Nick Miller loved superheroes. In fairness, everyone Nick’s age loved superheroes - anyone who didn’t was boring and dumb - but Nick was one of the few that genuinely aspired to a career of costumed crime-fighting while others aspired to be brain surgeons or astronauts.

His family mostly tried to discourage him, but found it difficult to convince him that superheroes weren’t real, because every effort to do so was tacitly misinterpreted by Nick to include a wink and a nudge because everyone knew real superheroes needed to be kept a secret.

Nick’s older sister did NOT discourage him, much to their relative’s annoyance. Dana had given up a promising life as a banking clerk to pursue a career in both cosplay and martial arts - a life decision that had functionally excommunicated her from the family except on special occasions.

This attempt to shield Nick from outlandish influence proved to be ironically counter-productive, as it lent Dana’s few appearances in Nick’s life a mythological quality and allowed her to lean into her stage persona as the Amazing Danamite whenever they met: Yes, she’d been on lots of adventures since their last meeting. This year she had defeated invading aliens from the Negaverse, but not before fighting off assassins sent by the League of Villains. Nick believed every word of it and pinkie-promised that he would never tell anyone about Dana’s true identity, ever, ever, ever, and in return, for Christmas after his tenth birthday, Dana would begin training him as a real life superhero.

***

It had not gone well.

The training had started off with a lot of promise - Nick’s very first lesson in being a superhero was how to survive. Most kids might have baulked at this - demanding instead to be taught how to throw devastating punches or summon giant robots - but Dana had impressed upon him the vital importance of staying alive. The superheroes you know about are the ones that learned to survive; you don’t hear about the other ones, because they didn’t learn.

It had actually been a lot of fun. Dana was a strong girl (she was a superhero, so of course she was) and once Nick had learned the basics of landing safely, she had spent the afternoon picking him up and throwing him around the grass while he practised his tucks and rolls. Neither of them noticed the growing crowd of disapproving relatives, though it wasn’t until Dana started teaching Nick how to block a punch that someone ran off to get their dad.

Harlan Miller did not love superheroes. Harlan Miller loved waking up early, working hard and getting everything he needed to know about the world from the newspaper. But more than anything else, Harlan loved telling his kids they wouldn’t amount to anything if they wasted their time doing literally anything he wasn’t doing when he was their age.

There had been a lot of shouting. Nick was afraid that it might have even come to a fight, and while he knew that Dana was a superhero, he also knew that Harlan was their dad, and dads didn’t need to be superheroes - they were already dads.

By the end of the argument, nobody was hurt, but Dana had come over to him with her eyes still red and puffy, gave him a big hug and then gotten in her car without saying anything.

Nick had stood by the side of the road watching her disappear down the street, ignoring his family’s demands that he come back into the house.

That might have been the last time he ever saw his sister, if his house hadn’t suddenly exploded.

***

Nick hadn’t heard the strange whistling noise, nor did he hear the angry demands of his family change to cries of terror. He never remembered the explosion, or being picked up by the shockwave and thrown like a tumbleweed.

Nick woke up on his back to the stink of burning asphalt in his nose and the sound of distant screaming.

The sudden sense of danger made him jump as quickly to his feet as he could, various scrapes and bruises stinging as he did so.

Everything was black smoke and green flames, and for a moment he stood in a daze, completely lost as to where he was or where he should be running. Eventually a black shape took form in one direction, and silhouetted against the flames, Nick realised it must be some kind of… thing. A made thing, like a building or a car.

Edging cautiously towards it, Nick began to make out a shape and form that suggested it was some kind of vehicle; a guess that was confirmed when a blackened glass panel was smashed open and a hulking body tumbled out, a scattering of debris falling to the ground with it.

It was man shaped, thick-limbed, scaly and wearing some kind of rubbery jumpsuit. It had claws and beady red eyes and a mouthful of fangs. In short, everything about it screamed to Nick’s sensibilities that it was a Bad Guy.

It was injured, but it levered itself up onto its arms and for a moment Nick was terrified that it would attack him. That’s what Bad Guys did to little kids. But instead, its gaze focused on something small with glowing green lights on the ground a few yards away and began painfully dragging itself forwards.

Nick didn’t know what the creature was or where it had come from or what the thing it was crawling towards did, but his ironclad belief in superhero conventions told him that letting the creature get to the thing was a bad idea.

Heart racing, Nick lunged forward, snatching the tiny gadget up in one hand before scurrying back to a safe distance. He flinched when the creature bellowed at him, and when it began violently dragging itself toward him, he turned and ran blindly through the fumes.

Stumbling, choking and weeping in fear, Nick found himself running towards the red glow of ordinary flames and the panic-stricken cries of familiar voices.

One of them suddenly stopped and turned towards him, lunging out of the gloom to pick him up in both arms.

“Nick!” his mother cried. “Nick, oh my God, you’re okay! Oh my God, Nick, you’re okay!”

Nick tried to choke out a warning about the creature in the smoke, but Sally Miller carried him to where his younger siblings and cousins were huddled together in the blood-red light of the setting sun.

“Stay here!” his mother ordered. “Stay here and don’t go anywhere!”

Nick looked around that part of his family more or less his age. Most of them were crying quietly to themselves or staring mutely at the flames consuming a nearby house.

Nick realised with horror that it was in fact his own house, and that of all the shouting silhouettes around the flames, his father wasn’t among them.

“Did he come out the back way?”

“It’s all collapsed! He must have come out of a window!”

“None of the windows are open! He’s still in there!”

Nick recognised the terrified face of his sister lit up by the flames. She’d come back when the fire had started, but why wasn’t she rushing in? Their dad was still in there!

A suddenly very loud crackling noise pulled his attention away, and Nick looked down to see the green thing in his hand begin blinking erratically.

---VTLS-CSD---

---LNK-TRMNTD---

---GREETINGS, NEW OWNER---

The voice was loud to the point of being intrusive, and Nick looked around at his siblings in fear of how they would react. None of them had so much as turned to look at him.

As though sensing his question, the voice returned.

---THIS MESSAGE IS BEING BROADCAST BY TELEPATHIC LINK---

---NO-ONE BUT THE BEARER OF THIS DEVICE CAN HEAR THIS MESSAGE---

Nick looked back down at his hand. New owner? Then that thing back at the ship must have been…

---PLEASE ENTER ACCELERATION PARAMETERS---

Nick boggled in confusion. He had no idea what half of those words meant.

---PLEASE ENTER ACCELERATION PARAMETERS---

Nick looked back at his sister and considered shouting out to her. She’d know what to do. Superheroes always knew what to do.

???WHAT IS [SUPERHERO]???

Flabbergasted by such a stupid question, Nick found himself unable to think of any lucid answer, pointing instead mentally towards  his sister. Dana Miller. Dana Miller was a superhero.

---USER>SUPERHERO---

???YES/NO???

Yes!

Nick felt something buzz in his brain.

Nick passed out.

***

Nick woke up standing with the bellowing heat of flames against his face.

The distant shouting was also closer now, and as he tried to figure out how he had suddenly moved closer to the fire, a passing figure angrily pushed him back.

“Get out of the way! Go home!”

One of Nick’s Uncles ran past with a pair of empty buckets, and Nick was stunned at how short the man suddenly seemed. The house too, despite being on fire, seemed much smaller than it usually did.

With a sudden lurch of fear in his stomach, Nick looked down at himself to find not the same ten-year-old body he was used to seeing below his neck, but the body of a well exercised martial artist.

His sister’s body.

In the confines of his own mind, he screamed.

---USER=SUPERHERO---

---PROGRAM EXECUTED---

No! He hadn’t meant like this!

---PROGRAM EXECUTED---

???MODIFY FUNCTION???

Nick was about to say yes when he realised that he was suddenly in a position to save his father. He wasn’t sure why Dana had hesitated, but he could charge into the building, save Harlan and then everyone…

He looked at the crowd of people, half of them ineffectually trying to douse the fire with a bucket chain while the other half looked on in horror.

Nobody knew Dana was a real superhero. She’d told him to keep it a secret. Superheroes had to keep their identity a secret.

As slowly as he dared, Nick backed away from the flames into the growing darkness of the street.

Dana couldn’t break into the building without everyone seeing her. Keeping her secret identity was important… but not as important as saving their dad, right? Maybe she was waiting to see if the firefighters would get there in time, but the myriad fires burning across the neighbourhood told Nick that help was a long way away.

He didn’t want his dad to get hurt, but it felt wrong to expose Dana’s superhero identity when she was clearly trying to keep it a secret even now.

???MODIFY FUNCTION???

Nick blinked. It could do that?

---CONFIRMED---

???MODIFY FUNCTION???

How?

Nick’s cry of surprise was muffed by the sudden growth of a rubber black layer that seemed to come out of his own - Dana’s own - skin. It stopped as quickly as it had started, covering every part of Dana’s body like a padded ninja suit including a visor that closed over his eyes.

---PROGRAM EXECUTED---

Without bothering to wonder, Nick flew back towards the house. He dimly registered cries of alarm from the crowd as he bolted towards the burning front deck, only to recoil from the heat as he got too close.

???MODIFY FUNCTION???

This wasn’t right - superheroes were meant to be tough!

---PROGRAM EXECUTED---

A sudden cooling sensation rushed underneath Nick’s rubbery outer skin, and he found the heat suddenly bearable. He waded through the burning wreckage of the deck, squared up against the blacked front door and kicked.

The door belched out a cloud of smoke and embers, but did not move.

???MODIFY FUNCTION???

Superheroes are meant to be strong!

---PROGRAM EXECUTED---

Nick kicked again, and the door disintegrated, revealing the hellish red glow of the burning building beyond.

Nick was momentarily frozen at the horror of seeing something he’d take for granted his entire life so utterly destroyed, but forced himself onwards. The house seemed to be completely alight, and he was at a loss as to where he might find his father alive when his next footstep went right through the charred floorboard-

-and onto solid concrete. That’s right! The basement!

With his home burning around him, Nick punched his way through a nearby wall, opening up a path to the staircase leading down.Some of the debris had tumbled down the stone steps, but it was otherwise completely dark. Dark with smoke.

Nick pushed onwards, and it wasn’t long before he found the crumpled figure of Harlan prone in the furthest corner. There hadn’t been any way out from here, so the only option left to him had been to stay put and wait for rescue or death.

Nick shook him desperately.

“Dad! Dad! Wake up! We need to get out of here!”

The strangeness of hearing his sister’s voice coming out of his mouth was lost in the terror of losing his father, but Harlan didn’t stir.

Nick had often pictured what his first heroic rescue would look like. He imagined how good it would feel to see the hope on people’s faces, to stand before them and tell them everything would be alright now that he was there to save them.

He had never imagined the gut-wrenching fear of what he would lose if he failed.

Despite their size difference, Nick cradled his dad in his sister’s arms and tried to think of a way out.

***

Nick’s family were still fighting a losing battle against the fire when emergency services began to arrive. With fires and panic spread throughout the neighbourhood, there were far too many emergencies and not enough responders to deal with them. A pair of squad cars pulled up outside, and the police began to order the family away from the flames, leading to an argument as buckets were dropped and tempers began to flare.

The shouting was cut short when the nearest wall of the house exploded in a cloud of smoke and embers, and two soot-blackened figures tumbled out; one carrying the other. Everyone recognised the larger form as that of an unconscious man, but the second figure was some kind of bloated, rubbery monster with the apparent ability to carry someone twice its size.

Nick lowered his father to the ground and looked up to see expressions of horror in the eyes of his family and four police with their guns drawn.

He immediately threw his hands up in the air, looking around him to see what they were aiming at, only to realise that they were aiming at him!

All four of them were shouting.

“Don’t move!”

“Hands on your head!”

“Down on the ground!”

“Get back!”

Nick tried to shout in a muffled voice that he wasn’t a bad guy, but the suit muffled his voice and he could barely hear himself over the adults yelling and the flames.

He tried to back away slowly, but slipped, causing him to stagger. The sudden movement was enough for one of the cops to fire, and the sudden crack of gunfire made Nick spin around and scramble into the darkness, more wild shots chasing after him.

Nick ran away from the house, jumping over the fence and then over the roof of the house next door, turning away from another fire and sliding into the narrow space between a brick wall and a shed. His heart was pounding, his breath coming in gasps and whimpers and as he strained his ears for the sounds of pursuit, he felt a dull pain spreading out from his right shoulder.

In the poor light he could barely see anything, and he pawed at the rubbery suit around him trying to reach Dana’s phone.

???MODIFY FUNCTION???

He needed to see what was wrong! Was he hit?

---PROGRAM REVERTED---

The strange material deflated back into Dana’s exposed skin, revealing her clothes and freeing up access to her pockets. With shaking fingers, Nick pulled out his sister’s phone and turned the flashlight towards where the pain was coming from, revealing a rapidly colouring bruise.

No! No! This wasn’t right! Cops weren’t meant to shoot heroes! And Dana was hurt! He’d gotten his sister hurt! What was he going to do?

With the smokey light of distant fires and the echoing cries of panicked neighbours around him, Nick felt tears well up in his eyes and was about to begin sobbing when he gritted his teeth and rubbed his face.

Heroes had to be tough, even when things weren’t going great. He wasn’t going to become a real hero if he let a little scare and bruise like this get the best of him. Besides, he’d done what he needed to do: His dad was safe now and that was something to be proud of.

Still aching but in much better spirits, Nick got gingerly to his feet and headed back home.

***

He had only been hiding for a few minutes and everyone was practically where he had left them. A pair of paramedics were doing paramedic stuff on his dad while his mum and aunt fretted. The house was still burning, though it had almost completely collapsed. The police were gone, and he felt a little ashamed at how relieved he was. Nobody paid attention to him as he crept his sister’s body over to where the other kids had fallen asleep around his real one.

He knelt down in the grass and looked at himself. He was so small from his sister’s point of view, and he wondered how she could possibly think he’d be able to be a superhero at his size.

But he had to go back. This was his sister’s body, and he’d already gotten it into enough trouble.

???MODIFY FUNCTION???

He needed to be himself again.

---PROGRAM TERMINATED---

***

New year’s day was little cause for celebration for the Millers. With no house and widespread accommodation shortages due to the large number of people also without homes, they had tried to squeeze in with an aunt who lived nearby with very little success.

Contrary to his typical disinterest in the news, Nick insisted on watching every report about the incident, which authorities claimed was caused by debris from a rogue satellite falling out of orbit. That kind of explanation went over Nick’s head, but he watched anyway waiting for them to mention what he was now confident had been a spaceship or escape pod and the alien that had been inside it.

They never did, causing him to get more and more frustrated with every report until he came to the chilling realisation that the adults might be keeping it a secret. Evil aliens were definitely already on earth, but you never heard about them in the news, so it made sense that this time would be no different; he’d just happened to be there for this one.

The strange gadget had still been in his hand when he had woken up with Dana slumped over him, and he had kept it a secret ever since. Any adult would absolutely have taken it from him if they ever found out, and he knew he’d need it if he ever needed to be a hero again.

Dana had woken up with a sizeable bruise and fractured upper arm, forcing her to take time off work. Nick didn’t learn the full nature of her injury or about her needing to take time off sick until the new year’s get-together, at which point he immediately offered to stay with Dana and help her around the house.

Ignorant of his sudden guilty conscience, there had been some chuckles about Nick’s uncharacteristic chivalry, but the cramped arrangement at his aunt’s meant that his parents were all too happy to let him stay with Dana for the rest of the holidays, and Dana couldn’t bring herself to refuse.

It was actually really cool to hang out with his sister at her place. She had to take time off from being a superhero and he didn’t have to go to school, so they got to just cook meals, go shopping, play games, watch shows and talk about stuff. Dana even took him to the gym where she trained one night, and Nick was immediately convinced that half of the people at her gym were also superheroes in disguise. How could they not be?

One of the other women recognised Dana and casually walked over.

“Thought you were off?” she said, motioning towards Nick with her head.

“Just the shoulder,” Dana replied, patting Nick on the shoulder and winking. “Superheroes gotta stay in shape.”

Nick saw the light of understanding dawn on the other woman’s face. “Ah, so you’re Nick, huh? You been keeping your sister safe?”

Nick nodded dumbly, desperately wanting to seem cool and aloof but also just itching to ask every question he could possibly think of.

The woman knelt down and flexed an enormous bicep. “They call me Callie, but my real name is Bronze Hammer. You can keep that a secret, can’t you?”

Nick nodded again.

Callie grinned at his sister, returning her wink. “I think he’ll be one of the best once he’s grown a bit. Eat your protein, Nick. Uh, and your vegetables,” she added, seeing the look on Dana’s face. “But also your protein.”

Nick followed Dana around the gym as she introduced him to the people she knew. A woman named Titania (but you can call me Tina) with thighs thicker than his chest offered to let him try holding a weight she was curling one-handed, and with Dana’s cautious permission he held his hands out while it was lowered into his grasp. He immediately found himself almost tipping forward, but caught himself by bending his knees instead of falling over.

“Good instincts,” the Titania had said, leaving Nick feeling much better about almost embarrassing himself.

“Okay, I’m just doing legs today,” Dana said when the tour was complete. “It’s probably safe for you to hop onto a treadmill if you want?”

“Nah, I’m gonna take a nap in the car,” Nick lied.

“Oh, did you want to go home?” Dana asked. “I can come back later if you’re tired.”

“No!” Nick almost shouted, then scolded himself. “No, that’s fine. We already came here, I’ll just have a lie down and wait for you to finish.”

Dana seemed uncertain, but walked him out to the carpark and unlocked the car.

“Lock it again when you close the door,” she said. “I won’t be long.”

Nick did lock the door, and then watched his sister walk back into the gym. He wasn’t tired - in fact his heart was racing from the anticipation. He’d been waiting for exactly an opportunity like this to try using the gadget again, and it had worked out in his favour that they had decided to visit the gym at night. Now he had the perfect excuse to stay in the car, and in the dark, nobody would notice him unless they came right up to the windows and looked inside.

Fingers almost shaking with anticipation, Nick took the gadget out of his pocket and started pressing against anything that looked like it might be a button.

---GREETINGS, OWNER---

He found it! What had he done last time? Everything had been so crazy, he could barely remember.

---PLEASE ENTER ACCELERATION PARAMETERS---

He had thought about wanting to be a superhero, and when the gadget had asked him what that meant, he’d thought of-

Nick felt something buzz in his brain.

Nick passed out.

***

Nick found himself on his back at an odd angle, his feet planted against something heavy. Opening his eyes, he realised that Dana had only just gotten into position on the leg-pushing machine thingy. He hadn’t had the opportunity to really take in his sister’s body back at the house, and he marvelled at how strange it was to see her legs in front of him, chest chest below him and her hands in front of his borrowed face.

Experimentally, he gave the plate a push with his feet, feeling the muscles of his well-trained body flexing to shift the heavy weight. He tried to reposition his back and felt a twinge from his shoulder, the shock of the pain causing him to lose concentration and the weight to fall back onto him, pushing his legs against his chest.

“You alright?” a concerned voice said.

It was Titania, observing from where she was doing her own weights.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Nick said.

Titania’s look of concern didn’t soften. “You need to be careful if you’re going to keep working out with your shoulder like that.”

Nick nodded, not wanting to say anything that might give him away. Dana had taught him about rolling and moving around, but she hadn’t taught him about how to move safely when injured. There hadn’t been any need.

Without wanting to accidentally get her hurt even more, Nick considered his options. He wanted to practise training more, but doing so in Dana’s body wasn’t an option. But that was fine, because he was surrounded by plenty more.

Looking back at Titania, who had put her weights down and was stretching, Nick focused his concept of a superhero on her instead.

Nick felt something buzz in his brain.

Nick passed out.

***

He wasn’t getting used to the sensation, but at least it wasn’t especially disorienting or painful. Nick found himself standing, one arm still braced across his chest by the other. He relaxed, letting the held arm swing to one side and feeling the flesh on his very different chest fall back into shape.

Looking back at his sister, he saw her much as she had been when he first left her body after controlling her the first time: Kind of slumped forwards in a daze.

“Dana?” he said cautiously, thrown off by the comparatively deeper voice of the body he was in.

Dana seemed to shake herself awake.

“Huh? Yeah? What?”

“You alright?” Nick said, doing his best to mimic Titania’s manner of speech.

Dana nodded, wincing as her shoulder injury prevented her from raising her arm properly. “Yeah, just spaced out there for a second.”

“You need to be careful if you’re going to… uh, keep working out with your shoulder like that,” Nick parroted Titania’s advice.

“I know, I just need to get the blood pumping or I feel like I’ll turn into pudding.”

Nick didn’t know how to respond to that, so he quietly made his way off of the gym floor and into the locker rooms, having to stop himself from walking through the boy’s door.

The room was empty, and Nick headed for the nearest mirror to marvel at his reflection.

Not his actual reflection, but the reflection of Titania gaping back at him.

She was huge: Taller even than his dad with muscles that visibly bulged and flexed as he moved her arms around experimentally. He tried out the poses he’d seen bodybuilders use to show off and was mesmerised at the sight of Titania showing off her strength.

He hoped he’d be this strong himself someday, but for now this was the next best thing.

“Nice delts, Tina,” a voice called out, and Nick had to fight the urge to cover himself up as if he’d been caught doing something dirty.

One of the other gym-goers had walked in without him noticing, and he realised with alarm that she was about to start taking her clothes off.

Face rapidly turning red, he hurried silently out of the changing rooms and back into the gym proper, only to find that Dana had already ditched the leg machine thingy and was halfway towards the door.

Nick managed to stop himself before he called out or ran after her. He needed to act as normally as possible or people would get suspicious, so he walked Titania’s body back to the bench she had been practising at and pictured his sister’s superhero persona in his mind.

***

The switches were definitely getting easier, and Nick let out a sigh of relief when he opened his eyes to find himself suddenly outside and back in Dana’s body.

The relief was short-lived when he saw four figures gathered around Dana’s car, and his heart was gripped with a sudden anxiety when all of them looked up at his approach and walked towards him.

If they had been random thugs, he might have been excited: Dana probably beat up bad guys like that just as a warm up. But not only was she injured, these didn’t look like regular bad guys. They were in costumes for a start, and regular henchmen didn’t usually get costumes.

“Is she the one?” one of them said - a man with broad shoulders that towered above Nick in his sister’s body. He had a costume of rich blue and red with gold trimming - the classic colours of a leader type character.

“Yep,” said a dark-skinned woman, wearing two shades of green and black goggles. “Relax,” she said to Nick. “I saw what you did at the fire yesterday. We know you’re one of the good guys.”

Nick didn’t say anything. Did they even know it was Nick, or did they just see Danamite?

The leader spoke again. “Did you see anything strange before the fire that night? Any… vehicles? Or creatures?”

Nick automatically shook his head in silence. It was wrong to lie, but he didn’t know if he could trust these people with the truth, or if it might get him or Dana in trouble if he told it.

The leader grimaced and sighed. “Well, it’s not going to be easy to hear this, but those fires weren’t… what did the news call it?”

“Gas explosion,” another man behind him said, this one mostly in navy blue.

Leader man grunted. “Well, it wasn’t that. We’ve been tracking… I may as well be honest: Aliens. It doesn’t seem to be an organised invasion, but every time one lands, they bring something with them and cause all sorts of trouble.”

Nick said the first thing that came to mind. “Just you?”

The fourth person - a much younger woman maybe about Dana’s own age wearing totally ordinary clothes - suppressed a laugh.

Leader shook his head. “Not just us. We’ve networked with others like us all over the country - all over the world. People who learned they were different in ways that could help those in need when things got bad.”

Nick turned the speech over in his head. It sounded almost familiar.

“So… you’re superheroes?” he said.

Leader chuckled and shrugged. “Yeah, I guess we are. Though we try to stay secret when we can. So, would you like to become a superhero?”

“Oh, I’m one already,” Nick blurted out before he could stop himself.

Leader raised an eyebrow. “Oh? What’s your name?”

“Ni- Uh, Danamite,” Nick said, having suddenly backed himself into a corner.

Mister leader looked quizzically at the others, who all shrugged or shook their heads.

“Have you been on the scene for long?”

Nick shook his head. He knew Dana had been working for a long time, but it was clear she’d kept herself just to her close friends until now, and the fact that he’d blown her cover to complete strangers made him cringe with guilt.

“Well, stay out of trouble and we might get in touch if we need you,” Leader said. “What can you do?”

“Um… I’m… I’m strong,” Nick managed through a suddenly dry mouth.

Leader raised an eyebrow. “Anything else?”

“And… I’m tough?” Nick squeaked.

Leader looked back at the green lady, who nodded. “Elevated strength and endurance. She busted through a burning building and shook off a bullet.”

Leader nodded. “Maybe stay away from the police in future,” he said. “They’re on edge at the best of times, so it’s best not to upset them.

Nick nodded mutely.

“You can call me Captain Keen,” the leader said before pointing to the green lady, white man and ordinary looking girl. “This is Nightsight, Satellite and Audie.”

Audie waved with a big grin on her face. Nick nervously waved back.

“Alright, I think we’ve wasted enough of your time. Get home safe and stay on your toes - we’ll be seeing you soon enough, I expect.”

Nick nodded again, not trusting himself to speak.

And just like that, three of them were gone. There had been a flurry of movement, causing him to flinch, and when he opened his eyes, only Audie remained.

Nick felt himself tensing to fight or run as Audie approached him, the same grin never leaving her face.

“So, it looks like you’ll be joining the league of heroes soon. Feels good to know you’re not the only one, huh?”

Nick nodded, desperately wanting her to go away so he could just get back into his body and go home. As though sensing his thoughts, Audie looked back at the car.

“Care to explain why you’ve left a young boy asleep in the car at night in a strange neighbourhood?”

“I-I’m just- I mean, he was just tired!” Nick stammered. “I’m taking him home now.”

Audie looked like she was going to say something, but shrugged instead.

“Hey, it’s cool. You’re not the only one who isn’t who they say they are, and it pays to keep at least a few secrets, especially among superheroes.”

Nick didn’t trust himself to speak, watching in silence as Audie sauntered back to the car and peered into a window.

“I’d think very carefully before committing to the superhero lifestyle. It gets awfully difficult trying to save the world while also looking after… yourself.”

With a wink, Audie strolled over to a nearby motorcycle, kicking it into life and roaring out of the carpark and down the street.

Nick watched the tail lights disappear into the night with a terrible sense of dread. Just what had he gotten his sister into?