“Yes, that’s absolutely fine Robyn. If anything I think you deserve a break after the break in and all that.” Larissa says. I’ve called her to put in for a two week holiday which is something I’ve discussed with The Weird Sisters, as my sponsorship apparently requires a training program to ‘get the sponsor up to EHF standards’.

  “Thanks, Larissa. I’m gonna put the time to good use and get some proper rest,” I say, chuckling, “anyway, I’ll see you in two weeks time, bye.”

  “Sure thing, bye Robyn.” Larissa replies and the line goes click as she hangs up, and I drop my phone back into my pocket.

  I know I could’ve just quit my job at the museum, but there’s still a small part of my brain that worries I’m gonna fail this training at some way, and I’ll have to go back to being just your run of the mill normal woman. Even though no training program can take away the powers I now have, despite coming about them some weird way.

  It’s been a few days now since I got the weird letters and I’ve been mostly thinking about the one that said I don’t have the Extra-Human gene, and I can’t for the life of me figure out where else my powers could have come from. The internet was no help, most places just say that the only known way for powers or abilities to manifest is the Extra-Human gene. My main concern with this is who exactly sent me that letter and surely Efflorescent saw the computer result. I keep hoping that she sent me the letter, but I’m not entirely sure that my luck would bear that out.

  I sigh, knowing there’s not much I can do about it for now. Seems like both the letter and the note I got are just a waiting game for now. So, I’m just going to focus on the training program and hoping I’m up to snuff.

  A couple days later and I find myself inside The Weird Sisters’ HQ ready to start my training. It’s just me and Shelter here today as Shard is off in London for some EHF team leader meeting, or “checking in with the head-honchos” as Shelter put it, and Efflorescent is somewhere ‘tending to her Garden’ whatever that means.

  “So…” Shelter begins, as we both stand in the training room at the HQ. It’s a massive square shape room, the walls made of a shining metal material and the ceiling extending far, far above and made of the same material. “Before I go over how we’re gonna do the training, Shard asked me to do another, more in depth, test of one of your powers. We sometimes do this if the computer struggled to pick up all the details the first time and things like that. The power in question is your void power.” She finishes, beaming at me.

  “My… void power?” I ask. I have a good idea which one she’s talking about, but I hate getting things wrong, and I especially don’t want Shelter to think I’m stupid.

  “Yes, the one were you generate what is essentially super-powered darkness, and your eyes apparently go a little wild,” she says with a little pout, “me and Shard and Efflorescent were talking about it after you showed us all and I said it was like a void out of some Lovecraft thing, especially with how you described what happened to that sketchy dude.”

  I nod, it seems like as good a term as any to use. “So, I’ve been practising with that one when I’ve had free time and I’ve kinda gotten a little control over it. It’s quite difficult though.” I tell her, proud of the progress I’ve made.

  “Okay then, that’s great to hear! What we’ll do is one time like before, go all out so the computer can record it all and then I can see what progress you’ve made with the finer control.” Shelter says, smiling at me as if she really is proud of me. Then she walks over to one corner of the room, slides over a section of the wall and presses some buttons before replacing it. Finally she nods at me before facing the wall.

  I take a deep breath and once again wrap the darkness—or void, I guess—around me, and I once again feel my eyes shift in that indescribable way. I hold it for 10 or so seconds before dropping it again and things return to normal. “Okay, all done,” I say.

  Shelter turns around and rejoins me in the centre of the room. “So, you’ve managed to get some control over that power then?” she asks, seeming genuinely interested.

  “Yeah, so I can do just the darkness, or just the eyes, and when I do just the eyes it feels nowhere near as intense as when I go all out, so I’m hoping the effect is nowhere near as intense?” I tell her, hoping I’ve interpreted things correctly.

  “Awesome! That sounds great Robyn!” Shelter enthuses. “If you do the eyes then I’ll see what it is. Should be fine if it feels less intense.”

  I nod, a little overwhelmed by her enthusiasm. I close my eyes and concentrate on just the feeling of my eyes changing like I’ve practised before. IO slowly open my eyes, hoping that Shelter doesn’t get hurt, I’m not sure I could ever forgive myself. As I open my eyes, I can see as if there’s no shadows in the room at all and I’m distracted looking around the room, until I hear Shelter gasp. I look I her direction in panic but she’s just staring at my eyes, mouth agape.

  “They’re so… pretty…” she murmurs, almost to herself, I think.

  “I… what?” I ask, feeling a blush rising on my cheeks.

  “Oh! I’m sorry, I just… Your eyes, they’re kinda like windows into the universe, the dark is so deep, but you can see stars of all kinds of colours, I think. It’s kinda hard to focus but also really easy to at the same time. I can see how if this was way more intense it might make someone react, umm, poorly.” Shelter rambles, her eyes never leaving mine.

  Unable to stay calm after receiving such compliments, I let go and my eyes return to normal as I blink. “Uhh, your eyes are super pretty too,” I say, unable to stop myself.

  “T-thanks!” Shelter replies, blushing as well now, with a wide grin on her face.

  My anxiety flares and I almost instinctively cover myself in darkness, but it stays on my body and doesn’t darken my surroundings at all.

  “Hey, you don’t need to hide yourself Robyn! I’m sorry I got all caught up in... I just… I don’t socialise much outside of the team, and I get a bit ahead of myself with you joining is all.” She chuckles, looking at me sheepishly, “Being over-excitable is a defining trait of mine, as I’m sure Shard and Efflorescent will tell you.”

  “Okay, it’s fine. I’m just very not used to compliments, given my…” I clear my throat, losing the confidence to talk about being trans with Shelter. “I also don’t socialise with anyone other than my best friend, so I get the excitement of joining the team.”

  “Given your what?” Shelter asks, a gleam in her eyes, as it seems she won’t let me just leave that part of the conversation alone. “I reckon you’re plenty cute to get compliments to be honest.” She says, winking at me.

  I pause, momentarily frozen by indecision, before ploughing onwards. “I’m trans! I’m a trans woman!” I blurt out, my breaths short as I struggle against the panic.

  “Oh… oh!” Shelter gasps. “Well, you don’t need to worry about that at all, we’re all some flavour of queer on this team, but that’s not the point. I’m not saying that worrying was silly or something, I know given the state of the country that you never know what people are going to say or think, but I just wanna make sure that you know me and Shard and Efflorescent are a safe space for you and this whole team will 1,000% go to bat and support you. Oh gods, I’m gonna shut up now, I can tell I’m rambling, sorry…” Shelter, takes a deep breath, and smiles softly at me.

  “I… I… Thank you Shelter, that means a lot. It just never came up and I couldn’t find anything about it online, apart from one news article about you, erm, defending yourself from paparazzi while on a date with a woman?” I pause to take a deep shuddering breath as I slowly start to calm down.

  Shelter laughs despite herself. “Look, I was honestly just trying to make sure they didn’t get too close, I didn’t realise he wouldn’t realise the shield was there and run head first into it!”

  Her laugh is so infectious I can’t help but join in.

  “But yes, as a way of introduction, I’m Shelter, I can’t tell you my actual name yet, but my pronouns are she/they and I’m a lesbian. I’m also a firm trans ally, as are Shard and Efflorescent.” Shelter proudly proclaims, holding her hand out to me. “I’ll wait for Shard and Efflorescent to tell you their own sexuality and all that, but just know that Shard’s pronouns are they/them and Effy’s are she/her.”

  I shake her hand as I take in this new information that my teammates-to-be are more queer than I thought they might be at first.

  “Anyway, that’s almost all the official stuff for today, I just need to go over the schedule for the next week, but we can do that in the HQ’s lounge area where it’s a tad more comfortable than this metal box, eh?”

  I nod and follow her out of the room, as she quickly walks down the corridor deeper into the building.

  The week of training progresses pretty smoothly and before I know it, the week is almost over. I’ve had a one-on-one session with each member of the team: Shelter on Monday, Efflorescent on Tuesday, and Shard on Wednesday, followed by a training session with all three of them yesterday. I’ve done sessions on ‘being creative with my powers’, ‘being aware of my environment’ and ‘rules and standards for an EHF SRT’. That last one basically melted my brain, I didn’t even realise the team of Extras was called a Special Response Team. The training with all three of them, was a kind of general combat and fitness session and was exhausting in ways I didn’t know I could feel.

  The agenda for today is some kind of test that all three of The Weird Sisters will put me through, and then the training will be finished and I’ll have to see if I can join them properly.

  As I walk towards The Weird Sisters HQ my mind drifts to thinking about Shelter, as it often does recently. I know that I’m not developing feelings like that, she’s just so fucking cool, I wanna hang out with her all the time. It doesn’t help matters that I think she’s like, the cutest fucking person I’ve ever seen. I’m not too oblivious to not notice my normal patterns here: first, the infatuation with a person, then the stagnating of the initial interest, and then the inevitable fall out when my emotions fail me once again.

  My hopes here are that nothing happens from the infatuation so I can just deal with my emotions stalling, or not showing up, by myself and not affect the team.

  Gods, I fucking hope I don’t fuck any of this up.

  As I walk down the main street, threading my way through the crowds, my phone start to vibrate in my pocket. Sighing, I pull the phone out of my pocket and check the caller ID. It says private number, I roll my eyes, expecting some marketing call or a robocaller and I duck into a nearby alleyway, standing between a skip and some wooden crates, so I can actually answer the call.

  “Hello!?” a frighteningly familiar voice says loudly on the other end of the line. As I hear this my heart sinks like a lead weight. My mouth dries up and I can’t speak.

  “I can hear you on the other end! I can’t believe I’ve finally gotten through to you, it shouldn’t be so difficult to get in touch with my son.” The voice on the other end says indignantly.

  I hear the word son and it’s like my connection with the real world falls out of sync, I can just hear a droning, buzzing sound, everything else falls, muffled into the background. “I’m not… How did…” I manage mutter, my voice scraping along my throat, almost verging on physical pain. The buzzing intensifies until all I can hear is the odd word coming from the phone, “ashamed”, “family”, I’m pretty sure I heard my deadname within the noise too, typical behaviour of my adoptive parent who I haven’t seen or heard from since I left home to escape their transphobia.

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  I try to catch my breath which seems weirdly too fast, but I can’t. I can feel myself slipping. The buzzing is louder now and getting so fast it’s almost turning into one single tone. My breath speeds up again, I can’t see out of my eyes, everything is darkness on top of a deeper darker darkness, I think I might be having a panic attack? Suddenly I have the sensation of falling and with a giant slamming sound, everything is still. I’m not falling, I can see the alleyway and while I’m gasping for breath, I can breath now, I can already feel them calming down. I only regain a level of calmness for a moment though, because then, I see the alleyway.

  The skip, and the debris inside it, is… half melted? The crates on the other side of the alley are shattered and there is a huge crack going down the floor of the alleyway. I take a step back in utter shock and dust falls out of my hand.

  Is that… my phone!?

  I unclench my fist, not realising it was still clenched and the rest of the phone dust falls to the floor. I take a step back, taking in the chaos around me, still shaking slightly from the phone call and the idea that I did all of these things to the alleyway. I sit on the floor, my back to the nearest wall and try to calm my breaths. After several minutes like this the shaking has mostly subsided and my breaths are back to a normal cadence and I stand up, remembering I actually was on my way to my final test.

  Fuck me, I’m gonna be so late.

  I check the time and see that I still have half an hour until I need to be there, and reasoning that I can maybe make it there on time still, or maybe a tiny bit late, I brush myself down and head back to the main street.

  By the time I’m in the right area of the city, I’ve already lost the probably naive optimism that I was going to be on time and have accepted my lateness. The main problem is my only way of letting The Weird Sisters know I’m running late is currently dust in a destroyed alleyway. I let out a sigh and start walking a little faster.

  I can’t help but agonise about this final test, which apparently needs every member of The Weird Sisters present. A small part of my mind still insists there’s some kind of fight between me and them as a final test and I’m pretty sure they’d steamroll me, but while Shelter wouldn’t tell me much over text and was actually very secretive, she said it’s nothing like that. Shard and Efflorescent were even tighter lipped and wouldn’t even hint at anything. I still haven’t ‘come out’ so-to-speak to them yet, despite Shelter’s assurances that it wouldn’t be a problem. Hanna’s told me over and over again that most people don’t have a problem with it and I should just be honest but I really struggle with it. But aside from that I think that the unknown part of this final test just makes me anxieties about telling them worse.

  I promise that I’ll tell them after this final test. If none of my accessories I’m wearing today give the game away… Gods, I hope they do.

  I’m so engrossed in my own thoughts as I walk, I don’t even notice the three police cars pulled up to the path until I’m being ushered away by a police officer. I look up, startled, suddenly paying attention to my surroundings as my ESP flares out around me. I immediately sense the building in front of me and the 28 people inside. I stare at the building, seeing that it’s a bank.

  “Excuse me miss?” the police officer in front of me says, “I’m gonna need you to stay back, we’ve got a situation happening in the bank.”

  “Oh! Sorry, what’s happening?” I ask, still looking at the bank. Maybe a bank robbery?

  “Sorry miss, but I can’t disclose any details. Just know that this is a very serious incident and you should leave the area for your safety.” The officer intones like it’s the fiftieth time they’ve said that already.

  “Oh, sorry, sorry, thank you officer.” I say, and start walking away, still paying more attention to the people I can sense in the bank. As soon as I’m across the street, I sense two of the people move away from the same group, I know I want to do something to help… but what?

  Just then I see three girls, all with cameras, approach the officer and start animatedly talking to him. I can’t make out any of their conversation but I’m sure I hear the word ‘extra’ in the mix. Deciding to take advantage of the officer’s distraction, I gather a little void around me, just so people can’t see my clearly or identify me, and taking a breath I blink into a side room in the bank that I know has no one in it.

  I look around, taking in my surroundings, hoping no one saw me just disappear outside. The side room turns out to be an office, just like I thought. The door hangs off of one hinge, and the office chair is no longer behind the desk that I’m stood next to, but strewn across the floor. Seems pretty clear that someone was dragged out of this room by force. I spot a fire extinguisher on the ground and pick it up to use as a weapon, seeing as I don’t really have any offensive abilities.

  I gather myself and step forward to peer out of the door. I head towards where I can sense the two people further into the bank, trying to be as quiet as I can, keeping at least some of the void around me at all times. Finally, after what seems like several minutes of anxiety inducing creeping, I reach a shut double door. I can sense the two people on the other side of it and can actually hear the sounds of whatever they’re doing with my ears. I close my eyes, focusing on the two people I can sense through the doors, as I focus my sense of them becomes clearer and clearer and I can tell that one of them clearly has a gun in his hand. Steeling myself I blanket the room through the doors in the void and then blink into it amidst the two cries of alarm that spring up.

  It once again strikes me as immensely weird that I can still see and everyone else is rendered blind. I take advantage of the chaos, not wanting to take anybody chances when someone in the room has a gun, and dart forward, raising the fire extinguisher. Typically, I misjudge either the distance or my own speed and collide with the guy with the gun. Luckily, for me and not him, the raised fire extinguisher collides with his face just before the rest of me collides with him, and I hear a distinct crunch just before he goes sprawling across the room, thudding into the far wall before going still.

  Wincing at how I very nearly messed that bit up, I drop most of the void, just keeping it around myself to guard my identity. I turn to the other person here, who I can see is some kind of employee.

  “You’re an Extra?” He asks me, his voice quavering.

  “Y-yeah.“ I stammer. “That’s me. I’ a local and I was in the area and I wanted to see if I could help out.” I try and put on a smile, although I’m not sure if it really comes across with my features being obscured by the void.

  “Well, I sure am glad you were in the area, no matter what. I’m just the assistant manager here. Do you happen to know what was happening outside? There’s just a whole group doing this robbery.” He says, with a tired grin.

  “Well, the police had the place surrounded. Looked like they were waiting for something.” I tell him, thinking back to my very brief interaction with the police officer outside.

  “Ugh, that sounds typical. The police have to wait for confirmation of any Extra-Human presence. Ever since that time a couple years ago they really drag their heels about it.”

  “A couple years ago?” I ask, confused.

  “Yeah, it was a nasty bank robbery. The police didn’t wait for their confirmation and moved in and, well… the entire squad didn’t walk out again.” He tells me, a grimace on his face.

  “Jesus Christ…” I whisper. “Well, hopefully you can help me sort this bank robbery out with no such tragedies, eh?”

  “Of course,” he says, nodding. “Well, before I got dragged out here I counted 6 or 7 in the group and only this one,” he gestures to the unconscious man slumped against the wall, “and one other seemed to have guns. Last I saw there were two in the internal foyer of the bank, which is between here and the main lobby and everyone else, including the hostages, were in that main lobby.”

  “Okay, great, thanks for all your help.” I say smiling.

  “Okay, I’m going to go hide in my office now. Good luck.” He says, as he walks off down the side corridor I originally came from.

  I take a moment to gather myself and pick up the fire extinguisher from where it landed on the floor, and head towards the main lobby.

  I walk towards the internal foyer of the bank, optimism surging through me at taking ownership of the a bad guy and saving the assistant manager of the bank. And just like every suddenly over confident person with Extra-Human abilities ever, I immediately fuck up, by not checking ahead of me, and walk round the corner to be spotted by the two criminals that I was told were here.

  Fuck!

  I panic and quickly blanket the whole room in the void, as the two goons shout in alarm, and then shout in panic. I look at the goons, the one on the right is wearing a baseball cap and looking around wildly, gripping a baseball bat and the one on the left is wearing the most oversized leather jacket I’ve ever seen, and is staring at where I am, seemingly at the last thing he saw before it all went dark. I fling the fire extinguisher at baseball cap on the right, I think that baseball bat could be bad news, and it sails forward, but not exactly where I’d intended and it clips him on the shoulder with a rather meaty thud and he spins, losing his footing and going down with a yelp. Before I can even think of my next move, as I’m now weaponless, Leather jacket, sprints forward and somehow manages to nudge me to the side, sending me stumbling, but I don’t fall over. I shrink against the wall to the side as Leather Jacket carries on running, screaming now, face first into the wall and crumples to the floor.

  What the fuck…

  Baseball Cap is, by this point, back on his feet and brandishing his baseball bat.

  “Who the fuck is there! Why can’t I see!” He shouts, his pitch rising as he does.

  I scramble for some kind of way to beat this guy, but my lack of a weapon is a big obstacle. Suddenly, I remember a thing I wanted to test but never could. I wanted to know if the stars in my eyes can be seen by people blinded by the void. Out of options I decide to test it and I let the stars fill my eyes just as Baseball Cap looks in my direction. I see the moment he notices as his eyes widen more than I would have thought is possible and he lets out an absolutely bloodcurdling scream before hurling the baseball bat in my direction and collapsing to the floor. I try to move to the side to avoid the bat, but it still collides with my knee and I feel a jolt of agony shoot up my leg and I stifle a cry, stumbling backwards again. As I do I drop the void smothering the room and I hear the noises from the main lobby.

  Oh fuck me sideways…

  That’s definitely one of the last criminals shouting something to me.

  “Hey, we know you’re in there you fuck! Come out with your hands up, I have a gun!”

  Well, that’s not good. I shroud my entire self in the void and step through the door into the main lobby.

  As soon as I step through, I see a mix of expressions on the remaining goons faces. There’s one up front looking absolutely fucking furious. He’s the one with the gun which is squarely pointed in my direction. Then off to the side is a large group of people sat on the floor and the last two goons on either side of them both of them have what look to be police baton-type things and looks of abject terror on their faces.

  The guy in the front starts shouting again. “I don’t know what the fuck you even are, freak. But if you don’t leave I’m gonna get one of my friends to start hurting the hostages.”

  “Look, putting aside the fact that you’re being mean for absolutely no reason, the other three members of your group are not waking up anytime soon and the police had this place surrounded before I even got here. There’s no exit for you.” I say, expecting to hear my normal voice but what comes out is distorted, almost garbled and probably makes me seem scarier.

  Jesus, what can’t this void stuff do?

  “I don’t fucking believe you, you fucking monster!” The guy with gun yells at me, getting more unhinged as the seconds tick by.

  I stand there, unsure how to break this stalemate. One of the baton goons, tries to speak up, “Boss, I can hear-“ but he is cut off by said boss. “Gods shut up already!”

  This situation is deteriorating quickly but can’t figure out a way out of it. Then, that’s when I hear whatever that goon was trying to alert his boss to. It’s like a low whine but rapidly getting higher pitched and louder. Before long even the ‘boss’ can hear it and he’s looking around, trying to find the source.

  Maybe I can get him while he’s distracted?

  Before I can do anything though the noise becomes loud and high pitched enough to almost hurt, and my ESP suddenly flares up, I can sense something is here, but it’s not?

  Then the banks doors shatter, splinters of wood scattering and there’s a blur and Gun Guy goes flying, dropping his gun and landing in a heap on the other side of a bank teller’s desk. I take advantage of the newcomers arrival, just assuming they’re on my side, and blink next to one of the baton goons, appearing with my hand on his baton, wrenching it out of his hand and shoving into his stomach he doubles over, grunting. Before I can do anything else, I see the blur again and the last goon remaining is slumped on the floor. The blur stops being a blur and becomes an athletic and very pretty woman. She’s wearing what looks like an orange and white tracksuit like professional runners wear, just more form fitting. She has a white mask over just her eyes and shoulder length blonde hair.

  “Hi there! I’m Tempo, I hope you don’t mind me running in with the assist, but I just couldn’t help myself. I always love meeting new Extras!” She says, introducing herself in one whole breath. Looks like moving at super speed is not the only thing she does fast.

  “O-oh, no I don’t mind. I honestly was a bit stuck there before you came in there, so if anything thanks for the assist. This has made e painfully aware that I’m very new at this.” I say, nervously laughing a little.

  “No worries, I’m glad I was in the area then. So, gotta name yet?” She asks, still not slowing down.

  “Erm, mostly? I’ve been going by The Void.” I say shyly, gesturing at myself, still covered by the void to protect my identity.

  “Nice! Kinda creepy, kinda mysterious, I dig it. Anyway, I gotta run, so take this.” She says handing me a card with her details on. “Fling me a text sometime, I guarantee I’ll text back quicker than any of your friends.” She says, winking. “I’m an independent, so you have to contact me direct, no fancy team set up for me. Anyway, bye!”

  And before I can even fully take in all that or reply, she’s gone. I get a sudden sense of people approaching the shattered main door and movement among the hostages, so I take a quick glance and blink back into the alleyway I was in before, finally dropping the void and hurrying in the direction of The Weird Sisters HQ, I really am so, so, so late.