“You want me to do what?”

“I want you to hit me. As hard as you can.” Ryan responded, struggling to keep the cocky grin off his face despite the sweat pouring down. He dropped his guard and wiped the runoff from his hair off his brow. Then he shook that hand to get it off as nonchalantly as he could while waiting to see if his opponent would take the bait.

Kevin’s reptilian features scrunched up in suspicion at the sudden, strange request. The pair had been sparring ever since Ryan had woken the young man up early to invite him for some pre-breakfast ‘practice’. It hadn't been that hard of a sell. Which, in hindsight, probably should've tipped the editor off.

They'd been out in the field fighting for about an hour now. Ryan learned a few valuable lessons while they did, but one stuck out more than the rest.

An entire hour was a long time to get your ass handed to you.

The guy was an absolute beast. While this was the perfect way for Ryan to test out his new stats in a fight, it was also a little disheartening to have it be so one sided.

Ryan had chosen him because, according to what he'd been told and from what he could read on his prompt, Kevin's power: 'Aspect of the Dragon', was straight nasty in combat. The first four or five rounds back and forth had proved that beyond any doubt, despite Ryan's increased stats.

Kevin's power was unique in that the abilities it bestowed upon him scaled up the more he called on it. The prompt said it granted "greatly increased physical capabilities, lizard-style scales for defense, and a fire breath attack". That last one was - in Ryan's humble opinion - most unfair. The dragon aspect couldn’t keep it up at full strength forever, but he could maintain it at a lower ‘state’ (whatever that meant) for quite a while.

Ten minutes in, Kevin had also deigned to reveal that he’d been an 'aspiring' mixed-martial-arts contender before all this started. And the state boxing champion back in his high school glory days. It had sounded like bs at first.

Then Kevin had gotten serious and the gap had widened. After that, Ryan believed him. Not because he'd seen some magical kung fu movie combo, but because one of Kevin's right hooks had literally knocked Ryan into the dirt.

Not onto the dirt. Into it. Like a whole foot into the earth. He’d then followed that up by asking if Ryan "needed help digging himself out of the hole he’d put himself into."

Hah. Hah. Ryan had of course refused in favor pushing himself back to a standing position with one hand. That little show of strength had knocked some of the smile off the aspect's face. Even if only for a moment.

I think I still have some grass in my mouth, actually. Ryan thought absently. Swishing his tongue around to find the offending vegetation, Ryan spat it out. The two men continued to stare at one another while Kevin sized him up, looking for a change that would justify this new bravado.

Ryan had been using his power to heal them (okay, mostly himself - okay, pretty much only himself) throughout their little practice session. Scaled fists cared little for the 60% of his body that wasn't covered in gemstone. Ryan was now down to his last 150-ish points. If they went much longer, his energy capacity would need to be refilled or the bruises and breaks would force them to stop.

Before that happened however, the editor wanted to test out his new upgrade. Mostly because the aspect had grown increasingly confident as their fight had progressed.

At first, that had been a good thing. The poor guy had been through a lot and when he spoke up the other night, it had been clear his ordeal back at the school was still bothering him. Getting Kevin back in his element - even if that hadn’t been the original plan - had appeared to be doing him some good.

Ryan was not above taking a few punches if it meant some much-needed therapy for one of his own. But in a few of their exchanges, a bit of the aspect’s cockiness had started to come through. Not in a mean-spirited way, but in the way that inevitably happens when young men fight again and again and a clear victor emerges. At first, it’d all been in good fun. But Ryan knew that if it kept up, it would only be a matter of time before a competitive man like this would start raising questions about Ryan’s capacity to lead. Even if only to himself.

Preventing that meant knocking the young man down a peg, even if only once. Now, the editor couldn’t out-fight the former champion in a simple physical contest. That much had been made abundantly clear. Experience and training just skewed the fight way too heavily in the man's favor for anything but luck to break through. What he could do however was show the aspect that while Ryan might not be able to box (yet), he was dangerous in his own right.

He just needed Kevin to give him another one of those ridiculous right hooks to prove it. Ryan waggled his eyebrows to convey the invitation once more.

The dragon aspect stared at him from behind a raised boxer’s guard and paid no mind to Ryan's antics. He could clearly tell something about Ryan had changed, even if he couldn’t tell what yet. Unsurprising, really. Few people ever got more confident after being knocked around for an hour. Fewer still followed that torment up by asking to be hit harder.

Well, some people do. But they're… different.

Kevin finally broke his silence. He raised one scaled eyebrow and relaxed his stance a fraction. “Hard as I can, huh? And you’re just going to take it?”

Ryan nodded with sage-like benevolence. “Yep. Gonna try something when you do though, fair warning.”

Cocking his head to the side, Kevin asked. “Care to tell me what that something is?”

“Nah. It'd ruin the surprise.”

Kevin blew air out of his nose in a disbelieving ‘uh-huh’ fashion. Then the aspect shrugged and closed the distance between them with a few wary steps forward. When Ryan didn’t attack, Kevin grinned like a man finally given permission to let loose.

Ryan grinned back with as much confidence as he could muster. He really, really hoped this was going to work. Otherwise he had a feeling the grass around him was about to gain another bald spot.

Thick scales slid over and onto Kevin’s already reptilian features and leathery skin. His features grew more draconian as the muscles in his forearms began to bulge ever larger. Sharp claws grew out of the nails of each limb and it became obvious why Kevin had decided to go bare foot when they’d started. Each exhale pushed a small gust of flame out of his newly elongated mouth.

This transformation was by far the most Kevin had pushed his power since they began. If it weren't for his bipedal stance, he almost looked more dragon than man. Son of Smaug, when did being a dragon become a superpower?!

Kevin inhaled slowly as he assumed a stance that kept his rear foot lifted partly off the ground. On the fiery exhale, he stepped forward and struck. Twisting his body in such a way that all of the power drawn from his claws dug into the ground flowed through his legs, hips, and back to transfer directly into his opponent via a devastating right hook.

Ryan could see it coming, but the blow itself was still faster than he could possibly hope to evade. The last hour had taught him that his high dexterity - while great for avoiding wild swings from poorly trained thugs - was not a failsafe when it came to dodging the carefully aimed punches of a trained martial artist.

If Ryan had spent his life training as Kevin had, that probably would have been different. He'd dodged more than one of the former boxer's jabs on speed alone. As it was though, Ryan was still learning how to move and dodge effectively without stumbling or getting caught in a worse position. In fairness, it was harder than it looked. The whole morning had been a friendly reminder that stat numbers and powers aren't everything.

As it was… the literal dragon-punch from the aspect hit Ryan square in the chest, slamming into him with all the strength of a runaway truck. The force of the blow rang out across the open field as it landed, the sound of dragonscale reverberating off hard gemstone sounded like someone had struck a gong in the mountains.

Ryan had taken a few blows like this from Kevin earlier when they were testing his diamond skin’s resistance. Each one had pushed him at least a few feet backwards. When Kevin had added a little of his super power into the mix, the dragon aspect had managed to launch the editor completely off his feet. Inspection afterward showed that some cracks had appeared in Ryan’s hardened exterior, while Kevin had gotten away with only a few bruised knuckles. His power almost feels like cheating.

This time, even with Kevin drawing heavily on his power... Ryan didn’t budge an inch.

Well, that wasn't entirely accurate. His hair flew up as if he'd been hit by an air cannon and the shockwave rippled through his clothes. The editor wearing them however, looked almost frozen in time. Despite his lack of any kind of defensive stance, he wasn’t bracing against the blow. In fact, he was almost leaning into it.

Would you like to absorb the force of this blow, add it to stored kinetic energy, or release all stored kinetic energy? Points gained if absorbed: 24.

With a ‘watch this’ waggle of his eyebrows, Ryan chose to release all of the energy he’d accumulated during their fight with his new upgrade.

Kevin’s eyes widened in surprise and confusion before the sound of a gong reverberated once more through the air. The dragon aspect’s hand crumpled like a can and shot backwards. When it reached his chest Kevin's entire body was blasted back and away from the contact point. For the first time in an hour, the former boxing champ was knocked off his feet.

Hisses of pain and surprised yet spirited cursing followed his defeat. Ryan raised his arms to the morning sky in exultation of his first victory - and successful first test.

“Ha-hah! It worked!” Ryan crowed in triumph.

When Kevin offered up his thoughts on the editor’s parentage, Ryan stopped his showboating and helped the man up. Then he healed the shattered bones in the aspect’s hand as well as some other minor injuries. In an act of pure gracious benevolence, he so offered to share the secret behind how he'd won.

Kevin quickly took him up on it. Ryan was pleased to see the cockiness from before begin to fade from his sparring partner's face as he spoke. When he got to the end, respect had even begun to grow in the man's eyes.

…

Ryan had given a lot of thought as to what sort of upgrade might help him in battle. The first and most obvious route was increased stats. When he’d tried however, he’d learned that the formula had changed. Unlike when he’d increased his energy capacity past 250 however, the cost to raise his stats past 20 hadn’t gotten cheaper overall. Quite the opposite. The cost had ballooned. From 10x to 100x.

Would you like to increase your strength from 20 to 21? Cost: 2,100 points.

Given that there were people (even amongst his own group) now walking around with stats in the freaking forties, Ryan had dispensed with the notion of participating in that rather literal arms race. At least, for now.

Besides, as tempting as it was to hulk out on his enemies, Ryan didn’t need more strength right now. As long as he had enough time to touch one and use his power, they were toast. Maybe actual toast if he spent enough energy. All the muscle in the universe couldn’t turn a man into that now, could it?.

No. What Ryan needed was defense. He needed a power that helped him survive. Against people who could anime-blast a grown man into a tree with their fist, sling fireballs, and who knew what the hell else. His diamond skin had saved his life once - but the aftermath had been… messy. Repairing shattered skin after getting shot was, in his opinion, less than ideal.

The problem with trying to activate his power in a fight was that getting hit hurt. And if his opponent was fast enough, or strong enough, he’d never get a chance to use it before they killed him. Ryan had been in a fight before where his attacker had moved so fast his pain-addled brain just couldn’t react in time to catch that brief instant where they were in contact.

And even if he could, guns and ranged powers existed. What if that guard had stopped swinging and just thrown a car or bus at him? Ryan couldn’t stop physics.

Or... can I?

That epiphany had led Ryan first to attempting to grant himself a new superpower for the first time. A full superpower he could use at will, not just upgrades to his form.

Unfortunately, the attempt had resulted in a new - and rather unwelcome - prompt.

Would you like to grant yourself the superpower: Kinetic Repulsion? Cost: 25,000 points. Yes, or no?

Warning: Your energy capacity is insufficient by 1,200 points for the power selected. Adding a power beyond capacity may have deleterious effects on the organism.

Warning: As an editor, your primary energy capacity is incompatible with that of other superpowers. As such, it will not be calculated when determining potential.

He’d been wondering if that would balance out somewhere. Adding a superpower to Renee had forced him to also increase her capacity, but apparently he’d have to start from scratch before going all legion on folks. Considering how much it’d cost just to get his capacity to where it was now… Ryan had decided to leave that for another time in favor of immediate defensive progress.

So last night he’d gone back to the mental drawing board determined to figure out a way to make it work. It hadn’t taken long. Just before Lucas went to bed, when he was busy putting the test metals he’d created in the open cavern that now constituted his ‘room’, inspiration had struck. Ryan’s only hesitation was the cost and secondary effects of adding yet another property to his skin.

Then, the editor realized he didn’t have to. Checking against his power to be sure brought an almost maniacal grin to his face. After all, I have two types of skin now, don’t I?

Would you like to upgrade your diamond skin to absorb kinetic energy while keeping previous qualities? Cost: 1,000 points per 1% of skin converted. Yes, or no?

Would you like to upgrade your kinetic diamond skin with the capability to direct a release of the stored energy while keeping previous qualities? Cost: 1,500 points per 1% of skin converted. Yes, or no?

A couple chunked and chugged trees later, Ryan had what he needed. After that, he’d simply gone in search of an opponent capable of hitting him hard enough to run worthwhile tests.

Turns out, getting hit and not actually having to feel it now let Ryan’s enhanced mind make changes if he wanted to when someone hit him. His new defense was now a resounding success. Ending the fight by giving Kevin the ‘sleep’ status wouldn’t have been sporting though.

So the editor had chosen instead to just bide his time. Run a few more tests… Then end it.

“So, you basically hit me with my own punch?” Kevin asked when Ryan finished his recounting, the aspect’s face clearly impressed. Though whether it was in response to Ryan’s trickery or finally feeling the full strength of his own blow, the editor couldn’t tell.

“Not quite. I was actually stocking up throughout the fight. Seeing how much I got - not much, by the way. Tested it on you a few times early on too, but you didn’t seem to notice. So...”

A smug gotcha-bitch expression crawled up onto Ryan’s face.

In turn, understanding dawned on the dragon aspect’s scaled mug. “Ahh… Okay. So you saved up, then you hit me.” Kevin nodded to himself. “That’s why you did the whole ‘strong as you can’ bit, huh?.”

“Ehh, yes and no. I had to see how much I could take in at once. To make sure it wouldn’t break like it did before, when I got shot.”

“You were shot?!” Shock evident in Kevin’s voice and on his face.

“Yep.”

The dragon aspect used both hands to emphasize as he clarified his next question. “And it broke your chest?” Kevin’s eyes glanced at the diamonds peaking through the many holes in Ryan’s shirt, his expression now incredulous.

“Yeah. Keep up, man.” Ryan responded as if they were merely discussing lunch options and not his own near-death experience. He looked down at his torn and burned up shirt. In hindsight, maybe cotton isn’t the best fabric to wear against a dragon...

Then Ryan looked over towards where breakfast was finally starting to get underway. A couple of his people were up already. They’d been watching the pair fight with interest, but now that the show was over breakfast became more important.

“Anyway, it’s grub time and I’m starving. What say we get some food?”

Kevin nodded and they headed over to the MRE line. On the way, Ryan added in a conciliatory tone. “Sorry about your hand, by the way.”

Kevin just shook his head and thumped Ryan on the back. Hard. “It’s all good, boss, you fixed it. And besides, that’s one hell of a counter you’ve got there.”

Then the aspect jabbed a thumb toward his scaled visage and added with a wry smile. “I’m just glad you didn’t ruin the moneymaker.”

Ryan laughed in spite of himself. The two men joked back and forth a bit more before parting ways. Kevin had to go check in with John and Ryan needed to mingle with the rest of his people.

His mother had always espoused the opinion that “Meals are the mortar of families”. Anyone who stayed with them while she was alive had quickly learned to be at the table, and with a quickness, whenever food was served. As Ryan looked around at the conversations starting up amongst those eating, waiting to eat, or just helping to serve food - he saw the wisdom of her words played out in real time.

Taking his box and thanking the self-appointed food-giver of the day, Ryan joined his new family for a meal.

*******************

“We should have the first three floors fully fitted with support columns and the next sectioned off today. After that, we’ll need you to go in and turn the walls, floors, and ceilings into something sturdier than dirt before we dig any farther. Make it concrete, preferably. With rebar, if you can. The steel should look something like this.”

Sheila jabbed a finger at one of the sketches laid out on the table. It showed multiple examples of how the steel rebar should fit into the concrete for optimal support at various angles. Just another one of several designs she’d had Ryan look at while they ate. The rest of his ‘council’ took turns looking over it as well. Even if only to sate their own curiosity. All save John who was currently attacking his freeze-dried and pre-cooked eggs with the military efficiency of an old soldier.

Breakfast had gone from conversation to an impromptu meeting.

Sheila and her crew, which comprised the lion’s share of their little band, had managed to clear out much of the rubble and expand the hole into several underground floors. The first was being set up for defensive positions, the second was for individual rooms and a few underground porta-potty type deals, and the third floor held their supplies. Any additional needs were currently being given space on an as-needed basis.

It was a temporary layout, Sheila had assured him. They still had much to do, with plumbing being the next high priority.

Still, despite what was obviously great progress for a single day, something nagged at Ryan. He’d walked through their base this morning on his way to wake Kevin. Each floor was little more than tunnels with furniture right now. You’d think a super-powered crew could do… more.

Since it was ostensibly his job to manage expectations, Ryan voiced that concern.

To his surprise, the dark dwarf just shrugged it off. “Aye, if we were super all the time maybe that’d be true. But we’re not. And we don’t have the food to be either.”

That confused the editor a bit. He’d helped carry boxes and boxes of food. They’d practically wiped out his uncle’s basement. How were they ‘out’ already? “What do you mean, we don’t have the food?”

Lily cleared her throat and spoke up. “Sheila’s right. We don’t.” At Ryan’s disbelieving eyebrow, the young woman quickly clarified her statement.

“Our powers need energy to work, just like yours does. Only, we can’t see when we’re out like you can. And once we’re out - that’s it… No more power. Not to mention the fatigue after. When I use mine too much it’s like I just ran five miles and feels like the sixth will kill me.”

Heads nodded from around the table, the others backing Lily up. Now that he thought about it, Ryan did recall Mike mentioning how he needed to eat more in order to fuel his clones. In light of that, this new information made perfect sense.

“But what about those without a ‘superpower’?” Ryan asked, switching his gaze back to the dark dwarf and glancing at some of the others in their camp who had changed race. “You all… evolved, right? You don’t have a power to feed.”

Sheila’s face took on a pained expression. “Well… aye…” The dwarf conceded. “But me new and improved beautiful self can’t work on just three boxes a day if you be wanting tunnels dug out as fast as you clear forest.” She gestured at the discarded pile of plastic leftover from her breakfast. “I already feel like I’m running on half a tank as it is.”

Ryan’s brow furrowed. He looked at the rest of his council, then back to Lily. “Are we that low on food that we can’t feed everyone fully?” The idea did not sit well with him.

It was the new head of logistics’ turn to make a pained face. “Well… I grew all those seeds you gave me, but there’s a limit to what even I can grow without access to more water. Without that…” She looked down to check her notes. “I’m still figuring out what each person requires but… we’ve enough food for at least a week. Two if we ration even further.”

Suddenly being the head of a group with super-powered ravenous appetites was turning into a bit of a headache. Ryan pinched the bridge of his nose. He’d have to add ‘food’ to the list of things Lucas needed to acquire. Unless they planned adding flaming bird to the menu. Wait a second…

“What about hunting? Those pigeons are basically pre-cooked, aren’t they? Just grab and go?” Ryan asked, his tone making it clear that his comment was at least partially a joke.

John’s face emerged up from his meal, though his fork was still poised to resume at any moment. “Mm. I was hopin’ to go try the very same today, actually. Gonna take the team out and see if we can’t bring back some of nature’s bounty.” A wolfish smile crossed the energetic old man’s face at the thought, then he returned to his meal.

Ryan nodded, glad his people were already looking for solutions that didn’t require his direct intervention. It would have been more than a little disheartening if he had to get involved in every little thing so soon after appointing them.

The rest of the day’s business was dispensed with pretty quickly. Equipment and furnishing requests were put off until Ryan could get to them overnight. Beyond that, there wasn’t much to discuss. Ryan promised Sheila he wouldn’t transform the dirt into concrete without her supervision, which put that project off for tomorrow. Lily decided to go with John to look for sources of nearby water.

Soon enough, they all got up to go about their tasks for the day. All except for Renee, who motioned for him to stay behind. When the others were out of earshot, she looked up at him with those entrancing eyes of hers and asked him in a soft, almost hesitant voice. “Did I do something wrong? You weren’t… around… when I went to bed. And Lily said you were up all night.”

A mental facepalm resounded through Ryan’s mind. “Oh, no-- Sorry, I should’ve said something. I figured out how to stay awake by spending points, so I spent last night making all of that-” Ryan gestured at the pile of materials that Sheila and crew were now going over. “- to get a jumpstart on everything. ”

“Oh… Alright.” Renee looked relieved. Then she shook her head as if trying to clear it. “I was worried I-- nevermind.” Embarrassment flicked onto her face, the first time Ryan had seen it outside of the dark.

“Did I--?”

She stood up quickly, cutting him off. “Nope. We’re fine.” Renee put a coy look on her face, the effect somewhat offset by her blushing cheeks. The lithe woman met his gaze evenly, her previous worry gone and confidence returning. “But I’d like some time with you tonight if you don’t mind. Now that we have actual rooms and furniture.”

Ryan agreed that he would. In his professional opinion, it was the easiest request he’d had to commit to all morning. Renee gave him a smile and a kiss that made his heart skip a beat, then left to help out the others. He watched her walk away just long enough to appreciate what he had before getting back to work.

The rest of the day passed by fairy quickly. Ryan spent the time converting the rest of his diamond skin into the new version, which he’d dubbed kinetic blast skin because it sounded cool. He also, finally, upgraded the rest of his skin to diamond so he could stop worrying about vulnerable fleshy bits getting caught in the crossfire. To his great satisfaction, where it met the conductive and wooden parts of his skin the gemstone appeared to coat over rather than replace them.

Testing it out, it was strange to walk around in what is essentially a shell made of precious jewels. Touching things felt like he had, well, an impermeable layer between the object and his own skin. He quickly realized that this eliminated any sense of touch when moving around as his enhanced strength bumped into - and broke - several things that Ryan hadn’t even felt. The diamond layer also greatly imparied his hearing now that it coated his ears… and his eyelids felt like they were trying to lift rocks.

The editor was quickly becoming what felt like a sensory deprived golem just lumbering about. Suffice to say, that was… not ideal. He could get used to it, sure, but if he wanted to interact with people - let alone Renee later that evening - then he’d need to figure out a better method. And not one where he gave the gemstone feeling - adding nerve receptors to his defensive layer did not sound like a good idea.

Condition added: At-will layering of body hardness. Condition cost: 1,000 points. Yes, or no?

Therrrrrre we go. Ryan thought with more than a little satisfaction.

After some trial and error, Ryan managed to relocate his new ‘body armor’ to cover most of his vital spots and a few other key areas without making things awkward when he moved. Layering the skin was a mental exercise that took a bit to adjust to, but when he did it was no different than moving it had been before.

The sensation of layering it however was distinctly… odd. He could only liken it to when his mother had put a face mask on him once, left it there for ten minutes, then peeled the sticky plastic off. Only this time it was rocks being peeled and they encompassed much more surface area than just his face. Some a good bit more sensitive, too.

Ryan spent another hour or two in the forest after dinner before he returned to base. True to her word, Sheila had managed to get the supports in place. The hole entrance had also been dug out a bit to form a set of spiral earthen stairs ending in a door. The whole affair was little more than wooden planks and boards reinforced in a metal frame - but it was a definite improvement over jumping down.

In the new common area on the first floor, dinner was being served. John and his team had managed to take down a brown bear roughly the size of BGM while out hunting. To hear his security captain tell it, lugging the thing back, cutting it up, and bringing each piece underground without spilling blood everywhere had actually taken more time than fighting. Since they lacked a proper kitchen for the moment, the meat was left in storage. Nobody was particularly eager to be the first to eat raw dire bear anyway.

Ryan quickly converted the walls of that particular room into those of a walk-in freezer while another of his people iced over the interior. The young man - Lucius - had a superpower that let him shoot cones of freezing cold air out from either hand, effectively making him a walking refrigeration unit.

Before meeting up with Renee for their date, Ryan stopped in his room to get cleaned up. While there he turned a section of the wall into a full-length mirror and gave himself a once over. It was the first time the editor had actually taken a good look at his reflection since the hospital.

He almost didn’t recognize the man staring back at him.

Ryan had never been ‘built’ before. Before the accident, he’d managed to stay appreciably fit-looking, minus the occasional visit from his chocolate-chip cookie pouch. He’d also never been exactly handsome. Good looking to some, average to others. The nice way of putting it, according to a well-meaning ex-girlfriend, was that while he’d never find work as a model, he could always try acting. He hadn’t let the comment sting. The truth was the truth, after all.

The man in the mirror before him now however stood at least 6 feet tall and was built like an olympic medalist. Not a strongman or weightlifter, but he easily could have passed for a competitor in one of the more athletic events. His features were sharp and though most of his face was hidden behind unkempt facial hair with bits of chipped wood stuck in it, the result wasn’t… bad. ‘Wild’ was perhaps the kindest description of his hair right now.

Ryan hadn’t exactly put much thought into his appearance lately. Nor had he ever tried to change his appearance with his power. Honestly, with everything going on it hadn’t been a concern. Seeing as it was now, the editor took his time making decisions. A few well-spent points later, the beard was gone and his hair was now cut in the fashion of one of his favorite actors. On repeat inspection in the mirror, the editor had only one thought.

Damn, I look good. Who’s not a model now, Becky?

A bit of totally-not-for-his-own-amusement flexing later, Ryan turned a critical eye to the rest of his body. His multicolored skin wove patterns of red copper and blueish elastic across his pale skin. His left arm proudly sported a mahogany streak that ran in an arc up to the shoulder. Silver veins traced under it all, disappearing in some places under a layer of diamond skin that reflected the light like a prism.

Where human eyes had once been, now only the eyes of a large savannah predator stared back. A golden iris with a black dot in the center. The look somehow worked on his shaven face, giving the impression of a man not to be trifled with while still not appearing too outlandish or alien.

Still… I don’t look human. Ryan realized, bringing a hand to his chin as he considered himself. The realization didn’t alarm him - he’d already had a feeling that was the case. The man in the mirror might not be human, but he looked to be something more. Something - Someone, Ryan mentally corrected - beyond just human. He could live with that.

Satisfied, Ryan nodded to himself and then stepped away from the mirror. That’s enough preening time, Narcissus. He chided himself good-naturedly. Then the editor spent a couple dozen more points to outfit himself into something more suitably presentable for his evening plans.

For the first time in a long time, Ryan had a date. And it might be in an underground soon-to-be bunker with a woman he still didn’t fully trust while his people prepared to wage a guerilla war on a superpowered megalomaniac…

But it was still a date, damnit. And with a beautiful woman, to boot. Dangerous, yes. But… that wasn’t the worst thing. Ryan was starting to become pretty dangerous himself.

With that cheery thought, the editor gave himself a nod in the mirror and left the room.

Cleaning up was all well and good, but he had places to be. And his father had taught him well.

Never keep a lady waiting.