=== Kari ===

It took fourteen years, but I finally can control my powers! No accidentally breaking a cup (usually) or going so fast that every beaker I've ever been around shatters. With a little work, I can even go that fast and not break anything. I don't really know how to explain what I'm doing but it works and that's all that matters!

I was finally free. I also started creating little Tak-Tiks of life in the lab and a lot of people really liked them. It was usually just lifestyle stuff. My parents forbade me from revealing my powers to anyone, but it was so hard to be separated from everyone else. I needed contact. I needed people. So, when I was offered a chance to advertise something. I think it might've been like a weight loss thing, but I didn't care. I just wanted to go out. And I did. I snuck out and flew out to the closest big city. I had grown up in the suburbs and had only visited the city a handful of times.

Avalare City was marvelous. Literally! I marveled at the huge buildings! Skyscrapers of glass and iron. The tallest building I had ever seen was maybe a quarter of the size of one of the shorter buildings. I wasn't paying attention to where I was walking when I bumped into someone and he fell down. Brought back down to earth, I offered my hand. He took it and pulled himself up, grimacing at the coffee that had stained his shirt and the crushed cup in his hand.

“Watch where you're going,” he said in a soft, angry voice.

“Oh, I'm so sorry. I was just a little distracted. The buildings are so tall!” He was shorter than me by a few inches. He had black hair and a surly scowl. More than anything, he had piercing eyes. Piercing blue eyes. Memories came flooding back to me. All of the bike rides, that time we had to take care of an egg for Home Economics, my first kiss. The look on his face when I left.

“Curtis,” I mumbled. I managed to not think about him some days. What could have been? What he was doing, if . . . If he found someone else. I hope he did. I'd never see him again. And it didn't matter. He looked up and met my eyes and I felt my heart skip.

“Do I know you?” He asked, venom in his voice. “Or do you just say random names when you spill someone's coffee?”

“Curtis? Curtis Reese? Is it really you?”

“No one else volunteered to be, so I'm stuck with the position,” he responded dryly. “Who are you?”

“It's me, Cee,” I responded. I put my hands on his shoulders and he shrugged them off, backing up for a moment, studying me as though I were some kind of puzzle to figure out. “It's me, Kari, silly goose.”

“Kari. That's a name I haven't heard in a very long time.” He shook his head and frowned. “You look good. Well, have a nice day.”

“ 'Have a nice day'? That's all I get? I took your first kiss and I get 'Have a nice day'?” I asked, a well of pain building in my chest. He looked back. Those were the same eyes. But the skin around them had become harder. He looked bitter and angry and tired. He had always had a streak of that when we were kids, but it looked sharpened. Honed. He had sharp, angular features. He had filled out since I had seen him last. He wasn't too skinny. Actually, he looked strong.

“You should check your email sometimes. Lots of dangerous spam, but occasionally there's a letter from an old friend asking what happened. Asking you to reach out. To call. To talk to him.” His voice was masked behind a wall of cold indifference. “But it might be too late to reconnect. It has been a long time.”

“Cee, I'm sorry about that. My parents wouldn't let me reach out. We were . . . I was . . .” My voice trailed off. I couldn't tell him. I had to keep my abilities secret. No one could know. “Can we start over? Get me a soda and some fries? I haven't had fries in ages.”

“Fine. We can catch up.” He took his phone out of his pocket, flicking through different screens with perfect accuracy. As though this was all he did all day. “49th Avenue and Main Street. 6 o'clock.”

“Oh . . . Um. Okay. Yeah.” My heart sank. It was so cold, almost clinical. Like it was a dentist's appointment. That hurt. He doesn't seem like the same person. It has been almost a decade and a half. I hope the boy I knew is still in there somewhere. But it's still nice to see him.

I rushed off to do my little advertisement. It was an energy drink that was supposed to help you lose weight. They called it Energy Bomb. We spent a couple of hours taking a lot of pictures. They had me hold the can, and drink from it. It was disgusting. Tasted like battery acid and melted Happy Farmers, a fruity candy that was always too sweet for me. Then they had me say a couple of lines. That took so long because I had to lie. I had to say it tasted great. My voice sounded so stilted. The director sighed. “I'm going to have to cut a lot of these takes together. But we'll get it to work.”

They paid me in cash. 500 dollars! I've never seen so much money. I did make some amount of money from my Tik-Taks ad revenue, but my parents managed that and I never saw it. I wish I had because there were some things I wanted. 500 dollars wasn't going to buy me all those things, but I could get something. And pay for my date with Curty-poo.

=== Curt ===

Kari . . . I thought to myself. She had certainly grown up . . . And filled out. She was a gangly teen the last time I had seen her. She was still tall. But her lips had gained a poutiness. Her eyes were no longer a little too big for her face. She had become . . . curvier. Even under a sweater, I could tell. But she was still sweet. Still had that smile that always felt right. Never mind that. I have to get to planning.

I walked into Wan En, Andrew Wan's research and development wing. They were doing a tour to the public. A goodwill gesture to show that they were more than Bion's armory. Andrew Wan had been active for 15 years. He was strong and capable. Had saved the world countless times. And had caused incalculable damage to the areas he fought in. Fleeing people had died from the rubble. The explosive plasma he used had thrown people against walls and given people 5th-degree burns. People died when he fought. He had a few charities that tried to make up for the damage he caused. And undoubtedly, the results would have been worse if he had not been there to stop threats.

But it was not enough. He was a trillionaire. He had more money than multiple countries combined. And that was his personal wealth. His company was worth multiple trillions. And he benefited from being Bion. His company was given grants to develop new weapons for the military. He sold toys and had a ton of public goodwill. And he used his wealth to amass more wealth.

The tour was pretty basic. A smiling blonde woman in a formal pantsuit and tied-back hair showed us all of the public projects. Genetic studies, energy developments that were going to be lent out to struggling communities, a few of the older weapon developments, and an entire section devoted to Bion that had various older versions of the suits he had developed. Or at least replicas of them. I had collected several pieces of the real thing. I had to grant that he was a genius. And when he noticed the little guys he accidentally crushed under the might of his larger-than-life persona, he tried to help them. The problem was that being an intellectual giant, he sometimes could not see the people below him.

There were security cameras everywhere. People in relatively nice suit jackets that mostly concealed the outline of weapons that were ready to be drawn in an instant. I kept a mental tally of all of the guards that I saw. I had loaded a digital map into my GPS system. The system I had built from the scrapped technology that was just lying around from heroes like Bion. Alien technology too advanced for anyone on earth. Technology that had made Wan En one of the most powerful corporations in the world.

There was a break in the tour for the participants to go to the bathroom, grab some snacks, whatever. I stepped into one of the stalls and took out a pair of glasses. I had made these glasses myself. When I put them on, the lenses instantly darkened to an opacity so I could just barely see the world outside. Symbols and a map appeared on the inside. It was invisible to any onlookers, but I didn't want them to see what else I was doing. I flicked my eyes and the map shifted to another part. I was pretty sure this is where it would be. I threw out my hand and a small remote came out of my sleeve. One that fit itself to my fingers. I snapped and before the sound had faded, the bathroom had been replaced with a laboratory.

=== Kari ===

I left the small studio we were shooting in, money in hand. I pocketed it and grinned to myself. Now to do a little shopping. Get me some new clothes. Today's a great day! Maybe I can get something that will put Cee on edge enough to get him to drop the cold shoulder. That'd be so nice. I found myself in an outdoor mall. There were shops and smells of food and so many people! I had never seen so many. I found a 25 Evermore and went in. I looked through their selection and found some stuff I liked. They had a changing room and I tried some stuff on. A cute shirt that was cut off at the mid-drift. I had also grabbed a hoodie that also ended at the mid-drift. They are a little expensive and maybe a bit too small but they're so cute! I thought to myself. I found a nice pair of jeans and a skirt that both went well with it. Fortunately, the skirt wasn't too tight, but it's a little shorter than mom would ever let me wear, but I liked that about it. I was 28. I shouldn't let her treat me like a kid anymore!

A huge crash brought me back to reality. Then another crash. People were screaming. I rushed out of the dressing room, the door swinging hard and slamming into the wall, cracking the drywall. In the next instant, I was at the window, looking around. The cashier was hunched down a little bit. She looked a little apprehensive, but way less than she should be.

“What's going on?” I asked.

“Some bastard is out there wrecking everything,” She responded, derisively. Her hands were shaking. She was terrified, but she also seemed annoyed with the situation.

“Does this happen a lot?” I asked. To be so cynical of the situation, I imagine it had to happen a lot.

“A few times a month. I think this is the eighth time this month. Think these freaks are harassing us more and more,” the woman said, then ducked further when the man came stomping through. “Get down! He might be looking for a hostage!”

Someone had to do something. The man flung a car through the air, which came crashing down, the windows broke and the hood crumbled.

“Aw, man! I had 4 more payments on that!” The woman behind the counter cried out. “I knew I should have bought Meta-Insurance. But it's just so expensive.”

I had to do something. I couldn't just let this happen. My mom's voice echoed through my head. We have to keep you a secret. If people knew what we did, they could take you away from us. It's too dangerous. They could hurt you. Or use you. Throw us in jail. I shook my head and walked over to the counter, putting money down. The total came to about half of what I had. I can't just sit back and do nothing! Maybe I could hide my face somehow. There was a little display of sunglasses with a large pair that would cover some of my face. At least make it a little hard to recognize me. I put down an extra twenty and grabbed the pair and put them on. I grabbed my hood and pushed all of my hair inside. I pulled on the strings and looked at the mirror on top of the display. When I put on the sunglasses, it changed my look. I didn't think anyone would recognize me. I rushed back and grabbed my clothes and put them in a bag. While I rushed out the door, I turned back and said “Keep the change!”

=== Curt ===

There was a scientist milling about and I hid behind a table. I was pretty sure she had not seen me. She went about her business. I sat on my knees and raised my head just barely above the table I was crouched behind. She was bent over a table with a soldering iron. I could not see what she was working on, but it didn't matter. I made my way around the table and looked at some of the other projects strewn about somewhat haphazardly around the room. After examining things for a moment, I found what I was looking for. I took out a screwdriver and went to work. It took me a couple of minutes to disconnect the piece. I was in one of the Biolabs and I had found one of the artificial flesh generators. With the help of a local doctor, I had built most of one, but the 3D flesh printer was too complicated and required certain elements I could not gain access to. After it was disconnected, I stored it and some pieces of the material it used to create the false flesh into a bag. Just as I was getting ready to leave, the scientist turned around and yelped. She composed herself a little. “Oh, I hadn't seen . . . Wh-who are you?”

I jumped a bit and turned to her. I grinned at her and flicked my wrist, causing the remote to fly into my hands. I moved my eyes, bringing the map of the area around. I raised my hand to snap and said “Nobody.”

With a snap of my fingers, I felt the energy wrapping around me. I was back in the bathroom. I padded out of the restroom and found the rest of the group, careful to try and not draw attention to my laptop bag that contained my ill-gotten gains. The tour guide was wrapping up her explanation of the last stop on her little tour when two of the security guards came up. They moved on me from two opposite sides. The tour guide is what tipped me off. She had noticed them and her eyes went wide. I glanced into a reflective surface and caught their distorted image. Their eyes seemed to be on me. They hadn't taken out their weapons yet. Damn it. I should've knocked her out.

“Stop right there,” one of the guards said, his hand in his jacket. I turned and looked between them.

“Sorry, can't do that,” I said, preparing to run. My glasses' opacity had shifted so I could pay attention to both of them. My system had started targeting them. I threw out my wrist and my little machine jumped out into my hand. Both of the guards drew their weapons in an instant and aimed them at my chest. My targeting system honed in on their weapons.

“If you make another move, we will fire,” the other guard said. He sounded a little more sympathetic. “If you surrender, you won't be harmed.”

“Sorry. This is promised to someone else. Can't disappoint them,” I said, taking a step back. They both pulled their triggers. Bright white lasers shot out of their guns. In the instant, before they did so, I snapped my fingers. Two small circling portals opened up in between me and where I predicted the trajectory of their shots would be. I was off on one of the shots and tried to get out of the way. It struck me in the shoulder and searing hot pain radiated throughout my entire shoulder. The other portal I had made caught the blast and flew out of another portal that I had opened at the same time behind the security guards. It hit one of them in the back and threw him forward. I gripped my shoulder. The burning sensation radiated through my chest. The laser had hit the strap of my bag and burned through it. I grabbed my luggage and dashed back into the Bion Museum, panting. Sweat slicked down my chest. Laser hits were no joke. The two guards chased me, firing. I brought up a map of the city and started cycling through. My concentration was broken though as one fired and shattered the glass, holding the mannequin dressed as Bion Mark IV.

I have to get out of here. The thought echoed through my head. They cornered me, approaching me from either side. Both of them leveled their smoking guns. One was limping but still up. More guards rushed in from behind them, their firearms trained on me. I swallowed. My eyes flicked between them and the digital maps superimposed over them. I had to make a decision. I concentrated on the closest six and opened portals where I thought their fire would be coming from. The portals were just large enough to catch the laser fire. But I couldn't do more than six. The portals were too big. Their counterpart portals opened up somewhat randomly spaced out.

All of them fired on me and all hell broke loose. Most of their shots hit around me. I took another two shots, burning my flesh and destroying the lower half of my shirt. The burning sensation radiated up over my side and my stomach. My eyes teared up and I could barely keep them open, eyes flicking through different parts of the city. The blasts I redirected went everywhere, slamming into different places. Glass shattered, one or two of the shots struck a guard. They scattered. In the chaos, I finally chose a location. Two actually, just in case they tracked me. I snapped my fingers and appeared on a rooftop about twenty miles from Wan En. I made my way down a fire escape and limped over out on the street. I made it about a block before I snapped again.

This time I appeared in a small, clean little workspace. There were several operating tools on a small metal sheet. The only disorderly thing was a machine that was a mirror to the one I had deconstructed. It was a wreck, relatively speaking. There was a dark-skinned person with raven black hair tied into a ponytail reviewing some files on a computer screen. They looked over to me and sighed. “Again, Curt?”

“Thought I'd give you something to do, Des.” I shambled over to another chair and sat down. I managed to slide the bag to them. Or most of the way.

“What was it this time? Bullets?” They asked, as they crossed the room and opened up the bag. Taking out the machine parts and the fuel I had stolen. They nodded and put them on the table. “Either way, I bet you'll make me patch you up before I can get this thing built, huh?”

“Laser blasts, this time,” I said, groaning as I tried to pull my shirt off. They crossed the room over to me and helped me strip. I looked down at my chest. There was cauterized flesh surrounding severely burnt sections on my left shoulder, right side, and stomach. There wasn't much left of my shirt anyway.

“You're lucky,” they said with a sigh, bringing out a balm. “These are low energy blasts. They weren't trying to kill you, at least.”

“If I was lucky, I wouldn't have been hit in the first place,” I responded.

“Mmm,” Des responded, dismissively. “Well, I can put a balm on it to reduce the pain, but until I get a flesh re-constructor, I can't do anything but barely patch you up.”

I groaned and pulled myself up to my feet, stumbling over to the machine parts they had put to the side. “Work, work, work.”

I pulled out my tools and took their office chair and rolled it over to the disordered machine. They followed me and started to apply some balm. I winced. “Not now. I'll get this done and we will just replace the nerves.”

“Until then, I need you to be in working order enough to finish,” Des responded, absently applying the gooey liquid. I started making the connections. I had made the plugs ready for what I figured the connections might be, but I had to make some adjustments. They were atypical. Probably for this exact situation. But it wasn't too hard to adjust. “So, lasers, huh? Do I want to know where you got this?”

“Probably not. Wouldn't watch the news for a few days to make sure,” I responded, wincing as they massaged it in.

“You don't need to do this, you know. We can get by without this. I did before.”

“Yeah, but this will make things easier. Make your patients better able to recover.” I slotted in the machine and started screwing it into place, then loaded some of the artificial flesh into a container. Then I powered it on. I cursed myself for not grabbing the operating system. I'd have to program that from scratch. Unless I went back . . . No, that would probably be too dangerous. They'd probably up their security. And if they had wanted to kill me, they would have this time.

Des tsked at me as I scooted over to the control. “This ain't Sherwood and you ain't Robin Hood.”

“Only because I don't know how to fire a bow,” I said, booting it up. I had built some of the operating system already, but it was hard to predict what would be necessary. I winced as they squeezed my side, working some balm into my side.

“I'm serious. This is going to get you killed,” Des said, pulling me around to face them. Our eyes met. “There are some seriously strong people out there. People who can kill you without any effort.

=== Kari ===

I rushed out the door and found a hulking mass of what looked like a sidewalk come to life. I sped towards him, a gust of wind blowing up dust, debris, and papers in my wake. People that were hiding on the street yelped and dived out of the way. I stood in front of this thing, my voice shaking. “Stop!”

“Little girl, get out of my way!” The voice of the thing in front of me was like two stones grinding against each other. I stood my ground. When I didn't move, he raised his fist and backhanded me. I flew into a nearby wall, slamming into the stone, which crumpled beneath me. The glass in the windows shattered. I groaned slightly and pulled myself out of the wall. My ears were ringing. My face stung. I shook my head and my vision cleared. I had never been hit that hard. But after a moment, I was fine.

He continued to walk forward. Several police officers had created a barrier around him and had their guns aimed at him. They fired upon him, to no effect. He stomped forward, slamming two officers in his way. I watched as they were crushed into the door of cars on either side of their attacker. I heard metal crunch and their necks snap. I watched their bodies fall limply to the ground.

I balled my fists. I launched myself off of the ground, the cement under my feet shattering. I flew straight into his back. The cars in front of him were knocked to the side. We slammed into the ground and he turned, resting on his back. He punched me and I went flying again, this time straight up into the air. I caught myself and flew back down to him. He stood up and grabbed me by the neck. For a big guy, almost ten feet tall, he was quick. He slammed me to the ground a few times and threw me. I stopped myself again and then flew towards him. I threw a haymaker. It didn't have all that much force in it. I don't like hurting people. It was basically a love tap. He caught it and tossed me to the side.

“Stop this! I don't care about you. I just want them!” The man shouted in his gravelly voice.

I flew back and stopped. “And who are they?”

“The ones that turned me into this,” he gestured to himself. “The ones who made me into a monster!”

“What made you a monster is when you decided to hurt other peo-” I was cut off when he slammed a fist into my face, breaking my new glasses. My clothes were torn. I grimaced for a moment and pulled myself out of the crater I had created. My hands shook. I took a few deep breathes, trying to quell the rage building in my chest. It wasn't working. I charged forward and he raised his hand to catch my fist. I dived to the side and threw an uppercut. The stony exterior cracked and he flew up. There was a small dispersion of air around the strike. I did it again, shattering more and more stone. Blood leaked from his neck. I let him fall to the ground, creating a crater himself. I took a few deep breaths and came back to myself.

There was blood on my knuckles. Not my blood. I barely felt anything. My hands were still shaking. Less from rage than from the results of what I did. I panicked and flew down to his crater. He shifted some but fell back down with a soft crunch. He's still alive. Thank God. I don't know what I'd do if I . . . People started gathering around us. People with camera phones. I looked around. They were asking questions.

“Who are you?”

“Are you a new hero?”

“What are your powers?”

I smiled and waved into the cameras, trying to greet them all. Then I remembered. I can't get caught. Oh no. Mom is going to be pissed when she finds out. I charged off, this time remembering to create a telekinetic panel to disperse the force of my launch and protect the curious onlookers and the ground around me. I flew at my top speed to get back to mom and dad's lab.

=== Curt ===

“There was a break-in at Wan Enterprises today. While they didn't tell us exactly what was stolen, saying that it was classified information, they did give us a description of the perpetrator,” the reporter read off with a slightly Australian accent. It then cut to a press conference with Wan En towering behind the speaker.

“Earlier today, a white man with dark hair broke into a secured part of our labs and took some classified technology. He has the ability to disappear without a trace. Of course, we are working with the A.C.P.D. to discover the identity of this thief,” the company's public relations person read off.

“This theft matches the description of a couple of other events that have happened around the city and a few others, nationwide,” the reporter continued, a smile spreading on his face. “I think it's time we gave this mysterious, dark-haired thief a name. He has the ability to disappear and reappear at will. Word on the street has been calling him 'Esvanir'.”

“In other news, we do have a new hero. There was an attack by a new villain in the middle of the Alva Open Air Mall which was brought to a surprising halt by a powerful woman wearing sunglasses and a hoodie,” another reporter went on. Between the two played a clip of the two entangled, the smaller figure punching the larger into the air. Then it cut to her standing, broken glasses still hiding her face. Her clothes were torn. People asked who she was. “Not much is known about the woman who stopped this terrible foe.”

The first reporter cut in. “Well, we do know that this gal is smashing! She was smashed into buildings, breaking them, causing untold damage. She smashed the cement-man into the ground, breaking it. Truly a force to be reckoned with.”

“Too right, Dave. She is smashing,” the woman beside him nodded wisely. “A smashing gal, indeed.”

=== Kari ===

“Smashing Gal?” Mom asked, her eyebrows taking up her entire forehead.

“Well, um . . .” I grimaced. I really didn't like that name. Smashing Gal is just terrible. I couldn't think of an excuse. “I couldn't just stand back and do nothing. People were getting hurt.”

“People always get hurt, honey,” my mother said, sitting next to me.

“Then why can't I help people get hurt less?” I asked.

“Because it's not your responsibility,” she said, patting my hand.

“But I have these powers. I should use them to help people. Like Bion does. Or the police. Firefighters!” I insisted. My mom shook her head. My father sat down next to me.

“Dear, it's really dangerous. We don't know the limi-” I cut him off.

“We don't know my limits because we can't find them! I can fly! I can be thrown through a building and be just fine! I can lift God only knows how much!” My parents looked at each other guiltily, then down at the floor. “And I can help people! I can save them. You said that the goal of this project of yours was to help fight off threats. Well, I can fight off threats. A-and . . . And you can't stop me! I'll do this with or without you!”

=== Curt ===

“No one knows about me. How can there be 'word on the street'?” I said after watching the tweeted video.

“There's probably not. David Thrawn just likes naming metas. He named 'Smashing Gal' in the same broadcast. He gave me my name,” Cindi said, a few hours later, sprawling across my bed. She had been there when I got home. Just let herself in. I found the door unlocked. It was her way of showing me she was there. Not that any lock could have possibly stopped her. If Cindi wanted somewhere, she would be there. Anyone or anything in her way be damned. She crawled on top of me, taking my phone and tossing it to the side. “Esvanir. Essy. I kind of like it. What about it, Essy? Want to help me on a job? You probably won't get blasted to hell on one of my jobs. And if you do, I'll always be there to bail you out.”

“You don't need me. You just want company.”

“I want your company. There are entire forums of guys willing to kill for a night on the town with the Buck Cherry,” She whispered, wrapping her arms around me. Buck Cherry was the name Thrawn had given her almost six years ago. She was caught on a security camera stealing a painting of giant cherries. She was entirely naked at the time. Her face had been hidden, but it did capture everything else. She could walk through walls and fly. She was not like the other guys. The only drawback is that she had to be naked to do it. Most people would be too mortified to do it ever again. She kept doing more and more daring thefts, loving the attention. The way that the news and other sites had to edit around her nudity. The way forums and groups on Twitter and Facebook had obsessed over her.

“Well, okay,” I said. She grinned and pulled me into a kiss. She always got what she wanted.