No One Looks Up

The public name for his current phase was Street Vigilante, though Kieran did not use it for himself. Hero-ranking feeds needed labels because labels sold subscriptions. Corporations needed labels because labels made assets tradable. Government offices needed labels because labels made fear administrable. Kieran needed food, sleep, a working phone, and enough control over pain-filtered kinetic reading to keep from breaking the next person he tried to save. He kept a handwritten rule taped inside his closet: power is not permission. Every morning he read it before stepping into the city, and every night he wondered whether he had obeyed it or merely survived close enough to pretend.