Creation 1.5

My first impression of Kid Win was tired. My first for Shadow Stalker, was pissed off.

I didn't have to guess who was giving off the wrong one.

The door buzzed, and we all donned our masks, helmets, etc., just as I'd been told to. Never know when it would be someone unexpected. A few moments later, Kid trudged into the room, took in the situation, and after a moment, headed in my direction. He opened his mouth to introduce himself – and was cut off by a cry from the door.

"Fucking bullshit! How the hell did he counter my powers? I had him!" She stopped as she looked around and spotted me on the couch. "Who the hell is the munchkin? We a daycare now?"

Triumph stood up, stared her down, and said, "Stalker, come with me. I think we need to… debrief." He then led her to another room, and I proceeded to hear the muffled sounds of a heated argument. Clock looked my way and said, "Meet Shadow Stalker. I think she likes you!"

If she liked anyone, I'd eat my metaphorical hat. She reminded me of my uncle, the one that got kicked out of E88 and proceeded to join the Merchants, last I heard. Hated everyone equally, and would sooner hit you than cuss about you. If there was one type of person I hated, it was those who thought they were better than you for no reason. That might be a problem, considering the fact we were on a team.

Putting that aside for now, I turned to Kid Win, and shook his hand while pointing to the 'Hi! I'm Materia!' note on my chest. He looked a little confused until Gallant clarified, "His voice got lost when he triggered, but he's a smart kid from what we've seen. We waited for you and Stalker before we asked about powers."

"Thanks for that. I need something interesting after that patrol. Some new cape had a power that did weird stuff with Stalker's powers, and they got away. No injuries, but she's been a pain for the last half hour." He sighed again, then smiled hopefully. "Maybe you're a Tinker? I'd love to have someone to talk shop with." I shook my head, then wrote, 'No, but I could still try helping you out.' 'My uncle's a mechanic, I can relate.' The one we talked about, anyway.

"That sounds cool, can't wait. Unmasking okay?" I nodded, and pulled off mine. He took a moment undoing his visor while I fumbled for the name card in my stack of notes, and passed him that as he said, "Hi, I'm Chris. Welcome to the team." Just after that, Triumph and Stalker started to come back in, and I quickly re-donned my mask. I'd only show her if she showed me first.

Triumph paused for a moment, then said, "I really want to get to the powers talk, but I think it needs to be mentioned first. Stalker and Kid ran into a new cape today, who seemed to be doing illegal protection work. Stalker got close enough for a visual ID, but they escaped with his powers. She said it's a tall male profile, with black fog rolling off of it, and a skull mask. He seems to spread the black fog around, and it interferes with Stalker's shadow form, so please try to be careful when engaging him, as he may be a trump or stranger. Also, Materia, I'd like to apologize on her behalf. She is somewhat abrasive on occasion, but that was out of line, and I'll be requesting she be put on the monitor for a few days to cool her down."

The others winced sympathetically at that last bit. I nodded my thanks, wondering what the monitor was, and wrote, 'Will she join us for the powers thing?' He replied, "No, she's going to sit it out, apparently. I figured that might be best anyway, and it lets us talk face-to-face." I nodded again. We sat down in the lounge area, and I passed him the first few notes to read aloud to the group. I figured he should, as leader, and considering his voice powers. He took them, and began to read aloud.

"Materia says his powers appear to be awareness and control of the four classical elements; Water, Earth, Fire, and Air. He has not fully tested these powers, mainly due to the limitation that he must do movements associated to martial arts to control them, and has had only four classes of basic Tae-Kwon-Do." He paused, and Dean said, "That sounds pretty useful. Depending on your control, that could be either a blaster, or maybe a blaster/shaker hybrid, both of which would have good synergy with Vista and Kid." He was halted as Rory raised a hand and said, "There's more."

"He also has what he has termed 'Dream Worlds', and a sensation to either push or be pulled when he turns his mind to them. So far, he's only tested being pulled, and experienced being pulled into dreamlike places, ranging from mundane to completely impossible terrain, and being unconscious while he is in them. He emphasizes that these worlds seem to be impossibly beautiful, and he has almost lost himself wandering them on a few occasions. He thinks pushing on one will probably either take people there, or bring things from the worlds here in some way, or maybe combine them, but there's no way to know until he tries."

He looked up, confused. "I…honestly have no idea what to make of that. It could be a lot of things, and will need to be carefully tested for sure. It's just speculation, but taking people off the battlefield would be amazing. If it really can bring things from there to here, though, you might be as powerful as Vista, maybe more."

Everyone around the room just stared for a moment. Then Dennis and Chris simultaneously said in awed voices, "Your powers are bullshit!" The silence rang a moment longer, then I started laughing as hard as I could (which wasn't hard), and everyone joined in for a minute. After it died down, they began to chat about synergies within the group, and I had Missy text my mom to say I needed to be picked up in a half-hour.

"But what about ice, or steam? If he can control that, it might make an effective counter to lasers by diffraction!" "Does asphalt count as earth? How about sand, or metals?" "Can you control plasma?" "Can you describe one of your worlds?"

Ten minutes of stuff like that later, I passed Rory a note asking if there was anything else I needed to do before I left today. He nodded, and led me back to Renick's office after we put back on our masks. He knocked, and a voice said, "Enter." Renick was sitting at his desk, and after a moment finishing a line on the form in front of him, he motioned to Triumph, saying, "Thanks for bringing him, you can head back." Triumph looked to me with a smile and said, "Nice to meet you, and I look forward to power testing. Have a good day."

The door closed, and Renick turned to me and motioned towards a chair. "I see you've picked a name, Materia. I hope the PR department likes it as much as you do. Speaking of power testing, now that you've been healed up, we should probably get it in sooner, rather than later. Is the 26th okay? That way you can recover from the concussion, eat Thanksgiving dinner, then come make a day of it on Friday."

'It sounds good, but I need to check with my mom first,' I wrote. He nodded. "That was the other bit of business I needed to take care of for you. You're a Ward now, and all Wards receive a custom PRT-issue cell phone. On top of the features of your average smartphone, it comes with PRT call encryption, a direct line to our console system, and a matched earbud to wear while in costume, which slides into the side, like so." He demonstrated basic use as he talked. I was overjoyed. My mom couldn't afford cells for us, so David had only gotten a cheap flip model this year.

He continued, "Alongside that, Dragon whipped up a quick and simple text-to-speech program, and altered it to fit your phone's software. It works with your calls too, so you can have conversations as long as you can type. Best of all, she thinks she might be able to approximate your voice, assuming she can get or find some samples. If you bring some audio recordings, we might be able to give you a voice again." He smiled warmly as I looked at him with gratitude. I wrote out, 'Thank you, and thank Dragon for me." Then I took the phone- my phone- and texted my mom about power testing. A minute later, I showed Renick the text confirming the new appointment, and after a handshake, I was headed back to the lobby.

-Shangri-La-

As we rode home, I thought about the Wards. I was years younger than even their next youngest member, and if what Missy had said about her time with them was anything to go by, my life from here on was not going to be easy. I was used to that. Being able to outthink a fifth grader in some subjects by second grade meant that a decent portion of my life so far had been about adults keeping me from my full potential, while people my age teased me about it. I was getting used to the idea that adults didn't just not want me to succeed, they just didn't think I could.

That was fine.

What really got me was how someone like Stalker could be a hero. She was a different breed of bully from those at my school, but nonetheless a bully. I couldn't imagine someone with that temper managing to do more good than harm, but maybe I just hadn't seen enough in life yet.

The other Wards had been friendly, and I had felt less like an outsider the more we talked. I thought Dennis was funny, and Chris was kind of like me; eager to share ideas, seemed to like finding out more about interesting things. I got the feeling Dean was a bit confused by me, and hadn't talked much to Carlos, but then again, he didn't talk much either. Rory was a nice person, and probably a good leader, but he felt…impersonal? Like he had so little in common with most of the group that he often forgot to be a friend first, as harsh as that was. He was also graduating soon, so he wouldn't be on our team much longer.

Our team.

A smile came to my face again as it really sank in. I was going to be a superhero. The bullies might talk, Stalker might snap, but I was a hero now. Soon, I'd be out there with the others, fighting for good, because good can't fight for itself. Or some cheesy thing like that. But for the next two days, I would be a normal kid, and have Thanksgiving with my family. Because I had a few more things to be thankful for.