*Robin Douglas's POV:

"What do you mean you think it's Mina's house?!" I asked him.

"Why don't you come down to the basement and I will show you what I'm talking about?! You might want to hurry before it goes to commercial" Beval said before he zoomed out of the room.

Me and Shimizu ran out of the room with Gaia jumping out of bed and following along. We ran out the hallway into the living room.

"Danny, Katie, Mina's house is on the news, I think it's on fire" Shimizu yelled out to the both.

They looked at each other, bewildered, but followed us as we ran across the living room to the basement steps. The steps were rickety and creaked with every step we made. Hell, the basement itself was rickety and old-looking.

Kimberly, Mohammed and Noah were standing near a flat screen TV watching the news. When Mohammed heard us coming down, he turned and asked Shimizu a question.

"Dude, is this that girl's house?"

Shimizu, ignoring his question, walked up to the TV and turned up the volume. Everyone remained quiet as they tried to hear what was on the news.

The news showed a clip of a big house from helicopter view. It was in flames. Firefighters were trying to put it out. A crowd of people were watching from a distance and police officers surrounded the property. The clip wasn't on live though, it must've happened the other day. The news suddenly showed a brunette lady with a microphone, standing in front of the ruins.

"At around 2 pm yesterday, there was a huge fire at this house behind me in Sunnyside, San Francisco. The cause of the fire is currently being investigated, but two bodies were discovered in this home; a 16-year-old girl named Mina Talikki and her father, 40-year-old Curtis Talikki. An autopsy report shows that the badly burned bodies both have several bullet wounds to the chest. This results in investigators saying that because of the bullets to the chest, this was a murder and the fire was not accidental. Many neighbors placed flowers near the house, while others are wondering: what evil beings could do this to a such loving father and daughter? Back to you Karen."

"What a saddening event Sarah. In other news, there was a terrible riot in an extermination camp that took place almost ninety minutes from San Francisco. Around one thousand F.E.M.A officers were killed and about sixty were injured. The reason for the revolt is clear: to fight against the public and to escape captivity. To prevent this tragic event from happening again, the F.E.M.A guards in extermination camps are doubled, they are stricter with rules, they carry more weapons, along with K9 dogs with them, and cameras are set all over the camps. Instead of prisoners being there for two weeks before their extermination, now it's only five days. My name is Karen Buckett and this is ABC7 news."

Suddenly, the TV turned off. We looked at Danny, whom was holding the remote control. He was the one that turned it off.

"Shit!" Danny screamed out in anger as he threw the remote on the floor. He began walking back and forth, gripping on to his hair.

We didn't even have to ask why he was upset. We already knew.

"Two of our plans are ruined! One: Make sure our revolt is terrible enough to make the news. That way, experi-babies can see us revolting and decide to revolt themselves out of inspiration. It was a great plan to stop the extermination or at least minimize it. But now, experi-babies in extermination camps are going to have a hard time doing so because the security is now doubled! And now they're being killed even quicker because instead of two weeks at the camp, they're staying there for only five days before being taken to the death chambers. And two: sneak into Mina's house and get the map to the Nuclear shelter. But now we can't do that, you know why? Because her house is burned down and everything in it is burned to bits! That shelter was the only thing that was going to protect us from the extermination and World War 3! And now, we don't even know where the damn thing is!" Danny yelled as he flopped in a chair. Shimizu began stroking his chin, trying to think.

"Who do you think murdered them?" Shimizu asked him.

"Why does it matter?!" Danny asked in frustration.

"It matters because most likely, they weren't killed by random strangers. It was possibly somebody they knew...somebody we knew."

"Are you basically saying that there is a possibility that it was one of our family members that killed them and burned their house down?" I asked him.

"Maybe" Shimizu replied. "If our parents killed Mina and her dad, most likely after they found out that Mina set us up. They must've killed them out of anger."

"Good riddance, I'm glad that cunt and her fat ass dad is dead. Two less evil people to worry about" Gaia spoke up, with a raspy voice.

We all looked at her. That honestly sounded like something I would say. It was kind of strange hearing Gaia say something like that.

"Just saying" she added on, crossing her arms as she leaned against the basement wall.

"You guys are missing the point! All because somebody burned the whole house down, we have no way to find the nuclear shelter" Danny scowled.

We stayed silent for a few moments, trying to figure out a plan. Then, Noah spoke up.

"You know, Curtis Talikki was one of the leaders of W.E.A. He ran the W.E.A headquarters, but he only led from a distance."

"Huh?" all of us, except for Danny said.

"How do you know that?" Shimizu asked.

Noah sighed as he sat down in a chair that was in front of a desktop. He looked at Danny. Danny looked back at Noah and nodded his head.

"You see children, I used to spy on W.E.A. I would study them. I even used cameras that looked like tiny bugs just to get into one of their places and see how they operate."

"You managed to do that?! What made you decide to do it?" Beval asked, surprised.

"When I lived in San Francisco at the time, I had a best friend who worked for the W.E.A in California. His name was Trevor. He was one of the kidnappers. They were the ones who broke into people's homes and took the children and placed them into the teleportation trucks. Those trucks teleported to other houses, or to the nearest W.E.A if the truck was already full, containing about ten kids. Trevor would tell me all about the agency, even though it was forbidden to tell another person about W.E.A. He even told me where it was located and everything. I was the only person he told, he didn't tell his parents because...well, his relationship with them wasn't that good. I always asked him why he decided to work for such a horrible agency like W.E.A. He said that those who work for them won't be affected. Basically, he was saying that the families of the W.E.A employees won't be affected. But he told me to never tell anyone else about W.E.A, even my family. There is a catch to working with the agency: you must never tell anyone about them or that you work for them. To make sure of this, W.E.A gives their employees lie detector tests every year to make sure that they aren't out telling everyone about them. They don't want the public knowing that they exist."

"Is Trevor still your friend?" Gaia asked.

Noah paused for a minute as he looked down. I could see the sadness in his face.

"Sadly, he hasn't been seen since 1998. He is presumed dead. I am pretty sure he failed the lie detector test because he told somebody all about the agency...which was me."

"What happens if you fail the lie detector test?" Mohammed asked.

"They kill you. Once a year, higher level employees must individually ask you a few questions to see if you told anyone, whether it's friends, strangers or family. If you fail it, it means that you told others about the place. Right then and there, they take you somewhere to execute you. I don't know where though, he never said. He was dumb to tell me about the place, and because of that, he is probably long dead. He didn't know any better because he only worked at W.E.A for a short period of time. I guess he figured that they wouldn't find out about him telling anyone. When Trevor was reported missing by authorities, right then and there I knew W.E.A had something to do with it."

I was amazed and sadden by Noah's story. Losing a best friend was probably hard for him. I couldn't even imagine going through that, that was just as bad as losing a parent.

"From then on, I spent hours upon hours in a lab, coming up with plans and blueprints on how to sneak into W.E.A without actually physically sneaking in. That's when I came up with an idea: to make a camera that looked a lot like an ant. That way, when the employees see the camera, they won't think of it as anything more than just a little bug. For several months, I studied the anatomy of the ant to see which part the camera can go in, and for a couple of months more, I blueprinted the whole invention."

"How long did it take for you to invent the camera?" I asked. He thought about it for a few seconds.

"Probably about a year. I know I finished in 2000. After I finished, I drove down rural California to locate the W.E.A, which he said was located deep within Huckleberry cave. I drove over there then took my "ant" and placed it near the entrance of the place. Once I turned it on using my computer, I could finally be able to control it. The camera was in the head of the ant and it recorded and took pics using the eyes. I could see everything through the computer. But don't even bother going to Huckleberry. The government made the cave off limits to the public for "reasons unknown"."

"Gee, I wonder why they would do that" Beval said with sarcasm.

"Wait a minute?! The W.E.A in California is located in a cave?!" Shimizu asked.

"Yes, it is deep underground within the Huckleberry cave. There are fifty W.E.A agencies in the United States. One in each state. All are deep underground guarded by literal killing-machines."

"What do you mean literal killing-machines?" I asked.

"They are machines that will kill any person who basically isn't a W.E.A employee. They are programmed to do so. Their looks vary from regular humans to troll-like creatures to demonic beings. It honestly scares me just thinking about them. Their job is to protect W.E.A. You want to know why some conspiracy theorists and adventurers are going missing trying to find out if W.E.A is real or not? Those things are the reason why. Those conspiracy theorists and adventurers who unknowingly go down the right path to where the agency is are killed by the creatures. But the government makes it seem like they just went missing by dying of starvation or being killed by a tribe or some bullshit. The ones who didn't go missing are the ones who didn't manage to find it."

"What does W.E.A look like?" Shimizu asked.

"It is a huge building. About five stories tall and five hundred feet wide. It's a pretty wide building. Since W.E.A is underground, it's dark, so the employees have placed many street-like lights that surround the building and the path to it. It looks like a hospital inside."

"Okay, three questions: How many people work at W.E.A? Secondly, where is the Headquarters located? Third, how do the killing machines know the difference between a W.E.A employee and a non-employee?" Mohammed asked, trying to understand everything.

"At each W.E.A, I estimate it to be about two hundred in each. Probably about one hundred of them are kidnappers. W.E.A has a lot of artificial intelligence that do the work for the people. Those robots do the experimenting. The two hundred people monitor the artificial intelligence to make sure they are doing and acting how they should. Secondly, the W.E.A Headquarters is located on Vulcan Island. It is a deserted island that is located about five hundred miles south of the Philippines, but it is not on the map, which you can probably guess why. There are no people in the W.E.A headquarters, there's only artificial intelligence who runs the place. They monitor the millions of other W.E.A agencies to make sure that everything is going smoothly. Without the headquarters, W.E.A would have a hard time doing their job. And to answer your third question, all W.E.A. employees are required to inject themselves with a substance. It's not powers, but it will make the killing machines see them as friend and not foe."

"Tell us about Vulcan Island" I spoke up.

"Vulcan Island is infested with killing-machines. The W.E.A headquarters is located under the Corano Mountains. Those mountains are in the center of the Island. The island itself isn't that big, so it would take about three days to go from the shore of the island to the mountains, if you do so by walking. It will take a week to get to the island by boat. The place is very dangerous because of those creatures, they can and will tear you apa-"

"That's it!" Danny randomly yelled out as he quickly stood up from his chair. All of us looked over at him. "We can travel to Vulcan Island and destroy the Headquarters! Noah, you did say that W.E.A would not be able to function well without the Headquarters. Maybe, we still have a shot at stopping the extermination!" he continued.

Noah stood up right from his chair.

"Danny, do you realize how dangerous that is?! You could be killed!" Noah debated.

"But we have something to fight back against those killing machines...and that is our powers."

Danny was absolutely crazy. We all just risked our lives escaping the camp and stealing a police car, and now he wants to go to some dangerous deserted island.

"No, no, no, no and no. First, we can't even use our powers. Secondly, I am not about to risk my life again because of you and your shenanigans!" Beval snapped at Danny.

"And last time I checked, all of my "shenanigans" actually helped us in the long run and helped us escape. What exactly did you do little boy? Nothing. Therefore, hear me out!" Danny snapped back.

"Who are you calling little boy?! I will be fifteen in June!" Beval snapped.

"As I was saying. We can use our powers to get fight our way to the Corano Mountains. If it was a non-experimented or a "regular human" as I should say, who tried to find the W.E.A headquarters, they wouldn't stand a chance. But us, we have powers that we can use as weapons" Danny suggested to us, choosing not to argue with Beval. He looked over at Noah. "Hey Noah, what is a good way to get your powers back after they injected you with a chemical and it prevents you from using them?"

"Hm, um, I really don't know. That is something that I don't recall hearing people talk about as I journeyed into W.E.A."

Danny sighed in frustration and began stroking his chin, thinking of a plan. We thought about how to get our powers back for the about a couple of minutes.

"Oh! I remember the F.E.M.A officers talking to each other as they were driving us to the camp. One of them said something like: "the only way they can get rid of their powers was by drinking vinegar". That might work!" Gaia squealed, but coughed afterwards.

"Gaia! You are amazing! A straight genius!" Danny yelled out in happiness. She smiled, her dimples forming.

"Noah, come help me find some vinegar!" Danny said before running up the basement steps.

"Check the cabinets in the kitchen, it might be somewhere in there" Noah suggested as he went up the stairs after him. "Don't use all of it though."

Gaia began following them.

"Funny, I don't remember any of the guards saying that" I said to Gaia.

She paused and looked down at me. Her eyebrows narrowed and she was frowning. Obviously, she was still mad at me.

"That's because you were knocked out."

She continued up the steps, but I quickly stopped her by grabbing her arm.

"Hey, Gaia, look, I want to tell you that I am sorry for laughing. I was being insensitive and I feel very guilty about it. I should've never laughed at your secret like that. I am so sorry" I said before hugging her. Gaia slowly, but surely hugged back.

"You are my best friend. You always had been, and you always will be" I continued.

"Awww, but, umm, you might want to let me go, I'm still kind of sick and my fever is still a little-"

Gaia was interrupted by a whole new set of arms that wrapped around us, and it wasn't Shimizu. Come to find out, it was Beval.

"Group hugs, who doesn't love them?" Beval said with a wide smile. Gaia quickly pulled herself out of the hug.

"First thing Gi Gi, what's up with you? Secondly Robin, what are you apologizing for? Did something happen between you guys? I heard something about someone laughing at a secret" Beval stated. His face filled with curiosity and concern.

"It's none of your business, nosy rosy. It's girl problems, you wouldn't understand" I responded.

"Sure I won't" Beval said with sarcasm.

"Hey guys, I think we should head upstairs. We really need to get our powers back" Gaia said to us nervously as she kept glancing at Beval.

"Are you sure you want to do this? Destroy the Headquarters? Killing-machines? It all sounds deadly" I said to Gaia.

"Revolting was deadly, and so was stealing a police car, but we still managed to do it. Just like Danny said: we still may have a shot at stopping the extermination" Gaia replied.

"I agree" Shimizu spoke up as he, Mohammed, Kimberly and Katie walked over towards us. "We have to try and do this. If we can plan a revolt, we can destroy a building."

"But what if we die?" I asked Shimizu.

"Then we die" he chuckled with a shrug.

I smiled at Shimizu in response. He smiled back.

"Aww!" Kimberly teased with a playful smile.

"Shut up!" me and Shimizu both yelled.

"But anyways, I am all in for this plan. It might go well" Kimberly continued.

"Yeah, I am all in for it as well as Kim" Katie spoke up.

"Don't ever call me Kim. Just say Kimberly" Kimberly said as she gave Katie an intimidating glare.

"Sorry" Katie scrunched up.

"Same here. I think destroying the Headquarters is a great idea" Mohammed agreed.

"Hm. It sounds very, very dangerous. I guess I could try it out. What do you say Robin? Are you in?" Beval asked. They all looked at me, waiting for an answer.

"Well, um, I don't know guys. I'm not ready to get dirty and risky again just yet. Maybe we should just come up with another pl-"

"Do you want to stop the W.E.A? Or are you just going to ignore the fact that there are kids out there being experimented on, just to be put into camps and killed?! Why not do something knowing that you can do something?! We must try Robin! This is the time where we have to use our "elemental curse" for granted" Gaia interrupted me.

She was right. Maybe I was being too worrisome. Maybe it was because I just wanted to relax and just sink in the fact that I was still alive and not in any type of danger anymore. I didn't want to go back out in the freezing cold anymore, but at the same time, this was our last chance to stop the experimentation and minimize the extermination.

I sighed.

"Alright, I'm in. But first, we need to come up with an efficient plan on how to get to Vulcan Island and how to get back safely" I said.

"We'll come up with a plan. Danny is a mastermind when it comes to plans. We might have to take a boat to and from the island" Shimizu said.

"Do we really have to drink vinegar though?" Katie asked Mohammed, a little disgusted.

"Yeah, if you want your powers back. I know it's going to be gross, but it will be worth it" he answered, not really wanting to do it either.

"The only way that I will be drinking vinegar is if there's some water in the mix. I am not trying to drink straight vinegar. Isn't that shit dangerous?!" Kimberly asked Mohammed and Katie.

They shrugged, not knowing if it was dangerous or not.

"Hey kids, are you coming upstairs or not?!" Danny yelled from the basement door.

"We're coming!" Shimizu yelled up at him. Shimizu looked back at us. "We can do this guys. I believe we can. I know we can!" He looked at me. "We can do this Robin, you have to trust that we will succeed in this!"

I stared into his ocean blue eyes, unsure, but being inspired by his determination and wiliness to stop W.E.A. I was becoming motivated by his optimism and hopefulness for a future of where experi-babies can live among regular people in peace without being feared. A future of when the world doesn't have to worry about their kids being kidnapped and the population decreasing because of millions of deaths. Shimizu's motivation, optimism, dedication, hopefulness and willingness are what made me fall in love with him.

"Now let's go upstairs and drink some of that vinegar. We might need to practice using our powers since we will have to use them as weapons" Shimizu explained before making his way up the basement steps. We followed him.