It’s gotten darker and colder.

The night crept ever closer to us and the snowfall threatened to leave us freezing to our deaths if I didn’t find a place to stay right away.

Unfortunately, things refused to be that simple. Everywhere we went was just another bad idea waiting to happen; just like the motel.

I breathe, tired.

I don’t want to think about the motel.

My heartbeat’s gone through lots of high and lows today. At this rate I’d develop some sort of arrythmia just walking about the streets.

They’re everywhere, the colours of Invincibill. They aren’t friendly colours either, not now and the fools all think the same, like some sort of freakishly coordinated organ.

Every single motel, hotel or hell even a bed and breakfast was run by them. I knew Invincibill was in control but…I didn’t think he’d literally be this part of the city.

There had ought to be one more place to rest our heads that won’t take a good look at us and immediately become suspicious.

I mean, I don’t blame them. I’m covered in blood splatter and I’m handing them clean notes of hundreds.

Yeah, I’d be suspicious to.

“Vern, are you sure we just don’t-”

“I know what I’m doing, Paige!” I yell. A second passes and I reel at the realization of what I just did and sigh, “I don’t mean to…I didn’t mean to yell, I’m just-”

“Tired? Exhausted and hungry?”

I nod.

“Me too. But I haven’t been through what you’ve been through, I blacked out.” She looks away, eyes far more interested in the little hole in her shirt than my face.

“That’s how I know you’re being paranoid. Let me help, I won’t breakdown, I won’t get hurt, I won’t get taken away. I’ll find us a way to get a warm bed tonight.”

She’s convinced of herself. She’s convinced that I’m the odd one out with my thinking but that’s only because she blacked out in the motel, she doesn’t remember anything past walking in with a bag full of chips, clothes and all our valuable trinkets.

She doesn’t remember the chaos, not how quick it erupted.

But that’s alright, she doesn’t have to. I remember it all, everything, every moment. All I need to do is protect her and it’ll turn out fine in the end.

Just fine.

“Vern.” She scolds me out of my stupor, she looks up at me, blue eyes red cold cheeks and trembling lips, “That person may or may not be dead. But it doesn’t matter if they are, because you saved us, you saved our lives Vern. Now let me take it from here while you rest.”

She snatches something from my hand and I gasp, grasping at the last moment she’s been prying my fingers off of the bag.

“No, it’s alright Paige, I know just what to do.”

She shakes her head as she slowly backs away. “No, you’re covered in blood, full of adrenaline still and you’ve got that shifty look in your eye that immediately tells any owner of an establishment that you’ll be trouble.”

Heaving a sigh, she pulls out a few notes and pockets it, tossing me the bag afterwards, “Stay here, I’ll break the hundreds and I’ll book a room for us. I’ll be right back, Vern. I promise.”

She runs off after that, leaving me in standing in the snow behind some club or another.

“Ha!” I laugh, to no one and nothing in particular. But that’s what makes it so much funnier doesn’t it?

“Hahah!” I laugh some more, it feels good. Like I’m screaming but not. “Hahahah!”

“Hahaha!”

“Hahaha!”

“Hahaha!”

“Haha-!”

“Hey kid!” Some brute yells as the back door of the club creaks open wide. I get a look at him, eyeballing him top to bottom.

Nothing serious about him, no gang colours on that white singlet and black jeans, certainly not in the trash bag he’s holding in his hand.

“What are you doing laughing out here in the snow?” He snarls and tosses the trash bag over into the dumpster, “If you ain’t got nowhere to be go loiter somewhere else, you’re chasing away the business.”

The business?

Huh.

Well, I suppose the saggy buttcheek faced men with three kids and a wife waiting patiently back home won’t really want to be reminded about their sin by the presence of some nameless teen laughing like a psycho.

But…

“This is the back; your customers don’t come through the back, do they? Rats they are…”

He doesn’t look like he has a comeback to that, so he pounds his fists and straightens, the muscles on his neck and shoulders rippling as he does.

“Still, I’m going to need you to scram, the customers may not come in through the back but many of the girls take this exit in and out. I’m sure you can understand why I wouldn’t want some cherry kid in their workplace.”

I scoff, disgusted but not devoid of understanding. The bouncer watches me carefully as I trail off, nodding, satisfied with my submission.

Wait.

I freeze in my tracks as it occurs to me.

I don’t need to lie low anymore.

I don’t need to be scared and submissive to every Tom, Dick and fucking Steve that comes my way demanding that I roll over or else.

No, I’m the one dishing out demands now. At least, I think I can.

Can’t I?

Resolved I turn and face the bouncer who’d come down from the step, arms folded and an angry look on his face.

I stare up at him and utter my first word of true, unbridled defiance, “No.”

“Excuse me?” He spits out angrily, almost as soon as the words leave my mouth; he’d been expecting this. He takes a lumbering step forward and glares, “You ought to know better kid.”

Yes, I ought to. This is Xoxia where not many would bat an eye at a beaten-up kid lying comatose in an alleyway.

I’ve been there.

But now I’m here, my powers are surging and for once in my life I feel I have true power to protect myself.

The gun tucked away behind my trousers burns against my skin, begging, aching to be used. And I want to use it.

“I said no. I don’t think I’ll be leaving.” I say, my hand crossed behind my back like a proper gentleman, quietly reaching for my weapon.

However, he is several steps ahead of me and pulls his sidepiece out without a second thought, “Look kid, I don’t want to hurt you, but I will if you force my hand anymore.” Pointing his pistol at me he waves it, “Get out, now.”

He doesn’t seem to expect to say anymore as he begins to pull the hammer back, ready, loading the weapon for assault.

But I don’t mind, my powers are faster than everything in existence. I’m faster than everything.

Paus-

“Hey Leo!” Some girl in a rather provocative dress steps out, staggering on her heels as she does.

She looks between the Bouncer, Leo and I. Then promptly screams.

“Leo!” She slaps his muscly arm, I bet it hurt her far more than it hurt him, “A kid? Really? You’re pointing a gun at a kid? Have you no shame?”

The man shrugs but doesn’t let the gun down, “I’m pointing a gun at a kid but he still doesn’t look the slightest bit afraid of me, he needs to scram. Bad for business.”

She huffs, not believing the words she’s hearing. She quickly gives up on the man and turns to me, “Hey kid, you don’t look so fine, very pale. You need something to eat?”

“Can’t be feeding the urchins,” Leo speaks up, “they’ll just keep coming back like you owe them something.”

“Leo!” She scolds yet again, looking back at him, “And put the goddamn gun down already, just because he doesn’t look scared doesn’t mean he’s ready to die.”

Reluctantly, the man stuffs his gun behind his trousers and scratches his head, “Look, if you’re gonna feed him something from inside, know you’re paying for it, boss doesn’t like a dime missing from his books and you know it.”

She rolls her eyes at him, not deigning to answer as he steps back into the club.

With him gone she directs a concerned stare at me, I level her with a questioning one of mine.

“What’s your name kid?”

“Why do you need to know jasmine?”

She snorts, rolling her eyes, “We’re not all named Jasmine you know, it’s a sweet name for the men with bellies stuffed with credits sure, but it’s really not as common as you think.”

It’s my turn to roll my eyes.

“Leo ain’t right but he ain’t wrong either.” Her tone is a lot more…reserved now as she takes a good look at me, “I know trouble when I see it and you are trouble kid.”

Following her line of sight, it’s clear she’s got them fixed on the dried-up splatter of blood I’ve got ruining my rather brand-new clothes. I tried washing it off with the snow but that only seemed to make it worse.

I look behind me, Paige isn’t anywhere to be found. I need to go find her.

“Thanks for the astute observation.” I start, “But I have to leave now.”

“Without any food?”

I scoff, “I could be your number one customer, Jasmine.”

It’s true…but only if I’m stupid.

I wear a tired grin and pull out my gun, her eyes widen and her chest inflates, ready for a scream.

Pause.

Nothing moves. Not the snow, not the air. Without adrenaline pumping through my blood, I can notice these things.

It’s hard to breath in my little bubble of frozen time, but not impossible. It’s also rather difficult to see as well, but I’m not rendered blind, just bit of blurry vision

Let’s test something else.

Hurriedly, I walk out of the bubble and back into the rest of the moving world, careful not to lose my grip on the slippery eel that is time.

Once out I stare back and to my satisfaction, the bubble is still intact with my latest time frozen victim still in place. I can breathe better and my vision is back to normal

Still some things to work on, most especially the range. But for the most part I’m just glad to be able to use these powers at last, training may have to wait though.

Once Paige finds her way back and we’ve got a place over our heads I’m marching up to Invincibill.

I’m ready to work. I’m ready to fight. No, I need to.

Besides, what better way to adapt to my powers than to use them to serve a supervillain?

***

“What!”

I inhale deeply, staring back at myself in the rather dirty mirror the motel provided this morning. I’ve got on my best impression of a gangbanger on, something that’ll make people take me seriously despite my short height and the baby fat on my face.

Brown leather jacket with a white top underneath, a beige scarf from the pile of clothes Paige and I stole earlier and some tight black biker gloves, recently purchased.

“Vern! You can’t have me tire myself out on this one, you’ve got to answer me!”

I let out a sigh, twirl about and strike a pose, “What do you think? Do I look ‘not to be fucked with’ enough?”

She rolls her eyes at me from the bed as she scoffs, “You’re like a kid playing dress up.”

For the most part, that’s entirely true.

“Answer me Vern, why are you rushing this? It’s barely been a week since you got messed up by Steve and T.V!” She claps her hands as she says this, important stuff I’m guessing.

“It’s been four days, and we have no way of knowing how close Neil is to sniffing you and I out of our hiding spots here in Invincibill’s territory.”

“So?”

“So, he could be on the next block asking questions right now.”

She huffs, “I don’t think Neil is that much of a sick pervert to go all the way into Invincibill’s territory just to hunt me down, but that aside, it doesn’t answer why the heck you woke up this morning, walked to the store, bought those ugly gloves and declared you’d be headed over the meet Invincibill.”

“I didn’t just decide on the way to the store that’ll it’ll be a good idea to meet Invincibill today, I decided yesterday.” At this she gapes so I add, “And I thought about it all night and all morning too, reviewing the decision over and over again and concluded there isn’t any real reason to waste any more precious time.”

I pull on the gloves, quite liking the snug feel of it on my hands, “And, these gloves are for in case I lose my gun, my fingerprints are all over the police database and right now, we don’t have a supervillain boss to pressure the police into not jailing me.”

“Vern.” She starts softly, the edge in her voice gone and I feel like I’ve committed the greatest sin in the world. Whenever she goes quiet like this, she always makes me see things her way.

I’m starting to think she might have some mind control powers too.

“You didn’t discuss any of that with me. You just decided? How? Why? I get you’re looking out for the both of us but don’t you think I should at least be taken along for the ride as well?”

Ahh there it is. Piercing guilt.

“I didn’t want you to talk me out of it.” I mutter, my butt hitting the floor dejectedly.

She raises an eyebrow at me as she crawls down from the bed to come sit with me, “If you knew I could talk you out of it then it must be a pretty bad decision, no?”

Yup, that’s about it.

I heave a sigh, groaning as my shoulders suddenly feel so much heavier than usual.

“Yeah, I guess so.”

She gives me a knowing, smirkish smile as she nods satisfied.

Sorry to burst your bubble, Paige.

“But I’ve still got to do it and quick.”

She’s so surprised by my bite back she turns mute for a second. “Uh…I, what? No!”

“Neil, T.V and Steve, not to mention a safe livelihood, can’t live in motels our whole lives, can we?”

“Vern…” She starts, rubbing her temples.

“Besides, I’ve got my powers now, better than ever, I can control it!”

She nods, agreeing but ultimately ready to disagree, “Yes, but your powers aren’t trained, your body still hurts like hell, doesn’t it?” She makes her point by poking a particularly sore area of my chest.

I try not to flinch but it hurts.

“See? And you said you were certain these bruises were from your extended use of your powers; you came back covered in blood!”

“Yes, but this is just an introduction, I won’t be taking on the entire gang or whatever and if I really have to, I can escape! I freeze time for crap’s sake, it shouldn’t be too hard to give a couple of frozen folks the slip.”

“What if they have inhibitors?” she challenges, arms folded over those large chests and smug look locked and loaded for when I don’t have a sensible comeback.

Sorry to disappoint Paige, but I do.

“Why the heck would a gang led by a supervillain have inhibitors near them? Not to talk of how outrageously expensive those things are, sell the entire city and you likely wouldn’t be able to afford them still.”

She rolls her eyes at me, “They could have stolen some.” She offers.

“And not be deep within the Hole by now?” is my rebuttal, I scoff at the thought, “Hell, the heroes would use the inhibitors they stole to chain them up!”

I treat myself to an outright laugh at her face at this as she groans.

“Sounds like you have it all figured out huh.”

I shrug, feeling fly for winning an argument with Paige even after she’d used that voice of hers, “Pretty much I’d say.”

“Really?” she sounds doubtful.

What am I missing?

I think she sees the panicked look on my face at the thought that I hadn’t considered something rather crucial to meeting the gang because her victorious, condescending look returns.

“You haven’t mentioned how you plan on meeting a freaking C-list Villain as a common civilian kid?”

It’s my turn to go mute as I hadn’t really considered this. Rather Ironic as I didn’t figure out the ‘meeting’ part of meeting Invincibill.

“Isn’t he like a D-lister?” I murmur, trying to deflect.

It doesn’t work, her gaze is fixed solely on me, not up in her head pulling out news facts and online facts about the heroes and villain metas of this country and some other parts of the world.

“Fine, I’ll just step out for a quick survey of the gang, there’s got to be an area where they’re highly concentrated with their forces, there’s likely to be their little HQ, I’ll ask questions from there.”

She puts on a smile at this and breathes a sigh of relief, “See? We probably would’ve come to that conclusion had we spoken about this yesterday when you up and decided to be dumb.”

She gets off the floor and starts rustling through the wardrobe.

“Wait, what are you doing?”

She chuckles wryly, “What am I doing?” she pops out of the wardrobe with her white fur coat, the most expensive thing she’s got and the only thing she has from two-hundred years ago. “Well, I’m going to survey the area with you!”

“But-!”

“No, I don’t want to stay here and watch the news or order room service.” She answers before I can even ask, looking at me with a dry expectant look in her eyes, “What I want to do is be next to you when you’re up and making decisions all on your own, maybe if I’m close by you’ll remember I have a voice and an opinion.”

“Ugghhh” I groan, wiping my face with my hand, “You’re not going to let this go, are you?”

She giggles, doing a little dance in her coat, “Not for at least a few weeks or so. Now, how do I look?”