As I munched on my morning sandwich, I tried to parse yesterday's encounter with Lightshow.

 

Of course, there was always the possibility of her being a master actor. Everything she’d said might have been a lie, intended to make us sympathize with her and her group. But there was the question of why? Why would she need to do that? To have fewer enemies? She alone was skillful enough to handily beat us. We were hardly a threat. Maybe she was looking to recruit us into her ranks? It was possible, especially since she wanted us to team up. But if she wanted us to work together, lying would have been detrimental. We would have found out sooner or later.

 

No, it couldn't have all been lies. Maybe she had exaggerated, maybe she had twisted a few details, but the core of what she had said was probably true. When I thought back on my encounter with Black Rose, he’d said something similar. That sometimes, you don't have a choice but to become the bad guy in the public's eye. I could totally see it. Even though the first thing I had done as a hybrid was saving a woman from thugs, people had called me an eldritch horror. If my star merging had been more violent and more public, I might have been marked as a villain too.

 

I shook my head with a sigh, trying to think of something else. But of course, another worry on my endless list of worries barged its way into my head office.

 

Flare. I loved Flare. I knew I did. So why did I keep pushing those thoughts away? Distracting myself from them? Trying to prove them wrong? I needed to stop being so dense and let my feelings out. Honestly. It took me literally changing my body to admit that I was trans. Why was I repeating the same mistake?

 

No. I was avoiding it because it was scary. Thinking about her reaction. The possibility of our friendship being shattered because of me. It was terrifying, and in my mind, it felt safer to remain as friends rather than to risk breaking that. But then again, knowing Flare, even if she rejected me, we would remain friends at least. Right, I needed to be positive about it. I needed to go ahead and confess to her... eventually. When the time was right. Yes.

 

I finished my morning routine and got out of my place to walk to the bus station. On my way there, I was looking around at various stores and businesses, wondering whether they all belonged to Dragon Maw. But I realized that this kind of thought process wouldn't lead me anywhere nice, so I stopped it.

 

When I got to the bus station, Flare was actually already there. She didn't notice me yet. A mischievous thought sprouted in my mind and I decided to turn the tables on her -- by sneaking up and hugging her from behind.

 

"Hello, my crazy chicken!" I immediately regretted my decision. My face turned completely red as I released her from the hug and immediately tried to hide my face.

 

"Ahaha! Hello, my little kitten!" She laughed. "What was that? Are you teasing yourself now?"

 

I really was, wasn't I? I had no idea why I just did that. It was a stupid idea and shouldn't have gotten through my rationality filter. Was the carefreeness of my hybrid self finally starting to seep through to my human self?

 

"I... uh... please ignore that," I muttered.

 

"Sure, sure!" She laughed again.

 

She gave me a one-armed hug while I did my best to stop blushing.

 

"So I take it that you feel better today?"

 

"Well. Sort of. It's still a lot to take in," I sighed. "I think I'm mentally taking a break from trying to process it all."

 

"Hey, that's fine. It was really overwhelming for me too. We don't need to talk about it now. There's still time after school."

 

I nodded with a sigh.

 

The bus arrived and we rode to school, mostly in silence. Although I used it to secretly snuggle closer to Flare. She didn't seem to notice. Or maybe she just didn't mind. It was really nice.

 

As the bus arrived at our stop, we got out and walked toward the school. Unlike yesterday, when I’d gotten here much sooner than usual, students were flooding the school grounds. Among them, I spotted Jasmine and her clique. But it seemed like she spotted me first and was already on her way toward me. I flinched, not knowing what she wanted.

 

"You," the girl with long ginger hair addressed me. "I've heard the rumors. You are that annoying gloomy guy, aren't you?" She looked me up from head to toes.

 

"I -- No. I'm not a guy." I shook my head.

 

"What's your problem, Jasmine?" My friend put her arm in front of me to defend me.

 

"My problem --" She frowned. "-- is that I hate people with a defeatist attitude." She glared at me. "Which is like the definition of this one." Then narrowed her eyes. "Or... was."

 

I had no idea why she was being so intense, or where she was even going with this.

 

"I heard about this whole transgender thing. I don't really care. My question is --" She pointed at me. "Was this change actually meaningful? Are you gonna continue moping around and being obnoxious? Or are you going to stand for yourself now? Fight for what you care about?"

 

Her speech seriously made me bemused. I’d expected her to take a few jabs at me, to try and humiliate me. But she was actually trying to challenge me?

 

A few seconds of silence passed as she kept up her glare. Of course, I wasn't going to mope around anymore as she said. I was a hero now. I could stand up for myself and fight for what I cared about any day of the week. I didn't have the constant pressure holding me down anymore. I felt like I could take on the world if I had to.

 

I clenched my fists and stepped forward from behind Flare.

 

"I," I breathed out as I locked eyes with her, "I am a different person now. Christopher Dash is gone and he won't be coming back."

 

We glared at each other for a few seconds before she pursed her lips and nodded. "Good. I'll be watching you." She finally turned around and returned to her crew.

 

"What." My friend's eyes kept zipping between me and Jasmine. "What was that about?"

 

I sighed and let myself relax. "I have no idea."

 

I always thought of Jasmine as a high-class bitch. Wanting to be above others, to command them like a queen. But what she’d just done felt completely out of character from what I’d known about her. She hadn’t made fun of me. She hadn’t shamed me or tried to crush me underneath. She was challenging me. She wanted me to get riled up and defy her. To stand my ground.

 

I just didn't understand why.

 

I shook my head to clear my thoughts again. I already had enough stuff to think about. I didn't need to theorize about Jasmine's worldview as well.

 

We transitioned into a lighthearted chat about Arc Lords Online again. Neither one of us felt like dissecting yesterday. There was a lot and it wasn’t light, so we procrastinated. Not to mention, we couldn't talk too loudly about it out in the open schoolyard, where someone could overhear us. That could raise some questions we weren’t planning on answering.

 

Our chat was cut short by the school bell, prompting us to part and go to our classes. The first period of the day was math, which, annoyingly enough, I shared with Jasmine. Luckily, her seat was in front of me, and she didn't turn to glare at me during the class. After it was over, though, she turned her frowning face at me and nodded for some reason. As if reconfirming my determination or something. I didn't think too much about it and nodded back, pretending to understand her unspoken message. It only seemed to be the right thing to do, although I had no clue what was going on inside her head.

 

The next two classes, Starstorm Studies and English, passed relatively quickly. No Jasmines glaring or nodding at me for no reason. And most other students in general had already gotten used to my new self.

 

Although there were still a few of them who gave me odd looks here and there, and some even tried to talk to me. Mostly questions about how the change had happened and whether I was gay now. It really annoyed me because what they meant by 'gay' was 'into guys', which I wasn't. But I was gay because I was a girl and liked girls. Trying to explain it to some of them would have been too much of a hassle, so I didn't really elaborate beyond saying 'I like girls'.

 

I've actually heard some transgender people would often have trouble figuring out their orientation after they transitioned. But for me, it was utterly simple. I liked girls. Always had. Always would. There was nothing to figure out. Changing my sex didn't change the fact that I fancied girls.

 

Anyway, after English, it was finally lunch break. I plopped down with a sigh as I placed my plate with chicken stew on the table. Flare, Elsie, and Michelle were already there.

 

We ate and chatted about nothing in particular for a bit, but eventually, the conversation steered towards what I and Flare had been avoiding up until now.

 

"So how did your patrol go yesterday?" Elsie asked, looking slightly pensive.

 

The two of us froze for a second before letting out a sigh in unison.

 

"Uh oh. That doesn't sound very good," Michelle commented.

 

"We ran into Lightshow," Flare started. "She really is unbeatable. Exactly as the internet says."

 

"Oh, dang. Are you alright?"

 

"Physically? Yeah." Flare smiled wryly.

 

"Did she play you like a violin and then made fun of you?" Michelle put on an evil grin.

 

Neither one of us said anything to answer. But that seemed to be enough of an answer for Michelle as she giggled under her breath. I briefly wondered whether Lightshow had uploaded the photo she took of us somewhere. She wouldn't do that, would she? I shook that thought away.

 

"But there was more to it," I said, staring at my stew while drawing circles in it with my spoon.

 

That made Flare grimace as well, while the other girls shared a glance and leaned in closer, prodding us to continue.

 

"She..." I sighed before continuing. "She told us about how Eruption ended up where she is now."

 

"Oh, um." The two girls adopted a concerned expression. They knew about my mom's death, after all.

 

"Apparently, it was an accident. And in that accident, even her own parents died. Which is why it got so out of control. And... well, that's what she told us, at least."

 

"Hmm, and you believe her?"

 

"I... well... maybe? I don't know. It's hard to process."

 

It was. Eruption had been the target of my ire for months. Part of me refused to believe she was innocent just so I could keep on hating her. But the wiser part of me insisted that I drop it. I wanted to be the bigger person. Well, if it was all true, that is. Right now, I only had the words of a third party. I hadn't met with Eruption. Maybe if I got to meet her, I would be able to fully forgive her. Or the opposite, realize I could never forgive her, after all.

 

"And that's not even all. Lightshow gave us a..." Flare pursed her lips. "A bit of a revelation. Apparently the Dragon Maw secretly controls a third of the city already."

 

"Whaaat? So even villains share crazy conspiracy theories now?" the spiky-haired girl scoffed. Elsie, on the other hand, frowned.

 

"It's... well." Flare glanced at me. "I don't know. We're not sure if she was telling the truth. But she said the Lightbearers only ever attacked Dragon Maw and their businesses. And sounded pretty frustrated that they can't pin them down."

 

"A way to justify their crimes." Michelle rolled her eyes. "Say that they are only hitting the bad guys." She narrowed her eyes. "You know what they say about Lightshow. A total manipulative trickster. Can't trust a word she says."

 

In a way she was right. As Valkyrie said, making fools out of her foes was Lightshow's modus operandi. But still, something inside me nudged me to believe her. Maybe I had just been thoroughly manipulated?

 

"Well, the worst thing is..." Flare glanced at me. "She told us where the Liberators are hiding. And she invited us to... err... watch or even help as her gang took them out."

 

"The hell?! Don't you dare even consider that! That is a trap and a half!"

 

Everyone suddenly focused on me, as if it was my decision to make. Well, Flare had appointed me the leader, but still.

 

"I..." I breathed out. "I feel like we should at least check it out from a safe distance."

 

"Chris, I'm not sure there even is a safe distance," Flare said.

 

"My eyesight is pretty good." I pointed at my eye. "Felice hybrid, remember?"

 

She stared at me for a second before sighing. "Alright. But I'm scooping you up and flying the heck away the moment trouble finds us."

 

"Okay, fair enough."

 

"Just... be careful, you two," Elsie said worriedly.

 

The two of us gave her a serious nod.

 

I didn't even know why I wanted to go there so much. Maybe to find out whether it was all true in the end? Maybe to meet Eruption and possibly have some sort of closure? Or maybe I just wanted to see the people who’d shot and exploded me be thoroughly beaten up. Probably a combination of the three.

 

After lunch, it was a history class for me. We more or less continued from yesterday and kept talking about Felice Bellow and the latter part of her life. Her uniting people, founding the first proper civilization of the new world, and finally her death on the front lines.

 

It was actually pretty inspiring. I juggled the idea that one day, I would do great things like her and would be remembered as a legendary hero. Although it was pretty much impossible to match what she had accomplished.

 

The last period of the day was an art class. The assignment that carried over from the last lesson was to draw something abstract with the theme of 'balance'. When I recovered my painting, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. It was a red background with black nervous system-like growth from down below and white aurora up above. The growths at the bottom very much reminded me of what my power looked like.

 

But I didn't like my painting anymore. It didn't give me the impression of balance when I looked at it. More like a violent, neverending conflict was happening. Funny how much my idea of what balance should look like had changed this past week. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time to make another painting, so in the end, I begrudgingly finished what I had and handed it in to be graded.

 

After school, me and Flare headed to my home and went over some contingency plans in case things went south. For both mine and her peace of mind. If it was a trap, I didn't intend to get caught in it. Although I highly doubted it was.

 

"Are you sure about this?"

 

"Yeah. We'll stay out of it. We'll book it as soon as someone tries to drag us into it."

 

"Alright, I guess."

 

And so we went. Just like always, we found our little hiding spot, changed into our costumes, and claimed the rooftops. But this time, we wouldn't be randomly wandering around. No, we had a destination in mind. I pulled out the piece of paper and checked the address to orientate myself. Once we got our direction figured out, I led the way.

 

We made a few wrong turns and had to check the addresses on the buildings, but eventually, we found the place in question. It was an abandoned school building in the northern slums. I wasn't sure what to think about terrorists using a school as their base, but at least it was an abandoned one.

 

We didn't get anywhere close, though. Like we’d agreed, we would stay far away and watch. Phoenix gently landed beside me and glanced at the building in question.

 

"I still can't shake the idea that this is a trap," she said, frowning.

 

"We are far away enough. I doubt they have traps prepared in such a huge radius in all directions. And if anyone tries to come after us, I'll see them."

 

"I guess..." She continued frowning as she glanced at the school again.

 

Lightshow had said they would begin their raid at six PM. We’d spent quite a bit of time discussing today's event at my home, but we were still relatively early. For now, we decided to lay low and watch for anyone entering or exiting the place.

 

It was almost like a stakeout. Just sitting around, watching, waiting for something to happen. My friend got bored relatively quickly, despite how uncomfortable she still felt about this situation. I did my best not to let it get to me, and continued watching our target like a hawk.

 

"Hmm, it’s gonna rain tomorrow,” Phoenix whispered while looking at the sky.

 

I looked up as well and saw the mass of black clouds on the horizon slowly moving toward us. They were quite visible thanks to the moon illuminating the rest of the sky.

 

I didn’t spend much time brooding over the weather and resumed my watch.

 

About fifteen minutes before six, something finally happened. The stairway door on the roof we were stationed on swung open. Both of us jumped, ready to escape in case of an ambush. The person that emerged culled any plans involving flying away in a hurry.

 

A young woman with a mask over her face, covering everything but her eyes. A swirl of white and black decorated it. Similarly, her hair was a mixture of black and white strands. Her blouse and pants didn't depart from this color scheme either, with various abstract patterns covering it. She also featured a large reptilian tail. The tail and her uncovered arms were coated in black and white scales.

 

Both me and my partner were on high alert. We knew very well who it was. One of Lightshow's people. Impact. The trap has been sprung. The hardest person to escape from was sent after us. We had discussed the possibility of an ambush by her specifically, but none of the escape plans were simple. We were ready to give it our all, though.

 

But just to betray our expectations, she lazily glanced around, spent about a second looking at us, and then focused her attention on the school building we were observing. She then slowly walked to the roof edge, before heaving herself over and sitting on it, ignoring us. As if we weren't even there.

 

Part of me felt offended at how nonchalant she was about it. Another part of me understood all too well that she could destroy us any time she felt like it.

 

"Impact?" Phoenix asked incredulously.

 

The woman in question turned her head and then tilted it.

 

"Why are you here?"

 

Impact simply pointed at the school. She would be sniping from over here, while the rest of her team went inside. It made sense.

 

"So. It's not a trap for us?" My partner was eyeing her suspiciously.

 

Even through the mask, I could see her expression asking 'Are you an idiot?' She then turned towards her target and continued to ignore us again.

 

I had no idea what to do in this situation. Having a conversation with a mute person was hard. Having a conversation with a mute person who didn't even care that you existed was even harder. Moreover, it felt bizarre that I was even considering having a conversation with her instead of trying to fight her since she was a known villain. But Lightshow's words echoed in my mind. 'Believe it or not, most of the others have a similar story'.

 

What was her story then? She was also mute like Eruption, so it must have been similar. A violent star merging and then inability to verbally defend herself. But I hadn’t heard of any incident about her. The first anyone had heard of her was when she was already part of the Lightbearers.

 

Phoenix scuttled closer to me and whispered so that Impact wouldn't hear. "What do we do now? It could still be a trap."

 

It could. But I didn't believe it was. Strategically speaking, this rooftop had the best view of the school and its surroundings. Anyone trying to escape would get taken out by the black and white sniper. I didn't know what the rest of their strategy was about, but I doubted it involved us in any way. If I was their leader, I would use Black Rose to draw them out using fear or guilt, and then have Iron Garden pin them down with his metal shackles.

 

"Let's wait and see. I don't think it's a trap."

 

Phoenix reluctantly nodded but kept her eyes on Impact. Neither one of us dropped our guard. While I didn't think it was a trap, I could never discount the possibility. I had to be ready for any eventuality. I didn't want to get caught off guard like at the bank.

 

After a few tense minutes, something buzzed in Impact's ear and she gave a nod. She then extended her arms forward and made an odd gesture as if pulling on something invisible. She then molded this invisible something with intricate motions, grabbed it with one hand, and then ripped a part of it out. At the same time, a loud crash resounded from the school building and the broken remains of the front door flew outside. Just like I suspected, Black Rose and Lightshow entered the building through the entrance Impact had made. All while Iron Garden stood right outside, waiting to intercept any escapee. Their last member, Eruption, climbed onto the roof and overlooked the school premises. She held an odd-looking black shortsword.

 

One of them was missing. It seemed like they hadn’t brought their pet dragon to the raid. It probably would have been overkill to do so.

 

My eyes rose from the large man covered in metal up at the comparatively tiny girl with cat ears and tail. Her ears and hair were bright orange and she wore some kind of red catsuit to match. No mask. My thoughts bounced from hatred to fear to compassion and back. I still had no idea what to think, even after seeing her.

 

An explosion shook me from my thoughts. It came from the school building. It seemed like Lightshow had been right, the Liberators really were inside. And knowing the Lightbearers, they would make short work of them. Even though Lightshow had said it would go smoother with us, I didn't believe they needed us at all.

 

The sound then abruptly vanished from the general direction of the school, although I could still feel subtle vibration coming from over there, presumably from the insect bombs.

 

And then someone came hurling out of a window from the first floor. A man with long hair, Minotaur. Iron Garden, on guard outside, didn't waste any time and ran to him. Iron began growing out of his body, clamping onto his victim, securing him against the ground. His foe struggled and even transformed into his hybrid form, but it was all in vain. He might have been strong, but even he couldn't break out of the metal restraints.

 

A second later, a woman came frantically running out of the busted entrance, away from Iron Garden, who was still too busy with Minotaur. She grew purple wings and prepared to take off. But then something hit her and knocked her on her back, allowing Iron Garden to catch up and restrain her as well. My eyes flicked to Impact, who was in the process of putting her hands down from whatever she had just done.

 

Everything was going smoothly. They more or less followed a plan I would come up with as well if I was their leader.

 

But of course, if something was going well, then it would come crashing down as soon as I got comfortable. The roof door behind us once again swung open. And this time, the person who emerged was very much interested in our persons. A man wearing an expressionless mask and a red motorcycle suit. His black spiky hair poked just above the mask.

 

I quickly realized his identity. Bystander. The guy who could nullify other powers.

 

Impact immediately stood up from her relaxing seat and got into a battle stance. Me and Phoenix similarly got ready to fight or flee.

 

The man glanced around and spotted us three before sneering.

 

"Found you."