Scene 19 - October 15th

Exterior City, Continuous

Abraham Armstrong

It was only a few moments later that I caught up to her, and I paused briefly on a rooftop to get a good look before dropping in. “I can confirm the guard’s description,” I said. “Looks like she’s somewhere between 5’ and 5’6”, maybe on the taller end of that range, dark-colored bodysuit including a full face mask, wearing a plaid shirt. I’m going to go say hello.” I stood and called, “Hello there!” as I spoke - in my experience, people could tell when you smiled while speaking to them, and responded better to it. I had chosen to leave my chin exposed in my costume for much the same reason.

The costumed figure below froze the moment I stood, almost before I had spoken. “What brings you out so late on this fine evening?”

“Canaveral?!?” came the incredulous response. A deeper voice than I would have expected from a shortish woman, I couldn’t help but note.

I saluted, again deliberately projecting a friendly, irreverent demeanor - not that I wasn’t friendly and irreverent, of course - and leapt down to land in front of her. “That’s me,” I confirmed, smiling.

From up close, I could see more details of the meta’s costume. It clearly wasn’t homemade, as I had guessed at first - a pair of white boots were clearly crafted of some sort of tough, armor-like plastic, as were the gauntlets that were mostly covered by the plaid. The darkness of the bodysuit wasn’t completely black, from up close - it bore an faint, irregular pattern in purple, although I wasn’t sure of what. It definitely wasn’t just painted on, though - it almost looked like it was floating within the fabric.

“I have a poster of you in my bedroom!” she cried.

I chuckled. Yeah, this was no villain in the making. Villains didn’t idolize heroes. Well, they usually didn’t. I lifted a hand to one of my cowl’s fins as though touching a button, to signal to the kid that I was speaking to Anima, and said, “I don’t think she’s a threat, console.”

“Understood,” my fellow hero confirmed.

“What’s your name, young lady?” I asked the young meta, dropping my hand back to where it had been resting on my hip. “And what were you doing in the junkyard? Powers testing, right?”

“I’m not a lady. They/them pronouns,” the kid said.

“Apologies,” I told them, guilt writhing in my chest for a moment. I screwed up Loki’s pronouns on occasion too, and it always left me feeling like a piece of shit, accident or not - I hoped that they would let it pass. Best to just continue, I decided. “My questions still stand, though. What’s your name, kid?”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

It was a few seconds before they answered - probably trying to think of a name. I remembered that giddy time just after getting his powers, and not being able to come up with a name for a while. “Call me Newton for now, sir,” she said after a moment.

I decided to chuckle again. “I’m no sir,” I told her. “Just Canaveral is fine. Or Navi, if you’re feeling up to it,” I offered. “It’s what most of the Champions call me, since four syllables is a bit long.”

“Since when?” asked Nic. Wasn’t he supposed to be learning comms discipline?

“I think I’ll stick with Canaveral.”

“Suit yourself,” I said, shrugging. “Junkyard?”

“Oh! Sorry,” she - fuck, they said. “Yeah, it was powers testing, like you thought.”

“Mind if I ask what you found out?” Standard protocol - learn everything you can about the powers of other metas, hostile or not.

Newton scratched at the back of their neck. Probably nervous - maybe embarrassed? “Nothing too exciting,” they said quietly. “ESP and telekinesis, sort of.”

They seemed a little down, and I could never bear to see that. Well, I usually tried to keep the exact details of my power secret, but... “Hey, me too!” I told them, offering a high five.

It took them a moment before they responded. “I thought you had some kind of superstrength?”

“Nah. I control the kinetic energy of the things I touch,” I said. “Lets me pull off some tricks that usually require super strength, sure, but its a bit more versatile in some ways. Less in others, admittedly.” That was a pretty big oversimplification - my power was fueled by magic, so was shaped by my instinctive understanding of how kinetic energy worked. I should have been able to use it to do things like silence noises, freeze objects, or set them aflame, but I had trouble wrapping my head around kinetic energy on scales that small. “I sometimes have to ask Vulcan to help open the pickle jar,” I joked.

Newton nodded knowingly. “I usually go for the table saw when I have that issue,” they commented, then suddenly clapped their hands over their mouth.

It took Abe a moment to decipher that, then I couldn’t help but laugh - a real, genuine, belly laugh this time, not my usual act. “I like you, Newton!” I decided. “That kind of sense of humor is rare.”

“Not rare enough,” Miriam muttered into my ear. No wonder Nic was learning bad habits.

I ignored her. “Want to join me in the next leg of my patrol?”

“Really?” Newton asked.

“Experience is the best teacher,” I explained, “particularly when you have someone to help guide you. Besides, I’m just off to bust a drug deal - shouldn’t be any trouble for two heroes like us!”

“No,” Anima told me sternly. “That drug deal is too dangerous for someone with no training, no metas there or not!” I continued to ignore her. I was the leader of the New Champions, not her, and I wanted to take a chance on this kid.

“I... I don’t even know if I want to be a hero!”

“Really?” That was a surprise. “That costume looks pretty professional.”

They looked away a little. “I kind of... found this costume. It activated my powers.”

That... was suspicious. Not the idea of a special costume triggering powers, necessarily - there were metagenes that could be triggered by almost anything - but just finding a suit like that? “Where?” I asked.

“My patent’s attic. My mom made it.” the kid claimed.

“On second thought,” Anima murmured into my ear, “you ought to stick with them for a bit. It’s still possible that this is all above-board, but it seems unlikely. And try to find out their capabilities.”