The bell tinkled as the shop door swung open, and Astra stumbled through looking flustered, with her hair flying in every direction and her forehead looked shiny with sweat in the dim light of the shop.

"Hello Astra! Are people giving you a hard time again?" asked Mr Armstrong, looking quite startled at Astra's sudden entrance.

"Y-yes...j-j-just the...the usual," said Astra. Between her stutter and quickly trying to escape the taunts of her peers, it was difficult for her to talk.

"Well then, you're welcome to stay here for a few hours. I have some new books that arrived this morning, they're over-"

But Astra knew the old book shop like the back of her hand, and had already spotted which shelves looked different and was walking as quickly as possible towards them, as she was still really out of breath.

I wouldn't be surprised if she's read almost every book in the shop, smiled Mr Armstrong. Contrary to his name, he was a small and stooped old man, with more wrinkles on his aged face than Astra could count. She really lacks confidence. I hope things get better for her.

Meanwhile, Astra was happily reading in the farthest corner of the shop sprawled across an old beanbag, leaning close to the bright lamp on the table beside her. She was completely absorbed in her story, well, until she snapped the book shut, her face like thunder. She sprang up and marched towards Mr Armstrong, who was quite confused at her behaviour.

"Th-th-this isn't a good...a good book a-at all," she whispered. Not a quiet whisper used to tell secrets, a whisper so soft it was dangerous.

"Why do you think that? That's a best seller."

"There's a-a character that ssss-stutters, but it's very unrealistic and I'm offended..." She trailed off at the end as she ran out of breath, and then started panting, trying to regain her breath.

"It's alright, you can put it back on the shelf. There are plenty more titles on that shelf. In fact, when I was looking through the books this morning, I saw a good mystery novel aimed at your age. You could try that if you want," he said.

Before Astra dashed back to the shelves, the bell jingled again, and there was shouting. Her eyes grew wide as a figure came through to where they were, and for a moment she was rooted to the spot.

No, no, no, NO! Why is she here, of all places? This was my one safe place, my sanctuary, and The Witch found it! What am I going to do now?

Mr Armstrong turned around to look at the girl, leaning heavily on his stick, and began to understand slightly why Astra looked so afraid.

The girl was tall and seemed to look down on everyone from her height, literally and figuratively. Auburn curls tumbled down her back and her bottle green eyes seemed to see everything. Her leather jacket set off her intimidating look.

"Well Astra, what are you doing here? I didn't know you spent your precious spare time in a mouldy old shop with a wrinkled monkey," she smirked.

"I-I-I...he's...n-not..." Astra was lost for words at this point.

"I-I-I...you sound stupid, repeating yourself all the time. You look stupid as well, your mouth just opening and closing like that. Like a goldfish," she mocked. "In fact, why don't you just-"

"That is enough! I don't know who you are, but get out of my shop. Unless you're planning to buy something, please get out," Mr Armstrong shouted, brandishing his stick. Turning to Astra, he said quietly, "I'll sort her out. You can go and read."

But Astra was too afraid of what she might do to her, or Mr Armstrong, if she left, so she stayed right where she was.

"Answering your question, Monkey Man, I'm Tilly. I'm not planning on buying anything, but you can't order me around, so I'm staying right here!" Tilly placed a foot firmly on the floor to support her statement.

Mr Armstrong's expression was unreadable for a moment, and then, to the shock of Astra, his lips twitched. Then, his face broke into a smile, and within moments he was roaring with laughter.

Why is he laughing? Astra thought. Tilly was thinking the same thing, but she didn't keep quiet about it.

"Oh, I'm sorry, it's just that you're trying so hard to look dangerous and threatening, but with a name like Tilly, I just couldn't-" Mr Armstrong broke into another peal of laughter.

After he had quietened down, he started talking to Tilly about this and that, seeming to completely forget Astra was there. Tilly hadn't, however, and between answering Mr Armstrong's many questions and listening reluctantly, she had been shooting her glares that might have been able to kill.

I need to go somewhere. As soon as the conversation flags, she'll be after me. I need to hide!

Astra tried to slip out of the situation, but she hadn't gotten more than a few metres away before she heard behind her, "Excuse me, Mr Armstrong, but I have something to finish, so if you'll excuse me-" Astra didn't wait any longer. She had to get away.

Hearing the click of Tilly's high heeled leather boots slowly approach behind her, she knew that turning back towards the door wasn't an option. Why did I come this way? There's no escape!

In blind panic, she grabbed a heavy book from a random nearby shelf, titled Individuality in Magic, thinking that she could at least attempt self defense if she had to, but as it turned out, Astra had no need for that.

The shelf that she had taken the book from slowly sank into the floor, and a long corridor stretched ahead of her. Hearing Tilly's click click click behind her gave Astra no time to think about the absurdity of the circumstances, so almost instinctively, she dashed into the dark, wood paneled corridor, and heard the satisfying clunk of the bookshelf closing behind her, as well as Tilly's shouted threats.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The corridor somehow felt familiar and comforting to Astra, possibly because it reminded her of the book shops and libraries that she loved so much. The walnut panels felt smooth to the touch, feeling like high quality bookshelves. It even smelled like books, as if the creator of this place had extracted the unique scent from hundreds of them and then sprayed it like perfume. Suddenly, almost without realising it, Astra had come to the end of the tunnel, and was astounded by what lay before her.

It was an enormous circular room with a dome skylight in the centre. Soft red carpet covered the entire floor, and in the centre, there was a tech station with seemingly hundreds of computer monitors lining the edge of the desk. Bookshelves lined the walls, reaching right up to the ceiling, with numerous shiny volumes in them, and the remainder of the wall and ceiling space was plastered with colourful sticky notes. Standing on a very tall stepladder, reaching for a volume on one of the top shelves, was a woman. Not just any woman, a superhero. And Astra knew, not just any superhero, but the legendary Blockbuster.

She was quite a short lady, with large brown eyes and lots of freckles scattered across her face and small nose. Her straight, shoulder length hair was a beautiful honey colour, almost the shade of a book page, and near the tips of her hair had been carefully dyed black to look like words that read, 'Books are a uniquely portable magic," a quote from a Stephen King book on writing that Astra had read once.

Blockbuster must have heard Astra come in, as she turned around on the stepladder and almost fell off with shock. Regaining her balance, and her composure, she gracefully descended the ladder and walked towards Astra.

"Hello! I wasn't expecting any visitors, but you're welcome anyway. Just wondering, how did you get in here?" She gave Astra the most open and friendly smile she had ever seen, but it didn't do much to calm her nerves.

I'm in front of my favourite superhero of all time, and I'm going to stutter and make a fool of myself. What am I going to do?

"Not much of a talker, are you? Oh well, come and have a drink and then we can sort this out."

Astra scurried after Blockbuster as she led her into a little side room with a kettle and some basic food supplies. After a few minutes of bustling around, Blockbuster had made a pot of tea and laid out some slightly stale chocolate biscuits.

"I don't have visitors very often, and I'm often too busy to properly relax. Now, can you tell me how you got in here?" she smiled.

Astra decided that it was no use staying silent. Blockbuster would find out sooner or later about her stutter. With a lot of prompting from Blockbuster, she told the full story of how she had come across the secret base.

"Well, that's quite surprising how you stumbled across it, but I suppose you're here now. In fact, I had been thinking about..." She tailed off, looking like she was deep in thought.

"W-what is it, B-b...blockbuster?" Astra asked.

"Oh, you can call me Inerys. I suppose the comic books never really mentioned that." Inerys looked quite self conscious now.

After an awkward silence, Inerys suddenly burst out, "Has anybody ever told you that your stutter sounds kind of cute?"

"N-no," said Astra.

"Well, I think it is."

"Th-th-thanks Inerys."

After more awkward silence, Inerys asked Astra, "Would you like me to train you to become a superhero?"

Wait, what? This is amazing! I can't let this opportunity slip by! I'm not good at anything though, I don't have any powers. But I'm sure it'll be fine!

"Yes, yes, yes...!" Again, Astra ran out of breath from excitement, but she didn't care. She couldn't wait to be like Blockbuster and cure people's writer's block. But one thing was holding her back.

"What is it Astra?"

"I'm n-not good at th-thinking of...of ideas."

"Well, that doesn't matter."

"W-what?"

"Astra, what are you good at? What's your magic?"

"I don't know what...what y-you are talking a-about."

"Everyone has magic inside of them, Astra. Whether that's being able to make a cup of tea slightly better than anyone, or being able to tell whenever your friend isn't quite okay, everyone has a spark deep inside of them that can be used for good. You just need to believe in yourself that you are good at something, and then use that for good."

"So...you don't actually have a superpower? I-it's just something...just something you're good at, c-c-coming up with ideas to fix wr-writer's block and then p-p-putting the ideas into writers' brains?"

"Well...yes."

This rendered Astra speechless.

"B-but I'm not good at...at anything!"

"You are good at something."

"Well, I'm...I'm alright a-at making cakes."

"Well, that's a great start. Believing you are good at something is the first step. You can use this to help others. I can tell, Astra, if keep believing in yourself, you can do great things. Please continue to believe in yourself. Now, I think it's time to start developing those cake making skills!"

Maybe I am good at something. I'm still a bit unsure of myself, but if Inerys believes in me, I suppose I should too. I think I'll be able to do great things if only I discover that magic spark on the inside. But it is there, and I can make a difference, no matter what I am or I'm not good at!