9 9 Meeting Heroes

My journey back to the flat unfortunately gets waylaid a few minutes later as I notice something in the near distance.

There is an open area at a crossroads in the street that is currently rather crowded and it doesn't take me long to see why.

There are heroes. A pair of them and they are apparently here to do a meet and greet or something and suddenly a frankly hilarious idea plants itself in my mind.

What if I started collecting hero signatures?

The thought is too funny to me so I quickly go to a nearby shop and buy a few postcards without really looking or caring about where they're from and take a pen out of my bag, because you should always carry a pen around.

Then I simply join the cue.

Five minutes later and I am standing in front of an honest to god pair of heroes.

It's all I can do to not burst out laughing at the fact that they would probably be rather antagonistic if they knew what I was, and that's putting it lightly, instead when I am in front of them, they greet me with a smile.

"Hello Miss, would you like an autograph?" The guy of the pair greets.

He is wearing red spandex, as is customary I suppose, but thankfully he has a darker red armour plating over vulnerable spots, giving him a level of decency that pure spandex lacks.

His mask is a simple red domino and does nothing to hide his smile that doesn't even seem strained despite the fact that he must have been standing here dealing with people for a while.

Going by what James and Theo told me, this would be Epic. Supposedly he is a Legend-lite and chose his name because 'Epic is one tier below Legendary'.

At least, that's what James says.

"Ah, yeah, here, can you sign this?" I say, holding out the postcard but not the pen, seeing as he already has one in hand.

"Not a problem!" He replies with a smile, taking the offered item.

While he does that, I look over to the third cape present.

She has long flowing black hair and distinctly Asian features and black eyes, her costume is mostly blues with a lot of lighter spherical designs on it that look like bubbles covering her body. She also has tasteful armour over the spandex to keep her modesty, and protection I guess.

Though, to be honest, with how flat she is, I don't think she needs the armour to keep modest.

She seems significantly less enthusiastic about this whole situation than Epic, but is pretty good at hiding it.

I probably wouldn't have even been able to notice it if not for the faint scent of nervousness coming from her.

Guess she doesn't like crowds.

If I am remembering things right, this is Pop Stop and her power is something like time-stop bubbles, but in like, a weird way.

She makes these bubbles, and then when they pop, everyone who hears the pop freezes in place for a half second or so.

Sounds kinda weak until you realise she can make a shit tonne of bubbles and doesn't get frozen in place like everyone else.

In the time I spent checking out Pop Step, Epic finished his signing and was ready to hand back my postcard.

"Here you go, now if I find this being sold online I'll be mad m'kay?" He jokes as I take back my now signed postcard.

I huff lightly in good humour at his joke and give a smile while offering my postcard to Pop.

"Can you sign it too?" I ask and she obliges with a small, nervous smile and I turn back to Epic as she does that.

"Say, if you get an apprentice, will you make them call themselves 'Rare' or something, to keep the theme?" I mostly ask just out of a lack of other things to say.

However, he seems to like my referencing to the origins of his name if the widening of his smile is anything to go by.

"Of course! Unless they're better than me I guess, then maybe 'Mythic'?" He jubilantly returns.

"I just pity whoever end up with 'Common' as their name" I joke, making him laugh far more than is necessary for what wasn't even really that good of a joke.

"Here." Interrupts the soft voice of Pop as she hands back my card which I take with what I hope is a comforting smile.

"Thanks!" I say, but before I leave there is one thing I want to ask her, just in case we end up meeting in 'other circumstance', "Mind if I ask something about your power real quick?"

"A-ah, sure, go ahead." She says after a quick glance at Epic who gives a reassuring smile.

"Hoe does your power interact with velocity?" I ask, thinking that if we ever end up fighting that it would be good information to know.

My question actually makes her smile and seem confident for the first time. I guess that she just likes talking about her power.

Then again, she is a new signing so it stands to reason that she may have triggered recently, ergo her power is still new and exciting.

"Well, it's actually pretty interesting. My power doesn't completely conserve or remove velocity, but rather, you know how if you were running and heard a loud noise or something and flinched, how you would slow down, but only a little bit? It's kind of like that, each 'pop' slows velocity by a tiny amount, but the reason I used that example is because it's variable and I figure that if you could keep to your top speed even when flinching then it probably won't take much if any of your velocity away."

She takes a deep breath after getting caught up in her own explanation and suddenly starts blushing at having gotten carried away, but I pretend not to notice, just smiling in genuine interest.

Because it is actually pretty interesting, not to mention incredibly useful to know.

It also helps that she looks adorable with such a massive blush.

"That 𝘪𝘴 interesting. I'd love to hear more, but I wouldn't want to keep you, but I tell you what, I don't know if this is improper to do considering," Here I pause to gesture widely to the two in front of me, "but this is my number, if ya wanna talk some more, I've got a lot of free time these days. See ya!"

And with that I turn and leave, leaving Pop standing there with a postcard that has my new number on it.

Is it stupid to give my number out to a hero, considering my position?

Obviously it is, but for the same reason that I don't want to move out from living with James and Theo, it is just way too funny for me not to do it.

I mean, what if she actually calls me? What if I become friends and hang out with a hero?

Now that I am not standing in front of said heroes, I don't bother to hold in my laughter, ignoring the few weird looks I get from the people around me.

God, I am so excited for the future, there is so much fun to be had, the only thing stopping me is time.

Whatever, I'll just go back to the flat and waste some time until night comes, then I'll call Hailey and see about making some more easy cash.

On the way back, I once more get distracted, this time by a magic store.

I figured that since I'm going for the clown theme, then maybe I should learn some magic tricks?

I mean, I already know a few card tricks, I got into them mostly because of my obsession with Solitaire.

Seriously, there was a time where I played a few games of Solitaire every day for at least a few months.

So I got a few decks of cards and a book on card tricks.

I thought about getting more books but then I remembered that the internet exists, so there really isn't much point in paying for something I could get for free.

Only then did I finally make it back to the flat where I moved things around between my bags and filled my new bag with cape related stuff, as well as most of my cash.

My old bag is where I put everything else I own, only a few pairs of clothes staying outside of the bag.

This way if I ever need to run quickly I don't have to worry about packing, needing to only grab my bags.

Then I just spent the rest of the day in the front room with a deck of cards, alternating between playing Solitaire and trying out card tricks.

Which is how the boys found me when they got back, sitting on the floor surrounded by and covered in cards.

"You uh, you good down there?" James' uncertain voice asks me as he and Theo stand in the doorway staring at me.

I don't respond for a moment, instead just staring at them with a perfectly blank expression.

A card falls from my hair, landing on the floor with a slap.

"I slipped." I lie.

"Right.. and the cards?" Theo queries with a completely flat tone of voice.

Slowly, oh so slowly, my arms reach out and start scooping the cards into a pile, all the while I do not drop eye contact with the two of them.

Not a word is said and not an expression is made until all of the cards are in one big pile that I slowly start stuffing into my pockets.

"...What cards?" I ask.

Another beat passes in silence.

"...So, how was work?" I ask, breaking the silence.

Choosing to completely ignore the previous interaction, I get up and the boys come in as we pretend it never happened.

Not long later and we are all chilling in the front room, the boys playing some casual fighting game while I play Solitaire on the floor, when Theo brings up something that immediately grabs my attention.

"Oh, did you guys hear about that incident down by Cross and Third?" He asks, voice casual even with the violent button mashing coming from his side where James is presumably losing.

"I don't really watch the news, what happened?" I'm surprised I manage to keep my voice level considering the butterflies I suddenly feel in my gut, because I'm pretty sure that do actually already know what he's talking about.

He takes a moment to finish off James, causing him to groan in frustration and say something about 'uppercut spam', before he continues the conversation as they set up another match.

"Yeah, there was reports of shots fired so we got the call. I wasn't one of the guys that responded to the incident, but from what I hear it was a drugs stash house, most likely for the Red Branch since it was in their area of operations."

He cuts of his explanation for a moment to tell James he's not allowed to just keep picking the same character before getting back to it.

"'Pparently it was pretty messy, three dead, one in intensive care and it's suspected that there was another victim that got away. Just from a quick look of the crime scene, it's pretty apparent that there was cape involvement, but since it doesn't fit the M.O of any of the known capes..."

"You think there's a new cape on the scene." I gladly fill in for where Theo tailed of at the end of his sentence.

"Got it in one." He confirms, almost making me smile.

"Good," James pipes in with unexpected seriousness, "the heroes are already outnumbered, so even if they're a violent vigilante, this city needs anyone it can get."

Huh, there's a thought.

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A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!

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