Saturday came and Rena waited downstairs at the apartment complex. All the trees in the city had gone bright red, orange, brown, and it offered a calming sight to see the bright and burning leaves swaying in the cool breeze. Wind grazed across the leaves like waves, and everything appeared alive around her. The ground littered with autumn detritus which skittered and danced in swirls of wind, the trees danced as well, and birds flew between them. Watching the world breathe around her caused Rena to feel at peace.  Rena could not help but bask in the calming vibe. Maybe I should go outside more. She thought. 

Mari pulled up in her little green sedan. The old, cheap used car she bought years ago was her standby. To Rena the car was an extension of Mari. They were one and the same. Two bodies, one organism.

“God, when was the last time you got out of that apartment?” Mari said as a traffic light turned green. She hadn’t stopped when it was red, merely slowed down slightly in anticipation for it to turn green. Luckily this time she was right and she sped through the light just as it changed. Rena found Mari’s driving left something to be desired in the way of safety. 

“Somebody stopped taking me places so there hasn’t been anywhere for me to go.” Ray responded.

“Somebody didn’t stop complaining about somebody’s driving so they forfeited their being driven around privileges..” Mari retorted. Mari always wore a sharp toothed grin on her face. Her glasses gleamed, reflecting street lights and headlights  in the low light of evening. She was like a wild creature, always on the prowl for something new to entertain her, and never staying in one place for too long. 

“Is Brit gonna be there?” Rena asked, trying to become one with the car seat. 

“Who knows? Who cares?” Said Mari. “I don’t give a shit what that bitch is up to.” 

“Wow ok.” I guess they broke up. 

The venue was on the other side of town. Not a far drive. Millvale was not a large town. The house was in the heart of the suburbs proper, where Rena never found herself. More trees, large properties, and big houses most likely home to people who commuted into the city and made their livings there. Chandra and Kelsey were pretty well off but Rena was never interested in hearing about how they made their money. Rena always just assumed anyone she knew who was doing well with money was probably in tech or something. Chandra seemed like the techie sort. Smart girl. It was easy to imagine. 

The suburbs were on the border of the slowly starting farmland. It was a big house. Two stories, and host to countless a wild party. Rena had been here a fair few times, but the amount in recent months had dwindled to pretty much nothing. Most of her connections that took her here had dried up or moved on. Mari was still the only one who rolled around the party circles. They found an empty spot a distance away from the house, on a curb a street away, they walked the rest of the way. 

Mari wore her usual dark colors  with high strappy black boots over black leggings, and a short skirt. She wore the shirt of a band Rena did not recognize, but had a pretty cool logo. The golden light of the street light above illuminated her brown skin. She was excited, Rena could tell. And smiling, showing her iconic sharp toothed grin. 

Rena just wore her usual nice jacket over one of the dark blue dresses she bought a few years ago and still thought looked ok on her. Rena was not used to dressing up for occasions and didn’t really have any idea of how to do so, so whenever she went out with friends she just tried to look normal, if a bit nicer than usual. She had tried to do a little light makeup, including the eyeliner she liked to wear when she gave herself enough time to put it on.  

Mari was a tiny creature, Rena wasn’t tall either but stood an entire head over Mari. 

As the pair approached the house, thumping bass filled the air and grew louder. Several young people were hanging outside the house on the porch, cups in hand. A few cars were parked on the front lawn. 

“Heyooooooooo!” Kelsey yelled as soon as she spotted Mari coming up the path. She stood up from her chair on the large porch, setting her red cup on the floor beside the chair. Her long golden braids glistened and swung freely as she moved quickly to initiate a hug. Mari and Kelsey embraced quickly and released. Kelsey then did the same to Rena who was much less prepared. “Giirl it’s been forever since I’ve seen you!” She said to Rena. 

“Uh yeah haha. Nice to see you too.” Rena replied. It had been about a year probably? Mari and Kelsey went off to the porch to talk about something, completely forgetting about Rena. No matter. Rena didn’t really come to talk, or even socialize. She wasn’t good at that. Though it was nice to get out of the apartment and be around cool people. At least as far as she knew, Rena had no idea what really counted as a ‘cool person’. 

The real reason, or at least the reason Rena thought of immediately as she accepted the invitation, was research. As soon as Mari proposed a party the idea immediately came to mind to use this as an opportunity to study various people’s auras up close. 

Rena focused on that central point that brought forth the aura sense. She could keep it on most of the time but she found it made her a little bit more tired, as well as much more distracted, so she usually had it off. Now the scene before her erupted in color. Everyone had an aura, and now she could look at the nuanced differences of each up close. Auras came in all colors, though usually they were desaturated to the point of being nearly white. It took a little bit more attention to discern the colors sometimes. Just like when she used her power on the bus, some auras were small, medium, or larger than most. She thought back to what Sylvie had said to her when she had introduced the idea of people with powers having different auras. Did the people with larger auras have more power? It was hard to believe that just because someone had a big aura meant they had powers. There were so many types of auras as well. Some were like fire, some like a glow, some were even firmer, like liquid. Although most were dim, and it was difficult to think of, but, when she looked through someone’s aura, she could easily see everything behind them. It wasn’t as if the aura blocked her vision. 

Rena grabbed a cup, not even interested in filling it, it was just important to hold it. Shewalked up to someone leaning on the wall by the stairs who had a particularly large aura. “So, like. Hey. What’s up?” Rena said to a man with a striped black and white shirt, and a red jacket. 

“Hey!” He looked down at her and smiled. “Nothin much. Don’t think I’ve seen you here before.” He wore small rectangular glasses. “I’m Jackson. What’s your name?” 

“Rena. Hey, do you think Superheroes are cool?” 

“I… ha. What?” The man looked at her, smiling, confused. Rena looked small and strange, and was staring at him intently. Another girl crossed his line of vision behind Rena and his eyes followed her instead. Rena simply walked away. 

The odds dictated that at least a few people at this party would have powers. She knew Mari knew a few. The goal here would be to find them, and without being too awkward or forward, probe their knowledge of how powers worked. Several young people filled the hall closest to the front door, and Rena pushed past them. She spotted someone in the living room with a pair of tiny nubs on their forehead. Horns. Some people had them, it wasn’t genetic and it didn’t mean much about them. It didn’t indicate they had powers, it just meant that person was born with particularly high Hell Factor, which was a not well understood factor of human development that caused a few benign, and largely inconsequential visual differences. In the past, people with horns or sharp teeth were often discriminated against. People Rena’s age just thought it looked cool.

She slinked around, unbeknownst to everyone scoping out their auras. Her eyes darted back and forth from person to person trying to find a good looking mark. Many people’s auras were unsteady, from the way they behaved Rena discerned it was likely due to them being drunk. So alcohol can inhibit your aura? She spotted a guy sitting on the couch with a medium sized, but bright red aura like fire. Another person with an equally bright purple aura that rolled off of her like liquid sat on a chair beside him. They were lightly conversing over a table covered in red cups. Rena sat on the couch next to the guy. 

“Hey what are you up to?” Rena said not even caring about being awkward, she had never seen these people before and probably never would again.

“Uh…” The guy suddenly turned to notice her as she sat down. He glanced back over to his friend in the chair awkwardly. The girl looked at her with a confused expression. The girl’s aura rose a bit as she furrowed her brow in Rena’s direction. “Are you with Zack’s crew?” Asked the girl? 

“Uh. Who?” Asked Rena, now also confused. 

“Nah she’s not.” The girl said, her aura lowering once more. 

“We were waiting for someone to show up. Uh. Guess it’s not you.” The guy said smiling sheepishly.  

“Some asshole named Zack challenged Alec here to a series of stupid duels. We’re waiting for his next croney to show up so we can kick his ass and be done with this.” The girl said. The girl had an air of haughtiness, and long dark blue dyed hair. 

“Woah what?” Rena said stupidly. Duels? What does that mean? Are they superpowered duels? The two exchanged a wary glance with eachother. 

“So uh. Who are you?” Alec asked. 

“My name’s Rena.” Rena got the sense that she had stupidly gotten herself into something she shouldn’t have. She already knew she was intruding on everyone’s personal space but allowed herself to do so to learn more, and besides she would probably not come to another party here for another few months at least. Maybe she could get out of this if she just played it cool and didn’t say anything else stupid as she made a clean escape. “You guys are really cool plus you have powers right?” 

The two looked at eachother again. Halfway between shock and disgust. That was not playing it cool. 

Rena felt like something slammed into her head. Not painfully, it was like she had just gotten smothered with a pillow. Her thoughts skipped and became confused. She couldn’t think straight. She stood up from the couch, and her head was spinning, and she could barely see, and it felt like she was going throw up. When her conditioned cleared a little bit she realized that she had stumbled into the arms of a nearby party goer who had caught her and probably saved her from completely falling onto her face on the hardwood floor. 

“You didn’t have to do that.” Rena heard Alec say though the voice echoed around in her mind. Her head was still spinning but she could right herself enough to stand on her own two feet. Everyone around had stopped talking and looked over at her, probably assuming a drunk girl had too much to drink. Rena could feel all their gazes on her, burning into her. As she tried to steady her standing and look back in the direction of the couch she got hit by another wave. 

“WHO ARE YOU?” The voice split her mind like a knife. It filled her entire being.

“I’m Rena!!!! Rena Soren!!!” Rena screamed. She covered her ears with her hands. Everything was swirling like she was inside of a vortex. The only thing she could see was the girl standing before her. 

Suddenly she was free and she dropped to her knees. Alec had grabbed the blue haired girl’s arm and she had stopped the assault. He then went over to Rena and touched her shoulder. “Are you alright?” Alec said. Sense was quickly returning to Rena’s world and with the help of Alec she stood up again. 

“What the fuck did you do to me!?” Rena screamed at the girl who still held an untrusting look directed at her. 

“Amber. Calm down.” Alec said putting his hand out to indicate for her to stop. 

“I’m pretty sure she’s concealing the truth. She’s probably in Zack’s crew.” Amber replied. 

“If she were in Zack’s crew don’t you think she would have fought back just then?” Alec said. Amber pouted and looked away. Alec turned to address Rena. “Really, are you ok? I’m really sorry about that. We have no idea when the next asshole is gonna show up. She’s a little bit on edge.” 

Rena’s head had cleared completely by now. Everyone was looking at the three of them. Mari and Kelsey had shown up at the edge of the crowd as well. Mari rushed in to get to Rena, but she wasn’t fast enough Rena began to walk towards Amber, who stood in a ready position as soon as Rena began to stomp forward. 

“What the fuck did you just do? What the hell is your problem!?” Rena shouted getting in Amber’s face. 

“What the hell is your problem walking around asking stupid weird questions like that!?” Amber shouted in response. 

“Hey, Rena what’s going on?” Mari asked from a few steps away. 

“This crazy bitch just fucking attacked me with some kinda… freaky… mind attack!” Rena said pointing in Amber’s face. She swiped Rena’s hand away. Just at that moment Rena turned to face Amber, and a blue glow illuminated the four people at the center of attention. A blue flame started small and quickly expanded to human size right next to Rena. A bright human form, wreathed in blue flame, touched Rena’s shoulder. Amber and Rena’s eyes went wide. Then Rena felt something else. She was lifting off of the floor. She looked down to see her feet begin to come off the ground. It was as if she was being grasped by a massive, invisible hand. She looked up at Amber and Amber was covered in energy, her eyes shone with a purple light, and she was making a particular hand motion, a sort of point directly at Rena. 

“I told you, Alec. You’re too gullible.” Amber said, and whirled around, bringing the direction of her finger to point directly at the window. At exactly the same time Rena was lifted completely off the ground and flung straight through the glass window above the couch.