So then, it's time for the fifth chapter. This time, the contestants will finally reach Solace and begin their new lives. Though things have been gloomy ever since leaving the facility, some are now optimistic about their new future. But other than Izzy's shenanigans, the mutants will start to attract unwanted attention, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. Find out in the fifth chapter of Second Chances…

Aztec 13: You can recall that from my previous attempt at writing this, that Ash is *wink wink nudge nudge*.

This is another short chapter. The chapters will get longer near the end. Shut up, my creativity is drained for the middle section.

We cut to Wing C of the ship, where Jasmine and Sammy are sitting. Jasmine was eating some cashews from a bag, though she finds it tastes different than most edible species.

"What do you think happened?" Sammy asks, referring to the emergency power outage.

"Eh, probably some sort of malfunction." Jasmine states.

"Wait, wasn't one of the mutants on the files based on electricity or something?" Sammy asks.

"Hmm, didn't really think of that." Jasmine states. "We should check it out later." She takes another bite of cashews. "Ya want some?"

"Eh, pass, ate a lot of the hash this morning." Sammy denies the offer. "Hey, are you curious about what might happen to us once we get to Solace?" She asks.

"I'm honestly not very sure. Hopefully, things will turn in our favor. But we need to work hard." Jasmine states hopefully.

"I guess so… I'm just really getting overwhelmed by the entire situation." Sammy states. "I should probably get back to Amy in case she needs me to cover for something."

As Sammy goes up to walk, Jasmine immediately stops her.

"Hey, I'm not certain about the future, but I do know this." Jasmine smiles. "Whatever social boundaries keeping you from standing up to her are gone now. No need to keep yourself from getting beat up."

"But-" Sammy gets interrupted.

"No, you don't need to do this to yourself anymore. And plus, it would be good trying to ease out the tension around here." Jasmine states. "Come on, this isn't just for me, it's also for you."

"Hmm…" Sammy thought about it for a while, and then gave in. "Gah, you're right. I've been standing and suffering in my sister's shadow for as long as I can remember, it's finally time to break off."

"Come, wanna check what happened on the ship?" Jasmine asks.

"That seems nice. It's better than sitting around without a clue." Sammy states.

As the two stood up and began walking, Sammy trips on a sleeping Shawn, waking him up.

"Gah!" Shawn woke up and alerted.

"Oops, sorry." Sammy states.

"Come on, it's like everyone here thinks I'm invisible!" Shawn complained.

"Wow, you don't need to be so mad about it." Sammy states. "I'm still sorry though."

As the two walked off, Shawn sat up in confusion.

"What is up with me today?" Shawn asks.

"Who knows? Maybe since your paranoia changed, you seem a bit uninteresting." Dave snarked.

Sky slapped Dave in the head hearing this remark.

"Gah! Worth it." Dave chuckled a bit.

"Or maybe it's something else, something we don't know." Sky states.

"Let's just hope it isn't anything big." Shawn states.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the power is almost fully functional. We will be departing in 5 minutes." A pilot announced over the intercom.

"Anyone else nervous?" Dave asked.

"This is gonna get hard." Shawn states.

Chapter 5: A New Kind Of Bond

1 Hour Later

We cut to the airspace of Solace, where the massive ship suddenly appears from hyperspace, creating a shockwave across the area. The landscape around them is a mixture of desert and rocky mountains with a decent amount of wildlife. As we close in on the ship, its doors and windows open up, so its passengers can be able to take a look outside as the ship begins its descent. Amongst the crowds, we see another part of the TD group. Mike, Zoey and Cameron.

"This is actually pretty beautiful." Mike states. "Maybe this won't be as bad as we thought."

As Mike turns around, he sees Zoey and Cameron getting dizzy due to the aftermath of the hyperspace jump.

"Whoa, you guys okay?" Mike asks in worry.

"Oh, nothing. It's just the hyperjump. Not that big of a deal." Zoey states.

"Yeah, we may need to rest." Cameron states.

"Come on, let's get you guys somewhere else." Mike volunteers to help.

As the three walk somewhere else, Mike notices a strange figure stalking them from the hallway. It was Ash, but Mike doesn't know.

"Huh?" Mike was in confusion.

As Ash realised Mike had made eye contact with her, she immediately portals away.

"What is it Mike?" Cameron asks.

"I don't know, but I thought someone was stalking us from the halls." Mike states. "It felt very disturbing."

"Look, I know we are in the future and all, but I don't think there are any reasons for people to stalk us." Zoey states.

"You are forgetting about another factor." Cameron states before bringing his voice down to a whisper. "The mutants within our group."

"Ah dang it, forgot about that." Zoey states. "Then we have to be very careful not to cause trouble for our group."

The Next Day

We cut into a busy city in Solace, where activity is blooming, with many vendors selling goods, kids running around playing their games, and both tourists and locals walking around. The buildings seem decent, though not metropolis decent, it seems to give off a vibe seen in Brazilian mountainside architecture, with designs similar to that of a populated city in India. Despite the more third world-ish look, the technologies seen are like that of an average city, with lights and signs hanging around the buildings, and most people having some sort of high tech device of some sort. Amongst the crowded place, we see a small part of our TD group. Gwen, Owen, Duncan, Courtney, Heather and Alejandro. They were walking amongst the crowd looking for something, and seemingly frustrated.

"Ugh, it's been 6 hours, how have we not found a place to stay?!" Duncan complained.

"Just be patient, this isn't just some town, it's a whole city." Heather states.

"Maybe we should look for some posters to see if there are any available apartments." Owen states.

"We should probably hurry up, almost everyone in our group has found somewhere to stay." Courtney states.

"We shouldn't get someplace expensive, even if the 6 of us have 200,000$ shared between us." Gwen states. "We still need to find some jobs if we want to make a living here."

Courtney takes out a phone-like device and checks messages.

"You know? I thought it would have a sleeker design." Duncan states.

"I actually thought so too." Alejandro states.

"Hmm, they said that Dawn broke off into the wilderness." Courtney states.

"Eh, leave her, it's technically her way of life." Duncan states.

"Hmm, Izzy too. She better not be messing shit up this time." Courtney states.

As they continue to walk, they pass by an interesting building. A 5 story tall building, with the first and second floor being a bar named Paradise Lounge, and the rest seem to be apartments.

"Guys, how about this place?" Duncan asks.

"The Paradise Lounge? Seems interesting." Alejandro states.

"A bar? No thanks, I remember my uncle tricked me into drinking vodka and that taste is permanently stuck in my mouth." Heather states.

"Hey, at least it's better than nothing." Gwen states.

Gwen walks towards the entrance and looks at a poster. Luckily for her, some rooms are available, and there are some job openings in the Paradise Lounge.

"Guys, let's try this place." Gwen signals the others.

"Seriously? Can't we find somewhere else?" Heather asks.

"It's almost night, we have to find something to use." Courtney states.

The 6 walk into the bar, and they walk up to the counter and see no one working except a man in his 30s wearing barista outfit.

"Hello?" Gwen tries to get his attention.

The guy wasn't responding and was continuing his own thing.

"Um… hello?" Gwen still tries to grab his attention.

Suddenly, the guy disappears in a spray of light, and the back door of the bar opens, revealing 4 interesting people. One guy was a male with an incredibly similar look to the guy that was behind the counter, but was wearing an interesting high tech outfit. The second was a female wearing a tight dark colored jumpsuit with a utility belt, dark hair tied into a bun and almost clear pupils. The third was another female chewing gum with a more ragged orange outfit, with parts making her seem like an engineer. The fourth was surprisingly a robot, with a blue steampunk design with one eye and a monitor in it's chest showing its emotion, with also a grappling hook attached to its left arm. These are respectively known as Mirage, Wraith, Rampart and Pathfinder.

"You know? That match was pretty chaotic." Rampart states.

"Chaotic is a bit of an understatement. That creature we fought doesn't seem like it was the only one around." Wraith states.

"Hey, I can't say for sure. I was down for most of the match." Mirage states. "I have to get back at Anita and the new guy for leaving me behind."

"Well, you better hurry. Anita might leave anytime soon." Wraith states.

"Hopefully she'll find what she's looking for." Pathfinder states.

"Hey um… don't mean to interrupt, but why would you leave a hologram of yourself here as you off out doing your own shit?" Gwen barges in. "Isn't that just bad management?"

"Hey, you're not from here are you." Rampart states.

"Um… well, we were transferred from Earth. We need someplace to stay, and you have some rooms available." Courtney states.

"You guys are transfers from Earth, huh? Well then, how's Solace?" Mirage asks.

"Well, can't answer that, we just arrived." Alejandro states.

"Hi new friends. How many are in your group?" Pathfinder asks.

"Well, we have around 83-" Owen immediately gets cut off by Duncan who shuts him up.

"Dude, we can't give them our information, we don't even know them." Duncan states.

"83 people? That's some family you have there." Wraith states.

"Well, not exactly family, but more, incredibly big friend group." Duncan states.

"Ah so, what do you plonkers want from us?" Rampart states.

"You have an available room above this bar, right?" Heather asks.

"Well, yeah, but I don't actually own the apartment complex." Mirage states. "I can redirect you to the owner, if you'd like."

"That's good, thanks." Courtney likes the idea.

As the 6 follow Mirage out the building, Gwen notices Wraith eyeing her. Feeling an odd vibe from her, she decides to speak up.

"What are you looking at me for?" Gwen asks.

"I'm getting an incredibly odd vibe from you." Wraith states.

"Why though?" Even though Gwen knew what she meant, she tries to hide the fact that she's a mutant.

"Something about you seems off." Wraith states.

"Don't we all have our off days? Come on, don't be ridiculous." Gwen states.

As Gwen runs off to catch up with the others, Wraith couldn't shake off the feeling of something wrong.

"Hey, Path, come with me, I need help modifying another one of my projects." Rampart states.

"I am excited for your next creation, Ramya." Pathfinder says.

"Ah, you never lie, do you. Ha!" Rampart chuckled.

As the other two walk to another room in the bar, Wraith charges up her gauntlet, and jumps into the void…

We cut to another part of the group in another part of the city. This group has already found a relatively large apartment and are just settling in. These were Leshawna, Harold, Lindsay, Tyler, Trent, Geoff, Bridgette and Brody.

"Well, this is it guys, the start of our new lives." Trent solemnly says. "Any plans?"

"I've been thinking of some, but we need to at least get jobs first." Harold states.

"Maybe tommorow, we can have time to rest and absorb all this." Leshawna states. "Other than that, do you guys know who the third mutant is?"

"We don't really know." Tyler states. "Dawn is the only one of us who knows who it is, and she already ran off into the wilderness."

"Wait, the log says something about affecting the minds of nearby people making them undetectable." Bridgette spoke up and brought up an interesting point. "Has any of you had an incident regarding that?"

"Nope." Brody states.

"Not me." Lindsay states

"Anyone? So, it's probably not us." Bridgette states the fact. "We should probably ask the others about it."

"Hopefully they would have found something by now." Leshawna states.

"I'll just go out and buy some food for us." Tyler states.

"Ooh, I want to come." Lindsay states.

"Sounds good." Trent decides to join in.

We then cut to another part of the group walking through the street. This part of the group has already found an apartment but was out finding things to buy. These were Shawn, Jasmine and Sammy.

"So, Sammy, how's breaking out?" Jasmine asks.

"Oh man, she was pretty mad. It was totally worth it." Sammy was happy about what she'd done.

"You know? It's nice for to see someone in high spirits in this type of situation." Shawn states. "Anyways, we have to get some bottled water. And maybe some food for later."

"Where would we go for food though?" Sammy asks.

"Maybe street vendors, those are always pretty cheap." Jasmine states.

"How about jobs for the long run?" Shawn asks.

"Hmm, we just look for some tommorow." Jasmine states.

Suddenly, a bunch of screams were heard in a store next to them. This caught their attention.

"Huh?!" Shawn looked in confusion.

And the the store blows up into flames. This caused the three to back up in surprise as the civilians around them look at what happened.

"Ah shit! The heck was that?!" Sammy yelled in fear.

Jasmine looks around and spots someone sneaking in the allyways. They looked like they were carrying some cargo. Though this seemed vague, it looked like it has to do with the exolosion.

"An attack?!" Jasmine asks, confused.

As more and more people surround the blaze, and the emergency services began to arrive, Jasmine and Sammy felt something pull their hands, and when they turned around, they saw nothing there.

"The heck?!" Sammy asks in confusion.

"Guys guys, it's me!" Shawn's voice was heard.

As the two girls looked around, they noticed that Shawn was nowhere near them.

"Shawn?! Where the hell are you?!" Jasmine asks.

"Guys, I'm right in front of you!" Shawn yelled.

Then suddenly, Shawn just appears in front of them.

"The heck did you go?!" Sammy asks.

"I was always here!" Shawn yelled.

Even more surprising, Shawn's body began to fade in and out of sight. This obviously caught the two off guard.

"Whoa! Shawn, your body's fading." Jasmine states.

"This is no time to talk about my body shape!" Shawn states.

"No, it's fading, as in it's turning invisible!" Sammy yelled.

"The heck?!" Shawn then checks himself. "No I'm not!"

"Wait, remeber the log back at the facility?" Sammy asks.

"Of course! You're not turning invisible, you're affecting our minds so that we won't be able to see you!" Jasmine states. "But then that means…"

"Oh no…" Shawn gasped in knowing what this meant.

We then cut back to the Paradise Lounge, where we see Gwen and Owen sitting down on some of the chairs, drinking some water and watching Mirage as he was dancing around with one of his holograms.

"So that suit can create holograms of yourself? What do you use it for?" Gwen asks.

"Oh well, it can be good for parties and can be good in the hear of the Apex Games." Mirage states.

"The Apex Games? What's that?" Owen asks.

"You've never heard of the Apex Games? Come on, it's litterally the biggest bloodsport in the Outlands." Mirage scoffs at the question.

"Wait, what?" Gwen was confused by the statement. "Hold on, did you say bloodsport?"

"Well yeah, a bunch of us drop into an island filled with weapons, and the last team standing wins." Mirage explains the rules.

"So it's in a battle royale formant." Owen states.

"You can call it that." Mirage states.

"Hold on, if you're competing, what if you die?" Owen asks.

"Oh, that, that is a secret well kept by the Syndicate. Even I don't know how I get back to life." Mirage states.

"Okay, this seems like a load of bullshit." Gwen states.

"How about I'll show you." Mirage states as his hologram disappears.

Mirage takes out a remote and turns on a tv. It then shows two people in battle. A female looking like a military officer with short curly hair, and a male covered in white and blue armor and a white shield giving off the vibe of a defender. They are respectively called Bangalore and Newcastle. They seem to be in the middle of a battle while a building was unearthed. In the background was Mirage trying to balance on the quickly unearthing building.

"That thing must have triggered some kind of security protocol!" Bangalore yelled as she runs to Newcastle.

"Nothing good can come from this place." Newcastle muttered.

"Hey, is that shield just for show?" Bangalore asks.

Newcastle then throws a device that creates an energy shield in front of them.

"Stay behind me!" Newcastle yelled.

"You know, some of us were actually doing this for a while." Mirage was getting cocky.

Then Mirage gets shot in the shoulder and falls to the ground. Then the TV was immediately turned off.

"Gahahahaha!" Owen laughed hysterically after watching the scene.

"Wow, doing it for a while, eh?" Gwen was chuckling a bit. "And you don't seem to drop that cocky personality."

"Ah dang it, I thought they scrapped that footage due to the monster attack." Mirage muttered to himself in embarassment.

"Heh, you're pretty fun to be around, eh?" Owen asks while still chuckling.

"So this, bloodsport. How often does it happen?" Gwen asks.

"Well, at least every week. Though after an incident, it will be delayed for 2." Mirage states. "You know, if you want, you can work here in the Paradise Lounge. I need someone here every week."

"Eh, I'll pass." Owen states.

"So I'm gonna be the one to work here?" Gwen asks. "Okay then."

"Well then, I'll just get some things for you to sign." Mirage states.

As Mirage walks into another room, Courtney enters the bar.

"Hey guys, something just came up." Courtney says.

"Yes?" Gwen asks.

"We now know who the third mutant is." Courtney states. "Jasmine contacted me and told me that Shawn is the third and final mutant."

"Really? What happened?" Gwen asks.

"Something about an store explosion near where they are." Courtney states.

"Call them here." Gwen states. "And also call Emma here. We need to discuss what to do with our mutant powers."

"Okay then." Courtney states.

As Courtney walks off, Wraith appears on a chair next to Gwen, surprising her and Owen.

"The heck did you come from?!" Owen jumped in surprise.

"Well then. What were you guys talking about back there?" Wraith asked. "Something about mutations?"

"Oh um… well." Gwen stutters a bit. "You won't understand."

"Really? You're talking to someone who can jump in and out of the void at will." Wraith says.

"Hold on, what?" Gwen was confused by the statement.

"How else do you think I appeared out of nowhere?" Wraith asks. "I may not know about you guys, but you're not from this era, are you."

"Um… well…" Gwen still tries to hide it.

"Don't worry, I'm not gonna hurt you, nor am I gonna tell others your secret." Wraith states.

"Ugh…" Gwen thinks about it. "Okay fine, 700 years ago, me and my friends were kidnapped by a crazy mad scientist for genetic experiments. Somehow, an accident occured, and we were trapped on the facility on Earth for a very long time." Gwen tells her story. "There, you happy?"

"To be honest, that's not the craziest story I've heard." Wraith states. "But after looking at your past from the void, it's feasable."

"Wait, how are you so quick to believing us?" Gwen asks.

"If you have the same abilities I have, it's recommended to trust the whispers." Wraith says. "Your secret's safe with me."

Wraith turns around and pops a portal in the bar.

"Hey wait! How do you-" Gwen tries to get her attention, surprised by her portal.

But Gwen was cut off as Wraith disappeared into the portal, leaving the two speechless. Then Mirage returns with some documents.

"Okay, I guess I'm gonna interview you as standard protocol so…" Mirage states.

"You're friends with that girl, right? Wraith, was it?" Gwen asks.

"Yes, we're pretty tight, we've been competing in the Apex Games for 3 years now." Mirage states.

"How did she get her powers, though?" Gwen asks.

"In fact, she even doesn't know. But she makes great use of it in the games." Mirage states.

"Right…" Gwen was a bit skeptical by the answer.

"So, come with me, and you'll start working at the Lounge." Mirage states.

Gwen then follows Mirage to another part of the bar. Owen turns around and sees Jasmine, Shawn and Sammy, exhausted of running.

"Wow, you guys are roughed up." Owen remarks.

"We ran here as fast as we can…" Shawn panted.

"Let's get you guys upstairs, shall we?" Owen volunteers to help.

Owen then helped the exhausted trio to their apartment. But what he doesn't know that there was someone listening to Gwen's and Wraiths conversation in the bar. A man in a mercenary outfit, a cigar and a red bandana. He takes out a radio and contacts someone.

"LS? Something came up at the lounge. We might want to have a look." The guy contacted someone who is probably his boss.

Okay then, the third mutant is revealed. I'm running out of ideas to put in this section so… I'm just gonna announce another story I'm gonna plan in a few days, so stay tuned to that. I'm out!

A Stranger I Remain…