I wake up in an unfamiliar room. Panicked, I sit up ready to fight anyone. Strangely, the room is empty.
Well, almost empty. A lone figure sits in the corner, shrouded by shadows.
"Shadow." The word is laced with poison. "So this is all your fault."
He laughs. "Actually, this has nothing to do with me. Those humans did this again."
"Again?"
"That doesn't matter. What does matter is be careful. I'm not your enemy," he says.
"Highly doubt that," I scoff.
"Fine. Don't listen to me. But don't come crying to me when everything goes south." Shadow stands up and disappears.
The door opens and everyone, I mean EVERYONE, enters the room. Allan, Gracie, Tyler, Uncle Tom, Aunt Camryn, Alexa, Brady, Max, Spencer, even Mom and Dad are here.
I let my suit retreat to my bracelet. Gracie and Tyler rush to me.
"Are you okay? We just found out you were up!" Gracie is freaking out. If anything happens to any of us, she'll blame herself.
"I-I'm fine. That news must have shocked me more than I thought." I lean in and whisper, "HE was here."
Their eyes widen but they don't say anything. I stand up and Allan wraps me in the tightest hug he can. "They said we can't act outside of government approved zones now. Innocent people will get hurt and die because the damn government won't let us do what we need to."
"Uncle Tom, did you know about this?" I ask him.
"I'm so sorry Celeste, I didn't know they passed it. They were talking about finding a way to keep all of the heroes under control and I thought I shot the idea down," he admits. "They knew I wouldn't be able to do anything if they approved it this morning."
Tears form in my eyes. "What happens when they need us?"
Everyone remains silent before Allan speaks up. "They said they can handle it."
"They can't," I whisper. "Things are going to go wrong with this new plan."
Everyone exits the room but Gracie, Tyler, and Allan. The three of them hop on the bed.
"Why did they do this?" I ask.
"Apparently we're getting too powerful. They're scared." Gracie lets electricity arc between her fingers.
"Politicians are scared of people who protect them? That's bullshit."
"I know Cel." Tyler pauses for a second. "What did Shadow want? This is the first time he's directly spoken to any of us without trying to kill us."
"I don't really know," I admit. "He said this happened before."
"But there's never been heroes until we came on the scene." Gracie's voice is filled with confusion.
"What if there was? It's as if he knows what this could lead to."
"How would we find out if this HAS happened before?" Allan asks.
"In theory," Gracie begins saying, "if this has happened in the past, there should be proof of it in the government's database." Her blue eyes flicker mischievously. "History books might not contain the evidence since they don't want to look bad to the country, but I can find what we're looking for in no time."
"Tell me what you need and I'll get it from Uncle Tom."
"Perfect."
~~~
Getting the equipment wasn't hard. Uncle Tom knows what could happen if we aren't allowed to do what we need to and was MORE than willing to let us use his personal information to access what we need. Since it's only been a few hours since my family arrived in Nashville, the press is still itching to interrogate anyone linked with the First Family. Including us.
Allan and I suit up and go downstairs while Gracie finds what we need and Tyler keeps an eye out. Flanking either side of Uncle Tom, we face the wolves.
The elevator doors open and we are immediately flooded with questions.
"Hurricane, what do you have to say?"
"Why did you pass out earlier? Are you hurt?"
"President Valencia, why didn't you try to stop this from getting approved?"
"I was unaware that they were approving this new action, today." He pauses. "When the Elemental Four came on the scene, many lives were saved from great tragedies. Now that they are restricted to a landlocked state, who knows how many innocent people will be lost."
"Hurricane, do you intend to fight this?" One asks and shoves a microphone in my face.
"I can only do so much. Unfortunately, the government is overstepping here." I stare directly at the cameras. "People of America, please help us. Bad things can happen and we won't be able to help." My cheery attitude drops. "We will listen to them and when the government comes calling, their little 'policy' will prevent us from doing what they want us to."
What I really want to say is "Those assholes on Capitol Hill are abusing their power to feel like they're safe." But a hero cursing on national television while one of the most powerful people in the world is by her side is not a good idea.
"Now if you'll excuse us," Glitch inserts. "We have some things to take care of." He grabs my arm and flies us out the door.
As soon as we reach the roof, Glitch drops his hold on me and pulls his suit back into the ring he always wears. "WHY THE HELL DID YOU SAY THAT ON TV?!" He yells. The roof is empty since everyone is preoccupied with other events at the moment.
I remain calm. "I said what needed to be said. You know how much shit they're gonna get anyway. Hearing what one of the people it restricts has to say is what people need!"
"I DON'T CARE! We have to fight back carefully. Your uncle is going to do what he can to help us."
"He can't do anything." Gracie and Tyler have appeared on the roof. "They made it irrevocable. And it was done before."
"When?" I ask.
"From the little bit of information they saved, the late 80's. It was only one hero, no information about who they were or their powers, that they set it up for."
"But why now?" I sit on one of the chairs and let my suit retract. "Why didn't they do this years ago?"
"We weren't a threat to them. Now we are."
Small thuds echo all around us. I turn around and see eight very familiar faces.
"I take it you heard?" I say.
"We did. That's why we got here as soon as we did." Renegade stands the tallest of us. His voice is echoing in my head. 'Why don't we just take them out? They can't stop us then.'
Projecting my thoughts so he can hear me, I think, 'That'll make us the villains. Not happening.'
"How are you going to handle this Hurricane?" Ivy asks. She's letting flowers bloom and die in her hand.
It is obvious everyone is nervous. Illusions are popping up, Shift is changing forms faster than I can figure out what he is, knives are being tossed from one hand to another.
"We'll figure that out as things happen. Be prepared to not leave your state for a while," I warn them. "The four of us have already been restricted to Tennessee. Y'all are next and it could get changed to an even smaller area. You know how to get in contact with me so use that to your advantage. Now I suggest y'all get out of here before you're spotted."
"Yes ma'am."
Everyone either launches off the building, runs off at the speed of sound, or uses a portal to hitch a ride home. The few of them that don't have those powers are picked up by their teammates.
~~~
Monday morning. The day I've been dreading all weekend. Yesterday, the picture of Spencer and I at the airport started circulating with the headline "Hurricane and President's Son. Was There a Relationship?"
A rumor about my cousin is not something I need to deal with right now. Especially with everything that's happened.
Getting out of bed was a chore and getting ready to leave was even worse. Not wanting to do much, I just use my typical braid. Since the weekend was so full of world changing news I need familiarity.
After dropping Caleb at school, I drive across the street and park my car. The band room is buzzing with the news of not just the President being in town but also the news of us being restricted. Everyone is pissed off and they're being vocal about what they think.
"Finally!" I collapse on one of the rolling chairs in the band library. "I need a minute to think."
Allan walks in. "I thought you had all weekend to think."
"The whole weekend was spent in Nashville. I thought you knew that, West." I lean forward, put my right elbow on the table, my chin in my hand. "Don't you remember the lovely conversation we had Saturday?" I taunt.
"I remember you almost killing me more than anything. Then once we got done last night, I went home and crashed until I woke up this morning."
The look on his face tells me exactly what he is thinking.
"You two are crazy. Also, the directors want you two in their office." Gracie is walking in and dropping her stuff.
"For what?" I ask.
She shrugs her shoulders. "They wouldn't tell me anything. My guess is it's drum major stuff since Adrianna is already in there."
"Lovely," I sarcastically say. Standing up, I walk out of the library and straight across the hall to the director's office, Allan right behind me. "What's up?" I ask. I sit down in one of the chairs around a table they have in their office and Allan sits on the sofa. The directors aren't here, but I'm guessing they'll be here soon.
"I think you two know."
"Actually Adrianna, we don't." Allan looks so done with this and we haven't even started talking.
"Adrianna," Mr. McNeal walks into the office. "Don't start causing problems."
"Mr. McNeal! I wasn't doing anything," Adrianna says sweetly.
He shoots a look her way and she withers under it.
"What did you want to talk to us about?" I ask as Adrianna sits down in a chair several feet to my right.
"We notice there have been some," Mr. McNeal pauses, "issues among leadership."
Thankfully Adrianna remains quiet.
"It is not necessarily linked to the three of you but everyone is having their own problems." Mrs. Smith stands up with some papers in her hand. She passes them out to us.
"'Best Team Building Activities'. How are we going to use these?" I ask.
"Most of these involve us going out of town. The school won't give us the funding for that." Adrianna looks confused.
"We barely get enough to run the program as is," Allan points out.
"Things have changed. The state has decided that art programs will now be funded as much as sports."
Our jaws drop. "No way. No freaking way!" My excitement can't be contained.
"Then when are we going to do this?" Adrianna asks.
"Our idea is to do it at the end of October," Mrs. Smith answers. "That gives us about a month and a half to plan the retreat."
"YES!" For once, the three of us unanimously agree on something. Maybe things won't be so bad after all.
~~~
We spend the next week planning out the leadership retreat. The weekend before Halloween seems to be the best weekend to do the trip since it's an off weekend before playoffs begin. And we'll be home for Allan's birthday which is nice.
Everyone goes to Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge for retreats, but Knoxville has more team building things. Escape rooms, trails, scavenger hunts, the list is nearly endless. And we can stay in a cabin about thirty minutes out of Knoxville.
However, something that is endless is the restrictions placed upon us by Capital Hill. No operating outside of Tennessee. I can't stop bad storms. If someone attacks, namely Shadow, we can't stop them until we get the green light.
After school I fly to Nashville and sit on top of the AT&T building. Watching everyone down below without them seeing me is unreal.
It gets me thinking. Where would I be if I didn't embrace these powers? The country would've fallen apart by now. Nothing we've done has ever been political. We help when and where we are needed.
I still remain a mystery. All the heroes around the country got their powers one way or another. Magic act gone wrong, a rare plant that has never been seen again, brain surgery, a trained assassin, an athlete who took a wrong turn into dark magic. Mine just showed up. Middle of a drought, suddenly I can control the weather.
A smile crosses my face at the memory. It's when I knew I could be something more.
My phone starts buzzing.
"Hello?"
"Oh thank goodness!" Aunt Camryn's voice comes from the other end.
"Is everything okay?" I ask.
"No it's not."
"What happened?"
"I can't tell you over the phone. Get to the hotel now. We have a window open for you."
"I'll be there in a second."
Sliding my phone in it's pocket, I jump off the building and soar to the hotel. Finding the open window, I land in the middle of their suite.
"How bad is what happened?" I nervously ask.
"A team was found dead."
Dread fills my chest.
"Military?"
"Worse. Ivy's team."