5

Home is like cake. Sweet inside and outside, but what if there was more than just a flavoring and a topping. There's then meaning to it, isn't there? Shouldn't it be the same with life? Sweet inside and outside? Unfortunately, no. In fact, there are always challenges headed our way in life that we are either in control of it until we are beat like eggs or we'd be as sloppy as ever, not handling it straight with the best proportions. Right now we are all in a mix and we are all finding ways to smoothen things out like pastry batter. There is a meaning, a purpose - such as diving into this mission to find out the true culprit on who killed my parents, hoping to reveal, at least, certain pasts that I didn't know about.

I and Cole were on our way to Emerald City hoping things would go well in our visit there, while our friends were not in the most comfortable situation, and are currently still fighting with those mysterious men who came up to them and demanded a person called, Jade Jennings, to try and survive for I and Cole to reach, the Emerald City sooner than later.

After Nya ended the call with her friend, her comrades then heard a boom in the background, they whipped their heads around to the now damaged door that was supposed to hold her and her friends for a few more minutes. Now it only held them in for like 10 seconds and heard a girlish shriek, that only a boy would sound like in situations like this, that came from behind her, which was her brother.

"KAI!" Nya screamed, seeing her brother being taken down by these men who just appeared out of nowhere, like ninjas, repelling him away from our group. Nya then ninja ran to save her brother by hitting the man's hand gripping her kin, shoving him out of the way from the crossfire, by the hilt of her gun and roundhouse kicked him till he went dizzy and then kicked him in the shins, giving the multiple of punches that he deserved for taking her brother from her. Which left a groan from the opponent's mouth, having her the time to released Kai who also was wincing in pain for a short moment.

"Wow, that was a close one, thanks, sister," KAI responded with gratitude in relief to be saved, panting heavily.

"Don't thank me yet. We're still in the eye of the storm." Nya waved it past her for now, pulling her brother up for them to fight together once again.

She then took a breather till another man came to make a new wave of ninja looking humans surrounding her in quite a tight circle, to attack her. She, being in the middle, then scans all around for a way of escape and new ways to parkour around, as she sees that everyone including her brother, were distracted by fighting the other men who were also surrounding them.

When one of the men were about to land a punch on Nya, she then jumped like never before, dodging their attacks, then doing a front flip overhead of her opponent and blocked all punches and kicks thrown her way, to be met by Zane who half-smiled at the sight of her but was busy using his usual digital distractions from his holster, until he seemed he was running out and only two more devices were left to play this game. Nya then had an idea.

"Guys! Get a partner!" Nya ordered as everyone listened gathering themselves with a mate. "Now, do what I do!" Nya told them or more like instructed them as she continued with her demonstration. Nya then sped towards the men in cloaks in full speed and used her gun to break their legs for immobility, as she then spun around and shot at the man's legs and immobilized him, same happened to the others. Shouts of pain filled the house because the men were paralyzed but were in pain still looking around frantically but uneventfully failed, as Nya then stepped on their hands and kicked them to the farthest walls.

Last time, whenever she tries to shoot a culprit's leg before, she used to miss a lot. So now she knows she wouldn't because she knew that with much practice things would go her way because she had been trained for this her whole life that she had been with them. She has definitely learned from the best for victory and now she prevailed.

Nya then did somersaults and flipped back and forth to make the men lose their concentration and balance on her, as well as their hold. Nya succeeded and landed like a cat with four limbs on the floor and pounced forward tackling a couple of men to the ground with strong body movements which worked and well, hearing the thud on the ground close to the exit, even though with her physic she could outrun them all. The boys then clapped in applause for their teammate but forgot their lives were still on the line making Nya perk up.

"GUYS! Your turn, or you die!" Nya scolded.

The boys then did their uttermost best, to do all those moves Nya did and most of them were tired except for Zane who had the agility to do the most sublime 'dance', ever and never broke a sweat.

"I seriously need to go to the gym more." Kai perked up, as he was mesmerized by Zane's movements.

"Bro! Did Zane learn ballerina moves or what!" Jay exclaimed chuckling a bit.

"Wow, it took you a while to realize that, Bro." Nya teased with a smirk.

"What are you going at!" Kai whined but was stopped by a punch to the stomach.

"HA, that," Cole remarked and chuckled a bit. "Man, that felt good."

"Hey, don't worry, I'll get back right at ya!" Kai glared at Cole, as Cole did the most childish face.

"Was that supposed to be a compliment?" Zane asked perplexed.

"Yeah, it was but turned out to be an argument," Lloyd told his friend with a smile congratulating his friend with a job well done, especially with bringing all their enemies to their knees. He then chuckled to himself.

Lloyd then kept his composure and quickly tied each man together with the ropes, but realized that he couldn't do it all by himself and sighed.

"Hey! Guys! I need your help here."

"Hey, I'mma go help, Lloyd." Zane piped up, as the others nodded to him to take his leave from their discussion of "who did who" type of thing, though it really is a big question mark.

"Oh, thanks Zane," Lloyd remarked.

"You are most welcome Lloyd. Anything for a friend." Zane smiled but turned to a frown as he eyed at what Lloyd held.

"Huh? Never seen this before, seems like the killers have had this for a long time now, maybe they have been stalking her throughout her life?" Lloyd pipped up as he held the pic in his hands from one of the men laying on the floors defeated.

It was a picture of a photo that he hadn't seen from the pictures that Jade would usually see or tell them about. In the photo, Jade was still small had the same glimmer of enthusiasm in her brown eyes, but was eerie in a way. There was a specific person in there that Jade hardly told them about through their lives. Her sister. Did she even have one? We have been her sisters and brothers. Who is this person?

"GUYS, I am so spooked right now...what is this?!" Jay screamed then held up an object for them to see. It was one of the Black pearl Rose's petal that Jay held who took it from the top of the kitchen bench.

"This wasn't here before," Lloyd replied calmly but was devastated in the inside, as he took it from Jay's hand and held the petal on his hands. The texture of the petal sure felt nice, as the soft and smooth layer caressed his rough fingers. The irony is that Lloyd glared at it with burning hatred and then his eyes showed that he will find out who killed her parents. Whoever did it, sure went too far.

"Who, in the world did this to Jade's parents!" Lloyd grunted in anger and fear for his friend. "Who is the mole...the imposter!"

Just in time, Zane walked up to them, finished with tying the men up tightly. He then saw Lloyd scrunch up something in his right hand.

"Lloyd, I think you have to show them too," Zane suggested.

"And who is this girl!" Lloyd screamed with anger particularly to no one, as he engulfed himself in tears while showing the picture of her family with an unknown girl.

Everyone then took a good look at the picture.

"Well, screw it. She has a sister." Kai responded, rolling his eyes in disgust.

"Yeah! I mean where was she when Jade needed her the most?" Jay replied with empathy.

"Oof, that was pretty deep...for once." Lloyd scoffed at this.

"Hey! I can be deep just like everyone else!" Jay then bragged, while everyone facepalmed.

"Zane! How about a face recognition scan to see if she really is Jade's sister." Nya spoke filled with authority and seriousness in her tone and voice.

"On it." Zane rogered as he scanned the paper with his device.

"Not a sister...but a cousin." Zane replied with worry in his tone, as he added, "And Lloyd you were right. They did have this on them the whole time and stalked her until the time was right."

"WHAT!" Everyone joined in, in Unison. Lloyd's mouth then ran dry.

"There's a stalker now!" Jay blurted out with exclamation.

"NO..." Lloyd gasped in horror.

"How come we never heard of her?" Kai asked, flabbergasted.

"This was because, she hardly saw her cousin, claiming that she perhaps

'died' because she didn't pop up anymore." Zane said as the others did an 'O' shape with their mouths knowing where this was going.

"This isn't going as smooth as cake, is it?" Jay perked up.

"Seriously Jay?" Nya looked at her friend deadpanned.

"Oh, um sorry. Man, just when Cole has gone out, I already miss him spazing out about cake and all, haha."

"This definitely is deja vu but the other way around," Nya replied shaking her head.

"Huh?" Kai asked his sister looking at her as if she had a double head, basically confused.

"Oh, nothing for you to worry about." Nya smiled cheekily as she searched for more clues.

"You clearly are rubbing off of Cole," Kai told Jay and laughed a bit.

"Hehe, I guess I am," Jay replied with his hand to his nape.

"By the way when are we gonna leave to go there?" Jay asked wanting to be reunited with his two other friends.

"We'll leave, at dawn. We have to gather as much information here, first. Lloyd! Where did you find this picture?" Nya asked.

"Um, I found it from these men tied up here. They are still knocked out, don't worry." Lloyd replied like a soldier reporting for duty.

"Alright, you heard him, start searching through these imbeciles!" Nya told them as she too searched from top to bottom for more photos or papers or any other symbols such as the Dark Rose petal or something, such as the photo Lloyd found and Jay's find on the petal.

"OH, man, I miss them both now." Jay cried out with a pout.

"Stop winning Jay, this is business. We have to always have a plan B. And them leaving was the best option, to keep Jade safe." Nya scoffed with annoyance, as she kept up on the swabbing and tested them within her solution of chemicals that she brought with her. Jay kept waddling with whatever he was doing to find samples, testing every object if they were, alkali, neutral, or acid, for clues.

"Seriously, what should we do to keep your mouth shut or else these guys will awake." Nya stared or glared hard at Jay throwing daggers at him to shut up while holding on to a syringe as it squirted out a few droplets and air.

"OK, I will, sorry," Jay mumbled for an apology.

Nya rolled her eyes and she went back to what she was doing. She then used Zane's devices to analyse her research on the blood she had gathered from the men. The computer recognized the sample and showed only one person but not the rest of the men's blood, only this blood from whose pocket, Lloyd took the picture film.

"GUYS, I found a syringe and it seems it's filled with cyanide!" All of us then dropped what we were doing as Nya then typed the last few words for Google to search what she was trying to look for, but didn't have the time to take a second glance at the screen as she bolted to the lounge where everyone met, leaving the computer screen with the words: The Hallow Times of seeking for the missing link, 1989. Showing a young girl with light blonde hair, not smiling in the photo, wearing a plaid purple t-shirt with a grey knee-length skirt and long track pants with brown, shoes, with a high ponytail on top of her head as she hugged her doll.

"This can't be!" Jay exclaimed as he was about to lose it but Lloyd elbowed him on his stomach.

"OW! Ok, yeah so sorry." Jay quickly added as he babied his stomach.

"You can't be serious!" It was Lloyd's turn to be worried and filled with horror. He then realized who that syringe was for...it was for Jade. He then turned pale white as a vampire.

"I think I know what that needle was for..." Lloyd slowly spoke.

"It's fine bro. I think we all got the idea."

"We do?" Ay asked oblivious as to what was happening.

"Seriously Jay how did you become a special agent!"

"Woah! What's this!" Jay exclaimed as he saw on his phone's screen there popped up a piece of alert news about a ghost gal coming to life again to haunt her killers, causing them to turn insane.

"Oh, my stars." Nya blurted out.

"What's happening?" Lloyd stood staring at the phone not believing his eyes. The girl standing in the photo looked just like the girl in the photo.

"Ok, I take it back Jay you are the best agent!" Kai blurted out, out of happiness.

"Oh, thanks..." Jay replied confidentially until he realized what Kai meant, "Hey!"

Kai then laughed at Jay's attempt.

"Shhh!" Nya mentioned to them to be quiet as they kept reading the news.

One thing they didn't know was that someone was out there listening to their conversations, lurking in the shadows.

"I'm sorry cousin. It didn't have to be this way but it has to happen. Hopefully, you would join our side, see things my way, and come back with family." A woman with bleached white hair with a red bandanna over her mouth stood there in the dead of night waiting and watching like a predator waiting and watching for its prey, smiling to herself.