It was 'Just another day'. Just like any other.. Really, in all, not much different from those before. Of course, really, were any of her days any different these days? School, Home, drag father from wherever h's collapsed, rinse, repeat.

"Hey Girl!"

The voice, a bit slurred, comes out.

"Beer. Bring me a beer. Another one. This'n 's empty."

By her count there were at least four bottles next to him.

Peri

Same as it ever was. Another day of babysitting her father. He was like a toddler, if toddlers were 5’11” tall and had beer breath. At least it was beer and not the hard stuff.

“Dinner. What you need is dinner, not beer,” she replied, looking up from her homework. So far she had completed two problems out of what seemed like several hundred.

“I’m going to get you something to eat, okay? You’ll feel better when you’ve eaten.”

"D' I ask you for food. Need."

He pauses for a long time.

"Need ... What d' I need?"

How the man could still be upright at this point she wasn't sure.

Her particular school assignment was history. Specifically, the history of SUperheros in the modern era. A topic which seemed about as far from her current existence as it was possible to be.

He hits the remote, and the TV pops up to a news channel.

Peri

“Dinner, Dad. You need dinner.”

She put down her notebook and pencil.

“I’ll just go make it now.”

She barely glanced at the news. More important things to do. Like making dollar-store off-brand mac and cheese with the little packet full of orange powder.

Still, the words filtered through.

"... not sure what is happening, there are reports of a fight near the Black Hole, and nearby explosions. Helicopters are coming from nearby Simmons Ground base ..."

Soon enough the concoction was out of her hands and into his. And he was actually eating.

On the screen, there was a column of smoke, evidence of fires. The sound of sirens ...

Peri

Oh god, what now?

“Another day in beautiful Hell-cyon,” she muttered.

Heroes being all heroic and brave and every bit as destructive as the villains. Villains causing havoc because their mommies didn’t love them enough. You had the alien invasion last month, three months ago there was that scandal where half of the staffers of city hall turned out to be subterranean mole people in disguise. So much drama, when life for the poorest and most disenfranchised mostly was the same as anywhere else, the inequalities just magnified a bit.

Halcyon was constantly under construction, repair work rebuilding the office buildings and luxury apartments and tree-lined suburban streets. If you were wealthy enough, you might even get a meta with appropriate powers to speed along the process. If you had the money, things went back to normal quickly. The rich had Meta-insurance to cover it. When public amenities were destroyed, the city leapt in to fix it immediately. Life went back to normal, fast.

Not so when it was houses in the Drylake district that got knocked over by a villain or a careless hero, or when the mole people dug through the water main supplying the projects. When her elementary school had been riddled with rot by Nyx’s entropy, it didn’t get fixed. Students were still taking classes in the non-climate-controlled temporary modular classrooms that had been set up in the playground five years ago. It was supposed to be fixed within six months, but then the guest wing of the governor’s mansion was flattened by a meteor. That got fixed quickly.

When heroes and villains fought, it was people like her, like her father and teachers and schoolmates, that ended up suffering.

Soon enough, food in his stomach, her father was snoring in his chair.

“it ... it appears Alchemy has been captured, our sources say. Nyx is missing and there are others in custody. Thankfully, the prison has not been breached. It seems that, with Cyclone and others in Japan dealing with Typhoon Nakoma, some less known heroes, among them Lady Grey, Black and Blue and Phase, were instrumental in the capture.

Lady Grey - now that one, she knew. Got her hands dirty. A lot. Was found more in the parts of town that got ignored by the splashier heroes. Phase was seen alongside her not infrequently and Black and Blue ... that one was ancient. That was a hero name from the world war 2 era. He would have to be over 100 at this point.

Peri

Now that he was asleep and no longer contributing to the mess apart from a rivulet of drool snaking its way down his chin and onto the cushion if his chair, she could get the place into a slightly less terrible state. She stood up, turned off the old television, and started picking up the trash that was strewn about the room. She then gathered up the bowl and fork that was resting on top of her father’s chest, and took it all into the kitchen.

Her stomach growled. Time to play canned food roulette - a game she’d made up where you take any three of the ten cent lucky draw unlabeled cans from the bodega down the street. They were usually a bargain, as the bodega couldn’t sell them otherwise since their labels had been lost somewhere in transit or in storage.

If you were lucky, you’d get a can of soup, maybe a can of spaghetti hoops, and some canned fruit for dessert. If you were unlucky, you’d get clams in brine, turkey gravy, and hollandaise sauce. If you were really unlucky, you’d get botulism. She’d never been that unlucky before. Sometimes she thought that maybe dying of botulism would be the best outcome...

As she was picking out a few random cans, she noticed something she had never noticed before. An envelope, stuck with masking take, to the back top of the cabinet. And older envelope, from the look. Well worn and opened and reopened.

Peri

Her curiosity was piqued, but she still felt cautious. When was anything good news?

She quietly, gingerly, slid the envelope open.

A folded piece of paper, on which were written five names.

Peri

She hastily slid the piece of paper back into the envelope.

So many thoughts raced through her mind as she robotically went about preparing her feast of can roulette.

Why did he...?

She retrieved a large can from the cupboard.

It looks like a hit list.

put the can on the counter

Who...

closed the cabinet

The names have that hero or villain pseudonym ring to them.

tried to reach for another can, only to bump her hand against the cabinet door

But...

shook her hand a few times to loosen up the jammed joints

How is my father connected to that sort of people? He’s a nobody.

opened the cabinet door again

We’re both nobodies. We don’t even have any family. We don’t have friends. It’s just us.

stared blankly at the cans in the cabinet

But...

picked up a small can

None of this makes sense. Why wouldn’t I know?

put the can back down

How...? Why?

picked the can up again

Why would he keep something like this hidden from me?

held the can and stared at it for about fifteen seconds

Why would he have a hit list of supers?

put the can on top of the other can

What does it mean?

paused for a moment, then moved the can directly onto the counter

What hasn’t he told me?

stared at the cans on the counter

Is everything a lie?

blinked a few times, realising that her appetite was gone

Who is he?

walked out the back door into the garbage strewn alleyway behind their house, leaving the cabinet open and the back door ajar

Who am I?

stared at her hands without actually seeing them

Why?

started walking in a random direction, not caring that she was wearing socks but no shoes.

It didn’t matter to where - she just had to get away from that house, from the man she thought she knew. From that sad, pathetic, weak, drunk man who apparently had a hit list of supers. She just walked. Away.

And she heard sirens, and helicopters.

THey seemed rather close by.

Peri

She walks another few steps before stopping, looking up at the sky to try to work out where they were headed.

They seemed to be converging on her house. She could hear car doors slamming and running footsteps.

Peri

“Oh my god, Dad, what did you do? What did you do?” she muttered, heading off back towards her house in a sprint.

And she comes back in just in time to see the door break down and armed individuals in full SWAT gear pouring in, all leveling weapons at her father, then her as she enters.

“Raise your hands up and come quietly.”

One holds up a device towards her, then looks over.

“Shoot, boss. The kid’s an active.‘

Her father is STILL snoring.

Peri

“Wake up, Dad! Wake up!”

She turned to the police.

“I’m a nobody. I’m nothing!”

She put her hands up.

“He’s got four beers and a half bottle of Mad Dog 20/20 in him. He’s not going to put up a fight.”

“Yeah. And at least six murders on his tally.”

A couple move up and restrain him as he blearily starts to awaken.

Another moves towards her cautiously, as if she were potentially about to explode.

Peri

“If you say so. He hardly ever leaves that chair.”

She looked at the officer who was approaching her.

“I’m not gonna bite. Not going to yell, or fight, or any of that. Just... what the hell is going on? Please. I don’t understand what’s going on. Please,” she said, starting to tear up.

By now her father is restrained and being taken out.

“This way ma’am. You have any other relatives?”

Another looks over at him.

“Take her to Grey, let her sort it out. She’s better at the kids.”

One takes out a pair of cuffs.

“Sorry ma’am. As a potential, have to consider you armed and dangerous until we know otherwise.”

Peri

“You’re not listening. I’m nothing. Nobody. I’m not a potential anything. My dad is all I have, and I’m not even good at looking after him. Do you understand? Your detector thing must be broken, because I’m not extraordinary or special. I’m not even ordinary. I’m nothing. Nothing.” she said, her voice quiet but intense, blinking through tears.

She took a step toward the cop, trying to draw her scrawny, underfed 5’-nothing frame to look threatening.

“Just shoot me. Do it. You’re taking away the only person in my life that has ever given a damn about me. He’s my purpose. Making sure he’s okay. It’s the only thing in my life that I haven’t screwed up that bad, and when you take him, what will I have? What’s left? More nothing.”

Took another step, her voice rising in pitch and volume as she continued her rant.

“I can’t let you take him away. He’s all I have. So either let him go, or shoot me, god damn it! Just shoot me already!”

Now she was screaming, but her face only showed pain.

Two of them wrestle and secure her, as gently as possible, and move her out to the car.

Before too long she finds herself sitting in an interview room, and shortly thereafter the one that must be "LAdy Grey" Enters, sits, and steeples her finger.

"Hello, Peri. ROugh day."

SHe says gently.

Peri

She didn’t resist being restrained or moved to the car, but she didn’t help either - just limp. Not that it was too difficult to subdue her, or to drag her to the police car. She couldn’t have weighed more than 80 lbs soaking wet. Surprisingly lightweight even for a kid of her height.

————-

Peri sat at the table in the interview room, trying to sink into the floor so she wouldn’t have to deal with the present circumstance. She was tiny, very tiny in that room. In the bright light, it was obvious that she was notably scrawny. Not just short, not just with a petite bone structure, but borderline malnourished. She didn’t look a day older than about 12, although her school records said she was 16.

Chin-length strawberry blonde hair, frizzy and unevenly cut, nails that had clearly been chewed, with ragged cuticles that had been picked at. She was clean, and her clothes were clean but old, too big for her, and fraying at the edges.

When Lady Grey entered the room and spoke, she didn’t answer immediately.

“Probably for the best,” she said slowly in a tired, monotone, quiet mumble. “Wasn’t doing a great job of taking care of him. Now it’s someone else’s job.”

All the fight in her, all the energy, tears, shouting, it had all run out. She was spent. Empty. Running on fumes.

Her voice is gentle.

"I know, Peri. And I wish I could have different answers for you, but things are what they are, and your circumstances have changed. For you, they have changed overnight. There are some facts. Your father is a metahuman, and a criminal metahuman. A supervillain if you will. You are yourself powered. People, including you, have not known this largely because of the powers your father has, which involve the redirection of the powers of other supers. Near as we can tell, he must have been suppressing yours, because by scanning - you have a considerable power."

She waits for a moment.
"Your father's circumstances were quite unfortunate. His reaction, however, was not a forgivable one."

Peri

“How did I not notice? How?” she wasn’t really talking to Lady Grey. She wasn’t really listening either, just talking to herself as she tried to work things out.

“If I’d known, I... I could have helped him. Could have stopped him or talked him out of it. It’s my fault he killed those people, because I didn’t notice and didn’t stop him.”

She started to pick at the skin around her nails, brow furrowed with intense concentration.

“Must be something to do with my mother. She died right around the time I was born. She’s the only thing he ever cared about.

Continuing to pick at the skin next to her nails - a tiny bead of blood welling up.

“It all comes down to her. Whoever she was. That’s what broke him. He always said. I’m not half the person she was. Not half. Not a quarter.”

She crossed her arms on the table and buried her head in her arms. Finally something Lady Grey said got through the haze.

“No. No, it’s not right. The machine must be broken. I’m not extraordinary. I’m not even ordinary. I’m the wadded up chewing gum stuck to the bottom of ordinary’s shoe. I’m nothing.”

Grey:

“I would have to guess, without context that you are potentially in the same strata that Nyx or Alchemy, Cyclone, and Primus occupy. Of course the practicality Is up in the air depending on what you do. If I had to guess, it lies in either in the realm of telepathy or empathy, or it is a meta ability. An ability that effects other abilities. Powers often, if not always, relate to those of the parents. Especially if there are two powered parents.”

She pauses. Your conjectures are right, and it’s a twisted and complicated story. Perhaps one you are not ready yet to hear all of at the moment. But it will not be hidden from you, because you deserve to know.”

Peri

“I found his hit list. Not early enough to stop anything. Found it tonight.”

Her voice was still flat, almost completely devoid of emotion.

“If I’d looked in that specific spot before now, maybe... But when I saw it, I knew there was something. Was going to run away. At least for long enough to clear my head. So I guess I wouldn’t have tried to stop him. I’d have run.”

The names were seared into her mind.

“Shatterpoint, Mirror, Timbre, Ice, Gigawatt. He’d already got to the first three. The other two... can you tell them? Let them know that they were on his list, but he’s locked away? Just... if he gets out, I don’t want them to be caught by surprise when he comes after them.”

Her voice suddenly grew quieter.

“They probably already know.”

“Yes. They do.”

She says quietLy.

“They have been informed.”

“What we are talking about now, however, is you. Your future. You do have one. You are not, naturally, going to prison as such. You are not a criminal. You are, however, both without a parent and not of an age of majority. You also happen to be potentially very dangerous. That combination is going to lead to you being, for now, a ward of the state. We do, however, have a school. It’s ... special for the children in this sort of ... difficult situation.”

Peri

“Sure,” she said almost inaudibly.

It had to be better than the school she’d gone to before.

“Please, just... take care of him. Get him sober.”

“They will ... try. He still has people who care for him from his old life, despite everything.”

She might’ve notice her voice is studiously neutral here.

“Meanwhile, I think you need perhaps some dinner and then a good night’s sleep. It has most assuredly been much too long of a day.”

Peri

She nodded silently, lost in thought.

She can, when she wishes, wake up and possibly ,move to the common room.