Chapter 4 - A stunning revelation
()()()
(8:30 am, Eastern time. June 18th, 2033, Saturday)
The Kent household had been awake for a few minutes, with both Diana and Clark sipping on hot coffee and Kent getting his firefighter gear together in the family's Suburban. Diana already had her outfit for the day, some blue jeans and a colorful red top. Steve had woke up and was sitting at the computer playing Command & Conquer again, and he was still in his PJ pants and shirt.
"I hope you and steve have a good day today." Clark told his wife, getting his stuff together.
"We will. We'll get some coffee and donuts and go get some groceries this morning, and then we can talk, and hopefully he can get some stuff off his chest." replied Diana.
The Kent family was nearly out of milk, coffee cream, and butter. The typical things every family needed for daily living. Clark headed off to work, kissing his wife goodbye, and leaving her to bond with their song for the day. Diana approached Steve while he was playing the saved Command & Conquer game from the day before.
"We're going shopping today, Can I use your muscles?" asked Diana.
"Sure, just let me save." Steve popped up the options menu on the computer, and saved his game so he could come back later and continue.
"Ok, i'll be in the Mercedes." Diana informed her son "Lets get a coffee from dunkins."
Steve knew how his mom loved drinking coffee, and the trait had carried onto him.
After clothing himself in a nice pair of jeans and his Dragonball Z shirt, Steve went out to greet his mother, who had the Mercedes convertible ready to go. He opened up the passenger door rather than hopping over. His mother made it very clear not to do that in her car to keep it in mint condition.
Diana pulled the car out of the driveway, and backed it onto the cul-de-sac, then began driving down the street. The song playing on the radio was "Don't wanna fall in love" By Jane Child, one of her personal favorite songs.
"Can we talk about yesterday, Steve?" asked Diana
"it's nothing mom. I don't want to discuss it." replied Steve.
"You're not going to feel better unless we discuss this." Diana wanted to hear her son's problems so she could help.
Steve sighed and knew he wasn't going to get out of this conversation. His mother wasn't just the type to lean over and let things go. She would've chased him around Cape Horn and the Gates of Hell to get him to speak about his problems, so he just let it out.
"I just wish that people would stop asking me about my you...it's like, hey Steve, your mom's looking good today...hey Steve, your mom looks great in her red swimsuit! Hey Steve, I like your mom's tits...they never stop." Steve wasn't lying when he mentioned the taunt about his mother's anatomy. Diana heard every word and knew what Steve's problem was. She wasn't going to change just because she was beautiful. It was just a matter of Steve getting over it.
"Well, i'm sorry that I look that good." Diana joked. "They're just jealous that your mom takes care of herself that way. Their mothers are probably not as good looking...or they're just fat."
"Could you at least cut back on the revealing stuff when you come pick me up from school, and not have the top down on the Mercedes?" asked Steve.
"Why? It's my life, what if I want to have the top down?" asked Diana.
"It just bothers me! Everyone sees me and they see you! Do you know what boys are doing when they see someone like you?" Steve pleaded with his mother.
"I know...But it's something you're going to have to accept."
"UGH!" Steve gritted his teeth.
()()()
(8:30 AM, Pacific time)
The RCMP detachment in Cultus Lake had it's door pushed open by a very unhappy Kenny. He wanted to speak with the sheriff.
"Hey Delana, is the sheriff in?" asked Kenny to the dispatch.
"Yeah." A beautiful first nations girl turned her back to talk to the sheriff. "Hey Andy, can you come and talk with Kenny?"
Andy walked out of the back, and came through the security door to talk. He already knew what Kenny was there for, and was prepping his ears for a load of anger.
"Yesterday?" asked Andy.
"What's up with those mormons in the hills?" Kenny signaled he wanted to talk outside with the sheriff, who obliged.
"They ain't Mormons, Kenny. Mormons go to church and don't have sex with children. Mormons obey the law like you and I. Those people up the hills, i'd be complimenting them if I called them Mormon." The sheriff told Kenny as they walked through the door.
"At any rate." Kenny walked with the sheriff. "They sexually harrassed my daughter and then one of them came up to me and uttered threats. Get this, they even threatened to call you!"
The 2 men stood at the front of the detachment, and looked off into the distance at the local sports field, which had seen very little use and upkeep in the last 30 years.
"Seems to me, you handled the situation the way I wished everyone could." Sheriff Andy put his hands on the railing on the ramp leading to the detachment. "Smoke?" The Sheriff asked Kenny if he wanted a cigarette, to which Kenny quickly refused.
"Nah." said Kenny "The last time I smoked was when I was in Vancouver 15 years ago. Only reason I ever started was to socialize with the poverty."
Andy pulled out a pack of pall mall reds and lit one up in his mouth.
"I've got my deputies at the beach patrolling for trouble. I've got topless beach parties happening at the campsites that I get complaints about. I've got kids throwing pinecones at passing cars. I've got my hands full, Kenny." The sheriff lit the smoke in his mouth.
"That's not good enough...can't you call in some help from Chilliwack or Abbotsford or something?" Kenny requested.
"You want to call in the RCMP from there?" The sheriff took a drag and blew out his smoke into the air. "They've got enough trouble with the poverty situation and the unemployment boom that happened back when the Syrian refugees came in and took all the jobs that our entitled W.A.S.P. community refused to do. This place is up to it's neck in crap." replied the sheriff "If I could go up there and deal with those people, I would, Kenny. But i've got a young family and so do my deputies."
"So you're scared they're going to come down and piss all over you? Where is your mountie pride?" Kenny sounded a little angry.
"Pride gets a man killed, Kenny." The sheriff took another drag off of his cigarette, "If I were you, i'd watch out...those polygamists don't play nice."
"Well, neither do I. And if they mess with my daughter again, I might just kill them." Kenny had an ice cold drop in his voice when he used the word "Kill."
"Don't. You're a good man, don't convict yourself with murder." replied the sheriff.
Kenny gritted his teeth and spat into the pavement. He wasn't satisfied with the sheriff's reply to his complaint, and the sheriff knew it. But the sheriff was a calm charismatic, and knew how to use his words properly to keep the peace, and to calm down an angry law-abiding man.
"Look." the sheriff took a drag from his smoke. "What goes on inside that compound is largely confidential. Chances are if someone showed up to cause trouble, I really couldn't be able to do anything about it. But...if they come down here and you shot one of them in broad daylight, i'd have no choice but to deal with you."
"So what you're saying is?" asked Kenny
"If you want to go up there, and deal with the situation yourself..." The sheriff pointed at Kenny with his cigarette. "I wouldn't stop you and I wouldn't convict you. Just don't get yourself killed, you've got a family as well, and they need you."
"Thank you sheriff...I didn't have rushing up there to get them in mind, but i'll think about it." Kenny stepped away from the sheriff.
"Just watch out." The sheriff informed Kenny as he walked off.
"I got a patio to work on today, so I gotta get to that. My son's gonna wonder why i'm not there to watch him sand the boards."
()()()
(9:00 AM, Eastern time)
The Mercedes pulled up to the Dunkin Donuts, and the mother and her son entered the restaurant and got in line.
"What do you want?" asked Diana, looking at the vast array of donuts that were available for order.
"Double-double, Chocolate glazed donut." Replied Steve, without even taking a second to breathe.
The lineup eventually moved forward and allowed Diana and her son to get their order in, and sit down to talk some more. Diana took a sip of her coffee and looked over her shopping list before turning to her son to try and start a conversation.
"So how far are you on your game?" asked Diana.
"Well, I just started a new one this morning, and i'm building up a bunch of Russian mammoth tanks."
"Ok." Diana didn't really know how Command & Conquer worked, and was curious about other things a 12 year old boy might be into.
"Any eyes on any girls?" asked Diana
"Mom..." Steve was embarrassed.
"Oh...OK." Diana whispered at her son with a sweet smile.
"Well, there's this one girl in my Science class." replied Steve.
"You should ask her out." Suggested Diana. "You seem to be a nice enough guy."
"Mom..." Steve groaned.
"Why don't you want to ask her out?" Diana's voice lilted upwards.
"Cause she'd reject me." Steve sulked.
"Oh, now that's the fear talking." Diana already had her reply lined up. Steve drank his coffee as his mom talked.
"I had a friend..." Diana paused for a second. "...with the same problem. He was scared to talk to girls, then I made him work up the courage to ask a girl out, and after that, he was fine. Sure, girls can be real jerks too. But you won't know unless you try."
"We'll see." Steve replied.
Diana eyeballed the restaurant and noticed that a few guys were looking at her. She understood that part and had come to accept that being so beautiful meant guys were going to look. But her young son still had to come to terms with it.
Outside of the restaurant, The boy who Steve had beaten up the day before, came rolling in...and saw the parked Mercedes, and then, he looked into the restaurant and saw the boy who had beaten him up from the day before.
"Hey...it's that kid who beat me up." said the boy, who had a black eye and a fat lip.
"Him...hey, wanna paintball him?" asked the boy's older brother.
()()()
Diana followed her son out of the restaurant, and almost instantly, a 2010 Ford explorer rolled up along the side of the restaurant, and the boy who Steve had beaten up, leaned out with a paintball gun.
"Hey!" The boy took aim, and before Steve could see it coming, the boy fired a paintball.
Diana saw it and then, without even realizing it, she leaped in front of her son, and used her wrists to stop the paintballs. Every shot hurt, but for some odd reason she didn't care. She stopped every shot with her wrists, and saw every shot coming. Steve had dove over and saw his mom in action, stopping the paintballs.
"Shit! Let's get!" The boy in the driver's seat barrelled off, while Diana stopped to breathe heavy and realize...her powers were not taken from her.
Diana's eyes widened and she couldn't stop breathing heavily. but Steve was the more shocked one. He had just watched his mother flawlessly stop paintballs without even flinching or diving for cover. She didn't even yell out when the paintballs hit her.
"Mom...what was that?" asked Steve.
Diana had to get her son to think that was a fluke...but there was no way she could.
"I don't know." lied Diana, trying to cover up her powers.
Steve got up from the ground, and figured something was up.
"Mom...you're hiding something from me..." Steve worked up a serious tone "How did you do that?"
"I don't know!" Diana kept defending her lies.
Steve began to back away, completely shocked.
"Steve...let's go." Diana ordered her son.
Steve began to run, with an overwhelming sense of emotion.
"Steve!" Diana watched her son run away, exceptionally fast for what it was worth. As she watched him, even she began to realize the situation unfolding. Did she really lose her powers all those years ago?
To test that theory, she went over to her Mercedes, and lifted up the tire when no one was looking. She had lifted it off the pavement, no problem at all. But how could that have been? She had submitted herself to Clark and she was taught that if she had done such a thing, her powers would be taken away from her.
But they had not. Diana was in complete shock.
()()()
(10:00 AM, Pacific time)
Kenny began sawing the boards to create the deck that he would work on. His son was helping with the work, while Ronda had went to the store to go get a snack.
The TV was playing the morning news on Global BC, and Kenny would on occasion stop to hear about the latest first world problems people had. Then came the news report that would shock him greater than anything that had happened...ever.
"In other news, in Florida, a Superman has emerged from the shadows..."
That name made Kenny turn to the TV, and fixate his eyes on it with the only sounds being the sound of his son sanding the wood in the back. He didn't even bother to put down the boards in his hands.
"At about 11 Am, Eastern time this morning, The young man is seen here flying up to save a young lady who was attempting suicide off The Galleria in Fort Lauderdale. After saving her life, he ran away. Witness reports say the young man was seen entering a late model Mercedes convertible, and being whisked away by a woman who appeared to be in her 20s or 30's."
Kenny dropped the wood in his hand, and slowly walked out to the dock on the lake. His wife had seen what he had done, and knew exactly what he was thinking as he stood on the dock, looking up into the sky. At first, he was silent. He thought to cry out of joy, But then he began to laugh.
His friend, the one he had missed for 13 years, was in Florida.
()()()
At around this time, Kenny's daughter Ronda was walking away from the local gas station/liquor store/convienience store with a bag full of goodies. As she walked, she noticed a GMC Savana coming her way. She saw it turn towards her with the side door open!
"Hey!" Ronda began to run as the van chased her through the parking lot.
"Come back here, lady!" said the young driver, who looked like he was 18 years old and completely clueless as to how illegal his act was.
Ronda ran through the parking lot and the van stopped in front of her, and 2 boys got out and grabbed her!
"Let go!" Ronda wrestled the boys, and eventually kicked one in the balls, and then threw the other one over, and hit him in the face, and continued to run for home.
()()()
(10:50 AM, Eastern time)
Diana drove her Mercedes as fast as she could down the Miami beachfront highway, and followed where she thought her son might be going. She knew this day would come, and now, it was a matter of explaining to him how she was able to block those paintballs. But first, she had to call Clark. She waited till she was at an intersection, and then she picked up her smartphone, and brought up her husband's number.
At the fire department, Clark was doing pull-ups and working out with his firefighting team. It was when Diana called him, he let go of the pull-up bar and heard the news he was expecting, he just never knew when.
"Hello?" asked Clark.
"Clark, he knows...He suspects something." replied Diana
"Steve?" asked Clark.
"Yes, he's off and running. I'm trying to catch him..he's running really, really fast and leaping intersections. Please Clark, can you come out and help me catch him, I don't want him to hurt himself." replied Diana
"We've been getting those reports, we just thought they were pranks." replied Clark.
"You've gotta come out and help me catch him, Clark...I don't want him to get us on the 6 o'clock news!"
"He's probably already done that, but yeah, i'll come and help..." Clark turned to his supervisor to ask if he could temporarily leave to deal with a...Family crisis.
Clark and Diana's son Steve on the other hand had all of the sudden in his run, had the urge to jump, and when he did, he began to jump a great distance. He eventually began high jumping intersections, much to the delight of anyone watching. He had 3 mixed emotions, a bit of sadness, a bit of anger, but a lot of sudden joy. It was like he had been chained up for many years, and now he was free.
During his run, his attention was arrested by a sight of someone standing on the roof of The Galleria in Fort Lauderdale. He slowed down and noticed that it was a young lady, and she was about to jump off the building to kill herself.
"Oh, no!" Steve ran over to see what the problem was.
But by that time, video of him taking great leaps was fast approaching social media and Facebook and YouTube.
Steve looked up and saw the girl. "Hey! Don't jump! Please don't jump!" Steve yelled up at the beautiful mexican girl.
But then, the worst that could happen, happened. The girl lost her footing, and began to fall!
"AHH!" she screamed as she fell from the rooftop.
Steve then leaped up into the air, and caught her in his flight. The girl realized she had stopped falling, and looked at her savior's eyes and was instantly charmed. Steve on the other hand, prepared to make a soft landing, and when he did, he was approached by police.
"That was amazing, Son!" replied one of the police.
Steve handed the girl to a nearby juvenile officer, and then took off as fast as he had entered.
"Hey, come back!" yelled out the cop.
()()()
(10:15 AM, Pacific time)
Back at the Triton residence, Kenny didn't get off the dock for a good 15 minutes. His son eventually had to break him out of his trance.
"Dad...why are you staring at the sky?" asked his son.
Kenny turned to his son with a huge smile on his face.
"It's because...i'm going to Florida sometime today to find out what happened to an old friend of mine." replied Kenny.
"Florida? Can I come?" asked Zakk.
"Not yet...I gotta make sure." replied Kenny, walking back up the grass to the job. But as he walked up, Ronda came booking back scared and crying.
"Ronda? What happened?" Kenny had his arms outstretched.
"They tried to kidnap me! They tried to grab me and throw me in the van!" Ronda hugged her father and held him tightly and didn't want to let go.
Kenny's eyes surged as red as his daughter's eyes. He saw them and it brought him back to when he saw Diana's red eyes and knew someone had hurt her bad. He began to suspect maybe, just maybe, there was some sort of connection.
Josie came out, and she was holding the shotgun and the coat. She looked at Kenny and knew what had happened. She looked angrier than she had ever been before.
"They hurt my baby girl." Josie put the shotgun in her husband's hand, and the trenchcoat in the other "Go do what you've been dying to do for 10 years."
Kenny took the shotgun and the trenchcoat, and for the first time in about 10 years...he became The Coat once again.
"Dad...what's with the gun? What's with the leather jacket?" asked his son, who had no idea about his father's history with that shotgun, and that trenchcoat.
"You stay put, Zakk. Keep sanding the boards." The Coat turned to Josie. "Don't tell him until I come back. We'll talk then." The coat told his wife.
"Be careful, honey." Josie and The Coat had a kiss.
But just as he was about to take off, he could hear some yelling up in the front.
"Kenny! Kenny, get the heck out here right now!"
The Coat muttered a bit of swearing under his breath.
"Go inside, lock the doors...and cover your ears." The Coat put his shotgun in his trenchcoat pocket, and went to the front of his cottage. Waiting for him up front, were 3 young men, all armed with shotguns. The eldest one was about 18 years old, and was the one driving the van that nearly kidnapped Ronda.
"You! Get the heck over here!" yelled the oldest one.
The Coat was using his mind reading ability to tap into the young man's minds. It was almost like he was playing a video game on beginner's difficulty. The 3 young men were holding unloaded shotguns, and the 2 standing aside the oldest one, they were nervous. He walked right by them even as they aimed their shotguns at him, but he wasn't scared as he knew the guns were empty. He looked up into the bright blue sky and kept on thinking about Diana, and how much he missed her...and how he was angry about what these polygamists had done to his daughter.
"Kenny! I'm talking to you, you motherfricker!" Yelled the leader.
"Are you?" The Coat turned to his adversaries. "Then what are you saying?"
"Your daughter! She's comin' with us! Right now!" The eldest of the boys said.
"What if she's not? Are you gonna shoot me?" The Coat replied quietly.
"We'll blow your fricking head off!" The boy replied.
The Coat couldn't help but laugh a little bit.
"You think we're friggin' around?" the boy yelled at the Coat.
"Listen, son." The Coat put his hand on the eldest boy's shoulder. "You tried. You really tried. Now go home before I do something you won't like, OK?"
The Coat mind-picked the young man and found out his name was Joshua.
"You want us to kill you?" Joshua yelled out.
"Listen, Joshua...You and your boys..." The Coat motioned his hands at the other teens pointing shotguns at him. "...They're so inbred and dumb, they probably don't even know how to use those guns. Hell, they probably don't even know how to play with themselves."
"One last chance!" Joshua yelled out, and his buddies pumped their shotguns "Give me your daughter and maybe I won't kill you."
At that moment, The Coat snatched the unloaded shotgun from Joshua's hands and threw it aside, and pulled his own shotgun!
"Oh, shit!" yelled Joshua
"That's right!" The Coat yelled out loudly. "I have a little birdie in my ear telling me that you three are gonna have a problem, since all three of you..." The Coat yelled out very loudly. "Are gonna have to have buckshot surgically removed from deep in your inbred skulls cause I'm going to kill you!" The Coat had not gotten that angry in years.
With that, the polygamists ran back to their van, and The Coat ran to his truck.
()()()