Inner Man Theatre

    Charlie is ready to take over.  “Sure, there were a ton of heroes, but so we don’t overload you, we’ll switch to the other side.  We already mentioned the three goofy girls from earlier.  Those were Clampera with her super strength and massive crab arms, Elasticia who can mold and stretch into any shape or size she wants, and the mastermind of the three, little Queen Beaconia.  The landfill that gave these three their powers rendered their leader a small tot with no legs, looking like a cute wittle ghost girl.  Don’t worry, student girl; we’re not promoting ghosts with magic.”

    Kammy blushes in anger and humiliation.

    “Hey,” Charlie recognizes his blunder, “we need good eyes like yours.  Don’t be ashamed of having your head on straight.”

    “Okay.  Thank you, sir.”  The two exchange a smile, and Kammy uses this as a lesson to not jump so quickly to judge a situation before she hears the whole story.

    Lightning continues, “We call the young woman Beaconia because she had gravity powers, and they were crazy strong.  The wildest memory I have as a kid was seeing her—on our monitor as I was stuck in the base, I regret to say—encase herself with a gargantuan stone body she’d made to conceal her small size.  That was a trip.  Our encounters with this trio were typically the same.  The queen had some elaborate scheme, Clampy would use her muscle to bully people around.  Ace, Bud and Eva would crash their party.  Eva would knock out Clampera with a single hit, Ace would woo Elasticia into feeling sorry for her choice of friends and her own actions, Beaconia would be the real fighting threat and would either find a way to get her and her minions out of being captured, or they’d get incarcerated but soon break out and restart the cycle.  Good thing Ol’ Ellie eventually switched sides and helped us capture her friends, or Dana and I would never have been able to call her sister-in-law.”

    “Wait!” Gigi gets what Charlie is saying.  “So, Acer, you married Elasticia?”

    In great triumph, he confirms this.  “It took a long time to win her, between her being a villain and then feeling obsessively guilty once she got her heart right.  She even tried to wipe my memory and leave the team in secret, but I couldn’t let her get away that easily.  She’s my Ellie, after all.”

    Dana shrugs.  “Romance can be weird.  I’m glad things were a little more straightforward for me when I got married.  But we’re talking about war, not matrimony.”

    Charlie waits for someone to remark to this, but trudges on in disappointment when the opportunity is, surprisingly, missed.  The truth is Keb and Cici were thinking it but were trying to behave…for once.

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