I don't own anything.

When I opened my eyes the morning after my arrival, it was still dark out. Quietly, I rolled out from under the warm comforting blanket and put my feet down onto the cool wooden floor. Walking over to the kitchen, I swept through the space as if I had been doing so all my life. For some reason, the kitchen seemed like a place where I had spent a lot of time before … before whatever had caused my amnesia happened.

Looking through some of the cupboards, I quickly found myself a glass and filled it with cold water. I drained it in one large draw before filling it back up. I held the smooth surface of the glass up to my forehead, the cold soothing the pressure that built up behind my eyes every time I thought about the life I must have had before waking up in that crater at the docks. Turning away from the faucet, I saw the first golden rays of light creep up over the horizon through the large glass doors leading to the Dallon's backyard.

Something about the light drew me in, and not just the beauty of it, though that too was something to behold. No, as I made my way outside, I could feel it. The way the earliest rays of the rising sun soothed me, a balm for the soul that was much more effective than the glass of cool water that I still held up to my head. Without thinking, I flexed the muscles of my back, releasing the black-feathered wings that I could feel day and night. Regardless of if they were actually out.

Spreading them, I pushed off lightly, scattering some of the fallen leaves that dotted the yard. I floated up a couple of feet before settling down onto the roof of the family who was kind enough to offer me, a complete stranger, a place to rest for the night.

As the golden light of the sun brightened, I thought of them. Of Vicky's infectious enthusiasm, cheering up anyone and anything around her. Of the girl who had come to my rescue, perfectly willing to lend a hand to me despite never having met me. Of the way she tried to keep my spirits up and my mind off the rather depressing circumstances I had found myself in. And not just her, her mom had come and helped me out with the papers and promised me that she would do so again today. Not only that, but she had invited me into her home, I don't think even she knows how much that means to me.

As the sun crested the horizon completely, turning the sky a beautiful shade of blue, I thought of what might have happened to me had Vicky not found me. The neighborhood I had landed in was not a good one, filled with the homeless and drug addicts who had been more than happy to avoid me as they went on with their night. What if instead of Vicky, it had been a villain who found me first. Someone who had no problem hurting or even killing me while I would have still been figuring out my own powers.

Recruitment could also have been a problem, apparently the various gangs around the city were all too eager to snatch up any capes they could get to their side. And, confused as I had been last night, I couldn't even say that I wouldn't have taken them up on their offer. After all, lots of horrible people didn't think they were doing wrong lots of the time. I was sure that if I were to ask Kaiser or any of the other E88 capes if they thought of themselves as bad people, most would say no. I was willing to bet that some of them even saw themselves as the heroes in this city's tale. Not knowing anything and desperate for help, I could see myself accepting their help instead.

No, I was happy that it was Vicky who had found me instead.

Slowly, I drifted down from the roof, feeling at ease. I moved back into the house, silently padding over the dark wooden floor as I made my way back to the kitchen. With all the help the Dallon's were giving me, the least I could do was give back a little. My lips quirked up into a little smile as I opened the fridge and set about making some breakfast.

POV Amy

I hate mornings.

I had spent most of my night at the hospital yesterday, and when I finally came home, no one was there. Vicky was out on patrol, Carol, mom wasn't there either. The only one who was there was Mark, asleep in his room as he so often was these days. Without Vicky around to hang out with, I had simply made myself a sandwich before crawling into bed where I had watched YouTube until I passed out. Grabbing my phone, I checked the time.

07:12 AM

"Uuuugh" I couldn't help but groan when I saw it. If I wanted to get some breakfast before heading to school, I would have to get out of bed now. Throwing the covers off, I winced at the chill that assaulted me. I grabbed my phone off my nightstand and rolled out of bed. When I opened my door, the smell of hot coffee and fried toast hit me. Had Carol made breakfast? As I made my way down the stairs, I thought back to the last time she had done that.

Honestly, I couldn't remember. When we were younger, she would go get fresh bagels from the store before she went to work, so we would have breakfast. Sometimes Mark would get out his meagre cooking skills to make some eggs for them, back before he got worse. Now, he barely got out of bed, not just in the morning, but at all.

Looking over at the kitchen counter, I saw 4 plates set out. Looking further in, I almost

thought Mark had made his way into the kitchen again, but then I began noticing the

differences. The man standing in the kitchen was around the same height, but a little less broad in the shoulders. Still muscular, but leaner than her adoptive father. His skin was darker as well, almost a bronze color as opposed to Mark's pale complexion.

The man turned to face me, a pan and spatula in hand as he unloaded the bacon he had been cooking onto a plate. When he looked up, I met his purple eyes, distantly noting that purple eyes weren't possible outside of some extremely rare genetic disorders. As I began running through the necessary genetic sequences that would cause someone's eye color to deviate into a shade like that, my mind finally seemed to catch up to how strange all of this was.

There was a man in the kitchen. A large, shirtless man I had never met.

"Who the hell are you?" He smiled at me, smiled, before pointing at one of the chairs set up at the kitchen counter. "Hi, I don't have a name yet, but Vicky and your mom let me stay on the couch, so I made breakfast."

Great. There was a large, shirtless, crazy man I had never met in the kitchen. I quickly ran upstairs to get Vicky, she'd get rid of the crazy guy and then everything could go back to normal.

As it turns out, everything did not go back to normal after I got Vicky involved. In fact, things got even stranger. Vicky came down and introduced me to the guy, though she too, did not know what to call him. Apparently, he was some amnesiac cape Vicky had found on her patrol and Carol had offered to let him stay on the couch while he got everything sorted with the PRT. Why he was making them breakfast, who knows, but I wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. The food was great, and the coffee beat the instant stuff I usually gulped down in the morning.

"Thish ish really good!" Looking to my left, Vicky was happily munching on a piece of bacon as she watched the guy moving around in the kitchen. "Don't talk with your mouth full Vicky." My gaze snapped back to the bottom of the stairs, where Carol had finally appeared. She was dressed in a grey pantsuit and white blouse, her short blonde hair done up in a tight bun.

She walked over quickly, clearly in a hurry. She looked over to the man standing in her kitchen as he took a bite out of the egg and cheese sandwich he had made himself. "Thank you dear, it was nice of you to make breakfast." I almost spit out the piece of toast that I was chewing on when I heard her say it. When was the last time she had heard Carol compliment someone not named Vicky?

I watched silently as they talked, the guy making Carol something she could take with her as she didn't have time to eat before work.

"After I get off from work, we are going back to the PRT to finish your paperwork. I expect you to have a name picked out by then." Ah, there was the Carol I knew. She didn't even try to phrase it like a request, simply telling him what she expected and demanding it be done. "If you need any inspiration, you can use the computer in the office to check the internet." And she was gone again. Carol Dallon was not this helpful, there was something going on. Even Vicky seemed to be a bit confused as she watched her mom thank the man again when he handed her a bag of food to take to work.

Finishing the last of my eggs, I decided that I could interrogate Vicky later, I needed to go get ready for school.

Putting away the last plate, I looked up at the window above the sink to see my reflection smiling back at me. All in all, the morning had gone well. Everyone seemed to enjoy the food and I was glad that I was able to repay the Dallon family, even if it was only a little bit. Looking back, I saw the large wooden door that Mrs. Dallon had indicated when she talked of the office next to the bottom of the stairs, and the smile dropped off my face.

There was nothing for it, though. Carol needed my name by the time she got back from work, and I was not about to disappoint the woman who had opened her home for me. Inside, I found a large wooden desk with a white monitor, keyboard and mouse in the center. Beside it, there was a paper tray holding a handful of files along with an organizer that held some stationary.

While the PC started up, I grabbed a pen and paper, and got ready to do some research. A little while later, I found a Wiki with a list of Angels, and after sorting through the list and taking out the multitude of names that just sounded downright strange (who would name themselves Asbeel or Eleteth?), I was left with 4 names.

Raphael

Gabriel

Michael

Samael

Archangels and names with meaning one and all, but most importantly, they all sounded like normal names or could be shortened to something that sounded normal. No Eleteth for me thank you very much.

Looking to the side first, I released my wings, and stared at the raven feathers that adorned them. I thought back to the less than pure thoughts I'd had about the beautiful women I had met since waking up. And honestly, I couldn't bring myself to take a name belonging to something holy.

Samael it is, Sam has a nice ring to it too.

That night, I was once again sat at that same conference table in the Rig. On the other side, Miss Militia and Hank were waiting for us when I got there with Vicky and Mrs. Dallon.

"Hi there, I hope everything went okay after the power testing yesterday?" Hank asked me as he put a glass of water in front of me and both of the New Wave heroines. I gave him a shaky smile, not quite able to mask the nerves bubbling under my skin. "Uh yeah, the Dallon's were great! And I found out that I like cooking, so that's nice." Miss Militia's eyes crinkled up in what could only be a smile, even if I couldn't see her mouth under the bandana that hid it from view.

"That's good to hear. I imagine that you'll find plenty more hobbies as you go along." Hank's voice drew my attention back to him, even as I heard Vicky piping up next to me. "Well, I sure hope he sticks with this hobby, 'cause I sure liked his cooking." I could feel the glare Mrs. Dallon tried to send her daughter on my cheek as it was stuck between the two blondes, giving Vicky some much needed shelter from the heated look on her mother's face.

I chuckled at her little joke, and noticed Miss Militia do much the same, though she did try to hide it with a cough when I looked at her. Evidently, she had noticed me looking from the wink she sent my way, making my lips quirk up a little more. I decidedly ignored the little voice in my head that told me she was more than a little pretty when she laughed. The heat that flooded my cheeks was just from the nerves, and no one could tell me otherwise.

"Well then, let's get started on the paperwork." Hank's voice once again broke through my musings. "First things first, have you decided on a name yet?" He sounded kind and patient, but I got the feeling that he would not appreciate it if I didn't have an answer for his question. "Sam." I said simply. There was no need for me to explain that it was short for Samael and not Samuel, I was no saint, though there was no reason to make a bad impression by explaining the origins of the name.

He noted it down, and then went with the next question, and the next and then another. All in all, it took about 10 minutes to get through all the basics. Name, gender, sex, age, date of birth, and every other bit of personal information under the sun. For most of the stuff, we had just gone with the most convenient answers. My date of birth, for example, would just be the day that I had arrived here, September 4th. My age was a little bit trickier, but we settled on 16, the same age as Vicky was since I looked about the same age and it was rather arbitrary anyways, since I would have to catch up to my peers regardless of what age we ended up choosing.

After all of that was said and done, Hank slid the paper over to me. "Just sign at the bottom there, whatever you put down will be your signature from now on." Taking the pen from him, I just wrote my name in cursive and scribbled a line through it before handing the form back to him. "Alright now that we have that out of the way, you can expect to have everything ready by tomorrow afternoon. Since you are underage, we will have you registered at Arcadia high school since you already know some friendly faces over there." Hank finished while shooting Vicky a smile.

"And now it's my turn I guess." Miss Militia said, finally joining the conversation. "On behalf of the Protectorate ENE, I would like to offer you a place in the Wards initiative. With the powers that you displayed yesterday, you could do a lot of good out there in the world. That being said, you do need to learn how to use those abilities properly, and we are uniquely equipped to help young parahumans with that. Not only do we have top of the line training and facilities, but you also get the guidance of experienced heroes who will be able to refine your use of your powers. With the Wards, you would also be a government employee, which includes a paycheck and in cases like yours a place to live."

Before she could continue, Mrs. Dallon broke in. "On behalf of New Wave, we would also be happy to offer you a position with us." Miss Militia seemed a bit startled as she gave me the offer, obviously she hadn't expected to have any competing offers. "Unlike the Protectorate, we do not have the same facilities, nor are we able to offer you monetary compensation. Despite that, we do have several experienced heroes who can also offer you guidance. Guidance that is more specialized towards you since you have incredibly similar powers to some of our members, myself included. Along with that training, we can offer you room and board either at my own house or that of Lady Photon's who has also offered to take you in should you prefer it." A wide smile split my face as I heard the second offer. Not only would I be able to become a hero no matter what option I took, but joining New Wave would also let me spend more time with Vicky, who was still my only friend.

"That being said, New Wave is a movement as much as it is a Cape team. We do not hide our faces from the world, believing in accountability for everyone, especially those with powers like ours. If that is something you would rather not do, I do suggest taking up the Wards position." Her last statement drew an appreciative hum from Miss Militia, who had seemed a bit put out by the offer Brandish was throwing my way.

And I could definitely understand why she would want me to know what I was getting into before I joined. My name wasn't the only thing I had researched on the internet while I was alone at the Dallon's. The unwritten rules had not been hard to spot, and I could understand why they were there, for heroes and villains alike. No one, not Armsmaster nor Kaiser wanted one of their enemies coming for the people they cared about. New Wave though, believed that it was doubly important that they be held accountable for their actions, whether they were wearing tights or not.

Looking over at the America-themed heroine, I began. "First off, I want to thank you and the Protectorate for the offer. And I do hope that we can work together on occasion. But I think that I will be joining New Wave instead." Vicky started cheering, almost flying out of her seat in excitement. On the other end of the table, Miss Militia had almost the opposite reaction, seeming quite put out, though she did seem to understand why I chose not to take her offer.

In the end, my decision came down to two things. New Wave had been good to me. Vicky was my first, and only, friend. Mrs. Dallon had opened her home to me. Lady Photon, despite never having met me, was offering me a place in her team. To me, that meant more than they would probably ever know. The second reason was simple, I didn't know anyone that could be endangered by my civilian identity getting out. Everyone I knew was either from the PRT, Protectorate or New Wave. Me showing my face to the public would change nothing for them.

As the proceedings were wrapped up, I couldn't help the stupid grin that split my face in two. I was going to be a hero!

A/N: Hey everyone, I wanted to thank all of you for the reviews. I'm going to try to keep up and answer all of them, even if it's a simple thank you. I appreciate all the feedback and questions you guys have, as it lets me get a more solid idea of where I want to take this story.

These first couple of chapters aren't very action packed yet, though that's going to be kicking off soon as Sam begins going on patrols and his hero career really gets going. I hope you guys enjoyed, and I'll see you all next time!