by Skiye Brant
Chapter 3
"Where have you been?" Nate asked as I walked in the house just as dinner was being served.
"I went out following doctor's orders. I went to the movies," I said taking a seat. "So how was your day?"
"The police force was made a fool out of again," our dad started. "Those Silver Seals and that Python girl keep treading into official police business by stopping the Tiger Blood people."
"Dad, I don't think they're doing it to be mean or make the police look bad, but to make New York a safer place to live," Nick countered.
"Either way, one day we're going to catch them and bring them to justice," Dad said.
"Alright, if you say so," I said eating my dinner. Our dad was the chief of the New York police department. He hated it when we got in the way even though it wasn't officially against the law to stop T.B. After dinner I headed up to our bed room I took off my shirt and looked at the stitches. It looked good enough to finally cut them out. I pulled out my knife and ran it under hot water. Maybe I could finally go out and fight again. Just as I was about to cut the first one, Nate entered the room.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"Cutting my stitches," I said. "The cut looks healed."
"It's not ready yet," he said.
"How do you know?" I asked.
"I can feel blood ready to come out the wound. Give it a few more days," he said.
"Ugh," I said throwing the knife at the wooden doorway. It landed perfectly in the middle. "I'm tired of staying at school and watching ya'll get your butts kicked on my phone. I want to help you guys. People think that I've quit or got scared since I haven't been back out there fighting."
"Sky, if do it too early then you're going to be out even longer. Just be patient," he said pulling out his math homework.
"Easy for you to say, when you don't have me and Nick breathing down your back saying that you can't do something," I said.
"That's because we know when to stop and rest unlike you," he said as Nick walked in.
"He's right," Nick said as I grabbed more knives and started throwing them at the door frame. "You are so ready to jump when something happens that you forget about yourself."
"Whatever," I said and sunk down onto my bed and worked on my English paper that was due tomorrow. I finished it quickly and in time to help Nate and Nick catch up on their afternoon classes that they missed.
On Saturday, I went with Nate and Nick to our base where we usually hung out at on the weekends. Our parents thought that we were at our friends Zac's house. Which was kind of true since the computer program I made was named Zac. I even hacked into the police database and made him a fake profile, along with fake parents and family members. I made up holograms for them as well. It took a long time for me to get it just right.
The first floor looked like any house, living room, kitchen. The second floor had a lab for me and a training area for us to practice in. I was the referee of Nate and Nick's fight, since I was still not in condition fight with my stitches. I had to watch for what they did wrong and let them know at the end of it. I grabbed the whistle when I walked in, sat down in a chair, and waited as they changed into clothes more suited to fight in than jeans. "Ready?" I asked as they got in position. I saw them nod a little, intent on being the better fighter. I blew hard on the whistle.
They circled around each other, neither one wanting to make the first move. Nick swung first. He missed Nate's jaw as Nate ducked. Nick lost his balance and Nate took advantage of that and swung his feet out and knocked Nick to the ground. Nick responded quickly and kicked his feet out right below Nate's knee caps. Nate fell and both of them quickly got to their feet. Nate swung his fist out going for a right hook and Nick grabbed it. He kneed Nate in the gut. Nate ignored the pain and grabbed Nick's arm and flipped him over onto his back.
"Give?" Nate asked, holding out his hand to him.
"In your dreams," Nick said grabbing it. He pulled Nate down and rolled over. He sat on Nate and asked, "You give?"
"Sure, as long as we can get a drink," Nate said as Nick helped him up.
"I couldn't see anything wrong with the fight," I said as we went to the fridge and grabbed us some drinks. "Now, will you relinquish me from doctor's orders and let me fight?"
After a moment Nate said, "Fine, but cut your stitches. Your cut's healed." I went down to the kitchen and grabbed a knife. I ran it under hot water to sterilize it. I sat down at the table and took my shirt off. When the knife cooled off, I heard someone ring the doorbell. I ignored it and started to work on getting rid of my stitches. I heard footsteps and Nate say, "Dude, you have company."
"Who?" I asked as I finished off the last few. I looked up and saw Robyn. "Hey, what are you doing you here?"
"I needed to talk to you about that project for Mr. McGillory. I went over to your house but your parents said you were here," she said. "You said to meet up with you Saturday."
"I did?" I asked.
"Yeah, so you ready?" she asked. I pulled my shirt back on.
"Uh, could we reschedule for Monday then?" I asked.
"I can't, I have to work on a big paper for Social Studies," she said.
"Alright, what are we to do our project on?" I asked pulling out sandwich stuff. I figured this would take a while.
"Ways that we could be more energy efficient in our daily lives," she said. I laughed. "What?"
"I've already done that. This whole place runs itself. We don't pay one power bill. In fact, we sell most of the energy we make back to the electric company. I have solar panels, small wind turbines, and a small water mill that turns when it rains," I said.
"I thought that this was your friend Zac's house," she said.
"Yeah, it is," I said. "Hey, Zac." Zac showed up walking down the stairs. He looked nineteen, with blonde hair. He was tall and lanky looking. I was proud of how he turned out. He was almost human.
"Hi, I'm Zac," he said.
"I'm Robyn," she said giving him a small wave.
"I have to go get some groceries, I'll be back," Zac said. With that he walked out and the door worked with him and made a fake exit.
"Alright, what if we just turn this house in as our project?" Robyn suggested.
"No, that's alright. I'd rather do something small that we can bring in," I said quickly. "Why don't we brainstorm and get back on this on Tuesday then?"
"Alright, sounds good," she said. "See you at school Monday." I waved good-bye and watched her leave. I let out a sigh and finished making my sandwich. I walked upstairs after I was sure she was gone. "Who's my first victim?"
"I'll go," Nate said. I smiled.
"Let's go," I said. "Same rules? No electrocuting you and no mentally taunting me?" It messed with your head a lot when you couldn't distinguish between your thoughts and the ones he placed in your head.
"Right," he said. We waited until Nick blew the whistle. I waited for Nate to throw the first punch. I never made the first move, I was better defensive. I saw his left arm twitch just a little. I raised my hand grabbing his right hand and punched him in the jaw with my left. I kicked him in the gut and did a flip backwards. I felt my side tighten a little as I did this. I would have to stretch it back out.
"How ya’ feeling?" Nate asked as he jumped back to his feet.
"Better than you will at the end of this," I said ducking a kick. I dropped down and swung my legs out and knocked his feet out from under him. I jumped up, rolled him over and placed his arm behind his back. "Give up?"
"Not yet, I still have a few tricks I want to show you," he said. I watched in a mixture of approval and horror as my fingers slowly opened without my permission.
"That is cheating," I said as he rolled over and got up.
"No, it's not in our code," he said. "We can't throw things with our mind, shock, or mentally taunt. Body control is not one of them."
"I request an amendment," I said ducking another punch. "No controlling other people's bodies."
"Fine," Nate said ducking a punch from me. He sent one crashing into my side. We kept fighting like that until we both were exhausted. One on one took a while since the three of us were pretty evenly matched on our restrained fights. We took a quick break for lunch and afterwards we did our all-out fights. In those fights, we allow ourselves to use our abilities to the max. It helped us prepare for the few guys who weren't normal. Those took even longer because we were constantly finding ways to outdo each other.
We ordered take out for dinner and rented movies. This was how we relaxed and acted like normal teens. We didn't get much time to make friends and stuff between school, being superheroes, and practicing our skills. Also, it made it difficult to date since you had to leave when the city was in danger, not tell the girls that you were a superhero, and they thought that the superhero you was way more impressive. So we hung out here and tried to feel more normal.
In the morning, I woke up to the smell off bacon and sausage. "What's for breakfast?" I asked getting up.
"Pancakes, eggs, sausage, bacon, and French toast," Nate said. He was an awesome cook. Though, he was the only one who could cook. "There's some ready now if you're ready to eat." I got up and fixed me a plate.
"Awesome job on the French toast," I said as I shoveled the food in.
"So what do you have planned for today?" Nick asked.
"The motorcycles," I said. "I should be finished with it today."
"I hope so. I'm tired of running around to fifty different places in the city, just to keep it safe," Nate said, sitting down. "Do you need our help?"
"Probably," I said. Once we finished breakfast, we headed out to the garage. In the center of it were three motorcycles. When I first got them, they were broken down pieces of junk missing a bunch of parts. I redid the paint job with our logo on it. The motorcycles were silver and the logo was black. I rebuilt the engines and everything. The only thing left was getting them to start and programming them. I went under the bike and lit it up with my hands. After a few hours of trial and error, we got the bikes to start.
"You are amazing!" Nate said. "Let's take them out for a spin."
"Yeah," Nick agreed.
"Let me add Zac's data to it and then we can," I said plugging my computer into the three of them and inputting it in. After a few minutes it was done. I smiled and said, "Ok, now we can." We changed and then got on our motorcycles. I started the engine and opened the garage door.
"How do these thing run?" Nate asked.
"Electricity and gasoline. When I'm on mine, it runs purely off of my excess electricity. And when Zac or you guys take over its gas and electricity," I said. "Let's see how fast they can go." I revved the engine and we easily went 150 mph.
"Sky, you are a mad genius," Nick said.
"Thank you," I said. "We better slow down before the cops catch us." We brought the bikes back. "Cool, huh?"
"Yeah, I'll never ride the subway again," Nate said as we got off. "What should we name them?"
"I named them the 'The Silver Bullets'," I told them. "Oh, I have something else I have for you guys." We headed up to my lab. I went to the cabinet and pulled out a box. I opened it and inside were three Bluetooth head sets of my design and new gloves. The headsets were basically miniature phones that ran off of whatever signal could be found. The gloves had a GPS installed, a watch, and a button to get our bikes to our location.
"It's like Christmas," Nate said.
"You definitely win best brother of the year award," Nick said. He looked at his new watch and said, "I have to go. I promised Lily I would go with her to the pier."
"Oh yeah, I heard they'll have a pie eating contest today," he said. "Why don't we all just head over to that?"
"Sounds good," I agreed. We locked up our base and headed down to the pier. We carried back packs that held our suites in case we needed to make a quick change. We decided to split up once we got there.
I walked around, unsure of what to do, when I walked right smack into somebody. It was Robyn. "Oh, geez I'm sorry," I said helping her up.
"It's okay," she said, brushing herself off. "So what are you doing here?"
"My brothers were coming so I tagged along," I told her. "Since we ran into each other, want to hang out?"
"Sure," she said.
"So, did you see that the Silver Seals have motorcycles now?" I said. I don't know what it was, but her to like both me and my superhero alter ego.
"Oh, yeah, I did," she said. "Bet they’re gas guzzlers."
"I doubt it," I told her. "I don't think they would do that when Electro can power one by himself."
"Uh-huh, well I guess we'll never know for sure," she said. "Let's ride the ferris wheel." She grabbed my arm and pulled me. Man, was she strong. We got in the cart and when we got to the top, I drained the ferris wheel of its power, keeping us stuck at the top.
"The ferris wheel isn't moving," I said when I finished draining it. "Looks like we're going to be up here for a while."
"Sure looks that way," Robyn agreed. "So what's it like having two brothers looking exactly the same?"
"Kinda fun sometimes," I said. "We do almost everything together. We like most of the same things. Every Saturday, we have fights, professional ones to keep us in shape and know who's better."
"Really? That sounds like fun," Robyn said twirling a piece of hair around her fingers. "Mind if I watch sometime?"
"Sure," I said without thinking. "So do you have any siblings?"
"Yeah, a little brother," she said. "He lives with my mom in San Diego. Parents are divorced, I chose to stay with Dad in D.C. and Mom took Timmy to California."
"That must be tough," I said.
"Yeah, it is sometimes," Robyn said. "He's nine. When our parents were still together, in the middle of the night he would come in my room because of nightmares. He'd climb in bed and I'd wrap my arms around him to protect him from his own mind."
"When me and my brothers were younger, Nate would do something like that," I said. "He's the oldest by a day and twelve hours. I'm the youngest, so in the middle of the night when I got scared he would be there. He would just walk up to the bed and let me know that he knew what I was going through and that I didn't have to go through it alone because I had my brothers with me. The three of us always have each other’s backs. If we had a choice between going to jail and letting one of us stand out on his own in a fight that's ten to one, we'd choose jail every time."
"You guys must be really close," Robyn said.
"We are. I don't know what I'd do without them,” I said. "I would probably run myself into the ground."
"I could see that," she said. "You definitely seem like the stubborn and persistent kind of person, kind of like my dad. Dad always keeps trying on a problem, no matter how hopeless it seems."
"So, is that a bad thing?" I asked.
"Don't know yet," she said. "But, I do know that if you are like him, then you stand up for the weak and assist the strong when deserved."
"That probably describes me," I said. I pressed my hand to the ferris wheel and started it up.
"Oh good. It's working again," Robyn said. I nodded in agreement. I second later I heard someone screaming for help. I looked out and I saw a kid struggling to hold on to the ferris wheel.
"I'm going to go get him," I said taking my back pack off.
"Are you crazy?" Robyn asked.
"Maybe a little," I said climbing out.
"Be careful then," she called after me. I didn't respond. I focused on the little kid struggling to stay on the ride. I slowly made my way to him. I felt the ride stop. When I got to him I started talking to him.
"Hey, you okay?" I asked. He nodded his head. "Good, what's your name?"
"J-Jack," he said.
"Ok, Jack. I need you to let go of the ride. Can you do that?" I asked. He nodded. "Good, now let go with one hand and reach for me." I grabbed it and placed on my arm
. Then with my other hand I wrapped around his waist and pulled him close to me. "We're going to jump." He freaked out a little. Time for a different approach. "Do you like superheroes?" He nodded. "You like the Silver Seals?"
"Yeah," he said.
"Who's your favorite?" I asked.
"Electro," he said.
"Good, that's real good," I said. "Well, I'm him." To prove it, I had electricity in my hand. "Now I need you to trust me. I need you to hold on as close to me as possible. When I jump, we're going to turn into a ball and roll. Ready?" He nodded. I made sure I had a good hold on him and jumped. I heard people on the ground scream. I tucked my legs in and wrapped myself around him to protect him. When we hit the ground, I rolled. I got up and checked on Jack. "You okay?"
"Yeah," he said smiling. He gave me a big hug. "Thanks Electro."
"You’re welcome," I said. I watched as his mom came and got him.
"Oh Jack," she said hugging him. "I was so scared. Please don't ever do that again."
"I'm sorry Mom. It won't happen again," he said.
She turned to me and said, "Thank you so much, young man. I don't want to think about what would've happened if you hadn't done something. How can I repay you?"
"Oh, no it's fine," I said. "I would've done the same thing for anyone else that I saw in need of help."
"Please there must be something," she said.
"No, just him being safe is good enough," I said. She nodded.
"Well, let me buy you a funnel cake," she said. I agreed since she would probably keep insisting to do something in return. I waited for Robyn to get off and then I got my funnel cake.
"That was really brave of you and extremely stupid," Robyn said.
"Thanks," I said. "I'd hate to know what would've happened if I hadn't."
"I think everyone feels that way," she said. "I wonder where the Silver Seals were."
"I don't think that they can be around every second," I said. "I mean, I don't expect them or Python to show up for everything. That's where people with brains and a moment’s notice come in. Now if someone like Meglo-Robotor had the kid then I would expect superheroes."
"Yeah, or if they were dressed in normal clothes and used their powers to show a little kid to trust them, then I would understand," she said.
"Yeah, so what are you getting at?" I asked.
"Oh come on, like you don't know," she said.
"What?" I asked.
"You're a superhero, you're a Silver Seal. You're missing class all the time or sleeping through them. Then Saturday you were cutting out stitches," she said. God, she was good. I don't count on people being that observant.
"I'm not a Silver Seal," I said. "I miss class because I don't like school. I sleep because I stay up late. I was cutting out stitches because I hate hospitals and doctors."
"Sure," she said, rolling her eyes. "So, our project?"
"How long do we have?" I asked.
"Two months," she said.
"Ok, I have an idea," I said. "What if we make a car that runs off of wind power? At first when the car starts up, it'll run off of gas. But once the car gets moving, it'll make its own electricity from the wind. That's what it would run off of." I sketched the design onto a napkin.
"That could work," she said. "But, where will we build it?"
"Zac's garage," I said automatically.
"But won't he mind?" Robyn asked.
"No, because he is a computer program," I said after a while. "I created him so my parents wouldn't freak about us staying by ourselves in a two story apartment with its own garage. He even has a fake family and profile in the police database."
"Ok, then how did he walk out the door yesterday?" she asked.
"The entire house is set up with his program. He has artificial intelligence which helps him open and close doors to maintain the illusion that he's a real person," I said.
"You did that all yourself?" she asked, obviously impressed.
"Yeah, I have a way with anything electrical," I said. "So does this work?"
"Totally," she said. "So, when should we work on it?"
"How does every Sunday sound?"
"That will work out great with my schedule," she said. "So next Sunday we meet up at Zac's house?"
"Yeah," I said. "I have some blue prints I drew up from before. I've planning on a car like this for quite a while. Also bring rubber gloves and heat and electric resistant boots."
"Why?"
"Just as a precaution," I told her as we got up. "Want to go watch the pie eating contest?"
"Watch it? I'm in it," she said. "I made a bet with my dad that I could win."
"Sounds like fun," I said. "Nate entered it too, wonder who will win." We made our way to the stage where the contest was going to be held. Nate was already waiting for it to begin. There were three other people next to him, and they obviously knew their way around sweets. Robyn jumped up on stage and sat down on the other side of Nate.
"Alright, looks like we have all five of our contestants," the announcer said. "On your mark, get set, go." I watched as they started eating. It went on for about ten minutes before one of the competitors dropped out. Nate and Robyn were the last ones up there. They had each eaten four pies. Nate finished half of his last pie and Robyn finished the whole pie.
"And we have a winner!" the announcer yelled. He held up one of Robyn's arms and then handed her the trophy and twenty bucks. She had a huge smile on her face.
"Good job," I said.
"Thanks, but I feel like I'm going to puke," she said. "I think I'm going to go home. I'll see you tomorrow."
"Bye," I said as I watched her disappear into the crowd.