Slade watch with rapt attention as he watched Jinny begin the training task he had set forth for her. This was as important for her as it was for him. He lacked the same type of powers she owned, and were it not for the military he would lack a powers all together so he needed to be perfectly aware of what it was she could do to the best of his ability, otherwise training her in it would be nearly impossible.

It was a good plan in theory, one that had a miscalculation that he wasn’t expecting, Jinny herself. He witnessed her struggle with the 15 pound weight and made note of the changes that overcame her as well as noting how far it was that she was able to move the weight, all of these signs would be useful w ays of measuring her exertion he figured. Her exhaustion, was expected, her bleeding was not.

With skill long past mastered Slade brushed off the welling panic that bubbled up within him and instead moved into action. Smooth easy movements were used to gently pick up the young Jinyah up off the ground. Those same smooth movements lead them quickly across the underground room to a small area not far from the equipment cage. “I see we have found another thing that we will have to work on with you” He would say gently, softly, not wanting to startle the poor girl considering he wasn’t sure just how badly it was she had injured herself, something that was always an uncertainty when it came to psychically controlled capabilities.

“Your ability has potential, some of the greatest men and women I’ve met had it as well. But you must always be careful with it.” He would go on to say as he set Jinyah down on a medical table. “Straining it too much can and will have consequences, as you are now doubt experiencing.” He continued his explanation even as he pulled out a few high tech medical scanners. He always knew that keeping this little training corner stocked up with actually medical supplies would come in handy; he just never expected it to be for this kind of reason. “So as will all of your training, you must learn when to stop. You own it to yourself, and your potential to never push too far unless you need to. Otherwise you run the risk of crippling yourself forever.”

Quickly he set the scanners up and set them scanning for what type of damage it was that Jinny had done to herself, as it could be a wide category of things that caused the bloody nose, from stress rupturing a vessel in her nose all the way up to brain aneurysms. All the while he would keep his cool until he knew what it was they were actually dealing with. Once he had those answers then he could go on to treating it. And working out how to make sure it never happened again.

JInny let out another very soft, probably worrying groan as she was picked up. One of her hands was still on her nose, but there was still a distinct smear of red on the side of it. She didn't say anything as he spoke to her, just leaned against him with her face in her hands. The light hurt. The cold air in the room hurt. Slade's voice hurt - just a bit, as he was speaking quietly, but it still bothered her.

"...everything hurts. And blood tastes like pennies." Was all she could manage to say, before she was placed on the table. As the scanners turned on, she looked apprehensively at all of the machines. "What does this do?"

The machines would scan for a bit, showing that the girl had in fact torn a vessel in her nose. It would also show something else if it was hooked up to her head. The indication of something akin to a migraine. It seems she had overdone it. It would not be something her mother would have ever mentioned. Mostly because by the time they had met, she had long mastered her power, and knew where her limits were. Jinny did not.

There was worry on the child's face. Her uncle was not panicking, so she felt a bit calmer than she would. Still, her head was starting to pound like someone was trying to nail rocks inside of it. "I don't feel good, Uncle Slade."

“These take detailed looks at your insides” Slade would explain just as gently as before as he watched the data scroll across the screen in front of him. The screen wasn’t at an angle that would make impossible for Jinayah to see, but it wasn’t very likely that she would be able to decipher anything on the screen. “So we can see what went wrong and learn how to avoid it from happening again”

The scan results from her brain were worrying, but thankfully understandable and not dangerous. He would nod to himself as he committed the scan to memory; migraines were dreadful things to have to deal with especially when one was so young. “Well I think we will stop for today” He would say as he slid the equipment away and carefully set about plugging the bleeding nose. He had methods of fixing it near instantly but the normal way would go a long way towards teaching her the consequences of her own powers, which wasn’t something Slade could teach and he didn’t want to lessen those lessons either. They would be the most important ones she could get after all.

Then he would gently pick her up and calmly retreat back to the upper portion of the house. “Your telekinesis has limits” He would say softly as he took Jinayah to her room so that she could rest “With time you will be able to expand those limits, but as you, unfortunately, have found there are drawbacks to forcing past those limits too quickly” Slade was careful not to turn on any lights as he went, which sadly wouldn’t help much considering the early hour. “What you are dealing with right now is called a Migraine, I have some medicine that can help but the only real thing that can be done is simply let your body heal.” When they reached Jinayah’s room he would sit her down on her bed and crouch down so that they were at eye level.

“For now, you can stay in here, lights, sounds, and other stimuli can aggravate, or make it worse.” He would explain “I’ll be back in just a moment with some water and some ibuprofen, afterwards I’ll come back in to check on you every couple of hours, but you can call for me if you need anything alright?” he would ask, waiting for a reply before he went to fetch the medicine.

"Migraine..." Jinny repeated along the way. "I don't like it." She went very still as she was carried, her face pressed against his chest to keep away the light.

"I didn't mean to do it. I just wanted to move the weight." But sometimes lessons had to be learned, and pain was unfortunately an excellent teacher. "I hope I didn't break my powers." While her ability was not "broken", it would be a day or so before she could use it without pain.

Once they were upstairs and settled in her room, she quickly grabbed her fluffy cat doll and pressed her face into it.

"I don't think I need anything. I just want to nap." Truth be told, she was weary all over. It seemed her using her power too hard had a physical backlash along with the migraine. Jinny curled up in the bed, whispered "thank you, Uncle" and was already half asleep before Slade left.

-

Jinny dreamed.

It was now something impossible. She was older, somehow, perhaps ten. A big kid. Her mother was there, showing her how to use her power in a careful way. In the backyard of their home, the two tossed a baseball back and forth with only their minds. Her father watched proudly, as his daughter and wife showed off. It was a happy, beautiful, now impossible scene.

Jinny woke up and looked around, the last vestiges of warmth and joy slipping away with the memory. And she started to cry.

Time is a cruel implement at times. Never is that truth more obvious as to when one is waiting for something to pass. Even as familiar with that fact as Slade is he finds himself counting the seconds as they slips past. Not to say that he wasn’t productive, there were dozens of things that he had to occupy his time. Working towards getting Jinayah set up as his ward for example. There was paperwork to fill out, people to bribe, information to fabricate.

Plus there were plans that he needed to adjust, supplies to acquire or put away, information to obtain and internalize. The hours that the most lethal man alive waited for his newly acquired niece to wake up were not spent idle. Yet that didn’t lessen the impact of the painful drag that time had. Nor did it lessen the temptation to allow his mind to wonder back to earlier times in his life, back when he walked this road for the first time.

Never the less he kept to his work, even as, like clockwork, he would step away to check in on the young girl that was now a part of his life on the hour, and it was during one of those times that he stepped away from his work to check on Jinny that he came across the sight of her crying, the sight of which tore at him.

Quietly he would move to sit next to her a gentle hand on her back rubbing soothing circles. He would not say anything. For there was nothing he could say, for even if he knew what it was that brought about her tears, how could his words have any sort of impact at this point?

Even after Slade silently arrived, Jinny just let herself cry for a while. It felt good, somehow. She hadn't cried since this had all happened. At one point, she finally started to talk.

"I miss them. A lot. I had a dream about them, and it was really nice. And then I woke up and it wasn't true, and that made me really sad." She paused, shifting with obvious discomfort. "Thank you for bringing me here, Uncle. I'm happy you did. But... I'm sad you did too?" It was the most she could explain at her age. Tears started to drip again, and she grabbed her favored doll and started to cry more.

Once her tears ran out, she looked up to him and asked an odd question.

"Do you have any crayons? I want to draw pictures." Her dark eyes were pink and puffy from crying, and she still looked worn out from her botched training session earlier. "My head doesn't hurt anymore. I promise." Right now, she had the overwhelming urge to do... something. Even if she wasn't fully sure if drawing pictures would help her feel better, she just had to do it.

"Maybe we can draw pictures together."

Slade said nothing as Jinn explained herself as best she could, simply nodding in understanding as she spoke. He had lost someone as well after all, multiple people if he was honest. So he understood, at least as much as it was possible for him to understand. The differences between the events were not insubstantial after all, neither were the similarities.

At her question, her simple request, he was drawn up short. Not because he didn’t know the answer, he knew the answer; he didn’t have any crayons, but because he was working to figure out if he had anything that would work in place of them. Thankfully, “I’m sorry, no crayons at the moment.” He would console her softly “I do believe I have some colored pencils however. Give me just a moment”

He would get up and head to one of his offices before he started digging through various drawers looking for the simple items. It would take him a moment to find them but he was grateful that he still had them. He had bought a few packs of higher end coloring pencils in preparation for one of his jobs. Mainly so he could tinker around with them to see if he could make a workable explosive with the limited size of the case. He kept the last one around just in case, in case of what he didn’t know, and never would have suspected this, but he was reluctant to throw something away that might have some use eventually.

Paper and pencil sharpeners were easy. As he preferred pencils to pens a lot of the times, as a properly sharped pencil was a much better weapon then a garden variety pen. That’s not to say he didn’t have any pens that did measure up to his standards but that was neither here nor there.

He would come back a few minutes later with all of the supplies he had gathered, placing everything at the end of the bed as he sat down next to it. “Not much, but we can pick up better art supplies when we go shopping” He would say, somewhat self-conscious at the fact he was almost unable to fulfill the young girls request.

‘Hmm, perhaps she wasn’t the only one affected by last night’ Slade would ponder to himself, but he place those thoughts to the side. Thinking of Grant and Joseph right now wasn’t conducive to helping Jinny after all.

Jinny waited patiently until Slade returned. Once he did, she looked at the colored pencils with something akin to awe. “Ooh! Those are pretty.”

She took care on choosing her colors, before snagging a piece of paper and starting to draw. It was clear she was struggling with manipulating the colored pencils. Her hands were small and honestly, still learning to coordinate. But she wasn’t deterred. As she drew, she asked questions.

“I think I am ready to go shopping. Can we go shopping later? I have a lot of stuff I want.” She paused, ducking her head slightly. “If that’s okay. Sometimes I don’t get everything I want. Or at least that’s what Okaa-san says.”

She continued to draw, something taking shape on the paper. “Am I allowed to make this room pink? It’s nice how it is, but I really like pink. And purple too! They’re pretty colors.” She paused, looking up at him with the tiniest of smiles. “I know you’re a boy and boys aren’t supposed to like pink. But it would just be this room.”

Her drawing was almost finished, it seemed. “Also, can we eat lunch? I’m really, really, really hungry.” Her stomach rumbled as if in agreement. Her eyes brightened briefly. “Can we have cheeseburgers? I like kid’s meal cheeseburgers.”

“There!” Her chatting and her picture done, she held it up triumphantly. It was four figures, drawn in a child’s simple hand. One was her, judging by the size of the figure and the black hair. Two were her parents – if the coloring didn’t give it away, the yellow halos above their heads would. The last seemed to be Slade himself, and she had remembered the eyepatch and given him an orange shirt. Everyone was smiling and holding hands.

She gently placed it on Slade’s lap. “That’s for you!” She smiled warmly. “That’s Okaa-san and Daddy in heaven, and me, and you!”

Slade was much more sedate when it came to drawing; it was honestly more sketching than anything else and he stuck to just using one of the black pencils for it. It was something done to keep his hands busy really as he answered Jinny’s questions.

“Yes we can go shopping. We’ll focus on what is needed first, but you should be able to get most things.” He wasn’t going to get everything, not without reason at any rate. Though he doubted that life lesson needed to be reinforced all that much. The young girl already knew that sometimes you can’t get what you want, and life it’s self would reaffirm that enough without him hammering it in.

“Painting a room is going to be tough” He would say as he looked about the room. The walls were a shade of cream, and he had no real issue with the color Pink, other than it was a terrible color for stealth. “But this is your room now, if you want it to be pink, we can make it pink.” And hopefully a more subdued color in later years.

His own piece of paper had half a dozen sketches on it; most of them of people he had fought at one point another, which meant most of them were capes, though there was a business rival on there as well. “If you are feeling up to eating, then yes, most powers tend to burn a lot of energy. So I suspect that as we progress with your training you’ll be finding yourself hungry a lot.” And he knew that even without training her Telekinesis she would end up eating a lot. He was training her after all. “We’ll get food first then to the store to get supplies.”

The drawing handed to him was a simple, childish thing, unsurprising since a child had made it. That was perhaps all the more reason that it affected him as much as it did. It tore at an age old wound, of the last time he had been handed such a gift, and of a loss he knew he never truly got over. Not that any of that turmoil showed on his face. Instead he simply smiled. “Thank you, I’ll make sure to put it somewhere it deserves.” Like the fridge, so that it would never be forgotten easily.

“I’ll go do that now” he would go on to say standing carefully. “Will you be ready to go when I get back?” He would ask. He was a bit adrift, but he was okay with that for the moment. And when he left his sketch of the various super heroes was left behind. The drawing he left with was infinitely more important at the moment any way.

"I can be ready." Jinny smiled happily, then watched him go. She shut the door, then changed her clothes. She realized she only had 2 outfits, and wondered if Slade would take her to get more clothes if she asked. Probably if she asked nicely.

Tying her shoes was a bit of an ordeal. She had been taught, but it was still difficult. A few tries later she had 2 rather lopsided bows in her sneakers. Then she made the bed back up the best she could, tucking Fluffy into the covers for a nap.

Then she looked curiously at the sketch that Slade had left behind. She didn't recognize any of them, even though the drawings were very precise. She carefully set the paper on the bedside table. It was a precious gift.

Heading out of her room, she went to the kitchen and sat down, her stomach rumbling. She swung her feet and waited, eager to get outside.

The walk down to the kitchen to place the picture was simple. Affixing it with a magnet so that it hung in the middle of the fridge was no challenge. The trip back to his room to pick up the car keys and wallet was easy. It was when he caught his reflection as he started back to Jinny that he felt the foundation of his control rock.

He didn’t look any different; he knew that, he was still well groomed. Still wore higher end clothes despite their casual appearance, and his expression was still the same relaxed unreadable expression he had worked to perfect. Yet for whatever reason the sight of his eye patch nearly made his violently ill.

‘Never again’ He remembered swearing. The feeling of loss staining his hands as a life most precious slipped away from him.

‘Never again’ He pledged as his eye was destroyed by the woman that once held his heart and still held some measure of his love.

‘Never again’ He promised himself visiting a rain slicked grave, knowing that as time went on it was just becoming more dangerous to try for that dream again.

He chuckled softly to himself as he pulled himself out of the mire that was his past. “Should have known not to bet against myself” he would mutter, shaking his head. Things changed, he would need to get in contact with one of his clients soon.

---

Slade was only a few moment’s behind Jinayah in reaching the kitchen, he had checked her room first after all. “Well someone’s eager” He would remark with a soft smirk. After that it wasn’t a difficult task at getting them into the car.

Contrary to what she might have been used to Slade made sure to seat her in the passenger seat next to him. Both because without a car seat it would be safer if she was in arms reach in case something went wrong, and because it would be easier to stop her from poking at anything telekinetically if she was with arms reach as well. Not that he expected much of the latter today, but still.

He tuned the radio to a random music station, pop music from the sounds of it, and set off. Their destination was a shopping center near the downtown of Jump city. Plenty of stores to choose from, as well as food places to pick. Though in all honesty those were simply side benefits, he had a contact that worked in that area.

Might as well get started on getting the right papers in the right places to get Jinny under his care legally, as it was only a matter of time until people started asking where it was she vanished off too, assuming that the league hadn’t already paid off those people, not counting the various capes of course.

Even when he was technically on vacation work never seemed to end. Oh well, at least he enjoyed his work.

Twenty minutes later they would pull up at a Big Belly Burger just across the street from a shopping center, and all in all it was a nice average day in the city.

Jinny’s simple days turned into weeks. Those weeks rapidly turned into months.

Jinny’s training continued, though at a much more careful pace considering her first incident. Accuracy practice, telekinetic practice, acrobatics, memorization. She was learning to swim, and had several books on various languages to learn from. Japanese was first, since she already had some foundation in that thanks to her parents. Spanish, French, even some very simple Chinese. She absorbed knowledge like a sponge. Her natural talents began to shine – she had an unusually high level of competency with numbers, and she liked to take things apart.

She also started school, which was an adjustment. Initially, she definitely did not want to go. It was much more fun at home. Slade usually left her to her own devices, with books and toys and all sorts of entertaining things. School, by comparison, was boring. 1 + 1 was boring. She knew more than that. Handwriting was too hard – her letters came out strange and she didn’t like that at all. The only thing she liked was recess, as any child might. Some days were better than others.

Today was not one of those days.

The school bus dropped Jinny off in front of the house, and she came in pouting, nearly in tears. She sought out her Uncle, sat at his feet and promptly began to cry.

“I hate school, Uncle Slade! It’s boring and I have to sit a lot, and all of the other kids are babies, and the only one with powers ‘sides me is a BOY! And he’s mean! I don’t want to go anymore!”

She sniffled and rubbed at her nose with her sleeve. “Can’t I just stay here with you forever?”

Jinny would easily be able to find Slade. In all the months she had of experience with living with him he was always within one of three places when she got home from work. Either in his office working on some digital project, in the living room maintaining some of his equipment, or in the basement putting together additional training equipment.

Today it was the living room and on the table in front of him were a handful of disassembled handguns that he was in the process of cleaning and repairing.

“No” Was his simple response to his niece. Attention barely wavering form his task of cleaning all the parts in front of him “For a few reasons, the largest being the the way I went about gaining legal custody over you, as currently there are one or two government groups keeping an eye on you and me making sure that I am taking adequate care of you.” For the most part Slade was sympathetic to Jinny’s plights about school; he himself had felt much the same way about schooling when he was younger after all.

“School is one of those things that they are monitoring, so for now you are going to have to keep going.” He would add as he started to methodically put the weapons back together. A passing thought had Slade wondering if it would be too much to shadow this Boy for a while. In full gear. “That being said, School is only in session for a few more months and once it is done we will have more options.” One of those options was different schooling. Of which rumors of a villain academy that had recently started up had been making their way to him.

To be fair those rumors had more to do with the fact that they were offering up the services of their graduates then that they were looking for more applicants, as otherwise Slade would likely be plotting who he needed to kill. There were no professional connection between him and Jinny, but that was only a matter of time.

“So for now consider it an extended training regimen for patience” He would say wiping the oil off his hand with a nearby rag so he could ruffle Jinayah’s hair.

He would turn back to his work but would still ask “About this boy. How is he being mean to you?”

Jinny sniffled and sighed, disappointed but not surprised. She knew she had to go, even if she didn’t like it. But one day maybe she wouldn’t have to. Uncle Slade was usually very blunt about things. He answered her questions for the most part, and didn’t talk to her like a child. She liked that. She may not have fully understood everything, but she didn’t like being treated like she was dumb because she was little. Like the teacher treated them.

While he spoke, she watched curiously as he cleaned the gun. She wanted to know how it fit together. So far she had taken apart and put together several things. Several of her toys, one of the TV remotes, a kitchen appliance that had been left out (she had gotten in trouble for that) – but the gun was new. She knew he wouldn’t let her touch it, but maybe she could figure out how it worked if she watched.

“His name is Wally and he’s fast. Like real fast. And he pushes people off the swings, and cuts in line, and he tripped me once but I kicked him back and the teachers don’t notice. I know I’m not supposed to tell on people but I told on him once and he lied about it and the teacher said to play nice!” Jin was fuming, her eyes going lighter and more silvery with each word. “I wish he’d go away! Boys are annoying.” She paused. “Well, you’re not annoying. But lots of boys are.”

She stood up, eyeing his work with her usual curiosity. After a moment, she slowly dragged a chair over, stood on it, and watched more. “...Can I learn to do that? I want to help.”

‘A Speedster?’ was Slade’s first thought as he learned a bit about Jinny’s tormentor. They were a rare breed, the best known one was obviously The Flash, but there were a few others that Slade knew of. Mainly small time assassin’s or runners and none of which came close to the Hero. Still it had him wondering. Just who was this Wally West? Because yes he did know the names of everyone in Jinayah’s class, and no he didn’t care how that may make him look on paper.

He made a mental note to look closer into the kids family when he had the time, but overall let it lie for the moment. “There is nothing wrong with outing people for what they are doing.” He would say instead “The trick to it is to make it so that people don’t know that it was you who let the secrets out. As for several reasons people don’t like associating with those that are willing to air out their secrets.” In school it was viewed as being a tattletale, on the streets it was viewed as being a snitch. But in the underworld being an informant was a very lucrative business. Assuming that you had something to tell, and a way to keep from being tracked down. People liked their secrets to stay theirs after all.

“And if he keeps giving you trouble you could always work on tying his shoe laces together. He has his speed, and you can use that against him if you are careful. Your eyes might give you away however” Slade would add using a shined part of the disassembled gun to draw attention to Jinn’s glowing eyes.

He left the comment about boys being annoying alone, because honestly he was too old to want to wade back into that mire. He would thank her for the compliment however.

Slade did at last pause in his work, however, at her request to learn how to do what it was he was doing. Turning a bit more attention to her as he contemplated the request. He knew that she was endlessly curious about how things worked, and the only reason he had punished her for the toaster was because she had damaged it when she took it apart, so he had needed to buy a new one. But to learn how to put a gun together? That strayed close to a border he wasn’t sure if he wanted to cross with her so soon.

Guns were the basis of his work after all. Yes he was partial to swords if he was able to choose, but far more often than not a firearm was his primary tool. It just made him wonder how long it would be before he was teaching her about his job, and how she would feel about that. After another moment of contemplating it he would answer “I can teach you how to put them together if you want.” He would give her an assessing look as he spoke “But know that it will be a year at least, and quite possibly more, before I teach you how to use one.”

“If you are alright with that I can begin with the basics” He would wait to hear her answer before moving on.

Quietly, Jinny mulled over the idea of keeping, and telling secrets. She had learned that lots of people had secrets. Even her classmates. She had an idea of what Slade was talking about, but she wasn’t sure how exactly not to get caught telling a secret. That would be a new line of questioning for later.

“Tie his shoelaces together?” Jinny thought about that, and giggled. It was a rather wicked laugh for someone so small, and probably would have worried a normal parent. Luckily there was no one quite normal in this room.

When she was showed her eyes, Jinny stopped giggling abruptly. “Uh oh. Sorry!” She took a few deep breaths, and her eyes steadily returned to their regular color. That was another thing they had been working on: mindfulness. With such an obvious tell to her power, Jinny had to work on keeping calm, or at the very least, keeping her power under control until she needed it. While she understood the concept, in practice it was a work in progress.

After watching Slade with the gun parts a moment more, she answered his question. “A year is a really long time. But… I think you’d let me use it if I was allowed. Which means I’m not allowed, even with you.” Sound logic, more or less. “I do want to learn though. So I can wait to use one.” She nodded firmly, having made her decision.

“Teach me how to put it together. And I won’t ask how to use it.” Not yet anyway.

Slade could appreciate the logic behind his young niece reasoning. It wasn’t quite true, after all there was no age limit on when someone could use a firearm, just an age limit on when one could own one. But it was more that there was going to be associations to guns. While they weren’t the weapons used to end Yumiko, there was plenty of evidence that they had been used at the assault on the house.

Never the less he would let out a small chuckle “With some things, learning how it works is more important then learning how to use it.” He would say cryptically, because the truth of the matter was it didn’t matter if she asked how to use it. He had already thought her enough of the basics she that she could use one entirely without his help if she tried.

“This is a Colt M1911.” He would go on to explain as he pulled all of the parts of one of the guns in front of him and smoothly put it together. He would go on to dismantle it once again, explaining everything as he went. For as much as he was slightly wary of how close they were to his Job, he was never one to teach half-heartedly.

---

Time continued to move ever onward as it was want to do, and years would pass by. Different schools were attended, both of public and private, but never boarding. Training and teaching continued, the Summers used for more intensive regimes. With martial art’s being added in slowly. Slade was fully aware that she would be viewed as his protégé and successor when she started to gain more notoriety. Something that was getting harder and harder to avoid as his growing distance from the underworld was becoming more pronounced as time passed and more people started to wonder why.

He still performed jobs, still maintained his lethal excellence, but he was accepting less, or turning down more lucrative ones. Because he didn’t trust anyone else to watch out for his Niece. Money wasn’t a concern, he was too well invested for that to ever be the case, but the increasing scrutiny was starting to becoming a hassle.

But at his desk he was staring at a webpage that might be able to solve that issue. Grated it would solve it by pronouncing the reason to the underworld, but at the same time it would help protect Jinny, as well as further her training. Because on his desktop was the home page for the H.A.E.Y.P. Institute.

It would mean that he would need to actually give an answer to some of the more, pointed questions that Jinayah had asked him over the years. He had never lied to her, but that also didn’t mean he was fully honest with her. But it might be time for her to see a bit beyond the curtain as it were. At least before it was ripped away entirely.

With a nod to himself he would send the page to he phone before standing up to go seek out his niece. It was time for a discussion about her future once more. This time with an option he hadn’t brought up before.

It was funny how fast time could go. One day Jinny was an innocent, exuberant 5 year old girl. Now she was 9 – different in some ways, but the same at her core. Ever energetic, ever curious. She was getting stronger and smarter by the day, and had begun to ask questions that didn’t have satisfactory answers. How did her uncle and her parents meet? What was with all the locked rooms and weapons? Why did he disappear on so many “business trips”, and why wasn’t she allowed to call him when he was?

Her room had graduated from pink to purple sometime in the last year. While she’d gone to many schools, she did not have very many friends. Somehow she felt disconnected from other children, like there was a rift there that she could never cross. It wasn’t her powers; she’d met other kids with superpowers in school, but even then they seemed something closer to normal than she felt.

Her natural skills were beginning to shine through, aside from her rigorous training. The child who would take apart anything she could reach had become a girl who could put things together with ease. Slade encouraged this mechanical prowess, buying her models and machines to explore, destroy and rebuild. There were also some advanced books on her shelf, most of them math related. She was up to algebra now, and planned to start calculus by the time she was 12.

At the current time, she was in the basement training room, working off some spare energy. Slade and Jinny had both found that if she didn’t do something physical during the day, she tended to get mildly hyperactive and unable to focus. So she attacked the training dummy with fervor, her strikes light, but swift and deadly accurate. When Slade found her, she did not stop in her rhythm, but she did smile warmly.

“Hi Uncle Slade! What’s up?”

Slade took a moment to observe his niece as she worked off her excess energy. They had never gotten it confirmed, but the man had always assumed that it was a byproduct of Jinyah being a Metahuman. In the end it never bothered him, and if anything, it helped get her though some of the more rigorous parts of training. Which now more then ever he could see the type of figure she would grow into.

Untested she might be at the moment, Slade was confident that there were few other children across the world that were as well trained, and of those that were a threat to her only one was trained to kill. Yet it wasn’t the other children that he was most worried about, it was his associates.

“Jinayah” He would greet in return at last. Still cataloging her stance and movements. They were good, but there was always room for improvement. “I wanted to talk to you about schooling, and in a larger sense what direction you wanted to take your life in.” Absently in the back of his mind he toyed around with teaching her more directly in the art of knife combat. “That and answer more directly some of your questions that I’ve been dancing around”

He would pull a stool over to the edge of the training area as he spoke. It would be up to Jinayah if she wanted to keep working out while they talked.

Jin, in fact, did continue working out. It was clear she was developing into a fast, technical fighter rather than one with a lot of power. She was always going to be on the smaller side of the average, but so far she was using that to her every advantage.

“More about school?” She stopped short of rolling her eyes. Slade didn’t tolerate whining or disrespect. “Fine… I’m going to fifth grade. I’m going to be super bored. And no one there will be friends with me.” There was a sadness in her eyes when she said the last part, and she struck the dummy particularly hard. “That’s the direction of my life. But I don’t like that direction. I want to know more. Do more. I want to learn everything.”

She looked steadily at her Uncle, catching the swinging punching bag in both arms to keep it from moving.

“You’re finally going to answer my questions? We can start now. How did you meet my parents? And don’t say ‘a business trip’ because that’s too vague. It’s almost lying.” There was determination written all over her face. This was quite clearly a test of his honesty.