As you start to speak, you can't help but think back to the dream you had the night before. You would think with how beat you were that you would have had a dreamless night. Not so. The dream was quite intense, and your freaky suit played a big part. You were wearing your suit and running around in a beast-like form, but instead of being wary of the ability, you were enjoying the power. The extremely heightened senses, the sheer might. Even now, you couldn't understand how, in the dream, you felt so...wild? A thought had come to your mind during that dream--more a word, than a thought. Feral. But when it arose, you experienced an intense sensation. The only way you could describe it was like the scene in a cartoon where a character would freeze at the moment of adrenaline and the sfx would say, "Ba-DUM!"
"I don't really want to get involved in this hero stuff," you say firmly, surprised at your own steadiness after your thoughts return to the present.
"But Ruby--" Priya tries to break in, but you cut her off.
"I understand that I'm stuck with this suit for four years, so it's not like I can stay away completely," you continue. "And if someone finds out I'm involved in this I could be dead meat. So I don't mind helping out behind the scenes, but I don't want to be running around the streets getting up in everyone's business."
Tom and Lucian share a glance, then both turn to Priya, who appears to be struggling with wanting to convince you otherwise. However, to your surprise, Tom pipes up first.
"There's always something that needs to be done, I'm sure there's plenty of ways for you to help without being on the front line," Tom says to you with a kind smile. "After all, I don't often get involved in person either."
You nod at Tom, and look over at Lucian, who doesn't seem to care one way or the other. Priya finally lets out a sigh.
"It would've been fun, but oh well," Priya pouts then continues. "Well, welcome to the team--" as she shoots a lone party popper in your direction.
"That being said, you still need a superhero name as your identity, do you understand your powers enough to come up with one yet?" Tom asks.
Even though the feeling from the dream scares you -- and at the same time entices you -- you know deep inside it is not just a dream, or mere coincidence. Somehow, you know what your hero identity is, the same way you are beginning to know how your power works.
"Ferratic," you state in response. "That's my hero name, 'Ferratic.'"
After the slightly subdued welcome party Priya demands the club hold for you, cake and all, you finally get your stuff together and head out. Just as you walk down the hallway, a bit of curiosity overcomes you. What did happen to that hero yesterday, anyway? Maybe you should ask about it in a roundabout manner, just in case something traced back to you, you could come up with a reasonable excuse. After all, Powerhouse and Illucy did see you in the area. It wouldn't be too strange.
You turn around and head back to the door. Just before you open it, you hear the voices of your fellow club members. You can't help but listen, although it doesn't occur to you that normal human senses should not be able to hear voices so clearly through a thick solid door.
"'Ferratic,' huh? You don't think that sounds a little...villain-y?" you hear Lucian grumble. "With what's going on, are you sure this is the right time to--"
"Look, Ruby's one of us," Priya cuts him off tersely. "That's all there is to it."
After a few moments of awkward silence, you hear Lucian speak up again.
"What do you think really happened yesterday with that villain--" he began.
"You know we're not supposed to talk about that," this time Tom cut Lucian off.
Not hearing anything else, you decide not to enter and turn to leave. You never notice that your ears had changed to pointy cat-like ears when you approached the door, and returned to normal as you left. Even though you never let the suit out from under your clothes.