This chapter was written by my friend Victoria :) She's also an amazzzing writer. Check her fanfics out sometime, sparrowdaughter. Let me know how it is with a review xD

Chapter 2

"Well, by examining observed facts, we were attacked by a group of people who had dart guns," said Emilia wisely.

"Or as I would say, we've been ambushed," snapped Alisha from her place at the front. She was focused on the space in front of her but turned back to look at the group and immediately the ship tilted, seeming to nearly fall out of the sky. A high pitched scream of terror left Aubrey's mouth followed by a scream from Emilia. Rinny's heart raced as Alisha rushed to pull the HoverCraft back into an upright and safe position.

"You're going to get us killed," snarled Victoria harshly and stood up, stepping over the legs and walking to the front of the HoverCraft. Bella followed, almost tripping over Aubrey's long legs, and commanded Alisha to get up.

"No, it's my HoverCraft," Alisha complained, once again taking her eyes off of the area in front of her, allowing the HoverCraft to drop dangerously. Another scream of fright, this time from everyone and without a thought, Victoria pulled out a small pistol and pointed it to the side of Alisha's head. Alisha froze as did everyone else in the craft. Fear gripped Aubrey's heart and Emilia gasped loudly, her breathing immediately increasing. Bella stared wide- eyed at the lethal weapon pointing to the side of the girl's head as Rinny attempted not to let her fear show.

"This has poison," Victoria said in a deadly quiet tone, "It will kill you if injected, in 3.5 seconds. You'll be out of the way permanently then." She paused to let her words sink in before commanding, "Get up."

Rinny was officially scared, shaking in her seat, at Victoria's tone. With a sigh of defeat, Alisha stood up and moved out of the way and Victoria took her place. With a grumble and a pout, Alisha slid to the back, following Bella, and sat down.

"Umm… those guys are following us," Aubrey- the Janus- said, panicked at the sight of the HoverCraft that was quickly approaching. Her eyes were wide with fright as she stared out. Instantly, everyone was attempting to turn and see them. The HoverCraft immediately picked up speed when Victoria saw how close they were, this was becoming increasingly more dangerous with each passing moment. The HoverCraft was approaching 150 mph and everything beneath the girls was nothing but a blur as Victoria pushed the gas, forcing the HoverCraft to go even faster.

"Approaching from 7 o'clock," Rinny said quickly, not allowing the anxiousness of the others to distract her as the crew of stalkers moved closer. In the front seat, Victoria was looking in the rear-view mirror at the group stalking them in a cheap HoverCraft and contemplating how much ammo she had with her.

"Bella, come here and drive the ship," she commanded with easy authority. Without a word of argument at being commanded, Bella did as instructed and Victoria stepped back. She took a good look at the group that was fast approaching the group of girls, assessing their threat levels and attempting to see if she had anything that might be able to get them to stop. The craft was moving faster as Bella noticed that the other guys were catching up, slowly but surely. Despite the high tension, Victoria and Alisha kept their cool as Emilia cowered slightly in the background, calculating how far down the ship needed to go to be out of any real danger.

"Bella, get this craft to hit 180," Emilia cried from her seat as Victoria rummaged through her pockets. Everyone felt the HoverCraft speed up but then the other craft did too. Then they started to move even faster, they had to be going at least 200 mph.

"Open the hatch," Victoria told Bella just as she pulled the safety off of the gun. The craft immediately filled with protest but Victoria didn't even pay attention as she reached over Bella.

"The goal is to stay alive," Rinny said cautiously as if talking to a three year old, causing Victoria to send a glare in her direction. If looks could kill, was all Rinny thought as she cowered back in fear. With a satisfied nod, Victoria turned and again reached over Bella, quickly jabbing the button to open the hatch before anyone could stop her. The group of stalkers was gaining on them, nearly side by side, with the hatch to their HoverCraft open too. Emilia cowered back in fear as she saw the dart guns that were again pointing at the girls.

"Get down," Victoria snapped as she stood and balanced herself on the speeding HoverCraft. Everyone immediately hit the ground, except Alisha who stood beside Victoria with a box of chocolates.

"Alisha get down!" Victoria shouted loudly over the rushing wind. In response, Alisha shook her head causing her hair to land in her eyes and nearly blinding her. Just then, a whizzing sound went past Victoria's ear- a dart that had narrowly missed the girl's ear. Without a thought to how she was going to make this work, Victoria pointed the gun, leveling it, and shot. From the barrel shot a small, needle- like bullet. It hit one of the people in the other craft and almost instantly, he went down. The stalker's HoverCraft wobbled precariously at the sudden shift in weight, sending the HoverCraft dipping right. Again, Victoria lifted the gun and shot at one who had his mouth open in fright. The needle landed directly in his mouth, if she could guess, probably right in his tonsil. Down he went to as the HoverCraft again lurched to the right as he too went down.

From her right, Alisha threw a giant round chocolate truffle. It curved beautifully in the air, sailing smoothly against the wiping wind. The chocolate landed directly in the middle of the stalkers' HoverCraft. The fear written on the peoples' faces were comical before changing to relief as they realized it was just chocolate. They turned back around and laughed at Alisha and Victoria. Angered, Victoria lifted the gun again and, as if in slow motion, the people in the other HoverCrafts mouth fell open a second before the chocolate truffle quavered and the HoverCraft exploded. Immediately, the girls in the HoverCraft bowed their heads while throwing their hands of them as the HoverCraft was thrown violently to the left by the explosion. Victoria and Alisha were thrown to the back of the HoverCraft landing on top of Rinny. Bella screamed as she fought for control over the aircraft. It fell further, getting closer and closer to the people beneath them. Emilia cried out as she saw the people getting larger and larger and pointed up at the HoverCraft. She lurched herself to the other end of Alisha's HoverCraft, dragging Aubrey with her.

"Move over, even the weight!" she screamed as she cowered in fear. Rinny threw Alisha over and felt as the HoverCraft's weight shifted.

"Close the HoverCraft! Close the HoverCraft!" cried Aubrey as the wind rushed in her ears. Bella frantically attempted to do all that she needed, firstly closing the HoverCraft's hatch. It took a while, enough time for Bella to right the aircraft and pull up quickly. She narrowly avoided the people beneath them as the HoverCraft shot into the air.

Safely in the air, the feeling of fear slowly dissipated from the HoverCraft. It was replaced with the feelings of anger and bewilderment and shock. It was silent as each girl thought about what had happened. They were all in shock, attempting to cope with their near collide with death.

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh," Aubrey exclaimed, "I almost died. I really almost died!"

"What the heck is going on!?" Rinny asked bewildered. Victoria sighed deeply, almost unaffected by the experience because of her branch, and said, "Someone is trying to harm the people from each branch."

"Well I get that!" snapped Rinny angrily and was sent a withering glare form the Lucian.

"The question is why?" Alisha asked as she removed herself from the floor, glaring at in distaste. Emilia looked up from her position on the floor and answered, "Maybe they want to take over the branch. Or they want a weaker leader of the branches so that way they can be blackmailed. It's the only logical explanation."

"Unless each branch is testing us as a whole," Aubrey said. The three Lucians looked between one another and at the same time, "That would never happen."

"Why not?" Rinny asked, looking immensely confused. With a sigh, Bella answered, "They would never fight multiples of one branch because if any of the Lucians die by a Lucians hand, the Lucian branch would become a war zone within itself."

"A war between ourselves would cause a public dispute and begin a war between branches, and unity would be broken," Alisha finished off quietly.

"Do you think that those guys are all dead?" asked Aubrey. Alisha looked thoughtful before nodding her head hesitantly.

"There's a chance that they could have just been knocked out of the HoverCraft," Emilia mentioned before Alisha could explain her hesitation. Rinny nodded in compliance with Emilia's prediction, agreeing fully.

"It's not like the fall was that far away," Rinny added looking back in the direction of the incident.

"But the speed they were pushing would more than likely kill them," Emilia countered quickly, "Unless you're accounting for the amount of padding in their clothing, the weight of the people, and the height at which each fell, we couldn't be exactly precise."

"But they are more than likely dead," Rinny retorted.

"Potentially, but there is also that percentage that they could be very much alive and waiting for us to make a mistake," Emilia said, "They'll wait, then ambush us, and kill us."

"What if they're looking for something," Victoria said suddenly.

"What do you mean?" Rinny and Emilia asked at the same time and they each sent the other a scathing look.

"I mean, what if they don't want to kill us," she explained, "What if they just want to take down the branches."

"But all of that information is stored within a different stronghold," Bella replied.

"That's the point," Alisha said, suddenly understanding where Victoria was coming from. The other four girls stared at one another before Rinny said, "I don't understand."

"They want information," Victoria began, "They assume that we must know. And they must have some idea of where it may be hidden."

"But we don't," Bella argued angrily- still somewhat confused.

"They don't know that," Alisha retorted. Victoria nodded, "Exactly. They don't know that we don't know. But they must think we have some inkling of knowledge about it. This means, we have to find whatever they are looking for first."

"Why don't we go ask our parents?" Rinny asked, looking at the girl quizzically.

"They might be able to intercept calls and we might have a leak within the branches," Emilia said, finally understanding where Victoria was coming from.

"Exactly," Victoria replied.

"So… what are they looking for?"