Mom had invited Gill to come over to our house for dinner, after finding out that he and I had been spending a lot more time together than we used to. Mom hadn't met Gill before, which was actually quite surprising, and she thought that it was about time that she did. This meant that Gill was supposed to come home with me after school, but the problem with that was that I was still going over to Steven's house everyday after school. I had tried to tell Gill that I just would tell Steven no that day, but Gill wouldn't let me do that. He said that he really wanted to see my suit, and Steven's lab, and watch me fight Warren. I couldn't bring myself to tell him no.

"Who's this?" Steven asked when Gill and I met him a Warren a little ways from school.

"This is my friend Gill. He's supposed to come over to my house for dinner tonight." I explained as Steven got out of the car, and got back in at the front seat, leaving room for Gill and I. Steven looked at me with his lips in a thin line, and his eyes kept flickering over to Gill.

"You can trust him. Gill has know everything about me being a superhero since before I even was one." I told Steven seriously. Steven continued to stair at Gill and I for a little while longer, then he looked away.

"So, you're the famous Gill?" Warren called, keeping his eyes on the road.

"I take it you've heard of me." Gill chuckled.

"I've heard quite a bit about you. When you spend just about everyday beating someone up, you kind of get to know them."

"Really? Because according to Ty, he's been laying you out flat." Gill teased.

"Is that so? I guess I'll have to teach him a little lesson about lying." Warren teased back, looking at Gil and I in the rearview mirror.

"Excuse you, but you told me that I really need to work on my ability to lie, because one of these day, lying could save my life." I defended with a smirk.

"Though that is true, today is not that day." Warren smirked. Gill chuckled a bit, and I smiled at him.

When we arrived at Steven's house, Gill was, needless to say, excited. Then, while the four of us used the secret elevator, Gill was practically bursting at the seams. By the time I had changed into my suit, and showed it to Gill, I thought he was actually going to faint. Gill looked at me with stars in his eyes once again, and a giant, blinding grin broke out across his face. He circled around me, lifting up my arms and inspecting every inch of me.

"This just might be the greatest thing that I had ever seen." Gill told me in awe.

"It is really cool, isn't it?" I asked, pulling off the mask and grinning.

"Hell yeah it is!." Gill exclaimed.

"How does it feel? You didn't really get the chance to actually use the suit yesterday." Steven said. I assumed he needed to know how well the suit worked so that he could make adjustments to it if needed.

"I think it feels pretty good. It fits fantastically." I responded.

"Let's test it out." Warren smirked, walking over to the mat in the corner of the room. I grinned, pulling my mask back over my face, and joining Warren on the mat.

Warren and I fought, both of us beating the shit out of each other. Gill watched, cheering for me, and wincing when I got hurt. Steven also watched Warren and I fight, and I knew that he was paying close attention to my movements, making sure that I could move around smoothly and easily. Fortunately, I could! With the special chest plate that made a binder unnecessary, my ribs weren't always aching, and I was able to move better, and breathe better than i was able to in my homemade suit, which was fantastic.

"Yield!" Warren barked, holding my arms above my head so I couldn't get free.

"Never!" I growled back, fighting as hard as I could to break free from Warren's hold.

"Your pride is going to get you killed."

"At least I'll die with my dignity still in tact."

"Not if you die in a situation like this." Warren chuckled.

"Gill! Help me!" I called. Gill grinned as he approached Warren and I. I knew that Gill wouldn't have been able to beat Warren, but i also knew that Gill would love to try and beat someone up during my superhero training, and that Warren wouldn't hurt him.

"Ok." Gill told me, then, without giving even the slightest hint as to what he was about to do, Gill started tickling me.

I couldn't stop the loud laugh that was ripped from my throat as Gill poked at my torso. Gill an Warren were both laughing too, but nearly as much as me. I struggled against Warren even more, trying desperately to get out of his hold and end the suffering. My stomach was starting to hurt from laughing too much, and I could feel tears build up in my eyes under the mask.

"PLLLEEHEHEHEHEEHESE STOHAHAHAHAHAHOP!" I wailed, still laughing.

"Not until you yield!" Warren shouted over my laughs. Seeing no end to the suffering in sight, I tapped one of Warren's arms quickly a couple of times.

Warren immediately let go of my arms, and I stepped away from both he and Gill. All three of us were still laughing a little bit. I was over with and arm wrapped around my stomach in pain. I pulled the mask off of my head, and wiped away the tears that had leaked out of my eyes from laughing too hard.

"You guys are jerks." I chuckled, a bit breathlessly.

"You love me nonetheless." Gill chuckled back.

"Fair enough." I said, patting Gill's shoulder affectionately.

"So, how does the suit feel?" Steven asked me, not caring one bit for all of our antics.

Steven had me do various different activities to make sure that I had a full range of motion. This included Steven having me attempt jump kicks and flips and stuff, which I was never able to do anyway, so I was kind of just throwing myself roughly at walls and hitting the floor brutally with my face. Gill kept wincing and helping me up, but he didn't stop me from doing what Steven told me to do.

"So, can you move just fine?" Steven asked me as Gill helped me up after a failed back flip.

"Yeah, I hit the eat shit just as easily as I would without the suit." I responded with a chuckle.

"We'll have to work on your agility." Warren told me with a smirk.

***

After deciding that I could move around just fine in the suit, Steven let me take it out for the first time. I thrived that night. I ran around, stopping as many crimes as I could, beating up anyone who needed it, and even waving at a few security camera's. I was boy, who looked like a boy, and I used this new found look to help everyone I could that night, and it was the best feeling in the world to me. That was, hands down, the best day of my entire life at the time.

"You look different today. New skin care routine?" Clair asked me the day after my first night with the suit as she sat down with Gill and I at lunch.

"I've ever done any skin care routine. I didn't do anything different today than I normally do." I said, wondering what looked different about me.

"I don't now what it is about you, but you just look different. It's like you're glowing, or something." Clair said, looking at me closely.

"That, my friend, is a little thing known as confidence. Did you do something last night that gave you a new found sense of confidence?" Gill asked me. I just smiled at him, knowing that Gill already knew that I had been running around in the suit. Gill winked knowingly at me, and smiled when I winked back. At the time, I didn't know that Clair had watched the entire exchange very carefully.

Later that day, I met up with Steven and Warren once again, just like I did everyday. Then, just like everyday, I fought Warren. However, unlike everyday, I actually beat Warren, then kept beating him. After I kept just beating Warren, he told me that it was time for us to start working on my agility. Turns out, the best way to improve someone's agility, is to do shit like put them on the top of very tall buildings, and have them jump from building to building.

"Shouldn't we do something safer first? I could die doing this." I said tentatively, looking down at the ground from the room of a tall apartment complex. The ground seemed so far away.

"That's exactly the point. You're more likely to succeed since you know what will happen to you if you don't." Warren told me. "Get a running start if you need to, and then jump over to that building right there."

"But, what if I can't make it? What if I die?" I asked, not really willing to take that chance. 

"If a simple task like jumping from one building to the other is what kills you, then you shouldn't be a superhero."

"Fine." I sighed. "If I die, make sure I get gendered correctly, and they use Tyler instead of Tanya."

I walked to the other side of the apartment complex, then rand across the entire length of it, pushing off of the building with a powerful foot to leap the the other building once I had reached the edge. I kicked my legs as I flew through the air. I started to drop too much, and I knew right away that if I was lucky enough to even reach the building, it was going to be close. Then, sooner than I would have liked, I slammed very, very roughly into the edge of the building. I groaned in pain, but held on for dear life.

"Pull yourself up!" I heard Warren call from behind me.

"Easier said than done!" I called back, struggling to pull myself up. I used my arms to push myself up, and used my feet to help me climb up the wall. Once I was up high enough, I swung one of my legs up onto the roof of the building, and pulled myself up. I rolled onto the building, and sighed, feeling my heart pounding in my chest.

"Good Job! I knew you could do it!" I heard Warren call. I held up one of my hands, giving Warren the middle finger. I heard him laugh, and I grinned.

***

"He wouldn't have let you die." Gill told me as if stating a fact. I had told him about Warren making me jump off of the apartment complex the day before.

"How do you know?" I asked.

"Think about it. Steven showed up again, once again asking to help you, even though you told him no. They have worked tirelessly with you to make you the best hero you can be, they made you a really cool suit that was specially made just to make you comfortable, and they are still investing lots of time on you. Either they really like you, or they need you for some reason. Either way, they wouldn't have let you die."

"Yeah. I guess." I said, thinking about what Gill had said. He really had a way with making me think very deeply about a lot of things. What could Steven and Warren even needed me for? Where they just using me for some unknown purpose? Did they even really care about me at all?

My mind was spinning with questions.