"Alright, what's the most important part of a hero's suit?" Morgan asked from on top of a table.
"Concealing your identity." Carmen responded.
"Comfort. Staying as comfortable as possible." Lilith answered.
"Taking precautions so you don't get caught up in a fight and mess up. Keep the clothing tight enough so that there aren't any loose ends that could get snagged, but loose enough that you can still breathe and move." I added.
"I was thinking more about making sure the colors don't clash, but those are equally important. Could you imagine getting caught on something, or tripping over an untied shoelace? Or having a friend seeing you use your ability without something to hide your face? Even being irritated by a tag could be an issue during a fight." Morgan commented as she stood up.
"As long as we can fight and stay hidden, we're good to go." Carmen began, taking Morgan's place on the table. "I mean, I'd rather not stand out, but as long as we get done what needs to be done, we're good."
"You forgot about the comfort part." I added. You addressed every aspect except for the comfort. Right. Not the time. Sorry. Got it. Continue."
"As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted," Carmen said with a sideways glance towards me, "as long as no one finds out who we are, then we'll be fine. The only downside is that Jacob's new here, and there's a new hero. But I'm sure everyone will look past it, since there are four of us, and none of us have used our abilities in front of others before."
As the four of us thought about how we'd get the masks and any other accessories, Morgan walked out of the room to call someone. She must've been bocking Carmen out, because none of us knew who she was talking to, or what they were saying. We figured it was best to leave her alone, but after twenty minutes, no one heard or saw her. Carmen tried to see if she could sense anyone else near us, but there was nothing. Not even a faint sense of Morgan's presence in the entire base. After three or four minutes of searching, she walked in toting a large cedar chest.
"Sorry that I was gone for so long. I had to ask Chris for something." she said, putting the chest down. "A few things, actually."
"New suits? Since, you know, you totally bailed on us as we were discussing them. But it's fine." Carmen retorted.
"I didn't bail. I told you, I had to get something." Morgan replied, trying not to seem harsh. "No, they're not new suits, but I did get something to help us remember where they are, and keep them relatively clean."
All three of us, excluding Morgan, watched as she pulled mannequin after mannequin out of the chest. When she closed the chest, there were four plastic mannequins laying in a pile on the floor.
"So we hang up our suits on these things?" Lilith asked. "Are you sure they'll fit? In case you haven't noticed, these dummies are about six inches too tall for me. It'd be like trying to fit into your clothes from third grade."
"I was hoping that Jacob could help me with that. I figured that if he could find out everyone's measurements, he could at least get the mannequins close enough to where the suits would fit on them. They don't have to be perfect." she continued, looking at me. "Just close enough so that the suits fit."
"I'll do my best once I have everyone's measurements. If one of you could find them out for me, that'd be really helpful. Just write them down on something, and I'll get to work on them. I'll start making sure the height for everyone's mannequin is the same as their own height for now." I told Morgan.
After ten minutes of figuring out everyone's sizes, and thirty minutes of me struggling to use my ability, the mannequins were set, and we got to work on our suits. Three hours later, our suits were nearly finished, we just had to put the symbols on them. We hung them up on the mannequins, now perfectly placed, and got to work on the masks. It didn't take long, since our masks were either made using our abilities, or just sewing them together. They weren't exactly the best, but we were teenagers with limited resources, and limited money.
Less than ten minutes after we finished our suits, symbols and masks included, Morgan got a call from Chris about something on the news. She put her phone on one of the tables as he continued to talk.
"Chris, you're on speaker. Lilith, Carmen, and Jacob are all here." Morgan informed him.
"You're all there? Good. In that case, you may want to turn on the news. Channel four. Looks like Junior isn't the only person we need to be worrying about." he told us.
We gathered around Morgan as Chris hung up and she pulled up a live news report on her phone. None of us were quite sure what to expect, so we all prepared for the worst.
"...as told by an unknown source. Could superhumans actually exist? Just ten minutes ago, we got our first call about four superhumans helping out around the city. As of nearly two minutes, a second caller, who also prefers to remain anonymous, informed us of another superhuman, one who would protect us from the others if they resorted to hostile actions." a female reporter announced.
Morgan cut her phone off as we all tried to process what it meant for our team. They didn't seem to know who we were, so our identities were safe for the moment. At least, that's what we had hoped. None of us knew who the fifth person like us was, but we had time to figure that out, especially since they vowed to protect the city.
"As long as they don't get in our way, we'll be fine. I don't intend on fighting with a random stranger when there's a bigger threat out there." Carmen said. "Much less add another person to the team. Our team is fine as is; we don't need help from anyone else."
She stormed out before any of us had time to react. We all looked at each other, not sure who was going to go talk to her and see if she was okay. I went after her as Lilith and Morgan talked about our next move.
"Carmen? Carmen! Is everything okay?" I asked as I approached her. "You seemed upset about there being someone else like us. Are you upset about it because of Junior?"
"So what if it is?" she asked, whirling around to face me. "It's not like it matters! This is my life now! I might as well get used to the fact that every one of my friends could be a mutant freak like me. It's not like I can tell the difference. You heard the way that reporter talked about us! You saw her face… She was either afraid of us or fascinated by us. Either way, this all ends with us strapped down on tables in some lab away from here, being dissected so our abilities can be studied and taken by some greedy scientist!"
Her hands were clenched into fists, her nails digging into her palms. She tried to calm herself down, but continued walking. We walked in silence for a minute or two before I spoke.
"You're worried that they'll go after your brain, aren't you? Once they find out you can read minds, you think they'll search your brain and try to find out what makes you tick. Is that it?"
"I may be the mind reader, but you're pretty good yourself, you know that? Ever thought of doing that as a job? Analyzing behavior? How did you know that's what was bothering me?"
"You talked more about us being 'mutant freaks' and ending up as some scientist's new project than anything else, so I figured that's what was bothering you the most. Don't worry. No one's going to take us. I promise you, we'll all be okay. If anyone tries to capture you, they'll have to make it through Morgan, Lilith, and me. Even if they get past us three, which is highly unlikely, they still have to manage to restrain you. That's definitely the hardest part out of all of that. You're stronger than they know. The second they shift their weight to attack you, all you have to do is read their mind to find out their next move. But you'll never have to worry about that, because no one's going to mess with us. Especially now that there's four of us. It's all okay. I promise."
I looked up to see tears glistening, threatening to spill out over her cheeks. Carmen quickly blinked them away, trying to suppress a smile, but to no avail. She didn't dare look at me though. It was easy to tell that she was purposefully avoiding eye contact, so I wouldn't see her.
"You're pretty good at this, you know. This whole 'being a hero' thing should come naturally to you. But me? I'm… I'm not so sure. I'm more of the 'chaotic good' kind of person. I think that's what I'm worried about most. Being a hero is easy for now, but heroes always have to do the right thing. I'm used to doing what's necessary, or what's best. I make the tough choice; but it's not always the kind one, if that makes sense." She admitted shyly. "I'm probably just being stupid. We should go back inside. I got onto Morgan for leaving earlier, then I go and do the same thing."
"You're not being stupid, Carmen. That's honestly a really important concern. Not many people would even think to worry about something that major." I began as we started walking back to the others. "But that's a completely normal concern. That practically determines whether you're a hero or a villain."
We walked back into the room to find Morgan and Lilith deep in conversation. I couldn't hear what they had said, but I could tell it was serious.
"We weren't sure when you'd be back, so we didn't really talk about much." Morgan began. "Are you okay, Carmen?"
"Yeah, I'm good. Just needed a minute. So, what's our next move?" Carmen asked, looking from Morgan to Lilith. "We need to find out who this other superhuman is. Before they do something that ruins all of us."
"Well, we know that they vowed to protect the city if we turned out to be hostile. But we can't be sure that they'll honor that. If we don't turn out to be hostile, which we won't, how do we know that they won't oppose us? We already have to deal with one villain; we really don't need another one."
"Maybe Junior was the one that called?" Lilith asked. "I wouldn't put it past him. He'd want everyone to think he's helping them while he messes everything up. He could have this town thinking he's saving them when he's doing the exact opposite."
"I doubt he'd think of that, but maybe that's really what happened. It's probably not the easiest answer though. Nothing ever really is for us." Carmen said with a sigh. "But we're heroes now. No one ever said that it'd be easy."