When Benjamin returned to his councilman office on Monday morning, he couldn't quite meet Hannah's eyes. The small town gossip had already gotten around that her father had disappeared and that she was staying at Ben's place until she could get back on her feet. Thankfully, the entire town also knew a bit of what a pig Hannah's dad is, so nobody was judging the actions of the young city councilman. They were, however, viciously demanding what church the wedding would be taking place at so they could start setting up early.

All of this reminded Benjamin why he wanted to live in such a small town. Sure, it was a little annoying to have a dozen people's noses in your business, especially when that business required cleaning up a crime scene, but it was a level of care that just didn't exist anywhere else. While Hannah had been sleeping off the worst night of her life, two separate elderly couples came by and offered food platters, one green bean casserole and a smoked ham they had been preparing for two days. And Ben would never admit that he almost cried when he tried that smoked ham, and only partially because the old bats didn't mention it had habanero spice in it.

It was a cozy feeling, like sitting in front of a fireplace with some hot chocolate after wiping out on your ski's.

The activities of local council continued regardless of the distress, but Benjamin found himself distracted from his regular duties by his coaching position. The hero sports are actually a suite of standard competitions that were once the realm of video games. Capture the flag, knockout elimination, battle royale, heroes vs villains, and a few ball-based sports thrown in for good measure. Capture the flag was by far the most popular and easiest to set up, but Ben suspected it was popular because it allowed for the competition of non-offensive superpowers.

Also, now that Ben was the coach of a never-before-in-existence team, it fell to him to schedule the games and even provide setup for them. There were a number of parks in the area that would suffice for capture the flag, but the direct fighting ones would have to be special so that Katherine doesn't burn anything other than her opponent.

The Monday following Ben's first meeting with his team was out on a large training field where the track and field normally practiced. It was the warmest day of winter so far with a balmy forty degrees in direct sunlight, and Ben was going to get a feeling of the kids' powers. When he showed up to see four kids and Michael hiding a good distance away, Ben counted Michael as absent and continued.

First up was Katherine, not because of any random selection, she just wanted to show off. Everyone backed away except Ben, who stood behind her to keep her power within the range of his sight. Sure enough, Katherine shouted "HA!" and fire erupted from her mouth. The range was about five feet, and the fire didn't so much as eject like dragon breath than it did spontaneously combust.

"That's interesting," Ben said as he monitored the power closely with his dimensional sight. "Your power isn't so much producing the flames as it is converting the sound into heat and igniting the air, converting acoustic to thermal, as it were. Have you ever tried to make any random noise and set it on fire?"

Katherine, unaware of what Ben had just said except the last part, answered, "I can hum to make a low flame."

She did just that, emitting a flame more like a candle from her lips. The heat started to build around her nose and she stopped before it became too painful.

"Alright, well," Ben said as he picked up a fire extinguisher he brought from home, "let's try a few things out. Try clapping first and see if you can turn that into fire."

Katherine squinted at the unusual request, but positioned her hands apart and slapped them together full force. The air in front of her ignited, expanding quickly and blowing Katherine back a few steps as the explosion rocked her world. She hit something like a bar as Ben put his forearm out to block the falling child. Ben stepped around Katherine and hit her winter jacket with a quick puff of the fire extinguisher as the fuzzy bits started to cinder.

"WOAH!" Katherine smiled wildly. "What the hell was that?!"

"Your power isn't fire breath," Ben stated, waiting to see how flammable the coat was, "you can turn sound into heat. I thought it was weird when you yelled, but I didn't actually hear anything. Now we just need to find out if you can turn any sound into fire, or just ones you make. Here, I'm going to hum a little and you try turning it into heat."

Ben hummed a low note and Katherine concentrated on it. Ben was a little surprised when his face got a little warmer, but no flame emerged. He tried raising his pitch and watched with fascination as a small red flame appeared, then it had a blue tinge when he reached the squeakiest sound he could make.

"Alright!" Ben cheered, but he was cut off when a flame burped away from his mouth. "It looks like your ability works better when the noise is higher pitched!"

After a moment's consideration, Ben asked, "Have you tried whistling?"

Katherine's eyes shined with the brightness of a starry night, and she immediately whistled herself a flame. Unlike her shouting flame that bellowed red fire, this one ignited a long, blue flame like the worlds most potent oxyacetylene torch.

Unfortunately, she hadn't turned around when she did so, and Ben received a blast of blue flame directly to the chest.

It took the moment she whisteled to realize what she'd done, and Katherine quickly stopped her power and started freaking out. When the flame went away, Katherine was terrified and relieved to see that Ben was unharmed.

Ben however, was glaring at the fire screamer with a look that could kill.

"Just because I fire-proofed my clothes," he cautioned, "doesn't mean I accept being blowtorched. Do that again, and you're off the team."

"I'm sorry!" Katherine cried, almost tearing up at the thought of losing her scholarship.

"Be more careful next time," Ben warned less threateningly. "Start practicing with the idea that your power works on sound. Gary, you're up next."

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Katherine sulked away, not wanting to risk getting thrown off the team. Gary took up position next to Ben and stood there awkwardly.

"Well, make something," Ben said.

"Like what?" the goliath asked.

Ben did his best to hide his sense of hopelessness that the guy who could create structures out of his imagination lacked creativity.

"Let's start with a square."

Gary raised his hand and conjured an opaque cube of brown light. It started as a flat square about the thickness of a sheet of paper, then it grew out into a full cube. It was an ugly little thing about the size of a softball, and it didn't seem to have any sort of unique qualities.

"Can I see it?" Ben asked, and Gary just placed the cube into Ben's hand.

As Ben was inspecting the cube, even he didn't notice any sort of use to the material. It seemed to have the consistency of cardboard and could barely hold itself up. Ben poked and prodded it, feeling it bend slightly at his touch until he dropped it experimentally and it deconstructed upon hitting the ground.

Ben had no idea what this could possibly be useful for besides maybe temporarily blocking someone's view, until he noticed Gary chuckle a little bit. He got a strange look from Ben, who asked for another cube. This time, Ben slightly scratched the cube and watched as Gary started laughing hysterically until the construct vaporized.

"Gary... you can feel your constructs?"

"Sure," Gary glumly agreed, "isn't that normal for summoners?"

"No," Ben laughed a little, "but that makes this a really different power. Have you ever felt pain through one of your constructs?"

"No, they're not sturdy enough to hold up against that kind of... (what's the word)... force. They just break."

"Alright, well, how many can you make?"

"I've gotten up to twenty-two, but, ah, they don't last very long when I have to concentrate that hard."

"That's fine, I'm just coming up with a way to use your power. Have you ever tried building a construct somewhere that already has something in it, like say, underground?"

"No."

Ben waited for more of an answer or some sort of action, then asked, "Can you try it now?"

"Oh, sure," Gary said, then pointed his palm at the ground. Nothing really happened at first, then a small bump appeared in the ground as a flat line cut through the dirt and slowly built itself up.

"Try to keep it flat."

The construct slowly shrank, becoming flat enough that the ground didn't seem disturbed anymore. Experimentally, Ben stepped on top of the ground where the brown construct was and noticed Gary give him a sour smile.

"You can still feel that?"

"Sure, a little," Gary stated with a tickled smile.

"Alright, then your power is going to be used for locating people. For practice, work on making some sort of grid or net underground and feeling where people are."

"Like sonar?"

"Yes, Gary, like sonar. Get to it! Next, Garrett!"

Garrett approached and Ben couldn't quite hide his smile when he realized what the snake man was hiding in his jacket.

"What?" the slithering tongue called out.

"Nothing, it's fine," Ben said as he realized why there were two dozen hand warmers hidden in pockets around Garrett's jacket.

One of the qualities that his snake physique gave him was his cold-bloodedness. Besides fooling someone who can detect heat signatures, Ben couldn't really think of a use for it, so he had to make do with something else.

"Is there any special thing that your snake body can do?" Ben asked outright.

"No," Garrett sulked. "Can't you see anything?"

"Well, besides your bones being thinner and your skin being a bit softer, your muscles are kinda weird."

"What's weird about them?"

"They're out of place," Ben reviewed, "like they aren't positioned normally. There are a few around a human wrist for grip strength about five inches long, but yours are seven inches and go down into your forearm. Have you ever had your grip strength tested?"

"No."

"We'll have to put that to the test when we've got time in the gym. It looks like you might have the constricting power of a snake. Y'know how snakes squeeze their prey? Your muscles might be built for that."

"How does that help me?"

"You'd have to learn some grappling techniques to make the most of it. Besides that, all of your bones are segmented out and with your cold-blooded nature means that you can use your appendages like a whip without risking cardiac injury. Here let me:"

Ben took a boxing stance and explained, "Watch how I punch. See how I have to extend my arm out like this and throw my back into it? The way you would hit someone is more like a whip, which has considerably more power if you can get the timing right. For training, you should watch a few videos on how whips work and try to replicate it in a strike. But be careful! Whips have an incredible amount of power to crack and it could seriously harm you if you don't harden up your hands!"

Garrett grumbled that his 'power' was useless, but Ben imagined that if he could properly conceive of a martial art that suited his snake bones, he would at least be able to match up to mid-level heroes.

"Next," Ben said, but Stanley stepped up without having to be called. "Alright, can you display your power?"

"No," Stanley said, his voice muffled by a cubic meter of winter clothes wrapped around him.

"'No' as in you can't, or 'no' as in you don't want to?"

"I don't want to," Stanley answered nervously.

"Come on, Stan!" Katherine called out, warming her hands by snapping her fingers. "You promised you would help out!"

"I told you I wouldn't use my powers!" Stanley's muffled argument came through. "I'm just here to fill a body."

"Any reason why?" Ben asked. "Is it philosophical, or just something personal?"

"Personal," Stanley announced.

"Alright, I won't pry," Ben said softly, but inside, he knew very well the reason why.

Stanley Chevis, son of Jeff and Melinda Chevis, and younger brother of James Chevis... the newest fireman at the fire department... and a Humanity First member.

'His home life must be some kind of terrible,' Ben thought, 'and that's if it's just his brother. The parents could also be Humanity First members. I wouldn't even want to imagine what kind of pressure this kid would be under.'

Katherine was glaring at Stanley, clearly with some choice words for the kid, but Ben preempted her.

"Don't get on him for not wanting to use his power," Ben called out. "If I could turn my power off, I would. Everyone's got their own circumstances. Stanley, if you want to use this time to study or do homework, you can. But you'll have to be there when we have actual matches."

"Do we have a match?!" Katherine squealed.

"Yep, and it's soon because we're starting so late in the year," Ben said, recalling what he read in the email he'd received that morning. "It'll be in two weeks, so we're going to need to practice like fools to ready for it."

"AAAAH!" Katherine squealed, jumping up and down while shaking Gary like a ragdoll. "We've got a match! What kind is it?!"

Ben smirked.

"Hero Hunt... That's all for today. Take a few moments while we have the field to ourselves to get some practice with your powers. We've got another twenty minutes before it's time to leave, so let's see what we can get through!"

"Wait!" Michael said, decloaking from behind the crowd. "What about me?"

"What about you?"

"Aren't you going to go over my power and show me something?"

"I marked you absent because you weren't here when we started. As far as I'm concerned, you skipped practice."

"But I was here!"

"Really? Did anyone notice when Michael arrived?"

The other kids shook their heads, looking sorrowfully at the invisible kid as he scoffed at his own antics.

"C'mon, I was totally here! I wouldn't skip!"

"It's true," Katherine shrugged. "I mean, he's always late, but... he always shows up."

"I already gave you a warning," Ben cautioned. "I don't work with nonsense. Be here on time or don't show up at all.... Can you see yourself when you're invisible?"

"No," Michael sighed.

"Alright, well turn invisible for a second."

Michael did so, then Ben took a bean bag out of his jacket pocket and tossed it to him. The bean bag hit something, fell, was hit by a flailing arm, then fell onto the ground.

"You're gonna practice getting your body where you want even when you can't see it. Get ready, because I'm not going easy on you."