Rachel and I climbed out of bed and left Amanda there because she was out like a light with a smile on her face. We couldn't in good conscience wake her up, so we let her sleep in. Rachel called in a temporary secretary to handle the morning duties and I agreed to be the replacement's gofer for the morning and to help with anything she needed, barring anything personal.

Rachel gave me a light kiss when I added that condition and she promised that no one besides her and Amanda would know that I was to personally worship them for the remaining two weeks. After she dressed in a conservative white blouse and a grey pencil skirt, she added the belt and pack that Mei had constructed for her and then put on the two gold bracelets.

“Ooohh, that's nice.” Rachel said and lightly touched the pack's controls.

“Mei already charged it up for you?” I asked and she nodded as sparks jumped between her fingers. I looked at the settings and saw that it was on a quarter of the possible current.

Rachel saw where I was looking and laughed softly before she tapped my nose and sparked it. “I don't ignore friends when they warn me of something.”

I had to smile at her words.

“Go get dressed and meet me at the office after you eat.” Rachel said.

I nodded and donned my costume, zoomed to my room, and changed into normal clothing for the morning, wearing a pair of slacks and a blue button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up to my elbows. I zoomed away and went to the cafeteria, only to pause in the hallway, because I was surprised to see Green Fury standing there with her arms crossed and she stared at me.

“Grab breakfast and sit at my table.” Green Fury said and walked inside the cafeteria.

I had the feeling that I was in trouble for some reason and entered the room at a normal pace. I gathered up a double helping of food and went to the table that she was already sitting at. I sat down and she waved at my food, so I took a breath and let it out, then devoured everything on the tray in barely a second.

Green Fury's eyes were wide when I wiped off my mouth. “You weren't kidding about taking your time before, were you?”

I shook my head before I zoomed around and cleaned up the table of both of our dishes and trays to return them where they needed to go.

Green Fury blinked her eyes and looked down at the table and back at me, because she hadn't seen me leave the table. “How fast are you?”

“I can't think of any way to measure it.” I said and she looked surprised. She kept that look on her face for several moments before she seemed to shake herself and took out the sheets I had given her the day before.

“I need you to explain some of this.” Green Fury said.

I glanced down at the sheets and saw several marks on the papers, a few check marks, and a few question marks. “Ah, I see.”

“Do you?” Green Fury asked.

“You tried to do some of it and it didn't quite work like I guessed. Now you want me to clarify what I meant with my observations.” I said and she nodded. “Do you want to do this here in the cafeteria or do you want to wait until after supper tonight?”

“That's not your roundabout way of asking me out, is it?” Green Fury asked, skeptically.

I chuckled. “No, if I was going to ask you out, I would just ask you. I finally learned that the direct approach is the best approach.”

Green Fury tilted her head slightly. “Then what are you asking?”

“A training session where you can show off and I can help you with a lot of what's on those sheets. You're on shift until this afternoon and I go on shift then, so our only mutual shared off time is after supper.” I said and stood. “We can meet in the exercise room after we eat.”

Green Fury thought about it and then nodded as she pointed to one item on the sheet that was circled. “You can show me how to do this in the meantime. As proof that you can actually help me.”

I looked at what the sheet said and had to smile. I walked around the table and stood behind her.

“What are you doing?” Green Fury asked.

“Showing you what you can do.” I said and bent over to whisper in her ear. “You can control the heat around you, can't you?”

“Yes, but...”

“Heat moving causes air to move in most cases.” I whispered. “Now close your eyes and let your power out a little.”

Green Fury turned her head to give me a stern look. “Don't you dare sneak a kiss on me with my eyes closed.”

I smirked at her and pointed forward. “Eyes closed and head forward, Green Fury.”

Green Fury sighed and did as I asked. “I was thinking of changing my hero name to just 'Fire'. Having to say Green Fury all the time is getting tedious.”

I chuckled and whispered in her ear again. “Fire. I like it.”

Green Fury shivered slightly. “Get on with it.”

“Let a little of your power out.” I said and felt her body temperature jump thirty degrees and she was covered in a few places in a light green flame, especially her hair. “No, that's too much. Dial it back... a little more... only a bit more...”

Green Fury started to sweat as she tried to pull her flames back and her temperature dropped almost twenty degrees.

“There.” I whispered. “Okay, can you hold that?”

“Y-yes.” Green Fury whispered.

“Good. Keep that level and try not to flinch.” I whispered and stepped away. “Did you feel that?”

“No.”

I moved my hand at a quarter of my fastest speed past her face without cancelling the wind effect.

“OH!” Green Fury gasped and ducked to the side. She lost control of her power when she felt the wind from my swipe and tried to get away from the potential strike.

“Again.” I said and she sat up strait to glare at me. “You asked me to prove it.”

Green Fury grumbled and closed her eyes and let some of her power out. It took her a few minutes to restrain it back again to the point she had it before.

“Good. That's good.” I said and this time I swiped by her hand on the table.

Green Fury flinched and moved the hand slightly, her power flared, and she sighed. “Dammit.”

I chuckled and waited for her to pull her power back in. “I can tell that you haven't practised fine control of your quirk for a while.”

“No, I've been too busy flaring it out and being useful with it.” Green Fury said, a bit defensively.

I had to hold my laugh in, so she wouldn't think I was laughing at her. “You've forgotten that finer control on the smaller things allows you much greater control on the larger things.”

“Who told you that?” Green Fury asked.

“All Might said it when he was training me and his protege.” I said and she sucked in a sharp breath.

“A-All M-Might.” Green Fury whispered and her power faded to the right level.

I swiped by her neck and she flinched slightly without letting her power control go. “Better.” I said and did several swipes by her hands, her forehead, the back of her hair, and then the cheeks of her face. After a few minutes of my movements, she stopped flinching completely.

“You're doing really well.” I complimented her. “Can you feel the temperature difference on your skin when the air passes over it?”

“Kind of.” Green Fury said.

“Breakfast is almost over and I need to report to the head secretary for more administration work.” I said and she opened her eyes to look at me. “We can continue this tonight in the training room.”

“You haven't really shown me how to do what's on the paper.” Green Fury said.

I tapped the sentence that said, 'sense movement using heat only'. “I literally showed you the training technique to make your power sense the movement of air around you. Keep practising it today as you do your rounds. No one will feel the temperature difference and you can concentrate on all of the various kinds of air flowing around you.”

“I can't walk around with my eyes closed all day.” Green Fury said.

“I only had you do that to get used to using your power without looking at yourself when you do it.” I explained and her eyes widened. “You could feel the difference without seeing how much flame you were producing, right?”

“I... yes, I did.” Green Fury said, surprised.

“Then make sure you feel it like that again. Don't look with your eyes. Use your power instead.” I said and lightly touched her shoulder. “I'll see you tonight.” I said and then walked towards the exit.

“Are you eating here tonight?” Green Fury asked.

I stopped walking to look back at her. “I believe so.”

“Then... you can eat with me and my crew.” Green Fury offered.

I smiled and nodded. “If my plans change, I'll let you know.”

Green Fury nodded back and I left the cafeteria at a normal walk until I was in the hallway. I zoomed away and up to the top floor of the building and waited outside Rachel's office. Her door was closed and a quick scan with x-ray vision showed me that she wasn't there yet.

Fifteen minutes later had Rachel show up with a tall and stunning blonde woman. She looked like a supermodel with a fairly large chest. I also thought I recognized her.

“Ah, Connor. I'm glad you're here.” Rachel said. “I just finished showing Karen around. She's the temporary secretary I called in for today.”

“Hi, there. I'm Connor Kent. It's nice to meet you.” I said and held a hand out to her. I saw that she was actually a couple of inches taller than me and quite a bit older. I couldn't really tell how old, though. She also wore a stylish pants suit that, for some reason, didn't look right on her.

“Hello, I'm Karen Starr.” Karen said as she took my offered hand and smiled a little as she squeezed it.

It was a little power play struggle that I hadn't expected a woman to try, so it took me a split second to realize that she was trying to dominate me. I wasn't going to allow that, so I matched her smile and squeezed back. Her eyes widened slightly at the pressure, then she let her smile become a grin as she squeezed even harder.

I wasn't going to let something like that go, so I squeezed back just as hard, if not a little harder. I knew I was pretty damn strong after all the suped-up training I've done and I wasn't worried about losing this little contest.

Boy, was I wrong.

I felt an increase in pressure on my hand and then heard several loud and distinct snaps of bone as my index finger and my little finger collapsed under the extreme pressure that Karen had put my hand under. Both Karen and Rachel hissed at the sound and Karen let my hand go as if it had shocked her. Rachel assumed it was Karen's hand and she quickly grabbed it to examine it.

“It wasn't my hand that made that sound.” Karen said in a soft voice, barely above a whisper.

Rachel gasped and looked at my hand and saw the two bent fingers. “C-Connor!”

“Yes?” I asked and used my other hand to straighten the two broken fingers. I used some tape from Rachel's desk to tape the fingers to my other two fingers to keep them straight.

“Don't you dare think that's good enough!” Rachel said, almost angrily. “You get your ass down to the infirmary and have the medics check you out.”

When I didn't move, she stepped close and poked my chest.

“I said go and get those fingers treated.” Rachel glared at me. “Now.”

I sighed and nodded, then zoomed down to the infirmary. The nurse there saw my fingers and shook her head. She cut off the tape I had used and gently used her own fingertips to examine my broken fingers.

“Can you feel that?” She asked, her voice full of concern.

“Do you mean just you touching me or the pain?” I asked, just to clarify.

“Both.” The nurse said.

“Then, yes.” I said and she gave me a similar glare to Rachel's. “I'm pretty resilient.”

The nurse sighed and brought me over to something that looked like a microwave without a door on it. “Put your hand in there and let me see what's going on with your fingers.”

“They're broken in several places each.” I said. I had already examined them with x-ray vision.

“Thank you for your opinion, Doctor Obvious.” The nurse said with a huff and hit several buttons on the machine. After a few seconds, I felt the energy hit my skin and it tingled. A moment later, a thick piece of glossy paper slid out the bottom of the machine and the nurse picked up the printed x-ray.

“You have several severe hairline fractures as well as three clean breaks on your index finger.” The nurse said and looked at my little finger. “There's a stress fracture along the entire length of the middle bone, almost splitting it, and one clean break of the first knuckle.”

“Are you going to ask me how it happened?” I asked.

“No, I know it's from compression damage. Probably a handshake. I get at least four of them every time someone new appears at the agency.” The nurse said with a shake of her head. “Your accelerated healing factor should clear up a lot of the smaller fractures by tonight, assuming you DO NOT use your hand for anything!”

I sighed and nodded before the nurse made me sit down and then she tended to the actual clean breaks to set them properly. She also set my hand up into a quick temporary cast to keep the fingers straight.

“I want you to keep that on for a couple of days and do not get it wet.” The nurse said and wrote out what she did to me and added it to my file. “Also, stop playing dominance games with people that are stronger than you.”

“I didn't know she was stronger when it started.” I said.

The nurse sighed. “Well, you do now. I suggest you try to not get angry over this.”

“Why would I be angry?” I asked and stood up. I used x-ray vision on my fingers and saw that some of the smaller hairline fractures were already starting to heal. “Thank you.”

“I'm tempted to get an x-ray of your lungs after that event the other day.” The nurse said.

“I'm fine.” I said and she gave me an incredulous look. “All right. I'll stop by for a full checkup tomorrow during lunch.”

The nurse's face changed to a bright smile. “I'll see you then!”

I started to walk towards the door again.

“No super-speed! You're too used to using your right hand for everything!” The nurse called after me.

I was going to ignore her, then reached for the door handle with my cast-covered hand. The loud thunk sound as the cast hit the door, made me sigh, and I reached for the handle with my left hand instead.

“I told you.” The nurse said with a light laugh.

I closed the door behind me and went to the elevator. Going slow was going to hamper my activities a lot. I was waiting for several minutes for the elevator when Karen's name finally registered in my head.

Karen Starr is the normal name for Power Girl! I thought in surprise. I looked down at my hand and barked a laugh, because I had tried to shake hands with a woman that was supposedly stronger than most versions of Superman that I knew of. I'm really glad that she only crushed two fingers and not my whole hand!

The elevator arrived and I stepped into it, fully prepared to apologize to the woman for my uppity attitude in thinking I could win against her in a handshake fight. I had to smile at myself for assuming such a stupid thing.