Chapter 3: Weather Witch

Previously: "V...I don't think Aly's just controlling electricity and water...I think she can control the weather!"
The partners were reveling in their discovery when suddenly the door they were pressed against swung inward and open. With a last startled glance at one another, Richie and Virgil were pitched forth onto the floor...right at Aly's feet. A small yelp escaped the girl's lips as she jumped back, staring at the two disheveled boys in a heap on the threshold of her new room. Blinking stupidly for a moment, Aly realized that she was still glowing with a faint blue aura...or at least, her hands were. Glancing down at them, she swiftly tucked them behind her back – but not so fast as to go unnoticed by Richie and Virgil. Stumbling back into the safety of her domicile, Aly slammed the door inches from their faces, retreating behind it.

Slumping down against the door as she trembled with fear, Aly listened to Virgil trying to discreetly bang on the door and ask for admittance at the same time without alerting Sharon or his Pops. The girl's heart pounded against her ribs as her mind instinctively went over what she did wrong. She'd used her power, that's what went wrong. Here her brother had made her promise never to use her powers once she got to her new home, and Aly had already blown it. After a moment, there was silence. Pausing in her subconscious weeping, Aly sniffled softly as she pressed her ear to the door - nothing. With a shaky sigh, she leant her head against the door, only to hear a soft voice speaking to her from the other side – Richie. Instantly, her heart began to pound once more.

"Aly...Aly come on, open the door. Nobody's going to hurt you, nobody's going to send you away. We just want to talk to you..."

Swallowing the lump of fear in her throat, Aly sat up straight and wiped the tears fiercely away, cursing at herself for even shedding one tear in her new home. Slowly, she turned and opened the door, looking up at the concerned faces of the two boys standing in the doorway as she asked them a question so softly she wasn't even certain they could hear it.

"You promise you won't tell anyone?"

Virgil and Richie smiled at her and nodded as Aly watched her foster brother slip past her into the room. Richie offered her a hand as she stood shakily, wandering unaided over to her bed. Sitting down, she instantly seemed to curl into a ball, pulling her knees to her chest and resting her chin on them. With a deep sigh, she cast her stormy blue-gray gaze onto the pair. In a soft voice still raw from her crying, she murmured a single sentence.

"I'm...well, my real brother always called me the 'Weather Witch.' It's a nickname that's stuck since I first got my powers.

"When was that?" Virgil asked softly, his dark gaze intent on her face.

Aly looked down and away as she chewed her lip in thought. What was it, almost two years, now? With a little shrug, she replied.

"I don't really remember. It feels like I've had some form of these powers since forever, but they started kicking in full blast after I turned twelve. Things kind of went...haywire, after that."

"Haywire? What do you mean?" Virgil asked, narrowing his eyes in the manner of someone scrutinizing another. His look made Aly nervous, and for a moment, she was unable to continue. Then that all-too-welcome gentle tone rang out nearby.

"You couldn't fully control your powers..." Richie murmured, seeming to read the look on Aly's face. Nodding, she glanced down and away, unable to meet their gazes now. How to explain? How to explain that she still couldn't control her powers? That when she tried, they only worked the way she wanted them fifty percent of the time?

"So...how do your powers work? Do you control all weather, or just in a limited area, like your general vicinity?" Richie asked. Aly thought she had never been so glad to be asked a question about her powers in her life.

"Yeah...I can control the immediate weather around me...and sometimes it likes to change on its own to match my emotions. It's not like I could turn the entire world into a...a gigantic snowstorm, or anything! It doesn't work that way."

Richie nodded sagely, his blue eyes bright as he calculated the information he was given. Aly inwardly laughed, thinking how he reminded her of a computer or a machine when that look was on his face, like cogs were turning in his mind...

"You have power over the weather of Dakota, then, not the entire state, or even the nation?"

Nodding, she smirked dryly, deciding to give a little example of her powers to appease further questioning. Flicking her gaze briefly skyward, she said an internal prayer that she wouldn't loose control as she slipped into the reservoir within her of her power. Holding her hands out, she closed her eyes as they began to emit a soft blue glow. Cupping her palms gently together, she twisted her hands slightly and drew them apart. When she opened her eyes, a small tornado whirled in place on her left palm as she controlled it with her right, moving her fingers in clockwise motions. Just as quickly as Aly created her twister, she pressed her palms together and collapsed it. Glancing up at Richie, sprawled on the floor, and Virgil, sitting backwards on her desk chair, she smiled slightly, embarrassed. The two stared at her, amazed, before Richie whistled low in wonder and Virgil shook his head with a broad grin on his features. Laughing at their reactions, Aly felt a blush creeping up on her pale cheeks.

"Aw, c'mon...I'm sure you two have seen much cooler stuff than this before."

Richie and Virgil exchanged a panicked glance before Aly, confused, elaborated for them.

"I was watching the news when I was unpacking...Dakota has a major problem with meta-humans, doesn't it? What did it call them...? Oh yeah – Bang Babies."

Glancing around conspiratorially, Aly lowered her voice as she murmured to them with an earnest look in her eye.

"Have you two ever met one? I mean, are there a lot of them around here? ...Maybe one like me?"

Richie opened his mouth to tell the truth, but Virgil beat him to it, nodding wisely as he replied.

"Oh sure – there are tons of Bang Babies around here...You have to be careful, though, because not all of them are good. But Dakota has its share of heroes – Take Static, for instance...or Gear."

Casting a sly glance at Richie, Virgil smirked as he saw the ecstatic look on Aly's face. Despite whatever the two boys had had planned for that night, Virgil knew that tonight Gear and Static were going to be giving Aly the grand tour of Dakota.

A sudden rapid knock on the door made all three teens turn towards the door expectantly. When Virgil glanced inquisitively back towards Aly, she blushed and stammered to her visitor: "C-come in!"

The door instantly swung open, revealing Sharon as she began to chatter on about hanging out at the mall before realizing that Richie and Virgil were in the room as well. Staring at them for a moment, she glanced up at Aly, and noticing her "little sister"'s eyes, red and puffy from crying, her impassive look turned to a fiery glare.

"Did they make you cry?" She demanded in such a tone that Aly was almost afraid to answer. Summoning her courage, she fumbled out a response.

"No! Well, not exactly...I mean..." She stammered, trying to explain. Before she had the chance to, however, Sharon had booted the boys out of the room despite their protests. Striding over to where Aly sat, she put a comforting arm over the younger girl's thin shoulders and smiled in a motherly, older sister-esque way. Her amber orbs sparkled as she spoke.

"Hey...why don't we get out of here for a while? You're mostly unpacked, and you should get out for a little fun before the day's over. Why don't you come with me to the mall? We can hang out and you can check out the stores? What do you say?"

Aly paused, blinking uncertainly. Could she trust herself to remain calm in a place with so many people? A little voice in her mind that she had been careful never to tell her therapist about reminded her that she had survived a plane ride without making the engine explode or electrocuting another passenger. So why couldn't she handle a little mall outing? After a moment, a broad grin spread over her face as she snagged a small blue mini-backpack from her bedside table and tugged Sharon up towards the door with her.

"Let's go!"

An hour later, the two "sisters" were walking through the mall, sipping on lemonade and snacking on soft pretzels bought from a cart on the lower level of the mall. Aly's keen eyes darted around, picking up the subtle differences between this mall and others she had been to over the years. A few small shopping bags of odds and ends (mainly blouses and even a – le gasp! – Calf-length silken skirt with a delicate floral print, were clutched in her hand as well as Sharon's. Glancing up at her foster sister, Aly felt a sense of belonging that hadn't been hers since she had arrived. Sharon treated her like an equal, like she was only maybe a year or so younger than the three or four years that separated them. It was a feeling all too welcomed by both. Since their meeting at the airport, they'd been calling each other "Big Sis" and "Little Sis" as if to assure themselves that this was real, not just a fantasy or day dream on the verge of slipping past their fingers.

As the pair sat down to finish eating, Aly glanced at an electronics store nearby where the news was playing again. Eyes bright, she watched two masked superheroes fighting a flaming teen. Sharon, seeing the focal point of her foster sibling's interest, leaned close to Aly's ear to murmur the names of both the heroes and their nemesis. The pyromaniac was called Hotstreak, and the heroes...Static and Gear. Aly's eyes widened as she recognized the names that Virgil had told her. Instinctively, she memorized their faces as best she could...though she never got a clear glimpse of them around the masks. Promising herself that one day she would meet them, Aly turned her attention back towards Sharon as the older girl began to give a little lecture on Bang Babies.

"...Some of them are really good, you know? Like Static and Gear. They're some of the only ones who protect this city from the evil meta-humans–"

"Sharon, I ought to tell you..." Aly began, suddenly uncomfortable. Maybe she'd better get the truth into the clear before the girl went any further into her tirade.

"–but I seriously think life would be easier without them. I mean, yeah they save us and all, but we wouldn't need them if there weren't super powered villains either, would we?"

At this point, Aly's eyes had widened again, but she hid her shock by taking a sip of her drink, trying to block the words from her mind. Here she was about to trust Sharon with her darkest secret. Suddenly, the girl stopped and faced Aly, a cordial smile on her features, as if she'd been merely commenting on the weather, not ranting about Bang Babies.

"I'm sorry, Little Sis; did you want to tell me something?"

Slowly, Aly shook her head, swallowing her fear. So the secret would remain a secret a while longer...

"Nothing, Sis, nothing at all..."

Author Notes: A big thanks goes out to my second reviewer Siberian-Tigress! I'm really glad that you liked the idea for Skye - she was actually first created to be part of a Teen Titans fanfic which I'm going to start updating soon. Thanks again for your review - It really brightened my day. The rest of my readers, please review if you have the chance - your input is greatly appreciated. Depending on my homework and test level, I'll try to get a chapter up at least every two days, perhaps every day if I can. Until then, keep watching for more updates! -salutes-