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  “Do you remember the day we met, Arabelle? Do you remember what I asked of you?” I watched quietly as she twisted a rotating hourglass necklace between her two fingers. She stumbled for a moment before she turned away from me. Her bright red hair glimmered in the moonlight, but her dark green eyes told of a darker tale. Deep furrows developed in her brow out of her obvious consternation. She sat silent for a while, but I knew the answer was yes. Cautiously, she spoke.

  “You asked me to follow in your footsteps and do hero work illegally.”

  I was furious. It seemed that it would never get through to her. “No, I’ve told you to stop thinking of it that way. First off, I’m not the only one doing this. I’ve told you that. It’s an entire underground movement. So quit insisting you’re following my footsteps. Besides, I want you to take your own path. Be better than me.” I reached a hand out almost instinctively to cup her cheek. She flinched and turned away from me. As she stared at her feet, I paused. I stared at my hand floating in the air and grew disgusted. I recoiled quickly. “Secondly, stop saying it’s illegal! Think of it more like a gray area. Like with Gray Steward and Blue Knight from Void Encounters: Episode Four. You know, the episode that actually started the series before they made all the dumb prequels.”

  Arabelle waved her hands at me to cut me off. “Okay, ignoring your nerdy tangent. I still feel it’s too risky a move. We will have to be working closely with the police. I don’t want to be on the bad side of my allies.”

  “Kid, don’t be so naive. The cops don’t actually care. They’re just making examples of us. If an officer doesn’t care, he’s not going to put in the effort. Besides, if you do your job right, they’ll have their hands full with other baddies.” I flashed her a large smile in hopes to win her over. I didn’t need her to agree as much as I needed her to shut up.

  “But that’s so counterintuitive!”

  I groaned and turned on my heel. If the smile didn’t work, maybe walking back to the bar would give her the message. I heard her footsteps start to pound after me.

  “I think it’s better to have a good relationship with the people you work with.”

  Or not. I rubbed the crease I could feel starting up in the middle of my forehead. “Look, Kid. Stop thinking about it so much. You put your head into things, and that’s great. Never leap before you look and all. But you overthink things. I’ve been doing this for a while now, and I can promise you that it’s easier than you think.” I stopped in my tracks and turned to look at her. I crossed my arms over my chest. “So enough fussing, come back to the bar, and let’s just finish up for the night, okay?”

  She heaved a sigh. Her eyes darted between me and her feet. She would never be able to become a strong hero if she didn’t exert some confidence. I was tired of seeing the nervous ways her eyes would flitter. I was sick of hearing the way she would stutter. If she had faith in herself… “I still think it’s important if I could work with the cops more openly.” If she would get over her stubbornness!

  “Why is it that important?!”

  “Well, isn’t it important to be on your partner’s side?”

  I threw my hands over my head. “We’re not on the same side! I don’t even think we’ve been on the same side!” This kid had so much talent. So much potential. Why was she going to keep throwing it away? “So is our relationship useless to you? Am I useless to you?” I could see her choking on words and biting back some tears. ‘Nice going, Moron.’

  Arabelle took in a shaky breath before finally meeting her eyes with mine again. “I didn’t mean it like that… I never thought you were useless. I never thought either of us were useless.”

  She was going to take a lot of work. Her skills would improve as long as her self-confidence would. I gave her a small smile and opened my arms. “Come here, Kid.” She took a few tentative steps forward and I urged her in with some quick flexing of my fingers. With a couple more steps, she accepted the hug. “Are you better now that you’re in the arms of a big, strong man?” Arabelle responded with a loud scoff before punching me hard below the rib cage. Great form, but she should put her legs into the swing. With hips like those, a hook thrown with her entire body could very well knock a man unconscious with a single hit. I contemplated saying so but decided that I’d like to see the rest of the night. I opened a hand for her to take. “C’mon, Useless. Let’s head back now, please?”

  “I don’t need an escort, Ass.” She slapped my hand away, but I could see the start of a smile playing at the corner of her lips. I felt a strange tug in my stomach and quickly dismissed it. Every now and again, the moon would shine off her at just the right angle. That’s all it was. After all, any woman can look beautiful under moonlight.

  Getting back to the bar was tougher than I had anticipated. The problem with a flashy, colorful hero suit made to distract from your personal identity is that it’s colorful. And flashy. And the problem with colorful and flashy is that it also draws eyes. Whose eyes? Everyone’s eyes. Cop’s eyes, villain’s eyes, cop’s eyes, pedestrian’s eyes, cop’s eyes, other hero’s eyes. Oh, did I mention cop’s eyes? Yeah, my suit may be perfectly built to blend in and hide, but Arabelle’s was not. Among the bright gold and silver and curves and white belt, it was not hard to see why it wasn’t considered subtle.

  We managed to walk four blocks before the police caught sight of an unregistered suit. Beside that suit, there was a registered suit though. It was a “criminal’s” (seriously, I’m the criminal? With her fashion choice?). Know what else isn’t subtle? That’s right: red and blue strobing lights attached to a loud siren and white car. Running also isn’t subtle, but when the first layer of subtlety breaks, it’s probably your best shot.

  However, cops are good people. So as any law-abiding citizen would do, I did not grab Arabelle’s arm and yell run. I did not book it into the dark alleyways where I knew the streetlights didn’t work. I did not pull along a young, protesting adult with me as my accomplice. I most certainly did not hide from the cops between two cramped city buildings ten feet in the air and drew out a relieved sigh when the car’s tires plodded away in the distance.

  It should also be mentioned that I am as good a law-abiding citizen as I am a liar.

  So there we are in a cramped alleyway, ten feet in the air, face-to-face with our feet outstretched to hold us so we don’t fall. We face each other for a moment. Her eyes were wide and frightened, but the look of excitement alit the darker green patches in her irises. Her mouth was still hanging slightly agape, and her breath was heavy from the sudden sprint. Her chest heaved with each draw of breath and brought it up to touch my own. I watched her like that for a minute in the silent darkness. I swore that there had to be moonlight.

  Or maybe any woman can look beautiful suspended in the air in a dark alleyway.

  Finally, she focused back in on me. “What are you looking at?” The sudden snappy tone in her voice caused me to laugh. Soon, she was laughing, too.

  “C’mon, Kid. Let’s get back to the shop. We’ll take the long way this time.”

  She smiled and winked. “The scenic route. How romantic.” She laughed again. “You know, I think I can see why you like being a vigilante. Fleeing the cops is so much fun.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Whatever you say, Kid.” I pulled my leg away from the wall and started my descent. I didn’t even budge. “Weird.” I pulled both legs away from the wall and waited for the impact of the garbage bags below. I found that I was floating in mid-air. When I looked up again, I could see that Arabelle was red in the face.

  “Um, Boss?...” She pointed down. When I looked, I could see that my midriff was caught between her legs. Worse, her foot had slipped into a broken chip in the brick building behind me and was stuck. Her other leg had gotten jammed in a gutter to my side. I couldn’t see either of them well enough to pull them out.

  “How?” I started quiet, but my voice slowly got louder. “How in all of Malfakor did you get stuck? How did you get both of your feet stuck?” I watched as Arabelle became more and more embarrassed before I gave a helpless laugh. “You are one strange woman.”

  If you’re between a rock and a hard place, there’s nothing to do but grin and bear it. I suppose that would be the same if you’re stuck between a wall and a woman’s thighs. After all, there are worse places to be.