"You're in for something good," Fortune tells me, hovering over her arrangement of tarot cards. In the corner, the battery-run wall clock ticks along. The sirens in the streets below call out as police cars pass by, lights of blue and red dancing against the white walls stuck with aged posters and step-by-step manuals, but never touching the long white drapery of her A-line skirt, and never tracing across the thick curls on her head. "It's going to change your life, especially if you're bold."

I snap my gum glumly and rub my nose. The air is cold, and the guard jacket I've draped over my shoulders isn't enough to keep my nose from itching. "Cool." Slouching in my chairs even a little more, hugging my arms around myself, I gaze outside the glass windows.

It's midnight, the night of the good nights, and it's graduation night. There's a party in the Institute's auditorium, a pretentious skyscraper tall dome with sharp angles. Even up here, in a watchtower, I can hear the music booming across the entirety of the city. It's the last night of regulation for a lot of us; it's the first night of freedom.

And here I am, lucky enough to be stuck on lookout duty in the dark. This is not how I wanted to go out. Around me, everything is silent. Only the brief agitated crackle of the walkie talkie gives me away.

"Now, now," Fortune tsks, and she puts her cards away. "No need to be so bitter. I'm the one giving you a reading after all." From her clutch, she deliberates, dangling her fingers loosely around before she extracts a small twist container. "And I do so like being kind once in a while."

I eye her cautiously from the side of my eye. They say she's found a way to be apprenticed to Fate itself, but all I see is a woman with a non-offense based power beyond regular ranking. Her skin's beautiful and dark brown, littered with the freckles as light as the stars in the sky tonight. She looks like she might just disappear on me, just as she appeared out of nowhere with a deck of cards, and a promise she'd make my night.

"I know," I reply. And I know this is big. Readings are big things. Supervillains who have been in the game for long would pay top dollar. "What is it, that's going to change my life, then?"

"A connection." She dips one finger in the creamy solution. "Come closer. I need to make sure the two of you meet. The rest, really, is up to you both."

I eye it warily. "I don't think I'm into--"

"Shh." Fortune reaches out, bending forward, and presses that finger onto my forehead. I halt, breath stilted, as she draws it down my face, curves down my nose, and right down my lips till it touches my chin. It feels cold, but almost like lotion. My breath hitches as I feel heat sear on the skin it's touched. "Close your eyes. Find the world, and then close yourself off."

I do.

The outside world reduces to just the electrical signals. Behind me, the console of radio controls pulses slightly with frequency. Lower down the watchtower, there are cables stretching down deep into the earth itself. If I stretch further, I can swim the currents of the power lines to generators. I can catch the signals of commuters' phones, and bounce off the electrical tracks of the train. I can slide my way along the currents where I can gridlock an entire city.

I am this city, and this entire city is me.

I breathe, and then Fortune draws another line from one temple, over my eyelids, to the other. She squiggles under my cheeks, drawing symbols and shapes, and my eyebrows furrow with each wave of heat.

Fortune's voice slides into the night air itself. "You have my blessing," she says, amused, pulling her hand away. "Open your eyes now."

"What was that for?" I ask. I look up at the dirty mirror hung at the side of the wall--she's drawn...a circuit diagram on my face? I watch as the marks fade into my skin, leaving me confused, and wary.

"Congratulations on your graduation from the Institute, River Ng," Fortune says. I glance back at her, and she's dropped her container back into her bag. She stands up, brushing dust from the back of her skirt, a pleasant, peaceful smile on her face. "I hope you'll meet your nemesis sometime soon."