"Do we need to go over the rules again?" I asked, readjusting the straps on my short blue dress and tugged on the blue bell sleeves before grabbing a pair of boots to put on over my knee high socks.

"No." Koda said, laying down by the edge of my bed. "No talking to your dad and make sure he feels comfortable in case something bad inevitably happens tonight."

"Don’t say stuff like that!" I said quickly.

"Why? This is basically-"

"Don’t say stuff like that! We’re gonna all make it back alive."

Dad nervously knocked on the door, slowly opening it. "Erika’s here."

"Okay. Thanks." I said, grabbing a small bag and stuffing my phone inside the bag.

"Were you talking with someone in here?"

"Just to myself."

"Really? I could have sworn that I heard someone else’s voice."

"Nope. Just me." I said quickly. "We're doing this thing in English where we have to do impressions of someone in the opposite gender and I've been working on my John Mulaney impression."

"Really? Can I hear it?"

Doing my best to remember how he sounded and one of his comedy bits, I took a deep breath. "I'm starting yo blackout and I guess someone said like, 'something something police'. And in a brilliant moment of word association, I yelled 'FUCK DA POLICE!'. And everyone else joined in. A hundred drunk, white children yelling 'Fuck da police'."

Dad nodded, a bit concerned. "You really need to work on it. You got the cadence, but not the voice."

I gave Dad a thumbs up. "Got it."

"Okay." Dad said uneasily. As I walked past him, Dad paused. "Anneliese?"

"Yeah Dad?"

"Promise me you’ll be careful?"

"I promise." I said, walking forward and hugging Dad tightly as he smoothed down my hair as an attempt to protect me and calm me down like he did when I was little.

"Okay." Dad said, letting me go and smiling at me sadly. "Go have fun, okay Annie?"

"Okay." I said, my smile dropping as I walked out of the house and to Erika and her mom’s van. I wasn’t going there to have fun, and I think that Dad somehow knew that fact. He was concerned about me, I knew that, but I tried to push Dad out of my mind as I got into the passenger side of the car.

"Thanks for coming with me Anna." Erika said happily. She was wearing a pair of black jeans and a green sweatshirt, her hair pulled back into a simple braid. "I was kinda nervous about showing up by myself."

"I was nervous about letting you go by yourself." I said honestly as Erika pulled out of my driveway and started driving. I took a deep breath. "Are you sure that this is a good idea, Erika?"

"Why wouldn’t it be?"

"Well, I went to a couple parties back home, and there were people making babies, drinking alcohol, and other stuff like that all over the place. Just saying, it’s not too late to go to see a movie."

"I’ll be fine. I got everything I need to go to that party." Erika said, patting her sweatshirt pocket.

I heard some rattling in her pockets, knowing immediately what was inside. I sighed heavily, shaking my head. "Erika, no!"

"Calm down, it’s only for self defense."

"What are you gonna do, throw a bunch of daisy seeds at a person and let them grow into their eye sockets?"

"No. I didn’t even bring daisy seeds. I have watermelon seeds and cantaloupe seeds with me just in case."

"Erika, you can’t just use your powers out in public. If anyone sees you, you’re gonna get arrested and get the power inhibitor collar on you."

Erika didn't seem to least bit scared, probably because her parents had taught her about the collars they put on common thieves who used their powers incorrectly. "Not if they don’t see me do it."

"Erika, I swear to God-"

"I’ll be careful."

I sighed heavily, shaking my head. "Erika, my dad made me promise this and I am gonna make you promise this too. You are going to promise me that you are going to be careful."

"Anna-"

"Promise me, Erika."

"Okay, okay, I promise."

"Good." I said as Erika pulled up to the party site, lights shooting up. It was an old church that the final battle between the SNL and the Revengers took place all those years ago. The church was just ruins now and this was the most life the now black and charred stone had seen in years. I felt my heart rate increase as Erika and I walked towards the entrance. As soon as we were inside, I felt my anxiety increase even more, my heart pounding out of my chest.

"Are you good?" Erika yelled over the loud stereotypical pop music that was blasting on the speakers. "You look nervous."

"I’m good." I yelled back.

"I’m gonna go get a water. You want anything?"

"Nope."

"I’ll be back!" Erika yelled as she walked away. While Erika was gone, I kept looking around the party for someone wearing a red hoodie. Maybe if I found the person who was going to shoot her, then I could stop them before they did the deed.

Except for the fact that there was one problem. There were at least twenty people here that were wearing a red hoodie, at least as far as I could tell from the sea of people standing in front of me.

Which really didn’t help me any because, once again, I couldn’t see the face of the person who was going to shoot Erika. Why would life even try to make this easy for me?

"Anna, is that you?" Zelena asked as she walked up to me. She was wearing a black long sleeved shirt, black jeans, and a pair of black boots. She didn’t have any red hoodie on her. She seemed genuinely surprised to see me. "Didn’t think I’d see you here."

"I’m only here to protect Erika." I said, digging into my bag to grab my phone and see if Edward had texted me that he was here.

"Protect her?" Zelena asked, laughing a bit. "Protect her from what?"

"Well, right now, you." I said, walking up to Zelena and glaring at her. "If you do anything, and I mean anything, to hurt her, it’s gonna be your head on a platter, Zelena."

"Oh you’re actually trying to threaten me?" Zelena asked, growing somewhat amused. "How cute. Newsflash though, Anneliese, you don’t intimidate anyone. I’ll see you later."

Zelena walked away, causing me to get even more angry with her. Erika walked back over to me, water bottle in hand. "Was that Zacharias you were talking to?"

"Yes, it was."

"What were you two talking about?"

"Nothing you need to be worried about." I said as the song changed on the speakers to yet another stereotypical pop song.

Erika gave a concerned look. "Anna-"

"Seriously. It’s nothing for you to be worried about. I just questioned her about her intentions tonight."

Erika sighed exhaustedly. "Anneliese-"

"I’m sorry that I’m trying to protect you, okay?"

"You don’t need to protect me, Anna. I can do that myself." Erika attempted to remind me, patting her sweatshirt pocket.

I had to force myself to not roll my eyes. I knew exactly how her attempt to protect herself goes. "I know, but I just want to make sure, okay? I’m worried that this isn’t going to end the way you want it to."

"This is going to end just fine." Erika said, putting a hand on my shoulder. "Tonight, we are both going to be back in our beds, safe and sound. Nothing here is going to hurt us."

That’s what she thinks. Sighing because I didn’t want Erika to freak out, I put on my best smile. "You’re right. What’s the worst that can happen?"

"Exactly!" Erika said happily, nudging towards the dance floor. "I’m gonna go dance. You wanna join me?"

"Yeah. In a minute." I said nervously. It was already 8:14 and Edward was supposed to be here when the party started at 7:30. Where was he?

"Okay, and don’t worry, I’ll stay in your eyesight as much as I can." Erika said jokingly as she weaved her way over to the dance floor.

I stood my ground, scanning the crowd to attempt to look for Edward. Finally, a couple minutes later, Edward came running up to me wearing a black jacket, blue T-shirt that looked kinda tight on his body, black jeans, and blue tennis shoes. The butterflies quickly returned as soon as he was in my line of sight. When he came walking up to me, I spread out my arms as a question. "What took you so long?"

"Anna, is that you?" Becky asked as she walked up to us wearing a black sweater and yellow jeans.

"That." Edward said simply.

"Can you believe he tried to wear a suit and tie to a party?" Becky asked, laughing a bit. "Seriously, what kind of parties have you been to back in England?"

"What are you doing here?" I asked, giving Edward some side eye. Did he think that this was a date, or am I thinking too deeply into this?

"He needed a ride, so he texted me about it Thursday night. A lot of the people in cheer are also here too, so I’ll probably just hang with them for a while." Becky explained as she walked away, waving at us. "Have fun you two! Don’t do anything I wouldn’t!"

As soon as Becky was gone, I looked over at Edward. "Why did you ask Becky for a ride?"

"Because Uncle Frederick told me that I could only go with someone he knew, and the only two people he’s actually met are you and Becky." Edward quickly explained. "Since you were gonna come here with Erika, I figured that Becky was the next believable option."

"Did you-"

"No, I didn’t tell her about Erika."

"Then what-"

"You don’t want to know."

Sighing heavily, I shook my head. "Fine. At least you’re here. I was starting to get worried."

"Oh, you were worried about me?"

"Edward, I swear to God."

"Okay, okay." Edward said, putting his hands up in self defense. "So what’s the plan?"

"Well, I tried looking for the person who’s gonna shoot Erika..."

"And how did that go?"

"I found twentyish suspects."

"You mean you can’t limit it down from there?"

"It’s not like I saw the guy’s face, Edward, just like I didn’t see the guy who will eventually stab you in the back."

Edward shook his head, his eyes widening. "What?"

"That’s how you die. You get stabbed in the back."

Edward bitterly laughed to himself. "Seems like a metaphor for my life at this point."

I gave Edward a confused look. "What do you-"

"Don’t ask."

"Fine."

"So what’s the new plan?"

"Stay close to Erika and hopefully pull her out before the chaos explodes all over this place."

"And what if you can’t do that?"

"Then there’s always Plan D."

"Wait, what happened to Plan C?"

"Plan C is pulling Erika out before all of the chaos." I explained. "You weren’t there for Plan A, which was attempting to convince Erika to ditch the party and go see a movie."

"Do I want to know what Plan D is?"

"Hopefully, we won’t have to get to Plan D."

Edward sighed exhaustedly, shaking his head. "So where is Erika currently?"

"Dance floor." I said, pointing out Erika’s green sweatshirt.

"So what are we gonna do?"

"Get close to Erika on the dance floor so that we can easily pull her out of there when the chaos inevitably happens."

"You mean we’re going to dance?"

"Yeah. You got a problem with that?"

"Well, no, but-"

"But what?"

"If you’d let me finish my sentence, I’d tell you."

"My bad. Please continue."

"All the dancing I know is ballroom dancing and something tells me that this isn’t the type of party I’m used to."

I raised an eyebrow. Becky was right: what kind of parties is Edward used to going to? Laughing a bit, I grabbed Edward’s hand and dragged him onto the dance floor.

"What are we doing?" Edward asked, his voice going up a register and his face was turning red. He was flustered. The sight of his quickly growing dark red face almost made me laugh.

"We’re gonna dance. What do you think we’re gonna do?"

"But I don-"

"It’s easy!" I said, laughing as Edward stopped walking, landing us a couple people away from Erika. I motioned to the people behind us. "You see what these people are doing?"

"They’re jumping and pumping their fists in the air.."

"Exactly."

"So I just have to jump and wave my hands around like a maniac?"

"Pretty much." I said, crossing my arms. "Do you know how to do that, or am I gonna have to teach you how to do that too?"

Edward rolled his eyes exhaustedly. "No, you don’t need to teach me how to do that too. I think I can handle the arm waving and the jumping, Anneliese. I’m not that thick headed."

"Then show me."

"I will."

Edward and I probably danced for a good hour, watching Erika out of the corner of our eyes until a hooded figure walked on stage in front of us. The figure was wearing a long trench coat that looked like some trash bags sewn together was covering his entire body and a black hood covered with neon green toxicity symbols was covering his face.

Edward elbowed my arm. "You do know who that is, right?"

"No… Why? Do you?"

"It’s Sewage."

"But I thought-"

"He’s not in hiding anymore, apparently."

"My children!" Sewage said as the music quieted down. Everyone went dead silent as he continued talking. "You have been suppressed for too long. Those heroes think that they are protecting you by saying you can’t go into service until you’ve graduated college. They’re wrong. I say that you can serve now if you want too! You all know about the world! They shouldn’t be trying to protect you forever!"

"Yeah, but those rules exist for a reason." I whispered to Edward. "I’m not saying that they’re right, but based on old TV shows and comic books, more people would get in danger if that law didn’t exist."

"I have to agree with you." Edward whispered back. "England may be more lax on their hero laws, but we also have more kids and teenagers dying because they aren’t as prepared to fight people with their powers as Americans are. Your rule might be a bit silly, but it exists for a reason."

"And to accomplish this, I have raised a team of teenagers, just like you and me, to attack the SNL where it hurts most to prove to them that your generation is ready. I call them F.E.R.R.E.T., or Freedom Everyone’s Right Realizing Especially Teens. We’re still kinda working on the name."

"What is it with everyone deciding to name their teams after random animals?" Edward whispered to me, causing me to giggle.

"Lava Rock and Super Stretch may think that what they’re doing, by keeping the danger away from you guys is helping you, but I say that it makes things worse! How will you learn to defend yourselves if you don’t start now?" The crowd cheered in agreement. "And I think, that to drive that point home, we need to hurt those two where it’ll hurt most."

Instantly knowing where it was going, I tugged on Edward’s arm. "We need to get her out of here."

"Yeah." Edward agreed, his face growing paler than normal as we started weaving our way to Erika.

"See, about seventeen years ago, Super Stretch and Lava Rock saved a small baby whose parents threw it into the river to try and get rid of it."

"Erika, we need to get out of here." I said in a panicked voice.

"What do you mean?" Erika said, growing confused.

"And that girl they saved is here tonight." Sewage continued.

"Erika, have I ever steered you wrong?"

"No, but-"

"I need you to trust me, okay? We need to leave. Now!"

"And the two heroes care about that girl so much. I think, to get the message through, we need something to happen to her."

"Okay." Erika said, starting to panic.

"Come on, let’s go!" Edward yelled as the three of us took off running.

"Something like their daughter dying to send a message." Sewage said, pulling a gun out of his garbage bag trench coat, holding it up in the air and firing it off.

The deathly silence turned into a deafening roar as everyone started screaming and running around the destroyed church in a panic, making it hard for us to get out.

Eventually, Edward and I made it out of the church, panting near where the various cars were parked. Edward’s eyes widened. "Where’s Erika?"

I looked around frantically. I gave Edward an exhausted look after my frantic search. "I thought she was behind you!"

"Well, clearly she wasn’t."

"She must’ve gotten lost in that sea of people back inside." I said, looking back towards the church and starting to run back inside.

Edward grabbed my arm. "Anna, what are you doing?"

"I have to save her!"

"Maybe she was just destined to die today."

I shook my head, trying my best to yank my arm out of Edward’s grasp. "I don’t believe that. Until that bullet goes through her head she can still be saved. I have to save her-"

"Why are you so desperate-"

"BECAUSE I MIGHT NOT BE ABLE TO SAVE MY DAD IN THE FUTURE, EDWARD!" I yelled, finally yanking my arm away from Edward as he staggered back, Becky running towards us. Tears were starting to run down my face. "HAVEN’T YOU EVER WANTED TO SAVE SOMEONE AT LEAST ONCE? I MIGHT BE THE CAUSE OF MY OWN FATHER’S DEATH, SO I AT LEAST WANT TO TRY AND SAVE SOMEONE ELSE I CARE ABOUT BEFORE THEN! IS THAT SO HARD TO ASK!"

I didn’t even wait for Edward to answer as I took off back towards the church, running right past Becky as I went in a mad dash around the church, jumping up whenever I could to try and find Erika. I finally found her, standing in the middle of the crowd, a person wearing a red hoodie pointing a pistol at her.

"NO!" I screamed, running towards Erika and jumping in front of her as the person shot off the gun, the bullet flying towards Erika’s head. The world seemed to slow down as my body sailed in front of Erika’s.

Then, my world went black.