[ WP ] Everybody made fun of you in hero school because your superpower was `` free refills , '' but now you discover it has bigger implications than anyone realized .

It's not so bad, having a dud power. 
 
 I am a ward of FISH, the Federal Institute of Super-Humanity. We are the lucky ones, our guardians tell us: our powers were discovered when we were still young enough to contain them, before they destroyed us from within or turned us megalomaniac Super-villains. This remote valley of New Mexico is our only home. The Clairvoyants here predicted when and where we would be born, and then other supers whisked us away as various psychokinetics and reality manipulators worked to erase any memory of us on the outside, digital or organic. 
 
 We were raised inside this compound, and slowly everyone came into their own, discovering their own brand of telekinesis or super strength or prestidigitation or transformation. Or well, almost everyone. 
 
 `` Oops.'' said Jenny, a thin wisp of a gal one grade below me. A gust of air knocked the soda of my tray over my clothes. I looked up, trying to show disgust instead of despair. 
 
 `` No harm no fowl,'' said Ryan, a handsome jerk with an intimidating build and icy grey eyes, `` She'll just get another.'' 
 
 I grumbled and wandered back to the soda machine, filling my styrofoam cup back up with stale cola. 
 
 This is the the Superpower Mediation, Elimination, & Limitation Learning center. Yup, FISH-SMELL. It's for the kids who just did n't make the cut, super powers like the ability to cry rosewater or grow orange body hair while singing Middle-English rotas. This place is where the powers that be put the young supers they wish they could tell, `` Sorry we ripped you from your loving families for nothing, please enjoy this imitation of normal high school while we figure out how to reintegrate you into society,'' except the powers that be never apologize for anything. 
 
 Even here, though, I'm the dunce. Jenny has aerokinesis, but it only works if she's right near an air conditioner on full blast, and Ryan has precognition, supposedly. As fair as I can tell, he can only predict events that are painfully obvious outcomes already. 
 
 And I? I make free refills. 
 
 No, I ca n't make any liquid come from nowhere. If I am offered a beverage, or buy one, and drink it all, I can make the same amount I got before come from the container I originally got it from without depleting it. If I drink it straight from the bottle it does n't work. That's it. 
 
 I take my tray back to the corner of the cafeteria and pull out my sketchpad. I'm used to lunches alone. I refill my mechanical pencil from the only box of leads I've ever bought and draw the mesas in the distance. I'm cross-hatching the shadows when I smell roses coming toward me. 
 
 Ana. The freak with the rosewater tears I mentioned earlier. Ana is actually short for `` Rosana'' because our guardians have a sick sense of humor sometimes. 
 
 `` Hey, Faye, you got a sec?'' 
 
 I look up. Ana's eyes are bloodshot, and the fragrance is overwhelming. 
 
 I sigh and put down my drawing. `` Sure. What happened?'' 
 
 `` Balthazar went rogue.'' 
 
 Balthazar had classed into Super Elite Specialist Forces, just called'Elites' because SESF is unpronounceable. They were our opposites, kids with such glowing powers they were fast-tracked into prestigious active positions and given new names to match. Balthazar had the power to transform into a ten foot tall molten-metal wolf at will. He'd been a shoo-in for Elites from day one, and he'd never been anything other than an insufferable brat because of it. 
 
 `` Oh dear. If he stays out too long it'll cause such a media mess,'' I replied sarcastically. 
 
 The existence of Elites was supposed to be a secret, but when every day is spent within the same three square miles, eventually everything get around, Even to the losers in the SMELL center like us. Leaks of its existence to the few dusty towns nearby, however, was a much bigger deal. Speculation caused by rogue supers was even worse, and sometimes it triggered an all hands on deck call to make it seem like whatever caused it never happened to the normals. 
 
 Ana wrinkled her nose. `` He did n't just ditch,'' she replied back, `` Psioniqua and Rhiannon tried to stop him, and they got hurt.'' 
 
 I took a sip of my soda and asked, `` How do you know?'' 
 
 `` Nique is telecasting it to me, right now.'' She looked down at the table, uncomfortable, and then whispered, `` Rhiannon is bleeding to death.'' 
 
 `` Oh holy f\*ck,'' I shouted, `` Why is she telling *you* this? She needs to telecast to the infirmary or security or something!'' 
 
 Ana shook her head. `` Rhiannon's physique makes her immune to normal super healing, and Balthazar's training means his timeline ca n't really be chronologically altered. She needs you!'' 
 
 I gulped. `` Me?'' I croaked out. 
 
 Ana nodded. `` Rhiannon will give you the blood she's losing,'' she answered, `` If you refill her veins.''
