COVID-19 has been an unprecedented disruptor, affecting the lives of people around the world. For private practice owners, the epidemic has affected almost every aspect of running a business.

Technology to support healthcare professionals during COVID has helped reduce administrative loads and, in many cases, has allowed clinical staff to continue to help their clients even during times of lockdown.

With that in mind, here’s a rundown of the top 10 Power Diary features that make practice management easier during COVID:

1. Manage Appointments

COVID has meant that practice owners have to be more flexible to accommodate clients that have to cancel or reschedule due to illness or quarantine.

How it helps

With a few clicks, you can access and update an appointment, note the reason for the change, and automatically update the clinician’s calendar.

Learn more

Learn more about creating, editing and deleting an appointment.

2. Store and Process Credit Cards Online

Because Power Diary’s clinic management software integrates with Stripe, you can securely store and process client credit cards. This significantly reduces the time it takes to process payments, and helps prevent multiple clients waiting in confined reception spaces. If your practice also uses the Client Portal, you can set this up so that clients are required to pay at the time of booking.

How it helps

For Telehealth appointments in particular, this feature makes billing straightforward and quick, even if neither you nor the client is in the office.

Learn more

Setting up a Stripe account and integrating it with your practice management software only takes a few minutes.

Learn more about integrating Stripe with your Power Diary account. There are instructions on how to do this here.

3. Use the Client Portal to allow Clients to Book and Pay for Appointments

All Power Diary accounts include a free Client Portal. Based on your preferences, the Client Portal can enable clients to book, view, pay for or cancel appointments 24/7. This significantly reduces the administrative resources required to manage your practice.

How it helps

Booking and paying for appointments online reduces pressure on administrative staff, especially if they’re working from home or if appointments are conducted over Telehealth.

Learn more

There’s more information on how to set up and use your Client Portal here.

Learn how to enable “Require Payment” in the Client Portal.

4. Set Up Multiple Locations

You can add multiple locations to your Power Diary clinic management system for free. There’s no limit to the number of locations you can add, and you can change the default location for an individual calendar using the roster.

How it helps

Power Diary makes it simple to change the location of an appointment if, for example, a location closes temporarily or a particular practitioner in a given location is unavailable.

Learn more

Find out how to set up and use multiple locations for your practice.

5. Cancellation Reasons

This Power Diary functionality allows you to record appointment Cancellation Reasons to improve the business analytics and report on them. This way, you’ll know exactly why appointments are cancelled and can identify trends.

How it helps

Cancellation reasons can be configured to include COVID diagnosis and/or quarantine.

Learn more

Get started using the cancellation reasons feature.

6. Set Up and Edit Rosters

Roster functionality is used to determine what times in each calendar are shown as available (white or custom) or unavailable (greyed out). This helps users identify availability in the calendar quickly. Your roster is also used to determine where and when you and your team are available for appointments that clients can book on your Client Portal.

How it helps

If you have team members who are off sick, in quarantine or self-isolating, you need to change rostering. Blocking calendars in Power Diary is quick and easy, and allows you to see which clients need to be contacted to change appointments.

Learn more

For more on how to set up and edit standard weekly rosters, use the roster override feature, and set up rosters for multiple locations, this article can help guide you.

7. Manage Vaccination Status

As a clinician, you may need to know if clients are fully vaccinated and how best to record this in Power Diary.

How it helps

Your practice may have local and regional public health regulations that need to be fulfilled regarding COVID vaccination status, which is why Power Diary features include three different ways to record this information.

Learn more

The three important functionalities for managing vaccination status are:

Client Classifications, classify clients as fully vaccinated and otherwise by first creating the Classifications you’d like to use in your clinic.

COVID-19 Screening form, gather information from clients and document that they’ve been screened and are safe to arrive for face-to-face appointments.

Appointment alerts, when creating an appointment, a red alert can appear in the top-right of Power Diary that will let you know the vaccination status of the client.

Learn more about the features here.

8. COVID Screening and Telehealth Consent Form Templates

Power Diary has a number of online form templates that allow you to get information directly from your clients and eliminate paperwork.

How it helps

If you’re using Telehealth video calls to see clients, you can collect all the information you need before the session using a consent form template that can be imported and saved in your account, and then sent to clients as and when it’s required.

Learn more

To import an Online Form template, navigate to Tools > Form Designer, and Import from Library.

9. Tailored Communication with Clients

Power Diary features a suite of tools to streamline communications between your practice and your clients.

How it helpsSMS and Email Reminders

You can update your SMS and email reminder templates to include any additional information relating to COVID by navigating to Setup > Configuration > Reminders, then click on the pencil icon next to the template you’d like to edit.

Additional SMS and Email Reminders

Configure your account to enable multiple SMS or email appointment reminders to be sent to provide clients with additional COVID related information ahead of an appointment. You can create new reminder templates by going to Tools > Communication > Templates. And you can quickly configure the timing of your Reminders on an account-wide level by going to Setup > Configuration > Reminders.

Sending Bulk SMS or Email Messages

You can send bulk SMS and email messages to clients to advise of changes to your practice operations, communicate COVID precautions or convey any other important information.

Learn more

Find out how to:

Send emails or SMS to clients;

Forward SMS replies from clients;

Generate a letter;

Manage clients’ replies.

10. Telehealth Video

This is the big one, which is why we’re rounding off our top 10 with this critical Power Diary feature. Telehealth functionality is baked into Power Diary; it’s free, secure, encrypted, peer-to-peer and compliant with health privacy regulations.

How it helps

Lockdown regulations, self-isolation and other factors may make it impossible to see clients face-to-face, but with Telehealth, you can continue to schedule appointments with clients, even if it’s not in-person.

Learn more

There’s an extensive Telehealth section in the Power Diary Knowledge Base that covers everything you need to know, including:

Getting started with Telehealth;

Telehealth security, privacy and compliance;

Telehealth supported devices and browsers;

Enabling your camera and microphone for Telehealth;

Telehealth frequently asked questions;

Flagging Telehealth appointments;

Troubleshooting Telehealth;

Adding new Telehealth services and item numbers;

An example of a Telehealth consent form.

COVID presents a set of unique challenges for healthcare professionals, but that doesn’t mean your practice has to suffer.

Power Diary Entry 181 - Feb. 14th

Valentines day, a day many people hate. A commercialized holiday meant to suck people into putting money back into the system. While I could care less about the holiday, I actually had someone to share it with so my bitterness was at an all time low.

Oddly enough, while Conner is one of the most amazing people I know, he is not creatively romantic. Let me explain, while with the abusive ass hat Raine, I was treated pretty damn good when it come to the special occasions. Even when it was just to see a Broadway show I've seen before.... If Raine knew it was my favorite, he'd make a day of it and get me a little gift or something. (Granted, I'm aware now that he was totally overdoing it because he was cheating on me and felt bad, but damn it I loved being treated)

Conner on the other hand, not so much into all that. I guess because he is often seen as the extra feminine he was used to being treated. He and I both did not make plans for Valentine's day because we thought the other person was doing something special. It was not until about 5pm when I finally text him and asked what he was doing that he and I realized that we were waiting on each other. So, we made a plan.

Because every restaurant in the city was booked, we decided to cook at his dorm. We picked up some goodies from the store and got back to his place around 8:30pm. We had managed to cook a Salmon dinner and I got my cupcakes in the oven when I got a text from Pete (Shield). He said that he was tracking one of the Human trafficking goons and could use my help.

I felt like shit. I had to run out on Conner after wanting all day to be with him, but out of all the PBs Pete was the youngest and if he needed help, I had to go to him. I made a lame excuse to Conner that I was getting sick from the fish and ran out. Pete said he was at this car rental place so using my telekenisis I flew over. Unfortunately, the other power I had for the day was x-ray vision so I was mainly depending on my telekenisis.

I landed across the street from the rental place and loudly whispered for Pete. But there was no way he was going to hear me over the dogs barking across the street. I watched the dogs curiously and noticed something moving on one of the trailers in the lot. Sitting on top of the trailer was Pete, he waved at me exaggerantly. I ran around to the side of the fence and hollered at him. I asked him what the hell was he thinking, and he told me that everyone else was busy so he didn't want to bother anyone. When he got himself stuck, he was too embarrassed to call anyone else.

I looked at the dogs and I cursed myself. I could do nothing to stop them. And I had yet to master flying someone else with my telekenisis. I could hover with Pete, but there was no way I could fly away with him. I couldn't help but chuckle to myself. THIS would have been a perfect time to let Cameron on the team. His stupid humming power could have calmed the dogs and then we would have been home free.

I had to think of something else. I tried to bring the dogs attention over to me, but they were too focused on Pete. I wouldn't blame them, Pete's small frame made him an easy target. I suggested Pete just make a run for it since he was in his Shield outfit, but he said that while the suit was impenetrable, the dogs were still strong and through their teeth couldn't penetrate the suit, they could still over power Pete and drag him off.

I tried moving each dog with my telekenisis to clear a path, but one one dog was pushed to the other side of the lot, another just jumped in it's place. I could only think of one other thing to do. I hollered at Pete to lay low and I ran off. I came back to find Pete crouching low on the truck out of sight, but the dogs still lingered below, aware of his presence. I pulled out a rotisserie chicken I snatched up from the grocery store near by, I I ripped it to pieces and then began throwing it over the fence on the opposite side of where Pete hid. The dogs took the bait, the ran over to the other end of the lot and Pete jumped down from the truck and ran toward me.

He jumped on the the fence and the clinging of the metal wire cause the dog to focus back on his escape. Pete was close enough now that I was able to plant my feet and reach him with my telekenisis. I levitated him up and over the barb-wired topped fence. As he came over the fence he wrapped his arms around my neck in a tight hug.

"So, that way didn't work. I think we might be able to get in on the other side." He said to me as he loosened his grip around my neck.

I told him he was crazy if he thought I was going to let him go back in the lot. But he reminded me why he was there in the first place. The human traffickers had driven into the car rental lot with a truck full of "slaves". Pete refused to leave without freeing them. I had to be the bad guy and be realistic. I told him that we would need the entire team if we were going to head into the lot. We'd only get ourselves hurt.

Power Diary Entry 180 - Feb. 12th

I would have loved to jump into this whole sex / human trafficking debacle, however this weekend end up being a whole lot of friend time. And since I have been focusing my diary entries on my dating life and superhero /super team life. I have neglected to tell you about my friends.

Yeah, that's right, I still hang out with my friends. When I am not with the PBs I'm spending most of my time with Remmie. Yeah, Bip my suitemates girlfriend. Unlike her boyfriend she is much more energetic and a bit crazy and I kind of like that. We like to learn choreography and play video games together. Occasionally Wally joins the mix, but honestly he spends far too much time with his girlfriend. I love the guy, don't get me wrong and he will always be one of my best friends, but it's like all we do is make videos together and then he's gone. I can't complain about pretty much having a room to myself, but I miss the kid too.

So, as you can see with two of my best friends being in pretty serious relationships, I don't feel bad about constantly being out and about doing superhero work or being with Conner. That was until Shay texted me a couple weeks ago. A while back (when I was sleeping in me Ex car) Shay had text me and was acting incredibly weird. Over the past few months she was having dreams about her and I fighting crime together.

"It's like you are Multiman, but in a completely different and super crappy outfit" She told me. "But it's so weird because the dreams don't seem odd. It's like they really are happening. Do you think I'm getting a super power?"

I wasn't sure how to feel about this. Shay's memorizes of our past superhero team up was resurfacing. At this point there was a whole slew of people who knew my secret Identity so I felt bad keeping it from her, but everyone that did know who I was had some sort of power or means to protect themselves. Shay was just your average girl. I told myself that I could keep up the lie since we were miles away and our weekly skype calls were fairly short. However, last week she broke the news to me that she was going to study abroad. Shay was going to take two weeks off of school to spend time with family before heading to Europe. Shay was coming back home.

With everything going on in my life I had completely forgot Shay was going to be back in town. That was until she knocked on my dormitory door to surprise me this weekend. I was halfway dressed in my multiman outfit when she knocked. I quickly kicked it under my bed and greeted her at the door.

We hugged and I invited her in. I had to text the PBs that I wasn't going to make any training sessions the whole weekend and I put my focus on Shay. We went to eat and got caught up on school and boys and politics. When we got back to my dorm Remmie was hanging in the common room with Bip and barged into my room when she heard me come in.

The minute Remmie and Shay saw each other there was animosity. Why? I don't know. Maybe it was a girl thing but Remmie invited herself to hang out with us for the rest of the day and Shay refused to leave when things got uncomfortable. I felt bad because Shay had been gone for so long that Remmie and I had all these inside jokes and Shay just sat there and watched.

I bet your wondering why I'm telling you all this. Well ,there is a reason, just stick with me. While looking up this youtube video I was dying to show the girls. Remmie does her squeal of glee and ask me if I am cosplaying now. Confused, I turn around and she is holding up my Multiman outfit. I snatch it from her, but the damage had been done by that point. Shay stared at me wide eyed as she put it all together.

"You." was all she got out before she slouched over and groaned. When Remmie asked her what was wrong, Shay said her head felt like it had just been hit by a train. I took the opportunity throw my super suit in the closet. Remmie offered to get Shay some Advil, but Shay said she just needed to go home and rest. She waved a quick goodbye to us and ran out of my room.

The way Shay looked at me it was like she remembered our past together. But I wasn't certain and I refused to bring it up. I didn't realize how complicated things were going to get the next day when Conner, and Camron were going to meet Shay.

Sunday Conner wanted to do a friends day so that his high school BFF Camron could meet my high school BFF. I was a little apprehensive since Shay had left my dorm room the night before in such a haste, but everyone seemed to be hitting it off. With so much craziness going on in politics recently, it was easy to find a common ground and spark debate. Camron and Shay had changed the conversation to the upcoming Beauty and the Beast movie when my watch began to buzz.

Camron knew what it was and shot me a worried look. Conner groaned at the noise, he was under the impression that my watch gave me alerts about Multiman sightings. He thought I was a superfan, trying to catch a glimpse of Multiman. It was a great excuse for Conner since it explained why I would leave at a moments notice to see if I could ever meet "the greatest hero on earth." However, the last thing I wanted was Shay even thinking about Multiman, not after last night.

"Hey, Julian," Camron called out to me. "I left my water bottle in the car do you mind coming with me to grab it." It was nice that Camron was trying to give me an excuse to leave, but everyone knew that was a weird request. Why would I go with him to his car to help him get his waterbottle?

"Just use one of the cups here. I don't think it very serious, no ones going to die if you don't have your water bottle." I tried hinting to him that the alert was not anthing the polic couldn't handle.

The day continued with little instances like that where Camron would try and help me cover up any hints that I was Multiman. Even though there was times when he'd slip up and say too much. Like once during a round of Catan, he mentioned that everyone should watch me closely because I'm a cheater when it comes to games. Conner raised an eyebrow at Camron when he said those and asked him how he knew that.

There was a time earlier in the day when we were at the Art museum and Camron dropped his cola and it come pouring across the table and I stopped it from falling on my lap with my telekenisis power. Camron made sure to throw napkins my way first so that I could hide the fact that most of the water was piling up near me. And when we were hanging in Conner's dorm after Catan, my power of the day, elastic body was acting funny and I had not noticed that when I was reaching for my drink I had missed and stretched my arm halfway across the table. Camron had to pretend to fall as he came out of the bathroom and toward us to take the attention from the table to the other side of the room.

I felt so relieved when the day was over and I got to go back to my dorm. Shay drove me back to school. As soon as I got on the highway, Shay turned to me and said, "Are you going to keep lying to me or not?"

My mouth got dry and my heart began to pound in my chest. I had no  idea what she was referring to, but I had a strong feeling it was about my powers.

"Julian I'm not an idiot." Shay said as she began telling me how when she got to Boston she felt like there was something missing, there was something off about her. She ignored it at first because she thought it was because she was starting a new chapter in her life, but then when people asked her how her summer went before college, she could barely remember anything. When people asked her about Multiman and if she'd ever had met him, she'd get these headaches. So, she got curious and did some research on Multiman and everything she found on him from the last summer was all new to her. She hadn't remembered anything even the huge stories about a huge gang shooting on the beach.

She then looked into recent news and sure enough everything began coming together. "So I know you're Multiman. And I know you did something to me."

"I couldn't lose you like I lost Mikyle." I said in a whisper.

"But you could booby trap my brain to self destruct when I think on Multiman?" She shoot an angry side ye at me.

"That wasn't supposed to happen. It was just your memory. You were only supposed to forget."

"Who are you to make these choices for me? Don't I have a right to my own memories? You didn't just take my memories Julain, you gave me these.... these" Shay groaned in pain. "These headaches. Everytime I have them I see you. I get this flashes from the past - these things I don't remember doing." Shay pulled into the parking lot at my school. "Fix me." She demanded. "Give my memories back."

"I..I.. Can't. I don't have that power anymore. I haven't had that power since I last used them. I can't fix it."

Shay took a deep breath and gripped the steering wheel really had. "Get out." She said. "Get the fuck out of my car."

Power Diary Entry 179 - Feb. 10th

I woke up today with a bit of a hangover. I couldn't remember much after my little talk with Camron and how jealous I started becoming once I saw Conner dancing around in his underwear. However, when I woke up with Conner asking, "How are you feeling?" with a bit of amusement I knew I had not ended the night reasonably.

Turns out that before everyone had left, I had taken Conner into his room, closed the door and went to town *wink* *wink*. Apparently, we were not quiet either and a bunch of people at the party kept knocking on the door and hollering things at us. When we finished the party had simmered down to a select few and we just stayed up talking. Well, they stayed up talking. I was feeling hella drunk so I stayed in bed. When Conner finally did come to bed we talked about how I wanted to make things official between us and become boyfriends. He was hesitant and some how got it out of me that I didn't like how he was in his underwear and I felt like I couldn't voice my opinion on it unless we were boyfriends. That conversation turned into him reassuring me that he wanted to only be with me and that he refused to make anything official while I was in that state.

However, being hungover and put on the spot like that, I didn't feel like I was in the right mindset to talk about becoming official. While I knew I really liked Conner, I was not sure if I wanted to jump into another relationship right after that disaster of a relationship I just had with Rayne. I told Conner I was not feeling well and wanted to go back to my dorm.

After pounding back a shit ton of water, I decided to spend that evening with the PBs. I got there before anyone else had arrived which was a first. Oddly, enough Camron was the next to show. Apparently, I had told him last night to come to the beach so I could help train his power. I had to break the news to him that I don't remember much of the night and then, just like Conner, he had a whole story to tell me about what I had done the night before.

So, he and I decided to pound back a few drinks and we apparently bounded. He told me about his childhood and coming out, which since I didn't remember I had him give me the abridge version. Long story short, he was raised in something that resembled a religious cult. Think of something that mixed the strictness of Mormons with the isolation like the Amish. This kid pretty much did a Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and missed out completely on the lat 90s early 2000s. Oh and he was pushing 200 lbs when he was 14. One day he said "no more" and lost the weight, existed the religion and got a place of his own. Yeah, at 16 this guy moved out. He went from couch to couch for a year, but eventually got an apartment. After hearing his story my perspective of him changed. He was probably one of the few people in the world could really understand the struggle and isolation I went through. Though we did different on one thing. He came out of the closet when he decided to lose the weight at 14, so when he said he went from couch to couch, it was not friends couches. These were the couches of men he'd find through dating apps and hook up with them and then sleep over. He refused to tell me his number, which he assured me was not 365 different guys.

So, back to how stupid I was last night. Apparently, I got drunk and thought it'd be funny to use my super power to mess with the beer pong game. At first I was just making the ball miss the cup just slightly and Camron thought that was amusing, especially because Conner was getting really angry. But then, I started going nuts and when a ball made it in the cup I'd have it shoot out or I would make the ball bounce and completely reverse and fall into the throwers own cup.

This is when Camron was being an amazing person and stopped me from going too far. I wanted to flip the cups and send the balls flying around the room like a little white Quidditch snitch, but Camron talked me off that ledge. And when I wouldn't see reason and tried to drunkenly play a joke he'd push me or get in my way so I couldn't use my power.

Power Diary Entry 177 - Feb. 8th

I pulled the super team together today so that we can come up with a plan to stop human trafficking in Cleveland. The weather oddly enough is getting nicer (jk it's def due to global warming), so we have been meeting on the beach rather than back at the rec center. I send everyone out a text and head over. Today along with me telekensis power, I have the power to teleport. So I obviously just pop over to the beach. Well, I appear on the beach and everyone freaks. 

Leo yells at me because he has to keep reminding me that I need to tell them what my new power is so they can prepare themselves, "This is exactly why!"

"Sorry not sorry, but if you're going to be a hero you need to expect the unexpected." I tell him.

"No, you idiot. It's because we have company." Leo points over to Tina who is rubbing the back of a pale faced guy. I couldn't tell if he was terrified or thrilled because all he kept saying was, "Oh my god" over and over. 

"What's going on here?" I ask. 

Tina then explains that the new guy's name is Camron and he had a power and was gonig to join the superhero team. I obviously said no. And then was pissed that they would just let a stranger know about our secret identities. Tina tried to defend herself by saying we needed a replacement for Vicky (who no one had heard from since she ran away.

I stood my ground, however, and told Tina since I was the leader I had final say and that was a big fat NO. Huge mistake on my part. That's when Jasmine stepped in. 

"You may be the top dog when you're Multiman and flying around in the streets, but when it comes to this team, I'm the leader." Jasmine was stern.

I tried to argue and tell her that I'm the one that whipped the team into shape. But she was stubborn and said, "You're like my consultant. In the end, the team doesn't do anything unless I say so. And I'm saying Camron is in."

I groaned very loudly, but at this point the kid had already seen our faces and my powers and the last thing I need to do is turn him away so that he could tell the world about us. I call Camrom over and ask him what his power was. 

"I have perfect control over my vocal cords." He says a little to smug. 

"Well, you got one thing right, Jasmine He is perfect for our team of Misfits." I say to Jasmine before turning back to Camron. "And what can you do with that?"

Camrom begins to hum, but the hum quickly stops. Or at least I couldn't hear it anymore. The next thing I know every dog in the area begins to back. It was cool I admit, but nothing that constitute him becoming a superhero. 

"So you can make dogs bark?" I ask.

"Look, I'm working on strengthening it. I've manage to make my brothers dog calm down or get angry from my hum." Camrom tells me.

"Oh that's actually pretty cool. Now that's something I can work with." I say and then Camrom began mumbling. "What's that?" I ask.

"Except I can't actually control the dog when it's angry." he says.

So this kid can put animals to sleep or piss them off, but can't direct who the animal attacks. He was more of a liability than he was useful. I tell him that we can train him, but for now he can't enter the field with us. Which didn't matter anyway because right then I needed, Pete and his memory. 

I tell the team my plan and I take Pete's hand and teleport us into the Police station. With the help pf Pete, I pull up all the files the Police dept. had on Human trafficking in Cleveland and have him memorizes everything. There was no way for my to print a copy or the files and even if I did take a picture there was no better way of understanding the information better than having Pete look at everything and put the pieces together in his mind. 

Once Pete was done, I teleported us back to the beach and we all let him sit and gather his thoughts. It took a while. Long enough for me to speak with Camron about how his hum works. Turns out he found out about the gift because he was on a choir at church and had won several awards for singing. He didn't realize he could use it as a power until he was cleaning around the house and had been humming and looked at his brother's dog who was staring at him. According to him, it was an unnatural stare. Camron had been playing with the power ever since.

Before I could fall asleep listening to Camron talk about his power story, Pete had found something. Everyone in prison seemed to have taken the fall for someone else, but no one would give up a name. They said they had been working in the dark. But one man said he knew something and was looking to make a deal with the police dept. to get free. Since they obviously could not just let him loose he's been sitting on this information for months. 

I ask Pete where the guy was being held and then I take Leo's hand and Tina's hand and teleport us into his prison cell. Once we landed I had Tina create a sticky goop in her stomach and shoot it at the Cameras facing the cell. I then levitated the prisoners cellmate into the air with my mind.  I tied blankets around him so he couldn't move or speak and then we turned to the prisoner we came for.

He laughed at us. He didn't take us seriously at all. "Powers or not. You're just a bunch of kids." he said. Leo didn't like that and threw a knife that nicked the prisoner's neck and then pinned the prisoner to the wall by the shirt. "What do you want?" he asked finally seeing us as a threat. 

We tell him we want to know what he knows about who is running the human trafficking. He tells us he doesn't know. I then asked Tina to conjure up some acid to drip ontop of the prisoner to get him to talk, but Tina refused. Though I was only partially telling the truth, I needed Tina to go along with it to at least scare the guy, but she said she didn't have the stomach for it. (Pun intended)

So they guy saw my bluff and tried to bargain with us. He said if we teleported him out of there he will tell us every thing he needed.  This went on for a couple minutes, before I began to get real pissed. Then I finally hit my breaking point and told him that if he wasn't going to tell us anything there was no use of him. I grab him by the throat and I teleport us both to the top of the Keytower (skyscaprer for those who don't know Cleveland). I then just let him fall. He screams as he passes the 50the floor and then the 40th, by the time he nears the 30th floor I teleport down to him and catch him. I struggle to carry him and I don't hide it. 

"I can only hold you for so long, so you either tell me what you know or you're going to be splattered all over the ground." I say.

(I guess I should have mentioned before that TIna, Leo and I were in our superhero costumes.)

He yells at me, "What kind of Superhero are you?"

"One who is losing his patience and grip." I say as he slips from my fingers.

"Alright. Alright! You have to see Owl. I don't know if there is one guy that runs it and I sure as hell can't tell you everyone who's participating, but Owl runs the books. He keeps tabs on everyone and reports it to the big guy."

"Where do I find him?" I ask.

"He usually hangs out at Becky's. Now please put me down."

With that I let him go. He yells briefly before he hits his bed. He had his eyes closed most the time and didn't realize I had already brought him back to his room. (I got tired of holding him). 

Power Diary Entry 176 - Feb. 7th

Have you ever had those moments were you think, "God I'm an idiot?" or every felt like you were so naive? That happened to me today. This is the first time in my entire life that I actually felt like I lived in a safe little bubble. Even after growing up in rough neighborhoods and fighting my way through prejudice, I would have never said that life in Cleveland Ohio was bad. However, that was because I had no idea what was really happening in my streets.

The day:

I hung out with Conner most of the day today and he was telling me about his clinical rotations at the hospital. Oh, I should have probably mentioned that Conner is studying to be a Nurse and when he is not shoving his nose in a book, he is working at the hospital with children.

Well, he starts talking about children being beat to near death and that more kids come into the hospital from gun shot wounds than adults. This obviously was disturbing on its own, but then he tells me about how Cleveland has human trafficking. Yes, people are stealing kids and selling them for god knows what...IN CLEVELAND!

In Cleveland, just last October, a 17 year old was rescued from two people forcing the victim in sex traffcking. These scum, took the victim from her home in Tacoma, Wa. making stops in Idaho, Salt Lake City, California, Las Vegas, Denver and Chicago all before coming to the Cleveland. Each stop was forced to prostitute.

I thought human trafficking was some thing over exaggerated in movies or something that happened in the 80s (which in my naive mind is ages away). Oh no, it happens today, it happened all around the world, actually there is approximately 20 to 30 million slaves in the world today.

According to the U.S. State Department, 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders every year. And guess where I live, in a state another country. You would think that no one is trafficking people into Canada, that's something for Mexico, but believe it or not, it happens. And you know what makes me even more sick? The global average cost of a slave is $90. $90!!

Power Diary Entry 175 - Feb. 4th

After telling the PBs that I am also the Superhero Multiman, you can imagine they had many many questions. Some people were excited (Pete and Leo obviously), while others were angered (Jasmine of course) and other were indifferent (Tina and Vicky, shocker).

I fielded questions for a good 20 minutes. "Are you sure?" "Is this a joke" "How could you keep this from us?" "How'd you get your powers?" "How many powers do you actually have?" "Can we get back to training already?"

Fortunately, I was able to settle the team just long it enough for it to be quiet enough to hear my watch go off. There was a robbery happening at a bank downtown. I asked the team if we could talk about this later and who was going to come with me. Everyone but Jasmine and Vicky were game to go.

Pete jumped on my back while Tina used her boots to hop along side me and Leo used his skateboard and his grappling hooks to pull him down the street. Oddly enough it was very efficient. I had to slowly down my super speed, but we all still made it down town in less than 10 mins.

We made it to the scene just as the get away car sped away. "I got em!" Leo (or I guess I should be using their superhero names by now, huh?) Aim used his grappling hooks and swung from building to building like spiderman. The Chemist (Tina) was right behind him. She hopped from lamppost to lamp post. Unfortunately for her, she wasn't as good with balance as the rest of us and came falling down. I had to retreat from the chase and catch her.

Aim had a good handle on things. He landed atop the car cause the car to swerve. He fumbled with his capsules trying to find the right one to cover the windshield, but was having trouble. I watched from behind as the men in the car pulled out a gun.

"SHIT!" I screamed as I sped away from Tina and raced toward the car. I pulled Shield (Pete) off my back and hurried him at Leo. Just as I heard the guns fire, Shield was sliding under Aim. I could hear Shield laugh as the bullets bounced off him. Pete than reached over and pulled a capsule from Leo's jacket and threw it at the car. It was the right capsule and a black substance spread across the windshield.

I was standing in front of the car at this point ready to pull everyone free before it crashed, but then Tina landed in front of me. "I got this." She said as she hacked up something from deep within her throat. She then spat something at the floor that began to grow like a marshmallow in the microwave. In seconds the street was covered in this giant foam lump. The car hit it softly. THe foam absorbed the hit and everyone, including Shield and Aim were safe.

The cops and the News were right behind us. "Time to go team." I said as I pulled Shield (who was waving at the cameras) from the car and pointed for Chemist and Aim to retreat.

We made it back to the secret beach area with our spirits high. Jasmine was sitting alone on the sand with her head in her hands. I thought she was still very upset with me, but she was crying for another reason.

You see, this whole time I had gotten used to Vicky being invisible that it was not strange to see Jasmine alone, because I always knew Vicky was somewhere near, just out of sight. BUt not this time, Vicky was so happy that she had gotten her "skin" back that she decided there was no need to be a superhero. She wanted to live a normal life. She left Jasmine on the beach and never looked back.

Power Diary Entry 174 - Feb. 4th

I have been trying my best to split my time up between Conner and the PBs. I always do this, I get absorbed into an activity or start to like a guy an that's all I want to do. Right now it is especially hard because these two things (PBs and Conner) came into my life around the same time and both are something that I really REALLY like to do. Fortunately, Conner is understanding and is working hard on school (He's like totally into learning - which as you can see from these journals I am not) so he does not mind canceling plans to do other things. Little does he know that the "other things" is fighting crime with my new superhero team.

Let me catch you up. After the PBs have agreed to train and occassionally go out and fight crime, I took the training up a level. We moved from the crappy training we were doing in the rec center and I took the team to the closed off area on the beach where I first used my powers. (Remember, it was the first time truly flew).

Here is where I set up targets on the cliff top and rings in the water and some other puzzles for the team. We trained every other day instead of the few times a week the PB meeting were originally held and I made them work harder than I probably should have. You have to remember its winter so forcing Jasime to swim in the freezing water was no joke and placing weights on Leo's wrist and ankle while forcing him to hit targets up the cliff side was torture. I had everyone training like dogs and knew that I needed to find a way to keep their spirits alive.

So, yesterday I brought a surprise for them. Over the last week I had been in contact with the SHI organization and had asked for a favor. I got a lot of slack when I revealed I was forming my own superhero team in Cleveland. Especially since the PBs had powers and should technically be under the watch of SHI, but being a full fledged Superhero, I was able to get away with training these "Misfits".

As I was saying, yesterday when I could see the defeat blazing in the PBs eyes I handed them all a box. They opened it to find a costume made specifically for each of them.

Jasmine's suit was form fitting and helped regulate her body temperature when swimming in water. It also came with little capsules that she could pop into her mouth to give her a breath of fresh air. This meant she could triple her time under water. Oh and the best part, they suit is equip with specially retractable fins that could help her swim at superhuman speeds.

Leo's outfit was suited with daggers and throwing stars that were made with a special metal that he could press a button and have magnetically brought back to his suit. He was also equipped with capsules that could do many things from exploding, to letting off sleeping gas. His favorite part was his duel grappling hook that could have him up a 10 story building in seconds.

Tina's outfit was built to give her power a boost. She had several capsules attached to her waist that she could chew to make a new substance. She even had goggles that would tell her what an element was and what she needed to create a new item. I did feel bad because TIna had been feeling like her power was not as cool as the others, so I had the SHI team create these boots that gave her the ability to leap a few stories into the air.

Pete being the youngest and with the not so amazing power of memorization was a bit harder to come up with a good outfit idea. I could not really encourage him to out himself in harms way, but he was more excited than anyone else to become a hero. I would say he had a even worse power than Tina, but little Pete was not going to let that stop him. So I had the SHI team create a suit that made in indestructible. It reflected bullets and repelled fire. He did not need any offensive equipment because once we decided to become a superhero team, he decided to focus his memory on learning all forms of Martial arts. In just a couple weeks, he could keep pace with me.

Vicky was the last one and I did not give her a superhero suit per say. I did something entirely different. I had the SHI team do some research into her passed and find pictures of her from a child. They then aged the photo to her current age and made a kind of skin replica of Vicky. Her outfit was obviously the most verifying when not worn. It looked like someone had been peeled alive, but once Vicky stepped into the suit and pressed the button that cause it to shrink until it clung to her body, it looked amazing.

Everyone was speechless when we got to see Vicky for the first time. I handed Vicky a mirror and she stared at herself for a very long time before she burst into tears, "I'm beautiful." She exclaimed. We all went into a group hug before everyone else geared up.

Everyone was so excited to begin training with their new gear. Instead of working on their own they all watched each other as they performed in their super suits. They all obviously had trouble at first, but by days end they were at least comfortable. Pete was a little too comfortable, he'd run up and down the beach and ask Leo to try to hit him with a dagger. Leo obviously hit his mark every time and Pete just laughed at the dagger bounced off his suit. "I am the Human shield!" Pete yelled into the air.

"Really the Human Shield, that's going to be your superhero name?" Tina rolled her eyes.

"Well what great name did you come up with." Pete stuck his tongue out.

"I think I like, The Chemist." Tina said as she burped out this fog that surrounded the air above her.

Jasmine decided on the name Lir, while Leo went with Aim. Vicky struggled with a name. She didn't want a name she said she lived her whole life being a nobody that now that she had a body she didn't want to just give up her birth name. She smiled brightly as she said, "You can just call me Vicky"

"What about you Julian?" Leo asked turning to me.

"Yeah, and what about your costume?" Pete noticed I did not have a package for myself and that's when every one else did.

"I've been wondering when it'd be a good time to tell you guys this." I said and then with my super speed (the power of the day) I ran off and changed into my Multiman outfit. I returned in front of them hovering just above the ground with my telekenesis power. ""I'm really Multi".