"This is Lance." Carrie, the boy's mother said handing Sarah-Jane and Jenny a photograph of the missing boy.

It had been a month since Jenny had discovered who she really was. And she was just about coping. Luke hadn't said anything about the park, nor had he pushed to find out what it was about. She hadn't spoken directly to Sarah-Jane, using more then one word sentences since she found out. She had moved back into the spare room, claiming it was tempory but couldn't see away that ended in her being honest with her brother all while staying in the house let alone the same bedroom. Her safety blanket was gone. She was back to living on the edge.

At the moment they were sat in Lance's room questioning the mother about the boy's disappearance under the pretence that they were going to put a report out petitioning for the boy's safety.
"Oh, thank you, Mrs. Metcalf." Sarah-Jane said, knocking Jenny out of her memories, "I can't begin to imagine what the last three days have been like. Are you coping?"
"I keep thinking my head's going to break. That's what it feels like. I'm on edge every minute, thinking that he'll walk up the path or the police will knock on the door and tell me-"
"Children do turn up safe and sound. There's still every chance." Jenny offered, resting hand over Carrie's.

"Someone may have seen something important without even knowing it. My story might make them realise that and come forward." Sarah-Jane told her.
"I hope so." Carrie nodded
"Has anything like this happened before? I mean, Lance has never run away after an argument?" Sarah-Jane asked.
"We never argue. Me and Lance, we've only got each other now. We know that life's too short for rowing." showing them a photo of a man in an army uniform from Lance bedside. 'Must be Lance's dad.'
"Lance mentioned that, I'm so sorry for your loss. But perhaps you could tell us what happened on Saturday." Jenny asked, sharing a look with Sarah-Jane
"Nothing happened. Only Lance never came back. He was going out to meet his friend Brandon. They were going down the arcade. He lives for his video games. Only Brandon never saw him on Saturday. Lance never showed up. He just vanished into thin air. Help me get my boy back, Miss Smith, please? Please."


It was later that night and Clyde was messing around with Maria's new bag while Luke and Maria laughed, Jenny just smirking at her brother.

"Do you mind?" Sarah-Jane asked, turning around from her computer.
"Sorry, Sarah Jane." Clyde said, instantly stopping seeing that something was upsetting her.
"Clyde was just bugging around with Maria's new bag." Luke said, making Jenny cringe at the miss-use of the word.
"I'm sorry?"
"Mucking. I was mucking around. Or messing, you know? Messing around? You've got to listen to the words, Luke. They're important in slang. You can't improvise." Clyde lectured Luke, once again, putting Maria's bag on the sofa as he sat down.
"Sorry, we'll get out of your way." Jenny said, trying to heard the other three out.
"No, wait. Jenny and I have been to see the mother of that boy who went missing. Your friend, Lance Metcalfe, what do you know about him?" Sarah-Jane asked as Jenny shuffled her feet.
"Friend? Don't get me wrong, Sarah Jane, I hope he's okay, but the Corporal's only been at our school a month, and he's not really been up for making friends. Only one he even talks to is Jenny" Clyde said, throwing the group in hot oil as Jenny knew what was coming next
"The Corporal?" Sarah-Jane asked, confused and slightly angry. 'Yep, here comes angry SJ'
"Lance. Lance Corporal?" Maria confired, slightly fed up with the boys immaturity.
"And did you know his father was in the army? Was killed in Iraq? Nicknames aren't always funny, Clyde. Yeah, well, I hope this boy didn't run away because he was bullied."
"Hey, don't get all over me about it. It was Luke made up the nickname." Clyde said, pointing to the poor boy.
"People laughed when I came up with it. I thought that was good." Luke said, using his poor 'I didn't know it was wrong' voice he used when he made 'social mistakes' as he called them.
"It wasn't Luke's fault. No one knew about Lance's dad. He didn't tell anyone-"

"He told me. If anybody stopped to talk to the poor boy who was clearly troubled, you would know." Jenny said, interrupting Maria.
"I made a joke out of his name. I hurt him. Lance wanted friends just like I did. Instead, I probably made him run away." Luke said, making Jenny pale.
"Oh no, Luke, I-" Jenny started but Luke cut her off.
"It's all my fault!" Luke said turning to leave.
"No, Luke. Luke!" Sarah-Jane called after him "I'd better go and talk to him."
"No, let me. I did drop him in it." Clyde said, getting up to follow.

"Maybe. But I'm the one who made him run. Besides, he came after me." Jenny grabbed her bag from the back of the door and left, cursing herself in her head.


Jenny headed straight to the park where she had ran too last month, having the feeling that Luke would head there to. As soon as she got there she spotted Luke on the swing.

"Hey, I was looking for you." Jenny said, sitting on the swing next to him.
"Why?" Luke asked
"Because that's what friends do when one of them is hurting. I'm sorry. I was so insensitive and I wasn't thinking… You do know that Lance going missing has got nothing to do with Luke?"
"I wasn't trying to be cruel, I was trying to be funny." Luke offered instead of answering her.
"Oh honey." Jenny said putting her hand on Luke's shoulder. "Come on." she said, leading him to picnic bench on the other side of town.

"Sometimes it feels like I'll never fit into this world. When I made a joke about Lance's name, it felt like a breakthrough because people laughed. But instead, it was another social miscalculation." Luke said
Jenny sighed, "You remember last month when I told you my whole life had been a lie?" Luke nodded, "After Mr Smith scanned me he found thet my… 'discomfort' was caused by memories that I had only part access to. It had been that way all my life but when the talisman turned me back from stone, it tried to unlock it and failed. Mr Smith was able to 'undo it'." Jenny paused and took a deep breath, "Turns out I- I'm – I'm not exactly human." 'There its out now.'

"What?" Luke asked, eyebrows furrowed.

"I'm an alien. A Timelord, like the Doctor. He's my dad actually." Jenny chanced a look up at Luke to see a look of understanding.

"Do you feel different?" Luke asked, eager to learn.

"No not really. But I have all this knowledge, about alien species, history, laws and more. It's scary and weird if I think about it."

"So you can explain things to me?" Luke asked hopefully
"Go on, just ask Encyclopaedia Jenny. Go on, anything you want. Take your best shot." Jenny said, holding her arms up in a challenging way.
"What's the purpose of games?"
"Wow, straight to the hard stuff." Jenny commented, Luke opened his mouth to say something, probably change what he wanted to ask. "It what way?"
"This." Luke said taking out a flier for a game called Combat 3000 from his pocket and passing it to Jenny, "This looks like war, but it's a game. Why?"

"They think it's just a laugh."
"But they pretend to kill people."

"Which is why it's just immature teenage boys and geeky men who can't girls and need to feel good about something play it. But if you want to find out why first hand? Let's do it." Jenny said, standing up and leading Luke out of the park. Jenny gigled as the boy jumped over the bench, excited to go play the game.


After a conversation with the most bored receptionist Jenny and Luke were suiting up to go into the arena changing room.

"All right, so you shoot out people's sensors. If you get hit, your gun goes down for five seconds and you lose a life, of which you have one hundred. The person at the end with the most lives left, wins."
"But I still don't get the point." Luke told her
"It's a bit of fun aimed at our age groups." Jenny shrugged, "I don't know what else to say."
"Attention!" the tannoy emitted noise, shocking the children in the room. "Warriors of the future, take your places at the arena doors. Prepare to do battle! Show no mercy! Take no prisoners! This is a fight for survival! Only one can be the ultimate warrior! Battle commences in ten seconds. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five four, three, two, one!"

Luke and Jenny shared looks.
"Commence combat!" with that the children ran through the arena doors ready to play.
Jenny watched as Luke kept getting tagged before reaching out an dpulling him to saftey

"Move!" she cried, pulling him to a duck. Jenny was good at the game and after a rocky start, Luke was improving to be just as good.
"Now!" Jenny said, leading the way to another safety spot. Both of them tagging the other plays as they passed.
"Nice." Luke said as they got lots of the other players.
"Cover me!" Jenny shouted before moving out of the safe spot "Cover me! Watch out! Yes, Luke."

"Come on, Jenny." Luke said, leaving the arena.
"Yeah." she followed ducking low at the beginning, but as the game ended she started running up straight. They ran over to the score screen.
"Hey look, you won." Jenny looked up and saw that she was down to 90, only missing 10 lives. But in her defence she couldn't help but remember the day she was created.

"Not the first time I've had a gun in my hands. I was given one seconds after I was born." Jenny explained.
"That's an impressive score, Soldier Seven." a man said coming up to them

"I've done this before." Jenny shrugged.
"And we've got better reflexes and hand to eye coordination than most kids." Luke pointed out, making Jenny shrug again

"True that."
"You do? Wow! Well, you make one hell of a Future Warrior, Soldier."
"You mean she'd be good at killing people, if the eventuality arose?" Luke asked
"I'm betting you don't get invited to many parties, do you?"
"He was home-schooled up untill a few months ago." Jenny said as if it explained everything. And to this man apparently it did.

"Okay, listen up. Me and Mister Kudlak, he's the proprietor, we run a special competition for the more skilled competitors. It's Level Two. Now, what do you think? Are you up for it?" the man asked the two. They lookecd at each other before making their minds up
"Yeah!"
"Good." the man nodded before leaving.


"See him? He does kickboxing. She does athletics for the county, and he's in the football A team. This is wicked but it's getting also getting dangerous. Watch your back." Jenny warned, recognising the others from the school news letter.

"Okay, guys." the man from earlier said, gathering their attentions "Well done for getting through to Level Two. New arena, new objective." he brought a map of a different arena up over the scoreboard. "You will be split into four disbursement groups. You will access the arena from here, here and here. When the first siren sounds, you break for cover. When the second siren sounds, the mission begins."
"Mission?" Luke asked her
"The first soldier to make it through the door, down the corridor and into this chamber, will win their place in the World Championships." the man finished
"They have a laser tag World Championships?" Jenny scoffed over the amazed gasps from the room.
"That's kind of why I said it. Now this time, you don't get one hundred lives, Okay? You get ten." Jenny blinked. 'Really?'
"Ten?" another girl gasped
"Piece of cake." a boy behind the bragged
"Do you think so? A word of advice, son. The ultimate Warrior of the Future is always on guard for surprise attacks."

"The others are playing by the old rules, last man standing. If we work as a team, we'll have the strategic advantage." Luke told her as they hid in safety.
"Good call." Jenny nodded at him.

The duo wandered around the arena till the heard a clanking ans saw a halo of light that they assumed to come out of the door they needed to find.

"Okay, that's it. The door to the 'World Championships'. How many lives do you have left?" Jenny asked as they hid behind oil drums.
"Six. You?"
"Same. I think we're well ahead of the opposition. Are you ready?" Jenny asked
"Remember what the manager said. Be ready for a surprise attack." Luke warned, looking for figures in the distance
"I'm ready to rock."
"I'm ready to roll." Luke replied to her. Making her laugh at the absurdity of it.
As they made for the door helmeted non-teenage players pop up, shooting at them. Within seconds the duo had arrived in the corridor, starting to make it down to the chamber at the end.
"What happens now? Do we get like a trophy or something?" Luke asked her as they tiptoed down.
"I don't know but I don't think so." Jenny said as she did a full spin.
"Come on, it's just a game." Luke replied, taking a lead.

"You feel that?" Jenny asked as she was sure she felt the floor moving.


So I was out all day Sat and Sun so instead of rushing and putting it up yesterday, I decided to just put it up today, ignoring the fact a chapter was suppose to go up Sunday.