"Thank you."

It was a quiet word, spoke by the woman I had just saved. A young boy clung to her tightly, tears streaking down his face. I put my hand on her shoulder, squeezing it slightly as she shook.

"You're welcome. It's late, how about I escort you both home?"

She nodded, reaching down to pick up her bag. I helped gather up her scattered groceries, using a quick bit of magic to clean off the street dirt. The little boy was still crying, and I knelt next to him.

"Hey, it's ok. You're safe little one. Do you want to ride Sinfil?"

At the mentioned of his name, my dire wolf companion looked up from the ground. He looked between myself and the child, before gently padding over. Behind him I saw a couple of guards pull away the damaged mugger, giving me a nod. I returned it, as Sinfil towered over the little boy. He gave the child a sniff, deciding he was neither threat nor food. He gave a couple of licks, getting a small giggle from the child.

"Here, let me help you."

I carefully lifted the boy, setting him on Sinfil's back. It earned me a slightly reproachful look, before he turned his head to lick at his tiny passenger. The woman gave a smile as her son gave another giggle, stroking the beast beneath him. I took the bag from her, before gesturing.

"Please, lead on. Let get you home."

"Thank you, its, um, this way."

She lead the way, quietly fiddling with a small necklace. Every few seconds she would glance back at her son, making sure he was still safe. I let her walk in silence for a bit, getting her thoughts ready, before I broke it.

"By the way, what are your names?"

She blushed a little.

"Oh, sorry! I'm Tira, and that Wanun."

"A pleasure to meet you, though I wish it had been under better circumstances. My name's Porra."

She gave a small smile at that.

"I know, you're the hero. It's funny, my husband has a sister with the same name."

"Oh?"

She gave a nod.

"Yes. Though, I haven't met her, they haven't spoken for years."

I felt a sense of almost dread. Not that something bad was going to happen, but that I almost knew who her husband was. We lapsed into silence, as she pointed to a house..

"There. That's home. Please, come in for a bit."

I smiled, though I felt uneasy. She went to her door, unlocking it. She pushed it open, calling out gently.

"We're home."

A familiar voice answered, one I hadn't heard in years.

"Hey. You were gone a little longer than I thought."

Sinfil followed her in, and I brought up the rear. It was a small room, with a warm fire. There was a simple table to one side, with a few chairs dotted around. On one chair sat a man with brown hair, in comfortable clothes. He looked at me, and his face tightened.

"You."

I gave an awkward smile.

"Hi Werro."

Tira looked between use, shock and understanding on her face.

"Wait, you're..."

Werri answered first, staring at me.

"Tira, this is my sister Porra. What are you doing here?"

I turned, helping little Wanun down.

"I helped save your family from a mugging."

He spun to look at Tira, panic on his face.

"Mugging?! Are you OK?"

She nodded, eyes flicking over to Wanun as Sinfil showed his belly.

"We're fine, just a bit shaken, thanks to Porra."

He looked back at me, sizing me up and down. It took him an effort, I could tell, as he spoke again.

"Thank you."

I gave him a nod, before looking around. The room was small, but cosy. It was something I had rarely experienced, one I felt incredibly out of place in. I looked back at my brother, still seeing the residue of resentment in him. With a small sigh I looked at Tira and Wanun, before returning my gaze to him.

"You're welcome. Listen, can we talk?"

He glanced to his family, before looking back at me. I could still recognise the curiosity in his face, as he nodded, moving to leave the room.

"I guess."

[Dinner Suggestion]

"Majesty? Everything okay?" John asked the question as soon as he turned the corner. His wife and their daughter stood in place with two strangers in front of them. One of the strangers was on the ground unconscious and the other stood behind him with a heroic pose; his hands rested on his hips with his elbows bent at a sharp angle. A blue cape billowed behind him.

"Johnny? Is that you?" the standing stranger pulled his dark blue eyemask off and grinned. John recognized his older brother instantly and a flash of surprise washed over his face.

"Hey... Josh," he replied. "Long time no see," John felt like he covered enough small talk and turned to his wife.

"What'd I miss?" he asked her.

"You missed me saving their lives," Josh chuckled. He nodded down at the unconscious stranger for effect. "But, don't take it to heart, Johnny. You couldn't have done anything even if you were here to take care of them. It's a good thing I happened to be flying by...," he added. Josh stepped over the mugger and smiled at Majesty. She was tall with deep purple hair and bronze skin.

"My name's Joshua, I'm Johnny's big brother; what's your name?" he asked as he extended a hand. She glanced at his hand, then locked eyes with him. She remained silent as she stared him down.

"This is my wife Majesty, and our daughter Royalty," John introduced them both; but, neither one smiled at Josh.

"You let a gorgeous woman like this walk around by herself? What kind of man are you, Johnny?" Josh asked. He made his appraisal of Majesty very apparent as he looked her up and down. When he looked back at his brother he found an annoyed glare. "You're not still bitter about me having Superpowers are you? I told you not to let it get to you, little bro, I can't help it if I was born better. "

"Actually, no," John shook his head. "I realized I was never bitter; you're the one that convinced me I was," he chuckled.

"Sure, if that's what you gotta tell yourself, Johnny. Go ahead and blame me; don't let anyone tell you you're being ungrateful." He turned his attention to Majesty again. He held up a light blue business card and offered it to her. "If you ever feel alone and unsafe, call me any time," he grinned. "I'll take care of anything that Johnny-boy can't." Majesty narrowed her eyes at him; but, a sudden giggle distracted both of them. Royalty giggled and pulled at John's sleeve. He smiled at her and leaned over so she could whisper something in his ear. He laughed and stood up again while patting Royalty on the shoulder.

"That would be funny, but let's not," he said. "He's still your uncle."

"What?" Josh asked. "What would be funny?" he looked down at the girl but she had a perfect, flat poker face.

"It's nothing," John replied. "Anyway, it was nice seeing you. Let's not hurry to do it again." He led the way forward with Majesty and Royalty behind him.

"Oh, Majesty, don't forget my card," Josh blocked her path and held the card up. "I'll take good care of you," he added. Majesty walked around him.

"My mom can take care of herself!" Royalty stopped in her tracks to chide Josh.

"Oh, can she?" Josh asked Royalty with a smirk.

"Yes!" Royalty replied.

"Come along, Royalty," Majesty spoke for the first time. "We don't have anything to prove to anyone."

"Hmph!" Royalty turned her nose up at Josh and walked around him to join her family.

"That's a nice family you've got there, little bro," Josh chuckled. "It was an honor to keep them safe for you!" he laughed harder.

"That's where I draw the line," Majesty stopped walking and turned to face Josh. She grabbed Royalty's hand and led her to Josh. "I don't care what you think of us, necessarily; but, I refuse to let you believe you helped in any way. Your brother is the best man I've ever met and there is nothing he needs your help for." Majesty raised her hand in front of him and she held it open as if she was about to grab something.

As soon as Josh focused on her hand, she squeezed it shut. At the same moment, cool dark soil entombed Josh's body from the neck down. "The mugger was no threat to me...," Majesty said. As she answered she raised her hand slightly and the earthen tomb around Josh also rose higher in the air. "None at all" Majesty flicked her hand up and Josh was sent flying straight up with the dust and dirt.

Josh managed to catch himself in the air and he floated down safely. Majesty had already turned away but Royalty stared into his eyes as he landed.

"Something I can do for you?" Josh asked. She grinned and nodded; but, she turned back to her parents. They stood some distance away waiting for her. John gave her an approving nod, then she turned back to Josh.

"Your card...," she said. He immediately pulled out the light blue card again.

"Yeah?" he asked. Maybe she had changed her mind.

"Eat it," she said.

"What?" Josh asked; but, that was the only question he managed to voice before he shoved the card into his mouth.

***
Thank you for reading! I’m responding to prompts every day. This is story #1721 in a row. (Story #275 in year five.). This story is part of an ongoing saga that takes place at a high school in my universe. It began on August 22nd and I will be adding to it with prompts every day until May 26th. They are all collected in order at this link.

Robin should have pressed the button the moment he saw the gun.

But he couldn't.

It wasn't that he didn't want her help, or at least, not just that he didn't want her help, but that there was still a part of him that hoped there was power in him, dormant and waiting for just the right moment to burst out of him, a moment that never appeared no matter how dire his circumstance.

So instead of pressing that button, instead of admitting he had little chance of solving anything on his own, he tried to be a hero. Tried to handle the situation cooly and calmly, give the mugger exactly what he wanted and let everyone walk away. He only wanted things, after all, and things could be replaced. It was a horrible circumstance: His daughter would probably need therapy and his wife would probably avoid taking shortcuts through alleys for a little while, but they would be fine. Everything would be fine, and he would still be powerless.

He realized that the moment Evangeline handed over her purse, as the gun came up and the mugger's finger pressed against the trigger and Lily screamed and his own fist tightened around the button and he was still powerless as he leapt for the mugger and grabbed his wrist and pulled it so it was pointing at him instead of his wife, instead of his daughter and the gun went off with an echoing bang that bounced back and forth and back and forth like thunder across an open sky and he waited for the pain to come but there was none.

For a brief moment he thought he finally had a power, that he was finally an heir to the legacy his great grandfather had started, but he already knew what he would see when he looked down at the gun and the mugger's wrist still clasped in his hands.

A green gloved fist closed around the bullet that could have killed him, burnished coppery gold rivets on the knuckles and a strike plate of the same color on the back of the hand. And when he looked down, that was indeed what he saw, and he followed her arm up to her face, where her face would be if it wasn't obscured by that great green hood that somehow contained shadows filled with starlight, and even though it had been years since they'd spoken, even though he couldn't see her face, he knew his sister was madder than he had ever seen her before.

"Drop the gun," she said, quiet and cold and furious and only mildly distorted by the whatever it was contained in her hood. "Drop the purse."

The mugger complied, eyes wide with fear, backing up and breaking Robin's. Whatever else he was, the erstwhile victim had to give him credit. He was smart enough not to run as Dawn Strider, the greatest and most powerful superhero, in the world knelt down to pick up both gun and purse from the ground. She tucked the gun into a pocket that looked far too small to hold it and yet did anyway before handing the purse back to Evangeline. From another pocket, one that hadn't existed until she reached into it, she took out a page of stickers, half of them gone, and applied one deftly to the mugger's forehead. It was a unicorn with a sparkly horn and so incongruous with the circumstance that no one knew what to make of it. Evangeline choked back a hysterical snort.

"That sticker was treated with a special compound designed by Cerilium Z," Dawn Strider said, still quiet and cold and furious. "It will not come off by normal means. Every police station in the city has the solution necessary to remove it. I suggest you go turn yourself in."

The mugger bolted.

Dawn Strider, as though only then realizing she still held the bullet that nearly killed Robin, opened her hand. The bullet tumbled to the ground, squished beyond all recognition. "I was nearly too late. Robin, I'm sorry."

"It wasn't your fault, Peregrine. I think he was already pulling the trigger by the time I called for you." As Robin finished speaking, he pulled a tiny fob from his pocket, turning it over in his palm. "I thought we'd be fine as long as we just gave him what he wanted."

"At least you kept it. When I sent it, for your wedding, I thought you might have just thrown it away."

"I took the peace offering for what it was. Lily and Jordan have the ones you sent for them on their keychains. I told them that if they're ever in trouble, all they needed to do was press the button and someone would come to save them."

Dawn Strider lowered her hood, the starlight streamed darkness vanishing like it had never been, revealing a half mask over her mouth and nose. Her eyes, like they always had when she used her powers, gleamed like a gentle sun. Sighing, she rubbed the side of her face with the side of her palm.

"All the same, I'm glad they've never had to use them. And... sorry. For everything. We probably won't talk again, so I just wanted to say that. At least once. My number hasn't changed."

She drifted lazily into the air, but Robin leapt forward again, catching her by the ankle before she rose too high.

"It was never your fault, Peregrine. Never. I just wanted to be a hero like you and Dad and Granny and I... I blamed you for getting the powers I never did. Can we... Do you want to get lunch some time this week? Bury the hatchet?"

"I'd like that. I'll text you tomorrow."

With a wave at Robin's confused wife and daughter, the latter of whom had whipped out her own key chain to look at her own fob, Dawn Strider flew up and up and up and turned into a streak of starry gold against the midnight sky.

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[removed]

Every thought in my head told me this was a bad idea. That I'd get absolutely nothing out of this I would actually appreciate and I should just walk out right now. But I was in the visiting room regardless, sitting in a chair and waiting. Because sometimes you need to find out if you're reopening an old wound or just checking to see if it's become a new scar yet.

A buzzing sound filled the room as a door from the other side of the indestructible glass opened. A figure in an orange jumpsuit and nullifier cuffs walked in and planted himself in his own chair. He was exactly as I remembered him, unfortunately: black, burn-like scales, spiked tail, fanged muzzle, and third eye in the middle of his forehead. With a smile that made my skin crawl, Andrew said to me, "Bienvenue, Leilani. Oh, my apologies, Guiding Star."

"Hey Andrew. Been a while."

"Five years, two months, and twenty-three days. But you know, who's counting?" Andrew leaned forward. "So, what psychopath hinting at a vague connection to me warranted this little miracle?"

"I... I stopped a mugging last night."

"A mugging? You know, I didn't have the highest opinion of you, but even I didn't think you'd be petty enough to--"

"It was Serena and Wyatt that were being mugged, Andrew."

"Oh." Andrew looked at the floor. "Are they... okay?"

I nodded. "Serena was a little shook up, but she was fine. But she misses you. She's scared she's gonna have to raise Wyatt without ever knowing his father, and that got me thinking about you, and I felt guilty about not visiting you all these years, so...here I am."

Andrew looked back up at me, his smile gone from his face like he never knew how to smile in the first place. "You want to know why, don't you?"

I wiped a tear from my eye as I responded, "Yes. I didn't have it in me to ask when you became Tuatara, but I want to know now. Why did you do it?"

A deafening silence blanketed the room for what felt like a lifetime before Andrew spoke again. "The day you created your first speed star to get to school on time was the greatest day of your life. But for me, it was the first nail in the coffin. I'd already gotten my eighth negative metagene test, and you were breaking land speed records. It didn't take a genius to foresee that dad would've given up on me after that.

"Life after that was just an exercise in how many nails the coffin could take. Seeing dad train you, coming home from school to see you hanging out with other heroes-in-training, your preliminary sketches for your uniform--it all just drove home that you were everything I always wanted to be. And the day you showed off your finished uniform was the day it finally clicked for me: I hated you. Not Leilani, but Guiding Star. The symbol of every opportunity I had been screwed out of.

"So when Serena and those other alien refugees showed up, and I heard about the virus they were carrying, I saw my chance. My chance to be special. To be somebody. To kill the people who ruined my life." Andrew looked at me and the tears streaming down my face and shrugged. "You asked."

I got out of my chair and walked up to the glass. "I'm sorry, I--I have to go now. I just... I miss my brother."

"And yet you're commiserating with the guy who killed him. Funny how that works."

In between sobs, I said to him, "Goodbye, Tuatara."

"Goodbye, Guiding Star. Don't come back."