Tears streaked down the little girl's face. "Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you-”

“Yeah, yeah, don’t mention it. Let’s keep this secret, okay?” Hope waved the girl off as she handed the child her cat. “The last thing I want is your mom or dad seeing me and getting the wrong idea.”

With the existence of heroes and villains, Oleander City, as well as dozens of other cities, had been torn down so many times now that they were almost a mesh of designs and styles. Her part of the city, being the poor part, didn’t have the giant skyscrapers or massive roadways that the better parts of town had. The buildings here were still tall but not reaching the sky.

Even still, if someone were to see her, it would have been a strange sight indeed. “Okay. Now try not to let him escape again. I might not be able to go and get him a second time.” She explained. She clung to the sixth floor of a large apartment. She had taken her shoes off, and her toes quite literally dug into the stone of the building and held her weight up. She might not have been blessed with wall-climbing powers or bug powers like the hero Golden Weaver, but she was making do.

The little girl nodded her head several times, taking the pet. “I’ll take better care of him, I swear! Thank you, Ms. Hero!”

“I’m not a hero quite yet.” She gave a salute to the girl and leaned back, letting gravity do the rest. She tried to show off and flip backwards as she dropped, in an effort to come off as ‘cool’ or ‘hip’ in front of the girl, but only managed to land head first on the pavement below. “Ow...”

“Are you okay!” The girl yelled.

“Yep. Fine.” She slowly stood back up and gave another wave before she began running off. She moved fast; there were almost no cars on the roads, allowing her to truly go all out. For the first time in forever, she truly felt free. “Having powers really is the best!”

She had created a costume of sorts. It wasn’t anything crazy, but after saving the first lost cat, she somehow got roped into saving others. All over the city, people were constantly yelling for their house pets to come back. It wasn’t any big superhero work, but it was still work.

Her current outfit consisted of a basic jacket she had zipped up and her makeshift mask. She also kept her hood up in order to hide her hair and wore a simple face mask that she had swiped from her mother's purse.

She would by no means be winning any rewards or anything for her costume, but it was still fun to be running around in it. As kids, she and Armin used to play superheroes all the time. He would always pretend to be Max Lightning, while she constantly dressed up as heroes like the Victorian or Lady Time.

As she ran back home, she made sure to pick up any trash that littered the streets or stop by and grab any other escaped animals and return them to their owners. That wasn’t all she did, though.

“L- Leave me alone!” A woman screeched. “Get off of me.”

"Oh, come on. You were eying me up in the bar.” In a nearby alleyway, a man held a woman against a wall. “Come on, I ain't asking for much. Just give me your number. That seems more than fair. After all, I bought you a bunch of drinks-”

“The lady said no!” The man didn’t even have time to turn, as a strong punch to the gut instantly sent him crashing to the floor unconscious. Hope folded her arms and placed her foot on the guy’s chest. She did her best to puff out her own chest and placed her hands on her hips using her best ‘hero’ voice. “You’re safe now, lady-”

“What’s with this city and its weirdos?!” The girl was already running off, not even looking back.

She deflated a little and sighed. “Thank you for saving me, super cool new hero; you’re amazing and could one day be part of the Enforcers. Is that too much to ask for?” She grabbed the guy and placed him on his back on top of a dumpster. Next, she grabbed his phone and sent out a life alert.

It wouldn’t be long before a cop or ambulance came for the man, and they could do whatever it was they needed. She honestly hadn’t meant to hit him so hard that he would instantly black out. She was still getting used to having super strength.

“It’s kind of funny. I was so tired earlier, but now,” she balled her hand into a fist and gave a grin under her mask. She was practically brimming with energy. It would be next to impossible to go to sleep with her current mood. “Eh, it’ll be fine. Mom won’t return for a few more hours, at least.” The hospital was always shortstaffed, and her mother constantly got drafted for overtime. It was one of the few things that kept them out of debt.

With her mind made up, she turned away from the alleyway and began to head back out.

She had already discovered a new power since she had tested them out with Kyle. Her enhanced senses were really useful. If she focused, she could hear so many sounds all across the city. It was hard to actually make anything out properly, but hearing people yell for help was no issue. It wasn’t just her ears that were better, though; her eyesight had vastly improved as well.

She gazed up at the sky as she ran and looked toward the moon. She could see far further than she used to be able to. With these new eyes, it was easy for her to make out the thousands of massive cracks that lined the surface of the moon.

Several years ago, a hero battled a villain up there. Their battle had been responsible for nearly shattering the moon. And now, thanks to her power, she got the pleasure of taking in the sight years later.

“So cool.”

It was also thanks to these enhanced senses that she heard the sound of a gun going off. It caused her to freeze, and seconds later she heard more, followed closely by screaming and the sounds of sirens. A roar followed it shortly later, and, without thinking, she took off running.

It was hard to tell how far it all was; the sound of it was enough to make her ears ring, but she didn’t see anything close by that sounded like the war zone she was hearing. Even at her top speed, it took her nearly ten minutes of running before she was forced to come to a sliding stop.

Her eyes went wide at what she saw. It was somewhere in the middle zone of the city. On seemingly a random block, there was a full-blown disaster. The road had been closed, and a massive crowd had formed. Police cars blocked it off, and she had to focus and turn her enhanced hearing off as there was so much screaming and gunfire, the noise filling the air.

Many buildings had cracked walls; some walls fully caved in to show the interior of stores and apartments, and the ground wouldn’t stop shaking. No one paid attention to her as she made her way through the crowd. She was stopped from going any further by several officers who were holding back the crowd.

“People, please remain calm and leave this block immediately!” The officer was yelling. “We are currently in the middle of a villain attack! This is no time to be recording or sightseeing!”

People, of course, ignored him, too busy trying to record the fight that was happening behind him. She also ignored him and stood on her toes, staring past the man.

Up ahead, in the middle of the street, there was a full-on battle going on. The cops had given up and focused only on blocking the area off. Their bullets were having no effect on the battle. It wasn’t quite to the scale of some of the stuff she had seen the Victorian do, but still, being there in person was something else.

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Two heroes were fighting a massive villain. Both of the heroes wore what looked like suits of armor. The sort of thing you would see a knight wearing. The men even held swords and shields. One of the suits was a deep red, while the other was blue. They weren’t normal armor, however, as the metal would open and pop out weapons like guns or other swords, which they used on the villain.

Her eyes lit up as she recognized them both. The Pallet Boys. Neither of them were members of the Enforcers, and were instead a minor duo hero group. Pallet Boy Blue and Pallet Boy Red. Tech-based heroes that used high-powered suits to fight crime.

The villain they were fighting was also one she had recognized. He was a member of the Bad Timers, though he hadn’t been at the bank. It was a good thing too, as he was one of the more evil members of that group. He stood at nearly ten feet in height, and his flesh was made out of hard stone. His name was Intake. A villain who had the power to absorb and become things he touched.

The knight in red armor managed to barely dodge a massive punch from the villain and swing his sword up. It bounced off of the rocky flesh that Intake sported, and before the hero could pull his weapon back, Intake slammed his other fist into the hero's head and sent him crashing to the ground. The villain then raised his foot up and smashed it down into the chest of the hero, cracking and denting Pallet Boy Red’s armor.

Pallet Boy Blue threw himself into Intake, using his shield like a ram and shoving the bad guy off of his teammate. His own sword glowed with a crackling blue energy, and he swung it at the villain. Intake howled as it cut through his stone and caused black blood to gush out from beneath his hide. Blue barely managed to raise his shield up in time to block a powerful punch.

Intake’s fists grew, and the man began to get bigger, his skin forming nasty bumps and ridges. His hand twisted and changed shape, becoming a massive hammer-like limb, and this time when he swung, it was enough to shatter the hero's shield and break the poor man’s arm, causing him to scream.

Blue wasn’t able to yell long though, as the hammer then slammed into his head and he crashed down into the street, bits of metal flying off as his armor broke.

“Damn it! The Pallet Boys are losing! How long until more heroes show up?!” One of the cops yelled.

“Everyone needs to go now!” Another cop screamed. “He’s going to come for us next! Please, everyone leave while we hold him off-”

“I need to borrow this.” The cop stopped and turned to look down at the young girl, who shoved her way past him. She wasn’t dressed like a hero but seemed to be going out of her way to hide her face, keeping it covered up. She kept her head low and avoided looking at any of the cameras.

“Borrow what?” The cop asked before realizing he had just let a civilian push past him.

Hope ignored him and looked into the police car, making sure nobody was in it. Then she dug her fingers into the metal, denting and breaking it. She wasn’t quite strong enough to lift the car up easily, so she did the next best thing. She pushed all her weight into it, used her strength to slowly lift it up, and made a turn with it. Everyone dove down to avoid being smacked by the car. She did a spin, then another, and another, until the car was above her body. Then she let go.

Intake raised his foot up and was about to bring it down and crush Pallet Boy Blue’s head in, but before he could, a mass of twisting metal slammed into him from behind. The villain was sent stumbling forward and dropped to his knees as the car tore and shattered, breaking over his body. He flexed and easily tore past it, turning around to glare at the person who did it.

She pointed at him. “Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?” Then she crouched down and blasted into the air with a powerful jump. She awkwardly crashed down onto the roof of a nearby building and had to break her fall into a roll of sorts. Seconds later, the building she stood on shook as Intake followed her lead and jumped with inhuman strength, just like her. “Well, clearly not me, I’m not as big as you-”

She let out a yelp and jumped away just in time to avoid the man’s punch, which shattered and dented the roof they were on. His gaze never stopped following her, watching as she made her way onto another building. Intake jumped after her, roaring like a mad animal. He was just like Kevin. A big bully who just had their ego challenged by a little girl. All she had to do was get him away from the crowd. Just run until a real hero showed up.

However, she made one fatal mistake. This wasn’t Kevin. Intake was a villain. A super villain. An actual threat.

She was in the middle of her next jump when she felt it. Pain exploded through her as something smashed into her back. She dropped from the sky and crashed into the alleyway below. A rain of bricks clattered around and onto her, the remains of the chunk of wall that Intake had chucked at her.

She scrambled to get back up, but wasn’t fast enough as the villain dropped down and slammed his full weight into the ground next to her, the force of which knocked her over. Then she felt it. The man’s leg rammed itself into her side as he kicked her as hard as he could.

She had been so cocky, thinking she was indestructible, that nothing could hurt her, but Intake was just as strong, if not stronger, than she was. Her durability meant nothing to a true monster.

She felt his fingers dig into her back and rip her jacket as he raised her up. He growled, gritted his teeth, and finally spoke. “Trying to play the hero, little girl.” His voice was deep and booming. “You don’t even have a proper costume. A noob hero, huh? You must have gotten your powers recently? Congratulations. Let me welcome you into our new world!”

She screamed as he slammed her into the wall of the alleyway and broke through the stone with her body. He dropped her, but before she even hit the floor, he kicked her across it and sent her slamming through the building and crashing into another wall.

She felt tears falling down her face, and her body twitched, not responding to her. She could barely get her legs to move. Everything had been so fun before. It had been easy dealing with things like missing pets or creepy guys. This was a killer, though. Unlike the small gang members she had dealt with, Intake was a super powered being.

Intake roughly grabbed her by the face and tore off her makeshift mask, throwing it aside. She wasn’t ready to give up, though. She knew the very basics of how to hit someone from the lessons she took with Armin. She turned her hand into a fist and swung it up into Intake’s jaw, hitting him as hard as she could, putting every ounce of her new strength into the blow.

Cracks formed along the villain's chin, and he actually gasped and spat up more of his black blood, stumbling back and dropping her. That was when she learned something else. Powers weren’t made equally.

All she had managed to do was slightly crack his skin. The villain rubbed it and looked down at her as she clutched her bruised hand.

“Kids like you always do things like this.You think you can just put on a costume, and that because you have powers, you’re suddenly some big shot.”

She struggled to speak, and for a moment, she felt a few teeth fall out of her mouth. Despite that, though, she still managed to grunt something out. “What was that?” Intake demanded.

“I- I said. I- I am a hero.” She finally spat. Even through the tears and the pain, she glared up at him. “I got you away from the others. You can’t hurt them now. They’ve all had time to escape!”

Intake’s eyes filled with rage, and he glared at her, raising his fist. It grew into a hammer once more, and he brought it down. It never reached her, though. Inches away from her face, about to crush her skull, it suddenly stopped. Intake grunted, and his arm shook as he tried to bring his weapon down, but no matter how much he struggled, something was holding him back.

“I think that’s more than enough.” She looked up slowly when she heard the voice. Someone stood between her and the monster, somehow getting there in a flash. They had one arm out and easily held the limb back as if it were nothing. “You’re acting like some big shot, yet here you are picking on a young girl.”

She expected it to be a hero. Instead, the person who saved her just confused her more. He was a middle-aged man. One who wore a messy white buttoned-up shirt and black pants. He looked like he had just gotten off of work. He had messy reddish-brown hair and tired-looking brown eyes. He also didn’t look that impressive. He had a beer gut and a rosy tint to his cheeks, as if he were drunk. Despite that, though, his hand easily held Intake’s arm back casually.

“W- Who the hell are you?!” Intake screamed. His voice echoed out so loudly that it actually caused the building to shake.

“Keep it down. Do you know how hard it is to find a quiet bar?” The red-haired man burped a bit and casually threw Intake off balance by raising his arm.

Her eyes were wide as she stared at him. Some random dude was showing off super strength, way stronger than hers. As she looked around, she realized she had crashed into a bar. Everyone had long gone when the fighting a few blocks away started. All but this man.

Intake crouched low as long, stone-like blades grew out of his arms. “You’re dead! Do you hear me? You and that child are dead!”

The red-haired man lazily raised his finger and thumb, turning his hand into a makeshift gun. “Bang.” The entire building glowed with a bright golden light, and it was as if lightning had fired out of his fingers.

Intake never stood a chance.