“Sorry I’m late,” Perry said, sliding into the booth beside Nat. “My Ferrari broke down and I had to break out the loaner.”

Natalie’s dad chuckled, but her mom had an expressionless mask imperfectly plastered over seething disdain.

Off to a good start.

“Got it from a friend of mine, who said I could keep it if I fixed it up,” Perry said, thumbing at the hippie van. “High schoolers gotta have a car, and I’m not too picky.” Civilian street cred established.

“True that.” Nat’s dad said, taking a bite of his hamburger. “I had a piece of crap Subaru when I was your age. I thought it was my ticket to adulthood. I just wound up ferrying my friends around to Tex-Mex every night, though.”

Perry entered his order at the booth’s touch-screen. Double cheese tofu burger. Mmmm.

“You fixed the car yourself?” Nat’s mom asked.

“Yep.”

“Wow, I’m impressed,” She said in a tone that undercut the words, “that you know how to restore cars with your…age.”

“It’s not that hard to understand a combustion engine,” Perry said. “Especially one from the sixties. Getting parts is a bi-struggle, but 3-D printers can help with that.” Perry manually toned down his language.

“That’s an interesting shirt,” Natalie’s dad said, pointing at Perry’s ‘Deflower Power’ stenciled on his front, a glimmer of anger in his eyes.

“Yeah…that’s a curse of some kind.” Perry said, glancing down at his crude shirt. “Some prankster must’ve thought it would be funny if my shirt is constantly inappropriate or embarrassing. Maybe one of my cousins.”

“You’re…cursed to always wear bad T-shirts?” Nat’s dad asked, brow raised, anger evaporating.

“Pretty sure. This was a black AC-DC shirt when I put it on.” Perry said.

Her dad chuckled, continuing to eat his meal. Natalie’s mom was less than impressed.

“So, there a lot of magic where you come from?” Nat’s mom asked.

“Eh,” Perry said, waggling his hand. “There’s a fair amount, but less than you might think. Modern conveniences have replaced most spells, which were labor-intensive. Microwaves, cars, TV. That sort of thing. That stuff used to be royalty only, and now everyone gets to heat up their food in seconds.”

“Fascinating,” Nat’s mom said, folding her hands and leaning forward.

“Isn’t it?” Perry said. “I’m planning on going to UoF and get a degree in engineering. Magic is great and all, but science is better.”

Nevermind the two of those weren’t necessarily mutually exclusive. Perry just wanted to play down his total…magickiness, because that’s what her mom seemed to have a problem with.

“So what are your plans for Natalie?” Her mom shifted into high gear, catching Perry off guard.

“To…date her?” Perry said, confused, taking a bite of his french fries as they arrived. “I don’t know what else I would do at this point.”

Way too early for marriage.

“That’s a relief,” Her mom said with a facetious smile. “There’s so many stories about unscrupulous mooks selling human women into slavery. Given how short a time you two have known each other, I was worried.”

“Mom!” Nat shouted, drawing the attention of a few of the other Burger Joint patrons. “You can’t just accuse him of being a trafficker!”

“I didn’t!” her mom protested. “I was just worried about you, Nat. Funkytown is riddled with young women disappearing every year. I just have to be sure your new friend isn’t…off.” She glanced at Perry, who was stuffing his mouth with fries, watching the exchange with amusement.

“The manitians are nice! There’s nothing dangerous about them!”

Perry cleared his throat and nudged Natalie. “If I could step in. The majority of the racism against Manitians stems from the first twenty years after they arrived. 1970 to 1990. Coming from a feudal society, the concept of human rights and the rule of law wasn’t quite as…ingrained, and there actually was a decent amount of human trafficking, murder, extortion, blood rituals, you name it. They’re kind of like the Italian mafia of the nineteen twenties: Immigrants bringing their old loyalties with them, have a hard time adapting, faced with racism and exploitation. Kind of a perfect recipe for organized crime. The queen of Manita even tried to usurp the human throne and establish a New Manita, but couldn’t figure out how to kill Solaris.”

Natalie stared at Perry with wide eyes. She knew exactly where Perry and his grandmother fit in that whole dynamic.

“It’s better now with the average Manitian” Perry shrugged, taking a bite out of his burger. “I wouldn’t suggest walking around certain streets without backup, though. There’s still a decent amount of disappearances. Vampires and such. You remember those carnivores we ran into?”

Nat frowned at him.

“Oh, no, that was me and Heather,” Perry said, snapping his fingers.

“Who’s Heather?” Nat’s mom said, the matronly woman perking up like a doberman.

Perry glanced at Nat. “She’s a friend of mine,” Perry said with a shrug, but his delay had been too long.

“Is this the same Heather whose house you spent the night at?” Her mom asked.

“Well-“

“What was your boyfriend doing alone in the middle of a bad neighborhood with your best friend?” Nat’s mom asked, gaining steam.

“Mom-“

“Is she actually your best friend, or is she just another stupid girl this mook has wrapped around his finger? Did you lie about spending the night at her place? Is that what you were talking about at the-”

“He’s not taking advantage of us, she’s MY girlfriend!” Nat shouted. “And he’s my boyfriend,” she said, quieter, clinging to Perry’s arm.

Nat’s dad began drinking his soda as hard as physically possible to cover his reaction while Nat’s mom’s jaw quivered.

“That’s not…you can’t…” Perry watched in amazement as the gears behind the dumpy woman’s eyes ground to a halt and began building up the pressure to critical levels. Her mom gradually grew crimson, veins bulging on the side of her head.

“You little sl-“

“Super fight,” Perry interrupted in monotone, motioning to the outside.

BOOOM!

A man made of living flame crashed to the pavement of the parking lot from high above, standing nearly fifteen feet tall as he climbed to his feet.

“Oh, crap!” Nat’s dad went pasty white as a full team of supers followed after what Perry assumed was a Trigger High rampage.

An explosion of confetti revealed the back of a well-muscled young man wearing a fireman hat and suspenders.

He had a firehose emerging out from between his legs. Where it came from…was anyone’s guess.

Even with his back to them, Perry knew who it was:

I guess Role got let out. And that was Dazzle’s power, sooo….this could get awkward.

Role in his sexy fireman role unleashed a wave of water at the flaming giant.

The giant of living fire stumbled backwards from the high-pressure stream of water, grabbing a truck and throwing it at the source of the annoyance…who was standing directly in front of their window.

Crap!

A burst of confetti snatched Role up, and left nothing between them and the hurtling vehicle.

Nat’s parent’s flinched in terror as their lives flashed in front of their eyes.

Perry leapt up and lurched over Nat while Nat pulled out one of her damage absorbers, lunging across the table.

Perry reached out and smudged the glass and frame, modifying them a fraction of a second before the truck hit the window.

The entire Burger joint rattled in place as the truck squished up against the glass like an aluminum can and fell away, leaving a couple paint streaks on the window.

“Well, look at that,” Perry muttered, pulling his hands away from the window. “I guess Burger joint sprang for Tinker glass.”

Perry glanced down and spotted Natalie leaning back in her seat with a sigh, pulling the business ends of her curved damage absorber away from her dad’s wrist with a heavy sigh. Perry noticed.

He also noticed Nat’s mom eyeballing the damage absorber. The dumpy woman didn’t know exactly what it did, but what she did know was that Nat would rather use it on her dad in a life-or-death situation and leave her mom out to hang.

Yikes.

Strangely enough, the explosion of anger didn’t come, and Nat’s mom seemed to draw in on herself, going quiet as the brawl continued outside.

Not sure if that’s scarier, honestly.

An emaciated creature made of black gunk latched onto the fire giant, seemingly whispering in its ear as Sin-Eater and Monolith landed, joining the fight.

Monolith rushed forward and began pummeling the distracted flame giant with his bare hands, while another creature that looked like…a dominatrix nun began healing some burns on Dazzle’s back.

A moment later, the pale-skinned dominatrix collapsed into more of Sin-Eater’s pitch-black goop, crawling back towards her.

Oh, healing, that’s valuable. She’s expanded her role on the team from crowd control to support as well. Good for her.

When you added Role to the team to deal with weird, off-the-wall problems…Chemestro’s team was actually pretty strong and balanced.

I don’t see Jetset…did he get scalped by Nexus?

Chemestro landed last, watching as his team took down the flaming giant, wearing him down with pack tactics.

“Wow, it’s Chemestro!” Natalie’s dad said, recovering from the shock of nearly getting pasted by a truck with surprising speed. “Kid’s badass.”

Perry shielded his face from the window with his french-fry box.

“Get ‘em!” Nat’s dad cheered, while her mom sized up Perry’s reaction to the Sweeper, a malicious glint in her eye.

“Wow, they took it down already!” Nat’s dad gave running commentary as Perry desperately searched for a way to conceal his identity. “Oh, now they’re heading for Burger joint! You think they’re hungry? You think I could get an autograph?”

Perry heaved a huge sigh and allowed his head to lean back over the edge of the seat.

Que sera, sera.

“He’ll keep him asleep until Nexus gets here. Let’s get something to eat. Order whatever you like, I’ll cover it,” Chemestro said, leading the way into the fast-food restaurant.

Perry glanced outside and spotted Role, now dressed in a doctor’s scrub and face mask, applying an I.V. to the unconscious bodybuilder. The chemical bag was labeled ‘sleep juice’.

Huh.

“Anything!? Oh my God, I would do anything for a soda,” Sin-Eater said, the goth girl clinging close to Chemestro as the super approached the register.

“Six tofu burgers, no buns, no cheese, with two scoops of guacamole on top. Large iced tea, unsweetened.” Chemestro said to the pimply teenager behind the counter.

The kid shakily relayed the order and Chemestro turned around, locking on Perry instantly.

Here it comes.

Chemestro approached, his gaze flickering between Perry, Nat, Nat’s parent’s, and the smudge of blue paint on the glass, taking in the situation.

“Citizens,” Chemestro said, his gaze lingering a moment too long on Perry. “I apologize for the danger you were put in. I view that as a personal failing, and am thankful it passed without incident.”

Nat’s dad spluttered in his hasty attempt to apologize for existing in the same place as the super fight went down.

“No it was my fault, I should’ve died, I mean, I shouldn’t have been there.”

“Chemestro,” Chemestro said, offering Nat’s dad his hand.

“Dave,” Nat’s dad said, shaking the hand over-enthusiastically with both of his. “Dave Smith. So glad you stepped in and took care of that Trigger Rampage.”

“It’s my pleasure,” Chemestro said.

“I’m Donna,” Nat’s mom said, shaking Chemestro’s hand.

“And you, miss?” Chemestro asked.

“Natalie,” Nat said sourly, shaking Chemestro’s hand.

“Perry. Perry Zauberer.” Perry said, shaking Chemestro’s hand last.

Chemestro’s hand clamped down over Perry’s.

Body 8 -> 12

Perry squeezed down harder.

His nemesis grinned wider, seemingly immune to pain.

“Sorry about that,” Donna said, tapping Perry on the wrist, prompting him to let go. “He’s from Funkytown. Sometimes I wish heroes like you could clean up the district. He rubs elbows with man-eating creatures, for god’s sakes.”

“Mom,” Nat hissed.

“Oh, I know he’s Manitian. Perry Z here is kind of famous in certain circles. A citizen of interest, in fact.” Chemestro said. “The Queen of Manita only has one grandson, after all.”

Damnit. Perry rubbed his temples.

“The…what?” Donna asked, glancing between Perry and Chemestro.

“Oh yeah,” he said with a smirk. “He’s the only scion of the richest, possibly most powerful family in Franklin City.” Chemestro was providing the publicly available information about him, so he wasn’t breaking any rules, but it was still a dick move.

“Oh my god, soda,” Sin-Eater said, gasped between huge gulps of carbonated sugar-water. “You don’t know how badly I missed you, Chemestro doesn’t- EEP!”

Sin-Eater spotted Perry and flinched backwards, assuming a defensive stance, dropping her tray full of burgers and fries.

Chemestro idly flicked his fingers, and the tray and soda cup floated in midair, moving to the nearby booth with their contents.

“Look out, It’s Para-“ another subtle movement from Chemestro and Sin-Eater lost the ability to speak. He caught her gaze and shook his head, at which point she sat down, munching down unhealthy french fries, stuffing her cheeks like a chipmunk while giving Perry a death-glare.

I made those french fries possible. Perry groused.

Monolith followed a moment later, glaring at Perry from the opposite side of the lobby, leaning against a pillar while he ate, because booths were too small for him.

He caught Perry’s gaze and slid his thumb across his neck.

Perry winked back, which seemed to sufficiently infuriate the brutish cowl. It looked like Monolith wanted to start something then and there, but he glanced at Chemestro before restraining himself.

A moment later, Role and Dazzle joined Sin-eater, staring at Perry while they ate.

Looks like they aren’t gonna start anything. Super culture respected off-hours and civvie dress...mostly.

Perry let out a breath and glanced back at Dave and Donna Smith. Nat’s parents were staring at him too.

“What?”