Chapter 1: 1. Sebastian Tinker

An empty cola can skids across the street, clinking with every bounce against the pavement. I follow it down the street, kicking it again as I draw closer. The can goes skidding across the pavement again, stopping at the foot of someone stepping into the end of the alley. I look up at that, looking around at my surroundings more critically.

I sigh, straightening up at seeing my surroundings. I accidentally walked into one of the seedier parts of downtown. Not as disturbing as if I was a normal person, but I should still keep my wits about myself. The person the cola can stopped in front of smirks at me, sauntering forwards slowly. I turn around, wanting to avoid the encounter entirely.

When I turn around though, I notice a second person behind me that I hadn’t noticed following me. “Hey, buddy. Where are you headed?” The guy behind me sneers, holding a knife. I roll my eyes at the obvious threat.

“Home? Do we have to do this?” I complain. The thug looks at me derisively, pointing his knife towards me.

“No funny business, kid. Just give us your wallet and we won’t poke you full of holes.” The thug behind me says.

I think through the various devices at my disposal, trying to decide which one I should use. After a couple of seconds, I sigh again, reaching into my left back pocket slowly. I pull out a wallet, tossing it towards the person in front of me. He catches the wallet midair, running off with it. The person behind me kicks me in the back, causing me to stumble forwards. He runs off too, following his friend.

I straighten up, stretching as I do so. They should be caught by the police in no time. That wallet is a decoy, and with the press of a button I can activate the tracking capabilities on it. It's what they get for trying to rob someone from the Tinker family. Not that I’m a hero like the rest of my family. A superhero family known for our inventions, but my power is incredibly underwhelming. My only ability is to make slightly abnormal inventions randomly. Coming from a family of inventors so well known to the super community because of their mind boggling super powered inventions, I’m the unimpressive black sheep of the family name.

Despite that, my family has been unusually intense about me becoming a licensed hero for the local super team lately. An argument about this very topic being the reason for my late evening stroll.

I continue onwards, towards the local park, my aimless wandering having brought me here by habit. I sink onto a swing with a sigh, hanging my head as I swing back and forth slowly.

If only my power were more useful. I could actually DO something about everything that's been going on lately. The local super team sucks and crime has shot up lately because of it. The only downside to the idea of becoming a hero being all the parts of the job that are public. Being a superhero is like being a celebrity, and the less reason for the media to talk about me, the better. I've had my fill of headlines mentioning 'Sebastian Tinker, the unfortunately average child of a famous family of inventors'.

I look upwards at the night sky, idly watching the twinkle of the stars as time passes by. That's when I see it.

A streak of light flying across the sky, slowly getting bigger. No, two streaks, weaving around each other. The streaks split, still both falling towards the ground. I smile thinly. Two lucky souls are gonna get powers tonight. Hopefully their bestowed power is greater than my inherited one.

One of the streaks breaks off course, judging by the trajectory I'd say it's heading for downtown somewhere. The other streak adjusts, shifting in my direction. I widen my eyes at that, looking at the houses around me. Someone nearby is going to become a super.

I watch with bated breath as the star draws closer, it's trajectory not changing. I chuckle nervously as I notice that it's getting awful close. Like, really close. I… There's no one nearby, right?

I turn my head this way and that, looking for some hiding people. There's not a single person around.

That's weird, it still looks like it's coming right for… Me.

My eyes go wide as it continues to rocket towards me. But… I'm already a super? I stand up from the swing abruptly at that thought. 

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My next thought is interrupted by a deafening impact overwhelming all of my senses and everything going white and then pitch black.

The world comes into focus around me and I'm struck by the sense of laying on something incredibly soft. I groan, pushing myself up on the plush like material. My head is still spinning as I try to get my bearings about me. I can feel a strange flicking sensation on top of my head as the sounds around me fade back into clarity.

I look around me in confusion. I'm in the local park. After a few seconds, the confusion clears and everything comes back to me at once. The star. I was hit.

I spring to my feet, stumbling a bit on the soft ground and grumbling in annoyance at it. Then, suddenly, the ground isn't soft anymore. It returns to being hard and level, and I'm hyper aware of that fact.

Before I can think too closely on that, I'm distracted by the feeling of my tail flicking around behind me. Shocks of electric surprise shoot up my spine at the feeling and I reach around and grab my tail. It hurts as I pull on it.

Ow, yeah, that's attached to me. I twist my body, looking down at it. Aside from the tail I'm… Slender. I suppress some joy at this, that despite the changes I didn't become all muscled up or anything. I feel around for more changes and notice several. The larger ones being that I have two fluffy ears on top (that explains the flicking sensation) and my eyesight is really good now despite it being night time. My skin is also really soft and sensitive, especially around my chest. That's where a lot of my vitals are, so I must have been given some weaknesses. Pretty tame as far as weaknesses go, so I'm not complaining. My clothes shift around me, feeling very loose for some reason.

I run my finger through my tail, feeling the thrill of excitement over having a nonhuman feature. Half the population has at least one non-human feature, but my family is one of very few super families left with almost no non-human features.

I focus on the world around me and I get confused. I realize with a start that I can feel the ground around me. Suddenly, I feel something moving behind me and I turn around quickly. A fly is buzzing around about two feet away.

I have a second power? I stumble away from the fly and towards the metal pole of the swingset nearby, reaching out to grab a hold of it. I grip the soft almost cushion like metal, squeezing it gently. My eyes go wide at this action, letting go of the soft pole. My hand grip stays embedded in the metal and I can instantly tell that it has stopped being soft. I run my hand over the now warped metal in awe.

I have a second power.

I soften the ground below me and it becomes plush-like once more. The effect only extends two feet around me. I bounce on it gently, but the moment I make it hard again, it springs back to its former shape for the most part, completely different from the metal.

I have a second power! I can make things within a short radius soft, and I have some extra sense around me for the area of the effect. I shake my hands excitedly, jumping up and down on the ground, making it soft for my landings and then hardening it again to push me up. The effect leads to me bouncing up high, the action becoming almost reflexive.

As I'm falling, I can even make the air around me softer as I'm falling back to the ground. The air cushions my fall, causing me to float back down to the ground softer than I would have normally.

I pause, thinking about my family. If they find out that I've gotten a second power that isn't inventing, what will they say? My smile droops to a frown at the thought. They probably won’t take it well… I look at my tail and ears, seeing if I can make them go away.

I feel myself growing taller, the ears and tail retracting, my body returning to it's clunky and… old form. I hadn't even realized that I'm so much shorter in my other form. That explains why I was practically swimming in my hoodie earlier. I try to soften the ground like this, but the sense has gone away. I'm my normal, boring self. I let out a breath, part relief that I can keep my new power secret, but also part wishing I was back in my new form.

I hurry away from the park, in case anyone comes looking for the new supers in the area. I don't know how long I was out, but that should be enough time for Dad to have gone to bed. Mom won't be back until tomorrow, so I shouldn't run into her either. I don't want to have another conversation about hero work this soon after a change. I need to think about what I'm going to do.

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