Phineas tried to make this birthday as memorable as possible. Sure, Number Five hated birthdays, but that didn't mean that it couldn't be fun. It was an especially difficult time for everyone in the tree house to adjust to, in light of what happened six months ago with the latest mission to take the delightful children's birthday cake.
"So Number One was chosen to be a part of some space branch of the KND?" Marco asked as they set up all the decorations.
"Yep." Isabella nodded.
"The same space branch wants to eradicate adulthood entirely?" Steven asked.
"Apparently on some planets, adulthood is a disease, and parents are a lot more restrictive to an unnecessary degree, at least from what the other scientists were willing to tell us." Number Two answered.
"The same scientist that was a part of said organization?" Kelly asked.
"Look, the whole cruddy thing stinks like prune juice, but this is the kind of thing Number One worked his butt off for since he joined." Number Four grumbled as he kicked one of the stereo systems. "We hate it, but we support him all the same."
"Well if it's what he wants …" Steven relented. "So why do you hate birthdays again?" He asked the birthday girl. "I've got bad luck with age fluctuations, but otherwise it should be fine for you."
"Because I'm closer to becoming a teenager." Number Five grumbled. "Just one more year until I'm thirteen."
"Oh come on." Star waved off. "Just because you grow up, it doesn't mean you'll forget all the memories."
"Actually we will." They turned to Number Two. "Once you're thirteen, all Kids Next Door memories are wiped from your brain."
"..What?" Luz asked as everyone paused in shock and horror.
"It's this whole thing they have to 'keep secrets safe' from their future selves." Phineas said with a bit of resentment. "I don't like it, so it's why me and Ferb never officially joined. When you lose your memories, that is losing a part of yourself that you can't get back."
"But…that's just….so you guys won't remember a thing about what you've done together?" Anne questioned. "All the saving the world, all the hijinks in the tree house…all of that is just gone?"
"We help kids have fun … that's enough to make me happy." Kiki said with a bit of regret, yet there was a lot of conviction in her voice too, one that many often forgot to see. "Besides, I'd like to believe we won't stop being friends. Just because our head's become more empty doesn't mean how we feel will change."
"Wow, that's deep." Mabel blew into a tissue.
"Then we have a new mission." Steven said, looking serious. "Make this party so amazing that even mind wiping won't get rid of it! Who's with me!?"
"Heck yeah!" Star cheered in the air, using her magic to make it rain rainbow munchies and sugar all over the place. "And believe me when I say guys growing up is not a surefire guarantee you'll grow up all boring and dull. I'm sixteen now, and I still enjoy eating cake for breakfast while watching cartoons."
"And then there's the rebellious phase that all teenagers go through." Kelly smirked as she punched open a pinata. "Where you don't listen to anybody and do whatever you want, consequences be damned."
"My sister is in her rebellious phase." Number Five pointed out.
"Forget your sister, have some fun!" Star shouted. "Infinite candy rainstorm!" She shot at the air, pieces of candy falling from the sky. "Family is who you choose!"
"Ain't that the truth?" Steven laughed as he created a bubble with a lot of hexagonal shapes, throwing it in the air to make it function as a sort of disco ball.
"Well as long as there's plenty of sugar…" Kiki smiled as she grabbed number four by the hand. "Come on Wally, dance with me!"
"I don't do cruddy da-" He was stopped with the piles of sugar that were being stuffed into his mouth.
"Some things have changed while some haven't at all." Phineas looked on at the sight. His friends were having a great time like he always liked, but not everyone was here to enjoy it.
"Don't be too disappointed, Phineas." Isabella comforted him from behind. "Number One would be here if he could, and I'm sure he knows we're still able to have fun."
"Yeah, I guess." He sighed. "Not everything is endless. Summer ends eventually, and so does childhood."
"And when it does, brother, we'll make sure to have the best time of our lives as teenagers, and as adults too." Ferb patted his shoulder.
"Yeah …" He smiled. "So let's make our time a blast."
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Ladybug screamed in frustration inside of the pillow Star gave her. "The last Hawk Moth was so … SO much easier!" She shouted. "Even when he was Monarch with all the miraculous, even when he was the father of Adrien agreste!"
"Tell me about it!" She saw Chat bang his head against the wall. "This. Sucks. So. Hard!"
"Easy, now, guys, take slow breaths." Steven tried to ease them while she and her partner were doing their best not to spend the entire night screaming at the parisian sky. "What makes this hawkmoth so difficult?"
"The lack of a moral compass." Her partner answered almost immediately. "I can never, ever agree to how the old one operated, but Gabriel Agreste at least had the excuse of being motivated by grief."
"But different motives, same operating standard, right?" Marco asked.
"No … because you can genuinely tell nothing is off limits." Marinette answered. "Mental Wards, Prisons, she's going after people with genuine homicidal tendencies and warped senses of reality."
"There was one time she ordered someone to put a gun to their own head, and threatened to pull the trigger if we didn't hand over our Miraculous." Chat said with malice in his voice.
"She?" Kelly asked.
"That's literally the only thing we know about this new one. When Hawkmoth communicates with the akumas, that's what they refer to her as." Ladybug answered as she gripped her teeth. "Other than that, this one's learned from the last one. She's not as loud or egomaniacal as Garbrial Agreste. A lot of her Akuma's are on the subtle and sneakier side." There was the one that looked like an average construction worker that needed to be rescued from broken equipment, the kid with a broken bicycle, each one made to drop her guard and catch her by surprise.
"Although to her credit, she's less persistent." Her partner sighed. "I remember that one week Garbiel just created Akuma in rows one after the other, and we never got the chance to sleep."
"And the way she talks….she digs in deep." Ladybug groaned. "She doesn't just make vague promises of power, she talks to her victims on a more personal level. Quite a few people actually end up TRYING to get akumatized whenever they see a black butterfly appear." It was like the city was being filled with Lila's.
"Not to mention the Peacock miraculous still occasionally makes an appearance here and there with a Sentimonster." Chat noted, holding onto the wall so hard it cracked. "We know who the user is … but they're a bit hard to find at the moment."
"Wait, what's the peacock one do?" Steven asked. "I don't think we've actually seen that one in action."
"Makes an unstoppable monster out of the target's emotions to do what they say." Marinette answered. "Same rule of target the object."
"So Paris is facing off against a new, potentially sociopathic, supervillain that likes to dig her claws deep into people to get what she wants." Star summarized the situation as she looked at the group. "Exactly how many on team Miraculous are still active?"
"Unfortunately, not as much as before." Marinette sighed. "We recovered the miraculous box from Agreste, but everyone's identities were made publicly excluding ours. It was cutting it close with just Chole, but this new Hawkmoth is aware we've picked the same people over and over, so it's not even like we can just give them another Miraculous."
"Not to mention Chloe's actually starting to regress with how she thinks we don't believe in her anymore after putting so much faith in her." Chat pointed out. "We were lucky we were able to hold it off, but with Hawkmoth using her negative feelings against her every time there's a chance, she's really close to snapping."
"I can recommend a really good therapist." Steven suggested. "She's doing group sessions, maybe that'll help."
"That'll probably be for the best … but we'll have to do it out of town." Ladybug said. "Hawkmoth infected the last fifteen therapy sessions due to how emotionally vulnerable people are during them."
"Looks like we joined just in time." Star laughed a bit hollowly. "So on average, how often would you say this Hawkmoth springs an attack?"
"Once every three days." Chat answered. "They don't do it constantly, but there's a lot more planning to generate a stronger, smarter, and more dangerous Akuma."
"Well if the villain's playing smarter, then so should we." Marco gripped his own hands. "You're not out of allies, and we don't have any Miraculous to steal from. We can start a patrol schedule for one of us to help you guys with Akuma attacks, and constantly switch it up so Hawkmoth doesn't get wise on who's around you, or how many will come on a certain day."
"Yeah … yeah." She smiled. "I'll work out charts and schedules to-"
"Or you can sleep." Kelly interrupted. "Since, you know, this is five in the morning on a school day."
Star blinked. "Oh my corn school!" Star shouted. "I completely forgot I finally re enrolled! I still have back to school shopping to do!" Star went into Butterfly mode and flew off in the distance.
"She completely forgot I could've just taken us all back on Lion." Steven pointed to his large sleeping pet. "We can work out the patrol thing later this week, right now, we ALL need to get to bed, no exceptions."
"Yeah, alright dad, I'm going to my room." Chat noir joked as the two of them prepared to leave. "Nighty, night, Bugaboo."
"Oh Chat. I'm seeing someone now." She teased back. "May want to stop with the pet names before he hears you."
"I'm seeing someone too, just thought I get one in one last time." Chat Noir snickered.
Ladybug blinked in confusion. She never expected Chat to actually move on, especially with how persistent he's been … it was nice. "Good for you, Chaton."
"Hope you lucky guy knows just how great he has it, M'lady." With Adrien finally being her boyfriend, it was more like the other way around.
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Star jumped through the window, panting heavily as she turned to her old teacher, Ms Skudnick. "Did … did I make it on time?" She asked.
"Five seconds to the start of class. Nice to see you early for once." Score!
"Whoa hoo!" Star cheered as everyone else started to rush into the room, the familiar face of Jana sitting right in front of her.
"Star, did you hit your head?" The girl asked with concern, placing a hand on her head. "You act like you want to be here."
"I do." She admitted, and that made all her classmates gasp in shock. "Oh come on, I wasn't that bad before!"
"It's not that…okay it totally is." Justin said. "Your the cool rebel girl that destroys half the cafeteria on an off day."
"Yeah, and according to Steven, you nearly broke space time because of a math problem." Sadie pointed out.
"Oh come on, Steven destroys space time just as much as I do, and no one blames him for it."
"Uh, Omnitrackis, remember?" Jana said. "The void of space that got so pissed off at him that he teamed up with a genocidal maniac?"
"And now he's dead." She answered simply. "Besides, I realized that I gotta go back to school if I'm going to become a teacher." That got even more gasps out of everyone. "Okay, if someone gasps one more time, I AM going to blast someone through a wall."
"So you finally figured out what you want to do for the future, nice." Jackie smirked, sitting on the desk behind her. "Figured with how your brother talked it up, he'd be here too."
"Oh, he wanted to, but he's busy dismantling Homeworld's empire right now." Star explained. "Plus, a lot of species are still skeptical about Gems 'acting nice' and think it's a trap."
"Well they've only been evil since the beginning of forever, so that's to be expected." Jana shrugged.
"Alright class, today we'll be learning about Roman history." Ms Skudnick said as she pulled out a mace. "All wrong answers get one wack on the head." She's rarely seen the woman smile so much before.
"Nice to see her embrace the troll side of herself." Star smirked as she pulled out her textbook. After everything that happened, it was nice to finally sit down and do something like a normal earth tee-
Kaboom
Everyone turned to her yet again as the door of the room was blown off. "I didn't cause the explosion!"
"Sorry, that was me!" The class looked to the now charred covered door and saw Luz scrambling to get up. "Some jerk tried to take my backpack, reached his hand into a bag full of glyphs, and heh.."
"You're late." The teacher stated blankly. "Write 'I won't be tardy again' fifteen times on the board with the blood chalk."
"..Am I still on earth or did I end up on the boiling isles without knowing?" Luz looked at her.
"Nah, that's just how Ms. Skudnick is now apparently." Star shrugged. "So we get to be classmates now, that's going to be interesting."
"Yep, the third high school I've been to as well." Luz smiled. "Still not as cool as Hexside."
"Don't worry, the school we're going to build in Nexus City is going to top all of them." Star waved off with a smirk. "Heck, you could probably have your own class teaching all your glyph stuff."
"And here mom thought glyphs wouldn't be practical on earth outside of a fight setting." Luz met her hand with a high five. "This is going to rock!"
"While I'm glad I'm hearing your more concrete future Star …" The teacher split her desk in half. "No talking in class!" Not exactly the normal school setting she was hoping to jump back into, but it was close enough.
========================================================================
Ben heard knocking on the bedroom door once more. "Go away Gwen." He responded automatically.
"No, it's the rest of us." Came the voice of Steven's girlfriend, Kelly. "And we will use force if you don't unlock the door."
"It's true. We got ninja swords, lasers, magic, and sheer super strength, and that barely covers half of it." Dipper called out next. "Come on Ben, we're all worried about you."
Ben sighed, trudging up as he walked to the door, opening it up to the sight of everyone. "Hey." He responded without any tone in his voice.
"Hey yourself." Marco responded. "Your eye's back to normal."
"Yep … because Malware ripped out both me and Feedback's DNA at the same time … so i'm a little less me then before." He sulked.
"Did he suck away all your enthusiasm for life too?" KO asked. "Because we haven't seen you in weeks."
"I'm not feeling it." Ben responded. "It's … processing."
"Ben, we know that what you went through is difficult." Chat Noir spoke. "You went up against a villain and they put you in a corner, and you felt more vulnerable and powerless than before."
"Yeah…that's what happened." He mumbled as he kept his head down. "Just me being a dumb reckless kid that can't take anything he does seriously until it's too late."
"Look, Ben." Steven spoke up. "You are NOT the first one here to make a terrible mistake. In fact, you're one of the few people that haven't put millions of lives in danger because of a mistake."
"Sometimes when you're giving your all, even when you put everything on the line for it, it doesn't pan out." Star continued. "Sometimes you fail spectacularly, but what's important is that you keep going."
"How can I?" Ben felt himself growl. "Feedback was more than just another one of my transformations…he literally became apart of me, he more than any of them saved my life, and because I was too stupid and stubborn to listen to my family and Azmuth, I got him killed."
"I kept going after I lost my sword." Finn said. "I essentially killed a clone of myself."
"And I kept going after I lost my life." Anne went on.
"I kept going even when I found out I helped Belos fulfill his plan for the draining spell." Luz continued.
"My sisters and I kept going even when the sister we created exploded." Blossom whipped away her tears.
"I kept going when my own biases led Shadowmoth to steal the other miraculous's." Ladybug sighed.
"I kept going even when TKO turned everyone I loved into dust." KO sighed.
"I kept going even though I nearly caused the genocide of magic." Star amended.
"And I kept going even when I unleashed Bill onto the physical world." Mabel said resolutely.
"… You know, losing a part of myself doesn't sound nearly as bad as every other hero's mistakes." Ben pondered aloud.
"Just give it a few years, you'll make enough mistakes to catch up." Marco patted his head.
"You think we're all here because we're perfect?" Steven let out a light laugh. "No, we're not. We're all flawed. I failed, time and time again to bring peace between species, and I failed a lot. But you know what?" Steven placed a hand on his shoulder. "Every time I failed, I learned a little. And every time, I changed, and became better at it."
"The mark of a great hero isn't by how flawless he is." The Ninja walked up to him. "It's by how he's able to stand in spite of all his flaws."
"So do what we all do when a bad guy kicks us down." Chat Noir smiled. "Kick back."
"Already did that. Kinda killed him." Ben reminded them.
"... Again, we really need to talk about the ethics of bringing children into life and death battles." Marco stated.
"Dude, it's moot by this point." Kelly rolled her eyes. "By now, this is the life we've chosen,and let's not forget you were the safe kid that wanted danger in his life."
"I know, but I have a baby sister and I keep saying I want to retire to not drag her into this but stuff keeps dragging me back in and it's this whole cycle thing, you know?"
"You should get a therapist." Steven snorted.
"Hah, hah." Marco groaned.
In Spite of all of this, Ben couldn't help but smile. "Thanks guys." He looked at his Omnitrix contemplatively for a minute. "I was thinking of removing this thing…but if you guys can keep moving on, then maybe I can keep this hero gig going for a little while longer."
"Good." Steven sighed. "Because I need another space guy on occasion, and Lars is more of the pirate variety, and Wander and Sylvia are more nomad based." That was a fair complaint.
========================================================================
Huntress Wizard looked at the machine in front of her. "What is this?" She's never seen any of these inside of the forest.
"An Arcade machine." Finn explained to her as they walked around the boardwalk. He had taken her to a vast new realm and everything looked so foreign to him.
"And what's that?" She pointed to something else.
"Those are the bumper cars."
"And that?" She pointed again.
"A ferris wheel." He said. "It's where couples can watch the world from." Interesting.
"And that?" She pointed to what she assumed was a tiny goblin nome staring into her soul, waiting for the moment her spirit was to flee from the mortal realm.
"Oh, that's Onion. No one's sure of what he is." It looked at the two of them before handing Finn a small metal piece with spirals. "A screw … thanks dude?" He asked with confusion.
"SOMEONE TOOK THE SCREW OFF THE ROLLER COASTER!" A voice shouted.
"Okay, I'm going to just forget I ever saw this." Finn whistled as he chucked the tiny piece of metal away. "So yeah, welcome to earth, basically a version of Ooo that's just as bonkers but just a little less blown up." It would be more decent if she saw the wildlife, but that could be saved for later.
"So, we're going to meet other people on … multiple dates … simultaneously?" She asked. Huntress was still trying to get the concept of dating down, much less multiple ones. "Is it a challenge of sorts?" Something much more relatable.
"Something to that degree. Mabel said it's for multiple couples to exchange embarrassing stories with one another, but Marco said it's more along the lines of meeting up together because something crazy usually happens when they just do regular single dates, so they'll probably be a demon or two we'll have to fight later tonight."
"Finally, something simple."
"Hey Finn!" They watched as a round boy with a pink jacket came with a girl with compact muscles and bushy hair, clearly the alpha in the relationship. "Glad you can make it."
"Figured I'd give this a go since this is my first." Finn shrugged as the two approached. "Huntress Wizard, this is Steven and Kelly. Guys, this is Huntress Wizard."
"Greetings." She politely bowed. "I am Finn's date so to speak, though I shall note in a more grandiose perspective, we're more akin to two exceptional beasts who's paths are destined to constantly cross, but often drift in different directions."
"So you two just keep it casual." The alpha Kelly observed astutely.
"You know my last few attempts at being serious." Finn deadpanned.
"Oh yeah … the age gap and the fiery betrayal …" She heard about Flame Princess, what was this about an age gap? "Well don't worry, around this group, we're literally the last people in existence to be judging."
"Yeah, me and Kelly first got together because we got stuck in a dimension where time moved faster everywhere else, separated from everyone else and the need for comfort overwhelmed us." Ah, time dilation. Such a tricky puzzle to navigate.
"Then it was a whole addiction to fusion, and the two times we broke up…." Fusion? "But when you're constantly saving all life everywhere, you realize, 'hey, I want this guy to be by my side all the time'."
"So you two have also consummated your love." Huntress Wizard assumed. "A bold to make such a personal and intimate commitment at such a young age, but if you're truly confident and committed, then I see no shame in…"
"What, no!" Steven shouted with a red face. "I can fuse, it's a power of mine."
"Oh … so you were already even more intimate." She observed. "Melding two souls on every level emotionally, physically, spiritually, and mentally. Very few can claim to do so at such a young age. You are quite brave to let yourselves become so vulnerable to each other in such a fashion." There were too many planes of existence she needed to ascend from before she could begin to do just as much.
"How about we go do something else?" Kelly asked with a face redder than a tomato. "Like a roller coaster?" Said metallic object crashed next to them, people still screaming even when stationary.
"I think everyone else is waiting for us by the bumper cars, let's not keep them waiting." Steven grabbed his alpha's hand and led them while trying to obscure his face from view. "If we're lucky, we'll be able to get one ride in before the chaos unfolds…more than usually that is."
"Hey bro!" A blonde girl waved to them as she held hands with a red hooded wearing boy who's aura emanated a soul that was aged far greater than the mortal vessel he wore. "So good news, we haven't blown anything up!"
"Why am I sensing there's a but coming?" Kelly raised an eyebrow.
"Because Dendy souped up her and KO's car and it's now currently on fire chasing Luz and Amity's car." The red hooded boy pointed to said ride.
"I thought the human world was supposed to be safer than this!" A purple haired girl yelled as she and another were racing around the ride in a circle, a trail of electricity and fire being left behind in its wake.
Steven sighed. "Please tell me Jana and Tom are not … oh who am I kidding? Of course they're causing chaos."
A building with the words 'house of horrors' let out screams of the damned as skeletons rushed out. "And you said this wouldn't be a normal date." She chided Finn.
"I didn't know Earth was as crazy fun as Ooo." The boy shrugged as he kicked a skeleton's skull off.
"That's stretching the definition of fun by a lot, but this does happen quite a bit." The blonde shot a rainbow fist and knocked off one of the heads. "Is there anyone here that's actually managed to have a normal date?"
"I think Dipper's date with that rich girl is going off pretty smoothly-" The hooded boy mentioned before the depths of the underworld opened. "Nevermind, he just raised the dead again."
"... How are we so bad with the undead?" Steven asked as he formed a shield. "Like, every other week."
"Hey, at least you don't have to cover yourself in a zombie cure and let yourself be bitten several hundred times to spread it." Finn shuddered as he stomped a zombie head into dust. "The bite marks are all over my back."
"... How am I the kid that snapped first?" The pink boy asked his sister.
"I think it might be a sign that we've either processed the trauma better, or repressed it more than you…either way, it'll be a miracle if we're not complete trainwrecks by the time we're twenty."
========================================================================
Steven was losing it. The stress was WAY too much at this point, he was losing it. He tried to deal with stress but the Diamonds always managed to exhaust him to no end, and if he didn't have a moment of quiet, he was going to shatter something.
Dr. Wong was insistent on him having at least one day where he did 'get away from it all', although that couldn't really work for him when everything he was trying to get away from was constantly trying to come to him.
Date night ended with him trying to prevent a zombie apocalypse. Helping build Nexus city constantly got interrupted with Bluebird pulling mildly annoying pranks on him after her frankly pitiful attempts at assination, and baking with mom got interrupted by the candy devouring leprechauns from dimension h that would eat all the world's sweets …. It was sad he could think that was a normal problem.
The only thing that gave him any sort of reprieve during the week was dinner, where he was able to just talk to his entire family. The Butterflys, Gems, Diaz's, and Universe-Noceda's, all gathered together as one happy unit. Meteora and Mariposa would end up playing with Steven jr and an abomination Luz borrowed from Amity, Amethyst and Vee practiced shapeshifting tricks, Garnet would share honeymoon stories with the parents, and he got to talk with both his old and new sister about their plans for the future.
It would've been a good cap off for the week…except the Diamond's called, and he has to spend an extra five hours being smothered by Blue's affection while being forced to listen to whatever plans Yellow had, and the worst part of it was that he couldn't complain, least he upset them and put them back on the genocidal empire path.
But on the plus side, being alone finally gave him time to up the game on his astral form, floating around in the air. "I never really worked on this, dream jumping is one thing, but this way is less … trippy." He didn't have to view their subconscious desires, for starters.
In this form, it was just…him. Just him being allowed to fly freely, not just floating. Nothing from the outside world trying to reach him, every single pressure lifted off of his body, no fate of entire civilizations to place on his shoulders. He felt himself glow pink, but not from stress…it felt warm, and soothing, and relaxing.
Maybe this was why Star flew around all the time in her Butterfly, being free without care. He should probably look into it some more, the absolute freedom of floating without anything interrupting, just your own peace and quiet- "Hey there!"
Steven 'jumped' at the voice, turning to an orange girl looking at him with a smile. "Um … hey?" He responded hesitantly.
"I'm Molly Mcgee, nice to meet you." She shook his hand. "I didn't know ghosts flew up so high." She looked over form. "Also never met another ghost that was so naturally happy without being miserable."
"Oh ah, thanks?" He scratched his head. "I'm Steven Universe." Easier to give the simplest version rather than the whole mouthful all at once. "Although I'm not actually a ghost. I just sort of…jump out of my body from time to time." He laughed nervously. "It's one of my lesser used powers that I'm trying to get used to.."
"Oh, so you're a wraith, just like me!" The girl shook his hand eagerly in an excited tone that reminded him a lot of Star, Luz, Mabel…wow, he knew a lot of excitable and extroverted girls. "I leave my body from time to time too, though that's because I physically tried to jump into a portal to the ghost world."
"Oh, we haven't met someone with afterlife experience yet." Well he's met all rounders, but never someone so specific. "I take it you deal with crazy stuff all the time?"
"Mostly everyday problems, other than the Chairman of the Ghost Council, who seeked the misery of all living things." She answered. "Oh, but don't worry about him though. I killed him with kindness." Molly waved off.
"Oh, so you reformed him?" It was nice to see another person who believed in others.
"No, he ate misery. I was literally so nice that it made him explode into non-existence." She said as if it was no big deal. "But my best bud Scratch really changed for the better, and the rest of the council is really turning around on accepting happiness." Guess that was better than nothing. "So I take it this is your 'me time' to get away from the perils that is mortal life."
"Oh yeah." He sighed. "Alien aunts stress me out like nobody else."
"That sentence sounds so awesome and so relatable at the same time." Molly laughed. "My family moved a lot, ended up staying with my grandma a couple of times, and let me tell you, it wasn't always easy."
"Oh yeah, I got one of my grandma's from a couple hundred years ago living right next to me after being frozen in crystal."
"Dude, let me into your life, you sound so awesome." She smiled widely. "Like, so cool!"
"I'm in Beach Creek if you ever want to visit." He offered.
"The same city that was quarantined for the unidentified massive pillar of light reaching into space?"
"Huh, so people did notice that." He honestly thought the government would have more of an issue with it, but maybe Anne's connections with Mr. X helped more than he thought. "Yep, very same. The central hub of all things sci-fi and supernatural. We got witches, aliens, dragons, demons, pretty sure ghosts would round things up pretty nicely."
"Nice!" She shouted. "I'll make sure to bring the ghosts!"
"Great, glad to have you on board. And believe me, it's only going to get more weird and wild from here." Not exactly how he imagined spending his free time, but he'd never say no to making a new friend. And to think he was only fifteen. Being sixteen couldn't be that much of a shake up, could it?