It only took about an hour to get everything handled and their parents to pick them up. Sadly, for me, it was Teddy’s mom that came to get him, so no public scolding there. I had met her before, and she was a nice lady. Too bad Teddy didn’t follow her example. She did apologize to me and made Teddy do so, and she even gave me a bag of homemade cookies. Sweet!

The other boys were led off without a word by their folks, though there was a lot of disappointment in the looks I saw. Ah, justice!

Before we left, Chief, the chief of police, asked us to come say hi in his office.

“Finally got your powers! Congrats, kid!” He beamed at me. “Think you’re rested enough to show me what you’ve got?”

“Totally!” I can only imagine my grin was as big as his. I threw up my block from earlier… But no ice. Instead, my arm caught on fire!

Smiles faded into looks of shock and confusion. The fire didn’t burn, my arm simply felt a little warm until it dissipated.

“But… you had ice earlier?” Dad was clearly out of his element- No pun intended.

“Maybe… she’s a dualie?” Chief was always one to try to explain things best he could.

Dualies weren’t unheard of, users of two powers. There had even been a few with three or more powers, though that was about once or twice a generation. Dualies were maybe in 3% of the population. But I had never heard of a Dualie with opposing powers. Either they were unrelated powers, like an element with super strength, or they were complementary, like air with flight.

“Maybe… we should go out to the practice yard and see what exactly you can do, Alex,” My father suggested. I nodded, and the three of us headed outside.

Out in the practice yard, Dad and Chief had me try to use my powers for nearly two hours. It was insane! The fire powers only lasted for about 15 minutes, then I had no power again. After a few minutes, I was a Speedster, darting around in the blink of an eye! That lasted about five minutes before i had a powerless stretch. Next came flight, though that nearly ended badly. Chief caught me when I dropped half an hour in.

On and on it went, though- Power for a stretch, and about five minutes recharge time. I got ice and speed twice, and they each lasted for different lengths of time. By the end, at least I was beginning to be able to tell when my powers would fade.

“This… this is extraordinary, John. I need to make a phone call. There’s someone who should see this,” Chief finally announced. I took a short break while he got out his cell and dialed a number. “Hello, Dean- Sorry to call so late. I know you’re home by now, but… well, there’s something you need to see. Come to the station, the practice yard. And pronto.”

“Uh… who is Dean?” Dad asked when Chief hung up.

“Regional director of the Collectors. Normally, I would’ve recommended Alex for the junior officer’s program, if she wanted to take that path still-“

“Duh!” Being a cop was my dream, whereas a lot of my peers wanted to join the Collectors.

“But we aren’t prepared for a special case like this. I doubt Dean has ever seen anything like this either, but the Collectors are better prepared for… unique situations.”

“My daughter is not joining the Collectors at 16. They don’t even accept applicants until 21!” Dad protested.

“They make exceptions. Alexis will have to have a safe place to practice with this… Randomness, either way. The Collectors can provide that better than anyone.”

“Um.. hi, yeah, subject of convo here- Don’t I get some kinda say in this?” I asked, baffled. I really hadn’t considered the Collectors for a career before, but… I wasn’t sure I wanted to be part of a national law enforcement agency. I wanted to protect my hometown and the people who lived there, the people I grew up with… but the nation was another story!

“I don’t mean you have to join the Collectors, Alexis. Just that they would be the best able to help you train such unique powers. They do that for teens with unusual abilities. I just think it would be best for you to work with them… And if you don’t, they’ll still want to know about this.”

“I mean… I guess that’s all true… But why does anyone need to know about this? We know, that should be good enough, right?” Last thing I wanted was to be a freak in a new and interesting way. I start training with the Collectors, I thought, and I might as well just announce the new power thing to any classmates associated with those in the training program for the Collectors. That program started at 18, but there were a few kids from my school in it or looking to apply when they hit 18. There would be no keeping this new development secret that way, and I’d rather be a freak for a normal thing than a freak for something new.

“Chief is right, kid.” Dad could’ve at least had my back, dangit! “You’re both safer for yourself and safer to be around if you learn how to control this; or at least work with it, I guess.”

“Ugh! You guys are trying to make me stand out more!” I groaned as a man came walking out to us.

“Alright, Martin, what’s so important I had to get out here immediately?” The man asked, though in  good humor. It seemed he and Chief had a pretty good relationship.

“Dean… This is Alexis. She’s the daughter of John here, one of my best officers. Kid was power free until this evening. She developed ice powers while she was being attacked.”

“Well, the age is pretty unusual, but not something to call me over surely?”

“Oh, just wait. It gets better,” Chief chuckled. “Alexis and her old man came in to talk to me after handling the punks that attacked her. I asked her to demonstrate… And her powers were fire. So we came out here, and she’s gone through about 15 powers cycling around randomly, for random durations, for the last two hours.” That had Dean’s attention.

“Miss Alexis, if you aren’t too tired, would you demonstrate this for me, please?” Dean asked, looking at me. I hesitated. This was it- If I complied, this could change my life forever. There could be studies done about this strange power, or just my prediction of more unending freakishness. 

Dad gave me a reassuring smile, and I sighed, turning and moving to start trying my powers again. My fate was sealed.

---

Thanks for reading so far! If you like the first “chapter,” so to speak, of Life Is Super, please like the posts or leave a comment so I know! Thanks for reading along so far, and look forward to more of Alexis’ adventures as I get them completed!

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!