She stood in a grassy park. Couples sat here and there on blankets, some sharing a picnic, some keeping a watchful eye on their children, and one with a puppy on a leash. Kids played on a playground in the center of the park. A group tossed a football in an open space on her left. An old man with a well-trimmed grey moustache and a pair of large, darkened glasses, sat on a nearby bench, reading a comic book. And all around them, the sounds of a city she didn’t recognize buzzed against the call of birds.

Emilia found an empty bench and took a tentative step. Her shoes were shredded and her clothes were worn through. She must have looked a mess, but between her screaming headache and her ravenous hunger and her speed-burnt skin, she decided she didn’t much care what people thought of her clothes.

She sat on the bench, took off her shoes, and put them in the trash can by the bench. Then she stared across the park and took deep, careful breath, trying to focus on her body, what it felt like when she didn’t hurt, wasn’t hungry. Eventually her shoulders tingled and she felt herself shift; the hunger and ache didn’t go away, but they did recede.

At the far end of the park, Mrs. Wright appeared.

Emilia blinked, certain her eyes were playing tricks. One moment, there’d been nobody, the next, there was Mrs. Wright, blacksmith of Camp Arrowhead. As Mrs. Wright ambled over the grassy park with a faraway look and a bemused grin, her image wavered and shifted. Soon she was no longer the large woman, but shorter, thinner, with soft pale hair pulled back in a simple tail and lined face smiling gently. Behind her wire-rimed glasses, her eyes glowed purple.

No one in the park noticed the woman’s sudden appearance, nor her change from large smith to thin elder. She was clad in simple clothes: blue jeans, sneakers, and a faded purple shirt.

“Hey there, kiddo. Mind if I sit with you?”

Emilia shrugged. “Sure. I’m Emilia.”

“I know. We’ve met. I’m Minerva Aegis. Purple Prophesier if you prefer.”

“I know. You’re legend. Literally. I didn’t think you were real. Are you? Are you really here?”

Ms. Aegis laughed, a gentle sound. “I am. But the where and how and when of my existence remains uncertain.”

“I… I don’t know what that means.”

“Fair enough. Things can get a bit wibbly when you’re dealing with time travel. The ironspike we forged released Lackey’s power all at once sixteen years ago, but it was too much, so I had to put it somewhere, and somewhen, else. I… I can’t say for certain, but I think this moment, right here, might be the origin of me being unstuck in time.”

Emilia blushed and hunched her shoulders. “I’m sorry.”

Ms. Aegis shook her head. “Not at all. It’s not your fault. You played your part admirably. Good job on that, by the way.”

Emilia blinked at Ms. Aegis, trying to understand. “So, you’re both here and sixteen years ago at the same time?”

“And about eighty years ago, and a couple hundred years ago, and…” Ms. Aegis trailed off. “All that power Lackey had accumulated couldn’t be allowed to reenter the world all at once. It needs to be spread out.”

“Is that…” Emilia tried to remember what Eddie had said about the reemergence of powers and parahumans. “Is that why superheroes started appearing after the Great War?”

Ms. Aegis shrugged. “Perhaps. I’ll want to look into it.”

“And what about the homunculus from the box?” Emilia found her thoughts bouncing subject to subject. “Was that really the Demon Lord?”

“Robert Lackey, yes.” Ms. Aegis nodded.

“How?”

“It’s tough to say for sure. Different mages do things differently. It’s like a painter trying to explain movies to a blind alien. But, my best guess is that when the Heroes of Humanity defeated Robert Lackey, he triggered a failsafe. That failsafe thrust a piece of him, his soul, his magic, through time and space in the event of his death. That piece could then emerge sometime in the future, presumably to start hording powers again. The stone box was an elaborate set up to create just the right circumstances to open this side of the portal. It couldn’t be obvious or I’d have stopped him at the time. Fortunately for us, you’re more of a hero than he bargained for.”

Emilia nodded slowly. Defeating the fiends hadn’t been easy, but it had felt scripted, like she was expected to win.

“He wanted me to succeed so I’d open the box.”

“Right.”

“So my choices didn’t matter.”

“What do you mean?”

“If this whole thing was an elaborate setup to open the box, then I was a pawn of prophecy. We all were. Even the bullies. Any action I took would have led to the same outcome.”

Ms. Aegis shrugged. “Maybe. But I doubt Lackey intended to be defeated a second time.”

“But that was your doing, right? I saw you. You did something to that ironspike I forged. Whatever you did made the spike like antimatter to him. I barely did anything.”

“You seem to be working awfully hard not to take any credit for your heroic deeds, kiddo.”

“But that’s just it. They weren’t heroic. Everything I can do is because I’m around someone else who is good at it. My skills are all borrowed. Everything I did at camp was determined either by this Lackey guy, or you.”

Ms. Aegis shook her head. “All my life, I’ve been unmoored from the normal progression of things. I trip along the timeline, revisiting past selves, righting wrongs where I can, keeping an eye on some folks. And I’ve learned to read along. I watched you, from then and now and, if you’ll allow it, as you keep on. And you, Emilia, are far too hard on yourself.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“But I had help. Lots of it.”

Ms. Aegis smiled. “Of course you had help, but also, you made choices. I don’t think you understand how hard that is for some people. There are plenty of people who will just follow along, take the path of least resistance. But you’ve been standing up to bullies since you were quite little. That was a choice. And just now, these last few weeks, you had to choose to befriend a nerdy boy in big glasses, and a sullen girl with purple hair. You had to choose to save that stag from drowning.”

She adjusted her glasses and her purple eyes gleamed.

“When Lackey threatened innocents, you had to choose to stand between him and them. And because you made those choices, you had help. Never underestimate the value of a good team.”

Emilia bit her tongue. She didn’t have anything to say anyway. She took a breath, held it and thought about what Ms. Aegis said. She still didn’t think she was much of a hero, but she had to admit she had made some choices. And that made her feel a bit better about it.

“Excuse me. You two hungry?”

Emilia looked away from Ms. Aegis to find a large woman with a brown bag in either hand. Each bag was stamped with a logo she didn’t recognize. The woman held a bag out to each of them.

“Absolutely,” said Ms. Aegis, taking one of the bags. She looked at Emilia. “Accept the gift, kiddo.”

“Um…” Emilia took the other bag. She was awfully hungry after all. “Thank you.”

The woman smiled. “Of course.”

Emilia watched the woman walk to a food truck parked nearby. The truck was vibrant yellow with the name Yummy Mayo stenciled on the side.

Ms. Aegis pulled a taco from the bag and dug in.

Emilia followed suit. It wasn’t what she was expecting from a taco. The shell was crunchy, the shredded beef subtly spiced and had a bit of a kick, but the vegetables tasted like something else and there was rice mixed in. After a bit of thought, Emilia decided she liked it and devoured her tacos. They took the edge off her hunger and did a lot to curb her headache.

“Fusion food is the best,” Ms. Aegis said.

Emilia carefully made certain her trash all went back in the brown paper bag. “Ms. Aegis, why are you here?”

“Like I said, I’ve been keeping an eye on you.”

“I mean right now. Lackey’s… I killed him. Right?” Emilia swallowed hard around the word. She hated the idea she’d killed someone. She didn’t want to be a killer and didn’t want to become a superhero if it meant killing bad guys.

“You all right, kid?”

Emilia shrugged.

“Look, for what it’s worth, you did the right thing. You made a hard choice. And, to be fair, he’d already been killed by me and the others sixteen years ago. You just… dissipated his essence.”

Emilia gave the purple eyed woman a look. “You’re patronizing me.”

She shook her head. “I’m not sitting on a park bench with you, enjoying food truck tacos and a brilliant summer day, just to make sure a man who’s been dead for a decade and a half stays dead. I’m here to check on you, Emilia.”

“Make sure I’m not going to turn to the dark side?”

Ms. Aegis laughed and sparks of energy flew from her eyes. “You don’t strike me as the dark side type, kiddo. I’m here because you took on a lot just now. You’ve always been a bit different and you just went through a lot of changes very quickly. I’m here in case you want to talk.”

Emilia smiled. She cleared her throat against the tears spilling down her cheeks. “I like the idea that I could help. Like the Shield, or maybe even The Union. But I don’t want to hurt people.”

Ms. Aegis sighed. “Like I said, there are difficult choices to make. I can’t make any promises one way or the other. I wasn’t patronizing you. What you did today was dispel the essence of a fractured soul held together by willpower and magic. So, in a way, you killed him. But also, he was already dead. If you choose to become a hero, the choices will only get harder.”

Emilia leaned against the backrest of the bench. She stared across the park and tried to let her thoughts sort themselves out. She didn’t know for how long she sat like that, but Ms. Aegis stayed with her and didn’t interrupt. Eventually, despite the tacos, her stomach rumbled. Emilia blushed and clutched at her belly.

Ms. Aegis laughed. “Moving that fast takes a lot of energy. I imagine your powers in general require a high metabolism. If you go to Union Academy, they’ll help you figure all that out. And if you decide you don’t want to join up, no one’s going to make you. This is a decision you can take your time making.”

Emilia nodded. “Thanks. For this and, you know, helping.”

“Happy to do it.” She held her hand out and smiled gently. “Looking a bit thin. Before I go, is there anything else I can do for you? Anything at all? I’m still dissipating all that power across the past. I could shape a bit of it for you.”

Emilia considered and lit upon an idea.

“Eddie, my friend, he’s going to be jealous I got to meet you. He’s a big fan of superheroes. He’s read all these papers and theories about how all the old legends are connected to the Realms of myth and… Well, he’s got a binder full of trading cards, but it was burned. I don’t suppose…”

Ms. Aegis gave her a funny look.

“What?”

“I am, at this moment, channeling almost all the magic of the world. I asked you if there’s anything you want, and you ask for a favor for someone else?”

Emilia blushed.

Ms. Aegis smiled.

With a flourish and a sparkle, Eddie’s binder of trading cards appeared in Ms. Aegis’ hands. “It’s important to keep friends like that around.” She handed the binder to Emilia, then snapped her fingers and in a burst of purple motes, a trading card appeared between her fingers.

The card was pure black, then shifted to grey, then white, before colors blossomed into being. Soon the colors resolved into shapes and then into an image of Emilia and Ms. Aegis sitting on the park bench.

At the bottom, in purple calligraphy, was the name: Minerva Aegis, the Purple Prophet. And below that in simple block lettering: introducing the Amazing Mimic!

“Limited edition,” Ms. Aegis said with a grin. “One of a kind.”

Emilia had to blink away tears again.

“Before you go. Can I ask one more question?”

“Sure thing, kiddo.”

“If Lackey is that sneaky, that clever, who’s to say he doesn’t have another back up plan? Maybe another twenty or thirty or hundred years from now, another door will open with him on the other side.” Her stomach grumbled again and she hunched.

“Maybe, but I don’t think so. And if I’m wrong, I know the heroes of this world are up to the challenge.” She handed Emilia a small stack of folded bills from nowhere. “Now go eat some more tacos before your stomach rebels.”

Emilia looked down at the money and took it. When she looked up to thank her, Ms. Aegis was gone.

• • •

When the black SUVs pulled up, Emilia had eaten her way through half the menu of Yummy Mayo and was feeling much better. The headache was gone and she’d discovered that taco rice balls were her new favorite food.

There were three SUVs.

The back door on the lead vehicle opened and a person stepped out. They wore a midnight-blue pantsuit over a cream blouse. Their looks were striking with black hair, high cheekbones, and piercing blue eyes. A man followed them. He wore a dark red cloak over his suit, all in shades of red. His black beard was neatly trimmed and streaked with grey.

Emilia was certain they were members of The Union.

The person in dark blue approached with the man several steps behind. They kept her hands visible and walked slowly, but deliberately. Emilia got the impression they trying to draw her focus so Emilia wouldn’t notice the people in body armor securing the area.

When the two were only a few meters away, they stop. The person in the lead smiled.

“Hello. My name is Brook Julius.”

“The Dancer,” Emilia said. “One of the four Heroes of Humanity.”

The Dancer cleared their throat. Emilia thought they might have blushed. The man behind the Dancer put a hand to his mouth, though whether to cover a smile or a cough, Emilia couldn’t be certain.

“That’s right,” said the Dancer. “We’re with The Union. I assume you’re familiar with us?”

“We’re not here to hurt you,” Mx. Julius continued. “Out satellites picked you up moving at pretty impressive speeds. We’re just here to say hello and see if you need any assistance.”

Emilia nodded again. She wasn’t sure what to say, how to explain what had happened.

“It can be overwhelming to suddenly develop superpowers,” Mx. Julius said. “Perhaps you have some questions for us?”

Emilia thought on that. Ms. Aegis had answered her questions. Eventually she held up the large brown bag, still half full. “This food is fantastic. Do you want some?”