Saying that our string of videos went viral was... hilariously underselling it. It did take a little bit, and then a news station in Portland picked up the hashtags. Darryl had started by hashtagging the living hell out of everything. Once he understood the assignment, it was pretty much done. He used his dad for the channel info, so we had an adult attached to what we were doing (Mr. Henning may not have exactly had things explained to him past, "We're gonna make some TikTok and YT videos").

For the first couple of hours, nothing much happened. Some immediate likes, but just from family and friends, but we damn well knew when it hit, because suddenly my phone started pinging second-by-second until I had to turn off the notifications. By the end of the first day, our videos were ripping through the millions of views, and our various channels had full-size governments following us, subscribing to us. Even the Twitch channel was raking in followers. Which leads to this moment:

"YOU OUTED YOURSELF ON TIKTOK?!"

Whelp, Dad knows. Not gonna lie, I was kinda hoping he wouldn't have caught on yet, but... yeah. I mean, we only posted insane videos that started trending globally, got soundbites on a ton of news stations, and were now all common knowledge to.... basically everyone on the planet, but I still held out hope that my dad might take just a bit longer at finding out what I did.

Thankfully, The all-caps was in text form. He didn't wait to get home, and I will say this for Dad: If he's pissed at you, you will be the first one to know about it. Okay, well, the upside, is he can't kill me, since I can now run a lot faster than him. I was trying to do Pokemon GO during my 10k, but apparently, somewhere along the line, I started running fast enough that the game registered me as driving, and won't let me do a bunch of stuff.

We'd advanced our rig since yesterday a bit, with a shoulder set that would hold the camera, and allow me to respond to people watching the current livestream, "Alright folks, give me a second. I have to send my dad a quick message..."

To my dad I wrote the following: "It's best if I explain verbally, and I promise you, I have a plan. Here's a link to my livestream. I'll explain it clearly, just come watch" and dropped the link.

Dad would be too angry to listen to me in person, and every ounce of evidence I had said he would still think of me as his little boy. That boy was disappearing from moment to moment, and I suppose I didn't have the heart to break his. I got started up again on my run, "Alright, and off we go again, chat. I know one of the questions I've been inundated with since I went live yesterday is, 'Why out yourself?'

"The answer is: Because I have to. We've had supers across the globe now for a decade, and let's be real, what's really changed? Still the same arguments, still the same back and forth. I don't know, it feels like the world should have gone through some sort of apotheosis event, and it just... kept on going, y'know? I was over at the park yesterday, you've seen videos, but the part you didn't see was after the workout. I came across a small homeless camp, and there was this old guy there, his name's Fred, and the one thing he has from his prior life? An old, beaten-up wallet with a Superman logo on it. At the time, I only just gave him some food, and tossed his dog some string cheese that was in my backpack, but I went back after I dropped my little announcement. So who's Fred, and why does he matter?

"Fred used to have a life that looked strikingly similar to everyone else's life. He went to work, paid bills, bought groceries, did bonfires along the beach. Yup, pretty normal PNW life right there, but then, roundabout ten years ago, he got in it bad, as the rents started to get completely insane. His rent jumped from just under nine hundred bucks a month, up over thirteen hundred, despite his complex being nearly to full occupancy. Why? Oh, well because a new company was getting ready to buy it, and advertise it as 'luxury', so they could not charge the rent they charged him, but even more. He tried to keep up, but places that he could afford were disappearing. His job scaled back hours, because people weren't spending as much- most likely because the cost of living jacked up overnight, so no one had the spare coin to spend. All it took was his car breaking down, which was inevitable since he was working two jobs, doing Uber in his 'spare' time just to get across the line."

I took a pause. I was well over the 10k line, but I still had the energy to keep going, so I took a short break out by the Marina along Marine Drive, "Like, I'm just some white kid from the suburbs, my family got so lucky. My dad is awesome, and he managed to get us a home before all this crap got out of hand, so we aren't really affected by it, at least not directly... or at least, that's what they'd let you believe. Truth is, this shit just hurts everyone's souls a bit each day. We get angrier, we get more desperate, and the world itself gets darker. We watched businesses we loved close their doors cause they couldn't keep up with the rising costs, and lost business due to the housing crisis here."

I looked out over the water, then the ground, sitting there feeling ashamed, "Dad always wanted a boat. He makes those little ships in bottles, they're all over the place in the house, and he's got some really beautiful ones in his office. We don't have a real boat for Dad, can't afford it, cause everything for me, for my sisters, my mom, the house, the groceries, they're all getting more and more expensive. College money for two of us coming up, it's crap. And meanwhile, we've got people sleeping in the street, in these camps, bus shelters, under bridges... We've got a super who can literally raise land from the ocean, another who can stop drug addiction with her psychic powers, and these people are still there, living in horror every day, every night... and I can fix it. The more I think about it, the more I can see it, and I can get Dad his boat, and I can pay for my own college, and my sisters'."

I dropped fully to the ground, starting the workout again, push-ups, sit-ups, squats, and continued as I got back onto stride for the run, breaking south. There was a Jersey Mike's straight down in the shopping center with the Kohl's if I remembered correctly, and I took off before continuing and saw a comment: I don't understand why you care. I read it aloud, and replied, "Because someone should."

I shook my head, and leaned as I started running uphill, "I can fix so many things that are wrong... but not if I follow the H.A.A. guidelines. First, they ship me off to 'super-school' in the middle of nowhere, and then I get to do no one any good for at least four years, and they decide I'm allowed to make a difference, y'know, as long as it falls within the parameters of maintaining the status quo. What's that status gotten us? There anyone out there who's really happy with how things are playing out? Any of you out there truly think we need to just leave things as they are?" I grinned, and narrowed my eyes, "I aim to misbehave."

The run continued on, as I ran and fielded questions from my viewers, asking about my powers, what I could do, and suggestions about things I could do or learn. There were also people saying they were agents, or talent scouts, trying to get a private word with me, but I figure, that part still needs Mom and Dad around. I heard my stomach growl, and apparently, so did my chat, as I saw the shopping center coming up on my left. I crossed over, still running. It seemed like traffic was going kind of slow today, so I didn't see an issue with it. And there it was. Personal tastes aside, they had the biggest subs in town, and I really needed as many calories as I could get. I signed off, stating I would be back online for the afternoon stream, which would be less physical, and more mental pursuits. I had a whole list of things I wanted to work on, and that was one of the tricks, was to let folks see me doing a variety of things, rather than one or two specific things.

I got a shock when I stepped inside, and the staff realized who I was. It was one thing to hear the numbers from Darryl, and another entirely to see an entire room load of people immediately recognize you on the fly. The store manager came out from the back, and he asked if I could take a quick selfie with him. I obliged but did mention I desperately needed to eat. He comped me, and I got my giant sub, chips, Tastycakes, and just a HUGE thing of Dr. Pepper.

I grabbed a seat in the corner, where I could see out, and plugged into my solar charger, calling up Darryl, "Hey man, how're the numbers looking?"

Darryl responded quickly, "We've got more viewers than the World Cup, World Series, and Super Bowl combined. I'm essentially doing a reaction stream on Twitch, and I'm handling the YouTube stuff. Biggest problem we've got is a translation problem. We've got a lot of folks from overseas posting, and I don't speak whatever languages these are."

"Alright, get a list together of the top fifty most spoken languages, and... sure, kick in sign languages as well. I'll get 'em on Duo Lingo, guess we'll start on Spani-"

My Dad walked in, looking at his phone, and then turned. The "Find my Phone" app. I needed to get a burner, but for now, I stood up, "Dad, I'm so-"

That's as far as I got before my dad hugged me, "You scared the shit out of me!"

I hugged him back for a moment, then pulled back, "Dad, um, I've been running for the last twelve miles, and you're wearing a suit."

He chuckled and I fished out a towel from my bag for him, "Uh, you wanna have lunch with me? We can talk. Cams aren't on. I do need another drink, though."

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

I refilled my soda, and introduced Rick, the Manager, to my Dad, Liam. Liam comped Dad, I got my soda, and we sat back down, "I'm gonna be real honest, the food comps are gonna be clutch."

Dad was about to say something, then stopped, dropping his head and shoulders down slightly, looking me over, "Marcus, stand up for me for a moment."

I sighed, standing. What now? Dad stood in front of me, looking me over again, "I swear, I think you're... taller."

He then reached forward, and touched my face. Let me tell you just how much teen boys like it when you fuss over their faces in public. Despite my protestations, however, he continued his examination, "And... peach fuzz. We need to go to the H.A.A.. Something's off."

I touched my face and noticed for the first time: I was growing facial hair. I mean, it was peach fuzz, but it was still hair I hadn't had before the powers. As to taller... was that why my clothes weren't quite fitting right? Was I just getting bigger?

Dad let me finish up my sandwich in the car, as he was very adamant that we get to the H.A.A.. Once there, he brought me inside, where the receptionist was manning her desk, also armed with a sandwich, "Oh, welcome to the Heroes Association. If you take a number, we can see to an eval-"

Dad cut her off, "Not here for evaluation. This is my son, Marcus McKenna. He was evaluated last week, and he needs to be seen. Something's off with his powers, and I want to speak to someone in charge."

She typed in my name, brought up my file, and her eyes went wide immediately, "Yes, Mr. McKenna, please go have a seat, and someone will be with you shortly."

Something was up. Had I been flagged about the videos? I thought we would be there for a while, waiting for some department person or other, but Anna appeared only minutes later, and she was moving quickly, but with that air of wanting to appear as though things are normal, "Yes, hi Mr. McKenna, and... Marcus? Yeah, I think I see some issues here. If you'll come with me Marcus, we can check you over."

I side-eyed my dad, "I want my dad to come with me."

"It's not that kind of-"

My Dad cut in, "I'm going to be with my son, that's not a point of debate. Now, we talk out here, or in there, but we are having a talk."

Anna frowned, and I saw it- they wanted to separate me off. Anna was considering me... she's a psychic. But if she's reading my mind, then... oh, I can play with this. I pulled out my phone, and held it up, starting to turn and catch Anna in frame as I booted up TikTok. Anna caught my arm, she knew what I was about to do, "That will not be necessary."

I dropped a pin on my position to Darryl, Mom, and Mackenzie. I mouthed for Dad to do the same. As I put the phone in my pocket, I started rapid thinking through every single thing I could see, hear, or feel, just following the dopamine for a moment as I pressed the button to start recording. It wouldn't be online, but I would at least have audio recording of what was going on. My backup settings would eventually send that video to the cloud me and Darryl set up.

I knew I was being paranoid, but something was raising the hairs on the back of my neck, something I wasn't quite aware enough to catch... or maybe it was a lack of context. Anna took us back to a doctor's office, the same one I'd been in previously, and informed us that someone would be along in a minute. I needed to work on a way to keep Anna out of my head. She seemed genuinely nice, but I'd been in school my whole life, and certainly I'd seen people act nice, while really being incredibly mean people. I knew something was wrong, I just didn't know what was wrong, so best to err on the side of caution, "Dad, stay with me. I'm not sure what the problem is, but they're going to try to separate us."

He almost argued the point, but just nodded, "I don't know what is going on, Marcus, but I'll stay here. A lot of it is probably the storm you've caused with those videos of yours."

A woman in a lab coat came in and introduced herself, which was hardly necessary. She'd been here on the day of my eval, and she again did a full scan of my body. When I stepped out, my dad was in a chair in the corner, while she looked at my results, "The deeper stuff we'll need to look over, but it seems you are... an inch taller since we scanned you last week? And... your bone density seems higher from what I'm seeing on the.. huh... that's weird."

That's weird?! Here's a thing you never want to hear your doctor say when diagnosing you. And doctors don't say things are weird. Not ONE pediatrician or dentist I've ever seen called anything 'weird' when speaking medically. Dad sat forward in his chair, "What's weird?"

The doctor didn't look to me or my dad, instead looking at the scans, "Well, Marcus's resting heart rate is noticeably lower, his general bone structure seems to have altered as well, and if I'm seeing this right, his BMI has altered as well. Not in bad ways, mind. For instance, his spinal alignment and posture are much improved, and when we last scanned him, his BMI was pretty much what you expect for a teenage boy who's a gamer. Now, though I would have to consult a specialist, I would put his BMI in the top 10% for a healthy sixteen-year-old boy."

"I'm fourteen."

She finally looked up from the scan itself, and grabbed her tablet, checking over my information, "Huh... so you are. I assume these changes started after your power was awakened?"

I nodded, "Yes, ma'am. It started on Saturday morning, I guess? I did some bowling with my friend, and after a while, my right arm was different. The ball was lighter, and I had more muscles on my arm, not a ton, but it was noticeably different. Also can'tstop eating since then, and when I switched hands, the same thing happened."

She considered for a moment, "Do you have any pictures of the alterations?"

Dad snorted with laughter a moment, as I regarded the doctor, "You... haven't been online the last twenty-four hours, have you?"

I sent her a link to my videos, and helped her navigate through them to the points I was talking about. With evidence in hand, she didn't say much for the next little bit, "These results are incredible, though I don't recommend this workout routine of yours. That level of workout daily is not advisable."

"I did it twice today with no issues."

The good doctor decided they needed more tests, and I was taken out to the gym facilities. Anna did try and have a private word with my dad, but true to his word, Dad stuck with me, saying that anything Anna needed to say, she could say with me present. I, however, had enough, "Alright, Anna, you want me to talk to you? Time for you to do the same. What the hell is up?"

Anna's brown eyes shifted a bit, she knew the routine wasn't working, and she sighed, "Look, you screwed up a lot, Marcus. Those videos? You can't un-ring that bell. Taking off the mask is a big deal in the hero community, and you did it so big. You Iron-Manned it, and frankly, we're now all scrambling to figure things out."

Dad regarded me. Some of it was definitely a shared opinion, "So what? I wait four years to do something about stuff I can change in the here and now? The mask would hold me back."

"It's meant to protect you, to protect your family and friends," The concern on her face at least was genuine.

"I can protect them just fine, and protect them from what? I'm too low-tier to even be worth anyone's time, and I'm... vaguely working out, and hoping to help homeless people. It's a Twitch channel, not the destruction of anyone's power structure."

She shook her head, "That assumes that everyone against you is reasonable, rational, and thinks along the lines you do. That is just not the case."

"No it doesn't. It just means I have to consider the greed of others, and make it in their own self-interest to go with me on what needs to be done," I shrugged.

We stepped into the gym facilities of the H.A.A., and I was put through every exercise device they had. It was incredibly enlightening for me. I finally had things like a specific speed for my running, of which, I was able to get on a treadmill custom-designed to allow for and measure running speed, as opposed to using set speeds, and having to juggle them. I took off, fully sprinting. According to the display, I achieved a top speed of 28.1 mph. Granted, couldn't maintain it, but it's still cool.

Next up, they had me do pull-ups, planks, and stretches, and rechecked my eyesight, which was now listed as 20/10 in both eyes. Top-rate hearing, and new bloodwork. They had me swim in the pool, and even had me hold my breath underwater. I managed a breath-hold of almost seven minutes. The hardest part of that one was fighting the will to breathe. They put me in a sensory deprivation tank after collecting some of my blood and then injected me with sensors that would map my network of blood vessels and such. The tank was to allow them to isolate external factors.

Being honest, the tank was wonderful. Desperately need to go to one of these on the regular. It hadn't even occurred to me how much stimuli I was going through til I was in it. I'm pretty sure there was that FloatOn place, and if I remember correctly, they had a monthly subscription.

I was calmer after the tank, and after washing the salt and whatnot off, I checked in with my phone and uploaded to Darryl. I erased the original copy from the phone and started a new recording before heading out. I was now sitting in front of a whole bank of doctors with my Dad next to me, and they all looked completely lost. The oldest man there sat forward, "I'm Dr. Chul Kim, head of pediatrics at OHSU. I've been called in to consult on your testing, and we've been going over your videos and testing here today. Comparative to your previous results during the evaluation, it's night and day. If we did not have the video evidence of the changes, we would not know that you are the same person who was evaluated this past week.

"Your father signed off on some documents to allow us to collate with your previous testing results, and it's.. frankly, it's completely unprecedented, even amongst enhanced individuals."

Dr. Kim brought up a graphic, scans of me during my original examination, and my just completed one, "The first thing is how steep these changes are, and how fast they are occurring. For the vast majority of enhanced individuals, changes either occur immediately, on a specific trigger, or develop steadily over time. That hasn't happened here. The changes you are going through are sharp, and they're building.

"We're very glad that you've been monitoring your own advancement, since it is helping us track what's happening. In every metric we are capable of tracking here, you have advanced in a way that defies considered logic.

"After discussion with Dr. Al-Katib, our council's hematologist, we believe we may have at least a proper hypothesis as to what is happening with you."

I pulled in a long breath, and so did Dad, and I felt him lay a hand on my knee, which I didn't realize, was bouncing from nervousness. I'd finally have at least some answers going forward. Dr. Kim regarded the other doctors, "According to our findings, which we would like to double-check, Marcus, your body, your entire body, down to the cells, are all improving incrementally by 1%. Your neurological development, kidneys, liver function, metabolic rate, even the precise layout of your blood vessels, and the blood cells themselves, are improving, quite nearly in real-time. In short, though, the reason for the greater growth spurt, and the growth of denser bones, is attributable to this increase, and... to put it a bit simply, every aspect of puberty, for you, is improving incrementally by that same 1%."

Super-Puberty. I have Super-Puberty.