Chapter 2: Trinket
GEMINI
Female Cosplay Man stopped me at the door, "Wait, I can see you're disappointed by all of this." Disappointed was an understatement. I had been a normal boy, but I discovered I liked this sorta thing. And then it was taken away from me. And I didn't think my parents were into that sort of thing, so that was it.
"Hold out your hand," he said. His hands glowed, and a ball of light formed. I'd heard of this, some superheroes could form an energy wave and blow people up and stuff. I hadn't done anything that bad, had I? "Sorry, I'm sorry! I shouldn't have asked to wear a dress!" I muttered nervously. He looked at me, more than slightly confused, then the ball of light transformed into a small necklace. "This is a Storage Device," he explained, "it's a starter version, so it only holds like 50 lb. I have no idea whether you'll develop powers or not, but most superheroes can manage to make these. It's how we quickly change to superheroes or to our secret identity." He got me to touch the paper bag with all those clothes and suddenly the bag was empty. "Okay, you need to think of yourself in these clothes and you'll change into them. You should have enough energy to change." I was about to do so, when he reminded me that I was in front of my parent's door, and it was dinner time. I knocked. "Sorry I'm late," I apologized, "Female Cosplay Man saved our bus from attack." They turned to him, "Would you like to stay for dinner?"
I could tell Female Cosplay Man was slightly uncomfortable. After all, his power more than any other hero was based on the idea of putting on a costume. He probably jumped into some boxers and cracked open a beer like that old man in that creepy Youtube video where the "woman" is wearing a skinsuit. Even heroes need to de-stress and let it all hang out at home. This was made even worse by the pointed questions my mom kept asking. I guess she was a fan too.
My father had gone off on an adventure to catch imaginary creatures known as Fantasy Monsters (Fantamon for short), so he was frequently out on long adventures to be a master, whatever that was. I suspect Mom had actually quietly divorced him, but every now and then he showed up, bringing presents from his travels such as fresh apricorns. So there was really nobody to tell her she was getting too personal. She asked about how things went down today, and found out about the finer details of the rescue. She also found out through her questioning that he'd taking interest in training me, and that we'd kinda sorta played dress up. "Gemini's too young to be wearing makeup," she scowled. Odd, didn't most parents accept or condemn this, instead of putting a maturity limit on it? "Anyway," she asked, "What is it like being a hero that changes their physical appearance? I can only do this." She demonstrated that her power was a short range fire ability, which she mostly used for home cooking and lighting candles for romantic nights. He sighed, "Sometimes the whole Persona thing with our superhero forms gets to me. It's just so exhausting! I kinda wish I could save the day without all the disguises and pretense. Like, why do we all need secret identities, costumes, and things like that? I wish that I could be a hero whose only power was the truth. Where I could just walk down the street and just save people using my power. Just like you can use your powers naturally as a mother to cook."
The dinner continued without too much incident after that. Originally, it was just planned for the two of us, so she originally just had meatloaf with mash potatoes and gravy, but when she saw a guest was coming, an entirely new meal was prepared. She had some pan fried noodles with a sauce made from soy sauce, sesame oil, olive oil, and a spoonful of black bean and garlic sauce from a jar, tossed it with bok choy and some freshly grown green onions, then topped the lot with a few red pepper flakes. She also quickly chopped and prepped several vegetable sides, which looked like she used her powers to stew by touching them. Braised mushrooms, sauteed onions, and some grilled onions were placed in small dishes to supplement the rather quickly made dinner, then she cooked up some apples and added some butter, sugar, and oatmeal to make a makeshift cobbler.
After dinner, she shooed me off to my room while she opened a bottle of wine. I finished up my homework and then turned off the lights. After a few hours, I could hear them leave the dining room. I assumed my mother would check on me and he would head home, but instead I heard two sets of footsteps walking past my room into my mom's bedroom. The house had thin walls. I heard them getting on her bed, I heard unzipping and dresses and skirts falling to the floor, then I heard the bed shake as he suddenly grew in size, and then I heard the bed shake alot as Mom moaned. Exactly nine months from this night, my little sister Balance was born. From that night on, Female Cosplay Man trained me every day, and kept in touch with my family. My mom seemed pleased with this too.
As for me, while they were... having fun, I decided to test out that Storage Device necklace. I strongly visualized that blue linen dress, the underwear, and the heels, closing my eyes. But I didn't feel anything happening, and when I opened my eyes, I was still in my pajamas. I furrowed my brows, concentrated hard enough to give me a headache and tried calling out, "Transform!" The walls were thin. My mom's voice called out from the other room, "Hey stop yelling in there... ohhhhhhhh... wait not there... there... oh God.... Ahhhhaaaaaaaaah!!!" She screamed in pleasure.
I thought through why this wasn't working, and in the end, I only came up with two conclusions. Either I had no power or something was blocking this. I thought back to what each of them said. I kinda wish I could save the day without all the disguises and pretense. Like, why do we all need secret identities, costumes, and things like that, he had said. And my mom clearly disapproved, Gemini's too young to be wearing makeup. Something about those words bothered me...
Yet as time went on, it seemed less a matter of those words, and more like maybe I didn't actually have any powers. It was rare nowadays, but entirely possible. I trained hard for the next ten years and developed a runner's lean body, but I was no closer to using my powers. Would I ever become a real hero?
