THE WAREHOUSE HOTLINE

|65|: A. B Hopkins

Xavier and Hunter switched places, as Hunter sat in the driver's seat and Xavier was in the passenger seat. Chase glanced at Hunter's driving style, he seemed suave and cool. The simple full-lock or the revving of the acceleration did him good.

Chase looked out the window, the dark sky filled with a million stars as she closed her eyes for a few mere seconds thinking about the past week, how much has she gone through, not to say she doesn't go through this on a daily basis, but seeing a lot of people she hadn't seen a while made her realise that she'd almost been locked up in her own world.

Meeting Avery and Georgia through a simple phone call, never knowing she'd befriend a mortal and save her thrice possibly. Never knowing that she'd take down Turmoil and Underdog on the same day. Or the fact that she saw Storm, Goodie or her own father.

She never would've expected that she meet the special ones whilst going into Premises 101 where she'd seen Memphis after a few long months.

She never knew or would've thought that Xavier Dean and Hunter Shipmann would've become friends, or the fact that he'd become handsome and so... cool after being the biggest geek when they were younger.

How did her life turn so... different?

She was snapped out of her own thoughts by the car coming to a halt, they had reached a forest. Chase sighed softly as she wasn't entirely surprised by their destination being here. Chase got out of the car as she pulled up her backpack onto her shoulder, allowing the other strap to hang loosely.

"Well, this is where we have to stop the car." Hunter spoke as he stared at the forest from top to bottom.

"Great." Xavier mumbled. "Let's go." The three of them started making their way through the forest as they searched from top to bottom through the dark atmosphere.

"So where exactly is his house?" Xavier asked as Hunter stared at his phone.

"Apparently in the forest."

"Not surprised at all." Chase disclosed as she stepped forwards and found a log. She got on top of it and started walking, balancing herself.

She jumped onto a stone as she heard the sound of the water treacle underneath her, the sound being so blissful and so wonderful to hear especially during such a quiet atmosphere.

"I think we should split up." Xavier suggested as both Chase and Hunter nodded their heads in agreement.

"I'll go this way." He spoke gesturing straight as Chase gestured left and Hunter decided for right.

They all partitioned ways and started searching for clues on where this house could be. Chase closed her eyes for a mere second activating her eyes to get adjusted to the place. She looked up and down at the trees, the beautiful yet dark atmosphere made it calm to listen to.

Chase had been walking for approximately ten minutes around this forest when she stumbled over near a little lake that ran through the forest. Dropping her bag near her, Chase fell on her knees as she cupped her hands to place them in the water collecting the contents in her hand; she placed it to her lips and sipped the precious clear liquid. She looked at the water catching a reflection of herself and something behind her.

Arching a brow slightly, Chase un-cupped her hands as she could make out a vicious beast behind her. She swallowed slightly, her hands fumbling slightly to the side to pick up her backpack. She grabbed hold of the backpack and swung it at the beast as it stumbled behind her.

She took this as her chance to escape, jumping up into action as she jumped over the hill and started running as fast as her legs could take her.

She tried using her powers but this somehow didn't allow her powers to activate. She stared at her palms before knowing she'd have to do it the old fashioned way. Fight the beast herself.

She stopped in her tracks as she saw she came to a dead end, turning around she caught sight of the branch just as the beast came at her, she swung herself up and flipped herself to the opposite side as she took off once again.

"Xavier! Hunter!" She yelled as she tried to escape the beast, she felt something grab her hand and pull her into a hard chest.

She found Hunter in front of her as they stood still at a tree, he was looking to the side whilst still holding onto Chase before seeing the beast had gone off in the opposite direction, for only to be struck down by Xavier himself.

Hunter turned to face Chase as she looked up at him, before he slowly let go of her.

"Are you okay?" He asked her unsure.

"Er, yeah. Are you all okay?" She asked kinda puzzled.

"This beast is no match for Xavier Dean." Xavier looked at the injured beast as it was lying on the ground, vanishing into thin air.

"Now I get it. This is the Forest of Mysteries." Chase understood. "This was the forest from Detective Blue." She continued.

"Wait, does that mean?" Xavier trailed off.

"That all of the books A. B Hopkins wrote are based on real life?" Hunter arched a brow as he nodded his head.

"Wow. Well he definitely has some explaining to do." Xavier exhaled as the three started walking off again.

"Did everyone's powers not work or something?" Hunter asked as Xavier and Chase nodded in response.

"I only found out when I heard Chase shout."

"I discovered it when I wanted to strike the beast down, but nothing happened." Chase responded.

"What about you?" Xavier jutted his head up.

"Well, no fire came out of my hand when I tried to strike the couple of bats." Chase and Xavier arched a brow in amusement.

"Your power is fire?" She asked as Hunter nodded his head slowly.

"Cool." She responded as the three had reached a dead end.

"How many dead ends?" Xavier frustratedly answered as he slapped the concrete wall, for a few seconds nothing happened before the wall started rumbling, causing the three to stare at each other in confusion.

They saw the ground beneath them open as they all fell in, gasping in response.

All they could see was black as they yelled, in full speed going down; ending up on the ground with an 'oomph'.

Xavier grunted in pain as Hunter hissed at the sudden contact of the hard ground. Chase on the other hand winced as she reeled herself up and her backpack.

"What type of mystery trap was that?" She dusted herself off as some bright lights started to power up, alerting all three villains.

"Is it just me or did we end up in an underground lair?"

"You're exactly right." Someone spoke causing all heads to whip in the direction of the voice.

"I'm George. You're here to see Mr Hopkins, aren't you?" He asked as everyone nodded their heads slowly.

"Right this way." He smirked as everyone followed him walking through this underground lair, the water beside them as they walked on some sort of pavement.

The walk was silent but short as George stopped in front of a door. "You're here." Everyone stared at the door, as they turned around to see no one was behind them.

"So much for not staying." Xavier mumbled as Hunter knocked on the wooden door, there was silence from the other end of the door, only for the door to open revealing a man in his late forties, with a white button down and a jumper on top, nice brown lace-up shoes and thick rimmed glasses, with a full head of hair, a few grey strands in there somewhere.

"You're A. B Hopkins?" Xavier asked as the man nodded his head with a smile.

"Please come on in."

They all looked at each other before stepping into this underground home.