I collapsed back into one of Sam’s sofa chairs before running a hand through my hair.

Two in the morning.

The clock on her kitchen oven was, unfortunately, correct. It had taken some time to patch Sam up once we had gotten back to her place. The wound in her shoulder was ugly and needed extensive cleaning as well as stitches, all of which I hadn’t the faintest clue how to do. Luckily, Gold was able to run me through the steps while I operated on her. Overall, I think I did a decent job.

Sam lay across from me on her couch, her shoulder bandaged with an ice pack over the wounded area. She was still in her costume but she had removed the domino mask the moment we had stumbled through the front door.

“What a night, huh?” She chuckled. “It’s been a while since I’ve been shot. I’d almost forgotten how much it sucks. Good thing we took some of that biogel.”

“You’ve been shot before?”

She turned her head lazily.

“Yup. Few times when I was younger,” she pointed to two spots on her abdomen, then to a spot just above her knee. “This one was the worst. Even as Pink I barely got away and cleaning it was awful. The only reason I could get through it was Orange.”

I sniffed and rubbed my eyes. Tonight's events were finally starting to set in.

“I can’t think of anything that really compares. I broke my arm when I was in primary school but other than that, this is probably the worst injury I’ve had,” I motioned to my eye. “But I barely even feel it now.”

“Looks like it’s healing up nicely,” Sam said with a smile. “Being shot isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be huh? It kinda hurts.”

I rolled my eyes at her weak attempt at humor.

“Hopefully, we won’t have to worry about that soon. I have some ideas about how to improve my gear so we don’t end up in a situation like that again. Yours too. I think I’ll be able to do something with your costume.”

I had thought about it on the drive back.

Sam slowly sat up before heading toward her bedroom.

“Be back in a second. I need to get out of these clothes.”

She was gone for a couple of minutes, which left me a few moments to contemplate everything in silence.

I spent a minute or two just processing everything, but I didn’t let myself linger on those thoughts too long. I had already done a lot of that on the way back. Instead, I reached into the backpack which went largely ignored until now, and retrieved Deadlock’s tech.

Space-Time Dimensional Occupation Unit…

Gently, I held it with both hands and slowly began inspecting it. It was such an inconspicuous object that at a glance, could be easily mistaken for a fancy paperweight. There were no ports or other interfaces that I could find. Each side of the cube was as smooth as polished marble, but my power was telling me that it was Mechatech.

How was I supposed to interact with it?

How do you function?

It wasn’t like I could just connect my laptop and mess with it. This was way too advanced. It was likely millennia ahead of anything that could be built today. Deadlock would have the tools to get inside of it but I doubted she’d be willing to play tech support.

If it were me, I’d tell them to go kick bricks and then send someone after them.

My power had never interacted with other Mechatech before either, so this was a first. The brief brain blast I experienced when I touched it for the first time felt like a thousand doors all opening at once. There was just so much to consider.

But… It wasn't small. Not really, but that was an instinctive feeling or perhaps something my power was feeding me.

What I was holding in the palm of my hand felt big. Bigger than the room I was sitting in – maybe even bigger than the building. It had to be smaller on the outside. It was a hard feeling to quantify but it was there, tucked neatly into the back of my mind.

It has [Spatial Distortion] and [Environmental Simulation] systems.

The desire to know what was inside only grew the longer I stared at it.

“Here,” Sam emerged from her bedroom and tossed me a bag with her good arm. Inside was her costume, intact and drenched in sweat.

Lovely.

“Can you make the materials better, bulletproof maybe? Try not to change the design, I like the way it looks.”

“Sounds simple enough. Any other requests?”

She managed to force a shrug as she settled back into her spot on the couch.

“Make it warmer?”

“Wear a jacket.”

“A jacket ruins the look.”

I touched the fabric of the scrunched-up corset to see what I could work with. The corset was made of hard-wearing cotton while the rest of the costume was made up of other weaker fancy materials. It was probably due to her powers that she was able to keep the outfit in such good condition.

I viewed the various upgrade paths, many of which were useless for what she was asking. I had to focus strictly on the materials of the item and upgrade those to get exactly what she wanted.

“Is fashion really more important after what happened tonight?” I asked, giving her a worried look. “People aren’t thinking about what you look like when they’re shooting at you. Unless I build a personal energy shield or something, upgrading your costume won’t do much.”

“Mmm,” she hummed. “Can you do that instead?”

“Probably. No clue what I’d use as a base though.”

Sam snorted. “That’s what I thought. In the meantime, my basic stuff is due for a bit of a spitshine.”

“I can make it more durable and less likely to tear. Areium should work.”

Sam tilted her head, giving me an impressed look.

“The fact that you can conjure Evomats out of thin air will piss a lot of supers off. Pyranium was a nice choice for the car by the way, it’s basically a tank.”

“I’ve got a whole bunch Evomats to choose from, but very few of them are as inconspicuous as Areium and Pyranium,” I explained. “So if you don’t want your outfit changed, Areium is probably your best option.”

“Well, it can stop most low caliber rounds. It’s fire retardant and insulated too. Durable as well; though the rumors about it being self-repairing are a lie,” Sam mused aloud. “I think that’ll do for my outfit, though getting shot has always been the least of my worries.”

“You think so?” I could help but laugh. “A single shot to the head can end you.”

“Depends who’s doing the shooting. Most of the times I get shot at, it's from the inexperienced. They can’t aim as well as they think they can, so avoiding it is easy,” she explained. “I’m more cautious if I know the people have some kind of military training, but even then Pink’s enough to throw off their aim.”

I gave a pointed look to the wound on her shoulder.

She snorted.

“I don’t count lucky shots.”

“A lucky shot is all it takes,” I argued. “Are you sure you don’t want me to make you something a little more…” I trailed off, hoping she’d get the idea.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Sam smiled. “If you want to get me into spandex you're going to have to try a little harder than that. It itches and sticks to my skin. I hate it.”

“I can easily fix that,” I insisted. “It covers the whole body and I’ll be able to upgrade it into something that will protect you when you’re not Red—”

“Pass.”

Her defiance bothered me. It was like getting shot wasn’t all that big of a deal to her. Normally, this would be a non-issue for Enhancement types, but only Red had that power and she had to constantly switch to be at her strongest. She could get caught off guard and die because she wasn’t using the right power. Gold had to know this.

“Why?”

“Do I really need a reason? I like my costume, Max. It’s just… me.”

I blinked. “I don’t get it.”

She sighed. “I don’t expect you to. Just… please, do what you can, but keep it the way it is.”

It was unreasonable. I couldn’t fathom why but I’d accept it. Upsetting her seemed pointless and I doubt she’d wear it even if I did change it just to make a point. I’d make the changes to her costume but I’d need to figure out something else to stop her from getting her brains splattered.

“Alright. I’ll fix up your costume but I’ll need to figure something else out for you.”

“There’s much worse things out there than bullets,” Sam said. “There are things that armor won’t be able to protect from. Nemesis claimed to be able to cut through Nanoforge’s armor and he can. That wasn’t a bluff.”

“Powers are different. Not everyone has them. Anyone can pick up a gun and pull a trigger, Sam.”

“Not everyone has the bravery to pull the trigger,” she replied. Mirage’s taunts echoed in my head. Sam sighed again. “I’m not going to budge on this.”

“Yeah I can see that. I wish you’d tell me why.”

“Maybe someday, but not today. It’s personal.”

“Okay…” I trailed off awkwardly. “Anyway, improving your outfit won’t take long. I’ll add it to my list of things to work on over the weekend. Unless you need it back sooner, in which case I can do it before leaving tomorrow morning.”

“Look at me,” Sam gestured to her injured shoulder. “Do I look like I’m going anywhere? With Pink I heal pretty quickly, but I won’t be ready for at least a few days. I know you’re concerned so take your time to make it as best as it can be. I’ll be busy in the meantime while I’m on bedrest.”

“You’ve got something planned?”

“I’ll be conducting an in-depth analysis on The Cain’s supers – the ones we met so far. I’ll email it to you when I’m done. I expect you to read them.”

“You’re giving me homework?”

“Homework that’ll help keep us alive,” Sam lectured. “Powers, strengths and weaknesses, habits, gear, personality. Everything I can figure out will be in there. Then we’ll be hitting some more fortified locations to start weakening their hold on their territory.”

She looked serious, more than I expected. After tonight’s outing, I would have thought she’d want to dial it back – take the foot off the gas so-to-speak.

“Sounds like you want to wage war on them.”

“Mirage might be a smug bastard but he was right about one thing, Max. If we want to get them off our back, we’re going to have to treat this like war,” Sam explained, her smile disappearing. “Think about it, if we can dismantle the Cains and boot them out of Bayside, we can claim everything they leave behind. If we do that then what they stole from you will be chump change.”

The idea sounded insane. The Cains had powerful supers on their roster and that was just the ones that were public knowledge. Who knows what kind of aces they were hiding up their sleeves?

“Just the two of us? I admire your optimism.”

“It doesn’t have to be the two of us. We’re a team right? Teams can be more than two people,” Sam said. “Half the reason I even go to school is so I can scout other people and see if they’re willing to team up. With you on board, others will be more interested.”

“I can see the appeal. Strength in numbers,” I said, agreeing with her sentiment. “Though, I don’t imagine many would want to join a vigilante group with borderline villain tendencies.”

“A lot of supers our age have issues with authority but the heroic propaganda the ECU spews out does make things a little bit harder,” Sam mused before shrugging. “Regardless, we just have to target the right crowd. You can also make gear and not everyone will be as fussy as me, so that’s another draw. Sure, powers are great but what well-renowned team doesn’t have proper equipment nowadays?”

It was true.

Since the nineties, any organized crime didn’t really get anywhere without a Mechakinetic supplying them, though there was an exception to every rule, The Cains seemed to get by just on the extreme notoriety Grim had accumulated over the years.

If Sam wanted to dismantle Grim’s growing empire, it would take a lot more than just the two of us to do so.

“I’m all for tearing down scumbags and earning money, but messing with Grim is a glorified death sentence. Even what we’ve done now is enough to piss him off,” I dragged my hands down my face, the fatigue really starting to set in. “Sam. Is this a really good idea?”

She stared at me and let out a dry laugh.

“Hah! Getting cold feet already?”

“Okay look. I’m laying my cards out on the table here. I’m doing this because I need money. My mom’s paralyzed and has been since I was a kid,” I met Sam’s gaze and her expression turned serious. “Getting that fixed properly is going to cost a lot of money. Biokinetics charge an arm and a leg to make house calls.”

Sam nodded slowly, pondering my words carefully.

“You haven’t considered making something yourself?” She questioned. “If I understand your powers correctly, then would I be right in saying a wheelchair is technically just a very basic exoskeleton made for disabled people? Surely if you put enough into it you’d be able to get your mom walking again. All it would take is—”

“Telling her I awakened,” I finished for her. Sam shrugged while I just let out a tired sigh. “I don’t want Mom to know. It all comes with a bunch of issues I don’t want to deal with. She already freaks out over the smallest things. If she knew I had powers… I don’t think I’d get a single moment of privacy again. She’d be checking in on me every second she could.”

Sam turned away and stared at the ceiling.

“I get it,” she started. Her eyes closed as her voice turned softer. “I told my parents about my powers. It didn’t turn out as well as I hoped. Gold even warned me not to but I didn’t listen. I thought I knew them better than her,” she let out another dry chuckle. “You don’t have to tell me your reasons. Gold already figured them out for the most part. I understand completely.”

“I just wanted to point out that I can’t help my Mom if I’m dead. I tried going about things discreetly and it got me kidnapped. If we’re going up against Grim, we can’t go in blind like we did tonight.”

“You’re preaching to the choir,” Sam snorted. “Yeah, I know. It’s a dream of mine, a team that is. I want to lead them and build a future for myself. I’m tired of running, jumping from place to place all the time.”

I felt my head tilt a little as I pondered the last bit of information.

“How long have you been on your own?”

“I got my powers when I was thirteen, not too long after that, I ditched home, so about three years now,” she explained. “I did some odd jobs here and there. Stole from some rich people to keep myself afloat. Even still, I knew I was going to hit a wall thick enough Red wouldn’t be able to smash through. Gold’s been saying for years I’d have to hunker down and build something eventually.”

“Which is what you're doing here,” I couldn’t help but laugh a little. Of all the cities she could have chosen, Bayside was definitely not one of the best. “You certainly picked a hell of a place.”

“I could have picked any country, but New Elpis has the highest awakening rate in the world so I thought I’d try my luck here.” She shrugged ”Then all I had to do was pick a city, it could have been any really, Ashton, Caldon, Bayside, Zachary Port. The beach is what sold it for me. Love a good place to tan.”

“And how’s it working out for you so far?”

Sam grinned.

“Well, considering I’ve got your ear I can talk off, I think it’s working out just fine. Well, even with the trigger happy locals, I’d give it a solid seven outta ten,” she flinched as she moved her shoulder. “Ooh, that’s going to be a bitch in the morning.”

“Speaking of morning, it’s late. Could I crash here tonight?” I asked. I didn’t like the idea of going home this late at night. “If it’s too much—”

“Nah, it’s cool. We’re teammates!” Sam sat up again, her face scrunching up at the discomfort in her shoulder. “What about your mom? Won’t she worry?”

“She sleeps in on weekends so you can just drive me home in the morning,” I replied. “What’s your plan for Grim?”

“That’s a work in progress for now. I’ll need to do some digging.”

“Right, and this?” I pointed to the inconspicuous billion-dollar mechatech sitting on the coffee table. “What should we do with this?”

Sam stared at it and groaned a little. She rubbed her forehead and sighed.

“Can I leave that with you? You're the tech guy.”

“It’s Deadlock’s tech. I can try and crack it, but…” I trailed off, my eyes lingering on the black cube. “It could take weeks, months even, before I have something that can breach its security. That's the best case scenario.”

“Worst case?”

“Worst case is it stays locked and we’ll have to find someone else to do it.”

Sam pursed her lips before shaking her head.

“Nah. Gold thinks you can do it.”

My brow rose.

“High praise coming from her.”

“I know!” Sam laughed. “You impressed her tonight. Nice job, by the way.”

I felt myself heat up a little at the compliment.

“Never been one for improv, but I guess a life or death situation can bring out all sorts of talents. Honestly, I’m surprised they took the bait. I wasn’t keen on getting shot but it was the best I could come up with.”

“Mechakinetics that don’t just hide away and build stuff are either the weakest or the scariest supers in the world and given how confident you were, they couldn’t decide which one you were,” Sam chuckled. “Alright. I don’t think I can keep my eyes open any longer. If you wake up before me, save me some hot water. I hate cold showers.”

Sam shuffled off toward her bedroom. She didn’t even bother to close the door before I heard the springs on her bed squeak.

Switching the lights off, I moved to the couch, kicking off my shoes and removing my jacket. The moment I closed my eyes and allowed myself to relax, the fatigue hit me, and I was out like a light.