The Gatlin house stood in a neighborhood that looked ordinary by many standards.  However, if you lived there, you knew that it was anything but.  Everyone on that street, aside from John, had Valtarian Blood.  John had managed to secure housing for them when they settled in the United States, the first ever extraterrestrials to immigrate as a group to an Earth nation.  When they were outside, the Valtarians typically altered their appearance to blend in, taking on hair, skin, and eye colors more in line with humans.

            As they approached their house from the woods behind their neighborhood, Amelia and Andy shapeshifted.  Their hair turned black while Amelia turned her skin fair to match Andy.  They waved to Andy’s uncle, named Torvus on Valtaria while taking the name Tobias on Earth.  The tall, broad shouldered man waved back from his backyard as he mowed his lawn.

            When they got inside their typical American house, they changed back to their Valtarian forms and entered.  They went to the living room, which had a wall of movies, a wall for the TV, and a large L couch where Andy’s brother and sisters waited.  The three other children jumped up from what they were doing.  Andy’s sixteen year old sister Samantha put her book down, his fourteen year old brother martin paused his video game, and his twelve year old sister Abigail stopped watching Martin play.  While Abigail shared Andy’s tan skin and white hair, her eyes were a stormy grey.  Both Martin and Samantha bore grey skin and dark hair while Samantha had blue eyes and Martin sported grey eyes.  No matter the color, though, all three sets of eyes gave Andy their full attention.

            “Well?” asked Samantha, smirking. “Did mom say no and make you cry?”

            “No, she said yes,” said Martin defiantly before looking at their mother hesitantly and asking, “Didn’t you?”

            “No,” said Andy, rolling his eyes at Samantha. “She didn’t say no.”

            Samantha stuck her tongue at him teasingly.

            “Andy’s an adult now,” said Amelia. “It’s his decision, and I’ll support whatever he decides.”

            “And I decide,” said Andy. “That I’m starting soon.”

            “Yes!” said Martin excitedly.

            “That’s great,” said Abigail, standing shyly to the side.  “When are you getting a costume?”

            “Oh,” said John, a sly look in his eye. “He’s got one.”

            John waved his hand, and moments later, a metal box flew out of a back room, landing on the floor in front of them.  Andy saw it and his eyes grew wide.  Everyone else looked on with interest as well.

            “Is that…” said Andy.

            “It most certainly is,” said John, waving his hand and opening the box.

            Inside was a vibrant blue suit with a white, eight point star on the chest.  It came with metallic accessories styled after knights’ armor.  Specifically, it came with a metallic belt, gauntlets for his hands, metallic boots for his feet, and pauldrons for his shoulders, each gleaming in the light.  The gauntlets even had a groove for the magcannon bullets, and the belt buckle bore the same emblem as MagKnight’s armor.  It all made for a striking ensemble, and Andy looked at it in awe.

            “You wanted something with some armor aesthetics,” said John.  “So I made sure to get that.”

            “I thought you wanted knight’s armor,” said Amelia. “Like your father?”

            “I did,” said Andy, still holding up the costume.  “But we figured I wouldn’t get much use out of it.  Also, he can levitate armor onto himself.  It would take too long for me.”

            “Oh, I see,” she said.

            Andy’s powers worked differently from his father’s.  His father could magnetically levitate and reinforce any metal within a wide radius.  John’s armor, strengthened by his power, was a last line of defense that had saved his life on more than one occasion.  Andy could only levitate and reinforce his own metal body.  The most he could do with surrounding metal objects was attract them to himself, repel them away from himself, or stick them together with magnetism.  That had some uses but wouldn’t justify an entire suit of metal armor.

            While he was more limited in that way compared to his father, his magnetically reinforced metal flesh allowed him to tank more hits from attacks.  Both heat and cold wouldn’t give him as much trouble, and the incredible strength granted by his magnetically enhanced metal form made him a force to be reckoned with.  Still, despite the differences in their powers, Andy still wanted something that referenced a knight.  He was his father’s son, after all.

            “I love it,” said Andy.

            “Why is there a star on the chest?” asked Samantha. “Shouldn’t that be a lightning bolt?”

            “That’s because of my superhero name,” said Andy, sighing.  “I tried to come up with something that referenced electricity, but every possible cool name I could think of was taken.  Do you realize how many electric themed superheroes there’ve been?  I looked at the words shock, lightning, surge, electric, and every combination I could use with them was taken, even by obscure heroes from the sixties.  I spent hours trying to find something, and one of the names I came up with was taken by a band.  A band!  Do you have any idea how frustrating that is?”

            “Alright, so what’s the star represent?”

            “Well,” said Andy.  “Mom, do you remember that time I was practicing my powers at night, and I channeled my full power?”

            Amelia nodded, “You glowed so bright you looked like a star flying across the night sky.”

            “So I named myself after that,” said Andy, grinning.  “I can turn to a metal as strong as steel, and I glow like a star at full power, so I call myself SteelStar.”

            “Cooooooooool,” said Martin and Abigail, their eyes wide with wonder.

            “Meh, it’s okay,” said Samantha.

            “Okay?” said Andy, mock offended. “Just okay?”

            “I like it,” said John.

            “It does have a nice ring to it,” said Amelia. 

            “It does, doesn’t it?” said Andy, holding up the costume.  “I’m gonna try this on.”

            In just a few minutes, Andy had changed.  In the privacy of their house, he had no reason to hide himself, so Andy took the form he would have as a superhero, altering his skin to Valtarian grey while keeping the white hair.  He also kept his normal blue eyes because he liked how it looked.  He also altered his facial structure just slightly to make himself look older.  It made him distinct enough from his public human form that no one would make the connection.  Combine that with the suit, and Andy thought he looked great.

            “Well,” said Andy, a big smile on his face.  “What do you think?”

            “You look great, son,” said John.

            “Very handsome,” said Amelia.

            “You look really cool,” said Martin.

            Abigail nodded her head enthusiastically, and Even Samantha’s smirk shifted to a slightly more sincere smile.

            “Okay,” said Samantha. “You do look pretty cool.”

            Andy’s smile brightened.

            “Now,” said John.  “We just need to get you set up on Herofund, and you’ll be ready to start.”

            Herofund was, quite simply, a crowdfunding platform for superheroes.  People had figured out a long time ago that using your powers without compensation was very hard to pull off.  Trying to balance a full time job with superhero work was almost impossible.  Few heroes managed it, and all of them struggled with it.  Solutions to this had been offered over the years, from company sponsorships to government programs.  Crowdfunding platforms were, by far, the most common source of income for superheroes in this day and age.  If people liked a superhero’s work, they could donate to give that hero a living.  A fraction of donations went to built-in insurance.  Such a system was needed for a job like this, where fighting other power users inevitably resulted in at least some property damage.  This all the more reason for Andy to start soon.  Though Andy wasn’t doing this to get rich, he knew he needed to make a living, so as long as he got enough money to pay his future bills, he’d be content just to help people.

            “Is Herofund the one you used?” asked Andy.

            “Nah,” said John. “That was after my time, but fortunately, I can vouch for the man who runs it.  If there’s one to pick, it’s that one.”

            Unfortunately, no method of making money as a superhero meant that you couldn’t keep your identity secret from everyone.  They could only pay you if they knew who you were, so it was important to ensure the terms of service were trustworthy and agreed never to divulge one’s secret identity to the public.  Andy had read the terms of service for Herofund and found everything agreeable, but his father’s word on this was even more reassuring.

            “Awesome,” said Andy. “Do we have a cover job for me yet?”

            “We can work that out later,” said John as they went to his office computer.  “For now, if anyone asks, we’ll just say you’re still finding yourself.”

            “Sounds good,” said Andy, getting more excited by the minute. “Sounds good.”

            Despite her reservations, Amelia couldn’t help but smile at Andy’s enthusiasm.  Abigail and Martin were cheering him on, and even Samantha seemed happy for him, though she only showed it on her face when he wasn’t looking.