The students looked at Alexa.

“What?” She asked them. “I was about to play the school spirit song for our lovely gym teacher, Mr. Canard, but I guess some jerk put all this glitter into my tuba as a practical joke. Don’t judge me! I’m as perplexed as you are about this spontaneous teacher departure!”

Martin rushed out of the changeroom to the sound of the tuba made by Alexa. He arrived into the gym, only to discover that one of the large windows and the gym teacher were missing in action.

“Shoot,” he swore under his breath.

The cloud of glitter began to come down, settling on the confused students. The only person who was not confused was Ember. She marched towards Alexa, fists opening and closing.

“What the fucking hell?!” She growled.

“I agree. This glitter is going to stay with me forever and I didn’t even get to play my whimsical, yet morally inspiring song. There’s no escaping glitter,” Alexa said solemnly, her clothing and hair sparkling as more glitter snowflakes fluttered down all over.

“I know you did this!” Ember growled.

“Eeeh.. Dick-sie, lay off Alexa! It can’t possibly be her fault that the teacher jumped out of the window!” Martin reached the pair of girls.

“Dixie, Dixie damn it! You can’t even remember one name!” Ember snapped at Martin, eyes igniting with fury.

“I don’t give two shits about your dumb-ass made-up name!” Martin yelled.

Some glitter got into his mouth and he started to sputter and cough.

Cottie silently stared at the glitter storm. She stood exactly far enough from Ember not to get attacked by her avatars.

“I didn’t do nothing!” Alexa shook her head.

“Liar! This is all your fault!” Ember growled.

Alexa stepped closer to Ember bravely looking right into her eyes. “Look, warden dum dum. I called the SCA for help. They, in their unquestionable wisdom, sent you to check on me! There’s an escaping monster. Go catch him before he starts eating people or something. It’s your job. Do your damn job.” The villain pointed at the broken window.

“I’m not doing anything of the sort,” Ember snarled, grabbing Alexa’s arm. “In fact, I’m arresting you and taking you in for questioning. I’ve had enough of your asinine bullshit!”

A flickering refraction of Ember appeared in the air, snapping a pair of ghostly handcuffs to link Ember’s arm to Alexa’s. The real handcuffs vanished from Ember’s side pocket, now appearing between her hand and Alexa’s.

Stolen novel; please report.

“You’re making a VERY biiiiiig mistake there, warden,” Alexa said sternly. “Last chance to leave me alone. Let me go and walk away now or you’ll lose absolutely everything forever!”

"Are you threatening me?" Ember hissed.

Cottie raised an eyebrow at the handcuffed pair. Ember didn’t look like she was convinced by Alexa’s threat.

“What? Are you going to interfere with me? Go ahead, you brainwashed twat! I don’t care if I get shot, you hear?! This shit ends now!!!” Ember yelled, pulling Alexa towards her, sending sparks of glitter flying all around.

“I have no intention of shooting you if you do not hurt her,” Cottie said expressionlessly.

“Let her go, damn it! This isn’t her fault!” Martin yelled. He thought about threatening Ember with the raygun, but then realized that at best he could menace her with a migraine.

“This is a nuthouse, not a school!” Ember groaned. “Martin, I need you to stop being a moron for just one minute.”

“I’m not a moron!” Martin growled, his eyes flashing with silver sparks. He’s had enough of his sister bringing him down. The spider in his head was calculating the best place to attack Ember to bring her down, ready to direct his feet exactly where to strike.

“You are, because you don’t know anything! She’s a monster who killed her father and I’m going to prove it!” Ember shook Alexa with the handcuffs.

“Whaaat? I’m cool and hip, definitely no monster-ness in me,” Alexa objected. "My father is perfectly alive, I talked to him two days ago!"

Her bracelet beeped.

“Oh for fuck's sake!” Martin swore, rushing towards Alexa.

“Cottie! Martin! Grab onto me, now!” Alexa ordered.

“What? What is this?!” Ember barked, hundreds of her avatars flickering into existence, shoving Martin away from Alexa.

Cottie pressed on the railgun trigger and the avatars vanished as quickly as they appeared, as colors drained from everything nearby. The other students stood with their mouths open, confused at what exactly was happening here.

“I don’t need my power to break you, Equalizer!” Ember yelled.

Martin crashed into his sister, as her avatars holding him back suddenly vanished. Cottie made it across the six meters separating them just in the nick of time, grabbing at Alexa’s hand as Ember’s fist collided with her face.

Darkness fell.

----------------------------------------

“This is an unexpected foursome. Or a Fifth-some? Hmm, you know what… I don’t know the proper term for a group of five," Alexa muttered.

“Quintet,” Cottie answered, still holding onto Alexa’s hand. She was barely keeping herself together. She did not like what she saw.

“Let go of the gun trigger. Let her enjoy this properly,” Alexa whispered to Cottie.

“Where the fuck are we?! What the fuck is going on?!” Ember yelled, trying to untangle herself from Martin. Her ghostly avatars came into existence once again around the four teens as Cottie released the trigger.

“Shut up! Shut the fuck up you friggin idiot!” Martin yelled. “You don’t know anything! You always jump to the quickest conclusion possible! Look! Look at where we are! Feel with your freaking avatars if you must! Go ahead!”

“What?! But this can’t be real…” Ember muttered.

“Oh but it is real! So very real!” Martin snarled. "Alexa's bracelet sends her four hundred years into the future!"

“No, no, no.” Ember spun in a circle, ghostly avatars flickering all over, touching the ground, looking all around.

The information that they were sending into her head was impossible. Everything except for the four people was in ruin. The very air felt wrong, broken somehow. It had no life in it. It was chillingly cold and dead.

“What the fuck have you done?!” Ember turned to Alexa.

“Me? Oh. I didn’t do anything. You couldn't possibly think that a fourteen year old girl could kill an entire planet worth of life, do you?” The silver-haired villain smiled softly.

“She didn’t do nothing, you friggin' nutter! This place is Earth, our future! She… oh… oh no.” Martin’s face fell, his silver-tinted eyes looking up.

“Martin? Tell us. What do you see?” Alexa prompted.

“I know... what happened here. I know why everyone is dead,” Martin whispered, his voice shaking.