She let out a slight moan from the impact that sounded extremely cute.
Both of us stayed looking at each other for several seconds making eye contact that felt quite awkward for both.
“Mmmm I think you should get off me” said the girl whose face was flushed while unconsciously stretching her lips upward.
I handled the slight nerves I felt and got off the girl as quickly as possible.
First I looked in all directions to check that no one in the building had seen me in such an awkward situation.
But it was 10 at night. There was not a soul walking around the complex only the lights on each floor and the freezing winter wind.
When I looked back at the girl she was already about to stand up so I offered her my hand extending it as much as I could.
“How chivalrous for a complaining neighbor” said the gray eyed girl accepting my hand and finishing standing up completely.
I did not know how to respond to that.
Should I apologize? Should I tell her she had tried to hit me while invisible? Too many options and none seemed right.
The girl turned back toward the door before it closed from the wind force and held it with her hand.
For a few seconds she said nothing. She only looked me up and down as if evaluating whether she should keep fighting me or not.
“Come in” she said finally.
“What?” I asked immediately.
Not because I had not understood. I had understood perfectly. The problem was that my brain was not accepting the information.
An invisible girl who exercised as if she wanted to destroy the building had just invited me into her apartment after trying to hit me multiple times in the hallway.
That did not sound like the start of a civilized conversation.
“I said come in” she repeated while stepping aside leaving the door open. “I am not going to keep talking in the hallway like someone is selling me life insurance.”
I stayed still for several seconds.
Entering the apartment of a neighbor I barely knew and who had powers was an extremely dangerous decision. But on the other hand I might be close to getting a job in a superhero agency if she worked as a superhero.
Besides I also had powers. Fire powers. Although I still did not know if they were useful for anything more than shooting small flames from my fingers that probably did not burn at all.
“I am only going in because I do not want the neighbors to hear the whole conversation” I said trying to sound like a serious mature and rational person.
The girl raised an eyebrow. “Sure champion.”
I entered with caution taking slow steps as if I were entering the lair of a final boss.
The girl’s apartment was almost the same size as mine but completely different in use.
My apartment looked like the room of someone trying to survive with the bare minimum.
Hers looked like a mix between a clandestine gym a military training zone and an abandoned laundry room.
There was a punching bag hanging in the middle of the living room a mat on the floor several weights thrown in a corner empty water bottles a towel completely soaked in sweat and a chair where a dark blue jacket with a small emblem on the shoulder rested.
The emblem looked familiar but I could not identify it right away.
There was also too much steam and it felt more like the hot air of a cheap sauna.
“Why does your apartment look like an industrial kitchen?” I asked looking around with no irony.
“Because I train with the heating on high” she answered closing the door behind me. “It helps with resistance.”
“It also helps make your neighbors think you are cooking for a giant.”
She let out a short almost forced laugh but quickly returned to her serious expression. “I train here because I do not like going to gyms.”
“I already noticed that.”
The girl walked to the center of the room and picked up a water bottle from the floor. She drank several long gulps while I tried not to look too much at her white t-shirt stuck to her body from the sweat.
I was trying. I really was trying. But my eyes were betraying my brain.
The t-shirt was too big but at the same time so soaked that it was not functioning as clothing but rather as a declaration of war against my concentration.
I looked toward the punching bag to keep my composure. A cautious man is worth two and a man who looks too much ends up getting hit by a woman.
“Why do you not like going to gyms?” I asked trying to resume the conversation in a mature way.
She lowered the bottle and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “Because people look too much.”
I did not know if she said it because of her powers because of her physique or because she had the habit of solving problems with punches. Maybe all three at the same time.
“I understand” I said nodding slowly. I did not fully understand but it was better to pretend I did.
“Besides...” She seemed about to say something more but stopped.
“Besides what?”
“Nothing.”
Clearly it was not nothing. There was something in her tone that sounded like a door locking shut.
Maybe she was embarrassed to be seen training because of her physique. Maybe her invisibility powers had caused her problems. Or maybe in a gym she had already knocked someone unconscious for saying something inappropriate.
Knowing the last five minutes of my life the third option was not impossible.
“Well even so you could try putting something on the walls to muffle the sound” I said pointing at the punching bag. “I do not know foam mats anything that does not make my ceiling sound like they are demolishing the building.”
The girl smiled slightly again.
It was strange to see her smile after seeing her furious at the door. Her gray eyes changed a lot when she was not trying to murder me with invisible punches.
“My name is Vanessa” she said finally.
Vanessa. Good. Now I had the name of the neighbor who almost sent me to meet God for complaining about a little silence.
“Oliver” I replied.
“I already knew that.”
“How did you already know?”
“The walls are thin. You talk in your sleep.”
My stomach tightened slightly. Shit. I thought that was a lie to make me leave.
“What things do I say while sleeping?” I asked trying to sound calm.
Vanessa looked at me in silence for several seconds as if deciding whether to destroy me psychologically or spare my life.
“Weird things.”
“Define weird.”
“Once you said that a bear should not pay taxes.”
I brought a hand to my face. That sounded like something I would say completely asleep.
“You also said something about a goddess of your powers.”
I froze completely. That was no longer funny. I had only received the powers an hour ago. It was impossible that while sleeping I talked about my powers.
“Maybe you heard wrong” I said trying to play dumb. “Maybe I said goddess of my debts.”
“That does not make sense.”
Vanessa crossed her arms and walked slowly toward the chair where the dark blue jacket was. As she moved the t-shirt clung even more to her body and I looked away toward the ceiling.
The ceiling had a crack. Very interesting crack.
“And what do you do for work?” I asked to change the subject before she started interrogating me about my powers.
She grabbed the jacket but did not put it on. She only held it between her fingers. She hesitated for a second. It was a very clear hesitation.
“I work at the New Kroy Superhero Agency” she said at the end.
My brain took a second to process it. The New Kroy Superhero Agency. That was the third superhero agency in the city.
The smallest of the three but also one of the most controversial. I had seen them in ads on metro screens and commercials where they promised security immediate response and citizen protection.
Although in internet comments half the people said they were low budget heroes and the other half said they were less useful than the police.
“You work at an agency...” I said slowly.
“Yes.”
“As a heroine?”
Vanessa made a face.
“Something like that.”
That something like that did not sit well with me. People who say something like that are usually hiding something humiliating or dangerous.
“Do you have a team?” I asked.
“No.”
“But I thought agencies always put superhumans in teams. You know the strong guy the fast guy the girl who heals the weird one who controls insects and the millionaire without powers who pays for the damages.”
“That is for the ads” she said sitting on the arm of the sofa. “My role is support.”
“What kind of support?”
“Observation infiltration rescue search tracking. Things where my power is more useful than my fists.”
I looked at the punching bag. The bag moved slightly from the wind coming through a poorly closed window.
“Your fists seem pretty interested in contradicting that.”
“I train so I do not depend only on my power.”
That made sense. If an invisible person did not know how to fight they were just a hard to see person getting hit.
Vanessa tilted her head a little. “Now it is my turn to ask.”
“What is your gift?”
“Being a human with lots of debts tiredness noisy neighbors and an almost empty fridge. That is my gift.”
“A normal human does not dodge invisible punches in a narrow hallway.”
“Maybe you punch really badly.”
The temperature in the room seemed to drop. Vanessa looked at me. I looked at her too. I had made a mistake. A small one the size of a bomb.
“Repeat that?” she asked.
“No.”
“That is what I thought.”
She got up from the sofa and began walking around me slowly as if analyzing me from different angles.
The situation was uncomfortable.
Way too uncomfortable.
The t-shirt clung to her body the steam in the apartment made her skin shine with sweat and her gray eyes did not stop looking at me as if trying to pierce my skull to read my personal information.
“Your reflexes are not normal” she said.
“I work in children’s entertainment. You have to dodge kids with cake balloons kicks and drunk parents.”
“That explains nothing.”
“It explains my situation.”
Vanessa got a little closer. We were at a distance where I could feel the heat of her body from the training.
She lifted her t-shirt a bit to wipe the sweat from her neck and for a second showed her defined abs.
Not exaggerated like a bodybuilder but clearly defined in a way that made it obvious her training was not a hobby.
She did it casually or maybe not. Her gaze did not leave me. Was she provoking me? No. Maybe yes.
I cannot underestimate a woman who can turn invisible.
“What?” she asked with a small smile.
“Nothing.”
“You seem nervous.”
“I am in the apartment of a girl who tried to hit me while invisible less than ten minutes ago. Complete calm would be a sign of madness.”
Vanessa took another step. “Just because of that?” Now she was definitely playing. It was obvious.
I do not know if she wanted to intimidate me provoke me or check if she could make me lose concentration but one thing was clear.
I could not let her win so easily. I could play this game too.
I took a deep breath lowered my shoulders a bit and got close enough that she had to look up slightly.
Then I took the bottom edge of my red t-shirt and wiped the sweat from my forehead lifting it enough to show part of my abdomen.
I did not have a perfect advertising superhero body but dancing inside a bear costume for hours was not exactly an office job.
My muscles were there. Vanessa stayed silent. Her eyes lowered for a second.
“I can play this game too” I said calmly.
Her face changed. First surprise then annoyance then a blush she tried to hide by turning her face to the side.
It worked.
I do not know how but it worked.
For a moment I felt an absurd small and stupid victory but a victory nonetheless.
Then Vanessa turned around walked toward the punching bag and hit it so hard that the bag flew backward.
BAM!
The chain squeaked. I took a step back by instinct.
“Was that necessary?” I asked.
“Yes because tomorrow I do not want to remember that a complaining neighbor provoked me in my own apartment.”
“Then you will remember it even stronger.”
Another hit.
BAM!
The bag swung violently.
Vanessa was still flushed but tried to hide it by unloading her frustration on the poor object.
“It is already late” she said without looking at me. “We will continue talking tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?”
“Yes.”
“Why tomorrow?”
Vanessa stopped the bag with one hand and finally turned toward me. Her expression was no longer playful.
Now it was serious. “Because clearly you are not a normal human.”
“Do you have a team?” she asked.
“Team?”
“Yes. Superhuman team. Agency. Registration. Trainer. Supervisor. Whatever.”
I stayed silent. I could not tell her the full truth.
I could not tell her that my powers had awakened a few hours ago while I was in a bubble filled bathtub.
That did not sound believable in a world where you are either born with superpowers or not.
Vanessa walked toward the door and opened it.
The cold wind from the hallway entered immediately clashing with the hot air of the apartment.
“Go to sleep Oliver.”
I approached the door trying to maintain a dignified posture.
“And if you start hitting the bag again?”
“I will not.”
“Promise from an invisible neighbor?”
“Promise that if you keep bothering me I will throw you out the window.”
I went out into the hallway. Before I could go down the stairs Vanessa spoke again.
“And Oliver.”
I turned. She was leaning on the door frame still with the soaked white t-shirt and her gray eyes fixed on me.
“Tomorrow I want an answer.”
I swallowed.
“About what?”
“About what kind of superhuman you are.”
I did not answer because even I did not know. The door closed slowly in front of me. I stayed in the hallway for several seconds listening to the silence.
For the first time all night there were no hits. Only my breathing and my heart pounding as if the punching bag was now inside my chest.
I went down the stairs toward my apartment thinking about one thing.
Maybe complaining about the noise had been the worst decision of my life.
Or maybe the first one that brought me closer to becoming someone important.