When I woke up on Saturday morning in Steven's castle, I immediately went down to Steven's lab like he had told me to do. I held my sketch pad close to my chest as I walked to the back of the lab where Steven was poking away at some screens. I walked over to him, and sat on top of a metal table that was nearby.

"Good morning. I've been coming up with some designs for your suit." Steven told me, pulling up a few pictures of suits to show me.

"I actually came up with an idea for the suit last night." I said, opening my sketch pad and pulling out the drawing I did of my suit, and handing it to Steven.

Steven looked the drawing over, seeming to think it over. Honestly, I don't really think it mattered what Steven thought of my design, because my design was the one that I wanted. I figured that if I was going to be the one wearing the suit, and it was going to be me that represented Shadow-Man, then the suit should be one that I liked. Fortunately for me, Steven nodded, and began to work on building the suit, making it look just the way I wanted.

While Steve worked on the suit, Steven had the man who drove his car escort me through a door that was in one of the back corners of Steven's labe. Upon walking through the door, I found what looked like a weight room, though I was expecting some form of another lab or something. The man who drove Steven's car, who later introduced himself as Warren, told me that I was going to need to train, and work on my fighting skills.

"Right now?" I asked.

"Yes." Warren told me.

"I, don't have any clothes to work out in." I was still wearing my school uniform, because it's not like I had time to pack a bag before I was taken to Steven's house.

"Oh, right. I'll be right back." Warren said before leaving.

Warren was a man who looked to be in his late twenties or early thirties. He had dark blonde hair that he combed to the side, with slight freckles, and eyes that looked like corroded pennies. he seemed loyal, and really kind.

When Warren came back, he was holding a pair of black track shorts, and a white tank top. He handed both articles of clothing to me, and showed me a nearby bathroom where I could change. As I put on the clothes, I couldn't help but wonder who's clothes I was putting on. As far as I knew, Warren and Steven were the only people living in the house, and they were both bigger than me, and had male bodies, so it wouldn't make sense that they had clothes that fit a sixteen year old girl perfectly.

When I was done changing, I stepped out of the bathroom to find that Warren had changed out of his nice suit, and into basketball shorts and a t-shirt. I pulled my hair up into a ponytail, asking Warren about the clothes as I did so.

"They belonged to an old friend of Steven's." Warren explained.

"The trans one?" I asked, probably being just a bit too nosy.

"Yes." Warren told me, then he quickly changed the subject.

"We're going to see how good your fighting skills actually are." Warren told me, then he pointed to a large mat that was sitting on the floor in the corner of the room. "Let's get onto the mat, and we'll fight."

"You sure? I may be small, but I've picked up a few skills." I said, walking over to the mat. I had no clue how good Warren was at fighting, so I knew that it was very likely that he would be able to beat me up rather easily.

When Warren and I both got onto the mat, he didn't waste any time attacking me. Warren quickly grabbed me around the waist, and backed me into a wall, slamming me very hard against it. I grunted as Warren began punching me, but fought back quickly. I slammed my elbow as hard as I could into the dead centure of Warren's back, making him let go of me to arch his back. I used Warren's short lived moment of distraction to kick his leg, knocking him off of his feet. I looked down at Warren as he laid on the ground, and groaned a bit.

"I guess my fighting skills are better than you thought." I joked.

"Your fighting skills? Yes." Warren said, then he quickly grabbed onto one of my ankles, and pulled roughly on it, causing me to fall backwards, and hit my head hard on the ground. "But your instincts need more work."

"Ow." I said flatly, sitting up and looking at Warren as he sat up too. He looked at me seriously, and I knew that he was about to tell me something important.

"The people who commit crimes out on the streets aren't going to fight fair. They don't care if you're already choking on your own blood on the ground, they don't care that you're a girl, and they don't care that you're a kid. They will kill you, not matter what. You can't let them get that chance." Warren told me, standing up and pulling me up with him.

"They won't." i said seriously, then I punched Warren in the gut, and kicked the back of his knee, knocking him over once again. "And I'm a boy."

"My apologies." Warren told me as he sat up. Then, faster than I could blink, Warren yanked on my ankle and knocked me on my ass once again.

Warren and I continued fighting, and fighting, and fighting occasionally taking breaks to drink water, and eat lunch. By the time Warren and I finally decided to stop fighting for the day, we were both covered in bruises, scrapes, cuts, and sweat. Warren told me that i had done good, and that I was, indeed, better at fighting than he thought I was going to be, but that I still needed some work. i was honestly pleased with how that day went.

That night, instead of staying at Steven's house again, I had Warren drop me off a few blocks from Gill's house. I skateboarded the rest of the way to my best friend's house, and knocked on his bedroom window to get his attention. Gill quickly spun around in his rolling chair, which he was sitting on at a desk, playing on his computer. When Gill saw that it was me at his window, he hurriedly opened it up, then stepped to the side so I could come in.

"What happened to you?" Gill asked in concern as I shut his window behind me. Gill looked confused when I turned around and smiled at him, despite the bruises on my face, and the cut on my cheek.

"I have big news for you." I told Gill excitedly. Gill listened closely as I told him all about my stay with Steven, giving him every possible detail. It wasn't until after I was done telling Gill everything that I realised that i was sharing secrets that weren't mine to share.

"You understand that you can't tell anyone about this right?" I asked, even though I already knew the answer.

"I know Ty. You can trust me with this kind of stuff." Gill assured me.

"i know, it's just, those weren't really my secrets to share, and now I feel guilty."

"It's ok Ty. I won't tell anyone. I've read enough comics to know that superhero's need their secrets to be kept."

"Thank you."

Gill helped me bandage up my cuts and stuff, then he and I sat down and came up with a cover up story for when people, most likely Clair, asked what had happened to me. We both agreed that it would be most believable if we said that I had fought another criminal, and gotten my ass beaten again. Then, because we knew that Clair would ask follow up questions, we got all of the details worked out, which would make our story easier to believe.

***

Steven and Warren began picking me up everyday and taking me to Steven's house. I never let them pick me up directly from school, or from my house, meaning they often just picked me up and dropped me off at random places beside random streets, and I would skateboard to wherever I wanted to go at the time.

My time spent at Steven's house was often filled with me either working out while Warren spotted me, Warren helping me as I beat up punching bags, or Warren and I beating the shit out of each other. Of course, all of that was really just to have something to do while I we waited for Steven to finish making my suit. Apparently, the reason it was taking so long, was because the special chest plate was hard to make, and used advanced technology.

"I finally got the suit done." Steven announced as he walked into the work out room from his lab.

At that moment, Warren and I were tangled up together on the floor, trying to get the other person to give up. I hand a tight hold on one of Warren's legs, with one leg kicking Warren in the chin, and the other wrapped tightly around the leg that I was holding onto. Warren was holding one of my arms in his own, with his spare leg pushing against my stomach. I was slowly bending Warren's leg backwards, while Warren was crossing my arm painfully over my body, bending it in unnatural directions. Neither one of us was aiming to cause undoable damage, or seriously hurt the other person, but we were both trying to hurt the other person enough that they would concede.

"Yield!" I barked, pushing Warren's leg more, bending his knee backwards too much. Warren groaned in pain as I did so, but he glared at me as much as he could with my foot on his face.

"Never." He growled, pulling on my wrist while pushing on my elbow. i let out a growl from the pain.

"Guys!" Steven called as he looked down at us. Both Warren and I stopped pushing at each other's limbs and joints to look at Steven, but we didn't let go of each other. Steven held up a piece of cloth to show it to us. "I finished the suit."

"Nice!" I hissed excitedly, then I used the distraction that Steven had created to my advantage. I jerked my arm out of Warren's hold, and quickly got to my feet. Warren, having really fast reflexes, wasn't far behind me. I acted quickly, and socked Warren hard in the gut. When he doubled over in pain, I wrapped my arm around Warren's neck, holding onto my hand with my other hand, and pulling back, forcing Warren to stand up and arch backwards a bit sense I was shorter than him. Warren tried to throw his elbows back and make me break the headlock, but I dodge his elbows, and tightened my hold on his neck.

"Yield." I growled, and Warren quickly tapped my arm a couple of times. I let Warren go, and he gasped for breath, his face still red.

"He's getting good." Warren told Steven with a bit of a smile as he pointed at me. I chuckled.

Steven handed me the suit, and had me go put it on. The suit was mostly black, but it had patches of light grey and dark grey too. I put the suit on in the bathroom, and looked at myself in the mirror after the mask was one. None of my skin was exposed at all, and the suit fit perfectly. I turned to the side, looking at myself up and down, and paying close attention to how your really couldn't tell that I had the body of a girl. For the first time in my whole life, I actually looked like a boy, and I was loving every second of it.