Inspiration doesn't cause writing, writing causes inspiration.

-Roland Smith

--------------------------------- "Hey, Aaron," Bella says, shaking me awake. "Wake up!"

I slowly open my eyes, completely exhausted from last night. "W-What time is it?"

"It's 6:30, but you still have to get ready! I'll put the remedy on your arm, which will take about 10 minutes. Then getting your bow fixed and arrows cleaned will take another 20, so that'll bring us to 7. It takes us about 45 minutes to walk to school, which will leave us with 15 before practice starts. Got me?" Bella says, continuing to shake me awake. Without waiting for my answer, she gets up and walks towards the freezer to grab some food.

"Where's all the ice at?" Bella says, confused. She grabs a pack of waffles and puts them into the microwave. She also puts two in the toaster for me, while my mind tries to think of a response.

"Oh...uh...The freezer probably isn't cold enough. I'll check it out with you get a shower." I say, wanting her to leave so I can hide my powers.

As I've been sleeping, I came up with an idea:  Why not keep Bella out of the dark?  Then she wouldn't be out in harms way when worse comes to worse.

"Okay..." She says, confused by my evasiveness. "I guess I'm gonna go take a shower, you better not join me." she adds, winking at me.

I chuckle at her words and reply, "In your dreams." We both laugh at that and she walks into the bathroom.

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Three years ago...

"Pack up your stuff," my father John says to me, "We're going somewhere."

"Are we going on vacation?" I say, my eyes filled with eagerness.

We haven't been on vacation in a while, and it'd be even more rare if we planned one. It was more of a "Oh no a Super is pissed off and chasing us, so let's go run away for a while." type thing.

"Not this time buddy," he says ruffling my hair. "now go get packed."

I slept get up and walk to my room, but I stop myself and ask, "What should I bring?"

"Everything," he says smirking, "you'll be needing it."

Confused by his statement, I slowly walk away into my room. I stare at the bland walls of my room, and I realize that something's wrong. Dad never tells me to pack everything, and what did he say by, 'I'll be needing all of it?' I brush off the bad feeling and pack everything into a red-colored suitcase.

I start by throwing all of my clothes into a suitcase, which fits easily. Considering the fact that my dad is a Super, I have only minimal amounts of clothing. Seven shirts and seven pairs of pants, which apparently is 'light enough'.

I continue to pack everything, but leave a picture for last. I pick up the wooden framed picture, and as my eyes skim over it I can't help but smile.

It's a photo of John, Jem (a family friend), and I. We're all standing with fishing poles in one hand, and a big fish in the other. Are we going to see Jem? I think, my body filling with hope. The last time that we saw Jem was 2 years ago, and he was probably the coolest person ever.

He showed me how to shoot a bow, and he was the reason that I got into archery. Last time I was with him, he taught me how to shoot a small moving target.

I safely place the photo in my suitcase, where I silently hoped that it wouldn't shatter into a million pieces. I walk out of my room and look at my dad, who's furiously typing away at a computer. "Hey, I'm ready." I say, making him jump. For someone with Super Hearing, at some points he could be quite deaf.

"Go wait in the car." He says harshly, motioning towards the car. I walk out the front door and wait in the car, confused by his rude remarks.

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25 minutes later-approximately 2:46 A.M.

I watch as Dad finally walks into the car, his briefcase filled with paperwork. "Son, what is about to happen is going to be permanent. I don't want you asking questions or complaining, because this is already hard enough as is. Got it?" He says, his voice sound genuine.

Before I can respond, he says, "Good. Now don't worry, you'll be with trusted friends. You'll be safe."

He turns the car on, and he quickly drives towards his destination. I try and ask him what's going on, but I'm quickly shot down each time.

Next thing I know, we're standing in front of a grand hotel building. Although it's hard to see, but the grass is trimmed and kept clean. "Here?" I ask, confused, "Why here?  Why does Chicago count as a vacation?"

Before I can ask my giant questions, I watch as a man and a women walk out of the building, heading straight for our car.  I watch as Dad's eyes get filled with hope, like they are an all great savior.  "See those nice people?"  He points out to me, making the obvious seem even more obvious.  "The female on the left is Ashley, and the man on the right is Damian.  They've got a daughter your age who's into archery as well."

"Ah, cool." I exclaim in a mock voice, "I can't wait to meet them!"

As the couple comes closer to us, I notice some distinct characteristics about each.  Ashley, who looks around the age of 20, is wearing common clothes, but her hair is what gets my attention.  It's all ginger-red, except with a streak of white hair coming down from it.  It doesn't look like it's from old age, but it definitely looks artificial.

I can't say the same for Damian though.  He's dressed up in a dress suit, which has a distinct yellow tie.  His dirty blonde hair is almost down to his aquatic-blue eyes.  "John Buffler," Damian chattered, probably cold from the frigid air. "It's been so long! Nice to see you!"

They shake hands, and Dad responds, "You know why I'm here." that stops Damian cold in his tracks, and by the look on his face I know something bad will happen.

"You can't mean..."

"Yes, that's exactly what I mean."

They continue to talk in code, while both Ashely and I are left out. But by the looks of it, it seems that Ashley is understanding every word.

The conversation finally includes me when Damian introduces himself, "Hi! I'm Damian, nice to meet you!"  he firmly grasps and shakes my hand, and I can tell that he has a handshake of a businessman.

"Hi...I'm Aaron," I shyly respond, not knowing what to say. 

The next thing I know, I'm standing in the lobby of the hotel.  I've got my suitcase in my hand, and I can feel Ashley's hand on my shoulder.  "Damn super speed," Damian mutters, "can't even say goodbye to his own kid."

I'm about to respond to him, but a girl interjects.  "Mom, dad, who's this kid?"

I turn around and see a beautiful girl my age standing in front of me. Even though her hair was disheveled and her clothes were novelty, her face drew the most attention.

"He's going to be living with us," Damian says, his voice cheery.

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Obviously, hiding my powers from her would be a lot harder than it sounded. Right as she hops in the shower, my hands start to glow.

Hoping that they will hide the glow, I quickly throw winter gloves on my hands. I then get ready for school, which thankfully takes a few minutes.

After that, I do some work on my bow. That includes cleaning the bow-string, which takes a while, and also includes cleaning the tip of each arrow.  When I get to the arrow tipped with blood, flashback of last night come to me.

I remember as I shot the man in the stomach, and how he just dropped the arrow like it was nothing.  I remember snapping his arm, and having that weird energy transferring to my arm. 

Is that how I got my powers?  Did that weird arm-energy thing give me them from that man?  If so, how did that happen?

"Aaron?  What's wrong?"  Bella says, snapping me out of my flashback.

I glance at her and see that her hair is disheveled, and she's wearing a purple bath-robe I got her for her birthday.  "Oh...um...nothing," I say quickly, "Just cleaning my equipment.  Want me to start on yours?"

Bella accepts my offer and walks back into her room, and I sigh in relief.  Hiding my powers will be a lot harder than I thought, I think to myself.

I continue to clean Bella's bow and arrows, but once I finish I hear a faint hum coming from the freezer.

"The freezer must be back on," I state to nobody in particular. Boom! I immediately jump to my feet, and I can feel fire rushing through my hands. I look at the freezer and see smoke coming out from it.

I slowly creep towards the freezer, hoping that it won't blow up again. Once I reach the freezer, I put my hands out to open the door.

I open it, and smoke comes pouring out in huge amounts. I put out hands to shield my eyes, but the smoke shoots into my hands like water down the drain.

Confused, I look into the freezer to see what caused it. What I see next is even more chilling.

When I say chilling, I literally mean chilling. The words "Open the door." are completely created out of ice. There is an arrow to the right of it pointing towards the door.

I slowly tread towards the door, being weary of who could be on the opposite side. Is it IceBreaker? I hope, my body exploding with excitement.

IceBreaker, a supervillain who can control ice, is about my age and wears a blue and white spandex outfit. He wears a light blue cape and has the ability to freeze anyone or anything he touches.

I open up the door, and see a even bigger surprise. Derek is standing in front of me, his bow in hand. "Hey Aaron," he says, putting his hand out. On instinct I jerk back, but Derek respond saying, "I'm really sorry about last night. No hard feelings?"

"Yeah...sure," I say, still not over the fact he was going to kill me, "So why are you here?"

"I wanted to talk to Bella," he says, "she told me she lives here. Is she home?" Derek pushes back his jet-black hair and stands up straight, like he was taking her to the prom.

"She's in the shower," I reply wearily, "I'll go get her. Just wait here."
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"Glad to see that you could join us," Mr. Kiore says, his voice sounding like a drill sergeant.

"Sorry," I say, completely out of breath, "We....had...to drop...someone off..."

Actually, that wasn't an excuse, it was sadly true. Derek had waited for Bella to get out of the shower, and then lingered around the house until we had to leave. Once we did leave, we had to drop him off at his school, which is in the opposite direction. On the way to Chicago's Institute of the Gifted, (CIG for short) our car broke down and we had to walk.

But, instead of walking Bella wanted to run, so you know how that ended up.

"Excuses," Mr. Kiore retorts, his usually-happy voice now short and rude, "run 10 suicides."

Knowing that one suicide is running around 10 times, Bella and I groan by the fact that we will have to do it 100 times. She looks at me and shrugs, like it could be worse.

"Should we get changed into our gym uniform?" Bella questions, her voice in defeat.

"No, go right now!" Mr. Kiore commands, pointing towards a side of the building.

As we run, I try and keep in a solid pace with Bella. About halfway through, Bella is nowhere to be seen. She already passed me up? I think to myself, completely shocked.

"Aaron...wait...for...me!" Bella puffs, slowly catching up behind me.

Super speed? I think, staring at my feet. "Cool," I say to myself.

"What's cool?" Bella says as she wipes sweat off of her forehead.

"Nothing," I say quickly, trying to hide my powers.

This is going to be a lot harder than I thought

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Sadly enough, the ten suicides did not leave Bella and I enough time to practice shooting. Right when we finished with the ninth suicide, we were called back to stop.

With her hair messed up and makeup smeared, Bella looked like a beautiful train-wreck. Her hood, which we were told to wear during the fifth suicide, is completely drenched in sweat.

On the other hand, I looked completely fine. My head beaded with a little sweat, but there was no proof that I could have been exhausted. Thankfully, my feet didn't throb with an aching pain.

Before Bella and I could rest, we were ushered into SuperEd. SuperEd is a class designed to teach students about Supers and their powers. In case of a super-villain attack, students are informed on where to go and how to proceed. Only few students can actually get into this class, and I am lucky that I did. Bella, Tom, about 2 other students and I are in that class.

I walk through the barren hallways of CIG, and I try to find my locker. "What the hell?" I say to Bella, who looks as throughly confused as me.

"Ugh the damn Cheerleaders again," Bella replies, "I swear if it was Tiffany again..."

Tiffany, the lead cheerleader, has some type of negative vendetta against Bella. Sadly, she has chosen me to annoy.

I look at my locker, staring completely bewildered. My locker is covered in a giant poster, reading Good Job Aaron! and You're the best at our school!

The poster is on a black background, and is covered in sparkles and stickers. Without a hesitation, I take my hands and rip the poster off. Bella gives me a sympathetic look, and says, "They worked hard on it, give them a break."

"When do you care about the cheerleader's feelings?" I ask as I rip the poster away from my locker.

"Uh...I'm going to go to my locker..." Bella says, turning around. She flips her magnificent hair over her shoulder and strides off.

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"Today in class we will be watching a movie," Mr. Kern says, his voice filled with a 'I-don't-care-what-the-hell-you-do' attitude.

He turns on the movie and the narrator's deep, disembodied voice catches me off guard.  "There are many different kinds of Supers, but one kind of Super has the ability to take away powers.  The only known Super who can do that is Vacuum.  He can take other's powers and use it against them.  How to solve this problem?  Well follow this equation: Super with no powers + whatever power it is related to = Super with powers."

I groan at the stupidity of this man, but I can't help but think, Will I go up against Vacuum one day?

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Long chapter for everyone!

I'm going out to Washington D.C so I felt obligated to get a chapter to you guys.

Maybe we could do a meet-up type thing?

Next chapter will probably be posted on Sunday and let's just say that everything 'heats' up.