”But mom why do we have to leave so quickly?” 13-year-old Claudia  Howell asked her mother, Lydia Howell from her bed. She was wearing a blue buttoned-up shirt and a pair of jeans along with a beetle necklace.  “You’ll find out eventually but for now you have to trust me,” Lydia said, “It’s kind of hard to trust a murderer!” Claudia spat back. Lydia went into a blinding rage and reached her hand out at Claudia. Claudia felt overcome with a sense of drowsiness. “I...hate you” Claudia muttered before falling into unconsciousness on her bed. Lydia closed her eyes and let out a heartfelt sigh before picking up her unconscious daughter, and leaving the room. Lydia walked with her daughter down the stairs, careful to not drop her daughter. 

When Lydia reached the bottom of the stairs she walked over to the living room and put Claudia on the couch and sat next to her, waiting for the rest of the family to arrive. A few moments later, a man walked down the stairs, flipping a golden coin in his left hand. His name: Tom Howell. He wore a  tuxedo and was grinning like a madman as he made his descent. Following behind him was 9-year-old Tyler Howell. Tyler was wearing some blue cargo pants, a redshirt, and a backward-facing orange cap.  Tyler was Carrying the luggage, his face beet red from the physical strain it was taking on him. “Why’s Claudia asleep it’s only 3 pm?” Tyler asked his dad. Tom quickly locked eyes with his wife and she mouthed the words: “Don’t tell him” 

“Uhhh she just took a nap, sport”  Tom responded as he reached the bottom of the stairs. “Huh ok”  Tyler said. suddenly, Tom flipped his coin into the air one more time before tucking it behind his ear. Tom reached into his pocket and pulled out a pair of keys. Tom unlocked the door and it slowly opened, revealing a red corvette. Tom walked over to the corvette, his son following him, still straining from,the heavy luggage. Tom entered the car, and started it up. Tyler opened the trunk and  heftily put the luggage inside before closing it. Lydia picked up her still unconcious daughter and wandered over to the corvette, opening the backseat door and plopping her inside. Claudia remained asleep. “Wow. She must be a heavy sleeper” Tyler said.

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”Yep” Lydia muttered trying to forget what her daughter said. As if he could read her mind, Tom looked over at his wife and said “It wasn’t your fault Lydia. You did what you had to do” Lydia wiped away a tear that she just noticed was falling down her cheek. “Thanks, Tom. Now let’s get out of here” Lydia said. Tom smiled and the car zoomed out of the driveway and began driving towards the airport.  Right when they were about a mile and a half away from the airport, the ground beneath the family’s car began to crack.and rumble. ”oh no are we in an earthquake?” Tom said, his eyes moving frantically searching for any possible way out of this situation. He realized that the ground beneath the other cars weren't cracking at all. Not a bit.  

”This entire earthquake is localized in our car!” Tom shouted in alarm, scaring Tyler and making him flinch. ”This must be the work of a mage.” Lydia said. ”Well if it is then it sucks that we can't do anything about it since there are other people here,” Tom said. ”Mom, Dad I'm scared,” Tyler said through tears of terror Lydia raised her hand to Tyler, and instantly he fell into a deep sleep.  Suddenly about twelve feet away from the car, a muscly man jumped out of the ground and charged at the car. Wielding two iron claws.  

Tom quickly swerved the car around and hit the strange man with the tail end of the car, rendering him unconcious and breaking a few of his bones as it sent him crashing to the ground and made a small crater around him. “How Is he not dead?” Tom asked calmly. “He’s a metal mage.” Lydia said. “He has to  have a somewhat resistance to blunt force by default.” “Huh well I should probably make sure the civilians don’t talk about this” Tom said taking out his coin and whispered  the word: “Wipe” to it  before hurling it at the other cars. The coin exploded and created a blinding white light, removing the memory of the entire encounter from their minds. After that the coin reformed and flew back into Tom’s hand. The light stopped. 

“The things I do for the world...” Tom trailed off as the car finally reached the parking lot of the airport.