Grace ended up making three additional blades for future stock before calling it a day. Her girlfriend really needed a shower, but Nicole found she didn’t mind the combination of smoke and sweat coming off of her. She had opted to tie her jacket around her waist rather than wear it following all the hours of work she had put in.

  She’d worked hard and worn herself out, which meant Nicole was the one to drive them home. Grace was snoring softly from the passenger seat, her head resting against the cool glass. Nicole was all too happy to let her relax, not to mention how rarely she got to drive an actual car.

  Motorcycles were dangerous, that was the whole reason she owned one, but the danger was diminished with the enhancements that came from being a Ranger, and that had only grown since her near death due to Source exposure. She doubted that a car going a hundred plus plowing into her would do more than leave her sore for a few days at this point. The other Rangers wouldn’t be as lucky, but they too could shrug off some truly impressive punishment, even without their transformation.

  Turning down the street that would lead to the dorms, Nicole found herself frowning at the near chaos of it all. Her fellow students were running about, some out of fear, others out of obvious anger. She pulled to a stop down the road, giving the campus a wider berth and nudged Grace to wake up.

  “Wha,” Grace muttered, stretching in the seat. “Where—”

  “Campus, something is wrong,” Nicole said, unbuckling herself. “I’m going to go find out what, can you check with the others, see where they are? I’m worried about Becca and Colin.”

  It wasn’t often the pair were in the dorm room, especially after Becca took the job from Sinclair Industries, but they had agreed to spend the day while Nicole was out for old times sake. Not that Nicole wanted to think about what they meant by that, but she figured it was rather obvious. Now they were in the heart of whatever this was.

  “Sure,” Grace said, already pulling her phone out to dial a number.

  Nicole was out of the car and jogging over to the campus seconds later, zeroing in on a small group of police who were set up, but not taking any actions that might clue her in on what was happening. That was an all too common sight that she had grown used to, it was always the fire and rescue that had to act, because the police never did. She’d done CPR on two people that the police refused to help despite being there for five minutes ahead of them.

  Neither lived.

  “Officer, what’s going on?” Nicole asked.

  Oh, her voice came off just a touch demanding. Fuck it, something was clearly wrong and she wanted answers.

  “Piss off, we don’t have time for twenty questions,” the officer said.

  Nicole snarled, looking at all the others who were ignoring them. “Clearly none of you are getting off your asses to do anything, which means you aren’t fucking busy. I’m a trained fire and rescue specialist, now give me a fucking sitrep.”

  “Arrest her,” someone yelled. “We don’t have time to babysit anyone while there’s an active shooter.”

  A chill ran down Nicole’s spine as the officer tried to pull her arm behind her, but wasn’t strong enough to make her so much as budge. She had several friends on campus, not to mention family, but Becca was with Colin inside, and Jeff was seeing a movie with Kayla, which meant they were the only Rangers on site, at least until the others rallied.

  “She’s resisting!”

  Several officers drew their guns, but Nicole didn’t care even as she took a deep breath. The warmth within swelled as she did, and ebbed as she let it out. Two officers were now trying to pull her to the ground, yet she remained anchored. Three guns were aimed at her, everything turning to molasses as her senses sharpened.

  Then a flash of red interspersed itself between Nicole and the guns trained on her. Sharp retorts sounded and sparks flew from Grace as her kinetic barrier took the bullets like they were nothing. Grace’s posture shifted even as the firm grips that had been on Nicole’s arm released. Had they really just opened fire on someone in line with two of their own?

  Who was Nicole kidding, of course they had.

  “I’m okay,” Nicole said softly. “I’m pretty sure bullets would only sting at this point.”

  Grace huffed. “Just let me check you over.”

  “Yes ma’am,” Nicole said with a chuckle.

  The guns were still trained on the Red Ranger, but Nicole could see the sudden doubt in the eyes of those who had ordered the arrest. They were sharing looks with one another as it was made clear that she was someone important to the Ranger standing across from them and Nicole took more than a bit of twisted delight as the look in their eyes shifted to one of understanding.

  The knowledge that they had fucked up.

  “Now,” Nicole said, turning her attention back to the campus. “Let’s try this again. We’re going to put a stop to this, and you’re going to point me in the right direction before I decide to go through you instead.”

  “Bit much,” Grace muttered. “What she said. We’re both trained to handle emergency response. I’ve worked with her at the Maple Grove station, now, tell us everything you know.”

  “That’s the thing,” one officer said, putting her at the center of attention. She swallowed, but continued, “the best we have is that shots went off about fifteen minutes ago. Someone in the halls screamed and the fire alarm was pulled. It went to shit from there and we’re still trying to get a handle on things while we wait for SWAT to arrive.”

  “Lovely,” Grace said. “I’m going in. I’ll perform a sweep and subdue the shooter if necessary.” Then, in a softer voice, Grace continued. “Hayes, gear up. I’ll need the support.”

  Nicole nodded, then hurried off, hopeful that she could make a difference.

  Nicole had taken a moment to change in a less public area and joined Grace shortly after the police put their guns away, though she could feel the concerned looks that were sent their way. Yeah, confronting the cops like that was probably a stupid decision, but Nicole was out of fucks to give before the first trace of condensation was out of the officer’s mouth.

  At least everyone was giving the Rangers a wide berth.

  Thankfully most of the students had cleared out by now, but that didn’t stop her from being on edge. The halls of the college were never this quiet, lending everything a sense of eerie stillness that would have most of her hair standing on end if it weren’t for the skintight undersuit she now wore.

  The latest design from Sinclair was much closer to her old Ranger outfit in feel, though still bulkier than the genuine article. They still hadn’t replicated the kinetic barrier, and likely wouldn’t without a breakthrough that according to Becca should herald the return of her morpher.

  For now, all she could do was hope that they could find the shooter, take them into custody before they killed anyone, or rather more likely, killed more people. Nicole refused to be like the police, she wouldn’t just sit back as people were killed right in front of her. She would find the perp and bring them in, there would be no suicide by cop if that was their goal.

  “I really wish we had a better idea of where the shooter was,” Grace said, following behind. “We might know the campus, but that’s still a lot of ground to cover.”

  “They might have also slipped out in the chaos,” Nicole added. “Wouldn’t be hard to do if they just shot the one person they wanted dead then left.”

  “Seems cold for a college kid,” Grace muttered, but didn’t disagree.

  She’d suffered at the hand of someone else before, she knew how easy it could be to justify hurting someone else. They both did, in their own ways.

  “Get back!”

  The high pitched yell was cut off by the crack of a gun, and Nicole picked up her speed, she jumped, practically running along the far wall before she kicked off, rounding the corner in a flash. Two people were staggering away from a bathroom, one of which was visibly limping as the other carried them.

  “Red, help them,” Nicole said, still moving.

  She didn’t hesitate to push through the door and winced when another gunshot sounded immediately upon her entry. She didn’t stagger, but the impact against her chest piece was still felt all the same. Weaker than anything the machines or mutants managed.

  She took in the scene, a girl was pressed against the wall with her legs under her. The girl still had the gun raised, but her eyes had blown wide at Nicole’s rather showy arrival. A purse was spilled at the girl’s side and part of her outfit was torn. At her feet was a man, face down in a pool of his own blood. She didn’t want to jump to conclusions, but it was difficult not to, given what she was seeing with her own eyes.

  “Oh god,” the girl said, the pistol falling from limp fingers to clatter on the tile. “I shot…”

  “Hey,” Nicole said softly, putting her hands up. “It’s okay, you’re safe now.”

  The girl laughed deliriously. “Safe, right. I shot someone—” Her breath hitched as her fingers tangled in her hair. “At a fucking school of all places… They’re going to arrest me!”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  “Probably,” Nicole said, smiling gently under her helmet. She knew enough to say that she would absolutely be taken in for questioning. That didn’t mean that Nicole couldn’t do something. “But they aren’t going to come in just yet, so why don’t you tell me what happened? Maybe the word of a Ranger will help out.”

  Then again, she might lie her ass off about what happened. It would be hard to tell, but given they were in a women’s restroom and there was a man between her and the door, it wasn’t much to go on, but it certainly painted a picture. Nicole moved slowly, pressing two fingers to the man’s neck. She couldn’t feel a pulse at all and swore internally as she flipped him over and saw the reason why.

  She’d nailed him right between the eyes.

  “He’s my boyfr—” a hoarse sob tore from the woman as she broke down again. “He cornered me with his buddies, demanded I, oh god.”

  With a sigh, Nicole moved back to the door and poked her head out. Grace wasn’t far, tending to a wound on a guy’s leg. Seeing the motion, Grace stepped away so that they wouldn’t overhear. “Red, keep those two in sight. This might be a case of self-defense. One dead inside, suspect is a sobbing mess.”

  “Shit,” Grace muttered back. “They’re not going anywhere, don’t worry. Both of them are demanding to speak with the police claiming they witnessed the whole thing, so you might be onto something.”

  Nicole’s stomach twisted, wondering if those people had been involved, or were trying to cover for their buddy. She nodded, then returned to the bathroom and the suspect. Instead of doing anything else, Nicole took a seat beside her. She jumped slightly, pulling away but didn’t go far. “It’s alright, I’m not here to take sides right now, just listen.”

  Nicole moved slowly, touching the gun with a gloved finger before she pulled it away. Watching that, the woman descended into deeper sobs. That continued for several minutes, to the point that Nicole could hear people beginning to arrive outside.

  “I don’t want to go to jail,” the woman whispered. “I’d sooner die.”

  Nicole was taken aback by the raw emotion poured into those words.

  “You can tell me,” Nicole whispered. “Whatever it is, I’ll help keep you safe.”

  The woman chuckled darkly. “He promised me that too, told me nothing I told him would ever change that.”

  “But something did,” Nicole said softly.

  “Yeah, I came out to him,” she answered. “I transitioned before puberty, had my surgery just days after I turned eighteen. That was four years ago now. He even smiled and thanked me for telling him, kissed me on the cheek and left for classes. Then, him and his buddies all confronted me for ‘tricking’ him. They planned to make an example of me. We hadn’t even slept together yet! It was on the table, but I wanted him to know everything about me first. I even had some friends there when I told him, just to be safe.”

  “He knew that,” Nicole concluded, still processing her fumbling words. “That’s why he waited, isn’t it?”

  “I guess so,” she said, shivering as she clutched at her own arms. “They’ll send me to jail, put me in with the men. He said as much when I pulled the gun on him. Told me to just take the beating like the man I really was.”

  “Well,” Nicole said, sitting up and offering the woman a hand. “I don’t know what he was smoking, but I can assure you, you’ll never be housed with a man at the jail. If they do, I’ll personally come to break you out. Now, could you come with me so you can give an officer your statement?”

  “You promise they won’t arrest me?” she asked, eyes shimmering with barely veiled hope.

  Nicole shook her head. “I can’t do that. I promised they wouldn’t stick you in there with the male population. You still killed a man, and it will be up to the law to determine if you were in the right or not. All I can promise is that I won’t let them wrong you.”

  A sob tore free, but she still accepted the extended hand. Nicole wished she could offer a reassuring smile, but the damn helmet got in the way. “Red, we’re stepping out.”

  The door pushed open, Grace’s arm extended as the woman slowly stepped forward and into the hall. She yelped almost immediately as half a dozen rifles were turned on her.

  “Stand down!” Nicole yelled. “She’s surrendered and unarmed. Anyone fires and I kick all your asses across the Mississippi and into the fucking Gulf!”

  The officers’ heads turned to look at one another before shifting to their team leader who hadn’t so much as taken his eyes off the woman who was still shaking like a leaf, barely able to stay on her feet even with Nicole helping prop her up.

  “Here’s what is going to happen,” Nicole continued. “One of you will place her in restraints. The rest of you can secure the scene. I’ll help escort her to the station where she will be allowed to contact a lawyer, or be assigned one, before anyone questions her. I’ll stay with her the entire time to make sure she doesn’t try anything, and neither do any of you.”

  “Ranger or not, you can’t dictate terms,” the lead officer said. “You aren’t law enforcement.”

  “True,” Nicole said, then drew one of her blades and held it out to point at the man. “What I do have, however, is the bigger stick. Fuck around, please.”

  Grace chuckled, stepping up beside her with her massive axe slung over her shoulder. “You’ve already got all the suspects in custody. Just take the damn win and get to the finding out part before you get a black eye both literal and figurative.”

  There was a muffled conversation that followed over the police band, the team lead hissing into his radio for a moment before the gun dropped with a curse.

  “Jenkins, cuff her,” he said. “The rest of you, secure the scene for the investigators.”

  It would have been amusing to see the wind taken out of their sails if it hadn’t been because they were deprived of killing a woman that might be every bit the victim as anyone else that was involved in the shooting. Nicole would leave that up to the investigators to determine, but her presence should mitigate a lot of the bad press that would normally be dumped on someone opening fire on school grounds.

  Worse, if she did shoot him in self-defense, there would be a big show of how a responsible gun owner had defended herself, at least until someone uncovered that she was trans, then all bets were off. Nicole could sympathize, as Rebecca had gone through her own trials after coming out and transitioning during high school.

  “Come on,” Nicole said once the cuffs were fastened. “I’ll escort you.”

  She hadn’t practiced a proper escort before, but when one had superhuman strength and agility, a soft hand on the arm was more than enough. She made it only a few steps before Grace put a hand on her shoulder. Grabbing a jacket that happened to be on the ground, Grace pulled it over the woman’s face.

  “So the press can’t ID you right away,” she whispered.

  “Thanks love,” Nicole whispered, though she was fairly certain that the woman had overheard her, she just was out of fucks to give at the moment.

  Stepping outside, Nicole wasn’t surprised to see a line of reporters with cameras all swing over to her, or for the crowd to start cheering. She really wasn’t in the mood to deal with them, not to mention that she would be busy with keeping an eye on the girl she was currently parading out in cuffs.

  “Worry about her,” Grace said. “I’ll go keep the cameras and drama hounds busy.”

  Laughing breathlessly, Nicole wished she could kiss her girlfriend right then and there. “I really fucking owe you for that.”

  Grace leaned in close, their helmets practically touching. “I’ll be sure to cash in later.”

  Practically skipping backwards, Grace set off for the press. Nicole had barely resumed the escort when the woman spoke up.

  “Is she your girlfriend?”

  Nicole hesitated for a moment, then decided to just roll with it. If anything it would keep her calm and it wasn’t like their relationship was that well hidden, in or out of costume. Especially out, now that she thought of it, given they’d made out right in the middle of several parks in the city in the last few months.

  “Yeah, been dating since shortly after the power came to us,” Nicole said, fudging the truth just a bit. “We’d flirted a bit before then, but once we were both Rangers, it sort of happened.”

  “That sounds like such a fairy tale,” the woman said, her head bowed a bit. “At least one of us got that.”

  Nicole felt for her, she really did, and she was doing a damn good job pushing her buttons on top of it. Still, the least she could do was make sure that the girl was given every chance that would have been denied her if Rangers hadn’t been present.

  “You’ll get there,” Nicole said instead. “I didn’t think I would ever find someone, yet here I am.”

  “And here I am,” the woman mirrored her.

  Fuck, that really was a depressing thought. Still, she had to get the woman to the station and make sure all procedures were followed and that she got proper representation. She’d invested herself in the situation, so she could at least see it through.

  Pulling her phone from the pouch she kept it in, she dialed a number and hoped her friend was available. Becca picked up on the third ring.

  “Black here,” Nicole said. “I need a favor.”

  “What’s up,” Becca asked, sounding a bit winded.

  Nicole groaned internally. “You’re still in the room, aren’t you?”

  “Yup,” Becca said. “I think there was a fire drill or something, but fuck that noise.”

  “Mhmm,” Nicole said. “Give your boyfriend my regards, but that’s not why I’m calling. There was a situation on campus and I have someone who needs a lawyer that won’t fuck her over just because she’s trans.”

  “Give me five minutes.”

  As it turned out, Becca could get things moving damn quick. The lawyer arrived in a flurry, having been paid in advance and Nicole overheard that she was one of the best legal advisors in the nation. Said lawyer filed an emergency subpoena for all phone records and pulled the audio from an AI app that claimed it respected a person’s privacy and the recording that shouldn’t exist backed up her story almost to the letter.

  That certainly was a relief and the woman was free to go in under two hours. It felt a bit too neat and tidy, but Nicole wasn’t going to look too deep into it, especially when she had a text from Becca waiting for her on her phone back at the dorm. It was just another example of reasons to not fuck around with Sinclair and his shady cabal.

  Nicole kicked her shoes off and flopped back on the couch instead with a weary sigh of contentment. Coming home always felt amazing, and after spending a few hours with Grace following that mess, she welcomed the moment of peace and quiet for once. The day had been hectic, despite the good moments, and she was just happy to have a moment to herself.

  A warm shower always did wonders for the lingering soreness, which meant she was practically melting into the seams of the couch as she shut her eyes and relaxed. She wasn’t surprised to wake up to the light of the rising sun peeking through the window, or to the smell of brewing coffee.

  Stretching out, Nicole felt her joints crackle and pop and she couldn’t help the pleased groan that followed.

  “I hear someone had an interesting day,” Rebecca said.

  Nicole opened her eyes and was greeted by the sight of her best friend offering her a cup of dark ambrosia. She accepted it gratefully, taking a sip of the bitter brew. Rebecca always insisted that the first cup of the day had to be pure, that it helped wake up your mind as much as your body. Nicole didn’t necessarily agree, but she never once won that argument.

  Feeling a bit more awake, Nicole made her way into the kitchen and started on breakfast for the pair. No doubt Becca would want the full story behind the happenings of the prior day, and Nicole could admit that she was also curious about how her research was progressing.

  Well, that conversation could continue over a hot meal.

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