Trying to get my emotions under control was an effort in futility, but I tried anyway. I needed to be in control. There was no world where I could be the asshole and just fly off the handle.

  It was an effort in futility for the most part, but I manage to push away the sensation of my powers in the effort to make them feel distant.

  Harder to call on.

  It hadn’t escaped my attention when Reyna shirked away whenever I was beginning to get incredibly irritated and the world had darkened around me. If I am not the epitome of in control of my abilities, I’m just going to be feeding into Caleb’s delusional fantasies.

  Though I do hope he can get out of the building he’s in so I can confront him already, it’s getting incredibly exhausting to keep going after how long my day has been.

  Part of me considers going into the building and hunting him down myself since I know where he is in there and what he’s doing, but I want to confront him using human means, playing by human rules.

  So I don’t try and break in but continue to wait outside while Caleb is hooked up to some sort of testing machine while running on a treadmill.

  It isn’t hard to figure out what is going on here. There’s only so many ways you can slice rigorous testing to figure out what the ability of a super is, though they haven’t tested any unique abilities of his, just his physical ones.

  I’m hesitant to admit but I’m pretty sure he’s already at least my equal in terms of raw physical might which isn’t ideal but as far as I know Caleb has never thrown a punch in his life so I sincerely doubt he has the skill to back up his might.

  The most interesting bit of it is that when he goes to drink water, it looks as if the water is evaporating as it comes into contact with him and that is further confirmed when he goes to a shower where I can trace the water instantly dissolving.

  The rest of the building is just as interesting. It's clearly some kind of group meant to make supers, and their supers are Caleb and two women I don’t know. The setup is different from the lab that made me though, so I’m not instantly suspicious.

  I am definitely mostly suspicious though because there’s a whole lot of convenience going on here. But I’ll have to wait for either Asher or Cass to check it out; they’re substantially better at dealing with breaking in without being noticed than I am.

  Caleb is heading out the door to his car, so I remain posted up leaning against it trying to give off an aura of being far more uncaring than I actually am.

  When Caleb does walk out of the building, he looks at me freezing, and I tilt my head to the side as I watch him.

  He glows orange. That’s interesting, but I file it away for later research.

  Why he’s glowing is probably painfully obvious.

  “So at what point do you think I get the right to call you an absolutely hypocritical moron? Is it before or after you accidentally hurt someone with your powers?” I ask, keeping my voice steady.

  “How did you find me?” Caleb asks, taking a half step back.

  “Because you’re a fucking idiot. You still haven’t turned off the location sharing app we got when we went to the amusement park as a friend group, nor did you unfriend me on that app. It took literally zero effort to find you.” I snort.

  That statement is true adjacent. I had mostly used my powers to find him, but I had checked the app when I had no idea of where to look for his trail.

  So, I wasn’t lying as far as he could tell, and when he opened his phone to check it, it had only confirmed my statement.

  “So you finally came to see me. Decided that I was right?” Caleb asks, walking closer until we were just a step and a half away from one another.

  “No, I decided that a cretin like you would continue to cause problems unless I dealt with you. You’re out of strikes.”

  “Strikes?” Caleb scoffs, raising a hand. “I haven’t done anything wrong.”

  “Bully my daughter, make tons of inappropriate statements about supers in the presence of myself and my family who are now chock full of supers, stalk me, scare my daughter, and finally terrify one of my best friends.”

  Caleb didn’t respond for a long moment, his hands tightening into fists for a moment before finally relaxing, but I didn’t lower my guard.

  He still didn’t know what my ability was, at least, I hoped so. But I would still rather keep that under wraps.

  Caleb finally seemed to settle on something as he held his hands up in what was probably meant to be a show of peace, but considering the light arcing between them, I didn’t find myself becoming all that peaceful.

  “You don’t get it, Jason, you’re sick. All three of you are sick. I get it now. Now that I have powers, I can feel it warping me, changing me. Making me into one of those monsters. But we can help you. If you come inside, we can get started on taking away your powers. You just need to listen.” Caleb pleads, looking at me with an expression I don’t want to even try and piece together the meaning of.

  The worst part was that I knew he believed whatever he was trying to sell. He believed with everything he had that he was right.

  I knew it was a lost cause to try and change his mind, but I had to try. Even if not for him, then for myself and the friend I am losing.

  “Hate to break it to you. But your confirmation bias looking ass doesn’t exactly make the greatest argument. I have in fact changed since getting my powers. But that’s because I’m a human. Not a monster. Humans are prone to change. And I like to think I’m becoming better.” I say, stepping away from the car and away from Caleb. “I don’t want to go back to being normal. I like being who I am. And I enjoy having the power to protect my friends if I have to.”

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  Caleb doesn’t seem particularly satisfied with that statement as his hands drop to the side. “Jason, I want to help you, but it doesn’t matter if you’re against it; it’s for your better good. You’re not in the right mind to actually make your decisions.”

  “So you’re going to try and force me? Do you even realize how much of a hypocrite you are?” I ask.

  “You need to be cleansed.”

  “Cleanse yourself from your own filth first. If you need to have powers to force people, then you’re not saving anyone; you’re forcing them. So many would be willing to give up their powers willingly if they could.” I say, shifting my right foot back.

  I don’t know if I’m going to run or if I’m going to fight, but I’m going to be ready to choose between them soon.

  “But that doesn’t solve it. You don’t get it; the power has blinded you.”

  “Caleb, you’re trying to say it’s okay to kidnap and force people to be changed and warped in an unchangeable way because of your small world view.”

  He falters for a moment before getting heated, the glow of his body becoming almost blinding, but I don’t look away. I do close my eyes. Not that he needs to be aware of that fact.

  I only had one idea on how to take control back in the situation and make Caleb actually listen to me.

  If he wasn’t willing to listen to reason, then he can listen to fear. For once, his own fear about supers is going to play into it.

  “Let me make one thing very clear, Caleb.” I say, stepping forward, the two of us standing almost nose to nose. “You try to do anything uncouth to my family or myself, you will regret it. You might have power now, but I am far more dangerous than you could believe. Do we have an understanding?”

  Caleb instinctively steps away from me, the glow fading as fear begins to overpower his other thoughts.

  “I don’t care what you try to do to me. Try to kill me for all I care. But if you touch my family, if you touch my friends, I will become the monster you’re so afraid of. Because you’re the one who opened the cage.”

  Caleb collapses to the ground, gasping for breath as I step forward once more.

  “Now I'm going to go home and see my wonderful family, and you're going to go back to complaining to people about how dare I breathe.” I say, turning around and beginning to walk away.

  “You're a monster! Can't you see it! The power is making you mad! I'm trying to save you!” Caleb squeaks, having found courage once I moved away.

  “I'm only a monster to you and those who threaten me and mine.”

  The walk home was almost enough for me to fully clear my head, but it wasn’t till I was opening the door to my apartment that I finally felt like I was feeling human enough.

  “Welcome home!” Amelia cheers quietly. “Bianca’s asleep for her nap, so I’m trying to not wake her.”

  “Not home yet.” I say relaxing already as I walk towards her.

  “Oh, yeah?” She asks with a giggle.

  “Home.” I mumble into Amelia’s shoulder as I cling to her.

  “That bad?”

  “Yeah, I think so.” I admit letting myself be steered towards the couch, where we collapse into a jumble of limbs. “Not sure I want to talk about it really, but it’s important we do.” I say, looking into her eyes, tracing the strands of white through her blue eyes.

  “On a scale of one to you being my secret evil nemesis with some kind of memory disorder causing you to forget how bad is it on the tropeyness scale?” Amelia asks.

  “Seems like Caleb got powers via some wack job group that plans on using folks like him to beat, capture and strip powers from supers because they’re fixing the blight on the world.”

  “That’s like a solid seven.” Amelia agrees. “So he’s going to be coming for us. Any idea of what his abilities are?”

  “Some orange energy, enhanced physical ability around where you and I are. And he seems incredibly unstable. I don’t think his own brain can handle the abilities he has.” I relay hitting my bullet points succinctly.

  “Did you get to try to see if his energy is a good or bad match for you?”

  “No chance. I’d rather keep my ability secret. Though hopefully between our armors and Cass’s biology we shouldn’t have to worry too much about getting our powers taken away.” I say, tracing a pattern across her leg as I think.

  “But B does,” Amelia points out. “So how many besides Caleb seem super?”

  “In their lab, there were two others being tested with him.”

  “I’m not going to say it’s suspicious we have a three-on-three situation going on, but I’m going to say it’s hella suspicious.”

  “The tech in their lab wasn’t exactly the same as what was in the lab that made me.” I say, wanting to let her make her own assumptions first before I give mine.

  “But it was close enough that it bothers you. I get it; you’re going to ask Cass or Asher to do some sneaky shit. But what does that leave us to do?” Amelia hums resting her head against mine.

  “I don’t know.” I sigh. “It’s the worst part of it all. I don’t know what to do. Do I just break them all now? Do I risk letting them hurt someone I love so that I can only respond appropriately? Do I ignore them? I don’t know.”

  “You know you’re supposed to say that leaves us time to plan for Christmas. Besides, you said Caleb could barely control anything, which probably means we have time, so let’s do something fun. Wrap presents or watch a bad movie or something.” Amelia says, moving into my lap so she can look down into my eyes before trading a kiss.

  “How mundane for you.”

  “Well, I’m getting this mopey vibe from you, so I decided to restrain my suggestions.”

  “I am in awe of the raw power of your self-control.” I laugh.

  “Damn straight. So what type of Christmas wrapping paper do you think Santa should use this year, and do we have any B hasn’t seen yet, cause we gotta let Santa be real for as long as we can.”

  “Yeah, I have some hidden wrapping paper.”

  “Good, and you should wrap them cause you know how to do pretty bows.”

  “Is that what you use me for to tie the bows on the presents?” I laugh.

  “That and you give acceptable snuggles.” Amelia agrees.

  I rest my head against hers, breathing slowly as I just enjoy the moment.

  “I love you.”

  “I love you too. So, are you feeling better now, or should I move on to my more dramatic plans to baffle and entertain?”

  “Definitely feeling better.” I agree shifting Amelia so she’s sitting next to me her legs across my lap. “But we can do that movie if you’re still up for it.”

  “Jason, I literally asked you about a movie just a little bit ago, so why would I not want to do it?” Amelia giggles, tapping me on the nose.

  “I don’t know because I was silly in asking that question?”

  “Well, how dare you steal my shtick? What am I supposed to do if you steal the being a silly little goober?”

  “Still play logic like it’s a game of hopscotch?”

  “Why does that sound familiar?” Amelia asks, reaching across and taking the remote from my hand so she can begin scrolling through to pick her movie.

  Why she decided to watch a Halloween-themed movie, I’m not entirely sure, but that’s where we’re going, I suppose.

  “Because it’s your quote?”

  “Makes sense. I am a wise woman.”

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