“This is me.” Lucy said, gesturing up her driveway.

Hanna had stopped looking around so excessively since that morning, but she was still abrasively staring at everything. With Lucy’s announcement, Hanna’s stare turned to the garden and the rows of unkempt hedges against the perimeter fences, the twenty foot long driveway leading to the garage, and the two story building attached to it.

“Really? This you?” Hanna demanded.

Lucy didn’t repeat herself, preferring to let actions speak as she walked up to the front door and took out her keys. The other girl drifted behind her, looking incredibly out of place with her still disheveled hair in the mostly groomed neighbourhood. Lucy's house was a bit of a let down on that front, not that Hanna seemed to care. Her disbelief only went away when the door was unlocked and opened, and she was standing inside.

“So you live in the rich neighborhood, huh.” Hanna commented as she looked around the lounging area. “This is way better than I thought it would be.”

“I’m gonna drop my stuff off in my room.” Lucy said, making for the stairs after closing the door behind her visitor. A hand landing on her arm pulled her to a stop. Lucy reflexively tried to pull herself free, but the hand was like a vice. She spun and saw Hanna staring back with wide eyes.

“There isn’t anyone else here, right?” Hanna whispered.

“Uh…” Lucy really wanted to free herself. She licked lips as she tried to think up a good thing to say. “Just me walking about.” She gave an awkward smile to try and sell it.

“... alright.” The hand on her arm slowly released, and Lucy quickly put distance between them. “What? Oh, right. Strength.” Hanna absently flicked some fingers against her forearm. “Forgot. My bad.”

Instead of giving something away with an undignified response, Lucy turned and rushed upstairs. Halfway up the feeling of blood rushing to her head spread to the rest of her body and she missed a step, but caught herself and made it the rest of the way to her room. She only stopped hurrying when she had closed the door behind her and was leaning against it.

That feeling… had been familiar. It had also felt wrong.

You have lost a contest of strength.

Lucy stared at her hands as her body slowly forgot the feeling and started feeling normal again. She breathed out and closed her fists, resolving to keep a healthy distance from Hanna in the future. In a way, it was lucky that Hanna had been stronger. Otherwise she’d have figured out Lucy was more powerful than she should have been.

Reasoning does not alter defeat.

Putting that out of her mind, Lucy walked over to her bed and unceremoniously dumped her bag there. Then she went into her wardrobe and found her crowbar and mask. The former went under her pillows, where it would be hidden, but more accessible, while Lucy lingered on the former.

“Liam.” She said to the empty room, still looking over the blue eye she’d painted in the forehead of the mask. “Someone came over today, her name is Hanna.”

“so you do have a friend” He hissed from the shelf.

Lucy laughed. It was a fake sound. “No, we literally met a week ago, and this is the third time we’ve really… I wouldn’t call it hang out.” Lucy paused, running a thumb over the painted eye. Her mom had luminescent paints in her workshop that Lucy had used for the sharp oval, but she’d done the detailing of the iris and pupil using more normal colours. “She and I stole powers last Thursday.”

“i can’t believe-” The hiss cut off more abruptly than usual. “partners in crime”

“Kind of. We were henchmen at best.” Lucy confessed. “She thinks I don’t have a power and is pitying me. Or taking advantage of me.” She sighed and shoved the mask under her pillow with the crowbar. Just a precaution. “Why does it always feel like people are doing both?”

Lucy stood in her room, not entirely sure what she was contemplating until a question from Liam roused her from her thoughts. “what did she drink”

“The Adept’s Oil. So far as she’s told me, her focus is making emitters and hiding things. And so far that includes hacking into the school network, and an unfinished thing that emits stillness.” Lucy paused. “And something that cleans. She’s had to put her clothes outside her room because otherwise she wouldn’t have any laundry, but now her underwear is getting stolen.”

“why are you telling me that” Liam hissed after a prolonged pause. “are you trying to make me feel guilty or something so i’ll help”

Lucy didn’t have a straight answer for that. “I just thought you’d like the conversation.” She said at length. “I should really get back though. She doesn’t have the best impulse control and keeps trying to make things.” Lucy stood in her room for a few moments longer before awkwardly moving to the door and returning to her guest.

“Yo, there’s fuck all in your fridge.” Hanna called out when Lucy was coming down the stairs.

Lucy paused, then continued. “That’s because it only really feeds me. Put that back, please.”

Hanna stopped, but still held the carton of milk half tipped towards her mouth. “Spine, I’m hungry as fuck, didn’t eat because I can’t afford it. Let me have this.”

“No. Put it back and I’ll let you have this.” Lucy pulled a snack bar out of the pantry.

“Nah, I got an allergy.” Hanna said, though she did relinquish the milk.

“Not anymore.” Lucy put the bar on the counter for Hanna to pick up in her own time. “Did you research the vial you drank at all? Even cancer goes away when someone drinks one of those things.”

“Shit, really?” Hanna stepped closer but shortly came to a halt. She cast a suspicious look Lucy’s way. “This isn’t you trying to kill me right?”

“Not really my style.” Lucy said as she stepped over and took her milk back from the other girl. Her style was more along the lines of swinging a crowbar at the heads of her opponents. She couldn’t really have that prepared in this situation, so when the milk was back where it should be, Lucy went to the cutlery drawer and quietly took a knife from there. It wasn’t sharpened, and fit well when Lucy tucked it into the waist of her pants.

Just as a precaution.

Hanna meanwhile had ripped open the snack bar and taken a single nut from it using her fingers. She was rolling it between her thumb and finger, considering. When she noticed Lucy looking, Hanna shrugged and popped it into her mouth before biting down on it with an audible crunch. She swallowed and began to wait.

“How long would it normally take?” Lucy asked.

“For me to start choking without a daddy? Ten minutes at most.”

Lucy blinked away the crass joke. “Well I don’t have an epipen. So if what I read online was false…” She trailed off.

Hanna burst out laughing. “You’re a cold bitch, spine! Show me this workshop you told me about. And get me a glass of water too.”

Lucy turned and retrieved a glass from the cupboards above the sink, but left the glass by the sink without filling it. Hanna seemed to find that funny as well. When she was done filling up her glass, Lucy led her to the door leading down to the basement.

After considering saying something, Lucy opened the door and walked down into the workspace her mother hardly used. One wall had all the house’s utilities, like the hot water cylinder and power boards. The other three walls had a long bench running along the perimeter, and a wide square table complete with vices on two sides.

Her dad’s tool chests covered a small part of the nearest bench, and had been gathering dust since before Lucy turned ten. About the three times that space on the table was covered by the paints, brushes, fabrics, and sewing machines, as well as other bits and pieces that had been picked up before being discarded at various points along her mom’s career. Most of the rest was taken up by various props and costumes whose productions were long since finished and now had nowhere else to stay.

Only two spots were cleared for use. The one Lucy used, and the one her mom used when she was here. Right now both were recently dusted, and Lucy would try getting Hanna to work in her mother’s spot.

“Woah.” Hanna said, unable to find any other words. In a way, it was the best compliment the girl had ever given Lucy. “You’re just full of surprises aren’t you?” Suddenly she pushed past Lucy, who managed to stop herself from going for her knife, and ended up in front of a prop gun from a sci-fi. “What’s the story here?” She demanded.

“My mom works in costume design for movies.” Lucy said simply.

“Shit, really? That’s awes- Isn’t this the gun Meg Ryan was using in that warp movie?” She demanded, clearly wanting to touch it, but also afraid to do so.

“Yep.” Lucy answered.

“And that-” Hanna gave up on the gun and stopped next to a mannequin in a costume. It was just a torso, meant for dresses, rather than shirts and pants, but it wore them all the same. She turned and looked back at Lucy. “This is what Meg was wearing, right? I remember the poster.”

“It-”

“Where’s the jacket though?” Hanna asked suddenly, actually touching the costume this time. Lucy just pointed up when Hanna looked her way. “No way.”

Lucy shrugged. The jacket was comfortable, and was just one of the many repeats from the way her mom had told it. Somewhere in the hundreds, apparently. A lot of shots had involved destroying or damaging the jacket. Rather than explain that, she deflected. “That’s the mannequin that was used to test her wardrobe, by the way. Sizes should still be the same.”

Hanna’s hands immediately went from carefully touching the clothes to pressing on the mannequin’s breasts. She frowned, likely feeling how the mannequin was segmented to accommodate the adjustable size. “Huh, didn’t realise they did that.”

Lucy went over to the mannequin and gently pushed Hanna to the side, upping her effort when the girl didn’t move at first. Then lifted the sleeve. “There’s a dial, see?” Hanna looked through the gap Lucy made and grunted. “There are more on the waist and hips, side, front, and back, to adjust the size. That one does these.” Lucy pointed at part Hanna had recently molested.

“So what you’re telling me is that I have a celebrity’s three sizes right in front of me?” Hanna asked, actually grinning for the first time since Lucy had met her. “That’s fucking cool.”

Lucy didn’t really agree. Those measurements were available on Meg’s wiki page. “So.” She said. “I’ve decided that pretty much everything in this room is off limits for you.”

“What!?” Hanna demanded, rounding on Lucy, whose hand went to her hip. “You... fucking tease!”

“Let me finish.” Lucy said, voice calm. It somehow managed to stall the enhanced girl in her basement. She gestured towards her dad’s tool chests. “Those are available for you to use, as is the sewing machine and paints, but considering how you told me you make emitters and like to hide things now, those won’t see much use. I can’t let you use anything from mom’s old jobs because she remembers all of them.

“If something goes missing, she’ll know and ask me about it. There’s a lot that you can ask from me, but me lying to my mom isn’t one of them. So really it’s a question of your self control. Can you stay within those rules? Because if you can’t, you’re not coming back.”

Hanna stood next to the mannequin, her hands slowly dropping back to her side as she thought it over. “It’s gonna be hard not putting something in here to make the gaps solid.” She admitted. “I could take apart the metal cylinder, use some of those pipes, and after spending time with that piece of plastic and a saw, have a little cube that would do exactly that.”

“And my hot water?” Lucy asked in rebuke.

Hanna waved a hand. “Cold showers, spine.”

“I’m serious, Hanna.” A thought struck Lucy, inspired by something Hanna said earlier that day. “Tower.”

“What?” Hanna shook her head. “No, if you’re willing to let me down here, that’s a fucking godsend. Just watch out, I’ll spend all fucking day down here if you let me.” She kicked the foot of the table lightly. “When I have something to work on, that is.”

“Yes, the materials you’ll have to get on your own.” Lucy agreed, watching the table to make sure it wasn’t swaying or anything. It wasn’t. “I’ll get some boxes from the garage for you to keep it in. Mom keeps my stuff alone for the most part.”

“Your stuff?” Hanna repeated. Lucy gestured at a childish drawing of two stick figures holding hands with a smaller stick figure between them framed and hanging on the wall. “Cute.”

“My stuff goes under that.” Lucy said. “So yours will go to the right of it.”

Hanna’s eyes lingered on the third most clean space in the workshop, then flicked back to Lucy. “And what the hell did you mean by tower?”

Lucy let herself smile, and widened it a touch when she saw the other girl fail to understand. “Don’t you need a villain name if you have a superpower?”

“Hero.” Hanna corrected automatically. “But not a government slut. I was going to be a hero my own way.”

“Okay Tower.” Lucy conceded. “It’s kind of more fitting that way.”

“What the fuck do you mean by tower?”

“Come on, you were the one who explained it to me.” Lucy said. “Your power revolves around hiding emitters. You’re a cell tower, Tower. With a name like that, you’ll have conspiracy theorists looking for tinfoil hats to wear over their tinfoil hats.”

Hanna thought about it. “I’ll think up my own name, and it’ll be better.”

“Sure, Tower.” Lucy let her expression fall from something positive to something neutral. “Is that enough of a tour, then? I’d like to do my homework without worrying about you tearing my basement apart.”

“Where’s the bathroom?” Hanna asked after some consideration. Lucy jerked her head towards the stairs and led her to the appropriate room. Hanna didn’t use it though, she just went inside and looked around while finally starting to munch on the snack bar Lucy gave her.

“You know, spine, you could host a helluva party here.” Hanna said, coming back out. “‘Course, you’d need to know who to invite for that. Is this what people eat all day every day?” She was looking at the ingredients of the bar. It had been around ten minutes, and Lucy hadn’t noticed anything resembling allergies appearing on the other girl. “This is shit.”

“It’s a holdover for actual meals.” Lucy said, ignoring the jab about friends and opening the front door. “I’ll see you when you have actual stuff to work on.”

Thankfully, Hanna left without too much of a fuss, walking backwards onto the porch. “Sure thing spine. See you ‘round.”

Lucy didn’t say bye in return. She just closed the door and walked away from the laughter coming from outside. She was very much looking forward to the weekend, when she could finally bloody her knuckles.

~~~

SRA Streamrock Central Director Cameron Sunshrieker had a very important decision to make. Neither of the actionable options were good. In fact, both were terrible. For him and for anyone else involved. But it was now Thursday, the one week anniversary of the Sentry Jumpspark going missing, and simply acting like Jumpspark was taking an extended vacation was no longer an option.

Declaring the Sentry dead was also not an option. There wasn’t a body to declare deceased. The best Sunshrieker could do was declare him missing in action, which had a whole host of problems that would arise in that event. First and most importantly, it would cast doubt onto his position as a director, despite him not actually having executive control over the Sentries. Secondly, public interest would demand that Jumpspark’s civilian identity be revealed, which would also cast doubt on Sunshrieker in the event that the Sentry returned alive.

Jumpspark’s family would also be dragged under a spotlight they might not be ready for. The mother and father had already appeared on camera, pleading for anyone with information regarding their son’s location to come forward. The sister had not yet made an appearance, but it would only be a matter of time. Not only that, but any villains Jumpspark had created a grudge with would be able to target his family, regardless of the Sentry’s actual condition.

The chances were historically low, but Jumpspark had interacted with more than a dozen villains over his career. Villains who Sunshrieker couldn’t exactly check the psychological reports of. He knew for a fact that Tyr had flown across the country to visit a psychologist that had published a write up of the villain’s psyche, and that was enough for Sunshrieker to consider alternatives.

His other option was to keep things quiet. If instead of announcing Jumpspark to be missing, but rather that he was retired and perhaps moving to another city, scrutiny from the public would be low. The citizens of Streamrock who liked the Sentry would be sad to see him go, but that would be the end of it, at least from the public. Members beneath him in the SRA would know the truth, as would every Sentry and Sentinel. It would be enough for a private investigation to be called for, which again cast doubt onto his position.

But Sunshrieker would have protected Jumpspark’s family, three members of the public, from potentially being targeted by villains. It fulfilled the mission objective of the Superhero Regulation Accord, to ensure that actions of super powered individuals did not negatively impact the lives of others.

Thankfully, a blinking light on Sunshrieker’s desk alerted him to a scheduled meeting that would pull his mind from the matter briefly. Hopefully he would be able to make a decision, or think up a better course of action when it was done. The director pressed a button to buzz his visitor in and Mercury of Control stepped into his office.

“Director.” The hero nodded his way, holding a potted bonsai tree with one arm.

“Daniel.” Sunshrieker responded, using the hero’s civilian name as he stood to shake the hero’s hand. Considering the bonsai, he extended his left.

“They gave you my file, huh.” Daniel commented. “You know, I thought they gave it to the Sentries at first when I met them. Turned out they were speaking to a kid that wasn’t even physically there. Hell of a scout you’ve got in the scouts.”

“Thank you.” Sunshrieker said properly. “The pair enjoys three sets of names. They share the title Best Friend, but when speaking with a specific one it is better to use the names Danny and Tammy for clarity. The third is of course their civilian names.”

“Oh, and before we move away from it, call me Mercury, not Daniel.” Daniel, or perhaps Mercury insisted. Sunshrieker watched as he sat down in the couch chair opposite his desk. “So. I wasn’t supposed to wait this long before debrief.”

“Considering the circumstances, it is understandable.” Sunshrieker referred to the effort with which the hero had sat down.

“Benefit of my power.” Mercury explained, nudging the bonsai he placed on the arm of his chair. He hadn’t let go of it yet, and probably wouldn’t for some time. “My body practically goes into stasis when it’s made of stuff that isn’t my body. But when I replace it with living stuff I can modify it somewhat. Reattached an arm that way. Only problem is that every injury takes the same amount of time to heal.”

Director Sunshrieker listened as he found the relevant incident report and pushed it towards the hero before him. Detailed there included the inch deep hole that had been left in the hero’s back after getting shot. “That is the report that was filled out with your verbal testimony. Please read through it and mention anything you feel was left out.”

The distance between Sunshrieker’s desk and the chairs for visitors normally meant someone sitting would need to stand to pick something up from the desk. Mercury however, simply slid forward as he leaned in the same direction, and was back in his chair moments later with the report in hand. He didn’t even take his hand off of his tree.

“How did your power testing go with Inheritor?” Sunshrieker asked as the hero used one hand to flip through the papers.

“Better than expected.” Mercury said without looking up. “Never thought I’d know what it was like to be air. Turns out it’s freeing. Kind of like wearing a dress.”

Any response to that would be inappropriate, so Director Sunshrieker instead tried another tack. “I do have a question regarding your power, if you’ll humour me. How does the power you wield interact with the Law of Affect?”

Mercury glanced up briefly. “My power only affects myself, technically. You ever met Felwyr?” He asked instead.

“I haven’t had a reason to.”

The hero flipped the report so the pages landed in the order they’d been given to him. “That’s his law you’re talking about, so use his name when you’re asking about it. Nothing really missing in there, unless you want me to specify which exact manhole cover I kicked at…” He flipped to the second page again. “Maginot? Really? Does this guy even know the history there?”

He probably didn’t, and Sunshrieker would have preferred Mercury did specify the exact manhole cover that was used as a weapon, but he also understood some things were never going to be perfect. “That will not be necessary, Mercury. I expect the people of Control will be missing you.”

“Awesome.” Mercury flipped the report closed again, then tossed it towards Director Sunshrieker’s desk. Given that it was a stapled stack of paper, it wasn’t very aerodynamic and fell short. The hero didn’t make any moves to stand, leave, or pick up his mess.

Sunshrieker only noticed when he was finished pulling a carry bag with a bottle of champagne out from behind his desk. “Is there a problem, Mercury?”

“Yeah, I’m wondering what the fuck you think it is you’re doing in that chair.” Mercury said bluntly.

Sunshrieker was nonplussed, in a word. “If you would explain.” He eventually requested, pushing the champagne bag to the side and out of the way.

“Control is, as I’m sure you’re very aware, not based in any one state.” Mercury’s voice was severe. “So we pull from the teams of cities with heroes to spare. I’m not saying your city has heroes to spare, the whole reason I came here was to fix it, and we both know how that went. What I am saying is that Jumpspark was on the list of heroes we would have offered a place in our group when he turned eighteen. I’m also saying that the reason you are down approximately six heroes right now is because of you.”

“That is a serious accusation.” Sunshrieker’s beating heart was covered up by his practised calm voice.

Mercury leaned forward in his chair. “Director Sunshrieker, did you know that your missing hero was capable of delivering a sustained supply of one million volts? That’s at least three times the voltage of a lightning strike. When they were testing him, they had to stop because their equipment wasn’t able to take the strain, everything kept burning out. That number I just threw at you is an estimate. It’s also the kind of number we throw at theta class creatures and calamities so that we can sleep at night. Control was notified right away. We were going to approach with an invitation in six months. And you lost him.”

Direction Sunshrieker grit his teeth. “Losing him was Not my error.”

“But finding him Is your responsibility.” Mercury riposted. “And it’s been a week. He’s still missing Sunshrieker. Ergo, you lost him. That’s one of the six. Let’s talk about the other five, shall we?”

“There was a leak of information, that much is obvious.” Sunshrieker said. “I have a list of names of people who were informed that your delivery was going to occur. It’s one of them. They’re being investigated already.”

“I don’t care. Leaking information happens all the time, it’s a problem every SRA director has to deal with. That you seem to be failing at that is just another mark against you. What I’m talking about here is the method proposed to bring the vials to you. You have a perfectly functioning airport, so having the vials flown in would have worked just fine. There’s a clear route to this building from several highways leading into this city. Clearing those streets for an armed convoy would have been Far more effective than what we ended up doing. What You suggested.”

“There is a difference between valid criticism and wishful thinking, Mercury. Our funding only allowed for what was planned for, and what’s done is done. Now is the time to move on and figure out what to do next.” The director stood and walked around his desk, picking up the champagne bag along the way. Said bag was held out for Mercury to take. “For you, that is taking this parting gift and being on your way. Your presence has darkened my wards for long enough.”

Mercury stood and placed his upturned palm under the strands of the bag, but did not take it until Sunshrieker dropped it into his waiting hand. He looked inside, considering. “You have it right, Sunshrieker. I just wonder what you are going to do next. The people aren’t going to like it when they learn you lost one of their favourite kids.”

“Have a safe flight, Daniel.” Director Sunshrieker said, dismissing the hero. Thankfully he was allowed the last word, Mercury only waving over his shoulder with the hand holding the bag.

The door swung shut. The director picked up the incident report at the foot of his desk and laid it out flat on top of it. The paper had creased while it was on the floor.

Five vials that were meant to change his city were missing.

So was one of his young heroes.

And Sunshrieker still wasn’t sure what the best decision to make was.