The night air was frigid. All was dark and quiet as Calamity wove her way through the streets of The Commons, hurrying in the direction of the waterfall.
A hand grabbed her arm. She screamed, and screamed louder when another hand came up to clap itself over her mouth. "Calamity!" hissed the voice of her captor. "It's me, Kael! Quit screaming! Ah, you're biting, you're biting!"
"Kael!" she whisper-yelled when her friend removed his palm from her face. "Why on Wizard City would you sneak up on me like that?"
"Well, it's not like I meant to!" he whispered back, examining the bite marks on his right hand. "Who would I be, anyway? It's not like we don't know everyone in Wizard City."
"Sorry if I'm nervous about the crime we're about to commit!" snapped Calamity in agitation, casting nervous glances at the houses around her, primarily the Minister's house. Kael frowned.
"Since when are you nervous about committing crimes?"
"Since never. What I'm nervous about is getting caught," she explained matter-of-factly. She grabbed Kael's arm and pulled him along to the waterfall.
"Guys!" she whispered upon arrival. "You here?"
"Is that you, Calamity?" she heard someone call quietly.
"Yeah, it's me!" she said. "But for future reference, it would make sense to not call my name. You know, in case it wasn't me."
"Oh yeah. Sorry," said the voice, which belonged to Onna, who stepped out from behind the waterfall. "Come on! You guys are the last ones here. You took forever, and the girls are getting tired of waiting."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, blah, blah," muttered Calamity as she and Kael edged into the cave. Sadly, though not unexpectedly, the toe of Calamity's boot got caught on a small pebble. As she tried to maneuver it over the pebble, she misjudged the pebble's size, and tumbled forward into the waterfall. Kael crouched down and thrust his arm through the water. Slippery fingers grasped his hand, and he pulled as hard as he could.
"You know… for someone so short… you're really heavy," said Kael with a groan.
Calamity flopped onto the floor of the cave, ignoring the fact that she was getting dirt stuck to the front of her shirt and pants. "I hate this. It's a good thing my bag is waterproof and sealed tightly."
She got to her feet and tried uselessly to brush the damp dirt from her clothes. Levvy snickered.
"Smooth moves there, Cal."
"Shut up or I swear I will rip out your tongue."
Onna giggled. "Sorry, Cal, but I have to agree. You've always been pretty clumsy."
"I hate you all. Now, let's get down to business: has anyone got a paperclip?"
Everyone shook their heads. Calamity sighed. "Alright, has anyone got a hairpin?" she tried again.
"Oh, I think I do!" said Kael, digging around in his pocket. Everybody stared at him as he held a hairpin out to his friend.
"What're you all looking at me like that for?" he asked. No one answered. Finally, deciding to let it go, Calamity kneeled by the large padlock on the door.
"Onna, gimme your knife," she ordered. Onna dug her black switchblade out of her pocket and handed it over.
"You're welcome," she said dryly. Calamity ignored her, focusing on tying to pick the tumbler with the hairpin. She jammed the switchblade in next to the pin to turn the cylinder. In a minute or so, the lock clicked open, and the girl slid it off and set it on the ground.
"That was… easier than I expected," she murmured.
"C'mon, hurry up!" urged Astra. Instead of waiting for an answer, or simply for her friend to open the door, Astra ran up and pushed it open herself, hurrying into the space beyond.
Calamity made a face. "C'mon, hurry up!" she mimicked in a high-pitched voice.
Onna rolled her eyes and grabbed Calamity's arm, and they competed with the others, pushing and pulling and yanking as they all tried to get through the door first, which made no sense because it was a very reasonably-sized door. Eventually, they all tumbled through and landed in a large heap.
Kael was the first to scramble to the top of the pile. He leapt to his feet and dashed away through the fog. Moments later, a loud thud could be heard, followed by an "Ow!" and a "Kael… you're a dork."
A figure burst out of the mist—which, as Calamity and the others had noticed, was an odd and shimmering purple in color—and bounced around excitedly. Astra.
"Guys, you have to see this!" she exclaimed. "You will never believe what I just found!"
REVIEW! Please…. Anyway, I'm taking OC submissions. You can either submit them through reviews or you can PM me, it doesn't matter which. But I will warn you, no submitted OC's will show up until much later in the story, because that is when Calamity and her friends will start to form a resistance against the bad guy and try to gather as many followers as possible. I will try to use all the OC's submitted though. But please, although it is an interesting thing, no people with color-changing hair or eyes or anything. To me, it just screams Mary-Sue. I get that in a world of wizards and magic, it is easy to get carried away and make Mary-Sues, but try to tone it down a little. It makes for a more realistic story, or at least as realistic as you can get when you're writing about a topic like this. Love you all!