"Doesn't your sister ever feel, you know, out of place I guess, because of her powers?" Chloe Demenz asked Emily as the two of them walked to lunch; Chloe is new at the school and pretty much the only friend Emily actually made in high school so far.
Emily shrugged in response "I don't know. She didn't always have great control over them so I guess back then she might have, if she did I never noticed" Emily answered simply, suddenly curious if growing up Heather ever hated her powers even when she wasn't angry.
Once Heather began saving the world, and openly using her powers for self defense, they obviously weren't a secret anymore but nobody really cared apart from her biological family who, as Emily had seen, had some very mixed reactions to discovering their teenage niece via the newspaper and internet.
"She did always say that if she ever found a way to get rid of her powers, she would do it in a heartbeat" Emily said, realization beginning to dawn on her.
"I bet" Chloe agreed, she didn't know Heather very well, she had only been at the school for three weeks, but from Emily she knew that Heather had hidden her powers most of her life and that kind of loneliness Chloe, in a way, could understand.
"Oh shut up, I was not that bad" Heather said, playfully shoving Mark as he spent their lunch recounting their last mission against a villain who called himself 'The Tornado'.
"Please, you almost lit yourself on fire" Tony joked and Heather rolled her eyes.
"There was a lot of wind" she excused and the other's just laughed.
The boy's laughter, however, was cut short when Emily and Chloe appeared at the table.
"Hey" Heather said, a little confused that her sister and her friend weren't sitting at their usual table, not that she minded.
"Hey. Cool if we sit here? Erica's mad at me," Emily explained
"Yeah, no problem" Heather said and so with that Emily and Chloe each pulled out a chair and sat down. "So what happened with Erica?" Heather questioned her sister who merely shrugged.
"I don't know, she's mad that I got mad when she cancelled our plans the other night and now she's just not talking to me" Emily explained, Heather didn't say anything more.
After Emily introduced Chloe to her sister's friends the conversation continued as what it had been before.
"Your sister's friends are pretty cool" Chloe commented when the bell rang and they all split up to go to their separate classes.
"I guess" Emily shrugged
"You don't like them?" Chloe inquired and again Emily shrugged.
"They're alright, but Heather's got some issues" she commented and her friend look quizzically at her.
"Really? She doesn't seem like she does?" She asked
"That's cause she's known those guys for three years. Before them she never really had any friends, she hid her powers and since most people could tell that she was hiding something they left her after awhile. Due to that combined with being adopted she kind of has this mild fear of abandonment. I'm just worried that something will happen on one of their missions and she'll blame herself, things were so much easier before when she wasn't risking her neck everyday" Emily commented, Chloe just nodded in understanding.
"I'm telling you dude, Chloe was flirting with you today" Tony insisted later that day while he and Cam were in Biology. Heather is also in their class and so Tony brought up the subject as soon as she left for the bathroom, they were always careful not to be around Heather when they talked about Cam potentially being with someone.
"You think?" Cam asked, only about half interested in the conversation. He would be lying if he said that he didn't find Chloe attractive. She was a little taller than Heather but her high heeled shoes put her at equal height with some of the boys, he also liked the way her wavy blond hair fell freely about her shoulders, plus she really does seem like a nice girl.
But even so he'd also be lying if he said that he's completely over Heather.
"Yeah, she couldn't stop talking to you" Tony continued
"He's got a point," a female voice said from behind them and both boys whipped their heads around to find Heather had returned and was taking her seat.
"Oh, uh hey" Cam stuttered awkwardly, to both his and Tony's surprise she laughed at their shock.
"Cut the act guys, we broke up seven months ago. Talk about other girls all you want," she said, clearly getting at least a little enjoyment out of their obvious discomfort with the situation.
"Wait you seriously don't care?" Cam questioned and she giggled
"Cam no offence but I got over it awhile ago, seriously do what you want" she assured.
For a moment Cam only looked at her in shock, which only made her laugh harder, but it became evident to him by her confident attitude, he knew she wasn't faking because he knows how to read her, that she really is over their breakup.
Unfortunately for Cam, Heather knows how to read him just as well as he knows how to read her.
"Cam, you broke up with me," she reminded him, sensing his sadness.
"I know, it just hurts a little to hear your ex say she's over you" he lied and he knew that she saw through it, but she didn't want to say anything in front of Tony so she just laughed again and changed the subject.
"So you finally want to tell me why it is that we broke up?" Heather questioned Cam that night while they were on a mission and the two of them were alone after the team had decided to split up.
They were currently somewhere in the Amazon, something had been stolen from a research lab over in Europe but it had a GPS tracker on it, which went inactive somewhere in the Amazon jungle. So now they were here, spread out, and looking for anything suspicious.
"Why is this suddenly relevant to anything?" Cam questioned, hoping to avoid this conversation all together.
Heather sighed, "Cam come on, you dumped me and just told me that things weren't working out. I bugged you about it for a couple of hours and you said that you think we're better when we're just friends. Now I accepted that answer but I saw the way you were acting in Biology today, you're upset that I'm over you" Heather half mocked, half sensitively pried. Cam let out a groan but he didn't have time to give his friend an answer because that's when company showed up.
"Ugh, the struggles of working with men" a sarcastic voice commented, both teenagers turned just in time to see a ninja landing a kick on the side of Heather's face.
"I thought ninja's were supposed to be silent?" Heather mocked as she threw the girl off of her.
"Technically I'm still in training" the masked girl responded as she picked herself off the ground.
While the two girls fought Cam stood off to the side, studying Heather's opponent. It was evident that she was a girl, based on her voice and figure. She wasn't much taller than Heather and again judging by her voice he figured that she might even be close to their age. One thing in which Cam took particular note of was that she had long legs and stayed on her toes more than flat feet, something Heather could use to her advantage.
"Heather, hit her low!" He shouted and before the other girl even knew what happened Heather had preformed a sweeping kick and knocked her off her feet.
"Not bad" the girl commented before kicking Heather in the stomach, sending her tumbling backwards as she got to her feet. "Cute and smart" the ninja remarked, referring to Cam, and the two teens could almost feel her smirking underneath her mask. "Let's see how long it'll take you to figure this one out." She said and with that she disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving only one thing behind, a broken piece of stone.
"So you fought a ninja, and she left you a rock?" Zach questioned later once he and Heather were home. It was well past midnight so they were trying to keep it down, Heather knew that they should both go straight to bed but neither of them got to eat dinner that night so instead she set to work putting both their plates in the microwave, their mom always saved their dinners when they were out on missions.
"Not a normal one though, it was smooth and chipped on the edges, like a piece of a statue, Cam's trying to figure out where it could've come from." She explained and Zach huffed as he took a seat at the table.
"All I know is I was stuck with Tony and Mark, doing nothing" he complained and Heather giggled. "It's not funny! I should've been with you but you changed the teams!" He whined, whenever they split up they always, always, did Tony with Mark then Zach with Heather and Cam. But tonight Heather had asked Zach to go with the two boys, she said it was because she trusted him not to need his sister right there but Tony said it was because she wanted to talk to Cam alone.
"Well if you need your big sister to protect you then you can come back with me next time" Heather teased and Zach stuck out his tongue as she placed his food in front of him then sat across from him with her own supper.
"I'm not a little kid anymore" he reminded her and she laughed
"I know, you're almost as tall as me" she remarked "look I'm just teasing, I know you can handle the danger" Heather said and she was telling the truth, though she still would always be there to protect him, he is still her little brother.
"Ugh, what are you doing here?" Lord Superior demanded of the young ninja who silently entered his living room, nearly scaring him half to death.
"Dad couldn't make it, he's busy working on your weapon" she answered, a hint of annoyance in her voice.
Superior growled but said nothing more against the girl and waited until she had removed her mask to address her again.
"Did they take the bait?" He asked as she pulled her blond hair out of the collar of her shirt, letting it hang freely by her shoulders in static waves.
"These things take time, but so far everything seems to be going according to plan. The witch's sister trusts me and is singing like a canary, I definitely have the attention of the smart one, and although I don't know anything about the little one yet I've got a plan to take him down" Chloe reported, Superior only nodded.
"Have you spoken to Monkey Fist?" He inquired and Chloe rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, now I never have to take psychology." She muttered before clearing her throat and speaking up. "He's right, everything is connected, but you have to pull the right pin." She warned
"Which one is the right pin?" Superior inquired and Chloe grinned a wicked grin
"The witch" she answered and Superior's grin matched her own, he was hoping she would say that.