Williams Residence, Meritas City. October 26th, 2014, 17:30

  Dad and I were sitting for dinner at the table on Sunday evening, plates half-finished between us. It was quiet, all I could hear was the ambient sound of the noise of the TV in the background.

  I was trying to relax. Maddie had let Elena and I know that we’d be doing a patrol Monday evening, so I had that to look forward to, if nothing else.

  But I was in my own head. I’d spent much of the weekend trying my best not to think about Patch. It was hard, because there was so much that I still wanted to know, but I knew that I wasn’t going to get anywhere without ruffling somebody’s feathers. Jessica had made that much crystal-clear.

  “You ok, kiddo?” Dad asked, “You’re even quieter than usual.”

  I blinked, feeling like I’d pulled out from my own world. I didn’t realise how quiet I’d been.

  “Y-yeah, sorry.” I said, looking at him sheepishly.

  “Something on your mind?”

  “Y-yeah just…thinking about that p-patrol I told you about.”

  Dad’s face darkened. “Right, the one where you saw this ‘Patch’ character.”

  I grimaced slightly, poking at my food. I’d not been shy about telling Dad how that had gone, and how dangerous Patch had been.

  “Y-yeah. I-I tried looking her up on Friday, b-but couldn’t find anything.”

  Dad paused, staring at me.

  “Why?”

  I immediately realised how bad that sounded.

  I- i-in case we ended fighting her a-again,” I said quickly, “I j-just wanted to see if there was any way we could a-avoid her or t-take her down easier.”

  Dad just looked at me before laughing softly.

  “You’re just like your mother.”

  Tilted my head. “O-oh?”

  “Yeah she did this too,” Dad sighed, smirking, “Whenever she fought against someone rough, she’d get really into trying to figure them out. I remember one time, not long before we had you, she’d fought Darwin and spent days on end trying to figure out how he worked.”

  “You never told me she fought Darwin.” I said, awestruck. The idea of Mom - someone whose powers were, from what I’d known, not any stronger than my own - fighting against a monster like Darwin made me grin.

  “It was only the once,” Dad said, “And well, it was more like she survived Darwin. Anyway, she spent the next week holed up in her room surrounded by notes and clippings, trying to make sense of whatever she thought his weakness was.”

  He smiled to himself at the memory.

  “Drove me nuts. I kept telling her to let it go, but she didn’t.”

  “T-then what happened?” I asked, captivated.

  “Well that’s the thing,” He said, “She never fought him again on account of…well, you.”

  “O-oh.” I responded, suddenly feeling guilty, as stupid as that sounded.

  “Thing is, Skye,” Dad said, “Your mom had this thing about her, and I see it in you sometimes, where if something scared her, she wouldn’t back away from it. She’d double-down, like if she kept chasing it it’d run away.”

  “I-is that a bad thing?”

  “Not always. Your mother was one of the bravest people I ever knew, but she was also so stubborn and so, SO reckless.”

  “I-I’m not reckless.” I quickly said. Dad just raised an eyebrow as he looked down to my scarred left arm. I felt myself blush.

  “You get this same look in your eye as she did.” Dad continued. “Like you can’t let something go, especially if it involves people being in trouble.”

  “I-isn’t that a good thing for a hero?”

  “Oh absolutely, don’t get me wrong. But I just…”

  He sighed.

  “For your old Dad’s peace of mind, promise me something.”

  I looked up at him.

  “Y-yeah?”

  “If you ever feel like you’re in over your head, even for a second, you run. Don’t try to prove anything, just get out.”

  I paused. I’d already been in over my head, it was how I got here in the first place.

  But I nodded. “I-I will.”

  Dad just smiled at me. “Good. Sorry to bring the mood down, kiddo.”

  I laughed. “Y-you didn’t.”

  The conversation died out after that, Dad and I finished our meals. But as I sat there, I couldn’t help but feel a pang of anxiety settle in my chest.

  The Rustbank, Meritas City. October 27th, 2014, 18:30

  “The Rustbank?” Elena asked, genuinely confused.

  The pair of us looked to Maddie - all three of us costumed up for patrol - as we exited the tram, the broken and derelict chimneys and towers of the Rustbank looming over in the distance.

  “Yep.” She answered casually, leading us forward.

  “Why?” Elena asked, sounding as exasperated as she was confused. “This place is like, super-criminal heaven.”

  “Look,” Maddie sighed, “Even if the Rustbank is, to be frank, a complete shithole, it’s still a place that needs to be patrolled. Besides,” she smirked, “Thought we could use a change of scenery.”

  “W-what if we do come across a super-criminal?” I asked, finally speaking up.

  “Then we do the same as we normally do. We assess the situation, and either deal with it, or delegate it to someone else.”

  Elena just narrowed her eyes.

  “Point being,” Maddie continued, “We’ll treat this as a normal patrol. Normal people do live here, y’know, just trying to get by.”

  She’s right, I admitted to myself. But even so, the Rustbank itself just gave me the creeps. That, and I realised that we weren't all that far from where we’d fought Slaughterhouse. Looking around, I could spot the outline of the building she’d dragged me up towards the end of the fight.

  Before I buried her. The thought slid across my mind. I felt a slight grin crawl across my face before I realised what I was thinking. Was I relishing in that memory?

  I shook the thought off, following Maddie and Elena.

  As we took to the streets, I got a chance to properly drink in just how rough the Rustbank looked. So many of the buildings - a lot of them old factories and refineries - towered over the apartments and houses here, looming over like a ghost of what the Rustbank used to be. From what Dad had told me, the Rustbank had once been Meritas City’s industrial sector, the beating heart of the city that provided a lot of manual labour jobs, and that his own dad had worked there as a foreman in one of the refineries.

  But then, after the One-Day War of 1963 and the mass migration of people into Meritas City combined with the increasing presence of superhumans, a lot of those jobs changed and got outsourced. So now, the Rustbank was a shell; only a few of the factories were still active, most of them having been hollowed out and made into makeshift lairs by different gangs of super-criminals, or just mundane criminals.

  I couldn’t help but feel like I was on high-alert, my eyes constantly darting around behind the mask to see if anyone was going to try and go after us. I could see different clustered groups of people - some similar in age to Elena and I, some a bit older, all of them dressed in somewhat ramshackle outfits made of different ill-fitting clothing - looking at us as we walked. A lot of them didn’t really pay us much mind, though a few of them pointed and gave us looks; that alone was enough to put me on edge.

  Then, a wolf-whistle echoed from ahead of us. I immediately flinched, and I saw Elena tense up for a moment.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “Well, look at these lovely ladies!” A voice called out.

  Ahead of us was a group of about four or five people, all male, probably a couple of years older than us. The one who had called out to us was leading the front of the group, a man who was about the same height as me with a shaved head, wearing mostly dark clothing save for the incredibly gaudy purple and gold jacket that he was wearing.

  “I’ll handle this,” Maddie murmured, “If things go south, jump in.”

  I gave a bit of a shaky nod as Maddie took a step forward. Immediately, the leader of this group took a step forward, looking her up and down.

  “Sorry, official hero business.” Maddie said with a smile, her voice high and friendly, “Can’t stop.”

  The leader of the group smiled, unperturbed. “Come on now, you’ve got some time for us, right? ‘Heroes doing a service to the people’ and all that.”

  He took a step closer. The look on his face - a wide, lecherous grin - made my stomach churn.

  “I’m not gonna ask again,” Maddie said, her voice sharper, “Move aside.”

  He leaned forward, putting a hand on her shoulder.

  “What are you gonna do if I don’t?” He asked, practically whispering.

  Maddie let out a long sigh.

  “I’m going to tell you that that jacket’s one size too small, makes you look a lot less manly than you think it does.”

  He sputtered. “Wait, wh-”

  “I’m gonna advise that you get that lump on the left side of your neck checked out. You should be worrying about it.”

  I saw his face pale slightly, that grin on his face dropping as he reached out a hand to rub the left side of his neck.

  “What I’m not gonna do,” she said, her voice shifting into the much more familiar cheeky and snide cadence, “Is tell you that your girlfriend’s cheating on you.”

  He paused for a moment, before letting out a clearly forced laugh.

  “Right, and you just know that?” He asked, his voice slightly strained.

  “Yeah, but I’m not gonna tell you about it. Nor am I gonna tell you that it’s that guy, over there.” She said, pointing over his shoulder towards one of the other members of this group: shorter than the leader was, but still tall and well-built.

  The leader turned to look at him, and I could see the guy Maddie was pointing to, his eyes widening.

  “I’m also not gonna tell you that it’s been going on for a while, and he’s been really careful about making sure you had no idea.”

  There was a pause as the two men stared at each other for a long, silent moment. I didn’t move, and I could see the rest of this small group were looking at each other and back at these two, confused and gobsmacked.

  “Ty…” the leader of the group finally started, a pained laugh in his voice, “She’s just playing, right?”

  The guy that Maddie pointed at - Ty - stammered. “Lou, I- I uh- Y-yeah she’s just…just playing…”

  “Oh, shit.” Maddie said, slapping herself in the forehead, “Said that out loud, didn’t I?”

  She wasn’t even trying to sound apologetic.

  Until the leader - Lou - suddenly spun, practically roaring as he swung a fist at Maddie.

  I braced myself, ready to fight-

  Maddie stepped to the side, nimbly dodging. He swung again, and Maddie dodged out of the way again.

  Lou snarled, “You lying bit-!”

  There was a loud thud as Maddie drove her knee right into his stomach, hard enough that it knocked the air out of him, causing him to drop to the ground with a wheeze.

  “I wasn’t lying,” She said, looking down at him before turning to face the rest of them, “Anyone else wanna get the skeletons dragged out of their closet? Form a line if you’re feeling brave.”

  The rest of the group looked at each other, then back down at Lou, who was struggling to pull himself to his feet. A lot of them took a step back.

  “That’s what I thought.” She said, dusting herself off before turning to Elena and I, “Let's go.”

  We both fell in step behind her, walking away from the group as Lou pulled himself back to his feet, shakily. As we passed Ty, I managed to sneak a quick glance. The poor guy looked terrified, and incredibly guilty. I quickly looked away as we left, rounding the corner.

  “D-did you have to do that t-to them?” I asked as we got out of earshot.

  Maddie laughed, turning to me. “Did I have to? No, but it was the easiest way to get out of that.”

  Elena scoffed, “Really, that was the easiest way?”

  “Every other possibility would have resulted in a drawn-out fight,” Maddie retorted, without missing a beat, “If we’d just walked past, they’d have chased us and gotten into a fight. If one of you two had taken charge, a fight. If we’d played nice, a fight.”

  “You can’t possibly-”

  Maddie spun to look at her. “Sorry, Lennie, but out of everyone you know I’m the one single person that absolutely can know that.”

  That took the wind out of Elena’s sails; she went to say something, but the words died in her mouth.

  “B-but did you have to be t-that harsh?” I asked.

  Maddie sighed, “Probably not. Worked though, didn’t it?”

  The conversation died quickly after that, with the two of us following Maddie across the streets. I looked down to Elena, who looked annoyed.

  “Y-you ok?” I asked, keeping my voice quiet.

  She turned to look up at me, trying to smile. “Yeah it’s just…god she gets on my nerves.”

  I brushed my hand against hers, before grabbing hold of it. That seemed to make Elena soften a little bit.

  We continued walking through the Rustbank, but it was quiet. Almost too quiet. Very few people out and about, most of them not really giving us much of a glance.

  Then, as I looked back up at Maddie, something caught my eye, something that made my blood run ice-cold in my veins.

  There, standing on the roof of an abandoned shopping mall, was a person silhouetted against the night sky, their arms spread wide like they were about to jump.

  “C-Cheshire!” I shouted to Maddie, who turned as I pointed. I saw her eyes widen, too.

  All of a sudden, our earpieces crackled, making me jump.

  “Any heroes in The Rustbank,” Dispatch’s voice sounded in our ears, “We’ve got reports of a couple of super-criminals attacking the Devil’s Due casino.”

  Elena and I looked at Maddie, who was running a hand through her hair.

  “Shit!” She cursed, looking around before turning to Elena, “You can do that bridge thing from the tryouts, right?”

  Elena’s face dropped as she rooted around in the different canisters on her costume one by one before letting out a frustrated groan. “Fuck, no, I don’t have enough!”

  “It’s fine, plan B then,” Maddie said, turning to me, “Can you get up there?”

  I looked up at the building, focusing my power into my ribs.

  “Y-yeah, I think so.”

  Maddie nodded. “Ok, listen to me. You get that person down and safe, then call paramedics. The second you’re done, find Spitter and I at the Devil’s Due, ok? It’s a couple of blocks away, you’ll know it when you see it.”

  “Good luck.” Elena said softly, squeezing my hand before she and Maddie sprinted off.

  I looked up at the person standing on the roof. They’d barely moved, but the more I looked I realised that they were standing right on the edge, perfectly still, not even swaying.

  Something deep in my gut was telling me I didn’t have much time.

  I quickly scanned around the building to see what was nearby, my mind racing. If they jumped, they’d go past a few windows; maybe I could try to catch them and go through one? One of the other buildings was close enough - although a couple of storeys shorter - that I could try and catch them from there.

  My ribs erupted from under my skin without hesitating, forming the long and hooked limbs that I’d become increasingly familiar with. Immediately, I ran to the wall of the shorter building and scuttled up, ribs biting into the brick. It didn't take me very long to get to the roof, as I hauled myself up and onto it and looked up.

  They were still standing there, unmoving.

  I looked ahead, lining myself up with the window opposite me. Hopefully, if they dropped straight down, I could grab them. I looked back up as-

  They fell. Not even like they’d jumped, like they’d just tipped over the edge, dropping like a ragdoll.

  Fuck! I thought, rushing forward. I was trying to keep my eyes on them and the window ahead of me; I only had one chance to get this right, if I messed it up they’d be dead.

  They kept falling, closer and closer to me as I got closer and closer to the edge of my roof. I had to time this perfectly.

  As my foot hit the lip of the roof, I leapt; without thinking, my power flooded into my legs, causing bone to shoot out from my feet and launch me further into the air.

  Time slowed down for a second as I found myself in mid-air. The wind roared past my ears as I got closer and closer to the jumper; they were falling right in front of me, arms loose and body slack.

  A certainty settled in my chest: I could save them, I could do this. I reached out with both arms and extended my ribs out as they fell in front of me, ready to catch them, every muscle screaming as I focused on them.

  Please!

  Time sped back up; I wrapped my ribs and arms around them, grabbing them into a tight embrace. They hit my chest with a soft thud, enough to knock some air out of me, but not enough to knock me off course. The momentum carried us forward as we crashed through a window, glass shattering and scattering around us. My ribs had wrapped us into a makeshift cocoon, causing us to roll for a few feet before coming to a gentle stop inside this dark room, dust scattering around us.

  Silence rushed in all at once, all I could hear was my own heart pounding in my chest and my steady panting. I paused for a moment to catch my breath, before listening closely, looking down.

  They were still breathing.

  The relief hit me like a truck.

  I’d done it. I’d saved them. Slowly, carefully, I started to loosen my grip, my hands trembling as the adrenaline buzzed through me, ribs gently sliding back under my skin.

  I let myself laugh, elated.

  “H-hey,” I said, breathless, “You’re safe now. Are you alri-”

  There was a sudden movement as something sharp and cold stabbed into my shoulder. Pain flared, tearing through my arm like a bolt of lightning. My breath hitched and I gasped in pain, jerking back. Stunned, I looked to my shoulder-

  A hunting knife with a serrated blade was jammed into my shoulder up to the hilt, gripped tight by the person I’d saved, practically locking me in place.

  “W-what?!” I gasped.

  I slowly followed the hand gripping the knife, tracing it to their face.

  Strawberry-blonde hair.

  Bright blue eyes.

  A scarred face like patchwork leather, beaming with delight

  My heart dropped through my chest as Patch looked up at me.

  I immediately tried to pull myself away, but she quickly pulled on the hilt and twisted it hard. I let out a jagged scream of pain as the blade grinded against my bones, before she yanked me closer by the hilt until her face was nearly touching my helmet, her breath warm against the metal.

  The grin looked like it was about to split her face wide open.

  “Surprise!”