“Bitch!” The drunk shouted, throwing a punch.

Without flinching, Kaylah caught the weak fist and yawned.

Not to be condescending or anything, she was legitimately tired from last night’s exploits.

Leading that Anna girl to that hideout had taken longer than she’d suspected. By the time they’d arrived at that hideout, it was already almost light outside. When Kaylah finally got home, she’d only had enough time for a few hours to sleep before work.

The fact that the woman was lugging around Miracle Man and already dead on her feet probably hadn’t helped their speed any.

Kaylah would’ve offered to carry Miracle Man for Anna but the crazy woman insisted that they take that… thing with them.

Kaylah shivered.

Anna said that they could use the creature for information, figure out who was coming after them and while Kaylah could understand the sentiment, it didn’t mean she liked being near that thing.

But refusing Anna would have been hypocritical, Kaylah had already used the creature for that exact purpose after all.

She’d had to check whether Anna was telling the truth or not.

There hadn’t been enough time for an in-depth scan, but even with only a cursory look inside the things mind, one thing had been made abundantly clear...

It wasn’t human...

At all.

Everything about the creature’s mind was... wrong.

Things were out of place, broken, or just disconnected completely from the main consciousness. Emotions, for example, were just… absent completely, as far as Kaylah could tell.

Memory was strange too.

Normal long-term memory... flowed, for lack of a better word. Blending into one another like an endless river.

That thing’s long-term memory, on the other hand, was choppy, half-complete. Halfway through one memory, it would suddenly cut off and jump to another.

Thankfully, the creature's short-term memories were more intact than it's long-term and Kaylah was able to confirm Anna’s story as true...

And incredibly suspicious.

Even with the memory as proof, Kaylah could barely believe that the woman had managed to get away. She either had the devil’s luck or was being watched over by the big G himself.

Based on the tidbits and stray thoughts Kaylah had picked up from the creature, it was incredibly dangerous.

Yet, somehow, this skinny little white girl had managed to defeat them.

“Jesus fuck! Let go!” The man yelled, trying to pull his hand from Kaylah’s mechanical grasp and waking her from her thoughts.

“You’re still here? Leave already!” She told him as she threw his hand away.

“You’re the one that wouldn’t let go-” He said before he was cut off as a metal fist impacted his jaw, knocking him out cold.

Looking at the people that were lined up before her, Kaylah huffed. “Anyone else want to complain?!”

Everyone shook their heads, terrified of the muscled black lady.

The line got moving again and time began to pass slowly.

Kaylah was called in a few times to throw some troublemakers out and break up some drunken fights. One idiot pulled a knife on her and she knocked his teeth out for it. Another tried to sneak some Prophets Dream in and she sent the dealer packing with a black eye.

Somebody even tried to rob the place.

He ended unconscious, naked, and with dicks drawn on his face outside the club after Kaylah choked him out and the club took his stuff as recompense for the trouble he caused.

So, ya know, a pretty normal night.

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Don, the club owner and Kaylah’s boss, eventually relieved her of duty when her replacement arrived.

“You get some sleep, eh?” the small Italian man said with a laugh, his cybernetic eye lighting up bright green in his mirth. “Don’t need my best bouncer falling asleep on the job.”

“Yeah, yeah, see you tomorrow Don,” Kaylah called tiredly as she walked out the back door into the alley. Stepping past a couple that really needed to get a room, a drunk pissing next to a dumpster, and a druggy passed out in a pool of there own vomit Kaylah started walking back to her apartment.

“Ah, the joys of city life,” She muttered sardonically, looking forward to the family reunion in six days. Her mom had already called her earlier and told her all about it. Apparently mom had actually managed to contact her siblings and… coerce them into showing up.

It would be good to get away from the city for a little bit, especially with all the super shit that was going down.

Kaylah had yet to run into another super while doing her rounds, but she had seen a few at work. Some were hard to miss, having odd mutations like different skin colors and strange appendages. Others were just idiots, showing off their powers like they were magic tricks.

It was a good thing the police stayed up in the north, otherwise, there would be a lot more people in comas.

There was an unspoken rule between the police and the gangs.

Being understaffed, underfunded, and underequipped to deal with the well-organized cabals that called the south home, the police focused their efforts on the north while the south was left to itself. They already had enough issues trying to deal with the megacorps and keep them in check and not let them completely take over, they didn’t need a gang war on top of that.

That didn’t mean the south was lawless, of course.

No, the various gangs all had rules and regulations set up. They collected tariffs, set up taxes, offered protection, almost acting like tiny organized governments.

At least the larger ones did.

The smaller gangs were left to there own devices. The ‘big five’, as they’re most commonly known, didn’t have the time or resources to worry about every idiot that rounded up a group of friends and tried to rob someone. They were too busy fighting each other.

Kaylah stayed away from any of the big five, only going after small-time gangs. She knew that she couldn’t take on any of them without support, and, currently, she had no support.

Her V-screen buzzed on her wrist, making her jump. “I need to stop doing that,” she told herself as she opened up the call icon and held her wrist up to her ear. “Good way to get jumped.”

“What?!” Her mother’s voice said shrilly from the speaker, making Kaylah flinch.

“Nothing Mama, just thinking aloud. How are things going for the reunion?” She reassured before changing the topic in the same breath.

Her mother, flighty as ever, went along with it without a thought. “Oh! Well I just got your sister Debora to agree to bring her kids. They’re such little darlings you know! Brian is still a bit of a holdout, saying he has work, but I called them and they said that he was free that day so I don’t know what that’s all about. Then there’s your uncle Joe over in-”

Kaylah let her mother talk, half-listening, half-not as she walked in a daze.

She was pulled out of it when she heard gunshots off in the distance.

“-Baily said that he had other things to do as well but I think he was lying-”

“Mama, I’m gonna have to go, something just came up that’s really important,” Kaylah said urgently.

“Huh? Oh Ok, stay safe sweety!” Her mother chimed back, sounding worried.

Ending the call, Kaylah rushed off into an alleyway right beside her before scaling the building up to its roof.

Gravel crushing under her feet and gunshots sounding off in the distance, Kaylah pulled her boxing wraps and bandanna out of her back pocket. Kaylah ripped off a piece of the wrap and tied her hair up with it before putting on the bandanna. Then, she desperately tried to wrap her hands while keeping her momentum.

She finally managed it as she arrived on the scene.

The two cop cars in the middle of the intersection were the first clue that this was not just a normal gang fight.

The second major clue was the fact that the gang members were all wearing the same red jacket with a white skull embroidered on the back, the basic uniform of the Flaming Skulls, one of the big five.

The third major clue was the fact that there was a girl with a Flaming Skulls jacket tied around her waist and wearing a motorcycle helmet.

She was also throwing fire.

Kaylah took stock of the situation.

There were four cops hiding behind the barrier that their cars made. One was shot in the arm and another looked kinda crispy who was trying to call for back up. The remaining two cops were trying to hold off the group by taking potshots but weren’t making any headway. They were clearly in a desperate situation.

Meanwhile, the Flaming Skulls were just messing around. They could’ve easily flanked the cops and took them out but were firing their weapons at the cop cars in a vague imitation of suppressing fire. Most weren’t even flinching when the cops fired back.

The reason why became obvious when a tentacle of fire reached out from the super knocked a bullet out of midair. The super was standing at the back of the group and looked bored. One of the other gang members tried to talk with her but she just brushed him off.

Kaylah herself was feeling under-equipped.

She was wearing jeans and had a black tank top on. Her jacket was back at home and her jeans would restrict her movement. The building she was standing on was right beside the main group of the Flaming Skulls.

It was dark and she had surprise on her side, but they were more numerous and had more firepower.

Literally.

Getting involved could also mean that she was painting a target on her back in the future. She would also have to sacrifice some of her image to pull this off. No psychological warfare on this one, she had to be fast and put them all down before they could react. She also couldn’t punish them afterward by sending them to ‘Paradise,’ not with the cops there.

That would be a heavy blow to her image.

Looking at the cops as they desperately tried to hold off the Flaming Skulls, one clutching their arm as blood fell through their fingers while another shouted into their V-screen calling for help, Kaylah sighed.

Staring up at the moon, she scowled.

“Fuck my bleeding heart,” Kaylah grumbled as she lept off the building.