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. 576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY77Oj1D0la
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. 576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD90zOoPFg4
Blake’s Horrible Crazy Life Realization #1: I am a teen superhero with powers that are supposedly jeopardizing the planet. 576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKv6dv9kNjk
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. 576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMu7xYYdf75
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. 576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC1UvRReNDc
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. 576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNkiasEFfkW
“You’re new here,” a voice said from the wall. I jumped, looking around to see where the voice had come from.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf2jrt04eqY
“Who said that?” I asked.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgiZjHBpM4j
“Yes, definitely new.” I froze.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZlqu6jm25F
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.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAeB66icnU5
“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.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXxkrQAk3ya
“Are you talking to me?”576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡje3CWK2AJ8
“Of course, Unidentified Male Lifeform.”576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiqyEjORgbg
“I’m Blake,” I said, twisting my head, trying to decide which way to face the voice. The walls flickered like holograms.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFELHGYxOr6
“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.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwXryQK7QTC
“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.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTuGUkRW6ny
“That doesn’t compute.”576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsrykwLnAZ2
“Figures.”576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlzFYnBZrDT
“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?”576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPSLfAA1A6d
“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.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5qLnUT7qbh
“Well, I’m an expert on what’s what. What would you like to know?” I thought for a moment.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡazu4B7aoU9
“Everything?”576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWC5uuGXGEK
“Well, relaying that massive request will take 1.2 eons to collect and relay,” Sicily chirped. I laid on my back.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsDK7Jl1Cdl
“Well now’s a good time to start with the truth as any. Go ahead.”576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNmTG0xKXRU
“Sarcasm detected. Was that sarcastic?” I laughed.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDMBYY3seO0
“Sicily, you and I are going to be great friends.”576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9py9u7ZPbM
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.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEQvBWRcdpX
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.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlv6FTXGbDV
“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.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjUGdqBVGrS
“I don’t want you to leave,” she said simply, her voice dipped with pain.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOUF0JvuQDW
“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.”576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd0evdm4qIQ
“I heard her name, cross my heart!”576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTfiagxZ94M
“I know, cupcake. Just stay here and watch your brother.” Footsteps sounded further and further away from the door. He was leaving the room.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLQlF5Jm99o
“Dad? Do you think the under-naturals will take Blake too?” The footsteps stopped.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP5mpxQmxO8
“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.”576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡusOBlwVwQ6
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.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtUg6Mt0L1V
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.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7MxPtRnscO
“Sir,” he began, closing the door behind him. The chair swiveled towards his voice, the face still out of view.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV5ZSzkdAtG
“What do you want?” It sneered. It was a man’s voice.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjOOJ6EyNcw
“We found the boy,” he said sternly. The figure stood up.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEiR9Ds9Veh
“What?”576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBBK54yQchS
“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.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyHjHfiiWY7
“Super Naturals?”576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLtkXbcJg1Z
“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.”576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvRRGmoj5NW
“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?”576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhvdLSgqLDt
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.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmEfVAX15Zx
“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.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTUW0MsIcCr
“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.”576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy8O61GmAzx
“Did you catch the name?”576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFToZEtu68m
“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.”576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ6Cxs79t03
“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.”576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgOtaOZq7Ms
The dream changed.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsYel9kIkSs
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.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb46c0CWfjl
“Hurry, it won’t last long.” His teeth seemed to be clenched with effort. My mother looked up and her eyes met mine.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkLxzbI653O
“Blake!”576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡACYYkO97HC
“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.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFeNokTvnmx
“Are you okay?”576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡagDJinyUUv
“I’m fine Mom. Where are you? What have they done to you?” Her face pinched. 576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡImS6KsiW9n
“Blake, don’t come to get me.” I gasped so loudly it made her flinch.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡANs8XSrNM1
“What!? You’re imprisoned and you expect me to sit around and do nothing? I’m coming to find you, Mom.”576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPezyJhuGF4
“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.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFvs7llPBYy
“I’m losing the dream connection, Lauren.” I whimpered.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNW5T0f3S39
“Mom....”576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKODXZVd9Rj
“Blake! I don’t have much time! Stay where you are! I’ll find you!”576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfjFW4yAHz4
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. 576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9LzW1QLJj1
“Quiet girl! You want to wake up the whole neighborhood. No, stop! Guards! Catch her! CATCH HER AND BRING HER TO ME!”576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ29eIDdPHbj
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.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFdSm8HvVGv
“Ah! Get off! Rim what’s going.....” She sprang up and locked the door. 576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQERF2NnjD9
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. 576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZMmrgCpilr
“We’re being attacked,” she managed, her electric blue eyes wide and shining in the dark. 576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9JAaGY4Ai5
Her pajamas were rumpled in a few places from the fight, and her once smooth hair was in a rats nest.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQQUyxF7V1m
“You think I didn’t notice? What happened? Who’s out there?”576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ28C1QH2YES
“It’s hard to explain. Basically they want to take us and do horrible things to us. Need to say more?”576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUg4NxI0Jgh
“What about Sicily? Can’t she enforce the security?” Rim grunted.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2dpLyIqor2
“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.” 576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPoKW22p2LH
The truth came to me.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTg9qGFlVKD
There was no way out.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPaT79dNPgA
“So....we’re stuck?” She shrugged.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs5t1DzxlE5
“Basically.” 576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqzX8g0SHB2
Oh yikes. 576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwEtbqSqUbU
“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.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXPYzpULbiN
“You can’t seriously be thinking.....”576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjT88YtYe51
“No. I have absolutely zero experience, but maybe....if some do find us or hear us.....” 576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTPKQLTGylY
“Doubt it,” she remarked.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡARBtH2RyPC
“Thanks for the optimism, queen sunshine. I suppose you have any ideas?” Her eyes lit up in a scary kind of way.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOUpDKP6d9L
“We can go through the fire escape.” I blinked. That was actually kind of brilliant. 576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKI5QfTywMO
“Great. It’s out of my window?” She nodded.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4kd0c8wUcU
“Yep. There’s just one problem though.”576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhb0VURbTMi
“What’s that?”576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT2FoLaclut
“They have the girl. The one that can do the scary weather stuff. Tara. They have her gagged and held in restraints.” 576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE4xGLvogbL
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.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfvckpukZkq
“We have to get her.”576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHjbx5IDuDF
“That’s crazy. We have no backup!” Rim protest. She was standing at the window now. I crossed my arms.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6Uf104kyJP
“She needs our help! Do you want her to get taken away too?” That got her. Her face scrunched.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa6xKB2K3Kx
“We’ll fail.”576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡelIHrWp9JO
“We might fail,” I corrected, “and even if we do, we would have failed to know we tried.”576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjHS0CoayCu
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.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2ckK4WDji7
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. 576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzzQ1dpljiF
“Get them!” The tallest one said.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2NS1TJ3UDf
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.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGTWqv0ytbf
“Rim...” I began, backing away from the door. I heard her gasp behind me.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKqBEHFE21X
“We need to go. Now.” 576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo1wk7uNnzX
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.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3TyqSr9msL
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. 576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4f2SHFfQQW
He turned to us.“Are you kids alright?” Rim nodded, a little startled. I helped untie Tara.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqNFUHFkLlh
“Thank you,” she said simply, though the relief was apparent on her face.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE7nWfmrzwo
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.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVDuqAsYeAz
“Go to bed,” he told me in a serious tone. “You need your sleep.” 576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYQSt5UwlCj
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. 576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG4L0hf5QkV
I wanted to know who those people were. 576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWv4RPJnEYb
I wanted to know why Armor was suddenly so frustrated. 576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsQqGsDpeAh
I wanted to know what would happen to me, being so dangerous and powerful.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡACAoHiQ2bk
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...576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡni4Sn1s6SI
I was Blake, no matter what. I was going to do something, and somehow... everything would work out. 576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDqqbBn0ix1
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.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgMRhOFBEL7
“Master Blake?” A whisper. A sudden stirring of humming in the walls.576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdUsqXxtUaL
“What’s going on? My power sensors....”576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0wC3VactLk
“Sicily.” It made me smile to hear her voice again. “It’s okay.” 576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3RJouCrswH
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. 576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLuBgqM0C2l
“It’s okay. Everything is going to be okay.” And my eyes slipped shut. 576Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQhdMQf9VFw
That was my first day in Super Natropolis.
ns3.141.12.150da2
