Backseat Heroes

A Late-Night Tobey Maguire Movie Marathon.

"I feel ridiculous."

"That's because you look ridiculous, Carter. We all do in these...things."

"Pfft, I think Carter always looks ridiculous."

"Hey!"

Standing in a line were our five 'heroes,' each dressed in a bulky white suit that looked at least three sizes too big on each of them. At least. After the whole 'we're gonna save CRASH!' scene, Mr. Archer had ushered the children to a different part of the building, leaving the parents in the board room.

They'd entered a room painted white, with blindingly bright lights that caused all the kids to squint. Mr. Archer, who was apparently used to the brightness, moved over to a wall with multiple hooks covering it. On each hook hung a big white jumpsuit, and white goggles as well.

After helping each of the five into a suit and goggles, he explained that these were the suits the scientists at the agency used to test products such as the gloves. They were fireproof, water proof, and when the see-through hood was pulled over the wearer's head and secured to the chest by a zipper, impenetrable by any harmful gases or liquids. The real suits for the children to wear, he'd explained with a weighty sigh, hadn't come in yet, so the test suits would have to work for now.

Then he lead them into the room they were in now. He'd described it in great detail - the large windows overlooking the city were bullet-proof, and grenade-proof as well. The wooden flooring was pretty much resistant to anything and everything you could throw at it, and the same went for the concrete walls. The test dummies set up all over the room were certainly not in short supply, and could easily be replaced. They had entered the testing room.

While they waited for the gloves to arrive, because that was apparently what they were waiting on, the children began to talk among themselves. After the short-lived conversation where Carter nearly ended up socking Sage in the face, they jumped into excited chatter about how freaking cool the building was so far. The goggles made it hard to see the expression on each of their faces, but it was clear they were all excited. Not just about the building or the gloves, but the whole aspect of it. They were going to get to be the heroes for once, not their siblings. Any spark of fear they had, which of course, they all had one, was hidden under the sheer excitement and determination they all felt.

Suddenly the door they'd entered through at least ten minutes ago slammed open, causing all conversation to cease immediately. It was Derrick, holding a medium-sized cardboard box. He stepped inside the room, allowing the door to fall shut behind him. "Sorry about that - I didn't mean to be nearly so dramatic." Mr. Archer grinned. "No worries, Derrick. Those are the gloves, no?" Derrick nodded, making his way towards the gaggle of kids.

"Fantastic. Children, we've already taken the liberty of choosing which of you will don each pair of gloves. This is mainly to avoid the whole 'three people fighting over the one pair' type of situation that always seems to arise in these sort of situations. Plus, we've already color-coordinated them with the jumpsuits you'll be wearing, each tailored to be a perfect fit to you. Don't ask how we got your measurements, I'd have to lie."

The five looked at each other, bewildered, as Mr. Archer sprang over to Derrick and opened the box. The first pair he pulled out were the blue and black ones. On the television the gloves had looked like normal, every-day gloves, but up close they clearly weren't. They were metallic, boxy, and quite large, though not big enough to look particularly heavy. "I highly doubt I need to say who these are intended for, yes?" They all nodded, turning to look at the eldest of the five. Cat was positively beaming as she accepted the gloves and put them on.

She flexed her fingers, staring at the gloves in wonder. "They look pretty heavy, but they're not. Not at all. It's the weirdest thing." Mr. Archer grinned. "Go on, try them!" Cat didn't need to be told twice. She approached the dummy, scrunched her face up in concentration, and socked the dummy in the 'gut.' It went sailing as if it had just been rammed into by an eighteen-wheeler, smashing against the wall opposite them. "Woah! I willed them to be super powerful, and they were!"