Today was the last day I had for myself before my first mission. I wish I could relax like I did yesterday, but if I want everything to go smoothly I must prepare myself.

Firstly, I inquired Molly if The Company had any protective gear, she responded that my oficial suit was woven with special fabric, but since I had to lay low, Frank had purchased an alternative uniform for me to use.

The moment she uttered those words, panic settled in. I knew what was coming. Unbuttoning my trousers, I stopped for a second and asked Molly if she could dress me on command like she did with the shoulder carry. She responded affirmatively, but told me that the cost was three golden years per change. I accepted the price, better to test it now then in a moment of trouble.

Molly zipped me up. The change was instant. Opening my eyes slowly, I was already dreading the fact that I will have to wear whatever monstrosity Frank found funny to put me in. This time it looked like I was mistaken. Frank chose a navy-blue suit with a vest. Along with it, he bought me Oxford shoes. Everything matched nicely.

Somewhere deep inside my brain there was this feeling that Frank managed to one up me once again just by unexpectedly doing the reasonable thing, therefore subverting my expectations. No, I couldn’t think like that. That was the road that led to madness.

Forcefully suppressing my paranoia, I took a closer at my new attire. It was a remarkable thing. There was not a single detail in it that could set it apart from a regular one. The only guarantee I had that his piece of clothing was anything special was Molly say so. Along with my suit, Frank sent another pistol and a gun belt. I had to admit, he was doing his job as best as he could.

The last part of my gift came in another black box instead of the easier Molly route. Considering the track record until now, it usually meant something important. There was a syrup colored hat inside the box. Luckily for me it was a crown hat instead of a cowboy one. As I put the hat in, I felt a pellicule extend to my whole face. Digging in further, I found a strange mask slash bandana contraption came along with the hat. As I put the mask in, Molly informed me that it offers complete protection against airborne biological agents.

Not bad. Happy about having something actually decent for my mission, I put the suit in my horologium. With the safety part covered, I searched on the web for information about my powered colleagues, but I found none. Not sure if it was due to the Legionnaires doing their due diligence or if they were just not important enough to have any profile yet.

There wasn’t anything else I could do, so I went for a stroll through the city. It was funny how busy and lonely everything felt. Billboards displayed sportsmen and celebrities in equal measure. The newspapers advertised the next tech that would change everything. And more than anything else, you could see heroes everywhere. Music, fashion, sports, politics... You name it, they were there. Speaking platitudes, eating sugary foods, crying on Letterman.

Someday I might have the chance to vent, to tell somebody that super juiced ordinary morons shouldn’t be the people we look up to when shaping our culture, but today I couldn’t care less. This afternoon I could walk through the streets in a body that didn’t ache, while savoring my sweet hot chocolate without having to check my glucose. Priceless.

Walking idly, I managed to find myself sitting on a bench inside Jonpkins square park. The trees they had there were something out of Picasso painting. The leaves were wheezing like they were too exhausted to do their job, but the air had never been fresher.

With nothing better to do, I carefully savored my tasty treat and watched the people go about their business, kids running everywhere . A young girl in a strawberry coat skated clumsily from one side to the other, avoiding the innocent people who passed by. Most of the time.

I spent almost two hours just being there, seeing without being seen. Just a lonely old man seated on a bench. When I was thinking about leaving, the girl in the strawberry coat came back and sat right next to me. Probably made enough victims for the day.Her bright blue eyes looked at each and every person inquisitively, her blonde hair chaotically tucked inside a beanie.

She disturbed the silence barging in, as most kids often do.

“I don’t think the flowers will be enough,” she observed, her little feet dangling from the bench.

For a second I didn’t understand what she was trying to say, until I spotted a bearded man with a bouquet on his hands. He was talking to a woman with dark curly hair. She had her arms crossed, her frown clear even from here. He was pleading and gesticulating while the woman responded in a sharp monosilabic way.

We contemplated the scene in silence, but in the end she was right. The woman walked away leaving the man completely alone. His face dejected as the flowers found their way into the trash.

Watching the scene the little girl ran across the park and picked the roses back. Her face beaming with happiness.

“Here for your kids.” She extended her arms, offering her catch while hiding part of the prize.

I picked a single rose. “Thanks, but I don’t have any.”

“Why not?”

I sighed, part of me afraid of opening old wounds. “Life kinda got in the way, I suppose.”

“You don’t like children?” Her inquisitive blue eyes held all the curiosity in the world. A part of me missed it.

“It’s not that I don’t like them. I taught many children just like you, but that was a long time ago.”

“Then why?”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

I couldn’t help but sigh. Looking into the horizon, trying to piece together a puzzle that I couldn’t remember how I figured out so long ago. “Well... when my wife and I were thinking about having children, it was the same time when the first heroes came up. You know about them, right?”

She nodded gravely, her beanie hanging by a thread. “To love all and to protect all. That is our duty.” Flipping her skateboard, I could see the heroine she quoted in a yellow suit with a black buckle. It was odd that of all the heroines she could choose, she chose Luminus.

“Exactly. The Leagues won in the end, but I was too afraid of having a child in a world so dangerous, so we postponed.”

Sneezing without covering her mouth, she continued. “And why didn’t you have kids after that?” Her nose was bright red from the cold.

“My wife and I were too old, so we missed the chance.”

“Are you still bummed about it?”

“Sometimes but not often.”

She rubbed her hands together. “That’s just pretty sad.”

“Life can be unfair sometimes.” I didn’t want our conversation to end on a sour note, so I changed the subject. “Do you like heroes?”

She nodded with conviction. “I will blow up cars with my own hands when I grow up.” The devilish grin was adorable.

“Can you keep a secret?”

She looked to her left and to her right as If she was afraid someone could be overhearing us and then nodded. I opened the palm of my hand, the blue flame dancing lazily to the cold wind that passed us by.

Her eyes widened, joy emanated from them. She used her hand to cover her mouth as she leaned next to me and whispered, “Are you a hero?”

“A tiny one, but maybe one day I will be strong enough to do some cool stuff too.”

“We can beat up villains together.” She grinned, clenching her tiny fists in a mix of happiness and determination, her two front teeth missing.

“You promise?” I asked her. In truth, I didn’t know if beating villains was a good decision for her or for me, but I knew that if given a chance I would never refuse the offer, and the same grit could be seen in the girl that I shared that very same bench with.

“I promise.”

We linked our pinkies together. “You can call me Ern, but if you see me it will probably be as Billy.”

“I'm Margaret, but everyone calls me Maggie.”

“It was nice to meet you, Maggie.”

Maggie hopped on her skate without missing a beat, yelling at me at the very end. “If I see you on TV, I will cheer for you, Ern. Bye, Ern!”

A couple of minutes later, as I was walking out the park, Maggie passed me by one more time, her skateboard missing the thumb from a distracted bystander by the tiniest of margins.

I left the single rose in one of the benches.

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Late in the afternoon, I used my time to solve another problem. I called all the shooting ranges in my area. It was upsetting to dedicate my time in real life to training, but in the end it was the right decision. Even though my schedule was pretty busy, being too indebted to Gekko was something I wanted to avoid. In the grand scheme of things, it was smarter for me to learn the essential stuff from somebody else and use Gekko and Milch only when it was essential.

The rest of my day was spent with Sweeney and Pringles. All three of us in complete silence, if you didn’t count the continuous sound of munching produced by the alien japanese. My free time-capsule days were over and the price went up a little bit because of my regeneration upgrade. It wasn’t a problem though. Even taking into account my lack of golden years, I was still able to pay for a month even if no meeting came up. Considering that Molly already booked three of them, I shouldn’t have a reason to be concerned.

Even after making sure that everything was in check, my mind gave me no respite, as different scenarios kept creeping in. This current situation was one of them. In the last few days sleeping was becoming easier, but I wasn’t sure if it was all in my head. So I paid attention this time, I was still restless but I decided to make an effort and watch how my body reacted. I closed my eyes and…

There I was once again in my pajamas. The emptiness and me. My assumptions were true, I seemed to be able to sleep on command now, something that I thought I could only get by acquiring Sleep Bank.

My blank time was always peaceful. Catching up on my reading, I found key information not only regarding my situation, but also a way to help Richard and Carl too.

The remainder of my time was spent practicing my skills. To make things a little bit more fun, I switched my targets between moving and fixed ones. My aim was improving, my shots getting a little bit more reliable with time. My essence manipulation was also getting smoother, in what I thought was a far faster pace then my aim.

Thinking about Oberyn's advice, I focused on improving on the basics, so I tried to perfect my ability to hop the flame from finger to finger. At the end, it did look like the transition was getting a lot easier and not even once did the flame puffed out while I was attempting to do it.

Even though I was already satisfied with my training today, my efforts were rewarded elsewhere too. A quick message from Molly told me that I had another cube available for storing. I thought about putting a bottle of water and a first aid kit inside the storage when I had the chance. Time seemed to fly by around here, as I was getting cozy, I started to crumble.

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Waking up early, I put my navy-blue suit on. This time I dressed in the old fashioned way, I didn’t want to waste the little golden money I had. When I asked Molly to sync my mask and my hat, a message appeared for me.

“There will be a lot of tough times ahead of you, times when you will be in doubt. When very few things will make sense. Sometimes, to do the right thing will seem foolish. In some cases, even impossible. But you keep moving on, Ern. Always.

To sacrifice oneself is the right thing to do even when good seems like a far fetched dream.

With love, Cedric.”

The message made me miss my friend and our tea ceremonies. There was a lot more optimism in him than there was in me, even though he had many more scars than I did. I wonder if they made the informed decision that they thought they did. Still, I would call them friends. They cared deeply, and my transition into this world wouldn’t have been half as smooth without their guidance.

Continuing to dress up, this time I chose to bring two pistols along with me, one in the shoulder carry and another at my hip. I put the water in the storage and bought the aiding kit on the way.

As I left Pringles behind, I couldn’t help but be thankful that Sweeney was always there to keep him company. She looked more like she was his bodyguard than mine.

This was something that I asked her directly. If I could count with her help when dealing with the Legionnaires. According to her, she couldn’t protect me when I was with them, which made sense since it could lead to intergalactic problems of major proportions. Still I needed to think of a way of putting Sweeney to work, at least so I can gage how much protection she truly offered.

Beating some people in an alley was one thing, saying that you can go toe to toe with the best was another.

Just a matter of time now...