THE UNION

GOK HOUSE

Ayo sits in Papa's office, he had stayed up all night watching old tapes of him and Papa together. He brings out one particular one and plays it. In the tape Papa and Ayo are having a conversation:-

"And what are the things this Slip is telling you?" Papa discusses with Ayo about the newfound being in Ayo head.

"Telling me about the things I can do with my newfound body, it's nice to have someone to talk to since no one else lives here." Ayo wasn't close with Papa by this time, he still didn't trust him but was grateful that he was saved.

"And what do you want to do?" Papa brings his chair closer to Ayo.

"Honestly, I just want to feel normal again." Ayo voice cracked, he felt pain in his heart.

"Just know that you can always come to me if you need someone to talk too." Papa grabs Ayo robotic hand, assuring him that everything is going to be fine.

"And those people that did this to me, are they dead?" Ayo says gently, still scared of the Organization.

"I've checked again, those bad people will never hurt you again." Papa says and Ayo smiles praying they all rot in hell.

Ayo removes the tape wondering that could Bryan had been messing with him, how could Pap have been using him? Papa took care of Ayo, he took him in and taught him alot. Ayo thought about the time he and the others were leaving Papa's house, Papa wasn't happy about it but he still supported them, Ayo couldn't stop thinking of different theories, as Ayo is about to return the tape he sees another tape titled "Chong." Suspicious Ayo picks it up and plays it, in the tape Chong and Papa are talking in Papa's office, Chong is acting very awkward:-

"You need to calm down Chong." Papa tries to calm Chong down cause he is freaking out.

"I don't think I can handle it anymore Papa, it's getting to me." Chong itches his body.

"You're going to be fine, I'll figure something out." Papa talks quietly thinking about what to do. The tape ends, Ayo plays is again trying to see if he missed anything but it ends the same way.

In the living room, Gboyega is with Oloogun and Abayo as he tries to explain to them that they have no idea where Papa is but Oloogun doesn't believe and thinks this is one of Papa's idea to not pay back for what Oloogun has done for him.

"How many times do I have to explain this to you? Papa isn't here, we don't know where he is." Gboyega blocks Oloogun from going pass the living room.

"You're very lucky my powers are limited, I don't believe what you're saying. Papa probably told you to lie, I know him so well." Oloogun gets even more upset, this isn't the first time Papa had deceive him he was even warned by the other Council members not to help Papa but he it didn't feel right to him.

"I'm tired of this just go check, I have a lot I'm going through right now." Gboyega steps aside, Oloogun funds downstairs to search for Papa he knew his way around Papa's house. Ngozi goes downstairs with Huffcupp to check what the noise is all about, she had a different look today, all she wore today was in a black colour.

"What's with all the noise? I'm trying to focus on myself today." Ngozi was very blunt today, it felt like she was portraying a whole different personality. This really bothered Huffcupp knowing that Tina had something to do with this.

"You're extra dark today." Gboyega chuckles, Abayo just stands without interacting with them waiting for his father. He wanted to get out of here so badly, Richard teleports to the living room at first he was shocked by Ngozi new look.

"Wow.........." Richardquickly stopped talking, he didn't want to give Ngozi any sort of attention, he then faces Abayo.

"Who are you?" Richard says as he brings out a cigarette, Abayo still doesn't say anything but starts sweating heavily. Ngozi goes to the kitchen, Huffcupp drags Richard to a corner and talks to him quietly.

"Listen, I know we don't like each other but something is wrong with Ngozi and we both need to figure it out together." Huffcupp rushes as he fears that Ngozi might summon him back inside the amulet.

"I don't want any problem with Ngozi anymore, I've tried my best with her. I wish I could help but I can't." Richard says and as he's about walk out, Huffcupp drags his hand.

"She's been through a lot." Huffcupp pleads.

"Which is? I can't help someone that won't tell me anything Huffcupp, I have a lot to handle too and I feel it's time I start worrying about myself a little bit." Richard walks out and goes back to Gboyega so he could get a explanation of why a lid is standing their living room. Tolu walks in sweating and breathing heavily.

"I have good news for all of us." She says exicted ready to burst the news about meeting up with Essence, Ayo walks in and interrupts.

"I have some news too but there's some old witch doctor looking around for Papa. Now for the news, Papa had something to do with Chong death." Ayo says hoping the others will be shocked but they all feel he is delusional especially Tolu, Richard just didn't care he seemed to be angry with Ayo but Ngozi was interested but due to her new persona she didn't bother.

"Whatever, I met Essence." They a quickly steps back from Tolu, a ball of fire glows out of Gboyega hands.

"Stay away from us Essence." Gboyega voice raises higher.

"I had a very mature conversation with him, he sounded normal and not like how you guys described him, he mentioned a place called Gok house and I did a research I figured out that it's a home for some group of Superheroes back in the 80s.........." Richard interrupts Tolu knowing a lot about the history of the Gok heroes.

"Those people were in the top, they were 7members and they took down so many powerful villains. They participated in bringing peace between the Humans and Supernaturals, stopped the whites from invading. They created a great legacy for themselves." Richard studied about different heroes back when he was still in his house to prepare him for anything, the team stare at him shocked about him actually contributing into something and not just drinking, smoking or doing drugs.

"Well, we need to go there to get any clues. Maybe they can help us get Papa back." Tolu says sharply.

"Wait, we still have a crazy herbalist and his son in the house and I need to tell my step.........." Richard surrounds all of them and a great energy surges around the room which teleports them out of the room. Abayo is fascinated by the group, he felt they were weird but he always enjoyed the weird that was the only thing he enjoyed about his dad's job, being able to entangle with so many strange and out of the world creatures. Linda walks downstairs, the house is a mess cause Oloogun had been turning all the furnitures around looking for Papa.

"What happened here? Who are you?" Linda say.

The group find themselves in front of a large black mansion with other sub buildings, each building had a red bull logo which was the sign for the Gok heroes.

"Daughter that I'm leaving." Gboyega finishes his statement, he soon figures out he isn't in Papa's house and grabs Richard shirt

"You are so stubborn." Gboyega says, his eyes glow up angry that he couldn't tell Linda he was heading out, he knew he messed up yesterday and planned to make things up to her but right now he couldn't.

"The boss said we had to go Gboyega, calm down." Richard says mockingly, Ngozi brings out a deal lip balm and spreads it around her lips.

"What are we waiting for?" Ngozi wasn't scared about the mission, she wanted to go in quick and get the job done so she could go back to her room and talk with Tina. A young Bron skinned girl wearing a hijab comes out of the mansion, her name was Madaniyah and she was the caretaker of the Gok house.

"Barka da safiya, Ni Madaniyah yaya zan taimake ku?" Madaniyah spoke in Hausa language which was her native language, she was greeting them pleasantly but the others didn't understand except for Richard.

"Ina lafiya, ni da tawagaina an aike mu da wata manufa ta musamman. Muna neman Gok jarumai." Richard was asking about the Gok heroes, the others are impressed they are clearly seeing different shades of Richard. Ayo is most impressed, he just thought Richard was a broken child who enjoyed alcohol.

"I see one of you understands my language, I'm Madaniyah and your friend have clearly explained everything to me. Follow me and I'll take you to our heroes." Madaniyah goes inside the mansion, Ayo gets very suspicious.

"I don't trust this person, firstly because we're doing this cause Essence mentioned this place and secondly this is just insane." He whispers to the others so Madaniyah won't hear them.

"It's going to be fine and if anything goes wrong, I'm sure we can handle ourselves." Tolu says, Ngozi gets tired of waiting and walks in, the others quickly follow behind her. Richard starts getting worried knowing that what Huffcupp told him was true, he wondered whey Ngozi was playing another personality, what went wrong with her?

Yesterday night in Ngozi's room, she celebrates with Tina over killing the man at the park and their friendship but Ngozi didn't quite understand how she felt in the park, she felt different, emotionless just like Tina.

"I need you to explain something to me Tina, when you went to attack that man and I joined...... I didn't feel like myself anymore, I felt like another being like you Tina." Ngozi explains to Tina, a huge dark smoke comes out of Tina's body surrounding the room.

"That's a good feeling Ngozi, it makes you a better person. Not being able to feel anything about your past, you can be like me free and reckless, not bothered about what others think about you. I can help you access it fully, let's be the baddest b***h were both meant to be." Tina grabs Ngozi hand as she explains to her hoping she'll understand, Ngozi hasn't found it easy since she came to Papa's house. Essence had affected her so bad that she couldn't stop thinking about her father everytime.

"Fine, just free me from the evil clutches of Samson." Ngozi says, the smoke around Ngozi's room suddenly turns into a tiny cyclone which enters Ngozi's mouth.

In the Gok mansion, the team catch up with Madaniyah who's standing in front of a door.

"What took you guys time?' Madaniyah puts her finger on her lip implying that they should remain silent, the team hear moaning of a woman coming from the door. The sound got even louder that the whole building starts to shake, Madaniyah quickly rushes into the room and slams the door.

"You were saying?" Ayo faces Tolu, he isn't still comfortable about this he wants the team to focus on Papa likely being evil but they are all less concerned. After waiting for several minutes, Ngozi gets tired.

"This is getting really boring and I have some messed up s**t I want to do today so let's open this damn door." Ngozi pushes the others away from her as she's about to open the door, Madaniyah opens it already and tells them to come in. The group walk in to a disorganized huge office, a light skinned man wearing a suit comes out of a bathroom with his wife a light skinned woman who's also wearing a suit, Richard quickly recognizes who both of them are.

"Oh my gosh! I'm in the same room with Doctor Mind and Mrs Mind! The great heroes from the Gok team!" Richard screams excited, he had read different articles of this team saving lives while he was little, also bought some of their merchandise and hid it away from his parents. Doctor Mind and Mrs Mind laughs out loud.

"You know your stuff young boy, it's very nice to meet you." Doctor Mind voice sounded so pleasant, Mrs Mind hits his shoulder pointing to him that his belt isn't adjusted properly.

"I'm a huge fan, where are the other heroes? What about Queen, Nexus, Armstrong, Unique and Granger?" Richard was really happy, he could have questioned them all day long but got eye signals from the others to stop.

"It's a great honour to meet both of you but we need............" Tolu is interrupted by a young teenage girl who looked a lot like Madaniyah, the girl runs to hug Doctor Mind and Mrs Mind.

"I heard a lot of noise Dad, hope everything is fine?" She says winking her eyes, Mrs Mind kneels down and faces her.

"Everything is fine Madaniyah." Mrs Mind says rubbing her fingers on Madaniyah forehead, the team get really worried about this, young Madaniyah runs off really fast.

"Why does she look like you and she's called Madaniyah? I need answers." Ayo moves closer to Madaniyah, he could have easily scanned this place to confirm whether this is real or not but he resisted.

"It's just mere coincidence." Madaniyah says calmly.

"Why don't we show you people around this place, I and my wife can take the boys to our trophy room while Madaniyah takes the ladies around the weapon gallery." Doctor Mind says, Richard is exicted about this being able to follow his role models around.

"Why don't I follow the ladies?" Mrs Mind says she didn't feel like staying around the boys. Madaniyah quickly runs toward Mrs Mind.

"You can't, you're always with your husband Ma." Madaniyah whispers gently to Mrs Mind ear.

"That's true, that's true, that's true, that's true.........." Mrs Mind kept on repeating this same sentence, she was in a trance Doctor Mind just kept on starring at her while smiling, minutes later she gets off the trance and grabs her husband hand.

"Let's go." Doctor Mind says and leads the boy to the trophy room while Madaniyah leads the girls to the weapon gallery.

Minutes later, the boys are leaded to a room filled with different artifacts skulls of extinct dinosaurs, a red finger, a huge brain, heads of beings with big eyes and so many other weird things. Richard knew what some of things were.

"Wow, these are amazing. So many trophies." Richard spots a coupon on the floor and picks it up.

"That's a coupon to a magic school, they train wizard and witches or people with rare magical artifacts. You can refer any of your friends there." Mrs Mind says, Richard keeps the coupon in his pocket.

"I and my team also enjoyed talking in this room, it was like a therapy for us anytime we had issues." Doctor Mind was proud of himself, he was the leader of the Gok heroes and was always given all the credits. He made a great legacy, Mrs Mind whispers to Doctor Mind.

"We'll be right back." Doctor Mind says strangely and walks out with his wife, Gboyega breathes out heavily and laughs out loud. He had been quiet throughout the tour.

"Those people are really weird." Gboyega says smiling, Ayo looks around touching all the artifacts in the room. He felt there was something wrong about this place but he couldn't just figure out what it was.

"So what do we do?" Richard ask.

"He did say this was also a therapy room." Gboyega responds.

Madaniyah leads the girls to her room instead of taking them to the weapon gallery, she felt it'll be boring for them to just stare at old weapons won by these great heroes. She wanted to relate with the girls, she hadn't really had time to see other people cause she's always busy taking care of the heroes.

"So why do the heroes need a caretaker? They can clearly take care of themselves." Tolu was also getting suspicious of the place due to Mrs Mind behavior earlier but she maintained a decent attitude.

"You know, sometimes when the heroes fight strange villains things are bound to happen to them mentally." Madaniyah says calmly, she had a very cool and nice attitude but Tolu having spent time in the interrogation room at the police station knew Madaniyah was hiding something, Ngozi wasn't paying attention to anything they were saying.

"So how did you become their caretaker? You must actually worked hard to get here." Tolu continues to question her.

"A man brought me here, felt I was worthy and I've always loved the Gok heroes.........." Ngozi interrupts Madaniyah.

"This is getting really boring, I'm out of here." Ngozi walks out of the room, Madaniyah tries to stop her but Tolu grabs her hand.

"She's not always like that, she's not just in a good mood today. Just let her be." Tolu didn't want to make Madaniyah worried, she wanted more answers. She was waiting for the perfect time to ask the perfect question. Who's Essence?

Ngozi walks around the hallway of the mansion, it was a really large house with different rooms. She tried to summon Tina but she wouldn't appear, she didn't feel like calling the other imaginary friends feeling she had outgrown them.

"We need to hurry up, I'm getting tired of this place." Ngozi says to herself, she spots young Madaniyah sitting on the ground crying.

"Where are my parents?" Young Madaniyah cries out to Ngozi, she looked troubled.

"They took..... My friends to the trophy....... Room." Ngozi voice shakens, she was really worried for the little girl.

"Please take me to them." The girl kneels and the tears quickly roll down from her eyes to her cheek, Ngozi couldn't hold this personality any longer the young girl reminded her of herself.

"Don't cry, let's get you to your parents." Ngozi says with her normal voice and helps the girl get up, they both go together to search for Doctor Mind and Mrs Mind.

In the Gok house, the boys were still waiting for Mr Mind and Mrs Mind, Ayo was already getting tired and he was more suspicious they've all been sitting in the room for over an hour, Richard enjoyed his time there he was busy piecing together all the artifacts that were there. Gboyega had a lot on his mind and was desperate to tell the others.

"Gbemi is dead guys." Gboyega said it really fast he wanted to get it off his chest, the two stare at him they didn't really know Gbemi, they've met her like thrice but didn't really know much about her but what they knew was that Gboyega cared so much about her and she helped Gboyega figure himself out.

Gboyega goes on.

"I just want to get that off my chest, it's really hard for me to cope these days and I'm just so confused on what to do. I was the cause that she died." Gboyega had always blamed himself for what happened to her.

"How?" Ayo was really curious.

"Well.......... It's not me, she was shot by some mafia, I thought I could be happy but I was wrong." He brings out a tissue from his pocket to quickly clean his eyes which were tear filled.

"It just seems like everything that I touch or anyone that I know gets killed because of me. I mean I took my parents life and I brought the idea of fighting crime to Gbemi." Gboyega says swiftly, he tired to compose himself not to make tears roll down from his eyes, Richard quickly moves his chair closer to Gboyega and pats his back.

"And now I have this step daughter who wants to be part of my life but it won't end well for her, I just want to be happy without ruining things and messing up..............." Gboyega quickly stops himself from talking, he faced his two friends, he knew they really cared about him and he clearly knew that they weren't doing well either.

"I'm saying this because I know we're all living terrible lives right now, we are family and I think we should be comfortable to tell each other anything even Ngozi is family even though she distants herself from us but she's still part of us. If anyone wants to get some s**t off their chest I suggest they say it now!" Gboyega says firmly, Ayo stares at his robotic hand and thought of the horror Slip had done, he too wanted to get some s**t off his chest and immediately begins.

"I was on a destructive path, I did so many terrible things to different kind of people but there was this particular one that just put me on the deep end. You know who showed it to me and reminded me of how terrible a person I was." Ayo talked very boldly, it was hard for the others to feel any emotion from his voice cause his voice had been enhanced to sound like a robot but it was there, he sounded sad and bitter.

"I don't feel comfortable talking about most of the things I did, there's this thing in my head that has been controlling me. I don't feel like a human anymore, I don't know what I am or who I am........ I wish Papa was here." He sighs heavily, conflicted and confused about what to believe in, Richard exhales deeply getting ready to talk but Ayo interrupts him.

"I guess you don't have any story to tell Richard." Ayo says gently, this made Richard feel out of place and confused cause he had told Ayo everything about himself.

"Excuse me." Richard says disgusted.

"I mean you were just a young boy who had parents who made him master everything about his powers but you got tired of it." Ayo says boldy.

"f**k you!" Richard says and teleports out of the room.

Madaniyah has been showing Tolu different pictures of her and the different Gok heroes, Tolu has been trying to get answers from her but Madaniyah was quite good at keeping every secret about herself.

"And this was when.............." Tolu quickly interrupts Madaniyah tired of waiting and getting no answers.

"Do you know Papa?" Tolu said swiftly, Papa's name triggers Madaniyah and she quickly shifts to the back.

"Why did you say that name?" Madaniyah talks gently not wanting to alert her patients.

"We need the heroes help, Papa was kidnapped." Tolu says and stares at Madaniyah who is in a state of confusion.

"Who are you? I thought you people came here to meet the heroes not to question me about their past." Madaniyah says firmly, she picks up a knife that was laying on a table.

"You don't want to do that, Papa was kidn*pped by Essence and I figured out that the heroes have faced Essence before. I wanted to know if they could give us any kind of advise on how we can take him down." Tolu quickly explains.

"Essence? You shouldn't have mentioned that name." Madaniyah says and runs out of the room.

"What is going on here?" Tolu says confused, the whole mansion quickly changes shape and form from a beautiful modern mansion to a warehouse with broken roofs, damaged walls and other materials that seemed to have been there for years.

Ngozi who is still walking down the hallway with young Madaniyah notices the changes in the house and quickly questions the young girl beside her.

"What's going on girl?" Ngozi says but the little girl doesn't respond, she stares at Ngozi in a very creepy way and smiles.

Ngozi goes on.

"Are you fine? Who's doing this?" Ngozi gets very worried and scared, young Madaniyah clothes quickly change into a black and white uniform, she held a luggage and a school bag.

"Tell my parents that I'll miss them, hopefully I come back home soon." Young Madaniyah says and vanishes into thin air, Ngozi heart beats really fast she tried to summon her imaginary friends but none were coming out from the amulet. She turns around and sees Mr and Mrs Mind staring at her the same way young Madaniyah was staring.

"Beautiful girl yet you're so broken inside.' Mrs Mind said gently.

"What's going on?" Ngozi move closer to the heroes.

"What's going on with you Ngozi?" Mrs Mind stretches her hands and a form of waves comes out of Ngozi's body, Mrs Mind goes on.

"You pretend to be fine, to be strong and hold this persona but we both know you're not doing so well." Mrs Mind says as she walks closer to Ngozi, Ngozi steps aside planning to run away but is stopped by a younger version of herself.

"We can't escape what were going through." The younger version says as blood gushes out from her hands, she pushes Ngozi to the floor.

"Thinking of running away like you've been running away from Daddy! You have so much potentials Ngozi but you can't just achieve them because you can never be ready." Mrs Mind says and smiles awkwardly

"Just let me go." Ngozi pleads as her eyes are filled with tears.

"You can't escape from this Ngozi." She says, Mr Mind snaps his finger and a shadow form of Samson appear on between the legs of Ngozi.

"No!" Ngozi screams and tries to move away but her body isn't moving, she was paralyzed.

"You might have killed your father but he still lives inside you..........." She touches Ngozi hair gently and goes on. "You're just a broken girl with daddy issues." Mrs Mind says.

Tolu tries to open the room's door but it's jammed, she picks up different objects and hits it really hard on the door but it won't still open, she lays on the ground and screams feeling powerless and hoping she hasn't put the others in danger.

"If anything happens to them I won't be able to handle it." She says to herself, Essence appears in front of her.

"Oh you're the one they should be worried about." Essence says with a very chaotic voice, he looked stress and tired. He had been busy all day and was ready to end Tolu.

"What's going on Essence?" Tolu stands up gently looking around for any object she could use to defend herself.

"You don't seem to get it, these Gok heroes tried to stop me and they faced the consequences............. Years of mental issues Tolu." Essence said, Tolu could finally see the evil side her friends had been telling her, he looked like someone that could end her right here.

"I wanted to help you Essence, let me help you." Tolu pleads.

"That's your problem Tolu, you want to help people but you've never even tried to help yourself. You want to be just like your father in every way both the good and the bad." Essence had already read Tolu mind and everything about her, he wanted to break her. He was tired of trying to be stopped, he snaps his finger and a figure of Balogun stands before Tolu, he looked scared and was in rag clothing.

"Stop doing this dear, give up." Balogun said so while shaking.

"Dad?" Tolu was quite confused, she had never experienced Essence powers like the others did.

"Don't waste your life like I did to mine." Balogun talks louder. A man wearing a black hood suddenly appears in front of Balogun and stabs him with a knife.

"No!" Tolu screamed on the ground, she couldn't do anything all she did was watch.

"Doing the right thing isn't worth it." Balogun says gently as blood gushes out from his stomach and he slowly dies.

"I warned you the first time but you didn't listen." Essence says, he looked Tolu in the eye trying to see if he could pity her but Essence already warned her once he thought to himself that Tolu won't stop trying to defeat him, he snapped his finger and the knife on the ground floats and goes through Tolu chest.

"Fuck." Tolu says and lays on the ground as she bleeds out.

"You'll suffer the same fate as your father, he didn't achieve anything, he was worthless and thought the only thing he could do was help people. Pray your team finds you." Essence laughs in a diabolical way, he snapped his fingers and vanished.