I walked out of the bedroom I had found myself in, collecting myself, before walking into the living area. The room itself was big, and there were a lot of bunk beds scattered around. In the center of the area rests a large circular table, with several people sitting at it.

“I see you’re finally awake,” one of the people spoke up, walking towards me, “Alphonso Ramirez, leader of the Unreliables.”

He looked at me, smiled, and brought up his mocha almond fudge hand to offer me a handshake. Obviously, I obliged immediately.

“Aren’t you the guy who told Mylo & I to leave?” I replied, unable to think of a better question to ask.

“Yeah, I hear you thought I was a crash bandicoot villain.”

“You ARE a crash bandicoot villain, and I’m the leader of the Unreliables. Brendan Frakes, good to meet ya.” a white man stood up and raced over to me, pushing Alphonso out of the way and offering me a handshake instead.

“Brendan, we held a vote. Not a single person thinks you’d be fit as the leader.” said another voice, this time coming from a fairly smug-looking asian guy, “Sorry about him, he’s just full of himself. I’m Jacob Smith.”

“Ordinary name.” I replied.

“Ordinary dude. Well, outside of the suit.”

“Yeah, eye trace, right? I saw some of your moves. Seemed like you ripped them right off the big screen.”

“Yeah, cause I did. Binge watched all 4 John Wicks beforehand.”

“I knew it was John Wick! Instinctively, I mean. I was freaking out the whole time.”

“Nice, glad to have another connoisseur of the arts.”

I looked around at the rest of the table, the only other people there were Mylo and someone else. The other guy was still decked out in a sparkly black bodysuit, but no beaked hood. I still recognized him within a few seconds.

“You’re the guy who rescued me.” I said, directly to him.

“Yes, pleased to meet you under better circumstances,” he held out his hand, waiting for a handshake as well, “Caspian.”

“Serenity,” I spoke, returning his handshake, “Forgot to introduce myself to everyone else. My bad.”

“It’s okay,” he chuckled, “How are you feeling?”

“Yeah, I have no idea how to answer that right now. My mind is still a mess.”

“That’s fair, honestly.” Jacob replied.

“What do you remember?” Alphonso asked, curiously.

“I mean, a lot of it is still a blur. I remember the scientist, he did some really horrific shit to me while I was in there. I was killed and reincarnated several times over, every day.” I replied, painfully.

“Same thing with me,” Mylo replied, “got hit with a disintegration ray and from there everything got worse.”

“I was hit with a disintegration ray as well.”

Everyone looked at me immediately. Mylo looked stunned.

“Okay, why are you looking at me like that?”

“Cause no one else had the same memory and we think the ray was how my powers came to be.”

“Okay, when you say ‘no one else’, do you mean that you were interrogating people?”

“No.” Mylo said.

“Yes.” Caspian said simultaneously.

“Sort of.” Alphonso said immediately following Caspian.

“Most people couldn’t remember the torture, it’s not that we know no one else dealt with it, we just know that you’re the first person to share the same memory.” Brendan spoke up, ending the awkwardness.

“So wait...” I started, but before I could finish the thought, I felt a deep unease in my stomach.

The world around me started to change. I was in the same place, and I could see everyone, but they started looking around everywhere, confused. I couldn’t hear what they were saying. I walked over to them, trying to communicate, but no words came out and I was able to move my hand through Brendan. Then, I was able to move my whole body through Brendan. I then felt the world shift again and I returned to where I was originally, just on the opposite side of the table. I could no longer feel the anxiety, but everyone started staring at me like I did something insane.

“You disappeared.” Mylo started.

“No, I was here. I could move around, but I couldn’t hear anything.” I replied.

Everyone fell silent for a brief moment. My words hung in the air like rain drops frozen in time. It was making me a bit more anxious. Then everyone’s head shifted towards my feet. I knew this wasn’t a Tarantino movie, so I looked at my feet as well.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

They were gone.

Definitely not a Tarantino movie.

That just gave me more anxiety. My feet are pretty vital to my ability to do most things, and I didn’t know how I was standing without feet. As my anxiety rose up, I could see what was happening. The higher my anxiety got, the more I disappeared. First was my legs, then my hips, stomach, arms, chest. Soon, I was but a head. However, before I could fully disappear, Brendan walked right up, put his hand under my head, and said “Alas, Poor Serenity, I knew ye well.”

Not a single person laughed. In fact, the room was dead silent. I could hear the sounds of crickets outside despite the fact that it was day time and we were 15 stories off the ground. Slowly, as Brendan moved his hand out of the way, I could see my body return to normal as the anxiety of everything drifted away.

“I know that look,” Mylo started, standing up from the table, “you were about to go into an anxiety-induced panic attack.”

“...yeah.” I replied.

He was exactly right. My anxiety was out of control. This was a difficult situation to deal with already, and now I have a superpower connected to it. Being neurodivergent was hard enough, but now I have to deal with it while constantly turning me invisible.

“The scientist fucking cursed me,” I said after a few brief moments of silence, “his fucking torture methods gave my anxiety the power to myself turn invisible. This is bad. This is very bad.”

“Okay, hold on. First of all, this isn’t a curse-” Alphonso started right before Caspian interrupted him.

“No, Let’s not go that route, Alphonso,” he stated, “She was tortured. We know what that man can do. If her power awakened, connected to one of her disabilities, and we know the same thing happened with Mylo...”

“Really?” I whispered to Mylo.

“Yeah, if I let myself get too tired, I turn into a giant Green Bean.” He whispered back.

“How is that bad?”

“I have narcolepsy. You should’ve known that already.”

“Okay, fair point, Caspian. But, what does that mean? That everyone who was kidnapped by that scientist is going to get powers connected to whatever disabilities they may have?” Alphonso finally responded, curious about the whole revelation.

“Remains to be seen. We need to get back into that lab and find out who all was kept in there, as well as any other information they may have.” Caspian replied, standing up from the table and walking towards the apartment door.

“You’re going now?” Alphonso blasted back.

“Recon. I’ll come back when I’m ready to stage the break-in.”

Caspian left the apartment immediately after speaking, shutting the door behind him.

“Wait, you’re just going to let him leave?” I spoke, annoyed, unsure what to think.

“Yeah, he can do whatever he wants. This isn’t, like, an official team. We’ve only been doing this for a month,” Brendan replied back, calmly, “also he scares me.”

“How are you afraid of him, you can press a button and literally create a t-rex appear.” Jacob snapped back.

“T-Rex’s aren’t extinct, dumbass. They live on an island in the middle of the pacific ocean.”

“Do you think Jurassic Park was a documentary, Brendan?” Alphonso jumped in.

“Jurassic Park was a book, first of all, and Alan Grant was way more badass in it. Second of all, if Jurassic Park was a documentary, then Jurassic World and the other parts of both trilogies would also be documentaries and that would mean that we would’ve had giant flaming locusts patrolling the sky for days and a mosasaurus swimming in the puget sound, which would’ve been the target of the US Coast Guard within seconds so, Brendan, I don’t know you but shut the fuck up.” I shouted, angrily, not being able to fully wrap my head around everything that I’ve learned in the last few minutes.

All three of them stopped talking immediately. Even Mylo was staring at me.

After a moment, Jacob just stood up and said “respect.”

“... Okay, fine, next time Caspian leaves to patrol on his own, I’ll summon a T-Rex.” Brendan responded in a defeated manner.

“Looks like we have a pop culture nerd in our ranks now,” Alphonso chuckled, “but I’m not kidding about you needing to rest. You clearly need time to think everything over. You can use the spare bedroom until you’re ready to go back home.”

“There’s a park nearby, right?” I asked.

“There’s volunteer park, yeah. 10 minutes away. Here, let me put everyone’s number into your phone so you can call us in case of an emergency, and I’ll also add you to the group chat.”

I willingly handed Alphonso my phone and he put in everything he needed to, then handed me my phone back.

“Things will be okay. We’re gonna find the asshole that did this to you.” He told me, before patting my back and walking into the kitchen area.

I sighed, tired from everything that happened.

“Mylo, are you gonna be okay?” I asked him, realizing he was still here and likely going through the same issues I was.

“Yeah. I’ll just sleep outside when I need to.” He replied.

“At least find a spot away from prying eyes. Who knows what kind of people would try to hurt The Bean.”

Mylo chuckled, then walked over and hugged me. We both had powers that were now tied to our disabilities and we likely aren’t going to be the last.

“What do you want your superhero name to be?” Mylo asked, lessening his hug a bit and moving his hands to my shoulders.

“Who says I want to be a superhero?” I replied, “Maybe I want to be an anti-hero.”

“I’m not certain we get to choose that easily.”

“Okay, well, I’m not working with the police for any reason.”

“The police don’t really trust us anyway,” Alphonso chimed in, “they didn’t even bother looking for the missing people in the first place.”

“I’m telling you, they’re owned by the Sinister Gang. That’s who they sell the guns to.” Brendan shouted, standing up from the couch next to the table.

“Is that the people with the snake logo with a G in the middle?” Mylo asked quickly.

“Yeah, though it should really be reversed. They must have a bad graphic designer.” Jacob joked.

I tuned out the rest of the conversation, as my questions were answered and I desperately needed to sleep and get my head on straight.

I went to the room I woke up in, turned off the lights, and passed out on the bed.