Alanna had never flown before. Sure, she had been on airplanes for trips across the country to visit her family in Washington State, but she had never flown without being inside a vehicle of some kind. She certainly had never been flown by a superhero carrying her in his strong, muscular arms as if she weighed nothing. Even with his clearly broken hand, Mr. Superhero—whatever his real name was—carried her effortlessly.

  Although I am not a fan of the blood from his chest wound sticking to my clothes, thought Alanna, though it didn’t bother her nearly as much as she thought it would.

  With the cold night air blowing through her hair and the distant city lights sparkling beautifully, Alanna almost forgot about the Level Five Anomaly that had threatened to kill them if they didn’t leave—or how close she had come to being killed by the two weaker Anomalies before that.

  And Nancy got it all on camera, too, thought Alanna, a smile spreading across her face as they flew through the night sky. If even just a portion of those viewers decide to subscribe to my channel, I really will be able to monetize it soon and get that good ad money.

  But such thoughts weren’t her main focus at the moment. No, she was very aware of Mr. Superhero carrying her through the air, even though he wasn’t looking at her. Now that she had an up-close view of his face, she realized he was probably not much older than her.

  And for some reason, he looked very familiar to her, as if she’d seen him somewhere before.

  But Alanna was sure she would have remembered his face if she’d seen it before. He looked a little like some of the boys at her school, though the costume and mask covering his face definitely made it hard to tell what he really looked like underneath.

  Much to her disappointment, they flew for only a few minutes before Mr. Superhero landed in the parking lot of a grocery store a few miles away from the Destiny Corporation manufacturing plant. Even though the grocery store—called Biggly Figgly’s—was closed, the streetlights were still on. They were near the highway, where Alanna could see and hear the lights and engines of cars zooming past, although there were fewer than usual since it was nighttime.

  That was when Mr. Superhero abruptly let Alanna go, and she landed on her behind on the pavement.

  “Ow!” said Alanna in annoyance, rubbing her bottom and glaring up at him. “Didn’t your mom teach you how you to properly treat a lady?”

  Mr. Superhero scowled right back at her, cradling his injured hand. “You try carrying a ‘lady’ a few miles with a broken hand while trying not to complain about it, and then let her down gracefully. Oh, and don’t forget the chest wound. That still hurts.”

  Even though Alanna was still annoyed at being dropped, a hint of embarrassment swept over her when he mentioned his injuries. “Sorry. I didn’t realize your injuries were that bad.”

  Mr. Superhero exhaled sharply. “It’s fine. I’m sure I’ll recover. I’m sorry for dropping you. I should have helped you get into a better standing position.”

  Alanna blinked, not expecting him to actually apologize. That made her rethink her original opinion of him. Maybe he wasn’t as arrogant as he seemed.

  Mr. Superhero turned his back on her, his eyes scanning the distance. “Anyway, this is a safe part of town, so you should be okay as long as you don’t linger. I don’t know where you live, but hopefully, you’ll be able to catch the next bus. I saw a bus stop a couple of blocks down.”

  Scrambling to her feet, Alanna asked, “Wait, are you leaving already? But you haven’t even told me your name.”

  Mr. Superhero looked over his shoulder at her, though now he seemed more impatient than annoyed. “You do realize I’m a superhero with a secret identity, right?”

  Alanna resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “I know that! I mean your superhero name. What do you call yourself? I have to know. After all, how else will I know who to thank for saving my life?”

  That wasn’t the only reason Alanna wanted to know Mr. Superhero’s name. She hadn’t forgotten about the 30,000 viewers her stream had garnered before that mysterious Anomaly shut Nancy down. With numbers like that, her stream had undoubtedly already gone viral, and she wanted to make sure she was the first person to know the name of New Gold City’s newest superhero before anyone else. That would almost certainly give her streaming career a massive boost—and maybe even get her sponsorship deals with some of the big brands her fellow streamers had partnered with.

  So, perhaps her motives were a little self-serving, but Alanna also genuinely wanted to properly thank Mr. Superhero for saving her when he didn’t have to. She couldn’t ignore the fact that his injuries, at least in part, had been sustained because she was there.

  Mr. Superhero turned his head away from her again, though Alanna thought she saw a smile creeping along the corners of his lips. “My name isn’t important. Frankly, you shouldn’t have even seen me. I should leave now. Oh, but before I forget…”

  Mr. Superhero dropped Nancy onto the ground and rolled her over to Alanna. She immediately knelt down and picked up Nancy’s tube-like form, pressing the on button behind her dim blue eye, hoping she still worked after whatever the Anomaly had done to her.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  A sigh of relief escaped Alanna’s lips as Nancy’s blue eye flickered on again, and the drone’s monotone voice said, “Good evening, Alanna. How may I assist you today?”

  Alanna hugged Nancy tightly to her chest. “Oh, Nancy! I was worried about you after that Anomaly turned you off. Are you okay? Are all your systems still working?”

  Nancy floated out of Alanna’s arms until she hovered at eye level. “A quick diagnostic analysis of my systems and programming indicates no major issues with any of my systems. However, I will need to perform a more thorough diagnostic later. It appears the Anomaly merely initiated a hard shutdown remotely, which is interesting because the Anomaly did not appear to have access to my remote control system.”

  “Sounds like your drone got lucky,” said Mr. Superhero, now turned back toward them. He frowned, his gaze shifting toward the direction they had flown from. “We all got lucky, now that I think about it. That Anomaly could have—should have—killed all of us.”

  Alanna shuddered. She had been thoroughly impressed by how strong and fast Mr. Superhero had been when fighting the lower-level Anomalies, but the seriousness—and even fear—in his voice when he spoke about the Level Five Anomaly made her wonder just how powerful that entity had been.

  Shaking her head, Alanna stood, Nancy rising with her, and said, “Well, I’m just glad he let us go. Although, I’m really frustrated we didn’t get the answers we were looking for.”

  Mr. Superhero raised a quizzical eyebrow. “The answers we were looking for?”

  Alanna put her hands on her hips. “Don’t play dumb with me. I know you were also investigating the rumors connecting the Anomalies to the Destiny Corporation tonight. As far as I’m concerned, that means we both want the same thing.”

  Mr. Superhero continued cradling his broken hand. “Only one of us was streaming our ‘investigation’ to the world, though, so I’m not exactly sure we both want exactly the same thing—”

  “Different motives,” said Alanna with a dismissive wave, “but still the same goal. I bet if we worked together, we could probably get answers next time.”

  Mr. Superhero gave her a sharp look. “Bold of you to assume we’ll work together again. It was only a coincidence we were both at the plant tonight. I sincerely doubt we’ll cross paths again—unless you learned absolutely nothing from tonight and decide to put yourself in danger again for no good reason.”

  Alanna leaned toward him with a glare. “You’re not my dad. You don’t get to tell me what to do. I was just saying we’d probably make a good team. With your powers and fighting skills, and my brilliant investigative abilities, we could probably crack open the mystery behind the Anomalies and the Destiny Corporation in, like, a week or something.”

  “Or you could do what I told you to and stay home, not involving yourself in life-or-death situations you’re not prepared to handle,” Mr. Superhero countered. “That’s also an option, you know.”

  “Says the guy who’s clearly no older than me,” Alanna retorted irritably. “Seriously, what makes you think you’re somehow more mature or grown-up than me? Just because you’ve got that fancy belt and I don’t?”

  He shook his head and turned away. “You know what? I appreciate that you want to find out the truth as much as I do, but I don’t have time to spend all night arguing about why it’s unsafe for you to investigate this. I need to get home, and you probably do too. So, consider this goodbye.”

  Alarmed by how quickly he was trying to leave, Alanna rushed after him and placed a hand on his broad shoulder. “Hey! You can’t leave just yet. I still don’t have your—Ow!”

  She yanked her hand back, clutching her wrist. While her hand wasn’t frozen, it throbbed from how cold his shoulder had been. She hadn’t noticed the chill when he’d carried her through the air earlier, but maybe he had deliberately lowered his body temperature for some reason when she tried to touch him.

  That theory was dismissed, however, when Mr. Superhero turned back to her, concern etched on his face. “Are you okay? What happened?”

  Grimacing, Alanna held out her hand toward him. “I guess that snowflake on your costume isn’t just for show. You’re freezing for some reason.”

  Mr. Superhero hesitated. He touched his chest, as if he wanted to confirm what she said, and then muttered under his breath, seemingly to someone Alanna couldn’t see, “Val, do a quick diagnostic on the Gate System … make sure it’s not malfunctioning, particularly the Blue Gate …”

  Alanna perked up. “Gate System? Blue Gate? What are you talking about?”

  Mr. Superhero jerked his head up at Alanna, his brown eyes wide with surprise like he’d forgotten how close they were standing together. “What? Uh, pretend you heard nothing. Anyway, I gotta go. Bye!”

  Mr. Superhero then turned and launched into the air like a rocket. The air blast from his flight sent Alanna stumbling backward, though fortunately Nancy flew over and provided support for Alanna so she wouldn’t fall onto the cracked pavement of the parking lot below.

  Brushing her messy hair out of her eyes, Alanna looked up, fully expecting to see Mr. Superhero as little more than a blue dot in the distance at this point, if that given how dark it was.

  But instead, Mr. Superhero hovered in the air above her, silhouetted softly by the light from the moon overhead, and seemed to be wearing a smile on his face.

  “Miss Lane?” said Mr. Superhero. “You said you wanted a name, right?”

  Alanna blinked. “Uh, yeah. And it’s ‘Alanna,’ please.”

  “Alanna Lane …” Mr. Superhero repeated her name as if trying to memorize it. He nodded. “Got it.”

  Alanna could not help but smile when Mr. Superhero repeated her name. He made it sound good. “So what’s your name, Mr. Superhero? Fair is fair, after all.”

  Mr. Superhero definitely smiled this time. “Well, I guess Mr. Superhero isn’t the worst, but me? I prefer Paradigm.”

  Alanna blinked again, though this time out of curiosity rather than confusion. “Paradigm? Interesting name. What does that mean?”

  Mr. Superhero—no, Paradigm—smiled even bigger. “Because I am introducing a new paradigm to New Gold City!”

  With that, Paradigm turned and flew through the air toward downtown until he disappeared into the shadows of the night, leaving Alanna leaning on Nancy in the parking lot of the closed Biggly Figgly’s by herself.

  “Paradigm …” Alanna smiled and looked at Nancy. “Nancy, call a Turbo and get another stream going. I have a big announcement to share with all of my new followers and New Gold City as a whole. You might even say that this announcement will be a paradigm shift in New Gold City.”

  “Your puns are quite amusing, Miss Lane.”

  Alanna sighed heavily. “Thank you, Nancy. Thank you. Now please get the stream going right away.”