Most citizens cursed Demonsprout for causing such destruction to the city, but I secretly thanked him for burning down our old base. Moving our headquarters to Busybee's was the best decision Peppe ever made. The new secret base was bigger, better, more discreet, and most importantly, slightly closer to the subway line, saving me twenty minutes of commute every day. Now, some might think twenty minutes is not that much of an improvement, but after several months of superheroing, you learn to appreciate every spare second you have. Especially if you get to spend that extra time in bed.

Initially, we didn't want to let Katie in on the whole secret base thing. The legend was that we worked in the typography next door, and needed regular access to the sensitive equipment below. However, Katie is smarter than the average civilian... and even if she wasn't, when Max exited through the bakery door one day still sporting his eyesore-red spandex suit, the ruse was up. (Whenever this story is brought up, Max's face turns the same color as the suit.)

Thankfully, Katie turned out to be a valuable addition to our team. She was not an official part of the Rainbow Rangers, despite multiple proposals to Captain Peppe to assign her an official salary, but the fresh pastries she provided daily were essential to keep the team in good spirits. Katie also proved out extremely capable at distracting any supervillains that tried to sniff the base out - either by feeding them obscene amounts of the same baked goods, which rendered them too happy to commit any evil acts, or, in more hopeless cases, by shooing them out with an ominous-looking broom.

However, today, in a strange turn of events, I have had breakfast at home, so instead of grabbing something from the menu to munch on, I went right for the secret door. It didn't look too different from your regular staff access door, and lead to a perfectly normal, if old, elevator. I entered the cabin, pressed several buttons in a specific order, and the elevator trudged downward, taking way longer than a regular elevator should.

I loathed that elevator. I asked Peppe several times whether it was really necessary to have this technological fossil as part of our new base. The answer was unvariably "yes, for conspiracy purposes". Conspiracy, my ass. The half-rusted, creaky, terribly slow elevator provided the worst possible scenery and soundtrack for mornings. Of course, we had much faster exits in other parts of the base - otherwise we wouldn't be such a fast response team - but that was for superhero emergencies only. If we wanted to enter the base in civilian clothing, we had to use the turtlevator.

Finally, the long, agonizing ride was over, and I entered the base proper. The Rainbow Rangers' headquarters looked pretty much like you'd expect. If you've seen one superhero secret base, you've seen them all. It was bigger than our old one, however, and had updated tech, which were small, but very comforting improvements.

The base was empty this morning, except for one person. In the west part of the main hall, on their preferred couch, there sat Kim, holding a paper cup of coffee. And they looked terrible.

My heart sank. If Kim was in a bad mood, that meant something truly terrible had happened.

I approached them. They noticed me, and raised their head. We made eye contact. Theyhad bags under their eyes, the true depths of which I could only guess.

I waited for them to speak. When Kim is having a bad day, they always speak first. You don't get a choice, really.

They stared at me for a couple more seconds, then groaned and took a big sip of their coffee. Perhaps they were too tired to speak first? I hesitated.

"So, how many-"

"...Nah, I'm just messing with ya," they finally said with a grim. – "I will confess, I was tempted to just say a random number and make a haunted face, so that you would leave me alone. But today, for once, I don't actually know what you're going to say next, so the ruse would be difficult to keep up."

I exhaled in relief.

"You have my permission to do just that next time. Or, you know, just tell me that you're not in the mood for small talk. That works too."

"No, no, we can have small talk. Come, sit down," Kim gestured to the seat next to them. "Katherine made some really good croissants today."

Indeed, on the coffee table there was a plate with delicious-looking croissants, and Katie's baking never dissappoints, neither in looks nor in taste. I wasn't very hungry, but I sat down and took one anyways.

"So... it's not a loop day today?" I asked, just to be sure. Those eye bags still looked worrying.

"Nope! At least, I hope it won't be. Had a na-a-asty headache this morning. Wouldn't like to relive that one over and over."

"Right, it's not like you can tell in advance."

"Generally, no. Unless it's something really obvious, like I wake up in the morning and four hours later, every single Ranger is dead and the city is ruled by some alien overlord."

"Has that... actually happened?"

Suddenly, Kim's face became much more serious.

"Once. Was one of my first jobs on the team, actually. I was so terrified the loop wouldn't work that time. Peppe had to spend several hours just to talk some sense back into me."

"Jeez, that's rough."

Neither of us spoke after that, deep in thought - them reminiscing, and me trying to comprehend what it must have been like. All of your friends, gone in a flash, and you're left unsure whether time will be kind enough to reverse itself.

"You... figured it out eventually, though?" I asked finally, trying to dispel the silence that has gone on for too long.

"Well, the Rangers are still alive, aren't they? Of course I figured it out. I kind of have to," they smiled apologetically. "Otherwise, I get sent back to square zero."

Then, Kim saw the anguish on my face as I was staring at them, and added: "Jesus, don't get all apologetic on me! Everyone who's known about my powers for a while start to coddle me, sooner or later. There's no need to feel sorry, okay? I appreciate that you have a good understanding of my powers - as you can imagine, I'm not a big fan of explaining things multiple times - but I don't need your pity. If I ever need help dealing with this, I will go to my therapist."

I nodded, and busied myself with eating the croissant. Kim also finished their food and coffee, staring at the empty cup with unmasked sadness.

"Man, I could go for another one."

"...You said you had a headache this morning?"

"Yes?"

"...Wouldn't drinking coffee make it worse?"

"What? No. ...Maybe. I do need coffee, though. Haven't had much sleep."

"And why is that?"

Kim looked at the floor. "Don't tell anybody, but I was just watching TV shows all night. Guess I deserved that headache."

"I suppose that's one thing that is easier to do in a time loop."

"Oh, you can't even imagine. I'm so used to catching up on my shows at a relaxed pace. Never worry about going to bed on time, since I'm going to wake up nice and rested again anyways. Takes me a while to remember that in a world of linear time, actions tend to have consequences."

I snorted. "Trust me, there are many people with no time travel powers whatsoever who forget about that."

"That's true."

After that, we stopped talking for a while, getting immersed in the routines of the morning - scanning the news for any events that may require superhero intervention, getting in touch with the Rangers' partners and connections, taking the supersuits out of the dryer, etc etc. Those tasks masked only briefly the true dullness of the day. There were no emergencies, no calls for action, no sign of any trouble whatsoever - to put it short, we were faced with our greatest enemy yet. Boredom.

I was staring at the scanner mindlessly, taking so long to blink that the screen started to burn itself into my eyes, when I felt a familiar hand pat me on the shoulder.

"It's gonna be like this all day, pal," a slightly more awake Kim assured me. "Prepare yourself for the easiest watch ever."

"How can you be so sure?"

"People are tired."

"From Demonsprout's attacks?"

"Just in general, it happens sometimes. Everyone needs some time off, even the gangs and the supervillains. Don't worry, they'll begin causing havoc again in no time."

"Mhm."

I'm not superstrong enough for this, I thought. I've got to do something to get through this dreadful day.

"Hey, Kim?"

"Yes?"

"You know how to play cards?"

...

Just as I expected, Kim got a great laugh over the Rainbow Rangers themed cards I bought last week at the market. When it came to actually playing, though, they weren't quite that cheerful.

"You're probably happy we're not playing for money, now," said I, trying to joke away the fact that Kim just lost for the seventh time in a row.

"Yeah, I'd be making you so rich," Kim answered sourly. They were doing a terrible job at hiding their cards. I felt kind of sorry for them - this time, they were dealt a genuinely bad hand.

"Can't you just... you know, spend some time on this in the next loop? Find a teacher, get really pro at cards?"

Kim took their eyes off their deck and stared at me in bewilderment.

"Absolutely not."

"Why?"

"Look, it's..." Kim lay their cards to their side, face up (I had to stop myself from facepalming), and started explaining.

"I can't just get super good at everything, okay? I mean, in theory I can, but I'm trying very, very hard not to do it. Because, firstly, if I'm out of things to learn I'll get very bored very quickly. And secondly, it's really exhausting to be good at things."

I raised my eyebrow slightly. "Exhausting?"

"Yeah! People already treat me very differently because of my so-called powers. Imagine how everyone would feel if I was also all-knowing and all-capable."

I started to understand. "Oh God."

"Exactly! It would be insufferable. Heck, I would probably go insane with so much knowledge in my brain." Kim tapped lightly on their head.

"Besides, I have to give my friends some fuel for bullying. I have to stay bad at something, so they can make fun of me at least for something."

"Like playing cards?"

"Like playing cards."

With that, they put another card on the table - a very handsome but very useless gameplay-wise Captain Peppe. We played three more rounds. Kim even won once, even though that feat took a lot of effort from my side.

...

Kim was correct, of course, in that absolutely no superhero-worthy incidents happened in the city that day. We received one call complaining about a graffiti being made, but when Kim heard the description of the artist, they dropped the call immediately. "I know that girl," they said. "That's where I got this from." They rolled up their sleeve and showed me a gorgeous tattoo of a swallow in flight. "Never heard of her doing vandalism. Only art."

The day crawled, in its snail-like pace, to its conclusion. The evening watchers came to relieve us of our duties, and so Kim and I went out into the city streets, heading home. Here and there, we saw buildings with the windows smashed out, or a totaled car - Demonsprout's mark on the city hasn't worn off yet. I always felt just a little bit guilty seeing ruin like this, even though it was literally in my job description to prevent it from happening in the future.

"That's my stop," Kim said as we reached a bus station. "See you later, I guess."

Suddenly, I remembered something. "Oh, Kim?"

"Yes?"

"One more question."

Kim looked at me in anticipation.

"...Where are some good donut places in town? You've tried a few, haven't you?"

A big, hearty grin spread on Kim's face. They scratched their head, thinking for a few seconds.

"Ribbins' shop is pretty good, if you haven't been. Although, I've got to say, Katherine's donuts are easily in my personal top three."

I smiled. "Should have guessed."

A bus has arrived, and Kim gestured that they were about to hop in. I couldn't hear their parting words over the noise anymore, so I just waved goodbye, and they disappeared in the crowd.

That evening, I had a lot to think about. I also stopped by Ribbins' on my way home, and the donuts truly were spectacular.