𝐂𝐡𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬 | Warren Peace

Chapter 11

Mira skated home after school, eager to get home so she could take a nap. It had been a long day and she was looking forward to sleeping until it was time for dinner. However, she knew once she entered her house that that wasn't going to happen. 

"Welcome home, sweetheart!" Her mother greeted at the door. Mira froze, one foot still on the tiny welcome mat outside and the other on their fuzzy interior carpet. Behind her mother was her father, Gwen Grayson, Penny Lent, Lash Sandvig, and Speed Harris.

"Wait... This is Vreake Freak's house?" Speed asked loudly. Gwen quickly elbowed him and smiled. "Hi, Mirage! Sorry about us suddenly barging in, I was going to tell you earlier today at school that your parents invited us all over for dinner today but you ran away before I could say anything." She pouted a bit.

Mira set down her skateboard and her backpack on the ground, wary of the people in front of her. "Honey, don't be rude. Help me get ready for dinner." Lilian said to her husband. "We'll call you kids when everything's ready!" With that, the two adults walked into the kitchen. 

"...You're the Enhancer's kid?!" Lash asked in disbelief. 

"Well, you'd know if you were listening to anything I was saying earlier," Gwen said through her forced smile. "Anyway. Why don't we take this conversation to the Lair?"

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Mira sat awkwardly in her parents' Lair. Penny was picking at her nails, Speed was kicking at the ground, Lash glared at Mira, and Gwen looked around at some of the artifacts around the room.

"This place is amazing." Gwen expressed. The Lair was a very clean, white room. It was large and mostly empty, aside from several glass cases against the walls that held souvenirs that the Enhancer and Nullify were able to collect during their lives as sidekicks. Mira remembered spending most of her childhood in the Lair, training every single day for hours.

"Why are we here, Grayson?" Lash asked in an annoyed voice. 

"Yeah, I thought we were going to talk about 'homecoming.'" Penny said, using air quotations when she said 'homecoming.'

"You already recruited them?" Mira asked Gwen. 

"Wait, she knows?!" Speed asked, "How's a sidekick supposed to help us overthrow the school?"

Mira felt herself growing angrier by the second. "Watch it, Speed. You don't know who you're dealing with." She growled, no longer willing to hold back. They were in on the plan already, why should she hide anymore?

Penny scoffed at her remark, "What the hell are you going on about? You don't have powers." She explained as if Mira was five years old.

"Do we need to beat that into your little head?" Speed sneered before he started sprinting around the room, ricocheting off the walls of the Lair and slamming into Mira with such force that she hit the ground and slid across the smooth floor. 

"Get up, Mirage!" She heard Gwen's voice sound. She looked up and saw the girl smirking at her from the other side of the room. "Show them." 

Mira gladly stood up and wiped the blood away from her nose, facing the three teens before her. Penny multiplied herself, Lash extended his arms, and Speed took off once more.

It was as if time stopped in Mira's mind. She closed her eyes and slowly breathed in, then out. She felt a familiar feeling wash over her, it silenced the thoughts in her head and relaxed her body. When her eyes opened, they turned black for a second. The three teens didn't catch it soon enough, and when they did, it was too late.