CHAPTER TWO
Saturday Morning, 0700
Saturday mornings in Apartment 12D followed a familiar pattern, a predictable pattern, formed so far in the past that not even Alex could remember a time when the pattern was any different. The familiarity of the pattern was comforting to the four children who had more happen to them in the past eight months than normal kids do in their entire childhood. All four Power children were in the living room, sitting in front of the TV watching Saturday morning kidvid. The volume on the TV was uncommonly low, but by mutual consent, no one complained -- because to engage in argument, or to increase the volume above the level set by the audio wizard Alex -- who had long ago mastered the exact setting that would allow the Power Parents to continue to sleep -- would risk awakening the adults asleep in the bedroom and thereby break the spell of Saturday Morning.
Alex, still in his underwear, sprawled on the couch with Katie laying against him in her night gown, using his stomach for a pillow. Jack was laying on his stomach, less than two feet from the 32-inch plasma color screen; and Julie was sitting on the love seat 90 degrees away from the main sofa with her feet tucked up under her. Scattered over the living room and on into the dining room and kitchen was the debris of breakfast, nearly an hour ago: bowls and spoons, a half empty box of Raisin Brand and another of Chocolate Sugar Bombs which Jack had managed to smuggle into a recent grocery cart while his mother was in the hospital was precariously balanced on the edge of the pass-thru that linked the kitchen and dining room. On the dining room table itself were milk spills, a gallon container of milk with a single swallow left in it, spilled sugar and jam smears all of which competed with a piece of overdone toast for space on the table.
On the TV, Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century was on. Alex liked the program especially and tried to mirror the values that Holmes embodied. During the first commercial break, the phone rang.
For an instant, no one moved, the phone rang again and the magic of Saturday morning was broken. It was the phone which almost always broke the spell, for it always infallibly awakened their father -- that was left over from the days working for Carmody at United Technologies when Dr. Power might be called at any hour, day or night to help solve some problem or other at the lab.
"Jack," Dr. Power's voice drifted out of the bedroom, "It's for you. It's Franklin."
"Franklin?" Jack asked in surprised delight, "Aw right!" and headed for the telephone on the kitchen wall. "Yo! Franklin, what's up, bro?"
While Jack was on the phone, Alex and Julie glanced at each other, rather wistfully - each silently realizing that for them, the Saturday Rituals were almost over. Cartoons were less and less important and more often than not the cartoons, with notable exceptions were rather silly. Each realized vaguely that for them, childhood was fast coming to an end ... to be replaced by the vast, scary, unknown territories called adolescence. By mutual silent agreement, both older Power kids left Katie to watch TV by herself and began to clean up the breakfast mess.
"Hey, guys!" Jack said excitedly, "Frank's gonna be coming to New York today!"
"Great!" Alex said. "We can have some fun today."
Mom came out of the bathroom in her bathrobe, "Hi kids. Up early, eh? What are you going to be doing today?"
"Franklin's coming!" Katie shouted excitedly.
"Yeah," Jack chimed in, "His mom is coming to New York to do some more packing at Four Freedom's Plaza, and so Franklin can play with us today. I want to go over to the Bradford School, so we can play with Kristoff too!"
"Well, I suppose that's okay," Margaret said. "You'll be playing in the park?"
"Could we maybe go to a movie this afternoon?" Julie asked.
"You're going to stick together? Not go off on your own?" Mom was looking directly at Alex as she said this.
"Don't worry, Mom," Alex said. "I'll keep them all in line, and make sure that everyone stays together."
"All right," Margaret said slowly. She still didn't like the idea of her babies being alone and unsupervised in a metroplex the size of Greater New York ... but both Alex and Julie were old enough to be on their own for limited periods of time, and Alex had always been ultra responsible when left in charge of his younger brother and sisters.
Margaret sighed, "All right, I guess it's okay ... oh my," she said in mock surprise, "A semi-clean kitchen. Have you kids had breakfast already?"
"Yes, Mom," Jack said. "Uh ... Mom ...?"
"Its Saturday, Mom," Julie finished.
"Yes, so?" Margaret teased the children.
"Aww, Mom, C'mon. It's allowance day!" Katie said shrilly.
"Oh, of course," Margaret grinned, "But I don't think that Accounting has sent the checks down yet...?"
"Mah-Muh!"
"All right, all right," Margaret laughed reaching for her purse.
"But I'm afraid I don't have the change. Alex I'm going to give you the $26.00 and you'll have to find someplace to break the $20.00 bill."
"Okay, Mom, don't worry, I'll take care of it," Alex said confidently. "I'll take the cellphone, and if anything happens I can call you," Alex took one the family's cellphones from the charger on the kitchen pass-thru. "Or if you need anything you can call me."
"We should get started for the AmTrak station," said Jack, looking at the kitchen clock. "There's only about twenty minutes until Frank and his Mom get here."
"Before you go, I want you all back here for lunch, so that you can tell me what movie you're planning to see - okay?"
"No problem," said Katie holding up her thumb and index finger in an "oh" for okay.
"And I guess it will be SIX for lunch? You guys, Franklin and Kristoff?"
"Errr ... maybe seven." Alex said. "I'm going to ask Allison to hang out with us."
"Okay," Mom laughed. "The more the merrier!"
This time it was Jack that held up the A-Okay symbol, he already had the other hand on the apartment door's handle.
Just outside of their apartment building, Alex called Allison. "Allison? Oh, hello Mrs. McCourt, this is Alex Power, can I please speak to Allison?"
Katie crossed her eyes, stuck out her tongue and used her right index finger to push up and flatten her nose. Alex ignored her.
"Hello," Allison's sweet voice filled Alex's ear.
"Hi Allison," Alex felt his heart rate quicken as he heard Allison's voice. "If you want ... I mean my brother and sisters and I are going to hang out in the Park, spend our allowances on candy and ice cream, go to a movie ... anyway I wanted to know if you wanna hang out with us."
"Sounds fun," Allison said. "When?"
"Right now. You remember Franklin Richards ... you met him when we fought Dr. Doom and I told you about Power Pack."
"Yeah, a cute little blond kid about five?"
"Yeah, that him. He's coming to New York to play with Jack, we're going over to the 74th Street Amtrak station to meet his train."
"Okay," Allison said. "I'll meet you there. I'll be about fifteen minutes."
"Great!" Alex said. "See you then." Alex closed the cellphone and slipped it into his windbreaker.
Sue Richards, a charter member of the premier superhero team known as the Fantastic Four, and her five-year-old son, Franklin were on the lower deck of car 1407 on the Boston to Washington DC local Amtrak service. Franklin was squirming in his seat, excited about coming to New York and playing with his best friend, Jack Power. Sue had her laptop on the pull down table in front of her, connected to the InterNet trying to catch up on the mountain of administrative chores keeping Fantastic Four Plaza in the black. Sure she and Reed had "officially" retired from the Fantastic Four, leaving the leadership of the team in the capable hands of Ben The Thing Grimm. But Ben was a no nonsense action guy, not a businessman.
He lived by the motto: "It's Clobbering Time" -- which was exactly what the Fantastic Four needed when fighting for Truth, Justice and the American Way against foes like Dr. Doom, Galactus or the Ga'ha'ould. But he was helpless as a baby with the facts and figures of the business end of things that allowed the Fantastic Four to operate with a budget larger than most foreign nations. That was where Sue's business sense came in. Retired she might be, but she still had to handle the books for the Fantastic Four as the superhero team's CFO. She had also come to Manhattan to oversee the packing and trans shipment of several of Reed's pet projects he had left when they moved to Connecticut. But now that his new company, Future Dynamics, had become a reality in the quiet backwoods of rural Connecticut, he wanted several of the alien technological trophies he had collected over the past decade.
The passenger ramp to the AMTRAK station on 74th Street and Central Park West was an arch of concrete, permaplast and steel that rose first in a graceful spiral on the west side of Central Park West, and then ten meters above the ground stretched across the seventy meter expanse of Central Park West, the sidewalks and park wall to the complex of buildings that was the AmTrak station proper. The 74th Street Station was one of a half dozen scattered over Manhattan Island, and like the others, it shared these facilities with MTD busses, other maglev rail transports and through an escalator, even to the subways some 30 meters below street level. The four Power children ran up the stairs two at a time, even Katie, who was extraordinarily proud of the achievement.
The Boston/Washington AMTRAK Local service train decelerated into the 74th street station and glided to an easy, computer controlled stop only inches away from the concrete and steel passenger ramp. This AMTRAK maglev train glinted gold and white in the morning sun, its length celebrating the 225th year of the United States Postal Service. On the passenger ramp, four anxious children awaited the arrival of their friend, Franklin Richards, whom they had not seen in nearly three weeks.
"There they ARE!" Jack shouted and began to muscle his way through the crowd, with the other Power children following in his wake. It was slow going because of an unusually heavy crowd of commuters for a Saturday, but slowly they began to make headway toward Franklin and his mother, Sue Richards, one of the founding members of the Fantastic Four. A crowd of interested passerby's and celebrity hunters had already started to form around the Invisible Woman.
"Franklin!" Jack shouted above the general commotion of the crowd. "Yo! Frank!"
"Jack!" The five-year-old squealed with unrepressed joy, and immediately used a judo move that Johnny Storm the Human Torch had taught him to break his mother's hold on his skinny wrist.
"No, Franklin ... wait ..." Sue started to say, just as a tabloid photographer took a flash picture, using a neon-laser flash at point blank range.
"Wha -?" The Invisible Woman reacted instinctively and her personal forcefield came into existence, roughly jostling some of the more rude spectators who happened to be close enough to be within the range of the forcefield.
"Look," Someone in the crowd shouted, "She's gone atomic."
"How can you tell?"
"By the pale yellow glow?"
"...That's her Force Shield!"
"...Must be villains near."
"...Or monsters!"
"I don't like the looks of this ..."
"Yeah, I think you're right, Morton..."
Meanwhile, Franklin, who at approximately waist high to the adults around him was bobbing and weaving through the crowd towards Jack and Katie who were also small enough to dart between the adults in a zigzag course that their older brother and sister had absolutely no hope of following.
Suddenly an enormous orange scaled hand reached out of the crowd and expertly snatched Franklin up by the back of his jacket and shirt, lifting him not quite off his feet, but denying him the traction he needed for forward mobility.
"S'OKAY, SUZY!" A giant basso profundo voice echoed across the AMTRAK concourse. "I gott'em."
"Wow!"
"LOOK!"
"The Thing!"
"Can I have your autograph, Mr. Grimm?"
Jack and Katie came to a halt in front of the 7'8" mutant known to the world as the Thing.
"Well, well! It's little Jack Power, and that lil cutie-pie, Katie."
"Let go, Unca Benjamin -" Franklin said, distinctly upset about being held immobile by the Thing.
"Oh -- uh, yeah, sorry." Franklin was released from the powerful grip, just as Sue Richards made her way through the crowd from one side and Alex and Julie arrived from the other.
"Franklin Benjamin Richards!"
Uh-oh Franklin thought, My whole name ... I'm in trouble!
" ... what do you mean by running off into this crowd like that?"
"I'm sorry, Mommy, it's just that it's been so long since I've seen Jack..."
"It was my fault too, Mrs. Richards," Jack said, shuffling his feet. "It's been a long time since Frank and I got to play."
"Aww, c'mon, Suzie," Ben said. "The kid's just excited. And after all, nothing happened."
"Yes Ben, nothing happened ... THIS time! But he's only five..."
Sue Richards took a deep breath and sighed. "All right Franklin but this is not over yet. We are going to have a long talk about this on the train going home tonight. Understood?"
"Yes, Mommy."
"Well, you about ready to go, Suzie?" Ben asked. "I've got the limo over in the parking lot on 75th Street."
"All right, Ben," Sue said. "Just a minute, I want to talk to Alex."
"Yes, Mrs. Richards?" Alex said.
"What are you guys gonna do today?"
"Well, we were just going to hang around some ..."
"...And go to the movies this afternoon," added Katie.
Sue paused to consider and made a decision. "Okay. Now Alex, we have to catch the Boston Local at 7:00 p.m. back to Stamford."
"That's okay, Mrs. Richards," Alex said. "We have to be home before dark, so we'll be back at our apartment before six o'clock."
Sue looked relieved. "That's good. Here's $20.00 for Franklin's share of expenses today ... is that going to be enough?"
"Plenty," Alex assured her.
"All right, and then I'll come pick up Franklin at your apartment at 6:30 this evening," Sue said reaching out for her son. "C'mere, kiddo and give me a kiss."
The five-year-old put his arms around his mother's neck and kissed her.
"Okay, Ben, let's get airborne, I gotta get about a ton of stuff sorted and ready for the Truck from Future Dynamics to pick up on Monday." Sue Richards let a huge grin consume her face and added: "Plus I've gotta balance your checkbook. I swear Ben, you must have been asleep in class when they were trying to teach you ..."
"All the time, Suzie," Ben said, chuckling. He stepped aside and doffed the huge slouch hat that he invariably wore in public.
"Bye, Mom!" Franklyn hollered.
"Bye, Mrs. Richards," the Power children chorused.
"C'mon," Jack said tugging at his older brother, "We've gotta find some place to cash that $20.00 bill. I want my $5.00."
"Yeah," Katie echoed, "And I want MY allowance AND a candy bar!"
The five kids walked through the park toward the eastern edge and the gate at 72nd Street and Fifth Avenue. As they approached the park exit, Alex spotted Allison just entering the park.
"Hey Allison," Alex shouted, waving his hand over his head. "Over here!"
Allison spotted Alex and immediately ran over. "Alex! I'm really glad you invited me to spend the day with you." She threw her arms around Alex and kissed him on the check. The result from the younger kids was predictable, Jack, Katie and Franklin all fell on the ground laughing, while Julie just stood by smiling.
Alex led Allison over to a low retaining wall and the two sat down.
"Allison," Alex began, "what would you think about formally joining Power Pack?"
Allison was silent for a minute. "I'm flattered Alex. I'd love to join Power Pack. But you guys all have super powers ... I don't."
Julie and the others had crowded around Alex and Allison.
"But Allison," Julie said. "You're the best gymnast in class. And Black Widow doesn't have a super powers, she's just really athletic ... like you."
"And Danger Woman doesn't have any super powers ..." Katie started.
"That's because she's not real," Jack said.
Katie stuck her tongue out at Jack. "She is too real."
"C'mon, Allison," Julie said. "You're the only one who can keep Mr. Smart Alex in line. We need you."
"Mr.. Smart Alex?" Allison laughed.
"YOU probably haven't heard our brother lecture on Science," Julie laughed. "He gets it from our Dad."
"Do ... do you guys really think I can help?" Allison asked.
"Of course!" Julie said. "We only use our Kymellian Powers in an emergency. Most of the stuff we do is just be in the right place at the right time, you know like when we were out helping the fire department during that huge storm -- when you helped us, you didn't need super powers then."
Allison brightened up immediately. "Then I really could do this -- right?"
Alex put an arm around Allison's shoulders and the twelve-year-old girl leaned against him. "Of course you can. And most of the time we have a really good time."
"And we get to sneak out at night sometimes," Katie said.
A mischievous grin spread over Allison's face. "That does sound like fun. And it would not be hard. My mom and dad have to get up early, so they go to bed early. By 11pm they're asleep, and then it would take a fire to wake them. As long as I made sure I was home by 5am I could do that too."
Franklin came over to Allison and shyly took her hand. "Are you going to join Power Pack?"
"Looks like it," Allison laughed.
"Hooray for the sixth member of Power Pack," Jack and Franklin cheered together. "Hey!" Jack said, "If get one more kid to join, we can be the Magnificent Seven!"
Alex was very glad to see his little brother accept Allison, it would be hell if Jack had still been jealous. Alex made a mental note to spend more time with Jack doing "guy-things" that Jack liked.
Katie suddenly exclaimed: "Hey! I forgot. I've got a surprise for you guys."
"What kind of surprise?" asked Julie, a vague feeling of apprehension coming over her.
"Well, you know how Alex is always saying that we should practice with our powers and get really good at using them?"
"Yeah?"
"And how Jack has been able to develop a couple of new ways to use the gravity power?"
"Yeah," Jack bragged, "Like my patented super-gee megapunch."
"Uh-huh," Katie agreed. "Well, I've got a new way to use MY power."
"What do you mean?" asked Alex and Julie nearly in unison with more than a little foreboding. Katie's innovations of things almost always turned into disasters.
"Watch!" Katie said before anyone could veto her demonstration. The youngest Power child took two steps, and then gave a little hop and seemingly instantly was across the thirty meters separating the children from the gate at 72nd Street. The faint buzz of ionized air molecules and the ephemeral rainbow effect that marked Katie's use of the Kymellian flight power was still there to the practiced eyes and ears of Power Pack. The difference was Katie had not left the ground.
Instantly, the five remaining members of Power Pack ran after Katie, rejoining her seconds later at the gate.
"Aww right, KATIE!" Jack roared with unabashed admiration for his little sister's accomplishment. "Just like the Flash in the comics!"
"That's where I got the idea from," Katie said grinning at them.
"Absolutely beautiful," Julie said.
"Katie, that was fantastic," Allison said hugging the almost six-year-old.
"Very interesting," said Alex, clasping his hands behind his back, Vulcan-like. Franklin was just speechless, hero-worship obvious in his eyes.
"See, I told you I'd found a new way to use my power!" Katie crowed.
"Yeah," Alex said.
"But not so loud!" Julie said softly, "We haven't even got up the courage to tell Mom and Dad yet ... you wanna broadcast the fact that we're superheroes to the world?"
"Uh, no. Not really ..." Katie said softly.
"Are you gonna give people rides?" Asked Franklin hopefully, grabbing hold of Katie's hand.
"Oooff!" Katie grunted giving a tug on Franklin's hand. "I guess not unless Jack degravitates you. I'm not strong enough to lift you, and you cause too much drag when you're just standing here like this. C'mon, Jack. Degravitate Franklin so that I can see if I can pull him and you allong.
"Okay," Jack began eagerly.
"Hold it, you guys," Alex said. "This is a controlled area ... Central Park; a lot of weird things happen here, that's true, but not THAT weird. No public demonstrations of our powers. 'Nuff said."
"Alex's right," Franklin said. "We'de better find some place that's more private."
"Yeah, okay," Jack said, a little disappointed, "but I first want to get that $20.00 bill broken, so that we can get our allowance!"
"Yeah," Katie said, "Look, there's a 31 Flavors. I want ice cream.
Alex looked at Allison and shrugged, a what're'ya gonna do? look on his face. Allison smiled and put her hand in Alex's and they followed the four younger kids running toward the ice cream shoppe.
To Be Continued