H.O.M.E

Chapter 3

I sit in the conference room waiting for the meeting to start when I hear the door open, its Mom. I stand up excited to see her and she looks at me kind of strangely, “what are you doing here before everyone else Gizmo?”

“Oh well I wasn’t that sweaty so I didn’t bother to get a shower.”

Mom looks at me and she knows that I am lying,” you don’t have to be afraid of the other boys Gizmo, you guys are all family.”

I look at her kind of confused,” what do you mean? I thought that just Sadie and Buddy were my family.” Before she has a chance to answer me the doors open up and everyone starts to come in to the room. Mom looks at me and mouths “Later” before she takes her spot at the head of the table.

Sadie and Buddy both sit on one sit of the table while Rex and the others go on the opposite side so I sit in the chair on the side with Buddy and Sadie. Once we are all seated Mom stands up and addresses everyone,” I wanted to start off by formally introducing all of you to Gizmo, the newest member of Beta team.” Skip’s hand shots up but before he can ask his question I see Rex turn and give him a dirty look and Skip slowly puts his hand back down. “Anyways, now that Beta team is complete they will be starting their training to get prepared for field work just like Alpha team” Mom says continuing her speech.

“We don’t really need another team to pick up the slack, we have it all pretty much under control” I look over and see that Spike is talking.

Before Mom can even say anything Rex chimes in and saying,” actually I wouldn’t mind it if Sadie joined our team” giving her a wink and a smile.

Buddy looks at Rex through his rage filled eyes and says,” that will never happen!” Buddy holds up his hand and I can see that his nails have turned long and sharp like animal claws, I wonder if that’s his power.

Sadie pulls Buddy’s arm back down to the table and pats his arm telling him that it is okay before she turns to Rex. “Thanks for the offer Rex but I think I will just stay with my team” giving him a half smile.

Mom clears her throat loudly and when I turn to look at her she has an angry look on her face. I guess she didn’t like the back and forth everyone was having. “Beta team will start training for field work and become a well-oiled machine” she says directing it towards Spike and Rex.

Rex smiles and nods,” if that is what you think is best.”

Mom then turns to looks at my side of the table and speaks in a more authoritarian tone,” in preparation for your team training Beta will be fitted for uniforms tomorrow, get assigned a team training room, and finally you all will be staying in the same suite from now on.” Upon hearing the last part Buddy and Sadie erupt in irritation while Alpha team just sits and looks at them with smiles on their faces. I sit there and listen to Sadie and Buddy yelling at Mom and with each passing second not only do I feel more unwanted but I also see Mom’s face start to turn red. Mom finally erupts and yells at them,” like it or not ALL of these things are going to happen and they will help to make you a better team. If you don’t want to do these things then you guys can forgot about going out in the field.”

Mom pulls out a folded piece of paper and hands it to Sadie,” this is the room number of your new suite all of your things are already there. All three of you are to stay in the room until you are called down for your uniform fittings tomorrow, is that understood?” Sadie nods and stands up with Buddy following her lead towards the door. I stand up with them but instead of heading to the door I walk over to Mom and give her a big hug and tell her goodnight. “Goodnight Gizmo I need you to be a good boy okay? Now go run off to your new room” she says to me sending me out the door.

I hurry and catch up with Sadie and Buddy as they wait by the elevator with upset looks on their faces. When the door opens we all pile in and no one says a word as Sadie presses the UP button. Once we get to the top floor we follow Sadie down a hallway as she looks at the paper that Mom had given her. We stop at a door that has a weird looking panel to the left of it and Sadie checks the paper one more time. “This is it” she says as she places her hand on the panel and after a few seconds it glows green and the door opens up.

“That is so cool, it is a handprint scanner!” I say as I look at the panel closer. I look up to see if Buddy and Sadie are as amazed as I am but they have already walked into the room. I go inside and close the door behind me and hear a loud locking sound. I look around and see that the room is larger than I would have thought. The first thing I see is the kitchen which takes up a large part of the left side of the room. Next to the kitchen is a huge living room with a plump couch, a loveseat and the biggest flat screen TV I have ever seen. Buddy is sprawled out on the couch with a big sandwich and flipping through the channels. Sadie is relaxing in the loveseat reading a book. Neither of them look like they are in any mood to talk to I keep exploring the apartment. I make a right and hit a small hallway where the bedrooms are. The first door on the left says SADIE in bright colors and is covered with girly stuff like flowers and hearts. The next door down the hall has BUDDY in big bold letters with various pictures of different types of bears in angry poses. At the end of the hallway is the last door and it has GIZMO in blue lettering that kind of resembles lightning. The door is covered in pictures of computers and other technologies but also violent scenes of lightning storms.

Looking at my door I figure out that it has to do with my power, my ability to control technology and also the generating of lightning. Turning back to the other doors I wonder if Buddy and Sadie’s powers are somehow represented on there. Instead of guessing at what their powers might be I head back to the living room and prepare to ask them what I have wanted to since I met them. I stand in the living room and Buddy and Sadie are still in their own worlds and have no idea that I am even standing there. I clear my throat in hopes to get their attention and speak,” So I have been wondering something, what are your powers?”

Buddy doesn’t even turn his head to look at me before he speaks,” bears.” I look at him confused about his response. Before I can ask another question Sadie gets up,” his power is the ability to change into any type of bear that he wants to.”

“That is so cool I can’t wait to see it in action. So what is your power?” I say to Sadie who is next to me now.

“Here ill just show you” she whispers to me. She steps closer to the couch and looks at Buddy,” hey can you get me a glass of water?”

Buddy looks up at her and scoffs at her,” do it yourself”.

Sadie takes a deep breath and exhales slowly, “Buddy can you please get me a glass of water?”

He doesn’t even hesitate and gets up off the couch and walks into the kitchen coming back with a glass of ice water and handing it to Sadie. He flops back on the couch and after a few seconds shakes his head vigorously, “dammit Sadie I hate it when you use your power on me!”

She laughs as he sips the water and looks at me. She obviously sees that I am confused because she puts down the glass and starts to explain. “I have the power to emit pheromones from my mouth and with that I can make people do different things like change their emotions or even make them go to sleep. And like I just showed you with Buddy I can make people do what I ask but only for a short amount of time.”

“You can actually make people fall asleep? I don’t believe that.” I say to her thinking that her and Buddy are playing some kind of joke on me.

Sadie smiles at me and looks over at Buddy who gives her a slight nod. “Here let me help you understand better.” Before I can even say anything she leans in closer and whispers one single word into my ear,” sleep.” Before I know it I feel my whole body becoming very heavy and everything goes black.