"I will never understand why I agreed to go to that stupid movie," concluded Larkin. "It was literally the most cliché thing I've ever spent my money to go see. My money! You should pay me for going to see it."

"Lark, it's not about the movie; it's about bonding over bad jokes and over-used movie lines while eating extremely buttery popcorn," explained Greta.

"You should still pay me," mumbled Larkin as the two girls walked out of the doors of the theatre.

On this particular Friday night, the streets of downtown Markusville were teeming with life. Throngs of people streamed down the sidewalks. Larkin reveled in the cohesiveness of it all. She adored watching the flickering neon lights flash in restaurant windows. The doors to little shops opened and closed, releasing more people out into the streets and sidewalks. Above it all, the stars blanketed the inky black night.

Larkin had been worrying about tonight. She was always on guard, ready to take down a criminal. Most of the time, Larkin didn't get much time to herself. Her duties topped everything else in life. Tonight had been quiet, so it appeared that Black Lightning had kept his word. She sighed, and let the muggy night air seep into her bones.

They began to walk down the street towards their homes. It was a sleepover night. Finally, the two girls arrived at a pocket park next to a shaved ice stand. Larkin thought the little patches of green space in the endlessly gray city were refreshing. Old-fashioned iron lampposts lit the little park, giving it a cozy feel.

Larkin and Greta sat down at a picnic table in the middle of the park. August-blooming flowers surrounded them.

"What are we going to do when we get back to your place?" inquired Larkin.

"Well," started Greta, tapping her fingers on the table, "it's been so long since we had a sleepover, so I think we should start with the basics. You know, movie, popcorn."

"Didn't we just do that?"

"Yeah, but I'm talking about a legitimately good movie. And popcorn that won't give you heart disease if you eat a large," Greta explained.

"Or we could..." Larkin trailed off. She had glanced over Greta's shoulder, looking into the shadows of the park. She could make out the outline of a person, standing against the wall of one of the buildings that surrounded the green space.

"Jacob?" she whispered.

Greta looked confused and turned around in her seat, searching the darkness. Larkin was sure the person was Jacob. After her eyes had gotten used to the darkness, she immediately recognized his brown hair and the way he slumped against the wall, as if he was trying to melt right into it. She saw his eyes widen when she whispered him name. He straightened his spine and jumped away from the darkness of the wall.

"It's him. I know it," Larkin insisted.

She kept her eyes trained on his rigid figure. The lower half of him was hidden behind an evergreen shrub. He called out to Larkin.

"She can't see me. It's no use," he declared. Jacob pushed his way through the bush until he was on the other side.

"Larkin, I don't see him. What exactly are you looking at?" questioned Greta as she peered over her shoulder in the general direction of Jacob.

Larkin believed him after that. "Oh. My eyes must have been playing tricks on me," she conceded.

"If Greta goes away, we can talk," Jacob insisted.

Larkin felt bad about it, but she really wanted to know what was happening. Why couldn't Greta see Jacob, who was so obviously standing on front of her?

"Hey Greta, will you go get me a shaved ice?" asked Larkin.

"Why should I do it?" protested Greta.

"Because you made me go to that terrible movie. It's the least you could do for poor old me," she pleaded, making puppy dog eyes.

"Fine. But only this once," caved Greta.

While Greta walked over to the shaved ice stand, which had a relatively long line, Jacob approached Larkin's picnic table and sat down in Greta's spot. The wooden seats creaked under the weight of the two people. Larkin scrutinized the boy she had hated for as long as she could remember.

"Why can't she see you?" asked Larkin, cutting right to the chase.

"Well, I think a more accurate question is: why can you see me?" questioned Jacob. He leaned across the tabletop, closing the distance between them. "This isn't supposed to be possible," he whispered.

Larkin squinted her eyes at him. She leaned away from his piercing gaze and noticed Greta walking toward the table with two cups of shaved ice.

"Go," Larkin commanded.

"Meet me here, back where I was standing, at exactly eleven thirty." Then he stood up from the seat and sauntered to edge of light from the lamppost.

"Lark, what were you mumbling about?" questioned Greta as she set the two cups on the table. They were filled to the brim with colorful ice.

"Oh, I was just thinking," she responded. "What flavor did you get me?"

"Strawberry, pineapple, and orange. Your favorite. I got cotton candy."

"That's gross," Jacob said. "All four of those flavors. Blueberry and grape are the only options," he informed. He had started pacing around the picnic table.

Larkin mentally cringed. Those were her absolute least favorite flavors. This only reinforced her dislike for the boy even more.

"Thanks Greta. What are the plans for the rest of tonight?" asked Larkin.

While Greta shoveled a bite of shaved ice into her mouth, Jacob took the courtesy to answer the question for her.

"You're going to be here. Eleven thirty. That leaves you with about one hour and thirty minutes to kill. I'm sure you can make it, given your abilities," he reassured.

Larkin's eyes almost bugged out of their sockets. My abilities? Does he know? Larkin was panicking inside. Had she let her secret out? Was she that obvious with it?

"Are you alright?" questioned Greta. She was staring at Larkin with a confused look on her face. "You keep looking over my shoulder. Is an axe murderer standing right behind me?" screeched Greta, jokingly.

Jacob scrabbled to move behind Greta. He pantomimed swinging at axe at her neck. "I could make that happen."

Larkin clenched her jaw. She felt like she was being haunted by a ghost. An extremely childish ghost. "Of course not. I just don't feel very good," she lied. "I think I might be sick. You know, everyone gets sick at the beginning of school."

Greta's smile dropped, and a frown replaced it. "I was looking forward to our sleepover," admitted Greta.

Larkin was wracked with guilt. She could hear the sorrow and hurt seeping into Greta's voice.

"Maybe next weekend?" suggested Larkin.

"Yeah, whatever," she answered without any conviction. Greta rose from her seat and didn't look back as she left the small park.

Larkin ached to rise and follow her out, join her at her sleepover, and be a normal person for once. Sadly, that wouldn't happen. Especially not now, when so much was brewing.

"Oooh. That didn't look to good. Blowing off a sleepover? That's, like, friendship ending stuff in the girl world, am I right?"

The irritating voice of Jacob Bridges pierced Larkin's bubble of sadness. It popped in a spray of words and emotions that Larkin couldn't control. She was done with this idiot, and only wanted to go home and relax: something she hadn't gotten to do in a long time.

"Listen up, Jacob," she said, practically spitting the words out of her mouth, "when you stand in the shadows watching me on my shaved ice date with my best friend, it doesn't put you very high up on my list of people I like." She shot out of her seat and approached the boy. "I don't know what you're playing at, but it's not funny, so spit it out. What is going on? Why couldn't she see you? I am not waiting for eleven thirty to find out."

Jacob had the nerve to laugh at her. It only infuriated Larkin more.

"Lark, it's not that big of a deal. Chillax," he insisted.

"Since you seem to know so much, then you should know that this whole situation I'm dealing with is life and death. Criminals aren't 'not that big of a deal,'" she fumed. Larkin stomped right up to Jacob and stared him down. Her glare could have cut grass.

He backed away from her intimidating glare. Blinking, he tried again. "Okay, I'm sorry. If you start with the beginning and ask one question at a time, I can answer them all, right here."

"I don't want to look like I'm talking to nobody. So make yourself visible."

"I'm not invisible. It's just that people forget me right after they see me, so I'm practically invisible, but not technically invisible. You can still see me, which I don't really understand, and I can't seem to make other people forget about you, either," he explained.

"So you are forgettable?" asked Larkin.

He pursed his lips in thought. "Sort of. Let me start from the beginning. My name is Jacob Bridges. I live in a dysfunctional family of three, soon to be two. My father is a wanted criminal and never leaves the house. He wants me to do his dirty work for him, but I refused, and he won't back down, to put it bluntly."

Larkin was shocked. She didn't have any weapons left in her arsenal of words. She remembered her mother mentioning a divorce happening between the Bridges couple. All she could do was avert her gaze as she pondered his earth-shaking revelation.

"I'm sorry," she said. There were no other words available.

Jacob released a breath he had been holding. "I'm just relieved that you didn't go off on me for being affiliated with a criminal."

"Families aren't perfect," she responded. "No biggie."

"What if I told you that my father was the Imposter?" he wondered aloud.

Larkin stopped twiddling her thumbs that instant. Her eyes shot from where they had been studying a crack in the smooth concrete below them to Jacob's hazel eyes. She could see his embarrassment and same in his facial features, but couldn't help scooting backwards on the bench a little.

"The Imposter." Those were the only words her mouth could form, the only words her brain could think of.

Jacob swallowed before continuing. "He wants me to kill Richard Knolls so that George Fredericks can have a clear path to becoming the governor. It is to my understanding that Mr. Knolls is your father. Then, the Imposter would have a person in the system, manipulating things to his favor. I can't, won't, let that happen. Instead, I've been pretending to do my father's bidding while trying to get rid of Fredericks."

Larkin whet her lips. She was suspicious of Jacob. She couldn't know if he was actually telling the truth. "Two things. One, why didn't he just do it himself? Second, how did you make him believe you were that bad of a shot?"

"It's all about his twisted sense of pride. It's about 'passing on the legacy' or something like that. And I told him that I tripped the first time. The second attempt, in the restaurant, I told him not to worry about it. I think he was starting to doubt my criminal abilities," decided Jacob.

"That he should. You don't seem to be horribly evil," admitted Larkin with a smirk.

Jacob playfully punched her on the shoulder. "Me?" he said, in mock anger. "Not horribly evil? I'm totally evil."

"I don't think many criminals would describe themselves as totally evil, so no," she decided, grinning.

Jacob's carefree smile melted off his face as he remembered something important. "Why can you see me?" he asked, perplexed.

Larkin frowned. "I've always been able to see you. You're not a ghost, are you?" she joked.

"That's not what I meant. As I explained earlier, I don't know why you can see me. Everyone else forgets right away, if I want them to."

Larkin scoured her memories for any significant piece of information. She knew there had to be a reason she didn't forget Jacob at all. After a few seconds of thinking, Larkin finally remembered.

"Jacob, I think we should go somewhere more private. I know no one is in the park right now, but I don't want to take any chances right now. We're in some deep stuff and I don't know how to get out of it," she explained.

Jacob nodded his head before standing from the table. "Where should we go?"

Larkin stood as well and looked at Jacob. When she was standing at her full height, she was almost as tall him. Smirking, she turned tail and briskly walked out of the park.

"Hey! I don't know where you're going!" he called out. Jacob scrambled to catch up with her quick pace.

"Follow me. Since you seem to know so much about me, I bet you have a guess as to where I am headed," she said. Her voice had a taunting lilt to it that made Jacob walk faster.

Larkin was ready for the challenge. Before Jacob caught up to her, she tuned into an alleyway in between the library and the bank. It was a dead end, but Larkin knew what she was doing. Breaking into a jog, she let her super suit form over her skin and her regular clothes melt into her body. Now, as Coalescence, Larkin slid into the shadows, and waited.

She could hear Jacob panting, jogging to catch up with her. She grinned at the prospect of a game such as this one: carefree and lighthearted. It was nothing like the kind of chase she was used to. Also, this was a game she knew she could win. After all, Jacob couldn't use any of his powers on her since none of the other supers' powers worked on her.

She was standing in the corner at the end of the barren alley when she saw his silhouette cross the entrance. She watched as he didn't slow his gait until he had almost crossed it completely, but he stopped just in time. He let out a low chuckle.

"Lar— Coalescence, I know you're down there. I can feel your presence," he whispered.

The whisper echoed down the empty alley, all the way to Larkin. Even though they were in the city, the occasional rumble of a car on a street a couple blocks down was the only noise. She shivered when his words registered. What did he mean by saying that he can feel my presence? That's when Larkin realized that she may have underestimated her opponent. She didn't dare to breathe, and only pressed herself tighter against the wall.

Jacob took his time walking down the alley. He sauntered down slowly, and his footsteps didn't make any noises. Larkin waited.

"I've gottcha."

She couldn't be gotten so easily, and let a smirk of her own grace her lips.

"You didn't think I was going to make it this easy, did you?" she questioned.

At that moment, Jacob lunged across the rest of the distance for Larkin. She didn't even flinch when one of his hands latched onto her shoulders.

"It seems that I've—" She didn't let him finish his words of victory because he hadn't won.

Larkin reached up and grasped onto Jacob's shoulder. She grinned before using her powers both on herself and him. As the molecules in Larkin's body rearranged themselves, the ones in Jacob's did as well, and they sunk through the concrete in the alleyway, into the bowels of Markusville.