The After-Party

“So what do you think, Al?”

Spawn stared at his partner in silence. Finally, he replied, “I don’t like it.”

Ariel sighed and took her CD back. “Well, at least you got my CD signed. Thanks.” She stood on tip-toe and gave him a peck on his mask. “You don’t have to like them. But you could’ve been nicer. I mean, we did just save their lives.”

Spawn snorted and glanced back at the teens onstage. “I don’t do nice.”

Ariel rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Come on, let’s go home.”

“About time,” Spawn said, rising to his feet.

Ariel placed a firm hand on his shoulder. “My home, mister. We are not going back to that stinky alley of yours.”

Spawn muttered something, but quickly agreed. He just wanted to get away from all the teen spirit.

TLC watched as Spawn and Darkchylde disappeared in a green mist. “Weird,” Left Eye muttered, shaking her head.

“Yeah, the big guy was pretty cold,” Chilli agreed. “And his breath was really bad.”

T-Boz elbowed her. “They did help save your life, y’know.”

“Yeah, but still,” Chilli went on. “I mean, who hasn’t heard of some kind of breath mint? The commercials are on all the time.”

A quick glare from T-Boz shut her up as Generation X and Nate approached them. “You ladies okay?” Everett asked for the sixth time.

“Yeah, we’re fine,” T-Boz replied.

“Got that right,” Everett thought to himself. His thoughts stopped when he realized that T-Boz was staring at him. “What?” he asked slowly. She only shook her head, but there was a strange smile on her face.

“Okay, so explain this whole thing to me again,” Left Eye said. “I’m a what?”

“A mutant,” Monet replied. “A human gifted with certain special abilities.”

“I always knew she was the odd one,” Chilli whispered to T-Boz. T-Boz only smiled and did her best not to laugh.

“Wow. I’m really a mutant. How about that?” Lisa said, thinking it over.

“More to it than that,” Nate said suddenly, staring at a device in his hand. “I got this from one of the Psi-Ops. According to this reading, all three of you are mutants. Left Eye and T-Boz are the only two that have manifested, though.”

“So how do we know what powers we have?” Chilli asked.

“You probably won’t know until you manifest,” Gaia explained. “From what we’ve seen, Left Eye might have super strength.”

“What about pyrotechnics?” Left Eye suggested.

Jubilee stared at her. “Huh? What makes you think you have that?”

The three girls glanced at each other, and then burst out laughing. “Never mind,” Left Eye said afterwards. “It was just a thought.”

“That reminds me,” T-Boz interrupted. “Could my power have something to do with reading minds?”

As soon as the words left her mouth, Everett knew. “Oh God. OH GOD!”

T-Boz started laughing again. “Sorry, Ev. I didn’t mean to. It just...happened.”

Everett was now banging his head against the wall, quietly muttering to himself.

“Can you tell what I’m thinking right now?” Nate asked.

T-Boz stared at him for a moment. “Nope.”

“Can you tell what I’m feeling?” he pressed.

T-Boz tried again. “You’re...very tired.”

Nate grinned. “You’re an empath. I knew it.”

“So...what’s that mean?” Chilli asked.

“It means she can sense what others are feeling. In Ev’s case, she felt his...um...crush on her.” Nate barely managed to keep a straight face when he mentioned the last part.

“So I don’t have any powers?” Chilli asked, feeling a bit left out.

“Not yet,” Nate replied. “You haven’t developed them yet. But you will, sooner or later. Trust me, you’ll know when it happens.”