Chapter 14: Party Crashers

We flashed back to the infirmary (did Mrs. Kennedy always assume we'd only ever have to retreat, plus be mortally wounded?), and Fury contacted me again.

"Is everyone alright?" he asked us. "Any broken bones, bruises, cellular instability?"

"Touche, Fury," I responded. "And no, we're all good, but The Serpent Society, they were way too strong and fast for it to be considered natural, Doom obviously has the stone Hercules in his camp."

Fury was silent for a moment, guess even he was trying to pretend that not even one of the stones could be in Doom's hands.

"The possibility of getting all the stones before Doom got even one, that was a slim to none. The important thing here, is that you saved thousands of lives, nobody got hurt, and we know more about Doom's progress in the hunt. Good job Delta Force, you've earned that dance tonight, hit the showers or whatever, and get ready, you'll have to be in the air by 7:30."

With that, Fury hung up, and we all powered down out of our battle suits.

"So," Grant said. "What now?"

"Now," said Allyson. "You two get showered and cleaned up. Grant, slick your hair back before you get dressed, the whole farm boy hair style will do you no favors tonight. If you two have time, go ahead and eat something, but leave me alone until 7, I need all the time I can get to ready myself."

This time, even I didn't argue, girls take forever to get ready for fancy party events (or at least from what i've heard). Grant, Allyson, and I took the elevator to our floors, and I immediately got in the shower once I got to my room (twice in one day, a new record). After a good shower, and a change into some shorts and a yellow T-shirt, I headed down to Grant's room, and knocked on the door.

"What up bro?" he asked me as he opened the door.

"Nothin'," I said. "Just bored, wanna watch some TV or something?"

"Sure, come on in."

I spread out on his recliner chair, and flipped the TV to some Law & Order as Grant got changed into his PJ's (he was still wearing his bathrobe when he let me in).

"Law & Order huh?" he asked me as he sat in the beanbag chair. "Not bad."

"Dude, this show rocks," I said.

"It did, back when Stabler was still a part of it."

"Well, you're not wrong there, but the show still kicks ass."

"Whatever helps you tune in every week."

We watched some Law & Order, Spongebob, Drake & Josh, and a bunch of other stuff until it was time for dinner. We ate a little bit, talked for 30 minutes, and then went our separate ways to get ready for the ball; true to her word, Allyson did not make an appearance for chow. I went back to my room, and found all of the clothes I bought, hung up on my clothes rack. Maybe they were teleported in, or maybe Coulson had someone drop them off, but as long as I had them ready to go, none of the options mattered. I quickly went to work, changing out of my shorts and shirt, brushing my teeth, spraying on some cologne, and putting my suit on from the ground up. I could've done it all at super speed, but I needed to burn some time anyway; besides, I wasn't all that great at putting on suits, it was better to take it slow. I got as far as putting on my pants, socks, shirt, shoes and vest, before I realized two things. A: I didn't have a rubber band to put my hair back. B: I didn't know jack $#!+ about putting on a tie. I was able to solve the first problem easy enough. At the bottom of the bag, there was this extra strip of red and black cloth. It wasn't much, but it was big enough to wrap around my dreads, and small enough to where it wouldn't be visible after I put it on, and most important, flexible enough to work as a makeshift rubber band. I took care of the problem in about 10 seconds, and stopped for a moment to look myself in the mirror. I looked good, especially with my hair back (although the blue eyes did throw off the color scheme a little bit). Now, all I had left was to get this damn tie around my neck. I didn't know how to do it, and I wasn't about to let Allyson know I wasn't capable enough to work a tie, so I went straight to Grant's room.

"Hey bro," Grant said, his hair already slicked back, wearing everything but his suit jacket. "What's up?"

"I need help," I said. "Don't know how to put on a tie, don't laugh or i'll zap you, and are you aware that I have a name?"

"Won't laugh, get in here, and are you aware that I don't give a damn?"

We stared each other down, trying to be intimidating, but we ended up laughing uncontrollably. Honestly, as long as it wasn't insulting, I didn't care what he called me. Grant quickly fastened the tie around my neck (yeah, we kept it at a distance, get over it we're dudes), and went back to putting on the rest of his suit, admiring the way he looked in his fedora.

"Why don't you take a picture?" I teased him. "That way you'll have someone to spend the night with."

"Good idea," he said. "Selfie time, get over here!"

Ok, that was unexpected, but I still laughed and posed with my friend for a selfie (which he immediately put on Instagram and Facebook).

"Alright," he said looking at his watch. "It's 7:05, what do you wanna do for 25 minutes?"

"I dunno," I shrugged. "Watch more TV?"

"We've watched enough TV, and as mature young adults, it is our responsibility to….f*(# it, what's on Cartoon Network?"

We laughed, flipped the TV to a random episode of Regular Show, and killed 15 minutes. Afterwards, we made our way to Allyson's room.

"Dude!" Grant said suddenly on the elevator. "Tell me you got her flowers or something!"

"What?" I asked him. "Why?"

"Officially, this is your first date!" he continued. "To a high profile Christmas party no less, tell me you at least have some all-star game plan to make this night go super amazing!"

"Well….I was kinda banking on the idea that we'd hit it off, have some fun, and get to know each other better. Is that wrong?"

"No it's not wrong, in fact it's a solid base plan. But come on Jason, you can't just be basic with this, lay down some game, or strategy, charisma, something!"

"Dude, I have game! It's just subtle, more refined. I'd rather stick with the plan of getting to know a girl, and then working my way up from there."

"That's how you get friend zoned."

"That is so not how it-"

Grant held up a hand, and sushed me real quick. My instinct at a first was to zap him to Kingdom Come, but then when I looked over and saw that we were at Allyson's room, I understood. He stepped to the side, gestured for me to go on, and I knocked on Allyson's door.

"Just a second!" she called out.

In actuality, it was almost 20 seconds before she opened the door, but God was it worth it. You already know how the dress looks, so I won't over explain that to you, but like I said at the store, Allyson was the one that brought it all together. Her hair was in long blonde curls reaching just past her shoulders. She was wearing a light shade of makeup that made her face pop (although she was just as beautiful without it). She had red eyeshadow on, glitter in her hair, and dark red lipstick that almost made me spark (seriously, if I get excited, I spark).

"Wow," I said plainly, almost at a loss for words. "You are absolutely breathtaking."

"Thanks," she said, blushing so hard, her face was almost as red as her dress. "You're no stranger to good looks either."

I blushed to, kinda getting tongue tied until Grant saved me with his third wheeling.

"Don't forget ya boy over here," he said. "Don't get me wrong Allyson, you're hot, and Jason looks magazine cover material, but i'm on a whole other level of sexy, it's almost unfair."

We all laughed, and Grant called for yet another selfie.

"Ok then," Allyson said. "Shall we get going?"

"Hold up," Grant said. "Everyone got their morpher on them?"

"Yeah," I said, pulling my jacket sleeve to show him.

Allyson on the other hand, was very interested in the ceiling all of a sudden.

"Allyson?" Grant and I asked her.

"Ok!" she admitted. "I left it on the counter, but come on guys, we're going to a ball, we won't need them anyway!"

"Hero 101," Grant said. "Always be ready to spring into action at any given moment."

"But it'll look weird bulging from my gloves."

"I'll hold onto it then," I said. "But Grant's right, we should hold on to our morphers, just in case."

Allyson didn't like the idea of our one night out getting ruined by work, but she at least resigned to the notion of letting me hold on to her morpher (yeah that's official too, but that was already a thing). Afterwards, I took her arm in mine (and Grant says I don't have game), and the two of us, and Grant, made our way to the deck of the Helicarrier.

Honestly, we had to be somewhere close to the northeast, because it was as cold as $#!+ up here. My teeth were chattering, and even though I played it off as best as I could, I was freezing my ass off. Yet Grant and Allyson were just fine.

"How come you guys aren't freezing?" I asked them through chattering teeth.

"I dunno," Grant shrugged. "Lately, extreme cold or heat dosen't really bother me. Makes sense considering I can withstand the heat of the earth's core, I could probably take a dip in the Antarctic Ocean and still be fine."

"Same here," Allyson said. "I'm basically a living solar battery. I don't get to hot, and I have way too much solar energy stored in me to ever get cold. But if you're cold Jason, I can help you there."

She pressed a finger to my head, swept it down quickly, and I felt a wave of heat flow through me; all of a sudden, I wasn't cold anymore.

"Why didn't you do that before?" I asked her, laughing and hugging her.

"You didn't ask," she replied smartly.

"Fair enough."

The three of us waited for another three minutes, before we heard the familiar sound of propulsion jets in the air. We were expecting Coulson to show up in his flying mini-and again, but were totally surprised to see him pull up in a flying limo (totally sweet!).

"Looking good you guys," he told us as we climbed into the back seat. "Definitely worth the hour and a half it took you to pick out the clothes."

"Actually," Allyson said as we buckled up. "I picked them all out-"

"Not the dress!" Grant said through a cough.

We both laughed, while Allyson slumped back into her seat, rolling her eyes and pouting slightly. Coulson laughed a little bit too, and after a few seconds of prep, he mashed the gas, and we went flying to New York supersonic style. We must have been closer to New York than last time, cuz it only took us about ten minutes to get there. However, since we couldn't find a good place to land and become visible, we sacrificed convenience to landed in a random alley, and drove the rest of the way (which ate up the rest of the time in full). When we got there, my heart nearly stopped. See, I didn't really pay attention to the address of the party, and even if I did, I probably wouldn't know where we were going. So I was surprised (and mortified), when we pulled up at my school; you know, the one where I almost killed a guy!? Grant, Allyson, and I got out of the car, Coulson drove off, saying he'd be back to pick us up at 12, and I was left to deal with the pounding of my heart.

"Jason?" Allyson asked me, catching on to the fact that I was really, really stiff all of a sudden. "What's wrong?"

"Huh?" I asked her, trying to play it of. "Oh, nothing, just chilly again."

Stupid lie, not even a good one.

"Jason," Allyson warned me. "What did we say about keeping us in the dark?"

I sighed. Either way, this might come up later on tonight, might as well own up.

"Long story short," I started. "This is my school."

She looked confused for a bit, but the lights quickly came on.

"You mean-" she started.

"Yep." I cut her off.

"Does everybody here know?"

"Doubt it, I don't recognize any of the people in line. Besides, only a handful of the people who go to school here are rich, there would only be about 20 people who know me here at worst."

"But you're sure this won't be a problem, people won't try to mess with you, right?"

Did I detect a sense of defensiveness in her voice? This was her night, and she was more concerned with my well being, than a once in a lifetime (as far as we were concerned, we weren't even supposed to be here) night she had worked so hard to get Grant, me, and herself ready for. I kinda swooned a bit in my mind.

"Probably not," I said. "I'll barely be visible in the crowd anyway."

Allyson scanned my eyes, searching for any sign of untruthfulness, but conceded to the fact that I was being honest, or at least brave.

"Ok," she sighed. "But don't try and hide things from me, if we need to leave, i'm fine with that."

We waited behind Grant in a line that took five minutes for us to get through. Of course we had to pass through the security guards who took our tickets, pass through metal detectors, and walk through the school buss walkway, which led through the school's back entrance. We walked through the right turn just behind the cafeteria, and walked through another long hallway that spilled out into the gym (figures). I gotta say though, the setup looked fantastic. Red, green and white drapes dominated the ceiling in a web of Christmas colors. Strobe lights flashed in every direction, and yes, Allyson's rhinestone embedded dress caught the light just right. Half of the area was occupied by dozens of round tables covered with white cloth. The other half was empty, obviously for dancing. To the immediate left of the gym, was a super long table (It stretched from the gym entrance, to the gym exit doors). I didn't see everything on it, but I did see a several farms worth of cooked cows, fancy fruit, a $#!+ ton of fancy looking bread rolls, and a bunch of large gold platters covering God knows how many more delicious looking food; not to mention the chocolate and caramel fountains. There were a good bit of adult chaperones scattered around the place, but I could tell they were more laxed about their job; as long as no fights broke out, they were probably just here for show.

It looked like this first part of the evening was purely for meet n' greet/show n' tell, and Allyson and Grant were not shy about showing off. Grant immediately broke away from Allyson and I, and started talking (flirting) with the first attractive brunette in a white dress that he could find; Allyson had other plans for us.

"How many girls have you taken to a dance/ball?" she asked me over the blare of cheesy holiday music.

"You'd be my first," I responded.

"Ok then, well use that big brain of yours to process this. Walk up to people, introduce us, and let me handle the rest of the pleasantries. Don't be too stiff, don't death glare anyone, and above all, don't electrocute anybody, even if they're annoying."

"Got it, let's get to work."

For the next 20 minutes, I was subject to introducing myself and Allyson to people I didn't know, barely cared about, and had no interest in getting to know (what? It's not like I would see them again). It would always be me doing about a minute of talking, the usual where are you from, and how'd you get invited, questions, and of course, where'd you get that suit/dress? In the exact order of the questions: NYC/Alabama, we have our connections, and I just let Allyson do the talking when it came to our clothes. While she was talking, I smiled and nodded, even laughing and contributing to the stories of how we picked out our clothes (which the girls either loved, or hated because they didn't have them). However, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed something troubling. Adrian Lucas, Clark Morris, and Henry Rogers; aka, a few of the only other rich kids that went to my school, the guys who saw blast Crosby into the floor. My heart rate started to increase a little, but I told myself to stay cool. The lighting in the room wasn't good enough for a person to recognize faces, besides, there were hundreds of kids shuffling around in here. As long as I kept my cool, I could probably avoid them the whole night, and maybe, just maybe, I wouldn't have to bring down the wrath of the sky on these losers. So yeah, I kept my cool, and rolled with the rest of the formalities (actually paying attention to, and being more friendly to the new faces) until the announcer told everyone to take their seats at the banquet tables. Allyson, Grant, and I sat at the same table, along with the brunette with the white dress (who was giving Grant googly eyes), and her date (who was both non caring, but at the same time, pissed at Grant's existence).

"Hello esteemed guests!" said some blond discount Leo Dicaprio through his microphone. "Welcome to St. Mark's Annual Christmas ball, I am your host, Demitrus Evans!"

We clapped for him, and for ten minutes listened to him drone on about how excited he was to be here. We gave props to the people who helped prepare this, volunteered for chaperoning, and the cooks who worked tirelessly to prepare the food. He made us bow our heads, he blessed the food, and we finally got to the part to where I could eat. Ironically enough, this part was kinda fun, for completely unconventional reasons. Beside the plates, napkins, and silverware, an iPad was next to everyone's immediate right. As soon as the food was blessed, the tablets blinked on, and everyone grabbed them. On screen was a message that said: "Swipe to go to the menu, your food will be brought to you. Also, keep the tablet, the charger is in your gift bags under your seats, have a Merry Christmas." Yeah, all I saw was table service, free Apple stuff, and Merry Christmas to Jason.

I ordered at least three steaks, a lot of rice, pork, exotically cooked veggies, and enough chocolate/caramel covered fruit, to put a diabetic down for the count. My super metabolism (yeah I have it, but almost all speedsters do) had already destroyed the meal I ate on the Helicarrier, so I had no qualms about eating half of my body weight in food; hell, Allyson and Grant was eating double of what I was, and had absolutely no shame in it. We ate, talked, laughed, and enjoyed each other's company, I even bothered to remember Melissa's (brunette, white dress), and Jonathan's (her side piece) names. After 30 minutes of eating, while listening to some live entertainment, we moved on to my favorite part of any type of party: the dancing.

Surprise! There's actually something I enjoy doing with the general public, and even then, dancing is like the ultimate exception. Even as a middle schooler (when mom forced me to go to every last dance/social gathering she could), I had a natural talent for dance (break dancing). I constantly practiced newer and harder moves with dubstep music, watched the best dance battles on Youtube, and would occasionally go to street competitions if I could make up an excuse to stay out late. Long story short, I loved fast dancing, I was good at it, and if you ever stepped up for a battle, you'd probably get knocked on your ass in record time. However, the first dance of the night wasn't fast or battle worthy, it was a slow song; a calm version of "Jingle Bells" to be exact. Oh boy! Maybe I should've talked to Grant about this one, because my experiences with slow dances were very limited; thank God Allyson was making the first moves, because I probably would've done something stupid. She wrapped her arms around my neck, pulled me close to her, and on a hunch, I wrapped my hands around her waist. Our dance was a simple side-to-side, while turning around slowly in a small circle. As we danced, I was more aware of everything than I had ever been. I could smell her flower perfume, the spearmint breath spray, even the way her skin felt against my neck. We never took our eyes away from each other's for the first minute of the dance, her brown eyes acting as inescapable gravity points, and my blue ones, boring into her's; I was actually scared I might zap her with my Thunder Vision.

"What's the matter?" she asked me, that maddeningly innocent/seductively happy smile etched on her face. "Scared?"

"Of you," I laughed. "Only a little, but that's not the point."

"Yeah? Then what is?"

"The fact that you are so incredibly beautiful, and it's because of you that this is probably the best night of my life."

She smiled even brighter, tightened the hold she had around my neck, and pulled in to me even closer, her face rested against my shoulder as she softly, and beautifully sung the lyrics to the rest of the song. That was definitely the most romantic thing that had ever happened to me, since Hannah Willows and I kissed one time under the school bleachers (we were more or less friends with benefits for a while, just without the sex); naturally, the song list would cut it in a grinding halt, by playing "Kiss You" by One Direction. Allyson and I laughed, found our own beat to the rhythm, and started dancing with the crowd.

I'll say this about the ball, the guy in charge of the song list knew how to keep the crowd turnt up. The tracks ranged from Nikki Minaj, Trey Songz, and Young Money, to 1D, BTR, popular radio songs, basic party songs (Cupid Shuffle, Dj Remx Electric Slide) and some Christmas remixes; they even mixed in a few dubstep and slow songs to change the pace every now and then. No group was left out, and the party had a well balance of white/black music. I danced with Allyson for most of the upbeat pop songs, not trying to out do her, rather than match her rhythm, letting her shine with her elegant/music video dance style. When it came to the fast songs, the ones that I could battle to, I took advantage of them entirely. Like I said, dance battles are common at organized dances, and when it comes to dance battles, boys will be boys. I trashed about five guys in rapid succession with my combination of handstands, flips, coordinated body popping and locking, and basically giving off the impression that I come from a long line of contortionists. All the battles took place in circles, so it's not like this was a private thing, and it's amazing how the best dancer in the room can turn into everyone's best friend. Hell, Grant and I even went at it for a minute, and don't get me wrong, he was good with his odd mix of hip hop dance and step choreography, but even he fell to the might of my overpowered dance skills. For other songs, such as "Anaconda", "Touchin' Lovin", "Rude Boy", and the like, the only two words that meant anything to those songs, were the words twerk and grind. For Grant, those barriers that would make most girls cautious about dancing with a random stranger, they were almost nonexistent to him. Seriously, in under 20 minutes, the guy was already neck deep in girls who just couldn't get enough of him. Don't feel bad for their dates though, the party was basically a giant free for all, everyone (accept Allyson and I) was fair game. So how did this affect me and Allyson? Well, at first I thought she wasn't that type of girl (which I would've been totally fine with), but she proved me so incredibly wrong, when she took my arms, put them around her waist, and twerked/grinded on me within the first 20 seconds of "Anaconda". I won't even lie, my mind, and pelvic region, was in Heaven; without getting into specifics about the feeling, let's just say Allyson knew her way around the darker side of dancing.

So yeah, the ball was a lot of fun, most fun i've had in years. I didn't know how long Grant, Allyson, and I danced with the crowd, to be honest, I stopped checking my watch after 9:30, all I knew was that after at least and hour of hot, sweaty, hyped up dancing, I needed a drink; Allyson followed me to the punch bowl, where we drank 5 cups each, laughing and panting furiously.

"Best party ever!" she said, leaning on me slightly.

"I know, right!?" I responded. "I've never had so much fun since-"

"HEY FREAK!" shouted a familiar voice. "THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE!?"

I turned around, 1000% certain that the comment was aimed at me; I was so totally right. Adrian, Clark, and Henry were making a beeline for me, their faces livid in the strobe lights, all of them ready to….well, I would use the word 'fight', but that would imply they actually stood a chance of winning. Nah, they were steppin up to get knocked down, and if I was on my own, i'd have had no problem beating the hell out of them, I wouldn't have even used my powers (no need). But then I took into account that Allyson was here. I didn't wanna ruin her night by losing my cool, so I opted to play the diplomat for once, and hope nobody pissed me off enough for sparks to start flying.

"I'm not gonna ask again freak!" Adrian said up close to my face. "WHY THE HELL ARE YOU HERE, YOU SHOULD BE IN A CELL AFTER WHAT YOU DID TO ETHAN!"

My pulse quicked, both from anger and guilt.

"I was invited!" I started. "And what I did to Crosby was an accident, you wanna settle this, fine, but not here, not-"

My Speed Sense went off, and Adrian punched at me with an uppercut, in super slow motion. I grabbed his fist, twisted it, and after coming down from Speed Mode, gave him a slight shove in the face, that sent him staggering backwards. Allyson looked at me, her eyes a weird mix of anger, worry, and annoyance, although I couldn't exactly tell if the anger and annoyance was aimed at me, or Adrian and his goons (Adrian was basically Ethan's second in command).

"Dude, stop!" I shouted at him. "I don't wanna hurt you, any of you, and in case you losers haven't caught on, I'M ON A FREAKING DATE, SHOW SOME MANNERS!"

"MANNERS!" Adrian roared at me (the music was way too loud for the chaperones to hear us, plus I doubt they really cared about rich brats who would probably never work a day in their lives). "YOU MEAN LIKE THE WAY YOU PUT CROSBY IN A COMA WITH YOU FREAKSHOW MUTIE POWERS!?"

Adrian, Clark, and Henry started closing in on me and Allyson, our night was clearly gonna get worse before it got better.

"OH YEAH!" Adrian continued. "DIDN'T YOU HEAR, GIRL. YOU'RE BOYFRIEND HERE'S A MUTIE, NEARLY KILLED MY BOY A FEW DAYS BACK, I'D GET THE HELL AWAY FROM HIM IF I WERE YOU!"

"A mutant?" Allyson calmly responded, her voice full of venomous sarcasm. "You don't say."

She balled her fists, and took up a fighting stance. Adrian laughed at her, sending my anger to levels I thought I could never reach even on my worse day.

"REALLY BITCH!?" he responded. "WHAT THE F (# ARE YOU GONNA DO!?"

He made a motion to grab Allyson, and before I could rip his arm off, she hit across the face with a slap so hard, even over the roar of the music, I could hear it clear as day. Adrian scrambled backwards, clutching the side his face.

"THAT'S IT!" he yelled. "ENOUGH OF THIS $#!+, HENRY, CLARK, LET'S-"

"BOYS!" Grant, who was so stealthy in his approach, even I didn't see him coming, said in his still jolly party boy voice. "WHAT'S HAPPENING HERE!? ARE WE HAVING FUN, OR ARE WE HAVING FUN!?"

Adrian and his goons were at a loss for words, and I could clearly see why. Even though Grant was a stocky guy, he was only about and inch or so taller than them. Theoretically, they shouldn't have been afraid of a guy they could probably take, but Grant was the exception. The guy practically radiated strength, even when he wasn't trying to be, he was intimidating as hell. Plus, while Grant was masking his anger in lightheartedness, none of us really bought into it. Adrian and his goons were giving me and Allyson trouble, Grant caught on to that, and was now issuing a silent warning for them to beat it.

"This is none of your business pretty boy!" Adrian said, trying to be tough. "Get lost!"

"Maybe you didn't get my message," Grant said, now deadly calm and serious, but still maintaining that million dollar smile. "These are my friends, and you're giving them a really hard time right now."

He moved so fast, there was no way Adrian and his goons could react in time. He punched Adrian and clark in the face with two quick, simultaneous jabs, bashed their heads together, and pushed them into Henry, who was spared any further damage. Allyson and I stood firm next to Grant, ready to kick some ass with our friend. We must've looked pretty fierce, cuz Adrian and his goons finally looked like they got the picture.

"Beat it!" Grant yelled at them, and they scramed like rats.

"Ya'll ok?" he asked us.

"Super," Allyson responded, shaking off her anger. "Thanks so much Grant, you rock."

She gave him a hug, and Grant dapped me up before going back to the party.

"Jason?" Allyson asked me, turning my face to her's. "It's ok, you warned me about this, please don't be angry, they aren't worth the brain cells, just focus on me, alright?"

I nodded, trying for a brave smile.

"The night's not over yet, bolt boy," she continued. "Let's make the most of it."

She grabbed my hands, and pulled me in close as we started dancing to another slow song. As we danced, I felt my anger start to ebb away, my ability to maintain my rage was powerless while looking into Allyson's eyes, her beautiful voice enhancing the lyrics to "Mary Did You Know". Another slow song played directly after that one, but it didn't even matter what the name of it was, I could care less as Allyson finally broke the silence.

"You ok, Jason," she asked me, her eyes full of so much concern, I was surprised they could hold it all.

"Yeah," I responded. "Just a little shaken is all."

She chuckled a bit.

"Jason Fuller," she said. "The great Storm-Lord, who fought monsters, magic, and villains; brought to his knees by a few common bullies, poor baby."

"Cute," I said, deciding to play along with her game. "Nice slap by the way, and i'm sorry about that, should've known my past would catch up to me."

"That's not your fault, Jason. And I don't wanna hear about what happened to the other guy, all I need to know is the man I see in front of me, holding me tight."

"You sure about that? I can be a little dangerous sometimes."

"Right. Because i've NEVER done something even remotely dangerous."

"Yeah, yeah."

We danced for another minute in silence, but never taking our eyes off of one another.

"Jason?" Allyson asked me, in the last few verses of the song. "Can I ask you something?"

"Anything." I responded.

"Do you think i'm beautiful?"

"Beautiful would be an understatement, you are nothing short of heavenly."

She smiled, and continued with the questions.

"Do you like who I am, you know, as a person?"

"You're the coolest girl i've ever met," I responded. "You're smart, funny, compassionate, energetic, and you kick all kinds off ass."

She cheesed even more, and I was almost certain she might start tearing up.

"So," she continued. "You think i'm heavenly, and a bunch of other good stuff, got it. So that means you like me, right?"

"Yeah," I said, before I could stop the words from escaping my lips. "Absolutely."

She pulled in closer to me, her face only a few inches from mine.

"Then why haven't you kissed me back yet?" she asked me, her voice a perfect mix of innocent longing, and lustful desire.

Again, fighting super villains came more naturally to me than this (that's so unbelievably sad). But looking into Allyson's eyes, I knew I had to try, she put herself out on a limb for me time and time again; it was time for me to take a leap of faith too. I tightened my grip around her, and moved my face closer to hers; my lips touched hers for like a millisecond (if even that), before my Speed Sense went off.

It was so unbelievably odd. For one, my Speed Sense was usually close range, not extending past my small aura of static electricity. But then I realized, my body was automatically using the Power Grid to extend my range, I probably could've sensed a sniper rifle's bullet trying to deck me from a mile away. Also, for some weird reason, the air also played a factor in the enhanced Speed Sense. It was rough, and I didn't have a clue how it worked, but as the dozens of hostiles were rocketing at us from above the school (I was senseing them though God knows how many pounds of concrete and metal), my radar picked them up. What were they exactly? 7 feet tall, humanoid shaped, and coming in hot. Hell, I wasn't the only one that picked up their tail, cuz Allyson's head also jerked to the ceiling, she could sense whatever it was too. It was way too late for us to do anything now, we were out in public, we couldn't morph yet, or we'd out ourselves. Instead, by a silent agreement, we let the things crash through the ceiling, causing the panic we needed to cover us.

As the Doombots (yeah, they were Doombots, yes I knew what Doombots were, everyone did), crashed through the ceiling, chunks of rubble, big enough to crush at least twenty people by the handful, fell to the ground like anvils. Luckily, Grant was good at the whole fast acting thing. He quickly tapped into Blitz, and I tapped into my lowest level of Speed Mode to help him out. If you're wondering why that was, it's because I don't get my lightning trial until I get to at least a 7/10 in Speed Mode, in SMS, the lightning trial was all but guaranteed; I didn't wanna fry the civilians, and I didn't wanna give myself away. Besides, I was so fast, even without trying all that hard, even on the lowest level of Speed Mode, I could still run and react faster than people blink. So yeah, Grant and I grabbed all of the party goers, and chaperones, and moved them all to the far end of the gym, where a corridor that led to an exit was nearby. I made sure to grab Allyson, and dump her with the rest of the group, but before you brand me as the worst date ever, Grant and I purposely tumbled with the crowd too; again, we had a secret identity to maintain. I quickly scanned the Doombots, and two my surprise, saw that they had some type of core in their chest, which were either a familiar shade of orange, or a brilliant circle of yellow. The discount Dr. Doom's (basically take off Doom's cloak, slim him up a bit, and give him a more Iron Man vibe, and you got yourself a Doombot), actually started blasting at us with both orange Hercules energy, as well as solar blasts. Damn, he had two of the stones! Allyson thought on feet, and created a solar barrier around us, without looking like she was the one conjuring it up. Also, the Doombots that had yellow cores in their chests, were systematically starting to combust in violent golden flames, before clanging to the ground as scrap; that gave me an idea. I focused on creating storm clouds a few hundred feet above the school, and as soon as they collected enough voltage, I locked on to the Doombots, and zapped each of them with high voltage blasts. Some of them exploded, others kinda faltered, others (usually the Hercules powered ones) shrugged them off entirely. That bought the civilians enough time to realize that they should probably get to running, and flee through the corridors. Allyson held up the barrier, and as the Doombots started to bang against it repeatedly. We ran outside with the rest of the crowd, took a detour behind a wall, separating us from them, and after Allyson ditched her heels, and I gave her back her morpher, we morphed into our battle gear, and ran back into the school, not bothering to hide our streaks of lightning and sun.

"Somebody wanna tell me what the hell's going on?!" Grant asked as we dashed back into the school. "Why would Doom attack a Christmas ball, unless he knew we were here, thus KNOWING who we are?!"

"The hell if I know, Super-G!" I responded. "But we gotta do damage control, we can't let the Doombots attack the civilians. Keep em' busy, and keep em' focused on us! We'll see what happens from there!"

"Look on the bright side," Allyson thought to us as we got back in the action. "At least we don't have to hold back!"

Yeah, she was pissed, but then again, so was I.

I summoned my shield, let the edges up, and threw it through five Doombots who were trying to fly though the escape. I called it back, put it away, and created two Thunder Swords (lightning cuts metal better), as I reentered the gym. Grant summoned his axe, and we started slashing away at the orange ones together (Allyson straight up absorbed all the solar energy from the yellow ones). I'd like to say it was a little bit challenging, but it was just a repeat of the first day of training, easier even. Don't get me wrong, there were more than enough Doombots to go around, but between Allyson, Grant, and I, they were slashed, smashed, or depowered into scrap. No sooner than we disposed of the first wave, I could sense another (several hundred) rocketing from the sky. We could probably take them if they landed, but they had energy blasts, meaning it be way too hard to keep the home field advantage; I decided to end the fight entirely..

"Sunbird!" I called to her. "I know you can sense the ones with Sun Energy, make them go boom, i'll handle the rest!"

She nodded, and raised her hands to the sky; even from down here, I could hear the explosions. I followed suit, and summoned a massive lightning storm, using the air/Power Grid to lock on to the Doombots. I used a lot more voltage in my lightning strikes this time, and even if the first strike didn't blow them to bits, another bolt of lightning wasn't far behind to finish the job. All in all, the only Doombots that actually made it through the hole in the roof, were pieces of scrap.

"Oh come on guys," Grant playfully complained. "You could've let me have at least one of them!"

"Shut up," I told him. "They'll be plenty more chances to fight for our lives another day. I'm not trying to be snippy, but we just got ambushed for no apparent reason, like you said, Super-G, why would Doom do that if he didn't know who we are!?"

"You don't know that for sure." Allyson said, a small surge of fear creeping in her voice.

"Well unless a stone is somewhere in the building," I retorted. "There is absolutely no other justifiable…."

My voice trailed off, my Thunder Sense was pinging like crazy.. Something powerful, and fast was rocketing towards us like a dive bomber, and what was even worse, it's energy felt familiar to mine. Seriously, it was a few clicks off, kinda like the difference between Catholic and Baptist churches, but it's energy signature had the same type of vibe to it as my electricity. I saw it coming down from above, a big purple blob of electricity (not Goblin, that's an experience I never wanted to repeat again). From the looks of whatever it was, it was not slowing down, and was not in a talkative mood.

"SUNBIRD!" I roared in her head "DELTA CANNON STRAIGHT UP!"

We wasted no time getting set up, and fired a lightning/sun energy blast at the purple comet. The blast was strong, and actually gave the thing a run for it's money, as our blast started to slowly push it backwards; but that was before the comet cranked the dials up by a hundred, hurtling through the cannon so fast, we barely had time to get out of the way as it crashed into the floor Deep Impact style. I don't really remember much after that. Just falling, hitting my head multiple times against metal pipes, and being crushed under at least a ton of rubble (my body could barely take it, but my suit took most of the damage). After that, I was knocked out cold.

(Grant's Perspective)

I got up out from under the rubble, and quickly looked around for Sunbird and Storm-Lord. I didn't have to look hard for Sunbird, she was right next to me, glowing in her Sun Form, and also digging herself up from the rubble.

"You ok, Sunbird?" I thought to her, lending a helping hand.

"Yeah," she thought back to me. "But where's Storm-Lord!?"

We looked around for a bit, shifting through the rubble at super speed, and after what seemed like forever, found a familiar looking black hand, the battle suit hand that is, sticking out from under a large pile of metal and floorboards.

"Oh God!" Sunbird thought in a panic.

"Don't freak out!" I thought to her. "Just help me get him free."

It took about half a sec to get all of the rubble off of Jason, a task that would've been extremely delicate, had he not been wearing his extremely durable battlesuit. The guy wasn't in the best of conditions. His forehead had a nasty welt on it, he was out cold, but for a guy who was dropped through like five floors, he wasn't all that bad.

"Don't worry, Sunbird," I thought to her. "He's ok, just needs a little bit to heal, let the voltage do it's thing."

She breathed in relief, but I was on edge. This place was all too familiar, that purple lightning, while not Goblin's, was definitely recognizable. Before I could think to myself about blowing this wrecking site, my body called for a Timeout, and I was just barely on time to turn around, and bat away a huge sheet of surging metal. I knocked it over to the side, just barely missing Sunbird, and was surprised by how much that had hurt. I doubt the metal itself was the one causing me the pain, unless this place was reinforced with Adamantium or Vibranium pipes, but that weird electricity, that stung like a colony of fire ants having their way with my arm. I focused on the area in front of me, instructing Sunbird to put her guard up, and cautiously hovered forward. Before I could even get fifty feet forward. My body called for another Timeout, and I dodged a powerful streak of lightning, Sunbird too. That was the initial f*(# up for whoever that guy was, because for a slight moment, I saw him in the darkness, and I shot after him, hopefully faster than he could follow. I reeled back a fist, going for about 60% power, and missed. No seriously, he was in my sights, I had him served up and ready for a knuckle sandwich, but at the very last moment, my arm, and the rest of my body jerked to the side; the guy literally altered my flight path. I wish that was the worst of it, but he wasn't done there. A huge blast of lightning shot out of his hand, pelting me dead in the chest, and sending me so far back, I crashed through a few more pipes before landing hard on the floor. Again, I don't know what it was about this specific type of lightning that made me weak in the knees, I was just glad the battlesuit could take the hit, otherwise my body would've been going through hell.

I was dazed for a few seconds, and when I got up, my heart damn near crawled into my throat. Sunbird was in her Blazing Sun Form, lobbing blasts of fiery energy at….well there's no easy way to say it, f*(#!($ Magneto. To give credit where credit's due, the old geezer looked pretty badass. He was wearing a different variation of his classic red and purple suit, one that was all gleaming red/purple armor (without the underwear on the outside), his trademark helmet, and some type of chainmail covering his arms; hell, if I didn't know of the old man, i'd would've sworn he was Thor's father/ shopping buddy. Anyway, Sunbird was fighting Magneto, and for the most part, was having a bad time of it. Don't get me wrong, she was doing her best, dodging at least 3/5 blasts, melting the metal he threw at her, and getting some clever blasts, and hits with some small scale constructs in on him, but that seldom mattered. The guy was covered in and electromagnetic force field, and still was versatile enough to kick ass from inside his safe bubble, using the metal all around us to keep Sunbird off balance, and keep her from really focusing on fighting, rather than dodging. It didn't seem like he was all that interested in controlling her battlesuit, and yeah, I realize our Titanium/Iron/Steel suits are literally the worst things to have at this moment; however, Magneto was more than willing to use the wreckage around us, as his personal playthings. Sunbird blasted at him with a wave of golden fire, and when Magneto countered with his own wave of voltage, I made a move to get back in the game. I soared under the two blasts, summoned my axe, and with as much force as I could put into the strike without leveling the school, I smashed the axe on top of Magneto's barrier, shattering it like glass, and let myself be shot with him in Sunbird's blast. Now for those of you that are wondering how I managed to get the drop on Magneto with a metal axe, two words can easily explain it: Gravity Training. See, I didn't exactly make an effortless strike on Magneto's force field, in fact, bringing my axe down at all, was like defying earth's gravitational pull. However, I trained under 50X the earth's gravity, and maybe S.E.R.A. was trying taking advantage of my trusting nature when she said that I would only be able to survive half of Jupiter's gravity, because Jupiter's gravity is only 2.53X earth's; Jupiter would be a cakewalk compared to my training regimen. The point i'm trying to make here, is that while Magneto was putting up some resistance to my strikes, and while I had to be a lot more careful with my flying punches, Magneto would never be able to deflect one of my punches again, so long as I used enough strength to defy his magnetic powers. So yeah, I made him hurt for a while.

As we careened backwards together, I managed to grab a hold of him, flip him under me, and pound at his face relatively hard. Now before you get on me about punching and old man, keep in mind, this was Magneto, you couldn't think of him as just an old man, or else you'd end up on the wrong side of a sharp piece of metal. Besides, before I even punched the guy, the chainmail around his neck fastened into a face mask, plus the helmet was already blocking some of the already held back damage. I punched him maybe ten times, before he managed to get back in the game by kneeing me in the chest with way too much speed and power to be his own, and then blasting me into the air with another electromagnetic blast. Why did they hurt so much? Before I could move out of the way, I felt a large piece of metal hit me in the side of my head, which only managed to piss me off even more.

"Sunbird!" I called to her. "Little help please!"

She didn't answer back, but her actions spoke louder than words. In no time at all, Magneto got pelted in the face with a golden fiery fist.

"Plans?" she thought to me.

"Other than punch/blast him really, really hard?" I thought back to her. "Nope, the area is way to small for any large scale constructs, we can't risk any major blasts that could level the school, plus our Delta Plays would be useless in such a tight area. Nah, looks like we're gonna have to settle this the old fashioned, 'hit him until he dosen't get back up again' technique."

"Works for me, let's get on with it!"

Yikes, so glad it wasn't me that ruined her night.

Sunbird and I fought as hard as we could, without bringing the house down on top of us. Hell, if we actually went all out on this guy, he would've stood about the same chance against us, that a lion has against an elephant. As was such, he was kicking our asses pretty hard. Sunbird blasted him with a flurry of golden fireballs, small missile constructs, and a even managed to get some good shots in on Magneto, such as a nice combo of punches and kicks, but our problem always stemmed down to the same problem: too much metal. 3/5 times, the only thing I was punching or batting away, was a blob of metal, or a blast of electromagnetism. Don't get me wrong, there were times when Sunbird and I absolutely took the hurt to Magneto's ugly mug. For example, Sunbird got so pissed of playing the 5'Ds of Dodgeball, she released a massive solar wave that blew Magneto, and all of the metal in the immediate area, out of the way. We capitalized on that with a tag team beat down, which I had to admit, was a lot more fun than a sane person should've been having. We managed to dent his armor a little, and yes, i'm fully aware of the fact that I could've killed him with a sizeable swing to the chest with my axe, but again, killing a person is a bit higher on the don't list, than a hulking green death lord. So yeah, it seemed like we finally had the game on lock, but that would only last for a couple hundred more punches; at least the guy had quality armor. In a time frame of half a second, and I do mean a half second, Magneto raised a barrier around himself, stopping Sunbird and I from beating the hell out of him, and while we backtracked a little bit, he pelted the two of us with high powered electromagnetic bolts. I went crashing backwards, and so did Sunbird, and while the blast hurt like hell, I was more concerned about another thing. How the hell was everybody getting super speed. Seriously, at this point it wasn't even an advantage anymore, because everyone had it; F*(#! % HOW!? Still, things got even worse, while I was down, and quicker than Sunbird or I could recover, he shot up like a homing missile, and decked Sunbird in the face with a punch so hard, it knocked her right out of her Sun Form, made a huge boom that destabilized the basement area we were in even further, and knocked her out cold; honestly, if she wasn't in Sun Form, she probably would've had her head snapped.

That…...pisssed…...me…...off.

I rocketed into Magneto so fast, tackling him in the gut, roaring like a bear. Magneto tired punching me in the back, and even got a few knee shots to my gut; thanks to my armor, rage, and adrenaline, I didn't even feel them. I stopped his pointless struggle with a huge right uppercut, followed by a hard spinning kick, sending him crashing through a few hundred pounds of steel; I didn't stop, I couldn't let him recover. I shot at him again, this time with intent to beat him down DBZ style, but Magneto had other plans. He shot at me again with an electromagnetic bolt, but as my past few battles have dictated, a good swing of the axe is all it'll take to turn a bolt of lightning back at it's owner. Magneto went flying back again, this time hitting a wall, and just barely managed to duck out of the way, and swung at me with a hard right cross. I blocked the punch, smacked him across the face with a backhand, knocking away his helmet and chainmail mask. Magneto retaliated by blowing me away with a small explosive wave, and upon my immediate recovery, launched a volley of metal pipes, electromagnetic blasts, and a few clumps of metal. I quickly went into Blitz Extreme, weaved my way through the assault, and continued to pound Magneto to a pulp, or at least tried to. You see, if it was just his head, I could've knocked the old man out with a flick of my finger. However, he was protected by an electromagnetic body shield, which seemed to water down my already held back punches, I mean, I was hitting this guy in the face 100 times per second, and he was just taking it, and giving some back, which actually f*(#! % hurt. I didn't let on how much his punches actually stung, but based off of the way I was fighting, I was pretty sure Magneto at least thought he had me beat. He dodged one of my punches, missed an uppercut, but got me under the chin with a flying backflip, followed by a mid-air drop kick, that shot out another damn bolt of electromagnetism. I careened back about 50 meters, where Storm-Lord and Sunbird were still out cold no less, and just barely rolled of the way as Magneto tried to put me down for good. He basically fashioned a bunch of electromagnetism around his arms, fashioned like two long jagged sabers, and impaled the ground I was just lying on; that could've been my head!

Magneto swung at me with his arm sabers, and I summoned my axe to my left hand, my sword to my right. As I parried his sabers, I silently thanked Mrs. Kennedy for making them out of the most indestructible metals ever, because if they weren't, i'd be missing a head. I blocked his two strikes, and managed to get a good front kick off on Magneto's chest, sending him sprawling backwards. He tried charging me again, and boy did I make him suffer for it. He started twirling his sabers around, as if I could was thrown off by the speed; guys, I sparred with Nightcrawler and Storm-Lord, this guy was cake compared to those sons of mothers. He slashed at me with a crouching swipe, and a downwards stab, difficult to defend against, if I was an untrained smuck, that is. I batted his downward stab away with my axe, almost dislocating his arm, blocked his crouching swipe, and while he was open, thrusted my axe at his stomach, willing the blade to extend and stab him. Again, the guy had quality armor, because only the tip made it through, still, I stabbed an old man. I made an old man cry out in pain, and bleed through the hole in his armor; I am very not ok with that, no matter how necessary it was. Magneto fumbled back a little, but then resumed attacking me, as if his rage would change the outcome. He came at me with an inward slash from either end, and I gotta tell you, it wasn't even funny anymore, obviously this guy had the potential to fight good, but he was clouded in anger, making rookie mistakes; i'd know, I am a rookie. So yeah, before his sabers could hypothetically 'behead' me, I ducked while switching my weapons to reverse grips, stabbing them through his thighs, and then while he was recoiling in pain, brought them out of his legs, and put them through his biceps, actually twisting the blades a little bit. The idea was to immobilize him, make it so that he'd be in too much pain to use his powers; the premise of this plan would've probably worked, but I didn't take Magneto's anger into account, which is essentially forgetting to carry the 5 in a math problem.

"ENOUGH!" he roared through the pain, blowing me away with the mother of all blastwaves, tearing down almost half of the foundation of the school; hell, it was a wonder the thing was still standing.

There are some things you realize after a certain point. After a certain amount of living, you know, or at least have a rough idea of your sexuality, after a certain amount of TV, music, movies, books, etc., you know what your interests are. After getting smacked around by Magneto, I think it was safe to say that electromagnetic blasts could be added to my list of weaknesses, because that blast knocked me out cold for a good 30 seconds, before I came to. After which, I kinda wished I was unconscious again. Magneto had me, Sunbird, and Storm-Lord wrapped in metal pipes, surging with electromagnetism. I tried getting free, but it was just like in the vision. For all of my strength, I couldn't get out of some plumbing.

"Stop struggling, child," Magneto, who seemed to be looking for something, said. "What you are feeling now, is the magnetic polarity of every planet in the solar system, you won't be going anywhere."

"Is it to late to apologize for stabbing you?" I asked him, trying to stall what looked to be Delta Force's inevitable death. "Because if you're mad about that, I wanna point out that you started it."

Magneto paused to look at me.

"Child," he started. "This may come as a shock to you, but I am not particularly happy with you at the moment. For the sake of you and your playmates, i'd advise you to…."

His voice trailed off, his focus went somewhere else, and his head leaned to one side, as if something had caught his interest. To my right, about 30 meters away, a pile of metal started to clang and rumble like a volcano. I honestly didn't know what to expect, a monster, a robot, a monster robot? No, far from that. The metal pile exploded, scattering the metal everywhere, and in a small orb of electromagnetism, was a small green stone, shaped like a small tree, or broccoli, i'm still fuzzy on what Demeter wanted it to be. But yeah, holy $#!+ there was a stone here of all places. If I sound slightly unsurprised, it's because of the last few days, you don't just fight war mongers, undead armies, and serpent cosplayers, without learning to just go with the tidal wave. Magneto clenched the stone in his hand, and at first, looked like he was gonna take it, and leave us in peace, but then his communicator, embedded in his armor gauntlets, went off.

"Speak," he plainly said.

"Magneto," said a sneering, cruel voice. "You have it?"

"Yes," Magneto responded. "I shall teleport-"

"Where are the children?"

"They have been dealt with, incapacitated, they are no threat-"

"Kill them."

Ok, that was kinda harsh. Don't get me wrong, I understood what was going on completely. Doom, obviously that was Doom, wanted us out of the way, we had f*(#% with his plans too long, and even though I understood his motives, apparently Magneto didn't. Looking at that old man's face, I could tell that killing teenagers, not children, was not on the top of his want to do list.

"Doom," he pleaded. "They are my own, they are young, they are defeated, there is no-"

"Do as I have ordered," Doom said calmly. "Lest your own, not be included in the number of my kingdom."

Didn't know what the hell that meant, but it obviously registered on some level with Magneto. He hung his head for half a second, and quickly recomposed himself.

"Understood," he said to Doom, and I felt myself being hoisted up in thin air.

Hundreds of metal pipes hovered in mid-air, and after a flash of purple lightning, they were all sharp, jagged, makeshift spears, enough to kill Storm-Lord and Sunbird, if it was a headshot, but definitely not enough to kill me. No, that didn't make the situation better for me, I didn't wanna watch my friends die, i'd rather take the pain myself. Besides, i've been here before, the Norn-Fates showed me this, and just like the vision, my own axe was being leveled somewhere in between my sternum; yikes! I tried desperately to move, to get free, struggling with all my might, but it was no good, I was a sitting duck, and so were my friends.

"Please understand," Magneto said solemnly. "The survival of our race rests in the balance. Take comfort in the fact that your sacrifices will ensure the new era of Homo Superior."

Magneto thrusted his hands towards me and my friends, and the death rain of metal soared at us. If my body didn't automatically call for a Timeout, our deaths would've come in less than a second.