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Nick practically crawled over the table to get closer to the screen.

It wasn’t as bad as he first thought. Whoever had taken the video had been standing on the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street, and it’d been raining hard. The video wasn’t that clear. Shadow Star was obvious, for sure, but Nick and Gibby were mostly obscured by the umbrella and the rain.

Rebecca Firestone’s voice came over as the video continued to play. “As you can see, two young people were obviously frightened and in distress, unable to take care of themselves.”

“What?” Nick said, outraged. “They hadknives.One had a mustache!”

Since Rebecca Firestone couldn’t hear him, she wasn’t deterred. “But they needn’t have worried. Shadow Star was there to prove that in Nova City, even the smallest of crimes don’t go unpunished. Whether it be a major break-in at a large pharmaceuticalcompany, or the rescue of what appears to be two helpless young children—”

“I’m not a child! Why are youlikethis?”

“—Shadow Star has proven once again that he will do anything he can.” Nick could practically hear the smarmy smile on her face when she continued. “And it looks as if one of the children was quite starstruck by our resident Extraordinary.”

The blurry scene zoomed in, showing Shadow Star kicking Mustache Man just as Nick leaned over and kissed the side of his head.

Nick groaned, banging his forehead on the counter. “Why? Why? Whyyyyy?”

The screen went back to Rebecca Firestone, and sure enough, her smilewassmarmy.

“Though the identity of these two children is still unknown, it appears these damsels in distress were saved, and needed to thank their hero with kisses and even a selfie. Steve?”

Steve Davis appeared back on the screen. He chuckled. “Did that child really kiss the side of his head?”

“It appears so,” Rebecca Firestone said. “I’m sure Shadow Star took it in stride. He’s used to being adored.”

Steve Davis laughed again. “I bet he is. You’ll need to ask him how he deals with his fans the next time you speak to him.”

“Oh, you can bet on that,” Rebecca Firestone said. “Back to you, Steve.”

“And there you have it,” Steve Davis said, and Nick wished it was the future so he could be older and look back on this and chalk it up to nothing but the angst of being a teenager. “Shadow Star once again saves the day and gets a reward he probably never saw coming. We’ll have more on this story tonight on Action News. Now, back toLove Hurts A Lot.”

Nick turned the TV off, wondering what he’d have to bribe Cap with in order to make sure the entire Action News team was arrested immediately.

He was wiping up the noodles he’d spat on the table when his phone rang again.

He froze.

It was most likely his father.

His father who, even though on patrol, had somehow gotten word of what was shown on the news. His life was over. He had no reasonable explanation for what had transpired, and Dad was never going to let him hear the end of it.

He picked up the phone.

The screen readBFF SETH.

Oh, thank god.

Except he wasangry.“Am I really a damsel in distress who gets to be made fun of even though I did nothing wrong?” he snapped in lieu of a greeting—as one does when mocked by Rebecca Firestone.

A pause. Then, “What?”

“I amnota damsel in distress! Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I’d make a pretty good damsel, but that’s not the point.”

Another pause. Another “What?”

Before Nick could get himself too worked up, he hesitated. “Why does your voice sound weird? Did you get caught in the rain and get sick? Didn’t you listen to my voicemail? Don’t get sick, especially when you were already tired. Your body’s immune system will shut down, and then you’ll get a cold which will turn into pneumonia, and what will happen to youthen? You’ll miss school, and I’ll be all alone—”

“I’m not sick,” Seth said quickly, and his voice sounded normal again. “I had something stuck in my throat.”