Hudson breathed through his nose to try and calm his temper- Josh really brought out the worst in him! And he was ashamed every time.
Tory was the first to get over the fact that his fist was no longer flesh and bone, she grunted and turned to join the others who had begun to sit down, Lee and Josh followed her. Hudson was a bit crushed when Chris turned to follow without meeting his eyes.
Hudson flexed his outstretched arm, and his fist turned back to just a normal hand. He opened and closed his fist with effort, it always felt stiff and weird after he turned it to iron- at least, that's what he called the metal- but truthfully he hadn't a clue what kind of metal his hands turned into.
With surprise he realized that Tom was still standing there, hands in pockets and face expressionless.
"Cool hand." Tom grunted.
Hudson grinned, "Uh, thanks."
Soon everyone was sitting down, and Maddy struck a match to start the bonfire as twilight set in around them.
Hudson waited a moment for Tom to join the others, then Hudson approached them and crossed his arms over his wide chest, "So," he began, making sure he had everyone's attention, "Superpowers." He said with a grin.
There were about three different responses; Mike, Tom, Claudia and Jen all grinned foolishly. Lee, Amanda, Josh, and Tory all made some noise of disbelief or disgust at how excited the others were. While Tracy, Alex, Nicky, Ken, Chrissy and Jackson shifted uncomfortably.
"Yeah, that's why we invited you guys here." Hudson confirmed, still smirking to himself about how awesome it was to finally talk out loud about superpowers.
"And where is here?" Ken asked pointedly.
* * *
"Our place." Maddison clarified, she felt terrible for deceiving Ken and the others, especially when Ken looked at her with such a look of betrayal.
"Your place?" Amanda asked with a brief look of disgust.
Maddison laughed, "Yeah, OUR place. Our Dad kind of chipped in most of the money- but yeah."
Everyone blinked in unison at what she had said.
"Your all siblings!?" several people all exclaimed at once.
"You guys look nothing alike." Someone muttered.
Maddy and her younger siblings laughed at everyone's shock; good... they hadn't guessed.
"Yep, and when my little sis and brother found out that they had super powers-" she was interrupted by Chick.
* * *
"I'll start from the beginning." Chick suggested with a bright smile, Maddison nodded for her to go on.
Chick looked around at all the confused face's watching her, over the past few months she had really come to consider them to be her friends... would they ever forgive her?
"Aside from having super powers- we all have something in common." She began, she had practiced how to explain this for months! "We all had grandparents who volunteered for biological warfare testing." Chick let that sit in the evening air for a moment, (she really did like being the center of attention like this) "Nothing ever came of it though- but our Grandfather had a theory." Chick laughed at the memory of her grandfather, "He was kind of a crazy old man, with all these crazy conspiracy theories! One of his theories was that all the testing done on him and the others would have long term affects on their genetics. Turns out that theory wasn't so crazy."
"Waaaait.... What!?" Tory asked, all this was obviously stretching her brain.
"Are you saying that chemical testing done on our grandparents sixty-five years ago- mutated their genetics- and OURS!?" Tracy, the usually quiet one, asked.
Chick nodded.
"Wait- so did they have super powers!?" Josh asked with wide eyes.
"Do our parents have super powers!?" Jackson asked in wonder.
"No- our grandfathers theory was that whatever mutations were done- would skip a generation." Maddison's commanding voice quieted everyone again, "And wouldn't become apparent till late teenage hood."
"But what about our siblings!? I have five- are they all going to have electricity powers!?" Alex asked in fear.
"But me and Jen have the same grandparents- and I'm normal- I mean," Ken stuttered when everyone looked at him in outrage, "I meant- I don't have supernatural powers."
"Neither do I." Maddison pointed out, "And we don't know why some siblings have altered genes while others... don't."
"But when we realized that our grandfather was right," Chick continued, "We also knew that there could be a bunch of others who were finding out they had super powers, and call it luck- or divine planning, but most of you ended up in the same city, the same school- and even on the same quizzing teams!"
"SO YOU HAVE BEEN FOLLOWING ME!" Jen exploded, pointing a finger at Maddy.
Maddison laughed slightly, "Yeah- I was. All three of us were kind of... keeping an eye on you guys. It was hard to track everyone down, and we weren't sure who had powers..."
"And we needed to be sure before we did this." Hudson added.
"So THAT'S why you wanted to know if me and Tom had the same dad!" Tory burst like someone who just got the joke that was told ten minutes ago.
There was a bit of laughter around the group- the kind you have when you realize that the world isn't ending after all, and you'll be ok.
"So, you three have been sending us the notes?" Alex asked after a moment.
"Actually..." Claudia said before Chick could respond, "That would be me." she said with a touch of shame. Everyone looked at her in surprise, "Me and my brother. He wants to get his five minutes of fame by exposing you guys on youtube. He doesn't know about me... yet."
Everyone was quiet.
"You were at Windmill park last week." Alex said quietly.
Claudia nodded, "Yeah, I knew my brother was trying to trick you into using your powers- I went there to stop him."
"You would have been ok though." Hudson said suddenly, "We've known about Colten for a while- and that's why I was at Windmill park last week too." He smiled in apology to Alex.
"I don't think he's given up though." Jackson voiced his fear, "I think he's going to try something at the Quiz finals next week."
"He's not a registered Quizzer." Ken half asked half pointed out, "He wouldn't be able to get inside the building- the quiz finals are in a big church- and in my years, they had big security!"
Everyone breathed a bit easier at that idea.
"We're going to figure out what's happening to us." Chick assured confidently.
"But first," Maddison interjected, "We're going to break records at the quiz finals!"
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