A Hitman's Guide To Becoming A Hero

Dana watched with her mouth nearly touching the ground.

She thought it was over the moment the cat leaped, but now looking at the scene.

The rat shot straight up into the air like it had been fired from a cannon. It cleared the cat’s outstretched claws by a full meter, ascending toward the ceiling with the kind of effortless speed that had absolutely no business belonging to something that small.

It hovered.

Just... hovered.

Tiny legs dangling beneath it, nose twitching, black eyes scanning the room below with what could only be described as dawning awareness of its own situation.

The cat landed empty-pawed and looked up.

The rat looked down.

Then the rat did something no rat had any right to do.

It swooped.

Not at the cat — just near it. A low pass, close enough to ruffle the cat’s fur, before pulling back up to the ceiling. The cat swiped at the air uselessly.

The rat did it again.

And again.

The cat started spinning in place, increasingly bewildered, swatting at nothing as the rat conducted what could only be described as an aerial victory lap around the room.

Dana turned to look at Katie, ’She’s not controlling the rat is she?’ she thought looking at Katie keenly before turning her gaze back to the rat as the realization dawned on her, ’She gave the rat the ability to fly?’ Dana frowned.

From the observation room, nobody said anything for a long moment.

Then Julie said, "Is she controlling the rat with Telekinesis or is that a super rat I’m seeing?"

The rat buzzed the cat one more time, pulling up at the last second with what appeared to be a barrel roll.

"...Yes," Selena said faintly. "I believe it is a super rat"

Nicholas looked at the flying rat with a deep frown that had nothing to do with the rat’s aerobatics.

He understood what he was looking at.

Not just a girl who awakened an ability.

A girl who could give abilities.

A girl who could look at something defenseless and hand it the means to protect itself, ’Well I didn’t expect her to manifest such an ability’ he thought with a frown.

Dana stood in the test room watching the rat perform another low pass over the increasingly defeated cat.

She turned to look at Katherine, who was watching the flying rat with both fists raised, cheering it on at full volume.

Dana felt her chest tighten.

She’d processed a lot of unusual awakening cases in her time at the association. Abilities that surprised her. Abilities that worried her. Abilities she’d had to immediately flag for Eric’s attention.

But this.

A child who could give abilities to things that had none... She felt a headache, ’The council will definitely be out for her’

’Two siblings,’ she thought. ’First him, now her.’

She couldn’t decide if it was remarkable or terrifying.

Probably both.

Katherine tugged on the cuff of her shirt.

Dana looked down to find two enormous brown eyes staring up at her.

"Katie passed, right?"

Dana looked at her for a moment — this small person with her fists still half-raised and her face full of hopeful anxiety — and felt the tightness in her chest shift into something warmer.

"Of course you passed, Katie."

Katherine’s face split into a grin so wide it looked like it might fall off.

"Katie did it! Katie did it!"

Dana glanced back at the rat, which had settled onto a high ceiling ledge and appeared to be looking down at the cat with considerable satisfaction. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

’Why do I feel like this only means more trouble?’ she thought, letting out a quiet sigh.

"You’ve done a great Job Katie, let’s go" Dana said as she gestured towards the door.

Katie’s eyes lit up, "Yes! Katie will tell big brother!"

Dana chuckled lightly, "Of course,"

With haste Katherine left the room, Dana’s eyes lingered on the Rat, still flying in the air, ’We’ll have to learn more about her abilities’ she thought as she walked out of the room.

Katherine burst through the door at full speed and covered the distance to Nicholas in approximately one second.

"Big brother! Katie passed! Katie has an ability!"

Nicholas caught her before she could knock him over.

"I know," he said, ruffling her hair. "I didn’t expect anything less."

Katherine beamed up at him.

"Katie gave the rat flying powers! Did you see? Did you see? The rat was so cool! It flew right at the cat and then pulled up at the last second and the cat kept missing and Katie was the one who did that!"

"I saw."

"Wasn’t it amazing?"

"It was."

"Big brother isn’t surprised at all, is he?"

"I’m very surprised."

"Big brother’s face doesn’t look surprised."

"That’s just my face."

Katherine considered this for a moment, then nodded as though it was a reasonable explanation.

Selena stepped forward, crouching slightly to Katherine’s level. "Congratulations, Katie. You did really well."

Katherine immediately latched onto Selena’s arm. "Did Supervisor Selena see? Did she see the rat?"

"I saw the rat."

"It was amazing right?"

"It was genuinely one of the most amazing things I’ve seen in this building."

Katherine released her arm, satisfied, and went back to hanging off Nicholas.

"Supervisor Selena."

Dana’s voice was quiet but carried enough weight that Selena straightened immediately.

"Sir Eric would like to see you when you have a moment."

Selena glanced at Nicholas. He had already heard. His expression was neutral in the way that meant he was processing something.

"You three head on," she said. "I won’t be long."

Nicholas gave a small nod. Katherine waved goodbye to both Dana and Selena with her whole arm, excitement still beaming on her face.

Julie got in one last shot of the hallway for her camera before following.

The hallway went quiet as the three of them disappeared around the corner.

Dana let out a long breath, her gaze sharpening.

She turned to Selena, and her expression had shifted — the warmth she’d worn around Katherine was still there, but set aside now, replaced by something more careful.

"So," Dana said.

She looked at Selena directly.

"What information have you gathered on Phantom so far? Have you found any weaknesses?"