(Uh Oh...)

“Alright! Playtime’s over!” Glympse snapped at the three girls, a mischievous smile spreading across her face. Shadow went over to her and gave her the orb. They both exchanged smiles.

“Crap! What do w-we do now!?” Ava asked in a panicked whisper.

“I dunno, but we do need to get that orb, fast!” Sarah replied with the same panicked whisper.

“Guys, we need a distraction!” Sage added.

The three girls thought for a moment. As they were thinking, they all heard a car pulling up a few feet behind them. The three girls all turned around and saw a man in a white lab coat running towards them.

“It’s John!” They all thought excitedly.

They all turned back around and saw the look in Shadow and Glympse’s eyes. It wasn’t fear, it wasn’t pride, they almost had a pitiful look in their eyes. But that was soon wiped away as he approached them, and the expression on their faces turned into a mocking smirk.

“John!” Ava started.

“Wh-what are you doing here?” Sarah continued.

He looked at the three girls with a sad smile and continued to walk towards the two figures in front of the three girls. Shadow and Glympse walked toward him as well.

“I’m surprised that it took you this long to find us...” Shadow started.

“So, tell me.” Glympse continued, “Is this all you had to work with this time?” She gestured at the three girls. “Or, did you finally give up?”

John stayed silent, and looked them both dead in the eyes. The two figures smiled. John looked over to the three girls. They gave him anxious smiles. Shadow laughed.

“Oh, dear brother. Don’t tell me you’ve grown attached already.” Shadow mocked. “You do know what happens when you grow attached to the experiments...”

The three girls silently stared at John. Finally, he spoke.

“Brother...I do not know why you insist on trying to be smart when you’re clearly stalling for time. Now, please hand over the orb before we do something we both will end up regretting.” There was determination and the slightest sparkle of laughter in his eyes. Shadow looked taken aback. The three girls stared intently at them. Then, Shadow looked at Glympse and smiled. She handed him the orb.

“My my, looks like someone is feeling confident. Well, if that’s what you want then you shall have it...” Shadow said with a faint chuckle. “But...” He threw the orb up in the air and Glympse caught it. “You’ll have to take it from us first...”

John sighed and chuckled. He looked up at the two.

“As you wish...though this won’t be a fair fight. I see we are not going to be playing by the rules.” He looked back at the three girls, curious smiles starting to spread across each of their faces. They all exchanged excited and curious glances with each other before deciding to join John. When they had all walked over to John he spoke to them.

“Hello again, girls...”

“Hi...” they all chimed in shyly. He looked them all dead in the eyes and continued.

“So, as you can probably tell, those two over there...” He gestured towards Shadow and Glympse, who were waiting, starting to become more and more impatient by the second. “...are my brother and sister. I won’t go in to too much detail here, but we need to get that orb from them. It’s a very powerful weapon and in the wrong hands, it could cause a catastrophic turn of events that could, um, e-end life as we know it...” He scanned each of the girls’ faces. They were all staring intently at him. He continued.

“Just make sure that once you have it, that you don’t accidentally trigger it. I have no idea what it will do to you...”

“So, um...h-how do we trigger it exactly?” Sage asked.

John thought for a moment and finally said,

“I honestly have no idea. I’ve never set it off before.”

The girls started to become uncomfortable waiting and just standing there, so they started to shift the weight from one foot to the other. Finally John said,

“Okay, girls...I can tell that you’re ready to go fight them, but just remember to be careful.” The three girls nodded and went to go join Shadow and Glympse.