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Preview: ISL #1

 Waking up in a small hard-light prison cell, Dante hears loud banging and screaming.

“Let me out!” Yolunda screams out as she punches the prison cell.

“Yolunda, please calm down. I’m right here.” Avery said. However, Yolunda didn’t listen. Almost like she couldn’t hear or see her. “Alright, I need to find a way out,” Avery said before pulling back and focusing energy into her fist.

“That won’t be necessary.” a woman said, entering the room.

“Who are you?” They all yelled.

“Mom, why have you done this to us?”  Avery said.

“Mom!” everyone said shocked.

“It’s great to see you too, dear. But we have no time for reminiscence. I brought you here for something.”

“What big bad is it now? Erius? Alicia? MadHitt?” Avery said as she sat down.

“You should lose the tone little girl. I’m still your mother.” The woman said.

“A horrible one.” Avery mumbled under her breath.

Her mother looked at her with an angry expression.

“Ahem, as I was saying, we need help dealing with a problem of ours. They call themselves the Sarladonias. They’re a highly advanced alien civilization that has invaded and cut us off from the rest of our reinforcements. We tried our best to survive as long as we could, but we were quickly defeated and most of the heroes were captured. Hence the reason why we bought you here.” The woman said.

“So, you want us to drive away the alien invaders,” Dante said.

“Sounds easy enough. But there’s something you’re not telling us.” Avery said.

“I agree. What aren’t you telling us?” Gwen said.

“By the way you look, something tells me someone activated a final contingency plan. Probably something to deal with Nukes. Please don’t tell me you lost control of the Nukes and O-bombs.” Avery said.

“O-bombs?” the others thought.

“The most powerful weapons they had in their arsenal until I brought one to the front yard of the white house and warned the president not to use one ever again. That is if he wants to die.”

“You threaten the president.” They all said shocked.

“Yeah, I had almost gotten eaten by a giant snake trying to stop that first O-Bomb. I wasn’t going to let that happen again.”

“Giant snake? You mean like the ones you keep in headquarters.” Yolunda asked.

“I wish. This snake was the size of moon.”

“What happened to its… what am I saying? Are you five going or not? We don’t have all day.”  Avery’s mother said.

“If we say no, will you let us go?” Gwen asked.

“I can see why my daughter likes you so much.” Avery’s mother mumbled. “Yes, you’ll be released when I deem so. So, get comfortable.” Avery’s mom said as she pressed a button, blacking out all the cells except one. Avery’s. She calmly walks over to her daughter.

“What?” Avery asks, angrily as she looks away.

“I’m… I’m sorry.” She replied sincerely. Avery looked at her mother. “I know... I wasn’t the best of mothers. But I thought I still done well considering… the… circumstances. I never meant t-” She took a deep breath. “I never meant to make you feel unwanted or ignored. And I, definitely, didn’t want you to feel like we cared about Dante more than you. You both meant the world to us, but you were the child I loved the most because you were the one who held me the tightest and closest.”

“Mom, why are you telling me this now? If this is your way of trying to convince me, I…

“No, I sincerely mean every word. I’m not trying to curry favor from you. After you left the universe so suddenly without saying anything, I realized that we had too much bad blood between us. And I don’t want to leave it at that.”

“Well, you said your peace. Now let us go.” Avery said as she turned away.

“Well, that’s expected. Unfortunately, I don’t have that decision solely. It’s up to the council since I requested the use of the technology they claimed after you left it here.”

“Like the inter-dimensional temporal portal and the knockout formula, you used to bring us here. Huh.” Avery said as she created a ball.

“Yes,”

“Well, don’t blame us if we destroy this place. You already made one mistake. You placed my girlfriend in an enclosed blackout space. And she has extreme claustrophobia. And she is determined to break out.”

“What?”