⊱ ────── {.⋅ ♫ ⋅.} ───── ⊰
𝑃𝑒𝑔𝑎𝑠𝑢𝑠 𝑟𝑢𝑛𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔
𝐷𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑤𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑙𝑒𝑓𝑡 𝑖𝑛
𝐼𝑡'𝑠 𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑐
𝐼𝑡'𝑠 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒
𝑊𝑒'𝑟𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑, 𝑛𝑜𝑤
𝑆𝑜 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑
𝑁𝑜𝑤 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢'𝑟𝑒 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑚𝑦 𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑦
𝑆𝑜 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑
𝑇𝑎𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑚𝑒 ℎ𝑖𝑔ℎ, 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑚𝑒 ℎ𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑒𝑟
𝐖𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐌𝐞 𝐆𝐨 𝐋𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐲 𝐓𝐢𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐃𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞
⊱ ────── {⋅. ♪ .⋅} ────── ⊰
Nico had contacted everyone late at night to tell them that Alex has been kidnapped. This of course made the girls in the Yorkes residence drop what they were doing and drive to the cafe where Nico had last seen Alex. Karolina arrived first at Timely as she was on the phone with Nico when Alex was abducted. Then Nico called Luna about everything and the girl put her phone on speaker so the other two girls living with her could hear the urgent message
Gert had driven her car to Timely Coffee and right as she was pulling into an empty parking spot the two girls in the car with her were already unbuckling their seat belt. The three girls then made their way to Karolina and Nico who stood next to Karolina's Mini Cooper
"You ready to go?" Nico immediately says not wanting to waste time but she had yet to explain to everyone what had actually happened other than Alex being kidnapped
"Where are we going? We have no clue where Alex is" Gert says confused as they really did have no clue of who captured Alex or why or where they drove off to. From her school bag, Nico pulls out her mother's staff which she had learned how to semi-use the day she sneaked into her mother's office
"Did you steal that from your mom?" Gert asks in a whisper while looking around the empty parking lot for any wandering eyes
"You're in trouble," Molly says playfully as takes a look at the staff Nico holds as the last time most of the teens had seen it was when they found their parents in the Wilders basement and the staff was being wielded by Tina. None of them knowing the extent of the Staff's powers
"You think it can help us?" Karolina asks Nico wanting to know what she was going to be using it for
"I'm counting on it," Nico states as she presses her thumb on the needle embedded in the staff, making her groan in pain as the needle pricked her thumb. The way the Staff would be activated was by her blood, it had been programmed to detect Tina's DNA but since it was also in Nico the Staff worked for her. Nico holds the Staff out in front of her and commands, "Show us the way to Alex"
Nothing happened. No lights, voice, nothing magical occurred making the girls share confused looks and for Nico to hit the staff as if it were to make it work
"So much for the magical Wiccan proclamations" Gert comments and right after Luna and Gert share a look a ray of red, purple, orange and yellow lights appeared lighting up a pathway from where they stood to streets
"What is that thing?" Karolina asks curiously just as everyone else who watched the rays of light leaving the Staff Nico held
"I don't know, but I think I'm in love" Nico responds to Karolina's question while taking her eyes off the lights and looking at the Staff she holds in admiration
"The lights are pretty, but how is this helping?" Molly asks making the girls come up with a possible correct answer but all they had were guesses
"They look like car lights after being exposed for too long in a photo," Luna says thinking back to photos she'd seen of exposed light, and being confident in her hypothesis she continues, "So it must be the cars heat signature. Follow the lights and we find Alex"
"Yeah, the staff is trying to lead us to him," Nico says as if she suddenly knew what the staff was trying to convey
"I'll drive" Karolina offers ready to follow the lights yet before anyone can reach for a door handle Gert's voice stops everyone from moving
"Wait! Hold on a second. I am all for the idea of rescuing Alex, but we have no clue what we're going up against" Gert asks worried and anxious as to what would happen once they found Alex and his kidnappers
"It could be my church," Karolina says making Luna, Molly, and Gert look confused at her as if they had missed some vital information as to why her church would want Alex
"Or the cops" Nico says making the teens look at her worried as to why the cops would kidnap one of their friends. Since Alex was the only one in the group with dark skin Luna couldn't help but worry once she hears the word 'cops' and Alex. "Alex and I found out our parents were paying off the police"
"So you're saying that we're either going to be facing off against Gibborim enforcer types, or a corrupt branch of the LAPD..." Luna questions yet it came out as a statement, as Gert's anxiety was starting to rub off on her and she was now coming up with impossible scenarios in her mind for when they do find Alex
"Could just be generic kidnappers" Molly says optimistically slightly decreasing Luna's anxiety as the thought of Molly's words just made her want to smile. Molly was like a rainbow during a sunset, it could be raining or just an average day but when you notice the rainbow one couldn't help but smile.
"...with no weapons and no plans" Gert finishes Luna's sentence as the purple-headed girl was also worried for what they would meet once reaching their destination
"We have the staff and each other" Nico says trying to reassure everyone that they were going to be okay
"Plus, like I keep telling you guys, I'm really, really strong!" Molly says trying to bring up her superpower once again yet once again is shut down by Gert
"Molly, not now!" Gert says annoyed making Luna speak up more calmly than the purple head girl she stood next to
"What about Chase?" Luna asks knowing not all of them were there "I sent him, like, a million texts, yet he hasn't answered any of them. Shouldn't he be here?"
"We'll keep trying him on the way, but we can't lose Alex" Nicos replies as she walks towards the passenger side of Karolina's car making Gert purse her lips but just like the others she got into the car
What the girls didn't know was that Alex as in no danger, his kidnapper might have a gun and a driver but he didn't want to hurt Alex. All Darius wanted to do is open Alex's eyes to who his dad truly was, by sharing the story of how his dad really got out of prison and the promise he never kept.
Yet it did soon become a hostage situation as Darius' motive wasn't only to expose who Geoffrey Wilder truly is. Once Alex's dad answered the WizTalk Darius made his play by showing his face to Geoffrey and demanding a million dollars. Yet Geoffrey only had 5K ready which was what Darius had previously demanded.
The five girls had yet to arrive at where Alex had been driven to. They were still following the rays of the light with Karolina behind the wheel as she drove fast and reckless not wanting to lose the lights what with every second started to fade away
"We need to slow down, okay?" Gert shouts as she sits in the back row of Karolina's car in between Molly and Luna, who was trying to contact Chase as he had yet to answer her text or calls.
"I don't want to lose Alex!" Nico shouts back making Karolina increase the speed of her driving but that didn't calm Gert's new anxiety of what would happen with reckless driving
"We'll lose him if we crash! Swerving, it's about crashing. It's not about how sick I feel, but it's also a little bit about how sick I feel" Gert quickly says from her seat making Luna glance over at Gert worried, not wanting the purple-headed girl to throw up anytime soon
"This kind of reminds me of Magic Mountain or Six Flags," Molly says with a laugh making Luna laugh as Molly was right. With all the sharp turns and constant lane switching Karolina was doing, could be compared to an amusement park ride.
"Karolina, are you even checking your blind spots?" Gert says worried as Karolina once again quickly changes lane not answering to Gert's side remark
Luna bad been calling Chase during the whole car ride to see if he responds only to be directed towards his voicemail. That all stopped once he called her, and at the sight of his caller ID Luna answers immediately
"Hey, what's going on?" Chase asks wondering why he has so many missed calls by Luna and some other missed calls by the other girls
"Oh, my stars! Finally! I'm with everyone, and we need your he- assistance" Luna says catching herself from not saying help, as she did not want to hear an earful later from Gert saying how a woman doesn't need help from a man to solve her problems and then go on to share with her synonyms to replace the word help with "to save Alex from some unidentified abductors"
"What?" Chase asks confused as to what was going on and how much he had missed
"I'll fill you in later, okay? Right now just get in your car and follow my GPS address which I will send now, so see you soon, okay? Bye!" Luna exclaims and without another word, she ends the call and sends Chase her location which kept moving with Karolina's fast driving
"Cool... So, help is on the way" Luna calmly informs everyone as if they had not just heard her whole conversation, just as Karolina makes a sharp turn making the girls in the car all shriek
"That is if you don't kill us first," Gert says as the girls in the back all went to one side
"Karolina, you're doing great," Nico says reassuringly from her seat in the front
"Thank you," Karolina says as she continues to follow the lights trying her best not to lose the trail
"This is kind of fun," Molly says with a laugh enjoying the reckless driving
~~
The ray of lights that the staff had been emitting vanished as they had arrived to their destination. Right away the girls were able to spot Alex from a distance and none of them made a movement to get out of the car as to what they saw scared them
"That-that-that guy has a gun to Alex's head" Nico stutters as she can't keep her eyes off of Alex being held at gunpoint by who she believed to be Alex's abductor. Alex then got into the black van yet still had a gun being pointed at him, they had known he was in trouble but seeing a gun being pointed at their friend was something else.
"The odds of surviving a confrontation seem increasingly slim," Gert says as the car they had been following just turned back on, ready to move with Alex still in it
"Totally not helping," Luna says quickly as she didn't want to leave Alex with the men who held a gun to his head yet she also didn't want to stare down at a gun barrel
"I'm not abandoning Alex" Nico responds to Gert's pessimistic remark
"But we have no chance!" Gert pessimistically says once again letting her anxiety get the best of her
"I say we do. Karolina, go!" Nico says making Karolina turn the car back on and set the gear to drive, and no one objects
They had followed the black van in close proximity and stopped behind it once the van stopped at a red light. Karolina stops the car making Nico opens her car door and unfastens her seatbelt ready to walks out of the car making the girls shout "Wait, stop! No, Nico!"
Yet the girl dressed in black doesn't stop, instead, she walks out of the Minni Cooper and stands behind the black van that held Alex. As the three older teens in the car questions Nico's sanity, Nico stands behind the black van puts the staff in front of her and gives it a command "Engine off"
The car is still running, the staff didn't do anything. So Nico tried different words that could possibly shut the car off yet none worked making her turn back to the light blue car and shake her head. Molly then moves the seat in front of her to step out of the car making Gert and Luna call out for the girl wearing a pink cat beanie worried for her safety
"What is she doing?" Karolina asks the girls in the car as they look out the window to see Molly place her hands on the car's bumper
"I don't know," Gert says worried as Molly started to lift the car leaving the girls in awe. The light had turned green making the driver press down on the gas peddle yet the car didn't move.
All because Molly was making sure the back wheels never touched the ground. Two men dressed in black walk out of the car left side doors making Karolina quickly get out of the car and once she was out, Luna wasted no time in moving the front seat and getting out as well
The man who got out of the back seat with a gun in his hand turns to the back of the car to see a teenage girl a pink beanie and glowing golden eyes holding up his car, "Hey! - What in the hell?"
Karolina takes off her bracelet to use her powers but Luna had beat to her to it. Luna quickly touches her totem and flicks her wrist making the gun the guy held be flung to the floor. At the sound of the wind, the noise of Karolina's bracelet falling to the floor was lost.
So once the gun was out of the bad man's hand Karolina extended her hands out towards the van to let her lights shine, blinding everyone standing in front of the lights.
"No! Alex, run!" Nico shouts once she sees Alex standing by the van and was also being blinded by the bright lights. Alex closes his eyes but quickly runs forward not afraid of passing through the lights. Molly sets the back of the car on the floor as there was no more need for her to use her power
Molly having seen the colorful lights still shining out of Karolina's hands gets excited and asks "You have superpowers, too?"
The driver runs away at the sight of the teens having these abnormal abilities, leaving behind the one person who seemed to be the boss. Karolina starts to get weaker and tired of the lights making her speak up, "I can't hold this much longer"
Gert got out of her car and joined the rest of the teens, while Karolina turned off the lights being emitted from her hands and put her bracelet back on which helped to not make her glow. All the teens stood together in front of Wilders abductor who once again held a gun pointed at them
"That was cute. Y'all little kids best stand down" He says just as Chase arrives with his fistagons in hand "Got the whole gang together, huh?"
Before he can say another word Chase shoot this fistagons at the bad guy throwing him in a bush. Most of the teens didn't know how to react so they stood there with wide eyes or their mouths open in shock. Chase looked down at his invention amazed that they actually worked and his vision had come to life
"What is happening right now?" Gert asks as everyone around her seemed to have some sort of superpower that just might have saved their friend's life and all of theirs.
"I think we're kicking ass," Nico says with a chuckle making everyone smile and for Chase to raise his hand in the air which Nico high fives, only for the energy from the Fistagons and Nico's staff clash with each other making Chase be thrown backward
"Chase!" Luna exclaims worried about his wellbeing. Luna kneels next to Chase as he laid on the floor "you okay?"
Chase only hums which Luna takes as a yes and helps him up from the ground. Just as they hear Alex's abductor speak up once again meaning he was now back on his feet
"Nah, Nah! This ain't how it's about to go down" Darius- Alex's captor says as he walks menacingly towards the teens who stood side by side
"Protect us!" Nico commands the staff the girls stood worried as last time Nico tried to command the staff it didn't work on the first try. Darius holds up two guns and from a distance starts to shoot at the teens. As each bullet went straight for the teens a forcefield stopped each and every bullet making them all fall to the floor
Darius, out of bullets, realizes that he was outmatched so he runs towards his car and quickly drives away. The teens turn to look at each other amazed as to what just happened
"You think you can stop him with another shot?" Alex asks Chase who held his Fistagons up to his chest as if he was about to punch someone.
"I doubt it," Chase says as he looks down at this gloves which seemed to have been used enough already and with the distance, Darius had put between him and the teens it would be a long shot
"Maybe Molly can," Gert says making the teens turn around to face Molly who appeared to be sleeping on the hood of Karolina's car. Although it was a serious situation Luna couldn't help but chuckle at the youngest girls antics
"How about we just call it a night" Nico suggests making her then face her mother's staff who was still glowing meaning they had a forcefield around them still, "Shield off"
Alex seemed to have remembered the teen he had left by his father's side making him turn back towards his friends knowing he had to run back to Andre
"I'll catch up with you guys later," Alex says as he then turns to run away from the group making Nico shout after him, yet it was too late as Alex didn't turn back
~~
After Alex had run away from the group who just saved his life they all decided to go back to the coffee shop where they had met up and talk. Only this time Luna rode back with Chase not wanting to be crammed in Karolina's Mini Cooper.
"I can't believe you actually made these" Luna says from her seat as she held the fistagons and inspected what once was a dream now be a reality. The reason Chase hadn't been answering his phone was that he and his dad were creating the Fistagons
"My dad helped a lot," Chase says from the driver's seat as he tried to keep his eyes on the road but couldn't help to glance over at Luna
"Your dad?" Luna asks surprised and curious as to how Victor Stein, the man who wouldn't allow anyone into his lab which was always spotless, had the patience to help his teenage son create an invention that wasn't his own
"Yeah, recently he's been really nice," Chase says making Luna nod her head taking in the new information as she knew all about his situation with his dad, which to say the least was abusive.
Luna didn't like the word hate, she felt as if once she used it to describe her feelings towards something or one she couldn't take it back. She used to hate rock and metal music when she was young but now as a teen that music lulled her to sleep, her mind had been changed. When it came to her feelings about Victor Stein, Luna couldn't say she strongly disliked him because that wasn't a big enough emotion because she knew that feeling would never change. So in the small list of things Luna hated, Victor Stein's name was on top of the list.
"Is that...good?" Luna asks knowing the type of temper Chases dad has and what he is capable of doing when mad. Luna didn't want Chase to get his hopes up only to be disappointed by his father losing his temper and hurting him
"I think so yeah. I think this time it will stick" Chase shares and Luna not knowing how to respond nods her head. Which after a minute she realizes Chase couldn't have seen as his eyes were on the road, making the brunette turn to look out the window and squeezed her eyes while crinkling her nose.
There was never really be any true moment of awkward silence in Chase and Luna's friendship. But then again that was when they were kids, which to Luna felt like so long ago. Now she felt awkward around Chase and her heart pounding a mile a minute didn't help her try to keep up a normal conversation.
From the corner of her blue eyes, Luna could see that Chase was looking at her so she turns to see that he kept glancing over at her, taking his eyes off the road. So with a chuckle, Luna asks, "What?"
"I'd forgotten how much of a nerd you are," Chase says as he stops at the red light and looks over at Luna properly which makes Luna laugh.
Luna learned to take the words 'nerd' and 'geek' as a compliment, she never found it as something to be ashamed about. Luna loved how there were people out in the world who invented items out of one small idea and changed the world with just their minds.
Chase on the other had admired Luna's creative mind, the way that she was able to create art out of a feeling or inspiration. The reason he called her a nerd wasn't just because of the way that she admired the fistagons but also because of the dark blue zip-up sweater that had a Ravenclaw crest.
"And I'd forgotten how much a visionary you are" Luna compliments with a smirk making Chase chuckle.
Chase and Luna had arrived at Timely before Karolina and the girls making them head inside. Luna decided to order some drinks while they waited for the girls and Chase was tasked in finding a big enough space for the teens to speak comfortably about what had happened
"You brought a date to your workplace?" Lin, one of Luna's co-worker, asks the brunette once she reached the counter making Luna instinctively turn around to where she had last seen Chase
"No, I didn't bring a date to my workplace" Luna responds which makes her co-worker raise an eyebrow not believing it "He's just a friend"
"Good thing you didn't say old friend because then this conversation would feel like you and him would become friends with benefits"
"What?" Luna says with a smile and laughs trying to hide her embarrassment
"J-just order your coffee, you can tell me the details later," Lin says making Luna nod in agreement as she then orders seven different drinks
One thing about Luna is that she is very pro-green, meaning she is all about recycling and doing her part in not contributing to climate change. She has her own portable straw, doesn't use plastic caps for any of her drinks, she uses bar soap and shampoo, she uses recycled paper for sketching and uses a tablet for writing notes. She even made her school go green by planting more trees, having two trashcans one for waste, and the other for recycling, and she got the teachers to allow their students to turn in homework electronically and write their class notes on their electronic devices. She even has her own reusable mug at the coffee shop.
So as Luna orders drinks for her friends she makes sure that the drinks are poured in either mugs or reusable cups. With her newfound waitress skills, she carries a tray over to the table that the teens were sat around. She gave everyone their own individual drink which she ordered based on what she had remembered they enjoyed.
"Molly, you were such a badass" Chase says making Luna excitedly wrap her arms around Molly and with a big smile, proud at the young girl's strength
"You were fearless," Luna says making the girl in Luna's arms giggle happy that everyone now believed she had super strength
"So were you," Molly says with bright eyes as in that moment she was happier than the day she discovered her powers
"I still can't get over those lights!" Nico tells Karolina as they faced each other sitting on the ground having their own separate conversation
"And your staff!" Karolina says with a smile as Nico raises her hand to move a fallen strand of Karolina's blonde hair behind her ear
Alex then arrives at the coffee shop and stands looking around for his friends. Molly being the first one to see him calls out his name, catching everyones attention.
"Whoa, you're okay," Nico says as Alex appears in front of the group
"Guys, we have a problem," Alex says abruptly making everyone look up at him as he stood by the table with his hands nervously on the straps of his backpack
"What are you talking about? We got you back" Nico says worried as to what was so urgent now that they had him back and everything was good
"Yes, and now we have to save someone else. His name's Andre, he was with the men who kidnapped me" Alex shares yet doesn't share the real reason why Andre was in trouble
"So why would we help him?" Chase asks not understanding why it meant so much to Alex to save some kid they didn't know and who was a part of his kidnapping
"He was just following orders"
"Isn't that what the Nazis said?" Gert remarks jokingly yet serious at the same time
"The what?" Luna asks in a whisper which Gert could hear making her look at her seriously while Luna looked at her with wide eyes confused and surprised
"He's the same age as us, and I think our parents are about to do to him what they did to Destiny. Okay? We have to stop them" Alex says making the rest of the teen look at each other not knowing what to do but overall they were hesitant.
"Are you nuts? We almost got shot back there, and now you want us to risk our lives for some guy that we don't even know?" Chase says not liking the idea and probability of being shot at once again
"Do we even have a plan?" Karolina asks as she wanted to help out but didn't want to go in blind
"The plan is making sure no more kids die" Alex replies sure of his answer yet that wasn't a plan good enough to get rid of his friends worry
"Alex, we need to take a beat here, okay? Many of us have just exhibited superhuman abilities after learning that there may be a Chinatown- level conspiracy run by our parents. My head is exploding." Gert says as she turns to look at Molly who was sleeping against one of the seats "Molly, how can you take a nap right now?"
"You try lifting an SUV with your bare hands. It's exhausting! At least you guys finally got to see what I can do. I've been trying to tell you for forever." Molly says grumpily
"Yes, Molly, we finally believe you, but-" Alex says tired yet is interrupted
"Oh, and speaking of superpowers? Gert has a dinosaur that she can order around" Molly says enthusiastically sharing the secret with everyone else
"Are you serious? What?" Nico asks not believing that they had a dinosaur
"It's insane," Molly says making Luna nod her head as seeing Gert have a connection with a dinosaur was just pure beauty
"And kind of awesome" Chase says with a smile
"You never said anything about Gert having a dinosaur" Karolina speaks up as her eyes were on Chase making the boy look back at her
"I kept quiet about your lights"
"Okay, yeah, I probably should've told you guys," Karolina says while looking around the table at her friends "but I was just worried you'd think I was a freak"
"I think we're all scoring pretty high on the freak-o-meter tonight. My family heirloom is a magic staff-slash-wand" Nico says speaking up on her power
"Well, at least yours makes you look cool. Mines just a piece of accessory" Luna says as she looks down and touches the golden part of her necklace making the teens look at her necklace which they had never noticed as Luna had done well in hiding
"But you have powers which is so cool!" Molly says excitedly now wide awake and amazed making Luna smile happily at Mollys excitement
"Thank you Molls," Luna says before turning the conversation back to what was important "So what are we going to do about Andre?"
"No matter what we are, Alex is right," Nico says sending an encouraging nod towards Alex "We can't let our parents keep getting away with this stuff. We weren't able to save Destiny"
"Maybe we can save Andre. I mean, we have to at least try" Alex says making the teens look at each other and silently agreeing to save Andre from their parents
~~
The teens had made it to the Wilder household in record time and as fast as they could they ran towards the study. Unlike last time the coasters didn't open the door, making Molly volunteer to open the door with her powers. Once the doors were open the teens ran down the stairs and this time didn't worry about there being in minimal lighting. They turn the corner to reach the balcony, ready to fight, only to be met with an empty dark basement.
"I don't get it," Gert says as she looks from the balcony to see none of the parents standing downstairs nor even a signal of the adult's presence
"Where are they?" Luna asks as she places her hand up, just like last time. Only this time a force field didn't stop her hand, meaning there was no magic wall
"Maybe we just beat them here," Molly says optimistically but the teens somehow knew it wasn't the truth
"My dad got a huge head start," Alex says not believing they could have beat his dad who he had left with Andre in the car while he had taken the bus to the coffee shop. At the realization that there was no immediate danger, Luna's mind started to focus on the darkness surrounding her. Making her uneven breathing be out of fear rather than lack of oxygen from running like the other teens.
"Then maybe our parents took Andre somewhere else" Nico suggest meaning they couldn't stop their parents from doing to Andre what they did to Destiny
"Which means he's probably dead," Chase says voicing what everyone was thinking, as he says this he notices that Luna still had yet to catch her breath. He then reached for her hand and started to draw invisible circles on her hand with his thumb
Alex realizes what he had done making him shout "Goddamn it!" before he walks away from the group and heads back upstairs
So while Nico chased after Alex the rest of the teens made their way downstairs to see if they could uncover any more secrets. When they reached the now lit room everyone made their way around the room to examine it, all while Luna took a few steps away from the book shelf to examine it all.
From one end of the wall to the other, Luna took a quick look at every book and nicknack that the book-self contained. Only to find a black cylinder looking box that seemed out of place, so Luna made her way towards the book shelve and reaches for the camera she had noticed.
"I found something!" Luna yells making the four other teens in the room walk over to her and sees the video recorder in her hand
"We need Alex" Gert states making Karolina volunteer to go fetch Alex and Nico.
Karolina leaves the room only to see Alex and Nico in his bedroom kissing. Karolina quickly covers her emotions and tells the two about what Luna had discovered. Karolina then quickly leaves the room and walks back to the basement.
The teens gather downstairs still snooping around while Alex worked his tech magic on the video recorder.
"Fifteen kids have died in this room. That is so..." Karolina says as she looks around the room but couldn't finish her sentence
"Messed up?" Nico guesses, finishing Karolina's sentence
"What if the ghosts of all these kids are still in here, watching us right now?" Molly says as she looks up at the ceiling, making Luna and Gert look at Molly creeped out by the way the younger girl said her sentence
"Okay, Molls, no more Goosebumps for you," Gert says worried for the girl and where her mind was wandering towards
"Anything?" Chase asks Alex who sat on a sofa chair trying to see if there was anything on the video camera while his laptop laid open on his lap
"Uh, no. Thankfully it's not on. Probably only use it when they're in here doing their thing. Looks like the footage is being offloaded onto a server somewhere, but I can use it as an access point to see what the cameras connected to and translate the IP address into a physical one" Alex says as he continues to click buttons on his laptop which then makes some whirring and beeping noises "No frickin' way"
"Please no more bad news," Karolina says which gains the girl's attention who were in a different part of the room and they made their way towards Alex
"Video is being funneled to your parents' company," Alex says as he looks directly at Nico
"They're storing it at Wizard Computers?" Nico asks not fully surprised
"The most hacker-resistant network on the planet? Yeah," Alex says knowing they were going to have a hard time coming up with a plan to extract the videos from Wizard Co.
"Well, we have to find a way to get it. It's actual evidence of what our parents have been doing" Nico says wanting to follow a new lead and silently wishing it would give her answers towards her sister's so-called suicide
"Maybe there's an explanation. I mean, they have to be doing all of this for a reason, right? What if they have a good one?" Chase says making Luna look at him worried that him wanting to give the parents the benefit of the doubt was because of his dad's new behavior
"Good reason to kill kid," Molly says pointing the irony in Chases statement
"Chase, come on," Nico says on the same boat as Molly
"I know it doesn't make any sense, but... I don't know, I was with my dad before, and it just made me wonder. What if we're missing something here?" Chase says wanting to stay optimistic
"I mean, Chase, can you honestly think of a single reason to justify their actions?" Alex questions making the teens look at each other as they couldn't come up with a reason
~~
Gert, Luna, and Molly didn't feel safe anymore sleeping in their rooms. So the three girls changed into some sleepwear and walked downstairs to the basement with their own blanket in hand. Gert was the first to open the door and walk into the dinosaur's habitat. The dinosaur immediately having heard the door open walks their way.
"Hi! Hey, it's just us. Hey. Hi." Gert says to the dinosaur as she kept a calm demeanor so the dinosaur will be calm as well
"Don't worry, she's not gonna hurt you" Gert reassures the two girls standing behind her slightly scared but mostly tired after the night's events
Once the three girls made a place to sleep, Luna closed her eyes and fell asleep quickly. The other two girls made sure Luna was in a comfortable position before Molly speaks up as they both sit up straight "Gert?"
"Yeah?" Gert replies as she continues to pet her dinosaur who sat next to her trying to forget about her horrible and eventful day
"Why would our parents do all these horrible things?" Molly asks not knowing how she could begin to understand why her parents above all could be a part of something so horrible as killing teens
"I guess 'cause they're horrible people"