Madaline, Elena, and Ashley walked into the law offices of Johnson and Wentworth early Saturday morning. Madaline took the day off to see this done. Mark wasn't happy but she dreaded waiting too long. Elena was getting antsy and Madaline doubted Elena’s frequent walks were innocent. It was best to get there as early as possible. The offices were only a single bus ride from their apartment building. The small office was located in Quantum Circle, a small shopping center.

  The woman at the front desk recognized Madaline and asked as she walked up to the counter. “Hello Miss, Crass, do you have an appointment scheduled?”

  “No Cassie, I wanted to speak to John about Nathan.” Madaline said. It pained her to use her husband in such a way, but how else were they going to explain where all the precious metals came from?

  “Ah, I see, one moment.” Cassie said. The last time she was here she left with shouts and threats. John's guarantee of winning the wrongful death lawsuit was proven to be for nothing. Madaline was never planning to apologize for her words. But John did say to come to him for anything since he failed to do as he said. Now Madaline was here to collect on that debt and perhaps put her grudge against him behind her. She knew it wasn't fair but no matter how hard she tried she couldn't forgive.

  “Ah he is in. He’ll see you and the girls now.” Cassie said, after spending a few moments on the phone.

  Madaline walked past the woman to the office where John usually worked. His law firm was comprised of five people with John being the owner. Elena couldn't help a derisive snort as she walked by.

  ~

  “Madaline, Elena, Ashley good to see you all well. Please sit.” John said nervously. He looked at the three of them and focused on Elena. She had that same derisive sneer she always had when in the office. John was a young man of 27 with brown hair wearing a gray suit. Elena remembered his promises and guarantees. She never liked him then, nor did she now. But she begrudgingly had to admit that he did try damn hard to win the case.

  “Hello, John.” Madaline said as they all sat down. He had the largest office in his small firm and his desk was piled high with paperwork.

  “What can I do for you?” John asked.

  “I wanted to talk to you about Nathan's inheritance?” John looked confused, he had gone over their finances fully and they had sold nearly everything of value.

  “What do you mean Madaline?” John asked.

  “Found some of his old belongings when clearing away some of his things. And I want your advice on how to legally declare and sell the items.” Madaline said.

  John shrugged, if there was something he could do to help the Crass family, he would. He will never forget the dejected looks of those three women as the judge dismissed the case.

  “Alright, what are you declaring?” John asked, all business.

  “Precious Metals,” Madaline said. Then John looked at the brown briefcase Elena was holding as if it contained a bomb.

  “Alright,” John said, still confused, but put his game face on and continued. “Alright. I know Nathan didn’t leave a will, so you will be the inheritor. Do you have an appraisal?”

  “No.” Madaline said.

  “That's alright, I know a guy. I'll need you to fill out this form to report it to the IRS, it will be taxed. I'll need your last tax return to include it in the estate. And how you wish to distribute it?”

  “It all goes to Elena,” Madaline said without pause. They already discussed it beforehand.

  “How long would it take?” Elena asked.

  “Just precious metals to one person? A few days for an appraisal, maybe another week to get the paperwork finished. I'm sure my guy can contact you with a buyer.”

  Madaline nodded to Elena. She reached into a pocket and pulled out two coins. “24 karat gold and 99.999 percent pure platinum,” she said as she placed it on the table.

  “I assume you have more.” John asked.

  “15 gold coins and 50 platinum. Should be around 55,000$ worth of precious metals,” Madaline explained.

  John whistled as he picked up and examined the coins. It wasn't proper currency so it would have to be based on the weight. He factored in the current melt price for 24k gold and pure platinum then how much they would have to pay in taxes and fees. That still left almost 40,000$ for them.

  “I'll see it done. It shouldn't take more than a week or two. I'm guessing you would have around 40k after everything is done,” Nathan said.

  Elena and Ashley grinned as they heard that.

  “We can have the appraisal done today,” John announced.

  Said appraisal didn't take very long. There was a cash for gold business not a minute walk away. Elena didn't like the shifty look the old man had, but he did his job and appraised all the coins. It was apparently something John had asked him to do several times. After he left the office John went through the laborious process of filling out the proper documents to officially declare the items and prepare them for sale.

  The Crass family walked out the law office each in their own mind. In a few weeks they would be roughly $40,000 richer, technically Elena would be but it's all the same in the end. After a quiet bus ride home Madaline left for work again asking Elena to be careful with her abilities. Elena promised, but both knew that she would still experiment.

  “So, what are you gonna buy?” Ashley asked. They sat around the small dining table eating pizza.

  “A car, a new phone, pay off all our debt….” Elena listed absent mindedly.

  “Ok what else, I mean you’re gonna have 40 G’s in a few weeks. There's gotta be something you really want.”

  They left the lawyers office after several hours. The lawyer was even willing to file all the paperwork without charging.

  Elena met her sister's eyes and really thought about what she wanted. A good life for her family was certainly one of her biggest wishes, but what else. She knew her abilities had limitless capabilities; she just had to figure out how to leverage it for money.

  “What did you say the other day? I’m like a one woman recycling and refurbishing company. What if I start fixing and restoring stuff for people? Your phone took me like a minute.”

  Ashley nodded enthusiastically, “Yeah; you could charge half price and still rake in the profits.”

  “And I’m a powered. I have to cash in the novelty,”

  “Wait, how exactly are you going to start a business when you're only 17.”

  Elena shrugged, “I’m sure they're exemptions.”

  “Well, we have all day and the internet; I’m sure we can come up with some kind of plan,” Ashley suggested.

  After an hour of researching how to start a business, the sisters found that there were in fact exceptions. It could be done with parental involvement.

  “I don’t even have to stop a tech. How many people would like their jewelry to be cleaned, polished and repaired in less than ten seconds? The possibilities are endless,” Elena said as they stuffed their faces with pizza.

  “What about the hero association don’t you have to report your powers,” Ashley said.

  Elena grinned mischievously, “Technically they already assigned me an E rank: minor telekinesis. I’m completely unworthy of a contract in their eyes. Why would I change the script?”

  Ashley shrugged, as a self-respecting Crass woman she was obligated to hate the Hero association, “Guess that would work, how long before you have to register?”

  Elena shrugged and checked her phone, “The fourteenth. So, in three weeks.”

  ~

  Elena had the pleasure of nearly daily lectures from her mother about not doing anything that could put herself at risk. Time passed quickly and Elena, for once, didn't do anything that would cause any trouble. They had met with that bastard lawyer several more times. The paperwork required to declare that precious metal was extensive.

  Fortunately, the same jeweler who appraised the coins was more than willing to purchase every single one. The greedy stump of a man no doubt could make far more than the 50,000 he paid for the entire set, considering he didn't even haggle, but Elena was now significantly richer.

  While Elena wasn't exactly an expert in cars, she decided to spend a considerable amount of time learning how to recognize problems using her abilities.

  Things like degrading components, pollutants in the oil, cooling fluid and rust. Now she was fairly sure she could find a car that would suit her needs, without underlying damage.

  The family of three was sitting around the dinner table eating takeout while staring wide eyed at the five-figure sum that was in Elena’s bank account. “So, I guess we start off by paying off all the debt, getting a car and stuff,” Elena said.

  Madeline shook her head, “No, if you're serious about using your abilities properly and legally you need all of it. You need a place for business. Retail space usually charges by the square foot annually. Typically, you have to make a down payment of around 20% to 30% of the property value. Meeting the owner, signing the lease; it could take some time.”

  Ashley was typing on her phone furiously,

  Elena stared at her mother suspiciously, “You’ve been really chill about this whole thing.”

  Madaline gave her daughter a withering glare, “And you weren't planning on robbing more junk yards for some fast cash?”

  Elena pointedly looked away so Madaline continued, “This way you can make money legally and without risk. You're a woman now, the best I can do is at least put you on the right path, it's up to you to follow it.”

  ‘Ok. I did not need this guilt trip,’

  Elena exalted, “Fine, fine, fine, I’ll be good. No need to worry mom,”

  “I found a place, 1500 Square feet, $25 a square foot per year, looks like it's a 25% down payment. It's only a 20 min bus ride,” Ashley said, trying to distract from how serious the mood had gotten.

  “I’ll make the calls, Elena, you need to head out,” Madeline said.

  Elena looked at the clock on the wall and nodded, “Right. wouldn't want to be late,”

  ~

  The hero association’s headquarters in their city was in a rather large and luxurious office building over 50 stories, Elena walked through the revolving doors to a tastefully decorated lobby. People were wandering about; some looked like her, curious and slightly confused by the large space. Spotting a check in desk manned by a smartly dressed woman in a grey suit, she joined the line.

  “May I help you, Miss,” The woman said after Elena reached the front of the line.

  “Elena Crass here for official registration.”

  After some furious typing the woman said, “Right, I see you, please wait in the lobby an examiner will be with you shortly,”

  Shortly, meant over two hours of waiting, leaving Elena rather cross. No doubt it was due to her perspective rank. E ranks were rather low on the priority since she had seen two other people arrive after her and went in to get examined.

  “Elena Crass,” A man who looked like a doctor said as he held a clipboard.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “Here,” Elena said, walking towards him.

  “Follow me,” the man didn't even spare her a second's glance.

  ‘My god is everyone in this building an asshole?’

  Elena followed him into an elevator, down several corridors and three doors until she reached a white room. It was almost like an interrogation room from TV, complete with a one-way mirror.

  “Let's Begin,’ The man said as he sat. There was a camera in the corner of the room recording the conversation.

  He went through an exhaustive examination of how her power worked. How large was the box, how fast could she move it. How much could she lift, the extent of the controls. Every so often someone would walk into the room carrying an object. Books, different metals, even a tesla coil.

  They apparently were testing if she could manipulate lightning or other exotic forms of matter. But no, she couldn't. She was limited to normal matter. Then they brought in a locked safe and told her to try to get in to see what was inside.

  It was empty since she could see through anything in her box. The locking mechanism was complex, so it took her over 10 minutes to figure out how to open it. Of course, she could just cut a hole in the side and then patch it back up, but they didn't need to know that.

  It was a grey area in the law to hide abilities. But abilities could mutate over time or grow stronger. The hero association doubled as a talent agency for the powered. If you have something incredibly powerful or overwhelmingly useful then it was a guarantee you would get high paying contracts.

  Though anything involving actual hero work would require an individual to keep their abilities a secret. Business, however, requires a disclosure of their abilities to the public.

  However, she made sure to undersell how extensive her manipulation of matter was. As her mother said, they didn't deserve her. Telekinesis wasn't rare and compared to Mindfreak she was pathetically weak. The man could throw entire buildings if he pushed himself. But no matter how powerful he was Elena doubted that he could come anywhere close to the level of manipulation she could perform.

  After nearly four hours, the examination was finally complete, “Thank you Miss Crass. your information and identification card.”

  The man handed her a Manilla envelope. “While we do not have a position open as yet, perhaps there is a possibility that advertising agencies or material diagnostic agencies would be willing to work with you.”

  “That's not necessary, if there’s nothing else, I’ll leave,” Elena said, any more tests or false smiles of encouragement would serve to drive her insane.

  “Very well miss Crass, have a nice day and remember our hotline is available 24-7 for information and counseling,”

  ‘Thank, god that’s over,’ Elena thought, barely able to keep a pleasant smile on her face.

  As she left the building, she pointedly ignored the pitiful glances from some of the staff. Somehow rumor that she was an E rank had spread. It didn't bother her one bit since for all intents and purposes she was done with the hero association. As she entered the lobby she noticed considerable commotion at the front door.

  “Holy shit, Queen Anix in the flesh,” she said as the tall statuesque woman walked into the building, the flashes of light following her entrance a clear sign that this was the genuine article. Her bright red bodysuit left little to the imagination and her blood red hair looked almost as if it was on fire. Elena’s heart skipped a beat before she went to a far corner of the lobby to escape from the wave of people clamoring to her for autographs or pictures.

  Queen Anix plastered on a radiant smile, the very picture of a hero and politely declined. As soon as she entered the interior of the building the excitement was over, and people began to clear out.

  Elena had once dreamed of being like her, a dashing hero saving lives and defeating villains, like most kids growing up, but that fantasy died with most of her other dreams. If she was honest, she didn't really care that much about helping people. Only two individuals mattered and that was her mother and sister, she wouldn't burden herself with worrying about anyone else.

  ~

  The sleazy car salesman slapped the roof of the car grinning as he tried to sell them another piece of junk. Madeline had done most of the work arranging the leasing of a business space, even better that they only had to make a 10k down payment.

  Which meant they had quite a bit of leeway with the rest of the money. Taking the bus was time consuming and honestly Elena needed the flexibility, even better that she could pick up and drop off her mom and sister. The worry about them taking public transport was unending.

  Try as she might, she couldn't convince her mom to quit her job at the diner. At least not without a different source of income. So, she was determined to make the repair shop work. They had a meeting with a company that works as an intermediary with the landowners to demonstrate the potential of their business. Elena was confident that once they saw her ability they would agree.

  “Trash,” Elena said, before the man had even finished speaking.

  “Really? It looks fairly good.” Ashley said. The silver sedan looked new, but Elena could see more.

  “Assload of metal and hydrocarbons in the engine oil and transmission fluid. No way that car is as good as it looks,” Elena whispered.

  Ashley couldn't see what Elean saw so she shrugged.

  “Onto the next once then,” Madeline said. The short balding salesman was wearing a brown suit no doubt sweating in the summer heat.

  “Ok, ladies I see you have a particular eye for cars,” That was the tenth car they had rejected, and the man was barely keeping his plastered smile intact.

  This went on for another 45 minutes before Elena stopped in front of a rather crap-looking Torus Centra. The white sedan had a large dent on the left rear door and a cracked rear windshield. However, nothing else looked wrong. No cracks or noticeable degradation in the engine transmission or cooling system, tires were good. And the brake fluid looked new. She could fix any cosmetic damage easily.

  “This one,” Elena said confidently.

  “Seriously?” Ashley asked.

  “Are you sure sweetheart, it looks a little beat up,” Madaline said.

  “But it has character, trust me this is the car for me,” Elena said smiling at her mom. Ashley Immediately showed Elena a bunch of listed prices for the same 2010 Torus Centra.

  “This is actually not yet for sale. As you can see it's damaged, though….”

  Elena cut him off, “If I want to drive it off the lot right now, how much?”

  The man held his mouth open for almost 10 seconds before he said, “Let’s consider the damage to the rear door and windshield, let's say 7,000.’

  Elena gave him a raised eyebrow, “Really this same used model in your lot goes for 7,000.”

  “Considering the repair costs…”

  “I don't care about repairs, I want to buy it outright, no loan, full price.”

  The man’s pleasant smile disappeared, “6299, I can get you out of here in an hour,” he said.

  “Really how much does a replacement door and a windshield cost? work with me here,” Elena countered.

  “OMG a rear windshield can cost almost a thousand to replace, and a dent repairs nearly half that.” Ashley said aloud, still furiously typing on her phone. She was laying it on a bit thick.

  “Alright Alright, call it 6000, you drive a hard bargain young miss,” he said, feigning that he got a bad deal. But Elena decided to play the role he expected and pretended that she didn't realize.

  ~

  The paperwork went rather quickly since they were not financing the car. And fortunately, they could register the car with insurance on the same day. Now $6000 poorer, the Crass family now had a car. This was something she was determined to get as soon as possible; it offered too much freedom since the American public transport system was often so unreliable. Even after the massive outlay of cash they still had enough for a down payment on the storefront, getting rid of their credit card debt and of course taking a considerable chunk out of the medical bills.

  “When’s the last time you drove?” Madaline asked when Elena made her way to the driver’s door, key in hand.

  “When I got my license,” Elena said, not seeing the problem.

  “Did you forget the rideshare took us on the highway?”

  Elena scoffed, “I can take the highway,”

  Madaline’s face went neutral, which Elena knew meant there was no arguing about it, “Fine,” she said then handed her mother the keys and they drove out of the parking lot.

  “I’m hungry, what are we gonna eat?” Ashley asked as their mother stopped at a traffic light.

  “I saw a nice diner on the way here,” Elena said from the front seat. It was pretty upscale looking, which meant overly expensive eggs.

  “Some brunch sounds good, it’s been a while since we’ve eaten out,” Madaline said smiling, as she made a U-turn.

  The rest of the day went rather well; brunch at the rather boujee diner was underwhelming. Elena had an eggs benedict, for no other reason that it cost 40$ and she had always seen people on TV eating it. It looked pretty but why on earth someone would want lemon in their eggs was beyond her understanding, so she didn't really enjoy the eggs. So, for the entire meal, she was jealous of Ashley’s chicken fried steak and eggs.

  Still though, for the first time in a long time Elena felt hopeful; her family deserved to eat like this every day, have the best clothes, and live in the best neighborhood. They deserved it all and Elena would make it happen.

  ~

  The next day, Elena stood in front of the damaged car sitting in front of their apartment building. She dropped her mom and Ashley off and was going to meet with a representative of Auger lake’s Town center to propose her business idea. The fact that she was powered had gotten her through the screening rather quickly and she was going to view the space today. But she figured that it would be best not to show up in a beaten-up car.

  So, first she worked on the rear door. It was rather simple to reshape the aluminum back into form. The rear windscreen was more complex. The window was composed of several layers of glass and plastic, but once she understood how it was constructed, she was able to fully repair the rear window as well.

  But still she wasn't satisfied, the white car was still over 10 years old. Using her abilities she had examined the clear coat of the car noting it was considerably damaged. It was a straightforward process to go to an auto shop and buy the same brand of clear coat and a small pouch of polish. So, can in hand, she used her ability to pop the lid and removed roughly an ounce of the polyurethane, spreading it on the surface of the car, careful to apply an even layer. She made extra effort to make the surface of the clear coat as flat as physically possible.

  The entire process took only half an hour. But now the white sedan was so perfectly polished it looked wet. Then she repeated the process with the car polish. Elena went over the surface of the car with a fine-toothed comb to make sure everything was perfectly polished, especially the surface of the lights and mirrors. Next were the rims. They were old, brushed aluminum, which was pretty boring so after cleaning she polished the surface into practically a perfect mirror.

  Next was the interior, which took another 30 minutes since she became near obsessive about having perfectly clean and polished surfaces and she wasn't going to stop until the car looked new. After nearly 2 hours, she admired her work.

  The car looked fresh off the factory floor, even better, new since she doubted anyone was driving that model with this level of detailing.

  “Now that’s proper for a meeting,” Elena said, congratulating herself. She compared the car to an image of the same model, factory new. Then she considered what she could sell the car for. Her abilities were not overly dangerous or flashy, but they were damn useful.

  Checking her phone, she realized that she had another hour before the 12 pm showing. She frowned at her old ratty shirt and decided she needed some new threads.

  ~

  Elena stepped out of her car and headed to the storefront, which was going to be hers soon. Outside was an older bald man around 40, in a simple brown suit constantly checking his watch. Elena now wore a simple grey suit and pants with her hair tied into a bun. The man raised an eyebrow at her approach, “Elena Crass?” He asked as she stood in front of him.

  “Yes, that's me.”

  “A bit young aren't you.”

  Elena shrugged, “It's perfectly legal, so can we get to it.”

  The man stiffened at her irreverent tone, then sighed and reached into his pocket for a set of keys, “Come with me,”

  Elena followed him into the store. It was rather small with empty shelves, white linoleum flooring and a simple counter that split the store in two, “There’s some storage around back, a restroom and a few other amenities. Now I read in your file that you're powered, and you plan to leverage your ability to start a repair business,”

  Elena nodded, “Right, I already discussed it over the phone but I'm sure you would like to see it personally,” Elena said, taking out her powered identification card. It didn't show much beyond her rank, name, and a vague description of her ability: minor telekinesis.

  The man shrugged, “Doesn't seem impressive, how do you plan on leveraging it for repairs?”

  Elena smiled innocently, “Can I see your phone?”

  The man appeared suspicious, “Fine,” he said, handing Elena a smart phone in a purple case.

  Elena gently removed the case and before he could react, she tossed the phone to the back of the store, it flew through the air, crashed against the wall, and fell to the floor.

  “What the fuck kid!” The man yelled, that model was rather expensive.

  The man was stunned silent as he watched the expensive phone clatter to the ground. “Wait for it,” Elena said.

  Using her abilities she summoned the box and levitated the phone from the back of the store over to the man. It was horrendously cracked. The fascination of the phone levitating towards him tempered his irritation.

  Elena made the phone slowly rotate while fixing the cracks in the glass. The man gasped as the phone seemingly repaired itself to a factory new state, the entire surface polished to a mirror shine. Then she put the purple case into the box, reseated the phone, and elevated it over to his hand. Releasing her ability, the phone fell into his head.

  “Amazing. I don't know much about rankings, but I don't think that was a rank-E ability,” he said, opening his phone and tapping through a few screens.

  Elena shrugged, “That’s my rank, who am I to argue.”

  “What else can you do?” The man asked, his previous hesitation replaced by eagerness.

  “A lot, but for now I think repairing is a good starting point, I think it could be pretty profitable, that took me what? like, 20 seconds. Would you be willing to drop 40$ for a quick repair, if your phone gets damaged again,” Elena explained, trying to sell her abilities.

  “I see, can you do other things like jewelry?” He asked.

  “Easily, and besides, have you seen my car?” she asked.

  He thought back, “The white Tarus? Looks professionally detailed, but that model is years old.”

  Elena grinned smugly and took out her phone showing him a picture of it when she bought it,

  “Damn, maybe you should go into car detailing, how long did this take you?”

  Elena shrugged, “Two hours but that was mostly because I was being a perfectionist. A simple clear coat fix and polishing would take five or ten minutes depending on the size of a car.”

  “How did the hero association not snatch you up? The potential would be apparent in the testing,” He asked.

  Elena shrugged, “People see what they want to see,”

  “I’ll take a video of you repairing something and send me the picture of the Torus before your repairs. You have real potential for a successful business. We can have the paperwork done in a week and I’ll put a rush on it; we can have a sign near the entrance by the time you can start setting up. My name is Kevin Joans, feel free to call me Kev,” he said offering a hand.

  ~

  Elena was feeling on top of the world as she cruised through the streets, heading to pick up Ashley from school. She opened her phone and sent a text to her that she was outside. Elena drove into the pickup area, eyeing the horde of waiting high schoolers. Elena finally spotted Ashley; she had to honk her horn twice before Ashley realized what car she was in. She looked surprised then after a short conversation with one of her friends she headed to the car, entered and took the front seat.

  “Holy crap the car looks new, but did you have to make rims shiny, could blind someone,” Ashley said as she threw her backpack onto the back seat.

  “I think it looks cool,” Elena said as she drove off.

  “How’d the meeting go?” Ashley asked.

  “Oh, they were practically begging me to take the lease. I’m fairly sure the guy was mostly excited by the increased traffic to the plaza that my business could generate. Hell, when it picks up who knows how I could expand,”

  Ashley looked skeptical, “Do you have a name, advertising plan or a brand?”

  Elena shrugged, “No, but I'm sure you have ideas?”

  “That I do,” Ashley reached into her bag and pulled out a notebook. Flipping to a page on the back she showed Elena a design she sketched. It was a cube; inside of the cube was a screwdriver and wrench crossed in front of a gear. Under that logo were the words, “Crass Power Repairs.”

  Elena grinned looking at the design, “Nice,”

  Ashey's smile turned mischievous, “Glad you like it, what will you pay me? I don't work for free,”

  Elena laughed and said, “How about lunch to start, then we can discuss further details.”