5. Stella

"We did it," said Claire. "We're here."

"What's the most important thing about Orlando?" wondered Alex.

"Disney World!" I exclaimed.

We all agreed, so we took our hoverboards to the first Disney park, Magic Kingdom. It was completely abandoned, because obviously there's no such thing as fun in Official world. Robotizens have no need for fun. So there was no need for Disney World. None of the rides were operating. Some of them were beginning to rust and break apart. But that happens after 28 years of being unattended.

"Gosh,"said Alex. "I didn't think Disney World would look like this. But I guess it makes sense if you consider no real books were written after the Officials except that mythology book. And I'm sure the Officials didn't know about that one."

"We have to be here for a reason," said John. "We might have to find something."

"That makes sense," I said. "There's seven locations, so we might need to find something at every location. And once we find all seven things, we can get to the other land."

"But we have no idea what to look for!" exclaimed Claire.

I heard a loud banging coming from one of the nearby stores. It sounded like someone had knocked something over and broken it. But that was impossible, because no one had been to Disney since the Officials made robotizens. Unless this was Bridget, the last Clan member? Everyone else heard it too, so we decided to go check it out. Alex quietly opened the door and saw two people inside.

One of them turned around. Her hair was long and wavy. It was dirty blonde, although it was closer to light brown than blonde. Her eyes were light brown and she was wearing the most fashionable of robotizen clothing. She was about as tall as Claire. She smiled at us and moved away from the table she was standing next to. There was a vase on the floor next to her. I guessed she was the one who knocked it over and made the sound. From the back, the other one looked like a robotizen. She was about regulation size, and her hair was the same color and length as the robotizens.

Then she turned around to look at us and that instantly disproved what I was thinking. She had hazel eyes and she was frowning. She was looking at the other girl, probably mad at her for breaking the vase and attracting our attention.

"Hi," said Alex.

"Who are you?" asked the hazel eyed one.

I introduced everyone.

"I'm Kate, daughter of Zeus."

"Both of you must be part wizard if you're not robotizens. I'm guessing one of you is Bridget," I said.

"That's me," said the dirty blonde one.

"How the heck did you know that?" demanded Kate.

"Long story. But how are you not a robotizen? My mom didn't mention anything about - "

Alex cut off abruptly because she must have realized something.

"You said your father is Zeus? Do you know who your mother is?"

"No, I've never met her. I just remember someone at the Institute saying something about not being a citizen."

"Odd. Your birthday doesn't happen to be September 13, does it?"

"Just barely, by ten minutes."

"And you're thirteen, right?"

"Just turned thirteen yesterday."

"There's no other explanation. You're my twin."
"You're joking, right? We look nothing alike!"

"That doesn't necessarily mean anything. Think about it. We have the exact same birthday. We have the same father. My mother is not a robotizen, and you hear something about your mother not being a robotizen. And when my mother was talking about being wizards, she said Claire's mother, John's mother, Stella's mother, Bridget's mother, and her. If she didn't mention anyone else, that means there are no other adult wizards. So she must be your mother, too. Take all this evidence, and it makes sense. You have to believe me."

"It's absolutely nuts, but yes I believe you. So what exactly do you want from us? Or do you just want to hide here with us?"

I explained everything that had happened so far. Kate and Bridget just stared at me as I talked.

"Well, I'll just say one thing right now," said Kate. "It would take a very active imagination to make up something like that."

"Do you believe me?" I asked.

"It can't possibly make anything worse than it is now. And it's the only possible way we could get rid of the Officials. So yes, I'm in."

"I am, too," said Bridget.

"Great. So how did you end up here? Shouldn't you be in an Institute?" asked Claire.

"We were in the Institute of Florida. Then we ran away when we were ten and ended up here," said Bridget. "We were so sick of the citizens. Or as you call them, robotizens."

"Where did you get food and water? New clothes? Showers?" asked Alex.

"We wear the clothes in the stores that fit us, there are showers in a nearby hotel that we can easily sneak into, and we get food and water from a special cabinet in this store. It makes unlimited amounts of supplies. The last thing it produced was two iPhones, one for me and one for Bridget," said Kate.

"Look at this!" exclaimed Bridget.

A vine had come shooting up next to her.

"That's great, Bridget!" said Alex.

"That must be your special power," I said.

"Have you guys found anything suspicious around here?" asked Claire.

"Suspicious?" asked Kate.

"You know, something magical, potentially dangerous, and very powerful?"

"No, we haven't seen anything like that. But we've only been in this park. There's three others."

"Well, before we leave this park, we should see if there's anything you've missed."

We looked at every ride, every store, every restaurant. And there wasn't a single thing that was of value to us. Unless, of course, we needed a plush Mickey Mouse toy. Although that option was possible, it definitely wasn't at all probable. And the condition of the park was seriously starting to freak me out.

"How could you stand being here for three years?" asked Alex.

"We knew it was better than the alternative, going back to the Institute or being caught and being sent back to the Institute," said Kate.

"Let's try Epcot next," said Claire, looking at the map of the parks.

"Sure. Why not," agreed Kate.

"Who wants to hear the word of the day?" asked Alex, just as we were about to walk out of Magic Kingdom.

Apparently, every day Alex finds a word she likes from the dictionary and announces it. Although I didn't think that was the best time for it.

"Sure. Go ahead," said Claire.

"Triskaidekaphobia. It means fear of the number thirteen, which is ironic since thirteen is my favorite number. I guess that would be triskaidekaphilia."

"Is that even a real word?" asked John.

"I don't know, but - "

"I don't know about philia, but triskaidekaphobia is definitely a very real word," interrupted Bridget, pointing to a letter A that had come down from the Magic Kingdom sign and was drifting in Alex's direction.

"What the fudge? Did a letter just float down from the sign?" asked Claire in shock.

It floated down onto the backpack and became a printed letter.

"Maybe there's a letter at every location. And once we find all seven letters, it'll spell a word and that'll get us into this other land," said Alex.

"There's probably a key word. And if you say the word, you get the letter," I agreed.

"We might find the next word in another park," said Kate.

"How did you know the word?" John asked Alex.

"I didn't. It was the word of the day on my dictionary app," she answered.

"That's a phenomenal coincidence," said Claire.

"Come on! We have to get to Epcot before - " Kate started to say.

"Before what?" asked Alex.

"Before that."

She pointed towards the gate. A group of about five Officials were coming. They were going to search the park.

"Hide!" hissed Bridget.

"No duh!" retorted Alex. "But where?"

"Invisibility," said Claire.

Alex pulled out the potion and quickly made sure everyone had a drop before the Officials arrived.

We stayed still until the Officials inspected the entire park. One drop was almost not enough. I was about to give everyone a second drop when the Officials finally left.

"Why are they here?" I asked, once I was sure we were safe.

"We don't know," said Bridget. "They've been coming here every few hours since earlier today. They seem to be looking for someone or something. We think they might be looking for me and Kate. But if that was the case, why would they just start now?"

Alex gasped.

"They're looking for us," she realized.

"How the heck did they know we're here?" asked John.

"They must know we would be heading here. Either that or they're somehow tracking us," said Claire.

"Well, this definitely complicates things," said Kate.

"No, it makes every SO much easier," said Claire.

We went and checked the other parks. It was a long and boring process. And we also got absolutely nothing out of it. And now we were totally out of options.

"Wait...isn't there Universal Studios too?" asked Alex. "We should try there."

"That's a good idea," agreed Bridget.

Alex opened her iPhone and found directions to Universal. When we got there, we saw it was in the same condition as Disney. We decided to check the Islands of Adventure first. We made our way through the park until we reached the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Alex stopped when she saw the castle.

"OH MY GOSH! IT'S THE HARRY POTTER CASTLE!" she exclaimed happily.

"Let's go check it out," said Claire.

Well, obviously we had to check it out. Sure we were on an important quest and all that, but there was no way we were missing out on this Harry Potter world. Although, now we knew that wizards were real, it might be a bit awkward. But it would still be an absolute injustice if we didn't, because all of us had read Harry Potter, either in eBook form or printed book form.

We went into the first store. Everything was still on all the shelves, unlike Disney where everything had been packed into boxes. It looked like everyone had left in a hurry. But that was absolutely impossible. The Official takeover didn't happen that quickly. It had taken years for the Officials to gain complete control. The Official party had been formed in the United States and an Official president had been elected. They had slowly started taking over the world, tightening their grip on people and controlling more and more of what they did. They eventually eliminated all basic rights. Then they started making robotizens, who can barely think for themselves. Alex tells me the Official president was elected soon after her mother was born. By the time the president's term would have been over, most of the world had already gone to the Officials. By the time her mother turned five, the entire population was robotizens (the Officials had just learned how to flawlessly manipulate genomes, and they were then able to make all the people the same. Otherwise they probably would have made robotizens earlier) and the Officials had complete and total domination.

"There's something weird about this place," Alex decided. "I don't know what it is. I think something important happened here. I can feel it."

"Could it have something to do with the word?" I asked.

"I don't know. It should be around here somewhere."

Just then, a girl with a tangle of dark curly hair and light brown skin came running up to us. When we got a closer look, we saw she was about fourteen.

"Thank the gods I finally found you!" she exclaimed.

"You were looking for us? Who are you?" asked John.

"My name is Isabella, but you can call me Bella. I am Isis's messenger."

"Isis? Isn't she Egyptian?" asked Alex.

"Yes. She has been watching over you, but she has been instructed by Ra not to intervene."

"Wasn't Ra sent away by Isis?"

"Yes. He watches over the Realm, but he does not participate in godly or mortal activities."

"Oh. If Isis isn't allowed to intervene, why are you here?"
"She decided that since I am not her, that if she sent me, she's technically not intervening."

"I didn't know there were Egyptian gods here too. I remember my mother's note said something about Egyptian gods. But why didn't the Officials defeat the Egyptians too? And isn't it awkward to have two sets of gods?"

"You think the Egyptians are here? Heck no! They have their own Realm, the Egyptian Realm!"

"Then why has no one told us about this?" demanded Claire.

"It was never important for you to know. But now the Officials are expanding. For the first time, Officials have been seen in the Egyptian Realm. That's why the Egyptian gods have to act now. That's why Isis sent me. We believe the Officials are trying to take over the entire UR, Universe of Realms."

"What's a Realm anyway?" I asked.

"It's basically a world. All the Realms are completely parallel to each other and the only way to travel between Realms is by portal."

"How many Realms are there?" asked Alex.

"53."

"Why haven't the Egyptians helped before then? Why did they have to wait so long?" asked Claire.

"The Greeks and Egyptians have been arguing for centuries. They want nothing to do with each other. But you seem to have gotten pretty far on your own."

"I know, but it would be nice if we didn't have to do everything alone!"

"Well, now I'm here. And I hope I can help you."
"Do you know the word?" asked John.

"No, but - "

"Then let's hurry! We can't be wasting time!" exclaimed Kate.

"That's weird. Why does that store say nucleotide on it?" Alex asked herself.

"What are you talking about? That's Ollivander's," I said.

"I know. But the Ollivander's changed to the word nucleotide. It's right there in big letters."

"Alex, you must be seeing things. It still says Ollivander's," said Claire.

"I think Alex has the Sight," said Bella.

"The what?" asked Alex.

"The Sight. Those with it can see things that others can't. It's a rare gift, only those who deserve it have it."

"What can I see?"

"Like the word nucleotide, for example! I don't know! None of the gods are sure. That's how rare it is."

"Well, either that or I'm insane."

"I'd like to hope it's the Sight," said Claire.

"I don't believe this. First I find out that I'm a demigod-angel-wizard mix and now I have special powers? Don't you think this is a bit much for anyone?"

"Oh! You're complaining? You don't see us flying or seeing words that no one else can see!"

"YOU DON'T SEE ME TURNING INVISIBLE NOW, DO YOU?"
"Look," said Bridget, trying to defuse the imminent argument. "Right now, it doesn't matter who has what powers. It only matters that we know the word and we know what's going on."

"You're right," Alex realized. "No need for useless fighting. We can't defeat the Officials if we're arguing amongst ourselves."

"Claire, where's our next place?" I asked.

"In Nevada," she answered.

"Alright everyone," said Alex. "You know what to do. I just hope we have enough potion left."

And this time, disaster would strike. That sounds like fun.