So, you might be wondering why my chapters have been decreasing in frequency. Well, other than looking at shitposts and playing Horizon Forbidden West for hours at a time, I had another idea, you might have heard of it, it's called the Multiversal Steel Ball Run. I'll get to that later, but now, we left off with Shawn truly awakening his mutant powers. But an unknown party has taken interest in the group. But what'll happen with this new threat? I am a terrible planner so I don't know. But maybe I can think of some while writing this chapter of Second Chances…
We cut to the random mercenary that had eavesdropped on the conversation. Having heard an interesting subject, he contacted one of his superiors and was told to regroup with his squadron.
"Gus, make sure to leave a tracker for us. So we can stalk them to know what they're capable of." The boss of the guy says.
"On it. But are you sure you're gonna try not to charge at them immediately?" Gus asks.
"Come on, these guys might be our ticket to living life to the fullest." The boss states. "Hopefully whoever bastard wants unique genetic experiments can pay us enough to set us for life."
"Hold your horses LS, don't try and get too pushy, they might know what's up." Gus says.
"Alright, alright. I don't want to get your panties in a twist about it." LS states.
"Come on, I know you can get more serious than that." Gus states.
"Make sure you are careful when setting the tracker." LS states.
"Okay then, I'm out." Gus says.
Gus turns and sees Gwen and Mirage walking out of the back of the bar.
"Okay, you can come back tomorrow and work." Mirage states.
"Are you sure you're gonna pay me extra when you're out with your games?" Gwen asks.
"Don't worry. I'll get that covered when it comes up." Mirage states.
"Okay then." Gwen stated
As Gwen walked in another direction, Gus then made his move. He takes out his pen and bumps into Gwen, impaling her skin with the pen.
"Gah! Hey, watch it bub." Gwen states.
"You watch it, girl. You're at a bar, you should expect this to happen on the daily." Gus states.
"Ugh… you know what, fine." Gwen rolled her eyes at this.
Gwen goes out of the building to go up to her apartment and sees Emma and Kitty walking towards her.
"Oh, hey." Gwen says.
"We got the call from Courtney, she told me to come here." Emma states.
"We heard about Shawn. So you three will be gathered here?" Kitty asks.
"Yeah, we have some things to talk about." Gwen states. "Where's Noah?
"He's trying to buy some supplies for us." Kitty states. "And also trying to find a job. Have you guys already found a job?"
"Yeah, just got a job as a bartender here." Gwen states. "Come on, I'll show you our dorm."
Chapter 6: The Mutants Three
We cut to Noah walking around the streets of the city, with a notepad in hand. He tries to find some good businesses to work for in the meantime, before making other plans for the future of his group.
"A bunch of retailers seem to be desperate to get some new employees." Noah states to himself. "It might be good for most of us to spread out and get good cash that way."
Noah then finds his way to a bench. He then decides to take a rest for a bit.
"Man, I've been walking for hours. Hopefully I'm not the only one walking around." Noah groans. "Well, I think there are worse scenarios to be stuck in. But this still sucks."
Suddenly, in a bar in front of him, two people in a fight jump through a window, shattering the glass.
"Drunkards in a bar fight, some things don't change, huh?" Noah commented on the brawl. "Should start leaving before things escalate."
Noah stood up and began to walk away from the ensuing fight.
We then cut back to the apartment above Paradise Lounge where some of the others were waiting. Gwen leads Emma and Kitty inside the apartment, and they all sit around.
"So, anyone have any ideas and propositions?" Courtney asks.
"Hmm…" Heather thought for a bit. "Nah, I got nothing, this is way out of my space of thinking."
"I got nothing." Shawn states.
"Nothing here." Gwen sighs.
"No one? No one, eh?" Courtney asks some more. "Alright, I'll go first. My take on the situation will be that the mutants should at least try to train their abilities so that we won't get any incidents."
"Hmm… that would be a nice idea, but I see something slightly wrong with it." Alejandro states. "Won't the training attract attention anyway?"
"At least we will have a bit of a warning while it happens." Courtney states. "It's better than walking in public as something goes out of control."
"I guess." Alejandro states. "I second it."
"Already some takers, huh?" Gwen comments. "I'll also second it."
"I agree." Jasmine states.
"Hmm, sounds good." Duncan states. "Why not?"
"Hmm… yeah, seems good." Emma states. "I'm in."
"I guess… yeah, I guess it's a good idea." Kitty states.
"I'm on board with it." Shawn states.
"So, who else is interested?" Courtney asks.
"Hmm, I don't really know what to say about it, but most of you guys agree, so I'll just see how it turns out." Sammy states.
"So… it's decided." Courtney states.
"Anything else?" Gwen asks.
"Maybe some of us can go out to find a secluded spot for the mutants to safely train." Duncan states. "Just enough to keep their abilities in check, right?"
"Hmm, yeah. I guess." Courtney thought for a bit. "So, anyone else have any more propositions?"
The room then stood in silence, no one seemed to have any more ideas, and seemed to be waiting for one of the others to give more ideas.
"No one? Nothing else?" Courtney asks. "I guess we're done here. Same thing tomorrow?"
"That quick?" Shawn asks. "I think there should be more matters to deal with, like where can we assign the others for jobs."
"Hmm, yeah, I guess we can discuss that." Courtney states.
2 Hours Later
It was already night now and almost everyone who didn't live in the apartment has left when we saw Gwen walking around the inside of the Paradise Lounge, getting familiar with her new workplace. As she was admiring the unique layout of the bar, she saw Emma about to sit down on one of the chairs, while ordering a coffee from Mirage.
"Hey, you drink?" Gwen asks.
"No, I'm not an alcoholic." Emma states. "I drink wine every once in a while, but I mainly just drink water or coffee. I feel like I need the coffee for the thinking I'm gonna do tonight."
"Hmm, same." Gwen states.
"Just a question, how do you feel about all this? The fact that we're now permanently stuck here." Emma asks. "A lot of us are not really taking it well."
"Yeah, I understand. It still aches me to think what my family has been through after I disappeared." Gwen says solemnly. "I really miss them, and after seeing all of you guys in pain because of the situation, I decided at least I should try my best to help us survive."
"I felt the same thing when I realised we're stuck here." Emma states. "The instinct of needing to protect flared up when I realised it's just me and my sister alive in our family. Both of us never realised what kind of shit would happen when we signed up for the race."
"I also felt an uncertain feeling when trying out for Total Drama. Didn't know what my instincts were telling me until now." Gwen states. "But I don't hate myself for it, I have a strong belief in karma and fate, this was a path I was meant to take. I won't fight the past, but I can help make a future for us."
"Yeah, but there are so many complications that even I can't seem to find an easy way to get around." Emma states.
"Hey, whatever happens, I know that we can figure it out." Gwen states. "Fate favors those with good hearts."
"Hmm, never heard that before." Emma states.
Mirage walks to the counter and places a coffee cup in front of Emma, who grabs it and takes a sip.
"Friend of yours?" Mirage asks.
"Yeah." Gwen states. "So, about the scheduling of this place?"
"We usually open up at noon, and close up at 10 pm." Mirage explains. "You'll get pretty comfortable with the schedule since you don't have to wake up that early."
"That's great if I'm working here." Gwen states.
"Well, nice of you to get a job immediately." Emma comments as she finishes her coffee. "I'm gonna go back to my apartment. I need to check up on what the others have found."
Suddenly, as Emma stood up to walk out of the bar, Wraith popped out of the void in front of her.
"Mirage, you still owe Anita some-" Wraith explains but was immediately cut off.
"Ah shit!" Emma yelped from the surprise appearance.
Because of the unexpected arrival, and that Wraith literally appears out of nowhere, it causes Emma to be startled so much that lightning shoots out from her hands. Luckily, Wraith was able to react and jump back into the void at the last second.
"Who was that?!" Emma asks.
"Oh, that was Wraith, one of my friends. She compete's in the Apex Games with me." Mirage states. "Wait, how did you shoot out electricity?"
"It's a long story." Gwen states. "I'd… rather not tell."
"Hmm, yeah, I get it, Wraith never told us where she got her abilities." Mirage states.
Wraith pops out of the void again, pinching her temples in annoyance.
"I should have expected some people to be here." Wraith groaned. "Anyways, this one your friends, Gwen?"
"Hmm, yeah." Gwen states.
"She shoots electricity, huh?" Wraith asks. "Not that surprising. You can guess why."
"Oh, sorry about that." Emma says. "I might ask how you do that, but even I might not be able to understand."
"Eh, I also try not to get into the specifics." Wraith says. "But make sure to keep your abilities in check, it may give you problems that will get out of control."
"Yeah, we were discussing that." Gwen states. "Three of us have abilities that we should definitely try to hide."
"Hmm, alright." Wraith thought for a bit. "Alright, how about I'll help you with your training. Just until you guys are able to keep your powers in control."
"I'm sorry, what?" Emma asks.
"What I'm thinking is that I'll help you at least get your powers in control." Wraith explains. "If you want to, I don't mind."
"Hmm, tempting, but I don't think we should be trusting anyone with these affairs." Emma states.
"I guess… but I think it's worth considering." Gwen states. "Hmm, this is hard."
"I'll leave you to the thinking, I have other matters to attend to." Wraith says as she walks to Mirage. "Hey, Anita says you still owe her a hundred dollars during the bet you made yesterday."
"Oh come on, I was just joking when I said nothing will attack the island." Mirage groaned. "It's constantly under siege by prowlers."
"But you guys still made a bet, she's still waiting for the money." Wraith says. "Just cough it up so you won't be bothered the next time you see each other."
"Ugh, dang it, I was saving up for another wine brand." Mirage groaned.
As Mirage gave the money to Wraith, Gwen and Emma walk up to them, already having their decision.
"I tried thinking of other options but I don't really think it would work out." Emma states. "I'll decline the offer."
"I'm sorry, but I don't think we can trust you." Gwen states.
"Well, sorry to hear that." Wraith comments. "The offer will still be up, I'll be waiting."
Wraith takes the money Mirage has given and jumps into the void, going somewhere else.
"Man, this place is weird." Emma comments. "No offence."
"None taken, and besides, three of you guys have powers, it's not like we're any weirder." Mirage states.
"Well, I have a question, who else competes in the Apex Games?" Gwen asks.
"Um… well… an electrical engineer, two murderous robots who used to be humans, a hunter who lives by the way of the vikings, a war criminal, a master thief and a medic." Mirage explains.
"All those compete in a blood sport, huh? Pretty weird if you ask me." Gwen states.
"A bloodsport? What are you talking about?" Emma was confused about this.
"I'll explain it to you later." Gwen states. "I gotta check on the others for what to do with the training."
Gwen walks out the bar and up the stairs to her apartment as Emma follows suit, leaving Mirage alone in the bar.
"Man, they seem nice." Mirage states. "I wonder what they've been through?"
Rampart sticks her head out of the workshop, curious about what happened.
"I heard some sort of noise, have you been meddling with the bet you guys made?" Rampart asks.
"No, it was something else." Mirage states. "I already gave the money."
We then cut to another unknown area, seemingly away from the city our group is in. It seems to be like an underground bunker, and we see that one of the rooms has a couple weapon crates inside. Suddenly, two people walked inside, one was a tall but thin female wearing a black jacket and dark blue pants with long brown hair and the second was a taller bald muscular male wearing body armor and mercenary wear and a black cloth mask with a grey wool hat. They were both carrying bags full of computer parts in bags.
"I wonder what LS wants? We had to rush here after the supply raid." The big guy asks.
"Whatever it is, it better be important enough for us to rush getting home and risk getting caught." The female states.
"Come on, Sara. LS has good instincts. He hasn't failed my expectations." The big guy says.
"He hasn't failed your expectations yet, Bruce, we've had close calls before." Sara states. "And we already have these computer parts that can raise up to 2500$ each bag, and each heist we do is carefully planned by Gus. What more do we need?"
The two walk to a door and open it to see Gus in the room as another person walks out the door. The guy was a very tall and thin Russian male with gray combed hair and wearing pure black clothes.
"Hey, Boris, where are you going?" Bruce asks.
"Going to see if you guys haven't left a trail while rushing here." Boris states.
"But aren't we gonna hear what LS has to say?" Sara asked.
Boris just silently walks out of the door to go out of the bunker, leaving Sara and Bruce confused.
"What was that about?" Sara asked.
"Hey, Sara, Bruce, just in time, eh?" Gus says.
"Shut the fuck up, Gus, what's the occasion?" Sara states.
"Okay, I've come across some… how do you say this… mutants." Gus says. "I've… already put a tracker on one of them, and LS and I have discussed it and that we can try to sell them to some shady bitch to get more cash."
"Mutants, eh? Sounds fake." Sara states.
"Have you even seen what many of the big corporations can do? The IMC, Hammond Robotics, Silva Pharmaceuticals. We've seen the impossible done by them, so no doubt mutants may have come to fruition." Gus states.
"Hmm, that is right." Bruce states. "But how are they even walking around the city, won't they be captured already?"
"That's the thing, they're trying hard not to expose themselves." Gus explains. "But I still managed to figure out they're keeping it secret."
"I'm sorry, heh, I don't really buy this bullshut." Sara chuckled a bit. "Just give me at least some sort of confirmation so I will at least hesitantly help out in whatever bullshit you're up to."
"Loosen up, Sara, you've always been impulsive." A voice belonging to LS was heard.
Another door opens and we see who LS is. A middle aged fit man wearing a red and black long sleeve leather jacket, a red shirt and gray army pants.
"Seriously, LS, you gotta stop letting Gus scout out this kind of shit." Sara complains.
"Now now, Sara, I know what kind of qualms you might have on the latest news. But Gus has never been wrong before." LS states. "Remember the Psamathe supply heist we did last year?"
"Of course I do, things went pretty wrong in my eyes." Sara says.
"Sure, things went wrong, but Gus always has backup plans, and it was successful." LS says.
"And come on, I put a tracker, we can be patient until the time comes." Gus states. "All we can do now about this is wait."
The Next Day
We see Emma, Kitty, Noah, Shawn, Jasmine and Sammy walking up the stairs to Gwen's apartment.
"The Apex Games? What's that?" Jasmine asks.
"Yeah, uh… it's a bloodsport popular in the Outlands, basically the same as the Battle Royale genre of our time." Emma states.
"Like the Hunger Games?" Kitty asks.
"Yeah, I guess." Emma states.
"I know I say this a lot but that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard." Noah comments on the game's absurdity.
"How did that get approved? Surely it would be highly illegal?" Shawn asked.
"I have no fucking clue." Emma states.
The 5 walk up to the door of the apartment, and Emma opens it up, only to be met with a pen flying at her face.
"Shit!" Emma exclaimed.
Emma puts out her hand to stop it, but it didn't stop the way she expected. When she looks again, she sees that her electricity has managed to stabilise it in midair.
"Huh, neat." Emma commented. "Okay, what's going on here?"
The 6 see Owen, Duncan, Heather.and Courtney standing in a line holding a bunch of stuff while Gwen stood in front of them. Alejandro was also just sitting down watching the affair.
"You're probably wondering what's happening." Alejandro states.
"Yes we are. This is a weird sight to see." Noah states.
"Well, they discussed what kind of training I would go through without me knowing and well… They spontaneously started throwing items at me for the past 10 minutes to sharpen and get a grip on my abilities." Gwen explains the situation. "It definitely took me by surprise but only one object has hit me successfully."
"Courtesy of Owen with a bottle cap." Duncan adds.
"Hmm, that's odd…" Sammy comments.
"We've also thought of what to do with the two of you." Courtney says.
"This better not involve throwing items at me." Emma rolled her eyes in her remark.
"Just calm down, we're not gonna throw stuff at you." Heather states.
Heather takes out two phones and places them on a nearby table and places an unplugged lamp near it.
"For today, my idea is to try and charge both phones entirely while keeping the lamp on the entire time." Courtney explains.
"Seriously?" Emma rolled her eyes at this. "I'm not sure how to feel about that."
"Oh, and another thing, do it within a minute." Heather adds.
This earns an elbow to the stomach from Courtney, who didn't agree to the idea.
"Doing it alone will be an achievement itself. No need to make it harder." Courtney states.
"Ok, how about me." Shawn asks.
"I'll be the one to explain." Alejandro raises his hand. "Throughout the day, you will try to alternate between visible and invisible every time I snap my fingers."
"So I have to switch every time you snap?" Shawn asks.
"I expect you to fully change within 10 seconds of me snapping." Alejandro says.
"Hmm, that actually seems smart." Sammy states.
"I'm surprised by these ideas." Noah states. "Can we just sit around while this is happening?" Noah asks.
"Sure. Why not?" Duncan says.
2 Hours Later
We cut back to Gwen deflecting and dodging some items, getting annoyed by it not ending.
"This is getting ridiculous." Gwen groaned. "It's already been two hours. Can we at least take a break?"
"Well, it is necessary for our survival, so stop whining and get through with it." Heather demanded.
"I want to see how you would react when you're the one with my predicament." Gwen rolled her eyes.
"Luckily you got that end of the stick." Heather taunted.
"Still as snarky as you were back in the day, not gonna drop the act for our survival?" Gwen asks.
"It's who I am, and I fully embrace it." Heather states.
Heather throws a pen at Gwen as per usual, but then Gwen decides to flaunt a bit by kicking it. She kicks the pen toward the wall, and surprisingly it impales itself through it.
"Holy shit!" Gwen exclaimed.
"Whoa!" Heather yelled.
"What? What's going on?" Emma turns to ask.
"Yeah? What happened?" Shawn asks as he becomes visible again.
"Hey! Didn't snap my fingers yet." Alejandro points out.
"Ah, shit." Shawn groaned.
Everyone goes to inspect the pen stuck in the wall, and it was seen that it was shoved in with pretty high force.
"Man, seeing this, I really shouldn't underestimate my strength." Gwen gasps.
"Yeah, you could have said that when you survived going toe to toe with Eva." Noah says.
"Will this cause us trouble with our landlord?" Courtney asks.
"I don't really know." Duncan states.
"Man, tore right through." Shawn comments. "How much force did you try to use?"
"I kind of just wanted to flaunt a little, man this is a clean break." Gwen states.
Suddenly, there was some knocking on the door, and everyone turned to look.
"The landlord?" Courtney asks.
"Hey! Gwen! Just wanted to let you know it's almost noon!" Mirage's voice was heard shouting. "It's your first day! Tell me you didn't forget!"
"Oh, right." Gwen stuttered in remembering the schedule. "Coming! I just gotta clean myself up!"
"Well hurry up, I got my signature pork chops for lunch." Mirage states.
"Oohoohoho! Pork chops?! I want some!" Owen yelled.
"Sorry, big guy, employee only!" Mirage yelled.
"Aw…" Owen groaned.
Gwen quickly goes to the bathroom to wash off her sweat, while the others inspect what happened to the stuck pen.
"Anyone want to pull it out or…?" Duncan asked.
"Yeah, pull it out, we don't want to get in trouble with the landlord." Heather says.
Duncan grabs the pen and tries to pull it out from the wall. He then finds out that the pen was really stuck there, and he was struggling quite a bit.
"Man… this thing is stuck!" Duncan groaned.
Duncan changes his footing and tries again. To his frustration, no avail.
"This is ridiculous." Duncan says.
As Duncan uses as much force as he can, the pen gets unstuck, forcing him backwards uncontrollably.
"Whoa!" Duncan yelled.
"I gotcha!" Owen yelled as he stopped him from falling more.
After Owen manages to catch Duncan in his fall, Gwen gets out of the shower in new fresh attire. She then rushes out of the building.
"Sorry guys, I gotta go!" Gwen yelled.
"Tell me what the pork chops taste like!" Owen yelled.
"I will, buddy!" Gwen affirms.
Gwen closes the door, leaving the rest to do the other practices.
Later That Day…
We then see Shawn and Emma walking into the Paradise Lounge to find Gwen sitting on the counter.
"Hey guys, how did it go?" Gwen asked.
"It was… tedious, to say the least." Emma says. "But I think I'm starting to get my bearings on this thing."
"And there is something I noticed about my ability." Shawn says.
Shawn suddenly turns invisible in Gwen's eyes, but she didn't quite get what he was talking about.
"And?" Gwen was waiting for something to happen.
"What Shawn's trying to say is that he can be invisible to specific people and not just everyone around." Emma states.
"Hmm, neat." Gwen comments.
"Well, I'm off, I need to go check on the guys that live with me." Emma states.
"I'm just gonna stay a bit, can I have whatever's popular here?" Shawn asks.
"So regular espresso?" Gwen asks.
"Yeah, I just want something familiar to taste." Shawn states.
"Alright. That will be 15 dollars." Gwen states.
We see Emma walking out the Paradise Lounge checking a handbag she was carrying.
"Hmm, I thought I had a water bottle." Emma states. "Eh, I'll just get some near our apartment."
Emma looks up to see a few strange figures atop the roof. But the figures quickly pulled back, so she couldn't see them.
"Am I seeing things right?" Emma thought.
But she just shrugs it off, thinking nothing of the situation when we move to the rooftop and seeing Gus and Sara spying on the group.
"I think you owe me an apology." Gus states.
"Just shut up, Gus. They're quickly growing." Sara states. "Their spirits are not like most I've encountered."
"I agree, if we try to just kidnap them outright, things will get messy." Gus states. "We need to find a way to get them to us without much trouble."
"Are you gonna think of a plan? I know you may be good at it, but I don't think they're worth it." Sara states.
"Think of how much money the governments pile into genetic research." Gus states. "If they're comfortable about spending a lot for genetics, some mad scientist will also be willing to do it. Trust me, my plans never truly fail."
"You could say the same thing about my hacking skills." Sara states. "I'll try to find out about these guys as much as I can."
The two began to go away from the Paradise Lounge, patiently waiting for an opportune moment to strike…
Alright, I know I have taken way too fucking long for this, but Writer's Block is prevelant for a starter like me. I have already been distracted by other stuff, like other stories, video games, and Netflix binging. But I've finished the chapter. I've managed to get my groove back and I'm finally going to finish this. Now this chapter is now taking it slow, with a new fresh danger waiting for our team. With a training regimen, new friends and an unknown enemy, our group will find themselves in a danger they never expect on the next chapter of Second Chances…