Backseat Heroes

Sage.

Sage Cooper isn't shy, she just likes to keep her thoughts to herself. Sage Cooper isn't unsociable, she just finds the majority of her peers to be unworth her time. Sage Cooper isn't rude, she's just blunt. What Sage Cooper is, however, is very, very careful. You have to be when you grow up in a house of nothing but boys.

Her parents are hardly ever home, always away on business trips and the like, so it's normally just her and her four older brothers running the place. While her brothers are very protective of her, they can be nuisances as well, and just plain slobby, much to her chagrin. Sometimes they'll refer to her as 'mom,' purely to get a rise out of her, but they all admit it's pretty true.

But I digress. Life became a whole lot more interesting with the discovery that the second eldest brother, Hadley, possessed a unique gift - invisibility. It also proved quite troublesome. Snacks were disappearing from the cabinets like crazy, and whenever chores needed to be done, Hadley was always mysteriously nowhere to be found.

Benji, Zack, Gil, none of them are jealous like you'd imagine they would be. If anything, they're proud of their brother, and have even exploited him and his abilities more than once for their own personal gain. Sage isn't jealous, either, though she's certainly grown tired of her big brother's disappearing act.

Sage wishes for a lot of things. She wishes for books, she wishes for peace and quiet, she wishes for her parents to return so she doesn't have to play mother. She especially wishes that her brother was normal, that they were all just one big, happy, functional, normal family. Not that she doesn't find his powers amazing, but sometimes normalacy is a necessity, and the lack of it in her life distresses her.

It doesn't look like she'll be getting her wish any time soon. Her brother's got a hero name now, a fancy costume, and a flashy team just like him. No, Hadley certainly wasn't going to be quitting anytime in the near future.

But a girl can hope.

/////

Sage spent the entirety of her bus ride home imagining coming home to a calm, semi-clean household, with her brothers all behaving and her parents watching television in the living room - even though her parents were currently on yet another business trip, this time to France. Still, two out of three would've still been nice.

However, what she found when she climbed off the bus and stepped into her apartment was hardly what she'd imagined. Miley Cyrus' Wrecking Ball was blasting from the radio while all four of her older brothers danced to the song, shirtless. Benji was dancing on the couch, Gil was slow-dancing with one of Sage's old teddybears, and the other two were just bouncing around like fools.

Magazines and movies littered the floor, in constant danger of being smashed or tripped over. None of her brothers noticed her appearance until she walked over to the radio and shut it off. They all turned to look at her, slightly startled but still unfazed. "Oh, hey Sage! Do you wanna dance too?"

Sage turned to look at the brother who'd spoken. "No, Benji, I don't, and you should get off that couch before you fall off and seriously damage yourself. You've got few enough brain cells as it is, no need to go about killing more. Hey - Where'd Hadley go?" Hadley, who'd been in the midst of them just moments before, had disappeared. Typical.

The others shrugged, clearly unfazed by it. The radio suddenly turned back on, but the volume was twice as loud, startling Sage and causing her to jump in surprise. She whirled around and smashed the power button with her fist, turning it off for the second time. "Hadley! For pete's sake, don't do that!"

A boy - Hadley - appeared at her elbow, grinning. "Awh, lighten up, little sis! It's gotta be unhealthy to be so uptight. Have some fun for once!"

Sage just huffed, adjusting the strap of her backpack on her shoulder. "No. I'm going to go to my room, where there's peace and quiet and books that are better company then the four of you combined." With that said she stomped off, leaving her brothers alone.

Hadley just shrugged and turned the music on, and it didn't take long for the dancing to start up again. Sage didn't concern herself with this, though - she just went up to her room, picked up the book she was currently reading, and let herself settle into a world of people much more interesting than the ones she had to deal with on a normal basis.

/////

Well, if there was ever an unfortunately good way to use irony, this was it. At least, Hadley figured so. Here he was, Mr. Invisibility, more commonly known to the world as the dashing superhero Havoc, the one guy who's never supposed to be seen - and he can't see a damn thing. It's not very funny, but then again, I never said it was.

He'd known it was a blindfold the moment he realized he couldn't see even with his eyes wide open. All of his limbs were going numb and tingly from being strapped in place for so long. The last thing Hadley remembered was retiring to his room after the whole dancing debacle. He'd fallen asleep on his bed, and woken up bound like a wild animal. Not only was it humiliating, but extremely annoying as well.

His powers were hardly going to help him out of this one. Hadley was going to have to do something he so dearly hated - wait, be patient, and see if anything happened that would make the situation any clearer. He hated it, but there was nothing else he could do - being tied up and all.

So he sighed, sat back in his chair, and waited.

/////

A/N: Voila! The last introductory chapter! Say hello to Sage and Hadley, they'll be sticking around for awhile - or will they? MUAHAHAHAHA!

No, really, they'll be sticking around.

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