03x28: Rebellion Against Gravity

English day hits and everyone's hard work finally pays off. Meanwhile, Austin's test becomes more intense as everything that has been building up since the formation of the team finally pays off.

REBELLION AGAINST GRAVITY

 

     He continued updating the Island databases the next day. Finally, it was Tuesday. The Bazaar was gone and there was nothing left to shield his depression, which hasn’t reared h=its ugly head for a long time.

 

When he got there and the clock hit 7:12 AM, Austin celebrated forty-two hours without depression.

     The CV speech choir was having their final practices and the mural painters were starting their mural.

    Austin proceeded to the library for the essay writing contest. The theme was mainly “going back to the basics”.

     Skipping all the boring stuff, it was finally time for the Congo presentation.

 

They all went to the FBA Auditorium. SC and SK were up first on the stage. Then DDN came and washed both of them out.

     Seriously, DDN had the ferocity and the energy that practically everyone else lacked. The sections following them had an advantage since they know what level to beat. Unfortunately, it was a very high level.

     For one, they actually had a person represent the Congo, thanks to Jack Bungag.

     They even had a little live-action “bumper” at the end which would become DDN’s trademark.

     “The Congo by Vachel Lindsay. Interpreted by *epic hand flourishes* II-DDN!”

     Jaws dropped and bricks were shat but it was time for the rest of them.

     DOR and SK were pretty good but Austin couldn’t concentrate since he was focusing on Maan, Yara, and Rica’s quick, impromptu, instructions to him about the lights. They hadn’t planned on the lights so Austin was in charge.

     He went to the control box at the back and watched CV’s interpretation, Sr. Leo was accompanying Sr. Vic there, giving Austin his usual snarky replies.

     He tried to look past this and was able to do his job well enough.

     CV did well but the problem was matching up to DDN, let alone the other entries.

   

Later during their lunch break, Austin spent it in the DDN room. Sr. Dan was only able to see the final part of DDN’s presentation so to fix the problem, he made them do an encore at the awarding ceremony, much to DDN’s dismay.

     As such, they really had to reapply their eyeliner and hand paint.

     Austin watched Janella get her eyeliner done, denying depression.

     She eventually noticed him essentially staring as opposed to observing.

     “I’m sorry. You just look so beautiful…” he said.

     “Thanks.”

     Austin wasn’t really sad but more of annoyed how she only accepted his compliments now instead of when they were together.

     To make matters worse (and more difficult for his anti-depression streak), Joel entered the room and began flirting with Janella.

     Austin averted this possibly ugly situation by turning to Ernst.

     “So Ernst, what’s up?”

     “Nothing much. Are you okay?”

     “I’m fine. Why?”

     “No reason. It’s just so odd to see you not depressed for once.”

     “Clocking in at nearly forty-nine hours, man!”

     “That’s good.”

     For some reason, he wore a pair of sunglasses.

     “Hey, Ernst,” Joel said, sitting down beside them. “You look like a midget James Bond. Just saying.”
     Inside, Austin laughed because he knew that sunglasses were not a signature 007 prop.

     “NO ONE CAN LOOK LIKE A MIDGET JAMES BOND, YOU ****ING B***H!” Ernst replied jokingly. Austin wished he replied it angrily.

     Joel walked off and Austin had the random urge to burn him into a corpse but that was quickly averted.

     Bianca entered the scene a few minutes later.

     “Hey dude, and Ernst. What’s up?”

     “Nothing… much…” Austin said, dreamily looking at Janella.

     “Dude. It still hasn’t worn off.”

    Austin faced Bianca and looked her in the eye.

    “Listen, alright? My love for her dies when heaven dies and knowing what I know, that is never!”

     “Alright, sheesh.”

     “I shall leave. You and Ernst shall date. Adios, con de dios.”

     “What the hell does that mean?”

     “It means, umm…, enjoy your date.”

     Austin zipped away to the CV room.

 

In the Gym, Austin was sitting beside Roey and Ivan. They began an unofficial holiday called “Slap Roey Day” where you had to slap Roey within the day or you lose the game. What game? Exactly.

     The number of slaps Roey received varies jointly as the number of people in the batch nearby and the number of people who actually give a s**t about Austin and Ivan’s wacky but useless holidays.

     DDN once again performed but this time, on the stage in the Gym. Their presentation in the FBA had more power though.

     Austin transferred to the bottom part of the gym rather than the bleachers and sat beside Ernst and Johan.

     Janella, along with Bianca and Nica, were nearby. Just to make things worse, Joel sat beside Austin as Johan was called by a teacher for some reason.

     It was just like old times with the three musketeers, Austin, Ernst, and Joel only this time, Ernst was promoted to Porthos and Joel was, in Austin’s point of view, Aramis.

     Austin was desperately trying to keep up his streak, resisting Joel’s talks about Will Ferrel, Shaquille O’Neal, and the other stuff that Austin stopped caring about when Joel became a complete a*****e.

     “Ernst. I dare you to take my shoe off, if you can.”

     Austin now knew that Ernst was definitely straight and all the future references otherwise are just their wild imaginations. Joel on the other hand, possibly bi�"

     “Just try!” Joel urged. Ernst tried reluctantly.

     Austin forced it off via telekinesis and threw it near Janella’s place. This unfortunately helped Joel but it also helped Austin cool down, getting rid of him finally.

     As predicted, Joel and Janella began their now usual romance stuff. Austin used his newly acquired skill of self-deception to pretend this wasn’t happening.

      “Austin,” someone behind him whispered.

     Austin looked back and it was Marise. She signaled to the two lovebirds.

     “Are you okay now?” she asked.

     “Pretty much. Hmm… I guess. At least I think so.”

     “You and Joel even seem like best friends. Are you?”

     “We were?” Austin thought to himself.

     “We were?” he asked.

     “Yeah.”
     “I guess I was in a faraway place. Either that or it’s just an act. You among all people should know I hate him.”

    “Yeah. Keep it up, haha.”

     “Facades are my newly acquired specialty.”

     “Hey guys, I’m back,” Joel said.

     “Oh, thank goodness. We can all celebrate,” Austin said seriously, even if it was meant sarcastically.

     “Oh, thanks, Austin.”

     An image popped into his head of him turning Joel into a pile of ashes.

     “Time for the awarding.”

     Skipping all of the boring parts (like Austin losing the Essay Writing contest since he is insignificant at this current stature); it was time to announce the Congo winners.

    “The third place goes to, DOR!”

     DOR cheered.

     “The second place goes to…”

     Everyone in DDN was crossing their fingers.

    “DDN!”

     They were on the verge of tears but an extension of the Gilbert Principle came in.

     “Sorry. There has been a misunderstanding; this is for the Mural Painting contest,” a teacher pointed out.

     DDN cheered at a rare positive occurrence of the Gilbert Principle.

     Anyway, they did win first place and CV got third.

 

Before dismissal, Austin went with Ernst, Addi, Janella, and Joel to the DDS room which DDN used for their hand painting site. It was filled with paint on the floor.

     They cleaned it up using their powers and went home. Austin watched as Janella and Joel walked to the bus area together. Austin was on the verge of breaking his streak and in a desperate attempt to save it; he froze time and went to the Base.

     He quickly put together a plasma beam and went back his previous location. He shot himself in the face with the plasma beam and his face was burned. He reverted time and switched to Pyrokinesis.

     He absorbed all the heat and fixed his face.

     “What the hell just happened?” Ernst asked.

     “I did a little, self-medication.”

     “What the hell were you trying to pull, oh my gosh, your face!”

      Austin didn’t notice his cheek was still partly blown off and flamed up his face to fix it.

     “All better?”

     “Yeah, pretty much…”

     He met up with Mo-on and went to Sanglayon later that day.

     “Still no new one?” Mo-on asked.

     “You mean crush? I don’t think so.”

     “You once smuggled org lists out of Sr. Dan’s office, right?”

     “The term smuggles indicates illegality but otherwise, yes, I do have all the org lists.”

     “May I borrow?”

     Austin took out the organizational lists from his bag and gave it to Mo-on.

     “What do you look for in a girl?”

     “Mo-on, no.”

     “Come on. Just humor me.”

     “I am not skimming the batch for a new crush. One, it won’t work. I have a sever case of romantic tunnel vision. Second, I’m still in love with Janella.”

     “Humor me.”

     “Fine then. All of her qualities.”

     “Nope, I don’t see anyone here who’s in love with a traitor.”

     “Mo-on… I mean the good qualities.”

     “There’s a lot or girls here. Let’s go one by one. Aldrich…”

     “That’s the boys, Mo-on.”

     “Just kidding, sheesh. Okay, Ernst…”

     “Still boys…”

     “Really? Oh… Okay, seriously now, AD, not really…; Pat, no way.”

     “No way…” Austin reiterated.

     “Bade, taken by Bill,”

     “Good one. I love Photoshop although I suck at it.”

     “Alecz, friends; Karla, nah; Rachel, I guess you’re just friends and she might be taken by Ibarra,”

     “They look good together, don’t they?”

     “Artists and all. Anyway, Kristina, friends?”

     “Pretty much.”

     “Dorothy, Friends,”

     “And taken… by Dior.”

     “Ouch. Haha. Maan, friends; Kambal, Super friends; Queennie, friends; Marise, I gues super-duper friends.”

     Then, at that moment, Austin’s subconscious defense mechanism faltered for a plit-second, allowing a single ray of light to shine through.

     “And I don’t like her that much.”

     “Why not?” Austin said in a somewhat defensive tone. Mo-on failed to detect this.

     “Well, she’s the VP of CV but she isn’t exactly VP-ing too much.”

     “Mo-on, I think I…”

     He flashed back to that night with Sean and Joe where Joe wnet off and Sean asked him if there really was nobody in his mind. Then all the way back to September when they were seatmates, goofing off like best friends, being all close and all.

     “Oh my God,” Mo-on said.

     “But I don’t know. I’m not sure. You know how unstable everything is right now.”

    “You like her. You sneaky b�" guy, you!”

     “Oh alright, maybe I do, maybe I don’t, but I don’t want to make a move or anything because I know how unstable and confused I am about my emotional state right now and she’s one of my closest friends. I don’t want to use her as a mourning period or something. When or if I make a move, I want ot be sane again.”

     “Austin, you are one of a kind. Keep it up. Anyway, next is Mey, meh I guess…; Bettina, please do your spit takes right now.”

     “Aw, jeez. Way to break the mood.”

    “Hahaha.”

     When Mo-on got to DDN, things got a bit interesting.

     “Bianca, best friend,” Mo-on said.

     “Also taken by Ernst De Vera.”

     “They were so adorable during Kyle’s birthday.”

     “I know. I wanted to take a video and make tribute shipping videos on YouTube for Pete’s skaes, those two were friggin’ adorable.”

     “Anyway, Alex, not really; Bianca, the other one, I don’t think you know her; Angel, not really close are you; Umm… let’s skip her.”

     Austin was counting. It was G9, Janella.

      “Hell no, don’t skip her.”

     “You’re counting?!”

     “I’m a math nerd.”

     “Fine, Janella.”

     “Definitely a yes.”

     “Who are you, Judge Jib?”

     “No, this time, you humor me!”

     “Next…”

     That night, his subconscious defense mechanism kicked back in and the tunnel vision was back on Janella. From this day on, the faltering happened more and more often.    

 

The next day was the Immaculate Conception. They had no classes but they did have a mass.

     Austin and Justine were planning to finish their projects later that day and Mo-on had to finish a diorama that Sr. Leo assigned per group.

     They decided to do it at Austin’s suite, just for fun.

     Mo-on screwed around with the LoA and KoA before the mass.

     “LoA, ‘Luluwa ng pera’?” Mo-on said. (Loose translation: Will spit out money.)

     “KoA, ‘Kukuha ng pera’?” (LT: Will take money)

     This elicited some laughs but these were short lived.

     They had the mass and were on their way home. Froilan claimed to be looking for “Justine Oliver”, his own bastardization of “Justine Olaivar”

     Austin, Justine, and Mo-on proceeded to his suite to work on their projects. Sr. Mike decided to have the play as a video instead. Mo-on wasn’t able to finish his project because he helps the other two finish theirs.

     Austin edited it later that night. It was the worst thing he had ever produced.

     He received three special texts that night. They all said the same thing: “2010 is almost over. Send this to all the people who made you smile this year.” He received it from Janella, Joel, and Marise.

     He only sent it back to Janella though, completely ignoring the hundreds of people that made him smile in another way.

 

He submitted the video to Sr. Mike first thing in the morning.

     Austin also brought his Professor’s Cube (5x5x5 Rubik’s cube for those out of the loop) to alleviate possible boredom.

     During English time, Ms. Sharon was almost done with the conjugation of a verb into different tenses. She asked everyone to conjugate “forsake” into all the tenses, from simple to progressive, to perfect, to perfect progressive.

     She then asked people for the answers, implementing the “full sentence rule” apparently, Sean was not paying attention.

     “Sean, what is the future perfect tense for ‘forsake’?”

     He stood up.

     “Will have been forsaken.”

     “Come again?”

     “Will have been forsaken!”

     “Come again, Sean.”

     The people around him began laughing very quietly.

     “Will have been forsaken!”

     “Come again…”

     Eventually, it became this:

     “WILL HAVE BEEN FORSAKEN!”

     “Come again?”

     Everyone was laughing at Sean’s misfortune.

     “WILL. HAVE. BEEN. FORSAKEN!”

     CV suddenly decided to show mercy.

     “FULL SENTENCE!” they shouted.

     “Ahh…” Sean said to himself.

     “Come again, Sean.”

     “The future perfect tense for ‘forsake’ is ‘will have been forsaken’.”

     “Very good, Sean.”

     CV now had something to say to Sean when they were feeling particularly assholish.

 

The rest of the morning hours were pretty boring but when noon hit and CCF time started, things started to get going.

      They had a quiz about the Kingdom Parables that day. Jib, who was absent once, uttered the most hilarious thing you could ever hear at this time of day.

     “What? Wh… WAT DA PAK IS A DENARIUS?!”

     Despite the Caps Lock, he didn’t shout that but he said it loud enough to make the people around him laugh their asses off.

     Aside from another vulgarity (Where Mo-on nonchalantly went over to the TEAGS Table and said, “**** you, Ernst!” for no apparent reason at all, causing them, Ernst included, to laugh their asses off), nothing significant happened in the canteen.

     In the Library, Austin took his Professor’s Cube inside and made the dumbest decision possible at that point, he sat in the same table as Janella AND Joel.

     Nica and Bianca were there as well anyway and Ernst went with him so all was well.

     After a while, the librarian approached Austin and told him to shove the Cube up his a*s. She didn’t really say that but in Austin’s [not] terrible mood, that’s what it sounded like.

     “What’s wrong with solving a cube? He isn’t disturbing anyone,” Janella said.

     What a sweet little occurrence. She actually defended him.

     “I don’t get the logic that a three-way arm wrestling tournament is allowed but quietly solving a 5x5x5 Rubik’s Cube is prohibited. Is this the standards for society these days? Everything is upside-down!” Austin whispered to Ernst and Bianca.

     To make things worse, Dave himself, former leader of the Mastermind’s Junior Resistance Club and Joel’s best friend, sat down in the table.

     “Uy Joel, Musta na kayo ni Janella?” (LT: Hey Joel, How are you and Janella?)

     “Okay naman.”

     “Austin, ikaw? Musta na?” (LT: Austin, how about you? How are you?)

     He felt like he was back in sixth grade with Dave messing with him and him getting urges to blow his face off. The only difference was that it was completely possible.

     Lucky for him, the bell rang and Austin rushed to the classroom.

     Sr. Jojo dished out his awesome spirit lifer attitude that period, despite reading polarizing quiz scores.

     Among these spirit lifters are, “Are you passed or are you Field?” (Referring to Dory’s surname), “Take a break, have a Clutch”, and “Are you sick? You want me to call the doctor quick?”

     Later in the bus area, they were selling some poppers that (obviously) made a popping sound when thrown to the ground. Ernst was a victim of these little buggers.

 

The next day, Austin brought the cube Ivan gave him last year for Christmas with uneven blocks but still the same algorithms were required.

     His solving of this cube put a lot of people in awe.

     Fast forward to the second period, the poppers reared their ugly head while they were having a quiz in Filipino.

     Ms. Becky was in the other end of the room. Sean got bored and took out a popper. He carefully aimed one at Jib’s feet. He threw it but it failed.

     “Takte, Ano yun?” Jib asked quietly.

     Sean tried to suppress his laughter as he took out another one and aimed it. He took aim and threw it harder this time.

     POP!

     “***ANG INA!” Jib exclaimed. (LT: Technically it is s**t mother but it’s harsher in Filipino)

     “JIB! ANO SINABI MO?!” (LT: JIB! WHAT DID YOU SAY?!”

     “Wala, miss.” (Nothing, miss)

     The funny part was that was the end of it. No more follow-throughs.

     Austin was nearing 117 hours. Like a drug addict withdrawn from heroin or a normal twenty-something year old man whose partner is celibate, Austin was going through the strangest withdrawal possible: Depression Withdrawal.

     The symptom that began to show was speech patterns similar to Alex from A Clockwork Orange. He passed by Janella in the canteen and spat out, “Hey, hey, hey there, my choodessny devotchka!” She justifiably stared at him with a “WTF?” look on her face.

      He looked at Ernst and he was giving him the same look.

     “Well, jitterbug. You don’t think that’s just the ol’ oozhassny chepooka, do you?”

     “WHAT?!”

     “Oh shut up and by your eggiwegs,” he spoke in his normal accent.

 

A bit later in the day, Austin and Clutch had a little talk again. It turns out that they’re going through similar motions in terms of heartbreak although his is only a Stage 1 while Austin’s was a Stage 4.

     Rica also showed Mo-on, Austin, Ibarra, and Rachel the finished “Generation Magazine” with all their articles and stuff.

     All the CCP participants were in practice for the final periods. Austin particularly began to feel his cold returning during English time.

     This cold was causing a headache due to the clogging and he wasn’t reciting as often.

     Jib and the other boys began singing along to “Don’t Stop Believing” which was playing outside.

     Before going home, Ms. Sharon noticed this as Rica and MO-on went in for a last minute inquiry.

     “You better get home, get some r�"“

     “MS. Sharon! Can I ask a question?” Mo-on said.

     “Yes?”

     “What do you call the point of view where the narrator is not the main character?”

     “Hmm…” Ms. Sharon said.

     “I know it’s not first person, definitely not second person, third p�"“ Mo-on iterated.

     “That’s it,” Austin said. “Third person limited. Is that correct?”

     “Oh, yes. It’s that one,” Ms. Sharon said.

     “Thanks, miss!”

     “That really isn’t too common, is it?” Austin asked.

     “I don’t think so,” Mo-on answered.

     “Anyway, you better go. It’s getting late,” Ms. Sharon said.

     “Bye, miss!” the three of them said as they marched back to the room to get their stuff.

 

Later that night, Austin was fighting his cold while updating the database.

     “To overwrite or not to overwrite… hmm…” he said to himself.

     “How about overwrite?” Erika said behind him.

     “GAH! Erika, how many times to I have to tell you? You can’t just pop out of nowhere!”

     “”I got bored. Not at home though. I am still a spy, you know that right?”

      “Sort of… Kinda… to a certain extent…”

     “I got bored with your current state, Austin.”

     “Crap, are you flirting with me? ‘Coz I still love Janella, alright? Either that or you’re a figment of my imagination, like my conscience or my Tyler Durden, or�"”

     “I’m not flirting and I’m not in your imagination. You really aren’t well, are you? Can’t you see? Going all Nadsat on Janella…”

     “At least you know what the hell I was saying.”

     “I only know ‘devotchka’ and that was enough to tell me you were a little off. Your 125 hours of happiness, or shall I say, fake-happiness?”

     “No one can tell me my happiness is fake because they are not feeling it,” Austin said before sipping some orange soda.

     “Did I mention you cryptic encoding in the Island database?”

     “This is none of your business. Look, Erika, why are you here? If you need something, I’ll be happy to give it to you because if I don’t, I’m pretty sure Derek will be here in five seconds to blow up the Island.”

     “Austin, how are the attack plans?”

     Austin stopped his defiant persona.

     “I knew it. Still at phase one…”

     “John’s doing that s**t. I only have to worry about the tech.”

     “If you say so, Austin, but listen to me, alright? Janella, Joel, they did to you what the Mastermind could not. They broke you.”

     “No they didn’t. Pssh. What makes you say th�"“

     “To pieces… Shattered, Austin.”

     Austin just realized it at this point.

     “Nothing has been happening for months, Austin. Derek has been keeping me inside here 24/7 since the mall thing. Our genetic makeup or whatever is fixed. The Mastermind is not doing anything, no attacks, no nothing. He won, Austin, and the worst part is, not only did he do nothing but he left the job to your quote unquote best friend and your quote unquote girl of your dreams”

     “Holy s**t… you’re right.”

     “Back to your question earlier, yes, I came here to tell you this because frankly, I wanna tell Derek to give me a break because this s**t is getting so boring!”

     “My goodness gracious holy mackerel steak on a buttered cheese grilled sandwich.”

     “Exactly my point,” Erika said to herself.

     “What was that?”

     “Look, Austin. If you’re going to attack the Mastermind in this state, you better forget it and just stay behind, leave it to them. Or, you can get off your lazy a*s, finish the plans, and take action!”

     Austin took this all in.

     “Also…, add four more people to your plans. We’re joining in.”

     “What?! You think they’re going to like that?”

     “I don’t care if they like it and neither should you guys. We want payback and hell, we’re getting it.”

     Erika disappeared.

     “Wait! Erika! D****t!”

    

Over the weekend, he found a new movie to add to his favorites. It was Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket.

     During Sunday, He received three texts with the same thing: “Dear Santa, I don’t want much for Christmas. I just want the person reading this to remain in my life forever. Send this to the people you don’t want to lose.” He received it from Nica, Bianca, and Mo-on.

     He sent it back to Bam, Bianca, Bruce, Ernst, Janella, Kyle, Marise, Mo-on, Patrick, Rica, Sean, Clara, Dorothy, and Ymara.

     He finally went to sleep that night in preparation for another s****y week.

 

Monday was the first day of quarterly tests. Austin’s main topic of choice throughout the day was Full Metal Jacket, all of Sgt. Hartman’s lines being stuck in Austin’s head. Ernst essentially became Private Pyle.

     He also held a math tutorial after classes. His students were Mo-on, Alyssa, and Joseph Bernarte.

     They tackled a lot, using the DDS room as a classroom.

     Austin went over to CV, where Ymara was teaching, and sat around. She was stressed and asked for help which Austin gladly gave since Math, to him, was fun and he loved parabolas.

    

The next day was also uneventful. Austin reviewed AP (Chinese Dynasties were extremely hard to learn with Sr. Leo but was extremely relaxing to learn with Beethoven’s masterpieces playing in the background).

     During the AP test, Full Metal Jacket sort of helped in a question. The topic was about a Chinese leader and one of the choices was Ho Chi Minh. Sgt. Hartman’s cadence about him helped eliminate one choice.

     However, Austin couldn’t answer one question and put “Gomer Pyle” in the blank because he hated blanks on his paper.

     They also mercilessly annoyed Bianca with this:

     “Who’s the leader of the club that’s made for you and me? M-I-C-K-E-Y-M-O-U-S-E!”

     “Stop it you two!” Bianca said to Austin and Ernst. They looked at each other and nodded.

     “Mickey Mouse!”

     “Mickey Mouse!”

     “Mickey Mouse!”

     “GAH!” Bianca exclaimed in frustration.

 

The next day however was the most interesting of the week. It was the last day before Christmas break, the Family Hub was that night and DRIX was playing, and John finished the plans.

     “Right now?!” John asked.

     “Yes, The Mastermind won’t expect spontaneous. It’s like that scene in the Matrix with the vase and the Oracle. It either makes no sense or very difficult sense. Either way, let’s go.”

     “We have to round them up.”

     “You go do that; I’ll bring up the jet.”

     “What shall we call the jet?”

     “Airborne Power-Absorbent Jet or A.P.J. is out of the question because it has my current two least favorite things: AP and the letter J.”

     “We’ll decide later.”

     “Although Jack Nicholson is still awesome. And so is�"“

     “AUSTIN! THE JET!”

     “Oh, sorry.”

      John facepalmed as he rushed to the hotel. Austin went down and took the jet through the new pathway similar to the one for the Anonymous.

     He pressed a button that opened up a tunnel in the garage wall. He maneuvered it through the tunnel and supports latched on to the wings, wheels, and the nose. It carried it all the way to the surface where a metal door opened just in time to let the jet out.

     He maneuvered the jet next the hotel, waiting for the team.

 

They all went out of the hotel and into the jet using the ramp at the back.

     “This is spacey,” Ernst said.

     “Would you prefer a cramped up environment?” Michael asked.

     “Damn, it’s good to be back,” Austin said as he turned around to face them, only to find Janella and Joel sitting beside each other.

     “That’s all of them,” John said.

     “Not all,” Erika said, standing at the bottom of the ramp.

     “What is she doing here?” Kyle asked.

     “She’s going to go with us. And so are Barrage, Accel, and Momentum,” Austin said.

     “WHAT?!” they exclaimed in unison.

     “There is no time to argue, alright? We’re on the same side here: they want payback, we want to blow them up, this is just going to save time. Erika, bring them in.”

     Erika and the other three went in the jet and Austin closed the ramp.

     “There should be 36 of us, me included.”

     “Yup, that’s all,” John said.

     “It’s 12 PM on my watch, the Family Hub starts at 7PM. We have more than enough time. Fasten your seatbelts, this is gonna be a bumpy… you know…”

     Austin switched to Hydrokinesis and lifted the jet off the ground. He circled around the Island and went straight into the water.

     “John, explain the plan. You have thirty minutes, more or less.”

     John was putting some rounds in a magazine.

     “Are those… live rounds?” Ernst asked.

     “Seven six two, full metal jacket…” John said.

     “Someone call the meds!”

     “I’m just kidding you pansy. This is for Paul.”

     “Me?”

     “Make yourself invisible, walk in, I’ll handle the door. Start shooting at anyone who gets in your way. The Mastermind’s defense systems will only allow me to open one door so you have to do the rest. Find the control room and open all the entrances. Got it?”

     “Umm, yes?”

     “Do you know how to fire a rifle?”

     “Umm… no…”

     “It’s easy. Lock and load, squeeze the trigger. Not in here though, you’ll leak water in the jet.”

     “Bam, you have your guitar?”Austin asked.

     “Yes.”

     “Good. Kyle’s group, how was your training session?”

     “Nica kicked Kyle’s a*s, again,” Lui said.

     “Just like old times, eh Kyle?” Nica said, nudging Kyle.

     Kyle groaned.

     “Michael, how about your team?”

     “I took them to the outskirts of the Island. Roey and Jericho still have their ASG kick in them. Sean and Owen are top-notch combatants, despite their non-offensive and short-range powers respectively. Paul is, for a lack of a better term, invisible and Joel, well, he’s Joel.”

    “John, your team?”

     “Lanz and Cedric are just as good as always.”

     “You can count on that, mofo!” Cedric said.

     “Johan and Bam were in the ASG so yeah. Rod can be used as a human punching bag due to his healing power. Renz, well, I don’t think there’s enough ground in the North Pole for him to make a difference. Clutch can take care of himself.”

     “What about your team, Austin?” Erika asked.

     “We’re ready.”

     “We barely trained, Austin,” Bianca said.

     “Ernst can turn the guards into laughing wrecks. Patrick can turn them into pillars of ash. Mo-on can turn the entire base into something out of Inception. You can… bounce. Marise can turn the entire place into a molten pile of gunk. And Ivan can quickly dispose of said gunk.”

     “Aren’t you forgetting someone?” Erika said.

     “Look, if you’re going to be in this team, you gotta know that Austin has no time for this kind of crap,” Ernst said.

     “Austin, aren’t you forgetting someone?”

     “D****t, Erika! What do you want?!” Austin yelled, stopping the jet.

     “I want a full report, that’s all.”

     “You’re not in any authority to deserve a full report! You want a full report, don’t ask me for! Now, if it’s not too much to ask, let me pilot this thing in peace.”

     “Fine…”

     The entire jet was silent for a while. Austin finally decided to give the full report.

     “The final member, Janella, is capable of freezing the entire base, as an alternate to the molten gunk treatment, enabling easier shattering.”

     Austin switched to Cryokinesis as they approached the North Pole. He lifted the jet out of the water and into one of the ice caps. He flew it through the ice caps until they were close to the Mastermind’s Base, which looked more like a fortress in the ice.

     “Alright, John, final briefings.”

     John told the team what to do in record time. They went out of the jet and Paul turned invisible.

     “Here’s your rifle. Just relax, walk in, don’t bump into anyone, and find the control room.”

     Sang Woo turned the rifle invisible as well and walked towards the Base.

     “Janella, put a cool field around him to screw the heat sensors,” John said.

     Janella did as told as Sang Woo reached the door. John focused on the door and opened it with all his might. The alarm sounded and the door tried to slam shut but John still managed to keep it open long enough for Sang Woo to get in.

     “What now?” Ernst asked.

     “We wait… dumbass,” Michael said.

     So they waited as the alarms slowly died down. About ten minutes later, the doors opened.

    “That’s the signal! Austin, take the north entrance, Kyle, west entrance, Michael, screw up the entrance Paul went in. We’ll take the east. Erika, umm… you do whatever you want. Plant the charges all over the place. Leave no stone un… charge-planted.”

    

Austin led his team to the back of the fortress but before entering, he said a few words to Janella.

     “Janella, a word please.”

    “Yeah?”

     They went a few meters away from the rest.

     “Look, I know you know this already but let’s put the stuff between us behind us for now. We gotta blow this place, that’s what we’re here for.”

     “I understand.”

     “Alright. Let’s go!”

     They charged into the north entrance. It was an empty hallway.

     “Plant some charges.”

     They went all the way through the hallway and found themselves in an intersection.

     “Plant some more charges around these hallways. Be careful. It’s too quiet around here.”

     A door suddenly opened from one of the walls and twenty or thirty superpowered mooks came charging out.

     They handled the henchman as Austin continued along the central hallway.

 

Kyle’s group had less luck, being met with henchmen right from the entrance. They managed to subdue the henchmen and place charges as well but they just kept on coming.

     “What now?” Berna asked.

     “Alyssa, desperate times call for desperate measures. Berna, shields up.”

     Alyssa froze the entire hallway as Kyle and Berna shielded the rest of the team. A handful of Cryokinetics and Pyrokinetics thawed out as Nica stepped up front.

     “Aim for the thawed out ones,” Kyle said.

     “I hit you in the face two years ago, remember?”

     “I hope you haven’t gotten old.”

     “Speak for yourself.”

     Nica fired shockwaves at the thawed out mooks, knocked them out cold.

    

Michael’s group had the most luck, Paul already knocking out the guards there.

     “Plant those charges, guys! Hurry up! Time to get boom happy!” Michael said.

     “Hey guys,” Paul said.

     “Paul, nice of you to join u�"“

     In a blink of an eye, Paul transformed into Lanz and clapped hard, sending Michael’s entire group to the ground except for Sean and Owen.

     “D****t,” the fake Lanz said.

     “Landers, I presume?” Sean asked.

     “No, my name is Lanz, you idiot.”

     “Well, let me introduce myself,” Joel said, grabbing his leg, knocking him out. “Just like old times.”

     The group tried to stand up again and resumed planting charges.

 

John’s group was met with a flurry of henchmen. Derek and Lanz handled most of them, sending explosion beams and shockwaves all over the place.

     “Erika, take a bunch of these charges and plant them deep,” John said.

     “Good idea,” she said, taking the charges and phasing through the walls.

     Johan absorbed the steel walls and pummeled the henchmen coming at him.

     “Obviously, Double M doesn’t train his men,” Cedric said.

     “Stupid pansies, give me a challenge!” Lanz yelled.

     The wall at the end of the hallway opened, revealing a longer hallway.

     “Alright, move it. Move!” John said.

     They went towards the far end of the hallway, planting charges along the way until about midway, a door suddenly closed in on Clutch. Luckily, he split himself in two, putting one Clutch on each end.

     With him were Lanz, Cedric, Scarlett, Micherenz, and a Clutch.

     John tried to make an opening but failed.

     “Guys, circle around, meet me outside in ten minutes!” John said.

     “Yes, sir, John, sir!” Lanz said.

      “I’m gonna try to blow it open,” Derek said.

     “Alright, good idea.”

     They felt the rumble but nothing happened.

     “Derek has the highest firepower of us all. This is slammed shut. Just meet me outside!”

     “You’re on my end. Let’s plant some charges and get on with our lives.”

     “What about Erika?” Scarlett asked.

     “She’ll be fine.”

     “Oh, I’m afraid she won’t be fine,” a voice said from the end of the hallway.

     Everyone looked towards the man. The veterans immediately noticed him.

     “Spike!” John said. “Watch out.”

     “This is one, spacey, metallic hallway don’t you think? Welcome to my world,” Spike boasted before covering his arms with Spikes.

    

Austin’s group continued to struggle through the henchmen.

     “There’s too many of them,” Patrick said.

     “Wait, I have an idea,” Marise said.

     “Oh, right, your audition,” Ernst said.

     “It’s about to get hot in here,” she said as she covered the entire hallway in flames, skillfully leaving her teammates unharmed and the henchmen overheated. She also simultaneously covered the charges in a psychic field.

     She absorbed the flames and all the henchmen were on the ground.

     “I’m sure they’ll live,” Patrick said.

     “They will.”

     Another door opened and fifteen henchmen went out.

     “You have got to be kidding me,” Ernst said.

     “Can you do that again?” Mo-on asked Marise.

     “I need to regain my strength.”

     “Okay, I’ll keep them busy, you guys plant the charges,” Mo-on said, focusing on the henchmen and changing their gravitational orientation, making them fall back into the room on the wall.

     “Nice work!” Bianca said.

     “Try reaching us now!” Mo-on said, watching the henchmen desperately try to jump up to the hallway.

     Austin continued down the long hallway, setting charges until he reached the end where there was a locked door.

 

Kyle’s group continued into the fortress, fighting random henchmen.

     One of them came out of the break room drinking a glass of water. Before he could freeze it to use as a weapon, Marella immediately whipped the water out of the cup and used it to nearly drown one of the pyrokinetics.

     “Dory, do something!” Alyssa said while struggling against some Fulgurkinetics. Dory took out a coin and increased its density. She dropped it on one of the Fulgurkinetics, making him yell in pain.

     “What the hell was that?” Alyssa asked.

     “I can manipulate density in inanimate objects.”

     “I have an idea,” Lui said. “Let’s go in the break room and find some inanimate objects. You make them denser, I’ll teleport them above the henchmen.

     “You go do that but please, HURRY!” Nica yelled, shooting shockwave ripples all over the place.

 

Michael’s group had covered two whole hallways in explosives without much henchmen getting in the way.

     “They really should increase security in the east entrance,” Roey said.

     “Hey, check this out, elevator!” Joel said.

     “Great job, Joel. Everyone, in here!” Michael said before a small supernova hit Joel in the head, knocking him out.

     “What are you doing here, Ricardo?” Michael asked.

     “That’s still Landers,” Roey said.

     “I know, I was making him feel like his plan was working,” Michael whispered to Roey.

     “You’re not going anywhere. Your guardian angel is gone. Just you and me.”

     “S**t, man, that’s so totally gay,” Sean said.

     Landers fired a supernova at Sean as he dived into the elevator. He teleported Joel’s body into the elevator as Michael closed the doors and hit the top floor button.

 

John and Spike were hitting each other, John not even being hurt because he turned his entire body into metal.

     “I’ll quake the place,” Micherenz said.

     “No! You’ll bring it down!” John yelled.

     “Isn’t that what we’re trying to do?”

     “You want this place to go down with us inside?”

     “Use a Telegun to get to the other side of the barrier,” Lanz said.

     “I didn’t think we’d need it so I didn’t bring it.”

     “How about we�"“

     “HOW ABOUT YOU HELP ME OUT!”

     Lanz clapped toward the wall, causing the resulting shockwave to ricochet towards Spike. He punched John in the stomach and put him in the way of the shockwave.

     “Sorry!”

     “That’s it. I don’t have time for this,” Scarlett said. “John, hold your breath and punch him as hard as humanly possible!”

     Scarlett withdrew all the oxygen near the two brawlers and John took a deep breath. He punched Spike in the face and he fell to the ground.

     “Move to the other end of the hallway. Everyone, follow suit. Hold your breath before going in!”

    

Austin’s group planted charges around the north part of the fortress.

     “This place just goes around in a circle. That kinda sucks,” Ernst said.

     “Where’s Austin?” Patrick asked.

     “Guys, elevator!” Marise pointed out.

     “How do we open it?” Ivan asked.

     “Let’s try pressing the up button,” Bianca said sarcastically. She pushed the button but nothing happened.

     “You were saying?” Ernst said to Bianca.

     “Any better ideas?”

     Patrick blew the door open.

     “How about that?”

     “Nice work,” Marise said, telekinetically pulling the door out of the way. Suddenly, the cables snapped and the elevator fell down.

     “What now?” Ernst asked.

     Mo-on switched the gravitational orientation in the elevator area and jumped to the side of the elevator shaft.

     “Going up?”

     Everyone jumped after him and they went up.

     Patrick blasted the doors in the second floor open as Mo-on changed the orientation of the area perpendicular to the elevator opening towards the floor itself.

     “Everyone, jump into the second floor,” Mo-on said as he jumped through the opening, rolling into the second floor. Everyone followed suit.

     The second floor looked like a hotel. The floor was covered in a red carpet and the rooms were in a circle. In the middle was a circular, glass window.

    

Austin changed to ghost power and phased through the door. It was a circular glass elevator with a steel ceiling, control panel, and floor. There was only one button and it was an up arrow. Austin pressed it as he went up.

     On his way up, the elevator passed through the circular glass dome and he saw his team on the second floor.

     “Austin!” Patrick yelled.

     “Guys!”

     “How’d you get in there?!”

     “Downstairs. There’s a locked d�"“

     He was already on the third floor.

     “Guys, back in the shaft!” Mo-on said as he changed the orientation back to away from the opening and they jumped back in and went upwards.

 

Lui was teleporting the objects Dorothy was altering.

     “Is that all of them?” Lui asked.

     “Coast is clear,” Kyle said.

     “I found some stairs,” Marella said.

     “Let’s go up!”

     Kyle’s group went all the way to the third floor and found themselves in a similar room as Austin’s group.

     “Is this a hotel?” Rica asked.

     “I don’t know. Plant some charges.”

     “Do we have infinite charges?” Nica asked.

     “More or less. Just go!”

     “Guys, it’s Austin!” Dorothy pointed out as the elevator passed through the center.

     “Kyle!”

     “Are you in trouble?”

     “I don’t know. Get to the top floor!”

     “Berna, Rica, Lui, go with me. The rest, plant charges in here and follow us.”

     The four of them rushed to the next floor and the next until they reached the end of the stairs. They went through the door and saw that they were in a smaller floor and there was no glass window in the middle.

     “Go down one floor.”

     They went down and entered the room. It was also smaller and still had no window.

     “We’re lost.”

     “I can teleport us back to the second floor then we can teleport into the window and fly up the elevator shaft,” Lui said.

     “Great idea. Let’s do that.”

    

Michael’s group reached the top floor. When they got there, they heard voices near the stairwell.

     “What was that?” Michael said.

     “Let’s go and find out,” Ibarra said.

     “What about Joel?” Roey asked.

     “Use your cards to heal him or something.”

     Roey took out the Potion card and healed Joel.

     “What happened?”

     “Landers attacked. Anyway, let’s follow those guys in the stairwell.”

     They went down but the people were gone.

     “Let’s continue down,” Michael said.

     “I can go ahead,” Ibarra said. He jumped in between the bars, using his stretching powers to slip through the staircases. He checked all the floors and saw no sign of life.

     “All clear!” Ibarra said as he reached the tenth floor.

     “Move!” Michael said.

     “Let me teleport us,” Sean said as he teleported everyone to Ibarra’s location.

     “Hey guys,” Ibarra said.

     “What did you see exactly?”

     “The floors were the same until maybe the 13^th floor where it was like a hotel but with a glass window in the middle. It’s been the same ever since.”

     “Let’s start from the second floor and work our way up,”

     Sean teleported them to the second floor and they saw Kyle’s group there.

     “Hey guys. Long time no see,” Michael said.

     “What happened?” Kyle asked.

     “We set the charges. What about you?”

     “We’re gonna teleport in this elevator shaft and follow it upstairs. Austin is in it.”

      “We’re coming with,” Michael said.

      “There’s not enough space. Take your team to the third floor and set some charges.”

      “Do we have infinite charges or something?” Sean asked.

     “I know right?” Nica said.

     “Just set the charges. Lui, ready.”

     Lui teleported them into the shaft and they followed the elevator up.

 

John went to the other end of the hallway where he saw an elevator.

     “The others should’ve planted charges upstairs if they followed through. Let’s circle around and meet the others outside,” John said.

     They went to another hallway and found some unconscious henchmen on the ground.

     “They’ve been here alright. They need to get out in ten minutes.”

     “I wanna kick some more a*s!” Lanz said.

     “We’ll round up the rest of our group first. We can’t risk anything.”

     They went out through the west entrance.

     “JOHN! OVER HERE!” Derek yelled.

     “Get over here. We’re gonna pick up the others and blow the place.”

     The others rushed towards them. They went back in together, going up the flight of stairs Kyle’s group climbed. They reached the second floor.

     “How’s the plan going?” John asked.

     “It’s fine,” Nica said.

     “Where’s Kyle?”

     “Kyle’s following Austin up that shaft.”

     “Why? Is he in trouble?”

     “I think. I’m not sure.”

     “What floor does it lead to?”

     “We don’t know.”

     “D****t. We need to get out in ten minutes.”

     “Do you have the charges on a timer?”

     “No but I want to get out as quickly as possible.”

     “What do we do now?”

     “Let’s search all the floors for the one the elevator leads to.”

    

The rest of Austin’s team went back down and around to the hallway he walked through.

     They reached the locked door at the end.

     “I have a feeling this won’t open.”

     Janella fired a blast at the door.

    “That didn’t work,” she said.

     Patrick tried a more powerful blast. Still it didn’t open.

     “Strike 2.”

    Marise tried blasting it open. Still nothing.

     “Strike 3, we’re out. Any other ideas?” Ernst asked.

     Janella took a charge on the wall and placed it on the door.

    “You could trigger a chain reaction!” Ernst said.

     “I can control the explosion,” Marise said.

     “You sure you’ve recharged long enough?”

     “Countdown: Five,” Patrick said.

     Marise readied herself, focusing on the charge.

     “Four…”

     “Get behind me,” Marise said.

     “Three…”

     “Can I help?” Janella asked.

     “Didn’t you absorb Austin’s ghostfire orbs last year?” Bianca asked. “Maybe you can do the same here.”

     “Yeah.”

     “Two…”

     “Here it comes, guys!” Ernst exclaimed.

     Patrick fired a little flare at the charge and it blew the door open. Marise and Janella absorbed the flames. Patrick joined in to help.

     After a while, the explosion was subdued.

     “Nice work, girls,” Ernst said. Patrick fired a flare at his face and he screamed like a girl.

     “Speak for yourself, Ernst.”

     Mo-on changed the gravity inside the shaft, making it like a slide upwards.

     “It’s a glass shaft so I imagine it’s pretty smooth. All you have to do is slide upwards.”

     “This should be fun,” Ernst said sarcastically

     Mo-on went in first as the other followed. They passed by the second and third floors eliciting strange looks from the people there.

     When they reached the end, they met up with Kyle, Berna, Rica, and Lui.

     “Hello guys. We’re just hanging here…” Ernst said.

     Lui teleported them into the elevator and they went through the door. The room was empty and Austin was nowhere to be seen.

 

A few minutes back, Austin finally reached the end of the line as he went out of the elevator into an empty room. He walked around the room and he saw a cleverly disguised entrance painted as part of the wall. He went through the door and it automatically closed. He was in a room designed like a doctor’s waiting room. On the wall opposite to where he was standing, there was a window. There was nothing inside the other room.

     He went through the door and immediately realized his mistake.

     He was flung to the wall by a psychic power and came face-to-face with the man he has been avoiding this entire time.

     “I’m glad to finally meet you, Mr. Fernandez.”

     It was all an illusionism. The Mastermind threw him on the wall beside Erika.

     “You know, your friend here was a very good girl. Sadly, you had to interrupt our little talk.”

     “Austin, you shouldn’t have come,” Erika said.

     “What do you want from me?!” Austin said as he desperately struggled to reach the band to change it to Darkness Manipulation.

     “You know what I want. But my main concern right now is how anti-climactic this is. Look at me. I’m supposed to be the most feared man in your life and I’m in a sweater.”

     The Mastermind moved in closer to Austin.

     “I could kill you right now and take what I need, Mr. Fernandez. Yes, I am wasting my time like a normal idiotic villain.”

     Austin couldn’t even move an inch.

     “Don’t even try to reach the band, Mr. Fernandez.”

    “What are you waiting for, you sick f**k?! Just be done with it!”

     “Why’d you come here, Mr. Fernandez? Be honest with me.”

    Austin still tried to reach the band.

     “Mr. Fernandez, look at me when I’m talking to you!”

     He forced his head to face the Mastermind.

     “Tell me, why? Of course, I know the answer to that question but I want to hear it from your mouth.”

     Austin kept quiet.

     “Are you really that intimidated, Mr. Fernandez? Or is this just you being stubborn. Either way, you lose.”

     He began to literally rape his mind. Austin felt like dying inside. He screamed louder than he ever screamed before.

     Erika desperately tried to phase through the Mastermind’s psychic field but it was too powerful.

     “Let yourself go, Mr. Fernandez. Let it go.”

     “You’re… a sadist… you’re not… getting… what you need… this is just… torture,” Austin said while resisting the pain.

     “Quite right, Mr. Fernandez. But you see, I’ve firmly established myself as a sadist and if I did what I had to do, that would be about twenty minutes of torturing you I will never experience in my life. That, my dear friend, is the true tragedy.”

     “Austin, you’ll make it through this,” Erika said.

     Austin tried to think of happy thoughts to fight the mind rape. The first thing that came to mind was Janella.

     “Well, well, well, what do we have here? You’re thinking of that sick b***h that left you for some traitor.”

     “DON’T CALL HER A B***H!”

     He felt the pain go up to eleven as he screamed louder than humanly possible.

     “Language, Mr. Fernandez.”

     “F**k you!”

     He felt his senses dying out as the pain became the only thing real to him.

     “You’re not helping yourself, Mr. Fernandez. Frankly, this is the most fun I’ve had all year.”

     An explosion bean went straight through the mirror but the Mastermind caught it and shot it straight back at Derek, knocking him out.

     John’s team charged inside the room along with the rest of Austin’s team and Kyle, Berna, Lui, and Rica.

     “Holy s**t, it’s him!” Lanz said.

    “Lui, take us out of here.”

     The Mastermind threw everyone to the walls.

     “I can’t take us out!” Lui said.

     “I can,” John said, focusing on the detonator in his pocket.

     “My dear guests, how long did it take you to break in and plant all those charges. Not to mention the time spent for planning and creating those explosives. I’m afraid you wasted your time. If you took hours to plant the explosives and bring this place to the ground, I can reverse it in five seconds. I’m afraid you failed.”

     “Fail or not, I’m going to get boom happy!”

     “What about your friends downstairs, eh?” The Mastermind said.

     “John, do it! Austin is all that matters here!” Derek said.

     John detonated the explosives. The room rumbled as Austin continued screaming in pain.

     “Just let him go!” Ernst yelled.

     “What are you going to do about it?”

     “You’re really talking to us while torturing him?” Patrick asked.

     “Why yes, thanks for asking.”

     “What the f**k is going on?!” Lanz shouted out.

     Soon, the room began to fall down as Austin continued screaming.

     “We all die today, Mr. Fernandez, one way or another.”

     They heard a gunshot as all of them fell to the ground. Paul had shot the Mastermind.

     “Lui, quick!” Kyle yelled. Lui took them all to the jet.

    

They were all in the jet. Austin on the ground, softly screaming in pain.

     “What about the others?” Janella asked.

     “I guess they made it out.”

     "Why didn’t he just stop the bullet like he stopped Derek’s explosion beam?” Ernst asked.

     “A bullet travels faster than one of Derek’s explosion beams. He had a reflex action which ruled over his conscious mind, setting us free.”

     “So he’s not dead?”

     “I have to go back,” Austin said.

     “Austin, you’re not well. Stay here,” John said.

     “This is all because of me. I walked in that room. I’m going to make sure they’re okay.”

     “You got mindfucked, Austin. Sit down!”

     “NO! I’M THE LEADER OF THIS OPERATION! I DO WHATEVER THE HELL I WANT!”

     Austin stumbled out of the jet and saw the others running towards them.

     To his horror, he saw the Mastermind get up from behind them and fire a psychic blast right at them. He quickly switched to Darkness Manipulation and put a shield around them.

     “HURRY UP! MOVE!”

     They rushed to the jet as Austin fended the Mastermind off. Somehow, he was able to put up a good fight despite him using darkness control.

     “Surprised, Mr. Fernandez? At this close of a range, I can definitely hurt you. The question is, can you hurt me?”

     Austin struggled to get to the jet.

     “LEAVE WITHOUT ME!”

     “No, Austin!” Janella said.

     “There’s no time to argue. Janella, you have to drive. Use cryokinesis to get through the ice caps. Then give the wheel to Marella and go underwater. GO!”

     “We won’t leave you here to his mercy!” Ernst said.

     “GODDAMIT JUST GO OR SO HELP ME I’LL THROW THE JET IN THE AIR MYSELF!”

     Janella and Ernst rushed into the jet as Austin struggled against the Mastermind’s psychic beam.

    

Inside the jet, Janella took the wheel but hesitated to lift off.

     “What about Austin?”Erika asked.

    “He’s gonna be fine,” Derek said.

     “No he’s not. Look at him!”

     “Janella, we have to go now,” John said.

     She grabbed the Power Shift and took the jet into the air. She went through the ice caps.

     “I’m going back for Austin,” Erika said as she took her Telegun with her.

     “Erika, no!” Derek said.

     “But�"“

     “Erika,” Scarlett said.

     “He’s going to die, you guys.”

     “Give me the gun,” Derek said.

     “Der…”

     “Hurry up and give it to me. I’ll go back for him!”

     Erika gave him the gun and made a portal. He went through it and the portal closed.

 

He went back to the ruins of the Mastermind’s fortress and fired an explosion beam at the Mastermind. He sent it back at him at twice the power. The beam hit him and he was knocked back unconscious.

     “DEREK!”

     “Your savior just failed, Austin. What now?”

     “Derek, I know you’re awake, Teleport us out of here now!”

     Austin tried using the darkness control to draw the Telegun to him but he was afraid to break his happiness streak.

     “You really care about your stupid happiness streak right now?” He said to himself.

     “It’s the only thing I have left.”

     “DEREK! TELEGUN, NOW!”

     Still, he was out cold.

     “Mr. Fernandez, don’t you like to stay a while?”

     To his horror, he began to feel the Mastermind in his head again.

     To add insult to injury, he made good in his claim that he can put the fortress back together in seconds. The crumbled pieces slowly went back together.

     “S**t this is bad!” he said to himself.

     “DEREK! I AM BEGGING YOU! GET US OUT OF HERE, RIGHT NOW!”

     “Forget it, Mr. Fernandez. From this day forth, you are mine.”

     Austin had no choice. He crouched down and slammed the Black Band into the ice. It was still in one piece. He slammed it again and it began to break. He slammed it as hard as he can and it shattered.

     He began to lose control and the darkness shield grew in size exponentially. He began to lose his grip on himself but he struggled to remain in control.

     He focused on himself and Derek and focused on the jet. He teleported them away from there.

     They were in the Space Loop, Austin was losing control of himself and he accidentally dropped them off on an island.

     “ARGH! NO! I have to control myself…”

     Austin reached for the Telegun and tried to focus on the jet. He locked on and fired the gun, making a portal. He telekinetically moved Derek through it as he struggled to get in.

    

He lied on the floor, still desperately trying to stay in control.

     “Austin, what’s wrong?” Kyle asked.

     “Oh, God. Kyle, the band,” Berna said.

     “Janella, speed it up a little!” Ernst said.

     “Let Lui take the wheel!” John said.

     Lui stood up and took the wheel. Janella went the back.

     Lui brought them all back to the Island in a second.

    “Austin, can you walk?” John asked.

     “NO! ARGH!”

     “Damn, Austin. You look constipated,” Lanz said.

     “Lanz, now’s not the time,” John said.

     “Lui, get a BB Gun from inside,” Kyle said.

     “I don’t know where.”

     “Take me with you, Kyle, you watch over him.”

     Lui and John teleported to the Base to get the band.

     They got back quick enough and John put Austin’s left wrist into the BB Gun. He pulled the trigger and soon enough, a new Black Band was there.

     “Lui, take him to the Ward along with Derek,” John said.

     Lui teleported them to the ward as the rest exited the jet.

     “Hey, that was some cool flying you did there,” Joel said to Janella.

     “Thanks.”

     Ernst rolled his eyes as he went into the Base.

 

Scarlett watched over Derek. When he finally regained consciousness, he asked Scarlett one question.

     “Scarlett, where’s Erika?”

     “Erika? She’s around here somewhere. Umm… hey John, have you seen Erika?”

     “Nope. Want me to look?”

     “Sure, thank you.”

     John went out.

     “Has anyone seen Erika?”

     Nobody said “Yes.”

     John rushed to the jet and didn’t find her there.

     “ERIKA?!”

     There was no reply.

     He went back in the ward.

     “I regret to inform you that Erika is nowhere to be found.”

     “What…” Derek asked weakly.

     “You don’t think she went back, do you?”

     “I’m sure she’s not that retarded… no offense.”

    “I know she isn’t.”

     “Hey, stay positive, we’ll keep looking. When Austin wakes up, he’ll probably book you guys to some spare rooms.”

 

They got back at around 2 PM. John spent the free time updating the database when he noticed something strange.

     “Hey Kyle. Check this out. Someone overwrote the some parts of the database.”

     “Like what?”

     “Security, mostly, Executive access. Look.”

     Kyle went to John’s computer and saw one acronym. E.N.I.G.M.A.

     “It’s Austin, no doubt about it. Only he has the access to those files and he loves acronyms,” Kyle said.

     “I know but why?”

    

Around 5 PM, Austin regained his strength and went back in his suite to get dressed. He also took out a little gift for Janella: A Minnie Mouse Doll. He wrote on the card, “You’ll always be my Minnie”

     An hour later, on his way down to the parking lot, John caught up with him.

     “Austin!”

     Austin knew what was coming and kept on walking.

     “Austin!”

     Austin realized that it was pointless to resist and stopped right in front of the doors of the hotel.

     “John, I already know how this is going play out and if my calculations are correct, so do you.”

     “No loss in trying right?”

     “You know the question to ask. Let’s not screw around any longer, alright?”

     “Fine. What is E.N.I.G.M.A.?”

     “Bingo. Now, I want you to guess my answer.”

     “D****t, Austin. Like you said, let’s not screw around.”

     “Look, John. I know you might be pissed that I deleted some of your contributions to the database but I had a reason.”

     “And just what the hell is that?”

     “Just between you and me, I had an epiphany lately. You know about Janella and what happened between us right?”

     “Sort of.”

     “I just realized that she managed to do what the Mastermind has failed to do since day one, break me. So I took control of my destiny. Janella is one of us. Derek, Scarlett, Erika, Nelson, and Isaac, they’re technically on our side. Why is it that we had to fight them and I had to be broken by Janella? We’re just breaking ourselves.”

     “That’s what happening right here, Austin. You won’t tell me just what the hell E.N.I.G.M.A. is. We’re on the same side and you’re br�"“

     ”Don’t you dare turn my words against me without understanding my reasons, John. You’re technical supervisor, no more, no less. I appreciate everything you have done to this point and you have been one of the, if not the most useful people on this Island.

     “Now if I have a reason for breaking my own principles, it might be because I don’t think I’m breaking it. I will not tell you what ENIGMA is until I am ready. Now if you excuse me, I have a party to attend.”

     “The party doesn’t start until seven, Austin.”

     “John, try to understand where I’m coming from here. I could’ve saved me and Derek but I didn’t because I didn’t want to break my happiness streak which is now at approximately 245 hours and counting.

     “Now deep inside I know that it is inevitable. It is inevitable that the streak will be broken tonight. It is inevitable that two hundred and forty-five hours or more will be thrown down the drain in the span of five hours.

     “Put yourself in my spot for a second. I can do all these things like make fire or stop time but what I can’t do without breaking some moral code out there is stop the inevitable and that is my own depression.  I can keep lying to myself if I want. In reality, I only probably have three minutes on my streak clock. But I’m tired of running from it. Tonight is where everything will crash down and I know it.”

     Austin subtly rubbed his eyes to wipe away the tears.

     “Now if you excuse me, I have to face the inevitable. I promise, one day, you will know what ENIGMA is but not today, John. Not today.”

     Austin stepped outside and into the Anonymous. He drove it to the school, the clock ticking down to the inevitable.