It was cold.

The freezing air brushed against my rosey cheeks as I trekked through the snow-covered sidewalks of Halifax. I could feel the first hints of dawn beginning to sear my eyes as it shone from behind the horizon, the city around me slowly transitioning into a suburb I was more or less familiar with as I continued to walk.

I was still at least an hour off by foot but I was making good time despite my freezing bare feet and my new seemingly tiny frame. It was strange to walk around like that, it was different, sure, but it didn't feel wrong at all. Almost as if I had been born to use this body, I felt completely at home as I sauntered through the suburbs like I was hot shit.

I was so comfortable that I almost didn’t notice how inexplicably quiet it was, sure it was pretty early, around six or seven AM if I had to guess, but people were usually already up hanging clothes and doing lawn work by this time.

Suddenly I spotted a kid out on his own, playing ball on an old run-down house’s front yard. I heaved a sigh of relief as I quickened my pace slightly to catch up with him.

“Hey!” I exclaimed awkwardly in the least feminine voice I could muster as I finally reached the kid “I was walking around and noticed that there's no one out…”

Suddenly the reason for the lack of people became incredibly clear, as something jumped out at me from behind a fence. I dodged back evading the engage as I spotted the kid running back into the run-down old house.

“Brave for one of your kind to be strolling about a place like this” my attacker snarled as I was finally able to take a good look at him properly. He was tall, at least two heads taller than me and built like a rock.

“Oh I’m sorry is this a shitface only zone?” I hissed back in a panic, Making things worse by opening my mouth was a specialty of mine.

The man gave a cocky smirk as he looked down at my tiny figure.

“What are you, some sort of bug?” He took a step forward, causing me to respond with a step back. “That’s funny, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bug freak.”

I felt a pair of arms grab me from behind and lift me into the air with ungodly strength. I kicked my legs in protest but that only caused the beast of a man who had taken ahold of me to tighten his grip.

The first man walked up and extended his hands; I flinched, expecting him to hit me or grab my face, but instead he took a hold of something else. Sharp pain ran through my body as I felt a pull coming from something on my head that I didn't even know I had.

“What are these? Like antennas or some shit? Probably hurts like a bitch to have em pulled, don’t it?” He said with a smirk as he gave them another small tug, causing another horrifying jolt of pain to run through my body.

“You know, I hadn’t even noticed I had those” I said with a pained expression, fuck just shut up me you’re not helping.

“You seem a bit lost, a bit new to this neighborhood so let me explain,” he said with a malicious hiss to his voice, “Your kind ain't welcome here, you're dangerous to all the little kids and women who are trying to live a peaceful life.”

My jaw opened in surprise; this asshole had just used some random kid to bait me in and now he was trying to preach about protecting them? I felt my heart rate quicken as I looked him in the eyes, a familiar impulse of energy making its way through my body.

“The bitch’s hair is glowing,” the man who had been holding me said with amusement in his voice.

“I can see that, Tanner, I’m not blind,” replied the first one with a hint of annoyance, as he let go of my new found feelers and took hold of my icy blue locks of glowing hair.

The energy within me became stronger and stronger, pulsing and pleading for me to fight back but I couldn't, not after what I had done to that guard. This power of mine wasn't a gift, It was a horrible tool that would run rampant if I let it.

I bit my lip as I struggled not only with the two men about to beat the shit out of me but also with myself. If I let this power out now and I killed them like I had so easily done before than it would all be over. After that I couldn’t consider myself human anymore.

The man gave a heavy sigh as he forced my head to look at him with a hard tug on my hair, he wore an expression of pure hatred and hurt, It was easy to tell something had caused his unquenchable hatred towards those like me.

“I ain’t gonna risk just letting you go,” he said as he reached into his back pocket and produced some sort of handgun. I saw him lift the thing towards me as the soft click of the safety being released filled my ears. I couldn't die here. The energy within me grew stronger and stronger as it reached point of no return.

Boom.

I heard a small explosion go off in his hand as he pulled the trigger, I flinched, awaiting death to take me but nothing happened, I felt the projectile fly beside me and impact the man holding me. He finally let go and I was able to freely move and look at my surroundings… Geeze was the sun getting bright.

“You know its not cool to pick on cute girls this early in the morning… actually, on second thought it’s probably never a good idea to do that,” I heard a charmingly confident voice resonate through the suburbs, my cheeks flushed at the straightforwardness of such a line… It was kinda nice being called cute.

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“Eyyy it’s that Aegis guy, the hero or whatever,” a pained voice exclaimed, looking up I noticed it was the man who had been holding me, the one who had gotten shot.

“Yes Tanner, I can see that,” came the exasperated reply of his comrade as he lifted his head to look at the person who had just saved my life.

I slowly followed his gaze, careful to keep my eyes half shut to avoid the sun, and that's when I spotted him. He stood floating a few centimeters from the asphalt, dressed in what looked like a monk's garb, chest bare and showing beautifully toned muscles that would be the envy of any pretty boy wannabe.

“So…” Aegis beckoned for the two mens attention as his short golden locks flowed slightly with the morning wind “Are you going to just stand there or are you going to fight me?”.

He spoke with a beautifully deep yet soft voice and a tone of cocky energy that would fill anyone's heart with confidence and trust… Anyone but myself of course! Who did this Aegis guy think he was, coming in and calling me embarrassing names in front of the racist assholes I was about to beat up.

With newfound motivation I shot up and stormed towards the only man that was still standing, With my eyes still half closed I couldn't exactly see well but nonetheless I allowed my anger (along with a bit of embarrassment) to fuel my fist forward.

The man didn't see me coming, he was too distracted with the blond idiot’s speech about all people being important or some shit so I simply strolled forward and landed a powerful fist in what was supposed to be his jaw. Instead, my fist impacted directly into the man’s cranium.

I released a squeak of pain as the shock of bone impacting against bone ran through my body; fuck did he have a hard head.

“Ey she just squeaked like one of em shitty butterflies,” came the immediate reaction of the wounded jackass.

Well that was kinda rude, did he mean a moth? Was I a moth? Wait, did moths even make a distinctive squeak?

“Yes, I heard it Tanner, could you just shut up for half a second!?” came the furious retort of his companion as he clutched the spot of his head I had driven my fist into.

I tried to play off my own pain as I gave both him and that Aegis asshole a cocky smile.

“Who’s cute now, huh jackass!?” I exclaimed at no one in particular as I shook my fist in rebellion against the title I had been given.

“Definitely you,” Replied Aegis without skipping a single beat as he lowered his feet to the ground and thoughtlessly waved his hand at the man I had just punched.

Suddenly, a bubble of brilliant light materialized around the man's head. It was a beautiful display of something that looked like magic. It wasn't like the light from the sun or the shine of a flashlight, slowly opening my eyes, I realized that this light didn’t hurt my eyes; in fact it felt wonderful to look at.

I took a step towards the light as I stared at it with wide eyes. It really was a beautiful thing.

“Excuse me…?” came an echo of a voice that seemed incredibly distant and inconsequential, probably that Aegis guy.

“Its beautiful…” I managed to utter as I reached a hand towards the wonderful bubble of angelic light

And suddenly it disappeared almost as quickly as it had come. My senses returned to me and my eyes were suddenly flooded with the searing rays of the sun.

I squeaked out in pain as I fell backward from the sudden impulse of pain. Had the sun always been that bright!? Even a few minutes ago the sun only caused a slight burn, not a blistering shock of pain.

“Woah woah are you okay!?” I heard Aegis yell with a drastically less confident voice as I felt an arm wrap around me in a comforting fashion.

“What did you do!? The sun wasn't this bright until you did that magic thing,” I yelled angrily as I jerked away from his admittedly warm embrace.

“What!? I just put a light barrier around his head so he’d pass out from lack of air, I’m sorry if it hurt your eyes!” He sounded genuinely worried; it was kind of cute how suddenly he had changed his confident tune as soon as things got serious, if I had to be honest.

“Oh that barrier thing was nice actually, just the sun that's currently threatening to melt my apparently nocturnal eyes,” I said with a huff as I wobbled back onto my feet.

“Oh that explains how beautifully different they are,” he said with that charming voice of his as he helped me steady myself

“What's that supposed to mean!?” I answered aggressively as I attempted to drive my heel into his foot, sadly my eyes were still closed and I ended up driving my foot into the floor.

“Oh are you new to this body?” he asked with a puzzled voice that seemed incredibly confused “Well your iris is this beautiful shade of red and what's supposed the whites are this incredibly deep shade of black that just brings them together… they look wonderful.”

“Could you just shut up and get me a pair of sunglasses or something!?” I retorted while turning my face to the opposite side from where his voice was coming, there was no way I could let him see my flushed cheeks.

“Oh right, I think I have a pair on me right now actually,” he stated as he took his hands off of me and began to search for them. I swear I could hear the smug smile on his stupid face.

After a few seconds, I felt him come closer and slide something over my face. I slowly opened my eyes and happily noticed that the sun was no longer actively trying to murder me. I released a sigh of relief and looked up at the blond idiot… He was really close.

“So what's the deal with you?” I asked in the most casual tone I could muster, “You're some sort of super hero or some shit?”

“Wow even your accent is adorable…” he said absentmindedly as he looked at me. Did this guy just have no filter at all!?

“Hey hey, I'm talking to you!” I aggressively snapped my fingers at him in order to get his attention

“Oh right!” he suddenly snapped out of his trance, “I am a hero, they call me Aegis, I’ve been protecting this city from jerks like those ever since I emerged almost two moths ago,” He said with a confident grin.

“Emerged? What's that supposed to mean?”

“You know that thing you and I are… Everyone emerged at once so it isn't like I’ve had more time to know this,” He sounded confused and held an inquisitive expression that would feel perfectly at home on the face of Sherlock Holmes or Batman.

“Yeah well I think Ive been stuck in a cocoon or something these past… two months did you say?” suddenly it dawned on me that I had been gone exactly that time… my dad was gonna kill me.

“Wait a cocoon… You were the Park Lane cocoon!? So you’re the emerged that-”

“That’s none of your business,” I suddenly cut him off before he could continue, I didn’t want to hear what I had done… If I had really killed that guard then I was a murderer, right? Would this hero try to arrest me if he knew that was me?

It was broad daylight now, I could tell, and the only cover I could hope to run away to was a few meters away in the backyard of the house I had been attacked in front of, fuck what was i going to do!? I didn’t have any cool powers like he did and if I tried to run I would just look even more suspicious than before.

Fear ran over me, I was so dead if this guy caught me… He didn't seem all that mean to begin with but still I couldn't just trust someone who goes around calling themselves a hero.

Suddenly that fear began to rise within me, There was no way I could be taken down here, not by this done up glowstick and not by the police. After all, I had never been caught back when I was a kid and I wouldn't start now

“Hey it's okay, I’m a friend,” the glowstick reached a hand towards my shoulder. Was this where he would try to catch me?

I dodged to the side at an incredible speed, this power was different from before, it was fueled by the need to survive just like before but this time the objective wasn’t to fight, it was to run far away and never come back.

I noticed the hair that had draped over my eyes had gone from that brilliant icey blue to an opaque dark marine color, looking down I also noticed my skin beginning to turn an unnaturally dark gray.

My thoughts were interrupted by glowstick cautiously stepping towards me, he wore a worried expression, I could tell he didn't mean any harm but still my body screamed at me to run away… And so I did.

Without even giving myself a second to think, I turned around and decked it at a speed I didn't even know I could muster. Horrible thoughts of what could have happened if I stayed filled my head as I heard the muffled screams filled with worry and exasperation thrown at me fill the air but I was too scared to look back.

So once again on the run, I looked towards my home. At this speed I’d arrive in no time at all and once I was there I would have to look face to face with a demon I couldn't run away from… My father.