Ayda reclined on her bunk, legs outstretched atop the sheets, laptop on her thighs. She'd just returned from her morning patrol, and as such hadn't bothered to change out of her costume yet. The only pieces missing were her jacket which hung on a peg by the entrance, and her boots because putting dirty footwear on her bed was out of the question.

She clicked idly through internet browser tabs for a moment. A cute cat picture on Facebook brought a smile to her lips. She contemplated reacting to it for a moment, before deciding against it. It wasn't a platform she used very often. At this point, any action at all usually brought a fair bit of attention her way. Dealing with that wasn't on the docket for the day.

A click brought her to Youtube. This was one of the few remaining accounts that was still private and personal, not yet taken over by her public persona. She refreshed the page, and followed up with a sigh seconds later. None of her subscriptions had posted anything new. Well, anything interesting, anyway.

Wednesdays were always slow in terms of things to do, in her experience. It had been two days since Dominick and Rio returned. The former and Kindle would be on patrol right now, with Elliot on overwatch. Part of Ayda wanted to go spend time in the war room with her best friend. Even if she were just doing the same internet browsing with him, being in his presence would be nice. But, she also knew it wasn't right to distract him from working. They'd have plenty of time to hang out later.

Ayda rubbed her right eye. With the left, she peered at the tab for Reddit. All this web surfing around other places was just a distraction. More simply, she was procrastinating. The hand which rubbed her eye settled back onto the keyboard. The entire reason she'd wanted to tackle Reddit right then was because her patrol just ended. Part of her was still in work mode. However, another part of her just wanted to do nothing. It wasn't even that she disliked the website. It was often the highlight of her non-hero hours. She just had occasional difficulty with laziness, like any other functioning person. With a burst of resolve, she clicked on the Reddit tab.

Doing so brought her not to the homepage, but to a subreddit, a community place made and maintained by other Reddit users, focused on a specific topic or kind of content. This one was hers. Named r/Pulse, it was dedicated to discussion about Pulse and the rest of the El Puerto team. It had well over four million subscribers. This was one of the biggest landing pads for fans of hers, and the primary way she interacted with the public at large, mostly because she outright refused to use Tumblr.

Ayda clicked on the word "new" and the threads became sorted by the most recent. The very first one, posted fifteen minutes ago, required her attention, but not in a necessarily positive way. Just by the preview image, she could tell it didn't belong. Ayda sent a quick message to the subreddit's moderators before handling it herself.

She opened the thread. It was an image macro of a guy wearing a viking helmet, using a mop to paddle a milk crate through a flooded basement laundry room. The poster had taken Flint's mugshot and shopped that face over the original person's face. The result was a comically large head that didn't really fit on the body. White text on the image read "Rob a bank, they said. It'll be fun, they said."

Ayda typed up the first and only comment in the thread, which read:

  PulseOfficial: I hate to do this because Laundry Room Viking is one of my favorite memes, but I have to delete this post. Memes and other kinds of low-effort content are not allowed on r/Pulse. They dominate the landscape and push out more important threads. This subreddit is dedicated to more serious questions and discussions about my team and I, and updates from me.

Don't worry, though. If you want to share your meme, then you're more than welcome to do so over on r/PulseFans. That sub is for more lighthearted discussions and content. I'm just as active over there as I am here, and it actually sees more submissions than this sub.

She gave the comment a quick once-over before submitting it. Then, she closed the thread. The poster would still get a notification and be able to read the comment, but the thread would not appear in the subreddit anymore. The guilt Ayda usually felt for deleting a thread washed over her. This person just wanted to engage with her and the large community of fans. They went about it in the wrong way, but that didn't make them bad. Ayda hoped they posted on r/PulseFans.

Ayda returned to the new section and scrolled through the posts. The first page was mostly fanart and discussion threads about heroes and villains. There were a few talking about a recent convenience store robbery Bronze Knight stopped. Two spoke about the away mission to Corpus Christi, which was starting to become old news. Some threads were direct questions posed to her teammates, but none for her specifically. Ayda enjoyed the fact that she didn't dominate the sub. More involvement from the others helped paint her team in a positive light.

In all, this subreddit didn't see as much activity as it used to three years ago. A lot of the serious conversations about Neos and their presence in the world were still ongoing, but there were other, more general communities which usually caught those nowadays. R/Pulse was a bit too narrow in scope for that sort of thing. Reddit was pretty good at self-regulating in that regard, compared to other websites.

Discussion would spring up any time her team was in the news, or if a villain did something particularly heinous, but the place was pretty tame more often than not. The overwhelming majority of posts didn't require her attention, and were best left to the community to discuss amongst themselves.

When Ayda moved on to the next page, the posts were already a few hours old. The third one down caught her attention, both for the thread itself as well as the poster's interesting username.

  SuspiciousColander: This one goes out to any member of the team who can't fly (so, not Kindle). I had a thought the other day. I follow the El Puerto team pretty closely and, unless I'm mistaken, they've never had to deal with a flying Neo. Am I correct? If so, how would you go about it?

It was rare to have an inquiry about the tactical side of heroing. Most people probably didn't think that hard about it. This particular thread had a few responses, but they were speculations from unpowered individuals. Ayda typed up her own.

  PulseOfficial: Firstly, you're correct that none of us have had to fight a flier yet. It's something I've given a lot of consideration to. I've run quite a few scenarios in our training room for this very thing. Ideally, Kindle would be around to assist. If not, I'd have to bank on the fact that they have to get close to attack, and use my reflexes to hit them first. It's a lot more difficult if they have a gun or some kind of projectile power. I'm pretty good at throwing stuff, but it's well known I don't have much in terms of ranged attacks. I don't wanna get too far into tactical stuff in public like this. I wanted you, and everyone else, to know I'm prepared for any given situation.

That one ended up a bit longer than expected. Ayda read it over a couple times to see if there was any way to shorten it, but found none. A third check to pick out any spelling errors, and she submitted it. Something like this had the potential to spawn a lot of further debate. She'd have to keep an eye on it.

In the meantime, she clicked back to the previous page. Another topic caught her eye not far from the previous. It had no comments yet. The second page was a goldmine, it seemed. She clicked on it.

  CoffeeGirl: Just a quick question for Birdseye. I know the intel team deals with overwatch type things like tracking baddies and listening to police chatter, but what else do you do? How many hats does the intel team wear?

Ayda quickly typed her response.

  PulseOfficial: More of this. The intel team rarely gets any questions around here, and it's a shame. They're just as important as the field operatives. They deserve more recognition.

I'll let Birdseye know he has a question. He loves interacting with the fans, so I'm sure he'll be thrilled.

Ayda clicked back to again to resume the hunt for more things to post. Her previous assessment about the second page proved untrue, as there was nothing else interesting. So, she moved on to the third. A few threads at the bottom of the previous page carried over, meaning there were brand new submissions. She'd have to take a look at them a bit later.

"Hey," a voice interrupted her train of thought.

Ayda looked up to find someone standing in the entrance to the room. Crypto—Brian—was the third member of the intel team, and the last of them to join up. He was a heavyset gentleman fresh out of college with curly blonde hair, and thick beard to match, and rectangular eyeglasses. He wore an open blue windbreaker over a black t-shirt and pale jeans.

"I'm heading out," Brian said in his signature soft-spoken tone.

"I was wondering if you'd left yet," commented Ayda.

"Yeah, no. Elliot brought that new monitor with him today, so I set that up while he worked, and then we talked for a few minutes." He spoke as if explaining something to his manager.

"Alright, that's fine. Good work today." Ayda kept her tone gentle.

"You, too. See ya tomorrow."

"See ya," Ayda returned. Brian began to leave. "Wait, hold on!" She called after him. He pause and returned to where he was just standing. Ayda put her laptop aside on the mattress and began rummaging through one of the drawers below it. She found her quarry in short order and stood up to bring it to him.

"I almost forgot again," she said, presenting him with a small white envelope. "Happy belated birthday."

"My birthday was last week." Brian accepted the envelope.

"And I've been forgetting for a week," Ayda said with a nod. "I know gift cards are a bit tacky. I hope you don't mind."

"Not at all. Thank you." Brian opened up the missive and extracted the green and white plastic contents. "Oh, PC Shoppe! I shop there all the time."

"I figured you'd like it." Ayda smiled. "I'd say don't spend it all in one place, but you kinda have to."

Brian chuckled at her lame joke. "I already know what I want. Thanks, Ayda."

"You're welcome. Now, go home. You've been here long enough."

"Okay. Goodnight, then." Brian gave a little wave before turning his back.

"Goodnight." Ayda returned the pleasantry.

With that weight finally off her chest, and feeling good for making a friend happy, Ayda returned to her bunk. She reclined in the same way as before and put the laptop back where it had been.

Threads on the third page were even older than the previous. A few of these she'd managed to read on her break earlier in the day. One which she'd already replied to had new comments. The title read "Pulse Eating a Churro is Surprisingly Cute." The topic linked to a GIF of her on the sidewalk leaning against her motorcycle, eating a churro, as the title suggested. There was a small comment chain that she reread before continuing the conversation within it.

  PulseOfficial: Excuse you? I'm cute all the time, thank you very much. (obvious sarcasm)

  SaigaWolf: Of course. I just thought this was interesting, since we don't always get to see something so human from you heroes.

  PulseOfficial: I get it. Everyone wants to connect with their favorite celebrities. I'm a person, just like you.

Totally knew that guy was filming me, by the way. He was literally standing in the middle of the sidewalk with his phone out. Didn't even ask for an autograph or anything. I wasn't surprised when this popped up on fucking 4Chan (already in GIF form) a few hours later.

  BrittTheBrit: Do you have a lot of trouble with people taking creep shots?

And that was where the comments ended. Ayda composed a reply to the last question.

  PulseOfficial: I'm not sure this qualifies as a creep shot, but no, not really. We're usually moving too much for anyone to get a good picture. When we stop, it's usually to fight something, and most people are smart enough to stay away from that. There's always paparazzi, of course, but I don't think I have as big a problem with them as a Kardashian, for instance.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

It was a simpler response than those she'd written previously in the day, but she was still happy with how it turned out. It was a fun conversation. She wouldn't mind if it continued on for a while longer.

Further down the third page was something she hadn't seen yet. The thumbnail showed it as something from Twitter, while the title was "Pulse is such fighting game trash and I love it." Neither of those things narrowed it down much. She clicked to see what it was all about. The link lead to a screenshot of a tweet she'd made about a month ago.

  @PulseOfficial: Tekken 7 is still the most frustrating and rewarding thing I've ever played. So many gorgeous combos I'll never do.

There were four comments on it. Three of them simply stated how cool it was that such a well-known superhero like Pulse played video games. The fourth addressed her directly.

  TheStipulation: Pulse, if you read this, what other games to you play? Are you in to anything else, or is it all fighting games all the time?

This was something Pulse had spoken about before, but not very often. Whenever she was asked about her personal life, it usually had to do with dating, friends, or her favorite coffee shops. Most news outlets didn't really care about her interests at all, let alone something like video games. She was more than happy to oblige this curious fan, if mostly because it was something she rarely had a chance to talk about. She typed a reply.

  PulseOfficial: I prefer games with a heavy focus on action, without too much story or setup to bog it down. RPGs and strategy games are just too slow for me. Outside of fighting games, things like God of War, Battlefield,Chivalry, and Halo are more my speed. One exception would be Horizon: Zero Dawn, which I loved every second of.

Ayda smiled as she posted that. People would probably be excited to get a little more info on her nerdier preferences. Even though superheros were mainstream now, the communities around them still attracted a somewhat geeky crowd. That wasn't a bad thing, though, far from it. Ayda had liked games long before she became a hero. What else was a rich teenager supposed to do with her spare time? That they allowed her to connect with a large portion of her audience was the cherry on top.

Seeing a tweet of hers highlighted like that reminded her to get on Twitter for a few seconds. Most of her social interneting happened on Reddit. Places like Twitter and Instagram allowed her to reach a much wider audience. She'd been trying to use them more, despite her own preferences. She opened it up in a new browser tab, but didn't do anything with it right away. It could wait until after she was done with Reddit. One thing at a time.

…

Kindle soared through the air above downtown El Puerto. Knife-like jets of flame behind fists closed at her sides left a pair of orange streaks in her wake. The sun was just starting to set. The color she left behind blended in almost perfectly with those bending along the sky.

Rather then watch where she was going, Kindle scanned the busy streets below. Cars traveled toward and way from her, while citizens weaved together to and fro, all blissfully unaware of the action going on right under their noses. As they should be. The fewer people who tried to get involved, the better. Though, if Kindle had her way, she'd end this without conflict.

She paid special attention to the labyrinth of alleyways stitched between the buildings. She was just starting to near the edge of downtown, now. As such, the skyscrapers largely gave way to structures which were still multi-story, but more modest. All of this made the paths around them much easier to observe, a blessing Kindle counted generously.

"Anything, Birdseye?" She asked of the air.

"Nothing new, sorry." The voice of Elliot came through her earpiece. "She crossed a street a few minutes ago, but that was the last a saw of her."

"Typical," Kindle said. "I'm in the area now, but I don't see her."

"She couldn't have gone far," said Elliot. "There are cameras all over this part of town. I would've seen her."

"Are there any reports of a supervillain sighting?" Kindle shifted gears a bit.

"You thinking she darted into a building?"

"Yeah, or something."

"Let me check." There came a lull in the conversation as Kindle allowed Elliot some time. "I don't see anything. She could be intimidating people into keeping quiet, but that would turn a robbery into a hostage situation, and we know she's not that dumb."

Kindle stopped herself from swearing. "Okay, keep me posted."

"Will do." With that, the comms fell silent.

Why did it have to be her? Of all the villains in the city, why her? Kindle could go on and on about all the reasons she didn't want this fight, least of which was how slippery her target was. She was a hero and would do her job without hesitation, but wished it were under better circumstances this time around.

Kindle continued her comb through the city. Elliot was right to say the villain couldn't have gone far. This part of town provided more hiding spaces than the actual heart of El Puerto, which was probably why it had been chosen in the first place. However, it still only had so many options. It was impossible to go much of anywhere while only in the alleys. Elliot was a professional. He wouldn't miss her if she reemerged into the streets. That she hadn't shown up for a while meant she was still hiding somewhere.

Kindle was about to turn around and double-check places she'd already been, when something caught her attention; a flash of white hair that could only be one person. She swooped in.

The figure running in the alley gained definition as Kindle drew closer. She could see a black leather corset, matching leather pants, platform knee boots, and skin painted shiny grey, all of it wrapped around a prefect hourglass figure. Kindle sighed. Part of her still wanted to believe the reports were wrong, but now there could be no doubt.

Kindle raised a foot so it pointed downward and shot a jet of flame from it. The fire caught a few feet in front of the running figure, who was forced to an abrupt stop. Kindle dropped to the ground behind her, just in time for the criminal to whirl on her. She had a pretty heart-shaped face. A blue duffel bag hung heavy on her right shoulder.

"Anna!" The woman addressed Kindle. "Fancy meeting you here."

Kindle sighed again. "What are you doing, Silver?"

"Stealing some jewelry." The woman, Silver, hefted her duffel bag for emphasis. The fire went out.

"Okay, let me rephrase. Why?"

Silver shrugged. "Girl's gotta put food on the table."

"And you have to steal jewelry to do that?"

"Well, no. I guess I could steal food. It's not the best metaphor."

"That's not the point," Kindle said. "And it's not a metaphor."

"Always the former teacher, huh?" Silver raised an eyebrow. "I guess I learned something today, if nothing else."

"Cut it out, Silver," Kindle warned. "Just hand over the bag, and come quietly. You don't need to steal to make money."

"What else am I supposed to do, get a job? Me and work don't exactly mix."

"You could always join our team," countered Kindle.

"Oh, here we go." Silver crossed her arms, further emphasizing her large chest more than the corset already did.

"The offer is still on the table," continued Kindle.

"Yeah, I bet you guys are just jumping at the chance to recruit a criminal." Silver rolled her eyes.

"We are. NAAME vetted you, and they continue to vet you. Pulse wants you, and so does the rest of the team."

"The entire rest of the team?"

"Your issue with Bronze Knight is on you, not us. You're the only one immature enough to not move past it."

"And I'm sure he just loves you speaking for him." Silver shifted her weight from one side to the other. "Don't try to act like that's the only reason I won't join. I'll take freedom over being some hack any day."

"We've been—" Kindle paused, exasperated. "We've been over this. You aren't giving up any freedom by joining us. NAAME isn't trying to take your independence."

"They are if I have to follow their rules." Silver uncrossed her arms. "Why are you even bothering with this? I'm not joining your stupid team, and I'm not giving you the bag. You know how this has to end."

Kindle took a step forward. "I don't want to fight you."

"Then don't," Silver said. "Fly away, act like you never saw me."

"You know I can't do that."

"Then you're gonna have to stop me."

Silver raised both her hands. Blue electricity arced between her fingers and shot off in short discharges at random angles. Kindle set her own hands ablaze and brought them up to match the villain's. For all her apprehension, the hero was the first to attack. Fire streamed from her hands, straight for the other woman's chest.

Silver let loose her own attack. Pure blue lightning shot from each hand, the two bolts merging into one after a few inches. The majority of it met Kindle's beam head-on. The overwhelming heat from the lightning held the fire in place, while sparks danced around and up the flames, toward Kindle. The hero knew this was going to happen. She watched the stray electricity race toward her. In the last split second, she took a step to the right and leaned out of the way, simultaneously bending the fire beam with her left hand. Flame mixed with lightning hit the building to the left. Both diffused against it.

From her lean, Kindle punched forward twice with her right hand, sending a short fire bolt with each hand. Silver met each with an electrified hand. Blue bursts scattered the fire. She countered with another large bolt. Kindle spun out of the way to the other side of the alley, firing a pair of shots as she spun. She fired a third upon stopping. Silver cut her lightning short to block all three attacks in the same way she had the first two.

This obviously wasn't working. Kindle wiped her right hand from the left to the right in front of her. A trio of thin tendrils hung in the air. With the same hand, she made a broad circle. The tendrils followed the same pattern, rotating counter-clockwise. Silver stood her ground, ready to intercept. They barreled toward her like an immolating drill. At the last second, Kindle split them. They spun out into three separate attacks, two of which were aimed at Silver's legs, out of arm's reach.

Silver hit the deck. The spindly flames passed harmlessly over her. In avoiding the attack, she immobilized herself. Kindle took a step. A fiery line shot out from her foot, straight toward Silver. When it reached the villain, it expanded into a gout which spanned the alley and rose four feet into the air. Silver wasn't nearly fast enough to dodge. It consumed her head. She shot up onto her feet, taking a few steps back. Some of the paint on her face had melted and dissolved to reveal the white skin beneath, but she was undamaged otherwise. Kindle purposely kept the fire at a temperature to where it hurt, but didn't cause any lasting burns. She wanted Silver to know she was serious.

It seemed to work. Silver's expression shifted from shock to rage in an instant. She thrust open palms forward in rapid succession, not unlike a sumo wrestler might. She stepped forward, once, and then twice, attacking all the way. Each palm thrust produced a small bolt of forked lightning. In all, Silver fired sixteen times.

It was all Kindle could do to retreat from the alley. Silver's aim was a bit erratic, but the bolts all presented a threat. Kindle moved her head right to dodge one bolt, then dipped down to avoid another. She planted herself against the right hand building as a shot sailed past her. Immediately after, she pushed off to avoid yet another one. She managed to get off one random flame to return fire, but couldn't stop long enough to aim.

A bolt collided with her right shoulder. The leather in her coat helped to disperse some of the charge, yet most of it still found its way into her. Stinging heat slammed through her body. Her heart skipped a beat, then resumed like a hammer inside her chest. She couldn't afford to stop running for the pain. Too many of those at once would easily kill her.

Kindle forgot her cautious retreat and instead turned tail to sprint for the exit. She ducked while in motion to avoid a bolt. Two more passed in front of her, missing my inches. She reached the leftmost building and grabbed its corner, hauling herself around it, but not before two more bolts found her right leg. The muscles spasmed, then locked up painfully. Kindle fell to her knees outside the alley.

Heart pounding in her chest and breathing shallow, Kindle rose to her feet with the building for support. She put about half her weight on the injured leg. It moved just fine, but the muscles were sore. Wincing, Kindle craned her neck around to look at the alley. The lightning bolts had stopped. Kindle peered into it to find no trace of Silver.

"You're not getting away from me!" Kindle shouted before shooting into the air.

She ascended over the buildings to scan the street below her. Silver ran openly across the busy road. Cars skidded to a stop or spun out to avoid her. A sedan that couldn't stop fast enough rear ended a pickup truck still slowing down.

Kindle swooped in, barreling down straight toward Silver. The villain turned at the last second before Kindle slammed into her. Silver was lifted from her feet and taken along for the ride as Kindle began rising back up. Silver managed to turn around in her grip and place her hands on Kindle's torso. Lightning sprayed from them, directly into the hero. Kindle's hold loosened as the electricity flung her diagonally upward into the air over Silver's head. She tried desperately to regain control, but she couldn't move. The charge creeping through her body had her paralyzed.

Kindle slammed back-first into the second story of a building. She hit with enough force to bounce off it. As she hurtled toward the ground, Kindle lashed out randomly with her power. She didn't have enough control over herself to do anything more than flail. Still, she managed to roll over onto her back just before meeting the sidewalk.

All of the air was forced from her lungs. She felt lightheaded. She could barely move. Gulping for air, she turned her head on the ground and caught a glimpse of Silver darting into another alley. Kindle forced herself to roll over onto hands and knees, groaning at the pain in her stiff joints. She paused there for a second before rising to her feet with what felt like a herculean effort. Her balance swayed. She stomped one foot behind her to keep from teetering, and immediately wished she hadn't for the jolt it sent through her lower body.

This wasn't the time for pain. She had to catch Silver. Stumbling steps were the closest she could manage to a run. At least the crowd had mostly ran away, so she didn't have to push past them. Kindle stopped at the alleyway Silver had entered and looked in it. Of course, she wasn't there. Again she rose to the sky to look over the buildings, though her ascent this time was in a rather wavy line.

It didn't take her long to spot that thick white hair on the sidewalk of the adjacent road amongst the people going about their business. This time, however, it was not attached to a head. Kindle flew down to it. The people startled and backed away as she landed, but she didn't care. The hero picked up the white wig from the ground. If Kindle knew her like she presumed to, Silver probably had a jacket or hoodie in that bag of hers. Now, she looked more or less like any other brunette in the crowd, painted skin not withstanding, though that paint would be washed off soon as she could manage. Kindle could find her is she were even still on the street, but the hero doubted she would be. Kindle clutched the wig in a tight fist.

"Birdseye," Kindle said. No response. "Birdseye," she repeated, louder.

She dug the communication device from her ear. It was blackened and charred. The burnt casing crumbled in places on her fingertips.

"Dammit!" Kindle spiked the device into the cement. It shattered. A heavy sigh passed her lips. She extracted her smartphone from a pocket inside her trench coat. It too, unsurprisingly, was fried. NAAME-issued technology was tough, but had its limits.

The chase wasn't over, though it looked bad. Elliot had likely already informed the police, and they'd be sweeping the nearby buildings soon enough. Kindle took to the skies to comb through the streets. All of this effort meant nothing. Silver was probably already out of her villain getup, and either blended into the crowd or found someplace to hide. Past experience taught Kindle their chances of finding her were next to none. Silver escaped. Again.