“So I used the teeth marks from the chewed bubble gum and matched them to the bite taken out of the cookie,” Amy explained, “Stacy was the one who ate all the bake sale treats.”

The principal happily placed a hand on her shoulder, “We may have lost the cookies for the bake sale but at least we have this smart cookie in our school.”

“So I guess this gets me out of detention, huh?,” Amy batted her eyes.

“Don’t push your luck,” the principal wagged his finger at her humorously which made the studio audience laugh.

“Cut!,” the director called out, “That’s an episode wrap!” The audience clapped and the actors took their curtain calls, including Kaley. She enjoyed playing Amy in One Smart Cookie since her character was smart, precocious and assertive in ways she wished she was, but as they were filming the final season, she knew she needed to move on to her next show. Craig Levison spoke to her earlier in the day about a potential future project and she was excited to tell her mother. As she left the stage, she went looking for her and, as expected, she was on her phone. Kaley waited patiently while also subtly trying to get her attention. When that didn’t work, she blurted out a quick, “Mom, Craig might put me in his next show.” Her mom angrily placed a hand over the phone and turned to her, “I’m on the phone. Unless you need me to lecture you about your comedic timing again, take it someplace else.” Kaley shrank back and shuffled her way to her dressing room. Craig caught up to her moments later and in an impulsive display that would have made a certain Smart Cookie happy, she agreed to try out for the Upstarts Program without getting her mother’s permission. This frustrated her mother and since it was the closest Kaley ever got to defying her, she decided to ride that feeling.

WEEK TEN

One of the things Kaley liked about Alexis was that they had their passions and wanted to do the right thing but the only drawback was that they were held back by their parents. It was something she identified with and wanted to help them break free from. She had similar kinship with the other members and when she won the competition to choose the location of their Spring Break, she chose Miami as it would benefit the entire team if they broke the rules a little. In her mind, they would not only be standing up to the adults in their lives but would be doing something worthwhile in the process. As an added bonus, she knew it was something that would please her partner.

With the season wrapping up, the cast and crew all moved down to Miami to shoot the finale. Cameramen filmed them playing a game of basketball on a beach court as the sun got low. Kyle zipped around the court in a blur before finally shooting but Alexis had already stretched their arms up to the rim and spread their hands out flat so that the ball bounced off. Dante used his strength to catapult Da Mutt into the air where he flipped and snatched the ball, landed, then passed but as he did, the ball flew through a small portal. A second portal opened up over the opposing hoop and the ball fell through. “That’s game,” Kaley called out happily.

“And a wrap,” Levison added confidently as he walked onto the court, “I’m happy to say, the first season of The Upstarts has drawn to a close.” Everyone clapped and hugged one another in celebration. As the teens congratulated one another, Levison turned to the director, “We’re getting shit-faced. Meet you at the bar,” then turned to the Upstarts, “You guys should head back to the resort. We have two more days to unwind before we send you back home. Good job, everyone.”

They walked off the court and across the boardwalk to the luxurious resort they were staying at. “I got something to show everybody in the suite,” Kaley told them and took Alexis by the hand, “Come on.” As they made their way inside and up the elevator, Kaley explained, “So out of everyone, I think it took me the longest to control my powers but when we had that race through Hollywood, I got to use them really well and learned I could create portals at a distance as long as I could see where I was going. I started testing things out by watching live footage and streams and everything. I would kinda watch and even though it was far away, I realized I could get a sense of the location, y’know? Ryan Bennings told us we could be more powerful than we thought, right? Anyway, I started to focus to see if I could make portals all the way in another state or whatever just by watching live footage. I didn’t make big portals or anything, just a few little sparks in the background. Not big enough to be noticed by too many people but enough so that I knew I could do it.”

“So what are you saying?,” Dante asked curiously, “If you like, watched the news from some other state, you could open a portal in the studio?”

“I’m pretty sure I can go to another country completely. I’m not sure of the exact distance, though, so just to be sure, I chose Miami for our Spring Break so we could get as close as possible.”

“Close to where? Are we going someplace?”

“Yep.”

They entered their suite and Kaley rushed to the wall-mounted flatscreen while checking her watch, “We’re right on time.” She turned on the TV, displaying live news coverage of Columbia. “I am in the streets of a small town near the city of Barranquilla,” the reporter announced, “Where local cartels have taken over the town almost completely, the police powerless to stop them or in some reported instances, actively working with them to avoid repercussions.”

“Shit’s gotten worse,” Da Mutt said.

“Kaley…,” Alexis began to realize the plan, “Why are you showing us this?”

“I knew there would be a news report on this. I checked the listings to make sure and everything,” her smile brightened, “We’re going to Columbia.”

“Whoa, no we’re not,” Kyle protested, “I don’t like criminals taking over any more than you guys but we’re not active yet. We’ve barely had any sort of training.”

“The government is gonna send us on missions whether we’re ready or not,” Alexis explained, “But it will only be for the fights that suit their purposes.”

“Ryan Bennings told us as much,” Dante agreed.

“I dunno… my dad…”

“I saw the way your dad talked to you, Kyle,” Kaley explained, “All our parents talk to us that way… except for Dante, I guess.”

Da Mutt slapped him on the back, “My man’s the normal one, remember.”

Kaley continued, “Can’t we stand up to them? Can’t we stand up to Craig Levison? We finally get to do what we want and help the people we want.”

“Yeah, no, I get it,” Kyle grew quieter, “I don’t always agree with what my dad says or does and lately I’ve disagreed with him more and more. Then there’s Craig being such an asshole. It’s just… I don’t think we’re ready.”

“We got powers and the cartels don’t,” Da Mutt told him, “Don’t that mean we’ll kick their asses?”

“I think you want to help people,” Alexis began, “We both do. We just don’t always know how. Doesn’t this feel right?”

Kyle thought for a moment, “Well,… I can’t let you guys go alone.”

Kaley turned back to the flatscreen, “So here we go,” she raised her hand, creating a portal in the suite, large enough for the team to pass through in a single file line. With her other hand, she focused on the screen. As the reporter continued to speak, the team could see a single spark appear over a shoulder that went unnoticed. Kaley focused more, generating more sparks that flew in a spiral fashion, growing increasingly wider. The reporter stopped and turned with the camera zooming in on the phenomena. A portal opened on the screen and the team could see themselves and a portion of the suite. When they turned to the original portal, they had a clear view of a Columbian street. “We’re in,” Kaley gritted her teeth in concentration, “Hurry.”

The team quickly ran through the portal onto the mostly empty street with Kaley being the last, passing through just as the portal disappeared. The reporter stood flabbergasted as they approached.

“Yo, we’re the Upstarts,” Da Mutt grabbed the mic, “We’re calling out the cartels.”

Alexis leaned into the mic, “The Costa Triste government hasn’t done anything to stop the sell of American-made weapons to Columbian cartels and we demand that action be done.”

“Otherwise, they can come catch this L,” Mutt continued.

In a bar nearby, cartel members drank, smoke and played card games until a lookout rushed into the room, “Some yankee kids are starting shit.”

“What the hell are American kids doing here?” one of the bosses asked, his voice conveying confusion more than anything else.

“I don’t know but they stepped out of… some sort of hole in the air.”

They looked at each other curiously.

The reporter and the crew began packing their gear into a van, “You people are insane,” she said as she climbed into the van, “If you had any sense, you’d get in and let us take you out of town,” but the warning fell on deaf ears. Kyle darted back and forth to different parts of the street before coming back to his teammates, “I’m not seeing anyone and it looks like most people have left their homes.”

“We have time to go over plan,” Alexis began.

“So what’s the plan?,” Kaley asked.

“What?,” Alexis seemed upset, “This was your idea!”

“Yeah,” she began nervously, “But I kinda thought once we got here you’d think of something.”

“Maybe we should get out of the middle of the street, at least,” Dante offered.

“Hey, guys are coming,” Da Mutt pointed to the other side of the block, “I can hear a car.”

As anticipated, a car roared around the corner on the other side of the block. Inside, men sat holding weapons that were decades more advanced than most weapons on Earth despite their age, weapons designed to destabilize third-world governments and now used for criminal trafficking. “Watch this,” Kaley opened a wide portal on the street with a second portal in the air above. As the car drove forward, it dipped into the void in the ground as if running into a ditch with the front wheels and part of the bumper hanging in the air above. The car stopped, the men inside jolting and jostling as the tires spun uselessly above. Kaley then closed the portals, chopping off a large portion of the front end, leaving the car laying flat on the pavement for a moment just before two wheels, part of an axel and a front bumper came crashing down from the sky to smash what was left of the hood and engine.

The four men in the car began to get out, but Kyle raced past one, snatching his rifle. Kyle expected to just harmlessly take the weapon out of his hands but didn’t account for the man having a tight grip. The result: the man was yanked into the air hard enough to dislocate both shoulders before rolling along the pavement at several miles per hour. Kyle skidded to a stop, still holding the man’s rifle, then looked at the man writhing in pain, “Oh,… holy shit.” As the driver got out of the damaged car, Alexis stretched their arms several feet and grabbed his ankles, which made him trip and fall. Da Mutt then landed on the driver and began raining down several blows which were thrown with no finesse whatsoever but since Mutt had enhanced strength, it didn’t matter at the moment. The driver curled up in a fetal position, wracked in pain, then Da Mutt kicked his weapon away. The final two men stepped out of the passenger side, using the car doors to shield themselves as they took aim at Karley and Dante who were racing toward them. Dante absorbed the kinetic energy from his dead sprint and when he ducked down and slammed his shoulder into the car door, he didn’t expect it to break off entirely, nor did he expect the door to hit the cartel member hard enough to sandwich him between the first and last doors, likely shattering multiple ribs in the process. The fourth cartel member was thrown to the pavement by the impact, which made him squeeze the trigger of his high-tech rifle. The energy beam shot through an upper window, causing a massive explosion that took a large chunk of the wall. Alexis looped both arms over the damaged car and began to pull the rifle away as Dante used the remaining kinetic energy to strike the man hard enough to render him unconscious. With the most immediate threat removed, the teens stared at the billowing smoke above them as well as the chunks of debris on the ground.

“I didn’t know those guns could do that much,” Da Mutt said as he gazed into the hole in the wall.

Kaley took notice of the injured men on the ground, “I didn’t know we could do that much.”

Alexis joined her and held her hand, “I didn’t know it would be that hard to take down four guys,” they looked her eyes, “Maybe we’re in more danger than we thought.”

They stood silently, contemplating their next move, then Da Mutt turned his attention to the sound of more vehicles coming their way, “Shit, there’s more of them. We gotta go.” The teens followed him into an alley just as a few pick-up trucks rounded the corner, filled with more men with energy rifles. When they stopped, some of the men checked on their injured comrades while the rest began searching the area. On the other side of the buildings, Kaley opened a portal which led the team to a nearby rooftop. Once they ran through, they all came to a rest. “Okay, we weren’t expecting so many of them to show up at once,” Kaley gasped as she lay on her back.

“We’re hidden,” Alexis reminded her, “That’s important. We can maybe find a way to get them to separate from one another. They’re less dangerous that way.”

“I think we need to just go back home,” Dante said warily, “Maybe Kyle’s right. This is too big for us. I mean, did you see the hole that gun made? It took out like half the building.”

“It’s Ryan Bennings tech,” Alexis reminded him, “We should’ve known it was gonna be tough. We can’t give up now, though.”

“I’m with Alexis,” Da Mutt said, “We can’t…,” he raised a single finger as he perked up, “I think I hear a helicopter.”

“Like a news helicopter or… like military?” Kaley asked cautiously.

“How the hell do I know the difference?,” Da Mutt snapped.

“I think we need to get off this roof,” Kyle pointed into the distance toward a helicopter that was on its way to their location. Kaley opened a portal across the way to the next rooftop and the team leapt over to the other side in a second, then raced across the second roof as the sound of the helicopter grew closer. Kaley opened another portal to a higher roof. In a second, they reappeared on top of that building and raced across, only to find that there was nowhere else to run. Past that building were a few scattered houses and a dirt road leading out of town. Kaley quickly opened a portal to the ground and they emerged on the grass below but before they could find another escape route, another beam shot down from the sky, striking the ground near them. Dirt and debris flew into the air and they were all knocked down from the shockwave. The helicopter was now hovering above them, the side hatch open to reveal a gunman with an energy rifle. Down the dirt road, they noticed a convoy of large trucks, a few cars and men on motorcycles heading their way, likely reinforcements. “Guys, what do we do?” Dante asked in a panic.

Da Mutt could see the man in the helicopter clearly with his enhanced vision and noticed he seemed to be shouting something at the pilot, then he shut the hatch and the helicopter turned away. “Yo, they’re leaving,” he told them, “What’s going on?” In the distance, they noticed the convoy had stopped; the motorcyclists turned around easily enough while the cars and trucks were in the process of doing a U-turn on a straight road. At once, the cartel was fleeing the scene for unknown reasons. Then the wind kicked up. As the sun set, they could see the silhouette of a bird-shaped ship with glints of light bouncing off a silvery surface. The ship landed in the open field near them and as they approached, they could clearly see the aircraft with Kyle recognizing it by name.

“That’s the Cloudburst. It’s the IMD ship,” he said excitedly, “The Badges showed up.”

“So they’re here to take out the cartels?,” Kaley wondered aloud.

“I don’t think so,” Alexis said cautiously.

“What do you mean?”

They turned to Kaley with wide eyes, “… I think we’re getting arrested.”