I downed a glass of water all at once. I didn’t realize how thirsty I was until I entered the cold restaurant. BD was back on my shoulder in her bird form. I felt so bad when I found out I left her behind at the music store. Thankfully she didn’t seem too upset. The man who called himself a superhero was paying for anything I wanted to eat. He had short blond hair, wearing a blue shirt, heavy-looking sunglasses, an earpiece, and a smartwatch. On the side of his chair was a backpack with all its compartments filled to the brim.

After I ordered what I wanted from the menu, I turned to the superhero and said, “I guess you’re not going to arrest me?”

“No, I just wanted to return your bird.” He replied calmly. “Besides, I don’t have that kind of power.”

“But you're a superhero, aren’t you?”

“As a private investigator, yes.”

“I thought being a superhero would allow you to do stuff like arresting someone.”

“That’s a misconception. All a superhero is a registered asendeit who has sufficient documented training with their abilities to be used in protecting, building, and sustaining society. It’s an add-on to whatever your main job is, and mine doesn’t allow me to arrest you.”

“Ok. But why not let the police arrest me? I don’t want to be arrested. I just want to know why.”

The waiter came with our food, so I clamped up. I didn’t want anyone to think there was a potential criminal in their presence. The superhero was relaxed all the same.

After the waiter left, the investigator continued as if nothing happened. “You’re strong. I don’t understand your abilities or how they work, but they are exactly what I’m looking for.”

“What do you mean?” I asked. BD was now focused on the conversation.

“I am a technopath. A strong ability for this day and age, wouldn’t you say? But despite this, some jobs require me to put my life on the line, and I am limited in combat situations. I need someone like you to work with me.”

“But shouldn’t I need legal training… as an investigator?”

“I’m not worried about that. If you’re out here fighting ninjas or whatever, you don’t have school or a job to return to, right?” I didn’t respond. “And if you do, I doubt you’ll be able to chase those guys down by yourself.”

“And what makes you think that?”

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

“I’m going to take a wild guess and say you’re not a registered ascendeit? How you handle your powers makes me think you just awakened to them.”

In the states, one is not required to register their powers immediately. This is partly due to the sporadic nature of when someone awakens and who it happens to. Once asked in a case of updating your status or getting a medical check, it is required to mention that you are an ascendeit and your powers. Once registered, you can use your powers in public spaces like a driving license. As such, using your powers to harm others and/or commit illegal acts will mark you for arrest. For this reason, I thought I was about to get arrested. If the investigator was with me, I could direct everything back to a legal source.

The investigator probably recognized what I was thinking and continued. “I can cover for you, and in return, after all is done, you will work for me.”

As expected, there was a price for his help. “I don’t know if I can promise that,” I replied.

“I understand. You just met me, and asking to work for me is intimidating. To be clear, I’m not asking for a life dedication. Think of it as a well-paying temporary job where you can train your abilities, allowing you to go after that guy under legal activity.”

If you did get into trouble, Claymore would be able to get you out. Said BD.

But this guy has more to offer than simply keeping me out of trouble. I responded. And it would be nice to have more people to help me.

Confidently, I looked at the investigator and said, “It’s a deal. You’ll help me with my manhunt, and when this is over, I’ll come to work for you. That said, I would like to talk in more detail about the job.”

The investigator nodded and pulled a computer out of his bag. He started typing when I realized something important. “I never got your name.”

“Mindplay. Yours?”

I took a moment to decide which name to give him. Since he supposedly gave me his call sign, it made sense to give him mine.

“Call me Silver.”

“Well, Silver,” he said, closing the laptop. “Let’s do this.” And he got up from where he was sitting and went to the door.

“Wait, now?” I asked as I followed him. “We don’t know where they’re going.”

“I know where they’re going.” Before I could ask how, he continued, “Technopath, remember.”

And so I followed him north to the next stage of my adventure.

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

Even though it was still daylight outside, the two hunters knew better than to walk into the feeding grounds of the vampires. They were on the roof of a building, watching their quarry.

The white-haired hunter asked, “I thought Shadow Fang was an outcast among his peers. Why would he come to Vegas?”

The hunter with the two swords responded. “Maybe he wasn’t. He could have slipped back into their good graces.” There was a chest-crushing silence between them. “Or, you know, something else could be happening?”

The white hair hunter sighed. “Something big is happening, and we can’t seem to get close enough to know what.”

“We’ll figure it out. We always do.”

“But this time, I feel we are on a timetable.” She stood up straight, ready to jump off the roof. “Go back and report what we saw so far.”

“Why? There’s nothing to report back.”

“Did you not see it, Crucible?” She asked the two-sword hunter. “There is something else hunting Shadow Fang.”