At eight Elsie had a patrol booked on SupAssign. At seven-thirty, she and Tam had pages of scrawled notes to show for their hours of research, and a folder of all the downloaded clips and screenshots they’d found. It was a start. They split, Elsie to change into a training centre outfit and Tam to put away their resources, and promised to continue tomorrow.

When her partner for the patrol hadn’t shown up after ten minutes, Elsie called into command and control to find out what the deal was. Turns out her fellow Grade 4 was sick and she had been approved to take the patrol alone this time. Of course her app hadn’t updated to reflect the change and now she was late. She sighed and took off, power-walking the first mile or so. The Hero Commission technically wanted patrols done in pairs by those fresh out of basic training. When necessary, or when they couldn’t be bothered to call up a bunch of people to walk a relatively safe trail, they let the hero go it alone.

Of course, a higher grade hero was still always on-call for actual action.

The night was quiet, as usual in the neighbourhoods that ran off from the south of the training centre. Small businesses were closed and quiet, big businesses were breaking down their recycling before pulling down the shutters, lights were on in the apartments above and in the lamps that lined the street. With light, came shadow.

Elsie’s steps slowed. In her peripheral, something seemed to swirl. Like the evening breeze could bend the murky gloom. When she turned, the darkness of the night was still. She looked forward again, but this time with the expectation that the shadows would move once more just out of sight. Her head snapped round, finding nothing amiss. Pounding, just beneath her nemesis mark, spread through her body like a drumbeat drowning out every other sense. The shadows were teasing her. Elsie swallowed and let her walk gain momentum again, as though she could skip away from whatever was lurking between the buildings. The flicker of a lamplight above her and she had her phone from her pocket without thought, her thumb already haphazardly smashing at the screen to get into SupAssign. Of course it took an agonisingly long time to load. The dark followed her, moving just out of view.

Listed with her assignment was the hero name: Brightlyn. Elsie hit the big red button. Instantly (as fast as the crappy old app could manage) her location was shared along with an SOS. She stilled, turning on the spot, keeping her eyes in a constant three-sixty, surveying the scene. Her skin was itching and her stomach twisting. How long would it take the on-call hero to come? How long would it take Blackout to completely demolish her? She knew those two numbers didn’t match up.

No one stepped out of the shadows, though. There was no maniacal laugh and no waft of smoke through the otherwise empty street. At the landing of a woman with curlers in at the centre of the road, Elsie almost had a heart attack despite knowing it certainly wasn’t Blackout. There was a sensation, a part of her that just knew this wasn’t the person she was connected to by the string of fate.

Brightlyn’s lips sparkled the pink of sherbert. Had she already had that on or applied lip gloss on her way to the call? Elsie realised now that she recognised her. Not from any in-person work but from the TV. Her marshmallow cheeks mimicked her hair: round, bouncy and shockingly pale. She was easy to like, that’s why she got the big bubblegum sponsors. Brightlyn was the hero that their branding classes pedestalled – taking powers as simple as flight and being able to see in the dark and turning it into a ‘light of your life’ persona had done wonders for her career. More than a grading of 2 could, if you followed the money. Elsie stared at her now, dumbstruck.

“You called?” Brightlyn reminded her brightly.

“I- I’m sorry. I panicked.”

Brightlyn blinked and tilted her head, one roller began to precariously dangle. “Panicked about what?”

“I… the shadows-” Elsie gestured around lamely. “I’m sorry, I was sure they were movin-”

“This is about Blackout, huh?”

Elsie swallowed. There was no way Brighlyn could know about her nemesis mark. It wasn’t possible.

“I get it.” She stepped in closer and took Elsie’s elbows in her hands to squeeze them sweetly. Halfway to a hug without getting too close. “Everyone is scared of her,” she assured her. “It’s totally normal to feel this way.”

Elsie blew out a long breath. Composing herself. Buying time to think of a response that wasn’t blurting out her much scarier secret. “Yeah. I’ve just been on edge since she reappeared.”

“That’s the smart way to be!” Brightlyn nodded in the direction that Elsie had been heading. “Come on, let me walk you to the end of your patrol and we can both sleep a bit better tonight.”

Mortified and grateful, Elsie accepted the offer. “Thanks.”

After a few hundred yards of easy plodding and checking down alleyways, Brightlyn guessed, “I’m going to assume you hadn’t even started basic training when Blackout was at her peak?”

Elsie shook her head. “I think I was ten, maybe eleven, when she really became unstoppable.”

“You’re a baby,” Brightlyn groaned, although she was grinning up at the stars.

“You don’t look much older than me.”

“Oh, I have a lot of rich people relying on me staying youthful,” she confided, whispering to her despite there being no one else around. “The treatments you can get these days are incredible – and extortionate.” 

“I’m invulnerable so that kind of stuff would be a waste of money for me,” Elsie admitted.

They turned the penultimate corner before their loop would be complete. “Well then, what do you have to worry about with Blackout?” Brightlyn teased with a wink. “Come on, don’t pull that face. Look, I was a baby hero when Blackout was stomping the streets and wreaking havoc last time so take it from me – you can’t let her stop you doing good. You can’t let the imaginary version of her that’s spooking you get more in your way than the real thing. If you do one day cross her path, that’s a terrible thing, but worrying yourself to death over it before she ever has the chance to get you? Not worth it!”

“Are you scared of her?” Brightlyn was one of very few heroes that Elsie could name that had powers that might just combat some of what Blackout was bringing to the table. She could see through the dark like it was daylight and had the bonuses of flight and, rumour had it, some ability to see through solid matter. Not all that impressive in normal circumstances, but against a supervillain specialising in darkness...

“Everyone is.” The smile that came with Brightlyn’s answer didn’t make it any easier to accept. “You’d be stupid not to be.”

Elsie pursed her lips and nodded. They were almost back to the training centre. “Thanks for coming out. And I’m sorry. Again.”

“Don’t be. I traded in to the on-call shifts for the next few weeks because of Blackout’s big comeback.” She paused, contemplating whether or not to share whatever she was going to say next. “I hope if the time does come…” She didn’t finish and Elsie couldn’t bear to guess the ending.

“Thanks for your help.”

Brightlyn escorted her right up to the training centre doors. “You’re welcome. It’s Eclipse, right?”

Elsie smiled shyly. “Emerald Eclipse.”

Brightlyn took her arms again in that kind, comforting squeeze. “Until next time, Emerald Eclipse.”

She accepted the farewell instead of begging assurance that there wouldn’t be a next time. Either a shameful false alarm, or the real deal.