=== KARI ===
“Esva . . . Curtis?”
“Esva-Curtis?” The naked woman asked. “That's so cute. Essy, do you know Smashy here?”
My mind was reeling. Curtis was Esvanir. I was so flabbergasted that I didn't notice when the Grignau slammed its fist into me, sending me flying. Another went after the apparent couple. As I was flying, a detail clicked in my head. So, it's true. They're a couple. His arm is wrapped around her waist and she's clinging to his neck. The two managed to dodge out of the way of the assault from the alien foe. They separated and Cherry let a hit sink through her body and she solidified again, running up its arm. She dodged another blow with the grace of a dancer. When she got to its head, she grasped it with both hands, and then the thing was down on its knees. The other Grignau had closed in on Curtis and I rushed back. No! I can't let him die.
The alien raised its fist and prepared to slam down. Before I could get there and before it could connect with my friend . . . My enemy? A portal opened up and the attack sank through and slammed into the back of its ally. Grayish blue blood splashed out over the ground and passed through Buck Cherry who had flipped off of her target and remained in the middle of the air. The attacker roared loudly and pulled its arm back through the portal just as Curtis closed it. It caught the tip of the Grignau's finger which fell back down to earth onto the corpse of its fallen ally. It swung at my friend again and this time, I got in the way, bracing myself on two sides with a psychic field. I still went flying, but it was much more controlled than it could have been and I caught myself almost immediately.
I charged back as the monster started attacking Curtis again. It's so weird, I thought. Curt used to be this awkward kid. Someone who couldn't hurt a fly. He wouldn't put up a fight when someone was picking on him. I always had to. But I saw him take out his father. And now . . . Esvanir dodged to the side and opened two portals at the same time. The alien's fist went through and slammed down on its own arm that was going through the portal. Then both closed and the fist was lopped off at the wrist, leaving a bloody stump. The thing screamed in pain. Now he's so cold. I watched his face. There was no emotion there. No fear, no anger, no hatred. Not even instinct. He was calculating everything. Unlike BC who was pure instinct. She would pirouette in the middle of the air out of the way or decide to let an attack go through her at the last possible moment.
Enraged, their foe lifted a hand and suddenly Curtis was locked in a psychic cage from all sides. It was translucent, so I could see him take in every detail. Everything was happening in slow motion. The cage started closing in on him. Unfortunately for the Grignau, this took a lot of concentration, especially with an arm missing and blood leaking from the stump. So it didn't notice when Buck Cherry landed on its back and put two hands near the thing's temples. I didn't know what she was doing. Not really, anyway. But the thing reeled back and slammed to the ground and she flipped off of its back and landed on its chest, grinning. The cage containing Esvanir faded away. He raised a hand and snapped. A series of portals opened up and encircled the thing's body. With a second snap, they all closed immediately, chopping the monster up into pieces.
He . . . He could have done that to me. He could have killed me. I might not have fallen for it, but he also had an opportunity to take my hands several times. Maybe to cut me in half. My childhood friend straightened his back and clutched his shoulder for a moment, before deflating some. Cherry floated next to him and looked at his shoulder.
“You were hit.” The words made my heart jump into my throat. I had seen what a hit from the Grignau would do to a normal human. It made them into a paste. No one could withstand it. Professor Mind cheated by psychically tying himself together and still dislocated every limb and tearing every muscle in his body. He'd need months of recovery without help. If Curtis had been hit, he should be dead. But Curtis shook his head.
“It's no big deal,” he said, gripping her hand. Then he took off his jacket and I saw the blood leaking from his shoulder. “Just a few bullets. Nothing that couldn't be patched up when we have time. Help me tie this off, though. We have one more trip and then we have to see our . . .”
He noticed me floating there for the first time. Curtis . . . My Curtis had just defeated two of the biggest existential threats to humanity in an instant. He's scary . . . He's . . . My eyes focused on the naked woman tying his coat around his shoulder. There was a stab of pain in my stomach. Bile rose up in my throat. He wasn't mine. Not anymore. Memories of the Sadie Hawkins dance flooded into my mind. Of our kiss. Of all of the idle fantasies I had about us over the years. I felt tears sting my eyes. Maybe he never was. I floated forward, preparing myself for a fight. He was a criminal. They were both criminals and they needed to be stopped.
=== CURT ===
Kari flew towards us as Cindi fussed over the makeshift tourniquet. I looked down at it. It wouldn't win any awards for aesthetics, but it would do. I tensed up as my childhood friend . . . No, not Kari. Smash Gal . . . As Smash Gal called out. “E-Esvanir, Buck Cherry. You are both criminals and will be stopped. S-surrender and no one needs to be hurt.”
Cherry started to laugh, but I put a hand on her shoulder and she sobered up in an instant. I stared up at the woman who had just blown back into my life after almost a decade and a half. A goddess among mortals. She could bench a tank, fly God only knew how fast and who knew what else. And I was standing here with some glasses I had cobbled together in an hour and a naked woman. She hasn't attacked yet. That's good. She doesn't want to hurt us. At least not yet. I met her eyes. Well, I met her eye. Her mask was half gone on one side, but the other was still hiding her face. Tears were streaming down her cheek. Her hands were shaking. A pang of pain rang out in my chest. I had hurt her. But she was only nominally the person I used to know. She wasn't someone I needed in my life.
“Smash Gal,” I couldn't help but smile. The name was so delightfully stupid. In some ways, it was perfect for Kari. She had solved so many problems with brute force. She wasn't stupid. Not by a long shot, but she was so good at everything that she didn't ever need much in the way of nuance. “I'm afraid that we cannot surrender right now. There's too much to do and too little time to do it. For both of us really.”
I checked the map and could see that there were still several more Grignau to deal with. Bion was trying but he was no Smash Gal. Who could be? Kari stiffened and I could see her lip trembling. She shook her head and gathered herself. “Cee, please. Don't make me do this. Just surrender. I don't . . . I don't want to have to hurt you.”
I closed my eyes for a moment. Cherry got a little closer to me and I felt more than saw Kari's irritation guide over to my partner. I entwined my fingers with hers.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
“Be reasonable, Kar,” I felt Cindi's hand squeeze mine tightly. Jealousy? From Cherry? That can't be. “You're going to prioritize two cat-burglars over a literal invasion? You'll have another chance to catch us. But the city needs a hero.”
“There are other heroes.” Her voice cracked. “They can deal with the Grignau.”
I saw a sheet of air behind her shatter as she charged towards us. But I had this prepared before she had said anything. A portal opened in front of her and took her to the center of a battle zone. There were eight Grignau that she'd have to contend with. Kari was too good a person to just abandon people in need to settle a grudge. At least not immediately. I'm really not looking forward to when she does catch up with us.
“Kar?” Cindi asked, eyebrows raised. Fuck. It's going to be a long day.
=== KARI ===
I charged towards them but before I could stop myself, I flew through one of those fucking portals. I landed on the ground and stomped my foot. “God damn it, Curtis!”
That got a lot of attention. I was in the middle of several Grignau, a few of Bion's automatons, and Bion himself. A grating, robotic voice called out from all of the robots around me. “EITHER HELP OR FUCK OFF, ROOKIE!”
The Grignau started moving. Several moved towards me and others went towards Bion and his creations. One threw a fist at me and I caught it, and changed my grip, and spun around. The alien I had grabbed bashed into the others around me that were closing in. One of them managed to dodge by jumping straight into the air and landed heavily on me. I felt something inside of me break. Nothing physical. I was past that. I was past pain. But there was some final bit of restraint that I had been holding onto that shattered. Everything went red. I felt all of my limbs shaking. I felt my chest heaving with breath. Blood pounded in my ears. I could barely hear anything. My vision narrowed to just what was directly in front of me. I don't know what happened next. I remember ripping and tearing through the Grignau. I remember glass and stone shattering. I remember things breaking. There was barely anything left of my costume at the end. There was less left of the Grignau. A barbaric species that had earned a barbaric response.
I saw the footage of what I had done, eventually. It had been leaked to Twitter and . . . It was scary. I have never lost my temper like that before. When I hit them, I could see the air being crushed underneath my fists. It practically exploded against our flesh. It broke through the gloves. It broke my knuckles. I was a bloody mess by the end of the fight. Bion could be seen in the background. He told me to stand down and seemed to be ready to rain down hell if I didn't. I had destroyed buildings and entire streets in my rage. The only thought going through my head was: how could he do this? How could he become a criminal? A petty thief? He was such a good boy. A good man. Reduced to a criminal. It echoed through my head again and again. I had never felt more betrayed. What was I going to do? Maybe it's Cherry's influence. Maybe she's controlling him somehow. But that didn't make sense. No one could make Curt do anything. He was the most stubborn person alive when he wanted to be. Damn it!
After the invading forces were taken care of, I went back home. I flew mostly naked and with no mask, but I couldn't be bothered to care. Everything I believed had been turned upside down in the last week. Cops might be bad people. Curtis might be a bad person. Maybe criminals aren't bad people. I didn't know anymore. I had spent my entire life so sure of everything. But now I was sitting in my room, staring at the tattered remains of my costume. Mom had said she would just remake it from scratch. But could I be a hero? Could I do this still?
“Honey?” Mom asked as she opened the door, knocking gently. She poked her head in. “Can I come in?”
I didn't lift my head and just mumbled something that might have been assent. She took it that way and made her way over to my bed.
“I remade your costume.” She brandished the chest piece. It was basically the same as the old one. A red, pink, and white long-sleeved shirt that cut off at the mid-drift. But now there was SG emblazoned on the front. I tried to smile, but it must not have been very convincing. Mom walked over to me, setting the top on my bed, and sat next to me, stroking my hair. “Kari, what's wrong?”
I shrugged, not meeting her eyes. I didn't know how to broach any of this. She shook her head and continued to pat mine. Eventually, I lifted my head enough to lay it in her lap. I could feel tears leaking down onto her pants, but I couldn't bring myself to stop them. “Mom . . . What if I made a mistake?”
“Everyone makes mistakes, dear. It'll be okay. You just need to own up to it and try to do better in the future.”
“No . . . I mean . . . What if being a hero was a mistake? I just want to help people but what if I'm not helping anyone at all? What if I'm just making things worse?”
She considered this for a moment and shook her head. “No, you're not. I admit when you first said you wanted to be a hero I was scared. I was scared because I didn't know if there was a limit to what you could do. If something went wrong and you died, I don't know that I could handle that. But you've faced my worst fear and you came out bloody but on top. I . . . I can't express how proud I was to see you do that. To stand up to those . . . those things!”
“The Grignau . . . You're really scared of them?”
“Did you see what they did in other cities they invaded?”
“A little. I know they were pushed back all around the world.”
“Eventually. But the deaths were in the hundreds of thousands, globally. And it was worse the last time. Heroes and vigilantes have stepped out of the woodwork since the first invasion. We had so many more people willing to fight this time. Last time, it was just some people. People like Bion. People like your dad and I were so scared. We tried to help. We got some of their blood and tried to see if there was a weakness. They're so strong. They're so much more than us. I was so proud when I saw you stand up to them.”
“I was scared. I didn't know if I could beat them.”
“I was scared too. But when you did beat them, I was proud.”
“I was scared when I saw the footage from Bion. From people on the streets. I am terrifying to watch.” Mom took a while to say anything. I watched her take several deep breaths, considering her next words carefully. Was she scared of me too? She should be.
“You were pretty scary. But you were also doing what needed to be done. Those things don't stop. Not until they have to. And when you fought them, they had to. And that's important. I've seen your other fights. You're learning control. As long as you remember that not everyone you fight is a Grignau, I think it will be okay. You can be a deterrent for the world. I think we need that sometimes.” It was my turn to consider. She had a point. I had looked more into what solutions people had for the police online since I didn't have anything better to do. Every form of police abolition kept on some force to deal with problems that couldn't be dealt with in any other way. It was just that there were more options and more ways to deal with a wider variety of problems. Which brought me back to the question that had been haunting me since the invasion. What am I going to do about Curtis?
“Mom, what would you do if someone you cared about was doing something wrong?”
“I . . . I guess it would depend. I would try to stop them. Try to help them if I can.”
“And if they didn't listen? If you couldn't get through to them?”
“I would stop them. You can't force someone to be a better person, but you can at least stand in their way.” I thought about this for a while. Standing in his way will make me his enemy. I don't want to be Cee's enemy. But I also can't just stand by and do nothing.