"Honey, what are you doing here?" Zoey Brookes' asked as she looked up from her manifest and spotted her daughter entering the office. She stood from her desk and hugged Anabel, before gesturing to the chair for her to sit. "Is everything okay?"
"Yeah, everything is fine," said Anabel. "I was just wondering - have you set anyone to cover the preservation of the marine wildlife side of your campaign, yet?"
"No. That's next on my agenda," said Zoey. "Why? Do you have a suggestion?"
"I'm doing this government project for school, and I thought I could use your campaign as a starting point. I knew you were struggling to do the marine prevention angles, and I figured I could kill two birds with one stone if I took it on myself. I could write my report on why it's a good idea to preserve all wildlife and show people why you're the right person for the mayor's position as you'll be able to protect our marine wildlife."
Zoey smiled. "Where did you come from, huh?" she asked.
"If you mean where did my brains come from then the answer is simple, I got them from you," said Anabel. "I mean it, mum, you've helped me through some really tough spots in life, and doing this for you gets you voters, and I get an A in my report."
Zoey considered her daughter's request and then shrugged. "I don't see why not," she said. "You're already a part of my campaign, so I don't see how you taking this project on will be any different to what you've already done for me."
Anabel grinned. "Awesome! Thanks, Mum!" she said, jumping to her feet. "I better go. You have work to do, and I need to research the first part of my plan. I already have an idea on how I want to start, but I need the right information to go about it."
"Always thinking several steps ahead."
"Is there any other way to think?" Anabel laughed.
Zoey smiled and stood. She embraced her daughter for a second time, pressed a kiss to her forehead, and then waved her from the office.
~X~
An hour later, Anabel was set up in a corner booth of the Cybercafe researching information on local marine wildlife, when a single bottle of orange juice was set in front of her. She jumped at the dull clunk the glass made against the tabletop and looked up to see Trent standing over her.
"Hey," Trent smiled.
"Hi," said Anabel. They still hadn't spoken about what had occurred last week, when Anton Mercer had turned up at the café for the first time. "Thanks, by the way."
"No problem," said Trent. "Hayley said your order consists of two items - water and orange juice. You looked like you could use a little sugar boost, so I went with the orange juice."
"Good call."
Trent smiled. "Government project?" he asked, nodding at the laptop and notes that surrounded Anabel.
"In a way," Anabel nodded. "If you haven't heard yet, my mum is re-running for Mayor. I agreed to help her, and while I'm throughout her whole campaign, there was one area she hasn't been able to cover yet."
"Underwater Wildlife Preservation," Trent murmured, reading a page from Anabel's notebook. "Hey, my dad mentioned something about that this morning. He said he was going to fund the organization…" he trailed off as Anabel's face darkened.
Taking a deep breath, Anabel relaxed and forced a smile. "Sorry. I'm not exactly the biggest fan of your dad right now."
"Understandable," said Trent. "I wouldn't be either if I had learned he had another family outside of me. But you should know, he was right when he said, 'it's not what you think'."
Anabel furrowed her brow. "What do you -?" she broke off as Cassidy's yell of 'waiter' echoed from the other side of the room.
"Better get back to work," said Trent. "I'll catch you later, Anabel." He walked away, leaving Anabel to watch him go. Her brow furrowed as she tried to work out what he had meant by echoing her father's comment of 'it's not what you think' - if Anton Mercer hadn't abandoned her for a second family, what had he done eleven years ago?
Anabel jumped for a second time as a scream echoed from Cassidy and Devin's table. She cocked her head to the side, watching as the blonde hit another key on her laptop, and another scream echoed around the room. She frowned, glancing around and spotting Ethan giggling from his seat at a nearby computer booth.
Hayley stepped in front of Ethan, a look of disapproval on her face.
Ethan huffed, apologized, and turned back to his computer as Hayley walked away. As the redhead disappeared out back, one last scream came from Cassidy's computer, and she slammed it shut in response.
Anabel shook her head, her lips curving into a small smile as she returned her attention to her own computer.
"Biodiversity," Anabel read, quietly to herself. Her eyes scanning the text that was displayed on the information screen on her laptop. According to the website she was looking at, there were two million species of life in the ocean waters and nine out of ten of them hadn't been fully discovered. She smiled at the idea of possibly discovering a new species of fish, while helping to preserve their lives, but shook the thought away. She would much rather had written about the person that had made the discovery, than discover it herself.
Booting up a search engine, Anabel typed - Protected Marine Species - into the bar and hit enter. She was so absorbed into her work, that she failed to notice when someone joined her at the booth. It wasn't until they cleared their throat, and she looked up, her gaze connecting with theirs, that she realized it was, in fact, her father - Anton Mercer.
"Anabel," Anton said, smiling. "It's been a long time. How are you?"
Anabel didn't answer. Instead, she cast a glance around, noting the number of heads that had turned in her direction. No one, other than her friends and family, knew that Anton Mercer, the rich guy that had disappeared years ago, was her biological father. If anyone had asked her about her parentage, she had always lied and said that her father was unknown.
"I'm sure you've heard by now that I'm helping fund your mother's mayor campaign," said Anton. "I've already donating to the Underwater Preservation. I did it in your name, if you're curious. I know how much of an interest you expressed in marine life as a child - tell me, do you still like Dolphins?"
Anabel narrowed her eyes. "You'd think a father would know that" she hissed her voice low. "But then, my father was more interested in having another family to care about my interests."
"I told you, it's not what you think."
"I don't care." Anabel retorted. "I thought I did. For one mini second, I thought I cared about your excuses, but then I stopped and thought, no, I don't need his justifications. I don't care for your reasons on why you abandoned me. They can't be any better than the stereotypical excuses a man gives when he abandons his child."
"I never abandoned you," said Mercer.
"No? Then what do you call walking out on your five-year-old?" Anabel asked, her voice breaking. "I looked up to you. I loved you. One minute you were there, promising to bring me back presents from your new dig, and then you were gone, and all I had was a letter!"
"I wrote to you multiple times explaining what had happened," said Mercer. "You never wrote back."
"Why should I have?" Anabel asked. "Like I said, I didn't need your justifications. Why should I have read and wrote back to you? If you had cared about me at all, you wouldn't have just written me a letter, talk about impersonal."
Anabel wiped away the tears that had started to roll down her cheek. She could now hear the whispers of other patrons around her, all the wondering why Anton Mercer was talking with Anabel - somewhere even making comments on how much they looked alike.
"I don't mean to be rude," said Anabel. "But I have a good life here in Reefside. No one knows I am a Mercer, and I intend to keep it that way. People already call me 'the spoilt little rich kid' because of Mum, the last thing they need to know is I'm your daughter." She whispered the word so quietly that Anton nearly missed it. "I've agreed that I will talk to Trent, if we're going to be seeing each other daily, then we should at least be able to get on. As for you?" she shook her head. "Unless you can give me a good, non-stereotypical excuse for leaving me, I want nothing more to do with you."
Anton sighed in resignation. He then stood and left without a word.
Anabel closed her eyes and released the breath she had been holding. She could feel the tears pushing against her eyelids but refused to let them fall. She couldn't cry, not here, of all places, and not over a man she had only seen twice in eleven years.
"That looked… difficult."
Anabel opened her eyes as Dr. Oliver slid into the seat opposite her. "Where'd you come from?" she asked, having not seen him at the cafe until now.
"I just arrived," said Dr. Oliver. "I was on my way over when I saw you weren't alone, and I will admit that I caught the tail end of your conversation. You, okay?"
Anabel huffed and shrugged. "He's trying," she admitted. "But I don't know…" she shook her head. "I guess I've been so mad at him for a long time that it's hard to see him in the same light I used to. I mean, I tried to remember your advice, about considering the circumstances of why he had left me, but I can't think of anything other than the fact that he didn't want me. But who could blame him? He's this huge multi-billionaire, don't they normally pass on to their son or something?"
Dr. Oliver rolled his eyes. "Now who is being stereotypical," he said.
"I know, but that's all I can think when I see him and Trent together," said Anabel. "On the flip side of seeing them together, it does make me want to work harder and prove that I can be just as good as any son he could have. Which is why I am now more determined to help my mother win her election this year."
Dr. Oliver smiled. "See, something good came out of all that anger after all," he said.
Anabel laughed lightly.
"You working on your government project?"
Anabel nodded. "I've decided to take a part of my mother's campaign to work on," she explained. "I just found out my dad is funding it, but that doesn't affect me. I just need to work on the protection of the Marine Wildlife and write about how I can go about it. Any ideas?"
"Ban any ocean-related activities?"
Anabel chuckled. "If only it were that easy," she said, shaking her head. "I know a lot of people don't understand how important the marine wildlife is to us and the planet, and that everything that is happening - pollution and climate change - is making it so our marine wildlife is disappearing at an exponential rate. Maybe if they understood how important the marine ecosystem is to, not only the marine life, but us too, they'd understand why protecting the oceans is important?"
"Sounds like you know what you want to do," said Dr. Oliver. "By the way, educating people is a lot better to get them to understand something's importance than it is to just argue with them."
Anabel smiled. "Thanks, Dr. O," she said.
~X~
Bleep. Bleep .
Anabel rubbed her eyes and looked down at her wrist. Her Dino Gem flashed twice and then went silent. Her first thought was that it was a false alarm, but her second thought confirmed her last one as wrong when Hayley rushed out from the backroom, looking frantically around the cafe. She spotted Anabel, and rushed over, dragging Ethan away from his computer in the process.
"Tommy took Trent home and they've been attacked on the road," said Hayley, her voice low. "Conner and Kira are on their way. This," she handed Anabel a small device with a red button, "will activate your Raptor Cycles and transport them here for your disposal."
"You invented a teleportation device?" Ethan asked, grinning.
Hayley nodded. "I'll explain it all to you later, right now, go," she said, ushering them towards the door. "I'll make sure your stuff is secured, Anabel," she added, seeing the worried look on the green ranger's face.
Anabel relented and dragged Ethan from the cafe. They disappeared behind an old, broken down tram carriage and glanced around.
"Ready?" Anabel asked, once she was satisfied that the coast was clear.
"Ready!"
"Dino Thunder, Power Up!"
Once morphed, Anabel pressed the button on the device Hayley had given her, and the blue and green Raptor cycles appeared before them, mounting their bikes, the two Rangers sped from the cafe, meeting up with Conner and Kira on the outskirts of town.
~X~
"There!" said Kira, pointing ahead.
Anabel followed her line of sight and found Dr. Oliver's jeep stationed in the middle of the road. He was leaning against the right side of the car, pressed up against the front wheel, while the monster that had attacked him stood at the rear.
"There's Trent," said Anabel, noticing the second passenger, peering out from behind the jeep.
"Ethan and I'll take the gold guy," said Conner. "Kira, you check on Trent. Anabel -"
"I got Dr. O," Anabel said, nodding.
Conner nodded in response and picked up the speed. The others followed, each one opening fire on the Gold Guy, and knocking him back from Trent.
Swinging her leg over her bike, Anabel dismounted and rushed to Dr. Oliver's side, she knelt beside him as the others breezed past her. Kira stopping beside Trent and helping him sit up, while Conner and Ethan, delivered similar kicks to the monster, knocking back a few more steps.
"You, okay?" Anabel asked, meeting Dr. Oliver's gaze through her visor.
Dr. Oliver nodded, wincing as he tried to push himself back to his feet.
"Sit," said Anabel, firmly, pushing him back down onto the road. "We got this." She looked up, watching as the big gold guy interacted with Conner and Ethan, before a clap of thunder deposited Zeltrax into the middle of the road.
"I was wondering when you would show up," said Conner.
Zeltrax huffed. "You," he said, looking over his shoulder. "Return with me at once."
"But, father, my mission is not complete," the gold guy responded.
Anabel furrowed her brow. "Father?" she murmured.
"Now. Do as you're told," Zeltrax hissed.
The gold guy nodded and stood down. "Yes, father," he said, leaping through the Invisiportal, along with Zeltrax.
"Did he just call him father?" Anabel asked.
"I think so," said Dr. Oliver.
Anabel shook her head. "I wonder if it's Elsa's?" she wondered.
"You would go there, wouldn't you?" Dr. Oliver asked, shaking his head.
Anabel grinned. "What? Tell me I'm wrong," she said.
~X~
The next morning, Anabel arrived at the Cybercafe early. There was hardly anyone around, save for Doctor Oliver and Hayley, both of whom were at the bar and looked up when she entered.
"Hey, you're early," said Hayley. "Everything okay?"
"Mum woke me up when she left for work," said Anabel. "I figured I'd get started on my government project instead of going back to sleep."
"Are you sure you're real?" Hayley teased. "I don't many teenagers that would rather work than sleep."
Anabel smiled. "You're not the only one that has told me that, you know," she said. "Last year's Principal, Robert Rathbone found me in the editors office before 8pm, and on a Saturday, He questioned me for about half an hour on my work ethic. Kept thinking I was there to cause trouble."
"Were you at the school when the prank took place?" Hayley asked.
"No, but I did write about it," said Anabel. "I tried to make it seem that Christopher Hayes wasn't a bad person, but misunderstood and mislead, but I don't think anyone believed me, especially not with the video evidence that Cassidy had on him."
"Aren't you writing a piece on Christopher now?" Dr. Oliver asked.
Anabel nodded. "Yeah. It's a big piece, so I'm taking my time with it," she explained. "It's also the main part of my journalist portfolio that I need for Edinburgh college."
"You're going to college in Scotland?" Hayley asked.
"I'm hoping to, yeah," said Anabel. "I've applied for a few places. But Edinburgh is my main one. Mum wanted me to go the South of France, but they don't cover the courses I want, unfortunately." She shrugged.
"You're definitely not a normal teenager," said Hayley. "Normal teenagers don't usually care about their careers when they're eighteen. They just wait until either during or after college."
Anabel smiled and shrugged. "Nothing wrong with being different," she said.
"How long have you known you want to be an investigated journalist?" Dr. Oliver asked.
"Since I was about ten," Anabel answered.
"Ten years old?" Hayley asked. "How come you started so young?"
Anabel smiled. "Believe it or not, I used to read a lot of Nancy Drew growing up, and the stories really captured my imagination," she said, laughing. "And I remember, there was this story about a dolphin that had gone missing somewhere down in Australia, and I love Dolphins, but I followed the story so closely that I was watching the news, and asking my mum for updates almost every day, to the point where I started drawing my own conclusions on what could've happened."
"What did happen?" Hayley asked.
"The dolphin, her name was Luna, everyone thought she had either been attacked by a shark, become stranded from her pod, or even caught in fishing nets throughout the gulf coast," said Anabel. "When in truth, she had just been playing with her pod and her tag had become lose."
"All that panic over nothing," said Hayley.
Anabel shrugged. "Yeah, but it instilled in me a passion for finding out the truth," she said, smiling.
"It's good to have a passion for something," said Dr. Oliver. "Makes you want it more."
Anabel smiled at him.
The three of them fell silent as Hayley set a bottle of orange juice in front of Anabel and turned her attention to her mail. By now, a few more patrons had started to arrive, each of them taking a booth or table and setting up the laptops that were around. A few others were discussing with their friends what they wanted to eat or drink, and others were talking about their school projects.
Anabel spotted Cassidy and Devin and waved as they set up on a nearby table.
"I don't believe this!" Hayley suddenly exclaimed, slamming a letter down on the counter.
"Junk mail?" Dr. Oliver asked.
"I wish," Hayley sighed. "Check this out."
Anabel turned to Dr. Oliver as he picked up the letter and started to read it. "What's it say?" she asked, leaning over to get a better look. Dr. Oliver turned the piece of paper, positioning it so that both he and Anabel could see its contents.
"As of tomorrow, I have a new landlord," said Hayley.
"And not just any landlord," said Dr. Oliver, reaching the bottom.
"Anton Mercer," Anabel whispered.
"He's going to rebuild the whole cafe, and he's going to replace me," Hayley said.
Anabel furrowed her brow. "With whom?" she asked, having not seen that particular piece of information in the letter.
Hayley paused, looking towards the doors.
Anabel turned in her seat and found Trent standing behind them. He sighed. "So, you've heard?" he asked.
"What happened?" Anabel asked. "Why does dad suddenly seem to care about something that he wouldn't normally care about?"
"You have to understand that I had nothing to do with this," said Trent, leaning on the counter and looking at Hayley. "My dad thinks he is doing what is best for me. I thinks, because he wasn't a waiter or slinging milkshakes when he was in high school that I shouldn't be doing the same, either."
"Now that sounds like dad," said Anabel. She took the letter from Dr. Oliver and scanned the contents again. "Look, my mum's the mayor. I can go over to City Hall and see if she can do anything, and if, on the off chance she can't, maybe she can point us in the direction of who can."
"Why would they listen to you, though?" Trent asked. "Surely, they're more likely to listen to the person that is willing to pay for the land."
"But dad doesn't care about this place," said Anabel. "He doesn't know what goes on here, or why this place is so important to people like us. Even if he didn't buy this place for you, he would've bought it out of spite and control. It's what dad does."
"In that case, I'm going with you," said Trent. "Regardless of what dad has done in the past, his reasons to buy the Cybercafe is because of me. He thinks it will benefit me more if I run it, instead of servicing it. I want to help make this right."
Hayley nodded.
"I'll call my Mum," said Anabel, pushing away from the counter and heading outside.
~X~
Arriving downtown, Anabel slid out of the passenger seat as the others joined her on the sidewalk outside city hall. She led them up the path, smiling as her mother stepped out of the wooden doors of the building and hurried down the steps.
"I got your message," said Zoey, hugging her daughter. "Is everything okay? What's your father done this time."
Anabel hesitated. While she had told her mother that her father was back in town, she hadn't been completely honest and told her about Trent. How could she bring herself to hurt her mother like that? Anton Mercer had been the love of her mother's life at one point, and they had been engaged before Mercer had disappeared. How would she react to knowing that he had a second family? A second child.
"Anabel, are you okay?" Zoey asked, noticing the worried looks in her daughter's eyes.
Anabel smiled. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine," she said, deciding that the best bet would be rip the band-aid off and do it now. "Mum this is Doctor Oliver and Trent. Guys, this is my mum, Zoey."
"Thanks for taking the time to talk to us," said Dr. Oliver.
Zoey nodded at him. "First, I want to know why you look nervous," she said, turning back to Anabel.
"Because what I am about to tell you sucks and I don't want to hurt you," said Anabel.
"Anabel, honey, I'm a big girl, I can handle whatever you throw at me," said Zoey. "You know that."
Anabel remained hesitant.
Glancing from Anabel to Zoey, Trent heaved a sigh as he realized why Anabel was so nervous. "Mrs. Brookes, my name's Trent, and I think I know why Anabel looks so upset. My father, my adopted father, that is, is Anton Mercer."
Zoey looked stunned, whereas Anabel stared at Trent, her eyes wide.
"Wait, you're adopted?" Anabel asked. "Why didn't you ever tell me that?"
"We haven't exactly talked about everything," said Trent. "And I told you it wasn't what you thought."
Anabel shook her head. That so wasn't the point, and Trent knew it. He could've just told her that he was the adopted son of her father, it would've made things a lot easier and saved her a lot of hurt thinking her father had left her and her mother for another family.
A crash of thunder and an invisiportal stopped any further conversations, even the one that concerned the reason why they were even there, especially when the big gold guy and Zeltrax dropped down onto the steps of City Hall, their gazes set on Dr. Oliver.
"There!" said Zeltrax, pointing at the group.
"I see them, father," said the gold guy. He pulled back his arm and threw it out again, blasting the group of four with an electric blast.
"Mum!" Anabel called.
"Anabel!" Zoey called, looking over at her daughter. She held out her hand, indicating that Anabel was to run to her, but Anabel didn't move. She couldn't. She had to stay and stop Zeltrax and his son from destroying the city, and until Conner, Ethan, and Kira arrived, she couldn't leave Dr. Oliver alone.
Zeltrax ordered his son to attack again, and Anabel covered her head with her arms as Trent ushered her mother out of the line of danger.
"Trent, take the mayor someplace where it's safe!" Dr. Oliver called.
"You got it," Trent agreed.
"Anabel!" Zoey called, staring at her daughter.
"Mum, go with Trent!" Anabel called. "I'll come find you."
Zoey tried to argue, but when Zeltrax attacked again, Trent pulled her away. Anabel watched them disappear and then turned to Dr. Oliver as he touched her shoulder.
Anabel held his gaze and then looked over at Zeltrax and his son. She'd make him pay for targeting her mother. It was one thing to come after her and her friends, but it was another thing entirely to go after the one person she cared about above anyone else.
"Attack!" Zeltrax ordered.
Goldenrod jumped down the steps and headed straight for the two rangers. He kicked up and knocked Anabel back, before turning his attention to Dr. Oliver. He blocked a punch and then shoved the black ranger aside.
"Your son got a lot stronger," said Dr. Oliver, looking up at Zeltrax.
"They grow up so fast, don't they?" Zeltrax mocked.
At the sound of fast footsteps and heavy breathing, Anabel turned to see the rest of her friends arrive. She sighed in relief, hoping that the fight would be over sooner now that they were all present, which meant she could go and find her mother and calm her down. She expected to be in some sort of trouble, but as long as her mother was alive and safe, she didn't care.
"We heard you guys were here to fight city hall," said Conner.
"I think Hayley meant fight in front of it," said Kira.
"What's going on?" Ethan asked.
Anabel shook her head. "We'll explain everything later," she said. "But can we finish here so I can go find my mum? She's probably going out of her mind."
Dr. Oliver nodded and looked around at the others. "Ready?" he asked.
"Ready!"
"Dino Thunder, Power Up!"
"Tyrannodrones!" Zeltrax called, summoning an invisiportal that dropped a load of foot soldiers onto the steps of city hall. "Attack! Destroy them!"
Goldenrod lifted his double-edged blade and rushed at the team, dividing them up into individual groups. He swung his sword, crashing it against the blade of the Green Ranger. In the short amount of time, he had been alive, he had seen how protective the Black Ranger - the Ranger his father wanted destroyed the most - had been of her and figured the best way to complete his father's plans was to target the one the black ranger seemed to care about most.
Anabel hissed as Goldenrod kicked her in the stomach. She grit her teeth and slashed up with her sword, missing her target as he blocked, but sliding the blades across one another with a screeching noise. She winced but pushed aside the noise as she flipped backwards to avoid the next attack.
Goldenrod growled and swung his sword again, missing Anabel by inches as she dropped to her knees and rolled forward. She pushed herself back to her feet and swung her sword, hitting the centre of Goldenrod's blade and shoving him back. He yelled out as he flipped over, landing on one knee.
"This is for my mum!" Anabel yelled, jumping up and raising her sword above her head. She slashed down, dragging the tip of her Thundermax down Goldenrod's chest.
He stumbled back in surprise, but quickly recovered. Pivoting, he kicked up and planted his foot against Anabel's chest.
Growling, Anabel pushed off from the ground and hit her Thundermax sabre on either side of Goldenrod's blade, and then pressed her foot against the handle and pushed. She flipped over, using the blade as a foothold, and landed back on her feet, facing Goldenrod as he landed opposite.
"Goldenrod, attack the city!" Zeltrax yelled.
"Yes, father!" Goldenrod replied. He shoved Anabel away by shouldering her in the chest and took off towards the street.
Anabel breathed heavily but followed him. She stopped as he grew, without the use of the black cloud, and turned, towering over her by thirty feet. "Guys!" she called, diving aside as Goldenrod raised his foot over her and stepped down.
"I'm going to rock this city!" Goldenrod exclaimed.
The ground shook for a second time as the Brachiozord lumbered into view. It deposited the other Biozords which thundered towards the Goldenrod.
"Dino Rangers, go!" Conner called.
Anabel leapt into her cockpit and immediately initiated the command to combine with the others.
"Thundersaurus Megazord!"
"Bring it on!" Goldenrod taunted
Anabel surveyed the area, her hands clenching into fists. She was one step closer to finding her mother and Trent, all she had to do was take out Goldenrod.
"He doesn't look so big anymore," said Conner.
"Then let's stop yapping and take care of business," said Anabel.
Jumping into the air, Goldenrod slammed his foot into the nose of the chest of the Megazord, flipped over and landed back on his feet. "Prepare to be destroyed!" he said, summoning his double-edged blade. He dashed forward, raking the sword back and forth across the Megazord, causing it to topple over.
Raising his sword above his head, Goldenrod paused and turned away from the fallen Rangers. He spotted Dr. Oliver on the ground, nearby, and thundered towards him.
"Dr. O, look out!" Anabel called.
Diving aside to avoid being squashed, Dr. Oliver rolled back to his feet and held up his Brachio Staff. He turned dial around the middle and struck the ground, sending out an impulse strike that bombarded Goldenrod with high winds.
Goldenrod stumbled.
Turning the dial again, Dr. Oliver struck the ground again, causing it to quake and a crack to open up right beneath Goldenrod's feet.
Goldenrod wailed as he fell into the crack, catching himself on the side and trying to haul himself out.
"Whoo!" Anabel yelled.
Dr. Oliver turned the dial for a third time and struck the ground. Inside the crevice, where Goldenrod was still trying to pull himself from, a flurry of flames appeared, wrapping themselves around Goldenrod's body and dragging him down.
He yelled in agony and was blasted from the crevice, high into the air, where he exploded.
~X~
Anabel lay her head against her mother's shoulder. They had reunited after the attack on the city and travelled to the Cybercafe together. The talk and been uncomfortable, especially since Anabel had to lie about certain areas and promise her mother that she hadn't stayed long enough at the scene to get hurt.
Although Zoey could tell that her daughter was withholding something, she didn't push the issue. She knew that when Anabel was ready, she would tell her everything that had happened today.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Anabel asked, pulling away from her mother. "I'm sure they can send someone else to tell Dad that he won't be getting the cafe."
Zoey smiled and tucked a strand of hair behind her daughter's ear. "I think it's high time that we both stopped hiding from the possibility of facing Anton again," she said. "We have avoided him for so long that it only seems fair that he realizes we don't need him."
Anabel smiled and nodded. "We draw strength from each other," she said.
"Exactly. We're Brookes'," said Zoey. "We don't need anyone, but one another."
As the doors opened, Anabel glanced around and took a deep breath as her father entered, followed by lawyers and a cleanup crew. He looked around, pointing at various things, and issuing orders to the men.
"Okay, let's get these walls torn out," said Mercer, indicating to the far walls. "We can save the computers."
"Hang on. You don't own it yet," said Hayley, stepping into his path.
"Hayley," said Mercer, fiddling with his cufflinks. "You know, as much as I hate to say this, you really can't fight City Hall."
Anabel raised an eyebrow and turned to her mother.
"I wouldn't be so sure about that, Anton," said Zoey, announcing her presence and drawing Mercer's attention to her. It had been the first time she had seen him in thirteen years.
Mercer cleared his throat and straightened his tie. If he was surprised at seeing his former fiancé, he didn't show it.
"I'm sure I don't have to introduce myself. But, for those who don't know me, I'm Zoey Brookes', Mayor the 33rd District," Zoey stood from her seat and approached Hayley, Anabel following, along with many other patrons of the Cybercafe, including Dr. Oliver. "It is with great pleasure; I inform you that the city council has voted to put your purchase of this land on hold."
"You're a part of this?" Anton asked Dr. Oliver.
"Actually, we had your son to thank," said Zoey, revealing that she knew about her ex-fiancé's newest child. Be he adopted or not. "He helped me to realize that a place like this, a safe haven for learning and interaction for the youth of our community, is something that shouldn't be disturbed or changed in any way."
"I was only trying to do what's best for my son," said Anton.
"Understandable," Zoey agreed. She place her hand on Anabel's shoulder and squeezed. "And I'm doing what is best for my daughter and her friends."
Anabel watched as her father resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He should've expected this, and while she should've felt upset for him, she wasn't. He had brought this on himself, and now he had to face the consequences of his actions.
"Well, I'll just be going, then," Anton said. He looked from Zoey to Anabel, and then turned and left.
As the doors closed behind him, the Cybercafe erupted into cheers.