"This. This is what I am. This is who I am, come hell or high water. If I deny it, I deny everything I've ever done, everything I've ever fought for."

~ Oliver Queen (Green Arrow)

Being a superhero had its ups and downs. I couldn't get acne, I had superhuman powers, and most of the city looked up to me as a hero. I also had no free time, I was outnumbered by my superhuman enemies, and a good number of the city was turning against me because of the Remedists.

I was just having the best of times, wasn't I?

I mean, if I wasn't already stressed out enough, my mother reminded me that morning about the college situation.

"Honey, I've got you all these flyers from schools in the area." She had started, handing me a comically huge pile of pamphlets and college magazines. "I've sorted them out by vicinity to the city and sub sectioned by the majors they offer."

I'd smiled and took the huge pile on my way to work. I didn't tell my mom that I was not planning to look at the pamphlets with as much enthusiasm as she might've wanted me to. In fact, I wasn't sure if I wanted to go to college just yet. Trying to balance superhero life and college classes/homework would be hard.

(I know all those supers in Empire and Iris Cities can do it, but I have no idea how. I mean, I could barely manage my own workload and I was only in High School.)

Daniel himself told me that he just skipped college all together and went straight to owning the comic book store. He had said, "I don't need a degree to run a store selling a dying breed of storytelling," which was true.

But I could hear mom's voice in my head right now, "You better go to college, Olly, or that scholarship to Eldredge Academy will mean nothing. You don't want to become a street rat, do you? You need to get a college level education, like your father."

It was always the same argument for anything really. "Be like your father." I was tired of it.

Mom really missed dad. It wasn't obvious most days, but it was still there. I would occasionally walk in on her with her head in her hands, or staring out the window with a blank expression on her face. Once I even spotted her in the bedroom clutching his old medal from serving in the military like it was a lifeline.

She also knew that we were poor. She knew we couldn't pay for college, which meant I would have to get a really good scholarship if I wanted a higher level of education. Which was why she was so proud of me making it into Eldredge on a full ride.

So, while at work at the counter, I at least made a feeble attempt at looking through the catalogs. And by feeble, I mean I put them in the range of my site, as to remind me to look at them eventually.

"Dude, you're screwed." Eric commented as he walked by, grinning at the pile sitting on the counter.

"How do you mean?"

He chuckled and checked his phone.

"College, man. It ruins your life."

Eric, I guess you could say, was a drifter. He went through about two months of college before dropping out to work for Daniel. He had said college was a waste of time and all he learned was how to properly smoke a blunt, but I knew the real reason he left. Eric was the kind of person who lived for action. Of course he would get bored sitting in a lecture room full of a hundred other bored faces and a teacher who didn't care about the subject they were teaching.

He also met a girl in college, something I learned later. She was Miss Popularity, and Eris was, of course, drawn to her just like every other freshman in their class. Long story short, Eric arrived at the comic book shop two months later to run the Man Cave and he'd barely had any human interaction since.

Which was why I was surprised to see him out in the daylight. Normally he sulked in the Man Cave during the day, sometimes sleeping or playing World of Warcraft. He only came out anymore to cover my shifts or to work his own shifts before receding back to his nest.

Eric's eyes lit up at his phone, "Looks like you have a super near downtown making some sort of trouble. Detective Pearson just texted. He needs you ASAP."

I nodded and preceded to the back room to make the change into my White Lightning costume. In under a minute I walked back out in full uniform, a new record, but Eric was no longer alone.

"White Lightning!" mom exclaimed, clutching onto Chad's arm in surprise.

Awkward.

"Umm . . . hello."

It was at moments like these when I was most grateful for my voice modulator and the adjustments the spandex had to hide my identity as much as possible.

Chad cleared his throat and looked at me with what I assumed to be his most authority evoking stance. "What are you doing inside my store? I assume there has been a crime here?"

"I . . . uh . . . no." I answered, searching desperately for an excuse.

"He was just looking for something of Daniel's." Eric cut in. "You know, he used to be Captain Impossible. White Lightning thought he might've left something of importance in the shop."

I nodded, thanking Eric with my eyes for the save. Now that the world knew who Captain Impossible was in his spare time, it would make sense for White Lightning, his former sidekick, to be around places he used to be around.

Chad perhaps stood taller and looked at me with a guarded expression. "Well, as you can see, Daniel is no longer the owner of this establishment, which means you have me to answer to. I assure you that everything of that man's was either turned over to the police or to you as was protocol. You have no need to be snooping around my shop unless you believe an actual crime to have taken place."

Man, Chad did not take kindly to supers, did he?

"Alright, sir. I'm sorry to have been a bother. I'll be on my way."

As I headed out the door, I heard Chad say, "Where is your son, Sharon? I would've thought the boy would be working like he's supposed to."

"Well, maybe he's hiding," I heard mom say through the thin windows, "he probably doesn't want to see his mother coming back from a date with his new boss. You know, he still hasn't gotten over Mr. Jackson's death. It might be some kind of a shock to him."

I walked around the corner and caught my breath.

Mom was dating Chad?

Eww!

Despite that shocking revelation, I knew I had to get downtown sooner rather than later, so I took the car and put it into overdrive.

I'd soon arrived at the entrance to Glover Archbold Park, where police officers were surrounding a girl in an all-black super suit with purple boots, gloves, and mask. Her outfit reminded me of the inverse of Tornado's, whose was all purple with black boots, gloves, mask, and belt. The only difference was that this girl had a mass of what looked like purple hair. It was either dyed or a wig, but it was a huge luminescent distracter both ways. She had a crude smile on her face and I knew she was no B-list villain. Those officers were in for more than they thought.

But for the time being, both sides seemed to be still. The SWAT team wasn't advancing and the super girl was just standing there. I took the temporary standstill to find Detective Pearson so he could debrief me.

"So, who's the new girl?" I asked.

Detective Pearson sighed in frustration, but he still looked happy to see me.

"I have no idea. She showed up about ten minutes ago in the park and started causing chaos. It looked like she was fighting Delinquent at first, but then she started attacking our officers as well. We frankly don't know what to think. Delinquent popped out of here just before you showed up. I assume she might pop back in at any moment, so be prepared."

I nodded and looked back at the super girl, who now had her gaze fixated on me. She tilted her head with a sly smile and raised her arm in my direction.

Suddenly the ground was no longer under my feet.

I struggled against some invisible force as I was flown through the air, straight through the officers surrounding the girl. I was released and fell the last couple of feet to the ground at her feet. The officers made a move to help, but I stopped them with a wave if my hand. They instead kept their tight knit circle around us.

"Well, well, well." She smiled, her voice like poisoned honey. "I was hoping to meet you, White Lightning."

I picked myself off of the ground and faces the girl. She was a telepath, which meant she had telekinesis. She was the second super I'd met with that power, but the first who wasn't a hero.

"So, who are you supposed to be? The Purple Man?" I taunted, surveying the scene and weighing my chances; buying time.

She chuckled darkly, "Wow, I'm surprised you even know who that is. I would not expect someone like you to delve into something so outdated and, well, so below you." She had said it with such disdain that I knew whoever she was, she had a real big grudge against me.

"You'd be surprised. Us supers have to have an actual life outside of this, you know?"

Her sinister smile brightened at my words. It only seemed to increase the malevolent glow in her eyes. "Yes, and you wouldn't mind telling me yours, would you? I'd be so keen to learn more about DC's new favorite super. Like, your secret identity for instance, or maybe information on Delinquent, that little friend of yours."

I scoffed, "Delinquent is no friend of mine. If it wasn't for her . . ." I would have had time to save Daniel, I thought, cringing.

"Ooh!" the super got excited, "so you do have a personal grudge against her. I was wondering why she didn't call on you earlier when we got in that little argument."

I looked around at the damage to the park that she called a 'little argument'. Obviously it was something more than that. Maybe the two villains couldn't agree on a way to cause the most chaos in one day.

"What did she do to you, White lightning?" she asked, intrigued. "It must've been bad. Ooh, maybe she had something to do with your former employer's death? How did the invincible Captain Impossible die anyways, huh? I mean, doesn't invincible mean invincible?"

I tensed at her words. She didn't know how close to home she had hit.

I noticed what she was doing though. She was redirecting every comment back at me, trying to find out as much information as possible. Why? I didn't know. She seemed a bit off as well, but her disdain for me was still painfully clear underneath her questioning.

"Let's cut to the chase. Who are you and what do you want?"

She met my gaze with a crude smile. "Why, I'm Andromeda . . . your doom."

I jumped back as a dozen football sized rocks were thrown at my head. I quickly aimed electrical light at the rocks heading to the SWAT team, who were still close by. The rocks were thrown off course when they met with my light, and fell to the ground far from their potential targets, smoking.

I turned back, but Andromeda had run further into the park, straight past the distracted officers who'd been surrounding us. I cursed under my breath and headed after her.

"What kind of name is that?" I taunted, taking advice from her book.

A huge branch suddenly launched itself at me and I ducked. It looked like I had gotten my desired reaction from Andromeda.

"Why resort to violence?" I asked, focusing my attention to the purple blur I had spotted when the branch came my way. "Don't you want to know more about me?"

At the last word, I sent a huge electrical surge at the tree where she'd been hiding behind, but Andromeda had dived and rolled a split second before impact, hiding behind the next tree instead.

"Of course I do," I could just hear the smirk in her voice as she spoke, "but, you know how things are. Heroes and villains; Good and bad; Moral and immoral – we'd never get along."

She turned suddenly and brought up her arms. As she did so, a car from the side of the road was lifted up into the air and thrown my way. This time I barely had time to dive before the car hit the ground.

"C'mon, Lightning!" she yelled jubilantly. "I know you can do better than that!"

Oh, and I could.

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This chapter is dedicated to HBLemonQueen (http://www.quotev.com/HannahTheYoungBlood) on Quotev who won the contest I had on Quotev for the next villain in this story. She made Andromeda up, and my readers voted for her. You'll be seeing a little bit more of Andromeda in the future as well.

*wink*