“Have a good day, honey! Also, don’t forget what I said! Keep an eye on your bag at all times! If you find anything you don’t recognize in your bag, call your teacher immediately! Is that clear?” 

“Yes.”

Cassie answered her mother’s instructions with a quick answer before hopping off the car with her bag on her back as rapidly as she could manage.

It has been over a week since that fateful night when Cassie’s life was changed forever. To be honest, after she received the armor, she expected a lot of things. Cassie wasn’t the biggest comic book or movie fan, but she knew enough to know that if a mysterious faction was to break into her home looking for what she just received, she shouldn’t be too surprised. Nothing in life was free, and an overpowered set of armor that granted her superpower definitely shouldn’t be. Except nothing of that sort happened, and life continued as usual. 

This brief break gave Cassie more time to process what was going on. Throughout the days, Cassie had her armor on whenever she could, and the level of psychic growth brought to her by the armor became more and more apparent. Now, she could move small objects at her normal phase, and with some hard work, she could read what people in front of her were thinking at the exact moment.  

She practiced that on her parents a few times when they weren’t paying attention to her. Her conclusion? People really do lie a lot…even to their own families. 

Either way, as Cassie made her way into her high school, she couldn’t help but sigh. Her mother was the very definition of a paranoid, overprotecting parent. She would insist on driving Cassie to and from school everyday, as if the moment Cassie walked home alone was the day she would get kidnapped. She made Cassie feel like everyone was out to get her. 

Then again, as much as Cassie snickered at these conspiracies, she had to admit her mother might have a point. Cassie’s family lived in a difficult part of Chicago. The school she was assigned to, based on her home address, was called Pather High School. It was a public school where every kid of the proper age in the proximity was required to attend. As a result, the environment of the school was hardly as good as the private schools. 

Two police officers, resource officers, stood by a metal detector at the school entrance. They had all the police gadgets, from the holstered service weapon to the taser to the baton. If they weren’t chatting with each other and practically ignoring the occasional beeps from the metal detector, Cassie might almost feel a little safe.

Walking past the metal detector that was more for show than anything else, Cassie started heading toward the classroom for her first class. Physical education. As she walked down the hallway, her eyes quickly landed on packs of boys with weird hairstyles and hoodies on their head. In the past, she used to be terrified of them. Whenever she came across them, she would lower her head and rush past. 

But this time, for the first time in a while, she wasn’t as concerned by these hoodlums. Her power gave her a sense of confidence that she never had before.

Suddenly, Cassie had a brilliant idea. Her eyes quickly lit up as she psionically reached out to one of the boys. She made sure no one could see her shining pupils as she accessed the thoughts of the hoodlum. 

This was the first time she did this outside of her family. Perhaps in the past, a part of her found invading the privacies of other people to be inappropriate, but that could only stop her curiosity for so long. Plus, she was just going in for a quick peep. It wasn’t like this boy was such a good person or anything...

Wow...I really love this bitch’s ass...

“Holy…” Cassie whispered under her breath as she quickly regretted her decision. A follow-up glance made her realize the man was not-so-discreetly wrapping his hand around his girlfriend’s bottom. Fair enough...ugh my head! Well, at least now I know my powers are really working!

Mildly disgusted, Cassie continued using her powers on those standing or sitting along the hallway. Most of them were just thinking about certain courses. A few with more violent hormones were imagining themselves being...intimate with their friends. Nonetheless, Cassie’s attempts were mostly undiscovered, until...

Wait...is that girl’s eyes glowing? Is she wearing contacts?

“Damn it…” Cassie swore quietly as she quickly looked to the side and deactivated her powers. She was being too reckless...one of the students whose mind she was reading turned around just in time to see her with her eyes lit. Thankfully, she believed she salvaged the situation just in time. 

But this also served as a warning to the young woman. What she was doing here was extremely reckless. Plus, just because she had the ability to do so didn't mean she should intrude on the privacy of other people. What would her father say if he knew about this? This made Cassie a little embarrassed, and she made her way to the changing room without using her powers again. 

Now deciding to focus on her school, Cassie stepped into the women’s changing room, put her bag in her locker, and started changing into her gym attire. As she was taking off her jeans, another girl walked up to the locker beside her and opened her lock. As she took off her shirt, the girl spoke to Cassie.

“Hey Cassie.”

“Good morning, Amanda.” 

“So, ready to play some basketball?”

Cassie glanced at Amanda. Amanda was as attractive as a high schooler could be. Tall. Blonde. Thin. Big-chested. Her personality was also surprisingly charming. Cassie heard stories about her volunteering at retirement homes during her free time. She was a fascinating person as far as Cassie could see. Cassie knew most boys would be more than happy to chase her around, but she wasn’t most boys. 

“Yeah. Sure.” Cassie’s response was as unenthusiastic as responses could be. Amanda was trying to start a conversation, but Cassie wasn’t quite feeling like it. As a matter of fact, she never loved PE. She was the type of person who would be brought onto her knees by a single pacer test. 

The interesting thing was that even the gifts from the so-called “Enforcers of Order” couldn’t change that. The psionic enhancements Cassie received made no impact on her physical capabilities. All it took to break her was a few laps around the school field. 

Amanda nodded slowly. Before she could make another attempt to make Cassie’s day better, Cassie tossed her pair of jeans into the cabinet, locked the door, and walked out of the locker room. There, she joined dozens of fellow students waiting in the gym. 

The more welcomed students formed groups as they waited, but Cassie kept to herself at the corner of the gym. As she stood there, she quietly observed everyone else. Even without her powers, she could tell a number of boys checking out their female counterparts in sportswear. The same could be said for the girls with the boys. Cassie herself had no such intentions. Honestly, she just couldn’t be bothered. 

The bell rang, and Cassie joined her class in a lineup, where the PE teacher, a tall bald man by the name of Mr. Douglas, started going through the names and making sure everyone was present. 

Cassie was never a fan of Mr. Douglas. For one thing, the man was always oddly attentive with the girls in the class and dismissive of the boys. He also enjoyed getting intimate with the gals, frequently getting up close and personal with them during his teachings. Truth be told, she just didn't feel comfortable with the man around. Something with him just felt off. 

Of course, Cassie herself was rarely the type of girl that Mr. Douglas encroached on. No...it wasn’t that difficult for Cassie to admit that she was hardly the prettiest girl in the school, or even in the class. She was more...average than anything else, and she was fine with that.

“Okay…” With the attendance recorded, Mr. Douglas made his way to the side and pulled over two carts of basketballs. He opened the locks, and the students in the class each fetched a basketball for themselves. 

“Okay, we will start by shooting some hoops before moving onto the actual games. Five minutes!” The teacher declared loudly as he started a timer. 

Cassie sighed and moved to one of the basketball hoops. She was joined by a few other girls, one of them being Amanda. The girls started going for the hoops, missing more than scoring. 

As her ball bounced on the glass shield and darted back to her, Cassie couldn’t help but find herself thinking. It was something she had been doing a lot of recently. She really didn't know anything about the “Enforcers of Order”. Why did they send her this armor and give her these powers? What was their endgame? Who even were they? The lack of information on her part meant she could only guess blindly from the name, which was essentially the only thing she had. 

Enforcers of Order...perhaps she was supposed to use this power to...what? Fight evil? Fight chaos? Uphold the law? Should she grab herself a bat costume and start fighting criminals? That...that was just such an absurd thought. And if these Enforcers really wanted to protect order, then she was the last person they should be sending this gift to. 

With her father as a district attorney, Cassie’s hostility toward the idea of vigilantes should be expected. For her entire life, she was taught that the law was the best way to protect the innocent, and only by upholding the law could one achieve true peace and justice. 

As far as the sixteen-year-old could see, the very concept of vigilantism meant chaos. It meant violence and disruption and a lack of control. When people took it upon themselves to fight what they saw as unjust, it was all too easy for the same people to go one step too far. And what could a few vigilantes do? Save a few people? Beat up a handful of possible criminals? 

A refined and effective legal system, on the other hand, could save thousands every day. It could deal with more criminals in a day than Batman could in a year. 

Of course, there was no fun in talking about how many criminals the legal system put away every day. Instead, people preferred to be talking about heroes. Characters like Oliver Queen and Bruce Wayne. 

But in reality, these characters could only exist in movies and tv shows. If they appeared in the real world, they would be dead or discovered in a week. Cassie could never see herself charging into danger and trying to do the police’s work for them...at least not now. 

As she caught her basketball once again, the young woman took a glance at the electronic clock mounted on the wall. Hmmm...only two minutes went by. 43 minutes until the end of class. 7 more periods until the end of school. God...I hate school!

Nonetheless, Cassie continued. As Cassie was mechanically shooting hoops and somehow missing every single shot, she suddenly sensed someone observing her and the others. Unsurprisingly, it was the teacher she was so uncomfortable with. 

This time, Cassie found it appropriate to use her power on Mr. Douglas to check out what he was thinking. She felt like this was perhaps the first time it was justified for her to use her power, and the results only confirmed her suspicions.