"Training Trials"
A few days had passed since Anne's birthday and the appearance of three anthro animals in Los Angeles. It was still difficult for her to process everything that had happened. She came downstairs one morning and gasped when she saw her dad reading the newspaper. A picture of her, Sasha and Marcy as Calamity Trinity was printed in the day's issue!
"Anne, did you read about what happened a few days ago?" Mr. Boonchuy asked. "There was this crazy fight near the science center involving this superpowered triple-headed girl and three talking animals against a crazy scientist! It's all over the news!"
Anne gulped. Had her parents blown her cover?
"You missed the whole thing!" Mrs. Boonchuy added. "It was awesome!"
"Yeah, I was out with my friends." Anne sighed. Her new secret life was safe, for now. She went upstairs back to her room.
Domino was waiting. "That was too close a call." she said. "If your cover was blown, your parents would ground you for life. Being a hero is extremely risky."
"Can't you wipe their memories or something?" Anne asked hesitantly.
"I cannot. Your heroic actions will need to be remembered so people will know to call you when they need it. Now come along." Domino walked out the bedroom door.
"Where are we going?" Anne asked again.
"To the warehouse district. It will serve as your headquarters and training facility. You need to hone your powers if you are to save the world."
"Just when I thought this couldn't get crazier." Anne followed her now super deity-possessed cat out the front door. "I'm taking Domino for walk!" she told her parents.
"People walk their cats?" Mr. Boonchuy was confused.
When Anne and Domino reached the warehouse, they saw their friends waiting for them.
"There you are!" Marcy said. "I can't wait to start our training!"
"How'd you know?" Anne asked.
"Your cat can send messages to our brains from far away." Sasha answered.
"Did your families see the paper?" Twig asked. "It's all over the place!"
"Thankfully, we are the only ones that know about it." Anne said, but Twig and Molly were a little nervous.
"What did you do?" Anne glared at them.
"Okay!" Twig confessed. "Our grandpa knows!"
"But we didn't tell him, honest!" Molly added. Their grandfather, Humphrey Westwood came out of hiding.
"I'm amazed by you kids!" he said. "Back in my day, the only superheroes were in comics and on screen. Now my grandchildren are friends with some!"
"You won't tell anyone, right?" Sasha asked, making a fist.
"Senior's honour." Mr. Westwood answered. Then, Terri drove her car up. The animals got out.
"How's living with your new roomies goin'?" Marcy asked.
"Not easy." Terri said. "Their fur gets everywhere, Bryan howls at the moon, I trip over their tails, etcetera. But I can't just let them loose on the street, plus, they're adorable!" The boys made cute faces to state her point.
"At least she gives us food, water, and free wi-fi." Jordan added. Then another car pulled in. Two teenage girls got out.
Molly gasped! "It's the IT Gals! I'm a huge fan of your videos! What're you doing here?"
"They heard about the fight, and they wanna help you out!" Terri said eagerly.
"DOES EVERYONE KNOW?!" Anne yelled in frustration.
"Just them." Domino said. "Now, let's get started." Everyone went inside the warehouse.
"This'll make a great base, right, Jess?" one of the IT Gals asked.
"You bet, Ally! Just think of all the gear we can make!" her partner said.
Using her powers, Domino gathered materials from around the warehouse to construct a training course. "Power up, and we'll begin." Anne, Sasha, & Marcy took their pendants, and combined into Calamity Trinity. When that happened, Daniel and his friends powered up, too.
"It seems we can't power up unless they do." Jordan said. "Maybe because they have the full strength of the gems, and we don't."
"That's correct." Domino said. She turned to the course. "Your first lesson is to get to emergencies quickly. Reach the dummy at the end of the course within 20 seconds. But be careful, I have set obstacles to try and stop you. Who will go first?"
Daniel raised his paw. "I will." he said. He took his mark.
"Ready… GO!" Domino started the time. Daniel raced towards a crate hanging from the ceiling. It dropped, but he dodged under it just in time. He then jumped over an old car, and ducked past a cinder block that was thrust towards him. He reached the dummy and tagged it.
"How'd I do?" he asked.
"18.4 seconds. Good job." Domino said. Bryan went next. He finished in 17.2 seconds. Jordan completed his run in the shortest time: 12.3 seconds.
"Very well done, you three. You seem to have a knack for avoiding danger." Domino told them.
"Natural instinct." Bryan said. Anne and her friends were next, but their shared body was going to make this exercise pretty difficult.
Things got off to a bad start when Anne and Sasha argued over whether to jump the crate or dodge it. It dropped on the three of them, but their powers kept them from getting hurt. Marcy then wanted to try ducking the cinder block, but Sasha destroyed it with one punch. They finished the course in one minute.
"Try again." Domino said. The girls did, but they failed again. They retried seven more times, and each was a failure.
"I think that's enough for today. We'll resume tomorrow." Domino said.
"Ugh! If Daniel, Bryan, and Jordan were able to finish the course so easily, why couldn't we?!" Anne groaned as they de-fused.
Jordan thought about that. "Maybe it's because we each have our own bodies, and therefore could get through without trouble. Because you three merge to power up, you're not used to being in the same body."
"He's right!" Marcy said. "We gotta practice being as one both powered-up and not."
Anne knew Marcy had a point. "I got an idea for tomorrow's training."
The next day after school, the girls arrived at the warehouse wearing a white t-shirt with three head openings that had a heart reading "BFF!" on it.
"Where'd you get that?" Bryan asked.
"It was an internet purchase." Anne said. "If we're gonna share a body as heroes, we may as well practice without powers first."
"That does make sense." Twig said.
"Whatever works I guess." Domino added. So, while Daniel and his pals practiced the course, Anne and her besties practiced working as one. Among the things they did were walking in sync, blindfolded trust-feeds, doing a jigsaw puzzle, etc. But their training was cut short when the gems glowed.
"What's the trouble?" Daniel asked. Using her powers, Domino located the problem.
"There's a runaway subway. You need to stop it before it crashes." she said. Quickly, the heroes powered up and set off.
The train was going well beyond the speed limit. The passengers were terrified.
"Why aren't we stopping?" a lady yelled.
"The brakes have failed!" the conductor said. "Only a miracle will save us now!"
Above ground, the team was thinking how to stop the train.
Jordan came up with an idea. "Daniel and I will help the passengers. You guys attempt to halt the subway."
Marcy checked her phone. "The train should be approaching here in three minutes. To the station!" They ran down the stairs.
Bryan heard it coming. "Let's get ahead of it." he told the girls. They jumped onto the tracks, and their powers kept them from being electrocuted.
Daniel and Jordan timed their jump just right, and got on top of a car. The passengers heard them.
"What was that?" a little girl asked. Just then, the roof tore open, and Jordan and Daniel fell in.
"Everyone to the rear of the train!" Daniel ordered. The passengers were shocked at the sight of a talking blue lion and green fox, but they did as they were told.
Ahead of them, Bryan and Calamity Trinity reached a junction. "Which track should we switch it to?"
"There's an abandoned station to the left." Anne said. "You get in front to stop it, we'll pull the switch." Bryan got in position. The train was coming fast!
The strength-powered wolf held up his paws. The girls grabbed the switch, and pulled with all they had. The subway reached Bryan, and he pushed against it. The train moved onto the old line.
"Get everybody to safety!" Bryan said. "I'll handle this!" Calamity Trinity flew onto the top of the train and into the hole in the roof. They reached the last car, where Daniel and Jordan were trying to keep the passengers and conductor calm.
"We are going to get you off the train." Sasha said.
"But we'll get shocked by the rails!" the little girl said.
"No, you won't!" Jordan reassured her. Focusing his brainwaves on the track's electricity, he shut the power of that route down.
Daniel kicked the door off the rear car. "Come on!" he urged. Without hesitation, everybody jumped off the train. Bryan saw that they were reaching a dead end. He punched a hole in the front and raced on all fours to the other end. He got off just in time.
The train crashed into the old station, and exploded! Daniel put up an energy shield to guard everyone from the shock wave.
"Are you all okay?" Anne asked the passengers. There was a pause, then the little girl walked up to Calamity Trinity, and gave them a big hug. The others applauded and cheered.
"You saved all our lives!" the conductor said. The group walked back to the station where they had entered the train. A crowd of paramedics and reporters were waiting.
"We're live in the Los Angeles subway system, where passengers on a runaway train were apparently rescued by three superpowered talking animals, and a three-headed teenage girl who is also superpowered." a reporter from the news channel said.
"Was anyone injured?" "How'd you get everyone off safely?" "What is the secret of your powers?" These were among the questions the heroes were asked.
"Well," Jordan began, "we sensed there was trouble, and ran quickly to help."
"Then, we kept the passengers calm until we could switch the train onto an old line, and get them off before it crashed." Daniel added.
"I made sure to slow it down enough so everybody could get off without injury." Bryan concluded.
"What are your names?" another reporter questioned.
"We're Calamity Trinity!" Marcy said. "And our partners are the Preda-Force 3!"
"Call me Master of Wisdom." Jordan said.
"My name is Lion-Knight!" Daniel told the press.
"And I am Strength-Wolf!" Bryan added.
"If you ever need us, we'll be there!" Anne said, and the heroes left. The crowd cheered and clapped for their new saviours.
When they got back to the warehouse, the group saw their friends waiting for them. They were ecstatic!
"We saw everything! You were awesome!" Twig said.
"You saved all those people, and no one treated you like outcasts!" Ally added.
"Very good job. I am proud of all of you." Domino said. "I guess you are the right ones for the job." The six friends felt very pleased with themselves.
"Can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm looking forward to our next adventure." Anne said. Marcy gave her besties a huge hug.
Daniel spoke to his friends. "I wonder if our families miss us."
"I'm sure they do." Bryan said. "But we will get home. Until then, this city needs us to keep its people safe." They all looked out a window in the warehouse, waiting to see what the next adventure would be.