A Messy Mind, A Fateful Introduction

"After a building collapsed late last night, the investigation revealed that the building was not up to code, and that it was a ticking time bomb waiting to burst," the man's voice carried the severity of the situation even through the laptop screen. Felix reached for the keyboard, his hand exiting the blanket burrito he'd built around himself.

The window closed, and the man's voice cut off. It left Felix in blissful – and terrifying – silence. Alone with his thoughts, he remembered the first among those to be pulled from the rubble. People that he might have saved, had he been more of a hero. Had he had the courage to do something.

Their faces danced a cruel tango through his mind, reminding him of his failure. Everyone knew that "with great power comes great responsibility." At least, any comic book fan worth his or her salt. And though he'd had the ability, he'd forgotten the responsibility that came with it.

He retreated back into his burrito, enjoying the darkness around him. If he could just coax himself to sleep – something he hadn't been able to do since the prior night – he'd be able to forget about all of it. As Felix tossed and turned, his phone began to buzz. Christina.

Felix declined the call, returning the phone to his nightstand. She called again. He declined again. Christina kept calling, forcing Felix to eventually just let the thing buzz until Christina got bored. He didn't want to talk to her right now. You'd think that a decade or two of improvements from the first smartphones would have them read your mind and tell when you don't want to be bothered. Fast and powerful though they were now, Felix reached to turn off his ringer – and he never did that.

The phone buzzed a final time, but it wasn't Christina's face that filled the screen. No, it was his dad's. Without hesitation, Felix answered.

"What's wrong, son?" his dad asked softly.

"How do you mean?" Felix hadn't even spoken a word and his dad knew something was up. They hadn't spoken more than a handful of times since the semester started. Was he psychic?

"Christina told me that you weren't picking up her calls." Ah, that explained it. "You're attached to your phone at the hip. Did something happen?"

"I… uh…"

"Is it something you'd rather not talk about?"

"It kind of is," Felix admitted, sitting on the edge of his bed.

"Will you be okay?" his dad asked simply, but his words carried a weight Felix thought such a simple question could never have. He didn't know.

"Yeah," he lied. But then he immediately thought better of it. "Dad, did any of your squad die when you were in the military?"

"Of course they did, son. It's war. I was one of the lucky ones, actually. Did one of your friends die?"

Felix ignored the question. "What if you were able to save them? Like, if you were given a second chance."

"I'd go back and do it. But that's impossible, and you and I both know it. I realized that I couldn't sit on a 'what-if' forever. If you get caught up in the past, you lose sight of the future. I can't do anything for my friends, not anymore. All I can do is promise to be a better man tomorrow."

Felix sat in the darkness, and while he had a new inner demon to battle, his dad's words were like the sun's rays parting stormy clouds. He'd have to live with not having done anything to help those people. But he'd be able to save others so long as he pressed onwards.

"Thanks, dad," Felix whispered, not trusting himself to speak too loudly. As it was, his voice was threatening to quiver.

"Anytime, son. Just please call Christina later? She's worried about you."

"I will, I will," Felix agreed, ending the call after saying his goodbyes. It was no sooner than he put down his phone that someone knocked at the door to his room. Felix got up and out of bed, cracking the door open an inch or two.

"Harper? How'd you get in here?" Felix's eyes went wide, seeing a hoodied Harper standing outside his door. He led her inside and opened his blinds, illuminating the space. It was far messier than it had any right being. Were it any other time, he'd have been ashamed. However, given that his own mind surely looked far worse, he gave himself a pass. He decided that he needed to clean both up, and the room was probably the easier of the two. His dedication began with a single paper tossed into the forgotten trash can.

"A lady's always got her secrets. You okay? You've been radio silent with me," she touched his arm, a worried line on her forehead.

"I froze yesterday. I didn't help at all," Felix admitted, finally comfortable with voicing his turmoil with maybe the only person who could understand.

"You couldn't have done anything, and even then you still managed to warn me and help me make sure nothing fell on the people," Harper said, leaning into him. "You've got nothing to feel guilty for."

"Maybe not, but that doesn't change things. I can't let this happen again."

"Then don't," Harper offered, a small smile alighting on her face. "You can always practice your powers. Who knows, maybe you can stretch it out even more! Every second you buy is a second that you can use to change the future."

And then her smile grew wider as she separated from their impromptu hug. "On that note, I've got someone to introduce to you."

A pale man with a long gray beard, dressed in a tweed suit complete with elbow patches, entered through the door. He looked familiar, but he definitely wasn't a professor Felix had had before. Harper walked over to him. "Johnathan, this is Felix. Felix, this is Johnathan. He's the flying guy from last night."

And now the resemblance was uncanny. Johnathan reached out a callused hand and smiled.

"Nice to meet you."