Technically, it was called Kendra Brooks Park, but being the only park in Brandy meant that “the park” was adequate in conversation and people often forgot that it was named after somebody, much less who and why. The layout of the park included a playground and a garden on one side of the river, two separate bridges, and a large field that could be filled with folding chairs or picnic blankets to become the spectator seating for a large concrete stage.

I found a space where three buildings formed an odd dead-end alleyway. I made sure nobody was around, then ducked into the alley and turned around. My eyes found a spot on the ground in front of me, and the bubble of light began to unfold there. I walked into the light, dipped my head under the apex of the dome, and changed into something more comfortable. The dome vanished behind me as I made my way to the park.

Extraordinaire was already here, bright and early, getting something set up on the stage. She was in her full costume, which I hadn’t necessarily been expecting but wasn’t exactly surprising either. There were three vans parked behind the stage, and Extraordinaire was directing people to unload and organize supplies.

At the top of the staircases on either side of the stage, a couple people seemed to be just standing around at first. As I crossed the bridge from the garden to the field, though, I saw them turn somebody away, meaning they were acting as… not quite security, that’s not the word I would use, but they were keeping people out of the way during this setup phase for the event.

Which was fair. I wouldn’t want to have a constant stream of distractions while trying to coordinate a team of people, and fans asking for pictures or autographs definitely qualified as distracting.

I leaned on the guardrail of the bridge and grabbed my phone out of my pocket. With my absolute control over the tailoring of my outfit, the blue sundress did indeed have pockets. I opened my camera, and I actually saw this version of me for the first time. I knew what I looked like, but the “view” that my power gave me of the inside of the bubble was a strange, otherworldly sense that I was still getting used to. Seeing a blue-eyed girl with long black hair just staring back from my phone camera hit different. I took the picture, then navigated to my encrypted texting app.

I looked to the stage. Extraordinaire finished talking to two people who were holding a folding table, then checked her phone, then turned her head my way. I waved.

Extraordinaire strode across the stage and talked to the people at the top of the closer set of stairs to me, then went back to directing the people who were unloading the vans.

I took that as my cue to approach the stage. When I got to the top of the stairs, the “guards” nodded in acknowledgement and stepped aside wordlessly.

Walking around the stage, I was able to deduce what exactly was going on here today. Clipboards were positioned in front of various items — some normal things, like gift baskets, decorative vases or pillows, and so on, but also stranger options. One of the items was a twisted chunk of metal with scorch marks on the edges. Another was a leather wallet, which was only weird because there was a big yellow sticker on it with the “fire safety” symbol.

My window-shopping of the tables prepared for the silent auction was interrupted by a tap on my shoulder. I spun around and came face-to-face with Extraordinaire.

“Did you do something different with your hair today?” she asked.

“Oh. Uh, hi. I thought you were busy, so I’m just- I was,” I pointed behind me at the auction table.

“Everyone knows what they’re doing,” Extraordinaire dismissed my concerns, typing on her little keyboard as she spoke. “I can give them a break from my micromanagement while I talk to you. So, shapeshifting? That’s a fun one, isn’t it?”

“Ah, this isn’t really my power,” I said. “I did this on the way here, because I’m expecting some friends to show up and I didn’t want them to see me talking to you.”

“I see.”

“No, wait, I didn’t mean- it’s-“

“You don’t want them to know why you’re talking to me. That’s fine. Believe me, I can see the appeal of a secret identity.”

Yeah, I guess she never really had a choice in the matter, huh?

“Sorry,” I said. “I’m finally sort of feeling like things are real again, and I’m… I’m talking to Extraordinaire. Wow.” I laughed nervously.

“You did seem to bounce back fairly well from your near-death experience.” She gestured and started walking away, so I followed her.

“Isn’t it just a death experience?” I asked.

“Semantics. You’re not dead.”

“Not anymore. I thought that was how that worked.”

“It is,” she said. “I just don’t think of it that way, personally.”

Extraordinaire led the way to the parking lot behind the stage, where a large bell tent had just been put up. Two people were carrying a small sofa into the tent, and we waited for them to clear out before proceeding.

“Your power isn’t going to knock this place over, is it?” Extraordinaire asked.

“I won’t. Why is this here, though?”

“As a sanctuary from the crowd,” she explained. “I’m going to be in a public park all day. If I need to do something like take a phone call in private, I want a more comfortable place to do that than one of the vans. Now then. You were going to demonstrate?”

“Yeah, okay.” I looked at an empty space in the tent, and I used my power. The sphere of light just barely fit between the pole in the middle of the tent and the fabric perimeter.

Extraordinaire approached the bubble.

“Okay, um. So, I can see what’s going on in there, in that dome. Not much. Not much is going on, now, but. Yeah, it’s safe to, uh.”

Before I clarified what it was safe to do, she reached into the dome with her left hand.

“Okay, perfect. Right, so. Name something. Like, a thing, an object.”

“Tennis ball,” Extraordinaire named.

“Order up,” I said. I turned my attention to the inside of my power’s sphere of influence, and I could clearly tell where Extraordinaire’s hand was. I focused, picturing a tennis ball, and one materialized in the hand out of thin air.

Extraordinaire stepped back, inspecting the ball.

“Impressive,” she decided. “Creating things from scratch like that is a rare talent. How did you change your appearance?”

“I just went in there,” I said, pointing at the sphere. “Then I thought about it. And the first time, I thought, ‘holy shit, ow, my bones are shrinking,’ but I figured out how to turn off my sense of pain, so that’s not a problem anymore.”

Extraordinaire threw the tennis ball, striking me square in the gut.

I doubled over and wheezed.

“Oh, you turned it back on?” she asked.

“Uh-huh,” I groaned.

“Sorry. Wise decision, though. Insensitivity to pain can be problematic, if you’re as fragile as humans normally are.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Can you alter another person’s appearance?”

I stood up straighter. “Haven’t tried.”

She took the glove off of her left hand, then dipped it back into my power. “Try. Turn my thumb green.”

I pictured it, and it happened. Painlessly, I hoped.

Extraordinaire checked, nodded, and put her hand back.

“Back to normal,” she instructed.

I visualized the green fading away, and… it did not.

“Um. One second.”

I grit my teeth and focused on the image. Nothing happened.

“Having trouble?” Extraordinaire asked.

“It’s- I, uh.”

“Try one more time.”

I summoned up all my willpower, concentrating on the single task of removing the green pigment from her skin, and I felt none of the difficulty from the previous attempts. Extraordinaire checked that her hand was back to normal, put her glove back on, and started typing on the little keyboard on the left side of her belt.

Probably catching up, I realized. She hasn’t been typing since we got to the tent.

“Your power works on other people, but only if they want it to,” Extraordinaire explained. “It doesn’t even take much effort to resist. There’s a sort of goosebumps feeling where you’re trying to change something, and your changes only set in if I intentionally ignore it.”

“Huh. Good to know.”

That didn’t sound easy to ignore. Extraordinaire could do it, obviously, but I wasn’t sure if other people would be able to let me use my power on them even if they wanted to, given that description of how things worked.

I dismissed the bubble, and it slowly fell apart into a whirl of little sparks.

“The bubble doesn’t move, it’s a bit slow to put up and take down, and now I find out that I need permission to affect anyone inside,” I summarized. Disappointment crept into my tone. “Well. Does that sound like superhero material?”

“Absolutely,” Extraordinaire said.

I looked at her, incredulous.

“For now, would you like to help with the auction? I’ve got a perfect assignment for you.”

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