Marcus spent the next day at school in a fairly monotonous way. Making eyes at Eleanour, shooting glares at Cassie. He saw Brock walking down the hallway and was pretty sure that he saw a faint grimace on his face and him putting a hand on his ribs when someone accidentally bumped into him. Marcus couldn’t feel too sympathetic for the guy though. Whether that injury was from Hob or some other vigilante power trip they’d gone on, as far as Marcus figured that Brock had got whatever was coming to him. Brock was doing the work of the League of Supers for them and for what? Hob had seen first hand how they treated vigilantes, both in the past and yesterday. It wasn’t pretty.

  But as boring as his school day was, the way he spent the evening was even more so. There was of course his piles of homework that he had to do every night, but that he got through quite quickly for once. Sometimes he didn’t do it at all.

  No, what made his evening long was his visualisation training. He had taken Claire’s, the occupational therapist’s, advice and was going all out on it. The main difference was that when he visualised himself with improved sight, he saw Hob. He stayed there in his room for hours, eyes closed and visualising and then transforming. When he transformed he’d look himself in the mirror, take in the nook and cranny of every pore, then visualise in his Hob form. It went fifteen minutes of visualisation, then he’d transform and do fifteen more minutes of visualisation. After four hours of this Marcus rapidly transformed in and out of his Hobgoblin form.

  At last he fell to the ground, exhausted. He wasn’t sweating at all but he felt absolutely drained. His nervous system felt completely shot and his mind could barely string a few coherent thoughts together.

  But his eyes felt strong. He had been focussing on them the whole night and now when he looked he could zoom in like a hawk. He could pick out the insanely minute details, like how the wind of him moving back and forth rustled the papers on his desk just ever so slightly. Or how the muscles in his face twitched a millisecond before he smiled. And this was just one night. He would be doing the same tomorrow night - if he and Cassie got everything cleaned in time. He couldn’t wait to see what else he’d get from his rapid improvement. He really had to thank Claire. She really was good at her job.

  He went to sleep and for once he slept like a log.

  __________________

  Finally the day rolled around to his punishment with Cassie. They met with Mr. Boyle and at the end of the day, true to expectations, his classroom was absolutely covered with gunk. Most of his classroom had been stripped back in preparation for the class - lacquered floor, bare walls - but the mess was still absolute foul. Several of the Duffs, the human replicas the Super school used, were completely crushed or dismembered and likely explosively so if the spatter up the walls was to be believed. One had even apparently been liquified and Marcus had no idea how that even happened.

  It was one thing accidentally overusing your power a certain way and popping an arm off of someone, it was another thing entirely to completely melt them into a sludgy goop on the floor.

  “I told them to really go all out, since I wouldn’t be the one cleaning it,” said Mr. Boyle with a grin. “I’ve gotta say, even I’m impressed.”

  “Well you’ve certainly taught us a lesson about camaraderie between fellow Supers,” said Cassie.

  “Which class did you say you had again?” asked Marcus.

  “Mr. Cove,” laughed the teacher, “revenge is often the origin story for a Super, but it should never be his motivation. Think of those students as your wise old mentor, making you do something you don’t want to do that will pay off in the long run.”

  “Then what are you?” asked Marcus.

  Mr. Boyle smiled at that. “The villain I suppose, as all teachers must be at some point. And on that note, if I find that you’ve slacked off at all on this there’ll be serious repercussions. In certain areas a recommendation from me goes a long way -” Cassie beamed at this idea “- and you’ll also find that the opposite is true. If I think you’re unfit for superhero work then I’ll certainly say so. If you can’t look past your differences at your age then perhaps you never will.”

  That turned Cassie’s smile into a bit of a frown as she looked at Marcus with something approaching disdain, but it was quickly over.

  “The cleaning closet is three doors down and fully stocked. I trust you know where to take the bins. The school doors will automatically lock behind you, so if you leave before you’re done, you won’t be able to get back in. And to the both of you, good luck,” said Mr. Boyle, before walking away.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Marcus looked at Cassie. She looked at him back.

  “That recommendation comment really got you going huh?” he joked.

  “With a power like yours I’d be trying to get a recommendation wherever you can,” she said, pushing past him to get into the room. He laughed and followed.

  “It’s basically the same as yours,” said Marcus.

  “It’s worse. That’s like comparing my power to Buster’s. And I’m durable.” Buster was a very strong Super that had all sorts of records to his name. He was famous in the Super community, although he hadn’t done much in the way of actually saving people. There were rumours that he was stronger than Cape, but Buster had always denied and maintained that Cape would take any of his records if he felt like it. Cape never publicly commented.

  “I have other powers too,” said Marcus.

  “Oh yeah?” said Cassie.

  “Enhanced senses. And believe me, I will be telling you when you’ve missed a spot.”

  “I’d only recommend doing that if you want to be used to clean it up.”

  “If Mr. Boyle could hear you now,” Marcus shook his head in faux sadness. “Your recommendation would be out the window.”

  “You should use the energy you’re spending on talking on something else. Like cleaning this mess up. You might not care, but some of us actually want a future,” said Cassie, annoyed.

  “Who says I don’t care?” asked Marcus, surprised. He’d been putting a lot of work in to make sure he didn’t fail school. The fact that he turned up at all was proof of that.

  “If you did, you might show up on time occasionally. And have improved your powers a bit,” said Cassie, getting down on all fours to scrub. Marcus took to the wall, standing on a table with a brush and some soap. He was starting with the major splatter.

  Marcus shrugged and just kept scrubbing. He held his tongue for about an hour as they both worked, but there was a tension building. What she had said was going around over and over again, the monotony of the endless cleaning of the Duff blood contrasted with the spinning sentences in his mind. He felt he had to speak, to say something. His tongue felt heavy in his mouth from the words he hadn’t said. Somehow Cassie always got to him.

  “How do you know I don’t show up on time? You’re not in my form,” said Marcus.

  “I know people who are,” she replied without a beat. She must have been thinking about what they’d said too.

  “Bet you do,” said Marcus, thinking of Eleanor. They were gossipping about him whilst playing vigilante? He was lucky they didn’t gossip about him.

  “I notice you didn’t tell me I’m wrong,” Cassie said.

  “You are wrong,” said Marcus, trying to appear nonchalant. “I’ve been doing a lot.”

  “Not enough,” said Cassie.

  “You don’t know what I do,” said Marcus, starting to get annoyed. Who on Earth did she think she was?

  “Just what you don’t do,” she said.

  “I do what I can,” he said defensively.

  “Which isn’t very much.”

  “We all have our difficulties,” shrugged Marcus, unwilling to engage.

  “You’re not about to start with the “my parents don’t care” routine again, are you?” she asked him.

  He turned to look at her, down on all fours scrubbing the goopy mess that had once been a Duff. He was flabbergasted by the audacity. He could feel his elbow twitch. It would only take a little…

  And before he knew it, a sponge bounced off the back of her head with a wet squelch. He felt his skin start to heat up, to turn yellow, but he reined it back in.

  Now it was her turn to look at him shocked.

  “You’re seriously pulling this shit? Now?”

  “Who asked you to bring up ancient history? You really don’t know how to chill out.”

  “Here’s some modern history,” she said, picking up a mop. “You.” She threw the mop. “Piss.” She threw a sponge. “Me.” She threw a bottle of cleaning liquid at him. “Off.” She threw her bucket of water at him.

  The first three simply bounced off him and the water from the bucket splashed across his chest. He looked down. He could have stopped there. He didn’t need to escalate.

  But instead he picked his own bucket up and walked over to where Cassie was standing, glaring at him. He lifted the bucket up.

  “Don’t you-” Cassie gasped as Marcus upended the bucket over her head.

  She was absolutely soaked to the skin. Given their super strength, they’d both decided to grab the biggest buckets they could to save them trips back and forth so it was a lot of dirty water that had just been dumped on her.

  She stood there, clothes sticking to her skin and looking up at him with anger. Then she did the one thing he absolutely expected her to do, and she slapped him. It was pretty hard too. In his Hob form he would have barely felt it, but in his Marcus form it definitely smarted.

  They both stared at each other.

  “Good luck with your recommendation,” said Marcus as he turned to get the door.

  He began to open it but Cassie slammed her hand on it, closing it. “What do you think you’re doing?”

  “Get your hand off the door,” he said.

  “Make me. Shit powers.”

  Hob saw red. He picked her up by her collar and slammed her on the wall beside him. She pushed back at him but he felt stronger and kept her there. His arms were pulsing but he reined in the transformation into Hob that was threatening to burst out of him.

  And then soft lips met his. He wasn’t sure if he had kissed her or if she had kissed him but Cassie had her hands around the back of his head and wasn’t letting him pull away. And then when she tried to pull back he pulled her back in. It was like they were fighting while kissing.

  Eventually they fell to the floor together.