[Ashley McKenna-Chase]

Serendipity in the City

“You could always have abs of steel concealed beneath a beautiful, cheese-filled sumo stomach?”

That was possible, right? Maybe not in quite so dramatic a fashion, but Ashley knew that there were plenty people who fit a similar description. Although…

“I mean like, you’re super skinny though, I think your metabolism would let you get away with anything.”

Ashley had a pretty good metabolism, but she hadn’t exactly tested it with an excess of cheese. She’d stayed physically active throughout school, even before she’d decided to hone her physique at the gym. Now, while her diet wasn’t quite so strict that it was restricted to labelled, pre-prepared tubs provided by a dietitian, she did receive a lot of forceful guidance from the label’s nutrition expert. Dining on mountains of cheese on a regular basis was not something she currently had the freedom to experiment with.

“I mean, Neverland was hella messed up,” Ashley pointed out. “Peter literally "thinned out" the Lost Boys once they started to grow up.” She grew embarrassed at the sudden morbid turn of conversation. “But, uh, at least he seemed to have it okay – flying, thinking happy thoughts and stuff…” She laughed.

The brie-to-bread ratio was pretty generous. Ashley was a firm supporter of always ticking the “extra cheese” box in every situation.

She was slightly surprised as Alice’s thoughts returned to exercise. Ashley had been halfway through a ridiculously-sized mouthful, and had to chew furiously for a while until she could answer.

“Depends… you could just go for runs and do some circuits at home, figure out what you like. I’ve got a bunch of weights that you could come over and use if you want – just little ones,” she clarified, pumping her right arm to illustrate. “Don’t sign up to a gym straight away, if you only show up once after paying for a whole month or whatever you’ll hate yourself. But Ash’s Gym is always available for friends who can pay their way with tasty post-workout treats!”

Alice Morrow

334 words

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[Alice Morrow]

Paladin Am I more than you bargained for yet? + Ashley McKenna-Chase + wearing

Alice looked at Ashley partly amused, and partly affronted. "What exactly are you saying about my stomach? Last I checked I didn’t have to undo the top button of my pants." She looked down, lifting the hem of her shirt for a moment to double check. "Yep, definitely done up properly." She stuck waggled her eyebrows challengingly at the singer, "I'm not even sucking in." She helped herself to some more bread and cheese. It was awkward cutting and spreading it with the flimsy plastic knife, but it tasted damn good, and it was definitely worth it. It might even be worth having a sumo stomach if she could just live on stuff like this instead. She'd been telling the truth when she told Ashley that she wasn't sucking in her stomach, which was probably not a good thing. She had a fast metabolism it was true, but even a fast metabolism couldn't compete with a lack of regular meals. She wrestled her mind away from her monetary woes, Ashley had paid for most of it but it was still more than Alice really should have spent. It would be fine, she told herself, she would just have to miss a few more meals this week. She'd got to meet someone new, someone who seemed pretty fun. She was surprised to say that she really like Ashley, at least from the short time that she'd known her, and she'd certainly like to spend time with her again. "Peter did what?!" Alice's familiarity with Peter Pan was entirely through the Disney movie, she'd certainly never heard anything about Peter getting rid of Lost Boys. "I thought they just never grew up? Was he the only one?" She sat with her mouth open. "You might have just destroyed my childhood right there…" She waited while Ashley somehow crammed what looked like half the brie into her mouth. Alice honestly thought that the other girl had been a little unambitious with the amount of bread and cheese. "Yeah I think you're right, I really want to get fitter but I don't know if going to the gym is going to be the right idea." Alice raised an eyebrow, "Wouldn't those post workout treats defeat the point of the workout?"

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[Ashley McKenna-Chase]

Serendipity in the City

“Oh?”

Ashley raised her eyebrows. “You haven’t had to undo the buttons of your pants yet? Mmmyep, definitely need more cheese.”

With that she attempted to shove Alice’s handful of food towards her mouth, not really caring too much about her aim. If Alice got brie smeared all over her face, then that was just karma for bragging while waggling her eyebrows.

Feeling a little distressed for having obliterated someone’s childhood, Ashley began to try and think of something to say that would make it better. Then, upon coming up with absolutely nothing, she decided to continue piloting the Pain Plane into new horizons of nostalgia.

“Oh yah, he was pretty unimpressed by anyone who dared to get old. Other fun facts: in the original story, the Little Mermaid turns into sea foam after not getting the guy. Ummm… If Finding Nemo happened IRL, his dad would have turned into a female clownfish and bred with Nemo after the mom got eaten. Oh – and Simba singing about how he just can’t wait to be king technically means he couldn’t wait for his dad to die.”

She took a breath, then patted Alice on the shoulder. “Sorry, but I think that’s your childhood well and truly six feet under.”

She giggled. Hopefully Alice would get the dark turn in humour. If not, she could just feed her woes with cheese.

“The gym’s not for everyone,” Ashley said, cheerful for the change of topic. “Except Ash’s Gym, of course, I hear that’s a very welcoming establishment.” She giggled. “And hey, they could be healthy treats! Anyway, it just means you have to work a little harder for the reward.”

After all this fro-yo, cheese, fruit and bread, Ashley was definitely going to have to make a conscious effort in her next gym session to balance it all out. Treats were good – essential, even – but keeping fit, healthy and in good shape were even better.

Alice Morrow

323 words

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[Alice Morrow]

Paladin Am I more than you bargained for yet? + Ashley McKenna-Chase + wearing

"Nooooooo." Alice stuck her fingers firmly in her ears, closing her eyes and singing out at the top of her voice. "La la la la la la la." She stopped and glared at the brunette as she came to the end of her vicious tirade against the movies of her childhood. "I hope you understand that I hate you. It's nothing personal, I just have to hate you right now." She stared out over the city in a moment of silence for her lost childhood, the shrugged, "I never actually saw the Lion King so I guess I can forgive you for that one." She frowned thoughtfully for a moment, "Until I watch it, then I'll hate you for that too." She grinned, finally letting up on the apparent seriousness. She supposed at least it would have changed the way she watched those movies now. If she went back to them it wouldn't be like watching the same movie again. Peter Pan would be like watching a thriller. Finding Nemo like some weirdly disturbing romance about incest… Maybe she'd avoid Finding Nemo. "I guess I could make something healthy. It can be fun, it's harder to make healthy stuff that tastes just as good. It's like God wanted us to be fat, otherwise he wouldn't have made the fatty bits taste so damn good!" She nodded in agreement, "So do you live in San Francisco? I guess you have to travel around quite a lot for your music stuff?" It was a strange life to think of, Alice had never been outside of San Francisco, except for camp one summer. Ashley must have been all over the US, Alice wondered what it might be like to spend each week in a different town, sleeping in different beds, in different hotel rooms. Alice's home might not be much, but at least it was hers. "When do you find the time to exercise?"

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[Ashley McKenna-Chase]

Serendipity in the City

With the most serious and understanding face she could muster, Ashley gave a sombre nod.

“I understand. Guess we’re sworn, mortal enemies now. Pretty sweet,” she said, breaking out into an amused grin.

…How had Alice never seen the Lion King?? How did someone go through their life without (unquestionably) improving it with one hour, 29 minutes of pure lion-y joy? Ashley had seen every Lion King movie many times. She could vaguely recall trying to re-enact scenes with a borderline-amused, but rather patience-tested, Will in his late twenties. Sometimes she felt like that was just his default mood setting – he hadn’t really changed much over the years.

“Oh, Alice, Aliiice, listen. Next time you have a free evening, and I have a free evening, and those free evenings happen to align, we are going to have a sleepover and I am going to find as many cuddly lions from my childhood as I can and we are going to get some tissues and weep over the beauty of the Lion King. Then I’ll teach you the whole soundtrack and we can sing it to our stuffed animal audience through hairbrush microphones.” She giggled. “It’ll be amazing.”

Ashley liked Disney movies.

Wondering just how much fat was in the delicious blue cheese she was currently sampling, Ashley made a grumbled noise of agreement. “Surely if we’re made in His image we shouldn’t have to work to maintain it… And there’s no way He’s not a fan of cheese.”

It was strange to think about the more nomadic aspects of her lifestyle. She was currently pretty securely based in San Francisco while they were doing studio work, but she still had to fly out to LA, among other cities, on a pretty regular basis. Memories of touring and festivals felt almost distant.

“Born and raised,” Ashley said with a proud beam. “I’ve been in town quite a lot lately because I’m doing a lot of recording and writing at the moment, but I’ve got a few gigs lined up for later in the summer – here, there and everywhere.” She flailed her arms randomly to illustrate this. “And dude, I always have time to exercise. Sometimes I have to do it super early or super late but there’s always a lot somewhere in my schedule. I don’t do like, huge workouts everyday.” Ashley wrinkled her nose at the thought. “But it’s pretty easy to squeeze in a little session if you’re motivated.

“Why, are you worried that you don’t have the time for it? I guess chefs have pretty long days…” Ashley said, knowing next to nothing about chefs. They had a lot of food to make, right? People always needed food, inexplicably at every hour of the day.

Alice Morrow

457 words

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[Alice Morrow]

Paladin Am I more than you bargained for yet? + Ashley McKenna-Chase + wearing

Alice returned the nod in silence, affecting the most intimidating glare she could manage without bursting out laughing. After all, the destruction of childhood movies was no laughing manner. It was pretty clear however that Alice's comparative Disney movie ignorance had affronted Ashley a little. She held up her hands in surrender, "OK OK." She smiled, "Deal, although I can't promise that my rendition of the soundtrack will be anything that those stuffed animals might enjoy. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if later you found that most of them had attempted suicide." It was cool to hear about Ashley's life, especially because it was so far removed from her own. "That's amazing! I've hardly even lift the city. I'd love to go travelling around the states. Or even out of the country! How cool would it be to go to Europe? Or Japan? Or China?" She was lost for a moment in fantasies of other countries. It wasn't a huge fantasy of hers, but her world was changing so fast right now that she had no idea what was possible anymore. It would have been pretty sweet if she'd been able to fly, then she could have just visited those countries without having to worry about plane tickets. It was strange to sit here with Ashley in such a mundane situation. Maybe she was a celebrity, maybe she was a really talented musician, but compared to everything that had happened to Alice over the last few months really it seemed comparatively humdrum. She wondered if Will had mentioned anything to Ashley about their powers. He hadn't mentioned it, and she certainly hadn't said anything that sounded like she knew. "Yeah, can do, plus there's all the cleaning and things as well, and I have… uh… other stuff as well." She couldn't very well mention her plans to patrol the city looking for crime to fight. It wasn't exactly your average night time plans. "Still, if you're up and doing it at all times of the day and night then I suppose I could too. Although you might have to go easy on me at first. I'm pretty out of shape compared to you…"

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[Ashley McKenna-Chase]

Serendipity in the City

It was funny – Ashley hadn’t really considered Alice’s own singing ability until she’d begun trashing it. She was surrounded regularly by so many talented people that she sometimes forgot that not everybody was a musician. It reminded her of the night that she and some friends from high school had played with a karaoke machine and how Ashley had been almost embarrassed to sing at her full potential. It seemed more fun, in that situation, to get it all terribly wrong so you could laugh about it. If Ashley sang, people were impressed into awed silence. She’d taken to singing songs by men so she could do a comically low voice instead, complete with sharpie moustache.

“Fine, but you can be responsible for putting the rest of them through toy therapy,” she said with a grin.

Alice was every bit as excited about Ashley’s potential for travel as she was. She didn’t even sound jealous, which was nice.

“I’d love to go to Japan,” Ashley said, going starry-eyed herself for a moment. “My manager says it’s a distinct possibility with the way my popularity’s going lately. We’ve been talking branding and publicity and everything. Imagine me in Japanese magazines! Hella cool…”

Feeling glad that cleaning wasn’t on her list of work duties, Ashley nodded sympathetically. “Work hard, play hard, am I right? And hey, I’ll be an excellent training buddy – so long as you don’t mind being pushed.” She watched Alice’s face for a moment, then laughed. “You make me out to be some kind of superhero! Like dude, I’m in shape, but I’m nothing special. Just ‘cause some stairs got you a little out of breath doesn’t mean you can’t soon be lifting weights and running miles with the best of them.”

Ever the optimist, Ashley was genuinely sure that Alice had all the potential in the world to reach her fitness goals. The optimism was fuelled immensely by a desire to have a gym buddy, of course, but she also had high hopes for her new friend. She was probably already stronger than she looked. Working in kitchens was a surprisingly physical job, from what Ashley had heard. Maybe Alice was a secret strong man…

Alice Morrow

367 words

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[Alice Morrow]

Paladin Am I more than you bargained for yet? + Ashley McKenna-Chase + wearing

Alice shrugged, then crossed her legs and held her hands in front of her to mime a pad and paper. "And how does that make you feel?" Alice had heard one or two of Ashley's songs, and obviously the girl was a professional singer, so she had no problem in deriding her own musical ability. She certainly wouldn't be jealous if Ashley smoked her in American Idol, as long as she didn't also beat her in Master Chef. Anyway, it was hard to be jealous considering what she could now do. "Oooooh, Japan would be so cool. You'll have to promise I can visit you there if you do actually end up touring there." If only Ashley knew that Alice was in fact a Super Hero. Sort of… Well… she had the potential to be anyway. In terms of strength Alice certainly wasn't anything impressive, but her power would certainly let her circumvent those limits. It didn't mean she should get lazy anyway, not if that climb was an example of anything. "You have abs, I don't know any other girls with abs. I've never even seen a girl with abs. So until I'm as fit as you, you're gonna be my super hero." She paused for dramatic effect. "No pressure" The idea of being fitter was certainly nice, but it would probably take quite a bit of work. It wasn't like she was super out of shape, but she didn't really do much in the way of exercise besides running for the bus occasionally. Working out with Ashley would hopefully start correcting that. She'd be chasing down fleeing criminals in no time. Unless they were just as fit and taller… Alice wasn't exactly short for a girl, but most guys would be taller than her. She wondered briefly if she could use her power to move faster, then dismissed it into the recesses of her mind. She could experiment with that some other time, in the warehouse.

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[Ashley McKenna-Chase]

Serendipity in the City

Sprawling back against the bench, Ashley pressed the back of her hand to her forehead and let out a dramatic sigh. “Oh doctor, I hear Hakuna Matata every time I close my eyes! Why – it’s not a problem-free philosophy at all!!!”

The reference was most likely wasted on Alice, but Ashley was still amused by it.

She got really excited once Alice made the suggestion of touring. Ashley knew it was a possibility, but it just seemed so crazy right now. Would anyone even buy tickets to her shows? She’d be better off going as a support act first, probably, which would still be super cool. “Deal – wanna try and squeeze into my suitcase or shall we say you’re the official caterer?”

Giggling a little self-consciously, Ashley tucked her chin down to inspect her stomach. “These bad boys did take an unearthly number of sit-ups. I’ll take it.”

It was hilarious to think that Alice was thinking of her as the superhero when it was actually her brother who had developed magic powers. To be honest, Ashley was pretty sure that actual superpowers were definite trump cards against well-sculpted abs, no matter how impressive the workload had been to get them.

That wasn’t to say that Will hadn’t been through a lot to get his powers of course. Ashley was pretty sure that the mental scars from nearly dying ran deep enough not to be immediately soothed by the acquisition of supernatural abilities. As if that wasn’t bad enough, another five people had also had to go through the same trauma to achieve that miracle.

Alice had been through that trauma. She’d even ended up in a neighbouring ward. Yet, just like Will, there didn’t seem to be a scratch on her. Sure, Will hadn’t explicitly said that Alice was one of the group of six, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t one. It was all a bit too coincidental – why else would Will still be in touch with her?

“Hey, Alice?” Ashley suddenly became very interested in the papaya, keeping her eyes averted as she tried to think of how best to ask the question without a) outing her brother and b) sounding insane.

“You know Will from the hospital, right?” Ooh this papaya did look juicy – she was genuinely a little distracted by how tasty it looked.

Focus, Ash!

“Did you guys have the… uh, the same doctor?”

She finally tore her gaze from the papaya, looking up at Alice and trying her best to look utterly innocent. The question was definitely a little out of the blue but it wasn’t too weird, right? Either Alice would get what the question really meant, or she’d just think that Ashley was a little scatter-brained. Which is fine. She had her moments.

Alice Morrow

462 words

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[Alice Morrow]

Paladin Am I more than you bargained for yet? + Ashley McKenna-Chase + wearing

Alice may not have seen the Lion King, but she was not exactly oblivious to pop culture. She'd heard the song Hakuna Matata what must have been a hundred times. It had to be one of the favourite songs of her generation. She didn't see the appeal personally, although maybe it was better in the movie as opposed to from the mouth of the average teenager. She frowned in response to Ashley's suggestion. "I dunno, how big would your suitcase be? I reckon I could squeeze in if it wasn't carry on." Alice looked over to Ashley, a little confused and suddenly worried to find the other girl fixated on the papaya before her. It sounded like there was something on her mind, and as she went on, it became rapidly more obvious that this was going to be an awkward question. "The same doctor..?" It was a strange question. If Ashley had been asking anyone else then it would have been entirely out of character. It would have made no sense. Asking Alice though, that made more sense. She and Will had been in the same accident, they'd both survived without a scratch. Just how much about it did Ashley know? Alice hadn't wanted to give away any of Will's secrets, and at least it sounded like Will hadn't given away hers. "Yeah… we did. The same doctor." Ashley's expression was encouraging, so Alice went on. "The same thing happened to both of us. All the same things… sort of…"

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[Ashley McKenna-Chase]

Serendipity in the City

“I’ll get a nice big one, one of those ones with extra padding, and fill the space with snacks and magazines so you have something to do on the flight,” Ashley said, laughing.

Now the conversation was a whole lot bigger than imaginary tours of Japan. Maybe even bigger than a real tour of Japan. Okay, probably bigger, yeah.

“Oh, the same doctor!”

Doctor was beginning to sound like a made-up word at this point.

If anyone could hear their conversation right now, they’d probably think they’d stumbled across two idiots talking about the most mundane thing in the weirdest way possible. But they didn’t know. They didn’t know about the secret underworld of people with special abilities, people who had contacted her brother and knew that he was a part of it too. They didn’t know that he wasn’t alone, that there was somebody who could throw lightning, an invisible dude and somebody with super tough skin. They didn’t know that Alice was also one of those people now.

She lowered her voice. “Will said that there was a group of you. Is it true? That you can all …do stuff?”

Ashley couldn’t help laughing at herself now.

“I’m sorry, it’s still kinda hard to believe. Will did his best to explain a little while ago, that he’d spoken to this Harry guy or something, that you guys had this miraculous doctor… I think he’s still trying to figure everything out. I can’t believe he’s developed an ability now too…”

Oh, had she said too much? She was pretty sure they were on the same track now and didn’t have to keep dancing around with their words.

“And you too, right?”

Alice Morrow

282 words

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[Alice Morrow]

Paladin Am I more than you bargained for yet? + Ashley McKenna-Chase + wearing

"That sounds way more sensible than putting me on staff as a caterer. Who would have fallen for that anyway? I could pack my DS and just rock MarioKart all the way to Japan. It's only like 11 hours. No time at all." It now felt like some sort of secret conversation, as though the two of them were CIA agents sharing some message about a secret mission. They may as well be. Will had told them all about the mysterious underworld of super humans, a world that had been kept secret from everyone. Now Alice was a part of it, and sounded like Ashley was too, if only by relation. "Yeah… yeah we can… do stuff…" She grinned a little at what they sounded like. It was a strange experience, as if they really were in some sort of badly scripted B-List TV show. Then she paused. "Wait… Will has an… stuff… now too?" She frowned, last she'd know Will had been yet to develop an ability, but then she was pretty sure that there was no way he could know about hers either. "Me too… yeah… I just found out." She paused for a moment, wondering how much into detail she should go into regarding her power, after all, she didn't really understand it that well herself. She'd formed a few ideas in the time since she'd worked out sort of how it worked, but she couldn't help feeling that there was more to it. Still, she couldn't help but share it, it was just too exciting. "OK… So it's really weird but I think… what I can do is sort of absorb energy from things, like when I fall down I don't get hurt. Then I can, sort of send it back. I destroyed some shelves with it. By accident…" She smiled again, "It's so cool though!"

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[Ashley McKenna-Chase]

Serendipity in the City

From the tone of Alice’s voice, Ashley felt with the strongest of convictions that Alice’s ability to non-stop Mario Kart her way through a long-haul flight was no joke. Ashley wasn’t exactly a gamer herself but she’d played enough Mario Kart over the years at various friends’ houses to get the basic appeal, even if she couldn’t imagine focusing on it for 11 hours. Maybe like, two. Then she could just nap for the rest of the journey or something.

“Yeah, he just found out about his… stuff. Saved some dude from getting knifed in the middle of the night because of some Super Instinct.”

Try as she might, Ashley couldn’t help the pride that crept into her voice. Her big brother had always been something of a hero to her. A hero wrapped around her little finger, sure, but a hero nonetheless.

She listened with an enchanted smile on her face as Alice explained her own power. It was less mystical than Will’s and fit slightly more into the vague idea Ashley had of what a superhero could do. Shelf destruction and energy absorption? Definitely sounded like a fun power.

“It sounds really cool!” Ashley exclaimed, jumping up in excitement. “You’re like… the real deal! Can you show me, can you show me? Please please please? C’mon, I showed you my super abs…”

Alice Morrow

224 words

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[Alice Morrow]

Paladin Am I more than you bargained for yet? + Ashley McKenna-Chase + wearing

It sounded strange, as though they were talking about something taboo. The way Ashley said stuff as if she'd found her brothers porn collection made Alice giggle. How were you even supposed to talk about this? Alice somehow doubted that the secret underworld of super humans Will had told them about sat around talking about their 'stuff'. "Oh like a danger sense? So cool! I guess we all got powers from it then. Me and Will were the last two…" Clearly Ashley was proud of her brothers new abilities, or at the very least what he had done with them. She was a lot younger than Will, Alice wondered what it might have been like to grow up with a brother so old he was almost your father. Ashley was now doing a fair impression of Alice when she found out that she had powers, almost bouncing up and down with the excitement. Alice lowered her voice a little, leaning in, though still clearly excited at the idea of showing someone else her powers. "I'd love to, but not really sure how I could do it here. I've got a secret identity to think about remember? I can't be a super hero if everyone knows who I am silly." People might be surprised by the kind of abs that Ashley had flashed at her, but Alice was pretty sure they'd be more surprised by the 'muscles' she was hiding. Sending objects flying across the room without flexing a muscle was significantly harder to explain than a six pack on a girl.

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[Ashley McKenna-Chase]

Serendipity in the City

“Ya, I just hope he doesn’t start fortune-telling or something ‘cause I do not want spoilers.” Ashley paused. “Although some general hints about my future husband wouldn’t go amiss so mom can get off my back!”

The concept of a future husband was so vague and weird to think about that it was almost like Ashley was imagining him marrying a completely different Ashley – one who actually cared about hanging onto a man. She didn’t mind dating at all, it was quite fun getting to know new people, but no one had ever impressed her to the point of even considering keeping them for life. It felt childish, but she was waiting for something a little more fairy tale. She wanted to feel genuine, needy attraction for somebody.

Simultaneously, however, Ashley was so married to her career that it was hard to imagine making room for a human being.

Pouting at Alice’s refusal to demonstrate, Ashley settled for being intrigued by the concept of secret identity. It was like having a stage name but ten times cooler.

“So are you really going to be a superhero? Fight bad guys, wear underpants over your tights?” It was a hilarious mental image. “Will you have like… a code name?”

She mulled over the last of her slabs of bread and cheese.

“We could always go somewhere else, somewhere super secret,” Ashley insisted conspiratorially. “This is your opportunity to steal my big bro’s number one superhero spot. Spidey sense is cool and all but… he can’t destroy shelving units with it.”

Where could they go? How was Alice even supposed to demonstrate absorbing and sending out energy without any onlookers raising eyebrows? From what she’d said, she could absorb the shock from falls… maybe they’d have to find a really secluded tree and push Alice from it.

Although, that would require more walking for the poor, stamina-challenged little chef.

Alice Morrow

316 words

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