The day was overcast with the sun only occasionally peeking out behind the clouds. “Looks like it won’t rain,” Silva concluded as she looked upwards to the sky. She could be also looking at Steven, who was sitting on the park bench waiting for her, but that she procrastinated and hopped for Mika to show up. At the very least greeting them both at the same time would be easier than greet Steven and then Mika. “And what would I even talk about with him?”

This was the crux of the problem. Even if she were to greet him she lacked confidence in holding a conversation. No, she was sure that she would say something she would regret instantly.

Silva had been standing and waiting for almost ten minutes now and while Steven seemed to be content on just sitting there she was getting tired. After another excruciating minute, Silva finally decided to not wait for Mika and greet Steven only to be interrupted by a girl who was passing by. Bringing up Silva's vexation, even more, the girl seemed to be somewhat familiar with Steven and decided to stop and chat with him. While Silva was not adept at reading other people intentions the girl was still very obvious of her goal.

Witnessing the blatant attempt at flirting Silva rolled her eyes. She felt that she had looked at sky enough so this time she took a look around to see if there was anything of interest happening until Steven freed himself.

There was not much to see, some solitary trees scattered around the greenery, a couple of stone statues deeper in the park and people going about their own business and a lot of pigeons.

There was an actual name to this park, but Silva had no recollections of anyone ever calling by any other name than “The Pigeon park.” The reason was simple, the many pigeons scattered everywhere.

Seeing nothing of interest Silva decided to walk a little closer to Steven to see if there was any progress of Steven getting rid of the unwanted attention.

From what snippets she overheard the girl was from the same school as Steven and was currently asking about his relationships with Mika. This made Silva give a deprecated smile to herself. This was one of the questions she had wondered about herself, and one that had slipped out of her yesterday when it was entirely uncalled for.

Still, this did not help Silva to come to any decision, luckily for her before she had to decide on the next action she noticed Steven giving an impatient look to the right. As Silva followed the direction she saw Mika coming their way in a determined pace.

The unknown girl also had noticed Mika coming and was now sending a nasty glare her way, which said person promptly ignored. Steven visibly relieved by Mika`s presence spoke to the girl.

"As I said before, friends. Now that Mika has returned we have something to discuss between us, so, unfortunately, I'll have to leave," he gave her an apologetic smile, then stood up and started to walk away with Mika joining him in tow.

Silva started to trail after the pair giving the surroundings repeated surveys and tried to measure the right moment to greet them.

Steven and Mika were speaking quietly and Silva, noticing that they were finally alone and away from any prying eyes ceased to use her ability.

After walking behind them for a minute and hoping they would notice her Silva was forced to give up as her inner awkwardness was growing by the second. She took a breath and finally said her greetings.

“Hello! Thank you for waiting for me!”

This startled them making Steven to quickly spin himself to face Silva while Mika sighed before turning to speak.

"Please don't sneak up on us like that. It's unnerving... And hi!" Mika ended with a smile.

Steven seeing who it was relaxed his stance and waved his hand.

"Hi! You sure know how to give someone a heart attack. Did Mika entice you to try and kill me? What did she promise, I `ll give you double that for you to do same to her!" Steven changed his hand motion from a wave to a menacing fist-shaking.

“Ah, no, I just...” Silva wavered, but then gathered her resolve. “Actually, we have to talk about it, can we find a place where no one will disturb us?”

"Mika told me we had a thing to discuss, I was trying to find out what is the topic all day, but Mika would not budge. Anyway, there is a place not far from here, I'll show the way." He started to walk, heading deeper into the park.

–

Silva found herself sitting under a canopy with a table between her and the pair. As she had expected she had barely said anything until now. She had tried to probe Steven about the thugs that had followed him, but all she got out of him was that they were mostly harmless and he could deal with them.

But now that they had reached their destination Silva was slowly overcome by a nagging feeling that she had to show initiative and starting the dreaded topic. She had to talk reveal everything to Steven and then apologize to both of them.

Unbeknownst to Silva, they had already sat in silence a couple of minutes. Her audience was waiting for her to start. It seemed that Steven could tell that the following conversation would be serious and was giving Silva enough time to gather her composure, which Silva was thankful for.

Silva cleared her throat one last time, before speaking. She figured that there was no correct way to start, so she decided to be direct.

“Well, I wanted to apologize to you both and speak about our abilities.” Silva noticed that Stevens gaze sharpened as he gave a quick glance at Mika but afterwards he fully concentrated his attention on her. He did not interrupt and Silva felt that she had to be with her choice of words.

"I have an ability and... it allows me to stay hidden... It allows me to avoid people. Allows me to walk in peace. I walk around the city a lot after school you know. And one day... By chance I saw you, Steven, you were hurt. I was a little bit curious. I mean, you and Mika headed to a remote place with you bleeding and I... Followed. I saw Mika healing you. I also heard you two speaking. There were other times too. There were a few times I followed you two when I spotted you walking in town. I never went as far as following you to your homes. I... Just wanted to speak with you, get to know you both, but I never found the right time.” As she kept talking the words came easier and quicker.

“It was also why I happened to be there when those thugs attacked you. I... I did not know what to do... I thought that you were in danger, so I... I..." at this point Silva was clutching her hands together. "So when I saw him rushing at you..." Silva meekly let her gaze wander to the floor. “I spoke with Mika yesterday on the phone and we agreed that I should speak with you as soon as possible.

Steven gave Mika a reproachful glance hearing Silva mention her, but he did not interrupt.

"I am not very good at speaking with people... You, probably, already noticed that. But... What I wanted to say... I apologize for my actions, I was in the wrong, and I hope we can be friends despite misgivings you may feel... I won’t follow you any more and I deeply regret doing it before.”

Silva tensely awaited the answer. She could not imagine what she would do if Steven would not forgive her. However, the first one to speak was Mika surprising her.

“OK, so now that Steven has forgiven you...”

“Hey! Wait!” Steven interrupted.

“Huh, you do not forgive her?” Mika probed giving Steven a withering look.

“No, wait, I do, but...”

"See, I told you he will!" Mika gave Silva a winning smile.

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A giggle escaped from Silva. Their antics never failed to amuse her. What was an awkward moment before, now felt much more pleasant. Though, Steven seemed like he had more to say, in the end, he just sighed and gave up and throw his hands in the air.

“So what now?” Silva wanted to know. It seemed that Steven had recovered from her confession as he started to speak.

"Now we do proper introductions. Yesterday we get to know each other names, but now I feel like that is not enough. We are, after all, special snowflakes, so we must stick together, lest we melt!" Steven exclaimed. "I will start. I am Steven Bran, 19, I have two siblings. I play football in my free time and I am more durable, stronger and faster than people can be. Yes, my superpower is that I am better a human being that everyone else is!"

Steven finished and pointed at Mika, waiting for her to continue. She did scowl but still spoke in the end.

"You, how are you a better human when you can barely scrape enough marks to pass a grade?" She rebuked him. "And tone down your fake enthusiasm, otherwise Silva will think strangely of me for keeping you company." Her preaching fell on deaf ears as it did not seem that Steven minded it.

"Anyway, I guess it's only fair, that we tell about ourselves. It does seem that we will be spending more time together. I am Mika Shore. I can heal bruises and cuts. Luckily there has not been a need for me to try and heal anything more serious than that for obvious reasons. All of my practice comes from this guy here. I can also sort of tell if there is something that is need of my immediate attention. Its also a lot harder to heal myself and I can’t do anything about diseases." She tapped on her chin with a finger and gave a sideways glance to Steven, before adding. "I am 18, no siblings, I like reading I guess" She shrugged.

"Oh..." Silva found herself with both Steven and Mika looking at her expectantly. "I… I am Silva Timley. I have the ability to conceal myself... Well, you already know that, ah, but it doesn’t really work with cameras. What else…" Silva struggled to think of what else was there to say about herself, but she could not think of anything worthwhile, so she asked something that had been bothering her for a long time now.

“Have you told your families about yourselves?”

“Oh, bringing out the big questions?” Steven joked “No, I have not, for them I am just a good at sports. That is all.”

Before Silva could ask more Mika was the one who continued.

“I too have not told them. I mean, I would heal them if they got hurt, but otherwise... I don’t want to spend the rest of my life as some kind of a miracle worker. And I am kind of afraid...” Silva opened her mouth to interrupt, but Mika motioned that its fine. “Afraid of what would my parents think. They are old-fashioned folks. They don’t like anything out of the norm. There is also the fact that I could end up in some kind of a lab. I don’t know how realistic that is, but I can easily imagine some rich guy try and kidnap me to keep himself healthy.”

Silva nodded. This were things she too was afraid of. But… She still felt bad for not telling.

“Thank you for answering. I… I want to tell my father, but… It has not been easy for him, and anyway, thank you again.”

“No need to thank us!” Steven dismissed, “That's what friends are there for!”

Silva felt a warmth flooding her heart. It was nice to hear someone call her friend, even if Steven was only half-serious. She was about to thank again, this time as a joke, but a cough from Mika stopped her and Silva looked at the girl.

“So, how did you find out about your ability?” Mika asked.

“Ah, I... It’s… Well...”

"You don't have to tell us if it's private." Steven stopped her to which Silva waved her hand.

"It's fine. I already decided to be more open. I... I wanted to hide from my father when he was drunk. It took me a few more days to be able to conceal myself when I wanted to, but once got a hang on it… It was surprisingly easy. It is nice you know, walking around with no one bothering you." Silva remembered. "And you two?”

Steven shuffled in his seat uncomfortably and frowned but still decided to answer.

"Well, after your story it is hard to not tell.” He scratched back of his head as he mulled over his memories. “Well, I got beaten, I wanted to be stronger and that's when it happened. It was not that noticeable in the beginning. I just thought that... Ah, well, imagine my surprise when I outperformed myself in the next gym class. I was 12 back then, everyone just assumed that I had slacked off before, but... Well, when I push myself in physical activities it's hard for me to reach my limits." He finished and it was Mika's turn to speak.

"As for me, I found Steven beaten up. Turns out he is not indestructible and when I saw him in really bad shape I lost myself in panic and run to him to try and do something. Next thing I knew was that his bruises were fading." Mika gave a simple answer.

They sat there under the canopy for a while in quiet, thinking over what they had learnt. Pigeons cooed in the background and the occasional city noise travelled to them, but otherwise, there were no disturbances. It was only after a while when Silva spoke again.

“Do you think there are other people like us?” she asked to no one in particular.

“Sure,” Steven replied. “It would be naïve to think we are that unique.”

Mika seemed to recall something as she reached in her purse and pulled her phone out of it.

"That reminds me, yesterday I did some research on the web and..."

"I don’t think there was anything useful there last time I checked." Steven doubtfully looked over Mika’s shoulder to see what she was on the phone.

“Yes, well, I wanted to see if there are rumours about Oldsteel,” Mika spoke. “It’s not a small city but we still met each other, so it would not be far-fetched that there was something special about it."

“Now that you mention it. What are the odds? So was there something?” Steven furrowed his brows thinking about implications.

"Well, at first I looked for people with abilities, but there was nothing, but I did stumble upon something else. There was a few videos and mentions of strange animals. Nothing concrete. I am grasping to straws here really, but maybe we should keep that in mind."

"So you think Oldsteel could be a special place where supernatural becomes natural?" Steven asked.

“No? Well, I only had yesterday to look, so, who knows?” Mika then added more. “But we met Silva, so I think we should be more careful from now on.”

“Thanks, now I'll have troubles sleeping with the possible mutant cockroaches hiding behind every wall!” Steven exclaimed.

“What kind of animals were in those videos?” Silva inquired when she finally found a chance with Steven shuddering from his own imagination.

"Well, a dog that jumped on a two-story house roof. Crow that was impossibly fast. Then there was that giant rat..." Mika counted.

"OK, now you are just trying to scare me!" Steven accused.

“Whatever! What I am saying is, that the world may be bigger than we thought.”

“Then what do we do?” Silva asked.

"Well, for one, we can agree that we don’t any-more people learning about us. That is clear. So, for now, let’s be extra careful with when and where we use our abilities. And yes, I know Steven, it is mostly on me. Still, we already had Silva following us and noticing. No offence. But what if there are others? What if they want to exploit us? I also worry, that there may be actual monsters. Before we met you, Silva, I chalked up my of Stevens abilities to chance. Sure, it probably was dumb, but two can still be a coincidence, but three...”

“”Oh...”” both Silva and Steven were dumbfounded. It was clear that Mika had given the topic much more thought than they had.

“So, when you both get home, you should think about it. And, it is probably nothing, but… Let’s just be safe.”

Silva found herself with much to think about. There was still more absent-minded tries to continue chatting but soon it became clear that the conversations were going nowhere and they soon split up to go about their own businesses.