"Incoming!" Tessa drops to the ground.
The back wall shatters. An intense noise resounds throughout the building, knocking everyone off their feet. The acrid and sour smell of gunpowder fills the air. It's impossible to see through the thick, black smoke.
A chorus of groans and coughs rises as the smoke finally clears minutes later.
"Everyone okay?" Joe asks as he pushes himself off the ground. He looks around the cell to make sure everyone still has their limbs and heads on.
"We're good." Fred helps Sam get back on his feet.
"Oh, we're better than good," Tessa stands in front of a massive hole in the wall. The hole reveals the chaotic bloodshed happening on the ground. The grin on her face is so wide, it might split her head in two. "We're free!"
"Great. Can we go home now?" Arwen narrows her eyebrows at Tessa.
"Not yet. Our mission isn't over."
Joe joins Tessa by the hole in the wall, letting out a low whistle. He watches as the battle rages on below. Guns fire at a rapid rate. Those who don't have guns make every punch and kick count.
"Let's go girls." Tessa moves to jump outside. Arwen and Juniper get up to follow her. All three are more than happy to leave the prison cell behind.
"Wait, you're just going to leave us here?" Fred stomps over to Tessa and Joe, eyebrows knitted together. "You're the reason we're in here!"
Tessa shrugs. "If you want to come, I won't stop you. Just make sure you can keep up. We're not going to wait for you." With a wink, Tessa hops outside, landing on a ledge below.
Juniper and Arwen give the boys sympathetic looks before following Tessa out the hole.
"Now what do we do?" Sam huffs.
"We follow them." Without giving Joe or Sam a chance to argue, he jumps outside and escapes with the girls.
"All I wanted to do today was enjoy some birthday cake with my friends. Now I'm about to run headfirst into a revolution with a bunch of strangers." Sam and Joe carefully climb out of the hole and join everyone else on the ground.
Tessa smirks, watching Sam and Joe awkwardly make their way down to the street. "We need to get out of the city. It's hard to win a revolution if we get killed in the first battle. Follow us, and you should be safe."
"Should?"
The girls take off, slipping around the building with ease. The trio runs after them to keep up.
Tessa, Arwen, and Juniper seem to know the city like the back of their hands. They always know where to turn and what buildings are safe to run through. They've clearly been living in Paris their whole lives. The shrieks and booms of the fighting fuel everyone enough to run without stopping.
The group plows through the next building, bursting out into a new alley. The slam of the door catches the attention of two nearby soldiers. Already frightened from the fighting going on everywhere around them, they fire their guns without looking.
The bullets blaze through the air, heading straight for the kids.
Joe's hands fly up to protect his face, a slight tingling sensation buzzing in his palms. A scream tears out of his throat, "stop!"
The air stills. The bullets freeze in place. A haze of green covers the air.
Joe drops his hands, and the bullets fall to the ground. Everyone stares at him with wide eyes and open mouths.
"What the hell was that?" Arwen exclaims. Tessa and Juniper are clearly thinking the same thing. The girls slowly back away from the trio, mirrored expressions of fear across all their faces.
Joe's mouth open and shuts as he tries to find the words to explain himself. He never gets the chance.
"Devil!" The soldiers yell. They shakily raise their guns to fire again.
"I'll explain later." Joe pushes everyone forward. He doubts that he can pull that trick twice.
The gang flies around the corner just as another bullet zips through the air. It hits another building. Dust floats to the ground.
Shouts ring out from behind the children as they run away once more. Heavy footsteps echo off the wall. Without looking back, they know they're being followed.
"In here!" Arwen shoulders a door open, and everyone tumbles inside. With a slam, the door closes, leaving everyone in the dark. No one dares to make a sound. They wait with bated breath. The girls create a noticeable distance between them and Joe. He tries in vain to ignore it.
Fred leans his ear against the door. Several heartbeats later, thunderous stomping storms past. They wait until the shouts vanish before peaking outside. Not a single person is in sight.
"Looks like the coast is clear."
"We're almost out of the city. Let's move before there are any more… incidents." Tessa gives Joe a side-eye glance.
Ten minutes of twists and turns, and bullets flying overhead later, the six of them are safe in a field outside of Paris.
The boys collapse in a heap of exhaustion.
"I thought I was in better shape than this." Fred gulps down mouthfuls of air.
A heavy weight drops onto Joe's back, slamming him further into the ground.
"Talk. Now." Arwen presses a knife into his lower back, tearing a hole into his shirt. "What the hell was that you pulled back there? Are you a witch?"
"Easy, Arwen. We don't want to kill him." Tessa steps in front of Joe and squats down to examine his hands.
"Yeah, Arwen." Sam scrambles as far away as he can get. His hands shake as he covers up his face. "Let's go easy on him. And his friends."
Joe squirms under Arwen, making her press her knife against him harder. He groans and drops his head to the earth. This is by far the worst birthday he's ever had. He lifts his head. "I don't know what happened back there. Sometimes stuff like that just happens."
"You just happened to stop a bullet from piercing your skull?" Tessa folds her arms across her torso. "I don't buy it. Tell us what you are, or I'll send you back to the soldiers, devil. They'd love to have you put into an asylum."
"Fine, but can you please get your friend off of me first?"
Tessa nods to Arwen who rolls off of Joe's back. She sits on the ground next to him, keeping her knife tightly gripped in her fist and clearly in Joe's line of sight.
"You're going to think I'm crazy, but we're not from here. And I don't mean that we're not from Paris. We're from the future."
Reluctantly, Joe tells the girls everything, with occasional interjections from Sam and Fred, about The Book and how they ended up in Paris. The girls watch with keen eyes. They remain silent while he talks, judging his story.
"Today's your birthday?" Tessa blinks.
"That's what you took from all that?" Juniper rolls her eyes.
"Well, considering it's also my birthday… How old are you?"
"Twelve," Joe says. "You?"
"Interesting." Tessa grins, ignoring Joe's question. "So, you guys need help finding this magic book of yours. We can help with that."
"You were ready to abandon us in prison an hour ago. You just tried to kill Joe. Why are you suddenly so eager to help us?" Sam narrows his eyes at Tessa.
"The revolution always needs more people. We help you, you help us."
"You owe us for getting us arrested in the first place!" Fred tosses his arms in the air.
"We got you out." Juniper shrugs and turns to Tessa. "Should we split up? We'll cover more of the city that way."
"That is a great idea, June. Boys with boys. Girls with girls. Sound good?"
The boys never get the chance to answer. Tessa grabs onto Juniper and Arwen, pulling them over the hill and into the city.
"They're not normal." Fred scratches the back of his neck.
"Wait!" Joe runs to the hill the girls had just disappeared over. "How are we supposed to meet with each other if we find The Book?" He searches the hillside, but there's no sign of the girls anywhere.
"They're definitely reporting us to an insane asylum." Fred shakes his head. "And now we're right back where we started."
Joe sighs and rejoins his friends. The sun sits high in the sky, casting a golden glow over the city. From this distance, it's impossible to hear the screams or gunshots. If you didn't know any better, you would think it was just an average day in Paris.
"Something isn't right about those girls." Sam scrutinizes the air where the girls stood moments ago, almost as if he could still see them there. "I don't trust them."
"You don't trust anyone."
"Why would they want to split up if they clearly know the city better than us? It would be smarter to stick together." Sam stares at Joe and Fred, waiting for them to catch on to his hidden message.
They respond with blank stares.
Sam sighs, running a hand down his face. "We know for a fact they're thieves, and you just told them about the most valuable object in the universe."
"Oh." Joe's face reddens. He suddenly finds a spot on the ground very interesting. "Oops."
"Yeah," Sam scoffs. "Oops."
"We just have to find The Book before them." Fred starts off for the city. "How hard could it be? We're experienced at this."
"Famous last words," Sam mumbles under his breath, but follows Fred over the hill regardless.
Joe takes one last look in the direction the girls disappeared in before joining his friends. Together, they head into the city.
Tessa, Arwen, and Juniper stand together on top of a stone building. From here, they have a perfect view of the streets below and all the pedestrians running around, including Joe, Sam, and Fred. They silently watch as the boys make their way down the streets and alleys of Paris.
"You're not going to tell him, are you?" Arwen crosses her arms.
Tessa smirks. "Eventually. I want to see what he's capable of first. Maybe Cassius and Rowena were wrong. It wouldn't be the first time."
"The letter was misguided. You saw that trick he did earlier, right?" Juniper looks down at the trio. "He's the only reason we're not dead right now. You still think they're wrong?"
Tessa studies Joe. "So he can do a little party trick. Big deal."
"You can't do that."
Tessa growls, whipping out a large blue book with silver squiggles on the cover. She eyes it for a moment. "No, but I don't have to rely on some stupid book to get us home."
"Stupid?" Juniper snatches The Book out of Tessa's hands. "Do you pay attention at all in your lessons? This is the most powerful object in the entire space-time continuum." Juniper starts flipping through The Book, staring at it as if it were a god. She carefully traces the shimmering green ink, biting her lip as she does so. She focuses on the images rather than the words.
Arwen steps between them, hands on her hips. "This was supposed to be a simple retrieval mission, Tess. We should be heading back home by now. Cas and Rowena are going to be furious if we wait any longer. Besides, this dress is killing me." She pulls at the bodice of her blue dress. "I can barely move in this hideous thing."
"We'll be home before you know it. As soon as this Joe kid proves to me that he's the one." Tessa taps her chin, eyeing the boys as they head into a narrow alley below. "And I know the perfect test to use."
"You're not going to tear us again, are you?" Arwen wraps her arms around her stomach. "I'm still nauseous from the last one."
"No need. I can do everything from right here." Tessa cracks her knuckles, dark purple sparks flying from her fingertips. She holds her palms facedown over the alley the boys walked into. "It's showtime, ladies."
Arwen rolls her eyes. "You're going to get us in trouble."
"It's what I do best."