So. Time allows. 

Ummmm.... I'm just going to say that Leo, Amber, and Nathaniel have all been introduced and stuff and cut off the last few paragraphs from my last segment. Or something roughly like them. Or maybe it'll be different. Oh, I'll just write. Nathaniel, you're on~

John moaned from on the floor. "We should do something abou him," said Amber. "Before he wakes up." Nathaniel nodded, and then shook his head.

"But what would we do? Would it be better to leave him and get out of here as fast as we can, or put him in a closet or something, first?" Nathaniel sighed. "John can get out of any trap we set. If we're just going to end up leaving, it doesn't matter where we leave him."

"Okay," Amber nodded. "That makes sense." John groaned again.

"There's still not much time before he wakes up. We have to hurry up," goaded Leo.

Nathaniel looked back at the door Amber and Leo had entered through. It looked like some sort of storage place. He wanted to go back there so bad, just to look, to see if John hadn't disposed of his stolen powers, to see if he could get them back.

"We have to go," said Leo again. "Now."

There's no time, Nathaniel thought. Don't think about it, don't think about it, just go. Go. He nodded. "The exit is over there." 

They ran out the door, and found themselves in what was the alleyway beside Nathaniel's apartment building. I wonder what would happen if you went in the front door.

Don't be silly, Nathaniel told himself. You'd probably just fall into John's trap again. And the other people are probably brought into a different trap. 

"Where are we going to go now?!" Amber asked wildly. "John will wake up soon and--"

"We'll go to Brooke's place," said Nathaniel firmly. The other two stared at him. "Brooke's a friend of mine. If we jog there, we can get there in fifteen minutes."

Leo grinned at the prospect of jogging, and kept telling Nathaniel and Amber the whole time that they "Were going too slow." When they did finally reach the bakery, Leo didn't seem tired at all, while Amber and Nathaniel were panting and sweating. They went through the back road, down an alleyway, and up another street to the back of the bakery, the same route Brooke had taken Nahtaniel and Elexhiia on earlier.

"What is this place?" asked Leo cautiously.

"Trust me," said Nathaniel. He opened the door to the little makeshift house, and felt four pairs of eyes turn to stare at Leo, Amber, and himself. It seemed that Storm, the boy whose set Nathaniel had aparently stolen, and another kid from Shane's, Catherine, had joined the party.

"Hi?" Nathaniel said awkwardly. 

Does that make things better? 

That's good! I'll just keep moving stuff until we get the chance to do what we want to do.

"Hi?" Nathaniel said awkwardly. 

"Hi?" I said back, a bit confused. Two other people stood beside Nathaniel in the doorway. Introductions went around. Storm was careful not to reveal his flying power, I noticed. I wondered if he was hiding other powers. I wasn't too surprised to meet another jumper. I knew they existed and I was bound to run into one somewhere. Still, I was delighted to meet Leo and I wondered if we could become good friends. 

"We left John tied up unconcious in a warehouse room, but I think he's waking up soon," the girl, Amber, said nervously. "He controls minds, right? He'll probably be coming back soon. We need to be careful."  

"No, we don't," Storm said calmly. Our heads swiveled to him.

"What are you talking about?" Brooke asked.

He lifted his finger to his mouth in a 'shh' motion that I found annoyingly patronizing. I was tempted to kick him in the shins for that. Storm opened his hand to reveal a cell phone lying flat in the palm of its hand. Speaker phone was turned on. 

"Hello, you have just reached Lillian Ingrid Electronics, Chartette Langly speaking. How may I help you?" A formal female voice issued from the phone. 

Storm smiled (evilly, I thought. That smile meant he was up to no good.) and said, "Hello, Chartette. I think you know how you can help me."

The woman gasped. "Is- is that- Storm, your father wants you dead! You're considered one of our enemies and-"

"-And, yes, I know you bugged my phone which is why it is currently on some poor idiot on a train to Kentucky. And I'm using a friend's phone." I nearly uttered a little shreak in rage. The phone he was using was mine! That was in my back pocket! How the heck did he get it?

Chartette shakily continued, "Storm, what you're doing is very dangerous-"

"I know. But did you know, Chartette, that one of your prototypes got out? Or was it a test run? The point is, one of your precious golems is on the loose and you owe me a favor. I think I'd like you to shut it off."

"I-I can't... It's impossible! I'll be fired! I know I owe you, but I can't-"

"Oh, really? Well then, because my dear father is most likely listening to this, why don't I tell him a little story? So, our dear friend here-"

The woman gave a little scream. "No! No! Oh, please no! Oh, no, no, no, no! I'll tell you what! I'll shut off the first one and then we'll just relax, won't we? Have a cup of tea and all? Is that good?"

"Pleased doing business with you, Miss Langley." The phone went dead. Storm tossed me my phone.

"Allright, what's going on?" I demanded. "And when in heaven's name did you take my phone, and out of my back pocket no less?"

"You're amazingly easy to pickpocket. Don't worry, I don't normally do it. And I just took it a minute ago. My phone has been stuck in the pocket of some poor guy on the train to your parent's house," Storm explained. I seethed.

"You may not be aware, but HUNT has been working on a big project designed to capture and kill kids like us with superpowers," Storm explained to the group at large. "It's called Project Locke. The point is to create golems specially trained to murder us with their own 'superpowers'. John is one such of those golems. 

"The woman I was talking to on the phone was one of the developers of the project. She owes me an enormous favor so she's agreed to let us into HUNT's first break room at six p.m. That whole message baout shutting 'the first one off' was a code we devised but no one else knows of it.

"If I were you, I would sneak into HUNT and meet with Miss Langley and to destroy the golems. That's what I intend to do. You can do what you like.

"We're going," Brooke said, speaking for the group. "But how can we trust you and know you're telling the truth?"

Storm smiled. "You can't."

I asked, "How did you get the location and time out of that strange message?"

Storm's smile grew wider. "Why, tea time is always six o'clock when you're in the Liddle house."

And that's the end of my piece. Don't ask me where both the name Chartette and the whole code thingy came from or what it means. I asked Ruby for idea and that's what I got.

We waited in the park for only a few minutes before the boy announced, "It's time. Let's go." 

"Why did we have to wait at all?" I asked. "It was only a few minutes."

"In your world. Don't you know by now that time flows differently from world to world? We're going to a world you've never gone to before. You'll be able to find it again as soon as we arrive there, but you'll never be able to find it if I don't take you there now." He held out his hands, clearly asking us to hold onto him. I didn't trust him. Catherine reluctantly took one of his hands and I followed suit. Suddenly, he yanked forward and rose into the air alarmingly fast. Jumping. It was jumping, and I couldn't really tell a difference, but Catherine gave a strange gasp as we crossed some threshold I couldn't detect. What was she thinking? I would have paid anything to find out. We landed in front of a seemingly normal house in a suburb. The boy led us up the front walk and through the front door.

"Hello," a voice said. We had entered into a living room and sitting in a chair was a girl of roughly medium height. She had brown pigtails and was wearing a set of green shorts, a large white sweater, and a pair of fuzzy brown boots. She didn't look particularly dangerous, but appearances can be deceiving. She was typing something into an iPad and didn't look up. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you face to face," she said. "Please, sit down." She waved to another chair and couch. 

Catherine and I sat awkwardly on the couch. The boy who had taken us here was now standing behind the chair, looking at us. "Where are we?" I asked, not sure where to begin.

"My house," the girl replied matter-of-factly. She didn't stop looking at her iPad.

"We're in a higher world, aren't we?" Catherine asked.

The girl smiled. "Good job. You're very smart."

I wasn't sure how to proceed, so I decided to ask an obvious question. "What are you typing?" I asked.

"This."

"What?"

"You know that when you create a fictional story another world is opened up as a lower world? But that typing truth creates nothing? I'm typing this event as a record of what happened. I'm not creating any lower world. I'm typing your thoughts, Storm, as you have them."

A chill crept down my spine. She could see my thoughts?

"Of course I can. Catherine's too, but I'm not writing her story."

This being was obviously dangerous. I wasn't sure if it was a girl or not.

"Congratulations. You're figuring things out. I'm not a girl. I'm wearing a body of someone who is prenteding to be a girl but she actually isn't. That leads to the question of what I am. It's very hard to explain, so at the moment I will say that I am an extremely powerful being in a very large war. That's where you come in. I needed a messenger, someone to jump between worlds and deliver packages, move humans around, things like that. That's why we created you two."

Revulsion rose in my throat. "You created me to be your messenger? That's my purpose in life? Your messenger?"

"I knew you wouldn't take this lightly, but-"

Catherine suddenly started to laugh. "Oh this is rich! Just rich! We were created to serve as messengers for some all powerful being in a higher world! Well, get this? Who's your author? Who's the person pulling the strings on you? Why were you created, whatever the heck you are, to polish the boots of some even high being?" I stared at her incredulously. Had she gone mad? 

"I don't know," the thing in the chair said. "I don't know why I was created but I was created with the urge to win this battle and I will fight until I am dead or I have won. I created you, Storm, to help us, and you, Catherine, were created by a sympathizer to our cause. We need you both to do jobs for us that are too time consuming and menial for us to accomplish."

"Who's we?" I questioned.

"Us," came the answer. The girl in the chair answered, but so did the boy behind her and two others who materialized on either side of the boy- a girl identical to the one in the chair and a plain-looking Asian boy. "The Five," the girl in the chair continued.

"I only see four," I challenged.

"One of us prefers to remain hidden to outsiders," she explained. The other three behind her disappeared.

I continued, "Who else is under your control in our world? You said there were other people on your world writing. So who are they?"

"Your story is one being broadcast across the internet. As far as I know, the other superhero children near you were created for no other purpose than entertainment of their authors. That is not why you are here. I didn't create you to have fun. Everything we have put the both of you through is designed to protect you from the dangers of this job. Like it or not, no matter how idiotic this sounds, you need to accept this job I am giving you. The fates of too many worlds depends on me and, by association, you."

"You make it sound like I have a choice," I ventured cautiously.

"You both have a choice that will decide both of your futures. Stay here and work for me, or go home with your memories of us erased. You'll forget about us, but we will be forced to destroy your world and wipe the minds of everyone who knows of it."

Catherine broke in. "I know what I'm going to do. The choice is obvious, isn't it? Protect my family. We're joining you."

"Catherine-" I began.

"No, Storm, this isn't up for discussion. Do you know, most authors just create for no other reason than entertainment or money? Well, I have a purpose and I'm filling that purpose. I am not going to argue this with you. You are going to accept."

"Or-"

"No ors. You are accepting."

Has anyone ever told Catherine she would make a good Jedi? "Fine," I mumbled weakly. Serving this... thing... couldn't be all bad, could it?

"May I please see your communication orb?" the girl asked. Wordlessley, I pulled it out of my pocket and handed it to her. She pulled a similar but larger one out of empty air and held them close to each other. Something seemed to pass between them and then she tossed mine back to me. "There. They're linked, now. We can now both access the people the other one has given orbs to. They'll be linked by the same network. The others who own orbs can now call both you and me. It works the same way as before. If you want to call anyone, just say their name into the orb and they'll appear in yours. You know how it works."

"Who do you have linked to yours?" I asked, eyeing her larger orb warily. I was a little annoyed that she was the one who had created the orb idea. I thought I had been very clever when I had asked a Harry Potter wizard to create orbs that would allow me to call anyone with like orbs but they would only be able to call me. Come to think of it, she was probably the wizard or at least it was one of her servants. Stupid me. Falling into such a trap.

"I made a list. You might want to familiarize yourself with some of the people on there," she explained before handing me several typed pages of paper that I am sure did not exist a few moments before. I scanned the first page quickly, with Catherine craning over my shoulder to look, until I noticed a name that made me stop.

"Murtaugh!" I spluttered. "You-you know him??!" 

"Of course I do," she said reproachfully. "He's been watching you for me."

Murtaugh was spying on me? For all this time? And I had trusted him! Gritting my teeth with anger, I was dimly aware of the girl giving Catherine an orb like mine so she could contact others. I hated this person, this thing, that messed with my life. And I was going to be serving it. Why? For no other reason than it threatened to kill my entire world.

"I'm done seeing you today," it said imperiously. "If you need me, be sure to calll! Oh, and by the way, you won't be able to tell any one else in your world about me. You're under a spell not to, you know. Geez, now I feel like the Witch of the Waste."

We were being bundled out the door by some unseen force but Catherine managed to call back, "How can we call you? We don't know your name!"

The girl in the chair looked thoughtful but the identical looking girl materialized next to her and said, "Just give them the name of the body."

The girl in the chair smiled and called out to us, "You can call me Sakura."