Turn Out The Lights

Debut Day

My first day as an official hero was the day after my 16th birthday. Octavius and I had started on patrols just like always, when someone ran out of a bank with a shotgun and a duffle bag with money blowing out of it. We stopped him fairly quickly, and recovered around 97% of the money he took off with. After the police took custody of him, the media came swooping in. They gathered around us and began shooting questions at us. Octavius and I looked at each other, and he gestured for me to start answering. "Hello! I am The Chimera, and this is my partner, The Engineer! We're a hero team debuting today! We can't wait to work alongside the police and other heroes to help make this the safest country on earth!" That didn't stop them though, and they kept shouting questions, like if I was old enough, if I was qualified, if I was equipped enough, and I didn't really know how to answer, so Octavius did.

"That's enough. She's got her license, given to her by the American government, just like every other hero. She passed the same tests they did, and she's passed the same two month training period that everyone else did. She doesn't carry a weapon, but that can be changed, and she's more than smart enough to do this if that's what you really meant. She learned and aced every hero course offered in less than a year, and I'd like to see any of you try to do half as well as she is. Now, if you'll excuse us, we have work to do." He grabbed my arm and we left. I'd never seen him angry, at all, and it was more than a little frightening. We didn't stop till we were a block away from our agency building, and when we did he pulled me into an alleyway and wiped away the tears I didn't know were falling. He pulled me close to him and started running his hand through my hair.

We sat there for a couple minutes until I broke our silence, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you." I felt like I had done something wrong that made him angry, and tried to mend whatever I had broken.

He squeezed me tighter and nuzzled into my temple, "Please don't be sorry, you did nothing wrong, I promise. I'm sorry that I scared you and made you cry. I didn't mean to get so upset, but you looked so hurt, and they wouldn't stop hurling questions at you. I couldn't stand there and watch you be torn apart by some stupid reporters. And besides," he pulled away from me and kissed me gently, "I know that you crying wasn't what you wanted your debut photo to be." I laughed and agreed with him, happy to have him here with me throughout this.

Our photo was in the news within hours, and on the news in a day, making newspaper headlines and magazine covers in a week. Everyone kept talking about the new hero duo, and the three eyed, horned, winged sixteen year old who made up half of them. They were fixated on me. Some calling me the epitome of beauty, and other saying I was freakish, and should put on a mask to cover myself. This sparked many debates about discrimination against mutants in our society, and a couple of teen magazines even reached out to me, asking to do cover shoots and interviews to help make waves of change in how we perceive beauty. I graciously agreed, and was invited to Teen Dreams Magazine headquarters to do just that.

I met with their president and head writers, where they asked me tons of questions about myself, which I tried to answer as honestly as possible. Then we met up with several other girls who had bodily mutation quirks like mine. Most of them were rising social media stars, but one was an Olympian, and another was making waves of change with her local government in a small town south of Austin. They had us draw what we though would be the most beautiful outfit, and I drew something similar to what I'd worn to my dance at AQB, but a bit fluffier and with an illusion neckline since I was getting more and more top heavy as the days passed. We gave the president our sketches, and he invited in our designer, who's quirk was Spider. She was human from the waist up, and spider waist down. Once she had looked over our drawings, she approached us and one by one took our measurements and looked us over. Then she started spinning silk from her abdomen, creating the dresses right before our eyes. It wasn't the most disturbing thing I had ever seen, but it was up there. Once she was done we stepped into our gowns. They weren't wet or stinky or anything. It was like a normal dress, just... so fast? I don't know. My mind is still blown, even today.