Harlow waited until the barrier was fully dissolved. If it had done that, then Blockade was knocked out. For all their recent issues, those barriers were technically unbreakable. She eyed the woman in front of her, now that she wasn’t flying, her hair was back to it original Dark brown, with strands of her hair falling neatly into place. Like they hadn’t gotten the memo that the floating was over. Harlow frowned, but that only made the woman in front of her to smile wider. 

“What? You didn’t think you’d see me so soon?” She walked around Harlow, something that probably would be very intimidating if she wasn’t a foot and a half shorter than her. Even with heel. Harlow placed her hands on her hips. 

Black Star, to what do i even owe the pleasure?” Yes, even this woman Harlow knew. A villain of s-class ranking, the “starchild” Black Star. She felt a hand grab her ear and pull her her down. 

“To what do you owe the pleasure?! What the hell are you even thinking??” She yanked again on Harlow’s ear. “You were just willingly going to go back to Citadel? Are you out of your mind.” The smaller woman kept pulling. On Harlow’s ear, again and again. She wasn’t even really focusing on the lecture as much as she thought My hair is wet, I have a bullet in my shoulder, I’m not wearing a coat..oh god, this hurts.

She quickly swatted away Black Star’s hands, grunting. “Would you stop?!? I have no idea what you’re talking about!!” She exclaimed. Black Star scoffed in surprise. She crossed her arms over her chest and tilted her head to the side. 

“You really don’t know? It’s all over the news.” She said. Harlow scoffed then gestured to her uneven appearance for the second time today. 

“Do I look I have done anything today besides get put in an energy hamster ball?” Harlow rapidly referred to herself again. Black star chuckled and it was only then that Harlow realized all the goings on that happened in front of her apartment. “I’m gonna go back to my apartment so if you don’t need anything else then I-“ Harlow felt Black Star grab her arm. 

“No, no no no. You can’t just go back inside.” She said, dragging her back to her side. “We need to get you out of here, like, today.” 

Harlow shook her arm free. “Why? Just because I was being detained? I can explain this whole situation away right now. I just need to put on proper clothes and explain myself.” She shook her head. “Besides, thanks to your fun little stunt, this is going to look worse on me. Why are you even here? What was on the news?” Black Star grunted. 

“We can have this talk later, in a more private location. Besides, “ She smirked, “the civilian look is cute on you. Might as well use it to your advantage.” Harlow frowned. She wasn’t sure what she was expecting. In fact, she was surprised it took this long for the flirting to begin. Again. 

“Okay, no.” Harlow wasn’t even sure to go with that one. She just turned around fully to face Black Star before she could even think of a proper shutdown. “You know what, what’s on the news, Cass.” 

Black Star, or Cassiopeia Strauss, grinned widely. She put her hand out, offering for Harlow to take it. “I’ll tell you on the way, lovely. But you gotta know, you might not like the answer you get.” Harlow wanted to argue, but she felt that maybe she’d brought too much attention to herself already. And who knows when those three will be back? Rolling her eyes, she took Black Star up on her offer. 

And as soon as their hands touched, Black Star eyes went from a traditional brown to a bright, sky blue. Her hair began to glow again and the stars from earlier reformed at the edges as she lifted not just herself but Harlow as well off the ground. “Do you think i scared your neighbors?” She teased. Harlow shook her head, not really thinking about the question. 

“How scared could they be? They’ve probably seen this before.”’ She muttered, watching her apartment building get smaller and smaller. Guess it beats whatever Miss Magia was going to do. She thought. “Cass? You didn’t say what was on the news.” She said, barely a whisper on the wind roaring pass and around the two of them. She wasn’t even sure that Black Star had heard her. 

“Oh, nothing really. You’re just a wanted criminal and the Citadel has issued a warrant for your arrest.” Black Star nonchalantly. Harlow felt a lump form in her throat. 

“WHAT!!” She yelled, letting go of Black Star’s hand. She felt the former move her closer to her so they could have a conversation without yelling. She didn’t have anything new to say now that they could talk. “WHAT?!??” She yelled again, her voice breaking. Black Star glanced over to her and offered a half smile. 

“Yeah, that’s why i had to get to you when i did. Like, sorry to Reina and the other two, but they were just gonna hand you over without asking any questions.” Black Star waved her hand around, like she was running through all the possible scenarios. “And once you got back to the Citadel, who knows what they were gonna do.” She flipped around face fully turned so she and Harlow could look eye to eye.  “Then what would you have done?” She asked. 

Harlow didn’t like the look in her eyes when she said that. Sure, technically her eyes were glowing which was keeping. Both of them afloat, but they still had a certain look to them. She was definitely a little more than amused by her own question. “Kinda sounds like you already know what I would’ve done.” Harlow said. 

“Little loyal dog you are, I’m guessing you’d trust the system would save you.” Black Star laughed. “The system that just framed you, it’s cute. It’s absolutely something you would do.” Harlow frowned. She wanted to yell something along the lines of Nuh-uh! But that would just egg her on. Besides she was wrong anyways. The Citadel is full of honest and brave people, some of the greatest she’s ever known. Just because she lost faith in them doesn’t mean Harlow had to. Harlow broke eye contact with Black Star and just stared below them, watching the city rich by in whirs of colors and sounds. 

She heard some sort of noise coming from Black Star, but pretended she didn’t. She was probably clearing her throat or something anyways. 

“You don’t wanna know where I’m taking you?” Black Star finally said, breaking the silence as she lead both of them to a clear spot in between the woods and the outskirts of town, just beside a freeway with a little cliff off to the right. Harlow landed a bit rougher than Black Star, stumbling  and rapidly trying to ready herself without anyone seeing. She doubted anyone could though, since they were on the side of the freeway. 

Black Star caught Harlow’s eye and gestured for her to follow. Closer to the cliff side. Harlow hesitated. She could just as easily hitchhike back to town. She could go the citadel and plead with them on their decision. Get them to reverse it, or at least look for the guy who was trying to kill her. Just thinking about it made her shoulder hurt worse. 

“Cass? Where are we going?” She should have asked this a while ago now. It didn’t matter how she was acting, she was still a supervillain. Naturally she shouldn’t trust her. Even though she was the only one to give her any clear answers on what happened the last several hours, and her using her powers dried her hair really fast. Plus…

“It’s not that i don’t trust you, but—I well, no i don’t trust you. What’s this?” She gestured to the cliff side that Black Star was walking towards casually. Eventually, Black Star stopped and turned around. 

“Well, we should probably stay underground and under radar til we figure out what’s going on, right?” She looked directly at the cliff side and then fished in her pockets for something: a small bracelet with a thin blue led running through it. A part of cliff face began to pull from the cliff and slide to the side revealing a long, large tunnel filled sparsely with area lights.  It was wide enough to fit a whole car at most, maybe two. 

Harlow watched in surprise as the dust settled. She looked back and forth between Black Star and the new entrance to gods know where. Her nose scrunched up. “What the hell is this Cass? Her voice carried a little ways into the man-made cave. Black Star looked so pleased with herself. Like she was a child that was sharing a new video game with her friends. Or a creepy haunted house down the way. 

“Your new hideout. Come on.” She nodded her head, motioning for Harlow to follow. And unfortunately, she did.