Alisha Patel - (DIMENSION: NINETY-SEVEN - LOCATION: SAN MARCOS):

I put my foot behind Aadil's leg and sent him tumbling to the floor, dislocating his arm in the process.

"ALISHA, THIS IS THE THIRD TIME YOU'VE DONE THAT!" he yelled in pain as I chuckled and reset his arm once again.

"Samron was right when she said you were fragile," I said as I helped him to his feet.

"Samron shot me in the foot to see how strong I was," he recalled, as he stood up, rubbing his arm.

"She was a bit extreme at times," I agreed, only semi-agreeing with him.

"A 'bit' sounds like an understatement," he responded in an annoyed tone, "but that doesn't matter anyways, it's not like we're gonna see them again."

"Hey, don't say that, we're gonna capture Frenzil, and prove that we're innocent," I said, trying to make him feel positive about the future.

"Except for the fact that Frenzil probably has nothing to do with the queen, and we're just going off of a hunch," Aadil firmly addressed.

"Cases of her being seen skyrocketed right after the queen died, and we know for a fact that she was close to finding out what Frenzil wanted, mostly because we were working with her, and now we're being framed? It's too much of a coincidence," I said, bringing up all of the proof that we had.

"But maybe it's just that, a coincidence," he stated as he walked outside for a breath of fresh air.

I was left alone in the rusty warehouse, thinking about what he had said. The queen's death was officially revealed to the public yesterday, but in reality, she had died a few weeks ago, and we were the ones to find her. They assumed it was us since we were beside her when she died and were already wanted for the deaths of multiple corrupt government officials.

After the queen's passing, Frenzil became bold, and instances of her cult, the Darkstar Empire, attacking important cities throughout the Empire increased. It couldn't have been a coincidence, because if we were wrong, then there would be no hope.

"DAMN IT AADIL!" I called after him, "STOP BEING SO CYNICAL, YOU'RE MAKING ME JUST LIKE YOU!"

I chased after him, trying to ignore everything that could go wrong if his assumption was incorrect.

Aarush Kaur - (DIMENSION: SIX-EIGHT-SEVEN-FOUR-NINE-FIVE-FOUR-SEVEN - LOCATION: DEADGATE PRISON):

The little mechanical plane I had made using forks, spoons, knives, and batteries stolen from a guard whirred to life once I pressed a small button under its right wing. Taking it to my cell window, I disassembled it and threw it out of the window. I watched as the pieces came together, sparks of electricity buzzing between them as it rebuilt itself.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Right before it hit the ground, it shot up out of sight. I didn't even know whether the planes were escaping anymore, as I hadn't received any from Lucas in two months. I watched the sunrise, marking my second year at Stonespear Penitentiary.

The door shuddered open as I walked out onto the catwalk, held up over a large hole that seemed endless by a few measly wires. Merely walking on it would make it cry out, threatening to throw me to the cavernous pit, but I already knew it wouldn't collapse, as it was only a scare tactic. After all, I was the one who designed it four years ago when I was only eleven.

Walking into the cafe, I was met with the sight of some of the worst criminals in the multiverse. I held my arms out like usual, and a tray filled with the same colorless, tasteless glob that they called universal food appeared in my hands.

I walked down the aisles for a good fifteen minutes trying to find a seat. Eventually, I did find one, but it was beside a rather peculiar being, a mess of colorful limbs and contorted faces. Slimy residue dripped off of him, smelling like a landfill, as he shoveled food into his mouth.

"Hallo Aarushhhhh," Kazh greeted me in that disturbing, snake-like voice.

"I'm not giving you my skin Kazh," I told him once again. He'd tried convincing me to give him my skin to add to his collection multiple times, but I always declined because I liked not looking like a sack of meat you'd find in the back of a kitchen freezer.

"Aarushhh, it'll be beneficial for the BOTH of ussss," he hissed, laying one of his dismembered arms on my shoulder, "It's so colddddd, you wouldn't want your dear friend to freeeezeee to deathhh, would youuuu?"

"We're not friends," I stated as I got up to leave, but was stopped by Kazh, who wouldn't let go.

"Kazh, let go," I warned him, getting mildly irritated.

"I'm afraid I can't do that," he said maliciously as his grip tightened around my shoulder.

I whipped around and slammed my elbow into the arm, tearing it clean off.

"AARGHGHHHHHH!" he screeched in agony, but I smacked him in the mouth with my tray.

"Your voice is really annoying, did you know that?" I said as I broke my tray in two over his head.

He grabbed me with four hands, flipped me onto my back, and tried digging his claws into me, I stopped two of them with the broken tray, but the other two dug into my legs.

"AUGH!" I howled as I remembered that I was fighting one of the worst criminals in the multiverse.

He slammed a foot into my chest, making me gasp for breath, but he made one fatal mistake. Leaning his face to mine, mandibles extended out as he prepared to tear my face off to add to his collection, and I took the opportunity to slam the tray halves into either side of his head, deafening him.

He leaped back in pain, and I took this chance to roll away and grab a fork, which I shoved into one of his eyes. He stumbled back on his six legs and fell back on the table. His screams rang out louder than anything I had heard in two years. Guards rushed in from all sides and fell from the roof, yelling at me to get on the ground. I knew that since this was only my first offense, they wouldn't do anything to me except put me in solitary for a few days.

They shoved me to the ground and placed a restrainer on my back. Wires slithered out of the small cube and wrapped around my body, placing me in a straight jacket to restrict movement and heal me. I watched as they took Kazh to the infirmary, where he would unfortunately live.

I stopped my thought process because of that one word, "unfortunately." It seemed that my time here was starting to make me see things through the very pessimistic view of Aadil Karim, someone who I'd thought was my friend who had left me here to rot instead.

They carried me to solitary confinement, where I was thrown into a cell and the restrainer's wires snapped back as it fried itself from the inside, making everything that it was composed of completely useless. I stared at the wall as I had done many times before in my original cell upstairs.