"I mean, unless Jacob or Mary somehow end up with worse luck than me..." Ryan said.

"I'd invest in Static Guard, but I don't think that would help. You realize she expected me to be her hero? After we had broken up? I'm not sure how that works either. And why a mutant woman who has superpowers of her own needs a hero, I don't even get." It genuinely did confuse him. He had been raised around strong women - both superpowered like his Aunt Sue, and those who were differently-abled, like his mother. Women like Alisa, he was starting to realize, were a creature he simply didn't understand.

"Mothers like to do that," Ryan nodded. "Mine does that to me." Less so to Jacob since he rocked-out.