Heart-Shaped Box

She sat straight-backed in the plush red circular booth, her two rabbit-like 'ears' atop her head twitched in signal to their waitress. As the server took each of their party's orders, Ray relaxed as the eyes of the restaurant's patrons seemed fully enraptured in either their own plates or the two costumed adventurers that sat with Miss Normandy and himself.

"You doin' alright there, Sunshine?" Bunny asked as she lifted at the neck of her face mask and let the collected material bunch up on the bridge of her nose.

Beneath the costume her skin was extremely pale with patches of bluish-green skin serving as spots much like what was mottled black across her costume. She took a long sip from her glass of ice water while the scent of containment foam solvent that wafted over from her costume reminded him of the fight from earlier.

"Yeah, bueno, Bunny I'm just sorry about earlier."

"Ain't a thing, Sunshine. Dontcha worry none, Youth Guard called me in to help ya anyway. I'ma tough gal, if I didn't make it this far without taking muh lumps like a champ I'd be retired already."

She jabbed her elbow into the black clad side of Shadow Miser.

"Ahh, yes, I have seen this tall mount of ladyship here tank the front end of a four door sedan with two Ibproufen and a carafe of freshly prepared kale juice not sixty minutes later."

Ray slumped a little less in his seat, "So, Ms Normandy is the reason you pulled in these two cuz they have to hide how they look, or what?"

"No- not just that. They both entered the child welfare system many years after the advent of Capes. Both triggered while young or in the system, and both struck out on their own, carved their own paths outside of the PRT and Protectorate. I chose them because well-" Karin was interrupted by Shadow Miser.

"My biological parents were short lived villains. They operated as the Lord and Lady of Shadow with a revolving door of goons for their crew. By the time I left infancy they'd started grooming me once word generation capes triggered early. I went by loose names like Dauphin of Crime, Prince Eclipse, as they attempted to force my trigger. It was not until they were arrested taking me final job that I was taken from them. As a witness I was part of their trial and at sentencing they attacked a guard."

"Oof, that's crazy, man. Did- did that add to their sentences?"

"Most Lady executed Lord and then herself with the guard's weapon. Seeing this, well I was devastated and I triggered."

"Oh."

"I remember sitting on the bench and the crowd stood barely see but I - I heard the first shot and then my name and the second shot. Everything got dark and I disappeared, and they found me asleep in a custodial closet I saw on the way to the elevator bank in the court house."

"Sorry, man."

Shadow Miser shrugged and Bunny bumped his shoulder playfully. The contrast of her white and black spotted costume and his jet black outfit to the warm tan stucco walls, various celebrity photos and local art pieces that decorated the restaurant made for a surreal lunch break from his recent testing.

"Don't make Ray cry into the napkin holder. Shadow here left out he got nice folks to take him in. He went to night school, got good grades, took online did distance law school and now splits his time in court for young capes like yourself. Plus fighting the good fight during Endbringer attacks and major disasters moving the injured and finding lost and trapped people."

Bunny gave Ray a tight lipped smile as the waitress returned with their orders and parcelled them out. A couple minutes passed as they dug their meal and Sea Bunny finished chugging her smoothie.

"As for myself, Sunshine, classic story: farmer's daughter struggling with a rare autoimmune disease. Daddy sold everything then borrowed, begged and stole until he went beyond his means to fix me. I ended up slipping into a coma and when I woke I was exposed to some exotic cure that made me amight sensitive to chemicals to help me eat and drink to homeostasis extending my life and gave me them spines growing out muh flesh. But it cost me my folks lives when they tried to go to the authorities when they saw what the cure turned me into."

Ray's shoulders sagged after hearing the hero cheerfully recount her circumstances. He looked from the heroine to Ms Normandy, "Like I haven't even decided I want to even use my - stuff for anything, ya know? Just wanna know right now how to get this stuff under control so I don't end up having a nightmare and waking up in middle of the Bay, yeah? And, no offense guys about your pasts, but how exactly is all that supposed to help me?"

"Sunshine, she's just tryna show yer life ain't over cuz you lost your folks. It sucks to feel alone and the world is out to getcha but we're here for you. Karin here is letting you meet us so you have people who understand where ya coming from and can help ya, Ray."

Karin sighed and turned her body a bit to face Ray properly in the booth. "Full disclosure, Ray, but you're alot closer to legal adulthood then most kids that come through the system. What happened in Brockton Bay with the Leviathan attack, it made alot of orphans and displaced kids that are putting stress on the entire welfare system across the East Coast. Alongside you are several other freshly empowered kid capes and you're basically aging out before we can ever properly help you."

The food still making it's way down to his stomach felt gross and alien as he processed this revelation. He tried to tap his foot nervously but it nearly made his shoe fly off with the burst of super powered anxiety. He took a deep breath and held it for a long moment, focusing on being still to diffuse the energy and all other urges before he spoke, "Wait, whoa, hold up - cuz I'm about to hit eighteen soon the government is going to drop me into the real world broke, alone, and and looking like a, like a... Freak?"

Bunny quickly put her gloved hand over his own and gave it a reassuring squeeze, as Ray tried his best to not jump out of the booth.

"Well, not necessarily broke. Your grandfather had an insurance he continued from after his military service, and your grandparents estate is able to recover funds from a disaster fund for the loss of your grandmother and your home. So - there's that. Ahh, I have some contacts in here in Boston to set you up with a residence at a halfway home so you can have some supervision as you transition and get a chance to finish your last year of school", Karin continued.

"And myself or SB can make ourselves available to talk or meet up or help make other arrangements. We're here for you, Ray", Shadow Miser said.

For a brief moment Ray felt the familiar tug of his power but his brain imagined the tiny dark room with the meager possessions that literally filled a shoe box. The oily tang if containment foam solvent gave him focus for the here and now.

"Alright, alright. Thanks for the offers and being upfront with me. I just need to know one thing about the Levi thing - Endbringer... Is it dead? Did they kill it?"

Bunny's ears drooped as she gave his hand another squeeze as Shadow spoke up.

"Scion showed up and Eidolon helped drive it out of the city."

"Then I don't want to stay here in Boston. Can you all help me settle things with - with my legal stuff so I can start over at least?"

"What do you have in mind, Ray?"

Ray chewed his bottom lip for a moment, "let's finish my testing so we know what I am about and then I'll tell you basically what I need."

Sea Bunny pulled her mask back into place, straightened her back and gave Ray a small salute, "At your service, Sunshine. Whatever you need."

~~x