There was a soft hum in the air as the sky was split with lightning. The rainbow that had sat so innocently among the clouds was now ripped apart, muddled colors strewn across the blue. The buildings’ windows flickered, blinking before closing their eyes forever. Screams were carried by the wind, and the ground shook with footfalls. A person laid keeled over on the concrete, chaos brushing by her. Eyes aglow, the light from them disappeared quickly. A cough rang out.

    “Eve.. are you seeing this?” Kayla spoke, barely a whisper with the noise. Beside her, Eve stayed silent. She was more captivated by the person who was now standing. The shadows lifted, and five more people surrounded the person. Emptiness was the only other company, the crowd all fleeing away. Eve winced.

    “Yap’s done it again.” The last of the rainbow faded away, an inky black enveloping the city. “She’s drunk the rainbow.”

She's drunk the rainbow.

Yap’s gaze swept the abandoned city. “They all ran away,” she sighed, “Of course they did.” One of them had their hand hovering over her shoulder, before dropping to their side. Kayla turned to Eve again. 

    “It looks like we’re going to have to face a little more than one person,” she gestured to the six people.

    “It looks like we’re going to need a little more than two people.” Irritation hung onto her hushed voice. How were they going to defeat Yap with just her and Kayla? It was impossible, especially since Yap.. drunk the rainbow, or whatever. With the city in shambles, there was no way she could just spontaneously recruit people. Or.. maybe she could.

    “Wait, you know Matilda and Piper right?” 

    “Yes, I do. And literally everyone else on the earth.”

    “Now’s not a time for joking, Kayla. And lower your voice, they’re right there.”

    “Okay, jeez. What do you need from them?”

    “Just want to make sure they're available.”

    “What?”

    “You’ll see.”

You'll see.

    She tapped Kayla’s shoulder and pointed below. They both stepped away from the only other people in the surface city, and starting quietly shuffling towards a building. The building, an easy-on-the-eyes gray, seemed like well.. A regular building, maybe even a home. However, this building held an exit to an underground bunker, where most of the population was sequestered. It was the prime spot for hiding when anything had gone awry, like if there were any villains. That’d been happening a lot more than usual lately.

    They freed the latch on the trapdoor, and it opened to another darkness.

    “Who’s there?” An invisible man demanded.

    “Eve. We need to talk to Matilda and Piper.” A silence followed, most likely the man counting heads. But instead of having them climb up the ladder and pop their heads out, the man said,

    “They’re not here.”

They're not here.

“Oh. Okay.” She thanked him and looked at Kayla with fearful eyes.

    “I’m sure it’s fine. They probably just got swept away in the chaos and are hiding somewhere,” she flippantly responded, but her eyes reflected Eve’s own.

    “I’ll get Tucker, so he can search for them.” A whistle punctuated the air, and she hoped only Tucker had heard it. A skittering of paws came from below, and there was a grunt as the man lifted the dog through the trapdoor. “Let him smell you. You’ve been hanging out with them, haven’t you?” Kayla didn’t say anything, just crouched down so Tucker could catch the scent. A clang sounded when the trapdoor closed, and Tucker barked, already running away.

    They followed him, out of the building and into the neighboring one. Tucker barked again at a shadowed nook.

    “Piper? Matilda?” 

    “We’re here,” a shaky voice said.

We're here.

  “Thank the light,” Eve said, then corrected herself sourly, “Well, not like there’s much of that anymore.”

    “Why are you here? Shouldn’t you be hiding?” Piper said, emerging from the cranny. Dust and dirt was on her hair, and would be in the air if there was any light to shine on it.

    “I was thinking.. maybe you wanted to help us defeat Yap and bring back light to the city?” she said in a low voice. It wouldn’t be great if Yap heard their plans to take her down. And the others, whoever they were. Matilda blinked, coming out of the shadows. “Oh, you too Matilda.”

        “Um.. Sure?” Piper started, looking over at Matilda to see her reaction.

        “That..That would.. would be cool,” Matilda stuttered out. Supermodels didn’t have to talk much in the spotlight, she guessed.

        “Okay then!” Kayla almost clapped, but stopped herself. The noise would definitely alert Yap and the others with how close they were to the group, if they were still there. Eve ruffled Tucker’s fur.

        “Great job,” she whispered, and he perked up a little bit. Even if there wasn’t any light in the world right now, he would still and always be her sunshine.

Um..Sure?

   “So.. You,” she pointed to Kayla, “Me,” pointed to herself, “And then Matilda, Piper, and Tucker!” she grinned, pretending to do a curtsy. It always felt good when she figured out something clever. A puzzle, a problem, and in this case, an acronym. They all looked at her with confused faces however, and she fought the urge to start jumping up and down. They hadn’t figured it out, but she did. Even after putting the names in the right order. “It spells kempt, as in how we’re cool and neat and good!” she exclaimed loudly. The rest sucked in a breath, and the silence was deafening. No one had heard.

         “Oh. Sorry. But don’t you see it? Cool, right?” Even a mild version of her excitement did little to dull her, and it seemed the feeling had spread.

         “Wait wait wait. So you’re saying now we have a cool group name? We’re officially going to.. Defeat Yap?” Kayla’s eyes lit up. All she did in response was nod vigorously, and Piper was looking just as enthused as her. Matilda spoke though, it it wasn’t with a happy tone.

    “But.. I saw her, and she has friends. Not good ones, either.”

    “Pish pash, I’m sure it’ll be fine.” Kayla said, shrugging. The looks passed around them didn’t exactly reassure her. The excitement from before had evaporated, and now they had to plan.

Pish pash, I'm sure it'll be fine.

 After they had planned, the four walked outside to the concrete outside, ashen grass crumpling under their feet. Kayla opened her mouth to speak, but the rest of them shushed her, gesturing to in front of them. It seemed the group was still there, and they were bickering.

    “Listen, Yap, why would you want to bring back the light?!”

    “You don’t understand! If I bring back the light, people will love me because instead of keeping everyone in darkness, I brought it back! I’m not as villainous as people would think! Can’t you see that, Uma?!”

    “Isn’t that the point? Why did you recruit us, anyways?!”

    “Because that way you’d get a good reputation too!” One of them sighed, and another one of them spoke.

    “We didn’t join you because we wanted a good reputation, we joined you because we wanted chaos. Anarchy, even. We’re villains, and if you deny that you’re just as bad as them!” Yap stepped back, a shadowed outlier from the group.

    “No, no, no! I don’t want anything to do with the heroes!”

    “Then don’t solve the problem. Thrive on it. Or else we’re leaving.” A growing silence followed, the only noise their frantic breathing. The group walked away from Yap.

    “Wait, don’t leave me! I swear, I-I’ll do whatever you guys want!” The

shadows turned back to face Yap. 

    “We’ll continue this later. There are people listening.”

There are people listening.

    Everyone looked at Eve at the same time, but she had nothing to say. How did they know they were there? The shadows morphed into people, each one.. Smiling? Yap’s eyes darted from them to her, recognition shifting to fear.

    “Haven’t seen you around before,” said the first one, “And if you were hoping for a nice and gentle introduction for each of us, I think she,” she pointed to Yap, “can handle that for you.” Yap looked appalled to be in the spotlight, looking over at her with pleading eyes. She shot back a glare.

    “Uh, yes, so this is Uma,” she gestured to the first, “and then there’s Nora, River, Ursula, Lilith, and.. me.”  Each one did a pretend curtsy not unlike the one Eve had just did before. A shiver passed down her spine. Just how similar was she to these.. Villains?

    “Thank you for that beautiful introduction,” River said, shooing her away with a flippant hand like she was a servant. Kayla looked at her own hands, most likely going through similar thoughts. Yap stepped back into darkness, leaving just the five of them looking as sinister as before. Uma, Nora, River, Ursula, Lilith, and Yap. The U.N.R.U.L.Y.

Thank you for that

 beautiful introduction.

    “Why don’t you tell us your names?” Lilith piped up, the message dripping in a masquerade of politeness. Eve didn’t want to, but the look she had in her eyes told her she definitely, definitely should.

    “I’m Eve.. and this is Kayla, Matilda, Piper, and.. Tucker.” Chills went down her spine as their gazes fixated on Tucker, a spotlight set on him. It felt more like an awkward icebreaker than a first battle, and maybe she wanted to keep it that way. Tucker shouldn’t, no, couldn’t be caught in the onslaught. It wasn’t what they had planned, anyways. He would stay behind safe, away from any danger. There was another silence, just like any icebreaker, and for a while they stood there. A hushed word passed down through the U.N.R.U.L.Y, the staggering movement like a game of telephone.

    “Get them,” Lilith said louder, being at the end of the line. It was just like they had talked about, and now they just had to execute. Tucker would stay behind, and—

    Her thoughts were cut off as a cacophony of noise came from behind her, whispers and shouts and just plain chaos. First to speak an intelligible word was the man who had lifted Tucker out the trapdoor.

    “We can help you, Eve!”

    This was not what they planned.