A few minutes after SteelStar stopped the robbery, the police showed up to arrest the man responsible.  SteelStar and the near victim gave their statements, and the other man agreed to press charges.  The police officers each shook SteelStar’s hand, thanked him, and were hopeful that the next time a mutant attacked the city, there’d be someone to deal with it other than them.  SteelStar said he looked forward to it and looked out for his next crisis to deal with.

            Over the next couple of hours, SteelStar managed to help a few more people.  He stopped a store robbery, flew some people out of an apartment fire, and just barely made it in time to stop a car accident.  He even, as the cliché went, rescued a cat stuck in a tree.

            The most interesting thing that happened was a mutant scorpion the size of a bus that burst up from the sewers.  That had been hard to deal with, as it had resisted SteelStar’s electricity, and its shell was durable enough to withstand his fists.  A few times, the scorpion’s tail had knocked him to the side, smashing up the pavement and somebody’s car.  SteelStar, however, had managed to break the exoskeleton and stick his hand it, electrocuting it from the inside.  By the end of that fight, SteelStar felt a bit sore, and his jaw felt funny.

            It was the best part of his day.

            Finally, he got a chance to rest.  SteelStar sat on the edge of a roof in his organic form, his feet dangling over the edge.  So far, he was pretty satisfied with his progress.  Having retrieved a duffel bag where he’d hidden it, he pulled out his phone and checked first his Noteline account and his Herofund page.  He’d gained a lot of new followers.  Apparently, the people SteelStar had saved so far had been spreading the word, and people were starting to learn about him.  That giant scorpion was bound to hit the news soon, and things like that always caught people’s attention.  Even his Herofund page already showed a few donations from people grateful for his work.  It wasn’t much, but it was a start.  SteelStar was well on his way to making a living doing what he loved.

            One thing that didn’t sit well with SteelStar was a few people pushing the E.H.O.D.’s power user draft.  Posts such as: 

            Nice to see a power user doing the right thing for once.  Good for Partition City finally getting their own hero.  Really though, every city deserves a hero.  That’s why we need the Power User draft!

            And there were more like it, which Andy sighed upon seeing.  He really didn’t want people using him as a springboard for their own opinions, especially this one.  SteelStar had a lot of reasons to be against a power user draft.  For instance, he knew of people with powers that weren’t terribly useful, having seen mini-documentaries on VidVoyage.  A guy in New Jersey could shoot blasts from the tips of his index fingers that were about as powerful as bullets.  If one had a gun, they were as powerful as him, so what would be the point of making him a superhero?  SteelStar had also heard of a man whose power was to temporarily give people allergies by touching their skin, easily the worst power ever.  And then there was a woman who could generate poison clouds.  The only problem with her was that she couldn’t control it.  She had to live alone out in the middle of nowhere doing work remotely and ordering groceries online because a toxic cloud surrounded her constantly.

            Would a power user draft exempt people like this?  Who decided which powers were needed and which powers weren’t if not the people who held that power?  Proponents of the power user draft never addressed such concerns.  At the very least, SteelStar had never seen them address it.

            SteelStar didn’t mind the people who used their power for a regular job or to start their own business.  One guy with telekinetic powers became a one man construction company.  Because he didn’t need to buy equipment or pay employees, he could make houses incredibly cheap, giving people a chance to own a home who otherwise couldn’t afford it.  It wasn’t fighting crime or evil mutants, but it was still doing something good for the world.  Why should people like him be forced to do one certain thing with their powers?  And what about people who learned to use their powers in medicine?  They could heal people that were either hard or impossible to heal by normal means.  Why should they be forced to fight supervillains?

            Of course, the real reason SteelStar was against a power user draft was something that hit close to home.  His father had to quit being a superhero for his mental health.  Furthermore, his mother’s people, the Valtarians, all had metal transforming powers.  They, however, all suffered after their planet was destroyed and just wanted to live their lives in peace.  A few of them worked as superheroes, The Fullmetal Soldiers, but most just wanted to live without being reminded of what happened.  SteelStar remembered relatives, aunts and uncles, crying during family gatherings when something reminded them of their homeworld.  SteelStar had found his mother awake in the middle of the night, unable to sleep from nightmares.

            Would the power user draft exempt the Valtarians?  SteelStar was afraid it wouldn’t, and this was precisely the reason the Valtarians presented themselves as human.  The unwanted attention from proponents of the power user draft was something they didn’t want to deal with.

For all of these reasons, SteelStar responded to this post, tagging anyone else he saw using his name to promote this.

            You can’t force people to do something, even if that something is a good thing.  If someone’s heart isn’t in it, they won’t do the job well.  Besides, you don’t know what’s going on in their lives, what problems they’re facing.  People need the freedom to make their own choices because everyone’s situation is different.  Who are you to decide someone’s future for them?

            SteelStar sent the post, meaning every word.  You had to be free to make your own choices.  Why couldn’t people see that?

            A few minutes later, SteelStar flew away, getting back to work.

***

“Mr. Powell, sir, the new superhero tag on social media is lighting up.”

            News reporter Patrick Powell strolled to his personal office, his young, blonde, and pretty assistant handing him some papers.  Patrick looked it over, intrigued by the new hero he was seeing.  Metal transformation combined with electromagnetic powers.  That had to be a potent combination.

            Then he saw SteelStar’s most recent Noteline post and gave an exasperated sigh.

            “Thank you, Janet,” said Patrick, going into his office.

            He sat down in his cushioned office chair and sighed, throwing the papers on his desk.  As he rested for a moment, his gaze drifted to a picture on his desk showing two teenage boys, identical twins.  One of them had been Patrick himself a long time ago.  The other was named Sean, and he wasn’t around anymore.

            Patrick remembered a meteor storm, a really bad one that would have destroyed a city were it not for superheroes working that day.  He was only fifteen at the time, but he remembered every detail of it.  Giant balls of fire fell from the sky, blasting apart everything in sight.  He remembered superheroes flying or running around, pulling people from harm, putting up shields, or just blasting the meteors away.

            And yet it hadn’t been enough.  There just weren’t enough superheroes, and one stray meteor had gone straight for them.  Sean had tripped over some rubble in the chaos, getting left behind.  Patrick hadn’t realized this for a few moments and turned around just in time to see a meteor strike Sean straight on, right in front of his eyes, leaving nothing behind.

             That day still haunted Patrick and had changed him forever.  For the longest time, Patrick had wondered why there were no superheroes to save his brother.  The heroes were given so much praise for saving people that day.  Why couldn’t they have saved just one more?

            Patrick had looked into it, investigating where each superhero was that day, and none of them had been slacking off.  They’d been working as hard as they could.  There were just too many meteors and not enough superheroes to stop them all.

            But there should have been.  Power users were rare compared to the rest of the population, so those who chose not to use their powers stood out.  While superheroes had been working diligently, a few power users had run to shelters with the rest of the civilians.  This included a man with telekinesis, one with the power to manipulate water that could break apart rock, and a woman who could shoot disintegrating blasts.

            Any one of them could have used their power to save Sean.  Any of them could save so many people, but what did they use their powers for?  Construction work, janitorial work, and one of them owned a bakery.  Superpowers were wasted on those people.  So many people would be saved if these power users stopped being selfish and used their powers for good.

            Why couldn’t people see that?