The following chapter is considered non-canon, but has been preserved for the sake of nostalgia/show of growth. As such, enjoy.

Chapter 5

Tricked

"So you guys are master hunters now?" Ted asked as they sat around in Ace's living room. It was a simple living room with the standard couch,

"Yep, Isn't it great?" Ace answered as he looked down at the ground.

"So now what do we do?" Nina asked.

"We need to bring Vanessa down as soon as possible." Ace responded.

"How will we do that?" Mark asked.

"We split up and search for clues to the location to wherever her fortress is." Kalin explained.

"How will we split up to find her?" Aurora added.

"One person groups would work best." Ace explained. The rest of the Hunters then nodded yes.

"Then let's do this!" Nina shouted and they all headed in different directions. Then a thrown scroll hit Ace in the stomach.

"Why was this thrown at my head?" Ace thought as he picked up the scroll and unrolled the scroll.

Meet me at the old playground alone…

If you come with a hunter or a creature we'll kill you.

-Anonymous

"I'll have to do it." Ace thought as he got on his chopper and rode off.

"Where is he going?" Clara asked as she looked at the now empty living room.

"That's a good question." Ted answered as a shot rang out." Clara, watch out!" Then a fired bullet hit Ted in the chest and he fell over.

"Ted, don't die on me!" Clara shouted.

"Clara, you're the only one who can help Ace now…" Ted explained as the teddy bear closed his eyes for the final time. "It's my time to die." Clara looked down at her fallen friend. He had saved her. She allowed a tear to fall down. Ted didn't deserve the tears in her eyes. She got up and looked at the kitchen table. Her laptop was just sitting there, taunting her. It had been a long time since she was even able to use it. Ted had been one of the first creatures Ace found after Clara and Ted immediately took advantage of it. He was almost always on her laptop and even when he wasn't, he had applied various security measures to prevent her from accessing her files.

"It's time for some payback." She thought as she opened the laptop and turned it on. It booted up almost immediately and she clicked on the profile labelled Clara. For some reason, Ted never made a second profile for some reason, probably because he didn't expect her to actually ever get on. It immediately loaded up a password screen. "What would the password be?" She then immediately typed in the usual answers to most questions used to figure out a password. Then it became clear to her. It was a trap. She typed in the person who she thought was the "traitor" and it worked. It immediately became very clear to her. Ted had been working for the Black Cat from the very beginning. Ted had gotten sloppy, and didn't even try to hide it. After looking through some of the information she noticed a flash drive just laying there and inserted it. "There isn't anything at all on it." Clara then moved all the files onto the drive and then realized something. Where was she going to hide it? Then a thought immediately came to her. Tied around her dress was a large obi that looked a big ribbon. So she stuffed into the back of it. After doing so, she noticed all of her stuff was still left on the laptop. She opened up her pictures folder, finding 100's of photos one of them stuck out to her. The photo was of a young woman with a black ponytail in a light purple Lolita dress. She looked to be around in her 20's. Beside her, was a man with red spiky hair in a blue vest and an orange shirt. He appeared to be around the same age as the woman. Standing in front of them were three children. The first was a young boy with slightly spiky brown hair in a black t-shirt and tan shorts. He looked to be around 8 or 9. The second was a young girl with long black hair in a pink t-shirt and matching skirt. She looked to be around the same age as the boy. The third was a slight older girl with long red hair in a blue t-shirt and pants. She looked to be around 10. By that point, Clara turned it off and closed the laptop. Then she grabbed her messenger bag and placed it in there as the shooter to come up behind her and conked her over the head, knocking her out.

"I'm sorry, but this has to be done in order to protect you." The shooter thought as she teleported Clara's body away and teleported someplace else…

Weird, there's no one here." Ace thought as he got off his bike and it disappeared into his HDA. As he started to walk around the park, the more he started to get a feeling it was a trap. There was nobody at the park at all. Soon something caught his eye. It was a figure dressed in a black cloak. The cloak almost all of her body except for her lips and neck. Something about the figure resonated with him.

"How are you?!" Ace shouted as he looked at the figure." Are you the one who called me here?!" The only response he got from her was a laugh. She then instantly dashed towards him and she used her sword to fire a few shots off.

"Don't you remember me, Ace?" The figure asked childishly. Ace only looked at her. He thought the girl was delusional. A second later, she was gone.

"This isn't funny! If you don't show yourself, I will find you and defeat you!" Ace shouted, only for the shooter to knock him unconscious.

"Please… don't do this to me…" Ace whispered as he closed his eyes. As he did, he caught a brief glimpse at the figure's red hair.

"I'm sorry Ace. This is for the best…." The girl responded as she teleported away… "Good luck."

It had only taken Nina and Aurora a half hour to get back home. However, the unnatural silence of their small home was extremely unsettling to both of them.

"Something isn't right." Nina thought as she twisted the doorknob and opened the door up. Almost immediately, she wished that she hadn't done so. The bloodied corpses of Arana and Krystalia were on the floor. Celestia kneeled between them, mourning.

"What happened to them?" Nina asked as she looked at the corpses. She didn't understand why they had to die at all. A second later, tears were falling from her eyes.

"Somebody got in the house and filled there bodies with slashes and gunshot wounds." Celestia explained. "Nina, it will be all right."

"For all we know, the killer could still be watching us." Aurora added as she looked around. Then she walked upstairs. Nina looked around hoping that she wasn't right on that guess. A second later she felt something hard hit her and she closed her eyes. The figure then did the same to Celestia a second later. She didn't want to do this to them, but it was the only way to protect to them. After teleporting the bodies away, she headed upstairs.

"What took you so long?" The Black Cat responded as the figure looked at her and ignored the corpse of Aurora.

"I had some complications with the magic girl." The figure answered. "Ted was a useless idiot. He didn't even try to hide the files on the laptop!"

"Calm down." The Black Cat responded. "It's time to buy our time and wait."

.

WTF!" Hera responded." You just allowed all off the main characters to die all of a sudden!"

"And your point is?" The Author asked.

"Shouldn't the hero live and defeat Empress Vanessa? Since that's how it usually works." Hera answered and Valia snickered.

"Well… In most stories it follows that formula." Valia responded.

"How do you know the Empress did this?" The Author responded…

.

"How many of them were you able to save?" A woman asked as she looked at The Black Cat and the figure. Neither of them could see the woman in the dark room.

"Four of them, but the other three I wasn't able to save." The Black Cat answered as she looked straight ahead.

"Things will work out in our favor." The woman added." The Fallen Ones will think there dead for some time."

"That is end of the following of your plan." The Black Cat responded sarcastically as The Figure looked at her.

"What do you mean by that?" The woman questioned as she looked at The Black Cat.

"We will be going on my plan for this." The Black Cat explained as she left the room.