Back in the fire station the following day, Darion spent most of his time in the small gym and refining his software root program on his laptop. I really need to find a way to enhance my laptop. This delay is just not acceptable, he thought to himself.

Jared is out patrolling the neighborhood so his entire day was relatively peaceful and quiet and with nothing happening. He liked it that way.

He'd done a thousand sit-ups, a thousand push-ups, a thousand squats, and another thousand armbar pull-ups. He still sweated a bit and yet, the strain in his body was somewhat negligible.

Based on trial and error, he already knew that getting that first point in his attribute is relatively easy, adding up to it is the real challenge. He wasn't even sure that he can level it up just by grinding.

The skills are completely different, although he also didn't completely understand it. As far as he knows, the specific skills and ability upgrades are activated by certain scenarios or requirements that only the system knew about.

It will be mere luck for him to find out exactly what the requirements are for a targeted superpower that he might want. But at least once you received the superpower, all you needed to do is grind it to make it stronger. Of course the higher the upgrade, the harder it is to level up.

Take his super strength for an example. The first 3 level up is mainly because he did a lot of physical training but now he is beginning to sense that the skill had plateaued and will need other requirements to level it up at this point.

This is what happened to his telekinesis powers since he made a breakthrough and understood a fundamental aspect of the power. At first, he believed that the size and distance of the object were important but it turned out that the only thing that matter was his will. By imposing his authority on the object, he can manipulate the object in a limited way. He learned this back in the base camp when he is able to continue floating objects even though they are not within his line of sight. By believing he can do something despite his understanding of logic and physics, he can easily float, or push or pull objects using his mind. The strain is when he had to struggle not to believe that the natural laws of the world will take effect despite his powers to circumnavigate it. Now his telekinetic skill is level 7.

He dropped down from the makeshift pull-up gym bar stationed in the training room. Then with a casual raised hand, his towel zipped towards his waiting hand. He did the same for the waiting water bottle before he drank a mouthful.

Then one of the regulars deliberately bumped him on his way to the same pull-up bar. "Bout time you finish, freak," the man said. Darion recognized him as one of the bigger firemen crew of engine 4. "You've been hogging that armbar for hours."

Darion sighed as he unhurriedly closed his bottle and faced the firefighter. His focus mind ability made sure that he knew exactly how long he spent time on the armbar and that was 9 minutes and 36 seconds. Of course, Darion knew that the man was not in the mood for an explanation, and truth be told, so is he.

"So? Are you going to do anything about it?" Darion mocked.

The man stopped. He then laughed and sighed in an exaggerated act as if he was about to let Darion go, but Darion had to mouth off and now he had to go back and set the kid straight. Darion remembered his name as Gilbert Monroe.

"You just don't get it, do you kid," Monroe said in a low voice filled with patience. "You don't belong here. The feds call you heroes but you're not. You are just some mutated freaks that were given a few abilities by god knows what. Some alien or the devil himself. I don't know, and I don't care. All I know is that me and my pals earn our spots here. You? You are nothing special. There is nothing extraordinary about you."

"Funny," Darion said with a smile. "That's not what your wife said last night."

Monroe took a step forward and he was inches away from Darion who never flinched and just stared back at him. Monroe's friend was just happy to let him mouth off since most of them feel the same way to Darion, but when he violated the street hero's personal space, they were suddenly alarmed and started pulling him back.

"Come on man, it's not worth it," One guy said behind Monroe.

"Don't ever talk about my wife, Freak," he said. "Fucker like you will-"

"You have 3 seconds to back off before I break one of your legs," Darion interrupted him. Any mirth in his face was long gone.

Monroe's buddies literally hauled him back. Mouthing off to a freak is one thing but to actually take a swing at a street hero will be a whole lot of trouble, both administratively and physically.

Darion watched them go and sighed. He'd wanted to use the weights but there are a lot of other guys who are using them and he didn't want to make a case out of it. Too many of the regulars in the training room already didn't like him, so no reason to add oil in an already heated situation.

Instead, he walked back to his room without another word.

*****

That night, he also had a somewhat problematic after-action report with his handler since he couldn’t tell her he used a superpower that is not registered in his power list.

Instead, he explained that he extrapolated the possible locations where the dog went, given its size, legs, and personality. He has 6 locations mapped, but it was fortunate that the dog was in the first location he visited.

Handler Stella brightened. "Ah! You used your tinkerer mind. I see... well that is a good decision on your part then."

Darion left the office and is simply relieved that he was able to hide his other skills like his heightened senses. He resolved to be more careful in the future and always put in mind his after-action report whenever he goes out in the field.

He was on his computer in his own room when a knock distracted him. He opened the door and Rebecca Milbar looked up at him in her wheelchair. Darion smiled and respectfully nodded to his fellow hero before inviting her inside her room. The girl declined and instead handed him a wooden box with a stylish metallic covering on its edges, and giving it an elegant presentation.

"I finished your request this morning. It survives my quality test and all parts and parameters are working fine. But I still want you to field test it and see if it is up to your standards."

Darion accepted the gift gladly. "Wow! Yeah, I can do that," he said happily. 'How much do I owe you?"

Rebecca Milbar is a former karate Olympic contender who spent her time training in all forms of martial arts since she was 6 years old. Unfortunately, at the age of 22, she was diagnosed with a rare disease that made her lose control of her muscles. Eventually, her body can no longer support herself and she ended up in a wheelchair permanently.

Just when she thought her life is over, the void hit her and gave her a tinkerer's mind. She also has a unique ability that enhances all her senses and sensation except for one: pain. She can still feel pain but only a very subdued form of it.

Two years ago, she developed an unbelievable device that can be attached to her spinal column which then helps her control her muscles once more. For two years, she is able to improve upon the proprietory device that is now embedded in her backbone. It even enhances her and giving her almost superhuman reflexes and maneuverability. Coupled with unique black armor, a utility belt full of technological tools, and her natural martial arts capability, she reminded Darion of a female batman, especially with her intimidating black glass facemask that shows no facial features.

Darion studied her device and he knew that the constant electric signal was sent by the device towards her body. Despite her ability to dampen pain, Rebecca is actually in constant suffering, but she learned to endure it and focus it on her will.

She had the codename of "Balance."

Last week, Rebecca asked Darion to take a look at her software for the AI companion in her helmet/mask. The AI gives the various support tools she needed to fight crime including maps of the city, communication jammer, and crime database to figure out if people have previous criminal records. Darion tweaked and then upgrade her program and she was so impressed she asked Darion if he wanted anything.

Darion asked for a tool to incapacitate his enemies and now Balance is ready to deliver her end of the bargain.

"It's a gift moron, you don't owe me anything."

"You sure?"

"I'm sure, just give me an update on how your tools work in the field," Rebecca said with a smile, as she about-faced with her wheels and proceeded to roll out in the corridor.

Darion smiled at her moving form before sighing and returned to his room.

Inside, Darion carefully placed the wooden box on his table and opened it. Inside was a customized gun designed to electrocute people into submission. Darion always wanted a way to incapacitate future criminals without actually rendering them broken. For now, his telekinetic power is a blunt instrument and is not meant for finesse work. Sure, he can accurately control his telekinetic power enough to do pinpoint dismantling of an AC unit, but not a moving biological target. Maybe in the future when it reached level 10 or something and he might have better control over it. As of now, his control is getting better, but it is outpaced by the strength of his mind power that he cannot still control its intensity.

Like he said: blunt instrument.

That is why he needed a secondary weapon to incapacitate the criminals, and hopefully not kill them.

It was a sleek gun with an angular design and it is shiny black for extra coolness. How the gun worked is that it gets fed with a small bar of metal and a micro-factory within the gun to manufacture the bullet which is then charged with a positive proton encapsulated in a thin metal conducive to electrical discharge.

The relatively tiny bullet created within the gun has just enough juice to drop any humanoid down the ground, but the way it was created made sure that Darion can adjust the intensity so that he can paralyze something bigger like a monster or a supervillain.

The gun came with an accompanying shoulder holster and with the coat he normally wears as part of his costume, the gun is well hidden.

Just then his computer beep and when he looked at it, it turns out that one of his spiderbot was purchased in the auction for $895,000. He turned to his own spiderbot under his bed still busy cleaning the dust under it. Then he pumped a victory fist.

Things are looking up for me, he thought, excitedly.