“Anything but that.” I immediately responded.
“Oh? I thought most kids your age would do anything to be Suprahuman, let alone a Hero. You’d let it all go just like that? Being able to apply for real, non-scripted battles is pretty rare, and you’d be doing the community a great service.” Michaels responded nonchalantly.
“That’s kinda the problem. I don’t want to get into a real battle. I’m scrawny, lazy and bruise easily. I’d be turned into red paste if I became a hero. At least other types of Suprahumans get more peaceful lives. Also, reeeaaal classy trying to guilt trip me like that.” I responded with as much bite as I could put into it.
“Nobody starts out as Hero material, kid. That’s something you gotta train for, not something you have at the beginning. ‘Sides, unless you’re the laziest person on the planet, deciding to give away all that money, fame, and training seems unlikely.” As he talked, his smile became softer, acquiring more warmth.
“You didn’t respond to me calling you a classless bastard.”
“You want me to lie to you?”
“Funny.”
He sighed, then spoke. “Ain’t trying to be. Class is for those who have the ability to add flair to a building. No stone gargoyle has helped in an earthquake.”
“Are all hero recruiters this depressing?” I spoke, trying to avoid this conversation becoming an ad for assisted suicide.
“Ain’t a recruiter either.”
“Just tell me I have no human rights and that you’ll put me on a diet of powerful but dangerous drugs that transform me into a sewer alligator.”
“Kinda the problem, I wish I could grab you by the scruff of your neck and force you to actually help people. Little shits like you only think about themself, and never about everyone else that suffers from your hoarding of power.” He spoke back, a little more agitated.
He was mad? Fuck that. I was mad. I’d been pronounced dead. Got fucking run over and stabbed, and he had the audacity to act like I’m at fault for not wanting to punch out Godzilla?
Screw him, and screw his bullshit.
“You done seething in the corner? Been waiting for you to say something after you got all pissy.” He spoke, breaking me out of my thoughts.
“Fuck you. I don’t want to be a hero. I want to go to class and get into shitty spats with my friends, I want to scream and run when danger comes, I want to fantasize about getting laser hands, not actually get them, I want Heroes and Suprahumans and Numina and all this bullshit to be an arm's length away. I want to be normal.
“No one's ‘normal’ kid. At least you get the choice. Besides, is your only condition for being a Hero that you get to keep pretending you're a normal person still?” He asked, directing a sense of disappointment towards me, or at least, that was the impression I got. I couldn’t actually tell where it was directed.
…
Was normalcy all I wanted? I thought back to when I was younger.
----------------------------------------
“Is she still staring at the television? They must have played that episode of Keeping Up with the Jeffersons from Dusk to Dawn.” I heard a voice behind me. A caretaker.
I didn’t look. I didn’t care. The entire lobby might’ve just been dust in the air for all I cared.
The old CRT displayed an image of a sharp-tongued girl, chastising a flunkie older brother for missing her recital. In a few minutes, they would declare that they never wanted to see each other ever again. A few more minutes and they’d reconcile in a tearful hug.
The adoption lobby was empty, and soon I’d turn 10, too old for the orphanage. After that, I’d be set loose in the world with a leased apartment and someone to come visit every few months, just to make sure I wasn’t dead.
But none of that mattered. The Warmth of the screen, and the family within, was enough for me.
“Should we tell her to get to bed? It isn’t even that good in terms of cinematography.” One of them sighed.
Another caretaker responded. “Oi, fuck off. This is getting pretty good. The girl has great taste.”
----------------------------------------
“It isn’t an evil thing to ask for,” I replied through gritted teeth.
“Sorry?” he noticed me snap out of my reminiscence, confused by my words.
“Wanting to be normal isn’t evil,” I spoke, getting quieter, as I curled into myself as much as I could without disturbing the equipment attached to my body.
It wasn’t as much as I hoped.
He paused, considering my words.
“No, it isn’t. Get some sleep. I’ll sort the rest out for you.” He spoke back quietly, before standing up, glancing back at me one last time, before leaving.
A few minutes after he left, the exhaustion caught up to me, and I fell back asleep.
/-/
“Knock Knock,” Michaels spoke through the door, pantomiming a knock but not actually knocking at all. Maybe it was his idea of a joke?
“Who’s there?” Well, it couldn’t hurt to play along.
“Michaels.” He spoke with a deadpan expression.
The fuck.
The door to my room slammed open as an irate man in slacks and a business shirt walked in, clearly not being a fan of our ‘unique’ comedy set.
If I didn’t know any better, I would think that the man was a supermodel. He had his black hair in the bob cut that most male K-Pop stars had, but there was no clear tell of his nationality, I could only tell that his skin was monstrously pale. Otherwise, he was incredibly tall, with his clearly expensive clothes covering muscles that were only partly hidden, otherwise showing through the suit. His face was also startlingly handsome, the kind of symmetrical beauty and care that would take hours to accomplish in editing software.
He then spoke with a deep, but clear tone.
“She the little snotling you got me out of the office for? I just got a new member of the Round Table who needs training, my supply of the Dark Forest’s juice is about to run out, and I need to test the new sensors on the Black Dog First Responders.”
Michaels sighed with annoyance.
“Arthur, some respect for the trauma victim.” He replied, coming to my defence.
‘Arthur’ stared me down, scanning me with a half-glare, before apparently deciding something and taking a step backwards, leaning on the wall.
He coughed, clearing his throat before speaking.
“Arthur Pen, CEO of Black Dog, a S.U.N division.” He nodded as he finished speaking.
Fucking hell. I didn’t know where ‘captain’ stood in the S.U.N hierarchy, but the CEO of Black Dog? Everyone at least knew about them when thinking about the S.U.N. I remembered that from my class explaining how the government worked.
After the Golden Age collapsed because of The Watchman, The United States government leaned into the capitalist side of its identity, repealing a bunch of laws and making new ones, so that the government and corporations were less separate from each other. After the Silver Age, the S.U.N was like the one big thing they told us to remember for the test.
The Suprahuman Union National. Part government agency, part corporation, it was the gig giver and representative for most Suprahumans, and Black Dog was their human task force they sent to deal with errant Supras who were going too far with their Numina. They were armed with power armor, futuristic vehicles, and if Nathan from when I was 8 was to be believed, a giant mech.
Fuck. I wondered what Nathan is doing now. I knew he went to my school, but I hadn’t given a shit to get to know him outside of that one interaction. Would he care if I was reported as dead? Would anyone? I knew I’d never cared too much when a kid went missing. Not because I was heartless, or because it was normal, but because I was powerless to do much about it. You just kinda dissociate when dealing with a problem you can’t solve. Whether or not Numina were involved, I didn’t think my actions would have been different. Either way, it was out of my hands. Though I guess for everyone I used to know, my disappearance was also something that’s ‘out of their hands’.
While I’d been thinking, the two had been talking to each other.
“So Max, where are the other ‘guests of honor’?” Arthur asked with a sarcastic tone.
Max checked his watch, before responding.
“E.T.A. is 30 seconds.”
Arthur nodded back as if that was normal, or a thing he could even know.
I couldn’t be quiet any longer. Gathering my courage in the face of two men who could disappear me and make it so I never existed, I spoke.
“Who else is coming? What is going on? How long have I been asleep?”
Arthur turned to me, considered my words, and then spoke with a shit-eating grin on his stupid, perfectly photogenic face.
“Two Paragons, your judgement, and judging by the monitors, probably a day.”
Ah.
Two Paragons. The strongest class of Suprahuman, of which only 4 are confirmed to be alive and existing. Basically gods.
Two gods were coming to, I assume, pass judgment on my soul.
I looked over to Michaels. He didn’t correct him. Traitor.
“Are you The Devil?” I responded, fear leaking from my voice as I looked at Arthur.
“Depends, what do you define as The Devil. However, if you mean in terms of moral bankruptcy, yes.” He responded, more interested in his nails than my immortal soul.
“Oh…” I responded, trying to keep the distress out of my voice.
As I began to cry a little, I heard a loud crash outside, moments before someone ran in.
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“I heard a child crying, Arthur I swear to god, if you bullied another child I’m sending you on a solo mission to the Abyss Realm.” said the man who had just run in, fury in his eyes, and annoyance in his clenched fists.
Apparently, god hated child bullying.
Well, ‘god’ in this case, was a man with fluffy brown hair, thick glasses, a white turtle-neck sweater, and black slacks. He looked like a struggling writer whose screenplay kept getting rejected.
After seeing the supermodel that was Arthur, and the imposing figure of Michaels, which admittedly I had gotten used to, seeing a guy who looked like he would be a social media sad boy that lonely women obsess over was like getting punched in the face. This guy was a Paragon? The guys who were on the level of The Watchman? The strongest people in the world?
Wait, actually, which Paragon could this guy even be? He wasn’t a robot, so he couldn’t be The Visitor. He certainly wasn’t a woman, so both the Vermillion Lady and Empress were out, which just left…
“You’re the Violet Sentinel!?” I suddenly yelled out in pure disbelief.
The Paragon turned to me, smiled, and then spoke in a joking tone.
“To be fair, who else could I be? Japan’s emperor?”
“But he has a serious tone, and muscles for days!” I spoke as my worldview began collapsing.
With each point I brought up, he seemed to deflate a little more, before Arthur spoke up, laughing.
“The fact that voice training and thick sweaters to hide your athleticism is too much for the common man always amuses me.”
“But The Violet Sentinel doesn’t have glasses! So how would you be able to see?” I spoke, not willing to let the whole thing go.
Instead of speaking, the supposed Paragon just flicked his hand and space warped, making it reflect like a… lens. Fuck. He had me there. Probably should have expected that.
“I feel like I just found out that Santa is actually a ripped action hero when he isn’t giving gifts on Christmas,” I spoke while sulking.
“This is why I suggested making my costumes look more homely.” He spoke, while joining me in sulking.
“Adam, there is no way that your fucking Saturday morning cartoon mascot idea would work.” Arthur snapped back.
“...Fair.” He sighed, before turning to me.
“Well hello, let’s just forget our earlier introduction, I’m Adam Kadmen, or I guess most people know me more as The Violet Sentinel, the number 1 hero in the world.” He said while giving me a glowing smile.
Wait a second…
“Isn’t Adam Kadmen the head of the S.U.N?” I asked back sceptically.
“Yep.” He responded, still smiling brightly.
…
Didn’t that mean?
“Ohhhhhh. That’s really corrupt.” I spoke back.
“Well I’d like to publicly join my identities, but that wouldn’t be fair to my non-powered friends, so I have to keep this double life up. If it makes you feel any better, I give away the salary I get as my Hero identity to charity.” He spoke back with a hint of guilt.
Huh, guess he’s trying to have a heart.
“Wait, didn’t you say there were two Paragons who were coming?” I said.
I heard a small pop. beside me.
“That’d be me.” I heard a voice in the direction of the pop.
I jumped in surprise before turning to see a blonde woman leaning against the wall. Her hair was long and thick, tied into a high ponytail, with a white lab coat over a white blouse and black pencil skirt.
The others didn’t seem too surprised though.
“Huh, new hair colour Eve?” Arthur asked.
“Well, considering why we’re here, having similar characteristics to Lisa would be for the best,” Eve spoke casually.
“What.” I spoke very not casually. “How do you know my name? Or what I was saying?”
“Cameras in your room.” She spoke very matter-of-factly.
“That feels like a privacy violation.”
She shrugged.
“Hang on, if you’re here for my ‘Judgement’, and you dyed your hair to look like mine, is this going to be one of those weird sins of the past, present and future judgements?” I asked back hesitantly.
Adam stared at Arthur and Michaels.
“Did either of you actually tell her what we were doing, or did you just find it funnier this way?” She spoke with some annoyance.
“Arthur was saying the truth about everything.’ Michaels spoke back.
“Repeat his words back to me,” Eve spoke while putting her head into her palms.
“Two Paragons, your judgement, and judging by the monitors, probably a day,” Michaels spoke, even somehow replicating his voice.
Eve sighed and turned to me, putting her hands in her lab coat pockets.
“Before I correct what that idiot said, let me introduce myself, I’m Eve Kadmen. Head researcher at the S.U.N’s research department.”
“Kadmen? Are you his-” I began to speak.
“I am Adam’s wife.” She spoke curtly.
Assuming that she wasn’t a robot and that they wouldn’t invite the most dangerous criminal in the world into this meeting, that would make her…
“The Vermillion Lady?” I spoke back.
“Bingo.” She replied, briefly turning her arm, clothing and all, into her signature pinkish-red slime before turning it back.
“To answer what this is all about, we heard that you have a newly awakened Numina with no Mark, the signifying aspect for which of the 8 major Numina you fall into. Michaels suggested you should become a Hero, and you refused unless you were given a sense of normalcy. You also possessed no parents, and have been living alone for the past 4 years. So we’d like to offer you a proposition.” She explained calmly.
“What would that even be?” I asked.
“Well, me and Adam are looking for a change of life, and we’ve heard that Sun-Lake City is a wonderful place to relax. We’d also like to have a child, so, there’s a solution for all of these problems. We’d like to adopt you.” She spoke with a patient tone.
“What.”
Adam, at least looked sheepish, unlike Eve.
“I know it’s a very big decision, so we aren’t going to force you to answer straight away. Just know the offers on the table, otherwise, we’re also here just to see how your Numina works.” He spoke with such a calm voice, that it made me pause for a second.
“You sure you won’t press the issue?” I asked sceptically.
He extended out his pinky finger and spoke.
“Pinky promise.”
He made this seem so easy.
Arthur sighed.
“Alright, if sappy time is done, we do have tests we have to run.” He spoke with impatience heavy in his tone.
The others nodded.
“I’ll help her get set up, you all move to the chamber,” Eve spoke.
----------------------------------------
After having all the tubes and wires removed from my body, Eve helped me get changed into a replica of my hoodie and jeans, marked with the S.U.N’s logo on the front.
It was a circular patch, with three rising segments coming out of it. On each of the segments was a different word in Latin. ‘Praesidio’, ‘Servo’, ‘Custodio’. In the inside of the circle, emanating from each of the three words were three arms, all covering the earth as lightning symbols tried to pierce them.
After that, she let me go to the bathroom attached to the medical unit to freshen up. The entire thing was as high-tech as the rest of the room. The same glowing stripes for the walls, the same clean metal that made up everything, and they had monitors and sensors on everything, the sink was able to guess what I needed and for how long based on a few twitches or slight movements.
After getting cleaned up, I followed Eve out of the room, and down a hallway to what I assumed would be where they would test my Numina. Fuck, I hoped the watch didn’t break. It wasn’t with any of my other things, and without it, I was as good as dead, no identity, no money, no future.
My rapidly rising anxiety over whether I would soon be eating out of a trash can aside, the hallway was actually quite nice. I’d expected it to be entirely barren and brutalist, but apparently the S.U.N actually gave a shit about morale, because there were pictures on the wall, not like the motivational cat bullshit, but more just calming pictures of landscapes or other ‘neutral’ art pieces. It didn’t help too much, but the thought was appreciated.
No matter how much I tried to keep my mind off of it or tried to think about other things, however, we eventually reached our destination, which didn’t make too much sense, since we had just been going down a corridor with no other turns or even going up or down, but I guess they had Numina bullshit, either way I wasn’t going to lose sleep over more convenient travel.
Especially when I saw where we ended up. Despite the door that we opened being in a building, we ended up outside. Worst of all, when I looked back, the door was gone. We were just in a building.
The area we had ended up in was an open field, with a sprinter’s track built around it, Easily a kilometre in each direction. A few meters away from us were Adam, Michaels and Arthur.
Adam turned to face us, a smile on his face.
“So, ready for your test, we won’t be anything too major, we just need a quick overview of how your power works, the intensive stuff like the PME, PKQ or PPF tests can come later.” He spoke, seemingly uncaring that I didn’t know what half that shit meant. Though to be fair, it wasn’t like I necessarily needed to know it if this was going to be short.
Adam, without moving or making any gestures, had violet energy spark from his fingertips, spreading all across his body. Wherever it spread, it replaced his clothing with his trademark costume. It was a bodysuit that mixed deeper and lighter shades of blue, with a cyan cloak, a hood, and a full mask covering his entire head, glowing panels placed where his eyes should be. On closer inspection, I realised that the glowing panels were actually portals beginning and ending at his eyelids.
When he spoke, his voice was much deeper as well.
“Ok, I don’t want you to do anything big, just come to where I am and push the button down.” As he spoke, he waved his hand, causing a small metal platform with a buzzer to appear.
Shit. Well, here goes nothing, I had to make this as convincing as possible.
“Um…” I started hesitantly.
“Hm? You ok?” Adam, or I guess now The Violet Sentinel spoke.
“When I got-” I froze up remembering what happened. “When… I had my accident, I had a golden watch with me, do you know what happened to it?” I looked down as I finished speaking.
“Hm? Oh ya, there was a watch there as well. Funnily enough, it was undamaged. Didn’t even have a speck of blood on it. You must really like that watch, but is it particularly relevant at the moment, or can it wait until after this quick little test?” As he spoke, a portal opened behind him, the watch dropping from it, before it got swallowed by another portal, and flung out of another, continually moving between a constant series of newly made portals.
“I- I need it for my Numina. It isn’t a requirement, but I feel better with it and don’t want to do the test without it.” I spoke, hoping he wouldn’t be pissed.
Instead of getting angry, a new portal opened and the watch dropped softly into my palm.
Huh. He didn’t have a reason to listen to my request, but he did it anyway. What did he have to gain? Had he really believed what I told him? Just like that?
Well, time to suck it up and get this over with. He’d said this was to test my power right? Hopefully, he wouldn’t mind if I used the watch straight away. Maybe if I finished it fast enough he won’t look further and I can maintain my lie a little longer.
I tried to remember how I did it last time. Just press the crown and run.
My thumb briefly pushed on it as I began sprinting, just like before, the world became greyer, the color disappearing. As it did so, I felt stress and pain I didn’t even know I had disappear, instantly feeling like I was at my prime.
The other thing I noticed was the others. Nobody was moving. They were mid-action, frozen in place. That at least confirmed my suspicion: pressing the crown stopped time.
I ran as fast as I could, but within 3 seconds, the watch went back to its original position, and time resumed.
I thought I saw Arthur and Michaels blink in surprise as I reappeared several meters closer, nearly close enough to push the button. I don’t exactly know why they blinked in shock. A teleporter should be something they’re familiar with. So why were they shocked about the watch doing it?
I tried to press the watch’s crown again, but it felt stiff, unbending to my request. Did it have a cooldown period? Well, it didn’t matter right now, I just had to cross the final stretch.
Any second now. I kept running, but I didn’t move any farther. Or rather I was moving, but the goal was stretching.
Wait. Shit. The Violet Sentinel had the power to control energy, didn’t he? While the Vermillion Lady had the ability to control all the matter in her body. If he could make portals and replace his clothes with ease, then extending the distance to the button didn’t seem impossible. Then that would mean that-
“You bastard!” I yelled out in anger.
The Violet Sentinel seemed to notice because I could hear a small chuckle before the world lurched. The world began spinning in every direction and the floor vanished, getting farther and farther away.
I yelled in anger, before activating the watch again, pressing harder this time.
The world went grey, and the spinning stopped. That’s when I realised how high he had put me. I was so far up that I knew that if I landed I’d break my bones as a best-case scenario. Realistically? This drop looked like it would kill.
I screamed flailing my arms and trying to do anything. But I couldn’t do anything else. I didn’t have any real powers, just a bullshit watch that could fool others. I screamed and screamed and screamed.
Then I hit the floor.
However, I didn’t break. I was fine. My body was unhurt. How-...
Time Stop.
‘Damage’ is just what happens when things collide with each other, and the energy fucks them up. Matter and energy can’t move in stopped time though, but I can. So even if I collided with something, it couldn’t produce any energy to actually hurt me.
I was invincible, at least while my time stop was ‘on’.
I grinned and started running forward. The time from me falling to landing had to have been like 6 or more seconds right? That meant that I could get more time if I held on harder.
As I ran forward though, the watch went back to its original position, and time resumed.
How? Time couldn’t have moved that fast.
Before I could think, the world lurched and I was stuck in the same spinning trap again.
I could hear Adam laughing.
“ Pretty neat trick. I assume that’s either the world’s most curved teleport or her distance skipping is based on real-time movement. Hmm, from when you began looping her, it should have taken her 4 seconds to come back down, and 1 second to get to where she was. Time Stop or some kind of teleport that skips the action and keeps the result? Would explain how she got out of your grasp. Or maybe-” as he kept speaking, I blinked. 5 seconds total?
Of course. I didn’t have super math powers. How was I supposed to keep an accurate count of how much time actually passes in stopped time without practice, the previous time probably wasn’t 3 seconds either.
Maybe I should’ve just given up. I didn’t think anyone would have blamed me. These guys were so much more powerful than me, and now I was getting flung around while they theorised what I could exactly do.
…
Would I be okay with that though? Giving up at the start point. I’d done it before. It was my default. To be ‘normal’ no matter what. To enjoy the comforts of normalcy, but did that mean having to not try? Normal people still fought for what they believed in and still won with the odds stacked against them. No, I wouldn’t quit just yet.
I sucked my breath in and began counting. 1 second. 2 seconds. 3 seconds. I felt the watch click again. I clicked it as gently as I could.
The world went grey. Before I could even adjust, the time ended and I was flung back up.
I didn’t do it for no reason though.
1 second. That was how much time that time stop had lasted. Judging by how the crown just clicked again, that was the cooldown as well.
Every Second in time stop was a second in cooldown.
That means I’d get one shot before they permanently barred the button. If I could press it in time stop, I could impart force on it, but it wouldn’t be able to give force back. That means that even if time was stopped, my actions still had effects.
I calmed myself, got ready to count, and squeezed as hard as I could on the crown watch.
The world went grey.
I fell.
1 Second passed.
I kept falling.
2, 3, and 4 seconds passed.
I didn’t reach the ground yet, they had clearly raised me higher than before.
It didn’t matter, just keep going.
5 Seconds passed and I collided with the ground.
I wasn’t a gymnast, I didn’t know how to roll properly but I didn’t need to.
I just aimed to roll and smashed down, relying on my own body to cause me to spin. I couldn’t take damage, and all my exhaustion and damage was gone here.
6 seconds passed. I was on my feet.
I ran.
7 seconds passed.
I ran.
8 seconds passed.
I wasn’t going to make it. So I improvised, I jumped.
9 seconds passed.
“I’m not going to lose at the starting line!” I roared.
My body flew in the air, crashing into the button, removing my need to hit it.
10 seconds passed, and time resumed.
A loud ringing started, emanating from the buzzer. The others turned to look at me, and the cocky smile on my face.
“Huh, a time stopper,” Arthur replied, but I wasn’t focused on him.
“I win, ‘Dad’ .” I smirked at him.
His mask disappeared and he gave me a warm smile.
“You did, welcome to the family.”