Chapter One: A Start to the End

Welcome everyone, to the first story of Phase 2, so while you all have no idea what's going to happen, I do and this plot will travel between all three stories in the series and a lot of secrets and conspiracies have been happening behind the scenes and they're gonna blow your mind. I've put a lot of thought and work into this, so I hope you all like it, be sure to follow, favorite, and comment!

READ THE AUTHORS NOTE BELOW!

It's been a week since the birth of monster baby Toby, so I've practically lived at Rae's ever since. We have a research paper due tomorrow so I'm not downright avoiding Dad and Pepper but then again, I am. It might be immature of me to do that, and actively avoid Dad and Pepper because of their having a baby together, but then again I already know that.

"Rae, there isn't a single article about the impact on Fruit Bats if they flew in the daytime rather than at night," I whine, scooting her laptop away from me and further across her purple and black bedspread.

"Well maybe if you keep looking, you will find an article about why you are so dumb," she winks, tone completely teasing which is so unlike her. Wow, I must be rubbing off on her. Sticking my tongue out at her may not have been the most mature thing in the world to do but honestly, I don't really care about seeming responsible and mature.

If Dad and Pepper think I'm responsible then they'll force me to babysit, it, and I don't want to loose my freedom to watch their kid, that's how it works right. Parents have the oldest kid babysit their younger ones so they don't have to while the older kids are forgotten and paid no attention. So maybe I'm not quite over my volatile feelings.

"Look who's trying to be sassy," I mock, raising an eyebrow, as Rae doubles over in a fit of laughter. Her inky black hair has gotten longer since she and I relocated to New York City. It now cascades down around her shoulders in messy natural crimping style, even her skins got some color now, most likely my doing.

I force her to come down to the beach with me, Oliver, and his sister Sierra. Somehow Rae and I managed to acquire two more friends in the nine months between Toby's birth but I've been somewhat dishonest to Dad, not that I've seen much of him lately seeing as I avoid going to my own home because of a crying baby that I silently resent.

While I know it's not right for me to hate Toby because he's just a baby and can't express himself or do anything for himself, I can't help but feel an unwarranted hatred of him and I feel so awful about it but that's the way I feel and I don't know what to do to stop feeling this way because I'd tried everything, including internet research and come up with nothing.

Dad doesn't know Oliver's a guy, that's my big secret that Dad doesn't know about because I was careful about what I said when I still went back home. Whenever I would leave the house to go meet Oliver, Rae, and Sierra, I'd tell Dad or Pepper that I was going to visit my friend Ollie, they just assumed that it was sort for Olivia or Olive, I never said that it was and they never asked.

Besides, knowing Tony Stark, he'd do something super embarrassing in front of Oliver or accuse us of dating in secret behind his back and not telling him about it which isn't true. Him knowing just wouldn't be good for me, Oliver, or our friendship. Oliver and I are not dating and besides, even if we were it wouldn't be his business anyways.

"You know you are going to have to go home eventually Panic," Rae says, breaking the once comfortable silence which has now been drowned and flooded with dread.

"I know Rae, but that doesn't mean I have to like it and besides, this is the last night I have an excuse to spend my nights here as our paper's due tomorrow," I say, falling back on the bed. Staring up at the ceiling, I place my hands under my head to prop it up. My thoughts flicker away and I'm not sure how long I'm like that but snap out of it when I start talking.

"Hey Rae, have you heard from... you know, especially after your birthday last month?"

She shakes her head no, sadly. During summer vacation Thor took Rae to Asgard as Odin wanted to meet her personally and while she didn't tell me exactly what happened, I can tell that it had something to with Loki, why she's been sadder than usual. He is her dad after all and she wants him to want her or at least care enough about her to know when her birthday is.

"Oliver sent me a text message only a few hours ago, before you got back from raiding my refrigerator, he had asked if we wanted to join him at the mall as his mother is making him drive Sierra to the mall to get her a Homecoming dress," Rae reads the message off of her cell phone screen before setting it back down on her desk.

"When?" I ask, sitting up and scooting closer to Rae as she reaches for her phone again.

Titling the screen towards me so I can see, she reads it aloud, not that she needed to but I think she wanted to, being smug about it and all. "Tomorrow after school he's heading right over."

I nod my head. "Sure, besides, it'll keep me out of the house even longer," I say, laying back down as the clicking of computer keys lulls me to a peaceful sleep.

. . . .

Loud chatter filters throughout the cafeteria while I sit alone at a long grey lunch table in the back side of the room, waiting for Rae, Oliver, and Sierra to make their way through the lunch line. While everything's been so normal lately, I can't help but feel apprehensive about what the future foretells, that I don't know about.

While Loki is behind bars in Asgard, Jedidiah and Nereza are dead, my step-father Ian Powell gone, I should feel more at ease now than anytime in my whole life but I don't. It's like a perpetual clock ticking endlessly until the storm blows through and rips everything apart. For me, it seems to be an ominous feeling in the air, not that anything bad has happened.

It's just a dark cloud that looms over me and the world and nothing seems to make it go away, not trying to forget, keeping occupied, or anything really, I just know that something is gathering in the outskirts and it's only a matter of time before it comes out into the open and begins to destroy everything at once peaceful.

The sound of three trays slapping the tabletop draws me out from my thoughts as Rae sits down beside me as per usual, Oliver across from me, messy milk chocolate colored hair falling to his chin, flipping up in the typical emo/skater boy style, and finally Sierra beside him, medium length blond hair falling down in straight strands to her shoulder blades.

Sierra laughs at something that happens across the cafeteria before turning back to us. She's a three years younger than Rae, Oliver, and I and is a Freshman at our school but is the type of person most people like. Oliver is attempting to shove a whole slice of pizza in his mouth for some unknown reason, I can only tell because I can see him from my peripheral vision.

We met Oliver and Sierra down at the park when he wiped out of his skateboard while on the half-pipe that has been installed there. Through him we met Sierra and here we all ended up. Sitting at a lunch table all planning to go down to the mall for no other reason that for, well Sierra to get her homecoming dress, Oliver being forced to drive, me to avoid going to my home, the circus, and Rae just because I am.

"You all up for some epic mall action?" Oliver asks, after somehow managing to survive swallowing all that food he scarfed into his mouth. Playing along I decided to crack a joke of my own. Sarcasm and cleaver wordplay is my forte after all.

"Oh absolutely," I exclaim, sounding like a giddy school girl by pitching my voice higher and exaggerating movements to add some flare. Batting my eyelashes, I continue. "There is nothing I'd rather do, well, maybe go to the Nation Air and Space Museum."

Oliver playfully tosses a stack of napkins at me, playfully glares while running a hand through his hair, carelessly shaking it back into place whilst sticking out his tongue at me.

"So mature..." I reply, raising an eyebrow.

He nods his head in a cocky way. "You know it."

Just as he's about to say more the bell to dismiss lunch rings and so he instead says, "See you in a couple hours ladies, and Sierra," he says, shooting her a teasing look.

"Oliver!" she screams, shooting him a deathly glare.

A/N: Okay, so I'm gonna be honest. I only have ten chapters completed on this story but because you've all waited so patiently I decided to post the first chapter, I will post at least once a week. That's the plan at least and I won't be updating this story after this until I post the final chapter of Raven's story which shouldn't be long. Anyways, that's all I needed to tell you all, so I hope you enjoyed the first chapter and get ready for an amazing new adventure for Panic and Co.