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. 589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy1HJPIrqGq
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. 589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQmipZiO9Zo
Blake’s Horrible Crazy Life Realization #1: I am a teen superhero with powers that are supposedly jeopardizing the planet. 589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoziroKfsTh
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. 589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQaLUkivWaT
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. 589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNemjGqkhxD
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. 589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVd1qw2SGO5
“You’re new here,” a voice said from the wall. I jumped, looking around to see where the voice had come from.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI0IWyyCUKo
“Who said that?” I asked.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW7OqDmXkHa
“Yes, definitely new.” I froze.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGPvfa5Ysjn
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.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzjsVN39V44
“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.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrU879FX66q
“Are you talking to me?”589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9tipiT4Hyj
“Of course, Unidentified Male Lifeform.”589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0MGhBexiP3
“I’m Blake,” I said, twisting my head, trying to decide which way to face the voice. The walls flickered like holograms.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK4Faiyl1Mo
“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.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ37t2xp1ig9
“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.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZMb2qQZbtP
“That doesn’t compute.”589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeVmn10m5ka
“Figures.”589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡse8nQ56Ztn
“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?”589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8AvA5jW0r6
“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.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ6nslOg9s6
“Well, I’m an expert on what’s what. What would you like to know?” I thought for a moment.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡByv3PrBESZ
“Everything?”589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLIszYkvlnd
“Well, relaying that massive request will take 1.2 eons to collect and relay,” Sicily chirped. I laid on my back.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT9A9hE2343
“Well now’s a good time to start with the truth as any. Go ahead.”589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡohHLhww6Ma
“Sarcasm detected. Was that sarcastic?” I laughed.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1OgpqNhOyO
“Sicily, you and I are going to be great friends.”589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPcQIqDdbXr
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.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ6bWz3QZGE
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.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvKshtYV4s5
“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.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVcyOrpaS0W
“I don’t want you to leave,” she said simply, her voice dipped with pain.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWi6a4cQDD2
“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.”589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQhpYUEhHWY
“I heard her name, cross my heart!”589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIoFgzxttRf
“I know, cupcake. Just stay here and watch your brother.” Footsteps sounded further and further away from the door. He was leaving the room.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxGIIbbsRNH
“Dad? Do you think the under-naturals will take Blake too?” The footsteps stopped.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQWHqV8SRNy
“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.”589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO4NMuezfsc
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.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG0IzAeFT8w
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.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcDjWbSL0Ax
“Sir,” he began, closing the door behind him. The chair swiveled towards his voice, the face still out of view.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxxV1xifTsg
“What do you want?” It sneered. It was a man’s voice.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN9Hi9MTqcS
“We found the boy,” he said sternly. The figure stood up.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWyT5NVV62F
“What?”589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAeR6LsCHQ7
“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.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5DtJazZZLf
“Super Naturals?”589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOWfrYL2yZu
“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.”589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr7w88N6NmR
“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?”589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd8GzeSS3IV
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.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡft3JCtHfVJ
“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.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXGI5DNgTpi
“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.”589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz2sSUCgp0O
“Did you catch the name?”589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC0WhIjHM0o
“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.”589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZZ3hJw4WYE
“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.”589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY7Rnbceh8h
The dream changed.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXAKmJUW8g9
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.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc12ae9Sw24
“Hurry, it won’t last long.” His teeth seemed to be clenched with effort. My mother looked up and her eyes met mine.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhEay5SfqZ6
“Blake!”589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI6Bwekyw40
“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.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEh18v7ch1z
“Are you okay?”589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡh30B9wY8rY
“I’m fine Mom. Where are you? What have they done to you?” Her face pinched. 589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEOGhIXEkEU
“Blake, don’t come to get me.” I gasped so loudly it made her flinch.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN9RuTKWoqz
“What!? You’re imprisoned and you expect me to sit around and do nothing? I’m coming to find you, Mom.”589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfo2hAx8K3U
“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.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoZbsD8AHoH
“I’m losing the dream connection, Lauren.” I whimpered.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPUNyIEB4uC
“Mom....”589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA0r4O1aEvk
“Blake! I don’t have much time! Stay where you are! I’ll find you!”589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRSRNrsAIx6
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. 589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzUTKHuH0bu
“Quiet girl! You want to wake up the whole neighborhood. No, stop! Guards! Catch her! CATCH HER AND BRING HER TO ME!”589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCq2flTknEx
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.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHN1NW8TthH
“Ah! Get off! Rim what’s going.....” She sprang up and locked the door. 589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ73pbfv6HZo
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. 589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgMyDzcee1B
“We’re being attacked,” she managed, her electric blue eyes wide and shining in the dark. 589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEghaLy78dP
Her pajamas were rumpled in a few places from the fight, and her once smooth hair was in a rats nest.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkuC6IVX1RT
“You think I didn’t notice? What happened? Who’s out there?”589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsY1JvCGsiE
“It’s hard to explain. Basically they want to take us and do horrible things to us. Need to say more?”589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6K147AdPPE
“What about Sicily? Can’t she enforce the security?” Rim grunted.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnXiwZQ9z3y
“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.” 589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHrwzEojIT1
The truth came to me.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDNfXHS1fpd
There was no way out.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2XVZCGXC1X
“So....we’re stuck?” She shrugged.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqp1ds9uRm1
“Basically.” 589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYbWHsMecK7
Oh yikes. 589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ635TVMvK7P
“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.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK9p9N49T0h
“You can’t seriously be thinking.....”589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY5SETEqaUy
“No. I have absolutely zero experience, but maybe....if some do find us or hear us.....” 589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6o936FYG9R
“Doubt it,” she remarked.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7LolOOFTFD
“Thanks for the optimism, queen sunshine. I suppose you have any ideas?” Her eyes lit up in a scary kind of way.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJGdiBqri2J
“We can go through the fire escape.” I blinked. That was actually kind of brilliant. 589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6G3xlbqJkL
“Great. It’s out of my window?” She nodded.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGAHYTZzebc
“Yep. There’s just one problem though.”589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI3aSRTMmAw
“What’s that?”589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw0U8GKhiON
“They have the girl. The one that can do the scary weather stuff. Tara. They have her gagged and held in restraints.” 589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXeTQb4Cuy7
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.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTgB6pxKhhb
“We have to get her.”589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY1xq3Bhxo1
“That’s crazy. We have no backup!” Rim protest. She was standing at the window now. I crossed my arms.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmXRPCK1In4
“She needs our help! Do you want her to get taken away too?” That got her. Her face scrunched.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrHjLS9oBAY
“We’ll fail.”589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDOayRQsCHZ
“We might fail,” I corrected, “and even if we do, we would have failed to know we tried.”589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJoIxdgACkM
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.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB9DvU95CEB
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. 589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTE5K6XIuUh
“Get them!” The tallest one said.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9gD3lbS8Bh
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.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdv44FTo2E9
“Rim...” I began, backing away from the door. I heard her gasp behind me.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb6EeYmsWpw
“We need to go. Now.” 589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS1ypCDUdhM
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.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡExpLhXirbd
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. 589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7YaUYeuFF1
He turned to us.“Are you kids alright?” Rim nodded, a little startled. I helped untie Tara.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCom9dW680Y
“Thank you,” she said simply, though the relief was apparent on her face.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeWC7HQU1Yp
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.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN0JWxd0Aoe
“Go to bed,” he told me in a serious tone. “You need your sleep.” 589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMAWGnoYyaQ
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. 589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUwgeWM4LlI
I wanted to know who those people were. 589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfxtLNo3ySh
I wanted to know why Armor was suddenly so frustrated. 589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSC7imq31xy
I wanted to know what would happen to me, being so dangerous and powerful.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZD8ozDstRl
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...589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlGKfVyHKpq
I was Blake, no matter what. I was going to do something, and somehow... everything would work out. 589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHbKLpl8BEt
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.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGByJmT5sFH
“Master Blake?” A whisper. A sudden stirring of humming in the walls.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsoNb5YeAkK
“What’s going on? My power sensors....”589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡalTt4nuMsa
“Sicily.” It made me smile to hear her voice again. “It’s okay.” 589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSY4g81lNob
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. 589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCBMEHOcBLp
“It’s okay. Everything is going to be okay.” And my eyes slipped shut. 589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6CvoCMVVus
That was my first day in Super Natropolis.
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