MidReal Story
Legacy of Heroes: Family Unleashed
Scenario: Family guy
Create my version of this story
Peter Griffin
accidental hero, married to Lois, father of three, average build, humorous and naive.
Lois Griffin
supportive wife and mother, married to Peter, mother of three, slender with red hair, intelligent and patient.
Meg Griffin
overlooked daughter with hidden powers, sibling to Chris and Stewie, tall and awkward appearance, resilient and sarcastic.
It was a typical Saturday morning in Quahog, Rhode Island, and I was out with the family at a yard sale.
Lois was looking at some old records, Meg was trying on a pair of sunglasses, and Chris was playing with an old toy truck he’d found.
I was just standing there, bored out of my mind.
I hate yard sales.
It’s like going to the dump, but you have to pay for stuff.
I was about to suggest we go home when I saw it: an ancient amulet hanging from a chain.
It looked like something out of an Indiana Jones movie, and it was only five bucks.
I had to have it.
I bought the amulet and put it on around my neck.
The second I did, I felt a surge of power go through me.
It was like I’d been plugged into an electrical socket or something.
I staggered back a few steps and almost fell over, but then I caught myself and stood up straight again.
“Peter, are you okay?”
Lois asked me.
“Yeah,” I said, still feeling a little woozy from whatever had just happened to me.“Yeah, I’m fine.”
It’s hard to describe, but it felt like my whole body was buzzing with energy.
I’d never felt anything like it before.
“Honey, what are you doing?”
Lois asked me.
“Peter, we should go,” she said.
“Yeah, okay,” I said, still staring at my hands.
I felt like I could do anything, like nothing could stop me.
“Did you really have to buy more junk?”
Lois asked me as we walked back to the car.
“I mean, where are we going to put it all?”
I ignored her and kept walking.
I was still trying to process what had just happened to me.
I felt like a god or something.
When we got to the car, I reached out and tried to open the door for Lois like a gentleman, but when I grabbed the handle, I accidentally crushed it in my hand like a beer can.
“Peter!”
Lois cried out in horror.
“What have you done?”
I looked down at my hand and saw that I’d left deep dents in the metal of the door.
“Oh my God,” I said, my eyes widening in shock.
“Oh my God!”
“Peter, calm down,” Lois said, putting her hands on my shoulders and looking into my eyes.
“It’s just a car.We can get another one.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I said, nodding my head frantically.
“Another car.Right.”
Lois gave me a funny look and shook her head.
“Come on,” she said, opening the back door for me.“Let’s get you home.”
I climbed into the back seat of the station wagon and waited for Lois to get in and start the car.
It took all of my self-control not to reach out and crush the steering wheel with my bare hands.
If I could do that to a car door, what else was I capable of?
How strong was I?
Could I lift a car over my head?
Could I catch a bullet with my teeth?
Could I fly?
I didn’t want to tell Lois about crushing the car door for fear of alarming her, so I decided to keep that part to myself.
The drive back was a blur of white lines and racing thoughts.
If I really did have super powers now, then there were so many things I could do: super speed, super strength, super intelligence (well maybe not), maybe even flight!
Although I had no idea how that would work, since the nearest airport was probably forty minutes away.
But still, the idea of being able to fly thrilled me.
And terrified me at the same time.
I mean, let’s face it: if there’s one thing I’m not known for, it’s gracefulness.
What if I tripped and fell off a building?
Or got hit by lightning?
Or flew into a helicopter blade?
Would Lois and the kids be safe without me?
Would they be okay if they knew their dad was a superhero?
Would they be okay if they knew their dad was a superhero who didn’t know what he was doing?
“Peter, we’re home,” Lois said as she pulled into the driveway.
“Oh yeah,” I said, snapping out of my thoughts.“We’re home.”
I climbed out of the car and followed Lois into the house.
I was desperate to tell her what had happened to me so that she could help me figure out what to do next, but part of me was afraid that she would laugh at me.
Or worse: that she would think I was an idiot for wanting to be something more than what I was.
I mean, let’s face it: working in the brewery is not exactly the most prestigious job in the world.
But what if this was my chance to change all of that?
What if this was my chance to be more than just Peter Griffin?
What if this was my chance to be…
“Peter, are you okay?”
Lois asked me again.
“Yeah,” I said, nodding my head frantically and trying to keep the smile off my face.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.”
“I mean,” Lois said slowly, “you’ve been acting really strange ever since you put on that amulet at the yard sale.”
“What do you mean?”
“You know,” Lois said.“Like you were in some kind of trance or something.”
“No,” I said, shaking my head and trying to keep from sweating bullets.
“Of course not!It’s just…you know…hot outside.”
Lois gave me a funny look and shook her head again as if to clear it of cobwebs.
“Okay,” she said slowly.“If you say so.”
“What is it?”
Lois asked me as we walked into the living room and sat down on the couch together.
“What’s wrong?”
“Lois,” I said after a long pause, “I have a confession to make.”
She raised an eyebrow and looked at me curiously.
“I want to be a superhero.”
Lois smiled at me and shook her head in disbelief.
“Peter,” she said gently, “you don’t have to make up stories to impress me.”
“I’m not making up stories!”
I protested.“It’s true!I really am a superhero!”
“I bought it at the yard sale!”
“Yes,” Lois said with a nod of her head.
“When we got home and you took it off, there were all of these weird symbols on the inside of the amulet.I was able to figure out what they meant because my brain is like supercharged or something right now.”
Lois looked at me blankly for a moment before it finally clicked in her brain.
“The symbols were from the planet Krypton?”
she asked me with wide eyes.
I nodded my head emphatically and smiled at her as if to say: see?
“I’m not just any superhero,” I said proudly as my chest puffed up with pride once again.
“I’m…the superest of all superheroes!”
“Oh my god!”
Lois gasped as she put her hand over her mouth in shock.
“I can’t believe it!”
And then she paused for a moment before adding: “But…what are you going to do?”
“How am I supposed to know?”
I asked her.
“I mean, what if I’m not good at it?What if it’s too dangerous?What if…”
“Peter,” Lois interrupted me gently as she put her hand on my knee and gave it a reassuring squeeze.
“Everything is going to be fine.
This is your chance to be the hero that I always knew you could be.
This is your chance to make me proud and to make yourself proud, too.
This is your time, Peter.
Don’t you want to find out what you’re really capable of?”
I paused for a moment and thought about what Lois had just said.
She was right, after all.
This was my chance to finally prove myself and become the man I always knew I could be.
But then I thought about my life right now and all of the things that I had to lose if I failed.
Could I really risk everything that I loved and cared about in order to chase after some silly dream that might never come true?
Lois could see that I was conflicted, so she simply smiled at me and let me think it over.
She was giving me all of the time that I needed to make up my mind, and I was grateful that she was being so patient with me.
And then it happened: just as Lois and I were sitting there together on the couch in silence, trying to figure out what to do next, my cell phone started ringing.
I stared at it in shock for a moment before finally mustering up the courage to answer it and put it to my ear.
“Hello?”
I said nervously.
“To whom am I speaking?”
a strange voice asked me on the other line.
“My name is Peter Griffin,” I answered.
“What can I do for you?”
“Do not play games with me,” the man on the other end of the line said with an angry scowl on his face.
“Do you deny what your own eyes have seen?”
“Do you deny what your own hands have done?”
“I…I don’t know how…”
“You are Peter Griffin,” the man said in a calmer voice now, as if he finally realized that he had lost his temper for no reason at all.
