How To Be Me (boboiboy galaxy)

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They didn't have a spare room, so they kicked Ice out of her bed. Just kidding.

Maybe not.

Well, for the record, Ice was the one that volunteered. She dragged a mattress and moved some of her stuff to the boys' room. At first, Thunderstorm was confused, since they were of different genders. When she asked Quake, who was tucking herself into bed, she responded with:

"We don't care about genders that much. Nothing's wrong between them sharing rooms. Besides, we've known each other since we were children."

Thunderstorm didn't know how to react. The way they lived, the mindset they have... it's completely different than hers. She was taught that boys were more superior than girls, which the lesson was taught indirectly.

She said nothing more and went to bed, but she quickly noticed the abnormality of it. There was something inside the springs and cotton, shaped like a frisbee and easily noticed. Maybe it was another brand? It couldn't have been comfortable for Ice's back.

She glanced over to Quake, who was sleeping on her side, back turned on her. the only light left was the lamp on the dresser between both beds, so she turned it off and slept.

Waking up the next morning was much easier. The alarm's music woke her, and she reacted just as swift. The alarm read 8am sharp, and the numbers blinked as the classic music wafted from the air.

She turned towards Quake, rubbing her eyes, but she was already gone, the covers still messy and newly used. The bathroom was quiet, and her towel was still fresh by the cabinet. Where was she?

Puzzled, Thunderstorm lifted herself from the bed, and winced at the coolness of the wooden floorboard. She instinctively brushed her hair out of her face, but that's when she remembered that she cut it. No more bed hair, she thought to herself. Can't have bed hair when your hair's too short.

She heard conversations downstairs, voices buzzing enthusiastically like children calling to their mothers. Should she go down? Would that be intruding?

We care for you, Quake had said. Maybe she should take that in mind for once. With that in mind, she went down the stairs, and found four adults still in their sleep wear in the living room. They all sat on the couch, all talking to someone.

As soon as she was mid-step, Solar noticed her. He turned to the unknown recipient, and gestured towards her direction. They weren't talking to someone. No, something.

"Oh, hello," the hovering yellow sphere spoke, turning to her. Two bright blue ovals blinked at her appearance as its thin metal arms hung by its sides. "You are Thunderstorm, correct? We were just talking about you."

"Um." Thunderstorm's fists clenched, her mind spinning. What was this thing? "Yeah, that's me." She cringed at her own awkwardness. "Talking... about me?"

Ice caught her attention by waving at her. She and Cyclone made space for her in between them, just in front of the floating ball. Stiffly, she made her way there, facing straight at the robot.

"That's our mom I told you about," Quake said, arms crossed. She grinned, apparently expecting a reaction from the sphere. As she planned, the ball sighed in exasperation and glared at her. She raised her hands in defense. "His name is Ochobot, and he's a power sphere from space. Make sense? Nope. Anyway, he's the one that found us and took care of us since we were kids."

Thunderstorm's head began to hurt. "What?" Her eye twitched.

"In a nutshell," Cyclone said, "he's the one that gave us our powers. He adopted us when we were on the run, and trained us. He's basically our mom, but then again, he can't cook or understand sarcasm."

Power sphere from space. Gave us our powers. Thunderstorm knew she'd heard that somewhere before, but she couldn't recall. She knew aliens existed, that there was life beyond Earth. But if this thing was indeed from space...

"So, you don't know how to use your powers?" Ochobot asked, looking directly at her.

Thunderstorm shook her head. "Not exactly." She looked down. "My teacher never really bothered to."

"I take this teacher also taught Blaze and Thorn, correct?"

"Yeah. He didn't really care about me back then."

She didn't realize it at first, but her voice took on a bitter and a rather harsh tone. Her fists were clenched, nails digging into her skin, but it was only until Ice put her hand on her shoulder that she'd snapped out of her senseless anger.

Ochobot hummed as well as a robot could hum. "Do you know how he gave you your powers?"

Thunderstorm bit her lip. "I don't know," she admitted. "One day, I woke up with it. That's all I remember."

"I see." Ochobot crossed his metal arms, turning away from them. "Anyway, I've got to go. I can't waste another minute."

Before any of them could retort, his screen glowed white, and a miniature portal rimmed with gold appeared in front of him. He disappeared through the portal, and he was gone.

Thunderstorm blinked, confused as ever. She knew she'd heard of it somewhere. Somewhere she wasn't meant to go.

Could this power sphere be the answer?

"Okay, time to get changed," Quake declared. "It's Saturday and I want everyone to be in top shape! That includes you, Thunderstorm."

"Me?" Thunderstorm whirled towards her, reacting a little overboard. She blushed and scratched the back of her head, ashamed.

Solar yawned, as he was the only one that was still in his work clothes. He wasn't a day person, after all.

"Today's training," Ice said blandly, standing up. "Besides, you don't know how your powers work, so might as well see what we could do."