(CW: On-page death, near-strangulation)

"Clarity and I are inside and we have eyes on the package," Director Kelly Salazar said into her watch. "The coast appears clear. Foresight, do a scan on us, just in case."

16-year-old Noelle Sapienti read the subtitles come through on her watch in real time and nodded, placing her hand over it and focusing in on an image of Kelly and Abraham Harley, as she always did when trying to see if a particular person was in danger.

Finally, she gave the green light to her boyfriend, Jezza McGuinness, through ASL, which he then relayed back to the director of the Powered Humans' Association of Secret Evil Eradication.

"Are you sure?" Abraham asked.

"Noelle's powers hardly ever fail her," Jezza replied, hearing the nervousness in his friend's voice.

Kelly laid a hand on ver shoulder. "I'll be right here the whole time, Clarity. We can do this."

Ve nodded and turned verself invisible. Ve was still worried, but ve trusted Kelly with vis life.

And so, the two of them moved forward, turning the Ghovil HQ upside down, until finally, they stumbled upon a hidden safe that they knew must contain the Hechi Scroll.

"Jackpot!" Kelly said excitedly. "One safe away!"

"Need me to try to tap in?" Jezza offered, wondering if the safe was electronic.

"Thanks, Java, but I've got this one!" Kelly replied, before using her eye-lasers to carve out a circle in the safe that then fell off to reveal a scroll in the middle.

As this was happening, Noelle felt a chill down her body and a deepening pit in her stomach. She quickly tapped at Jezza's shoulder and signed, "My Crisis Alarm's going off! I think something's about to happen down there!"

"Be careful!" Jezza then whispered into his watch. "Noelle's Crisis Alarm is going off!"

As if on cue, the Ghovil Prime shouted, "Freeze!" in his booming voice, startling both Kelly and Abraham.

"Run, run, run!" Kelly whispered, and her friend obliged, racing to keep up with her. But Prime was not going to give up the scroll that easily. He ran just as quickly as the two PHASEE agents.

He reached out to grab it from Kelly's hands, but instead, ended up grabbing Abraham, who became visible again due to the shock of it, and screamed out with fear.

Kelly stopped in her tracks and spun around upon hearing her friend scream, horror etched all over her face. "Let ver go!" She cried out, moving towards the two of them and blasting a laser out, which Prime dodged with Abraham in his grasp.

"Stop!" Prime boomed, changing his position so that his arms were around Abraham's neck. Ve yelped and began to clench vis teeth in pain in response. Even more enraged on vis behalf, Kelly shot another laser, careful to aim for Prime's head so as not to hit ver by mistake. But he just dodged again.

"You think I won't kill the kid?!" he asked.

"Not while I'm standing!" she responded. She readied another laser, but Prime ducked behind Abraham, so she was forced to call it off.

As this was happening, Abraham tried to maneuver vis way out of the hold by elbowing and kicking Prime, but he wouldn't budge. "Let me go!" ve managed to squeeze out, before returning to vis painful grimace.

"Hothead knows what I want," Prime declared. He wasn't wrong. Kelly knew exactly what she needed to do to save her friend. And once she saw ver cease vis fighting and vis eyes begin to flutter, she knew she needed to act fast.

"I give you the Scroll, and ve survives?" Kelly replied. Prime nodded.

Biting her lip, she stepped a bit forward, placed the scroll of the ground, and moved back. Prime moved forward with Abraham in tow, and released one arm to pick it up, still holding ver tightly in the other. Only once he had the scroll in his hand did Prime finally release his grip on Abraham, allowing ver to sprint into Kelly's arms, relieved to still be alive.

As the two of them, hand-in-hand, made a mad dash for the exit, Prime unrolled the Scroll and began to chant something, before a beam of light hit Kelly's back and slowed her down just as they made it out and lost Prime.

"Director, are you okay?! Can you walk?" Abraham asked, an urgently horrified tone in vis voice as ve shifted vis position in an attempt to support vis friend.

"I'll be fine," she replied, "but you need to help me back to base. I'll be able to be treated for whatever that was there."

Abraham nodded, but they didn't get very far before ve noticed that there was nothing in front of the chest area that Kelly had previously been covering with her hand, and thus screamed with terror.

"It's okay, it's okay!" She tried to wrap her other arm around ver in comfort, but that was starting to fade, too.

"Hothead, Clarity, what's happening?" Jezza asked into his watch, with a tone that said, "I'm trying my best to remain calm right now, but Noelle and I both got extremely nervous with the extended radio silence."

"I don't know!" Abraham said hurriedly into vis own watch. "The Director got hit with something, and now she's fading away!"

"Fading away?!" Jezza replied with shock and horror. "What did she get hit with?!"

"Something from Prime's scroll, I think. I don't know, I didn't see," Abraham replied, trying vis best to hold verself together, but clearly failing. "But we're on our way back, right, Dir...?"

Ve trailed off as ve looked back to notice that Kelly had completely vanished into thin air. "Director? Director?!" ve called out in terror, as ve slowly began to realize that she was gone.