Competitions...

So, I've always sort of bounced back and forth from being super-competitive to being afraid of my own shadow. There are dreams where I can take on the world, and dreams where it feels like the entire population of Earth is after me and all I can do is run. (And there was that time in PE, playing hockey, when I went for the puck and totally forgot this guy's head was right there...and that's why you're not supposed to wield your weapon (I mean...um...stick thing?) like an axe...)

But this dream is one of those in-between times, when I want to do well at something, but not at the cost of others. I'm in a male form (I did mention I shapeshift?), and am snailing away from an alien airport where a beetle woman is trying to sell me credit card applications. The atmosphere is that of a bazaar on the streets, rather than the inter-planetarily acclaimed epicenter of the Coalition of Cunning, Charismatic, Cryptic, and Creative Crime-fighting Champions...that it actually is. It's a bit intimidating, I have to admit. I enter the place, and in a blur am assigned a place to start competing, flushed through the system with millions of other contestants who've made it through the application process to come to this planet, home of the most epic supers in the galaxy. My first test goes horribly- at least, I think it does. I'm not really sure what it was about. They push me onto a ramp. A car comes speeding towards me. I leap over it, grab the back fender, hang on as we spin through a maze of dangerous things, finally have to release as I see the automated car heading toward a giant bomb. The blast knocks me off the path and into a web of shadows...I can feel my brain, swinging around like Tarzan in my head. Was that just supposed to test endurance? Was there any meaning to it?

...I am next transported to a virtual mansion where I battle Crilletains. Then, before they can whisk me away to another test, I sneak past the simulation and through the back door. I turn invisible and watch the guy who's supposed to be monitoring me, wait for me to emerge from behind the pillar I left. Heh. They must not know I don't have one specific set of rational, dependable powers.

Speaking of which, the invisibility spell gives way. I crash to the floor in surprise, forgetting to hover. The white-coated assistant turns to me with disdain, brushing imaginary dust from his coat. "Please return to the testing area." He comments pertly, returning to his surveillance of the nine other supers in this quadrant. "If you are not in the test, you cannot obtain a score, and cannot continue on."

I huff, but go back to the room and finish out with a speciality I've developed that I like to call the "shining door effect"-- basically, I grab a door, and if there are any water/mirrors/reflective surfaces around, combine them and levitate the glowy door thing so that the reflections blind my opponents, while coming at them from behind. It only works under very specific circumstances, but...it's still fun to do. And kinda flashy. Might get me noticed.

Next is a street race. Fifty contestants in all. Some leap across telephone poles, some on foot or in cars below, and I take to the clouds with several other high-flyers. I have never been terribly fast, but it's fun and I enjoy being with these people like myself, so I make a concentrated effort to keep up with the group. I notice a kid on a bicycle down below, who looks completely normal. No costume, no war cry...just an "I <3 Earth" T-shirt...how strange...

And then I see what his power is. As he peddles cheerfully along, taking an apple from his bag, munching, He slowly but steadily gains on a particular opponent. He then projects a different path in front of them, so that they side-track out of the racing zone and are disqualified. How clever...he doesn't even have to hurt anyone.

I don't win any of the competitions, in brawn or brain or beauty, etc., but I do learn a lot more about the nature of varies super strategies. And, boy is it entertaining to see a willowy boy on a bike beat the fastest, strongest, and smartest heroes in the galaxy all through the power of perception.