SteelStar flew home on a plane provided by the U.H.E. at Paramount’s request, the afternoon sun shining outside.  SteelStar could have flown back home on his own, but there was something else he needed to do.  On the plane, he changed into his blue costume with white star on the chest along with his metal boots, gauntlets, pauldrons, and belt.  With this appearance, he sat face to face with the lawyer Paramount had recommended, a handsome young man with wavy black hair who pulled out his papers.

            “Hello, SteelStar,” said the lawyer.  “I’m Garrett Stone.  Nice to meet you.”          

            They shook hands.

            “Are you okay?” asked Garrett.  “You’ve got circles under your eyes.”

            Andy sighed and said, “I’ve just…got a lot on my plate right now.”

            “Yeah,” said Garrett.  “I’m sure, and I’m here to hopefully alleviate some of that, so let’s cut to the chase.  The E.H.O.D. is putting you under review, and I’m here to prepare you for it.  Do you have a date set?”

            “The agent should be at my house tomorrow,” said SteelStar, a depressed note in his voice.

            For a moment, Andy lamented that they’d be at his house.  Technically, there were laws against revealing vigilantes’ identities to the public as long as they served their communities and country.  The E.H.O.D. was the exception to that.  All superheroes were required by law to report their true identities to the E.H.O.D. without exception.  Andy understood why.  If superheroes ever committed crimes, the E.H.O.D. was tasked with holding them accountable.  After all, superheroes were only human, but that didn’t mean Andy wouldn’t find it frustrating, especially now.

            “That’s okay,” said Garrett reassuringly.  “We’ll have plenty of time to prepare before we land in Partition City.  There will be two stages to this.  First will be an interview, and we’ll prepare for that by going over the kind of questions they’re likely to ask.  Second, they’ll probably leave agents in the city to keep an eye on you while you do hero work.  Fortunately, this stage doesn’t have to last forever.  E.H.O.D. agents have been sued for unnecessary harassment in the past.  So long as you follow some simple guidelines, he’ll have to make a decision soon.  You just need to show good judgment and not make any egregious mistakes, and he’ll have to clear you.  Just be grateful superheroes aren’t licensed anymore.”

            SteelStar had heard of this.  There was a period back in the sixties and seventies when becoming a superhero required a license by law.  This proved to be wildly unpopular for several reasons.  If a superhero forgot to renew his license, he could get arrested for superhero work.  There was often outrage if a hero was arrested for saving people’s lives.  Not to mention the outrage if a superhero refrained from work when his license lapsed and people died.  There were also problems if a superhero’s license was revoked due to political reasons, personal grudges, or even clerical errors.  The public disgust with the policy was so great that many senators and even the president one year won in landslides just by promising to repeal the superhero licensing act.

            “Yeah,” said SteelStar.  “I’m glad that’s one nightmare I don’t have to deal with.”

            “I know, right?” said Garrett.  “So, first off.  I have to insist, right now, that you do not refer to the agent as a pod person to his face.”

            Andy chuckled.  The E.H.O.D. wasn’t always called the Enhanced Human Oversight Division.  It was first called the Power User Oversight Division, or P.U.O.D. for short.  Unfortunately, the organization became known for its red tape that got in the way of superhero work more often than not.  Due to the frustration, people started calling it the stinky o.d. to play on the letters p and u.  When the internet became mainstream, this became a meme, and to change its image, the P.U.O.D. changed its name to P.O.D., the Powers Oversight Division.  This didn’t help matters, as a new meme was born.  Now P.O.D. agents were often called pod people, just mindless agents working for the state.  The P.O.D. didn’t last long and was quickly rebranded to the E.H.O.D., thus saving some face.

            Not that this stopped them from being called the pod people.  The name ended up sticking because people thought it was funny.

            “I won’t refer to him as a pod person,” said SteelStar, suppressing a grin. “In person, anyway.”

            “Good man,” said Garrett, giving a thumbs up.  “One other thing.  I don’t recommend using your powers to try and intimidate him.”

            SteelStar frowned.

            “I mean…” he said. “I wasn’t going to anyway, but why do you bring it up?”

            “Because they have ways of taking you in if they deem you a threat.  I’m sure you’ve heard of the Cerberons.”

            SteelStar’s face grew grim.  He had heard of them.  The Cerberons were the robotic guards of New Tartarus Prison.  The first models were made in the nineties and were touted as robots that could take on beings as powerful as Paramount when in groups, and the most current models were reportedly even more powerful.  There were only ever thirty of them in active service at a time as their power requirements were significant.

            For this reason, they were almost exclusively used to guard New Tartarus and were sent out only for emergencies.  The E.H.O.D. tended to rely on superheroes to catch supervillains otherwise.  Given that the prison was called New Tartarus, the Cerberons were loosely named after Cerberus, the underworld’s three-headed guard dog in Greek mythology.

            “They wouldn’t use one against me,” said SteelStar.  “Would they?”

            “They might,” said Garrett, his tone serious. “Paramount has most of the U.H.E. on your side, and even among nonmembers, they carry a lot of clout.  Still, the E.H.O.D. has plenty of superheroes in its safeguard program, but if none are available, they may very well send a Cerberon.”

            SteelStar took a deep breath, “But probably not, right?”

            “Probably not,” said Garrett. “Always, let’s go over the first question.”

###

Andy spent the rest of the flight being coached on his answers.  By the end, he was exhausted and ready to go home for a good night’s sleep.  His Mother and Father, John and Amelia, picked him up from the airport.  As John drove, Andy fell asleep as he sat in the backseat.  It had been a long day.

            It was fairly late in the evening when they reached their neighborhood, and Andy was suddenly woken up by his mother reaching back from the front seat and shaking his shoulder.

            “Andy,” said Amelia.

            “Huh?  What?” said Andy, still groggy.

            “Something’s going on,” said John.

            Andy rubbed his eyes and looked out the window.  In the waning twilight, he saw the Gatlin Family’s neighbors gathered out of their houses.  All of them were Valtarians, survivors from the same planet as Andy’s mother.  There were people of all ages, from little kids to the elderly, so something big had to be going on.  As Valtarians possess light shapeshifting abilities in their organic forms, different families had chosen different human skin colors, from light to dark and everything in between.  None of them looked exactly like the common ethnicities on Earth, but they passed as humans well enough.

            It didn’t take long to see that they were gathered around the Gatlin house, and as the Valtarians parted for the Gatlin car, he saw concern and frustration written on everyone’s faces.  When he saw who was in front of their house, he quickly understood why.

            Standing next to a black sedan was a man in a business suit carrying a suitcase whose eyebrows seemed etched into a permanent scowl.  Next to him stood the superhero Centurion, wearing bronze colored armor that covered his entire body and face.  Where the armor Andy’s father had worn resembled a medieval knight, Centurion’s armor was styled after ancient Rome, complete with bronze abs and a plume on his helmet.  He had a square piece on his back like a backpack, a large hammer behind that, and a roman style gladius at his side.

            But it was the third figure that stood out to Andy, a vaguely humanoid figure made of sleek, black armor plating.  The robot’s head was shaped with an elongated snout and had a pair of fins, making it look like a hound’s head.  The fins presumably made it more aerodynamic when flying, but Andy wondered if it was deliberately meant to look like an attack hound.  Whatever the reason, Andy knew who these people were immediately.

            The E.H.O.D. agent had shown up a day early, and he brought with him both a superhero and a Cerberon.  Andy felt himself grow tense.  His long day had just gotten a little longer.