It's great that I got my new, "actually fit for a superhero" suit, but it's a shame I haven't gotten a chance to use it yet.

Metroville's been surprisingly quiet for the past two weeks. No crime has been reported, Mr. and Mrs. Parr haven't been called for anything. Which is a good thing, since no crime means hopefully no people getting hurt, but I must admit that things have been a little boring as a result.

Since we haven't been needed out in the city, it's like I'm back to being your average, introverted teen girl. On the weekdays, I get up for school, suffer through it, then come home and finish homework. I haven't been able to hang out with Dash much since track practice really kicked up for his team. They've needed to stay afterschool, run and do whatever it is track teams do in preparation for the track meet that was happening later this week on Saturday. I was excited for him, and already decided to go with his family to go see his team perform, but we haven't been seeing each other much for a while funnily enough.

It's mainly because after practice, his teammates have wanted to spend time with him. Dash later told me it's because they thought he was so fixated on me that he forgot he had other friends. They missed their boy.

Even though I laughed it off and told Dash that they were half-right, we have been spending a lot of time together, it stung. I encouraged him to spend more time with his friends, because he absolutely should, but it bothered me that I was really taking all of his attention for the past...few months. Sheesh.

Dash hanging out with his bros and having "guy time" would do him good. I unfortunately don't have any girls to have "girl time" with, or virtually any friends outside of Dash, so I've been left with staying home a lot more. Auntie hasn't minded at least, but my boredom has been so great that I've taken to actually reading my textbooks from class.

After I realized I read a full two chapters in my math book that my class won't be getting to for another few weeks, I knew I had to go outside and do something. I couldn't spend the rest of the day like this. As a bonus, it was raining right now, and that only motivated me to take a walk even more.

"Auntie, is it alright if I go out for a walk around the block? I want to enjoy the rain." I asked her after I stepped into the living room. She was currently sitting on the couch, reading a book.

"Oh- sure dear. Just make sure to dress up. And bring your phone with you too."

"I will." I promptly headed back to my room. I grabbed my umbrella, raincoat, and boots, but I made sure to put my suit on underneath my clothing first...just in case.

As I walked out of the front door, Auntie called from behind me "Don't go off too far!" and I nodded my head to show I heard. I locked the front door and closed it behind me, then started my trek out onto the sidewalk.

I didn't need an umbrella, but I couldn't just walk around with water levitating above my head, as funny as that would be. I extended my umbrella and listened to the sound of the rain drops striking it and the surroundings around me as I walked. There weren't any cars passing by at the moment, so it was quiet. Serene.

I turned left at the stop sign at the end of the street, and walked down towards the small, old park that wasn't too far from our house. It was about the size of a moderate building in space and there was only a bench in it with no playground for kids to romp in, so hardly anyone went there. I remember seeing a sign somewhere in it that it was bought property and thus would either be repurposed or completely torn up with something being built on top of it. Either way, it didn't matter.

From what I've seen, people who wanted to go to a park went to the large one Dash and I went to all those months ago. When we...confessed to each other.

My heart started to pick up in pace as warmth spread throughout my body, and I couldn't stop the smile from spreading across my face. That was a few months ago, but I could still remember it vividly like it just happened yesterday. It's funny to think I've crushed on Dash for years, but I never believed I would befriend him, let alone he return my feelings. But both happened.

Life's awful, but when things like that work out, it makes it worth living.

When I reached the park, I sat down on the bench and continued to listen to the rain for a some minutes. It was a little windy too, and the additional sound added to the overall ambience. If I didn't know Auntie would be worried about me, I could probably sit out here all day. Glued to this seat...

...Wait. Glue. That reminds me...

Checking to see if I was alone first, I held my fingers out and gathered a cluster of raindrops to gather and coalesce into a mass of water. Then, I played around with it for a bit.

I made water as sticky as glue once accidently when I was younger, then decided to use it like actual glue to see if it worked. It didn't. I somehow reverted it back and ended up with two soggy sheets of paper in the end. But me changing the properties of water in such a way that raised its viscosity and made it like an adhesive...that could be useful to me now. For things outside of school assignments.

But only if I can replicate it. Attempting it now, I kept freezing it. I frowned as unfroze it again and again, repeatedly failing to only solidify it. This was tricky. I'm so used to just going past the point of liquid and straight to solid, that I haven't practiced reaching the figurative "tangible" point between the two of them.

Finally, after around 10 minutes, I made progress. I made the water thicker, and slightly sticky, but it had the strength of a sticker's adhesive and not of strong glue. Oh well. At least I got somewhere.

Figuring I've been here for too long, I stood up and begun the trip back home. A second later, I nearly fell back down when the ground suddenly shook under my feet. I grabbed the back of the bench to steady myself, and looked around rapidly.

Was that an earthquake or something? My surroundings were calm, so I wondered if I imagined it...but when another tremor happened, I knew I wasn't. What's more, I heard the distant blaring of car alarms in the city.

I stood still for another minute, but no more tremors happened. I did however hear a strange sound in the air above me, so I looked up, and squinted. Since it was raining, it was overcast with bulky grey clouds hiding the sky completely from sight. Yet, there was something flying despite the poor weather conditions. It wasn't a plane or a jet...it was too human-shaped. What's more, I'm sure I could make out the shape of a cape billowing out behind them. I couldn't make anything else out though, and I lost my chance altogether when they flew upwards and disappeared above the clouds.

Clearly, that was a Super. But I didn't know any who lived in or around Metroville that wore capes. Edna was the primary suit maker here, and she had a strict "no capes" policy for good reason. Even a lot of Supers around the world learned why she hated capes and, thinking it would be wise, removed them from their suits. Either that particular one didn't get the memo, or they felt a cape would do them good.

Regardless...I wonder why they were here. It typically wasn't unwelcome for other Supers to visit a town or city to help out with crime, but usually everyone stuck to their own areas. The Incredibles and Frozone were the only ones to tend to Metroville these days, and Dash at least never told me about other Supers visiting the city for a while.

Maybe it wasn't a big deal and I was just thinking too much, but for some reason, I had a bad feeling about this.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Stepping up onto the porch, I used my key to unlock the door, and saw my aunt standing in the kitchen.

"Hi dear. Are you alright? Those vibrations earlier were something." Concern was clear in her expression.

"Yeah. They didn't do anything to me, other than almost make me trip. Are you ok Auntie?"

"Fine. I was sitting down when they happened. I turned the TV on to a news channel, and they're reporting it right now." She gestured to it.

"It seems to have been seismic activity of some sort, but officials are still looking into it."

"I see..." I looked closely at the screen. The scrolling text below the header said "STRANGE QUAKES BELIEVED TO HAVE ORIGINATED SOMEWHERE OUT IN SOUTH BAY".

South Bay...that was the sea stretching in front of Municiberg. Strange.

"Now that you're here safe and sound, I need to go run a few errands. Hopefully no more quakes happen." She grabbed her purse off of the coffee table.

"I should be back in about an hour."

"Ok." I watched she walk into the garage and close the door behind her, and faced the TV screen again. The reporters moved onto talking about something else that didn't interest me, so I turned the TV off and went to my room. As I heard the garage open then close, I placed my umbrella down on the edge of my bed and moved to take my raincoat off.

I jumped when the doorbell suddenly rang. Instantly unsettled since my aunt just left, leaving me home alone, I hesitantly walked back out of my room and back to the living room.

On the ground below the front door, was a rectangular package. Someone pushed it through the mail slot. Before I grabbed it though, I peeked through the curtains to see outside. There wasn't anyone on the porch, or in the front yard.

To ease my paranoia, I went to check the backyard too. It was empty.

So, this was just a mail delivery. More at ease, I picked up the package...and froze at the name printed on the label. It was my name. This was for me? I haven't ordered anything, and nothing on the label indicated it was from school or something.

...I might as well open it. I went back to my room and sat on my bed, tearing the yellow envelope's exterior to get into whatever was inside. Right away, it appeared to be some device. I pulled it out.

It was thin and lightweight, having a large screen. I surveyed it and upon finding the power button, I pushed it.

The screen came alive. Blue circles traveled from the edges of the screen to the center, and it immediately reminded me of those trippy effects a lot of sci-fi movies used. But, I don't think this thing was going to play me a movie.

In the center of the screen, the words 'HOLD STILL' blinked. I didn't fully register them before a bright flash made me flinch, and I closed my eyes.

"SCAN COMPLETE." A computerized voice from the machine played, and my eyes snapped open. A small cylinder extended from the top of the machine, and rotated as a line of blue light traced the shape of my room.

"AREA SECURE. BEGINNING MESSEGE." The screen changed, and on came the scene of a desk in an office. A man wearing a suit was seated at it.

"Hello, Y/N L/N!" He greeted pleasantly, and my heart skipped a beat.

I knew who this man was. I've seen him on TV dozens of times.

"Yes, I know your name. It's alright."

Winston Deavor leaned forward with his hands clamped, staring at whatever was recording him with a smile. However, there was something somber about it, which threw me off. All the times I've seen Winston Deavor act, he always seemed so upbeat.

What threw me off even more, was how he even knew my name. As the recording went on, I listened keenly.

"Your identity's safe with me. I have no interest in allowing an innocent teenage girl to be harassed or harmed, which is the reason why I'm doing this. Now, please pay close attention, as this message will not be repeated."

...Oh no.

"I'm sure you're aware by now that your parents have disappeared. It turns out, the both of them have gotten involved with a certain organization. A dangerous one, that the NSA and I have been trying to crack down on for the last few years. They've operated mainly in the shadows across dozens of cities around the world, so we've kept it hush-hush among our ranks, but recently it seems they're starting to step into the light. I'm sure you've noticed the occurrences that have taken place in Metroville for the past handful of months."

Winston straightened his back some, and I sensed the atmosphere change. My stomach was churning.

"While we know your mother is associated with the group, we haven't yet discovered her exact relationship with them, nor have we pinpointed her location. What we have done however, is learn virtually everything we needed to know about your father and his involvement, thanks to a secret agent of ours."

Mirage! He had to be talking about her. So that letter and card...

"Let me get to the point here. We fear that your safety is greatly compromised, as we have our suspicions that this organization is currently searching for you. Likely to get rid of loose ends related to your parents."

My breath hitched.

"How you've left your original home and are staying in your current residence has thankfully hindered their search, as has your father having the decency to try and keep all of your personal information secret, but we believe this fortune will soon run out. Maybe it already has, and we're racing against time. But, we wish to protect you from harm."

This all was so much to take in...

"I want to reassure you that you don't need to worry. At the minimum, your current residence is being monitored 24/7 by our team. We don't want any harm to come to your aunt either."

Finally, Winston's tone changed to become more humorous.

"You might be wondering why Metroville Police and other forces haven't gotten involved. To be blunt, we don't want them to, so we haven't mentioned anything to them. We think they wouldn't try to be discreet about things at all, and...we have strong beliefs that the organization will be too much for them to handle. A super problem requires a super solution after all!"

My expression fell a bit at that. It both comforted me and bothered me that the police wouldn't be getting involved, because I frankly trusted Deavor more than the local department, but I had some fear that the police would jeopardize things if they kept doing their own separate investigations. It couldn't be helped I guess.

"You can take further comfort in knowing that the Incredibles will also be watching over you. If you're watching this recording after immediately receiving the package, I should be briefing Elastigirl and Mr. Incredible about this as I speak to you here. We know you've gotten close to them and their family...Whirlpool."

A playful gleam entered the man's eyes, and I gasped.

"Well! That's all I have to share with you for now. Just keep going about your days as you normally would. We have things under control, and hopefully, you won't have to get involved in this at all. I know you're an inexperienced superhero, and I would rather avoid having to put you on a hypothetical battlefield if I can. I feel you're more suited for stopping gas station robberies with the Incredibles' help over fighting a criminal syndicate."

Winston sat up straight, smiling.

"If I have to rely information to you again, I'll send another tablet like this one. Or, maybe we'll meet face-to-face sometime in the future. It all depends on how things develop. Until then!"

The screen cut to black and went silent. I was left in a stupefied haze.

...I guess I shouldn't be surprised that Deavor knows my true identity. Maybe the Parrs told him, or he has connections that let him figure it out. Either way, I'm glad it's someone trustworthy like him who knows and not some literal random stranger.

But, geez. I really am in a bad spot. The people my parents were working with are trying to hunt me down at this very moment. I shivered as chills went down my spine.

I'm safe here though. Deavor did say the house was being monitored, which...was spooky in a way, but I had faith that his team had benevolent intentions. School though...Auntie doesn't know the situation is this dire for me, so she's not going to be happy if I try to stay in the house and skip classes. Should I tell her about all of this?

About me being a super? I don't know, but at this point, I think I don't have a choice. The idea terrified me though...

"THIS DEVICE WILL NOW SELF-DESTRUCT."

The computerized voice snapped me from my train of thought, and I looked down at the screen to see a countdown from 5 begin. I froze.

'2...1...'

It made a 'bzzrt' noise like it short-circuited, and the entire device broke cleanly in half. I stared at the halves with wide eyes.

That was a pretty tame self-destruction. I'm thankful it didn't explode, but then again, I doubted Deavor would've sent something like that to me.

I probably shouldn't just throw this away into a trash can, so I placed the pieces back into the envelope they came in and hid it in my closet. I fell onto my bed with a hefty sigh, and felt more tired in that instant than I have in ages.

Deavor said that me living here with my aunt now and not in my old house messed with that group's plans to find me. I'm only here because I had to go to the hospital, after I got stabbed. I guess that's a good thing that came from that horrible event. The other good thing though...Dash.

I reached over to grab my phone, and pulled up Dash's number in my contacts to call him.

... ... ...

... ... ...

"Hello?" Just when I thought it would go to voicemail, he answered.

"Hey. You busy right now?" I asked, fiddling with a loose thread in my blanket. My stomach was churning.

"No. Sorry to take so long to answer, I couldn't find my phone for a sec." He tsked. "What's up?"

"...A lot." I gripped my blanket.

"I...don't want to share it over the phone. Can you come over?"