Transcript of conversation between XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX and XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX. November, XX, XXXX.

> I’ve just reviewed your proposed schedule for tonight. Are you sure this isn’t too aggressive?

>

> Not at all, XXXX. All of our models suggest he needs to be engaged. Sooner is better. Longer is worse.

>

> And you don’t think it’ll make him more suspicious, if things happen too quickly?

>

> Just the opposite, actually. The universe itself has decreed that he should survive an unsurvivable accident and should end up with powers no one else has ever had. It only seems fitting that the universe should give him opportunities to use what he’s been given.

>

> Okay. Keep me apprised.

- Aiden -

NOVEMBER

I slept in this morning, which isn’t something I’m prone to do, but I was well fed from my dinner at Sarah’s and I had exactly zero obligations and very few desires. I spent the day going through three weeks of mail and buying groceries and just sitting around.

When Ed called around five-thirty in the evening, I jumped at the chance to help. Which is unusual, by the way. Not me helping, but him asking. Ed tries to be as self-sufficient as anyone I know, but he’d been actively sick for a few hours, probably from some bug, and wanted to see if I would run to the local market and pick up some meds for him.

On my way back, I heard what sounded like a muffled scream down one of the alleys in our neighborhood, so I went to investigate. The screamer was a woman, who I guessed was a waitress from how she was dressed. There were two guys, one held her arm firmly while another was searching through a purse, which I assume wasn’t his.

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“Good evening, gentlemen,” I said as I approached within about six feet of them. “Ma’am,” I added with a nod, looking at the woman directly. All three looked at me, but not in the same way. There was fear in the woman’s eyes, possibly for my sake and certainly for her own. But there was now a little hope as well. In the guy’s eyes, there was nothing but disdain, mingled with annoyance.

In about two seconds, both men become visibly armed. The guy with the woman was now waving a good-sized knife near her throat and the other guy had dropped the purse and was pointing a gun at me.

From a military perspective, I had screwed up royally. I had given up the all-important element of surprise and was now in a fairly untenable situation. I was pretty sure I could avoid getting shot, but my odds of helping the woman without one of us getting hurt had dwindled considerably. My old gunnery sergeant would be rolling in his grave right now, if he were dead, that is.

Fortunately, this wasn’t a military situation and even more fortunately, both of their weapons were made of metal.

“I see we have a misunderstanding,” I said as I raised both hands as inoffensively as I could. I pointed one of my disks toward the knife and the other at the gun and a couple seconds later, both weapons fell to the ground and both men were nursing their hands--freeze burns for the knife guy and heat burns for the other.

I started thinking about how to restrain the two men, to allow the authorities an opportunity to take them away, but the woman decided the issue for me. She shrugged off the guy that had been holding her, grabbed her purse, and ran past me towards the main road.

I took a step toward the men and as they flinched away from me I casually bent down, without taking my eyes off of them, and picked up the gun. It was still quite hot, but I simply absorbed the energy.

It was tempting, I admit, to set their clothes on fire, but I decided not to. Instead, I put my hands in front of me, and blasted them with hot air. Not enough to damage anything, but it served its primary function. They ran.

I dismantled the gun as I continued my walk home and placed the various pieces in various trash cans along the way. Bullets in one, clip in another, slide, spring, and then the rest.

Later, as I was sitting on my couch thinking about the incident, it occurred to me that I had been a superhero, if only for one brief encounter.