EPIC CLIFFHAN-oh forget it XD

Perry's POV

To my extreme anger, we hadn't been able to get Bill and Dimitri arrested, or even charged. We couldn't even sue them. We just had to leave them alone to continue their research in the few facilities they had left. Although to be honest, I had practically forgiven Dimitri. After all, without him, getting all the information about the Bionics from Bill would have taken a lot longer than it did, though of course I will never forgive him for stealing my son (although that was mostly Bill).

Hermes's POV

Dad passes on the information about what was stolen to me. I tell the rest of my team as we sit on OWCA's lawn, recovering from the battle.

"It must have been the Overlord," Anke says. She looks a lot better, considering that an hour ago she was bleeding from the head. "While we were distracted fighting the Bionics, he must have snuck in and stolen the records."

"And assaulted my dad," I say through gritted teeth. I'm still extremely angry about that. Anke assures me that it's rightly so.

"Why would the Overlord want the list of facilities where the Bionics were made?" asks Lydia. "I mean, he just called the Bionics "weaklings"."

"That's a good point," says Lateysha.

"Why would the Overlord want the list of facilities where the Bionics were made, full stop?" Noah asks. "What could he have to gain by going there?"

"I don't know," I sigh. "And I really don't like not knowing."

"Whatever he wants it for, I'm guessing it's going to end in a battle," Laurence says cynically. "Can the six of us—no offense, but not including Adrian—beat him?"

Even as Anke nods determinedly, I resignedly shake my head. "No."

Everyone turns to look at me. I stare down at the ground, thinking hard. "We can't beat him on our own."

"Hermes, the five of us—again I'm sorry but I'm not including Adrian-."

"You can stop saying that," Adrian interrupts Noah amusedly. "I'm not taking offence. I can't fight with my powers."

"Okay. The five of us beat ten Bionics on our own. How do you know we can't beat the Overlord?"

"Because he's not called the Overlord for nothing," I say, finally looking up at my friends-no, my family. "He made the ground shake and I'm pretty sure he wasn't even trying. How can we-?"

Adrian interrupts again: "That's another point. How did he make the ground shake?"

I stare irritably at my friend. "Again, he's not called the Overlord for nothing. He'd be a pretty poor Overlord if he couldn't do anything out of the ordinary."

"Yes, but how?" persists Adrian. "Where did he get his powers from?"

"I really don't know, Adrian."

Now it's his turn to stare at me. "You're not the least bit curious?"

"No, Adrian, I'm not," I snap, rather more aggressively than I had intended. "Not at the moment. I'm trying to figure out how we can get at least half of the bad Bionics on our side so we can beat the Overlord."

Silence follows this.

"I'm sorry, what?" splutters Anke.

"You heard me."

I expect there to be a heated debate about why that is a bad idea but Laurence says, "Well, they all worship the Overlord, don't they? If we show them that he doesn't really care about them using the voice recording you took, maybe they'll come to our side."

Another pause.

"That's…actually a good idea, Larry," I say.

"Thanks, don't call me Larry."

I stand up and get out my phone. As I walk towards the building, I check that the voice recording is still there. It is. Thank goodness.

As I go through the door, I feel someone catch up to me but I walk faster. "Hermes, slow down," snaps Anke. "I swear, I'm spending half my life nowadays running after you, and I'm getting sick of it."

I don't slow down. "What do you want, Anke?"

"I know you don't want to hear it, but this is a bad idea."

"I knew you were going to say that."

"Well, it's true. Anyone who says they will join us is just a liability on the battlefield. What if they pretend to join us and stab us in the back?"

"They're not smart enough to do that."

Oh man, I didn't mean to say that. That was overly harsh, and not entirely true. Though some like Anton are too blind to see past their loyalty to the Overlord.

"Okay, wow." Anke seems even more annoyed now. "That's uncalled for."

"Anke, I really can't deal with this now."

"Fine."

I hear her footsteps get quieter and I guess that she's left. That does hurt a bit, but I make my way down to the cell. My brother's friends Lennie and Nick are on guard. They wave me through without any fuss but I can see the uneasy look they shoot each other.

I know which Bionics I'm going to try and persuade. Rather, I know which ones I'm not going to try and persuade. Anton, Rose, Kelly, Nixon, and Blake are pretty high up on my list. I'm going to try and target Carter, Lapis, and Libra.

The first cell I get to contains Sphene, who is still unconscious. I'm proud of Lydia for her quick-thinking in stopping Libra's, Sphene's, and Farren's storm.

Then it's Carter, who is lying on his back…under the bed, for some reason. "Carter?"

"Go away, Hermes."

"Hey, you were the one who almost killed us," I say amiably.

"Whatever."

"Look, Carter, we could use your help. The Overlord's going to attack somewhere and we need your help fighting him. I know you're going to ask why you should help us but-."

"No I'm not." Carter's answer surprises me. He sounds…miserable? "I know what the Overlord really thinks of me."

He rolls over and that's when I catch a glimpse of the scar on his face. It runs from next to his right eye down to the side of his mouth. I wince. "Did the Overlord-?"

"Yes. After most of us beat up Laurence, some of us weren't feeling so great about the attack. We didn't want to hurt people. So the Overlord saw to us personally."

"You and who else?"

"Lapis, Libra, Blaze, and Charlie. The others couldn't wait to beat up more people."

"Carter…" I press my hands against the glass. "We could really do with your help."

Carter gets out from under the bed and walks up to the glass until he's facing me. "I'll help. But for what the Overlord did to me, don't stop me if I beat him up."

"Beating up is fine as long as you don't kill him."

Ten minutes later, I'm proud of myself. I've managed to get the four that Carter mentioned on our side, though Blaze's obsession with revenge is a little worrying. I did have to use the voice recording to persuade Lapis and Libra, but I'm confident that we have an army that can beat the Overlord. And as for Kate, Anton, Rose, Kelly, Sphene, Farren, Nixon, and Blake…well, they're going to be moved to Steele Bay for the time being.

I go outside with Carter, Lapis, Blaze, Libra and Charlie. Anke is nowhere to be seen, but a surprise reunion takes place between my old team and the newest recruits. Lydia, Noah, and Lateysha even have a group hug with Libra, Lapis, Carter, and Charlie, which is nice to see.

"Okay, guys," I grin. "We can beat the Overlord. And we're going to."

Sorry for the hurried ending but it was getting a bit long and I didn't want to chop the chapter in 2 -_-