“Are you both free now?” asked Mr. Boyle.

  “My next period is with the occupational therapist, so I don’t want to miss it,” said Marcus.

  Cassie laughed obnoxiously. “Of course it is.” Still in a bad mood then.

  The occupational therapist helped those with weaker powers develop them. Everyone saw them of course, but some people saw them more than others. It was never necessarily said why, but everyone knew. Marcus was one of those people.

  As far as Cassie knew - as far as anyone else in the world knew - Marcus didn’t have the power to transform into an odd looking yellowish humanoid creature that could throw blackfire. As far as the school was concerned, Marcus was registered as an Extrahuman with generally enhanced abilities all around, particularly super strength. This was true in his human form. In his Hobgoblin form it was on a different level entirely.

  He couldn’t exactly say that. Besides, what did he have to prove to Cassie of all people? If she thought his power was weak then so be it. It wasn’t like hers was amazing. She just had regular super strength. Of course, regular super strength was a bit of a misnomer. People’s powers varied wildly. Cape for example, leader of the Super League and considered the greatest hero ever, only had super strength, self-healing and flight.

  These were three fairly standard powers to have. It was rare to have them all, but not that rare. A few Extrahumans had them all, but there was only one Cape. His powers were simply better than everyone else's. He hit harder, he healed quicker, he flew faster. So while he and Cassie technically shared the same power as far as she knew, she had tested as stronger than him when they’d left secondary school.

  “Well, that’s a shame,” said Mr. Boyle. “I was going to get you to do some trust exercises, or perhaps other activities to build camaraderie.”

  Cassie looked positively ill at that. Marcus couldn’t say the thought filled him with too much pleasure.

  “Come on now, none of that,” said Mr. Boyle, pacing around the front. “Heroes must be able to work well with each other even when they disagree. Putting your differences aside, backing up each other in the moment, knowing your team members aren’t going to let you down. That’s what makes the Super League thrive. If you can’t do it now then you’ll do it later. Two days from now I'll be doing a class where my younger students will test using their powers in new and unique ways. I want you two to clean up after us.”

  Marcus and Cassie looked at each other with chagrin.

  “Ahh,” continued Mr. Boyle, “I see you remember doing it yourselves. Yes it can get quite messy. Takes a while to clean up if you don’t have a power that’s good for it.”

  Mr. Boyle, in the rare time he had practical classes, enjoyed holding them with Duffs. Duffs were fake humans made of an odd jelly-like substance. The whole point of this little exercise was to teach Extrahumans what it looked like when they tried to use their powers in a new way, as they had in the Great Chaos. Unfortunately, as in the Great Chaos, this often had disastrous results for the Duffs, which were made as close as possible to humans in their makeup.

  So when one exploded, it got messy.

  “I think I might have time right now for a few trust falls…” said Marcus.

  Cassie chimed in “I’ve never felt as much camaraderie as I do right now.”

  Mr. Boyle laughed and then shook his head. “I’m serious, this is the very bedrock of being a Super. And believe me, I see great potential in you two. From now on, one night a week of community service, done together. We’ll start with cleaning up my classroom, but I’m sure I can organise something more proper for the two of you that’s a little less short notice.”

  Marcus’ jaw dropped at the same time Cassie’s eyebrows raised.

  “I can’t do that!” said Marcus. One night a week would seriously mess up his plans with Construct. And how would he explain it to the other hero?”

  “Neither can I!” exclaimed Cassie, no doubt thinking of her own vigilante work.

  “What else do you have to do? Which clubs?” asked Mr. Boyle.

  The two stayed silent until Cassie spoke up.

  “Okay we argued in the classroom, but if it came to actually being on a Superhero team we’d be on the same side. So we’d help each other out.”

  “Cassie,” said Mr. Boyle. “The argument was supposed to be about the pros and cons for vigilantism. You both came out for it. You were on the same side.”

  Neither of them had anything to say to that, but Cassie still took the opportunity to be snarky. “I wouldn’t be on a Superhero team with him anyway.”

  “And that’s how we got to here. You will be on a Superhero team together, the team that cleans up my classroom. That is not negotiable. Let this be a lesson for you - if the Super League demands your duty and that you work with someone you don’t like, then you suck it up and do that. And it seems like you need some practice at that. You’re both dismissed,” said Mr. Boyle with a stern demeanor that brooked no retort. There was a warning hanging in the air there that even Cassie refused to backtalk. It was times like this that Marcus wondered about his background. Clearly he’d been somebody.

  Cassie and Marcus left the classroom, closing the door behind them. They stopped outside for a second, neither one knowing the words to say to the other one. Cassie was glaring at Marcus, which made it a little easier to find some.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “Nice work in there. Glad you kept your cool. Really managed to weasel us out of it.”

  She looked at him with something more than annoyance. “You are literally an Extrahuman supremacist.”

  Hob couldn’t help but laugh. “With shit powers?”

  That reminded him, he needed to go to the occupational therapist’s office.

  When he received no reply he rolled his eyes and walked away, voice dripping with sarcasm. “I’ve missed talking to you too, Cassie.”

  __________

  “Traditional super strength training methods just don’t seem to work the same for you,” said Claire, the occupational therapist. She insisted on being called her first name when working with the students.

  Marcus was sitting in a cosy room on the second floor. The room had a bookshelf on one side and accolades on the other. Claire was quite the accomplished therapist if the myriad degrees and awards had anything to say. Marcus had found her to be quite dedicated to the task of getting him up to scratch, a process that he was passively resistant to.

  Now he definitely wanted to improve, but he was also happy to stay as a middle of the road under-the-radar Extrahuman. Living a double life suited him and so did the trappings of that. Besides, he was mostly tired when he came to school, so that wasn’t too difficult to achieve. It went without saying but a double life took a lot of effort to maintain.

  “And now we’re seeing that non-traditional methods don’t provide much growth either,” Claire continued.

  “Maybe my power just caps out here?” Marcus asked.

  “I wouldn’t say caps out, but it might be true that you’re in for a lifetime of grinding out hard work for small gains if we don’t find a method that works for you. Maybe you’re one of those lucky ones whose power never caps out and you just keep gaining strength,” said Claire.

  “A real late bloomer. Lucky me,” said Marcus.

  “A bloom is a bloom. Some academics are thinking of re-terming “late bloomer” to “growth types”. If you keep growing at the rate you’re at you’ll be a powerhouse by forty,” said Claire confidently.

  “A bit late to go to submit my university application,” said Marcus, thinking it through.

  “Not at all. Some of the stronger regional heroes, Acehang and Vale, continued developing their powers and only went to higher education and Super certification at a later age. I’ve found that mature students tend to be better than younger ones. More used to hard work, more goal oriented - they know what they want. That might be good for you, since you don’t seem to know what you want right now.”

  Marcus shrugged. “The same as everyone else, I suppose.”

  “We’ll talk more about what you want later. I want to talk about your power - it’s a tough nut to crack. I have an idea though. I was reviewing our old files when it struck me. What if it’s a transformation power?”

  Marcus’ blood ran cold. He could feel it just beneath his skin, ready to change him into a completely different humanoid. Had he been found out? Or did they just suspect and transforming now would confirm their suspicions. He would need to take on his Hobgoblin form to get away, ironically. “What?” he spluttered.

  “A transformation power. I think it's a possibility, but not one you’d expect,” explained Claire.

  Not a great start, but not too bad. Maybe she doesn’t know? Hob felt the shapeshift recede. He didn’t say anything though.

  “I think you’re transforming from yourself into simply a stronger version of yourself,” Claire proclaimed looking pleased with herself.

  Marcus felt taken aback. “...what?” The transformation was completely gone, she’d taken the wind out of his sails.

  That… couldn’t be right, could it? He did have a transformation power, but he also had super strength… or the super strength was just him beginning to transform into the Hobgoblin? He’d never considered that when he used his enhanced strength in his human form, that he was really just transforming into a stronger version of himself. He’d have to test it.

  “I think it makes a lot of sense. You’re not just training your muscles.

  “So what does that mean?” he asked. “Like, for me?”

  “Well, a lot of things actually. I think this opens up your potential, a lot. You tested above the human average on basically all sensory tests, healing, durability, all of that. Your strength is where you stood out of course, but that may have just been due to you misunderstanding your power. I think it’s possible that, if you do have a transformation power, you ought to be able to change into a version of you with greater eyesight, hearing, durability etc,” said Claire, excitedly. She was one of those earnest, smiley types whose mood was infectious. Marcus was behind her all the way.

  He still wasn’t exactly convinced of her hypothesis - his Hobgoblin form was absolutely superior at all of those things, true, but this idea that he seemingly

  “Then how do I train that?” he asked.

  “Ahh! Now that’s where it differs. Transformation types are triggered by a variety of things. That’s fine, we’re not looking for that. You already seem to be able to trigger it at will.” That was true. “However transformation types do tend to get better with a certain training style - visualisation!”

  “Visualisation?” Marcus wondered. Stare at Hob in the mirror?

  “It’s essentially a type of meditation. You think about yourself, you feel each part of your body one by one, and then you imagine how you want it to change. You really focus hard on that, really process and acclimatise to that. And then the next time you transform, if you focus on the parts you’ve trained to focus on then it will make you better at doing that. Transforming is a bit like a muscle anyway. Shapeshifting back and forth will make you better at it, especially if you try and slow down and feel the process. Say you’ve just been transforming quickly at the start of a workout without realising, and then transforming back, you’ve not actually worked your transformation powers much. This is why I think you’ve had slow growth.”

  “Huh…” said Marcus. He’d really wish he’d known this earlier. While he had been improving a lot as Hob, his human form was experiencing fairly slow growth. It was a difference of scale though and he could tell. If Hob could bench 100kg more then Marcus could bench 10kg more. So while his power had been stagnating a bit it wasn’t as bad as Claire thought. But it was true that his progress had been slower than he’d liked.

  “So your homework for the next week is to seriously work on visualising yourself but stronger. See how that feels. Then try and visualise yourself as other things - having incredible hearing. Really focus on that, but don’t try and transform - if that is what you’re doing. Worst comes to worst and we’re just trying out a new technique after others have failed. I would say an hour sitting still and eyes closed would be good but that’s not realistic with all the other stuff your teachers will have piled on to you. Try two fifteen minute periods of visualisation, you should be able to find that somewhere,” said the occupational therapist.

  “I’ll give it a go,” said Marcus, still thinking about the implications of what she was saying.

  “Well that’s everything for now. I’m sure you have other classes to get to.”

  “I do,” he replied.

  “Looking forward to finding out if we’ve made any progress. See you around Marcus.”

  “Catch you later, Claire.”