章 75: Chapter 64 - John

(John's POV)

"This is the part I hate the most, the running. But it's the only thing in my life that's real.

The rest is a lie. Even Henri. People think he's my father. He's not.

He's a warrior from my planet, assigned to keep me alive. I don't remember my father.

All he left for me was some kind of box. Henri says he'll pass it on to me when the time is right.

I got my first scar when I was nine years old, near the border of Mexico.

It woke me from my sleep. It was the first sign that the Mogadorians had found us here on Earth.

The second scar came when I was 12. I was in Colorado, in the middle of a spelling bee.

As soon as I felt it, I knew Number Two was dead.

Last night, was the strangest scar of them all.

I got my third scar and watched as it carved itself onto my leg for a couple of minutes before suddenly disappearing,

Next thing I know I could feel the presence of all numbers, all of us looking ahead where two people were standing on a platform,

As if to show their higher standing than the rest of us,

I could feel it even though I knew nothing around me was real,

The two at the front were also numbers, but they were more powerful than the rest of us,

The strange thing about them was they felt the same, but they both had the same power,

Like the legacy was split in half, confused about which one to choose,

But even so with their legacies halved, they were still a large disparity between myself and them,

They began talking but I could not hear all of it,

I suspect like me the others only got bits and pieces of whatever it is they said,

I had a feeling that it is something important but I just couldn't hear anything,

But I did hear one statement that resonated with me deep in my core.

"We are not saviors, we are fighters and survivors, it's what we have been doing all our lives," The guy said as the girl nodded in agreement.

And I could somehow tell the statement was as true as it could be,

After that, there was one thing I am sure everyone heard clearly "Zeel and Alice".

Then I was back on the beach squealing from the pain of the scar both appearing and disappearing after I bolted off under the gaze of the crowd.

I had to find Henri and tell him about what just happened,

How I could feel the other numbers.

How I think it is time we stopped hiding and fought back,

I had a feeling that our days of running from the Mogadorians would soon come to an end.

A few months after things returned to normal, Henri my guardian found a recently uploaded video of me with my ankle glowing.

We packed up and got the hell out of dodge, our next destination was Paradise Hills, Ohio.

Two days of driving later we made it to Paradise Hills Ohio, an ironic name for a place that looked so lackluster.

When we drove to our isolated private home, a quarter-mile away from anything or anyone else. We found a car parked in the area and proceeded inside.

"Probably the real estate agent," Henri said still being cautious.

I nodded which signaled I was ready if anything went wrong. Luckily, nothing out of the ordinary happened.

"Well that's all, I am sorry I have to run, we have celebrities coming down to check out the next house," The realtor said with an excited voice.

"Who is it?" Henry asked clearly intrigued by how a small town can attract such big guests.

"Alice and Zeel Crawford, they got famous after their song and proposal with roses raining down. Fashion Weekly also said that he has the most expensive crystal rings in the world. Many couples line up to try and get one, but only a few get them," The realtor replied scurrying away, not noticing the frozen looks on our faces.

"Is it them?" asked Henry.

"Yeah," I replied.

"Now you have to keep your head down, don't talk to them, don't even look them in the eye. I am going to do some digging around and see what is happening with them," Henri said.

"Got it!" I replied as I proceeded to explore our new abode.

We had no reason to believe that they came here for us specifically, but we had to be vigilant no doubt.

(Zeel and Alice one week ago)

After finishing their morning training, Lexa asked them to come to the dining hall, they were now in Slovenia having fun like always, but with added cautiousness this time around.

"I picked up what seems to be a number, take a look," Lexa said gesturing to the hologram image mid-air.

"This website has been traced back to multiple accounts, but since the user was cautious we can't locate them. Maybe a stealth specialist or something. Every time we take it down it pops right back up. But this morning a video was uploaded of this guy,"

Alice and Zeel watch as the guy in the video's ankle begins to glow for a while before dying down, eliciting a small stir in the crowded beach but not enough to look into it any deeper.

"Using our borrowed satellites I was able to trace their projected location after they left to a known location for one of my former associates; Malcolm Goode. Chances are this is a number we are looking at," Lexa concluded.

"Awesome. So far we have tried everything except school. We should do it. Stay close watch him, maybe give him some training," Alice said shrugging her shoulders in a nonchalant manner, but Zeel could feel her bubbling excitement at the mention of 'School'.

"Okay time to pack up let's go," Zeel said as he waved his hand around in a couple of gestures. The wall began loosening and everything shattering into its most fundamental components and reforming into a black quinjet.

"Next stop, Paradise Hill Ohio," Alice said as the trio boarded the Quinjet and shot off to Ohio.