Archive of Our Own ^beta

Maestro and Archangel’s final confrontation against the creatures that have been terrorizing the city for years is televised.

Of course, it’s very difficult to actually see anything. It’s dark, other than the occasional bright flash that blinds the camera more than illuminates the battle.

All the public knows is that there’s a massive explosion, and Maestro is gone, and the creatures are destroyed or gone along with him.

Everything is quiet, for a moment.

Archangel flies down and announces to the film crew that the threat is permanently dealt with, that the rift the creatures and their leader use to get to Earth has been closed, and then he, too, disappears. Or, as the media puts it, retires, since that’s more reassuring than your hero abandoning you as soon as the big bad is defeated.

Jannik remembers Archangel addressing the public more than the fight itself. Maestro had made a couple statements to the world in the past, but it’s the first time that most people had ever heard Archangel speak, Jannik included.

His voice had been steady. Confident in what he had been saying. Jannik could hear the grief loud and clear underneath it all.

Sometimes, it seemed like nobody else did. Sometimes, Jannik wonders what it would feel like to lose your partner of almost a decade in a moment, sacrificed for the greater good. He isn’t sure he would be able to handle it, which is why he feels a vague pang of irritation once it becomes clear that Archangel is gone and the headlines all read retires. The word doesn’t encapsulate everything that Archangel must have been going through when he left the stage.

It doesn’t take as long as Jannik thinks it should for society to revert back to the same normal it had known before superheroes and evil creatures from somewhere else came onto the scene. There’s not as much of a crime spike as people had predicted, maybe because the whispers of new vigilantes on the streets taking up the fight for good are true, or maybe because things were just left better by the heroes.

Jannik believes in the latter. He’s not ashamed to admit that he always looked up to them, fantasizing about joining them in their fight when he was young and respecting the good work they did (and maybe following the reports of their activity as closely as he was able) when he got older.

Of course, there’s no reason for superheroes to exist anymore, and even if there was, there’s no chance he could become one. He gets into his top choice school and goes to university. He makes friends, gets good grades, does research, starts thinking about grad school.

Just before he starts his third year, he goes to sleep in his apartment.

He dreams.

He dreams he is in a grassland of some sort, or maybe it’s closer to a desert. A few trees, limbs twisted and reaching wide, dot the horizon. Dark clouds are rolling in; a storm is coming.

Lightning strikes in the distance.

His skin erupts in goosebumps as a twin spark shoots down his spine, too lifelike to be conjured by his consciousness, and yet he knows this is not real life.

Jannik is suddenly very, very, scared. If this is not a dream, and this is not real life….

There is a figure in the distance, approaching with the storm.

It’s hard to describe them as they get closer, as they stop a stone’s throw away from Jannik. Their form is constantly twitching, shifting from some being like an Egyptian god, a man’s body and a fox’s head, to a wholly human woman, to a bolt of lightning, a pillar of fire, a pillar of fire erupting from a human figure, a fox whose coat seems to be made of flame, finally settling on the woman again, even if her hair seems to spark and her eyes are glowing orange.

Thunder rumbles in the distance. Jannik must have missed the preceding lightning.

She wears a simple brown dress that whips in the growing wind, a complement to her hair, the same shade and moving in tandem.

“Hello, Jannik Sinner,” she says, and it sounds as if she is speaking directly in his ear, no wind or distance between them at all. “I am Acacia. I need your help.”

Jannik can’t find it in himself to speak, or move, or do much of anything except stand there and stare at her.

Acacia sighs. “Y’know, whenever Hysmine pulled something like this and used the whole great-and-powerful schtick, she always got a response on the first try. I do the same thing, I get my guy staring at me like he just peed his pants. I guess that’s why she told me to just be myself. Fine. Hey, Jannik, wanna be a superhero?”

That pulls him out of his stupor just enough to manage a response. “What?”

Acacia frowns. “I guess I should probably explain a little bit more, huh? Well, you know Archangel and Maestro. I’m the same type of thing that gave them their powers, and I’ve been picking up…something. All I can really tell right now is that the vibes are bad, and somebody needs to figure out what’s going on and probably also put a stop to it. I’m asking for your help to do it. You’re a funny little guy, Jannik, and I think you’d be perfect for the job. Well, maybe not perfect, nobody is, but good enough. I’ll do my best to train you, and then we can go and punch bad guys together. What do you say?”

Jannik has no idea what to say. He’s starting to think that this might just be a hyper realistic hallucination of some kind, but just in case this is somehow real, he should probably take it seriously. “I do have a choice here, right? I haven’t just been chosen against my will?”

“Oh, of course. I’ve got a whole list of people who are good enough for the job. You are by no means required to take up this responsibility if you don’t want to. It’s gonna be a lot, and probably very dangerous, and very isolating. I’d totally understand if you wanted me to skip you for the position.”

Even with that warning, even after how often he thought about how Maestro and Archangel must have lead terrible lives, it takes Jannik almost no time to find his answer.

“Okay, I’ll do it.”

Acacia freezes for a second. “Really? Wow, I wasn’t expecting I would get a yes my first try. Alright, then. Do you want to start now?”

Jannik smiles. “Why not?”

Jannik wakes up.

When he opens his eyes, there is a fox sitting in his bed, staring at him.

Its coat is a bright orange, unnaturally so, and it doesn’t seem as if it quite fits the texture of fur, maybe more like fire, or something crystalline, or maybe Jannik just isn’t wearing his glasses. It wears a collar that looks to be made of leather strips woven together.

Its eyes are dark and endless.

It opens its mouth in a gesture that would be a smile on a human, then it disappears. The collar drops onto the mattress, now containing a smooth orange stone hugged between the leather bands.

Jannik blinks at the space where the fox was, then at the bracelet. He can pick it up, which means it is real, so he figures he may as well put it on.

After a moment, a voice speaks in his head, unfamiliar and intrusive: is this thing on?

“Acacia?” Jannik asks aloud, looking around his bedroom despite knowing that she isn’t in the room with him.

That’s me. Good to know I haven’t forgotten how to do this. Anyways, you ever seen Power Rangers?

“No.”

Oh. Well, too bad. The bracelet is basically your Power Morpher, and the stone is the Power Coin, or the thing that actually has all of the magic here. Can you feel it?

Now that she says it, there is an odd sort of thrumming that he can feel coming from the stone. It gets fainter the further it gets from the source, but if he focuses hard enough he swears he can feel a tingling up to his shoulder.

Good. Tap into that and will it to spread throughout your body. That’s how you’ll transform. You don’t even have to say any stupid catchphrase! Unless you want one, in which case we could workshop something.

Jannik isn’t sure what she’s talking about at first, but then he concentrates on the faint sense of power he feels and there’s a sudden zap, as if his entire body had felt a static shock.

He looks down, his vision suddenly sharp, and he is no longer in his pajamas.

The bracelet is gone, too. His hands are covered in black gloves that feel like they go up past his elbow, but he can’t visually confirm that fact because they disappear under the loose sleeves of a bright orange coat. Jannik stands and finds that it goes until midway down his thighs.

As he goes to the bathroom to look at himself in the mirror, he notes the comfortable black pants and boots. Then he sees himself, all kitted out, and he freezes.

There’s no way he isn’t still dreaming.

The mask covers his whole head, most of it orange, but it’s white around the lower half of his face and black marks out his eyes. The bottom of the mask blends into the high neck of the sleeveless white shirt that clings to his torso, the stone from the bracelet in the middle of his chest framed by two simple black lightning bolts, a shallow black v across the middle of his torso the only other decoration. He also notes the hood on the coat, which he flips up, revealing the fox ears attached to it.

He looks pretty damn cool.

If you want to change anything, you can do that. I just default to things that are orange and fox themed. Maybe the ears are too much?

He wonders why Acacia likes foxes of all things so much, but the psychic communication must go both ways since she answers without him speaking the thought out loud.

I don’t know. It took me a while to see one for the first time after I got to Earth, so it’s not like I have a particularly poignant emotional connection to them. I’ve just always thought they were cool, and I liked the stories humans have told about them. Plus most of them are orange, which has been my favorite color for ages, even before I came to Earth.

And doesn’t that just raise more questions. So what about Acacia? Since you don’t come from Earth, it can’t be your original name.

It’s not. I don’t have an original name, but when I first got to Earth, the first thing I saw that impressed me were acacia trees. I’ve had to update my name as the name for them changed, but Acacia has a nice sound to it, so I’m glad language ended up there. Hey, stop distracting me. We’ve got time to get to know each other. Let’s go see what you can do. Can you get to the roof?

No, I don’t have roof access.

Now you do. First lesson is how to climb walls. Go open your window.

Jannik does, and only feels a little nauseous looking out and down.

Rub your hands together, then reach out and press them against the wall. You should stick.

Should?

Will stick, Acacia amends.

Jannik still doesn’t know if he trusts her, but she doesn’t make any sort of comment on that.

The material the gloves are made of glides smoothly against itself, but after a few seconds of furious rubbing he hears a staticky crackling sound with each pass. He reaches one hand out and presses it flat against the brick, then tries to slide it against the wall. It doesn’t budge.

He has to half-climb out of the window to get the other hand on the wall, and then he’s just dangling there.

Your feet will stick, too. Then climb up the wall like Spider-Man. It’s a fun little trick I learned with one of your predecessors. Static electricity is cool, huh? You won’t have to rub your hands together to get going pretty soon, you’ll just be able to use it on cue.

It’s easy enough to peel one hand and one foot off of the wall and move them up, and Jannik finds the rhythm quickly.

Once he’s on the roof, he takes a moment to look out at the city, sparkling before him. He’s always loved its beauty, but it feels especially remarkable today.

Time for an engine check. Hands, the gloves should come with retractable claws.

Jannik looks at his hands. Nothing happens, so he tenses them, trying to think of it the same way he did when he transformed.

Thin black claws extend from the fingertips of the gloves. He retracts them, then extends them again, then tries to go one finger at a time.

Good job. Do you have a weapon of choice? No, then you get mine. Whip should be on your hip. Hey, that rhymes!

Jannik lifts his coat to find a leather whip coiled and secured to his belt. He takes it, letting it unspool and hit the ground.

We’ll start basic. For now it’ll be the best way to channel your powers. Try and feel your power and push it through, or something. Probably the same way you did everything else. You’ve been doing great so far.

Jannik tries to feel it out, swishing the whip back and forth in the air, when he suddenly feels a click and a rush of power down his arm as the whip seems to turn into lightning.

It’s closer to plasma than lightning, but who cares about the semantics. I’m regulating the amount of power you can access since I don’t want to overwhelm you just yet, but I hope you can eventually have free rein over my whole powerset. This is a good starting point. I’m assuming you don’t have good whip technique, so we can go over some of that while we work on our parkour, too. Sound good?

It’s not like Jannik has a better idea for how to learn to be a superhero.

He can’t quite maintain the flow of energy as Acacia walks him through proper whip technique, but Acacia says that’s to be expected.

We can work on it more later. Let’s take a test drive. You’re super amped up now, so learning to move like this is important.

She’s not lying. He easily clears the gap between buildings with a running start, and from then on he’s practically flying.

Jannik can’t help but grin as he sprints through the city, impossibly fast. His coat flaps behind him like the tail of his comet as he leaps and bounds across rooftops and pulls himself up fire escapes and skitters down walls. Occasionally he’ll stop to practice with the whip, or just to admire the lights of his city.

It’s liberating. It’s everything he hoped it would be and more.

He makes his way back to his apartment as the sun starts to rise.

You’re probably the fastest learner I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with, Acacia says, a distinct note of pride in her voice as Jannik climbs back through his window.

He pauses for a moment to process as he powers down, leaving him standing in his bedroom in his pajamas once again. His clock tells him he has to be up in an hour, which makes him wince.

It’ll be fine. The best thing about my powerset is that I can provide energy throughout the day. Obviously it’s easier if you actually sleep, though.

So Jannik does.

His learning curve is steep, but slows down just a touch when school finally starts again. He refuses to sacrifice his good grades to jump around the city at insane hours, which Acacia supports.

Molecular biology, Acacia says while he’s reviewing his schedule. Good choice. Cellular respiration is my shit.

It’s one of the classes he’s looking forward to the most. On the opposite side of that spectrum is statistics for life science majors, which his advisor had not let him put off any longer.

Even the walk to the building seems more irritating than usual. When he gets to the class, he forgoes his usual spot towards the front for an unremarkable seat somewhere in the middle of the pack.

With two minutes until class starts, somebody slides into the seat next to him.

“It’s bad enough when the building is hard to find, but it’s worse when they hide the entrance,” the guy laughs, a little breathlessly, seemingly to Jannik.

Jannik hums in placid agreement. This has long been one of his least favorite buildings on campus, made worse by the fact that he has to take statistics here.

The guy seems nice enough, though. He has that distinctive first-day-freshman energy, but big gold-brown eyes and a friendly smile that are hard to find annoying. “I’m Carlos. I’m studying nursing,” he says.

“Jannik, biochem. Nice to meet you.”

Carlos looks like he’s about to say something else, but the professor calls the class to attention and whatever he was going to say is lost.

You probably need a sparring partner before you’ll be ready to go out and fight crime, Acacia muses.

Why couldn’t you have just transferred your skills to me? You’re in my head, why shouldn’t I be able to fight like you?

Training is hard. Jannik knows it’s necessary, but sometimes he feels like he’s doing nothing to get nowhere. If there is some sort of big threat, there’s no way he could do anything about it at his current level. He’s way better now, almost two months into this whole superhero thing, than he was when he started, but it doesn’t feel like a significant statement when he started at practically nothing.

Unfortunately, it can’t work that way. Sorry. However, I’m pretty sure these people I used to know are still around. Or probably have living descendants, at least. We’ll find out, I’m sure. Also, that calculation is wrong.

Jannik freezes and looks down at his stats homework. It takes him a second to identify what he was doing wrong and longer to figure out what he’s supposed to do instead.

So what about these people you know?

Oh, right, yeah. I’ll send out a message, see if anybody gets back to me. If not, we can try and find alternative solutions. Maybe there’s a club you could join. Is there a judo club? We should learn judo.

I don’t know, but probably. I’ll look and see.

When he goes to look it up, Acacia sets off alarms in his head. This is not an excuse to put off your statistics homework, Jannik!

There is a judo club. Despite it being almost halfway through the semester, they’re more than happy to let him join.

“So now the station manager is pissed because saying all that shit on air is a literal crime, but it’s not like I knew it was happening so I couldn’t have done anything to stop it, so I don’t know why I’m the one getting chewed out for it. Anyways, now I have to make sure we don’t get fucked in the ass by the feds, I guess. It’s just kinda a shitshow all around,” Jack sighs, the sound distorted through the speakers of Jannik’s phone.

“I’m sorry, that doesn’t sound good.” Jannik’s mostly preoccupied with folding laundry and Jack’s woes at the station, so he almost misses the knock at the door.

“Is there somebody there? I can let you go,” Jack says as another set of knocks comes, loud enough for Jack to hear over speakerphone.

Jannik frowns. He doesn’t get anything delivered to his door and he can’t think of anybody who would stop by for a random visit. “It sounds like it. I don’t know who it is, but I’ll call you again later. Hopefully nothing too bad happens with the station.”

“I’m hoping the exact same thing. Talk to you later.”

“Bye,” Jannik says before hanging up.

When he opens the door, he cuts off a debate between three women regarding the merits of breaking into his apartment.

When they realize he’s there, they all stop to stare at him for a moment before one of them asks, “are you Jannik Sinner?”

“Yes?”

“Oh, great. Can we come in?” another asks.

Acacia isn’t always an active presence, so her sudden return to the forefront of Jannik’s mind catches him off guard for a moment. Oh, these must be the people I sent for. They’ve got the right vibe to them.

Jannik doesn’t like that Acacia doesn’t know for sure who he’s letting into his apartment, but he doesn’t really see another way around it. “Yeah, welcome.”

Two of them make their way past him, but the first one stops to shake his hand. “I’m Ons. That’s Dasha and Naomi,” she says, gesturing to each in turn. Dasha salutes and Naomi waves. “We’re with the Order of the Hyacinth. Acacia sent us?”

“Sure did!” A fourth voice suddenly chimes from close to Jannik’s ear.

When he whips around, he’s faced with Acacia as he remembers her from his dream, except the brown dress has been traded for jeans and a yellow sweater.

“You could do that the whole time?” Jannik asks.

“Sure. A bit tricky to maintain when you’ve got all my energy, but did you think that was some random fox that gave you the bracelet? It would be so difficult to do anything or get anywhere if we couldn’t manifest at all. More importantly, I wasn’t sure the Order was still around! Glad to see you guys are still kicking and that you were able to make it to town. Young Jannik here needs some basic combat training, and I was hoping you guys could help.”

“Yeah, sure. We can do that,” Dasha says.

“There’s an old Order house in town, so we’ll be able to stick around for a little while. I’ll let you know the address, and you can meet us there when you’re ready to start. Maybe around ten this evening?” Naomi says. “Unless you’re busy. It’s up to you.”

“Ten sounds fine, thank you.”

Naomi hurls him off the roof.

He scrambles midair for a heartbeat before he manages to cling to the wall of the building. It takes him a moment to gather himself enough to haul himself back up.

Dasha nudges him with her foot where he’s collapsed on the mats they rolled out on top of the Order’s hideout, a brownstone at the outskirts of the city. “If you can’t meet her power, find a way to work around it. You’re a fox, right? You’ve got the ears and everything. Be crafty. Mix things up. Cut her off before she’s able to take advantage of your weaknesses. It’s not hard.”

“Or just learn to punch back harder,” Naomi shrugs, barely winded.

“Or both,” Ons calls from where she’s sitting on the corner of the mat. “Actually, Dasha, you just reminded me. Have you picked out a name for yourself, Jannik?”

Damn. Of all the things I forgot, Acacia sighs.

“Like, a superhero name?” he asks.

Dasha nods. “It’s not like you can go by Jannik if you want to protect your identity when you get out there.”

Jannik frowns under his mask. It’s true that he wants to protect himself; there’s a reason the three Order members are the only ones who know about him, and they were specially summoned by Acacia as members of a millennia-old secret organization. He thinks of sacrifices, and he thinks of Maestro, and he thinks of Archangel. Nobody else will know. He will be alone in this, after Dasha, Ons, and Naomi leave.

“Volpe,” he decides, after a moment.

“Good. I like it,” Dasha says. “Now, let’s try this again and not let Naomi get you this time.”

Jannik has an awkward break between classes, so sometimes he hangs around in his lab if he can’t think of anything better to do.

Most of the time, Matteo is there, too. Today is no exception.

“How’s it going?” Jannik asks.

Matteo does not move from where he’s hunched over his computer. “Bad, I think.”

Jannik lets him be and pretends he doesn’t have enough time to be doing something more productive than scroll on his phone.

After a few more minutes, Matteo slumps further in defeat. “You’re gonna be done with your masters before I’m done with this fucking PhD. Ugh. But, good news, I was talking to Jasmine, and she was saying that she heard from Vagnozzi that there was a new undergrad who was looking to do research. Flavio, he was in a lab I taught last year. He’s a sophomore now, do you know him?”

Maybe the name rings a bell, but Jannik couldn’t even name all of the people in his cohort, much less the one behind him. “Probably not. Will he be at the next group meeting?”

“Jasmine didn’t tell me, but I would guess so. You and Lore will have a new brother, isn’t that exciting?”

Matteo’s odd family analogy for the members of Simone Vagnozzi’s lab is convoluted and generally ridiculous, but it makes Jannik laugh. Apparently they’re related via work marriage to the members of Darren Cahill’s lab, which just means Max stops by every so often to gush over his “step-brothers,” steal any snacks that might be laying around, and use the coffee machine, and Simona waves when she sees Jannik around the building.

“Sure. I have to go to class, I’ll see you soon. Good luck with whatever you’re trying to do.”

“Lord knows I’ll need it,” Matteo sighs.

“So, when I’m taking this exam, will you be feeding me answers, or is that cheating?” Jannik asks, needing a break from staring uncomprehendingly at practice problems.

Acacia looks up from where she’s flipping through Jannik’s o-chem textbook from last year. “Only if you’re really stuck. You should still know most of the information by yourself. I can tell you if you’re doing something wrong, but not correct it, maybe? I’ll think it over. Anyways, this is fascinating stuff. I always forget how much humans know, and it’s not as paltry a sum of knowledge as I was expecting. Good for you.”

“Thanks?”

“I’ll admit, part of the reason I chose you is because of the overlap between my domain and your field of study. I don’t think I could have gotten along well with an English major, or something. There would be too many concepts I would need to explain. I wish I could introduce you to Tenrai, I think you would have some fun conversations with them.” By the time Acacia finishes the sentence, her voice fades, and when Jannik looks over in concern, Acacia is just staring blankly at the book in her hands.

He has no idea what to do about that, so he goes back to studying for his midterm.

The members of the Order are leaving soon, after a month of kicking Jannik’s ass while Acacia tries not to laugh at him in his own head.

Ons is the one who elects to follow him on his official debut as a superhero. Jannik traverses the tiled roofs of the old city while she trails him on the ground, tracking down the illegal gun sale Naomi caught wind of.

The transition between the old city and the new city is patchy, poor city planning leading to lots of dead ends and dark corners. Jannik spots a car parked in one of them, trunk open to reveal a rather astonishing arsenal. Two men argue quietly in front of it.

When Jannik looks at Ons, she gives him a thumbs up.

C’mon, Jannik, let’s show ‘em what you’ve got, Acacia says.

Jannik drops down from the roof, silent. He manages to take the first guy by surprise, pressing a hand to his chest with just enough energy to shock him into stillness for a couple minutes, and then draws his whip to disarm the second as he pulls out a gun. A quick lunge, another zap, and he’s out, too.

Ons enters the alley. “Great job, Volpe! Very smooth. We can put one of the guys in the back seat and drive the car to where somebody else can deal with it and let the other guy go. It won’t be a bad thing if there’s somebody who can spread the news that there’s a new hero in town.”

So that’s what they do. Jannik parks the car, leaves the key with the guy at the front desk of the station to the tune of shocked silence, and follows Ons back to the Order’s hideout.

When he gets back, Naomi immediately squeezes him into a hug, and Dasha pats his shoulder.

“Great job, kid,” Dasha says. “I say this is reason for celebration!”

They split a bottle of wine between the four of them, Jannik nursing his single glass and listening to Dasha ramble about how excited she is to see her girlfriend again and Naomi talk about training in Japan which leads to Ons sharing the history of the Order in North Africa and the 2,000 year old tradition she’s a part of.

Acacia’s uncharacteristically quiet, not manifesting like she normally does when the four of them are just hanging out. At some point Jannik pokes her through their connection, and there’s an oddly lethargic quality to her when she replies, but Jannik can’t tell the reason behind it.

Don’t worry about me, have fun celebrating your first victory. I’ll tell you about it later, if you want, but I don’t want to bring down the vibe right now.

Temporarily soothed, Jannik agrees, then tunes back into Ons and Dasha recounting the story of the first time they met.

The three of them send him off with hugs and well wishes.

“You know you can always call us if you need us for any reason, right? We’re here for you, Jannik. You’re gonna be incredible, I can tell,” Naomi smiles.

“Before I forget, here’s a spare key to this place, in case you need a secret lair,” Dasha says, flinging the key at Jannik’s face.

He barely manages to catch it before it hits him, and he pockets it with a grin. “Thank you guys for everything.”

“You’re welcome. Now go on, you’ve got class in the morning,” Ons chastises, pushing him towards the door.

Jannik transforms and heads home.

As he’s making his way back, he pokes Acacia again. So? What’s up?

It’s really nothing. Just missing my friends. Talking about the Order took me back to when I founded it with Tenrai, and how things were so good then, and now Hysmine is gone and the chances of finding anybody else are so slim. It just sucks, but it’s not like either of us can do anything to change the situation.

Well, if there’s anything I can do to help.

It’s nice just having you around.

Jannik smiles when he feels all of the emotion Acacia pushes into it. Of course.

“Fuck this shit,” Jack grumbles.

Jannik looks up from his notes on chemical pathways. “Going poorly?”

“Not even, I just hate this fucking class. Pisses me off. At least it’s almost over. Speaking of things that piss me off, did you get that email?”

“What email?”

“This guy sent out this, I don’t know, I guess it’s a survey? Asking about how much consideration I give to being straight, or something.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s probably Felix. He’s doing his senior thesis on how cis men experience gender and sexuality.”

“And why the fuck would he do that?”

“He’s a women and gender studies major, so I guess it’s academically interesting to him. Ask him yourself, if you’re curious. He asked me to fill out the survey ages ago.”

“And you did?” Jack sounds like Jannik just admitted to enjoying pineapple on pizza, or something equally distasteful.

Jannik frowns. “Of course. He needs the data, plus it’s all anonymous. There’s no reason not to. Why are you so against it?”

“I’m not against it, I’m just– I don’t see why I need to share that information.” Jack resolutely stares at his notebook, bouncing the eraser of his pencil against the paper. Jack isn’t normally one for anxious fidgeting, and Jannik really has no idea why this conversation would draw such a reaction.

“It’s not like he’s forcing you to take it, and it’s not like anybody will know it’s you.” At this point, Jannik feels the need to ask, “are you homophobic, or something?”

“What? No, of course not. Why would you even think that?”

“The way you’re acting is super weird. I feel like I would have been able to tell if you were homophobic at some point over the last few years, but if this is how I find out, I will say it would really put a dampener on our relationship, especially considering I’m queer.”

Jack had formerly been laying sideways across the arms of his armchair, but at that he attempts to simultaneously sit up and turn to face Jannik. He fails and ends up on the floor.

“Are you alright?” Jannik asks.

“Yeah, fine.” Jack dismisses Jannik’s concern quickly, instead staring at Jannik with wide eyes. “How did I not know you were queer?”

Jannik shrugs. “I don’t know. I must have mentioned it in passing at some point.”

“So, what, you like blokes? Are you gay, or bi, or something?” Jack’s eyes don’t leave Jannik as he moves to sit back on his chair.

“I don’t really care about labels, but yeah. I could’ve sworn you knew.”

“Huh. Well. Ok. Cool. Great. I know now, at least. Thanks for, uh, filling me in,” Jack says, barely masking a grimace, though Jannik can tell it’s more at Jack’s own awkwardness than anything else. “Well, I should keep studying for my final.”

Jannik can tell Acacia is incredibly amused, but he pointedly ignores her and turns back to his study guide.

He passes all of his classes with flying colors. Overall, he thinks it’s been a good semester. Got a lot accomplished, from finishing getting his data in lab to becoming a relatively competent superhero. Hopefully over the break he can put in some more work and just become a competent superhero. Acacia has a never ending list of tricks and skills to learn, and he finally has the time to try running around during the day.

He saves a couple people from getting mugged and stops a bank from getting robbed, which did give him an I’m-a-real-superhero high for a couple of days. There’s even been a couple articles put out about him, featuring slightly-blurry photos of him and asking if Volpe is the new Archangel or Maestro. They don’t know much about him other than his name, and they only know that because Jannik offered it when the people he saved asked, so the articles aren’t really anything substantial, but it’s nice to see his name getting out.

Things are pretty good.

Towards the end of the break, Acacia asks to go to the memorial.

Only then does he remember it’s the five year anniversary of Maestro and Archangel’s final battle.

He’s not quite sure how he feels as he makes his way towards where the city meets the water. Five years ago, it had been a shabby area that nobody ever had cause to go to, made worse by the destruction wrought by the final battle. Since then, though, it’s been turned into a public park. It’s actually quite lovely, half-well maintained and half-almost wild, featuring a statue honoring the city’s heroes at its center.

The park is completely empty, which is odd, especially on today of all days. Maybe there’s another commemorative event happening somewhere else that he never heard about. Jannik navigates the gravel paths towards the statue, the trees all stretching their bare limbs up like claws trying to scratch the sky. Jannik"s orange costume stands out amongst the grey day.

He stops in front of the statue.

It’s beautiful, Acacia says, almost laughing, almost on the verge of shutting herself away from Jannik and everything.

It is pretty. Archangel’s wings stretch wide, each feather wrought in metal, keeping him suspended in midair for eternity. He reaches out to Maestro, whose cloak billows behind him as he reaches back. Jannik’s always liked the ambiguity of the pose. It certainly implies there’s some kind of deep connection, but its exact nature is hard to pin down.

I miss them. If Acacia were human, Jannik would expect her to be sobbing right now. The depth of her emotion is so strong that she can’t quite keep it from Jannik, so every so often he’s hit with a glimpse of what a thousand years of mourning must feel like. It’s so crippling Jannik can’t even cry, just left to drown in a vast void of nothingness.

The sudden change from that to a frozen alertness steals Jannik’s breath away, sending his heart skittering.

What’s wrong?

Jannik hasn’t even heard Acacia concerned before now. The fear of a being such as her is incomprehensible to Jannik. It’s here.

And isn’t that just ominous.

Jannik looks desperately around for anything he could consider a threat, picturing the shadow creatures that Maestro and Archangel fought, but there’s nothing of the sort.

There’s just a man, staring at Jannik.

Jannik’s stomach drops anyways.

“It’s nice to meet you, Volpe,” he calls, and there’s an amusement to his voice that doesn’t help the nausea swirling in Jannik’s gut.

Acacia has gone silent. Jannik sees no other option than to let the man approach.

He smiles and reaches out a hand to shake. “My name is Novak.”

Jannik cannot shake his hand. Novak drops it after a moment, unbothered.

“Ever since I heard that you might be around, I’ve been keen to meet you. I figured you’d have to make a pilgrimage here at some point, so I’ve had a few of my people camped out for the last couple weeks to see if you’d show up. And here you are! Right on time.”

“What do you want.” Jannik’s proud of how even his voice comes out.

The man smiles. “Nothing much. I’d just like to tell you some things. Come, sit.”

They sit on opposite ends of a bench, facing the statue.

“I knew them,” Novak starts, “in a sort of professional capacity. I would help them out, sometimes. As much as a human can help two demigods, at least. I was one of the first people here to see the aftermath. That’s how I found this.”

He pulls a chain out of his shirt. On the chain, there is a silver locket of some kind.

Novak opens the locket to reveal a small shard of what might have once been a purple-grey gem.

Acacia’s reaction is indescribable. Jannik thinks it’s the closest an ancient, powerful being can get to a gasp of horror, terror, and absolute despair. However, there are no words associated with this rush of pure dismay, so Jannik is still lost as to what it is and what it means, other than that it’s incredibly bad.

“Volpe, this is what pure power looks like.” Novak must be attempting a benign smile, but to Jannik it’s closer to maniacal.

Faintly, Jannik thinks that Acacia’s really what pure power looks like, but he doesn’t think he should say that to Novak.

“After the heroes abandoned us, things haven’t been the same. We need something new to keep things under control. That’s what I’ve been using this to do,” Novak says.

“Under control? What needs to be controlled?” Jannik asks, a little lost as Novak tucks the locket back underneath his shirt.

“Everything. People,” Novak says nonchalantly, waving a hand in the air as if to illustrate exactly how much everything encapsulates. “They need somebody to look up to. Somebody to follow, somebody who won’t let them down. That’s what I’m trying to be. I know I could do it on my own, but I would love to be able to work with you. I think you’d be a very valuable addition to my team. The whole fox thing you have going on, it’s very approachable. You could certainly be one of the faces of my movement.”

“I- no, are you crazy?”

“No, I’m not crazy, but that’s alright. I don’t resent you for wanting to stay independent. Hopefully one day you will reconsider, but for now I will accept you working in the city, as long as you don’t interfere with my efforts.”

“How generous. I will not allow you to do whatever it is you’re doing.”

Novak is still smiling, but his eyebrows furrow like he doesn’t understand why Jannik might want to stop him from taking over the city. “Well, if you intend to stand in my way, that would make us enemies, and I’m sure you don’t want that.”

“I don’t know, I think I do.”

The smile drops from Novak’s face, and he sighs as he stands from the bench. “That’s a shame. It was nice meeting you, Volpe.”

As soon as Novak is out of sight, Jannik curls in on himself, trying to stop himself from throwing up. He doesn’t think it would be a pleasant experience with a mask over his face.

Breathe. Just breathe, Jannik, Acacia says, over and over, until Jannik is finally capable of rational thought again.

So that was the big bad, I take it.

Yeah, Acacia says, it sure seems like it.

What was that stone he showed me?

Jannik can feel Acacia fortifying herself before saying, that was Hysmine. Or at least a part of her.

What does that mean?

It means he’s right. He has access to pure power. It’s probably not like how we work, but it’s a force that would make it easy to control everything, as he says. I’d bet it’s also what made him crazy enough in the first place to think that that’s a good idea. Acacia laughs ruefully. Congratulations, Jannik, you just met your archnemesis. He’s wearing my dead friend, whose corpse is a nuclear bomb. I’d say things are going pretty well for us.

Acacia doesn’t let him worry about Novak.

We’ll see him when we see him. We can try and figure out what’s going on with his operation, but right now we have nothing to work with and the new semester is starting. If we can’t do anything, there’s no point in worrying. Focus on school.

Jannik really tries, and he mostly succeeds. There’s no drop in his academic performance even now that he patrols every night, but when he has a spare moment his stomach sinks and his throat closes as he thinks about what Novak could be doing right now, while Jannik is doing nothing.

He’s out one evening when he feels Acacia notice something.

What is it?

Go left.

Jannik obliges, following her directions to try and track down whatever it is she’s feeling. Probably Novak.

Eventually, though, he starts to realize where he is, and he feels all the tension flood out of his body when Acacia tells him to stop. We’re at Jack’s apartment building.

Yup. If I remember correctly, which I am, he’s throwing a party tonight. You’re going to go. You need to relax. Take a night off. Cut loose a little bit. There’ll be time for stressing out about the fate of millions of people later, so enjoy the time you don’t have to while you can. Be a college kid, please. For me.

Jannik sighs, makes his way down from the roof, and detransforms in the alley he lands in before walking across the street to Jack’s place. Is this why you told me to wear my nice cardigan this morning?

Absolutely!

Jannik sighs again.

Jack’s parties are the only ones Jannik ever goes to. They’re pretty exclusive affairs, so Jannik isn’t overwhelmed by crowds of people he doesn’t know, plus Jack is strict about not letting anything get out of hand.

It seems like he’s shown up pretty early, so Jack immediately spots him when he comes in and makes a beeline for Jannik.

“Hey! I didn’t think you were coming!” he says, voice raised over the music.

“It was a last minute decision.”

“Well I’m glad you made it. It feels like I haven’t seen you in ages, you’re always doing something.”

“We had lunch last week?”

“Yeah! Ages! C’mon, do you want something to drink? I got that one brand of sparkling lemonade you like.”

Jannik has to admit that this was a good idea. It’s nice, talking to Jack, and then some of his other friends when Jack gets pulled away for hosting duties. The music is just loud enough to drown out any unpleasant thought, and the throng of people is comforting, a closed space he won’t be noticed in.

As the party gets into full swing, Jannik migrates towards Iga on the couch, where they always end up together once things get a little too exciting. They exchange their usual pleasantries, catching up a bit, before settling in to companionable silence as they watch the crowd around them. Occasionally Oscar, originally some friend of a friend of Jack’s who is now kinda one of Jannik’s friends because of their mutual love of sitting down at parties, joins them, but he’s pulled away by his friends every so often. Whenever he returns, he brings news from the far reaches of the social sphere that the three of them can discuss for a few minutes before he’s dragged away again.

Iga’s telling Jannik about the crazy new post-doc in the physics department when their conversation is cut off by Aryna showing up to whisk Iga away for one reason or another. This leaves Jannik alone on the couch, which feels a little pathetic, so he gets up to get more sparkling lemonade.

The kitchen is always the quiet spot, so it’s nice to be away from the noise for a minute as he refills his cup. There’s one couple making out against the counter that he doesn’t recognize, but it’s the guy that just walked in that snags Jannik’s memory. It doesn’t take long to place him as that guy from his stats class last semester, but if Jannik ever learned his name, he probably forgot it immediately.

It doesn’t take long for the guy to notice him, and it’s kinda embarrassing when his face immediately lights up in recognition and he gives a cheery, “hey, Jannik!”

“Oh, hi.”

He looks at Jannik for a brief moment before saying, “Carlos.”

“Carlos,” Jannik repeats, which is familiar, so he probably could have guessed it at some point. “Sorry, I’m not good with names.”

“That’s fine, I am only because I’m practicing for my job,” Carlos laughs.

“Yeah, I’m going to be locked by myself in a lab for most of my career, probably, so I’m never going to be able to remember names,” Jannik says, smiling in his attempt to be witty while also cringing at himself.

He must succeed, somehow, since Carlos lets out a bright laugh. “That’s ok, too. You’re here at a party, so it’s nice to see you get out sometimes. Have you known Jack for a long time?”

“Since the beginning of our first year. I can’t even remember exactly how we met, he’s just always been there. I think he was maybe a friend of my roommate at the time.”

“Yeah? I met him the first day of this semester in ancient civilizations. He seems pretty cool, though.”

That’s interesting; Jack doesn’t normally invite people he knows for less than a month to his parties. “Are you taking that for your history credit?”

Carlos nods. “I don’t have time to take anything I don’t need. It’s been alright, though. Not too hard, if you still need your requirement.”

“No, I took a class on the Renaissance. I liked it a lot, actually.”

“What did you like about it?”

It’s astonishingly easy to talk to Carlos. He seems like a really genuine person, legitimately interested in Jannik and what he has to say. They must stand there for fifteen minutes, practically a lifetime during a party, as people occasionally pass by them to get something from the kitchen.

They’re only really interrupted when Jack flies in. “Oh, I thought I lost the two of you! C’mon, we’re doing karaoke! Carlos, you promised me a duet!”

Jack is obviously somewhere between tipsy and drunk, exactly the right balance to make his request undeniable, so Jannik gets pulled along.

They have to wait for Leylah to finish her not half bad rendition of Rebel Yell, and then Jack pulls rank as the host to cut in line.

Jannik has no idea what song Jack and Carlos will be duetting until the opening notes, at which he sighs in an attempt not to laugh.

Carlos starts, “Turn around–”

“Every now and then I get a little bit lonely and you’re never coming around…”

“Turn around–”

“Every now and then I get a little bit tired of listening to the sound of my tears…”

By the time they make it to the main part of Total Eclipse of the Heart, they’re both practically screaming into the microphones, Jack on his knees as he sings to the ceiling, Carlos making dramatic gestures and faces at the crowd, but really mostly at Jannik, who’s recording the whole thing and struggling not to laugh.

“Once upon a time I was falling in love, now I’m only falling apart,” Jack croons as the song winds down. Carlos joins in for “nothing I can say, total eclipse of the heart,” and once it’s done, they’re met with thunderous applause.

“Pretty good, eh?” Carlos grins as he rejoins Jannik in the audience, Jack getting pulled into talking to a couple people Jannik doesn’t quite know.

“I was impressed. Did you plan anything out in advance? It was very coordinated.”

“No, he just told me to do the ‘turn arounds.’ The rest I just figured out. Do you want to sing?”

Jannik chuckles and shakes his head. “Not really, I’m not much of a singer.”

“I can do it with you! It’ll be fun!”

“No, I’m really ok.”

“Ok, let me know if you change your mind. What kind of music do you normally listen to?”

And easily as that, Carlos pulls him into another conversation. Jannik isn’t quite sure why, he himself would have happily ducked away at this point since the whole point of parties is that there are a lot of people you talk to for a short time each, but Carlos must not understand that or care because here he is, listening to Jannik’s mediocre music opinions like it’s the most fascinating thing he’s ever heard.

The flow of the party pushes them towards the couch, and Jannik’s almost glad neither Iga nor Oscar are there to pull him away from Carlos, because for as much as Jannik thinks Carlos’s interest in him is unjustified, Carlos might be one of the most interesting people he’s ever met.

“So I thought, I’m never gonna be able to help people like Archangel or Maestro, but I could help people like Juanki. I don’t really want to become a paramedic, though, so that’s why I picked nursing. I think it could be fun to be a pediatric nurse, yeah? I’d like to work with kids. Plus none of the stress of emergencies.”

“Yeah, I don’t think I could ever handle working in an emergency room,” Jannik says. “Pediatrics doesn’t seem easy, either, with all the screaming babies.”

Carlos laughs, throwing his head back. “Are you kidding? The screaming babies are the best part!”

By the time Jannik heads home, he has a new number in his contacts and plans to go to a ballet that Carlos’s best friend is in, so he really can’t argue against Acacia’s I told you so.

Jannik’s really getting a hang of this superhero thing.

When he breathes in, he can feel lightning in his lungs. He makes streetlamps flicker as he runs by, and he’s starting to be able to locate people based on the heat they give off. He’s learning to love the taste of a thunderstorm and the rush of absorbing energy from the air, making dark alleyways where he’s stalking his prey freezing cold.

Jannik can feel the bioelectricity of the guy he’s holding against the wall, making his heart beat like a jackrabbit.

“Do you know anything about a man named Novak?” Jannik asks.

“No,” the guy grunts, but that just makes his heart beat faster.

“You’re lying.”

“I’m not!”

“Yes, you are. I can feel your heart speed up when you lie. I could stop it, too, if I wanted.”

“What–”

Jannik sends enough of a shock to get his heart to stutter, and he can tell the guy feels it as his eyes go wide and his breathing goes fast.

“Ok, I know one Novak. Novak Djokovic. Crazy guy, nobody knows a lot about him, but nobody wants to do anything to piss him off. He’s completely reinvigorated what was left of the major criminal organizations after the supes decimated them, plus unified some of them under him. I’m not involved with all that, but I got friends who are. They don’t really know what they’re into, I think, and I’m trying to get them to get out of it, but you know, they’re stubborn, and they think this’ll get them where they want to be. I don’t know anything else, can I please go?”

Jannik considers for a moment. “What’s your name?”

“If you need it to report me to the police or something, I don’t really want to give it to you, you have to understand.”

“No. I’d like to work with you. I need somebody who can get me info on Novak, and you seem like you might be able to do that so I can take him down.”

“Oh. Yeah, I think I can do that, as long as it doesn’t get me in more trouble. I’m Alex. Really, I never wanted to get involved with all this stuff, but you let one friend convince you to hack into a bank and all of a sudden it’s really hard to find a job with that on your record. You’re, uh, Volpe, right?”

As Alex’s heart rate slows, Jannik releases him from the wall. Alex doesn’t immediately run away, which he takes as a good sign. “Yes.”

“Cool. Nice to meet you. Novak really seems like bad news, so I’m glad there’s a new super around to stop him. Just let me know what you need, I’ll do my best to make it happen.”

“I appreciate it.”

Jannik jumps when a hand lands on his shoulder. He glances up to see Matteo looking at him with concern.

“You doing ok, there? You seem more stressed than normal.”

“Yeah, but it’s fine. Nothing I can’t handle, nothing you can help me with.”

Matteo doesn’t quite seem convinced. “Alright, do you at least want a hug, or something?”

Jannik must hesitate a moment too long, because Matteo doesn’t wait for a reply before Jannik is being pulled into his chest. Jannik feels all the tension he didn’t know he was carrying drain out of him, and for the first time in a while he feels calm. Matteo’s hand is heavy on the back of his neck, comforting. It feels like ages before Matteo finally pulls away, looking at Jannik with one hand on his shoulder and the other on the side of his face.

“Just make sure you’re taking care of yourself, alright? There’s a lot of people willing to help you if you ever need it.”

“I know.”

“Good.” Matteo pats his cheek before he goes back to whatever he was originally going to do, and Jannik returns to his homework.

“You got an informant? Has he been useful so far?” Naomi asks over the line.

Jannik’s been keeping the Order of the Hyacinth as updated as he can on the Novak situation, desperate for some guidance. “Yeah, he’s given me a few tips on deals to stop and places his organization are holed up in. Nothing major so far, but he hasn’t been doing it for long.”

“Hm. Seems like you made a good call, then. Have you been having any trouble with the fighting?”

“Not really. I got a bad cut from a guy with a knife, but the super healing took care of it, so it wasn’t anything to worry about. It does feel like it’s getting harder to take them down, so I’m concerned Novak might be training his people, but it hasn’t been much of a problem yet. How have things been with you?”

“Quiet. Normal. Boring, sometimes. But that’s alright, you probably wish your life was boring, so I can’t really complain. There is this one client at work who is making these insane demands about her dress, but that’s about as exciting as it gets.”

“Yeah? What makes a dress demand insane?”

It’s nice talking to the Order, since they’re the only ones he can really talk about everything with. Maybe one day, when he’s finally defeated Novak, he can laugh when he tells Jack or somebody that he was really Volpe the whole time, but for now he has to keep that part of him locked tight.

It’s a little lonely, but he knew it would have to be when he got into this.

Alex leaves most of his information via note slid under the door of the Order’s house, but today his message just tells Jannik where and when to meet him.

“So, good news, if that’s how you want to frame it. My sources tell me he’s going to be meeting some friend at a bar in the Rocher district,” Alex says. “It’s a pretty public area, so I doubt you could confront him, but you could definitely tail him, try and learn more about him.”

Jannik nods. “When will he be there?”

Which is how he ends up on a stake out on the roofs of the old city, waiting for Novak to come out of the club. It takes a while, but eventually he does, and Jannik sets off in pursuit of the car that picks him up.

It’s not too difficult to follow with traffic slowing down the vehicle, and eventually the car pulls off the main road and navigates the winding side streets before Novak gets out and continues on foot.

Jannik has no idea where he’s going, or what could draw him to the part of town where the influence of the university starts to be seen in the form of cheap housing for students and grimy clubs packed with people.

A turn down another alley, and Novak suddenly stops. “You know, I noticed you as soon as I left the bar. Now that we’re enemies, it’s important to have some caution. Be subtle. Like this.”

Jannik doesn’t even see the gun get drawn, just feels the bullet lodge itself in his thigh, sending him reeling off of the roof.

He thinks he blacks out for a moment when he hits the ground.

Fuck, Jannik, hold on, Acacia says, and Jannik feels a rush of enough energy to get him back on his feet. Just hold out long enough to scare him off.

He keeps as much weight as he can off of his bad leg, drawing his whip while Novak watches him with mild curiosity.

“Not enough to deter you, hm? Alright.”

Jannik is able to dodge the next bullet, getting a good crack at Novak with his whip, enough to cut through his shirt and skin. He tries to do it again, but the barrel of the gun forces him to move, hiding his wince under his mask as pain burns in his leg.

He gets a lucky opening and manages to get Novak to drop the gun with a well-placed snap at his wrist, and Jannik moves in, but Novak gets him first, landing a hit to the center of his chest that–

Jannik can’t see. He’s not sure he’s breathing, either, as it feels like every single nerve in his body is simultaneously set on fire and frozen. Maybe he is breathing, because he thinks he’s screaming, and his lungs have to work for that to be the case.

Faintly, he registers Acacia apologizing for something, before the pain somehow gets infinitely worse and the world goes white.

It takes a while of Jannik having awareness to realize that he is once again aware. He blinks his eyes open, and he thinks he’s staring at a ceiling, but that thought is vague and far away, tenuous. He feels like he’s floating, comfortable. He feels nothing.

Jannik? You back online? Acacia asks. She sounds so concerned.

Jannik sighs.

Sorry. I had to take over your body for a little bit to get you out of there. Humans already struggle handling the kind of relationship we already have, so putting that much of myself in you probably didn’t make you feel better when Novak was already channeling whatever fractured version of Hysmine’s power he has into you. Hey, at least you didn’t get torn apart! I take that as a win.

Jannik is able to get a vague grasp on the gist of what Acacia is saying. The lovely floaty feeling is fading and now his body just feels so bad.

I’m still working on patching you up. Try not to move.

Jannik doesn’t think he could if he wanted to.

It takes a little while, but eventually Jannik comes to enough to start to process what’s going on. He’s still transformed, but his jacket is missing. He’s lying on something soft. He doesn’t know where he is, but he’s pretty sure it’s not his own apartment. That could be a problem. He sighs, but that turns into a groan when it disturbs his very delicate ribs.

However, it seems to get somebody’s attention. Soft footsteps approach, until Jannik is suddenly looking at Carlos Alcaraz, of all people.

That doesn’t really make sense to him. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he wonders why this is something Acacia neglected to tell him.

Whoops. Forgot. Yeah, he was the closest person I knew of that might be at all qualified to help me not let you die, so I hurled your body somewhere I would probably get his attention.

“Hey. Are you awake?” Carlos says gently, crouching down to get at Jannik’s eye level.

Jannik hums in loose affirmation.

“Good. You were really busted up, you’re lucky I found you. Internal bleeding, probable rib fractures or breaks, bullet wound, probably more that I couldn’t tell. I did the best I could, and it looks like you’re doing a lot better. I’m assuming you have super healing, yeah?”

Jannik hums again, closing his eyes.

“I made sure to leave your mask on the whole time. I figured you’d appreciate that, but I did have to take everything else off to assess your injuries. Sorry.”

“S’fine,” Jannik manages. He put everything back on, so.

He thinks at Acacia, can he recognize me?

He shouldn’t be able to unless you tell him or he sees your face, which he hasn’t.

“I’m Carlos. I had to look you up, but you’re Volpe, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Ok, well you can stay as long as you need. Let me know if you need anything.” With a friendly smile, he gets up and goes back to whatever he must have been doing before.

Jannik sighs. He’s so tired, and there’s really no reason to stay awake anymore, so he lets himself slip back under where it won’t hurt anymore.

When Jannik wakes up again, he has much more clarity than he did the first time.

“Shit,” he sighs.

He manages to sit up, his body complaining of soreness instead of pain, so that’s good. He cracks his back and tries to consider what to do next. Novak’s probably in the wind again, and there’s not much he can do about that. That probably means the fact that he’s on Carlos’s couch after being patched up post-fight is his first priority.

Jannik would consider Carlos his friend at this point. They’ve hung out a few times, but he’s never been to Carlos’s apartment before. Obviously he won’t be telling Carlos his secret identity, but other than that, he’s not really sure what to do in this situation.

“You’re awake, and sitting up this time. I’m hoping that’s a good sign?” Carlos asks as he comes into the room.

“Yeah. Thank you for helping me,” Jannik says. He very quickly learned that Carlos is an open book, and that seems to remain true. His eyes are bright and clear, and there’s only a hint of concern left on his face, fading as they speak.

“Of course. Who wouldn’t want to help a superhero?” Carlos smiles, but then it fades slightly. “Can I ask what happened?”

Jannik doesn’t see why Carlos can’t know the broad strokes. There’s a guy named Novak who wants to take over, Jannik is trying to stop him and couldn’t this time.

“He sounds dangerous.”

Jannik chuckles. “Yeah, that’s what I’m learning. I really underestimated him.”

“But now you won’t,” Carlos shrugs. “Sometimes learning is painful.”

There’s something about the way he says it that gives Jannik pause. “Did…you learn something painfully?”

Carlos takes a seat next to Jannik on the couch, looking straight ahead like he’s remembering something. “There’s this guy I know. Juan Carlos. He’s the one who inspired me to do this, go into nursing, take care of people. I was able to help you because of what he’s taught me about medicine. Normally I don’t tell the story of how I actually met him, because I don’t like to tell it, but I guess it kinda relates to superheroes, so maybe you should know.

“I was twelve, maybe, not too long before the heroes left. There was an attack by the shadow creatures, and one of them got to me. Archangel saved me, but there was something about those creatures that attacked your heart and your mind, not just your body. I was in pain, and I didn’t know where my family was, and that thing made me feel so awful. And then Juanki was there, and he took me away from the battle and he cleaned the wound, and then he gave me a blanket and sat with me. So that’s when I realized that there are other people who do things just as important as the superheroes, and I decided I wanted to be like them. Like Juanki. He took me under his wing, and now we’re here. So really the worst moment of my life is the reason why you’re doing alright now,” Carlos says. “You know, I still have the scar.”

Before Jannik can assure him he really doesn’t need to see it, Carlos is taking off his shirt and turns his back slightly towards Jannik.

Most of the skin over Carlos’s right shoulderblade, stretching onto his shoulder and almost over to his collarbone, is ugly and gnarled, evidence of once having been absolutely torn to shreds.

Jannik almost wants to touch it, trace the edges of it where it smooths out again, but that would probably be weird. He keeps his hands in his lap.

Then Carlos is pulling his shirt back on, hiding it again. “Anyways, really what I want to say is that if you ever need help again, you come to me. I will always help you, because somebody needs to help you so that you can help other people. It’s all one big cycle, yeah? Promise me, please?”

There is something deep, deep inside of Jannik that makes it impossible to tell Carlos no, he really doesn’t want to be a burden like that. It’s probably because of the way Carlos is looking at him, all wide-eyed sincerity. “I promise. Thank you, Carlos.”

“It’s no problem.”

Just before the end of his third year, about a week after getting his ass beaten by Novak, Jannik goes to sleep in his apartment.

He dreams.

He dreams that he is being torn apart, broken into pieces, that he is losing touch and everything hurts, everything hurts.

He is gripping a shard of glass in his hand so tightly he should be bleeding, but he has no blood to bleed. When he looks at his reflection, he doesn’t recognize himself. He isn’t sure who he is, a formless monster, a man in a suit, a woman wearing armor.

The woman’s face is cracking. Something is leaking out. It pushes at her skin, the cracks spreading as it tries to escape. It hurts.

Jannik wakes up.

Jannik? Acacia asks.

“Just a nightmare,” Jannik says, trying to get comfortable again as his heart slows down.

Really? What was it about?

Jannik frowns, trying to cast his mind to it, but he keeps falling short. “I don’t really remember it anymore.”

After that, Jannik sleeps peacefully.