The greatest gift that superheroes have isn't their powers. It's the ability to keep momentum.

  Every time I take time off, whether it's to recover from injuries or because I'm feeling exhausted, the hardest thing to do is to go out again.

  I could just stay home.

  Between the classes in the morning and fighting crime to train at night, I have learned that I only need around four hours of sleep every night to be functioning well, which has helped with juggling everything.

  I need to focus tonight. I have to push myself beyond what I have done so far.

  I steer clear of the side of the city the lab resides in, even if I hope one of their vans comes over to the side I'm patrolling tonight.

  If they just so happen to be where I am, I can stop them without looking like I'm actively hunting them specifically. Dropping through the corner of a building, I land with a roll, scrambling to my feet before quickly taking out a trio of what look to be purse snatchers.

  “Hopefully, that wasn’t too scary.” I say to the purse snatcher, handing them back their purse before running away before she can respond to me.

  I managed to help at least a few people today.

  If I was willing to go public, part of me wonders if I am good enough that I could get sanctioned to be an actual hero.

  I wish I could listen to some music while I’m out being a superhero, but I don’t want to do that. Music is awesome, and it lets me focus, but yeah, I really don’t think that I could be an effective hero while listening to music.

  As I’m running through the city, bounding between the rooftops, my nerves skyrocket.

  You could call it the professional effect, but ever since I started this, it feels like there’s way more crime.

  To avoid pigeon spikes, I activate my ability and slip through the building, dropping down to the first available floor for me to stand up fully. I solidify before dashing out of the building, phasing through the window.

  Hopefully, I didn’t wake anybody up in that building. I didn’t feel anyone stir as that floor rapidly rocketed out of my detection range, but you never know.

  “One day I’m going to figure out how to do that air walking thing some phasers can do.” I grumble to myself as I scale a fire escape so I can get back to the rooftops.

  I love the sensation of bounding across the skyline. Call it a phobia of being underground again, but there’s something incredible about that sensation of near flight.

  On a whim, as I leap through the air, I use my power, focusing on the sensation of passing through everything.

  Immediately I fall faster, but I focus on the idea that I will be caught. A couple of times I’ve used my powers and not fallen through the ground.

  If I can do that, why shouldn’t I be able to walk on the air?

  For that fraction of a second, it feels as if my food stutters in the air before I go back to free fall.

  I drop my power before landing on the next rooftop as I look at the air behind me to see if I can tell if that was real or not.

  Could my power be not just phasing?

  Would that mean I could force myself to become bulletproof? It’s another classic phaser power of throwing the ability in reverse.

  Bulletproof fantasies to the side. I imagine a solid plane of force in front of me and try to push my hand against it.

  My hand swipes through the air entirely unimpeded. It doesn’t even feel like I am trying to swipe my hand through a strong breeze.

  Whatever I did while I was jumping was either entirely in my head or, at least for now, a fluke.

  “It’s a fluke for now.” I decide, unwilling to let the idea go. Besides trying to increase how much I can phase and how fast I can phase part of myself, I haven’t pushed myself that hard. Why shouldn’t I be able to get to where I can walk on the air?

  It’s probably going to be something that takes time to learn.

  Maybe I should work on intentionally not letting myself fall even when fully phased at some point I’m going to fight someone who uses an energy attack or something and even having one body part able to interact with the physical world is going to put me in a world of hurt.

  Despite thinking that, I try a few more times to swipe through the air while picturing it as indomitable, unable to be penetrated by something as measly as swiping through the air.

  I get nothing, but I can feel the twinges of my ability activating, so I think that there’s something there, even if I can’t figure it out just yet.

  Maybe it could have something to do with the mind map, like I need a certain level of focus on everything and then I’ll be able to call it solid and stand on it?

  After making sure that nobody is around, I take the time to take off my mask and glasses to rub my eyes and breathe unimpeded before slipping them back on.

  I’ll get a proper costume soon.

  Though I don’t know if going from normal face coverings to a homemade mask is exactly what I am thinking about. Maybe I could do something silly like wear a motorcycle helmet.

  A flash of light catches my eye from my left, and I twist myself around so that I can start heading in that direction.

  One day it would be cool if I could shape the map and make it so it won’t see anything in one direction so I can extend it out.

  Or just narrow the gaze to increase the amount of detail I see. Then I could discern people’s secret identities. Actually, I’m not sure I want to violate people’s privacy like that.

  The sound of screaming and the smell of ozone are all that I need to break out of my distraction of wondering what I can learn to do eventually.

  As fast as possible, I bound across rooftops, aiming to get to the source of those sounds. I’m not sure what I’ll do when revenge is done, but this moment is exhilarating.

  As I round a corner, I slide down a lamppost to see a flaming car arc through the air and slam into the ground.

  I might be outclassed. I know I’m way stronger than I used to be, but I don’t think I’m at throwing-car levels of strength.

  Now the question is how to not get a giant car thrown at me, which I don’t know how to do.

  Though I suppose getting a car thrown at me isn’t nearly as lethal for me as it is for most folk.

  As I stare down the street facing my adversary, it’s hard to make anything out with all the raging lightning, but I think I’m looking at a living lightning bolt of some kind?

  Focusing my mind, I try to peer through it all, but the energy is too dense and moving too much for me to make anything out, be it a man cloaked in energy or a man made of it.

  My first instinct is to just run up and try to beat the guy up, but two thoughts stop that.

  First is that I have no idea how I’m supposed to beat someone up if they’re actually made of electricity. The second thought is a bit more heroic. Can I actually help make a difference if my first resort is always to hurt people?

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  Stepping forward, I make sure to be in what I think is the sightline of lightning’s eyes. That, or the back of his head or the side of his head.

  You know I have a one in four chance that he’s looking in my general direction, and a car was just launched this way, so I don’t think it’s a terrible guess for me to think that he could look my way.

  “I know it’s scary, this whole having powers thing, my friend, but I promise you don’t need to destroy anything. We can get you the help you need.” I say, holding up my hands in a motion that I hope brings comfort.

  “Fuck you!” The lightning bolt shrieks, a blast of energy hurtling towards me.

  I do not have the skills needed to dodge a lightning bolt, and the energy lances through me, sending shockwaves of pain through my body, leaving me convulsing on the ground as my brain tries to reassert itself as the one in charge of my body.

  “Stay phased, got it,” I mumble to myself, pushing up and holding out my hands again. “We don’t need to fight. I really do want to help you.” I call out, trying once again.

  I won’t endlessly let this guy rail me, but I’m not willing to just let it go after one bad moment.

  As the lightning bolt flares with more light, I throw my power into full gear, phasing and dropping through the floor before catching myself and swinging up towards the living energy bolt.

  I don’t have a single clue about how I’m supposed to hurt living energy, but I’ll figure something out for all of it.

  Maybe there’s some rubber somewhere that I can use to restrain him?

  Or burn out his energy so that he reverts to a fully human form?

  If I could tell if he was just wreathed in energy or made of it, I would have more ideas.

  Part of me also thinks I need to let myself get attacked while I’m above ground and phasing to know what energy would do for me? If I am immune to lightning blasting me, then hopefully I would also be immune to Kurt’s telekinesis?

  I don’t know why those energy powers would be remotely similar, but it’s the only thing I have to test!

  Rolling to the side, I circle around to draw the lightning man towards the center of the road just so that he’s less likely to blast anything super important.

  “Hey if you’re going to try to break something, you could try aiming for me, sparky!” I call out, deciding that the best way to make this guy try to attack me is to antagonize him so that he tries to attack me.

  This time I’m ready.

  The lightning bolt arcs through me, scattering across the ground, and besides the sensation of something whooshing through me, I’m fine.

  Laughing like a madman, I close the distance, swinging a phasing fist through his body just to see what will happen.

  Thankfully, I don’t hit anything.

  Also, I’m pretty sure that he has a solid body underneath all the electricity.

  I don’t have a clue on how I’m going to hurt him. If I need to hit him with a solid part, it means I’m definitely going to get zapped.

  Darting back, I expand my focus, trying to see something that speaks to me as a good method of fighting off a man wreathed in electricity.

  No matter what I try to come up with, the only thing that I keep circling back to is using rubber somehow, and the only option I can come up with means that I’m probably going to be incredibly unhelpful to someone’s car.

  Though I don’t feel bad if I use a car, he’s already destroyed.

  In a mad scramble, I dash across the street, vaulting over a lightning bolt before going to a completely totaled car and putting my hand on the black rubber.

  With an exertion of will, I pull the rubber circle off and grab a second one, just for good measure.

  Thanking every bit of training I’ve done before this, I throw my first projectile at the man wreathed in lightning.

  Tires don’t throw particularly well, but apparently newly created lightning men don’t dodge even with the slow arc the tire collides with his stomach, sending him sprawling.

  “Power down, and we can talk about this.” I say, holding my other tire threateningly. “You don’t have to destroy more.”

  “No! I finally have the power to fight back and I’m going to use it!” He roars the energy beginning to build around him more and more than the light crackles I screw my eyes shut my sunglasses no longer enough to protect my vision.

  Not talking anymore, I surge forward, phasing the tire and swinging it in an arc.

  As soon as the lightning lad is in the center of the opening, I solidify the tire, letting go and jumping back, hoping that I don’t get zapped.

  The force of my swing thankfully, is on my side as he gets jerked with the tire and falls to the ground, landing with a solid thud.

  The lightning hasn’t dissipated yet, so he’s definitely still conscious.

  Scrambling, I snatch the first tire I threw, picking it up and pelting him with it again.

  It would be cool if I were one of those phasers that could hit people while phased, but I can’t figure that out yet.

  As the lightning grows brighter and brighter, a part of me wonders if he’s going to melt through the rubber. I don’t know how much heat or electricity rubber can handle, but I really don’t want to know if he can blast through that.

  Before I can decide what to do, I feel movement to my left.

  One kid got free from the arms of their parents and is getting closer to chasing an animal? Or a ball? I don’t care about something small, and because of that, a little kid is going to be in danger.

  With all the strength I can muster, I scramble towards the kid, scooping them up and leaping as far forward as I can, wrapping my arms tightly around them as I try to put my body between them and the growing electricity.

  With my mind map, I can see the moment his power goes critical because, for a brief instant, all the electricity in the area seems to vanish, killing all momentum in the air.

  And then it’s as if every atom within twenty feet of the man lights up, exploding with energy.

  Thankfully, I’m out of range for the exploding from the inside out a surge of energy the area is experiencing, but that doesn’t stop as I can feel pain lance through my body causing my body to spasm as I toss the kid away from me.

  Eventually, I pull myself to my feet, looking around, my brain too fuzzy for me to be able to make heads or tails about what’s going on with my mind map.

  I’m alive.

  The bystanders are looking at me with something in their eyes. Or they’re blinking away the light show trying to see at all, I’m not sure.

  Limping over, I check the kid for a pulse and breathe a sigh of relief. No idea if I broke something as I grabbed him, but he’s breathing and has a heartbeat that’s stable enough.

  I move over to the electrokinetic. I don’t know how hot he was burning power wise but the wide swath of destruction makes me thankful that my gift came with minimal property damage so far and also seems like an internal instruction manual, so I sort of know what I’m doing.

  Besides getting brighter when he was angry, I’m not sure if that guy could actually do anything with his power.

  As I get closer, I realize that he’s not moving at all from what I can see. I’m not even sure if he’s breathing.

  “Hello?” I rasp out, stepping forward and dropping down to check for a pulse.

  As I move his arm to try and get a pulse, something catches my eye. Well, catches my eye more. His being absolutely covered in all of those burns makes it really hard for something not to catch my eye.

  There’s nothing blemishing his skin in a small triangular area on his forearm. There are no burns or anything else.

  A triangular shape that is so very familiar.

  Moving quickly, I pull out a phone with one hand, taking a picture of the non-injury before continuing to check to see if he’s out like a light or if he’s actually dead.

  He’s actually alive, which fills my heart with relief. “Damn,” I scowl as I force myself to my feet, trying to project an air of strength and all that shit.

  Unlike the other supers I’ve faced, I’m not sure if normal police can restrain him normally, and what’s even worse is I don’t know how they’re going to react to me.

  Yeah, I look technically different from how I used to. But I’m still the super who gave them the slip not that long ago.

  It doesn’t take long until an SCO truck pulls in, multiple troopers hopping out with guns raised.

  “Hey! We’re all friends here. I saved civilians and caught you guys, this guy who’s been throwing lightning bolts around attacking everyone, so we’re chill, right?” With my hands up in the air, hopefully they don’t try anything.

  And if they do, I’m pretty confident in my patented strategy of running underground and limping around completely lost until I can shake them.

  “Ignore the Class Three and restrain the Class Five.” Someone from the truck orders as more armored soldiers get out and begin placing some kind of restraining collar on him along with a pair of manacles.

  “Step away from the super, sir.” One of them says, shoving me back before putting ankle manacles on the lightning manipulator.

  “Is he going to be okay?” I ask, wincing at the sound of my own voice. It sounds wrong. Hopefully, it’s so off for other people that they can’t know who it is either.

  For the first time in my life, I have to thank my genetics for being average height with brown hair.

  “He’ll get what he deserves.” The voice that told them to ignore me says, stepping forward. “But no, we aren’t going to kill him. Those with useful powers who can be contained don’t deserve the death penalty.” They continue reaching a hand out to shake mine as they saunter forward. “Thank you for your assist in the capture.”

  I don’t know if I should accept the handshake, but would it be too rude if I ignored their handshake when, for the first time, they seem to be trying to be nice to me and talk to me?

  Uhhhh?

  “Uh, thank you?” I say, going to shake their hand until I catch them trying to put a shackle on my wrist as they shake my hand.

  “Had to try. You’re doing alright work, but you know how it is with no hard feelings, right?” They ask, putting the shackle away as they look at me.

  “Something like that,” I agree before activating my power.

  Dropping into the underground network, I begin running around mostly picking random directions to just keep moving around to scramble anyone’s capacity to find me.

  At least that’s the goal.

  After about twenty more minutes of wandering, I’m out of costume and heading through a drive-through to get a midnight snack.

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