Hero and his siblings were future kidnappers.

Macy stood with her back turned, and a round window remained in front of her. Sunlight shone against Washington's grass. Maybe Hero's father hadn't seen sunlight today, yesterday, or the day before that.

"I'm going to do everything in my power to get Father back," Hero said, speaking Soynite.

"We all will," Macy said. "And I'm going to kill any Freeman who will try to stop us. Our father doesn't deserve to be around those awful people."

Hero toyed with his Soynite pendant. "He won't be around them forever, Macy. We're going to get him back."

Macy acted as if making Freemans suffer would bring her long-lasting peace. Her hatred for those people was as real as her long blonde hair and blue eyes.

Hero's bed hugged the wall. He hoped he would return to it tonight, like he hoped he would rescue his father. Hero and Mitch were blond-haired, blue-eyed, and they had survived an attack on a museum.

Years ago, Hero hadn't expected he would wear a uniform meant for an employee of the Ascend Museum. Each of the Ascend Museum employee jackets in the spaceship had THE ASCEND MUSEUM EMPLOYEE designed on the back of it, in the Soynite language. Each one had an image of the Ascend Museum on its rear side. Hero's jacket showed what that place had looked like before its destruction. He wore it now, and the other Exchangers wore theirs.

Hero hadn't killed anyone to get the employee jacket, but he hadn't forgotten killing was necessary. Sometimes, of course.

Seven people had turned the fastest Soynite spaceship into a home. Land Preachman deserved to be in the spacecraft he had stocked with many supplies. He didn't stand near Hero. Like the Exchanger's birth parents, Land couldn't be with anyone.

Soynites had died. But the Exchangers had survived the panic at the museum. Hero had been born before each one. He had spoken to the youngest Exchanger earlier.

A man Hero had seen, and a woman he had never met, had brought a baby into the universe. Eleven years had passed since then. Freemans had taken Sydney's biological father from his family. He couldn't embrace the spaceship's crew, his children. No one had captured them. They were free people, ones who could find their father.

The Exchangers would go to Heaven. Again.

"I hope you won't get traumatized by what we're going to do," Macy said.

Hero stood behind her. If a Pure stood in front of him, he would have to inject Vamp into their bloodstream. The purple liquid rendered people unconscious. And it temporarily erased Saves. The Freeman leader had invented Vamp, but the Exchangers could use it. They could use it on their own people.

Hero and his brothers and sisters had gone to Heaven, and they had left it as Exchangers. They had a mission to accomplish.

One of Hero's notepads sat in his dresser, and he could use it to write important notes. He and the others would take notepads into the Freeman base with them.

Kat Shame had never taken a life.

"Kat might get traumatized," Hero said. "But she's going to be tough. She's going to change, Macy."

The image on the back of her jacket faced Hero. Land Preachman had named the pictured museum after Don Ascend. Hero had met his current family in the Ascend Museum, but his original parents had died in it. Too many wonderful people had died there.

Like Hero, Kat had survived Soy's invasion. Unlike Hero, she had never slain a Freeman enemy. But she might kill her cowardice and become a great warrior.

Macy turned. She touched her blonde hair. Like the floor beneath Hero's feet, her eyes were blue. Not long ago, Hero and his siblings had discovered a building in the forest. They had seen pale brutes patrolling the area outside the structure. The base harbored Freemans, but it might contain a Pure.

"You're right," Macy said. "You changed. That means there's hope for Kat."

Hero nodded. "She's going to be fine."

Macy turned before staring past the window. Would a girl gaze through it and see someone important?

The spaceship Hero and Macy stood in had become important to them. The Freemans had captured their father, but the pale brutes hadn't taken the Exchangers' spaceship. They lived inside the vessel. If they lost it, they would lose their only home.

"I want Father to be fine," Macy said.

"We're going to find him," Hero told her. "You know that."

"Yes, I do."

Macy placed her hand on the window, as if Hero's father touched its other side.

"Before the Freemans attacked Soy, I didn't think that I would end up hating them," Macy said. "When I finally killed one, I enjoyed it. And that didn't shock me. I've lost people I cared about because of the Freemans. Of course killing one of them made me happy. Thanks to me, there was one less Freeman to worry about. And there are a lot more out there. They doomed themselves when they took Father away, and they don't even know it. I'm going to kill them."

Freemans occupied the building Hero and the others had discovered. The Exchangers had lived through the Freemans' attack on the Ascend Museum, and they could survive their future assault on the enemy base.

"You will find a lot of them inside that Freeman base," Hero said. "But we're going to survive. None of Lock's warriors will kill us."

A Freeman had killed Hero's first father, but he could rescue his second one. If the boy were missing, his father would try finding him.

"I don't just want to kill Freemans," Macy said. "I want to punish them."

"And you will," Hero said. "I'll do the same. And I'm not going to let the Freemans take you away, Macy. I won't let them capture or kill any of the others, either."

Macy ran a finger along the window's glass. "If Freemans never captured Father, he would be with us right now. Not knowing where he is frustrates me, but I'm going to see him again."

Macy turned, and she hugged Hero. He embraced her back.

When would he hug his father again? The man had gone missing, but Hero could share a sweet moment with his sister.

"It's great that you're still here," Macy said. "We're going to kill every Freeman who will give us trouble."

"True," Hero said. He kept his eyes open, as if a Freeman warrior would rush into the bedroom soon.

The hug ended. Macy put her hands on Hero's arms.

"And we're going to kill any Soynites who might get the chance to ruin our mission," she said. "Even the ones who hate Lock Tannis as much as we do."

Hero didn't nod.

"Right," he said. "Right. Of course. Everything we're going to do will be for the greater good. We will kill any Soynite who might get in the way of that."

Macy smiled. "Good."

If Hero found his father, the Exchanger might smile. But he and the others needed a Bloodhound to guide them to their father. Some Exchangers had powers. Yet neither of them had a Bloodhound's power.

"I wish there was at least one Bloodhound in this family," Hero said. "If one of us was a Bloodhound, we would've been found Father. I'm sure of that. Sadly, none of us was born a Bloodhound."

"But we were born as Soynites," Macy replied. "And that's why the Freemans tried to kill us at that museum. We didn't choose to be born this way, like we didn't choose for our birth parents to die. But we chose Father to be our father. And you know what we have to do, and so do I."

"We have to get Father back," Hero said. "We can't save our dead parents. Nobody can save the dead, but we're going to save someone we can save. Father is out there. He's been away from us for too long. Regardless, it's not too late to help him."

"I always want to help him. That's why I have to help the rest of you find Pures. We need to take them."

Hero put a hand on Macy's shoulder. "We're going to take ten Pures to Heaven. Then we'll see Father again. One day he's going to be back here. He's going to be home."

The spaceship had become Mitch's home a long time ago, and a Freeman base might have become his new home.

Macy looked around the room. The home she shared with Hero and the other Exchangers had other rooms, halls, and a cafeteria. No Freemans stood within the spaceship. But Hero would find pale brutes inside a certain gray building.

"This is where Father deserves to be," Macy said. "He doesn't deserve to be locked inside of a Freeman base. None of us do. But we're going to go to one, and I'm going to make sure that I don't get locked inside of a prison cell. I wish Father hadn't been locked inside of one."

Hero hadn't seen a Freeman warrior lock his father inside a prison cell. The Exchangers assumed their enemies kept their father as a prisoner. Hero hoped his father was a living captive instead of a dead man.

"The feeling is mutual," Hero said. "By the way, none of us are going to get locked inside of a Freeman prison cell. Today we might take a Pure out of one, but we're not going to become prisoners. We also won't let Father stay one forever."

Macy smiled. "Because we're going to get him back."

"I know we will."

Hero pressed his forehead against Macy's before shutting his eyes. What had happened to their father wouldn't happen to them, and it was Hero's responsibility to prevent his younger siblings from becoming prisoners.

After moving his forehead and opening his eyes, Hero put a hand on Macy's shoulder.

"I'm going to protect all of you," he told her. "I wish I could protect Father, but I'll be able to do that after we find him."

"I believe you," Macy said.

She gave Hero a kiss on the lips, something she had done many times before. He doubted they would ever share a romantic kiss. She was his sister. Plus, he hadn't forgotten what she was.

Wearing their zipped-up jackets, Hero and Macy remained in the bedroom. They didn't walk toward the Freeman base, but they would.

Hero pointed at the space behind him. "Let's go to the others."

They left the room.

Hero, Macy, and their siblings formed a six-person group. They were Exchangers.

The population of the Soynite Highs: six. Had they been killed? Had Theo Majestic created a new group of Highs?

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Instead of going to meet Theo so he could be turned into a Soynite ruler, Hero had left Soy. His birth parents hadn't known the sweet luxury of escaping Soy while lasers tore holes into its people. They never would.

Hero Haysen had survived the Freemans' attack on his home planet. He had become Hero Shame.

He had spent more time living with the family name Shame than Haysen. And he hadn't had a living mother in years, like his brothers and sisters.

Sydney, Hero's youngest sibling, had only known her mother for a few months. Mitch's wife hadn't survived that agonizing night at the museum. A Freeman had taken the life from her, yet her daughter lived, unscathed.

Hero and Sydney had been born on the first of January. But when his mother gave birth to him, Sydney hadn't been able to talk, walk, or use a Save. She hadn't existed back then. She and Hero hadn't been born in the same year.

The spaceship had three floors. Hero and Macy stood in one of its halls. They had been inside the Ascend Museum, and they would go inside a Freeman base, a building occupied by the race that had murdered Hero's birth parents before destroying the museum.

A boy and a girl entered the hall. Hero had seen them yesterday and the day before that. He had met them the night his birth parents died. The girl rode on the boy's back. He had been born years before she had. The light bathed his brown hair, and he looked at Hero with his brown eyes. Tall and muscular, he moved toward his blond brother.

Everett and Sydney.

"I hope you two are ready to commit a kidnapping," Everett said as Sydney clung to him. "I definitely am."

Sydney moved off Everett's back. "Me too. And I want to kill some Pale Monsters."

Macy placed a hand on Sydney's arm.

"We're definitely going to kill some Freemans today, Sydney," Macy said. She moved her hand away. "And one day we're going to see Father again."

Sydney gestured to her backpack. "Can we please go now? I want to get this over with. As soon as possible, too."

Sydney's backpack rested on the floor near her bedroom's closed door. Light glowed against the backpack's whiteness and the yellow circle displayed on it. The spaceship contained five other backpacks that looked like the one on the floor.

"Sydney, your eagerness to kidnap another Soynite is wonderful," Everett said.

He put a hand on the blue wall. Did Hero's father touch a gray one?

"And understandable," Hero said. "She wants to save Father. We all do, and that means we have to kidnap other Soynites. Whatever happens, we need to get ten Pures. When we attack the Freeman base, the Freemans there will try to kill us, but we're going to kill them. Remember, we're going to fight our way to the prison wing. The base should have one. If we find a Pure there, we'll take them. If we find a Pure before reaching the prison wing, we'll take them."

Hero had already told the other Exchangers the plan, but reminding them about it wouldn't hurt them.

He didn't have to be a Freeman to force Vamp into a Soynite's bloodstream. Today he might render a Pure unconscious.

"Kat will be scared," Sydney said. "Do you still think she should come?"

"I think so," Macy said. "Maybe she will kill a Freeman in the base."

Kat, unlike her brothers and sisters, had never killed a Freeman. Even the eleven-year-old Sydney had slain one.

"Kat is going to come," Hero said. "All of us are going to stay together. Plus, Kat needs to be around Soynites who are willing to fight. If she stays here, Freemans will probably come and kill her. If she comes with us, she will have a higher chance of surviving. She can't be alone."

Hero stood on a hard floor, and so did Macy, Everett, and Sydney. They would go into the Freeman base with him. They would help each other survive.

While some Soynites preferred rushing away from Freeman bases, Hero and his siblings would rather head into one. They didn't lay in blood puddles. Freemans hadn't murdered them. They could find a Pure, capture them, and reunite with their father after taking enough people.

"Kat is going to be fine," Hero said. "And if she gets hurt in the Freeman base, Macy will help her. She'll do that for any of us."

"I will," Macy said. "I'm never going to let one of Lock's minions kill anyone in my family."

Everett nodded.

"That's nice, Macy," he said. "And it would've been nice if you killed the Freemans who killed our parents."

"Hase Majestic should've killed the original Freemans," Macy said. "It's his fault that we have to deal with them."

Hase had died years before Hero's birth.

His descendant Theo Majestic hadn't been alive when the first Soynite met the first Freeman. But Hase had let the original Freemans live. And their kind had ruined Soy.

With or without a Majestic's assistance, Hero would survive any battle against Lock's warriors.

Lock Tannis. He had ordered his fighters to attack Soy.

"We have to deal with the Freemans because of Lock Tannis," Hero said. Macy leaned against a wall. "This is his fault."

"Hero is right," Sydney said. "This is Lock's fault. Not Hase's. He didn't know what the Freemans would end up doing."

Freemans might have imprisoned Hero's father.

Whether or not his father had died, Hero would find him, the man who had helped five orphans escape a massacre at a museum.

"We know what the Freemans did, though," Hero said. "And we're going to stop them from hurting more Soynites. Eventually. I just wish Father was here. And Boris Endman. Maybe I'll meet him one day. Maybe I'll even save his granddaughter."

Hero owned a photograph showing Boris and baby Alice Endman. He was the third High, and he hadn't deserved to have his granddaughter taken from him.

"And all of us are going to save Father," Macy said.

"We're a family," Hero said. "And we're going to get our father back. If the Freemans captured one of us, Father would try to save us."

"I know," Sydney said. "And as long as me and the others listen to you, we'll be fine."

"That's right."

Sydney smiled. She pressed her forehead against Hero's arm. She acted as if Theo Majestic had told her Hero would revive Soy, kill Lock, and find her missing father.

"I love you," she said.

"I love you, too, Sydney," Hero replied. He stroked her blonde hair.

It had become Hero's duty to keep his siblings safe. For his father, he needed to kill what he was and let an abductor be born.

Sydney took quick steps toward her backpack.

"We have to find a Pure as soon as possible," she said.

Six backpacks contained Vamp, laser pistols, and other useful objects. Hero, Everett, Macy, and Sydney were in the hall. Wade and Kat were in a different part of the spaceship.

"Our backpacks are already filled with what we need," Hero said. "We're going to put them on, find Wade and Kat, then head out."

"To the Freeman base," Macy said.

"Yes," Hero replied. Sydney kneeled close to her backpack. "Even if the Freemans aren't keeping a Pure inside the base we saw, our attack on the place won't be a waste. No matter what happens, we're going to make the universe have fewer Freemans."

Everett smirked.

"Maybe you'll meet your future lover in the Freeman base," he said.

"I need to find Father," Hero said. "That's what matters right now. Not falling in love."

The spaceship had more museum employee jackets than it had people to wear them. It didn't lack food, either. The home could afford an eighth resident. Meanwhile, one bed inside the spaceship hadn't been used in too long.

Sydney unzipped her backpack's largest pouch. She pulled out a gun. Its blue metal reflected the light in the hall.

A Soynite laser pistol.

Freemans had killed pregnant Soynite women. Lock's warriors wouldn't show mercy to an eleven-year-old Soynite girl. With her gun, Sydney could shoot and kill a Freeman.

Hero had carried her when she was a baby, and he hoped she would always be willing to kill Freemans. He and Sydney had escaped Soy, but they hadn't parted with their love for their father. They would find him.

After getting ready, Hero, Macy, Everett, and Sydney went to the hall outside the spaceship's bridge.

Wade and Kat sat across from each other. They held their backpacks. Their siblings wore theirs. Black-haired and brown-eyed, Wade stood a few inches taller than Hero. Wade was tall and muscular, as if he had been forced to live at a place where only the strong survived.

Wade was the biggest Exchanger. But he didn't have the power Hero possessed, and Wade couldn't do what Macy could. He had no Saves. Though he could slaughter Freemans.

Kat had olive-toned skin and long, waist-length brown hair. Her eyes were brown as well. And she would rather run from danger than face it.

"You can't be a coward forever," Wade said. He stood and put on his backpack. "You need to fight in this war, Kat. You're sixteen years old. And you're going to get yourself killed if you keep being the way you are."

"Be nice, Wade," Sydney said.

Kat kept her back pressed against the wall, as if her father would embrace her if she did it long enough.

Hero's father had claimed the spaceship as his home, like his children had done. But his bed lacked his warmth. The Shame siblings didn't have their father, but they had tools that would help them reunite with him.

They wouldn't bring strife into the Freeman base with them. The building's prison wing should contain strife. As horrible as Lock's warriors were, Hero hoped their nearby base had the substance that had troubled so many Soynites. Hero could use Lock's invention to abduct a Pure. The Freeman ruler had created the first drop of Vamp, but he would kill Hero if given the chance. He wished a great hero would end Lock and his reign.

Sydney offered Kat her hand.

Kat looked at it.

Wade had scolded her, but Sydney wanted to be nice to her. Not everyone in the spaceship was Wade Shame.

Sydney smiled. "It's okay, Kat."

Kat grabbed her hand, and Sydney helped her stand. Wade glared at Kat.

"Why do you have to be such a coward, Kat?" he asked.

Everett nudged Wade with his elbow. "Stop being so mean, Wade. Save the rudeness for the Freemans."

Wade looked at Everett as if he wanted to slam his fist against his face.

"You don't think I won't?" Wade said. He gestured to Kat. "I just want Kat to understand that she has to fight at some point. She's going to have to kill. We're going to go to a Freeman base, and there's a good chance a lot of those Freemans killed Soynites before. And we're definitely going to go there. It's our target."

Hero had picked Mitch Shame to be his father. The Exchangers had picked a gray building as their target. Freemans guarded the place. When Wade spotted it, he and Kat had been brother and sister. They still were.

Hero moved closer to Kat.

"And Kat is our sister," he said. "You haven't forgotten that, right? You know she's family. I know it, too. I also know that Everett gave you some good advice. Save the rudeness for the Freemans. We're going to attack their base, and everything will be fine. You will be okay. Kat will be okay. All of us will."

"Be a monster to the Freemans, Wade," Macy said. "Do I have to remind you that they're the ones who captured Father? Kat didn't do it. Neither did I. The Freemans took Father away. They took him, but we're going to get him back. If we're fortunate, he's inside that base. Alive. Even if he isn't, we'll find him. Father is somewhere. And wherever he is, he doesn't want you to be rude to Kat. He doesn't want you to be rude to any of us. That's why I suggest you should do him a favor by calming down."

Wade unleashed a sigh.

"Family shouldn't be rude to family," Sydney said. She gripped her backpack's white straps. "The Pale Monsters are your enemies, Wade. Not Kat."

Wade crossed his muscular arms. He turned his head, as if the blue wall had become more interesting than his fellow Exchangers.

"Listen, all of you," Hero said. "We're the Exchangers. Before that, we were just Shames. We're our father's children, and he needs us. That's why we're going to do what we're going to do. We don't just think we'll reunite with Father. We will reunite with him."

He raised ten fingers.

"Ten Pures," he said. "That's what we have to pay to get Father back, and we will get him back. Most of us aren't his biological children, but we do love him. And he loves us. That's why we're going to take ten Pures."

"It's not the only reason," Macy said.

"I know," Hero said. He smiled. "We will live at that wonderful place, and the Freemans will never bother us again. They won't be able to hurt us there. But the truth is that we're not living at the best place in the universe. And we have to work hard, because we do want to live there one day. We have to take ten Pures. Most importantly, we have to do it for Father. Without him, this home doesn't feel like a home."

Sydney bowed her head. "That's true."

Hero's father hadn't been dead the last time he had seen him, but Freemans had captured the man. His children couldn't confirm he hadn't been killed.

Hero toyed with his pendant.

"We will see Father again," he said. "I promise. He's going to be back in our lives."

Macy placed a hand on Kat's shoulder.

"Are you ready to leave?" Macy asked.

Kat's breath shivered, as if a Soynite with the power to create ice had brushed her neck with an icicle. She and the others had to head into a Freeman base. An army of trees surrounded it. But the Exchangers would head there and kill warriors who fought for Lock. Kat would survive the assault.

"Y-yes," she said. Someday she might speak with a leader's confidence.

Kat grabbed her backpack before putting it on. She knew the Exchangers should commit the kidnappings as a family, which was why she planned on going into the Freeman base with them. Regardless, she was a coward.

"We're going to be walking again," Wade said. He ran his fingers through his black hair. "I wish I could teleport."

After making their final preparations, the Exchangers exited the spaceship.

Hero took the lead. The others followed him. Nobody stalked them. Hero assumed that was the case, anyway.

They walked in the massive meadow where Hero had landed their spaceship. He was enroute to a Freeman base, intent on reaching a place occupied by people who wouldn't show him mercy.

Each Exchanger wielded a laser pistol. Each one wore a zip-up jacket. They were supposed to be worn by employees of the Ascend Museum, a place where nobody could work. Because the Freemans had destroyed it.

Birds chirped as they flapped their feathered wings. Hero could do what they did.

He and his companions wore their Soynite pendants. If Freemans spotted the kids, the pale adversaries would know what the Shame siblings were.

If Hero didn't become Lock's killer in the future, maybe a different blue-eyed Soynite would kill him.

He had ruined Hero's planet.

Every item for sale on Soy had been free. Vamp-filled syringes had been given to Hero and his siblings for free, but they needed to use them for serious business.

The Freemans had stolen their father. The Shame children might steal someone from the Freemans: a Pure.

A few minutes passed.

Past the trees stood a wide wall, gray and solid. It formed the building's back side. Freemans had destroyed Soy's green. They had brought gray to the planet. Lock's pale fighters had forced that color into this forest on Earth.

Maybe the building had been the last one deceased Soynites had seen.

Hero heard a voice. Its owner spoke in the same accent belonging to brutes who had slaughtered Soynites inside the Ascend Museum.

"Hide!" Hero said.

The Exchangers hid.

While Hero stood behind a tree, another Freeman's voice struck the air.

"One of the bases in California was attacked," a Freeman said, speaking his native language. Hero had heard that voice before hiding. "A Soynite man and a Soynite girl were behind it. Warriors from that base are bringing the girl here."

Was the Soynite man a Pure? Was the girl one?

As his free hand touched the tree's rough bark, Hero appreciated his fluency in the Freeman language. His siblings knew the language as well.

"You two!" another Freeman yelled.

Hero peeked from behind the tree. A Freeman warrior ran closer to two standing ones, each foe armed with a black laser rifle. Twigs snapped underneath the newly arrived Freeman's combat boots as he ran. He came to a halt near his comrades.

"Two Soynite males have entered the base!" said the new arrival. "They attacked the front side, and now they're inside the building. Follow me. Both of those Soynites are going to die. They're going to be like Boris Endman. I'm so glad he's dead."

Hero's heart hammered as if his enemy had shot him. Had a disgusting brute opened fire on Boris and killed him?

"Now, let's kill those Soynites!" the new arrival said.

He ran. The other Freemans went with him, rushing, eager to kill Soynites.

Hero wouldn't let them get too far.