“What to do? What to do?” Anna asked from the top of the Eiffel Tower. As Anna stroked her nonexistent beard, she took a step and appeared on top of the Dubai City Tower.

“I mean I could go and announce myself to the world. Not as a god, already ruled that out as a bad idea, but as a superhero. Well, as a super. Not sure if I want to go down the whole ‘hero’ route. I think I’ll most likely be an observer in most cases.” Waving away her tangenting thoughts, Anna took another step and landed on the Tertiary World Trade Center.

The Tertiary World Trade Center was a taller copy of the old One World Trade Center. It was currently considered the third tallest tower in the world, after the Dubai City Tower and the New London Senate. It was one of the primary landmarks that were reerected during the Reconstruction Effort, along with New Central Park and the Statue of Liberty. It was a sign of Neo York’s endless endurance and of its population’s tenacious attitude. It was a sign of the stubborn persistence that the human race is endowed with…

It also made for a great view.

Anna sighed as she sat down on the roof. “I mean, I want to just go out there and just, I don’t know… have superpowers I guess? Show them off?” She groaned and put her head in her hands. “God, I sound like a child.”

Throwing her hands up in the air Anna fell on her back and stared up at the sky. It wasn’t as impressive as it was in space, too much light pollution, but the moon was pretty at least. “I shouldn’t out the others like that. They might want to stay in the shadows a bit longer too. I’ll wait for the others to show themselves first. It should take about a week for them to start coming into their powers,” She decided.

Unlike Anna, who directly imbued her new body with her abilities, other supers will have a sort of adjustment period broken up into a few phases.

The first phase will be when people become aware of their powers. They won’t actually have them yet, but they will start getting the basics pumped into their head. Simple stuff like the name of their power and a short description. Nothing that might give them ideas of how to use their powers in differing ways.

For example, a man is given the power to shoot light beams out of his hands. The name of this might be [Solar Beams] or something. The description would say that he could, well... ‘shoot light beams out of his hands.’ However, what the description would not tell is that if he practiced, he might be able to fly using those beams. So, if he never thought to try that he would never know. It’s a system that rewards creativity and testing.

Or at least, that’s the idea.

The second phase is when actual powers will start to appear. At first, they will be weak and it will take about seven days for them to reach full maturity. Ideally, it’s during this week that the supers should test out their powers and get used to them.

The third and final phase is when the powers stop growing and the adjustment period is over. It’s at this point where the new super should have familiarized themselves with their powers and have the ability to use them in a controlled fashion.

“So, the world should be pretty safe for at least a week right?” Anna said to herself. “I mean, unless someone gets a ridiculously strong power…”

Not even a moment later she heard a faint boom in the distance.

“...you just had to jinx it didn’t you?”

<( o )>

Andrew Molts had always liked fire. He’d liked it since he was a boy when he first saw his family’s house burn down. He loved the way it moved, flowing and flickering madly. He loved the warmth it provided, the way it had the ability to soothe pains and cause even more of them.

It gave him warmth in the cold nights after his family died. It provided comfort when he felt alone. It was his best friend, but it’d always felt as if his love was never returned. No, it had always felt like fire rejected him. Whenever he got close he was burned.

But Andrew understood.

He’d never blamed fire for killing his parents. He’d never blamed fire for its temper. He’d been content with watching it flicker and flow.

But Andrew was no longer content… no.

Andrew was ecstatic.

The fire had heard him finally! It had finally accepted him, allowed him to touch and caress it! And it listened! It listened to him! It did what he wished when he asked!

Never before had Andrew felt so loved! Never before had Andrew felt so warm!

But Andrew knew that fire had needs too. It’s a cold world and fire so freely gave away its warmth. Andrew felt a need to repay fire! Yes, repay it! Since the days of old, fire has provided so much warmth for humanity and what have humans done to repay it?

Nothing! Nothing! Humans have chained fire! Made it their slave! Something to be beaten back into submission whenever it tries to grow! Not anymore! Today, Andrew was going to repay fire and free it from its chains!

By blowing up the gas line fire grew tremendously! Other people screamed as fire grew warmer and tried to share its warmth with them. Then they did the most insulting thing! They ran away from the warmth that was being given to them!

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

Those Bastards!

First, they chain fire, then they won’t even accept its gifts! Andrew wouldn’t accept this!

He sent fire after them. All should feel the warmth that fire has to give!

“What do you think you’re doing!” someone shouted.

This was different from the other screams and yells that surrounded Andrew and it confused him. Where was it coming from?

“Up here numbnuts!” the voice spoke again.

Looking up, Andrew saw someone standing on the side of the building above him. He couldn’t make out who they were with all the smoke in the air, but he was pretty sure that people shouldn’t be standing on the side of a building.

Cocking his head to the side he smiled. “I’m sharing fire’s warmth, of course!” he answered happily while sending fire after another person who ran away. “Fire is so kind! Always spreading their warmth, but nobody seems to want to accept their gift. So, I’ll make them!” he finished with a bit of heat.

The figure was silent for a little while before it answered. “O-oh… is that so?”

Andrew nodded empathically.

“I-I see…”

Then Andrew started to feel a little weird. Fire started to get a little warmer, and Andrew tried to tell it to back off a bit, but it felt like fire couldn’t hear him anymore. Andrew tried to yell at fire, but it seemed that slowly they were getting more distant and fire was getting warmer.

Eventually, Andrew felt his clothes start to smoke and his skin started to get singed.

Backing away from fire, Andrew started to cry. “Why can’t fire hear me?” he asked. “Why did they stop listening? Did they get angry at me? But why would they? I was just helping them… just helping them grow. WHY CAN’T THEY HEAR ME!?” he screamed.

Andrew dashed towards the fire. If he could just get closer and explain to fire why he was helping it then it would listen! It would have too! He felt the warmth of the fire grow and grow. He felt his clothes catch flame and his skin start to sizzle. He ignored the pain. If he could just get clos-

While scrambling toward the fire Andrew was pulled to a stop and thrown backward.

When he landed, he immediately got back up and started to run back towards fire. He was blocked by a figure that got into his path. Andrew tried to go around but was grabbed by the collar and thrown back again.

“NO! FIRE, PLEASE LISTEN TO ME!” he screamed as he got up again. He was stopped from going any further by a fist in the face. Andrew felt a few of his teeth fly out and then he knew only blackness…

<( o )>

“Damn. This is not good.” Anna muttered to herself as she cataloged the devastation around her.

The street around her was thoroughly singed. Off to her left, there was a giant hole in the road where the gas line had blown up. Several cars as well as what looked like human remains were still burning, sending black fumes billowing into the sky. The area looked like a war zone. However, while that was horrible and Anna felt the need to curl up and cry, that wasn’t the true issue.

No, the true issue was that there were witnesses.

Anna could see them despite the darkness that had encompassed the neighborhood. Their forms only visible because of her enhanced senses. Peeking over window seals, staring from doorways, and holding up V-Screens in alleyways. All watching.

All recording.

The whole street was eerily silent except for the crackling of the flames. No screams from the wounded rang out, all that had been caught by the fire had been burned to a crisp instantly. None of the survivors spoke up or stepped out, fearing what this strange woman would do next. What if she was like the man at her feet?

Anna sighed. ‘What the fuck am I supposed to do now? I should probably mitigate the damage, but how? I’m no public speaker. There’s no wounded to try and save either, so I can’t help that way. Damn! Damn! Damn! This was the worst possible way for supers to be introduced to the world! With a fucking supervillain attack! How the fuck do I handle this!’ As Anna thought furiously over what to do, the silence continued.

It took several minutes for Anna to be shaken out of her brooding by the sound of quickly approaching sirens. Turning, she glared at the unconscious body of the pyromaniac. ‘What the fuck do I do with him?! I could take him with me, but what would I do with him? If I leave him to the police though, he might spill the specifics about powers!’ Panicked scenarios ran through her head before she came to a realization. ‘He seemed insane. I don’t think they’ll be able to get any concrete information out of him… and even if they do, it’ll be suspect at best…’ Anna nodded her head and quickly sprinted towards the closest building behind her.

With a long step her [Omni-Walking] kicked in and she started running up the side of the building. A spotlight got shined on her when she was about halfway up and she cursed. She heard a voice yell ‘FREEZE’ but ignored it and continued her mad dash toward the top.

A loud bang sounded out and Anna felt like something had shoved her in the shoulder. Anna stumbled for a moment before noticing that she didn’t hurt anywhere and kept going. A few more bangs pierced the night but Anna didn’t feel anything else.

Finally, after what objectively felt like minutes of running, Anna reached the roof of the building. Turning around, Anna realized that she had just run up a twenty-story building without breaking a sweat. ‘I’m so glad that I made this body fit.’ she thought in a daze. Looking down at the police below, she saw them gaping at her.

They were half out of there cars and staring up at her. In fact, it looked like their cars had just pulled up. ‘How fast was I running?’ she wondered. Not knowing what else to do, Anna just waved at them. One of them waved back dumbly.

Anna just gave a nod before she stepped back, out of their line of sight, and teleported home.

<( o )>

Sergeant David Watson was trying to comprehend what he just saw.

After arriving at what looked more like a war zone than a crime scene, David had noticed a figure running up the side of a building. His brain not really comprehending what he’d just seen, David fell back on his training and had shouted ‘freeze’.

When that order hadn’t been obeyed, he’d told one of his men to put a spotlight on them so that they could get a visual on the suspect. When the spotlight finally centered on the figure David was shocked to see how far they’d run. They were halfway up the building already!

Seeing that, and the fact that the figure wasn’t slowing down David had opened fire. While it was against rules and regulations to open fire on a possible non hostile, David was understandably spooked and wasn’t thinking straight.

Not that it mattered.

The figure had shrugged off his bullet and continued running. The other men, seeing their commanding officer had opened fire, did so as well. The sound of their fire had jolted David out of his stunned stupor and he shouted at them to stand down.

When he’d turned back to the figure it was at the top of the building, staring down at them. It waved and he noticed out of the corner of his eye that Thomas waved back. It seemed to nod before it stepped back and out of sight.

David just sat down in his car and pulled out a cigarette. “What the fuck was that…” he murmured to himself.