Going to school again was as surreal as it was mind-numbingly dull. It wasn't even like I could explore a new place, everywhere I looked slightly foggy and warped memories flickered beneath my eyes. Got kicked the shit out of here, got kicked the shit out of there, oh the whole track team did it there, although one of them was decidedly more enthusiastic than the others were. Sophie? Something like that.

What was even more startling were the looks that I was getting from the other students. I knew that I had sprouted up at least a few inches, seemingly over night to them; kids that I used to look up to now had to crane their necks slightly to meet my eyes. Even most of the male teachers stood at around the same height or shorter than me, with the exception of the giant gym teacher who was closer to seven feet tall than six. Despite that I was only maybe a few inches shorter than him, easily over six feet where before I well into the five-foot range. It wasn't like I'd been actively measured in school, but I was stuck hoping that in a world full of capes a growth spurt of over half a foot over a weekend wouldn't seem overly suspicious. The almost dear-in-the-headlights look that his classmates were throwing him in the hallways was not reassuring.

It was quite sad knowing that the isolation I was feeling wasn't anything new. From what my memories told me; I didn't really have any friends to speak of. Being a target of the track team wasn't conducive to having a social life it seemed. Oh well, I'm not sure I could have brought myself to care about a bunch of teenagers anyway, especially when half of them may as well be trainee members of gangs and/or racists. Part of me couldn't help but feel like that that tranquillity constantly flowing through me was making me lackadaisical in my response, I had discovered that it was almost a power in and of itself.

S

A dominant, unsurpassed will trembled through my body like a live current. My mind told me that it had interfaced with my actual two powers. Now that it was complete, I knew what I was, and what my powers were and just how disgustingly powerful I was. An Alexandria package of ridiculous strength combined with the ability to manipulate energy and matter on an unthinkable scale. What was worse, I knew that my powers were only growing; if I didn't outstrip Alexandria already, I would given enough time. Not even much time considering the ringing in my ears.

SAFETY IMPLEMENTATION FAILED

D

T

And I – I couldn't work out if this was a good thing. Whether I was the most powerful parahuman on the planet or would be soon, it was a lot of power for any one person. Too much. I wasn't stressed, from what I could tell INVICTUS wouldn't let me, keeping me at a baseline mental state of unbreakable steel, but I couldn't ignore the dangers of what I could do. INVICTUS didn't stop me from being pulled in multiple directions, I genuinely held the potential to do some good in this world.

But I carried Myles' memories too, of a world that didn't care, full of capes that were so far apart they felt unreachable over the vast gulf between them and normal people. Memories full of isolation and hurt and an ocean of unbridled loneliness. Even if my powers stopped me from feeling the full force of them, I knew they were there, and I could almost hear the voice of the 15-year-old Myles crying over how unfair it was. Raging against a world that let criminals walk free, let Lung walk free after- after everything he did. After everything he took from me.

I was so caught up in my thoughts that I didn't notice the small body that had placed itself in my way. Luckily, I was able to pull up enough to not physically walk through them, likely turning them into a fine paste on the way. Instead, the girl was just thrown to the floor, skidding several feet almost like she'd been thrown while I hadn't been budged at all.

She was tall, or as much as I could tell with her sprawled on the floor. Dark-skinned and thin but with visible muscle bulking up her legs and arms. She wore a light grey t-shirt, 'Winslow Athletics' emblazoned across the front in blocky black letters and equally black shorts. Her brown eyes were wide, although they quickly narrowed as she glared up at me, disbelief warring with anger under the surface.

Oh, this was her. Sophie.

"Sorry about that Sophie, I didn't see you there." I grinned crookedly down at her, rubbing at the back of my head while holding the other hand out for her, "My bad."

Sophie stared disbelievingly at the outstretched palm, then up at my face. Before slapping it away and scrambling to her feet. She'd probably get angrier if she knew that I thought she scrambled.

"Sophia, you dick." She snarled at me and I blinked. That was it, it was like a lightbulb went off over my head. Sophia, right. Shadow Stalker.

"Ah, right sorry."

Content to dismiss her from my mind, I moved to step around her, but she stepped with me eyes scowl etched on her face. It was a shame; she could have been called pretty if she wasn't busy glaring at me. Again, I remembered being slammed against lockers, kicks slamming into me as I'm crumpled on the ground, note and textbooks stollen and ruined. Yeah, maybe not.

"You should watch where you're going," something dark glinted behind her eyes, sharp, cutting and far too happy, "Don't know when you could just trip."

She looked far too pleased with herself, and only a second or two from even licking her lips in delight. Sophia really did get off on causing pain to others didn't she? I frowned heavily, realising that she was reference what to her had happened just before the weekend, another memory of flailing limbs and pain. What was the point in having powers now if I couldn't even save myself? I was too selfish to think otherwise, saving the world or an innocent teenage girl who the only thing she had done was trust wrong (trust her best friend) could come later.

First, I had to put a stop to this.

"Like you did just now? Maybe you should take your own advice Sophie."

A smirk twitched at the corner of my lips when I realised how quiet the corridor had just gotten. With my empowered mind I could almost see the emotions shoot through her body in the twitches of her fingers towards a weapon that wasn't there or the micro step towards me. It felt good to talk back to her, looking down on her both physically and emotionally. Although I had to supress the question as to what was causing this. Bullying didn't appear in a vacuum, something had to have caused her to act like this. But I just couldn't care right now. Not when she had hurt Myles, me so many times.

"Shut your mouth Everett, or I'll shut it for you." She snarled at me, finger jabbing towards me harshly, but I stepped back and out of range of it. A twisted smile lifted her lips as she saw a perceived weakness in the retreat. I just didn't want her to break her finger on me.

When Sophia stepped forward again, finger once again coming towards me harder this time my hand shot up and grabbed her wrist. Carefully aware of my own strength I had to work to stop from going straight threw her wrist. Even then she winced in pain as my fingers locked around her wrist, digging painfully into her.

"Stop." My voice was darker then, I knew it, saw it in the widening of her eyes and slight, scared intake of breath, "Leave me alone Sophia."

I bore into her brown eyes with my own, steel on steel trying to make her understand how bad an idea this was. For a moment I thought I saw hesitation, a single second of introspection before it disappeared in smoke and her eyes flashed with determination. She twisted at the hips, moving to grab the wrist of the hand holding hers and body check me over her shoulder. Before she could complete the movement I let go and stepped back again, this time getting far enough away to be well out of arms reach even if she stepped forward. The students behind me stepped back, breaking the near circle around us.

Sophia looked up at me and met my eyes again before I turned away and left. There was something other than anger there again, a dark curiosity or fascination with something that was broken. Something that was impossible. Even as the crowd parted before me I couldn't stop seeing Shadow Stalker there, overlayed instead of Sophia. My memories provided the image for me from PHO, cloaked in black with darker eyes, smoke pouring from them like tears.

It was only when I slumped down into my seat for the next class that I recognised the strange emotion clawing at my throat. Pity.

I put my head in my hands. What a mess.

xOx

When I finally saw Taylor Hebert, I didn't immediately recognise her. In my memories, Myles was so focused on his own suffering that he like many others never looked elsewhere. Each of the victims isolated from the rest of the school from fear of Emma Barnes and Sophia's crackdown. We learned quickly that going to the teachers or principle didn't do anything, I saw images of a thin blond lady dressed in drab clothes glaring at me from behind her desk, like it was my fault that I had a cracked rib and bruises covering most of my upper body; and Emma was all too proud to gloat about her lawyer daddy who would get her out of trouble. So no, when Taylor walked into the classroom, hunched over in an oversized hoodie and baggy trousers I didn't immediately recognise her despite the curly black hair, which was the only thing Myles remembered about her.

No what tipped me off about her was the reaction from my classmates. As soon as she walked in they all turned away, studiously avoiding even looking her direction even as a pretty red-headed girl rose from her seat with a vicious grin. Emma. When I looked at the two girls, my mind couldn't see which was more broken. Taylor was so hunched into herself in not just her posture but her mannerisms, as she sunk into a seat as far back and away from Emma and her 'friends'. But there was so much pain in Emma's eyes, bordering on insanity when she looked at her former best friend, flickers of fire and eyes and a cold, steel knife.

I was expecting to feel pity for Taylor, even a sense of empathy from my own memories of being bullied. What I wasn't expecting was the flicker of pity I felt for Emma too. I couldn't excuse what she'd done, what she was doing, but she was a deeply broken child lashing out at everything to prove her strength against a gang member hovering over her shoulder. A phantom that only she could see.

As Emma slinks towards Taylor, the poor girl flinching with every step her former best friend took, I allowed my hearing bubble to grow out just at the tail end of Emma's scathing first remark.

"-y she's even back here, it's not like anyone wants to see her."

I could hear the sneer just from her voice alone but the look on Taylor's face confirmed it. It looked like she wanted nothing more than to sink into the folds of her hoodie and flip her hood up. If I wasn't looking closely than I would have missed the flintiness of her eyes. That wasn't the look of someone who was (just) miserable, she was holding herself back, but my ears still started to pick up a rise of buzzing and skittering from outside of sight.

It was clear she had triggered then and was having to stop herself from attacking her tormentors. I frowned deeply to myself, trying to think about a course of action. I didn't feel particularly heroic, but I wasn't surprised to find myself struggling to sit back and watch this. How much would it change canon?

But as I looked over at this girl suffering, just like I had memories of suffering but worse because Emma was supposed to be her friend; I knew that I couldn't just sit there. What was the point of this power, of this world and its systems, of the Heroes if nothing stopped this? My will took form, an impenetrable wall of conviction. Undaunted and proud.

S

Stand proud, oh heart of man against the dark, dark calling of the night.

I wasn't quite sure how I had gotten there, but abruptly I was past Emma, darting around her and playing myself between her and Taylor. I was pretty sure that I hadn't moved so fast as to cause suspicion, but I couldn't bring myself to care much in the face of the poor broken red-haired child.

Emma had cut off mid insult, verbally flailing for a moment before her face darkened even further. She looked confused too, like she wasn't even sure who I was or was only seeing me for the first time. Throughout my memories the only words she'd ever spoken to me had been scathing insults from over Sophia's shoulder. She looked quite bewildered to suddenly be in front of me now, not to mention looking up at me from my suddenly taller frame.

"I think you should go back to your seat Emma," My voice was deep, and reverberated over her skin, "There's nothing for you here."

"And you get to decide that…" she paused, "Everett? Trash like you should stay together I suppose."

"Leave."

My tone brokered no argument, but the red head pressed on regardless.

"Protecting your little girlfriend Everett, makes sense that she's had to resort to whoring herself out to Empire wannabees. You the only one who would take her?"

I almost took a step back at the vitriol in her words. Me? A member of a racist gang? This girl was treading a dangerous line.

"I have not, nor will I ever be racist or in a gang," my calm gaze and tone seemed to unsettle her, put her on the back foot, even as I grasped at the flashes of something about her back story that I remembered, "What would you know about gangs Emma? Personal experience perhaps?"

She flinched backwards as if she'd been physically struck, reeling onto her heels away from me. Suddenly the cracks where showing, fear shone in her eyes like a beacon as they flitted over my shoulder and away, away, and away. Her body language had changed completely, from a self-styled predator to a deer-in-the-headlights. Even Taylor noticed it as she peaked out from behind me, green eyes wide and openly showing her shock.

"Leave, Emma. And please, for your own sake, get some help."

My voice was gentler this time, soothing but still held a hint of steel. The bully, the broken child took one step back and then another, before she spun around and fled to her desk deliberately looking away from us with hints of wetness at the corner of her eyes. Guilt coiled around my gut but Invictus pushed through it like a train through wet cardboard. I turned to face Taylor, only to find her glaring up at me, livid emerald boring into my own grey.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

She was seething. I blinked it surprise but before I could respond Mr Gladly strode into the room with all the air of a confident teenager in an adult's body (why did that sound familiar?). He blinked at me in surprise before grinning.

"Myles," it didn't surprise me that he was a teacher that used first names instead of surnames, "why don't you continue chatting with your lady friend after class. Off to your seat now, off you go."

He chortled to himself, even as I returned to my desk feeling Taylor's glare on my back redouble as the class laughed at us; especially Emma trying to regain some of her injured pride. Great, thanks 'Mr. G', you've pissed her off even more. Just bloody perfect.

A/N: So yeah second chapter is here. Still no major action but that should hopefully change within the next chapter or two. Don't expect for me to continue updating and this pace though, I'm running on random muses and inspiration so any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for all the people that have responded so far. I also desperately need a cape name for Myles. Send help.