"Good evening as always, my name is Marisol Reyes, and tonight we have a very special interview, but first: Aegis. Surfacing only days ago via a TikTok video, he claimed to be the self-proclaimed 'world's first' F-Tier superhero. Since then, videos of his feats have exploded across social media, certifying his claims to being an enhanced individual. So far we have seen him demonstrate amazing skills and abilities, and further, Aegis has taken aim at a very serious problem in the homeless crisis that exists in his hometown of Portland, Oregon.

"The first enhanced surfaced nearly a decade ago now, with the first hero, Queen Anansi, making her presence known on her home continent of Africa. While her initial claims of a coming 'Age of Heroes' seemed outlandish when she first stated them, more enhanced would continue to pop up, from all walks of life. The world's governments acted quickly, forming their own forms of governmental departments to find, train, and regulate these new individuals.

"But the identities of the enhanced have been a mystery until just a few days ago, when Portland hero, Aegis, announced himself, and tonight, we have with a very special guest, and the USA's premiere A-Tier heroine, Crimson!"

I looked to the side stage, motioning as Crimson came into camera for the audience. Plenty applauded, and loudly cheered. Crimson cut an impressive figure, difficult as it might be to discern her facial feature under the crowned half-domino mask she wore. Her mouth and jawline were visible, but aught else, even her hair. She strode across stage, confident in every step, and draped her crimson cape out behind her as she sat, talking frankly, "I'm honored to be here, Ms. Reyes."

"Oh, call me Marisol," It was a usual part of my interviews, to keep things casual, but it was made slightly less so by how Crimson stared behind the cowl.

"Very well, Marisol."

Gods, if I don't at least get on the short list for an award off of this, it was never going to happen, "Now, obviously, you are still in training at the US Hero Academy, is that correct?"

She nodded, "Yes, for two years now, so this will be my junior year."

"What was it like for you when you first discovered your powers?" Best to get the softball questions out early, stretch out the viewership, before getting into the meat of the interview.

She considered a moment before answering, "Well, like most, I was scared. I'm pretty sure every enhanced dreams of getting powers, like most kids do, but dreaming and receiving are quite different matters. I was terrified, but the H.A.A. took care of me, made certain I felt safe, secure, and led me through the entire process to now."

I nodded, giving my intense emotional listening face, "I imagine it can be quite lonely, being a super."

She clearly didn't like the question as she spoke, "It can, but there are others like me at the Academy, even other mystical enhanced."

"I assume, like the rest of us, you all found out about the newest enhanced, Aegis, at the same time?" Okay, let's milk this.

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At that, Crimson sat forward, forearms on knees, and I could see her foot shifting, "Oh, we didn't even find out right then. We were all in class when he dropped that bomb, and much like regular schools, teachers tend to frown on it when you start doom-scrolling TikTok in the middle of class."

I nodded, "And how do you feel about his decision to unmask himself?"

Crimson shook her head ruefully, "I'm so against that choice. Like, the first day of class, we're essentially shown a video about why we wear masks, and use secret identities. Of course, the biggest reason is not to endanger our families, but he just dumped it out there for the world to see, and the things he can do are incredibly interesting."

Huh, not the expected response... oh God, they sent me a sixteen-year-old. You tend to forget about it with the costumes, but she was still a girl, "You sound excited by him. What interests you about Aegis? And what can we expect from him when he enters the academy?"

She twitched her head, with a slight smirk, "Oh, that's easy. He rejected entrance to the academy."

"He what?!" I blurted it out. It was out of pocket, but... who rejects academy entrance?

Crimson kept going, however, "Oh yeah, he fully rejected it, multiple times now. As to what interests me about him, some of it is that. As far as I, or anyone else knows, no enhanced has rejected academy entrance. I mean, it's one of the few places where we can really be our full selves, around other kids our own age who are going through the same thing, but I think it's different for him."

Her speech gave me the time to recover. We were already off-script for the interview, "Different how?"

Despite the mask, I could actually feel her roll her eyes, "Well, I mean, it's his powers. Sure, I'm a powerful sorceress, but outside of that, what I do is just what I do. I watch YouTube videos, I hang out with my friends, and get bored in class. It's me, it's my time. It's the same for pretty much all of us, that outside of whatever powers we may have been granted, we're just people. If I'm understanding his explanation of his abilities, he... doesn't have that. Anything he starts doing, his powers improve. Even amongst supers, only .01% of the population of Earth, I've never heard or read about any powers like that."

Madre de Dios, this girl had no polish for interviews, "For the viewers at home, how is that so much different?"

She was reaching for the words, "His powers are all the time. Yeah, someone might have something like a healing factor, or they might be super agile, but their abilities fall within a window, and outside of that, we're like anyone else out there in the world. Each of us feels a little alone with our powers, but we can set them down. For Aegis, every single thing he touches is altered by the powers. So, like, the bowling, the skeeball, the physical exercise, all of those are only improving like they are because of his Incremental Improvement. Anything he learns, he masters, so what are his accomplishments? What's his, and not his powers?"

I considered her words, "Well, I would imagine he must feel very accomplished with everything he can do with these abilities of his?"

Crimson sat back a bit, and sighed, "Imagine you had magical reporter powers, that your entire career was due to powers you had no control over, that it was just an inexorable fact of life that you would be the greatest reporter in the world. How would it feel to get awards for something you didn't have to put effort into? That you couldn't even call your own? That's Aegis."

It was dead air for several seconds, or at least I thought it was until I felt the tears running down my cheeks, "That... I can't even describe how horrific that would feel to know that. It's... it's not fair... and he's fourteen... What does that do to someone?"

Across the country, in a small house in Portland, Marcus laid in bed next to his sister Merida, reading Anne of Green Gables aloud, inventing voices for all the characters as he read. Merida yawned, and snuggled into her brother's side. Mackenzie smiled silently from the hallway, and shook her head, feigning disinterest as she put her earbuds in to go practice kata.