Sarah's POV
I pull away from Henry, and stare at him. I bite my lip and grin sheepishly.
"Too much?" I ask, still not believing I did that.
"No, actually. It was just right." Henry grins before he pulls me back and kisses me again.
We're standing there for a bit, before I decided to pull away.
"Well that was interesting." I say shyly.
"You could say that." Henry grins sheepishly.
"We should probably go, right?" I ask, pointing upwards in the direction of the tube.
"Oh yeah. Probably should."
Henry wraps his arm around my waist, and taps his belt buckle with his other hand.
"Up the tube!" He yells.
In seconds we're standing with everyone else.
"What took you guys so long?" Charlotte asks accusingly.
"I dropped my phone, and had to find it." I answer at the same time Henry guilty blurts out;
"Nothing!"
Ray and Charlotte give him a suspicious look, while I turn around to glare at him. He just shrugs at me.
"So how are we getting there Ray?" I ask, changing the subject.
"Well, as nice as your parents flying vehicle is, we're gonna take the man van." I nod my head. "Follow me." He adds, leading us outside.
We pile into the man van, with the 5 of us all in it, it's a little squished.
"Ow! Quit elbowing me in the boob!" I exclaim, giving Debbie a dirty look.
"That's not even me! It's Henry!" Debbie replies, sounding annoyed. Henry flashes me a sheepish look, and puts his arms back at his sides.
"Everyone good back there, now?" Ray asks from the driver's seat.
"Yeah, we're good." I answer.
Ray pulls out of my driveway, and guns the engine.
"Ray! You may be a superhero by there's still a speed limit!" Charlotte yells, sitting in the passenger seat.
"Everyone just relax. We need to get there as soon as possible." Ray replies.
"Do we even know where we're going?" Henry asks.
"I do." Ray replies, silencing the rest of us.
We continue driving for about 20 minutes, and we're all bored out of our minds.
"We're here." Ray says suddenly, and grimly. We all perk up, and peer out the windows. There's nothing really here, it's rural, with lots of long grass, and hydro towers distributed throughout sparse fields.
"Where even are we?" I ask. Ray turns down a hidden turn off of the main road. It's extremely overgrown, making it dark, and you feel claustrophobic, surrounded by so much green.
"It looks like your parents are being held in an old electric generator station." Ray remarks.
"A what?" Debbie asks for clarification.
"That." Ray says, as we exit the tunnel of green, and standing in front of us, is a huge abandoned building, electric hydro wires running through it.
Ray parks the van under a group of trees, effectively hiding it from anyone lurking inside the building.
"What's the plan, Dan?" Charlotte asks.
"Don't you mean 'Stan'?" Henry says to her, unneeded sass added.
"No, I meant Dan." She retorts, rolling her eyes.
"The plan," Ray starts, interrupting them and shooting them a look. "Is to get in there as stealthily as possible and find your parents." He looks at Debbie and I.
It's starting to get darker out, so moving towards the abandoned building without being seen, should be easy. Easier said than done, that is.
Ray motioned us all to move at the same time, as fast and silently as we can, to a side door. The door is unlocked, and Ray pushes it open.
"Okay, we'll split up into groups of two, and I'll be on my own." Ray dictates. "And split up the powered people." He adds, motioning for Debbie and I to stand apart.
"I'll go with Debbie, I guess." Charlotte says.
"Oh wow I see how it is." I say sarcastically to her. She sticks her tongue out at me. We're just teasing though.
"Come on Henry." I say, waving him over to me. He grins and walks over.
"Alright, we all know the plan. Contact the rest of us as soon as you have a visual on the superheroes. Let's go!" And with that, we all split up into different directions.
As soon as we're clear of everyone else, I turn to Henry.
"Hey." I whisper.
"Hmm?" He turns to face me. I grab him up in a hug, taking him by surprise. He eventually hugs me back, but only for a second, before pushing me away.
"Sarah, need I remind you, we have a job to do. Rescuing your parents?"
"Right. Sorry." I say quickly, blushing.
He turns around without answering, and continues walking down the dimly lit hallway. I shrug it off. It was a little too forward of me for the situation I guess. I continue to follow him down the hallway. We stop in front of a doorway. I crouch down, and put my hand next to the small slit opening at the bottom.
"What are you doing Sarah?" Henry hisses. "Do you have some kind of power that's lets you feel the air or something?" I scowl at him.
"No, you idiot. I'm just seeing if I can tell the temperature of the room and if the air's moving or not so we don't walk in on a fire or something and get ourselves killed." I roll my eyes, and he stays silent.
I crack the door open, and peer inside. It's even worse in the dimly lit department than the hallway. It looks like only emergency power lights are on in here. I creep in slowly, Henry following behind me.
The huge room appears empty, and neither of us see anything of interest. We walk a few paces around, but nothing sticks out. We turn to leave, seeing as there's nothing appealing in here.
Just then, the lights turn on, blazing away.
"So nice of you to join us!" A familiar voice calls out, in an all too cliché type of tone. We turn to face the voice, and see Charlotte and Debbie, tied up and gagged on a platform above us.
"What do you want from us? And where are the Superheroes?" I yell at the villain standing high up above.
"Well, I can tell you, they're not here." The voice cackles back.
"Stop lying, I know they're here!" I return evenly.
"Aha! Picked up our fake signals did you? You weren't supposed to figure that out. That was to fool the stupid governing heroes and you should have left it alone!" The tone is almost angry.
"We did have a bit of help." I grin smugly, as I can see Ray sneaking up behind them.
"Help? From who? Captain Man? Bah! Where is he now when you seem to need him the most?" Lord X looks me, rolling his eyes.
"Right here, slimo!" Ray yells, coming out of the shadows and jumping at the villain.
"Ah!" Yells Lord X, as Ray tackles him to the ground.
They continue to struggle, Henry and I look at each other, monitoring the fight, but unsure of what to do.
Suddenly, Ray falls to ground with a thud, not moving.
"Thank you for that, your new weapon is most effective." Lord X says to someone.
"No problem, it's always fun beating Captain Man." The Toddler's voice drifts down to us.
"Hey! What did you do to him? You can't hurt him, he's indestructible!" Henry yells angrily.
"Well since our deal with your friendly superhero friends for their surrender means we can't harm you children, their sidekicks, but there's nothing against capturing Captain Man, so we'll be taking him too! And The Toddler's new stun device is wonderful." Lord X replies to Henry.
"What do you mean, the superheroes surrender?" I demand.
"Well they surrendered to keep you safe, since we showed them how easily you could be hurt." The villain's grin disgusts me.
"Why do you even need them to surrender? Your only plan is to flood Swellview!" I point out.
"To the contrary my dear, I've realized, as you put it, my plan is 'lame'. My new one involves destroying or beating every superhero. Starting with Swellview, then expanding to the entire world!" Lord X cackles.
"What would that even accomplish?" I ask. "You have nothing to gain. And I don't even see how you plan to succeed with this." I add.
"It's quite simple really, you four are irrelevant and powerless to stop me, and with all the superheroes in Swellview accounted for, there's no one to contact the rest of the superheroes, assuring my victory!"
"Our victory!" The Toddler chimes in, still using his weird, babyish voice.
"Whatever." Lord X growls.
"You still have nothing to gain!" I point out.
"Incorrect child. How much do you think villains will pay to live in a city completely free of superheroes? And where I control all the realty around? I can make quite a bit of coin my lovelies." Lord X smiles sweetly at me.
"Well you still have to let my friends go!" I exclaim, unsure of my next move. Even with my powers, I know I can't take them, they have too much experience. And I don't think Debbie is in any place to fight using hers.
"Very well, but then you must go!"
"Fine." I grumble.
He pushes a button, and Charlotte's and Debbie's restraints fall to the floor. They rush over to Henry and I.
"What's the plan?" Debbie breathes.
"We retreat and regroup." I reply.
"What're you? Crazy? We have no one to regroup with! You heard him, we have no way of contacting other superheroes. And what about Ray?" Debbie returns, getting frustrated with me.
"Just trust me, won't you?" I ask pleadingly. I'm still questioning myself, but I know my way will work.
She gives me a hard calculating look, mulling it over.
"Okay, let's get out of here."
I grab Charlotte and help her out, Henry doing the same for Debbie.
We make it outside, and into the car.
"Anybody know how to drive?" Charlotte asks, looking at the problem we're facing now.
"I got it. Just get in the back." I reply.
I get us home within an hour, and only with a few minor kinks. Thankfully no one pulled us over to question our age. I put the car in park and shut off the engine.
"We're home." I say. "Well, mine at least." I add. Henry, Charlotte and Debbie look at me grimly. "Would you guys rather stay here tonight? In this insane fortress." I offer.
"Sure, I mean, there's no one at my place." Debbie says.
"I'm sure our parents will let us." Henry adds, motioning to him and Charlotte. To which Charlotte nods in agreement.
"Perfect. Girls in my room, and Henry, you can have the guest room. I suggest we all go get settled." I smile.
I lead them inside and make sure to activate the security system behind me. We make our way upstairs to the bedrooms. I show Henry his room, and grab a blow up mattress for my room. There's already an extra bed that pulls out from under mine so I only need one mattress.
I get all the bedding set up, and since it's not that late, get everyone some food for dinner.
Henry has come into our room to eat, and it's the first time since this morning that we can relax, even if it's only for a brief moment.
We finish up, and I grab the dishes.
"Here, let me help you." Debbie says. "After we bring them downstairs, we can head to base and don't some research and training." She offers. I grin.
"Sounds good."
We make our way downstairs and try to do some research on contacting other heroes, but our hearts aren't really in it, as we're tired and depressed from today's adventures. We also aren't having any luck. We decide to train for a bit, and work for an hour or so.
"Knock, knock." Henry's voice drifts through the door that's open a crack. We stop and open the door for him.
"Hey." I say.
"Hey." he replies.
"Why don't we call it a night?" Debbie says, and leaves for upstairs.
Henry moves up closer to me, and I move to lean against him, but he resists.
"Is everything okay?" I ask, surprised and a little hurt.
"I don't know Sarah. Today was really intense. I think that the emotional stuff was kinda out of place today in the field, but I really like you. I also can't figure out why it took you so long to do that. Sometimes you've been so mean." Henry says seriously.
"I'm sorry, it just took me awhile to figure it out. And I just wanted to do something about it when we were in the field. I understand it was out of place and it won't happen again. Now can I have a hug?" I ask, smiling cheekily.
"No Sarah. Now it's my turn to figure things out." Henry replies. "Good night." He turns and leaves.
I stand there for a bit, hurt. But I guess I can see where he's coming from. I just thought he'd be a bit more supportive and kind since my parents and everyone we know that can help us are currently captured. But I don't think I can do anything else about it.
"I guess it's time for sleep, but that doesn't mean it's a good night." I mutter to myself before retreating to my room, where the others are already asleep.
A/N: Earlier in this book, Sarah exposes internet in Alex from target. These are not personal belies or opinions in any way. Especially after that new haircut.
Now that's taken care of, we can move onto important things, like...... MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS (if you don't celebrate Christmas or anything, happy winter break!) So sorry for not updating in forever, I've gotten so busy with school, and I've been sick a ton, but hopefully you like this new chapter. Comment and let me know,
-Lg_8989 :)