Aiden sat in a beach chair at the corner of the wave pool under a bright yellow beach umbrella. The sounds of splashing and children's laughter filled the air but Aiden hardly noticed it. That's because Aiden wasn't at Drippy Swifty for the pools, the slides, or anything else related to water for that matter. Instead, his pained green eyes scanned the crowds, seeking the scarred visage of the man who had wronged him. He recalled the fateful day when the two of them had first met. It was early autumn in Paris, but the leaves on the chestnuts lining the Champs-Élysées had already faded from green to a warm yellow. "It's only for a few months, my darling, and then we can finally start a life together," she had told him. Aiden's heart leapt in joy, and he had caught her in a warm embrace - they'd been corresponding for years before finally meeting in person. Years where he’d often envisage sweeping wings sprouting from the skin of his back, if only he could soar through the skies that separated them. And now, she is here in his arms–well, was here; that was days ago, though it feels like eons since it happened.

Before she left, she gave Aiden one small request - or at least he thought it would be one small request. "My brother Charles will be returning from his vacation today," she began. Aiden braced himself for what he suspected she would say next. She held out a tarnished silver locket, engraved on the face with an ornate letter E. Aiden trembled in fear. "Please Aiden, hold onto this for me, just for safe keeping." “Charles must not have it,” she said, “For it contains my great-grandmother’s most precious secret.” “If he knows that I gave it to you, he will stop at nothing to find you and take it for himself.” Suddenly Aiden was snapped back to the present; across the pool a man in a Speedo with the telltale French tricolor caught his eye. For a brief moment, Aiden wondered if printing a flag on a Speedo was disrespectful. As he glanced up, past the garish “Drippy Swifty” logo, cheaply screen-printed onto a t-shirt, he locked eyes with the villain, Charles. The sight of Charles was expected, but still shocked him nonetheless, "Really dude...a French speedo?" "Forgot to pack one," Charles replied, "and this is the best thing I could find at De Gaulle before I left." "Not as good, of course, as Edith's locket," he continued with a grin. Aiden ignores the remark, "you must have been in a rush after last week then; how's the scar healing up?" Charles’ mocking grin vanished in an instant, his face twisting into a rictus of bestial rage, accentuated by the bandages on his head concealing burns. "Once I have the inheritance I will be able to hire the finest plastic surgeon in the Carolinas," he snarled. A flame kindled within Aiden at the words, as hot as the Sun which melted the wings from Daedalus. "You know damn well Edith needs that money, you thieving bastard." Charles rolled his eyes and sneered, “What, and I don’t?” "I have become accustomed to a certain, shall we say, standard of living and this locket will make sure I keep it that way." Aiden’s rage reached its crescendo, and he leaped at Charles, drawing a slender blade from concealment.

A lifeguard shouted "Hey no horseplay in th..." before cutting his sentence short at the sight of the knife. Charles flinched back in surprise for a moment before his training asserted control, and he executed a deft kick to knock the blade flying. He followed up with a left hook, connecting square on the side of Aiden's jaw. Aiden hit the deck hard, and curled into a ball, weeping. Charles took the opportunity to flee, making a beeline for the tallest waterslide Drippy Swifty had to offer - Poseidon's Trident.

The lifeguard approached warily, his rescue tube held out before him like some sort of shield, only to find Aiden quiet, smiling, and staring intently. "You all right, buddy?" the lifeguard asked. "Quite, thank you," Aiden replied as he rubbed his jaw, "You'll find the knife under that chair over there, a stage prop." "And Poseidon's Trident is exactly where I expected him to go." Aiden prowled after the thief, keeping a crowd between himself and the distant figure of Charles at all times. He could see the red, white, and blue Speedo in the distance, cutting in front of park patrons and slowly ascending towards the clouds. Aiden quickly shucked off the polo he'd been wearing poolside, wrapping himself instead in a nondescript white towel and tugged a baseball cap over his. It wasn't the fanciest disguise, but it would be enough to get the drop on Charles. He climbed the winding stairs of Poseidon's Trident, affecting mild panic in his "Excuse me"s to bypass the line with minimal objections from the. Finally he caught up to Charles standing at the top, frantically scanning the horizon and looking at the picture in the locket. Aiden tensed and relaxed his muscles several times, letting the towel drop away, before diving forward to snatch at the locket.

The sudden surprise knocked Charles off-balance and he stumbled towards the railing. The old steel of the guardrail squealed in protest under the weight of two grappling men, and gave way entirely as Aiden threw an elbow. "Oh fuck this is above my pay grade," said the suddenly-no-longer-bored teenager in the Drippy Swifty uniform. The teenaged lifeguard - and all the patrons - gaped as the two men tumbled into the air, but did not fall. Charles didn't understand it either and his eyes widened as a soft "sacre-bleu!" escaped his lips.

Short, metallic "wings" snapped into place above Aiden's bare shoulders, heat sinks for device grafted to his back, stamped with the Icarus logo. Sunbeams reflected off the wings, dancing on the stunned faces of the crowd below. Aiden strained with the effort of holding Charles aloft, but managed to wrench the locket out of his opponent's stunned grasp. "No!" Charles cried out, swiping in vain at Aiden's now-outstretched hand. Aiden twisted out of reach with skill born of hundreds of hours aloft as a test subject in Project Icarus. "You almost had it, Charles, but your greed got you too close to the sun," he said with a grin. The thief had just a second or so of terrified anticipation before Aiden released his grip, and Charles plummeted four stories into the Lazy River.

Opening the locket, Aiden gazed on the two pictures inside - a portrait of Edith and her grandfather's old farm house. He smiled in affection, then pressed his thumbnail into the hidden second catch, opening the inner compartment to reveal a tiny USB drive. "Ah ma fleurette, now we can prove who you are to the board of directors once and for all." Aiden's musings were interrupted by a clamor from behind him as a small girl stepped forward to ask, "Are you...are you a superhero?" Thinking of Edith's smiling face, Aiden replied "I don't know if I'm a hero, but I know one person who thinks I'm pretty super." THE END