Chapter 2: Mutation

It's the year 2026 and it's been a year since Sam's parents passed away, but still, Sam, Leah, and Athena know that their parents are always with them and they have moved on with their life.

One day, Queen Maria calls out Heroes for a meeting. They are also joined by Suzy and David, their best friends that are close to the Royal Family and Heroes. Suzy is the daughter of Zagary's Ministry of Science & Technology which is Mr. Wilhelm, while David is the son of Dr. Bill, the most popular tech inventor and doctor in Zagary.

"Hello everyone. I'm calling all of you here because our safety force found something related to Gruven. They are making a substance called the Mutagen, which can mutate someone into a creature or monster. If we don't stop this, then our kingdom will be in great danger. All of you have to work together and find a way to stop Gruven's plan", explained Queen Maria.

"Wait...our father killed the Gruven's leader. Why does Gruven still exist?", asked Athena.

"Sis, they must have a new leader to carry on what their old leader is planning", said Leah.

"Hmm, we need to plan this very carefully. We don't want them to mutate our citizens. I think we have to do a raid in silence to stop their plan. We must act now before it's too late", said Sam.

"So, when we're going to start our mission?", asked Adam.

"We'll begin it after our gymnastics class tomorrow."

The next day, Sam and his teammates just finished their gymnastics class at school. Suddenly, Athena remembers that she forgot to take her personal items in her locker.

"Oh my god! Bro, sis, I forgot my wallet in my locker. Can you wait for a while?", said Athena.

"Sure, but you need to go with Leah. Leah, go with Athena to take her wallet", said Sam.

"Alright. Come on, sis", said Leah.

Leah and Athena then go to the locker room to take Athena's wallet. When Athena is on the locker looking for her wallet, suddenly she is pulled by someone through a portal inside her locker. Leah heard Athena's screaming and try to pull her back, but she didn't make it. Athena is gone and went through a secret portal.

Leah then rushes to meet up with Sam and inform him of the situation.

"Bro, Athena's being kidnapped by someone that is using a portal on her locker!", said Leah in a panicked tone.

"What?! How did it happen?", asked Sam.

"I don't know. When Athena opened her locker, I saw she was being pulled inside the locker. I try to pull her back, but I can't, the person who pulls her is too strong. Then, Athena is pulled to the portal and the portal disappeared. We need to save our little sister, brother!"

"We will, but we need to know who did this and where our little sis could be brought to."

"Maybe to the Gruven's old base that our late father used to tell us. Our little sis could be there."

"You might have a point there, sis. Come on, we need to save Athena."

Sam and his teammates go to the Gruven's old base, where the late Sansone lives there with his family and doing evil plans toward Zagary and Heroes.

When they arrived, they are shocked to see Athena in the cage above a tub. The tub is filled with Mutagens. Later on, they're fighting with the Gruven soldiers, when suddenly the new Gruven leader, Carla joined them to fight with Sam and his teammates.

"Well, well, well, if this isn't the infamous Heroes team that Zagary loves", said Carla.

"Who are you? Are you the leader of Gruven?", asked Sam.

"Well, yes I am. Name's Carla, Carla Sansone, the daughter of Sansone Wilburt. You all killed my father, and now I'm going to do a payback to all of you, by letting your lovely little sister be mutated. Muahahaha!"

"Brother, sis! Help me please!", cried Athena.

"Let go of our sister, you freak!", shouted Leah.

"Well...you could...if you can defeat me."

Sam then requests his teammates to attack the soldiers and Carla. Then, Sam has an idea.

When everyone is busy fighting, Sam takes advantage to rescue Athena. Suddenly, Carla saw Sam wants to release Athena, so she attacked him.

"You're too late, Sam Anderson", said Carla.

Carla then cut the chain, making Athena fall into the Mutagen tub. They were all shocked to see that situation.

After that, a mutant serpent comes out of the tub whose real identity is Athena, and Sam hurriedly catches her.

"Oh no. Sis? Sis, wake up", begged Sam.

Later on, Athena opens her eyes and started to attack him and the soldiers. Sam tells her to stop her action and she suddenly twists Sam with her tail.

"Sis...it's...me...your brother..."

Athena looked at him and she remembered that he was his brother, Sam.

"Brother?!"

She then lets her brother go, screams, and runs out from the base.

"Sis! Where are you going? Come back!", shouted Sam.

Sam tried to catch her but she has already run away.

Meanwhile, above a building somewhere in Zagary, Athena transforms herself back into a human. Because her mutation genes are special, she can transform to become a serpent and a human.

After she ran away, Athena is hunted by Carla and her soldiers. So, she tries to survive by seeking a hiding place. Suddenly, when she's hiding in a building, Gruven soldiers found her and try to bring her back to the base so that she can change to become evil and be on their side. Athena fights with them until she is stabbed with a sword by a soldier. Luckily, she is still alive and runs away so that the soldier can't catch her.

Meanwhile, Sam and his teammates still working hard to find Athena. Suddenly, Iris heard a hissing voice come from a building and they directly go inside that building. Athena then heard someone coming, so she turned herself into a serpent. Sam then found Athena, but suddenly she attacked Sam and his teammates. Sam tells her that she is his brother and Athena remembered it back and changed herself back into a human. Her face is pale and scaley due to her mutation that turns her into a serpent. Her talking intonation is like a combination of human and snake voices.

"Help me, pleassseeeee", said Athena with a snake tone.

"Athena, you need to come with us", said Leah.

"No, it's too dangerousssss", said Athena.

"That's the only way you can be rescued from being captured by Gruven. We need to bring you back to Zagary to cure you", said Sam.

Suddenly, Athena felt pain in her stomach. Sam and Leah then realize that Athena is injured.

"Sis, what happened to you? Who did this to you?", asked Sam.

"It'ssss the Gruven soldiersss. They ssstabbed me, it hurtssss!", said Athena.

"You're going to be okay, sis. We're gonna take you home and cure you, okay?", said Sam.

"Thanksssss so much, brother, sis. But how we are gonna go back home?", said Athena.

"Don't you worry about that. We brought something for you as a disguise", said David.

Later, Athena wears a coat and goes out with them like ordinary people so that people will not be acted strangely about her appearance. She walks alongside her brother and sister to be safe. After a long walk, they arrived at the castle. Later, they meet the queen to inform her that Athena has been found.

"Your highness, we have found Athena, but she is being mutated. She can change herself to become a serpent and human. We need to bring her to the hospital for a further check-up", said Sam.

"Alright, I hope Athena is cured", said Queen Maria.

At the hospital, Sam and his teammates bring Athena to meet with Dr. Bill to find a cure for Athena.

"Hmm, there's only one way to cure her. Her genes are special, and that's why she can transform herself to become a human and a serpent. I will create a potion to make sure that she can control her transformation", said Dr. Bill.

"So, she can't become a normal human like us again?", asked Leah.

"Yes, but it's okay. After I give her this potion, she will still become a human, just that she can transform herself into either a human or a mutant serpent. She also will neither speak nor look like a serpent when she's a human", explained Dr. Bill.

After 2 weeks of the curing process, Athena finally woke up and she was confused looking at herself. Later, Sam and Leah come to visit her.

"Sam, why do I look so different? I mean, why do I neither sound nor look like a serpent?", asked Athena.

"It's because you're cured. Dr. Bill made a potion for you to control your genes to transform into a serpent and a human", said Sam.

"Wow, I can't believe it! Thank you so much! I appreciate what you both have done to me", said Athena.

"You're welcome, sis. We did this because we care for you, you know that right? We are siblings, and we're going to stick together no matter what happened to us", said Sam.

"Although you're still a mutant, we still love you because you are our sister", said Leah and after that, they all hugged each other.

Outside the wardroom, David, Suzy, and Dr. Bill watched them from outside.

"Aww, that's so sweet", said Suzy.

"Oh, stop it. Well, they are siblings, right? Sibling love stays forever", said David.

"That's right, my son. Let them be together first because they just reunited after Athena becomes a mutant. Besides, we finally made a potion to control her genes and it works", said Dr. Bill.

The next day, Athena received an unwanted guest. It was Zack, who is Carla's brother.

"Hi, Athena! How are you? You feeling better?", asked Zack.

"Hi, Zack! Yes, I'm feeling better now, thanks!", said Athena.

Suddenly, Sam and Leah came to Athena's ward. They are shocked to see Zack come to visit Athena. The weird thing is, they are both neither mad nor drive away Zack, they let Zack meet with Athena. Why they didn't do that although Zack is already known as their enemy?

Well, Zack is the one that tells them where is Athena's location when she's running away after mutation.

Zack befriended Athena secretly without anyone's knowledge. Athena knows that Zack is hated by everyone because his sister is the ruler of Gruven. Every day, they always meet each other at a lake near the castle, and luckily no one was ever going there because the location is gazetted as the castle property. They always hang out and even do homework together.

Until the moment when Athena is mutated, Zack can't forgive his sister because of her action against Athena. So, Zack braces himself to meet face-to-face with Sam and Leah. He contacts Sam and Leah to meet up regarding Athena.

"Sam, Leah, please...you have to trust me. I'm not like my sister. I didn't like what she's doing until she's being too much by mutating Athena", said Zack.

"How should we trust you? You know everyone hates you, right?", asked Sam.

"I know, and Athena is the only one that understands me. She always gives me hope to become a good guy, and I'm thankful that I befriended her. Please, Sam, give me a chance to prove to you that I'm on your side."

"What can you tell us so that we trust you're on our side?"

"I can tell you where Athena is. She's hiding in one of the buildings in the suburbs of Zagary. I always accompany her whenever Gruven didn't hunt for her. She's really scared and terrified, so I am always by her side and keep an eye to make sure no one can find her. I will share the location with you both so that you could bring her home. She always said to me to brace myself to talk with you both to find her, so now I am doing it for her good and also to make sure she returned to you both."

Sam and Leah then have a discussion together.

"Brother, can we trust him? I don't know if this is a good idea", asked Leah.

"Our little sister trusted him, so why can't we? If he wants to change, then that's a good move. I believe he could be a good person and work together with us", said Sam.

"Okay then, if like that I trust you."

Then, Sam and Leah talk again with Zack.

"Alright, we trust you. I know you're not as good as your sister, but you're better than her. You're on the right path, Zack. We will help you to become a good person just like us. But first, we need to find Athena, and then we'll think about it", said Sam.

"Oh my goodness, thank you so much, Sam and Leah. By the way, do I still have a chance to be a Heroes team member?", asked Zack.

"Why not? You're officially our friend and a team member of Heroes. We need people like you on our team", said Leah.

"Thanks, guys. It's such a pleasure to work with you", said Zack.

And that's why Sam and Leah never stopped Zack to meet with Athena at all. Besides, they both also tell Sam and Leah that they're a couple now. At first, Sam and Leah are shocked to hear It, but soon they can accept that Zack and Athena are matched up.

Meanwhile, in Gruven, Carla has found out that her little brother has betrayed her and oath to take revenge on the Heroes team.

Carla shouted and said, "Zack, you little brats! You backstabbing me by joining their side?! You betrayed our family! I swear that I will kill you, destroy Heroes team and the galaxy, even if it's the last thing I'll ever do!"

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