I liked living where we did. It was off-the-grid. And we all knew that no one would find us any time. But when the earthquake hit we all woke up to glass shattering. I clinged on to Chase.

"What is this?" Molly asked us all.

"Earthquake!" Chase shouted, we all got up and ran.

"Over here. Doorway." Nico shouted to Molly and Gert.

"Molly! Under here!" Gert shouted before getting under a table.

"Gert!" Molly shouted before running over to her.

"Molly! No!" Chase shouted before Molly started to lift up the collapsing pillar.

"Holy crap." Gert got out. Once the earthquake stopped we left our little safety spot.

"Did you guys see that?" Molly asked while putting the pillar back up.

"We're safe. We survived." Alex said before the chandelier fell making me jump into Chase. We then walked over to it.

"This place held, though." Chase said to us, I don't know how.

"For now." Gert said to us.

"It's a miracle it's still standing." I said to them, we were luckily this place didn't come down on us.

"Wait, guys...where's Karolina?" Nico asked, I then looked around. She was gone.

"I don't know, but we'll find her." I said to her reassuringly. The last time I saw Karolina was before I shut my eyes for the night. Chase and I went to go and search a few sections together.

"There's no sign of her upstairs." Gert said to her, she wasn't anywhere.

"Although, pretty sure I saw, like, rat-sized cockroaches back there." Chase said before Old Lace growled.

"Bite-sized Old Lace snacks." Molly said, at least we had a way to get rid of them.

"No. Gross." Gert said to them. "Fine. Who am I to judge the dietary habits of a homeless dinosaur?" Gert asked before Old Lace roared and hissed at her. She then ran past us to eat the cockroaches.

"Guys! Focus. Karolina!" Nico said to us, that was my focus.

"Look. She's not in here injured, ok, which means she's out there probably totally fine." Alex said to her, he had a point but we all knew she wouldn't listen.

"Except it might be worse out there. We need to partner up, comb the area nearby." Nico said, that was a good plan actually.

"Or maybe we don't need to go anywhere." Molly said before I followed her gaze. There Karolina was.

"Hey. Is everyone ok?" She asked us with a smile.

"Where were you? We were worried." Nico said to her, I knew that she'd have a good answer.

"Sorry. I couldn't sleep, so I went for a walk in the woods. I really didn't mean to worry anyone." Karolina said before Nico pulled her into a hug.

"How bad is it out there?" Gert asked her, it had to be bad surely.

"It's definitely way worse down here. The rest of the world is still intact." Karolina said, so this wasn't that main one then. Got it.

"Ok. So this isn't the one that Molly's parents warned us about." Alex said to us, I was tired so I rested my head on Chase's shoulder.

"Or it's the pre-shock to that one. We don't know if we permanently shut down the construction site." Molly said to us, either way our latest would just become serial killers if this happened. They wouldn't have started anything up again.

"You think they restarted the drill?" Nico asked us.

"That Jonah guy seemed pretty determined. I'm not sure one cement truck is gonna stop him for long." Chase said, we had to take him down.

"Sometimes an earthquake is just an earthquake...especially here." Karolina said to us, she had a good point.

"And sometimes it's an evil PRIDE plot to frack LA into the ocean." Alex said to us, that wouldn't happen.

"We have to make sure the dig site's destroyed. Permanently this time. We need to power up, which means I need the staff." Nico said to us, it was a dangerous but we could do it.

"You realize your mom has it, right? I mean, why don't we start off by stealing something easy like the Elder Scrolls in Skyrim?" Alex asked us, we all looked at him confusedly. "Obviously a joke. Everyone knows how hard those are to steal." Alex said to us, we really didn't.

"No. Everyone does not know that." Nico said to us.

"It's risky...going back into the belly of the beast. What if you get caught?" Chase asked us, I was thinking of solutions.

"Yeah, or worse." Alex said to us, that's why I was going.

"That's why I'm going with her." Molly said to her.

"I am as well." I said to them.

"Me, too." Karolina said to us.

"I'm not much good without the Fistigons, and I can't fix those until I steal some power and get this place back on the grid." Chase said, I honestly wish I could help with that but I couldn't.

"I'll stay, too. I need to make sure this place isn't a structural death trap now." Gert said to us, hopefully it wouldn't be.

"I gotta get to my job." Alex said to us, since when did he work?

"What? You never said you had a job." Nico said to him, I want a job but I can't. "What are you talking about?" She asked him.

"I never said I didn't have a job." Alex said to us, well he didn't say he did either.

"You know what, Wilder? I'm sick of this secretive shit. What job?" Chase asked while walking over to him.

"Chase." I said quietly.

"Yeah. He's right. You gotta tell us." Gert said to him, shocking that she was agreeing.

"Shocking that you agree with Chase, even though he's dating Y/n." Alex said to her, couldn't I just be left out of this.

"Wow. Thanks for that refreshing dose of patriarchal thinking, 'cause I just- -I can't have have an opinion of my own?" Gert asked her, I don't know how long I could survive living with her.

"Oh, boy. Now you've done it." Chase said to him.

"You know what? I'm leaving." Alex said before turning to go.

"No, you're not. Not until you tell us where." Chase said stopping him.

"What are you gonna, Chase? Beat it out of me?" Alex asked him, I didn't need a fight right now.

"Oh, don't you think I couldn't." Chase said to him.

"Guys, don't think about it." I said to them while working over to them.

"Everyone, stop! Alex, you have to tell us. Our parents lied to us every day of our lives. If we're gonna be differently we gotta trust each other, and that means no more secrets. Otherwise, we're just like them." Molly said to them, that was true.

"Fine. I'm working for Darius." Alex said to us, out of all people.

"The guy who kidnapped and almost shot you? That's a great plan. Good thing you don't need an IQ test to stay here." Chase said to him, I was slowly giving up here.

"Yeah, 'cause then where would you stay? Look, you guys asked me to tell you, and I did, so now I'm leaving." Alex said before leaving us.

"Alex." Nico said trying to stop him but he kept going.

"At least he told us the truth." Molly said, before we left to get the staff back I went to go and get a drink. I didn't realize that Chase was behind me.

"Are you sure you should be going? After how you felt yesterday." Chase said to me I looked at him and wrapped my arms around his neck.

"Listen, I'll be fine. You're dating someone who should be a military weapon, so trust me when I say I'm feeling better than yesterday." I said to him before burying my head on his chest.

"I know but I worry about you. Before it was the risk of you smoking, and now it's the risk of you being experimented or being killed for what you can do. So promise me you'll come back all in one piece." He said to me, I looked up at him.

"I promise." I said to him with a smile, he quickly kissed me.

"Y/n are you coming?" Nico shouted.

"I'll be there in a minute." I said to her.

"Go, get that staff. I love you." He said to me with a smile.

"I love you too." I said to him before I went over to Nico, Karolina and Molly. Once we made it to Nico's house there was a different atmosphere.

"You ok?" Karolina asked her. It must've been hard.

'Yeah, it's just...it already feels like a lifetime ago." Nico said, it truly did.

"Cool house. Looks deserted. Do you want me to rip off the front gate?" Molly asked her, it seemed fair.

"And do you need me to unlock the front door and maybe pull it off it's hinges?" I asked her with a smile, that would be so much fun.

"No. Nope. Come around this way. The surveillance cameras start at the driveway, but there's a blind spot. We can override Wizey from there." Nico said to us, was it too late to say I'd broken a few of the wires of that.

"You want to kill your mom's smart house? How do we do that?" Karolina asked her, it was easy.

"Not we. You." Nico said to her with a smile. We then jumped the fence before Molly broke the lock. "The controls Wizey's nerve center inside." Nico said, I could sort that out easily.

"You think my powers can somehow shut it off?" Karolina asked her, who knew what she could do.

"Light is energy, right?" Nico asked her, that was true.

"Yeah. I've just never tried anything like this before." Karolina said to us, we all looked at her. She took her bracelet off and used her powers and it worked. The garage door opened.

"Oh, my god. You're doing it." Molly said to her, I was glad to see something was happening.

"I don't know what I'm doing." She said to us making me smile.

"Just don't stop." Nico said, we finally had 3 people who were certified military weapon. This was great for us.

"All right. We gotta move, ok?" Nico asked us, we needed people keeping watch.

"Ok. I'll stand guard out here just in case your mom shows." Molly said to them.

"I'll stay with her." I said to them before they walked off.

"I could do this on my own you know." She said to me, I looked at her.

"It would just be better if there was two of us." I said to her with a smile. But what we failed to miss was that Nico's Dad was home and this could mess up everything for us. Molly and I heard voices and went to check it out.

"We thought we heard voices." Molly said to them, we were here now.

"I'm glad we came to investigate." I said to them.

"Four against one. I like those odds." Molly said to them, they were good odds.

"This is between me and my daughter." Nico's Mom said to her, this was between all of us.

"I haven't been your daughter for a long time." Nico said to her, that's how I felt about my parents.

"Look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way." She said to us, none of us were picking the easy way.

"Let's go hard." Molly said before picking up a chair. And throwing it at her. But instead she struck Molly down.

"That's it." I said before trying to move something heavy to throw at her. But she only threw it back at me. It missed me by an inch. Karolina tried using her powers but it didn't work. We were all useless. We tried tirelessly to fight back, I even tried casting images that weren't there as a distraction but it didn't work. Molly managed to gain enough strength to punch her.

"That's for Graciela." Molly said before she picked the staff back up again. After that Molly was flown into the sky and landed in the pool.

"Molly!" Nico and I screamed.

"Freeze!" Nico's Mom got out.

"I'm not freezing." I said before doing something but I was also tossed into the pool. It then froze over. I couldn't even use my powers to break out of it. Molly and I were trying but we couldn't. Not even Karolina could help us. We were drowning in here. When the ice went away I immediately got to the surface and gasped for air. Molly and I got help out of the pool by Karolina.

"You don't know, Nico." Nico's Mom told her.

"I know...that you love that staff's power more than you love any of us." Nico said to her.

"Y/n, are you okay?" Karolina asked me, I was shaking.

"Cold." I said to her, I wanted to go back to our home.

"You can go. All of you. But if you do, I want to be clear. When you leave here, what you said before will be true. When we see each other again, we will no longer be mother and daughter." Tina said to her, Nico didn't need her in her life.

"Tina." Nico's father said to her.

"It's your choice. Stay and work this out...it leave forever." Tina said to her, it went quiet for a second.

"Let's go." Nico said as we left. I was glad to be going. Molly and I were given towels to keep us warm.

"You should hide it. It might draw unwanted attention out here." Karolina said to us, as if the towels weren't.

"Yeah. We better hurry up." Nico said to us, I was cold and tired. I was in no mood to hurry.

"I'm zonked, guys. Just need to sit for a second." Molly said before going to the curb.

"And I'm zonked and freezing as well. I need a rest as well." I said before sitting next to Molly. I had a little nap quickly. I immediately fell into a deep sleep. When I woke up it had only been 10 minutes but luckily no one had left Molly and I. We then started on our walk back home again. And when we did it was dark which meant it was cold and I would be colder. When we got home I saw Chase.

"What's with the towel?" He asked me but I said nothing and walked over to him and rested my head in between his neck.

"Cold." I said to him, he then wrapped his arms around me and started rubbing me with the towel.

"What happened?" He asked me, I just had to figure a way to say.

"Mrs. Minoru, threw Molly and I into the pool and then froze it over." I said to him, he placed a kiss on my forehead.

"You're safe and home now." He said to me. We then went to where the others were.

"Hey, how'd it go? Did you get the staff back?" Gert asked us, Chase walked over to a chair and pulled me into his lap.

"'Cause we got the power on, as you can see." Chase said to us, I was glad we had power back.

"Yep. Great." Molly said before sitting down. It wasn't.

"Seriously? There's electric heat in some of the rooms, we got protein shakes, chandeliers lit up." Chase said, I was glad for heating but not for lighting.

"Fantastic. Now we can all see how bad we look." Karolina said while sitting beside Chase and I.

"Oh, he's not familiar with the concept." Gert said to us.

"You can say that again, he's always looking his best." I said to them all before placing my hard on his shoulder.

"Where's Alex?" Nico asked, I hadn't noticed he was missing.

"Uh, not back yet." Gert said to us, when was he ever back.

"I'm calling a house meeting. Do we wait?" Nico asked, I don't think we should.

"Think we have a quorum." Gert said, I didn't know what that meant but yes we did.

"Powers on. Thanks to Chase and Gert." Nico said to them.

"That's all I wanted." Chase said to us.

"I was going to thank you in another way." I whispered to him making him shake his head.

"I'll hold you to that." He said to me before placing a kiss on my lips.

"We got the Staff of One back." Nico said to us, I was glad we had it.

"And the Fistigons?" Molly asked Chase, I don't think they were done.

"I'll fix 'em tonight now that we have light." Chase said to us, I'd stay up and keep him company for a bit.

"Ok. Everyone find bedrooms. Get some sleep tonight. Tomorrow we're gonna figure out how to use our powers together...as a team." Nico said, that was going to be hard.

"Yeah." I said to her. Chase put one arm around my back and the other under my legs. He then stood up while carrying.

"Let's go and find us a room." He said to me, he then carried me upstairs and to what would be our bedroom. He placed me on our new bed and shut the door.

"Come here." I said to him, he smiled. He then walked over to me and wrapped his arms around me. He placed a kiss on my lips and I deepened it. Our room was a bit cold but let's just say we found a way to get warmth.

"As much as I'd love to stay and cuddle you. I need to get to work on the Fistigons." He said to me before going to get out of bed.

"Can you just stay for a few more minutes." I said to him while sitting up and wrapping me arms around me.

"20 minutes and then I'll have to start working on the Fistigons." He said to me, I sighed.

"Fine." I said before lying back down. He laid beside me and I put my head on his chest. It wasn't long until I fell asleep listening to his heartbeat,