Katie wasn’t used to waiting for what she wanted, and this morning wasn’t any different. Sitting on a bench alone in the park for several hours, though, beat having to contend with everything happening in Lower Olympus. It hadn’t stopped her from being part of it, no matter how hard she tried to not get involved with superheroes anymore. The night had been long and tedious as she lurked through the shadows, making sure she wasn’t caught by people who could very, very easily put a fist through her stomach if she was caught. She figured she was still coming off that high.

And maybe that’s why it was so damn difficult to sit still. She watched the people walking past her, in couples and some single, others old and a couple dozen young. So normal, happy.

Katie, on the other hand, had a heart that was still racing, bucking and kicking in her chest. As soon as the Capes arrived, she cashed in for the night and escaped, getting as far away as she could because she’d dealt with superheroes before—amateurs, sure, but heroes nonetheless—but professional, real life superheroes? She snorted. She wasn’t going to play tag with people like that.

I’m playing cat and mouse, she thought, as she scrolled through her phone. Except I’m the freaking mouse this time. She had only ever been hunted down once, forced out of the cracks in the walls and the shadows in the alleyways. After all, it’s what she’s paid to do—stay hidden, learn and listen, and she didn’t like it one bit. It was exciting sometimes, but most of the time, all she had to do was listen, watch, wait, report back, then wait some more for her pay. Being a thief had been a lot more fun, and admittedly, she missed pulling watches right off someone’s hand, a purse off a shoulder and a phone from a pocket. She smiled to herself as the wind picked up, icy and quiet.

Those were the days, being a petty pickpocket in the lower east end, until everything got complicated and everyone she knew started dying. Now she was in it for the information, and for whatever lead she could get her hands on that would pay off the one thing money couldn’t buy.

And reminding herself of that was the reason she remained on the cold hard wooden bench, slightly hungry and very tired, living off the remains of whatever stale gum she could find in her pockets. It wasn’t the life she envisioned for herself, but what did she expect from the life she led? Glamour? Glory? No, that wasn’t for people like her, and for a while, a few years ago, she believed that one of those endings to her life might actually be happy, but things changed.

Things change all the time, so that means they’re just always kinda the same.

The leaves rustled around her shoes, twirling into the sky. Ben would have loved sitting here and doing nothing. A break in his busy, busy life. The thought forced her thumb to switch the phone off, and demanded that she at least tried to enjoy everything surrounding her, but she couldn’t, just couldn’t, because she wasn’t wired that way. Kids like her grew up surrounded by concrete and graffiti, convenience stores running out of an alleyway and liquor joints that sold you booze so strong you’d probably be seeing double after one whiff; strip clubs run by old ladies, and White Capes who’d beat you to hell and back if you got on their turf. Having trees and birds and white collar corporate guys smile and wave at her with their pristine smiles was just so… fake.

Almost undeserving, because she was a stain, and she could see it in how wide of a birth they gave her, and how sour their faces got when she stretched her legs out onto the walkway.

Whatever, she thought, smacking gum between her teeth. This is my city, too.

Her phone buzzed, and she ignored it for a second before picking up. “If you’re calling me, then you’ve either made a huge mistake, or you know what you want. How much and where?”

“You really should make a habit of saving my number,” Ava said.

Katie groaned inwardly. “I do that for people who I think will last long enough for me to think about after they pay me, which, fun fact, you haven’t done yet. So I’m just gonna cut this—”

“You’ll get your pay when the job is finished,” Ava said plainly.

Katie rolled her eyes and shooed away a pigeon. “And when is that, boss lady?”

“When Lower Olympus stops looking like a warzone,” she muttered, her voice muffled by movement. She gave Ava a second, tried to listen to whatever it was she was whispering to someone. “I need a run down of what happened tonight. Anything that caught your eye about the Triumvirate, anything about the newer supervillains we fought, because from what I heard, we’d never encountered some of these people ever, like they’ve all magically appeared from thin air. Some were powerful, real threats, nothing less than superhumans we should be watching closely.”

Katie rubbed the black ring on her thumb, looked around lazily, then said, “Have you ever sat in this park before, so early in the morning? You almost feel like all of that shit doesn’t exist.”

Silence. Katie smiled. “It’s like the world doesn’t revolve around superhumans.”

Very slowly, each syllable articulated, Ava said, “Lynx, I’m very, very tired, and you’re nothing but the cost effective option, but if you want to get replaced, don’t forget that I can do that. I’m not my father, I don’t know you, and I frankly don’t really like you—just tell me what you know without wasting my time. I know you’re busy, so let’s wrap this up as quickly as we can.”

Katie hadn’t worked for Lucifer in years, not since things got tasteful between them. She spat her gam onto the gravel path, now sour, tasteless, then groaned as she forced herself to pick it up. You’re getting soft, Kates, she thought, putting it back in its wrapper, and she blamed Ben for that. “Alright, alright, keep your underwear on,” she said. “You’re right about all those new supervillains appearing out of nowhere. Never seen any of ‘em before, not even in the little black books that the gangs in Lower Olympus keep on them. I’ve got to meet up with someone some time today, maybe tomorrow, and figure out where they’re coming from. Usually, when so many new Supers are in one place all of a sudden, word gets around that something big is going down.”

“And not a single murmur,” Ava said, finishing her thoughts. “And New Olympus isn’t very good at keeping her secrets. This would have made the news, at least an article somewhere.”

“It’s not a big enough problem for the normal people,” Katie muttered. “If Lower Olympus implodes, then so be it—they’ll just rebuild and sweep the lot of you under the carpet, you know.”

“You really think that’s what they’re doing, waiting for us to kill each other?”

Katie shrugged, even though she couldn’t see it. “Why put in the effort when someone else will just do it for you? But I don’t know, maybe I’m just cynical. Tonight will probably set off a few alarms for news channels, activists, that lot. And the stunt that happened in the bank is only going to speed this mess up; everyone knows things are getting worse, but not to what extent.”

She’d been there, watched the news and seen the headlines in the hours after Olympia saved an entire avenue of people from being turned into meat paste. This wouldn’t have happened if Olympia wasn’t around, said one side. But if she wasn’t here, who knows how many would have died tonight? asked the other. Katie was on the fence about superheroes and supervillains and how public their messes got. Some people liked the show, the lights; they thrived off making this a lifestyle, using it as leverage against the other side. But Katie thrived off of being a nobody. The less people who knew about her, the better, but Zeus’ daughter didn’t exactly have that luxury.

But wherever you found superheroes, the supervillains wouldn’t be far behind. Ice and fire, oil and water, light and shadow, and all that other crap. A push and pull, one side tugging the other deeper into the dark, or further into the light, neither really winning this little neverending war.

Good thing I’m just the girl who gets information to whoever needs it, she thought.

Katie was too much of a lover (Screw you Ben, for making me like this), anyway.

“Do you at least have a hunch on where they’re coming from?”

Katie blew out a sigh. “I don’t know, Ave. Could be offshore, maybe?”

“And where exactly is ‘offshore’?”

“‘Offshore’ meaning the next state over, or maybe right across the block from the Guild, or quite literally anywhere else in the world. My guess is that they’re home grown, ‘cause heavy hitters like the ones I saw tonight don’t move around quietly. Someone will always see something, hear something, and if you’re stuck in the webs I’m in, you get to hear things whatever the case.”

Silence, then she heard murmurs on the other side of the phone as Ava spoke to somebody. “I suppose that checks out. You don’t notice weeds until they’re sprouting around your flowers.”

Katie snorted and nearly laughed. “Yeah, sure, let’s go with that. Got a way with words.”

“It means the world that you find me entertaining,” she dead panned. “But if the Triumvirate can get their hands on so many heavy-hitters so quickly, and from right here…”

She lowered her voice, slyly scanned the faces that passed by the bench and the distant windows of the skyscrapers surrounding the park. “We’ve either got a traffickers infestation in this city, or there’s something in the water that’s making a bunch of people have awakenings way too late in life. I’ll wager on the fuc… freaking traffickers. It’s just a hunch, but I trust my gut.”

“I was hoping you’d say that,” Ava muttered. “At least then we can control it.”

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Katie knew exactly what she meant by control. In their world it meant one thing, and one thing only. Dominate. Overpower. To make them all so afraid that the thought of it would sap the life right out of a room. The old days were like that, lawless, free, because anyone could put on a costume and call themselves a superhero. But there also used to be a vigilante problem in New Olympus, until several of the gangs ins the lower east end also started ‘controlling’ the issue as brutally as possible. It turned her blood cold, those thoughts, and the wind a little sharper. So many tiny murals, candles left to melt, because some kid died trying to be a hero and nobody knew. Wrong place, wrong time—not your bullet, but oh well, tough break, it just wasn’t your night.

Suddenly, the little kids chasing each other through the park so early in the morning, equally chased after by frantic babysitters, so enthusiastic about spring break, seemed like another life entirely. Like some sick move by God to show her everything she’d never have in her life.

Superhuman trafficking wasn’t a cozy topic for anyone, and Katie didn’t know if she still had that kind of grit left inside of her to deal with it. Maybe the old her. The Lynx who killed for cash because, to her, what was murder except stealing with a little more scarlet and screaming?

Ava hummed for a moment, deep in thought, then said, “What about the SDU?”

“They’re too busy dealing with upper west side things,” Katie said. “Some Super actress, real Hollywood glitz, snorting a couple kilos of coke and killing some poor hooker, things like that. We’re in the clear for now, at least until mayor Blackwood sends her daughter after you, Ave.”

“Damage Control isn’t a hit squad,” she said breezily. Katie snorted, but if the kid wanted to think that way, then she was free to do so. Katie was here for her pay, nothing more. “My main worry is how much superhuman force the Triumvirate had on their side last night. You informed us that all they really had were a few brutes, maybe someone A-Grade if they were desperate.”

Her tone was harsh, tense, and Katie figured that came from the shit show of a performance her group put on last night. The Jericho Triad was only in her hands because she had her fingers on it first when her old man vanished. Witchling was their biggest threat, but she didn’t seem bothered in taking over Lower Olympus. Ace, too, even though he was so full of himself that Katie doubted he’d be able to see any bigger picture than himself as mayor. Maybe O’Reiley—he had the skills, the knowledge. He knew those mercenaries longer than Ava had. Loyal to a key to his old boss.

But how long would that last if Ava kept screwing up? What was stopping O’Reiley from taking the reins from her because he was just trying to look out for his own guys, the gang?

Katie shrugged, kicked at some gravel. Not her problem. She had bigger issues.

Like the underlying accusations she heard in Ava’s voice that said: you lied to me.

“If you think I’m two-timing you, then cut me off, kill me, fire me, rat me out to the police that I’m still in the city. Hell, I don’t care, but just don’t think for one second I can’t do my job right,” she said, keeping her voice low. She fiddled with the ring on her hand, rubbing its dull, cold metal. “Those new supervillains didn’t hit my radar probably because they’re home bred, or the Triumvirate has someone in your group telling them where I’ll be and when I’ll be there, alright?”

Ava remained silent for several beats. “A mole, right, because my father would let—”

“Your dad’s not here anymore,” Katie said, cutting her off, slicing right through her words and her chest, she was sure. “You’re in charge, and it’s about time you started owning up to it.”

A sigh, then she said, “You sound exactly like O’Reiley.”

Katie massaged her eyes, trying to get the exhaustion out of her foggy head. “I don’t know, dude, but you’re gonna have to figure this out on your own. I’m here because I have a debt to pay, that’s it. I’m not here to coach you, or mentor you, or cheer you on. You sort this shit out on your own. So all I’m saying is that you should be careful. Cards to your chest and all the rest of it.”

“I’ll look into it,” she said. It was such a bland, emotionless response that Katie almost laughed. She hated being told how things should go, but hey, Katie did, too, until she learnt otherwise. “I’ll need you on patrol near the boulevard tonight at seven. I’m meeting with a few people, and I’d rather know what’s going on outside when I’m there. It’s sensitive right now.”

“Care to let me in on the secret?”

“Drugs, foul play, things like that,” she said. “We need more money, I’m sure you understand, and swallowing up a few of the smaller gangs is going to help with that. Planned expansion down the boulevard, agitate the White Capes, make them try and push back until they become enough of a nuisance that the SDU have to step in. Small steps toward the bigger goal. And if I can learn anything about any new Supers, force them onto our side, then I’ll take it.”

A real go-getter, she thought. Lucian would be proud.

Katie had never been a fan of drugs or alcohol, but being a thief and a part-time assassin for hire (for the right price, of course), it came with the job title of thief. “What about the anti-supers?”

“I’m not planning on rolling in the shit with a few Normals,” she said. “The police won’t bother coming all this way for them, anyway. So seven tonight, I need you near the Guild.”

“Watching for any Triumvirate action, too?”

“When have we not been looking over our shoulders the past year?”

Katie smiled and shook her head. “I’ll be there, but you still owe me.”

“Trust me, you’ll get what you want. I just need to figure out where this new strain of Ambrosia is coming from first,” she said quietly. A dog barked at Katie, wagging its tail. She bent to scratch the back of its ear before the owner pulled it away. “We found it in the crates we got, pure, stark, like it’s coming straight from some factory, Lynx. This is A grade stuff. We’re estimating in the millions of dollars if this slipped into the market. I’m guessing you don’t—”

“Ambrosia was before my time,” she said icily. “Not my ballpark. Ask someone else.”

“Do you know anyone else from that time that isn’t in the grave?”

“Fair,” Katie said, shrugging. “There are certain… groups, I guess you could call them, that might know, but once you open that can of worms, there’s no stopping them from coming here.”

“Your tone suggests they aren’t going to be willing to be best friends with me.”

“They’d be more willing to put your head on a pike outside the mayor’s office,” Katie said, eyeing a man putting up a hot dog stand. “Those old dogs are a different breed. There’s a reason the Eighties was so huge for superhumans, but messing with them isn’t my game to play.”

Ava chuckled, and Katie heard how tired the kid was from across the city. It reminded her of someone. “One last thing: how much of an asset do you think my newest superhuman is?”

Katie let the question hang in the air between them. If she squinted and looked over her shoulder, past the buildings and construction sites, through the shine that was New Olympus in the early morning summer, she would have been able to see one of the biggest statues on the planet facing the rising sun. She had been there once, a long time ago, when she hijacked a school bus full of high schoolers on a field trip. She smiled to herself, felt that familiar coldness seeping into her veins, and let the memory run its course and bleed out of the faint scars crossing her body.

“She’ll do,” Katie said, nodding. “Cat amongst the pigeons, but don’t step on her tail.”

“Why? You think she’ll bite one day? She’s just like us at the end of the day.”

The familiar sound of a thunderous Harley tore through the sky, forcing a flock of birds away from the trees. Katie watched a girl with dark brown hair sweep her leg off the seat and kick the stand, and watched with a smile as a little boy stared at her, wide-eyed, dumb, as the girl slipped her sunglasses onto her head and smiled at him. Everything was effortless, natural. The kid had freckles on her cheeks, a lot more than she last remembered, and Katie watched as the girl made her way over, crop top letting the sweat on her trimmed stomach shine in the sunlight. A little more muscle mass, a lot more toned. Not just a track athlete anymore, just a little bit more than that.

“No, Ava, she isn’t like us,” Katie said as the girl waved at her, nearer now. Her heart skipped a beat for whatever reason when she saw that smile, the tiny gap between her two front teeth. “She isn’t like those old superheroes, either. She’s got entire governments waging on her success, so yeah, if you want to screw with her, be my guest. I won’t be there when the lights go out and all you can see are those golden eyes. She’s trained, she’s smarter than you give her credit for, and without her, you wouldn’t have been able to pull off tonight if she wasn’t such a hero.”

She could almost see how thin Ava’s lips became from here. “Where is she now?”

“Where else would a teenager be on spring break?” she asked. “In bed, out cold.”

And with that, she cut the call as the brown-haired girl stood in front of her.

“Sorry I’m late,” Bianca said, rubbing her hands and their new callouses. “There’s a ton of traffic leaving the islands. Did you see the news last night? It was so freaking crazy an hour ago.”

Katie cocked her eyebrow. “What, did some celebrity fall off one of the bridges again?”

Bianca snorted. “You’re so out of the loop you probably think Zeus is still alive, Kates.”

She stood up, faking a gasp. “Oh my God, don’t tell me he’s… Dammit, I knew all those ‘roids were going to get to him eventually. Well, at least they’ll remember him for something.”

“Yeah, not like he saved the world a dozen times,” Bianca said. She pulled out her phone, glanced at the lock screen—no notifications. She pursed her lips and put it away as they started walking toward her new bike. New in ownership, but old with history. Katie had seen her friends get shot and killed in front of her eyes. Seen people she played with in the streets blow their brains out because meth was in their veins. But staring at it almost made her heart stop right that second.

“Something wrong?” Katie asked, because she shouldn’t be worrying about herself.

“Nothing, nothing,” Bianca said, then, a moment later: “I tried calling Rylee a bunch of times. She’s still not answering her phone. I was worried because of the news last night and—”

Katie slapped her shoulder. “Girl problems. Been there, done that. She’s fine, B.”

“Maybe I should go check on her,” she said, but it wasn’t a new thought judging by how quickly it came out of her mouth. “Bring her a few snacks, some clothes if she needs them, too.”

“I thought you said Rylee wasn’t homeless,” she said. “‘Cause it sounds like she is.”

“Well, I’d hope not,” Bianca said quietly. Katie could almost see the life bleeding out of her the longer they spoke about this. “I haven’t seen her since before graduation, so who knows?”

They stood for a moment beside the bike, silent. Katie watched her closely, saw her building that wall of resolve around herself, just like her brother used to so often. Seeing it happen was always frightening, because their eyes would glaze over slightly, and you wouldn’t notice it if you didn’t know the Ross family like Katie did. Alright, alright, I’m fine, but let’s get going ‘cause we’re burning daylight, and the sun’s like a bus because it just doesn’t wait, was almost certainly what she was going to say next. It was a bad habit. A deadly habit. One she was trying to break.

Katie pushed a hand through her short, black hair. “I have a gut feeling that she’s doing just fine. Maybe she’s just a little busy, but I’m sure she’s gonna get in touch as soon as she can.”

Plus I’m sure you cheered Olympia on when she saved all those people last night, Katie thought. Probably texted her right afterward, asking if she’d seen how awesome that was.

Her gut twisted, and standing on the sidewalk wasn’t going to make it any looser. She cleared her throat and took the keys from Bianca before she could retaliate. Katie straddled the bike and said, “Come on, loser, there’s no point thinking about your little girlfriend when there’s half priced churros to devour. Plus I’m not letting a lovesick teenager drive me anywhere in this city.”

A red hue sprung from her collar and filled her cheeks. “Rylee’s not my— Whatever. You suck, anyway. You’re lucky you’re old, ‘cause I would have kicked your butt like I did last time.”

“I’m sorry,” Katie said, turning the bike on and twisting the throttle. “I can’t hear you over the sound of all those churros calling my name. Now hop on, before I start planning how often I’ll be coming around to see the cozy little apartment the both of you are going to cuddle up in.”

Bianca, with a huff, got on, and whispered into her ear, “You’re lucky Ben liked you.”

Katie smiled, this time genuinely. “Yeah, I’m pretty lucky he did.”