17
Prologue
The doors of the city hall swung open as a young adult with flaming red hair darted out into the streets. Even though he was overweight, this man had a surprisingly fast pace as he ran down the street. He looked back, two men at his tail, and he sped up. He then jerked his arms out behind him and caused the street to lift up, causing both the men to fall off their feet. As fast as he destroyed the street, it repaired as if nothing happened and sped up even faster down into main street.
Two other men then came running behind him and he shot large chunks of ice at them, each one thrown and missing them.
In just minutes, this man was surrounded. He stopped abruptly in the middle of the vacant street, knowing it was now too late to get away. One man, who wore a suit and tie instead of a black suit and a bulletproof vest, approached the man.
“Hello Daniel, what a joy it is to finally release that power that you have desperately wanted to just... use, but of course, you got caught…. It’s elements correct?”
Daniel said nothing.
“Well, I already knew that power anyway, for I know your son, in fact I have him safe with me.”
“More like hostage, he’s more desperate than I am to never see your face again!” Daniel spat, clenching his swollen fists.
The man put his hand on his chest, and put on his shocking look on his face.
“Offensive! but I won’t let it bother me,” He released his hand, “Well the good news is, you get to see your son again, but you still get to see my face sadly.” The man turned around and began to walk away, “Take him away.”
Three of his men grabbed unto Daniel.
“You won’t be able to keep all of us hostage Rodrick, we all are more powerful than all of your men combined!!!!”
“I doubt it.” He laughed, glancing at him and then disappearing behind his men.
“WE ARE THE SEVENTEEN, WE WILL CONQUER ALL, WE WILL CONQUER ALL!!!!!!”
Chapter 1- Kara
“You are very special Karalyn, just remember that.” My mother said, tapping my little button nose.
I smiled, but there was still something that was bothering me.
“But mom, I understand I am different and I am okay with it, but I just can’t control it!”
“You just don’t know yet, one day you will learn all about your powers and actually know how to control them, just at the moment, you need to know to keep your powers to yourself.”
I looked up at my mother, suddenly feeling excited, for I had a great question to ask.
“So will I ever get to be one of the seventeen when I grow up?” I asked.
My mother pulled back my bangs.
“Sweetheart, You already are one of the seventeen, in fact half of them are the same age as you and haven’t quite been with the older specials of the seventeen quite yet either. One day you can, but at the moment showing off your powers is something we can’t do.”
“Yes mother.”
six years later
“AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH, Theres a rat!” A girl screamed, pointing at me as I scurried down the locker room. I hadn’t realized what I had done until she yelled it out for everybody to know. I noticed about every girl was screaming and jumping up on top the benches. One girl I saw go get our PE teacher and the next thing I know, Coach Gates came running in, holding a fly swatter.
It looked so much cooler down here, but at the moment, it wasn’t so cool for turning into a rodent in a girls locker room.
“Girls out, OUT, I handle this one.”
Coach Gates was now scaring me, even if she was my favorite teacher of all time. I looked around, actually seeing places to hide that I wouldn’t have ever found as a human. I noticed a hole in the bottom of a locker and darted inside, my skinny, rat body fitting in surprisingly well. I peeked out the hole, seeing her feet, and realized something, for what if I turn into human in the locker.
I waited impatiently for the teacher to leave and I darted back out of the hole, instantly transforming into my real form, a human, teenage girl. I pulled back my chestnut colored hair and looked into the mirror to check if my makeup didn’t disappear after transforming and realized my eyes had changed to, instead of it’s hazel color, a sort of a bluish-green color. Coach Gates was probably in a different section of the locker room, probably checking the showers, so I slipped on my PE clothes and walked towards the showers to find my coach really was looking there.
“Kara, what are you doing here, I ordered all of you to go outside!” She snapped.
“I was in the bathroom.” I lied (Though I really was before transforming by pure accident into a rat.)
“Well if you hadn’t heard the girls screaming, there has been a rat running around the lockers.”
“Actually I think I just saw it scurry out of the door and into the hallway.” I said, pointing at the door.
Coach Gates sighed.
“Thank you Kara, now I’m now going to call the custodian, this rat problem is getting out of hand.”
The coach began marching off.
“Now I thought this was the first rat.”
Coach Gates stopped and turned to me.
“One is too much.”
“Karalyn Mills Garrett, when will you learn to control that!” My mother cried as I told her what happened at school.
Even though my mom was quite disappointed, I could see, by the corner of my eye, my dad laughing in his office.
“It was by pure accident.”
“Well at least it wasn’t the R.O.U.S (Rodents of unusual size) kind!” My dad teased across the room.
My mom turned to her husband, giving him the look, which you should know, is not a good thing. My dad put his head down.
“Sorry, I’ll stop.”
My mom sighed and turned back to me.
“Okay, turning into a monkey at a zoo is alright, or a seagull at an assembly in elementary school-”
“Or a lizard in the library, or a horse at the city fair, or even a baboon, cheetah, polar bear, moose, llama, canadian goose, and a dog in the house.” I added.
“,but a rat in an eighth grade girls locker room, NOT COOL!!!!!!”
“Each one of these transformations I don’t do on purpose mom, they happen by pure accident.”
“And I understand that, but did it have to be a rat in the locker room?”
“I wasn’t trying to!”
My mom sighed again, folding her arms in frustration. She has given me this lecture about every time I shapeshift, for each time it is worse than the other. I think today was probably going to be the worst I can now get, but I was getting tired of these lectures. I don’t just shapeshift, I can also predict the future, double whammy, double trouble. Seeing glimpses of the future is also something I have been having trouble with controlling, so it just happens whenever it wants to.
I was going to say something until suddenly my dad came into the room, his happy look on his face gone. I didn’t understand, but I at least knew this was urgent. He took a seat next to me, giving me a serious look I never liked to see on my dad.
“Kara, that rat in the locker room was brilliant whether you meant it or not (My mom nudged him hard in the side as he said that), but you need to stop. I understand, this is odd to hear it from your dad, but’s it’s not just to keep a bunch of teenage girls sane, there is something else that has putting your life in danger. It was just recently that I found out.
“For your power brings amazement to many people, but there is some who sees your ability as a threat. There is this one man, of the name Rodrick Dane. He does not like the 17, he thinks that you are all some gang who wants to attack and take over. He has been hunting each one of you like plucking a feather from a goose. I don’t know how many he may have now, but just yesterday, I saw one that just got caught by his men.
“This man is named Daniel Linamda, who lived in this neighborhood with his son, who was caught just a few days earlier. Rodrick has been traveling throughout the entire world hunting you down, he is in this neighborhood now, which means a triple target, and he already has two of you, but he knows about your presence here, he just doesn’t know who, he’ll only find out if you show off your power. I know it is hard to control, but PLEASE Kara, try harder to control it. I don’t want to lose you.”
This was indeed scaring me, for I never knew there was someone hunting me down. I scooted down lower in my chair, worries building up in my head. What if they are at the front door right now? What if they saw me transform into a rat? What if they even saw me transform in the past? What if they thought I was getting suspicious whenever I see the future and go for it? Then I remembered when I was younger, I wanted to be WITH the seventeen, but now, the seventeen is now separated from each other. Some are captured, some don’t even know, and some are on the run.
“Kara, this is not just meant to scare you, this is reality, you need to understand that.”
“I do, I-I’ll try to be more careful, I will.” I promised.
My dad smiled. The next thing I know, I am being hugged by my dad.
“I don’t want to lose you.”
“I don’t want to be separated from you either dad, thank you for telling me this.”
At first I wasn’t sure where I was until I noticed a sign above the door saying: Mayor Ryan. This was the mayor's office, but it was so late in the night she was not in her office. But there was someone in there, it was in fact an overweight man with very red hair at the desk. He was opening drawers, rummaging through her papers, checking under her desk, and opening books. It was as if he was obviously looking for something.
Then in came another, this man in a suit and tie, but looked unfamiliar, so he wouldn’t be the mayor’s counselor or supervisor or anything. The man at the door stood by it, and the redhead stood up.
“Nice work, for I think it is a world record to escape from me in just twenty-four hours, but of course, when one escapes in jail, that one is wanted until he gets caught and sent back to jail, but this is different. When one escapes from me, that one now knows how to escape even when we double the guards or lock you up, so it would make no difference. So instead we get rid of you.” The man at the door said.
“Rodrick please, I have a boy, I don’t want him to become fatherless, his mother is already missing.”
I now knew who the man at the door was, for my dad told me about him. This man was the man that thought us as a gang or something like that.
“Your wife is missing because she ran off from me, did you ever know she was one of the seventeen as well, for that is why your son is one of you too.” Rodrick said
“Of course I knew, that is why I married her, because we were both special.”
“Right,” Rodrick stepped up closer to the redhead, “You know, before you seventeen, or the second generation of your species there was the, what we called them, specials. Every one of them, wicked, and tried to take over. They might have had super powers, but they were not super heroes. Now as for this new generation of the specials, I believe this batch will be twice as bad.”
“My mom was a special and she was a good woman.” The man spat.
“No, your mother was not a good woman, in fact I knew her. What’s interesting is how this new generation is going. For not all of you are adults, it’s as if some were born from specials and some skipped generations before another special gave birth. Some have parents that have no ability whatsoever, but their parents parents do. And then some specials never even gave birth or even get a grandbaby with their ability. It’s so unusual, but I like variety anyway.”
“How did you find me?” He asked, changing the subject.
Rodrick sat down on the desk.
“Are you changing the subject?”
“Yes, yes I am very much, for I would like to know. How did you find me?”
“It was quite easy, for this was where I found you yesterday, rummaging through the mayor’s stuff. Now it’s time for me to change the subject. What are you looking for?”
“It’s none of your business!” He snapped.
“You know I can just kill you by the snap of my finger.” Rodrick threatened.
“Fine, because I’m never going to tell you what I am looking for.”
Rodrick sighed, I could tell he didn’t like how it was going.
“I may not tell you what I am looking for, but I will tell you something. There are six more that you have not found, and I think you will NEVER find them, for the seventeen is not as vulnerable as you think.”
“Oh really, well, it’s actually five.”
I gasped as Rodrick looked over at me.
I woke up breathing hard. I thought I was just watching in that dream, but by the time it reached the end, it was as if I was participating in it. This was no ordinary dream, for I know the difference between dreams and seeing the future, and that was surely seeing the future.
I slipped out of bed and darted to my parents bedroom, shaking them awake.
“You need to wake up, you need to come with me, something is going to happen and we have to stop it!” I cried.
“Sweetheart it’s late.” My mom muttered, being only half-awake.
“Come on, please, it wasn’t a dream, I have to go save the man.”
My dad sat up, but my mom seemed so tired, she remained lied down, in fact I think she fell back to sleep. My dad though, seemed very awake all of the sudden, he looked at me.
“Man, what man?”
“He had red hair.”
As fast as he sat up, he got out of bed and slipped on his slippers. He grabbed my hand and I followed behind out the door.
“Dad who is he?”
“Daniel Linamda, was he in the mayor’s office?”
“Yes, but that was Daniel?”
“That was Daniel, a good man, now hurry sweetheart, theres no time to waste. Whenever you see something to predict the future, you never know how far in the future. It could be going on right now.”
Now the city hall was just down the street, in fact just about a block from our house. It was handy and my dad worked there, so I have been to the city hall many times. Once we reached the city hall my dad opened the doors and we darted down the dark hallway to the mayor’s closed door.
“Wheres Rodrick?” I whispered.
“He must already be in there.”
My dad reached to the handle, discovering it to be locked.
“Do you have a key or anything?” I asked, rushed, for I didn’t want Daniel hurt.
“Yes, but I left it at home.”
I looked around, hoping to find something and realized there was another door to the office. I never paid too much attention to it of course, but the door to that door might be unlocked. I looked around the hallway, seeing a door nearby with a sign saying: Secretary. I walked over to the door, happy to actually find it unlocked.
“Oh good for you Kara.” My dad cheered, still whispering.
We entered, the door connecting to the mayor’s office right there. I went to the door, glad to find it doesn’t even have a lock on it. I didn’t hesitate, we entered and there was Rodrick and Daniel. Both of their eyes focused on me.
“See, like I told you… only five.”
(If you want to read more, either ask for more on my blog tab or ask for me to email it to you
The doors of the city hall swung open as a young adult with flaming red hair darted out into the streets. Even though he was overweight, this man had a surprisingly fast pace as he ran down the street. He looked back, two men at his tail, and he sped up. He then jerked his arms out behind him and caused the street to lift up, causing both the men to fall off their feet. As fast as he destroyed the street, it repaired as if nothing happened and sped up even faster down into main street.
Two other men then came running behind him and he shot large chunks of ice at them, each one thrown and missing them.
In just minutes, this man was surrounded. He stopped abruptly in the middle of the vacant street, knowing it was now too late to get away. One man, who wore a suit and tie instead of a black suit and a bulletproof vest, approached the man.
“Hello Daniel, what a joy it is to finally release that power that you have desperately wanted to just... use, but of course, you got caught…. It’s elements correct?”
Daniel said nothing.
“Well, I already knew that power anyway, for I know your son, in fact I have him safe with me.”
“More like hostage, he’s more desperate than I am to never see your face again!” Daniel spat, clenching his swollen fists.
The man put his hand on his chest, and put on his shocking look on his face.
“Offensive! but I won’t let it bother me,” He released his hand, “Well the good news is, you get to see your son again, but you still get to see my face sadly.” The man turned around and began to walk away, “Take him away.”
Three of his men grabbed unto Daniel.
“You won’t be able to keep all of us hostage Rodrick, we all are more powerful than all of your men combined!!!!”
“I doubt it.” He laughed, glancing at him and then disappearing behind his men.
“WE ARE THE SEVENTEEN, WE WILL CONQUER ALL, WE WILL CONQUER ALL!!!!!!”
Chapter 1- Kara
“You are very special Karalyn, just remember that.” My mother said, tapping my little button nose.
I smiled, but there was still something that was bothering me.
“But mom, I understand I am different and I am okay with it, but I just can’t control it!”
“You just don’t know yet, one day you will learn all about your powers and actually know how to control them, just at the moment, you need to know to keep your powers to yourself.”
I looked up at my mother, suddenly feeling excited, for I had a great question to ask.
“So will I ever get to be one of the seventeen when I grow up?” I asked.
My mother pulled back my bangs.
“Sweetheart, You already are one of the seventeen, in fact half of them are the same age as you and haven’t quite been with the older specials of the seventeen quite yet either. One day you can, but at the moment showing off your powers is something we can’t do.”
“Yes mother.”
six years later
“AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH, Theres a rat!” A girl screamed, pointing at me as I scurried down the locker room. I hadn’t realized what I had done until she yelled it out for everybody to know. I noticed about every girl was screaming and jumping up on top the benches. One girl I saw go get our PE teacher and the next thing I know, Coach Gates came running in, holding a fly swatter.
It looked so much cooler down here, but at the moment, it wasn’t so cool for turning into a rodent in a girls locker room.
“Girls out, OUT, I handle this one.”
Coach Gates was now scaring me, even if she was my favorite teacher of all time. I looked around, actually seeing places to hide that I wouldn’t have ever found as a human. I noticed a hole in the bottom of a locker and darted inside, my skinny, rat body fitting in surprisingly well. I peeked out the hole, seeing her feet, and realized something, for what if I turn into human in the locker.
I waited impatiently for the teacher to leave and I darted back out of the hole, instantly transforming into my real form, a human, teenage girl. I pulled back my chestnut colored hair and looked into the mirror to check if my makeup didn’t disappear after transforming and realized my eyes had changed to, instead of it’s hazel color, a sort of a bluish-green color. Coach Gates was probably in a different section of the locker room, probably checking the showers, so I slipped on my PE clothes and walked towards the showers to find my coach really was looking there.
“Kara, what are you doing here, I ordered all of you to go outside!” She snapped.
“I was in the bathroom.” I lied (Though I really was before transforming by pure accident into a rat.)
“Well if you hadn’t heard the girls screaming, there has been a rat running around the lockers.”
“Actually I think I just saw it scurry out of the door and into the hallway.” I said, pointing at the door.
Coach Gates sighed.
“Thank you Kara, now I’m now going to call the custodian, this rat problem is getting out of hand.”
The coach began marching off.
“Now I thought this was the first rat.”
Coach Gates stopped and turned to me.
“One is too much.”
“Karalyn Mills Garrett, when will you learn to control that!” My mother cried as I told her what happened at school.
Even though my mom was quite disappointed, I could see, by the corner of my eye, my dad laughing in his office.
“It was by pure accident.”
“Well at least it wasn’t the R.O.U.S (Rodents of unusual size) kind!” My dad teased across the room.
My mom turned to her husband, giving him the look, which you should know, is not a good thing. My dad put his head down.
“Sorry, I’ll stop.”
My mom sighed and turned back to me.
“Okay, turning into a monkey at a zoo is alright, or a seagull at an assembly in elementary school-”
“Or a lizard in the library, or a horse at the city fair, or even a baboon, cheetah, polar bear, moose, llama, canadian goose, and a dog in the house.” I added.
“,but a rat in an eighth grade girls locker room, NOT COOL!!!!!!”
“Each one of these transformations I don’t do on purpose mom, they happen by pure accident.”
“And I understand that, but did it have to be a rat in the locker room?”
“I wasn’t trying to!”
My mom sighed again, folding her arms in frustration. She has given me this lecture about every time I shapeshift, for each time it is worse than the other. I think today was probably going to be the worst I can now get, but I was getting tired of these lectures. I don’t just shapeshift, I can also predict the future, double whammy, double trouble. Seeing glimpses of the future is also something I have been having trouble with controlling, so it just happens whenever it wants to.
I was going to say something until suddenly my dad came into the room, his happy look on his face gone. I didn’t understand, but I at least knew this was urgent. He took a seat next to me, giving me a serious look I never liked to see on my dad.
“Kara, that rat in the locker room was brilliant whether you meant it or not (My mom nudged him hard in the side as he said that), but you need to stop. I understand, this is odd to hear it from your dad, but’s it’s not just to keep a bunch of teenage girls sane, there is something else that has putting your life in danger. It was just recently that I found out.
“For your power brings amazement to many people, but there is some who sees your ability as a threat. There is this one man, of the name Rodrick Dane. He does not like the 17, he thinks that you are all some gang who wants to attack and take over. He has been hunting each one of you like plucking a feather from a goose. I don’t know how many he may have now, but just yesterday, I saw one that just got caught by his men.
“This man is named Daniel Linamda, who lived in this neighborhood with his son, who was caught just a few days earlier. Rodrick has been traveling throughout the entire world hunting you down, he is in this neighborhood now, which means a triple target, and he already has two of you, but he knows about your presence here, he just doesn’t know who, he’ll only find out if you show off your power. I know it is hard to control, but PLEASE Kara, try harder to control it. I don’t want to lose you.”
This was indeed scaring me, for I never knew there was someone hunting me down. I scooted down lower in my chair, worries building up in my head. What if they are at the front door right now? What if they saw me transform into a rat? What if they even saw me transform in the past? What if they thought I was getting suspicious whenever I see the future and go for it? Then I remembered when I was younger, I wanted to be WITH the seventeen, but now, the seventeen is now separated from each other. Some are captured, some don’t even know, and some are on the run.
“Kara, this is not just meant to scare you, this is reality, you need to understand that.”
“I do, I-I’ll try to be more careful, I will.” I promised.
My dad smiled. The next thing I know, I am being hugged by my dad.
“I don’t want to lose you.”
“I don’t want to be separated from you either dad, thank you for telling me this.”
At first I wasn’t sure where I was until I noticed a sign above the door saying: Mayor Ryan. This was the mayor's office, but it was so late in the night she was not in her office. But there was someone in there, it was in fact an overweight man with very red hair at the desk. He was opening drawers, rummaging through her papers, checking under her desk, and opening books. It was as if he was obviously looking for something.
Then in came another, this man in a suit and tie, but looked unfamiliar, so he wouldn’t be the mayor’s counselor or supervisor or anything. The man at the door stood by it, and the redhead stood up.
“Nice work, for I think it is a world record to escape from me in just twenty-four hours, but of course, when one escapes in jail, that one is wanted until he gets caught and sent back to jail, but this is different. When one escapes from me, that one now knows how to escape even when we double the guards or lock you up, so it would make no difference. So instead we get rid of you.” The man at the door said.
“Rodrick please, I have a boy, I don’t want him to become fatherless, his mother is already missing.”
I now knew who the man at the door was, for my dad told me about him. This man was the man that thought us as a gang or something like that.
“Your wife is missing because she ran off from me, did you ever know she was one of the seventeen as well, for that is why your son is one of you too.” Rodrick said
“Of course I knew, that is why I married her, because we were both special.”
“Right,” Rodrick stepped up closer to the redhead, “You know, before you seventeen, or the second generation of your species there was the, what we called them, specials. Every one of them, wicked, and tried to take over. They might have had super powers, but they were not super heroes. Now as for this new generation of the specials, I believe this batch will be twice as bad.”
“My mom was a special and she was a good woman.” The man spat.
“No, your mother was not a good woman, in fact I knew her. What’s interesting is how this new generation is going. For not all of you are adults, it’s as if some were born from specials and some skipped generations before another special gave birth. Some have parents that have no ability whatsoever, but their parents parents do. And then some specials never even gave birth or even get a grandbaby with their ability. It’s so unusual, but I like variety anyway.”
“How did you find me?” He asked, changing the subject.
Rodrick sat down on the desk.
“Are you changing the subject?”
“Yes, yes I am very much, for I would like to know. How did you find me?”
“It was quite easy, for this was where I found you yesterday, rummaging through the mayor’s stuff. Now it’s time for me to change the subject. What are you looking for?”
“It’s none of your business!” He snapped.
“You know I can just kill you by the snap of my finger.” Rodrick threatened.
“Fine, because I’m never going to tell you what I am looking for.”
Rodrick sighed, I could tell he didn’t like how it was going.
“I may not tell you what I am looking for, but I will tell you something. There are six more that you have not found, and I think you will NEVER find them, for the seventeen is not as vulnerable as you think.”
“Oh really, well, it’s actually five.”
I gasped as Rodrick looked over at me.
I woke up breathing hard. I thought I was just watching in that dream, but by the time it reached the end, it was as if I was participating in it. This was no ordinary dream, for I know the difference between dreams and seeing the future, and that was surely seeing the future.
I slipped out of bed and darted to my parents bedroom, shaking them awake.
“You need to wake up, you need to come with me, something is going to happen and we have to stop it!” I cried.
“Sweetheart it’s late.” My mom muttered, being only half-awake.
“Come on, please, it wasn’t a dream, I have to go save the man.”
My dad sat up, but my mom seemed so tired, she remained lied down, in fact I think she fell back to sleep. My dad though, seemed very awake all of the sudden, he looked at me.
“Man, what man?”
“He had red hair.”
As fast as he sat up, he got out of bed and slipped on his slippers. He grabbed my hand and I followed behind out the door.
“Dad who is he?”
“Daniel Linamda, was he in the mayor’s office?”
“Yes, but that was Daniel?”
“That was Daniel, a good man, now hurry sweetheart, theres no time to waste. Whenever you see something to predict the future, you never know how far in the future. It could be going on right now.”
Now the city hall was just down the street, in fact just about a block from our house. It was handy and my dad worked there, so I have been to the city hall many times. Once we reached the city hall my dad opened the doors and we darted down the dark hallway to the mayor’s closed door.
“Wheres Rodrick?” I whispered.
“He must already be in there.”
My dad reached to the handle, discovering it to be locked.
“Do you have a key or anything?” I asked, rushed, for I didn’t want Daniel hurt.
“Yes, but I left it at home.”
I looked around, hoping to find something and realized there was another door to the office. I never paid too much attention to it of course, but the door to that door might be unlocked. I looked around the hallway, seeing a door nearby with a sign saying: Secretary. I walked over to the door, happy to actually find it unlocked.
“Oh good for you Kara.” My dad cheered, still whispering.
We entered, the door connecting to the mayor’s office right there. I went to the door, glad to find it doesn’t even have a lock on it. I didn’t hesitate, we entered and there was Rodrick and Daniel. Both of their eyes focused on me.
“See, like I told you… only five.”
(If you want to read more, either ask for more on my blog tab or ask for me to email it to you