Chapter Three

Chapter 3

As I get home, I realize that today is Thanksgiving. My mom calls me for dinner a few minutes after I come in. I sit down for thanksgiving dinner with my dad, my sister Chloe, and her twin Kyle. The turkey smells really good, and my mom sets it on the table. My hunk-of-junk-excuse-for-a-cell-phone rings.

"One second, let me take this," I say. I stand up and walk into my room. I answer the phone. "Hello?"

"Ian, this is Green," Matt "Green" Ganon says through the phone. "There's trouble in town. Big trouble."

"On Thanksgiving?! Do these people ever give us a break?!"

"No, it seems not. This is a never ending battle, and we have to stick it out to the finish."

"I can't leave my family on Thanksgiving!"

"Don't worry, I have a plan. Go back to dinner for about 5 minutes. Ask to go to the bathroom. I'm going to slow down the time in everywhere but Central Park from base. Luckily, the battle's here. It seems the government is trying to kidnap a powered person. I'll send everyone to meet you. Good luck! Green, out!" I do as Matt instructed and soon, I'm out the door. I meet Arlen, Drako, Eddie, Tifa, Michael, and Zoe there. I'm gonna have to explain to Kyle and Chloe why they couldn't come later.
I see not one but two people being chased by government agents in metal suits. The agents seem to have powers, as one is shooting plants out of his/her hands, and the other is shooting water. There is one boy and one girl running. A beam of water surges at the boy, but he looks at it, bored, and it suddenly turns back and hits the agent. The other agent shoots plants around the girl, but she yells something, and turkeys start pecking the vine. I dodge some of the other agent's water blasts and run up, hitting him. Tifa helps me take him down. Arlen turns her hand into a knife, and cuts through the plants. Eddie starts shooting rain to interfere with water blasts. Tifa helps Arlen by cutting the plants with her sword. The water agent is pretty much down now, and Drako throws bits of metal from the his/her suit at the plant agent to distract him/her while Michael attacks him/her. The agent's rocket boots turn on, and the rockets at the the turkey girl. The agent grabs her, and rockets away before any of us can catch him/her.

"No..." I say. "We lost them."

"Don't worry, we didn't," The boy says, "Turkey Girl wasn't real. I have the power to bend reality, so I made her to help me defeat them."

"One question... why the turkeys?"

"It is Thanksgiving, isn't it?"

"I guess. I'm Ian, by the way, Ian Koal."

"I'm T.C., but call me Terror in the field."

"Hi, I'm Arlen."

We all introduce ourselves to Josh. I head home, and the turkey is still warm on the table.

* * *

Chloe and I unwrap the package that Miranda's husband gave me. There is a red triangle with the same symbol on it. Chloe touches it, and she has another vision. I use my charm to see the vision as well. I see green grass, water, and a beautiful land. I realize this is what the government took away. We need to show people this. I see a place where the charm could fit in. I need to broadcast this using the charm. We need the people to see this. They needed to see what they once had. And what they could get back. Our battle did have a purpose. But first, we have the gain the people's trust so they'll listen long enough for us to show them.

* * *

The next day, I explain my plan to the others. We split up into groups of two to stop random street crimes. With an uneven number, I go alone. Riiiiiiing! A bank alarm sounds. I see a man running with a bag of money. I step ahead of him and hit the ground, making him fall. To my surprise, a bolt of plasma shoots from his hand at me. It's too late to dodge. But suddenly, the plasma bolt starts moving the other way. Someone had... pushed it.

"Hi, I'm Proto."

"Let's save the intros for later and take this guy out!"
Proto pushes me at the criminal, and I punch him in the face, knocking him out. The police come to arrest him, and I see something on the floor. I pick it up. I'll show it to the others later. Once Proto and I are further away, I introduce myself.

"Hi, I'm Ian. But in the field, call me Bruiser. So what brings you here?"

"Well, I was looking for you, actually. See, I was in a team with a leader named Stewie, but some of his methods were a little... extreme. I heard about your team, and decided to see if I could join."

"Sure you can. I'll introduce you to the others."

At Tifa's Base...

"This is Proto."

"Hi," Proto says, "I have the power to push or pull anything really hard.

"Cool," Eddie seems interested, "Can I see?"

"Sure," Proto said as he propelled himself quickly around the room.

"Whoa!" Eddie gawks.

"Wait..." I remember the item I had picked up earlier. It looked like some type of calling card. It had an address and the name on the card said "Powers Inc.: Use your powers for you." What was this? Some kind of villain company? Something seemed... off about it. Too obvious. Someone was pulling the strings.

* * *


"Ian!" Eddie runs to me. "I was on my way home when I heard a crash. I think there's a fight going on!"

"Get anyone who was on our original team you can. That's you, me, Arlen, Drako, and Tifa. Get Matt as well."

"Okay," Eddie replies. Soon, we find them all, and we head out to Time Square.

* * *

Boom! Crash! Sounds of a battle are raging. I look over my shoulder and see ruins of something falling. The accident that gave us our powers! I think. Two people are on the top of the ruins, with a bag of what appears stolen items. I can barely see the people fighting the two on the other side. I jump up to the stop, and slam my fist down. But the two are gone. Damn! They must've used super speed. I yell to myself. The four others at the bottom of the ruins all start to attack me. They must think I'm the enemy.

"I don't want to fight!" I yell.

"You were trying to knock that structure on us!" The boy who is seemingly their leader yells back.

"No, I wasn't! But I will protect myself!"
The boy's fist connects with my face. That actually... hurt. I sweep at him with my leg, but miss. I send my fist above me, knocking him higher in the air. I jump up to where he is. I see my allies are all in similar situations. Green and Tifa are fighting the speedster and the other one, who has a gun and looks well-trained. They can take them, easy. Green (Matt) slows down the speedster, and throws his hat right in front of him. He then speeds him up, so he trips right over the hat. He uses Telekinesis to pull to sharp pieces of metal from the ruins and pin the guy down. Good. I see Midnight Breaker (Drako) shooting dark bolts at equally powerful fire bolts from the girl he is fighting. He hits the ground with his bolts, launching him up, then distracting the girl with dark bolts, slams his feet into her head, knocking her out. Ghost (Arlen) is fighting a boy who is taking metal from the ruins and morphing it into dangerous objects. She counters by turning her hands into the same to block. She turns her hand into a bazooka, opposing his sword and small dog with sharp teeth. What has she been watching? I wonder, a little scared. She shoots the dog, which blows up, then the boy. It hits his sword, which is blocking it, but can't resist for long. It explodes, knocking him out. Cloud (Eddie) is fighting a boy who keeps throwing razor sharp cards and flower petals at him. Cloud blocks by making a whirlwind around him. The cards and petals go right back at the boy, but he cuts them with his scythe. The boy makes a vine grow around Cloud, and is about to cut his throat when Eddie sends lightning right in-between them, knocking them both far back and out. Tifa and the evil girl are still fighting. The seem equally matched. Tifa is fast enough to block the bullets with her sword. Whoa. I gawk. Tifa sees something out of the corner of her eye, and taunts the villain to come to her. The villain comes, and is hit by a stray bolt from Drako's fight. Nice teamwork! I think. From above their leader, I hit him in the face, sending him down. But not before he grabs my fist. Soon, we're both plummeting down to the earth. We make contact with the top of the ruins.

"Ow... Had-enough-yet?" I pant.

"Not-even-close..." He pants back. I guess it's time to see who's stronger. We run at eachother, and we're about to punch each other when I get an idea. Just before his fist connects with my face, I jump up lightly, and hit him from behind. I pin him down.

"Who are you and what do you want?!" I interrogate.

"I'm Stewie. And I want to stop those villains."

"My team already did. So, Stewie... you must be Proto's old leader, the one with 'bad means'."

"Ends justify the means," he replies.

"Not always." I answer.

"Right now, they do," he kicks me where it hurts and runs. He wakes up his team. "Misty, Zeke, TFT, let's go!" They start to run.

"No!" I yell. I try to catch up with them, but to no avail. We wake Eddie up and start to go home. I pass where Tifa and Matt fought the villains. I see two more of those calling cards. I pick them up. Yep. They're the same ones.

* * *

Back at base, I explain what I know about the cards to the group.

"In a few days, T.C., Zoe, and I will go do recon at their supposed base to find out more about them," I explain to the group, "everyone else, keep stopping crimes."

* * *

Stopping street crimes has improved our reputation considerably. It's been a while since Thanksgiving. Stewie's team has had to CAUSE crimes and accidents just to keep up. I see what Proto meant by bad means. Still, we needed to do something big. And busting this team of villains could be our big break. That's when it occurs to me that we need a team name.