My Super-powered Diary Chapter 13 Shocked at First Sight By Amethyst When Maddock Ainsley gets involved in a rescue operation with his unit things go horribly wrong and his life is forever changed. Can the newly minted Merida cope with being a girl and a teenage super hero?

The world around my force field erupted in a blast of explosive force that very near blinded me. My vision was spotty, my heart was still racing, I was shaking in fear, and my breath was coming in great panicked gasps, my lungs burning as I tried to get myself and my powers under control. I needed to know how bad it was. “Did I just destroy my room or did more of the house get damaged? Is everyone okay?! Oh God, what if I killed them all?! Oh please, they have to be alright!” I couldn’t breathe, the whirlwind in my chest signalling an anxiety attack as I rubbed at my eyes trying to clear my vision.

“Stop it!” I mentally scolded myself, “panicking won’t help. Prioritize dammit. Close your eyes and get yourself under control and then worry about everything else once you’ve determined that there’s a need. Don’t let your emotions overwhelm you.” I closed my eyes, forcing myself to take slow measured breaths, clear my mind, and calm myself. Once I had collected myself and shut down my force field, I fell a short distance to the floor and felt myself being wrapped up in someone’s arms, from the feel of the large breasts being squished into me it was probably Mom. I opened my eyes to see that it was indeed Mom holding me and that Andy, Shu, Vanessa, Tasha, and the fairies were all looking on in concern.

We just knelt in the ruins of my bed, with her holding me tight and telling me that everything was okay, that she was there for me. Most of my bed was now in splinters on the floor and everything that had been on it with me was scorched and mostly destroyed. The rest of the room was untouched though and I was a little uncertain as to why. I felt how much energy went into that explosion, it had been far more than that day at the mall, and I was relatively sure that it should have at least taken out my bedroom, possibly the entire house.

“Wha? How?” I inquired uncertainly, awash with confusion, even as my heart soared with relief at seeing the damage contained and everyone safe and unharmed.

“Well ya woke up the whole house with tha’ blast,” she spoke softly into my ear before breathing a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness I put those safety measures in place after Mystech and Toxin visited.”

“Wot safety measures?” I wondered aloud, my brain still a little fuzzy on details. It didn’t really help that I was half-sobbing in relief and trying to keep my powers from activating again as she softly stroked my hair and cooed reassurances in my ear.

“What Toxin told us about yuir condition had me worried, so I created an energy shield to contain yuir power if ya ever completely lost control while asleep. That’s what I was working on when Tink and I were in the lab on Friday and you were watchin’ over Mei. That night while ya were sleepin’ I placed emitters on the floor at each corner of yuir bed and one on the ceiling,” she pointed up to a small white device the size of a golf ball stuck on, and almost completely blending in with, the ceiling above where my bed had been. “Tha’ one also has a sensor in it that constantly scans for the energy signature of yuir powers when they’re active and if it senses it, the five emitters activate and form a fully enclosed pyramid of energy similar to yuir force field tha’ contains the explosive force.”

“I… I could ‘ave killed all o’ ya,” I blubbered into her shoulder, soaking the fabric of her nightshirt with tears and snot as I sobbed and sniffled, and the enormity of what could have happened clutched my heart in an icy grip and squeezed tight.

She cupped my chin in her hands, raising and turning my face so that I had nowhere to look but at the stern expression on her face. “No Merida. You are no’ goin’ to blame yuirself for somethin’ tha’ didn’t happen. Do no’ go there. You have PTSD and a medical condition, and neither is yuir fault. With the nightmares you’ve been havin’ it was damn-near certain that this was goin’ to happen sooner or later. What kind o’ big sister, or mom, would I be if I didn’t take precautions to try to protect you from it causing somethin’ you’d regret? I won’t let you go through this alone, we’re yuir family and we’re goin’ to help ya through this.”

I was about to argue that I was dangerous, that they’d be better off without me around, but that was when the other girls, including the two fairies, near-tackled me in a group hug. I was torn then, half of me wanting to just bask in that unconditional love and acceptance from the people I cared about, and half wanting to go as far away as possible to keep them all safe. “Ya should all be terrified o’ me… I am,” I half-whispered.

“You will never hurt any of us Mer, or let anyone else, I know it.” Tasha whispered back.

“Is tha’ you, or yuir powers talkin’?”

“Both,” she replied without a trace of doubt in her tone.

Once I was deemed sufficiently calmed down we all set about starting our day, since it was almost o-six-hundred and we were all awake anyway. Andy generously went back into my room to clean up and dispose of the remnants of my bed, Tasha and Vanessa went to the kitchen to start making us all a big breakfast, and the rest of us went into Mom’s lab to check on Mei. She was still sleeping in the scanner bed, so while Shu and the fairies watched over her Mom dragged me over to her computer to look over some of the data from the scanner/emitter from my room. From how she had explained it; when I awoke freaking out from my nightmare my shield had already been on and wildly unstable and I had instinctively pushed the excess energy outward, from the force field just along the surface of my skin, in an omnidirectional wave that had detonated as soon as it impacted the energy shield.

Now that we knew that the energy shield was effective, Mom was planning on building a more efficient and permanent one for my room when we bought a place in the town we’d be moving to for school. Creation of a portable setup that I could take on camping trips, and other times I wouldn’t be sleeping at home, was on the agenda as well. She also wanted to figure out something for a bed for me that wouldn’t need to be completely replaced every time I had an ‘incident’. I felt a lot better about things knowing that we would have proper precautions in place.

She then went on to look over Mei’s scans, but she couldn’t find anything wrong other than slightly low electrolyte levels. Finally she muttered, “There’s nothin’ physically wrong with her, at least no’ that I can detect. If I’m goin’ to find out what’s causin’ this an’ what exactly is happenin’, I may just have to have her in the scanner when she’s usin’ her powers.”

As if responding to that line of thought Mei started to stir in the bed. Mom looked at her watch and noted, “Eleven hours an’ forty-seven minutes. The last time she was out for just over twelve hours, so maybe it’s gettin’ easier for her body to handle. Or it could just be tha’ she was less tired than last time when she created Peri. There’s no real way to tell yet.” Then she was at the bedside, gently pushing aside Shu and the hovering pixies, and smiling down at the overly-impulsive Chinese girl. “Ya need to stop scarin’ us like tha’ Mei, do ya feel okay?”

“I’m a little hungry and thirsty Mom,” she ventured.

“Tasha an’ ‘Nessa should ‘ave brekkie ready soon,” I offered as Mom let Mei out of the scanner and Peri Tink, and Shu all glomped her.

Mei hugged her twin and the two fairies tightly. “It’s good to have with us Periwinkle,” she said with a huge grin.

“Okay girls, now tha’ Mei’s awake, let’s all head out to the kitchen an’ see if they need any help.” Mom started shooing us out of the lab and in the direction of the smell of frying bacon.

“Soooo,” Mei asked as we were herded along, “What happened while I was asleep? Did anyone come up with a cool super hero name for me?”

After a filling breakfast of pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast we all tried to get into a somewhat normal and quiet Sunday after our rude awakening. Andy started packing things for our eventual move, since they wanted us moved to the new town and somewhat settled in before classes started in a few weeks. As for Mom, she planned to spend most of the day in her lab working on some things for the fairies as well as the new shields she had in mind to contain my powers while I sleep, both the portable design and the long-term one for my bedroom. That left us kids to our own devices for the day, and Mom said we could go out and spend day however we liked, so long as we stuck together and followed certain conditions.

The first condition was that we tried to avoid using our powers if possible, and if we did have to use them Mei wasn’t to create anything that would cause her to pass out until Mom could get her in the scanner that evening. Secondly, Tasha would be in charge unless we had to use our powers to defend ourselves, in which case I would be in charge. Lastly we weren’t to do anything that would push me too far, and I would be the judge of what that was. If I started to feel overwhelmed, we were to come home immediately.

Since none of us could drive yet, and the only funds we had were what we had on the prepaid debit cards Mom had gotten us before that first shopping trip, our options seemed somewhat limited. We decided to go to a nearby mall to check out a surfing store that Vanessa had heard about, and Tasha, Vanessa, and I had quietly planned to try to buy gifts for the twins’ upcoming birthday as well if we could.

As soon as we had all showered and dressed, we were on our way to the mall, with me wearing a simple pair of far-too-tight jeans, a t-shirt, my sneakers, and the Hello Kitty backpack purse that I vowed to replace that very day. I would have worn my combat boots, but I wanted to get some better socks to wear under them first, ankle socks and combat boots do not work well together. The others were all dressed similarly casually, and Shu and Mei both had backpack purses similar to mine, each with a fairy hidden inside. Tink was sticking with Mei and Peri with Shu since the pair seemed to enjoy one another’s company.

The bus trip was mercifully short and soon we were strolling the mall with the others sticking close to me. Our first stop was the board shop of course where Vanessa almost immediately started drooling over a blue ocean patterned board with a mermaid on it. The shop also had a variety of swimwear and wetsuits available, though we decided to hold off on buying anything there for the moment. Vanessa figured that even if she could afford the board, she didn’t want to be carrying it around the mall for hours.

For the next two hours we just drifted from one shop to another where I bought a pack of ladies sports socks and a new backpack purse that I felt suited me a little better. The purse was mostly plaid in a pattern somewhat similar to the Ainsley family tartan, with silver skull shaped decals and studded black leather trim. When Vanessa saw me buy it she giggled and said I was going to need a few more piercings if I was going to try out the Goth look. She had me almost considering it, since I wouldn’t mind wearing all black and it just might keep people away from me.

Vanessa and Tasha had already snuck off briefly to get birthday presents for the twins, so while the others went into a store that sold movies, videogames, and some electronics to look for copies of the Disney Fairies movies, I excused myself to ‘go use the loo’ and slipped off to the jewelry store we had passed a little while ago. I wanted to get the twins a pair of matching lockets that they could put a family photo in, and I was hoping that it wouldn’t take too long to find something like that.

The store wasn’t very busy, there was just one man, who looked to be in his forties, working the counter and one other customer, a boy who was maybe fourteen or fifteen. The boy was tall for his age, though not lanky, I could see by his frame and the way that he carried himself that he was in pretty good shape. He was good looking too; sandy blond hair, a handsome face, and muscles slightly stretching the fabric of his t-shirt and jeans… “Dammit! Why do I keep looking at him like that?” I thought as I tore my eyes away for the eighth time to focus on my search for lockets, my heart fluttering wildly in my chest. Then it hit me. “Oh my God, I’m attracted to him!”

I’d checked almost every glass case in the damned store except one by this point. Swallowing the lump in my very dry throat I made my way over to the glass case he was currently browsing, and of course there were the lockets along with a selection of charm bracelets that blondie was looking at. I tried not to stand too close to him, but I just wanted to buy the damn gifts and get out of there so I needed to choose something fast. I had just decided on a pair of small silver lockets which were very similar, but with some slight differences, just like the twins. They were only thirty-seven dollars each and I was about to call the salesman over when the boy beside me stopped frowning at the charm bracelets and seemed to notice me. “Hey! You’re a girl!”

I nearly jumped out of my sneakers, the furious thrumming of my heart now seeming to be tightly lodged in my throat as I looked into his deep blue eyes. “Dammit Merida, stop acting like a lovesick schoolgirl. This is the last thing you need right now. Just play it cool so you can get the damn lockets and get the hell out of here,” I mentally scolded myself before opening my mouth to reply, “Oh! I’m…. uhhh…. yeah…” I inwardly cringed and somehow resisted the urge to facepalm. “Just perfect, do-over time, and let’s make it something intelligible this time before he thinks you’re a blathering idiot.”

“Aye, way tae point out the obvious Sherlock,” I managed to get out, regaining control over my errant tongue. I could feel my whole face flushing as I considered my stupidity. “And now you’ve insulted him, way to go Merida. This mission is a bust, just forget the gifts and find one later… somewhere far from here.”

Unfortunately, while I was berating myself and trying to keep my powers from activating from my nervousness, he managed to get over his own embarrassment enough to speak again. It came as some small consolation that I wasn’t the only one blushing as he said, “Sorry, yeah that probably sounded a lot worse than I meant it to. It’s just I’m looking for a birthday gift for my kid sister, she’s turning twelve and my mom suggested something that will make her feel like an adult instead of toys or something and I’m not really sure what girls like so I was hoping I could get your help.” The last part was all blurted out without coming up for air and suddenly I didn’t feel half as stupid as I did a moment ago.

“Don’t do it! You’ve been a girl for like a week? If you try to give advice on girly stuff you’re just going to end up looking like an idiot,” I cautioned myself. Apparently though, I need to stop giving myself advice I’m not going to take, because my finger was already pointing to a silver charm bracelet with five charms on it; a four leaf clover, a fairy, a heart, a star, and a pink gemstone in a silver cage. “Tha’ one,” I suggested.

“Thanks, you’re a lifesaver, are you looking for something for yourself or…?”

“Ma sisters, they’re turnin’ twelve too, I think I’m goin’ tae ge’ them those lockets,” I replied, trying to be casual as I pointed at the lockets in question.

He had paid for his purchase and I was about to do the same when the sound of pounding footsteps entered the store and I felt myself snatched off my feet as Blondie picked me up like I was nothing and dove behind one of the larger display cases. At the same instant we hit the floor I could hear the gunfire. “Nobody move or try anything funny! You know the drill boys, gold and diamonds, leave everything else! If that guy behind the counter makes a move shoot him.” It was a woman’s voice and I looked up over the display case to see four men with guns, three of them smashing cases and snatching up jewelry as the other kept his gun trained on the man behind the sales counter. Meanwhile, a very attractive woman in her twenties, with bright blue hair and dressed in a skin-tight black cat suit with blue lightning patterns down the sides, was looking directly at the case that we were currently stationed behind. She wasn’t even wearing a mask. “I saw you kids dive behind that case so come on out!”

I was battling between wanting to do something about the robbers and my promise to keep a low profile when Blondie pulled me back down, holding me tight against his chest. I couldn’t breathe, and it felt like my heart was going to pop out of my chest when he whispered, “Don’t worry, I won’t let them hurt you, just stay here.”

“What the actual fuck? I don’t need him to protect me! I have super powers, I should be protecting him!” I seethed. I wasn’t sure what pissed me off more, the fact that he thought I was some damsel in distress who needed his protection, or the fact that his concern for me actually felt… nice. Regardless, my force field came on and I was already calming myself to put myself in mission mode, but Blondie was already in motion. He pulled a set of keys out of his pocket and jammed one into the electrical outlet by the display case. “Is he insane?!”

Instead of twitching and convulsing like I’d been expecting, Blondie smiled as he began to glow with a pale golden light. He removed his now-scorched key from the outlet and stood up, leveling a glare at the robbers. “I’m going to make this easy, if you drop the bags and guns and surrender, I won’t have to hurt you.”

I stood up beside him and glared as well. “Aye, wot he said, ‘cept I dinnae mind hurtin’ ya one bit.”

The woman actually laughed and produced a pair of 8 x10 glossy photos from what I had first thought was a loot bag, tossing them toward us. “Awww isn’t that cute, the kiddies want to play super-hero. Why don’t you both just sit there real quiet and keep those autographed photos. Maybe one day I’ll even let you work for me. I remember when I was your age, having powers is a real rush isn’t it kiddies, but I’ve been doing this for years. I’m not just some everyday thief, I’m Electro-Cute!” The air around her was suddenly crackling with energy as blue streaks of electricity arced along her body as she struck what she probably thought was a sexy pose.

Much to my embarrassment I giggle-snorted. “Tha’s yuir name? Fer real? Ya actually call yuirself tha’? In public? An’ ya think tha’ it’s cool? Honestly, I’m a wee bit shocked.”

“You little bitch! Nobody talks to me like that! I’ll show you shocked!” She screamed in fury, hurling a blue blast of electricity at me. I was perfectly happy to just let it hit my force field, but Blondie just stepped in front of me, absorbing the blast, the glow around him brightening.

“Mmmm spicy,” he said with a grin, before turning to me and asking, “are you okay Miss?”

“I ‘ave a bloody force field, I didnae need ya tae protec’ me,” I grumbled before reluctantly adding, “bu’ thanks fer tryin’. Ya go’ a name?”

“Conduit, and you?” he responded as he launched forward to punch ‘Electro-Cute’ in the face, knocking her to the floor in a dazed heap. By this point the goons with the guns realized that their boss might just be outclassed and had decided to use their guns for something other than smashing display cases. Three started firing at us, the bullets falling to the floor harmlessly on contact, though I noticed Conduit’s glow fading with each bullet that hit him. The other henchman seemed to have a few more brain cells though, and hadn’t taken his gun off the man behind the sales counter.

“On the floor you two, slowly, or I’ll blow his fucking brains out!”

I raised my hands, trying to look harmless and moving slowly, even as I concentrated on the jeweler behind the counter. “Let’s all jus’ calm down ‘ere aye? I’m Flare, an’ tha’s Conduit, an’ all o’ you are really screwed. Ya really dinnae wan’ tae shoot tha’ man. Right now, he’s yuir only bargainin’ chip. If’n ya shoot ‘im all bets are off an’ yuir goin’ tae get ‘urt bad. Ya see, I ‘ave a wee problem wi’ control, so when I get mad things tend tae blow up. Right now I’m keepin’ maself calm, bu’ the minute I ain’t got reason tae stay tha’ way I cannae guarantee ya leavin’ this place alive, or ‘ow many pieces ya will be in when ya dae. ‘ow aboot all o’ you? Dae ya all wan’ tae be leavin’ ‘ere in one piece? Or are the coroners goin’ tae need tae bring a mop?” I asked, turning to the other gunmen and Electro-Cute, who was slowly getting to her feet.

The blue-haired villainess shook her head, glowering at me and Conduit as she got to her feet. “If you had that kind of power you would have already used it.”

“Ummm, ‘ello. Superhero ‘ere. I’m tryin’ no’ tae cause too much property damage or kill anyone.” I rolled my eyes at her stupidity and muttered, “Tae ‘ell wit’ it. Time tae kick yuir fookin’ asses.” I flew at the goon with the gun trained on the man behind the counter, making a grab for him. He fired the gun before I reached him, but the bullet fell harmlessly to the floor after hitting the field I that I had generated around the jeweler. I breathed a silent sigh of relief as I grabbed the shooter by the wrist, wrenched the gun out of his hand, and threw him into two of the other goons, sending all three into a sprawling heap on the floor. I was so glad that the field had worked. I had never tried to put one on somebody else before, I hadn’t even been sure that I could, and it hadn’t been easy concentrating on it while keeping the crooks’ attention on me.

Conduit had taken that as his cue to tackle the remaining gunman, batting his gun aside before delivering a right cross to his chin that put him out for the count. That was when EC apparently decided that it might be in her best interests to make a run for it. She made a break for the doors, but I cut her off. “Yuir no’ gettin’ away.”

The air between us hummed and crackled as blue bolts of electricity arced along her skin and she surprisingly smiled at me. “You kids are tough, I’ll give you that, I even respect you for it. Who knows, maybe we’ll meet again someday. I am getting away though. You see, I don’t just generate electricity, I am electricity.” Her clothes and bag all fell to the floor as her body turned to energy, crackled with electricity, and then she disappeared in a blinding flash of light.

“Dammit!” I cursed. The damn supervillain got away and now I’d have to look for the twins’ gifts somewhere else since I wasn’t stupid enough to pay for them with a debit card with my name on it after this. I was still mentally grumbling about it as we bound the goons with their own shirts, collected all the guns, and left them with the extremely grateful jeweler. “The cops should be arrivin’ soon if’n ya pressed tha’ silent alarm when I think ya did. We should prob’ly be leavin’ afore they arrive. Sorry aboot the damages an’ the shootin’.”

I was heading for the door with Conduit close behind when the jeweler called out, “Miss, you forgot something,” and offered me a shopping bag with a pair of small jewelry boxes inside.

I shook my head, “I didnae get tae pay fer ‘em.”

“Consider it payment for services rendered, you helped stop the robbery, and if that red light that stopped that bullet was from you, then you saved my life too. This is the least I can do,” he said seriously, shoving the bag into my hands. “Get going. From what I’ve heard, the police around here aren’t always the most understanding of your kind in these situations.”

“Thanks,” I replied, giving him a genuine smile in return before dropping my force field, dashing out the door and speed-walking back toward the store where I had left my sisters.

When I got there and was about to head inside I jumped, nearly losing my shopping bags, as Conduit said, “Nice work back there, maybe we’ll get to work together again sometime.” I hadn’t even realized that he had been keeping up with me.

“I dinnae think so, I’m no’ really from aroun’ ‘ere an’ I won’ be stayin’ long,” I tried to reply casually, adding a shrug. “I should ge’ goin’ though, ma sisters are prob’ly gettin’ worried.”

“Well good luck then, I just wanted to say thanks for the help. It was nice meeting you Flare.” He leaned over and kissed me on the cheek and then he was gone, leaving me standing there stunned. My heart raced and my brain was in a fog as I wondered why the hell I let him do that, why I wasn’t having to fight to keep my powers from igniting, and most importantly, why I wasn’t ready to hunt him down and tear him a new one?

I was still standing there minutes later, my hand pressed to my cheek, when my sisters emerged from the store. I didn’t even realize they were there until I heard Vanessa say, “Geeeeze Mer, how long does it take you to use the bathroom? We were starting to get worried.”