Annie's Superpowers

Outside the door,

bright sunlight spilled across the little yard, golden strands lighting up the lawn.

Ryan walked to an open spot in the yard. The pleasant light seemed as if it could drive the darkness from anyone's heart.

He held out his hand, and light bloomed between his fingers.

Could it? Of course not.

There were plenty of bad people standing in the sunlight on this land.

Annie and her mother followed Ryan out of the house. They were terribly nervous.

They even looked at him with fear in their eyes.

Ryan could understand. They had received an invitation to the Seven Tower. If he told them now that the invitation was off,

the plunge from heaven to rock bottom might leave the two of them buying each other shovels.

Then they could dig each other a hole and bury the matter.

But that was not what Ryan needed to think about right now. He pointed beside him.

"Annie, come here. Relax and use your powers like you normally do."

His gentle tone put Annie more at ease, though she felt as if she were facing the most important test of her life.

She took a deep breath and walked over to Ryan.

After a long moment,

her powers slowly activated.

A burst of dazzling light illuminated the yard. It shimmered like sunlight, and Ryan could not help taking a closer look.

Only after a while did the light fade, revealing the person at its center again.

It was Annie.

She proudly introduced her power.

"I can give off a dazzling light. Every superhero has a codename, so I hope you'll call me Starlight."

"Starlight?"

"I've always dreamed of standing atop the Seven Tower one day, shining like a star over New York at night."

"That sounds more like being strung up as a lantern."

Ryan offered his opinion without caring whether Annie understood.

He studied her. She was watching him anxiously now.

Even her question came out cautiously.

"Um, are my powers worth getting excited about?"

"To Vought International, value comes from packaging. It doesn't have much to do with your actual abilities."

"I-is that so?"

In the yard, Annie and her mother kept watching Ryan with the same fearful look.

Ryan understood. They cared so much about the Seven Tower's invitation that they had lost their usual composure.

That was a bad sign.

The reason was simple. Ryan figured that if he took advantage of their unease and made an outrageous demand of Annie right now,

she might hesitate, grit her teeth, check that no one was around, and kneel before a boy still growing up and much younger than she was.

Anything to keep the opportunity.

Her mother certainly would not stop her. She would even cover for her.

Fortunately, Ryan had no interest in that for the moment.

There was nothing worth seeing outside, so Ryan turned and went back into the house.

"It's noon. Are you planning to have lunch?"

"I'll make it right away."

Annie's mother answered at once. Beaming, she returned inside too.

In the house, Annie's mother cooked.

From her busy figure in the kitchen, Ryan could already guess what lunch would be.

Vegetable salad and chicken burritos.

He waited on the sofa while Annie stood beside it.

For some reason, Annie felt pressured around this boy, even though he was younger than she was.

Feeling no such pressure, Ryan tilted his head up.

"Sit down. Talking to you while looking up is tiring."

Annie obediently sat on the sofa to Ryan's side, holding herself very straight.

After a while,

as Ryan flipped through the channels on the television, Annie seemed to decide that where she was sitting was impolite.

She shifted over beside him, and a scent reached Ryan's nose.

He frowned. It was perfume, and he found it unpleasant.

Besides, having read the original story, Ryan had some idea what kind of girl Annie was.

She would later get together with Hughie, but before that, she would be mistreated in the Seven Tower.

There was an old internet saying that fit the situation perfectly.

Put off, Ryan told Annie to move back. He knew that people on this land were rather open about relationships between men and women.

And because of that, there were some things he could not quite accept.

As they watched television, Annie sat on edge while Ryan kept changing channels.

When her mother announced that lunch was ready, Annie breathed a sigh of relief.

"Let's eat, Ryan."

The food was not bad, but it was ordinary, the kind of flavor that left no trace in memory.

Ryan had always made a point of not wasting food, so he carefully finished everything on his plate.

He said a few simple words of praise—"It's good"—then brushed off Annie's mother's attempt to grow closer to him and offer up her daughter.

Then he left the house.

Madelyn had told him to bring Annie over. Presumably, she meant for him to stuff her in a sack and fly her back.

At least, that was how Ryan understood it.

But he had lost most of his interest in Annie. Before leaving, he gave her an ultimatum.

"Report to The Seven by tomorrow."

"Tomorrow? Isn't that a little soon?"

"This is a test from The Seven. You can handle it, can't you?"

"I'll prove myself to all of you."

The bright-eyed girl spoke with her fists clenched.

Ryan shrugged and took off from the yard. She was so naive. He could spout any old nonsense, and she would take it seriously.

In the yard, Annie watched Ryan disappear into the sky, full of envy.

"He can fly."

Her mother took it upon herself to address that envy.

"Next time you see him, ask him to throw you into the sky too."

"Do you want your daughter to die from being thrown, Mom?"

"I'll come to your funeral."

Meanwhile, after flying for a while, Ryan returned to the Seven Tower.

He flew in through a window high in the tower. Inside, he saw a new table in the conference room.

It was just like the old black U-shaped conference table: heavy, understated, and expensive.

Far more people sat around it than when he had first arrived.

Besides The Deep and A-Train, whom he already knew,

there was Black Noir, a superhero wrapped head to toe in a black ninja outfit.

There was also Translucent, a superhero who wore nothing at all and somehow never felt cold.

A few seats were empty.

Homelander seemed to be giving interviews in another state and would not be back anytime soon.

The superheroes at the table turned to look at the person who had flown in.

Flight was an extremely rare ability among superheroes.

As far as anyone knew, only Homelander could do it. Now there was one more.

"Who's this?"

Unable to hide his surprise, the naked superhero Translucent looked at Ryan.

Before Ryan could answer, A-Train and The Deep spoke up.

"Our new friend."

"A superhero among superheroes."

Ryan could not stand their awkward flattery. He told them both to shut up and took a seat at the table.

Black Noir alone said nothing. He was like a pebble by the roadside, barely noticeable.

Translucent, on the other hand, was lively.

"Welcome."

"Thanks. Put some clothes on."

"Clothes are the worst invention ever. We should all be open with each other."

"Then you'd need a lot more body hair to stay warm."