Reyna really wasn’t sure why she was insane enough to decide she wanted to run a game when she was the one with the least interest when it came to playing tabletop was beyond her.

  But she did miss her friends, and it seemed like the best way to keep Jason and Amelia close while they were acting all concerned about being superheroes and saving the world.

  Which she wasn’t upset about at all because, you know, she lived in the world, so she couldn’t be upset about them saving the world, but she wanted to be able to hang out with them too.

  So here she was, reading a book with concepts she didn’t quite understand, and yet despite it all she was feeling excited for it.

  She knew it wasn’t going to go particularly well, sure, but she was excited for it. Part of her idly wondered if this was what Jason and Ben felt like when they were preparing to run their games?

  Probably not; they seemed to have a significantly higher understanding of how shit was supposed to work, so they didn’t spend the whole time feeling confused.

  But she was pretty sure she could at least run the first book soon, even if not all of them.

  Jason had asked they play on the night of the first instead of New Year's eve which meant he was probably off comforting one of his strays, and while Reyna’s first thought was to invite this person, she resisted.

  New friends were good, and god knew she needed some, but she wasn’t planning on doing that right now. Not when their dynamic was already in a very fragile state due to everything going on.

  If Amelia or Jason had to run off to go be a superhero during the session, she was probably going to scream on principle.

  There was a ring at the doorbell, and Reyna got up from her chair and made her way across the house to the front door, opening it to see Caleb’s face.

  “Can I come in?” He asked, stepping a foot inside before she could even respond.

  “What are you doing here?” Reyna asked, scared as she almost immediately tried to shut the door, a foot stopping her.

  “I, uh, came to see you?” Caleb said as if there was nothing wrong with the thought making process that led him to this.

  “But why, dumbass!” Reyna said, raising her voice as she reached into another pocket to grab her phone. Jason and Amelia were both a click away, and hopefully one or both of them would show up.

  “I needed to talk to you about something. I’ve come up with a way to save Jason and Amelia; we can have our friends back!” Caleb said, his eyes wide with something Reyna didn’t know how to interpret.

  It was most likely wild amounts of crazy, but she wasn’t sure if that’s what it actually was or not.

  Madness maybe?

  Reyna considered the difference between madness and crazy as she considered her words.

  “I don’t want to save any of my friends because they’re perfect the way they are, so I’m going to tell you to fuck off now. Are you going to actually do it? Or are you going to wait for Jason and Amelia to show up to force you to go leave me the fuck alone?” Reyna said, trying to sound more confident.

  The text had gone through, and the two of them were at least at one point chronically online; she knew that they would be here soon.

  She had to believe that they would be there soon.

  As if physically struck, Caleb stepped back as his hands tightening into fists as his face began to contort in rage. “I thought you would be the only one who would understand. But you would rather side with them than with your fellow humans?”

  “Okay, if you’re going to go around calling people not human just because they now have powers and were kidnapped, you’re going to be the one I generally consider the asshat here, so walk it back. My actual friends are coming by to put an end to this shit soon, anyway.” Reyna shot back.

  There was a glint of amber light reflecting off the snow around Caleb that made Reyna blink her eyes in irritation, trying to clear up her vision enough that she could actually see.

  “They’re not human, don’t you know what their daughter could do? She could kill everyone with a thought. Jason lost his eyes! I just want to bring them back, can’t you see?” His eyes were wild, seeming unable to focus on anything, and she swore that Caleb’s eyes were supposed to be a darker brown.

  “I know what exactly what my godchild can do, and that is mostly being an absolute delight to be around. Now I’ll explain this to you slowly so you can understand,” Reyna said, raising her voice higher.

  “You. Should. Fuck. Off. Now!”

  Caleb didn’t take well to that response, and Reyna finally realized the amber light wasn't from a reflection from the sun but from Caleb himself.

  And it was glowing.

  When Caleb started to glow fiercely with power, Reyna screamed as she slammed the door shut, locking it so that hopefully he couldn’t get in.

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  It was hard to tell what was going on with her collapsed to the ground, curled up into a ball, but before she could fully calm down, the next thing she heard was Jason and Amelia’s voices filling the air both of them sounding furious.

  But it was a rage that Reyna felt safe by. Her friends weren’t mad at her; they were mad for her, and that made a whole world of difference.

  “Hey Reyna?” Amelia’s voice came through the other side of the door. “If you want Jason and I to bounce, we can do that, but if you wanted to or at least felt up to talking, we would like that because we’re trying to figure out what is going on.”

  Reyna levered herself to her feet and managed to stumble out the door to see Jason and Amelia standing there in their normal clothes, Jason with his now practically trademark sunglasses underneath.

  She still didn’t understand how Amelia had no reaction to the void eyes even before she became a super, but she chalked it up to her general lack of sanity in the first place.

  “The text was just to come here asap, so what was happening?” Amelia asked, grabbing Reyna’s hand. “Hmmm, there’s nowhere to sit. Let me fix that.” She said, and with a wave, all the snow vanished from the steps.

  Reyna sat down on the step, surprised that it actually was warm. Did Amelia move the cold itself too, leaving the steps warmer?

  Amelia sat down as well, holding Reyna’s hand and leaning against her while Jason did his imposing impression, standing there hands in the pockets of his jacket as he stared off into space.

  “Why is Caleb nearby?” Jason asked out of the blue.

  “Huh?” Amelia said, confused.

  “How did you know I hadn’t said anything yet!” Reyna exclaimed, squeezing Amelia’s hand.

  The scowl on Jason’s face darkened. “Did he scare you?” The words were a question, but the tone was not. Jason wasn’t asking because he had a question about what was going on; he was asking because it was polite. He had already put together the answer he deemed correct.

  Reyna gave a jerky nod and flinched back as the world seemed to warp around the two superheroes.

  It was as if the world was chilled, the air itself going crispy like it could shatter like glass.

  Jason’s warping was visible. It was as if the world around him began to darken, the very air itself turning into a dark mist as he reigned in his emotions.

  A moment later, both effects were over.

  “I’m going to end the problem.” Jason finally said, moving his head till he was staring off in a new direction, though it was clear he was glaring at Caleb.

  “No, you can’t!” Reyna yelped, remembering what she had seen, and Jason turned to her, his expression softening.

  “Reyna, I know I don’t explain my powers, but I promise there is nothing a normal human can do that would actually hurt me. Caleb has probably been trying to talk to me for a while. So I’ll give him what he wants, and then you won’t have to worry about it any longer. I promise.” He said, his voice gentle as he crouched down to look her in the eye.

  She almost believed it with a voice and confidence like that, and he was almost like a real hero.

  “You don’t need to. I can handle it!” Reyna said, trying to protect her friend. He didn’t need to deal with Caleb’s problems hell, none of them did but if someone had to deal with his shit, Reyna wanted to be the one.

  Jason and Amelia were the group he hated no matter what, and Ben was his ex. She couldn’t put any of them through that, which only left her.

  Jason sighed, already sounding agitated. “It really is fine. Nothing bad will happen to me.”

  “Jason, you don’t get it!” Reyna said loudly, her voice cutting through Jason’s irritation.

  “What?” he asked, changing on a dime to a more neutral voice.

  “He was glowing!” Reyna urged desperately, hoping that it would assuage both of her friends for a moment to think before acting.

  “Glowing?” Amelia asks bewildered.

  “Glowing as in has powers and is now the world’s greatest hypocrite glowing?” Jason asked, sitting down and looking up at Reyna. “My current manhunt is now going to be on hold till you tell me everything you can.”

  And with that, Reyna recounted the story. It wasn’t exactly a long one, and Jason and Amelia listened through the whole way, both seeming to consider their responses carefully.

  “By fix us he probably means turn us back to normal humans, right?” Amelia mused as Jason stood up to start pacing around.

  “Probably, but would that even work on you?” Jason asked.

  Reyna wondered if she should mention something, since it looked like they were going to be talking about important hero stuff, but Amelia was still clutching her hand tightly, not willing to let her go in the slightest.

  “I imagine half of my body would just wither and die, so I’m thinking not going to be playing that game. Besides, I love my powers, I never have to worry about melting ice cream again.” Amelia joked.

  Jason’s darkness cloud spilled out again, everything flickering dark for a moment. She had seen him mad before, even when he got his powers, but were his powers growing or something?

  “Okay, I won’t try to fight or confront him anytime soon. Most likely, no matter what his power is, I can still escape, but I’m going to be following him to see what I can learn.” Jason finally said slowly.

  “You’re going now, right?” Amelia asked quietly.

  “He’s already left my range, so I don’t want to lose him even more.” Jason admitted.

  “If you come back to me in pieces, I’m going to cut you into even smaller pieces.” Amelia threatened.

  “Always.”

  Jason leaned in to kiss Amelia before he turned to Reyna, hugging her gently. “I’m sorry we weren’t here sooner. But I promise it’ll all be okay. I’ve got this.”

  Before Reyna could really respond to what was going on, Jason began jogging away, though once he got to the center of the street he turned dark as pitch and fell through the street.

  “Did he just fall through the street?” Reyna asked as Amelia picked Reyna up and brought the two of them inside and to the living room where there were blankets and comfort.

  “Yeah, Jason tends to fall through things when he’s irritated. Doesn’t help that he was out patrolling early this morning, so his concentration isn’t nearly so great. Pair that with all of his externalization work, and now he’s leaking all over the place when he’s mad.” Amelia snorted, curling up slightly away from Reyna.

  Something she was partially grateful for. Amelia was comforting. Her being chilly wasn’t nearly so.

  “Is he actually going to be fine?”

  “Fuck if I know, but between the two of us, Jason is better at hunting someone down and more survivable. I’ve yet to see him get injured when he actually is using his abilities. And boy, have tons of people tried. It’s easier to imagine he’s indestructible than worry, right?”

  Reyna wasn’t sure if she could be nearly so blase as her best friend about her friend’s safety in this moment, but she guessed if anyone was going to know if he was going to be okay or not, it would be her.

  “So what are your thoughts about getting powers, even if it’s just for self-defense for yourself?” Amelia asked out of the blue.

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