I tried to gently explain to Eve that, first, for her adoptive parents, those material goods she could conjure up with a wave of her hand and some pink sparkles meant something more.
They literally paid for those things with the time of their lives at work.
And second, by calling her father’s complaints petty, she was appealing to a largely consumerist argument along the lines of “they can’t give me anything, so fuck them.”
“You don’t understand!” Eve argued heatedly.
“It’s not about the things.
Not at all.
You just don’t know my adoptive parents.
They’re…
ugh.
My father is just a complete asshole.
I…
I was actually happy to find out I was adopted!
Really happy to find out those people aren’t my real parents, you know?”
“Well, maybe.” Perhaps my attempts to reason with Eve were premature.
She hadn’t talked much about her parents in my past life.
When she did, it was usually jokes or even mockery.
But here I saw genuine anger and real joy at finally being free of their influence.
Though, it could just be teenage maximalism.
“You’d understand everything if you met them!” she declared confidently.
“At least they raised a wonderful daughter.” Not the most elegant compliment, but for Eve, unspoiled by male attention, it was still pleasant.
We walked around a bit more, basically Eve walked me home.
We chatted about our own superhero adventures.
Eve told me how she’d first gotten into this line of work at a very young age.
She’d wanted to protect puppies from an animal shelter from being kidnapped and sold for experiments.
I told Eve about how I’d helped the Guardians of the Globe fight off Ave Maria’s attack on a cargo ship off the coast of Japan.
“No way!” Eve was impressed.
“That was on every channel.
After that, the Immortal and War Woman were out for almost a week.
And that fish guy was gone for almost a month!
Damn, so that unknown guy fighting the monster before them was really you?
That’s how you got Red Rush’s number!”
“Yeah.
Honestly, I really overestimated myself that time,” I admitted.
“That thing was damn strong.
If the Immortal and War Woman hadn’t shown up when they did, I’d have been in real trouble.”
“Still, jumping straight into the big leagues is fucking awesome, dude!
I’m actually jealous.
My ‘Big Hero Time’ didn’t end so well.”
“Don’t worry, you’ll make your mark on the world,” I encouraged her.
“Besides, you’ve got a really cool power.
Rearranging matter on an atomic level.
Honestly, I think it’s even cooler than mine.”
“Pfft, you think?” She waved dismissively, but she was clearly pleased by the compliment.
“By the way, what exactly are your powers?”
“Well, a pretty classic set.
Strength, speed, durability, flight.
Pretty boring and basic, when you think about it.”
“Yeah,” Eve agreed.
“A comic book with a hero like that, without any special gimmick, wouldn’t sell anymore.”
She had a point.
In a world where the most diverse superheroes can live in your city, comics have to be even flashier just to get noticed.
Superman, for all the similarities between Krypton and Viltrum, probably wouldn’t be very successful in this world’s market.
You need something more distinctive and catchy.
Spider-Man, for example, would have a better chance, especially if you introduced his hot girlfriends right away.
Though the name itself could use a change.
“Spider-Man,” pfft, the only lazier name would be “Superman.”
“So you ran away from home,” I returned to the previous topic as we approached my house.
“Where are you living now?”
“With the doc.” She stumbled again, still unsure how to call Elias.
“And the others.
So you can calm your hero complex.
I’m fine.”
“Sure.”
“But…
if you want.
If it bothers you that much, you could come visit us sometime.” Was that an attempt to find an excuse to continue hanging out?
“Why not,” I agreed.
“I’ll see how you’re settled in, properly meet your brothers and sisters.
I’m sure when they’re not trying to kill you, they’re less…
creepy.”
“Only slightly,” Eve smirked.
“Their social skills…” She waved her hand near her skirt hem, indicating rock bottom.
And each one has a mile-long chip on their shoulder.
Think about it.
They spent their whole lives in tubes in that horrible lab.”
“Yeah, I can’t imagine how much effort it takes to look after all of them.”
“Um, the doc manages somehow.
And Tommy keeps an eye on the younger ones.”
Tommy must be Number Two.
We’d reached my house, and the conversation stalled a bit.
“Well, nice talking to you,” I broke the silence.
“I should go explain about the fight to my parents.”
“Yeah, good luck,” she replied.
Then, after looking around and making sure no one was watching, she transformed her clothes back into her costume and flew into the air.
“See you at school.”
How careless.
It seemed legalizing her powers with the government and running away from home had gone to her head.
Though she’d been pretty careless in my past life too.
She didn’t even wear a mask, just relying on luck.
Most of the time it worked.
William, for instance, never figured out that my friend Eve was a superhero.
But honestly, I envied the ease with which she used her powers.
If it weren’t for my father and the potential risks to Mom, I’d probably stop caring about secrecy too.
It would be cool not to worry and use my super speed and flight whenever I wanted.
Many people, in fact, do that.
Especially various “heroes for hire.” And although incidents happen, most of the time they get away with it.
*
*
*
And so I didn’t get away with a school fight.
As soon as I entered the house, from Mom’s hands-on-hips, furious tyrant look, I knew someone had already told her about my involvement in the fight.
And although even the principal and other teachers begrudgingly admitted my motives were right, for using my fists again instead of calling an adult, I was punished again.
Nolan just watched the disciplinary process with a helpless look.
When I looked to him for help, snap out of it, you conqueror, they’re trying to raise your son to be a pushover, he just looked away.
Man.
Another week of house arrest.
How great it is to be a teenager.
***
The surprises didn’t end there.
Another consequence of the fight was the beginning of a friendship between Hiesler and William.
William, probably sensing the kid’s depressed psychological state, made the first move.
Richard, having lost almost all his old friends, was ready to cling to anyone who wanted to hang out with him.
I’m not against it.
Less of William’s clinginess in my life and less chance of Richard committing suicide.
Everyone wins.
Even Derek, the bully, unknowingly benefited.
Though he was the only survivor of Jacob Hiesler’s kidnapping, and I managed to save him, the surgery on his body still happened.
Derek became a freak, a “human organic bomb,” for the rest of his life.
Not to mention it closed the door to professional sports for him.
In this world, due to the incredibly huge number of ways for athletes to enhance themselves, doping commissions and sports regulations in general are extremely strict about any deviations from the norm.
Besides that, Eve and I started talking constantly at school.
The very next day, when she sat down at our previously all-male cafeteria table, the guys were in culture shock.
And not just them.
Many people were looking our way after yesterday.
When Eve started moving toward our table in front of everyone, I felt like the hero of a teen comedy.
You know, when the hottest girl in school approaches the geeks’ table, and the whole cafeteria freezes.
Except we’re not exactly geeks, and Eve isn’t the hottest girl yet.
“Uh, um…” Hiesl bit his tongue, staring at Samantha in confusion.
He was speechless from the proximity of a girl.
He was still a teenager just entering puberty.
He could be forgiven.
William was calmer in this regard, understandable given his hidden inclinations, but no less surprised.
“Have a seat,” I said, moving my tray to give Eve a little more space across from me.
“Uh, um, do you two know each other?” William jumped in, looking from me to Sam and back.
His surprise was understandable.
He knew all my school friends pretty well, they were his friends too, and Eve definitely wasn’t one of them.
And I hadn’t told William about what happened the other day.
He couldn’t have learned about my involvement in the terrorist attack through TV like last time either.
Even if I’d been caught on camera, William had never seen me in costume.
“We met yesterday,” I nodded.
“Samantha Eve Wilkins,” the girl introduced herself.
“But just Eve is fine.
My friends call me that.”
“Richard Hiesler,” Richard said, only stumbling once.
“Can I call you just Will and Rick?” Eve immediately responded.
Oh no.
Here we go.
“No, I’d still prefer William,” William immediately refused.
“Yes, of course,” Hiesler agreed.
“Um, okay, Wi-lliam,” Eve said, drawing out his name and pursing her lips.
“What?
You got something to say about my name?
You think I can’t be called William?” Oh great, here we go again.
What an idiot.
He could just agree to Will.
It’s a normal shortening.
I don’t insist on being called Marcus.
Eve doesn’t insist on Samantha, even though she hates her first name.
That’s why she’s Atom Eve, not Atom Sam.
“Call yourself whatever you want, Wi-lliam.” Whoa.
She did it again.
I didn’t know Eve was so combative as a kid.
“Enough.” I kicked William under the table, warning him not to start another speech about the importance of his full name.
Damn, she didn’t even come here for you.
Calm down.
“What…
don’t shush me!” William snapped at me and demonstratively moved half a meter away.
Oh, please.
“By the way,” I said to Eve, turning away from my friend.
“I can’t visit your brothers for the next week.
My mom found out about yesterday’s fight somehow, and I’m grounded until the weekend.”
“Seriously?” Eve was amazed.
I could practically see my image as a confident, mighty superhero crumbling in her mind as she realized that Mommy could punish me.
Though, it was funny to me too.
“That’s a total bummer.”
“As you can see, you’re not the only one with problematic parents.” Heh.
If only she knew the scale of the problems with my parents.
With my father, to be precise.
“Damn, dude,” Hiesler said with a sad face, his fresh bruises only adding to the effect.
“I’m so sorry.
It’s because of me you got in trouble.”
“Forget it.
I knew what I was getting into.
And I definitely knew how Debbie would react.”
***
Overall, except for William acting like an idiot again with his name hang-up, Eve fit right into the new group and became a permanent member.
Which was expected.
She turned out to be quite a tomboy.
She was just beginning to realize her female sexuality and hadn’t yet learned to use it to manipulate the opposite sex.
Though I’d be lying if I said Eve ever resorted to that in my memory.
But I don’t remember that much.
Surprisingly, Mom’s punishment didn’t ruin my week at all.
Learning that I couldn’t leave the house, Eve offered to come visit me herself.
She shocked my mother, who immediately suspected something more was behind this sudden friendship.
In her imagination, my two recent fights were immediately linked to the appearance of a new girlfriend.
But she still didn’t stop the girl from coming over.
She probably decided it was better if I was here under her watch than out there somewhere, unknown where and with whom.
We spent half a day just playing on the console, beating the best sequel in gaming history in co-op, and talking about what we couldn’t talk about at school.
About our abilities, about what we were going to do in the future.
Little, slightly funny Eve, her eyes sparkling, told me she was thinking of joining some teen team.
Of course, she tried to convince me to do it with her, completely refusing to understand my reluctance to become part of such a group.
And of course, we did homework together too.
Our assignments were very similar, even though we only shared one class.
Eve, predictably, turned out to be queen of chemistry.
She did well in other subjects too, unlike William, whom I constantly had to tutor.
The next day, with William and Richard joining us, the number of guests tripled.
Now it was my father who was giving me pitiful looks.
Serves him right for keeping quiet when his son was being punished for battle valor.
He’d know better now.
No costumes in the house while I’m grounded.
The guys didn’t think to bring their own controllers, but fortunately Eve “found” two brand new ones behind my TV, with suspiciously pink logos in the shape of Rutherford’s atomic model.
The four of us had a Mortal Kombat tournament.
Eve easily beat the boys but lost to my absolutely cheating reaction speed.
Then we all played some Left 4 Dead 2.
Yes.
That was probably the most fun week of my second childhood.