[ wp ] A teen realizes that his mom is a supervillain and his dad is a superhero but that they do n't know eachothers secret .

The entire school was in a frantic rush. Teachers, student, and the rest of the staff all rushed around the clotted hallways in a disorganized mess. The adults who remained functional enough to give any kind of direction wore the mix of confusion and panic on their faces openly. Their wild finger pointing and yelling of directions did little to calm myself or my peers down. Too many of us had already seen some of our less resilient teachers fall to tears when the announcement came over the loud speakers. 
 
 `` An Exform Creation has been spotted in downtown New Bristol. Teachers and staff, please begin to evacuate students in accordance with our safety protocols. Buses are already out front to take students home. We will provide more information as we receive it.'' 
 
 My teacher, Mrs. Fletcher had been one of those less resilient teachers. I had watched the blood drain from her face and her jaw go slack as the speaker finished its announcement with a buzz and a click. She fell back into her seat staring off into nothing when Melissa voiced the questions we were all thinking. 
 
 `` Mrs. Fletcher? I do n't understand what's going on? Are we supposed to be going?'' 
 Mrs. Fletcher shifted her eyes to Melissa with an absent, yet wide-eyed look. We all stared back not sure what would come next. She gave a dull wave at the loud speaker. 
 
 `` It said go, ” she mumbled in shock. 
 
 I peered around at the rest of my unmoving class before deciding that someone had to get things moving. I stood up and grabbed my bag which began our rush from our room into the already messy rush in the halls. As I looked back once more at Mrs. Fletcher though the rest of my class I watched her lean forward and bury her face in her hands. 
 
 The chaotic evacuation of the high school went by in a blur. A half hour later, I was walking up my long driveway reviewing the mornings events in a daze. We all knew what Exforms and Exform Creations were. Exforms were people with the EXtrordinary ability to FORM creatures through the use of various medium. They were the Exforms, and they had their Creations. The world might have never known about the source of the Creations if a sculptor and cartoonist had never come forward to reveal themselves as Exforms in the hope of helping the world learn how to best defend themselves. They showed the world on live TV how being an Exform worked and promised they had no involvement in the violence that was the norm for most Exform Creation appearances. 
 
 As the world began to learn to defend itself, the Exform Creatons kept coming. They varied in size and shape and power, but never their intention, and never more than one at a time. Then one day an Exform Creation had been released on the outskirts of Chicago. Evacuations had begun and were going according to protocol until a second Creation appeared. News reporters had used lines like, “ All of Chicago could be lost today, ” and “ God save us all. ” That was until the second Creation, after a long a brutal battle, destroyed the first. At the time it was an unprecedented event, but one that would become all but commonplace in the years to come. 
 
 Then their appearances had stopped 20 years ago without warning or explanation. I had only ever seen them on the internet. I knew from experience that most teenagers, who had never had to live with the threat of an Exform attack, harbored some kind of interest in the amazing people and their creations. I kept my interest as much of a secret as possible, again like most kids, to not bring up any bad old memories of homes lost or people dead that our parents had. If my parents didn ’ t want to talk about it with me, I didn ’ t want to talk about it with them. 
 
 I opened the doors of our small suburban home and went inside expecting to see my parents both glued to the TV. While the TV was indeed showing video of the Exform Creations attack on New Bristol, I rushed past it to find my mother sitting in her studio painting. She poked her head out from behind her canvas and smiled at me. 
 
 “ Oh thank goodness you are home! ” She exclaimed. Her levity despite the situation threw me off guard. While she never showed me anything but love, my mother had always been more serious in nature than my typically jovial father. That ’ s not so say that each didn ’ t exhibit a full range of emotions, but they each tended to stay on their end of the spectrum. They always said that they balanced each other nicely, and everyone around them, myself included, would have had to agree. My mothers pragmatic nature kept my dads silliness in check, and in turn his silliness bought the warmth in my mom to the surface. Still With the first Exform Creation showing up in 20 years I had no idea how she could be so relaxed. As I moved into her studio, I looked around again at the paintings on her walls. Her art had always fascinated me in a macabre way. Most of it was gloomy scenery that was then scanned and used on horror story book covers, or dark abstractions that “ art snobs ” would buy and put up in what I assumed to be poorly lit apartments. 
 
 I had always liked watching her work when she let me. I used to watch the bold lines mark the page one after another until they reached their hauntingly beautiful final forms. “ The power is in my lines, ” She would always say. It was an odd saying especially in the way she muttered it under her breath as she worked. She was working on a new piece from the one I had last seen on her easel. The last one had been a strange change of pace for her. The focus had been an ominous looking creature, black with white markings, and grotesque features. While the subject had been different, her demeanor during its creation had been the real difference. My mother always enjoyed painting, but with this latest one, I would hear her chuckling lightly as it took form on her canvas. While she fully enjoyed making her paintings, I rarely heard anything from her while she worked, and when I did, I can ’ t remember it ever being laughter. 
 
 “ Where is the last one? ” I asked curiously. 
 
 “ Finished it. ” She said turning back to the easel and selecting a brush. I looked around and couldn ’ t see it. Without looking at me she pointed to the corner of the room. I walked over and held up the frame mounted canvas. Now there was nothing but black paint where the beautiful but dark creature had been before. 
 
 “ What happened to it? ” I asked. 
 
 “ Huh? ” She turned to me and saw the confused look on my face as I pointed my finger at the black place where the creature used to be. 
 
 “ Oh. ” She said absently, “ Spilled paint. ” 
 
 I was about to protest about the lack of sense that made because of her easel, when the front door burst open and my dad came in. I inwardly chided myself for having not even asked my mom where he had been in the few minutes I had been home. With all the events of this morning, I knew I wasn ’ t operating at full capacity, but not asking after my dad, especially given his line of work, was shameful. 
 
 He paused in the open doorway and let out a sigh as he hung his head in relief. 
 “ Thank God you are both safe he said. ” 
 
 He ran to me and gave me a long hug before kissing my mom. His black jacket with E.C.F emblazoned brightly across the back swished loudly against itself as he stepped back and took a look at us. The Exform Containment Force employed my dad as a temp agent. The odd title was even more odd due to the fact that he had “ temped ” there for the last 25 years. While the ECF had become increasingly irrelevant in the past 20 years, the devastation that Exform Creations had caused made the vast majority of people reluctant to see it dissolved, and so it wasn ’ t. 
 
 “ I ’ m so sorry but I have to go, ” he said quickly. “ I just left some important things here and then I have to be on scene. ” My stomach lurched as I realized for the first time that my dad would be going into New Bristol to assist in whatever way he could rather than staying in the potential safety of our home. Despite him being with the ECF for so long, I had never experienced him actually having to do anything dangerous. 
 
 I hear him clattering around upstairs as I ran this all through my head. I walked absently to the couch and sat down to keep my knees from falling out from underneath me. He came downstairs with a mess of papers sticking out from a briefcase I had never seen him use before. He kissed my mom who had been sitting quietly in her chair. “ I love you and I will be fine, ” he said quietly. “ I know you will, ” she returned looking up at him. “ I ’ m sure of it. ” 
 
 I felt him kiss the top of my head as headed for the door muttering something about “ his lines ”. I looked up from the ground to say something, but the image on the TV finally caught my eye and held it. I noticed the Creation on the TV for the first time. It was black and white and grotesque. Black and white and grotesque. I chanced a quick glance back at my mom who had disappeared back behind her easel. “ Dad! ” I yelled, “ wait! ” I needed to tell him the sickening revelation I had just had, but the door had just shut behind him. One of the pieces of paper that had been poking from his briefcase had blown loose as the door shut and I grabbed it as I raced to try to tell him what I discovered. As I looked down at the page I saw the hastily written words on it begin to disappear line by line, quickly fading off of the page. Line by line. I glimpsed the last few words before they faded away. “ …wings of shining light. ” I heard the car pull out of the driveway and I turned back to the TV Just as the second Creation appeared. I stared in shock as the last part of it took shape. Two shining wings of light… 

