Chapter 6: Future

"What the?!" Everyone was in pure astonishment as the future Clarice hugged the real Clarice.

"Thank God...my team...their ok..."

"Wait, how do we know your future Clarice?!" Joon asked.

"On October 12, at 9:49 PM, the group chat ends with Quan and Abigail saying bye to each other." Future Clarice informed and as Kowun looked up her Insta on Quan's phone, she looked up and nodded, confirming that what the person said, it was completely true.

"So why do you want the cupcakes?" Amelia asked.

"I want to experiment then... To find out what caused the change of my world which is just another version of hell." She responded that she wiped a tear off her cheek.

"Well you can experiment with us! Come on! "Clarice smiled at her future self as she grabbed her hand and ran towards the car.

As Hazel drove, future Clarice just stared at the car floor, trying to endure her pain.

"Hey, future me...mind telling us how you got here?" Clarice asked and as everyone listened, Future Clarice told the one short sentence.

"I got here through teleportation. And just call me Clari."

"Clari?"

"My team of the future crusaders only said half of my name and I want to treasure it since it was their last words until..." As she explained, she began to cry again.

"What happened to us in the future?!" Wesley asked. Clari still continued to cry, but was able to mumble one word.

"...dead..."

"Dead?!" RosaMariéChe asked, speaking for the rest of her team.

"Dead. Killed. Murdered. Right in front of me..." Char muttered as she stared at absolutely nothing in front of her, still traumatized as she had the flashback that ended her happiness.

//Flashback//

"Stop! Just kill me! DONT KILL THEM!!" Clari pleaded, but as she pleaded, her classmates attempted to say her name.

"Clari-"

*Gunshot*

It was too late, she saw the bullet strike through her last teammate alive's skull as blood poured out on the floor.

"Just...kill me..." Clari stated, wanting her pain to end as she cried continuously.

"I want to see you suffer...you'll live...guards! Throw her out!"

As Clari was thrown out the dungeon, she just lied on the floor, crying and bleeding until she could no longer.

//Flashback ended//

"Please...STOP! WHY DIDN'T YOU KILL ME?!" Clari screamed out loud, not aware that she was screaming in front of her past self.

"All that happens to us in the future?! How did you survive?!" Clarice asked, shedding a few tears. Clari looked up at her, pure pain and sorrow reflected in her eyes as the pain turned to tears.

"I survived, but I didn't live. I just cried nonstop when I arrived here, and I haven't smiled ever since. I just cried and cried and...." Clari just broke down into Clarice's arms as Clarice was hugging her future self.

"Wait, you NEVER smiled since?" Camilla asked. Clari just looked down and frowned as she was still in Clarice's embrace.

"Come on Clari! Smile? Please? Banana?" Camilla asked as she stared into Clari's eyes, hoping she would smile, but Clari just stared at her and petted her on her head.

"You were such a great person Camilla..." Clari said as she patted her on the head.

"You sacrificed yourself to keep me living...I actually miss you."

"Rude?"

"Even though you were very annoying..."

"REALLY RUDE!"

"Hey...I just realized for once, this is actually an extremely peaceful car ride!" Clarice commented.

"I WOULDN'T SAY THAT. SCHOOL!" Hazel screamed as they were about to crash into the gym. The last thing Clari did before they crashed was grab a silver baton.

"Teleport!"

(Drawing can be found on here = http://sta.sh/0sxcgfyg3s )

...

"Are we dead again?" Ted asked until they realized they were in the basement of Abigail's house, which was located right by the school.

"How did we-" Camilla began to ask, knowing that she wasn't the one who teleports until a voice rose up.

"I teleported you guys out."

Everyone turned to see the voice belonging to Future Clari, who held a silver baton. As she held the baton, one gold bar on it turned black, and as soon as it did, a tired groan echoed from her mouth as she fell to the floor.

"Clari!" Clarice screamed in worry as she helped her up.

"Ugh...can't believe 3 teleportations wastes one bar of energy..." Clari mumbled.

"Hey, what is that?" RosaMariéChe asked as Clari grabbed the glistening silver baton.

"This is what I used to help you guys."

"But I have teleportation! You don't have to waste your electricity in that thing!" Camilla explained.

"You wouldn't have made it in time. Your powers are a few seconds slower than mine." Clari then looked up and glanced at the Crusaders, going deeper into her explanation.

"The magic and powers we have, we advanced that in the future. We advanced it so much that our powers and magic have collided and became one with our own lives. Our powers and magic are basically our own energy source. In the future, since our dictator spread some weird chemical that prevents magic from being in our bodies, we transferred our energy into our own batons. But there is a downfall, if all the energy is gone, so are we. And I used plenty of it..." She looked down and gently swiped her finger on the pitch black bar.

"Wait, ALL THIS HAPPENS IN THE FUTURE DUE TO THE CUPCAKES?!" Ted asked in shock, this time he flailed his arms.

"Well...the idea behind it..." Clari explained until they heard the sound of grumbling and the sound of rubber skidding by the school.

"What was that?!" Alex asked as they all ran to the window and saw a person dragging a duffle bag, with a red boot hanging out of it.

"Uhm...I think that's a leg..." Camilla commented.

"*gasp* Oh no! It's just a gigantic orange gummy worm with a red rubber wrapper!" Akimbo sarcastically said as Camilla's fist lit up with electricity.

"Oh shut up Curly Fries!" Camilla yelled, referencing to Akimbo's curly hair, Akimbo hating the nickname.

"Says the one who talks like she has no brain!"

"Well now my brain is telling your mouth to shut up!"

"My mouth will shut up when your brain decides to become smart!"

"So...does future Akimbo and future Camilla grow more mature or...." Clarice asked Clari. Clari just looked at her and gave her a glare that clearly states "Are you kidding me?"

"In the future, Sasuke and Naruto have nothing on them! And Naruto and Sasuke tried to kill each other! And they aren't even real! Once, SOMEONE threw kunais at someone and SOMEONE tried to throw a bottle of acid at the other one. Do you know how many fights I had to break up?!"

"So...they're hopeless."

"Completely hopeless..."

"Guys? Whoever they are, they are getting into the cafeteria! Camilla, stop arguing with Akimbo and tell your brain to teleport! And tell yourself this is serious and desperate measures cause we don't need Clari wasting her energy." Ricardo demanded.

"Ok geez!"

"Yeah Camilla!"

"Shut up!"

As Camilla teleported, they fell onto a table in the cafeteria.

"Ok, we'll be ready for whoever is coming!" Hazel began until the silver baton was raised in the air again.

"Teleporting Bubble! Size 21!" Clari shouted at the baton raised above her head. As soon as she finished her command, a sky blue jelly like substance grew out of the baton end and surrounded all the crusaders.

"What was that for?!" Bob began until they felt a really hard shove, causing them to go flying all over the place inside the bubble. As they all went bouncing, they were still able to see what happened. Just like before, for the third time, a car crashed into the cafeteria. However, none of the Crusaders drove nor controlled the car but instead, a black silhouette was behind the steering wheel. Out of nowhere, the bubble they were in shrank and disappeared, only to appear on the gigantic roller coaster like slide, which is also known as one of the many entrances to the CSI Crusaders underground mansion like lab.

"You just had to teleport is here huh?!" Wesley asked Clari unamused. Clari just gave a smug, neutral face, and all she had to say was,

"This should be entertaining."

"Dang you're more careless in the future then Clarice already is!" Mitch was in shock, knowing how careless the present Clarice already was.

"... Actually, I think I like my future self a lot! "Clarice seemed proud as the bubble began rolling down the slide filled with twists, turns, and loops, which looked like a hamster ball on a roller coaster. While only a few people were laughing and having fun and more than half of everyone was crying, screaming, or praying, Clari just bounced from place to place enjoying the play, yet not showing off a smile.

"You're enjoying this aren't you..." Quan asked as head hit the bubble a bunch of times.

"Very... "She replied as Eddie flew at Quan, causing him to crash at the bubble wall again.

"Oh this is war! "Quan hollered as he pushed off the bubble and kicked Eddie. Soon, one huge tournament was happening in just one bubble. It was Quan versus Eddie versus Alex versus Joon versus Chris versus Bob versus Ricardo versus RosaMariéChe versus Camilla versus Akimbo. Even Clarice joined, but she didn't join because she hated someone, she just joined so she could have an excuse to beat up people. As they had their tournament, everyone else just watched and placed bets.

As they finally landed in their lab (no one won by the way) the bubble popped, leaving everyone spread out on the floor. Clari struggled to get up, but fell down, only then realizing she wasted another bar of her life source.

"Anyway, what happened up there?! "Ben asked as he brushed his shirt off.

"I think I saw a leg wearing a boot hanging out of the bag and a car almost killed us." Ricardo summarized it until Camilla looked like she was going to faint again.

"Wait Clarice! The red boot is the boot Sailor Moon wears right?!"

"Yeah, why Camilla?!"

"Didn't Mrs. Colada dress up as Sailor Moon?"

"Oh no! Oh no! You're saying that that guy kidnapped Mrs. Colada?!"

"Most likely yep!"

"Well that's just great! 2 mysteries to solve!" Joon informed, not sure if it was a good thing or bad thing. All of a sudden, they heard a voice scream,

"Birdseye vision!"

They turned to see Clari holding her palms together, the baton in between as her eyes were closed, concentrating on thinking. After a few minutes the palms unfolded, the baton fell, and she fell back. Luckily, however, Clarice caught her in time.

"You're using too much of your energy!" Kowun complained as she saw another gold bar turn black, leaving only one gold bar out of five bars still active.

"I have to help my team... And I have to protect the future. I saw the car no longer in the cafeteria and driving away, Mr. Kiorelli is gone as well, and the car's license plate is MRK – 1200..." Clari explained quietly and solemnly as her head fell into Clarice's arms, showing everyone she passed out.

"OK someone repeat all that info! "Alex said, deciding to grab blue chalk and began to write. As Alex wrote down the notes, everyone knew it was time to get serious.

"The car license plate is MRK– 1200! Someone search that up! "Bob commanded, sounded like a chief.

"I got it! "Chris gave them a thumbs up as he typed in Google search "car = MRK – 1200."

"I got something!" Chris exclaimed as he skimmed through the first website. "New car : prize for putting factory back in business!"

"OK Toby help me get some notes!" Chris commanded as they both skimmed through the entire website, putting down notes.

"OK what do we have so far?" Clarice asked Chris and Toby.

"OK turns out we got the car was a prize from the boss of the factory, for man who helped bring the baking factory back in the business because of the recipe he taught. However, he hasn't given any names... " Toby informed.

"OK... What's the name of the factory?" Clarice asked.

"... Nothing. No name except an address."

"OK we need everyone! Help them research the address. Type it in and maybe the name of the factory should pop up. " Clarice was giving demands as herself and her team were writing down clues.

"OK what else do we have? "Clarice was looking on her iPad, searching things up as well.

"OK we found out the factory has their own official website! It says on the homepage 'Mike Rello's Halloween treats.' and it says right below it "This brand and this person is the reason our factory is still going on! " Mitch said as Ricardo searched up the brand-name written.

"And those Halloween treats, they are the orange cupcakes... I searched it up and it's the exact same cupcake everyone ate at our school. "Ricardo informed as Clarice went to where the girls were working.

"So they found out what brand and factory are selling the cupcakes, have you guys found out what's in the cupcakes?"

As Clarice asked this, Camilla stuck a poison tester/specifier in the cupcake, only for the specifier to blowup due to how strong the poison was.

"It exploded?! Wow, that poison must be EXTREMELY powerful..." Hazel as she grabbed the printed paper of the identifier.

"What?!" Abigail exclaimed in worry as all the girls looked at the paper.

"What's wrong?!" Kowun asked, trying to fix that identifier and throwing the broken and sparking part in the garbage.

"The poison is amazingly dangerous! Not only that, the poison is UNKNOWN!!" Amelia explained.

"That's great! 3 mysteries now!" RosaMariéChe complained until,

"Make that 2 mysteries..."

The girl in the black hoodie walked up to them.

"Clari!"

"Feeling better?"

A few voices came from different people in the room.

"I'm good. The cupcake isn't." Clari stated as she smelled the cupcake.

"I knew something smelled familiar...This is Sunset Poison, and it's name matches its reason. For anybody who eats it, if they don't get healed by sunset, they're dead."

Those last few words sent a chill up everyone's spines. Ms. Colada? The school? Dead? Not going to happen.

"Wait, how do you-"

"It's the poison used from our future dictator...he used it to poison some of my teammates."

As Clari began to cry, she didn't. She cried to much to cry anymore.

"So that guy, that Mike Rello, he became your dictator?"

"Yes..."

"I'll promise we'll stop him!"

"Got more info!" Quan announced as he scrolled through the website.

"Turns out one of the feature links is linked to a news website."

"Click it!"

"...what did you think I'm gonna do? Just say it and ignore it?!"

As he moved his hand, causing the mouse to move and click a link, a sentence typed as "Factory Man works a Sensation" pops up.

"Ok..." Joon mumbles as he begun taking important notes from the website.

"Ok, it stays that he brought a Halloween cupcake recipe to a food/bakery factory that was about to go out of business. It's also says "As a prize, we gave him a car with the license plate of his choice and his own food brand since he decided to work and revive our factory, despite him already working as a teacher."

"So he's a teacher? I'll write that on the board." Bob wrote "teacher" on the board, which was under "Car number = MRK - 1200" and "Cupcake = sunset poison"

"And our hero's name is Mike Rello!" The article ended.

"Wait a second, in a bunch of other websites, it says he refuses to give his name. But he just willingly gives his name and brand to one website! I mean, shouldn't his name been spread around in different articles cause of all the different news press that interviewed him! Why does only one say his name?" Wesley asked, suspicious until Clarice realized something.

"I think it's a fake name! I mean, he saw the poison in the cupcake tragedy coming, so he could have used a fake name!" Clarice explained with no second thoughts. As everyone thought about, they realized that Clarice could be right Why would only one website know if a bunch of other website interviewed him?

"Ok! Anything else?!" Ben asked, trying to experiment to finding a cure for the poison, only for Clari to stop him and tell him there is no cure.

"Hey! It's says to know more about Mike Rello, click there!" Eddie exclaimed, sliding his finder on the laptop to move it as he clicked the link, sending him back to the factory's website, except this time, all the info on Mike Rello was typed there, but of course, his real name wasn't on there.

"Dang this guy really takes secret identity to a whole new level..." Clarice commented, rubbing her forehead with her fingers in the process.

"Hey wait a second! There is a presentation PowerPoint gift for the guy!" Akimbo informed as he caught Clarice, Eddie, and everyone else's attention as Akimbo pointed to the link on the main computer screen with a projector hooked to it, Clarice tapping the touch screen on the smart board screen.

"Okay, they should have his real name or a picture of him on this!" Ted exclaimed, his eyes glued to the smart board as they went through each shade swiftly, only to see any picture of him in it blurred. But then the end of the PowerPoint came. The last slide read,

"Thank you Mike Rello, or by your one and only real name..."

Oh my god. As everyone read the sentence, they read the real name typed, and they were in complete shock. They felt a mixed up wave of confusion, relief, anger, happiness and betrayal.

"What?! It's HIM?!"

"But we saw them in the floor in one of the rooms!"

"As much as I feel betrayed and don't want to believe it, the evidence never lies!"

"I guess this is what they mean by it's the person you least suspect..."

"Come on! Now that we know who it is, we must stop them! Someone get the address on the GPS and let's get out of here!" Toby screamed as Camilla teleported them to the car.

"Why'd you teleport us to the car? We could just go there!" Chris asked as they were on a seat.

"well, I WANT TO CRASH KNTO THAT JERK'S FACTORY AND HOPEFULLY HIS FACE!" Clarice howled enraged as everyone stared at her in fear.

"Are you this scary in the future?" Ted asked, hiding behind his chair in fear as Clari turned towards him and gave him a "Really?" face.

"You learned that the hard way in my time.." Clari commented.

"Wait, before we go CAN WE PLEASE GET OUT OF THESE COSTUMES?!" Camilla asked annoyed as she was stuck in her banana costume.

"You could have told us BEFORE we got in the car!" Alex asked, getting even more annoyed.

"Oh don't make me say it again!"

"Say it one more time and your a DEAD BANANA AGAIN."

"Guys calm down! I got this!" Amelia's hand glowed a glittering baby blue as she waved her arm and as soon as she did, everyone was out of their costumes and had their normal clothing on.

"How did she?..." Ben was about to ask until Clarice stopped him to explain.

"Baba likes fashion magic, she gets fashion magic!" Clarice explained straight out as Amelia showe off her signature cute toothy grin.

"Okay! HAZEL LETS DRIVE THE VAN INTO HIS HEART!" Clarice screamed. At this one, Alex wasn't scared like everyone else.

"Is that from Steven Universe?! Geez you spend way too much time on your iPad..." He commented as Hazel stepped on the pedal and drove right through the gym wall. As she was driving, Mitch instantly realized something that could get them into major trouble.

"Uhm guys? What do we do about the car? Isn't this Mrs. S?"

Everyone instantly went blank until they decided,

"Just...Uhm...say it was hot wired!"

"Say the villain took it!"

"Say the car got crashed from a poisoned person."

"We'll decide later!"