Chapter One
New York City, 1999
"Mom, Dad, we're home," Warren yelled as Shauna, their petite blonde maid closed the door behind the twins.
"Your parents are in the back room, kiddo," she said, ruffling the boy's head. He grinned and shook her off, and raced his quiet sister down the hall of their suburban home. He beat her to the door of the 'back room', where his parents went, mostly alone, and mostly to talk business—superhero business.
"Norah, Warren, go upstairs and change your clothes. I'm not having Shauna wash your uniforms for the third time this week," Amelia said as she kissed them both on the cheeks. Behind her back, Barron made a face at the ten year olds, pretending to dislike having to sit in the office and talk. Norah giggled as Warren rolled his eyes, and they left the room. Amelia looked over at Barron and sighed as she sat down.
"How many have escaped from the prison?" Amelia asked, her voice slightly muffled as she spoke into her palms.
"Only three, but that's more than enough. Master-Mind is working on tracking them," Barron said, referring to one of the heroes whose power was super genius.
"But they were last seen in New York!" Amelia hissed. She glared at him, as if she wanted to blame him. "My kids—our kids—walk to and from their school every day. You're not the world's favourite hero, especially if you look from a villain's perspective! You're the hero who put most of the prisoners into Maxville's Super Prison! I..." her voice cracked, and the angrily brushed at the tears that threatened to fall. "I just don't want them to get hurt." Barron got up off the couch, and held her, stroking her head as she spoke. She had been having her dreams of late-usually they came as premonitions, but these seemed too outlandish to be so. She had ruled them out as a subconscious outworking, but he knew it was beginning to tell on her. She worried that there was something there that needed interpreting and she wasn't understanding it...
"I won't let anything—"
He was cut off by a beeping tone. He looked at the gray phone on the desk, and sighed before loosening her arms from his neck so he could reach it.
"Firebird," he said curtly. Amelia watched him as he listened to the voice on the other end, ending the call with a simple, "We'll be right there." He replaced the receiver and explained quickly, even as they began to suit up, that the three escapees had been located not far from here. The Commander and Jetstream, Rain Man, as well as Master-Mind were all on the way.
"Warren, Norah!"
They found the two in the kitchen, making sandwiches.
"We have to go," was all that was said as hasty kisses were delivered, before they left out the back door, avoiding Shauna all the way. Norah looked at Warren and turned on the TV set in the kitchen.
"...And there is mayhem in the streets, the bank has been blown up, and it's rumored that the villains who did this were the same escaped convicts from the Super-Villain prison in Maxville!..."
The frenzied news reporter carried on her rant, and Norah took a bite of her bread.
"Can you feel dad?" She asked without looking at her brother. It was something they had never told their parents about—they could both feel their father's presence, even when not in the same room. Norah normally felt him more strongly, and the fact that she wasn't even feeling a tingle bothered her.
"No. He must be further away," Warren said. Norah nodded, and continued to watch the screen. The camera filming the event almost seemed to be handled by an amateur—it kept shaking, and zooming in and out, never really focusing. They watched the blurry screen until the heroes arrived—their parents included. The Commander was lifting a school bus out of the way of the falling building, and Rain Man seemed to be trying to put out the flames from the blast, when there was another one, somewhere off screen. Warren wished the camera would turn and show what had happened, and he grinned when it did. Another building close by had exploded, and the villain was laughing manically on the side. Psy-Saver was seen using her telekinetic abilities to get the civilians away, and there, overhead, flew Jetstream...doing something. Fighting a villain in the air, it seemed, but they couldn't be sure.
"Amateurs. Stupid shaky camera," Warren growled.
The camera moved back down to earth, and showed Firebird absorbing the flames, only to get hit in the face by the villain who had been laughing. He returned the punch, and Warren and Nora cheered, they knew there was little chance of the bad guy getting up after that knock out. They watched Firebird continue absorbing, and Warren felt a tickling sensation in the back of his head.
"Can he take that much without exploding himself?" Norah asked, looking to her older brother for guidance.
"I don't know," Warren muttered, rubbing his head.
"What's wrong?"
"I have this—OW!" He said, getting up from the couch, and holding his head in both hands.
"Warren. Tell me what it feels like," Norah said, panic lacing her voice.
"It just hurts!" Warren half yelled. He sat back down and glared up at his sister, who was hovering over him. Her eyes were wide.
"You—you're on fire!"
In the minutes that the children had looked away from the screen, a lot had happened at the Bank of New York.
The Commander realized the villains had set a blaze all around the spot where the heroes where fighting, and Rain Man, for some reason wasn't getting enough water fast enough to put it all out. Firebird looked to be struggling as well; flames licked his body even as he absorbed more. Yelling for Jetstream to pick him up, The Commander grabbed the bus of screaming school kids, thinking of his own eight-year-old son. These were the only civilians left in the ring of fire; even those crazy reporters had backed off. Jetstream held on grimly, and they passed over the spot where Firebird was taking more fire in. Rain Man, seeing the pyro struggling, caused his fast-diminishing rain cloud to help them, so The Commander could get through safely.
Psy-Saver turned from one of the villains, whispering into her husband's mind a few words of encouragement. She heard him half-yell that he was nearly up, he couldn't anymore—and the bus of school children fell. Psy-Saver's mouth dropped in horror as it fell into the building Firebird and Rain Man were trying to douse. She could hear their screams, even as the villain she had turned away from hit her hard in the back of her head. She crumpled, but not before seeing Firebird take in more of the fire, screaming that those were just kids, what had The Commander done?!
All of the tapes from whatever cameras had caught the scene were blurry, fuzzy, or missed that part.
The Bureau for Supers said there had to be a court case, because someone had to be held responsible—the parents of those children were screaming for blood.
The Commander and Jetstream said that Firebird had let go of his control over the fire, and that was why they had dropped the bus.
Firebird and Psy-Saver cried out at the lie, and said that Firebird had been holding on with every ounce of his will—The Commander was at fault here, he had dropped the bus.
Rain Man and Master Mind were brought in to testify. Rain Man said he couldn't understand how The Commander had dropped the bus—such a huge mistake had never occurred before. Rain Man disagreed when they asked if he thought it was Firebird's fault—but he didn't blame The Commander either. He asked to be excused from the case, but was refused. He left anyway, torn between loyalties—old school friend and the truth. Master Mind had not been at the actual site when the mistake happened, and so was also excused from the case. It was couple versus couple, and the judge and jurors were to decide, there being no clear evidence or witnesses as to who did what.
Warren and Norah Battle were only allowed to come to the final hearing, when the judge proclaimed the verdict. Their grandfather Filedus sat between them, holding their hands. Both children were filled with an immense hate when they saw The Commander enter, Jetstream by his side. Filedus thought he felt a familiar warmth in Warren's hand, but said nothing of it.
"We find Firebird, alias Barron Battle, guilty as charged by The Commander. He will serve—"
"NO!" came a cry from the spectators. Everyone turned to see Norah Battle run past the guards and grab her father, holding him tight, as if she would never let go. As if she could keep him there forever. The guards held her, trying to prying her away, even as her brother pushed at them, not noticing the small flames lick up his arms and begin to singe his suit. Filedus and Amelia both ran to get the children, one of whom now was fighting the guards off his sister, the other unconcerned with anything, except holding on to her father as he whispered in her ear.
The judge banged his anvil, calling for order, but none was received.
Filedus pulled Warren off a guard, and Amelia gently pried Norah from her father's grasp. The rest of the spectators were in an uproar—surely a man who could not control his own family could not control his own powers! Surely one who put up such a display in a court room had no respect for the Supers' rules, regulations, and codes. Who knew what else this madman was capable of?
"I sentence you to a triple life sentence, with visits from your unruly family once every two months!" the judge said when he could be heard at last. Amelia had to keep herself from crying out at the verdict, and Norah, who had one moment been crying into her mother's shoulder, heaved herself back up.
"You!" She yelled, pointing at The Commander. "How can you sit there, you know that you lied, you know that you—"
"Shut that child up! I called for Order!" The judge was shouting.
"Norah please, listen, don't do this," her father said.
"—You did it, and you're blaming my dad, coz you're guilty as sin! Stop blaming him!" She was screaming, pushing her mother and grandfather off, and she made her way to The Commander's seat, using six years of training and technique to avoid getting caught by the civilian guards. She reached him, and he looked at her tear streaked, angry face.
"I hate you." She whispered. And then she exploded.
