"Um. Not tomorrow, no."

"Hm." A grid of support pillars starts going up on an empty lot.

"And for what it's worth, the next at least three or so times I do pick up a fight will probably be with gangs of villains."

"Good, good. You seem like the best sort of villain. Or solidly on the better half at least. Oh, I slipped up on the 'they' for a moment in the fight, so, sorry."

Pause. "It's fine. And the villain thing is totally contingent, I try to be as little villainous as I can while respecting other constraints that mooooore or less force me to be a bit villainous."

Sigh. "I know about constraints, I guess. Plenty of stuff I'd really rather be doing and simply can't. All you can do is work with it or try and find a way around it."

Blink. "Yeah. Yeah that's—that's pretty much it, yes."

"I still can't just take your word about your limits. Maybe what you're doing is a reasonable response, I don't know."

"I know, and I wouldn't try to convince you otherwise, because I can't tell you about them. But I do try to minimize damage and such, the only reason the street was so banged up was that I knew you'd be coming back to fix it."

"I think I have some guesses. Your things are... Fake on some level. When I tried to understand how they worked, they disappeared. Guess it doesn't matter how they work if they still work."

No hesitation as they lie: "They're not fake, but my power doesn't like scrutiny. I'm the only one allowed to really pay close attention to it. Usually people have to be closer to my stuff for my power to care, though."

"I feel the fabric of the world. Especially stone and metal. Whatever nonsense you came up with that blocks that is- unpleasant, so I'd appreciate it if you didn't do that when we aren't fighting."

"Sure. I don't think there's quite anyone that can do the same thing you did there so I shouldn't need it otherwise."

"Well I am getting paid. But thanks."

"Of course. Capitalism and such. I take it you're not with the Protectorate?"

"No. They do PR and paperwork more than fighting vilains, I don't like the idea of doing that."

"Yet you don't fight all that many villains yourself."

"I'm building things. Good enough, maybe even better."

"Well, you sure are fast, maybe it's better. Stuff's destroyed really quickly all around, though."

"Yeah. I think it's probably clear I take keeping secrets pretty seriously."

"Unless there's a very good reason to tell the secret. Well, I am not from Earth. I'm from somewhere where even physics works differently. The power structures, societal norms, and technology are so different here I think I'll be confused for a decade. I might be able to go home, but this world needs all the help it can get. It's frustrating."

They had opened their mouth to say something when she mentioned even the physics works differently, which made them close it again. Then they carefully ask, "Different... how, exactly? The physics, specifically."