“So let’s get this straight.” Caleb says, looking at me with irritation. “You have superpowers.”

  “Yes.”

  “And you didn’t tell us for weeks because you were trying to figure it out, right?” Caleb asks, doing his best to keep his voice calm.

  “Don’t forget that he got kidnapped off the street!” Ben interjects, pointing a finger at me before immediately wincing as the kid in my arms stirs from her nap.

  “And because you only told Amelia, she got kidnapped.”

  “Yes! It is quite literally all my fault, and I’m well aware.” I hiss, looking down in shame.

  “It’s not. I wouldn’t have told everyone I had powers, either.” Reyna admits. “I would have kept it to myself; it would be a lot easier. And it’s not your fault Amelia got kidnapped.”

  “It is.”

  “I didn’t know you were the reason she has to fix everything.” Reyna replies dryly. She still looks a bit irritated at me, but concern is bleeding through more.

  “And you couldn’t find her at the lab, right?” Ben asks, changing the subject back to perhaps the most pertinent part of the conversation.

  “No, I looked all over. She’s not there. But on the bright side, I didn’t find her dead body or anything, so if it was them who kidnapped her, she’s still alive.” I say, not willing to put the last two words of that statement.

  “Well, having my best friend being mind-controlled into a supervillain isn’t what I would call ideal.” Reyna sighs, looking up at the ceiling. “You have any idea how you can get the proper people trying to save her?”

  I bristle at that, but she’s not wrong. I’m not a proper person to save the day, so I don’t know why I would be the one they all look towards to help.

  Running through my admittedly small list of people I could talk to about this, there actually is one that I think could help at least a little.

  “Yeah, there’s someone I can call to see if they can help.” I nod. “I am seeing them tomorrow anyway, so it would be a good chance to talk to them.”

  “With that out of the way, can I ask why you have a little girl in your arms? One who looks like they spent the better part of a month in a blender?” Caleb asks, gesturing with his chin.

  “I couldn’t find Amelia at the lab, but I couldn’t—I didn’t want to do nothing. I wanted to have accomplished something, and last time I was there I saw her and, well, I couldn’t get the idea of a kid being there out of my head. All the people older than me and our age didn’t bother me at such a fundamental level.” I explain, looking down at her, the cup that had once been full of ice cream clutched to her chest tightly.

  “As long as you don’t name her Amy,” Ben jokes.

  I’m not sure which of the two of us were faster on the draw, but both Reyna and I said no more or less at the same time.

  “Does she have powers?” Reyna asks, looking at the scars with a pale look on her face.

  “She does. Part of the reason I’m nervous about taking her to the authorities, between Amelia getting kidnapped the day she went in and how painfully super she is, I’m worried about what would happen to her.” I admit.

  “Talk to your super friend about it. Maybe they have some ideas on what to do with her. Unless you’re planning on raising her.”

  I—

  Was I? I never thought about giving her up, but am I really in the place to take care of a child?

  I really don’t think so.

  “I will.”

  “How dangerous is her power or your power? Are we in danger if you lose control?” Caleb suddenly asks.

  That’s the big-ticket question, isn’t it?

  “My physical ability is definitely dangerous.” I say after some consideration. “And my other power can’t be used on people normally, so you don’t have to worry about that one. As for her…” I trail off, remembering the ease that her wires cut through the guard I was struggling to fight. “She is significantly more dangerous than what I’ve seen so far.”

  “You’re walking around with a child who could kill everyone with a thought!” Caleb exclaims, scooting back. “And just from what you’ve seen!”

  “It’ll be okay. She won’t hurt any of you. Reyna gave her ice cream after all, and you gave her a book for me to read to her.” I say, running a hand through her hair, though she seems unconcerned.

  I really don’t think that she’s that dangerous, and her wires seem pretty much entirely under her control, so she probably won’t hurt anyone intentionally.

  Though I haven’t left her alone yet, ?I don’t know what will happen if she’s by herself. She might set up the wire trap again if I do that.

  Though it would make it a lot easier for me to go out and do vigilante stuff if I’m not afraid that something is going to happen to her.

  “What’s that expression supposed to be?” Ben asks, pointing at me with a significantly less threatening finger.

  “I was just thinking about if I wanted to do something more about this.” I admit.

  “Don’t you’re not a hero and it’s a waste of time? Just get registered as a super and never use your powers again.” Caleb says.

  “Maybe.” I disagree.

  “Okay, enough of this. Do you guys want to watch a movie to calm our nerves for a bit or just head out?” Reyna asks, changing the subject away from the heavier topics.

  I really just want to go home. The idea of staying here even longer bothers me. I want to rest.

  But I don’t want to leave Reyna alone. It wouldn’t be right for me to do that, so I’m going to stay.

  “We’ll stay and watch, if you don’t mind?” I offer, giving Reyna a smile.

  “I’m going to head out. I have work in the morning.” Caleb says, getting up and walking out of the house without so much as a word of goodbye.

  “I can’t stay, sadly, but Jason, do you want me to bring over some clothes my sister grew out of? They’ll probably fit better than your clothes, right?” Ben says, standing up and going to chase his boyfriend.

  “That would be great.” I agree, settling into the chair and reclining slightly to try and relax.

  “Well, if you can’t stay for a whole movie, do you want to rewatch something or start a TV show instead?” Reyna asks, flicking through streaming services.

  “How about you start over the show you were supposed to watch tonight?” I offer immediately regretting the words coming out of my mouth.

  That is such a stupid suggestion, isn’t it?

  “That’s a good idea.” Reyna agrees, putting on a superhero anime.

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  I laugh so hard the little girl in my arms wakes up from her nap.

  As she stirs, she twists around in my arms till she’s looking at me with her one eye. Upon seeing me, her expression immediately relaxes before holding up her cup and looks at me with an adorable expression.

  “Do you want more ice cream?” I ask getting up and tapping her on the nose.

  With a silent giggle, she nods.

  “Let’s get you some ice cream then, but only a little bit more, okay?” I offer, holding up my pinky finger just to see if she recognizes the gesture.

  I do not get a pinky promise, but I get her wrapping her hand around my pinky and clinging to it tightly.

  “Okay, but damn, dude, besides those freak eyes, you’ve got a real paternal look about you right now,” Reyna teases.

  Ignoring the jibes, I get another small serving of vanilla ice cream ready. “Do you remember your name?” I ask as I get a new spoon for her.

  She shakes her head before looking down sadly.

  “Hey it’s okay. Do you want me to help you pick out a new name?” I offer, trying to cheer her up.

  I get a little nod in response, which I’ll take.

  Uhhh, I have to think of a name.

  Damn, naming a living being is significantly harder than naming an inanimate object or a video game character.

  “How about Bianca?” I ask tentatively.

  No, I’m not creative. Between the white hair, pale skin and the vanilla ice cream in her hands, Bianca was all I could come up with, but that’s fine.

  I get several rapid nods that make me wonder if she would have just accepted any name I had suggested to her.

  “Alright, Bianca, let’s go watch a movie with my friends, and then we can go home. Does that sound good?” I explain, carrying her back to where we were sitting and settling back down into the chair.

  Bianca stares at the TV show with fascination; apparently, the bright colors are all she needs to feel enraptured by the show.

  Though maybe it’s heroes ?she also really liked the Force Guardian mask I was wearing.

  The show winds on until I decide it is time for me to get going.

  I don’t plan on sleeping tonight, and I only have a few hours before it’s time for my lesson with Travis, getting Bianca there and explaining it all to him. I’m not looking forward to.

  But if he used to be a hero, maybe he has some people I can get into contact with and something can be done about all of this.

  I just bristle at the idea that I’ll wake up tomorrow and all of my problems are going to be solved.

  I don’t want that. Call it an ego or whatever, but I want to be the one to get revenge on Andromeda and everyone else in that lab.

  I don’t feel compelled to fight that octopus guy. He seems to be a lot more difficult for me to deal with, but Andromeda and that green lady are probably within my ability to beat, right?

  They will be.

  If I could snap my fingers and they could save Amelia, I would probably take that deal, but this one part of me that does not want to share everything.

  Unable to sleep, I pull out my laptop and begin scrolling through videos of various heroes over the years, from their fights to interviews.

  I never felt like I had a childhood superhero I wanted to be like growing up, and now I feel like that piece of me is forever missing.

  I have all of this power, and I want to do something with but besides going after revenge; I don’t have any goals?

  Does that make me a hero? Or just a pair of fists wearing a mask who will retire as soon as he’s done with one task?

  I pull up an article of some famous phasers over the rears and begin reading, looking to see if there’s anything I can glean from how they used their powers.

  It bothers me that there’s so many criminals that use an ability similar to mine compared to heroes.

  As if the world is telling me that because I have this power, my path is decided.

  Bianca shuffles over, clad in all the blankets, and nudges me.

  “Yeah, I probably shouldn’t be doing that, huh?” I snort, quickly tabbing to a new screen and putting on another TV show.

  Bianca happily nestles into my side. At least I hope that she’s happy watching with me.

  This is probably a significantly better way to spend my time waiting until it's time. Though I’m not exactly sure what Bianca is supposed to wear?

  Maybe the two of us will have to go shopping.

  “Bianca? Would you like to go get some other clothes to wear that fit and are warm?” I ask, looking down at her, trying to figure out how I’m going to do all of this.

  She gives me a bright smile and nods, but whether that’s because she actually wants to get new clothes or she’s just happy to do things, I haven’t the foggiest.

  If we leave pretty soon, I think we will have the time to buy Bianca some clothes and get to my lesson with Travis in time.

  Shopping with a small child is a harrowing experience, but I can at least take some thanks in the fact we are doing it early in the morning before most of the world is awake.

  Though I wonder if I should get Bianca a pair of sunglasses to match with me?

  One shopping montage later, we’re sitting in the parking lot of the MMA gym, and I realize that it’s going to be incredibly awkward to bring Bianca in.

  Why in the world would anyone bring their kid in and, even worse, Bianca and I really don’t look related?

  This leaves one option.

  “Hey Travis? This is Jason.” I say, feeling awkward about calling his number, but I don’t know what else I can do here.

  “Jason? Do you need to cancel?” Travis asks, sounding surprised to hear from me, which is fair.

  “No, something more strange than that. It’s ?super related. I. Well, could you come out and see it’s easier to show than explain?” I finally force out as I pat Bianca on the head, who is quietly playing with a stuffed lion.

  “Yeah, I’ll be there soon.” He says before hanging up.

  “Bianca, you’re going to meet one of my friends, okay?” I tell the small girl crouching down so we’re eye level. “He’s teaching me how to fight those bad men that captured you, so he’s safe, okay?”

  She tilts her head to the side before shaking her toy a few times in acknowledgement.

  “Jason, I’m going to believe that you have a good reason for having a child covered with scars and missing an eye with you, but you better explain fast.”

  “I was kidnapped by a lab and escaped that’s how I got super powers I didn’t tell anyone but my best friend but I used my primary ability to scout out their lab again so she could report it to the police she got kidnapped the same day in a fit of rage I went back to the lab couldn’t find her and rescued Bianca here instead and I was hoping you would be able to help me or get me in contact with people who can.” I say there’s nothing I can do here but tell the truth so it has to be enough.

  “Shit,” Travis says, looking around. “You two come in the back way.” He says, turning around and making his way towards the back of the building.

  “Do you want me to carry you or walk with you?” I ask Bianca, who holds up her arms in response.

  Bianca in arm. I follow Travis, who leads me to the back and down a set of stairs to a basement.

  “Your superhero lab is a basement underneath an MMA gym?” I snort as the lights flicker on, revealing a massive space.

  “Sort of, but I need room to use my ability and so do lots of others, so I retrofitted the basement for that.” Travis says, hitting a panel a few times. “Why didn’t you tell anyone earlier?”

  I raise an eyebrow at him.

  “Fair, but I would have really appreciated some warning about all of this. I mean damn. If you need help finding your friend, I have some people I can talk to. If you want help taking down the lab, I have some friends who might come here if they aren’t busy in their cities.” Travis says, walking over to a resting area and plopping down on the couch with a thud.

  “I don’t know what I want.” I admit sitting across from him and letting Bianca down so she can play as she pleases.

  “Revenge is a popular reason to don the mask. But just so you know, Cannonball doesn’t do gigs with Vigilantes. He’s Hero only.” Travis jokes.

  “I don’t want them to keep doing this, and I want to be the one to stop them.” I admit. “At least the lab here, the labs in other cities, I don’t mind as much.”

  “Other cities?”

  “Yeah, they mentioned other locations, and the big boss wasn’t there either of the other two times I checked.”

  “Damn it.” Travis curses quietly though for that outburst and the bomb I just dropped he doesn’t seem all that surprised about it.

  “You don’t seem surprised.” I accuse.

  Travis holds up his hands defensively. “This is more common than you might think when it comes to origin stories. Some noticed an increased number of unexplained disappearances and super-related crimes. The only one that happened here recently is when a phasing man fought a giant crab.”

  I hang my head in shame at that. “That fight went poorly.”

  “You did fine for a first fight. But I am serious. Do you actually want to do the whole vigilante gig? Sometimes you have to be the one who fights a cause, and as long as things are staying relatively quiet, I won’t step in,” Travis says.

  It doesn’t take a genius to realize what would happen if this isn’t being handled quietly.

  “Why are you so willing to let me deal with it? Isn’t that just letting people die?” I ask, wondering why.

  “People die constantly. Most people don’t want to do anything about that. We could solve so many of the problems the world has as humans, let alone what all the supers are able to do.” Travis points out, looking at the ceiling. “Each super is just a person, and a superhero is most often someone who’s hurting. Only able to truly fight their crusade against the darkness, against the part that makes them ache.”

  “And?”

  “Most people don’t give a fuck about your home.” Travis shrugs. “Why would superheroes be any different? We try our best, we do everything we can, but we can only burn so bright for so long. If you’re willing to take the mantle in any capacity, then we aren’t going to stop you.”

  “Could we continue talking as we train?” I ask getting up and shedding my jacket. “No matter what, I end up deciding I want to get better at moving my body.”

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