The next day at school, I wasn't hiding anymore. I didn't put my contacts in, I didn't bother trying to make the scars on my face at all, and I ignored all the strange looks I got from all the kids and teachers that saw me at school. Well, most of them. I couldn't just ignore Mike and Bell. I was actually really nervous about how they were going to feel about the evident proof that I wasn't normal. I mean, it was kind of obvious anyway, but I supposed it was harder to forget about when it was literally just glowing in front of your face. 

Mike seemed to really like the more...yellow, aspects of me. He really like my scars, and he thought that me blushing yellow was cool. I think. But I was worried that glowing yellow eyes, super strength, and only god knows what else might be too much for Mike to handle. I didn't want to lose my relationship with Mike, or my friendship with both him and Bell over something that I didn't have any control over.  However, both of them seemed really cool about it, which actually wasn't all that surprising all things considered. They did have a few questions though. 

"Is it natural?" Bell asked me.

"More or less. Apparently all of the yellow and all of that was some sort of mutation or something that's been in my DNA since birth, but some combination of random hormones or something released it." I explained with a shrug. 

"It's pretty interesting." Bell said, making me feel a bit uncomfortable. 

"Is it...bad? Does it make me look, um...bad?" I asked, stuttering a bit and feeling anxious. 

"Not at all. I think you look just as great as the day we met you." Mike said from beside me. I looked over at him and his face was dripping with sincerity. I smiled warmly at him, and he smiled back. 

"That means a lot to me guys. I was worried that you guys wouldn't want to be my friends anymore." I chuckled.

"Do you really think we're that shallow?"

"No. I'm just that self deprecating." Mike chuckled at me, and wrapped his arm around my shoulders, pulling me into a comforting side hug. 

I wasn't just not hiding at school. I wasn't hiding as Sunshine either. I walked around without my mask, and didn't care at all about who knew who I was. I mean, even if someone tried to come after me after I stopped them from doing crimes, I could just beat them up. I had super strength, and something that was almost a will to live. So, I wasn't afraid of anyone coming after me or anything like that. 

Steven and Jess were though. They were freaking out, and very worried when they saw that I wasn't wearing the mask any more the first time, and were insisting that I go back to wearing my mask right away. Warren, however, didn't seem to think much of it though. I was a little disappointed, because I was expecting him to be proud or something, but, at the same time, there was something oddly comforting about the fact that Warren said absolutely nothing to me about my lack of a mask. 

I chose to ignore Steven and Jess, and continue to refuse to hide anymore, because I simply didn't want to. Hiding Sunshine from Mike and Bell felt dishonest, and wrong, and I didn't want to do it anymore. So, I wouldn't wear my contacts anymore, or my mask, or even try to hide the fact that i was different, and that I had super powers. I didn't care what Steven and Jess had to say about it, because, as I've stated before, I wasn't afraid of anyone coming after me, and really didn't expect anyone too. 

But then someone did.

***

"Do your eyes hurt?" Mike asked me one day. He and I had decided to spend the day together. Well, he more so forced me to. It was a Saturday, and I would have usually just been hanging out at Steven's house, because that's what I did every weekend, but Mike had other plans. 

We were hanging out at a local park, just relaxing in the grass, listening to music that played quietly from Mike's phone, and enjoying the warm weather while it lasted. Summer was coming to a close, and the leaves on all of the trees would be changing colors soon, so a lot of people were soaking up as much sun as they could while the days were still long. 

"No. The only time I'm ever hurt is when I cry. My tears are hot enough that they burn my skin, which is why I have the scars under my eyes." I explained. "Do my eyes look like they would hurt?"

"Kind of I guess. I think it's more of the fact that they're so bright. They look like they should hurt to look at, and hurt to look through. I guess they don't though. Do you know why that is?"

"Not a clue. I've never known of anything like this happening before, and I don't even know the extent of what happened. We kind of just have to wait for answers to appear."

"How do your dads feel about it?" 

"They're both pretty supportive I guess. Steven wishes I would keep wearing my contacts, but Warren is the one who encouraged me to stop hiding in the first place."

"Is Steven ashamed of you or something?"

"No. He just thinks that me walking around showing of a genetic anomaly that no one has ever seen before could attract some unwanted attention. He has my best interests in mind." 

"I think it's cool."

"Thank you."

I walked back to his flat, and said hi to Bell when she leaned out of a window to wave to me. Before Mike went back inside, he gave me a quick kiss on the cheek, much like he and I every day after school when we would begin walking our separate ways, and just like every other time, I gave him a kiss on the cheek back as a small blush began to warm up my face. I began to walk away with a smile on my face, feeling like nothing could possibly dampen my mood. 

But then Warren pulled up next to me in a small, sleek, red, two seater car that I had never seen before. It had never occured to me that Steven would own more than one car, but I guess it really did make sense that he would. I got into the passenger seat of the car, and saw that Warren was looking tense and a bit anxious. 

"What's wrong?" I asked cautiously, and noticed as Warren's hands tightened on the steering wheel. 

"Nothing's really wrong. We just have some visitors back at the house that want to speak with you. I offered to pick you up from Mike's so I could, for lack of better term, brief you." Warren told me. 

"Brief me about what? Exactly?" I was getting a bit nervous too. Was someone dangerous at the house? Were Warren, Steven, and Jess being held hostage? Were they hurt?

"So, it's a lot like when Bell, Mike, and their parents came over. There are some people from the government over, and as far as they're concerned, Steven and I are married, you're our son, and Jess is my sister. We don't know if they know about your super strength, so don't mention that unless they do. We also don't know what they want, so please, be careful." Warren told me, and it took me a moment to comprehend exactly what I was being told. 

"Ok..." I responded eventually. When we got back to Steven's house, there were a couple black cars waiting in the driveway, and two men in black suits waiting inside. They looked friendly, and were talking with Steven and Jess. Well, mainly Jess. Steven seemed to be trying his best to listen, and take part in the conversation, though he seemed to be having a bit of trouble. 

When Warren and I walked into the sitting room, where everyone was, Steven turned to us quickly, and seemed to look a bit relieved as he stood up and walked over to us kind of quickly. Steven gave Warren a questioning look, and Warren nodded slightly, letting Steven know that he had already let me know what was going on. After getting confirmation that I had been 'briefed', Steven turned to me and plastered on a fake smile while grabbing onto my shoulders and pulling me into a bit of an awkward and unsure hug. 

"How was Mike?" Steven asked.

"Good. We just went to the park and hung out." I responded, trying to sound as casual as possible.

"Is he still doing well in his classes?" 

"Yeah. He's been studying pretty hard for an upcoming test." 

"That's good. Have you been-" Steven was cut off by one of the men in suits speaking up.

"Do you think you guys could talk about this later? We have some things we need to discuss with Gillian." He spoke. This man was tall, and thick, with pale skin and light brown hair. He seemed like he was a bit hesitant to interrupt Steven, and based on the way Steven turned around quickly, seemingly a bit irritated, the man was right to be nervous. 

"Of course. Do you need us to leave the room?" Warren asked kindly, placing a hand on Steven's shoulder, probably in an effort to call him down. I guess Steven didn't like being interrupted very much at all. 

"Yes please." The man from before responded. Warren gave me a meaningful look, reminding me of what he told me in the car, the he and Steven both left the room. I walked over to where the men were both sitting on a sofa, and sat on the ottoman in front of them. The other man, who hadn't said a word yet, was taller than the other one, with slightly darker skin, and blonde hair. He just stared at me, looking more serious, while the thick man smiled at me in an effort to be kind and comforting. 

"Hello Gillian. My name is Rogers, and this is Smith." The thick man, Rogers, told me, gesturing to his partner. 

"Nice to meet you guys." I replied, deciding to wait for one of them to start the conversation. I, of course, knew what it was about. I didn't think that the government would come to ask me questions, or kidnap me, or anything before, but I guess I really should have expected it. It did make sense after all. 

I was a genetic anomaly with super strength, boiling tears, probably a bunch of other stuff that we just didn't know about yet, and, not to mention, I killed a man by turning him into nothing more than soot. That still haunted me. I couldn't help but wonder what else I was capable of, if I was able to get rid of Pip so completely, when I wasn't even trying to. I figured, in the event that I concentrated whatever power I had, I could do so much more that burn one man to a crisp. I guessed the government was aware of that too. 

Rogers, without a word, pulled his phone out of his pocket. I watched curiously as he tapped the screen a couple times, then turned the phone sideways and reached out to hand it to me. I took the phone, and watched the video that was playing on it with curiosity. It was a video that was taken from a security camera outside of a local business of me as Sunshine beating up a group of men who were all trying to assault a woman. It was clearly me, and the fact that my eyes were the most noticeable part of the video, I knew there was no way that I could deny it. 

A little while into the video, after I had had more than enough time to see what was happening in it, Rogers reached over and swiped the screen to the side, pulling up a different video of me as Sunshine, before I decided to stop wearing the mask, stopping a mugger. It reminded me of a video Ty showed me around the time that he had first started being Shadow-Man, of him beating some people up. It was a poorly filmed video, and it was taken by some guy through his living room window, and he talked excitedly throughout the whole video, but Ty was so happy about it. I was too. 

"Those are videos that we found of you." Rogers told me, and I handed him his phone back.

"Yeah." I responded vaguely.

"Are you trying to be some sort of superhero or something?" Rogers asked. 

"Actually, I think I'm succeeding at being a superhero." I responded. 

"What makes you think you have to do that?"

"Why shouldn't I?"

"Because stopping crime is a job for the police."

"I know, which is why I make sure that the police come and pick the people up once I'm done with them, and throw them in jail, where they belong to be. I'm not trying to run the police out of their jobs or anything, and I don't think that I'm better qualified to handle criminals than they are. I'm just trying to help."

"Then don't you think you should just call the police when you see something bad happening?"

"By the time they make it there, it could be too late. Do you know how many murders, or rapings that I have stopped just in time? If I just sat back and watched, and called the cops then waited for them to arrive, then nothing would change."

"Oh, ok." Rogers said, trying to make it seem like he understood, though I knew he didn't, and I knew that he was concerned with my answers to his questions. "Can we ask you about your eyes?" Rogers gestures to his own eyes, and studied mine in confusion. 

"Sure." I responded. I was actually pretty curious to find out what their questions were.

"Thank you. Were you born with your eyes glowing like that?" 

"No.  They weren't glowing until recently, but the gene for them to do so has always been there."

"It's genetic?" 

"Yeah."

"Is it just the eyes, the scaring, and the super strength?" So they did know that I had super strength. That wasn't Ideal, I didn't think, but I figured it would be better if that was all that they knew. I think anyone would have agreed with me in saying that telling Rogers and Smith about Pip, or the fact that we didn't know the extent of my powers would have been a pretty bad idea. So I didn't do it.

"Yeah." I lied.

"Ok then. We'll be out of your hair soon, but we want to take a look around the house first." Rogers told me as he and Smith both stood up. I stood up too quickly, and the three of us left the room, walking into the entryway, where we found Steven, Warren, and Jess sitting on the stairs. 

Right away, all three of them stood up an turned towards us. Rogers and Smith followed behind me as I walked over to Steven, Warren, and Jess, but stopped a few feet away. Warren gave me a questioning look, and I didn't whether he was trying to ask if I was ok, or if I had listened to what he had told me in the car. Either way, I felt that giving him a tiny nod was the appropriate response. Warren seemed to relax just a little bit, and ruffled my hair a bit in what I thought might have been an attempt to convey understanding. 

"Can we look around your house?" Rogers asked Steven and Warren. Steven seemed to tense a little from beside me, and I didn't know if it was because he was worried about them finding out about the lab, or because he didn't like the idea of two strangers poking around his house. Or maybe it was both. I guess Warren noticed Steven's discomfort, because he spared him a very quick glance, and answered Rogers for us all.

"Of course." Warren said, and the four of us stepped to the side so that Rogers and Smith could look upstairs. They didn't get very far up the steps though, because Smith, who was running his hand along the banister as he walked up, managed the hit the secret button, and the elevator opened. I heard Steven, Warren, and Jess all inhale sharply, and all three of us held our breath as Rogers and Smith turned to look at the elevator curiously, then back at the four of us.

"What's this?" Rogers asked.