Power of the 8 Elements

Chapter Twenty Two

 As we were all chatting and talking, the doorbell rang. Multiple times.

"I'll get it," Celeste said. She had grown less bratty than she used to be. There was some talking at the door and then Celeste returned to the living room. "Uh...Terry...there's a family of three that's asking for you."

"You say that like it's a bad thing," I said.

"Well...they're threatening us."

Everyone's eyes went wide.

"I'll take care of it," I said, walking towards the door. Cel was right. There was a man and a woman and a kid with blonde hair and green eyes. I greeted them. "How may I help you?"

"We're looking for a place to enroll," the woman said.

"Enroll? This isn't a school. You, uh, you can't bring anyone here."

"Yes, we can. And we are. We're bringing our son Wilbur. And you have to teach him."

"No, we don't."

"Yes, or else." The husband held up his phone and showed a video of us fighting the Evil Angel and causing lots of destruction. "The public thinks that the damage is being caused by this new mob leader, but we suspected differently. We'll tell them that it's you destroying our property and buildings."

I glanced back at the team and sighed. "Fine, fine, whatever. Give us Wilbur," I said. She pushed the kid towards us and then slammed the door. I walked into the living room.

"Guys, we've got a visitor!" I said.

"Who is it?" Bones asked.

"Some kid named Wilbur," I said.

"Are we just taking random people now?" Lucifer said.

"No, if we don't teach Wilbur how to fight, then his parents are going to reveal us to the public. Apparently, we cause more destruction than the villains we're fighting!"

"So, Wilbur," Amaya said, "Greetings."

He blew an air horn in her face and then began jumping on the couch.

"Hey! Kid, get off my sofa!" Celeste shouted, "You're going to ruin it! These aren't cheap, you know!"

Wilbur continued to bounce on the sofa like some kind of child.

"You heard her," Lucifer said, pulling Wilbur off the furniture.

"Whoa, what are you?" Wilbur said, staring at them both.

"Wizards," they said at the same time.

"The better question should be what are you?" Glamour said, "What's your ability? What powers do you have?"

"Um...I don't have any powers."

All of us froze.

"We're a team of heroes," Terri said, "Heroes with magical abilities. And you just decided to join us knowing you have zero supernatural abilities?"

"Yep," Wilbur said cheerfully.

"I'll lead him to a room," Ava said.

"Then we can all decide what to do with him," I said.

"Hopefully put him out of his misery," Lucifer said, arms crossed.

"I, for once, agree," Cel said.

THAT NIGHT AT DINNER

"When do I start training?" Wilbur asked.

"Tomorrow," I said, "Early in the morning."

"Don't we have a mission tomorrow?" Cel said. "The Evil Angel's fortress?" she whispered.

"Oh! Darn it! Yes!"

"How are we going to fit this in the schedule?" Ferd asked.

"We could train him tonight?" Glamour said.

"Train me now!" Wilbur said.

"We'll train you after the mission. You won't come along though," I said.

"Why not?"

"Because you probably have zero experience in fighting, and we're going to do something very dangerous," Terri said.

"Yep, exactly that," I said.

Wilbur muttered something—probably an insult.

"It's for the best," Ava said.

"It'd be better if we could just get rid of him," Lucifer said.

"We all know why we can't," Terry said.

"What's so wrong if we reveal ourselves to the public?" Celeste said, "Maybe they'd be grateful. I mean, we, after all, are trying to save their lives."

"Number one, do any of our parents know what we're doing?" I said.

No one spoke.

"Not even you, Cel?" Amaya said.

"Well, what do you think your mother would say if she found out that you were housing a dark one in your house?!"

Lucifer snarled.

"Plus she's always at school, giving some student detention or something."

"Number two, people often feel less safe with 'heroes', you know what I mean."

"They think we're being more destructive?" Glamour said.

"Bingo."

"What a disappointment."

"Wilbur will only cause more ruination," Lucifer said.