First Day of Training
"Hurry up already!" Alex shouted to Elena. "Damian and Kayla are bound to beat us there!"
Elena quickly grabbed her coffee and ran towards Alex. They hurried through the city to get to the Baxter Building. The school day had pretty much been same old, same old. Except for the chattering about what happened yesterday. Alex wished she could just ignore them. She still felt remorse about what happened. Elena and Kia kept telling her throughout the day that it wasn't her fault, but she was just too stubborn to listen.
They ran into the Baxter Building in high speed. Elena had slowed them down earlier for the craving of a cup of coffee. Relief spread throughout their systems once they made it into the elevator.
"Finally, we made it," said Elena, breathlessly leaning against the wall.
"Yeah, no thanks to you," said Alex catching her breath.
"Hey, I needed my coffee!"
"Whatever, let's just go."
The elevators opened revealing a large wide-open space. Sunlight had reached each corner of the space with the help of the large wide open window ahead. Large inventions were centered in the room. Alex started to make her way towards them to investigate.
"Of course," Elena mumbled.
Alex was almost to the center of the room when Damian popped up right in front of her.
"Boo!" he said.
"Don't scare me like that!" she shouted.
"Sorry," said Damian sarcastically. "Reed asked me to use my powers, so he can measure its intensity…or something that."
"Well you don't need to go and scare people."
"Hey, who could blame me?" he shrugged. "It was the perfect timing."
Reed appeared on the balcony
"There you are Damian."
He looked up at the twins, "Oh I see you finally made it. I'm just doing a few tests on how you guys work in order to see what we're dealing with."
"Does that mean shots?" whined Elena.
"It might."
Elena groaned. She hated shots.
"Alright, I'm already working with Kayla and Damian on this, but Sue can take you in."
"Ok," agreed Alex.
They followed Reed to the upper level. He led them to a small lab where Susan worked diligently on the computer.
"Sue. Alex and Elena are here," Reed tapped on her shoulder.
She looked up from her computer and smiled at them.
"I see you finally made it," she said.
"Yeah, Elena just had to have some coffee," Alex glared at Elena.
Elena glared right back at her.
"Ok, let's not blame anyone here," interrupted Reed. "You're here that's what matters."
He walked out of the room leaving the three of them alone.
"So, what do we need to do?" asked Alex.
"First I'll need a couple strands of hair from both of you," Susan held out her hand.
Alex plucked one small strand from her hair. Along with Elena, she placed it right into Susan's hand. Susan placed each hair in a small clear plastic container.
"Now, the DNA results won't come in until a few a days," she got up from her seat, "so right now, we're gonna do a few tests to see how powerful you really are."
She brought them back downstairs to the center of the room.
"Tell me the exact powers you have."
"Well," answered Elena. "I can control water and turn invisible."
"That's another thing we have in common," she smiled. Susan faced Alex, "And you?"
"I can manipulate air and regenerate."
Shock came over Susan's face.
"Is something wrong?"
"No, not at all," she returned to a normal face. "It just sounds…ironic."
Alex opened her mouth to say something, but Susan cut in.
"Anyway you girls are gonna need to step into here."
Susan tapped on the chamber next to her.
"What exactly does that do?" Alex looked curiously at the chamber.
"It measures how powerful you are. What you do is," Susan opened the door. "Step in. Activate you're powers the best you can and the results should appear on the computer."
"Sounds simple enough," commented Elena.
"Yeah, just don't try to destroy it like Johnny did."
"Got that."
"So, who wants to go first?"
"You go ahead Alex, I'll be fine," Elena pushed Alex forward.
"Thanks," she rolled her eyes.
Alex set her bag aside and stepped into the chamber. Susan slowly closed the door. It felt as if she were in a very thick outhouse. A few moments later she could her Susan's voice coming out of the intercom.
"Ok, now try to conduct as much wind as you can."
She concentrated as much as she could to activate her power. Nothing happened. An idea suddenly came to mind. There was hardly any air inside. Maybe that's why Alex was having trouble. She took a deep breath and exhaled it. With her hands, Alex grasped her breath. It formed into a small sphere rotating on the palm of her hands. She concentrated again. The air began to expand, stretching around her. Her hair became untied with the wind blowing around her.
"Good job, try to get more air."
"Alright," she answered.
The wind whipped around her body. She could feel the chamber rocking with the wind.
"Ok, that's enough, you can stop now."
But she couldn't. Alex could feel the air taking over.
"I can't!" she shouted.
"Hold on!"
That was all she heard of Susan. The rest were muffled conversations. They seemed very urgent. In the meantime Alex was trying her best to calm the winds. Nothing seemed to work. She was starting to feel hazy just as she did that day when she discovered her powers. This wasn't good. A gas entered the chamber. Alex began to cough and collapse to the ground. Everything slowly went black. The winds stopped.
"How long do you think she'll be asleep?" said the whisper of Damian.
"It shouldn't be long now," answered Kayla. "I think I can feel her waking up."
Alex slowly opened her eyes. Both Kayla and Damian were hovering over her.
Kayla smiled, "See I told you."
"Are you okay?" asked Damian with wary eyes.
"Yeah, I think so," said Alex weakly.
She sat up and looked around. Alex wasn't in the chamber anymore. Instead she was in the living room.
"How long was I out?"
"'Bout an hour."
"Yeah, you sure are a heavy sleeper," said Kayla.
"What happened?" asked Alex, rubbing her eyes.
"Well, when Reed was testing us there was some kind of commotion down at the lab," Damian began. "Elena ran in telling Reed that Susan needed her. Reed told us to stay where we were at—"
"But somebody didn't want to listen," Kayla interrupted.
"What? I wanted to see what was going on. Anyway, I followed Reed to the lab and—"
"—and you dragged me along."
"Quit, interrupting me Kay!"
She shrugged, "What? I'm trying to tell the story too."
Damian groaned, "As I was saying we followed Reed to the lab. And saw them scrambling around some control panel. Then I saw the chamber rocking everywhere! It was about ready to explode. When Reed pushed some kinda button, we heard someone coughing to death. But on the good side the winds stopped. Then when they went down to open the chamber…I saw you being carried out of it. What happened in there?"
"I dunno how to explain it," Alex rubbed her head.
She suddenly felt queasy in her stomach.
"Why do I feel so sick?"
"Reed said they put a sleeping gas in there," said Kayla. "If that explains anything."
"It does explain why I'm a little sick. You're not supposed to eat anything before being put to sleep."
She looked around.
"Where's everyone?"
"Elena is still being tested by Reed and Sue's in the kitchen."
As if on cue, Susan appeared in the living room.
"I see you're up," she said.
"Yeah, what happened?"
If only Alex had a nickel for every time she's asked that. Susan handed her a cup. She looked at it. Sprite it looked like.
"Drink it, it'll help your stomach," Susan took a seat next her on the couch.
She took a sip. It did work a little bit.
"Anyway, your winds were getting out of control. We had to stop it somehow. Putting you to sleep seemed to be the only answer at the time."
"Oh," she understood.
A hand unexpectedly ruffled her hair, "Hey sleepy head."
Alex looked up. Elena smiled mischievously down at her.
"Hey El."
"Alright, now there is a few things we need to discuss," Reed walked in with full concentration on his clipboard.
He looked up from his clip board and saw Alex.
"Are you feeling okay?"
"Better," said Alex.
"That's good, now it looks like each of you are going to need different teachers. For example Alex, Johnny is going to have to teach you how to control your powers properly."
"Why?" she gave him a confused look.
"Johnny seems to have a very similar power to you. You know the ability to fly and an elemental power. So, he'll be teaching you how to keep your powers under control."
Great, she thought sarcastically. Johnny was most likely no more different than Elena. So this might be interesting.
"And for you Elena, you are going to have to trade off teachers for once and awhile between Johnny and Sue. Kayla will be taught by Susan and Damian will be taught by Ben. Then after everyone's individual training, we'll gather around, where you'll be taught by me. Any questions?"
"Why are we seeing different people instead of us being together?" Elena raised an eyebrow.
"Each power has its own individual need, so we're just pairing you guys up with the ones who that same similar need," explained Susan.
"Oh, I get it," Kayla nodded.
"So is everyone clear now?" asked Reed.
"Yep," answered Alex.
"Great, we'll get started today and continue on for the rest of the week."
Reed led Alex down the hall in search of Johnny.
"I presume that you're not causing NASA any trouble anymore, right?"
"Nope, I'm done with NASA," she said. "Actually I've decided to move on to Area fifty-one."
He chuckled, "Don't even try. Their system is impossible to get into. Even I have trouble."
"Don't worry, I was just kidding."
"You seem to be feeling pretty good for someone who was just put to sleep. It must be your regeneration."
"Yeah," said Alex, uncomfortably.
Johnny was found playing video games in his room.
"Johnny," Reed tried to get his attention.
He looked up at Reed.
"Didn't I say you have responsibilities now?"
"Maybe, I don't know," Johnny shrugged. "I might've been busy doing something else when you were telling me."
Both Reed and Alex groaned. Typical.
"Well, you're supposed to be teaching Alex at the moment."
"Oh, right."
He got up from his beanbag chair and headed towards them.
"So, what do I do with this teacher thing?"
"You're teaching Alex how to fly."
"Right," Johnny faced Alex. "Don't worry; I'll be a cool teacher."
"Alright, so why don't you guys go out on the balcony and get started."
Johnny nodded as he led her downstairs.
Elena rummaged through Alex's things as she waited for Susan to return. It was basically was she expected. Her laptop, blue-prints, and an application for a worker's permit. Wait, an application for a worker's permit? Did Alex really feel that bad for the fire? It wasn't even her fault. She just didn't lose Doom the way she thought she did. Unless there was something that Alex didn't tell her. When Elena first heard of Doom in her younger years, she feared him. Now that she had faced him enough times, she resented him. He caused so much pain for her and her sister.
"Okay, so you need to consider how fast you gonna go," explained Johnny.
Alex listened attentively to his explanations on flight. The balcony seemed to be a million feet away from the penthouse. But luckily, the weather was clear enough to fly in.
"Plus you've gotta consider the wind. But once you past the basics, you won't have to worry about the wind."
"Cool," she nodded.
"Before we start flying, let me see what you've got."
Alex nodded and thought of air. She felt her feet slowly being lifted off the ground.
"No wonder Doom keeps catching up to you. Your balance is completely off."
To her she felt balanced, but what did she know about this subject. He shifted her body in a different angle.
"There we go. Now you're balanced."
"I felt fine before though."
"Trust me this position will help you go a lot faster."
Johnny got a mischievous look.
"In fact how 'bout we race?"
"No," she floated back to the ground.
"Dang, you're just like Reed—"
He paused.
"What?"
Johnny wiped his smile.
"Nothing," he said. "Where did you say you came from again?"
"San Francisco."
"And you have no idea who your parents are?"
"Yup."
Alex wanted to ask why he was interrogating her, but she held it against her tongue.
"So, how was your Sweet Sixteen?"
She chose her words carefully. "Not what I expected."
"What happened?"
"Well, Elena dolled me up and then my parents threw us a party."
"Sounds fun."
"Yeah, oodles," she said sarcastically.
"What else happened?"
"Well Doom tried to attack us again."
"He what—?" shouted Johnny dumbfounded.
Alex stopped her mouth from saying anything else.
"Why would he do that? This is like what…the third time he's done this."
"I guess; I haven't really been counting."
"What exactly did he say to you?"
"He said he keep chasing us because…he's trying to complete his plan after sixteen years or something like that. He wasn't very specific about that."
"It must be a pretty big plan if he's planning on using two teenage girls."
"Yeah or manipulating them."
Johnny chuckled, "Yeah, that's Victor. He'll go through great lengths to get what he wants."
His answer did anything, but reassured her.
"So, should I be worried?" she asked nervously.
"Maybe…I don't know. Reed knows him better than I do, but just keep us updated in case."
"Will do."
"Hey, Alex."
Alex looked over at Elena standing in the doorway.
"We need to get going."
"Oh, OK," Alex headed towards Elena. "See you later Johnny."
"Alright I'll see you tomorrow."
They bid everyone goodbye and headed home. It was starting to get dark, so they quickened their pace. Alex wondered what Doom was up to in the first place. Sure the first time he attacked them was a mistake. But the other two were completely on purpose. She feared that it wasn't just her and Elena on his list. Kia, Damian, Kayla, their parents, the possibilities were endless. What could be Doom's master plan? Alex traced back to Kia's story. He had been after a couple files years ago. But which files? Was moving to New York one of the greatest decisions that her parents had made? Only time could answer these questions.
Thanks for reading! I'll try to update as soon as I can since I'm done with school as of today. I just have a few more projects to take care of and my own orignal novel to write. So hopefully I can get the next chapter done soon.
-Emyrox567