3.30.

John shot hoops in the half-court that had been set aside for him. The rest of the boys and girls of his class were playing games in the other courts, but he couldn’t play with them.

He might hurt them. Accidentally.

He knew it, they knew it, the school knew it. It was simply a fact. The way that things were. It was nobody’s fault, really, but they couldn’t pretend that he didn’t have the strength of several men or that even without armor he had reflexes that might come out during a harmless game of basketball.

He shot. He scored. He went to grab the ball and dribbled it for a few minutes.

He hadn’t played basketball with anyone for a while. Not since he’d been reactivated. Since he’d gotten his ‘powers’ back.

It was frustrating. It wasn’t fair. It was okay to be frustrated at the unfairness of it. Olivia said so.

But he still couldn’t play physical games with the other children.

He sighed, setting the ball aside and going to run laps around the three-court gym for a while. Maybe he could burn off some energy that way.

He became aware at some point that the other children were watching him. He realized that his jog was faster than their sprint. He slowed down, wondering if they thought that he’d been showing off. He hadn’t meant to.

He went over to the bleachers and at. The PE teacher came and sat next to him.

“I’m sorry, John. I know that this time of the day must be frustrating for you,” she said.

“I understand. I’d feel terrible if I hurt someone by accident,” John admitted. “Especially if they were a friend. During training, everyone had the same modifications, so we could train and fight on the same level. But on Earth, you …” John trailed off.

“You don’t have to get changed and take part in class if you don’t want to, John. We can assign you to go the the library and have free study when the rest of your class has PE,” she said.

“No,” John said. “I mean, maybe. Can I think about it for a few days?”

“Yes. Take your time. We want you to feel comfortable here.”

“Thank you,” John said. The teacher got up and left.

John watched the other children play, trying not to let the envy show on his face.

In the locker room, he was confronted by the other boys. They circled him while he was changing, nervous expressions on their face. He frowned, wondering if he was about to be bullied or hazed.

“You weren’t going all out when you were running, were you?” one of them asked.

“No,” John admitted. “I was just jogging.”

“ I knew it! ” he exclaimed. “How fast can you really run?”

“I don’t know. I mean, I do know. We measured it in training. But I don’t know how those units convert into miles per hour,” John admitted.

“We want to find out,” one of the boy said. “Can we, like, help you test your powers? And maybe put it online? Everyone wants to know how strong you really are and if we tell them we’ll get millions of hits. Especially if we can put up the videos of the tests.”

John frowned as he considered the question. “I can’t do anything with my weapons or armor without getting approval from the government,” he said eventually. “But I can display my baseline abilities out of armor. That shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Yes!” the boys exclaimed, and they began making plans to take him out to the track after school to begin their project.

The school day went on. As usual, due to his unique circumstances, John was pulled out of math class to attend a private counselling session. He didn’t need the classes that the other twelve year olds took on this subject. He didn’t need the classes that college students took. Part of his wetware was entirely dedicated to helping him with math, and he could do multi-variable differentials in his head without much effort.

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He was surprised when Agent Morrison greeted him in the counselors office, and it immediately put him on guard. The last time he’d been surprised in this situation by the FBI, it hadn’t gone well.

“Relax, John, we’re not here in an adversarial role,” he said, raising his hands placatingly. “It’s just, well, the school has heard what you’re planning on doing after school today and they contacted us. We wanted to discuss matters with you to be sure whether or not it’s a good idea. And we also want to make certain that you’re not intending to use any weapons or cause any property damage.”

John relaxed a little bit. “It’s fine if you say that I can’t show off my abilities, I won’t mind. But I’d rather if you make it an official announcement or something so it doesn’t sound like I’m going back on my word.”

“That’s not what we’re saying at all,” Morrison said. “We are telling you not to use your weapons or armor’s abilities outside of a controlled environment. However …” he paused, considering it for a moment. “Well, John, the truth is that the government is very curious on getting a baseline on you and the other Einherjar. Both inside and outside of your armor. In case another attack happens on Earth, we’d like to know the abilities of our allies, and you’re the only Scout who we know might cooperate.”

John nodded. “I understand. I don’t mind having my abilities measured by the government. If you set it up, I’ll agree to it.” He considered the matter for a minute. “Actually … the other kids might think it would be really cool if I could put it online. Do you think that’s a possibility?”

Morrison pursed his lips. “I’m not certain how the government will view that, but if you make it a condition of your cooperation they’ll probably agree.”

John shrugged. “It’s standard Scout policy to incorporate local friendly forces into our battles by arming them with our nanite-created weapons. Having the public aware of what I and the Einherjar can do will increase their effectiveness considerably if there’s a fourth battle for Earth.”

“I’ll run it up the chain,” Morrison promised.

“So is it okay to display my baseline abilities after school today?” John pressed.

“If you agree to adult supervision. I’ll be there, and someone from the school, and we’ll need to review any of the ‘tests’ your classmates come up with for safety before you do anything. If you agree to those terms, I don’t see that I have a reason to stop you,” Morrison admitted.

John agreed, and Morrison left. The counseling session returned to normal after he left, and John’s school day proceeded as normal until the end of his final class.

He sat in the locker room, having changed back into his gym clothes in preparation. He wasn’t the only boy to change; some of the more athletic boys his age had decided that this was a group activity and wanted to show what a ‘normal’ kid John’s age could do in the same situation.

He took a drink from a water bottle and sighed. Letting the other kids see his physical abilities would make him stand out more than he already did, he knew, but maybe it would also make things better? They seemed more curious than afraid of him.

Maybe they still didn’t realize how dangerous he was. Maybe showing them would change what they thought of him.

He frowned as he thought about it for a moment. No, they should know by now. There were hundreds of videos taken by camera phones of him fighting in his armor. There were videos of him killing enemy soldiers. There were videos of the enemy soldiers doing things, terrible things. Yet despite that, John and the other scouts had prevailed, leading the Earth to victory in its ground fight.

“You look like you’re having some deep thoughts,” one of the other boys who would be competing with him said.

“Yeah,” John admitted. He sighed. “I’ve considered decommissioning myself again, you know. I know now that it wouldn’t kill me, just take away my powers. I could be normal again.”

“Why would you want to be?” the boy, his name Xiang, asked.

“To play basketball,” John said. “To do PE with the rest of you.”

“Oh,” Xiang said. “Yeah, I guess it must suck a little to have superpowers. With great power comes great responsibility and all. But if I had superpowers I’d never give them up.”

John sighed. “Yeah. Well, until the war with the Rosanteans is over I have a responsibility to Earth to continue to defend it. Maybe when the war is over I’ll … I don’t know. This was all so much easier when I didn’t have to think for myself. When I just had to listen to my commanding officer and do what I was told. They didn’t give us time to think in training, and then suddenly I’m on Earth and I find out that I don’t know anything.”

Xiang was quiet for a minute. “You’re pretty awesome though, you know that, John? You saved the city. I know what the Rosanteans did in St. Petersburg, and you stopped anything like that from happening here.”

John nodded. “Yeah. I did.”

They went outside to the track. John spent a few hours showing off, then everyone went home. To him it was really no big deal.

The videos which hit the internet later that night, after a few hours of frantic editing by his classmates, got millions of views over the coming days. The “Einherjar out of armor” videos remained heavily popular, even as the “Einherjar in their armor” videos continued to rock the world.

The call for the other scouts to come forward remained high among the public. But John remained the only one who displayed any interest in interacting with the public. The others had melded back into whatever niches they’d found in their society, hiding in plain sight.

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