S*!t hit the fan way too quickly lmao These past few months were pretty harsh, I had to completely reorganize my life. Between health issues in my family and the great impact I've suffered with everything regarding the Covid-19, my life was basically stopped for several weeks. It's still is pretty much paralyzed, but at least I've found some sort of comfort and escapism in writing.

Special thanks to The Siege Perilous, Jeff, NiceGodzilla, burtonfan422, STR2D3PO, FanficFan920, 16 and Tristen.

And my sincerest apologies for taking so long to write lol You guys are the best, I'm lucky enough to have the best readers in the world.

Chapter 4:
Dealing out some justice.

Are any of you really good at something? Anything. It could be a sport, playing an instrument, or some talent that you're particularly proud of. In general, I don't stand out in anything in particular, although I guess I can say I'm very competent when it comes to videogames, especially if they're fighting games. I've played countless hours of Super Dragon: Budokai Tenkaichi 3, and it's one of those games where I feel like I can beat anyone. I have great skills to chain up combos, time my super moves, my parries, and getting out of tough spots.

The curious thing about being really good at something is that there comes a time where you do things without actively thinking about them. Whenever I'm playing against Clyde or any of my friends, I don't have to stop every second to think about all the combinations of buttons I need to press in the exact order and instant to counter a combo. I've got that incorporated in my muscle memory and it doesn't seem like a big deal to me. I only really stop to think about what I've done once someone else mentions it. It's only then when I'm like "Huh, that's right, this thing I'm doing is actually pretty awesome". If no one would point it out to me, I'd probably not even realize it.

Following the same logic, perhaps I would have never realized just how absurd my show of dexterity had been during gym class if I didn't have all my friends going bananas trying to figure out how I had done it.

"That was AMAZING!"

"I'd never seen anyone dodging like that!"

"It looked right out of a darn movie!"

"How'd you do that?"

"I… just did it."

It was true. All my actions had seemed pretty straightforward in my mind: duck, dodge, jump, turn, throw. I caught and threw that ball in the middle of the air because I didn't want Jordan to get hurt. I wasn't trying to do a crazy somersault or anything like that. For me, it had been a simple process: "How can I intercept that ball? Oh, sure, like this".

Only now, after showering and as we walked towards our classroom for the last couple of hours of school for the day, having all my friends commenting on what I had done, I was starting to understand that something wasn't quite right. I had never been good at dodgeball. Like, ever. I always embarrassed myself and was between the first couple of eliminated guys. I seldom managed to take someone equally as bad as me on the other team, but I never had any moment of dexterity like what I had shown earlier.

I mean, come on, I couldn't even jump a rope five times in a row. How did I do those crazy stunts? Why was everything becoming so easy for me all of a sudden? Not only dodgeball, but I'm also talking about math homework and geography and everything that I did that morning. I wasn't a bad student or anything, but I was also not a genius to have all the answers come to my mind right away like I had a privileged memory and mind. Was this related to my physical changes as well? Everything was happening too fast, and I wasn't sure I would be able to deal with it right away. My life seemed to be getting out of my control. Just the day before I had had to attend to Ace Savvy's funeral right before going to his house where—

The answer hit me harder than any dodgeball had ever done before. I felt my stomach twisting in a knot, and my now swift mind was putting all the pieces of the puzzle together.

The cube. Whatever it was, it had released something into me the moment I touched it, something that started a chain reaction of some sort. I remembered those old photos of Ace and his two very different bodies, one much more developed and athletic than the other. I had quick flashes in my mind of those folders next to the cube. Besides mythology and history, it mentioned excavations. He was an archeologist…

The narrative wasn't complete in my head, but I thought I had a solid hypothesis: Nifty Spade had participated in an excavation where he had found that cube, and after activating it just like I had done, he turned into Ace Savvy.

It was so crazy and unlikely… that it even made sense. Was it that the reason why he had never been affected by Royal Wood's curse? Maybe he didn't disappear like every other hero because, unlike them, he wasn't metahuman from birth. That idea sparked a memory in me. Ace would always, constantly repeat that anyone could be a hero.

"Being born with powers, well, that's something you can't control nor choose. But being a hero is more than being a metahuman or not: being a hero boils down to simply making the right choice whenever we're faced with one."

Suddenly, all his talks and declarations throughout the years made more sense. He wasn't born as a metahuman, he had turned into a superhero much later in life. And now I carried that same gift.

I had my own superpowers now.

Were they superpowers, though? As far as I'd noticed, they were just some amazing reflexes and an increase in my dexterity stat. Was that enough to be a hero? I wasn't sure it was. Maybe it had only awakened some sort of Ultra Instinct inside of me. I couldn't know, but for the rest of the class, I couldn't focus on anything else. I could only think of what that would mean fo me if it was true.

Sometimes… sometimes I felt jealous of people being born as metahumans. Who wouldn't? Who wouldn't be able to have some amazing secret power that makes you special and unique? Who wouldn't be thrilled to have a superpower that would let you help the rest of humanity? Every now and then I wondered why I was just a simple person, with nothing special on me except for my white hair. And now… now I had finally found something spectacular that set me apart.

As always, it was Clyde the one that shook me out of my thoughts.

"Together as always?" He asked me from the seat to my right, poking my elbow with his pencil.

"Huh? What?"

"The project," he said, pointing at the chalkboard. It was only then when I noticed that, apparently, our teacher had explained some sort of science project that we would all be doing in pairs. "It's going to last for a couple of months, so we'll have a huge advantage of living together and stuff."

"Oh. Well, yeah, sure, we-"

"Actually," said Stella, turning around from her seat right in front of mine, looking at us McBrides with a funny look in her eye, like she knew the punchline to a joke she hadn't told us yet, "I was going to ask Clyde if he wouldn't mind doing this project with me."

"What?" We both said.

Ever since first grade, Clyde and I did all our group projects together. It was our tradition.

"Yeah, well, I just think it's healthy to shake things up every once in awhile, changing our partners and leaving our comfort zone," she said, almost as if she had planned out a speech.

"Well… Doctor Lopez does say the same," Clyde mentioned, "but I don't know, why the sudden interest in doing it with me?"

"Wait, what?" Jordan said right then, sitting as always in front of Clyde and to Stella's right, whom she looked at confused. "You don't want to do this with me? Then who am I supposed to do it with?"

Clyde and Stella shared a look, and for some reason, my brother gave her a wicked smile.

"You know what? I think you're right, changing the routine is a very healthy thing to do. Let's do it!"

"That's what I'm talking about, McBride!" Stella said, bumping fists with my brother.

"Wait, wait, what am I supposed to do then?" I asked, still confused.

My friend giggled.

"I suppose you'll have to find someone who doesn't have a partner. Hey, Jordan, you don't have a partner either, do you?"

My heart started running on the treadmill that my chest had become, almost like a raging bull, shaking the whole place around. I squeezed my pencil so hard I could feel it breaking in two inside my fist. That's funny, that had never happened before. I didn't care, however, for my eyes were fixed on Jordan, on her delicate golden braid, her sunflower-like yellow shirt, her emerald eyes. I may have had powers, but she was still my kryptonite.

Her eyes squinted only there was only a tiny groove from which she seemed to be studying our two friends. After a few seconds of intense evaluation, she rolled her eyes and smiled in my direction.

"I suppose we're a team now, Lincoln."

"Yeah. I suppose we are," I said, doing my best to keep a neutral face as if I was in the final table of a poker tournament.

There were only about twenty minutes left in class, and up until the bell rang to set us all free, my keen mind spent them coming up with scenarios where Jordan and I had an awesome time together, studying and falling in love.

By the time we walked out of the building, Rusty, Zach, and Liam joined the rest of us, and Stella took the opportunity to try to organize our next DnD session.

"I was thinking, since tomorrow is Secret Identity Day, what if we hang out early to continue with the campaign?"

"I can't in the morning," Clyde said, "my parents are taking advantage of the holiday to get my eyes checked."

"What about the afternoon?" Liam suggested.

"Yeah, the afternoon would be much better for me."

"That would give us time to hang out and figure out what we want to do for our project," added Zach, looking excitedly at Rusty. "I was thinking of doing an essay on aliens and their relation to the appearance of metahumans."

"Aw, I wanted to sleep late in the morning," Rusty begrudgingly admitted.

Jordan, who was walking on the other extreme of the line we were all walking in, leaned forward so I could look at her.

"Do you have any plans, Lincoln?"

I was about to say that I didn't even before she finished asking it, but then I remembered Rusty's advice on female psychology and decided to play hard to get.

"Me? Well… I don't know, I do have some stuff to do. You know… hard, uh, stuff. Complicated. Men stuff. Why are you asking?"

I went along with my attempt at fooling her by putting my arms behind my head like I was super relaxed, but it turned out to be uncomfortable, so I crossed them over my chest, but that made me look like I was closing myself in my personal space, so I tried to put my hands on my hoodie's pockets, and by then I had managed to look like an idiot. Deception check: natural one.

"Well," she said, stifling a laugh, "if you hard, complicated men stuff don't take you too long, we could also hang out to define our project."

"You know what? I think I can make some space in my agenda for you."

"I'm flattered."

"Where do you want to go?" I asked. I was starting to get anxious thinking of all the things that could go well, and everything that could go wrong.

"What about the library?" She suggested with a smile.

My reaction wasn't as positive.

"The library? That sounds a bit… boring. Wouldn't it be better to do it in one of our houses?"

If I was lucky, maybe she'd invite me over to her house, and I would finally meet it. We knew it was in a pretty luxury neighborhood, but as far as I knew, Stella was the only one that had ever been invited there.

Her face, however, suddenly wore a mask of worry. She straightened her back and leaned back a bit, hidden from my gaze by the rest of our friends.

"I, uh, I don't think we might be able to do it in our house, and I wouldn't want to bother your parents…"

"Jordan, you'd never be a bother!" Clyde said, beating me to it. "I'm sure our parents would love to have you, they'll probably cook something super nice for lunch if you're there."

"Yeah. Plus, I'm sure they'll thank you for giving them an excuse so Lincoln cleans up his room," Stella jabbed, making everyone laugh except for me.

"Well, alright. Your house, then," Jordan conceded.

Soon we reached the parking lot. Rusty, Stella and Zach's parents where there, waiting for them. Jordan would take the bus back home, and Liam had left his horse grazing a man's backyard in front of the school. The guy would give him five dollars for having the horse mowing the grass, but it was Liam's responsibility to clean up after the mess.

Clyde and I didn't live too far away from school, and since our parents were at work at this time of day, we took the freedom of walking back home. And when I say "freedom", I really mean it. Our dads are the best guys in the world, no doubt about it, but they worry too much about is, and we seldom have the opportunity to do anything without their direct supervision. Even when we're home alone, we usually have a long list of chores to do and dozens of restrictions on what we're allowed to do without them there. Having some time for ourselves, not worrying about our responsibilities or chores was always welcomed.

It was all peace and quiet as we walked down the streets heading to our home until we randomly walked right into the darkest, most dangerous side of our town.

"NOOO, PLEASE!"

The desperate cry of a woman reached our eyes, petrifying us right away, like a banshee's wail. About two hundred feet away from us, two men had surrounded a lady that seemed desperate to put herself between them and a small, terrified little girl that was holding on to her legs. They were all screaming at each other, with the lady begging to be left alone and the men aggressively demanding something from her. I couldn't pick up what they were saying from where I was. I was stunned, terrified.

And then, one of the men took a step back and threw a fist that hit the poor woman squarely on the face. I don't think the dry sound of the impact actually reached my ears, but I could perfectly hear it. She collapsed to the ground, probably passed out or on the verge of it, and the girl began howling in terror. Not caring about it at all, one of the men grabbed the woman's purse, and the other one placed a hand on the child's head.

As if it was all a dream, time seemed to stop. I got an adrenaline rush when I saw that man that had just decked a woman get closer to the kid. Every muscle in my body seemed to tense, ready to act, waiting for a call to action. My body was ready to go, to yell, to run to defend the defenseless child… but my mind wasn't. I felt an instinctive feeling to protect her, to help her, like there was a thin rope attached to my chest and someone was pulling it towards the crime I was witnessing. Trying to get me to go there, driving me to the person that needed me the most at that instant. The feeling was strong, but so was my fear. I stood there, simply staring at how the guy took something away from the little girl, who didn't even offer any resistance as she cried out loud.

"HEY! STOP THERE!"

A man got out of a store on the other side of the street, yelling and starting to walk to the two thugs that ran right away like the cowards they were.

Unfortunately, they decided to run right into our direction.

"Run!" Clyde yelled, crossing the street right away, not even looking to the sides with how fast he was moving.

I stood in my place for some seconds, looking at the two guys that were getting closer and closer to me. They were both big and sturdy. I couldn't tell how much was muscle and how much a slight overweight, but they were two locomotives moving to my position. They were dressing similar outfits, both with worn-out jeans and hoodies, even though the day wasn't that warm. One of them was bald, wearing the grey hoodie, and the other one had a black beanie, the same color as his hoodie. From where I stood, they looked like a rhino and a bull charging at me.

My fight or flight reaction finally kicked in, going for the latter. I ran back from where I came from as fast as I could, and I turned into the first alley that I found. There was a trash container there, but having learned my lesson about hiding behind them, I searched for an alternative. To my right, there was a small, four-stories building with a set of emergency stairs that led to the alley. Unfortunately, the last section wasn't set, so it couldn't be accessed from the streets. However, thinking fast, I noticed that the container was relatively close to it. In any normal circumstance, what I wanted to do shouldn't have been possible, but then I remembered what happened in gym class and decided to take a shot.

I ran at the container, jumping at the last second. I can't explain how, but I managed to get to the top of it, and from there, I dashed next to the wall to the stairs. I jumped from the edge of the container, my shoulders almost scraping the dust out of the brick wall, and when I stretched my hand, I managed to close it to one of the steel bars from the metal staircase. With only one hand, I was able to pull myself up enough to reach the first rest, and just in case, I climbed to the second floor and laid down on my stomach, hoping that the stairs would hide me.

I prayed for that to be the case and I was really out of danger, especially when a few seconds later the two thugs got into the alley. I held my breath, not wanting to even move as the two stopped right beneath me.

"Fuck, that hurt," said the bald one, flicking her wrist. "But not as much as it hurt her, ha."

I could see them through the small slits of the wire mesh. A drop of sweat began sliding down from my forehead into my nose. I had to cross my eyes to look at it when it reached the top, and I panicked thinking that it might drop over the bald man's head, alerting them of my presence.

As they kept talking, I tried my best to stretch my tongue and catch it.

"That guy's gonna call the cops, we have to go."

"They won't get us, police stations are completely collapsed."

"What if those Nova and Eclipse bitches come after us?"

"They… Come on, what are the chances-?"

"Listen, I can't go risk going to jail again," the guy with the black beanie said. "You go to the avenue and I'll go to the stadium. Lowkey."

"Where do we meet up?"

"The bridge in the park, at eleven. We'll divide the stuff there."

"Alright, I'll-"

"Don't even think of keeping money from that wallet, you hear me?"

"Whoa, just take it easy, man! What kind of criminal do you think I am?"

"Just making sure. Alright, let's go."

And after being there for just a few seconds, they both walked away, turning in different directions when they reached the other side of the street.

As soon as they left, I finally breathed again. It was like my soul was coming back to my body. My muscles released all the tension they were holding. It had been a terrifying experience, especially because my mind couldn't help itself and compared the situation with-

A loud ringtone blasted right next to me, scaring the heck out of me. I was about to instinctively punch the air when I realized it was just my phone. Clyde was calling me.

"Hey, what's up?" I asked as I picked up the call.

"Lincoln! Where are you?! Are you okay?! I turned around and you were nowhere to be seen!"

"I… yeah, sorry, I'm okay."

He let out a relieved sigh. "Where are you?"

I looked around me. "I'm hiding," I said.

Apparently, it was the only thing I was good at.

When we got home, the first thing we did was to check the list with our daily chores. As always, we divided them between us. Clyde would do the laundry, and I'd vacuum the living room. The house needed to be perfectly clean so our dads wouldn't get a panic attack when they got back from work. As I got everything ready, I decided to leave the TV on a music channel, so I could have some background noise to make the cleaning easier to get through. For several minutes, I systematically went over every square inch of the carpet, doing my best to leave it impeccable. The music was pretty cool, with lots of pop music and the latest trends, but then they started showing trap music. Nothing wrong with it, but our dads didn't like it when we listened to those lyrics.

I started zapping through the channels looking for something entertaining. And if you've been paying attention to my story so far, you probably know what made me stop. Do you? Of course you do: the local news channel.

Katherine Mulligan was standing on the outsides of a clinic, interviewing a woman in her thirties, blonde, with long, thin hair and dressed casually. The thing that caught my attention was the fact that she was carrying a little girl, also blonde but with shorter hair, cuddled up against the woman's neck, as if she was trying to stay hidden from the cameras.

Oh, and also the big, swollen, black eye on her right.

"...attacked you?" The journalist was asking.

The woman shook her head.

"I told the police everything I could remember. I can only wait for them to do their job, now."

"What did these men took from you?"

"My purse, where I had some cash, my phone, and some work papers, but what hurts the most is that they took my daughter's headphones," said the mother, on the verge of tears, clinging onto the girl. "She's deaf without them, she needs them to hear. It's too expensive and I can't afford to buy a new pair. Please, if anyone finds it, or if those men are watching this, I don't care about the stuff you took from me, but they can't do anything with the headphones, please give them back so my daughter can hear her mommy. Please, I'm begging you!"

Katherine Mulligan asked for the address anyone could give the headphones back if they found them, and the woman promptly answered her. I couldn't stop looking at the little girl. She looked absolutely terrified, vulnerable, disoriented.

"Do you think insecurity reigns on Royal Wood's streets nowadays?"

The woman sighed, her defeated eyes meeting Katherine's.

"Ace Savvy's no longer here to protect us. We regular citizens have lost all hope."

Katherine Mulligan thanked the woman for her time, wished her a quick recovery, and moved on to a short editorial about the exponential increase in crime rates in such a short period of time. I knew that a big part of it was a kind of hyperbole to create sensationalism… but the truth is that, even so, every new word I heard added a ton to the weight I carried on my shoulders.

If Ace was still alive, maybe those burglars wouldn't have dared to assault someone in plain daylight. If Ace was still alive, maybe he would have been there to stop them. Maybe not, perhaps he couldn't have prevented it, but maybe he could have, and it was my fault that the hope that he would had been taken away for the entire city.

The image of that scared little girl without her headphones would stay with me for the rest of the afternoon as I did all my chores and homework. It was still fresh in my mind when my parents came back, and even though I tried, I couldn't stop thinking about it.

Guilt took me, prisoner, weighing down on me as if I was chained to heavy rocks, and I was only able to partially relieve it when I took a decision so crazy and stupid that I had to focus entirely on it to plan out the logistics.

At home, we always had an early dinner, and we would go to bed around eight or eight-thirty. During our meal, I intentionally mentioned how tired I was feeling, and I faked to agree when my dads suggested that I needed to rest. After washing the dishes, I went straight to my room, changed into my pajamas, and laid down in bed. Clyde followed my steps a few minutes later, and once we turned off the lights, it was just a matter of keeping my eyes closed and pretending to sleep.

After waiting for fifteen or twenty minutes —time moves slower when all you're doing is waiting—, my brother's breathing let me know he was asleep. He was a pretty light sleeper, so ever so carefully, I got out of bed, placing a pillow under my blankets as a decoy.

Turning on my stealth mode, I sneaked out of my room, tip-toeing through the hall as silent as a ghost until I reached the linen closet where we had the access to the attic. My family was extremely organized and tidy, and every corner of our home looked top-notch, although a big part of that had to do with the fact that almost everything that wasn't used on a daily basis was stored in the attic. It was some kind of graveyard for decorations and objects that were once useful but had since turned into nothing but dust-gathering figures on forgotten corners. The chaos found in there was the polar opposite of the order and perfection the rest of the house presented. It was as disorganized as forgotten.

Which turned it, naturally, into the perfect place to hide private business.

"I just hope no one ever thinks of picking up some old decorations or anything," I mumbled to myself.

I climbed the small ladder at a turtle's pace, making sure that no wood plank would creak under my weight, giving away my intentions. Once inside, I turned on my phone's flashlight to make sure that I didn't step into any old lamp or box full of magazines that would never be read again.

Forget about the Room of Requirement, if you needed somewhere to hide a Horcrux, just come to my attic.

I soon got to the small table covered in a white blanket, right at the most obscure and remote end of the attic. I turned on a floor lamp that I had previously placed in there, and then I ever so carefully removed the blanket, unveiling my private atelier. It wasn't anything impressive; simply a regular table with some drawers to save my dad's old tailoring tools, but for a kid with cosplay as one of their main hobbies like I was, it was more than perfect. That's where I had confected all the costumes for our Dungeons and Dragons campaign, and it was also where I had been working on my secret project, kept so well as a secret that not even Clyde was aware of it.

Every year, at Royal Wood's local Comic-Con, they would host a cosplay contest. Last year I had tried to participate, but my Ultra Instinct Goku cosplay didn't make it past the first round. I heard people saying that my white dyeing was completely unrealistic. They wouldn't believe me when I told them that it was my natural hair color! I know it's weird and that doctors never found an explanation for it… but it was still very rude of them to call me a liar.

That's why I had spent the last seven months working on my most ambitious project to date. I had invested several allowances and saved up in secret so I could buy all the materials. I had measured my entire body multiple times, and I had even pinched my fingers with pins more times than I'm willing to admit. I spent countless hours locked up in the attic, staying hidden from my brother and dads and taking advantage of every single moment I had the house to myself working on this project. And now… it was finally time to use it.

All the pieces were there, spread on the table: the boots and the bracelets of a dark, almost brownish red. The one-piece spandex suit, of a dull red with a triangular patch of dark red that started on the shoulders and ended up on the sternum. The yellow, rubber belt. The cape of navy fabric.

In short, a hyperrealistic and functional Ace Savvy suit made for me.

Originally, this suit would be my tool to win the cosplay contest, but right then, its mission was going to be a different one. I had thought about it all afternoon, and it seemed like the only right option to redeem myself.

My curiosity and lack of common sense had ended with Ace Savvy's life, taking away from the city its greatest protector and vigilante. It was my fault that everyone had lost hope. And on a crazy, random, chance, my impulsive personality had also taken me to grab a glowing cube and acquire what seemed to be superpowers or at least physical skills comparable to those of the metahumans. The same powers that Ace Savvy had acquired long ago. If my theory was correct, he was just like me, a regular Joe that had walked into a gift. And just like he always said, what made him a hero was having made the decision to use his powers for the greater good. To risk his life every day to help his fellow citizens and try to make the city a bit better, one good deed at the time.

A deaf child had been assaulted right in front of my eyes, and instead of trying to stop the robbers, I ran away to hide. Well, no more. My cowardly had caused way too much pain for others, and I was willing to start rectifying my mistakes.

"Don't worry, kid," I said, as if she was watching me, "I'll take back what they stole from you."

I knew where those criminals would hang, and it was up to me to stop them. In practical terms, I didn't need the suit, but I did need a way to protect my identity if something bad happened, or if any security cam got me.

And speaking of protecting my identity, there was one last element that would work wonders for me. As any cosplay fan knows, hair is one of the most important elements to consider, and unfortunately, my white hair tended to ruin my otherwise perfectly fine cosplays. Ace Savvy wore a red mask that showed his blonde hair, clearly different from my own. Some judges would have been evil enough to automatically disqualify me if I went to a cosplay contest just like that, but I had found a solution: I wouldn't base my cosplay con Ace's current costume —or, well, his last costume—, but instead I would draw inspiration from his original design back in the nineties, which was practically the same, but instead of a mask that simply covered his eyes, he wore a full head one that covered everything but a square that started on his mouth and reached his chin. It was perfect because it wouldn't only hide my hair, it would also make it stand out from all the other Ace Savvy cosplays that would be there. Going for a retro style to look original and different.

And now it would definitely make sure to protect my identity.

Carefully, I undressed until I was only in my underwear, and then I quickly put on, for the first time, my Ace Savvy suit.

"Ugh… these new muscles aren't all that great now that I think about it…"

It was slightly tighter than intended on my shoulders and legs, but the resilient, first-class material was adapting perfectly to my new physique. I stretched out my arms and legs, noting how easily I could move them. Then I put on my bracelets and boots, the belt, and all the accessories that all fit in nicely. The final touch was securing the metallic clips of the cape on my shoulders so it wouldn't come out.

I stood in front of the full-body mirror and admired the result of my work. The reflection staring back at me wasn't that of a defenseless child, scared and confused. What I had in front of me was a hero, ready to correct his mistakes, redeem himself and bring something back to an innocent child.

"Time to deal out some justice," I said, striking what I thought would be a heroic pose before turning around quick enough for my cape to flourish in the air.

The attic had a small window that led to the roof and our backyard. I would have never dared to go through it, but I was confident in my new dexterity. It was a little bit past nine o clock, which meant I had two hours until the time the criminals had agreed to meet.

That suited me well because I had to make a little logistic stop before the confrontation.

Knowing the city helped me avoid the busiest streets and move, as much as possible, through the shadows. I was looking for streets with poor illumination, places with lots of trees for me to jump from one to the other, and I even dared to start going through the backyards of all the houses in the neighborhood. I was technically trespassing their properties by jumping over the fences and running through the backyards, so the fastest I did it, the better. I even had to dodge and outrun two guardian dogs, which was a great motivation to run as fast as I could.

I was still on an experimental phase with my new physical aptitudes, so I took that run in the middle of the night to get to know myself better. The first thing I noticed was that running at high speeds didn't seem to get me tired or agitated. It's not like I felt that I could do it forever, but I was surprised that I wasn't showing any symptoms of fatigue.

I decided to test my athletic skills by figuring out how high I could jump. Spoiler alert: I could do it pretty high. At high speeds, I was able to jump high enough to put my hand on the top of the fences and impulse myself forward. On one occasion I even decided to do a somersault, flipping forward in the air, and I loved the feeling of taking advantage of my jumping momentum and the speed I was running to accelerate my impulse.

I had never felt this happy with my body before.

A new feeling of adrenaline was now invading my veins, making me go faster, jump higher, and move as stealthy as a shadow. It wasn't the emotion of feeling like a hero, or the anxiousness of being about to face two dangerous adults. What guided my steps and ignited a spark within me was feeling a sense of purpose in my actions. I felt it was my responsibility to recover those headphones. It wasn't up to the police, or Nova and Eclipse. It was exclusively my responsibility, and I was willing to do it no matter the cost.

Faster than I would think possible going by feet, I reached my destination: the Spade Manor. Instead of getting in through the front gates, I did it through the backyard. I sneaked my way through the door. During my expeditious retreat the day before, I hadn't even locked the door. I got into the library, moved the red book, and his secret lair was once again at my disposal.

There were many things to check, but time wasn't on my side. I went straight to the case where Ace Savvy displayed all his different decks of utility cards. I picked one of each: regular, smoke, electric and explosives. The buckles fit my belt, although they seemed quite uncomfortable to carry.

"It must take a while to get used to them."

Having now projectiles at my disposal for range combat, I felt slightly more confident in my inevitable confrontation with the criminals, where I'd demand them to give back what they had stolen. In an ideal case, I wouldn't have to fight them, but if it got down to that, I would rather have something to defend myself. I wasn't thinking of taking anything else, but as I was leaving, I couldn't help but notice a different instrument of justice on another case.

At first glance, it looked like a pistol, but you could see the end of a grappling hook coming out of the barrel, in the shape of an Ace of Spades. This guy was very committed to his branding. Obnoxious, but consistent. It was a fundamental part of his repertoire, a tool thanks to which he was able to climb buildings and get through all sorts of obstacles.

I didn't have the slightest idea of how it worked, but it would be very helpful to get to the park faster while remaining hidden and away from the street level. It was much safer, and I could be jumping from rooftop to rooftop and across the streets without just casually running through the sidewalk. I decided to examine it. I found the safe, the trigger of course, and two buttons, one green, and one red. The green one had the icon of a bullseye over it.

"I guess there's no harm in testing it once."

I went to the living room and set my eyes on the first-floor hall that worked as a sort of balcony to the library. I decided to aim at the balustrade and pressed the green button. As I had assumed, a small laser pointer turned on, helping me aim.

"Please don't explode, please don't explode, please don't explode…"

I pressed the trigger and, had I not been extremely tense, the recoil would have made me take a few steps back. The hook flew through the air, staying connected to the main gun by a thin metal cable. It went over the balustrade, but before slipping out, it secured itself on the floor.

"Alrighty, so I guess I'll just press the red button an— HOLY MOLEY!"

As soon as I pressed the button, it was like someone tried to rip my arm off. I didn't fully understand how that grappling hook gun worked, but an incredible tractive force impulsed me towards the other end of the cable. I flew through the air, and between the threat of my arm getting out of my socket and the disorientation of having lost any sense of support and direction, it took me a second to react. Old Lincoln would have crashed face-first into the wall, but my new reflexes allowed me to analyze the situation, and almost instinctively, I put my body in the right position so my feet would absorb the impact and stop my fall on the first floor.

"Huh… alright, I think I just need a bit of practice," I said, moving my shoulder in circles to make sure it was in the right position. "At least the spandex took it like a champ. I knew my dad's fabrics would be top-notch."

Not wanting to waste any more time, I ventured out of the manor and went straight to my date with fate.

Hidden on a dense, voluptuous treetop, I waited in silence and still as a stone gargoyle, watching over the city from the top of a gothic cathedral. Getting there hadn't been easy since even at night, some parts of the park were still very well lit. Just a hundred and fifty feet away from my position, a sports court had several teenagers and young adults invested in a game of basketball. Avoiding them had presented itself as a challenge, but I felt invisible as I jumped from one bush to the next, waiting for the right moment to dash.

Stealth check: natural twenty. The best rogue in the history of Dungeons and Dragons.

Between all my gadgets, what I was missing was a clock. The waiting became eternal and quite maddening, but I had no other choice but patiently waiting. They said they would meet in the park's bridge, and there was only one bridge that went over the small creek that ended in the mini-lake of Justice's Park. I could only hope that those two delinquents would keep their word and be organized enough to meet at the time they arranged. It's not like I could do anything if they didn't show up. I didn't know who they were, or where they lived, or how to get to them. I could only wait and stay there to try to get those headphones back.

It took a while, and in one opportunity I got tense when I saw a figure walking to the bridge, but it was just someone walking their dog. At one point I begin to even doubt that they'd show up, but my patience was rewarded, and two figures appeared on each end of the bridge, walking towards each other.

They hadn't even changed their clothes. The bald man with a grey hoodie and the one with a black beanie met in the middle of the bridge, right between two lamps. They looked at each side, making sure that no one was around, and they began whispering and taking out a bag with something inside.

That was the moment of truth. Every inch of me was trembling, but there was no going back now. I thought of Ace Savvy. He would have moved forward, he would have done the right thing. I was faced with one of destiny's crossroads, and the path I chose would define me as a person. Would I be a coward yet another time?

Or would I act like a hero?

Sometimes, all you need is a leap of faith, and that's why I jumped from the branch I was resting on.

I perfectly cushioned my fall, and my cape fluttered so fluidly behind me that I wish I had a camera to record it. My hands were still trembling, and I was starting to sweat under my mask, but I managed my fear as I walked with anxious steps to the small bridge. I stopped thirty feet away from the thieves, who didn't seem to realize I was there yet.

I closed my fists and put them in a jar position on my waist. I spread my legs a big, lifted my chin up, and puffed my chest.

Round of surprise.

"H-Hey, you!" I said, embarrassed that I was stuttering.

The two men were taken aback, quickly turning to face me. Their small eyes seemed terrified at first when they saw my suit, but it didn't take long for them to adopt an unfriendly look.

"What the hell are you doing, kid?"

"Didn't you hear? Halloween was over months ago, punk."

"Get lost and leave us alone."

Good, they didn't automatically pull out a gun to shoot me dead. The worst-case scenario hadn't occurred yet.

When they turned, I was able to now look at their hands, and I could see that peeking out of the bag they had, there was the blue purse they had stolen from the woman. It was all the confirmation I needed.

"I'm here to kindly request that you give back the items you stole!" I said, trying to sound confident.

One of them, the one that looked like a fat bull, snorted.

"I don't know what you're talking about. Get out of here before you make me mad, shithead."

I didn't like his insult.

"Oh, so that woman's purse is yours?" I said, pointing at the small object. He tried to hide it inside the bag, but the damage was already done. I felt like being a bit more insolent. "That's so cute. Did your husband buy it for you?"

I made a hand gesture towards the other guy, the bald rhino. They both frowned, and even though part of me was starting to get scared, there was also a tiny bit of me that was satisfied with my improvised teasing.

"Are you trying to get in trouble?!" Said the bald guy, pacing towards me. My whole body got ready. "Get out of here right now before I rip that bucktooth out of your mouth!"

I stood right where I was. Part of my plan was to react more than acting. I wasn't sure of how to attack someone, but that day's events had convinced myself that my reaction time and reflexes were superb. If I was lucky, they would be enough.

"You hit a woman, you stole her purse, and you took the headphones of a deaf child," I said, raising my voice, trying to sound ominous. "Give them back so I can take them to who they belong."

"And what will you do if we refuse?" Said the other guy, starting to get closer to me as well.

Roll for initiative.

The bald guy was now just ten feet away from me, and my eyes were quick to read his body language. I noticed his tense fists, his clenched teeth, the way his torso seemed to start leaning to the right.

When he finally stretched his hand to try to grab me by the chest, I was prepared. With a quick flick of my arm, I hit his wrist, deflecting his arm. Taking advantage of that one second of confusion that my action caused on him, I jumped in my place to gain a little height, and with my other hand, I grabbed his hoodie, pulling it over his head and allowing gravity to get me to the floor, so my weight and my grip on him made him fall headfirst into the ground. Thinking of all those martial arts movies I had seen over the years, as I was laying down on my back I moved my legs and did some sort of double-kick into the air, using that impulse to arch my spine and get in a squatting position, ready to deal with the other guy as the first one tried to recover.

"You son of a bitch!" Yelled the one with the black beanie, charging at me.

Like an experienced bullfighter, I waited until the last second to dash a step to my left. He tried to punch me, but the new angle messed up with his gravity center, so seizing the opportunity, I palmed his fist, pushed it out of the way so it wouldn't hit me, and at the same time, I kicked him on his supporting leg.

He crashed behind me, his body dragging itself until he was next to his partner, who was only now getting back on his feet.

"Take back the stuff you stole and surrender!" I demanded, looking at them sideways and raising my arms up on guard.

They didn't look at me like I was a stupid kid. I could see that in their eyes. The bald one, who I had taken on first, seemed to want to get back to me, probably wanting to punch me in the face this time, but the other guy grabbed his arm.

"Drop it, let's go!"

"The fuck you mean drop it?! He's just a-!"

"He's a metahuman, you idiot! Let's go!"

Pressed by that revelation, the two of them gave me one last, nasty look before they got up and began to run in the opposite direction. In all the different scenarios I had pictured in my head, things would always end up with a fight in the worst-case scenario, or with them surrendering and giving me the stuff in a best-case scenario. I hadn't considered that they would run away from me.

I couldn't let that happen. I chased after them, but even though they looked like two double-door fridges, they moved pretty fast. I didn't seem to be cutting down the distance between them and me. They were moving straight to the court, where people were still playing ball. In an ideal world, no other person should have seen me, but I couldn't let them get in the middle of a chase, or even worse, let them become collateral damage.

We were surrounded by trees, so thinking fast, I grabbed my grappling hook gun from my belt, I aimed, and I shot it. Having done some practice on my way to the park, I was ready to be impulsed. I basically flew right over the two men on the run and managed to get into an advantageous elevated position. I couldn't tell whether they had noticed me or not, but they kept running at the court, passing right beneath me.

I pressed the outside of the green deck, catching the metal card that jumped right into my palm. After some quick mental math, I threw it with all my strength. Unlike the next day, my improved arm managed to get the projectile to cross the air until it impacted the ground right in front of the thieves. The card shattered, releasing a big cloud of smoke that quickly surrounded them. I heard some screams from the guys playing basketball, and the delinquents coughing.

Without further ado, I jumped from the tree and run right into the smokescreen with the intention of tackling them down. As I got in it, I could clearly hear someone saying "Ace Savvy?!".

I had to close my eyes to keep the smoke from irritating them and being practically blind I threw a side kick forward. I was lucky enough to hit someone, and judging by the noise they made, I managed to get them both to trip and fall.

The smoke had helped me gain time and ambush them, but now it was starting to play against me. Covering my face with my cape, I rolled diagonally, escaping the cloud. Once I was back on my feet, I turned around, just in time to see the two men coughing and crawling out of the smoke to get some fresh air. I spotted the bad with the purse inside and, presumably, the headphones, so I dashed towards it. I ducked to grab it, but a big, hairy hand also closed on it at the same time. I tried to pull it out of his grasp, but from the ground, the man kicked me right on my shin.

I had to bite my lip to keep myself from groaning out loud with how sharp the pain was. My leg gave up and I fell on one knee. I had never had a big tolerance to pain, and right then I could see stars dancing around my head. My moment of weakness was the opportunity they were waiting for, and soon the other guy stood up and kicked me right on my ribs. All the air left my lungs and I rolled sideways, coughing and trying to recover.

They must have thought that they had me cornered, since they both approached me with the clear intention of beating me down on the ground, but I was quicker. I rolled back just in time to dodge a new kick and stood up. Even with my chest and leg throbbing in pain, I adopted a defensive stand. The bald man threw a punch in my direction, but I simply moved my head to the side to dodge it. Our height difference left me right in front of his unprotected torso, which I immediately punched as hard as I could right in the stomach pit. I heard his gasping and losing his breath, but I had to push him to the left so he would get in between me and his comrade, who tried to get to me as I was busy with someone else. He tossed his partner out of the way and tried to jab me with his left fist. Trying to catch a punch coming from someone three times my weight seemed like suicide, so I just hit the side of his wrist with the back of my hand to divert it away from me. He threw a second punch, and this time I could only cross my arms and take it. My forearm resented the hit and I had to back off a step.

He threw a new punch with the same fist, and this time I didn't feel ready to take it. Instead, I slid right, and with a quick move that I had seen Ace doing countless times, I stretched my leg to kick him right on the side of his knee. He grunted and fell, grabbing the joint I had just hurt, and since he was now at my same height, I decked him right in the jaw.

I could sense the vibrations of his skull back in my fist, and my wrist even resented the impact as I saw him crumbling down, temporarily stunned. I could also hear several cheers of admirations coming from the audience that two minutes ago was simply playing some games late at night with their friends.

I couldn't afford to get distracted, though, since now the guy with the grey hoodie had taken a pocket knife. He deployed it, and the blade shone brightly in the middle of the night as a latent threat to me. I couldn't let him connect a single stab at me, since that would quite possibly be the end of my short life. Part of me started to get a bit desperate, but I wasn't going to let that desperation creep into me and control me.

I waited for him to get closer, and as soon as he started slashing at the air trying to get me, I only managed to retreat and dodge. None of us was an expert in martial arts or street fights, so my deduction was that if I decided to wait and not rush into action, I would soon find an opening to counterattack. I was smaller, faster and more agile, so stalling and waiting for the right time seemed like my best option.

He kept throwing brute attacks in my direction, and I simply dodged them jumping from here to there. At some opportunity, I thought I saw an opening to hit him, but I was afraid of messing it up and ending up dead for a miscalculation. The other guy, the one with the beanie, was just now starting to get up, and I could see from the corner of my eye that he wasn't doing any good, falling over and over to the ground and grabbing his jaw.

Suddenly, the sound of a police siren resonating through the air stopped me and my foe. We both turned just in time to see two police officers coming down from a car, about three hundred feet away from us.

"Oh, fuck!" He said, his eyes filled with terror.

That unexpected distraction was exactly what I needed. All it took was a round kick to his wrist to send the blade flying through the air, leaving him unarmed and defenseless. Knowing that it would take an instant or two for him to recover, I first struck him in his stomach pit to take his breath away, then on his kidneys so he would stoop down in pain, and finally a powerful punch to his nose to get him to fall back, knocked out on the floor.

Just the day before, my fists wouldn't have been able to even tickle someone as buff as he was, but I could sense the strength that each of my punches carried, and it wasn't that of a child. They were potent punches that must have hit like a dry brick.

With one less, there was only the guy with black clothes left. It turned in his direction. He was still on his knees, but now he stared at the police officers coming our way. His eyes set on me, and desperation I saw in them told me that was about to do something either very radical or very stupid.

He put a hand behind his back to reach for something, and when he brought it back, he was carrying a small, black handgun. It looked almost plastic, but I was sure that it wasn't. He started to move his arm in my direction, but I immediately began running in circles, getting away from his aim. I pressed the regular deck, and as soon as I could, I threw a card directly at his right hand.

Having missed my target for a few inches, I'm almost sure I could have accidentally killed that dude. Luckily, my throwing hand was working wonders, and the fine metal sheet hit the exact center of the pistol's muzzle, and the impact was so strong that he was forced to drop it.

Now knowing that this criminal was willing to shoot a kid just to get away with his evil intentions, I dropped any reservation I could have still had within me. I ran straight at him, jumped when I was about two feet away, and I let my knee hit him right in the face with all the speed and momentum I was carrying. I heard a disgusting sound, like when you're playing with a bubble wrap and instead of popping one bubble at a time you roll it up and twist it to get rid of many of them. I even felt a bit of pain in my knee, although it was probably nothing compared to what that guy felt, moaning limply on the floor. His hands didn't seem to be enough to stop the geyser of blood that poured from his nose like a scarlet well.

"Whooooooa! That was AWESOME!"

I turned at all the teens and guys that had been playing basketball. Of course, their game had been completely forgotten, and now they were standing in a semicircle at a prudent distance from where the fight had occurred. To my absolute despair, almost all of them had their phones out, and the bright lights of the flashlight told me that they were recording me.

I felt terrified. I didn't want anyone to ever find out what I had done. The last thing I wanted was that because of any mistake from my part, I would leave any clue behind to guide the authorities into me. Plus, if they had recorded me, they would have evidence that I was using Ace Savvy's decks, and I clearly didn't want any involvement in that.

The cops were still on their way, so I quickly grabbed the bag that the criminals had left behind. I was about to run away, but if I left like that, I was afraid of everyone thinking I was stealing.

I turned to look at the cameras.

"These men assaulted a woman and her child this afternoon," I explained, showing them the purse. "I'm just gonna return this to who it belongs."

Not waiting for a second longer, I grabbed my grappling hook gun and shot at the farthest tree I could see. It was an elegant way to get away from there as fast as possible.

As I was thrown into the air at full speed, I could hear the boys cheering me on. I had memorized the address the woman had given to Katherine Mulligan, so once again, I sneaked my way around town to get there.

My mind was still trying to process everything that had happened. I fought two men! Two dangerous criminals that I had been able to overpower, leaving them in the hands of the police! I'm not gonna lie, now that the adrenaline was starting to die down, I began feeling all the fear I had repressed during the fight. What if something went wrong? What if they punched me in the face and I couldn't react in time? What if the bald guy managed to hit me with the knife? And if the other guy wasn't as stunned and he was able to shoot at me in the act? I could've easily died in that confrontation. It could have been my end, and who would explain that to my dads? Fear was starting to get the best of me, and I had to shake my head to get those thoughts out of my mind.

"It's over, it's done. I survived. Now I just need to deliver this."

It took me a while, but I finally reached my destination. All the lights were off, so I just grabbed the purse, the headphones, put them on top of the bag, and using a piece of paper and a pen that I found in the bag, I wrote a small note.

"I believe this belongs to you."

And just to seem cryptic, I drew a small symbol of an ace of spades as a signature. I rang the bell and ran as fast as I could. By the time I reached the corner of the street, I could hear the sound of a door being open, and that's how I managed to smile all the way back home.

Sneaking through the attic's open window wasn't as easy as I thought it'd be, but I managed to do it just fine. I changed into my pajamas once again and hid my suit along with the gadgets I borrowed from Ace. My original idea was to put them back in Spade's Manor that same night, but truth be told, I was feeling exhausted. My legs, arms, and chest were aching, and I didn't feel like overextending my nightly tour of the city. It was a bit past midnight by the time I silently made my way back into bed.

My whole body was screaming for rest, and when I finally placed my head on the pillow, the only thing I was able to think before falling into a deep slumber was the fact that I had done the right thing.