The League of Secrets

[WES—WES' HOUSE]

As I open my eyes, I see the glaring sunlight spilling in through my slightly open window, and then I glance over at my alarm clock, seeing that it reads 10:57 AM. The day I have dreaded has come way too fast, and I get out of bed, letting out a quiet and annoyed groan. I immediately think about how I can't even tell any of my friends because I'm worried they might—no offense—mess things up. None of them like Amity at all. In fact, they quite literally hate her, and they will be quick to advise me against this. But, a plan is a plan, and I'm in too deep already. I walk into the bathroom and toward the shower, slowly turning on my shower and adjusting the temperature to get the water as warm as possible without burning myself. There's a test

I need to do, a test to see if I can change my body temperature by warming it. I need to do this because my now consistently low temperature will be off-setting to anyone who doesn't know about my powers.

After staring at myself in the mirror for a bit, I undress, drop all my clothes into the nearby laundry basket, and hop into the shower. I turn on the shower and turn the handle toward hot. I'm not a huge fan of hot water, so it's a bit of a struggle to get used to it when I step into the shower. The water washes over me like a warm, uncomfortable blanket, and I feel my body temperature rising a little bit, which is what I wanted to happen. For a few moments, I just stand there with my head against the wall. I take this moment to be alone with my thoughts.

Maybe I could have gone about this whole situation a different way, but I feel as though I'm in too deep now. Suddenly, the hot water begins to burn my skin and my hands start to crackle. When I look down, I can see ice crystals forming on my hands, slowly turning my skin into pure ice. The pace of my breath quickens and my hands shake. It feels impossible to breathe and I'm struggling to stay composed as my skin starts to turn translucent. It doesn't look invisible, but instead, it looks like my skin is turning into ice.

Terrified, my other hand flies toward the handle and I turn the shower off, stumbling out of it. I quickly grab the towel from the towel rack, then wrap the towel around my waist as I sit down for a few minutes. I collect my thoughts and catch my breath before standing back up and drying myself off. The cotton absorbs the water off my skin as I dry myself off, something that's oddly calming to me. I then wrap the towel around my waist once again and exit the bathroom.

Entering my room, I make my way over to my closet and shuffle through it for a while, eventually throwing on a decent outfit. A blue crew neck over a white collared tee, black ripped jeans, and some white converse that I'll grab later. For now, I'm just wearing some black socks. As I said, decent. Before I finish my morning routine, I walk over to my nightstand and grab the black spiral notebook off of it. Flipping through the pages of research and experiments, I finally land on a blank page.

My heart is practically jumping out of my chest because of how harrowing that whole thing was, and my hand is shaking as I glide my pen across the paper, writing down a detailed description of what just happened. The pen presses against the paper so hard that I cause a slight indent, and it feels like I'm on the verge of a panic attack. I go back to my bathroom and step over to my sink, bending down and wiping my face with cold water. When I lean back up, my reflection catches my eyes and I stare at my appearance, pulling an awkward expression at how bad I look. It needs some work, so I fix up my hair and then brush and floss my teeth. I ensure they're as clean as possible and that my hair is how it normally is.

Because you know, if I'm going to commit to this, then I should at least look good.

Finally leaving the bathroom, I walk into my bedroom and go over to my closet. There's an ocean of black shoes at the bottom of it, which I often have to search through. A heavy sigh comes out of my mouth as I kneel and dig through the shoe pile. Through the ocean of darkness, I finally find my not pristine white converse and throw those on. My clock now reads 11:50 PM, meaning I've been doing all this for an hour which isn't ideal. Both my brother and my mother are downstairs, so I head down there as well. They're in the kitchen, Steven sitting on a stool at the counter and my Mom cooking at the stove. She's making some grilled cheese for breakfast, and Steven is sipping on a glass of apple juice while looking at his phone. I take a seat next to Steven, and he looks at my outfit, giving me a less-than-impressed look.

"You look like a… What is the American word? Uhm…" He scratches his chin then snaps his fingers and points to me, "Ah! A dork."

"Thanks." I reply dryly and then get up and grab a random black mug, filling it with some coffee—because that's the only proper way to start a morning.

"Where are you going?" He asks.

"How do you know I'm even going anywhere?" I ask in return as I walk back over and sit back down next to him.

"Like I said before, you look like a nerd." He replies.

"I'm just going to hang out with a friend. Not really one of my best friends, but a regular friend. She wants to get milkshakes, so that's what we're doing." I told him.

"She? Is she nice?" My mom chimes in.

I shrug, "Yeah, she's pretty nice."

Just from that question, I can already tell what kind of impression she's getting. I'm not sure what impression Steven is getting, but it's most likely the same as my mom. She wants me to date a friendly and polite girl to get me to learn how to be a nice person. Practically trying to counteract my sarcasm, but you can't. It's not that I don't like to acknowledge people's feelings, it's just the fact that acknowledging people's feelings makes mine come back up. But, yeah, neither my mom nor brother knows that I'm bisexual because I've never gotten around to telling them. It may not only be boys for me, but I just don't know how they'll feel about me wanting to spend the rest of my life with one.

"That's really good." A smile spreads across her face as she hands us both a plate of grilled cheese, "I hope you have a nice time with her." She adds.

"Uh… yeah. Speaking of, can I use your car? I need to leave in like 10 minutes." I tell her while digging into my grilled cheese, Steven doing the same with his.

"Go ahead." She responds, the smile lingering on her face.

Once I finish my grilled cheese and coffee, I check my watch and see it's now 12:30. So I get up, grab my wallet, jacket, and my mom's car keys, and then I'm good to go. The light shines on my face as I open my front door, causing me to scrunch it up as I walk over to my mom's car. I open up the door and get into the car, then buckle myself into the seat. I start the car, switch it from park to drive, and then start driving to the ice cream parlor down the street. Amity texted me on Instagram last night and told me that we're going to Yoo's Ice Cream, which happens to be my favorite ice cream place. Either she's an amazing listener or a stalker. And I wouldn't rule out the second one.

[WES—YOO'S ICE CREAM]

After too many stop lights and pedestrians crossing, I finally arrive at the ice cream parlor. When I get out of the car I can see her sitting in the coffee shop, waiting impatiently with an upset look on her face. I don't blame her for that, I took a while to get here. Her face changes when she sees me walk into the parlor, and I go over to her. She stands up and hugs me immediately, taking me by surprise. It takes me a bit to hug her back, and after about 3 or 4 minutes, she finally pulls away from the embrace.

"Hi! I wanted to wait for you to get here before ordering. How are you? You look nice! I hope you like my outfit, I put on a blue skirt since it's your favorite color." She looks at my outfit, then smiles a bit, "Well, it looks like we match."

I ‌manage to make myself grin, "Yeah, look at that."

"I've been looking forward to this for so long and I'm really excited that I get to finally go on a date with you." She admits.

"Hope I don't disappoint." I joke in response.

We then both sit down and browse the menus. We haven't even ordered and everything is going great. Deep down, I start to feel bad, my stomach turning slightly because she's genuinely enjoying this and I'm only doing this to get information. But my feelings retract when I notice her weird behavior. She's subtly looking around every so often and checking her phone. She seems like she's looking for something, or maybe someone.

The waiter comes over and we order our milkshakes, then they take our menus. I ‌ discreetly watch as she opens her phone, begins recording, and places it on the table face down. She doesn't notice that I watched her do that, so I don't mention it to see where it's going. I assume that she's going to try and get me to open up about our whole plan and she's going to give the recording to my father. Just in time, the waiter brings over our milkshakes. I ordered a regular chocolate milkshake and she ordered a strawberry chocolate one.

"Yours looks so good," Amity says, smiling.

"Thank you. I would say yours does as well, but strawberries aren't really my thing." I laugh, causing her to laugh as well. "Because as I say all the time, original chocolate is the elite flavor."

"Have you never had chocolate-covered strawberries?" She asks me, to which I shake my head. "Personally, I'm offended by that."

I respond, "I don't like strawberries all too much, I'd prefer some watermelon."

"Well, I have to say that you aren't anything like the average person. I'm pretty sure I haven't met someone who doesn't like chocolate-covered strawberries." She says, giggling a bit.

"Yeah, which is why it took me a while to answer you back." I lied.

"How come?" She asks as she tilts her head slightly.

"You make new friends every single day, while I hang out with the same 7 people. In simple terms, I'm a total loser and you aren't." I tell her.

In truth, I forgot that the letter was even a love letter because I could only think about the underlying message. You know, that code. 'I'm watching you, little rabbit'. My father only called me little rabbit, nobody else. My mom did too, but never spoke that nickname or his name—my father's—after he left. Honestly, I blocked it out and forgot about it so much that I almost didn't recognize it.

"Is there something on your mind?" Amity asks, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"My father. He recently resurfaced in my life, but he's the worst person to ever exist." I tell her.

"Why do you say that??" Amity asks, and in her tone, there's a taste of…offendedness.

"Yeah, I kind of don't want to talk about it." I answer, crossing my arms and looking away, basically closing off myself with my body language.

"Oh, that's alright. I'm sorry that your dad is a bad person, and I promise you are nothing like him. You're kind, and I love to be around you." She reassures me.

I unintentionally open my body language back up, and she makes me feel comfortable in a weird way. "Oh, thanks."

"You're welcome," She smiles.

"You know, I think you should revisit him. Like a face your fears type of thing." She suggests.

"That's an odd idea." I say.

"Just think about it. Would you like to go to the movies? We can watch any movie you want, I'll pay."

"Yeah, sure. I'll pay for the milkshakes then." I reply, giving a small smile.

"No, it's okay." She shakes her head, but I start shushing her.

"No way, I'm paying." I ‌ amusedly laugh and pull out my wallet.

I read the numbers on the receipt and put down the appropriate amount of money, then we leave the ice cream parlor together. We get into my mother's car and the atmosphere is almost immediately awkward, provoking me to grab my phone and loudly play some of my favorite music. She holds my hand and I really have no clue what to do, so I just let her hold it. My hands start to sweat profusely and my heart races, practically beating out of my chest, but not in a good way. I don't know how to deal with intimacy of this kind as I've never been in a relationship before, and it's especially hard to know what to do because I'm not into her. I scurry around my mind for a way to get out of this, but alas, my genius can't come up with anything. Well, there is one thing, but it's not legal, so it's best if it just stays in the think tank.

Yet, I must have seen the lucky number 7, because we arrive at the movie theater quite quickly, so we're soon out of the car and no longer holding hands. Relieved, I wipe my sweaty hands on my shirt. To prevent that from happening again I shove my hands into my pocket and walk beside her, a good amount apart. Maybe I'm treating her a bit like a friend—but it feels like I'm betraying Chris, even though we're not dating and I am kind of already on a date with someone else. Despite all of that, I can't really muster up fake feelings for anyone due to me already being stupidly in love. She points to a romance movie and I let out nervous laughter becase everyone knows romance movies plus two single people practically equals making out. There are some acceptions, but there isn't any here.

"Actually, I feel like we should watch…" I quickly scan the room for the first silly movie I see and my eyes land on 'Sonic The Hedgehog'. "That."

"Sonic?" She asks, looking at me like I'm weird — which I am.

I only nod in response, and she shrugs her shoulders. We walk up to the ticket booth together, awkwardly buying 2 tickets for Sonic The Hedgehog. Like my dear friend Penny, one of my many skills is being able to get myself out of things, which is exactly what I just did. It's good I'm not extremely rusty or anything, only slightly since I haven't been in "trouble" for a long time . We get the tickets and then walk over to the food counter, ordering some popcorn, gummy bears, and a large soda. After that, we enter Theater 4 and sit near the back. I shovel popcorn into my mouth so she doesn't try to talk to me, but I try not to do it rudely. Being rude could jeopardize his whole quote-unquote mission. About halfway into the movie, she begins staring at me. I pretend I don't see her doing that and ignore her at first, but then it becomes hard, so I unwillingly look at her. She doesn't say anything to me, but instead, she begins leaning her face into mine. For a few seconds, I stay still but then muster the courage to lean back when she gets too close. She has a blatantly confused and upset expression on her face. I feel my face turn red and I get embarrassed at how quickly I was backing out, also feeling slightly disappointed for not being able to go through with an—arguably—necessary part of the mission.

"Everything okay?" She asks.

"I just need to use the bathroom." I say quietly.

In a hurry, I get up and rush out of the theater, quickly making my way over to the men's bathroom. A long exhale leaves my mouth as I pull out my phone and nervously run my hand through my hair, scanning my contacts. At this point, I'm going to need to enlist the help of another person who can make up excuses easily, and there's nobody better than the one I mentioned earlier. My eyes land on Penny's contact, and without hesitation, I press her contact. Then, I hover my finger over the call button for a few seconds there, before finally pressing it. After some ringing, I finally hear her pick up.

"Yeah?" She answers.

"Thank god, I need your help." I tell her.

"What did you do?" She immediately asks.

"Okay, rude, but first, I'm going to need you to promise me that you won't say a word to the others about what I'm going to tell you." I respond.

"I promise you I won't." She says.

"Like, actually promise?" I question.

"Yes, I actually promise." She tells me.

"Okay, well, I'm currently on a date with Amity. Don't say anything, I will explain everything, just please can you give me an excuse to get out of here? Just text me or do something." I say, practically begging at this point.

"Firstly, I'm judging you very hard right now for going on a date with her. But I'll still do your thing. I'm gonna say I need you to bring me to the hospital because I fell off my bike." She replies.

I nod my head, "Okay, whatever works, pal."

"Okay, bye." She says.

"Bye." I say, then hang up.

I let out a soft breath of preparation before exiting the bathroom and returning to the theater. Amity looks at me worriedly, so I flash a quick smile to let her know I'm alright, and then I sit back down next to her. She holds my hand and lays her head on my shoulder, causing me to sit back in a slightly uncomfortable manner, but still try to act like I'm comfortable. A few minutes later, my phone begins to buzz in my pocket, so I pull it out. I read the message from Penny and sit up acting shocked, causing her to sit up too. In actuality, I'm not surprised that Penny said exactly what she said she would.

"Shit, I'm gonna have to go. You'll have to get your parents to pick you up, I need to take my friend to the hospital." I tell her.

"Oh, what happened?" She asks with a soft gasp.

"She, unfortunately, fell off of her bike. I have to go, I'm sorry." I apologize.

"Can't her parents bring her or something?" Amity sighs, and I can tell she's annoyed.

I clear my throat, "No, uh, because— they just aren't home."

"Okay, but just remember what I said to you. Try to visit your dad." She suggests.

I nod then grab all of my stuff — i.e car keys and wallet — and exit the theater. I get in my mom's car, buckle myself, start up the car and drive away. Once I start driving, a breath of relief comes out of my mouth, and my eyes are closed for a few seconds. I suppose I can go to Penny's house since it doesn't sound like she's doing anything. Plus, I saw her location and she's at her home, not hanging out with anyone. Donatello and Trevor's locations are off, which sets off a tiny alarm in me but they turn off their phones often. Penny must be bored, so I'll be a good friend and go see her.

Once again, a heavy sigh leaves my mouth as I tap on the steering wheel with my thumbs, feeling sort of upset with myself or chickening out. My mind wanders to how Amity keeps telling me to visit my father, and how weird it is. There must be a reason for it and it can't be a good one. I finally arrive outside of Penny's house after driving for about half an hour, since I had zero clue how to get here from the movies. I carefully park the car outside of her house and it shuts off as I take out the keys. Opening the door to the car, my foot swings out of it and I shut it behind me, approaching her home. When I knock on the door, her father answers it. His eyes scan me, almost like he's trying to identify who I am.

"Oh, hey Wes, Penny should be coming out of that cave she calls her room as soon as she realizes the door opened." He tells me.

"How are you?" I ask.

"Same old, same old. Although, I've been having nightmares way less than usual."

A flurry of quick and loud footsteps echo through her house as Penny races down the stairs and comes to get me. Once her dad walks away, Penny immediately grabs me by my shirt, dragging me back up the stairs with her. She drags me into her room and my eyes roam across her dark purple walls and the scattered posters across it, then I see Donatello and Trevor sitting on the beanbag chairs situated in the corner, the two of them tossing a small ball to each other. Their heads turn in my direction upon seeing I'm here. On the TV is collectively our favorite show—American Horror Story— but paused, and I assume Penny did that when she saw my mom's car in front of her house. I squint my eyes while slowly turning my head to look at her and my eyes follow her, watching as she sits down on her bed.

"I said to keep it a secret." I scold her.

"I didn't tell them anything, I just told them to come over to hear about the dumb thing that you did." Penny says.

"It wasn't completely dumb, there was a thought process behind it." I reply.

"Okay, what's the thing?" Donatello asks.

Trevor chimes in, "Yeah Sokolov, spill it."

I let out a small scoff-like chuckle before blurting out my words, "Here goes nothing. I went on a date with Amity." The room falls silent when I finish speaking, which is exactly what I expected to happen, provoking a pressed smile from me.

"...Melanie is gonna punch the shit out of you." Trevor says, putting his fist over his mouth as he raises his eyebrows — shock painted all over his face.

"Nah, she's gonna kill you man," Donatello says casually as he snacks on some chips, Trevor nodding with him in agreement.

"I just want you two to know that you're both terrible, and unless you want to know how it feels to have extreme hypothermia, then it'd be in ." I say, and they listen—shutting up. "Thank you."

"Okay, so what happened?" Penny asks.

"Well, first she came to my house and told me I never answered her letter, to which I agreed to her date question to get more information. We just got milkshakes and went to the movies… where she tried to kiss me—" I see as they all open their mouths to speak, so I put my hand up, "I know what you're going to say, but I pulled away immediately and went to the bathroom, then told Penny to make an excuse for me. And now I'm here." I explain.

"It's a good thing you pulled away and didn't just let her kiss you. Unless you wanted her to." Penny says.

"No, I didn't want her to kiss me." I tell them honestly.

"Then why did you go on the date with her in the first place?" Trevor asks.

"Because she's the one who gave the letter with the coded message, so that must mean she's working with my father or something. And if that's true, going on a date with her means I'd be getting on the inside, you know?" I answer, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Oh, so why are you only telling us?" Donatello questions.

"Let's face it, we're the biggest losers in the friend group, so I know you'll keep a secret if I ask," I answer, to which they all nod in agreement. "You can't tell the others, no matter what."

"You've got our word, Wes," Penny says then turns to Trev and Donatello. "I think this calls for a group fist-bump, y'all."

"Alright, alright, we're coming." Donatello says.

He pushes himself up and out of the beanbag chair, Trevor doing the same. They both walk up to Penny and me, putting their fists out. The other two join in, and we do our classic group fist bump. We look at each other for a few moments, glances exchanged between every one of us before we all lean in for a group hug. During the group hug, Donatello's phone starts to go off. He pulls away from the embrace and then takes out his phone, looking down and putting up one finger as he steps away slightly.

He reads the caller ID and answers the call, all of us watching as he walks away from us without saying anything. He doesn't say anyone's name and only answers with a simple 'hello'. The conversation goes on for a while, but Donatello doesn't say anything in response to the person on the other side of the phone except some 'okay' 'mhm' and 'yes's. The rest of us look at each other, confusion and worry plastered on our faces due to how neutral he's staying until the end of the phone conversation when he pulls a slightly terrified expression. He finally hangs up and turns to face us.

"Well, who was it?" Penny asks.

"My parents. Apparently the Center of Control at MauddeCo labs has seen what we can do, and they want to work with us." Donatello tells them.

"Oh, cool, when are we going?" Trevor asks.

"Uhm, never ever at all. The lab they work at is terrible because they don't work with super-humans, they experiment on them to figure out how to harness their powers and make advanced inventions with those stolen powers. They'll cut us up while we're still awake and not think twice about the fact that we're just teens." He explains.

"Wouldn't taking certain peoples powers kill them? Like what about people born with their powers or people who have powers that were caused by a cure for an illness?" I point out.

"Casualties to them are nothing more than a slip-up or failed experiment. They just move on to the next." Donatello answers.

"Never mind then," Trevor replies, his brows going up slightly.

"That's inhumane — even for me." Penny says.

"How have they even seen what we can do?" I question curiously.

"All they need is access to the school security cameras and they'll be able to see us getting our powers right at school." Donatello responds to him. "The worst part is that they're not going to stop until they collect all of us."

"Meaning we're in even more danger than we thought." Penny sighs and Donatello nods his head.

"This might be a bad time, but I also forgot to mention that Natalie, Melanie, Trevor, and Wes are in the news." Donatello adds. "And they caught a photo of Trevor's van."

"This is very wonderful," I remark sarcastically as I cross my arms and lean my head back. "We've got my father coming after us, now the Center of Control at MauddeCo Labs is too and we're in the news."

"Wait, what did they call us?" Penny asks.

"A League of Students. They're saying we're Jersey's very own heroes. Also that they hope there's more of us to come." Donatello says, and all of them can't help but smile.

"Woah, really? Shit, I'm in the news. My VAN is in the news. Why didn't I think about the fact that I might be in the news? My dads are going to ground me and take away all of my stuff if they find out." Trevor rambles, our smiles going away due to concern.

"Okay, well I don't think you're THAT recognizable." Donatello says.

"Yeah, you're probably right. But that doesn't take away from the fact that we and my van are on the news." Trevors sighs then becomes more tense, "Why am I just now realizing there are two people trying to kill us?"

"Let's all just calm down for a few seconds and think about what the hell we're supposed to do here, alright?" Penny puts her hands out and lowers them slowly.

"The first thing we should do is warn the others about this." I suggest to them.

"No, we have to go to my parents immediately. They can find out where everyone is, and they can also help us like— not be killed." Donatello responds.

I nod my head, "Okay, we do that. We can use my mom's car—" Trevor opens his mouth to speak, but I put my hand up, "Yes, you can drive."

"Okay, let me grab my shoes and we can leave." Penny replies. "I'll sneak out of my window and you guys act like you're leaving to go home. Tell them I'm going to sleep or something."

She then walks over to her closet, grabbing her Doc Martens and throwing them on. We first wait for Penny to hop out of her window and climb down the roof, mysterious black fog assisting her in her fall. After that, she then jogs out of her backyard and into Trevor's. I, Trevor, and Donatello walk down the stairs and we find her dad in the living room, watching the some action movie.

"Hey Mr. Smith! We're heading out 'cause Penny kicked us out to nap." Trevor says.

"Yeah, sounds about right. You boys have a good day." Mr. Smith says, "Come back for dinner sometime!"

Our mood immediately changes from friendly to focused as we bolt over to my mom's car. I hand the keys to Trevor and get in the passenger's side, Trevor gets in the driver's seat, and Donatello gets in the backseat. We make a quick stop in front of Trevor's house and Penny hops into the car, then we begin driving. Donatello lives slightly outside of town, still close enough to not be in the middle of nowhere. He says that it's just a way for them to stay low-profile. Now, we've just got quite the drive ahead of us. So, Penny takes off her backpack and unloads the snacks she has in there.

[3RD PERSON—DONATELLO'S HOUSE]

After more than an hour of driving and taking weird roads to avoid being followed, Trevor slowly pulls up in front of Donatello's house and shifts the gear into park. He takes the key out of the ignition and swings the keychain around his finger as he gets out of the car, the rest of them getting out as well. They all walk up to his front door then Donatello flips open the padlock above his doorbell and stands in front of it, punching in the five-number code his parents made him memorize. The door lets out a quiet hiss and a click, and then Donatello pushes it open.

Penny looks at the padlock as they enter, "When did you get that on your door?"

"Well, ever since Aleksandr decided to come after all of us, my parents put the padlock to make sure nobody can get in. It looks like a normal door but it's made of Zenox. It's the strongest but lightest material on Earth." Donatello shuts the door behind him and you can hear the door click and lock once again.

They all remove their shoes and leave them at the door before entering his house. His parents—Valentina and Alberto—are nowhere to be found in his house. Donatello looks around his house and directs his friends over to a wall. He feels around on the wall for a little while and nobody has any clue what he's doing, his hands roaming around for a good two to three minutes. Finally, he places his hand flat against the wall and a scanner appears behind it, scanning his hand. A small needle pricks his finger and takes his DNA. It causes him to flinch because he always forgets about that part.

"This is very different from last time." Wes points out.

"Security update." Donatello replies.

"And that was?..." Trevor's voice trails off and he watches the door slowly emerge from the white marble wall.

"Well, anyone can just shapeshift into me and have the same handprint. They will never have the same blood though." He explains.

"Sounds complicated but hey, whatever works." Penny says.

He grabs the handle and pushes the door open, "Mom! Dad!" He calls out.

"Donatello?" Alberto shouts out.

"Yes! And my friends Trevor, Penny and Wes!" He shouts back.

"Oh, come down here!" Valentina shouts to him.

Donatello walks down the stairs, along with his friends. The pitter-patter of teens going down the stairs echoes through the room and they walk toward Valentina and Alberto. The two of them are standing over a table sewing, and there's a pile of suits, made of some sort of material. Donatello walks up to the pile and runs his fingers along the material, immediately recognizing it.

"Oh, this is made of Kevlar. That's very…interesting, how did you get it?" He asks.

"Well, we're scientists, we figured out how to make it ourselves. We made it for you and your friends. It's a full body suit that's plain, allowing you some room to add your own touches." Valentia replies.

"Woah, this is great, thank you guys." Trevor says.

"Well, if we're gonna be supportive then we should at least be helpful too. We noticed that your other suits are just normal clothes that are terribly unsafe." Alberto replies.

"Thanks guys." Donatello says with a smile.

Wes feels a pit in his stomach, knowing he might never be able to experience that kind of love; not even from Chris. He's probably ruined any kind of chance he would have with him, and he feels so bad about it. Trying to stop his father might ruin his life, yet he doesn't know how he'll deal with it. None of this has happened to him yet, no, but he knows it will be happening. He takes a step back and walks away while everyone else is too distracted by the Kevlar. Penny isn't though, she notices Wes walk away and follows behind him.

"What's up friend?" Penny whispers.

"I don't know, I'm just trying to prepare myself for the shit I'm gonna need to go through. And I just keep wondering to myself if I'm ever going to have another chance with Chris." Wes sighs quietly.

"The only way you can prevent stuff from blowing up between you guys is if you tell him what you're trying to do." Penny whispers.

"I don't know, what if it messes up the plan?" Wes whispers back.

"Why are you so worried about your plan?" Penny replies, almost raising her voice.

"Because, I need to stop my dad before he hurts one of you guys. Or Amity, she'd hurt one of you if I said no or anything like that, so I need to be careful and follow my plan." He whispers.

"Just— if you're worried about Chris, then be careful about his feelings like you are with this plan. Right now, you're being kind of careless, no matter how it seems." Penny explains to him.

"Wait really?" He asks.

"Yes, dickwad. Just be nicer." She demands him.

Penny walks back over to the others, and Wes pulls out his phone. There's a bottomless pit in his stomach and an obvious nervousness welling up inside of him. He sucks in air through his teeth and lets out a strong yet quiet inhale as he opens up his text conversation with Chris. His eyes quickly avert to the basketball emoji and black heart next to his name on his contact, then he opens the keyboard. He types out a simple message that reads; 'Hey. I know you probably don't want to talk to me right now, but I just want to explain. And I'm really sorry for everything.' Wes goes back to everyone else and approaches Valentina and Alberto, seeing what they're doing so as to get his mind off of it.

"Hi Mr. and Mrs. Santoro, are these suits for going out?" Wes asks.

"Why, yes they are." Alberto replies.

He unfolds one of the suits and looks at the logo on the front of it, "What's this?" He asks curiously. The logo on the chest of their suits contains a crest with an atom symbol plastered in the middle of it.

"Oh, we made a logo for you guys. The crest represents how you guys are students, and the Atom represents—" Valentina starts, and just before she can finish her own sentence, Wes does.

"—Represents how our bodies changed, all the way down to our atomic structure. You know, this is exactly what I had in mind when I was thinking about our suits." Wes chuckles.

"Well, all great minds think alike." Valentina smiles.

"Makes sense. He is way smarter than the rest of us." Trevor points out.

Everyone chuckles at Trevor's comment and Wes chuckles along with the rest of them, but his laughter and happiness fades out when he realizes he hasn't felt his phone vibrate this whole time— meaning Chris hasn't texted him back. He bites at the inside of his cheek nervously, knowing that text might've been his last chance because if Chris doesn't answer back, then he can't get him to meet up. Wes truly has gotten himself in a difficult situation. They're all relaxing when an alarm abruptly starts blaring loudly, catching them all off guard. Alberto rushes over to their control center and pulls up the security camera footage. There was a breach in their security, and when he looks at the camera from the front door, he comes face to face with the owner of MauddeCo labs. It's a woman by the name of Eloise Maudde and she's got her own SWAT team behind her, ready with a battering ram. She orders them to hit the door several times with the ram before she finally realizes the door isn't made of wood.

"She's here." Alberto says, his face dropping.

"What?!" They all shout.

"She's here, and she's coming for you guys, we need to go now!" Valentina shouts.

"Well, fuck." Trevor, Penny, Wes, and Donatello mumble.

Valentina and Alberto run around the lab and grab the important things, putting them neatly in locked steel cases. The kids watch with concern as Donatello's parents both put the house in full shutdown mode. Valentina then walks over to a wall and tries her best to take the tiles off of their secret door, but fails as they're plastered on there good. The door was covered up because they didn't think anything like this would ever happen… again. Wes notices them struggling and his eyes dart between them and the security cameras. After anxiously letting his eyes travel around, they land on Penny.

"Penny, punch the wall." Wes says.

"Me? Why me?" She asks.

"Well, you're the strongest here." Wes says, pointing to her hands.

Penny sighs and uncrosses her arms then approaches the wall, staring at it. For a brief second, she braces herself and draws back her fist. She then launches it forward and lands a hard punch on the wall, causing the lab to shake lightly. A huge crack forms in the wall where her fist landed, and all of them, including her, let out a small chuckle of disbelief. She herself didn't even know she was capable of such things. She draws back her fist again and lands a hard punch on the wall one more time, shattering that part of it completely. The wall breaks apart around her arm and her fist hits a hard, metal-like surface, causing a hallow thump sound. She moves the huge chunks of the wall out of the way and reveals a hatch-like door. Alberto unlocks it and opens it up, then they let the kids go through it first. Once they do, Valentina goes, then Alberto, who closes the door behind them. They go through the woods in the back of Donatello's house, where they get slightly lost. Donatello gets a bit of an idea but doesn't want to say it in case it doesn't work and he ends up looking stupid. But, he starts to get frustrated with how they have no clue where they're going.

"Hold up guys, I'm going to try something. Just first, don't make fun of me if this doesn't work." Donatello says.

"Literally, we don't care, anything to save our asses." Trevor says.

Donatello begins to look around like he's looking for something, and that's because he is. He spots a Robin perched on a branch and focuses on it hard. His mind goes silent and he starts to let himself space out on the bird. Slowly, his eyes turn completely white and he slips into a dream-like state as he uses his powers to take control of the bird. He's only done this once or twice but both times it was used to navigate him out of empty or confusing spaces. He uses the bird to fly to a high point and look over the forest, finding them a pathway that would lead to Wes' garage.

"So, what are you doing?" Penny asks.

"I'm taking control of the bird to find a safe place. We can go to our garage and from there we can drive to Wes' house." Donatello says.

"Perfect, let's go. Donatello and his parents can stay with my family and I, and we will have to warn the others immediately." Wes says.

And with that, Donatello releases his control over the bird and they all walk down to Wes' house.