The League of Seven

League of Seven: An Exploding Surprise
The old man stared at the kids when they entered the detention room.
“Can someone please tell me what happened in that forest?” the man asked the group.
“Well,” Green Watch started, trying to figure out how he was going to word his experience, “we killed the wolf, just like you asked, and then an assassin came up to us and tried to kill us. He called himself ‘The Woodland Tracker’, and he had enhanced senses—“
“—I still think Green Coat’s a better name,” Red Binder mumbled to himself. Green looked at Red and rolled his eyes.
“He said he worked for a girl with the ‘midas touch’,” he continued. Janitorial Bucket Man gazed at his desk, gently stroking his 5 o’clock shadow. “Know who she is?” He searched his desk with his eyes, as if it would reveal the answer.
“No,” he disappointingly answered. “But I have a feeling it has something to do with the death of David White. I’ll confront this news to ANGEL today. In the meantime, I’ve prepared a training session in the gymnasium. Meet me there in ten minutes.” All the boys and girls except for Anthony raised from their seats and exited the room. Anthony refused to look at anything else aside from Buck Cleaninson. The old man mirrored his actions.
“Is there anything I can help you with, Anthony?” The old man asked.
“You let us go with no consequences,” Anthony placed his elbows on the table and interlocked his fingers. He brought the tangled fingers to his chin. “After the death of David White, you didn’t give us any punishment. Why? We failed to succeed the task, so there should be some form of consequence.”
“Look Anthony,” Buck lifted up to a more formal position. “It is unfortunate that David had to die, but that doesn’t mean I have to punish you for something you couldn’t control.”
“Are you saying his death was unavoidable?”
“I’m afraid so. Judging from what the other boys told me, it seems that Time Stopper came from the future to kill him. If he didn’t die, perhaps Time Stopper would go back in time to kill him again. Thus his death is inevitable. I can’t get mad at your for that.”
“Hmm,” Anthony looked puzzled to the old man. He finally shrugged and joined the group in the gym. The old man deliberately glared at Anthony.

The League of Seven arrived in the gymnasium and stared at the equipment standing in the room. They were not absolutely sure what exactly they should do with the equipment, but they had an idea. On the right side of the room, there stood ten poles in a row, spacing four feet apart. Closer to the middle of the room was a circle of wooden poles. Test dummies scattered across the room for the students to attack. The only equipment in the room that was not supposed to be hit by the kids was a stopwatch. Everyone knew who the stopwatch was for. An old man entered the room.
“Alright, Pink, I want you to go to those row of poles an phase through them. Grey, attack that circle of poles. Green, well, you know what to do. Red, draw arrows and attack the test dummies. Blue and Anthony, have fun with the Bo Staff’s. Have fun kids. If you need me, just call me on the radio.” The kids dispersed and went to their equipment.

Blue grabbed a Bo Staff and walked up to a dummy. He whacked the neck and with the other end of the staff, he whacked the chin of the bruised dummy. He slowly twirled the staff to his side and grabbed it with both hands. He then jabbed the stomach, smacked the two legs, spun around, and hit its back. Anthony walked up to observe the combat.
“Please,” he laughed, “Why do you need that stick? It just slows you down.”
“It’s a Bo Staff and it does not slow me down, it benefits me.” Anthony walked up to a punching dummy. With one punch, the dummy flew backwards and fell to the ground.
“Beat that,” Anthony mocked Blue.
“I’ve got a better idea,” Blue suggested and targeted his staff towards Anthony. Blue shifted his head towards the Bo Staff resting on the wall. He returned his glare on Anthony.
“I don’t need a stupid stick to help me fight. How about this, you blindfold yourself, and let’s go a few rounds.”
“Fine, I like myself a good fight, but I don’t think you’ll put one up.” Blue lowered the Blue headband onto his nose. The blue fabric completely covered his eyes and Blue could only see darkness. He pointed his feet to the left and gripped his staff. He breathed slowly and listened to any sounds. He heard the sound of shoes on the gym floor. The sound was getting closer and closer. Suddenly, the sound disappeared. Blue raised his staff, pushed the jumping man’s arm aside and then jabbed his stomach. Anthony collapsed on the ground, but then quickly jumped back up.
“I see how it is,” Anthony grunted. He jumped into the air and stretched out his foot. He spun around and pointed the foot towards Blue. Blue ducked, whacked his foot, and then caught Anthony’s foot with his staff. Due to his unbalanced state, he fell to the ground once more. Blue Belt grinned at the teenager on the floor. Anthony growled and rose to his feet. “Let’s see how good you are when you drop that staff, eh?” Blue Belt smiled.
“So be it.” He opened his fist and the sound of a click radiated off of the stick. He placed his foot right beside the staff. Swiftly, he pushed his foot along the dirty floor and touched the staff. The staff rolled away without any control or any way to return itself to its owner. It was completely isolated.
“That’s better. Now, prepared to be crushed.”
“I’ve already won twice, what makes you think you’ll win again?”
“You’re unarmed.” Anthony ran towards Blue. He dropped down and his feet acted like magnets by dragging itself closer to him. Blue jumped to avoid the collision. Anthony grabbed his leg and forced it to land on the ground. Blue’s head catapulted to the floor. Anthony stood up and brushed off the dirt from his shoulders. He lifted his chin, closed his eyes, and the ends of his mouth pointed to his eyes.
“Not so tough, now are you?” Anthony mocked. Blue grinded his teeth and ran towards Anthony. He felt a fast gust of wind smack his face. He caught a glimpse of a green shirt.
“Sorry!” Green Watch yelled, but he knew that Blue wouldn’t not be able to understand him because of his speed. He dashed by the frozen figures of his allies. He caught a glare of determination from Red towards a dummy and a glare of concentration from Pink. He pointed his head towards Teal. If he returned the time to normal, he would be able to see her jump off of a bench, kick off the dummy’s head, perform a somersault, spray the dummy’s head, and roll onto the ground with no harm dealt to her. That was how everyone else would see her, but Green continued to stare at the frozen figure, awaiting her next move. Green twisted his watch and he watched Teal perform the somersault. He smiled.
“Three-quarters of a second!” he heard from his left. Grey held a stopwatch in her hand and revealed the green lines on the screen to Archer.
“I can do better than that,” he narrowed his eyes in front of him, twisted his watch and ran. Grey Cushion lifted up her pillow and whacked the wooden poles. She started with the one in front of her, then it bounced onto the two on the right, and she swung it around to hit the pole on her left. She continued to whack the poles all around her. “Aren’t you supposed to keep track?” Green asked. Grey examined the frozen green lines on the screen and realized that they were the same green lines that were revealed to Green just moments ago.
“Sorry, I forgot to start it up again. Would you like me to do it now?”
“Nah, I just ran around the tracks twenty times.”
“It’s been fifteen seconds!”
“—and?” he breathed heavily and sat down on a bench. He watched Pink phase through the poles. Every time she saw a gap in between the poles, she would return to normal. Her body blinked through the poles until she reached the adjacent wall. She pushed off of it and ran straight towards the poles again. Green turned his head to Red. In his one hand was a binder, and in the other a pencil. Quickly, he drew arrows, lifted them up, and shot them at the target. Occasionally, he would miss, but he shot a few times on the head, in the neck, chest, and one on the left shoulder. His skills began to impress Green. “Perhaps he’s not as useless as I thought,” Green joked to himself.

Janitorial Bucket man stood and stared at the monitor in front of him in the janitor’s office. His look of disapproval matched the looks coming from the figures on the monitor.
“That was a real screw up in the THRIVE building, now wasn’t it?” the man on the monitor motionlessly glared at the janitor.
“We have no reports of evidence from the kids, and besides, I think this person comes from the future, so he could just go back in time again to kill David White. At least we tried to stop him.”
“I suppose you’re right, but you have got to teach those kids to be very careful next time and make sure no one gets hurt.”
“They were being as careful as they could.”
“They left guards tied up and knocked out. You’re lucky that we convinced them that it was a team of highly trained war criminals.”
“There’s more bad news, I’m afraid.” The man on the screen sighed.
“What is it?” he asked.
“The team met up with an assassin. He told them that the person who hired him to kill the group was a person who had ‘the midas touch’.”
“I believe I know who they are referring to.”
“Who’s that?”
“Gold Girl.” Janitorial Bucket Man considered the suggestion and then looked back at the screen.
“You might just be right. I’ll inform the group to be more careful.” Buck began to walk away from the room.
“—and try to get those kids to stay out of trouble. We can’t send every employee we have to drive in cars to pick up these freaks. They have other jobs to do, and gas costs a lot of money these days!” Buck smiled and walked towards the gym.

Suddenly, everything went black, like all the happiness that roamed in the room was sucked out, and all that was left was a giant pit of loneliness and depression. The group heard the sound of a girl crying.
“Someone please turn on the lights!” Pink cried. Green dashed over to the light switched and flicked it on. Darkness still crept along the walls and the ceiling. Green ran over to the equipment room and flicked on the giant switches laid out on a metal frame. Slowly, light gleamed off of the light bulbs and swam around in the room, covering every shadow in the gym. He returned the time to normal and exited the equipment room.
“Where’s Teal?” Pink asked and continued to cry.
“I think I might know,” Red answered and examined a dummy. He noticed a piece of paper on the dummy’s head with a dagger to hold it up. He ripped off the paper and read the scribbled words aloud. “I have your friend,” the sheet read, “if you want her back, bring Buck and we’ll trade.” Red looked up to see if his friends’ faces were as stunned as his.
“We don’t need her on the team,” Grey stated. “She didn’t put much effort into this group anyways.” Blue sharpened the look on his face. His teeth gritted and his fists tightened.
“No! We are not losing Teal!” Blue Belt shouted at the top of his raspy lungs.
“Why do you care? You never liked her in the first place.” A wave of mouth droppings and eye bulging crashed into the students.
“I lost my father. I lost my grandparents, my aunt, and my cousin. I lost almost everything coming here, and I will not lose any more people that are important to me, and she is on this team, so she is important.” Grey’s eyes widened as she avoided eye contact with the steamed teenager.
“Okay, okay, we’ll get her, but what’s the plan? How are we going to find him?” Red Binder examined the paper once more. He flipped it over and noticed ink on that side.
“I know where it is,” he stated. “158 Wellington Street.” There was awkward silence lurking in the air. The team members stared at each other, waiting for someone to come up with a miraculous plan to save their friend.
“What are we going to do?” Pink asked and wiped her soaked eyes onto her clothing. She sniffled loudly and hoped that her friend would be okay. Green pulled out his radio and squeezed the button tightly.
“Buck, come down here now,” he demanded. The old man replied with a straight-forward “okay” and arrived in the room as soon as possible.

“What’s the problem?” were the first words out of the old man’s mouth. He never saw such horror on the kids’ faces before. He could taste the depression in the air, and he prayed that he wouldn’t swallow it. Red Binder revealed the note to him. Strangely, Red Binder stood quietly, not making a squeak, a cough, or even a word. Bucket Head grabbed the note and began to walk with it, as if he were somehow communicating. He froze when he stumbled upon the word “Buck” on the crumpled piece of paper.
“What are we going to do?” Blue asked. “We’re obviously not going to get rid of Buck.”
“Then how are we going to get Teal back?” Pink Wall asked worriedly. Green stared at the ground when it finally revealed the answer to him.
“How about this,” Green started. “We give Buck to this person, when we do the exchange, Buck will take him out and we escape with Teal.”
“They will obviously predict that.” Anthony stated.
“Okay, Red will climb through the ventilation system, draw an arrow, and take him out.”
“What if he misses?”
“Pink will hide behind a wall and wait till he’s near one. Then, she’ll surprise attack him.”
“What if he’s not alone?”
“Then we’ll take care of the rest.”
“Buck, are you okay with the plan?” Buck continued to stare at the letter. He crumpled it up in his fist.
“Sure, I’ve got nothing better to do.” The group headed out into Buck’s van so he could take them to the hostage.

The group stared at the abandoned factory building when they parked across from it. The street was nearly deserted. The red brick stood eight stories tall with multiple shattered windows. It like it was designed over a hundred years ago. The group knew their friend struggled in there, desperate to escape. The students cautiously examined the warehouse, as if it was the last thing their eyes examined. Silence from the street blew into the car. Green Watch looked around at his friends. He was confident that his friends could pull it off.
“Change of plans.” Green directed his voice towards Red. “Instead of climbing through the vents, you will be outside examining the situation through a window. I’ll give you a cue to let you take the shot.”
“Ahh, thank you! I don’t want to crawl around with rats. That’s disgusting, man,” Red looked up to the sky momentarily and smiled. Green then changed his position so he was looking at Pink.
“You are going to walk in with us. When I give you the cue, you will phase through the closest thing to the kidnapper.” Pink nodded her head.
“What’s my cue?” Pink asked. Green touched his index and middle finger together, leaving his other fingers to be consumed by gravity. He then pointed his fingers to his left, as if he was aiming with a gun. He gently brought the gun back to his side and dropped it.
“—and mine?” Red asked. Green looked up to the sky and stroked the beard he did not have with his finger. He nodded and closed his eyes. He opened them, lifted up his gun again, and rubbed it against his eyebrow. “Really?” Red complained. “At least she gets a logical sign. What do I get? A wipe of the forehead? That’s really lame.” Green rolled his eyes.
“Positions.” He demanded and Red dispersed from the team.
The group all gathered around the wooden door to the left of the building. Their hearts were pounding and their worries clouded their mind, but they kept focusing on what was at stake. Green felt his watch grip tighter around his wrist, but he ignored the feeling. Green opened the door. In front of him was a hallway with multiple doors. To the left of him was a wall and on his right, a staircase. At the bottom of the stair, he noticed a chair with a person sitting in it. This person had ropes tied around their legs and torso. Green could not see the head of the person. Green equipped his ‘hand’ gun and pointed towards the hallway. Pink nodded and walked forward. The group saw her getting sucked into the floor. The rest of the group continued down the staircase. The entered a massive basement filled with black-suited men with guns. Their entire wardrobe was cloaked in black. The ten gunmen wore black face paint. In front of all the men stood a figure wearing a black trench coat. His charcoal hair was gelled and his face was not shaved. Many scratches were slashed onto his face. The man pulled the cigar out of his mouth and created a cloud with his lungs.
“Nice of you to join us,” the man smiled at Buck Cleaninson. Buck did not return the smile. The man’s voice became raspy from smoking the cigar.
“Who are you?” Buck asked the shady man. Loudly, he chuckled and looked at the hostage.
“They call me the ‘Black Furnace’.” He walked up to the girl and stroked her blonde hair. “If you have come to fight, then I’ll show you how I got my name.”
“We came for your offer,” Green demanded. “Buck, for our friend.” The man narrowed his glance at the boy as he pulled out a knife. Green’s muscles tightened. Black dug the knife through the ropes and pushed it through. The man squeezed the girl’s arm and dragged her forward. Green walked with Buck towards them. Green and Black stared at each other, while the team wondered what would happen next.
“Him first,” Black demanded. Green looked at Bucket Head, and he walked over to Black Furnace. The man grabbed a pair of handcuffs and locked his wrists tight. Teal ran up to Green and hugged him.
“Thank you,” she whispered. Teal released the hug and ran back to the group.
“How are we going to get him back?” Teal asked quietly.
“Wait for it,” Anthony replied. Green wiped his eyebrow. The sound of glass shattering echoed through the room. A swift but steady arrow whistled in the air. Black Furnace dodged the arrow.
“How disappointing,” he smirked. “I was afraid I wasn’t going to use them. Guards, attack!” Bullets swam in the air as they searched for their prey. The team dispersed to find shelter. A few of them hid behind a table, while others hid behind pillars. Pink ran out of the wall and kicked a man’s calf. He flopped forward, still holding the trigger. The gun lazily dragged over to the left, killing two other men. She stomped on the man’s face, and then ran back to the wall. Dozens of arrows were plunged from the window. A few arrows balanced straight out of bounty hunters’ head.
A soapy substance flowed out of Bucket Head’s wrists. His wrists became slippery, so he slipped out of the handcuffs and threw them at Black Furnace.
“Who do you work for?!” he yelled as loud as the shots were fired.
“Oh I think you know who it is,” he created a cup with his fingers. In his hand sparked a small flame. Quickly, the small flame transformed into a large ball of fire. Black brought his arm back and threw the orange ball towards Buck. The old man swiped his hand in the air. The pink soapy substance blasted out of his hand. The soap moved everywhere the hand moved. The two elements splashed together and disappeared. For a second, the old man thought he was watching the sun set. Black Furnace angrily shot two fireballs at Janitorial Bucket Man. Bucket Head lifted his hands above his head, creating a wall of soap. The balls collided with the wall, and made it fall. The two men continued to paint their aggressive paintings.
Grey drew on a wide smile. Her eyes exploded with excitement and her body refused to stand still. She dashed towards the gunmen and waved her pillow around. A man shot at the pillow, and the bullet collapsed, falling towards the ground. She smacked the guy in front of her, and she was then confronted by two equipped men. The men shot at the pillow that protected Grey. The bullets fired rapidly and powerfully. The power dragged Grey backwards towards a wall. Grey noticed that the power felt significantly less when Anthony whacked one of the assaulters. Green sped through the teens and tackled the other assaulter to the far wall. Blue’s staff deflected a bullet as he chased after a thug. He jumped into the air and spun his body. With full force, he smacked the thug and he fell to the floor. He sensed a bullet flying in his direction. He then attempted to dodge it, but the bullet was too fast. It scraped the end of his bicep. He fell down and screamed in pain. He eventually managed to stand, but in front of him was a young adult dressed in black. The thug pointed his gun towards Blue. Teal dashed towards the thug and kicked his stomach. She sprayed his face, and he stopped struggling.
“Enough!” Black Furnace demanded. His sharp eyebrows intimidated the teens. He revealed a red button in his hand. The button attached to a black box. The man covered in black hovered his finger over the red button. He then pressed the button. Black Furnace laughed as he walked away. The building rumbled under the feet of the teens. They began to shake and slowly loose balance. They knew they have to escape, so they dashed towards the flight of stairs. Blue dodged part of the ceiling collapsing on them. A giant block fell from the ceiling and sunk towards the stair case. The block crashed the stair case, causing their escape even more difficult. When Blue reached the stair case, he swiftly jumped on a few pieces of the stair case and the block to get up. In just a second, he felt Green push him backwards.
“Sorry, just trying to get up,” he confessed. Anthony walked up to the block. He imagined himself attempting to jump on the small stairs and pieces, but knew that he did not care for such moving. He punched the block in front of him and the top of it shattered. He climbed on top of the block and helped Teal up as well. Together, they climbed out of the basement and on their way towards the outside.
“I could use help too,” Grey sarcastically admitted. Anthony walked back to help Grey out of the mess. Janitorial Bucket Man followed soon after.

The group stood by the van and watched the building flatten out to a disaster pile. Dust spread everywhere on the street. The group entered in the vehicle. Teal grabbed her perfume bottle and leaned over to Blue. Louis quickly snatched her arm. He sharpened his eyebrows and narrowed his glance, but she refused to show any kind of anger.
“It’s okay,” she comforted Blue. “It’s not going hurt that much.”
“’That much’ is really comforting,” Blue mumbled to himself.
“It’s going to take the bullet out and speed up your white blood cells.” Teal leaned in closer to Blue’s wound. She rolled up his sleeve and Blue looked in the opposite direction. The blood dripped down to Blue’s pants.
“Ha, now you’re the Red Belt!” Red Binder laughed. Teal shook the bottle a few times and then sprayed the wound. A white cloud floated around the cut. Blue made the sound of bacon sizzling. His muscles tensed and his teeth clenched. Teal removed a piece of fabric off of his staff and wrapped it tightly around the wound.
“I’m sure you know the drill, don’t use that arm for a while. Stretch it out occasionally, blah blah blah.”
“It’s good to have you back,” Blue smiled. She sheepishly grinned, but then returned to her seat.
“What did he do to you?” Pink asked.
“Not much, he did smack me a few times, and punched me, but nothing that I haven’t dealt with before. Okay, sure I was screaming in fear at the time, but anyone would have done that.” The group giggled quietly and they returned to the school.