Meeting Harper

"You're like me, right?" the girl asked. She sat in front of him wearing rough jeans and a hoodie, sitting as though she was prepared to fend off attackers at a moment's notice. At least her hood was off, and Felix could finally catch a glimpse of the person that lay within.

"I am," Felix admitted, sipping on the large coffee he'd ordered. Waking up after statistics was always a chore, but he wanted to be fully awake for this.

The girl nodded, reaching her hand out over the table. "I'm Harper, nice to meet you."

"Felix, and it's nice to meet you as well, especially in far better circumstances than the last time we saw each other," Felix shook her hand. Though he tried to play it cool, he was incredibly excited to finally talk to someone who had superpowers like him. And she seemed like a stand-up person. And she was pretty.

Harper smiled. "I usually don't get any support when I'm out and about, so cue my surprise when someone who can see the future rescued my operation."

"Operation? You've done this before?" Felix asked. She hadn't seemed like a rookie back at Gino's, but it had only been a matter of months since Felix had gotten his powers, and he assumed that the same went for Harper. Instantly throwing yourself into danger sounded like a bad idea, but Harper didn't seem to think so.

"Of course! I have these powers for a reason. Protect the innocent and punish the wicked. You know, the whole superhero shtick?" Harper waved off his shock. "And I've heard your name before. It seems like someone's been trying to do the same." She looked at him with interest, leaning slightly over the table.

Felix didn't know exactly how to respond to that. "Yes, I suppose I have. It's more like I'm thrust into situations where I need to be, rather than me going out and looking to be a hero," he answered.

"Makes some kind of sense. You've been absolutely terrible at remaining anonymous. It's a good thing that your power isn't flashy. Even I was only able to guess because of how you dodged those couple of bullets and tried to warn me away from the restaurant. I assume you saw me getting shot?"

"You're wrong on a couple of counts. My power isn't to see the future; I can manipulate time in little intervals. Essentially, I live through the future. I heard you getting shot, so I tried to stop you from running in. Sorry about that, by the way," Felix ran his fingers through his hair in embarrassment. He had tried to tackle her, after all.

"Oh, don't worry about it," she waved his apology off, taking a sip from her cappuccino.

Now it was Felix's turn to ask a question, and he did so in the same interested pose that Harper had held. "What about you? What's your power?"

"I can turn my skin as hard as steel. It's like bullet-proof armor, but better. I'm practically impervious when I'm using it. I can't use it for long, though. That hostage situation was about as long as I could use them safely."

"Headaches?" Felix asked, knowingly.

Harper looked at him, confused. "Headaches? No. My muscles start to cramp up and it feels like I've been beaten to within an inch of my life," she explained. Felix's eyes opened wide in surprise. That was definitely not the side-effect of his powers. Could it be that everyone had a different price to pay?

It made sense now that he thought about it. Well, in a tiny sort of way, but it was enough for Felix to form a kind of hypothesis. His powers relied on him manipulating the space around him, altering the laws of physics to reverse the flow of time. That sounded pretty brainy, right? Maybe his brain was being used to harness that ability, and that's why it hurt.

Harper, on the other hand, had mastery over her body in a literally impossible way. No person should ever be able to change the way that their body functions, but she could. For her, it made a lot more sense that her body, attempting to do the impossible, should pay the toll.

"Do you go to school around here?" Felix asked, absent-mindedly. The conversation had quieted down, and he hated awkward silence.

"Actually, I don't go to school. I've got my high school diploma, but that's it. I'm something of a mechanic." Yikes, he hadn't meant to sound pretentious. Thankfully, it didn't sound like Harper took it that way. "What about you? Some kind of athlete?"

"No, not at all. I just go to the gym and get my rear handed to me on a daily basis by a scary Russian man." Upon seeing Harper's confusion, Felix continued. "It's a long story."

"Want to tell me about it?" Harper asked, finishing the last of her coffee. Felix was about to launch into it, but his phone buzzed. Checking the notification, Felix saw that he had received a text message from Kyle. Felix didn't know that Kyle had his number. Cursing, Felix understood what had happened. He had half a mind to report Kyle to the hospital for asking patient records.

"Are you coming?" the simple message read. Shaking his head, Felix replied "yes."

He got up from his seat, downing the last of his own drink. "Some other time. I've got a stalker who wants me to meet up with him."

"A stalker? Need some help?" Harper asked, rocketing out of her seat.

"No, I've got this. Want my number? We can meet again, if you'd like," Felix offered, desperately hoping she would. He wanted to get involved with helping the city, and Harper looked like she had it figured out.

"Sure."

After exchanging phone numbers, Felix walked out from the café, wondering what had Kyle in such a hurry.