Waking up Sunday morning, I’m feeling substantially better than I had last night, but considering I had multiple ?bullet wounds, I guess it’s expected that I feel at least a little bit better after a night’s rest.

  I stumble into the bathroom to brush my teeth.

  Now more awake, I check my injuries. They seem to be fine? I’m not bleeding anywhere? And most of them are just ugly-looking bruises at this point.

  I check the news and immediately grimace upon reading the local news on how a super was running from the cops and several officers were shot and injured.

  They shot themselves!

  And I don’t think I’ve done anything ?illegal besides sneaking in and out of a clock tower multiple times!

  All ?I keep there at the moment is a change of clothes and a first aid kit!

  Though I was going to ask Travis about super hideouts and if there’s any procedure to doing that, or do you just pick an abandoned building or bunker and just go yoink and say that it’s yours?

  I try to push my thoughts away from being a vigilante. Between the daily lessons and going out last night, I’m feeling frayed at the edges, so I am going to take the day to rest.

  And I want to make sure Bianca is alright. Maybe just have the two of us spend a lazy morning before we go out to a park or something so she can go outside without it being night or when we were shopping.

  Plans mostly set in motion, I head to the kitchen and begin cooking some bacon and eggs.

  I’m becoming increasingly convinced that I could go a long time without food if I needed to. I rarely feel hungry, even with the smell of the food in front of me.

  The sound of the guest room door swinging open makes me spin around to see Bianca peeking her head out of the door, most of her face hidden behind it, just letting her eye peek through.

  “I’m making breakfast. Do you want some?” I offer, holding up the pan full of bacon and the one with eggs respectively to show her that food is going on.

  Bianca happily leaves her room, dragging along a stuffed dinosaur with her as she walks right up to me before clinging to my leg as she looks up at me.

  “Do you want to help or just want to see?” I ask, patting her on the head.

  I don’t get any response other than a shy smile, so I’m going to interpret that as she just wants to see what I’m doing.

  “The stove is hot, okay don’t touch it.” I warn her before lifting her up and setting her down on the counter so she can see me cook.

  Bianca points at the stove, tilting her head to the side.

  “Yup, it’s hot.” I agree.

  As I push around the eggs with a spatula, out of the corner of my eye, I catch a flash of azure light.

  From my mind map, I can see Bianca holding what looks like a spatula made of wire, pushing around the air in a pan of wire.

  “Are you making food with me?” I ask, looking over to take in the sight of her adorableness properly.

  Bianca smiles widely before continuing her cooking.

  Setting the spatula down, I tousle her hair, gently eliciting tremors of what I think are giggles from the small girl before returning my attention to the food.

  Once everything is thoroughly ready, I pull out two plates and begin serving food. Do I know how much Bianca is supposed to eat?

  Not at all, so I serve her a slightly smaller portion than I serve myself before putting both plates and required utensils on the table before lifting Bianca up from the counter. “Alright, no superpowers at the breakfast table, okay?” I tease. “Do you want to eat right now or play some more first?” I ask, wanting to let her decide.

  With a flash, the wires vanish, and Bianca points at the plates of food with a hopeful expression on her face.

  “Just because we’re eating does not mean you get ice cream first thing in the morning.” I point out as I carry her to the kitchen table, setting her down in the chair just in time to see the absolutely crestfallen look on her face.

  “Bianca, we can’t have ice cream every meal, but how about if we have a fun day today we’re going to have ice cream after dinner, okay?” I offer, trying to appease her.

  As the tears well up, I question the wisdom of telling her we can't have her favorite food first thing in the morning.

  Nobody likes being told they can't do something first thing in the morning.

  “Hey it's okay, it's. okay how about? you try this?” I try to console her as I get a portion of food on her fork and bring it up to her, hoping she'll eat it and be distracted from the horrid trauma that is being unable to have vanilla ice cream.

  Bacon, as it is prone to do, solves my immediate life problems and pacifies the small child. Breathing a sigh of relief, I slump back in my chair. “Is it good?”

  With a cheerful nod and excited hand shakes, Bianca takes her fork and takes a few more bites before scooping some up and holding it out to me expectantly.

  “Thank you,” I say, taking the bite.

  Eventually all the food is eaten, and I elect to do the dishes instead of letting them sit. As I do them, Bianca keeps reaching towards the water, making little grabby hand motions at me.

  Phasing a hand dry, I grab a clean plastic cup, filling it up with water before handing it to Bianca, only letting go once I'm sure she's holding onto it securely.

  “Something to drink?” I ask, watching Bianca as she wanders off to the center of the kitchen.

  I don't get a response, though at this point I'm more or less positive Bianca either doesn't know how to talk or she's physically incapable of it.

  With a violent motion, Bianca shakes the cup, sending the water all over, covering herself and the floor with the liquid.

  At least it's not something sticky.

  “Are you okay, Bianca?” I ask, shutting the faucet down and drying my hands on a towel as I move over. I don’t know if she’s going to be upset about the water or if she specifically wanted to spill something for no other reason than to spill it.

  Bianca pat? pat pats the water puddles, smiling brightly as she plays with it.

  “Maybe the two of us should go to a fountain park at some point.” I muse, deciding to let her play with the water. We’re on tile and I can clean it up, so there’s no harm with her playing with it if it’s giving her joy.

  The only part that hesitates about the two of us going out to a water park is all the scars Bianca has. It would be a pain for people to start asking questions. Maybe the two of us can go in winter while it’s snowing or something. I really doubt that the cold is going to hurt either of us.

  As Bianca seems thoroughly occupied with her splish-splash game, I retreat to my room to change into exercise clothes. Pulling my shirt over my head is a bit of a pain, but I’m fine enough.

  Walking back out, I see that Bianca is looking around the kitchen, seeming nervous before she sees me and relaxes, almost going back to playing with her water before her eyes widen as she sees the bandages on my right calf.

  She looks down from her bandaged leg to mine and back again several times in rapid succession before getting up and running towards me, hugging my leg tightly.

  “Hey it’s okay, Bianca.” I say gently, prying her off my leg and picking her up so we can look each other in the eye. “I’m okay, I promise.” I assure her as I wipe the tears from her eye. “All I did was play superhero last night.” I tell her as we move to the front room.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  It doesn’t seem to help her distress at seeing me injured.

  “Hey want to see a fun toy?” I say, grabbing a pump and a deflated exercise ball, doing my best to begin pumping it up one-handed.

  At the word toy, her attention is diverted even if she’s clinging to me slightly harder than normal.

  On the bright side, she didn’t accidentally summon any wires this time, unlike two nights ago where a nightmare had her shooting them out to create a defensive barrier around her room.

  “It’s a big bouncy ball.” I explain as the ball begins to inflate and take shape. The joy of automatic pumps.

  The chance to play with a giant bouncy ball nearly her size seems to be such an appealing idea that Bianca forgets her almost fear of me being injured and leans away from me and closer to the ball reaching her hands out to touch the ball.

  “You gotta wait for a little. We need the ball to inflate all the way.” I tell her, tugging her away from the ball despite her best efforts to reach for the ball.

  I bounce my leg gently, giving her some sensation of bouncing as we watch the ball inflate together.

  Once the ball is fully inflated, I gently place Bianca on it, bouncing her gently, letting her bounce, but I don’t want to let her go in case she falls over.

  There’s nothing for her to crash into, so I don’t think she’ll be hurt? Especially if she’s like me and very durable, but I don’t want to just have her fall over?

  “You think you’re ready to bounce on your own?” I ask, getting ready to pull my hands away.

  If she’s confident about handling it, I might as well let it try that. Worst-case scenario, I try to catch her if she falls.

  Taking my nod as gospel confirmation, I gently pull my hands away, leaving Bianca to do it all on her own.

  With a look of pure delight, she bounces harder and harder and inevitably tips over.

  I catch Bianca in my arms to see her writhing around as she laughs silently. “Did you do that on purpose?” I tease, poking her in the nose before setting her on the ground next to the ball.

  Patting Bianca on the head, I move over to the exercise equipment, trying to decide what I want to work on today.

  With my mind, I see Bianca more or less lean on top of the ball, gently pushing herself around and using her wires to catch herself so that she doesn’t accidentally impact her head at some point.

  “Do you want to exercise with me?” I ask Bianca as she rolls around on the exercise ball, giggling silently as she continues to almost fall off before pushing herself back to a mostly balanced state.

  I get a cheerful nod.

  “Okay!” I cheer as I grab two ten-pound dumbbells, phasing them before I start doing curls.

  The weight feels like nothing physically, but mentally I can feel my power exerting its dominion over the small part of reality I have say over.

  The goal is to get to the point I can phase at least two hundred additional pounds. If I can get to that point, I can actually carry someone normally without relying on anything else.

  Twenty pounds feels easier than it did two days ago, so hopefully that means I am slowly improving.

  Bianca eyes me for a moment before getting off of her ball and grabbing the thirty-pound dumbbells and doing her best to copy me. She doesn’t seem to strain with the thirties anymore than I am with the tens.

  Filing Bianca’s strength for later, I try to come up with a game the two of us can play that is more interesting than us playing monkey see, monkey do as she copies whatever I’m doing.

  Once my head feels completely and totally wrung out, I put the dumbbells back, trying to stretch my arms even though I didn’t physically lift anything that difficult. My head is killing me and I can’t stretch my brain, so my arms will have to do.

  Though my power feels same as always.

  “What do you want to do today?” I ask, looking at Bianca as I put my hands on my hips, wondering if perhaps she knows the secrets of what we should do next. “We can do whatever you want to do today.”

  Bianca immediately runs over to the fridge and begins jumping up and down as she reaches towards the freezer, which you know that’s probably what I should have expected.

  “Bianca, would you like to go outside and explore?” I ask, trying to change her attention away from her favorite treat. “We could go on a walk?”

  Bianca pauses her jumping, looking at me curiously before looking at the window with a quizzical expression.

  “We can’t go out till both of us have our jackets.” I point out, beginning to walk towards my room.

  Do I know why getting the chance to wear her jacket is the reason that she decides she wants to go out and explore instead of getting ice cream? I haven't the foggiest. But it’s enough for me that she wants to go explore.

  “After I get ready, I’ll come help you if you still need it!” I call out before going back to my room to get ready for the day out.

  As I’m slipping on my spare jacket, my phone goes off using Caleb’s ringtone. Though I don’t know what’s going on, there shouldn’t be anything going on that he would need to call me for, right?

  Slipping in an earbud, I hit accept before resuming getting dressed. “Sup dude?” I ask, realizing I just put on a jacket with bullet holes and that I need to change to a significantly less incriminating jacket.

  “Did you see the news?” He asks in a rushed voice.

  “About what?” I ask, shrugging off my first jacket and putting on my favorite jacket that I wisely didn’t sacrifice in my adventuring.

  “There was a criminal who was on the run from the police who shot multiple officers last night.” Caleb explains vehemently.

  Is he talking about me?

  Part of me wants to immediately correct him, but I don’t know if I want to do that anymore.

  “That’s wild.” I finally say.

  “I can’t believe there’s so many fucking supers around.” Caleb growls.

  “Dude,” I say, deciding that I’m not going to let this one slide. I am in fact also a super, so I would like a simple acknowledgement of my existence.

  “You’re one of the good ones. You’re not going around pretending to be a god, and you’re not stealing everyone’s jobs.” Caleb says, trying to assure me.

  “Yeah,” I say noncommittally. “Did you have anything else to tell me, or just that?” I ask, not wanting to blow off my friend entirely, but more than ready to be done with this conversation.

  “I wanted to know if you’ve had any luck with getting rid of that super brat you picked up while looking for Amelia?” Caleb asks.

  “No, I haven’t, but I have some errands I need to go run.” I say, keeping my voice neutral. “Catch ya later.” I say before hanging up.

  Slipping my phone in my pocket I run through earlier conversations with Caleb trying to determine if his anti super stuff is a new development after I got my powers or if it’s something that’s always been there that I’ve just never noticed but now that it actually impacts me I’m catching all the details.

  Doesn’t matter. Today is going to be about taking Bianca out to see the fall leaves change color, and that’s all I need to worry about today.

  Once my jacket is actually on, I move across the apartment to peek into what has become Bianca’s room as she wrestles her way into her own hoodie.

  “Do you want any help?” I ask, leaning against the door.

  The little hoodie monster looks at me with a desperate plea for help, so I help Bianca get into her new clothes. We even got a pair of matching socks. I know how incredibly rare.

  “Do you want to wear sunglasses like me?” I ask, holding up the pale blue frames we picked out last time we were shopping.

  Bianca seems to take a long moment to consider before walking over and taking the glasses from me and putting them on.

  “Look at us, we match!” I cheer, putting on Bianca’s hat so that her hair is mostly covered.

  It’s just easier if neither of our super traits are loudly on display.

  “Fall is my favorite season.” I tell her as we walk out of the apartment and begin making our way down the stairs. “It’s the one where it’s most comfortable to walk around in.” I shrug as the cold air kisses our faces.

  “Do you want to walk all the way or drive in the car?” I ask, pointing towards the sidewalk and my car?.

  Bianca shakes her head towards the car, which is all I need.

  “There's a pretty park nearby. We can walk there.” I agree, taking off, pausing whenever Bianca points to look at something.

  She never tries to get down, but she often wants to stop and look at things.

  “We can make sure we go out for a little every day to explore. Would that be fun?” I ask as she waves at a dog across the street.

  The nod and smile I receive is more than I need for confirmation.

  About twenty minutes later we reach the park, and Bianca gazes in wonder at the fall leaves hanging from their branches, waiting for their chance to fly away.

  “The leaves are normally green, but now they're changing colors to red, orange and yellow.” I say, pointing to some examples of each color.

  Bianca reaches for the red leaves, so I wander over and pluck one just barely in reach, handing it to her.

  Bianca stares at her lead in wonder before waving it around wildly.

  A gust of wind pushes against me, making me step back in surprise at the sudden force.

  “You okay?” I ask checking on Bianca, who seems to be fine at first glance.

  Though she’s no longer holding her leaf.

  “Did the wind take your leaf away?” I ask, moving towards a new tree, planning to get a new leaf for her.

  I get a sad nod as Bianca presses her face into my chest.

  “We will get you a new leaf and then try the swings. Does that sound fun?” I ask, plucking a golden leaf this time.

  The gold leaf seems to cheer her up, and she holds this one close, trying to shield it from evil leaf-stealing gusts of air.

  Bianca looks up at the sky, a big grin on her face as she points up excitedly.

  Looking up, I get to see the leaves dancing through the air on a breeze I can't feel. A sight I've seen hundreds of times, and yet this one feels different.

  “The world really is something beautiful, isn't it?” I agree, walking towards the swings as we watch the leaves drift through the sky.

  At that moment, I know I'm going out again tomorrow night to be a vigilante.

  As long as Andromeda and company are toiling away, making supers, there's going to be problems and folks won't feel safe enough to go to the park with their kids.

  There's at least two supers they've made besides me and Bianca, and there's that telekinetic. It's only a matter of time.

  If tons of supers show up, people will be afraid they won't even have to kidnap anyone because after all, there'll be people lining up to get powers if they can protect themselves and their loved ones.

  I have a lot of work cut out for me, don't I?

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