She slowly took a business card from her suit jacket pocket using her free hand and passed it over to him. It was matt gloss with silver digits on the front and a single word Golden printed on the back.

‘You have skills. Not powered ones but you show a genuine innovation that our R&D department would appreciate. I’m told that some of your genetic material collectors are so far beyond our technology that if you don’t have any genuine genetic enhancements then you’re some kind of transcendental savant. At your young age, we’d call you a genius. To put it simply, we’re unable to catch up with what you can build. Your friend who likes to dress in a particular colour might be some help with that but it’s mainly our impression that you’re Gifted. Wrong choice of words on my part. Sorry.’

She chuckled at her little deliberate joke. It wasn’t the best attempt at trying to relax the situation but she was doing her best. Humour wasn’t Agent Evie’s strong suit.

Nodding his head slowly to show that he understood, Frank wisely kept his mouth shut. Walls had ears and someone had been talking, someone on the street. He’d need to find out and quickly. Benny would be of assistance with that, he’d need to speak to her under secure conditions first. The converted basement ought to take care of that detail.

‘According to our power scans of you though, we’re getting no results. You don’t seem to own superpowers but I’m guessing that you must have spent a while studying electrical engineering in your spare time. We don’t have any records of you before your coma though. You’d need to be on a probationary contract as we can’t run the usual background checks on you. Your DNA doesn’t seem to register either. Odd but not unusual.’

‘Yeah, well that’s because I’m not a supe free-‘.

Frank was interrupted almost as fast as he had begun speaking. Annoyed, he recognised her facial expression well enough. He’d seen it in the mirror most mornings. He clamped his mouth shut. Talking over someone else was pretty rude after all. He’d try to play this one smarter if he could but shutting up would work just as well as trying to out-think an unknown quantity in the form of an appointed government agent.

Agent Evie raised the fourth finger letting her other arm drop to her side after the business card had been handed over. Her hand was held close to her body as though in preparation for combat.

Tensing his body and trying his best to stay quiet Frank listened in his best not-a-problem posture. He’d learnt how to when facing his friend with the pink fashion trends in one of her bad moods. To do otherwise would be to invite further suffering on himself. He simply nodded his head in response, getting tongue-lashed wasn’t his idea of fun.

‘Where was I? Right. Number 4. You cross me and I’ll kick your ass in so many ways. Verbally, legally or through standard human-level street combat. I repeat I’m here to help before you run back to your little store and grab some power suppression tech. I don’t need my powers to fight and I’m not here looking for one. If you’re willing to work with us, then we’re also willing to give you full employment. Are we clear on this, Mr Harson?’

Frank felt his tongue stumble for a moment and his face redden. This time it was him in the wrong and he had left his inherent bias and general lack of tolerance towards supes show.

‘We’re clear. Golden clear.’

‘Was that meant to be a joke?’ Golden brought her hand with four fingers raised closer to Frank’s face. ‘You do not want me to raise finger number five.’

‘Not a joke. I…I just don’t know what to call you.’ His face reddened even further. He wasn’t used to sticking his foot in his mouth, but he’d rather not make a government agent angry. Not unless he was trying to do so deliberately. This situation was getting tricky, and Frank didn’t have his usual bag of magic tricks with him. He wasn’t prepared to fight a supe. He didn’t have a death or serious injury wish. Smokes and mirrors were what he needed right now.

Her face switched immediately into a smile and her body posture relaxed. Now that she had made her point clear to him it was all sugars and rainbows once more.

‘I was joking with you young man. There is no finger number five. In my line of work, people get pushy. I like to push first so it doesn’t become a bigger issue. My name is Agent Evie. Nice to meet you, Frank. Now that you have my business card, you can call me about that engineering position. You can always join the side of the good guys. We’re here to help and the salary and security benefits aren’t bad. You’d be looking at promotion in fourteen months maximum.’

She took a short step back and switched her hand into the form of a handshake.

‘I do think it was really sweet that you’re offering coffee and pastries to the government cleaners crew. It’s a kindness that’s harder to see in human beings these days.’

Brushing a stray hair from her face she put on a bright smile as she kept holding out her hand in anticipation of a handshake. She showed no signs of putting her hand down.

‘It’s been great having a chat with you, I heard about your little community effort with one of the government clean-up crews. I’d like an iced latte and almond croissant if you’d please. No added sugar and soya milk thanks.’

Frank didn’t even try to ask how she heard the conversation from such a long distance away. Technology, superpowers, or gossip between colleagues. He put a rough smile on his face before raising his hand to shake hers.

‘Not a problem, Agent. I’ll get right on with it. You want a shot of expresso with that?’ He didn’t feel like saying her name or even trying to be a tough guy. For all, he knew she could crush the bones in his hand into dust with a little applied pressure.

‘No, just the chilled latte and croissant. Extra points for you if you add the soya milk.’

Best to be careful about supes, government agents or otherwise. They could be unpredictable at the best of times. Not that they were the worst problem with superhumans, it was the followers and wannabes that caused the most complications.

He’d have to check with Benny later to see if any early purchasers had turned up before he was able to collect all the media footage and genetic material. Might even be scraps of costumes left behind that he could auction off. Money was there to be made as long as he kept it under the radar, if this agent knew about it then she didn’t cause a fuss as he wasn’t in it for himself. That money helped the local community and others survive these little disasters every month. City government getting involved would lead directly to trouble and attention which he did not want. Not for him or anyone he knew. Frank wasn’t a hero or a villain, he was a man who woke up and decided to make a choice.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

‘Be seeing you then Agent Evie.’

‘Goldie or Golden is also acceptable. Bye, now Frank! I’ll see you around soon enough.’

Agent Evie just flashed him a bright smile before she turned around and walked off leaving Frank standing there and seeing her walk over to an inhabitant who was staring at the ruined remains of her car. Half of it appeared to have been melted off and the owner looked quite distraught at the white spray that now covered the ground and the remaining half of the car. Frank felt that he needed to be careful with this one. He wondered if she was lactose intolerant. It might be fun to find out. Dangerous but fun.

Most of the urgent repairs and major damage had been fixed on the street by now. Frank had stopped by a nearby specialised clothing shop and asked the female owner to order enough coffee, teas, and pastries for everyone on the street including the cleaning crews. Remembering the woman in the suit, he added on to make sure an iced coffee latte and almond croissant were included in the order. He chose not to neglect the shot of expresso or the soya milk. It would be better for his physical and mental health; the extra points could go screw themselves. He wasn’t her errand boy.

Given the current state of the street, it was unlikely the local café would have escaped unscathed with no damage so he felt that it would be better to order out.

They could always use the café for seating once it had been cleaned out or the nearby park would prove sufficient enough.

He had a stop to make before he would be able to move forward. In this case talking to an old familiar face who had always treated him with relative kindness and understanding as Benny had.

One of his first customers in fact, an old woman who always been kind to him without asking for much in return. With his lack of memory he wasn’t going to easily turn down free minor forms of charity.

Besides, he wanted a break from supes after talking to that Agent Golden or whatever.

***

‘Thanks. I’ve given you my payment details so the bill will go straight out of my account. Are you sure everything is ok with you? No merchandise missing or damaged?’

Frank was talking to a woman with silver hair in her late sixties. She was wearing a colourful dress in sandals wearing wood and jade bracelets on her arms. The shop sold all types of retro-style fashion; occasionally she would come up with certain unique items that had come from the costumes of superhumans, but they were all mismatched or slightly discoloured.

He had never asked where Shelly had sourced them from, and she had never told him. Her shop simply sold parts of costumes from all manners of supe, both villain and hero. Ask no questions, hear no lies had been his policy. He had been a customer of hers once when he had purchased an extremely large set of disposable masks. If they had the technology then it was more of the ancient art variant than anything of actual power. Still, they’d come in useful for him later that day when he needed to make a particular delivery collection.

‘Nope. I am not missing anything that can’t be missed. No need for no insurance creeps coming here and looking around. I do think I saw you with a pretty lady earlier, she was in a suit. I saw you from my shop window. A pretty lady, older than you mind but not as pretty as me.’

She let her dress flow and the colours ripple as she did a little twirl in her shop, surrounded by racks of various items of clothing and mannequins showing capes.

Frank smiled. Her colourful clothing certainly matched her mindset. He was sure that she must have been involved in the supe scene decades back. Villain or hero, she had her quirks. Not that he had heard anything more than the whisper of a rumour about it. These days she just ran a retro clothing shop with an interesting twist.

‘No. She made it clear to me that she was from the government and they were investigating the recent fights. Last night and the other on the past month.’

‘She got a name to go with her pretty blonde ponytail, old man?’

Frank paused for a moment. He had this effect on certain people and they had this strong impression that he was older than he was. Especially the older generation.

‘I’m twenty-two. I think. The name of the lovely lady who threatened me with legal, verbal, and physical action was Evie. Supe name Goldie or Golden.’

A twinkle flashed through her eye for a moment.

‘Silence is…’ she started before stopping. ‘Wait. A government agent? Mid-thirties?’.

‘You know her?’ Frank frowned. Normally, she’d never mentioned anything to do with supes aside from the parts of their costumes she sold to certain customers who knew what to ask for.

‘Nah. No two shakes about it. The government comes and goes so fast these days I barely pay attention. Now fashion, that’s where it’s at. You ought to shuffle up your wardrobe a little bit old man. Get some nice-looking threads and you’ll be chased by all sorts.’

She gave a strong suggestive wink to Frank before waving her hands about as if to say that the matter was nothing important and she didn’t care for it. She grinned brightly showing her bright white teeth instead. Standing up from her chair she straightened her flowing dress and stuck her arms to the side as though going to do a little twirl in front of him.

‘You like my dress today, Frank? It doesn’t look like it but it’s from forty years back. Some things are built to last. By the shaking of my bracelets, something wicked this way comes. The young people like yourself who come here still like the look of it. I get all sorts coming to my little shop of wonders who want to look their best you know. Playing dress up has become so popular over the years.’

The cryptic nature of her comment aside, Frank did think that the colourful dress suited her. It was made up of vibrant material that seemed to swirl around in a pattern that appeared to shift into different shapes.

The appearance shimmered for a moment as though it was caught in an invisible heat haze, there was a slight shift in walls of reality before it reset back to normal. Frank only saw a pretty-looking dress which he decided to compliment.

‘Yeah, I like it. It suits you, I guess you’ve always been a woman who likes to wear bright colours. I like the vibrant brightness; you have good taste. I’m not up to date with fashion though, my best friend only likes pink.’

‘You could say that old man. A woman always needs her protection in this bad, old world. I choose colours as my weapon of choice. ‘Course, as a woman gets older it gets colder. Not always the right time for summer dresses. You see me, don’t you? My real age I mean. No tricks working on you old man.’

This so-called joke is getting tiring, really tiring.

I must have an old soul deep inside me that creates this presence, or people around me just like making the same joke over and over again.