"It was kind of cute," Sashaya said smiling. "In a... small fireball sort of way. You know?"

"And flattering!" Mico added shyly. She peeked out from behind her curtain of black hair and twiddled her pencil between her thumb and forefinger idly. It was one of those monochrome tablet pencils who's shape was their only nod to a conventional writing implement. "I'd be flattered if boys' voices broke in my presence."

"And their self confidence too."

"No, Nate. I'd rather their self confidence remained intact. Thank you."

Nate grinned and mimed babbling with both hands and his mouth, while Sashaya and Tom grinned and Mico giggled shyly from behind her hand.

It was study period, and technically their study period was meant to be held in one of the smaller assembly halls, but Eastwall High was pretty lenient. As long as you were studying and your grade point average was high enough, exactly where studying occurred was allowed to be fluid.

"It's like small particle attraction in space!" Tom liked to say. "First there's one, but its bigger than all the other particles, so three more come and glomp onto it. Now its way bigger, so ten more come and..."

And that was apparently how they'd all eventually gravitated to the Study Tree, centered in the grassy area next to the parking lot, instead of Study Hall next to the gymnasium.

"That's just dumb, Thomas. First of all, it's mass related, not size. Second, at the small particle stage, most things have far too much momentum and far too little attraction to actually glue, so really they spend centuries to millennia twisting through space as very dispersed dust clouds. And thirdly... you guys just aren't that big."

That was Patricia Collins. Her curly, red hair, freckles, and eternally arched eyebrows gave her a consistently snooty look, while her tone of condescension mixed with the combined weight of all of her study hours made her something of a greatly coveted pariah. She was... still orbiting the group and hadn't 'glomped' yet. But she usually shared her physics solutions around, so she was tolerated.

Jimmy was probably the newest member all told, and all he remembered was that Nate had said something to the effect of, "Look! Smart people!" And dragged him over.

And that was that.

Jimmy eyed his friends over his computer balefully. "Thanks Mico. Die in a fire, Nate. Would it make a difference if I said, 'I don't have an unrequited crush on her and that that wasn't what happened there?'"

All four of them shook their heads solemnly. And Tom snickered, "Nope. That ship left the harbor. But really. I'm pretty sure everyone with a 'Y' chromosome has crush on her. I certainly do, so you've got competition!" Tom eyed him with mock severity for a moment, then melted. "It's gonna make the rounds for a week or so, possibly hit the seniors, and then dissipate."

"Also, in the midst of the babbling, you did make some cogent points. I thought your point about public-Super perceptions made some sense. Applicable to current events too." Mico commented softly through her hair.

She scrolled down on her tablet a little farther, still twiddling her pencil between her fingers. "Just in. Powered assault on an un-Powered individual in Ionia, Michigan. Some sort of novel shape shifter power. Only, its being treated as a self defense incident and Stand Your Ground laws might apply."

She tapped her tablet with the top of her pencil pensively. "Thing is, while the Super did stick around to talk to the police, she bailed when they wanted her to come in to the precinct. So now there's a warrant out for her arrest, and they're booking her for Resisting Arrest, and then potentially Assault with a Deadly Weapon, and Assault with a Powered Capability — which is somehow different apparently."

"Why'd she do that I wonder," Mico asked, looking up as they all made sounds of astonishment and clambered around her tablet. "Why'd she bail?"

"Assault? The man had a gun! That's clear cut self defense right there!" Nate burst out after a long moment of intense reading whereby all members of their study group tried to hog the tablet's scroll feature and Mico made sounds of aggrieved protest. "How can that be assault?"

"There's actually some debate about that." Tom pointed out. At the same time Sashaya exclaimed, "The guy was a known ganger. One of the new ones. Drugs. Human trafficking...."

Everyone's heads flipped between the two...

"— If your immune to bullets, is it really self defense, if you royally slaughter the guy pointing the gun at you? It would be kind of like reacting with full force if someone ran at you with a nerf sword or a pool noo...."

"—sn't make any sense why she'd ditch the scene," Sashay continued over Tom, "It seems pretty clear cut to me. She's kinda begging for criticism."

... And picked Sashaya.

"Mmm — I think that's faulty logic," Mico commented softly, peeking out from behind her hair again.

Mico always spoke softly. It had the odd effect that people tended to lean in to listen to her words rather than try to win through volume like Tom.

"Just because we know now from the news article that the man was a ganger, doesn't mean it was obvious at the time. We are operating with a severe information glut. And Supers... tend to get short shrifts. When was the last time a case against a Super actually went the Super's way? And maybe... maybe it was an accident." Mico murmured the last part, and folded herself behind her hair again with a small smile.

Jimmy cleared his throat. He was lying on the grass with is feet kicked up behind him and his notebook propped up on one of the tree roots and felt very clearly every single one of his cards of other peoples his things he held in his pockets. "So. I kinda said this during the debacle this morning." Jimmy said, feeling the need to classify his statement... for reasons.

His friends looked at him, smiling widely and Jimmy skipped quickly passed any further qualifications.

"Back when Supers first started coming out of the woodwork, there were several that came forward either during criminal investigations or by straight up walking up to the media. They all kind of... disappeared eventually."

"They did?" Nate exclaimed. "I don't remember this."

But Mico was nodding. "Yeah. I remember. There was talk about putting together some bureau of Supers and all that. Like in fantasy books and comics. But then they all sort of just faded."

"I don't remember any of this." Sashaya said while Tom shook his head too. "I'd think that would be big."

"Well, it was!" Jimmy pointed out. "But then it wasn't. You remember Pink Mist?"

"Well with a name like that...."

"Except his power literally was generating a pink mist. He had broad range of things he could assert in that mist too. I...researched this." Jimmy shrugged uncomfortably while Nate, Tom and Sashaya all looked at him and Mico nodded, agreeing.

Even Patricia seemed to be listening in from the sidelines while bending over her text book, though she wasn't saying anything and was studiously maintaining a severe expression that said she disapproved of their lack of real studying.

"Anyway, he was one of those that came out with it up front. Was very big on Powered, un-Powered relations. Kept talking about unionizing super humans and getting real representation. Only things kept happening. Other Supers started popping up. Some came forward. Most fell into the wait-and-see-what-happens crowd. And some took their powers as an excu..." Jimmy stumbled a bit here, but only for a moment. "—cuse to rob convenience stores, turn in grudges and there were more than a few sickos who went around kidnapping teenage... girls. And some not so teenage too."

"Turns out all that public sentiment against Supers has a reason behind it. Who knew, right?" Tom chuckled dryly.

Jimmy ducked his head and shrugged uncomfortably. "So Pink Mist went up and had to speak to all of that. All the time. He was the public's face for Supers. Thing is, he was some horse-handler from a farm in Iowa. Not a politician, major face for radio. No talent for public speech. He was just a Joe Shmo American! And he had some help too. Initially. Like Electra-Coil — actually, she was a politician — and Phaser-Gazer, but...."

"You got a point to this analysis?" Tom quirked an eyebrow.

"Oh, let him talk! He's redeeming himself from physics!" Sashaya grinned teasingly, but she looked interested.

Jimmy shrugged and chewed on his lip. "Just two thoughts," he said finally. "Where did they go?"

"What do you mean?"

"Where did Pink Mist go? He's just gone. Only Mico remembers, and barely. Electra-Coil? —"

"— I thought she was assassinated." Mico commented.

Jimmy nodded. "Phaser-Gazer? Where are they now?"

"Dude, you just said they fell out of the public eye."

"Wha — all of them?"

"You're saying that there might be some existential threat to Supers?" Sashay's tone was critical. "I can see it... but I dunno that I believe it. I can't see anyone disappearing Amaterasu for instance. He's wiped out two squads by himself now. And UK's Ice-Age is pretty existential all on his own." She frowned, leaning back against the Study-Tree trunk and looking thoughtfully into the sky. "Throw in Kerass in Germany. Seraphim, The Downtown Demons gang in Tennessee, that new guy, Legion — at least his demons are leashed, right?" She laughed humorlessly. "All the existential threat arrows seem to be pointing in a different direction, Jimmy"

"But most Supers are probably just Joe Shmoes!"

At the same time Nate said, "It could be gaussian!"

Jimmy nodded quickly and Mico's eyes glimmered.

"Gaussian distribution." Mico murmured. "Mostly average, with radicals at the tails. We could just be seeing the right most tail, Sash. Violent. Means everything below the ninety-ish percentile could basically be in hiding and benign."

"It means," Tom growled, "That there may be far more Supers' than anyone's prepared to deal with just sitting by the sidelines watching us get fucked, and can at any moment decide to walk rightward on that bell curve."

"You said there were two points, Jim," Nate prompted.

Jimmy shrugged and chewed on his lip. He checked his watch and started packing up as study period ended. "Maybe there's an existential threat. Maybe not. But I bet they all wonder. And..." Jimmy shrugged uncomfortably. This conversation had approached a little closer to home than he was prepared to deal with, he thought. 'Time to disengage'.

"I'm just saying that I figure it's tough." He tapered. I bet most Supers prefer to stay out of the lime light. They've got their own stuff to deal with. A few wreak major havoc. The ones with a public faces are horrible representation and didn't sign up for the huge amount of negative sentiment and not a small amount jealousy that reared up. And now Supers are left with the likes of John Hannon the news anchor and Kent Maccabee running for president with his hard line on Supers stance as representation. Not easy to walk into that."

"You know quite a bit about this." Tom poked with a side long look as he too started packing up. "Got something to tell us, Jimmy?"

"HA! Not on your life!" Jimmy laughed and quickly schooled his expression behind a healthy amount of friendly derision and 'sweet sweet ambiguity'.

"We'd tell you, Jimmy." Nate said and grinned while Tom and Mico nodded with mock judgement.

"I'm actually thinking of voting for Maccabee." Sashaya said suddenly. She looked around defensively "What? He makes good points. It's sad what you're saying, Jimmy, but he's right! The current situation just isn't tenable. Enderson's just the latest in the States, but all over the world there are all these Super related fires that just keep getting bigger and bigger. Some of these Supers can destroy — have destroyed cities! That's like Nuke level danger."

Jimmy... grinned ruefully and shrugged while Nate pointed out helpfully that unless those Supers also left heavy doses of radiation behind, it wasn't actually nuke level.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

Jimmy felt a... a twist inside. Somewhere right next to where his heart sat in his chest. It was like the opposite of what he felt last night with his sister. When Kaykes had been accepting and warm. And Interested. Despite the cards in his pockets, that weren't his. Despite the Itch that made him do things he didn't want to do.

It hurt. And when Nate shrugged unconcernedly and Tom frowned in consideration and commented, "Yea, it does kind of suck. But what can you do, you know?" It hurt even more. Apathy hurt.

'They don't know,' Jimmy thought. 'They can't know. You haven't told them.'

But how could he tell them? When Mico's cell phone she'd lost last month and had been in so much trouble with her parents for, was nestled covetously in his pocket as Random Cellphone 2. When Tom's keys were underneath Jimmy's mattress along with Sashaya's Grandmother's bracelet which the Itch had taken one look at and had not been able to wait for the next job.

When Patricia — who was stalking along behind them wearing her eternally peeved expression — had lost her calculous homework to him just a couple weeks ago! Jimmy knew she spent hours pouring over her assignments. The Itch knew that too, from its humming. It had turned her work into High Quality Advanced Mathematics Assignment so fast, Jimmy's head had spun, and when he'd un-carded it hurriedly, it had completely transformed everything into Jimmy's own handwriting and style.

How could he say anything?

Jimmy felt very, very alone.

----------------------------------------

"It's a trap." His sister said cooly and She handed the phone back to him after an incredulous glance at the screen. "Don't fall for it. Who's cell is this anyway?"

"Some random person's from the grocery store." Jimmy huffed. "And it's not a trap! It's the contract."

"I'm telling you, Jimmy. It's a trap. Listen to your sister. Now I've got some information for you." Kaykes looked around and drew him away by his sleeve out the double doors of the main campus to a corner of the courtyard which was mostly shielded from prying ears. She lowered her voice. "I threw out some feelers, and it turns out Buck isn't at school today."

Jimmy choked. "You asked about him? Kaykes!"

But Kaykes shut him up with a dismissive shake of her bangs. "Trust me, Jimmy. A ninth grade girl asking after the QB of our football team isn't suspicious in the slightest. And I wasn't the only one. Point is, he's not at school and word is that it's because there was a break in at his house last night." Kaykes raised her eyebrow at him. "If the kids know than the faculty definitely knows."

"So?" Jimmy wasn't quite sure what he was supposed to do with this information except feed his anxiety unhealthily. He lifted The Guys Phone for Illicit Dealings uncertainly. "I'm texting her back." He said.

His sister opened her mouth furiously, but then she was interrupted.

All grades are to report to Assembly Room A for an important announcement directly after Lunch Period. I repeat, ALL students are to report to Assembly Room A for an important announcement. Attendance WILL be taken

Principle Lane's voice cut off abruptly.

"Speak of the devil," Kaykes hissed. She checked her watch. "It's almost the end of lunch. We'll talk about this later. After gym. Don't go to gym! Remember? You're covered in bruises."

"— How could I forget?"

" — Don't do anything before we talk! Now come on and find Nate. I bet they're seating us by grade."

----------------------------------------

Assembly Room A was singularly the biggest room at Eastwall high, with the possible exception of the Gymnasium — for obvious reasons. It was also the grandest.

It was built with a tiered seating arrangement with the rows farther back situated closer to the ceiling and descending as you got closer to the stage, which was raised again so that a tall speaker, if he stood up, might be approximately head height with the average head in the room.

There were double doors leading into the room, frosted glass along the side facing the outdoors and it even had several columns spaced at regular intervals around the room.

It all came together to make a somewhat somber atmosphere, Jimmy thought. Of course the High Schoolers tamped down that atmosphere. They piled in, in groups of three or four or ten, laughing and making snide remarks, looking around and choosing seats noisily, and generally being loud and obnoxious with little in the way of sobriety.

And Jimmy could tell that Principle Lane hated it.

"Settle down. Settle down now, Students." Principle Lane had wispy grey hair. His lanky frame and hunched posture always reminded Jimmy of some form of wasp, and his lined face and voice were set into an eternal frown.

When he spoke it was in an impatient monotone. "Please, quiet down. Choose your seats. Quickly now. By gra — young lady you are in tenth grade, I believe. Not eleventh. Choose your seats by grade. Quickly now."

It wasn't quick. But Principle Lane started talking without preamble soon after, and that killed most of the chatter due to shear curiosity if nothing else.

Nate hissed in his ear. "What do you suppose he wan—"

"The NEXT Student to talk out of turn will be sharing an hour of detention with me." Principle Lane interdicted, his eyes glittering.

That killed the rest of the chatter, and Nate shut his mouth with a snap.

"I've brought you all in here today to share some news and introduce some new emergency procedures to our venerated establishment."

He looked around grimly.

"I have received word this morning that one of your number, a school mate, was assaulted, brutely, in his house, with his family last night. This horrible event was carried out by a Super Hum —"

The whispers caught like wild fire. Jimmy could practically see them move as heads turned and people shuffled closer together to corroborate.

For his part, even knowing it was coming didn't stop the stab of panic that shot down his chest and a sensation like walls were closing in... and in the midst of that... indignation.

'Assaulted?! Brutely?!' At most Jimmy suspected, Buck might have a minor red mark on his neck. He was black and blue!'

Sashaya was leaning in talking in short sentences with Tom and Mico, while Patricia looked on austerely with her freckled face curled in an even more severe expression than usual.

Over among the ninth graders, Jimmy could see Kaykes, sitting with four other girls and two boys. Her dark eyes flicked in his direction just once, before she leaned over and started whispering excitedly with the dark skinned girl sitting next to her.

"— Super Human. Buck Higly is a much loved member of this school. And an accomplished member of our very own football team! Our hearts go out to him and his family. I can only imagine what they are going through." Principle Lane raised his voice to reach over the din.

So far it all sounded rehearsed to Jimmy, but to the Principles credit, he wasn't reading from a script.

Principle Lane pursed his lips and chewed nothing pensively for a moment. "In the backdrop of the Enderson Highschool tragedy of two days ago, we, the faculty and the board of directors are responding with aplomb and adamant dedication to the security of this school and its members. We are in contact with local law enforcement operatives leading this investigation and are receiving the unwavering support of our state and federal government in this endeavour. Eastwall will not turn in to another Enderson. I will assure you of that. And I assure you that we are taking every —"

The Principle looked around gravely as if trying to meet every students eyes. He definitely met Jimmy's, causing his heart to jump in his throat, and Jimmy could swear that his beady eyes even hovered on him for a split second. Or that could have been because Nate, next to him was practically vibrating with contained energy.

"— precaution available to ensure that. So without further adu, I cede the floor to Special Agent Mannheim with the FBI and his team." And he waved to a group of suits in the front row, before striding off the stage.

Special Agent Mannheim did not bandy words. He was stepping up to the stage even before Principle Lane was finished, and when he spoke, it was clipped.

"I am Special Agent Mannheim, and assisting me are Special Agent's Warner, Parks, Mehdi, and Suma. Last night, Buck Higly was assaulted in his house and robbed of a great number of his possessions. The investigation is still on going, how — EVER"

He raised his voice as the whispers started up again.

"I can say that we have identified this High School as well as several others in the vicinity and other locations as — Students. I will not talk over you! — as likely institutions that the perpetrator commonly visits."

"We do not believe there is any present danger at this time, however as your principle mentioned, we are taking this incident extremely seriously and are taking all possible precautions. I, myself and my team, will be based at this school. You may see us walking around. You may see us sitting in lectures and in some cases, inviting students out of class for questions. Do not be alarmed if this happens to you, it does not — IT DOES NOT MEAN", he shouted as the hubbub exploded again. "That you are a suspect in this case. Additionally, there will be additional security posted at this school. You may see them patrolling the halls, you will definitely see them patrolling the perimeter. They are here merely as a precautionary measure and not because this team, or the government, or the faculty perceive an immanent threat to members of this institution."

'Jeez,' Jimmy thought, feeling stunned. 'All this over a robbery... and no injuries.' But the moment he'd been caught, he had known there'd be repercussions. Any incident with a Super was scrutinized, and he'd known that. He just hadn't thought about it in the backdrop of the roller-coaster ambush by his sister and the late night conversation and... and Vicky's text.

Special Agent Mannheim looked around after he was done and, this time it was to dead silence. "I've got nothing further to add," he said after a moment.

The Principle stepped back up looking a bit vexed that the Special Agent had been so terse with his words. "Does anyone have any question's for myself, or the Special Agent?"

There was noise.

"You! second row. Tenth grade. Name and question" The Principle pointed and a boy with dark skin and curly hair stood up.

"Anthony Melbourne." The boy said in a wavering voice. "My question — uh. If we are being pulled out of class, does that mean that we need to get a lawyer?"

"Excellent question," Agent Mannheim responded, sounding like he thought it was anything but. "Everyone is free to refuse to answer any questions at this time, and if you so choose, seek council with a law expert. In the unlikely event, however, that this investigation leads us to believe that there is in fact a threat, the Bulwark Act grants my team expanded powers of surveillance and interrogation, falling far short of advanced interrogatory measures —"

This time Special Agent Mannheim just stopped talking and waited for all the voices speaking over each other to die down. A minute later he picked up where he left off.

"— It may restrict your right to seek external council or to refuse use of truth detection technologies. I urge you to research the Bulwark act at your leisure. I do not expect any of these measures to be at all necessary. Next question."

"You in the back. Eleventh grade."

"Victoria Montgomery." Her breathless voice threw a sudden hot prickle down Jimmy's spine. He caught his sister's eyes again, his heart pounding in his chest. But they just glinted darkly and her expression stayed placid. "Can you tell us what happened to Bucky — Buck Higly I mean?"

"He was beaten and robbed, girl." Special Agent Mannheim answered gruffly. "Is there anything else you need to know?"

"N-no." Vicky said. And he heard her sit down.

There were more questions after that. Many more. Some were about Buck. A fair number were about the Enderson massacre, and plenty were about the additional security measures being instituted at the school.

One boy asked what guns the operators would use to protect the school. He received a curt response to that question and heckles from those close to him. And there were more than a couple questions centered around identifying Super Humans and where to go with information.

Special Agent Mannheim seemed to enjoy these question about as much as Jimmy did not, and took time to discuss them fully.

His responses were enlightening... and horrifyingly accurate.

"As far as we can tell there is no one size fits all identifying feature for Super Humans." Special Agent Mannheim said after thanking the ninth grader who asked. "Generally speaking, when their powers are not active, they should look about the same as you and me. Obviously that is not a rule." He emphasized this point by looking around pointedly. "If you are getting uncanny valley vibes off of someone, seek the nearest member of my staff or call the hotline immediately. Our subconscious's were born in the crucible of the unforgiving wild, and may very well be able to identify a threat before your conscious mind can."

That of course sparked a flurry of students looking up what that term, uncanny valley meant, which the Special agent patently ignored.

"— Having said that, here are a couple things to look for. One, anything that looks suspicious. Two, Super Humans tend to possess what we call a Quirk. Again, Not. A. Rule... as far as we know. However, if you see someone doing things or reacting to stimulus that is far outside — and I do mean far — the human norm. That could be a Quirk."

He paced a couple steps before he spoke up again quickly as the room buzzed.

"Now I know, that directly after this conversation, you demons are going to come hammering on my door and pulling me aside to report your friend who wont stop aligning her pencils exactly right on her desk, or some cr — stuff — like that. Don't. If you see an identifiable Quirk, you will know. Some known Quirk types include but are not limited to, moderate to severe allergies to certain metals like iron or silver, severe obsessions, some levels of OCD can be a quirk, discomfort telling falsehoods, highly contractual behavior, affinities towards specific creatures...."

He rattled more off. Many more. More than Jimmy had even considered, and by the time Agent Mannheim drew his lecture to a close and delivered the Super Hotline number, that he ensured everyone was taking down in their phones, Jimmy's heart was beating so hard it felt like it was breaking through his ribs.

'They know!' He couldn't stop thinking. 'They know so much! Quirks? Falsehoods?' his head was spinning so hard that he didn't even notice his sister before she grabbed him by his arm and dragged him through the milling students and into the void created by the open wing of one of the double doors.

"Don't. Leave school." she hissed.

"Wh-what?"

"They're trying to flush the guy out. Taking attendance, this assembly in the first place. Go to gym class. Don't leave school early." Kaykes took in his heavy breathing and whatever expression Jimmy felt covering his face. He hoped it was just pinched, and not, you know... red and covered in sweat. "What's the matter with you?"

"I can't lie" He said so sub-audibly that he practically mouthed it.

"That's your —? At all?!" She face palmed. But then she grinned suddenly, and dragged him back into the throng of students who were all chattering and whispering, ensconced in their own intense conversations. "Don't worry, Jimmy. They start rooting for people with 'discomfort telling falsehoods' in high school, they're gonna get so many hits they might as well select based on favorite color. Go to gym class."

"I can't wear a jersey."

"Don't. Wear your turtleneck. Say you forgot yours at home."

"That's n — what?"

She rolled her eyes. "Deal with it Jimmy. No one's making you take your clothes off for gym, and if they do, threaten sexual harassment. Deal with the laughs."

----------------------------------------

Jimmy lurched up the stairs and into his room to find his sister already there and fiddling with one of his cards on his bed covers.

"It was under your pillow." She explained. "It's strange," and went to pick it up with her thumb and forefinger. "If try to pick it up, it slips right out of my grip like its greased. Scraping at it doesn't work, neither does scooping it."

"You're not worthy." Jimmy muttered and eased himself into his desk chair with a groan.

"But if I put my hand under the blankets like this, and lift the blanket, it moves just fine."

"... The blanket is worthy."

"Ha. Ha. What are you moaning about?"

In answer Jimmy peeled off his sweat drenched turtle neck and groaned from the center of his chest. "Aargh. Gym. No good. Hurts. Laughed at."

"Oooh. Yeah, that does look worse than it did this morning." Kaykes, cooed with interest but without anything resembling sympathy.

"Thank you. I can tell." Jimmy hesitated then showed her the The Guy's Cellphone for Illicit Dealings, and Kaykes' eyebrows dropped like a stone.

"Vicky?" Kaykes took the phone automatically

He nodded and gestured for her to scroll. There were five new texts.

[3:47 PM — VM] What did you do to him?

[3:50 PM — TG] Tased him. He caught me and I ran.

[3:51 PM — VM] Serves him right.

[3:51 PM — VM] So when are we having that date?

[5:19 PM — VM] ?

Kaykes blinked back and forth slowly between the cellphone and Jimmy. "You... can't be serious."