Chapter 8 — Ready or Not

Two months have passed since Mac, Mystic and Canyon moved in with Sweet. Since they are with him now, they have had to attend the Academy... which was not too much of a problem since the three of them have gotten accustomed to it quickly. They have also met Wrinkle, who privately thought pessimistically about meeting them because he could hardly find friends himself. Wrinkle began to think that the only friend he had was himself, so he began to distance himself from everyone. BUT THAT'S NOT THE POINT...

Sweet, Mystic, Mac and Canyon have developed a good start in their understanding of life in the U.S. (that's just how gifted the Academy is). As a result of this, they found what they were looking for—a tracking system to locate where the other watches were. They discovered this while in the super-computer room, trying to find more secrets on how it works. All they could do still was scan things and turn it on and off. Nonetheless, the watches revealed red dots around the country.

"These dots must be telling us where the other watches are," assumed Sweet.

"You sent eleven total, right?" began Canyon. "Three of us are here, and the map is showing six others. Where are the other two?"

"One is sightseeing..." answered Mac, recalling of Kuku, "she'll be here when she's ready."

"And the other is at the North Pole..." added Mystic, referencing Aurora, "he said he'd come back."

"I will trust them then," said Sweet. "I think we should seek out the other six and try to get them to join us."

Everyone agreed on the plan and decided on where to go. The first three watches were actually around Galveston; one was inside the city, the second was across the big bridge (on the Texas coastal mainland), and the last was on its way to the Tower (moving southwest). Canyon and Mystic decided to be on the lookout for them. The next two were in Los Angeles, California. Mac, being the only bird, decided to go there. The last was even further than that—in Brooklyn, New York. Sweet was last to pick, so he had no other choice but to go there. After deciding, the four of them dispersed on their way to their locations.

Soon after the four of them left, two white lambs appeared at the front of Titans Tower, riding a small nimbus cloud. They were step-sisters looking to find Sweet about his message. They assumed that no one was there, but they did not fret as they soon went elsewhere, to a place that freely housed humanimals of all ages within the city. At least they knew where to come.


Mystic and Canyon traveled to the beaches on the coastline of Galveston. As they soon approched the middle of the city, Mystic noticed that people got over the fact that she was a mythical animal. He was happy that they were not crowding her. She still wanted to be sure though. Canyon saw her eyes veering over on random people.

"What's up?" Canyon asked.

"When I got here, people were all over me, taking pictures because I'm a unicorn, an animal people don't see everyday."

"Well, I guess they're gonna have to get used to it," implied Canyon, supporting Mystic. Canyon looked back at the watch, to zoom in on the two watches locations. One was speeding towards them, while the other was in a large crowd behind them.

"It looks like one is moving fast," said Mystic, looking at the uphill road ahead of them. Canyon looked also, as an eighteen-wheeler jumped the top of the incline and began to roll down it, set to crash into whoever was in the way. They both noticed, as Mystic used her telekinesis to move her and Canyon out of the way. When they looked back at the rolling truck, a young lavender bunny phased out of the truck effortlessly, as if she was ghost. Mystic saw that she had a watch on. Before she could go to her, Canyon averted Mystic to the truck again, as it crashed into a building near the large crowd, who then ran in a panic. A chain reaction was caused, and a billboard fell from the top of the building, onto a spring green-skinned bunny. They presumed that he was done for... until his horizontally stiff right ear popped through the billboard, followed by with the rest of his body. He was okay and not injured in any way. The crowd applauded his recovery. Canyon and Mystic were amazed, as their watches then beeped loudly. These two survivors were the targets.

"Wow..." uttered Mystic, surprised at what just happened.

"These two are the ones we're looking for," said Canyon. "I'll talk to him and you talk to her." Mystic understood, as the two of them split up to talk to the bunnies.

Mystic walked up to the lavender one.

"Hi!" greeted Mystic.

"Hello!" she replied.

"What happened back there?"

"Um, that truck was full of idiots. I didn't know that until I had to ride with them, all the way from Canada! I needed to ditch them. Anyways, I'm looking for this Sweet guy at Titans Tower."

"Wow, I hope they aren't dead. Oh, I actually know Sweet. He sent out those watches, to get us all in one place. Are you trying to join us?"

"Actually, that's the thing..." she started with a thought in mind. "Before I found those people, my so-called father killed my mother because he there was someone else."

"That's terrible..." said Mystic, feeling her pain.

"That's not the worst part. He came for me after that, but I was headed to school, telling the driver to step on it. He was still chasing me in his car. Soon, we all got off of the bus, but he was already in front of us. He shot at me..."

"Oh no..." said Mystic.

"But I didn't feel anything. He fired a few more times, but I saw that the bullets went straight through me. I wasn't hurt at all. Then he shot himself to see if his gun was working. It was, so he hurt himself. He went to the hospital, and I was alright. I never wanted to see him again. That's why I came here, to find time to get over it. I can always join later, right?"

"Yeah. Well, I hope you can get over it. You can still come find us whenever you're ready." Mystic told her.

"Okay, nice to meet you. Bye!" The bunny walked off.

Mystic was shocked to hear that. The thought of losing her mother to a psychotic father... it was worse than being confined to her room.

Mystic went to catch up with Canyon, who finished talking with the green bunny.

"Any luck?" asked Mystic.

"He said that his parents died from a wild grizzly bear attack in Montana. He needs time to let that go before he comes to us."

Mystic sighed. "I wonder how Mac and Sweet are doing..."

She and Canyon went back to the Tower to wait on the other two.


Mac had passed the Santa Monica pier, closing in on his targets in L.A. When he flew over them, a large crowd of people was shown.

"Great..." Mac complained. He didn't want to search through all of the people, but he immediately realized that he didn't have to, as he saw them surrounding two dogs; a dalmatian that warped to the middle using one of her spots as a "Warp Pipe" to a cocker spaniel, who had wooden stakes protruding from his body. Mac knew that it was them he had to talk to, so he teleported to their location. He surprised the both of them, and the crowd as well.

"Who are you?" asked the cocker spaniel, retracting his spikes.

"A friend," Mac replied, bringing the two of them in with his wings. "I see you two have the same watch I do."

"Yes," answered the dalmatian, "we even heard a message from this Sweet character."

"Then say no more." Mac teleported them to the end on the Santa Monica pier, away from the crowd.

"How'd we get here?" asked the dalmatian, confused now.

"Do you trust me?" proposed Mac.

"Okay, all this is happening too fast. I'd love to come, but I need full information about what is going on and time to adjust to it." Judging from her words, Mac assumed that the dalmatian is very smart.

"All right... didn't mean to rush you," said Mac, somewhat understanding her case. He then looked at the cocker spaniel. "What about you?"

"I'm just trying to get over something, and I'm sort of tired now, since I ran all the way from San Francisco. I don't know what to do now."

"It's cool," Mac says, "you don't have to come now if you don't want to. Take your time." The dogs understand, then Mac teleported by himself, on his way back to the Tower. "That went well..." he thought sarcastically.


Sweet was running to the airport to possibly catch a plane. He had saved the place from ten attacking Sentinels before, so the people there allowed him to ride his next plane free of charge. He never rode one before, so this was about to be his first time. People smiled and waved at him as he passed by. He found the flight that was going to New York City, but he was running late. So he rushed into the walkway after speaking to the flight manager. When he reached the end of it, the plane backed out and Sweet ran out of the walkway, landing on the ground below. He got up and began to chase the plane before it lifted off of the final runway. He yelled "Wait!", with his hand in the air. Then all of a sudden, a web shot out of his hand and stuck to the wing of the plane.

"What the..." Sweet uttered, discovering his new ability. The plane began to accelerate, to fly into the air. "Oh man..." he thought, preparing to start his first extreme rush ever. The plane was soon airborne, and Sweet was hanging on for dear life.

After over three hours of flight, the plane began to descend. Sweet felt the change in gravity and wanted to get off. He accidentally released the web, falling down towards a neighborhood. Before he hit the ground, he tried to catch a ledge. Instead, his webbing grabbed it. Seeing what he could do now, he thought of it as vine-swinging, only he chose where the vines (webs) would appear. He started to swing from place to place like Spider-Man now.

Eventually, he had crossed the Brooklyn Bridge and moved to where the tracking system was leading him to. When he was close, he stopped because there were a lot of local thugs surrounding a female white cat. He did not know what they were going to do, but it was not going to be anything good. He hid on the side of a building, just in case he needed to take action.

"Let see what happens..." he thought.

"We're gonna need you to come wit' us," ordered one of the thugs.

"No!" refused the cat.

"I do not believe he gave you a choice," said the leader, spacing his words a little for "special effect". "Boys, you know what to do."

"Not today." Sweet ran out, grabbed the cat and shot a string of web at the nearest building to escape.

"Hey! Where'd that monkey come from?" exclaimed one of the thugs.

"Don't ask, CATCH THAT FOOL!" ordered the leader.

The cat talked to Sweet while he was carrying her and swinging in the air.

"Where'd you come from?" she asked.

"Maybe I'd better tell you who I am first. I am Sweet Summers, you might've heard me on that watch you have."

"That was you?"

"Yes."

"Can I say something... after you put me down at least?" she requested.

Sweet found an alley and stopped so that he and the cat were on the ground.

"Okay." she started. "My parents have heard the message too, but they won't let me to move anywhere out of New York City. I'd love to come, but I'm sorry that I can't."

Sweet sighed. "It's okay, but you can keep that watch though. I would still like you to seek me out when you can. Just watch the baddies out here."

"Okay. Could you at least take me home, since you've already come so far?" she asked.

"Sure." The cat directed Sweet to her home, despite being new to the airbourne experience. When they reached her front door, the thugs soon followed.

"They're back already?" she said.

"Just go inside. I'll handle them." Sweet said.

The cat listened to him and went inside. Sweet stood to face the thugs.

"Man, what'chu gonna do?" teased one of the thugs.

"I have a question for you..." Sweet began, as he then snapped his fingers hard to make his fireballs appear in his hands. "Do you really wanna mess with me?"

"That ain't even real fire..." presumed the leader, who then got hit by one of Sweet's fireballs. His opinion changed then, as he ran around in flames. The thugs looked back at Sweet, shocked.

"This is where you run." Sweet threw numerous fireballs at the thugs, making them run away in fear of getting burned. The cat looked out of her window to witness this. She was amazed and disappointed because she could not come with him. Sweet left, to La Guardia Airport to go back to Titans Tower.

When he got back, he heard that Mac, Mystic and Canyon had no luck as well. Waiting and living life was their only option now, since no one had came with them. They just were not ready yet.

I~~~**~~~I

That's it for this story. Sorry about the subtle ending, but I'm still doing my best to fix that.