Today is the fucking day! Sam and I have graduated from the Dayhelm Institute of Science. Once the last student sits back in their seat, all the graduates throw their hats into the air, covering the sky with a black blanket. Sam and I keep our hats on our heads. We want every piece of our attire so we can have them to recall back on this day later in our lives.

After our graduation, I take Sam on a fancy dinner date to celebrate this amazing day. We go to a four-star restaurant where lavish-style clothing is mandatory. Our expensive dresses fit the part of what looks like a wealthy couple. We look so damn sexy and elegant that I struggle not to stare too much at her.

The moment we take our seats, a handsome white boy with messy black yet curly hair introduces himself as our waiter for the night. He’s got two silver earrings in both of his ears, light freckles on his cheeks, a clean smooth-shaven face, and I mildly deep reverberant voice.

“My, my. You ladies look wonderful tonight,” he says as he hands us our menus.

“Thank you,” Sam says with a big smile. I say the same thing, minus the smile.

“My name is Vladamir, and I’ll be taking care of all your needs.”

“Vladamir. Interesting name. Are you Russian?” I ask out of curiosity.

“Babe, don’t be silly,” Sam says.

“Nope. American born. My dad thought it was cool. I don’t mind it,” Vladamir says. He takes out his notepad and then speaks to us with a poor yet funny impression of a Russian accent. “What drinks would you like to start with?” It takes us a few seconds to read off what.

“I’ll take a Smooth Smooch.”

“Alright. And you, madam?”

“Grape Phantom,” I say, eyeing Sam. Her eyes open further out for a slight moment, then she shakes her head with disbelief. She tries to hide her smile to no avail.

“You must have a taste for the sweet and strong, eh?”

“Alcohol is my thing, Vlad.” After saying that, I point at him to emphasize my next statement. “I’m not a drunkard.”

“I wasn’t thinking that or any of the sorts.” He gives us a quick bow before leaving to service other people.

“He’s cute.”

“I had a feeling you were going to say that,” Sam says, watching him talk with someone behind me. “I can kinda see it.”

“Kinda?” I laugh almost out loud. I’m going to ignore that comment. We can have that conversation tomorrow at home where I can fight my case out of earshot from people. For today, I need to keep our graduation celebration memento going. After a few minutes of lollygagging and a couple of laughs, our dinner finally comes. The size of the dishes is what we expected before coming here. They don’t fill the space on the plate.

“Think this is filling for you?” I say.

“My fat self won’t be satisfied, but I’ll be okay.”

“You can order more. I got the money to cover it.”

“Babe, it’s alright.”

It doesn’t long for us to eat everything on our plate. I order her chocolate cake and for myself, strawberry pie.

“Hey, Nikki,” she says slowly and in a monotone.

“I don’t like that sound of that.”

“What?” She says, chuckling.

“You said my name after you called me Babe. That’s not a good sign.” Her eyes roll in a half circle. “What is it?”

“You should join them.”

“Who?” The moment she is about to tell me who, I figure it out and gag. “No!”

“Nikki...”

“Sam.” I point my finger up to tell her I’m not having this conversation. “The answer is no.”

“No negotiation?”

“Don’t even try it.”

“Here you go, ladies,” Vlad says as he hands us our deserts. “Will that be all for tonight?”

“Yes. Thank you, Vlad.” He hands me a black tablet with my receipt on the screen while someone behind him calls for him. I scan my gold metallic credit card I got from Private Holdings Inc. and add a generous tip. “Alright, ladies. Thank you for coming.”

“You’re welcome,” Sam says. I nod and smile instead of speaking. “Let’s go home.” We walk out of the restaurant with our arms locked while walking slowly to the car. “So.”

“Yeah?”

“What do you wanna do now?” All of a sudden, the ground shakes. It lasts about three seconds. Some of the lights in the parking flicker. “Earthquake? That’s weird.” It happens again but lasts for six seconds.

“That’s not normal.” For a third time, the ground quakes. “Sam, get to the car.” She runs to the car while I lag behind to listen for anything odd. The shakes continue, but I can’t hear what causing them. Then suddenly, I hear what sounds like a machine grinding metal under the parking lot where she is. “Sam!” I fly to her, destroying my heels, and snap my glasses in the process. Something big comes out of the ground the moment I pick her up. It sends cars, concrete, and dirt everywhere.

“What the fuck!?” When the dust settles, all I see is a gaping hole. “Did you see anything with those eyes of yours?”

“Nothing.” The people inside the restaurant begin coming out. I land on the other side of the parking lot, so they won’t see me. Luckily her car is in fine. The window is cracked, but it’s a small one. “Let’s get out of here quick before something else happens.” A second later the ground shakes again. Sam speeds out like a mad woman. The car drifts on every turn out of the parking lot. She slows down once she makes it to the highway. In my right mirror, I can see giant thorny tentacles shoot out from the ground. “God fucking damn it.”

“What?” I shake my head with my head in my hand. “Nikki, what is it?”

“Is one of the crazy plant monsters. But it’s fucking huge.”

“Oh my god! Really? I can’t see it.”

“I see it clear as day. Drive fast.” She picks up speed, but it’s not the zooming noise I’m expecting. There’s open space on the road to book it. “Why aren’t you flooring it?”

“I was just thinking, I’m certain that the supers will handle the problem. You should go help them.”

“H—help?”

“Yeah,” she says, quickly looking at me. “Well, don’t do it in a dress.”

“I’m not doing it.” Out of her window, far in the distance, I see yellow lightning streaks in and out of the clouds. The thunder booms overhead, ratting the car windows.

“Whoa! Was that Eddie?”

“Maybe.” I check my mirror again. It’s definitely him. His lightning is going all over the place in the sky.

“Nikki, what if they need your help?”

“I guess they’ll call me.”

“What if they’re unable? You said it was huge, right?”

“Ugh!” I roll down the window and unbuckle my seat belt. The wind from outside blasts our hair all over our heads. She eases off the gas to make the wind less forceful. “Drive home!”

“I will!” I hover out the window, then take off as fast as I can back home to switch clothes. It only takes me a minute to reach the apartments. I quickly step out of my dress and put on some street clothes. When I open my wardrobe to put on a sweater, I spot my outfit in its bag.

“I can’t believe I bought into this stupid idea,” I say, zipping down the bag to look inside. For a second, I entertain the idea of wearing it for the first time. What will the people think of me if they spot me?

“You should do it,” Asteria says. I jump but don’t scream. “Be like the heroes.”

“Why can’t you just knock on the door like a normal person would?!”

“I’m not a normal person.”

“So am I, but that is what I would do.” She stands on my left and unzips it with her telekinetic power.

“I like that color scheme. It’s very rare to find those two types of colors together.”

“Stop trying to persuade me to wear it,” I say, putting on my sweater. “That suit was pointless.”

“How so?”

“I’m not inspired like I was before.”

“Why is that?”

“If I wore that, I’m putting a target on my back and putting too much exposure on myself.” My phone buzzes in a text message. The quick message says Eddie needs some assistance. “Can we talk later about this?” I head into the other room to exit the window and find her opening it. “I rather we have this discussion now. We can fly and talk.”

“How did you get...? Nevermind.” I fly past her, going at my maximum speed. She follows closely to my right. “You know we’ll be there in a minute. We won’t be able to talk about much.”

“A minute is fine. So, you’re scared about danger and too much exposure. I hope you know that will eventually happen.”

“No shit, but I don’t want it all in my face at once.”

“I see, but.”

“But?” All of sudden, I hear a click and a high-frequency noise increase in volume. She engulfs me with fire from her left hand without warning. My clothes burn away, revealing my tailored suit underneath.

“What the hell? I did this get on me?” I try to take it off, but there’s no zipper. “I swear to god if you don’t take it off, I’m going to kick your ass.”

“Okay.” She scoffs. “That outfit will stay on until you fight Rayan’s freak of nature.” I’m so mad that I want to scream. Now whoever is fighting will see what I have.

“I hate you.”

“In time, you’ll find that pointless. Now then, go and slay Rayan’s spawn. We’ll talk afterward.” Her body fades away when I hear a low hum.

The comes into sight. I take off, going faster than my limit, aiming at the topmost tentacle. Since it’s a mutated plant, I punch a corner of it with a firey fist, taking some of its chucks away.

“Jesus! That kind of hurt! Did I punch a wall?” I say.

“It has to be a new breed!” Eddie says. “Something is way off with this one!” Now that he mentions it, there is something new I’m seeing. Other than its hideous monstrous mangled body, something is fuming off it. I can’t tell if my eyes are deceiving me. It looks extremely hot. I can see the heat waves floating up into the sky.

“Hey! Do you see the heat coming off that thing?” Out of nowhere, the monster’s other tentacle wacks me into a building full of people. I crash through several pillars before stopping an inch from slamming into a man’s shins. “Ugh! That fucker! That actually hurt!” I’m unscathed despite going through glass, concrete, and steel bars. My outfit is intact without any cuts through the fabric. Eddie flies into the building with flushed open eyes.

“You good?” Eddie says while he examines my body.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Good. Wonderous and Polaris are here.” Both of them fly past the window as they attack and evade the monster’s tentacles. “Let’s go!” I freeze my hands to the point they turn pale blue. “Whoa. That’s new.”

“Honestly,” I nervously chuckle, feeling embarrassed about my inexperience in not knowing what my powers are capable of. “I don’t know what the hell I’m doing.”

“Looks like you got an idea.”

“Try to weaken one of its arms, so I can see what I can do with this.”

“I’ll let them know.” He touches the earpiece in his right ear before flashing outside. I jog over to the open window to watch everyone attack the monster. Polaris uses her light powers to burn, Eddie’s lighting shocks with immobilization, while Wonderous punches the living crap out of it.

“Okay, how cold can I get this?” I hold on to the steel rebar under my foot with both hands. In four seconds, it shatters like glass. “Jesus.”

“Hey! Are you ready?!”

“Yeah!”

I wrap my legs around the monster’s crippled arm. It doesn’t put up a fight when I start freezing parts of its limbs off like broken glass. Once I reach the exposed slimy flesh, I swap to fire, then punch it off. We rinse and repeat the same process. Wonderous, with her intense strength lifts, lifts the limbless monster to the edge of space to finish it off.

“Well, that’s one way of discarding trash,” I say, looking up to the sky.

“Excellent work, y’all. Especially you,” Polaris says.

“Great work,” Eddie says as he gives me a firm pat on the back. I barely move from the pats, even though they are loud. My mind focuses from watching Wonderous fly off to near panic when I realize I’m wearing my outfit in front of them.

“Shit!” I say, floating back with my arms crossed over my stomach.

“Whoa! What’s wrong?”

“I wasn’t expecting to wear this in front of you guys anytime soon.”

“What? Your outfit?” I nod, yes. “You wore that the last time we met.”

“Huh?” I look down to find I’m back in my regular clothing. “Ugh, that bitch.” I’m so angry that I start cursing Sam’s Hindi language. “Uh, so. This shit is annoying, yeah?”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“Rayan’s creatures are getting stronger. There was one that sprung up in Russia. Their military managed to handle it,” Polaris says.

“Well, I’m out of here.”

“Hold on a second,” she says, chuckling. “Eddie mentioned a so-called Roman goddess spoke with both of you and stated the world will come to an end?”

“Yeah,” I say, watching Eddie shuffle with his jacket. “Don’t tell me you believe in that stuff.”

“We have to take all things seriously,” Eddie says as he hovers closer to me. “Ever since I met you, things have gotten stranger.”

“Very strange,” Polaris says softly, squinting at me. “Who is Asteria to you?”

“An unfortunate annoyance in my life,” I say with my arms crossed. “She’s stalking me at this moment.”

“Really?” She twirls all around the place, searching for Asteria. “Asteria, can you reveal yourself to us? If you don’t mind.” Something around my left ear causes the inside of my ear to tickle. Asteria appears out of the corner of my eye behind Eddie.

“She’s here.”

“Greetings, everyone,” Asteria says when stands next to me. I’m still mad at what she did. I cross my arms and make them tight to help myself calm down. She has the audacity to give me a pat on the back while telling me how happy she is for helping the team.

“So, are you truly the Roman goddess of the stars?”

“That’s correct.” She says with an uncanny big smile on her face.

“So, are like other gods like you?”

“Other Roman gods or..?

“Greek gods, Babylonian, Assyrian. Oh! What about the god of the bible?”

“Settle down,” Asteria whispers while resting her hands on Polaris’s shoulder. “Let’s focus on the matter at hand, okay?”

“Right.” Asteria suddenly checks the skies. Her eyes follow something coming down high above us. When she reaches eye level with whatever it is, I turn to the right to see Wonderous hovering over to us

“Who are you?” Wonderous says with a gruff voice.

“Come on now. You know me.” Wonderous floats closer with her brows flexed down and eyes open wide.

“It can’t be... Asteria? Have the gods returned?” Wonderous mumbles under her breath. “What are you doing here?”

“Hold on. You two know each other?” I say, pointing at both of them.

“Yes. We haven’t spoken in—”

“Over one thousand years,” Asteria says.

“What are you doing back?”

“I need help. Elagabalus is back. Ever since I fled here, your world has seen an increase in those hideous monsters. I believe his power is being used by Rayan.”

When Asteria talks about Elagabalus’s power, she stretches the word, “his,” and punches the letter P in power. Wonderous glances at Polaris but takes a quicker on me. Polaris doesn’t make a physical reaction unlike me. I immediately squint and turn my head slightly.

“Are you certain?” Wonderous says.

“On my undercover mission, Shadow Ghost stated it was his rock,” Eddie says while air-quoting the word, rock.

“Did Rayan have these monsters before this past month?” Asteria says. Everyone tells her no in various ways. They shake their heads, grunt, and mumble no’s.

“They used to be small,” Eddie says.

“How small?”

“One hundred feet max. He’s the definition of a mad science.”

“Damnit!” She says through her teeth as she slams her fist into her hand. “I wish I knew Elagabalus’s whereabouts, so I can squash this issue between us.”

“You’re a goddess. Aren’t you supposed to be all-powerful?” I say. Almost at the same time, Eddie, Polaris, and Wonderous place their finger against their earpiece to listen in on something. “Asteria!”

“Sorry, I was listening to their devices. Yes, I am powerful, but I’m not omniscient. I need help.” For someone to state that they are a god and then ask help from humans like us, doesn’t sound good. It feels like it should be the other way around.

“Uh, guys. We have another problem we might have to go to. Another agency is handling a problem, but Egnimas might be called in for assistance.” Polaris says. She and Wonderous take off after Wonderous gives Asteria a long hostile stare.

“Thanks for the help, Nikki. Don’t worry. You’ll be paid for this,” Eddie says.

“Good,” I mumble while yawning. “I’m out.”

“Whoa, wait a second cowgirl,” he says with his hand against my stomach. “I want to talk to you about our agency.”

“I’m not joining.”

“Could you at least come for a tour?”

“I have an actual job.”

“You don’t have to give up your job to join us, Nikki.”

He’s reminding me of Sam right now. Why do they keep suggesting I join some stupid superhero gang? Yeah, I got powers, but I didn’t ask for them or the stupid shit it came with. Jesus Christ, God almighty, I am about to explode. I think I will have to bite the bullet just so I can be left alone.

“Fine,” I say. “I’ll take your stupid tour. When is it?”

“Are you free tomorrow?”

“Sadly.”

“Great. I gotta go. They’re blasting my eardrum. I’ll call you tomorrow somewhere around noonish.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I say the moment he takes off. “What a night.” The people in the broken building move up to the open hole with their cameras pointed at us. Asteria puts her hand out them and ignites it in a raging flame. All of them back away, shielding their eyes and face from the bright heat.

“Head home. Sam is probably worried sick,” Asteria says.

“Shit.” I pull out my phone from my bag and dial Sam. “What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to search for Elagabalus. I’ll be in touch.”

“Nikki? Are you alright?” Sam screams into my ear.

“Ouch,” I say, taking off at a cruising speed. “I’m fine, but holy shit. That thing was tough.”

“It was tough?”

“Something was different about this one. I’ll tell you later once I get home.” I fly at my maximum speed. Sam opens the balcony door right as I land. “How’d you know I was coming?”

“You broke the sound barrier, babe.” She locks the door behind me then jumps on my back to hug me.

“Sam?” I giggle. Her fat ass doesn’t move me in the slightest. I walk to our room to check on my suit. It’s still hanging in the wardrobe in the same spot I left it in. “Weird.”

“What is it?”

“Asteria morphed my suit on me while I was fighting. Fucking bitch.”

“Are you mad about that?”

“Yes. I wanted to be the one to wear when I am good and ready.” Sam eases herself off my back and then clutches my right arm against her soft boobs. “People might’ve seen me wearing it.”

“Might’ve?”

“I crashed through a building. It was dark. Luckily, I didn’t run into people.”

“Shit, Nikki,” she quietly whispers. “This is getting intense.”

“I need a beer.”

“Coming right up,” she says, running out of the room. I sit on the couch without getting out of my clothes. I’m covered in dirt and smell like a sweaty boys’ gym locker.

“Here you go, babe,” she says and sits with me. “I had them in the fridge.” The bottle of beer she hands me is nearly frozen. It’s almost slushy. “Would you do the honors? I forgot the bottle cap remover.” She points her bottle cap at me. I take it off by simply flicking my pinky nail underneath it. “So cool.”

“Stop it,” I blush. I take mine off with my thumb, chug down half the bottle, then snuggle the side of my face against her upper arm. Her arm is warm and has enough fat in it to make it cushy. She rubs my inner left thigh but my sweatpants don’t have the same arousal as feeling as a bare hand on skin. I kick off my shoes and pants so I can feel her hand on me. “Sam,” I say with some beer in my mouth.

“Yeah?”

“I’m thinking about going to their headquarters.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Do you wanna come with me?” Her smile tells me all.

One call and a day later, Sam and I hit the road to Egnima HQ. Their building complex is twenty miles south of Redemsia in a small town called Abingdon. It looks like a typical government building. It’s blacked out with windows from the bottom upwards.

“Jesus,” I say, pulling down my sunglasses to check out the building with my eyes.

“There’s a lot of cars here,” Sam says as she pulls into the parking lot. I notice several colorful expensive cars parked closer to the building.

“Sam, you know better than me. What are those cars?”

“Mhmm.” She stops the car behind a green and black truck then lets the car slowly coast us forward. “Ford Raptor, Dodge Challenger, and...” For the last car, she stops to get a closer look at it. “Mercedes-Benz,” she says with such an orgasmic flare.

“Oh! So that’s the care you like.” We park in the closest visitor’s spot next to the Mercedes just so she can quickly examine the car. I text Eddie I’m here while she circles the car. Instead of using the front door like a normal person, he teleports right behind her from out of nowhere. She jumps so hard that she falls on her ass whiles screaming at the top of her lungs.

“Eddie, you fucking dickhead!” Sam says. I almost laugh as I rush to check on Sam.

“I’m so sorry,” Eddie says.

“Sam, how’s your butt?” I say quietly while helping Sam up to her feet.

“Eddie,” Sam sighs with her hands rubbing her ass. I use my right hand to help ease the pain.

“I’m sorry, Sam. I won’t do that again,” Eddie says.

“Apology accepted.” Just to give her a good bill of health, I quickly grab a handful of her ass and walk like nothing happened. “Babe!”

“So,” I say to Eddie to make it seem like I’m ignoring Sam. “I’m here. Amaze or I’m going home.” She puts her arms around the front part of my lower waist and looks at him with a smile.

“She’ll do it so you better blow her out of the water, Eddie.”

“I think I can do that,” Eddie says. “Come. Let me show you what Egnimas is all about.”

Eddie waves at us to follow him in. Sam and I lock arms while we walk in. The inside is designed like an atrium. There’s a courtyard with small trees and bushes with black gravel in the middle of the room. Directly ahead of me, a receptionist sits at her desk with the word Enginas etched into the wood. At the end of the building, beyond the courtyard, are the elevators. These elevators are built outside and a glass window surrounds them.

“Wow,” Sam says with awe. I’m low-key getting the same reaction, but I’m silent about it. “So, where do you guys all hang out?”

“Straight to the point, I see,” Eddie chuckles. “Our quarter of the building is in the back. The regular offices where government agents work are done here.” He points at both sides of the room and stops halfway down the building. “I don’t have to show you around for what they do, do I?” Sam looks at me like she’s waiting for an answer to spew from my mouth.

“Will it blow me out of the water?” I say.

“Nah. I think seeing where we hang out will be. It’s on the top floor.” His lightning coils around his body before it teleports him to the top floor in a flash. Somehow, I see the entire process of the travel like it was in slow motion. The lightning leaves a momentary strait trail and then fades away into nothing.

“Whoa,” Sam says.

“Did you see his lightning wrap around his body before he moved?” I say.

“No. All I saw was a flash.”

Am I able to see at the speed of light or is Eddie just moving slower than usual?

“All right. Let’s go,” I say.

“Are we going to fly?”

“No,” I say, rolling my eyes. “We’re taking the elevators.” For the entire ride up the elevator, she gives me a pouty look with her arms crossed under her tits. I try to not look at her but eventually give in to what she once the moment the elevator digs. “How about on the way down?” She smirks tightly right before nodding her head quickly.

“Ladies,” Eddie says, scratching his left arm out to the lounge area. Everyone I know is here. Nemetoria is sitting on a gigantic curved couch watching a show that looks Roman by the era. I see four religious guys wearing these red outfits speaking with the pope. To add a bit of weirdness to what I’m already seeing, she’s in a blue dress. Her left leg is crossed over her right leg and her hands are on her lap.

“Oh my god. Is that Wonderous?” Sam yells in a whisper. Nemetoria looks our way. Sam waves her hand like a hyper fangirl. It’s sporadic and I can hear her joints popping. Nemetoria waves back with a single wave.

“This is where we chill the most,” Eddie says. He points at Magnetite playing video games on a computer. “You two game?”

“Eddie,” Nemetoria says, stretching out his name in a playful wrying manner. “Get to the point.”

“Right...” He clears his throat and then claps his hands together before saying, “Nikki! Do you have what it takes to be a superhero?”

“I don’t know, do I?” I say, sarcastically.

“Being a superhero takes sacrifice, courage, willpower. Those are the requirements we go by as Egnimas.”

“Wow,” Sam fangirls. “That’s so cool.”

“Gosh this is so stupid,” I say under my breath with my head turned away. Nemetoria ’s chuckles make me look at her. She stops chuckling when our eyes meet. Her smirk and unfazed gaze make me look away. I pretend to listen to Eddie but I can still see her looking at me. After two seconds she gets up out of her seat and walks up to me.

“Follow me,” Nemetoria says while walking past me.

“Alright?” I follow her out into the hallway far from everyone in the room. “Um, do you need something?”

“Just your ears, woman.”

“Woman?” I scoff with a short laugh. “It’s Nikki.”

“Nikki,” she says, smiling, and nods her head slightly. “So, it seems you are tangled with Asteria’s shenanigans.”

“I’m not tangled in any shit.”

“Oh,” she says, elongating the word. “But you are.” She leans closer with her eyes locked on my eyes. “You’re in it for the long road, unfortunately.”

“Fuck that shit!”

“I feel your pain,” she says after resting her hand on my shoulder. “Another crisis is not what anyone wants.”

Another crisis? When was the first one?

The elevator pinging behind Nemetoria grabs our attention. Polaris steps out with her head down and down into her phone. She walks right into Nemetoria who acts like a brick wall. Polaris phone drops her phone, but I catch it before it hits the ground.

“Shit! I’m sorry,” Polaris says. She turns to me and her eyes open wide. “Fuck! I forgot you were coming!”

“Relax. Eddie stepped up to melt their ears,” Nemetoria says, chuckling between her words. “He’s still talking.”

“Well, I hope you’re finding Egnimas something you’ll want to be a part of,” she says to me. “We would love to have another sister on the team.”

“She’s not going to join,” Nemetoria says before I can tell Polaris myself. “This organization is beneath her.”

“Well,” I say, trying to think of something to say that doesn’t sound like I’m a dick.

As I’m struggling to find the words, I notice lights in the building flicker. We all check the different lights in the room. Some bulbs explode before every light turns off. The windows in the middle of the building where the sun is shining through start to darken. Nemetoria flies up to them to see what’s going on. Polaris uses her phone’s light and follows after her.

“Nikki?” Sam whispers from the doorway. Suddenly, someone starts shooting from the front door the second she turns on her phone’s light at me. Bullets whizz in the air close to our heads. She shrieks and drops her phone. It lands on its back where the light is, making everything dark again. I rush to her, putting myself between incoming shots before carrying her into the room. “Who’s shooting?!” Sam says, covering her ears.

“I don’t know,” I say, calmy, renforcing my hands on hers to block the sound. Nemetoria rushes into the room with Polaris cradled in her arms.

“Stay here!” Nemetoria says. “Eddie, lock this door.” She flies out, cutting left down the hallway. The gunshots increase in automatic fire. Eddie uses his power to flash next to the door to lock it in one movement.

“Is there a shooter?” Eddie says.

“Several,” Polaris says. “They were all dressed in black.”

“Shit! We need to check the feeds.”

Eddie flashes over to the couch with a remote in hand. The TV switches to different channels that bring up several cameras located all over the building. I see Nemetoria absolutely destroying the armed guys without pulling any punches.

“Oh my god,” Sam says. Something about the whole situation clicks in my head. There’s power, yet everything is still dark.

“Guys, why is it still dark?” I say. No one answers me. All they do is look at each other and shrug. “Are there cameras outside?”

“Let me check.” Every camera looking outside is black except for the one facing the roof. There’s a tiny visible spot not blocked by whatever is obscuring it.

“Can you rotate that cam?”

“I can.”

“Try looking around.” He rotates the view to the left. Something dark and foggy comes up, nearly making the resolution dip in quality. It flows as if there’s a water fountain but the more I look, the clearer a figure begins to merge. Their wide hips and round thighs tell me it’s a woman. One damning piece that exposes her identity is the half mask. “Eddie, that’s the Shadow Ghost!”

“Nemetoria, Shadow Ghost is on the roof!” Polaris says to her wristwatch. “I repeat! Shadow Ghost is on the roof!”

The shooting outside turns into violent screaming. I hear several heavy thuds and glass breaking as the yelling dims down to nothing. Nemetoria crashes through the skylight to get Shadow Ghost. When I turn back to check the big screen, I see Nemetoria looking all around. She’s covered in blood from head to toe.

“Status!” Polaris says.

“She’s gone!” Nemetoria says while looking at the camera. She dips, flying off to the left with such force the camera feed goes offline. Two seconds later, I hear wet feet suctioning the floor approaching the door. “Open the door!” Eddie unlocks the door. Nemetoria opens it and slowly walks in, leaving a bloody footprint on the carpet.

“Good God, Nemetoria. What the hell did you do?” Eddie says with his hand over his mouth.

“I took care of the threats.”

“Took... care? What do you mean by that?”

“What do you want me to say, Eddie?” Nemetoria calmly says with a big smile stretched across her face. “These wimpy assins are no more.” Eddie suddenly blips out of the room. I can hear his electrical surge buzzing in different places in the hallway.

“You fucking killed them?” He says the moment he flashes back into the room.

“Yes,” she answers, nonchalantly.

“You ripped them apart! There are bodies and limbs all over the place.” The room goes silent after Polaris gasps. Nemetoria looks at all of us without moving her head. “We don’t kill!”

“These guys came here to slaughter everyone in this building, Eddie,” she snaps. Her loud voice makes Sam and I jump. “They were armored head to toe!”

“But that doesn’t give you the right to obliterate them!”

“Yes, it does,” she says with pauses between her words. “This... incapacitate of our enemies is bullshit.” She begins to rant about how soft her teammates are when it comes to anyone who has intentions to kill.

“Nemetoria!” Polaris screams. “You’re off the team!”

“Christabell...” Nemetoria ’s voice softens when she says Polaris’s name.

“Get out! Now!” Nemetoria doesn’t move. Christabell runs up to her to shove her back. She doesn’t budge a single inch from the attempt. Christabell goes for another shove, but Nemetoria firmly grabs her hands. “Ouch!”

“Hey!” Eddie says, putting his hand on Nemetoria ’s forearm. I hold onto Sam just in case something crazy goes down. “Let go of her hands.” Nemetoria slowly pushes Christabell’s hands toward her chest and lets them go without further hurting her. “Leave, now,” he says like he’s trying to be menacing. His face scrunches and his voice depends.

“Whatever,” Nemetoria says, deepening her voice. “I save everyone and this is what I get? Screw you guys.” She furrows her brows at him and Christabell but doesn’t when looking at me. They soften. Sam jumps behind me to hide, griping my shoulders firmly with her nails digging into my sleeves.

“What an interesting day it has been for you, hmm?” Nemetoria says, lightly smirking. “I wonder if you still want to join these... softies.”

“Yeah,” I say, remaining calm and not intimidated by Nemetoria. “Sam, it’s time we leave.”

“Get us out of here,” Sam whispers. We slowly walk around everyone to head to the front door.

“Uh, thanks for the tour, Eddie,” I say to break the awkward moment.

“I’m so sorry, y’all,” Eddie says. There are no positive words I can express for the whole situation. Sam and I leave the room without looking back. We take an emergency exit to the back of the building to avoid walking through Nemetoria’s carnage.

“Jesus fucking Christ,” Sam says like she’s out of breath. Her right hand is pressed on her heart. “I think I’m having a panic attack.”

“Breathe in three times and blow through her mouth.” I press two of my fingers into her wrist to feel her purse. The more she breathes, the slower it becomes. “Attagirl,” I say to keep her stress down. “Let’s get far away from here.” I can hear sirens approaching from far away. “Shit,” I whisper under my breath.

“What?”

“Cops,” I say, kneeling on the ground to position myself so Sam can easily get on top of me. “Get on, quick!” She lays on top of me and secures herself. I fly low to the ground around the right side of the building. At the end of the wall, I take a peek at the parking lot. There are three black vans parked in front of the building. All the doors are open and the engines are still running.

“Do you anyone anything?” She whispers.

“No, but hold on tight.” Her arms and legs squeeze my body before I bolt to our car. The second we get into the car, I drive us out, nearly burning rubber. The cops drive past us and turn into the parking lot. I watch them just in case one of them decides to pull me over. Ten cars go by without any taking an interest in us.

“Are we in the clear?” Sam says. I check my mirrors to make sure before answering.

“I think we’re good.”

“Achchhaee dhanyavaad (Thank goodness). Babe...”

“Yes?”

“I’m gonna need a beer or three.”