I only own my OC.

How could he? I can't believe it. My dad just abandoned my mom to the Kraang?

All this time, I thought I had a great dad. He isn't strong, tall, or movie star material like my five-year-old self used to think. But he hasn't left me. He doesn't beat me. And we have great conversations together. In fact, to stay in shape and have time to talk, we take a walk around the block together every night. He asks me about my day like what I got on that examine and how my friends are and what the school cafeteria served and if my lunch money came in handy to hit the vending machines instead.

Yeah, he tries to head-shrink me sometimes cause that's what he's trained to do. And I'm his precious, baby girl. But that's natural right? Nobody is perfect. He … he just left my mom to be grabbed by the Kraang unlike these strangers?

I knew they didn't divorce. He never remarried. He never even told me bad things about her. He also never talked to me about what really happened, though. Every now and then, I'd ask, and he'd insisted she hadn't abandoned us or died. He'd look so upset, though, I finally stopped asking. Now, I know why!

Fire builds up inside me, escaping through the skin of my now very hot face. I'm almost shaking. I grip my knees as hard as I can.

How could he keep this from me? I thought we shared everything, except what his patients tell him because of patient doctor privileges! How could he let me secretly fear all this time mom really "did" abandon us and he just couldn't stand to tell me? How could he tell me she was probably alive all this time? What if she's somewhere on a table with her internal organs exposed so Kraang students can sketch a diagram of her like I had to do a few weeks back in biology class with a frog?! What did they want with her? What do they want with me?

Why? Why? Why? Why us? Why Mom and me?! But what if ..? What if … it "isn't" just us? What if, they're doing the same thing to these guys' mom right? It would be all my fault! She was trying to protect me!

I feel one of those strange, three-fingered hands of these people, what if they're aliens or something too? Well, they haven't hurt us so far. And they also seem like they're afraid of the Kraang, but that just makes me fear for their mom more.

Right now, though, I trust them more than my dad. How sad is that! But, they never abandoned either of us. And they don't even know us!

Even now they're sharing one of their secret hiding places with us even though one of them is really mad and all of them are sad. One is even speaking really, really nice to me right now. "It's okay, April …"

I clench my fist and feel my face gets even hotter. I scrunch up my eyes and beat my clenched fists on the tops of me knees. "No, it's not!"

I stand up and face the door. Then I lift my chin. "We have to get your mom back, now!"

That same ninja who's been so nice to me, speaks up behind me now. His voice has gotten tighter and smaller. Is he scared? "We?"

I turn to him, a little less unsure, but … No, we've got to do this. "You're warriors too, right? Just like your mom?"

I hear him speak louder. "Oh, yeah! Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course! We're just … it's just … Dad will probably …"

That angry one speaks next. "If they can take Mom and Leo in mass on the streets, what will happen when Dad infiltrates whatever base they've taken them to, Donnie?"

Then that other kinda funny, enthusiastic one busts into the conversation. He grabs the one who is so nice to me by the shoulders and shakes him. "Yeah, bro, it's like a horror movie! The monster always gets the really strong, tough characters by the middle or end of the movie cause they always try to take them on all by themselves! We've gotta help before that happens to Dad!"

"My" dad got up on his feet and started waving his arms and hands at us. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, let's stop and talk about this!"

I turn on him madder than I've ever been in my life. Him talking this cute, popular guy in school out of going out with me, once, cause I was thirteen and him fourteen has nothing on 'this! I point at my dad way more stiffly and firmly, now, than I did back then. "NO! We're not talking! You've lied to me my whole life!"

I feel like a knife's sticking into my heart. I blink back tears. I begin to shake, and I'm mad at myself now. I need to be a hard, scary warrior like these other guys to get my and their mom back tonight. I have to!

My "father's" talking again. "April, I know you're hurting, but it will only make it worse if you do things out of your heightened emotional state right now ..."

"NO! I've never had a clearer mind, because I've never known so much truth before! I've never known about the Kraang, or my mom, or you." Now my anger is turning from fire to ice. Now, I just feel … 'nothing' toward him."

I turn to the door and begin opening it or trying to. The ninja whose so nice to me comes up and says, "It's protected by a password ... April … you don't know what you're doing. Those Kraang wanted you for some reason. You can't just give them what they want."

I felt my eyes sting and flood. I turn toward him. I try to keep my voice calm. "No … but I know 'why' I have to do 'something.' I want to find my mom and I 'can't' let you lose yours too. It's not fair! She was trying to help me."

I see sadness and fear in his brown eyes. Then, I hear him sigh. He turns and punches in a password. I grin at him. And, I think, when he stops putting in the password and looks back at me, I see him smile.

One of the others, the one who likes to talk so much, jumps and says, "Yahoo! Here we come Mom!"

The one who's mad at me whacks one open hand with his fist and says, "Finally!"

My dad stands up too, but I turn away from him. I stride out of the room and down the tunnel. We get to the ladder, and this time, I climb right up without looking down or shaking. My mom is out there, somewhere, held by the Kraang, and so is "their mom" most likely. I'm never letting the Kraang take another mom away from anybody.

What do you think?

God Bless

ScribeofHeroes