One of the heist crew members started barking orders, loud and commanding. The crowd of free hostages moved position. Annemarie held her hand up, signaling for her to wait. Her heart pounded. She froze again and again.

Another male civilian stood up, in his early forties she’d wager, —he grabbed the gun of a robber, yelling like a madman, he was swiftly plucked off by another, brutally kicked to the floor, a trigger pulled without questions asked. The gunshot silences the hall.

Juniper flinched, holding her hand over her mouth. It wasn’t the first dead body she saw, but it was the first she witnessed being sent off. Annemarie’s firm hand holds her shoulder. “It happens, it’s unavoidable with these types. We go in the wrong moment, the whole floor is splattered red.”

She was paralyzed. She felt her limbs shutting down. She was useless.

[If you don’t Juniper, who will?] sys-chan did her best to encourage her.

“Do you want to go to Juniper?” Annemarie asked, expression unreadable but undeniably soft. "you can go if you want to."

She shook her head, steeling herself.

She shook her head, teeth gritted, fists clenched.

“Okay on a count of three, we go down!” Annemarie announced.

She nodded, waiting.

“One,”

“Two,”

“Three,”

Annemarie kicked the vent cover down with a heavy clang, landing in the center of the hall.

“Cape!” one of the goons shouted.

Every gun in the room pointed to her, gunfire opened. Bullets raining hell on her. Bursts and slugs of different calibers, all stopped mid-air by her gravitational field. “Now!”

She readjusted her balaclava, nervously dropped from the vent. Floating downwards, activating [solar-powered sentinel] she immediately targeted the two in the rear. A golden aura envelops her body. Releasing a twin blast of energy against the two guards. Both of them flew back, their rifles scattering away.

She sprinted towards the group of hostages and summoned the big barrier to the best of her ability. She was tired and could already feel the strain of her previous fight affecting her. The hostages nearly scattered away from her face with terror and fear.

[Don’t think about it too much–It’s the Balaclava] Syschan stated, trying to lighten the mood.

They shifted their attention to Juniper’s barrier, her face tensed as her shield started cracking like an eggshell. Their bullets on the other became slower and heavier thanks to Anne’s power in effect. Most shells, such as shotgun slugs fall to the ground.

But some went through.

One bullet grazed her leg. She bit her tongue, staggering nearly losing the barrier.

Annemarie, no Voidwalker, moved with godly grace. Weaving through the building like a cat, her gravitational distortion twisting the projectiles away from the civilians. One by one, she knocked them, flanked them, and brutally took them out.

Five down.

A hostage, a man who liked he was on the verge of death rushed with a fire extinguisher slamming a distracted robber on the head. Making him collapse.

They nodded at each other.

Annemarie made short work of the last remaining goon.

Juniper looked outside. There was one in the van, the last of the crew. The engine fired up.

“He’s getting away!” she shouted, readying to pursue.

“Do not!” Annemarie shouted. “Not what we are here for. Leave it to enforcement.”

A civilian approached Annemarie, his face a bit frightened. “You’re one of those vigilantes aren’t you, miss?”

She nodded.

“There’s still one of them in there. “ he stammered, pointing towards the direction of the vault. “Police and the SCRA are on their way. But who knows what he’s doing.”

Juniper shivered, and she could feel her blood cooking at the mention of SCRA.

‘SCRA’, oh fuck, how did she get into this mess, they’d definitely interrogated her for being an unregistered super.

[Don’t panic, Let Annemarie take the lead. You’re new, I’m sure they’ll be lenient.]

“Right,” she said to herself like it was just some page she needed to turn over. "I’ll be fine.”

Anne sped into the fault. Juniper followed. Inside, a single man stood amongst the stacks of gold, every piece of it untouched, a small device was connected to a computer terminal. He didn’t notice them, earplugs on her phone. When he did, his eyes went wide, and he raised the handgun to his own head.

“Stop!” Juniper rushed forward.

Annemarie reacted with ease. The gravity inside the room shifted like a jumping castle, His finger pressed the trigger. The bullet exited the chamber, but the bullet moved at impossibly slow speeds. His eyes becoming as big as googly balls

.

“You don’t get to do that,” Annemarie Strided forward.

Time resumed, and the bullet hit the wall ricocheting and hitting a piece of gold.

She started kicking him in the face, sadistically. She became pissed, striking him with a vicious blow after blow. Juniper wanted her to stop but was afraid the violence would boil over to her.

Did she enjoy hurting others?

Juniper watched, horrified. He was growing weaker with every hit he received. She might very well kill him.

“Enough, Voidwaltzer!’ rushing forward, she shoved her aside and knocked the man out herself. Her knuckles bruised against his face.

Anne glared at her. “You did not have to do that. He planned on offing himself anyway.”

“What's the point if you kill him instead.”

“You know, let me teach the number 1 rule about vigilantism right off the bat, we don’t pretend to be heroes, we choose to be!”

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Juniper was silent, staring at the unconscious criminal. There were dead hostages and survivors who would go home with PTSD. Her mind was partially fucked by what she saw. “A-at least it’s over now.”

Annemarie takes note of the strange portable divide plugged into the computer, she ripped it out instantly, preparing to crush it with her boots. Before she could make another move. The metallic whirring of something filled the air. A pitch-black metallic blur swooped in from nowhere, grabbed it from her hands, and zipped out of the room.

“Quick.”

They gave chase, but the drone thins out of visible reality. Cloaking itself, they had no way of pursuing it.

“Damn it!” Annemarie swore. “Check on the hostages quick.”

Juniper ran towards the harassed folk, whatever the drone's purpose was it got what it came for, probably most of it.

Inside their room was uncontrolled chaos, however, the civilians had already organized a minor militia. They had disarmed the unconscious robbers. At the end of the room was a girl clutching a stuffed dinosaur-looking bear. A woman lay beside her unconscious, no one noticed, but she was leaking blood from the girl's shoulder.

A gunshot wound!

[Act with haste, or she’ll die.]

She kneeled beside the girl’s mother, pressing her fingers against her neck, she felt partially relieved there was a pulse. The girl won’t become an orphan at least.

The girl sobbed. “What are you doing to mommy.” her eyes going wide with fear.

“I’m checking on her, she’s going to be fine,” Juniper reassured her by lifting the girl up.

She pointed to the wound on her shoulder. “Does it hurt?”

The girl shook her head. She didn’t have time to theorize,

“C'mon, we need to get you to a hospital.”

“But what about mommy,” she asked.

“She’s going to be okay.”

“Wait! Not without Teddie!” she insisted on clutching the stuffed dinosaur thingy.

Gently taking her into her arms again, she didn’t dare take her teddy away from her, dashing outside towards the exit, hoping she could get her a medic asap, her mind struggled not to wander. She knew every second was critical

.

“Wait! Ju-” Annemarie shouted, nearly saying her name aloud. But stopping herself last minute.

Blood drips from the girl’s shoulder, leaking from Juniper's shoulder. The girl acted as if she felt no pain. Was it adrenalin or something else?

[I suspect she’s awakened something, via trauma, don’t dwell on it!]

Outside, the tense chaos has started to die down. Law enforcement vehicles flooded the streets, lined up in military fashion. Red white and blue light flashing in her eyes. A helicopter hovered ahead. Everything about it felt surreal. Every enforcer with a weapon was pointing at her.

They’re fast.

Her heart was hammering, she could hear it in her ears, but she couldn’t stop now, the girl needed medical help, no matter the cost.

“Stop right there:” a voice boomed through a speaker,” “Superhuman Crisis Response Agency, drop the child.”

Panic flooded her, every instinct in her body was telling her to run. She spoke, hoping she could plead with them. But the words don’t come out as she intends. She swallows, forcing her voice to be louder.

“She’s been shot! She needs medical, please–”

“Drop the child. Now.” The officer’s voice was slowly getting more irritable

Shit. They mistook her for the criminals.

Her stomach felt like it was eating itself from the inside out. How would would she navigate out of this one?

[Put her down, but keep your guard up, the balaclava really isn’t doing you any favors.]

I know I’ll take it off!

[Wait don’t do that]

She put the child down, as she pointed towards an enforcer. The little girl ran over. She ignores Syschan’s warning. She needed to prove she wasn’t a threat.

[Don’t you’ll dox yourself.]

Every officer hesitated. Some were tense and on alert, and others appeared to be uncertain, no one moved, and she locked her eyes with one of the officers. Hoping she could appeal to their sympathetic nature.

Bending her back, she tries pulling it off–

“Do not fucking move!” an unhinged officer screamed. Voice strained, and panicky.

Her instincts kicked in, and she moved her hands up before she could try and explain. He was already itching for his handgun.

“Wait–!”

A gunshot let loose.

Bang

Bang

Bang

Each shot came like a freight truck, hitting her in the chest. Juniper staggered backward, the bullets knocked her off balance. She landed on the ground, it felt like her stomach was pierced open. Her world turned upside down.

The rough and cold concrete bit into her exposed skin, blood seeped between her fingers as she tried to hold herself in place. Her breaths became shallow very quickly. She tried to get up, she tried to fight through the pain, but it was too much.

Is this how it was going to end? Probably not.

But it hurt like hell.

A thunderous voice came out of the building.

Annemarie rushed over, her powers flaring wildly. The pressure in the air thickened and bent with her raw power, her gravitational distortion pushing against the crowd of the enforcers. They staggered backward, barely able to hold on to their weapons.

“What the fuck are you doing?!” Her voice cut through the tense scene. “She’s an independent cape!”

A man stepped into the fray closer. He wore a distinct uniform, dark sunglasses marked his importance. The abbreviation S.C.R.A. glinted over his chest area, every letter gleaming in the light.

“Hold your fucking fire.” he barked. “Their Vigilantes! Vigilantes!”

She could barely hear the shouting her ears were ringing like bells. She felt numb.

Annemarie was there in an instant, dropping to her knees beside Juniper. Her hands were quick, expertly removing Juniper's hand from her stomach, and immediately applying pressure to stop the bleeding. Her hand turned blood-soaked red.

Stay with me, Juniper!” Annemarie said. She was showing genuine concern, not sadistic in any way. “Don’t sleep, stay awake, with me okay.”

The man's shadow stood over them.

“You’re Voidwalzter right…” he was calm, almost bored. “You mind explaining to me what the fuck you’re doing here?”

She refused to look at him.

“Don’t fucking talk to me, you piece of shit.”

“Yeah, I know who you are.”

SCRA man spat on the ground. Clicked his tongue.

She turned to Juniper. “You're Going to be fine. Don’t sleep.”

The darkness crept again like an old friend, it pulled her in like a strong wave. She could barely hold her eyes open, her mind swimming in an ocean of numbness. Her head was spinning The last thing she heard was Sys-chans voice.

[Good night, Juniper.]

Then she blacked out.

*****

“Voidwaltzer!”

The S.C.R.A captain barked at her, Annemarie took note of the words imprinted on his uniform.

A Captain Lock.

“Is she one of you, OBB’s?” S.C.R.A captain questioned.

Annemarie looked away, nodding reluctantly.

He lit up a cigarette, his hands steadying, the light glint of ignition reflected in his shades. He took a small walk up and down. He clearly didn’t want to be here.

“Are you lying to me, you little runt!” he said, his voice low and targeted. “She looks green as hell. A balaclava, who’s fucking Idea was it. Now look at her, bleeding all over the pavement.”

She glared at him as sharp as she could.

“Is this her first time out? You take her to a fucking bank robbery on first base. Sweet Jesus you vigilantes are fucked in the head.”

Annemarie scoffed. “Where the hell were you when these thugs were holding people hostages, you don’t get to berate us. You don’t get to criticize me for doing the right thing!”

She returned her focus on Juniper applying pressure, but her hands were trembling, she herself didn’t have strength left. Perhaps it was her fault, after all, she baited Juniper into fighting her, and she dragged her into the bank.

She let her desires control her, she could've avoided this whole thing if she just recruited Juniper up and front. But no--she let herself get carried away.

“Your interference made this whole thing worse. This was a targeted operation from the start. We knew they would hit the bank. You’ve just fucked us over. ”

“People were already dead before we got here!” she spat, trembling. “And explain to me why the fuck your trigger-happy officers just shoot and don’t think.”

“Spur of the moment, you know how it is.” he took a puff out of his cigarette. Pointed towards Juniper. “This is exactly why vigilantes aren’t allowed to operate on their own. This is the cost of your twisted delusions. Had you not interf–”

“Interfere? She shot back. “There were people in danger, this district rarely gets attention from cape groups. We were just supposed to let people die?”

He ignored. “Your girlfriend here is lucky, the competent operatives held back.” He peered at the officers, they were a mix of SCRA and CPE. It was a Core Pacifica enforcer who panicked and shot her.

He crouched beside her. “Don’t you think it's time to inform your boss, leave her to me. Medical teams are on their way.”

“I’m not leaving her!”

“You’re gonna do as I say,” Lock countered. “Should I remind you that OBB is still partially funded by the government? Your inability to cooperate is making this worse by the second.

Annemarie gritted her teeth.

“You’ve done enough damage for one day.”

The medics arrived just at that moment, she moved aside as they took to tend to Juniper. Who’s eyes blurring between conscious and unconscious? She grips Annemarie’s hand and whispers.

“My siblings…please.”

The medics knocked her out of the way before she could say anything. Forcing her to let go of her hand.

Annemarie’s palm was squeezed in her face. She loosely let her mask off, sweat dripping. Her face is slightly red with Juniper’s blood. She staggered backward, sinking into the ground. The SCRA captain moved towards the banking complex. Her finger hovered over a contact labeled big sis.

The dialing tone is robotic and endless. Felt like an endless mockery. Her heart was pounding with every beat.

Her throat welled up. She turned away from the flashing lights. She bit into her thumb.

“Anne?” there was a minor silence. “What's wrong?”

“I-I fucked up big sister,” she said. Her voice was barely composed.

“Say it as it is.”