Word Girl and the Growing Envy

By this point, all of the students and teachers had been evacuated from the building. Scoops and Violet, stayed behind along with Word Girl, Capitain Huggy Face, Envy, Kid Math and Tobey.

The robot came to a halt and all of the color had drained from Tobey's face.

"Hey, Tobey are you ok?"Asked Word Girl as she placed a hand on his shoulder. "You look like you've seen a ghost." The teens were to distracted to by robot to notice that the villains had all gotten away.

Just then, the robot lowered someone onto the ground, they hadn't noticed someone was up on it's shoulder until now. It was a man that looked just like Tobey but older. Like Tobey, he also had blonde hair and glasses and there were bags under his eyes and some hints of grey in his hair.

"F-father?" Asked Tobey, not sure whether to cry or be relieved. He had been told by his mother that he had died when he was around 7 or 8 years old. And even if he wasn't dead it's not like he ever tried to get in contact with his son to let him know that he was still alive.

"FATHER?!" Exclaimed his friends in shock and surprise. From what Tobey and his mom had told everyone is that Tobey's father was dead. To see him up and alive like this was a shock to everyone but mostly to Tobey.

"My son, I have come back for you." He said as he walked over to them.

"How can this be?!" Tobey exclaimed as he backed away with tears in his eyes. "Mother told me that you died."

A dark look crossed over his father's features before he sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'm not surprised that Claire told you I died. She didn't want anything to do with me after she told me to leave and never come back. But I'm here for you now son."

"What. Did. You. Do. To make mother hate you enough to leave us?" Asked Tobey through gritted teeth. Violet wanted to comfort him but she quickly noticed how upset she was so she hugged Scoops instead.

"It's kind of a long story...will your friends here be ok to listen to it? Because you might need emotional support right now. Ah Word Girl, Captain Huggy Face and Kid Math. I have heard great things about you. Who is this?" He asked gesturing to Envy.

"I'm Envy, new hero in town." Said Envy nonchalantly. "What exactly did you do to make Tobey's mom hate you so much?"

"I am just getting to that. Son, you might want to sit down for this because this is an emotional roller coaster."

The heroes and the civilians all sat around a table. The heroes did not want to detransform in front of Tobey's dad to not raise suspiscion.

Theodore McCallister the second, stood up and turned his back towards the group. Word Girl was sitting next to Tobey with a box of tissues because he was already crying a bit. She had seen him cry like this before but only when she had rejected him in the past.

"Does mother know you're here? And more importantly how did you find me and why did you choose the school dance out of all places to try and talk to me?" Asked Tobey, once he had calmed down enough to talk clearly.

"No, Claire has no idea that I'm even here." He said before turning back around to look his son in the eyes. He was starting to get teary eyed as well. "To begin this story takes place around the time when you were about 7. We used to build robuts together in that shed in the backyard and I showed you everything you know about building robuts. Honestly Tobey, we're not so different you and I. I also liked to build giant robuts and smash things with them."

"Wait, what?" Asked Tobey as he tried to wrap his head around his father being like him. "When and where did you do this?" He asked. Everyone else at the table was silent, not really knowing whether they should say something or not.

"When I was younger like you, I would also build robuts and smahs building just to get a girl's attention. That girl was your mum. Eventually I did catch her attention but when I did she made me promise to her that I would never use my robuts for evil things like smashing buildings again. Fast forward several years and we both had just graduated college and during graduation I proposed to her and of course she said yes. Not long after we were married, we had you. Around the time you were 7 things began to take a turn. While you were off at the babysitters and Claire spent long hours at work, I got bored and went back to my old ways but I remembered the promise I made to Claire so I took my robuts a few towns over. Unfortunately, that was around the time that Claire had a big business meeting at the same town at around the same time. She quickly recognized the robuts as my work and when she went to confront me about it, I died when I ssaw the look on her face. Her eyes were overflowing with tears and her face was red with anger. She told me to stop what I was doing at once and to go home, grab my stuff and leave before she came back. She had brought you along to the business trip and at the time, I think you were back in her hotel room. Anyway, she told me to never come home after what I had done. I tried to reason with her, I begged for her to let me come back, but she was having none of it. I betrayed her trust and after that, she never trusted me again. I'm just shocked that she never divorced me. The city I destroyed buildings in...had me incarcerated for my crimes for the past few years. It was quite a lot of damage, I barely got out recently for good behavior. I wanted to contact you, I even sent you a letter every year on your birthday, from jail. You never got them?"

"No." Said Tobey. "But why didn't you at least tell me that you weren't dead?" Said Tobey with hatred in his tone of voice. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW PISSED I AM RIGHT NOW?!" He roared with a rage.

Theodore put up his hands in defeat. "You have every right to be mad at me but why aren't you mad at your mum?' He asked, curiously.

"Because she had every right to tell me you died. She trusted you and you betrayed her, you, you lied to her. You told me you would always be there for me, for us. Daddy, you left us." Said Tobey, as he cried onto Word Girl's shoulder.

Theodore McCallister the second sighed in defeat. "Maybe it was a mistake to come here. You're clearly upset with my presence here. I'm going to go now. But...let your mother know that...I still love her...and I love you, my son....it is clear that you have daddy issues, but here's my number...in case you ever want to work it out." He slid over a business card with his name and number on it before he walked back over to the robut and had it pick him up as he walked out of the building. Everyone in the group was silent.

Since their friends already knew who they were beneath the masks, all the heroes quickly changed back into their civilian forms. Scoops and Violet were a bit shocked at first to learn that Jackie was Envy but they quickly got over it.

"Tobey?" Asked Violet as she walked over to him. "Are you going to be alright?" She asked with concern.

"What she said." Said Jackie quickly. "That's heavy. I can't imagine what I would do if I found out my mom was still alive. We're here for you Tobey."

Tobey smiled a bit but it didn't quite reach his eyes.

"Thanks guys, for being such awesome friends." He said, wiping away the tears. "It's just...overwhelming to try and take all of this in." He quickly glanced over to Becky. "Becky, can I talk to you in private for a minute? I need to tell you something."

She nodded and he led her to the opposite side of the gym. "I'm sorry my former friends and father interrupted the school dance and pretty much destroyed the gym." He said gesturing to the rubble that was all around them.

"It's just another day in the life of a superhero." She sighed sadly.

"But know this...if you want to still be with me we can be it's just that...with my father suddenly coming back into my life like this...I have a lot of emotional baggage to deal with and I'm not sure if you will be able to deal with that. I mean, crushing on your alter ego for all these years has made me a bit of an emotional wreck and I just don't want to hurt you with my emotions and.." Before he could continue rambling, Becky cut him off with a quick kiss. She also, wiped the tears from his eyes with her thumb as she held his face in place with her other hand.

"Tobey, I understand a bit what you're going through. I also have emotional baggage with my birth parents. You would think that with all of this modern technology that people not from earth have that they would have found me by now. They have never once tried to contact me and I have never tried to contact them. I might in the future but for now, I want to stay on earth. I love this planet and I love the family and friends I have on here. I love you Tobey and if we both have emotional baggage then we can work it out together because that's what being in a relationship means. It means that we're going to stand by each other even when it looks hard. I will stand by you until the day I die, but only if you're willing to stand by my side. We can work out our feelings and maybe it will make us close.." This time, Tobey was the one to cut her off with a kiss.

"Oh Becky, I will stand by you until the end of time. I will be there for you. I love you and I will also help you work out your feelings towards your birth parents." He hugged her tightly and she hugged him back. "Come on, we should go to our respective sleepovers. Scoops and Violet's parents are sure going to worry when they notice that everyone else has evacuated the dance floor and we're still here."

They walked back over to the group holding hands.

"Sorry about that, everyone. Sorry you had to see that." Said Tobey bashfully as he looked at the ground.

"It's ok, but...not trying to rush anything but can we get going?" Asked Scoops. "My parents are already blowing up my phone asking where we are and why we haven't gotten to my house for the sleepover yet."

"Same here." Said Violet, texting back her mom to let her know that she was ok.

Before they left for their respective sleepovers, all the couples had a quick dance together. Becky got to slow dance with Tobey, Violet danced with Scoops and Jackie slow danced with Rex. With Huggy's help they took a few group photos and then they went off to their own slumber parties.

TO BE CONTINUED.