Once I had disguised June and Sofia, we left the office building and emerged back onto the sidewalk. The street was busy, and the smell of exhaust hung heavy in the hazy air. Traffic was slow, and the sound of blaring car horns was a bit overwhelming. Circe motioned for us to follow her, and we trailed behind her to another back alley where a dilapidated Volkswagen van was waiting, its engine sounding sick.

"This is our ride?" Sofia asked scathingly, eyeing the van uncertainly.

Circe crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at Sofia. "Sorry it's not up to your standards, princess."

I stepped in between everyone quickly, sensing a fight about to break out. "Okay, why don't we just calm down, everyone? Let's just get this over with."

I heard Sofia huff as I pulled open the van door and climbed in. Once I was inside, I spotted a large man sitting up front. He had a floating skull for a head, and empty eye sockets save for glowing purple pupils.

"This," said Circe as we all settled into our seats, "is Mac. He's gonna be our inside man; gonna help get us to our destination."

June leaned over to me as Circe continued to talk. "Okay, so what exactly are we doing, here?" she whispered to me.

I shrugged. "You're asking the wrong person, man. But from what I can gather, we're busting someone out of prison. My mom used to know 'em or something."

"Yeah, that definitely clears that up, thanks."

"Yup."

We were snapped back to attention by Circe's commanding tone.

"If, under any circumstances, we are caught, you are for no reason whatsoever to blow Mac's cover. We don't know him, he don't know us. Got it?"

We all nodded, and I had an uneasy pit in my stomach.

Mac tipped his trucker hat at us all before pulling out into the busy road. Then he started briefing us.

"Alright," he began in a deep cockney accent. "So, the facility we'll be going to today is a top secret black site. No one's supposed to know the place exists, except for the people who work there. It's got top level security, and infiltrating would be nearly impossible."

"Great," Sofia muttered.

"Which is why you lot won't be infiltrating."

"What do you mean?" June asked him in confusion.

Mac smiled a ghoulish grin at her in his rear view mirror. "We're gonna parade you in through the main entrance, love."

The plan was insane, but just insane enough to work, provided we could pull it off. We were to act as convicted criminals, being held at the black site until a second transportation convoy could be secured. That's what Mac meant when he said we were going to be paraded through the front. He and Circe provided fake hand cuffs, and voila; we were criminals.

We stopped in front of a heavy chain-linked fence with looped barbed wire on top. It was a gate, and there was a small guard house to the left of it. Mac exchanged a few words with the security officer, flashed his ID, and with an awful scraping sound, the gate slowly opened. I felt my heart start racing and adrenaline start rushing as soon as we were in. I focused on trying to keep my breathing steady and normal.

The van stopped again, and two more guard stopped to talk to Mac. He handed them paperwork, and I was impressed by how quickly they were able to forge papers for the five of us. All of a sudden, the doors abruptly slammed open and we were being jerked out of the vehicle. With a quick, discrete wink at Circe, Mac was off.

I focused on following the two guards in front of us and not panicking. It didn't help that we were being poked and prodded with weapons from three more guards behind us.

We followed the entourage down deeper and deeper into the building; down dark, winding hallways with janky, flickering lights overhead. We waited until we were in a dead zone (no other guards and no cameras) before making the jump.

June pulled out her axe and swiftly chopped one guard's leg clean off (still not okay after witnessing that), Circe choked one guard using her handcuffs, Sofia kicked one in between the legs before June used the butt of her axe to knock him out, Logan head butted his guy, and I tripped mine. I went to knock him out, but he moved at the last second, sprang up, and grabbed June.

"You make one move, kid, and I hurt little miss firecracker, here."

Something about the genuine fear in June's eyes and the arrogant look on the guard's face made me snap.

My hearing grew fuzzy and my thinking became clouded. All of a sudden, my body started to glow a neon green aura as I slowly rose up and off of the ground. I was vaguely aware that objects were flying in every direction and that the group, save for June, had all crouched low to the ground, clutching each other for dear life. Air whipped their hair everywhere.

I watched as the arrogance quickly drained from the guard as it was replaced by terror. Before he could hurt June, scream, or run, everything went still and quiet, and his body went limp. June quickly fell to the ground just as his body sprung to life again, but this time, I was controlling it.

"Holy crap, his first possession," I heard Circe mumble in a kind of mystified wonder.

The group watched with wide eyes as the guard bent down, gently helped June up off of the ground, brushed her off, tipped his hat in apology, and knocked himself unconscious with his own club.

My feet touched the ground again, the glowing stopped, and my thinking and hearing weren't clouded or muddled, anymore.

"Dude, that was sick!" Logan said, grinning at me. I smiled sheepishly, not really knowing how exactly to respond to that. I was a little shaken up and freaked out after whatever had just happened to me.

I didn't have time to ponder this, however, because I heard more guards coming our way. Circe motioned for us all to follow her, and we did. We soon came to a stand that had a glowing map of the entire facility. We all stopped and looked at it.

"I'm getting a picture so we know how to get back out of here later," June said, snapping a photo with her phone.

Circe nodded solemnly. "Good idea."

Wow. I guess if the situation was serious enough, they actually could get along.

The demon girl traced her finger along the map and stopped when she got to a red spot. "This is where they keep the worst of the worst."

"And we're busting one of them out?" Sofia asked, a little worried about this entire situation. "I mean, no offense or anything, but if they're the worst of the worst, aren't they here for a reason?"

Circe looked over at her. "Not this guy. He was imprisoned unjustly."

"Really?" asked June curiously. "Why? What did he do?"

"Okay, one: it's not my story to tell, and two: I don't have time to get into it. Hopefully he'll be able to enlighten you when we get him out."

As we began to make our way to the sector where they were keeping the guy we were busting out, I couldn't help but feel like something wasn't adding up. I jogged to catch up with Circe at the front of the group, coming up beside her.

"So, if this guy's so dangerous that they had to put him in the most secure part of the entire place, can't he bust himself out? What does he need us for?" I asked her.

"The cells in that part block magic and supernatural powers. I've also heard that the cells somehow drain your energy. Either way, there's no way for him to get out without outside help."

I nodded in understanding. "Gotcha."

We finally arrived at the red sector, took out the two guards at the start of the hallway, and sneakily made our way down the corridor, ignoring the eyes on us from all of the cells. A shiver ran down my spine. I shook my head to clear it and focused on following Circe.

The hallway was quite noisy, in a kind of low-volume, creepy way. Even though it wasn't loud, the hall was full of sounds coming from the cells. There were sounds I had never heard before, and sounds that I never wanted to hear again.

"Guys, this is it!" Circe whisper-shouted, stopping in front of a cell.

It was completely dark, and the only indication of an inhabitant was the sound of heavy breathing. It made me uncomfortable.

"Psst! Hey! Wake up!" Circe said, getting dangerously to the bars of the cell.

All of a sudden, a pair of glowing, neon green eyes snapped open in the back of the cell. I heard Sofia swallow nervously over to my right. Logan was watching the scene with wide eyes and bated breath. June was staring intently in curiosity, and Circe was grinning. I was uneasy and a little confused.

"Beej? Is that you?" Circe asked in an eager whisper.

"Circe?" a low, gravelly voice answered back.

Circe's smile got bigger and she nodded excitedly. "We're here to bust you out!"

I saw one eye squint, and I assumed he had arched an eyebrow.

"How did you even get in here?" he asked, and I heard heavy footsteps coupled with the sound of chains scraping against the concrete floor.

As he stepped into the light, I couldn't help but notice how rough the guy looked. His hair was disheveled and matted in places, his eyes, while still glowing, were tired and bloodshot, and he had on a tattered, old tuxedo. He may have been raggedy, but super dangerous? I didn't think so.

Something about his hair caught my attention. The roots were a deep brown, while the tips were a murky grey.

"You're... you're like me," I breathed.

His eyes snapped to mine. "Who's this kid?" he asked Circe.

"He's here to help. But that's not important, right now. We gotta get you out of here."

I heard the man scoff as he crossed his arms. "Hate to break it to you, Tootsie Roll, but unless one of you has the supernatural powers to unlock the cell, I'm not going anywhere."

Logan snickered. "Tootsie Roll?"

Circe glared at him. "He's the only one allowed to use it. Anyway, got it covered, Beej. Ean?" she turned to me.

I moved over to the control panel beside the cell and saw a hand shape on the touch pad display.

"Uhhhh, what am I supposed to do?"

I felt movement beside me, and noticed the man in the cell had moved over close to me.

"You put your hand where the hand is and then use a pulse of energy to deactivate the anti-supernatural power barrier. Then it's just a matter of busting out of the bars after that."

I nodded, put my hand on the panel, and focused. I closed my eyes and felt a warm pulsing feeling in my chest and move through my body and into my hand, my fingers tingling slightly. There was a small beep, and it looked as if a glass wall slowly dissolved.

The man in the cell inhaled deeply, a maniacal grin slowly spreading across his face.

"How do you feel?" Circe asked him.

In response, there was a burst of neon green light, and with a loud boom, the bars of the cell went flying all over the place. One narrowly missed my head as I ducked. Sirens started blaring and red lights started blinking. The man simply stepped out of the cell, tapped the tip of his shoe on the ground behind him, and all of a sudden, he was in a glitzy, black-and-white-striped suit. He raked a hand through his hair, and the grey was immediately replaced by a bright neon green color. It became smooth and fluffy, not matted anymore.

We heard footsteps fast approaching.

"Uh, guys? We got company!" June said to us, worry in her eyes.

The man spread his arms wide, a spot light suddenly shining down on him theatrically. And dang it was cool, not gonna lie.

"It's showtime!"