The rest of the night was a blur of laughs, sharing memes, rewatching Parks and Rec, and a whole bottle of wine. She fell asleep on my couch, I tucked her in, and found my way to my room. Before I can dawdle on the strange day I’d had, I find myself floating in the peace of a good night’s sleep.

When the loud buzzing of my phone pulls me out of the inky black: the morning sun is pouring into my window. Snatching it off of my night stand, I tap the green button and place the device to my ear. “Tyler,” Bryan’s voice is distant, probably using speaker phone in his car, “Your dad got the suit here. He calls it his best work and by the tone of his voice, we’re in for a treat. I’m on my way now so let’s meet up and get you fitted!” The call clicks and I drop the phone onto the bed.

I lift up my head and slam it back into my pillow. “It’s too early for this.” I force myself out of bed and into the shower. After sliding into a clean set of clothes I’m prepared to get sweaty, I sneak out into the living room. Grabbing a pad of paper and a pen, I leave the sleeping Rise a note.

“I gotta head out and meet a friend. You can stay here if you want, just don’t eat all of my poptarts… again.” I leave a big heart at the bottom for her to wake up to at least something happy.

I slide the front door open and creep into the hallway. Putting in my earbuds and clicking play, I make my way out of the apartment and to my new secret hideout. As I jog down the steps, Bryan is leaning on one of the metal tables, arms crossed with a wide smile, next to an open, black case. As I approach, I can see an orange and blue hoodie with a matching pair of pants, shoes, and gloves. “Check out your new threads!” Bryan holds out a hand to the intricately designed clothing. “Go ahead, try them on.” He picks up the hoodie and tosses it at me.

“You’re kidding me, right? This has all been some elaborate joke. These clothes are supposed to be my armor? I’ll give him credit for the design, it certainly looks like armor.” I look at him with a disappointed stare. The hoodie’s pattern is that of orange armor that covers the shoulder blades, covers the pecs, and proceeds down as a T shape over the stomach. Blue highlights and under armor line the suit and cover the sides, hips, and around the elbow. On the front is a starburst icon, akin to Captain Marvel’s, but bright white.

“Just put it on, kid. Trust me.” I shake my head with a sigh. Slipping off my own hoodie, I throw the new piece over my head and slide my arms through.

“Now what?” He tosses the pants at me with a patient expectancy. “Uh, can you turn around for this one?” He chuckles and does a one-eighty before I drop my sweatpants and step into the similarly designed trousers. “OK, I guess give me the rest. I already look enough like a dumbass.” I put the shoes on, no laces, and the gloves fit perfectly. “Now what?” I lift my arms up to the side and let them slap back down against my thighs.

“Hood up.” Bryan gives a slight nod upwards as he says this. I roll my eyes and grab the cloth. When I toss it over my head, something changes. No, everything changes. I feel my whole body get heavier as I watch each piece of clothing click together before hardening into metal plating. The armor doesn’t bulk up much, keeping my appearance closer to Iron Man’s armor than a knights. The hood tightens up against my head and black visor slides down over my face.

“Holy shit!” I start to laugh in hysteric disbelief. “This is nuts! I look like a Kamen Rider...”

“Allen says it’s all bullet proof, should protect you from most explosions, and help you in absorbing the damage. Check your right wrist.” I turn my arm over and see six inch long monitor with one of twelve bars lit. “That gauge will tell you how much of the kinetic energy you’ve absorbed and used. Finally - well not really, I’m sure he’s put a ton in there but for now - the boots and legs have regulators to help reduce impact damage from great falls.”

“Wait, so say I push energy from my feet to jump a great distance…” I continue to examine the miracle of technology on my body.

“Then you and the suit will absorb the landing and let you reuse it for another leap. Now, how does it fit?” Bryan walks over to take his turn in ogling the new suit.

“Really fucking well. That said,” I wiggle my cheeks to try and move the hair that’s been forced to wrap around my face, “I’m gonna need a haircut.”

Bryan laughs again. “OK, now press that rectangular piece on your right leg.” I look down at my legs and search for what he’s talking about. I find a rectangular panel and press it in. The top slides out to show a pocket with a plug at the bottom. “Here,” he hands me my phone and I slide it into place and close the panel. A moment later, a horizontal compass appers at the top of my visor with a clock at the top right. “So that little trick will give your suit a nice HUD. It also will display your messages and let you make calls. Now, use your hands to pull down your hood again. And don’t question me, it’ll work.” I know he can’t see my skeptical eyebrow but I comply. As my hands approach the helmet, I’m able to pull it back as simply as cloth and the whole outfit returns to clothing. I shake my head vigorously to clear the hair that had clung to my face. “Alright, let’s head upstairs and see what that bad boy can do!”

Bryan doesn’t waste a second in turning around and heading up into the warehouse. Astounded at what had just happened, I follow him in a confused haze. With each step, I’m only further confused as to how this light cloth was a full set of armor just a minute ago. “Bryan, do you have any clue how this suit works?”

He climbs the steps while turning his head enough to peek down at me. “Your father said that it’s a special metal that relaxes itself down to the feeling of cloth, however, when a strong electrical current runs through it - aka when you put the whole outfit together and put the hood up - it stimulates the metal and causes it to harden into the armor.”

“I’m… Gonna just take your word on that.” Bryan chuckles and I smile as we step into the wide open space. “OK, we’re here. What do we do next?”

“First, I say we work on that jumping since it’ll be your main form of traversing the city.” My stomach drops at the idea of hopping from rooftop to rooftop. “But first we need to build you up some more energy, so get over here.” It drops further as he waves me over to him.

Reluctantly, I step forward and brace myself for the blow I’m about to receive. “Jesus, Tyler, relax buddy. You know this isn’t gonna hurt much.” I take a deep breath and let myself relax. “OK, get ready.” I watch him adjust his feet before whipping out his leg and kicking me with his shin. It explodes across my chest and blasts the air out of me. I fall back onto my ass and let out a long groan of pain.

“Ow! Fuck! That really hurt!” Bryan rushes down to my side and helps pull me up. “Why did that hurt? Did… Did I lose my powers last night?”

“Huh, I doubt that. Your pops and I never encountered anyone who lost their powers and your suit was still registering your pent up energy. What could’ve changed between today and yesterday? Did you eat anything different? Take any medications?”

I get up to my feet and scrunch my face in thought. “No… Nothing atypical. I guess the only thing that could’ve changed was…. No, that can’t be it…” I step away from Bryan and rub my chin in thought.

“What? At this point we have to consider every option.”

“The only thing I can think of that’s changed is that I trust you.” I shrug to him as he weighs the thought. “Not that I didn’t trust you before but yesterday I didn’t really know you. You were still a celebrity and I almost couldn’t believe you were in the room with me. But we had dinner, we talked a lot, all that. Now, I consider you a friend.”

“Fascinating. So you think your perception of me could have changed how your power works? At least with me.” Bryan crosses his arms in consideration.

“Perhaps. I suppose… Maybe my power comes from some kind of psychological base. Like… Well, this is kind of hard to talk about…”

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to!” He puts his hands up defensively.

“No, it’s fine. I was bullied a lot as a kid. Never really beat up but… What people think are jokes can start to take a toll when you’re the one taking most of them. But I sucked it up, took the beatings and used my wit to lash back at them. Maybe, just maybe, that’s how my power formed. Thus, people who I truly trust can still hurt me. I don’t expect it from them. Does that make sense?”

Bryan seems surprised at my sudden psych evaluation. “Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. It’s making me wonder if all of the folks with powers back in the day had similar relationships between their abilities and their mentalities. If you’re right, and you can keep up that level of analysis, we may just have us a strong new way of evaluating our enemies. Think you can do that?”

I smile, “I can certainly try. I am a psych major after all.” Bryan rolls his eyes. “OK, let’s get to training. I’ll use myself to get more kinetic energy. You should just back up for the time being.” Bryan nods and takes a seat on a nearby crate.

I pull the hood over my head and the armor returns to its hardened state. I look at the gauge on my wrist: one bar. I take a deep breath, focus on my feet, and jump. There’s a soft boom as the energy bursts from underneath me and launches me high into the air. I can’t help but flail a bit as I start to fall back to the ground. I land, bending my knees, and feel a wave of kinetic energy flow through me. Looking back at my wrist: two bars. “That’s convenient.”

“The fall gives you more energy than you used?” Bryan is clearly a step ahead of me.

“Yeah! What’s up next?” I look at him through the black glass.

“You jump horizontally. To move through the city, only up isn’t gonna cut it.” He raises both eyebrows and grins.

“Fair enough.” I move to the far end of the warehouse, take a few running steps and leap forward, blasting the force out from underneath me to propel me forwards. Flying not nearly as high but easily clearing thirty feet, I land on my left leg and take a few steps to force myself to stop. “Holy shit!”

“Now that was impressive! Check your gauge.” I look down at my wrist and hold up two fingers to Bryan. “Hmm, alright so that’s about even in input and output. Now here’s the important one. Let’s make sure you’re not accidentally blasting people’s chests out of their back. See that box?” Bryan points at a large crate sitting at the side of the room. “I want you to punch at it. Don’t hit it! Simply punch towards it, stop your fist a few inches short, and let your power do the rest.

I give him a confused look before realizing he can’t see my face. I take my place in front of the large wooden box and stance up. “So I just punch at it. Sounds easy enough.” I cock my fist and snap it forwards, making sure to stop it just before it hits the wood, but focus on letting the momentum continue through my arm. A visible shockwave explodes open the crate, sending it flying in splinters. My eyes reach the size of dinner plates in an instant.

“Now that’s what I’m talking about! Let’s go!” Bryan leaps from his perch and starts clapping in enthusiasm. “That’s my boy!” He runs over to me and high fives me; examining my destruction.

“I have an idea! Hold on.” I step back into the center of the room and do a series of shorter jumps to help build up a surplus of energy. “Alright, I’m gonna try to jump up and then push myself by pushing energy out of my hand to change my direction.”

“Like Bakugo.” Bryan nods confidently.

“Wait, you watch My Hero Academia?” I stop my preparation to stand up straight and stare at him.

“Yep. I watch it with my son. It’s our way of bonding in our busy lives. Trust me, you don’t make it this far in tech without being a huge nerd.” Looking at the tall, fit black man full of suave and style, I wouldn’t believe him a nerd in a thousand years if I didn’t know who he was. “I like the idea. Let’s see how you do, young Bakugo!”

I laugh at his shitty joke and return to my position. “Test one, here we go.” I take a deep breath and shoot upwards in an instant. At the peak of my jump, I throw my left arm to the side and let out a huge blast. I’m thrown to my right and crash into the wall with a thunderous clang before slamming on to the cold concrete floor. I let out a long, defeated groan.

Bryan loses his mind in hysterical laughter. “I think you’re gonna need to work on that one some more, Tyler. Let’s come back to that.” He pulls me up and pats my metal back. “Let’s get you through a bit more training then you can go get your haircut and rest up. I think you’ve shown enough control to start some real crime fighting tomorrow. I hope you’re ready for your big debut!”