Hello earthlings! Thank you to everyone who reviewed, and I hope you enjoy this chapter! I own nothing except a dysfunctional computer.

Jack was stupid. Jack was so stupid!

That was Race's main thought process as he snuck out, still fuming over the visit of the girl two days earlier. Jack, who was always going on about "protecting the group" and "not taking risks" had allowed a girl to come see them. A girl no one knew and who kept leaving every night to who-knows-where. A girl who hadn't reappeared in two days! For all Race knew, she was a spy who was telling Wiesel everything right now. But Race had other things to worry about at the moment.

Like, for instance, the fact that the first time Jack had let the kids go to the park since the cops arrived at the library, Race had seen one of Spot's henchmen, sitting on a bench. He'd tapped his fingers three times on the bench, which was a signal basically meaning "come to the place where a dangerous gang works and do more terrible stuff tonight". Race had to do what they told him, but sometimes he wished he could just slap Spot into oblivion.

The boy ran invisibly through the neighborhood, eventually reaching Spot's headquarters. Strangely enough, there were no guards sitting outside. That put Race on edge, but he didn't really have a choice. He pushed through the blanket-covered doorway and entered the house, flickering into view so he didn't startle anyone.

The room seemed more crowded than usual. Mutants of all kinds were gathered around, but none of them were talking or having fun. Instead it looked like all of them were preparing for war, readying small guns and even… swords? Where the heck did they get those?

"Invisiboy!" a voice called, startling Race. He whipped around to see Dollhouse, standing behind him, an army of Barbies lined up behind her.

"That's super creepy."

The girl turned around, like she had forgotten all about the demon dolls following her. "Oh, them! I was practicing my animating, and they all started following me around, like little ducklings!" She smiled like the idea was adorable, but it just sounded creepy to Race.

"Yeah," the boy said awkwardly. "Sure. So why's everyone rushing around? Something happen? The guards weren't even out there today."

Dollhouse's smile faded. "Yeah… King installed a bunch of special cameras that all process into his computer. Apparently they even recognize invisible people. Someone he doesn't know shows up…" The girl mimed an explosion with her hands.

"How the heck did we even get something like that?" Race asked in amazement.

"I think Masterthief stole them from a base somewhere." Dollhouse gestured vaguely towards an older man sitting nearby. Race wasn't sure what his power was, but evidently it was useful in stealing high-power cameras and most likely explosives. "The usual guards were needed to help scout, so for the moment King is just trusting the cameras."

Race was becoming very confused very quickly. Scouting? Cameras? "Dollhouse, what's happening?"

Before the mutant girl could answer, one of King's private guards (evidently not sent away to "scout") walked up to the pair. "Boy. King wants to see you," he grunted in an oddly normal-sounding voice, considering his size and his power- something to do with turning into a flying whale. Race nodded to Dollhouse and followed the man past the curtain leading to Spot's private room.

The self-proclaimed king was mad. He didn't look any angrier than usual- perched on his "throne", legs crossed, looking intimidating- but there was just this strange tension to him that made Race faintly nervous. He got even more nervous when Whale-Guy bowed and left. Spot stood up and walked closer to the boy. "Hello, Racer," he said, in a voice that was trying very hard to be pleasant. "How are you? It feels like forever since-"

"Why am I here?" Race interrupted, which he instantly regretted after remembering Spot's mood. The older man just forced a laugh, though he still looked very angry.

"Don't interrupt me, boy," he growled in a falsely-sweet voice. "Not if you want to join the revolution!"

"What revolution?"

"The revolution against the normals, of course!"

Race's eyes widened. No way. Not even Spot could be stupid enough to thik he could pull this off. "I'm not so sure…"

"It'll be great!" the man declared, smiling widely and genuinely now. "We can set up our own world, where all muties are as equal as any normal! Equal-er, in fact!"

Race decided to indulge in the crazy. Though he did realize that he should probably start distancing himself from the gang so he wouldn't be in trouble when this revolution failed, he had to ask, "So what'd you need me for? I'm no good at fighting, just some sneaking…"

"I need you to recruit your little group of mutants to our cause, Race."

No way. Was he even serious? "No way. Never. I'm only here so none of them get involved! I won't let them fight a war they probably won't win!"

"But Racer, we will win. And we will help everyone who helps us! Your friends will finally get everything they'll ever want! It'll be great!"

"No way. No way!"

Spot leaned forward craftily, so that he was only inches away. "We'll destroy the Refuge. All the little kids inside will be free. We'll destroy all of those places, so that no mutant ever has to worry about going to one again! We can get rid of the Spider, and all the hunters. You'll be free!"

That part sounded more appealing. Race had thought he'd give anything to not have to worry about his friends being sent there. About him being sent there… but would he give this? Would he somehow trick his friends, his family, into fighting a battle that probably wouldn't even get to the full on war stage? If they failed, things would get even tougher for mutants. "Sorry, Spot, but it's still a no. They're kids! Most of them haven't fought anything bigger than bullies!"

"Oh, but I wasn't really asking," Spot grinned. "It would probably be much better if you helped, but they will be fighting for me. What matters is, will they fight because they're brave, or will they fight because they're scared?"

Race got the threat. The king would kidnap his friends and force them to fight. Scare them into fighting for him. The boy didn't want to have to convince the kids to fight, but he knew that that was the best option. Otherwise they would do it the Spot way, which was almost as traumatizing as the actual fighting most likely. The gang would find them. It already knew where the factory was, and even if the kids tried to escape, they'd still be caught, either by this gang or by hunters. Race was trapped. "Alright, fine. I'll try to convince them."

Spot laughed. "Excellent! You have three days. Now, shoo! I have to start getting ready!"

Race ran out of the room, shocked. Three days? Did he mean three days to get ready, or three days to convince the kids? He didn't want to push his luck by going back and asking, so he just decided to assume he meant three days to convince them, and then more time to prepare. Yup. That made sense.

"What'd he want with you?" Dollhouse asked, doing her usual 'appearing out of nowhere' thing.

Race shook his head. "Wants me to recruit people, I don't know." He hadn't even told Dollhouse, the closest thing he had to a friend among these people, about the real reason he was here. He wasn't going to anytime soon. "Why is he all 'Destroy all normals!' all of a sudden?"

Dollhouse frowned, almost sadly. "A few days ago, the hunters caught a few of us. One of them was Smalls."

Oh. Race understood now. Smalls was Spot's right-hand-girl, a kid not much older than Race but ferocious. She and Spot were good friends, and so since she got captured… that probably made Spot a bit angry. But still…

"So he's decided to go to war? If we do this, even more of us will be taken to the Refuge or jail or worse!"

Dollhouse just shrugged. "We gotta listen to him. He's our leader. Besides, we are more naturally powerful than any of them-"

"But they have guns and planes and huge bases. We have a shack in the middle of nowhere!"

"We can win. If we recruit enough mutants-"

"I should be getting home. Gotta prepare to get myself killed!" Race ran out of the building before the other kid could say another word, turning himself invisible as he went. He should just let all of those people get themselves killed. He should've told Jack as soon as he met Spot seven months ago. Then they would have gotten themselves out of town and not have to worry about any of this stuff. But he was trapped, and his best option was to figure out a way to recruit his friends to fight instead of all of them being kidnapped and forced to fight. And there was another reason he didn't at least help them attempt to leave town…

What if this works?

If this works… they'd be heroes. They'd be some of the brave mutants who'd fought for equality for all of the freaks of America. They'd set up their own government and justice systems, and while Race didn't care too much about all that, he knew that this was his family's best chance to be normal.

Normal… they could get a house- an actual house. They could go to real school and go to movies and play with friends. If enough mutants rose up… Dollhouse was right. Mutants were biologically more powerful than normal humans. Race thought briefly about what would happen to all the normals, but then thought better of it. Besides, most normals would probably be fine with this, right? He could protect the good ones, like Ms. Medda and the librarians, and there were probably some other good ones who would help the mutants. Everything he'd ever wanted was close…

But he was getting ahead of himself. First he had to convince the others in the factory to fight. Which was probably going to be difficult.

Ok, so it'd been more than twelve hours since Race had crawled back into the factory, and he still hadn't mentioned the 'revolution". But in his defense, it was a kinda difficult subject to get going. Hey guys, so for the past seven months I've been part of a gang that now wants to go to war on normals and is trying to make you guys fight! Yeah, no.

For some reason, all of the places where the kids worked were closed today- maybe for a holiday? Race couldn't think of any, but who knows? Because even the oldest kids couldn't go to work today, most of the mutants were sprawled around in the main room, boredly playing with a tattered Uno deck or rereading old books.

Race felt sorry for the younger kids. For the past couple of days, Jack had only let someone leave the factory if they had to work, to lower the chances of the cops finding them. Some of the more entergeitc kids… this was probably torture.

Race looked up from his Uno game to see Katherine tumble in from the window. He sighed. He was hoping the girl had forgotten the factory existed.

Race didn't see why Jack trusted her so much. Maybe because she was pretty? Even Race could see that. Maybe because Davey said she was trustworthy? How would he know? Though he had known instantly that the Spider was bad after seeing him one time. Maybe he had a knack for that? It would explain why a seemingly smart kid would go with a bunch of strange mutants he'd never met before.

Many of the kids shared the same sentiments as Race about Katherine, at least until she showed them the two giant McDonald's bags. Then they swarmed her. Most of them hadn't eaten much breakfast, and it was almost two o'clock. They took their cheeseburgers and fries and went to different corners to devour them.

When Jack came up, Katherine instantly walked over to him and tried to offer him a meal. He refused, but Katherine kept shaking it at him. "Jack, I made sure to buy one for everyone," she said, smirking. "That includes you. You better eat it." After a few minutes of this Jack, who Race wasn't sure had eaten any breakfast, took it hesitantly. Katherine continues her mission, next targeting Race. Against his better judgement, the boy took a burger. It wasn't likely she'd poisoned them, anyway.

After all the kids had eaten, Katherine stepped into the center of the room, where everyone could see her. She smiled, like she was going to give them all fabulous prizes. "I had a great idea!" she exclaimed, beaming. "Does anyone know exactly how many mutants there are in this city?"

289 officially, counting us, Race thought about saying before realizing that there was no good reason why he should know that. And he couldn't really tell them he'd broken into the mayor's office to do the monthly check for Spot. Anyway, Albert's guess of 300 was close enough.

"Yes! And do you know what kind of powers they have?" Wow. Katherine had a lot of energy. Race didn't like where this was going.

"Look, lady," he cut in. "We've had no contact with any other mutants ever, so we have no idea. What's your big idea?"

Katherine looked a little insulted, which was honestly what Race was aiming for, but quickly regained her cool. "I bet that if all of the mutants got together… you could take down the hunters and the Refuge!"

Race stopped breathing for almost ten seconds in shock. Was she serious?

The universe seemed to really hate him.

Alright, I finally figured out the actual plot of the story! Kinda. Not really, but I'm close! Please leave a review with constructive criticism and words of encouragement. Later, potaters!