Think of the Children Redux (With Sparky and another kid)

At a private special education school, children were rushing towards the newly refurbished and landscaped playground of their school. Barren soil and old, rusty metal play-sets were replaced with new colourful plastic ones. The playground was the most important thing to the kids, and they barely paid much attention to the improvements within their school- repaired utilities, tons of new furniture, repainted walls, and a well-stocked, completely refurbished kitchen to serve healthy meals at lunch. Wong Enterprises was also kind enough to donate over a hundred units of child-friendly tablet devices, and a shelf full of children’s books.

Two women walked on the perimeter of the playground, one a brunette biker woman sporting a leather jacket and boots, who spoke with a very American accent. The other was an elegant woman in a flowing, conservative silk burqa, Dominated by two shades of blue and complimented by a head garb that was in two shades of pink. Most of her head save for her piercing blue eyes were covered. The Afghan-american woman moved with a grace absent in her rougher companion.

“I can’t thank you enough, Shauna, for this contribution. You’ve donated so much over the years...” She paused, contemplating further on the charitable act. “...This had better not bite me in the tail... Again.” She said in a sterner tone, immediately suspecting the legitimacy of the donation.

“No, the money’s clean this time, but I’m not saying where it’s from.” Shauna laughed it off and shrugged, hands in her jacket’s pockets.

“Like always.” Atiyah sighed and took Shauna at her word. Shauna was many things, but she was no liar, in Atiyah’s memory.

“So... this is really it, huh? Teaching disabled, autistic and ADHD kids? Arts and music?” Shauna said, leaning against the school’s tall perimeter fence. It was still a fairly rundown neighbourhood, on a slightly developed block with abandoned buildings, junk-strewn empty lots, and a small crackhouse by Shauna’s inspection, just across the street.

Atiyah clasped her gloved hands. “It is a calling, Shauna. Not as exciting as the days of the Tigresses... but safer, and one I look forward to grow old doing.” She said calmly, before meeting Shauna’s gaze and minding what she said. “I am sorry to hear that your license was revoked. May I ask?”

“Uh... Dated some older dude whose dad was on the Education Board.” Shauna said, a white lie that deflected unwanted attention. Atiyah fell into a long pause. “Most unfortunate.” She said, remaining standing with proper posture beside her former comrade.

Shauna started looking around the grounds, seeing the kids ranging from toddler to pre-adolescent ages enjoying themselves in their new, hazard-reduced playground. As a Special Needs school, there were handicapped, blind, deaf, autistic and many other kinds of children, and play was supervised by no less than six staff.

“You’ve got some... colourful kids here.” She quipped, after a brief silence, her focus on a flamboyantly dressed skinny kid with bright orange hair with violet highlights, coloring while sitting beside with a rather rotund child in shorts eating a sandwich.

“Ah... the colourful one is Daniel, and his rather round friend is Thomas.” Atiyah saw where Shauna looked and gave their names, every child’s name on her lips, and their tales in her heart.

“Huh... Chubby kid and colourful kid. They’re keeping to themselves. What’s their special need?” Shauna asked, curious.

“Oh, nothing really. They are more like... us.” Atiyah said, sharing secrets freely with the fearsome woman.

“Do your people know? The school committee? The other kids?” She asked, concerned, now standing up straight and looking at Atiyah.

“I have an agreement with my staff. They are taught the usual things. Never on the playground, never in front of their classmates.” She reassured Shauna, talking about the same lessons they were taught in their own youths, of how blend into society.

“But, what’re their powers?” She asked, still curious.

“Don’t worry, they do not possess any weaponry on their bodies, like their eyes. Their powers are...” Atiyah’s statement wandered off, as Daniel came over to show their head mistress a rather well colored picture of the school... except it was a riot of surreal colours.

“Hello Miss Ten-doo-ah. Take a look at this!” He said, enthusiastic and so very merry in his skipping.

“...This is very nice, Danni. Be sure to show it in art class.” Atiyah said, patting the young artist on the head. He looked at Shauna. “Thank you, mis Ten-doo-ah. Hello miss! You have pretty green eyes!” He suddenly said to Shauna, then running back to his seated friend.

Shauna unashamedly broke into a smile, as did her covered up friend. Given the snap renovations being done, classes were suspended, and children were happily playing outside.

Such a heartwarming occasion indeed, the reopening of a newly refurbished special education center. Just the kind of place a psychotic madman supervillian would strike! Surely such an event would need to be observed by a hero... or at least that was Sparky's excuse for being here. He was trying to fool himself into thinking that was his only reason for coming when in actuality there was a more realistic reason.

He'd read about the reopening of the school online and it had brought up memories of himself as a younger kid. He didn't really fit in with his ADHD and overactive imagination but his parents never thought to send him to a place like this, a 'special school'. Of course it was no tragedy that he couldn't go, in fact he had no clue what he should think about it. Would it have made him better or worse? would it help him avoid the teasings he got in elementary and middle school? Would it have changed anything at all? would he have even qualified to have gone?

It was an odd thing to think about. And here he was lost in thought in his hero costume standing back from the playground just sorta watching and thinking, looking around to the trees and sky on occasion, mostly hoping no one saw him back here... he'd yet to come up with a viable excuse as to why he was here and he doubted the one he was trying to force on himself would work on anyone else.

He watched the supervisors interacting with the kids, some blind some deaf he guessed, others just slow or even maybe too fast... like he was. They all seemed so happy and that made him smile a bit as he watched. He was glad happy places like this existed, and watching over it he felt a lot more hero-like than usual... even if he wasn't really there to fend off any attacks, like there'd really be an attack gosh that would have been a terrible excuse. Maybe he could say he was there to volunteer to help? If they saw him of course, but for now he was content just watching good people be happy.

The school was not without its problems. The school was about the only developed structure in that neighborhood, on a street where business were going down, from being robbed several times or just plain poor management. The rest of the neighborhood was poverty stricken, and drug dealers, gangbangers and other undesirables roamed the streets- gunfire was not an uncommon sound to be heard some distance away. And yet the school remains an enduring bastion of hope, catering to the neighborhood's children; on the street in front, no one from the neighborhood would dare to make trouble.  

But, every now and then, trouble eventually came... and they came in the form of trouble-making school children from the local school. A vicious, roaming pack of kids that jeered and made fun of the special kids as they fumbled and stumbled about. Shauna approaches them tells them off with most foul-mouthed language, but found herself evenly matched with the children's equally colorful vocabulary. Shauna tells them to leave, before it degenerated into a diatribe of petty insults.

"Ugh, kids these days." She muttered under her breath, Atiyah laughily chiding her on her "potty mouth". This was a common occurrence, and hardly warranted the former hero's attention. Despite being told by the grown ups to go away, the bullies remained, safe behind their fence...

From his hiding place Joey saw those meaner kids poking fun and being outright jerks. He couldn't help but feel ticked off. He hated people who outright lacked perspective, Ignorance. It was one of the greatest evils in this world.

He watched for a moment longer fist tightening in his outfits special gloves. [color-blue]"Jerks,"[/color], he grumbled now beginning to approach them not able to stand much more of this. "you there! What gives you the right to say such things! The only thing that matches any of your insults is your ignorance!", he shouted as he approached.

He stood hoping he looked cool or intimidating, or both his cape not fluttering as he'd hoped due to the lack of wind. He was here to stop these idiots from tormenting these poor kids any longer. he'd never been able to stand up to his own bullies but now maybe he could stop someone else's.

"Look out! It's another freak!"

"A costumed gene-banger?"

"Nah, he must be just some kind in a costume."

"He must be one of the students."

"HAHAHAHA!"

The crowd of bullies reacted negatively to Spark's appearance, made worse by the costume which suggested he could be a costumed metahuman. They had only hurtful words for him, but they already moved away from him as well; they seemed to lack the resolve to back their words.

Shauna and Atiyah looked at each other in worry. Was this a costumed metahuman, fighting with kid bullies? or was it one of the students? Atiyah shook her head, telling Shauna that it was not one of her students. "Hey you! Get inside here! What are you trying to do?!" Shauna called out to Sparks, telling him to let it go.

"Go away! You're all mean! We don't like mean kids here. Miss Ten-doo-eeh teaches us to love and understand each other." Daniel went up to the fence and said to the bullies a matter-of-factly. That only served to get one of them to make fun of Atiyah's Bedouin name, which tested the patience of the much older lady. Things get heated when one of the bullies actually came in and suddenly shoved Daniel to the ground, causing him to cry.

"ALright that's it!" Shauna exclaims, but Atiyah tries to restrain her friend, telling her meting out violence to ignorant children was in itself an act of ignorance.

Pfff was that they best they could think of? He'd heard much worse and much more creative insults, and of course they'd go for his costume that was easy. "I'm not going to let your ignorance bother me! I've seen what happens to people like you and if anything all your going to get from me is pity. However I'm not going to stand by as you try to get your sick high off of the pain of these children!", he shouted at them kneeling down and touching his hand to the ground and pulling it up slowly, a flurry of sparks lighting up his transmutation as he began to pull a staff out of the dirt of the ground condensing it and using the stone in it as a seed to change the rest of it to a rock quarterstaff.

He wasn't planning on using it it was mostly for intimidation. He began to step forward slowly remaining pretty calm until he saw the other kid push one of the kids starting to get angry, "I said leave them alone!"

And with that he dropped to the ground again, sparks flurrying along the ground into a circle around the kids before bard shot up around them and unless they were quick enough to escape they'd be stuck in a stone birdcage, though the one who pushed the other kid was probably left outside depending on his distance from the rest of the group.

It was a bit tiring too, turning all that dirt into stone so quickly, but he couldn't handle it, stone was simple enough.

Now Sparky went and done it. He used his metahuman powers. On normal kids. Bullies they were, but normal humans nonetheless, who didn't know any better. They were quickly reduced to tears, afraid for their lives.

"Nooo let us out!"

"What's he gonna do to us?!"

"Don't hurt me!"

"I want my mommy!"

Shauna helped up Daniel as Atiyah furiously strode out the gate. She touched the stone cage and the bars quickly dissolve into sand. Atiyah tells them to leave the school and not return. The children run away, afraid for their lives. Then the woman turned to Joey, her angry expression hidden under her traditional abaya.

"Child! Have you any idea what you've done?! You've endangered the entire school."

The scene did not go unnoticed at all. People around the neighborhood began to gather, as Atiyah quickly dissolves the cage to sand with her geo-touch. Murmurs slowly begin to rise into outright fear and accusations. Someone shouted for the police to come and intervene. The special children look on in awe of the powers, but no one else liked it.

"Everybody get inside." Shauna said, the school staff herding the children inside. Atiyah rubbed her head. Years of work, now she dreaded having to start over. She was getting too old for this. "You will come with us for the trouble you've caused, child. We won't hurt you, but we will definitely have a talk." She gestures for Sparks to come in with them, towards the school.

Stupid jerks they deserved to be afraid, if anything it should be a lesson, and hopefully would be. He was simply protecting the weak from the strong, the mean from the kind, how could that be wrong.

"Wha?! What are you talking about?", he asked the woman after being told he was endangering them all. How the heck could he have caused any danger though protecting some helpless younger kids. It wasn't like he hurt anyone. However he was a bit surprised she dissolved his cage so easily, did she have the same powers as he did?

He stood there for a second still not sure how he caused any danger before he began to notice people gathering and shouts and angry murmurs from the forming crowd, his confident demeanor quickly dissolved into one more like his true age. "No wait.. I.. I was... no I was protecting, they started It! I didn't do anything wrong!", he began to shout his voice shaking as the crowd grew. He'd look back to the children and their overseers as they called out to him, the second she'd ask him to he'd spring toward them toward the school following them in, not wanting to stay out there and relieved, even if it meant getting yelled at.

The children were herded inside the air-conditioned classrooms by the teachers as well as Shauna and Atiyah. Atiyah spent the most energy calming down her charges, as Shauna was less suited to handling children. A public high school teacher was scary in comparison.

Shauna stays by the windows, looking intently at the crowd. Thankfully, no police came to inspect the situation- metahuman incidents were deferred to other departments until no one actually bothers to act on it. The reinforced fence clearly helped keep the stupid people out, and soon enough most of the crowd dispersed on its own. A few hardliners remained though, throwing rocks at windows, only to have them harmlessly turn to sand.

Phone calls rang non-stop at the school lobby for the next hour. Concerned parents rail against Atiyah, demanding an explanation. Several threaten to pull their children from the program outright.

As the clock turned to evening, and the children becoming hungry, staff began to serve a hastily put together dinner of chicken nuggets and instant mashed potatoes, and some juice packs. Daniel the color changer and Thomas the rather fat child both approached Sparks with a plate and a juice. "Hello. You're a nice person. You helped us scare away those bullies. Miss Ten-doo-eeh always says be friends with nice persons. Can I ask for your name? I'm Daniel, and this is Tommy. It's nice to meet you."

A little while after dinner, Atiyah came in, the stress on her face so evident she was leaving trails of sand where she walked. She sat at the-grown up table, Shauna serving Atiyah the food. The bedouin woman could hardly eat. Shauna called Sparks over.

"So, kid. You understand what you just did today?" She said, a bit harsh, though Atiyah relieved her by placing a calm hand on Shauna's. Despite all that had occured, Atiyah was significantly calmer now, and spoke with that warm tone that could settle the worst behaved child in class.

"Please understand, child, we are not angry you helped the children of this school. As fellow metahumans, we felt very much the same. But, there are times we must respond accordingly to the situation. Those were normal children- ignorant bullies yes, but children, the same as you, not villains..."

"...Child, would you tell me your name? and where your parents are? I would contact them if you wish."

Joey wasn't happy about how things had went. For someone who likes to claim he's all about thinking on his feet he sure did a crappy job of doing just that. He didn't even know how to make stuff right yet, if someone had looked closely at the cage from before they would have noticed it was all rigid and misshapen. He needed a teacher or trainer or something.

Also the two adults seemed upset at him but it wasn't his fault it was those stupid bullies and- "Hmm?", he looked up from his hands and stopped his griping for a second to see the other kids had come up to him, offering him food and juice. The boy hero took it and looked down at it before looking to them seeming surprised. O-Oh, thanks, you can call me The Shaper! I'm a new hero!" , he smiled perking up a bit suddenly much happier.

He was happy he made them feel better, even if all this crap happened it meant he accomplished his goal. So when he was called he got up and waved to the kids with a nice cya later and took his chicken nuggets with him to to talk to the weird adults.

"I Do understand I helped these poor kids!", he stated outright as they questioned him and tried to explain to him the gravity of the situation. "And what do you mean what were we supposed to do let the kids get harassed and made fun of?! What were you gunna do tell their parents?! Is that going to go back and time and make them feel better?!", he huffed. "You weren't reacting accordingly you were letting it happen. And what else would you call them, they were villains! They were using their power to suppress others and cause harm, saying they can't be villains is like saying I cant be a hero... and I'm The Shaper and that's all you need to know!"

"He sounds like the Sassy heroine, Laser Ladette, doesn't he, Shauna?" Atiyah said, smirking under her abaya as she looked at the person she was talking about.

"Don't go there Atiyah. Just don't. I will hurt you." Shauna said, sitting in a less dignified manner than her counterpart, chair backwards, leaning on the backrest.

"What I'm trying to explain... Shaper... is that there is more to it than beating up 'bad guys'. There are always consequences when we use our actions in public. You should never retaliate against words with force, it's what they want you to do- to fight back and get yourself in trouble. Being a hero about restraint and doing things for the greater good. Half of the children here barely understand what those bullies were saying. But, I do not disapprove of how you stood up for your beliefs. Some of us grow up losing sight of them." Atiyah tries to reason with Shaper, to explain the situation in a calm manner to get him to agree on some points.

Shauna yawns and the conversation crawls to silence. "So what now? I guess the kids can go home, right?" she asked.

"Yes, the ones with parents. It seems the situation has already passed, and the instigators have gone home. But I will be expecting more trouble tomorrow morning. The rest will have to go to the dorms early." Atiyah said, then looking to Joey once more.

"Where will you go then, Shaper? don't you have a home or a family to be with? Since you are a young metahuman, you are welcome to learn here, a safe place to practice your powers under those who have more experience with theirs." She turned to Shauna again, whom she met eye to eye with.

"I'm not gonna teach little kids...." She protested initially, but Atiyah's expressive eyes pleaded with the more abrasive woman. "Fine. Yeah I guess I'll be around."

These adults were confusing as heck as usual. Were they reprimanding him or not? It seemed to start out that way but now it seemed they'd changed their argument... maybe the boy's words got to them? If so that'd be a first. the adults he talked to were usually stubborn beyond belief especially when talking to a kid, but it seemed these guys changed their arguments.. at least to him.

"Wait practice?", he asked suddenly taken away from his thoughts by what one of them had said. He really hadn't expected this but it made him think back to what the woman had done earlier to his cage. "Wait you have powers too right? are they the same ones I have?", he looked to her and asked a bit curious even if she seemed disgruntled.

Atiyah and Shauna waited until the room was vacated, leaving only the three metahumans in the room. Atiyah then closed her eyes as she enacted her power, as she and all she was wearing turned into a kind of living sand, depressions where her facial features once were. Atiyah was a sand manipulator, as well as a sand being.

"My power is not precisely the same as yours. Since I could walk, I could be one with the sand of my home. As for Shauna..." Atiyah said, her voice quite sandy and gravely. Shauna was juvenile enough to stick her arm right through Atiyah's abdomen and snickered. "This is always the fun part."

"...aside from the power of being obnoxious, you'll find out soon enough. Shauna, you do know I could take your arm, don't you?" Atiyah said rather dryly to Shauna, who quickly retracted her arm.

"If we take some time to understand your powers, Shaper, I am sure we can reach some kind of agreement."

Sand powers?", he watched surprised, he'd never been near another metahuman before and it was interesting to see, but... "So, not the same power huh?", he asked, turning away a bit. He didn't seem to find the o'll arm through the chest gag as funny either.

"Well um my power is, to change and shape the world around me. I channel the flow of the world though my hands and use it to alter the forms of things and even the forms and bonds of atoms to change substances... err it's easier to just show you... ", he finished up and would kneel down to the floor and touch a finger to the ground, sparks flying out as he began to raise his hand, the floor moving upward below his hand and forming into a cube standing on a corner and changing color as he used the pyrite in his gloves as a seed to alter the substance. It would look like gold but it was really fools gold, either way he'd lift it up and toss it to them to inspect.

"I'm good at basic shapes but with complicated objects I need to study schematics... Wait agreement? What do you mean?"

"We can't help you to control your powers per se, but we can help you learn to use them more responsively, and share with you our own experiences growing up as Metas... and heroing. We can provide a safe place for you to do so. The school is publicly funded, so you won't have to worry about payment." Atiyah elaborated.

"Wait, you didn't say if you had a home or family yet. Should we contact someone you know first?" Shauna added.