Chapter 2-1

I woke up to the beeping of the alarm clock. Worst noise ever. Clumsily, I tried to get it to stop, only to knock the damn thing of my nightstand. Dammit. Groggily, I pushed myself out of bed, landed on the floor, grabbed the damn thing, and turned it off. Silence. Finally.

It was 6:30. Dad was already in the shower. Right, a weekday. Great. Time to get up.

Slowly, my brain started working again. Strange, I normally didn't need the alarm. My dad and I always stuck by our routines; the sound of his shower should be enough to wake me up. Then I remembered that I didn't come home until well after midnight. I've only been sleeping for three or four hours. That probably wasn't very good.

I picked myself up from the floor and looked in a mirror. There were bruises all along my chest and shoulders. Oh right, I got into a fight with a pyrokinetic dragon-man. Apparently the armor didn't stop Lung's attacks completely. How could I've forgotten. At least I didn't see any burns. Bruises, I could explain away. Burns… not so much. I shook my head, put on a long-sleeved shirt and got on with my routine.

My introduction to the worst part of superheroing: the double-life. There're only so many hours in a day, after all. Guess that means having to give up some sleep if I wanted to do the right thing. That, and having to hide inconvenient things like bruises. When I got downstairs, dad was already making breakfast. The smell of bacon invigorated me, if only a little.

"Morning, kiddo."

"Hey, dad."

"You okay? You sound a little glum."

On reflection, I probably did. "Tired. Didn't sleep well."

"You know, you don't have to go on your morning runs…"

I sighed. My dad had always been over-protective of me, and it only got worse after mom died. As annoying as it was, though, he meant well. I guess I should appreciate that. Dad was probably the only person on the planet who actually gave a damn about me. If I got hurt, really hurt, it'd kill him. "You know I do, dad. If I don't…"

"…it'll be harder to get up tomorrow. I know. You got your…"

"Pepper spray, yes. Don't worry, dad, I'll stay safe." I've got superpowers, after all. Not that he knew that.

We ate breakfast in silence, like we usually did. It wasn't broken until Dad looked up and said: "I know you went out last night." My brain suddenly kicked into overdrive and my heart rate tripled.

"I couldn't sleep." I said, which wasn't entirely a lie. "I had to take a run, clear my head." It hurt, lying to my dad. Still, it had to be done. How was I supposed to tell him that I almost died last night? That I had superpowers and was probably going to go out again?

"Christ, Taylor! You know it's dangerous to go out in the middle of the night."

"I had my pepper spray." Among other things.

"And if you got blindsided or ambushed or…" Dad winced, trying to control his anger. The man had a legendary temper, but I knew he'd do anything to make sure that he'd never lose it in front of me. That said, he deserved to be angry. I did nearly die. "What's going on? I can't help you if you don't let me."

"School." I said. "Friends, or lack thereof."

"It's not better?"

I didn't answer. If the bullying had stopped, I wouldn't be in this position. Not that I would ever say so out loud. I think the only thing that was hurting him more than me being bullied was the fact that he could do nothing about it. I understood the feeling, better than he probably realized. Even with my powers, even with me going up and beating Lung, it wouldn't stop. Nothing short of moving to another school or getting the bullies expelled ever would. The latter would never happen, not with the idiots that run my school, and the former wasn't looking much better. The only school close enough was Arcadia High, but that school had a waiting list of over a year. Then again, the Wards supposedly went to that school. If I joined up with them now that I could…

It was worth thinking about, if nothing else.

"No more going out in the middle of the night, okay?" Dad suddenly said. "I'll lock the windows or put a bell on the door if I have to."

He probably would, too. Not that it'd do much, given my powerset. "I'm sorry, dad." I said. My apology left a bitter taste in my mouth. I felt bad for making him worry, yes, but I knew that I'd do it again sooner rather than later. It sucks, having to lie to my father. I finished my breakfast and put my plate in the dishwasher.

"Going on your run?"

"Yeah." I said, absentmindedly, before adding: "I'll stay safe, I promise."

My father didn't respond. I didn't know what to make of that.

As I started running, my thoughts kept coming back to my father. He knew something was up. He had to. My father isn't a stupid man. He couldn't have heard me leave, thanks to my power, which probably meant that he had entered my room to check up on me when I was gone. On the one hand, the realization felt like a massive invasion of my privacy. On the other, I had left the house in the middle of the night without telling him about it. Were things getting so bad that I couldn't hide it from him anymore?

My usual strategy for dealing with the bullies is to avoid it as much as possible. Sitting away from them in class and hiding in the bathroom during lunch hours let me avoid the worst of it. Failing that, I simply soldiered on. I couldn't do anything back without making things worse for myself, so I just coped with it and hoped they'd get bored and go away.

Still, some dark part of my mind kept reminding me that it wasn't working. The teachers looked the other way, my hiding places would inevitably be discovered, and the trio were too easily amused to get bored with me. Now my dad knew as well. Had to, or he wouldn't have bothered asking about it. Funny how that was even worse than the bullying itself. I have a thick skin and a high tolerance for pain, but the thought of my dad being hurt because of me was just too much. I'd have to learn to hide it better.

As I got to Winslow, a knot formed in my stomach. I had skipped the afternoon classes on Friday and failed to turn in a major art project. My grade would suffer, but that wasn't my biggest concern. The humiliation of being called out in class by the principal and the attention that would draw to myself was worse. Dammit. School hadn't even begun yet and I was already feeling like crap. What a wonderful start of the day.

Computer class was first, which I suppose was alright. For one, none of the big three attended it, so I was usually safe from any pranks. Some of their lackeys did, but they generally wouldn't bother harassing me if the trio weren't around to egg them on or appreciate it. Besides, I was in the advanced class, and most of them weren't. Frankly, it was one of the few classes I actually did well in. Then again, it wasn't that hard. The teacher, Mrs. Knott, was one of the few who actually seemed to be reasonably good at their job, even if she did look a bit like a male transvestite. She usually gave the advanced class an assignment and focused on the other students. I usually finished it in about thirty minutes and spent the rest of the time surfing the internet.

Today's assignment was little different: make a simple calculator in Visual Basic. We already went over basic coding last week, so this assignment was just busywork disguised as practice. I finished it in about fifteen minutes, saved it in the 'completed assignments' folder, and went onto Parahumans Online, the go-to website for capes and everything cape-related. Wondering if I had made an impact with last night's escapades, I went to the Brockton Bay subpage and searched for anything related to 'Lung'. The result: the message-boards were on fire.

No pun intended.

By now, Lung's defeat had conjured up a storm of ranting and speculation. Some people, obviously ABB members, were screaming about taking revenge. I smiled when I read those. Most, if not all of them weren't capes, so they probably wouldn't have much of a chance against me in a fight. Other posters wondered if the weakening of the ABB would spark a city-wide gang war. That made me cringe a little. When I went after Lung, I did it to save the lives of the 'children' he was about to kill. I never considered the big picture. What would happen now that Lung was in custody? Better not think about that. I did good, taking out Lung. Armsmaster himself said as much. If a gang war was on the horizon, he and the other heroes would put a stop to it.

Speaking of Armsmaster, the PRT had released a statement earlier saying that he apprehended Lung after the supervillain had been defeated by an unknown cape. I had to suppress a squeal while reading through several pages of people speculating who the unknown might be. Some said that I was a freelance hero. Others claimed that I worked for the Empire 88. Fighting the ear-to-ear grin was almost impossible. First night out, and people were already talking about me like I was some sort of living legend.

What did kind of surprised me was that Armsmaster hadn't taken the credit for himself. Beating someone like Lung would have been a hell of a boost to his career and it wasn't like I was in any position to tell the world he was lying. But then again, I had sort of butchered the guy. His bosses in the PRT would probably have disapproved of excessive violence.

I shook my head. Was I really this cynical? To think that Armsmaster would do something as petty as stealing credit for a take-down? Geez, what was I thinking? He was a hero, for God's sake. He may have been a little more blunt than I expected, but he still seemed like a stand-up kind of guy. Besides, thinking that way would only sour my mood. I just changed Brockton Bay for the better. I did something I could be proud off. Today would be a good day. Nothing could get me of the high I was riding now.

Nope.

Nothing at all.