As we walked, Subvector looked at Mindy curiously. “If you don’t mind my asking, wasn’t your alter ego on the highlights stream recently? That should give you some cachet. A real live supervillain put-down.”

She shrugged, “He wasn’t a hardcore, more of a kook. He was trying to turn everyone in blocks C and D blue. Ranted about how he would make everyone look like an alpha to end discrimination.”

She laughed, “Well, it was a good fight. What was he, a class four elemental? Devil-something?” I kept my mouth shut.

Mindy looked a little confused, “Diabolus Firetrap. I wasn’t sure. I mean, he had flames, and could even use them to transit, and as a pressure-wave defense. That big fireball at the end? That’s a heck of a transit power. I’d put him closer to a class five.”

“So he didn’t self-destruct?”

Mindy shook her head, “Naww, it was transit. As much as I hate to admit it, he got away clean. I have reason to believe he’s alive and well, but his scheme was foiled and I managed to freeze off the contaminated water until Public Works got there, and that was good enough to hit the highlights stream.”

Subvector smiled a little, “Well, good that he’s alive. Monsters need to be stopped, but the kooks… I always have hopes for them. Besides, even with the armor, did you see that ass?”

Mindy laughed, “Almost more of it than I wanted… we sort of got into a wrestling match near the end. He’s also stupidly strong, but I think that was just a side effect, not a secondary power since there wasn’t any kinetic manipulation backing it up. He kept talking about how he was purified by fire, so I wonder if he figured out a way to use the element to boost his physique.”

Molecular reinforcement wasn’t that rough when I had the extra energy, but I had been extremely careful… monkeying with your physiology was a stupidly dangerous game, and just figuring out how to increase my muscle and bone density without screwing up my oxygen delivery, blood flow, and nutritional balance had cost me more than one reset. Technically, I could probably qualify as a class three body enhancer, but if I had shown that off, what would they have labeled me as, class seven?

Subvector sighed, “I hope he winds up here eventually or on the right side of the law. We don’t have nearly enough men, and with an elemental physique… hell, I’d probably try to get him teaching something like that. We have way too many glass cannons right now, especially among the elementals. Not to mention…” she glanced over at me, “No offense, but even in the armor you could tell he had an amazing body. I almost envy you wrestling with him.”

I chuckled, “Do you make it a habit to get all physical with supervillains?”

She nodded, “Personal kinetic, no range, of course I do. I mean, I guess I could try throwing street signs and stuff, but in the end, I am a class four flying brick.”

“That wasn’t what I was asking.”

She nodded, “I know, but if you are looking for PR, few things are as compelling as a forbidden Romeo and Juliet relationship. I sort of had something like that back when I was active, with a class three vigilante, but he was… too serious about being a vigilante. When he started killing people, I had to put him away.”

“He started killing people? Like a Grimdark?”

She nodded as we stepped into one of the buildings and waved to the older man behind the desk. “Worse. He was a light elemental, lasers and solid light constructs, although he couldn’t break the transportation barrier, which was why he was only a class three, but he had a thing about anyone abusing normals with their powers. I got his point of view, but he drilled a street-level hero for using his powers to stop a hostage.”

“Some guy kidnapped his daughter from her mother, and of course, a street shielder Tung-pow went in to capture him safely. Razor, though, went nuts and drilled Tung-Pow right in front of the six-year-old daughter. I wasn’t even there… I had to track him down and lock him up, which put an end to my adventurous youth.”

“Do you always tell that story?”

She nodded, “Yeah, I am over it, but I always figured if you can’t be a good example, you can be a terrible warning. Vigilantes and Supervillains can be exciting as bad boys, or bad girls if you are into that, but you have to keep your mind on the possible risks.”

I nodded, “I imagine it could also be a hell of a PR fallout.”

She nodded slowly, “That’s why I had to go after him myself. It wasn’t my job, I was in the Monster Hunters, but being connected with a cold-blooded murderer would have tanked my career as much as it broke my heart.”

Mindy sighed deeply, “I am so sorry, that must have killed you.”

We exited the elevator as she led us to some rooms. “Not as bad as all that. If you decide to date alphas, you are probably going to have to get used to the fact that it’s going to mostly be flings. Fun for a short time, but there are so few that there’s no real incentive for most of them, especially the handsome ones, to stick around. It’s best to get the romance out of your system and enjoy what you can get, or stick to normies instead.”

I looked at Subvector, “You make us sound like complete assholes.”

She shrugged, “It is what it is. You are likely to get a lot of attention, and some girls just try to get a high score. I mean, there are wonder stories like Osprey and Ocelot, but you are a class six… If you aren’t gay, you are likely to have a lot of people trying to get into your bed, both normies and alphas. I highly recommend getting used to being naked except for your mask.”

I shook my head, “Nope, not going to get used to it at all. I plan on staying away from any romantic entanglements until I am ready for a family, alphas especially, and being the community bicycle has zero appeal.”

She looked at me sympathetically, “An alpha already fucked you up, didn’t she?”

My jaw dropped, “Uhh…”

She sighed and shook her head, “It’s not going to be a secret from security. Whoever she was, she’s going to get scrutinized very closely to see if she’s a security risk. The same with any family or close friends. We take op-sec and protecting your identity very seriously. Did she know you were an Alpha?”

“She knew me as a normie. She knew I popped as a class two, but I didn’t exactly share my reg card, since I didn’t have one at the time. We broke up after she popped.”

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“You could save me a lot of trouble by letting me know her name.”

I sighed deeply, “Christine Freemont.”

She raised an eyebrow, “Do you know her I.D.?”

I nodded, “Yep, but I won’t tell you.”

She nodded, “Good.” and showed us to our rooms.

***

I glared at the class schedule while I shoveled away a mountain of grilled ham and cheese sandwiches. They were pretty good, with a hint of mustard and mayo on rye and a delicious cheddar/gouda blend, but I wasn’t in a position to truly enjoy them.

“Something wrong?” asked Mindy as she sat down next to me with a 12” veggie pizza. One good thing about being an alpha, mostly you’d never have to worry about getting fat, although considering how much we tended to eat, malnutrition could potentially become a problem.

I take it back. There were some fat alphas, but you’d have to regularly and grossly overindulge, or have a power based specifically around being fat. Where there was a will there was a way, though.

I nodded, “This is remedial?” I asked, pointing at no less than 6 classes I was expected to course load. Each was three hours, and I had to take three a day. “I was expecting actual educational courses, like business management and accounting, not a bunch of hardcore electives.”

She shrugged, we hadn’t received our uniforms yet, and it looked like at least three of the classes would be expected in uniform. “We have different courses. I think some of yours are probably support, like advanced anatomy. They have access to our original transcripts and our assessment results, so they probably want to like… improve your medicine or something.”

“I have seven classes, five per day, but most of them are an hour and a half. It looks like I get remedial teamwork and uhh… Eastern studies with you, though.

I swallowed another sandwich irritably. “Okay, this class I guess I can get behind, fitness training. But it’s kind of irritating that they put me on it like I am not in shape and don’t know how to lift and train. Criminology I get, but what on Earth is remedial appearance? Do I have to learn to put on make-up?

She smiled a little, “It’s probably a class on public relations. I mean, for remedial classes we might not even have more than a couple of teachers, and it’s only four weeks. Remember that a lot of these kids came from rich backgrounds and even superhero families.”

“Like you?”

She shook her head, “Not like me. Sure, I grew up middle-class, but my mom isn’t a superhero, she’s a tier-two multiplier and low-end functional replicator. The only reason we had money at all was because she worked three jobs at the same time.”

I raised an eyebrow, “Then how did you afford…”

She shrugged, “SSS? Scrimping and saving. When I was a teenager she went to bed every night with a recombination headache. When I awakened, while I was at college, I had a choice… finish my school, or try to work part-time as a cape influencer. I went ahead and blew my college fund on influencer because when I popped as a class four I knew I could afford to finish school. Even if I couldn’t get a spot somewhere like the Flare, with a good experience under my belt I could at least join an emergency response team and maybe run a stream occasionally.”

She shrugged, “Before I popped I was kind of dumpy, but you know what awakening does. I won’t run a fantasy site, I am not a slut, but I know I could hold an audience now. But that leads me into something else.”

I polished off another sandwich. “Something else?”

She nodded, “I am your sponsor now. All I know about you is what you showed me. I am pretty sure that remedial teamwork will help us get it together as a fighter and support, but umm…”

I glanced at her, “You think we need some time together as people to learn about each other outside of remedial teamwork?”

She nodded, “Yeah.”

“Not like dating, right? I don’t think either of us needs that kind of stress right now.”

She shook her head, “Of course not. Other than like… study dates, I guess. Most of the people here come from privileged backgrounds, so we might have to present sort of a united front. Besides, Dia… umm… someone vouched for you, and I am sort of interested in why. You don’t strike me as someone that hangs out in the wannabe circuit, how’d you guys meet?”

I had a carefully prepared story. “We were both dating the same girl. At the same time.”

“Did you know about it?”

“Nope. It wasn’t until she popped, ripped us both off, and kicked us to the curb that we met and compared notes. We kinda hit it off pretty well, since we were both huge supervillain fans, but it wasn’t until he came to me sorta messed up that I realized that he played the game. He knew I was a class two fixer by that point, and I patched him and his armor up.”

“He isn’t really a kook, that’s just the LARP he plays to get gigs. A weird rant or two, scary armor, and cool special effects make for good streaming. Right now, alpha oppression is pretty popular, but if something else comes along, he’ll probably switch identities and become like… Forest Fire or something. We work-shopped some identities, but other than that we were just dudes that hung out together at the mall until he told me you felt like you owed him a favor.”

“Was he hurt badly?”

I shrugged, “Not more than I can handle, although he had to scrap his armor. That was a little expensive, but he’s got backups. You might not see Diabolus Firetrap for a while, though, since the identity was linked to the suit, and replacing it will cost a bit.”

“Does he have a lot of identities?”

“A few. SSS likes to stay flexible since they only hire men.”

“Why is that?”

I grinned, “That I know. It’s a stunt company that specializes in providing villains that LOSE. Sure, there are many more female than male alphas, but normies still run the show… who enjoys watching pretty women getting beaten up? There’s a place where that sort of thing is popular, but SSS doesn’t roll that way.”

She nodded slowly, taking a big bite of her pizza. “That… makes a weird kind of sense. I mean, it’s kind of sexist, but logical at the same time. Do you plan on working for them?”

I laughed, “I’m a guy that can repair armor. Even if I wind up being able to make a set of widgeteer armor for myself, do you know what people call normie-strength heroes and villains in super armor?”

“Tin cans?”

“Sardines. Lots of Widgeteers have done it, but unless they have some kind of physical enhancement, sooner or later they are always dead fish in a can, if only from the same kind of brain damage boxers and football players have to deal with.”

She nodded, “See, that’s exactly the sort of thing we need to learn about each other. So I suggest we take at least an hour a day, outside of our class schedules, maybe dinner?”

“That we can do.” I looked around at the almost deserted dining hall. “Probably right here. I mean, it’s seven, and this place is almost empty.”

“Fancy students, fancy food. This place is pretty great for us, but a lot of these kids probably eat out every night or order in even if this place is technically free. Also the timing… The Alpha students, at least, probably have unusual schedules.”

“So are you going to try and try to milk me for more information on Diabolus?”

She shrugged, “That was the original plan, but it sounds like you have lots of interesting things surrounding you as well. I owe him a debt still, but I didn’t develop some kind of crush on him or something.”

I nodded, buffing my nails on my shirt as I grabbed another sandwich with the other hand, inspecting my nails, I said, “Monsters lead such INTERESTING lives.” in my best Bugs Bunny voice.

She laughed, “I wouldn’t call him a monster.”

I shook my head, “Oh, no. If you are around for a general alert, you will get to meet real monsters.”