“Congratulations on the successful mission Pyre. Dr. Damnation has been a thorn in the side of justice for years. Still, I wasn’t aware he had a daughter.”

  Pyre shakes his head. “Surely she’s a victim of some kidnapping scheme of his. I can’t imagine him having a child with anyone.”

  You and me both Pyre, I still don’t get what my parents saw in each other. Although I wish they weren’t talking about me like I wasn’t right there. Maybe they were expecting me to contribute… I’d really rather not though. It just feels awkward. For lack of anything productive to do I reach my power out around me. In response I get a mental cacophony of different voices. A quick roll call reveals a vast array of electronic door locks, phones, computers, security cameras, lights, a coffee maker, a fire suppression system, and a very polite knockout gas distribution system, as well as my watch friend. Focusing back on the conversation I realize the two people are staring at me. “Oh, uh… sorry. I wasn’t paying attention, what is it?” I really hope I wasn’t speaking my power out loud. I used to do that a lot, and dad said it was annoying.

  Pyre does seem a bit annoyed, but the other person doesn’t. I didn’t catch his name. Pyre goes to say something, but the other person’s faster. “No worries, we just wanted to ask you a few questions about your… well where we found you.” Pyre looks like he still wants to speak, but the other person keeps going. “I know this is all scary, but we’re here to help, my name is Albert, but just call me Al, and this is Pyre, he’s the hero that saved you.” That was obvious. It was pretty hard to miss the guy dressed like a rodeo clown who kicked the melted door in, before washing the entryway in a wave of fire, and melting most of my friends. It’s a bit surreal seeing him sitting next to the image of a bureaucrat that you’d find in an economics textbook. “But that’s us, what’s your name?”

  Oh right, names. I have one of those. “Uh, well … I’m Lilly.” It’s a shortening, but my full first name is really embarrassing. Do all villains name their kids after biblical demons? Maybe it was just to fit into the Dr. Damnation theme.

  “Well it’s nice to meet you Lilly. I know we said we had questions, but first is there anything we can get you? We’ve got water, juice, milk, we might even still have some pastries.”

  According to the coffee maker, they also have coffee. It’s probably rude to ask for that though since they didn’t offer. “Just water … is fine.” I’d really prefer juice, but I’d feel awkward asking for that right now.

  “Of course, do you mind Pyre? I’m sure you know where everything is by now.” Pyre has an absolutely incredulous look on his face, but Albert just holds his gaze for a few seconds. Eventually Pyre gets up in a huff, and stomps out of the room, slamming the door behind him, thoroughly annoying the electronic lock. “I’m sorry about him, he’s just tired from a long day’s work. I’m sure that stretching his legs will let him clear his mind. Now, I did want to ask a little bit about you. Do you mind if we go through a few questions?”

  I would really rather he didn’t. “You can ask, I guess.”

  He pushes his glasses up his nose a bit. “Lovely, and if there’s anything you don’t want to talk about, just tell me, and we’ll move right along. Your comfort is our first priority. Now first, we were curious as to why you were in the lair of Dr. Damnation, pardon the language. Villains do have an unfortunate habit of taking such improper names. It’s certainly not a safe place for anyone to be.”

  Ah … right, should I lie? I mean, dad probably won’t care enough to hide anything, so I probably shouldn’t try, I’d just get in more trouble. “He’s my dad, I usually stay there, except for the occasional weekend. Sometimes mom wants custody for a day or two.” Those days are always awful, mom’s like dad in that she doesn’t talk to me much … at least not anymore, but she doesn’t have an army of drones for me to talk to. That and unlike dad she sometimes tries to get me involved in her job, which I have absolutely no interest in.

  Albert looks a bit startled, but he’s polite enough to not let it show for more than a few seconds. “I see, and … do you help him with his work?” I shake my head. “Ah, I see … that’s good, do you have abilities like your father?”

  “A bit, but I can’t do as much.” He looks relieved. I guess if I broke out it would reflect badly on him for sending Pyre away. I wonder if I should try … the security system would help, but the security cameras are saying there’s a lot of superheroes lounging around. Also I really don’t want to get into the same job as my dad, from what I’ve seen it takes a lot more confidence than I have, and a willingness to get attacked by superheroes once a week or so. I snap out of my musings to realize that Albert’s staring at me as if he’s expecting a response to something. I really don’t want to say I wasn’t listening again, so I ask the security camera in the room. “Uh, hi again, sorry did you catch what he just said?”

  Its voice is just barely distinguished from a genderless human by a quiet buzzing that sits in the background of its words. “Of course madam, he asked if you had any questions for him before Pyre gets back.”

  “Ah thanks” I guess I do have one question, but I’m not sure I want to know the answer… “What happens now?” I really just want to go home, meeting all these new people is stressful.

  Albert winces slightly, before he responds. “I’m afraid I don’t know. It’s an unusual situation and all, I’ll have to speak to a few people about it. However, whatever we decide, I promise that your wishes will be at the forefront of our mind. With that in mind, what do you want to happen?”

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  That’s simple at least “I want to go home.”

  He nods. “And we’ll do our best to make that happen.“ He seems about to say something further, but he’s interrupted by Pyre walking back into the room with a cup of water. He doesn’t look like the walk cooled him down at all. He sets the water down and goes to sit down, but Albert stops him before turning to me. “We’ll be outside for a minute or two, just wait right here.”

  The two of them step out of the room before the door’s even closed. I know it’s a bit rude, but I really want to know what they’re talking about, so I use my power to connect to Pyre’s phone, and he’s polite enough to relay their conversation to me. Pyre’s the first to speak, “What? First you want me to fetch water like a glorified intern, then you drag me out of there before I can say anything. Did I piss off the higher ups or something?”

  There’s a few seconds of silence before Albert responds. “No, at least not yet. You do good work, but your sense of PR is lacking.” According to the phone, Albert sounds serious. More than he did while talking to me.

  “Yeah, PR. I keep getting told about that, but isn’t that your job? You’re my handler after all. That stupid Sparkboy stunt was your idea after all.”

  Albert coughs “An … unfortunate miscalculation on my part, sidekicks were the big thing at the time, and it seems I underestimated how badly you two would get along. Still we made it work out. Regardless, the situation at hand is related.”

  I felt myself go a bit pale, that can’t possibly be a good sign. Luckily Pyre agrees with me. “If you’re implying that she’s my new sidekick, then absolutely not. Dealing with Sparky was the most miserable part of my career, and I thought we agreed that I lacked the ability to handle sidekicks under the best of situations.”

  “Of course, of course, and that wasn’t what I was suggesting. Instead it’s something more … ceremonial. You were slightly wrong about one thing. She is actually the daughter of Dr. Damnation.”

  “Ah … so, why are you talking to me privately about this? You need me to escort her to jail or something?” I can feel a few of my friends connected to my power prepping in case I need help escaping.

  “No. Technically speaking she’s not done anything illegal, and the optics of pushing to get something pinned on her would be awful. There’s no reason to call in favors for something like this, it’s better to leverage this situation to our advantage. So …” There’s a pause, before Albert sighs. “So, we make her an honorary member. We do have the ability to conscript powered people if they’re a potential threat to society otherwise, and someone with mad science powers does apply. PR wise it’s a win-win, if things work out then she gets popular for a redemption arc, your popularity goes up in association, if things go badly you get sympathy points with the public for trying.”

  Do I get a say in this? It sounds like no, so do I try to run? That still feels like a scary option. The phone catches me up on Pyre’s response. “Ugh, this sounds like a terrible idea, and you haven’t even explained what you need me to do.”

  “Ah, but that’s the simple part. You’ll just need to read a public statement I’ll write, then publicly use something she makes every once and a while. Same as whenever we’re promoting a new tech hero. Oh, and we’ll promote you to team leader and move an accountant under you so management doesn’t get annoyed. Just let me do the talking with management.” I tune out of the conversation there, I need to figure out what to do. But I don’t know, there are too many people around here, and too few friends… I’m interrupted from my thoughts by a sound, a bit like a dropped screw on a metal floor. I can sort of feel the sound reverberating in my head, but my power’s never done something like that before. Before I can think on either problem further the door opens, and I jump, knocking over my untouched glass of water. Pyre just gives a wave of his hand, and the water freezes. I didn’t know he could do that, I thought he was just pyrokinetic.

  Albert is the first to respond “Ah, sorry to startle you, I guess we should have knocked. Regardless, I believe we’ve determined the perfect solution to our shared dilemma.” I don’t know what to say so I just nod, and he continues undaunted. “So I know you want to go home, but I’m afraid the police are a bit touchy about the whole thing.” He leaves the sentence off there like he’s expecting a response, but I don’t say anything. After a minute of awkward silence he continues. “Uh, right. Regardless, I believe that’s an issue we may be able to help with.”

  “You want me to join the Heroes’ Association and you’ll let me stay in my house and keep making things, but just for you?” I know I shouldn’t press it, but this whole thing is just exhausting. I just want to go home, why is that so complicated?

  Pyre for his part looks startled, but Albert just raises his eyebrows slightly before responding. “I had no intention of coming on so strong. Nor did I intend to make it sound like I would force you to do anything. But yes, that is the best option we were considering. It would calm the police down substantially, with how tense they are about your father. Justifiably of course, given his long standing duels with justice. It would also help you, I’m sure someone with your intelligence could make do, but if you’re working for us we would of course pay more than enough for room and board, we can even cover taxes on the land. We’d even be able to cover materials assuming you need those.”

  I hear that strange mental noise again, I’ve never heard it before, and now it’s happened twice today. I really need to figure out what it is. Putting that aside for now though, I don’t really know how I want to live after getting home. I don’t really want to steal for a living like dad, but I also don’t want to be a superhero like these people either. Ugh I don’t know. Apparently I showed that on my face because Albert speaks before I can respond. “Don’t worry about deciding anything now, I just wanted to set the option in front of you. Give you some food for thought. You can certainly stay here for a day or so if you need the time. For now though as we seem to have ruined your water, I’ll fetch a replacement. I unfortunately will also need to speak to some people so I’ll be a while, but you and Pyre can get to know each other a bit. I’m sure you two had a rocky introduction given the circumstances, but you’ll find he’s a very nice person when he’s not throwing fire everywhere.” He gives a glance towards Pyre before heading for the door. “I’ll be back in a bit, and this time I’ll remember to knock.” I sit there staring at Pyre. At least he looks as uncomfortable as I am.