“I’m telling you, this is gonna be a breakthrough,” Sami said excitedly, Shadow Hand holding out a notecard to Gutshot.

  Grasping it, Gutshot flipped the blank card around four times in confusion. “What does this have to do with my dad?”

  “I’ve just been thinking a lot more about your Anomaly, and I think this has some potential.”

  “I thought you wanted to drop this subject?” Claire asked, but she seemed equally enthused.

  Sami waved his Shadow Hand at her dismissively, his eyes remaining on Gutshot. “I had more time to think about it and I think this has potential.”

  Gutshot looked around nervously, a small crowd having gathered around them. Gan Wen, Francine, and Kutso watched at a short distance, curious about Sami's newest antics. Grinning, Sami was almost bursting with energy.

  “All you want me to do is write his name down?” Gutshot asked, raising the card.

  “But be serious about it. I want you to think about your dad and nothing else. Make sure you don’t confuse him with someone else. And I want you to sign your name on the bottom, testifying that you, of sound mind, have written your dad’s name.” Sami eagerly bobbed in place.

  Claire laughed. “You want him to sign it? What is it like, a report card?”

  “Just indulge me. If you’re not uncomfortable,” Sami tacked on quickly.

  Gutshot squinted at his small audience, then sputtered and began writing a name on the card. “I don’t have a problem with writing his name. I’m just confused by why you guys are so drawn to the idea of my dad. You ask about him all the time.”

  “You talk about him all the time without prompting,” Claire pointed out.

  “Because my dad’s super cool,” Gutshot murmured, holding up the card.

  It simply read “Steve,” and the bottom was signed “Gutshot.”

  “Add his last name too,” Sami encouraged.

  Gutshot hesitated, gripping his pen tightly.

  “That’s strange,” Claire mused, clearly toying with him. “Do you not know your own dad’s last name?”

  “It’s just not coming to mind right now,” Gutshot muttered.

  “It’s fine,” Sami assured him. “Just write his power so you know who it is.”

  “I know who my dad is,” Gutshot scoffed.

  “Please! Seriously, that’s all you need to write.”

  Rolling his eyes, Gutshot obliged. “Steve - clay guy” was scribbled on the card that Gutshot tried handing back to Sami. Shadow Hand pushed it back gently.

  “Really focus. That’s him, right?”

  “Yeah! Steve’s my dad!”

  “Okay, now, keep it in your pocket.” Sami said giddily.

  “Like a magic trick?” Gutshot tucked it away.

  “Yes!”

  “Someone call Magnus,” Kutso joked behind Sami.

  “Who?” Francine asked.

  “You know, the magic guy? Ah, forget it.”

  Sami bobbed in place, watching Gutshot intently. Gutshot stared back with narrow eyes, looking like he was deciding between whether to be uncomfortable or defiant about this new project.

  “What are we waiting for?” Claire asked on behalf of everyone.

  “The next time his dad changes.”

  “We don’t really have a good handle on how often that happens.”

  “Good point. Who’s your father right now, Gutshot?”

  “Steve! What do you mean ‘right now?’ Seriously, you guys are always really weird about this,” Gutshot said.

  Sami worked his jaw, considering how best to draw out a new father. Claire was right. Sometimes Gutshot would rapid-fire new dads where other times he had the same dad for hours at a time. The pattern was elusive.

  “Fine, forget about it. You wanna train with me? I won’t even try to punch your stomach,” Sami suggested.

  Gutshot lit up eagerly. “Sure!”

  Sami led the way, taking the few steps from the unwritten “hangout” side of the warehouse to the “serious” side of the warehouse. HUE had basic furniture outside of the dorms, but there weren’t any setups to indicate that the warehouse should be used in a certain way. When people wanted to train, they went to the area where the ambush started, and when they wanted to chat, they went to the opposite end with the plastic chairs and tables. An arbitrary parameter, but Sami thought the setup worked really well.

  Arriving at the wall, a surprised look came to his face as he saw the small crowd behind him. Gan Wen, Francine, Kutso, Claire and Gutshot all watched Sami expectantly, as though waiting for training instruction. Sami quickly transitioned from surprise to elation, glad to have the company.

  “I was mostly gonna work out Shadow Hand by boxing with Gutshot, but I think I would get a lot better mileage by training with someone that can break Shadow Hand. I want to reform it faster and get some stronger hits in. Any of you interested?” His Shadow Hand swept over Gan Wen, Francine and Kutso.

  All three nodded.

  “How are you intending to compete against us?” Gan Wen asked respectfully. “I do not believe your Path of the Grasping Shadow can overpower the aspects of the Path of the Radiant Sun.”

  “Maybe that can be part of it? You can’t use a blast to attack, you can only use enhanced movement. First one to hit the other wins the sparring match? And then they take on the next person?” Sami offered, making it up as he spoke.

  Gan Wen nodded in approval.

  “What about us?” Gutshot sounded disappointed to be left out.

  “We need to find the limit on Claire’s Subtitles without binoculars and maybe find a way to focus them to drown out noise. So, you can walk back to the other side of the warehouse where everyone is talking and speak quietly. Claire will have to pick up what you’re saying from out of everyone. And in the meantime, you can train with your reinforcement pats on your stomach.”

  “Reinforcement pats!” Gutshot slapped two palms on his stomach eagerly. “That’s great, thanks Sami.”

  As Gutshot stomped off, patting his stomach to his own tune, Sami was pleased to see everyone in high spirits. Making up a random training session was intimidating, he found, and he was glad that he could count on his team to want to work with him, even if he didn’t feel very organized. It might have helped that very little in HUE felt particularly organized.

  Gan Wen stepped forward and squared his shoulders. Two fists rolled out of his long white sleeves, and he nodded to Sami. Balling Shadow Hand into a fist, Sami took ten steps away from Gan Wen and nodded. Neither of them moved. A drop of sweat rolled down Sami’s face.

  “Can someone, like, count us off or something?”

  “Fight!” Claire yelled, her eyes still on Gutshot.

  Gan Wen blasted forward, golden energy shining off his back as he cleared the distance between them in an instant. With barely the chance to gasp, Sami bent out of the way. Gan Wen’s trajectory still put a fist on the collision path of his shoulder. With less than a moment to spare, Sami’s body reeled out of the way as though pulled by a fishing line.

  Sliding to a stop, Gan Wen turned around in confusion. Sami had pulled himself backward with his Shadow Hand, giving him the last bit of distance he needed. Steadying himself, Sami grinned and waved.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Clever. I will have to change tactics.” Gan Wen ran forward, but each step landed on a small lily pad of golden energy, allowing him to ascend like running up stairs.

  Smiling in surprise at the display, Sami craned his neck to follow Gan Wen reach a distance two times his height.

  Not to be outdone so fast, Sami put a tentative phantom hand forward and pushed his foot lightly on a Shadow Hand step. Satisfied it could hold his weight, he hopped up and pushed his Shadow Hand to go under his other foot. Wobbling, he took another half step.

  Smirking, Gan Wen dispersed the gold energy and dropped down with palms out to strike Sami. Losing balance, Sami fell one way off his Shadow Hand. With another step of golden power, Gan Wen adjusted his trajectory to remain on target. Sami stabbed forward with Shadow Hand, shooting right for Gan Wen’s chest.

  Reacting instinctively, Gan Wen pushed a massive radiant golden palm forward. The car-sized, shining attack slapped against Sami’s whole body, throwing him into the ground. Hitting the ground was bad enough, but the massive golden palm came to deliver a second blow, slapping him again and making Sami feel pancaked by a block of glowing steel.

  Groaning, Sami placed a hand on his forehead, Shadow Hand fanning him. Gan Wen landed next to him nimbly, not making a sound when he touched the floor.

  “I apologize, brother Sa Mi, I broke our rules. I humbly accept defeat. You are the better fighter.” Gan Wen bowed his head with closed eyes.

  Sami coughed, pulling himself to his feet with Shadow Hand. “Better fighter? I think that one hit was enough to take me down in an actual battle. But I’ll take the win on the spar.”

  Sami glanced up at Francine and Kutso, curious who would step forward for the next match. Neither were looking at him, instead watching the entrance to the warehouse. Surprised that they were disinterested in his win, Sami looked at Claire. Again, Sami was confused to see her looking at the entrance instead of at Gutshot. All eyes were glued to the front, a hush falling over the crowd as anticipation built. Twisting his neck, Sami looked to see what caught everyone’s attention.

  Dawson stood at the open door, waving to everyone sheepishly. “Don’t worry, the stream’s off. Sorry about last time, everyone.”

  Gutshot started applauding loudly, his lone applause shocking Dawson and filling the warehouse with its echo. Quickly, the others joined in the large empty warehouse, the ovation echoing enough to sound like a crowd of hundreds. With wide eyes, Dawson looked stunned at the reaction, smiling at his feet and scratching the back of his orange hair.

  Whining quietly as he forced his aching body to move, Sami limped forward to greet Dawson before anyone else. The applause died down as he stood in front of Dawson, more tension cutting the air.

  “Are you okay?” Dawson looked him up and down. “You look terrible.”

  “I’m fine, it’s just some training. Hey, man. Really good to see you.” Sami clapped him on the shoulder. Both of them winced in pain. “Sorry about how I treated you before. It was messed up for me to shut off your stream.”

  “I get it. I mean, Naomi made it very clear that I messed up, am I right?” Dawson paused as his second Power Sense bubble shined, Sami fascinated by it.

  “You feeling okay? What was it like to…” Sami leaned his head to one side, hoping the gesture communicated the rest of the question.

  “The fight was amazing! Magnus might be the coolest teacher ever. And Hannah has a shadow power, too, did you know that? She’s super strong!”

  Smiling weakly, Sami stored away the information about a shadow power for later.

  Bouncing his head slightly one way, Sami pressed his lips together and shook his head. “I meant the other thing. With Rektor? We all saw it live on stream.”

  “I haven’t watched the VOD yet, but are you talking about heating metal power? It’s wild in real life. Not sure I got a good enough look at it, though.”

  Sami blinked in surprise. “No, dude, the part… The part where you died?”

  Dawson’s blue Power Sense bubble shined as his face slowly scrunched into confusion. Then, he smiled, looking like he was trying to pick up on a joke.

  “You mean when they gagged me and I couldn’t talk? I guess me being silent is like me being dead, huh?”

  “Dude. I’m not the first to tell you, right? Uhh… They cut your head off.” Sami lowered his voice, feeling like this was something secret to share despite everyone else already knowing.

  Dawson’s smile remained strong and confused. “I don’t get it.”

  “There’s… nothing to get!”

  “All right, I’m a little tired. I’m gonna go nap in the dorms and then try to figure this joke out.”

  Sami threw three hands up in exasperation. “It’s not a joke!”

  “Yeah, yeah, I’ll talk to you all later. I’ll tell you all about the deployment, I’m just exhausted.” Dawson rubbed his eye as he made his way to the dorms.

  Sami turned to the rest of HUE who watched uncomfortably as Dawson entered the men’s dorms with a comically loud yawn. Several pairs of eyes lingered on the door as it slid closed. That was some serious denial. Or maybe shock blocked out the memory.

  Francine scoffed pointing at the closed door. “Okay, but we all saw him die, right?”

  Several nods met her.

  She folded her arms. “Honestly… Pretty cool.”

  “How is dying cool?” Kutso asked.

  “How many people do you know who died and came back to life!?”

  Sami could think of two people if he counted Dawson, but thought better of mentioning Lightcrown.

  “And he acts like he’s just going through another day,” Francine continued. “Just let me know when one of you dies and is super chill about it.” Francine puts her hands in her pocket, leaning back and trying to emulate Dawson’s chill attitude.

  “Perhaps Do Son is still mentally recovering from the state of death,” Gan Wen mused.

  “He put up a pretty good fight after having his head screwed back on.”

  “Can we… Drop this?” Gutshot asked uncomfortably. “I don’t like being reminded that my dad died in front of my eyes.”

  Everyone snapped to Gutshot, Sami scrambling toward him, limping frantically. A fire in his eyes, he bounded to Gutshot like a hunting animal beckoned back to its owner.

  “What did you say? Dawson’s your dad?” Sami asked eagerly.

  “Again with the dad stuff?”

  Sami was bouncing in place with only one leg, the other too injured to withstand his excited energy. “Do you remember what you wrote on the card?”

  “Yeah, ‘Dawson.’ And ‘sharp guy’ for his power. This wasn’t even ten minutes ago, how could I forget?”

  “Take out your card! Read it!” Sami pointed with his Shadow Hand at Gutshot’s pocket.

  Claire jogged over, eyebrows raised as high as her expectations while Gutshot frowned and scrunched his face at Sami in confusion. Sami stretched the Shadow Hand further, pointing urgently just an inch away from his pocket. Shaking his head, Gutshot pulled out the card.

  Rolling his eyes one more time, he looked down at the words. He stared at it. And stared. Then scrunched his face as he stared some more. Sami’s grin could only widen. Claire was holding her breath, waiting for Gutshot to say something. Gutshot’s expression was unreadable, frozen in place while he stared.

  “Well, what happened? Has he denied it yet?” Francine asked.

  “Not yet!” Claire replied.

  Flinching, Sami covered his face suddenly and Claire jumped away from him, startled. Gutshot remained frozen, his attention locked on the small piece of paper.

  Claire looked at Gutshot’s expression, then to Sami. “What? What happened?”

  “His Power Sense bubble just shedded! Like… I don’t know, some sort of lizard molting or something! It took off the Green Bubble, and now it’s a Black Bubble!” Sami pointed to a space just above Gutshot, knowing he was the only one to see the ethereal bubbles.

  One red and one black. But just a moment ago it was one red and one green.

  “This… Isn’t my dad,” Gutshot finally said, holding the card up for Claire and Sami to read.

  “We know,” they replied simultaneously.

  “But when I wrote this down… I was 100% certain it was my dad. But this says Steve.”

  “That’s what we’ve been trying to explain to you!” Claire said, though her tone was more caring than her words.

  “And this is my Anomaly?” Gutshot looked up to Sami, lowering the card in disdain.

  “As far as I understand, yeah.” Sami nodded.

  “This is awful.” Gutshot threw the card on the ground. “I remember Dawson pushing me on my bicycle when I first took off my training wheels! He yelled at me when I was studying math in fifth grade! We used to watch nature documentaries a lot and went to the zoo together all the time! Who was that?”

  “I’m sorry dude. I thought it would be good for you to finally figure it out.”

  “This is definitely better. Really, thanks Sami. I like that my friends want me to know the truth even if it’s awful.” Gutshot sounded sincere, but his voice was ambivalent. “It’s so weird though. Because I know it’s not true. But I’m also certain that Dawson is my dad. ”

  “That sounds terrible. Sorry to hear it. Maybe the same way that we got this breakthrough, you can learn how to overcome it?” Sami offered, hopeful.

  “Or maybe it gets stronger because I can’t turn it off and a random kitty becomes my dad,” Gutshot scoffed. It half sounded like he was making a joke, but Sami could tell he was coping.

  “Don’t worry dude, we’ll figure it out.”

  “And I’ll be sure to remind you any time you’re being stupid,” Claire said helpfully.

  “Thanks guys.”

  Sami studied the bubble in wonder, trying to piece together what the metamorphosis meant. Replaying the image of the green bubble shedding and becoming black, Sami blinked suddenly, connecting it with Naomi’s black bubble. Eyes racing between the bubble and Gutshot, Sami beamed as an epiphany came to life.

  “You think it’s a terrible power for you, right?” Sami asked.

  “Who wouldn’t? This messes with my whole life.”

  Continuing to grin, Sami almost felt the gears turn in his head. Black bubbles were Anomalies. Powers that did harm to the user. One mystery solved. Then another piece fell into the mental puzzle. Green bubbles had to be powers that the user was unaware of. Just like the line of people he saw asking for Lemon Cake outside Manny’s Diner. They wanted to buy something to Awaken them because they didn’t already know they were Awakened.

  Incredible. What was mostly an experiment to help Gutshot turned out to be incredibly valuable to his own understanding as well.

  “Why is he smiling? I’m pretty sure I told him I feel awful,” Gutshot leaned over to Claire.

  “You’re not the only one I have to remind when they’re being stupid.” Claire waved a hand in front of Sami’s eyes, who blinked back into focus.

  “Hey!” Francine yelled over. “Did you figure out the dad thing or what?”

  “I don’t know who my dad is!” Gutshot replied, distraught.

  “All right, so nothing’s changed.” Francine nodded. “Let’s get back to sparring already. I got next.”

  With a wide smile on his face, Sami hobbled over to be smacked down and beaten by Francine in the next sparring bout.