Today was special. Snap-trap, Mirage, and Aaron—out of costume—had joined a group that was going over to the local elementary school to paint murals on the wall. It was a neat change of pace. Mirage wasn’t any good at painting, but it was quite an experience to be back in her old elementary school after so many years. She ended up mostly going back and forth between the truck that had all the paint and supplies, ferrying them out to the different groups.

“You don’t have spare costumes?” she whispered to Aaron, who was painting flowers near the ground on one wall.

“I do,” he said, “but best not to risk it. Besides, the attention isn’t what’s important. How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine,” Mirage insisted, but she glanced over her shoulder anyway. “I know he’s not just going to show up wherever I am. But it’s been a while and I feel like the tension is ramping up.”

Aaron stopped painting and turned to face her.

“You’ll be okay,” he told her.

“I know. I signed up for a self-defense class, but it’s only weekly. It’ll be a while before I see any payoff.”

“Don’t go looking for trouble, Penny.”

“I won’t. Trust me.”

“Excuse me, Miss Mirage?”

Mirage turned to look at the other volunteer who had walked up. Her clothes were covered in paints of every color. She was holding a paintbrush in two hands and wringing it nervously.

“Can I help you?” Mirage asked.

“You already have,” the other woman said. “You came to my house and told us to get out when the storm came. When we got back, the wind had knocked a tree into our house. If you hadn’t come to warn us, we’d have been there and might have gotten hurt.”

“Oh… I’m sorry to hear that,” Mirage said, shrinking a little.

“My whole family was safe because of you,” the volunteer insisted. “I can’t ever thank you enough.”

Before Mirage could protest, the other woman reached forward and grabbed her in a hug. Mirage glanced over at Aaron, who was watching with an amused expression on his face. The volunteer thanked Mirage one more time, blushing and avoiding her gaze in the process, before heading back to what she was doing before.

“How did that feel?” Aaron asked.

“Really good. Does it always feel that good?”

“Usually.”

Mirage nodded and just barely remembered not to lean up against the wall.

“I’ve been trying to find a full-time job,” she explained. “I’m not sure how I’m going to balance that with being a superhero.”

Aaron nodded along, not looking up from the piece he was working on.

“It can be done. But you can’t have a job on the side. Being a superhero can’t be the center of your life unless you want to do it full-time. Have you thought about that?”

“A little. I’m honestly not sure what I want to do. I’d always assumed I’d just find a full-time job in town and just focus on surviving. But now I could be a full-time superhero if I wanted. Or I could actually go to college, if I had any idea of what I’d want to learn.”

“You don’t have to know what you want to do before you start college,” Aaron reminded her. “There’s plenty of time to figure that out.”

“I’ve heard that a lot. I dunno.” She sighed and folded her arms. “There are a lot of good reasons to leave Auburn. There aren’t any good career prospects and people around here aren’t super-nice to queer folk. But it’s my home, and I don’t know if anywhere else will feel quite like home after living here for so long.”

“I guess. I stayed, too, after all.”

“What do you do for a living?” Mirage asked. “I never found out.”

Aaron smirked and replied, “Go back to helping people, hero.”

Painting at the school ended up taking most of the day. Once it was over, everyone said goodbye and Mirage took to the air, turning invisible to give herself a bit of privacy. She headed first toward where her car was, then slowed to a stop and hovered in the air for a bit. She didn’t really want to go home yet.

Instead, Penny navigated her way to a small diner off of Elm Street and ordered herself a burger. When she went to pay, though, the cashier insisted that it was on the house. Mirage sat down with a warm fuzzy feeling in her chest and started chowing down.

She could see people taking photos of her out of the corner of her eye, but it didn’t really bother her as much anymore. Okay, it bothered her a little, but she did come here in costume. Mirage could handle it for half an hour.

After a while, Mirage leaned back and stared out the window. Daybreak was out there. He was going to show up eventually. But it felt so far away at the moment. For once, she actually felt kind of safe. Relaxed. Happy? Was that what she was feeling? A smile flickered across her expression.

Since she’d gotten her meal for free, Mirage left a pretty big tip before she left. She needed to get home and get some sleep. After all, she’d been invited to meet Jada’s friends tomorrow.

When the time finally came, though, Penny found herself incredibly nervous. She was practically sweating just sitting in her car. Jada was bringing her friends to the skating rink just off the highway. Penny hadn’t been there since middle school. She was going to make a fool of herself. Or they’d realize she was older than them and it would make everything weird. Or…

She took a deep breath. Facing Shadow Pirate hadn’t been this hard for her. Of course, it had been a much dumber idea. This was probably going to end in disaster too. There was a reason why Penny didn’t have many friends. She was having trouble thinking of it, but the reason must exist, right?

“I’m going to be sick,” she thought, bracing herself against the steering wheel.

A knock on the window caused Penny to jump. It was Jada, tapping on the glass. She gestured for Penny to hurry up. There was a small group of six other girls standing nearby. Those must have been her friends. Was that a lot? It seemed like a lot.

Penny took a deep breath and opened the door, managing to squeak out a “Hello.”

“Glad you could make it,” Jada said. “Come on. Everyone’s eager to meet you.”

With a gulp, Penny followed. She avoided making eye contact with anyone as they headed inside and got their roller skates. When nobody was looking, Penny used her powers to give herself a pair of pink roller blades.

“This is Penny, everybody,” Jada finally said. She introduced the other six by name, but it was far too fast for Penny to keep up with. With that out of the way, Jada effortlessly glided over to the rink. “Alright, keep up with me if you can!”

Penny managed to half-step, half-glide her way into the rink. She held onto the wall as she tried to get her footing. Her legs were shaking.

“Hey, don’t worry,” one of Jada’s friends told her, grabbing onto her arm. “I’ve got you. Just take it slow.”

Penny grabbed onto her arm and whimpered.

“Have you ever done this before?” the other girl asked.

“Not for years,” Penny admitted.

The other girl chuckled, and Penny felt herself blush. Still, with help, she was able to find her footing and got into the groove of skating. Jada still passed her several times, making sure to wave each time as she did so. This must have been something she did a lot; Jada was a natural at it.

After a while, the group made their way to one of the booths and crowded around. Some people had gotten cheap food while others were standing. Penny managed to squeeze into the last space on the seat.

“So, Penny,” someone began, “how long have you and Jada been friends?”

“Um… about a month,” Penny answered.

“Why haven’t we seen you around school?”

Penny gulped and glanced at Jada, who nodded.

“She’s homeschooled,” Jada said. “Just graduated, in fact. She’s getting ready for college. Right, Penny?”

Penny nodded, but grit her teeth a little.

“Oh, so if you were homeschooled, did you have a lot of friends?”

Blushing, Penny admitted, “Not really, no.”

“Well, we’ve got to change that, don’t we?”

Penny relaxed. Nobody seemed to care that she was older than them. And despite how awkward she was being, everyone seemed comfortable around her.

She was glad that she’d come out today. Penny hadn’t had any girl friends since elementary school, and it was coming back to her just how much fun it was to be around other girls. It was a little easier to laugh and smile. Penny didn’t really get to enjoy herself around guys.

Eventually, the conversation turned to superheroes.

“So what are Mirage’s powers anyway?” someone asked. “She can create objects out of thin air, but also turn invisible and fly?”

“Do you think she was born with them?”

“No, people born with their powers usually don’t have such varied abilities. She had to have gotten them from somewhere.”

Penny locked eyes with Jada, who smirked and winked.

There was a little more skating after that, but the day was starting to wind down. A group of three was the first to leave, since they all shared a car. Another two left shortly after that. Finally, it was down to just Jada and Penny sitting in a booth together.

“Thank you so much for this, Jada,” Penny said.

“You’re my friend. I had to invite you along.” Jada raised an eyebrow. “You are seriously thinking of going to college, right?”

Penny grumbled and looked away.

“Penny?”

“I don’t know, okay? Maybe.”

Jada sighed.

“I’m sorry. I just worry about you sometimes.”

“I’ll be fine, Jada.” She stood up. “Thank you for this. Let me know if you want to hang out some more.”

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Penny flashed her a smile. “This was a lot of fun.”

It was raining outside, so the drive home was slow. She dispelled her illusion before getting out of the car. Her mom probably wasn’t home, but it couldn’t hurt to be safe. Inside, her dad was watching TV. She gave him a brief hello before retreating to her room.

Today had been fun, but there was actual work to be done. Penny pulled out her computer and opened a browser. It always took a little time, and she had to navigate some pretty heinous websites, but she wanted to keep up to date on whatever the Auburn Warriors Guild—Daybreak’s little hate group—was up to.

She found a video of Daybreak talking with a couple of guys around his age. He was talking about the importance of standing up to liberals and freaks and not letting them take away your freedoms. Penny was livid. She had to stop the video and close her computer. It took a while for her to get her breathing under control.

“I need a drink,” she muttered, standing up.

Penny left her room and headed toward the kitchen. As she passed by the living room, she glanced over at the TV, then stopped dead in her tracks to watch. The news was on. Rescue workers were surrounding a car that had obviously skidded off the road. It was hanging precariously off the edge of the river, about to fall in. Everyone was running around, but it looked like they didn’t have a way to stabilize the car yet.

What’s more, Penny recognized a blackened tree that had been struck by lightning a few years ago. She knew where this was. And it wasn’t far.

“Dad, I have to go,” she said, walking toward the door.

“What? It’s getting late and it’s almost dark out.”

Penny opened the door and replied simply, “I’m a hero, dad. I’ve got to go.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know yet,” Penny admitted, letting the door close behind her.

She summoned up her costume and took to the sky. The rain made it hard to see, so she exchanged her mask for a pair of goggles. Penny could hear distant thunder, but just pushed herself to go faster.

It only took a couple of minutes to get where she was going, even though Mirage had to stick close to the roads to avoid getting turned around. Police and firefighters were gathered around and there was an ambulance on standby. Someone had tied a rope to the car still hanging precariously over the edge. A news van was watching the whole thing. Mirage touched down near the officer who seemed to be in charge.

“What’s going on?” she demanded.

“Stay out of this!” he snapped at her. “We’ve got it covered. I don’t need your help.”

Mirage took a few steps back and turned to another nearby officer, who had seen what just happened.

This other officer rolled her eyes and explained, “We’re waiting for a truck with a winch to help us pull the car up. We can’t get the driver out before then. And we’re afraid that the car is going to slip before the truck gets here.”

Penny nodded.

“I’ll conjure up a winch and you all can tie it around that tree. That should keep the car from falling in while I float over and pull the driver out of the car.”

They had a plan. Mirage made the long hooked cable for the rescue workers to use. She left them to it while she walked up to the edge of the river bank. The driver was visible inside the car, hands firmly on the steering wheel. He was probably scared out of his mind.

Gently, Mirage pushed off of the edge of the bank and floated down to the car door. She knocked on the window to get the driver’s attention and gestured for him to unlock the door. He did, and she gently opened the door.

“Come on,” she said, holding out an arm. “Let’s get you out of there.”

The driver was clearly afraid to move too much, but he managed to undo his seatbelt and leaned out the door. The car tilted slightly, but Mirage grabbed onto the outstretched arms and pulled the man close. Immediately she started sinking. He was too heavy. Mirage and him were going to fall into the river. She braced herself against the riverbank and grabbed onto a large root with her free hand.

“I need some help!” she cried.

Immediately, someone was there, grabbing onto her and pulling her up. The driver was pulled from her arms by someone else and allowed to sit down on the ground. Mirage stood up and dusted herself off, though.

“You did it!” someone cried, but she raised a hand.

There was still the matter of the car to take care of. Taking a cue from Snap-trap, Mirage started to create some thick roots and vines beneath the car, pushing it up over the edge and back onto solid ground. Once that was done, she relaxed and collapsed into the grass as the illusory roots and winch disappeared.

She was exhausted, but grinning madly. There were rescue workers all around her. Someone wrapped a blanket around her and placed a water bottle in her hand. The driver was being escorted over to the ambulance, safe and sound.

“Mirage!” someone cried out.

It was the news reporter, who was pushing her way through the crowd to talk to her.

“Care to say a few words, Mirage?” she asked, waving a microphone in Mirage’s direction.

Mirage opened her mouth to speak, then thought better of it. She raised her finger to her lips, then turned invisible. The blanket dropped from her and she set aside the water bottle before taking to the sky. Mirage could feel the strain of her powers. Her eyelids were heavy. At least home was close.

Penny went right to bed as soon as she was back in her room, not even bothering to dispel her costume. It would vanish as soon as she was asleep anyway. In her last waking moments, all she could feel was a sense of accomplishment.