“Heads up!”

  I made a half-hearted attempt at a leap, arms outstretched. The ball sailed past my short fingers and straight into the net, drawing a groan from my team. I grabbed the ball and tossed it their way before returning to the net. Shortest person on the team and they made me goalie, brilliant. We were down two to nothing and I doubted my team would pull things back in the last ten minutes of the period.

  Not my problem, it wasn’t like it was hockey where they could pull me or something. This wasn’t important besides, just killing time between now and the Hero Killer surfacing. If I thought four days had been bad, a week was agonizing. I hadn’t heard back from Dragon and Defiant, so I assumed they were on the job. I prayed…

  At least things didn’t feel quite as harrowing as when Leviathan or the Nine loomed on the horizon. Maybe because, this time, I knew things ended in my favour. Sure things had changed a little, but that was mostly my fiddling. So what if it was Delhi, Lucknow, or some dam? The general details were the same, and I had my doubts that Taylor was the one responsible for Scion’s interference, so it was still game on.

  But how to survive? That was the only goal: survival. No way I could do anything to help that fight, not realistically. This wasn’t Leviathan who, while terrifying, didn’t have an instant death aura around him. Nor was this the Nine, awful monsters whose leader wanted me to join them but still ultimately human...or parahuman.

  Behemoth was much closer to a natural disaster than them. Sure Leviathan had his waves, but between the quakes, lightning, and god only knew what else the former was far and away a greater threat. But, like a natural disaster, I could at least accept I had no place on the front lines against him. Search and rescue would be fine…as long as I avoided what happened last time.

  The dam had collapsed, obviously, but I’d looked up a couple videos of what that actually looked like. The water didn’t come out in some wide beam blasting down the river and its banks, hell it usually stuck fairly close to the river’s track at first. Last time I’d just been knocked over by the quake, then frozen by the sight of it. This time, I just had to run uphill and the fuck away from the river. Fucking hindsight, I almost wished I was an actual precog so that wasn’t all it was.

  “Heads!” The ball smacked into my face before I could even react, and I started so hard I fell over. As the ball went out of bounds, Dennis ran over to me with a look of concern. He offered his hand to me.

  “Hey, you good?”

  “Fine,” I muttered, rubbing my head like it had actually hurt. I took his hand and got up. “I fucking hate soccer.”

  “Hey nice save!” the black guy Dennis called ‘Newt’ said with a wide grin. “And no broken nose, doing better than Dennis.”

  “Go to hell Newt,” Dennis retorted. “And stop pranging shots off my friend’s head.”

  “Hey man, relax,” he said, holding his palms out. “You cool? Something’s been up your ass for a while.”

  “Look around,” Dennis snapped. “Stupid question.”

  The teacher blew his whistle and interrupted the argument with the end of class. I let out a sigh of relief and headed straight for the change rooms. They’d shifted things around, so now PE was the last class of the day for me and Amy. Ideal, since it meant I didn’t need to go to class stinking of sweat. Instead I had to worry about riding home with Amy and...god dammit. Hopefully she’d forgive me being all sweaty.

  Oh well, I’d just apologize and that would be that. I changed quickly and headed out to the bus stop. It wasn’t long before Amy joined me and we started chatting. Nothing actually important...and that was kind of nice. Both of us had plenty to worry about, between her negotiating with the PRT and rebranding, and me trying to mentally prepare for Behemoth. Here though...it was just us.

  We boarded the bus and sat near the back when it finally arrive. Our chatter died off, replaced by a comfortable silence filled with closeness and interlocked fingers. I told Amy I wanted to go slow and that was true, but if I was honest with myself...I had no idea what that looked like. Last time I-- no, forget last time; Amy wasn’t like that and neither was I, not anymore. A sigh escaped my lips and I felt Amy’s grip on my hand tightened.

  “You okay?” she asked quietly.

  “Just thinking,” I said simply.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  “What about?”

  “Dunno,” I shrugged, trying to ignore how my stomach was twisting.. “Stuff. Lots of stuff, I guess.”

  “About...us?” Amy asked, a note of fear in her voice.

  “Sort of,” I replied, running a thumb over her knuckles. “It’s not bad, promise.” At least, Amy wasn’t the bad part of it.

  “You sure?”

  I simply leaned over and gave her a peck on the cheek. She blushed and turned her head, muttering something about ‘no fair’. Still, I caught the smile on her lips and she leaned against me. I smirked and turned to look out the window. Yeah, I didn’t know how ‘slow’ slow was, but I was happy with what we had.

  The ride took practically no time, and before long I joined Amy in her room. We both had homework to do and figured it’d be nicer to hang out than do it all alone. I was halfway through a particularly irritating math sheet when a knock came at the door. I slipped on my mask as Amy got up to answer.

  “Hel-- Dad?!” Oh, I’d forgotten about that one.

  “Hey hon,” Flashbang replied as I rose from the couch. “Can I come in? I...wanted to see you.”

  “Uh, sure,” Amy replied, backing away and letting him in as I approached.

  “Oh, hello Amaranth,” he said, offering me a smile. “I wasn’t expecting to see you, are you doing alright?”

  “Just fine,” I said with a nod. “I’ll uh...just give you guys some privacy?”

  “You don’t have to,” Amy whispered.

  “Hey,” I said softly, taking her hand. “It’s okay. He’s your dad, right?” Her lower lip trembled, and when she didn’t say anything I stretched up and pressed my masked lips against her cheek. “It’s gonna be fine, and if it’s not, talk to me?”

  “Okay,” she said, taking a deep breath and pulling away. “Okay, see you Amaranth.”

  “See you,” I said, trying to ignore the look Flashbang was giving me.

  Hopefully she’d forgive me for that one...

  “So,” I said as we started on the second leg of our patrol. “What’s your power anyway? You conjure up a rain storm?”

  “Sure, something like that,” Autumn Rain scoffed.

  “What?” I asked. “I wanna know in case we have to fight. I have to be close enough to the bad guys to catch a charge, I don’t really want to be caught in the crossfire.” She pursed her lips.

  “I have to charge it up,” she said. “Longer I do, the stronger the effect.”

  “And the effect?”

  “Are you depressed?” I blinked at her question, then offered a shrug. “Well you will be.”

  “Shit.” I scratched my chin. “And no way to make me immune?” She shook her head. “Well, try and hold off the showers if I’m going to get wet?”

  “No promises.”

  “What?” I shot her a look. “Why?”

  “Because I’d rather they be miserable than dead,” Autumn snapped.

  “I’m not going out of my way to kill people,” I retorted. “In fact I’d rather fucking not thanks. Have enough trouble sleeping as it is.”

  “Yeah? That why you want us, what was it, ‘wiping them out’?”

  “Prisons exist,” I countered. “But if that isn’t an option, for whatever godforsaken reason, then we shouldn’t back down when they have a knife to the city’s throat. I know you weren’t here when the Nine were but believe me, every cape can be a monster. That includes me, that includes you, and it sure as hell includes every villain infesting my home.” We walked on in silence for a while after that.

  “I...I think I see where you’re coming from,” Autumn broke the silence. “I’m not from here and you’re right, I didn’t fight the Nine. But I’ve been a cape for a year, and I don’t think your approach is right.”

  “Okay,” I replied. “I don’t think the Protectorate’s is either. Still here, still following orders, but I’m not going to just shut my mouth and fall in line when it’s going to hurt people.”

  “Like you hurt people?” a shout from above made me roll my eyes. I braced myself as Bitch’s dogs surrounded us, charging from alleys flanking us on all sides. Tattletale and Grue sat on one, Bitch on another with a chain around the third’s neck.

  “Hi Tattletale,” I drawled. “Let me guess, something something ‘time to pay’ right?”

  “Oh the little Nazi has teeth today,” Tattletale sneered. “Hey Autumn, missed a spot on your chin. Sloppy.”

  “Don’t be a cunt at my teammate,” I snapped. “And be glad there’s a big enough threat on the horizon that for once I don’t want your jaw wired shut.” To my shock, she shut her mouth and stared silently for a moment.

  “Spill it,” she barked.

  “Hmm, rather not,” I said. “I’ll just wait to see the surprise on your face come Mon—” My phone rang out, a shrill two-tone alarm that made my skin crawl. Autumn’s echoed the same discordant tones.

  “You going to get that?” Tattletale asked as the blood drained from my face. “Sounds important.”

  “No, no, no,” I mumbled, tearing my phone from its pouch. “No you fucking fat fuck you’re early!” I shoved it back in my pocket and looked up at Tattletale. “Behemoth’s surfacing. You have a ride?”

  “Shit,” she swore. “I usually like cryptic, but try and speak plainly when an Endbringer is on the way.”

  "Fucking what?" Grue bellowed.

  “I’ll be considerate next time, princess,” I retorted, rolling my eyes. “Now either give us a lift to HQ or fuck off.” She paused, apparently considering it.

  “Get on,” Tattletale snapped, gesturing to one of the dogs. “And call ahead won’t you? I’d rather not get the Skitter treatment.”

  I clambered aboard the dog Tattletale had pointed at, and after a moment’s hesitation Autumn climbed on behind me. Bitch yanked its chain and Autumn yelped in my ear as the dogs tore off down the road. I spoke quickly into my radio, letting the Protectorate know we were incoming and bringing guests. I knew, just judging by Miss Militia’s tone when she piped herself in, I was in for an earful when all this was over.

  Hopefully, I’d be around to hear it.