Chapter No.84. Acquisition.

Janet was at her credit union job. James and Sylvia were out in the back golfing, Amy was out in the back yard playing with Baby Jack and Sparky. Robert was in the house making changes to the recreation room. Nothing much had happened for over two weeks. He assumed that things had settled down to give them a break. What happened next changed his mind.

He heard the front doorbell ring. He looked up at the security screen and noted that a young man was at the front door. He wasn't sure if he was a salesman or just someone who got lost.

James opened the front door and looked over the young man. He had curly black hair and a handsomely chiseled face. "Hello."

"I think I belong here," the man said. "But I'm not sure why."

Suddenly, Amy appeared, and her face slowly evolved from a curious squint to a wide-eyed astonishment. "Oh my God! Vincent! I thought you were dead."

"I don't know what happened," he said, looking down and then up at her. "All I remember is coming under fire near Khandahar. I got hit and I don't remember anything after that."

Amy turned to Robert. "This is Vincent, my son. I was told that he died in Afghanistan."

Robert extended his hand. "Welcome, Vincent."

Vincent looked at him and knew that he was looking at a fellow marine. He shook Robert's hand, and it was immediately obvious to Robert that he was one of them.

Robert turned to Amy. "It appears that our little family is growing."

Amy was speechless.

"Come on in," Robert told Vincent.

Vincent sat down on a couch in the living room with Amy at his side. "I never thought I would see you again," she said, holding his hand and smiling at him.

"Janet never told me that you were married," Robert said.

Amy flashed a twisted grin. "That's because I wasn't."

Robert's eyes flashed larger before he smiled. "Oh."

James and Sylvia entered the room. Robert looked at them and then gestured to Vincent. "This is Vincent, Amy's son, and he's one of us."

"Welcome," James said. "This is Sylvia," he said holding his hand on her shoulder. "We're brother and sister by her adoption, but we had a child together."

"I wonder if there are any other people like us out there?" Sylvia said.

"Evidently, they would have to be related to one of us," James said.

"I had a sister, but she disappeared," Sylvia said. "We never did find out what happened to her."

"If she's out there, she'll eventually show up here," Robert said. "What's her name."

"Sally," Sylvia said. "She would be younger than I am . . . was."

Robert stood up. "Well, I had better get busy creating more bedrooms and baths."

James laughed. "The way things are going we'll have to make this into a hotel."

Robert chuckled.

Later on, when Janet returned home, Robert introduced her to Vincent. "This is Amy's son. He has powers like us."

Janet looked at him and then back at her husband. "What? He just showed up?"

"Yes. I believe that the Vestals resurrected him."

"He was reported missing in Afghanistan," Amy said. "I haven't seen him in over ten years."

Janet smiled at him. "Welcome to our little band of heroes, Vincent."

Vincent just stared at her.

"I wonder how many other super relatives of ours are out there," Janet said.

"Sylvia had a sister who just disappeared as a child," Robert said. "She might be out there somewhere."

"Usually, disappearances are the result of abduction, and the victims don't survive."

"I suppose we should attempt to find out if she's still alive," Robert said.

"How could we do that?" Sylvia asked.

"Maybe my FBI buddies could help." He turned to Sylvia. "Maybe it would help if you accompanied me."

Sylvia nodded and they were standing in Mark and Joe's office. The two FBI agents stared at them before Mark asked why they came.

"Sylvia, here, had a sister who disappeared when she was a child. Her name is Sally Wells."

"She was born on January 22, 1998," Sylvia said. "Her middle name was Agatha."

Joe sat down at a computer and began the search. After several minutes, he had a response. "Yes, I found the police report. She went missing on March 3, 2005. Multiple searches failed to locate her" He turned back to look at Robert. "If those sorts of cases don't get solved within a few years, it usually means that they were killed, and the body was disposed of."

"What's the chances she just melted into the crowd, so to speak?"

Joe did more enquires before he replied. "Unfortunately, there are lots of Sally Wells, but I've found one with the middle name of Agatha."

"Do you have an address?"

"Yeah, but it's not a good one. She's being held in a prison in Phenom Penh, allegedly because of drug possession. Cambodia has very strict laws concerning drugs."

Sylvia was excited. "We can go rescue her."

"Yes, but we'll have to go there and find where she's being held. The problem is that we'll have to go invisible and then try to locate her among the prison population."

Joe pointed to an image on his computer screen. "This is a recent ID photo of her."

Robert and Sylvia looked at it before Robert turned back to Mark. "Thanks for you help. Hopefully we can get in and extract her without causing any trouble."

Robert and Sylvia vanished.

"Do you get the feeling that their army is growing larger by forced acquisition?" Joe said.

"Evidently, they and some of their relatives were born with superpowers," Mark said. "You have to wonder how many of them are out there."

"Yes. The good news is that they seem to be dedicated with trying to incorporate them into their family."

Mark could agree with that.

Robert and Sylvia teleported to Phenom Penh and began their scan of the prison Sylvia's sister was being held in. They remained invisible in order to avoid detection. After some time, they located her, but extracting her was not going to be as easy as they thought.

"Shit!" Sylvia blurted. "She's being interrogated."

"I was afraid of this," Robert said. "We'll have to freeze time and then extract her. It's the only way to do it without having to resort to force."

"I'd enjoy using force on those thugs that are torturing her."

"Yeah, but we don't want to cause an incident."

Time stopped except for Robert, Sylvia and Sally. Sylvia's sister was strapped in a chair that had a large section of the back removed. Two prison officials were using a hot iron to extract a confession from a victim that was stripped to the waist. The victim was expressing her displeasure vocally.

Sylvia used her powers to heal the burns, which immediately calmed her sister. She removed the restraints and restored her top.

Sylvia's sister was both excited and confused. "Who are you? Where did you come from?"

"This is your sister, Sylvia," Robert told her. "We are part of a family of superheroes who are tasked with the job of saving mankind. "You are now part of our family."

Sylvia got her sister up from the chair. "We're going to return to our home. See in our minds where it is and then return with us."

Sally squinted. "How can I do that?"

"Just think it and it will happen. Trust me."

Suddenly, time started up and they were standing in the Steris' living room. Sally was understandably excited. "Did I do that?"

"Yes, you did," Sylvia told her. "You are now one of us."

James, Amy and Vincent joined them. Robert did the introductions. "This is James, my son. Amy, my sister, but actually my wife's, and Vincent, Amy's son." He gestured to Sally. This is Sylvia's long-lost sister. She turned up missing as a child. We rescued her from a Cambodian prison."

"Why was she in a prison?" James asked.

"I was caught with meth in Cambodia, and it's a stiff sentence there. They accused me of being a drug pusher." She smiled. "Which I am."

"She was being tortured when we rescued her," Sylvia said.

Sally stared at Sylvia. "I had no idea who I was. The bastard who took me when I was a child sold me to drug pushers. I don't know how I acquired powers."

"You were born with them just like us, but they have to be activated. We all went through the process."

"Why do we have them?"

"They were given to us by God so that we could prevent humans from becoming extinct," Robert said. "It's a God experiment to see if we could do it without becoming evil."

"What exactly can we do?" Sally asked.

"Just about anything. We have power over nature. You will be trained on how to use. Your powers."

"How do you remain unrecognized?"

"We have a deal with the government. We allow them to handle us while they keep our identity secret."

Sally tilted her head. "Handle us?"

"Yeah, we do jobs for the FBI, NASA and sometimes for the President. They helped us get Amy out of prison."

Sally smiled. "Oh, so I'm not the only criminal in this family."

Amy smiled. "I'm the bank robber."

They laughed.

"What do you guys do for money?" Sally asked.

"Janet is the bread winner," Robert said. "She's a manager of a credit union. The real money is being made by James, Sylvia and Amy."

Sally looked at them with a quizzical expression.

James waved his hand at her. "Come and we'll show you what we do."

Robert and Janet just relaxed.

"James was right," Janet said. "We're going to become a hotel."

"I've already started the expansion."

"Maybe God is cooking up something to really test us."

Robert had a hunch she was right.