Vidya's hand was cramping up. Two hours of signatures should be nothing compared to usual superhero duties, and yet, she found herself wincing and stretching her fingers between every fan. It didn't make her feel better that her signature—which she'd come up with today—was an inconsistently-sized F followed by an illegible squiggle meant to be rostbite. But no one pulled a face, and Emika, who'd asked to see it so she could file it as the official signature, didn't seem bothered, so it must be good enough.

When the two hours were up, Vidya left the signing area, massaging her hand as she tried to figure out where to go. Without a map, navigating through the tents, booths, and stages of ASPA's fair wasn't going to be easy.

The Association for Superpower Assistance was a Celestro-sponsored, independent organization that helped superhuman kids and their parents learn how to use abilities safely, and it was the leading consultant on the responsibilities and opportunities that came with powers. The super population was incredibly small, and the likelihood of having significant powers was even smaller, but ASPA was there to help if help was wanted.

They'd had events here and there, but since this year was special, they'd thrown a gigantic fair. Vidya had taken off school for this—partly because Emika insisted that she be here, but mostly because Amber was out sick, and what fun was school without her?

Vidya wandered along aimlessly. There was an hour to kill before her next scheduled event: an encouraging talk on how manifesting late did not have any side effects such as wonky powers, illness, or death. Having gone through that panic herself, she was happy to give the talk, especially since a lot of people misunderstood late manifestation. It was uncommon, but not nearly as rare as everyone thought or as she used to think, and the reason for the misconception was because those who manifested at older ages tended to have milder powers, and they also tended to not take up the hero mantle, which meant they also tended to go unnoticed.

There were flashcards in her pockets, and Vidya tried to mentally recite her talk without reaching for them. Her gaze was blank and unfocused until she noticed who was on the opposite end of the path, and then she froze in her tracks. Up ahead were the Golden Four—well, three of them, since their leader wasn't there. Ralph, Salma, and Karthik approached slowly, talking in hushed but animated tones. In Celestro's efforts to make the Golden Four more friendly and relatable than the Marvels had turned out to be, their real names were used much more often than their aliases, and Vidya struggled to remember who they were as heroes.

She'd wanted to meet them, but not when Kennedy wasn't there. Not that she considered him a friend, but at least they'd met before. Without him to help break the ice, Vidya couldn't predict how this would go; and what she couldn't predict, she'd grown wary of.

Turning around would look awful if they noticed. The only sure-fire way to avoid them without looking suspicious was to take a turn into whatever path came up next and pretend like that was always her intention.

Vidya took a sharp turn between some tent flaps into what she assumed was an empty space behind a booth, but she bumped into someone. The woman flinched in surprise and pedaled back, her irises flashing golden-bright only for a quick second.

It was Astra, the English, non-Celestro, light-powered hero with the specialty drink at Starbucks.

Vidya murmured a quick apology. She suddenly remembered that Astra and Speed had come to Los Angeles together. They weren't associated partners, but at the very least, they were friends.

And now he was dead.

"Sorry for bumping into you," Vidya repeated, "and...I'm sorry about Speed."

Astra smiled. "Don't be," she said with a short, wicked laugh. "Now I get to be America's darling English hero."

Astra sidestepped Vidya and left without another word. Vidya stared at the empty space, trying not to care that Speed's death was nothing but an advancement in Astra's career. Were all superhero friendships fake? Did they all hate each other so much? Just don't have any expectations, she told herself, and then no one will fail to meet them!

Assuming that everyone was out of the way by now, Vidya turned to go back to her original path. She was already going through the tent flaps when she realized her timing was terrible, and she ended up right in front of the Golden Four, one second away from being bumped into by Ralph. They all stopped and stared at her.

"Hi," Vidya said. There was no putting it off now.

It looked like Karthik was about to say hello back, but Salma beat him to a response. "You're so young!" she commented, looking Vidya up and down. "You should've been with us—they're way too fucking old for you. What do you even talk about? Mortgages?"

Joke's on you, Vidya thought. We barely even talk.

She simply shrugged.

Salma shook her head disapprovingly, sighing. "Call us up sometime if you need a friend," she said.

She walked around Vidya and headed away, and Karthik followed her, but Ralph stayed where he was. "A word of advice?" he asked, sounding resigned.

Vidya raised an eyebrow.

"Salma's a snake," he said. "If she's nice to you, it's because she'll use you. Don't play her games."

"I heard that!" Salma hissed from down the path. She had a glare that could kill, but it didn't have much effect because Ralph had an equally murderous look on his face.

"I wanted you to hear it," he snapped, and he left Vidya to catch up with his teammates.

Alone, Vidya just stood there for a moment. In her mental cabinet of superhero personalities, she filed Ralph with Kennedy under confusing but cool, Karthik under unknown, and Salma under a new category, beware. She didn't know if Ralph was the bad one and just trying to annoy Salma, or if Salma really was a snake and he was being honest, but Vidya didn't want to find out, and she didn't care.

The refreshments tent was probably the best place to go. It was either that or keep wandering and bumping into people, and at least at the tent she could stuff her mouth and have an excuse to keep it shut.

Vidya made her way there. There was a young group of heroes inside, around her age and some a little older, crowded around each other. When Vidya entered the tent, they didn't stop talking, but their voices took on...a tone. That was the only way she could describe the change. She watched them out of the corner of her eye as she opened an orange juice carton, and they watched her, too, snickering and smiling, whispering.

They left quickly as if they couldn't stand her, giving her mean looks on the way out. It was only after they were all gone and the tent had cleared that Vidya realized Flamethrower had been there the whole time. She was sitting criss-crossed on a chair next to the bagel table, smirking.

"You know," Flamethrower said, swirling a cup of water, "becoming a famous hero takes a lot of work. Most people never get as far as they want to. And then you come along, with your special little manifestation and no experience whatsoever, and you land the dream job: becoming a Marvel." She laughed. "No wonder everyone talks shit about you."

Vidya gripped her juice carton tighter. "Is that why you hate me so much?" she asked. "Because you're jealous of how easy it was for me?"

Flamethrower's smile stretched wider as she raised the cup to her mouth. "Oh, sweetie," she said condescendingly. "I've got nothing to be jealous of. I was simply making an observation."

Vidya turned to face the bagels, refusing to entertain this any further. Flamethrower didn't seem to want to keep it going, either, and she drained her cup, burned it, and tossed the crisp into the trash. Then she left, the flaps swaying behind her.

Alone once again, with nothing but bagels, spreads, and cartons of juice and cups of water for company, Vidya sat down in the very chair Flamethrower had left and tried to put herself in her shoes. I hate Frostbite. I get kicks out of unnecessarily burning things. Everyone's afraid of me, and that's great.

It was cathartic.

Phase entered the tent, Emika right behind him. That woman was somehow always everywhere: she was at the signing with Vidya, and then she'd run off saying she had to talk to Echo, an ASPA rep, and Fox, who were all in different places, and now she was here. Vidya had asked her once, jokingly, if she had a superpower and if it was being in several places at once or even super speed, and Emika had responded with the wary laugh of someone who was slowly losing her sanity.

Never underestimate secretaries; they were super in their own way.

"Maybe in New York," Emika was saying, gulping down some water.

"If we ever get there," Phase responded with a laugh.

Emika looked at Vidya. "You're all set for your talk?" she asked.

Vidya nodded.

"Good, good."

Emika grabbed another cup of water and hurried out. No doubt she had another list of people to talk to.

"How goes the fair?" Phase asked, spreading cream cheese onto a plain bagel.

Vidya sighed. "I keep running into people."

"Don't go to the east end." He shook his head. "Not unless you want to be hounded by New Humans."

Vidya had no idea what he was talking about, but she nodded anyway because she had a question to ask. "What's happening in New York?"

"Nothing, really." He shrugged. "Celestro's always been planning to set up a location in Manhattan and move the Marvels there." He shrugged again, taking a bite of the bagel. "Probably won't happen for a while."

Vidya shrugged, too. It made sense. The west coast had more superheroes than anywhere else in the country because of the headquarters in LA. Setting up camp in the east would spread the influence even farther. Vidya didn't care too much about it; this was a fine job, but she'd never planned to stay longer than a few months, not with college right around the corner, so the move had nothing to do with her.

Vidya stayed in the snack tent as long as she could, alone again after Phase left. She sipped her orange juice slowly for a long time, and after suddenly realizing that she had three minutes until her event, she gulped the rest down, choked on it, and coughed all the way on the walk there.

No better way to start a no, you're not gonna die talk than with a red face after choking on juice.

Sorry for the late update! College started again this week, and...yikes.

Also, thank you for 500 votes!!! 🥳