[ENG] Family Family

VI - Fight! Fight! Fire! Fire!

Wasn't it enough for him to win the dodgeball game? No, because I had opened a wound in Randolph's heart that could not heal with a simple victory.
Shortly after his triumphal entry into the corridor, the curious crowd of students from every year surrounded us on all sides; each of them already knew what would happen in that place.
Randolph pushed me violently towards the wall of guys, who threw me back into the center of the ring, almost making me lose my balance.
- Courage! Attack me, Red Riding Hood! -
- And bring myself down to your level? No, thanks, fly. -
He took up a guard position and I noticed that on his hands he sported a pair of leather gloves covered with metal plates; the ones on the back of his hands bore a white "Δ".
- Let's see what you can do. -
Randolph rushed towards me and tried to hit me with a semicircular punch from above, but I deflected it with my forearm in an ascending block and used the triple punch technique, that is, one upwards and two frontal punches, but Randolph defended himself with a wedge block; my blows were blocked by the metal gloves and they hurt my knuckles.
- You'll break your wrists with those, - I commented. - Where the hell did you get them? -
- I found them in the physics laboratory and now they are mine. -
And he slapped me with the leather part.
- Since you keep calling me a fly, do you know that there is a species that eats humans from the inside? -
Since I was still, he tried slapping me once again, but this time I foresaw it and delivered a roundhouse kick that hit Randolph in the side.
- Then I'll start calling you a gnat. Do you happen to see atoms when you shrink? -
That's when he grabbed my collar.
- Nothing at all. -
To free myself, I tried using one of the self-defense techniques I had learned during my vigilante career, pushing one of his arms up and the other down, but without success; Randolph's grip was too strong and after a short time he began to strangle me.
The crowd came to my rescue, but Randolph seemed determined, so in a last-ditch effort, I took off the gloves of the Heater suit, poured again some of the fuel onto the ground, and grabbed his arms, setting his sleeves and then the floor on fire.
As the smoke detectors made the fire alarm go off, the crowd dispersed and reconvened at the emergency exit, and Randolph, after glaring at me, did the same.
I, however, remained there for a moment and put out the flames with the nearby fire extinguisher and with my coat. A few minutes later, when we had all gone out, the faulty fire prevention system went off; a delay that would have proved catastrophic if it had been something more serious.
But now the principal's office awaited me.

Dimly lit, the only light source in the room was a green plastic lamp, pointed at my diary, where the principal was writing a communication in red ink for my parents.
- Madam principal, he started it. -
- It may be, but he didn't try to start a fire. -
- Madam principal, I was only trying to defend myself. -
- You could have destroyed the school, Nicholas. -
- Madam principal, after years and years of refining my power I can say that something like this is very unlikely when I am responsible. -
- By the way... - the principal took out a fresh sheet of paper from the printer.
- What? -
- The day before yesterday, someone broke into the school building. It turns out that two nights ago, at 2:34, the fire prevention system went off in the main corridor of the middle school. We assume it was you, Nicholas. -
Not a word came out of my mouth for a long time. I couldn't tell much; just after the meeting with Hugo Klein, as per agreements with the police, Clyde Hampton had had to plead guilty of premeditated murder and multiple manslaughter, aggravated by use of powers, and I would have preferred to avoid making her aware of the fact that a murderer had set foot into a classroom full of students and hugged the man he originally intended to kill.
Finally, I confessed.
- You see, madam principal, I, with all my brothers and sisters, I am part of a group of vigilantes who have been collaborating with the police for several years. We are authorized to raid the school building in case a student decides to contaminate the entire atmosphere, and we are authorized to set fire to the aforementioned building in case an Ancient Greek philosopher decides to take Professor Klein out. -
After a moment's hesitation, the principal snorted and began speaking again: - This doesn't change the fact that people almost died today. -
- There is always someone about to die, even at school. That's how it is, it's life. -
- That is not an exhaustive answer, Nicholas. -
- Then tell me, madam principal, what will become of me. -
- First of all, stop saying "madam principal". Second, I've decided I'll have to discuss this with your parents or your boss. -
- You won't need to wait, my mastermind is one of your students - and with that said, I turned on my SCD to send a message to Stella, and even though I remembered that she was still in class, I sent it anyway.
- And who would she be? -
- Exactly who you'd expect. -
I stood up and moved my chair, as I assumed Stella would teleport to my exact location, and so she did. She looked around and her eyes suddenly locked with the principal's, and she immediately feared she had been caught teleporting.
- Stella, I told her. -
- Honestly? I expected you to be the leader - commented the principal. - You are a very bright student who excels in all subjects, I'm not surprised to know you are the mastermind of a group of vigilantes. -
- Literally, the MASTER-MIND - Stella added, referring to her formal code name.
- Tell me, Stella, are you really as trained as your colleague says? -
- Yes, madam principal. -
- Don't start with the "madam principal"... -
- As you wish, Mrs. Tabytha McLannahan. We have solved a multitude of inconveniences. Put me in the picture, Nick. What were you talking about? -
- Stella, do you mean to tell me you didn't see what happened between me and Randolph? -
- Yes. -
- He started beating me in front of the bathrooms, and then tried to strangle me, and...-
- You didn't mention that! - the principal banged her fists on the desk.
- I didn't want him to get into too much trouble, even if in the end he didn't get into trouble at all. After all, I was the one who bothered him and called him a fly. -
- Fly? You didn't happen to make fun of him because of his power, right? -
- What power? - I lied.
- Don't play dumb, I know that Mr. Klein told you what his son's power was. And I also know that you promised not to tell anyone. -
- In fact I didn't tell anyone, I just let Randolph himself know that I knew - I lied again, remembering how I had made a joke about it in front of the crowd, even though probably no one heard it.
- I'm having a hard time believing you, Nicholas, but I agree. Tell me more about your little vigilante group. -
- I'm afraid I can't. That's confidential information that could end up in the wrong hands. -
- Do I look like a supervillain to you? - the principal smiled.
Stella also smiled, but it was more of the expression that a teacher gives to a student eager to learn.
- You may not be, but, as Deimos and many others have taught us, a villain can be a person very close to one of us, of whom we'd never suspect. -

Mom poured the crunchy treats into Yin's bowl and emptied the can of wet food for cats with kidney failure into Yang's, but the black kitten, dissatisfied with her afternoon ration, began to voraciously devour her brother's lunch as if there was no tomorrow; so did I with my brothers' pieces of bread as soon as mom placed the basket in the center of the long laden table.
Then the actual dishes arrived, the smell of fresh fish flooded the dining room: sushi and sashimi, then salmon fillet for Layla, who couldn't eat raw fish, and uramaki with avocado from our garden for Julianne, who was vegetarian.
- You know, I really don't know how you do it; I'm always afraid to eat vegetables from our garden - I joked.
- After all these years? You know damn well that my GMOs are completely edible. -
Mum and dad also joined the table and immediately filled their plate with raw salmon. If there was a food that I could continue to eat on a full stomach, it was salmon carpaccio, even better if accompanied by some good sauce like teriyaki. The only problem with raw fish was that it was normally served cold; for this reason I never ate it in restaurants, where I couldn't warm it up a little with my own hands.
Towards the end of lunch, Mom suddenly stood up.
- Tomorrow we will visit my relatives. -
- Tomorrow when? - I asked.
- Tomorrow late in the morning, you'll skip school; happy? -
- Will we meet your brother, mom? - this time it was Julianne's turn to ask a question.
- I wouldn't be so proud; do you remember what he told us about him? - Stella added.
Edward shrugged. - How many children has he adopted with his wife? -
- Josie is not his wife. Stop asking questions, you will meet them tomorrow. -
I turned to Henry, seated next to me. - Are you mute? -
- I'm still pissed off from when you stole my piece of bread. -

The maternal branch of the family tree was the most distant one from us; during extended family reunions only grandfather Salvo, our father's adoptive father, used to join. I knew almost nothing about my mother's parents, as well as her brother's family.
I was definitely excited to meet all these people that Mom had only quickly mentioned, but as soon as I placed the empty suitcase on the bed, someone patted me on the shoulder; I turned and saw Stella holding up her laptop.
- I found out why mom hasn't seen them for so long, exactly 7 years. -
A mugshot of a man in his 30s with long black hair, red eyes and a goatee was visible on the laptop screen.
- You've done some research on our uncle, haven't you? -
- Read the headline of this 2021 article: "Local man, 32, arrested for aggravated vehicular manslaughter." -
- Is that guy even our uncle? He looks like an idiot. -
- But he is literally just like mom! -
- Whatever, he'll surely be completely different, after 7 years in prison...-
In the middle of our conversation, my mother came in and glared at us, as we had spent minutes gossiping and speculating about her little brother before her very eyes.
- Uncle Monty is what he is, but underneath he's a very loving person, and to his children he's a very loving father. As soon as you will meet him, you'll stop fearing what he isn't; a dangerous, unreliable individual. -