Brick chunks flew out around Elsie’s body as she passed clean through the wall separating bank tellers from back office. It wasn’t entirely the thug’s strength that had put her through it, her invulnerability caused her to break things sometimes, too… She reminded herself this as she laid in the rubble, a little dazed if she was being honest with herself. Most of the staff had already run screaming from the premises as soon as the heroes had arrived to handle the robbery, along with their customers, but the few that remained cowering behind their desks looked to Elsie like they thought this was her end. She could die of embarrassment, at having been caught out by some low-grade villain that couldn’t even pass basic training if he tried, but she wasn’t injured physically. She sat up with a sheepish smile, hoping it would reassure them.

Jules flew past her, popping portals to drop and catch the grunts as though juggling the greasy little men. The bank staff’s relief was palpable. That was a hero handling the situation. Confidence put the public at ease, she’d been taught that, and yet trying to put it into practice wasn’t so easy. Jules created a jenga stack of the robbers, all either knocked unconscious or unable to keep their pupils straight.

Elsie hopped up, dripping shards of brick, and ran to his side. He didn’t need the assist, the villains were handled as far as they could see. A silent pause as they listened for any others hiding anywhere. Jules shook his head. All clear. He pulled his phone from his pocket to let the police know the zone was safe to enter and collect the criminals that had decided a Tuesday lunchtime was the perfect moment to steal a small fortune. Luckily they had only gotten as far as threatening the staff and there were no casualties, although at least one had come armed. The presence of guns was a tell-tale sign that none of them had decent powers to use. Probably why they decided to gang up together, too.

“I can’t believe they put me through a wall,” Elsie groaned from the back of her throat.

“Superheroism isn’t a one-person profession – that’s supervillainery,” Jules reminded her. “You did well as part of our team.” His eyes dropped to just beneath her neck and a cold shock shot up Elsie’s spine. She could feel a breeze on her collarbone. Her hand jumped to her nemesis mark, not that she could see it but she knew by heart exactly where it was embedded into her flesh. Her supersuit was ripped, she felt the tear beneath her fingertips and slapped her hand flat to cover the hole. “We were heavily outnumbered,” he continued, as though nothing had happened. “And the bank hasn’t lost a penny.”

“Yeah,” Elsie said unenthusiastically. The last few words he’d spoken hadn’t even registered in her mind as more than noise. “Um, I need to use the loo.”

Jules looked away, scanning the clean-up already taking place. “Be quick.”

Elsie stepped away, then turned on her heel a few times realising she didn’t know where she was going. “Do you have a bathroom?” she asked in a whisper to a passing staff member. They pointed her to a door that had lost its tiny golden plaque of ‘WC.’ She flicked her finger to lift and reattach it in a weak feat of telekinesis and modest gesture of thanks.

Her hand trembled when she drew it back in front of the bathroom mirror. She blew out a long, shaky breath. The rip only revealed the word ‘Nemesis’ and no name. She didn’t know why Jules hadn’t asked, but she was very glad not to have to answer. She had nothing to pin the flap or cover it with, so she kept her hand to her chest like she was making a pledge and returned to Jules’ side.

“Looks like this was a bigger operation than we were originally advised,” he murmured down to her.

Elsie frowned. She kept her voice just as low. “What do you mean?”

“I’m hearing talk of the mob.” Jules had fantastic hearing, it could be considered a mild superpower, really. If it wasn’t classified and measured through the official channels, you couldn’t claim it as a true power. For some, they had extra abilities that it just wasn’t worth the paperwork to declare.

“Which mob?” Every country had their own. And a lot of countries had patches of others’ building strength. “Like, the Italian mob?”

Jules shook his head. “I think local.” He stilled. “I’m only getting muffled bits now. Something about gangs growing without a mega villain on the scene any more… not sure how much credit they should be giving Blackout in this...” A blink, as though coming back to himself. “Let’s go make our statement and get back to the TC.”

Elsie followed him like a foal, stumbling along while trying to stay close. It offset her balance to be clutching her invisible pearls. “What’re you going to say?”

He grinned to himself. “Not much aside from declaring you the hero of the hour.” With a hard hand between her shoulder blades, he thrust Elsie into the flash of cameras at the top of the steps leading into the bank.

Reporters rushed the short gap to her, asking questions over one another until they realised she wasn’t intending to barge through them and run. Her mentor joined her, rousing cries of, “Oh, it’s Mr Jump!” Although just long enough to call out, “Allow me to introduce one of my centre’s many fine heroes: Emerald Eclipse! As the lead hero on this incident, please direct your questions to her.” He winked back at her and added, “Max five answers and remember your training.” Her media training, he meant, not any of the hero skill classes his training centre provided. He hopped in place and dropped through a portal in the ground. An eager interviewer almost fell in as he rushed forward to take the empty space.

Elsie, suit still held in place by her palm, felt her lips wobble up into a nervous smile. News cameras were rolling, capturing every bit of her behaviour for superfans to analyse. She could be their new favourite, the up-and-comer, if she could just make a decent impression and keep getting wins that put her into positive spotlight.

With permission to put forth their inquiries, the reporters stopped fighting to be heard over one another. The nearest, with a foam microphone, asked, “Was this a sting operation for the arm of the mob that was severed in today’s arrests?”

“I wouldn’t be allowed to say if it was,” Elsie answered, hoping her grin was less awkward and maybe more smart-ass. The thought of that being only an arm of the mob was worrying despite their sorry attempt at a hold-up. There was strength in numbers. Even top-graded supervillains had grunts and thugs.

“Is there a level of risk here that should concern the public?”

“As far as I’m aware, the national threat levels still apply as they did before today’s incident.” Meaning, in plain English, she had no idea the threat level raised by this gang. Jules got the call from dispatch and brought her with for the experience. Neither had been briefed that this was an organised attack. “Of course, we always ask that civilians call the emergency line should they ever feel at risk of villainry.” She sounded like those recordings they played on buses.

“Did you take an injury in the fight?” Cameras and phones honed in on the hidden rip of her top.

“Cosmetic damage.” She laughed and dug her hand deeper to her collar bone. “Just trying to protect my decency.”

“Any injuries to witnesses?”

“Nothing physical. Specialist officers remain in the bank to offer resources to the staff for mental health support.” Elsie moved to part them, making her imminent exit known. “I can take one more before I leave.” It made such an easier unlatching when you could fly or portal away. She had a new reason to practice when she got back to the training centre.

The crowd clamoured again, fighting against the buzzer and throwing out much tougher questions. Mostly about the mob and crime rates for the area and what she thought of the police commissioner’s latest decisions and the knock-on effects they had on heroes. The heroes had their own commissioner to worry about, it wasn’t Elsie’s position to be commenting on either.

“When will we get more information on this incident? Such an ambitious attempt from a rising organised crime ring is everyone’s concern, don’t you agree?”

That one. Elsie turned to the woman with her microphone thrust forward like a weapon and met her eyes to answer, “This is now in the hands of the city police, they will give any further information to us and the greater public as they see fit.” Textbook response. Smashed it.

She broke away with a side-step and walked with purpose, eyes up and away from the jostling reporters still trying to entice her into an interview or even just a throw-away comment. Once she had reached the bottom of the stairs, they lost interest, scrabbling back to the top to find a police officer to pester. Jules was waiting on the other side of the road that passed the bank for her with gloves raised, portal-ready. Elsie tried not to look like she was running away when she crossed to him. Civilians were still watching with their phones up. Probably Jules Jump superfans… Still, maybe they would take an interest in her now that she’d been named the lead hero! Entirely undeserved, and if she was just a little more cynical she’d think Jules only gave her the credit to make his mentorship look successful. It would do good things for her career regardless and she was grateful. And mortified. And overthinking every action and word since they arrived on the scene. Her heart was pounding in her head, adrenaline dump incoming. She still felt the jitters of it all.

She grinned at Jules.

He clapped a giant, glowing hole into existence and nodded her through. “Well done, Emerald.”

Elsie stepped through floaty, unsettling nothingness. She didn’t like to let both feet leave solid ground, a reflexive fear in her gut that she might fall through the crack. On the other side she stole a sucked-in breath. Secret, sweet relief.

“Get some training in with Carl,” Jules ordered, stepping in behind her. “He can practice throwing you through walls in the crash zone.”

Elsie laughed and took off towards the training rooms. “Yes, sir.” If that was first on his mind, she may have just gotten away with keeping her nemesis mark to herself!

“Your hard work is paying off,” he called after her. “Don’t do anything stupid now.”

He was right, and Elsie had no intention of taking any risks in regards to her career or the mark on her chest. Slow and steady wins the race. Don’t poke the bear. All those good sayings that affirmed her decision to not roll the dice on her life. It was easy to forget, in the fame and fanfare, that heroism was still a deadly profession. In the words of an old TV comic, superheroism was the military with flashier uniforms and far too much personal discretion.

In the changing rooms she swapped into a practice Supa Suit and bagged her custom to send in for repair. The service at the training centre was pretty speedy, so she’d heard. On her way back to the gym she dropped it off and received a slip of paper to come back for collection in a day. She had nothing exciting booked on so she couldn’t complain about the turnaround time.

A couple of cadets stretched lazily in front of a TV mounted in the corner of the room just outside the main gym housing benches and vending machines for breaks. The small screen glowed with a continuous stream of news coverage. Elsie didn’t often stop to watch but this time she might just be a feature!

When she sidled in behind the young heroes-to-be they shuffled outwards to make room for her. She tried to play it cool and nodded at them like she always got this kind of respect despite wearing a generic training suit. One day.

“-corporation has been approved in their purchase of Pow Energy, despite complaints from consumer watchdog organisations of monopolisation of the city’s electricity supply. With this acquisition-”

Elsie peeked at the cadets. Their eyes were glazed.

“Don’t suppose you caught me on there at all?” she asked, barely masking her awkward pride.

The kid to her left shook his head. “All they’ve talked about since we got here is this.”

“It’s so boring,” the one at her right side moaned.

“What were you on the news for?” Lefty asked with his brow up as though suspicious she’d gotten caught live on air with her bum crack peeking out her supersuit.

“Stopped a bank robbery.” Nonchalant. Nailed it.

The trio snapped their attention fully away from the TV to give her a joint beam of wonder.

Elsie shrugged under the attention. “Anyway, I should get back to training.”

“Us too!”

“Yeah, I wanna stop a heist one day.”

Elsie bumped the doors open with her back, keeping her face to the cadets to offer the advice, “It’s all in the practice after basic training.” At least she was authentic, albeit still following that advice herself.

She found Carl (or Big Carl, as many called him) to plead his help for the afternoon and got thrown around like a rag doll until they quit for dinner. Over clumpy spaghetti bolognese she showed off the sparse news articles she had found of the robbery that named Emerald Eclipse to Tam like a trophy. This was it, she’d climbed the first rung of her professional hero career.