Young Defenders Training Facility, Meritas City. October 22nd, 2014, 11:45

  Today carried a weird sense of déjà vu.

  Same as the first time we went out on patrol - almost down to the second - I was standing in the changing room, completely in costume except for my mask. I was looking at myself in the mirror, at my costume, my eyes scanning every single detail of me.

  Last time, I hated it; I felt like I didn’t deserve it. I’d just wanted to rip the whole thing off and never look back, to the point that I’d fully freaked out in front of Elena.

  Now? Maybe it was because I knew what to expect this time, or maybe it was because I was still riding the high of the weekend, but I barely felt anxious at all. The costume felt more natural on me.

  I was so focused on how I felt, however, that I didn’t notice Elena slip in behind me until she wrapped her arms snugly around my midsection, pressing herself into my back. It startled me enough that I jumped, yelping slightly.

  “Hey, scaredy-cat.” She purred.

  I slowly turned around to face her, looking down as she looked up at me. She was fully costumed up, the mask of her costume pulled down behind her head.

  “You feeling ok?” She asked, smiling.

  I smiled back. “Y-yeah, not as nervous.”

  “Sick.” She responded back, still grinning.

  There was a pause where we just stared into each other’s eyes, giggling every now and then. Part of me felt stupid, but I loved it, loved her.

  “So we’ve got, what? Ten, maybe fifteen minutes?” Elena asked.

  I tilted my head, quizzical. “Y-yeah?”

  “Perfect,” she grinned, “Plenty of time.”

  “Time for wha-”

  Without missing a beat, she leaned up and kissed me right on the lips. I let out a little surprised squeak before quickly kissing her back, a bit clumsily, laughing a little.

  “W-what if someone-” I asked between kisses.

  “They won’t, trust me.” Elena cut me off, grinning.

  She kissed me again before I could protest further. Her lips were warm and soft, in a way that made my chest flutter. I felt a little out of step with her, my hands still out awkwardly at my sides like I didn’t know where to put them, before I gingerly rested them on her waist. She adjusted effortlessly, wrapping one arm around my shoulders and pulling herself closer and tilting her head to deepen the kiss.

  I still felt a bit uncoordinated, my nose bumping into hers, but if Elena cared she didn’t show it, humming into the kiss; it was a sound of approval that made my heart race.

  I felt one of her hands gently slide underneath the top half of my costume, tracing up my stomach and towards my chest, making me gasp softly. I could feel my heart pounding against my chest, loud enough that I was convinced she could hear it.

  For a heartbeat, nothing else existed; it was just the two of us, the way Elena felt against me, the way she tasted. I wanted to stay right there, to let this moment last forever, to get lost in how normal this felt-

  Suddenly, I felt a sharp, stabbing pain bite the back of my eyes.

  I let out a hiss of pain, pulling away instinctively. It felt like something sharp had been driven into the backs of my eyes, twisting enough that my vision swam and blurred.

  “Whoa, Skye!” Elena started as I pressed my hands to my face. “You ok?”

  I didn’t respond, the pain still throbbing in my eyes; I kept pressing my hands against them in some vain attempt to somehow dull the pain.

  “I-I don’t know!” I responded, blinking slowly as I tried to open my eyes. The pain was still there as they pried themselves open, my vision slowly coming into focus.

  Something was off. My vision was blurred and uneven, and things didn’t look right, like the room around me was slightly pulsating, a ripple reverberating throughout the walls and floor. I turned to Elena and-

  I froze. She looked wrong.

  It was like I could see the outlines of things under her skin; thick ropey shapes of her intestines, the roundness of her eyes in her skull, and for a horrifying second I swear I could see her heart hammering in her chest. This felt wrong, like I was looking at her like pieces of meat. My stomach churned, I felt sick.

  “What?” She asked, looking increasingly worried.

  A thought slid into my mind, one that made my blood run cold. Delicious.

  Then, the pain subsided. That pulsating feeling in the room faded away, and Elena looked…normal again.

  I blinked once, then again, then much quicker. I felt tears squeezing out of my eyes.

  “I-I…I think I’m ok.” I said, panting slightly, still feeling nauseous.

  “You look like you’re about to be sick.”

  I turned around to look in the mirror and-

  My eyes were bloodshot, the veins deep red and angry.

  But as I looked at them, they began to return to normal.

  “You sure you’re ok?” Elena asked, putting a hand on my shoulder.

  I kept looking at myself in the mirror, trying to see if anything else was wrong.

  “Y-yeah I think so.” I said quickly, “Maybe i-it was an allergic reaction?”

  Elena narrowed her eyes. “Should I tell Maddie to postpone or-”

  “N-no!” I answered, “No I-I think I’ll be ok. I-If it happens again though I’ll just let her know.”

  “If you’re sure.” Elena said, before looking up at the clock.

  “Let’s go, we’ve not got much time.”

  As we left, though, I couldn’t shake what I’d seen. Was it some kind of weird power I didn’t know I had? Was I just losing my mind?

  More importantly, who could I tell?

  Downtown, Meritas City. October 22nd, 2014, 12:45

  As we rode the tram into Downtown, I tried to put what had happened in the changing room to the back of my mind. Maybe it was some kind of weird stress or anxiety. It felt strange that I wasn’t more worried.

  Elena sat next to me, head leaning against my shoulder.

  Maddie - fully costumed up as Cheshire, all black and purple - dropped into the seat next to us, barely looking up as she spoke.

  “So, how’re we feeling?” She asked, looking at her fingernails, “Ready and raring to go?”

  I turned to look at Elena.

  “Yeah, pretty much.” Elena responded. I noticed the displeasure in her voice immediately; she was not a fan of Maddie.

  “I-Is it going to be the same as with Red?” I asked.

  Maddie gave a bit of an uncertain-sounding noise, “Yes and no. We’re gonna try and avoid anything too gnarly, I doubt you two want a repeat of your little tussle with Razor and Twist. But yeah, it’ll be mostly the same.”

  Maddie always spoke fast, like she was trying to get through a sentence as quickly as possible, but I nodded as she spoke.

  “One thing I will say,” she continued, “I don’t know what sort of feedback Red gave you, but I’ll be more up front about how I think you’re presenting yourself.”

  “The hell kind of feedback could she give that a teacher can’t?” Elena whispered to me, low enough that I could barely hear her.

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  “How to carry yourself, how people see you.” Maddie said without even looking up, her standard catlike grin clear as day on her face.

  Elena turned away, clearly embarrassed. It was rare to see her thrown off her game, and I couldn’t help but giggle a little bit.

  “Zip it, you.” She grunted back, though the small smile on her face told me she wasn’t really bothered.

  “For real, though,” Maddie said, turning to look at us, “When I look at people, one thing I see is how they’re really feeling. So I’ll be keeping an eye out on how people react to you. How you do hero stuff is one thing, but how you come across to others is a whole different story.”

  Is that good? I thought. Someone who could read me and everyone else felt like it’d just make me more self-conscious.

  We quickly stepped off the tram and into Downtown, exactly the same as last time. Just like last time, it was absolutely crammed with people. As we stepped out, I couldn’t help but wonder how long it’d take for us to get some action.

  “Help!”

  Turns out, not very long, as a woman’s voice shouted out. The three of us immediately spun to look around as we saw a woman pointing at a man who was sprinting as fast as he could through the streets, a purse clutched in his hands.

  Immediately, we started running after him, pushing and weaving through the crowds.

  “He’s gonna turn right at the end here, then try and make a break across the road.” Maddie said as we ran, before turning to Elena, “You’ll want to try and nail him before he gets too far.”

  “How can- can you possibly know-” Elena asked, clearly struggling to talk and run at the same time.

  Maddie just smiled in response, tapping her nose once.

  Elena just rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”

  But sure enough, he did turn right at the end of the path, barreling towards a busy road filled with cars. As the three of us rounded the corner, I saw him dart directly into the oncoming traffic.

  I heard a gurgling groan from Elena as she reared back, ready to spit.

  “Hold…” Maddie ordered, watching him move as he barely avoided getting hit by one car before sliding over the hood of another.

  “Now!” Maddie barked. Immediately, Elena fired a jawbreaker from her mouth like a bullet, rocketing towards the thief. The three of us paused, while Maddie whispered:

  “Three, two, and-”

  The jawbreaker cracked against his head, sending him stumbling further into the road. He tried to keep himself upright, before he tripped and slammed into the bonnet of a taxi with a clang, crumpling into the middle of the road.

  The three of us immediately stepped between the passing cars before getting to him. He was still conscious, groaning as we approached him, before he tried to scramble to his feet.

  Thinking quickly, I extended a length of bone from my arm like I was producing an arm-blade, but rather than coming out straight and flat, it curved at the end like a hook. I swung it out, catching his ankle with this arm-hook and pulling him in.

  “Very nice.” Maddie said, nodding, “I’ll call it in. Get him out of the road.”

  I nodded as Elena approached, grabbing his arms behind him; he struggled, writhing and trying to get free.

  “Come on, I wasn’t gonna hurt the lady.” He said, his voice sounding rough, “I just needed the money, y’know?”

  Now that I got a proper look at him as we dragged him to the sidewalk, it struck me just how young he was; he couldn't have been much older than his mid-twenties, with dark red hair and a patchy beard. Older than the three of us, sure, but not by much.

  “Listen,” Elena said quietly, turning to him, “You didn’t hurt the lady, right?”

  “N-no!” He shouted, defensively, “I just grabbed it and ran, I wouldn’t hurt nobody.”

  Elena sighed, “You might be alright then. Community service maybe, or a short stint in jail.”

  He looked nervous, and kept looking up at me. For some reason I couldn’t bear to look at him; maybe it was because he sounded so desperate.

  After a few minutes, the police arrived and took him off our hands, Maddie waving them off.

  “So,” she started, turning to look at us without missing a beat, “Pretty good all around. Spitter, you’re a real good shot. You need to work on your cardio though, you were lagging behind us on the run.”

  She almost immediately turned to look at me.

  “Skullgirl. The ‘silent girl’ vibe will work with super-criminals, sure, but with people like that, ‘normal’ criminals, they’re just gonna hate you. Like, I know why you’re doing it, but people either think you’re scary or rude.”

  I nodded, slowly. It hurt a bit to hear, but she wasn’t wrong; I did tend to be a bit more quiet when I was in the middle of the action.

  “Aside from that, good job!” She chirped, before looking around, “I’ll go report this in.”

  She sauntered away before tapping onto the side of her mask, talking remarkably casually. I watched her go before turning to Elena. She looked troubled and was looking down at herself, which immediately made me worry.

  “Y-you ok?” I asked, putting a hand on her shoulder.

  She turned up to look at me, looking almost surprised as if she’d been in her own world. “Yeah I’m ok,” she said, smiling as she placed her hand on mine.

  “W-was it what she said?”

  “Please.” She scoffed. “I know my cardio’s shit, her saying that isn’t some big surprise.”

  “S-so what’s wrong?”

  Elena sighed. “Just that, uh…I think I knew that guy.”

  “R-really?”

  She sighed. “Yeah, he lived a few doors down from me back in the docks, with his parents. Moved out a year or so back. Didn’t realise he’d fallen on hard times.”

  “Were you c-close?”

  She scoffed, before turning to look up at me, “He’s a good five or six years older than me, dude. So, no. Just knew me and my folks.”

  “I-if it's worth anything,” I said, squeezing her shoulder, “I hope he’s ok.”

  “Appreciate it, babe.” She said, smiling.

  “Babe”, I thought. Not used to that yet.

  Suddenly, both of our helmet earpieces crackled to life.

  “Any available heroes in Downtown, we have reports of an attempted robbery on a cash-in-transit vehicle on Fourth Avenue. Culprits appear to be unpowered.”

  I saw Maddie immediately turn to look at us.

  “Up for it? If it gets too gnarly, we fall back, deal?”

  I nodded.

  Immediately, the three of us took off. Fourth Avenue was only a couple of blocks away, so we dipped into a side street between some buildings. It was pretty narrow, so we had to move one after the other with Maddie in front and me bringing up the rear. It was pretty grimy too; a foul smell of discarded garbage hung in the air.

  As we ran-

  “Please, any spare change?” A woman’s voice, sounding hoarse and ragged, called out to us; she was sitting in a ragged hooded sweater and filthy, torn jeans, leaning against a metal dumpster. Maddie didn’t even give her a second glance and kept on moving; Elena looked to the woman, slowing down as she went by.

  “We don’t have time! Prioritise!” Maddie shouted, still moving.

  Maybe it was what Elena had said, but something made me slow down too, coming to a stop after a few steps and going to turn to look at this woman.

  “What are you doing?!” Maddie shouted as she turned, exasperated, “We can’t just stop and-” she trailed off as her eyes went wide.

  The next few seconds were a blur; a shove, the scrape of my costume against concrete, and something sharp whizzing through the air where I’d been standing. I blinked, and suddenly I was on the ground, while Elena shouted my name.

  When my senses came back into focus, Maddie was crouched up defensively in front of me. The woman who had been slumped by the dumpster was now fully upright, a knife in one hand firmly pinned into the concrete where I’d been standing just a moment ago.

  Then she looked up at me, and I almost gasped. Her face looked strange, a tangle of criss-crossing scars that separated her face into different segments, each one a slightly different colour like stitched-together patchwork leather. Stringy blonde hair poked from under the hood she had on and fell just in front of her bright blue eyes, and I could see the wide-eyed stare beneath the hood. But it was the grin on her face that felt like it burned itself into my brain; not a warm, confident smile like Elena or a cheeky, all-knowing grin like Maddie. It was a mad, crazed smile that looked equal parts genuinely excited and completely unhinged.

  I recognised her immediately: one of the people from the news report the other day, Patch.

  I didn’t move, I wasn’t sure I was even breathing. I was just staring at her.

  “Oh. My. God?!” She squealed, clapping her hands like she’d just ran into an old friend, her face lighting up like a Christmas tree. “Is that you under there, Madsie?”

  Her voice didn’t match how she looked at all; it was high-pitched, sugary-sweet, and she sounded like a bit of an airhead compared to that stitched-up nightmare of a face and the grime on her clothes.

  Then I processed what she’d said:

  ‘Madsie’? I thought.

  My eyes flicked over to Maddie for a second, and I felt my blood run cold. I don’t know what expression I was expecting her to have, given she was almost always grinning and very rarely seemed to be thrown off by anything.

  So I wasn’t expecting the look of sheer, naked terror on her face. Her eyes were wide, her face looked pale, and she looked like she was breathing quicker.

  “What the hell are you doing, Patch?” She asked, her voice shaky.

  “Well, I was just in the neighborhood,” Patch said casually as she stood up a bit more, pulling her knife from the floor like it had been stuck in butter. “Doing some shopping, you know…”

  She turned her head to look at me, then Elena. Then my heart dropped; she was right between us and Elena.

  “But then, like, I was talking to a couple friends, and guess what they told me? Two super-cute girlies - some newbies on the block - were messing with them!” She droned on, pointing at both Elena and I, “And they like, looked exactly like these two! You’re, like, definitely the ones who put Razy and Twisty in the slammer, right?”

  That made my stomach drop. She knew them? She knew about Elena and I?

  “I’ll take that as a yes! God, they told me so much good shit about you,” she continued, “That I just had to come check you out.”

  I looked past Patch and towards Elena, who had barely moved. She was quietly rearing back, her throat slowly swelling up.

  “Patch,” Maddie said, standing up slowly, “Just let us go. For old time’s sake, right? You’ve met the newbies, so now you can-”

  “Madsie-wadsie,” Patch interrupted her with a whine, rolling her eyes, “You’re really trying to talk this out, after everything? That’s like, so cute of you. Actually, why don’t we let the newbies speak!”

  She immediately turned to look at Elena, before pausing, as Elena’s throat was fully bulging, her cheeks puffed.

  Patch let out a chuckle. “Wait like, what the fuck is-”

  PLEGH!

  Elena spat something that shot out like a rocket, slamming into Patch’s face hard enough to send her flying to the ground.

  “Bitch!” Patch yelled as she hit the floor.

  “Run!” Maddie shouted, grabbing me by the arm and yanking me up. The three of us immediately started sprinting as fast as we could down the alleyway.

  Elena started as we ran, “Who the fuck is-”

  “Shut up and keep running!” Maddie barked back, cutting Elena off, “That won’t keep her down for-”

  “Oh Madsie~!”

  I turned around for a second, and my heart felt like it was about to leap out of my chest. Patch was full-on sprinting at us, laughing like a child at a birthday party.

  I spun to face her fully, rearing my hand back as an arm-blade shot out from under my skin. I swung to the side, hoping to keep her back-

  Maddie’s voice rang out, “No, dont-!”

  Patch just kept going. She didn’t even try to dodge; hell, it was like she moved into its path. The blade cut straight in the side of her chest with a wet crunch, embedding itself a few inches inside. She came to a stop before letting out a wet cough, blood spilling from her mouth as her chest grinded against the bone.

  I felt cold, all of a sudden. Had I just killed her?

  Her hand suddenly clamped onto the length of the blade, as she dragged herself forward along it; I could hear the sounds of her insides dragging against it, like raw meat being scraped across concrete as blood and pieces of viscera trailed behind her and onto the ground.

  I let out a strangled scream, more from sheer shock and surprise than anything else. I heard both Elena and Maddie yell and curse behind me.

  “That’s like, suuuuuper rude, babe,” Patch gurgled, blood spraying from her mouth, that manic grin still on her face as she pulled herself forward, “If you want to get inside me, at least take me to dinner first~!”