ARCHETYPE (Slowburn Superhero Progression)

"So you think Bramble and Emulsion-Man are way older than us?" said Clang without the metallic ring to his voice.

"Yeah," I said, dropping the resonance from my voice, "I suspect they're middle-aged at least."

Clang threw his hands up and put his palms against the back of his head.

"Nah," he said, "If they're not even close to our age how can they have the power? Maybe they are our age, but they're just using the power to seem older?"

"Yeah," said Snap, "The whole thing could be an act to throw us off guessing they're real identities."

"Well," I said, "The reason Bramble and Emulsion-Man left in a hurry is because they probably have real lives they need to show up for."

"But how could adults have the power in the first place?" said Snap.

"How do we?" Clang retorted.

He then let out a sudden rasp.

"What?" I said.

"Bramble beat the crap out of me during the first half of the fight," said Clang.

"Didn't you throw her into a tree?" said Snap.

"Yeah," said Clang, "But I had to go into my Tension state to overpower her. Letting a woman beat me up like that is just embarrassing."

I caught a raised eyebrow from Snap's anime-style eyes on her raccoonish and beautified face.

"I have to get better at fighting," said Clang, more to himself than to us, "Need to learn some serious martial arts."

"Yeah," I said, "I think learning how to fight is a must going forward. When we find the time."

"So what now?" said Snap, "Where're we headed?"

"Well," I said, "I was thinking of going down Winchester road and taking a look at my childhood home. It's been about four years since I've even been on the street I grew up on. I figure since we're here why not check it out?"

"What about Ripperly?" said Snap, "Is your old house on the way?"

"No," I said, "But the detour would only take an extra half hour if we walk."

""Fine with me," said Snap.

"Yeah, cool," said Clang.

"We're going to need to dress down," I said, "We can't walk out in public looking like we do."

"Why not?" said Clang, "It's not like we've Pipers to worry about. Then again, probably don't want to scare people, do we?"

"Yeah," I said, "Besides, it'd be nice to feel normal for a change."

Since the other two didn't object to going civilian-mode, I took the initiative by willing the power to remove my resin-visor, along with the scar-line from where the visor met the skin.

Clang's metallic cowl crumbled away into grayish rubble to the forest floor, revealing his handsomely smiling face.

Snap likewise took a moment to ease away her raccoonish features, including her elongated ears. Her eyes gained a normal shape, though they were still large enough that, were they any bigger, would appear to be unnaturally big.

This reversion from her toonish and raccoonish features also meant the face I knew to be Xandra's had returned to the fore. It wasn't the pretty but otherwise normal face I remembered her having when we first met however. Instead, like Tiffany and Mikayla, Xandra's face was beautified and removed of lots of natural blemishes – as if I were looking at a Xandra from a different dimension who had A-list movie star beauty.

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I hadn't realised I had been staring at her until Xandra shot me a questioning look. She seemed to find it amusing when I quickly looked away.

"Well aren't we a good looking lot?" said Azad wryly.

"Shoes," said Xandra.

In unison we each shrugged off our rucksacks and fished out our own pairs of shoes. Mine, I noticed, were a pair of simple black plimsolls.

I hate these things, I thought to myself.

The rubbery smell of the never-before-worn plimsolls reminded me of the treadmill torment and the nightmare of everything which had gone down at the Wedder Gorge facility.

"Those shoes okay?" said Xandra.

"Yeah, great, thanks," I said, trying to sound positive as I slipped them on. They were a good fit, at least.

Once we had finished putting on our shoes the three of us found the main forest path.

It really was a beautiful morning. Sunrays peeked through the trees, and besides the birds twittering there was a bubble of silence all around which felt incredibly calming.

"They're costumes were really cool," said Xandra, softly.

"Yeah," said Azad and me at the same time.

"Like, Bramble's thing is she has, like, a leaf costume?" said Xandra.

"Yeah," I said, "Wonder how that works."

"Didn't make her any tougher," said Azad.

"Yeah," said Xandra, "I mean, when you think about it, they're lucky they fought us first. They need to not be so breakable."

"I wasn't even hitting them as hard as I could," said Azad.

"Did you notice Emulsion-Man could turn invisible?" said Xandra.

"Yeah," I said, "Who even knew we could do that sort of thing with the power."

"They looked like real superheroes," said Azad.

"Vigilantes," I added.

"Next time I power up I'm going to do the full body suit thing," said Azad, "It looks too cool not to."

"Yeah," I said, "I think I will too."

"Me three," said Xandra.

She smiled, showing that she still had her fangs.

We walked on a little longer, and then Azad said, "So why didn't you want to fight?"

"I was happy to watch," I said.

"Yeah," said Azad, "But you could've used the experience."

"I learnt a lot just by watching too," I said, "But I guess I just didn't feel like joining in. I'm just lazy like that."

The worn forest path up ahead showed the narrow opening where we had first entered from.

The three of us had also noticed the sound of something jingling, and two pairs of footsteps.

"People are coming," said Xandra, "Act natural."

I felt newly aware of how scruffy the three of us looked, since we hadn't changed into different clothes there were specks of mud, and some small nicks and tears in our clothes – nothing major, but enough to feel a little nervous about potentially tipping off strangers that we were Mice.

Two young women in their mid-twenties were walking together, with one of the women holding onto the lead of a husky padding along ahead of them.

Something was wrong, because the two women seemed immediately surprised to see the three of us. I tried for a friendly smile, and Azad did too. All the while the two women, one a redhead and the other a brunette, seemed to become increasingly wide-eyed.

The two women stopped walking, despite the husky tugging on its lead.

"Morning," said Azad, in his gruff voice.

The brunette, who was holding onto the husky's lead and still reigning the dog back, seemed almost shocked by Azad's 'good morning'.

Xandra, Azad and I stopped walking. It only seemed polite to hear whatever it was the two women wanted to say, since they hadn't taken their eyes off us.

And then a long awkward silence followed.

Do they need something? I wondered, feeling as if I should say something to break the ice.

Both the redhead and the brunette seemed to be waiting for us to do something, because it seemed like Azad's friendly 'good morning' hadn't been enough.

"Morning," said Xandra, curtly, breaking the silence.

And then Xandra carried on walking towards the narrow forest exit up ahead.

A quick series of studying looks followed between me, Azad, the redhead, the brunette, and even the husky which had stopped tugging on its lead and turned back to see why it's morning walk was being interrupted.

Then, in a way which I would find quite painful in hindsight, Azad and I turned and walked away. We walked briskly, and at different intervals looked over our shoulders at the two women who watched us walk away.

"Oi," said the redhead from afar, when Azad and I were caught up with Xandra at the forest path exit.

"Yeah?" Azad called back.

"My friend thinks you're hot!" the redhead shouted, "Can she get your number?"

Azad shot me a stunned look of excitement, but then his excitement soured.

"Who's number d'you want?" Azad shouted back.

"Both!" shouted both the girls before they broke into laughter.

"Do you think they're serious?" I said to Azad.

"Dunno, " said Azad.

At a bit of a loss, Azad and I looked to Xandra. She looked very unimpressed with the whole thing.

"What?" she said.

"Are they serious?" said Azad.

Xandra made a face as if to ask 'why are you asking me?' but then after thinking about it she rolled her eyes and peered between Azad and me to the girls.

"Yeah," she said, "They're interested."

Azad and I shared another look, and I could tell he was really considering it. And, at the same time, he could tell I was more confused about the whole thing than anything else.

"Well?" shouted the redhead.

"You want to get their numbers?" said Azad to me.

Dude, I thought.

Not least because I could feel the somewhat intense stare from Xandra locked onto me from my periphery.

"No mate, I'm good," I said.

Azad sighed, but kept a good-natured smile on his face

"Sorry, we've got to go," Azad shouted back, "Maybe later."

And with that, mercifully, Azad turned and led the way beyond the forest path exit. I followed quickly after him, doing my best not to notice Xandra moodily looking in the direction of the two girls.