Changes 3.2

Goodbye, school! Hello, rooftops!

Seriously, augmented movement is amazing. I mean, everyone wants to fly, but aerokinesis was a close second. I could run like the wind, jump like fifty feet, and slowfall or kill momentum just before landing.

Unfortunately, I had been paired with Gallant and Clockblocker for the evening, so our patrol mostly consisted of myself in a scouting loop around the two ground-bound teammates. Needless to say, we weren't finding much to stop. Clock and Gallant were chatting a bit about Gallant's most recent experience in his civilian identities' love life, namely the date he had had last night with 'Vicky'. Not interested.

Another loop. Leap from alley wall to alley wall, get to rooftops. Go a block north, a block west, two blocks south, cross over the duo, reverse for the other side to make a figure eight. I was heading down the opposite end of the look when I heard a commotion down the street. Gesturing to send a 'Possible disturbance' over the comms, I waited for permission to check it out as I sent a burst of fire down an alley to signal the guys what roof I was on.

Sophia's voice came over the comms, sounding bored and robotic. "Permission to move in granted." She sighed as her mic cut out. I hopped over, focusing on keeping myself as quiet as possible, keeping myself lightweight with air cushions. A few blocks over, the disturbance became clear; a pitch-black cloud was coming out of an office building's front doors.

I toggled the switch for sign language mode, and quickly tapped both shoulders while inclining my head upward. 'Parahuman', one of the first words beyond the basics I had learned. I toggled it off, and flipped open the keypad, crouching low. "Shit, who?" came Clock's voice. I typed out 'dark fog' while they ran. 'In office building.'

Sophia came over the comms. "That guy who fucks with my power? Get him!" "Console, you sure…" "Just fucking go, I'm getting clearance! Take him down!" "Alright, fine. Mandala, we're almost there. Get over there and build us some cover?" I did an 'OK' gesture, and took off down the block. I love that gesture feature. So handy.

I landed out front of the building. We had no idea what to expect from this guy, so best not to take any chances. I reached for the magical forest, but guided its growth, forming walls of the blue crystalline rock at the edges of my radius, then jumped on top of the expanse as it grew up slowly.

I stepped down, careful to stay on the radius of control that was slowly expanding around the translucent walls. It was weird having so little in my range, actually. Almost every other time I had used this power, I had been in that area at least an hour already. I had no idea what happened if I walked out of it, but now wasn't the time to test stuff.

The fog was still shifting, pouring out the ajar door. Thankfully, no people were trying to get closer to the scene, although I reminded myself to look confident for the cameras. Finally, Clock and Gallant arrived, panting for breath. The walls were approaching six feet high by now, and there was still no sign of the cape doing this. I gestured at the door with a questioning look, sort of a 'should we go in?' kind of thing. Gallant must have gotten it, because he shook his head.

"We have only the barest idea what this guy can do, and that cloud will limit visibility. Not to mention there may be hostages. It's messing with my emotion sight; I can tell there are emotions in there, but it's mixed and muddy."

Clock spoke up, still sounding a little winded. "What do you suggest we do then? Spread out, or stay here? They could be going out the back, or they might be waiting for us to break up for an easy escape. Your call." Gallant thought a moment, then said, "Okay. Clockblocker, go around the building and freeze any doors. We'll wait out front to apprehend them if they come this way, and you can turtle up if they go for you. Remember, don't get in the black stuff if you can- "

He was cut off as a crash was heard on the side of the building, followed immediately by a huge THUD, then two more that I only 'heard' with my powers. The street flooded in darkness, and I felt the ground thudding as whatever had hit the ground began to move. I let go of the forest as I leapt forward and flung a blast of air into the cloud. I did not expect what I saw.

For a split second, the back end and tail of a car-sized animal were visible. My first thought was 'ankylosaur?' My second thought was 'no, not an ankylosaur, just covered in scutes and spikes like one', and my third thought was 'too bad, I wanted a dinosaur, also geez that was fast'. It had been visible just a second before disappearing into the cloud at fairly high speed. I might be able to run that fast if I really tried, but not through the cloud.

"…And they're gone. Okay, guys, let's check the building. I'll call it in for the Protectorate to chase."

"You didn't get him? Goddammit!..." Stalker did not sound happy as she stomped away from the console.

So ended my first cape encounter in the wilds of Brockton Bay.

-Shangri-La-

The worst part of all this? Paperwork. I hadn't even seen the people behind the robbery, and I had to fill out all the paperwork and reports and stuff that I would have with a (hypothetical) fight with Lung. Minus collateral damage, I guess. I had to debrief too, which amounted to texting my report sentence by sentence so someone could listen to it on audiobook or something. As my dad would say, 'Redundancy is the keystone of bureaucracy.'

An interview with some of the victims had determined that the group had consisted of three villains; they all seemed to be teens based on voices and builds, and the names Regent and Grue had been part of the banter before Grue (according to the witness) had blanketed them in darkness, and they had all shut up. Oddly enough, they had repeatedly cussed out their female teammate, but she hadn't seemed to mind.

As far as the robbery, the trio of crooks had grabbed important documentation, and torn open a few computers for their hard drives, all presumably to be sold to the highest bidder. I learned that the tech industry was actually a pretty profitable theft target; Triton Technologies would be hurting after this. Several projects would have to be rebuilt from older notes, and they were going to do a costly security review.

Frustratingly enough, the group had managed to disappear before the Protectorate had been able to get on site. All we had were the names of the three and the description of something in the fog. We had unequivocally failed today, no matter how little it had been our fault. I didn't feel like a hero, I felt like a bystander who had just let it happen.

-Shangri-La-

I went home, tired of all the paperwork, tired of the running, tired from this feeling of impotence. It was a Tuesday night, but this was the last week before the winter break, so David was the only one with a lot of work to do. Jordan and I settled in for a game of Candy Land, and Mom made dinner. It was a typical night for us, nothing special.

During dinner, I made a point to tell Mom that we needed to talk after, then ate. Conversation started up. I never was much for talking over dinner anyway, and not being able to actually talk didn't help. Instead, I looked more at the little things, stuff I didn't normally register when talking to others.

David was intelligent; not a star student, but a capable learner and an avid reader. He was talking about some of the test questions he'd had today, occasionally dipping into language that left us all nodding along without really understanding. He had few friends, but it was less about being a social outcast and more to do with how introverted he was. David had met Dennis and hit it off recently, although I couldn't let him know who he was; it was hilarious, hearing descriptions of my teammate as a normal person. At least, as normal as Dennis could be.

Jordan was quick to interject in a lull in the conversation, showing off the paper snowflake he'd made today. He was really smart too, but for whatever reason he didn't like learning much. He had an underlying competitive streak, trying to garner my family's attentions with his crafts and test scores.

Mom? She was bipolar. I'd had to look it up, not really understanding the term, after the session the other night, and it had been illuminating. She lived in a world of extremes; some days she had manic dreams, others she lived a nightmare of depression, always shifting, never stable. Just like me, she had trouble sometimes, trouble remembering to be a good mother, trouble keeping her impulsive thoughts under control, trouble I just didn't have experience to understand.

She wasn't as gifted as her sons; our mental abilities came from our father, that much was clear; nor was she a determined, driven person. She'd tried to commit suicide, twice, and failed to overdose both times. But she'd recovered, gotten her act together, and was a functioning member of society, because she loved us.

After dinner, David took up the dishes so Mom and I could talk. We headed to another room. I pulled out my phone, and typed.

'I want to move to fourth grade.'

She was quiet for a bit, at that. Finally, she spoke up.

"You're sure about this? It's a lot of work, and nobody will be your age. Can't we just put you in a gifted program?"

I shook my head. She continued before I could type again.

"Why not? Why do you want to leave your class behind? Your teacher, your friends?"

That hit hard. I motioned for her to stop. Typed.

'Mom, I have no friends in my class.' She objected, before I could continue. "Of course you do, what a terrible thing to say. What about that nice boy, Connor? You went to his birthday party! Or Samantha, she had you over at her house!"

I hadn't been anything more than a party guest both times. Another face in the crowd, invited more by the parent than the child. Couldn't she see that?

No, she couldn't, I realized. I could understand it now; how easy it was to just not notice things when you're depressed, to forget that others depend on your attention.

She tried so hard, but she really knew so little about my problems, because it was hard to recognize that I had them.

"And you already struggle with homework now! You always forget it, and you have the Wards now, and it's a lot to put on your plate. I'm not sure it's a good idea to join up in the middle of the year either, what if they've already covered things and won't wait for you?"

I had to stop her. I couldn't keep track of all her questions like this, and she was just talking down to me as is.

'Stop talking.' She shut up, looking affronted, and opened her mouth for the reflexive 'Don't talk to me that way', but I had to continue. 'Mom, I want this.' 'Jessica agrees, I need this.'

I really wished typing didn't need my full attention. I wanted to look her in the eyes. 'I can do the work, my teachers think so too.' 'I would have less bullies,' 'less stress, less problems.' 'I might actually have friends again.' My eyes felt hot. 'Please.'

"Oh, sweetie, I… okay. I'll see if we can start the process soon. If your teachers are on board, it's halfway done already, we just have to arrange testing. I'll talk to the principal tomorrow."

I hugged her, and we headed back downstairs. Jordan greeted me at the bottom.

"Hey Michael, wanna go out back?"

It was dark, and fairly cold outside. I didn't care at all. I nodded, and my brother and I headed out to play.