As we emerged from the elevator, Iogann was methodically packing away the show equipment, looking surprisingly calm despite everything that had happened. His large hat was slightly askew as he coiled up cables and packed away various magitek amps and other doohickeys that Zee Captain's presence managed to break along with the building's ward.

"Hey," he greeted us with a small wave. "Just... cleaning up our stuff."

Cinder's wings and tail drooped, shifting to various shades of gray and black. The sight of the stage and cracked mana amps seemed to bring back a fresh wave of stress.

"You seem... weirdly okay," I commented at the Mothman.

"Had a quick smoke out back," he shrugged. "Plus, you know... I kind of saw this coming. Not the exact details, but... something bad. Remember? That's my thing - sensing disasters, feeding off them."

"H-hey Io,” Cinder let out. “It's... it's over. I told Em that I quit."

"As I expected. At least no one in the audience died this time. Well, except maybe the troupe itself," the Mothman commented.

"Not helping," Cinder growled.

"Just stating facts," Iogann shrugged. "Em's gone full nuclear, Vesp and Solace are in the medical ward being pawed at by Vitalix Kitlix, and you… quit. Pretty sure that counts as the troupe being dead. Want a smoke?"

I grabbed Cinder's arm before she could reach for the offered 'The Swords of Knight Chalice' cigarette pack.

"That's not going to help." I said.

"Let go," Cinder growled, her feathers bristling. "I need this."

"No, you don't," I said firmly. "You need hope. And then you need to process what happened, not numb yourself with sus interdimensional smokes. Do you even know what's in them?"

"Who died and made you my therapist?" Cinder snapped. "What hope? What the shit are you on about now?"

"You've got talent. Your voice is incredible. Your performance was amazing until things went sideways. And now you're free."

"Free?" Cinder's wings flared. "Free to do what?"

"To move forward," I said.

Cinder faltered, lighting up for just a moment. Then she stepped back and slumped against a large runework-powered speaker, sliding down until she was sitting on the dusty floor. She pulled her knees to her chest.

"Move forward to where?" she asked quietly. "The troupe was my chance to prove I could be something other than Justice Nova's disappointing, useless daughter." Her wings curled around her like a protective cocoon. "Show went to shit. Everyone saw what a joke we are. What a weak joke I am."

"Oh please," I rolled my eyes. "That wasn't a show. That was a hostage situation with a harmonica."

Iogann snorted from where he was half-heartedly dismantling the smoke machine.

Cinder's voice was muffled by her wings. "The whole school was here. They'll never let me live this down."

"First of all," I interrupted, "the whole school wasn't here. Maybe sixty people max and I've got all their names and faces recorded.”

Cinder looked up at me, her expression that of pure depression and surrender. She was sinking, most of her wings pure black. I was losing her to an ocean of self-inflicted despair.

Time for the big guns.

"My question is - do you want to push this incident aside, or do you want to weaponize it to make potential Six Hundred Thousand o-bux?" I asked, looking down at her. "Because I've got everything we need right here - the bullying, the slurs, the harassment. One well-edited video on OmniGogo, and we could have your future funded for years to come."

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“Huh?” Cinder choked out. "What... what the eff are you on about?"

"Think about it," I continued. "Cute Quetzalcoatl girl faces vicious discrimination at school show. Brave half-blood student captures everything on camera. That's social media gold right there. We could have you trending by midnight."

Iogann perked up. "People would actually pay for that?"

"People on WingStarter pay for all sorts of random things like Solar Roadways," I shrugged, already mentally composing the perfect clickbait title. "This is way easier to sell. Bullying, especially overtly hostile, is incredibly easy to weaponize on a platform like OmniGogo or WingStarter."

"Six hundred thousand o-bux for being bullied?" She looked up at me, her eyes lighting up. "Really? That sounds like a made up number."

I sat down next to Cinder and asked Yulia to pull up the relevant article, passing the phone to Cinder when it was loaded.

"Let's Give Merleen - The janitor - A Vacation!

$613,925 OSD in backing.

A 72-year-old janitor named Merleen Keeps was subjected to verbal harassment by a group of middle school students while walking home from Jotuna Middle School in New New York Citadel. In a twelve-minute video capturing the incident, the students can be heard repeatedly mocking and berating her. At one point, one student shouts, “You’re so f***in’ poor, you lard-ass b**.” Merleen responded to them with quiet resilience, saying, “I try to live by such standards, I do, and it’s not easy at all."

The Mothman whistled low as his eyes ran over the article. Cinder just stared at the screen.

Her feathered tail started to move slightly - the first sign of life since the concert disaster. "So... we could turn their mockery against them?" She asked.

"Oh yes," I grinned. "But.... We're going to do so much more than that. See this?" I held up the 360-degree camera. "This beauty captured everything - every sneer, every cruel comment, every moment they thought they were being oh-so-clever with their mockery. And this?" I tapped the condenser microphone. "Professional-grade audio. Crystal clear recording of every slur, every insult, every bit of harassment."

"But here's the thing - we don't just want revenge. We want to build something awesome. Turn this whole disaster into your origin story."

Cinder leaned closer to me. "Origin story?"

“Hum,” Io nodded slowly. "It's kind of brilliant actually."

“You can help out too, bud,” I grinned at the Mothman.

"You really want to help us? Help me? After I… chased you, yelled at you, kicked your van like thirty times? I didn’t even have the guts to invite you to the show, that was Vee!" Cinder let out, her gaze searching my face for any sign of deception. Her wings were still trembling, but there was a hint of hope in her voice that made my heart do that stupid flutter thing again.

"Yes," I answered simply, refusing to let my eyes linger on the hopeful colors dancing up her now silver-blue agate feathers. "But you have to want to help yourself. This won't be a project hanging on my neck alone. Gonna need a... place... to edit the footage and stuff. Maybe the school's comp lab?" I pondered aloud. "If I can install quality video editing software there."

"You can use my garage for it after school tomorrow!" Cinder blurted out, then looked startled by her own eagerness. She blushed as she quickly tried to backtrack. "I mean... if you want to." The attempted casualness in her voice was about as convincing as some of my earlier attempts at being smooth around her.

Iogann looked between us with growing interest, a knowing smirk playing across his face. I pretended not to notice.

"Yeah, sure. Text me the address." I nodded, trying to match her forced nonchalance.

"My dad's workshop computer should work," Cinder mumbled, trying to sound casual as her tail swished. "It's got plenty of storage and stuff."

I flipped the phone to the contacts list. "Here, put your numba n' contact deets in there. Add me on Omnigram too."

Wow, that took me way too long. Got everyone's Omnigram, except for the only girl I actually wanted to get to know. Oh well, better late than never.

"Um. Okay,” she started typing in her info. “Hey, what kind of phone is this? It feels like it could survive a nuclear blast."

"Pyroxia X-12," I explained, watching her examine my trusty device with genuine interest. "It's... made in Thunderland for construction workers operating on power-lines and stuff. Has a measuring laser, infrared cam and survives a drop from 72 meters. Ordered it from O-bay.”

"That's... pretty cool," she said.

I shrugged.

"My Omnigram ID name is SongOfDarkness... don't laugh," she said, handing the phone back. Her tail twitched nervously as she added, "And uh... thanks. For earlier. With Emerald and everything."

"Yeah mang, don't mention it," I shrugged, my eyes already scanning the backstage area. The catwalk above looked promising. "I'll poke you on Omnigram. Don't tell anyone that I'm here."

“What?” She let out.

Cinder's ocean-blue eyes tracked my movement as I quickly climbed a metal stairwell and settled into a makeshift nest in the catwalk high above the stage, clipping a hammock to the metal supports.

According to Yulia's report, temperature was supposed to rapidly drop overnight due to a cold snap so staying in the van even with the magic-furs was out of the question.

The industrial metal frame creaked slightly under my weight as I relaxed.

Below, Cinder paused in packing up the equipment with Iogann. I could practically see the gears turning in her head as she pieced together what she was seeing and then stared up at me with wide, unnaturally blue eyes.

Then she dug into her pocket, pulled out her phone and started typing furiously.