I'm With the Band
an excerpt

There are few words of explanation I can give for the sensation that came over Erika Hartford right then. It is something so few people have experienced, but those that do are forever changed by it. It is the difference between Peter Parker and Spider-Man, between Clark Kent and Superman, between Bruce Wayne and Batman. It is discovering that the powers now in your hands are powers you had inside of you all along, but now it has been manifested into something useful. And for Erika, it filled her with song and dance and elation only found in true harmony, when one finally discovers that the song they’ve been trying to sing all their lives was the simplest melody they had ever learned.
It becomes necessary now to describe Erika’s appearance, where before we could have been content with the similitude of every grey-uniformed band student. Erika was attractive in a plain way—her hair was long and dark brown, her eyes matched it in darkness and depth, for her hair was also very thick and wavy. Her skin was pale and lightly freckled, her face round and her nose small. She was thin, and only about five foot two.
Now, all of this appearance was suddenly made startlingly attractive. If superhero outfits in comic books seem highly absurd, I assure you that real life heroes look like heroes. Like rather grand, noble people destined for something important. It also helps that no one dares to laugh at them in reality—after all, even if they use their powers for good, they can still blow out the brains of anyone who dares mock them.