What was the meaning of life? Was it to achieve greatness? To reproduce? Forty-two? No matter what it was, it was fascinating to think about. Yes. It was fascinating, and that was the only reason why my mind wandered into this direction.

It definitely wasn’t to escape the reality of me being in the same hero base I’d broken into a few minutes ago… this time, actually being invited and having a relatively peaceful discussion with said heroes. Yes, a discussion, not an interrogation.

“So… that really was just a coincidence?” Fissure asked, glancing at the agitated Nova, who would have drilled a hole through me if she could shoot lasers with her eyes.

“Uh, yeah… the sunglasses just fell out at that exact moment.”

“I have a hard time believing that,” Nova’s voice stabbed into me.

Ah yes, the meaning of life sure was great.

“Alright, fine,” Fissure said, putting his hand on Nova’s shoulder. “So what exactly happened today? We were woken up by Fractal storming our home and then booking it as soon as we came to fight him.”

“Uhm… Shadeskip was here and took back the…” dragon poop “...the stone you confiscated from him. I stumbled upon him…” or rather charged at him “...after he teleported outside.”

Of course, I wasn’t going to say that I happened to meet him inside Fissure’s lab. That would practically be admitting I broke in as well. Not the best diplomatic decision to make.

“So Shadeskip was here too?” Fissure frowned. “Hmm, is that when Iron Pack joined in?”

“Yeah.”

The two heroes looked at each other.

“Alright, I think we get the gist of it. One thing though…” He furrowed his brows. “Iron Pack recognized you.”

Yeah, that. I still had no idea why. If she hadn’t, maybe this wouldn’t have turned into such a mess.

“That is not good. A villain knowing your secret identity is dangerous in more ways than one,” the hero said in a grave tone.

Oh… I hadn’t thought about that. But it was okay! All I had to do was to resolve this misunderstanding and everything would be fine! It wasn’t like Iron Pack knew where I lived and was planning on attacking me in my home or something, right? Well, even if she was, that would give me an opportunity to explain myself!

“Hmph, irresponsible kid. I guess I couldn’t expect much more from a newbie,” Nova threw an off-hand comment at me.

Hey! Rude!

Also maybe kinda sorta true… but mainly rude!

“But...” Fissure talked over his cynical partner. “Experienced or not, it’s always nice to see more aspiring heroes rather than new villains popping up.”

Yeah, I totally wasn’t a villain at all. Just a minion. Who said supervillain minions couldn’t be superheroes in their spare time?

”Look, I know you couldn’t have built that armor overnight, so I know you are serious about being a hero.”

I definitely hadn’t built that armor overnight… or rather, I hadn’t been the one to build it at all!

”So, if you want, I can recommend you a group specialized for training new superheroes.”

Wait, what the heck? Was he recruiting me?

“You don’t have to, of course. But I think you could learn a lot from it. Maybe even find someone to partner up with there.” Fissure glanced fondly at Nova for a second.

Huh… so basically, I would be attending a superhero school? That somehow sounded both awesome and dreadful. The superhero part being awesome, and the school part being dreadful, of course.

“Think about it… here.” Fissure produced a card with a number on it. “If you decide to go for it, give me a call.”

I took the card as everyone stood up, signifying the end of the interrogation. Ahem, I meant discussion.

“By the way, even if you decide against it, I wouldn’t mind if you contact me anyway. We can exchange some tips and tricks on building power armor and other devices. The one you have seems really intricate.”

“Oh, uh, sure.”

It was beginning to feel really awkward with him thinking I’d made this. It felt like I was stealing credit for someone else’s work. But it wasn’t like I could say ‘Oh actually, my dear old boss Fractal made this for me!’, was it?

The hero escorted me back outside and said his goodbyes. With the card in my hand, I stood there for a second, looking at the starless night sky, before sighing and slumping down.

Now that there weren’t questions and suggestions to go back to school being thrown at me, I remembered the whole mess of a situation with Iron Pack and couldn’t help but feel defeated.

 How had she known who I was? How was I going to explain everything? Ugh, of all times for my supposed amazing luck to have failed me…

And then, of course, my communicator buzzed to life. “Fox, are you fine?”

“Uh, hi. Yeah. I’m good now.”

“What happened?”

“Well… they thought I was a hero.”

When we’d walked back to their base, Fractal contacted me, and I managed to communicate to him the gist of the situation without letting the heroes hear. I also kept my microphone on, so he could listen in to what I had been saying.

“That’s… interesting. Better than being arrested, that’s for sure.” I could practically hear the raised eyebrow in his voice. “On our end, Shadeskip unfortunately managed to escape… with the stone.”

Oh, perfect. So on top of everything, the mission was a bust as well? Just about everything about this night had been a disaster. I was surprised it wasn’t raining on top of everything. That’s how it always went in the movies. Rain to pour the salt into the wound.

“Let’s regroup at the base. We have some things to discuss.”

Oh boy, interrogation two point oh. Was I ever going to get a break?

Tired and defeated, I relented and slowly made my way to Fractal’s base.

BottledChaos

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