Super

13 - pt2 - That Guy

"The moment you feel you have to prove your worth to someone is the moment to absolutely and utterly walk away."

– Alysia Harris

RECAP:

"Are you sure we haven't met before? You look really familiar..." Finn narrowed his eyes at Lila who just gulped and shrugged. Uh oh.

"I've done a couple of commercials for Annie's uncle Clyde," she laughed nervously and started fiddling with a split end. When I finally got back to the Bacteria Room, it was to find these two facing off as Finn desperately tried to figure out why Lila seemed so familiar and Lila desperately trying to keep her secret alter ego a secret.

 Luckily Lila's excuse wasn't a total lie if Finn ever decided to do a background check on it.

"Hey kids," I interrupted, jumping in to save Lila, "sorry for the wait. I got a little lost..."

"I was just telling Lila how familiar she looks."

"And I was just telling Finn–"

"Yeah, I heard," I dismissed with a flick of my hand and looked around frantically for something to distract Finn. My eyes stopped on a colourful object, a smirk tugging at the corners of my lips as I picked it up. "So Finn. What does this button do?" I asked innocently, running my thumb over the various colourful buttons on the remote console. His eyes nearly popped out of his head as he scrambled to snatch the remote.

"It opens the incubators. Don't touch any of the buttons; you could infect us all!"

"Why?" Forgetting I was trying to distract Finn, I got distracted myself.

He bit his lip, trying to think of a way to describe it in English. Finn may have been an adorable dork, but he was also a super nerd and I couldn't help but feel a little inferior. "Okay, okay," his eyes lit up as he figured out a good analogy, "so exchanging bacteria with a super is a little like exchanging blood with anyone who isn't your blood type: you could get really sick if it doesn't match up, get it?" I nodded. "If you accidentally come in contact with a super's bacteria, it has the same affect. It's too... charged for normal humans to handle."

I gulped and pressed a tentative finger to my mouth, tracing my bottom lip as I tried to process everything. Noticing my apprehension, Finn blushed and said, "um kissing them should be fine."

So he had picked up on my hint. I guess it was no secret I had been hanging out with supers lately. Kissing one of them was pretty much inevitable. Meanwhile, Lila's ears were flushed bright pink as she stared longingly at Finn's easy smile.

Finn continued showing me – well, us – the remaining six wings. I blushed a little when he showed me the MRI room where the scientists remained staring at their screens. I couldn't help but glance around a little, looking for the Invisible Hand even though I knew he'd be invisible if he was even still here. Finn started rambling on about a new discovery that had just been made (which explained the near one hundred scientists crowded in the globed room) about how there was a strong chance that superpowers were genetic. Lila barked out a laugh at that and I knew exactly what she was thinking.

For the rest of the tour, I hung back a little, trying to give Finn and Lila space as they bonded over the biology, chemistry and the physics of superheroes. And I thought I was the metaphysiology geek! Lila knew a lot more science than I gave her credit for, and it was only now, hearing her talk to Finn about the mechanics of Gold Thrush's flight or the Claw's ability to scale a wall that I realised maybe she called my dreams of being a metaphysiologist far fetched because she knew she could never be one.