Chapter 52: Problems at School

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Edward did not appear in his flat, but on a roof near Midtown Middle School. The call he had received just earlier was from the school, about Donna.

Since Diana was working, they had also put Edward as her guardian, and today, as Donna did something, they called for him.

They didn't tell him what the brat did, but since they were meeting with the principal it was probably something serious.

His armor changed into serious clothes, and he jumped down when no one was watching. He quickly arrived at the school gate, and easily entered the school.

Fortunately it was still class time so there wasn't anyone in the hallways, he didn't want to be here with all the kids. He didn't have anything against kids, they were just… noisy. One brat was enough to handle, so hundreds of them… nightmare.

It didn't take him long to find the principal's office, and saw Donna sitting there, waiting for him. Next to her was another girl, as well as an adult woman, both blondes.

As he entered, the secretary asked "Are you Donna's guardian? Mr Feit will be receiving you."

Edward nodded and went to sit next to Donna. She had a smug face, and was whispering to the girl next to her. At least they didn't seem to have fought, it was one less possible problem.

His gaze met with the other woman, probably the other girl's mother, and she looked… happy. How strange. Was he not getting something there?

He was pulled out of his thoughts though as the door to the office was opened, and the secretary got them in.

An overweighted man was sitting behind a desk, dressed in a brown suit, somewhat matching his messy red hair. His face looked a little tired, although Edward wasn't sure if it was really tiredness or just age catching up to him.

The man got up from his seat and shook both Edward's and the woman's hand as he said "You must be Lisa's mother and Donna's guardian. I'm Andre Feit, please have a seat."

While the man said that, there were only three seats. Was that a strategy to make them uncomfortable and make them fall out with each other? What was that fat guy scheming…

Edward was pulled out of his thoughts by Donna though, who pulled on his sleeve and whispered "Stop being weird."

He slightly opened his mouth to defend himself, but remembering where they were he shut it and sent a look at Lisa's mother, signalling her to sit down with his gaze, at which she smiled. This wasn't like him, why wasn't he calm? Was he really that nervous? But he was Serenity, andhecouldfightthestrongestofvillainswithoutlosinghiscalm…

"You might be confused as to why I summoned you, especially you Mr Bell since Donna only recently joined the school." Once again, pulled back from his thoughts by the principal. He really was nervous wasn't he?

Edward feigned he was fine though and nodded with an emotionless face. That's it, the way to go.

Lisa's mother quietly sighed, and Principal Feit explained "Yesterday, in the break between 10.00 and 10.15, Donna and Lisa had a scuffle with a few boys."

So she did fight, just not with that girl, thought Edward. Lisa's mother didn't seem particularly surprised either, seems like her daughter was a bit like Donna. No wonder they became friends so quick.

Lisa's mother asked, her voice sounding a little exasperated "What happened to the boys?"

Principal Feit smiled wryly in response "Physically, not much, but psychologically… It could harm them in the long way, to have been beaten by girls. And it is not a very lady like behaviour from the girls, it could also harm them in the future if they don't… reign in those tendencies."

Edward kind of froze there for a second, before looking at Lisa's mother again. Checking with his Chi Sense, he realized he was actually wrong.

Lisa's mother wasn't tired of her daughter being mischievous, she was tired of the principal himself. At that moment, Edward couldn't help but ask himself whether the Amazons were cursed.

How come they always went against male chauvinists? From what Diana told him, most of her male enemies are like this, and Donna barely entered society that her school's principal made a comment on her lady manners.

What infuriated Edward the most though was the way the fat fuck looked at him as he added "You should definitely discuss this with your partner tonight."

Okay, not to overreact.

"Okay, thank you for the… warning. If that's all, I still need to get back to work, and I think Donna and Lisa should go back to class. It was nice meeting you Mr Feit."

Principal Feit opened his mouth to say something, but Edward didn't leave him the time to speak as he ordered with a rather loud void, infused with a tiny bit of Royal Will "Come on Donna, time to go back to class."

Donna was trying to stop herself from laughing, and still managed to say "But our day is over."

Edward put a hand on her shoulder and feigned anger "Then we should go back home now."

Principal Feit wanted to say something, but he suddenly felt his chest become heavy, as if a weight appeared on his chest. Lisa and her mother took the opportunity to leave as well, and only when he was left alone in his office did the weight disappear.

Outside, Donna and Lisa were looking at Edward with starstruck eyes as the former exclaimed "Since when did you become cool?!"

Edward snorted back "I'll have you know I've always been cool. About the fight though…"

"It wasn't even a fight, we were playing."

"Amazon way of playing?"

"No, really. I swear."

"Fine, we should go back home then."

"Don't you have to go back to your job? Aren't you very busy?"

"I can work at home."

On the side, Lisa and her mother were looking at the exchange with smiles on their faces. Soon enough, Donna was forced into speechlessness by Edward, and Lisa's mother finally came over to introduce herself "Thank you for that in the office, gained us quite some time. I'm Maria, Lisa's mother."

Edward shook her hand with a smile "Nice to meet you. Lisa is welcome to come over whenever she wants."

Maria nodded with a smile, and Lisa looked thrilled behind her. It wouldn't be for today though it seemed. Once they were alone, Edward opened a portal.

"You didn't even bother creating a portal to my apartment?" Donna complained when she saw the portal open to Diana and Edward's apartment.

"Stop being ridiculous, you're only 12, you're not going to live alone. Bring your stuff to the guest room." Donna looked at Edward in shock, and thought about saying something, but decided not to say anything in the end, and quietly walked away.

Edward looked at her with a smile, even though he was first reluctant to have a 12 year old brat live with them, he wasn't so heartless as to throw her out. Ever since she arrived, she already spent most of her time here, and only slept in the apartment below.

Actually, Edward was pretty sure Diana only had Donna live below to leave him the time to get used to her, and knew he would eventually crack and let her stay with them, officially. So he didn't bother warning Diana as Donna officially moved in.

To help Donna, Edward also opened a portal within his old apartment connecting to the guest room. Donna's face was funny when she came in through the door and saw the portal.

The next couple of days were rather weird for everyone at home. Diana was glad Edward had finally truly accepted Donna, although she hadn't ever said anything about it, she had always wanted to have a family, and this felt just like it.

As for Edward, it was weird to have Donna living with them now, it set some limits he didn't use to have, and it turned out a 12 year old teenage girl had more needs than he thought. But since Diana was happy, and Donna was too, despite her hiding it, he was happy too.

It did make their training sessions a bit awkward though. He had been training her in martial arts, and before he didn't really mind, but now it just felt wrong to fight her. He continued though. He just hoped social services wouldn't come knocking.

But as Monday came, they all had things to do. Diana had to work, Donna go to school and Edward had to meet with someone.

Standing at the top of the Empire State Building, Edward was in his Serenity armor as he waited for the other person to arrive.

After some time, he finally felt someone enter his Chi Sense, although there didn't seem to be anyone there. Still, he turned his head in that direction, taking off his mask as he smiled "Susan, you came."

Right where he was looking, Susan suddenly appeared as she took off her invisibility. She wasn't that shocked Edward had managed to sense her though, as he had already shown much more impressive things.

Instead, she asked "Did we really have to meet here? I can barely hear you with the wind! And it was a pain to come here!"

Edward mocked "That was only to check whether I was right or not, and it seems I was."

Susan felt insulted by his tone, but instead of flaring up she questioned "What do you mean?!"

"First, you can block the wind."

Susan bit her lips and created a forcefield in the shape of a dome around them, stopping the wind from coming in.

"I have to concentrate to keep it up, and I won't be able to keep it for long."

"Classic misuse of your powers. You are shielding us from wind, not a train. Thin out the barrier, and reduce it to around the two of us. That would lower your strain by a lot."

She did as she was told, and as he said, it really was better.

"You left a message in my head. You said you had answers?"

"That I do."

"Then what is my power? When we were fighting Malice, you mentioned I had two powers."

"Indeed, you do. The first is a mutation of your Chi, also known as Vital Energy, Life Essence… call it however you want, but it is basically the energy of life, it is what animates you. Whatever gave you your powers transformed your Chi, giving you those powers. For the Human Torch, it allowed him to turn into… well, a human torch, the Thing had his body become much more durable and Mr Fantastic became elastic. As for you, you gained the ability to turn invisible, which I guess is the ability to manipulate light surrounding you."

"What about the forcefields then?"

Edward smiled and used his Spiritual Energy to lift her up, gaining a surprised yell from her. As she levitated to his level, he asked "Feels familiar?"

Sue looked at him in shock "You have the same power? You can copy powers like Super Skrull?"

"No, I can't copy powers, it is simply that our two powers are similar in nature. Chi is the energy of the body, and what we are using, which I called Spiritual Energy, is the energy of our spirit. As far as I know, we are the only two people on this Earth capable of using this Spiritual Energy. Moreover, yours is much stronger than mine."