Chapter 6

While in the control room, Ralph loaded the phone app and got directions on how to get to the local Heroes addresses in Santiago, Chili. He went to his room, got some street clothes and toiletries, had Suit shrink them, and put them in his pouch under the cape. He took off heading south at about Mach 2. Suit put a force field around him to protect him from friction with the air. It took him about three hours to get there. He checked in with Jose and Isla, the active Heroes in Santiago.

They were very excited that the First came down to oversee the operation. Ralph could tell how they felt and told them to call him Ralph. He was very impressed with everything they had found already. They found out the organization investigating the water at San Miguel was called 'Pure Waters Organization, ' a non-profit organization started by another company called Verde Grande Corporation. The name Verde was too suspicious to Ralph, having seen another Verde's company name on a van at the large green guy's compound. He called Pam and asked her to investigate this.

Ralph asked Jose and Isla to show him where San Miguel was. He followed them north, almost to the border. They hovered high above the village, watching the people below. Ralph pin-pointed Maria immediately and said, "There she is."

Jose asked, "There, who is?"

Ralph explained the prophetic dreams with her and all the villagers being incredibly sick from whatever was being put into the water at the village well. Jose and Isla were impressed that the First had this power and told him so.

Ralph explained, "I am not the only Hero with psychic abilities. We all have some to a degree; that was partially how the green guys chose us for the suits. I only just found this out about myself."

Jose asked, "Is it true that you have met the green guys?"

"Oh, yeah, several times," Ralph replied.

"Are they like Gods, able to create these wonderful suits with all these powers?" Jose reverently asked.

Ralph replied with a slight chuckle, "Oh no. They are brilliant and have advanced technology that we do not fully understand, but they have problems. Just look at the large green guys that we fought. They had a definite narcissistic bent. The little green guys that gave me the suit were much better and more concerned with helping us not to destroy our planet as their planet was destroyed, but they would never tell us the whole story. I always felt they were hiding stuff from us—why, I don't know. So, don't be overly in awe of them; they are not that much different from us."

Jose and Isla nodded, thinking about what Ralph had told them.

They remained to observe the village until it got dark, then they flew back to Jose's house on the edge of Santiago in an area without many neighbors. Jose had a lovely room set up for Ralph. Jose's wife, Enez, was unsuited but knew everything about the Hero League.

Their five children also knew about the League and had many questions for Ralph. Ralph enjoyed talking to the children in Spanish, which Suit spoke for him. They were all attending the Ruby Corporation online school and enjoyed it very much. Ralph told them he was the Education Director for the Hero League and the Ruby Corporation and was their principal. He told them he would be watching how well they do with their studies. This impressed them, and they said they would try hard to do well.

Four-year-old Lizzy, the littlest one, came up to Ralph and touched the scar on his face, and asked, "Does it hurt?"

Jose told her, "That is very impolite. Do not do that."

Ralph told him, "It's okay," and turned to her. "No, it doesn't hurt anymore."

She asked, "How did you get that?"

Ralph jokingly said, "It is my battle scar from fighting with the large green guys as your father did."

Jose explained, "You remember I told you the story about the First and how he saved the world by breaking the power cable." She nodded, and all the other children did as well. "Ralph is the First."

Ralph sat there with a slight smile and watched as all the children's eyes became huge in awe when they looked at him.

Ralph explained to the children with Suit, translating, "When I broke the cable, all the power from the Earth came out and hit Suit and me. It damaged Suit, and he couldn't protect me as much as he should have been able to. I got badly burned and landed on a hot rock, which burned me more. When the other Heroes came to rescue me, they moved me off the rock, but pieces of my face stuck to the rock," miming pulling pieces of his face off with his fingers. "That is why I have the scars. My fingers were burned to the bone, which is why I have scars there," holding his hands out so they could see the scars. As the children listened to Ralph's story, they made faces at his description of his injuries.

Jose shooed the children off to bed. When he returned, Ralph apologized for telling them that story and said, "I hope that doesn't give them nightmares. It gave me nightmares for a long time."

Jose said, "We don't hide what the Hero League is and does; they need to know and learn."

Ralph accepted this very forward way of raising children in a Hero world.

Enez told him how happy she was to hear about him and Pam having their first child. Ralph explained, "This will be my second child, but Pam's first. I had been married in my previous life and had Kevin, who I am very proud of. He is a chiropractor in Florida and has his children, who, in turn, have my great-grandchildren. Kevin knows I am a superhero, but none of the children or grandchildren do. And now they all think I am dead. But that is the way it must be. I still check up on them, though."

Jose's wife listened and then said, "Oh right, you were regenerated to a young person again by the green guys,"

Ralph said, "I would be dead if I hadn't agreed to the regeneration. It can only be done once, and they only do it for special purposes. So, I was lucky there. I will age normally again, so I see this as my second life." He thanked them for putting him up and for a beautiful evening, told them he was tired, and went to bed.