Waking up the next morning meant dealing with a combination of confusing thoughts and an unnatural level of pain on the left side of his torso, where Ivan had shown him the power of his right hook. Rubbing the bruise, Felix stumbled out of bed.
Harper was an enigma; her ability to essentially become invulnerable was incredible, but it was also pretty flashy. How had he never heard about her on the news? There wasn't even a whisper about an unknown bulletproof person. At least, not until Gino's.
He needed to do more research, and the news wasn't going to cut it. Felix pulled out his laptop from his backpack, which sat next to his bed, sad and forgotten. It reminded him that he still needed to do the homework that was due today. Felix sighed; that would be something for later. For now, though, he needed to run a marathon through the search engines.
Searching "superheroes," Felix got a lot of news articles about the day that most of the new superhumans theoretically received their powers. At least, it was when they decided to show the world. That wasn't what he was looking for. None of the people in the news articles were actively doing anything heroic.
He refined his search to "list of real superheroes," which shifted the focus away from news articles to third party websites. For the most part, they still included favorite movie heroes, and so they were unreliable. It was on the second page of search results that Felix stopped.
It was a small website, and very rudimentarily designed. Still, the title spoke volumes. "The List of Modern Heroes." It only consisted of two pages: the home page and a page to submit sightings of new superheroes.
Felix scrolled down the entirety of the home page, which wasn't all that long, honestly. He found the names of the Seven at the beginning of the list, starting with Mindwave. Then came Wang Fang from China, Derrick Thompson from the United States, Arjun Agarwal from India, Jack Ashford from the United Kingdom, and Leroy Ryan from Australia. Those were the six confirmed members of the Seven. The last of the group, Amihan Dimasalang, was significantly more of a mystery.
She had only addressed the media once, and she gave little information beyond her name. Everyone knew she lived somewhere in the islands of the Philippines, but no one knew precisely where. Able to control wind, she was a force of nature in her own right. Some theorists thought she just flew from island to island, avoiding interaction with others. Felix didn't know what to think, but that wasn't why he came to this website.
After the Seven, the only individuals listed were those with superhero names. While Felix didn't know whether that was to protect peoples' identities or simply because the website didn't have access to their names, he was happy that actual names weren't listed.
Only another ten or so people belonged under the Seven, and none of them operated anywhere close to West City. Most of them were in other countries. Apparently, China and South Korea had multiple heroes already. It was all interesting, but there was nothing about Harper.
Felix closed his laptop, ending his search. He doubted he'd be able to find anything at this rate. Harper was still too much of a mystery to the wider world. He needed to take lessons from her about how to remain discrete.
Looking out his window across the courtyard, his eyes caught on the gym. He needed to go again; sitting in the hospital for a couple of days hadn't been great for his exercise routine. Dressing up as fast as he could, Felix jogged to the gym, ignoring the fact that he had class in three hours. Homework was for later, right?
He nodded to Tomato-Man, who had just left the gym. Thankfully, his complexion was normal, and he didn't look like he was about to pop. Tomato-Man recognized him and waved a hello. Maybe he'd learned, after all.
Felix got right to his routine, going through all the weights and machines he needed to build up every muscle group, for the most part. By the end of it, his side was protesting, and his arms felt like pool noodles. Both were safe indicators that it was time to wrap things up.
As he put down the dumbbell, Felix's gaze swept across the front of the gym, where he found Amanda talking to some of her friends – his old friends. His mouth went dry. He watched them for a minute or two, hoping that they'd move so he could make good on his escape. They didn't.
"Crud," Felix murmured, opting to employ the tried-and-true "look down and hope you don't get noticed" strategy. He pulled his hood over his head and stared at the floor.
He passed within a few feet of Amanda, almost at the doors. She called out to him. "Felix? Is that you?" she asked, her high-pitched voice dripping with a snobby tone.
Felix looked up, and his heart started pounding. He had no attraction left for Amanda, but something about her made him nervous more than almost anything else did. At this point, maybe only spacewalks could get him more anxious than interacting with her.
"Yeah. How's it going, Amanda?" he replied, looking up. The rest of his old friends' eyes lit up in recognition. Thomas, a tall and well-built dude, approached him and clapped him on the back.
"Dude! Have you been working out?" Thomas asked.
Felix looked at Thomas in awe. They were standing inside of a gym; of course Felix had been working out. "Yes?"
"Good for you, man," Thomas smiled, much to Amanda's irritation. Her own faux-smile was wavering with every bit of friendly banter Thomas tried to make.
"He's probably just started. He was never big on this stuff," Amanda explained for him, pulling Thomas back into their circle of friends.
"Yeah," Felix agreed, using the opportunity to free himself. "Listen, I've got class in a bit, and I've got to go do some work before that. I'll see you all around." And with that, he was through the doors and his heart began returning to its normal beat.
He never thought he'd live to see homework become something he looked forward to.