“Wait,” he said, jogging to catch her. She stopped and turned. “You’re planning to do that again, right? I want in.”

Coral raised her eyebrows. “You got what you wanted.”

“Yeah. But I think your cause is a good one. And I have useful powers. So why not?”

“Hmm.” Coral put her hand on his face and pulled it back to examine it. “Firestarter and light bender. I think this has the potential for flight, too. Not a bad set.”

Really? Not only did she have sonic powers and flight, but she had power scanning as well? Talk about getting the jackpot. “So, am I in?”

“What’s your name? Your undercover name, that is?”

“I wasn’t really thinking about it,” Eric said. “I think the closest I got was Flame On.” Coral looked unimpressed. “You know, flame on. Like game on but with flame. Because fire.” He sounded so stupid right now. “But I’m up for changing it. Constructive criticism and all that.”

Coral shrugged. “I’ll think about it. Give me your number and I’ll call you if I need you.”

Eric nodded and wrote it on a napkin. “Not the weirdest way a girl got my number.”

“I’m not a girl,” Coral said.

“Oh,” Eric said. “Non-binary?”

Coral smiled. “Your chances just went up. I’m genderfluid. I do happen to be female right now, but not always. Mostly girl and non-binary, rarely masculine.”

“I can live with that,” Eric said. “I’m cis male, just to be clear. And bi.”

“I guess you might hear from me soon then, cis-bi Eric.”

Eric went home, purchased a house, and presented it to his mom. She cried and hugged him and cried all over him while hugging him. They moved in together as soon as they could and Mom gave him a tour of the house, telling him all the stories of her childhood. Sure, they dragged on a little, but that was nothing compared to seeing his mom finally happy and blooming. He was content.

A week later, he got a call from Coral. “Got something better than Flame On?” they asked.

“I do,” he said. “Ready for another adventure?”

“I am.”

Eric grinned. He was happy.

***

“So,” Coral said, sliding into the seat opposite Eric, “you came.”

“Of course I did,” Eric said. “Like I said, I want to help.”

Coral nodded. “You did say that. So, I was thinking we should discuss the future.”

“That’s a bit much for the first date, don’t you think?” Eric asked. Coral gave him a wry smile. “What are your pronouns now, by the way?”

“They/them.” Coral held out their right arm, where a yellow bracelet sat. “I wear a pink bracelet when I’m using she/her, yellow for they/them. And also blue for he/him, but that’s rare. Most of the time, I don’t even bother carrying the blue one around.”

“Makes sense.” Eric leaned on the table. “So, you come here often?”

“Occasionally. It’s usually dead around this time. Really great fries, though.”

A server came up to them. After the drinks order was sorted out and the server left, Eric glanced around. Nobody there. “So. The villainy thing. What are you thinking about that?”

“Straight to the point,” Coral said. “I can respect that. First things first, I don’t really want to rob banks all the time.”

Eric nodded. “That branch was pretty unusual, and I doubt even that one’s going to keep that much money around once they realize they’re being targeted. So, for money, it’s not worth it.”

“Yeah. I looked things up afterwards. Way too many safeguards in place. We could get more money by robbing a gas station.”

“Especially with the price of gas,” Eric said.

Coral grinned. “Yeah. Honestly, though, cash is going out of style. You need to be a hacker to get any real money. And it tends to be high risk and too close to breaking the unofficial rules. I want to get attention, but not to get arrested or even hunted.”

“I wouldn’t mind driving that particular bank out of business, though,” Eric said.

“Me neither. So, robbing banks is a sometimes food. What does that leave?”

Eric shrugged. “Well, what’s our goal? Mayhem and destruction?”

“Destruction, no. Mayhem?” Coral leaned back in their seat. “Well, that implies that we have order to begin with.”

Eric raised his eyebrows. “Are you talking about a certain resolution last month?”

“That the country club doesn’t have to stop polluting the river as long as it pays its fines? Why, yes, I am. That and many other things.” The drinks arrived. They thanked the server and ordered food. Once the server left, Coral took a sip of their drink. “Remember last year?”

“I’ve been here less than a year,” Eric said.

“Ah. So, last year, the mayor announced that the city was going to regulate track and field competitions because a girl who won happened to be trans.”

“Wait,” Eric said. “I did hear about that. That was here?”