August crossed his arms over his chest as he leaned back, frowning. He’d heard of both the Hellingers and the Nightshades. Plenty of research concluded that abilities were mostly inherited. Only around 7% of people had abilities that were different from their parents’ abilities, and only 3% of children born to parents with no abilities had abilities in the first place. It was no wonder powerful superhero families existed. They nicknamed themselves ‘the Legacies’, and they called the majority of the shots when it came to superhero business.

August paused for moment before typing ‘the hero association’ in the search bar. Their official website looked pretty standard, and he clicked on ‘About us’ section first. The presentation started with a proclamation that their vision was to protect the city natives from villains. It then went on to the founders, which were Helena Hellinger, Frederick Delamere, and Fiona Nightshade respectively. The first two were still involved with the association, though no longer as heroes, and the last one died around 10 years ago. The Hero Association was a branch of the Hero Council, which was the oldest superhero organization there was, and it was led by the representatives of all three families and the Griffins.

He clicked on ‘how to become a hero’ next. There was a description of the application process and the conditions one must meet to apply. A strong ability was a must, and so were the right character traits. It wasn’t listed what those were.

He clicked a few more sections at random, exiting the page once he realized no new information was available.

He sat at the table for a few more minutes, his arms crossed over his chest as he absentmindedly stared at the now dark screen of his phone. He should go to sleep. He could barely keep his eyes open at this point, and his mind was so foggy with exhaustion that any reasonable thinking was impossible.

But… Instead of doing the smart thing, he reached for his phone again, opening his contacts and slowly copying in Lucian’s number. For a reason he didn’t entirely understand, he snapped a quick picture of the back of his hand where it was scribbled before creating a new message.

Hi

It’s August

A very generic and boring first message, but he had no brainpower to think of something better, so it would have to do. Pressing send, he leaned back, covering his eyes with his arm. The dull pounding in his head was becoming sharper and harder to ignore, and he contemplated whether he had the energy to run another errand, this time to get some over the counter pain medication for his headache. It didn’t take more than a second or two to decide that no, he did not in fact have the energy for that. He’d have to do without.

Sighing, he slowly got to his feet, massaging his temples as he walked to the bedroom. A shower would be nice, but he was too tired to bother taking one, even if it would help with his headache. Instead, he slowly changed into a pair of dull grey pajamas he found in the closet, lingering next to the bed before remembering he left his phone in the kitchen. When he went to retrieve it, a new message from Lucian was already waiting for him. It was short and simple.

Hello August

August turned on the lamp on the nightstand before turning off the main light in the bedroom. For some reason, the thought of being in complete darkness made him anxious, dread rising in the pit of his stomach. He shook his head. Fear of the dark. That was new. He wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to know how it came about.

Collapsing onto the bed, he burrowed under the covers, curling into a ball. It’d probably been ages since the sheets had last been washed, and they smelled dusty, but he couldn’t bring himself to get up again to change them. He’d do some general cleaning tomorrow.