"Nine, are you ready to go?" Eight asked me, bursting into my room without knocking. I had zero privacy nowadays. I didn't know how badly I would miss the old days, back when it was just me and Sandor against the world.
"No," I muttered. I had only just returned to my beloved home, now I was leaving again.
"He's ready." Ella said, taking my hand. I couldn't help but smile, as irritated as I was. Ella had a way of bringing that out in people.
"Where are Four and Six on the locator?" I asked, changing the subject as we left my room.
"They just arrived in Arkansas." Marina reported. "They should be meeting with Number Five soon."
"I told John and Six to meet us there." Ella told me. "They said okay."
"Where exactly is it that we're going?" I asked her as I led the way down to the parking garage.
"It's a surprise." Ella said mysteriously. I rolled my eyes as we went down the stairs.
"Your car," Eight said. "Is it fast?"
"Just you wait." I grinned. I heard Marina gasp when she saw Sandor's collection of cars. "Pick one." I told them, extended my arms to all the vehicles. Sandor didn't believe in letting all those precious gems collect dust so over the years he had build up the perfect collection of everything we would ever need; weapons, tech, vehicles, I had it all. The only thing missing now was Sandor, but he was never coming back.
"That one." Ella said, walking over to the sleek, shiny red convertible. I felt a wave of sadness rush over me. I remembered when Sandor had let me take this car on a date that I once had with a human girl. But that same human had betrayed both me and Sandor. She was the reason I had ended up in West Virginia in the first place. The reason my Cepan Sandor was killed. I shook the thought out of my head.
"This car is awesome." Eight said in awe. "I'm driving." he said, holding his hand out for the keys.
"Not a chance." I told him, slapping his hand hard before I climbed into the driver's side. Eight teleported into the seat next to mine and Ella and Marina hopped into the back. I started the engine and backed out of the garage. I started driving down the street, out of Chicago.
"Alright," Eight said pulling a map out of the glove compartment. "Where are we headed Ella?"
"A small island just off of Vancouver." she answered. "Its called Vancouver Island."
"In Canada?" Marina asked.
"Yes," Ella nodded.
"Isn't is constantly snowing in Canada?" Eight frowned.
"That's stereotypical." Marina rolled her eyes. "Some parts in Canada get little to no snow at all." Eight raised his eyebrows in surprise. "I used to study all the different parts of the world when I had nothing to do." she shrugged.
"Canada, here we come." I smiled as we exited the city.
"This is where we are staying?" I asked in disbelief, still irritated from having to ditch Sandor's red convertible a while back. Apparently the others wanted to travel in a less attention-drawing vehicle, so we had found someone who was more than willing to trade their normal looking black car with my awesome one. The others owe me big time, although I was secretly glad that I would never have to see that car again.
"It's quiet." Ella shrugged. Ella had led us to a small, close to deserted town. So small that it wasn't even big enough to be called a town, the sign on the way in had called it a village. The Village of Cumberland. We had pulled into the first gas station that we saw, which was appeared to be in the centre of the village. There was one main road that crossed with the one we had taken into the village. All the business's appeared to be on this one street, all the other streets had homes.
"You are positive that Ten is staying in this town?" Eight asked her as we all got out of the vehicle. After hours of driving, it felt nice to stretch my legs.
"Yes." Ella insisted. "This is where the dot appeared on the tablet."
"Well, how do we find her?" Marina asked.
"Ten is a chick?" I raised my eyebrow at them.
"I'm just assuming." Marina shrugged.
"Three, Four, Five, Eight and Nine are all guys. One, Two, Six and Seven are girls so its might be a good assumption, Marina." Ella shrugged. "Makes sense that the Tenth would be a girl to even it out."
"Well how do we find her then?" I repeated Marina's question.
"That I don't know." Ella admitted. "As a member of the Garde, Ten most likely won't be drawing any attention to herself."
"Unless she is like Five, who makes crop circles and posts really obvious hints of his whereabouts on the internet." Eight snickered.
"Okay then, so where are we going to start?" I asked.
"First, we need a place to stay. It might take us a while to find Ten, even in a small place like this." Marina scoffed.
"What's this place called again?" Eight asked.
"Cumberland." Ella replied. "And I've already got that covered, Marina." She pulled out a phone and begins texting away, I recognised the phone immediately as one of the spares that Sandor kept in the lecture hall. "I didn't think you would mind," she flashed me a weak smile when she sees my gaze.
"What do you mean you have have it covered?" I raised an eyebrow at her.
"Well, while the three of you were getting gas and buying snacks before we got on the ferry, I looked online and called ahead. I set everything up." she said proudly, her face beaming. She held out the phone so we could see the photo of the house that we were going to be staying in during our search.
"Good job," Eight smiled.
"So where is it that we are staying?" Marina asked, craning her neck to see the phone.
"Umm, I only know the street names." Ella laughed nervously.
"We'll ask for directions." Marina shrugged.
"Okay. The house is on Maryport, between second and third." Ella told us. Marina walked inside the gas station while we waited for her to come back out, Eight and I leaning up against the doors while Ella sat on the hood. A few teenagers walked over from across the street, some of them went inside, a few waited for them outside.
"Where are we going after this?" One of the girls asked. She had just pulled out a cigarette and her friend offered her a lighter without a word.
"I don't know," Someone else said, pulling out their pack of smokes. "But I need to find someone to buy some weed off of."
"We could go to the park," One of boys suggested. "See if anyone is down there with a bong."
"Hey, look who finally decided to show up!" someone laughed, interrupting the boy who had just spoken.
"Hey Melody, what's up?" Another asked. I looked where they were looking and saw a girl crossing the street. She was sort of tall, just a little shorter than Marina and had wavy, auburn hair that fell onto her shoulders. She caught my gaze and smiled before turning to her friends. I didn't hear what she said because Marina stepped in front of me, blocking my view of the group.
"I got the directions," she smiled, holding up a piece of paper with scribbling on it.
"Great." I said, turning and hopping back into the car. Marina sat upfront with me so she could give me directions, while Eight sat in the back with Ella. As I backed out, I couldn't help but glancing at the girl and her friends once more. She was already staring at me, her hazel eyes locked onto mine. She smiled warmly, waving shyly and I felt a wave flow through my body.
"Did you hear me?" Marina asked.
"I'm sorry, what did you say?" I mumbled, turning to face her.
"I said turn left." she laughed. I smiled, and followed her directions. We stopped outside of a wooden house. 2675 Maryport Avenue. I parked the car in the driveway and Ella cheerfully skipped ahead, and picked something up off the front porch. She gave it to Marina. I saw that it was a letter. Marina read it and pulled out a pair of keys, tossing them to Eight, who teleported to the front door and unlocked it. Ella, Marina and I walked in silently. It looked a lot bigger on the inside than it did outside. There was a stairway that led upstairs, and another one that led downstairs. It was already furnished with couches, a television, a computer. Everything we needed was already here. Eight disappeared and reappeared a few moments later.
"This is a pretty nice place." I say out loud. "My place was better though," I added.
"No place can compare to yours," Eight retorted. "Also, the basement is perfect for training." he reported. "There are no windows, and we can easily isolate it and make it soundproof."
"That's perfect." Marina smiled. "We should get on that right away, so we can keep up our training."
"Good. Than I can whip the two of you into shape." I sneered, leaping and landing on the couch.
"You know, we could have been spotted and followed," Marina said nervously out of nowhere.
"We'll be ready for anything," I shrugged.
"If it makes you feel better we could have a special knock for every time we come in," Eight suggested.
"That's stupid." I retorted, rolling my eyes.
"I think it is a good idea." Ella shrugged. They decided on a simple sequence of four knocks before leaving me alone upstairs while they worked on the basement. I was laying in the living room, stretched out on the couch with my eyes closed, slowly dozing off when the door swung open. My instincts kicked in immediately; I leaped up and touched the ceiling, activating my gravity legacy while waited by the hall. I watched as a man stepped through and I leaped down, tackling him to the ground instantly. I heard him grunt in pain as I wrapped my arm around his neck, putting him in a tight headlock.
"Are there others?" I growled, preparing myself to end his life. I heard Marina and Ella running up the stairs and I knew Eight would soon teleport too. I'll kill this Mog on my own.
"Nine stop!" I heard someone scream. I recognised Six's voice immediately and released my prisoner, taking a closer look at him before glancing towards Six, who had John, Sarah and two other boys behind them. One of the boys seems oddly familiar, it took a moment for me to figure out where I knew him from.
"What the hell!" He hissed, shoving me away weakly before bending down to see if the man was alright. I was about to shove him back, but I stopped. I remembered this boy. The last time I had seen him, he had been surrounded by Mogs while trying to find his father. This must be his father. He actually found him.
"Sam, he'll be fine." Four told him. "If Nine hurt him badly, then Marina can heal him."
"My name is Malcolm." Sam's dad told us. "It's nice to see you all again," Again? I decided not to ask, figuring that it would all be explained later.
"Sam." I echoed, nodding to the still-pissed off boy. "It's nice to see you alive." I turned to the other boy. "You must be Five." He didn't say anything, just nodded. There was a look in his eyes as he stared at me that I couldn't figure out.
"You guys sure picked out a nice house," Four grinned, glancing around. Six closed the door and locked it before they started exploring.
"God damn it Four!" I hissed, shoving him against the wall. "Next time you decide to show up, at least call first. If you hadn't stopped me, I would have killed him." Four just grinned, shaking his head before joining the others. We've got Five. Now we just need to find Number Ten and then we'll all be together.
Well here is another update :) I hope you enjoyed it! Please leave a review :)
