“So we’re like, graduated now right?”

Vicious frowns beneath his mask. “No,” he answers, keeping his tone level.

“But, we’ve knocked you down four times in a row now! And all without any of Elly’s magic,” pouts Ginger Snap.

Not for the first time, Vicious imagines himself fighting the girl without the handicap of being her instructor. Patiently, he explains, “This is training. I’m not exercising my full advantage, and neither are you two. If you think these mudfights simulate an actual combat environment you are wrong.”

“Ugh,” says Ginger, “that is a lame answer. But either way, we won.”

“Yes,” Vicious admits through gritted teeth.

“So, like you said, when we can beat you we’re done with the training.”

“What I said,” Vicious begins, “was that when you could hold your own against me you would be minimally competent and my contract would be complete. What you do with yourself from now on is your problem. I,” Vicious stresses the word, “plan on leaving this city and never coming back.”

“Because you’re scared of us!” exclaims Ginger in a cute but mocking tone.

Vicious resists the urge to slap her, and himself, perhaps not in that order. “No,” he replies, “I am not. But there is no contractual reason for me to be here anymore.”

“Really?” asks Ginger, stepping within Vicious’ personal space. “You can’t think of a single reason to stay?”

Carefully, Vicious steps backwards, wary of an unexpected attack. Then he delicately, and silently, palms a dagger without Ginger noticing. “No,” he says once free of the danger area, “there isn’t a single reason.”

Underneath her mask, Ginny’s playful expression falls slightly. Feeling a bit put out, she says in a waspish tone, “Well what would you do if I paid you?”

“Stay,” answers Vicious, promptly. “But I doubt you’d have a reason for me to stay.”

Frustrated, Ginny sighs. Vicious, noticing the exhalation, asks, “What now?”

“You’re dense,” Ginger answers. Then she lifts her metal-clad fist and adds, “But it’s refreshing in a way. Well, I guess you can leave now.”

Vicious nods, internally sighing with relief. Then he turns slightly to face Eldritch, who watches amused from the back. He nods to her as well. Vicious then backs away, aware that the two heroes might decide to violate the safe-exit clause in his contract. Once out of range of any immediate detection devices he randomly selects one of his safehouses and heads toward it, changing direction and doubling back erratically, all while remaining unseen and undetected. By nightfall, Vicious will be gone from the city using a route designed to shake any tail and remove any magical scrying Eldritch might have used against him. In two days, everything Vicious owned in the city will be gone as well, destroyed in random fires, accidents, or carefully disarmed and extricated with him.

In three days, Vicious will be out of his mask and in one of his numerous cover identities visiting a hospital known for its care of terminal patients. In one bed, hooked up to countless tubes and sigils, all taken from the greatest magicians, doctors, and healing power users, is an emaciated black man on life support. Looking down at him, Vicious, known to the nurses as Harold Black, will lean down and whisper in his ear, “Another year’s payment made. I love you, dad.”

But, dear reader, we are not so rude as to intrude any further on the private conversations of Vicious. Indeed, our attention flits back to the here and now and to a pair of girls watching him leave. Once he slinks into the night, Hailey turns to Ginny and asks, “So what was that about?”

Looking at where Vicious disappeared to, Ginny answers in a distracted voice, “I don’t know something just came over me.”

“Something?”

“I mean,” underneath her suit, Ginny blushes, “he is kinda cute.”

Protesting, Hailey says, “He was under a mask! You can’t even see his face.”

Unthinking, Ginny responds, “But his suit is almost skintight, especially where it counts.” Then, realizing what she said, she turns a bright shade of crimson and puts her head in her hands.

Snickering, Hailey pokes her friend in the side and says, “Yeah I bet you noticed, you perv! He’s probably an old man underneath all that armor,” gasping, Hailey adds, “or maybe he has some gross skin condition! I bet he’s covered in ugly sores or stripes or something even worse.”

“Nuh uh!” Ginny shoots back, “I saw some photos of him from when he was just a kid. He didn’t have any skin condition.” Fortifying herself, she adds, “And he’s adorable!”

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“Oh I bet!” Hailey says with a grin. Then her expression sobers and she adds, “But that baby has grown up, and done a whole lot of illegal things. He’s killed people.”

Ginny nods. “I know,” she says softly, “but somehow I just feel like there’s more to him than that, you know?” She turns to face Hailey, letting the question sit between them.

Eyeing her critically, Hailey replies, “Maybe? But either way, he’s bad news that’s in our rearview for now.”

Shrugging, Ginny forms her metal suit into a bird’s wings and collects Hailey. Then she leaps off the building and flies to a nondescript office building that towers above the busy streets below. A minute later, the two girls walk out the door of the building next to one another. As they walk down the street, Ginny asks hesitantly, “So, um, this might be a bit personal, but why are you doing all this?”

“All what?”

“You know!” Ginny exclaims, waving her hand in the air, “the Eldritch thing.”

“Oh,” Hailey says, falling silent. Her face takes on a contemplative look for a minute before she says, “Well… it’s kinda personal.”

“Oh!” Ginny says, embarrassed. Backpedaling, she says, “You don’t have to explain, I swear!”

“No!” interrupts Hailey, “I don’t mind, its just,” Hailey hesitates for a second, “well how about we swap stories instead?”

Ginny glances away and replies, “Sure,” in a halfhearted voice.

“Well,” Hailey inhales, bracing herself. “You know about the mall, and Amanda, right?”

Ginny nods.

“When Amanda died, I made a promise.”

“What promise?”

“Malefic,” Hailey says in a cold tone. “I’m going to put her away.”

Ginny looks away, studying the buildings across the street and unable to meet Hailey’s gaze. She lets the silence stretch out between them for a minute before saying in a small voice, “I was a bit of a brat.”

“What do you mean?” Hailey asks.

“I’m a bit… rich,” Ginny begins. Hearing Hailey snort she flushes and adds, “Okay! Maybe more than a bit. And when you’re rich like I am, sometimes problems don’t seem real. I heard about the mall and I thought it would be easy to fix, just pay a construction company to rebuild. Amanda,” Ginny glances at Hailey, “and other people dying never really crossed my mind.”

Ginny falls silent as the pair pass a pedestrian. Then she begins again, haltingly. “When I got the suit, I didn’t really have a plan. The Chauvinist just seemed like somebody to fight because he was convenient. Honestly, if things worked out different, I might have ended up a villain just because the first person to fight was a hero. I wasn’t thinking things through, or even trying to really. Then Becca happened and my suit…” Ginny’s sentence trails off as she visibly struggles to speak.

Steeling herself, she continues. “I couldn’t, I wasn’t allowed to do anything. It made me livid! Especially because of my mom and Beacon and-”

“Speaking of,” Hailey interjects, “how do you know him?”

“He’s a friend of my dad,” Ginny replies. Then in a quixotic tone, she adds, “And he knew my mom.”

Hailey asks, “How?”

“Turns out I’ve got hero in my blood,” Ginny says wryly.

“Really?!” asks Hailey excitedly, “Who?”

“Mistress Metallurgy,” Ginny crinkles her nose, “not the best name.”

“But still!” Hailey says, “No wonder you ended up a hero.”

“Yeah,” Ginny agrees, “I feel a lot closer to her, just doing stuff like this, you know? When we were training and I wanted to die-”

“Preach,” murmurs Hailey.

Ginny giggles slightly before continuing. “Well, when I wanted to give up, I kept thinking about her and how she wouldn’t have quit. I don’t want to let her down.”

“So is that what made you change?”

Ginny nods in affirmation. “Yeah, I want to live up to her legacy.” A fire lights in her eyes and a bit of her spunky tone returns as she adds, “I’m going to be the second-greatest heroine ever!”

Laughing, Hailey says, “Well you’re already the second-greatest in the city, so you’re off to a great start!”

Scowling playfully at her, Ginny brightens and claps her hands together. Then she says, “Well! I’m choosing to ignore that! Now, let me ask, why are we walking when I see a car dealership right at the corner over there? Let’s go buy a car!”

Shaking her head in equal parts amazement and amusement, Hailey makes to follow her. Before the girls get down the street, however, the sound of a loud crack reverberates throughout the street. Glancing down at her feet, Hailey notices a jagged break in the pavement, newly formed. Looking up, she spots smoke coming from the corner of a nearby building. A second later, the form of a woman wearing a red cocktail dress walks out. Looking immaculate, she glances imperiously down the street, her eyes sweeping over the two stunned girls.

Her hair is red, dyed to match her sequined dress and lipstick, and curls above her head in ringlets that dangle down, framing her face. Her dress itself is a low cut number with a high rising hemline that leaves her long legs exposed to the air. Grinning savagely, she surveys the painted nails of her free hand. In her other hand is a bag, the contents of which squirm about wildly. Unfazed by the weight of the person she carries, the woman pats the bag and says in a breathy voice, “Quiet you! We need to leave before any pesky heroes show up.”

“Pesky heroes, huh?” Hailey asks Ginny with a smile.

Ginny does not react at first, sporting an incredulous look on her face that slowly breaks into a wide grin. Turning to face Hailey she says, “Hey, remember our agreement?”

Confused, Hailey replies, “Sure, I help you with The Deck. Why?”

“Well,” Ginny points at the woman sauntering out of the rubble, “that’s the Queen of Hearts.”

“What’s her power?” Hailey asks.

She gets her answer a moment later as the Queen raises her fist and smashes it into the ground. The ground begins to glow a molten red, a second later it bursts, sending concrete and pavement flying. Standing on one of the intact pieces of blacktop is the queen, her package securely next to her. Glancing down at the two awestruck girls as she soars by, she gives a jaunty wave.

Behind her, coughing, a man stumbles out of the wreckage. Shouting at the villain he cries out in despair, “Somebody stop her! She’s kidnapped Jerry!”

“Quick,” Ginger says to Eldritch, “hop in this phone booth and let’s suit up! We don’t have any time to waste if we’re going to catch up to her and rescue Jerry!”

“Phone booth?” Eldritch asks, blinking.

Ginger rolls her eyes and grabs her unresponsive companion explaining, “This is the old section of town. Now don’t ask questions just get changed!”

The chase is on, dear reader! But will our heroines catch up to the Red Queen? Find out next week in… “The White Rabbit!”