Evanora cast a worried glance over at me. We were supposed to attack TOMORROW! Not TODAY! I wasn't ready! I'm NOT ready. I blinked and tried to compose myself. I couldn't let this affect me. I shouldn't be letting it affect me.

But it was.

"Ms. Lewis," Mrs. Florence began. I looked up at her, trying to mask my fear and shock. "We're ready to go when you are."

All eyes turned to me and my heart stopped.

'I'm not ready!' I thought. 'I'm not ready! I'm not ready! I'm not ready!'

"I'm ready." I found myself saying calmly.

_ _ _ _

The car stopped a few feet from the building and the driver let us out. I flexed my fingers as the lab came into view.

'I'm not ready! I'm not ready! I'm not ready!'

I silenced my thoughts and turned around. Alex, Evie, Victor, and Skye were all in my group. We had three more trucks coming to drop off the rest of our group. But it was my group's job to make it to the basement and get the power off so that the other three groups had the advantage of the shadows on their side to destroy the building.

"Ready?" I asked. They all nodded. "Then let's go."

We crept along the side of the building, looking for the back entrance, which would most likely be the least guarded seeing as mostly employees used it.

I tried to open the door only to see that it was locked.

"Card clearance only." Victor said, pointing to the scanner by the side of the door.

I nodded towards Alex. He flexed his fingers before his eyes began to glow red and heat began to radiate from his palms. He placed a finger to the scanner and it sparked a bit before the light turned green.

I opened the door a crack and winced as it made a beeping sound.

Heavy footsteps had us all turning our heads towards the corner. Suddenly, a rather beefy man came into view. He looked shocked at first before he frowned.

"I swear, you little vandals had better not be planning to graffiti any shit in here! Don't you cause enough trouble on the front of the building?!"

The gang and I shared a look. He thought that we were graffiti vandals.

Wow...okay...

Suddenly, Skye's eyes glowed a bright aqua blue and she blew into her hand, causing a large puff of smoke to blow into the man's nose and eyes.

He began to hack and cough as I leapt onto his shoulders, wrapping my legs around his throat and slamming my elbow upon his head, knocking him unconscious.

I climbed off of him and sighed.

"That was some Black Widow shit right there." Victor smiled.

I chuckled at him and we continued through the halls. It was going to get really crowded in a few minutes. We were currently on the base floor so the basement was only a few turns away.

"Get close, guys." I said. Focusing all my mental ability on it, I willed myself and everyone else to turn invisible.

"This is never not going to feel weird." Alex said ad we disappeared. Evanora quickly shushed him.

Just as I assumed, the next hall we turned into was bustling with people in lab coats laughing and talking.

The doctors who worked here.

Against my better judgment, I found myself looking for my mother. I felt a mix of sadness and relief when I couldn't find her.

"The door to the stairs is to our right." Skye said pointing up ahead.

I nodded. "Let's go, then." We made sure to avoid bumping into anyone in the hallways as we walked. Well, more like tiptoed.

I nearly gasped and almost tripped as a man dropped his files and nearly bumped into me as he bent down to collect them. Evanora grabbed my arm to steady me and I felt my heart jump from fear.

I looked back and everyone motioned me to keep going. I quickly rushed towards the corner, my heart now pounding and the aspect of getting caught making me go faster.

"Holy, crap!" Evanora breathed, grabbing her chest "That...that made me scared."

I took a deep breath and shook my head, pointing at the door before us. "Come on." I said. "The basement is that way."

Alex opened the door and held it for us as we walked inside. "Okay," I began. "There are four switches for each floor. We have to pull each of them five seconds apart in order for it to work because they're really old. Then we have about ten minutes to climb back up these stairs and haul ass to the top of the building and blow up the building's main computer and all the backup files so whatever they were doing here can't be completed, got it?"

They murmured their understanding and we crept down the stairs. It was rather dark down in the basement and it had a distinct musty smell to it.

I blinked a few times and instantly, I could see perfectly fine.

At the end of the room, stood the switches. "Okay guys. You knot the drill."

Alex, Evanora, Victor, and Skye each grabbed a switch and waited for my command.

Alex pulled his switch first.

One...two...three...four...five.

"Go." I said. Evanora pulled hers. Five more seconds past then Victor pulled his.

One...two...three...four...five.

Skye pulled her switch and we had done it.

"Let's go." I said and we bolted off and up the stairs. The dark hallways were now completely abandoned, giving it an eerie creepy vibe.

"Let's get out of here and scale the building. Evie, think you can help us?"

She nodded with a small smile and we made our way back to the door we entered.

Suddenly, Victor's eyes widened and he shoved us to the wall, tilting his head up slightly. I knew that he could hear something we couldn't. "They found that guy we knocked out." He said.

"Shit!" Skye hissed. "We should have hid him!"

"No! This is fine!" Victor grinned. I looked at him like he was insane. "Just watch!" He held up a finger and disappeared around the corner.

I sucked in a breath. What the hell was he doing?!" I peered around the corner and my pounding heart settled as I saw what he was doing. He'd sifted into the unconscious man and was now bounding up to the two men who surrounded the unconscious man's form.

"Hey! Hey! Hey! Guys, it's fine! That's a shifter who thought he could get in by taking my identity!" Victor said, doing an impressive impression of the guy's voice.

The men looked up at Victor and frowned. "Holy Shit, Phillip! You scared us!" One said angrily, hitting Victor in the head.

Victor chuckled. "He was a feisty one, too. Tried to choke me."

"Yeah," The other one began. "But...why hasn't he shifted back, yet..." The men looked at the body warily and suddenly turned their attention to Victor as they realized what was going on.

Victor pulled out the gun that was attached to his hip and pointed it at the two men in the blink of an eye. "Listen, up, guys." He said calmly, "If you want to have a 'who can pull the trigger faster' competition, I can guarantee that I'll win. So if you want to test your luck, that's fine by me. But here's a smarter option, you get on your knees, hand me your cuffs, and sit still while my friends and I take your communicators and guns."

The men didn't hesitate to get on their knees and toss over their cuffs, guns, and communicators. Victor handcuffed them to each other and motioned for us to come out of hiding.

Alex picked up the three communicators and melted them one by one, staring blankly into the men's eyes as he did so. Skye picked up the guns and Victor continued to hold the men at gun point as we walked out of the door.

"Pleasure doing business with you gentlemen." Victor smirked as he morphed back and followed us out the door.

"Do you even know how to use a gun?" I asked as Victor handed his gun to Skye, who put them all on safety and threw them into the trash bin.

Victor shook his head with a cheeky grin. "I've never used one in my life."

I snorted. "Well played." He smirked at me in return.

"Alright, guys." Evanora began, "You might feel a bit strange, because, I'm kind of shifting the gravity around us, so, please...try not to throw up." Evanora smiled shyly.

Evanora's eyes shifted to that familiar shade of bubblegum pink as the soles of her shoes shone magenta and she floated up, her feet connecting with the side of the building. I nearly yelped in surprise when my feet did the same thing.

"Okay, so, just...walk normally and we should get to the top floor in no time." Evanora said.

I turned us invisible so we wouldn't be seen and we began our ascent. It did feel rather stranger the higher we walked up. My stomach began to do flips and feel a bit queasy.

Skye must've noticed because she grabbed my shoulder and cast me a reassuring smile.

I sighed and looked up. We were on the third floor by the looks of it. I peered into the glass window and nearly smiled as I saw Hailey and her group running down the halls. "Looks like the mission is going good so far." I said.

"It ought to!"Alex said. "We've been planning this for days."

"Okay." I said as we made it to the fourth floor. "We're going to have to shatter the window, but-"

I was cut off as Alex abruptly elbowed the glass and leapt into the room.

"What. The. Fuck." I said as I climbed into the room with everyone else.

"I got us in, didn't I?" He asked smugly. "And look! There's the door to the computer room. Double points."

I sighed and punched hisshoulder as we entered the room.