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  Unfortunately, before Blizzard could call Tom down, the cat quickly vanished down the hallway out of sight. She wondered if he was going to tell Rebecca what he saw.

  What am I thinking? Blizzard thought, following Ralph across the entryway to the living room on the other side. He’s just a cat. He can’t talk. He can’t tell anyone anything.

  “Mister and Missus Ricker,” said Ralph as he passed through the entrance to the living room, “Emily has finally arrived, along with her friend.”

  Excited to see her parents again, Blizzard looked around Ralph to see both of her parents sitting on the main sofa in the living room. Despite being in his early forties, Dad looked more like he was in his early thirties, primarily thanks to his muscular arms and his red polo shirt, which displayed his muscles quite well, which told Blizzard that Dad was still working out. And Mom was as beautiful as ever, her long white hair flowing down her back like water, while her light blue sun dress accentuated her figure quite well. The two of them appeared to have been watching the news, which was talking about President Plutarch’s upcoming visit to Phoenix, but Blizzard paid no attention to that.

  She just ran over to her parents, who rose from the sofa as she ran over to them. Blizzard ran into Dad’s arms and hugged him tightly, saying, “I missed you guys so much!”

  “Wonderful to see you again, Emily,” said Dad, his voice as deep and reassuring as ever. He hugged her even tighter than she hugged him before letting go and saying, “We are so glad that you came to visit. Ever since you went off to join the Young Neos, it has been rather quiet around the house, even with Rebecca and Tom.”

  “Yes, we’ve been so worried about you,” said Mom. She hugged Blizzard briefly and said, “And is it me or have you grown up while you were away? You look so much older than when you left.”

  Blizzard just smiled. “Oh, you know how it is. Fighting supervillains and saving the world is pretty stressful.”

  “Yes, but it is also highly rewarding work, is it not?” said Dad. He put a hand on her shoulder and looked her in the eyes. “Emily, your mother and I are proud of you and everything you’ve done. We’ve always wanted our daughters to make the world a better place, although I will admit that even I didn’t think that would include one of you becoming a superhero.”

  Blizzard smiled sheepishly. She never handled praise very well, even from her own parents, but thankfully she didn’t have to say anything, because Mom suddenly looked at her friends and said, “And are these your friends? The other Young Neos?”

  Before Blizzard could introduce them, Bolt suddenly stepped forward, holding out a hand toward Dad. “Hi, Mr. Ricker. I’m Bolt.”

  Dad took his hand off Blizzard’s shoulder and shook Bolt’s hand. “Nice to meet you, but I don’t believe you’re actually a superhero.” His voice suddenly became serious and his grip on Bolt’s hand tightened, like he did not want Bolt escape. “I think you’re a supervillain, and the worst kind, too.”

  Even though Bolt had super strength, he didn’t seem capable of breaking Dad’s grip. He leaned back slightly, an alarmed look on his face. “What … what do you mean I’m a supervillain? I’ve never done anything evil in my life. Well, never intentionally evil, but—”

  “Because you stole my daughter’s heart,” said Dad, his voice and face as dead serious as ever.

  He looked at Bolt for a full second with that same serious expression. But then his face broke into a smile and he laughed, a deep, booming sound that made the rest of the team jump in alarm. Not Blizzard, however. She just groaned. She had expected Dad to do something like that, but she’d hoped he would keep his embarrassing side a secret for at least a little while longer.

  Bolt, on the other hand, just looked confused, but relieved as he let go of Dad’s hand. “Um …”

  “It was just a joke,” said Dad, patting Bolt on the shoulder. “You seem like a fine young man and certainly a good boyfriend to my daughter. I approve.”

  “Yes, he’s a very handsome young man,” said Mom. She gestured at the sofa. “But please, everyone have a seat. You shouldn’t all be standing around like this; we have plenty of chairs for everyone.”

  Mom was right. Although there had only been a handful of chairs in the room when Blizzard and the others first entered, there were now seven wooden chairs with comfy seats situated in a neat way before the sofa, while the TV had been muted, although it still showed the news. Blizzard realized that Ralph must have been taking chairs into the living room while they spoke with her parents, which was confirmed to her when she saw Ralph place the final chair near where Shell stood.

  “Yes, everyone take a seat,” said Dad, gesturing at the chairs. “And Ralph, please get nine tall glasses of lemonade for everyone and make sure they have plenty of ice.”

  “Yes, of course, sir,” said Ralph with a bow before he hurried out of the living room to the kitchen, which was adjacent to the living room.

  When Ralph left, Blizzard and the others all took seats in the chairs, which were even comfier than they looked. Even Talon appeared impressed by how soft the chairs were, while both Stinger and Shell practically melted into their seats. Even Blizzard was a little surprised, despite having sat on these chairs before.

  “Now that we’re all seated,” said Dad, putting his hands on his knees, “why don’t we introduce ourselves? I’m Martin Ricker and this is my wife, Carrie Ricker.”

  “Nice to meet you,” said Bolt. “You know who I am already. Let me introduce the others—”

  “You mean Talon, Stinger, Shell, Treehugger, and, of course, White Lightning, your twin brother?” Mom finished for him, pointing at each member of the team in turn as she said their names, correctly identifying each one.

  “How did you know who everyone is?” said Bolt in astonishment. “We haven’t even introduced them to you guys yet.” He glanced over his shoulder at the rest of his teammates, who all looked just as surprised by Mom’s comments as he was.

  “We’re big fans of superheroes in general,” said Dad. “That’s why we were so excited when Mecha Knight came by to recruit Emily to the Young Neos. We made sure to identify every member of the team when you made your public debut earlier this year and we’ve been closely following your adventures ever since, or as closely as we can based on news reports we’ve seen on TV and read online.”

  Blizzard scratched the back of her neck sheepishly. She looked at the others, who looked rather surprised, and realized that she had forgotten to tell the rest of the team about how avid fans her parents were of them.

  As for Bolt, he said, “Um, okay. Guess that saves us a lot of time.”

  “It does,” said Dad. He spread his arms. “And can I just say how honored I am to have you all here? You are true heroes, having saved the world multiple times over the last year. It is a grand honor to have heroes like you visit us. Even if you are not full members of the Neohero Alliance yet, both Carrie and I are humbled that you came here and that you are friends with our daughter.”

  Bolt now looked like a deer caught in headlights, as did the rest of the team. That wasn’t too surprising; the Young Neos, in general, were not used to this kind of effusive praise from random people they just met, even if it was completely sincere. And Blizzard knew that it was. All her life, she’d heard her parents gush about superhumans who used their powers to make the world a better place. She well remembered how ecstatic they had been when her powers first manifested last year, probably because they considered having a superhuman in the family a great honor.

  “Er, you’re welcome, Mr. Ricker,” said Bolt, rubbing the back of his neck. “But really, we’re not that special. We’re just kids who happen to have superpowers.”

  “And you are so modest, too!” Mom gushed. “That makes you even better! Emily, you certainly hit the jackpot, didn’t you?”

  “Mom, come on,” said Blizzard. “You’re embarrassing me in front of my—”

  Blizzard was interrupted when she heard light footsteps from the
doorway. She looked over toward it, wondering who it was, but as soon as she saw who the person standing in the doorway was, she immediately wished that she had not looked.

  The person standing in the living room doorway was a teenage girl the same age as Blizzard. She even had similar hair to Blizzard, although hers was more of a blonde color than white, while her skin was infinitely paler and she wore old, baggy clothes that made her look more like a homeless person than the daughter of a well-to-do family. Her brilliant blue eyes had bags underneath them, like she never got enough sleep, and she carried a small black cat in her arms which was purring contentedly, although it was also watching Blizzard and the other Young Neos warily as if it didn’t trust them.

  “Oh, Rebecca,” said Dad. He no longer sounded as confident and happy as before; now he sounded a little awkward. “We didn’t hear you come down from your room.”

  “That’s fine, Dad,” said Rebecca. Her voice was similar to Blizzard’s, although there was a definite edge to it. “I didn’t know you were all down here. I thought that Emily and her friends weren’t going to arrive for another few hours.”

  Rebecca spoke in a flat, monotone voice. She also pointedly avoided looking at Blizzard or the others; she wasn’t even looking directly at Mom or Dad. That just added to the awkwardness of the situation, but Blizzard didn’t know what to do to alleviate the feeling.

  “Well, they got here early, as it turned out,” said Dad. He smiled, although it looked forced. “Why don’t you come in and introduce yourself? Ralph can get another chair for you and Tom.”

  But Rebecca shook her head. “Nah. I’ll just go back to my room. I need to finish up my original music composition for the recital at my school next week.”

  With that, Rebecca turned and left the living room without another word. But she did cast one quick glare at Blizzard before she left, although Blizzard didn’t know how to respond except by watching her sister leave.

  But then Blizzard felt someone shake her shoulder and she looked at Bolt. He was looking at Blizzard with a deeply confused frown on his face, an expression shared by the rest of the team.

  “Um, Blizzard?” said Bolt. “Is there something, um, wrong with your sister?”

  “Oh, she’s perfectly normal,” Mom interrupted, before Blizzard could answer. “She just isn’t very social. A true blue introvert. Hard to believe, I know, considering how both Martin and I are such big extroverts, but it’s just one of those funny things that happens to people sometimes, you know? Like how we had a superhuman daughter despite not being superhumans ourselves.”

  “Yeah, Mom’s right,” said Blizzard, shrugging off Bolt’s hand. “It’s nothing. Rebecca’s always been like that. Nothing to worry about.”

  Bolt looked from Mom to Blizzard and back again with a deeply skeptical expression, but Blizzard hoped he wouldn’t ask. She wasn’t ready to delve into her personal relationship with her sister at the moment. It would just be too awkward, especially having to explain it to not just Bolt, but also the rest of the team.

  “Well, okay,” said Bolt, although the look he shot at Blizzard told her that he expected her to explain it later. “I guess I can meet her later.”

  “Yes, of course,” said Mom, sounding just as relieved as Blizzard felt at the change of subject. “Anyway, why don’t you tell us a bit about—”

  “Hold on, what’s that on the news?” said Dad suddenly.

  Blizzard and Bolt looked over their shoulders at the TV. Although still muted, the TV showed footage from what appeared to be somewhere in Phoenix. It showed a ruined street, along with several smashed cars and burning trees, which made Blizzard wonder what the heck happened until the camera turned upwards to show a man standing on top of a building laughing maniacally. The man wore a long, flowing black cape and he kept shooting some kind of green fire from his hands. There didn’t seem to be any people in the street, but Blizzard had no idea who the man was or what was even happening until Dad unmuted the TV just as the scene switched to a news reporter describing the scene.

  “…officers have blocked off the street and warned all citizens to stay away from the area while Doctor Danger is out,” the reporter said in a serious tone. “It is believed that Doctor Danger may have hostages, but the police do not know for sure. It is also unknown what Doctor Danger wants, but police are already gathering from all over the city to save civilians and take him down.”

  “Doctor Danger?” Bolt repeated. “Who is that?”

  “A local Phoenix supervillain,” said Dad with a grim sigh. “We don’t have too many supervillains here, but the ones we do are crazy. You should forget about him. The police will take care of him.”

  “But according to the news report, Doctor Danger’s attack isn’t far from here,” said Bolt. “If we left now—”

  “The police will take care of him,” Dad repeated, this time in a firmer voice. “You kids don’t need to put yourself in danger. This is supposed to be a relaxing visit.”

  “What about Phoenix’s superheroes?” said Bolt. “You know that the police won’t be able to beat a man like him, right?”

  “Phoenix … doesn’t really have very many superheroes,” said Dad, rubbing the back of his neck. “Sometimes the government will call in NHA members to deal with supervillain threats, but very few actually live here.”

  “Then that’s even more reason for us to go out and deal with this freak,” said Bolt. He stood up. “Don’t worry; we’ll be back in time for dinner.”

  “But—” said Dad, before Blizzard interrupted him, saying, “Dad, it’s fine. We’ve beaten supervillains before. We know what we’re doing. And like Bolt said, we’ll take him out quickly; he won’t be able to stop all seven of us working together, especially since he doesn’t even know we’re here.”

  Dad and Mom looked like they didn’t agree with this decision, but Dad finally nodded and said, “Fine. I trust you know what you’re doing, Emily, but please be safe.” Dad looked at Bolt sharply. “And you, young man, make sure that she doesn’t put herself in needless danger. If she gets harmed, or, God forbid, even killed—”

  “Again, don’t worry, Mr. Ricker, I will keep Blizzard safe,” said Bolt. “Now, everyone, let’s go before this Doctor Danger guy hurts or kills too many people.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  Shell didn’t mind going into battle to protect innocent lives from supervillains. It was what superheroes did, after all. He had certainly jumped into danger more than a few times himself, along with the rest of the Young Neos.

  Even so, as Shell, now wearing his green and brown costume, flew through the air on White Lightning’s back, he found himself dreading their coming confrontation with Doctor Danger. It wasn’t because he thought they couldn’t beat him. It was just that Shell had been looking forward to this trip to Arizona for a while and had hoped it would give them a nice break from the usual routine. It would be an especially nice change of routine after their clash with the Venetians. Although they had not seen or heard anything from the Venetians for two weeks, the Young Neos knew that the Venetians were still out there, most likely plotting their revenge. Where and what the Venetians were going to do, Shell did not know and, to a certain extent, did not care. He just wanted to relax and take things easy for a while.

  It didn’t help that Arizona just so darn hot. Because they were flying through the air, that brought them all close to the sun. Now Shell didn’t mind the heat so much, but the sun’s rays beat down on him as White Lightning flew between the skyscrapers of Phoenix, causing Shell to sweat even with the wind blowing through his hair. A quick glance at the rest of the team—Bolt carrying Blizzard and Treehugger, Stinger carrying Talon—showed that they were affected by the heat as well, especially Blizzard, who was sweating up a storm. Shell wondered how anyone could live in Phoenix. He hoped that they would be able to defeat Doctor Danger quickly.

  Thankfully, it was not long before they arrived in the area where Doctor Danger was on the rampage. Shell spotted Doc
tor Danger himself quickly; the crazy supervillain was in the streets now, hurling green fire at anything that moved and at a lot of things that didn’t. Instead of jumping straight into battle, however, the team landed on the roof of a nearby building, out of Doctor Danger’s sight.

  “Okay, team,” said Bolt once everyone was on the rooftop. “According to Valerie, Doctor Danger is a fairly minor supervillain who operates primarily in Phoenix, though he’s been known to attack other Arizona cities as well. He can shoot green fire from his hands and can also fly, although he’s not a very fast flier apparently.”

  “What are we waiting for, then?” said Stinger. “Let’s get down there and take him out.”

  “First, we need a plan,” said Bolt. He pointed at himself and Blizzard. “Blizzard and I will distract him, while Treehugger, Stinger, and Talon should look among the damaged vehicles or buildings for any people who might have been injured during his attack. White, you should try to put out the fires with your powers.”

  “Gotcha,” said White, nodding, although Shell noticed that Bolt had failed to give him a role.

  Apparently, Shell wasn’t the only one who noticed, because Blizzard suddenly tugged Bolt’s arm and said, “Uh, Bolt? I think you forgot to tell Shell what he should do.”

  “Hmm?” said Bolt. He looked at Shell suddenly. “Oh, right. Sorry. Shell, you can stay here and keep a bird’s eye view on the street. If you see anything that complicates things, let us know through the earcoms, okay?”

  Shell’s shoulder’s slumped, but he tried not to show his disappointment. “Sure, Bolt. I’ll keep an eye on everything from up here.”

  “All right,” said Bolt. “Team, let’s go!”

  Bolt flew off the rooftop toward Doctor Danger, while Blizzard created a long ice slide from the top of the building to the street below, which she, Talon, and Treehugger took to reach the street. White and Stinger, meanwhile, flew off toward the other side of the street, leaving Shell standing all alone on top of the hot roof of the building. He walked over to the edge of the roof, staring down at the street, watching as Bolt and Blizzard started attacking Doctor Danger, who turned his attention from the street lamp he had set on fire to those two. Although Doctor Danger’s attacks came fast and furiously, Shell had no doubt in his mind that Bolt and Blizzard would be okay, as would the rest of the team.