Ken awoke to find himself back in his bed in the mansion, his wounds having been bound, and a bandage wound round his ribs. At the foot of his bed sitting in a chair sat a sleeping 17 year old girl dressed in a recognizable colorfully patterned orange and yellow tactical suit, domino mask, and boots. What bits of skin were open to the air highlighted her ebony complexion. He recognized his fellow teammate immediately. She was Anansewa the Spellweaver. Anansewa was one of Ken's teammates from the Adolescent Avengers--which was made up of a group of high profile teenage vigilante sidekicks. During the summer months the last four years, they had been sent off to a small city to learn how to fight and correct minor crimes--in some ways it was a summer boot camp for teenage vigilantes, and in others it had allowed them to find friends who could relate to the issues and problems they each were dealing with. When he had learned that he and his juniorfied mentor would be going up against the Sorcerer Scientist, he knew of two teammates who could be of help and had reached out to ask for their assistance.
Anansewa took her name from the West African folklore of Anansi the spider, who in some tales had a daughter named Anansewa, and in other tales he had six sons, one of whom was named Spellcaster. Anansewa had had magical abilities and played into her long distant heritage through casting spells by weaving ropes into the correct runes and figures needed to cast the spell. She also had some spider web silk she had developed to shoot out of hidden ducts in her tactical suit that allowed her to better escape and create sigils up and away from people who might try and destroy her spells before they were complete. She was quickly becoming an expert in magical studies from her time spent training with Wonder Witch.
Hearing Ken try to move to better get a view of the room had apparently disturbed a web that had been attached to his arm and now knocked off a small pile of books that landed with a thud, awakening the sleeping Anansewa.
"So Sleeping Karateka finally awakens," said Anansewa.
Ken was ecstatic to see Anansewa, but he was now starting to wonder a few things.
"How did I get back here? Where's the... kids?" he asked.
"Relax Khaki... relax... they're fine. Your housekeeper has them being looked after in another room, and Cyberteen is helping her. I volunteered to make sure you woke up and stayed awake until we could make sure you don't have a concussion--though I do have to say, Khaki, you do look cute without the mask on."
Ken couldn't help but feel a little flush and warm at the compliment, but he tried desperately not to show it. One thing the Adolescent Avengers hadn't done was expose their real identities to one another. All those summers they had spent together they had all agreed not to get too personal, just in case one of them were captured, killed, or kidnapped. That had meant never revealing their true faces to one another... until now it seemed.
Deciding to mask his appreciation at her taking notice of him, Ken decided to play his reaction off as a joke. Jokes were easier to deflect things.
"Cute? Gimme a moment and I'll fix that," said Ken with a forced smirk.
Anansewa sat on the edge of the bed, she leaned over and brought her hand to the side of his face. Ken did his best to act calm, cool, collected as she leaned in closer. His heart was racing, sure he’d fostered a little crush on her, but they were teammates, and a relationship between them would be completely unprofessional. As Ken was about to open his mouth for a kiss he found webbing squirted from under her wrist, covering his mouth. Inwardly Ken cringed a bit as he felt some of the webbing had gotten into his mouth.
“There, I fixed it for you, learn to take a compliment, Karate Kid,” teased Anansewa, as she pulled back with a playful smirk of her own, as Ken started to cough and peel off the webbing she’d put onto his mouth. Luckily it wasn’t held together with super glue.
“You sure know how to treat a guy,” said Ken.
“Relax Khaki, relax. Remember, it’s my job to make sure you stay awake until we determine you don’t have a concussion. What better way than to get the blood pumping a bit.”
“In that, you succeeded,” admitted Ken.
“Oh I know, that is evident enough given the covers.”
It took Ken a moment to realize that she was referring to the tented covers down by his groin that Ken immediately hid with a pillow as Anansewa laughed.
“How are the kids?” asked Ken, hopeful to get the subject off of himself.
“You mean your two new sidekicks? They’ll live, but they suffered from some nasty blows to the head. Big old lumps there, at least when we first got them.”
“Have they woken up yet?” asked Ken, feeling awful at hearing that.
“That’s a question for Cyberteen or your Housekeeper—who by the way makes excellent macaroons.”
Ken couldn’t stay in bed a moment longer. He forced himself, even though he felt sore and stiff from the pain to get up.
“Hold on now, Khaki, don’t go moving too fast.”
But Ken was done flirting and talking with Anansewa. He had to make sure that Ethan and Jack were all right. He had cleared them for combat after all. The fact they were unconscious was HIS fault. As Ken rounded the bed, he felt the pain start to overwhelm him, but Anansewa put his arm about her shoulders and helped support him.
“If you’re gonna be stupid, I better be there to catch ya.”
“Thanks…” groaned Ken as together they left his room.
Luckily the double room that Amelie had set up earlier and converted into nursing room for the boys wasn’t too far from Ken’s own room in the West Wing.
Inside the room both Ethan and Jack were laid out on their beds, with bandages tied about their foreheads. They were asleep and mostly being looked after by Amelie, while Cyberteen assisted her. Cyberteen was dressed from neck to toe in a green tactical suit that matched his tactical gloves and boots. He had blue tinted domino goggles over his eyes, above which his medium-length mane of red hair was slicked back as though he had just come from running. Cyberteen’s powers had to do with technology. His suit was capable of hacking into any computerized tech in existence, harnessing the power of said systems and allowing him to either destroy it from within, or zap it of its electricity and harness that electricity into lightning that he threw like a javelin. Whenever his suit was charged with electricity Cyberteen grew supercharged and his speed and skills were increased and enhanced tenfold—allowing him to outrun a speeding train. But electrical power only lasted for so long, and when he had finished often a drained and exhausted Cyberteen was staggering off the combat field. As a last resort, Ken had hoped to have Cyberteen tap into whatever cybernetics the Sorcerer Scientist had in order to drain her so they could defeat her.
“Well, lookie who’s out of bed and chipper this morning,” quipped Cyberteen with a smirk.
“Not in the mood, CT, not in the mood,” begged off Ken.
Amelie continued her care of the two boys and spoke to Ken without turning around, saying “You should be resting your room.”
“Have they woken up yet?” asked Ken.
“No, but they have been murmuring in their sleep—which is a good sign. Which is better than you dragging yourself out of bed to see them. And why did you help him?” said Amelie.
“Khaki’s always been a bit stubborn once his mind’s decided on something, and I wasn’t going to have him fall in the hallway,” answered Anansewa.
Ken, with Anansewa’s assistance sat on Ethan’s bedside. His domino had been taken off, allowing Ken to see just how young his mentor had become. Asleep he looked even younger than the confused twelve-year-old boy he was. And he had almost gotten him killed by clearing him for action.
“I’ll go back to bed, just… let me know when they wake up,” said Ken.
Amelie nodded and Ken had just gotten back to the doorway with Anansewa’s help when he heard a gasp from behind him. They turned in time to see Ethan sitting up and looking confused.
“Where am I?” asked Ethan groggily.
“You’re at the Keller Estate, in the old West Wing” answered Amelie.
“Oh… and who are you?” asked Ethan without any guile.