Nobody knew me unless I allowed them to. It's not out of any particular need for anonymity. It's just because that's the way I am.

When I fight crime, they call me Reversal. Well, I called myself that--when I was younger, I cared a bit more about staying under the radar, and it dampens your dating life a little when men find out the petite, cute blonde they want to take home at the end of the night is actually a superhero who kicks ass and takes names during her lunch break. I guess it challenges their masculinity or something.

So I called myself Reversal and kept my power on low burn all the time. Anytime someone tried to get to know me, my power would force them the other way. In the end, those walls meant to protect me only succeeded in keeping out the good ones and letting the scumbags in.

When I finally figured out that those kinds of men aren't even worth my time, I gave up the ruse. I took off the mask. I updated my online dating profile with my superhero name in parentheses right there next to my real name. "Alicia Landrew, a.k.a. Reversal, accountant by trade and butt-kicking crime-fighter in my time off!"

The funny thing was, though, that no one believed me! For the longest time, they thought it was a joke! And admittedly, it took a while for me to fully dropkick that old habit of keeping my reversal powers on low burn out of my life, but even then, most of my friends just said, "Uh-huh, yeah, okay, sure, Li, you're a superhero."

"Yeah, Joan, my face is literally plastered over every news article!"

"Oh, right, I did get a push notification about that this morning. Cool, bro. Hey, are we still on for lunch later?"

I guess all we really see truly is nothing more than what we want to see.

I suppose that's why I agreed to meet up with Matthew. In the old days of masking my identity, I might have been very suspicious of getting a match with the one guy in the city who looked very, extremely, uncannily similar to the visor-clad supervillain Quantum Malice terrorizing the city in recent weeks. Surely, I once would have thought, this means he discovered my identity and is trying to get close to attack!

But I let my guard down. With the whole world basically responding with one gigantic shrug to my virtual unmasking, I didn't think very hard about the possibility of Quantum Malice attacking me through a dating app. He probably wouldn't believe I'm a superhero, either, right?

So I agreed to meet up for cakepops. Because, "I'll get you coffee, if you want, but I'm not a coffee fiend, myself." The way he had said it was just cute enough to intrigue me, plus I'd never been asked out for cakepops before, so I went. The city's greatest superhero, going on a date with the city's newest supervillain.

And later, its worst, most destructive, most notorious supervillain.

Matthew was a troubled soul.

And that's when I finally admitted to myself my sheer stupidity, the flaw with being a superhero in the dating game. Now, the villains I faced were not just villains. They were people.

It completely changed how I approached heroism. Because I could not just defeat Matthew in combat. I could not lay a hand on him. I loved him.

I loved him.

I absolutely, wholly, truly, wonderfully, loved my archnemesis.

And that's how I fought him. I loved him. Every date, every conversation, every late night sharing secrets, I loved him. Every part of him.

Did he know that I was Reversal? Of course--I never hid it. Did he believe it? I think so. I truly think so. And that drew me to him, too. He believed me. And I know he believed me because he chose me as his archnemesis. He, as Quantum Malice, rose up against me, as Reversal, at every turn.

And finally, people began to see. Once we gave them something to look at, they began to watch. Hero Reversal and Villain Quantum Malice, veritable gods eternally clashing in an endless dance of good versus evil!

He had to have known all along, he had to have believed me, because he would not have aided in giving me a name otherwise.

And he always, always, let me win.

That was how I knew he loved me. He stopped being a supervillain for just himself. He used it to support me, never hurt me. He loved me, and it made him a better person.

And I like to think he made me a better person, too, even if he did not know it. I no longer cared about whether everyone else believed I was a superhero. He knew, and he cared, and I realized that was all I wanted.

Did he know I knew he was actually the supervillain Quantum Malice? I highly doubt it. He would not have kept up the charade if he had. But that was okay.

Because the son of a bitch finally got his act together and proposed.

The Horace Tower was going to fall.

People were panicking. Chooser, a hero with lasers that he could shoot out of his index fingers, had accidentally fired a ray straight through the infrastructure of the Horace Tower, throwing the whole metropolis into chaos. The battle was still raging on, as heroes attempted to battle the Core of Fear out of their stronghold in the old city. Explosions, back and forth, chewed through the earth, as the Core of Fear simply attempted to cause as much chaos as possible before escaping with their lives and as much money as possible.

I, of course, had been on standby for the last couple months, and I could feel myself straining. That strength in me, begging to be unleashed. The "Inner Justice" I called it, trying to egg its way out, trying to show itself. Still, I was only on standby because I had a different job- I worked as a cook in an old diner, one of the few remaining mom and pop shops in the larger, much more corporate metropolis of Pinkerton.

I looked around the store real quick. We were on quiet time- not many customers came in for the little gifts, jewelry, and food that Papa Harold liked to sell, at noon.

"Hey, imma head on break real quick." I noted to Harold.

"Sure, just be back in 15." he waved me off.

"Got it!" I smiled.

I darted out the back of the store, and, looking at Horace Tower, blinked.

I felt my "Inner Justice" start to surge, flowing through my body. Slowly, I felt my heart start to pump a little harder in my chest, before I felt another pumping in sync, on the other side of my chest. I felt an aura, as if I was being hugged, come over me, the aura of my power- my super power- start to form. It was transparent, unseeable, but it radiated outwards, nothing quite like it.

I only then heard the other voice in my head.

>You only wake me up in times of crisis, babes. Can't we just chat once in a while?
>
>Oh, come on! It's not like I have much time in between you and Linda.
>
>Oh, there's a Linda now? You never told me about a Linda.

I felt something rub my hair.

>Well, I'm sorry, you tend to mock me over that stuff.
>
>Well, I'm sorry that being the literal spirit of the universe means that my consciousness isn't normally all that connected when I'm not awakened by you. Do you know how boring it is to sit around doing nothing?
>
>No, but I do know that that tower is going to be destroyed if nobody does anything, which seems to be a problem.

I pointed a finger at the tower, while using my eyes to glance around at all the people fleeing it.

>Well, that seems to be an issue.
>
>Wanna do something about it?
>
>Will you keep me awake more often?
>
>When I'm not at work, yeah.
>
>Your promise?

I sighed internally.

>Fine, I promise.
>
>Well then, let me do my thing.
>
>Alrighty, go ahead.

Immediately, I felt my arms and legs move without my consent, my body flying up into the air at mach speeds. My eyes could barely keep up as I was essentially puppeted through the air by a benevolent, godly force, placed right in front of Horace Tower, and saw some small text in the bottom of my vision.

^(Execute HoraceTower.spawn.exe)

The tower, all the grime and dents and wear and tear that showed in the structure from 25 years of constant use by big name companies, immediately ceased to exist, replaced by one with all the equipment that was previously inside, intact, and all the info, undamaged.

I looked down, and the people once there immediately went from panicked, to cheering, no confusion, none at all.

>Oh, and by the way...

I wrested control back of my neck, and looked down at all the fighting going on in the old city. Thankfully, nothing of importance had been destroyed yed.

>Oh shit, that's Jerry! Yeah, I wanna mess with that little bastard.

My eyes were turned towards one of the Pillars of the Core of Fear. Some sort of explosive power, that allowed him to turn himself into a living bomb and regenerate instantly, essentially acting as TNT.

^(Disabling PvP and World Destruction Add Ons...)

The heroes and villains continued to fight for a little while, at least 10 more seconds, before none of them realized they were doing anything. Jerry tried exploding. Not even a hole where he once was.

>Should we eve re enable PvP?
>
>Oh, trust me, it makes it more fun when we do.
>
>You know what? Fair.

I looked down at the people. Most of them were cheering, looking up at me, shouting.

"Banana Man! BANANA MAN! I LOVE YOU!"

Something struck me that I hadn't thought of in a while.

>Hey, so I don't have any sort of transformation when I summon you, right?
>
>No, I don't think so. You awaken me, and that's it. Why you asking sweety?
>
>Nobody has ever recognized me when I awaken you. Even when I show them you, nobody remembers. You know why that is?
>
>Oh, you finally noticed?
>
>What do you mean, finally noticed?
>
>Look at it from their angle for a moment.

Suddenly, I was looking not from my own eyes, but from one of the cheering crowd members. I looked not like David, the cashier for a small trinkets shop, but like a literal, ten foot tall banana. I tried shifting only my head back, but it literally just disappeared from their view. Then, as it reappeared, I felt their memory shift.

I was being messed with.

>Oh, fuck you!
>
>You still willing to go out for dinner?

I grumbled.

>You're paying.
>
>Finally!

"Where is he? He's taking forever!"

Relia stomped her foot, her eyes darting around as she tried to look for me. I could see the way her cape fluttered in the wind, and the way the sequins on her shirt glittered in the mid-afternoon sun.

"It's not like him to be late," John responded. I believed he changed his name again, so calling him Omni-Man probably wasn't accurate anymore. I think I'm going to call him John for now. "He's usually punctual. Sometimes he even shows up before I do."

I'd never shown up before him. Not a single time. Every time he thought I'd beaten him here, he'd actually been talking to someone he saw on the street.

"You'd think that he'd be a bit more respectful," grunted Charlie. She was a huge, towering mass of a woman, with a forearm thicker than my entire head. She had her arms crossed as she glared at the people walking around below them. None of them had the slightest idea that, if she wanted to, this woman could sneeze all of their lives away. "Today is the day of his induction into the League. He could afford to at least show up on time."

In truth, I had been here from the very beginning. I was just as excited to join the League as she expected me to be. As per usual, I had arrived exactly on time, and John, of course, arrived sometime before me. I sat down, saying hi to the man before pulling out a sandwich and starting to eat.

Charlie came shortly after I took my first bite and Relia came shortly after her. They had all said hi to me, then started talking amongst each other.

The instant they took their eyes off of me, they had forgotten about me. They didn't bother to spare a glance at me, and their eyes roamed over mine as they looked around.

Honestly, I couldn't blame them. That was simply the nature of my power. People started to forget my existence the instant they couldn't directly perceive me. I needed to grab their attention manually if I wanted to speak with them.

"Should I call him?" asked Relia. She pulled out her phone. It was an outdated thing, not even touchscreen, but it managed to get the job done. "I think I can reach him if I called."

She had actually called before, and I told her where I was. They all looked at me afterwards, then turned to each other to ask if anyone had seen me arrive. The instant they did, they forgot that I was there.

"I think his phone died," John responded. That was, of course, untrue. But that was also the nature of my power. It came up with excuses for people to not question my absence. More likely than not people didn't even question my disappearances, even when the event was focused solely around me. "I think I remember him telling me that this morning."

"The boy cannot even keep his phone charged?" Charlie asked, both her eyebrows and her tone rising with her indignation. "I'm beginning to regret the decision to add this man to our ranks."

At this, both John and Relia turned, dissent rising on their tongues. It was time to stop messing around, it seemed.

"I'm here," I said, my voice tired and hoarse. Believe it or not, having a superpower this strong was tiring, especially when you couldn't turn it off. I had become comfortable with not interacting with most people, but when the situation forced my hand I found myself screaming to keep their eyes on me. "I've been here for the past half an hour."

Once again, the trio of people turned to me, their eyes wide as they finally noticed me sitting with them.

"That's impos-"

"Yes, I know it's impossible," I said, cutting her off. If I kept her talking, then she would turn to the others in order to confirm with them whether I was here or not. I couldn't have that. I didn't want to wait another half an hour to get this over with. "Can we cut through the chit-chat and get this over with? I want to get home in time for my favorite stream to come on."

The three were about to look at each other. I could see it in their body posture. I snapped, bringing their attention back towards me.

"Hey, listen. I know I'm being rude, and I'm sorry about that, but I need you guys to listen to me. My power is to make others forget about me. I'm something of a self-protecting meme. No one can really keep an image or a memory of me in their head unless I will it to be so, and especially not if I don't want them to. This is the third time that we've had this conversation, and I don't really have the time to keep this up for a fourth time. So can we please hurry this along?"

They were lost for words. That was normal. I snapped my fingers again and drew their attention.

"Are there any regulations that I need to join the League? Any important documents that I need to sign?"

Charlie shook her head. She started to turn once more, but I snapped my fingers. The thing about the finger snapping was that it only worked once or twice. Any more than that, and the effect started to wane. I could already see Charlie's eyes drifting towards my teammates. I had to be quick.

"Wait," I said, my voice frantic. "I just ask that you keep your eyes on me. I know that it sounds ridiculous, but my power only works once you stop paying attention to me."

My ability also made it so that any feats I attained would remain in the minds of the masses if enough people remembered it. Except, of course, the nature of my ability. I once explained it to a live audience and a camera that broadcasted it to millions of people. I was sure that it was on every streaming service and there was even a video on Youtube.

And yet, of course, no one seemed to remember.

"Can you just give me the registration form, or whatever?" I pleaded. Charlie nodded, then reached inside her cape. She pulled out a sheaf of paper that was thicker than my hand from thumb to pinkie and handed it over.

"Thank you," I said. I then pulled out my phone and took a selfie with the packet of papers. "I'm going to send that picture to you guys as soon as I'm gone. It won't be enough to remind you of everything, but at least you'll all know that you can go home."

I walked over to the edge of the roof. I sat on the edge, then waved at them.

"Bye," I said, then leaned backwards until I was falling off. I heard them yell after me, but both their concerns and their voices died out as they lost sight of me and I ceased to exist in their minds.

I sighed. It was a deep, heavy thing. My ability was powerful, but only so much in that I knew how to use it. On every other day being the most forgettable man was annoying. It was why I didn't even have a superhero name. I didn't even have a secret identity. No one would remember it, anyway.

As the ground rushed towards me I sighed again, then blinked as I suddenly stopped falling.

It wasn't like I had anything to fear from falling, after all. It wasn't as if gravity would remember to act on me.

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[Not a full story. Just some back of the napkin development. Feedback and critiques appreciated.]

Growing up, the movies made it seem like telepaths were involuntarily invading peoples privacy, going crazy with all of the different voices in their head. Meanwhile, things like controlling peoples minds took training. Practice.

That's horseshit, for the record. Everything that a person thinks is broadcast as a signal. You have to pick up on that signal to know what someone is thinking. Tuning in to the right frequency is difficult. Broadcasting on the other hand, now that's the easy part. Took me a little while to even realize what I was doing. The only reason I noticed in the first place was because things were going too smoothly. The biggest tip was when I was at work, swamped with responsibilities, practically begging the clock to speed up and let me go home. The head doctor walked past me at that moment and told me to take the rest of the day off, leaving the rest of my work to my team.

I know. That is the most out of pocket thing an American manager can do. I didn't go. Obviously. I became a traveling nurse to help people. Not so I could shirk responsibilities.

The jump from average Joe to superhero Joe was a no-brainer after that. The best part? People only remember me when I want them to. The whole world knows who I am and what I can do. At the end of the day, I don't want people to come harassing me at my doorstep. So they don't.

Or, they didn't. Turns out the only thing that can interfere with my telepathy is someone else's telepathy. I have full controll of people close by, but now that I don't have half the planet engulfed in my will, every journalist is hunting me. The worldwide effect of everyone forgetting me now only works in a radius of about a mile. Everything else is canceled out by whoever this other person is.

"Some of us are born with greatness, some of us become great, and some have greatness thrusted upon us," they say. I think I maybe be all three.

I think I was born with superpowers, I mean nothing happened to me. I didn't get hit with a doses of radiation or a shooting star. There was no toxic spill. I was an orphan at a young age, so it's not like I could just my parents or friends of theirs.

But one day, I relized I could shoot lasers out of my eyes and fly. Ensue failure montage. I was waiting for a suppervillian that would never come. I got a job as an accountant. But one day I saw a little girl about to be hit by a reckless driver, so I jumped out my window and flew to save her without a disguise.

I was nervous about going back to work the next day. About all the big news. But no one treated me any differently. This happened a few more times where my mask just wouldn't stay on. But no one seemed to care to talk to me about such actvities. "Didn't you watch the news?" I once asked someone.

"Every now and again, but not usually," they'd commonly reply.

I even picked up a paper that had me on the cover and told someone this is me. But they just looked at me weird and continued on with their walk.

I even went up to my long time friend Emily and asked her if she recongnized me. "Um yeah?" she questioned.

I was on the news! I said. slightly irritated that she and no one else didn't seem recognize me.

"Oh, what for?" she asked.

"I'm the town hero," I said.

"uh-huh" she said.

"You don't believe me? Don't you seem the resemblence?" I asked.

"I'm sorry but you two looking nothing alike." she replied. "I Have to go, cake in the oven"

I couldn't believe it, I was fighting bank robbers and saving people from disasters, but people didn't seem to be grateful at all outside of those events.