The Marvels

Ep. 28 | ASPA

Vidya's hand was cramping up. Two hours of signatures should be nothing compared to usual superhero duties, and yet, she found herself wincing and stretching her fingers between every fan. It didn't make her feel better that her signature—which she'd come up with today—was an inconsistently-sized F followed by an illegible squiggle meant to be rostbite. But no one pulled a face, and Emika, who'd asked to see it so she could file it as the official signature, didn't seem bothered, so it must be good enough.

When the two hours were up, Vidya left the signing area, massaging her hand as she tried to figure out where to go. Without a map, navigating through the tents, booths, and stages of ASPA's fair wasn't going to be easy.

The Association for Superpower Assistance was a Celestro-sponsored, independent organization that helped superhuman kids and their parents learn how to use abilities safely, and it was the leading consultant on the responsibilities and opportunities that came with powers. The super population was incredibly small, and the likelihood of having significant powers was even smaller, but ASPA was there to help if help was wanted.

They'd had events here and there, but since this year was special, they'd thrown a gigantic fair. Vidya had taken off school for this—partly because Emika insisted that she be here, but mostly because Amber was out sick, and what fun was school without her?

Vidya wandered along aimlessly. There was an hour to kill before her next scheduled event: an encouraging talk on how manifesting late did not have any side effects such as wonky powers, illness, or death. Having gone through that panic herself, she was happy to give the talk, especially since a lot of people misunderstood late manifestation. It was uncommon, but not nearly as rare as everyone thought or as she used to think, and the reason for the misconception was because those who manifested at older ages tended to have milder powers, and they also tended to not take up the hero mantle, which meant they also tended to go unnoticed.

There were flashcards in her pockets, and Vidya tried to mentally recite her talk without reaching for them. Her gaze was blank and unfocused until she noticed who was on the opposite end of the path, and then she froze in her tracks. Up ahead were the Golden Four—well, three of them, since their leader wasn't there. Ralph, Salma, and Karthik approached slowly, talking in hushed but animated tones. In Celestro's efforts to make the Golden Four more friendly and relatable than the Marvels had turned out to be, their real names were used much more often than their aliases, and Vidya struggled to remember who they were as heroes.

She'd wanted to meet them, but not when Kennedy wasn't there. Not that she considered him a friend, but at least they'd met before. Without him to help break the ice, Vidya couldn't predict how this would go; and what she couldn't predict, she'd grown wary of.

Turning around would look awful if they noticed. The only sure-fire way to avoid them without looking suspicious was to take a turn into whatever path came up next and pretend like that was always her intention.

Vidya took a sharp turn between some tent flaps into what she assumed was an empty space behind a booth, but she bumped into someone. The woman flinched in surprise and pedaled back, her irises flashing golden-bright only for a quick second.

It was Astra, the English, non-Celestro, light-powered hero with the specialty drink at Starbucks.

Vidya murmured a quick apology. She suddenly remembered that Astra and Speed had come to Los Angeles together. They weren't associated partners, but at the very least, they were friends.

And now he was dead.

"Sorry for bumping into you," Vidya repeated, "and...I'm sorry about Speed."