The Time Flier

Gender: Male; Age: 17; Real Name: Fletcher

Offensive power: Strong Animal Control (single - flying) attacks
---3x normal power level

Defensive Power: Very strong Time defenses
---7x normal power level

Transport Power: High Flight (no wings)
---4x normal power level

Weakness: Easily Angered (verbal)

The Second Hand

Gender: Female; Age: 16; Real Name: Annie

Offensive power: Very strong Shapeshifting (metallic) attacks
---4x normal power level
---This power is out of control, or barely under control

Defensive Power: Very strong Future Sense defenses
---6x normal power level

Transport Power: High Flight (no wings)
---3x normal power level

Weakness: Damaged by water (rust)(common)

It was almost destined, and that was what the instructors even said. That this pair of teenagers would become a great heroing duo. They were already drawn together because of their similar power over time: one could manipulate it and the other was so aware of it she could react before things even happened. They'd been practicing for months, even off school grounds and had established themselves in Paragon as one of the youngest registered super-teams.

Second Hand's sense could not stop one event, nor could her dear friend use his manipulation of time to prevent it: the death of Flier's beloved gyrfalcon Arrow. The bird had lived a long while, been responsive to Flier's commands up until the last few weeks of his life. But neither Flier nor Second has any control over the effects of mortality, not even their own.

"Let's talk to them," Second suggested, looking up at her white-haired companion and noting his lack of interest. Still. "Fletcher, please," she begged. "It's been three weeks! We haven't been on patrol. It's time to get going again."

"Even you don't understand," Fletcher said, agonized tone caused Annie to pause.

"I do understand that you loved Arrow very much, but ... Fletch, it was his time. And wouldn't you rather have had all this time with him, instead of - well, any of the alternatives? He was very lucky you could stop time and save him, at least twice, while we were out there." She put her silvery hands on his shoulders, which were still rounded and slumped as his head hung into his hands. "Fletch, I'm not saying we're going to go out and ... find another falcon. I'm saying we--"

"You're saying we should attract attention to ourselves with those dragons," he said, "we rely on stealth and surprise."

"What's more surprising than a dragon?" Annie chuckled. "Fletcher, we've known each other for years. I know it hurts. When I was a kid, we lost our family dog - he was a great dog but he was old too. And I remember how bad it was, but we did get another dog, and he's never going to be the same as the one before. But these dragons," she sighed and looked up, their dorm had a skylight that could be opened, since they were both apt fliers. There were no dragons overhead at the moment, but there had been days before.

"I suppose you won't give up until I'm happy skipping around asking to be brought to a dragonry," Fletcher groaned.

"Well there you go, you know me well enough to know that too!" She fluffed his hair, which was hardly its normal slicked self either. "It's the dean," she said just before there was a knock at the door. "Come in, he's still miserable!" She called, and there was a bit of hesitation before the door opened.

The dean (formerly just 'principal' but he'd gotten a huge promotion since introducing the dragons from Carramba to the Program) raised his eyebrows and glanced at Fletcher who was sitting miserably at the kitchenette bar and not moving. Second was the more energetic of the pair, even though she was the more physically exotic. Her armored body could soften down into flesh, she just rarely did so. She was one of the mutants who were allowed to go 'clothless' around campus, since she technically didn't show anything that could get anyone in trouble. Her armor was also extremely nice for, say, rolling herself into a cannonball, growing spikes, producing a shield, or almost anything else she could think up. A bright girl, she'd thought up quite a few things.

Fletcher on the other hand, he was a genius really, but he had issues. After all there weren't too many teenagers who had to sort through the moral dilemma of stopping time and moving bullets to another path, speeding up moments that would be awkwardly long, or even just dotting himself back and forth through time. He'd been warned the first time he'd gone to the future: he was being watched, and if he ever did anything extremely stupid, like trying to kill Hitler or something.

And he'd also just lost the only thing left of his old life before his powers truly kicked in. His family still lived, but they were extremely distant to him emotionally. It was entirely possible that his family were also time-travellers, but the dean wasn't certain, and didn't want to press the issue. They'd allowed him to keep the gyrfalcon hatchling that he found, knowing that he would be able to command it better than most because he had a power for it rather than just training. However he did also have that training for falconry. Now the old bird was gone, and he hadn't even considered the possibility that he'd need another some day.

The Dean looked over to Annie, who was rocking on her heels, and apparently debating using her own hand as a frying pan to make eggs. She was downright entertaining, because she did have an incredible sense of humor as well as the timing of the best comic minds on the planet. But Second wasn't the 'comedy relief' type when it came to her duties in the field. She'd wisecrack, and sometimes even openly mock their enemies. But in the end, she also knew exactly how much pressure to exert when she slammed her solid metal fist into someone's temple knocking them flying.

"Fletcher, they are going to be on campus grounds for another few hours. I think you should at least talk to them." The dean tilted his head, swallowed, and said, "even if you go to a dragonry there's always a chance that you won't find a dragon to bond with. So if you're dead-set on being miserable and alone, there is a chance for that to come true as well."

Fletcher gave a snort, "I'm not even sure if you're trying to cheer me up, or insult me," he said. "I'll go, I'm just..."

"He needs to fix his hair," Annie called from the stove, and giggled as Fletcher went into the bathroom to grab his hair gel. Boy was more vain than most - but he had good reason. He was, apparently (from all the whispers that the Dean had heard around the halls when he was near), quite the catch, and most girls were jealous of Annie for having nabbed him.

Their relationship, so far as the Dean could tell, was essentially frienship and professional only. They roomed together because they had already applied for duo-team status and been granted it with the city. Though they were young, they weren't necessarily in love or even particularly overprotective of one another. But that, the Dean thought as he waited for Annie to finish her eggs and Fletcher to spruce himself up, would happen in time - he knew it, everyone knew it.

***

"There are already about a dozen dragons of different breeds in Paragon," said one rider, "but none of them are really what you'd call 'full time'. Except that one," he pointed to a dappled green-and-yellow creature who stood almost meekly beside a much more grand and equine-looking one in black and pink. "Go talk to Rita, she's the excitable one with the tattoos."

Rita took a look at the pair, and even nudged her bonded dragon, the green one, to sniff at them. The other made more of a fuss about it.

"I know a place that knows a place," she suggested. "You've got the ability to fly, that gives you an advantage when it comes to training young dragons."

"I already know a lot about flight, thanks," Fletch said, and was immediately elbowed in the gut by his partner. "I'm a - ... I used to be a falconer."

"You can still be," Rita said, "only ... a much, much bigger bird." She grinned widely, laughed loud, and was joined by Annie.

They wound up packing light but warm, both from the mid-west where it could get quite chilly in the winter, and they were headed to something called a "flurry". It wasn't Winter, here, but it might as well be somewhere. They did in fact travel a bit backwards in time to get to this place, where there were plenty of eggs dotting the red sands, and a slowly filling roster of eager Novos.

"And you can stand on the corner of the buildings just like you always do," Second said, cheerily, "and then when you do that thing, with your arm," she made a whooshy-swish, something he'd do to visually command the old falcon, "it'll be a freaking dragon, flying down! Those hellion punks won't know what hit em!"

Fletch stood for a moment, looking around. He did the unthinkable: he stopped time dead, and walked outside. He gathered up as much of the sticky snow that had been continually falling since they'd arrived, walked it carefully into the hall where Second was talking, and unceremoniously dumped it on her.

Then he started time back up.

It would be like that for a while, and Annie loved it.