"Just because someone stumbles and loses their path, doesn't mean they can't be saved."

~Charles Xavier (Professor X)

The weeks went by faster than I expected. Soon it was Halloween, which meant the annual Halloween Party at Mary's house.

Now, since Ian and Mary's mom was Secretary of State, we shouldn't have had the party at their house at all. Imagine the news articles about the kids of our nation's leaders running a wild, rampant party.

Yeah, not good publicity.

So, they always held it at their 'summer' home. I say that because they never actually use it during the summer. They are always vacationing one place or another during the summer, so it normally just sits in the DC suburb empty. Ian took this as an opportunity to hold a gigantic party, whilst Mary organized it and made sure everyone stayed safe.

So, every Halloween, almost all of the nation's most powerful children were in one place at one time, not a good idea. For one thing, it would be a great opportunity for terrorists and renegades with vendettas against the government to attack enough children of the nation's leaders to make an impact. They could even hold everyone for a huge ransom, though at a higher risk.

So most of the students had to sneak out. They would enlist the help of some of the more intelligent students to outsmart their parents' security systems so they can escape without getting in trouble, and without their parents finding out.

Even Heather showed up every year, though the house had to be swept for bugs and dangerous objects beforehand. Her usual two secret service agents would be walking around the party as well.

I could usually count on Daniel to stop any crime that happened on Halloween nights while I went out to the party, but now that he was gone, I would have that responsibility all to myself. I knew that the police were competent enough, but, come on, it wasn't like they could fight supers.

Halloween was also a hard time to tell who the real villains were. Everyone was wearing a mask and everyone was doing something mischievous.

In the end, I just decided that I would only come out if I got a call about a real super villain doing something. Otherwise, the police could deal with it. They had managed supers before after all.

"Olly!" Mary yelled, catching up to me in the hallway.

"Hey," I greeted.

"You're going to the party, right?" she asked accusingly.

"Of course." I said tentatively.

She smiled, "Great! What are you going to be this year?"

I stifled a smirk.

"The same thing I was last year."

Mary did exactly what I thought she would. She sighed as loud as humanely possible and glared at me annoyingly, obviously mad. "Oh, come on. Olly! Can't you just be original for once in your life? You're always the same thing! Can't you change it up, just for one year?"

I laughed and shook my head, placing my arm around her shoulder with a huge laughable sigh as we walked to AP Government. "Ahh, but that's why you love me, Mary. I'm annoyingly predictable."

She huffed as we walked in, "You're hopeless," before walking away to her seat.

Elise was already in her seat and Ian, this being the one of the only classes we didn't share, was in AP Economics instead.

"What are you going to be, Elise?" Mary asked hopefully.

"Umm . . ." she trailed off, "probably Sonic this year."

Mary sighed in frustration, bringing a lot of attention to herself. "Why does everyone want to be superheroes? Why can't you be an animal, or a TV character like everyone else?"

"I'm sorry?" she apologized questioningly.

I patted Elise's shoulder, "don't worry, she's only mad because she's fed up with me being what I am every year."

"Again?"

I nodded, but couldn't talk more about it because the bell rang and Mr. Higa started the lesson. In fact, it wasn't until lunch that the prospect was brought up again.

"So, Ian," Mary started inquisitively, "what are you going to be at the Halloween party on Saturday?"

He chuckled. "I'm going as a cat exterminator."

"I'm serious!" Mary said, exasperated. "Just because I'm going as a cat-"

"-A sexy cat-" Ian interjected.

"-doesn't mean that you can make fun-"

"-With a short skirt-" I chided.

"-of me. I mean, loads of girls dress as-"

"-And loads of cleavage-"

"-animals for Halloween. It's not like-"

"-With caked makeup-"

"-I'm intentionally trying to show off-"

"-And kitty claws-"

"-my body or anything. I just think-"

"-With fishnet stockings-"

"-that the outfit looks really cute and-"

"-And high heeled boots-"

"-could you please stop that!"

Ian and I were basically rolling on the ground with laughter. Mary was fuming and even Elise had cracked a smile.

Mary was going, if you couldn't tell, as a cat for Halloween. Since cats normally meant slutty in the costume area, we were both constantly making fun of her for it, even if her costume wasn't slutty at all.

"Oh, come on, Mary!" Ian exclaimed. "We could all go with a good laugh. Besides, it's your fault for dressing up as something so comically cliché."

Mary huffed, pretended to be deaf to Ian's explanation. She stuffed more salad in her mouth as an excuse not to talk anymore.

"What are you really going to be, Ian?" Elise asked.

He shrugged. "I'll probably be a super villain. You know, so Olly and I can match."

Elise sighed and I suppressed mine.

"Which super villain?"

He smirked, "The best one ever, the Bomb Butcher."

Mary frowned at her brother, but didn't comment, probably still trying to keep her silent treatment going. We could all still see the disappointment on her face though.

The Bomb Butcher was a super villain who was currently MIA. He was some thirty something year old with a vendetta against the police for something they did to him. He was no real super, but he had grenades strapped to his chest along with an assortment of knifes. Trust me, he could do about as much damage with those as any super could with their own powers. It was why he was actually pretty dangerous, and one of Captain Impossible and mine's worst enemies.

He went MIA a couple months ago after we stopped him from destroying a police station. I was able to get a good shot at him with a short burst of electricity, enough to severely damage his arm, but he still got away. Seeing as no one was enrolled in a hospital or ER with electric burns on their arms after the attack, we knew he'd gone underground. He's disappeared after that. The media thinks that perhaps we finally scared him off, but I knew he was waiting, slowly biding his time.

With Captain Impossible out of the way, he would have a clear shot at an attack, but he hadn't tried yet. Ian dressing up as him for Halloween just reminded me of an eventual attack.

"Why? He's so . . . disturbing." Elise shivered.

Ian shrugged, "But he's still awesome. I mean – Captain Impossible and White Lightning never even managed to capture him once. How cool is that?"

(Yeah, because anytime we got close, he throttled a grenade at us)

(I mean – I know Captain Impossible was indestructible, but when an explosion rocks the ground and throws dust in the air, it gets kind of hard to chase after a villain)

"Depends on your definition of 'cool'" Mary deadpanned, breaking her vow of silence to scold her brother yet again.

Ian was about to make another sarcastic remark, but was interrupted when Heather came up to our table, smiling apologetically. "Hey, guys."

"Hello."

She shuffled from one foot to the other in an awkward stance.

"I . . . umm . . . I can't go to the party on Saturday, Mary."

Mary frowned, but this time at her sorrow for Heather not being able to come, not at Ian, even if he was sporting a goofy expression. "Why?"

"Well, dad says it's too risky. There's been another assassination threat from some organization or another. For some reason they're taking this one very seriously."

Knowing that Heather was the President of the United States' daughter, she got threats hourly from some nutjob or another. It was mostly nutters who hated her father's political standings or his standings on certain issues, but not all of them were. Occasionally there would be a real threat, like the one Captain Impossible and I stopped last year.

Last year there had been a threat on the President, so MASKED (remember? The secret organization that dealt with supers? Yeah, that one) along with the secret service enlisted us to protect him while he was giving a speech on the White House Lawn.

Long story short, a super villain who worked as a contract killer tried to assassinate him, but we stopped the villain before he could. We got medals and everything.

"Why is this one so different?" I asked, wondering if it was another super who was threatening them.

"They say the threat has some ties to the Remedists. Dad knows his friendly stance with the good supers enrages them, so he believes it would be better for me to stay home Saturday."

Mary's frown deepened. "Awe, okay. Well, I guess we'll still see you Monday, right?"

Heather nodded.

"Heather?" I asked. She turned to me eagerly.

"Umm . . . I hope the threat isn't real, you know?"

She blushed and nodded again before walking back to her normal table.

Ian smirked my way. "Dude, she totally likes you."

"Sure, of course she does, Ian." I said sarcastically. "Don't you think she was just grateful that I was being courteous? I mean – any decent human being, and friend, would wish on her that it wasn't a real threat."

Ian tutted, "Sure," before taking a bite of his sandwich.

Elise looked a bit upset at us, but it couldn't have been the fact that I was talking with Heather, could it? I mean – I bet it was just my hopeful imagination playing tricks on me. Elise wasn't actually jealous, no matter how much I wanted it to be true.

But, I didn't actually like her in that way, did I? I mean – Elise has always been like a sister to me, hasn't she?

But, even then, I knew the Halloween party would be something. I was looking forward to it and dreading it at the same time, if you could believe it.

Let's just hope nothing went wrong while I was there, right?

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Sorry about the short chapter. Just to let you know, I will soon be updating this story much more frequently when my other book, Psychic, gets finished within the next couple of days.

Also, the contest I held on my other website, and a bit on this one, has finished. The super villain that the fans made up and voted for will show up in the next two chapters. Trust me, you all will love her.

In the meantime, vote, comment, and share this story with your friends! :D