Heroes Of The Nebula

By Riya Goswami

Once upon a time, there were three rebels. But how did these girls become rebels? Our story starts in a small town north of Paris in the year 6048 CE. That town is quite insignificant except for one of its inhabitants.

“Good morning Monsieur Baton,”  Rosabel says. “How are you doing?” Little does she know, she is the most gossiped about person in town. 

“She’s so odd!” says Monsieur Baton.

“She’s always been so weird,” says Julianne Antoinet. 

“I can’t believe she has powers,” says Madame Darcroix.

Rosabel is considered odd because she has the power to fly. Many say that her power fits her light and bubbly personality. She is a Magnifican , which means that she has a special blood type that gives her superpowers. Sadly, Magnificans are discriminated and feared. Especially after the battle of Darlon peak, where Magnificans had fought against normal people. They would have won, but the Magnifican leader died of food poisoning a day before the battle.  Rosabel is not the only Magnifican in this story though.

Audrina runs past the market with her sister Mariah. They are being chased by a big man who has a scar on his eye.

“What did we even do to him?” asks Mariah.

“He just doesn’t like us because we’re Magnificans,” says Audrina.

The girls round the next corner and dash into a pile of bricks. They have built a cozy home in the ruins of an old building. The man runs past.

Audrina and Mariah both have telekinesis, and some people find that unsettling, so they are outcasts.

Our final hero is Katherina, daughter of the British prime minister. She has hidden her power well. 

“Katherina, time for breakfast!” her mom says.

Katherina immediately loses control of the water that she was manipulating. Her mother immediately runs up and cleans the mess before the housekeeper can get there.

“Katherina, don’t use your power in the house. One of the servants could accidentally see you,” her mom says. Nobody knows about her power except for her family.

Everything was going fine for those girls, until December 21, 6048.

You see, Queen Velaska of Nordostia had always wanted to rule the world. She was kidnapping Magnificans and trying to sap their powers and imbue them into herself.  Well, one day, she decided to do a mass kidnapping of Magnificans. 

Rosabel was in the kitchen when she heard some noise outside. She looked through the window and saw two black vans. She kept watching as some people got out of the vans and started talking to the villagers. Then, she heard a knock on the door. She opened it and immediately was pulled outside, blindfolded, gagged, and shoved into a car. 

Audrina was walking in the marketplace when she saw Mariah being accosted by some people with vans. Audrina ran over there. 

“What are you doing with my sister?” she said. 

“ We are under orders to take all Magnificans to a safe place where they won’t be discriminated.” a man said. Audrina immediately realized that was a lie and quickly stepped in to save her sister.

“She doesn’t have powers. I do,” said Audrina. “She is perfectly normal.” The agent checked his registry of Magnificans and saw that Audrina was on it but Mariah wasn’t next to her name. The agent didn’t realize that Mariah was never added to the list because she was born during the war. The agents promptly freed Mariah and shoved Audrina into the truck.

Katherina was manipulating the water in her swimming pool when the vans came. One minute she was relaxing in the sun and making water arcs, but the next she was blindfolded in a van. Apparently the agents must have been driving around and looking for Magnificans when they saw Katherina outside using her power.

Rosabel had been put in a car, boat, train, and plane in the same day. She was officially miserable. Her arm had been fractured in the kidnapping and she was cold and starving. As far as she could tell, she was being transported with a group of people, all Magnificans. She really missed her small town in France. Then, her blindfold was torn off.

Audrina was trying to engineer an escape when her blindfold was pulled off. She was sitting in what looked like the cargo hold of an airplane with many other people. She needed to find out how to get back to Mariah. The girl next to her started screaming as soon as her gag was off. She was claiming to be an important person and demanding to be freed. Audrina sighed. This wasn’t going to go well.

Katherina was mad. She started screaming. 

“How dare you capture me! I am the daughter of the British prime minister! Release everyone at once! I can sue you for this!” she screamed.

“ You aren’t going to sue anyone.” a voice echoed. “ You won’t ever get out of here.” It was Queen Velaska’s advisor, Lord Bonenns. Everyone in the room tensed up.

“Why are we here?” Katherina asked. 

“ You are to be sapped of your power, so we can finish the device to give Queen Velaska the power to rule the universe,” said Lord Bonenns. Then, the plane began to land.

As soon as it hit the runway, Audrina finally figured out a plan. The doors of the plane opened. 

“ Run everyone!” she yelled. Everyone ran. The agents sprung into action and subdued all of the captives. All but Rosabel, Audrina, and Katherina. 

You see, those three had run for the side exits while the others barged for the main  and back exits. The three girls ran all the way out of the airport and into a bustling city.

“I think we’re in Nordostia,” said Rosabel.  Audrina and Katherina stopped running. 

“Nordistia?” said Katherina, “ Last I knew, I was in Britain.” 

“I was in Amsterdam,” said Audrina. Then, they fell through a manhole. 

They were falling through the darkness, when they suddenly hit a net. There were some masked figures standing intimidatingly next to the net.

“Welcome to the home of the Nebula collective.” a masked figure said. “You are from the last Magnifican kidnapping, correct?”

“Yes. We are.” said Katherina. “How do you know that we are Magnificans?”

  “That’s my power,” he said. “I can tell a person’s talents just by looking at them. For example, you are a skilled chef,” he said pointing at Rosabel. 

“Well who are you, and what is the Nebula collective? I don’t even know who you are,” she said pointing at Rosabel and Katherina. “All I know is that I have to get back home to my sister Mariah in Amsterdam,” Audrina said. 

“Well, I’m Rosabel . I come from a small town in France  and  I can fly,” Rosabel said. “I was having a normal day until yesterday, when I was shoved into a van and transported here.”

“I’m Katherina. My mother is the prime minister of Great Britain and I can manipulate water. I have no idea how I got from my home to here, but I know that my mother will try to find us, but we must stay safe until we are rescued.” Katherina said.

“I’m Audrina. My parents went missing during the battle of Darlon. I am from Amsterdam,and I have telekinesis. My sister Mariah was about to be kidnapped, but I managed to convince the agents that she didn’t have powers and that I was the powerful one.” Audrina said.

“I guess it’s my turn to explain,” the hooded figure said. “My name is Ben Joe and I was taken in the last wave of kidnappings. I ran away from the plane, just as you did, and made it here. I was welcomed along with the others who had escaped into the Nebula collective. These kidnappings started three years ago, but every time some people escape. We are the ones that escaped. My sister, who was taken during the first kidnapping, is our leader. We all have aliases. Mine is Powerseeker because of my power.

“Wow. That was a lot of information.” said Katherina. “ Can we go home?”

“No.” said Ben. “It is not safe for Magnificans outside of the collective. You will just get kidnapped again and tortured horribly by the guards for escaping.”

Then, a loud voice came from above. “Bring me the new recruits please. It is time for them to train.”

“That would be my sister Dana,” said Ben. “We should go. She doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”

They went through a series of tunnels until they finally emerged into a big hall. There was a girl with dark hair and gray eyes standing in the front of the room.

“I am Dana. I am the leader of the Nebula Collective. Are you the only people who escaped the guards?” Dana asked. “Usually we get at least four or five.”

“Yes. We are the only ones who escaped.” said Rosabel. “There were many guards. Lord Bonenns himself was also there.

“That is odd,” said Ben. “Bonenns usually stays by the queen at all times. They must be planning something!”

“Ok. I’ll get some people to investigate. We must begin training now.” said Dana. “Let me guess. Audrina- telekinesis, Rosabel- flying, and Katherina-water manipulation. And yes, I'm telepathic.”

Over a week, the girls got accustomed to their new training schedule. First they did combat training with Panther (a.k.a Bree- super stealth). Then they did code cracking with Roboto (a.k.a Robert- can invent any gadget). Rosabel did flying with Gust (a.k.a Kylie - controls winds) while Audrina did brain training with Mindmaster (a.k.a Dana) and Katherina did water control with Tide (a.k.a James- part fish). Finally they all did a quick battle training session with all the NCs (Nebula collectives) before bed.

A few weeks later, all the NCs were summoned to meet Dana. “Nebula Collectives, we have all been taken from our homes. It is time for us to finally fight back! Our newest recruits are our key to success. They have the powers we need to defeat the Queen!” said Dana. Then Dana explained her lengthy plan which mostly involved Katherina, Rosabel, and Audrina.

“So Audrina, you have to lift this gargoyle, exactly this one, which will activate the water wall defense. Then Katherina will manipulate the water into an oxygen orb and all three of you will get inside it. Rosabel will make it fly from inside and steer it through the poison cloud that will deploy when the water wall appears. Then you will get over the castle wall . You’ll be out of oxygen by then, so Katherina has to break the bubble and slowly drop it outside the wall while Audrina uses her power to open the window while Rosabel flies through it. Katherina, you can’t break the bubble too soon, or you and Audrina will fall. Audrina, be careful with the window. If you can’t open it on time the bubble will break on a wall and you will fall. Then inside, an inside source will meet you and discuss the rest of the plan.” said Dana.

The day of the plan, everything went ok, until the bubble was flying over the wall. Apparently Katherina had made the bubble well, but Dana didn’t know that the poison gas was also made to freeze anyone who got close. The bubble was hardening into ice, and it was less breakable. The only way that they could get across was if Katherina surrounded the girls in water particles until they transformed into a particle cloud and manipulated them to the window. It was still risky because Katherina didn’t know if the water particles would reform or if she would be able to control them while she was transformed into water particles. She had to be really fast or they would freeze. She also had to hope that Rosabel could keep them flying straight and Audrina could open the window. It was a big chance, but just as the ice bubble was about to crack from pressure, she did it.

“Being a particle swarm is weird,” thought Audrina. It felt like she was being tickled by a million feathers while having a sugar rush. It was very hard to use her powers. They were nearing the window. Audrina was using every ounce of strength she had left to try and open the window. If she didn’t, they would most likely hit the wall and become human midair and fall (except for Rosabel, but she would eventually be shot down).  The water particles were so close that they could graze the windowsill when the window finally snapped open. They went inside and reverted to human form.

There was a maid in front of them. “I’ve been expecting you,” she said. The girls quickly started to run away. 

“I’m the inside source,” said the maid. “Dana messaged me to come here and tell you the rest of the plan. By the way, my name is Marie. Here are some uniforms. You will pretend to be maids and go to the throne room. Then, you will go through the secret passage on this map and go to the east wing. You will disable the security system so that the others can sneak in. You will meet them and then try to rescue the captured Magnificans from the secret room over here.”

Rosabel was ready. She had mentally prepared herself for this moment. She knew that the fate of all the Magnificans was on their shoulders. Then, in her peripheral vision, she saw a figure that looked like Queen Velaska. She felt a stabbing pain in her hurt arm and a wave of fear. She was flooded by memories of the plane and the other victims of the kidnappings.

“Let’s put that tapestry over here,” said Velaska. She was so happy that those horrible Magnificans were finally captured. She was excited to finally take their powers and become the most powerful person ever. Then she saw some maids. 

“They look like the escaped Magnificans.” she thought. “Never mind. They’re not.” she realized after coming closer.

“Are you sure this makeup will work?” asked Audrina.

“Yes. It has micro-concealing dust collected from the recent expedition to the Andromeda Galaxy.” said Marie. The queen suddenly walked by, and Audrina tensed up. The queen didn’t seem to notice a thing.

 “How did you get this anyways?” asked Katherina.

“My cousin was on the expedition and he doesn’t use makeup, so he ships some to me every month,” said Marie. “He gets gift hampers of it every week, and when he heard about what happened, he decided to send his whole stock all over here.

Then, everything became still.

“Do you hear that?” asked Katherina.

“It sounds like Dana!” said Marie.

The girls carefully peered around the next corner and saw Dana being marched down a flight of stairs.

“Oh no! They’re taking her to the dungeons!” exclaimed Marie.

“Now that Dana is gone, we must lead The Nebula Collective into battle ourselves!” proclaimed Katherina.

All the other servants give her a confused glance.

“Sorry, I’m part of an impromptu evening theatre group and we’re doing this play. Just practicing.” Katherina nervously said. Thankfully, none of the other servants were theater affectionados. 

Then, Rosabel had an idea. 

“What if we go through a secret passage?” she whispered. “Most old buildings have them.”

“That’s genius!” said Katherina. “Me and my mom live at 10 Downing street. It was built before World War II. It’s 4000 years old, and this castle was built around the same time. They built a bunch of secret passageways because they were paranoid that they would be invaded any time.”

Marie quickly ran to a candlestick. She made sure that the other servants couldn’t see her, and she tilted it. A large hallway opened.

“Is this good?” she asked. “Nobody ever comes here.”

“Perfect.” said Audrina

A week later, the whole Nebula Collective was marching through the tunnel and trying to be quiet. They were almost through the tunnel when they heard  a strange noise. It sounded as if another army was marching through the tunnels with them. They dismissed it as echoes. When they rounded the next corner, they did, in fact, see another army.

The queen must have somehow found out about the siege plan and met her own army with the invaders.

“Surrender willingly.” Queen Velaska said. “Otherwise we will harm the hostages.” Dana and many other Magnificans stood in power-proof shackles.

“Dana!!” cried Ben Joe. Ever since she was captured, Ben Joe had been having an extremely hard time. He had been an invaluable Nebulan, but he was clearly elsewhere in his thoughts.

Then the first shot fired. Nobody knew who shot it, but it provoked both sides to fight. The Nebulans used an ancient fighting technique that highlighted their strengths and obliterated their weaknesses. Meanwhile, the Queen’s army solely relied on brute force.

The battle was bloody. Surprisingly, there were not many casualties. That was mostly because the Nebulans didn’t fight to kill, just to incapacitate. The Queen’s army fought to kill, but they were just lousy fighters. It didn’t seem that there was a clear winner. Then, a scream echoed above the rest.

Audrina had been shot. Not  by a normal bullet. She had been shot by a specialized platinum bullet that was designed to tear through a person whole. It had spiked tips and was considered the worst weapon in the universe (thankfully, it was banned in most continents). She had been shot while defending Marie, who was being targeted because she was considered a traitor. Rosabel had tried to leap in front of her too, but another soldier started shooting at her. Well, Audrina was bleeding a lot when some Nebulans dragged her out of the battle. There were high chances that she wouldn’t live, and she didn’t feel like she could take a single breath, but the Nebulans’ strength was dwindling and she was about to get up and force herself back into the battle when she heard loud footsteps and war calls.

The Nebulans were not the only underground Magnificans. There were many other groups who had heard the news and come to join the battle. Even normal humans decided to help. But for every Magnifican supporter, there were ten supporters of the Queen.

Rosabel was flying over the army and shooting from behind the elaborate woodwork that was done up there. She was accurate, but exhausted. Her shots were missing her target more than usual, and she had to be even more careful because of the new surge of allies and enemies. Queen Velaska was standing and guarding Dana, the most important hostage. It was a clear shot. Rosabel aimed and got ready to shoot. Then the bullet went flying straight for the queen. 

Due to Rosabel’s exhaustion, instead of going for Queen Velaska, the bullet swerved left and hit Lord Bonenns straight in the head. He immediately died, but Queen Velaska had seen Rosabel aiming for her. In one horrible motion, she struck the knife straight into Dana’s heart, killing her instantly.

“NOOOOOOOO!!” screamed Ben Joe. He raced to Queen Velaska and tackled her to the ground. Her knife flew out of her hand and she scrambled for the nearest weapon she could find. Thankfully, it was a stun gun, so Ben Joe was shot backwards, but not harmed badly.  Rosabel suddenly felt pain in her almost healed fractured arm. 

“Ugh.” she thought. “Not even healed, and now it’s even worse.” She saw that another of the Queen’s soldiers had a flying device and had hit her broken arm with a mace, rendering it painful, immobile, and useless.  She quickly found that he was weak to attacks on his flying contraption though, and the fight was over within minutes. Then, she saw Audrina staggering in through a side door to the passage.

Katherina had seen everything that had happened. Suddenly, in the corner of her eye, she saw a man heading towards her. He looked like a soldier of the queen, but he was manipulating a flame.  Katherina was shocked. She hadn’t known any other flame manipulators other than her father existed, but he had gone missing years ago, during the first kidnapping. Then she realized that her father’s power must have been sapped and used on this soldier.

The soldier, knowing what she had just realized, started taunting her. He made an image of her father appear in the flames and then sent a fiery arrow through it that would make it dissipate into a million tiny sparks. 

Katherina knew something that apparently the soldier was too dumb to realize. Water puts out fire. She quickly doused him with a torrent of water, which left him powerless for a few short seconds. Those seconds were short enough for Katherina to shoot him with a long term  stun dart. Then she spotted Audrina staggering onto the battlefield with her own blood still all over her. 

Audrina was done watching her friends lose through a holograph. She decided to go back. She was probably going to die because of the bullet anyways, but she’d rather die protecting her friends than sitting in a cold room and losing blood while watching a holograph. She hadn’t known these people for long, but she already felt a connection as strong as her connection with Mariah. Seeing Dana be killed was the last straw. Audrina didn’t try to use her telekinesis because she knew that it would exhaust her faster. Queen Velaska noticed her limping towards her with a gun and realized that Rosabel and Katherina were also approaching, so Queen Velaska, Conqueror of the north, The Evil Queen 2.0, Leader of pain ran away.

Rosabel and Katherina caught up to Audrina. 

“What were you thinking?!” asked Katherina

“Audrina, you could have died!!” screamed Rosabel.

“No time for questions,” replied Audrina. “The Queen went that way.”  Rosabel and Katherina both tried to question her more, but she was already limping after the Queen.

Rosabel flew ahead of Audrina.

“If you are going to risk your life, then at least  get there before you have no life to risk,” said Rosabel. Then, Rosabel grabbed Audrina with her good arm and started flying. Katherina made a water hoverboard and sped along behind them.

The girls found Queen Velaska hiding in the west tower. She was trying to call someone on her holograph transmitter. Then, she saw the girls. She leapt to action. Within a millisecond, she had a gun in one hand and the knife she used to stab Dana in the other.

The Queen charged towards the girls with all her might. Katherina quickly blocked Velaska with a wall of water. Audrina tried to use her power to make the queen shoot herself and stab herself at the same time. She almost did it, but Audrina was too weak to pull the trigger or push the knife. Suddenly, the queen got punched on the back of her head.

Ben Joe was standing behind the collapsed queen. Like Audrina, he was covered in blood and looked like he was going to fall over any moment.

“How are you alive?”asked Katherina.

“I was wearing Kevlar. I got stunned pretty badly, and I was swarmed by enemies. I was taken to the field hospital, but after Dana’s death I knew I had to follow you guys.” said Ben Joe.

“Nice one,” said Audrina. “Same here.” Audrina and Ben Joe fist bumped.

It would have been a heartfelt moment, but Queen Velaska chose that second to stand up and attack them with her weapons from behind. Somehow, she managed to hit each of them at least three times. They were defenseless and were about to give up, when suddenly, a bright, warm, dazzling light started shining from their chests.

There had been a swell of power in all the Magnificans in the palace. The swell caused the fighting ones to defeat the Queen’s army, the hurt ones to seem less hopeless, and the four warriors in the tower to survive  deadly wounds and rise. They all started glowing and floating. All of the Magnificans then unleashed the final weapon. The weapon that everyone was scared of all along.

Through the power of unity and desperation, they called upon a deep light that was within them and unleashed a blast that cleared the whole palace and turned Queen Velaska and all her minions into ash. Queen Velaska’s last words were “ You will never win now.”. Very ironic last words.

As for the girls and Ben Joe, they collapsed as soon as they stopped glowing. They were found by the other members of the Nebula Collective and taken to the hospital. Magnificans united worldwide, not as an inferior race, but as neighbors and friends. But now let’s go back to our heroes.

Rosabel was in the hospital. She had needed extensive surgery, but she was feeling better. The doctors had needed to almost fully reconstruct her arm and it was slowly healing. Then, she heard a sound that she had been waiting for all day.

“Rosie, we’re here!”  said a voice. Her parents had finally arrived.

They had been at work on the day of the kidnapping and were overjoyed that she was safe. Rosabel’s parents wanted to know everything that happened and were very intent listeners.

Audrina had also undergone a lot of surgery and was under a lot of medication for the bullets and knife wounds. Mariah had gotten there earlier that day and was so happy to see her sister. It felt so good to know that Mariah was safe and that Katherina’s mom had asked if they could stay with her and Katherina until their parents were found. The British government had started a search and had found a lead that their parents were living as hermits in Tanzania.  Rosabel and her parents would also be staying with them because their house had been demolished during the kidnapping. Ben Joe would also be there while he conducted a search for his younger sister Denise, who had been a baby when he and Dana were kidnapped and their parents died.

Katherina was the happiest girl in the world the moment that she saw her mom. She was even happier when she and her mom discovered that her dad was alive but powerless and he came too. She was recovering, and she would get to spend at least a year with all her friends. In a couple months, Audrina, Rosabel and Ben Joe were all going to speak at the opening ceremony of the Dana memorial school of unity, where humans and Magnificans alike learned how to be united and use their powers (magical or not). But for now, all Katherina wanted to do was sleep.

A couple months later, at the opening ceremony of the Dana memorial school of unity, our heroes made a speech.

“Many of you know us as heroes. Well, we all started just like you.” started Ben Joe. But we were all discriminated and hated because of what we were, not who we were.” continued Rosabel. “We have learned what friendship really is and how much the world can do to you, but you always have to stand up and fight for unity,” said Ben Joe. “ It was pure chance that we were kidnapped, and we are all grieving our losses, especially the loss of our friend Dana. Most of us Nebulans only knew her for a few months, but she became family to the whole group. Anyone can be a hero. Anywhere. Anytime. Everyone is a hero inside.” said Katherina. “All you have to do is believe. Believe in yourself, your friends, your choices, and you will never feel like you haven’t done enough.” said Audrina. “Just remember that we are all heroes in our own stories and unity and friendship drive out hate.” They all finished together.

And that was the story of three rebels and their friends who rose over everything and kept on going. As the heroes of this story say; We are all heroes inside. We just have to unlock our inner hero.

By Riya Goswami