***Perry, 8 years old***

Perry gasped as motes of light swirled around Mom’s garden, seemingly rising out of the ground where the moonlight struck the sweet-smelling blue flowers she spent so much time on.

“This is magic,” Mom said, looking down at Perry’s complete awe with a happy smile as the lights swirled around them, illuminating her rock T-shirt and jeans as they swept past her body.

“Magic happens when two or more compatible essences interact, and a ritual is preformed, creating magic. In this case, the essence of moonlight and lunar lotus, and the ritual is allowing them to interact. A very common and benign magic.”

“Wow, it doesn’t look common.”

“No magic is common,” Mom said with smirk and a shrug “Buuut some are more common than others.”

“This is so cool,” Perry said, waving his hand through the floating motes of light. “but if it’s mixing two essences, how do you use magic without anything at all?” Perry had seen her clean the house with a snap of her fingers, after all.

“That’s the trick, isn’t it?” Mom said, kneeling down and holding out her palm.

“Mages from my world figured out how to create essences inside ourselves.”

Above her hand, a mote of light sprung into being, exactly the same as the motes of light around them, except this one didn’t waver or drift like the others. Instead, it hung directly over her hand.

“Ooo,” Perry reached out and poked the mote of light, which shattered into dozens of tiny fragments that flew away on the wind. “How do you do that?”

“Well, about a thousand years ago, Pecholard the Studious –“

“Pek-o-lard?” Perry asked incredulously, not sure if he wanted anything to do with it if it sounded that silly.

“It’s a different language, grow up.” Mom rolled her emerald eyes. “Anyway, Pecholard discovered that the magical effects that wizards spent hours and hours to mix and create were the result of the essence contained within the objects, and not necessarily the object itself.”

“Uhuh,” Perry said, nodding, although not entirely getting it.

“Sooo. Pecholard the Studious found a way to synthesize pure essences by incorporating various spirits into one’s Attunement. By feeding these symbiotic spirits a small fragment of your own Attunement, they produce pure essences on demand.”

“Symbiotic? Like a parasite?” Perry asked, sticking out his tongue.

Mom glanced to the side. “Well, kind of, but not gross. Anyway, Pecholard ushered in a new era of Magecraft, although most mages were terribly limited as a human’s Attunement can only support a couple Essences. Most mages had to stick to one or two simple spells.”

“But you,” Mom said with a mischievous smirk. “You’ve got enough Attunement for something truly special.”

“Really?” Perry asked.

“You remember that trip we took to the top of the mountain when you were five?”

Perry shook his head. “It was…cold?”

“That’s fine. Let’s just say I did a ritual that…enhanced your Attunement. I didn’t want Dad’s Dull blood to be a handicap, after all.”

While Perry was mulling over the implications, Mom pulled out a little glass vial of…something. It was a viscous liquid that glowed in a fascinating rainbow of colors.

“What is that?” Perry asked, his attention captured.

“This…Is the spirit of a legendary mimic, able to produce any essence on demand. Up until now, it’s been passed through our family as a treasure, because nobody’s ever had the Attunement to control it.”

“But I do?” Perry asked incredulously.

“Honey, you had more than enough before we even went to the mountain, much to my surprise. Drink this, and you’ll be the most pow – you’ll…be able to start your training.”

“Is it…gonna hurt?” Perry asked.

“No, no, you won’t even feel it.” Mom said, shaking her head.

“Okay,” Perry said, taking the vial of multicolored, flourescent glowing liquid from Mom and prying on the cap.

He couldn’t get it off.

“Here,” Mom said, taking the stoppe out of the vial before handing it back to him.

“You’re sure this is safe?” Perry asked, glancing up at Mom.

“Sweetheart, I’ve done this three times,” Mom said with a hint of exasperation.

“Okay…”

Perry shrugged, tightly closed his eyes and knocked back the glowing concoction.

******

“There you are. You’re okay now.” Mom said, her faintly glowing thumb coming off his forehead.

“M-Mom?” Perry rasped, confused at Mom suddenly being so close to him. He glanced to the side and spotted a Lunar Lotus shedding glowing motes of light beside him.

I’m on the ground? My throat kinda hurts, and my clothes are super wet. And there’s a bloody handkerchief in her pocket.

“What happened?” Perry asked.

“You’re a mage now, is what happened,” Mom said, beaming. “Don’t worry about the sweat, it’s normal. We’ll get you a change of clothes when we get home.”

“O-okay.”

“Wanna learn your first spell!?” Mom said, her brows raised with excitement.

“Do I!?” Perry exclaimed, sitting up, all questions abandoned with a mental shrug.

“Alright, so tonight you’re going to learn the Light spell. can you guess what it’s made of?” She gave him a mischievous smile.

“It’s lunar lotus and moonlight essence, isn’t it?”

“Clever boy. Indeed it is. I made this garden to teach you your first spell.”

“h-how do I do it?” Perry asked.

“Here,” Mom said, taking a couple sunglasses out of her purse and handing one to Perry while she put on the other one.

She waited until Perry put his own on.

“I can’t see anything.” Perry complained. It was night time after all.

“You don’t have to. Take a deep breath.” Mom said, doing so herself.

Perry took a deep breath.

“Focus on the smell of the lunar Lotus. Focus on the sensation of the light of the moon on your skin.”

Perry felt something inside him react, combining into a sizzling river of pure potential. He brought it out to his palm.

“Now this will take a while, but if you do it right, you should feel –“

FLASH!

A blast of light nearly blinded Perry through the sunglasses.

“Ow, men’zat pekvath benaan forza!” Mom cursed in her home tongue before fixing a smile on her face. “That’s fantastic sweety, but try to do only a little bit, okay?”

“Okay,” Perry said, nodding as he blinked the dark spots out of his eyes.

“So how you do it is-“

FLASH!

Mom had her hand in front of her eyes this time, but Perry got himself again.

“So that stream of energy, pinch down on it until only a little bit gets by, okay?”

“Okay.”

This time, Perry clamped down on the sensation, only letting a little bit out past his palm.

A wavering mote of light appeared above his hand.

“Great job, sweetheart!” Mom said, clasping his shoulders as he stared down at the magic in his palm, jaw dropped.

“That’s it?” He asked. “It wasn’t very hard.”

“It’s-“ Mom hesitated, her eyes flickering away for a moment. “It’s one of the easiest spells. We’ll get you started on some more challenging ones tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay!”

“Lets go inside Perry, it’s dinnertime, and your dad is bringing home Pizza!”

“Pizza!” Perry said, fists pumping as he raced through Mom’s garden, heading for the backdoor, ignoring the sound of the jet growing in the distance.

Jets flew over their house all the time.

There was a slight shaking of the entire house, signifying Dad was home.

“Dad!” Perry shouted when Dad burst through the door with his typical energy, bearing a couple pizzas over his shoulder.

“I have hunted us a great feast,” Dad said, thumping his chest as he stepped around Perry and set the family sized pizzas on the island in the center of the kitchen.

“Dad, check this out!” Perry said, holding out his palm and spawning a globe of light.

“Wow! That’s really cool, Perry!” Dad said with a grin, glancing at Mom.

“No magic at the dinnertable, though,” Dad said as he plated up Tom’s pizza.

It was a restriction that Perry was unable to follow, blinking a little light on and off under the table as he ate with his other hand.

“You really like your mom’s magic stuff, huh?” Dad asked, a slice of pizza dangling from his hand.

“It’s awesome! just holding out your hand and going “boom! Pow! Zap!’”

“I can go boom, pow zap,” Dad sulked.

“Aww, sweety, it’s okay if he doesn’t take after you.” Mom said, patting Dad’s shoulder.

“The important thing is that Perry is happy, I guess,” Dad said.

Dad’s eyes seemed to light up, getting that distant look he got sometimes.

“Perry, you like videogames right?” Dad asked.

“Yeah, I guess.” Perry said, playing with his magic under the table.

“Give it a rest, Perry,” Mom said, patting him on the shoulder, prompting Perry to reluctantly stop.

“What if life was like a videogame, wouldn’t that be cool?”

“That…actually would be pretty cool,” Perry said. “leveling up and getting stronk.” He flexed his admittedly skinny bicep.

“Right…” Dad said, staring into the distance before taking another bite of his pizza.

***That night***

“Huh?” Perry woke up as he felt a weight on the side of his bed, and turned his head, spotting Dad sitting beside him with an empty syringe.

“Get some sleep champ,” Dad said, kissing him on the forehead before a wave of fogginess claimed him.

***The next day***

“I don’t understand,” Perry said, tears of frustration rolling down his cheeks. “It was so easy yesterday. What’s wrong with me?”

Every time he tried to focus on that sensation, the mixing of Essence, he felt the mimic spirit react, but the river of sizzling energy that normally surged out felt like cold tar, unwilling to budge.

“There’s nothing wrong with you sweetheart,” Mom said, hugging him. “You’ll be fine, baby.”

“Darryl, let’s talk outside.” Mom said. If Perry hadn’t been so distraught, the coldness in her voice would have caught his attention.

“Sounds good,” Dad said, eyes narrowed.

The two of them walked out while Perry kept trying to get anything to happen.

Please. Please. Just the smallest light. Anything.

“I wasn’t trying to kill him! I did everything I could to guarantee he would succeed! And he did!” Mom’s voice cut through his malaise as it rose loud enough to pierce through his bedroom door.

“You told me what that thing did to your sister!” Dad’s voice shouted. “You gambled with my son’s life!”

“And you respond by what, rendering it meaningless!? He succeeded, and spectacularly at that. A prodigy the likes of which the world has never seen and you shat all over it! What you did wasn’t inspired by care for his wellbeing, but petty jealousy!”

“I saw the security footage!” Dad shouted “It nearly killed him, and you think I’m gonna be OKAY with that!?”

“It was tradition! I knew exactly what I was doing. Do you have any idea what was in the shot you gave him, or was it just another one of your fugue state inventions?” Mom shouted back. “Those don’t always work, you know!”

“I may not know what was in it, but I know what I was feeling when I made it! It’ll keep him safe from your magic. What on Earth made you think handing limitless power to an eight-year-old was a good idea in the first place!?”

“Mom, Dad?” Perry asked, opening his bedroom door.

In the living room, Mom’s hands were crackling with lightning, while some kind of metal arm with a gun on it had descended from the ceiling above Dad, aiming at Mom.

Almost as if he’d imagined it, the stormy expressions on his parent’s faces vanished, as well as the strange metal arm and the crackling lightning around mom’s hands.

“What..was all that?” Perry asked, glancing at the now seamless ceiling. Hiding a robot arm?

His parents shared a glance, and Dad sighed and nodded.

“Sweety, it’s fine, we’re not mad anymore, come here.” Mom gestured for a hug, and without thinking about it too hard, Perry went for it.

Mom kissed him on the forehead, then pressed her thumb –

***Perry, now***

Perry’s eyes snapped open, staring up at the ceiling.

That was a weird dream.

Laying in bed, Perry habitually checked his XP to next level

XP to next level: 245

Between Locust and Karnos and the quest completion, he’d covered most of the distance to level 3.

And all that in one day. Perry couldn’t see getting through High Tide lower than level 5, at this rate.

Perry rolled out of bed and put his feet on the floor, hissing in pain as his rolled ankle caught up with him. Adrenaline had kept it under control last night, but now it hurt like crazy.

Yawning and stretching out the aches and pains from the fight the night before, Perry limped over to his phone and checked his texts.

Liability exceeds cash reserves, please call ASAP

John White

“What!?”

Perry clutched the phone close to his face as he began hyperventilating, scrolling through the messages.

The infrastructure damage from the fight with Locust was negligible, and Locust was saddled with most of it. The rest was split six ways.

It was the outing against Karnos that had dinged him the worst.

The biggest chunk of it was the explosion at storage yard, which had nailed him with a massive bill to fix…basically everything, because not a single unit had been completely untouched by shrapnel.

After that, he had to compensate several hundred civilians for damages to their property….and he couldn’t contest it because he’d rented the storage unit under false pretenses.

Didn’t matter that Karnos set the C-4. Perry was responsible because he invited the trouble by setting up a base there without the knowledge or consent of the owner.

Yesterday Perry was set for life.

This morning Perry was fifty thousand in debt.

Lifeless, Perry threw on some clothes and shambled out to breakfast.

“What’s wrong, baby? You look like you died and an evil spirit is controlling your body.” Mom said, watching his lurching gait with concern.

“I wish,” Perry muttered, handing her the phone as he collapsed into the seat.

He glanced over at where Heather was eating cereal in the massive T-shirt she’d crashed on his couch in.

“You now have fifty thousand dollars more than I do.”

“Hah,” Heather chuckled, nearly spilling milk from her mouth.

“Oh,” Mom said, scrolling through the list of damages. “OOoooh,” She handed the phone over to Perry and went back to peeling a grapefruit. “Ask your father, he’s got more experience with property damage.”

“Eh?” Dad asked, pulling the newspad out of his face. “I heard my name.”

Perry showed him the phone.

“Oh. Just buy the place. The repairs listed here cost more than the value of the facility. Should save you a cool quarter-mil. Fix it up at your own pace then resell it.”

Perry’s eyes widened, and he looked back and forth between the phone and his dad.

“I can do that?”

“Trust me, most owners would be happy with getting all their money back rather than being forced to spend months and months making repairs then trying to attract business to a place that has a history of exploding.”

His dad hid his beak-nose behind the newspad again.

Feeling like his soul was coming back to his body, Perry called back John White.

After a brief conversation and a confirmation text a few minutes later, Perry glanced back up at Heather with the smuggest expression he’d ever had the pleasure of producing.

“I now have a hundred and fifty thousand dollars more than you.”

“Ea a ick.” Heather said around a mouthful of cereal.

“And property taxes on a liability no one will buy from you.” Dad said from behind his newspad.

“I’ll take what I can get,” Perry said, just relieved he wasn’t in crippling debt already.

He glanced over at the Tidewatch, which was worryingly high.

High Tide was close.

Case in point was sitting across from him, devouring her cereal like an animal.

“You think of a Super name yet?” Perry asked.

Heather scoffed. “I always thought I’d get fire powers, or darkness powers, or turning into a ghost or something…not this.

She held out her arm, which went floppy. After they’d cut her out of the armor last night she’d just kind of…stayed floppy. It was obviously a Trigger, because everyone else Perry had ever shot with Dregor’s flaccidity had recovered.

“What the heck am I supposed to do with this!?” Heather demanded, waving the floppy arm around.

“Could call you Flaccid-Girl.” Perry said with a hint of schadenfreude.

“That reminds me of Morph.” Mom said, polishing off her grapefruit. “Have you tried experimenting?”

“Experimenting? All I can do is get floppy. Turn myself into a puddle. Whoop-de-doo.”

“Have you tried making some parts of you harder?” Mom asked.

Heather frowned, her expression darkening as she concentrated.

A wavering spike made of Heather-stuff was exposed as her forearm melted away.

“Wicked.” She said, an ominous smile blooming on her face. The way the morning sun lit up her hair like a halo made the smile all the darker by comparison.

“You should be able to become a fairly proficient shapeshifter with enough practice.” Hexen said, taking away everyone’s dishes.

Heather’s excitement dimmed as she was made aware of the similarities to her father.

“Your dad’s all gross and meaty though,” Perry hastily interjected. “You’re totally different. Cute, and rubbery.”

Did I just call her cute? Perry thought, freezing up as Heather cocked a brow at him.

“Perry, you’re on dishes.” Hexen called from the kitchen.

Oh, thank you Lord.

“Well, gotta go do those dishes.” Perry said, retreating ASAP.

Girls were scarier than supervillains.

***Later***

Perry inhaled the sweet, nostalgic scent of discharged C-4 and concrete rubble. It reminded him of the smell his dad always had coming home from ‘work’ when he was younger.

“Take that in,” Perry said, inhaling deeply. “That’s the smell of property ownership.”

“Smells like diesel exhaust,” Heather said, glancing over at all the U-haul trucks being frantically loaded by civvies evacuating the area before more bombs went off.

“That too,” Perry said, nodding as he mentally measured the lot.

“We’ve got what, a day before High tide?” Perry asked. The question was practically meaningless, as true High Tide was nearly indistinguishable from a couple days before or after.

They didn’t have much time at all before the prawns came.

“We can put the shop over here,” Perry said, “The arena over here. The prison cells and mutating vats over here.”

“What are you talking about?” Heather asked, glancing up at him curiously.

“I mean, I didn’t wanna put my lair in the exact same place, but I own this place now. I gotta work with the hand I’m dealt.”

“No, I mean, whaddya need an arena, prison cells and mutating vats for?”

“How about just a shop.” Perry offered.

“Better.”

“Leading to a vast network of underground-“

Heather punched him in the shoulder.

“ow,” Perry said, rubbing his arm as he surveyed the property. Step one was bulldozing all the damaged storage units then transporting the scrap to a scrapyard…

Or could I melt the steel sheeting down and use it for myself? Probably be cheaper than buying it new. For me, anyway.

For that, Perry needed a big furnace, a bulldozer, and a way to process the scrap.

Rather than buy a bulldozer, he could make a floating armament to fulfil the same function, for about an eighth the cost of renting one.

Perry took another deep diesel/C-4/rubble breath. In a matter of weeks, he’d have a workshop that would put his dad’s to shame.

New Quest: Make a proper lair!

Reward: 300 XP, Lair.

Perry’s musings were cut off as sirens began to roll through the city.

He and all the other civilians craned their necks to stare at the wall.

Atop the wall, red lights were spinning as a nerve-wracking siren invaded their eardrums. For the first time in twelve years.

“Tide’s in,” Heather said beside him.

“Yup,” Perry said, breaking out in a cold sweat.