When I got back to the dorm, the other three were sitting in the common room, chatting, but Tanisha was just getting up, to go into our shared room.

“Hey, guys.” I greeted them, as I walked in.

“Hi Diana, did you have fun last night?” Tanisha asked and I thought there was just a little bit of an edge in her voice, but I might have been wrong.

“Why, what happened last night?” Ru Shi asked, before I was even able to answer.

“She sent a friend over, to get clothes and that case she has at the bottom of her closet, the locked one.” Karen inserted, her language rather suggestive. “So, what kind of toys do you have in your locked briefcase?”

Now, I was frowning.

“I would thank you if you would not spread rumours. Nisha is just a friend, no other relationship.” the longer sentence must have made Karen notice that my voice did not sound normal. She stood and walked over to me.

“Wait a second, you sound hoarse…” She looked me over closely, “OH MY GOD, WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?!” she screamed out, loud enough to wake the dead three blocks away.

“You know that I do some work on private projects in a workshop? I need better workshop-security.” I started the non-explanation I had thought up. “I mean, have you ever been hit by parts of a disintegrating turbine?” I had not, but it might cause the injuries I had sustained. Not likely, but also not impossible. However, I doubted that any of the girls had an idea what kind of injuries that would produce and was certain enough in her opinion to call me out on my non-answer.

As I talked, Tanisha and Ru Shi had come over as well, so I started moving to the couch.

“But something good came from it.” I added. They would find out about me being Metis anyway, how else would I explain a fully functional replacement arm, either biological replacement or a mechanical one. And hiding my lost arm from them was impossible. “The experiment I was running was a success before…” I paused for a second, “before things went wrong. I talked to one of the higher ups in the Guild and I am being recruited.” I announced, proudly. That, I did not even have to fake or mislead about. I was proud of being a Guild-member.

The three of them were wide-eyed. “Wow… Wait, does that mean you are Powered?! That’s so cool! That’s how you saved me, right?” exclaimed Karen, after she got over her initial surprise.

“Yes, I am. You can call me Power-Nerd.” I told them, with a smirk on my face.

“Seriously?!” Tanisha blurted out, “You want to call yourself Power-Nerd?!” she asked, disbelief written all over her. I burst out laughing at her expression, it was just too funny.

“No, no, I already have a name. But I hope to keep that part of my life far away from here.”

“How are you called? And what is your power?!” Karen was getting really excited, while Ru Shi just looked on, from the sidelines.

“If I tell you my name, I’ll ask you not to believe what you read about me, online. I got in a spot of trouble with the Heroes’ League, that is our national Powered organisation at home, and to say that they do not like me would be just a tiny understatement. They made sure that the media is very much convinced that I am evil and still there, commiting crimes. It will be interesting what happens once it is confirmed that I am indeed here, on the Island, and the crimes they framed me for cannot have been committed by me. Probably, they will just never mention them again, oh, well. As for my Power, well, I am smart, super smart, if you will.” I explained.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“I think I know you by now. So, who are you, really?" Tanisha asked.

“Still, just me. But, there are times when I use the name Metis.” I answered and all three of them grabbed the closest laptop and searched for my name. It was something I never directly did, only filtered through Galatea. There was a surprising amount of fan-attention, well, any positive attention was surprising, but a couple of people discussed what little had been recorded of my armour. Mostly the thing with the child I had saved, but that was taken down as fast as people were able to upload it. Still, it enabled a bit of discussion about my armour and looks.

But the vast majority was negative, the three of them read but judging by their expressions, they did not believe what they read. Of course, it might be because one of the top articles was about a crime I had allegedly committed last week, when they knew I had been in our room.

As they read, I took off my gloves and Ru Shi must have seen a flash of silver, her gasp drew the attention of the other two.

“Your arm?!” Tanisha asked, shocked.

“I got it up, just in time to take the brunt of the damage.” That was the first real lie I had told them. “Let us just say, I would rather lose my arm, than my head.” I finished, with a grimace. Tanisha and Karen goggled a little but returned to their reading, while Ru Shi came over, apparently fascinated by the prosthesis.

She grabbed my hand, pulling it towards her and turning it this way and that way, inspecting it closely. “How does it work?” she asked, quite obviously intrigued. She had seen me move the hand and the arm around a little, so she knew that there was more to it.

“It is complicated and I am afraid it is one of those secrets I cannot talk about.”

She kept inspecting and I decided to have some fun with her. When she pulled the next time, I disengaged the nanites, letting the arm pull away at the shoulder.

Her scream caused Karen and Tanisha to jump but the look on her face was one of utter horror and she started shaking.

“I am sorry, Ru Shi, I did not mean to scare you. No, that is a lie, I wanted to prank you, maybe give you a small scare, but not like that.” I calmly said, while gently patting her shoulder. At first, she flinched but did not pull away.

“No, I should apologise. I was far too familiar with you.” she pressed the silvery arm she was still holding into my right hand and stepped back, almost to the door into her room, as if to get ready to flee.

Karen stood and moved over to Ru Shi, softly talking with her roommate. I felt really bad for scaring her, but it had been a joke, nothing more. Tanisha distracted me, asking about things said in the articles and I mostly answered her. Sometimes, I had to look at the article in question, as quite a few of them were more than just a little outlandish.

After maybe five minutes, Karen and Ru Shi came back and Ru Shi started to speak. “I apologise, again, Diana. In my home-country, Powered are obliged to attend state-sponsored training or they turn violent. It is said that in western countries, there is no training, so Powered are always violent and should be treated carefully and not angered, or we might be attacked without warning.”

I frowned, slightly shaking my head. “I do not think there is anything about Powered that makes them more violent than anyone else. I certainly know that I will not attack anyone without a very good, pressing reason.” I started, but was interrupted by Tanisha.

“What about those three? The article says you mutilated them for your own amusement.” she pointed to an article with a picture of the three frat-bros. Anger clouded my features and I glared at Tanisha.

“They deserved what they got and a hundred times worse!” I snarled, with venom in my voice, causing Tanisha and Ru Shi to shy away from my anger.

“Why don’t you explain what they did, so we can judge?” Karen asked, her voice now calm and gentle, like talking to a wild animal.

So, I did. The whole, sordid tale. That they worked with a Powered to abduct underage girls, that they locked them up, that they trained them. What I had seen in that cellar. All three of them were as pale as their skin-tones allowed them to be and Tanisha looked like she wanted to be sick.

“Yes, I might have overreacted that day. I do not think I did. What I wanted to do, was to make sure, beyond almost any doubt, that they would never do something like that again, ever. That night, I was not dealing in justice, or any such noble concept, I was dealing in vengeance.”

I left the three of them, so they could digest that. I was not necessarily proud of what I had done to those three, but I would never apologise. People like them were a cancer on society and I would gladly excise it.

In the privacy of my own room, and after taking a deep breath, I called Nisha, we had things to talk about.