The Importance Of An Alter-Ego (1)

Although they were otherwise very good parents, Mrs Sparkle and The Gentleman of Justice never taught Claire the necessity, for a superhero of her caliber, of an alter-ego. Both Mrs Sparkle, who was a minor superhero (but huge in Germany) whose powers consisted of making evil people (or bathrooms) extremely clean, and The Gentleman of Justice, who, as his name suggests, was a very just and polite superhero who only fought fair fights and never let a bad guy get away, came from normal, non-super families and had never expected to have a superhero daughter. The Gentleman of Justice, who was an enormous star and away from home more times than not, left it to his wife to raise their daughter.
There are a lot of good things to be said about Mrs Sparkle: she loved her child dearly, instilled in her a sense of immaculate cleanliness, and made sure she went to school and bed on time. Claire went to the best schools possible (which were very good schools indeed as her father was basically superhero royalty), but when she discovered her superpowers, of which there were many, no one guided her through the usually long and difficult path to superhero-dom.
And this was how, when she was 19 and ready to go to university, Claire stumbled into her superhero life without knowing the first thing about protecting herself.
While walking to a lecture on a sunny Wednesday morning, Claire noticed a smell. The smell was neither pleasant nor foul, but to Claire it signified something very important. It was the same smell she had smelled every time her father went away for business, and every time her mother decided it was time for a spring cleaning (which was about once a month). It was her superhero danger radar, which at that point was so connected with her family Claire expected her mother to jump out of the bushes with a vacuum cleaner. This didn't happen, but when she went around a corner she saw what had triggered her radar: in the middle of the road stood The Prison Guard, one of the strongest and most evil nemeses of Claire's hometown and The Gentleman of Justice. Stuck in an eternal battle, neither one had ever been able to completely defeat the other, but right now, The Prison Guard had Claire's father in a death grip.
Before Claire knew what she was doing, she screamed out for her father and flew to face the metal-clad master of electrocution. 'Hmmm,' he said, 'So this is the daughter my enemy has been so careful to protect... Let's see how she measures up to her father.' The Gentleman of Justice, before he could even warn Claire or fly her to a safe space, was flung to one side and became unconscious as his head hit a tree.
What followed was a battle of the extremes: Claire, being unused to her powers and used to the fair fights she had seen her father have on the 8 o'clock news, had to use all her resources and strength to stay alive, let alone fight back. Her father, when he regained consciousness, tried to help her, but he soon recognised the immense strength his daughter had and realised his interference would make the fight extremely unbalanced, preventing him from being able to help. So he stood watching, hoping for his daughter to realise her strength in time for her to walk away unscathed.
But something he had never expected happened next...
(To Be Continued)