The air was heavy. The mayor was sitting at his desk and avoided looking at anybody. The police chief was glaring at Mirage with his arms folded. Scarab was rubbing her temples.

“You’re not licensed to fight supercriminals,” Scarab said. “What you did was dangerous and reckless.”

“You could have been killed,” the police chief added.

Scarab continued, “Furthermore, your little fight caused collateral damage that the town now has to pay to fix. Avoiding collateral is second in importance only to protecting civilians. I don’t know what your long-term plans are, Miss Mirage, but this little stunt will reflect very poorly on you if you ever apply to be a professional hero.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Mirage said, “but it had to be done. He couldn’t be allowed to go free with the way he was using his power.”

“That’s not your decision to make—”

“I was directly affected by what he was doing!” Mirage cried.

“Calm down, please,” the mayor mumbled.

“All things considered,” Scarab continued, “you’re very lucky to still be a minor. If you weren’t, you’d probably also be spending some time in jail for the fight as well, especially since this isn’t your first time chasing after a supercriminal.”

Mirage blinked in surprise, then looked over to the mayor. He knew she was an adult, so why did Scarab think she wasn’t? The mayor locked eyes with her and glared at Mirage. It took a moment for the gears to finish turning in Mirage’s head. He was lying about her age to keep her out of trouble.

“I hope we don’t see any more disturbances from you, Miss Mirage,” Scarab finished.

“I’ll keep my head down,” Mirage promised. “You don’t have to worry.”

Now that the lecture was over, Mirage left the town hall and dispelled her costume. She made her way to the park to wait for her friends. To pass the time, she pulled out her phone and pulled up some news footage.

It wasn’t great. It seemed like neither the reporters nor the people they were interviewing were all that keen on gendering Mirage correctly. A lot of people expressed gratitude to learn that Daybreak had been rendered powerless and was currently sitting in prison, but nobody seemed to have a nice thing to say about her, the hero who had stopped him.

Penny thought back to what Daybreak had said. Would these people have even tried to intervene if he had tried to kill her? A heavy feeling settled in the pit of Penny’s stomach. This town really wasn’t the place for her.

“Hey!”

Jada was approaching with Aaron and Gabriela. They all sat down around the picnic table together. Penny smiled softly; it was good to be around her friends again. Neither Jada nor Aaron had to face any consequences for what had happened, since they had only officially shown up at the scene to respond to an event already in progress. Jada's parents had been a little upset to see her helping Mirage and getting caught up in fighting a supervillain, but since Daybreak was a white supremacist they weren't too angry at her. From what Penny had heard, they'd even softened on the idea of letting the two of them hang out again.

“So, good news,” she said. “I’m not going to get into trouble for what happened. Unfortunately, the dastardly Shadow Pirate got away again. Nobody’s quite sure what her deal is, though, since she seemed to be helping the heroes this time.”

“A mystery for the ages,” Gabriela said.

“So what’s next?” Jada asked.

“I’ve sent in a couple of college applications,” Penny said. “I think I might major in political science or something. You know, something I can channel into making things better for marginalized people in rural communities. I want to change things in a way that I simply can’t as a superhero.”

“Are you hanging up the costume?” Aaron asked.

“Not a chance. I’m going to stay a hero, maybe channel it into some activism, just not here. Not in Auburn. I’m going to take a break until college starts, though. I think it’ll be awhile before Mirage can return to Auburn. But I do want to make things better around here if I can. Queer people and POCs are still going to be born and raised here, after all, and I want to see my hometown become a better place for them to live.”

“A noble goal,” Gabriela said. “It’s going to take quite a bit of commitment, though.”

“Well, I don’t plan on doing it alone,” Mirage assured her. “There are other heroes out there who will want to help.”

“Something has been bothering me, though,” Jada said. “What happened to the solar orb when you released it?”

“I don’t know,” Penny admitted, frowning. “Normally, when someone removes the powers of an orb like that, they give it to someone else. I have no idea what happens if you just let it go.”

“You might just be on your own now,” Aaron suggested. “The only Stellar Orb Hero who doesn’t have a partner.”

“It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world,” Penny admitted. “Hey, I’m kind of hungry. Do you all want to get lunch?”

“Sure.”

“Alright.”

“I could eat.”

Everyone got up and, as a group, started walking toward the parking lot. Penny couldn’t help but grin. It was good to be among friends.

***

David groaned and laid his head down on the table. His mother gave him a pat on the back.

“It’s okay, son,” she said. “We’ll find someone who’ll help eventually.”

“This is the third one, though,” David moaned.

His family was having a hard time finding a doctor in this backwoods town who would actually prescribe him testosterone. It was kind of a nightmare dealing with these assholes. They were going to have to go into Ashling next to look for a doctor and it would probably be more expensive.

David’s father was on the phone, looking weary. He was talking to his brother who lived in Auburn, who had been going on and on for days about a big superhero fight that had happened on Main Street. David’s father loved his brother, he did, but it could be exhausting the way he just went on and on about whatever topic caught his fancy.

Finally, David’s father hung up the phone and said, “Just try to be patient, okay? We all have storms to weather, after all.”

“Whatever,” David mumbled, getting up. “I’m going for a walk.”

David liked to take a walk in the woods when he was feeling stressed. Being in nature always helped him feel a little better. It had done a lot to help in the early days when his dysphoria was just so, so bad.

He was so caught up in his thoughts that David almost didn’t notice the glow until he’d walked right into it. There was something floating in the air just ahead, glowing brightly like someone had just installed a lightbulb in the middle of the path. Using one hand to block his eyes, David approached.

It was a small glowing golden orb, hanging just at eye level. There was no indication that it was being generated by anything. David had no idea where it had come from.

“What are you?” he asked.

He raised a hand and brushed his fingers against the orb. It was warm and soft to the touch. Slowly, with trembling hands, David wrapped his fingers around it. The golden orb seemed to melt and bleed into his hand. When he opened his fingers again, it was gone.

QuillRabbit

And that's Mirage! This was an absolutely wonderful story to work on. A little intense, but I think it's one of my better works. I'm really glad y'all enjoyed it as much as you did. Thanks for reading.

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