Henry

"Hen, Ray is really pushing us." Jasper groans.

"Dude I know, I get wanting to be ready for anything but we've never trained this much in one day. 3 hours is usually our max." I say almost out of breath. I drink some water and wipe the sweat off my forehead with a rag.

"And what is emergency training!" Jasper yells.

"Hell if I know." I respond.

"Do you think there's something he's not telling us ?"   Jasper asks slowly, like he's about to fall asleep.

"Definitely. We'll press him about it when he comes back in." I say picking up some of the equipment we used. We both take off our body monitors, our headbands, and dispose of them in the tray Schwoz always brings them in.

After cleaning in complete silence because speaking was way too much work, we both sat on the cold floor. Jasper was repeatedly trying to form snow balls but they just turned to water because his body was overheated.

"Hey kids." Ray chirps as he walks in. "Whoa, you guys don't look so good."

Jasper's face goes blank and he sits up. He just looks at Ray and then Ray is engulfed in an ice cage. Ray immediately starts chattering. I immediately sit up and look back and forth between the two.

"This is no ordinary ice, I'm freezing you from the inside out. Explain before I have Henry shock you too." Jasper demands. Oh? I've never seen him like this. Staying off his bad list. I watch Jasper intensely.

"Okkkkkay okkkkk okkkkk." Ray chatters out. Jasper's cage turns to water.

"Oh god, please don't ever do that again. Where was that technique hiding ?" Ray rubs his hands together to get some heat back.

"My first time trying it. Now talk." Jasper replies nonchalantly.

"Well as you know, we've had our suspicions for years about this guy called Phoenix. His daughter popped up here and her name is Dove. I tracked down her real identity and she lives with her father. They seem to be living a completely normal life but this guy was a hero hunter. He thinks good guys end up doing a lot more harm than the bad guys. Unfortunately, his wife is someone who died during a hostage situation where she played hero and sacrificed her life because it took the town's hero too long to get there." Ray explains.

"So he's kinda justified in his thinking-" Jasper starts.

"His ideas aren't out of reach. His actions though are unforgivable. Since then he's mercilessly targeted people who fit the definition of a hero and gone after them" Ray sighs. "I don't want him to hurt you guys. Please just stay on top of yourselves. Teen Frost and Teen Danger are the best thing to happen to Swellview. I won't make you train as long but I do want to find out what else you can do with your powers and what combo moves you can come up with." Ray has never sounded so helpless before.

"Why are you giving up?" I ask.

"Phoenix and I fought once. If I weren't indestructible I would have died. My dad spent months watching me in a coma. He made me promise not fight him again. If I'd known he'd come back"

"Nah Ray. There was no way to know. We'll do our best and we won't let you down. Plus we got you to run point and tell us all that you know. I'm assuming none of his other victims made it out alive." Jasper muses. Ray shakes his head.

"So we could die." I state plainly. Jasper glares at me.

"But with your help, we could go out with a bang." I smile and Jasper just looks at me like I'm crazy. Ray is too in shock to do anything. I walk out the training room but not without hearing them talk about getting me checked out.

I get to the front where our computers are and I go over the security cameras. My phone dings and I check it to see Bianca texted me. I smile thinking back to our conversation earlier. I really have to thank Char for that. Speaking of, didn't she say they had an hour left an hour ago ? ! Oh crap.

"Jasper we gotta go! The girls could be here any minute!" I yell and start racing around to get my stuff together. By the time I'm done Jasper is just getting out here.

"Stop using your super speed to get ready so fast." Jasper whines and I laugh.

"Just grab your bag, I packed yours too. See ya Ray!"

We go up the tubes and bolt to Jasper's house. Once we're there we try to fix up the place a little since we left it a little dirty with snacks and a few clothes all over the couches.

"Okay, shower quickly so you can get the door when they're here. I'll go get my parents up and shower in their room." Jasper plans out and I follow suit. I speed upstairs and toss my clothes in the hamper. I take out the clothes from my back pack and my deodorant. I get in the shower and wash up in record time. I wash my hair too since I don't remember the last time I did. Once I'm done, I slow down and take my time. I dry off a bit and wrap my towel around my waist.

I stare at myself in the mirror to see if there's any out of place facial hairs to take out. My phone starts ringing and I pick it up.

"Yo." I answer.

"We're pulling up in 2 minutes. Dee's pretty tired can we just stay at Jasper's tonight?" Charlotte's soft voice fills my ear.

"Yeah sure. I'll tell him. See ya." I say and she hangs up. I roll my eyes and pick up speed to get ready. Guess my hair will air dry today.

I clean the bathroom after I'm done and I step out to see Jasper finished with his shower and heading to his room.

"They'll be here in 2 minutes. Dawna is tired and Charlotte asked if they can just crash here tonight and we go to mines tomorrow." I relay to him.

"Sure no prob, we can stay downstairs. My parents are down there about to finish dinner. It's just spaghetti, fried ravioli and garlic bread." Jasper shrugs and then goes in his room. I follow him to put down my bag. I walk out and close his door behind me. I go downstairs to see his parents.

"Hello family." I greet my second set of parents. They turn around and smile at me.

"I told ya he'd be done first." Mr. Dunlop says.

" I don't know how you do it." Mrs. Dunlop says to me.

"Trust me, it's not easy at all. Every second counts." I beam and they go back to cooking.

"Is it alright if we all crash here tonight ?" I ask even though I already know the answer.

"Henry boy sometimes I feel like you don't even know us." Mr. Dunlop feigns sadness.

"Oh hush, the boy is respectful. There's nothing wrong with checking to make sure we haven't changed." Mrs. Dunlop scolds her husband and he just frowns.

"You goof. Of course you guys can stay here tonight. We went and picked up the snacks you bought at the store, what happened that you guys couldn't bring them ?" Mrs. Dunlop continues.

"Well we thought there was an emergency at work but it turns out good ole Ray Manchester just wanted to send us home with a little extra soreness from a last minute training session." Jasper comes downstairs and answers. Before anyone says anything else the doorbell rings and I zoom to answer it.

"I still can't believe you guys got super powers." Mr. Dunlop says in amazement. Jasper and I just smile. I open the door and see the girls and their bags.

"Okay where are we putting these things?" Dawna always gets right to the point.

"Hello to you too." Jasper says and of course Dawna and him hug while Charlotte and I do the same. Then we switch and everyone gets inside. Jasper's parents stop cooking and come to meet the girls in the living room.

"I'm Charlotte."
"I'm Dawna."  They both shake hands with Jasper's mom and dad.

"It smells delicious in this house." Dawna comments and her stomach growls. She just laughs it off.

"Well dinner will be done in a few seconds. Make yourselves at home, please." Mrs. Dunlop says and heads back to the kitchen.

"Really we mean it, nuestro casa es su casa." Mr. Dunlop says and Jasper groans while the girls just clap for his skills.

The girls set their bags down on the ground and turn towards us.

"So far, Swellview is amazing. Just driving through and it being so peaceful and quiet. No bright lights and loud noises coming from every way." Charlotte comments.

" And we saw the billboard about Bucket Boy becoming Teen Frost ? Does that mean he's got a super power ? What the heck !" Dawna rambles excitedly.

"Do we get to go to your job ?" Charlotte asks.

"It's closed this weekend because everyone took off. Maybe next time." I say and she frowns a bit.

"Cheer up, it's like being at a garage sale - boring and smelly. So happy we get a few days off." Jasper throws in with the laziest grin on his face.

"Bags upstairs?" I ask and Jasper nods. We take the girls bags and head to Jasper's room.

"In a bit I gotta call Piper. Mom said a while ago she wanted to talk to me." I tell Jasper.

"Alright, after dinner. That cold shower really helped me get back to normal. Maybe Monday we can retry that technique and make it our first combo move." Jasper suggests.

"I'm game as hell for that." I smile, I have my own new mini power I've been working on.

"But for this weekend, no talk of the super. Unless the girls bring it up." Jasper declares.

"We can't hide it from them forever. Something tells me they want to stick around in our lives and I don't want to lie to them. We told our families already and we owe it to our best friends to tell them." I reason.

"Maybe, I'm not sure." Jasper's always been scared to open up to someone and get rejected.

"I don't think they'd do us like that. I'm not saying now but at some point bro." I hold out my hand. Jasper thinks for a bit and then he grabs my hand which has become our new way of promising each other things. We hold a tight grip.

"Brothers." We both say and head back downstairs to rejoin the fun.