Sara Strong

Chapter 1

Sara Armstrong liked to read comics. She took a lot of inspiration from the characters who used their amazing gifts to bring good into the world. But it never failed to amaze her how different her life was compared to those she read about.

In the comics, people either gained their powers through some freak accident like falling into a vat of radiation or usually they just manifested sometime around puberty.

Sara was different. To be honest she didn't really remember a time when she couldn't punch through metal or leap over houses. It was like when you first learn how to walk or read. It was early, it felt like you've always been doing it.

She was sure her parents remembered, but they never talked about it other than insisting that she kept what she could do a secret.

Oh, that was another difference. She kind of had a secret identity. That fit into the mold well enough. But she was certain that when it came to real superheroes their parents, if they were even alive, weren't generally in the know.

Yeah, Sara wasn't the best with the whole secret identity thing. But hey, her little brother still didn't know. And he lived with her! That had to count for something.

Granted he was only 13 and cared and paid more attention to what was on television than anything happening around him. But it still counted.

Speaking of Alec, when Sara skipped down the stairs that morning he was already there. And predictably, he was in front of the tv.

What was strange was that he wasn't watching the usual morning cartoons. Instead what had kept his eyes glued to the screen was the local news channel.

A pretty blonde woman was sitting at a large desk while a blurry video played next to her head. You could just make out the figure of a man in a dark blue kevlar suit fighting several men in a back alley. The video's source was far away, probably from the building across the street.

Electricity flared around the man's hands as he beat the men into submission before disappearing into the darkness.

"- another sighting of our cities very own vigilante. But this time, it came along with some shaky video," the woman was saying.

A blown up picture of the vigilante's face, even more pixilated then in the video took up the entirety of the screen. It was even harder to see the details, but the close up did allow for people to see that the suit wasn't black, but actually a dark blue. But even more, it brought to light the long mask that obscured the man's face. It was wide at the base and ended in a sharp beak.

"With real video footage," the newscaster went on. " Rumours of a vigilante superhero in Toronto are no longer just rumours. Neither city hall nor the police force have been available for comment as of yet. However, a contact at the Lilith Insitute, the world's premier centre for metahuman studies have told us they have been unable to determine the nature of the vigilante's powers."