1.17 Homecoming Part 7

Allison looks around the massive dining room as they appear in the middle of it. With the appearance of herself and Abigail, Joan and her mother, Noelle, break off the conversation they were having.

Joan is looking good. Still not pretty like she wants, but healthy and vibrant. And with the amount of parahumans in her family, it is only a matter of time before she manifests. I don’t need to Legacy or Ceta to tell me that. The real question isn’t whether Joan will manifest, but whether she or her sister Breanne will do it first.

“Allison!” says Joan as she rushes forward to hug Allison.

“Hey Joan,” replies Allison as she hugs her best friend back.

After a moment, Allison looks past Joan and at her mother instead as she watches them.

“Um, thank you for letting me stay here,” says Allison nervously.

“Oh, don’t worry about honey,” replies Noelle, “It’s no bother. We got enough rooms to fit six kids and we only got two of them at the moment.”

“Well, thanks again,” says Allison sheepishly, not really sure on what to say.

“Let’s go to my room,” says Joan excitingly as she grabs Allison’s wheelchair.

Allison feels a bit guilty as Joan pushes her wheelchair. It isn’t exactly like she needs to push around like this and Allison hates the idea of making Joan to do extra work just to keep up Allison’s secret identity.

“Hey Al,” says Joan.

“Yeah,” Allison says back.

“I accidentally spilled Leo’s secret identity earlier,” admits Joan, causing Allison no small amount of shock.

W-what?! You got to be freaking kidding me!

“So now the DSA, my family and his family all know about Gears and Jaylyn,” continues Joan before sighing, “And I got Mum on my back about that last one.”

“I wonder why,” mutters Allison sarcastically as they reach the stairs, “So how are we going to get up these?”

“Umm, I didn’t think that far ahead,” admits Joan, “Give a moment. Hey Abby! I need help getting Allison upstairs.”

“Of course you do,” says Abigail Fowler as she teleports next to them, “I’ll take the two of you to your room sis.”

“Thanks Abby,” replies Joan as Abigail touches her and teleports all three of them to the middle of Joan’s room, “I’ll be seeing you around Allison.”

And with that, Abigail teleports away again as Allison looks around Joan’s room. The room is large, as expected within mansion, with the basic essentials such as her big, fluffy bed, a chest of drawers, a wardrobe, a desk and other stuff like that. Basically the same as every other time that Allison has been here.

But what catches Allison’s eye is all of the posters and pictures on the wall. There is one for each of the Guardsmen field members and Allison smiles as she looks at Defender’s. But there are also a few pictures of Joan’s sister Alexis posing as Iris along with an official poster of Iris. Those are new.

Furthermore, there is a picture of Abigail Fowler, looking divine and commanding, next to a couple of posters for movies that her oldest siblings as the main actors, one for Irwin on the right and one for Breanne on the left.

Lastly, there are three posters of Marcelle Fowler, one from before her manifestation, one from afterwards and the third with both Marcelle and her new girlfriend and singing partner Diana Hunter 
singing back to back.

“Huh, you have a lot of posters,” says Allison as Joan plops herself down on her bed.

“What can I say?” replies Joan with a grin, “I’m proud of my family and their achievements.”

“I wish I could say the same about my own,” mutters Allison sourly before deciding to avoid that particular topic, “So, where did you get those pictures of Alex from? I don’t recognise them from anywhere.”

“Oh, I got those from back when I was in hospital still,” answers Joan with a wave of her hand, “Man, that feels like a long time ago. Anyway, Alex let me take those an apology for not telling me when she got her powers and for abandoning me. It was back around when Darkness attacked me.”

“So how are you getting on with them now?” inquires Allison.

“Great,” replies Joan as she gets back on her feet, “My parents, Mum in particular, are doing their best to make up for not being there for me. To be honest, I don’t really give a damn about how they treated me back then as I personally consider it water under the bridge right now. Anyway, Abby also has one of her bodies around as you saw while Alex will hang out when we’re both free. Marcy will often pop in for visits with Diana and we get to hang out then. A lot of people forget that those two are still only eighteen. Bree and I video chat every now again or meet up in Eldrim. Irvin and I don’t really care for each other. The guy is too focused on his career and I’m not that important to it. Not that he is a jerk or anything, but Irvin and I just don’t connect with each other you know?”

“Yeah,” mutters Allison, thinking back to how she gets on with her step-brother Nathan, “You don’t mind me staying here?”

“Better than letting you stay on the streets or being forced to give up your secret identity,” replies Joan with a shrug of her shoulders, “You’re my best friend. I’m not just going to abandon you. Plus Mum takes being a good mother really seriously now and your mum is a really bad one.”

“May I ask something?” asks Allison.

“Shoot,” replies Joan as she pulls out a DVD, “Want to watch this?”

“One of your sister’s films? Maybe later,” replies Allison before asking her question, “So what about my secret identity?”

“Oh, Mum, Dad and Abby know that,” answers Joan, “We’ll probably end up bring Alex and Leo’s parents into the know about that soon.”

“Great,” says Allison as she gets to her feet, “It’s going to be cool not to hide who I am from the people I’m living-”

“Joan!” says Abby as teleports into the room, catching Allison off guard as she adopts a defensive stance, “Breanna has manifested.”