Dani stopped in her tracks, at the end of a sidewalk just before the curb at a narrow cross street. The driver of a car that had stopped to let them cross waved in irritation.
“Come on,” Perfect said, stepping forward. “We’ll talk while we walk… we’re less likely to be overheard. But we are going to talk about this, Dani.”
“Uh… I’m actually European,” Dani said. “The sizes are different over there. Where I’m from.”
“In ancestry, sure you are,” Perfect said. “Look, Dani… I know you heard me talking to… myself, earlier. We all have secrets, even leaving aside the whole identity thing. I’m not about to throw you out on the street for keeping yours, but I want you to know that you don’t have to.”
“It’s complicated,” Dani said. “And a little embarrassing.”
“Embarrassing? You haven’t met my family,” Perfect said. “There are three major possibilities I can think of: A, a serious age-up… B, a physical sex change… or C, you’re really not from around here. You’re familiar enough with the language and the rest of the culture that we can probably rule out the last one. I’m… I’m really not sure if people your apparent age eat cereal and watch TV all day or not. Some probably do, I guess. If I had to guess…”
“It’s a little of A, and a lot of B,” Dani said quickly.
“I… see,” Perfect said.
“I’m sorry,” Dani said.
“I was actually hoping it was just B,” Perfect said. “It’s nothing to be embarrassed about, either way, but A could be… problematic. How old are you really? Or I guess… how young, would be the real question.”
“I don’t have anywhere else to go,” Dani said. “My parents… they’re just regular people. Kind of old-fashioned. They, you know, grumble at the TV when supers are on the news. They think it’s all Satan’s tricks.” She laughed. “I know that sounds like I’m joking…”
“I’m sure you’re not,” Perfect said.
“If I tried to show up and tell them that I was their son but a magic ring turned me into a woman…”
“Dani, I’m not going to kick you out onto the street no matter how old you are,” Perfect said. “But there’s a difference between giving you a place to stay and letting you go out endangering your life. Are you eighteen?”
“No.”
“Well, then…”
“Hold on,” Dani said. “What am I supposed to do, if I’m not on the team? Just be a shut-in? I can’t go to school. I can’t get a job…”
“I can get you an identity,” Perfect said.
“So I can bag groceries or whatever people with no experience and not even a high school education do all day?” Dani said.
“Just until you’re eighteen.”
“The world might be ending,” Dani said. “Remember all that big magical bad stuff?
“The world might end at any time,” Perfect said. “That back there? The phones going down all over? That could have been it, the big one. And while that was going on… at the same time that somebody’s destroying churches and making spells of unmaking, or whatever… there’s a martial arts street gang moving into town, and assassins running around, and tainted drugs. And people are getting mugged and robbed and having their identities stolen, and terrorists are training new recruits, and nations are posturing for war. It’s all happening, all the time.”
“That’s why you have to let me do this,” Dani said.
“No, that’s why I can’t,” Perfect said. “I can’t throw out my principles to deal with this one crisis, however bad it seems to be, because there is always going to be a crisis, always going to be something else going on… and one of those principles is that I can’t take a kid out on the streets.”
“You are a kid,” Dani said. “I bet most people, if they saw you standing next to me… the old me… they’d think we were the same age, and not because I looked old. Do you realize that? I mean, you’re little. You’re… youthful. You’re really smart but in so many ways, you’re like… well, a kid playing dress up. I’m not that much younger than you are, and I’ve got real powers, and I look grown-up.”
“If something happened…”
“Nobody would know that it happened to a kid,” Dani said.
“I would know,” Perfect said.
“And what if something happened to you?” Dani asked. “We know I’m bulletproof.”
“We do now, because you got shot in the back the last time you went out. Imagine that went the other way. Imagine your magic ring is the kind where the magic breaks if you die. Imagine the headlines when an adult superhero slain by gangland figures turns out to be an adolescent boy.”
“So you’re worried about bad publicity?” Dani asked.
“I’m worried about what that would do to your parents,” Perfect said. “And what they would in their grief, and what other people would do in their outrage, and what all that would do to everybody else who’s out there wearing a mask or a cape. Big picture, Dani. This might not seem terribly fair to you, but if you want to be a hero…”
“I do!” Dani said. “And I don’t think you could stop me.”
“Fine. Be one,” Perfect said. “But that means looking at the big picture and doing what’s right for everyone, not just you. Think of how much time you could spend training, honing your skills, figuring out the limits of your power. Think of how much more effective you’ll be when you’re old enough. I spent my teenaged years getting ready… I didn’t put on a costume and start going out until I was of age.”
“That was your choice,” Dani said as they approached another cross street. “This is…”
A black sedan with tinted windows came roaring up to stop right in front of them.
“Ugh, not this again,” Perfect said, stomping her foot as the back door opened.
“What do you mean ‘again’, Perfect?” her sister, Tranquility said. “Did Mom or Dee try an intervention, too?”
« « 51: A New You 53: Lawyering Up » »
Note: I'm trying out a new comment system. It's new and subject to jiggerypokery. It's moderated. Detailed guidelines to come but follow the general rule: be excellent to each other.
If you enjoy reading, please consider a financial contribution.
« « 51: A New You 53: Lawyering Up » »