Such a remark wouldn’t have been completely out of place. From the time she was an infant, Electra had been raised as an orphan by the Alpha League. Although she had recently found out about her real family (including her dad, Vir), Alpha Prime had been her primary father figure for most of her life. If he thought she had done something inappropriate, he’d probably comment on it.
I took a moment to clear my throat. “Ahem.”
The sound seemed to break whatever spell my two guests were under, causing them both to look in my direction.
“Oh, hey son,” Alpha Prime said.
“Hey,” I replied almost absentmindedly to him. My attention was focused on Electra, to whom I simply said, “Come with me.”
I turned immediately and began walking away. As expected, she fell into step behind me. Less than a minute later, we reached our destination: one of the embassy’s guest bedrooms.
“You can freshen up in here,” I told her. “There should be new toothbrushes in the bathroom medicine cabinet and fresh towels in the linen closet.”
“Thanks,” she said. “I should only be a few minutes.”
“Take your time,” I replied, then teleported back to the living room, where my father just seemed to be idling.
I stood there for a moment, waiting for him to speak, but he just stayed silent.
“Well,” I began, “aren’t you going to say something?”
“About what?” he asked.
“Electra.”
“What about her?”
I looked at him askance. “You’ve got no comment on the fact that she’s here early in the morning, looking like she just rolled out of bed?”
“Last time I checked, son, you were grown and capable of making your own decisions.”
“No, I’m not grown,” I countered. “I’m not even an emancipated minor. I’m just legally entitled to enter into contracts and make decisions for myself that would normally be left up to parents. But I still can’t vote, buy alcohol, or do other ‘adult’ things.”
As I spoke, I reflected on the fact that my semi-emancipation was one of the things my mother and grandparents had arranged before they left. It sounded cool on paper, but it meant that I now had to deal with things like paying for utilities, taxes, and so on. In short, their absence meant I had to grow up quickly in terms of certain responsibilities.
“However you style it,” Alpha Prime shot back, “you’re still entitled to make adult decisions in a lot of areas. In my opinion, who you let come over for a slumber party falls under that heading.”
I spent a moment absorbing this, then noted, “You have a distinct parenting style, that’s for sure.”
My father laughed. “Come on – you sound like you want me to yell at you. The truth is that I’ve known Electra her entire life, and you’re my son. There aren’t two teens I trust more on the planet.”
“Well, given the way you and Electra were eyeballing each other, I was under the impression that maybe you had said something.”
“No, I think you just caught us during a lull in the conversation.”
“If you say so,” I remarked with a shrug. “Anyway, what’s first on the agenda?”
“Honestly, I thought we’d grab some breakfast,” he answered, and for the first time I took real note of the fact that he was in civilian clothes.
“Um, okay,” I droned. “But I can just grab a power bar or something.”
“Nonsense,” my father shot back. “It’s still the most important meal of the day, you know.”
“Okay, fine,” I muttered, wondering why I was getting pushback this morning from everybody on everything. “So what’s after that?”
“There’s a spot where Mouse used to spend his time before joining the League. I thought we’d check that out.”
“Sounds good,” I said with a nod.
“Ooh!” I heard Electra interject from the other side of the room. “I want to go!”
I turned in the direction of her voice and saw, as expected, that she had rejoined us.
“Sure,” Alpha Prime remarked, causing me to give him a smoldering look. In return, he simply said, “It’s fine, Jim. There’s unlikely to be any danger, and another set of eyes wouldn’t hurt.”
“If we need extra eyes, we can get Li,” I replied. “He was supposed to be back yesterday.”
My father seemed to mentally chew on this for a second. Li was another member of the League’s teen affiliate. Unlike the rest of us, however, he wasn’t human. He was an AI – Artificial Intelligence – with an android body. He had been gone the past few weeks on an assignment, but should be done with that by now.
“Unfortunately,” my father finally said, “Li’s mission got extended. He’s out of pocket for the foreseeable future.”
Taking the news in stride, I looked back at Electra. “Don’t you need to go home, freshen up, and all that?”
“Well, if you teleport me there,” she noted, “you guys can go get breakfast and scoop me up afterwards. By that time, I’ll be ready.”
“Oh, so now you want me to teleport you home,” I groused, realizing in the back of my mind that she must have heard more than just the last part of the conversation between me and Alpha Prime.
“Quit being a grump,” she demanded teasingly. “Yesterday you’re complaining about wanting to spend time with me as a friend, now you’re acting like you don’t want me around.”
“What I don’t want is you getting hurt,” I corrected.
She suddenly gave me a serious look. “You’re not always going to be able to protect me, Jim – just like you can’t protect Li if he’s in trouble right now, or Smokey if he’s got his back against the wall someplace. This is the gig – walking headfirst into potential danger – and we all signed up for it.”
It was a good speech, probably one that every super has to make to friends, loved ones, and colleagues at some point. I’d probably given a variation of it myself on several occasions.
“She’s right, you know,” my father asserted, adding his two cents.
I let out a sigh and then asked Electra, “Are you
