opöökoäölkio Chapter 5: a, a private fanfic

The Gallery [Worm/OC]

Brockton Bay, 2011

January 2nd

(A Little While Later)

Now out of the ring, Nick was with his sparring partner talking, while the doctor and the others

were discussing something.

"Great ﬁght my friend. Are you sure you've never fought in your life? That last punch nearly

knocked me out completely." Said Triumph, While shaking hands with Nicholas.

The boy couldn't help but smile. and then answer

"Yeah, I've never done any martial arts in my life. At this point, I'm sure this has little to do with my

power."

The young Hero nods and takes his leave.

Nicholas then sees the doctor along with the rest of the Wards and Ms. Militia approaching.

"Well, I can't say I was expecting this one, Nicholas. Good ﬁght, I suppose you know what I will

ask you now." Doctor Santos, says with a smile on her face. And by the curious faces of the

Wards and even the heroine there, they also want to know.

Nick nods,

"Yes Doctor, I have some kind of supernatural knowledge of martial arts... And I have no idea

how, and to make it worse I can't even remember completely. It's like I just forgot everything."

Nick says as he crosses his arms.

As he crosses his arms, he feels a slight pain in his left forearm. As he looks he can see a small

bruise being made. It looks like Triumph had a Brute Rating as he said.

The doctor ﬁnishes writing down some things. And meanwhile, Ms. Militia asks a quick question.

"What was that last Strike you landed on the Triumph called?"

Nick's mind races and memories from pure repetition come to mind. Entire days where he just

practiced the basics. Punching the air. Again and again and again.

"The Fist of the Black Turtle... Huh, fuck that was weird." He says his face scrunching up. Again

his memories playing tricks on him.

The doctor and Miss Militia look at each other. Santos just goes back to typing something.

"That sounds like something out of a Kung Fu movie," Gallant says, his monotone voice giving the

line a funnier edge. Nick chuckles along with the rest of the Wards... minus Shadow Stalker.

Seriously, what is this girl's problem?

"It looks like we still have a lot of things to test. Especially now seeing that we have a more

technical part of your power to explore."

Miss Militia says, but before anyone can comment anything else. Her ﬁnger goes to her ear. And

for a few seconds, she seems to listen to something.

Everyone is silent, waiting for the woman to ﬁnish.

"Roger That. Well looks like we'll have to stop here. Principal Costa Brown is just a few minutes

away. Nicholas, I will take you to a private room where you will meet her" Says Miss Militia.

Nick is surprised but can't help but feel a little nervous.

"Oh, okay then. Well, I guess we'll have to ﬁnish this later Doctor." Nick says shaking hands with

the Doctor. Who just smiles and returns the gesture.

"Yeah, don't worry, if you join us you'll still see my face a lot around here."

The Wards then one by one say their goodbye and leave. Or as in Stalker's case, just nod to Nick.

Aegis squeezes his hand tight and says,

"It was great meeting you Nicholas, good luck. And do stop by the Wards' HQ so you can meet

everyone and talk to us more." From his tone of voice, Nick would guess he's smiling.

"Yes, I will, and it was really nice to meet you all too."

Everyone follows their path. And Nicholas follows Miss Militia to the location he mentioned

earlier.

"I also have to warn you, Nicholas, The Director didn't come alone. Apparently, she stopped by the

central hospital and got Panacea to come with her." Says Miss Militia.

For a few seconds, Nick is confused,

"Excuse me, but is Panacea some cape I don't know about?"

Miss Militia notices her mistake and explains the situation better.

"Yes, I'm sorry. Panacea is a healer from Brockton Bay. She has been acting for a relatively short

time. But she is already considered the best healer in the United States. From what we've been

told, through a personal request by Principal Costa Brown and Legend, she was assigned as your

primary physician while you were in Brockton Hospital."

This makes Nicholas's eyes widen a little.

"I understand. So I owe her a lot of thanks, don't I? Good to know that I'll be able to meet her."

Miss nods and continues to talk.

"She is coming accompanied, basically being escorted, by her sister, Glory Girl. From New Wave,

another cape that came out while you were in a coma. I assume you know about New Wave?"

They arrive at a door, which the heroine opens, and guides Nick inside.

Nicholas remembers the group. Now hearing their name he can remember it a little better.

"Yup, I remember them being some of the only groups of capes that perform without a mask in

our country. But I don't know much of them, I only remember Lady Photom and... in reality only

her" He says, then shrugs.

When looking at the location. Nick realizes that it is at least some kind of break room.

With a large table, a black sofa that seems to be very comfortable. A door, which probably has a

bathroom. And a few other things.

'This place is big enough to be considered an apartment.' He thinks as he goes to sit on the

couch.

Miss Militia is still standing and starts talking.

"Well Nicholas, I'll have to go now. But I'll be back with your mother when she arrives at HQ"

Nicholas leans back on the couch and just gives the heroine a thumbs up.

"No problem. See you soon Miss"

The heroine leaves the room and closes the door behind her.

…

"...Okay, what can I do while I wait? Maybe take a nap?"

(Some minutes later.)

Miss Militia walks with two people behind her.

Farther to the left is Rebecca Costa Brown, who walks calmly, her face set in a stoic smile,

something those who know her better would recognize as happiness or good humor. In her

hands, a tablet. She reads some information carefully.

And on the right side, Amy Dallon, Panacea. Who walks also walks calmly, however, her face

appears to be a little anxious. Which is understandable.

They, along with Militia, walk to where Nicholas is.

When ﬁnished reading everything in the ﬁle. The Director then frowns, probably reading

something she didn't like.

She shakes her head but keeps walking.

And after some time they reach the door.

And before Miss Militia can open the door Amy speaks,

"Uhh, if you want I can stay outside for a while."

The Director just looks at the girl and speaks.

"Don't worry, I will want to talk to Nicholas alone later. But at the ﬁrst moment, you can be with us.

Both Nicholas and I owe you a lot."

The girl looks surprised for a second but nods resolutely.

Miss Militia knocks on the door softly.

And a voice comes from within.

"Come in!"

Miss Militia opens the door. And right away, sees Nick lying on the couch.

His hands resting on the back of his head, he is looking up.

Everyone enters the room, and Nicolas gets up.

Upon getting up, he immediately meets his mother's eyes.

The woman's ordinarily stoic face immediately cracks. Her lips pressed together, and the woman

clearly holds herself back from tearing up a little.

Seeing his mother, he can't help but smile widely

"Hey, Mom-"

Before he could say anything else, he was greeted with a big hug.

His mother squeezes him tightly. And Nicholas accepts the tight embrace.

Being in the arms of his mother, who is now shorter than him. Nicholas can't help but relax.

Becoming calmer than he's ever been since he woke up.

The two stay like that for a few seconds.

Until his mother separates from the boy. And puts her hands on his face, still smiling.

"I still can't believe how much you've grown." She says, making the boy laugh a little.

"I think I've grown up a little too much. I'm taller than Dad now." He says still smiling, the phrase

coming out without him noticing.

The woman frowns but then smiles again.

She pulls away and gives him space.

She looks back, and gestures to the girl still standing by the door, calling her to come closer.

Observing the interaction with her hands in her pockets, appearing to be out of place.

"I imagine Miss Militia has already told you. But this is Amy Dallon or Panacea. The healer

responsible for you in the last month."

The Mother says, a smile still on her face.

Nicholas observes the girl better. She is short, with brown hair, and cute freckles on her face. Her

eyes are a greenish brown.

At ﬁrst instance, she appears to have a basic athletic build, like someone who has just started

exercising.

"It's great to meet you, Panacea. Thank you so much for everything." Nick, gives the girl a genuine

smile.

He has no idea what she helped with. But his mother taught him to be grateful when others help

him, no matter what.

The girl smiles too, her nervousness slowly fading.

"It's also really nice to ﬁnally get to meet you, Mr Brown. And I didn't help you that much, I just did

what I was asked." She says, and before Nick can say anything, his mother says

"She was essential for you to wake up faster. We owe her a lot." The woman says, without

blinking.

Amy's cheeks blush slightly at the compliment.

And Nicholas Chuckles,

"Heh, so I guess I'll owe you one." He extends his hand in a Fist Bump, which Amy accepts while

blinking momentarily in confusion.

'Pfft, she looks like a scared cat confused while getting petted on the head'

And with that, everyone then goes to the sofas, to talk better.

(A while later.)

Nicholas proceeds to tell the latest events to his mother. But without going into too many details,

and then he gets to the part of his possible deal with PRT.

"I already thought you would like the idea of joining the Protectorate. But I'm not sure I

understand your idea of acting in Brockton. Many places across America would accept you." The

woman, back to her stoic face, speaks to her son, who sits on the other sofa opposite her.

Amy and Miss Militia are silent. Watching the exchange between the two.

Nicholas, with his face also in a kind of stoic smile, responds smoothly.

"I don't have a logical reason for that. I just feel Brockton will be important to my development."

The two face each other for a few seconds, and Alexandria ends up nodding.

"Hm, I understand. I can easily arrange a place for you to stay here. But there are other problems,

you still need to ﬁnish high school. Any plans for that?" She says arching her eyebrow.

He thinks a little longer and then answers.

"I will use my powers to study as much as possible. Enough so I could skip a few years of

education. Maybe I'll do my last year of school here." He says, with a straight face.

The Director frowns and thinks about it too.

"That might be possible. From what I've read, you can speed up your mental processing without

any problems, so to speak. Okay, I'll approve that. And along with that, I'll be talking to Director

Pigott about your entry into the protectorate."

Nicholas nods.

"Well, I think that's all. I have nothing to add, you know a lot more about PRT bureaucracies than I

do. I'm going to be half Ward and half Hero of the Protectorate. " The boy says while shrugging.

His mother nods,

"Yes. But one day you'll have to learn to deal with that kind of thing. You're an adult now Nick."

Even while giving a more serious warning to the boy, Nicholas could see a hint of sadness in his

mother's eyes.

A boy in an adult's body.

For now, that's what he is.

One moment that will change.

Hopefully.

(Minutes later, At Wards' base)

At the moment, all Wards are in the base. Some are getting ready to go home for the day. Others

stayed for a while longer.

However, a few minutes ago Glory Girl surprised them by arriving by surprise.

The girl, being the girlfriend of one of the team members and attending the same school as

almost everyone in the group, came to know them outside of their hero identities.

So everyone at the moment is in the room talking... Well almost everyone, Shadow stalker

pretending not to be listening to the conversation.

"To be quite honest, the Director is a lot more relaxed than I thought she would be. She was in a

very good mood on the way here" Vicky says, propping herself up on the couch.

Dean, better known as Gallant, is next to Vicky, He's already out of his armor, then speaks

"Well, her son is out of a three-year coma. She has a right to be in a good mood." He says with a

smile, making the Wards chuckle and Vicky shove him aside but still smiles.

"Sooooo, what is he like? I hope we don't have another Stalker in the group." Says Dennis, or

Clockblocker.

Dennis is a Caucasian guy, with red hair, blue eyes, and about average height. He features his

costume still on his body. Probably having just arrived from his patrol.

The comment causes Shadow Stalker Or Sophia to stop looking at her cell phone and give him a

nasty glare. She remains in her entire costume, Sophia is dark-skinned, slender, with long, straight

dark hair.

"Fuck you Dennis"

Chris, better known as Kid Win, has brown hair and a pale complexion, and just like Clockblocker

he still hasn't taken off his costume.

"I have to admit that I'm curious too. You guys talked to him, right? Thoughts?" Tinker curiously

asks about their possible new teammate.

Vista then starts talking,

"He seems like a nice guy. Even though he looks kinda exotic, he appears to be a pretty normal

guy... Aside from the fact that he has ridiculously strong powers." She says, crossing her arms.

The girl is also already without a mask, and practically ready to leave.

"Heh, now I'm curious. What are his powers?" Vicky asks, she wants to know right away what kind

of guy her little sister has been helping.

Aegis speaks seriously. Then giving his general verdict on the Redhead from before.

"We still don't know his Ratings. But the summary is that he has all his physical attributes

improved, on a level at least similar to mine. As far as I could see the mental ones too. He also

has extreme control over metals and is a blaster perhaps up to Purity level. Anything else?"

Sophia surprisingly adds something too,

"He seems to have some kind of absurd ability to learn martial arts, either that or his powers just

give him an instinct for how to ﬁght."

Dennis whistles, his eyes wide.

"Damn! Magnetism by itself is strong. This guy is going to be a monster."

Around him, the other Wards just nodded in agreement. Looks like they're going to have one more

strong cape in the Protectorate, which is always a good thing.

Vicky then turns to Dean and asks him,

"But hey, what did your powers notice about him? I'm already going to consider him a nice guy

just because he practically gave Amy a vacation." She says smiling, making Dean snort.

"I have to give him some points for that. Amy has been doing much better than she has in the last

few months. And well, he's a very calm guy, but I can feel that he's not emotionally 100% yet.

Which is understandable." Dean says while nodding. Making Vicky look confused for a second.

"Wait, what do you mean last few months-"

And before she could ﬁnish speaking.

The siren sounds. Meaning they have visitors.

Last edited: Sep 5, 2023

Brockton Bay, 2011

January 2nd,

(With Amy and Nick, a little bit earlier)

The two parahumans walk around the base, while both talk.

"...And then for the rest of the month, I did periodic body checks on you, helping to prepare it for

your awakening. It's the least I could do."

Nicholas nods, thinking about the whole process.

'So she just sped up the adaptation process? The gallery didn't specify exactly how long this

would take, but from what I remember it was about 3 years. And I woke up before that.'

As they pass through the halls, also passing several PRT agents walking around the base, Nick

sees something out of the corner of his eye.

A small red cat, walking beside the girl... a second ago he wasn't there.

'Huh, does this have something to do with her power or something? Maybe it's a projection, or

whatever it's called?'

He turns his attention back to the girl and asks

"Hey Amy, if it's not too much trouble, I'd like to know what your power is. You said it helped my

body adapt, but like how?" Nick says, his hands resting in his pockets, as he looks at the girl.

She looks a little taken aback by the question, but her face turns serious as she starts to explain.

"A lot of people think my power is just some kind of healing. But I'm technically a Striker... I think

so anyway. My power is biokinesis, which means I can change the structure of living beings." She

says, and as she speaks, Nick can notice a certain discomfort in the girl... as if it hurts a little that

she's saying this.

She then looks at Nicholas, as if expecting something from him.

And Nick smiles.

"I have to admit, your power is frighteningly strong. Incredible."

He's being honest. A very useful power...

However, it must bring its problems of course. Like his own Chronos power, Amy's power can be

compared to the power of an ex-member of the creepiest villain organization/group in the world.

But in the end, it doesn't matter that much.

What makes a villain is not his power…

The girl clears her throat and looks back to the front as the two walk.

"But hey... what's with the cat following us?" Nick says, without batting an eyelid.

Amy freezes and her eyes widen,

At the moment, the two walk around a place with practically no one around. They are already a

few meters from the door of the "small" HQ of the wards.

The girl looks at Nick.

He watches her with a little concern, trying to understand if he said something offensive or asked

too many questions.

'Oh shit, I should have left it alone.' he thinks, while in his mind he facepalms himself.

The red cat, seeing the two people standing still, walks between the two.

And sits on the ﬂoor.

Seeing the cat's action, Nick couldn't help but smile a little. While Amy collects herself.

"Ahem... Well, it's part of my power, but nobody should know that."

With her speech, Nick looks back, now a little confused.

The cat looks at Nicholas and proceeds to leap to his chest.

The redhead catches it in the air, no problem, and gets even more confused.

"He is invisible... I deem him to be a projection, that my power has created. He showed up the

very day I helped you." She says, her face still surprised by the interaction.

Nick tries to hold the kitten, who tries to climb him and freezes when he hears the last part.

"On the same day? That's… something tells me that you know exactly why." When looking into

Amy's eyes, he sees that she is a little anxious.

"Yes, I do. But I want to talk to you alone about it later, can I?" She says, her voice almost pleading

a little.

The cat manages to stabilize itself, staying on the boy's shoulders.

Nick continued looking into her eyes. The cat also turns and faces her.

'They have the same eyes' Amy thinks, as she is stared at by two pairs of crimson eyes.

"Yeah, no problem. Maybe after I ﬁnd a place to stay after I've settled down somewhere in the

city." The man nods, and walks off again, with the girl following.

Nick can hear her relieved sigh,

The two keep walking. Until they reach the door of the Wards.

Amy presses the alarm button and a loud siren sound echoes inside. A few seconds later the

door opens.

Upon entering, Nick can see that this time everyone seems to be there. His brain quickly counts 3

unknown people in the room.

Some started to get up, and others were already on their feet, probably putting on their masks.

And before Nick can say hello to the Wards he's already met, a blonde, maskless girl ﬂies off the

couch and ﬂoats over to Amy and Redhead.

"Hey Ames, so this is the guy?" She says while landing beside Amy, she nudges the Sister's side

while wiggling her eyebrows.

Nicholas arches his brow and crosses his arms.

Amy rolls her eyes,

"Yes Vicky, and don't be rude he's literally on your side."

The girl chuckles in good nature and turns to Nick and extends her hand in a handshake.

"Sorry, it's nice to meet my sister's most distinguished patient"

This time the one who chuckles is Nicholas, who accepts the handshake.

"Nice to meet you too, you're Glory Girl I presume?" He says, to the New Wave member.

She nods and replies

"Yup, Victoria Dallon at your disposal Mr. Brown," She says smiling, and by the tone of her voice

Nick can see that she seems to use "Mr." Ironically.

He merely smirks, and then looks at everyone and gives a short hello to the already known

Wards. He then goes to the sofa where he sees the ones he doesn't know yet.

They both have their uniforms still on, maybe they were on patrol before this?

The taller of the two, a young man in an all-white completely covered suit with what looks like

clock symbols all over his body, gets up from where he was and comes over to Nick.

"Hey, Man! I'm Clockblocker, nice to meet you."

Nick smiles, and the two shake hands.

"Nicholas, but Nick will do too-"

However, at that exact moment, Nicholas feels a chill run down his spine.

He drops Clockblocker's hand and blinks in confusion, then looks down at his hand.

Clock appears to have frozen for a second but soon moves on as if nothing had happened. And

considering that the young man's mask prevents everyone from seeing his face, there's no telling

his reaction.

The next boy is shorter, but only slightly, than Clock. Then comes and introduces himself to Nick.

"Sup, I'm KidWin. Congratulations on your return to the world of the awake man." He says smiling

in amusement.

The comment brings a big smile to Nicholas's face, who also shakes Kid's hand.

"Thank you very much"

Everyone then sits down, on the armchairs and the sofas.

More relaxed, the climate has an air of tranquility.

"Well, I take it all went well with Director Costa Brown Nicholas?" Aegis asks the now second

Redhead of the place.

Nick nods and smiles,

"Yes, all without problems. Apart from the occasional tear trickling down" He says and hears the

snorts of some of the Wards. He then continues to speak. "My mother is already talking to

Director Piggot about the details. I'm going to be part of the Brockton Bay Protectorate, I'll be

partially part of the Wards and partially already being inducted into the Protectorate's core team."

The Wards nod and smile, now having one more person on the team.

"Well, then I guess I should be the ﬁrst to do that." Aegis says the other Wards seem to

understand and look at the Hero.

He puts his hands on his helmet and takes it off.

"My name is Carlos, it's a pleasure to have you on the team Nick."

Nicholas's eyes widened a little. But he smiles and nods at the young man.

"I sincerely thought that the part about revealing identities would come later."

"If you're conﬁrming that you are going to be part of the Wards, I don't see why not." Gallant says

and is next to remove his helmet. And one by one all are without their masks, even Shadow

Stalker removes hers

"Dean Stansﬁeld, a pleasure."

"Missy Biron"

"Christopher, but you can call me Chris!"

"Name's Dennis, but Clock works too"

"…Sophia"

Nicholas smiles honestly. They seem like nice people, at least his time here at the base won't turn

out to be boring.

[Some Hours Later…]

Time: 11:30 Pm,

Inside a house, the lights are on even at an advanced hour. And its occupants talk to each other,

enjoying the time together.

The house is in a part of the city called Downtown, one of the best parts of the city…Or less bad.

"Are you sure you don't want me to stay awake with you?" Nick's mother says, and the young man

can see the concern on her face even though she tries not to show it.

He smiles

"Yeah, I just don't feel like going to sleep. It's okay Mom."

She nods and says goodnight. Going to one of the rooms in the house.

His mother apparently bought a house in Brockton... But how? Nicholas has no idea.

There are many factors about his mother that Nick is unaware of. Most of her life as Alexandria

is unknown to him.

But Nicholas is not an idiot. In his opinion, his family owns at least one home in every important

US location.

In addition to companies and many other things.

All of this on his mother's part of the family.

Nicholas sighs and stretches out on the couch.

His mother's meeting with Director Piggot lasted an hour at most. And soon after they proceeded

to this location.

His mother introduced the place as his home from today.

Where will he live alone…

Other things were also explained to him. He will receive a salary like the Ward from now on.

At least until the Protectorate Board decides that he can already be a main-team Hero, to then

receive the same amount as the adult heroes. A decision that they have complete control over. It

could be a year from now, or maybe two months from now. It all depends on Nicholas's abilities.

They have also already decided on the heroes who will accompany him, offering him a kind of

mentorship.

Assault and Battery.

Nick doesn't know much about them, but he trusts his mother with that choice, she told him that

these two would be qualiﬁed mentors.

And now for another part of his life.

School

A month from now, he will be taken to Arcadia High. To have his knowledge tested in an exam.

This is something never done before, but it was found that he could easily do well in this test

when using the "mental advancement" part that his power has... They were probably referring to

"Chronos"

This power is peculiar, even though it is something so complicated, it has very passive uses and

is easy to control. At this very moment, Nick is thinking ten times faster than any average human.

But Nick wondered, how the fuck did they come to that conclusion with only physical tests?

'Huh, maybe they had Thinkers analyzing me throughout the whole process? Or is there

something else in this situation that I don't know about?'

Well, whatever. In the end, Nicholas has a lot to do.

And next week, he will be starting to go to the PRT HQ to start taking "classes" there.

The redhead gets up from the sofa and goes to the coffee table in the center of the living room.

Where two cell phones meet. Both were given to him by his mother...my god, she's been

preparing this whole time.

Taking his personal cell phone. Nicholas begins looking through the curriculum for the years he

missed in high school.

Time around him starts to run slower, and his mind starts to speed up.

He ﬁddles with his phone a little... and conﬁrms. It seems that the cell phone works even with

time almost stopped.

"Heh, it's time to start studying."

Last edited: Jul 19, 2023

Brockton Bay,

January, 3rd

The sun begins to seep through the shutters in Nicholas's room.

The boy can be seen sitting at his desk, phone, and computer on several pages, with heavy text,

and with too much information.

"...Interesting so this theory has already been proved? But how did they even do it?"

Time runs slowly around Nick. Meanwhile, the young man writes down several things in a

notebook he found in his room.

The redhead has already studied quite a bit of all major subjects. He always had an ease to

memorize most of the school's contents, and with his ability to learn things being great too, he

never had trouble with test scores and stuff like that.

At the moment he is studying a little about a subject he knows quite well. But not enough

Parahumans.

More speciﬁcally powers, and their "limits".

A little earlier, he also took a look at the PHO forums. Reading about the Villains and Factions of

Brockton Bay.

Nothing too deep for now, just the basics.

After all, he only has very basic knowledge, and what he knows is from 3 years ago.

"Shit, I went off on another tangent, well I might still have time."

And then something clicks in Nick's brain.

'Wait a minute… For how long have I been studying?'

Again by pure instinct, the answer comes to his brain.

Every second, minute, and seconds are counted by his power.

16 hours, 35 minutes, 57 seconds.

…fuck

Time returns to normal.

His phone and computer seem to glitch... And its screen goes back to normal.

Time: 9 am

"...Wait a second" Nick places his hand on his head, taking in the situation.

He didn't sleep, but the redhead is not tired at all.

'God, this is so fucking weird, I'm kind of a freak. A good kind of freak at least.'

He looks at his desk, all messed up with pencils, erasers, and a notebook full of notes and some

designs.

And there's something else that doesn't make sense, at least not very much according to what

he's been studying.

The computer ran smoothly even with accelerated time.

But to interact with technology one should be a Tinker. Or at least have a power that interacts

with technology.

Which Nick obviously isn't.

The redhead thinks for a while longer. And it comes to the only possible conclusion at the

moment.

MAGIC.

As the gallery said before and also, and as he noticed in power testing, Nick's powers don't have

the same limitations and functioning as other Parahumans. "Chronos" is literally magic as the

gallery warned him.

But this also means that studying and understanding more about parahumans will serve more to

understand others. And not himself.

'Well, whatever. I better go eat, I only have a few more hours with Mom, for today.'

And with that, Nick leaves his room and heads to the bathroom to do his hygiene.

Then go get some coffee,

'I can't live without coffee.'

(A few hours later…)

The sun already sets on the horizon. And now on the front of the house, Nick says goodbye to his

mother for the time being.

The two hug tightly. The woman, who is dressed in character, in an expensive suit, looks him in

the eyes.

"I will be visiting you again in a few days, keep in touch with me on the phone. And any problem

you can call me, ok?" She says, her smile forcing itself not to fall…

Nick smiles and hugs his mother again.

He can tell she wants to stay longer and talk more.

Spend more time with the son she lost for 3 years.

However,

Rebecca Costa Brown and Alexandria

have work to do.

They break up from the hug,

"I'll Mom, don't worry." Nick nods,

She gets into the special PRT Van, for longer trips, and the agents take her.

Outside now, Nicholas sighs. It's time to start a new routine. At least now he'll have more exciting

things to do.

Nick, takes a look around the neighborhood and notices how different the ambiance is here.

Much more "reserved", in quotes because this is still Brockton Bay,

But here, at least, he can't see any evidence of gangs, for example.

More towards the center there are entire walls with swastikas painted on them

At least that's what he read in the PHO.

And PHO is not the best source of information.

Nicholas then returns home.

Not noticing a blonde girl who was watching him curiously from their yard.

(Some minutes later)

The Redhead looks through his wardrobe, seeing the clothes his mother left in the house.

All basic stuff, just so he doesn't run out of personal belongings. After all, his things burned down

along with his house.

His mother also handed him money. And a credit card so he can buy whatever he wants to his

liking.

...Which probably won't be much.

'I've always been very careful with money... or maybe I'm just cheap with it.'

He is currently dressed in a sleeveless shirt, which is ﬁtted but not too tight. And some gym

shorts, the day isn't too cold after all.

After taking a look at the things he now has. Nick makes a mental list of what to buy next…

And then boredom hits.

Maybe he should study more?

No. It's enough how much he studied yesterday. 16 hours is a bit much.

Later Nick will study a little.

For now... maybe a little exercise?

Nicholas goes out to the backyard.

The place is not huge. But it's spacious and well taken care of... another thing to remember is to

keep well tidy

Nick goes to the middle of the yard... And without even realizing it, his body begins to go through

several movements.

His mind again goes into a trance. And memories that are his, but at the same time are not, start

to invade his mind.

"From basics to perfection."

*Foosh*

His ﬁst hits the air.

In such a well-placed move,

That even the greatest martial artist would be moved to tears.

And so he continues for hours... Until the sun has completely set and the moon has risen.

Nicholas snapped out of his momentary trance, and to contemplate his surroundings.

He takes a deep breath and lets it out.

His mind calmed... for a while, he felt at

peace.

Which is strange. After all, before that he was already at peace... right?

The redhead goes to the place where he left his cell phone on the grass ﬂoor and picks it up.

While he thinks deeply.

'Maybe I'm more affected by all this than I expected... I think I need therapy' His lips sink, and he

frowns a little, uncomfortable at the thought of needing help.

Nick goes to the bathroom. Getting ready to take a shower.

'I never needed something like that. Most of the time I didn't even need my parents... What an

irony, only when older and more independent, I end up needing help.'

Now naked, and under the shower, he turns it on.

Memories come to his mind.

An older man with slightly gray hair looking at him. And smiling. A big scar across the right eye,

and more than that, an Omega symbol in each of them.

"Unfortunately this will still happen for a long time boy... You are not

complete

, before all this,

you didn't even have a Dream or Goal to call yours. You were empty, with only a few Ideals and

principles to call yours."

Nick stops and freezes.

That wasn't a memory.

It was a message.

He then goes back to cleaning himself.

(A few minutes later.)

Now dressed only in sweatpants.

Nicholas ﬁnds himself lying unexpectedly lying down on his own roof.

His hands were behind his head. Eyes ﬁxed on the moon above,

The cold of the night doesn't bother him, well, that's one more thing to consider as a change in

his body.

"An empty person, without dreams but having ideals. That's basically what I am isn't it?"

Nick ponders, then moves from his position and sits down

His red eyes glow in the dark.

"Unfortunately I can't be like that anymore, can I?"

He has a mission. A moral obligation so to speak.

To destroy the Entity.

And improve this shitty world he lives in.

After all, either he does that or he will live forever in misery.

How exactly will this be done? Nicholas has no idea.

But he will do it.

And then he can ﬁnally rest in a grateful Universe.

The Parahuman rises in one movement. Jumps to his backyard, then heads back to the house.

(Hours Later. In the next day.)

January 4th.

Time: 7 am

Nicholas woke up early.

This time he avoided staying awake too long.

But even then, he can't help but wake up early.

At the moment he makes his coffee peacefully. While checking his cell phone, more speciﬁcally

the PHO.

Welcome to the Parahumans Online message boards.

You are currently logged in, Nthegreat

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Topic: A New BB Cape!

In: Boards Brockton Bay Cape Sightings

ToAo (Original Poster)

Posted On Jan 2nd 2011:

Something exploded in the sky just outside the central hospital! And a guy literally fell from the

explosion, I FILMED IT ALL

[Video]

(Showing page 25 of 25)

TheUnderBob

Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Hey guys! Any news? Do we have a few words from Costa Brown?

Or at least from the PRT?

Shulzin

Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

People, stop being intrusive assholes. The guy already had his identity leaked, he must be going

through a lot right now

Nick reads the messages and can't help but laugh.

People speculating a million things about him... And meanwhile, Nick is relaxing, making coffee

and some scrambled eggs.

He then goes to everything, leaves his cell phone resting on a cookie jar on top of his kitchen

counter, and aims the camera.

CLICK

He takes the phone back and checks the photo.

A photo of Nicholas with messy hair, shirtless, only in sweatpants. With a frying pan in one hand,

and a thumbs up in the other.

On his face a lazy smile.

He then makes a point of posting the photo along with a message on the Thread about himself.

Nthegreat

Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Good morning to all my fans. Here's a picture for you guys, to understand my real mental state

right now.

[Photo]

End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 23, 24, 25

Nick posts the photo and message and leaves the PHO.

'Heh, it'll be fun to see all the commotion over the next few hours or days.'

And so Nick proceeds with his day.

(Hours later.)

The day passed and Nick didn't even notice. The redhead spent the day studying, and relaxing a

little.

And now it's late. He once again returns to his backyard.

Ready to once again practice his routine, he knows it's Karate…

More speciﬁcally some kind of Supernatural Kyokushin Karate.

'Oh yeah, I forgot to look at the PHO after that.'

Nick sits on the grass with his cell phone and opens the forum.

However, upon opening, Nick notices that the Thread has been terminated.

And the content moved to another part of the Forum, a new Thread in Brockton Bay.

'The Great N Fandom... holy shit they created a thread just to post my content' Nick looks at his

cell phone, eyes wide in disbelief.

How the hell did a Thread about the explosion on Sunday evolve into a FANDOM!?

Nicholas gives up and decides not to look at the posts.

He leaves the cell phone. And goes back to training.

And so another day passes.

(2 days later.)

January 6th

Time: 2 pm

Nick ﬁnishes putting on his running shoes and leans back against the sofa. While thinking about

how to progress.

The last two days had been spent exercising and studying like hell.

At the same time periodically check some forums to get an idea if something happened around

town.

At the moment, Nicholas intends to leave the house for the ﬁrst time in a few days.

For two things, ﬁnd a place to buy some nicer clothes other than basic white and black T-shirts.

And also take a run around.

Something the redhead used to do with his father from time to time.

Nick's head snaps up as he looks toward the front door of the house.

Someone is coming to knock on his door, four people to be exact.

Nick can feel their metal belongings, like phones.

Okay, this is weird. Who would come to visit? His mom?

No, she didn't say anything.

But how did someone ﬁnd out my address? Maybe it's the neighbors?

Nicholas decides to take the risk.

People arrive at his door, and they press the bell.

DING DONG

On the other side of the door, he could hear the voice, of a familiar girl

"Heh, that's a cool doorbell. Why can't ours be like this Ames?"

And then another responds, also being familiar.

"I don't know, ask Dad later" The other voice answers, sounding a lot less excited than the other

one.

Nick blinks in confusion,

And goes to the door to unlock it,

When he opens it he sees the four people.

Amy, Victoria, Dean, and an unknown girl.

All smiling,

"...How the hell did you guys ﬁnd out where I live?"

Brockton Bay,

January 5th.

Another cold night by Brockton Docks,

And in a large "abandoned" warehouse. Two villains, from the Undersiders group, discuss their

new orders from their mysterious boss.

Well.

These are not orders for the group as a whole but for one member in particular.

Tattletale.

In the base's main room, Grue and Tattletale talk.

*Sigh* "...Is this serious? Did he say that?" Grue says while massaging his temple. The oldest

young man leans on the couch he's sitting on.

Tattletale nods her face in a mix of anxiety and a little fear.

Grue, not exactly noticing Tattletale's fear, continues to speak, as he rubs the back of his neck,

resolutely accepting the Undersiders' new sub-task.

"Okay, in the end, he didn't ask for anything so absurd. We should be able to get at least some

information about the guy. He seems to be quite conﬁdent and maybe arrogant, have you seen

what he did Tuesday? He posted a picture of him at breakfast-" However, the villain notices

Tattletale's face.

"Well, the problem is, I can't get practically anything about him from my powers. Generally, by

video, I would be able to ﬁnd out something, even if it's something useless. The only thing I can

ﬁgure out with what we have on this Nicholas guy is that he might have magnetic powers.

However, his power was deduced as I analyzed his surroundings. But not the guy exactly…Urgh,

fucking headache. " This time the girl herself says, and sighs deeply and puts her hand on her

head.

Grue is silent for a few seconds,

"Huh, maybe he has Stranger Powers?" he asks and crosses his arms.

The Girl freezes for a few seconds, and the answer comes to her.

"No, he's not a Stranger... Well, at least it's possible to cross out that possibility. I'm going to try to

get closer to him and watch him. It usually works when my power ends up failing like this."

Grue nods, but seriously looks at the villainous girl.

"Okay, I'll go with you... assuming you know where he lives or something." The young man shakes

his head and snorts, an ironic smile on his face. "And just like that, the Unwritten Rules go to

space."

And so the place descends to silence... And Grue can see that Tattletale still seems uneasy about

something.

"...Lisa"

The blonde turns and lies down on the couch, staring at the ceiling.

"While I was taking these orders... I could notice something, the boss. He's terriﬁed, completely

horriﬁed by something, and it has to do with this new cape. My power can infer that he was

ordered by someone to do something and that something has to do with this guy as well."

This startles Grue, who widens his eyes.

"Hmm, The same guy you said that is always calm, with a plan in mind, is apprehensive about

something like this? I have to admit I wasn't expecting that".

"...He also said I should check to see if he could be a possible new member."

Grue rolled his eyes at that request.

"The son of the Director of the PRT? I doubt it."

This makes Tattletale snort a bit too.

Brockton Bay's smallest group of supervillains is going to have their next few months relatively

more chaotic than they can ever imagine.

/—/

January 6th, back to Nick.

Now, a few minutes after the four parahumans rang his doorbell.

Inside a black car, Nicholas sits in the back next to Victoria and Dean.

Up front, in the passenger seat, Amy.

And driving the car, the unknown girl.

She introduced herself as Crystal Pelham.

Laserdream, another New Wave heroine. And related to Amy and Vicky.

'Okay, this is getting ridiculous. That perk REALLY made me friendlier, I'm making a friend a day.'

Nick thinks and goes back to listening to the girls' conversation in the car.

"Vicky, it's a waste of time and money to go to one of the malls on the Boardwalk and you know

it. Everything there is more expensive! We go to one from here in Downtown, and that's a ﬁnal"

Crystal says, making Amy chuckle at her side.

"Amen, last time we went to the one close to home, she almost made us go Bankrupt." The

brown-haired girl says, with a playful smile.

The heroine next to Nick crosses her arms but doesn't insist on saying the opposite.

"Guys, remember we're going there to help Nick get some new clothes." Dean, the voice of

reason, says and by his face, the redhead can see that this situation is at least common.

"Heh, it's okay Dean, I don't know anything about Brockton after all. It'll be nice to be dragged

around, at least I'll get to see the whole Mall." This makes the boy playfully lean his head against

the front seat and groan in annoyance.

Crystal in the front seat laughs as she pulls into the parking lot.

Apparently, the group found out where Nicholas lives, for the simple fact that the Pelham house

is across the road from the redhead's house, and just two houses to the right.

Which is quite suspicious. This is at the very least on purpose, his mother must have done this to

make him safer or something.

Meanwhile, the girl tries to ﬁnd a place to park. Vicky turns to Nick,

"But Hey Red, what have you been up to the last few days? Besides posting nudes on PHO of

course."

The question gets a laugh from Nick who didn't expect it

Dean and Amy look Deadpan at the girl. Who, has a playful smile on her face.

"By the way, great photo Nicholas, the girls at my college enjoyed it" Crystal says, ﬁnally ﬁnding a

good parking spot.

"HA! I honestly didn't expect all the commotion that photo caused. And to answer that, I

essentially studied a lot and trained." Everyone starts to get out of the car. And the others began

to guide Nick towards the entrance to the Mall.

Amy looks at him with an arched eyebrow.

"You… studied? Are serious? Why don't you get some rest? You just came back from a coma!"

She says, looking seriously at Nick.

The redhead just shrugs.

Vicky then steps between the two, while looking Amy straight in the eyes.

"Says the former workaholic. You have no say in that Ames." The girl says with a smirk.

Amy's eye ﬂickers, but before she can say anything Nick says,

"A Workaholic aren't you? But how bad was it?" he asks, to the group at large. Making Crystal

respond this time,

"Well, from what Vicky and Dean say. She was going to the hospital every day, and always leaving

there later than everyone else. Oh, she was always grumpy and exhausted."

Amy sends a betrayed look to Crystal who just smiles sweetly.

"If all this continued I'm pretty sure Amy's condition would reach the brink of collapse. Taking her

to a total mental breakdown." Dean says in a worried tone.

Vicky's smile disappears, and she nods. Maybe they talked about it some time ago?

Nick, on hearing all this. Can't help but feel bad for the girl. Amy can't be any older than the age he

was when he fell into a coma. And even then the girl was already facing a kind of huge Burnout.

Amy sighs hearing all this.

"I already told you I won't do that anymore. The last month has been enlightening for me... I've

discovered many things about myself, and let go of many of my ideals. None of that will happen

again." She says, and Nick follows the girl's line of vision.

A cute red cat walks ahead of them, running past the people in the mall.

Nick holds back from chuckling.

And so the parahumans move on with Vicky guiding them through the many shops in the area.

(A while later)

At the moment Nicky and the others are in a good clothes store, nominated by Vicky and Crystal.

Looking at some jackets he thought were cool.

The store is practically empty. Which is funny to Nick, he thought such a big mall on a Thursday

would be more crowded.

Nick feels a tap on his shoulder, and he turns his head as he grabs another jacket to try on.

The person is Crystal who looks at him,

"Oh, hey Crystal, do you need something?" He says with a smile, the girl has been nothing but

kind to him so it's always nice to reciprocate.

She smiles,

"Well, sorry to bother you. But I heard from others, well, about everything you're going through. So

I wanted to ask how you are."

Nick blinks, not exactly expecting this.

But he ends up smiling at the girl's kindness. And answer it honestly.

"Don't worry, no problem. It's sweet of you to ask that. And the truth is, I can't lie. I'm not exactly

100% mentally well yet. I was considering having therapy." Nick says and takes the clothes he

wanted to try on, and goes to the ﬁtting room with Crystal at his side.

The girl looks surprised at Nick's admission, and a little embarrassed by the praise, but smiles at

him and nods.

"Well, it's great that you have that notion, a lot of people can't admit that they need the help of a

psychologist!"

Nick nods. True, but he's heard a lot of good things about it from other people. So he realizes that

therapy could be good for him.

The two arrive at the ﬁtting room and see Dean and Vicky waiting outside one of them.

"Heya guys, where's Amy? Trying on some clothes?" Crystal asks

Dean nods

"Vicky has decided to buy Amy whatever outﬁt she wants," he says, and Nick can see the amused

smile on his face.

A and then from the Girls' Ward of the ﬁtting room, Amy I left with her chosen outﬁt.

She has a slightly nervous smile on her face,

She clears her throat, feigns conﬁdence for a second, and asks.

"Ahem, W-well guys, how do I look /mERRyBN)?"

"Damn Amy! I loved it!" Vicky says, appreciating her sister's choice.

Crystal nods with a smile,

"I have to admit, a new style, but it turned out great."

"It looks great on you Amy" Dean says, less excited than the girls but also smiling.

Nick nods agreeing,

"I agree, I love the jacket especially, it looks so good on you that I think I'm going to buy one for

myself too. Then we'll get out of here matching." Nick says honestly.

The girl looked great in this style.

Amy smiles at the compliments, and heads back into the female ﬁtting room, presumably to

change back into her clothes.

"Well, My turn guys" Nick goes to the men's section of the Fitting room.

(Some minutes later.)

Nick tries on various clothes, having a very eclectic taste, the styles of clothes he decides to take

are very different.

And now that he's ﬁnished choosing what he's going to buy, he decides to wear a full outﬁt to test

the waters.

And it goes out of the ﬁtting rooms, to where the rest of the others are.

Arriving there, he talks to them

"I found the shirt a little tight, I guess I don't know my size anymore," Nick says, as he adjusts the

turtleneck of his shirt.

He looks at everyone and notices that they are all looking at him in surprise, and he gives them a

look.

"What? Do I look /EfF3Tay)weird or something?" He asks after all Nick thought

that this was a great outﬁt for a more formal circumstance.

Vicky chuckles and shakes her head,

"No man, you look great, but I don't think anyone here thought you were a guy who wears

something like that"

Dean nods,

"I agree, you look like a model from some fashion magazine" he says seriously.

Crystal, on the other hand, takes a look at his chest.

"It's a

little

tight, but it's not looking weird or anything. And by the way, why the hell is your chest

bigger than mine?" She says as he crosses his arms, and pouts playfully,

The absurdity of the phrase, makes Victoria bursts out laughing, making Dean and Amy chuckle,

Nick blinks and looks down.

"Huh, My whole body grew obviously, and was also enhanced by my powers, so I don't have the

slightest notion of my body size."

"Well, your chest is 47 inches in size, if you're curious," Amy says automatically as if she already

has it in her mind.

And everyone looks at her confused.

She rolls her eyes,

"It's my power, people. I've been taking care of him for an entire month and I know every inch of

him." She says and crosses her arms, and her ﬂushed cheeks show her embarrassment at having

to say this.

This time, the one who bursts out laughing is Nicholas.

(Minutes Later)

Sometime later, the ﬁve parahumans ﬁnd themselves walking through the mall, talking.

Nicholas with several bags in his arms, full of clothes. A happy smile on his face.

"Well, looks like our Brockton rookie had a happy day," Vicky says, seeing the big smile on Nick's

face.

"A really good day. It's been a while since I've hung out with friends like this, or even made friends

this fast." He chuckles and says.

Amy looks at him with an arched eyebrow,

"So you're not one of many friends?"

"Nope, I've made a few real friends for life. And the few that I did I ended up losing touch with

time." He says and shrugs.

The ﬁve pass through a part of the mall, where the ceiling is made of glass. Giving a view of a

starless sky.

And then a part of its power activates in the presence of danger.

{A golden ﬂash echoes through the glass above, visible to all who pass below.

And then something goes through the window at high speed in an indigo-purple blur.

Falling to the ground with all the force, the vision ends with a look at who fell.

Lady Photon}

Nick came out of his trance,

He ignores Crystal who was about to talk to him, and time starts to slow down more.

His mind racing at full speed.

Giving a scare to the four around him, and the few people passing by there at the time, he

accelerates, cracking the ground below him, and when he reaches a speciﬁc point, he makes a

huge jump to the top.

The ﬂash of light comes, and the blur shatters the window above... heading towards Nick.

He opens his arms, and the woman's body hits him in full force.

BAAM

Nick's back hits the ground full force,

The young man can feel the blow throughout his body.

"F-fuck!" Already on the ﬂoor he curses, and takes the woman off him.

"NICK!" The redhead's friends call out his name,

And right after that Crystal's voice screams, noticing who fell from the sky.

"MOM?"

And then the confusion begins, the people who were around all start running away. The citizens

of Brockton know very well not to stay at the scene of a cape ﬁght.

Nick sits down and notices that the heroine next to him also sits down at the same time, and

groans.

Crystal and Vicky ﬂy in quickly and help the two to their feet.

The older woman shakes her head and promptly looks ready to ﬁght.

She doesn't even look at the rest of the people there.

Just looks up, at her opponent.

Purity calmly descends from the ceiling. But halfway through, she seems to notice the presence

of others. And stares at them.

'Who knew, one of the biggest threats in the city would be my ﬁrst opponent.'

Last edited: Jul 5, 2023

Sirens begin blaring across the mall, people start running towards exits, some into stores. All

getting out of the way of the capes.

The 4 Heroes face Purity.

Nick takes a better look at her...

Her entire body is like light taking the form of a woman.

'But even so, I still manage to look at her without having to look away. An effect of my powers

perhaps?' He thinks, after all, his Solar power requires him to have a certain resistance to

something like that right?

At his side, the redhead sees Vicky, or rather, Glory Girl clenching her ﬁsts in anger.

Laserdream and Phantom narrowed their eyes, clearly all prepared to attack or defend. Further

back, he sees Dean and Amy running too.

At least they're together, the Ward can't help nor can Amy after all.

And then,

BOOOOM

Explosions can be heard through the large opening in the ceiling.

Looks like this isn't the only place where a ﬁght is going on.

Then, between the tense moment, Vicky breaks the silence,

"Tsk! It had to be the empire's Cow of Light-

The woman of light ﬂies even higher and extends her left hand towards the 4 heroes.

PJUM

Both Photon and Laserdream put their hands out in front of them, causing colored forceﬁelds to

rise in front of them.

The blast of light, hits the shields, causing the ground below to shake with the force,

And immediately Glory Girl shoots towards Purity, making her take off upwards in the sky above.

At the moment without the villain, the other capes talk quickly.

"Mom, What's the situation out there?" Laserdream brieﬂy asks the mother.

The two begin to ﬂoat, preparing to ﬂy upwards.

"It started as a ﬁght between some Merchants, who were selling some their drugs nearby, the

nearby Empire grunts didn't like it, disagreement resulted in conﬂict, deaths occurred and they

then called in the heavyweights."

'What a pathetic reason to cause deaths. They're not going to get out of this without at least

some broken teeth.' The redhead thinks, his teeth grinding together a little. But his momentary

irritation is suppressed by himself.

Laserdream then looks at Nick who has been listening attentively to the more experienced

heroine.

"Err Nick-"

"I'm not leaving without helping. I'm going to give support, ma'am how long before the PRT gets

here?" Nicholas asks, his face already serious. He looks into the distance to the roof of the Mall

above.

The older heroine just looks at him, neutral, but her face is still serious.

"Manpower already called them, he and Shielder are outside holding up the ends with Othala,

Victor, and Crusader. 8 minutes at best until the Protectorate arrives."

By saying that, the Heroine already shoots towards the ceiling. Flying through the hole,

Laserdream stares at him, but Nick just nods at her.

She nods seriously and ﬂies through the hole.

Time then starts to slow down again.

And Nick prepares to jump as hard as he can.

'Okay, I can't stretch this. Any sharp blow I can land to help everyone is worth it… Also, I really

want to ﬁght someone using my powers.' Nick gives a smirk, he's not sure where that thought

came from.

But it's there, so he better accept it.

Then Nick shoots through the air!

He can feel the ground beneath him cracking and everything around rushes past him at high

speed.

The wind whips through his body, and his smile widens.

And now in the sky, with a privileged view of the "battleﬁeld"

Nick takes a look around, taking in the surroundings.

Further ahead on the mall's large ceiling, or rather above it, Purity ﬁghts Glory Girl

And Laserdream seems to be getting there to ﬁght the blaster as well.

And in the distance Crusader seems to be reaching out, ﬂying, to help the Lieutenant of the

Empire.

A light gray aura covering his body, no doubt his power.

Farther to the left, there was a part of the open parking lot.

Manpower, Shielder, and now Photon seem to be holding their own against Victor and Othala.

The two partner villains ﬁght with impressive harmony.

Drawing on all his knowledge about Brockton's capes, Nick makes a quick choice.

A plan forms in his mind. And then time runs again properly,

Nick's body starts to fall, and then the redhead lands on the roof.

'From what I've read, Purity is a bigger enemy. Basically a ﬂying Artillery, and Crusader is also

pretty strong. The girls are going to need Help. '

Nick's red eyes glow in the night, and then the young man breaks into a sprint fast enough to

shake his surroundings.

With time slowed down, Nick sees the situation perfectly.

Purity in an act of great skill dodges a laser launched from Laserdream.

And quickly stops Glory Girl's attack by ﬁring a laser vertically, making the girl halt, and throw

herself back letting the Laser pass over her head.

Nick comes closer and closer,

And sees Crusader and his armor glowing an ethereal white, his body being augmented by a copy

fused his body, preparing to stab at Victoria's side with a long spear…

A long metal spear…

He makes the move to impale Glory Girl, who only now notices the Man. Purity aims another

powerful blast, in the direction of Laserdream who was preparing to make a shield to help her

cousin.

His spear comes within three feet of Victoria, the girl prepares for impact to her forceﬁeld,

The spear then stops in the air, surprising Crusader and making his body move forward leaving

behind the spear, but still holding it. The momentum in which he moved was such that the man

ended up almost dislocating his shoulder.

Glory Girl doesn't let the opportunity pass.

She reacts at full speed and punches the slightly stunned Crusader,

BOOM

The girl's punch capable of lifting trucks hits perfectly on his face covered by his medieval helmet

and sends the man ﬂying backward, he reﬂexively drops the frozen spear.

His body is thrown away towards the ground on the other side of the mall's roof, heading towards

a more open area with a street.

Purity is startled for a moment when she sees the man take a direct hit.

But still tries to shoot a blast on Laserdream.

The girl quickly changes focus and creates a forceﬁeld in front of herself,

But before Purity could shoot, a ball of Light hit her on the side of the body.

The ball of light creates a small explosion and the parahuman is thrown to the side, but it doesn't

seem to take much damage.

Purity looks down and sees Nick, the one who took a shot at her while still running.

His body dashes under the capes ﬂying above, his speed such that it makes his body look like a

blur.

The redhead sees his ground already ending, reaching the end of the mall's ceiling.

However, that doesn't matter. His current target just passed the end,

He looks up and sees Crusader ﬂying past him, heading towards the ground of a street below, far

from where the rest of the heroes were ﬁghting the other two villains.

On the edge of the rooftop... Nicholas jumps

He ﬂies upwards, little by little coming to the same height as Crusader's body, which seems to be

trying to right itself in the air. But it was already too late.

Millions of thoughts of how to get the villain out of the ﬁght come to the redhead's head, but his

instincts scream louder,

They scream to make a ﬁst, and simply punch.

Memories come to his mind.

Him using his martial arts in conjunction with his control over natural forces, decimating his

opponents, the perfect blend of the Power of the Gods and the Arts of Humans.

Then an idea comes to mind.

Time slows down, more than Nick ever managed to slow down,

He sees his opponent's face practically frozen, he seems to be realizing how bad his situation is,

and around his body images just like him seem to form,

But it's too late for that now.

The omega symbols once again come into view in the young man's eyes.

He pulls his ﬁst back preparing a punch.

His palm glows brightly, giving the idea that he is preparing to use his Solar power,

But when he closes his hand into a ﬁst... the glow disappears, and in a ﬂash at the speed of light,

his ﬁst lights up an intense gold.

The Fist of Black Turtle; SOLAR

In Crusader's vision, it was like he was punched by the Sun itself.

DOOOM

A burst of light envelops the sky for a second, all the capes close, ﬂinch and immediately stop to

look. Especially the ones who were ﬂying, and saw what happened.

The ﬂash of light is gone, just as quickly as it came. And everyone can see something falling

from the sky toward the ground for a second.

Crusader's body, full of burns, completely unconscious.

The villains notice the casualty in their team,

Victor and Othala's faces contort, but the villains quickly regain their attention.

Manpower tried a punch in the villain's face, which he narrowly missed.

The family of Superheroes ﬁghts in perfect unison until Othala takes her hand to the left side of

her mask.

She turns to her partner and signals a few things with her hand.

A robust blast of Photon comes towards them,

Victor with the strength given by the villain then punches the ground with all his strength in

himself.

The ground already damaged by the ﬁghts rises creating practically a wall, he then punches the

wall throwing several of them in the direction of the Heroes.

Shielder And Photon, create a barrier in front of them.

And the pair of villains quickly get out of there.

With Purity,

She dodges more attacks from the girls,

She has a face of pure hate,

"Fucking Brats!" She brings her hands together and a large ﬂash of light is projected, making a

concussive blast towards the general area of the two.

In the villain's ear, probably from some communicator, her orders are also pronounced.

{"Purity, try to retrieve Crusader and then retreat."}

The two heroines protect each other from the blast, giving Villain the opportunity to carry out her

new orders.

She immediately turns and goes at full speed, to where the redhead and Crusader fell.

With Nick, he currently crouches quickly beside the villain's body,

His armor is practically all destroyed, even part of his face can be seen by the partially destroyed

helmet.

The burns on his body are less severe than expected, without his powers protecting him he would

have died.

A vision again comes to him,

A laser hits him squarely in the side of his body, destroying his clothes and making the boy drag

himself backward.

But... He doesn't take any more damage.

Nick returns to the present, and following his precognition,

Purity comes at full speed while shooting toward him,

He looks directly at where the blast hits him.

PJUM

The blast hits him, and this time he was prepared.

He plants his feet on the ground and doesn't even move.

The Blaster stops abruptly, seeing Nicholas still at Crusader's side staring straight into her eyes,

he then gets into a battle stance. In a position that he feels is natural for his body.

She clenches her ﬁsts... Even with her face in her light form, Nick can see the frustration in her

gaze.

She then shoots upwards, ﬂying higher and higher.

Glory Girl and Laserdream quickly come closer and see Purity ﬂying away through the Brockton

night, her glow diminishing more and more on the horizon.

'Huh, I haven't even fought her, and even then I feel like she's pretty pissed off at me.' Nick smirks,

watching the villain retreat with his tail between his legs.

He then sees, out of the corner of his eye, two ﬁgures coming from the end of the street. And

further to the side, he sees the rest of the heroes returning as well.

Looks like the other two also got away.

sigh...

Siren's sound echo through the air.

At the moment, after the brief battle with the Empire. Nick, sit on the curb near the ambulances,

vehicles, and the PRT.

He watches further ahead, the girls and Dean talking to Lady Photon, Manpower, and Shielder,

Nicholas, too, makes a point of observing the people, the civilians, around him who are also

receiving medical treatment, and he can't help but feel frustrated. He may not have been near

anyone at the time of these accidents, but to see people getting hurt over such a futile conﬂict is

sad.

And out of the corner of his eye, he sees the PRT heroes who have come to help, ﬁnishing off

arresting Crusader and loading him into the PRT's special vehicle.

Assault and Battery.

The heroes who will help him in a kind of mentorship for a while

A coincidence?

At this point, Nick is no longer sure, for example, what is the chance that on his ﬁrst day away

from his home, a villain attack will happen near where he is?

'The gallery can literally alter fate or something, so I don't rule out the possibility that some Cape

is screwing with me.' The young man thinks, his expression changing from thoughtful to slightly

irritated.

"Cheer up kid, today was a relatively good day." A voice sounds from beside Nick.

When looking at the redhead he sees a cape wearing red body armor with a visor covering the

upper half of his face,

Assault,

The man looks at him, with a smile,

Nick looks out of the corner of his eye and answers.

"I know, I just wish something like this didn't even have to happen, you know?" Maybe it's naive of

Nick to think that, but it's still what would be most desirable.

The hero nods,

"And you're right, but today is a good day, One villain was captured, and no casualties, whether

civilian or hero." The man then extends his hand, toward Nick, in a gesture to help him up.

The redhead accepts and gets up standing.

Assault extends his hand for a handshake, and Nick accepts.

"I think you already know who I am, but I'll introduce myself. I'm Assault, me and my dear partner

and I will be guiding you in the coming times." He says while smiling widely, simultaneously

pointing to the heroine who is currently talking to some PRT oﬃcers.

Nick smiles too. The hero has a good vibe

"It's a pleasure to meet you, I'm already aware that you will help me. And I have to admit, I'm

already looking forward to getting started."

Assault nods and pats the redhead's shoulder.

"Well, if everything I've been told about you is true, I'm sure Battery, you, and little old me are

going to have fun for the next few months. But enough of that, it's time for you to go home" He

says as he pushes Nick lightly towards New Wave and Dean, who are still talking to each other.

Nick chuckles and takes his leave.

The young man is getting closer, and the heroes notice him.

Before the younger ones could say anything, Photon, and Manpower talk to him ﬁrst.

The man, who Nick still didn't know, is a powerful seven-foot-tall blond man with an athletic build

and has a primarily white costume with yellow lightning bolt designs.

He took a step forward, and greeted him ﬁrst,

"Neil Pelham, pleasure! So you're my little girl's new friend? Nicholas isn't it?" The man shakes

Nick's hand tightly. The redhead wonders how he can be so happy and energetic after a hard

ﬁght.

In the end, the sentence takes a snort from him, a groan from Crystal further back.

"Yup, it's nice to meet you, sir." Nick says, smiling, and soon the giant Manpower's wife, also

comes forward,

"Sarah Pelham, Good to see that everything worked out Nicholas. Thank you so much for helping

in the ﬁght." The woman no longer has the serious look she had a few minutes ago. She wears a

mother's classic sweet smile.

"Ha! Help? He basically knocked out that wannabe knight in one hit!" Vicky says while smiling.

Winning a chuckle out of Shielder and surprisingly Amy,

Nicholas grins,

"True, but only because you passed the ball beautifully Vicky." The one who chuckled this time

was Dean, who is more to the side there with Amy,

Soon after, the youngest there also came to perform.

"Well, I think it's my turn. Eric Pelham, nice to meet you, big guy." Eric or Shielder, wears a white

bodysuit with a blue-tinted visor and a blue shield motif, also his hair is dyed blue

The boy gives a ﬁst bump to Nick who reciprocates.

With everyone introduced, the group then begins to talk better about what happened.

And so time passed,

[Sometime later, on the same night.]

*clunk*

Nicholas closes the car door and looks at the people inside.

"Thanks for the cool day guys!." He says, and snorts seeing Amy's deadpan face.

"A busy day for sure, but "cool" is not the right word for it." Crystal smiles and responds from the

driver's seat, causing Dean to sigh and nod, Vicky just chuckles at his side.

Nick, smiles and nods.

"True, but thanks anyway. Any day you want to hang out again, just call."

The young heroes agree and go their separate ways. The oldest of the group would still leave the

3 at their house.]

/—/

Brockton Bay, 7th of January

Time: 7:30 AM

On this cold Saturday morning, Nick sits in his backyard, in a lounge chair in the part that has

some outdoor furniture.

He has a coffee while he thinks.

'I basically don't have much to do this morning. I'm going to train tonight, and in the afternoon I'm

going to study, but in the morning nothing… Thinking about it now, the pacing of the last few days

is making me unaccustomed already, always having something to do is quite strange for me.'

Nick takes another sip of his coffee.

The redhead taps his ﬁnger on his chair in an imaginary rhythm, trying to ﬁnd a solution to his

boredom.

Boredom is a funny thing. Harmless at ﬁrst instance, but can become harmful in large quantities.

*PING*

"Hm?" Nick hears a message arriving on his cell phone and then picks it up.

Oh, a message from Crystal?

Yesterday during a date with New Wave and Dean, Nick took everyone's number, in case Nicholas

wanted to go out again or they wanted to.

Crystal: Hey, Good morning!

A smile appears on Nicholas's face and then he then responds.

Nick: Heya, Good morning to you too

Crystal: Sorry to bother you

I just wanted to know how you're doing. Yesterday was your ﬁrst encounter with villains, so I

was a little worried

Nicholas snorts and shakes his head.

Nick: It's sweet of you to worry, but they're going to need a little more than Purity's ugly ass to

scare me

Crystal: LOL, good for you man!

So, what are you doing now?

Before he can respond, Nick has a better idea.

He puts his phone in the camera, puts it on the timer, and then the air around the phone seems to

distort a little and then it starts to ﬂoat.

The phone is in a favorable position, and Nick strikes a pose with his mug.

*CLICK*

Nick then takes the phone back, feeling like a genius for having thought of doing that.

Nick: Nothing much, just having my coffee.

This time the answer takes a few minutes, in which Nick ends up ﬁnishing his coffee.

Crystal: Whoa I don't know if anyone's ever told you this, but you're frighteningly photogenic

The answer makes Nick chuckle again, he then answers honestly.

Nick: Nope, I don't think so, thank you very much.

Crystal:

Oh wait a bit, Eric is here trying to piss me off

Nick: Lol, Don't worry, I'm thinking of doing something in the morning, maybe going for a run?

Idk

The young man wrote this half in jest. But after thinking about it a bit, it might be a good idea.

He gets up and goes to his room.

Putting on a light white sleeveless shirt, black shorts, and running shoes.

He also grabs his wallet and cell phone, tucking them into a zipped pocket of his shorts.

And when he was about to leave, his cell phone started ringing.

Unzipping his pocket, Nick's cell ﬂoats up to his ear.

He accepts the call,

"Hello and GoodMorning," Nick says, he didn't even look at who was calling him,

At the same time, the redhead opens his door with his key, already getting ready to leave.

He hears a chuckle on the other end,

"Hello to you too Nick" said Crystal,

He closes his door, and answers

"Oh hey Crystal, sorry did you text me and I didn't see it?" The redhead takes his cell phone out of

the air and starts to hold it.

"No problem! I just wanted to ask if you're really going out for a run?" Nick noticed a bit of

nervousness in her speech, but he didn't dwell on it

"Yup, I'm already leaving the house." He says while just stretching his legs, before starting to

leave his front yard

"Cool! I can go with you? If it's not a problem of course"

The question makes Nick's eyebrows rise in surprise, but he quickly answers.

"No problem! Do you want me to wait for you a bit?" Nick says, considering he's already prepared.

"Yes please, I'll get ready real quick here. Oh! You can come here and wait if you want, I'll let Dad

know."

She quickly says goodbye and hangs up. And Nick just shakes his head.

The redhead walks towards where Crystal had told her where her house is, thinking a little on the

way.

'I have to thank the gallery for the friendly perk. Nobody ever wanted to go out with me for

something like that. Not as far as I remember at least' Nicholas thinks, snorting to himself.

Completely forgetting how much he has changed in appearance since what his mind remembers.

Arriving at the Pelhams' residence, Nick presses the doorbell and waits.

After a few seconds, the door opens. And the father of the family opens the door with a big big

smile on his face.

"Hi Mr. Pelham, I came to wait for Crystal." Nick says, trying to be respectful to the hero.

Neil just chuckled, and then let Nick in. He then placed his hand behind his back, guiding Nick

into the living room.

"I know Nick and no formality is needed, you can call me Neil."

He brings Nick into the living room, where on one of the two sofas in the living room, Eric is lying

down while typing on his cell phone.

"Now you can feel free to relax here, I'll be in the kitchen if you need anything."

Nick nods and sits on the couch,

Eric seems to notice the redhead and puts his phone down.

"Oh, Hey Nick! So are you and Sis going for a run? At 7 am in the morning?" The blue-haired boy

looks at Nicholas as if he were an Alien.

Nick Chuckles,

"You say that as if you weren't up early either."

Eric shrugs,

"Meh, I need to get up early because I have school today. You just woke up really early. You and

Crystal are two crazy ass people."

He says with a playful smile on his face.

Nick rolls his eyes but doesn't disagree,

"No swearing at home Eric." Neil's voice says from the kitchen, making the boy wince.

"Sorry Dad" he says, but from the boy's face he doesn't look very apologetic.

After a minute, Neil comes out of the kitchen with a cup of coffee,

"My daughter said you already had coffee, but if you want I can get you some." He says, and Nick

politely declines.

When sitting next to Nicholas on the couch, Neil starts a conversation with the boy.

"Well Nick, did you wake up well from yesterday? I know you weren't hurt in the incident, but it

was still your ﬁrst brush with the Bay villains." Neil says, not sounding too concerned.

The redhead smiles,

"Honestly, I slept better yesterday than I did the rest of the week. Using my powers, even though I

haven't been for a long time, has been cathartic." Nick replies as he shrugs and crosses his arms.

This makes the tall blonde snicker and Nick can see Eric rolling his eyes at his father.

"Looks like we've got another Adrenaline Junkie like you Dad." The teen says while he Snickers,

"I already knew this would be the case the moment I saw you all calm and collected yesterday,

most of the time new capes are completely desperate in their ﬁrst appearances and conﬂicts.

But you went there and in a few seconds, you decided what to do, helped the girls, and knocked

out one of the villains" The man pats Nick on the back as he praises the newcomer to this new

world of Capes.

Nicholas Chuckles but also smiled happily at the compliment.

"Well, everyone is crazy about the video that came out of yesterday's ﬁght, I have to admit this

fandom of yours is kinda weird though." Eric says while showing the screen of his cell phone,

which is in the PHO.

That makes Nicholas widen his eyes,

"Wait what? Someone recorded the ﬁght?"

But before Eric could talk about it, everyone hears someone coming down the stairs quickly.

Crystal appears on the way down, and already looks at her father and her younger brother,

"I hope you two aren't bothering Nick." She says with a playful smirk,

Neil snorts and Eric rolls his eyes.

The girl is dressed in light gym clothes. Wearing a ﬁtting red long-sleeved blouse, black leggings,

and running shoes.

Her hair was in a ponytail,

'Welp, I have to admit that she looks beautiful.' The thought comes to Nick's head, but he soon

lets it go and talks to the girl.

"Sorry Crystal, we were having a "Boy Talk" moment, and you're not invited." Eric said, the

sarcasm so evident in his voice that Nick couldn't help but laugh.

Neil and Crystal chuckle, and the girl heads towards the door with Nick getting up and following

her.

"Well we're going, bye bye to you both" She says already opening the door,

"See you two later, then we'll continue the boy talk."

He walks through the door and Crystal closes the door, however, the laughter from within can still

be heard.

The girl next to Nick shakes her head and looks at the amused redhead.

"It seems that the three of you have already become friends, you guys talked for what? 5

minutes?"

The three of them begin to walk out of the front yard of the house.

And Nick just shrugs.

"My natural charisma is both a blessing and a curse." Says Nick while smirking.

The girl just smirks back, and then they hit the sidewalk and start jogging with no destination in

mind,

/—/

In a house in Washington DC.

A middle-aged man walks into his kitchen with a cup of tea in his hand.

His face has a resting bored expression,

Someone who no longer has any kind of joy or enthusiasm. Just repeating the same routine day

in and day out.

*CLICK*

A loud crack echoes in his mind,

The man drops his Cup to the ground, breaking it and spilling the tea.

An intense sharp pain shoots through his head, and he brings his hands to his head.

He bites the inside of his mouth to keep from screaming

And then ﬂashes go through his

"Mind Eye"

Two beings meeting at full strength

The Green One

with his garments destroyed, a great gash across his face with blood ﬂowing,

The Red One

also has its clothing partially destroyed, In his left eye is a large gash, also

causing heavy bleeding and possible loss of an eye.

But that's not what draws attention, no.

What really stands out are the big smiles on the faces of the two combatants.

These Images disappear from the mind of David.

And so, he sits down on the ﬂoor to recover from the shock... And even with that scare he can't

help but smile too, and he has no idea why.

[Early morning of the same day.]

Mornings in Brockton Bay,

Certainly the quietest time, of anywhere in the city.

Few people on the sidewalks and establishments and an even smaller number of cars on the

road

And because of that, the two people with the appearance well above average, jogging through the

streets, attract a lot of attention.

Nicholas and Crystal.

"So miss professional heroine, any tips for the rookie who will start his activities tomorrow?" Says

the redhead, looking and smiling at the girl who is accompanying him easily.

She seems to concentrate and think for a few seconds until she comes up with something.

"Well, to be honest, I don't think you need ﬁghting tips. However, something that everyone who is

going to act in any form of law enforcement needs to have in Brockton bay... is Information, and

good contacts to be precise. At least that's what I've come to observe lately." The girl says, and

the two stop and wait for a single car to pass, so they can cross the street.

"You mean how the Cape scene works here in the city, and other things in the same line of

reasoning?"

Nick understands very well what she means.

Good thing he's been studying about it the last few days.

Crystal nods but continues her point.

"Well yes, it is excellent to be up to date with the Cape scenery in Brockton. But a lot of the

criminality here also comes from the non-parahuman parts, pretty much every villainous

organization here has its own modus operandi in this regard." The girl says seriously.

"Yeah, I have been reading about that. According to the PRT, the Abb, for example, has been

increasing the number of kidnappings of young women around the city, and also the smuggling

of them to other countries." Remembering this fact, Nick's face and voice don't change.

But Crystal could have sworn she could see a vein popping out of his forehead.

"This is the kind of atrocity that reminds me of the Teeth back in New York, but at least there we

have Legend to put them in their place." says the Redhead with a smirk.

The girl chuckles, and they continue on their way.

[Just an hour later.]

The two parahumans sit on a bench in a small plaza close to the Forsberg Gallery, far from their

home, but still in the downtown area.

Crystal reclines back in the seat, a few beads of sweat on her forehead.

Nick then sits next to Crystal,

"Sorry, I guess I got a little carried away didn't I?" He says looking unapologetic at the girl next to

him.

Crystal chuckles out loud and looks at him.

"Yes. You accelerated so much that I saw you pass a lot of cars in your little sprint."

The redhead just shrugs and goes back to the subject they were on.

"But hey, I think you wanted to ask something?"

Crystal takes a few more breaths and looks back at Nicholas.

"Yeah, I told you about my college friends. So I asked if you didn't have some high school friends

back in New York." She gives the boy a gentle smile. That starts to think better about it.

"I made a total of 3 friends in my freshman year of high school there. The school guard, a girl a

year older than me, and a teacher." He says, and can't help but laugh a little.

Crystal frowns a little but then smiles at the boy's laughter.

"Well, judging by the laugh at least you don't seem down about it."

Nick leans back, stretching his arms out to the sides and resting them on the back of the bench.

Putting his head back, he looked at the sky.

"This may sound strange, but at that point in my academic life, I was no longer in the mood of

trying to "make friends" or force myself to. I don't know, I just didn't feel like it was as necessary

as people thought. Most of the other people there were Bullies, Rich Kids, or Cocky idiots,

sometimes all of the above at the same time. Those who were none of the three still followed the

previous examples like lap dogs"

Nick then feels self-conscious and looks at Crystal who is looking at him in mild surprise.

"Huh, sorry, I ended up ranting on you. I guess I just had that on my mind for a while."

Nick shakes his head. 'Stupid, don't just mutter your thoughts like that' He thinks to himself.

The crystal face softens a little, and she shrugs.

"No problem, it's nice to hear you talk so much. You're surprisingly quiet, you know? While you

were shopping with us, you mostly just listened to us talk."

This makes Nick blink in surprise for a second.

"Heh, and I thought I was doing a job by hiding that I'm kind of an introvert deep down." He

chuckles a little and gets up, making Crystal do the same.

Nick then takes his cell phone out of his pocket and looks at the time.

"Welp, do you want to keep jogging or we can take a walk, Miss?" Surprising Crystal, he gives her

his arm in an exaggerated gesture, as if the two of them are about to break into a gala dance.

The girl smiles and playfully accepts.

"Well, kind Sir. A simple Walk it is."

The two then start walking side by side, talking quietly.

Miles and Miles away.

A pair of eyes watched the boy from a tall building.

The individual's eyes, golden like the eyes of an eagle, could easily see the boy from far away.

The individual in question stops paying attention to the kid. And looks back, to someone else on

top of the building.

A woman, in a top hat, a suit, and a smug smile.

"Hm, so that's the little monster I've been teasing? You really want to kill me, dear Boogeyman."

The man dressed in completely plain clothes says, with a smirk on his face contradicting his

speech.

"A challenge fair for your last debt to pay, isn't it? Especially with the small condition you

imposed." She shrugs, and walks to the edge of the building, standing beside the man.

He looks back at the horizon and speaks

"Certainly, when you said that he would be someone important for the future of the world, I

thought you were exaggerating, a lot actually." The man narrows his eyes, but without removing

the smirk from his face.

The Boogeyman looks at him again and asks.

"And so what's the verdict?"

The smirk on the man's face grows, turning into a big smile.

His eyes seem to focus on the boy,

And in his vision appeared a ﬂoating image of a paper?

Almost like a

"Dossier"

of sorts.

With a picture of the boy.

His name, age, place of birth, and various other formal information,

And at it's end,

Potential.

The paper soon begins to deteriorate and turn into small golden particles, which then ﬂoat

towards the parahuman,

He closes his eyes momentarily as if he has to concentrate on something, taking a deep breath.

And then still with a big smile, he opens his eyes.

"Heh, that's some crazy ass numbers. He's like his mommy but on steroids!"

[Later, around noon.]

The two return from their walk. Nick drops Crystal back at the house and heads back to his own.

With the redhead already thinking about what he's going to do for the rest of the day. Studying is

already a Must, but maybe add a little martial arts training?

Nicholas then notices his mother's personal car parked outside the house and smiles happily at

his mother's visit. She called the day before, at night. Having heard about what happened at the

mall.

However, she did not specify whether she would come to visit him anytime soon.

He opens his door and is immediately taken aback.

In his living room two familiar people,

His mother... And Legend??

Well, he's out of costume, so at the moment, it's Keith.

Closing the door behind him and drawing attention to his arrival, Nick then goes to the now-

standing visitors.

"Hi, Mom, and Uncle Keith! It's been a while, right?"

The man in question looks at the boy, and he smiles widely,

They shake hands and the adult starts talking,

"Hello Nick, yes, it's been a long time. It's great to ﬁnally see you back on your feet and well."

The adult makes the boy sit between the two superheroes.

"So Mom, a surprise visit with a surprise guest?" Nick says as he smiles at his mother who smiles

back.

"Not quite, I sent you a message warning you some time ago. But you didn't answer so I just

came and let myself in with my own key."

She says, her face clearly amused.

The boy makes a face of embarrassment, then returns to normal with his Uncle talking to him.

"Well, don't worry about it kid. How about you tell me how your recovery and change of routine

has been, while we have lunch of course" Keith asks with a gentle smile.

Nick chuckles, The three then get up and he begins to explain everything that has happened to

him in the last few days.

[A few hours later, 8 p.m.]

The heroes of the Triumvirate left in the afternoon. Leaving Nicholas alone in his house.

And now at night, he decided to go to the backyard to train.

Beads of sweat fall to the ﬂoor. And sounds of slightly agitated breathing can be heard in the

backyard.

Swoosh!

His ﬁst travels through the air, with such power that the surrounding grass is disturbed by the

shock wave.

Nick then goes back to his base position.

Meanwhile, his mind brainstorms thinking at full throttle. His powers purposely speed up his

thoughts,

Today's object of study. The Empire 88.

'-Technically the Manton effect would have to protect Hookwolf from my control, I didn't ﬁnd

anything about any cape being able to manipulate his metal. However, this hypothesis fell apart

the moment I took into account the gallery's words regarding the functioning of my powers-'

Nick lifts his leg and keeping a ﬁrm footing, he kicks the ground in front of him, making his bare

foot sink lightly into the grass, landing on the earth below.

BAMN

With two seconds of delay, a large current of air is practically conjured out of nothing by the kick.

Swoooosh!!

And at Nick's command, the air suddenly stops ﬂowing.

The boy blinks and realizes what he just did.

'A perfect kick of the Red Fenix…'

Flashes of memory ring through his head again.

Where Nick(?) could see himself in an intense battle, performing the kick and destabilizing his

opponent, with enough force to even destroy the ground around him.

The opponent recovers and tries to ﬁght back, but is soon hit by a punch that would start the

next instance of the…

And then Nick comes out of his daydreaming.

He sits on the ground in the grass. Look at the starless night sky, Contemplating what just

happened.

"The second instance, right after the Fist of the Black Turtle, comes the Kick of the Red Phoenix…

God that's so fucking annoying".

The redhead throws himself back, lying on the grass and placing his hands on his face.

Once again the mysterious martial arts aspect of his power hits him with memories that aren't

his... but are at the same time.

'For some reason, I feel like I'm getting closer to something… But to what?"

…

After a few minutes, the boy gets up, and takes his shirt from the balcony in the backyard to then

enter the home again.