Hero In The Making

Chapter Four: Hide and Peek

Sunny was speechless. Wes and Xander were kidnapped! She turned to Wes. "You were kidnapped?"

Wes avoided eye contact with her. "It's complicated." he mumbled.

Sunny turned toward Reed and Laena. "You both knew about this?! And you're only just now telling me!"

"We only had a theory. We didn't know for sure yet, and we didn't want to make any false assumptions." Laena said slowly, trying to calm Sunny down.

"Yeah, what she said," Reed stated.

"Sorry, it's just that this would have been nice to know about. I mean, this is BIG!"

"Yeah, this is weird..." Jo said.

"What is weird? If I may ask," A voice from behind them asked. They all turned around."Director Morgan.

"Oh. Um...we were just talking about....how it's weird that I am in this group with the new recruits...." Jo stammered out.

"Would you like to switch into another group JoAnna?" The director asked.

"No, no it's fine; I just thought that it was interesting." Jo reassured her.

"Very well," Director Morgan said, turning towards her daughter. "Hello Laena. I just stopped by to see how training was going."

"It's... going great." Usually Laena is the type of person who likes to talk, but around her mom, she seemed to clam up.

"Well I'm glad to see you're all working so hard..." She gave them a tight smile. They all silently watched the director walk out of the gym.

Laena shook her head. "She knows that we know."

Xander tilted his head to the side. "How do you know that?"

She smiled weakly. "She's my mom."

"And the director knows everything." Reed added.

Wes scoffed, "Well, so what if she knows that you know. What's the big deal about it?"

"She'll do anything to keep us quiet." Laena said softly.

"Is your mom like us? I mean does she have powers too?" Wes questioned.

"She has the power to make anyone bend to her will, yes. What... I'm about to tell you has never been told to anyone. I was once looking through old pictures of hers, and she... she was a scientist. She led everyone here to believe that she's just like us, that she wants to help us, but the truth is that we're all just little rats to her." Laena explained

"Rrr...Really? What does she want with us? What does she do to us?" Sunny stuttered.

"I think that we've just been an entertainment to her this whole time. Sure, she's taken blood samples, but I've never seen anything suspicious that would suggest that someone was being tested on, thankfully."

"Wow. Your mom is.... interesting." Wes stated.

Laena chuckled. "Always has been, always will be. Okay, does anyone else need a break from all of this? Xander, you were right. Let's play some hide and seek. Trainers against trainees, superhero style."

---

Jo's squirrel form scurried up the tree, trying to find a hole that she could fit in. She could feel the wind from

Reed's wings as he flew past the tree. He stopped and turned around to land."Wait a minute, that's gotta be you!" Reed yelled at the squirrel perched on the rock on the ground. Jo scurried back down the tree and turned back into herself, even though it would blow her cover she wanted to get the laugh."C'mon Jo, you know the rules. You have to change back now. I caught you!"