Word count: 2311

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐄𝐎𝐏𝐋𝐄 𝐈𝐍 the party next to them cheered at the knocked-down pins while Luther walked towards the group. Allison had joined them only a few minutes before, only looking slightly less distressed than when she had left.

"All right," Luther began. His eyebrows furrowed as he noticed one missing presence, and he swivelled his head around. "Where's Five?"

"He left," Valerie sighed, putting her hands into the pockets of her blazer.

"Oh, for the love of . . ." Luther groaned, rolling his eyes. "Well, we're not waiting around for him," he said firmly, shifting his weight from one foot to the other as he looked around at the group. "The concert starts in thirty minutes."

"All right, so what's the plan?" Diego questioned.

"Well, I think that, uh . . ." Luther's eyebrows jumped all over the place as he pondered. "We go to the Icarus Theater."

"That's a location, not a plan," Valerie pointed out with a wrinkled nose as she folded her arms.

"What? Is that all you got?" Diego taunted as he stepped forward, his eyebrows raising mildly. "Look, you wanna be Number One, fine, but you're gonna have to get us on the same page, because right now, we're all over the place."

Luther stared at him for a moment before nodding and, to Valerie's surprise, admitting, "You're right. We need a plan."

The sound of smashing glass caused Valerie's head to whip towards the entrance, and her pulse quickened upon seeing who had entered. 

A large group of armoured people, wearing gas masks with glowing red eyes. In their hands were heavy guns, which they then began to put into use as they lifted them and shot. 

The glass containers filled with candy exploded as the bullets shattered them, gumballs and jelly beans flying through the air. Screams filled the air at the same time as the bullets piercing the walls and columns. 

The people belonging to the birthday party scrambled out, all safely leaving while the Hargreeves family remained greatly in the danger zone.

"Get down!" Luther shouted, and Valerie didn't need to be told twice. 

Everyone ducked behind the bowling balls racks, wincing as the pounding of the bullets hitting the tables and the TVs rang through the air. Valerie covered her ears, though it didn't do much to muffle the sounds. 

The arms of Diego wrapped around her and pulled her closer, and her shoulders relaxed, though her heart remained to beat incredibly fast. She nestled into his embrace, her eyes shut. 

"Who the hell are these guys?" Diego questioned loudly over the roar of the guns, pieces of popcorn flying in front of them as the bags on top of the table were shot.

"Maybe they're here for Kenny's birthday!" Klaus shouted as he covered his ears with his hands, his face red.

"No, I'm pretty sure they're here for us!" Luther exclaimed as a bowling ball exploded from a few feet away from him.

Valerie looked around the bowling alley, hopeful—desperate—for a solution. She couldn't find any backdoors or emergency exits that weren't behind the attackers. 

Her eyes soon caught onto the pins at the ends of the lanes, and an idea struck her. 

She turned to Diego, wincing as sparks flew from a nearby TV upon getting hit. "You bring the others through the lanes, okay?" She pointed hurriedly to the lanes, where the pins were brightly lit as she quickly instructed, "Go through, I'll meet you outside."

"What? No! Val, what are you—"

"Do it, Diego!"

"Val—but—you—fine," Diego groaned before leaning forward and shouting towards the others as he pointed, "Guys, bowling lanes!"

Time slowed as Valerie sped over to the nearest shooter. She glanced behind her to see the others running towards the lanes, one slow foot in front of the other. 

Each bullet moved ever so slowly through the air as they crossed towards different directions, and she dodged them with ease.

She wasn't going to kill whoever these people were, obviously, she could never. But she could punch the living hell out of them, which is exactly what she did.

Going from shooter to shooter, Valerie punched each one with all of her strength, knocking them to the ground before they could even realize what was happening. She made sure to grab their gun from them and toss it to the side as well, just to slow them down a little once they regained consciousness.

After attacking seven of them, she glanced back at her siblings, who were all only halfway down the lanes.

With a sigh, she immediately ran towards them, grabbing them one by one as she pushed them through the end of the lane before returning to the other shooters.

With a satisfying kick to the back of the head, she knocked out the last shooter, who fell face-first.

Valerie resumed her normal speed, the flashing lights and the things that had been floating in mid-air now continuing as usual.

The bullets all flew towards random objects: the walls, popcorn bags, the bowling balls, all of which caused no real harm.

All twelve of the attackers lay scattered across the room, unconscious.

Valerie gave a sigh of relief before straightening up, her eyebrows furrowed as she came to a realization: Weren't there thirteen of them?

Before she could react, there was a loud bang! and then a piercing pain on the left side of her stomach.

Valerie gave a cry of pain before turning to see that she had missed one of the shooters; he had been hiding under the chairs.

Not giving him the chance to shoot any more bullets at her, she sped towards him and knocked him out as well, forcing him to fall to the ground.

With a small groan, she looked down to her side, which was leaking red out of the hole in the dress that the bullet had made.

Valerie knew she'd be fine in a couple of hours, her speed-healing reassured her of such. It was just the time in-between that would majorly suck.

Valerie took a deep breath before beginning to vibrate her hand, doing the same to herself as she did to Five as she carefully removed the bullet. She tossed it to the side, the bloody bullet joining the other clean ones on the ground as it rolled off.

She took off her blazer and wrapped it around her waist, hoping it to be sufficient enough to hide the wound (it wasn't). She wiped the blood off her hands on the part of her dress that was hidden by the blazer, though her skin was still stained a little red. 

Swallowing back the pain, Valerie ducked through the end of the lane and left through the small backroom. She quickly managed to stumble her way out the exit, and fresh air hit her. 

The others were waiting at the side in a huddle, anxiousness riddled in all of their expressions.

"Oh, Val, thank goodness," Klaus sighed in relief as they all saw her approach, and he gave her a toothy grin.

"Let's go, I'll run us all to the theatre," Valerie instructed quickly, trying her best to not let the pain affect her voice as she nodded and waited for their approval.

"Hey, hey, what's that?" Diego questioned sharply as his eyes landed on the blood that was beginning to soak through her jacket, and he took a step forward to get a better look at it.

"What's what?" Valerie asked innocently as she stepped backwards, casually shifting her arm so that it covered it.

"That." He moved her arm aside and untied her blazer to reveal the bullet wound that was oozing blood. His expression immediately grew angry as he looked up to her, his fist tightening around the blazer that he had taken from her as he exclaimed, "What the hell, Val! You got shot?!"

"It's okay, it'll heal in a couple of hours. Plus, I only feel a little dizzy and am only slightly in pain," she insisted as she grabbed her blazer back and slid it back on. She was lying, her head was spinning and her stomach felt like it was about to explode, but now was not the time to care. "Come on, I'll take you and Klaus first."

"No—no, you're not." Diego raised a finger, his eyes enlarged as he jabbed the finger at her sternly. "You are not."

"Wha—it's fine!" Valerie protested, giving him a small shrug.

"Valerie, you aren't going to run us there," Luther said firmly as Allison shook her head furiously.

"Yeah, I don't think my tummy can take it," Klaus moaned, seeming to still be slightly nauseous from the trip there. Allison hit him on the shoulder with her notebook, causing him to add, "Also, yeah, you're hurt. Just chill, girl."

Valerie rolled her eyes. She wasn't about to let some stupid idiots and Allison stop her from preventing the end of the world.

Before they could even realize what was happening, Valerie sped over and grabbed Diego and Klaus by their shoulders and sped them to the Icarus Theater, before going back and doing the same with Allison and Luther.

They all froze in confusion as Valerie returned to her normal speed, baffled by the brightly lit front of the theatre.

"What the . . ." Diego looked around before realizing where they were. His head snapped back to face Valerie, his eyes furious. "Valerie!"

"Uh-huh?" She gave him an innocent smile, clasping her hands behind her back.

"I told you—"

"No time for that, we're here, aren't we? Don't you hear the applause? It's starting!" Valerie exclaimed before pushing her way through the group and pulling the glass door open, nodding for them to go in. "Go!"

Once they had all entered, Valerie followed them inside, glancing over her shoulder to make sure they weren't being followed. Thankfully, all that she could see was an empty street. 

Despite the fact that the concert was being held four floors above them—according to the sign that told them as much—the orchestra music was easily heard as it echoed through the halls and through the floors. 

Taking a moment to exchange a look of panic, the group rushed towards the stairs. 

"Oh no, you don't," Diego interjected before Valerie could follow the others up the stairs. "Come here, you dumbass." 

"Are you kidding me?" Valerie complained as Diego scooped her up, though she made no motion to stop him. "I'm a speedster and you think I can't go up some measly stairs?" 

"A speedster with a bullet in her," Diego pointed out as he hurried up to the second set of stairs, now beginning to pant from the number of stairs they had gone up.

"Untrue. I took the bullet out," she rebutted with a pout. "Now I'm a speedster with a bloody hole in her stomach."

"And that's better?"

"Yeah," she mumbled. "It is."

They soon made it to the fourth floor, only a few steps behind everyone else. Before they could run through the entrance, Allison stepped in front of the group. She held her notebook up towards Luther, where she had written: I NEED TO GO ALONE.

"Wha—Allison, I can't let you do that, all right? She's beyond reasoning." Luther tried to step forward again, but Allison pushed him back.

"You hear the music?" Diego questioned, pointing towards the door as he waited impatiently. "It's started."

"Do you honestly think she's gonna listen?" Luther questioned incredulously to Allison, who was still giving him an imploring look. "After everything that's happened?"

"We don't have time for this." Valerie ran her hand through her hair before pausing, her eyes widening as she realized something.

Oh god. She sounded like Five. Oh no. This was absolutely terrible. What had the world come to?

Luther gazed at Allison for a moment before giving a slight nod and sighing, "Okay."

Allison then turned, rushing up the stairs before quickly entering the concert hall.

"You're using her as a distraction, aren't you?" Diego asked as the four of them watched Allison disappear from their sight.

"Our best chance to incapacitate Vanya," Luther confirmed with a nod.

"You're terrible." Valerie shook her head, already hating whatever plan Luther was concocting in his mind.

"She'll thank us later," Luther sighed before the four of them began climbing the short set of stairs to get to the door.

"So, what's the plan?" Klaus asked.

"Uh, you wait out front," Luther answered, exchanging an awkward glance with Diego.

"What?" Klaus came to a stop, stepping back to the bottom of the stairs as a look of shock overcame his face.

"Yeah, you're the lookout." Luther nodded before he followed the other two towards the concert hall.

Luther then told Diego and Valerie the plan, to which Valerie greatly disagreed with. There was no way she was going to partake in such a stupid, impulsive decision.

So instead, she decided to wait at the side of the room for everything to go wrong because of Luther's plan, and then clean the mess up for them (which happened quite often).

The concert hall was filled with people dressed in classy clothes, all watching the orchestra attentively.

Near the front, a black-suited Vanya was playing her violin, although Valerie could barely recognize her.

Her eyes were an electrifying blue, lined with smudged eyeliner, and her skin was pale—paler than usual, so much so that it almost seemed as though she was glowing.

Diego stood on one side of the stage as Luther took the other, waiting for the signal as both of them crouched slightly and rolled their shoulders back.

Unaware of everything, Allison stood near the front of the audience, exchanging a smile with Vanya.

At that moment, Valerie knew just how much Luther had fucked up.