I began to grow restless. I wanted to do something. Something worthwhile. After I got the powers, or whatever it was that happened, all attention became focussed on figuring out what I might have been capable of doing, and my superhero training was brought to an abrupt, and everlasting stop. 

"It's too dangerous to let you go out when we don't know what you're capable of." Steven told me blandly when I mentioned that I wanted to go out and be Sunshine for the first time.

"Besides, Pip is gone. You don't need to be a superhero anymore." Steven added.

"Pip wasn't the only bad person out there Steven." I argued.

"No, he just controlled all of the bad people out there. But he's gone now."

"What if someone took his place?" I asked.

"Then we'll find out about it and you can deal with it when you're ready." Steven responded. 

"You guys keep telling me that I can go out when I'm ready, but nothing has been done to help me get there. How many times are you going to look at the same blood sample before we at least get back to training me?" 

"We'll get back to training when we know what you can do."

"Running the same tests that you and Jess have been running isn't going to get you any new results though. We need to actually do stuff."

"You're not ready to do stuff."

"We wouldn't even know if I was." I muttered under my breath, followed by an irritated huff. I looked a Steven's back for a little bit as he continued to look into the microscope and write down the same information that's he's written down a thousand times before, and an idea came to me.

I silently snatched my suit off of a nearby table, and left the lab without another word. I didn't plan on actually doing anything, because I kind of really just wanted to go out in the suit. However, I was sitting on the roof of a building after climbing up the fire escape, when I heard a woman screaming in distress below me. I looked down, and found a woman with brown hair pressing a blonde woman against a building. The brunette had her hands up the blonde's shirt, and was grinding against her, while the blonde woman was crying out for help, with tears running down her face. 

For a moment, I considered looking away. I considered just pressing my hands over my ears to drown out the blonde's cries, and pretending that I didn't know what was going on. I couldn't do that though. The blonde needed help, and the brunette needed to be stopped then, or she would probably do it again. So, pushing aside my thoughts, I climbed down the fire escape as fast as I could, and yelled at the brunette. 

"Leave her alone!" I snapped, drawing the attention of both women. Both of them looked confused, probably not expecting to see a young man in spandex, but it didn't last long. 

"Keep on steppin' kid." The brunette told me with a bit of a country accent. She then went back to assaulting the blonde, who looked at me and cried even more. 

"Please! Please help me!" The blonde pleaded. 

"Shut it!" The brunette snapped just before she punched the blonde in the face. 

"I told you to leave her alone!" I growled, stalking up the the women, and yanking the brunette backwards. I guess I was stronger than I had expected, because the brunette was yanked back pretty far and landed roughly on her butt. I was a bit surprised, but I tried not to falter too much as I stepped in front of the blonde. 

The brunette stood up quickly, and threw a fist right at my face, hitting me pretty hard in the jaw. I bounced back quickly, and through a punch of my own, nailing the brunette in the temple, and causing her to stumble and fall once again. The brunette falling over wasn't surprising, but what was surprising was the fact that she was knocked out from my one punch. 

"Hmm." I hummed, a bit confused. I then turned to the blonde, who was still behind me and looked confused to, and offered her my hand. "Would you like me to walk you home?" 

"Please." The woman responded, sounding a bit relieved as she took my hand in her own and began to lead the way to her house. 

"Are you ok? Do you need medical attention?" I asked along the way. 

"No, she didn't get that far. I'm just...shaken up." The blonde responded.

"Situations like this can be traumatizing. I'm sure it's going to be difficult to recover from, but you're going to be ok. Though, you might want to consider going to counseling."

"I think I'm going to be alright. Thank you. What's your name?"

"Sunshine." I had never said it outloud before. It felt liberating. Like once I said it, it became true, and I was born to be Sunshine. 

When I got the blonde safely home, I was running triumphantly down the sidewalk. I had saved my first person! Stopped my first crime! I was actually Sunshine, and I was actually a superhero, who was actually helping people.  It felt amazing, and I couldn't blame Ty for doing it every night. But then, my complete and utter happiness was ruined, when I tripped and fell right on my face. 

If had just been a fall, I wouldn't have cared. However, when I got back up and brushed the dust off of my suit, I found that there was a big crater, and a bunch of cracks in the sidewalk from where I fell. I didn't think it was even possible for me to fall so hard that I would crack the pavement so much. But then it clicked. The brunette woman getting yanked back so far, her getting knocked out with just one punch, and then the crater, was all because I had super strength. That was really cool, but also really terrifying. 

***

"I have super strength!" I called out, practically cheering as I ran down into Steven's lab, still wearing the suit. I pulled the mask off of my head, and smiled at Steven and Jess. They were both sitting on one of the tables in Steven's lab, drinking cups of coffee and talking about something that I interrupted with zero guilt. They both turned to look at me quickly, both showing interest, and slight confusion on their faces. 

"What?" Jess asked.

"I have super strength!" I said again. "I can prove it too."

I walked right up to Steven and Jess who both hurried to put their mugs down, and picked them both up. I effortlessly hoisted Steven and Jess up so that they were sitting on each of my shoulders, and holding onto my arms. I began to spin around in circles, feeling a lot happier than I probably should have been, and laughing lightly. Jess started laughing too, but Steven didn't seem to be having any fun at all.

"Please put me down!" I cried, closing his eyes and clutching desperately onto my arm so that he didn't go flying. 

"What the heck is happening?" I heard Warren call. He didn't sound upset, just a bit confused and amused. I stopped spinning, and turned to look at Warren as I gently set steven and Jess down. 

"I have super strength." I told him, still smiling.

"I can see that. I can also see that you have the suit. Were you out being Sunshine, even though Steven told you no?" Warren asked, putting his hands on his hips, and looking a lot like an upset mother. I smiled sheepishly, and rubbed the back of my neck awkwardly. 

"Um...yeah." I sighed. "I know that you guys told me not to, but I got restless, and I had to do something. I helped a woman, and I found out that I have super strength now, so let's just ignore the fact that I did anything wrong and focus on my super strength." 

"We need to run some tests." Jess said, turning to Steven who had a glimmer of excitement in his eyes. 

"We need to see exactly how strong you are and where your limits are!" Steven exclaimed excitedly. 

"We'll start tomorrow. For tonight, you need a shower and need to go to bed." Warren told me seriously. I didn't argue, and went right to bed after taking a shower.

***

Ty came to me once again in my sleep, and I greeted him with the same smile and open arms that I had been before. I was never going to get tired of seeing Ty just about every night, and just holding him, and talking to him. I guess it might have been my way of grieving to lock myself in a perpetual slumber, or at least try to, but I wasn't about to stop. 

"I've missed you." I told Ty, hugging him close to me. 

"You don't have to. You can live your life Gill." Ty told me, pulling away from our hug to look up at me. 

"I don't want to. I just want to be with you again. I want you to be alive so that we can be superheroes together."

"You can't let me hold you back from living Gill. It's been months. It's time for you to start moving on."

"I'm not ready to move on yet."

"And you're never going to be with me holding you back." 

"What are you saying Ty?" I started to cry, even though it burnt, because I knew exactly what Ty was saying, but I didn't want to believe it. 

"I'm saying goodbye, Gill." Ty told me sadly. "It's not forever, because I'll see you again, but it will be a while." 

"Ty please. I can't lose you again. You're my best friend."

"You have new friends now. You're going to be ok." Ty began to back up, and I tried to run after him, but I was tugged back by my hands. 

I looked behind me, and found nothing there. I was being held back by absolutely nothing, which angered me a significant amount. However, I pushed that aside, and pulled as hard as I could trying desperately to break free from the invisible forced that we holding me back, and trying to reach Ty. I couldn't move forward at all though, no matter how hard I pulled. 

"Bye Gill. I'll see you in a little while." Ty told me, taking gentle steps forward. I pulled harder in an effort to get to Ty, even as he walked over to me. My super strength was useless, and it irritated me to no end. 

"Ty, please." I cried in one last futile attempt to convince Ty to stay.

"It's time for you to wake up Gill. I won't be here when you go to sleep later." Ty told me. Then, as a final goodbye, Ty cupped my face gently in his own, and kissed me gently. I kissed him back immediately as tears continued to burn down my cheeks. I couldn't breathe, but I was too afraid to pull away from Ty, thinking that the second I pulled away, he would be completely gone. 

I woke up with a gasp, quickly sitting up in bed. I was all alone, and my face hurt, which let me know that the tears were real. I flopped back against my pillows, and just stared at the ceiling for a moment. I would have liked to just stay in bed all day, not talking to anyone, or doing anything, but those plans were ruined by Warren knocking softly on the door, then letting himself in. 

"Hey Gill?" He asked, sitting at the foot of my bed.

"Yeah?" I asked in response, sitting up.

"When was the last time you were at your house?"