Friday, as it turned out, was not far away at all. I guess only being two days away would do that for you.

Still, time seemed to have a very peculiar way of disappearing in big chunks at a time whenever I found myself working, studying, or sleeping…and it sorta felt like that was all my days were at the moment.

Big shock. Time goes by fast during sleep. Who knew?

But it worked out pretty well for me that there were no new altercations with AEGIS, no Exhuman events, no crazed murderers or anything, just a few days of classes and my normal schedule outside of them.

Of course my normal schedule wasn’t a normal schedule. But it was normal enough for me, so it went by without too much fuss.

I was seated on some steps, just idling around for a few minutes before the previous class got out of our room, and a shadow draped over me. Kind of pleasant really, given that it was hot today. I looked up and found red eyes and a smile.

“Guess what?” Alyssa said.

“Uh. The Sino War was an inside job?”

She giggled. “Yer’ weird. No, I did my homework, and it did only take five minutes. Ya were so right. But maybe if they give us a bigger assignment this time, we can do it together? It mighta only been five minutes, but I was bored as plywood the whole five of ’em. Partner might help with that, yeah?”

I shrugged. “The assignment’s on the syllabus. It doesn’t look any worse than last time’s.” I paused long enough to see her expression wavering before I realized I was being self defeating here. And uh, maybe insensitive? “Wait, no, yeah, actually. I had a question for you, related to that.”

“Homework so easy ya had a question on it?” she gave me a superior smirk.

“No, silly. I was looking for a place to crash over the weekend. My…uh…roommate is kinda…driving me crazy.”

“Oh? What’s he doin’?”

“She keeps trying to make me eat her terrible cooking and play games with her and stuff, when I’d rather be focused on studying and…not eating her terrible cooking,” I lamented. “We’ve just been fighting nonstop recently and I think we need some time apart.”

Something punched me in the back of the head hard enough to make me reel off the steps. I stumbled and rolled to my feet with my hands up.

“Um, mornin’ Lia,” Alyssa said.

“Can it, floozy,” Lia growled at her with a jab of her finger. It turned on me next as she continued. “Athan, what the hell.”

“You what the hell. You punched me in the head!”

“Uh, yeah!” she said with clear irritation as she rubbed her knuckles. “And it hurt by the way. Your head is way too hard.”

“It should hurt! Why the hell did you punch me in the head?”

“Because AEGIS is your girlfriend, did you forget that? If you guys fight, that’s whatever, but you are not just weaseling your way into another relationship and leaving her out to dry.”

“I’m not weaseling anything. She’s driving me crazy.”

“Um, you have a girlfriend?” Alyssa asked.

“I said can it,” Lia barked at her. “But yes, he does, so stop with the coy doe-eyes on him, he’s very taken.”

“She wasn’t, though,” I argued. “You’re calling me hard-headed, but you’re the one jumping to conclusions and punching people in the head like a maniac.”

“Maybe if you listened to me instead of–“

“Lia, I was only trying to talk to your brother. Did you hit him?”

“Jesus, you’re insane, Lia. Like what the hell–“

“Hi gang!” Sebastian popped up. “We’re so loud today! Are we doing our early morning vocal exercises? I’ve got one I do, Ba, ba, ba. Ba, Bar-bar-a A-aa-ann. Take my ha-aa-aand. Ba, ba, ba. Ba, Bar-bar-a Ann–“

We all stopped to look at him while he sang and giggled. Couldn’t exactly ignore it.

“What the heck?” I asked. “This is like the second time one of you is punching me in the head this morning.”

“It’s too early to fight,” he laughed.

“Was that the worst rendition of the Beach Boys I’ve ever heard?” Darris asked, sliding over a railing to join the conversation. He really couldn’t stay out of any conversation which involved premilleni music, even if it was pop.

Which I really hoped that song Sebastian belted out was premilleni pop because It sorta sounded like it had three words in the lyrics and was awful. But maybe it was just not being done any favors by his lack of singing ability.

“It is the Beach Boys! A national treasure,” Sebastian laughed.

“Eh, I found their later works derivative. After the nineteen sixties, they really fell off. Did anybody ask for Keepin’ the Summer Alive? Going so far as to go back to their rock and roll roots was an obvious appeal to disinterested fans. They should taken the waning interest as a hint and let it die.”

Sebastian laughed again. “But they were keeping the summer alive.”

Lia looked as lost and derailed by this whole musical tangent as I was. Sebastian showed zero tact in the unspoken rule which had formed in our group to never ever mention anything old and musical in Darris’ presence, lest we all be in for a generally long-winded diatribe about why that particular song and-or group sucked or why something similar but completely unrelated to it sucked, and so on.

It was usually obnoxious, bordering on frustrating as he refused to let the topic shift to anything else, but right now, it was a godsend as he’d held up Lia’s crazy train long enough for the class before ours to get out, and I made myself scarce in the crowd exiting the room. They managed to cover me for the time being and I stayed lost until class started, at which point the whole yelling and punching thing should have been safe.

She still glared daggers at me as I sat down just as the professor called the class to order.

It was a pretty typical class, nothing new or unexpected for anyone familiar with the syllabus, until halfway through when the professor was veered wildly off-course by making the rookie mistake of increasing student participation by asking for answers to some very obvious and very subjective questions.

“Why would you guess that we’re seeing the current spike in consumption of paper products?” The professor asked. “Yes, you in the blue.”

“Exhumans,” the student responded.

The professor stopped his writing on the board to turn and look. “That’s an interesting theory, do you mind explaining a little more?”

To my surprise the student in blue stood up as the whole class turned to see who was setting us all off-course. He was a big-ish guy in all dimensions, maybe an inch taller than me, a little broader, and quite a bit fatter. He had round cheeks that seemed to push his eyes shut, and shortly-cropped blonde hair which was hard to distinguish from his pale skin. His smirk was superior, and obnoxious.

“It’s simple,” he said. “People are realizing that digital is an impermanent medium. Already, there are so many old pieces of history out there on data drives that are incompatible with quantum computers, but at least they were preserved, they were. Well, until you have a server of them within range of an Exhuman event. Or like the recent revolt at New Eden, which was said to be led off with the detonation of an EMP bomb, Exhumans are becoming more cunning and destructive, they are, and people are realizing that the interconnectedness of computers is a weakness instead of a strength for data storage.”

I rolled my eyes that he didn’t actually answer the question at all, but the professor nodded respectfully. “That’s an interesting perspective, does anyone have anything else to say about it?”

“Yeah, I do,” I found myself saying, surprising myself a little to find my hand in the air. “As someone who’s really into electronics right now, I can tell you that if they wanted to, they can design circuits with tolerances great enough to resist an EMP bomb, no problem. Most modern military hardware is already hardened because of this ‘trend’ you pointed out, and data retention could be built the same way if we wanted, so that doesn’t explain it at all. Paper is just as volatile if not more, and for every EMP bomb or electroist, there’s a pyroist out there burning down physical records.” I crossed my arms from my seat. “Also, since New Eden, Exhuman events have been at an all-time low in the country.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“Only large-scale events,” the dweeb argued, cutting off the professor. “Smaller-scale events have been off the charts after a radical group of Exhumans escaped New Eden.”

He may have been technically right about that, but before I could reply, the Professor did. “Now, don’t start any conspiracy theories gentlemen, there are no escapees from New Eden, and there’s no need to argue here. We’re having a discussion, which means everyone should listen to each other’s thoughts and try to suss out the truth buried in them, even if it’s not something you agree with. But I think we covered this topic pretty well, so let’s talk about how this resurgence of paper again…”

He continued on, and the class sunk back into general apathy as the spontaneous debate ebbed away. I wasn’t half done telling the round dweeb how wrong he was about electronic media and Exhumans, both topics I apparently was very invested in. I turned and noticed he was staring at me, and I was very tempted to give him a little gesture to stare at, when my phone buzzed silently.

It was from Alyssa, a couple seats over.

> Dude, that was super cool. That guy needs to shut up and learn from you a thing or two. Wasting all our time like that, so annoying.

> arguing with fat freshmen over the professor is cool?

> You did it somehow, LOL.

> just annoys me that he’s obviously got this agenda and is misinformed and cant wait to talk about it in the middle of class just because he sees a platform to so irritating gah

> We all know, we all see it, we all appreciate you shutting him down.

> Hey, were you serious about hanging over the weekend? I’ll have to clear it with my roommate but I’m super down.

> Slumber party, LOL!

> yeah my roommate is just driving me nuts

> Is what Lia said true? Is she your girlfriend?

I hesitated for longer than I should have. I knew the answer, but it felt like it was hard to wrap up AEGIS and my complicated relationship, which took place over the course of three of her lives and involved two enormous bouts of amnesia, a fatal virus, death and saving and life…it felt hard to wrap that all up succinctly in a ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

> yes but its complicated really really complicated

> Then I’ll keep you and me simple, LOL. Come over and hang out and have fun.

> thanks sounds great

It did sound great. Getting out of the house, hanging out with my friends, not having to worry about stepping on AEGIS’ feelings…or Lia’s apparently. I’d hoped that when I came out to college, all this baggage would somehow go away.

Certainly a lot of it did. I was freer and happier than I’d been in…ever, actually. But AEGIS had insisted she be my mother bear–a term she loathed, incidentally–as payment for getting me admitted, and Lia thought if I could have a normal life, she could too. Which honestly, I thought was awesome for her, even if she’d hung up her Black Shark mantle for the time being to make time to do it…I just wished she could keep out of my business while making her own life.

But ultimately, I was a pretty simple guy, and just the thought of having normal, everyday, human friends, far outside the sphere of the XPCA or any of that other nonsense, and doing something so ordinary as spending time with them, beyond the confines of a strategy meeting to avert an apocalypse or something, it just…buoyed me up. I hadn’t even felt down, but now I felt so excited for all the really trivial nonsense we might get ourselves into.

Maybe watch a movie on the holo. Maybe play some video games. Hell, if she needed groceries or maybe something from the drug store, I could tag along while she went shopping. The ceiling was the limit here. Anything utterly mundane was possible.

We spent the rest of class messaging back and forth whenever the professor wasn’t looking in our direction, though several times he glanced over in time to barely miss our stifled grins and giggles.

Next Monday was football tryouts, too. I’d obviously missed the actual tryouts in the fall, but I’d talked to the coach and he put me on the spot by making me do some running and throwing. I’d apparently impressed him enough for a second interview, as he told me that it’d be up to the team ultimately, and I could do a formal tryout and wow them.

I didn’t imagine I’d be any star quarterback anymore, especially if the college players had a few years on me, their months of experience and training while I’d been…otherwise occupied…so backup QB was what I was shooting for. Which was fine by me, I didn’t want to kick anyone else out or make any waves, I just wanted to get back on the field and do what I loved best.

Still had a little phobia of things getting thrown at me, but I was working on it. I wasn’t exactly aiming to be a receiver anyway.

And so the hour slipped by with nothing more eventful happening than messaging Alyssa and daydreaming of the kinds of things people usually daydreamed through instead of daydream of. I felt a little bad when the professor started wrapping up and dismissed us all, realizing I’d hardly heard two words he’d said after Alyssa had messaged me, but I was ahead on reading, I had the syllabus. Just needed to not make a habit of it.

She flanked me immediately as we got up to go. “Food time?” she asked.

“Sounds good to me.”

Another girl flanked my opposite arm and looked at me with lethal eyes. “You go ahead,” Lia said with a saccharine tone that laced the daggers she was staring into me with sickly-sweet icing. “I need to talk to my brother.”

I sighed but waved Alyssa goodbye as she stepped away with a stuttering gait. “What.”

Lia waited until the other girl had gone before turning to me. “Come on, dude.”

“What?” It was a question, unlike the last, terse use of that word.

“Nothing good is going to come of this. She’s into you. You should let her down now, not string her along.”

“We’re just gonna hang out as friends. She knows I’m dating AEGIS, and she’s cool with it.”

“Maybe she said she’s cool with it, but she’s still into you.”

“Look, I’m not going to cross any lines or do anything stupid, all right? I’m allowed to have female friends while dating someone. It’s not like I’m supposed to wear blinders and ask for a new waiter if the one I get happens to be female or anything.”

“Waitresses aren’t into you, dummy.”

“Karu was a waitress.”

She raise a fist towards my dome again but this time I just intercepted it and pushed it away. Not that it was a serious attack anyway, but I’d been training and my reflexes were doing their job.

“Look, seriously,” I said. “Whatever happens, it’s just normal human being stuff. None of it is going to hurt me or upset me or make my life more hell than all the shit and betrayals and dying and reincarnation and torture that the rest of the girls in my life go through. I want this because it’s simple. I’m not going to get hurt by anything this base, okay?”

If anything her look became even more irritated and disgusted. I wondered just how much contempt one sibling could hold for another.

“I’m not worried about you getting hurt, you asinine garbage. You’re the one not taking this seriously, you have nothing to lose. But Allie is a good, normal girl, just getting her feet under her in the world. You’re going to hurt her.”

I stopped and blinked at my sister. “Me?”

“Jesus, you’re frustrating. Who the hell else do you think?”

“But…I’m not doing anything. I’ve let her know, just friends, right?”

She shook her head. “It’s like talking to a doorknob. Jesus, dude.”

By now the room had pretty much cleared out, and the next class was beginning to trickle in. There were already some people sitting down, like I usually did, staking out their preferred seat and waiting, ready and comfortable. But there was one person sitting there that I had to frown at seeing.

The student who got the professor off-track from earlier. The big pudgy guy in a white tee with the blue button-up shirt, he was still sitting there, and he was still staring at me.

I had a moment of hesitation where I wondered if he was perhaps a crazy person. I’d crossed him, and now he’d spend every day stalking me and trying to make my life hell. Or just cutting me open while I slept and eating my liver or something. Neither seemed really desirable outcomes, and I looked back at Lia with sudden concern for what even a normal-level threat could present to her, especially.

“Hey, let’s get food,” I said.

“You’re trying to worm out of this again?”

“No. I understand what you’re saying. I’ll be careful, okay?”

She looked at me like she didn’t exactly believe me but nodded and started to pack up. I did the same, and when we turned to go, I made sure to keep her shielded from his sight with my body. As we got to the long, wide steps up the classroom, I saw Alyssa poke her head back in the door to look for us.

But I needn’t have bothered with any precaution for the girls, his eyes were firmly locked on me. As I drew near the exit, thinking maybe I’d escaped and thank God normal life was simple after all, he abruptly stood up and called out to me.

“Athan Ashton of the XPCA Parahuman Force, AKA Chariot,” he said, and I blanched, but kept going forward like I hadn’t heard. “I said, Athan Ashton, what are you doing here?”

I turned to Lia and found her eyes wide. Run, she mouthed at me, as she broke off and disappeared into the entering crowd, mobile in her hands.

I started to run, but found my path blocked by him, standing there a step above and inches taller than me. His eyes smoldered as he stared at me, and when I moved, he moved to block me, bumping passing students without even a glance.

“Athan,” he hissed at me, apparently ignorant of all the stares he was drawing. “I have one question for you, of the most critical importance.”

“I don’t know who you think I am–“

“You’re Athan Ashton of the XPCA Parahuman Force, second-silver lead and founding member, along with Melanie Walsh, Jack Vega, Darius Knox, and Kaori Ikeda.”

Vega? Was that his last name, really? That was cool as hell. And Tower’s name was Darius? But more importantly–how the fuck did he know all this?

“I think you’re mistaken,” I said, trying to push past him but finding only his round stomach in my way.

“There’s no mistake,” he said confidently. “And there’s no escape either. Not unless you answer me one simple question.”

He stood with his hands on his hips looking down at me with a face like a toad while students continued to stream in around us. Lia had to be calling for Saga right now. But how big a scene could I afford to make here? Everyone in the room certainly looked like they couldn’t give less of a shit of what was unfolding, but if I fucked up somehow, they’d see him as more than just a crazy lunatic. And if they wandered off and told people, or it leaked on the ‘net, damage control might become really difficult.

So I sighed and tried to keep it to just the one guy. Saga could blast him out and we’d all be set.

“Uh, what’s the question?” I asked.

He swung his backpack under his arm and reached inside. I flinched reactively but tried to keep it cool. If he drew on me, I could react and then there’d be plenty of evidence that he was just a crazy fuck who needed to be expelled and never ever heard out.

But what he pulled out of his bag wasn’t a weapon, but a cardboard tube. He unstopped one end and shook loose a rolled-up heavy piece of glossy paper which he began to unfurl.

“Far superior to digital media, it is,” he gloated, because of course he would, the fucker.

But what he unrolled and held out to me was a picture taken of the P-Force, in action, at the most recent op in Chicago. It was obviously a blown-up still from a mobile recording from some of the graininess, but there was something absolutely cool about how each of the figures looked, standing tall and somber in ankle-deep water as the rain pounded the quiet buildings around them.

He tapped the image of the tall exosuited warrior right in the middle with a pen.

“Chariot,” he explained, as redundantly as possible, and I took a deep breath as I prepared to answer a question I knew was long coming. Though not like this, and not from him.

But thank the friggin’ heavens, the next words out of his mouth completely floored me.

“Could I have your autograph?”