The interviewer put down the work pad and gave Amelia a formal smile. His third eyelids blinked in perfect synch as he met her gaze.

“I must say you are one of the more impressive freshman we’ve met on one of these,” he said.

“Thank you, sir,” Amelia said.

“Great scores on both academic and testing,” he continued. “But these meet-and-greets are mostly farcical.”

“I beg your pardon?” Amelia asked, withholding a frown.

“Good performance in the classroom indicates one thing: being able to learn from the book well.” He tilted his head. “That would be useful in situations where everything happens by the book.”

“I’ve memorized the entire catalogue of contingencies from the CEOR.”

“I know,” he said. “It’s astounding. Ace Pilot can’t recite a single one, word for word. He might be able to paraphrase a few. And you want his mentorship.”

“I…”

“I’ll let you in on a little secret,” he said. “And it might be obvious too. None of the heroes that the students are seeking mentorship from are even here. Save for Giantsbane and a few others, but they’re here for fun. Rules are like a skeleton. Rigid, supportive, but unseen, and it certainly isn’t what moves us to action.”

“But-”

“We’ll be watching.”

Amelia read the meaning well enough. She nodded, thanked the representative, and left the tent, joining the noise of the gathering. She felt nauseated. The music and conversation and the whooshing of powers was beginning to sound like a carnival. It was one of the few mundane things that could bring her to a knee.

Penny was waiting for her. She peered intently at her.

“Well?” The energetic girl asked.

“Inconclusive,” Amelia replied. “But I made an impression.”

“Well that’s good!”

“That remains to be seen.”

“Oh come on, you’re literally the best in our class.”

“I know,” Amelia said, sternly. She began walking. Penny strode to keep up.

“What did the interviewer say?”

“In so many words, I believe he said I was missing something that only I could find.” Amelia scoffed. “The sort of thing one might read from a self-help book with an expletive in the title.”

“Hm…”

“I worked for this. Only to be told I failed that which could not be tested or taught. What is it? What more do you need to be a hero other than strength and knowledge?”

“I don’t know,” Penny said with a shrug. “Did he say ‘no’, though?”

“He did not.”

“There you go!”

“Come on, Penny.”

“What?”

Amelia sighed. “Did you find a group worth seeking mentorship?”

Penny made a face.

“There’s a team called the Little Green Women,” she said. “They’re all about repopulating our planet’s forests and such. They like me a lot.”

“I see.”

“It’s not glorious but protecting what woodlands we have left is important now and for the next several generations, is what they said.” Penny said. “I dunno yet.”

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“Looks like you are not missing whatever it is I am.”

“Psh, you’re complete the way you are.”

Penny had meant well, and she was right, but Amelia wondered if maybe that was the problem.

“Come on,” Penny said, “Giantsbane’s sharing some stories!”

She dragged Amelia by the arm. Every step loosened Amelia’s reluctance to move, and gradually she felt as though she could smile again.

In his typical flair, Giantsbane told a growing crowd of his various ventures. Like all his feats, the scale was mountainous, the stakes ever so important. And the lesson: relatable and hopeful. Heroes were needed in all aspects of civilization, and a hero could come from anywhere. It was what the students needed to hear, an escape from the resounding message that they were unneeded. Or worse, their existence was unwarranted.

Then the sky dimmed. The zeppelin and its message played, and the newest generation of heroes were reminded of how much they were hated before they even began.

A team of professionals began to board the zeppelin, but even as they were in the process of apprehending it, squads of intruders were repelling into the buildings. Others fled the scene, pulling the attention of the heroes.

“Oh that’s it!” Penny said. “They can’t get away with messing with our school again.”

“Wait,” Amelia said. “There are people already in pursuit. And-”

“There aren’t enough! Look!”

The intruders were scattering like red herrings and were beginning to disappear over the rooftops of the campus buildings. Not all of them were being chased. With unrest the highest it had been in years, the heroes were likely stretched thin all over the entire city. For a moment, Amelia found herself admiring how the enemy’s plan seemed to have come together.

“Look, do what you need to do,” Penny said. “I don’t want to- I mean… I’ll be back.”

She sprinted off, greenery already forming around her skin. She ran through the crowd of students, many still dumbstruck as to what to do. A few did run alongside her. They nodded, saying nothing. Penny was only able to run for a few seconds. Powerful arms lifted her off the ground.

“Hi,” she said.

“There,” Amelia said, pointing. “On the museum rooftop.”

A few large individuals were making a big show of wrecking the ventilation units and shattering the glass canopy that illuminated the Museum of Historical Heroism.

She let go of Penny about twenty feet above the roof, who curled into an ablative roll, channeling the momentum into a running start straight at the intruders. She roared as she did so, causing one of the vandals to flinch. Roots swirled and tightened into a shield, which finished its growth just in time for Penny to throttle the man unto the graveled rooftop. He tried to get up, but vines were already growing around his ankles and wrists, coming from expanding cracks in the stone underneath.

“You should see dandelions,” Penny said.

Bits of bark exploded from her shield as bullets embedded into it. New growth regenerated over the wounds. She braced herself. Another vandal approached her, growing in size as she marched forward.

“You’re gifted,” Penny said in disbelief.

“We’re not alike,” the giantess said, raising a boot.

A shockwave of air threw dust into Penny’s eyes. She squinted, tears welling. The giantess had disappeared, becoming embedded in a crumpled A/C unit a dozen steps away. Amelia stood in her place and raised a wing between the gunman and Penny. The gravel plinked with hot ricocheted rounds.

“Are you alright?” Amelia asked.

“Yeah. Look out!”

The rest of the vandals assumed a mob like formation, using their numbers. They were all gifted. A hint of enhanced strength here, a bit of fire there. Even the gunman, who placed his hand against the receiver of his weapon as his eyes glowed. The next onslaught of bullets came with their own bolts of flame, splashing against the scales of Amelia’s wings.

She raised a fist.

“Go on,” one of the vandals said. “We’re weaker. Make it worse.”

“Why are you doing this?” Amelia said. She blocked a steel support with her forearm. The metal bent around her elbow.

More of them were coming, surrounding the two students. The giantess picked herself back up, flicking bits of metal off her tank top. The two retreated until their backs met.

“How much force are we allowed to use?” Penny asked quietly.

“The sweet spot between knocking them out and drawing blood,” Amelia said. “I have a feeling anything more would fuel some sort of heroic brutality narrative.”

“Things weren’t so complicated before,” Penny said. “We should be allowed to break some bone.”

The vandals were drawing close.

“Screw it,” Amelia said. She lowered her wings and flexed all four of her arms.

“Huh.” Penny pointed at the sky. “What’s that?”

The noise was ascending, drawing all their attentions. There was a dot in the sky, basked in its own halo of blue-tinged light. It grew and grew until it seemed to grow into detail in a single heartbeat. The air screamed, as if being ripped apart. The concrete block over the rooftop hatchway cracked as the newcomer suddenly decelerated on top of it.

“What the hell is that!?” Someone shouted.

The thing was made of six legs, a thorax, and three pairs of brilliant wings curled into tubes. Jets of blue fire ebbed away within. Pale scales and thorns the color of moonlight covered the entity. It only worsened the juxtaposition to see a strangely fair face attached to its head. It made them freeze out of a primal fear, as if they were beholding a creature man’s consciousness was not supposed to meet.

The thing began to crawl down to meet them, changing color and shape with every step, until it at least looked somewhat familiar.

Penny turned her head towards Amelia.

“Is that-?” She began.

“Yes,” Amelia said. She lowered her fists.

Leucilis Linnaeus unfurled two wings. The colors shifted and transmogrified from bright, unnatural pinks to oily purples. Amelia rushed to cover Penny’s eyes.

“You kids look tired,” Leucilis said softly.

One by one the vandals fell onto the roof, leaving only them three standing. Leucilis folded her wings. Amelia moved her hand away.

“Mother,” she said.

Leucilis smiled.

“Daughter.”