THE MOMENT
Alma woke. She pressed the button to start the timer before she even opened her eyes. As her eyes fluttered opened she smiled at the golden sunlight filling her room. She slowly moved out of the bed, being careful not to activate whatever power she might have woken up with. Unfortunately for her, all her powers felt the same. It was like flexing a muscle, but the effect changed every 15 minutes after she woke up. She padded to her safe room. A large room made of solid steel and concrete. It took her several years, and hundreds of broken walls to learn how strong she could be.
“January 6,” Alma said when she stepped through the door. She hit a red button on the door frame on her way in to start recording. She walked to the center of the room and jumped up and down a few times, then shook her arms to loosen her body a bit. She looked at the timer on her wrist. Eight minutes left. She took a deep breath in and flexed her power. She felt herself float up into the air.
“Damnit!” She said with disappointment. She hated flighty powers the most, because there were so many of them. Levitation, anti-gravity, telekinesis, air-walking, or just plain flight. As well as several uncategorized versions she hadn’t pinned down yet. Each one had their own intricacies that made it harder to figure out her starting point. She sighed and her feet touched the floor again. She was still tired and decided to wait for the next one to figure it out instead of trying to pin down her current ability. She walked to the small dorm fridge she kept in the safe room and pulled out a bottle of water, and walked over to the laptop where she documented her cycles. She brought up the Flight category and waited. She checked her timer again. Though she moved slowly, trying to drag out every action she still had six minutes left.
“Might as well start planning my day,” Alma said to herself. She pressed a button and a large rectangular, metal box rose out of the center of the room. She walked over to open it. Inside were various costumes and uniforms. “Let’s see… flight.. flight.. that means…” She grabbed a red, form fitting suit from the metal closet. “Turbo girl…” She moved clothes aside and grabbed a green suit with a yellow cape. “Maybe Lemon Zest,” then she pulled out a blue top and pair of shorts from next to it. “Blue Sky, or … “ she smiled brightly when she realized her favorite was a possibility also. “Heart Attack.” She grabbed a white and pink costume decorated with red hearts. “I hope it’s Heart Attack today!” she said, then immediately began changing into the costume.
After she was dressed she checked herself in front of the mirror. She had not put the helmet on yet, but she admired the rest of the costume. The suit was a simple white leotard with a giant pink heart in the middle, and single lines of tiny hearts on the outer sides of her arms and legs. On top of that she equipped red armored pads on her thighs, shins and forearms. A thin red belt wrapped around her waist, held together by a golden heart shaped belt buckle. On the left side of her suit, over her heart was the number 27. Heart Attack was her 27th categorized power set, and coincidentally 27 was her favorite number. The timer vibrated on her wrist, and started counting down from 15 minutes again. “Alright, let’s see if Heart Attack gets to play today.” Everyone knew she was the same hero. She started hero-ing when she first discovered her powers, but the inconsistencies made it difficult. Most of all she hated when people came to ask her for help, but she didn’t have the power they needed at the time. The costumes and names became a way to let everyone know how she could help on any given day, without giving away her secret identity. She walked to the center of the room and flexed her power. Nothing happened and she smiled.
“Yes!” Most of her powers activated the same way, but occasionally some of them needed her to do extra actions. She stared forward and screamed at the wall. A sonic scream meant she could spend the day as Heart Attack. The wall cracked, and tiny crumbles of dust fell to the floor. Her fist rose in the air as she cheered with quiet excitement, then she walked over to the laptop to sync up her day.
“Sonic scream, that means my first power was plain old flight.” She selected Heart Attack on computer and it listed out the rest of her progression for the day. After the Sonic Scream came her strongest version of super strength, then Super Speed. Then she cycled through the elemental powers, earth, fire, water, air. Each alter ego had a different pattern. Heart Attack had the best cycle for hero-ing.
After going through the elements she started again with flight, and the pattern repeated for the rest of the day. She touched her timer to a dock connected to the computer, and the timer changed color from black to purple. She invented the timer herself over the years, 15 minutes at a time when her power was super tech. The timer would change color to help her keep track of what power she had a given point.
She walked out of her safe room still smiling and picked up her cellphone. She updated her status.
“Smile Loves! Heart Attack is on duty today!” And she hit send to let the world know.