Click...Clack...Click...Clack...

"Ma'am, you can't just go in," a guard told the older woman, standing in front of her and denying her access to Krypterium. "You will need to undergo the security protocol like anyone else."

"Oh, shucks! Well, kind gentleman, I only need to say happy birthday to my grandson. He is turning twenty-seven years old today. But we don't say 'old' in our household, we say 'young'!"

The guard looked down at the woman and studied her. Her hair was curly and as white as snow. Her posture was as crooked as a banana. Her eyes were hidden by a pair of dark glasses. A walking stick was in her left hand that she used to steady herself and not topple over.

"And what is your grandson's name?"

"Uh, Brandon... Brandon Brandonson."

Rolling his eyes, the guard grabbed the woman's hair and pulled at it. He expected to rip off a wig.

So one couldn't understand the surprise he felt when a few strands were ripped off instead of a bundle of hair. The woman screamed in agony as she fell to the floor and clutched her head.

With wide eyes, the guard bent down and pulled off her sunglasses to reveal green eyes instead of brown ones, like he had expected.

"Oh lord," he whispered, immediately crouching down to aid the woman he injured. "I'm so sorry, ma'am! I thought you were wearing a disguise!"

A few other guards quickly came to the woman's rescue and escorted her inside and right to the medical center of Krypterium.

"What was that, man?" a colleague of his came to stand next to him. They were close friends.

"I don't know," the guard answered, rubbing his eyes tiredly. "I just thought she was-"

"Howdy, fellas!"

The two guards looked at the person standing in front of them. They were wearing cowboy boots, a cowboy hat, a brown leather jacket and dark blue jeans. A toothpick was sticking out of their mouth and above their upper lip was a large mustache.

A large mustache that looked like it was glued on.

The guards narrowed their eyes at the same time, thinking the same thing. "Name," one of them ordered.

"Randy Britches."

"Britches?"

"Britches."

"Okay, Miss Smith," the friend of the first guard said, sighing. "Please just give up. You are not allowed to get in."

"Smith?" the person's southern accent rang out. "I ain't no Smith."

The guard gripped the man's mustache and pulled on it. "You are not allowed to-"

"Ow!"

The guard immediately let go of the mustache and watched as tears gathered in his eyes. His hand rubbed his upper lip as he glared at the guards glossily. "What the hell, bruh? What kind of cop are you?!"

"But-but that looks so fake!" the guard exclaimed.

"Now you know how I felt pulling that lady's hair," the other guard said, sighing. "We are sorry, sir."

"You boys better be!" the man yelled. "I will sue your butts to oblivion, just you wait!" With that, the man angrily walked away from the scene, looking back every now and then to scowl at the guards.

"When's our break?" the two guards asked the other at the same time before chuckling.

The moment another person stepped in front of them, they became serious again.

"Hello."

"Miss Smith?" one of the guards said, surprised that the former Master of Water was standing in front of them without any type of disguise.

"Yes, that is my last name, great job," Nya said sarcastically.

"You know you are not allowed to visit-"

"I know," she cut him off. "That's why I'm not here to visit my family but Killow."

"You can't visit him either."

"And why is that?" Nya put a hand on her hip, giving the two a challenging look. "Killow isn't a ninja as far as I can recall. Or am I wrong?"

"You're right," the guard said, "but you are still not allowed to step into this facility."

Nya sighed. "Look. We've been through this already. I am tired of this little rule that's been directed to me, and only me, so I'll give you a chance to redeem yourselves before I will have to write you down on my list."

"Your list?"

She nodded. "And I'll underline your names in red. Once someone is underlined, there's no way back for them."

"You don't even know our names," the other guard accused, crossing his arms.

Nya narrowed her eyes at him before smiling slowly.

"Your name is Howard Frankings. You're thirty-two years old, you have a wife called Maria and a two-year-old son called Buddy. That's a weird name to give your son if you ask me, but I'm in no place to judge. You were born on the first of April, which makes you a literal joke, and you have a chihuahua that hates you. Your mother cut all ties with you because you are a 'disgrace,' as she puts it, and your father died two years ago. You love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches but apparently it can only be you who loves those in your family because you always hide the jelly jar in the farthest left drawer in your kitchen. Who does that? Oh, and you repeated second grade which is pretty embarrassing. You once had a crush on your seventh-grade English teacher and once peed in your Math teacher's plant as a form of revenge after getting a B- on a test. I don't know what's more embarrassing; going into hysterics over a B- or cheating on your first girlfriend, whose name is Erica. Because you did that too. Poor Erica. But it's probably better for her that she didn't end up with...that. Not to mention the fact that you got cheated on by the person you cheated with, which is just hilarious. You used to sleep with a teddy bear that you named BearBoo until it got torn apart by your then poodle Poodle. Who the hell names their poodle Poodle?"

"Okay, okay, enough!" Howard said. "How do you know all of that? Jeez!"

Nya closed her mouth and smiled maliciously at him before she slowly flit her eyes to the guard next to him, who was laughing at his friend's predicament.

When he realized she had turned to him, however, he quickly sobered up and shook his head.

"Steve Tralter. Twenty-nine years o-"

"Oh no, no, no," Steve quickly said. "Please."

"Twenty-nine years old. Single. Three divorces... damn. You have a black cat that you like to make exquisit cuisine for and your whole world revolves around her."

"Aww," Howard cooed. "That's adorable, man."

Steve smiled slightly. "Princess is my everything."

"Anyway," Nya said, making the two look back at her. "Can I go in now?"

Howard sighed. "No can do. Mayor's orders, you know."

"But what do I need to do to be able to go in and see the family that's been taken away from me?"

"The only thing you can really do is go and pay a visit to Mayor Trustable, try to get on his good side and stuff. Maybe he'll be able to do something about your situation."

Nya thought about it for a moment before her eyes lit up. She smiled at the two before bidding them goodbye and walking away.

"You're lucky you get to get on my list without being underlined," she yelled back at them before continuing her way back with a new objective in mind.

— — — —

"Name."

Nya shifted her weight from her left foot onto her right one. "Nya Smith." Obviously.

The woman behind the desk adjusted her thin-rimmed glasses before typing away on her computer.

The reception inside the mayor's official office building seemed different to the many times Nya had been there in the past. A large portrait of the new mayor was hung up on the same wall that used to support a few certificates, awards and even medals of the many trust funds the former mayor had initiated. All the potted plants, even though they were made of plastic, were now gone. The royal blue carpet on the floor was replaced with a crimson red one.

In fact, red seemed to be the main color of the entire building's interior decorations.

"A Nya Smith is not on the list," the woman announced. The small scowl she sent Nya didn't escape her.

Nya bit the tip of her tongue to contain some of her favorite profanities. "It's very urgent... Dorothy," Nya read the woman's name tag. "Please. I won't take long either."

"I can't let you go up to him," Dorothy told her. "That is out of the question."

"But it's so important. All I need is three minutes, promise."

The aging lady shook her head. "You need an established appointment to see him. I could put you on the-"

"Fine," Nya said, accepting defeat. "It's fine. Have a nice day." She quickly walked out of the building.

Instead of going back home, Nya turned around and looked at the building. It looked so tall and... climbable.

An idea popped up in her head, and before she had the chance to really think about it, Nya glanced around. There were no people outside and most of the windows were closed and guarded by dark red curtains.

The only security camera was pointing to the front door...

Making sure to be out of its reach, Nya took a deep breath to calm her nerves before grabbing onto the first windowsill. She catapulted herself upwards and continued doing so before making it up to the roof in no less than fifteen seconds.

She landed with a hmpf but smiled, feeling accomplished that she was still as fit as a year ago.

Nya walked closer to the center of the roof to stay hidden from any possible onlookers. When her eyes landed on an A/C opening, she quickly shuffled over to it and looked down.

"Brings back memories," she mumbled to herself. It did bring back fond memories of breaking into the Explorer's Club, the only difference, apart from being alone this time, being the fact that she had no rope to cling on to.

But that didn't really matter since the opening was quite narrow. Narrow enough to carefully slide down for sure.

— — — —

"You always crave my attention, Mr. Fussly Fussly," Mayor Trustable told his pet cat. The animal was sitting comfortably on his desk as the man could do nothing but give in to the furry creature's demands for pets.

When the door to his office was suddenly busted open, he automatically stood up like a stick with his head cast down to the floor. His cat hissed at the unexpected new company in the room.

"You!"

Letting out a sigh of relief, Trustable looked up and narrowed his eyes at the young woman who was standing in his doorway and breathing heavily, an angry look on her face.

"Me," he said casually, sitting down on his chair and going back to petting his cat's white fur in regular motions.

Nya stormed over to his desk and stood in front of him, ignoring the two chairs that were specifically there for visitors to sit in. She glanced down at the name tag that was set near the edge of the table.

Ulysses Norville Trustable.

A stupid name to match his stupid face.

"I don't know what it is about you," she spoke slowly, "but whatever it is, you won't win. I won't give up. You've been the mayor for how long, a year? And you're already giving out orders that could ruin you? That's low, even for you."

Trustable retracted his hand from his cat and leaned back into his wheely chair. His eyes followed his cat as it pitter-pattered to its small cat bed before coming back over to look up at the angry woman.

"This isn't a game, my dear," he began. "This isn't a challenge either. If you're here to complain about not being able to visit them or be with them, you might as well leave again. You've been a human again for how long, three weeks? And you're already making decisions that can ruin the life you've been re-given?"

Throwing her words back at her made Nya more mad than enlightened. She didn't feel intimidated by his calm nature or his copied wordings.

"You're a hero, Nya," Trustable said, praising her. She didn't buy his compliment though. "That's the difference between you and them. You're staying true to your roots, to what you were meant to be. They didn't stay true to that and used their stance in our society to turn into criminals. They broke the law instead of holding it upright."

"They broke the law to get me back," Nya explained tensely, "and they've succeeded. They broke the law because you forbade them to get me back legally. You are the one who refused to cooperate."

"They still broke the law, whether you want to accept it or not."

"You don't seem to get it, do you?" Nya placed her hands firmly on his desk as she leaned forward until her face was right up against his. She could see every pore, every flaw, every ugly feature on his wrinkly face and suppressed a gag. "They risked it all to get back a family member. Me. Answer me honestly Trustable-my-butt: If you had the chance to bring back a loved one but your beloved new mayor forbade you from doing it legally, would you A) go against the law to bring them back anyway, or B) follow the law and live the rest of your miserable life grieving?"

The mayor seemed distasted and uncomfortable because of her words. That alone almost brought a smile on Nya's lips.

"If this is your way of trying to intimidate me, then you are not only disrespecting me but also about to make yourself a new enemy. And having the mayor as your enemy has its... disadvantages, Miss Smith."

He's deflecting from the question, Nya thought as her nostrils flared.

"A)," she asked slowly once again, "or B)?"

"That is enough!" Trustable suddenly yelled, standing up from his chair with his hands banging on the table. "Security!"

"Answer me!" Nya yelled back, banging her own hands on the table.

"You are going to regret this, Nya," the mayor uttered lowly. "I'm sorry about your criminal family, but you? I would have never expected such disrespect and filth coming from you."

"No, I'm sorry," Nya said. She heard the doors being opened loudly from behind her but kept her eyes on the man in front of her. "I'm sorry that my image is about to crumple even more, but what can I say? My mayor is a piece of trash that sucks at treating his citizens with care and dignity."

All reasonability left Nya's brain the second she let her anger control her body.

And just like that, she watched as her own fist connected harshly with Mayor Trustable's jaw, sending him to the ground.