Author's note: Well, this is a shocker! I thought that this would be a short chapter, especially since I split it from the previous chapter. However, this had actually become one of my longest chapters yet, so long that I had to split it again for the next chapter. Anyway, we are now to the point that most of you probably want to see. Action! I can pretty much guarantee that it will be mostly action from here on out. However, this story's still got a little ways to go before it's finished, so don't worry about it ending soon. Okay, you know the drill, so I won't say anything this time.

Chapter 14

So here I was thinking about the pros and cons of my earlier decision and everything else in between all over again. Unlike the last time, though, I now had Mom's message to help influence my judgment. That recording really added a broad new perspective on what I wanted to do. It gave me new things to think about that I never would've even considered before. I then thought that maybe I rushed way too fast into my earlier decision. I mean, maybe it was the right call to see if I could help my parents, or maybe it wasn't, but I thought that maybe something this big could take a little longer than just five minutes to totally decide on. And maybe I was doing way too much thinking on this already. Once again, I needed to calm down and just think clearly. Okay, so let's say that I did end up going on this mission. What could possibly happen? I saw these possible outcomes. One, I save both my parents and the city. Two, I go only to find out that one or both of them are already dead. Three, I end up dying myself. Four, we all end up dying. Five, I go and something happens that I can't even remotely imagine at this point. The only next big question was, where exactly were they? I was so busy thinking about my decision and the possible consequences to both my parents and myself that I didn't even bother to think about where they were in the first place. That was kind of stupid. I mean, how was I supposed to do this without knowing exactly where to go, that is, if I still wanted to go. God, there was that question again. Man, I swear, I was going to drive myself completely insane if I kept this up.

Okay, so where could they possibly be? Well, the best, and only, clue at the moment was the ATI complex, and I wasn't sure if I could even call that a clue. It was more of a starting point if anything. I didn't know if I could learn anything new, though. Mom already called there earlier, and they told her that Dad was still there working. It was very obvious now that she didn't believe them. I had no experience in these types of things, but that sounded very suspicious to me from the very beginning. I didn't know if any part of it was true or not, but there was just enough doubt there for me, and apparently my mom, to continue to pursue it. Besides, it was a lot easier to lie to someone over the phone than to their face. But why lie at all? Why tell my mother or someone else something like that? Unless what I was told what could possibly happen was happening at this very moment. I began to wonder just how many people were involved. From what I remember hearing, ATI employed something like 15,000 people, with more than half of those here in Metroville. All of them couldn't be in on this, could they? Of course not. The mysterious woman said as much. Although since she was still, well, mysterious, I wasn't sure if her word really meant all that much, but it was all that I had to go by. Hmm, maybe ATI was a good starting point after all.

So, what now? I looked at the computer terminal. I already thought of seeing if I could use it to locate Mom. I was almost certain that it could do that. If Edna could detect the life signs of my mother on whatever she was using at her place, then this computer should also. I also decided that I wasn't going to try to use it, and the reason was that I still didn't know anything about it. My uncle had a saying for something like this. Yeah, I know, another saying. Anyway, he said something along the lines of, 'When in doubt, don't try out'. I got lucky the first time I touched it, but the second time might not be the case. I was still envisioning very lethal booby traps hidden somewhere in the walls or something. So if I wasn't able to, actually, make that unwilling to use the computer, then the only way to know where Mom was at was to contact Edna. Since I didn't know her number and I already knew that it was private, then that meant that I had to go over to her mansion. That was definitely a problem since her mansion was way out in the countryside, a good twenty miles or so from here. I sure as heck wasn't going to ride my bike over that distance, and the buses weren't running at this time. Even if they were, it would still only cut that trip down by maybe half. I sighed deeply. That left only one option.

I looked at my black and orange super suit that was hanging there on the wall. The same suit that I was happy to get at first but then seemed to regret having it made. The same suit that symbolized the very thing that I wanted to avoid becoming. The same suit that I was actually thinking about putting on. I reached out with my right hand and ran it across the sleeve of the suit. This was actually the first time that I touched it. It felt kind of…weird. Not weird as in bad weird, but, well, maybe it was a nice kind of weird. It felt really smooth, a lot smoother than just about all of my regular clothing. It didn't really feel like silk or anything like that, it just had its own type of smoothness to it. I wondered what it would be like to wear it, how it would feel on my skin. If it was as nice as it felt, then I'm sure that I wouldn't be disappointed.

'Then why don't you try it on,' my inner voice said. 'I mean, weren't you the one who decided to rescue your parents a few minutes ago? And how were you expecting to do that, hmm? Walk up to the front door, put on your sweetest face, and kindly ask for their release, that is, if they are in trouble at all? Gimme a break! Even so, you have to admit that you were always curious to try on that suit. Don't even try to lie about it. So go ahead and just try it on. There's no harm in doing just that. Come on, you know you want to.'

I continued to run my hand across the suit. I definitely couldn't deny that I wanted to put it on, if only because I really was curious about it. Unfortunately, it really wasn't about curiosity anymore. I was thinking about using it to help my parents. Was that really so bad, though? Part of me still thought so, and that was probably the reason I was still kind of reluctant. Still, it really wouldn't hurt to try it on, and it did feel really nice in my hand…

"What the hell," I said with a sigh.

I took down the suit, boots, gloves, and belt but left the mask behind. I really don't know why I did that. I immediately noticed how light the whole thing was. It seemed to be almost feather light. I mean, I wasn't expecting it to weigh as much as a suit of armor or anything, but I figured that a suit that was, in Edna's own words, 'bulletproof, fireproof, waterproof, and stainproof,' would've had a little more weight to it than this. The clothes I was wearing at that moment probably weighed more in total.

I took the suit and walked out of the room. I left the door open, just in case. I went up to my room, shut the door behind me, and locked it. I made sure that my blinds were fully closed. I didn't want to risk the chance of anyone seeing what I was about to do. With the third sigh of the night, I then stripped out of all my clothing. I guess that was the downside of not owning any regular clothing that wouldn't burst into flames. I made a mental note that the next time I did this, if that next time ever came, I would get something that I could wear under my suit that was fireproof itself. Not that anyone would see anything or something like that, but I guess that it was just the idea of me, well, going commando that was just strange, not to mention embarrassing. Anyway, I grabbed the suit and slowly put it on. When I was done with that, I put on the gloves, boots, and belt just as slowly. I was purposely turned away from my mirror so that I wouldn't see how I looked until I was done. I knew that the look wouldn't be complete without the mask, but it would be close enough. I waited for a few more seconds, took a deep breath, and then turned around to see my new self in the mirror.

So what was my first reaction to seeing myself in my new super suit? I could honestly say that I was surprised, and that wasn't a bad thing. I was surprised because I looked so great in it. I could almost go as far as saying that it was the best that I looked in anything. Edna obviously knew what she was doing when she designed my suit. I never doubted her for a second and the suit looked great the moment she made it, but it was better to wait until I actually put it on before I made my final judgment. I even modeled around in it for a moment, turning around to see it from all angles. I wondered what my parents would think if they saw me in this. Besides looking nice, it also felt nice as well. It was far more comfortable than I ever would've expected. It was also surprisingly less restrictive than I would've thought, although that would make sense since they were made to fight crime. Edna was also right and the suit really did breathe excellently. I also like the way it brought out the redness of my hair. In fact, I wondered if there was something that I could do with my hair to add to my super look. Yes, believe it or not, the way that some supers wear their hair sometimes is part of their style. It helps with their image as well as keep from being identified who they really are. After a moment I decided to keep it loose for now. I kind of liked it better that way. Besides, I knew that all of my hair bands weren't fireproof, either.

I had one minor complaint about the suit, though. It was a little more, well, skintight than the looser clothing that I was used to wearing. I felt that it was revealing my curves just a little too much. I was slightly self conscious about my body. Add that to the fact that I wasn't wearing anything under my suit and it just made the skintight issue even worse. However, that was a very minor thing and was something that I was just going to have to get used to.

As I standing there and looking at myself in my new suit, the big question came back again. Would I actually use this suit tonight instead of model around in it for a few minutes? I already seem to have prepared myself to go a lot more than if I was just putting it on for a short time. I also was very curious to see what this suit could really do. Last but not least, the huge guilt factor that had been so influential in my earlier decisions was still burning so bright. The message from Mom and seeing myself in the suit also added to my decision. But I think that I already knew what I was going to do the moment I took the suit down from its spot.

I met my own eyes in the mirror and said, "Why not."

'Well, Jess, you've now crossed the line,' that inner voice of mine from earlier said. 'How does it feel to officially become a superhero now? Not really what you expected, huh? Wonder what Mom and Dad will think.'

I definitely wasn't going to do this alone, though. That was obvious from the very beginning. I might've been crazy for deciding to do this, but I wasn't that stupid. It was probably stupid to drag someone else into this anyway, but that was besides the point. Of course, I already knew who that someone was, or in this case, two someones. The two most obvious choices, of course. Leon and Chance Harding. That could be a problem, though, and it wasn't because of the earlier conflict, either. Chance gave me their home phone number, but I don't think that they were expecting me to call them at almost one in the morning. Besides, what if their parents answer the phone first? What would I say to them? They didn't even know me. It probably would've been a lot easier if I knew where their house was. That way I could just tap on their window or something. But since I didn't have that option, the only other choice was to call them. I went over to my phone and reached for the slip of paper that had the number on it. I knew that there was a reason why I didn't rip it up. I also knew that I was wasting a lot of time, so I picked up the phone, dialed the number, and prayed that their parents wouldn't answer it. After about five rings, someone picked up at the other end, but it took a while for them to answer.

"'Lo?" A tired voice answered. I was relieved to hear that it was Leon. Relieved but nervous.

"Leon?" I asked with some of that nervousness in my voice.

"Yeah. Who's this?"

"It's me, Jess."

"Jess?" He sounded surprised to hear my voice. "Why are you calling at one in the morning? How'd you even get this number to begin with?"

"Chance gave it to me yesterday," I told him. "It was in case I needed to contact you."

"Oh, well, um, what's up?"

It was hard to tell if he was still upset with me, but that didn't really matter. "I think that both of my parents are in trouble."

"What?" That seemed to have gotten his attention as he sounded fully awake now. "What's happened? What's going on?"

"My dad hasn't been home for several days now. Mom finally got worried and she left to see if he was alright. Then about a half hour ago Edna called here asking for Dad but then told me that she picked up some strange readings from Mom. I think that she may have been captured."

"Whoa." After a quick silence he said, "Okay, listen. I don't think that it's a good idea to be talking about this over the phone. Tell you what, why don't we meet at the park. Is that fine with you?"

"That's perfect," I agreed.

"Chance and I will be there in ten minutes. See you there." He then hung up.

I hung up my own phone. Well, that was pretty fast. It went a lot easier than I expected as well. I suppose that there was no turning back now. Of course, I had to get my mask before I left. I couldn't exactly leave without that if I wanted to keep my identity secret. I left my room and went back down to the secret room. I guess that there was a reason why I kept the door open. I wasn't wearing the watch to open it. I guess that I really did know some things in advance than I thought.

I picked up my mask from its place and looked at it. It felt kind of rubbery. I wondered if it just as bulletproof and fireproof as the rest of my suit. It had to be. I then remembered something that was bugging me from since I first heard and read about superheroes. How could these masks actually keep our identity secret? They just seemed to cover the eyes and maybe a good portion of the face. One would think that it would be easy to see who supers really are through that. But apparently people are totally oblivious to that. Maybe it was just the way that it covered the face that hid the identity. Of course, if they wore a helmet like my mom does, then their identity would sure be kept secret. They also looked really cool. Hmm, maybe one day I could get a helmet for myself.

I finally closed my eyes and placed the mask on my face. It felt really weird. It didn't feel quite as comfortable as the rest of my suit, but I was certain that I would get used to it. I kind of liked the way it formed perfectly with my facial features. I wished that I could see what I looked like now that I had the mask on. There was no mirror in this room, and the reflections of myself off some of the glass surfaces there weren't really that great. Oh, well.

Anyway, I guess that now was the time that I had to do what Mom said in the message. With my suit and mask on, I now had to forget that I was Jessica Wells and now had to refer to myself as my self chosen super name, Phoenicia. Man, that was not going to be easy. It was going to take a while to call myself that. Maybe Mom was right when she said that these things took time. In fact, I think that part of the reason that I was doing this was that Mom and I were so alike in our personalities. I was impulsive, reckless, and emotional, just like she was when she was my age. Unlike her, though, I was far from overconfident. I was a very unconfident person, and even more so now. That needed to change if I was going to do this.

I knew that it was time to go, but before I left the room, I took one last look at the two ruined suits of my grandparents. It was still saddening to look at, but I also knew that there was a chance that both me and Mom could end up just like that, but surprisingly I wasn't really worried about that outcome. Maybe I was starting to show a little confidence in myself after all. Just to the left of the suits was a faded picture. I took it off the wall and looked at it closely. It was an old picture of my grandparents and my mother when she was just a little girl. It had to have been taken sometime in the sixties. There weren't very many pictures of my grandparents. They were nice looking people. My granddad was a tall handsome man with a strong build, square face and neatly cut brown hair. My grandma was a very beautiful woman with a rounded face and red hair cut in one of those sixties hairstyles. There were times that I would wonder how different my life would be if they were still alive today. I knew that they were probably looking down on me right now, and in a way that made me feel a lot better. I placed the picture back on the wall. I then looked back at the two suits, kissed the palm of my right hand, and placed it on the glass surface.

"Wish me luck," I said out loud.

I then left the room and shut the door behind me. At first I was just going to walk to the park. It was past one in the morning and I was certain that I could get there without any attention since everyone in the neighborhood should be asleep. However, I decided that it would be a better idea if I tested out my powers before I went anywhere. So I made sure that all the lights were off in the house before I stepped outside into the backyard. I made sure that there were no lights on in either one of our neighbors' houses before I went further out into the yard. I was already nervous enough as it was from being out here in my suit. I definitely didn't want or need any prying eyes around.

The first thing that I figured that I could do was test out my fire powers. Edna did say that the gloves were supposed to enhance them. I started simple by holding out both hands and letting them glow. When I did that both gloves glowed with them. That was very interesting. I made them glow even brighter until they were almost white hot and surrounded by fire and making that really strange hissing sound. I was mesmerized by it as it was very beautiful to look at. I was also amazed that the gloves were holding up to that type of temperature. I wasn't sure just how hot it was, but I was almost certain they were hot enough to melt some metals. I stopped because they were also illuminating almost the entire yard. Then, as an experiment, I brought up one my hands and touched my cheek. The gloves were cool to the touch. Wow, that was pretty awesome. Gloves that could dissipate the heat almost immediately. That could be very useful.

Next I wanted to try the fireballs. I already knew that they seemed to be powerful enough on their own, but I needed to see if the gloves made any difference. The metal bucket from four years ago was still in the yard, so I picked it up and set it down in the middle of the yard. Stepping away from it, I held out my right hand and launched a fireball at it. I don't know what I expected before that, but what I got far exceeded it. The bucket literally exploded in a shower of flames, sparks, and molten metal! I gasped and staggered back a few steps. That was very new. It was also very loud, and I kept glancing back and forth between the two houses to see if anyone inside them heard it. When no lights came on inside either house, I relaxed slightly but not much. I then walked to the now blackened and smoking patch of grass. Oh man, Dad was probably going to kill me. Anyway, there was nothing left of the bucket. Nothing but twisted, blackened, and melted pieces of metal scattered all over the yard. I stared at the patch in amazement and then at my own right hand with the same expression. These gloves added quite the punch to something that was already dangerous. I had to be careful when I used them. Good thing that I didn't have them when I was fighting that guy in the mall.

The last thing to test out was flight. This one was going to be the most interesting, and probably the most dangerous. It was confirmed that I could actually fly instead of just hover and float around. The only main problem was that the very short flight that happened at the mall was very much accidental and out of instinct. In other words, I didn't know how I'd done it. I just knew that I somehow did, and now I had to try to do it on my own. I was certain that it would come just as naturally as everything else. At least, that's what I hoped. I began to have some questions, though. So let's say that I did get fully airborne, then what? How do I steer, speed up or slow down, all that stuff? Then I thought that I had to get airborne first before I could even think about the other stuff. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. I guess it was now that time. I looked up at the clear night sky. Such a pretty night for flying, hopefully.

"Well, up, up, and away," I said to myself.

I said that cheesy and overused line that flying supers say from those comics and TV shows as an attempt to calm down my nerves. I even chuckled at that, but it was very dry, humorless, and forced. Not to mention that it did nothing to calm my nerves.

'This is not a good idea.' That ever more annoying inner voice of mine just had to add its part to this.

It was too late to back out now. I took another deep breath, held my arms out by my sides, and started to form my aura. The ghostly flames appeared almost immediately. A moment later, my hair started to float around my head and then I felt myself lift off the ground. Well, so far so good, but I was kind of hoping for something more than this. I mean, I already knew how to hover, and…

Suddenly, the aura flashed white and made that strange roaring sound, and then I shot up into the sky at blazing speed! I let out a scream of shock and fright as my backyard suddenly rocketed away from under my feet. For a moment I had a very strange thought that if neighbors didn't hear the fireball earlier, then they had to have heard my take off. I immediately pushed that aside as I had a far more serious problem to think about. Yes, I was flying, but I had no control at all and was now in serious danger of flying all the way out into space unless I did something.

'Get control! Get control! Get control!' the voice was screaming at me over and over.

Jeez, what the hell did it think I was trying to do? Okay, I had to just calm down and think. Yeah, that was easier said than done, especially now. All I had to do was change direction or slow down or stop completely. Simple, right? Not in the slightest. At that moment, the aura vanished completely. I didn't mean to do that, but it seemed to be helping. It was only for a moment, though. The momentum was still carrying me upward, but I was slowing down really fast until I came to a stop in mid-air. Then a split second later I started falling back toward the ground. I fought back the urge to scream again as I fell faster and faster. I had to get that aura back now or I was going to smash into the ground. I had to be at least a few thousand feet up in the air but I maybe had thirty seconds to regain control. Luck was with me though as I quickly managed to get the aura back and my fall was slowing down until I stopped and was now just hovering.

I breathed out a sigh of relief. That didn't go quite as expected. At least I was still alive, for now. Now that I was hovering and in no more danger, I could look at the view from this height. I was not really enjoying it, either. In fact, I swallowed hard. There was something that I didn't mention before. I had a slight fear of heights, and it was starting to get to me. Yeah, I know, a flying super that had a fear of heights sounded funny. The city looked so beautiful and peaceful from up here, I admit. It seemed to be an endless sea of lights spreading out in all directions below me. It was also amazingly quiet with maybe the occasional car horn in the distance. It was almost magical, and it seemed to have a calming effect. I found myself thinking about how I probably looked from the ground a couple thousand feet below. I thought about all those cartoons where a character walks or stands on thin air right until the moment they looked down and then they fell. It was a great thing that I didn't have to worry about that. I actually burst out laughing with that. It was hard to believe, but I think that I was actually feeling better now.

'Glad to hear that,' the voice said. 'Now why don't you say we try that again, shall we?'

Yes, let's try that again. I was feeling a lot more confident now. As you might expect, that was quite the achievement considering that wild first flight. So again I had to duplicate that without shooting off into space or plowing myself into the ground. I was already forming a theory on how I flew in the first place. I think that it had something to do with controlling the brightness of my aura with thought. I say that because each time I thought what I wanted to do, the aura seemed to react to it. Maybe my power of flight was thought-controlled. That wasn't unusual. Lots of supers had thought-controlled powers.

It was time to experiment with that theory. Let's see if I can move nice and slow this time. I began to think like that. I watched as my aura started to glow brighter but not as bright as earlier. I felt myself start to move just as slow as I wanted. I smiled as I figured out that my theory was right. I really could control my speed with my thoughts. Now if I could figure out how to change direction or just roll over. I was slightly on my back from the fall and was in a sense gliding backwards. I tried rolling over like I would if I was in bed. I found out really quickly that maybe I tried just a little too hard, because I was spinning like a top for a few seconds before I stopped facing downward. Well, I guess that was one way to roll over, but next time I should do it without trying to make myself sick in the process.

I then formed another theory in my head. If I used my body motion to roll over, then maybe I could use it to change direction. It was worth a try. I started by trying to turn right. I bent my upper body toward the right. At first nothing happened, but then I slowly started turning to the right. I found the last piece of my flying puzzle, but I was slightly disappointed. I was hoping that I could turn faster than this. I wanted to see if throwing my legs in the opposite direction would help, but I didn't want to accidentally send myself into another spin. I tried something different. I held out my right arm to see if that would do anything. It made me dip to the right and made my turn tighter. That seemed to help a little, but I was beginning to think that the reason I wasn't turning quickly was because I wasn't flying quickly. I was more like gliding through the sky. I made a full right circle and stopped turning. I now wanted to try turning to the left, but I wanted to see something. I first brightened my aura slightly so I flew faster. I then held out my left arm and dipped to the left. This time I pulled my upper body up along with my legs. It caused me to make an incredibly tight turn. In fact, I made two full left turns in less time that it took me to make the one full right turn. I didn't stop there, though. The moment I ended my turn I pulled up again and made a loop. I found myself smiling widely and almost laughing as I made the loop. I think that I was having way too much fun doing this. That was really hard to believe.

Speaking of which, I now had to get serious. I think that I've learned the basics of my flying abilities and now I had to go meet Leon and Chance at the park. It's been way past ten minutes and they were probably there waiting for me. I looked down to see where I was over the city. I found out that I was in luck. Despite my wild flying and experimenting, I didn't really move all that much over my neighborhood. I could definitely recognize some familiar landmarks from this height and could spot the park easily. It was the only dark spot in a sizeable radius. Using my newly learned abilities, I turned toward the park and flew towards it. I was descending just slowly enough so that I wouldn't crash into the ground. I made it to the park in a matter of seconds. When I was over the park, I slowed down and looked for a place to land. I realized at that moment that I didn't know how to land yet, and while I was thinking how to do that, my aura vanished again. Since I was just barely moving when that happened, I fell like a rock and hit the ground like one as well. Luckily, I was at least eight or so feet above the ground and it was soft so it didn't hurt…much. It left me pretty stunned. I guess that's the reason why belly flops were better performed in water than on land, although from eight feet up it probably wouldn't have mattered much either way. Almost immediately I heard footsteps coming toward me and then a voice.

"Hey, are you alright?" It was Leon's voice.

"Yeah," I groaned, slowly getting back onto my feet. "Just a hard landing, that's all."

When I stood up and dusted myself off, I turned around and saw both Leon and Chance standing there in their super suits. It was great to see that they were taking this seriously enough to dress up in their suits. However, I quickly noticed that they were looking at me strangely. I forgot that this was the first time that they saw me in my super suit. Of course, since I just got it and was wearing it for the first time, then it shouldn't been all that strange to begin with. I also noticed that I was actually slightly thirsty. I knew that it couldn't be from the outside temperature as it was still very mild. I also knew that I wasn't overheated as my suit was still as cool as when I first put it on. I definitely had plenty to drink earlier. Could it possibly be that my flight powers actually dehydrated me a little? It was way too early to tell since I only flew just this one time. But if it was the case, then I might've just found my first weakness. It shouldn't really be all that surprising since all supers have at least one weakness. It didn't make me feel any better to think about it, though.

"Whoa, that's such a cool suit," Chance said. "How long have you had it?"

"I actually got it a few hours ago," I told him. "Mom thought that it would be a good idea if I got my own suit after what happened at that mall."

"That was a good idea," Leon agreed. "That's a really nice suit. I'm actually kind of jealous. I think it's awesome that you could actually fly as well. You never told us that you could do that."

"I'm still learning," I said. "I still haven't quite got the hang of it yet. Did you see me flying around up there before I came here?"

"No, we just saw you come in and then had that crappy landing. It's a good thing that you were close to the ground. I guess that any landing that you could walk away from is a good one." He chuckled after that.

"Don't be so hard on her," Chance said. "Flying is easy, but landing is hard. I still mess up sometimes." When he saw the look on my face he added, "I can change into several species of birds or insects. All of them have their own flight characteristics and sometimes I forget which form I'm in, which makes me totally blow the landing sometimes."

"I bet," I agreed.

"Speaking of birds, I see that's your symbol," Leon said. "Do you have a super name?"

"Yeah, it's Phoenicia," I said.

"Phoenicia, hmm," Chance said. "Wasn't that the name of some ancient country?"

"I don't know. I just picked it by combining phoenix with my mother's super name Electricia. She actually came up with the idea when she said that I could fly and shoot fire almost like a phoenix."

"I really like that name," Leon said. "It has a nice ring to it."

"Same here," Chance agreed.

"Thanks," I told them. "I'm actually curious how you two got your names. Care to tell me?"

"My name came to me the moment I found out about my powers," Leon replied. "I know that Chameleon's not the most original super name in the world. I'm still thinking if there's a way I could jazz it up a little since no one knows me at this point."

Chance then answered. "For me, well, you might think this is funny. I chose my name after watching Star Trek. There's this race called the changelings and it seemed to fit me well. Unlike Leon here, I'm actually proud of my name."

"Hey, I never said that I wasn't proud of my name," Leon argued. "I just think that it could use a little spice to it, that's all."

"How much spice could you put on Chameleon? Unless you were trying to cook a real one, that is." Chance laughed with that, and I even let out a giggle.

"Okay, I think it's time to get serious now," Leon cut in. "Let's go over those tables we went to before and you could tell us what's really going on."

"Sure," I said. "But first I need to get a drink of water. I'm really thirsty"

We went over to the drinking fountains where I then proceeded to get a drink. That water tasted really good right then. I thought that I wasn't all that thirsty, but I ended up drinking close to a full minute. Wow, I must've been really dehydrated.

"Jeez, drink much lately?" Chance said when I was done.

"Sorry, I must've been more thirsty than I thought," I told him. "Okay, let's go."

We went over to the picnic table area and sat down at the same table we went to a few days earlier. There was something very ironic about this, but I couldn't tell what it was. Maybe it was the fact that we were supers meeting at a picnic table in a public park to discuss detailed information. Inexperience to the extreme, I suppose. It was all we had at the moment. Besides, who's would be out here at this time of night, other than those out causing trouble?

"Okay, tell us what's going on," Leon said. "What happened earlier?"

I took a deep breath. "Okay, my dad hasn't been home since Friday morning. There were times when he did have to stay there at work longer than usual but never this long. After we got back from getting my suit earlier this evening and we saw that he still wasn't back, I guess that Mom got so worried that she called ATI. They told her that he was still working, but I could tell that she didn't believe it. Then, when I went outside for some air, our mysterious woman friend paid me a little visit, and…"

"Wait a sec," Leon interrupted. "That woman was at your house? Are you serious? What was she doing there? What did she look like?"

"I couldn't tell," I told him. "She blindfolded me before she told me anything. I was able to see that she had on either a black or dark colored glove before she blindfolded me, so I assumed that she was wearing her super suit."

"She actually blindfolded you?" Chance asked with some surprise in his voice. "Why did she do that?"

"I don't know," I replied. "I thought that was very strange myself. If she's supposed to be our ally, then it would make sense for her to tell us who she really is."

"What did she tell you?" Leon asked.

"She seemed to know what Etybonan means but didn't tell me.. She did say that it might have something to do with nanobots."

"Nanobots?" Leon asked with confusion. "What are nanobots?"

I started to answer, but Chance interrupted. "Wait a minute. I read in a newspaper article that ATI has been researching nanotechnology. They said that it's supposed to revolutionize the world in the future."

"Something like that," I said. "She said that they made a breakthrough and made these tiny robots that they call nanobots. She suspects that the CEO might try to use them to destroy Metroville."

"John Harriman?" Leon said. "But that doesn't make any sense. Why would he want do destroy Metroville? How are those nanobots supposed to destroy this city anyway?"

"She made a comparison to them and soldiers ants. The nanobots are supposed to eat through this city the same way that soldier ants eat through a rainforest."

"Wow," Chance said, clearly amazed. "That's just unbelievable. But it just doesn't sound remotely realistic. In order to destroy a city as big as Metroville, you would need billions of those robots. There's no way you could manufacture all those robots in such a short time, no matter how small they are." He then added. "Well, maybe if you could make them self-replicate, then maybe you could have a chance. It still would be incredibly difficult, though. The programming needed for that alone would be almost impossible to achieve, at least for now."

Chance seemed to know a lot about these types of things. In fact, I had a feeling that he might be able to figure out things that I know that I couldn't. I was going to ask him a question about that, but Leon then spoke to me.

"Let's move on to something else. You said that Edna called you and said that she picked up strange life readings from your mother and you suspect that she may be captured. Why do you say that? Who do you think captured her?"

"I don't know for sure," I admitted. "I don't even know where she went to begin with. I know that it had something to trying to find Dad, but that's it. I think that ATI itself might be the best starting point. As for Edna, I don't know why she called. She was asking for Dad, but then told me about that reading. She was very hesitant about that, too. I pretty much had to drag it out of her. From what she told me, Mom's not dead, more like knocked out or something. That's why I think that she was captured. I'm also thinking that if Edna's able to read that, then she might know where my mom is. So it might be a great idea if we went to her mansion first before we do anything else."

"I think so, too," Chance said. "Just about every super's suit has built-in sensors that monitor life signs and can pinpoint their exact location. It's supposed to be a safety feature that can alert other supers if they get hurt or something."

"Is there anything else that you could tell us?" Leon asked.

"I don't think so," I replied. "I think I told you everything."

We sat there in silence for a minute. I think that we were all thinking about what I said and see if we could learn anything new, not to mention if there was anything that we could do about it. I had the feeling that we were already in over our heads and we had yet to do anything. Suddenly this didn't sound like such a great idea after all. At that moment Chance stood up from the table and started talking.

"Well, I think it's obvious what we have to do," he said.

"It is?" Leon and I said at almost exactly the same time.

"Yep." He then started pacing. "We go to Edna's mansion and find out where your mother is. We then go to that place where she's being held prisoner and attempt to rescue her. And maybe in the process, we stop Project Etybonan in its tracks."

"What?" I almost yelled, jumping out of the seat. "What do you mean, try and stop Project Etybonan in its tracks? That's insane! How are we supposed to do that? We don't even know everything about it. What makes you think that we even can stop it? That sounds way out of our league. And how is it even related to the capturing of my mom? It doesn't make any sense."

"Actually, it makes perfect sense," Chance told me. "Think about it. Your dad hasn't been home since Friday morning, right? And you did say that he's one of the heads in the R&D department. That means that he probably had a huge part in ATI's nanotechnology program from the beginning, which means that he knows a lot about the way those nanobots work. If you're going to use them to try to destroy Metroville, then you wouldn't want anyone who knows about them running around loose, so you imprison them or maybe even something worse. I hope that's not the case. As for your mother, she was probably caught at the wrong place at the wrong time while looking for your dad. And you said that she still may be alive, which means that whoever has her didn't want to kill her, but just keep her out of the way for a while. See a coincidence there?"

I started to say something, but Leon cut in. "He's right. That is way too much a coincidence. They might actually be connected somehow. So I guess that if we do this, then we have to rescue both your parents and stop Project Etybonan. There's no other way around it either, I guess." He chuckled. "Well, I guess we'll get all the experience we need. Man, talk about getting on the fast track."

"Exactly," Chance said.

"I don't know," I said. "I was hoping that it wouldn't come to this. I just wanted to rescue my mom and maybe my dad and just hope that everything goes right. I wasn't expecting to jump headfirst into stopping Project Etybonan itself. It just seems too big for us alone to try and stop. Besides, it's such a big unknown. We still don't know much about it. We might be charging into something that could get all of us killed."

"I already thought of that," Chance said. "Like Leon said, we might not have a choice in this. If we do go to help your mother, then we might have to stop Etybonan at the same time. Believe me, I don't like it either, but we might not have a choice. Besides, we might be the only chance that your parents have."

I really wish that he didn't say that last line right then. I was already feeling guilty enough as it was and that just made it a lot worse. But I also knew that he was probably right about everything that he said. The disappearance of my dad, the capturing of my mom and Project Etybonan now seemed to be connected. It now looked impossible to rescue my parents without stopping Etybonan at the same time. God, why did everything suddenly become so complicated?

"Okay, it's now decision time," Chance said. "If we go, then there's a chance that we could die. However, if we actually pull this off and save Metroville, then we could be three of the greatest supers this city's ever seen. That would be quite a debut, don't you think? I'm game for doing this. How about you two?" He held out his right hand with the palm downward. "Are we in this for the long haul? United we stand?"

Neither of us did anything for a moment, then Leon placed his hand on top of his brother's. "What the hell," he said. "We only live once, right?"

They both then looked at me. I was still conflicted about this, but I couldn't bail out now, no matter how dangerous it might be. I had a feeling that I was going to regret this big time. With a sigh I placed my own hand on top of theirs.

"I still think that we're totally crazy for doing this," I said. I then added, "Then again, maybe deep down we're all crazy."

Leon looked at me and smiled. I found myself smiling back. And so there we were, probably the three most unlikely and inexperienced supers ever to attempt something like this. I wondered if we could actually do this or would we all end up dying. For a moment, I really didn't care about that. I knew that no matter what happened, we would've given it our best shot. Now, to the rescue…hopefully.