I'm baaaack! Thought you got rid of me, huh? I'm just kidding. Oh, before I forget, when picturing Iniidae, I literally just think of an adorably-blue version of Dr. Blowhole from Penguins of Madagascar without the eye piece, if that helps you any. Anyway, please enjoy Firsts.

Firsts

Arion looked down at Iniidae, who was happily splashing around in a bowl of cool water. He was the oddest little thing the boy had ever seen. He looked a lot like a dolphin, but cuter and very blue. And he liked fish sticks. Lots of fish sticks, actually, since the kwami had already gone through two boxes of Gorton's finest. It was a little concerning, really. Where did Iniidae put it all?

Arion chose to ignore that and sat down in front of his computer. Iniidae had said he could come up with his own superhero name, and since he was apparently going to be a dolphin-themed one, he figured he'd better do some research. He didn't want to be known as 'that one weird kid who dresses up like a dolphin and saves Crimson Bay.' No, he wanted a cool name.

Five minutes later, however, he had come up empty.

"Hey, Iniidae?" he called out. "What was your last chosen called?"

The tiny kwami stopped splashing around for a moment, considering. "He was Dauphin, which means dolphin in French, even though he was from England. Ugh, I hated that place! Did you know that legally all of the dolphins and swans in England belong to the queen? It was awful! But, oh, you should have seen Ollor's face when she was caught in the Swan Upping! I don't think I've ever laughed that hard!"

Arion wasn't sure what to do with that information, but he knew he wasn't going to call himself Dauphin. How stupid was that?

"Were there any dolphin gods?" he wondered aloud.

Iniidae surprised him by answering. "Yep! Delphin helped Poseidon in the Greek myths. Why?"

Hmm, a helpful dolphin god named Delphin? It wasn't as stuffy as Dauphin, but it wasn't as stupid as just plain old Dolphin. Yeah, he could work with that.

"Alright," Arion decided. "I'll be Delphin."

Helen found herself immersed in a story she'd just found about a swan who learned to accept fate's plans and became beautiful because of it when she heard a small rumbling noise coming from Ollor's direction. Oh god, was the kwami about to explode?! Could they even do that?! With violet eyes wide, Helen looked over at the bird-like creature. Ollor had a wing pressed to her stomach, a sheepish (can swans look sheepish?) look on her face.

"I'm sorry," she apologized. "I'm just hungry. I haven't eaten in ten years."

"What do you eat?" the girl questioned, figuring it to be polite.

"Bread, mostly. I'll eat any kind you can give me, but my last cygnet made me an amazing rosemary bread that she copied from her favorite restaurant," she admitted.

Rosemary bread? That actually sounded really good. Helen made a mental note to look up a recipe for it later, but right now she had to go get Ollor something to eat. She was pretty sure they had some rye bread in the kitchen . . .

A few minutes later, Ollor was buried up to her beak in bread while Helen continued searching for her superhero name. A lot of the stories she'd found came from the areas around Ireland, so maybe she could be called whatever swan was in Irish? It was worth a shot. With a quick search, Helen had her name.

Eala. That was what she would be called. But how was she supposed to be a hero? Was there a suit? Magic? Something had to happen, right?

"So, how does this work?" she wondered aloud. "Like, how do I become a hero?"

"I transform you," Ollor explained, nibbling on a slice of wheat bread. "All you have to say is 'Ollor, wings unfurl' and you'll become a hero. Maybe you should go ahead and try transforming and moving around the city. It's best if you try out your wings before your first battle, and sometimes my swans have . . . extra qualities in the suit."

Helen wasn't sure what that meant, but she couldn't see anything wrong with Ollor's suggestion. With only a slight hesitation, she called out the transforming phrase.

"Ollor! Wings unfurl!"

"Wait, not–" but Ollor was cut off as she was absorbed into Helen's necklace. The pendant, which had become a silver triangle the moment Ollor escaped, returned to the wing Helen had seen before. A grey energy ran up her body, turning her comfy jeans and tank top into a white body suit. The energy finally came to a stop around her face. She felt an odd sort of weight on her back, though it wasn't too noticeable.

Helen blinked the light from her eyes after the transformation had finished. When she looked in the mirror, she was amazed. The white suit faded into black boots and grey gloves. The transformation had even created enormous white wings that hung from her shoulders, along with a black mask that hid her identity. She was a superhero! She had wings! This was amazing! Happily, she tried to call out to Ollor –if magic existed, maybe the kwami could still hear her –but to her amazement, no sound came out.

Her voice was gone!

Panicking, she tried to say something, anything. Why couldn't she talk? What had she done?! As she kept trying to make some sort of noise, a feeling of knowledge brushed against her mind. Untransform, it whispered, telling her how to do just that. Without hesitation, Helen mouthed "Wings fold!"

As the grey energy raced back up her body, taking with it the suit and the wings and the mask, Ollor popped out of the necklace and landed on Helen's desk. She looked slightly tired, as though just the transformation had drained her. Maybe it had. She'd been locked away for a decade, after all.

"Why couldn't I talk?!" Helen demanded, grateful her voice was back. "What did you do to me?!"

Ollor at least had the sense to look ashamed. "I told you; sometimes my swans have different qualities when they're transformed. Sometimes they're mute. That just means you'll be so connected with your partner that you won't have to speak to communicate."

"Partner?" she echoed. She was really getting confused. She'd just barely accepted that superheroes and magic existed, but now she had a partner, too?

"Yes. My counterpart, Iniidae, is probably talking to his calf right now. Either that or he's eating fish sticks and playing around in a bathtub. You know how dolphins are; friendly and playful and never take anything seriously. Ugh, I could peck him to death sometimes! But he's never chosen wrong before. Your partner will be perfect for you, trust me."

Helen sat down, mind spinning with all of this new information. Honestly, despite how freaked out she was about the whole thing, she had to admit it was pretty cool. Who else could say they were going to be a real life superhero? There was just one last question she had for the kwami.

"Do the wings actually work?"

Arion looked out his window as Iniidae chittered happily in his bowl. He'd never seen anything in his whole life that was as happy as the kwami. Just as he was about to ask Iniidae to keep it down –what if his parents heard him? –he caught a glimpse of something outside. A bright streak of white flew by the window, just slow enough for Arion to pick out the shape of the wings propelling it forward.

"Hey, Iniidae?" he called. "You said something earlier about a partner, right? Any chance they're a bird?"

"Swan," the dolphin corrected. "Why?"

"Because a white blur with wings just flew past my window," he explained.

"Oh, that's your partner! Go meet them! Wait, transform first!"

Arion looked at the kwami, staring into his sea-green eyes with confusion. "How do I do that?"

Iniidae tilted his head, as if trying to remember. "Oh, right! You say 'Iniidae, fins extend' and I get sucked back into your bracelet."

He studied the bracelet that the kwami had escaped from, noting how the band had changed from silver to gold and lost the water drops. Huh. When had that happened? "Alright," he finally said "Iniidae, fins extend!"

In a rush of royal blue energy, the dolphin kwami spiraled into the accessory, bringing with him a wave of the magic. It swept up Arion's body, turning his clothes into a form-fitting body suit. Once the light died down, he glanced in his mirror. Huh. Well, what else had he expected?

Instead of Arion, a superhero stood in his place. He wore a skin-tight suit, a white patch along his front and aqua blue for the rest. Twin fins extended from his ankles, small enough to run without worrying about tripping but big enough to help him should he decide to swim. The suit formed a hood in the shape of a dolphin's head, covering most of his messy black hair. His sea-green eyes peered out from behind a mask that matched the blue of his suit.

"Cool," he said, startled by how out of place his voice seemed.

He looked around for Iniidae, but of course he was gone. He was inside the bracelet now, so Arion was on his own.

No, Delphin was on his own.

Eala flew unsteadily over the streets of Crimson Bay, doing her best to stay aloft. Sneaking out had been harder than she'd thought; who knew her wings would be so cumbersome? They'd barely fit through her window. But once she was out, she had taken to the skies. Flying was amazing! She'd never felt this free before. How could she go back to walking on the ground when she could fly whenever she wanted?

She was just about to turn around and fly the other way when she noticed someone running toward the dark pier. Who was that? Was it a colubra? Ollor had warned her about Vipera's minions. Eala adjusted her wings instinctively, soaring down to catch the person who could possibly cause destruction to her city.

Within seconds, she landed in front of him, wings extended menacingly. The expression on her face was pure defensive rage. Though, to her surprise, the person she landed in front of wasn't angry. In fact, he looked elated.

He was also dressed like a blue dolphin.

"You must be my partner!" he greeted. "I'm Delphin. What's your name?"

Eala shook her head. I can't speak, she mouthed. Delphin frowned back at her.

"You can't talk? Why not?" he asked.

Mute swan, she replied slowly. Then something caught her eye and she grinned. She pointed to the dark Ferris wheel that had closed only an hour ago.

Delphin looked where she pointed before staring at her with wide eyes. "We can't go up there!" he cried. "We'd be trespassing!"

Eala shrugged. Fine, if he didn't want to go, she wouldn't force him, but she was going anyway. Just as she began to judge how to best take off from her position, Delphin spoke again.

"Alright, fine, I'll go," he said. "But if we get caught, it's on you."

Eala nodded, her smile returning full force. This could be fun. But how was she going to get them up there? She could barely keep herself up while flying! That's when she remembered her fan. She had discovered the object moments into her second transformation. It was an enormous folding fan, mostly white –the handle part was a dark grey –with spikes that resembled feathers extending from the top. It was attached to her hip by a black wire that she had found would extend as long as she wanted it –up to a certain point at least. She couldn't just extend it across the city or anything. She got the feeling the wire was supposed to let her keep a hold of the fan, but it might be able to haul Delphin up to the top of the Ferris wheel.

With a less-than-expert throw, Eala tossed the folded fan skyward, watching as it wrapped around the support beam of the highest basket. She pulled experimentally on the end of the wire in her grasp, pleased when it didn't come tumbling down. She handed the wire to Delphin and mimed zipping upward to the rest of the fan.

"You've got to be kidding me," he stated, disbelief in his sea-green eyes. "You want me to climb up this magic wire to the top? What if I fall?"

Eala mimed catching him with a smarmy grin on her face.

"You know, for a mute girl, you're pretty sarcastic," Delphin grumbled. "Alright, wish me luck."

He tugged on the wire a bit, though still it refused to budge. With a sigh, he took a leap into the air, fully expecting to only get a few feet up. To his surprise, the wire responded to his movements, dragging him into the air at an alarming rate. After what seemed like an eternity of terrifying acrobatics, Delphin landed inside the basket, stunned at what he had just done. Seconds later, the mute heroine landed beside him and folded up her wings. She held out a hand, and it took him a few seconds to realize she was asking for her fan. He handed it back gladly.

"S-so," he stuttered, still trying to calm his heart rate. "Do you come here often?"

She gave him a look, exaggerating her unusual violet eyes.

"Geeze, I'm just trying to start a conversation," Delphin muttered. "Do you at least have a name, Madam Mystery?"

The white-clad girl tilted her head, as though she was thinking. Did she really not know if she had a name? Or was she trying to figure out how to tell him? After a while, she took her folded fan off her hip and started tapping the flat part facing her. She then showed him the weapon, revealing a tiny screen with a single word printed on it: Eala.

"Eala?" he asked. "That's your name?"

Eala nodded, and then tied her fan back around her waist. Delphin was extremely jealous; why didn't he get the awesome weapon with a screen? His arm fins –two sticks with a handle each and a wicked sharp fin attached to both of them –didn't have a screen! But then again, neither had Eala's fan. At least, not until she wanted it to. Maybe his fins worked the same?

Eh, that was a question for another day.

The two heroes looked at each other, unsure of what to do now. Now that they had met, they should have started talking to one another, but that was impossible. Eala couldn't talk, and Delphin didn't want to make her type everything she wanted to say. It took a while, but they finally found a way to interact: they played a game.

Since the baskets of the Ferris wheel were littered with trash, they began tossing the pieces out of the basket, trying to make it into a very small trashcan very far away. It started out innocently enough, but by the time they ran out of trash to throw, they had already started tackling each other and waving when the other was throwing. Once Delphin threw the last piece of garbage – he missed, which sucked –the heroes began climbing down the ride. Eala didn't want to try and fly him down and Delphin didn't want to use her fan again.

There were a few close calls, but they made it down to the ground safely. After picking up the few scraps that didn't make it into the trashcan, the heroes looked at one another.

"I-I have to go," Delphin said regretfully. "My parents want me to get up early so we can go out to breakfast."

Eala nodded. She had to wake up early too, to help her parents out in their antique shop. She waved at her partner –that was going to take some getting used to –before spreading her wings and taking to the skies. Delphin watched her go, some warm feeling blossoming in his chest. He didn't know what to call the feeling, but he did know one thing.

He was going to find that girl again.

So, I want to explain their weapons. Eala's fan might have a wire like Ladybug's yo-yo, but she can't use it like one. Her weapon is more slashy than stringy, if that makes any sense. She will only use the string to help Delphin up –and this will probably be the last time she does that –or to tie it around her waist. Delphin's arm fins are not like Chat's staff, either. He can't make them grow or anything. I'm not sure I did a great job with the description, either. Basically they're made of two pieces of wood –or whatever their weapons are made of, I'm not sure –that form what sort of looks like a police baton. He holds the shorter piece like a handle while the other part –the one with the fin –rests against his outer arm. Does that make any sense? I know that this is an actual weapon, just minus the fin, but I can't figure out what it's called. If anyone knows the answer, could you please tell me? I'd be very grateful! Thanks for reading!

~C