It was a small grocery store. There were 4 rows of shelves, plus a few freezers, and a counter. I was looking through the freezers, trying to find ice cream. I didn’t know why Grandma Shadow liked that stuff, considering there were a few ice cream places around our area, but she chose to eat the crappy frozen ones.

Next to me was a girl, about my height, looking through one of the shelves. I noticed she had a wild hairstyle: large double buns with unkempt pigtails. Her hair was pink with green streaks, which looked more natural than dyed. She was wearing a denim jacket with a black shirt underneath, a skirt with green and black stripes and large boots. I was just wearing my uniform, a black sweater with a white shirt underneath, grey pants and black shoes, and, as always, my brown hood and scarf.

I didn’t pay attention to these details at the time, as I was minding my business while shopping. Out of nowhere, the glass door to the grocery store slammed open, and the glass shattered. The girl and I immediately rushed to see what was going on, and I saw…

“My name is Pure Veins! I have carefully trained my circulatory system to make my veins immune to all injuries, and unable to bleed!” the intruder said. He turned his attention to the cashier. “Now, give me the cash in your register!”

The cashier shuffled a drawer below the cash register, and pulled out a gun. He shot at Pure Veins, but the bullet had no effect.

“Didn’t I tell you I was invulnerable? Because I am!”

Pure Veins was a tall, muscular, bald white man with a large forehead, wearing a black tank top and black track pants and nothing else. His veins were an intense green and looked like they were about to pop.

We hid back behind the shelves.

“What a hassle… That guy sounds unbearable,” the girl said. She yelled at me “Hey, you! You look weird and threatening! Do you have powers?”

I was too nervous to speak, so I merely shook my head.

“Drat. Guess I’ll have to do this myself,” she exclaimed. She threw up a small metal stick, which instantly expanded to become a massive hammer, with large spikes on both ends. The hammer was decorated with green and pink colours on the bottom of the handle, the union of the handle and the hammer, and the parts between the hammer itself and the spikes.

She turned the corner, and ran towards Pure Veins. She struck him with the hammer square in the head. It had some effect, as Pure Veins reeled back from the hit, but didn’t appear to have taken any physical damage. He scowled and began to yell profanities at the girl, before charging towards her. She tried to avoid him vertically, but the roof was too low to do so. He slammed headfirst into her torso, knocking her back towards the freezer and shattering its glass door.

She began to bleed from her head, and her glasses were snapped but still on her face. She turned her head towards me as Pure Veins was too busy maniacally cackling.

“Hey… You… Creepy dude…”

“Y-Yeah?”

“Can you just… step here, in front of me and tell him you have some dark magic power or whatever?”

“Huh?” I started shaking.

“Yeah, just tell him you can make dark magic portals or some shit… That oughta work.”

Pure Veins had stopped cackling. If I were biologically capable of sweating, then I would be drenched in it. I stepped forward, with millions of thoughts racing through my mind.

“H-Hey, you… Stop.”

“Oh yeah? Try me, weirdo!” He cackled a bit more.

Before I had the chance to speak again, he charged at me with his elbow. As soon as his feet left the ground, I felt the world around me stop. My vision went dark. I heard a voice.

DYZXALAXYZK.

IT IS TIME.

AWAKEN.

When my vision returned, everything was blurry and my ears were ringing. This quickly faded away, and I saw Pure Veins’ fist right in front of my face. His whole arm was shaking. It was being held back by… intensely black tentacles. My back felt weird. I moved slightly, and so did the tentacles. I tried to move to the side, and the tentacles pulled his arm towards that direction. Then, I came back to my senses.

So… I thought. This is my power, then.

“Guh! What the hell is this?!” Pure Veins yelled. He tried to pull away, to no avail.

I tried moving the tentacles again, this time towards his neck and body. They slithered around, grappling him and making him unable to move. I shifted my body upwards, and the tentacles violently threw Pure Veins into the ceiling, cracking it and planting his face within it. He stopped moving, and my tentacles retracted on their own.

“What the fuck, kid?! So you do have powers!” the girl exclaimed.

“I-I don’t… I didn’t have…” I tensed up again.

“Oh.” She stood up. “So they awakened, then?”

“What?”

“Your powers. They awakened.”

The cashier, who had been hiding during the fight, pulled himself up and spoke to us.

“Thank you for saving my store,” he said. “But please pay for the damages.”

“Oh, no biggie,” the girl said. “Here.” She pulled out a wad of cash, which she handed to the cashier. “This should be enough.”

She turned towards me and put her arm around my shoulder.

“Thanks for the save, man,” she said. “Mind if we talk for a bit?”

“S-Sure.” I was still mortified.

We walked out of the store and into the street. She still had her arm around me, which I found uncomfortable.

“So… What’s your name?” she asked.

“Dyzxalaxyzk.”

Her eyes widened.

“What the hell did you just say?”

“My name. That’s my name. People who know me call me D, though.”

She took her arm off my shoulder. It felt sore.

“Nice to meet you, D. My name’s Martelle.”

“So, you said something about my powers awakening? What did you mean by that?”

“Well, when you get your powers for the first time, you sorta lose your vision for a moment and then a creepy booming voice says your name and tells you to awaken.”

“Huh?”

She pulled on my scarf and laughed. If I had a respiratory system, I would’ve been choking to death.

“So why do you wear this stuff?” she said.

“My hood and my scarf? It’s to hide my head,” I said. “It sucks the light out of things around me.”

“Woah, that’s weird!” She laughed again. “Just like your power!”

We kept walking and chatting until we arrived at my home.

“You go to Navarre High, right?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“Oh, I go there too. We can meet at the school grounds later and train your powers.”

“Huh?”

“Alright, see ya later!”

She skipped past me down the sidewalk, laughing and yelling as I entered my home. I felt confused but relieved. Had I just made a real friend? I shook off those thoughts for now, as I had to tell Grandma Shadow about my powers “awakening”. I opened the door.

“Hello?” I said.

“Oh, hello, D!” she said. “Do you have the ice cream?”

“Uh, no. But I do have something better!”

I thought the best way to tell her was to show, and not tell. I tried to release my tentacles, and they did, but they were considerably shorter than the ones I had used at the grocery store.

“Your powers awakened! Oh, how wonderful!”

“Yeah…”

“What can you do with those?” She looked delighted, gripping her hands with a big smile on her face.

“I don’t know the full extent of them, but I can grab things and throw them really hard.” The tentacles suddenly retracted on their own.

“That’s great!” she said. “Just like your mother!”

“I suppose,” I said. “What are you watching?”

“Oh, just some footage from my golden years,” she said. Images of her as a superhero along with her teammates flashed on the television. They were fighting a giant squid kaiju.

“Your grandfather proposed to me after this brawl! Did you know that squid is still alive? I go visit him at the docks from time to time.”

“That’s a great story, grandma,” I said. “I also made a friend today.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes. She has powers too. She helped me defeat a villain.”

“Oh, I’m so happy for you, dear,” she said. “This is a very important change in your life. Do you want to be a hero, just like your old grandma?”

I thought about it for a second.

“Of course!” I yelled. “I’m going to start training tomorrow, with my friend.”

“I’m so proud of you,” she said.

“Thanks, Grandma.”

I walked upstairs to my room and dropped on my bed. I looked at myself in the mirror, and my eyes looked… happy. That hadn’t happened since I was 12. For the first time, I looked forward to tomorrow.

I slept well.