"Just keep your head down, and try not to bump into anyone."

"It's hard when they walk into me." I kept my hands as far down in my pockets as possible, trying to listen to my dad's instructions as we walked down a street that seemed way too crowded for how early in the morning in was. "How much farther?"

"Just two more blocks to the studio, kid. Trust me, it's all going to be fine." My dad wrapped his arm around my shoulders, keeping me close to him as we hurried to his work. The next thing he said, he mumbled so lowly, he probably didn't think that I had heard him. "What is even going on here?"

As soon as we made it to the karate studio, my dad practically pushed me inside. I could hear yelling down the street.

"Michael, man, thought you weren't going to show up!" My dad's best friend and partner in both crime and business, Sean, waved to us. "See you've finally brought little Gi!"

"I'm not really little anymore." I crossed my arms as I stood to the side, looking around the small front lobby. It had been a very, very long time since I had gone to the studio.

"Just face it now, kid, you'll always be little to him." My dad came up behind me, ruffling my hair quickly. "You'll be fine just working the desk, right?"

"Yes, dad," I said as my dad handed me my new sketchbook and pencil case Adriana had gotten me. I still couldn't say that I was fond of her, but I appreciated the gift. "You went over the questions people could ask a million times last night."

Laughing, my dad ruffled my hair. "See you later, kid." Then, him and Sean went into one of the rooms, where they had to set up for a birthday party.

I set up shop quickly, pulling myself out of the world as I sketched a line exercise that my art teacher had told me about. Draw the same line over and over again. Two inches. Two inches. Again, two inches at a time. Drawing the line over itself, trying to have it be the same thickness as I continue. And then drawing a new line and repeating. All looking the same. Creating conformity within my simple lines.

"Down with the dangerous!" I paused in my drawing as I heard yelling from outside. "They have no place here!"

I rose from my chair slowly, looking through the glass door that led into the studio with interest. Outside, there was a crowd of people, almost creating a blockade through the whole street. In the middle of the crowd, one man stood above the others, yelling through a megaphone. As I watched him, he kept preaching.

"Too long have we been tortured by these beasts! And yet, the government still protects them, using our precious resources and our hard-earned money to let them live in comfort." He talked in a way that sent chills down my spine, and from what I could tell from the people in the crowd, they were listening eagerly. "It is time we take a stand and show that we will not be in fear of them any longer!"

Fear, I thought, almost laughing at the sad thought, you're afraid of me? Oppressed, by me?

"This is the place to start! That man, over there!" He pointed to someone I couldn't see from where I was standing, but there was no way I was heading outside to check. "Bring him here so we can make an example of him for the rest of his kind."

"Sir, some others are being brought here. They'll be here in about five minutes," someone from the crowd said. I didn't try to figure out who it was, it didn't matter.

"Dad?" I didn't look away as I called for him, worried that if I did, someone would get hurt.

The crowd parted slightly as a man was shoved through, pushed to his knees as he got to the middle. Because of this, I lost him for a few moments, but soon, the crowd shifted into a horseshoe-like formation, giving me clear sight of the man. He was an elderly, African-American man, but he wasn't fragile-looking in any sort of way. He got up from his knees in a slow, deliberate manner, looking at the man who was speaking before turning around and looking at me.

If he had been a Superhuman, he would've been wearing one of three patches. Blue, if he was just a suspected Superhuman. Green, if he was a confirmed Superhuman, but was deemed "safe" by the government. Red, if he was deemed dangerous, much like myself.

He wasn't wearing any patch at all.

"Dad!" I yelled out for him louder this time, feeling adrenaline course through my veins. They were using this man as an example, but he wasn't one of us at all. They should've known that, right?

"Is everything alrig—get away from the glass right this instant." My dad pulled me back by the shoulders roughly, stepping between me and the door. "Sean, call the line. It's another situation."

I heard Sean grab the phone, but my eyes wouldn't stray from the man standing with his head held high. His expression was neutral, almost as if he expected something like this to happen.

"Dad, we need to do something." I didn't think of what I was saying. "I don't want to just sit here as he gets hurt."

"Passerotta, we need to stay strong, just like that man is. He may not be Superhuman, but he is one of us." My dad reached back, ruffling my hair. "It'll be broken up soon."

I fell silent after that, knowing better than to argue. After a minute or two, Sean walked over to us, standing next to my dad and putting his hand on his shoulder.

"God, they're going to have this street closed for a week again, aren't they?" He said to my dad. "It's your turn to do the rescheduling."

"Eh, if they leave without anything illegal happening, we should be all up and running again before the party today." My dad moved slightly, which blocked my view of the street. I walked up to stand next to my dad.

"Mercury's in retrograde. I don't think we'll be lucky this time, Michael." The two laughed as if it was a joke, but my attention was on the three white cars that were pulling up into the crowd.

"Dad, what are those?" I pointed to the cars, but quickly pulled my arm down when I remembered that we were being watched.

"Make that two weeks." Sean was the one that answered me. "What the hell are they doing?"

"Probably because of the whole Agnidev situation." My dad wrapped his arm around my shoulder. "Did they say they'd get here soon?"

"They said they get here as soon as possible, but you never know. Mercury retrograde." I shook my head as Sean said this. He was always talking about star alignments and retrogrades and all that. At least I knew what he was talking about this time.

The front doors to all three of the cars opened, as men that looked like extremely average people walked out, before they opened the back doors and dragged out the people that were inside.

I watched all of them enter the open area of the horseshoe. A couple that held onto each other the whole time, the woman wearing a burqa. They were still holding plastic bags, as if they were stopped while shopping. A man wearing a kippah and hitting his chest in a soft, constant beat moved next to the African-American man, looking as if he was about to pass out. A woman wearing a brown dress made of a soft-looking material that I've never near before held her child close to her, her child wearing a wooden carving of a bird on a necklace.

None of these people had any sort of patch declaring they were Superhuman.

The men that had dragged the five into the circle opened the trunks of their cars, taking out aluminum baseball bats, like the ones I saw the baseball boys at school use. The woman with the child looked over at them, before pulling the kid even closer to her.

"Sean, I'd hate to ask, but can you do something to them?" My dad's voice seemed a bit tenser now, taking a step closer to the door.

"I could try, but it'll take a bit to make sure I don't hit anyone I don't want to." Sean moved a chair, sitting down and closing his eyes.

"President Lazas, if you are hearing us now, know that we will not stand this oppression and tyranny for a second longer!" The man with the megaphone yelled to the sky. "Men, go at will!"

I couldn't stay where I was for a moment longer. Bursting out of my dad's grip, I sprinted out and into the horseshoe, where two of the men with the bats were sauntering up to the six. I charged right up to them, keeping me between them and their intended targets.

"You know assault is illegal, right?" I looked one of the men in the eye as I spoke, somehow not finding it hard to keep my cool. "So is kidnapping."

The men stopped for a moment, almost seeming confused at my words. Then, one of them seemed to gaze at my chest and squint for a moment. After getting over the fact that that was kind of weird, I tried to bluff my way through this.

"Even if the police decided not to arrest you, you could get fired from your job. I heard about that happening a few times on the news." I took a small step forward, hoping they would step back.

"Just knock her down!" I heard the man on the megaphone yell, and I braced myself.

"I'm pretty sure you know these people aren't actually the type you're looking for," I said. One of the men raised his bat. "Why don't you let them go on with their lives?"

Whack! I turned around as I heard the slamming of something against something else. One of the other four men had tried to bring his bat down on the couple, but my dad had run out with me, blocking the hit with his almost clear force field. As I turned around, though, one of the two men pushed me aside, getting ready to bring his own bat down on the woman and her child.

"Stop!" I scrambled to my feet, reaching towards the bat, but also closing my eyes instinctively. I began to hear faint sirens from some distance away.

"What the shit..." I opened my eyes as one of the men spoke, before realizing what I had done. Looking at the man's bat, I found it now having a few new scratches and a hole in it, and pulled my hand away sheepishly.

"That's why I'm a Superhuman." I forced through gritted teeth, not really knowing what to say or what to do.

Before the men got yelled at or could do anything else, though, people started dropping to the ground and yelling. It wasn't long before I could hear what they were hearing. A high-pitched screech, getting louder and softer, louder and softer. Except for many of them, it was being administered without mercy. My dad started to talk to the couple, pointing to the studio, before heading over to the other two and leading them inside. I looked over at the woman that was standing next to me.

"Um, well, should we go inside?" I said to her, feeling my cheeks get hot. Apparently, standing in the middle of a crowd of people that want to kill you, but were currently suffering from a noise that doesn't exist is kind of awkward.

"Thank you." The woman smiled gently at me, before putting her hand on my shoulder and leading me and her child inside.