“Wren, are you sure this is a good idea?”

It was a question that Izzy had ended up asking a lot in the three weeks since she had met Wren Donovan. Which itself had happened shortly after she had run away from home in response to her mother’s rising obsession with profiting off of Izzy’s own superpowers. Her mother had been in the midst of some sort of bidding war between Ten Towers and the Spartans about who her daughter would sign with. It was insane. But, bad as that was, it wasn’t actually what pushed Izzy over the edge. No, that had come when she’d accidentally overheard her mother on the phone with someone from one of the Fell-Gangs, trying to see what they offered.

That had been more than she could take, and the girl took off. But not before telling her mother not to call the police or she would give them the recording from her phone of what the woman had been doing behind their backs with the bad guys.

Before long, she ran into Wren and her uncle, Fred while a couple thugs were trying to rob their store (which ended up being pretty stupid anyway, though the men hadn’t known they were dealing with a Tech-Touched).

In any case, Izzy stepped in to help and eventually found out a lot more about the other girl. Soon, she was living there. Fred had initially made noise about going back to her mother, but when she explained the situation, he stopped pushing it so much. But he still said they had to figure out a way of dealing with it that wouldn’t end with him in prison for kidnapping, even though Izzy told him her mother wouldn’t be contacting the authorities. He made her call the woman every night to tell her she was okay and to check in.

Sometimes, Izzy was pretty sure the man didn't really understand the sort of person her mother was. He thought she was more… more like how Izzy wanted her to be. But she made the calls anyway. She checked in and made sure her mom knew she was safe, but also that she would not be coming back. Honestly, she didn't think the woman really cared all that much. Now that Izzy had made it clear that she would not allow her mother to profit off of her, not having to take care of her was the next best thing. It was--it made her sad sometimes. But it was hard to be sad around Wren. Which was basically the best part about living with her. Even if she did have a lot of pretty crazy ideas.

One of which, of course, was what had led Izzy and Wren both to be lying on the floor of a bus that was parked at the far end of a middle school parking lot. The same middle school Izzy herself had gone to, actually. They had been hiding here, listening for any approaching cars for the past twenty minutes.

“Of course it’s a good idea,” Wren insisted from a few feet away where she was laying on her back. “You heard what those guys on the train said when they thought we were just a couple stupid little kids who couldn’t even hear ‘em. There's some kind of stash in the school and they're going to break in and get it. All we have to do is stop them. It’s like the best first test of being superheroes, right? Just a couple guys, probably with a bat or something to break the window. We pop up, stop ‘em, and then everyone knows there’s a couple brand new heroes in town! Plus, it’ll let us field-test all the equipment.”

“It’s the testing part I’m worried about,” Izzy murmured under her breath. She was a couple years older than Wren. But despite that, the other girl had already, in a very short time, become the best friend Izzy had ever had. She didn’t want anything to happen to her. Or to herself, naturally. But Wren was right, this shouldn’t be a big deal. Two adult guys trying to break into a middle school for some kind of ‘stash’ one of their sons had left behind? It was pretty hard to get an easier first test than that. This was something they could do. Especially since, from the sound of things, those two guys weren’t exactly the cream of the crop as far as master villains went. They’d been talking about the plan on the train, after all. Sure, they’d been whispering and were far enough away from everyone else that it shouldn’t have mattered. And there was no way they could’ve known that Wren was testing her latest invention (a thing that transported sound from one area to another), which made it really easy to eavesdrop on them. But still, they definitely weren’t criminal masterminds.

Despite that, Izzy couldn’t help but feel a little bit of uncertainty around one key thing the men had mentioned in whispers that should have been too quiet for the girls to hear. A single, almost offhand mention which had, nonetheless, stuck out in her mind.

“What do you think the Ministry is?” she asked. “That one guy said they had to get the stash before the Ministry found out they lost it. Have you ever heard of them?”

Sounding unconcerned, Wren cheerfully replied, “Nope! I bet they’re some wannabe gang that's not even cool enough to be listed on Sphere-Wiki. You saw those guys. If they're working for those Ministry people, they can't be that scary. Oooh, I bet they're like religious creeps. You know, like that cult that got smashed to bits by Cuélebre. Maybe they are that cult. You think we'll find pamphlets on these guys when we kick their butts? I hope we find pamphlets.”

Turning her head a bit to look at her younger friend incredulously, Izzy demanded, “Wait, you're actually interested in that cult stuff?”

“Heck no!” came the blurted response. “But I always wanted to make one of those pushy creepsos eat one of their pamphlets and if they’re bad guys, it’s win-win, right?”

Snorting at that, Izzy was about to respond when she was interrupted by the sound of a car engine as headlights illuminated the windows of the bus above their heads. Someone was pulling into the lot. The headlights themselves quickly vanished, though the car engine grew closer. Whatever was going on, it was obvious that the driver had turned off the lights as they approached the school. Which kind of ruled out it being security making rounds or anything innocent.

Both girls exchanged looks, their expressions mostly hidden in the dim light from the distant street lamp. At the moment, they were dressed in their normal civilian clothes. Twelve-year-old Izzy (though she looked small enough to be ten or eleven) had long dark hair pulled into a ponytail and perpetually wide eyes that made it look as though she was always surprised and a little afraid, even if she wasn’t. Nine-year-old Wren, on the other hand, had green eyes and light blonde hair that was cut short and still stuck out wildly in every direction. It kind of made her look like a mad scientist. Which--well, yeah.

Both girls exchanged that brief look, then moved very cautiously to peek out the bus windows, barely raising their eyes above the window sill, just in case. Together, they squinted off toward the car that had just pulled up to the front of the school.

It was an old sedan, one that looked pretty beat up. As the two girls watched, the pair of guys from earlier got out. One was an older guy with a gray scraggly beard that hadn’t been trimmed or cared for in months, while the other guy was younger, with dark skin and a shaved head. Both looked around, but neither noticed the girls in the bus. They were too far away, and the men's focus was mostly on the street. After assuring themselves that (as far as they could tell) they were alone, the men took ski masks from their pockets and pulled them on. The older guy moved up to the side door of the school to examine it, while the younger one opened the trunk and took out a couple of crowbars. Giving a soft whistle to attract the other man’s attention, he tossed one that way to be caught before approaching the door himself.

Izzy put a hand out, squeezing Wren’s arm. “Are you sure you wanna do this?” she whispered intently. “I can… I can handle it by myself.” She was the older one, after all. And the one with direct combat powers.

Wren, however, gave a firm headshake. “Nuh uh, we do it together. We’re partners. Um, right?” The last bit was said more quietly, as she looked toward the other girl for affirmation.

“Partners,” Izzy confirmed, moving her hand down to catch the other girl’s. Interlacing their fingers, the two looked back that way. The men were getting ready to break the door open, which meant it was their cue. “Okay,” the dark-haired girl murmured, “let’s make an entrance.”

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Throughout their time here as they waited, Izzy had been mostly subconsciously summoning water from several nearby sources, gathering it into a cloud high above the school. Now, she focused on the two men in the distance and made the floodgates open, quite literally. The water she had gathered all began to dump out on top of the men in an intense downpour, a torrent of rain that came so unexpectedly and so heavily that the two were nearly knocked off their feet. The girls heard them cry out in surprise, along with a clang as one of their crowbars bounced off the cement.

It was also coming down too heavily for the men to see very well more than a few feet in front of their faces. Which, of course, was the point. Quickly, both girls opened the door of the bus and hopped out before running that way. As they approached, the men pivoted their way. Clearly, they could see some sort of shapes through the water, but they’d never be able to describe or identify them.

“Ready, Swift?!” Izzy called out, loud enough for the men to hear. After all, a big part of the point of this sort of thing was for the bad guys to know and be afraid of what was about to happen. They had to build a reputation.

“Ready, Cloud!” came the other girl’s loud response.

“Who the f--” the older man managed while raising his arm to his face to shield his eyes in an attempt to squint through the still-heavily pouring rain. “Is that--looks like a couple of--”

By that point, Izzy had raised her arm, showing the sleek silver bracelet there. “Shield of the City!” she recited, knowing that Wren would be upset if she got it wrong. “Shining Gift!” With those words, she pressed two fingers firmly against the bracelet, making the whole thing begin to glow brightly. A rush of wind emerged from the bracelet, strong enough to send the still-pouring rain even harder into the men’s eyes and make them stumble back a step or two. Then the silver bracelet began to expand, in both directions, becoming a sleek gauntlet over her hand and bracer that covered the girl’s arm. Meanwhile, one side of the armor opened up and shot an identical bracelet onto her opposite wrist. That too began to expand out over her arm and hand.

Once her arms were entirely covered, Izzy brought them together in front of herself, banging both arms together with a loud clang of metal. As she did so, slots opened up on the side of the gauntlets facing her, and several silver balls shot out to strike her firmly in the chest and stomach. Within seconds, those balls had expanded and grown into armor covering her body and legs.

Finally, she put both hands, palms out, against either side of her head. The palms of the metal gloves slid open, pouring what looked like liquid metal out over herself. That metal wrapped around Izzy’s head and face, forming a gleaming helmet.

With the base of Izzy’s armor attached (it really only took a few brief seconds, during which the men were constantly pummelled by wind and rain), the system Wren had set up moved to the next step. Namely, producing a dark blue cloak that unfurled from the back of the armor and fell close to her knees. At the same time, a skirt of the same color as the cloak unfurled from her hips, falling to about mid-thigh (over the armor, of course), and an equally matching pair of blue, almost knee-high boots were produced from the inside of the leg armor, appearing over her feet.

Of course, while all that was going on, Wren wasn’t sitting on her heels. She had lifted her own arm to show the green bracelet there, simultaneously calling out the same, “Shield of the City, Shining Gift!” Then she went through the exact same motions as the girl beside her. In this case, the base of her almost-identical armor was green to match her own bracelet, with white boots and skirt. Rather than a cloak, however, a pair of bright white dragonfly-like wings emerged from the back of the armor, lifting her off the ground.

Finally, the downpour stopped, giving the two still-staggering men the chance to see who had interrupted them. Which came just in time for the two to complete their transformations from totally ordinary (sure) little girls into magical superheroes by, of course, announcing their names. Because that was just what one did in this sort of situation.

“Silver Force!” Izzy announced while summoning a wave of water to rise up behind her. “Patroller Cloudburst!”

Immediately after that, Wren took her turn, hovering up a few feet higher in the air on her rapidly-beating wings. “Emerald Force!” she called. “Guardian Swiftkick!”

It was done. They had finished revealing themselves to their very first bad guys. And those bad guys… well, it was hard to see their expressions through the ski masks, but they seemed pretty… confused. Both stared in blank confusion, the older one managing a flat, “What.”

Okay, yes, Izzy did feel a little silly. But it was fun. And as Wren had put it, how cool was it to completely embarrass bad guys by being silly? Bad guys wanted to be taken seriously. This was sort of like how Gluegirl always mocked the villains and refused to take them seriously, treating the whole thing like a game. Taking away their ability to be treated seriously took away their power. Plus, if they were distracted by just how silly the whole thing seemed, it’d be even easier to beat them. Every little edge helped.

It was, to put it mildly, a lot more thought that had been put into the situation than Izzy had initially assumed when Wren first presented her plan for their duo costumes and identities.

The two men in front of them, however, weren’t privy to that explanation. Hit with the sight in front of them, both stood there in stunned silence for a moment. Then they doubled over, laughing uproariously. They were clinging to one another, not in fear, but because both were clearly about to collapse in a fit of laughter. Finally, the younger guy gestured dismissively. “Right, okay, kids, you’re very cute. Now run off and play Magic Princess somewhere--”

That was about the time that he was interrupted by a firehose-spray of water that erupted from just in front of Izzy’s hand, as she only somewhat belatedly remembered to quickly blurt out, “Gem Torpedo Rush!” The powerful geyser slammed into the man’s chest, making him stumble backward and nearly fall. Then he really did fall, but not in the way he expected. Izzy abruptly shifted his gravity, making the man start to fall upward as he flailed and cried out.

Meanwhile, the older man had started to turn toward his suddenly rising companion when Wren suddenly flew straight at him. With those wings, the girl was incredibly fast. Fast enough, in fact, that her form was a blur. Her own cry of, “Cacophony Blitz!” filled the air as she slapped her hands against the man’s shoulders with enough force to make him stumble and curse. Then he looked down to find two stickers stuck to his shoulders where Wren had left them. The first sticker had a picture of a unicorn running over a rainbow, while the second showed an anthropomorphic star and moon hugging each other. “What th--aaaaahhh!” His hands snapped up to cover his ears, as Wren triggered the cacophony part of the blitz. Basically, she had put stickers near or on top of a dozen or so loud things like cars, lawn mowers, and chainsaws while they were running. The stickers ‘moved’ the sounds they absorbed into a central battery of sorts, before unleashing all of it through the ones that Wren had just put on this guy. He fell to the ground, covering his ears and definitely in no shape to fight back. Or laugh at them anymore.

The other guy had managed to hold onto his crowbar, which he raised while still floating seven or eight feet off the ground. “Y-you fucking kids get me down, or I--” In the midst of waving that weapon threateningly, the man yelped as it was suddenly yanked out of his hand when Izzy increased the gravity for the wet crowbar and nothing else. It hit the ground with a clang, leaving the man floating helplessly in the air and flailing. He gave a few impotent curses before falling silent as his motions made him flip upside down in the air, shirt falling down over his face.

Quickly, Izzy and Wren moved to their own opponents, each producing a pair of handcuffs before slipping them onto the men’s wrists. Only then did Izzy gradually release her gravity hold on the first man, making him drop (gently) to the ground, while Wren disabled the stickers, making her own opponent finally sigh in relief as all that sound stopped being transported directly into his ears.

Both men tried to get up, but found they couldn’t actually move the handcuffs anywhere. Mostly because Wren had activated the ‘motionless’ part of her cuff design. As long as it was active, no one who couldn’t lift a few thousand pounds would be able to make the cuff budge an inch. They would just hover in the middle of the air as if they’d been welded to (invisible) solid steel.

“Well, Swiftkick, guess we did it after all,” Izzy started. “We--hey, when did that door open?” She was looking toward the back door of the school, which the guys here definitely hadn’t had time to break. Yet the door stood wide open.

Abruptly, a whistle filled the air from the far side of the lot, near the edge of the school. Both girls spun that way, only to see a girl in a white chainmail-like turtleneck under a long red overcoat, with black gloves and matching black cargo pants. She also wore a red helmet with a thin black visor right where her eyes would have been.

“Thanks, girls!” the new figure called while holding up a small brown sack. “Let’s just say a couple people really close to me wanted to get this back from the Ministry, and I’m not in the mood to let ‘em have it. I was gonna take it from those morons, but you took care of ‘em. So, ya know, thanks again!”

Seeing her there, Izzy took a step, only to blink downward. “Did this parking lot always have a big blue spot on i--” That was as far as she got before the blue spot suddenly threw her and Wren both into the air. Wren righted herself with those wings, darting quickly over to where Izzy had already stopped herself with her own powers by soaking her costume and then floating. The intruder, of course, was long gone.

“Wha--who the heck was that?!” Wren blurted.

“Don’t you know?” Izzy asked, squinting at the spot where the figure had been.

“I’m pretty sure that’s called a nemesis.”