Red Skies Tonight

Excitedly, my parents came into my room and woke me up. They were both fully dressed in their super hero identities of Deca-Man and Dart. They both were yelling at me and telling me that I had to "hurry".  I didn't know what was going on but then I happened to glance outside my bedroom window. I didn't know whether it was late at night or early in the morning but either way the sky should have been black instead it was bright red and I knew that wasn't right. As my brain began to function and catch up with my body I heard honking automobile alarms; women's screams and the sounds of people screaming on the streets. Something obviously was happening outside but when I paused to ask my parents what was going on they just yelled at me again and told me to get dressed because I was going to Mrs. Callahan's.

If I didn't know something was wrong before I knew then. Mrs. Callahan is the baby-sitter for all of us super-kids when something big is going down with the Guild. Mrs. Callahan lives on a large ranch in Wyoming. She used to be a super-hero (the force-field casting Blonde Marvel) in her own right until she retired. She and her husband moved to Wyoming to raise cattle. He died about fifteen years ago. About ten years ago my parents' generation of superheroes began to ask her to watch their children when they were away on long missions. Her ranch house was retrofitted with 40 inch armored steel plating but the really cool part of the ranch is "the pit." The pit is a bunker that is about a 100 yards under the ground. The ranch house would have to be hit with  a small nuke before anyone would even notice anything if they were in the pit. There are training facilities, living quarters, communication systems as well as enough food to survive for a year. The whole place was designed by Gadget and built by the rest of the Guild to protect us kids in the event of an attack or catastrophe.

I got dressed while my Mom packed my suitcase at super-speed and then they rushed me to the back of our house and the secret room where my parents keep their Guild teleporter.  Dad moved the painting of ducks hanging on the wall which revealed an electronic lock. He punched in the numeric code and once the retinal scan of his eye was complete a entryway opened in the wall which granted access to my parents secret lair. My parent's "headquarters" consists mostly of two desks and a couple of laptop computers. On the walls are some bookshelves that consist of various books and photographs along with some relics and trophies from past adventures. It's not exactly the Batcave but then again the Batcave is fictional and this is real life. 

In the corner, however, rests the real reason for the room which is the Guild teleporter. It is a large steel cube with tons of wires and flashing lights. Mom headed towards the control panel while Dad pushed me into the steel cube. They told me that they loved me and then there was a blinding flash of light.

In an instance I was standing on the front porch of Mrs. Callahan's ranch house. I was thousands of miles away in Wyoming and yet the sky was still red. Whatever my parents were fighting this time was big. The door opens and Mrs. Callahan was standing there. She yelled at me to get inside the house. Everybody was yelling at me today. Once inside I saw the rest of the group of superhero kids. Suzie is here. Dan is here too. Mickey Jones is here.  His dad Prometheus is a member of the Guild. Both Mickey and Prometheus have the power to generate fire. Prometheus, however, can control his flames once he has created them. Mickey...not so much. Alpha's daughter Karen is here. Darnell Davis, the son of Calamity Jane, is here too. Like Mickey, he hasn't mastered his powers yet. Scott and Michelle are here. Bobby "the worm-boy" is here. So are the shape-changing "Trouble Twins" Dylan and Erin. Sitting in the corner by herself is Shivaughn. Shivaughn is odd even by our standards. Her father is "the Warlock" and she says that her mother is an extra-dimensional demon. She claims that she is in a constant emotional struggle between her good side and her evil side. She says that if she loses control of her emotions and gives into er evil side that it would rip a hole in the fabric of reality between Earth and Hell. She's not a whole lot of fun to play with.

We are all here which means the entire Guild is out there fighting whatever turned the skies red. I'm worried for my parents.