Jessica woke in the morning alone in the crib.
She looked around the room and saw no sign of Hannah or Elysa.
She found the rails of the crib down and climbed out she removed the onesie that Hannah had put on her and found a note on the changing table.
Jessica,
Sorry to leave you,
but Elysa and I had to go handle a bank robbery in town.
We’ll talk later tonight. – Hannah
Jessica read the note and felt better about waking up alone.
She went to her own room and changed her soaked diaper and went to find someone to talk to.
She found Knight in his study laboring over some notes.
“Jessica, how are you holding up?”
Knight asked without turning from his paperwork.
“How’d you know it was me?” she asked and took a seat next to him at the desk.
“You’re the only hero I know that crinkles when she walks,” he said.
Jessica blushed. “I was wondering if I could talk to you for a bit,” she said.
Knight turned away from his paperwork.
“I suppose I should take a break, what can I do for you?” he asked.
“Hannah thought it’d be good for me to get to know all of you a little better, so I was hoping you could share your story with me,” she said.
Knight nodded. “That’s a good idea, but I’m not really comfortable sharing my sordid past with people,” he said.
“Then how can you expect to be a good leader if nobody knows you?” Jessica asked.
Knight said nothing for a long while, and Jesseca thought he was just ignoring her.
She stood up and started to leave when Knight finally spoke.
“A little over two hundred years ago I was an archaeologist,” he said.
“Two hundred years ago?” Jessica asked in surprise.
Knight nodded.
“I was on a dig in England when we found an ancient tomb.
Inside the tomb we found a suit of armor, this suit of armor to be exact.” he explained.
“As we were examining the armor we were attacked by a group of men,
I believe now that they were Circle of Thorn’s mystics.
When I awoke I was wearing the armor we’d found and they were performing some kind of ritual on me.
They killed my colleagues and used their blood in the ritual.” he said.
Jessica put her hand to her mouth.
“That’s horrible, what happened?” she asked.
“The ritual bound my soul to the armor.
The mystics said that it would grant me eternal life,
but with every person I came into contact with,
I would feel every pain they’d ever known in their life magnified greatly, and if I removed the armor I would die.
They expected me to go insane in a matter of days,
and remove the armor,
but as I killed each of them in my escape I knew that I could never give in to the pain.” he said.
“How do you deal with it?” Jessica asked as she put her hand to the cold metal of Knight’s helmet.
“The power I have can save lives, and that keeps me fighting.
If I lost my power how many people would suffer because of it?
I have to put others first or I’ll be destroyed.” he said.
Jessica nodded in agreement.
“You are a great leader Knight,” she said.
“Call me Nate,” he said before turning back to his notes.
Jessica left him to his work and went to the detention area to check on the prisoners.
Jessica entered the cell block and stood next to Severe as she hovered in front of one of the assassin’s cells.
“Whatchya doin’?” Jessica asked the albino telepath.
“I am scanning this woman’s memories to try and find some useful information about Malta,” she said.
“Anything useful?” Jessica asked.
“Not yet, she is very resilient to my probes.” Severe said.
“Sorry, would you maybe wanna take a break and talk to me then?” Jessica asked.
“I know nothing of my past, I have been unable to remember or discover anything about my life in all my years of searching.”
Severe explained after reading Jessica’s thoughts.
“Oh, well never mind then,” Jessica said with a pout as she left Severe to do her interrogation.
Jessica sat on the couch watching TV,
thoroughly bored and starting to fall asleep when she got a shock on the bottom of her barefoot.
Sitting up quickly she saw Electro-Cute standing above her with a smile on her face.
“Wake up cutie,” Electro-Cute said.
“Why? There’s nothing to do but sleep when you can’t be a hero.” Jessica said with a pout.
“You could talk to me.
I hear you’re quite the little fact seeker.” the pink-haired hero said with a giggle.
“Ok. Tell me about yourself.” Jessica said as she sat up.
“Samantha Davis, twenty-four years old, Sagittarius.” the pink-haired hero said.
“Very informative, can I go to sleep now?” Jessica asked as she lay back down.
Another jolt of electricity sat Jesseca back up. “I wasn’t done yet,” Samantha said.
“I’m a mutant,
I was born with my powers and first became aware of them when I caused a city-wide blackout after my boyfriend broke up with me.” Samantha said.
“I met up with Arson during a fight with some Clockwork and she invited me to join the team,” she said.
“Hmm, riveting,” Jesseca said and lay back down.
Samantha frowned and pounced on Jesseca and began tickling her.
“You’re a rude little girl aren’t you?” she asked as her fingers danced across Jesseca’s midriff.
Jessica laughed and gasped for air as she kicked her feet fully.
Samantha stopped her attack momentarily.
“Now, who’s the best and most beautiful hero in the FPR?” she asked.
Jessica struggled to catch her breath for a moment and smiled widely as she proclaimed herself as the best and most beautiful hero,
to which Samantha answered with more tickling.
“Tell me who’s the best and most beautiful,” Samantha said.
“you are” Jesseca managed to shout between giggles and gasps.
Samantha stopped her attack again and kissed Jesseca full on the lips.
“And don’t you forget it cutie,” she said with a wink and a smile as she got off of Jesseca and ran from the room.
Jessica just lay on the couch in shock at the realization of what had just happened.
“You ok?” Arson said as she appeared above Jesseca from behind the couch.
“I just met Samantha,” she said quietly as if it were a secret.
“She kissed you I take it?” Arson asked.
Jessica looked at her and nodded with a blush.
“Want me to burn her?” Arson asked with a smile.
Jessica shook her head. “It’s fine.
What’s up?” she asked, trying to change the subject.
“I have a friend that wants to join the team, Knight said I could go and recruit her, wanna come?” Arson asked.
Jessica nodded and went to get dressed before the pair left the base.