Instead of going to my house for the next Y.A.K.S. meeting, we all went to Beth’s house. Well… House is putting it gently. It was more like a giant mansion with giant marble columns and the white bricks making the exterior. My eyes widened as we got out of the car. "This is insane..."

"You’re damn right it is." Becky said, growing impressed.

"Like, I’ve seen Callum’s old house, but this has nothing on his parent’s house." I said, knocking on the giant blue door. Koda sat down at my feet, his tail wagging excitedly.

Callum opened the door nervously. "Hey guys… Glad you could make it to the party!"

Everyone else was already gathered inside, awkwardly standing around the pink and orange foyer since Damian was already there. Braylen was the only one who was talking to him, not that I was surprised. It seemed like Damian didn't even notice, but there was extreme tension in the air just from him being in the house.

And that tension seemed to conflict with how welcoming the foyer felt with the pink and orange walls, the warm rugs, and just the overall homey atmosphere. This one room conflicted with Callum’s old home so much that it was hard to believe that Beth was even related to them..

Callum clapped his hands, calling everyone’s attention as he climbed up the stairs. "Okay, Aunt Beth and I are stashing everyone’s costumes upstairs, so just follow me."

We all silently followed Callum around the house until we got to a room with stark white walls, a sewing machine in the corner, a quilt in progress in the center of the room, a giant shelf with different art supplies on the back wall, and a stack of metal briefcases laying against the shelf. Callum walked over to it, looking over at all of us. "Okay, when I call your name, walk over and get your briefcase. It has the costume that Aunt Beth and I designed for each of you. Find a room on this floor so that you can change into it. We designed them for practicality for your powers, so if you want some other needs for it, make sure you tell us, cool?"

"You got it!" Damian said, giving Callum a thumbs up as everyone else just stayed silent and nodded.

"Okay… So… Becky!"

Callum called out all of our names, handing us each a suitcase until it was only me and him left in the room. Callum silently handed me the briefcase with the words Blue Bolt on it. I tilted my head. "Blue Bolt?"

"It’s your superhero name." Callum explained sheepishly. "Aunt Beth needed everyone’s superhero names, and since you’ve never said what you wanted yours to be, I just chose it after the color your lightning usually is. I hope you don’t-"

"No, I like it." I said quickly. "I just… Wasn’t expecting that to be on my case. Kinda threw me."

Callum laughed. "Okay. Go find a room to try it on in. I will need you to try to use your powers in it because there’s one design thing we weren’t sure about including."

I gave Callum a thumbs up. "You got it."

As I started to leave, Callum sighed. "Hey, Anna?"

I paused, turning back to face Callum, the label on his case reading Blitzfire. "Yeah?"

"Have you figured out how to… You know, on command?"

I hesitated before answering. I had talked to Mom about how she manages to teleport, something I never thought I’d have to talk to her about, and she did give me some tips about visualizing where I wanted to go to teleport, but that didn’t explain what happened the first time since wasn’t even visualizing about going anywhere. I’ve only managed to use that method successfully once, and it took me ten minutes at four in the afternoon so that I could teleport from the living room to my bedroom. Needless to say, I can’t do it in a hurry. "Sorta, but it’s complicated. It takes me a while."

"How complicated?"

"Ten minutes of concentration to go between the living room and my bedroom."

"Not good for battle."

"Not good for battle."

"No pressure, but work on figuring it out. Maybe you can try in your costume today?"

"Not a good idea."

"Why not?"

"The one time I managed to do it, I left some scorch marks in the living room." I explained. Dad was pissed off when he saw the black mark on our hardwood floor, but once I explained it to him, he seemed to understand… For the most part. We eventually got it out, but it took thirty minutes of hard scrubbing with the two of us working together before it even started to lift out of the floor.

"Yeah… Don’t do it in the house."

"Wasn’t planning on it." I said, shrugging as I walked out of the room. I saw an open doorway at the end of the hall, quickly walking to the open room and closing the door behind me. I recgonized the rainbow flag hanging over the bed in an instant. This was Callum’s new room. It was much bigger than his old room at his parent’s house and a lot more clean. It seemed like Callum was caring more about this room than he did about the one at his old house. Baby blue walls with yellow stripes, bright yellow curtains, a TV on the stand in front of his bed, and everything was hanging up nicely in his closet. Compared to his old room, where everything was thrown about haphazardly, this one looked much nicer.

I set the briefcase down on Callum’s pastel yellow bedspread and unbuckled it, looking at the pieces inside. Laying on top of the clothes as a mask made of black leather. Picking it up, I realized that it was black leather over a sheet of plastic that looked like it was molded to my face. No strings were attached to the mask, making me think that the mask was essentially useless. Next to the mask was a small bottle of liquid magnets that were fleshtoned. Confused, I turned the mask over and looked at the edge and saw that there were normal magnets on the inside of the mask. I guess that was how I was going to wear this thing…

Taking the mask and liquid magnet out, then I dug inside the suitcase and grabbed a black jumpsuit with blue stitching and panels. I guess that this was the main base of my costume. Hidden underneath it was a silver knife with a blue leather strap that was small, so maybe it would go around my leg, and a blue leather mini cape that had a giant hood attached to it. I grabbed the jumpsuit and cape out of the briefcase, noticing matching blue leather gloves and blue combat boots. I shook my head. Well, Callum had some weird idea for my costume. Not what I would have chosen, but at least I had a costume.

I started changing into my costume, noticing that the jumpsuit seemed to hug every single part of my body. It made me extremely self conscious since I tend to like baggy clothes, not that I could’ve worn that as a superhero outfit since the baggy clothes could’ve gotten stuck on something. After I got the knife strap attached to the blue loops on my leg and the leather cape attached to the front of my jumpsuit, noticing that there were arm holes in the cape that I could use to keep the cape on my shoulders, I put on the fingerless blue leather gloves. As soon as I was dressed, I quickly put on the blue boots and looked at myself in the mirror. Realizing that I should probably pull my hair back, I grabbed two spare ponytail holders I had in my blazer pocket and put my hair into two pigtail braids. I stood up, looking myself up and down. It looked like I was cosplaying something nobody would recgonize.

Sighing exhaustedly, I walked out of Callum’s room, mask, liquid magnets, and briefcase in hand, as I walked back to the craft room where Callum, presumably, still was. "Callum, you and I need to have a talk about my costume because I have never worn anything so sk-"

I stopped talking, freezing in the doorway when I saw Braylen standing there. He was wearing a black and dark purple skintight jumpsuit, just like me, but it covered his hands completely. The dark purple was a stripe on his arms, spreading down to the rest of his body. The jumpsuit was so tight that it perfectly showed the dimensions of his muscles, which nobody would typically know were there unless you’ve seen him without his blazer on. He had his mask in his hands, looking at it almost regretfully, as he noticed me standing in the doorway. He looked me up and down, his lips pursed as he quickly looked away. "Your’s is really tight too."

"Yeah..." I said nervously, avoiding his gaze as I walked further into the room. "Makes me a little self conscious."

"You shouldn’t be." Braylen said just as nervously. "It’s not like you’re fat or anything. It looks good."

"I don’t know. It makes me feel… Exposed."

"Anna, you look fine." Braylen said, rolling his eyes. "Besides, I’m the one who has to worry."

"Why? You look fine." I answered, instantly regretting what I had just said with every fiber in my body.

Braylen looked over at me, a triumphant smirk on his face as he walked over to me, almost trying to corner me. "Oh, I only look fine?"

"Braylen, I know that we’re dating, but I am trying to be on my absolute best behavior right now and you cornering me is not helping this at all." I said, laughing anxiously.

"You know, it’s not often that I make you flustered."

"You are getting some sick kind of enjoyment out of this, aren’t you?"

"Maybe a little because you always seem so calm and collective so it’s funny to see you get so nervous and red."

I rolled my eyes. "I hate you."

"No, you don’t."

"And how do you know that?"

"Because we wouldn’t be together if you didn’t enjoy my company."

"Well, let’s be like the people in 2020 and stay six feet apart, okay?" I said, jokingly pushing Braylen back a bit.

Braylen rolled his eyes. "Seriously, though, you do look great in that."

"Thanks." I said uneasily.

"What, do you not think you do?"

"I just… Don’t like showing off my body too much, you know?"

"Zelena always told me that I was way too skinny, so-"

"I am going to stop you right there because it doesn’t matter what the bitch said, okay? You are beautifully amazing just the way you are, okay?"

"Oh, so you think I’m pretty?" I teased.

Braylen seemed to pause for a second. "Well, obviously."

I felt my head tilt a little bit. "You know, you don’t show your emotions all that often."

"I don’t?"

"Only one’s I’ve seen you show are anger and concern, and typically they’re both targeted at me."

"Well, when you’ve had your entire life planned out for you right when you were born, you tend not to express a lot of emotions."

"Your parents planned out your entire life?"

"Basically. Right when I got my powers, everything was set out for me on a silver platter. The country, the girl I’m technically bethrothed to-"

"You’re bethrothed to someone?" I asked, laughing a bit. "What is this, the middle ages?"

"Well, my family is all about keeping the bloodline pure with superpowers and all that. I don’t necessarily agree with it, but I never really had a choice in the matter."

"What’s her name?"

"Suzuki Ayumi. She’s a Japanese princess."

"I wasn’t aware Japan even had a monarchy anymore."

"It’s technically a constitutional monarchy, but they still have it." Braylen said casually. "After they had their civil war, they decided to give the emperor more powers. The Suzuki family has been in control since then. You… You do know why they had their civil war, right?"

"Yeah. After superpowered humans came around, some people in the northern part of Japan decided to enslave some of those people to do work. The South didn’t agree with that, war happened, and the South won."

"Since the South forced the last emperor to step down from his position, they appointed the man who would take over the monarchy: Suzuki Taro, Ayumi’s great grandfather and the man who led the South to victory. They’ve been in control ever since." Braylen explained, starting to pace the room. "Since they’re still trying to figure out the whole ‘super equality’ thing, the emperor and his wife convinced my parents to let their oldest daughter marry the first in line for the throne as a sort of alliance."

I gave Braylen a cautious look. "How old is Ayumi?"

"Same age as Alexander."

"So she’s in college?"

"Yeah… Let’s just say that, when I eventually found out, that I was not happy that I was going to marry a much older girl."

"I can imagine."

"We’re not doing it."

"You aren’t?"

"We talked about this years ago. She’s pan, so she’s not really into the whole ‘marriage’ thing."

"I see..." I said uneasily. "Do her parents know this?"

"Not exactly. She said that she was going to tell them at her college graduation this spring, so they’ll find out then."

"It’s not good to leave things to the last minute."

Braylen sighed exhaustedly. "Yeah, I know. It helps that they currently think I’m missing, but that’s gonna change when I go on TV."

"Why?"

"Well, I do have a pretty recgonizable silhouette, Anneliese."

"You might be giving yourself too much credit there, buddy."

Braylen rolled his eyes, then held up a finger. "Yeah, well, I know at least one person who will recgonize me."

"Alexander?"

"If he actually bothers to watch it." Braylen said, walking over to his briefcase and started rummaging around.

"Braylen, what are you-"

"Hush!"

"Why?"

"It’s a surprise!"

I sighed heavily, closing my eyes. "Braylen, you don’t have to-"

"You are going to shut up and let me talk because, as you so accurately pinpointed, I don’t share my emotions often, and that is what I’m trying to do, okay? Let me at least try."

"Okay..." I said, opening my eyes and staring at Braylen’s head.

"Look, I care about you. A lot. And not just because you were the first actual friend I made here in America because I was scared to get close to people." Braylen said, turning around slightly. "Could you close your eyes, please? It won’t be much of a surprise if you can see it."

I closed my eyes again. "Fine."

"Thank you." Braylen said before he continued with his little speech. "And when you do reckless shit like run in front of a bullet or don’t even attempt to jump out of the way of an energy ball, I get scared because the last people I cared about were all stripped away from me. I don’t want to lose anyone else, Anneliese, especially you. So, the only thing I can think to do is argue with people I care about until they see how I feel."

"Yeah, you do that a lot."

"Anna..." Braylen said, sounding a bit irritated.

"Right. I’m shutting up now."

"I’m sorry I forced you to tell us about what happened with Zelena. When I heard that she talked to you in your bedroom, I started panicking and thinking that she had threatened to kill you. I didn’t think that she would have used me and everyone else against you. I honestly wasn’t thinking when I started arguing with you. And I also shouldn’t have insisted that you hide back in the apartment with Keisha and the others. You can handle yourself, I’ve seen that happen before. I’m sorry."

"Apology accepted. Can I-"

"No, not yet. On the way to the carnival, Trayvon made me painfully aware that I was missing some things when it came to dating because, in all honesty, you’re my first official girlfriend or whatever we are at this point, and how we kissed wasn’t how I expected my first to go either."

"That was your first too?"

"Well, I know that neither of us have the ability to rewind time, so this is a do over. You can open your eyes now." I slowly opened them up to see Braylen awkwardly standing in front of me holding a slightly squished bouquet of blue hydrogengas and a blue box in one hand, his face visibly turning red in the places where his skin was much paler. He looked down at his feet. "After all of the current craziness is over, do you want to go on a date with me?"

I rolled my eyes a bit, walking forward as I grabbed the hydrogengas from Braylen’s hand. "What do you think, you giant dork?"

Braylen laughed quietly, bending his head down as he started going towards my lips. That was when everyone decided to make their presence known by clapping and whistling. Braylen and I quickly jumped apart, faces red. I looked over at the doorway and saw everyone gathered there, arms crossed. Becky, who was in the middle of the group, looked like she was about to cry. I felt my face heat up even more. "How long have you guys-"

"I was about to come in during your little ‘how long can this sexual tension last until I make the other uncomfortable’ thing, but that I heard you two flirting and I wanted to see where it was going to go." Callum admitted, his costume reminding me vaugely of Kid Flash’s costume. It had the overall sihilouette, but it had a bubblegum pink comet design going around his entire costume on a yellow background. "I gotta say, I was not disappointed."

"We’ve been watching you guys for a couple minutes." Erika sheepishly admitted, laughing nervously as she attempted to readjust her flower decorated mask, her shaggy green jacket with flowers decorated on it moving as she did so, revealing the forrest green jumpsuit with matching belt underneath.

"I gotta say, Braylen, that was pretty smooth." Becky said, making a hat tipping motion. "Hat’s off to you, my friend."

"Yeah. After the talk about the fiance, that was real smooth." Damian teased, causing Braylen and I to freeze up for a second. Damian’s costume looked like an off brand version of his father’s because some of the colors of his father’s traditional blue, white, and green costume, which was a white trench coat with a blue and green jumpsuit underneath with white boots, were switched out with black, orange, and red.

"You guys were watching for a long time..." Braylen realized.

"Gotta say, we have been waiting a long time for this." Trayvon said, flashing Braylen a thumbs up. It was almost hard to look at Trayvon since most of his costume was reflective silver material. "Good job on finally asking her out, dude."

"What do you mean ‘we have been waiting a long time for this’?" I asked sheepishly.

"We’ve been waiting for him to officially ask you out on a date since you two admitted that you’ve been… Doing whatever you two have been doing until now." Keisha admitted. Her costume looked like it was straight out of a computer. She was the only one of us girls wearing a skirt, which was a long sleeved dress that looked like it had green binary on it, and had matching circuit design in green on leggings. Everything she was wearing was green on black. If they were trying to get the fact that Keisha was a technopath through, then mission accomplished.

"I thought that you two were already dating, so I really didn’t care." Koda said, almost shrugging in his sitting down position. Koda’s costume was the most stereotypical out of everyones. He had a blue mask over his eyes and a matching blue cape that was attached to a blue collar that had SD written on it. I guess his superhero name was Scooby Doo?

"I thought that the costumes would help a little bit to… Push things along." Callum said gently.

My eyes widend. "You purposefully made my costume this tight!"

"Well, when you got it, flaunt it, and honey you definitely got it." Callum said happily. "Besides, a skin tight costume makes it easier to move around. You’re gonna need that while fighting crime."

"I hate you." I said, shaking my head. "I feel naked and fat in this because it hugs everything!"

"Anna, you are the furthest thing from fat." Trayvon said, rolling his eyes a bit.

"And you shouldn’t feel self conscious in that! You look hot!" Becky said happily, walking over and looking me up and down. "Granted, you are wearing a sports bra, so you don’t fill out the top half all the way, but you look hot! Braylen, work with me here. Your girlfriend looks hot, doesn’t she?"

Braylen’s face flushed red again. "I am going to keep my mouth shut because that seems like the thing that won’t get me killed by either group."

Callum smiled at me. "He was checking you out hard when you two were talking. He thinks you look hot in that."

Braylen opened his mouth, holding up a finger, then closed it again and put down his hand. Erika crossed her arms, the shaggy sleeves moving as she did. "What Braylen? No comment?"

"I was going to say something, but then I decided not to. I know how to hold my tounge in situations like this." Braylen said exhaustedly. "Though, if I would say something, I would say that I wouldn’t say that she looks hot. Did my heart pressure raise when I saw her because I think she looks extremely attractive? Of course I do, have you seen her in that outfit! I just… I wouldn’t use that demeaning of a word since I identify hot as being extremely sweaty."

"So what word would you use?" I asked, crossing my arms as I looked at Braylen quizically.

He hesitated for a moment. "Peng."

That caused everyone to freeze and give Braylen a confused look. Becky was the first one to talk. "Um… Braylen, what does that mean?"

"That doesn’t matter right now." Braylen said casually, walking over and patting Callum on the back. "Now, what exactly is the plan for the rest of the afternoon?"

"Figure out some other stuff we need to add."

"Can you teach us how to attach the masks to our faces?" Trayvon asked, holding up his plain black mask.

"And how to take off the metal stuff." Keisha said, pulling off her green and black mask, looking inside. "Never mind. It comes off when you take off the mask..."

I looked over at Becky’s costume, looking at the giant hole in the back of it. Her was a dark yellow, almost gold, and had bits of hard, plastic armor all around her body. Right in the center of her back, there was no armor covering a section of her back where I knew was going to be the most danger. I glanced over at Callum. "You’re gonna need to fix Becky’s costume."

"But there’s no hole." Becky said cautiously.

"There is on your back, which is where you get struck with a poisoned dart and die."

"Yeah… We’re gonna fix that." Callum said quickly. He looked over at Trayvon. "Can you make something metal float up real quick so Anna can test her powers with the gloves?"

"I got ya." Trayvon said, lifting his hands up as his metal briefcase that read Silver Summoner floated into the air.

Braylen seemed to hesitate for a second. "Are you guys sure that this is a good idea? She could shock everybody."

"Which is why we’re going to stand out in the hallway while she does this so that we can make sure nobody gets shocked." Becky said, pushing everyone into the hallway until it was only me and the briefcase left in the craft room. I held out my hands, dropping the hydrogengeas down to the ground and hoping that some electricity would come out. In a split second, lightning arced out of my hands and hit the suitcase. Once the lightning cleared, I turned my hands over and saw holes where my palms were.

"Well, it works." Callum said, walking into the room.

"But you’re gonna have to fix the gloves." I said, holding up my hands.

Erika’s eyes widened as she and the others followed Callum back into the room. "What did you do?"

"I used my powers! You saw me do that!"

"It’s fine." Callum said as I took off my gloves and handed that to him. "Aunt Beth and I can use these as an example to fix them so you can use your powers without absolutely destroying them."

"Is that all we needed to do today?" Damian asked.

"Actually," Trayvon said, raising his hand. "I vote that we change our name for the public because the moment my mother hears Y.A.K.S. during The Super Awards on Saturday, she’s gonna get suspicious. We do have a cover to keep, so it’ll make it more mysterious, in a way."

"Well, does anyone have an idea on what to rename ourselves?" Callum asked. "I am very open to the idea, I told Aunt Beth that Y.A.K.S was a stupid name right when she told me, so if anyone has any ideas on what we should call ourselves, I’m all ears."

We were all silent for a minute, trying to rack our brains for an idea. Then, Erika’s face lit up. "Thunderbird Alliance."

Becky gave Erika a confused look. "Thunderbird Alliance? Seriously?"

"Hey, it’s a different name!" Erika argued.

"I like it." I said, smiling a bit. "It’s better than Y.A.K.S. It kinda has a nice ring to it. We could get confused as a teacher’s assistant, but we can make it work."

"It’s definitely better than Y.A.K.S." Keisha agreed.

"So… Are we in agreement about the name change? Are we all cool with Thunderbird Alliance?" Callum asked cautiously. Nobody seemed to argue or voice any concerns with the namechange. After a minute of silence, Callum clapped his hands. "Okay, as of today, we are officially the Thunderbird Alliance."

"Cool!" Becky said, clapping her hands. "Can we change now? Not that I don’t like the costume, but… My school uniform isn’t this tight."

"Thank you!" I said happily.

"Yeah, we’re done. Go get changed or whatever."

Happy to get out of this costume, I bent down and picked up the flowers again, holding them tightly in my hand. As I started walking away, Braylen grabbed my hand. He started looking away from me anxiously. "Um… Can you hold back for a second?"

"Yeah." I said, standing a little straighter. "What’s up?"

"You forgot to take this when you grabbed the hydrogengeas." Braylen said awkwardly as he held out the blue box again.

"You know, you really didn’t have to-"

"Just take it, okay?" Braylen begged exhaustedly.

"Okay, I’m taking it." I said, grabbing the box.

Braylen and I stood there for a second before Braylen tapped the small box. "Aren’t you going to open it?"

"Why are you so intent on me opening this?"

"I just wanna see your reaction."

"Now you have me extremely concerned."

"Will you just open it?"

"Fine!" I said, sighing heavily as I opened up the box. Inside was a simple blue gemstone on a silver chain. I looked over at Braylen, raising an eyebrow. "Braylen, you really didn’t-"

"I know, but… It used to be my mothers. It was one of the things Frederick managed to grab before we fled England, and I know you like the color blue, so I-"

"Braylen, you didn’t-"

"I know, but I wanted to." Braylen said, grabbing the box, taking it out and forcing me to turn around before he put the necklace on. "I’ve kinda been thinking of you everytime I saw it, so I felt like it would be a good idea to give it to you."

I felt my heart skip a beat for a second before I looked up at him. "Well, thank you. I love it."

"Thought you would." Braylen said teasingly. "Come on, let’s go get changed. I think that Callum wants us to keep the briefcases."

"If that’s the case, I’m wearing these shoes out of here." I said jokingly.

Braylen laughed, rolling his eyes. "Seriously?"

"These boots are insanely comfortable, do not judge me."

"Who said I was judging?"

I laughed, walking down the hall. "I’m gonna go change now!"

Braylen walked down the opposite hallway and, despite the somewhat happy feeling I had at the moment, I knew that the happy feeling I currently had wasn’t going to last for long. One way or another, things were going to change on Saturday, whether the world was ready for it or not.