“Maybe you had a point about taking the bus.”

Finding a parking spot in New Market was like fishing for a needle in a haystack. This place was so cramped that parking could be considered a competitive sport. It was an open-air plaza with hundreds of street vendors and shops.

“It’s never a good idea to drive around here, you just get stuck in traffic,” I replied, pulling into the fourth parking lot. We must’ve hit the jackpot because someone in front of us was leaving. “We should buy a lottery ticket. I was expecting this to take another half hour.”

“Why buy a lottery ticket when you can just rob a bank?” Sam replied with a sigh of relief. Our gazes met instantly and she cracked up. “I’m just kidding. What kind of dumbass would rob a bank nowadays? We’d make more money in a week by selling your tech and we wouldn’t risk a run in with the ECU.”

I continued to stare.

“Pink really wants to rob a bank, doesn’t she?”

“Ugh, like you wouldn’t believe.”

From the look on her face, I could tell it was an impulse she had to constantly suppress, much to Pink’s displeasure.

Once I had parked the car, Sam placed a hand on my knee before giving it a small squeeze. I looked across at her with an uncertain gaze, confused at the seemingly random intimate gesture. It wasn’t until she reached into the back and retrieved a duffle bag, that I realized what she had.

“You brought our stuff?”

“In case of emergency,” she reasoned, unzipping it and pulling out my laser pistol. I was thankful I had tinted my windows because a family happened to be passing by the driver door side as she handed me the weapon. “We can never be too careful, especially since we’re out in public. Banshee and Bonesmith know our faces, and Mirage probably does too. I’d tell you to wear your suit under your regular clothes, but it’s getting too bulky for that.”

“That's an unfortunate side-effect of all the stuff I’m integrating. Later on, there are options to slim it down to hide underneath regular clothing or collapse into something much smaller like Nanoforge’s armor” I explained. “I don’t think there’s too much of a gap between us in terms of protection either. It’s just that she's able to create her stuff with nanobots, so it’s always covering vitals.”

“It makes her tech very difficult to deal with, if memory serves,” Sam replied. “There’s not a lot of tech out there that’s able to interface with her bots either so you have to go through the hard way.”

That was interesting, considering my software had managed to pick up the Rookies and Ionizer during our assault on the bunker. Was it already that advanced or was I picking up something else?

“Speaking of detection, there isn’t much ECU presence here,” I noted. “So, I guess I won’t have to worry about setting off any scanners.”

Still, the idea of carrying a weapon around without my suit was strangely unsettling. It felt wrong like the two lives I wanted to keep separate were crossing over into one another.

“You know, if it’s dangerous enough that I’d be safer with a weapon on me, then is it really a good idea to be here?” I asked, giving her a pointed stare. “There’s nothing wrong with blowing your friends off if it's your life at stake.”

“I’m not going to let fear about what could happen dictate my life. It’s a big city, Max. The likelihood that we’ll run into them here is slim,” Sam replied. “Plus, just because they know our faces isn’t the only reason to be armed. Realistically, everyone should be carrying a gun for their own safety.”

“That’s the most American thing I’ve ever heard you say.”

She just rolled her eyes. “Do you really want to just hide away from the world, only ever coming out of your shell when you feel safe? Because, I’ve met people like that and let me tell you, they’re miserable.”

I wanted to say ‘and they’re probably still alive because of it’ but there’s every chance they’re dead anyway.

“I wasn’t trying to say I wanted to hide away,” I defended easily. “I just… wouldn’t it be smarter to deal with all the crap we got going on first before taking the time to do stuff like this?”

“We’re always going to have problems, that’s never going to change, trust me,” Sam said, her tone turning sympathetic. “I’ve been at this for almost four years now, Max. There’s always something. I don’t know about you but I’m not interested in hiding away and letting fear rule me.”

I felt like she was missing the point. This wasn’t about fear for my safety, it was about information, about knowing when we were least at risk. So far, my only trip with Sam that hadn’t gone pear-shaped was our quick shopping trip to buy stuff for my workshop. We had been out for a few hours and only went to places that had proper security. This place was always packed with people.

Anything could happen here.

“And what does Gold think?”

“Gold thinks that nobody will try anything with the cease-fire agreement active and that we’ve made enough of an impression that anyone will think twice before engaging us out in the open,” Sam replied with utmost confidence. She tilted her head and gave me an impatient look. “Do you have any more questions or are you happy?”

I grimaced and looked down at my lap where my laser pistol sat.

“I still don’t really like the idea of walking around here with a weapon like this,” I said, trying to slip it into my waistband. It felt uncomfortable and my clothes didn’t conceal it very well, even with my jacket. I’d need to find a better way to conceal it if I wanted to bring it with me and I couldn’t fault Sam’s logic.

“You can leave it here if you feel that uneasy about it, but I wouldn’t recommend it,” Sam said, swiping her domino mask l from the back. When she shoved it into her handbag, I had to bite my tongue from saying anything snarky. Seriously, the fact that she was able to get away with wearing that to conceal her identity was beyond understanding. “I think there might be a bigger jacket in the back—”

“No,” I shook my head. “I got this.”

My power showed me concealment options and they weren’t exactly that pricey either. Once upon a time, these sorts of options had been blocked behind more advanced models but I had since worked on it. I was working with a very basic framework of [Compact-shifting MK I]. It didn’t exactly do that much, just made it easier to carry.

In fact, my plans for it were rather straightforward. I wanted to eventually integrate it into my suit to serve as one of my primary weapon systems. My investment into compact shifting was to make deploying it easier, but right now, there was another direction that appeared more useful. [Compact-Shifting MK III] allowed me to configure what sort of shape it took and let me set a default state along with a deployment method.

A watch.

It was one of the more basic options available for MK III and would work perfectly here. From what I could see, the higher level [Compact-Shifting] gave even smaller and more unique options. How my laser pistol was supposed to condense itself down to something smaller than a pencil sharpener was beyond my understanding, but that was probably why it was locked behind [Compact-Shifting MK X] while listing a horde of other prerequisites that I’d likely never need.

[Charges: 25/25]

Six charges. Two for the MK II, three for the MK III, and a final one for the configuration.

I didn’t hesitate to pay the cost. I was going to invest those charges into the software that would keep my school work up to date, but while it was important, I just couldn’t see the worth when the city could erupt any minute. I wasn’t even sure what my role in that conflict would be. There was no telling if we were going to be on the frontlines or if we were going to be watching Pandora and Queen’s Court deal with Grim.

We still hadn’t figured out his weakness, not really. The only thing that kind of worked was using light, but other supers had already tried that to no avail. The most obvious solution was assassination, catch him off-guard while he was in his human form – because he definitely had one – and kill him then. Again, people had tried and it was why Grim rarely put himself in a position where that could happen.

That is to say, school could wait a bit longer.

When the weapon had finished upgrading, it appeared as a blocky watch that you’d buy for a couple of grand. However, if someone were to look closely enough, they’d definitely be able to pick out the irregularities with it. For now, though, I’d be able to hide it with the sleeves of my jacket.

“Nice,” Sam said, giving the device a strange look.

I attached it to my wrist easily enough. Given that it wasn’t a normal-looking watch, the bits that wrapped around my wrist magnetically clicked together and automatically tightened. The clock face wasn’t really a clock face, instead, the digital display showing how much ammo I had – 60 shots – displayed. There wasn’t really a need to change it right now. I’d get around to it later.

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“It just seemed like the obvious choice,” I murmured, fiddling with it. There was a small mechanical wheel at the top that I turned and with a click, the watch snapped off my wrist and transformed itself into the pistol. Bits and pieces folded and refitted themselves in just a few short seconds before the grip settled comfortably in my hand. It happened so quickly you could miss it if you blinked. “Shit, that’s cool.”

“You’re telling me,” Sam chuckled.

I pressed a button on the side of the barrel and it reformed back into a watch. Unfortunately, it did not automatically wrap around my wrist.

Adjustments for later.

“Don’t suppose it tells the time?”

I glanced at the supposed ‘clock face’.

“No, it just shows the ammo count. Implementing a clock function would require installing additional software into the device and that’s both a waste of time and charges,” I explained. I turned it to face her. “I suppose if anyone asks why it says 60, I can just say it broke.”

“You have sixty shots?” She looked and sounded dumbfounded. “That’s… that’s a lot for something as small as that.”

“It’s actually a bit more than that. I have it set to lethal, which uses far more power. With the efficiency upgrades I made, if I set it to non-lethal…” I pressed one of the buttons on the side and the digital display changed from ‘60’ to ‘180’. “A hundred and eighty shots. You could almost say it’s too efficient now.”

“That’s enough to make it full auto,” Sam said, recovering from her surprise. “Or maybe you could pump more power into it. What have you got planned for it?”

“I’m still debating about that but I’m leaning towards putting more oomph behind it. My lethal setting only injured Prosperity, plenty for normal goons, but anyone with an enhancement power – like Red – or armor won’t have much trouble. For today though, it should be fine.”

Sam smiled. “Well, let’s hope the day goes smoothly then.”

When I opened the door, I was hit with the sweet and sour aroma of cooking food. If there was one thing that New Market was known for, it was the abundance of street food vendors, all competing for customers' attention. It was nostalgic. Mom would take me when I was a kid and since then, the sights, smells, and sounds have remained the same. The streets were just as busy as they had always been and stalls were packed to the brim with merchandise.

I caught Sam scanning the streets. She looked uncharacteristically relaxed and even a little bit happy; a stark contrast to the ‘strictly business’ persona she usually put forward – at least when Pink wasn’t in the driver's seat.

“This place is nice.

“You’ve never been?”

“Not really. I’ve passed by at night while in costume, but I’ve never properly been,” she replied as we started walking. We joined the crowd of people and began to move through the streets. “I’m getting a warm festival vibe from this place. They don’t really exist anymore, at least not where I come from. It was all just protests and riots. Nobody ever seemed to kick back and have some fun.”

“Canada and America, right?”

“Yeah,” Sam replied wistfully. “I miss home sometimes. Not California. Vancouver.”

It was strange to think about just how far she had come. To have started all the way over on the other side of the world, only to end up here of all places. Then here I was, having never gone anywhere aside from New Zealand. One of these days, I would travel. I had always wanted to visit France, if for no other reason than to see my sister. America and other places were definitely on the bucket list but that had to remain a dream for now.

“What’s it like over there?” I asked, curious.

Sam looked indifferent and shrugged. “Same as here for the most part. There’s people, cities, and culture. The food tastes a little different, everyone drives on the opposite side of the road. At the end of the day though, we’re all just…” she trailed off, a much more pensive look crossing her face. “...the same. Not in a bad way. I mean, they’re all western civilizations, so they’re not all that different. If I wanted that I’d go to the Czech Republic or… or, I don’t know, India?”

I wasn’t sure why but it was a little disheartening to hear how samey it all seemed, but I supposed she had a point. New Elpis in a lot of ways mimicked other countries and cultures. Every city had been constructed by the Architect so outside of their location they lacked any kind of identity. If I had to compare Bayside to any city, I’d say it felt a lot like Auckland, except it wasn’t built on top of a bunch of volcanoes.

“Don’t look so sad,” Sam chortled, leaning over to give me a slight nudge. “There’s plenty of cool places to go and see. I’m just not into traveling. I’ve been doing it for years and I’ve already seen my fair share. It’s lost its luster for me.”

“Right,” I wasn’t entirely sure what to say. Whenever we broached the ground about her past, she tended to get a bit touchy about things. “So these friends of yours, you haven’t told me much about them.”

“There’s not much to say, save one,” Sam said, looking mildly unhappy. “They’re about as annoying as one would imagine.”

“I didn’t think you’d bother with annoying people.”

“I keep you around.”

“Ha,” I drawled. “Very funny.”

“Pink likes them, which should say a lot – but then again she pretty much likes everyone,” Sam explained dully. “Mostly they make for good camouflage. I’m pretty enough to fit in and I use it to my advantage to look like just another girl in the posse. I don’t draw much attention to myself but they notice my absence more than I’d like, which is why we’re here today.”

So Sam was in a clique. That more or less lined up with how I thought she’d be at school. Maybe that was the reason why she did it; because it was obvious and hiding in plain sight as some allowed her to move about freely. She seemed like the type to do that and Gold would absolutely know how to take full advantage of the situation.

“You don’t sound too fond of them.”

Sam pursed her lips and stopped herself from replying reflexively.

“I’ve said before that they weren’t really my friends, that I use them as a means of maintaining the image of a normal life. While that’s somewhat true, I won’t lie and say they’re all bad. They have their moments,” a playful smile spread across her lips. “Like I said, Pink likes them and they’re easy to get along with. When we hang out I do enjoy myself.”

I narrowed my eyes.

“I’m sensing a but.”

“But… I know where I stand and I’d drop them in a heartbeat if I needed to.”

I was about to question her further but we rounded a corner and nearly ran into a few of the girls from Sam’s group. There were some excited cheers as the girls exchanged hugs and I noted a couple of guys standing behind them – likely the other boyfriends. They offered a curt nod in my direction, along with a small wave. We’d likely talk later amongst ourselves, assuming the girls went off to do their own thing.

I suddenly found myself dragged closer when Sam grasped my arm.

“Oh my gosh! Where did you find him?”

“He’s so fucking cute.”

“Sammy, for reals though, you didn’t kidnap off the street did you?”

“Guys, guys,” Sam defended with a laugh. “Come on, I’d never do that. I’ve known him for a while now.”

“You never said anything!”

“Duh,” my pretend girlfriend replied. “We were still getting to know each other and I wasn’t sure if things were going to work out between us,” she pulled me a little closer and gripped me affectionately. “But we worked it out and I think we’re going to go the distance.”

The funny thing was depending on how you looked at it, she wasn’t even lying.

“Stay just like that!” One of the girls shouted. “I’m taking a pic. You two are actually adorable, holy shit. Double blondes, fuck, I’m so jealous.”

The girl must’ve snapped about a few dozen photos before lowering her phone. I knew people like this existed but it was still jarring to me. Abby and Lucy were way more chill than these girls.

“So!” Sam started before I could even get a word in. “Max, this is Brianna, Trish, Maddie, and Kayla,” she said, pointing out the four girls in front of me. “And the sexy goliath behind them is Nikki.”

I looked past them toward the taller girl Sam had drawn attention to. At first, I hadn’t even thought she was a part of the group but sure enough, she gave a friendly wave before shooting Sam an annoyed glare. Nikki was for all intents and purposes, tall. Like, taller than me. She had to at least be 6’1.

“I can’t hear you from all the way down there, Sam,” Nikki snarked back. “Must be a language barrier or something.”

Ah, short jokes. Classic.

“I could probably translate,” I offered with an easy smile. Sam rolled her eyes and nudged me, which gave the other girls a bit of a chuckle. “I’m just playing along.”

“I might not be tall but I am rocking the 5’6 world, thank you very much,” Sam said, crossing her arms. “So, where are we heading?”

They descended into idle chatter which I tried to follow along with but there were so many ‘ahs’ ‘ums’ and ‘actuallys’ that I got lost along the way. All the girls seemed to keep up just fine which made me think there was some code I didn’t get. Apparently, all the tagalong guys were just as lost because two of them were talking to each other while the others were scrolling through on their phones. Not a single one of them looked even remotely interested to be here.

And I thought I was anti-social. Jeez.

When we started moving, Sam lagged back to my side at the back of the group, allowing two of the girls whose names I had already forgotten, to lead the pack. Given how Sam was, it came as a surprise to see her follow someone else’s lead.

“Think you can guess which one is the interesting one?” She asked, leaning in close. “I’ll give you a hint, it’s one of the girls.”

“Well, isn’t that a surprise,” I replied dryly. My gaze drifted toward the taller girl, the only one of the bunch that didn’t quite seem to fit in with the rest. She looked strong, athletic, and walked like danger could jump out at her any second. “I’m going to go out on a limb and say, Nikki.”

“Are you saying that just because she’s tall?”

“Are you asking that because you have a height complex?” I shot back, turning to meet her gaze.

I caught her pouting for all of a moment before it vanished from her face.

“No,” she denied with practiced ease. “But you’re right. She is the interesting one,” Sam leaned in and pulled on my jacket sleeve so that we fell behind just a bit more to ensure our conversation didn’t reach their ears. “She’s the newest to the group. I introduced her to everyone at school not too long ago.”

Sam wouldn’t bother if this was just any other girl. No, this one had powers and wasn’t as good as she thought she was at hiding it.

“Someone you're looking to recruit?”

“I would, if a certain organization hadn’t gotten to her long before I met her,” Sam murmured.

That told me all I needed to know.

“She’s a Rookie.”

“Not just any Rookie,” Sam said. “She’s Seraphim, one of their heavy hitters.”

My brow involuntarily raised.

Well, this outing just got a whole lot more interesting.