Chapter No.45. New Kid on the Block.

James was on summer break and after he had done his chores, he decided to take a walk in the park nearby. He couldn't stop thinking about the girl with a serious case of leukemia he had cured. She was the first girl who had paid any real attention to him, and it made him wonder how she was doing.

As if his every wish could materialize, he heard someone call out his name, and he turned around to feast his eyes on a marvelous sight, a beautiful blond girl his age dressed in a tight-fitting pair of skinny jeans and a top that emphasized her ample bust.

"Hello, James," Sylvia sang with a teasing smile.

He had to gather his wits before he responded. "Hi! How are you?"

"I think you know how I am," she replied. "I am like you now."

He tilted his head and offered her a confused expression. "What do you mean?"

"I have superpowers like you have now," she said with an ornery smirk.

"I don't understand. My family and I were born with superpowers to participate in a God experiment."

"Evidently, I was too, but it took you to awaken them in me." She pointed to the sky, which had fluffy cumulus clouds floating in a deep blue sky. "Come follow me, and we'll discuss this."

She flew up into the sky. James followed her to a large cloud that appeared to have a cloud couch on it. He saw her sitting in it as if it were solid, so he joined her, sitting next to her and relaxing.

"Are you operating alone?" he casually asked her.

"No, silly. I am joining with you and your family."

"That's cool! We could have used you when we fought the demon army."

"Do you think your parents will accept me?" Sylvia asked, tilting her head.

"I don't see why not. I'm sure you were destined to be what you are."

She offered him a teasing grin. "We can have some very interesting fun together."

He chuckled. "I'm not sure that's part of the experiment."

"I look forward to working with you," she said in a teasing manner.

James didn't quite know how to handle this new situation. He realized that he had to break it to his parents, and it would cause issues.

Sylvia stood up and then dived down through the cloud. James followed her to the park where he found her standing there waiting on him.

"After you tell your parents, I will meet them."

"Okay," he said, not knowing how to respond to her.

She vanished, and he decided to go back home and discuss it with his parents, but it could wait until supper.

His parents had no idea that their son was about to reveal something that would literally shock them.

"Okay," James said as the evening supper was almost over. "We have a problem."

They both stared at him with wide eyes.

"Remember that girl with a serious case of leukemia that I cured. Her name is Sylvia Wells."

"Are you dating her now?" Robert asked him with a subtle grin.

"I wish it were that simple. It turns out that she's a superhero like us."

"You're kidding!" His father reacted, his brow furrowed.

"I wish I were, but evidently I awoke her powers when I cured her. She has offered to join us."

Janet sighed. "This has to be part of this experiment we're participating in."

"I agree," Robert said. "Obviously, it was destined to happen."

"Why don't you invite her to come here so that we can get to know her better," Janet proposed.

James hesitated before replying. "Okay, I'll invite her. Maybe I should find out if her mother is aware of her status."

"What about her father?" his mother asked.

"Her parents are divorced. She's living with her mother."

"Well," Janet said. "Maybe she'll like being with a normal family."

James sighed. "We're orders of magnitude away from being a normal family. We really will become the Incredibles if she joins us."

They laughed, but it was more of a nervous reaction,

James ran into Sylvia two days later. He found her in the park wearing really short shorts and a halter top. He swallowed hard as he approached her.

"Hi," she said with a teasing grin.

"I told my parents about you, and they want to meet you."

She smiled. "That's nice of them. Let's go somewhere to talk."

"Where?"

She clicked her fingers, and they were standing on an uninhabited island in the South Pacific. James could literally feel the humidity creep over his entire body like a shroud. He looked around at the lush tropical vegetation that surrounded where they were standing.

"Why here?" he asked.

She gave him a teasing grin. "No one's around to see us."

He looked around. "No one lives here?"

"Yes. Don't you want to have some fun?"

James raised his hand, palm out. "Ah . . . I don't think that's a good idea."

She propped both fists into her hips and squinted. "Why not?"

"My family is not operating as lone wolves. We have the Vestal Virgins watching over us, and they are very strict about how we behave."

She pouted. "They sound like party poopers."

"Yeah, pretty much. Look, I think we can have fun after you prove your loyalty to them. I think the first step is to meet my parents."

She stared at him for a moment before reacting. "Okay, I'm ready."

They reappeared in the park and then walked to James's house. When they arrived there, his parents were waiting.

"This is Sylvia," James said, gesturing to her.

"I'm surprised that you're willing to take me into your coven," She said with a hint of a smile.

Robert smiled. "We're not witches, but some people might think that. Look, we welcome you with open arms. We need all the help we can get." He held his hands out to her and she approached so that they could hug.

Janet also hugged her.

"What about these Vestals? Will they accept me?"

"Yes, because you were obviously destined to be one of us."

The land line phone rang, and Janet answered it. After a brief conversation, she hung it up. "NASA wants to talk to us."

"Well, I suppose we should go find out what they want," Robert said. He turned to Sylvia. "We go there wearing our suits and masks."

The Steris family were instantly attired in their uniforms. Sylvia duplicated their action.

They appeared in the JPL mission room where Jason, the administrator and Janice were there to greet them.

"You have a new member," Jason noted.

"Yes, this is Sylvia, our new addition."

"Good," Jason said. "We're going to need more hands for what we want to do."

"Let me guess," Robert said. "It has to do with the new space station. Right?"

Jason's expression took on a more serious demure. "Yes. We have the parts made but getting them to the Lagrangian location is problematic. We just don't have the budget for it, and the Europeans and Chinese are not cooperating."

"How far is this Lagrangian location?" Robert asked.

"It's about halfway to the moon."

"That doesn't sound too bad. How large is this new station?"

"That's the problem. It's much larger than the ISS. It's 800 meters wide and weighs a million and half tons, plus it's designed to spin to provide 0.5G artificial gravity."

"Robert rubbed his jaw. "Well, the size isn't the problem. It's the fact that we would have to transport the parts up through all of the satellites and space junk flying around at 17,000 miles per hour."

"Why can't we just teleport it up to the location?" James asked.

Robert stared at him for a few minutes before replying. "That might work. It would save a lot of time." He turned to Janice. "How hard would it be to construct it here on Earth?

Janice turned to look at Jason, and he was the one who replied. "That's a good question. I'm not sure that they, they, being the government agencies involved in this project, would agree."

"Maybe it would help if we could do something like this with a new object that you want to launch into space."

Jason and Janice exchanged glances before Jason replied. "The latest project is a new space telescope that slated to go up in an Earth-Sun Lagrangian location.

"Yeah, that would make a good practice test," Robert said.

"We'll have to run that through the committee."

"Great," Robert said. "Let us know what you want us to do."

Jason nodded, and he watched the superheroes vanish. At this point he had no idea how his superiors would take this new twist.