as narrated by Everyone!
1 – Aegis
“I can’t believe you slept through all of that!” I told my sister.
“Sorry, I had some important stuff to take care of. What did I miss?” Jin said as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes.
2- Thundercrash
“You’re mother is due back in town tonight isn’t she?” I asked James, seeing another opportunity for romance sailing away from us.
“Yep. Which is why we’re taking the Lightning Road to Venice.” James said.
“We have a job there?” I asked with a defeated sigh.
“Nope. Reservations. Mom’s going to want a nice quiet evening after beating up three of the War Beasts herself and so if trouble comes looking for us, I intend to be on another continent.” he said.
“And if it doesn’t?” I asked, a smile creeping across my face.
“Oh, I’m sure we’ll find manage to keep busy somehow.” he said with an answering smile.
3 – Professor Daft
“What do you mean Doctor Diminutive has prior art on the capture spheres! That’s preposterous! I don’t care what the videos from 1996 show! He can’t have thought of it first!”
4 – Fire Forge
“I don’t understand why you’re not building those capture spheres into your armor?” Borderskipper asked.
“Pretty much the same reason you don’t jog around with bottles of nitroglycerin.” I said.
“How dangerous are those things?” she asked.
“They fold space and dump things into pocket dimensions. Either of those sound fun to you if I say “oops, it didn’t work quite right.” I explained. “But you’re not wrong though, it just means I need to work on my own version of them. Mwahahaha!”
“Is the evil laugh really necessary?”
“It’s been proven to help the neurons, strange but true.” I said.
5 – Water Glimmer
“I’m delighted that you could join me again ambassador.” I said.
“I am delighted for the invitation. Do you suppose we’ll be interrupted again?” he asked.
“Not if the spells I have cutting off all access to the outside can hold up.” I told him.
“Dear me, am I trapped here then?”
“Till morning I’m afraid.”
“Thank heavens! A night off at last!”
6 – Ghost Step
“Are you sure we can’t talk you into moving to Unity City?” Brandon Danes, the Director of Portal Research for Omniworld Enterprises, asked me.
“I’m afraid not, though I’ll be happy to work with you on a consulting basis. My passion is still for museum collections though and I’ve got a new exhibit of pre-Mayan articles that I’m swamped with assembling.” I told him.
I left out the part where I was literally assembling them myself from the various corners of the world they’d been strewn over. The fewer people who knew I was working with the Investigators the better really.
7 – Wind Walker
“But Daaaaad, I don’t want to move to Unity City, I like it here!” M’Kala whined.
“I know dear, but it’s where I’ll be working.” I told her for the ten thousandth time today.
“I liked it better when you didn’t like people.” she pouted.
“I like it better now that he has credit cards!” Teali said, looking up from the computer she was working on. I saw an E-bay window open on the desktop.
“Oh no! What are you bidding on now!” I asked her, rushing over to see how much of my pending salary my little darlings were frittering away before it had even arrived.
8 – Alil
“I don’t know about going to a regular high school. Aren’t people going to think I’m too weird and scary?” I asked Simon as he helped me pick out a new shirt for school.
“I don’t know. Why don’t you ask them?” he said, indicating a group of kids who were gathered at the end of the aisle. He waved them on over.
I expected them to flood around him. I mean even when he’s not dressed up as Lux, he’s still really cute. Instead though they all came over to me!
“Oh my god! You’re real!” the tallest girl said.
“Yeah, uh,, scales and all.” I told them.
“Sooooo cute!” one of the other girls said.
“Are you picking out clothes?” a third asked.
“Can we help?” the first one said.
“That would be great!” Lux said, “I need to hit the electronics store for a friend, how about we meet up in a half hour?”
I looked at him and saw him smile and nod. Something told me these might be girls he’d arranged to have me meet, but if it meant making new friends more easily, I’d was happy for help.
9 – Heartbeat
“Dispatch is there anything that needs my attention?” I asked as I drifted over the city.
“Negative Heartbeat.” Claire responded. I could hear a laugh trying to escape from behind her words.
“Anything going wrong at all?” I asked.
“Nope. Nice quiet evening tonight.” she said and then added “for you.”
“What do you mean ‘for me’?”
“You haven’t had an off time in the last three weeks. I can’t officially order you to stand down and take a break but, well, let’s just say if you were to catch a movie, a nice dinner and a good night’s sleep you might be surprised at how few interruptions there would be. Ditto tomorrow, and the next day, and if Evelyn will trade with me, the day after that.”
“Are you saying I’ve got four days off?” I asked her.
“No, I cannot officially say that. Especially not when I’m angling to make it five.” she said.
10 – Lux
“And the candles make the ambiance perfect.” I said, lighting the last of them.
“Who are you inviting to dinner?” Fire Forge asked seeing the preparations.
“Nobody!” I said.
“Then who is all this for?” Fire Forge asked.
“You and your date!” I told him.
“Wait, my what now?”
11 – Covalent
“Come on it’s just one little test, we’ve had our powers for so long we’ll be a shoe-in to pass it.” I told Miles.
“You know this is just going to complicate things right? I mean, can you imagine us as full time heroes?” he asked.
“Yeah, I think I can.” I told him.
12 – Stellar
“So how were things while I was away?” I asked my daughter.
“Everything was fine Daddy. Well except for the giant monster. And the lizard men. And the mad scientist that I smashed in the head with a pipe.” Anala said. “But it’s ok. I met a really cute boy afterwards before they brought me into the hospital.”
I started choking on my dinner until I saw the mischievous look in her eyes.
“You really had me going there.” I told her.
13 – Anala
“So do you think you’ll volunteer for the Ambassador position next year too?” Cynthia asked me.
“I don’t know. I was thinking it might be nice to try studying abroad myself. How are the schools on your world?” I asked.
14 – Cynthia
“So that’s my official semester report.” I said in the hypervid display.
“You appear more relaxed my daughter. You have not used formal speech during this entire call.” my father said.
“My friends are rubbing off on me I suppose. I guess studying abroad has given me the perspective you suggested it would.” I said. “Maybe next year I’ll head back home though. I hear we might have some exchange students who will need a good Ambassador to look after them.”
15 – Princess
“You still want walkies?” Master….or Gerry as I am supposed to call him, said.
“You said you wished to do more running. I am offering to run with you. For safety.” I explained.
“But you can run a lot faster than me.” Gerry said.
“I always could.” I said.
“Then why would you want to run with me?” he asked.
“It’s nicer with company.” I said.
16 – Doctor Nightshade
“The work program they have is very progressive.” I observed.
“Yes, but we don’t get to keep any of our inventions, so what’s the point!” Professor Daft moaned.
“I notice that hasn’t stopped you from creating them anyways. You made four new ones last week as I recall.” I said.
“Well yes, I’d be dying of boredom otherwise!” Daft complained.
I chuckled. As retirements went, the inside of a maximum security prison for super geniuses was an unconventional one, but I had to say it felt rather safe too.
17 – Borderskipper
“It would be a shame for all this food to go to waste I suppose.” I said, looking at the spread that Lux had left for Fire Forge and I.
18 & 19 – Moonbow & Helios
“Don’t you get tired of night patrols?” Helios asked me via the comm unit I had in my ear.
“Don’t you get tired of working Overwatch?” I asked him back.
“Depends who I’m getting to watch over.” he said.
“Depends who I’m patrolling for.” I told him.
20 – Waterskimmer
“I missed fighting a giant monster? Are you kidding me?” my old partner complained.
“Fraid so. You should have seen my protege though. She came through like a champ!”
“Aww man, the newbie got to fight the giant monster too! I am so never taking a vacation again!”
21 – Seadancer
“I am sorry great Poseidon, as much as I would be honored to be your champion in the mortal world, I am bound by pledges I have made to another group already.” I said. I couldn’t believe I was turning down the power the god of the seas was offering me, but on the other hand there was nothing like having a good team at your back!
22 – Groundstrike
I was doing a happy dance. It wasn’t cool, or nice, but I was doing a happy dance.
“We both passed you know.” Eric said.
“I know.” I said.
“And it doesn’t really matter that you scored 20 points higher than me.” he said.
“I know.”
“I will get you for this.” he said.
“I know!” I said and kept dancing.
The truth was, he had me already, for ever and ever, but if I couldn’t tease him once in a while we weren’t going to have any fun at all.
23 – Gladius
I looked out over the destruction that was all that remained of the city’s south end.
“Still think I shouldn’t have tried to stop the Beast?” I asked.
“When did I ever say that?” Aegis asked.
“Please, I know what the Wisdom of Athena told you. What the ‘smart move’ was.” I said.
“And yet you still went for a different play?” Aegis asked.
“It seemed like it was called for.” I said.
“You’re probably right.” Aegis said.
“Wait, I’m probably what?” I asked.
“Jason, come one. You and I? We’re wired differently, but there’s a good reason for that. We need someone like you, someone who comes at problems in a different way than the rest of us. Heck, you’re one of the most critical members of the team. I thought you knew that?”
24 – Guan
“A scholarship to Milan? I don’t know Guan, that’s pretty far away.” my Dad said.
“I know, but I could learn so much that way!” I pleaded. I didn’t mention that the scholarship had been set up by the Investigators and that I would be learning a whole lot more than sculpting. To be fair, my Dad didn’t think I knew he was being scouted by a few different hero groups either, so turnabout was fair play.
25 – White Clouds/Psi-Lord Alpha
“Go for it! Go get the stick! Good boy!” I said, watching the little mental construct the War Beast had put together racing after the stick that I’d imagined into being.
“You’re teaching it to play fetch?” Bitter Chocolate asked me.
“It’s a bonding experience, or at least that’s what Princess told me.” I said.
“Interesting? Can I play too?” Bitter asked.
26 – Captain Mercury
“You know you could put your laboratory back together in about a minute of real time.” my mother said.
“Could, but I’m not going to.” I told her.
“Why’s that?” she asked.
“Because today I feel like taking this slow.” I told her.
27 – Stormkick
“I have talked with your father and he is not ok with what you are doing.” my mother said.
“But Mom…” I began before she interrupted me.
“So I have told him, he can come back home and I will go to America and stay with you.” she said.
“What? Really?” I said, floored by the notion that she’s stood up to my father.
“Yes, really. I am so proud of you my Klara. I cannot fight like you can, but you have shown me how important it is to fight the battles that are mine to fight.” she said.
28 – Prismatic
“Will you have time for a protege though with the work that you’re doing with the Psi-Lords?” Operative Jane asked me.
“How do you think I plan to get all the work done?” I asked. “Long term psychic monitoring is wonderful practice when you’re new to your powers and dreadfully dull when you’re as experienced with them as I am. I plan to keep her from losing control while she helps me to keep from losing my mind.”
29 – Spaceshot
“Is there anything I should know about the Mark 2 Fury?” I asked as I strapped myself into the brand new cockpit and let the neural systems calibrate themselves to my mind.
“We improved the top speed a little.” Neil, my primary tech, said.
“How much?” I asked.
“You can pull over Mach 25 now.” he said.
“That’s escape velocity isn’t it?” I asked.
“Oh yeah, there’s also a fully sealed mode on the shields.” he said with a smile.
30 – Farseer
“I don’t understand, why can I only read people’s minds when they’re trying to speak to me?” I asked.
“Our powers all wind up with subtle variations. Yours works across many more people at once than even mine does, so I’d guess that it developed for breadth rather than depth. We’ll work on that, but probably later.” Prismatic explained.
“We’ll work on it?” I asked. “Does that mean you got the okay? Can I work as your protege?”
“You certainly can. Welcome the world of heroes ‘Farseer’.”