"Did you take my skateboard?"

  "No! Of course not! I don't — I try to avoid.... I can get it back for you."

  "Uh...hu."

  "For a price. You're like twelve, right?"

  The kid, who was totally something more like ten or eleven if he was double digits at all, blinked slowly at Jimmy.

  Then, puffing out his cheeks, he blew out an impressive bubblegum bubble until it popped, splattering his face in a pink film and lots of spit.

  Jimmy watched the kid blink guileless eyes while he scraped the film up with his fingers and tongue before wadding it all back up and shoving it into his mouth with a smack of his lips.

  "... I'd say, the Sorcery Deck in your pocket should be perfect."

  The kid brightened, chewing vigorously. "Oh, you want to trade for some cards?" He pulled out the thick deck and started shuffling through it. "I've got Arctic Breath which grants compounding damage every turn per Servitor of The Fae Queen. I've got —"

  "No.... No, I just need to own—"

  "Do you already know which cards you want?"

  "No. It's for—"

  "Do you even know how to play?"

  "No! I just —"

  "You just want me to pay you in cards...."

  "The deck," Jimmy emphasized, leaning in close.

  His eyes darted around at the feeling of prickling attention from the assortment of fathers, mothers and babysitters frequenting the park, and Jimmy suddenly wondered whether they were wondering whether he was pushing drugs.

  'Definitely not.', Jimmy told himself firmly. 'I'm not The Guy here who is shady by all accounts. I'm in a normal jacket, normal backpack, normal... everything.'

  'Bubbling burbles! It almost feels like it, though. Really! How dense is this kid?' Jimmy thought, eyes narrowing. 'This is not a hard concept.'

  "Someone stole your skateboard. Not me, someone else. I saw them do it. I can get it back for you. But, you have to pay me."

  "In cards."

  "With. Your. Deck."

  'The blond lady by the jungle gym.' If anyone was going to come over it would be her. Her gaze felt the sharpest.

  The kid snorted, drawing Jimmy's eyes back to his still spit-splattered face.

  "I'm not giving you my deck for a shitty skateboard, dude. "I'll give you five."

  "Five?! I'm giving you a discount you know? Most people pay me in cash!"

  The kid cocked an unimpressed eyebrow at him and blew out another messy bubble. "Don't got cash."

  "Urggh!"

  That woman had started talking with her friend rocking a stroller back and forth, and they were both looking in his direction now...."

  "Listen kid," Jimmy hissed. "I don't think I can go lower than thirty-seven and a half. Take it or leave it."

  "And a half?!"

  "Thirty-eight then. We got a Deal?"

  The kid stared at him. Then snorted. "Sure we got a deal. You're a weird Super, dude. You know that? My board for thirty-eight cards. I choose the cards."

  "Uh... Wait a second. Who said anything about —"

  "You're way too weird to be anything else. Do you turn into a monster?!"

  Jimmy scowled at him. "I —"

  "Can you teleport? Is that how you're gonna get my board back? Can I watch?"

  Jimmy felt his eye twitch. But that woman's eyes were getting really sharp now, and he could see her out of the corner of his eye squaring her shoulders.

  "No." Jimmy hissed. "Thirty-eight."

  And the kid held out his hand, and Jimmy shook it, trying not to grimace at the fingers still slimy from the bubble gum.

  'Thirty-measly-eight. And why in the world does it feel like I'd have my tail between my legs if I had one?!'

  It wasn't hard to find the skateboard. The deal he'd made with the kid wasn't anything close to the transfer of ownership contract Jimmy usually hammered out, but, Jimmy reasoned, 'If I'm going to have the skateboard in my possession, that's nine-tenths of the law right there. And the dumb kid has preemptively agreed to pay me for it, implying definitively that it's mine to sell. So... even though I don't own it yet, I own equitable interest in the board and I should be able to find that interest.... And Jimmy focused on everything he partially remembered hearing about wholesale from Elias Biggles until he felt the teensiest of all nudges pushing him in a leftward direction.

  The connection was as wobbly as his mental gymnastics, and he got the impression that the Itch was giving him the side-est of all side-eyes.

  'You want to eat, Itch?' Jimmy glared as he stomped past the trees dotting the edge of the park and across the street. 'So stop being so picky.'

  So, it wasn't hard finding the board. The hardship came after.

  See, Jimmy had spied the kids taking the skateboard.

  He'd been far down the street at the time when it had happened, and he didn't know the owner from Adam, nor the girl who'd done the actual stealing from Eve, But he had Noticed it. Somehow.

  Maybe it was because he was just super sensitive to that kind of thing these days, or, maybe it was because all the tugging and tearing on his power between the FBI and Vicky had jangled some eldritch screw loose. Or, maybe this was just some new aspect of his power emerging to the surface. In any event, he'd seen the girl snatch it up and dash off to her friends and known exactly what he was seeing. And when the kid — whose name he'd never actually asked for — had stepped out of the public bathroom, he'd almost been able to see a gap, though what that gap was in, Jimmy had not the faintest idea.

  'Totally an aura... I just saw an Advantage Aura... that was taken....' Jimmy scrubbed at his face. 'You're so weird, Itch.'

  So Jimmy had seen it all happen. But he hadn't gotten a good look at the kids until he'd gotten to the alley where they were trying with moderate success to make the board flip with their feet.

  Honestly, the alley should have been his second clue. No one upstanding spent time in alleys. He knew. Alleys were where Jimmy did most of his The Guy transformations.

  There were four of them lounging and joking, and one more sprawled out on the floor having just taken a tumble, and seemed to be the butt of all the jokes. That cut off immediately as Jimmy turned the corner. All five of them stared and the one on the floor picked himself up hurriedly and folded his arms.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  "What do you want?"

  Jimmy could literally feel their eyes dragging all over his un-ripped jeans, his piercing-free skin, his hair not covered by a ratty beanie or bandanna....

  'Oh boy...' Jimmy thought as both sides took each other's measure. 'They're punks....'

  The lone girl in the group took a slow drag from a joint and blew two curling streams of smoke from both her nostrils. They were studded to a prehistoric degree and so was the rest of her face.

  "Aren't you... like, twelve?"

  'Kid punks...' Jimmy amended. 'They can't be much older than bubblegum.'

  "What's it to you, dickhead?"

  "No... reason." This was going splendidly. 'I just have to be diplomatic.' Jimmy thought queasily. 'You're not The Guy today, you're Jimmy. And Jimmy talks his way out of things. No card stuff. Yeah....' And Jimmy quickly reminded himself that he was a seventeen-year-old high school junior, looking at a group of pre-teens, and how intimidating he'd found juniors when he was their age.

  So he plastered a smile on his face and advanced confidently. "I'm just here for the skateboard." Jimmy said.

  "This skateboard?" Folded-Arms-kid kicked it up into his hand, raising his eyebrows. "This here's our skateboard."

  "No. No. I'm here to get it back for the boy you stole it from."

  "Did any a-you guys steal this board?"

  Four beanie clad heads shook, the lone girl's with a smirk, and she passed the joint over to a boy sitting on a nearby crate, with studs on each of his knuckles, poorly cut black hair and matching lipstick.

  'Or maybe he intended the hair to be diagonal?'

  "See? None of them stole it." The boy shrugged. "I didn't. Now get lost, dork. Don't you have homework to do or some shit?"

  "Yes! Yes I do!" 'I was probably supposed to say no to that....' "But I've got to do this first. Now can I please have the board that I saw her take?" Jimmy held one hand out for the board and the other pointed at the girl giggling with the black hair boy with the blunt.

  "Oh, you're pointing digits at me, bitch?" She cocked an eyebrow and stood up.

  'Was she flexing?'

  Kaykes would say it was not impressive. But Jimmy found himself definitely impressed by the way she swaggered up toe to toe with him.

  "Say it to my face, bitch."

  "I. Saw you—"

  "So you wanna fight?"

  "Uh.... Why is that—"

  And the girl kicked him in the shins....

  "Wow. Dude. You rock." Bubblegum chewed expressively, eyeing Jimmy as Jimmy limped up trying to keep the skateboard from dragging on the floor with one hand and feeling at his side with the other.

  After she'd kicked him in the shins, she'd slugged him under the sternum and while he'd been gasping for breath, she'd pounced on him like a tiger, nails, studs, snarls and all.

  Then the others got in on it, kicking and punching, folded-arms had whacked him with the skateboard....

  Somehow More Shoelaces Than I Know What To Do With had wiggled its way into his hand and Folded-Arms found his shoes tangled up in a web of knotted fabric before he could repeat that again.

  One kid found a cloud of Warm Lint in his eyes, and in the confusion that followed, Jimmy hit Bad-Haircut with his hand — ok, he slapped him with his hand — snatched the board from a highly confused Folded-Arms and booked it.

  They hadn't followed.

  "I didn't think you'd really do it."

  Jimmy looked balefully at the kid's bubblegum-chewing face until the Itch reminded him that they were existentially hungry and unless Jimmy wanted to make off with the skateboard....

  "Here," Jimmy said, shoving the board at the boy quickly. "My cards? Did you already pick them out?"

  "Mmm? Nah. Thanks for the board though."

  "... Say that again?"

  "Thanks. For. The —"

  "No. The first part," Jimmy growled. "The 'Mmm nah' part."

  "Oh. Yea." The boy tugged on the skateboard that Jimmy hadn't quite let go of. "I'm not giving you my cards, dude. I was going through them, and I was thinking of giving you some of the Zordanian Revolt cards, you know, as a thank-you? But those are a perfect counter to Mat's Gorgon Charge. So then I thought about the Ethereal Flute and Morning Flower — those are kinda girly — but —"

  "Kid. If you don't give me Thirty-seven and a half cards right now, I'm going to—"

  "MOM!! This super's stealing my—"

  And Jimmy booked it a second time.

  "Oof. Bro. That... this is a new low. Extorting a ten-year-old...."

  "Shut up, Kaykes! I'm going to ki—" Jimmy gagged, and somehow that seething burn flickering over his bones like fire roared all the hotter. If anyone was more pissed off than Jimmy, it was the Itch, and Jimmy was its whipping boy.

  "If I see — He. Extorted ME, Kaykes. He owes me thirty-seven and one half cards—"

  "One half, huh?"

  "Shut up, Kaykes!"

  "Ok ok ok."

  Jimmy closed his eyes and made himself ignore the lingering cackle behind his sister's voice. It was funny, he told himself. It really was! If it was anyone else....

  "Mmm. You still on your way to Nate's house?"

  "Yeah."

  "Walking?"

  "Mhhmm."

  "Any reason why you didn't borrow Mom's car? Or you know, my bike?"

  Jimmy trudged across the street, waited at the corner until the little walking LED figure started doing its own trudging, then crossed again. "Would you believe me if I said I needed a walk?"

  "No. I don't trust anything you say that isn't explicit anymore, bro. It's like a tell the size of Manhattan."

  Jimmy huffed a laugh and felt at his side. It hurt. 'The bruises had just started to fade too! Stupid skateboard.'

  "If I had a steering wheel under my hands, I think I would die if I gave it back."

  "So don't give it back."

  "... What?"

  "Do. It. Jim." Kaykes' voice was impatient. "Remember what we talked about? Ramen? Varelze? Carrots and Humans. Dude, this was days ago."

  "I... remember."

  "So. If it's zero-sum, choose you. If you think you would die to let go of a car, then fucking walk away with one! I can hear them in the background. Pick a parking lot."

  "That's not. The kind of Sup — Person — I want to be. I bel—"

  "This is philosophical bullshit Jim. Do you want to die?"

  "...."

  "Jim!"

  "Of course not."

  "Will you?"

  "It's a figure of —"

  "See, there's that tell again."

  "... I. Don't know." The words felt like sand paper over his tongue.

  "It's still manageable." Jimmy gritted out. "See? I'm managing it. I'm walking to Nate's. If I don't put myself in that position... I can handle it."

  There was a lot of silence from the other end, to the point where Jimmy checked his phone twice to make sure there was still a connection. Then —

  "Fuck you, Jim. This is stupid."

  "They're not just carrots! Maybe to you, but —"

  "I don't care. Save it." Kaykes voice was so edged it could have peeled a carrot. She made a noise of disgust. "Ok. Lucky you. I have something —"

  "You?!"

  "Shut up. I'm not speaking to you for the rest of today. Yes." She hissed. "But if we do this, you don't go back and forth. You say 'yes' or 'no' and that's the answer."

  "What is it?"

  "Not over the phone. Come back. Then we'll talk."

  "I can come back right—"

  "No. Stop. Go to Nate's, THINK about it. And Jim, I'll expect a yes or no, before the details. If you're not a yes, you can't be part of this."

  "Of course I'll do it. Thank you, Kaykes! Thank you! You're the best sist—"

  "Don't thank me." Kaykes hissed. "You won't like this much better than the cars. God, I hate you."

  And Kaykes hung up.

  Jimmy stared at his phone bemused, and then he grinned. It was wide. See, Kaykes, didn't have a tell the size of Manhattan. Kaykes could lie.

  Patricia pulled the door open barely a second after Jimmy knocked and Jimmy blinked at all the bruising underneath her eyes.

  "Oh, thank Newton." She hissed. "Timothy and Norbert keep swigging that vile, green drink, and they seem to think that something that happened yesterday was funny."

  "Uh...huh. Do you, uh... ever get sleep, Patricia?"

  "I did once. Then eight hours passed, nothing got done, and then I was groggy." She sniffed, and eyed him right back, taking in the fresh rip in his jeans, his scuffed jacket, the bruises on his hands and knuckles, and the red scratches along his neck and face from the... tiger. "Did you get into a fight, Jim?"

  "Some kid stole his skateboard away."

  "... His... skateboard?"

  They blinked at each other in silence. Then....

  "Physics?"

  "Fudge, yes!"

  "Harken, good folk! The man of the hour arrives!"

  The were lounging around Nate's dinner table holding wine glasses with that fizzy, green, energy drink, and as one Sashaya and Tom yelled "Hear!" and even Mico, peaking out from behind her tresses, smiled quietly and sipped at her wine glass. The rest of them swigged mightily from theirs.

  'Or,' Jimmy thought as he looked around the table. 'Maybe the word I should be using is 'quaffed'.'

  There was a distinct feast theme going on here, albeit with food like popcorn, and chips, and salami and cheeses, and peppers. But the popcorn and chips were all in stylish wooden bowls and the cheeses were on bamboo and granite platters, with arranged charcuterie knives, and stacked crackers and toasts.

  He had a feeling Nate's mother might have a thing or two to say about all this when she returned.

  "What... is going on?"

  "This," Nate said, flicking his glass with a clink of his nail, "Has a lot of caffeine. And you, are very late."

  "And so we hungered and thirst did sate."

  "And," Patricia hissed waspishly. "Not a single kinematics formula has been invoked since I arrived. Twenty minutes ago."

  "Eehh!"

  "Boo!"

  "Didn't rhyme." Sashaya shook her sadly.

  Patricia pinked. "Well, these fools dost not abate! Cans't we not work whilst we await? Jim is here. I demand that physics finally appear!"

  She sat down straight backed and stiffly and started pulling text books and a notebook from her bag, but Jimmy caught the small, satisfied smirk as she rooted around. And he also couldn't help but notice that while her wine glass was filled with nothing but water, her plate showed signs of crumbs.

  They all looked at Patricia.

  "That was good." Sashaya said after a moment. She nudged at Tom. "You got anything?"

  "Uhh..."

  "To homework I too do steer?" Jimmy waded in.

  "... Kinematics is so, so queer."

  "Have care, I fear you smear."

  "If Kinematics is queer, dynamics will make you quiver in fear."

  "Eeehh."

  Nate though a popcorn at him.

  Sashaya, Tom, and Patricia shook their heads and Mico frowned. "You reused fear, Jim."

  "Where did these rules even come from? Whatever. Sorry I am late guys, can we get this homework party started?"

  "The party already started."

  "It's the homework part..."

  Patricia's textbook thumped down hard on the table.

  "... Yea, it's probably time," Nate said, and hurried to get his bag.

  Fred the Smed and . If you haven't already, consider throwing me some ratings or reviews! Here is the link . They give me good feedback (especially those reviews), and it boosts the story so it gets seen by more people. So does all the discussion in the comments, by the way. I really like reading all your guys' thoughts and I get a measure of where your heads are at and whether the ideas I'm trying to string together are taking hold :). There was a lot of cool discussion last chapter and I really enjoyed it.