Hero Alliance

Fourteen

The supers all look over. All of their conversations coming to a stop. They began to stare and I couldn't really understand why.

"Why are they all staring?" I whisper to Shifter and Duplicator.

"Because they're staring at you, Kelly." Shifter says, smiling proudly at me.

I then realize that I'm the only non-super in the room and that they were in fact, all staring at me. It made me uncomfortable and I actually took a step towards Shifter as if wanting him to shield me from all of their gazes. I felt like they were judging me. I felt..weak and helpless?

Shifter nudges my arm, "Hey, you okay?" He whispers, sounding concerned.

I couldn't seem to respond as I stepped a bit closer to him again. I felt like I was so small in a room full of giants who could crush me in an instant if they had the chance.

"One second, everyone!" Shifter tells everyone and pulls me aside, blocking me from their view. I felt myself let out a sigh of relief. "Kelly, is everything alright?" He asks.

"I'm..yeah, I'm fine. I just didn't like all of them staring at me." I mumble, looking down, "Like - "

"Like you're being judged." Shifter finishes, nodding in understanding.

I look up at him, surprised. "Do you feel other people's emotions too?" I ask, raising an eyebrow at him.

He chuckles, "No, that'd be pretty cool though." He glances around at the supers who seemed to have started mingling again, "I felt the same way when I became a new hero. I thought they wouldn't accept me since I was new and didn't know about all my abilities at the time. Eventually, I learned to overcome that feeling and here I am now." He smiles down at me.

"How'd you overcome it?" I ask curiously.

"Everyone overcomes problems and feelings in different ways. But you're going to be fine, okay? I'll be right by your side." He smiles, putting his hands on my shoulders. I smile up at him and nod.

We walk back to where we were before, Shifter getting the attention of the heroes again. Duplicator taps my shoulder, a concerned look on his face. I smile and send him a thumbs up. He smiles and nods, understanding our little silent conversation.

"Kelly, you want me to introduce you?" Shifter asks. I glance over at the crowd of supers and that feeling seems to form again, I hesitantly nod. He smiles a bit and faces the supers. "Everyone, this is Kelly! She gave us the idea to form our alliance that we have now. We trust her completely." He flashes me a smile, "We would hope you treat her with respect and not in any way different than we would treat each other." He tells them all.

They don't respond but by the looks on their faces, you could tell they never would have thought to do anything opposite. A lot of them would actually smile and wave if we made eye contact which made me more comfortable. I would smile and wave back.

Once everyone turns back and starts talking again, I face Shifter and Duplicator. Wait a second...

"Where's Shadow King?" I ask them.

Instead of having an answer like I thought they would, they both look as confused as me.

"You're right. Where is he?" Duplicator repeats, looking around the room.

"Maybe he's patrolling earlier today? We can go check his normal patrol area." Shifter suggests. We agree and head back up to the roof.

We spend a good few minutes, debating how we're gonna get there. Only one of us can really travel from place to place. Shifter was not happy about that...but we worked something out. Kinda.