Part 3
A Super Story

Jacob walked across the room and around the ping pong table. Suddenly, he let out a shout and punched the large black punching bag that was in the corner. He hit it again and again. "They're all... doomed... to destroy... each other... and now... there's nothing.... we can... do... about it!" he said between his breaths. He punched the bag harder and harder until finally he pulled back in his anger and planted a kick into the side of it. The bag wavered for a second, then fell onto its side. He calmly set it up right. He turned to the others and said, "Sorry you guys had to see that." He locked eyes with Cat as he said it, and she turned away from his gaze.

It was then that the doorbell rang. Jacob hadn't been expecting anyone else, to show up, but Mal gave a nervous smile.

"Who did you invite?" Jacob said seeing her face.

"Rose, but she apparently was late," Mal said.

They all ran upstairs, but before Mal could get all the way up, Jacob stopped her. "What did you tell her about why you invited her?"

"I told her the truth. I'm still surprised you didn't tell Richard when you invited him." They finished ascending and found that Cat had already opened the door for her. Rose stepped through the door and her long brown hair settled as she left the windy outdoors. She was taller, but very slim. Her brown eyes always seemed to have some darkness behind them. She was often smiling, but Jacob guessed that she wasn't often truly happy. She asked if they were going to travel or not. Mal and Cat jumped in for him, and explained the situation briefly.

"Oh..." she started, "well, at least you can tell me the story of it, or maybe we can try again." Richard stood quietly in the back, as they discussed another attempt. Finally, they decided to just hang out and play a few board games. In the end, they all went away, and Jacob found himself wishing he could be back in his Gryffindor dormitory, with the other guys. He hadn't truly connected with any of them, but he definitely missed his red bed. He fell into a dreamless sleep, and went through his next few weeks by going through the motions. Finally, it was a Sunday night when something finally changed.

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Cat walked through the doors of the Student Center, a separate part of their church dedicated to students, and greeted Mal and Rose, who immediately saw her. Jacob seemed to sit back and wait for her to come further in before talking to her. They talked for a few moments before they continued towards the middle of the room. Jacob joined them and Cat noticed he was holding a frisbee. Normally he was playing a sport they all enjoyed called Gaga ball. It was a fairly simple game, but he was probably the best at it out of the four of them. He asked if they wanted to jump in for a round or two, so they did. Then he asked if they wanted to go out and throw the frisbee around for a while. They all liked the idea because they were getting a little exhausted by the game. They all headed towards the back door of the building, Jacob leading the way into the bright summer sun. He went out, and she couldn't see him for a moment. Mal and Rose were right behind her, so she continued through the door and stepped into the light, shading her eyes. For a moment she was almost blind, and all she could see was white. When her vision cleared a new sight met her eyes. She had been expecting the small grassy area behind the student center, but what she saw was different indeed. She had stepped out onto a sidewalk in what looked like a larger city. It was midday, rather than in the evening, and the city streets weren't too busy. She noticed Jacob to her right and Mal coming through the door behind her, followed by Rose.

All of them but Rose knew exactly what had happened. They had traveled again, and this time they had brought her along. Cat was curious what book they were in this time, and she didn't have to wait long to find out. Moments later she noticed a figure running towards them, followed by what looked like a massive bird in the sky. Cat looked up to see the bird eclipse the sun. The figure stopped before them, dressed in a skin tight suit, he looked like a superhero with the cape he wore. Cat realized that he very well could be, as there were plenty of superhero books.

He stopped when he reached them and the bird-like figure landed beside them, which they could now see was actually a woman with wings. Jacob gripped his frisbee, clearly unnerved by these people. The man was yelling to clear the area, telling them it was dangerous to be here. The bird woman had a strange look on her face as she scanned over them.

"Captain, look at them," she said to the man, evidently a captain, "they don't know who you are. I'm not certain how that is possible, but look at them Hugh." He scanned them over one more time, confused by the looks on their faces. It was at that moment when Jacob seemed to understand.

"Captain... Hugh... Where could we-" he started, but he was cut short when the wall of the building next to them exploded outwards. "That's it!" he shouted, turning to Mal, "Captain Chromium! Renegades!"

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Mal understood as soon as Jacob said it. This hero was Hugh Everhart, Captain Chromium, from Marissa Meyer's "Renegades". It was a book in which superhumans, which they called prodigies, were more publicly accepted and even depended upon. All this reform was started by an especially powerful telekinetic prodigy known as Ace Anarchy. He brought around an evil age, which was ended when a group of heroes, calling themselves The Renegades, stopped him and established a governmental system. Ace still was fighting back, but now the Renegades were the heroes. They had recruited some of the best heroes to their side. The book didn't focus on either of these heroes, though they were two of the original six Renegades. She now recognized the woman as Tamaya Rae, or Thunderbird. All of this went through her head as they turned to see what had happened to the wall. Hugh turned to face whatever adversary would walk through the gaping hole.

It was a villain that didn't look like he was a prodigy, as he had a bandolier slung over his shoulder, with grenades pinned all across it. She turned to run as Cat and Rose did the same thing. Hugh stood his ground making sure they wouldn't be harmed. The man pulled out a handgun and fired several rounds into Captain Chromium, though he clearly knew this was pointless. The bullets pinged off of the chromium layer under his skin, but Hugh could do nothing if he turned his weapon on the others. Mal looked back to see Jacob taking cover until the man stopped firing. He turned as she watched, and hurled the frisbee.

"Captain!" he called as he hurled the disk into the air, with what seemed like a perfect curve. The edges of the frisbee suddenly began to shine as they were now coated with chromium. The disk continued on its path and struck the man right in the shoulder. His arm was either dislocated or broken, and the man fell to his knees. He reached up with his good hand pulled a pin on a single one of the grenades and dropped the gun with other hand. Hugh charged. He tackled the man and grabbed the grenade from the bandolier. Just as he curled his body around it, it exploded. The man was now unconscious and the explosive safely disposed of. He turned and looked to the three girls, and then looked at Jacob and smiled before he reached down and grabbed the man, marching him off to the tallest building in sight. Renegades headquarters.

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Rose had been bewildered ever since she walked through the doors and found herself in a completely different city. While the others had told her what traveling was, she hadn't been prepared for it. The others clearly hadn't been trying to go to a story this time. Mal and Jacob explained to her and Cat what book they had found themselves in this time, as neither of them had read it. Rose looked down at her hands and noticed something especially odd as she watched them. Every now and then, she could swear that she would blink out of sight, then suddenly reappear, but only a finger or two. After the others were finished, they all continued walking along the path. It was only moments before Jacob stopped them once more. He pointed towards a poster on a wall as they walked. He pulled it off the wall, and handed it to Mal. Mal shook her head, looking at the flier.

"No, bad idea, Jacob. We can't get that involved unless we know that about what the current situation of the Anarchists is. I don't want to get caught up in the middle of a war again, much less be the cause of one," She told him. Rose was still quite confused, but Mal handed her and Cat the flier. On it was a colorful graphic and in bold print it read, "Renegades Tryouts!" Rose wasn't sure what that was supposed to mean, but from Mal and Jacob's description it sounded like the good guys were recruiting superhumans. Then Jacob stopped a stranger passing them, and asked them a question that she thought was quite odd.

"Who's your favorite Renegade?" he asked. The woman looked at him thinking.

Finally she responded, "I was once saved by Tsunami, but Insomnia is really inspiring to us non-prodigies, am I right?"

"Yeah, she totally is," he told her, "But I was just telling my friends that Sketch is actually quite underappreciated in his power level. Well, thanks for the input, have a good day Ma'am." He walked back to Mal, looking at her as though that solved the problem with his suggestion. "What if I can catch Adrian's attention? I could start working with the Ardian Everhart."

"Jacob?" Rose interrupted, pointing to the flier, "This says you need to be a prodigy to try out."

"How good at throwing a frisbee do you think I am?" he asked her, "That throw back there wasn't me just being good. I think I have a power, and I suspect we all do. So what do you guys say? Want to go to superhero tryouts?" He looked at Mal, Cat, and Rose, and each of them thought for a moment then slowly nodded. They were going to try out for the Renegades.