《The White Rose》 Chapter 1 : Rose Warning The Following story is one of gory glory, lot¡¯s of adult language because teenagers, a bunch of asshole¡¯s that are racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic pigs. They might be Nazi¡¯s I don¡¯t know, they might even be russian facist¡¯s. Thats a new one. Yes We say the fuck word. Reader Discretion Advised. Don¡¯t tell me I didn¡¯t warn you ¡°Those fucking vampires, always tryna drink my blood. You¡¯d think they wouldn¡¯t want to drink mine given my stone cold heart.¡± Rose said, wiping up the blood that splattered when they killed the vampire. ¡°Well, maybe cold blood is a rare cuisine?¡± Amber said, submissively. ¡°I can¡¯t fathom why they would like that, it seems like it would be the equivalent of drinking warm tap water. Gross.¡± Rose replied while standing up, ¡°Aw c¡¯mon, they had to stain my flannel, this one is supposed to be white and black not deep red and black.¡± ¡°Maybe you should try wearing something you don¡¯t want to get dirty when killing vampires.¡± ¡°No, I wanna look cool.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think it matters what you look like,¡± ¡°Wow, as naive as ever Bee.¡± ¡°Wow, as sarcastic as ever Rosie,¡± ¡°Shut up, and you know I don¡¯t like being called that,¡± ¡°I know,¡± ¡°Ugh, why did I fuck you? God.¡± The earpiece lit up, and spoke ¡°Dammit, no one wants to hear about the intercourse you had last night.¡± Mattie said. ¡°I do,¡± said Rose. ¡°Rose, I¡¯m tired of your bullshit sarcasm. You killed those vampires, now come back here. We don¡¯t need you to risk your life by staying out in the field too long. Dumbasses.¡± ¡°You may be thirteen years old and know your swear words, but don¡¯t go and use them like an idiot.¡± said Rose. ¡°Maybe you shouldn¡¯t use them at all.¡± Bee said. ¡°We aren¡¯t all as innocent as you Bee,¡± Said Rose. ¡°Well, you would know. You¡¯ve knew me when I was in my, ew, I feel gross even saying this, in my, i-in my rebellious phase.¡± ¡°Yea, yea, whatever.¡± ¡°Just come back here before more vampires come and rip you to shreds!¡± Mattie exclaimed. ¡°I¡¯d burn em, I may be a goodie-two-shoes, but when it comes to arson, I love it.¡± said Bee. ¡°You¡¯re so fucking niave that you think I was talking to you, damn asshole, you can rot in hell for all I care Amber. I was talking to Rose. Fuck off Amber.¡± Mattie said. ¡°Mattie! Stop treating Amber like shit, she¡¯s done just as much for you as I have. You will treat her with the same respect as you treat me.¡± ¡°No, I won¡¯t. You stopped giving a shit after you two started fucking.¡± ¡°Mattie, stop!¡± Rose Sankagiri, The Black Death. Amber ¡°Bee¡± Schmit, The Burning Passion. Mattie, The Sociopathic Inventor. These are the three most dangerous people in the entire world. The three leaders of The White Rose. A gang based out of Albuquerque, New Mexico. All the members have a special supernatural ability. The United States government dubbed these people Outliers, and soon, the rest of the world took up the name as well.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. These three have powerful abilities, useful for just about everything. Rose has the ability Masochism, and secondary ability Sadism. Masochism is pretty straightforward, the more damage their body takes, the more powerful her other abilities, and physical abilities as well. Sadism isn¡¯t as straightforward. Sadism allow¡¯s Rose to copy another person¡¯s ability, whether that¡¯s a natural ability, like a vampires regeneration, or a supernatural ability like Bee¡¯s fire. The catch to this is that Rose can only use 50% of the abilities full potential, Rose can only use this ability for five minutes, and cannot copy another ability until the five minutes are up. Rose can also keep the copied ability, if they kill the user while copying the ability. So, Rose also has many other abilities, including a vampires regeneration, Gone with The Wind, which allows her to control wind. Rose has many others that are not known to anyone else but her and Bee. Amber¡¯s ability is Flame. It gives her full control over fire. Summoning fire, enlarging a flame, making a flame smaller, etcetera etcetera. Mattie¡¯s ability can be either incredibly simple or incredibly complex. His ability allows him to create anything he can think of, out of any material, whether or not this material exists or not. The thing made can be of any size as long as there is space where it is being made in, so in front of Mattie. To make something, Mattie has to know how the thing being made works and what¡¯s made of, whether it¡¯s real or fictional. He can make guns, books that he has read, cell phones, computer¡¯s, playstations, even nuclear weapons. He can also make fictional things, like spaceships or lightsabers. The White Rose essentially runs the entire underground world. Although based out of New Mexico, they have spread roots in every major city in the United states, at least one place in each state. Places such as New York, Salt Lake City, Las Angelos, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Nashville. They also have operations in many major cities around the world. These include London, Berlin, St. Petersburg, Sydney, Hong Kong, Dubai, Cairo, Tokyo, and Buenos Aires. Although a gang, with ruthless killers, drug dealers, scammers, and so much more, they don¡¯t really get much resistance from governments, the common people, or private companies. There are two reasons for this. First, The White Rose doesn¡¯t really doesn¡¯t kill humans, they will if needed, but their main objective is to kill vampires, who have plagued the world for almost a hundred years. Since they¡¯ve killed more vampires in the last month alone then the world has for the hundred years before The White Rose started killing vampires. Second, the United Nations have declared The White Rose an international security crisis, but because they are so effective at killing vampires, and because they are absolutely horrified of Mattie, Rose, and Amber, so they don¡¯t want to instigate them. Because of these factors, the UN have declared action against the White Rose a war crime, unless allowed to by the UN. The White Rose was founded by Rose, in the year 2011, 10 years ago, when Rose was just 6 years old. Their parents had just been killed two days earlier. Rose quickly earned respect in Albuquerque, gaining followers. Soon, they had 200 followers, Rose choose 5 executives to be their right hand. The only one still alive is Amber. They created a role for all 5. Amber got the role of Personal Assistant, titled so for lack of a better phrase, to this day Bee still holds the title. The second, Resource officer, who is now Mattie. This person is responsible for getting equipment, food, shelter, and the basics for the members. They also are responsible for doing the selling of drugs and weapons. The third Role was Finance Officer, pretty self explanatory. The fourth was Personnel Officer. They are in charge of recruiting people. The fifth was Intelligence Officer. They were in charge of making plans based on information gained through espionage. They then came up with The White Rose as the name. Since the leaders name was Rose, who at the time was already title as The Black Death. Opposites, technically. The rose symbolizes love, which leads to life, which is symbolized by the chrysanthemum, which also symbolizes death. It just made more sense to say The White Rose instead of The White Chrysanthemum. As Rose walked back to their apartment in old town, they reminisced about the old days. Those days were fun, but stupid. Why did they kill so many innocent people. Well, dwelling on the past isn¡¯t gonna do much good. ¡°Rose, hey Rose!¡± Exclaimed Emir, a kid that Rose picked up off the streets about a year ago, he was 7 at the time. He was scared, cold and confused, and had great potential, so Rose picked him up, and brought him to live with them. From what Emir told Rose, they suspected Emir¡¯s parents left them because of drugs. As usual. So essentially it was Rose¡¯s fault. ¡°Yea, what¡¯s up?¡± ¡°I found a cat in the back alley, it¡¯s all black with red eyes, it''s so cute!¡± Shit ¡°Emir,¡± Rose said, looking back at Bee. ¡°Get behind Bee, right now.¡± ¡°Ok, but, why?¡± ¡°That cat was a vampire. Can you tell me where it is?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t, I¡¯m, I think it¡¯s in your room. I¡¯m, I¡¯m sorry. I didn¡¯t know.¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay Emir, just, stay here. Bee evacuate the citizens inside. Emir, go with her.¡± ¡°Gotcha. But, Rose, tell me, what do you have in there.¡± Amber said. ¡°A couple of explosives, nothing much.¡± Bee looked uneasy. ¡°Why do you have explosives in your room?¡± ¡°A little sense of danger.¡± Amber rolled her eyes, and followed Rose. Suddenly Rose started running, ¡°Hey, wait up!¡± Amber exclaimed as an explosion went off. Amber was hit with a wave of heat, as she turned around to get to Emir. Dammit. Emir was being dragged away by a broodmother, the vampires that can turn others into vampires. At least he was kicking and screaming, he wasn''t going without a fight, the kids got spirit. Chapter 2: Amber I started chasing the broodmother, but when she saw me approaching, she ran off, Emir in tow. I cursed Rose for running off, I cursed them for keeping a bomb in their room. What was wrong with them? I urged my hands to start burning, and felt the heat rise. I tried to make wall of fire behind the brood mother, but while running it was difficult to concentrate. I know Rose would survive the blast, but I need them now, they have better agility then me. The brood mother was slow, but she could also throw dark matter my way to push me back, so I had to be careful. I decided to stop and throw a ring of fire around the brood mother, trapping her in there. She backed up, and her clothes singed, and she surged forward. As she ripped Emir off her back and placed him on the ground, I realized that she was going to use Emir as a step bridge. I started sprinting towards the two, trying to put out my fire but it was too late. ¡°Rose!¡± I screamed in desperation. I put out the fires raging on Emir¡¯s body, but the damage was done. His face was charred, and his chest and stomach were filled with third degree burns, still warm to the touch. ¡°Dammit Rose, help me, she got Emir!¡± I shouted. I swore very rarely, so if they heard me, they knew I was desperate. But nothing happened. No footsteps, no telepathic messages, no sight of Rose. Nothing. Squat, zip, notta. Something was most definitely wrong. But my first priority was to protect Emir. I took Emir, and ran into Old Town, looking for one of our older, less equipped bases. It took me a few minutes to find, but when I did, I entered, and ran up the stairs. I put him down on a bed, and scrambled to find a first aid kit. I also got some ice and put it into a bag. I rested said bag on his face, trying to cool the burns. I called Rose on my phone, but again, no response. What happened to them? I called Mattie, ¡°What the hell do you want, Ambee?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t call me that. I need a medic to the base in Old Town. And as soon as possible. Need to be able to deal with burns.¡± I said frantically. ¡°Ugh, Fine, I¡¯ll send Austin over there, just stay there.¡± He said. I hung up, and sighed with relief, I thought he¡¯d be stubborn and let his grudge against me allow Emir to die. Austin is our highest ranking member of the ¡°medic class¡± as we call them. They¡¯re the ones with healing abilities. Austin was one of the first people Rose ever recruited, not in the original circle, but close. I waited for him to show, doing what I could to keep the burn cool, and keep Emir¡¯s fever down. Austin¡¯s ability, Mutation, is sort of scary, it allows him to change the human body however he wants, whether this be, healing a burn or a giant whole in the leg, or removing the heart or lungs, or even surgery like operations. But, while it is scary, he was helped us do so many things that we wouldn¡¯t be able to do without his ability. It¡¯s so essential to our operation that Rose would kill him if he left. They only told me, but it¡¯s sort of obvious at this point. Although, I doubt Austin would¡¯ve left regardless. When he finally opened the door, clad in that ridiculous purple suit of his, he wasted no time getting to work. He was short and stocky, but quite fit. He had short, brown hair, styled into a wave at the front. When he looked into your eyes, it felt like he was staring into soul with those piercing blue eyes. I had to admit, without those purple suit ¡®s of his, he¡¯d be really hot. I once walked in on him changing, and, man, I had a difficult time looking away. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. We proceeded to have sex the next night. (This was before Rose and I were dating. The gang doesn¡¯t really think pedophilia is bad, it¡¯s just natural, only thing is important is consent.) I was pulled from my trance by Austin speaking to me. ¡°Amber. Amber¡± he said, shaking me, ¡°are you okay?¡± ¡°Wha, oh yea, Totally fine, just lose in thought.¡± Not a total like. ¡°Well, I fixed him up, do you need anything else?¡± he asked. ¡°Just take him back, give him the closest room to Rose¡¯s and make sure he¡¯s comfy. I¡¯m gonna go look for Rose.¡± I said, and turned to walk out of the room. I walked down the stairs and threw the door open and started running. What happened to them? I called Rose. ¡°What you want bitch?¡± ¡°Oh thank god, where the hell have you been?¡± ¡°Woah, language.¡± ¡°I¡¯m serious here, where have you been. Emir was almost killed and you were no were to be found. Might be your fault since you had a bomb in your room.¡± ¡°Nah, that wasn¡¯t my bomb, I had a pin grenade or whatever, that was a ticking bomb.¡± ¡°How do you know that, all the evidence was destroyed.¡± ¡°I heard ticking,¡± Rose said, and pulled their mouth close to my ear and whispered, ¡°I do have great hearing after all, I know what you do in the dark.¡± I couldn¡¯t help but laugh at that. What I do in the dark. Really? ¡°Well, I don¡¯t so, feel free to tell me.¡± I said, trying to control my laughter. ¡°When did you get some wit?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve always had a bunch of wit, I was just so quirky that I wanted to hide it so I could be more quirky.¡± ¡°Wow, your soooooooo cool. I am so intimidated by your overpowering quirkiness.¡± I said into the phone. ¡°Where are you now?¡± They hung up the phone as I felt hands around my waist. What the-. ¡°Hi Bee.¡± ¡°Rose!¡± I exclaimed as I turned around to see their smirk, which they quickly tried to high. ¡°What was that, you scared me.¡± ¡°Oh shut up, don¡¯t be like that.¡± ¡°Well, I bet Emir want¡¯s to see you. And why aren¡¯t you worried about him?¡± I asked. ¡°The keyword in your sentence was almost. So Emir isn¡¯t dead, why should I be worried?¡± Rose asked, naive as ever. Well, naive wasn¡¯t the right word, I don¡¯t think they¡¯re naive. Rose is just, uhm, something. I¡¯ve learned to read people pretty well, and Rose is the only one I can¡¯t ever read, despite knowing them so well. It¡¯s unsettling , if nothing else. ¡°Because, a brood mother went after him, probably to get to you, yes, but that doesn¡¯t make it any less scary for him and I. And, you weren¡¯t there! Where were you?¡± I almost threw the word¡¯s at them. Their face became a line, neutral, unnervingly unsettled. ¡°A broodmother, where are they?¡± ¡°I killed the thing, but-¡± I hesitated. ¡°She, she tried to put Emir on the ground to walk across my fire.¡± I started crying. I felt the tears roll down my face, and I felt pathetic. Such a powerful ability, but an awful sense of how to use it. ¡°I should''ve just, like, put the fire in her throat or something.¡± ¡°Amber,¡± Rose said softly, ¡°Look at me Amber.¡± I did. ¡°You were in the middle of battle, you can¡¯t make these decisions in the heat of battle. You follow your instincts. I¡¯ve never met anyone who is perfect in battle. No one. And Emir ultimately survived due to your quick action. You may not have made the perfect decision, but you still won.¡± Rose smiled at me. I sobbed, ¡°C¡¯mon, Austin is taking Emir back to base, I¡¯m tired, let¡¯s go home.¡± ¡°Good idea, that way I can kiss you without people staring.¡± Rose smirked, probably smug that they got to give a hypocritical speech. Chapter 3: Rose Boy did it feel good to give a hypocritical speech. Bee and I walked back to The Flower Garden. That¡¯s our base, we took over an embassy suites that was there, and then just sorta remodeled it to suit our needs. We have some other places, I even own a few houses up by the san dia¡¯s. But The Flower Garden was closest to old town, and I needed to call an emergency meeting as well. I couldn¡¯t help but think about the broodmother. ¡°Hey, Bee,¡± I said. ¡°Why do you think they would want to kill me, they don¡¯t gain anything out of it. Why go out of their way?¡± ¡°Well, if I had to guess, they probably think that our organization would crumble if their leader was taken out. It seems to work for smaller organizations, so maybe they think we''re a small-time gang.¡± She said. I guess that sorta makes sense, but, I don¡¯t know how to feel about that. Don¡¯t feel, it only gets in your way! That¡¯s what the voices scream every time I think about how I feel. They¡¯re right after all. ¡°You can do anything if you have no morals¡± That¡¯s the gang''s motto. ¡°I mean, they seriously can¡¯t be that naive. I mean unless it was a ruse or something.¡± I said, turning onto the next street. ¡°It¡¯s definitely possible, but, these things are like, three million years old, how could they be that naive after all that time. So I say, they either wanted attention ¡®cause they were bored, or it was a ruse for something.¡± ¡°But what could they be trying to hide that they would need a distraction?¡± Bee said, her face thinking. ¡°We haven¡¯t had any emergency calls. Unless, they wouldn¡¯t be attacking us at all, but are setting up an attack, and needing you busy since you could potentially hear what they were doing.¡± ¡°But what would they have to gain from attacking us? I don¡¯t like it, I feel like we''re missing something, and something important at that.¡± I said, thinking out loud. ¡°I mean, if they attacked us, they¡¯d probably be all but wiped out, and then we would go unopposed. I know they don¡¯t want either of those, but, is it worth the risk? I wouldn¡¯t think so. Well, fuck this, I think these are all things we need to speak about with Mattie, Austin, and the other¡¯s.¡± ¡°You¡¯re right about that last part.¡± Bee said, batting her eyelashes at me in an attempt to be funny. ¡°You¡¯re not pretty when you do that ya know.¡± ¡°Do what?¡± I exclaimed. ¡°When you think. It shows on your face and it looks ugly, really ugly.¡± ¡°Oh no, my pride is utterly shattered. How will I ever recover from this.¡± I started in a monotone voice. She laughed, and I couldn¡¯t help but smile. Amber was really cute when she smiled, she needed to do it more. She has a scar on her cheek that forces itself up onto her dimples. She makes me quite happy. As one¡¯s girlfriend should. ¡°But, you really think I should just not think. Like, ever?¡± I asked, she does appreciate a little sarcasm. ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°Aight, wanna go up to Taos this weekend and do some mountain biking?¡± ¡°I mean, sure, but what do you want to do about Emir?¡± ¡°Well,¡± I started, ¡°I think that Emir was just used to get my attention. So, I should stay away for a bit, they¡¯ll inevitably find out, so, ya know, let¡¯s just go and not be a nuisance.¡± ¡°Ya know, we should fight in meow wolf. That seems like it¡¯d be really fun.¡± ¡°Trippy, yes, Rose like¡¯s.¡± ¡°Oh, shush, no one actually sounds cool talking in third person.¡± A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. ¡°Ugh, fine.¡± ¡°¡±But, I do agree with that idea, if you were the target, then we might as well leave.¡± Bee said, ¡°So, I¡¯m gonna pak when we get back. You should too.¡± I didn¡¯t wanna go, but Emir was in good hands and Bee was right. If I¡¯m the target, why wouldn¡¯t we just leave. I should force Mattie to come with us. The fight between him and Bee is really funny. While he wouldn¡¯t want to come, and it¡¯d prevent us from camping, it would be fine, since he could just make a cabin. Guess I¡¯ll have to fucking drag him. ¡°Aight, I¡¯ll drag mattie with us.¡± I said, and couldn¡¯t help but laugh when she turned to me and said ¡°I Fucking hate that guy.¡± ¡°Damn, you hate him so much you¡¯d cuss. That¡¯s impressive.¡± But, although Bee didn¡¯t like him, it¡¯s impossible to deny that he is useful to us. Sometimes I¡¯m not convinced that Bee is like a devil in disguise that only shows it¡¯s horns when speaking to Mattie. I¡¯ve told her this before, and she made horns of fire on her head. ¡°Yo, Bee, do you hate me for bringing him hear?¡± She smirked ¡°Maybe, if you please me tonight, no. If you don¡¯t please me, then yes.¡± ¡°Wow that¡¯s quite the way to convince some one to fuck you.¡± I said, turning into the parking lot of The Flower Garden. ¡°So be it.¡± I sped up, needing to see Emir. I didn¡¯t want anyone to worry about me, they needed to worry about Emir. I just wanted to lay down and finish reading Attack on Titan, but alas I cannot. I needed to go and find that brood mother, I needed to punch her in her little smug face. I reached the door, and sped up once again, I needed to get a butterfly knife in my hand and twirl it, it really helps me calm down. I picked one up, one of the many on my shelf, its cool steel felt good in my hands, warm from the hot day. It¡¯s early October, why is it so hot, ugh. I continued to twirl the knife while I crossed the room and opened my drawers, picking out some clothes and throwing them on the bed. I opened my closet and picked out a backpack and threw some knives and a bunch of bullet¡¯s. I stopped twirling the knife and sat on my bed, sighed, and put my head in my hand¡¯s. Narcissistic and mean, Ludo screamed in my ears. ¡°Yeah, you caught me,¡± I said as I pulled out my ear buds and turned off my music. I decided I should probably charge a bunch of portable chargers and cords and threw them into my backpack as well. I dropped the knife from my hand, forgetting I had it in my hand, it hit my shin with the blade, drawing blood. Shit, I thought, this is why I don¡¯t like short¡¯s. I pulled my knife¡¯s from their sheath¡¯s, which I placed on the bed, and checked their sharpness, which I do everytime before a big mission. I cleaned out the barrel of my guns, shined the metal on my knives, oiled the hinges on my balisong. I might be a bit too meticulous, but, what can you do? ¡°Am I really so naive that I put them into unnecessary danger?¡± I wondered, talking aloud. I couldn¡¯t think about that right now. If I went insane, the gang would fizzle out of existence, and then I couldn''t protect them all. Well, Bee, or anyone else, if I was insane how could I protect anyone, much less myself. I picked up a bottle of xanax from my nightstand, and a glass of wine that had been there for almost a month now. I opened the bottle and poured the rest of the contents into my hand. I stood up, went to my mirror, and took a good look at myself. I looked like a hobo. My hair was a mess, there were bags under my eyes, the makeup I put on this morning was smeared. What does Bee see in me when I look like this? Eh, what does it matter? I put the pills in my mouth, and took a swig. I coughed, spraying wine all over my mirror. I drank the last of the wine, and threw the glass at the mirror. Both broke into tiny pieces with a crash. I walked over to bed, and slept. I woke to Bee poking me. ¡°What did you take that you slept for almost two days?¡± She asked, and I panicked. Did I overdose? Probably not. Had anything happened to Emir since I was asleep? Again probably not, no one would let anything happen to him, risking my wrath. Were there any more vampire attacks? That I couldn¡¯t say. But, two days? That¡¯s a long time. I stood up, and stepped onto the shattered glass, slicing up my feet. I didn¡¯t particularly care. ¡°Half a bottle of xanax and a glass of month old wine.¡± I said, answering her question. Ah, the wonders of addiction. I picked up my phone, looking at the time. Two forty in the afternoon. I got dressed, and asked Bee ¡°So, we still going up to wherever and laying low, or, nah?¡± ¡°Yeah, unless you don¡¯t want to, Mattie and I are packed, we can leave whenever. You should really bandage your feet before you put on any socks.¡± She said, as I went to choose a pair of socks. ¡°Eh, they¡¯ll heal in an hour.¡± ¡°Ok, we¡¯ll leave tomorrow mor-¡± I stopped, there was an unearthly presence nearby. ¡°You feel that? What do you think it is?¡± Asked Bee. ¡°I bet it¡¯s a vampire attack, and not just one, but likely all the tribe¡¯s in the state, I¡¯ll go check it out, wait h-¡± That was when I heard it. Chapter 4: Mattie ¡°Dammit, no one wants to hear about the intercourse you had last night.¡± I said. ¡°I do,¡± said Rose. ¡°Rose, I¡¯m tired of your bullshit sarcasm. You killed those vampires, now come back here. We don¡¯t need you to risk your life by staying out in the field too long. Dumbasses.¡± ¡°You may be thirteen years old and know your swear words, but don¡¯t go and use them like an idiot.¡± said Rose. ¡°Maybe you shouldn¡¯t use them at all.¡± Amber said. ¡°We aren¡¯t all as innocent as you Bee,¡± Said Rose. ¡°Well, you would know. You¡¯ve knew me when I was in my, ew, I feel gross even saying this, in my, i-in my rebellious phase.¡± ¡°Yea, yea, whatever.¡± ¡°Just come back here before more vampires come and rip you to shreds!¡± I exclaimed. ¡°I¡¯d burn em, I may be a goodie-two-shoes, but when it comes to arson, I love it.¡± said Bee. ¡°You¡¯re so fucking niave that you think I was talking to you, damn asshole, you can rot in hell for all I care Amber. I was talking to Rose. Fuck off Amber.¡± I said.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°Mattie! Stop treating Amber like shit, she¡¯s done just as much for you as I have. You will treat her with the same respect as you treat me.¡± ¡°No, I won¡¯t. You stopped giving a shit after you two started fucking.¡± ¡°Mattie, stop!¡± Ugh, why are they such a pain, I don¡¯t like Amber, but, Rose, I do care for them, so I can¡¯t kill Amber. Yet. Amber¡¯s way too nice for her own good. I got out of my chair, I need a nap. But first, I need to find some new materials to make some nails out of. Oh, what if I made diamond nails. If I use diamond everything, then, I, I could make the strongest tools ever. I walked over to my other desk, my workbench essentially . I started making diamonds. My ability allows me to make anything out of nothing, given that I know how the thing I want works. And in certain occasions, mostly when the thing is as powerful as a diamond (diamonds are considered powerful because that can make me infinite money, technically, so anything that is of extreme value, or extremely dangerous is considered powerful by my ability.) so I can¡¯t make these things without knowledge. It essentially proves I¡¯m not a naive little bitch. I got to work, making tons of diamonds. It took hours to get as many as I wanted, but the work would be worth it. Damn, the shine they gave off was immense. I wanted to just crush them because they were being annoying. But, alas, I cannot. I wanted to sleep. I worked hard, and I had to deal with amber being a bitch when she called for help. Two day¡¯s later, I heard it, the large explosion that sent The Flower Garden into a tumble. I heard screams. Then I heard Rose¡¯s voice, and Amber. I ran out my door, cringing at the light. ¡°No, Mattie get back!¡± Rose screamed as my vision went dark. Chapter 5: Rose ¡°Mattie, No!¡± I cried. I went to the rubble that piled on top of him and threw it off. Due to my feet being cut up I had better strength because of my ability. ¡°Mattie, please, p-ple-please be ok. I can¡¯t lose you.¡± I screamed desperately. Dammit I¡¯m not losing him. I dropped to my knees, desperate. I needed more strength. I took out a knife from its sheath, and stabbed it into my chest. I recoiled back, screaming out in pain. Blood sprayed all over the rubble and Mattie¡¯s door. I grabbed the hilt, pushing it in deeper, as blood oozed out of the wound, too quickly. More blood sprayed, it¡¯s warmth almost soothing. I had to get a grip. I pulled the knife out and threw it aside, it clattered loudly against the marble floor, now cracked from the debris that fell. The bloody knife splattered more blood on the floor. I got back to my feet, yanking the debris off of the pile. I looked around, but there was no one nearby. Bee probably ran off once I stabbed myself, trying to find more people to help. That''s what I would¡¯ve wanted her to do anyway. By the time I got to Mattie, my hands were torn up, raw skin hurting with all the dirt in it, my face dusty, and I was sweating my ass off. ¡°Mattie? You obviously aren¡¯t ok, but, are you gonna make it?¡± I said, smiling at him. ¡°What the fuck Rose. Why¡¯d you let those damn vampires try to kill me?¡± He screamed. I knew he was being sarcastic but, when he¡¯s being an ass, you can¡¯t really deal with him. ¡°C¡¯mon, get up. I assume your fine since you¡¯re being a cheeky dick waffle. Go get your bag, we¡¯re leaving for Taos.¡± I said, heaving him up, being sure to keep as much pressure as I could off his legs, since that¡¯s where injuries were most likely. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m fine. I think my left ankle is sprained, but it doesn''t really matter, my left leg is absolutely shattered.¡± He said. I looked at his legs, and sure enough, it was a wreck. His ankle was twisted to an unnatural angle. His shin was splattered with blood, I wasn¡¯t sure if it was his or mine, his calf was torn open and his knee looked busted. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll walk you to your room, there you can make crutches, or a splint, or even a wheelchair, but meet us at the end of the parking lot.¡± I said, I wish he would let me do more, but, he likely wouldn¡¯t, so I¡¯m not gonna waste my breath. Ugh, blood still poured from the wound in my chest, but, I felt fine, so, it¡¯ll probably be fine in like a day or two. I helped Mattie haul himself the three hundred or so feet to his room. He tried to tear away from me once we got to his room but fell. He needs to stop trying to do everything on his own. It was a bad habit, he¡¯s not as powerful as me, so it¡¯s not hypocritical. I think?The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. If anyone was gonna become a martyr it would be me and that¡¯s final. I hauled him back up, helping him to his bed. I tried to turn the light on but it just flickered out after a second or two. I can¡¯t fathom why he wants to live in such darkness. ¡°So, any idea why they might attack us right after you woke up. Well, other than the obvious.¡± He asked. ¡°Well, I think it was just a coincidence, because I don¡¯t think they would want to fight me. Unless, they purposely dropped that shit on you so that I would be busy. Which I think they did. For whatever reason they don¡¯t want me dead, because they had plenty of chances while I was asleep, so It was either one really, really bad timing, or, they want me alive for some reason. I could completely be making this up, but that''s what I think.¡± I said. ¡°Makes sense,¡± Mattie began, ¡°but, I don¡¯t think it¡¯s a coincidence. If they wanted you dead, you would be dead right now, so, they must want you alive, I agree. What would they need you alive for though.¡± He had point, I was trying to figure that out myself. ¡°Rose, Rose!¡± Bee exclaimed, throwing the door open. ¡°It¡¯s, I-i-it¡¯s no the the vampires. It¡¯s the werewolf¡¯s.¡± Both me and mattie turned to her. ¡°The fuck you mean?¡± ¡°We¡¯re not in innistrad, there are fucking werewolves too?¡± ¡°I, uh, well yeah. They were a bunch of people standing around the perimeter, and then when I appeared, they transformed into a very grotesque wolf thing.¡± Bee said, it seemed to much off a description to be fake, well, assuming she gave us more details. ¡°They shaped themselves into something resembling a wolf, some bigger than others but all bigger than an actual wolf. Some had fur, some seemed to be like zombie¡¯s. Their flesh was scabbed, they had large wounds oozing blood, and a very gross like, boiling wound on some of them. It was real scary.¡± This wasn¡¯t good. I had a feeling that vampires weren¡¯t the only magical beast as the government calls them, but the government didn¡¯t look into it, and I just couldn¡¯t be bothered to. Guess I should¡¯ve done that. ¡°Alright, tell everyone just to leave. Tell the intelligence squad to meet us at my place.¡± I said. I intended to get answers about these things. But I first had to think of where to put everyone else. ¡°Also, I thought you should know, Emir was killed.¡± Bee said calmly. I didn¡¯t want to believe her. I thought I heard myself screaming, but I couldn¡¯t be sure, I was too disoriented to think. ¡°He heard the commotion and came to ask me when an explosion went off. I sent up a large burst of flame shield to protect him from the rubble, but, I thought he was closer than he was, he might¡¯ve moved I¡¯m not sure. But it didn¡¯t reach him. He was killed instantly. Ju-j-just be glad he didn¡¯t suffer.¡± I couldn¡¯t believe it. How dare anyone touch him. No, no. No, Bee must be kidding, right? No, she wouldn¡¯t. Wait, maybe. But why would she want to do that? She wouldn''t, right? I still heard screaming, but when I coughed it stopped temporarily, so it must be me who was screaming. I coughed again, this time spitting up blood. This, this can¡¯t be real. It can''t, right? Right? Chapter 6: Amber I knew I should¡¯ve waited to tell them. I¡¯m so stupid. Why did I tell them, I should¡¯ve waited till afterwards. Rose is going to destroy their vocal chords. Although that¡¯s not really the issue. I may well have killed everyone in the whole city. Luckily the floor isn¡¯t cracking yet, that was a good sign. I sighed, looked at Mattie and pointed in the direction of his room, it was likely that Rose told him to get ready to go. He rolled his eyes, but obeyed. Well, at least he knew not to make Rose anymore angry than they already were. Unfortunately, they¡¯re already angry, so there¡¯s almost nothing we could do about it. I was about to turn away when Rose stopped screaming. They looked up at me and locked eyes with me. ¡°It¡¯s, i-it¡¯s not your fault, don¡¯t blame yourself,¡± They said with a deadly calm, and I realized shit was about to hit the fan. The entire place was gone. ¡°There are some thing¡¯s that no one can control, not even me.¡± ¡°Rose! Whatever the hell your planning to do, don¡¯t. Please. Don¡¯t.¡± I begged, fearing for the worst. Last time they got like this, we were in the outback of Australia thank god. There was a crater two thousand miles wide and a thousand miles deep. Along with about half of the world¡¯s military power gone. After that, the UN decided to just let us be, horrified of what Rose could do. Rose smiled, pulled out their gun¡¯s and said ¡°The outback situation was meant to scare off the UN, it was intentional ya know. Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯ll be fine.¡± No, no I did not know. They should¡¯ve told me. What the heck. ¡°Yeah, I should¡¯ve told you.¡± They laughed at their own words. Before she turned away I saw tears streaming down their faces. They walked out onto the battlefield that was now clearly visible since, well, there wasn¡¯t a building here anymore. I couldn¡¯t see it, but there was definitely a grin on their face. They cackled and said ¡°So, there¡¯s werewolves in this shit hole of a world too. Guess I shoulda looked into this magic beast thing when I had the chance.¡± ¡°Ah, you must be the famed White Rose. So, you figured out our secret. I guess it wasn¡¯t so hard once we entered combat, but, regardless you still figured it out.¡± Said a man standing next to a wolf, who then ran at Rose. When it was mere inches away from them, it shifted back. It was Austin. He must¡¯ve set this up. He whispered something into Rose¡¯s ear. Those were his final words. With a scowl, Rose shot him, three times. They then pulled out a pair of scissors from around their belt, and cut his cheek, widening the gap between his lips, and he screamed. ¡°Shut the hell up.¡± Rose said, pulling a scalpel from a sheath in their boot. They then proceeded to cut out his tongue before doing anything else. Everyone was paralyzed with fear, I took this chance to prevent the werewolves from escaping by encasing the entire perimeter with fire. If a spectacle was what Rose wanted, then that¡¯s what they would get. Although, I think there are better ways off doing it. They were likely gonna ask everyone of those mutt¡¯s about Austin. Maybe one or two, but likely all of them. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. One werewolf transformed back into a human, pulled a glock from their pocket and put it to their head. Wow, they didn¡¯t want to die at Rose¡¯s hands that much. Well, suicide was not an option I could give them. Before they could pull the trigger I burnt the gun to a crisp. It likely burnt some of their hands off as well. Oh well. They screamed, looking at their hand, which was cooked like a very well steak. The other werewolves looked at them in horror. I turned back to Rose, who was currently gutting out Austin¡¯s arm. He was screaming, well, he would be if he had a tongue. His tongue was being twirled around in Rose¡¯s hand. I looked back to where the main force had gathered. Some looked at Rose in horror, probably deciding never to defy them. Other¡¯s looked on, not caring about the torture since they¡¯ve seen it done. Other¡¯s cringed, but stayed vigilant. One or two lied dead with a gun in their hand. They had probably killed themselves. I would not take my comrades freedom. They could commit die if they wanted. ¡°Listen up,¡± I said loudly so they could hear me. ¡°Reconnaissance squad get ready to go, meet me at the top of the San Dia¡¯s. Don¡¯t let anyone follow you. Wait for the Intelligence squad to join you before joining. Livvy, your in charge.¡± She mutter to herself, but agreed. Then the earth seemed to explode right at that moment. I turned around quickly, fists ablaze, to see a hooded figure. They were tall, lanky, but looked strong. He raised his arm and the earth around us started crumbling. So this was his doing. I heard Livvy say something about leaving. She was shy, but at least she was assertive when needed. ¡°Everyone, leave here. Livvy¡¯s still in charge.¡± I said without looking behind me. Mattie was hurt, but he could fend for himself so I wasn¡¯t worried. But, I wanted to be safe so I added, ¡°Mattie¡¯s in his room, he¡¯s injured, take him with you. If he resists, tell him it¡¯s an order from Rose.¡± He might be stubborn, but when Rose gives an order he very rarely disobeys. Really it¡¯s the only way I can get him to listen to me. But I couldn¡¯t think about that right now. I needed to focus on this figure. Rose looked up from the guts and blood that was currently Austin, and sarcastically said ¡°Is, uhm, is that supposed to be scary. Oh no. O. M. G. You dare throw rocks at me.¡± The person lowered their hood, revealing a rough beard, a grey and fading hairline, and wrinkles. Lot¡¯s of wrinkles. He couldn¡¯t be over thirty years old, he just looked, sort of tired. My guess is that he¡¯s been fighting most of his life, and unlike Rose and I, he doesn¡¯t enjoy it. I felt sorry for the guy. ¡°Ahem! Cough cough. Look at me.¡± Rose said. ¡°Rose stop being a jerk.¡± I said, ¡°He hasn¡¯t made a move on us yet, let¡¯s see what he does.¡± But, I was too late. Before I knew it, he had fallen to his knee¡¯s and he was touching the ground and the earth erupted into motion again. I heard rumbling behind me, and turned to look as Livvy and everyone she was leading was entrapped in a cage of rock. ¡°Alright, Rose start being a jerk again.¡± I said, turning back around, fists ready to get into a fight. But he was already gone. So was Rose. I heard crashing as the surrounding buildings started falling. Great, absolutely fantastic. The local government doesn¡¯t care about whatever happens at The Flower Garden. But when it comes to everywhere else, were screwed. And with Rose in a brawl with a mysterious figure, we were gonna have a real problem on our hands. I needed to get everyone out of those rocks, and I can¡¯t melt something with an insanely high melting point. Mattie would have to create something to blow that sucker up. I ran to where his room was, He needed to rest, but we didn¡¯t have that as an option right now. I heard the sirens and knew something was about to happen. What it was, I couldn¡¯t say, but something big was coming. And I don¡¯t think we wanted to be here when it happened. Chapter 7: Livvy Dammit, what the hell was Amber thinking. Why make me the leader? I''m not competent enough. That¡¯s exactly what caused this situation. Siren¡¯s wailing, and I¡¯ve heard enough sirens to know it wasn¡¯t law enforcement, I couldn¡¯t figure out who it was though since they all had hoods on. And, if that wasn¡¯t enough, we were trapped in this rock prison. My ability allows me to know everything that is currently happening within a mile of me. I don¡¯t have to process it though, I just know it, which is very convenient. If I had to process everything, It wouldn¡¯t help much now would it. ¡°Alright, does anyone have an ability that can break us out of this?¡± I said, I knew my squad did not, recon has no reason for a highly destructive ability like that. ¡°That should be our priority as of now. If we can¡¯t get out of here, then we can get Mattie. Only one of us has to find him though, if we¡¯re not all out he can help us.¡± Alright, pretty straightforward. I can¡¯t see us failing, but if we do, it¡¯d be my fault though and I don¡¯t want Rose getting pissy at me. ¡°Ma¡¯am, if I may?¡± Said Alric, the lieutenant of the demolition squad, he was acting as the commander since the previous commander is missing. ¡°I can likely melt this place with my acid. However, it would take a bit to burn a whole that is big enough for all of us to fit through, even if we go one at a time. But if I made one small enough I could let someone small go get Mattie, however, by the time they got back I would probably be done.¡± His blue eyes and fair hair shined in the tiny bit of light that was let in. He was smart, but lacked confidence in his position. I don¡¯t blame him, he was thrown into the role. I doubt he wanted the job but he took it. He was a lot like me if I were being brutally honest. Truthfully, right now I just wanted to go to bed and curl up with my Chifuyu body pillow and sleep. I''m just really tired, but right now I need to get us out of this. ¡°Alright, make a hole big enough for one person, that person will go get Mattie, tell him what¡¯s going on, and stay with him. While they¡¯re doing that you¡¯ll keep making a whole, one big enough for everyone. And after we¡¯re all out we can go meet up with Mattie.¡± I said, it was totally on whim, but the plan sounded solid. I didn¡¯t know how small our smallest person was, however, I¡¯m pretty sure they¡¯re in Alric¡¯s squad. So I¡¯d let him take care of it. ¡°Alright Alric, do your thing.¡± I said. I walked over to one of the wall¡¯s and slumped against and slid down. I just wanna go re-watch Tokyo Revengers. Hell, I¡¯d settle for Jojo¡¯s right now. I need to re-watch it before part 6 get¡¯s animated anyway. I¡¯ve already read the entire manga, but I haven''t been able to get the last volume of Jojolion yet. It might not be out yet though since it finished like two months ago. It probably was. Well, whatever. I didn¡¯t realize I was sweating until I looked up and some sweat dripped into my eyes. ¡°Ew, Gross!¡± I exclaimed. Everyone looked at me, but when I looked over to Alric, he seeed finished. ¡°Alright Livvy, it¡¯s done.¡± He said. ¡°Also, it looks like Amber is already tending to Mattie.¡± If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Well, that¡¯s good but, ¡°Amber need¡¯s to help Rose fight those bastards. So our plan still applies. Unless Amber said otherwise. She outrank¡¯s me so I can¡¯t override her orders.¡± Actually, was there still fighting outside of this cage, I haven¡¯t heard any screams, crashes, gunshots, or any of Rose¡¯s sarcasm. But, I couldn¡¯t worry about that right now. Rose could handle themselves. Okay, everyone was filing out, I¡¯ll go out last. I could go first, but I didn¡¯t wanna get up. I stumbled to my feet, almost face planting into the hard ground. That would¡¯ve been really embarrassing. I sighed and took a gun from it¡¯s holster at my hip. I didn¡¯t like using guns, I¡¯d prefer knives but I don¡¯t have any on me. I inspected the 1911, it had all the bullets in the magazine. Good. Some people give me shit for still using a 1911, but I think it¡¯s a good pistol, it can still kill just as well as it did in world war one and two. It¡¯s a cool antique as well. It¡¯s also my symbol. All the squad leader¡¯s get a symbol, most get it tattooed, but I did not, nor did Alric. The symbol they choose is their squad symbol as well. Rose¡¯s is a rose, it¡¯s enough of a cliche to be have our organization named after them, that we figured that the cliche wouldn¡¯t really matter much. Amber¡¯s is obviously just fire. And Mattie, who isn¡¯t technically a member of The White Rose doesn¡¯t have one. He is already set to take the place of Amber if anything happens to Rose or Amber, so I don¡¯t see why we can¡¯t just induct him. Alric actually did something pretty unconventional and asked everyone in his squad to draw up an idea and then they did a vote. Alric¡¯s won, it was a ¡°R.I.P¡± with explosive¡¯s under it. It was meant to be a tribute to the former commander. Truthfully, we all know he¡¯s dead, but Gideon was one of the founders, and Rose was devastated when they lost him in the field. So Alric technically is the actual commander, but Rose won¡¯t promote him above ¡°acting¡± commander because they¡¯re worried that if Gideon ever came back he¡¯d be pissed at giving his spot away. There were two issues with that, first, Gideon doesn¡¯t get angry, and he would totally understand the situation. Secondly, Alric was already appointed commander by Gideon before he left, he was pretty sure he would die. But, it¡¯s Rose, they¡¯re a weird one all right. I put the magazine back into the casing and cocked the pistol. After everyone was out I walked out, but before I could do so, I saw the trap. They knew. Dammit. Everyone had fallen into anti-ability cages, so that¡¯s why I couldn¡¯t sense what was happening. The entire place is an anti-magic field. Damn. Well, I¡¯m no use up here, so I picked up a knife that was dropped by someone, put my 1911 into it¡¯s holster and jumped down into that infernal pit only 10 feet deep. Chapter 8: Mattie Ugh, there¡¯s so much noise, I don¡¯t like this. It¡¯s too much god damn noise ¡°Ah, shut up. Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up! It¡¯s so loud. And my leg hurts. Why does it hurt?¡± I looked down at my leg and saw it in shambles. Oh, yeah. That¡¯s why it¡¯s so loud. But, where was Rose. And what the fuck is going on outside, it was a mess. That was when Amber came bursting in. ¡°Hey, Mattie, get ready to go. As soon as Rose gets done with this fight we¡¯re leaving. Just this once, don¡¯t fight with me. Please.¡± Ugh, she was so damn annoying. ¡°Fine, whatever. Just get the fuck out. I don¡¯t like you. Get out.¡± Why did I sound like a dumbass all the time? Argh. Alright, so I could probably walk with this splint. But I really don¡¯t want to. I mean, I could make like a hovercraft or something, but that¡¯s difficult to make as it is, and in this state I don¡¯t think I could do it. I was utterly exhausted. I didn¡¯t want to move but I did say I¡¯d go with them. She still hasn¡¯t gone away. ¡°What the fuck do you not understand about ¡®leave bitch¡¯? Seriously, get out Amber.¡± I said, watching her shake her head. She walked over to my bed and picked me up. I¡¯ve gotta say, she is a lot stronger than she looks. ¡°Hey, hey what the hell, stop. I¡¯ll call god on you. Stop.¡± I said. She laughed and said ¡°Why would you call Rose on me, you''re the one being a piece of work?¡± She sadly had a point. ¡°Whatever, just let me walk myself.¡± ¡°No, it¡¯ll be faster to let me carry you.¡± This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°Ah the heresy. Someone kill this bitch.¡± ¡°Stop struggling or I might kill you.¡± ¡°You wouldn¡¯t. You don¡¯t wanna piss Rose off. Such a pussy.¡± ¡°Fair enough. Then I¡¯ll just knock you out, bury you alive, and say you went missing.¡± I kicked at her, but she sent a wave of flame up to block it. ¡°Owowowow. What the fuck. Why¡¯d you do that.¡± I squealed. ¡°Cause I don¡¯t wanna be kicked.¡± Ugh. Why did she have to be a dick. Guess she¡¯s just like that, although I¡¯ve heard from a bunch of people that she''s, like, super nice. Guess she¡¯s only a dick to me, or they¡¯re all lying, which is unlikely. Ugh, Okay. I need to get focused. I can¡¯t let this altercation get into my head. That¡¯s how I get caught up on even more trivial things. ¡°Hey, just put me down so I can walk by myself. I¡¯m not an incapable little fucking parasite.¡± I said I didn¡¯t want her carrying me. ¡°Uhg, fine. Also, if you are gonna be cursing at least learn how to use them. It sounds even more stupid when you don¡¯t know how to curse.¡± She said, I guess she has a point. Even an IQ of about 190 won¡¯t save you from social awkwardness. Apparently. Alrighty, let¡¯s get this done. I kicked out from Amber¡¯s grip, and hit the ground hard, feet first too. My burnt leg didn¡¯t really feel anything but the other was crumpled out from under me, and I almost fell over. Luckily I caught myself and maintained my balance. Once I kept my foothold for a few seconds, I made myself a crutch. Damn, I didn''t like these things however it was necessary. I used the crutch to limp along with Amber, who walked a little slower so I could keep up. That bitch thinks I''m so puny. I¡¯ll show her, I thought. I walked along as the earth started shaking. I hurried my pace, it was tiring but necessary. Rose had let loose. Chapter 9: Rose ¡°Ha, It¡¯s been a long time since I¡¯ve had this much fun!¡± I shouted as I used Gone with the Wind to manipulate the air currents to keep me afloat. I had a knife in my side, a busted lip, a broken arm, a torn ACL, and plenty more injuries I couldn¡¯t identify but it was fine. I was having too much fun to care. This bitch was a riot to play with. ¡°Fun? God, you damn kids are so naive.¡± He said back to me, using rocks to keep him where he was. ¡°What, what?¡± I laughed. ¡°Me, naive? Maybe, but you really don¡¯t find this fun. I¡¯m having a blast. Where¡¯d you learn to fight like this?¡± ¡°Knowledge is more powerful than any superpower. I can defeat any opponent if I outsmart them.¡± He said. ¡°You think your knowledge is superior to mine. I¡¯m a fucking god. How dare you talk down to me.¡± I shouted and rushed towards him. I pulled a knife from its sheath at my side and slashed outwards at him. Dammit, I missed. He was fast. Almost as fast as me. Alright, I need to figure out his dodging pattern. I used his ability, which I had just copied, to make a large dome in which we could fight without disturbing the outside. I then pushed it inwards. If I could force him out of hiding I didn¡¯t need to worry about sneak attacks. Damn this power was convenient. ¡°I want it. It¡¯s mine. Ha, ha, haha.¡± I forced the rock in closer to me, closer. He couldn¡¯t be in hiding forever. I¡¯m glad I copied Bee¡¯s ability, it¡¯ll come in handy. I surrounded the outside of the rock in fire and the inside. That way, there wasn¡¯t a way in or out. I mean, it¡¯s still possible, but the likelihood of it went down. That¡¯s what I needed. The highest probability of winning. I felt a sharp twinge in my stomach as I looked down to see a large piece of pointed rock sticking out of my abdomen. ¡°Ow, why¡¯d you do that? Dumbass.¡± I took control of the rock and pulled it out, and fell a bit before quickly activating Gone with the Wind. I looked at the man, who was obviously bewildered at my spectacular performance. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t fight a god ya know,¡± I said and unleashed my fury on him. Up, down, thrust, down, up, side, thrust. I guess it didn¡¯t matter what way I dissected him didn''t matter. Woah, I was almost fully healed already, my body must¡¯ve been put under a lot of pressure for it to try and heal me that quick. Interesting if nothing else. I went to put rock around him to trap him, but before I could, he shifted around behind me and attacked, and then zipped away. I let it hit me, it hurt like hell but was necessary. I underestimated his speed. He¡¯s faster than I am right now. If I could just get hit one more time. I didn¡¯t really feel like stabbing myself. But, alas. I took the knife that was still in my hands and shoved it into my chest. It hurt like a bitch, but it worked. I pulled the knife out, licking the blood of the blade. I needed to make a show for him. Maybe I could intimidate him or something. I doubt it, but, maybe. The warm flow of blood ran down my shirt. Wait, oh. Fuck. I just stabbed through my binder. What was I thinking? Whatever. It is what it is. I took my shirt off, placing it on a table-like surface I made with Gone with The Wind to let it float. I took my binder off, and put my shirt back on. God, I just want to get rid of these titties. They¡¯re such a nuisance. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. I was surprised that itch didn¡¯t attack me while I was taking my binder off. But, he did seem like one that would respect a ¡®woman''s¡¯ privacy regardless of the situation. I¡¯m not that nice though. People that let opportunities like those slip are just fools. Not like I was a woman anyways. Just cause I have tits doesn¡¯t make me a woman. Right? Well, anyway, philosophy and science can wait. Hold up, is philosophy a social science. Not sure. Fuck, I¡¯m getting off task. Okay, just survey the surroundings, slowly. Don¡¯t miss a thing. I looked around carefully. Where is he? I heard a stone clinking against each other below me and moved out of the way. I kicked the rock for no good reason, but it shattered and sent dust everywhere. I couldn¡¯t see shit. When I could see again, I saw a figure outlined by dust. He¡¯s invisible. Shit, that means he has an accomplice. Since I copied his ability I know it inside and out, and invisibility is not part of it. Unless I¡¯m a complete idiot, which is also very possible, despite being a god I guess. Alright, I can use this. The invisible guy probably is invisible too. Not very convenient but whatever. I summoned a bunch of rock and destroyed it, using the wind to spread it everywhere. I did this a couple of times before I was satisfied that it was distributed nicely. The dust I mean. I still couldn¡¯t see him though. What the hell. Where could he have possibly gone? It¡¯s not like he could go without me seeing him. Right? Then I saw a hole in the rock wall I had made. Well, shit. He left. Ah, I¡¯m tired. I just wanna sleep. But I just slept for like, what, two days. So, no I can¡¯t. I pulled a bottle of Xanax from my pocket that I had put there right before my fight. Damn. This wasn¡¯t supposed to happen. Not at all. Emir was supposed to live a long, happy life. Free of crime and death. I wanted him to live a good life. Not die. Fucking die. I sighed, and popped open the bottle of pills, and dumped some into my hand, and put them in my mouth. Ew, eating pills is gross, but, yay, addiction. I suppose it was supposed to be a deterrent from getting addicted. But It definitely didn¡¯t work. I cringed as I crunched on the pills and the dust went farther into my mouth. I should probably stop taking these pills. But it was hard, and I¡¯m not used to doing hard things, so I doubt I¡¯ll do it. I let the wind slip up so I¡¯d fall and then went to the hole. I went through it, looking for the figures. Damn, this was annoying. I want to go beat their ass. But, this was actually sort of fun. ¡°Ha, stop being a pussy. Come fight me.¡± And right on cue, rock¡¯s fell from above me, and I turned and kicked them, crushing them and sending dust into the air. Hopefully, I could put more dust into the air to find the invisible bitch. I think they¡¯re pulling a Meleoron from Hunter Hunter. I needed to find the invisible guy so I could find the rock guy, who was also invisible. Maybe. Either that or the invisible guy and the rock guy killed each other. Or, maybe, they didn¡¯t even come into contact. That¡¯s also possible. I¡¯m probably overthinking this. I could also just burn the world to kill them, but that would cause way too much collateral. Alright, my body just healed itself to full, so, I¡¯m vulnerable. So I¡¯ve got to be careful. If I could take these guys out with a kick each or something, that would be nice, but first I had to get un-vulnerable again. That was a word. Yes, definitely a word. I took a knife from a sheath at my thigh, and turned it towards myself, and braced for a shock of pain. I was about to shove it inwards when something hit the side of my head and my eyes went black. Well, shit. Chapter 10: Amber If only Mattie would stop being difficult we might¡¯ve left hours ago. Well, maybe not. Probably not. I looked at my phone, checking the time. It was seriously only 5 minutes since Rose disappeared? It felt like an eternity. I limped along with Mattie, who was complaining about anything and everything. Truthfully, I hope I die before Rose so I wouldn¡¯t have to work with Mattie as my second in command for any time at all. I might just ¡°accidentally¡± fall off a cliff and let the job go to Livvy or someone. I loathed the idea of dealing with Mattie, but it¡¯d be ten times worse if Rose wasn¡¯t here so, let¡¯s hope they don¡¯t die. I doubt they would though. I realized the rumbling had stopped, and sped up. I¡¯m sure they were, but I needed to make sure Rose was alright. I let go of Mattie, who fell with the support of my shoulder suddenly moving. He swore at me but I didn¡¯t particularly care. I sped up even more, worried now that I hadn¡¯t heard Rose¡¯s voice. They usually came to find me after a fight, to ease my nerves. ¡°Shit, this is bad. What are we going to tell Amber?¡± I heard Alric say. Dammit, what happened? ¡°Tell me what?¡± I asked from behind him. He jumped and turned around, with a look of dread. ¡°Follow me.¡± Livvy said, so I did. I looked up and saw a huge rock dome, it seemed to start crumbling, but not quickly. Well, at least we could get out of the way easily enough. That¡¯s a plus. We entered through a hole that seemed to be caused by Alric¡¯s ability, however, when I saw the body on the floor I feared the worst. ¡°I-I¡¯m sorry, we didn¡¯t know what to do. This is where we found them.¡± Livvy said, in a lower voice than usual. I ran over to the body and realized it was Rose. Rose was drenched in blood, there were hole¡¯s in their shirt. There was also a huge scar there that wasn¡¯t there before. Their binder was somewhere, but it wasn¡¯t on. Well that was good, they could breathe better. There was a hole in the side of their head, blood rushing out. It looked like a sniper bullet hit them. Their left leg was broken and their left collar bone was protruding from their neck. Their arm was broken as well. There was a knife that fell near their right hand. Since it wasn¡¯t bloody, I think I realized what happened. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Rose had likely suffered from a rock impaling them from behind, therefore their body healed faster since it was a serious injury. So their body healed completely before the fight was over, so they likely had an opening where they could cut themselves, but before they could do so, a sniper had shot them. ¡°Livvy, leave us, don¡¯t let anyone else in. But go get me some gauze, peroxide, a tourniquet, and a splint or two.¡± I ordered. Livvy nodded and ran off and I kneeled down and checked Rose¡¯s pulse. It was there, barely. Well, that¡¯s a step in the right direction. At least they can¡¯t die now. They were really warm to the touch as well. I¡¯m pretty sure that had nothing to do with me though. ¡°Alright, I¡¯m back, here¡¯s the stuff you wanted. Anything else?¡± Livvy said, walking towards me. ¡°Thanks. Can you see if they feel warm to the touch, they feel warm to me, but, ya know, fire?¡± I asked, standing up and taking the supplies from her. She nodded and knelt down, and touched Rose¡¯s forehead, and reeled back. ¡°Holy shit Amber. They¡¯re burning up. Literally, they burnt me.¡± Alright, that was definitely interesting. They must¡¯ve copied my ability. My ability, if overused, can cause the skin to heat up to temperatures that can burn others. ¡°Alright,¡± I moved back to Rose¡¯s side and kneeled. I took a knife from its sheath on their arm and placed it next to me. I took the gauze and wrapped it around their head to stop the bleeding, not before checking to see if the bullet was lodged in there. It was not, luckily. I cut the gauze and went to put the splint on their leg when they coughed and reeled against the ground. Blood splattered all over them. They were breathing heavily. Then I heard a gunshot, two, three. They hit Rose, one in between the eyes, another hit their chest, and one to the stomach. Rose coughed again, and said, ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡± Their chest stopped rising and falling. Chapter 11: Livvy Well, shit. Amber rarely get¡¯s upset, but when she does, she fucking goes off. ¡°Hey, Alric, ya think anyone will survive this time?¡± I asked. Last time Rose nearly died, Amber went on a rampage and killed everyone within a ten mile radius, which was a lot of god damn people since we were in beijing at the time. Not a single one of us has been to China since that day 3 years ago. Granted, they weren¡¯t dating at the time, but those two have always been real close. ¡°Uhm, only me and you since we¡¯re the only ones that have dealt with this before. Oh, and Mattie.¡± He said, biting his lip out of anxiety. ¡°Hey, Mattie, get over here!¡± I shook my head, and sighed. This was really not the time. Our members were already dwindling, we don¡¯t need more dead. Dammit Amber, the second time you stop thinking and this is what happens. ¡°No, fuck you. You get over here!¡± Mattie shouted back at Alric who started jogging towards him, I followed close behind. Mattie was standing against a girl that I¡¯ve never seen before. I immediately got suspicious of them, however Mattie can handle himself so I wasn¡¯t worried about him. However, this could be bad if that girl was a spy. I know there were some new recruit¡¯s that came in this morning, but I wasn¡¯t around during that time, I was off on the other side of town doing some shopping. I was probably too busy to notice them. She was short and skinny, with short jet black hair and sharp green eyes. She had a long coat on, similar to a trench coat but not quite, and it looked like there were guns stored inside. She had a knife strapped to her left thigh. She was propping Mattie up with one arm and had her arm stretch towards Alric and I with a Beretta in hand. That wasn¡¯t really worrying though, If I was in this situation and two people came up to me, especially people that I¡¯ve never seen before I would probably do the same. ¡°I might only have a shitty Bereta in my palm, but that doesn¡¯t mean I won¡¯t kill you.¡± She said to me and Alric in a gruff voice. ¡°Step back, or I will shoot you.¡± I looked at Mattie, who looked exhausted. He said ¡°Don¡¯t shoot Sophie, you¡¯d be killing two of our commanders. Well, technically one and one¡¯s replacement. Alric¡¯s already been given the position but he won¡¯t accept that his predecessor is dead. They were very close. So, just don¡¯t shoot them. It¡¯s not in anyone¡¯s best interest.¡± He was being kind in his own way. I think. ¡°Damn, you''re not cussing us out. You must be totally exhausted.¡± I remarked to Mattie, walking closer to him after this Sophie person lowered her gun and put it into her pocket. ¡°Yea, yea. Well, this is Sophie, she¡¯s a new recruit. Well, sort of. She just got transferred here from New York. She caused a shit storm for the police there, and since our New York division is on the verge of collapsing as it is, we needed to keep her out.¡±Mattie said. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. ¡°Well, why didn¡¯t they kick her out then?¡± I asked. ¡°Because, despite not having an ability, her ability with gun¡¯s is unrivaled. Put any gun in her hand and she can take down a small army herself. She¡¯s just too valuable.¡± Interesting, I thought. No ability, that¡¯s definitely a rare occurrence for our organization. ¡°What do you mean, technically a new recruit?¡± Alric asked. ¡°Well, she was in charge of the New York Special Operations division. But her rank was stripped of her when she moved, as per usual.¡± Mattie said, and Sophie blew a raspberry and looked the other way matter of factly. She clearly didn¡¯t want to be reminded. ¡°Well, anyway,¡± I started, ¡°Rose is injured, somehow. And now Amber is pissed, I can still hear her screaming if I listen closely. Any idea how Rose could end up being hurt?¡± ¡°Well, it¡¯s likely that they overworked themselves. They have been doing a lot of shit recently.¡± Mattie said. ¡°They¡¯ve slept for two whole days. what do you mean doing a lot of shit?¡± I exclaimed. ¡°Alright, maybe doing stuff is incorrect. Rose was likely under a lot of stress recently. ¡° ¡°That¡¯s more likely. Maybe They just don¡¯t wanna wake up.¡± ¡°I doubt it, they still have to protect Mattie and Rose and have a funeral for Emir.¡± Alric put in. ¡°Or maybe this rumored Rose just got beaten.¡± Sophie said. Everyone that heard her just looked and laughed. She looked so confused. ¡°Rose doesn¡¯t get beaten Sophie,¡± I said. ¡°That¡¯s absolutely fucking hilarious. So you were in charge of an important division, granted in another city, and still have no damn clue who Rose is. That¡¯s honestly a feat.¡± ¡°Rose, like, as in The White Rose?¡± ¡°Technically yes. Rose is the one that founded this organization.¡± ¡°The Founder? Really, I thought that they were a myth. Nobody can be that powerful.¡± ¡°So that¡¯s what they call them in other cities. Interesting. All the rumors about them are true.¡± I said. ¡°They are probably more powerful than the rumors,¡± Alric said, and Mattie nodded his agreement. ¡°Then I suspect foul play, and that¡¯s how they were beaten,¡± Sophie said, and I actually had to agree. I said ¡°Well, the notion of Rose being unbeatable has been beaten into our minds time and time again so it¡¯s likely that since we have always been here and have seen them win against all odds so many times that since you have not been here all those times. So it¡¯s a possibility that¡¯s what happened. However slim.¡± ¡°I agree,¡± Mattie said, which surprised me because of his undying loyalty to Rose. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s go check it o-¡± I stopped in the middle of my sentence after I turned around. I heard someone screaming, and realized the scream was coming from me. Chapter 12: Sophie I followed Livvy¡¯s eye¡¯s, and saw a girl, who looked about 18, with long red hair and sharp purple eyes floating in the air, about 9 feet from the ground. Fire was burning around her violently, and she had a scowl on her pretty face. ¡°Amber, what the hell,¡± I heard Mattie say from behind me. ¡°Mattie, make a shelter that can¡¯t be burned. Quickly.¡± Alric said, and Mattie complied. I wondered who Amber was, however they seemed very powerful. She seemed like a world ending calamity. To think Rose is stronger than her. Well, at least I would think so since they are the founder. I can¡¯t see someone so powerful settling to serve someone weaker. But maybe I was wrong. I wasn¡¯t sure. A rock-like structure formed around us, as a wave of fire was sent rushing out the girl called Amber. It seemed like only Alric and Mattie weren''t surprised by this display. ¡°Livvy, get down, that¡¯s an order.¡± Mattie said matter-of-factly. Both Livvy and I followed this direction and turned our faces away as well. ¡°What is Amber doing?¡± Alric asked, his voice shaking slightly. Mattie shrugged and Livvy looked lost in thought. ¡°She just killed everyone outside of this structure, what is she thinking?¡± ¡°Hell if I know.¡± Mattie said, he looked worried about something. I looked out of the tiny crack and saw ghost-like things slowly rising up from the charred bodies that were laying on the ground. ¡°Uhm, are you guys seeing this?¡± I said, ¡°It¡¯s pretty damn creepy.¡± Livvy pushed me aside, and looked out. Her face went pale, and she went to the corner and vomited. She seemed pretty shellshocked. I looked through the crack again. The ghost thing¡¯s were merging into one. It was pretty gruesome, but in truth, I think there was another reason that Livvy spew chunks. After about a minute, they became one being, and Amber grabbed hold of them. She came back out a few minutes later, dragging someone with her. That person looked like a total wreck. ¡°Rose!¡± Mattie exclaimed, dropping the shelter, and ran towards them. So that was Rose. They didn¡¯t look like much. Their eyes opened slightly, and they tried to stand up on their own, but before they could fall, Livvy was there to hold them up. I didn¡¯t see her move. I stood up and walked over slowly. Amber let go of Rose and let Livvy take the weight, she pulled a knife from Rose¡¯s pocket, and pointed it at me. ¡°Who are you?¡± She asked loudly. Arlic came up from behind me and said ¡°Don¡¯t worry, she¡¯s one of us.¡± With that, she threw the knife at me, and I quickly drew my gun and shot it. ¡°So that¡¯s why she doesn¡¯t have an ability yet we let her in. Interesting.¡± Amber said. ¡°How, how did you know I don¡¯t have an ability?¡± I asked, and she answered with ¡°I can sense the radiation in your body. If you don¡¯t know what radiation has to do with abilities, I¡¯ll explain later.¡± ¡°Amber, what the hell did you do to Rose?¡± Mattie coughed, and looked away from her. ¡°I took the soul¡¯s of all these dead people and merged them into one, and then took Rose¡¯s soul and merged that one soul, which was blank, and merged it with Rose¡¯s, and since theirs was stronger than the blank soul, took control. It¡¯s real complicated, I¡¯ll explain later.¡± Amber said. She was making no sense. ¡°Was it worth it? Was it worth all the death Amber?¡± Alric asked, seeming genuinely concerned. ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Then I¡¯ll support you on this decision, but if Rose doesn¡¯t wake up, within the next 24 hours. I will put a bullet in your head.¡± Alric said, grimmly monotone. Amber laughed and said ¡°Sure, if you can catch me. But I¡¯m confident in Rose. I think we overworked them. Anyway, we need to go. That rock guy and the invisible dude are still here. I would assume that you can¡¯t detect either of them Livvy.¡± Livvy nodded. ¡°Alright, Mattie, any ideas.¡± Mattie scowled at Amber, but said ¡°If one¡¯s invisible, it¡¯s likely that the invisibility is more than just that. It probably makes them completely disappear. And assuming the rock bastard is still here, if Livvy can¡¯t detect him, either she¡¯s just imcompetent, which I highly doubt, or the damn bastard is able to share his disappearing ability with someone else. That¡¯s very inconvenient. We should just get up and outta here.¡± ¡°I agree, but where would we go?¡± I asked, and Alric pointed towards the mountains. ¡°The San Dia¡¯s. We have an emergency base there just in case.¡± But while he was saying this, in sign language he was saying ¡°What I¡¯m saying is false, I¡¯m worried that they might be listening, but actually we would have to go Santa Fe¡± I nodded, and said. ¡°So where is it on the mountain?¡± I was never sure why the leader in New York wanted me to learn ASL, but now I understood. In sign language I was saying ¡°that¡¯s far, let¡¯s just get in a car or something and go to the mall or something. We need to lose these son¡¯s of bitches.¡± Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. Livvy locked eyes with me and Alric, and Alric took Rose. Livvy said, ¡°On the very top, at the gift shop, but then take a quick plunge off the balcony there. It should be right there.¡± She was signing ¡°Yea, I sense movement, but can¡¯t see anything, and it¡¯s close, so I¡¯ll make sure they go away, and follow those directions, which are obviously fake. See ya, meet me at the Barnes and Noble on this side of town.¡± She winked, took out a 1911, and slipped away. ¡°I heard everything, let¡¯s go. Mattie, make us a car or something.¡± Amber came over and said. I assumed she saw us signing. Something in Alric¡¯s ear lit up, and Livvy¡¯s voice came out of it. He took it out of his ear and threw it to me. I put it in my ear, and said ¡°This is Sophie.¡± ¡°They¡¯re leaving, moving quickly towards the mountains. I can¡¯t keep up, but I¡¯m gonna keep following them. Keep doing what we were gonna do. You guys are fine to talk out loud as well.¡± I sighed, and relayed this to the other¡¯s while Mattie was busy making a mini-van. Amber sighed and said ¡°Let¡¯s go. And stay on your guard. But first, we need to arm ourselves.¡± She led us to a far corner of the parking lot, and took a gun from me, at which I tried to swat her away, but she was too fast. She took it and shot the ground, and instead of the dull noise of a bullet hitting concrete, I heard the sharp noise of metal on metal. Amber threw the gun back to me and I caught it and put it into my pocket. Amber kneeled down and opened a trap door and ordered me to help her, and for Alric to take Rose to the back of the now completed mini-van. Amber slid down a metal ladder, and disappeared and I followed. When I got to the bottom, my jaw dropped. It was a huge room full of any type of weapons you could think of. AR-15¡¯s, beretta''s, grenades. Incendiary bomb¡¯s, rocket launchers, balisongs, swords. Any type of weapon I could think of, and since I was a weapons expert, was a god damn lot, was here, and more that I didn¡¯t recognize. Amber took a bag off the wall and threw it to me, ¡°Fill it with guns, weapons, or ammo or whatever. I do suggest getting an automatic weapon. But be my guest to be a badass with a bunch of pistols. Amber herself took down four bags, filling one with two beretta¡¯s, a couple of magazines, and about a hundred knives. The second was filled with a couple glocks, a bunch of magazines, and a bunch of throwing knives. The next one was filled solely with 1911¡¯s and magazines for it. The next was filled to the brim with AR-15 rounds. She slung two over her back, and threw the other two to me. She walked over to the entrance, picking up an AR-15, on the way over, she grabbed my hand and dragged me over to the entrance. She climbed up, and put down the bags, and took some from me, and I climbed up after her. ¡°What¡¯s this for?¡± I asked. ¡°One¡¯s for you, one¡¯s for me, another for Rose, another one for Rose, one for Alric. Mattie doesn¡¯t fight.¡± She said. I guess that makes sense. She slammed the trap door shut, and welded it shut with her heat. ¡°You know, you¡¯re pretty rare.¡± She said to me. I looked at her and blinked. ¡°Wh-why?¡± ¡°Well, only a few people have been accepted without abilities. And usually their abilities are forced outa them. If it doesn¡¯t come about, it usually kills them. It¡¯s not ideal, but they know that. I mean, I can try and get you an ability if you want.¡± She said, ¡°I¡¯ll think about it.¡± I would have to know more about abilities to know if I wanted one. ¡°Well, that¡¯s fair. To be honest, it would be difficult to make a scenario where you are exposed to a safe amount of safe radiation right now.¡± ¡°What does radiation have to do with it,¡± I said, opening the trunk of the car and throwing the bag¡¯s in there, but Amber took them and gave them to Alric. She got into the car, ready to drive. I got into the passenger¡¯s seat, ready for a damn essay. ¡°Well, everyone has an ability. Whether it manifests depends on the amount of radiation one is exposed to. Abilities are inherently a manifestation of radiation. But to use it, you would have to be exposed to radiation. How this happens doesn''t really matter. For me, it was because I got a hold of a car when I was like 5, and drove all the way to the place where all the atom bombs went off. For Rose, it was because their parents were druggies, and their dealer had an ability, but they had really bad control over it, causing the radiation to ooze out of them. That¡¯s how Alric got his ability. His dad didn¡¯t have control over his ability. It¡¯s very situational.¡± Interesting. ¡°How come I¡¯ve never heard about this?¡± I asked. ¡°Because we did the research. We shared it with the UN as well. But they refuse to accept it as fact. But they won¡¯t try it themselves for ¡®moral¡¯ reasons. That¡¯s probably why. We thought it was something the entire world should know, however, if we did tell everyone, the UN would be on us in no time. And we don¡¯t want that.¡± Amber answered. ¡°Oh, the wonders of the United Nations.¡± Chapter 12.5: Rose Everything was dark. I didn¡¯t know where I was, but I felt that I was in a car. I tried to move, or open my eyes. I couldn¡¯t. I heard Mattie arguing with Bee about something. I heard Alric interject at some point, and eventually a voice that I didn¡¯t recognize say something. Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. I couldn¡¯t make out what they were saying, but I tried to ask what was going on, but I couldn¡¯t open my mouth. I just sat there for what felt like a year, before I fell back into a deep sleep. Chapter 13: Alric It¡¯s been just over two hour¡¯s since Amber killed those people. I still couldn¡¯t believe she did that. She¡¯s just too nice. We were sitting in the car, in a Barnes & Noble parking lot, we decided not to go to the mall, since someone would have to stay and watch Rose. If we weren¡¯t all there, there wasn¡¯t really a point in trying to hide amongst the crowd. The car door opened, and Livvy said ¡°Let¡¯s go get food, I¡¯m really craving a sopapilla.¡± Livvy crawled over me and sat in the seat next to me. She saw the backpack full of 1911¡¯s, and pulled one out, and cocked it. She shot it into the ground, and then put it back into the back. ¡°Livvy! What the fuck was that?¡± Mattie exclaimed. ¡°1911¡¯s are old as shit, needed to make sure they worked. Now shut up.¡± She replied. Mattie did not shut up. He started yelling at Livvy about how hard he worked on the car and how shooting it was a huge disrespect to him. Sophie laughed and said ¡°y¡¯all are really fucking funny, at least compared to the deadly seriousness that is the New York division. I thought all of you would be like that.¡± ¡°Nah, we¡¯re the coolest motherfuckers around.¡± Mattie said. ¡°We should get going, we need to get to Santa Fe today. We¡¯ll need a place to stay. Anyone have any requests?¡¯¡± I asked, desperate to end the conversation. I didn¡¯t know why, but it was making me uncomfortable. ¡°Requests? For a place to stay, now that¡¯s a good one,¡± Amber said, ¡°but we can stay at my place. My parents are super rich.They¡¯re outta town. We can stay there on the condition y¡¯all don¡¯t mess the place up.¡± ¡°Oh, a rich person¡¯s place,¡± Livvy said, as Amber started the car and backed out of the parking spot. ¡°I¡¯d love to stay at a place where people eat gold and shit diamonds. You bet I won¡¯t fuck the place over.¡± ¡°Wait, Amber, I thought you were an orphan.¡± I said. Amber, pulling out onto the road, said ¡°Well, sort of. I am, but these are my adoptive parents. They¡¯re the only one¡¯s outside of the gang and government that knows who I really am. For whatever reason, they don¡¯t care. Which is nice to say the least.¡± Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. ¡°Oh, sorry for bringing it up then.¡± I said. ¡°Nah, it¡¯s fine. I did tell you that, so it¡¯s only natural to ask when I bring up my parent¡¯s.¡± Amber replied, ¡°plus, maybe knowing that I¡¯m not an orphan would convince you not to shoot me.¡± ¡°It will not, and don¡¯t act like you¡¯re scared of dying. You¡¯re too damn reckless for that.¡± I said. She seemed dumb founded, but mustered up the strenght to pull on I-25 and say, ¡°Reckless? In what way?¡± ¡°You¡¯re always running after Rose with no regard for your own safety. So, yes, reckless.¡± I said. ¡°He¡¯s right ya know.¡± Livvy interjected. ¡°Yes, I see your point, however, I will not stop doing that.¡± Amber said smugly. ¡°I know,¡± Livvy said. ¡°Well, maybe you shouldn¡¯t. I don¡¯t give a shit what happens to you,¡± Mattie said, ¡°but, I can¡¯t say the same for Rose. If something happened to you, Rose would be devastated. I don¡¯t think I could stand seeing them like that. They¡¯re broken enough as it is.¡± There was an awkward silence between us for about thirty minutes. Eventually Mattie said ¡°Wow, can we not be quiet.¡± I laughed, and said, ¡°Sure. What do ya want to talk ¡®bout Mattie?¡± ¡°Wha- What? That¡¯s, that wasn¡¯t what I was implying but. I guess, our plan of action.¡± Mattie said. I didn¡¯t want to, however, I had to agree with him on that. ¡°Well, Amber, are you sure that you want to be at your parent¡¯s place? What if they find us, and destroy the place.¡± I said. ¡°Nah, it¡¯ll be fine.¡± She said, and I quietly heard her say I hope really quietly. I think she is pretty shell-shocked from today. I think we all were. We continued to drive up I-25, and Livvy said, ¡°What do we do with Rose? Do we try and help them recover, or, what? What are we supposed to do?¡± She was usually so sure about herself, but, she wasn¡¯t. ¡°Well, in my humble, but fundamentally meaningless, opinion, we should help them. They are our leader after all.¡± Sophie said. She seemed restless. She was loading and unloading her guns. She twirled them in her hand, or had a knife and twirled that. She hadn¡¯t stopped moving once since we left The Flower Garden. I didn¡¯t know her well enough to know if that was a usual occurrence or if she was nervous. ¡°I would agree, I don¡¯t want to kill Amber.¡± I said. Chapter 14: Ramiel Ah, today was a day. My agent¡¯s couldn¡¯t kill that damn Rose. They were a tricky little shit. Three shot¡¯s to the head and still living. Interesting. I didn¡¯t look at their abilities, I probably should have done that. It would have helped me prepare. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if they had a Divine Gift from that traitor Lucifer. That motherfucking bitch. I hate him so much. So very much. I didn¡¯t like him when he wasn¡¯t a traitor. ¡°Boss,¡± my servant said, ¡°Boss, are you in need of something?¡± I must¡¯ve been thinking out loud. ¡°Why would a mere dog ask me if I¡¯m in need. What could you possibly do to help me?¡± I said. The servant cringed back and said ¡°My most sincere apologies, my lord. I was merely worried for your mental health.¡± ¡°Well, I don¡¯t need you to do that for me. A dog can only do so much for an angel, I¡¯ve lived for almost 6000 years. Why would a mere mut be able to help me?¡± I yelled, and the servant started crying and ran out. Good, now I can think uninterrupted. Alright, I will have to go to the Library of the Living. We have two three libraries. The Library of knowledge, which includes everything ever written. The Library of the Dead has a card for everyone who has ever lived, The Library of the Living is similar to the Library of the Dead, except it only has living people. If someone were to die, their card is instantly moved to The Library of the Dead. The Card is a small piece of paper, about the size of a playing card. It has the full name, height, race, age, weight, place of residence, hair color, eye color, full name of lover, ability, and ambitions. It changes in real time as well. The Cards are sorted into every category you could think of. First comes race, then age, then hair color, then eye color, then height, next is first initial, and lastly is last initial. It is incredibly meticulous, but extremely well organized nonetheless.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Another important aspect of The Cards is what happens when destroyed. When one is destroyed, that person is erased from history completely. There is nothing left. No one remembers them. However, this person essentially becomes a ghost. They become a spirit that can not do anything but watch. It is a fate worse than death, so no matter who it may be, we will never be allowed to destroy The Cards. Another aspect of it, however not very important, is that, however The Card is destroyed, is how the person will die. A gunshot through The Card will mean the person who is on The Card will be shot to death. If they are destroyed via fire, the person who is on the card will die via fire. So on and so forth. Due to these reasons, there are always guards by The Libraries. These guards are more powerful than any angel, and to defeat one would take the cooperation of all the angels, and we just don¡¯t have the power to fight them in the first place. Most of us would die in an all out fight with even one of those manic guards. To get in, you have to get a pass from God himself. You have to show it to the guards to get in. Luckily, I have one. I showed my pass to the guards, and went in. First, I went to the half-japanese section. Then the 17 years of age area. Next came hair, I think they had bronze hair. So brown. For eye color, I went to the Hazel section. I think they¡¯re 5¡¯8¡±. So I went there. First initial is R. Last initial is S. After that, it didn¡¯t take me long to find Rose¡¯s Card. I looked over it, their ability surprised me, sure. But not nearly as much as their ambitions surprised me. They had no desire to destroy the world, as everyone thought. Well, at least that¡¯s what the other angel¡¯s think anyway. They just wanted to prevent the destruction of the world. Apparently they would do that by uniting the world under one democratic nation. Apparently this would prevent violence. I doubt it would work, however, if any mere mortal could do it, it would be Rose. At least they have a better chance then that foolish fuhrer back in the 30¡¯s and 40¡¯s. It¡¯s too vague to actually work. But if it were to be flushed out, it wouldn¡¯t be half bad. A damn shame. Chapter 14.5: Rose I was tired, and I ached, and I felt like my head had a bullet through it. Maybe I did. I felt a stinging pain in my ear¡¯s as Mattie and Bee fought and bickered. I tried to shut them up, but my mouth wouldn¡¯t move. It was like I was seeing the word through a different body. It was really strange to say the least. I heard someone behind me, I think it was a girl¡¯s voice, that I didn¡¯t recognize. She said something about shutting the hell up, and the two bastard¡¯s in front of me shut up for the first time in what felt like years. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. I almost worshipped this girl as my savior. That wouldn¡¯t suit me well, now would it. A god can¡¯t worship a worshipper. Chapter 15: Amber I couldn¡¯t help but fight with Mattie, yet everyone is yelling at me to shush. I mean, I guess I am older and should be more mature. Either that or they can¡¯t stand to see an adult fight with a thirteen year old. I am eighteen after all. I hope Mattie gets a head-splitting headache. Maybe it¡¯ll kill him so I wouldn¡¯t have to. It¡¯s his fault for always trying to fight me. We were getting close to my parent¡¯s house, it was on the south side of Sante Fe, so it didn¡¯t take the full 2 ? hours to get to Santa Fe. That was nice, I didn¡¯t trust this car one bit. Mattie made it after all. I turned off the highway to get to my place, and as I was about to pull onto a smaller road, the entire car just fell. Mattie yelped, and I slammed my foot onto the brake instinctively. Sophie had her guns drawn, and so did Livvy. Alric was holding Rose down so they wouldn¡¯t hit the ceiling. I saw their eyes, they were so vacant. I wish I could do something, anything. ¡°Livvy, what the hell, why didn¡¯t you tell us about this?¡± Mattie squealed. Livvy looked livid and snapped at Mattie saying, ¡°I only know what happens as it¡¯s happening, it''s useless to find traps that are like this. Why should I worry about a giant hole in the ground?¡± Mattie¡¯s scowled softened, and I couldn¡¯t help but smile at Mattie being put in his place. ¡°There¡¯s, there¡¯s. We¡¯re gonna hit the fucking ground!¡± Livvy exclaimed, ¡°Can someone please do something, I don¡¯t feel like dying of fall damage.¡± I had to agree with her. I sent a wave of flame up, it burnt the tire¡¯s, and probably destroyed the engine and other parts, but it succeeded in its job of slowing our fall temporarily, so that we could hit the ground softer. Stolen novel; please report. The wheels hit the ground, and screeched against the concrete floor. It was a painful experience for my ears. If I never heard that sound again, it would be too soon. Sophie and Livvy shot out of the car, gun¡¯s ready to fire, but as soon as they took in the situation, they dropped their gun¡¯s and put their hands up. I looked at Livvy, who said, ¡°What, I can¡¯t detect anyone if they have an Area of Effect canceling ability. Now, can you just get out and put your hands up.¡± There was deadly calm in her voice, and it chilled me to the bone. I couldn¡¯t see anything out of the windows, so it was probably an Illusion type ability. I look at Mattie and Alric, and we moved out of the car, hand¡¯s up. They didn¡¯t know, well the attackers didn¡¯t know, that for the past month or so, I¡¯ve been working on using my fire without hand movement. Rose could do it with ease, so I¡¯ve gotta be able to do it eventually. Right? Mattie shoved a rock wall around Rose, and, with his hand¡¯s up, walked up behind Livvy. I saw that there were wolves, probably werewolves, tigers, bears, large rat people, cat boys and girls (god Rose would love that) and horses, and people. ¡°So, there are more than just werewolves? There are all sorts of werebeasts, eh?¡± Alric asked. Then, a cat girl looked at a wolf, and said, ¡°There¡¯s a kid with them, what do we do meow? We can¡¯t kill a kid, can we?¡± So, maybe they didn¡¯t know that Mattie was a kid. This was good, now we can roll over them. I took this opportunity to look over to Livvy, Mattie looked utterly terrified, which I knew was an act. That little sadist. ¡°Livvy, why would you bring your brother here. Mark wouldn¡¯t be able to survive a fight. What were you thinking?¡± I yelled at her, she looked taken aback for a moment, however she looked behind her and saw Mattie looking up at her, fear in his eyes. ¡°I couldn¡¯t just leave Mark there, there were no survivors. Right?¡± She said, and I almost believed her. ¡°Livvy, what the fuck, don¡¯t tell them about what happened!¡± Sophie exclaimed. I sighed, she was too new for her own good on this mission. Livvy said something about it to tell me that there were people her that she recognized from the fight in the city. She didn¡¯t think it was safe to sign, in case they knew sign language, which was definitely a possibility with the large crowd gathered around. ¡°Oh, I thought it would¡¯ve made the news by now. It hasn¡¯t, my bad?¡± She said, glad that we had the best improv actor in the state. Livvy. ¡°Kill the kid!¡± Someone yelled, and I heard a gunshot. I feared the worst. Chapter 16: Livvy As soon as the gun was shot, I rushed towards the bitch that shot it. Almost instantly, I was behind the man with the knife I kept on my thigh on his neck. He had a scruffy beard, and smelled like sewer. I couldn¡¯t tell if he just didn¡¯t shower, or if he was just recently in the sewer. I didn¡¯t know when my ability was usable again, but it was, so I knew he had a boner. It was disgusting. I whispered into his ear ¡°I¡¯m not into guys,¡± which wasn¡¯t remotely true, but it got his dick limp again. I don¡¯t know what happened to the bullet, but I didn¡¯t see any blood on Mattie, and I didn¡¯t hear a ping of it hitting metal or something. ¡°Livvy, I think that¡¯s what your name is. If you¡¯d like you can kill that man. He fucked up, and we have to room for fuck ups.¡± said a gruffy voice from behind me. I shoved the horny man to the ground, and kicked his head in to knock him out, before I turned around to look at a tall man, with a heavy tan and a not-very-well-shaved face. He had brown hair, which looked like it was graying at the root. It looked like he tried to slick it back but failed at doing so. He was wearing worn out jeans, and a Space Camp 2012 shirt that looked like it had been well worn. ¡°Why should I kill him?¡± I asked. ¡°Well, he tried to kill Mattie, didn¡¯t he?¡± He asked. I was shocked that he knew who Mattie was, but I tried to hide it. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Oh, by the way, my name is Johnathan, I am the leader of this shitty organization. I am a werewolf. I¡¯m also able to change things on the molcular level, given that I can see it and it¡¯s within 10 meters of me. That¡¯s why no bullet was actually shot. He was shooting blanks.¡± He said. ¡°But why, if he killed Mattie, that would make us less of a threat.¡± Amber argued. ¡°I won¡¯t kill kids, nor will I let a kid die when I could prevent it.¡± ¡°Well, then why not kill me, I¡¯m not a kid?¡± ¡°You may be recognized as an adult by the government, but that doesn¡¯t mean you''re not a kid.¡± ¡°Alrighty then, what do you want?¡± Sophie barked. ¡°I need to ask for your help, that''s why.¡± He replied. ¡°With what?¡± Mattie asked. ¡°I need help ending the civil war.¡± ¡°What civil war?¡± I asked. ¡°You don¡¯t know?¡± Someone asked. I heard people start whispering about how do they not know or they were just attacked by civil war leaders, how don¡¯t they know. ¡°I see.¡± The old man said, ¡°come with me. I¡¯ll explain everything to you. You must save what we¡¯ve built ourselves. You¡¯ll either be our saviors, or the tools of our demise. What do you choose?¡± Chapter 17: Sophie I shoved one of my guns back into my coat and said ¡°Well, sure. These bloody idiots don¡¯t make choices quickly. I think we¡¯d like to know more about this rumored civil war. No guarantees we will help you though.¡± Johnathan smiled softly, which I found unsettling given the circumstances, and turned and walked away, as if he was ordering us to follow him. I got a death stare from Livvy, who walked back closer to the car and leaned against it. Mattie and Amber followed Johnathan, already bickering. ¡°Fuck, I don¡¯t think we can leave them alone. They fight like a drunk married couple.¡± I said, ¡°Who¡¯s staying here? I¡¯m assuming Livvy.¡± ¡°Well, that does make the most sense given the circumstances. She can stay here and still listen in.¡± Mattie said, poking his head around a corner, and threw something to Livvy. ¡°Walkie Talkie. Use it to ask questions or whatever.¡± As soon as he appeared, he was gone. ¡°Drunk married couple indeed.¡± Livvy muttered, and shooed Alric and I along. I followed the path that the love birds took, and turned the corner into a long hallway. It had a steel sheet on all the surfaces except the floor, which was a granite-like tile. It looked interesting to say the least. ¡°I¡¯m curious, why¡¯d you agree to his terms so quickly?¡± Alric asked as he walked beside me. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m not gonna demote you or something, I just want to know.¡± ¡°Well,¡± I began, ¡°you guys always use logic, or Rose, to solve your problems. You never trust your gut. I get it, trusting logic will increase your likelihood of coming out on top. But sometimes you¡¯ve just gotta trust your gut. I wouldn¡¯t have made it this far without trusting the butterflies down there. You guys all have super powerful abilities, I don¡¯t. I don¡¯t get the luxury of having time to think. I need every second I can get in a fight.¡± ¡°I also think that he has no intention of hurting us. His speech about not killing kids, while convincing, wasn¡¯t what sold me on that. On his wrist, I saw two names, with two dates afterwards, one said ¡®Melissa Smith Williams, 01/29/1981-4/01/2013¡¯ and ¡®Samuel Williams 2/12/2002-4/01/2013¡¯. I think maybe that¡¯s his family. The second dates are the same. I think his family died on that day. A sick april fools joke, or an unavoidable tragedy, I don¡¯t know. ¡°I think he really does love his family, and to honor their memory, or something sappy like that, he doesn¡¯t kill kids. Or whoever he deems a kid.¡± ¡°Damn,¡± Alric said, ¡°you figured all of that out from two names and three dates. I¡¯m fucking impressed.¡± I felt a presence behind me and twirl around, ready to shoot. It was Johnathan. He looked like he had a huge weight on his shoulders. ¡°So, you figured it out.¡± He said, ¡°I¡¯ll explain more later. But for right now, come with me, I¡¯ve gotta show you to the meeting room. And hi Livvy, want me to bring you some coffee or something?¡± He laughed, and lowered my gun. He walked in front of me and Alric, and continued down the hallway. He motioned for us to follow, and he disappeared into a doorway. ¡°Motherfuck!¡± Alric exclaimed as he looked on in shock at the room. Half the room was ablaze, and the other half was drenched in snow. Mattie was throwing snowballs, likely mixed with ice at Amber, who was covered in something wet. Probably oil or something. ¡°Oh hi,¡± Mattie said, without even looking at us, ¡°Johnny my boy, I was told by a superior officer to tell you, and I quote ¡®I don¡¯t want any coffee you snarky bastard¡¯. I bet Livvy wants tea, get her some very, very bland green tea.¡± A static voice filled the room and screamed ¡°Mattie, shut the fuck up, I do not want coffee, or tea, or tequiila either for that matter. Amber, stop burning the place down. Sophie, don¡¯t leave their side, and don¡¯t let them fight, or I¡¯ll kill all three of you. I am usually a very calm person, not very confident in my abilities, but you two have totally ass fisted that for me. Now shut up. I have a splitting headache, and I don¡¯t need your sreaming over all the other shit I can hear, it¡¯s fucking annoying.¡± ¡°Damn Livvy, didn¡¯t know you were a total badass.¡± Mattie remarked. ¡°I''m the baddest of asses bitch.¡± Livvy replied. ¡°Wow, you¡¯ve got some feisty kids here, dontcha, White Rose.¡± Johnathan laughed. ¡°Now down to business.¡± ¡°This civil war,¡± He sighed, and looked down, and pulled up a table and some chairs while speaking, ¡°it started some time ago now. On the first of April in 2013. If only it was just some sick April Fool¡¯s joke. Too many have died to deem it as such. Sophie, I think your name was, you noticed that my family died on that day. That¡¯s what started it all.¡± He sat down, and put his hands on the table. He sighed and looked down, slamming a fist into the table, which shook violently. ¡°The vampires attacked very early in the morning, about 1 AM. They killed everyone in my neighborhood. I was living in Atlanta at the time. My family were also werewolves, but they didn¡¯t know, since they were only half a werewolf, meaning that they had full control over it. I¡¯m not half so I don¡¯t. Well, I didn''t, I do now. ¡°They broke into my bedroom, and killed my wife first. They ate her without concern for whether I was awake or not. When I finally attacked them, they threw my wife¡¯s dead body out the window. They pinned me against the wall, and restrained me there by my throat until I black out. By the time I woke up, they had eaten my sons limbs. He, he was still alive. They were going to try and turn him. But he was a werewolf, so he would die, several times over, trying to turn. Werewolves don¡¯t have any regenerative abilities, so he would''ve bleed out. ¡°I, slit h-, I s-s-s, I killed him. I couldn¡¯t bear to see him suffer. He would¡¯ve died anyway. I took his body, and ran. I ran until I couldn¡¯t. I eventually made my way to my summer home in the Tennessee mountains and buried him there. ¡°I then tried to find the local pack, who took me in and taught me how to fight. There I learned that what happened at my home wasn¡¯t the first nor last time they did this. They were trying to make more vampires, so they can take over the underworld.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. ¡°In other words, they were trying to become the strongest magical race.¡± ¡°What? What are those. Like Vampires, and Werewolves?¡± Amber asked? ¡°Ah, I assume you don¡¯t know then. Interesting. I thought you would.¡± John said. ¡°Well, as I call them magic races their officially called Noctervus. It combined the Latin words for night, or nocte, and slave, or servus. It essiantly translates too Slaves to the night or night slave. We can¡¯t show who we really are in the day, but when the moon comes out, we are no longer bound by humanity, but bound by the night itself. It¡¯s one big, convoluted metaphor. ¡°There are the Werewolves, other werebeasts, Vampires, and spirits at the very bottom, since they¡¯re the closest to humans. However, the Noctervus as a whole are very wary of the vampires and spirits. Most want to live a normal life, and some will go to great lengths to achieve that. Vampires can¡¯t see the sun ever again, so they can¡¯t live with humans. Spirit¡¯s can¡¯t be seen by humans unless you know they exist, and believe that they exist. So they cannot even speak to the people in their old life. Both are very jealous of werewolves because they want to be able to fit in like us. But they can¡¯t. ¡°Next there are demons, all the stories you¡¯ve heard about demons are true. They are hideous creatures, grotesque and smelly. I can barely last a minute in the presence of one, at least a pure one, without vomiting. They hate humans the most. ¡°There are also fairies. They¡¯re greedy bastards. Some have magic to make what they want, others can manipulate you to do it for them, some just want to kill you, others are just harmless jack-asses. The more powerful a fairie, the more beautiful a human, or anything with any amount of human blood will find it. ¡°Probably the most mystical of all Noctervus, are the angels. Really, they¡¯re just cops, but when they do have to fight, they drop their hopelessly pure and beautiful act. They¡¯re uglier than even demons. ¡°They¡¯re humanoid creatures, their intestines are splattered everywhere, and sort of stick to their stomach, their heart beats out of their chest. Literally. Their flesh is burnt to a crisp, it doesn¡¯t help the smell. Their spinal cord rips through their back, and when they move blood gets everywhere. It''s gross. Their ACL is permanently torn or something, so they limp everywhere. Their wings are leathery and full of burns, like they just pulled themselves out of the fiery pits of hell.¡± We all listened carefully as Johnathan explained the details of this underground society. Eventually, it all ended up contradicting itself. ¡°It¡¯s come to the point where the rules just don¡¯t apply.¡± Jonathan commented on the matter. ¡°If one law says something, two more will say the opposite. It¡¯s utterly ridiculous.¡± It was almost 6 hours later when it was finally starting to make sense. ¡°And I thought we lived on the dregs of society, god damn.¡± I remarked, followed by a laugh of one of Jonathan''s subordinates. ¡°You did. You lived on the edge of human society. We live on the edge of the Noctervus society. If you could even consider a society. It¡¯s barely civil enough to call it a civilization.¡± ¡°So, after six hours of being here, can you tell us about this civil war?¡± Livvy¡¯s voice crackled over the radio. Johnathan nodded, and sent one of his subordinates to get food and drink. He took a breath and said, ¡°While the Noctervus have never really gotten along, regardless of race or anything else, for the most part it wasn¡¯t anything that threatened people that weren¡¯t involved. Most of the fighting was taken into a nearby forest or something, cuase no one wanted the angels called on them. But recently, no angel has been seen. Not one in the last 6 months. Due to this, the vampires got around to attacking more humans than ever before. They wanted more vampires. ¡°Eventually, they got the support of the demons, and the spirits as well. With the three of them rampaging around the world killing people, the UN has been trying to deal with these things, but can¡¯t. ¡°The UN has done everything they can to cover it up. And yes, they do know about the Noctervi. They just don¡¯t want the public to know because they think it would cause chaos. And I¡¯m pretty sure they''re right. But if we aren¡¯t doing anything to endanger humans they usually don¡¯t care. ¡°So, naturally, when the vampires, demons, and spirits started killing humans all over Europe and northern Egypt, they did everything they could to stop it. But with demons making contracts with the humans to make more demons, the successful vampire transformations, and all the spirits that were made from all the death, they¡¯ve got an army ten times as large as it was when they started this wanton murder. And that doesn¡¯t include the ones that didn¡¯t join them. ¡°They just started their rampage across the middle east. If they get past their, they¡¯ll get to India, China, and Russia. The most largely populated countries in the world. If they get past Asia, there¡¯ll be no stopping them. ¡°That¡¯s were the werewolves come in. Since we can still live in human society, we want to keep humans around. So we fight. But we can¡¯t do it alone. Most of us don¡¯t have abilities, and the ones that do usually don¡¯t have very powerful ones. Once you become a Noctervus, you can¡¯t gain an ability. And to make it worse, if you already have one, it can¡¯t get any stronger, even if it isn¡¯t fully developed or matured. ¡°So, we don¡¯t have many advantages. Our only advantages are that we can still bless things to fight the spirits, demons, and vampires, because they¡¯re all hurt a lot more by a blessed object. Also, we¡¯re physically stronger than vampires and spirits. Not demons though, but there are a lot less of them than the other two. ¡°And that is why we want you to help us fight them. You are some of, if not the most powerful people in the world. You guys could probably do anything if you wanted to. If we could get your support, we might be able to win. ¡°Will you do it?¡± I looked at Johnathan. The others were obviously considering it, except Amber, who¡¯s too nice to have to think about it. But I think they were missing something. With deadly calm, I spoke. ¡°Johnathan, did you organize the attack on our base of operations?¡± He looked surprised, but quickly gained composure and said, ¡°Yes, our goal was to get close so we could talk to Rose, but since they¡¯re currently out of action, their commanders will do.¡± When he said that, Amber¡¯s flame ignited in her hand, Mattie and Alric had guns in hand pointed at Jonathan. I did nothing, if he wanted us dead, we would be by now. ¡°So, it¡¯s your fault Rose almost died! You little bitch, I¡¯ll kill you.¡± Amber yelled, and walked closer, and once behind Johnathan, put the fire in her hand mere inches from his face. Jonathans subordinates raised their guns, and Amber said ¡°Make one wrong move, say one thing incorrectly, or if I just feel like it, I¡¯ll burn that mouth right off of you, tongue, jaw, and everything else. So be wise with your next words.¡± Jonathan sighed, and ordered his men to stand down. ¡°Like I said before, I have no intention of killing kids. That rock guy wasn¡¯t one of my men. He smelled like an angel, but he definitely wasn¡¯t an angel. I¡¯m pretty sure he was human, but angel¡¯s have a stronger scent than humans, so if it was a human, he was probably in league with an angel. Those angels have plenty of reasons to want Rose dead.¡± Amber removed the flame from her hand, but punched Johnathan. ¡°That¡¯s for being a jerk and trying to kidnap me.¡± She turned around and walked out of the room, saying ¡°We¡¯ll help you, on the condition that you help Rose or someone Rose picks to lead a union of Noctervi when this is all over.¡± ¡°Sure, you¡¯ve got yourself a deal.¡± Chapter 18: Ramiel ¡°So, you¡¯ve seen my plans?¡± Said a cocky voice behind me. I spun and saw Rose sitting on a desk, one leg hanging off the desk and the other tucked under it. They smirked at me. It infuriated me. ¡°Not much of a plan, now is it?¡± ¡°Hm, what do you mean, I thought the Cards show someone''s true intentions?¡± ¡°They do.¡± ¡°That can¡¯t be right. If they did, wouldn¡¯t they have the plans on making a single democratic union I¡¯ve made on it?¡±Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. ¡°It should.¡± ¡°Give it here.¡± I threw it at Rose, who caught it gracefully. We weren¡¯t technically supposed to show anyone a Card, especially not their. But, they did get here on there own. It wasn¡¯t that I was surprised that they did, I, I just didn¡¯t think anyone would think to do it. ¡°Hm, I forgot that I changed it to show that instead of my plans. It was almost a year back now.¡± Rose said. ¡°Wha, what? How did you get here?¡± ¡°Ramiel, Ramiel. Chill the fuck out my guy. I just transferred my consciousness to a spirit. Spirits can reach here, right. I¡¯ve done it multiple times now.¡± Ugh, I hate that they¡¯re right. Chapter 19: Amber/Rose I went back to the group, and forced myself to sit down. I needed to chill. But I couldn¡¯t. I was really worried about Rose. I went over to Mattie, and whispered into his ear, ¡°If Rose isn¡¯t up within the next 2 hours, The Rose is yours, and I want you to accept his offer.¡± That¡¯s when I heard them. ¡°Amber what the fuck. Why¡¯re you trying to give away my organization. At least sell it. Damn imbecil.¡± Said Rose from the hallway. I went over to the doorway, and saw them. God were they hot. They had their hair down, parted to the side just a bit. They were wearing a black MCR t-shirt under a black leather jacket, which was splattered with blood. I realized that was the one from the vampire extrermination a few days ago. They must not have washed it. They had fingerless leather gloves, gripping a knife in their right hand, and a pistol in the left. They had a black and white flannel wrapped around their waist, flowing around their knees. They wore dark grey jeans tucked under black combat boots. ¡°Hey, old man. I¡¯ll accept your offer. Also, you should know, Ramiel is behind this all. Bitch was looking at our Cards. I went to edit mine, but nooooooo, he had to be there.¡± Rose said. Jonathan looked taken aback at this, but before he could say anything Rose was giving orders. ¡°Mattie, start making a shit ton of holy bullets, make them out of electrum, demonic creatures are really hurt by it. Amber, Sophie, Alric, go out and get as many weapons as possible, preferably guns, and preferably electrum blades, oh, and take Livvy with you to do recon. Go to the nighttime market unde the capitol building in Santa Fe. Mattie, make sure those bullets are in every type of ammunition you can think of. I¡¯m gonna get some food.¡± Rose turned around to walk out and Mattie, looking very butt-hurt, asked ¡°what do you mean, and I quote, ¡®every type of ammunition you can think of¡¯?¡± This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. ¡°You act as if I know what the hell I¡¯m talking about.¡± Rose About an hour later, I came back in and put a white bag on the table. ¡°I went and got some chinese. Eat, or don¡¯t. I don¡¯t really care, but I do suggest eating.¡± they said, pulling up a chair, and sitting down. I bet I looked tired. Like I just dragged myself out of hell and fell right back in. ¡°How can you edit your Card?¡± Jonathan asked out of nowhere. He seemed really stressed from the stuff Rose told him. ¡°More importantly, what are Cards?¡± Sophie asked, taking a bunch of bullets from Mattie who tried to take them back. She shoved them in her pockets and rested her arm against Mattie¡¯s head. He tried to shake her off, but didn¡¯t budge. She said something about ¡°You¡¯re like that cute little brother that everyone hates, but secretly loves. It¡¯s adorable.¡± ¡°You guys don¡¯t know?¡± Jonathan said accusingly, ¡°And you do. What¡¯s that about?¡± ¡°Yea, I¡¯ve been living underground my whole life. Actually, you¡¯ve probably met my parents, they were prominent drug dealers about 14 years ago.¡± Rose said. ¡°I didn¡¯t want the others wrapped up in my shit, especially not this. The angels are dangerous. They¡¯re the only ones that I wouldn¡¯t win in a one on one fight. At least without some serious mobility.¡± ¡°They¡¯re really that powerful? Powerful enough to tire you out?¡± Amber asked. I nodded and she put her head in her hands. ¡°Damn, we made an enemy that powerful. No wonder you lost.¡± ¡°You guys don¡¯t have to fight this battle, I can do it myself.¡± I said. ¡°No, you¡¯re our leader and our friend. We won¡¯t let you just go and get yourself killed. I know you have been the strong one your whole life. But, for once, let us do something for you.¡± Amber exclaimed, Mattie and Alric nodding in agreement, ¡°So, tell us everything.¡± Sophie, a scowl on her face, said ¡°I¡¯m not your friend, but you are my leader. So I will follow your orders. For now, I¡¯ll follow you. But you fuck up, and I¡¯m out. I don¡¯t follow incompetent leaders.¡± I smiled, and for the first time in many years, I felt warm. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll tell you. Don¡¯t blame me when you are lying on the floor, bleeding out.¡± Chapter 21: Sophie So my entire life was just scripted. Like a rat in a maze. Like a fucking simulation. All of it, fake. My parent¡¯s, killed like feral dogs. Was scripted. Rose was explaining something to Johnathan. But I wasn¡¯t listening. ¡°So you¡¯re telling me, that my life, was just scripted. My best friend. She killed herself, because she was raped, and she became pregnant, but she couldn¡¯t do it. She couldn¡¯t be a parent. And she had no parents, so no one could sign for an abortion. Because her guardian was the one who raped her. You¡¯re telling me, that was fucking scripted. Like a goddamn lab rat. My parent¡¯s, shot dead for no other reason than being hispanic. A simulation. ALL OF IT. A FUCKING SCRIPT.¡± I laughed harder than I had ever laughed before. ¡°Your telling me, that nothing I have done or will do will FUCKING MATTER. NOTHING I DO MEANS A GODDAMN THING.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Rose said. I pulled a gun from my belt, and pointed it at Rose. ¡°Shoot me, what will it do for you. I wont die,¡± They pulled their hand up, and blood was dripping down from the back of her palm. ¡°I won¡¯t even have a chance of dying. If it gets your anger out, fine, unload every bullet in this room into my head. What will happen? Nothing. You do you, but think before you act Commander.¡± I lowered my gun with a scowl. They were right, there was nothing I could do. ¡°Commander?¡± Alric asked. ¡°Yes, Sohpie¡¯s got balls. We need her expertise. She¡¯s now the commander of the Assault Squad. I promoted her right now.¡± Rose said. I looked up, and they were already giving out orders. ¡°Alric, Livvy. Go out and recruit people. We need talent. And lot¡¯s of it. Mattie, keep doing what you¡¯re doing. Bee, I¡¯ll let Johnathan explain everything about the underground to you and Mattie. Everything I left out. I¡¯ll leave you to order everything we need, and then find more recruits from here. Also, record your conversation with Johnny here, so we can send it to these three. Sophie meet me here, alone, in thirty minutes. I¡¯ll officially induct you as commander.¡± Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. ¡°So, did you come here to kill me, or to beat my ass?¡± I said. Rose came over from across the room, and put their hand on my shoulder. ¡°It might not matter in the end, but your ability, if you want it, is time travel. Very condintial at that, but it works. You might be able to save her, I can¡¯t tell the future. But, I can help you, and you¡¯re one of my commanders, so I will help you. If you want my help.¡± With that, Rose left. I turned, and they were gone. I wanted to thank them. I¡¯d have to think about it, and know all the conditions, but I think I¡¯ll take it. It seems way too suited for me. It isn¡¯t a combat ability, but it would be incredibly useful. I¡¯m good in combat already. And If I can take other people with me, it would be even better. This seems like a golden opportunity. ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll do it.¡± She stood there, her black hair blowing in the wind, blue eyes piercing my gaze. She had a gun in her hand and her grip on it wasn¡¯t strong. It was shaky as hell. ¡°Lydia, wh-wh-what are you doing?¡± I asked. ¡°I¡¯m leaving. I¡¯m sorry Sophie. I should¡¯ve told you. But my foster-father raped me about 4 months ago. I got pregnant, and I went to the police because I couldn¡¯t get my foster-parents to sign for an abortion. They didn¡¯t believe me, the cops I mean. I, I¡¯ve tried so many times now. They¡¯re convinced I was just being a slut. I-I can¡¯t do it anymore.¡± She said, crying. Her tears shining in the moonlight. ¡°I¡¯m sorry¡± She said. She walked closer to me, and put her lips on mine. It was just a quick kiss, but my heart raced. She backed away, and put the gun to her head. She shook, but pulled the trigger. I ran toward her, but I was too late. I didn¡¯t think she¡¯d do it. I wasn¡¯t fast enough. I knelt over her limp body, blood leaking out of the whole in her head. ¡°I love you, Sophie.¡± She wheezed. She took her last breath, and I screamed. ¡°LYDIA! Why, LYDIA!¡± I woke up with a start, I was in the debriefing room, I must¡¯ve fallen asleep. I looked around and saw Amber across from me. ¡°Who¡¯s Lydia?¡± ¡°None of your damn business.¡± ¡°Oh, sorry I pried.¡± ¡°Yea, well tell your partner to stop prying too. They¡¯re real damn annoying.¡± Chapter 20: Livvy "So, Cards are basically like if you were a Magic: The Gathering card?¡± Mattie asked. ¡°Interesting. But, how were you able to change it. Probably more impressive is getting into heaven to do it.¡± ¡°No, not really.¡± Jonathan interjected. ¡°Many Noctervi do it. It¡¯s not hard. It¡¯s mainly a trick that uses interdimensional travel magic but instead of going to a different dimension, you just enter the pocket dimension that is heaven. The impressive part is that Rose lasted more than a few seconds. The angels usually kill whoever goes up there. And even more impressive than that is being able to find the Cards. It is said, however I¡¯m not sure if this is true or not, that it is impossible to find your own Card. So everything other than getting into heaven was impressive.¡± Interesting, I thought to myself. So we could just launch an offensive on Heaven itself and kill all the angels that block our path. But what about a god. Are there multiple, or one. Do they have temples already worshiping them, or are they completely unknown. I hate it when questions lead to more questions. ¡°S-so, what, what about jus-just attacking the god, directly. Could we do it. I mean, is there any r-reason not to?¡± I said shyly. ¡°Because no one knows if this god actually exists.¡± Rose said, and than quickly added, ¡°Not even me.¡± I thought that getting the answers might actually be helpful, but I only have more questions. But still, wouldn¡¯t that just make attacking Heaven easier. Or at least have more of a reason to do it. Well, Rose is the boss, I can¡¯t do something they don¡¯t want me to. ¡°I want to know what the hell happened to Amber.¡± Sophie said, ¡°fuck this god, what about her. Is she like a half demon or something? Or maybe a full demon.¡± At this, Amber shyed back, but didn¡¯t take her eyes off of Johnathan. ¡°Careful Sophie, I d-don¡¯t think she knows herself, so, I don¡¯t know, m-maybe, like, don¡¯t attack Amber.¡± I said, trying to defend Amber really wasn¡¯t my goal, I just wanted to get back on topic, and I also think that Amber needs to catch a break. ¡°Well, given that I had a spy there, who has an ability that lets someone else see through his eyes,¡± Jonathan said, ¡°I can confidently say that she is a half-demon.¡± At this the whole room burst into motion. Johnathans men either moved towards him or towards Amber. Rose had a gun in hand, pointed at Johnathan, and their other hand was aflame. Sophie also had guns pointed at Johnathan, and I had one pointed at him too. Alric was on his feet, but hadn¡¯t moved much. Mattie was still just making bullets. Johnathans subordinates had guns pointed on all of us but Mattie, which was probably their biggest mistake, but I don¡¯t think Johnathan or Rose would actually start a fight. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. Johnathan looked unnervingly calm for a man with about 5 guns pointed at him. He said ¡°Oh calm down. Stop getting worked up over nothing. Lower your damn guns, they¡¯re annoying to look at.¡± He paused, and waited until everyone had gone back to their original positions. ¡°Alright, good. Now get ready for half an essay.¡± ¡°Now it is true that Amber is a half-demon. She can¡¯t be a full demon though, because they can¡¯t take a human shape. You might be wondering how I know she¡¯s a demon. Well, that¡¯s simple. She can manipulate souls. ¡°This is an inherent ability of all demons, regardless of how much of a demon they are, assuming at least one parent was a demon. Souls can be taken out of dead bodies. Souls don¡¯t naturally leave their bodies. Angels employ special demons to lead them to hell, because heaven doesn¡¯t exist for people to go to. They go to hell to be treated like cattle. But if they aren¡¯t collected within 24 hours, which is very, very common, they become spirits. That¡¯s why there are so many spirits around. ¡°Demons can take the souls out of a body, but only the demons. They can also revive a person, if they sacrifice souls equal to their IP, or Intrinsic Power level. Well, let me rephrase that. If someone has an IP of 5, and they were to be revived, souls would have to be sacrificed, but the total IP of those souls has to be 5 or higher. So an IP of 5 would work, as well as a soul with an IP of 10, or two souls with IP¡¯s of 2 and 3. ¡°The average person has an IP of 1,000. Anyone with an ability has at least 100,000. There are people without abilities with up to 100,000, like Sophie. These people are very, very talented. But with an ability, you technically don¡¯t have an IP limit. You can technically raise your IP, but it¡¯s not something you have control of, most times it just happens as you grow. It can also be increased via extra exposure to radiation. ¡°IP is measured by the amount of radiation in the body. While most people think radiation is scientific, it¡¯s actually supernatural. That¡¯s why it is so dangerous to regular humans. ¡°Radiation is the driving force of all life. It controls how one''s life will play out, what they''re good at, and their personality. Everything in one''s life is controlled by radiation. Or as it¡¯s called in the Underworld, Vitalis Magica. Or, Vita. It roughly translates to life magic. Because, that¡¯s truly what it is.¡± ¡°Wow,¡± Amber said,¡± That¡¯s a lot of stuff. A lot to think about, a lot to take in. Everything seems to make sense to some degree at least.¡± She seemed to be deep in thought, and worried about something. Sophie, across the room, seemed to be lost in thought as well. ¡°So, my shooting abilities. They came from my IP levels, right?¡± Sophie asked, seeming disturbed by something. ¡°Yes.¡± Rose said, and Sophie''s expression darkened. When Rose noticed this, she quickly added, ¡°But you''re better than anyone else in the world. You can¡¯t do that with IP alone. It might have been a factor, but it was only because you worked hard that you can shoot better than anyone else. IP only gives you talent, not skill. Skill makes you the best. Talent gives you potential. Talent is given, skill is earned. Never forget that.¡± With this, Sophie¡¯s face softened, but it was still stressed. She seemed really defeated. I didn¡¯t know why, but it was probably something personal. ¡°Well, Rose.¡± Jonathan started. ¡°Why the hell didn¡¯t you tell at the very least your commanders about the Underworld? Seems pretty important to miss, dontcha think?¡± Chapter 21: Sophie So my entire life was just scripted. Like a rat in a maze. Like a fucking simulation. All of it, fake. My parent¡¯s, killed like feral dogs. Was scripted. Rose was explaining something to Johnathan. But I wasn¡¯t listening. ¡°So you¡¯re telling me, that my life, was just scripted. My best friend. She killed herself, because she was raped, and she became pregnant, but she couldn¡¯t do it. She couldn¡¯t be a parent. And she had no parents, so no one could sign for an abortion. Because her guardian was the one who raped her. You¡¯re telling me, that was fucking scripted. Like a goddamn lab rat. My parent¡¯s, shot dead for no other reason than being hispanic. A simulation. ALL OF IT. A FUCKING SCRIPT.¡± I laughed harder than I had ever laughed before. ¡°Your telling me, that nothing I have done or will do will FUCKING MATTER. NOTHING I DO MEANS A GODDAMN THING.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Rose said. I pulled a gun from my belt, and pointed it at Rose. ¡°Shoot me, what will it do for you. I wont die,¡± They pulled their hand up, and blood was dripping down from the back of her palm. ¡°I won¡¯t even have a chance of dying. If it gets your anger out, fine, unload every bullet in this room into my head. What will happen? Nothing. You do you, but think before you act Commander.¡± I lowered my gun with a scowl. They were right, there was nothing I could do. ¡°Commander?¡± Alric asked. ¡°Yes, Sohpie¡¯s got balls. We need her expertise. She¡¯s now the commander of the Assault Squad. I promoted her right now.¡± Rose said. I looked up, and they were already giving out orders. ¡°Alric, Livvy. Go out and recruit people. We need talent. And lot¡¯s of it. Mattie, keep doing what you¡¯re doing. Bee, I¡¯ll let Johnathan explain everything about the underground to you and Mattie. Everything I left out. I¡¯ll leave you to order everything we need, and then find more recruits from here. Also, record your conversation with Johnny here, so we can send it to these three. Sophie meet me here, alone, in thirty minutes. I¡¯ll officially induct you as commander.¡± If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. ¡°So, did you come here to kill me, or to beat my ass?¡± I said. Rose came over from across the room, and put their hand on my shoulder. ¡°It might not matter in the end, but your ability, if you want it, is time travel. Very condintial at that, but it works. You might be able to save her, I can¡¯t tell the future. But, I can help you, and you¡¯re one of my commanders, so I will help you. If you want my help.¡± With that, Rose left. I turned, and they were gone. I wanted to thank them. I¡¯d have to think about it, and know all the conditions, but I think I¡¯ll take it. It seems way too suited for me. It isn¡¯t a combat ability, but it would be incredibly useful. I¡¯m good in combat already. And If I can take other people with me, it would be even better. This seems like a golden opportunity. ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll do it.¡± She stood there, her black hair blowing in the wind, blue eyes piercing my gaze. She had a gun in her hand and her grip on it wasn¡¯t strong. It was shaky as hell. ¡°Lydia, wh-wh-what are you doing?¡± I asked. ¡°I¡¯m leaving. I¡¯m sorry Sophie. I should¡¯ve told you. But my foster-father raped me about 4 months ago. I got pregnant, and I went to the police because I couldn¡¯t get my foster-parents to sign for an abortion. They didn¡¯t believe me, the cops I mean. I, I¡¯ve tried so many times now. They¡¯re convinced I was just being a slut. I-I can¡¯t do it anymore.¡± She said, crying. Her tears shining in the moonlight. ¡°I¡¯m sorry¡± She said. She walked closer to me, and put her lips on mine. It was just a quick kiss, but my heart raced. She backed away, and put the gun to her head. She shook, but pulled the trigger. I ran toward her, but I was too late. I didn¡¯t think she¡¯d do it. I wasn¡¯t fast enough. I knelt over her limp body, blood leaking out of the whole in her head. ¡°I love you, Sophie.¡± She wheezed. She took her last breath, and I screamed. ¡°LYDIA! Why, LYDIA!¡± I woke up with a start, I was in the debriefing room, I must¡¯ve fallen asleep. I looked around and saw Amber across from me. ¡°Who¡¯s Lydia?¡± ¡°None of your damn business.¡± ¡°Oh, sorry I pried.¡± ¡°Yea, well tell your partner to stop prying too. They¡¯re real damn annoying.¡± Chapter 22: Rose Damn, this girl had a rough life. Lydia Branwell, suicide at age 14, not long after her birthday. She had a rough life from the start, at least with what my mind reading ability goes. She watched her father get shot, and her mother raped when she was just 4. After that she was left homeless, all alone. Then the state took her into the foster care system. She was somewhat happy there, but had no friends. When she moved back to New York, at about 7. She met Livvy, and had a relatively good life for about three years after that. Then her foster parents were robbed and sexually assualted. They blamed Lydia, beat her, and threw her out. She lived on the streets, stealing, and running. Her ability allowed her to replace one object with another of similar mass, which probably came in handy. When she was 13, she was put back into a foster home. This time, the mother was nice but the father was a complete fucking, jack-ass. He was a pervert, always trying to peep on her and finally, in march of 2018 raped her. About a month later, she found out she was pregnant. She was already a different person from her happy go lucky self after she was raped, but then it was worse after she found out she was pregnant. She couldn¡¯t take it, and eventually, snapped. Holy shit, this seems like someones writing a suffer porn novel. Seriously, what the fuck. She was special to Sophie, and Sophie was special to her. I can¡¯t just let my friend suffer when we can do something about it. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. And just when I was about to walk away, Sophie came around the hallway corner and asked, ¡°What are the conditions of the ability?¡± Ah, I knew she¡¯d be interested in it. Well, might as well tell her. ¡°Well, first, you can¡¯t go more than ten thousand years back, and you can¡¯t go more than ten thousand years in the future. You also can¡¯t travel less than 1 year at time. Second, you can¡¯t go alone, you need at least 3 other people with you, and you can¡¯t have more than 5 people total. Lastly, you need a teleportation circle like thing. You must have a circle, about a kilometer wide, and a circle about 10 meters wide in the center of that circle. The smaller circle either has to be parallel or lower than the larger circle for it to work. You must also have a set of circles in the place you want to travel to, it doesn¡¯t matter whether it would be in the past, present, or future. The circle has to be there at some point in the timeline.¡± ¡°Well that¡¯s a lot of words.¡± Sophie said, looking contemplative. ¡°Why are you telling me this?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t have my commanders suffering.¡± ¡°But you barely know me.¡± ¡°So?¡± ¡°Nevermind. how the fuck do you know about Lydia?¡± ¡°Mind reading can be quite handy, don¡¯t you agree?¡± ¡°Well, yes.¡± ¡°Ha, I¡¯ve beat you.¡± She sighed, ¡°No, you didn¡¯t.¡± She twirled around, rolling her eyes and giving me the bird. ¡°I¡¯ll do the thing. But you give me radiation poisoning and you¡¯ll regret all your life decisions.¡± Walking down the hall, I said something about, ¡°Oh, will I now?¡± but I doubt she cared much. She was probably happy. She could see Lydia again. She could save her. I smiled, and laughed, I¡¯ve gone soft. Chapter 23: Amber ¡°So, Mattie, are you able to make that radiation chamber?¡± Rose asked, walking into the room. Mattie nodded, not taking his eyes off his work. He had hundreds of thousands of bullets in a pile next to him. He seemed proud of his work. ¡°Alright, get it ready.¡± ¡°Did Sophie agree to get her ability?¡± Livvy asked, over the phone. We had her on the phone because she said she was bored and wanted someone to talk to while driving back to Albuquerque to recruit and tie up some loose ends. She is sorta shy, but she hates being alone. Irony, yay. ¡°Yea,¡± Rose started, ¡°and it¡¯s a time travel ability. With many conditions, including needing people to come with, so I¡¯ll be going with her when she goes. And so will Livvy and Amber. Although I don¡¯t know when this will happen.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± I said, and Livvy laughed, and said ¡°You¡¯re sure I¡¯d be the right one, I mean, I¡¯m a fucking loser.¡± ¡°If you don¡¯t wanna go, I won¡¯t make you, but I¡¯m gonna need a replacement.¡± Rose sighed. ¡°I have someone.¡± Jonathan remarked, his figure emerging from the shadows of the room. It was quite eerie. ¡°Alright, who is it?¡± I asked, curious. ¡°He¡¯s a young little guy, about your age. He¡¯s also a vampire, one that you can trust, which might complicate things, and he isn¡¯t very skilled in combat, but he¡¯s a genius. And not in the way that Mattie is. He¡¯s a tactical genius, and he knows the patterns of the underworld pretty damn well.¡± This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. ¡°Well, let me meet him.¡± Rose said. ¡°Arlight, gimme a minute.¡± Johnathan said and walked off. ¡°You sure we should go time traveling, or anywhere? It just doesn¡¯t seem like something you would do on a wim.¡± I said cautiously. ¡°What¡¯s changed.¡± I really didn¡¯t wanna get chewed out by Rose right now, but hey, what can you do? ¡°We¡¯re going to New York. And the New York underworld at that. I won¡¯t make anyone do anything, but I need someone who knows the backstreets of New York like most people think they know the back of their hands. So Sophie. But she needs a reason to go back, and I found the perfect scenario for it. Sure, I might be playing her like a fiddle, but she gets something out of this as well.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. What do you get out of this. Really, I think you¡¯re changing and I¡¯m not sure how to feel about it.¡± I said. Rose would probably say something about Assets and strip clubs, and the national porn museum, that is what I get out of it. Horny no matter how many times we have intercourse, they¡¯re so needy. ¡°I don¡¯t know, but I feel extremely compelled to do it. However, there are a few assets that I want up there. So, It¡¯s a process.¡± Assets. I was right. ¡°What assest¡¯s?¡± Livvy asked, her voice cracking a bit. I completely forgot she was on the phone. ¡°Well, mainly money wise. Buying an apartment complex. It¡¯ll bring in a lot of money. Maybe a strip club, maybe buy central park and put an entrance fee on it or something, although I¡¯m not sure I like that one. If we go, which we will, we¡¯ll being going back to 2018, about-ish. I set up my New York base in 2019, so I¡¯ll set it up a year earlier so I can get more money. I need to get maximum money output so that I can hire more people¡± As they finished their sentence, they sat back in their chair. Mattie opened the door and told Rose that the chamber was ready. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s get radiating.¡± Chapter 24: Sophie ¡°What the fuck, you trying to kill me. This looks like an iron maiden, what the hell.¡± I exclaimed as I saw the machine that would give me radiation poisoning or something. It was a metal, in a bell shape, the opened up to a bunch of syringes. ¡°Mattie, what the hell is this, I said radiation chamber not a god damn torture device.¡± Rose snapped. They looked as appalled as I did. Mattie sighed, ¡°Ah, sadly you didn¡¯t fall for my fucking brilliant scheme. Fucking bitches.¡± I don¡¯t know what his problem was, but he¡¯s really bad at cursing. He snapped his fingers and the iron maiden was gone. It was replaced by a small room that sort of looked like an elevator that was abandoned before they put the flooring and buttons in. ¡°Ironically, I am listening to Iron Maiden.¡± Rose said. ¡°Shut the fuck up.¡± Mattie snapped. ¡°Dude, stop swearing. You don¡¯t know how to curse. So, I say this in the most polite way possible, but shut the fuck up.¡± ¡°So,¡± I interrupted, those two were giving me a headache. ¡°Are we getting on with this, or are we gonna swear at each other all day? I¡¯d rather not do the latter, but maybe you would, so, by all means. Go ahead.¡± Rose turned to me, giving Mattie a gesture suggesting he could stick his genitals up his ass. ¡°Ah, you¡¯re right, that¡¯s on Mattie. We could do it, if Mattie would cooperate, but he¡¯s not, guess I¡¯ll just have to go shoot all those bullets that he made earlier. And into a concrete wall to.¡± Mattie, hearing this, seemed to literally have fire in his eyes. ¡°You will do no such thing. Fine, I¡¯ll help you.¡± He seems to be very proud of his work. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. ¡°Ah, there we go. You¡¯ll finally listen to reason.¡± I have to admit, those two are really damn good at getting stuff done while still trying to kill each other with the power of words. Mattie turned away, walking towards what looked like some sort of control panel. He snapped his fingers, and faster than I can see, Rose was behind me. Where they stood, there was multiple swords and knife. Rose put her hands on my shoulders and brought her face close to my ear. ¡°H-h-help me. Please help me miss. This scary boy is tr-t-trying to kill me. Ah.¡± Very calmly, I said, ¡°Fuck you.¡± ¡°If that¡¯s an invitation, then sure.¡± Rose remarked, but let go of me, and stepped back a bit. ¡°Anyway, Mattie, you better be ready. If you aren¡¯t your completely incompetent.¡± Mattie made a beastly noise, something between a hiss and a growl. ¡°Im fucking ready. Don¡¯t fucking acuse me of being an incompetent little bitch.¡± ¡°Alright, alright. Jesus christ, chill. And learn how to swear.¡± Mattie, walking over to Rose and I with a scowl, said ¡°So, Sophie. Here¡¯s the rundown of what this machine will do. Once I close the door it¡¯s essentially a vacuum, so you won¡¯t be able to breathe, however, the amount of radiation you need is minimal because of all the radiation you¡¯ve accumulated since you¡¯ve been around a lot of people with abilities. I¡¯ll have Rose knock you out before the doors close, so don¡¯t worry about suffocating. I mean, unless you wanna be conscious while you can¡¯t breathe, but that sounds awful. I¡¯ll then turn the radioton on, and you¡¯ll absorb it. It¡¯ll take about 30 seconds for it to be done.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t really have to worry about dying of suffocation or anything, but there¡¯s a small chance you could get radiation poisoning. At that point, I¡¯d say just go kill youself cause it¡¯s awfu-¡± Rose cut Mattie off abruptly. ¡°MATTIE, WE DO NOT TELL OUR FRIENDS TO COMMIT SUICIDE. WHAT THE HELL.¡± Mattie made a hrumph noise and motioned to me to enter the chamber, and I did. I stood directly in the middle, and I saw Rose approach me. Then everything went dark. Chapter 23: Mattie I don¡¯t know why the hell Rose has taken such a liking to Sophie. But if nothing else, it¡¯s really interesting. It¡¯d be even more interesting if they took her as an apprentice. They¡¯ve only done it twice, once with me, and the other time with Livvy. Livvy¡¯s now the highest ranking member of The Rose ever, excluding founders. I¡¯m also the heir to their throne so, yay me. But, if they did take Sophie in, she¡¯d probably be able to rival Livvy or maybe even Amber. She could already beat most of our former agents in a fight. Well, I think. So, if she got better. ¡°Hello,¡± I heard Rose say, ¡°Earth to Mattie. Earth to dumbass. Mattie, come on, turn that damn machine on.¡± Oh, I must¡¯ve been spacing out. I flipped the switch. ¡°Hey, Rose, why did you ta-¡± ¡°Shut up.¡± Rose cut me off. ¡°Pay attention, make sure she doesn¡¯t die or anything.¡± I know I act like a cunt to Rose, but they really are my parental figure. My dad never gave a shit about anything but working himself to death, and my mom was an alcoholic wreck. She was apparently caught up in a drug campaign. Apparently she sold drugs to some of Rose¡¯s people, and they overdosed because the amount she gave them was too much. Rose was pissed and tracked my mother down to the rich part of Albuquerque. They killed my mom and dad, who just so happened to have just come home. Then they saw me. And looked devastated. At the time, I didn¡¯t know why, but later I learned that it was because they didn¡¯t want to deprive anyone of the parents they didn¡¯t ever have. I said something along the lines of ¡°Oh, thanks for murdering those shitbags¡± but a lot more innocent given I was 9. And they took me in. The process was done. I flipped the radiation off. The doors opened and Sophie came out, gasping. ¡°Mattie, what the fuck, you said I woulnd¡¯t feel the suffacation cause I was unconsious.¡± ¡°Oh, that wasn¡¯t Mattie¡¯s fault,¡± Rose said, ¡°That was mine, I thought it would be funny if you woke up as soon as the radiation started.¡± Yup, definitely an apprentice. Sohpie sighed, black hair ruffled, shirt burnt in places, a red mark down the right side of her upper body. She looked like she came right out of a warzone. ¡°Alright, I¡¯m gonna go track down Johnathan and demand him to let me take a shower.¡± Sophie declared. ¡°But I need a new shirt. I don¡¯t need his dick getting hard because he saw my bra.¡± Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. ¡°I need to talk to him as well, so I¡¯ll go with you.¡± Rose said. I was gonna talk to them, but apparently not. That bitch. I quickly made up a shirt for Sophie, and threw it to her. She pulled the burnt one off, and put the second one on. It was just a regular white t-shirt, but since I hadn¡¯t taken her measurements, it was a bit big. She thanked me anyway, and she went to walk out the door with Rose. When they opened the door, Livvy jumped out of the way before she got bitch-slapped by the door. ¡°I heard you guys were looking for Johnny Boy. Down the hall, last right turn, first left, second door to the right. That¡¯s where you¡¯ll find him.¡± She said, and pushed past Rose, and pushed them and Sophie out the door, and closed it. ¡°Ah, so what did you wanna talk to Rose about?¡± Livvy asked. I can¡¯t figure out why, but she is always so perceptive when it comes to me. It¡¯s super unnerving actually. ¡°I was gonna ask if they were gonna take Sophie on as an apprentice.¡± I said, making two chairs. I slid one over to Livvy. I slumped down in the chair, and Livvy gracefully twirled the chair around, and lightly sat down. ¡°I mean, sure.¡± She said thoughtfully. ¡°It¡¯s possible, but I¡¯m not sure what Rose could teach her, except maybe just general skills. You and I, we came in knowing nothing, but Sophie¡¯s coming in and knows almost everything that Rose taught us.¡± I laughed, and said ¡°You¡¯re right, we were pretty fucking useless when we first came to Rose. Sadly, we aren¡¯t anymore, so Rose can actually make us do things. But, you''re right.¡± I snapped my fingers and made a lollipop for myself, unwrapped it and put it in my mouth and mumbled, ¡°I¡¯m not sure Rose taught us everything though? Do you?¡± ¡°Not really,¡± Livvy answered, ¡°I think that they thought they taught us everything they could need to teach us. But it is possible that Rose didn¡¯t teach us everything because we were just kids. We were really young, mostly, and I mean this very loosely, innocent little brats. Sophie¡¯s seen some shit. Sure, we¡¯ve seen the same stuff now, but not when Rose was teaching us.¡± ¡°I mean, I guess you''re right. We¡¯ve grown up, and in that time we¡¯ve taught shit to ourselves.¡± ¡°Oh, speak for yourself why don¡¯t ya. You did not grow up. If anything, you devolved into an annoying bitch that only knows how to curse in Homosapien.¡± I could feel my face go red. ¡°NO! I AM NOT!¡± Livvy shrugged and getting up out of the chair and walking out of the room said, ¡°Mattie, I used to not like you. You know that. You¡¯re a lot smarter than you look. But there''s something you need to know about Rose. Something you need to understand. Rose is not always right. You don¡¯t always have to agree with what they do. And where we have to follow orders, you don¡¯t. You don¡¯t have to do anything they ask you to do. You don¡¯t need to follow orders. Just, I-. I just don¡¯t want you to end up regretting something. A life full of regret is a life full of suffering.¡± With that, she left. I sat there, lost in thought. Did regretting something really fuck your life up that bad. Well, I guess she of all people would know. Chapter 26: Livvy I still have flashbacks to that day. The day my brother tried to kill me. It was six years ago. I had just come out to my family. ¡°I¡¯m not a boy, I¡¯m a girl.¡± ¡°Ben is a stupid name, I like Livvy better.¡± ¡°I never felt like a boy, I wanted to play with dolls and be a teacher, like a girl. I hate playing outside, and I hate sports.¡± I later learned that what I felt was called being transgender. My parents and my grandparents tried to understand and support me, but they didn¡¯t let me use the name Livvy, saying, ¡°We took great care to choose the perfect name for our son. That name was Ben. You should respect that and not spit in our faces.¡± I hated it. Ben was a stupid name. Eventually, my parents got fed up with my ¡®publicity stunt.¡¯ They sent me to live with my grandparents. My grandparents let me change my name, let me use the pronouns I wanted, let me wore what I wanted, let me be me. I was growing more and more comfortable with my own skin. I felt great. After about six months of that, I went home again, just for a week long visit. I wore girl clothes, and played with girl toys, and my friends called me Livvy and used the correct pronouns. My parents hated this prospect, but they let it happen. They told me they would give guardianship to my grandparents, and I could be who I wanted. I was so happy at the time, but looking back on it now I can see the pain in their eyes. They were trying to do what was best for me, not them. I went to my brother, who was six years older than me. He was 17 at the time. I hadn¡¯t seen him in the two days that I¡¯d been home because he¡¯d been with his friends. I went to tell him the good news. He didn¡¯t think it was good news, he started yelling. Screaming, ¡°Get out, you unnatural freak.¡± ¡°You¡¯re an abomination.¡± He was horrifying. His rage was clear on his face. My parents had probably left the house, because they didn¡¯t come help me. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. He beat me senseless as I screamed for help, he eventually pushed me onto the floor, and went to the kitchen and got a knife. He came back in with a manic grin on his face. He stabbed my hand, and pulled it out. I screamed as blood splattered. ¡°You wanna be a girl so damn bad. I¡¯d be happy to oblige.¡± He said, turning me onto my back and pinning me down. He pulled my pants and underwear off, and went to cut off my dick, but before he could, there was a gunshot. I heard him cry out in pain. He looked in the doorway, and saw a large man. He was our neighbor. He was an older man, a veteran of vietnam. He was a hell of a shot too. He had a pistol in his hand, and it was pointed at my brother. He moved toward me, his hand unwavering. ¡°Peyton, what the fuck are you doing.¡± The man yelled at my brother, Peyton. Peyton laughed and said, ¡°Killing this freak of nature. If he wants to be a girl so bad, I¡¯ll just cut off his dick. You¡¯re a man''s man, you would understand.¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t understand killing someone just because they want to be someone else. I might not understand it, but Livvy doesn¡¯t deserve to die.¡± ¡°That''s not his name and you know it.¡± I stood up, pulling up my pants as I went. It was embarrassing to be seen like this in front of my neighbors, but at the time, I didn¡¯t care. ¡°Yes it is.¡± I hissed, walking toward Peyton. It was at this time I committed my first crime. I slammed my shoulder into Pey¡¯s stomach. He coiled back, coughing. He dropped the knife. I took it, and slashed at his throat. Blood splattered all over the walls. I felt sick, but didn¡¯t regret it at the time. I was arrested soon after, but eventually my lawyer convinced the judge it was self-defense. It wasn¡¯t long after that I met Rose for the first time. They taught me to love again, to feel. To feel remorse. For the first time for weeks, I felt bad for what I did. I¡¯ve lived with that regret for years. I¡¯ve never really got over it, but I have moved forward. All of us in The Rose had a tragic backstory. It made us stronger, and let us grow closer. It¡¯s not like any one pesters about it, but they did ask sometimes. Tragedy follows us, wherever we go. We can¡¯t escape it, so we embrace it. We don¡¯t fear hell, because we¡¯ve already lived it. Chapter 27: Rose I walked into a room, after following the directions given to me from a werewolf, and saw a person sitting across from Johnathan. They both looked up at me from the mahogany table they were sitting at. ¡°Ah, Rose. This is the person I wanted you to meet. His name is Zola. He¡¯s, uh, not big on words.¡± The boy sitting across from Johnathan, Zola, was actually kinda cute. He looked 15 or 16. He had smooth hazelnut skin, bright green, almond shaped eyes. He had green hair too, although his roots were black. His hair was ear length, and it was curly too. He wore a white t-shirt with a blue and black flannel over it. His broad shoulders made him look bigger than he actually was. He looked up at me and smiled, it was a small smile, just enough to notice. But his smile wasn¡¯t what I saw. I saw the scars on his lips under where his fang¡¯s would be. When they were out at least. On his neck he had two marks about two inches apart, where he was bitten. When he looked back to Johnathan, I noticed the scar on the back of his neck, running down his back. It looked like a whip mark. ¡°So, you any good in a fight?¡± I asked, to which he nodded yes. I¡¯d have to take his word for it. ¡°You know stuff about Vampire¡¯s that would be useful to my team I assume, would I be correct?¡± He nodded again. He really didn¡¯t say much. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. ¡°So, you know anything about the vampires in New York back in 2018?¡± I asked, not expecting him to answer, but pleasantly surprised when he did. ¡°It may not be of use, but I do. And to add to that, I was only 12 at the time, so my facts may not be completely accurate.¡± His voice was soft and gentle, yet he talked with a deep sadness that was more that a little disturbing. I didn¡¯t know much about vampires, with my little interaction with the underworld and all, but I had killed a fair few of them, and they all seemed to have a tragic backstory. Some lashed out in anger because of it, others hid. I¡¯ve gotta say, tragedy can really fuck someone up. ¡°That¡¯s all right,¡± I said, ¡°We don¡¯t need super-specific details. We just need general knowledge.¡± He nodded, going back to his silent type thing. I turned to Johnathan. ¡°You sure you want to send a kid though. You said some shit about don¡¯t hurt kids and I wouldn¡¯t want to watch them suffer.¡± ¡°Yea, I do believe that I shouldn¡¯t send children into a warzone. But there are two reasons why I¡¯m sending him. First, he¡¯s seen some shit. Blood, death, and carnage are nothing new to him. Second, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll take care of him.¡± Johnathan said, Zola nodding in agreement. ¡°Well, thanks for the vote of confidence I guess,¡± I replied sarcastically. I turned to Zola, ¡°We head out tomorrow morning, get some good sleep and pack your stuff. We have some ass to kick.¡± Chapter 28: Ramiel ¡°Dammit, why can¡¯t I find that bitch.¡± I roared at no one in particular. I¡¯d spent the last couple of hours trying to find Rose. Nothing. I¡¯ve always been able to find people. I¡¯ve always been able to find mortals with ease. They¡¯re predictable. Rose was anything but predictable. I couldn¡¯t stand that woman. Recently, within the last hour, I had a revelation about her. She says she¡¯s neither man nor woman. Bullshit. She has a vagina, so obviously she¡¯s a woman. God made man and woman, not man, woman, and some strange amalgam of both. Rose, that''s not her name. It¡¯s Madeline, or Maddie. She¡¯s a rebel like that damn Lucifer. ¡°Uh, sir.¡± I heard someone mumble, choosing to ignore whoever it was. ¡°Sir.¡± They said more confidently. ¡°Sir!¡± They exclaimed, barely escaping the hand that I threw out to get the servant out. While I was moving, I saw Micheal. God''s personal guard. ¡°He wants to see you.¡± The archangel said to me. I stood up, my robe rumpling around me, and looked at him. ¡°I can escort myself.¡± I walked out of the room, slamming the door behind me. I followed the path that went through the courtyard. I opened the door to God''s chambers, to see him sitting on his throne, a girl with deep bronze hair and a goth outfit beside him. ¡°Well, it¡¯s you Madeline, never thought I¡¯d see you here.¡± I said with a chuckle. Before I could blink, there was a knife at my throat, and lips against my ear. ¡°That little girl died many years ago. We don¡¯t speak of her anymore¡± I felt the warmth of golden Ichor dripping down my throat. I was surprised God didn¡¯t do something about her, but, who was I to question him. I threw my hands up. Sadly, I wasn¡¯t ready to die yet. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. I never thought a human would actually be able to kill an angel. We aren¡¯t exactly immortal like God is. We can¡¯t die of natural causes, but we can be killed. However, our physical abilities are many times greater than a humans. I guess Maddie was as good as she said she was. ¡°What do you want, Maddie.¡± I asked. Pissing her off might not be in my best interest, but it was fun. Madeline grabbed my right hand, lifted it softly, and broke it. I gasped, wincing from the pain. Sadly, I¡¯m not much of a fighter so I don¡¯t get hurt often. I¡¯m not used to pain, so I had to give her the satisfaction. ¡°One bone for every time you say that name. You may heal quickly, but that doesn¡¯t mean you don¡¯t feel pain.¡± Maddie said, knife still at my throat. Ichor was still streaming down my neck, although it was slowing down. ¡°But to answer your question, I¡¯ve come here to tell you something.¡± ¡°Oh, and what might that be?¡± ¡°You touch my friends, and there¡¯ll be a whole new ring of hell made just for you. I might not be an omnipotent being like your God, but that doesnt mean I can''t control him. Even gods need companionship.¡± I could feel the smirk on Maddie¡¯s face and scowled. ¡°There¡¯s only one God.¡± I said. ¡°What do you think you¡¯ll do, marry him yourself or something?¡± Maddie laughed. ¡°Sure, if that¡¯s what you want to believe. God¡¯s come into existence when enough people worship them as such. I mean, so anyone can become a god. I¡¯ve gotten close, but I killed those bastards real quick. I don¡¯t wanna be a god, and especially not because of some dumbass cultists. If people stop believing in them, they slowly fizzle out. But I mean like, really god damn slow. So, the Greek gods still exist. Although, I¡¯m not sure if they¡¯re still worshiped. Same with the Roman gods. It doesn¡¯t matter what you think or believe or whatever. It matters what the people think.¡± ¡°Well, then why do I not know of this. I haven¡¯t even heard that before.¡± I said. ¡°Frankly, it¡¯s bullshit.¡± ¡°Because you¡¯re God is young. In his infinite wisdom, he is actually quite dense.¡± ¡°What¡¯s your point?¡± ¡°My point, Ramiel, is that you thought you could win. In truth, you have no chance, not right now. You¡¯re fucked. So, you might want to get your shit together, because me and you have a war to fight.¡± Madeline said, and she was gone. The ichor on my throat was proof that she was right.