When Andy’s alarm woke him up, he still felt exhausted.  He really wanted to stay in bed, but his sleeping hours were bound to become a hotbed for criminal activity if they noticed he wasn’t around at specific times.  The only way to mitigate this was to have a flexible sleeping schedule, where sometimes he slept during the day and sometimes he slept half the day and half the night.  If more superheroes made permanent homes in Partition City, they could coordinate schedules, but until then, Andy would have to be flexible.

            Still, he’d started by waking up at four-thirty in the morning, and he already hated himself for it.  Lying back, he glared at his beeping alarm clock, that glowing number practically slapping his face.

            It wasn’t long before he’d changed into his blue costume with a white star on the chest and put on his metal boots, gauntlets, belt, and pauldrons.  He quickly messaged Scarlet Ghost to tell him that he was starting again.  Scarlet Ghost was the superhero Paramount had asked to look after things while SteelStar was gone, a woman of living red energy.  Before long, she messaged back a thumbs up, signaling that she’d let him take over now.

            Briefly, Andy considered calling Brian but quickly dismissed that idea.  Brian would still be sleeping and need it for classes today.  Andy just got a quick breakfast, left the house out the back door, and flew off, beginning his day as SteelStar.

            Before long, SteelStar was flying over the city, looking for trouble.  It was still dark out, though from that high above the city, he could see a small ribbon of light on the horizon.  Other than that, he could see the car lights and street lamps illuminated below him.

            He wasn’t out there long before he sensed an electromagnetic signature in the sky with him.  Looking over, SteelStar recognized Centurion flying.  He didn’t remember Centurion having any sort of flying abilities but quickly noticed an extra electromagnetic signature from his chest, some sort of device.  SteelStar knew that the government experimented with technology taken from various alien invasions over the years but had achieved very few results.  Either the tech was so far ahead that they were barely getting started, or the tech required materials not found on Earth, making it impossible to mass-produce them.  Devices like the one Centurion was using were pretty rare.

            Centurion flew close to Andy.

            “A little early, isn’t it?”

            “I’ve been gone long enough,” said SteelStar.  “I want to get back to work.”

            “Fine.  Fine,” said Centurion irritably.  “Just dandy…waking up at an ungodly hour before so much as a biscuit for breakfast.  Fine.”

            “If you’re so upset,” said SteelStar, getting irritated.  “You could always declare I’m good and go home early.”

            “Oh, you’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

            “Yeah, I would.”

            They flew in silence for a moment.

            “Well, tough,” said Centurion.  “You’re not getting rid of me that easily.”

            If only, thought SteelStar.

###

The rest of the morning was pretty uneventful.  There was an armed robbery, an attempted carjacking, and a purse snatcher.  SteelStar handled them all without any trouble while Centurion observed.  Most were grateful for SteelStar protecting them and their property, but one or two of them gave SteelStar a confused look.  SteelStar figured he’d have to expect that.   A lot of people had a low opinion of him after what happened with Spectramancer.

            Ultimately, the few crimes SteelStar dealt with were pretty minor, but that just made SteelStar nervous.  He knew the E.H.O.D. would probably want to test him on something more high stress than petty criminals who couldn’t even hurt him.  How long it would take for that to happen filled him with anticipation to get it over with and dread that he’d mess it up.

            Later that morning, SteelStar and Centurion took a break from flying around the city to stop at a café, mainly because Centurion kept complaining that he was hungry.  Centurian got a Danish pastry, and Andy settled for a small cookie.  As they sat outside under a giant umbrella, SteelStar wore his grey skinned organic form while Centurion took his helmet off to eat his bagel.  Centurion, under the helmet, was a middle aged man with a mustache and some grey at his temples.  His eyebrows seemed permanently slanted into a scowl, and SteelStar wondered if that was just how he looked.

            Of course, SteelStar’s attention was quickly diverted by other people sitting at the café.  A few of them were giving dirty looks.  These people were angry, and it wasn’t hard to figure out why.  Right as Andy stood up to get away from all of this, he sensed someone walking up behind him.  He turned just in time to see someone pulling the lid off their coffee.

            “Murderer!” cried the woman.

            SteelStar instinctively put his hands up and turned to metal just as the scalding hot coffee washed over him.  In his metal form, it didn’t hurt, but SteelStar still backed away as steam rose from his body.  As SteelStar stood there, covered in hot coffee, he suddenly found himself surrounded by angry people as Centurion sat at the café table and laughed.

            “You murdered Spectramancer!” the woman accused.

            “I had to stop him,” SteelStar protested.  “He would have killed people.”

            “Oh,” said the woman mockingly.  “So it’s his fault you killed him.”

            “That’s not what I…”

            But SteelStar’s protests of innocence were drowned out by all the yelling.  About half the people at that café were calling him a murderer.  The other half just sat drinking their coffee or eating their café food, trying to ignore the noise.  Centurion just kept laughing.  SteelStar looked around helplessly as a few more people opened their coffee.

            Before anyone else had a chance to throw a hot drink in his face, SteelStar flew up, rising high over them.  He quickly found a tall building and landed, hugging himself.  After a moment, when he’d cooled down, he turned back to his organic form and wiped a tear from his eye.  He stood there for a moment, trying to stop himself from crying.

            Guess I’ll have to get used to that, he thought bitterly.

            He stood on that rooftop for a few more moments, just wiping tears from his eyes.  A minute later, SteelStar sensed the electromagnetic signal of someone in distress.  SteelStar took a deep breath, turned to metal, and flew in that direction.

            Diving down, he saw two cars mid collision, spinning out of control.  One hit the curb and was just about to flip over.  SteelStar dove down to catch the car, but before he could, something happened.

            A figure moved across the road as a purple and white blur.  It quickly sped to one of the cars and pushed against it to stop it before quickly pushing against the other car as well.  The whole process took a second or two and ended with both cars perfectly still.

            A speedster!  Thought SteelStar.  And more than that, a kinetic type speedster.  Kinetic types could generate and control kinetic energy within their bodies, allowing them to move fast.  They could also transfer some of that energy to whatever they touched, allowing them to carry things or use that energy as an attack.  It was like having super strength, but only when moving fast.  They also had enough control to spread that energy out.  That’s why the drivers of those cars weren’t jostled and given whiplash when the speedster pushed against them.

            With the cars harmlessly stopped, SteelStar, with great interest, turned to see who had stopped them.  On the sidewalk, he saw a woman about his own age in a skintight, sleeveless purple costume with white racing stripes and a white C on the chest.  The speedster had brown hair tied in a braid, purple running shades over her eyes, and a slender, toned frame.  Her face, SteelStar thought, was a cute sort of pretty, though she currently had her hands on her hips and stared at the two drivers sternly.  The two drivers sat in their cars, shaking from their recent experience.  The speedster signaled for them to roll their windows down, and they did.

            “I hope you two will drive more carefully from now on,” said the newcomer.

            “Uh,” said one of them, a woman, “Sure.”

            “Who are you?” asked the other driver, a man.

            “Call me Celerity,” she said.

            A moment later, this Celerity looked up to see SteelStar.

            “Oh,” said Celerity, surprised.  “I’m sorry.  Were you gonna get that?”