=== CHUCK ===

I watched Kari as she spoke to the press. I was standing slightly behind and to the side of her. We were both in full costume. Kari had just finished recounting the events of what had happened and how we had discovered that Andrew Wan, Bion, the world’s most popular superhero, had caused the Grignau Invasion. The reporters all started asking questions at the same time. I felt Kari’s anxiety spark. She was already nervous. Who wouldn’t be? On top of the normal anxieties of public speaking, she was attacking an incredibly powerful, incredibly popular man. On the outside, she looked calm, but internally, she was crumbling. I let my presence be known next to her. She smiled back at me and sighed. In a strong, commanding voice, she said: “One question at a time, please. Yes, you ma’am.”

  “Jessica Janes, MGU News. These are pretty serious allegations. Do you have any proof to validate your claims against Bion?” The dark-haired woman asked.

  “Well, I was more interested in escaping the alien planet than gathering proof. But Bion did try to keep us in a warehouse downtown. I’ve reported the address to the authorities and they should be seeking a warrant to search the premises. Um, you next,” Kari said, pointing to another reporter.

  “Louis Lane, the Daily Battalion. Do you feel guilty for besmirching the legacy of a hero who has fought against the Grignau threat not once, but twice and has saved countless people?”

  “I . . .” Kari hesitated and sighed. “I do, honestly. I don’t want to be doing this. I wish it wasn’t necessary, but he’s doing something wrong. And I’d feel worse if I did nothing. I can’t stand by and let justice slide. Yes, you.”

  “James Joneson, the National Bugle. If you think he’s such a threat and is doing something so wrong, why not bring him in yourself just like you tried to do, several times, with Esvanir and Cherry? You crashed their wedding, but you’re just out here doing a press conference.”

  “Well,” Kari considered for a moment. I didn’t need to be a mind reader to know she was remembering both the fights with Reese and with Bion. Pain and regret washed off of her. She hadn’t been as good at concealing her emotions as of late. Though that might be my fault, I thought guiltily. She picked up her sentence after a moment. “I . . . If I just attacked Bion and brought him in, no one would understand why I did what I did. While I do think what he’s done is wrong, maybe he has a good explanation for why he’s doing this. This gives him the chance to do the right thing and come clean.”

  Jessica spoke up again. “If your goal is to have him come clean, why not wait until he does it himself?

  “He was unwilling to do so of his own volition,” Kari replied, her voice hardening. Rage . . . No, that’s not quite right. Righteous indignation overtook her now. “When someone isn’t willing to do the right thing, sometimes you have to force them to. Like how I was trying to bring Esvanir and Buck Cherry in. It’s not personal. It’s just the right thing to do.”

  “And how do you know he wasn’t going to come out on his own?” Another reporter asked.

  “I . . . I have it on good authority that he was going to keep us in his warehouse until he could come up with a way to convince us to keep quiet.”

  “And how do you know that?”

  “I . . .” Kari hesitated. I stepped up next to her.

  “I read his mind,” I said. My voice was dry.

  “If he was trying to hide this, why would he let you read his mind?” Jessica asked.

  “He . . . He didn’t consent to me reading his mind. He . . . He was stalling and I could sense that he was lying to us. And Kari needed more evidence. So, I went into his mind and found it.” I could feel the apprehension of the crowd swell. Before they were anxious and feverishly seeking out a hot take. But fear spread through them as they looked at me. Kari pushed her arm against mine, reminding me that she was there.

  “Is there any risk of what happened to Scott Springs, the Cannon Punch, and Blanca White, the Light Knight, happening to Bion? Did you just cripple one of the world’s greatest superheroes?”

  “No,” I said softly. Then I swallowed and spoke up, trying to suppress my guilt and the memories associated with it. “No, there’s no risk of that. What happened . . . What I did to Scott and Blanca . . . It was different than reading a mind.”

  “Do you think it’s right to just rifle through people’s minds without their consent?” James asked. I winced and shook my head.

  “I . . . I felt it was necessary at the time. I . . .”

  “Professor Mind is not the bad guy here,” Kari interjected. “He felt that something was off about Mister Wan and he was right. If he hadn't done it, you wouldn’t know that there was anything amiss and would just be all but worshiping him. Would you rather not know about Mister Wan’s involvement in the Grignau Invasions?”

  The reporters looked at each other and then focused back up. They surged forward asking more questions, but honestly, I wasn’t really able to focus on it. Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t suppress the thoughts of Blanca and Scott. I shrank away. Kari looked at me and sighed. Over the droning of the crowd, she said: “That’s all the time we have for today.”

  She grabbed my arm and we took off. I was only barely paying attention. She guided me over to a roof. After that, she just hugged me. Hugging Kari is a little strange. Her skin is bullet-proof. Hell, it’s actually rocket-proof. But it was still soft. I wrapped my arms around her and squeezed her. She squeezed me back. Fortunately for me, she had great strength control. When she wasn’t fighting. We broke apart, she met my eye. Concern was etched on her face. And it was genuine. Everything she did was always so genuine. She asked me ”Do you want to talk about it?”

  “No,” I began, taking a long, deep breath. Then continued. “But I think I need to anyway.”

  She pulled me over to the ledge and we sat.

=== FLASHBACK ===

I’ve had my powers since I was about ten. I think a lot of people’s powers kick in around then. Your body is changing and the hormones coursing through your veins. Your body is just ready to try. Like most kids, I was obsessed with cartoons and I had fallen in love with anime. My favorite was Sailor Moon. Sure, it’s not aged great and the dub wasn’t the best, but it was fascinating. Girls being best friends and solving problems together. They kicked ass. Still do, in fact. And like every kid who watches enough anime, eventually, I tried out some of the moves that I saw. I borrowed my sister’s Sailor Scout wand and spun it, exactly how Usagi did.

  And there was a flash of light. When I looked down, I was in a Sailor Scout outfit. A Sailor Scoutfit, if you will. The thigh highs, the skirt, the shirt, and of course, the tiara. It wasn’t exactly the same. My outfit was the same pale blue and white that I wear now. I spun on my heel and did the peace pose. And met my dad’s eyes. He dropped the laundry basket he was carrying, gaping at me. I dropped the wand and the outfit shattered and my regular clothes were back.

  “Chuck? What was that? What were you wearing?”

  “Um . . . well, I . . . I don’t know. I was just . . . I was just doing the Sailor Moon pose, dad.”

  “Where did those clothes come from?”

  “I don’t know,” I cried. My voice was higher than I would have liked. My dad came in and I took a step back. I wasn’t afraid of him. I was just embarrassed. My dad had caught me in a skirt and thigh-highs.

=== PRESENT DAY ===

“So, wait, your first super experience was you cosplaying as Sailor Moon?” Kari asked, sitting forward, a grin stretching across her face. She was unable to hide the image that had come to her mind, which was in fact an adult me dressed like Usagi. It was accompanied by unadulterated joy. I couldn’t help but smile at it.

  “Yeah, that’s exactly what happened. I was so nervous.”

  “Like I said, we get you in a skirt and you turn heads. Even your dad liked it!”

  “Ew, don’t say that. That’s so weird.”

  “I didn’t . . . Yeah, okay. I wasn’t thinking! But that’s so cute. Little Sailor Mind was ready to protect the world from evil!” Kari exclaimed.

  “Well, it didn’t happen quite that fast. I didn’t have full control of my powers for a while.”

  “Oh, thank God.”

  “What?”

  “Oh, it took me years before I had control over my powers. I couldn’t even fly until I was 18. Much less fly like I can now. I had to really train up the speed on that.”

  “Yeah, I really didn’t get the full scope of my powers until I was 16 or so,” I replied. She looked a little disappointed by that. I decided to get us back on track. “Anyway.”

=== FLASHBACK ===

“Do it again,” he said.

  “What?”

  “Chuck,” he said, picking up the wand and putting it into my hand. “Do it again.”

  I did so. I waved my hands in the air and the outfit appeared again. But when I looked into my dad’s face, it flickered out again. “I-I’m sorry, dad!”

  “Chuck, what are you talking about? What are you sorry for? That was amazing!” My father exclaimed. “You have a superpower!”

  “I . . . I do.”

  “Since when?”

  “Since . . . Now?” I asked, trying to think about it. My father hugged me. It felt . . . Warmer than usual. There was more to it. When we separated, I thought I could see something around him. But I didn’t have the words to explain it then.

  “So, the first thing you did with your powers was dressing up in a skirt?”

  “Um . . . I didn’t mean to. I didn’t think it would work. I was just trying to be like Sailor Moon.” My father looked behind me and saw what I was watching.

  “Oh, okay. I don’t really get the cartoon thing, son, but this is amazing.” My father started doing a lot of research on metas. He would encourage me in any way. I would spend each day after school developing my powers. My father would come up with clever tests and my mom would record the results and organize the findings. It started out with me creating constructs and them throwing things at them. My father went to college on a baseball scholarship, and he was pretty good at it still. My first constructs would shatter when he made contact, but eventually, I learned how to reinforce them. It was pretty easy to develop the physical side of my powers. We eventually graduated to a pitching machine. After a while, I got good enough to catch the balls and throw them back. I was never physically coordinated enough to be a pitcher like my father, but I got pretty okay at psychically catching and throwing the balls.

  And my physicality did suffer a bit. As I worked to develop my powers, I started neglecting my physical fitness. I used my powers for everything. Getting snacks from the fridge, grabbing the remote. Whenever I thought no one was around to see me, I would fly to places. I put on a lot of weight. And that wasn’t good for my self-esteem. And it didn’t help that as I entered high school, another power had developed. I had been sensing people’s emotions for a while, but I really wasn’t conscious of it. It was just an impression I usually got. I found that I could usually intuit out people’s thoughts through what I figured was just me being pretty good at reading people. But when I joined high school, I fell in love with a girl pretty much immediately. She was pretty and smart and always nice to me. I knew I had gained some weight and me being in the height of puberty, I had developed the classic pizza face, but she was always so nice to me and she seemed like she genuinely enjoyed my company. After months and months, I finally worked up the courage to ask her out.

  “Hey, Miranda,” I began while we were in chemistry. “I was wondering if maybe you wanted to go out to see a movie this weekend. W-with me.”

  She looked over at me. Ew. I heard the thought echo through my head. No, please, no, don’t let this be happening. More of the thoughts in her voice echoed through my head. She seemed anxious and a little disappointed. What should I say? I don’t want to go out with him. I mean . . . He’s not a bad guy but . . . An image of me kissing her floated into my head. And it wasn’t one of mine. It was from her perspective and I could feel her distaste for the thought boil up. I swallowed and laughed.

=== PRESENT DAY ===

“Wait, she said ew?” Kari asked.

  “Well, she never said it,” I replied, emphasizing the word. “It’s not really important, though.”

  “Of course it’s important! Even if she didn’t say it, it’s still mean to think! You’re not worthy of an ew. You’re adorable.”

  “I was less adorable back then. And it’s not like she knew I was reading her mind. How could she know?” I asked.

  “It’s not about that! It’s about how she thought about people.”

  “Do you go out with everyone who asks you out?”

  “No, obviously. But I don’t think ew, usually. Unless they’re doing something creepy. Mostly I am flattered but gently reinforcing my ‘No, thanks though’.”

  “She was in high school and I think she was more disappointed by the fact that I saw her that way than anything.”

  “What?”

  “I think she just wanted me as a friend. She didn’t see me that way and I was pushing that on her.”

  “Asking her out, as long as you accept her answer, isn’t pushing it on her. Did you accept it?”

  “I never really waited for it, honestly.”

  “What?”

  “Well,” I began.

=== FLASHBACK ===

“You know. As friends,” I said. “I just thought that maybe you wanted to see one this weekend. I know what a big cinephile you are.”

  “Oh, yeah, yeah. Maybe.” Relief intermingled with her disappointment and her anxiety. Ew? I thought. Wait, what the hell just happened? I looked at Miranda again. She had gone back to the experiment we were supposed to be focusing on.

  I’m not getting this at all. Her voice echoed through my head again. I looked around the classroom. The teacher was sitting with his head on his desk.

  Fucking Christ, I’m hungover. Wonder if these little bastards would notice if I turned the lights off? I looked around more. One of the people in front of me was staring despondently at the book in front of them.

  I don’t get this at all. What am I going to do? I need to pass this class. He looked up and raised his hand. “U-um, Mister Jones?”

Oh god. What now, Stevens? Mister Jones’ annoyance flared up and he pulled his head up. “Yes, Mister Stevens?”

  “I . . .'' Stevens hesitated. I need to pass this class. I need to. If I don’t, my dad’ll kill me. “I’m not really getting this. I don’t . . .”

  Mister Jones stood up and walked over. He was cursing internally. Class ended eventually and I stepped out into the hall and I was floored. People were thinking so loudly. There were so many things. So much noise. Someone helped me up, but I couldn’t concentrate. I leaned against the wall of lockers and tried to open my eyes. Some people were looking at me, but most just moved past. One of the guys who had helped me was talking to me, but I couldn’t understand what he was saying. I muttered something and started off. I needed to get out.

  I stumbled back home. Mom came in. I tried not to look at her, but I could still feel her emotions. Anxiety, annoyance, love, compassion. They all made sense to me now. I had been implicitly interpreting them this whole time, but I had never contextualized them. But now that the thoughts were coupled with them, it was easy. That boy. What is going on with him? She thought. “Chuck, honey, the school just called. They said that you skipped three classes today. What’s goi-”

  She cut off and rushed to my side. I was hiding my head under a pillow and wincing. “Chuck! What’s wrong, honey?”

  “I . . . Everything is loud. I . . . I can hear thoughts. Make it stop, mom! It hurts.”

  “Chucky,” she cooed, putting a hand on my cheek. “What are you talking about, sweetie?”

  “I can . . . hear people’s thoughts. I can feel their emotions. M-mom, I think my powers are growing?”

  “A-are you sure?” She asked, frowning. Oh God, more powers? The telekinesis wasn’t enough? Why can’t he be normal? Tears started leaking down my face as I nodded.

  “Y-you just wished that I was normal.”

  “I-no, no I didn’t,” she stuttered out.

  “Mom!” I shouted. “I can read your mind, damn it! I know what you were thinking!”

  “Chuck . . . I didn’t . . . I don’t . . . I . . . Sometimes, okay, honey? It’s not all the time, it’s just . . . A little much. It’s hard to deal with sometimes, but I love you.” She was scared. That made sense. I noticed that I had accidentally been lifting a bunch of things in the room. I slowly lowered them down and sighed.

  “I know, mom. I wish I was normal, too. This is . . . I don’t know what to do?”

  “We’ll figure something out. We always do.” And mom and dad did find a solution. I was hardly the only teen with superpowers. Turns out there was a research group that looked for kids like us and they contacted them. I had to move away from home for a while. That’s where I met them. Scott and Blanca. And Doctor Holme.

=== PRESENT DAY ===

“Did you join a superhero team? That’s so cool!” Kari exclaimed.

  “Well, we weren’t exactly a superhero team at first. It was really meant to be a research team.”

  “Oh. Well, that’s good, too, I guess.”

  “But we became a superhero team after a while, though.”

  “Sweet! Tell me!” I laughed and shook my head. She was just so easily excited about things.

  “I am, Kari. We’re getting there, I promise.”

=== FLASHBACK ===

“Children, this is our newest subject, Chuck,” the doctor started. “Chuck, this is Scott and Blanca.”

  I looked at them both. They both looked a few years older than me. Scott was tall, pale, and lean with reddish-brown hair and with a scowl. Blanca was a little shorter than he was, with dark hair, dark skin, and dark eyes. Both looked me up and down and rolled their eyes. “Hi, I . . . I’m Chuck.”

  Great, another fuck up. I don’t give him a week. Blanca thought.

  Wonder what this one can do. Doubt it’s running.

  I need to find more of these metas. I will never be able to figure out why this is all happening with such a small sampling bias, Doctor Holme thought. “Well, then. Now that introductions are out of the way, perhaps we should show our new guest how things work around here. Perhaps a demonstration of everyone’s abilities.”

  I swallowed. I had never really shown my powers to anyone but my parents at this point. Holme led us out to a small gymnasium. We were actually staying in an old boarding school that he had bought out. “Right. Blanca, why don’t you go first?”

  She lifted her hand into the air and the gym started to get darker. At first, I thought that the light was dying out, but then I saw her get brighter. In her outstretched palm was a ball of light. She held it up. “I can collect light. Eventually, it becomes physical.”

  “Wow,” I whispered. I walked up to it and got really close to her hand. She held it out for me. I reached out and poked it. It was kind of warm. It also burst like a balloon and the light spread out into the room. I blinked several times as stars spread in my vision. “What happened?”

  “It’s fairly unstable. As near as I can tell, she’s actually capturing individual photons and making a shell of an object.”

  “Yeah, if I try, I can create illusions, but sometimes even the wind can destroy them. And I can’t create sound or anything,” Blanca interjected. “It’s not that cool.”

  “I don’t know. I think it’s pretty neat.” I looked at Scott. “What about you? What’s your ability?”

  “I can make the air punch you. Wanna see?” Scott asked.

  “Now, Scott. That’s very reductive,” the doctor added. “What he actually does is kind of similar to Blanca. He can pull air molecules together and throw them out.”

  “How is that different than what I said?”

  “Well, it actually explains what you can do,” Blanca cut in. Scott rolled his eyes.

  “Whatever.”

  “That does sound really cool. Both versions. Sure! Let’s try it out. Give me a second, though.” I floated back and constructed a shield out of my mental will. I had gotten pretty okay at this. The first step is to imagine what I’m trying to create. Really visualize it. The more realistic it is, the more sturdy the construct will be. I held out my arm and a strap appeared, then the shield over it. “Okay. Try it out.”

  “Chuck, that’s not safe,” Doctor Holme said, but Scott stepped right up to it.

  “Whoa, that’s pretty cool. So this is your power?”

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  “Yeah. Throw your air punch!”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah. My dad helped me train and he can throw a fastball at like ninety miles an hour. I should be able to take whatever you can throw at me.”

  “Oh. Cool.”

  “I really don’t know abou-” It was too late. Scott waved his arms around his body and through my slightly translucent shield, I could see the air gather into a ball about the size of his fist. He threw it forward and hit my shield. I skidded back, my shoes squeaking on the floor. The air dispersed in a rush and I dropped my shield. Blanca took a couple of steps forward and frowned at me. Fuck this kid! He just got here and he can already do my thing better than me. It’s so fucking unfair! I was here first! I’ve been working at this for longer! Why are everyone else’s powers so much cooler than mine!?

  “Oh, so you can create light constructs, too?”

  “Yeah, but his don’t fall apart immediately. I’ve knocked dudes down with my ability.”

  “Shut up, Scott!” Blanca yelled.

  “Um . . . Sorry. Mine aren’t light constructs. At least I don’t think they are. They’re more like . . . Mental projections.”

  “Mental projections?”

  “He’s telekinetic,” Holmes said, joining the three of us. “He has the ability to create mental constructs.”

  “Why is he here?” Blanca asked. “It looks like he has way better control than we do.”

  “He’s not here to hone that ability. He has another problem. But I don’t know if we should discuss it now.”

  “I-it’s fine, doctor.” I sighed and looked away. “I’m pretty okay at controlling my constructs and my telekinesis is really just an extension of that, so I’m pretty good at that too. I-I’m here because . . . I can read people’s minds.”

  “You can what?” Scott asked. Blanca blanched at the thought.

  “You mean . . . You could hear . . . I didn’t mean it! I didn’t know tha-”

  “It’s fine,” I cut them off. “I only just started and I don’t even want to do it, but I can hear and see people’s thoughts sometimes. I don’t do it on purpose. Mom and dad thought that maybe you guys could teach me how to . . . Not.”

  “Bullshit! No one can read minds. What number am I thinking of?”

  “36, 32, 38,” I responded simply.

  “Hah! I knew it. I wasn’t thinki- . . . Wait. How did you do that?”

  “Why were you thinking those numbers?” Blanca asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “We all know why,” Holme said, sighing.

  “No!” Scott insisted.

  “Liar,” Blanca accused him. Then she turned to me. “So, okay. I’m sorry, I didn’t know. So you can’t control it at all?”

  “I . . . I don’t know where to start. It’s harder to do than just making a construct. People just . . . Think so loud!” I said, exasperation coloring my tone. “It’s like trying not to hear something or see something. I can’t do that.”

  “Well, Scott could certainly help you with that.”

  “Yeah! Wait, what?” Scott asked.

  “He can hardly listen to a thing, obviously,” Blanca said, grinning.

  “Nah, you just have nothing interesting to say,” he shot back.

  Dear Gods above, I need a drink, the doctor thought. “Alright. You kids get to know each other. I’m going to be in my office . . . coming up with a training plan to test your guys’ abilities.”

  He walked off while Blanca and Scott kept arguing. I stayed there for a few years. Doctor Holme did several tests on me. He scanned my brain and did bloodwork and sequenced my genome. Apparently, he had done it with the others too. He did inform me that my brain structure was different from other people’s but he didn’t really explain how. He never really helped me discover a way to not just hear people’s thoughts. Blanca and Scott were way more helpful for that. We spent a lot of time testing each other's powers. Scott would let me search his mind for basically anything as long as I didn’t reveal anything embarrassing to anyone. Which was more difficult than you might imagine. The only thing he was actually embarrassed by was the fact that he had a huge crush on Blanca and hated himself for it. Which I didn’t really understand. Like most young heroes, she was pretty. I got good at navigating his mind. That’s when I learned that I could send messages into other people’s minds. In return for his willingness to let me rifle through his mind, I let him use his powers against my constructs.

  His hits got way stronger after a while. He also encouraged me to start practicing physically. “Look, man. I get it. Having powers is sick, but honestly, you look like garbage.”

  “Thanks,” I muttered bitterly.

  “I don’t mean it like that, bro. I just mean that with a little work, you could look better. Just run with me. Besides, isn’t exercise, like, good for the brain too?”

  “Yeah. I guess.”

  “Cool, then you’re waking up with me tomorrow morning and we’re going for a run. We’ll drag Blanca with us too.”

  “Where are you dragging me to?”

  “Running tomorrow. We’re going to get Chuck into better shape.”

  “And why do I have to come?”

  “Because it’ll be fun.”

  “Sounds lame as hell, bro.”

  “C’mon! You’ll get to see me in shorts. All glistening.”

  “That sounds worse,” she teased. She had been less willing to let me run around in her head. But I was pretty sure that she liked Scott back. I helped her out too though. Our constructs were made differently, but I explained the process that I used and even let her into my head as I did it. Creating a connection like that is a little weird. Basically, it’s like pulling someone into my head. I start by creating a connection to them and then easing them over to my side. But her experiencing how I created constructs really helped her. She said that what I was actually doing was slowly building them from pieces of my will. Which I didn’t really understand, but I had been doing it for so long that it just came naturally to me at this point. But she got better at it. She started creating light constructs in the way she said I did and they were far more stable. Eventually, they could even stand up to one of Scott’s air punches.

  We would still do a lot of the basic school stuff remotely. We were technically “homeschooled” and it was weird after spending my entire life in a regular school.

=== PRESENT DAY ===

“Yeah, homeschooling sucks.”

  “Oh, yeah. I guess you would’ve been too.”

  “Yeah, I didn’t get to go to homecoming or prom. It was just studying calculus and biology and writing reports. Ugh!”

  “Yeah, it was pretty lonely for me too. Especially as Scott and Blanca got closer.”

  “Oh, they started going out?”

  “Yeah.”

  “And I bet you helped with that, didn’t you?”

  “How’d you know?”

  “Because you’re a dork. You love stuff like that.”

  “Shut up!” I exclaimed playfully, pushing her slightly. “But yeah, I did. One of the things that I can do is plant ideas into people’s heads. Just a little seed. I can depress or enhance their emotions too. So, I did a little.”

  “You Inceptioned them?”

  “I . . . Yeah.”

  “So, why don’t you do that with Curt? Or Lady Blade? Just stop them from wanting to be criminals?”

  “Well, one, it’s hard to do. For it to take, either I need to push it really hard or it has to be something they wanted to do anyway. And it’s really dangerous to force someone to do something. Which is what all of this is really about.”

=== FLASHBACK ===

So, I encouraged them to get together. I would connect their minds occasionally. Not fully. They were never really aware of it at first. But it was just little things. I gave them the same emotional sense that I had for each other. I had gotten really good at connecting with other people’s minds. Those were basically the only tests that Holme would help me with. He was obsessed with learning how my power worked. So, I would read people’s minds inside of an fMRI and he would watch the way different parts of my brain would light up. He also trained himself and the other two to resist me reading their thoughts. Basically concentrating on keeping me out. He got really good at it. Blanca took to it really well too, but unlike the doctor, she didn’t keep her defenses up all of the time. It was really only during training and when she wanted to be alone. Scott had a harder time. It might be because I had spent more time in his mind or maybe he just wasn’t as good at it because he didn’t really care. But still. I planted little ideas in their head, here and there. Things like reminding the other of an upcoming birthday or their favorite foods or flowers or movies. Little things.

  And thanks to Scott and his insistence, I did get back into shape. We would run and work out every day. Blanca would join us sometimes. One day she did join us, we ran past a mine. I heard a cry and stopped. “Chuck, what’s up?”

  “I think someone’s in trouble in there.”

  “Why?”

  “I heard something. Did you hear it?”

  “No, but there’s lots of things you can hear that we can’t.” There was a rush of dust and debris that flew out of the mine. Fear washed out over the air to me. I started rushing into the gap.

  “Where are you going?” Blanca asked.

  “Someone’s in there. I think the mine collapsed!” I cried back.

  “And you’re going in!?”

  “Yeah. I can help,” I said. I jumped into the air and started flying. I heard their footsteps right behind me. Once we got inside, I tried to look around but it was too dark. I constructed a flashlight, but it wasn’t enough. And it started immediately dimming. I looked back and saw Blanca sapping the light and collecting it in her hand. I kept it up and she illuminated the surrounding area far better than I ever could’ve.

I closed my eyes and tried to expand my extra senses, trying to make sure we were going in the right area. We got closer to where I thought the emotions were coming from. “Are you sure about this, Chuck?”

  “Yeah, Scott. I’m . . . I’m pretty sure.”

  “There’s no sign of a collapse so far.”

  “There!” I pointed forward and blasted down the shaft. There was a bunch of rubble blocking the way. Eventually, the other two caught up. They couldn’t fly like I could. To be honest, I wasn’t even really sure how I flew. I just kind of did. Pushing myself off of the ground and the air around me. It came naturally to me. “Hello? Is anybody there?”

  There was no answer. I reached out with my mind, feeling for any presences. There were three people behind the wall. Hello? Are you guys hurt?

  What the fuck was that!?

  I’m here to help. I’m on the other side of the cave-in. Are you guys okay?

  No, Jim is hurt. We need to get out of here. Who are you?

  I’m Chu- . . . I’m Kid Mind. I’ll start digging you guys out.

  Wait! That might worsen the collapse. You have to be careful . . . Kid Mind?

  “Well?” Scott asked.

  “I can sense three people behind the rubble. I’m not sure what to do. He says if we’re not careful, we could cause a bigger collapse.”

  “What do you want to do? This was your idea.” I thought about it and looked around.

  “I think I have a plan. Blanca, I need you to go out and collect as much light as you can. More than you’ve ever held before.”

  “What are you thinking?” She asked.

  “You and I are going to create as large a barrier around the cave as possible. Then we’re going to have the guys behind the wall stand to the side and have Scott blow out the rubble.”

  “I . . . I don’t know about that, man. I’ve never been great at controlling it. What about the cave-in?”

  “That’s why we’re going to try and reinforce the walls first.” Scott looked unsure. I put my hand on his shoulder. He was still taller than me, but not by as much. I looked at him and then at Blanca as I continued. “You can do this, man. You’re the best man for this kind of work. And Blanca has gotten a lot stronger and better at making constructs. We have to do something. Go!”

  Blanca dashed out. She was terrified. But I didn’t have the time to deal with that right now. Alright. We have a plan to get you out. Is there a place where you can get to so you’re not directly behind the wall of rubble?

Uh . . . Yeah. There’s another shaft not too far from here. We can do that. What are you going to do?

  I . . . I don’t know how to explain it in a way that you’ll believe me. So, you’ll just have to trust me for the time being, okay? I tried to sound reassuring. I don’t know if it worked. He seemed to just accept it. He was scared. I could feel his fear. It started feeding into my own. I took several deep breaths and tried to calm down. “Okay. Scott. I have an idea for you as well. How . . . Maybe how you can get a little more punch on your air blasts.”

  “Oh? Do you think that’s wise? I mean, we’re already risking a lot.”

  “I think it’s the best option. Besides,” I looked away. “I’d think you’d jump at a way of making your power stronger.”

  “I mean, yeah, totally. But now doesn’t seem to be the time to fuck around with that.” He was also scared. Very scared. I bit my lip. And then I went into his mind. He flinched. What are you doing?

  I’m going to make this a little easier for us. We have to do something. We have to save these people. Each person’s mind is a little different. Scott’s mind was a maze of teenage hormones and desires mixed in with a lot of anxieties, some anger, and a desire to do the right thing, buried under a too cool facade. Fear was overrunning everything. And I couldn’t just make it go away. At least I don’t think I could. So I grabbed all of his fear, everything he had. And with a couple of deep breaths, I imagined pushing it down. Crushing it into a ball. It got smaller and smaller. I could hear his breathing calm down. I felt his muscles loosen a bit. I opened my eyes and he was grinning at me.

  “Okay, Chuck. What’s this plan of yours?” With his fear out of the way, his natural cockiness was back in full force. I nodded. That’s good. We could use some cockiness right now.

  “So, here’s what I’m thinking. I want you to do what you normally do. Just collect the air in that ball of yours. Start with that. Make it as strong as you can.” He nodded and raised his hand. When he was gathering the air, he would wiggle his fingers and they would seemingly pop. It was honestly really weird to watch. I felt the air in the tunnel shift and dust and dirt started circling around his hand. His hand started shaking as it thickened.

  “Okay. Now what?”

  “Do it again,” I responded simply.

  “What?”

  “That’s one hand. You have another, right?”

  “I . . .” He hesitated. I went back into his mind. There was more fear. The little ball I had created was also starting to expand. I collected all of it and condensed it back down again. He smiled. “You’re right, Chuck. I’m sorry, bud. You know. Just not as good with my right hand. At least that’s what the ladies say.”

  We laughed and he made the same odd motion of waving his other hand and I felt the air shift again. Now, with two swirling vortexes of air and dirt around his hands, he looked at me. “That it?”

  “Unless you have another idea,” I responded, softly.

  “I think . . . I think I do.” He pushed his hands together and the two vortexes combined. They shifted into a ball of circulating dust and debris. His hands were shaking. When he spoke next, his breath was shallow. “What now?”

  “We have to wait for Blanca,” I said, watching him struggle to keep it under control. I frowned. Maybe this isn’t a good idea. The only problem was I didn’t have a better one. After a few minutes, a blinding light started walking down the hall. I could see it from what seemed like a lightyear (pun intended) away. Blanca walked down the hall as a glowing, vaguely humanoid form, particles of light dripping off of her.

  “Okay,” she said breathlessly. I could feel the fear and doubt wash off of her. “This is the most I’ve ever held. I don’t think I could hold any more at all. What do I do?”

  “Right. So, I want you to line the walls with your light. Reinforce it and spread it out as much as you can.”

  “Chuck, I don’t know . . . I don’t think I’m strong enough for that. I . . .”

  “Hey, why don’t you do the same thing you did for me?” Scott suggested, struggling to keep his tumultuous orb of air under control.

  “What did he do?” Blanca asked.

  “I don’t know. He went into my mind and did something and then I wasn’t so afraid. It was really great. Do it, Chuck.”

  “I . . . I can do it, if you like, B.” She looked at me doubtfully. Then she nodded. I entered her mind. Scott’s mind was disorganized and messy in a lot of ways. But her mind was actually quite a bit neater. I couldn’t really understand her organization at all, but everything was connected with several ties and I knew she could find whatever she was looking for. Fear and doubt were also permeating and overwhelming every structure. I drew it all to me in either of my metaphysical hands. It was easier to imagine myself as me. So I collected her doubt and her fear separately, not wanting to mix them together. And I pressed them down, crushing them into marbles. Then I dropped them and exited her mind. She was still breathing heavily but I couldn’t sense the fear she had been experiencing. She stepped forward and the light started spreading from her over to the walls. It took over the wall, causing the entire cave to light up. Everything was illuminated. Looking at them both now, they were both sweating profusely from the strain and the fear. I took a few deep breaths trying to calm down.

What the hell is happening over there!? One of the men on the other side demanded.

  We’re about to try something to help get you guys out of there. Are you clear?

  Yeah, as clear as we can be.

  Alright. Try to protect yourselves. Don’t be in this main shaft at all if you can help it. I thought at them. Then I raised my hand and started to reinforce the structure that Blanca had created. Pressing it hard into the wall. I tried to take my time and make it as strong and as sturdy as possible, but Scott groaned and said, “Chuck, I don’t know how much longer I can hold this.”

  “Right.” I made a couple more adjustments and spread it out as far as I could. Then I turned to him, sweat dripping from my own face. “Do it. Shoot it!”

  Scott, like an honest-to-God Dragonball Z character, shot out his hands and the ball of circling dust and debris blasted forward and slammed into the wall and more dust, dirt, and debris went everywhere. The whole mine shook from the force. I felt more dirt and rocks slam into Blanca and my forcefields and I gritted my teeth, trying to keep it together. I could hear Blanca groan and whine under the strain. After another moment, the dust settled and Scott had done more than we could have ever hoped for. He had sent the rocks flying. It was amazing. The miners glanced around from a corner and looked at what happened.

  “What the hell did you kids do?”

  “We just saved you,” Scott said proudly.

  “What the fuck are you guys?”

  “Jimbo, they’re heroes. They saved us. That’s all that matters right now.”

  “C-can we go? I . . . I don’t know how much longer I can hold it.”

  “Yeah, let’s go,” I said. I helped them carry Jim out of the mine. Rocks and dirt crashed down as soon as Blanca and I let down our support. “I’m sure glad we weren’t under that.”

  “Yeah,” everyone readily agreed. We got outside and Blanca, Scott, and I collapsed just outside of it, breathing heavily as the miners went to go get help.

  “That was crazy!” Scott exclaimed. “I was so awesome.”

  “Yeah, but it was all Chuck’s idea,” Blanca said, slapping at his arm.

  “Oh yeah, no, totally. Chuck was amazing too. And so were you. You coming in glowing like an angel!”

  “An angel?” Blanca asked. She looked at me. “Did I look like that?”

  “Yeah, totally,” Scott said. I just nodded.

  “You were glowing and otherworldly. I’d never seen anything like it.”

  “Oh,” she said, considering it.

  “We should do more stuff like that!” Scott exclaimed.

  “More stuff? Like, save people?” Blanca asked. “I mean . . . If it comes up, I guess we could. But how often is this stuff going to happen? Especially in such a small town.”

  “Yeah, I guess,” Scott said, sounding disappointed.

  “But we could still develop our powers more,” I said, looking at my hands. “You know . . . If something like that happens again.”

And we did. We trained hard every day. We couldn’t get Blanca to come on runs with us all the time, but if it was to develop her powers, she was always there. And we did develop them. Scott came up with all kinds of tricks. He even developed a way to jet around and keep up with me in the air. Blanca had tried to do the same, but oddly enough, it was too hard for her to control. Light wanted to escape too fast and she had a hard time controlling it. We developed little costumes, just in case. The miners didn’t know our names and couldn’t really remember our faces very well. The story was out there, but no one really knew it was us.

  Doctor Holme wasn’t thrilled about our names almost being out there, but he was fascinated by the developments we made with our powers. He even encouraged the heroics when possible. We helped with floods and natural disasters whenever we could. And whenever fear started to take hold of Blanca or Scott, or as they became known, the Light Knight and Cannon Punch, I would just suppress their fear. More than that after a while. I found out I could actually take away their fear and doubts. I could just chop them off. And that was ultimately the problem. I was effectively using a hacksaw for problems that required laser precision.

  We made names for ourselves and even got some funding and ways of traveling out farther. And there was this huge bombing that happened in a city not far from where we were. We weren’t around to stop it. But we were asked to help with the clean-up and rescue of anyone we could. Basically, an entire block had been blown up, so there was a lot of work to be done. We got there and we started excavating and digging people out. And there were so many bodies. We found crushed bodies, flattened under thousands of pounds of stone. Blood and gore staining the streets. People who suffocated. We . . . We didn’t actually find any survivors. And it hurt. It hurt so much. We did the job and it took days. Days and days of finding dead people and being surrounded by destruction and despair. By the end of it, Blanca and I had cried our eyes out every night. Scott actually took it way harder than either of us. He didn’t cry. He didn’t let himself cry. He just tried to ferment it into willpower, but all that it became was anguish that festered into a rage. He would blow up at us and rage against anyone who got in his way. He just couldn’t deal with it. We all had nightmares, but he would wake up screaming almost every night afterwards. Both Scott and Blanca had asked me to take away their pain. The anguish they were feeling. And I tried. I tore at it in their minds. But it always seemed to come back. So I did the only other thing I could think of. I crushed it. I pushed it down inside of them and made it as small as I could. I could take away their fear now. But all of this . . . All of this trauma was too . . . connected to everything. I had to go in and crush it for them. I had also been doing the same thing to myself. It was harder to do on myself. There wasn’t more for me. But it requires a certain amount of dispassionate, cold logic to be able to do it. And my own fear felt strong. My own pain was so strong. And I could feel it. But I did it anyway.

  We were asked to help with another problem. Someone had set more bombs but we had been warned and I had been asked to find them. It was supposed to just be me. I could find them and the cops could deal with it. That was the plan. But Blanca and Scott wouldn’t let me go alone. I was having a lot of the same problems they were and honestly, I was infuriated that someone would use a bomb. It was even in the same city. I searched for the culprit. And I found him. I charged ahead and they followed me. We were supposed to bring in the cops to deal with it. But I couldn’t. I burst through the door and he started to press down on the button that would detonate everything. But I stopped him.

I didn’t take the thing from his hands. I could have, but I didn’t. I didn’t just freeze up his muscles. I pushed myself into his mind and I took away his will to do so. Tears crashed down around me as I forced my way into this man’s psyche. I could feel him trying to resist. Trying to do what he thought he needed to. But I was stronger than he was. And I took away his ability to do anything at that moment. Scott came in behind me and he saw what I was doing.

  “Yes!” He exclaimed. And he went over and took the detonator from the man’s hands. He threw it aside and started wailing on the guy. I froze, stopping my assault on his mind. Blanca, Scott, and I had become so close that my mental links to them were basically permanent now. And I could feel his rage burn through him. The pain inside of him. The trauma I had crushed down broke. And he punched the man repeatedly. He slammed him into the wall. And then through it. Then he flew after him, slamming air blasts down onto him. I looked back and Blanca was just staring at me. Tears were leaking out from under her mask. Her dark skin was flush and I could feel her pain. I could feel it start to crack. Seeing Scott lose control like that. Seeing me go that far. She, like all of us, had just barely been keeping it together. And I felt the little orb of pain and anguish crack in her psyche as well. She dashed after Scott and jumped out of the window. I flew after them.

  She threw out a photon blast and it slammed down onto the terrorist and obliterated him under the force of her hard light. She landed in the splattered blood. Scott just kept hitting him. Tears were leaking down his face too. I floated there. Watching them. Watching my closest friends lose it. They weren’t thinking anything. All that was coming off of them was anger and hatred and pain. The cops came and eventually pulled him off his victim. Each cop was balking at the horror. We had never done anything like that in public. The police knew us as the nice kids who would help them out. Horror and disgust rolled off of them. Fear was the biggest constant though. They tried to interview us. Tried to figure out what had happened. But Scott was basically catatonic when they got him to the station. He had just shut down. I tried to get into his mind, but when I did, everything, all of the metaphorical structures he projected as his literal mind palace, were shattered. Overwhelmed by the pain. The pain that I couldn’t keep at bay. Blanca was a little better off. Until she found out about Scott. She didn’t end up catatonic, she just couldn’t stop crying. She couldn’t focus on anything. She couldn’t use her powers or focus on anything. I was the only one left. And I explained everything.

=== PRESENT DAY ===

“All I had ever wanted to do was help them. I just wanted my friends not to be in pain. And I ruined them, Kari. I wasn’t careful enough. I . . . I didn’t know what I was doing.” I was staring at my hands. They looked just like the metaphorical hands I had used to destroy my friends. I could feel myself crying. I had blocked off Kari’s thoughts. I was trying to do the same with her emotions. But honestly, I couldn’t really differentiate her emotions from mine at the moment. Everything was too visceral. I hadn’t really unpacked all of that recently. Loathing, pain, concern, fear, anger, hate, and compassion were all pooling together. I was afraid to look up at her. I couldn’t do it. If she hates me . . . I’d understand that. I would get it.

  She threw her arms around me and hugged me. She crushed me to her body. “Chuck, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry that you had to deal with that. That’s horrible.”

  I hugged her back and cried into her cape. Her emotions started to overwhelm mine. Which made it easier to understand. The concern, the fear, some of the anger, and the compassion, were hers. Everything else was mine. I tried several times to break the hug but she wouldn’t let me. Not until I stopped crying. And I can do a lot of things, but outmuscle Smash Gal is not one of them. And I didn’t want to. She was warm and kind. When we did finally end it, she just looked at me. She had been crying too. I met her eyes. She smiled at me. Anger was burning through her though. Not at me.

  “What are you thinking, Kari?”

  “Curt is such a fucking jerk!” She yelled, clenching her fist.

  “What?”

  “He was weaponizing your trauma! That’s so fucked up.”

  “Yeah, it was not cool,” I said, softly. “But to be fair to him, he was doing it to be a jackass. His goal was to piss both of us off.”

  “Why would he do that?” She asked, hotly.

  “Because we ruined his wedding and attacked him and his girlfriend after putting her into a coma.”

  “That’s no excuse!”

  “Maybe not,” I said, not sure if I was convinced of that myself.