What would you do if you didn’t know the face of the man who killed your parents? On top of that, you have the power to get revenge on the people who hired him to do it. Would you hunt him along with them even though he was just doing his job? I mean, a bag is a bag. Your parents were very important people and they were targets for years even before they designed you. All of this is the actual life of 17-year-old, Melody Harris. It was only 10 years ago when someone broke into her house and silently killed both of her parents in the middle of the night. It wasn’t until she woke up the next morning to find both her parents dead in their bedroom. She went into the panic room and pushed the button that alerts her parent’s job that something had happened to them. At the time, she didn’t know what her parents did or who they worked for, but she knew to follow the emergency protocol that her parents told her to do. It wasn’t even 15 minutes when a tall dark woman walked in and carried her to a tinted SUV as she cried, mourning the death of her parents. She couldn’t help but think that if she would’ve heard the person come into the house that she could’ve saved her parents. This was the day that she found out the truth about her parents. They were geneticists who worked for a secret government company that wanted to weaponize children and get them ready for war by the time they turn 18. Melody’s genes were altered in a lab just a few days after she was born. This alteration gave her a few interesting abilities, but you’ll have to keep reading to find out they are. Melody is the first child to have been experimented on in this lab, and on paper, she’s known as “Agent 0.” The difference between her and the children that will come after her is that she was trained at home and was allowed to live a normal life. Her parents didn’t want her to lose her childhood. Now that they’re gone, it’s as if her childhood left with them.

After driving in the SUV for what felt like 2 hours they finally arrived at their destination. Melody looked out the window at this huge building in the middle of nowhere. A large security guard opened the car door for her and the woman. They walked towards the entrance of the building and Melody noticed that there really wasn’t anything around them for, probably miles. As they led her through the doors, the building looked even bigger on the inside than it did on the outside. As she walked in, everyone stared at her as if she was some new zoo animal. She watched all of them back until she found herself in a bedroom with a big mirror that took up the whole of one wall. The room was set up nicely with a big bed and a bathroom connected to it. The woman in the room told her that this is where she will be for the time being until her training is complete.

After a brief introduction and tour of the facilities, Melody was given some months to grieve her parents and adjust to this new lifestyle before they resumed her training and prepared her for the real world. Once they restarted training, they worked on her body and mind before helping her control her powers. This would make sense because if you want an 8-year-old child to become a weapon you want to make sure they don’t get traumatized (was the sarcasm obvious enough?). Anyway, by the time she was 13 they had finished with that part of her training, she was ready to start getting violent. They wanted to make sure she knew how to use every single one of her powers in the most efficient way possible. They went in the order that she discovered her powers and the first one was invisibility. She could make herself invisible along with objects and people around her as long as she was touching them. The people helping her greatly regretted her gaining control because after that she didn’t stop pranking them. They almost had to put a trigger chip in her so that when she was around they would get alerted. Luckily, it didn’t take long for her to grow bored of that phase. Unluckily, it was because the next power she learned to control was pyrokinesis. Thank goodness she wasn’t crazy and only used that power outside or else she could’ve easily burned down the whole building. On top of turning invisible and starting fires, Melody could also walk through walls. When the scientists in the lab found out about this they were shocked. Melody’s parents did not document intangibility anywhere in her files. This caused them to run many tests on Melody, resulting in them discovering that her genes were multiplying and mutating themselves to create new abilities. Now at this point, no one knew what to do, they didn’t prepare for this. They continued to monitor Melody as they evolved their system of training to handle this newfound power. Now, the mirror mentioned earlier in this story is actually a one-way glass that the scientists use to monitor Melody and her behaviors. They also control the temperature of the room and even play music sometimes to see how she reacts to different sounds. One summer night, a few months before her 14th birthday, the tall dark woman got an alert that the lights in Melody’s wing were flickering uncontrollably. It was just about 3 o’clock in the morning so what could possibly be happening. As the woman along with the scientists reaches the monitoring room, there Melody is floating a few feet above her bed almost touching the ceiling. They all stared as she floated back down after 5 minutes and decided they’d deal with it when she woke up.

*Four Months Later*

It’s a month after her 14th birthday and Melody laughs as she flies outside around the building. Since she levitated above the bed that night, no new abilities have shown themselves. As she’s sitting on top of the building, she sees a white van out in the distance approaching the security gate. She goes down back to the ground and asks one of the scientists who was coming to the facilities. He didn’t answer and told her to go inside for lunch. She looks back at the van and as she’s walking in she sees 5 children a bit younger than her walking in. She doesn’t think much of it and heads back to her room to eat.

A few hours after she ate, the tall dark woman called her to meet the children who just arrived earlier that day. As she gets to the conference room, one of the scientists stop her outside the door and tells her not to mention anything about her abilities. She was a bit confused, but she tried not to think too much into it. She walks into the room and there are three girls and two boys, who now that she’s closer to them, look like they all vary in ages. One of the boys looked about her age while the rest were younger than them. The tall dark lady introduced the children, whose ages range from ten to fourteen, and explained to Melody that she will be helping train them. The youngest child of 10 was a small girl born in Cancun, Mexico, and brought to America as a baby. One year older than her is a girl born in Fort Myers, Florida who just lost her parents two years ago and none of her extended family wanted her. The 12-year-old girl is from Ontario, Canada, and has no known backstory. A boy from Ethiopia, at 13 years-old whose parents sent him here for a better life to live with his aunt who ended up dying and leaving him with no contact with his parents, is also included in this group. The boy Melody’s age does not speak, at all. No one knows anything about him he just nodded to coming along and they let him.

The next day, all of the children gathered outside in the training area early in the morning.  As of now, Melody is the only one with abilities that the other children have not been told about. These kids are orphans who were given the option to blindly join a program and leave the foster care system. The oldest boy will be given the option to choose his ability once he finishes the mind and body portion of the training. While the other children will have to wait until they themselves have turned 14. Which for one is next year. Regardless of if any of these new children show promise of becoming military soldiers, that is why science exists. (If you haven’t seen the first Captain America movie, then you should.) Anyway, outside of training, the children all hang out and get along very well. They are actually allowed to be real children when they aren’t, you know, learning to kill people. Speaking of, Melody actually has her first mission in about two weeks. Don’t worry though, she’s not killing anyone. An American reporter was kidnapped by a terrorist in South Africa and is demanding a ransom that America is not about to pay.

*Two Weeks Later*

Melody spent the two weeks leading up to this mission learning how to navigate South Africa and especially where the reporter is being held. It was now five o’clock in the morning and Melody was changing into a more comfortable mission suit on a private jet that was literally going to drop her right above the mission point. Hours later they approach the drop-off point and Melody prepared to jump out of the plane, without a parachute obviously. Melody jumps off of the plane and immediately dives down towards the building, turning invisible as she gets closer. She moves stealthily through the ceiling and straight into the room where the journalist is. He’s there gagged with his hands zip-tied to a chair. He sees her and his eyes immediately light up with relief and then visible confusion. She puts a finger to her lips telling him to be quiet and melts the zip ties from his wrists. Now all she had to do was figure out how to get him out of the room. If she could’ve made him intangible also then it would’ve been easier. Luckily, she can turn him invisible which isn’t as convenient, but she’ll have to make it work. He whispers to her that there is one guard standing outside the door, so she just needs to get him to open the door. She grabs a hold of the journalist’s hand turning them both invisible and knocks on the door. The guard opens it with his gun pointing and starts looking around the room frantically for the journalist. As he walks into the room they walk out. They hear him calling for backup, who they see soon after running past them as they walk towards the exit. As soon as they get outside Melody tells the journalist to hold on to her so they can fly to the meeting point. They meet the jet miles away from the terrorist base and soon find themselves back home in America. After getting back home, Melody watched the news as military soldiers take credit for the work that she did since she and the whole program operation are to remain a secret.

*Three Years Later*

After completing that first mission, the government deemed her ready for many non-violent missions after that, until her 17th birthday came. Now is where the killing is supposed to start. You would think that after all those years of training that she would be ready to become the skilled assassin that she’s supposed to be. However, that isn’t the case. Melody has never had a malicious bone in her body. She knew one day they would start giving her violent missions and she was hoping that by then she would be ready. Unfortunately for the program, she couldn’t bring herself to do it. So, the day comes where they give her the first violent mission she has. They tell her that she has to assassinate the prime minister of England, but they wouldn’t tell her why. She refused and believe it or not they told her that if she didn’t do it then they would have to resort to extreme measures to ensure her cooperation. Now, this is where the story really begins.

*Six Months later*

On her first mission to assassinate the prime minister of England, she ran away. She didn’t kill him and resorted to going into hiding, living in constant fear that the government will somehow find her. It’s been about 6 months since she left and the only reason she’s able to survive is that she discovered a new ability. Along with invisibility, pyrokinesis, and intangibility, she can also change her appearance. Not necessarily into animals and such, but she’s able to change her genetic features. For example, she was born with dark brown hair, eyes, and skin. However, as of right now her hair is blonde and her skin way lighter. She transformed from chocolate to butterscotch. Her eyes are also hazel now. Practically a whole new person. Seeing as she doesn’t have a birth certificate or any type of legal identification, she relies mainly on her powers. She steals from only big franchise companies, no small privately-owned businesses. She finds fully furnished houses that are up for sale and stay there until they’re sold. Hopefully, she doesn’t have to live like this for the rest of her life, she’s still working on a foolproof plan to get out of this. She also at some point has to hunt down the man who killed her parents.

*Back at the program facility*

            The tall dark lady is now talking to the boy Melody’s age whose name is Taylor. She tells Taylor that this whole entire time they have been tracking Melody. His assignment is to bring her back dead or alive. When Taylor turned 14 he chose the ability of laser vision. At first, he couldn’t control it and had to wear special sunglasses all the time. Now, he can turn it on and off and wherever he looks he can shoot. He accepts the mission and takes the mobile tracker that they give him. It takes him approximately ten hours to make it to where Melody is. Seeing as this was a stealth mission he has to make sure that none of the people in the neighborhood see him entering the unowned house. It’s about 2 o’clock in the morning and Taylor quietly sneaks in through the back door. He finds his way into the bedroom and sees someone laying there that looks absolutely nothing like the girl he saw six months ago. He sends a text to the tall dark lady explaining the situation and she says to wake her up and make sure. He taps Melody and seconds later finds himself pinned down in a chokehold. He tries to tell Melody that it’s him, he can barely breathe much less talk, and soon everything goes black.

Taylor wakes up the next morning to find Melody gone. He checks the tracker and sees that she’s actually still in the house. He quietly walks down the stairs to then be welcomed with a broken piece of glass at his neck. Melody asks him what he’s doing there, and he explains the truth to her. He lets her know that he has orders to bring her back alive, but if she fights he has permission to kill her. This obviously does not reassure her in any way, so she’s still prepared to cut his throat if he makes one wrong move. She tells him she’s not going back and that if he tries to kill her he won’t be going back either. They stand there watching each other for a bit before Taylor asks her if he can stay with her. She said no and instead asked him to go back and tell them that she’ll return if the program helps her find the person or people responsible for her parents’ death.

That same day, Taylor goes back to the facility and tells them Melody’s proposition. Taylor gave Melody a phone so that he wouldn’t have to be a messenger back and forth. Once he told the tall dark lady what was going on she immediately called Melody. She asked her if she was willing to come to the facility to get the files that she needed to complete the investigation. Since Melody isn’t stupid, she said to send them with Taylor and if she deems the information useful, then she’ll come back. It didn’t take long for the tall dark lady to have someone put together some information for Melody to use. That night they sent Taylor back to Melody with the file and had him stay there until she made her decision of staying or going. However, as Melody looked through the files and saw absolutely nothing that would help her. Then it dawned on her. There was no investigation done by the government or even anyone at the facility. She called back the tall dark lady and asked her why no investigation was done. The woman simply stated that it wasn’t a priority at the time. At this point Melody is furious. She looks at Taylor who has been sitting on the room floor with her, papers all over the place. He asks her if he thinks maybe they killed her parents. She doesn’t respond and just sits there thinking. After about ten minutes she decides why not go find out herself. This probably wasn’t a good idea to go back to the facility, but she wanted to ask this question in person. She grabs whatever little belongings she has and tells Taylor she’s ready to go back. She didn’t tell him her plan because she wasn’t sure how deep his loyalty to the program lied.

Once they made it to the facility, she put her appearance back to normal and asked Taylor not to talk about it. Just as a small test to see how much she can trust him. They walk through the front door of the facilities and the tall dark lady is there waiting for them. Melody asks her if they could go somewhere to talk privately. They go into the woman’s office and sit down. They sit in silence for a couple of minutes before Melody straight-up asks if the woman had her parents killed so that she would have full access to Melody’s power. To her surprise, the woman answered that she was just following orders from the people above her. They sit in silence a little longer until suddenly the woman starts to feel very hot. She looks at Melody in shock and terror as Melody just looks blankly back at her. She asks the woman if she was feeling alright and the woman starts fanning herself with a piece of paper. Melody states that it might be the menopause before just plainly setting the woman herself on fire. She watched as the woman burned and screamed. It wasn’t until the woman’s body turned to ashes in the office chair that she heard the thundering footsteps. She changed her appearance to resemble the woman and dusted off her ashes before sitting in the chair. Security comes in the room frantically pointing guns everywhere. Melody tells them, pretending to be the woman, that she was still in the room invisible and they aren’t allowed to leave the room until they find her. She starts walking out and immediately starts fires in front of the door and windows, blocking them in there. She walks down the hallway turning herself invisible. She sees the rest of the security running down the hallway responding to the screams of their comrades. She runs and looks for the rest of the children in the facility. Once she finds them she explains what’s happening and has them all hold hands turning invisible and follow her quickly out of the building. Before they walk out of the door they go to the safe and take all of the money out since now they need to take care of themselves. Once they’re outside she looks back and sets the whole place up in flames, not really caring who makes it out alive and who doesn’t. The now rogue children with their different abilities managed to snag about 5 million dollars in cash. This more than enough to put them all through school and let them have a house for themselves. With Taylor and Melody in charge of holding down the fort, they knew that they would all be okay.

*Five Years Later*

            All five children are practically adults now with the youngest just entering college and the three oldest already just about done. They were all able to get legal documentation and fun jobs for them to do while they live their normal lives. They look out for each other and still maintain training so that they can be ready for any type of emergency situation. Hopefully, they won’t have to deal with any emergency situations. Weirdly enough, the military was very quiet even Melody burnt down their whole secret facility and stole millions of dollars from them. One night the group is sitting at the dinner table discussing their respective days when suddenly there was a knock on the door. None expecting company all look at each other and just ignore whoever is at the door. Suddenly, the door flies off of the hinges and they all stand watching as a man walks through the frame. 

Short Story is written and edited by Olivia Poleon

     Our story begins 200 years before the present-day on a continent with five countries. The largest, Meroknia, being in the center with Lacklia in the north, Goronius in the south, Plintius in the east, and Rashikus in the west. All five countries coexisted without any conflict until a new king was appointed to Rashikus. He decided that he was tired of being the smallest of the five countries and thought it would be a good idea to try and take over Meroknia. The other surrounding rulers tried to warn him that it was not a smart idea, but he was too arrogant and stubborn to listen. He quickly gathered up his army, and right at dawn on a mild summer day, he launched an attack on Meroknia. The tale that is told by the few survivors of his army, is that a dragon over fifty feet long burned and killed the entire army with the king being the first to burn. Only a few left injured, but no one believed them, and there are no other witnesses to back up their story. Out of fear, no one from the four countries surrounding Meroknia went to investigate. For 200 years, they avoided ever stepping foot into that vast country.

    It wasn’t until present day, two best friends, Sinclair, crowned prince of Lacklia, and Dimitri, crowned prince of Goronius, decided that they themselves would visit the country and see if it is as dangerous as their ancestors deemed it to be. They knew that their parents would not approve at all, so they quickly came up with a fib as to where they would be, not allowing guards to be sent with them. They promised their parents that they would keep a low profile and reassured them that they can take care of themselves. On a horse, it was only a week’s trip directly from the castle in Goronius to the border of Meroknia. 

    They stood at the border, trying to figure out how to get to the castle. The map they had was made 200 years ago before contact was cut off from Meroknia. They hoped that the castle was still in the same place and all they had to do was maneuver the roads.

    They spent a total of 2 weeks looking for the castle, not wanting to ask for directions to avoid drawing attention. They stayed in hotels, grateful that Meroknia decided to keep the universal currency of the continent. So far, Meroknia was not at all the way they were taught in school. At this rate, they really wanted to meet the queen and talk to her in hopes of including the country with the rest of the continent.  They were also curious about the dragon. 

    After leaving their horses and belongings at the nearest inn, they finally found themselves in front of the biggest castle they had ever seen. This castle was as large as the other four castles put together. They walked towards the gates which were opened to a very long line of the citizens of the country. They decided to just stand in the line and see where it led and after a few hours of standing and making small talk with the people around them, they found themselves in front of a large door. Two guards opened the doors and the two princes were exposed to the most beautiful throne room and sitting on the throne was the most beautiful woman. She wore a satin, deep blue, floor-length dress with long sleeves that had black lace trim. Her crown fit perfectly on her head, gold and illuminating beautifully against her brown skin with blue jewels to match her dress and jewelry.

    The two men stood there in awe at both the room and the woman. The queen of Meroknia didn’t look that much older than the two princes which really confused them. They assumed that her parents died and she was appointed queen earlier than usual. Little did the two princes know, she had been queen much longer than they thought. 

“Do you boys need something?” the queen finally spoke with a soft but stern voice. This quickly jumped the men out of their trance and they walked closer to the throne. They bowed out of habit to show respect. “You aren’t from here are you?” the queen asked them, already knowing the answer. This caught the men off guard causing them to look at each other to come up with a response. 

“No your majesty, Queen Zara, I am Prince Sinclair Cusplin III of Lacklia, first son of King Sinclair Cusplin II and Queen Emerald Cusplin,” Sinclair said kneeling down on one knee in front of the queen with his head down. 

“And I am Prince Dimitri Pardens II of Goronius, second son of King Dimitri Pardens and Queen Olivia Pardens,” Dimitri said mimicking the actions of his friend. 

Queen Zara stands abruptly causing her guards to point their weapons at the two princes. 

“Stand and tell me why you are here,” she demands. The boys stood up slowly watching the guards’ weapons still pointed at them. 

“Well, to be honest, your majesty, the only thing that brought us here was curiosity. Our parents don’t know that this is where our journey is taking place and we just wanted to know why this country has been avoided for 200 years,” Sinclair explained. 

Queen Zara stood there watching the princes trying to tell if they were lying or not. She must have deemed them trustworthy because she just started walking towards the throne room doors. The guards opened them and she spoke loudly to her subjects making sure they could all hear her.

“My loyal subjects, I would like to give to you my deepest apologies. On any other day, I would love to speak to all of you and hear you out but today is different. I promise if you come back in two days’ time I will get to you all. I hope you can forgive me.” 

She used her hands gracefully as she spoke to the people and Dimitri couldn’t help but find himself watching her very closely, wanting nothing more but to get to know her along with her kingdom. 

    The crowded line bowed in acceptance of what their queen told them and dispersed back to their homes. The queen turned and walked back into the throne room, her dress flowing behind her. Now as she walked, the princes couldn’t help but notice that she was barefoot. They must have noticed at the exact same time because they looked at each other and chuckled causing the queen to look at them funny. She asked them what they were laughing at. Dimitri simply replied that their mothers would have a heart attack if they saw her walking around without shoes on. Zara simply shrugged and explained that she only wears shoes outside of the castle grounds and likes to feel the ground on under her feet.

“Do you leave the castle grounds often?” Sinclair asked, cocking his head to the side.

“Every day, I like to go and walk around different areas around the castle. Sometimes I even do a tour around the country to make sure everything is running smoothly.” Zara motioned for the two princes to follow her, leading them to a back door out of the throne room and into a large garden. 

“Have you ever wanted a king to do that kind of work?” Dimitri asked. 

“Even if I had a king I would still go with him. Do the other four queens not do that?” Zara responded, continuing to lead them through a garden and through a different door into a long hallway. 

“No, the queens of the other four countries are mainly there for decoration I guess you could say,” Sinclair answered, sounding a bit embarrassed. 

“Well I cannot afford to be a decoration, I have too many people to look after. Are you guys hungry, because I’m ready for some supper?” Zara asked as they walked into a huge dining room with a table large enough to fit over fifty people. 

Too busy looking in awe at the room the princes do not answer the question. “We don’t have to eat here if you think it's too big, I eat in a much smaller dining area in the kitchen,” Zara asked laughing at the princes.

“How do you live here in this enormous castle by yourself?” Sinclair asked, finally looking at the queen. He walked to the large table, answering her question of where they wanted to eat.

“Well since I’m always distracted with work I always have something to do. I really only need the castle for eating and sleeping. Also, my employees and guards, along with their families all live here so that I’m not wasting space,” she replied sitting at the head of the table with the two princes sitting across from each other on either side of her. “Is there anything specific you guys would like to eat?”

“I want to have whatever you’re having, I didn’t come here to have food I can get at home,” Dimitri said, causing the queen to let out a small laugh.

“The same thing for me,” Sinclair responded simply. Still looking around the dining room taking everything in. 

    Once the three finished their lunch in silence, Sinclair asked the queen if it was alright for them to ask her some questions to fulfill their goal of why they came there in the first place. She gave her permission and led them to a different room not far from the dining room where they could sit and talk. 

As soon as they sat down Dimitri immediately asked the question that’s been burning a hole in their brains since they arrived in Meroknia. “Where is the dragon?” 

“What dragon?” the queen responded looking at the men with an eyebrow raised. 

“The dragon that wiped out King Richard’s army 200 years ago,” Sinclair continued for his friend.

“Is that what they’ve been teaching you all in schools?” Zara replied leaning back into her seat.

“Well no, not really. No one actually believed the men when they came back talking about a dragon, but the tale is still told throughout the four countries. 

“Hm... well if no one believes the men then I have no clue what to tell you, so next question.”

“Um...how long have you been queen?” Dimitri asked. 

“Long enough,” Zara laughed. 

“How come you never visited any of the other countries?” Sinclair asked. 

“They never visited me, so I never saw the point in leaving my country to visit them.” She looked out of the window behind the chair where the princes sat and noticed it was starting to get dark.  “Are you guys going back to a hotel or do you want to stay here? I can have someone bring your belongings.”

Dimitri and Sinclair looked at each other already knowing the answer to her question.

“We will gladly stay here, Your Majesty,” Sinclair replied. 

    After getting the princes settled in rooms Zara headed to her own, feeling very tired after the day she just had. The next morning, an old man was making his way to the king and queen of Goronius. He had seen the princes at the border of Meroknia and watched them when they headed into the country. It took him a while to decide whether or not to alert the king and queen, but he realized it’s best they know if their son is in danger. He finally made it to the castle and was immediately stopped by guards asking him what his business was there. He explained that he had important information to give to the king and queen and they let him through. He was led to the throne room where he was to wait for the king and queen to meet him. He stood waiting for about 5 minutes before the queen walked in. She sternly asked what information could possibly be so important that he had to disturb them. He bowed and told her that he saw her son and the prince of Lacklia crossing the border of Meroknia. The queen told him that if he was lying, he would be put into prison. He reassured her that he was absolutely positive that they were there.

 For some reason, the queen got into her head that the two princes got too close to the border and was coerced into entering the country with black magic. She immediately sent a messenger to Lacklia, getting a response back hours later from the king and queen agreeing with everything she said. This caused her to put together a small battalion of 50 soldiers, 25 coming from Lacklia, and send them into Meroknia to retrieve the two princes. She told them to kill anyone who got in their way of saving the princes and to come back immediately after the mission is complete. 

    The battalion leaves the next morning arriving at the borders in five days. They are very hesitant to enter the country constantly looking in the skies expecting a dragon to come and burn them all to death. Before they could get anywhere near the castle, a much larger battalion meets them out in a field. The captain of each battalion walks to meet each other. The captain of Meroknia’s battalion calmly asked the other captain why they are here and if it’s a war they want then it is a war they will receive. In response, the other captain explained that they were only there to save the princes of Lacklia and Goronius. Meroknia’s captain looked at him confused saying that the two princes came there wanting to speak to the queen and they definitely do not need saving. He also offered to take the captain to see and talk to the princes. 

    Thinking that it was a trap the captain slices the throat of  Meroknia’s captain causing him to fall off of his horse and the horse to retreat back to the rest of its battalion. Seeing this, Meroknia’s battalion attacks and a single soldier from each battalion immediately goes back to their respective castles to alert the kings and queens of what has just happened. Since they were already in Meroknia, that soldier made it to Queen Zara first. When he arrived with the news she was talking to the princes in her office and signing papers. 

“What do you mean the captain was killed by Lacklian and Goroniun soldiers?” she said outraged standing and looking at the princes. “Did you know anything about this?” she asked them.

“Your majesty we promise we have no idea what is going on?” Sinclair told her. 

“It must be our parents, but how did they know we were here?” Dimitri asked, looking at Sinclair. 

“Someone must have seen us and told them,” Sinclair said, sighing. 

“Well, you guys stay here and I’ll go see how I can handle this. The two battalions are probably in an all-out brawl right now,” Zara said walking towards the door. 

“Actually, at this point, we should probably go back home and hope that our parents haven’t sent out a whole army by now,” Sinclair said, also standing and heading towards the door with Dimitri behind him.

“Let them know that if they do want war, then they will lose. Therefore I suggest they be grateful that you two are safe and leave it at that,” Zara said quickly walking in the opposite direction of the princes as they head to pack up their belongings and asking some guards to make sure their horses are ready to go. 

“I cannot believe our parents sent a whole battalion after us,” Dimitri said as they mounted their horses. 

“I can,” Sinclair laughed. They needed to literally go full speed on their horses only stopping for their horses to get water and take small breaks for a couple of hours. They needed to ensure that their parents would not start a war with Zara because they could tell she was being very serious when she told them they would lose. 

They finally made it to the castle in Goronius and immediately went to find Dimitri’s parents. Luckily for them, Sinclair’s parents were also there in the throne room with them. 

“Please don’t start a war we are alright,” Sinclair said as soon as they both burst into the room. 

“How do we know you two were not brainwashed? And how dare that monstrous queen coerce you two into entering her disastrous country,” Queen Olivia stated outraged. 

“How do you know the country is disastrous if you have never been?” Sinclair rebutted. 

“Sinclair, watch how you speak to the queen,” his mother Queen Emerald scolded him. 

“Either way Queen Zara crossed a line and we have to set an example so that the citizens of our countries do not think we are weak rulers,” King Sinclair stated calmly looking back and forth between his son and Prince Dimitri.

“She told us to tell you guys that if you start a war, you will lose,” Dimitri said hesitantly, looking around at their parents who all now have a very upset look on each of their faces.  

“So now she’s threatening us? Ready the troops,” King Dimitri said looking at his general who was standing in the corner of the room.

“We are right behind you,” King Sinclair said walking out of the room with his queen behind him. 

“Father, wait! Please do not do this, it is not necessary,” Sinclair said quickly running in front of his parents. 

“Son, please move to the side and let us pass,” Queen Emerald said gently putting a hand on his shoulder.

While Sinclair was moving out of the way, Dimitri was still trying to convince his parents not to attack Meroknia.  

By this time King Dimitri had already repeated himself five times that he was not going to cancel his plans to attack Meroknia along with Queen Olivia telling Dimitri to just stop wasting his breath. The two of them walk off in the same direction as King Sinclair and Queen Emerald. 

The two princes meet in the middle of the throne room and decide that they have to get to Meroknia before their parents finalise the plans to attack. They immediately make their way to the stables, deciding to use different horses to give the first set of horses a break.

They make sure that their parents do not see them leaving and tell the guards not to mention anything if they are not asked. 

While the princes are making their way to Meroknia, Queen Zara is discussing with her council what they are going to do if they other countries actually decide to attack. Queen Zara decided that she just wants the army to handle the fight and if it starts to become too much then she will step in. Her council consisted of four other people, each in charge of different regions of the country. They were really only there to listen to the queen and give their opinions, but Zara did not have to listen to them. Zara did not know when the attack was going to happen, but she does know that she will be ready. 

    The princes finally make it to Meroknia. They get to the castle and make their way to Zara. 

“Zara! The army is on their way right now. They will be here in a few days and they have your army very much outnumbered so I am not sure how you expect to win,” Dimitri blurted out as soon as he stepped into the throne room. Zara looked up from her book and smiled at him. 

“We will be alright, I have this under control. It is not my first war,” she said, closing her book and standing up. She looked at her military general and told him to call off the army. “If we are outnumbered, then there is no point in anyone losing their lives.”

Sinclair and Dimitri looked at each other in confusion, but came to a silent mutual agreement to talk about it later.

 Zara steps down away from the throne and towards them. “You guys can stay here until this is all over, or you can go back home and stay with your parents. The choice is yours.”

“Um...I think we’ll stay here.I’m pretty sure our parents do not want to see us right now?” Sinclair said going and taking a seat in one of the other chairs in the throne room. 

“Alright then. I am going to get some more work done,” Zara said as she walked out of the throne room. 

“I- What is going on right now?” Dimitri said walking over to Sincalir. “Are you not the least bit curious as to how she intends to defeat our parents’ army?”

“Have you not figured it out yet?” Sinclair said chuckling. 

“Obviously not, or we would not be having this conversation right now,” Dimitri said plopping down into the seat next to Sinclair. 

“Well, I have no idea what to tell you,” Sinclair said. 

The boys sit there talking and eating different things that the butlers were bringing out for them. They kept this routine up for the few days before the army arrived. They explored more of the castle and the area around it. It had only been the third day when the princes were at breakfast when they were able to hear the army approaching the gates of the castle. 

They did not know where Queen Zara was,but they decided to go to one of the towers of the castle where they could watch the entire event unfold. The army had just stopped in front of the gates when suddenly there was the loudest roar they had ever heard along with a huge gust of wind. Dimitri and Sinclair look behind them only to see the exact reason they had come to Meroknia. Them, along with the army stood there dumbfounded looking at this enormous dragon hovering above them. More than fifty feet long and black as night almost illuminating gold in the sunlight. The dragon flies and lands in front of the army. 

If you want to live, then I suggest you turn around and leave immediately. 

The mouth of the dragon did not move, but the voice that they all heard was very deep and very clear. The army does not move. One soldier even decides to charge at the dragon, only to be flicked away at least one hundred feet. Half of the army really must have had the same idea because they all charge at the dragon at the same time. This time instead of being flicked, they are met with flames. Dimitri and Sinclair stood on the tower in absolute shock. They just witnessed half of the army get burned to a crisp and the other half run away even faster than they arrived. 

What they saw next really only surprised Dimitri since Sinclair already put the pieces together earlier. The dragon started walking back towards the gates of the castle. The princes watched as the dragon started to become smaller, morphing into a creature both human and dragon, and then into just a human. A human that also happened to be Queen Zara. 

Dimitri is the first to quickly make his way down the tower, almost falling down the stairs in the process. Sinclair is walking behind him laughing and asking him why it took him so long to figure it out. 

Dimitri met Zara just as she entered the throne room. “Why did you keep such vital information from us?”

“You never asked,” Zara said, shrugging and sitting back on her throne. 

“She gave so many hints,” Sinclair said, still laughing at his friend. 

“I have been queen of Meroknia for more than 200 years. Yes, I am the dragon and I have always been since I was born. I could easily take over the other four countries if I wanted to, but I am not greedy. Hopefully, your parents learned their lesson and we can all go back to how things were before.” At this point, Zara was just calmly sitting on her throne just looking at the two princes nonchalantly. 

“Can I move in with you?”

Both Sinclair and Zara look at Dimitri like he just grew a second head. 

“After everything you just saw, why would you want to stay here? Do you not want to go home and be with your family?” Zara said, staring intently at the bold prince.

“I can always visit them, but I do not want to live there until it is time for me to become king. Then, I want to join our two countries.” 

The three of them sat there in silence looking at each other, no one really sure what to say next. 

After a few minutes of silence and staring, Zara finally spoke up. 

“Alright then, but you have to help out around here. This is not a vacation,” Zara said opening back up her book and leaning deeper into her seat. 

“So that’s it?” Sinclair said shocked and looking back and forth between the two of them. 

“That’s it,” both Dimitri and Zara say at the same time. 

This story was written and edited by Olivia Poleon. 

 Alex Prinse was born and raised in Harbor City, California with Caribbean descent. She was 17 years old and lived with her parents and her little sister Aliyah. Alex wasn’t like your average teenage girl though. She had certain...talents….so to say. Her family also has similar talents to her and they use those talents to help the greater good. Currently, the date was Sunday, May 14, 2034, and she and her parents were currently in Tokyo, Japan. 

“Alright, Sophie you go around the back of it and wrap your arms around its legs,” Alex’s dad Edwin told her mom. 

Her mom sprinted around the giant robot about 60 feet tall. She did as her husband told her, holding the robot in place as Alex then controlled some telephone wires to wrap around the whole robot causing it to lose its balance and collapse forward onto the floor. Alex and her mother high five each other as her dad climbs into the robot’s control system and shut it down. 

“That was the last one for the day,” Edwin said, walking back to the other two. “Another success, now let’s go home, we have work and school in the morning.” 

***

“Mommy! Daddy! Alex!” Alex’s 8-year-old sister yelled as the family walked into the house. She ran up and gave each of them a hug. 

It was currently almost 9 o’clock in the night, way past Aliyah’s bedtime. 

“And what are you still doing up missy?” Sophie asked her young daughter. Aliyah’s eyes widened as she turned around running to her room and yelling a quick goodnight. 

“I’m exhausted,” Alex said, yawning and stretching. “Goodnight, love you guys.” She gave them both a kiss and headed to her room to take a well-needed shower and go straight to bed. 

As soon as she steps into her room her phone starts to ring. Nitalia would like to Facetime…

“Hey, girl wassup?” Alex asked her best friend. 

“Did you do the Pre-Calc homework?” Nitalia immediately asked and looked at the camera very stressed. 

“We were given that one assignment two weeks ago, and you still haven’t finished?” Alex said laughing at her irresponsible friend. 

“You know homework and I don’t mix,” Nitalia simply stated while flipping through her notebook looking for some type of notes to help her. 

“How about I just send you a picture of the work and I go take this shower and go to bed?” Alex suggested. 

“You’re the best. This is why I love you.” 

“Yeah, yeah goodbye,” Alex dismissed her friend and then hung up. She snapped a few quick pictures of the work sending it to Nitalia getting a cluster of heart emojis in response. 

“Now for a nice hot shower,” she said to herself. 

***

“Bye everyone I’m off to school,” Alex said grabbing a waffle and a bottle of water and hurrying out of the house. 

She hopped into her self-driving Lexus and set it on the route for school and ate her breakfast. 

Around 10 minutes later she arrived on Harbor City High School’s campus letting out a deep sigh. School didn’t start for another 20 minutes so she met up with Nitalia and her boyfriend Jacob on the patio. 

“Hey guys,” she said as she got closer to the two who quickly stopped whispering to each other as she got closer. 

“Hey bestie,” Nitalia replied as they did their handshake that they’ve had since the fourth grade. 

Nitalia is also 17 years old and is fully American. She has no siblings and lives only with her dad.

“Hey Lex,” Jacob said, giving her a head nod. She nodded back sitting across from him next to Nitalia. Jacob is 18 years old and was born and raised in Puerto Rico but moved to California for high school.

“Don’t you only have, like, two classes today?” Nitalia asked. 

“Yep. I love blue days,” Alex replied, giving a goofy smile and a thumbs up. 

“Well aren’t you lucky,” Jacob replied not so subtly rolling his eyes causing Nitalia to poke him hard sending an electric shock through his arm. 

Now, if you haven’t figured out by now that Alex, her parents, and Nitalia have powers, or as I call them, special talents, then now you know. 

Unfortunately, Jacob was a normy, he doesn’t have powers. Although, he is a complete technological mastermind. 

“You know I hate when you do that,” he said giving his girlfriend a stern look. 

“Well maybe if you learned to keep your mouth shut I wouldn’t have to shock you,” she replied, giving him back the same look. 

Alex just shook her head at the two and continued to review for the short quiz she had in about 15 minutes. 

***

“Yo!” Jacob’s friend Jeffery ran up to the three as they were walking to the front of the school.

They turned around watching him pant out of exhaustion.

“I’m throwing a party tomorrow night and it starts at 7:46, be on time please,” he said standing up straight and then walking away. 

“7:46?” Nitalia asked looking at Alex who just shrugged. 

“I’m not going,” Alex stated simply and continued walking out the door. 

“Um...yes you are,” Nitalia said quickly following.

“If she doesn’t want to go, don’t force her,” Jacob chimed in.

If Nitalia’s eyes could shoot bullets Jacob would be bleeding out right now. 

He avoided her glare by looking up at the sky. “Meet me in the car,” he said then quickly left the girls. 

“You have to go. Senior year is almost over and you haven’t been to one party,” Nitalia said as they reached Alex’s car and stood outside. 

“I’m fine with not going to one party.”

“Please?”

“No.”

“Please?”

“No.”

“Thank you.” 

“But I said no,” Alex said leaning on her car. 

“All I heard was that you’ll think about it,” Nitalia said walking away. 

Alex just shook her head and got into the car setting the routing system to Panda Express. 

***

Ring. Ring. Ring. 

Alex was awoken from her after school nap by her phone ringing. Without looking at the caller ID she answered. “Hello?”

“Get dressed I’ll be there in 20 mins.” Click. 

Alex let out a long sigh and snuggled back in her bed. 

Five minutes later, the phone rang again. “Get up. You have 15 minutes now,” Nitalia said into the phone. 

Alex groaned and got out of bed. She couldn’t believe that she agreed to go to this stupid party. 

Just as promised, Nitalia and Jacob popped up 15 minutes later. 

“What are you wearing?” Nitalia asked, looking Alex up and down.

Alex looked down at her outfit. “What do you mean?” 

“It’s a party,” Nitalia said as Alex climbed into the backseat. 

“I know that. I’m wearing a hoodie and some shorts.” 

“Ridiculous.” 

***

Loud music blared out of the big house with teens spread out all over the front yard. Alex and the others walked up to the porch waving and saying hi to the people they recognized. 

“I already want to go home,” Alex said skeptically walking into the house. 

“It’s not that bad Alex,” Jacob said. “Go socialize,” he continued as he and Nitalia walked away to get drinks. 

Alex stood there awkwardly waiting for the two to come back. Around five minutes later, Jacob and Nitalia came back and Nitalia handed Alex a drink. 

“What is this?” Alex asked, smelling it and scrunching up her face. 

“Nothing that’s going to kill you,” Jacob said while taking a sip from his own drink. 

Alex took a large sip and coughed at the terrible taste. “I don’t like this at all,” she said, placing it on the closest table to her. 

She walked away and over to an empty loveseat in one of the living rooms.

She suddenly got the urge to use her powers. Which is against the rules in a vicinity full of normies. 

She looked around to see if anyone was paying attention and then looked at the lamp. She looked back around to double-check. She pointed her finger at the lamp and moved her finger up to make the lamp move up.

“Alex is a super!” she heard someone yell causing her to drop the lamp and look around as everyone looked at her. 

***

“Mom! Dad!” Alex said walking into her house. 

The house was completely empty. 

Her phone started to ring as she walked into the kitchen. Mother. 

“Hello?” 

“Alex, get to the hospital now,” her mom said, sounding stressed out. 

“What happened? Is everything ok?” Alex asked, running out the house and to her car. 

“We’ll explain everything when you get here baby girl,” her mom said then hung up.

***

Alex rushed into the emergency room and up to the front desk. “Hi, I’m here to see my sister,  Aliyah Prinse.”

“Yes, your mom told us to expect you, she’s in room 245 on the second floor,” the nurse replied after looking in the system.

“Thank you!” Alex shouted as she rushed to the elevator. 

She finally made it to the floor and basically flew to the room. 

She first saw her parents sitting on the couch in the room looking more stressed-out than ever and then she saw the most horrific sight. Her little sister was laid down in a hospital attached to so many tubes she looked like a puppet on strings. 

“What..what happened?” Alex stuttered walking closer to her sister. 

“Some moron rammed me from behind on our way back from getting ice cream and her body couldn’t handle the impact so when the glass broke it cut up her body and she went into a coma,” her dad explained, not being able to look up at his eldest daughter.

“She needs blood,” her mom continued. “But the doctor said ours is too old.” (A/N: I know this makes no sense, but bear with me thanks.) 

“I’ll give her some of mine,” Alex said quickly. 

Just as she said that the doctor walked in causing the three to look at her. 

“I want to give some of my blood to Aliyah,” Alex told the doctor. 

“Are you her sister?” the doctor asked. 

“Yes.”

“Alright, we can run the tests in the morning.”

***

“The blood doesn’t have any type of similarities,” the doctor said to Alex and her parents looking at her clipboard as they sat in her office. 

“What do you mean?” Alex asked. 

“It’s as if you two aren’t even actually related,” she explained looking at Alex’s parents?

The room went completely silent as Sophie and Edwin looked at each other.

“Alex you’re adopted,” her mom said.

“Then why did you let me offer to give her blood?” Alex said, holding back tears and staring at her parents. 

“My brother is your father, but he and your mother were killed on a mission a few months after you were born,” Edwin explained. 

“We are so sorry we never told you, we just didn’t know when,” Sophie continued. 

“I think I’m going to stay at Nitalia’s tonight,” Alex said kissing her little sister on the forehead and walking out of the hospital room. 

***

Alex’s sister never woke up from that coma, even after receiving blood. Her parents quit the hero organization, but Alex continued to work for them becoming one of the best heroes to ever help the world. 

Six years after graduating high school and working full time at the organization, Alex was on a special mission in Russia to take out a scientist, named Dr. Nikolai Yahontov, who was working on something that would kill all of the people in the world without powers, the normies.

She had just arrived at the lab where she would find the scientist. She didn’t know what he would look like, but they told her that he would be by himself because he didn’t trust anyone else to help him.  

 She put her suit into stealth mode,turning her invisible and headed into the building. She went up to the room number given to her in the report and looked through the window to see the most attractive man she had ever seen in her life. She couldn’t help but think that there was no way a man this attractive could be planning to kill off less than half of the world’s population.Just as she grabbed the door knob, the door swung open from the other side causing her to be rammed into the man and turning off the stealth mode on her suit. In this moment, the two of them are standing there looking at each other leaving no room for Jesus. 

“And what exactly brings you here?” Nikolai said in a husky but velvety Russian accent. (A/N: I’m cringing at my own writing) 

“I actually came here to kill you, but now that I’m looking at you I’m not sure I want to.” Alex backs away from the scientist and walks around looking at his lab. 

“Well...um….thank you?” he replied, watching her walk around his lab. “I’m going to get a snack, please do not touch anything.” 

Alex stood in the middle of the lab thinking to herself if she should kill this man or not. She weighed her options and still couldn’t decide. 

“So, are you supposed to be a spy or something?” Nikolai asked, opening his back of chips and sitting at his desk.

“I’m a hero,” Alex glared. 

“So who are you saving by killing me?”

“The normies.”

“Why?”

“Why are you killing them?” 

“Because they serve no purpose and take up space,” Nikolai shrugged. 

“Well crap, that’s a fair point. But it still doesn’t give you the right to do this.”

“What if I told you the government hired me to do this?”

“I wouldn’t believe you,” Alex said, crossing her arms and sitting across from him. 

“Smart girl. Just out of curiosity, why aren’t I dead yet?”

“Would you like to be?” 

“No not necessarily. I just don’t understand why you don’t want to complete your mission.”

“I think I want to join you.” Alex got up from the seat and walked to the window looking out of it. 

Just as Nikolai was about to question her a voice came from inside her earpiece. “Alex, why haven’t you returned from your mission yet?” It was her supervisor and the woman who appoints her missions. 

“Sorry Samantha, but I’m switching sides,” she responded looking at a shocked Nikolai. 

“And is Dr. Yahontov still alive?” 

“Yes, and I will kill anyone else that you send after him.”

Alex took the ear piece out of her ear and crushed it under her feet. She used her powers to locate the tracker in her suit and took it out and crushed it. 

“We should probably find you a new lab,” she said walking towards the door. 

“Um…..what just happened?” Nikolai said starting to pack up all of the important things he would need. 

As she stood in the doorway, Alex just shook her head. “Well I just quit my job and you are now stuck with me for the rest of your life. I have to tell Nitalia about this.”

“Who is Nitalia? I did not ask for this.” 

“Don’t worry about it and neither did I, yet here we are.” 

“This is ridiculous.” 

“C'est la vie.” 

This story was written and edited by Olivia Poleon.