I was frequently the third wheel on other people's dates. Not that I was a creep or anything. Let's get that straight right away! I never followed anybody home to watch the conclusions.

That'd just be weird.

There's a simple explanation. I find that people are often spendier when they're trying to impress. I liked to mooch steak tar tar while listening to them go through their dialogue trees. I found it soothing, in a weird way. Some people would cringe at the occasional awkwardness, but for me it was a substitute for something that I missed.

I hadn't spoken to another human being in three years. I tried not to think about it, but no matter how much I told myself it was better this way, I hardly believed it. I just couldn't bring myself to go back to the world. Not after what happened.

Besides, it was easier living like this. No homework, no chores, no expectations, no unwanted socializing, no demands whatsoever; literally no work at all. I was dead to the world… I just wandered around mooching off people using my power now. I could eat their food, sleep in their houses, use their computers, and they would just let me.

It was a simple mental command. Arguably the one that people were the happiest to carry out. Just ignore me, I had to think, and they obeyed. I could steal food right off their plate, and they'd go on like nothing had happened. Like that game we all played when we were kids, except it never ended.

It never, ever ended...

I couldn't go back now, anyway. I had no one. No family, no friends, and no future. So, I just kept on eating my steak. The wagyu here was unmatched. I might have been in sweatpants and a graphic tee, but I could appreciate the atmosphere, too. The violinists were playing beautifully, and I was enjoying this guy's four-hundred-dollar-a-bottle wine on the side.

Maybe later I'll catch a movie at the theatre, I thought. The arcade was also an option, but then I'd have to pick somebody here that I could convince to give me money. That was a tricky push as far things went. Giving up cold hard cash was most definitely not something people liked to do.

If they were wealthier and cared less about their money though, it wasn't too impossible. Easier on my conscience, too.

The couple with me this evening was nice, so I hated to do it to them. They were an older man and woman, both married and divorced. They'd been through this all before, so their chat was excellently streamlined and even quite charming. They were definitely going to see each other again, I could tell.

At least, they would have.

The man was the first one to notice the rumblings, and I saw the fear on his face. The fine China began to rattle across the restaurant, and all the talking grew quiet. None of us knew what was about to happen yet, but all of us feared the worst. An earthquake was unlikely in this part of the country; the alternative, however, was all too common.

A rampage had begun.

The next shake hit with considerably more force. The chandeliers rattled and people began to stand and leave their food. The psychic wave that followed was almost enough to put me on my ass. Overload would knock me unconscious if I weren’t careful, but I was having trouble keeping the sheer panic that was beginning to surround me out, especially considering that some of it was my own.

Whatever it was that was making these impacts, it was getting closer.

Just then, I dropped my invisibility. The effort to sustain it was minimal, but I needed all my focus to see if our building was about to be flattened. I needed to reach out with my power and figure out what was going on, if only I could shut out this noise.

There was of course a look of surprise on the man and woman’s faces over the scruffy guy now visible at their table. But they didn’t have any more time to worry about that. In fact, we were out of time completely, as a notification had just arrived on everyone’s phone at once.

>A-CLASS EMERGENCY UNDERWAY: SEEK SHELTER IMMEDIATELY

Screaming followed as the panic reached a fever pitch. A waiter bellowed out over the crowd to be heard, “Everyone! Attention!”

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“Run for your lives!” a man shouted. He was out the door in a flash, even as the staffers tried to stop him. I couldn’t see anything out of the windows from here, but the shaking was getting closer.

“No! Everyone!” The waiter called again, trying to stop us from running. “We have a bunker in the basement! Follow me through the kitchen! Carefully!”

I looked back towards the exit with a moment of hesitation. I had superpowers. Out there was a real catastrophe. You do the math. I knew what I was supposed to do, I just didn’t have the courage to do it.

You’re not that kind of super-person, I chastised myself. The city has a dedicated team. They’re rated for A-Class threats! You’re not.

I just had to hunker down like everyone else and stay out of the way. I’d only be a nuisance if I tried to help anyway. Right?

Dammit. Just one quick peek first.

It was a horrible idea, but I had to know. I sat down at the table and put both hands over my ears to block out the world. My eyes screwed tight. It would only take a second.

I threw my mind out of my body, feeling an immediate sensation of falling. I was deaf and blind, but I could feel the presence of other humans in the infinite blackness. They were nightmarish to put in visual terms, like glowing fungal trees that branched down from the brain, full of lightning and spirits.

Most of them glowed a panicked yellow, but a scant few were a fiery orange. Those were the minds that moved with determination and purpose. I’d seen them in action before. Those were heroes at work. Their nervous systems were perfectly harmonized and ready to fight.

Suddenly I was pulled back to reality as someone yanked me out of my chair, straight to the floor.

“Come on! You have to move!” It was the man from before. His eyes were piercing into mine. I was still in a daze from my power, but when we touched, I felt a bolt of psychic energy that pulled me back to reality. It coursed through me, and I could see clearly into his mind with no resistance. He was scared beyond belief, yes, but he wasn’t going to leave me here no matter what. He’d rather die.

I stammered as I stood. “O-okay,” I said, and went with him down towards the bunker.

We found our way safely enough, huddling in with the rest of the people in the concrete tomb. The man wouldn’t leave my side, even when we had settled in. He kept insisting to me that it would be alright. That I’d be okay. “You can cover your ears now if you want, we’re safe in here,” he said.

“Okay,” I repeated, barely audible. It was the only word I could think of. Having seen his mind, I was still completely thrown off by how much he cared. You didn’t always know a hero when you saw one, I realized.

Focus, I thought. You have to see what’s going on out there.

One more time, I covered up and went back into the abyss.

I homed in on one of the orange lights. There were two of them now, but I could have sworn there were more just a minute ago. They were roughly a block away, as far as I could judge the distances. One of them was on the verge of going yellow, I saw, as their confidence continued to shake.

Whatever was going on out there, it was bad. Really bad.

I could make out the general shape of their bodies from the whole nervous system’s form. Brain, torso, arms, legs. This helped me to make some sense of their movements, as they strafed around and went in for attacks. One of the heroes here was clearly more ranged, while the other was getting in close for a hand-to-hand fight.

There was just one problem. Whatever she was fighting, it didn’t have a nervous system. It was more of a strange stack of green light vaguely in the shape of a human. There was no brain at all, just a set of optic nerves floating above the rigid body.

Is it a robot? I had never been able to see electronics before, although maybe if it was sentient? Hell if I knew. It could be any one of a hundred monsters.

The female hero jolted back as a punch clipped her head. The whole brain lit up a rainbow of dark colors before signals to the body began to sputter as well. After just one solid hit, she fell back towards the ground twitching and flashing. After a second more, she disappeared entirely. Faded away into nothing.

I took a deep swallow. I’d just seen someone die.

The remaining hero was now fleeing up into the sky and out of my range. That was Bombardment and Asphalt if I had to take a guess, the city’s two top heroes. The other three were likely dead, judging by the way the fight had just ended.

I would be one of only two dozen remaining supers in the city if my math was correct.

All evidence pointed to a single conclusion. New Marion City was defenseless. It would be half an hour or more before the next major team could get here from two states over. The odds they could save us now after our own team had failed so completely were slim.

It was up to whoever was left to stop this guy. Hero, villain, rogue. Those distinctions didn’t matter when someone as powerful as this was on a rampage. One fifth of all supers were violently mentally ill, and everyone knew it. Sometimes they couldn’t be reasoned with and had to be stopped at all costs. No mercy and no law. Just everyone putting aside their differences to get the job done.

Within my psychic range, I could see a few more potential supers. If I really pushed, I could widen that range. I could even speak to them, but that still didn’t mean that I could stay put and help from here. The rampager was quickly on the move. If I wanted to keep up with him, I would have to get out there on the street.

I’d never been much of a hero before this. For the last three years I'd been out there on my own just sulking in self-pity; a help to nobody and nothing in the world. But I knew what I had to do now, and I just had to shut up and do it. It was only a matter of whether I was man enough… or not.

My fists clenched. One foot in front of the other, Adrian.

It was time that I stopped hiding away from the world and did my part for once. No more hiding.