THE THUNDER BOYS BEGIN

80%, he was closing on John, but not quite there yet. Mark wasn't sure why it was so important to him to equal his boy-friend's 84% of the width of his face nasal apparatus, what John called the absolute minimum for what could be called a snout, but it was. The ringing doorbell roused him from his musings. He glanced at the clock. "7:30," he cried. "How did that happen?" "Well," said his younger sister, Hillary. "Half an hour ago it was 7:00 and. . ." "It was a rhetorical question,"snapped Mark, as he quickly finished getting ready and then ran to the door and flung it open. "Anxious to go, Mark?" John teased. "No need to be in quite such a rush." "Sorry," said Mark. "I was distracted and not as ready as I had intended at 7:30, so I rushed the rest and rushed to the door." "The party doesn't even start until 9," John reminded him. "And it won't take us twenty minutes to get there, even if traffic is terrible. I have to say, I'm also not looking forward to my thirtieth birthday party as much as you, the spring chicken, apparently are." "I'm only two years younger than you," Mark reminded him. "So it's not like I won't be there pretty soon myself." "True," John agreed. "But since we're all here and apparently ready, and we don't need to leave for at least an hour, shall we have a drink?" "You and Hillary can," Mark replied, then rattled the car keys and John nodded. * * * An hour later, Mark sat in the driver's seat, his boy-friend beside him and Hillary and her boy-friend Sam in the back seat, making out. "There will be private rooms at the hotel," Mark called teasingly over his shoulder. "As long as you're there for the singing and the cake, the evening is everyone's to do as they wish. No need to make love in my back seat." 'We're not making love, just making ou. . ." Hillary started defensively, until she saw that her elder brother was laughing. "OK," she said grumpily. "You got me that time, Mark." For the rest of the ride, no one spoke, and nothing else of note happened. * * * "Great party you put together for John, Mark," said David as he took a break from dancing with Pauline to grab a drink. "How did you get a conservative joint like this to agree to host one half of a gay couple's birthday party put on by the other half?" "Well," said Mark sheepishly. "John and Joan don't sound that different." David nodded, then took his drink to the table where Ralph sat waiting. "Being bisexual must be EXTREMELY complicated," Mark reflected looking at his best friend besides John. "So," said John, surprising him from behind. "What were you so absorbed with just before I got there, Mark?" Mark hesitated a moment, then plunged ahead. "The fact that I've still only reached eighty percent while your. . ." "THat again," said John. "I don't know why you get so worked up about that. I love you for who you are, not how you look. Not that there is anything wrong with the latter either, in my eyes." Mark started to answer, when they heard the siren. "Morality police," shouted their friend Angela from the window. "Lights out, duck, and run." The first two were easy, but running while ducked was not, particularly in the raging thunder storm that greeted them when they reached the back door. Suddenly, Mark stumbled and fell. John started to help him up, when there was a click followed by a very nasty voice. "Got you," he got out his radio. "I've caught the primary offenders, sir. What should I do?" "There was a moment of silence, and then a voice crackled over the communication device. "Shoot them. We don't want their filth clogging the jails or the courts, so make it quick." Knowing there was no escape, John and Mark held each other as close as possible, wanting to at least be together at the end. Suddenly, though, as the vigolanty of what he called morality and justice pointed his gun at them and cocked it, a huge bolt of lightning struck right where they were, engulfing them both, and the thunder clap that followed was deafening. But when it was over, Mark discovered, to his astonishment, which he saw reflected in John's eyes, that they were both totally unharmed. The man's eyes went wide, then narrowed. "Well, if nature can not do it, I still can." He pulled the trigger and Mark felt John stiffen in the same dreadful anticipation that he felt. Six inches from their bodies, however, the bullet flicked and vanished. "what the hell," cried the man, and shot again, but again the bullet descentigrated six inches from their bodies. The same thing happened with his four remaining bullets. He started to reload. "Why don't you take that as a hint and leave us alone," said Mark, waving a hand as if to shoo the man away like a pesky fly. As he waved his hand in this manner, however, he felt a jolt in it immediately followed by a clap of thunder that had nothing to do with the sky, and instantly the man's gun vanished. Looking shocked, the man produced a knife and threw it, but a flick of John's hand brought forth another thunder bolt that discentigrated it as well. "What the hell are you?" the man cried. "Freaks from the netherworld?" "No," said Mark, beginning to understand and instantly deciding on a name. "We are the first of the Thunder Boys. No weapon can touch us unless we allow it, and. . ." he raised a hand with a clenched fist, then opened it and suddenly there were two separate and equally violent thunder storms raging in the same place. "You can see how we can effect the whether." The man gulped, then ran. "Do you think this is only for us, or could any gay couple use this to defend themselves from people like him?" asked John. Mark thought about it a bit. "My sense is that this could not have happened to me when my nose was any smaller than it now is because it could not have held the lightning, so to speak. I guess that's why I was so obsessed with that. I also feel that its only for males, why else would I have come up with the name 'Thunder Boys', and only strictly gay couples. It is 'boys' after all, not 'boy' and also boys not boys and girls. With 'boys' it also feels like there must be an age cap." "Ys," said John. "Both ways, I sense. I feel you're almost too young and I'm not that far from too old." "It must be no younger than twenty-five and no older than thirty-five." "So, shall we try and get some of our friends to find this path to freedom of sorts?" asked John. Mark raised a quizzical eyebrow. "You mean encourage them to get struck by lightning?" "Fair point," John admitted. "But at least the two of us can do some good for our cause with these new powers, now that we have become the first Thunder Boys." "Agreed, said Mark, and he raised both fists into the air. John placed his fists against Mark's and together they shouted: "LET IT BE KNOWN, THIS IS THE DAY THAT THE THUNDER BOYS BEGIN!"