#superdim

Ji-Min cracked her gum. "I'm fine," she said. She avoided looking at the wraith. If he wasn't gonna say shit, neither would she. "Let's open up this beauty." She put the glasses on the top of her head.

Gene held out the keys. She took them with a nod. "You need the car today?"

The cowboy shrugged. "Nah," he said. "We're in town another couple of days."

"Yeah?" Ji-Min kept any interest out of her tone. She propped the hood open. "Where's next." She stared into the engine block.

There was a hum. "New Platopolis, I think."

Figured. That was kind of the national center of super crime. It was a great place to go if you wanted to get arrested.

She sniffed. "Sounds nice."

"Yuuuup." Gene blew out some air. "Let me know if you wanna ride, ma'am."

"In your broken car, yeah." Ji-Min shot him a wry grin before she got to work. "You're the darling."

The wraith sighed. But he didn't say shit.

______________________________________________________________

Superdim ends here, but the next installment- Moonstrike- starts where Superdim leaves off. Keep posted for Moonstrike Mondays, coming soon!

Moonstrike Preview, Chapter 1

"I need to postpone basic training," Ji Min texted. She was leaning up against the kitchen counter. "Work is sending me out of state." Somewhere outside, a child shrieked. She could hear the beeping of a crosswalk.

The response came quickly. "For how long?"

"Two weeks," she texted back. The prediction she'd been given was 1.5, but these things almost always ran long. Besides, it was best to lie. She hadn't given them her identity yet. Any accurate information was a clue.

"That's unfortunate," messaged Alejandro, the suit who was arranging her government hero training. "We had aligned your training with another new start in the program. You're sure you can't rearrange things with work?"

Ji Min snorted. Well, she was glad to miss that. "Sorry to hear that," she lied. "It's non negotiable. I'll catch up in training as best as I can." She put her burner phone away without waiting to see what the government had to say about that.

She already knew that they wanted her to be financially dependent on them. They weren’t forcing the issue, but they were very clear that she could quit her job and live on the general salary and benefits package that came from state heroism. Ji Min didn’t need to wait for Alejandro’s reply to know that he’d be doom and gloom about her chances to catch up in training. He'd probably caution that it wasn't going to be that easy, she had to expect a hard time, yada yada. If training was as hard as he kept saying, she'd be genuinely surprised. There were plenty of incompetent heroes bumbling their way through life.

Birds chirped outside. She glanced out the window to confirm that the weather looked idyllic. She wanted to feel the sun on her face, turning her hair hot and warming her shoulders.

She let out a heavy sign and went to her closet to dig out her rain gear.

Ari thumped her way down the stairs and into the living room. She gave Ji Min an amused look. "Good morning."

"Good morning," Ji Min echoed. She snapped open a plastic storage container and started lifting up winter coats in search of what she needed.

"Your rain boots are in the hall closet." Ari opened the fridge and pulled out eggs and bacon. "You start the coffee?"

Ji Min tugged out the rain coat and shoved the box back into the closet. "No, sorry."

"I'll get it, then." She heard a drawer slide open.

"No, no, it's my job." Ji Min closed the closet and followed her sister into the kitchen. "Dark roast okay today?"

The burner flicked on. Ari snickered. "Long day?" The scent of olive oil wafted over as Ari unscrewed the cap.

Ji Min sighed theatrically without pausing in measuring coffee beans. "I've gotta go out of state, do field work after that hurricane." She started the grinder.

"Better you than me." Ari checked the heat of the cast iron pan and started cracking eggs into it.

Ji Min side-eyed her and resisted the urge to tell Ari to crack them into a bowl first. Ari knew that trick, she just didn't want to do it.

"Don't." Ari put the rest of the eggs away.

Ji Min put her hands up. "I didn't say anything!" She protested.

"You were thinking about the egg bowl."

"You don't know what I was thinking," Ji Min lied, and poked her sister in the side with a finger.

Ari made a satisfying shriek and brandished the spatula at her. "I will hit you!" She threatened.

Ji Min rolled her eyes. "Is this the limit of your pacifism?"

"Older sisters are an exception," Ari snapped back. She tossed her hair over her shoulder and proceeded to ignore Ji Min.

Fair enough. Ji Min put bread into the toaster, ready for the magic of transformation. Then she got out everything they needed from the fridge, moving around Ari as she set the table. She breathed in the sweet and spicy scent of fermented kimchi and the savory smell of cream cheese.

"Stop sniffing our breakfast, weirdo," Ari complained.

"I'll sniff what I want." Ji Min scooped out what they needed and mixed them together briskly. She stuck the remainder in the fridge and was spreading the dreamy mixture on toast by the time Ari brought over eggs, ready to slide on top. Ji Min poured the coffee. They ate in silence.

Ji Min was the first to break it, once her toast was gone. "Finals are coming up, right? Three weeks out?"

Ari sighed and looked into her coffee cup. "Yeah." She stirred it unenthusiastically. "I'm going to fail my Econ final. I'll scrape a pass, I did well on the earlier work. But it's not going to be good."

"You are not going to fail," Ji Min said, appalled. "We'd never hear the end of it. What's going wrong?"

Ari shrugged. "It doesn't make sense to me, and I don't have the time to study it enough. I have to prioritize the essays I have. I really don't think I can fit it all in."

Ji Min grimaced. "How many hours are you doing at the café?"

"25 a week." Ari looked up at her. "Why?"

She pointed at her little sister. "If you promise to pass Econ, you can take the next three weeks off, or quit if they don't agree. I don't care. I'll cover you. You're almost to graduation anyway."

"No way," Ari said, but Ji Min could tell she was tempted. "I don't want to leech off of you."

"In three months you'll probably be making more money than me in some firm." Ji Min shrugged. "You can get me a good birthday gift. Do you need a tutor?" She cocked her head. "If the way the professor explained things didn't stick, you're probably not going to get it by banging your head against your books."

Ari sucked in air through her teeth.

That was answer enough. Ji Min stood up, leaving her plate. "I'll leave my blue debit card, take out what you need."

"What's the limit?" Ari asked swiftly.

Ji Min snorted. "I'd pay a lot to keep our family from demanding to know why you didn't do well in one gen ed class." She pursed her lips. "Call me if you need more than a thousand, but I'll laugh at you for getting cheated by the tutor."

"That's fair," Ari said.

"You're doing the dishes."

Ari made a sour face, but she didn't argue. She left the apartment first, en route to a class.

Ji Min had more time. She finished packing and hauled everything to the door. Then she stretched out on the sofa and turned on the T.V. to the news.

She immediately huffed a laugh at how topical the story was. They were recapping the whole alien invasion thing. Ji Min was bored enough to turn up the volume and watch a manic-eyed reporter interview Heatwave. She bit her lower lip, watching the older hero talk.

Most anonymous heroes covered their eyes: he'd taken the opposite route by covering everything else. You could see that he had long lashes, brown skin, and orange eyes. He probably just wore colored contacts in his private life and wound up anonymous.

He was actually one of the impressive ones, an international hero with the U.N. His teammates were probably still engaged with cleanup as he calmly reiterated that there had been no civilian casualties and that the invaders had been successfully repelled.

"They were repelled because they came to Norway and that's atrocious," Ji Min sniffed, and turned the T.V. back off. She knew she was being bitter, but the E.U. had all the top hero teams. It was like soccer: the USA was too stubborn to get involved early on, and now they lagged behind. If they were the top of the pile, Americans would be insufferable about it. But since they sucked, they turned their noses up at international heroism.

It could change, though, she realized. They were putting a lot of money into recruitment. Maybe that was the goal.

Hmm. Would she want to be on a comparable team, maybe for North America or just the Americas in general? Mexican heroism was stylish. She'd work with one of them, for sure.

She thought about it. She was still going back and forth on whether she was genuinely becoming a hero or if she was just grifting the government for supplies and training.

"It would be pretty cool to be a founding member of an international team," Ji Min admitted to herself, toying with the idea.

Despite what Alejandro said… she believed that she was better than the average hero recruit. Maybe what he'd said had even reinforced that, if she was honest. The physical limits he'd mentioned were news to her.

"I might just have been born better than everyone else," she mused. She got up to make another coffee. "It might be nice to show off."

She dodged in a roll. She heard something hit the wall behind her.

"You're fast," Gene said. It wasn't a compliment. He fired again.

Ji-Min shrieked and leapt halfway across the room. She sprinted to the entry and bounced off a fast-moving wraith.

"Grab er!"

She dropped into a roll, hoping to move past the wraith below grabbing range. It was time to go, Hammer could just win this time.

It was too late for bargaining. Bony fingers dug into her shoulder and halted her motion. She tried to twist away. The world spun around her and her head hit the ground with a crack.

For a moment, she was dazed. Metal screeched and she was heaved upwards, against the wall. She didn't know what was happening but then there was a weight on her chest. That seemed…bad.

Then she heard the slow sound of footsteps toward her.

He was going to shoot her at close range.

Ji-Min struggled, trying to jerk away. The skeletal hands holding her had no give. She realized that the metal had been twisted off the wall to pin her.

“Thanks, friend,” said the cowboy. He sounded touched. “I treasure your reliability and consideration.” He pulled the gun out of his belt and pointed it at her head. “Goodbye, law woman. Awful sorry about this, but we are diametrically opposed forces.”

Fuck, what a stupid way to go.

“No!” Hammer bellowed.

Ji-Min blinked up at him. She hadn't heard him come back in the room.

Gene stopped, finger still on the hammer of his gun. “No?” He repeated. His voice was only curious. He cocked his head to the side. “Why no?”

Hammer staggered to his feet, using the wall as a brace. He pointed one huge hand at her. “That’s my rival.” He sounded scandalized. “Look- each supervillain needs a superhero. For balance. One day, one of us will kill the other.” He paused. “Or we could fall in love,” Hammer amended offhand.

Ji-Min shuddered.

“There’s only two ways for this to go,” Hammer explained passionately.

‘That’s three,’ Ji-Min thought. ‘I kill him, he kills me, romance. Three possibilities, according to his logic.’ She kept the correction inside. She wanted to live.

“Wow,” marveled Gene. He nodded slowly and holstered his weapon. “That makes a lot of sense. She’s your dramatic opposite.”

“The Ying to my yam,” Hammer said wisely. “We need each other. Our identities define the other.” He shook his head once and pulled his fingers through his hair to arrange it.

She wanted to die of mortification, just a little bit, but she wanted to live more. So she nodded along, in case her opinion had any weight.

“She agrees with me!” Hammer pointed victoriously. “Does this mean you’ll accept my help with your branding?” He made a gesture that meant nothing to Ji-Min. “The all-black thing is kinda cool, in a mean ninja way, but you could really use a public relations strategy.”

A wave of ice cold hate washed over her. She gritted her jaw shut so that she didn’t say anything.

“I bet there’s some really cool shit on the security footage.” Hammer put a hand on his hip. “I’m going to release the video of you throwing that big moon at me, that’s so awesome. That makes both of us look good.” He dug in his pocket and pulled out… a second phone. “Scoot over, would you buddy?”

Ji-Min didn’t track what was going on. She belatedly realized that she'd hit her head, like, really hard. Gene accommodated Hammer easily, moving a few steps to the left, away from her.

The phone clicked.

He…

“You took a selfie with me,” Ji-Min said. Her voice sounded haunted. It seemed to belong to someone else. Maybe this wasn't even happening to her. Maybe it wasn't her body lying on the floor. Had she double-checked?

Hammer turned around and grinned at her. “Well, yeah,” he said. “You’re going on my feed. Wanna check the photo before I post? We can retake it.”

Noooo. This couldn't be happening. Nooooo.

Ji-Min screamed again, a sad little shriek of frustration.

“Damn,” Hammer said approvingly. “That’s cool too.” He angled the phone so that she could see it. It…

It did look pretty cool. You could see the destruction behind her, and the twisted metal pinning her to the wall made it obvious that she wasn’t a total loser who had gone down easily. She wasn’t unconscious or anything, so it wasn’t that embarrassing.

‘I hate that he’s right. This will make both of us look impressive.’

He didn’t even earn it, though. Ji-Min gritted her teeth. She’d been kicking his ass until Gene and his boys showed up.

She might have lost some time. She vaguely remembered hearing Gene's voice. The next thing she registered was Hammer kneeling by her to show his phone.

She was aware he was talking. She vaguely registered his screen showed her and a caption that included "@ the Planetarium with my heroic rival Moonstrike 🌙 💥 (better luck next time 😜 🔥 🔨 to 💪!!!)"

Hammer said something that sounded like a question. She said yes, to make him go away. Her head was spinning and pounding.

They were gone, she realized.

That got her up. Ji-Min sat up-

And punished the breath out of her own ribs by using them to bend away the iron that Gene had apparently twisted in front of her. She gasped, hand to her chest, and then slid out from underneath.

She might have lost some time feeling sorry for herself. She'd lost. She'd lost to two hot dimwits.

Ji-Min sniffled, and tried to wipe away a tear. Her hand met her mask. Oh, good. That was still on. "You're not my yam!" She shouted to the empty building. "You're not my yam!"

A car door slammed.

She blinked. She got up, using the wall for balance. She tried to find a window. It took a while. When she did, that car was gone. She did see headlights, four sets of headlights. Heading for her.

"Oh, shit," she said. Her voice echoed. She stumbled towards the door, blood pounding in every vessel in her head. Someone was coming. She had to go. She was at the scene of a crime and she had to go.

"Moonstrike. I'm glad to see you up on your own."

Ji-Min would have jumped out of her own skin if she didn't feel so nauseous.

She stared. There were four people in suits coming up the stairs from the lower level.

“It’s good to see you in person. We weren’t expecting you,” the top agent said with a friendly nod at her. “We just follow Hammer around when he’s out of prison, since he’s sociable and easily found.” He surveyed the wrecked planetarium. “It’s generally a good bet that he’ll lead us to other criminals.”

Shit. They were investigating super crime. They were from the Bureau of Heroics. Feds? They seemed like Feds, not local.

Ji-Min felt her stomach twist into a knot. She didn’t say anything.

"Give us a minute, would you?" The man who seemed to be in charge waived off his subordinates and focused on her.

Ji-Min watched warily. He didn't get very close when he addressed her directly. He used the same calm tone you'd use on a wild animal. That was probably a good idea, given that all she wanted right now was her hitting stick.

"Moonstrike, is it?" The agent eyed the devastation. "I gather that you didn't expect ten opponents, but this was impressive nonetheless." He took a couple of meandering steps closer. He had a voice fit for movies, smooth and smoky. It was almost enough to make her relax. "I heard you did some good work earlier today in town." Something smug curled into the smile on his mouth.

“....Thank you,” Ji-Min said stiffly. She tried to look like she was not a criminal. Her heart was pounding. This was too many people to fight her way through. She was a sneaky type. This was bad, very bad. Any moment now, they were going to realize that she wasn’t any registered hero, that she must have been at the scene of a crime for a different reason-

The Federal agent nodded. “My superiors want you to consider getting into contact.” He produced a card.

She looked at it. After a moment, she reached out and took it. At a glance, it was his business card. She eyed him suspiciously. “Alejandro,” Ji-Min said, eyes darting between him and the card.

This was… good?

“To my friends, yes,” Alejandro the suit agreed blandly. “We understand that you seem to like your privacy. We can work with that. We want you to know that we can provide resources for your fight against crime.”

Ji-Min swallowed down a hysterical laugh. Yes. Her fight against crime. That was definitely what she was doing. “Resources?” She kept her tone neutral.

Alejandro nodded. “Federal heroes receive a competitive salary as well as a discretionary budget for crime-fighting paraphernalia.”

She realized, with a heady feeling, that she had accidentally conned her way into getting paid. Ji-Min stood stock still. The literal first thing that she’d done after getting superpowers was look up how to do crime for profit without getting caught. And the government wanted to get her on retainer.

‘This could be very useful,’ Ji-Min realized. “Thank you,” she said again. She cleared her throat. “I’ll be in touch.”

‘If I have a heroic persona, I can avoid getting in trouble. If I get caught or unmasked, I can say I’m a hero. No one is going to connect a federal retainer with larceny.’

Plus, holy shit. They’d pay her to upgrade her equipment. She liked the hitting stick, but the government could probably get her something better.

The ghost of a smile flickered over Alejandro’s face for the first time. “I look forward to your call. Now.” He indicated the room. “We can take care of this situation. You can leave, if you like.”

She took her leave, still in disbelief at how lucky she had been.

Ji-Min wasn't honestly sure how she got back to her car. She had the impression of walking a very long time. That might have meant that she got lost. It might have just meant that everything seemed very difficult with a concussion.

Her phone was in the car. Of course it was. Phones track you.

She sat in the driver's seat and picked it up. There was a notification from an account that she followed. She opened it to see Hammer's selfie with her. The next video had been ripped from the museum's security camera.

Extremely late, she realized that he'd had someone watching it live. That was how he'd snuck up on her.

Ji-Min looped a video a few times, watching herself wrench a concrete ball the size of a puffy reclining chair off of its frame and lob it at Hammer's back.

It looked pretty fucking sick, honestly. She took a screen recording.

After a while she realized that she had a voicemail from an unknown number. Her first thought was the paranoid jump that the FBH had already tracked down her information. She checked it.

"Sorry about how late this is," Gene drawled.

She shrieked and dropped the phone. The recording kept playing through her car's speakers.

"Calling in regards to your offer to help with my car. I'll send the - the gee pee ess point tomorrow. Thank you."

She listened to it again. Yeah. Ji-Min put a hand on her head. In the background she heard her own faint voice, shouting "my yam! You're not my yam!"

He dodged.

It hit the wall with a sickening crack and broke.

Ji-Min started at it uncomprehendingly. She lifted her weapon. Her trusty hitting stick. It had betrayed her.

She kind of wanted to cry.

"Damn," Hammer whistled. He slid away from the hole she'd put in the wall and jumped on one of the chairs. "Have you considered a different approach? We could do something a little more collaborative."

She dropped the broken baton. She looked at him. Ji-Min didn't know what was on his face, but she saw him flinch.

"That's a no," he said to himself. He started running again.

She took a few steps back and grabbed at one of the planets. It wasn't meant to be removable. Concrete cracked under her hands. "Heads up," she said grimly, and then threw it.

Hammer shrieked and hit the floor.

What she now recognized as the Moon sailed over his head and hit a chair with a sickening crunch. It paused for a moment in gravitational indecision before wavering downwards, towards the next row of chairs.

"Whoa!" Hammer leapt up and shot her a conspiratorial grin. Then he ran off after the ball like a goddamn golden retriever. He didn't look at her. He chased after the Moon as it rolled into the center of the dome, cracking against chairs as it thumped downwards. "Fuck- we can use this. That's the moon, right? Moon… Moonshot…" He fisted his hands in his hair, unconsciously mussing it.

Ji-Min gripped one of the viewing chairs and pulled. The bolts holding it to the floor creaked.

He wasn't paying any attention. "That was so cool- this really could be your branding." He snapped his fingers. "Moon something. Moon… hit, moon striker, moon-"

The bolts broke with a satisfying clunk. She hefted it up and threw it at him. She immediately snatched up a strip of metal that had been holding it to the floor and followed up with that.

He had to stop talking to dodge the chair. He didn't manage to dodge the metal pipe to his ribcage.

"Ow." Hammer hit the ground hard. It seemed to take a lot of effort for him to turn his face to look up at her, cheek squished against the concrete. "Good hit," he said. The sentence came out a little garbled. He spat out blood and then frowned at it in confusion. "That mine?"

"Pretty sure," Ji-Min confirmed. She knelt a distance away and reached out to poke his leg. "Did I hit you hard enough?"

"Yes," he said vehemently.

"Hard enough that you won't get up before the cops get here?"

"Impossible," he immediately denied. He coughed up more blood. "Hell. This is- this is gonna take at least an hour to walk off Moonstrike."

She flinched and looked around.

"That's you," he clarified. He laughed a little and gingerly rolled into his side. "Ah, ah, ow," he whined. "Goddamn." He gave her a pitiful look. "You could be a little gentler. I'm a delicate boy."

"Stop doing this shit, and I'll leave you alone." Ji-Min prodded him unsympathetically.

He cringed away. "Stooop," he whined.

"You're fine," she said, fairly sure that he would be. He seemed to be sturdy. Super strength came along with a good constitution and accelerated healing.

"You're gonna kill me," he accused.

"We can't have that."

Her heart dropped to her stomach. She wheeled around to see a scene from a nightmare. She took a few paces away from Hammer, mindful that she had enemies on both sides now.

"Hey, buddy," Hammer greeted.

"Hey there," Gene said amiably. Four wraiths spread out behind him, bleeding concentrated evil into the museum.

Hissing. It took a moment to interpret it as words.

"The car woman?"

The leftmost wraith was looking at her in confusion. He seemed to be wondering what the odds were.

"What." Ji-Min thought she might throw up.

'He recognized me? Is that the driver? Fuck. Of course Gene's driver brought him here. Gene is Hammer's friend? How the hell-'

No. That was obvious. Of course they knew each other from prison.

"Car- a mechanic?" Hammer said. He managed to get his palms on the floor and push himself up.

She was in deep deep shit now. Gene saw her face. He had her personal number. There weren't that many female mechanics out there. They were going to find her.

"Fuck a hell," Gene said conversationally. "I forgot to call the mechanic. Thanks, bud."

…Ji-Min looked at him. She looked at the wraith, who raised a skeletal hand to point directly at her. She looked at Gene again. He was digging around in his pockets and paying no attention to the wraith doxxing her civilian identity.

The relief was overwhelming. Her whole body relaxed.

'Thank god,' she thought with feeling. 'I'm so glad he's not smart.' She could nearly kiss him. She could kiss his beautiful empty cowboy head right now.

Hammer let out a whistle between his teeth. "That's no good, man."

The wraith seemed to sigh. He lowered his hand. She shrugged at him. For a moment, they were commiserating.

"No good," Gene agreed. "I ain't got no phone."

"Use mine, man."

Ji-Min's soul tried to leave her body. The adrenaline spike directly on the heels of the last one was too much

'Is my phone in the car? Did I bring it in here?' Her vision was blurry, tunneling in. 'If it rings, Gene'll be able to dox me to Hammer. I saw him this morning. He'll remember what I look like.'

Hammer reached into his pocket.

She had never been more intent on a phone in her life.

There was only one option.

Hammer tossed the phone. Gene raised his hand to catch it. Ji-Min leapt in between, grabbed the phone out of the hair, and beat it against the wall.

"The fuck?" Gene said.

She banged the phone against the wall against, viciously beating it to death. She let the body fall.

"What is wrong with you?" Gene's voice went high, incredulous. "She's going to think I'm unreliable - it's so inconsiderate to promise to call and then never call!" Genuine anger crept into his voice at the end there.

If she was in a different frame of mind, she'd be frozen in fear. Gene was out of her league. Hammer didn't kill people, but Gene certainly did.

But there was something worse than death: Hammer being able to find her in her normal life. So she tilted her jaw up in defiance and waited for the other shoe to drop.

"I think it's her hobby, man." Hammer didn't seem mad. "She's here because she's honestly kind of a mood killer," Hammer said. He rolled his eyes but it seemed teasing. "Here we are, ready for some classic supervillain shit, and she can't let it be."

Ji-Min stared at him. "Classic supervillain shit," she repeated. "Here." She took a look around, not letting Gene out of her sight. "Here?" It probably wasn't good for her health to use that skeptical tone, but she was a snarky little shit and would always be.

Gene snorted. "We are at the Planetarium, law lady."

She looked at him. She was waiting for elaboration. He really seemed to think that was enough.

“Planetarium,” Hammer stressed. His tone told her that he thinks she’s an idiot. He waves a finger around his ear to drive the point home. “Planet? And then a noun form that tells us it’s a place associated with the first part of the word.” She can see through his domino mask that he’s rolling his eyes. “Duh.” He cocks his hip, one gloved hand dug into his pocket.

'Why is he even wearing a mask? Everyone knows who he is. I hate him so much I'm going to die.'

“You are so stupid,” Ji-Min sobbed. She gritted her teeth. There’s actual tears in her eyes. She lunged forward to club Hammer on his stupid head. She's already lost, she just wants to hit him again at this point. He dodged, but the hood covering his hair was dislodged.

“Hey!” Hammer protested. He dodged her next swipe too and scrunched up his nose petulantly. “I’m going to steal Jupiter, and there's nothing you can do to stop me, hero!” He bolts down the hallway. “Why are you so obsessed with me, anyway?”

For a moment, she is frozen in horror. That's it? That's his plan? He thinks he can find and steal Jupiter?

Ji-Min screamed. She couldn't help it. The sound echoed through the Adler Planetarium and out into the greater Chicago area. The sound stunned him, sending him crashing against the wall. “I hate you!”

Hammer stumbled on.

She wanted to chase after him. But she had a bigger, more immediate problem. Gene tilted his head at her.

Oh. Oh, fuck.

But the details?

"Jackshit," Ji-Min said sourly. She spat out her gum and crinkled it up in paper before tossing it in the bin. "Asshole." She paced in front of her hotel bed.

Sunspot wasn't involved, that was clear. She'd done some organizational work, but she wouldn't wish Hammer good luck if she planned to show up.

That was for the best. Sunspot had a gun. Like, some kind of fucking purple laser. Ji-Min wanted no part of that trash fire.

Ji-Min raked her fingers through her hair and blew out air.

There was nothing to indicate a planned rendezvous. There was no-

There was a new draft post.

Her body froze in place, except for her shaking fingers. She clicked edit and let the video play through.

Hammer's smug jaw greeted her. "Fun plans tonight," he started. There was the sound of a car engine running.

Ji-Min held her breath and rested against the wall, transfixed by the phone. She was listening so hard for something distinctive. She watched the background too, but Hammer wasn't a total clown. All she could see was the inside of the car- and a reflection of red paint in the mirror.

"Red car." She tapped her fingers on the wall.

"I'm here in Chicago, and I'm gonna do something that's never been done," Hammer said lazily. He raked a hand through his hair. It caught the light.

He had a stupid voice, Ji-Min thought spitefully. Kind of a scratchy tenor.

"Anyway, it's gonna be a glittering party. I'll see you at the Planetarium." The video ended with a wink.

Ji-Min ran out the door.

It was a matter of seconds to pull up directions. She groaned when she saw the time estimate. "Almost 40 minutes." Ji-Min wanted to hit her head against the steering wheel. Instead she flicked on her blinker and got on the road. "Fucksake. He could be gone by the time I get there," she complained.

There was nothing to do but drive the speed limit and pray. Hammer probably hadn't been right next door either, she reasoned. He'd clearly made the draft post in his car and then saved it- but he might have stayed parked for a while after. He might not even be moving yet, depending on what kind of heist he had in mind.

She stopped at a yellow light and frowned. That was a good question to be asking. What the hell did he want from a planetarium? Hammer didn't strike her as a scientifically minded person.

"...Must not be a heist," she reasoned. "Maybe it's a staging ground." Ji-Min scrunched her face up. The light turned green. She eased on the gas. "There's probably something really photogenic he wants to use there."

He wouldn't… he wouldn't blow it up, right?

Ji-Min didn't think that was likely, but she couldn't eliminate the possibility either.

"I'll be careful," she promised herself. Wow, she hoped she wasn't driving to a death trap. "Ugh." She tightened her fingers on the steering wheel.

She turned the music up pretty loud to distract from those thoughts. She turned the volume down when she was relatively close, and started looking for an unobtrusive place to park. She settled for parking along a deserted boulevard lined with trees. If she had to leave her car till the morning, it would definitely get a ticket.

The finishing touches of her costume went on at that point. She'd already put her hair up, so it was a matter of seconds to secure the full mask in place using the ribbons and hairpins. Her top was body hugging with snug sleeves, so that it didn't do things like flop down and cover her face if she had to move around too much. She had exchanged her black jeans for thick black athletic pants.

She'd deliberated between her clunky boots and the soft soled things she liked for sneaking around. In the end, she'd decided she would be more likely to need to kick someone in the face with a heavy boot than go sneaking around guards.

Before she put the gloves on, Ji-Min ran through her toolkit and what she was bringing. Her phone needed to be on silent, she needed the heavy stick for hitting, she had a sharp letter opener that would work for multiple purposes-

"I guess I'm good." Ji-Min zipped up her pockets and left the car. The key went in her bra.

She found the building easily. There was a main set of stairs that she avoided. She was slinking around to look at the other entryways when she heard a car engine purring.

Ji-Min found it. A red car was gliding down the road. Hammer stopped it there and got out without turning it off. She could see his outline in the distance, broad shoulders and a distinctive walk. He set up the incline and to the Planetarium.

He went up the main stairs.

She bit her lip, torn. It…

It felt like a trap. Him, alone, with his back to her?

Ji-Min found another door, obviously meant for staff use. A lock crunched in the wooden frame when she forced it open.

She went in.

She found herself in a service hallway. A minute of cautious walking took her to the entrance for a theater.

The only sound was the humming of the electronic security system.

…It had probably gone off when she opened the door, right? Or had Hammer done something to prevent the security team from being alerted?

Either way, she didn't want to spend a lot of time here.

'Get in,' Ji-Min reminded herself. Her steps up a flight of stairs were silent. 'Hit Hammer really hard. Leave him for the cops. Get out.'

That was what she'd done last time, and it had worked. He'd gone directly to jail. His only mutations were being really strong and handsome. If he wasn't willing to crush people to death, he couldn't really do much to resist arrest.

'God forbid he ever thinks to get some kind of training.' Ji-Min smiled under her mask. 'If he got over his ego long enough to learn wrestling or something, he'd actually have some recourse.' She glanced at the blinking red of a security camera as she entered another rounded tunnel.

She could hear movement overhead. She was on the second floor now- Hammer had to be on the top floor. Ji-Min moved quickly now, sticking to the wall rather than the middle of the hallway. She found one more set of stairs and mounted them two steps at a time, heartbeat pounding in her chest.

She found one more curved hallway. It was wider than the others. The first entrance was to her left.

It took control to avoid holding her breath. She crept to the edge of the entrance and took two quick steps to clear the side and survey what was in there.

A café.

The shapes of tables and chairs were eerie in the dark and silent room. Her eyes darted over everything as she cautiously crept in. Could Hammer be hiding? Yes, honestly. He could fit behind the counter, or in the kitchen, or-

She was turning as soon as she heard the scuffle of a shoe. It was too late to avoid the projectile that hit her in the head.

Ji-Min staggered back and crouched. It took a few seconds to register that she wasn't really hurting, no blood.

Hammer was standing in the entryway, casually tossing something round up and down. Whatever had hit her was still bouncing away.

"Hey," he said.

She violently repressed the instinctual "hey" that tried to well up. Ji-Min just looked at him, mind racing.

Hammer smiled. She could see it as he stepped into the faint light. He was tossing a ball- no. A model of planet Earth.

She stole a look to get left to see that he'd pinged her skull with … was that Mercury?

"Already been to the gift store?"

"Yeah, it's back there." Hammer put a thumb over his shoulder. "Pretty fire. They have this light that projects the sewer system."

"The-" She cut herself off, but it was too late. She'd already engaged.

"I want one," Hammer said. He took a couple steps into the cafe. "Remind me to grab one on my way out, Nemesis." He cocked his head. "Shadow?" He pursed his lips and gestured at her. "You're not giving me much to work with." He gestured again. "Did you think of any branding? I really don't mind helping, but I need something to go off of." He paused. "Night strike?" Hammer tried.

She stared at him, uncomprehending. Then she took the hitting stick off of her belt.

He grimaced and raised a hand. "Hey," he protested. "I don't have adequate medical insurance."

"No one does!" Ji-Min darted forward, intent on head trauma. He flung the model of Earth at her. She dodged Earth and came in fast, eyes narrowed under her mask. "Do you think you're better than everyone else?"

He shoved a table at her and ran. The table hit her hip and she rolled over it, landing on the ground with a clatter and a pained thunk of her knee on the ground. She gritted her teeth at the shooting pain.

'I should probably wear knee pads,' she realized. 'Like a volleyball hottie.' She managed to stand, hissing in an angry breath through clenched teeth. Ouch, Jesus fuck, ouch.

"Come back here and get your concussion," Ji-Min demanded.

"No, that sucks!"

Ji-Min bared her teeth as the shouting died off. She was close enough to catalog the damage- Gene had shot off the passenger's side window in his warning shot. The back bumper had fallen off, revealing ugly denting. If she had to guess, the exhaust system had probably been shoved forward through the converter and engine mounts.

'... I'm not sure that wraith braked at all.'

She made a mental note to gently ask Gene to have his driver give more following distance. She wasn't brave enough to say that personally.

Ji-Min couldn't see it but she guessed that the front probably wasn't as rough. A human body wasn't as hard as a car.

That thought pissed her off again. She prowled up to the driver’s side and looked in.

A red-faced baby, properly secured in the backseat, was screaming their little head off in a frilly yellow shirt, one sock on and one on the floor. The passenger was the woman. Her head was buried in her hands, so Ji-Min just saw curly blonde hair. The woman was probably not white, judging by what Ji-Min could see of her shoulder and jawline.

The driver had his left hand gripping the steering wheel, defensively blocking off his phone. His head was pointed down as he used his phone. He had short-cropped hair, dark brown, and he was nearly as red as the angry baby.

As Ji-Min watched, he closed an article about lighting cars on fire. He opened up a new search tab and typed in ‘dispose of car.’ After a few seconds, he said, “Water? There’s a river…” He opened up a navigation app and panned out to look at how far they were from the river. It was not close.

Ji-Min put her hand on her chin as she watched him repeatedly type and backspace. She was blessed to watch the frustration on his face as he realized that he would have a hard time getting home after sinking his car. He searched ““Can i get a txi from an embankment” and then deleted that, and typed out “can i get a taxi no questions” and then “how to be forgotten by taxi.” He was not a fast reader. She really shouldn’t have been watching, but she was transfixed by the silent drama.

‘How are you going to get the car there?’ Ji-Min wondered, a little invested now. ‘Did he forget that the car isn’t driveable? That aside, the police are going to be looking for him.’

He made a frustrated groan and opened a new tab. “wgere to get berosene”, he typed.

‘Aww,’ Ji-Min thought, disappointed. ‘He gave up on submerging the car already? I wanted to see him try to move it.’

That chain of misspelled garbage gave him nonsense, so he tried again, “where to buy fire fluid.”

She straightened up from her lean next to his window. It was probably time to call this in.

Well, she could be reasonably confident that he didn’t plan on turning himself in. And he also wasn’t bright enough to know that it would be hard to get a non-working car to somewhere isolated enough to destroy it. Ji-Min pulled her phone out of her back pocket and dialed up 9-11.

The passenger looked up from her cry. Her eyes widened. They were red with tears and sticky with ruined mascara. She didn't say anything to her partner. She just stared.

…Ji-Min showed her the phone. The number 9-11 was prominent on the otherwise white screen.

The passenger looked at the asshole, and she looked back at what was probably her baby crying in the backseat. She made a hand gesture to indicate that Ji-Min should step back.

That was fair. As the call rang through, Ji-Min slipped to the side of the alley, hopefully out of the driver’s immediate line of sight if he looked up and in his mirrors. If he made a break for it, Ji-Min could catch him on foot. But it was probably better not to spook him.

“This is 9-11, what is your emergency?”

Ji-Min leaned against the wall without letting the driver out of her sight. He was still using his phone. She really wished she could see what he was trying to problem solve by now. Had he realized that the police would identify the car and the owner? “There was a hit and run,” she said. “That was already reported. I am looking at the driver right now, about 12 blocks away from the scene of the crime.”

The driver was still on his phone. Maybe he was searching ‘how to change my name’ or 'do moving companies ask questions'

The passenger twisted around to comfort the baby, but her eyes fixed on Ji-Min. She looked tense, but not too rough. Ji-Min felt an anxious twist in her stomach as she wondered if the baby was crying because it was stressed or because it was hurt.

The operative on the line asked for her location. Ji-Min listed off the sign she’d noted, and then she described the car, giving the license plate twice. “The driver is a male, maybe 30s, and I think he threw his passenger’s phone out the window so that she didn’t make a call,” Ji-Min said calmly. “She was trying to convince him to turn in.” Her adrenaline was fading now that she was pretty sure there wouldn't be a confrontation.

“What’s your name, please?”

“I won’t give it,” Ji-Min said just as blandly as the emergency dispatcher’s trained voice. “There’s an infant in the car. Tell whoever comes to be careful to keep the bystanders safe.” She glanced back. "Come with the sirens off, he's gonna be an asshole to his wife if he hears you coming."

“Ma’am, I really do need your name.”

Ji-Min hung up and put away her phone. Then she waited. The couple in the car had another argument, but this one was less subdued. She didn’t strain to hear the details, because she heard enough to be pretty sure that the woman was trying to convince the driver to turn himself in.

There were distant sirens.

‘It would have been so easy to just not turn them on,’ she griped. ‘Work with me here.’

The asshole jerked to attention and looked around. Ji-Min pressed up against the wall, but she could still tell that he saw her by the look that passed through his eyes. He was gonna make a run for it.

"Don't do it," she said conversationally. "Don't fucking do it."

He was way too far away to hear her. But he was also a dumb asshole. He screamed something at his passenger, setting off a fresh round of wailing from the baby.

The ignition turned and turned without turning over. He twisted to look back at her again and slapped the steering wheel.

"Loser," Ji-Min muttered. She kicked off of the wall. "How's this going to go, my guy? I don’t think you’re a world class runner, and you’d have to be for this to be worth it."

The sirens were getting closer.

He unlocked his car and threw the door open. He made a run for it down the alley.

Ji-Min exhaled a gust of air and met eyes with the passenger. Then she started running after him at an easy ground-eating lope.

She wasn’t worried at all about losing him. She didn’t actually wanna hurt him, so there was no point to tackling him at full speed or tripping him. He wasn’t a supervillain. He was just some guy

She was in much better shape than he was. She could have sprinted him down in a matter of seconds. But it felt more humiliating to let him lose speed about two blocks later, huffing and puffing furiously. “You good, man?” Ji-Min mocked from about a foot behind him. He swerved when he looked over his shoulder.

“Fuck off,” he spat at her. He ran into the street without looking, which was a bold decision for a man who’d run down a pedestrian not twenty minutes prior.

“Be careful,” Ji-Min called, pausing to look both ways. It was clear, so she jogged across. “Wouldn’t it be awful if somebody hit you?” She ignored the growl he let out. “There’s some real dickwads out there, selfish little windbags too up their asses in misinformed self importance to remember that we exist in a society of other real human beings with complex inner lives.” She was enjoying this. This was better than her morning treadmill run.

He stopped running. “That wasn't my fault."

Ji-Min hung back as the guy wheeled back to stare defiantly down at her.

"It was his fucking fault," he insisted. "What kind of idiot goes running into traffic?"

Ji-Min rolled her eyes. "It doesn't matter if it was his fault," she said waspishly. "Take some responsibility for your actions. You should have seen him. And even if not- it hurt him a lot more than it hurt you. You should have just stayed." She put a hand on her hip. "You're being real selfish right now. You know what you should be doing?"

He didn't say anything. He just heaved resentful breaths and watched her.

"You should take that baby to the fucking hospital." Ji-Min jabbed her finger at him. "The fuck, man? I don't know shit about babies but I know that they're delicate."

His face went slack.

"You really didn't think of that?" she marveled. "Holy shit." Ji-Min sneered at him. "Goddamn irresponsible. All three of you need medical attention, probably." She rolled her eyes. "Just go back to the car and wait for the police. It's worse now than if you had stayed at the scene, but the worst thing is for you to be arrested while I'm sitting on you." She raised her eyebrows at him meaningfully.

Of course, her eyebrows were covered. So he wouldn't see any of that.

He looked a little green. His hands were shaking.

"Come on," Ji-Min prodded. She tapped her foot on the ground. "You're not getting away. There's no chance of it. Go back and apologize to your girlfriend for yelling at her." She didn't hide her impatience. She had better shit to do.

"Wife," he corrected. He took a shaky step towards her and paused for a moment. Then he scrubbed a hand over his face. "Yeah… fuck. Okay." He took a deep breath. "You're not gonna tell them I ran from the car?" He started walking back, jaw set like he was steeling himself.

Ji-Min hummed. Of course not. She wasn't going to talk to the cops. But she wasn't going to tell him that.

The sirens had to be real close by the time they made it back to the car. The guy settled on the sidewalk with his face in his hands, too ashamed to talk to his wife.

Ji-Min considered spitting on him, but that would be DNA evidence. Instead she dug into her back pocket for her wallet and knocked on the passenger side window.

The woman inside tried to roll it down and made a face when the glass didn’t budge. Then she opened the door. "What?" Her tone was defeated.

"Cut the straps on that damn car seat," Ji-Min ordered. She flipped open her wallet and pulled out a stack of bills. "Get a new one. Once you've been in an accident, they're garbage."

There was a pause while the older woman stared at the cash. "I can get a new car seat on my own," she said, in a tone that made Ji-Min think she meant she'd ask around her friends.

Ji-Min shook the bills impatiently. "Don't be proud. It's for the fuckin baby." She sniffed as the lady gingerly took the cash. "Besides, it's not my hard earned money. I got it from a criminal."

She got a stare for that one. "This is evidence for some kind of crime?" the lady asked. She had one hand on her purse, the money still out. She was thinking about it.

"Only if you tell the cops. Hammer doesn't miss it." Ji-Min slapped the car companionably. "Good call on not moving the baby. You're waiting for the paramedics?" The police were really close now. They must have come the same way, from the accident, because it sounded like they were gonna come from the same place she'd entered the alley.

"...yeah." She put the money in her purse and zipped it up. The air was very awkward. The woman avoided eye contact. “Do you know… Is that man alright?”

Ji-Min thought back to what she’d seen. It would be a stretch to say that the pedestrian was fine. "I don’t know. I think he was alive when you left the scene.”

The woman took in a deep, shaky breath. “That’s… good. That’s good.” She fidgeted. “I don’t know what I should be doing. Next, I mean. And with my life.” She let out a sharp little laugh. “After the hospital.” Her fingers twisted around each other and she stole another nervous look at the baby in the mirror.

“I don't care what you do," Ji-Min said honestly. "I'm out."

The lady blinked. "Wait, what?"

Ji-Min didn't turn back. She gave the driver a kick as she walked past him that sent him sprawling on the cement. "I'm watching," she lied, and watched his face turn resentful and pained. Then she darted down the block and turned down a side street.

The street lit up with flashing blue and red lights behind her. She took another turn to be careful and ducked into an alcove. After a quick survey for cameras, she took off the mask and gloves and stuffed them into her pockets. Ji-Min pulled out her phone to check the closing time for the store she'd left her car at. She didn't want to go back past the cops while they were still there, but she needed to collect it before the store closed.

She had time. She walked a few miles, ducking cameras and changing roads a few times before she shrugged off her jacket and tied it around her hips.

'I wonder if it's possible to get a jacket to fold or zip up into a bag. That would be useful.'

Useful or not, it was really out of her skillset. Ji-Min put the thought aside and found a place to get lunch. She transferred a thousand dollars from Hammer's account to hers, feeling like she'd earned it. On a whim, she put 'baby car seat' on the explanation line.

She lingered over a coffee afterwards until she'd judged the cops absolutely had to be done with the scene. Then she made the trek back to her car, bought juice from the grocery store, and finally went to the landmark she'd picked out that morning.

As the caffeine hit her brain, she pulled out her phone and started reading through Hammer's messages. He'd sent champagne bottles and congratulations to someone with a cowboy hat emoji instead of a screen name, and gotten no reply.

There was also a new message waiting from Sunspot. The preview said something about "the car". Ji-Min hovered over it before regretfully scrolling away. She couldn't open his new messages. He'd notice that.

The rest of his messages were unremarkable. He didn't seem to be awake yet. She pocketed her phone and walked back to get a second coffee, with a bagel this time. She regretted the bagel. It was bland. Still, it had calories, and she needed a lot of those to maintain her weight.

…The odds were good that she'd be using a lot of energy today, actually. She resentfully made a waffle and smothered it in chocolate sauce and chopped peanuts just barely before the buffet closed. She moved to sit as someone came to start clearing the food and then remembered she'd want a drink.

"Excuse me," said a hotel employee, when she got close.

Ji-Min tried to look inoffensive. "Just going to get some juice, if that's alright." She gave a thin smile.

"Oh, of course. Let me get out of your way." The woman stepped to the side and then watched with poorly hidden concern as she filled three glasses with orange juice and one with milk. Her left hand still had the plate. So she balanced her drinks on her palm and fingers and gave the hotel worker a nod.

She got back a thin-lipped smile and a look that said the woman was weighing up how rude it was to ask if someone had ever been in the circus.

'I would be good at that,' Ji-Min thought absently. She put everything on the table and kicked out her chair. 'It's always an option if crime or car insurance don't work out.'

It would be a waste of her degree and certifications, though. Ji-Min contemplated this as she methodically destroyed the waffle. Plus, having a publicized travel itinerary would make it easier to find connections between her travel and crime that fit her MO.

She checked the phone again. Hammer still wasn't up. She flipped over to the hater group chat and was disappointed to see that no one had updated on what Sir Tiger Explosion had done yesterday. Ugh. She scrolled an app for a while and found a dated meme that she saved and sent to two friends. She didn’t expect an answer, since most people were at work.

…She had to find something to do with her time. She couldn’t just look at her phone until Hammer said something like ‘it’s time for a cool crime! 🧊🥶❄️🌶️”

If nothing else, her battery would die.

'I'll go do the tourist thing.' Ji-Min went back to her room to pack a bag for the day. ‘I have hours and hours before he starts up. He’s going to crash hard after that breakout yesterday.’

Her mask and gloves went in the bag, as did a black jacket with an unflattering shapeless vibe. After some deliberation, she added the half mask that basically just covered her eyes as well. If she was in a real rush, she wouldn’t have time to properly secure the better one.

After some consideration, she decided to dress a little loudly today. She changed her white t-shirt for a hot red crop top and slipped on big red earrings in the shape of watermelon slices. She put a black headband on to keep her hair out of her eyes and left the rest loose. If she needed to go incognito, it would be easy to take off the colored accessories and cover up with the jacket. People would probably remember the red, not her jeans or build. There were a billion small women in the world and on any given day, probably half of them were wearing black pants.

That was her line of thinking, anyway. Ji-Min pocketed her keys and hotel card and jogged down the stairs to the parking lot. Her silver car blended into the parking lot so well that she missed it at a first glance.

That hadn’t been any kind of tactical decision. It was the same car that she’d owned since she’d finished her applied science degree in automotive repair. She’d got it cheap and fixed it herself while she was still working at a garage.

She sat for a while to pull up a navigation to a theme park and then snapped her phone into place on the dashboard. “41 minutes,” she said aloud. “Man. This is not a very walkable city.” Ji-Min eased her car out of the parking lot and into light traffic.

It felt like a day for cute pop music. She leaned over to tap at her phone with her left and start up a playlist. She drove for a while without incident, enjoying the sunshine.

The car in front of her screeched to a stop.

Ji-Min hit her brakes hard. She barely avoided hitting the white minivan in front of her. There was a crunch- crunch crunch in quick succession. A scream. A-

“A gun?” Ji-Min shrieked. That had been a gunshot and the sound of broken glass. She unbuckled and got out of the car to rush ahead. Other drivers were doing the same. She saw an older woman rush from the driver’s seat ahead and to the sidewalk, phone in hand.

The car in front of her had rear-ended a black car. That car in turn had rear-ended a blue car with an aura of blood-chilling menace. Ji-Min felt her heart pick up as she came level with the door of the black car.

It was hanging open. She kept her front to the car as she stepped around and took in the situation.

“Jesus fucking Christ.”

The older woman Ji-Min had seen was dialing 9-11 while a middle-aged man knelt by someone lying on the crosswalk, a good ten feet in front of the blue car. Blood was seeping out. A hit and run. Some asshole had hit a pedestrian, caused a pileup, and fled the scene.

A quick glance confirmed that the blue car had damage to the front. She looked across the intersection. The car that had given it was tearing down the end of the block, bumper barely hanging on. It was nearly out of sight. As she watched, it turned left.

A man kicked open the passenger side seat of the blue car and got out, scowling. He unfolded to his tall, wiry height with a slight clink of metal.

Ji-Min felt her mouth drop open at the sight of a celebrity. That was- well, everyone knew Gene, even if they hadn’t met. She wasn’t surprised to see that when she really looked closely, the driver’s seat was occupied by the ghastly insubstantial face of a withered wraith. The wraith turned their dark, empty eye sockets to watch her pass and tightened their hands on the steering wheel. She averted her eyes on instinct and was cursed with the knowledge that four more wraiths were crammed into the backseat. They were all staring at her.

That was too many ghouls. Some practical part of her brain said that fabric-wrapped bones didn't take up much seat space, and wondered if Gene could have crowded more of his boys in the car if he'd thought to.

That was a bad train of thought to get stuck on. It felt like they knew.

'Where are the others? There's 9, right?'

“Gene,” she said, a little desperately.

The possibly undead outlaw turned to her with sharp eyes. “Have we met?” He may or may not be as dead as his hangers-on, but he looked as healthy and handsome as he did in his original wanted posters from the 1800s.

“No, I just watch the news.” The fact that he was finishing up a sentence had been all over the news sites. She’d been rooting for him to stay out for a while this time. At least a month. “Hit and run?”

He looked as mad as she felt. “Yeah,” Gene said. He gestured with his right hand, which she now noticed was holding a pistol. “Gotdamn irresponsible and rude. I shot off their mirror, but they ain’t fucking stop.” He frowned at the victim. Other bystanders were moving the man off the road for the sidewalk, so he must have been alive. “Think I should have one of my boys take ‘em to the doctor on their wing things?”

Wing thi-

“No, you shouldn’t move an injured person more than you have to,” Ji-Min said. She tried really hard not to think about what ‘wing things’ Gene’s boys might have access to.

He took that in stride and then peered contemplatively across the intersection, where the driver had fled. “I can’t go, right? I need to talk to the police?” Gene tilted his head, as if the idea of talking to the police about a situation that didn’t involve him committing crime was a mildly interesting novelty.

“Yeah. I’ll get them. It was silver, right?” Ji-Min checked. “Did you see the model and make? License plate maybe?”

“I have no idea.” Gene seemed unconcerned. “I don’t know what any of that means.”

...Fair enough.

A sibilant, evil hiss broke the air. Ji-Min felt a chill.

Gene cocked his head and looked into the car.

She couldn’t breathe. Her muscles seized up.

“Ah,” Gene said. He nodded. “My boy says yeah, it was silver, and a 2016 Ford. License plate was local and started with 65, but that’s all he noticed.” He paused. "Oh. Male driver, tall, heavy-set."

“Tell the police that,” Ji-Min said. The pressure in the air lessened as the wraith stopped talking. She took a moment to wonder if he actually had a license. How would you get a license without a living identity? His "boys" had been around at least as long as Gene himself.

Then she looked at the car properly and felt her eyebrows shoot up as something else took her full attention. “You shot through your windshield?”

Gene blinked at her. “The what?”

She indicated the broken glass. Another car eased past them in the right lane as others started to pass the scene of the crime.

“Oh, that.” He rolled his shoulders. “Yeah.”

Ji-Min couldn’t help but notice that his window was hanging open. He could have just leaned out. “Fair enough,” she said. “Tell the police that the window broke when you hit the car in front of you, no gun involved.” She grimaced. It was practically obligatory to help Gene out. He’d been out of jail a whole three days. He didn’t deserve to go back in for shooting at some asshole. “If they ask, say you don’t have collision insurance."

“I don’t know what that is,” Gene agreed amiably. He put the gun in his pocket. Ji-Min saw the moment that it straight up disappeared.

Oh, so fucking cool. He’d never publicly commented on the magic gun thing, but it clearly wasn’t a normal antique.

A little distracted, Ji-Min dug around in her back pocket for a card that she didn’t have. “Ah, fuck. You have a mechanic?” She pointed her elbow at his fucked up bumper. “You should get that checked out asap.”

“No, I do not.” Gene shrugged. “You know somebody?”

“I’ll fix it,” Ji-Min promised, “or at least check it out. Don't drive on it more than you have to. Call me before 7 tonight, alright?”

That should be well before whatever time that Hammer would act out.

Gene brightened. “That would be much appreciated. I don’t have a phone now, can you give me your number?”

Her wallet was still in the car. Ji-Min gave up looking for a business card. “You have any paper and pen?”

“Nah, just tell me.” Gene cracked his neck. A siren started up in the distance as an ambulance was probably deployed to their location. “I’ll remember it.”

Ji-Min rattled her number off, shot him a salute, and got back to her car. She gave the pile-up a wide berth as she passed, and then tugged on her gloves as she drove. The watermelon earrings went in the cup holder. The half mask ended up in her lap, and the jacket was tugged out so that she could shrug it on as soon as she stopped the car. This was definitely illegal shit, even if vigilantism was a different genre of crime from her usual. She gritted her jaw and tried not to get too tense as she took the same turn that the hit and run driver had. She couldn’t afford to get too wound up. This wasn’t a fight. This was some standard human. Ji-Min wasn’t in the murder business. She had to stay calm.

If she hadn’t been watching intersecting roads so closely, she would have missed it. The driver had pulled over into an alley, just far enough off the street that she only noticed as she passed.

“Wow, must have hit hard,” Ji-Min mused. Her jaw flexed. “If the car isn’t driveable… You were really speeding, huh.” She felt a wave of loathing. “We live in a fucking society, fuckwad.”

Ji-Min noted a business sign as a landmark and pulled over at the next place she could. She gave the store a quick glance to memorize the name and then zipped up her jacket as she grabbed her phone from the dashboard. She got out of the car and jogged back. When no one was looking, she put the mask on. Then she approached the car on foot, catlike and quiet. Someone was yelling but the car’s windows muffled what they were saying.

'That's definitely not drivable,' she diagnosed as she got closer. 'He's not going anywhere unless it's on foot, and I'll just stay until the cops come.'

She was waiting for the car to start again, to drive off when they noticed her. Something crunched under her foot. She glanced down, expecting to see broken glass or metal from the car.

It was a shattered phone.

"I don't have to do this." Ji-Min tested out the thought. "I could go home and just let him run wild until he gets picked up by the cops or a local suit."

…Nope, bad idea. Ji-Min sneered. The steering wheel creaked under her grip. The thought was extremely displeasing.

She couldn't let someone else handle him. That was her role and no one else got to do it. She was going to find out whatever half-baked plan he had pulled out of the garbage can of his mind, and she was going to thwart him.

That was what she'd been doing for months now. The newspapers would say that she was a rogue vigilante, with varying degrees of approval. They said that she was Hammer's mysterious nemesis, a shadow that only emerged when he was free to drag him to justice.

The truth of it was that Ji-Min was a massive hater and she couldn't stand to let Hammer have anything.

She stopped at a gas station in a bad mood and got an offensively large cup of tea from a faded machine. It tasted shit. She tossed it out the window and got bottled water at the next stop. The drive really wasn't that long, except that she was too keyed up to turn up music and enjoy it.

The closer to confrontation she got, the more wound up Ji-Min felt. The tension eventually got so high that she parked the car and did some furious calisthenics. She glared at anyone who looked at her, defensive about what she knew was weird behavior. It was necessary.

Ji-Min had spent a lot of time in the gym since her powers came in. If she didn't blow off steam, she'd find herself breaking things by accident.

Before she started driving again, she checked Hammer's social media. Ji-Min leaned on the side of her car and smacked on gum while she scrolled.

"heY r U ready to GOooooo," he had sent to Sunspot.

She'd sent back a thumbs up and a sparkly moon emoji. "Go to bed. You have a big day tomorrow, boss."

"😔 😩 😩 Y don't u love me anymore and be nice o me?"

"Unfortunately, I'm not your one true love 🔨 💕"

"haha 😂 🔥 😘  2 bad!!!"

God, what poor fuckhead was Hammer's 'one true love?' Ji-Min pulled a face and closed the app. Her stomach turned at the thought.

She pushed the disturbing bits away and focused on the eventual crime. If Sunspot was telling him to rest up, then Ji-Min should probably just get a hotel and wait for him to make his move. She sent her sister a text canceling their workout tomorrow morning. Ari sent back a thumbs up and a crying face.

Then she looked up a hotel in the area and checked the price. Feeling spiteful, she logged into Hammer's bank account and sent a $500 transfer to her Swiss bank account. He wouldn't notice. He never did. He might not even know his password. He only ever used his card.

She took a moment to scroll through his recent transactions. Fifty at a gas station, 126 dollars to a pizza place, 7 in ice cream, and a Paypal transfer for 7000 dollars. The note said "clothes."

Her phone chimed. A gray alert came up with some graph and a title about the stock market.

"Oh, fuck," Ji-Min sighed. She opened the app and then went to the settings. She ignored the landing page and its copy of the current stock market happenings. On muscle memory, she opened up the hidden login and typed in the 14 digit code.

The real message showed up.

Warning from Sir Tiger Explosion, it read. Bank robbery this evening in NYC at ….

The tension flooded out of her system. "Again?" Ji-Min snorted. She closed the app and opened up the hater group chat.

Harmes had beat her to it. As she opened it, " 💰 Always love to see someone push the boundaries!!" landed.

Ji-Min cracked a smile. "Innovate. Expand. Boldly go."

"Live laugh love the consistency," said an anon with a pirate hat icon. "Maybe it'll work this time."

"Unlikely," said Harmes. They followed it up with a couple photos of newspaper articles with headlines like "Local Man Attempts to Rob Bank."

Ouch. That wasn't even from the special crimes section. Ji-Min put a crying reaction on the image. Lurkers added crying and laughter reactions as she watched, probably for the same reason.

"Remember when he used the back of his atm withdrawal slip for the ransom note?" Ji-Min typed up. She felt a mean little smile steal across her face.

That got laugh reactions all around.

Feeling better, she shoved her phone back in her pocket and got back in the car. She cranked up the music for the last leg of the drive and arrived at the hotel in a good mood.

She swiped to pay with her Swiss account, and gave a cash tip to the receptionist. She didn't have much to bring in- a gym bag with her change of clothes and kit, as well as the bare basics like a toothbrush and hair supplies. She took her time getting ready by putting her hair up and stacking it with the pins that would support her mask later. When she was done, Ji-Min shrugged on her coat and went for a walk.

She spent an hour casing the city before she decided what to do with her time. Ji-Min got a table at a French restaurant for dinner and ate filet mignon and rabbit. She kicked back in a private corner with a glass of red wine and watched the people eat and walk outside. They were all so distant to her.

She'd never really felt like she was part of the crowd. And now…

Ji-Min finished her glass and left her card carelessly on the table while she went to the ladies room. She saw a server bob their head and hurry over to run the card.

In the bathroom, she checked her hair was staying in place and took a moment to stretch, limbering up her fingers and wrists.

She passed an older woman on her way out. Ji-Min could feel the stare. She didn't deign to look back.

With a yawn, Ji-Min collected her card and slipped it back into her bag. She scribbled a $40 tip onto the receipt and left as much in cash.

It was fully dark out by the time she left. Haunting sirens called out in the distance of the night, tattle tailing on some kind of trouble. She was feeling like trouble herself, personally.

'I'm not ready to go back to the hotel just yet,' Ji-Min decided. She felt the pleasant buzz of anticipation, a thrill down the back of her spine.  Ji-Min slipped her ear buds in and put on something with a thumping baseline beat. She idly used her phone to search the area as she prowled around the streets. The night air was crisp and the air was so fogged with pollution that she couldn't see a single star. It felt exactly like the kind of night for her to be unleashed.

She wasn't too far away from an interesting target.

The Versace store was closed at this hour, and the lights she could see were off. Ji-Min paused outside with her hands in her pockets, looking up. She turned off the music and slipped her headphones into the case.

She could tell that people were still inside. They were probably counting out money and doing inventory. Ja-Min popped in a breath mint and cocked her head at the building, tracking the faint impressions of body heat where workers were moving inside.

It was easier when there were fewer people around. It took her a few minutes to determine how many people were inside and what floors they were on. She casually walked around to the side of the building. She pulled the mask out of her bag and started attaching it, pulling the pins out of her one by one to attach the ribbons to her hair. When she was finished, Ja-Min pulled gloves out of her pocket and slid them on. As she slipped into the shadows, there was no one and no camera to watch her scale the wall.

She settled on a fourth floor window far from any of the lingering employees.

The subtle, cat-burglar type strategy would be to cut a hole in the glass and silently remove it. Hammer would break it with his fist and crash in– but he'd set up a drone first to record it, of course.

Ji-Min took off her gloves so that she could wedge her nails into the frame and pop it clean off. There was an ugly scrape, but the operation was overall very quiet. Ji-Min hummed with concentration and rotated the frame at an angle to maneuver it into the room. She stepped inside and leaned the window against the wall. Then she blinked in the darkness until her eyes adjusted.

She caught her reflection in a mirror while she put her gloves back on. It was hard to tell with her dark eyes, but her pupils were blown out to nearly subsume her whole iris. That was new. The night vision was one of her favorite powers.

When her gloves were back on, she took out a spray bottle and wiped down everywhere she could conceivably have touched on the frame. Then she finally took a look around.

There were cameras.

If the lights had been on, that would have been some small concern. As it was, Ji-Min casually flipped one off and prowled down the deserted department floor. She'd ended up in the home goods section. She dismissed it entirely and crept silently down the stilled escalator.

There was something so poignantly beautiful about the store deserted, dark, and cold.

This was the closest thing to religion that she ever felt.

The first thing she picked up was a thick bangle. It had the brand name emblazoned on it. "This is fugly," Ji-Min said, lips pulling up into a smile. She clapped it onto her wrist. "I don't even want it." She checked the price and let out an incredulous little giggle. "Incredible." She ran a gloved finger down the display and picked up a ring. "Gaudy." She paused. "This has potential, though."

Ji-Min worshiped in a daze as she slipped rings, bangles, earrings, and hair accessories into her bag. She was faintly tempted by shoes and a red dress, but even in her haze she knew better than to take anything that indicated personal information like her size. She could go to another store and buy what she wanted later.

She ended up with an eclectic mix stuffing her purse to the brim. Some of it she would sell, and some she would wear.

She barely remembered leaving. It was as easy as entering had been. She tucked the mask away and made her way back to her bed for the night.

The hotel room was larger than she needed. She turned the bathwater on and asked room service for a pot of tea. When it arrived, she sat it on the edge of the tub and went through her skin care routine. When she finally slipped into the water, she was perfectly relaxed.

After a while, she thought to snake her arm out to grab her phone and check on Hammer again. He'd changed his profile photo since the afternoon. This one was shirtless. Ji-Min let out an annoyed sigh, but her heart wasn't really in it this time. He'd let on more of the details for his plan since she'd last checked.

"The Planetarium?" Her skeptical voice echoed in the steamy air. "Is this going to be like the thing he did with that Aquarium?"