After verifying I was okay, my dad went to assist his partner with the boys. With their dreams being thoroughly dashed, they all looked pretty defeated. Mike was pale and shaking even, and why shouldn’t he be concerned? The fines and penalties for attacking another person with your powers, without good cause, are high. Even higher when the target is a powerless mutant, or you believe they are at the time.

The only sad part is there was no video footage in that part of the grounds. There was a camera, but the school was in the process of getting it repaired after it was hit by a branch blown about in a bad storm. Admittedly, that’s probably why they’d waited here to attack.

Then again, even without the video footage, the law had them dead to rights. I mean, the police arrived to me laying on the ground, out cold, and the boys panicking thinking Mike had killed me. They confessed readily enough, at that point, and none of them could even look at me as they were loaded up. Not sure if it was guilt for what they did, or shame for getting caught… Ah well, wasn’t my problem.

Dad let me ride with him in the second car that had come to assist, and we went to get the boys processed and for him to be a proud parent to all his buddies at the station. Growing up, they’d all gotten to know our family well. Honestly, it was a lot like having a lot of extra aunts and uncles.

“Why didn’t you tell me and your mother that other kids were bullying you?” Dad asked on the ride in. “We could’ve spoken to the school and gotten this handled before it went to this level.”

“Come on, Dad, no one was going to attack me with a cop for a dad. At least, no one smart. Throw in a lawyer for a mom, and I was sitting pretty safe. It was just taunts and shunning before this, and I can deal with that.”

“What about Taylor and Thomas? Do they treat you like that?” Taylor and Thomas were twins at my school, and the only friends I had. They didn’t care that I was a mutant, since their dad was, too.

“Of course not. Their dad would kill them.”

“Then why didn’t they speak up?”

“Because I asked them not to, okay? This is my problem, not yours, and I won’t go running to Mommy and Daddy for every little thing that goes wrong,” I snapped. Well, I didn’t mean to, but Dad knows I like to handle things myself. Why was this such a big deal to him? It was only names and jerkish behavior before now.

“You’re still a child.” Dad was fuming at this point. “If you can’t solve a problem yourself, you ask an adult for help. This could have ended far worse for you, especially if your powers hadn’t shown at that moment. You could be dead or seriously injured, and no amount of law enforcement can undo that!”

“A Healer can help with serious injury,” I pointed out.

“Some! They can’t always fix it, Alexis. I’ve seen my share of that. You have to learn to be more responsible.”

“You know, a lot of people would say that just ignoring the bullies is the responsible way to handle it. And plenty of people have stopped pestering me because of me ignoring them. As far as I could tell, my method was working perfectly fine, thank you. And! I wasn’t getting butt hurt over it. I was fine.” Dad didn’t answer right away to this argument. When we pulled up to the station, he sighed.

“I suppose that is true. But from now on? At least tell us when things are happening, even if you don’t want our help. We can still let you handle it, but then if something happens or you need help, we won’t be blindsided.”

“Alright.. l can do that,” I assured him. I didn’t have to tell him everything that was happening, but really, I could at least let them know a little bit. It’d make them feel better.

Dad nodded at that and got out. I followed suit, and followed him up to the station. By the time we got inside, he’d calmed down and was even grinning. The officers in the reception area looked up when we came in.

“What’s got you in such a good mood, John? Especially when Lex looks like she met the wrong end of a car.” That was one of the older officers, a nice older lady that acted like I was her own grandchild. In fact, she insisted I call her Granny, and l did.

“Oh, nothing too much… Except Alexis’ powers finally came in, and she’s an lce Mage! Just like her old man!” Dad has always had a flair for the dramatics, but I can’t blame him this time. While my parents have always been supportive of me, powers or not, Dad had always hoped his kid would be an Ice Mage like him. This had to be one of his proudest moments, especially since I had gotten the power to work perfectly when I needed it. Not everyone gets that lucky when they first get their powers, since they’re usually a lot younger than me. Actually, always a lot younger than me.

Of course, no one cared how unusual it was, as the officers all came over to congratulate me. “Show us what you can do, kid!” One of them smiled. So, I did what I had done for Dad and the Healer.

Nothing happened. Everyone looked confused, but Dad smiled. “She did exhaust herself on the first use of it, so she might just need some time to recharge.” He explained, which satisfied everyone else and they continued to congratulate me before going on to their tasks. I wasn’t so sure about that. I didn’t feel tired anymore, but then, Dad knew more about Ice powers.

“Well, let’s get your classmates settled and their folks called. Isn’t Teddy’s dad in the Collectors?” Dad asked, which made me grin. Teddy was their leader, and his father was indeed a Collector. Boy was he going to be in for it!