Chapter Two: Clinging to Normalcy

"If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be."

-Maya Angelou

Sure, expecting everything else to carry on like normal after the recent events was a terrible assumption to make, but thinking things would get crazier wasn't something Makoto would've done either.

However, just when Makoto thought the day couldn't get any weirder, he suddenly saw three figures on bicycles streak past the window, each of them appearing to wear outfits almost as ridiculous as that of Magical Heart's. Wanting to figure out what the hell was going on, Makoto stuck his head out the window again, just in time to see Magical Heart touch down right next to where the three others had now gathered.

They proceeded to casually strike up a conversation as if one of them hadn't just stopped a mass murder in progress. Magical Heart herself spoke first, saying, "What took you so long?"

"You might not know, considering you have the luxury of flying," one of the group replied, "but biking several miles during rush hour isn't exactly the speediest method of transportation out there."

Another one of them added, "Plus, all these rocks on the offroad paths slowed us down and nearly wrecked my tires. The poor things have suffered enough abuse already, and that just about did it for them."

"Okay, okay," Magical Heart said, trying to calm them down. "Don't worry, we've beaten Doctor S, at least for now, anyway. You've just got to help me get the passengers safely out of the train. And probably call for some ambulances, I can't get all the people that need first aid to the hospital by myself. Short Fuse, White Mage, go to the front and start working from there. Third Eye, stay with me."

"On it," either Short Fuse or White Mage said, Makoto not quite figuring out which name went with which girl. Them pedaling as hard as they could toward the front of the train and getting out of Makoto's hearing range didn't help matters.

Third Eye, who had stayed with Magical Heart, pedaled to the second-to-last car (which was also upside-down), beginning to talk to the people inside. It looked like help was a little while away.

However, Makoto now had an opportunity to address the other passengers in his car. "Guys, in case you didn't hear, there are people who have arrived and are going to get you out of here. If possible, let's form some sort of line to make this as quick and easy for them as possible."

Surprisingly, that worked. Those who could walk on their own helped those who couldn't, and eventually, some semblance of a line was created. As for the few bodies on the floor, they tried to avoid those the best they could, both out of their innate disgust toward corpses and their desire to respect the dead.

Soon, Third Eye arrived at their car, saying, "Anyone who needs assistance getting out, I can come in and help! Everyone else, I'll help you down from the window but you should be able to get to it on your own!"

Makoto, supporting the little boy from earlier, was the first one out. He handed the boy off to Third Eye before clambering out the window himself, careful to avoid the pieces of jagged glass still sticking out. He slipped to the ground without a problem before turning around to help Third Eye out (for something this easy, he figured he might as well be useful) before noticing that something had changed with her.

She was staring at him with a strange intensity he hadn't seen in the brief period they'd been together, not moving, blinking, or doing much of anything.

"Uh," Makoto said, "You in there? I'm not sure what to do right now…"

That snapped her out of it, causing her to shake her head quickly. "Sorry, sorry! Kind of zoned out for a second, have to go help the others."

She moved closer to the train car's window alongside Makoto, both of them helping Makoto's classmate get outside before turning her attention to the remaining passengers. As the last of them emerged into the sunlight (with some help from Magical Heart after she'd finished up the car before theirs) all except Makoto moved on. Makoto, however, noticed that Third Eye gave him a long look before moving forward to the next car.

Most of the passengers were too shocked to do much as either Magical Heart used whatever strange ability she'd flung around Doctor S with to levitate anyone incapable of getting out without assistance past all the broken glass in the windows. Meanwhile, Third Eye, Makoto, and a couple of other passengers who'd followed along either cleared away broken glass or took anyone small enough for them to easily carry. While the other two in the front (along with whatever passengers on their side who had chosen to help) appeared to be making progress down the front of the train, without Magical Heart assisting it was taking them longer.

Right after the group of people around Makoto finished off the train car directly in the center, Third Eye took Magical Heart by the hand and pulled her off to the side for a second, whispering something in her ear that Makoto couldn't hear. Magical Heart clearly liked whatever she was being told because she was nodding so fast her head looked like it might fall off.

Eventually, the two groups merged into one to empty one final train car, meaning everyone still alive was now outside on the grass, either talking quietly, moaning in pain, or just standing around in stunned silence, eyes locked on the strange band of girls in front of them. All of the girls were now reassuring everyone that ambulances were coming for anyone who needed medical attention.

However, as soon as that was done, Third Eye broke off from the group and walked up to Makoto, moving close before whispering something in his ear. "Sorry to bother you, especially since you probably have school today, but would you mind staying behind for a moment? Magical Heart has something she'd like to talk with you about in private."

Makoto didn't know what to say to that, but considering he was probably going to be late to school no matter what happened, a few extra minutes wouldn't make much difference. "Okay, I can do that."

A few more minutes went by with relatively little happening as most either waited for the ambulances to arrive, made arrangements to have someone else take them wherever they'd been going before all this happened, or just started walking off.

Within about twenty minutes, the rest of the crowd had dispersed, leaving no one but Makoto and the oddly-dressed girls. (He only had about five minutes to make it to school, but since his mother had already gone to work and his father lived too far away, at this point the best option would probably be to just ask Taisuke to get an extra copy of all the notes for the day.)

Magical Heart started talking. "Well, now that we're alone, I've got news for you, uh-" she trailed off for several seconds here- "Sorry, I never got your name."

"It's Makoto," Makoto said. He attempted to say something else, but it felt like his mouth had clamped firmly shut and was just refusing to re-open.

"Well, nice to meet you, Makoto," Magical Heart said. "Since we all have places to be and we could easily be spotted at any moment, I'm going to keep this brief. Here's the deal: if you want to, you could become someone just as powerful as I am."

It took Makoto several seconds to comprehend that statement, and even when he did, his brain still refused to accept it. Nothing about this morning had made any sense whatsoever, and this was no exception.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"I'll take over from here," Third Eye said. "My special ability, which is more powerful than most, is the capability to detect the power of other peoples' abilities. As long as someone's nearby, I can detect their power level via a single number that appears above their head. The higher the number, the stronger the ability. Furthermore, everybody I've passed so far has had a number associated with them."

It wasn't a terribly complex concept, but Makoto was still having a bit of trouble wrapping his head around the idea of him being a superhero. "So, is my number really high compared to what you expected or something?"

"To put things in perspective, most people have a number between five and twenty, with more people close to five than close to twenty," Third Eye said. "With the exception of Magical Heart, all our numbers are around sixty. By contrast, your number is over a hundred, and you're the first person we've found with a number that high in quite some time."

"Sorry, but that doesn't mean much to me since I don't really have points of reference," Makoto said. "I know you can read power abilities, but what can the other two of you do?"

"Anyone within a certain radius of me has any injuries heal much faster than usual," one of them said.

"Given a high-stress situation, I can boost my athleticism for a short time," the other said.

Well, at least that made figuring out the difference between Short Fuse and White Mage easier. "If that's the case, what can I do?"

"We don't know," Third Eye said. "None of us did until we activated our abilities using the machine that's currently back at base."

"Hold up," Makoto said. "You have a machine to turn people into superheroes and a base? And nobody knew about you four until now?"

"We used to be pretty good about staying hidden. At least, until Doctor S came into the picture and did, well, this." Magical Heart said this while gesturing to the now-ruined train. "She's the only reason we're out and about in costume to begin with."

"So, here's the big question," Third Eye said. "Would you be willing to join us, Makoto?"

Makoto took a few seconds to weigh the pros and cons in his head, not wanting to jump to a conclusion when he might as well have had all the time in the world to decide. Both sides of the argument were pretty obvious- having abilities like the ones Magical Heart did would be exciting and interesting, but considering how powerful Doctor S had been (and since he'd definitely be expected to help fight her if she struck again) the risk on his life, as well as that of anyone he cared about, was a definite turn-off.

And as with most things, he was unable to come to a concrete decision. "Would you mind giving me some time to think about this? I'm not sure what I should do."

The four girls grouped up away from him, whispering things to each other that they took pains to make sure he couldn't hear. Then they broke up, with Third Eye writing something down that he wasn't close enough to see before she broke off from the group.

"You've got forty-eight hours," Third Eye said as she practically shoved the piece of paper into his hand. "If you want to join us, come to this address at some point during the next two days and ask the person in the front if Mikuru Asahina is on her shift."

Makoto glanced at the paper, revealing an address but no indication as to what was at said address. "Okay, I'm assuming I do that so you know it's me?"

"Of course," Third Eye said. "Well, this has been a productive conversation, but I think the time has come for us to depart. We've got to get to school too, plus we have no idea where or when Doctor S will strike next!"

Magical Heart nodded. "So, where do you go to school, Makoto?"

At this point, Makoto had no real reason to hide anything from them anymore, because for all he knew, one of them could be reading his mind as he spoke. "Sakakino High. Why?"

"Thanks for the help," Magical Heart said as she began to wave her wand. Before Makoto could react, he was no longer on solid ground. Instead, he was spinning around nearly ten feet in the air like the laws of gravity had ceased to exist. Magical Heart appeared to wave her wand a few more times, lifting herself to Makoto's height as he struggled and kicked, desperately looking for something solid to stand on.

"Stop struggling, and this will be easier," Magical Heart said. "I know I probably inconvenienced you by forcing you to stay so long, so I figured the least I could do was get you to school. Hold on to something, you're about to go for a ride!"

Makoto started to say something in response, but it was drowned out as Magical Heart waved her wand once more to skyrocket the both of them up before sending them hurtling forward. He was forced into a more streamlined position by the speed, so the wind wasn't as bad as it could have been. However, it still made his eyes water, his fingers go numb, his hair turn into a tangled mess. His movement was so limited, he couldn't even turn to the side to see how Magical Heart was faring.

After what couldn't have been more than a few minutes but felt like at least an hour, the two of them screeched to a halt above the roof of the school before Magical Heart gently lowered the two of them down. Once his feet hit solid ground, Makoto was half-tempted to cheer, but the last thing he wanted up here was to attract attention, especially since classes had already started.

"Even if we don't meet again, it was still nice knowing you," Magical Heart said, floating back into the sky before launching in the direction she came from.

As soon as she was gone, Makoto darted over to the far end of the roof (which luckily had a door that led into the building), hurried down the stairs, charged through the hall (nearly knocking over several other equally late students in the process) and came to a screeching halt at the door leading to Class 1-3 before knocking three times.

Thankfully, it didn't take very long for Mrs. Yamashita, the math teacher, to open the door. "Well, well. It looks like someone's finally chosen to arrive. Come in."

Makoto slunk to his seat, trying to attract as little attention as possible from his peers as he plopped down next to Taisuke, just like he always did.

As soon as Mrs. Yamashita turned away, Taisuke leaned in to whisper in Makoto's ear. "Holy crap, Makoto. What the hell happened this morning? You look like you got tossed in a blender!"

"If only you knew, Taisuke," Makoto thought. "If only you knew."