Grabbing Alice’s shoulder, Ashley fixed her with a stern look. “You better. I can’t imagine Will wanting to play dress-up so you’re my only chance for an exclusive sneak-peek at a real life supersuit!”

The word “supersuit” gave Ashley amusing flashbacks to ‘The Incredibles’. How weird to think that those characters could be a genuine, real life family. Maybe they were! Maybe they super-sued in super-court for the use of their super-identities. Or… maybe Ashley’s imagination was getting super out of hand.

“Maybe she’s part of a greater plan, just like you guys. Do you believe in destiny? It could be that those people were ready to go to heaven but you six needed to stick around a little while longer. You gotta admit, the way it’s going, you’re going to change the world.”

Ashley looked out across the city, feeling very small.

“Or maybe you were the first six she came across, and the only six she had time to help. Maybe all this is just-” Ashley shrugged, not entirely convinced by her own point “-serendipity?”

There didn’t have to be a reason that her brother and his new friends had been chosen, she supposed. Maybe they were no more special than the rest of the crash victims.

The notion didn’t sit right with Ashley, but she didn’t have any proof to suggest otherwise. Maybe this was something she needed to discuss further with Will – hopefully he had a clearer idea of the doctor’s aims and motives by now.

Snapping out of her mini-reverie, Ashley turned her attentions to mini golf.

“Ooh you’ll love it, I promise. But hey!” She stuck her tongue out. “Don’t go easy on me! Even if I suuuck, you have to do your best. If I can’t win then I want to at least be impressed. Although, obviously, I’m totally gonna win,” she said with a wink. “So better start thinking of your least embarrassing pair of underwear.”

She shook Alice’s proffered hand, a competitive gleam in her eyes.

How dare she roll her eyes at Ashley’s perfectly viable suggestion of using underwear to aid in her fight against crime. It worked for Superman, right?

But, no, seriously.

“They might just do a low-risk panty-check through a telescope or something, I probably wouldn’t base a tracking system on that,” Ashley chuckled. “Hey, I wonder if the military ever thought to try something like that…”

The mental image of super serious army dudes in bright lacy underwear was a little too amusing. Ashley had to rush a hand to her mouth to stop herself from spitting the small mouthful of food she was currently chewing.

“Woah,” Ashley said, looking at Alice through new eyes. She was so… righteous. “That’s so selfless of you, Alice. You’re just an ordinary girl who suddenly gets powers and your first instinct is to help others.” She smiled and then shrugged, trying not to embarrass her. “I guess you’re right though, I’d probably feel awful knowing I could definitely help loads of people but chose not to do anything about it.

“Plus, this way you get to actually use your powers instead of hiding them.”

Unlike the majority of people with powers, according to Will. What an upsettingly fearful existence. Always keeping your true self hidden from the world.

The word “Paladin” vaguely rang a bell, but Ashley was grateful for Alice’s clarification.

“Ooh, sounds very majestic. Makes sense for somebody who can do the modern day equivalent of rescuing princesses from dragons.”

She beamed.

“I like it. It’s powerful.”

Ashley was pleasantly surprised by Alice’s agreement to follow her mini golf plans. It was harmless, competitive fun. Alice was almost definitely going to win if her boasts were even a little genuine, but that wasn’t really the point. There was something delightful about following the quaint little courses with all their weird miniature obstacles. Ashley was still convinced that getting the ball through a windmill was solely an act of luck.

Then Alice surprised her further with talks of testing her power.

“You… want me to hit you with a putter?”

She guessed it was one way to break the ice. Maybe some bones too...

“Huh. That’s true.”

From the way Alice had said it, Ashley guessed that she had a lot more worries about making rent than Ashley did. She was by no means loaded herself, but she did make a comfortable living and earnt considerably more than a lot of the working peers that she knew. In fact, Ashley never had to worry about making rent. Even if she did suddenly find herself without income in the future, her parents would step in to support her until she could find an alternative source. Maybe Alice didn’t have that particular safety net in place. Or, maybe she was just ferociously independent. She did live alone at 18 after all.

“I like surprises!” Ashley exclaimed, horrified at the thought of losing out. “Yeah, imagine never having another surprise party… Well, I mean, that’s a definite first world problem,” she giggled, “But I think it’d probably be quite a boring life. There’d never be another movie plot twist either. So not worth it.”

She laughed, imagining Alice in full hero garb, but was also pretty impressed. It sounded like Alice was genuinely going to be starting on this new exciting life, bad guys and superheroes galore.

“Well maybe you should get some interesting underwear, it might distract the bad guys,” she suggested mischievously. “Aren’t you like, scared at all? It sounds fun and rewarding and all but... hella dangerous too.”

Ashley didn’t fancy her chances as a superhero. She just didn’t have that selfless drive in the way she imagined was necessary of anybody in that line of work. It was that, plus witnessing WIll’s own pressures whilst working on the force, which had steered her away from an interest in following in her big brother’s policeman footsteps. She didn’t want to put her own life in danger to save strangers. Loved ones, sure, but it just didn’t feel like her vocation in life was to do the kinds of things that Alice was suggesting.

“Ooh, what’s your hero name then?”

She was fully prepared to judge it if it was terrible. Names were important and she didn’t want Alice leaping into her new life with a name like “Princess Punch-and-stuff”. Not that she imagined she would, of course. She didn’t seem the princessy type.

“Having a costume sounds so cool… You’re definitely the real deal when you’ve got a costume and secret identity.”

Ashley frowned and pulled out the list on her phone once more. “Um… I didn’t really put any ideas down for superpower demonstrations on here… There’s just like, mini golf.” She looked genuinely disappointed. “Seems a kinda lame activity after, y’know.” She gestured vaguely towards Alice.

“Not that I want to put you at risk by showing off your powers in public,” Ashley added hurriedly. “But I can’t really think of anywhere to do it safely. Unless you can think of a way to incorporate into mini golf?”

She laughed, mood not staying dampened for long. She was still really enjoying her day out with Alice and if she had to miss out on a power display, that was a pretty small price to pay for it. Definitely good value for money, 10/10 Yelp review.

From the tone of Alice’s voice, Ashley felt with the strongest of convictions that Alice’s ability to non-stop Mario Kart her way through a long-haul flight was no joke. Ashley wasn’t exactly a gamer herself but she’d played enough Mario Kart over the years at various friends’ houses to get the basic appeal, even if she couldn’t imagine focusing on it for 11 hours. Maybe like, two. Then she could just nap for the rest of the journey or something.

“Yeah, he just found out about his… stuff. Saved some dude from getting knifed in the middle of the night because of some Super Instinct.”

Try as she might, Ashley couldn’t help the pride that crept into her voice. Her big brother had always been something of a hero to her. A hero wrapped around her little finger, sure, but a hero nonetheless.

She listened with an enchanted smile on her face as Alice explained her own power. It was less mystical than Will’s and fit slightly more into the vague idea Ashley had of what a superhero could do. Shelf destruction and energy absorption? Definitely sounded like a fun power.

“It sounds really cool!” Ashley exclaimed, jumping up in excitement. “You’re like… the real deal! Can you show me, can you show me? Please please please? C’mon, I showed you my super abs…”

Sprawling back against the bench, Ashley pressed the back of her hand to her forehead and let out a dramatic sigh. “Oh doctor, I hear Hakuna Matata every time I close my eyes! Why – it’s not a problem-free philosophy at all!!!”

The reference was most likely wasted on Alice, but Ashley was still amused by it.

She got really excited once Alice made the suggestion of touring. Ashley knew it was a possibility, but it just seemed so crazy right now. Would anyone even buy tickets to her shows? She’d be better off going as a support act first, probably, which would still be super cool. “Deal – wanna try and squeeze into my suitcase or shall we say you’re the official caterer?”

Giggling a little self-consciously, Ashley tucked her chin down to inspect her stomach. “These bad boys did take an unearthly number of sit-ups. I’ll take it.”

It was hilarious to think that Alice was thinking of her as the superhero when it was actually her brother who had developed magic powers. To be honest, Ashley was pretty sure that actual superpowers were definite trump cards against well-sculpted abs, no matter how impressive the workload had been to get them.

That wasn’t to say that Will hadn’t been through a lot to get his powers of course. Ashley was pretty sure that the mental scars from nearly dying ran deep enough not to be immediately soothed by the acquisition of supernatural abilities. As if that wasn’t bad enough, another five people had also had to go through the same trauma to achieve that miracle.

Alice had been through that trauma. She’d even ended up in a neighbouring ward. Yet, just like Will, there didn’t seem to be a scratch on her. Sure, Will hadn’t explicitly said that Alice was one of the group of six, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t one. It was all a bit too coincidental – why else would Will still be in touch with her?

“Hey, Alice?” Ashley suddenly became very interested in the papaya, keeping her eyes averted as she tried to think of how best to ask the question without a) outing her brother and b) sounding insane.

“You know Will from the hospital, right?” Ooh this papaya did look juicy – she was genuinely a little distracted by how tasty it looked.

Focus, Ash!

“Did you guys have the… uh, the same doctor?”

She finally tore her gaze from the papaya, looking up at Alice and trying her best to look utterly innocent. The question was definitely a little out of the blue but it wasn’t too weird, right? Either Alice would get what the question really meant, or she’d just think that Ashley was a little scatter-brained. Which is fine. She had her moments.

Ashley froze, actually a little taken aback for the first time in their exchange. She hadn’t expected Cory to jump to that kind of thing so soon – hadn’t really expected it at all. She thought that they were just sharing in their love for music. Was Cory actually serious? Surely she didn’t actually think that Ashley – or McKenna – was the type to want a housemaid in exchange for spreading the word of a good remix?

She’d had many tapes and tracks played to her from other aspiring artists and it kinda took the fun out of it once she realised that they were just talking to her so that they could get a foot in the door. If it was genuinely great then of course she wouldn’t just dismiss people’s work, but she’d rather promote people organically.

Biting her lip, Ashley looked at Cory in a mixture of confusion and apprehension. “No, I’m not kidding, it’s awesome. But umm… you really think I’m the kind to hire housemaids?”

There was genuine concern in her voice that this was in fact the impression she was giving off. Ashley cleaned her own damn home thank you very much.

“Sorry I just can’t tell if you’re kidding,” she added, giggling nervously. “But I… y’know. My butler handles all those duties anyway.” She stuck her tongue out teasingly, praying that Cory wouldn’t actually take her seriously. “And I don’t know Club 808… Not technically old enough for that kinda scene yet.”

Plus, too busy for clubbing. Ashley would rather stay up late working than dancing. The closest she really got to that recently was attending a few college parties for friends’ birthdays and the occasional events that McKenna Chase got invited to. They were fun and all, but nothing special and nothing she wanted to rush into. She probably didn’t have much credibility with clubs anyway, unfortunately for Cory. Her songs weren’t exactly dance music.

Although, Cory had transformed this one so far into something perfect for that kind of environment. Definite, definite potential!