“Jason?” The man says, interrupting my video.

  “Yeah?” I ask, putting my phone away and looking up at the man who’s calling me.

  He stares at me for a second, though I’m not sure what he’s looking for. There’s nothing much to see. “You’re here for the lessons, right?”

  Standing up, I offer my hand out to him before answering. “Yeah, I thought it would be for the best.” I say, not wanting to announce my superness to all the other people in the waiting room.

  “Alrighty, happy to have you,” he says, shaking my hand before beckoning me to follow. “I’m Travis, and I’m the one running this little program.”

  “Nice to meet you. And I wanted to say thank you for doing this. I’m sure it means a lot to many of us.” I say, faltering at the end.

  “I try.”

  I’m sure it’s classic for gyms to have a mirror wall, but it looks kind of ridiculous to me. Though whether that’s because I feel ridiculous being here or the fact I can see myself with my mind map leaving the mirror pointless, I’m not sure.

  “So, what are we doing first?” I ask.

  “Sorry that I have to do this, but I have to make sure. Can you prove to me you’re actually a super? You don’t need to show me your power or anything like that. But you know how it is when you’re offering free stuff with supers.” Travis says with an awkward laugh.

  “Really?” I ask.

  “No people wouldn’t want to lie that they’re a super to get free MMA classes for three months followed by a reduced price for however long they want to continue,” Travis says dryly.

  Point.

  “Fair.”

  What would be a good example for my status as a super?

  “Would this be a good example?” I ask, taking off my sunglasses to reveal the undulating eternal darkness eyeballs I have.

  “Yup, that’s good enough.” He agrees, though he tried to hide it. I caught the flinch as well.

  One day someone won’t flinch at the sight of my eyes, I hope.

  “Alright, definitely super.” He says, taking control of the situation again. “And you can put your sunglasses on if they don’t affect your vision at all.” Travis continues.

  “Nope, I can see perfectly fine. Better than fine.” I snort, slipping my shades back on.

  “Noted. I have a couple more questions before we can begin.” Travis says, taking off his jacket to reveal a tank top and several scars on his arms that I really wonder how they got there.

  “Feel free.” I shrug.

  “Do you have any ?augmented physicality? And if you do, do you want to practice it?” He asks, stretching slightly.

  I really hope he does not decide to hit me.

  He’s definitely going to hit me.

  I…

  I want to answer truthfully.

  “I don’t know how much stronger, faster, tougher I am, but ever since I got my abilities, I’ve barely felt tired and I know I’m a lot stronger and yeah.” I trail off.

  “Then do you want to practice figuring out just how much stronger you are? And then practice at that strength?” Travis asks, punching the air a few times.

  “Can I ask why?” I inquire, taking a step back. I really don’t want to get hit accidentally.

  “Because for those of us who are really strong, I think it’s better to know fully what we’re capable of so we can hold back then in a moment of danger and use more power than intended. If you accidentally shatter someone’s ribcage in self-defense, the media will not care, nor is the jury.” Travis says glumly.

  I nod at that because what else is there to say?

  “I want to learn just how strong I am at full strength and train like that.” I say, my voice sounding a lot more confident than I feel.

  “Alright, before I try to see how strong you are, I have to ask. Do you know how to throw a punch?” He asks, demonstrating.

  “Why do you do this?” I ask copying his movements.

  “I make a lot of money as a super. Not everyone is like me. The combination of useful power and normal appearance is pretty rare, isn’t it? Not everyone has that. Some people have powers that make people afraid, and others, like you, have disturbing features. Whether it’s a young gun wanting to be a superhero like I did, or someone looking to go through life quietly, we all deserve to have the power to defend ourselves,” Travis says, sounding more animated here than in the entire conversation before.

  I say nothing as I continue to try this whole punch thing, trying to interpret what all that means.

  “You used to be a hero?” I ask, raising an eyebrow as I adjust my feet to a more comfortable position.

  “Yup, I used to be significantly more excitable about all of that stuff. I wanted so badly to be a superhero. I had the homemade costume and everything.” He laughs.

  “Do you still have the costume?”

  “Not going to answer that.”

  He definitely still has the costume.

  It’s weird to think that I could be talking to a real-life superhero right now, and that would explain a lot of the scars on his arms.

  Fighting crime seems to be a good way to get a lot of horrendous scars on your arms. But nothing about his hair or eyes screams hero to me.

  “Aren’t you supposed to get some kind of protective gear?” I ask as he moves in front of me.

  “I don’t know how strong you are, so you could break something. My durability isn’t in question, and unless you’re secretly a top-tier strongman, I don’t think I’m going to be in danger.”

  “Not a strongman.” I admit. “You sure I won’t hurt you?” I ask just to check. I don’t want to hurt someone who’s trying to help a bunch of people.

  “I’m positive. Besides, it’s going to take you a lot of work to get up to full strength, most likely.” He snorts, gesturing for me to come and get him.

  I punch his hand before looking at him to see if he wants something specific about all of this.

  “Is that as hard as you can hit?” He asks, looking at me with a raised eyebrow. I don’t think I’m doing that great with my statement of having enhanced strength.

  “I can hit harder. I think.”

  Stepping into the punch, I try to hit harder than I did the previous time, and it feels better.

  “Can you go harder?” He asks, no longer doing the little eyebrow raise. Which might be a good sign?

  “Yeah, I can.” I say, stepping back and breathing slowly. I think I can do this.

  Harder, faster and better.

  Though I guess that’s all part of better, isn’t it?

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  Once more I step forward, punching harder than I did before.

  I’m not going for as hard as possible yet, but I’m trying to scale up slowly, because? I’m not sure honestly I just thought that it would make sense?

  “Nice. Are you intentionally going incrementally up or are you going as hard as possible?” He asks, trying to figure out my actions, I suppose.

  “Incrementally, I’ve never used my full strength, so it scares me.” I admit, trying to not be ashamed of my thought process.

  “That’s alright. I just wanted to know in case every time you tried to go full force.”

  That power would be wild? Can you imagine your limit increasing every time you try to hit it?

  I’m glad that my power seems significantly less complicated than that.

  “No, I’m just nervous.” I say, mentally preparing myself.

  “Take your time today is about figuring out what you’re capable of right now.” He says, trying to assure me.

  Stepping forward, I hit harder again and again, repeating the cycle until my hand hurts when I strike him.

  “I don’t know if I can hit harder, but it’s beginning to sting when I hit you.” I admit not finding any reason to not share that it stings when I punch this guy.

  “You know if you’ve got your full powers or if they’re growing incrementally?”

  That is an amazing question that I have zero answers for.

  “I don’t know?” I laugh.

  “We’ll check in every few weeks to see if you’ve grown significantly stronger; otherwise, just train as per normal.” He says, tossing me a water bottle.

  “That makes sense.” I agree after taking in as much water as I could. Punching has been really dehydrating.

  “Okay, next you’re going to hold this while I hit you.” He says, handing me some type of pad thing.

  I have no idea what it’s called or how to describe it.

  I plant my feet in a way that makes sense and hold it in front of my chest, using the handles as hints of where to place my hands.

  “I’m going to start with softer than you could hit just because I don’t want to overestimate your ability, but I’m going to start significantly above human.” He says, squaring up in front of me.

  This is going to hurt royally.

  I can see the punch both with my eyes and my mind, but besides shifting back slightly, I can’t react.

  As his fist slams into the foam, I stumble back, slightly surprised by how much force that felt like.

  Not as much as all the falling that I have been doing recently, but I definitely felt that. Can I really hit people that hard?

  “Did you get knocked back because you were surprised or because you were hurt?” He asks, pausing with his hand extended.

  “I…” I pause, thinking. I really don’t want to keep getting hit, but learning super grade combat is going to require getting hit.

  Unless I reveal my phasing ability and we can practice using that in a fight? I think to myself.

  Shaking the thought of revealing the details of my power out of my head, I decide my answer. “I felt that for sure, but I don’t think it hurt that much, but I mostly stepped back because I was surprised, I think?” I ramble, unsure if I’m getting my thoughts across.

  “Okay, I’m going to punch you again.” He says, standing out of reach.

  Not sure how he’s supposed to punch me from that far.

  If he’s ready to punch me, I’m going to believe him.

  I’m not sure what else I can do to prepare for this besides setting my feet again.

  “Ready.”

  Travis blurs forward, slamming his fist into the pad once more.

  Taking a step back, I feel like I prepared significantly better for that punch than I did the previous one, even though it hurt a lot more.

  “You good?” He asks, pulling his fist back.

  “Yeah, we can keep going.” I nod.

  “Okay, I’m going to keep increasing by that increment; let me know when you don’t want to jump up.”

  However, I give up after four more punches even if I can take more. I don’t want to get punched harder than that. I don’t want to get punched that hard while I’m wearing padding, let alone if I’m not.

  “Okay, so you’re definitely in the territory of super physicality.” Travis says as I try to drink more water.

  I don’t respond; his statement didn’t need one.

  “You’re good for the Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday morning classes, right?” He asks, heading to a shelf and pulling out a couple of notebooks. Is he going to assign me a training plan?

  I would try to follow it if he gave me one, I guess, but he doesn’t need to put all that work in for me.

  “Yup, that’s what I signed up for.” I agree, putting the water bottle back before trying to shake out my shoulders.

  “Just in case you’re thinking about it, while I’m willing to help people with physical powers figure out what’s what with their abilities, that offer isn’t extended to non-physical types. I know how to fight, not how to shoot lasers out of my eyes.” Travis warns me.

  Does my ability count as a physical type? I don’t know?

  I don’t think phasing counts as a physical type. I think just the human plus parts I’m walking around with are the extent of my physical abilities.

  Even if it did count, I don’t want to share that. There’s something fun about learning about my ability on my own.

  Learning how to hit things or how to move my body better and control my enhanced strength, that’s what I want.

  Phasing doesn’t make me dangerous to anyone besides myself, I don’t think? But the idea of me accidentally breaking one of my friends when I’m hugging them is terrifying.

  Though I’m not sure how pushing myself to know just how strong I am helps me learn how to not break my friends?

  I…

  Part of the process, that’s what I’m going to focus on.

  “So, a lot of us have a whole slew of instincts and reflexes that can be kind of irritating. Though equally helpful, depending on the situation.” Travis explains, handing me a pair of gloves.

  “Are you going to spar with me to see if I have any of those fancy instincts for fighting people?” I ask putting on the gloves.

  I’m pretty sure I already know what’s going on with that one? This one is ?significantly easier to follow.

  As long as I don’t get punched in the face, I will accept however this goes.

  “Yup.” He nods. “I’m not going to hurt you, but I am going to test you to see how much you can do instinctively.”

  Instinctively, I want to run away.

  That’s most likely not a useful inclination.

  “What am I supposed to do exactly?” I ask, holding up my hands like I’m some kind of boxer.

  “Well, hopefully you’re going to attack me, and if you have any bonuses, you’re going to do surprisingly well, but I’m still going to put you flat on your ass.”

  I hate how sure he was about that.

  One spar later, I am flat on my ass, which tells me maybe he should have been even more sure about all of this.

  “Did that tell you I have no idea what I’m doing? Because I definitely don’t feel like I do.” I snort, taking his hand and hauling myself back to my feet.

  “You are a lot better than I thought you were going to be,” he admits, which I’m pretty sure he’s blowing smoke up my ass because I definitely do not believe him. I couldn’t do a single thing.

  Actually, that's not true.

  I have discovered that my habits seem to intrinsically be against blocking or dodging.

  Which makes a little bit of sense to me? My power makes it so that I can’t get hit by things. I can just let everything go through me?

  “We’re going to spar again, aren’t we?” I ask, already knowing what the answer is.

  “Sparring is important.” He agrees, giving me a quick fist bump.

  Idly as I get my ass handed to me, I wonder what level of threat I could beat in a fight at this point.

  Maybe a child.

  “Are you comfortable grappling at all?” He asks as we spar, which irritates me greatly.

  Am I really that bad that he doesn’t even need to conserve his breath? He’s just talking to me while dodging?

  I don’t even know what his ability is, for goodness’ sake!

  He’s moving slower than I am, and yet I can’t hit him!

  Unless he’s blocking me.

  “Never thought about it?” I ask while ducking in to punch him in the side.

  “Well, it depends on what you’re looking for.” He admits continuing the conversation as he breaks away to make more space.

  I do not want to get kicked again. That hurt.

  Racing forward to meet him, I block his kick, doing my best to replicate what he did to me while driving my knee upwards.

  Relying on my mind map, I pivot to the side, using the momentum to punch him in the ribs as hard as I can.

  With a slam, my hand collides with his palm as he looks at me curiously.

  Did I do something wrong?

  “That’s enough for today. We’ve been at it for a while, and I’m pretty sure I've got where your level is.” He nods, backing away and beginning to take his gloves off.

  “Thanks for doing all of this for me. And others.”

  “Thank me by working hard. And thank others by paying it forward?.” He laughs. “You’re going to pick it up quickly, so I want you to help others when you can.”

  “Pick it up quickly?” Sure, I had a few moments of feeling like I was doing alright, but really?

  “Something about your ability seems to help you move your body better and learn faster.” Travis explains.

  The mind map? Being totally aware of how my body is moving and how his body is moving is definitely influencing my learning speed?

  Actually, now that I think about it, I can see inside solid objects too. Could I see how my muscles expand or contract while I move?

  Find the perfect example from someone else to study and get to work copying it to the best of my ability?

  Maybe? But I’m not going to.

  That’s a lot for something I’m picking up as a hobby right now.

  “Well, not sure what all it’ll be good for, but I’ll be happy if I can get to a decent level quickly.”

  “Just don’t get into a fight for no reason. It’s going to be a while before we figure out how to tone down your strength so your ability to throw a mock punch is going to be entirely thrown off.” Travis warns me as I prepare to leave.

  I give him a nod before leaving.

  Maybe I shouldn’t hang out with the gang until I am confident about that.

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