My current foster home was in a brownstone on Lantern Row, a middle class part of town. To get there from the docks I, unfortunately, had to pass by Memorial Plaza.

  After Bonfire Night, where that part of the city had been levelled, much of that area had been rebuilt into a circular plaza of white marble tiles, the centre of which had a golden brazier for an ‘eternal flame.’ Beyond that was a curving black marble wall which had the names of the 337 people killed in the blast.

  On the bottom, in big golden letters, were carved the words ‘MAY WE NEVER FORGET.’

  The supervillains involved, Dad included, were omitted from the list.

  That always made a knot of anger rise in my gut. Dad had been a victim too, of that I was certain. The more time that passed, the more I thought of Bonfire Night, the more odd the whole thing had seemed. Two unrelated groups of villains just so happen to strike the same spot on the same night, somehow kicking off a blast that strong? The whole situation reeked.

  A few drones hovered through the air above the plaza, silver-plated beasts the size of small cars. Each one had a pair of heavy guns positioned on the undercarriage. One could see plenty of those drones in the skyline of Argent, or most major American cities these days.

  Sighing, I shouldered the duffel bag and pressed on.

  Gail and Brian, my current foster parents, were both still at work at this hour, and I’d have at least an hour of unsupervised freedom by my estimation. I unlocked the door and shouldered my way quickly inside with Lassie at my heels.

  The initial silence had me believing, hopefully, that I was alone. Until I heard a cry from upstairs that made me wince.

  “Jess?! Jess are you back?!” a voice, high pitched and giddy, asked.

  I sighed and shook my head. “Yes Todd, I’m here.” I could already feel a migraine brewing in the back of my head like a distant storm cloud.

  A flurry of footsteps came from upstairs, and seconds later a grey and scaly face peered around the corner. He grinned at me, his burning yellow eyes glowing faintly. “Thank goodness you’re back!”

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Todd was six years younger than me and had been my foster brother for little over a year. But he had taken to me like a giddy puppy. From my understanding he’d been abandoned at birth, his parents not wanting to raise a kid who cam out of the womb grey and scaly. The government paid extra to foster families willing to take in Apex children, but those same families were rarely able to handle the strain of raising superpowered kids.

  So kids like Todd tended to get bounced around a lot. Guess he was jonesing for whatever affection he could get.

  “I wasn’t gone for that long,” I said, grunting as I shouldered my bag and hurried upstairs. Lassie was at my side, taking the steps two at a time. “Now pipe down, I gotta hide this. Help me move the wardrobe.” We had separate rooms, the brownstone being of a decent size, but Todd was no stranger to the layout of my room.

  “Oh, totally!” he giddily said, the serpentine slits of his pupils widening a bit.

  My room was of a modest size and I did what I could to keep the place tidy. Which was not much, given the workbench on the far right corner laden with all manner of junk and half-finished projects. Bouncing balls that could accelerate to bullet-like speeds, teddy bears with laser eyes, walkie-talkies that could be tuned to encrypted frequencies.

  Things that I knew I had the capacity to finish, just not the resources. Most of the tech I used was from whatever I could scavenge from dumpsters, electronic shops usually being my favourite haunts. But with this bit of seed capital from the Kings I could ideally get the ball rolling on acquiring better equipment and tools.

  “Right there,” I said, motioning to the heavy oak bookshelf at the back of the room.

  Todd grinned and nodded in his usual giddy puppydog way, gripped the wooden frame and then slid it from the wall with ease. His super strength was nothing spectacular, likely to grow as he aged, but it worked well for simple tasks like this.

  A square patch of wall stood out from the rest, one that I had painstakingly carved out. I pulled it open to reveal a musty cobweb-strewn crawlspace beyond. “Remember, you didn’t see any of this,” I said, shoving the duffel inside. “I know you love Gail and Brian but I will be so incredibly mad if they find out about this.”

  Todd winced a bit, the thought of making me mad clearly giving him grief. “I would never do that!” he quickly said.

  “Good.” I slid the crawlspace shut and moved aside so he could block it with the bookcase. I’d need to graduate to wire transfers to an offshore account, especially when the real money started to roll in, but the Black Bank expected a large deposit for anyone who wanted to open an account with them.

  “So uh...” Todd scratched at the back of his neck. Then he leaned over, busying himself by rubbing the top of Lassie’s head. Lassie actually liked him, leaning into the touch. “What’s in the bag anyway?”

  “You don’t need to know,” I said, dusting my hands off. “In fact the less you know, the better.”

  “Aw c’mon Jess, that’s no fun,” he said, huffing and rising to his feet. “You’re always sneaking around and doing cool stuff in secret. It’s not very sisterly of you to be all... secretive.”

  I gave Todd a flat look, beckoning Lassie over. “We’re not actually brother and sister,” I told him plainly.

  His smile returned. “Far as I’m concerned? We totally are!”

  Rolling my eyes, I made for the workbench and fished out my laptop. It was also a patchwork piece of scavenged tech, an old model I had painstakingly upgraded. The many anime stickers plastered on the silver lid were just for the aesthetics.

  “Yes, very nice,” I said, giving him a glance over my shoulder. “Now, kindly give me a little privacy.”