by Madam Marvelous
ID# 26130
The final day of League War Avalanche had finally arrived, and I was sick with worry. Not about the match, but that I was unable to contact my parents and check in with them as I did every day when I was away from home. Where were they?
I kept rechecking my messaging system, hoping I’d missed a call or text from them, but there was nothing but the invitation by Midgardsormr to the WMD-Black Order celebration later today. The one that demanded my parents join me and my league so we could take part in their celebration. I was too chicken yesterday to contact my parents, concerned about keeping my secret identity, and let myself get distracted by the Secret Santa exchange.
I was thrilled by several of my gifts I got from other heroes. I opened my first package and found a golden set of Phoenixguard Gear Wrist Pieces for my costume. They were a bit more advanced that I was ready to use at the moment, but they would go great with my Wielder of the Secret Fire combination. Kid Chaos had been extremely generous. Sensational Tillsmith gifted me a Titanic Fury training package, which would help me develop my shapeshifting powers and allow me to grow even larger than the Marshmallow Peep I became over Halloween. ChaChing gave out a Power Princess Power Gauntlet, which I couldn’t wait to try out, and my old friend Ever-Loving Bunny Fu-Fu of LUSH gave me Nth Dimensional Senses. I thanked them all and enjoyed seeing what everyone else got as much as opening my own gifts.
After the last one had been handed out, BADGE robots came into the arboretum and gave every hero some special Gift Blaster equipment. As much as it was a fantastic bonus to our Secret Santa celebration, it might have been a bad idea to give them out at that particular time. Every hero put the blaster on their arm and started firing away at one another, pelting presents in a hailstorm of paper and ribbon.
If the BADGE robotic staff got paid, they certainly weren’t getting paid enough to clean up after that mess.
I sent a message to my parents after I returned to my quarters, but they didn’t respond. Being as late as it was after the party, I wasn’t surprised. They might have gone to bed early, as some parents do all too frequently. I fully expected to hear from them in the morning as usual, so I climbed into my cot and caught some ZZZ’s.
My alarm went off, but my parents didn’t call. I showered, got dressed, and checked my itinerary for the day, but my parents still didn’t call. When I got back from breakfast, I got tired of waiting and called them.
No answer.
I’d never gotten a NO ANSWER from them before. I would call, they would answer. That was the way things worked. What was going on back home?
The first matches were fast approaching. I couldn’t be late, or else I might forfeit my contest. That wouldn’t be fair to my team, especially if my parents were just out doing some last-minute Christmas shopping while I was gone. Maybe they got called into work? Being an hour-or-so late for a phone call wasn’t that strange.
Was it??!!
Our matches were against the FireFly Fun Haus. I had high hopes as I entered the locker room and greeted my teammates. Wyldfyre seemed immediately grumpy as I walked in. I couldn’t tell if it was drinking the night before or because of Midgardsormr’s talk with him. Arcane Ace and the others were chatty, talking tactics and preparations. I waved at them as I got ready, but my thoughts were constantly pulled to my communications unit. I checked it every minute to see if my parents sent a message or not.
Ace pulled us into our spirit circle just before we headed out to start our matches. “OK team. We’ve managed to win against the MacGregors!! League, so we have matched our efforts from last league war. If we can beat the FireFly Fun Haus, we should take a Silver Medal home. Either way, I’m proud of all of you, and hope you are proud of yourselves as well. Any thoughts you need to free yourselves of before we head out?”
Most of my friends only shook their heads, ready to fight. I cleared my throat. “I have two things. First, we have all been invited to join the WMD-Black Order to celebrate tonight by Midgardsormr, and you know that means more of an insistence than request. I hope you can all make it.”
Everyone except Wyldfyre nodded, licking their lips or rubbing their stomachs in eager anticipation of the astounding spread that would be available. Wyldfyre, crossed his arms and grunted his acceptance of the invitation. I had the feeling he was planning something, which made me slightly nervous. Not for Midgardsormr, but for Wyldfyre’s own well-being.
“Also, while I am in my matches, can one of you pay attention to my comm unit for me. I’m expecting to hear from someone, and I don’t want to miss their call.”
“Well-wishes from your extended family for the holiday?” Obsidian Strike asked.
“Something like that,” I replied.
“We can do that for you, double M,” Arcane Ace said. “Let’s head out and make our presence know. May the road rise to meet you, May the wind always be at your back, May the warm rays of sun fall upon your home, and may the hand of a friend always be near<said in Gaelic>.”
Our matches went interestingly. Wyldfyre went in first and blew his way through our opponents, winning one match against most of them. He then held in reserve for if additional wins were needed to keep us in the winning position. The rest of us went after opponents we determined to be more susceptible to our attacks. We gave up very few losses, and the FireFly Fun Haus let us accumulate a strong lead.
I watched the fight from the bench when not in combat, continually checking for a call that never came. When I wasn’t cheering on my leaguemates, I occasionally glanced at the crowd and watched the stream of heroes that gave our battles notice. Very few watched our matches for long, but I did notice one large-armored figure that sat and observed us the entire match. Twice the size of a large man, I didn’t recognize them from any of my encounters with other heroes. Perhaps it was a new Morphon-powered hero or alien visitor to our world?
But why were they so interested in us? There were much flashier and more exciting fights to watch.
In the end, we defeated the FireFly Fun Haus, but my attention was farther and farther away from the contest. By 16:00 hours, I hadn’t received any response yet from Mom and Dad. Something had to be wrong. After we shook hands with our opponents and made our way back to the locker room, I opened a channel to Eggie, my BADGE… Overwatch and Protector. The connection went active. “Hey, Eggie. Are you busy?”
“Why HELLO poppet,” Eggie answered with her typical enthusiasm. “You know me, I’ve always got time for you. Are you ready for the party this evening?”
“How did you know about that?” I asked. I hadn’t told her about the invitation, but she did accompany me last year, so I shouldn’t have been surprised.
“Kitt’n, I do have a central processor and neural pathways that allow me to put two and two together,” she said. “I’ve even learned a new joke for you. ‘How do you make a hanky dance? Put a little boogie in it.”
I rolled my eyes. Comic timing certainly wasn’t her thing. “That’s great. Can you go to my parent’s house and check in on them? I haven’t been able to reach them all day.”
“Um, oh, ah,” she stammered. “I’m already aboard the arena, dearie. I figured you would want me at your side while you went to the WMD-Black Order victory gala, unless you planned on going to the party for Krystal Fae and the Legacy of Spawn. They will take their first Gold this war, and I am quite proud of your other mentor for her perseverance. That is a quality you could benefit from incorporating into your own programming.”
“I’m a person. I don’t get programmed, I learn,” I said huffily. I wasn’t a walking toaster like she was. OK, maybe not a toaster, but she sometimes lived up to her given designation: Electric Grandmother.
“Programmed. Trained. Po-TA-to, Po-TOT-o,” she said. “I can contact BADGE agents in the area to do a welfare check for you, if that would ease your mind.”
“Please,” I said with a smile. I prayed that all my worry was over a bad pair of batteries in our home phone “And thank you.”
I looked up to the stands for the groupie who watched all our matches, but they must have departed while I was on the phone. I hope they enjoyed the matches.
<To Be Continued>
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