Powers

CHAPTER ONE-2

A few seconds later, the gates slowly opened inwards, allowing Bolt to drive the car through the front gates and up the driveway to the front of the house. After stopping the car, Blizzard, Bolt, and the rest of the team poured out of the car and walked up to the front doors of the house. Blizzard was in the lead, with Bolt by her side. She was looking forward to seeing her parents so much that she could barely contain her excitement. She glanced over her shoulder at the rest of the team, just to make sure that they were all presentable, before turning her attention to the front doors again.

But Blizzard didn’t even have to knock on the door before it swung open, revealing a middle-aged man standing in the doorway who wore a button-down blue shirt and had a large gray mustache.

“Ralph!” said Blizzard, smiling when she saw him. “Long time, no see.”

“Welcome home, Emily,” said Ralph. “I am so glad to see that you are well. Your parents and I have been anxiously watching the news about your superhero exploits, but you appear to be well despite all of the danger you’ve been in.”

“Well, I have a lot of help,” said Blizzard. She gestured at Bolt and the others. “Ralph, these are my friends and teammates from the Young Neos, including my boyfriend, Kevin Jason, or as you might know him, Bolt.”

“Bolt?” Ralph repeated, looking at Bolt more closely than before. “Ah, yes. Your father told me that you were dating Bolt. He’s the son of Genius, isn’t he?”

“You knew my father?” said Bolt in surprise.

“No, but I knew of him,” said Ralph. “He was quite famous, you know, before he retired. Anyway, it is incredibly hot today, so allow me to lead you to the living room where your parents are.”

“All right,” said Blizzard, smiling in relief; she could already feel the air conditioning blowing from the open door and was eager to get inside. But then she frowned and said, in a slightly hesitant voice, “Is Rebecca here, too?”

Ralph paused. “Ah, Rebecca … she is in her room. I will let her know that you are here, but after I tell your parents.”

Blizzard nodded, but deep down, she was relieved. She didn’t want Bolt or any of her friends to meet Rebecca, at least not yet. Her twin sister would probably just make the visit awkward, although based on how curious Bolt looked, she knew that she was going to have to introduce him to Rebecca eventually.

Maybe I’ll get lucky and Rebecca will become stricken with some kind of terrible disease that will force her to stay in her bedroom for the entirety of the visit, Blizzard thought. Or maybe she’ll become so swamped with homework that she won’t be able to hang out with us much.

Blizzard knew that those thoughts weren’t exactly the most appropriate or kind thoughts a sister should have toward her sibling, but she couldn’t help it. She just didn’t want this visit to be messed up and Rebecca had a terrible tendency to ruin things for Blizzard, sometimes deliberately so.

Regardless, Blizzard followed Ralph into the house, as did the rest of her team. Stepping through the doorway, Blizzard sighed in relief as she was hit with the full blast of the house’s air conditioning system. She also looked around at the entryway, because it had been so long since she had last visited here that she wanted to see if everything was still as she’d remembered it.

The mudroom of the house was open and bright, mostly thanks to the light streaming from the windows reflecting off the white paint on the walls. The floor was also a clean and shiny hardwood, while a set of stairs leading up to the second floor stood to their right. To their left was a shoe rack, which had a few sets of shoes on it, mostly Dad’s shoes from what she could see. The entryway smelled fresh and clean, too; no doubt Ralph had cleaned it recently, perhaps in anticipation of Blizzard’s arrival.

“Wow, this is nice,” said Stinger, looking around at the mudroom. “This whole room is almost as big as my Papa’s entire house.”

“It’s nice, I suppose,” said Talon, brushing aside some of her blonde hair as she looked around the place. “My mother’s mansion is much fancier, though, but I suppose this is what you would call middle class.”

Blizzard rolled her eyes. Talon was always hard to impress thanks to her upper class upbringing, so Blizzard probably shouldn’t have been surprised at Talon’s initial reaction. Still, she sometimes wished that Talon would keep her comments to herself, especially when they weren’t asked for.

That was when Blizzard caught a glimpse of black moving at the top of the steps. She looked up just in time to see a small black cat staring down at them with big blue eyes. The cat looked like it was trying to decide if the people who had just entered the house were friends or foes, but Blizzard recognized the cat immediately. It was Rebecca’s black cat, Tom, and, while Tom had never been as close to Blizzard as he had been to Rebecca, he was usually a pretty friendly cat.

Unfortunately, before Blizzard could call Tom down, the cat quickly vanished down the hallway out of sight. She wondered if he was going to tell Rebecca what he saw.

What am I thinking? Blizzard thought, following Ralph across the entryway to the living room on the other side. He’s just a cat. He can’t talk. He can’t tell anyone anything.

“Mister and Missus Ricker,” said Ralph as he passed through the entrance to the living room, “Emily has finally arrived, along with her friend.”

Excited to see her parents again, Blizzard looked around Ralph to see both of her parents sitting on the main sofa in the living room. Despite being in his early forties, Dad looked more like he was in his early thirties, primarily thanks to his muscular arms and his red polo shirt, which displayed his muscles quite well, which told Blizzard that Dad was still working out. And Mom was as beautiful as ever, her long white hair flowing down her back like water, while her light blue sun dress accentuated her figure quite well. The two of them appeared to have been watching the news, which was talking about President Plutarch’s upcoming visit to Phoenix, but Blizzard paid no attention to that.

She just ran over to her parents, who rose from the sofa as she ran over to them. Blizzard ran into Dad’s arms and hugged him tightly, saying, “I missed you guys so much!”

“Wonderful to see you again, Emily,” said Dad, his voice as deep and reassuring as ever. He hugged her even tighter than she hugged him before letting go and saying, “We are so glad that you came to visit. Ever since you went off to join the Young Neos, it has been rather quiet around the house, even with Rebecca and Tom.”

“Yes, we’ve been so worried about you,” said Mom. She hugged Blizzard briefly and said, “And is it me or have you grown up while you were away? You look so much older than when you left.”

Blizzard just smiled. “Oh, you know how it is. Fighting supervillains and saving the world is pretty stressful.”

“Yes, but it is also highly rewarding work, is it not?” said Dad. He put a hand on her shoulder and looked her in the eyes. “Emily, your mother and I are proud of you and everything you’ve done. We’ve always wanted our daughters to make the world a better place, although I will admit that even I didn’t think that would include one of you becoming a superhero.”

Blizzard smiled sheepishly. She never handled praise very well, even from her own parents, but thankfully she didn’t have to say anything, because Mom suddenly looked at her friends and said, “And are these your friends? The other Young Neos?”

Before Blizzard could introduce them, Bolt suddenly stepped forward, holding out a hand toward Dad. “Hi, Mr. Ricker. I’m Bolt.”

Dad took his hand off Blizzard’s shoulder and shook Bolt’s hand. “Nice to meet you, but I don’t believe you’re actually a superhero.” His voice suddenly became serious and his grip on Bolt’s hand tightened, like he did not want Bolt escape. “I think you’re a supervillain, and the worst kind, too.”

Even though Bolt had super strength, he didn’t seem capable of breaking Dad’s grip. He leaned back slightly, an alarmed look on his face. “What … what do you mean I’m a supervillain? I’ve never done anything evil in my life. Well, never intentionally evil, but—”

“Because you stole my daughter’s heart,” said Dad, his voice and face as dead serious as ever.

He looked at Bolt for a full second with that same serious expression. But then his face broke into a smile and he laughed, a deep, booming sound that made the rest of the team jump in alarm. Not Blizzard, however. She just groaned. She had expected Dad to do something like that, but she’d hoped he would keep his embarrassing side a secret for at least a little while longer.

Bolt, on the other hand, just looked confused, but relieved as he let go of Dad’s hand. “Um …”

“It was just a joke,” said Dad, patting Bolt on the shoulder. “You seem like a fine young man and certainly a good boyfriend to my daughter. I approve.”

“Yes, he’s a very handsome young man,” said Mom. She gestured at the sofa. “But please, everyone have a seat. You shouldn’t all be standing around like this; we have plenty of chairs for everyone.”

Mom was right. Although there had only been a handful of chairs in the room when Blizzard and the others first entered, there were now seven wooden chairs with comfy seats situated in a neat way before the sofa, while the TV had been muted, although it still showed the news. Blizzard realized that Ralph must have been taking chairs into the living room while they spoke with her parents, which was confirmed to her when she saw Ralph place the final chair near where Shell stood.

“Yes, everyone take a seat,” said Dad, gesturing at the chairs. “And Ralph, please get nine tall glasses of lemonade for everyone and make sure they have plenty of ice.”

“Yes, of course, sir,” said Ralph with a bow before he hurried out of the living room to the kitchen, which was adjacent to the living room.

When Ralph left, Blizzard and the others all took seats in the chairs, which were even comfier than they looked. Even Talon appeared impressed by how soft the chairs were, while both Stinger and Shell practically melted into their seats. Even Blizzard was a little surprised, despite having sat on these chairs before.

“Now that we’re all seated,” said Dad, putting his hands on his knees, “why don’t we introduce ourselves? I’m Martin Ricker and this is my wife, Carrie Ricker.”

“Nice to meet you,” said Bolt. “You know who I am already. Let me introduce the others—”

“You mean Talon, Stinger, Shell, Treehugger, and, of course, White Lightning, your twin brother?” Mom finished for him, pointing at each member of the team in turn as she said their names, correctly identifying each one.

“How did you know who everyone is?” said Bolt in astonishment. “We haven’t even introduced them to you guys yet.” He glanced over his shoulder at the rest of his teammates, who all looked just as surprised by Mom’s comments as he was.

“We’re big fans of superheroes in general,” said Dad. “That’s why we were so excited when Mecha Knight came by to recruit Emily to the Young Neos. We made sure to identify every member of the team when you made your public debut earlier this year and we’ve been closely following your adventures ever since, or as closely as we can based on news reports we’ve seen on TV and read online.”

Blizzard scratched the back of her neck sheepishly. She looked at the others, who looked rather surprised, and realized that she had forgotten to tell the rest of the team about how avid fans her parents were of them.

As for Bolt, he said, “Um, okay. Guess that saves us a lot of time.”

“It does,” said Dad. He spread his arms. “And can I just say how honored I am to have you all here? You are true heroes, having saved the world multiple times over the last year. It is a grand honor to have heroes like you visit us. Even if you are not full members of the Neohero Alliance yet, both Carrie and I are humbled that you came here and that you are friends with our daughter.”