It was still morning by the time Daniel and Numbskull found their way onto their patrol route, and the chill air made the hairs on the tips of his ears stand on end.  He felt a bit silly, admittedly, walking around town looking for mutants or superpowered henchmen committing crimes out in the open.  Still, the world had changed a great deal since the meteor struck and, while he had never encountered such activities himself, he supposed it could happen.  The B.S.A. badge was an unfamiliar weight on his lapel, and the authority it represented granted him a bit of extra confidence.

Certainly, they were drawing strange looks.  Daniel’s shoes made a soft clacking sound as he strode down the sidewalk, matched by the clicking of skeletal feet beside him.  He still had his reservations about being paired with the skeleton.  They hadn’t exactly gotten along, but then again, he hadn’t become best friends with Gearhawk either.  Frankly, it surprised him that the two, with such temperaments as they had, would sign up to be official superheroes in the first place.

This was the first attempt at such a team, and people probably weren’t taking it too seriously just yet.  In fact, Daniel wasn’t even sure the existence of the B.S.A. was known to the public at large yet.  Would his badge actually carry any weight?  He thought of Officer Aguado’s accusing sunglasses staring across at him from behind a desk again, and winced involuntarily.  As he did so, a pair of young women walking toward them on the sidewalk passed warily to the other side of the street.  Daniel wasn’t sure if it was his sour expression that had driven them away, or the literal skeleton walking beside him.  On second thought, it was almost certainly the skeleton.  Numbskull gave them a friendly wave.

The two had been silent on their walk so far, other than some written grumblings from his partner about being paired up with the rabbit.  It wasn’t terribly practical for Numbskull to write down messages as they paced along, so Daniel worried a bit about communication should anything happen.  Certainly, he could call out to the skeleton, but he was fairly certain that with no lungs it wouldn’t be able to answer him.

All in all, he decided that it would be best if their first patrol was entirely uneventful, and hoped that would be the case.

Bethany had described their patrol routes as passing through the most densely populated areas of the city, and the most common places where superpowered crimes had been committed in the past few weeks.  Since it had only been a few months since the whole world had been turned on its head by the meteor fall, there wasn’t a lot of data to work with.  According to her the organization was doing what it could with what it had.  More importantly, she had explained, it was key to start acclimating people to seeing obviously metahuman people walking around on the streets without recognizing them as an immediate threat.

Gearhawk had been assigned a more dangerous route involving several of the slums and high-crime areas, but he didn’t seem to mind.  Judging by the just-short-of-dangerous impression Daniel got from him, he might be right at home in that environment.  It seemed odd for him to be sent out without a partner, but Beth had insisted that the other hero named Mort was going to be joining him when he arrived.  First an animate skeleton, and then someone named Mort, of all things.  Daniel found that he wasn’t too happy with how the overall theme of this team was coming together.

Presently, they found themselves walking in one of the small parks that cut through the central business area of the city.  Numbskull jostled Daniel’s arm, and he turned to look, squashing a little flare of annoyance at having his reflections interrupted.  Somehow, without him noticing, the skeleton had written out a message on its whiteboard and held it up for his inspection.  Now that they weren’t sitting down, Daniel all but towered over his bony companion, and he had to lean down a little to read the florid handwriting.

“Check out the lady up there with the designer bag.  Total burglar bait.”

He followed Numbskull’s pointing finger bone and noted the woman it was indicating.  Daniel was no expert on such things, but she did indeed have a purse slung across her shoulder that looked to be of very expensive leather.  She seemed to notice them looking at her and, with a nervous half-turn backwards, she quickened her pace.  Daniel resisted the urge to speed up his own step to keep up with her, and put a gentle hand on Numbskull’s polished head to prevent the skeleton from doing the same.

“We aren’t here to spook her.  Just look out for anyone else eyeing that bag.” he said, then turned a slight frown at his unintentional use of the word “spook”.  He guessed from Numbskull’s jolly grin that his partner had caught it, but then again it was hard to tell.

They now approached the center of the park, which held a large round area with a raised stage for public performances.  It was occupied, packed with a thronged group of people shouting and raising signs in the universal display of protest.  Daniel had seen them before, though never in such numbers.  A meteor striking the earth and apparently bringing the supernatural into reality was sure to shake the status quo, and some more zealous individuals had taken it as a sign of the end times.  This was a collection of just such believers.  The signs they hoisted up and down bore messages like “Repent!” or “The Return of Witchcraft Hails the End Times!”.

Though rambunctious in their own way, the protesters didn’t seem particularly dangerous.  Daniel found them a bit unsettling, if he were to be honest, but it was nothing he was going to act on.  When he turned his attention back, however, he found that the woman they had been trailing had vanished somewhere into the foot traffic.  Further, Numbskull was no longer by his side.  How he managed to lose a walking skeleton was beyond him, but it was more than a little worrying.  He wasn’t sure what that prankster would get up to if left to its own devices.

Not knowing what else to do, he cupped his hands around his mouth and bellowed to be heard over the chanting of the protesters.  “Numbskull!”

A few pedestrians turned to give him angry looks.  Daniel’s blood rushed to his face and he felt his ears flatten themselves down onto the top of his head.  He hadn’t realized how that would sound shouting it into a crowd.  Maybe they would need to have a chat about the skeleton’s chosen name later.

There was no answer from his partner, though he wasn’t sure what he had expected.  A clattering of bones, maybe?  The thought brought a wan smile to his lips as he scanned the footpath, looking for any sign of a polished white head contrasting against the park’s thick green foliage.

Just when he was starting to tire of the exercise, he heard a woman’s scream come from somewhere in the woods to his left.  The sound sent what felt like a jolt of electricity through his spine, and his feet were moving before he realized what he was doing.  Was it the woman from before?  Was she being robbed?  Or perhaps Numbskull had just sneaked up and popped out at her in a lame attempt at a prank.  His heart thudded in his throat as the screams continued, then cut short, and he soon discarded the last idea.  No way was Numbskull that scary.

Bursting through the underbrush into a clearing, Daniel came upon an uncanny sight.  A young woman, not older than her teens, with a black bandana holding back a tangle of dark hair had her hand held out and was clenching as though holding something up.  He recognized the display as the same motion performed by a certain famous cinematic villain, and indeed, the woman from before was floating above a small stream, clutching at her throat.  Her bag slipped from her shoulder and landed in the water with a splash, but the youth did not lower their arm.

Taking in the situation as quickly as he could, Daniel resisted the urge to tackle the teen and bear her to the ground, hopefully breaking her concentration enough to save the woman.  With his enhanced strength, however, there was no telling what would happen to an average person if he launched himself at them.  Instead, he cleared his throat loudly and spoke.

“What are you doing?!  She dropped the bag, just take it and stop hurting her!” he shouted.  Though he was doing his best to appear in control, his heart was still beating faster than he thought it ever had before, and slivers of both anger and fear slipped into his voice.

The youth turned and looked at him, expression slack.  The gaze that met his own caused Daniel to shudder involuntarily.  Something about the teen’s eyes struck him as incredibly disturbing.  They were a dull, slate grey, and appeared entirely empty.  Whatever quality it was that would normally give him the impression there was a person behind those eyes was entirely absent.  It was like coming face to face with a morbidly realistic doll.

He shook himself and took two steps forward.  Creepy eyes or not, the teen didn’t seem willing to listen, and the woman was gasping for air.  He began to go through his options in his head.  Punching was out, he’d probably cause some serious damage.  Maybe a gentle shove, just to knock them to the ground?

Before he had decided, a heavy thwack echoed through the clearing and the teen fell heavily to the ground in a limp pile.  Numbskull stood over her unconscious body, holding its whiteboard in two hands like a club.  Daniel couldn’t help notice that on the board, written in marker smudged by its contact with the back of the attacker’s head, was the word “BOO!” in capital letters.

At the same time, the woman fell from a few feet above the ground and stumbled as she landed in the shallow stream.  Daniel took one more step and grabbed her arm, pulling her steady.

“So, Mister Hopper.  Mister… er, Numbskull.”  Lieutenant Aguado glared at the two of them over his aviators.  “What part of ‘villains and henchmen only’ don’t you understand?”

Nearby, a team of EMTs was helping the fallen teen onto a stretcher.  The youth herself professed no memory of the incident, and was complaining loudly about the wound Numbskull had left on her head.  Daniel winced, but he wasn’t about to back down.

“If we- if Numbskull hadn’t acted, that woman could have died!”

“So you act by calling the police!  Common criminals are not under your jurisdiction!” Aguado snapped back.  He pinched the bridge of his nose, as though already fed up with the situation.

Daniel’s lips creased into a deep frown.  He wanted to shout, to take his frustration out on Aguado, but sensed that doing so would only cause the situation to escalate.  Instead, he concentrated on his breathing, and said in what he hoped was a measured, reasonable tone, “She was being choked right in front of us.  If we hadn’t acted, she could have died in the time it took us to call the police and wait for you to arrive.”

Numbskull stood by his side, finger bones clacking down in a constant, nervous rhythm on the skeleton’s whiteboard.  Not being able to keep up with the conversation through writing, Daniel had instead become the de facto spokesperson for their group.  The other’s skeletal grin, so jolly before, now seemed to Daniel as though it were terse and pained.

Turning his attention back to the officer, it was clear Aguado was still angry.  He seemed to recognize that Daniel was trying to be reasonable, however, and made a visible effort to calm himself down as well.

“Alright, Hopper.  You have a point, I admit.  I would have done the same thing in your position,” he took a deep breath, “The problem is, we’ve only got your testimony to back it.  The girl over there is telling a very different story.”

The youth in question was gone now, presumably spirited away to the nearest hospital, but Daniel had a lingering feeling that he hadn’t seen the last of her.

“If it weren’t for the victim backing you up,” Aguado continued, “you two would be in some real hot water right now.  As it is, I’m going to have to talk to your boss about this whole ‘patrol’ thing.  You’re supposed to be a specialized response team, not a bunch of street cops.”

Daniel nodded himself and he felt his ears lift up from his head, no longer flattened in agitation.  He had to admit that Aguado had a good point.  Were they really going to find supervillains committing petty crimes out here on the streets?  He thought they’d be better off on standby until the police ran up against a situation that needed a superhuman touch.  Still, Bethany did seem to have her reasons for sending them out on patrol like this.  Absently, he touched the badge pinned to his lapel.

“I agree,” he said, looking Aguado dead in the lenses of his sunglasses, “We won’t get in your way any further, officer.”

The other smiled and, for the first time since arriving, once again gave off that ‘good cop’ vibe that Daniel had noted in their first meeting.  “Go head back to your HQ for now, and give Beth my regards.  Tell her I’d like to talk to her at the first opportunity, would you?”

“Understood, I’ll make sure to let her know.”  Daniel gave the officer one more parting nod and left him to his work.  Turning away, he found Numbskull’s frightful visage right behind him.  The skeleton was holding up a whiteboard to his face.

“That was weak.”

Daniel rolled his eyes.  “I’m not in the mood for this right now, Numbskull.  We’ve got to get back and report what happened.”

“You know we were in the right.  She was being strangled!”  The next message came before he had even finished speaking.

“Remember what Beth said about us being the first official superheroes?  We’re on thin ice right now, and we can’t afford to make mistakes like that.”

“That was a mistake?  You’d rather just let her die?”

“No, that’s not what I…”

Truthfully, Daniel was troubled.  He felt Numbskull had acted appropriately, and actually felt a bit of respect for his new partner after seeing the skeleton act when he couldn’t.  At the same time, he understood why they couldn’t just go around knocking out teenagers in parks, especially while on official business.  The correct thing to do would have been to call the police, but would they have arrived in time?  Daniel doubted it.  It seemed like there was no obvious right answer.

He sighed.  Maybe there’d be more information in that book of policy Bethany had promised to copy for him.  More likely, it would only make things more complicated, but he’d at least feel better knowing fully how he was expected to act.

Numbskull seemed to have no qualms, and, as the two left the park, Daniel found himself feeling a bit envious of the skeleton.  It had acted with no doubts in a situation that had made Daniel hesitate.  Even now, the skull’s grinning face showed not the least bit of guilt at what had happened.  Not that it would, but that conviction was still something that he admired, or at least wished he had in more ample supply.

When they arrived back at the B.S.A.’s headquarters, such as it was, Daniel was surprised to find Gearhawk already there.  Standing next to him, with hands self-consciously behind his back was a man he didn’t recognize.  This newcomer had lank, black hair and sallow cheeks.  His eyes were sunken and glassy, but the overall effect was compromised by a friendly smile that lit up when they entered the room.  Daniel put the pieces together, and deduced that this could only be Mort.

Before he could make any attempt at introductions, Gearhawk was upon him.

“What did you two do?” the man practically snarled.  “Miss Harlow called us back, because something happened on your patrol.  We had barely gotten started.”

“Miss Harlow?” Daniel was momentarily nonplussed.  “Oh, Bethany?  Yes, we came back to report to her.  There was an… incident.”  He rubbed the back of his neck, now feeling as self-conscious as Mort looked.  This was the second time he had tried to do some good, and the second time it had just ended in trouble.  Heroism, it seemed, was much harder than Burning Sol made it look on TV.

“What do you mean, ‘an incident’?” 

Daniel raised his hands to placate the other.  Being at least a head taller than Gearhawk, he noticed that Bethany had slipped out of her office behind him and was now watching the exchange.  She made no effort to intervene.  Instead, she merely looked at the aggressor with a curious expression on her face.

“We ran into a mugging.  Or an attempted murder, or something.” he answered, turning his attention back to Gearhawk.

“So we whacked the perp.” Numbskull stuck its bony shoulder in between the two, holding a whiteboard up for Gearhawk’s inspection.

“You whacked the perp,” Daniel corrected.

Numbskull looked at him for a moment, then wrote out a reply and showed it to each of them in turn.  “You were going to.  Don’t lie.”

“I wasn’t lyi- ...No, you’re right.  We couldn’t just stand by and do nothing while a woman was being choked right in front of us.”

This reply seemed to mollify Gearhawk, at least a bit, and he finally took a step back.  Daniel noted that his eyebrows were still furrowed in anger under his hood.

“What part of ‘villains only’ did you not get?” he asked, glaring.

Daniel felt a bit of his patience snap.  Could this man really be suggesting that he just stand by and let an innocent die, when he had the power to do something?  Isn’t that what being a superhero was all about?

“What use is our power,” he snapped, poking a finger toward the cowled hero for emphasis, “If we have to stand back and watch someone suffer?  I genuinely hope you would have done the same in our position, Gearhawk.”

“Now, now,” a new voice called out in a soothing tone.  Mort, or the person Daniel supposed to be Mort, had approached at some point during their confrontation.  He held his hands up and lowered them slowly as he stepped between them.  There was something about his manner that reminded Daniel of a kindly old man, though Mort himself couldn’t have been older than his late twenties.

“Why don’t we let our handler have her say before things go any further?” he continued, smiling between the two, then turning his head toward Bethany.  She now stepped forward, as though taking her cue, and cleared her throat.

“Ah, yes,” she began, her expression more serious than Daniel had seen it before, “I actually have some good news.”

Daniel no longer felt quite so defensive, but tension still hung palpable in the air between himself and Gearhawk.  All assembled waited for Beth to continue.

“I’ve been talking to Lieutenant Aguado, and there’s a whole bunch of legalese about it, but basically he’s letting you off the hook because what you did counts as a citizen’s arrest.”

Relief swept across the room, and Daniel felt his own shoulders slump.  He hadn’t realized he’d been carrying that much stress about what had happened, but he definitely didn’t want his superhero career ended early because of something like this.  Bethany smiled along with Daniel, Mort, and Numbskull, though hers appeared a little more strained.  He guessed that being on the phone with Officer Aguado about that incident couldn’t have been fun.

“It would have been a different story if Hopper had punched the girl, or something like that.  Some serious injury.  We’re lucky to have the victim’s testimony to back us up, too.  You might be happy to hear that she’s very grateful.”

Numbskull brushed some invisible dust off of its bony shoulder and stood a bit taller.

“So basically, because of Numbskull’s ‘reasonable’ use of force, we’re safe as long as it’s understood that you two acted as citizens, and not under the authority of the B.S.A.”

This last note elicited a frown from Daniel once again.  “Hang on,” he said when Beth had finished, “We were visibly wearing our badges, and were out on patrol for the B.S.A.  Isn’t it a bit hard to believe that we weren’t working under their authority?”

“Good point,” Bethany raised one finger, as well as her eyebrows, and continued, “In this case, our organization being pretty much unknown works in our favor.  Nobody knows about the Bureau of Superhuman Affairs yet, so there’s no public backlash.  For all anyone else knows, you two just like wearing shiny badges along with the rest of your ridiculous costumes.”

“I take offense to that.” Numbskull scribbled out, and Bethany coughed once.

“Anyway, we get away with it this time.  Don’t try anything else like this again, though, especially once we start to get a public image.”

“I can make the right decision, but what if Hopper here can’t control himself when he sees someone in trouble?” Gearhawk asked.  Though his expression was hidden as always, Daniel got the impression that the other man was sneering at him under his cowl.  His fist tightened involuntarily, and he had to shrug off the impulse to wipe that expression off of the hero’s face.  Numbskull he thought he could deal with at this point, especially after what they had been through together.  Gearhawk, on the other hand, seemed to be doing everything he could to make an enemy of Daniel.  He could only hope that Bethany had noticed it too.

“I hate to say it, but he has a point,” Daniel gave a tight nod toward the hooded hero, “What if we do come across someone else in danger?  I don’t want to just stand by and call the police when we could be doing something to help.”

“Fortunately,” Bethany lightly exclaimed, some of her bubbly demeanor seeming to have come back to the fore.  She seemed excited about whatever this next part was.  “We have something that will help with that now.  Mort?”

The sallow-cheeked man, who had been standing to the side with his hands still clasped behind his back, now stepped forward.

“Ah, yes.  Just a moment.”  He stuck one hand into the pocket of his severe collared shirt and came back with a pair of small golden objects in his palm.

“I came up with this design just after Miss Harlow told me what had happened.  It’s a pair of portable speaker and receiver systems connected to each other with no hypothetical limit on distance.”  He took in the blank looks everyone, including Bethany, was giving him, then cleared his throat and started again.  “In short, it’s something like a walkie talkie.  You press this button and speak into it, then the sound is transmitted to and reproduced by the other one.”

Numbskull was already writing, and when the skeleton turned its whiteboard around it was bearing the question that was on everyone’s mind.

“Alright, brainiac.  Why don’t we just use walkie talkies?”

“A good question!” Mort answered, that bright smile once again lighting up his otherwise pale features.  He genuinely seemed happy to be able to talk on the subject.  “These devices provide many advantages over conventional walkie talkies.  As I said before, there is theoretically no limit to their effective distance.  Even if you are miles away from the other user, they should still function.  They also don’t use radio waves, so there shouldn’t be any chance of anyone else, villains for example, listening in on your conversations.”

“So,” Daniel began slowly.  He was staring at the small golden object lying in Mort’s palm.  It looked almost like a pocket watch, but with a speaker where the clock’s face would normally be.  An obvious button stuck out of its top.  Surrounding these two points of solid reference, however, was a meshwork of what appeared to be metallic golden threads, twisting and weaving in mind-boggling complexity.  Daniel was almost certain that he was seeing some patterns that shouldn’t be possible with geometry as he understood it.  Looking at the thing made his eyes water, and he realized after a moment that everyone was still waiting for him to speak.  He affected a cough, then continued.

“So if it doesn’t use radio waves, what does it use?”

“Ah,” Mort said, his smile slipping slightly.  “That is indeed the question.  To be honest, I am not entirely sure.”

“You’re not sure?” Gearhawk asked.  “Didn’t you make the the thing?”

“Well, yes.  This is my power, you see.  I can create devices that do just about anything I can think of, so long as I have the raw materials.  I’m not entirely certain how I do it, just that it all sort of makes sense in the moment.  Then, when I’m finished, all that knowledge slips away.”  He made a sweeping motion as though brushing a thought away.

Numbskull’s elegant handwriting once again appeared on the whiteboard.  This time, Daniel was surprised to see a sympathetic message signed across its length.

“Your power didn’t come with an instruction manual either, huh?”

“That is a good way of putting it, yes.  I’m sure I can be of some use to the team, even though I’m not quite certain how my creations work just yet.”

Bethany spoke up for the first time since calling on Mort to explain.  “Like I mentioned before, Mort’s going to be in a support role for our team.  I had him go with Gearhawk today just so I could introduce you all, but he won’t be actually participating in patrols or fights against supervillains.”

Daniel nodded.  If he was honest with himself, he found Mort’s kindly demeanor refreshing, especially after dealing with Numbskull and Gearhawk.  The man had a certain earnest quality to him that Daniel found endearing.  With a moment of conviction, he stepped up and extended one large hand to Mort.

“We’ll be happy to have you on the team,” he said, and smiled as Mort took the offered hand and shook.  The other’s palm was cold and clammy, but the smile he gave in return seemed genuine.

“We’ve decided that Hopper should have the first er… Do these things have a name?” Bethany stopped, then asked Mort, who was even now wincing as he looked at his reddened palm.  Daniel thought he had only given a gently firm handshake, but this was another reminder that he still had to get used to his enhanced strength.

“That’s right, er…” Mort agreed, then continued after he finished massaging life back into his palm, “It seems as though Gearhawk will not be as likely to get into confrontations, and Numbskull, obviously, cannot produce any vocalizations without lungs.  Therefore, it appears most logical that Hopper have the prototype.”

“Lieutenant Aguado has agreed to carry one as well, so you can consider this your direct line to him,” Beth said with a confident smile.  Daniel guessed that she felt pretty pleased at having figured that problem out, and he couldn’t blame her.  Having immediate contact with the police would certainly allay a lot of his worries about going on patrol again.  “He’ll be on call if you encounter another incident.  The Lieutenant will either get involved himself or counsel you on what steps to take.  Just, uh, don’t abuse the privilege, you know?”

“Great, thanks,” Daniel affirmed, taking the proffered device from Mort and giving it another quick look before stashing it in his pocket.  “So, if there’s only one of these now, what’s going to happen with Numbskull over here?”

“Yeah, why does Bunnyboy get all the good toys?” the skeleton’s board read.

“I’ve been considering some ways in which I might better facilitate communication, “ Mort said thoughtfully, “But for now…”

“You two will be partners,” Bethany finished for him.  “Until we can work something out, neither of you is to go on patrol or respond to any incidents without the other.  Got it?”

She pointed at the two of them, and Daniel and Numbskull exchanged a glance.  He felt better about such a pairing now than he would have this morning, but he still wasn’t thrilled about having the eccentric skeleton as a partner.  From the strained grin Numbskull was offering him, he guessed that the other felt the same.  Then again, maybe he was just projecting emotions onto that unmoving smile once again.

A moment passed in silence, which was then broken by the sound of Numbskull’s marker on the whiteboard.  “I guess there are worse things than having a pet rabbit.  Just don’t get in the way.”

Daniel stifled a smile.  “Of course, when you’re taking down the bad guys with that whiteboard of yours I’ll make sure to stay well clear.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Daniel noticed Bethany’s shoulders lower ever so slightly in relief.  He guessed that she hadn’t been overly confident about this pairing either.  

“If you can talk, now is the time to tell us, you know,” he added, with a small note of hope in his voice.

“Braniac is right.  No lungs, no voice,” came the written reply.

Daniel nodded thoughtfully.  He hadn’t actually considered the logistical problems that came with being a living skeleton.  Of course, why would he have?  “That sounds... inconvenient.”

“Ah, yes, like I said, I may be able to find a way to better help Miss Numbskull communicate with all of you.  Better than that whiteboard, at the very least,” Mort interjected, then paused.  Everyone in the room was staring at him, Daniel included, and he blanched.  “Er… Did I say something wrong?”

“Miss Numbskull?” Daniel and Gearhawk said it simultaneously.  Bethany looked more amused than surprised, and Numbskull was already writing something down on its… her… whiteboard.

“Yeah?  What about it?  Skeletons come in both types, you know.”

“Well, it’s just…” Daniel began.  It shouldn’t change anything, but he couldn’t help feel a bit awkward about how he had treated the skeleton up to this point.  Especially now that he was forced to consider her in this new light.

“The pelvis, you see.  It’s a bit more rounded than it would be on a male skeleton.  Er, I’m sorry if that was supposed to be a secret,” Mort wore an expression of genuine concern.

“Don’t get your briefs in a jam about it.  I don’t have any flesh, right?  No cooties.”

Gearhawk snorted.  “It’s a surprise, but it doesn’t change anything.  Are we done here, Miss Harlow?”

Beth turned to him, still distracted by the other conversation.  “Oh?  Yes, yes we’re done for today.  I don’t dare send you out on patrol again after what happened.  Come back here to check in tomorrow morning, and be ready in case some sort of super-powered event crops up.  I’ve got all your numbers, and Daniel, keep that device Mort gave you handy.  I’ve got a feeling Lieutenant Aguado might decide to test it on his own later.”

“Right,” Daniel said, patting his pocket and feeling the oddly-shaped lump of a device there.   “We weren’t out that long, but it’s been a tiring day already.  Bethany, before I go, can I get a copy of the regulations to take home?”

Beth made a face, but agreed, and soon he was on his way back with a heavy, paper-laden binder under his arm.

Daniel pinched the bridge of his nose and tried to focus.  He had been reading the binder of rules for the better part of the afternoon into the evening, and hadn’t made nearly as much progress as he would have liked.  Now, he lay in bed with only the table lamp illuminating the page, and willed himself to concentrate.  It wasn’t easy.  His eyes kept drifting away every time his focus wavered.

It didn’t help that, for all of the text crammed into these pages, it seemed to actually say very little.  There were whole sections on the legal definitions of “heroes” and “villains” according to the B.S.A., and exhaustive lists of all the kinds of situations he might find himself in as a hero.  Despite his determination to make sure he didn’t keep perpetrating the same kind of mistakes that landed him in hot water with the police, he found himself agreeing with Bethany’s abridged version of the book.  It really only boiled down to two rules.  Only fight villains, and avoid the use of deadly force.  Everything else was just clarifications on those points.

The door to the room opened, and Daniel looked up from the binder.  Annie entered, still wearing her work clothing and looking more than a little bedraggled.  She was still working as an administrator at White Financial Trust.  Though he had tried to convince her that she didn’t have to work anymore thanks to their inheritance, she had insisted that she continue to do so.  By her account, the more she earned now, the more they could leave to their children in the future.  Daniel found it hard to argue with that.  Indeed, sometimes it made him feel a bit guilty for leaving his own career, though what he was doing now was also in the interests of securing them a peaceful future.  They had agreed on that.

“They kept you late again, huh?” he asked, though he could see the answer written in an annoyed scowl on her face.

“For the third time this week,” she grumbled, then made her way to the bathroom and shut the door.  Someone else might have slammed it, but Annie was always careful not to let her temper get the better of her.  Daniel felt he had gotten better at the same over the years, thanks to her influence.

He returned to his reading while she ran a shower, but any vestiges of focus he had left were long gone, spirited away by the arrival of his wife.  He closed the binder and instead rested his back on the headboard.  His eyes landed the small device Mort had given him lying on the bedside table.  Even now, he hadn’t made any progress in deciphering the odd patterns surrounding its central speaker.  More importantly, he hadn’t tested it yet, and Lieutenant Aguado hadn’t used it to call him either.

With the ghost of a shrug, he picked it up and depressed the small lever at its top.

“Hello?” he said into the speaker, holding the thing close to his mouth.

He waited, but there was no reply.  Perhaps it didn’t work at all.  It certainly didn’t look like it should work, and he didn’t really have any way to tell.  Daniel made a face and put the device back down on the bedside next to his phone.  Even if he had his doubts, he wasn’t going to be the one to miss out on an important call because he doubted a teammate’s abilities.  Indeed, with both of his attempts at heroism having ended in a mess each time, he was beginning to feel a powerful need to do it right the next time.  It was a determination to redeem himself and prove that he really could do this superhero thing.

So lost was he in his thoughts that Daniel almost missed Annie slipping into bed next to him, still damp from the shower.  On nights like these, she would usually fall asleep quickly, seeking a quick escape from the frustrations of the day.  He turned to her to wish her good night, but found that she was already staring at him with a piercing look.

“I know that expression,” she accused, frowning at him, “What’s going on?”

Daniel hadn’t been aware he was making any kind of expression, but his doubts must have been showing on his face.  He stifled a sigh, then turned the frown into a smile for her.

“Well, it’s like this…” He went over the events of the previous day, giving her an overview of everything that had happened, focusing especially on how his second attempt at being a superhero hadn’t really ended any better than the first.

“So?” she asked.

“So what?”

“So you did what you thought was right,” she said, “Or you were going to, if that skeleton hadn’t stepped in.  You’ll need to introduce me sometime, by the way.  That’s something I want to see with my own eyes.”

“Well-”

“Anyway, the important thing is that you didn’t turn away, and you didn’t leave that victim to their fate.  All those other rules and things can go screw off.”

Daniel found that his smile, which he had been forcing before, had become genuine.  She was still speaking from a place of annoyance, but the sentiment was clearly genuine.  “It’s not quite that simple, I think, but you’re right as usual.”

She grumbled something in the affirmative, and dug herself further underneath the covers.  Daniel obligingly turned the light off and did the same, feeling just a bit better about the whole thing.

“Hopper!”

Daniel woke up with a start.  Had someone just called his name?  Not his real name, but his superhero name.  Had he dreamed it?  It sounded almost like Lieutenant Aguado, though that wouldn’t be the first time he had appeared in one of Daniel’s less pleasant dreams over the past two nights.  He was about to dismiss it, but then the sound came again.

“Hopper!  Does this thing even work?  Pick it up right now if you can hear me.”

No, that was no dream.  Annie mumbled and turned over next to him, but Daniel scrambled to grab at the bedside table.  Officer Aguado’s voice, a bit cracked and distorted as though it were coming through a radio, was emanating from Mort’s device on the bedside table.  Fumbling in the dark, he pressed the switch down and managed to grunt out a sleepy and surprised reply.

“Wha?”

“Get your fluffy little tail out of bed and to the station, we have a situation.”

“A situ-wha?”

“Just get down here!”

Still half-asleep, Daniel stumbled out of bed.  The suit he had worn yesterday was still laid across the dresser, so he pulled it on and, careful not to wake Annie, slipped out of the room.

The cold night air was enough to fully wake Daniel up, and he felt significantly more sobered by the time he had arrived at the police station.  He was surprised to find Bethany and Numbskull already there.  Gearhawk’s presence, on the other hand, wasn’t unexpected.

Beth offered him a small wave as he trotted up to the group.  Daniel felt like he should be out of breath from such a run, but he was barely even breathing hard.  Another hidden benefit of that rabbit charm’s blessing, he guessed.  He managed to raise a hand in greeting before Lieutenant Aguado’s familiar form stepped out of the police station’s glass doors and beckoned them over.

“Not bad for a first response time,” he said.  Aguado was wearing his “good cop” grin, so Daniel guessed the situation couldn’t be that bad.  Still, to call in a hero group in the middle of the night like this couldn’t be for anything good.

“What’s going on?” Bethany asked, surprising Daniel.  He had figured she would be keyed into whatever was happening, at least.

“This had better not be a drill,” Gearhawk growled.  Numbskull just scratched the top of her skull with one bony finger, wearing a perplexed grin.

“It’s not a drill.  The situation-”  Before Aguado could finish, an explosion rocked through the night air.  Daniel almost felt sure a shockwave rolled over him, and he could see red light reflected off the clouds in the night sky.  Whatever that had been, it was close.  His instincts were telling him to run toward it, or to run away.  To do anything but stay here.  With an effort of will, he squashed the impulse and waited for the Lieutenant to finish.

“-just got a lot worse.” the officer said.  His expression was inscrutable behind his aviators, but Daniel couldn’t help notice that Aguado’s grin was gone.

Edda took in the situation with shock as she arrived on the scene.  From what she could gather, Caduceus had planned a heist on the Natural History Museum, but things were not going to his apparent plan.  The villain had set up an explosion to gain entry, likely trying to access some particular valuable…  Ah yes.  A half-remembered conversation came back to her.  Some stuffy man in an overtight vest who had been bragging to her about the incredibly valuable diamond they had on display at the museum.

That certainly would be a tempting target for Caduceus, who was known to go after the highest-ticket items he could.  This time, however, it had all gone wrong.  It looked as though the explosion from whatever bomb he had used to blow a hole in the museum’s wall had also destabilized the foundation of a towering apartment building right next door.  Caduceus had been known to engage in some pretty risky schemes before, but nothing on this level.  He never went out of his way to hurt people; it was one of the few things her father spoke passionately about anymore.  This could only be a miscalculation on the villain’s part, and a big one.  Even now she could hear the screams of tenants as the structure teetered.  She would have winced as the thing swayed precariously to the side, but…

Hopper and the rest of the Bureau of Superhuman Affairs had finally arrived on the scene.  She had been following the fluffy-eared hero ever since she’d seen him on television that first night, both on the news and in more literal ways.  Edda took a moment to be thankful that he had decided not to continue wearing the leotard she had first seen him in.  It was clearly too dangerous to enter the building personally, but if there was one absolutely ridiculous way to handle the situation…

She took note of the thoughtfulness on their handler, Bethany’s face.  Though the other woman couldn’t see Edda’s own expression, she had a feeling they had both come to the same conclusion.

Daniel was having a hard time taking in everything that was going on as he arrived at the scene of the explosion.  It had only been a block from the police station where they met Aguado, so they had run over after getting instructions from the Lieutenant.  Overall, it didn’t look good.  Down on the ground, a group of hulking mutants surrounded a man in a green cloak that Daniel recognized from the news as Caduceus.  He wore a cap of the same color hanging over his face, and a white surgical mask covering his mouth.  In his hand was the staff from which he took his name.  Currently, he was gesturing wildly with it, and looked as flustered as Daniel felt.

Though normally having a villain right in front of him would be an opportunity too good to waste, the rest of the situation demanded their attention.  Some large explosion, obviously designed to blow a hole in the side of the Natural History Museum building, had also damaged the foundations of a towering apartment complex just next door.  The huge structure teetered with a sense of horrifying instability, ready to collapse at any moment.  A steady stream of people was escaping from the front doors, but the sheer number of them was slowing down others and causing the walls to buckle even further.  There was no telling how many would still be trapped inside when it fell.

“Damn!” Lieutenant Aguado cursed, “This was supposed to be a cut and dry heist.  Perfect for a bunch of rookies.  What are we going to do about this?” His teeth were bared, not in his usual charming smile, but in an expression mixing anger, tension, and fear.  Daniel did not find it encouraging.  What were they going to do about this?

“Agents of the B.S.A.!” A commanding voice brought Daniel back to the moment, and everyone looked to see where it had come from.  Surprisingly, it was Beth.  She had a stern expression on her face, and was gesturing toward the building.

“Ignore Caduceus for now.  We have two objectives!  First, find a way to stop that building from falling.  Second, evacuate the residents to safety!”

“What?!” Gearhawk shouted back at her over the sounds of terror coming from the apartment complex.  “How are we supposed to stop that thing from falling?”

“We’re just going to ignore Caduceus over there?” Numbskull chimed in with her whiteboard.

Beth ground her teeth.  She looked like she had gotten caught up in the moment, and was now regretting saying that piece without a plan to back it up.  Still, she paused for only a moment before looking directly at Daniel.

“Hopper, just how strong are you?”

His brow furrowed in confusion, but a moment later he grasped what she meant.  Could she be serious?  That was clearly insane, and he had no idea if he’d be able to pull it off but… what choice did they have?  He rolled up the sleeves of his suit.

“I don’t quite know, Miss Bethany, but I’m willing to give it a try.”  He stepped forward, but felt a hand on his arm.

“Wait!” Beth said, then fished around in her pack and came out with a brown top hat.  It was the same color as his suit, and looked like it had holes for his ears.  The brim had a B.S.A. badge pinned to it.  Leaping up to reach, she placed it on his head.  “Your costume.  Be careful!”

Daniel touched the brim of the top hat, then grinned.  He was sure he looked ridiculous again, but that seemed to be the way of these things.  With a nod to her and a glance to the others, he started running toward the building.

“As for you, Numbskull, yes we’re ignoring Caduceus.  Are you stupid?  Those people need our help!  You two get into the building and help however you can.  Gearhawk, can you get to the top floors?”

Gearhawk made an annoyed noise, but affirmed, and Daniel heard Numbskull writing something else.  Then, he was out of the group and coming up quickly on the teetering complex.  There was a crowd around the place, too close for comfort, Daniel thought, and he shouldered his way past a red-haired man speaking into a camera.

“There he is, Amy!  I’m not sure what he’s planning, but-”

The rest of whatever he said was lost to Daniel as he broke into a sprint.  A pounding quickened in his ears and he consciously pushed down a growing lump in his stomach.  He felt his feet leave the ground as he began leaping through the air.  Something about it felt perfectly natural, and soon he was bounding toward the building at incredible speed.  Stunned faces, and then the empty street flew by on the edge of his vision, and he felt the wind blow through his hair and whiskers.  Something inside him delighted at this, longed for the speed and power that each hop was bringing to him.  Daniel pushed that sensation down too.  He’d think about that later.

A voice inside kept telling him that this was absolutely not a good idea, but it had to be done.  He didn’t want to get crushed here, but he also couldn’t just let those people die when he might have the power to do something about it.  A hero’s life, he thought, was full of contradictions.

With a crash, Daniel hit the side of the leaning building and put all his strength into his arms as he grabbed a jagged edge of concrete and heaved upward.  His muscles started to burn almost immediately, and the rough edges of the wall cut into his hands.  For a moment, he was certain that the whole thing was going to come down on him.  He winced, and felt his mind go blank as he imagined the complex falling down, crushing him under a mountain of rubble.

Somehow, miraculously, his strength held.  The building stopped its horrible swaying, and he managed to get a foothold.  The pain in his arms was building quickly, but he found that if he adjusted his pose, he could put most of the load on his legs.  His muscles there were powerful, the same ones which gave him his hero name, and they accepted the impossible load with only the barest complaint.

Still, he was sure he couldn’t keep this up forever.  With a grunt, he uttered a short prayer under his breath that Numbskull and Gearhawk would be quick about it.  From somewhere above him, he got a glimpse of motion.  Something brown and fluttering cutting through the air.  Was that Gearhawk?  Maybe that abrasive young man really could fly like his namesake.  He wasn’t sure what Numbskull would do to help, but that wasn’t his problem.  All he could do now was keep the building steady.

Moments passed, but each second felt like an eternity.  Even his powerful legs were growing tired.  Daniel tried not to think about it, to concentrate on the sounds around him, but the pressure on his bones was getting more and more insistent.  There was still screaming and shouting coming from the entrance of the complex.  That meant that his job wasn’t yet done.  From somewhere behind him, he also heard excited chatter, and even some cheers.  He allowed himself a brief, pained grin.  For once, he was doing something worthy of the title “Superhero”, and it felt good that someone out there was recognizing it.  There would be time for celebration later, he hoped.  Right now, he had to put all of his willpower into what was in front of him.  The building seemed to be growing heavier by the moment.  He felt it shift, and readjusted his grip quickly.

“Hopper!  Can you hear me?”

That was Beth.  He could manage only a grunt in response, and hoped that she heard it over the mess of sounds happening all around them.

“Gearhawk has almost finished evacuating the top floors, and Numbskull managed to scare a few people out.  We’re almost done!”

That was a relief.  Daniel’s vision was starting to fog.  His feet were sliding very slowly backwards on the concrete.  He redoubled his efforts, but it didn’t seem to be helping.  Just a few more minutes, he told himself, but he felt the rock above slipping out of his grip.  He shouted in defiance, raged against his own body to keep it up for just a moment longer, but…

Suddenly, the load lightened.  He heard a grunt to his right, then another to his left.  Somewhere behind him, the crowd gasped.  Daniel opened his eyes and looked to his side.  One of Caduceus’ mutants, a massive brute with four arms and impossibly huge muscles, was grasping the side of the building right next to him.  A similarly titanic creature was to his left, pushing up on the complex’s failing wall.  He couldn’t believe his eyes, but took the opportunity regardless to adjust his grip.  Together, the three pushed, and pushed, and the building remained still.

The shouting was dying down.  From somewhere to the side, Daniel heard shouted orders, and the sound of receding voices.

“Hopper!” this time it was Lieutenant Aguado’s voice.  It sounded as though he was a good distance away, speaking through a loudspeaker.  “Great work!  We’ve cleared the area, and you just need to let the side of the building down slowly.”

That sounded wonderful.  Even with the help of the mutants to either side, he felt as though his body was at its limit.  Still, it wasn’t like he could just let go.  Would the whole thing collapse if they stopped pushing?  Would he even have time to get clear?  Aguado seemed to realize this as well, and spoke again.

“Alright, new plan.  Just let it go, and we’ll get you out of there before anything can happen.”

Just let it go?  That seemed like an awful idea.  At that moment, however, the mutants dropped their share and it was no longer his decision.  The full weight of the complex settled on his arms, and he had no choice but to release his grip.

Daniel’s vision was filled by the massive wall towering over him and leaning ominously, about to fall and crush him beneath it.  He raised his arms to shield himself, for all the good it would do.  Before the building began to tip, however, he found himself swept off his feet.

“Tch.  You’re way too heavy, Hopper!” Gearhawk complained, his arm wrapped around Daniel’s waist and pulling him through the air.  They were moving quickly, almost flying, but something about their momentum felt off.  Rather than shooting forward, the sensation was as though they were tethered to a point at the center of the street and swinging around that.  It was a bizarre experience, but they soon touched down almost a block away from the complex.

Daniel immediately fell to his knees, his legs giving out from under him.  He looked up, from under the brim of his new hat, and offered a weak smile.  Above him, he saw Bethany and Numbskull, grinning like idiots.  Aguado wore a stunned expression behind his sunglasses, and Gearhawk, as ever, was inscrutable, but Daniel heard him breathing heavily as well.

He opened his mouth to say something, but at that moment the building collapsed, and everything was lost in a storm of sound and concrete dust.