I woke at six on the dot, like usual it seemed. I only knew that because of the clock on the bedside table, the one that I didn't actually own. With a sigh, I rose from bed and stretched out, yawning widely. Day three stuck in my Worm dream, no end in sight, THC reserves running dangerously low. Send good weed and maybe rescue.

I shook my head and went into the closet, grabbing a hoodie and sweatpants. It was chilly and I wanted to be comfortable, fashion be damned. I changed and headed upstairs, pouring myself another bowl of cereal. I saw a set of keys on the island when I sat down. I guess Mom had got home real late. Hopefully she had a better time than last night...

I checked my watch and found it was Friday. Well, at least there was only one day of school, one day where I could potentially get revealed as a parahuman. That would make this dream exceptionally annoying. If I was going to be a hero, villain, or something of the sort, I needed to at least indulge a little. A cool name, cool costume, sort of lame power but that was fine. What would I do...whatever I wanted.

But after class. I looked outside and frowned. Twenty after six and the sun hadn't even risen. That wasn't right, not considering the last couple days at least. I stepped out of my house and looked up. Heavy, grey clouds hung overhead and I turned my gaze east, looking for the glow of the sun but...nothing.

There was something out there though. A storm, by the looks of things. That was what had been blowing in over the last few days, probably. It looked hideous, black and boiling, with a heavy curtain of rain hiding the ocean behind it. I was suddenly very glad to not be a mariner, and to be on higher ground since it looked like the storm front was heading this way.

...Huh, it wasn't actually much of a front. Like sure, it was pretty big, but looked to be a single, massive cloud that stuck out from the others. It didn't stretch to the edges of my vision like a front should either, from here it was...weird. I wracked my brain; three years working at a call center had led me down plenty of wiki-holes. Storms had definitely been two or three, but none I remembered matched this.

Oh, I was in Brockton Bay, I had to account for capes. Didn't one have some kind of weather control ability? No, that was Storm from the fucking X-men, dumbass. But there weren't any weather controllers I could think of. Wait, no, there was one that wasn't so much a weather controller as a natural...disaster...

I turned and sprinted back inside the house, relying on Amelia's memories to find my mom's room. I knocked three times, then shoved the door open. Mom and...some guy, sat up, blinking and bleary eyed. I ignored their nudity and started throwing various clothes at them.

“Get dressed now,” I ordered, digging through the closet for jackets. It wasn't raining now, but...

“Amelia Carina D'souza, what the fu--”

“Leviathan's coming,” I snapped. That shut her up.

“What do you mean?” she asked, voice trembling. I tossed her a rain coat I found.

“I mean the fucking water Endbringer is currently offshore and you need to get to the nearest shelter you can now.” I huffed and grabbed another jacket, throwing it to the extremely confused blonde guy. “You go with her, make sure she gets there.”

“Where are you--”

“I need to warn someone else, I'll be literally right behind you. Also need to grab my phone and shit.”

“That's stu--”

“No! Time!” I barked, then ran out of the room.

I couldn't explain to them that I was a cape. I mean sure, I'd just learned that yesterday but still, I had power. I could do something, maybe. At least I could try. Two days I'd been dreaming, and it led up to this. I dove into the closet and grabbed a head scarf. It wasn't much but between it and my hood I'd...well, it was something.

“Amelia,” my mom stopped me as I stepped out of my room. “You're coming with me and that's final, young lady! I don't care who--” I slapped her. I hadn't planned to it just sort of...happened.

“Get to the shelter, don't be stupid.” I brushed past her, then paused at the stairs. “I love you, Mom.” And then I left.

I wasn't sure if it was the right thing to say but...well, what the fuck else was I going to do after that? I had to make sure she got to the shelter, got to safety. And that she didn't follow me. It would be real shitty for her to learn that I was a parahuman and that I was going to fight an Endbringer on the same day. People could only handle so much.

I sprinted down the fortunately still dry sidewalks, heading down towards the shore. I didn't know exactly where everyone was meeting for the fight, but I'd figure it out. I pulled up my hood and slid the kerchief over my face. It was deep blue, with a beautiful flower pattern around the border. It reminded me of the scarves I'd seen the Kurds wearing overseas... A lucky charm, it had to be.

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My lungs were burning when I was only halfway there. Leviathan hadn't made landfall yet, but the outer bands of his storm were. I forced myself on as crowds began to thicken and sirens wailed. Before long I had to slow down anyway, forcing my way against the flow of traffic. God fucking dammit people take the hint that I'm a cape!

My power kept me from getting crushed, at least. I just focused on it following the movements of my body and it...kinda just did the rest. As long as I kept that in the back of my mind, I was immune to the crush. I was not immune to the heat. Chilly as the morning was, colder with the rain now coming down, being surrounded by hundreds of people tended to get pretty hot.

I'd be missing this in a minute though. Once I hit the beach I'd be freezing in a heartbeat. Even with my warm clothes, I was going to be soaked through in seconds when the rain really hit. But I dutifully pushed onwards, towards a very probable death. What were the stats that Legend gave, one in four? That sounded right...and really shitty.

The crowd finally thinned, allowing me to jog the last two blocks to the beach. Waves were pounding against the shore, and I cast my head about, searching for anyone else. There, not to far, a group of silhouettes huddling. I jogged over and found a few heroes in similarly themed costumes talking about what sounded like strategy.

“Hello!” I said, running up to them and panting for a moment. “I...hold on.” I forced myself to take two slow, deep breaths before trying. “Hey, I'm a cape. I want to help.” The quintet all blinked at me.

“Protectorate's that way,” the biggest guy of the bunch said in a rumbling bass, pointing. I nodded.

“Thanks.”

Without another word, I ran off where he directed me. A thunderclap echoed overhead and I looked up just in time to see an honest to god mecha descend from on high. Dragon. As I got closer, I could see more people gathering around a large, blocky building just past the beach. A guy in red and black stopped me as I approached, hand resting on a large club at his waist.

“Who're you?” He demanded, drawing attention from others around us. I stopped and again took a few deep breaths.

“Cape,” I gasped at last. “Want to help.” Fuck, if I survived this I needed to do cardio...

“Name?” Another one in silvery armour asked.

“Uhhh, I don't have one.” He looked me up and down, narrowing his eyes.

“How long you had powers?”

“Found out yesterday.” I heard a muttered 'jesus christ' behind his metal visor.

“You sure about this?” I nodded and he sighed. “Well, head inside and think one up quick.” I nodded and slipped into the building.

I grabbed a seat right away, near the back. I needed to sit and recover for a minute, because soon I wouldn't have a chance to. Oh god oh god oh fuck was I seriously doing this? My foot tapped rapidly against the floor and I chewed my already short thumbnail. I had no fucking relevant experience fighting kaiju, and I doubted anyone was going to hand me a bunch of C4, detcord, and keep Leviathan obligingly still while I rigged up the mother of all demos.

It was god damn Syria again, but with monsters instead of terrorists. Great. Cool. Fan-fucking-tastic. At least back then I was fresh out of the army and knew how to shoot a gun and, importantly, not die. Here? I had a force-field that I didn't know the limits of, that didn't make me combat capable, and couldn't move more than a few inches any which way. Taylor thought her power was bad? I was fucked.

I was shaking badly, I realized. It was bad enough that there was no way I could try and escape, let alone fight. That was...familiar. I had been here before, not literally but, well. I took a deep breath. If I was shaking like this I would die for sure. My control over my force-field was was bad enough that I noticed it, even in the dim light because it was jittering so quickly.

I took another deep breath, held it, and thought about holding still as I tensed every muscle in my body at once. Was I scared? Fuck yes, there was a fucking monster knocking on the door. By all rights I should run. Couldn't do that shaking like this, and didn't want to do that. I was pretty far from what anyone would call a hero, but I was going to fight. I exhaled, feeling the burn in my lungs as I did, like a toke held too long. Familiar. It was grounding, in a way.

“Hey, are you good?” I looked up and saw a frowning face with a red visor covering the speaker's eyes. I offered a quick nod.

“Panicked a bit,” I explained with a shrug. “First uh, day. You know?” Her mouth gaped in an 'o'.

“Are you serious?”

“Ravelin!” Another voice snapped. “Come on, we're sitting up front.” She pursed her lips and turned.

“One sec!” She turned back to me. “This is seriously your first day?” I shrugged.

“Well I found out yesterday and--”

“Come with me.” She didn't wait for an answer, simply grabbing my hand and dragging me along. She sat behind three others dressed in similar colours, like the guys at the beach but with a different theme. They stopped talking and turned when we came over, all turning to stare at me. I paused awkwardly, still standing.

“We're not taking strays, Ravelin,” a man with more armour than the others said.

“It's her first day...like...” the cape, Ravelin I guess, trailed off. I saw the other guy frown, then turn his attention back to me.

“Name, power?”

“Pending, and localized force-field, kinda,” I answered awkwardly.

“Fuck kinda name is 'Pending'?” I heard one of them mutter.

“Means she ain't thought of one, dumbass,” another answered.

“Shut up,” the armoured one snapped. “Okay, Inominate, how's this force-field work?”

“Uhh.” I quickly moved it around a bit, just enough to catch the light. “It's got to be in skin contact with me. No strength, maybe, sort of.”

“Lot of maybes.”

“I figured out I had it yesterday, sue me.” I heard a collective gasp and a beat of silence, then:

“Plymouth, we can't--”

“She's just--”

“Come on Plym--”

“Shut up!” He barked, silencing them. He took a deep breath, then stared at me. I couldn't see his eyes, but the gaze was still intense. “How good are you at following orders?”

“I was a cadet.” And a soldier. Best not to mention that right now... “So fairly.” He nodded.

“Take a seat,” he said as capes began to trickle in. My eyes widened as I saw Legend stride past and up to the front of the room. “And listen up. You picked a hell of a day to be a hero.”