Chapter No.46. Warning.

It was inevitable that the Vestal Virgins would make an appearance, especially when Sylvia was present. They popped in when the Steris family and their new adopted daughter were enjoying a cookout in the backyard.

"We are pleased with your incorporation of a new member. You have shown tolerance and acceptance without shame, which has pleased us. We are not here to regulate your social mores. They are yours to enjoy. We are only interested in how you deal with adversity. Be careful in how you act."

They vanished.

"They don't believe in idle talk, do they," Sylvia said.

"Pretty much," James said. "Evidently, they're not concerned about you, despite the fact that you're not actually part of our family."

"I think we should take her to one of our healing sessions," Janet proposed. "She needs to sense how it feels to help people who are essentially dying."

"I don't really know how to heal people," Sylvia said. "How do you diagnose a disease and then cure it?"

"Believe me, that power is already in you," James said. "It just comes naturally."

"You people have fought demons. How do you do that?"

"We're able to shoot powerful energy beams from our eyes, James said. "You just look at them and give them a blast."

"That sounds crazy."

"Yeah, but it's how we have to do combat."

Old Bob, the next-door neighbor looked over the fence. "Hey Steris, who were those women I saw in your back yard?"

Robert looked at him. "They're ladies from the annual picnic church committee. They wanted to know if we would help them bring food."

"You sure they weren't from the choir? They were dressed for it."

"They like to be formal when they visit parishioners," Robert said.

Old Bob waved his hand dismissively and turned around and waked to his house.

"I'm surprised that your neighbor doesn't realize who you really are," Sylvia said.

"Dad likes to play the comedian," James said. "He's the master at deflecting his perception of us."

They laughed.

"You all seem to be comfortable with your superhero status," Sylvia said. "What do you do for fun?"

"Dad likes to take us to foreign locations for dinner," James said. "Although, in most cases we end up preventing a disaster. We also flew to the top of Mount Everest, but we ended up rescuing some climbers that were caught in an avalanche."

"We believe that these situations are not random or accidental," Robert said. "They are how the Vestals have us conveniently at crisis situations."

"Dad saved our country from being nuked twice," James said. "He's able to sense when bad things occur."

"So, you consider playing out your roles as superheroes is your entertainment," Sylvia said.

"What else could we do?" Robert asked. "We are what we are, and that's what we are."

"You sound like Popeye," James said, grinning.

They laughed.

Sylvia whiped her brow. "I could use a nice swimming pool right now. It's hot."

"We can't afford anything like that," Janet said.

"Who needs to afford it," James said. "We could just create one."

"Yeah," Robert reacted. "I don't believe the Vestals would object. Our backyard is certainly large enough." He stood up and held his hand out as if he was about to part the Red Sea. A large hole appeared and pipes to the storm sewer and a water line snaked into the hole and rose to the top. The hole filled with a cement oval pool enclosed in ceramic tile sides and a nice walkway. Water poured into the pool as if it were falling from the sky."

"That's cool, Dad!" James exclaimed. He held his hand out and a metal box appeared near one end of the pool. "It needed a chlorination system."

"Thanks. I forgot that."

Janet held her hand out and the patio was increased in size and had a cover. "We need a nice place to lounge near the pool."

James looked it over. "Way to go, Mom!"

"I like it!" Sylvia said. "Is it ready for use?"

"I think so," Robert said.

She ginned. "Then, it's time for fun." She made her clothes disappear to reveal that she she was wearing a bikini."

James' eyes grew. "Wow!" He appeared wearing swim trunks.

Sylvia jumped in the pool and James followed her.

"What about you?" Robert asked his wife.

She frowned. "I don't have the body for a bikini."

Robert smiled. "Now you do."

Her eyes grew large and then she squinted at him. "What did you do to me?"

He grinned. "I gave you a bikini bod!"

She made her clothes disappear and was wearing a bikini. She looked down at herself, noting that she had a perfect figure with no signs of cellulite or drooping. "How am I going to explain this to my friends?"

"Tell them you've been going to a gym."

She gave him a mock frown. "Like they're going to believe that."

He laughed.

He made his clothes disappear and he was wearing swim trunks.

James and Sylvia were swimming around the back of the pool when they stopped to watch James' parents diving in the pool.

"Your parents are not what I expected," Sylvia commented.

"How so?"

"They seem at ease with what's happening. My mother thinks that I'm too outgoing. She would never understand what has happened to me."

"My parents have been completely changed by what has happened to them. You have to remember that my dad was in a coma for ten years. Now that he's back, this whole new life we've found ourselves in has changed everything."

"Well, I was wrong about you," Sylvia said. "You seem to be more fun than I first thought you were."

"I don't know about that. I'm just trying not to screw up. Our fate and the ultimate fate of mankind depends on what we do and how we behave. It's a big responsibility."

"Yeah, but we can still have fun."

"Now that you've joined with us, I can definitely see that being the case."

She laughed.

James' parents ended up siting in lounge chairs on the patio and enjoying cocktails that his dad had prepared.

Janet looked over at her husband. "Wouldn't it be nice to be young again,"

He gave her a smirk. "You are young again, my dear."

She frowned. "You know what I mean."

"I don't think age is going to be a problem for us."

"Are you suggesting that we'll be immortal?"

"That's a very good possibility, but you never know."

After taking a good swig of her cocktail, she giggled. "I wouldn't mind being immortal in my bikini bod."

"I concur with that very desirable wish, my dear."

They laughed.

Robert suddenly sat up in his chair. "Oh, oh!"

"What's wrong?" Janet asked.

"There's a fire in the apartments on Meteor Ave. People are trapped." He stood up and changed into his superhero outfit.

Janet did the same, and James and Sylvia joined them. They jumped into the air and flew to the apartment. People were hanging out of windows in an attempt to escape the flames that were consuming the top of the ten-story apartment building.

The superheroes went to work taking people in their arms and flying them down to safety. Then they entered the burning building to rescue trapped people.

A crowd had gathered along with firemen who were busy trying to set up to put out the fire. The people applauded the superheroes efforts to save people from the fire.

When everyone was accounted for, the superheroes stood together to allow people to take pictures and videos before they flew away and returned home.

"That was wild," Sylvia said.

Robert smiled. "It's all in a days' work. It's what we do."

Sylvia was beginning to understand what it meant to be a superhero. But she had to pass one more test before she was accredited as a genuine superhero.

That happened on a Tuesday evening, when the Steris family invited her to join them for a healing session at St. Peter and Paul's meeting room. Father Johns had invited people with serious health conditions to come and be cured.

The Steris family and their new member were attired in casual clothes when they arrived. Father Johns noted that they had a new addition.

"This is Sylvia Wells," Robert told him. "She's joining us to learn how to heal."

"Oh, I know her mother, Julia," Father said. "She always attends the Saturday mass." He smiled at Sylvia.

"You can go with James," Robert told Sylvia. "He'll help you get accustomed to this."

Sylvia nodded and followed James to the younger cases, while Janet attended to the women, and Robert, the men.

James led Sylvia to a young teen that had a bald head, the usual sign of chemotherapy.

"Okay," he said. "Place your hand on her head and allow your inner senses to determine what's wrong with her."

Sylvia carefully placed her right hand on the girl's head and began the diagnoses process. After a few minutes, she turned to James. "I can see a tumor in the occipital region of her brain. I think it's causing her blindness."

"Good. What you have to do is make it go away and then connect all of the nerves that were damaged."

Sylvia looked at him as if he was crazy, but when she continued her diagnosis, she was able to see how the cancer had destroyed various nerves and began reconnecting them.

Tears poured out of the girl's eyes. "I can see!"

"Oh my God! It' worked!"

"Yeah, it's not that complicated."

James helped her do more cases, including a young man who had lost both of his legs because of a car accident.

"This situation is a bit tougher," James said. "You have to cause his bones, blood vessels, and tissues to grow from the stumps and then connect the nerves."

"What?" she said. "I have to imagine all of that?"

"Yeah. Just visualize it in your mind and then go for it."

She gave him a confused expression before turning to the patient and doing what he told her to do. When it worked, and the man was able to get up and walk, tears formed in her eyes.

James smiled. "Yeah, it gets to you, but you'll get used to it."

Robert, Janet and Father Johns came over to see the miracle.

"She passed the tests," James said. "She's ready to take on anything."

"Good Job," Robert told her.

"We love you," Janet said.

Tears were streaming down Sylvia's face. "You don't know how this makes me feel. My mother is suffering from dementia. Now, I can cure her."

That made Janet's eyes mist up.

Robert turned to Father Johns. "Thank you for allowing us to do this and keeping our true identity hidden."

"I am just witnessing this, but you are actually doing it."

"We are doing what God wants us to do. He's in charge," Robert said.

Father agreed with that wholeheartedly.