"I am not going to let you turn yourself in!" Troy yells and Lauren rolls her eyes. She unfolds her arms and turns around, wiping the tears from her eyes.

"I can't just let them kill him!" Lauren turns back around to face Troy.

"We can figure something out. We can make a plan-" Troy is cut off by Lauren.

"NO MORE PLANS!" Lauren smashes her fist against the table and the room becomes eerily quiet. "All of our plans have failed! Stealing the cases, planting the bombs...hell, we couldn't even get to our destination the second time without getting caught. They're always a step ahead of us."

A couple moments of silence pass before Troy decides to speak again. "That's not true." Lauren looks at him confused, and he continues. "When we were trying to shake off the car, I told you to create an illusion. That was a plan, and it worked."

Lauren shakes her head and goes to the front door, but Troy's voice stops her. "I trusted you twice." The blonde doesn't turn around but she pauses, so Troy takes this chance to try and convince her. "He is my best friend. Of course I wouldn't want them to kill Luke, but I can't have them take you either. I care about you, Lauren. There has to be another way. There's always a way. I trusted you twice, and now I need you to trust me just this once."

Lauren slowly turns around and folds her arms over her chest. "I care about you too. You're all I have left...you and Luke."

Troy picks up Lauren's spear and tosses it to her. "Then we have to make sure we create this plan correctly."

***

Luke currently sits on the floor of the harbor with his hands bound behind him. Two L.I.G.H.T. Agents stand in front of him while two stand behind him. He looks at one of their watches and it reads 11:58.

"I told you she wouldn't come. You're wasting your time." Luke sighs. He doesn't blame Lauren or Troy at all, but he had a little hope in his heart that they would come for him.

"It just proves she doesn't care for you." The man, who Luke found out was the one who killed Lauren's father, speaks up, turning around and stepping toward Luke.

"Or that my friend wouldn't let her come." Luke tries to settle his fast heartbeat. The man comes closer and Luke can make out all his distinguishing features. He looks to be older than the average age of his own trio. Maybe around his early thirties. His hair is black and thick with white tips showing. His face is scruffy, like he doesn't know how to properly shave. He is very tall and muscular, and he looks more intimidating when he holds his weapons as he's doing right now. He holds a chained ball in one hand and a silver dagger in the other. His eyes are a cold and dark blue, which is enhanced in the moonlight. He wears a thin but sturdy vest with black pants and a belt that houses two more daggers and a couple of those light orbs. These light orbs though, seem to be a bit different than the ones Lauren explained to Luke.

The man, not having yet revealed his name, squats down to be level with Luke. "Some friend you have then. Giving you up in order to save a girl he just met a week ago, while he's known you for almost his whole life."

"And what would you know about friendship?" Everyone pauses and turns toward the voice. Through the darkness of the night, Luke can just make out the bright blue sigma symbol and Lauren's shining, blonde hair waving in the wind.

The head Light Agent stands up, a cocky grin highlighting his face, and walks toward Lauren. "Everyone, I'd like you to meet the daughter of the famous Eric Thompson. The man who refused to help us synthesize our solidified light."

All the L.I.G.H.T. Agents laugh, but Lauren tries to change the subject. "I'm here, so let Luke go."

"Of course. I'm always a man of my word." The head L.I.G.H.T. Agent nods his head toward the four guards and they make Luke stand up. Instead of taking the metal chains off his wrists, they clasp something else onto them. "You never said where to let him go. I hope he can swim."

The four agents drag a struggling Luke to the edge of the boardwalk. Furious, Lauren marches right up to the head L.I.G.H.T. Agent. "You can't! He's supposed to live!"

"Oh he'll live...for about as long as he can hold his breath." The L.I.G.H.T. Agent that was holding the metal ball throws it into the water. Luke is pulled out of the hands of the three other L.I.G.H.T. Agent guys and starts to sink to the bottom of the ocean.

Before anyone can say anything else, a shadowy figure jumps out from behind a truck and dives into the water. Some of the agents run over to the edge of the boardwalk but Lauren throws a flash orb, temporarily blinding and stunning them.

"Do you even know who I am?!" The head L.I.G.H.T. Agent advances on Lauren, who shakes her head as she backs away. "I am Shade, the L.I.G.H.T. organization's best weapon forger, and I'm not going to be taken down by a little girl and her two bodyguards!" Shade tries to grab Lauren's wrist, but his hand fazes through her.

The fake Lauren disappears and the real one climbs on top of a semi truck, taking a flash orb off her belt and throwing it at Shade. He knocks it aside and the flash goes off in the distance. Just then, Troy emerges out of the water with Luke on his shoulder. Now relieved, Lauren turns around to make her escape.

Shade isn't going to give up that easily. Before Lauren jumps off the semi, Shade slams his chain ball onto the side of it. The truck falls over, making Lauren fall to the ground as well.

The blonde stands up and spins her spear around, pointing the gold end at the L.I.G.H.T. Agent. Shade presses a button on the end of the handle of the ball and chain. Spikes surround the surface of the sphere, and Lauren tries to not show her fear. Shade yells and swings his ball and chain in a circle on his side, charging toward Lauren.

Lauren smacks the spiked sphere away, almost like she's playing baseball. She goes to stab Shade, but he dodges and kicks her forward. With her extra momentum, Lauren falls forward, catching herself with her hands. She quickly makes herself invisible and rolls away, dodging the ball being slammed down into the pavement.

"Where'd you go, you little brat?!" Shade waits a second, but then gets an idea and whips his ball and chain around in a complete circle. Lauren sees this at the last second and attempts to block the hit. The force of the ball was too strong, scraping up Lauren's hand and knocking her spear out of her grasp. Lauren loses her concentration and she becomes visible again. Shade spins one more time and the spikes scrape the side of Lauren's face.

Lauren falls down on the broken pavement and Shade kneels down over her. He picks up her damaged hand, spotting what seems to be rainbow glass covering a hole in her hand.

"You know how I found this, Lauren?" Shade lifts up the girl's hand over her face, making sure she sees where glass patched her up. "It was what you would call 'luck'. Up in the Northern areas of this country, I discovered shards of what seemed like solid light. But I knew that was impossible. How could light ever become a solid?"

Lauren tries to squirm away, but Shade leans his left knee on her abdomen, restricting her movement. "But then the most extraordinary thing happened. The sun had set over the horizon and the shards of glass glowed like light bulbs. We have no idea where these shards of solid light came from, but I knew that if I could separate the energetic molecules just a bit more, then I could make the most destructive weapons I have ever made. I just needed a bit more room in the atoms to work with."

Shade examines her hand again and strokes the glass on the back of her hand. "So we found a way to liquify it. The molecules were as far apart as I needed. I offered you father to help with our little project, as he has helped us in the past. But, he quit once he found out what our founder and the company's intentions were. As for this current project, well you know, he refused. He just doesn't understand - he grew up too privileged. Us founders of L.I.G.H.T. grouped together and decided enoughvwas enough! We would make the world a better place to live in!"

The L.I.G.H.T. weapons dealer unsheathes one of his daggers and touches the tip of the blade to Lauren's cheek. He squeezes her neck with his other hand, but not enough to kill her. "You are just like your father! Brilliant, yet rash in your decisions! You meddle with things that are completely out of your league. You should have just stayed as an innocent pianist!"

Lauren closes her eyes, preparing for the pain that is sure to come. Suddenly, the hand around her neck flies off and she hears Shade grunt in pain. She opens her eyes and shakily sits up, massaging her throat with one hand and holding the side of her face with the other.

Shade gets up and Lauren uses all her energy to stand up properly. Shade grabs his wrecking ball and whips it toward Lauren. She dodges, but a yelp is heard from behind her.

"Troy!" Lauren's voice is rocky, but at least she can still speak. Troy stands up while massaging his arm. He dodged a bit too late because he wasn't expecting it.

"Lauren, buy me some time!" The blonde nods at Troy's request and the boy runs back into the darkness. Lauren turns toward Shade to find him taking a light orb off his belt and examining it. It doesn't look like the beautiful rainbow spheres that Lauren saw when she tried to rob them. No, this one is completely dark like shadows.

"You're killing people just to prove you're stronger than them! You think you can save the world with this destruction? You're crazy!" Lauren clenches her fists as she feels her dance hear up in anger. "You killed my father without mercy."

"Your old man was a fool. It seems you don't understand as well. You see, Lauren, we can do anything now that we have this new technology, and what's to stop us?" Shade cuts open the palm of his hand, holds the orb in his injured hand, and crushes it. Lauren sees that the orb's shell was actually regular, clear glass and all the dark stuff was liquid. The liquid soaks into Shade, making its way through his bloodstream. Shade yells in pain and Lauren runs over to her spear, picking it up and pointing it at Shade. He settles down after a moment, chuckling and flexing his injured hand.

"Let's see how you deal with L.I.G.H.T.'s personal Phantom." Shade chuckles again and melts into the darkness. When Lauren hears his voice again, it seems like it's coming from everywhere. "You see, my dear, I have studied the liquid light even further. Instead of bending your precious light waves, I bend darkness!"

At the end of his last sentence, Lauren hears his voice solidify behind her. She quickly turns around, swiping her spear along with her. Shade grunts and bends down at the rush of pain through his leg.

He shakes it off and uses his main weapon to fight Lauren. Shade takes on more of the offensive in the fight while Lauren focuses on her defense. Even though Shade's moves are falling into some sort of pattern, Lauren keeps her eyes open for any unsuspecting moves. She holds her spear in the middle where the light blue ribbons make a knot.

Lauren takes a step back every time she blocks one of his strikes, and she notices this. Instead of blocking his next swing, Lauren smacks it back at him. Shade dodges his own weapon, but that gives Lauren just enough time to make a duplicate of herself. She keeps the duplicate in front of Shade while she secretly sneaks up behind him.

"Have you learned nothing?!" Shade yells and swings his wrecking ball backward instead of at the duplicate. "I told you, I can bend shadows and darkness! I know where you are, Lauren!"

The blonde holds her right shoulder. It seems that light healing thing was just a one time scenario. It must have been because the liquid had just entered her body, but now it's absorbed into her blood and became a part of her. But that's the least of her worries. She can't use her powers because Shade's are more powerful. He can sense her no matter what she does or where she goes.

Troy, you better hurry up, Lauren thinks to herself. "You know what?! I'm proud of my father's decision! I'd rather him do what he did than help anyone like you!"

Shade yells in frustration and slams his ball and chain over his head, and right into the ground. Lauren rolls out of the way just in time. He raises his weapon again and does the same thing. Lauren barely dodges once more.

Shade strongly limps toward her and Lauren whispers into her hands, "Troy, cover your ears." She sends the sound waves out and hopefully Troy will get the message. She quickly does the same for Luke, but when she looks up again, Shade had already swung his weapon.

This time, he swung his ball and chain horizontally toward Lauren. The blonde gets caught in the chain and the ball continues its path, wrapping the chain tighter and tighter around her. The spiked ball finally falls to the ground, pulling Lauren with it. Shade limps up to her and pulls on his end of the chain, earning a scream from the prisoner.

"It's too bad that it had to come to this. I was hoping you'd join us. You would have been a great asset to L.I.G.H.T. and our works." Shade walks over and traces his fingers over Lauren's mask. He aggressively pulls it off, revealing Lauren's face. Not that he didn't know who she was anyway, but now he can be absolutely certain.

Shade unsheathes his second blade, but before he could do anything else, Lauren screams.

The blonde wiggles her fingers through the holes in the chains, catching the sound waves and squishing them together. The tighter the waves get, the louder and higher the sound. She continues this and the scream turns into an unbearable, deafening sound. Any glass in the area shatters. Somewhere on the boardwalk, Troy is finishing his plan with soundproof earplugs in. Luke is somewhere near but safe, covering his ears and waiting for Troy's signal.

Shade lets go of the chain and Lauren wiggles free. L.I.G.H.T.'s Phantom presses his hands against his ears in an attempt to drown out the sound. Lauren stops and almost immediately hears Troy yell, "Dýo leptá!" Two minutes.

Lauren swiftly kicks Shade in the face. She picks up the safe end of the chain and throws the ball and chain across the pavement. She starts to run away, but runs into Shade. He used the shadows to appear in front of her. "Oh no, if I'm going down, then you're going with me!"

Lauren shakes out of her second long shock and punches Shade in the stomach. He exhales quickly and grabs her wrist, turning her around and pinning her against him. She uses her other arm and elbows him in the stomach, and this time he can't handle it. Shade hunches over, placing his hands on the front of his vest. Lauren kicks Shade on his injured leg and he falls on the pavement. "That was for my father."

The blonde itches to punch him again, but finds there's no time and runs away. Behind her, many explosions can be heard and seen. While Lauren was distracting Shade, Troy was placing the explosive orbs under the L.I.G.H.T. Agent's trucks just as they had planned a while ago.

Lauren makes it behind a building and turns around to watch the rest of the explosions play out. For some reason, she can't help but to feel a new complication of emotions. She can't identify what she's feeling, and she doesn't know if she's felt this before. She decides she doesn't like it.

Before she could think on it anymore, someone hugs her from behind. Lauren jumps and spins around, relieved to find it's only Troy.

"Woah, hey, you ok?" Troy asks with concern showing on his face. Lauren nods, thinking he's asking about her jumpiness, but pauses when he wipes a tear from her face. "No you're not."

"I-I don't know why, b-but I feel l-like I d-did something wrong." Troy pulls Lauren into a hug and she lays in his embrace. The explosions sound like fireworks in the background.

Troy tangles his fingers in Lauren's blonde hair, trying to calm her down. "There was nothing we could have done for him. He would have killed all three of us if Shade survived."

Lauren nods, not fully believing his words, but wishing she did. After the last orb goes off, Luke tells Troy it's safe to look around. The two find most of the trucks' contents have been destroyed, but they decide to call the police to take care of any surviving liquid light orbs.

The police arrive quicker than expected. Because of the explosions, they were coming over anyway. Lauren decides it would be easier to keep her identity hidden for now to avoid questions and interrogations. The police find a note that reads:

Des agents pervers vendaient des armes ici. Je suis désolé de devoir faire sauter le port pour les descendre. Veuillez excuser le désordre. Il n'y a pas eu de victimes civiles.

-Σιγμα

(F Evil agents were selling weapons here. I'm sorry I had to blow up the harbor to take them down. Please excuse the mess. There were no civilian casualties.

G - Sigma)

They also found an orb with a Sigma encrusted on it on top of the note, holding it down to the pavement. All the police officers look at each other with confused expressions. What were they to tell the media? Well, the only thing they could come up with. There was a superhero nearby.

***

Back at the house, Lauren gives Luke a bone crushing hug. The three celebrate their victory, and when the neighbors ask what all the fuss was about, they just wave it off saying they are going on vacation or something.

The three become inseparable best friends. If you don't know where Lauren is, she's probably at one of the boy's houses, and that goes the same for Luke and Troy. Lauren learns to master her powers, but she never cheats when she plays the piano. Yes, she still performs. Despite her injured hand, she is able to get it healed.

Luke takes a job as a scientist, studying light and sound waves. He doesn't wish to make light and sound a weapon, but to rather understand what happened to Lauren better and to see if there's a way to get it out of her. Not that she would want her powers taken away, Lauren loves her powers. She's learned to control her sight of the waves as well, so she can choose whether or not she wants to see them.

Troy is continuing his life in the engineering field, taking up Lauren's dad's position. He even has his own right hand man, just like he had been.

Oh yes, everything seemed to be looking up for the three friends. They keep each other up to date with their lives very often.

One thing has been bothering a certain blonde woman for a while though, and she thinks she finally understands what it is. A month ago, that night, she was sobbing for the head L.I.G.H.T. agent, but she didn't know why. She believes now that it's just in her nature. She thinks back to what her mom said to her that day when she was really young just before her death.

Everyone has a good side, even if they refuse to show it. From now on, Lauren promises herself that she will always try to find a way to bring the good out in someone, rather than destroy them as Shade was. Because, well let's face it, Lauren is a stubborn woman and she will always find another way.

ΣΙΓΜΑ
SIGMA

*Mid credit scene*

"Heimdall, is there no way to fix the bridge?" Thor walks up to his best friend who sighs sadly.

"Your actions may have been rash, but they were wise. Your father is proud of you." The orange eyed fellow turns to his friend. "You have destroyed the Bifrost, but there are other ways to send you places. The only way to fix the bridge is to gather its many missing shards throughout the galaxy."

"If there are other ways of sending me to Earth, then we should find them. It would be quicker and more efficient than trying to find the missing shards of the bridge." Thor gazes out into the starry sky.

"I know you're wondering where the shards may be." Heimdall also looks out into the distance. "I can only locate one place where they have landed." Thor looks at his friend to continue, and so he does. "Earth."

*Roll the final credits. All the people who think they are true fans leave while the real fans stay. Who knows, maybe there'll be a post credit scene!*

*Post credit scene*

Lauren parks her car, humming to the last tune she played at the performance she's coming home from. It was quite lovely, but now it's late at night and it's starting to rain. She gets out of her car and unlocks her door.

When Lauren enters her house, she hears music playing and the lights in her living room are turned on. Quietly, she sets down her stuff and tip-toes over to her living room. She muffles the sound of her steps by bending the sound waves.

"You know, not a lot of people can sneak up on me." Lauren turns the corner to face her intruder. A man sits there on her recliner chair. He has dark skin and a black eye patch over his left eye. He wears a black suit that's really fancy, making Lauren think that maybe he was at her recital. He is bald but has a bit of facial hair on him. He must have started her fireplace as well as the music in her living room.

"I'm sorry, you must have the wrong house." Lauren eyes the intruder with great caution.

"I doubt it." The man sits up and folds his hands in his lap. "My name is Nick Fury, and I'm the director of Shield."

"Am I supposed to know what that is?" Lauren asks sternly, warning the man that she is not one to be messed with.

"I'd be concerned if you did. I'm working on a program that involves people with special...abilities." The man never breaks eye contact with her, but Lauren looks down at her hands that hang on her side. "Miss Lauren, I'm here to talk to you about the Avengers Initiative."

Lauren Thompson will return.