory, it’s an endless maze…” “So what do we do?” asked Archer. “We go.” I said in a matter of fact way. “Think about it, if our objective was to avoid detection, we’d have left the country already, especially now that we have Dad. Our goal. Is to set the story straight and show the government that they can’t push us around.” “Well first we have to get there.” Said Pyro, “where exactly is your employer?” My dad replied, “He’s not that far from Castor High. You know the woods right behind the school that stretch for miles?” Archer nodded, “No one goes back there. Rumor has it that it’s haunted by a spirit so strong that even the government won’t go back there.” My father nodded, “That’s not completely true. They don’t go there, not because they’re scared, because of the work that goes on in there. Jack Lawrence, my employer, Is a genius in his own way. He gets commissions from the government- the problems of the day, solves them and then hands the solution to his superior at the Military Science building, Tacalpia in Ganowthins.” So we’ll go to Jack Lawrence, figure out who his employer is and then head to the Capital: Ganowthins. I thought to myself as I said, “But do you know where he is?” I asked, knowing that my dad was trying to stall. “I’m pretty sure.” He replied.13
So we drove to Castor High and started to follow my dad through the woods. It was nearing dusk when my dad said, “We should have seen it by now.” “Dad,” Pyro said, “There’s nothing here.” He started to move forward but stopped when he heard an intense humming. When he stepped back in surprise the hum stopped. “Things must have changed since I was last here.” My dad said. “Archer, try shooting an arrow into that tree.” I said pointing at a tree straight ahead. He tried to shoot it, but the arrow bounced back. I stole Pyro’s power and shot jets of flame above my head and they went past what seemed to be an invisible wall. “Pyro, could you give me a boost?” he looked at me quizzically, “I can’t jump over this wall on my own.” He shrugged and boosted me over. I cleared the wall and waited for a soft landing in the brush. However I didn’t land, instead I fell through the foliage into a pit. “Andie!” Archer called, “Are you okay?” “Yeah!” I hollered in reply. “You guys should jump the wall at a different spot…” I didn’t finish my sentence because the bottom of the pit suddenly gave way and I found myself sliding down a long slide. I could hardly suppress a yelp of surprise which didn’t stop echoing until I hit yet another underground chamber. The door to the slide slammed shut as soon as I rolled out. Another slide door opened and closed but I didn’t see anybody. Suddenly I heard a “whoosh!” and was knocked over by a force of wind that could only have come from someone with streaks. However I still didn’t see anybody. I glitched and listened intently to see if I could hear my attacker. I heard a light wind blowing getting faster and faster, I ducked and saw the dirt in front of me crumble. Another wind came and I felt it blow over my face as I bent over backwards. I need to catch this person before they blow me against the wall. I thought to myself. A third wind, the strongest of them all, blew me back, was quickly followed by another even stronger wind and threw me against the door to one of the slides. I groaned in pain but managed to hear light footsteps. I stood up straight and, thankfully, heard only soft padded footsteps I had heard previously. They crept around me and stopped directly behind me. I didn’t hesitate to grab my attacker and flung him or her over my shoulder and onto the ground. I stopped glitching as soon as my attacker became visible. My attacker, a woman about 5’4” and in her late thirties, stood up and brushed herself off. She had cropped blond hair with angular side bangs, which covered her left eye and had streaks of grey that seemed to ripple and disappear. Suddenly the top of the chamber opened up and the floor we were standing on sped up to the surface like an elevator. The first things I saw were my dad, Pyro and Archer fighting men dressed in black. I started to glitch, but a man with red hair in a crew cut appeared and called off the men. He was tall and broad with a buckskin cowboy hat in his hand. “This isn’t what we agreed to, Ashton.” He said in a deep smooth voice that distinctly said, “Don’t mess with me.” My dad didn’t respond. The man walked around and inspected me. I walked over to my companions in an effort to escape the man’s cold, piercing gaze, “Who are you?” I asked. He ignored me, “This thing’s more of a power-stealer than the morpher you promised me.” “Look, Mr. Lawrence, there’s no war threat thus this really isn’t necessary. “If you hadn’t taken so long to bring the goods, your work wouldn’t have been wasted.” Replied the man who was apparently my dad’s employer: Jack Lawrence. “Don’t you get it?” yelled Pyro, “He doesn’t want to be a part o your war!” “He won’t need to be, I have what I need.” He paused, “Take Dee back downstairs to finish her work, the archer to his parents; that’s what he’s here for. Give the professor and his son shots.” He looked at me with disdain, “Finally, blindfold that thing and take it to be exterminated.” At the mention of ‘Dee’ my dad and I flanked at the blonde woman I had fought and was now looking awkwardly at all of us. Suddenly two of the black suited guards grabbed me and put a burlap sack over my head. I struggled and tried to use flame and acid, but the last person I had stared at wasn’t Pyro or my dad; I’d been staring at Dee who had invisibility and wind-causing force fields. I fought hard, yelling in frustration but they dragged me away all the same. I glitched and my hearing became sharper, not as sharp as the kid in school, but sharp enough. “We’ll need to shut it down or whatever before we trash it.” Said one of the guards who was right in front of me. I took a chance and head-butted the guard. Luckily, I hit the guard and was also able to rip the sack off of my head. The second guard dealt a blow to my head, but I could barely feel it through the glitch. I fell to the ground, leaned on my back and kicked the second guard, he fell and I wouldn’t knocked him out right then and there, but the first guard grabbed my arms and pinned me, face down, onto the ground. With the glitch came flexibility and so I was able to curve my leg and kick the guard in the back of the head, knocking him out. I jumped up, walked towards the remaining guard and with one stride kickd him in the head and into the wall. 14
I did a bit of a backwards jump-rope maneuver and got my cuffs from behind my back to in front of me and worked on getting the guard’s keys and freeing my hands. It took a while but eventually I got them off. Once I did I remembered that Mr. Lawrence had said that Dee would been in a lab and decided that she would probably know where everyone else was. So, I grabbed a gun from one of the guards and, since I still had Dee’s power, turned invisible and headed down to meet Dee. When I got down to the lab, I turned visible, walked over to Dee who was typing data into a computer, and tapped her on the shoulder. She whirled around with a scalpel in her hand, but when she realized who I was she let it clatter to the ground and put her hands on my shoulders, “You escaped.” Her reaction worried me and I drew the gun, “If you trip a switch, it’ll be the last thing you do.” I said pointing it at her head. Dee gently pushed it away, “You’re not a killer. Lawrence wanted it that way, but it’s a glitch: I didn’t put that in you.” I pushed her away, “Who are you?” I demanded. Dee stood up straight, put out her hand to shake and said, “My name is Dahlia Ashton.” 15
Chapter 4: Bethany16
“Wait.” I said, “you’re saying that you’re my mother? Or co-creator, whatever you want to call it?” Dee/Dahlia nodded, “I’ve been here for 16 years. I always wondered who’d you become, whether the girl or the soldier would win in the end.” I made a note to myself that there was something seriously wrong with this woman’s head. “What a touching reunion. So my little ruse worked.” Jack Lawrence walked in through the door with about a dozen guards aiming guns at me. “Is the second generation ready Dee?” My mother stalled, “There are still things to do, calculations to make.” Mr. Lawrence came up, shoved her aside and looked at the computer monitor she was trying to hide from him. He struck a few keys then instructed, “Take this to observation room.” The guards kept their guns pointed at me and I complied, I could dodge knives and arrows but I didn’t want to chance it with bullets fired at near point blank range. I looked at my mother for a brief moment, a plan forming in my mind. I put a force field up, turned invisible and started to run, but I wasn’t used to the power and was too loud. The guards heard me and opened fire. The impact was strong, I lost focus, became visible and lost the field. My mom put up a field and produced an extraordinarily strong wind. Jack Lawrence turned around and struck my mother hard. I turned to go and help her, but the guards quickly grabbed me. I wanted to glitch, willed it, but nothing happened. Jack Lawrence pulled out his side arm and pointed it at my mother, she wanted to fight, but he was twisting her arm behind her back and without her hands she couldn’t do anything. Lawrence turned and said, “Now, understand this, if you so much as twitch…” he cocked the gun, “Get the picture?” I glared at him fiercely as I was dragged away. 17
The observation room was extremely and intolerably white, I couldn’t even stand looking at it from the outside. The guards pushed me in, quickly shut and locked the door. I tried immediately to knock down the door but stopped when I saw the enormous tube in the room. It was the size of a huge tree trunk and almost touched the ceiling. Inside the cylinder was an assortment of green goos, which swirled around like a lava lamp. “Hard to imagine a life could come out of that isn’t it?” I turned to see a girl that looked exactly like me. She was my height and age except she gave off more of a hard-core air than I did. Her hair was cropped close to her head with the exception of two long strands in the front, which were half black and half silver, framed her face perfectly and were the only streaks she had. She wore baggy capris which revealed tightly laced army boots, a loose jean jacket and a red t-shirt that read “G2”. “I’m Bethany.” She said, extending her hand for me to shake.” “Andora.” I said shaking her hand.” Suddenly, Bethany’s grip tightened and, before I could react, threw me onto the ground. As I fell I glitched, much to my relief. “What are you?” I asked. Bethany smirked, “I’m a better you. I am the second generation.” She paused, and I watched in amazement and horror are her streaks changed color as if by will, “I am a power-morpher.” Her streaks turned red and she shot a jet of flame at my head. I quickly rolled out of the way and jumped up to my feet. “Listen, can we not fight?” Bethany shot another flame, changed streaks again then turned invisible. I dodged the flame and then listened but all I could hear was my heard pounding in my chest. Suddenly, Bethany knocked me down, “You are obsolete Andora.” She said, “An outdated piece of rubbish with no stomach for your purpose. I received another invisible blow before I said, “You’re not the final product. Soon you’ll be outdated too. They’ll make another model, Third Generation that’s faster or smarter than you. When that happens it’ll be you here in a white room trying to defend yourself from an enemy you can’t possibly beat. Bethany became visible right behind me then morphed into a snake. She started to crawl up my leg hissing, “You were designed with too much of a heart. I grabbed her and flung her across the room. As Bethany flew across the room, she morphed into a tiger. As her back paws touched the floor she sprang back and knocked me down. Suddenly a door opened, making the white room a little less oppressive. Guards rushed in and pointed their rifles at us. Bethany stood over me and growled possessively. Jack Lawrence came in, “You did well Bethany.” He said, patting her on the head. All of a sudden he grabbed her ears, forced her head down and allowed one of the guards to put a tight muzzle, with a chain attached to it, on her. Bethany reared and tried to swipe at the guard but another one ran forward and locked her front paws in shackles. Bethany morphed into a snake, but the muzzle and shackles shrunk accordingly. Next they shackled her feet and all she could really do was glare at them. “Shoot G1, make sure we have what we need from G2 then scrap Bethany and tell Dee to get to work on G3: Caroline.” Said Lawrence as he left. The guards dragged me away from the door, I bit one in the arm and in response he clubbed me in the head as he pulled out his side arm and prepared to shoot me at point blank range. Next Bethany ran in, “Hold still!” she yelled as her hands, now free of shackles, went forward and suddenly I was in a force field. The guards opened fire, but the field still held. Bethany ran into the field, power morphed, grabbed my arm and finally she pulled me through the wall. We fell through into another room and I said, “you see what I mean about outdating?” “All I know is that I glitched, and that thanks to that you’re still alive. Now, if you don’t want to be a soldier I suggest you help me find a door.” For the first time I noticed that the room we had passed into had no doors. “I really wish they made the rooms easier to hear.” She said, knocking on the walls to check for echoes. “So, where is everybody else?” I asked as I joined her in wall tapping heaven. “Well the lady is in the lab, acid man and fire boy have been getting neutralizer shots so they won’t be going anywhere, anytime soon. The archer is gone, haven’t heard anything about him.” We had finally found a room, and we walked through the wall into it. “What exactly is the plan?” I asked. Bethany stopped walking for a minute then said, “Get out and never look back.” “What about everybody else? You ant to leave them behind?” “What? You want to get them?” she asked, “Listen, we’re outnumbered and we don’t even know where they are. Even if we did get them out the odds of us actually being any help are extremely slim.” “So you would rather just leave them here?” “What do I owe them? Besides, it’s the wiser choice.” “Well I was never very wise. You can leave if you want, but I’m going back for them.” I continued walking own the corridor and Bethany started to walk in the opposite direction, “You call yourself a soldier and you plan on running for the rest of your life. Interesting.” I said. Bethany turned and came after me. 18
We started for the lab where we figured my… or rather, our, mom would be. When we got there, Jack Lawrence was at the computer and my mother was standing next time awkwardly. “I want the third generation.” Lawrence said. Bethany turned invisible and, after looking at my mother, I followed suit. (Note to the reader: there is one rule that many people don’t understand about invisibility: it’s like being a ghost. The visible only see the visible, however the invisible can see everybody. However, everybody hears everybody. That’s what ghost haunting is about- it’s really just pranksters with streaks who decide to turn invisible and then say stuff and do whatever else “ghosts” do.) I tiptoed over to where Bethany was, remembering my mistake the last time I had been invisible. “What now?” I mouthed to Bethany. She shrugged and mouthed back, “Now we wait for them to accidentally tell us where the others are.” I frowned; I had always been impatient. “Although it looks like you won’t have to wait very long.” She mouthed. I turned and listened. “I’ve told you time and time again, what you want in Caroline can’t be done.” Said my mother. “That’s what your unfortunate husband said. He told me that he best we could get was the Stealer. Lo and behold we got Bethany. Now I suggest you make it happen.” said Lawrence. My mother pulled out a notebook from a drawer, “If you’re so sure that it will work, then see if you can magically change the laws of mathematics.” She said. “Do I have to repeat myself?” he asked, “Do it.” My mother nodded, put the notebook back into its drawer then pulled out the gun I had threatened her with a few hours ago. “Let me out. Give me my family and just leave us alone!” she screamed. Jack Lawrence nodded and started to leave, but suddenly he whirled around and knocked her down. I started to go help her but Bethany held me back, “A punch isn’t going to kill her but if you rush out we’ll all die.” I turned when I heard Jack Lawrence shouting something in French. In less than a minute, guards dragged my father in gagged and cuffed. He looked a little tired, like most people do when they’re on neutralizers. “I told you what would happen if you misbehaved Dee.” I saw my mother pale as the guards left. “Listen, I’m sorry. I’ll get to work on Caroline right away.” She pleaded. Jack Lawrence nodded, “Then let me have that.” He said, pointing at the gun my mother was still holding. My mother handed it over, glaring at him the whole time. “Thank you.” He said as he whirled around and fired a shot towards my father. My mother immediately put up a force field (which in retrospect made things a whole lot worse) to try and blow the bullet away but it still hit my father with deadly force and accuracy. My mom ran up to him and Jack Lawrence looked daggers at my mother as he aimed again. I shook lose of Bethany and put a force field around my unsuspecting parents and myself. The bullet bounced off of the field and zipped right back into Jack Lawrence. Bethany ran up to him, “Where can we find your employer?” she demanded. “Thomas Hutchinson.” He said right before he coughed and died. 19
Meanwhile I had been tending my father. He was losing a lot of blood and, in his already weak state, it was taking a toll on him. I stared at Bethany and stole her power and became a real power-morpher. “Bethany, how exactly do you morph?” “Just think about it.” She said once she was absolutely sure that Jack Lawrence was dead. I morphed into ah healer and looked at my father’s wound then shook my head, “Lung penetration.” I said, “There’s nothing I can do. A professional could, but I haven’t had the training…” my father reached up and gripped my mother’s hand. He whispered some words that sounded like “I love you.” But I couldn’t tell, I can tell you that in between short raspy breaths he said, “Make sure the kinds know I love them too. All three of them.” Blood was starting to trickle from his mouth. After a few final breathes his lungs collapsed and my father, Acidus Ashton. Died. My mother sighed, Bethany had no visible reaction whatsoever when she said, “So where to now?” I blinked a bit, inhaled sharply before I said, “now we find Thomas Hutchinson.” 20
Chapter 5: Patricia Clarkson21
So we headed out, leaving my father’s body behind. “Pyro is probably in one of the observation rooms said my mother, “I suggest you girls put a couple of those black uniforms on; they have keys, passes into restricted areas and we’ll look less suspicious.” Bethany nodded, disappeared and came back with a black uniform us from the storeroom we had been in earlier. We quickly donned our costumes and stated looking for Pyro. We had been searching for only a few minutes when we heard people running toward us. I started to turn to my mother to steal her power but she was already invisible and so was Bethany. I panicked and tried to glitch, but too late. A jet of flame whooshed past my head and Pyro was running at me full speed. We collided and he had his hand pressed against my throat by the time we hit the ground. “Where are they?” he demanded. I threw Pyro off of me and ripped off the helmet of my uniform, allowing my black, silver streaked, hair to fall out, “it’s me you idiot!” I said. My mom and Bethany became visible again as Archer ran in, “Guess that antidote worked pretty well.” He said. “Archer, I thought you were gone.” I said after quick introductions. “Well long story short, my parents are dead.” He explained, “They just took my back to the invisible wall and told me to get lost and that if I ever said anything about where the lab was they’d kill me in such and such a way. I came back, of course, gave Pyro an antidote for the neutralizer and here we are.” Pyro did a quick head count, “Where’s Dad?” he asked. I tried to think of the best way to tell him but in the end I just looked at my feet. Bethany stepped forward, “He was killed because Jack Lawrence didn’t like the fact that he couldn’t get what he wanted. Your mother pulled a gun, Lawrence bought you father in and killed him. Pyro clenched his fists and he streaked seemed to glow. “Pyro, look. What’s done is done.” I said. “Besides, we got the name of the man who ordered this.” I said. “Is that all you care about?” he asked, “Andora, Dad is dead. If you hadn’t brought us here just so you could make a point, he’d still be alive.” He said. Archer tried to calm him down, “Look, Andie didn’t know this would happen, it’s not her fault.” Naturally this only made Pyro angrier, “If you’re supposed to be a great soldier how come you couldn’t see the possibility of it happening?” he asked as he brushed past. Archer tried to eason with him, but Pyro just pushed him away. My mother, Bethany and I just followed him from a distance since none of us knew how to react. One thing was clear though, my brother me blamed me for our dad’s death. 22
* * *23
We had been driving for 2 days. We drove when we could see and rested when we couldn’t. My mom sat shotgun with Archer and Pyro, Bethany and I sat in the truck bed in case somebody followed us. “So how are you feeling about this whole thing?” I asked Bethany as we drove. She looked at me quizzically. “About Dad.” “Let’s get this straight,” she said, “Acidus was your father, not mine. And he barely qualifies as yours.” I was slightly angered, “Who do you say that?” “Andora, he was our creator not our father.” “But he called u his children, ‘All three of them.’ You’re the third, don’t you see?” “We were experiments, not children. We were proof of his genius, poof that he could do something. I would advise you to remember that to people we are nothing but weird lab creations grown from Petri dishes. We’ll never be ‘people’ to anyone, not to your mother, not to Pyro or Archer or anyone else you’ve gotten close to in your delusion of humanity.” I was too stunned to speak, “You just met them for less than a day and you think you can tell me how the world feels? You probably haven’t even stepped out of that pit before today.” “Well what about you? You just walk around pretending to be one of them instead of just accepting that you’re not: you’re artificial. This whole trip is just a way for you to deny what you are and get the world to agree.” The argument fizzled out when she said that. Part of me wanted to just yell back, another part wondered if what she said was true, whether I was just in denial. It was late, so my mom pulled over for the night. “We’ll probably arrive at the capital tomorrow afternoon, once we do what’s the plan? How are we going to get in, if we do what are you going to say and finally, how do we avoid getting arrested?” I hadn’t thought about that yet. I looked around for ideas but Archer shrugged, Pyro still wasn’t talking to me and Bethany just said, “This is your trip, not ours.” So I thought fo a while then said, “I’ll sleep on it.” Bethany threw an “I told you so” look and everyone else just looked worried. “Andie, Ganowthins is getting closer. We’re going to need a plan soon.” Said Archer. I nodded, “Well here’s one thing we can do…” 24
* * *25
We were getting close to Tacalpia, which was the military center. “You ready?” asked my mother. I nodded and we went in. As we had expected there was a front desk with a receptionist at the switchboard. I went up to her, “We’re looking for Thomas Hutchinson, Jack Lawrence sent us with a message.” The lady looked at me confused, “You must be mistaken, M. Hutchinson has been out of office for almost 5 years. Perhaps you would like to speak with his successor?” she suggested, “It’s the 6th door on the left.” I thanked her and started o walk down the hallway. My mother caught my hand, “Andora, I don’t like the feel of this. Why wouldn’t jack Lawrence have known that Hutchinson was no longer in office?” I shrugged, “It doesn’t matter.” Pyro stepped forward, “No, Andora, it does matter. I matters because I don’t want us following you blindly so another one of dies.” “Pyro, I just want to get this out there. You can come or not, that goes for all of you.” “So you don’t care about Dad?” asked Pyro, “Dad died because of your stupid need to find Jack Lawrence, you couldn’t just change things by example. You had to take us on a jouney to make your statement. Now guess what? Dad is dead.” His anger was building up, I knew that if I tried to walk through into the office he might try to roast me, ut I had to gt it over with. I opened the door and walked into the office. It was a very cozy office with a desk and leather chair. To the left of the desk was a door whi led to an adjoining room. Archer, Bethany and Pyro walked in, my mother tried to block them by running ahead and putting a field up. I looked into the adjoinging room and saw… my mother walking into the office. “Can I help you?” My real mother put down the field and walked forward. The other woman looked exactly like my mother except that her hair, which was pulled back into a ponytail, went down to her chest and had no streaks. She was wearing a tan business suit which fit her slim figure perfectly. She had the same poise and carriage of my mother and the same piercing gaze, electrically blue eyes and long elegant eyelashes. The woman, amazingly, kept her composure at seeing an exact copy of herself and stretched out a hand, “I’m Patricia Clarkson, head of the Military Scientific Advancement Department.” She shook our hands, Archer was happy to met someone important, Pyro and Bethany eyed her suspiciously, my mother was still amazed. “Ms. Clarkson, I think you have some explaining to do.” I said, “Did you know a man named Acidus Ashton?” she nodded, “Yes, Mr. Ashton was a good friend of Thomas Hutchinson’s. I’ve heard his name mentioned several times.” Bethany morphed streaks and sent me a thought, “Looks like your Dad messed with things for longer than you thought.” I subtly nodded in agreement then asked, “Ms. Clarkson, how old are you?” “38.” She said, which was only two years older than my mother. “Listen, who are you?” she asked, reminding us that we hadn’t introduced ourselves. “Archer Satchel, Pyro Ashton, Andora Ashton and Bethany Ashton.” Said my mother pointing at us in turn and not missing the fact that Bethany rolled her eyes when she heard her name. “I am Dahlia Ashton.” Ms. Clarkson nodded, “The whole Ashton family.” She turned to Bethany and I, “Twins?” she asked. I started to respond but Bethany cut me off, “No, not twins, synthetic.” Finally, Ms. Clarkson started to lose her public display of tranquility, “You’re WHAT?” she shouted. Quickly Bethany spilled the beans without any hesitation. As the tale progressed Ms. Clarkson took us to the adjoining room, which turned out to be a lounge and we all sat down. “I have no knowledge about the Power-Morpher program.” She said. “But your predecessor, didn’t he know?” asked Bethany, “Jack Lawrence told us that Thomas Hutchinson had hired him.” “One thing is obvious though.” Said my mother, “Ms. Clarkson and I were Acidus’ original experiments. He must have put in an age accelerator designed to wear off after a certain amount of time.” She let this sink in for a little. “So why are you here? You didn’t know about me, so that wasn’t what you came to tell me.” I started to speak up, “Well we… or rather I…” Bethany interrupted me, “What did I tell you about your denial?” I was annoyed that Bethany was bringing that up again and our argument from the truck bed would have started up again had not a man’s voice suddenly called, “Patricia?” from the office. Pyro’s hands turned into torches, my mother and Bethany turned invisible right after I stole Bethany’s neutral power and morphed into a lioness. The man came into iew and Ms. Clarkson muttered, “Oh, it’s only Tom.” Unfortunately she didn’t say it loud enough for the others to hear and they attacked. A great wind blew Thomas Hutchinson off is feet and a jet of flame barely missed his head. I glitched and leapt over to where Hutchinson was lying, faced Pyo and gave a fierce roar. However while I was running Pyro had thrown another fire ball and it was rapidly approaching. I quickly morphed, switched streaks and put up a force field. To prevent the fire from ricocheting off the field, as soon as it got close I encapsulated it in the field making a sphere with fire inside. “The next time I’m running, you might not want to throw a fireball in the same direction.” I said. Pyro glared at me, put his hand on the sphere I was holding and absorbed the fire into himself. Thomas Hutchinson got up as if nothing had happened and said, “So, Acidus finally decided to hand over the goods. It is a pity that you had to kill Jack.” Ms. Clarkson turned to him, “tom you know?” she asked. Hutchinson chuckled to himself, “My dear Patricia what you see here is… the evolutionary process. The professor started with you, just making a person took tremendous effort. Our next level was inserting streaks to produce Dahlia. Thanks o her we were able to continue and make the mistake he called Andora. But, finally, Dahlia designed our emblem of perfection: Bethany.” He paused, as if admiring his own genius, “And now, with cloning technology we will be unstoppable. Now Bethany if you and Andora will come with me…” “Tom,” Patricia interrupted him, “Tom, there’s no war and there never will be. There never was a war threat. This whole project is wrong and unnecessary.” “Well what if there is a way? Besides, you owe your existence to this ‘unnecessary project’.” Some guards came in and grabbed Bethany and I. “You listen to me,” said Pyro, “I have lost my father to come give you a piece of my mind. Your project has made me hate my sister, now call this off!” Bethany started to change streaks but Hutchinson caught her, grabbed my mother, twisted her arm behind her back and pointed a gun at her head, “I don’t know how much soul Dahlia put in you, but I know that the Stealer will make you behave.” He said. I looked at Bethany, saw her streaks change and watched as her arm stretched across the floor towards Hutchinson. She gave a quick nod and started to reach up to push my mother away. At the same time, my mother stepped on Hutchinson’s foot as hard as possible, the gun slipped from her head and instead fired in her leg. I grabbed the guards holding Bethany and I, Hutchinson fired another shot which Pyro melted into thin air. I tsaw Patricia was helping my mother then turned just in time to see Bethany shoot Thomas Hutchinson in the head. 26
Chapter 6: Life27
“Bethany!” I shouted, “What are you doing?” I asked, running up to her. “You’re going to defend him again?” she asked coolly, “he wanted us in the army, locked away fro life. Isn’t that the exact opposite of what you wanted?” “Bethany you just killed him!” “What would you rather have done? You thought just pushing him out of the way would have helped?” “From now on, zero body count.” I said, turning to my mother. Patricia had laid her on the couch and Pyro was trying to staunch the bleeding. Bethany morphed to a healer, passed her hand over the leg and made it good as new. Patricia looked in amazement, then started to worry, “So what do we do?” she asked, “The public will go absolutely nuts! Do you realize what will happen now?” we all shook our heads. “Chaos!” she said, throwing her arms into the air. “With the murder of Mr. Hutchinson… once this gets out there will be complete outrage.” “This could be a good opportunity.” Said Pyro. I turned to face him, “What?” I asked. “We let the news get out and then make a statement.” He said. “Well should we wait or just tell them now?” asked Archer. Patricia shrugged, “I don’t know.” We heard footsteps, “Is everything all right Ms. Clarkson?” Patricia thought for a minute before she said, “Just fine, but we need a medic here right away.” Pyro smiled when she said that, “We’re going to have to explain things to the medic…” Archer looked at the door and said, “That was faster than we expected.” The medic was standing in the doorway. “Interesting conversation.” He said. Surprisingly, Archer was the one who recovered first, “This man, Thomas Hutchinson threatened my friend Bethany and Andora and there was a fight. Their mother,” he pointed to the couch, “was shot. One of them grabbed the gun and shot back in self defense.” We were all holding our breath, hoping that he believed our partially true alibi. The medic shrugged, “As long as you’re willing to say that under oath.” He pulled out a cell phone, called a number and said, “We have a self-defense case. I need you to come over here and take testimonies. I’m at Tacalpia.” He hung up and turned to us, “Officer Schwartz will be here in a few minutes. As soon as he said that a man in a uniform ran in. He was tall and broad, with reddish-brown hair that was graying on the sides. The medic left with the body and Officer Schwartz stretched out his hand, “Hi, Martin Schwartz. I just need you to tell me exactly what happened.” Archer jumped in again and told our story while Officer Schwartz took notes. When Archer was done, Office Schwartz read his notes over then closed his pad and said, “Well this could look very suspiscious, after all, there was no one else in the room at the time of the event.” My heart pounded. “But, you guys are just kinds, so I’m willing to give you guys the benefit of the dout.” I breathed a silent sigh of relief. “We’ll take care of the body, but” he turned to Patricia, “you better make a statement in a few days.” After a few more minutes, Officer Schwartz turned and left.28
We worked for hours on the statements. After a while I asked, “Do you think we should tell them we’re synthetic?” Pyro shook his head, “If we convince them, it could mess things up. If we aren’t convincing it’ll just make things worse.” I made a few more touch-ups on my statement and practiced it in my head. Patrici let us sleep in her office since it might not be safe for us to go outside now that the public knew about the murder of Thomas Hutchinson. Pyro, now that we weren’t all in fear for our lives, was mad at me again. While the others slept we watched the door together. “So you’re still made at me?” I asked. “Yep.” He said. “Dad came with us because he wanted to We didn’t make him come.” I looked at Pyro and saw that he was crying. “It’s just never sunk in fully. It doesn’t seem fair, or true.” I put my hand on his shoulder, “I know.” I said. “I’m sorry I was so mad with you…” “It’s okay.” Pyro sniffled then brushed back his hair like nothing had happened, “Are you nervous about tomorrow?” he asked. I nodded, “A little. There are just so many variables we can’t control.” Pyro nodded, “That’s life Andora.”29
* * *30
Patricia had just finished her speech, which basically restated our alibi and made no mention whatsoever of the Power-Morpher Project, no it was my turn to speak. I stepped forward, took a deep breath then said, “Mr. Hutchinson…” “Knew what you really were.” A familiar voice interrupted. The bounty hunter stepped forward with a bird perched on his shoulder, “He knew exactly what you all are.” He turned to face the crowd, “All four of these lovely ladies are synthetic, grown in Petri dishes.” The hunter let this sink in before he said, “Yesterday, Hutchinson was boldly executed by an experiment.” The throng of people threatened to become a mob. Pyro grabbed the microphone from the podium and said, “Do you want to hear us out or do you just want to go on one man’s word?” The crowd calmed down a little as Pyro handed me the microphone and whispered, “We’re depending on you. No pressure.” I could feel the sweat on my palms when I said, “What this bounty-hunter has to say is mostly true. We were designed and man-made.” There was a clamor and Pyro looked like he was holding his breath. “We came here to get our message out. We just wanted to come here to say that we deserve what you have. All we want is a life beyond what we were designed to do. What if you had no choice about who you would be or what you would do. Compare that to what you have: choice, unhindered choice. Now with that in mind, consider what should be done with us.” I stepped away from the podium. “Let’s hope that convinces them.” Said Pyro when I rejoined him. I nodded, “Either way it doesn’t matter. We’ve done what we wanted to do: we told them that we are people. We told them that Bethany and I will not be war machines.” “I just wish we knew what they were going to do, so that there wouldn’t e so many variables.” I chuckled then said, “That’s life Pyro. That’s life.31
THE END.32
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