Looking for a Hero

16 Babysitting

Reena's hair was in a messy ponytail as she ran down the stairs to her two year old's crying.

"Oh Missy. Is quiet time over?" she held onto her baby.

She had gone upstairs for an extra baby blanket for Blinding Fast's son, Slow Mo.

Somehow her house was the current place to have the babysitting center, or it was her turn to be the lead babysitter. She couldn't remember.

"Marc, I need some help here," she told him through the com bracelet.

Marcus ran down the stairs too holding Wheels, Miracle's son.

About two years ago, Abigail called Miracle from the hospital and abandoned their son there after birth. Miracle took up the mantle as a single father.

"Slow Mo wants to play, so I grabbed this blanket for him to crawl on," Reena handed him.

He nodded and took it from her before walking past her.

Reena heard a reverberating cry and ran towards the kitchen where she saw Vox asleep in the chair. Her hand holding a bottle above her daughter, A Capella, who was crying.

Reena grabbed her bottle before it floated away. She gave the child the bottle before running out to check on Tech's son, Wildcard.

He was the oldest of the bunch, but he also had the weirdest powers. She didn't want to find him as a stuffed animal again that was horrifying to see Missy teething on him. She was so worried she had hurt him that she had sobbed on the ground for an hour.

She was just lucky the twins were with their parents today. They were so tiny but strange things happened around them. She would find herself doing the same thing over and over again, or she would forget to do something like she had already done it.

"Hey, I thought you had Missy," Marcus called over his com.

"I do. That's Facemaker," she told him.

Facemaker, Crushing Low's son. He kept getting all the babies switched around.

Chloe wasn't dealing well with the face changing, and she was worried the woman would divorce Crushing.

"Ours is bigger, remember?"

"Right. Oh I miss that."

Reena found Wildcard playing with some blocks on the floor. Luckily for them nothing was singed yet or frozen or melting or floating or disappearing. He hadn't disappeared either which was good because that had given her a heart attack too.

Last time he did that, Tech said he landed in his arms on a mission. Since then, Lisa normally took care of him full-time, but she needed to take care of her mother at the hospital right now.

She met Marc in the living room. His arms had a baby that she was sure was Facemaker because Wheels was zooming around in his bounce chair that Tech build, but his face was one she didn't recognize.

Wheels had a special chair build for him because his muscles were too strong for his bones. Poor thing struggles to walk, but he took to the chair like a fish to water. She was a little jealous of his adaptability.

Marcus was pegging his computer at the moment.

"I will never understand how Anita did it," Reena admitted.

Marcus glanced at her to continue but continues his typing. He was moving the guards around to give a better security instruction in the case of alien attack again.

"Did you move everything around the house all the time? I'm just lucky that Missy hasn't done anything weird," she said exasperated.

"Weird?" Marcus asked but wasn't offended.

He understood she was getting frustrated. Both of them had become the central babysitting service, and since he was the leader of the Heroics, he was pushed towards the field work side while she was left with all the super babies.

He remembered finding her sobbing on the floor thinking that she had allowed Wildcard to get hurt or worse when he turned into a plush that Missy was chewing on.

"I think I'm going mad, Marc. Every time I turn around someone's floating or appearing or turning my house into a forest fire, and now you're holding a small version of Sharkboy," she pointed to the baby in his arms.

"I'm gonna say. Now's a bad time to say that Noodles is coming over in ten minutes," Marcus sheepishly said.

"Where's Invisi being sent?"

"Large cartel theft in New York."

"I'll go wake Vox. I was hoping to let her sleep, but I think I can hear my dishes being broken," Reena said and ran off to find A Capella screaming so high all the glassware in her area was cracking.

"I'm so sorry. I'll pay for those," Vox apologized.

"Don't worry. I've been meaning to get some plasticware," Reena consoled.

If Reena was having a hard time, she knew Vox was going through it much worse. She had Marcus to help her, but Vox was doing it all on her own. She wasn't gonna let that happen.

"Reena," Marc's voice sounded through the bracelet.

"If you're about to tell me that the Twins are coming over, I will divorce you on the spot," she gave her most serious voice to him.

"I.. no... I got it," he said and cut the link.

"You're going great, Reena. I promise...," Vox's voice trailed off because a long dangling arm was reaching for Reena's ponytail.

Vox gently swatted the hand away.

"I guess Noodles is here," Vox said.

She grabbed A Capella and walked out of the kitchen to find the baby.

Reena walked over to see Marcus with a pen in his mouth and bopping his head against the keys while he was holding Facemaker and Noodles.

She reached over and began to read the report. It was over the alien attack that happened yesterday.

"Hey! This works!" Vox shouted to them, but her voice sounded slow.

They both got up and went to the other room to see Vox holding Slow Mo and letting her daughter cry. It slowed down her voice enough to keep it from moving things around.

"I don't know how that works, but I'm not gonna argue against that solution," Reena said.