You have a secret superpower: the ability to appear and disappear at will. When and where will you use this new superpower? Tell us a story.

Source: Now You See Me

I am not entirely sure how this particular skill could be handy in a daily basis, unless, of course, your life is constantly in danger. That if I understand the prompt correctly. Also, I am, by no means, the looking-for-trouble sort, which I guess will make the superpower pointless most of the time.

But let’s give the basic idea of the prompt another chance.

If I were to be able to control my own visibility, I might just use it to escape unlikely situations and weird people, which and whom I seem to be a magnet of. Be it a social setting where it was too awkward or embarrassing, or exhausting to be in, I’ll just disappear from the view of others (as it was easy to do so when you always stick to the corner of the room alone), make my way to the door, and poof! Left for my house without having to encounter all the “oh no, don’t leave now!” conversations, which are mostly said out of conventionality. For around 30 months of my stay here, I have also had those instances when I was just minding my business, and then suddenly people would approach me to either inquire of me whether I share their religious beliefs (in which whatever answer I have to it, they would still engage you in an awkward conversation), or to tell me my fortune (in which I mostly don’t understand what it is they were trying to tell me, which actually makes it even harder to find a cue to escape). So, with a little distraction, I would just disappear into thin air and run for my life to the nearest subway station, make myself visible again and leave for home.

Thus is essentially the extent of danger I experience in my life in which I would use my powers in. It’s rather lame, I know.

Unless the superpower comes with the ability to teleport at the same time–like something the Nightcrawler can do, or to Apparate or Disapparate in Harry’s world–now that would be awesome. I can escape the cold winter here and spend my time back where it’s warm at home in a blink. In fact, I would not have to move out. I can just stay where I was even though I am actually studying outside of the country. I can even travel around at will, visit my friends and not have to suffer the long hours in a plane. This is a total improvement from my previous thought on having my own private jet.

Apparently I miss being home with my family and also meeting my closest buds face to face more than I think I do. The weather doesn’t really help either.

Another interesting point is, despite the obvious fact that most human beings will use their leverage immediately to their advantage which is evident in my case as well, up to this point I really have not the thought of how I can use the power for a greater good or whatever that entails the “responsibility” part of having a certain “power”. I should reiterate, though; I have stated before, without the teleportation ability which I assume is not included in the prompt, how little this particular superpower may turn situations in my favor, especially in a preventive manner. It is quite contingent instead, if I may. Now I am not sure if I simply lack the creativity, or if this is some elaborate psychological test which insinuate that I might just be too self-centered I cannot be bothered to think about how I can use the power for anything beneficial to many. Most probably because of the latter though; my frail soul is just not wired to put others before me unless it’s common courtesy.

Does this mean people need an Uncle Ben moment for one to star figuring out how to contribute to others with their superpower? Or is it the very existence of the villains that is responsible for a classic defender of the universe to be born?

Whichever that is, perhaps it is true that acquiring a superpower by chance does not make one accidentally a hero.