By the time Armor came back, it was later into the evening. Rim had tried to message him several times to tell him about what had been announced about our mom, but he didn’t respond at all. He didn’t even know the information until he walked in through the elevator doors. 622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsWVetH2Gsf
It was about ten o’clock when I heard the door outside. Before that I was sprawled out on the guest room bed, my amber-colored hair spiked and uneven, as I tried to meet all of my realizations at the same time. 622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpJQ59GsjvU
Blake’s Horrible Crazy Life Realization #1: I am a teen superhero with powers that are supposedly jeopardizing the planet. 622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk2vDMAeRxX
Blake’s Horrible Crazy Life Realization #2: My father has been alive this entire time and just decided to waltz into my life now, and not when I really needed a father. 622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK4FHNtLc95
Blake’s Horrible Crazy Life Realization #3: My mother is supposedly gone, taken by these weird creatures my long-lost-emotionally- scattered-just-met-her-today-she-threw-me-into-a-car-and-basically- kidnapped-me sister won’t tell me about. 622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2huaLr9c7G
Blake’s Horrible Crazy Life Realization #4: My life must be pretty nasty if I made a whole “Blake’s Horrible Life Realization” list with more three points, and it’s even sadder that I carried it in that far. 622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlnPGw4O7DW
“You’re new here,” a voice said from the wall. I jumped, looking around to see where the voice had come from.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFY6jugJAkU
“Who said that?” I asked.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK1hKWN1Di0
“Yes, definitely new.” I froze.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFLF0JPApfb
There it was again. I was tempted to run out of the room and find Rim, who was watching a movie about a vampire-princess romance one room over. The voice came again.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5CnSyhsnqR
“Do not be alarmed. I am sorry. My name is Sicily. I was programmed into the walls of this flat when a man named Knight’s-Armor was stationed to this apartment. Are you acquainted with him?” I shifted awkwardly on the mattress.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqnRKVgnirW
“Are you talking to me?”622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTetP5Rgwi5
“Of course, Unidentified Male Lifeform.”622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡprmmnbAebr
“I’m Blake,” I said, twisting my head, trying to decide which way to face the voice. The walls flickered like holograms.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhwzukFfScF
“Blake. Yes. My internal scans tell me that you are composed of two-hundred human bones and about six-hundred-thirty human muscles. According to my findings in the official achievement of human intelligence, you are slightly below the average height for a boy of your current age. I collected a sample of your DNA through monitoring the saliva you spit on the left wall when telling your name, and found that you are indeed a son to Armor. Fusing family trees now. You are indeed an adolescent, and interestingly prone to major types of acne.” I sat up on my elbows.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKwkQJJzaJT
“Nice to know. Yes, supposedly Armor is my father, and I’m supposedly an all-powerful teenage arc of destruction that has really become some kind of time bomb to supposedly trigger the end of the earth as we know it. Did any of your sensors tell you any of that?” There was a long pause.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaQf8yl4QAJ
“That doesn’t compute.”622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs586JDCk7Y
“Figures.”622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMVpdm0fpJ3
“My sensors picked up the word “supposedly” used many times in your statement. Could my computing error happened as you might have been referring to the rare sou possum?”622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhlEv93kuvp
“Forget I said anything. I’m sorry about the way I snapped, I’m just really messed up inside. I don’t exactly know what’s what.” The humming in the walls grew a little louder.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0DFvHoD3JV
“Well, I’m an expert on what’s what. What would you like to know?” I thought for a moment.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡff8Ko2FOvV
“Everything?”622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡChnUEpbkeI
“Well, relaying that massive request will take 1.2 eons to collect and relay,” Sicily chirped. I laid on my back.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSDDnsDfmt8
“Well now’s a good time to start with the truth as any. Go ahead.”622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUzrmzmv06x
“Sarcasm detected. Was that sarcastic?” I laughed.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVimJNN2Yl6
“Sicily, you and I are going to be great friends.”622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv3heojYnkY
Just as I finished saying that, there were a doorbell sound and a swish. Armor was home. Instead of going out to see him, I found myself turning out the lights. Let’s just say I wasn’t completely comfortable with a new family at the moment. I wasn’t completely comfortable with a new identity either.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGSqHuV6mm1
I heard footsteps, chatter, crying? It must have been Rim, telling Armor the mysterious news. There was more talking. Arguing and silence. I heard footsteps outside my room. I quickly crawled under the covers and closed my eyes, faking sleep just as my bedroom door opened. I felt a presence there.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFOCtFlQ5Ns
“Oh, Blake.” That was Armor. Of course, he thought I was asleep. I was an excellent actor. More footsteps. Rim’s voice broke the silence.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVczEJ3vuta
“I don’t want you to leave,” she said simply, her voice dipped with pain.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLJLaKHynU9
“I’ll only be gone for a little while, sweetheart. I need to check those archives. They shouldn’t have been able to find your mom. There has to be some kind of mistake.”622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm3lM1mFCSJ
“I heard her name, cross my heart!”622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQBYywPRXfe
“I know, cupcake. Just stay here and watch your brother.” Footsteps sounded further and further away from the door. He was leaving the room.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKst8lxyV4F
“Dad? Do you think the under-naturals will take Blake too?” The footsteps stopped.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ86UYKSNbh2
“I hope not. I should never have lost him in the first place. I never want to lose him again. Only time will tell, Rim. Only time will tell.”622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjdBmEwRVR0
With that my consciousness slipped away, leading me into sleep. My dream centered around a room with a large table. It was dark, lit primarily by a crackling fireplace. Off two one side was a high-backed swivel chair. Someone was sitting in it, but I couldn’t get a good look at their face.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡALeNDM7YGI
Someone opened the door. It was the boy from the gym that had tried to attack me. His features were etched in the firelight. His eyes glowed. His black hair made his eyes look darker.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtuUvI4ZLMR
“Sir,” he began, closing the door behind him. The chair swiveled towards his voice, the face still out of view.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLhknUKuO8G
“What do you want?” It sneered. It was a man’s voice.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPyChxodSC3
“We found the boy,” he said sternly. The figure stood up.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvQ6BRNANgo
“What?”622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjDMkJqUWzg
“We used the tracking locators and found him at the school in sector 243. We found him, Myrna and I. We tried to retrieve him, but those no good Super Naturals got to him first.” A growl escaped the dark figure.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFB6Ri6pauo
“Super Naturals?”622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDt9UWNe7Mw
“Yes. One was a...” He bit his lip as if he were hiding something. “A leg-natural. The other was a guardian: Lana. We could have had him easy, too. We chased them all the way to the highway and then they vanish off the scanners.”622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn1x4OI0jMF
“Let me get this straight. You alerted them of your presence, and then you let them get away!? Do you understand how important this boy is? Now they know the gist of our plans! Do you have any other horrible news to report?”622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa2CgYgqbWC
The boy was about to speak when the doors opened and a girl entered. It was the boy's accomplice from the gym. The one he called Myrna. Her black hair was arranged in a bouquet of ringlets atop her head. She was wearing a long, sleeveless white top and black pants that were cropped by pearl white boots. Her cold grey eyes were scary no matter how much makeup she put on.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6KKHxGKISh
“I’m sorry, Master. I had important errands to attend to.” She met the boy’s eyes and silent communication passed through them. She faced the tall figure.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4cmwovJBAa
“We got word from group 451 in a sector close to the one in which we found the boy. It seems they found a feisty little Super Natural of their own. One with a high power count. They suspect....they suspect she may be an ultra-natural as well.”622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPbL4twz5YK
“Did you catch the name?”622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ26jlw8f234
“Taradelta. The team also failed to extract her. She was supposedly quite quick on her feet, and she had a little friend from a chest-natural known as Allen.”622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo3oGSZ25x8
“Ugh. No news is good news when it comes to your extraction teams. You have failed me again. No matter. We have recognized your failure. Both the boy and the girl are most likely at the “safe haven”, and we’ll have them by dusk tomorrow. Now get to the pods. We need to move fast.”622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ45UrFQZnDv
The dream changed.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzbsVyEFsJS
My mother was chained to a metal wall. Her head was hanging and she was breathing heavily as if she had been busy struggling from the restraints. Seeing her that way made me want to cry. Another woman was there with blue hair and vibrant eyes, holding her hands out.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKwNYUgGiGD
“Hurry, it won’t last long.” His teeth seemed to be clenched with effort. My mother looked up and her eyes met mine.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ21BRy83DF1
“Blake!”622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd93dRv2fUJ
“Mom!” I wasn’t sure if it was an illusion or not, but I was just so relieved to see her alive. She didn’t look happy, though. Her eyes grew desperate.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKFH7IUlAZO
“Are you okay?”622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIyvEnSeTJ2
“I’m fine Mom. Where are you? What have they done to you?” Her face pinched. 622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡryMhGo15zb
“Blake, don’t come to get me.” I gasped so loudly it made her flinch.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡddZ2l9IcID
“What!? You’re imprisoned and you expect me to sit around and do nothing? I’m coming to find you, Mom.”622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡETZsgMcnb8
“No, you can’t. You’re the one they want, cupcake, not me. I’m only here in this place to see you get hurt. Don’t come near and you’ll be fine. I’m safe because I’m the bait. Don’t you see it? Stay away.” The blue-haired woman grunted.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmfeXBknOoH
“I’m losing the dream connection, Lauren.” I whimpered.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXgR7GoXA1f
“Mom....”622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBpP9KgnDPc
“Blake! I don’t have much time! Stay where you are! I’ll find you!”622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY1QKfzYXwB
And then I woke up to my sister’s scream piercing the night. I jolted awake, immediately on alert. Rim screamed again, quickly silenced, as if someone had tried to stop her. 622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTsSarKALCo
“Quiet girl! You want to wake up the whole neighborhood. No, stop! Guards! Catch her! CATCH HER AND BRING HER TO ME!”622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6ohScCTqoC
There was a lot of noise from the room over, as if there was a fight. I flew out of bed, a bit alarmed, not sure if this was reality, or if I was still dreaming. I was going for the door, wondering whether I should lock it or fly to Rim’s rescue, when my sister burst through, falling into me and sending us sprawling on my bed. I tried to push her off me.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNSq2RNRTph
“Ah! Get off! Rim what’s going.....” She sprang up and locked the door. 622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIWOyJPsPDN
Then, hastily, she began to pile the few furniture items I had in the room in front of the entrance. The apparent intruders banged on the door, but it was no use. She used her back to push the items snugly against the door. 622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfaHcWgNMEP
“We’re being attacked,” she managed, her electric blue eyes wide and shining in the dark. 622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5vhTbQUpdY
Her pajamas were rumpled in a few places from the fight, and her once smooth hair was in a rats nest.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡel6l8E2202
“You think I didn’t notice? What happened? Who’s out there?”622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1UXMuNljWY
“It’s hard to explain. Basically they want to take us and do horrible things to us. Need to say more?”622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNr6Ksy0HUc
“What about Sicily? Can’t she enforce the security?” Rim grunted.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡltqa5nHe98
“They hot-wired the system. I tried to call the authorities but I didn’t have a signal. I texted Dad and told him about the intruders, but who knows if he’ll get it in time.” 622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHzF0saLMf4
The truth came to me.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCD4Myt81Af
There was no way out.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3wCKqlEMa0
“So....we’re stuck?” She shrugged.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVusFyylf3L
“Basically.” 622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzQnbWRZlCp
Oh yikes. 622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA9BfR0pdga
“How many of them are there?” I asked, backing as far away from the door as possible. She joined me, sending me a cautious look.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxjlAWjq7w2
“You can’t seriously be thinking.....”622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyXJlPCHLEj
“No. I have absolutely zero experience, but maybe....if some do find us or hear us.....” 622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1T6FWBV0tk
“Doubt it,” she remarked.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZoC3OngpOe
“Thanks for the optimism, queen sunshine. I suppose you have any ideas?” Her eyes lit up in a scary kind of way.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfPiVXmmag0
“We can go through the fire escape.” I blinked. That was actually kind of brilliant. 622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ79txiuUD1R
“Great. It’s out of my window?” She nodded.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXxwmVxaLb3
“Yep. There’s just one problem though.”622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUsFMDwhFpj
“What’s that?”622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3dR7ntz0ze
“They have the girl. The one that can do the scary weather stuff. Tara. They have her gagged and held in restraints.” 622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhU0FMacXk5
She bit her lip like she was going to try to break it to me we would have to leave her. Call me crazy, but I felt a surge of protectiveness for the girl. She was an ultra-natural, like me. She’d been outcast, like me. I couldn’t leave this girl behind.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡltrkbf05Q9
“We have to get her.”622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTgcsWwsh3C
“That’s crazy. We have no backup!” Rim protest. She was standing at the window now. I crossed my arms.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPuLGRY2KTn
“She needs our help! Do you want her to get taken away too?” That got her. Her face scrunched.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5aT2lzHYZG
“We’ll fail.”622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj12qIlGkwM
“We might fail,” I corrected, “and even if we do, we would have failed to know we tried.”622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3uibwNJbKy
Rim didn’t seem to approve of my reasoning. She didn’t know me that well yet. When I get started on something, there was no backing out. I made my way to the keyhole in the door and peered through. A bunch of pirate-looking guys stood around.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4UhX9IcK4T
Two of them were holding Tara between them. Her eyes were wide, and she looked a mixture of panic and anger. Her short hair was caught in some places in the cloth gag around her jaw. Suddenly she was looking at me and her eyes glinted. She was telling me to get out. 622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVcrsS8rVqV
“Get them!” The tallest one said.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMED2GbpWZ9
They tried sticking a variety of weapons through the keyhole. I managed to stumble away just in time. Then, they slid something through. It looked like a bug; a sort of spider that looked almost mechanical. Before I could do anything it hooked onto the doorknob and began to tinker with the mechanism.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ09hYqSf7bf
“Rim...” I began, backing away from the door. I heard her gasp behind me.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1awJMsVCvm
“We need to go. Now.” 622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmVIYQSQjBM
I didn’t want to, but Rim pulled me by my elbow to the fire escape just as the door swung open and the intruders burst in. Then out of nowhere comes Armor. He immediately comes to our rescue, defending us without weapons.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlIhtPdQvBj
His skin, as you might of guess, was as indestructible as titanium. He lifted Tara on his shoulder and made his way to us, leaving the girl with us just as a dozen police began to take the criminals away into custody. Armor nodded to them as they hauled off the men. 622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpBJnYdAIRM
He turned to us.“Are you kids alright?” Rim nodded, a little startled. I helped untie Tara.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs7PFf1kjDf
“Thank you,” she said simply, though the relief was apparent on her face.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd4UdGj7WiA
Her eyes were vibrant at night. I smiled and told her I didn’t do anything. Armor was shocked. I must have asked him a million times was going on.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3FsjQ52dCv
“Go to bed,” he told me in a serious tone. “You need your sleep.” 622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXQ0P99niNY
I wasn’t tired anymore. Armor headed towards his room and closed the door loudly, so it sounded more like a door slam. The sound was final and condemning. Behind me, Rim was already inviting Tara to stay with her and ushering her inside. I laid on my back, feeling lonely and clueless. 622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMr09xzDoSD
I wanted to know who those people were. 622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHm5v4NRhc5
I wanted to know why Armor was suddenly so frustrated. 622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJXy8MGBNSK
I wanted to know what would happen to me, being so dangerous and powerful.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9yHJjfoWz5
For now, I knew the answers weren’t going to appear on my bedroom ceiling. I didn’t even know if the answers were going to appear at all. I knew one thing...622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVHziuqla47
I was Blake, no matter what. I was going to do something, and somehow... everything would work out. 622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFLqbTfr3Hb
I heard Rim and Tara chattering in the next room. I was surprised. Those girls are as different as night and day. Maybe they would be friends after all.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaHb0boCdYo
“Master Blake?” A whisper. A sudden stirring of humming in the walls.622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmc6fJte3J5
“What’s going on? My power sensors....”622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTmESinwLR1
“Sicily.” It made me smile to hear her voice again. “It’s okay.” 622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmfPFqOdQ7E
I yawned and pulled the covers up to my chin. Tomorrow, I would think of a plan. I would save mom, no matter what. Tomorrow. I faced the wall where I always felt Sicily lived in. 622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRuWUCCk63Y
“It’s okay. Everything is going to be okay.” And my eyes slipped shut. 622Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS40YeNET5f
That was my first day in Super Natropolis.
ns216.73.216.223da2
