More Trouble!

by Katrina Kahler

  “Can you even have kids?” I asked her.

  “She cannot!” MAC toned in.

  “Maybe if I upgraded,” Hana replied. Changing the subject, she looked at her iPad. “Security is waking up. I will have them move Stormy to a holding freezer and then thaw Zeke.” She paused for a second. “You sure you want him thawed?”

  “Yes!” I said.

  “Just making sure!” she grinned

  “Speaking of Dad, is he okay?” I asked.

  Hana nodded. “He’s fine. He’s away at a secret meeting.”

  “A secret meeting for what?” I asked.

  Hana winked and laughed. “If I told you, it wouldn’t be a secret!”

  “He’s meeting with UN officials,” Jason said.

  I smiled seeing my BFF. I was glad he had arrived to help diffuse the situation.

  “Why?” I asked.

  “Because they asked him,” Hana said.

  “Look, Hana,” Jason said slowly. “I’m sure Doctor Strong wouldn’t mind Lia knowing. Not only is she his daughter, but she is our top defender.” To further his point, Jason pointed to a frozen Stormy. “I’m also sure Doctor Strong would want Lia to know that he is talking with the UN about the increase of super-powered people appearing in the world.”

  “Thank you, Jason!” I said.

  A few red-shirted security people came to take Zeke and Stormy away. I always smiled at the red shirts. Dad was such a Star Trek geek.

  As the security people carted the frozen duo away, I told Jason. “It’s so nice to see a friendly face.”

  “Ditto,” he replied. “Especially a super-powered one!”

  “Did you know about Stormy?” I asked.

  “No, Hana is much more secretive with me than your dad,” Jason told me. “Come on,” he said, dragging me away from Hana. “Let’s go to the cafeteria; I’ll buy you a milkshake.”

  “Chocolate with pineapple?” I asked.

  “Of course,” he smiled.

  Jason and I sat in the cafeteria and talked for a couple of hours. We talked about everything…my battle with Stormy, saving the little boy at the pool, my problems with Wendi and Patti, why so many super people were popping up. We talked about nothing…the weather, sports scores, zits. That’s the amazing thing about chatting with a great friend, it doesn’t matter what you talk about, just talking with them makes you feel better. Oh, and the milkshake and fries tasted out of this world!

  Dear Diary: I always try to give Hana the benefit of the doubt but sometimes I’m sure she is plotting to make my life more difficult. Bringing Sandy into the lab without telling me seems careless at best. I know though, as a machine, Hana never makes a careless error. Everything she does is with careful calculations. Hopefully, she only did this so she could monitor my reaction in a surprise situation. I hope so, anyway!

  But I actually have to admit, it felt good defeating Stormy. Plus, there is the added benefit of freezing Zeke for a while. Zeke’s a good guy but he can be a little much a lot of the time!

  A Mom Talk

  Arriving home, I found Mom eating dinner with her boyfriend, Oscar Oranga. I liked Oscar well enough. He certainly respected and seemed to genuinely care about my mom. The problem with Oscar was, as an ace TV reporter, he desperately wanted to discover who Super Teen was. Yep, both my parents had significant partners who made my life more difficult.

  Mom saw me come in and she pointed to a seat at the table. “Do you want to join us?” she smiled.

  “Nah, I grabbed something with Jason,” I replied, even though I was tempted by all the food on the table.

  Oscar smiled at me. “Your mom tells me you saved a kid at the pool yesterday. We should do a story on you,” he said.

  “I was just doing my job,” I asserted.

  Oscar persisted. “People will love hearing about a local hero jumping into the public swimming pool to save the day. It might take some of the attention away from Super Teen. I mean, it’s gotta be easy for her, having superpowers and all. It would be great to show the masses that a normal person can still make a difference.”

  “How do you know Super Teen isn’t a normal person?” I asked.

  “Ah, she can fly, fire beams of energy from her eyes and lift up giant tanks like they’re nothing. Plus, a whiff of her feet can incapacitate an entire mall.”

  “That just happened once,” I said, being more defensive than I would have liked.

  “One of my connections said she farted over a village in Africa and knocked it out completely,” Oscar added.

  “Oscar, go home!” I ordered with my command voice.

  Oscar stood up, walked out of the room, out of the house and down the driveway. We heard his car engine start and the car pull away.

  “Oops, sorry, my bad,” I told Mom.

  Mom smiled. “May I assume you need to talk?” she asked.

  Shep wandered over and I gave him a nice pat on the head. I took my shoes off. I breathed a little sigh of relief when Shep didn’t pass out from the smell. For some reason though, Shep decided to stick his big nose right inside my shoe. He inhaled. He rolled over, out cold.

  “Why does he always do that?” I asked.

  “He’s a dog, dogs love smells,” Mom said. “Now, about that talk?”

  Reaching for a bread roll on the table, I looked at her, “I guess I still have some issues.”

  “With Oscar?” Mom asked.

  “With life in general,” I sighed. The force of my breath sent Mom falling back in her seat a bit. “Sorry about that!” I apologized.

  “Hey, it’s not easy being super,” Mom said.

  “You get it. Right? I mean, I love being super and helping people and taking out the baddies. But at times, I wish I was just a normal girl. Then I’d still have responsibilities but none of them would be saving the world from other super beings. And more and more super beings are popping up.”

  “Yeah, Jason texted me about Stormy and how you took her down,” Mom said. “He was quite proud of you.”

  “Well, just this week alone I’ve run into Stormy and that Jamer girl and Large Marge. That’s a lot of new bad in a week. Not to mention Paula who still wants to be my arch-rival. Also not to mention that I already have an arch-rival in Wendi. Man, I’d love to make Wendi think she was a poodle.” I smiled as I let my mind drift off to thoughts of making Wendi roll over and fetch a bone.

  “Yes, but you can’t abuse your command power,” Mom said. “That’s a slippery slope!” she warned.

  I took another bite of the bread roll. “Yeah, I know. Yet it’s so, so, so tempting at times.”

  Mom frowned and then changed the subject. “I understand your dad is at a conference with the UN, trying to figure out why so many new super people are popping up.”

  “It seems everybody knows about that except for me,” I told her.

  “I don’t think he wanted to worry you. At least, not until he had a better idea as to what the UN has in mind.”

  “I appreciate that,” I said. “But I’m not a kid.”

  “Actually, you sort of are,” Mom noted.

  “Well, I am a super-powered kid,” I said.

  “Still a kid! And we’re your parents, it's our job to worry for you,” Mom insisted.

  “I’m a kid who is probably the strongest person on the planet,” I replied adamantly.

  “Strength without wisdom and control can be dangerous,” Mom lectured me. She pointed at Shep, knocked out by a whiff of my shoes.

  “He did that himself,” I insisted.

  “And Oscar just decided to get up and leave on his own, did he?” Mom remarked, looking me in the eyes.

  Glancing away, I admitted the truth. “Okay, restraint isn’t always my strong point. Sometimes a girl just needs to talk to her mom.”

  “Fair enough,” Mom nodded. “What do you want to talk about?”

  Shaking my head, I confessed. “You know…I don’t really know. It’s just that my friends and Adam are all gone for the summer
and I feel alone and outnumbered.”

  “You have Jason and Zeke,” Mom said.

  “Jason is a help for sure. Somehow, Zeke also can prove helpful at times,” I found myself surprised to admit that. “Still it’s always nice to have backups to my backups.”

  “What about that Piper girl who helped you with the animals at the park? She could be an ally.”

  “She’s so young,” I said.

  “So are you,” Mom smiled. “I would imagine it would be useful to have an army of animals at your side.”

  I nodded slowly. “Yeah, I guess it would be nice fighting with the animals instead of against them. But I don’t know how to contact her.”

  “Well, you are a smart, resourceful girl. I am sure you will find a way!”

  “I hope so!” I paused for a moment to consider something that had just come to mind. “Why do you suppose the UN is so interested in super people?”

  Mom laughed. “Why wouldn’t they be? They want to make sure that the super people aren’t a threat.”

  “I’m not a threat,” I insisted.

  “Well, you could be,” Mom said. “And can you imagine an entire squad of you, or Tanya, or Kayla?”

  “That would be bad,” I agreed. “So why do you think there has been an influx of super beings?”

  Mom shrugged. “No idea. Let’s just hope that change is good.”

  I heard a knock at the back door which could only have meant one person. “Come in, Jason,” I said.

  Jason walked in and put his laptop down on the table. He pointed to a report on the screen. “We may have a problem…”

  “Of course we might,” I said. “What’s going on?”

  “I’ve picked up word of another procession of diamond carrying trucks just outside of town. They will be here in an hour,” Jason said. “They’re heavily guarded, but I am guessing they can’t stop Large Marge and Jamer Ju.”

  “Those two are tough,” I said.

  “True, but now you have me!” he grinned.

  Smiling back, I nodded eagerly, “Let’s roll!”

  Dear Diary: I have so many thoughts racing through my mind right now. But none of them really matter at the moment. I feel confident knowing that if Jason and I can stop Jamer and Large Marge, that will be a big step towards helping me feel more capable.

  And I’m sure that together, Jason and I can handle those two!

  The Battle

  Jason and I darted into the sky and flew out of town. The three large trucks carrying the jewels were taking back roads. I guessed they wanted to do their best to sneak past Jamer and Large Marge. At first glance, it seemed we had beaten Jamer and Marge to the scene. That was until we caught sight of a figure zooming past us. Looking up, we saw Jamer riding her flying skateboard.

  “I see you brought a friend for the rematch, Super Teen!” she smiled. “Good! The more the merrier.” She blasted Jason and me with jolts of electricity from her hands and her feet.

  The electric energy crackled through the air, zapping Jason and me. I absorbed the power easily and Jason’s armor took most of the blast without problems.

  “Impressive,” Jamer told us. “But I’m just warming up the generator!” she joked. She pointed at us again.

  Jason fired a seemingly harmless rubber ball at Jamer. The ball smacked into her, covering her in some sort of purple sticky goo. Jamer plummeted from her skateboard.

  “Oops, that might have worked too well!” Jason gasped.

  I zipped down after her. After all, we wanted to stop her, not splatter her over the ground. Reaching out, I managed to grab her and lowered her safely down.

  “Thanks, hard to control gravity when I am covered in goo,” Jamer told me. “Nice move BTW!” With her head, she indicated her mom who now had to be over fifty feet tall. “But good luck calming her down!”

  “Oh, I so have this!” I replied confidently. I flew at Large Marge, who now had to be at least sixty feet tall. I hovered in front of her face. “Okay, large lady, settle down now before I put you down!”

  Marge stomped a huge foot towards me. The stomp shook the ground, knocking over the trees all around me. One of the falling trees whacked me in the head. Marge laughed, even though the tree took far more of a beating than I did.

  “Ah, I see you like the classy humor!” I told Marge. “Time for you to take a nap!” I shouted as I flew at her. I belted Marge in the nose. Marge stumbled back, staggered by my blow. “Awh, I barely tapped you!” I taunted. I shot at Marge to finish her off.

  A solid brick wall appeared in the air between us. Crashing into the wall, I crumpled to the ground.

  “Ouch,” I said. I had never hit such a solid wall before.

  Pushing myself back to my feet, a laser blast hit me in the back. I felt the raw heat, but it didn’t really hurt. Looking up, I saw Paula hovering above me. Now her suit had eight metallic arms and four ominous looking wings with missiles on each of them. Two of her arms were holding a woman dressed in a black top hat and a dark pantsuit. She also wore a black mask. She had the look of a deranged magician.

  “Who’s your friend?” I asked Paula.

  “My name is Ms. Trickster!” the lady said proudly. “I am a master illusionist!” she taunted.

  “Ah, so that explains the brick wall out of nowhere!” I said. “And the fake flying monkeys earlier.”

  Ms. Trickster nodded. “You are a smart girl, Super Teen!” she said.

  Paula lowered Ms. Trickster to the ground near me. I could hear the diamond trucks heading down the road.

  “How do you like my new group…The Ladies of Mischief?” Paula asked me. “Or LOM for short.”

  I actually thought it was an impressive display of power and that Jason I could be in trouble here. Regardless of that, I said. “Not bad…”

  “My team and I have you outnumbered four to two!”

  “Yeah, I consider those to be pretty even numbers!” I told her.

  Paula stared at me and I took in her bright magenta colored hair and confident smirk. “See, that’s why I am a super brain and you are not!” She smirked. “Four is much greater than two!”

  “Ha! But there are three of us good guys!” We heard Zeke’s voice call out from above.

  Looking up, we all saw Zeke flying through the sky towards us with his jetpack on his back. Once again, he was flapping his arms as if that would help. We all watched as Zeke overshot us. He suddenly stopped, turned, and plummeted to the ground, hitting the earth with a decided thud.

  He raised a thumb and said, “I’m okay!”

  “Okay, so now it’s two and a half to four,” Paula laughed.

  “I’m still confident,” I said.

  Paula laughed even harder. “Not sure what data you’re basing your confidence on!” Aiming her wings, she launched the missiles at me.

  Each of the missiles pounded into me. I puffed out my chest and took the hit. The missiles exploded on contact. I brushed off the debris left by the missiles. “Please, is that all you have?” I taunted.

  “Look out!” Jason called from above.

  Turning, I saw Large Marge’s giant size-one hundred foot hovering over me.

  She stomped down. I darted to the side and the foot missed me by a fraction and shook the ground all around me.

  “Drat! Hold still, you little terror!” Marge demanded, shaking her fist at me like an angry old woman warning me to stay off her lawn.

  “I’ll keep the illusionist and Paula busy!” Jason told me via our communication link. Jason fired some stun missiles at Paula and Ms. Trickster. “Missiles don’t fall for illusions!” Jason said proudly.

  The missiles froze in midair. They dropped to the ground. “They may not fall for illusions but they must obey the laws of gravity!” Jamer told us.

  “Oh, Jamer,” I said, glancing at the fallen missiles.

  Large Marge took advantage of my lack of concentration by stomping on me and driving me to the ground with her foot.

  “Ouch!” I moane
d from underneath her giant heel.

  “You really should pay attention, little girl,” Large Marge laughed.

  “Mom, don't squish her!” Jamer called.

  “Don’t worry, I’m just going to apply enough force to knock her out, not flatten her,” Marge said.

  “Speaking of gravity!” Jamer Ju said to Jason.

  “Yikes!” Jason shouted.

  I heard him crash to the ground.

  Okay, things looked bad. We were beat up, but we weren’t beat. Like a wise man once said, ‘I have not yet begun to fight.’ Okay, I had begun to fight somewhat, but I still had some fight in me. Summoning all my strength, I pushed up and forward, forcing Marge’s foot up into the air. Darting up and out, I flew behind and her and hit her in the butt with a blast of heat vision.

  “Youch!” Marge yelled, jumping forward and rubbing her now smoking behind. “How rude!”

  “As opposed to stepping on me?” I questioned, my eyebrows raised in annoyance.

  “Touché,” Marge said. She held her breath. She turned red. She grew another thirty or forty feet.

  Okay, now this didn’t look good for Jason, Zeke or me. We needed a break. Just then I heard an unexpected voice. “Come on, let’s help the good guys!”

  Turning in the direction of the voice, I saw Piper riding on a large white horse. Piper and the horse were being followed by an army of dogs and cats. Piper had clearly summoned a few hundred of each to her side.

  “The animals and I are here to help you!” Piper told me.

  Jamer, who had been about to blast us with some sort of energy beam, lowered her arms. “I’m not going to fight a bunch of cute and cuddly animals!” she said. “I don’t mind robbing the rich and giving to the poor. But this? Nope. I’m an animal lover!”

  Paula snickered. “Okay, so we’ve lost our advantage but we can still win this!”

  “Who’s we?” Ms. Trickster asked her. “My powers don’t work on animals! I need human brains to trick.” There was a puff of smoke and she disappeared.