“I couldn’t have gotten a piggyback ride from Cinder,” Snowdawn murmured with a heavy frown.


    The strong wind hit them in the face as they jumped from roof to roof. If not for her helmet, she knew her hair would have been more of a wild mess than it usually was.


    Jumping was easy for her. Her body was literally made for it, and even the large distances weren’t an issue. She had to stop and wait several seconds for Myth to catch up. The hero was in his bull form and was strong enough to leap vast distances like her, though several times only just barely making it, gripping onto the edges of the rooftops. Snowdawn rode on his back, gripping the horns of the beast since he wasn’t so lucky in the power department.


    “If you practiced with your powers more and could create ice easier, you wouldn’t be in this situation.” Myth advised. “Ocean Empress has a method for this kind of travel and creates ice ramps and slides.”


    "Yeah, well, I don’t exactly think a layer of snow is very safe. Maybe when I can do ice, I’ll try it, but I’m going to have to pass on walking on a slide made out of fluff.” Snowdawn said, rolling his eyes.


    “Don’t be such a big baby.” She giggled. “I’d kill to switch places with you. Myth is like a big giant horse.” Myth’s eyes narrowed. “Uh, sorry.”


    “Cinder has a point, actually,” Snowdawn said, perking up. “Could you turn into a horse?”


    Myth shook his head. “How did I get stuck with the two of you?”


    They came to a stop at a nearby warehouse, finally reaching Spider Street. The sun had already set by this point, leaving only the moonlight. That said, hiding in the shadows in a bright blue outfit was kind of hard, so she did her best to stay quiet so none of the men down below would have any reason to look up.


    A few cars drove down the road, and dozens of people went through their storage locker. She wasn’t sure who was a gang member and who was just an innocent person that ended up in the bad part of town.


    It was just the three of them. Since she and Snowdawn were so new, Myth decided to personally travel with them while on this patrol. They had basically set out the moment the leader of Pantheon had announced the patrol, going from roof to roof heading to the shady part of town. Her and Mr. Larison had earlier seen the Wandering Coin gang hanging out around the area, so they figured it would be easy to find something to do.


    As for Battery and Whisper, those two had formed their own mini-team and were sent down to the docks. Battery had picked Whisper up and had left in a blur faster than any car could go. The docks were down by the beach where the Bad Timers often hung out, so it was a good bet something would happen down there as well.


    She was a little annoyed that she didn’t get to fight alongside Battery or Whisper, but was glad that at the very least she and Armin were about to team up and fight together.


    “We can’t act unless someone is committing a crime.” Myth explained. They spoke in a hushed voice as his form reverted back to its normal human mode, and he set Snowdawn down. “Bad Timers and Zoo always have some sort of tell for if they’re in the group. A mark of sorts. As far as I know though, Wandering Coin doesn’t. If you see someone that looks suspicious, alert me and do not engage. Stalk them if you can from outside and see if they commit a crime first. If they don’t, then we have to let them go. We’re going to split up a bit but stay within forty meters of this building, and if something goes wrong, scream, and I’ll come running. You two stick together; watch each other’s backs.”


    She nodded. “Okay. Stealth. Yeah. Like in a video game. I can do this.”


    Snowdawn let out a small grin. The hero wasn’t covered in his snow since that would’ve been uncomfortable while he rode on Myth’s back, so he actually was able to blend in with the dark buildings very well, thanks to the black jumpsuit. “It’ll be fine. We’ll take the fire escape over there and head down. Stick to the alleyways. I’ve seen Myth do this a few times, so just stick close, Cinder.”


    She followed after her friend, and soon enough, they reached the street and began to duck into various alleyways. Spider Street was almost like a bizarre maze with its many twists and turns and storage lockers. She knew not everyone here was evil. Some were people who were using this place to store their junk, some were homeless men or women looking for a place to nap, and some... Some were part of gangs.


    “Whoa.” Snowdawn came to a sudden halt, peering down an alleyway that was filled with what looked like vagrants. “Look who’s here.”


    “What?” She followed where he pointed and almost let out a soft gasp. The dirty old man from school, the one always shouting nonsense, laid on a stained mattress. She gasped when she saw him. She had never really considered where the man went or even the possibility of the people that don’t have homes. It was a cold night, and she watched as the homeless shivered. “Should we do something?”


    “Uh, what exactly? We fight crime.” Snowdawn snorted.


    “We’re superheroes. We help people.”


    Snowdawn gave an awkward shrug. “Okay, but what do we do exactly? They’re all just sitting there shivering. I mean, I guess we could bring food down here some time or something. Open a shelter? That won’t really help them, though. Even if we help them, there will be others we haven’t seen that won’t be given the same privilege.”


    She squeezed her hand into a fist. Sure, Snowdawn had a bit of a point, but she was watching it in front of her at this moment. She spotted a small barrel near the entrance. The kind that looked like it had been turned into a makeshift bonfire. One of the men in the alleyway was seemingly attempting to start up a fire to keep them all warm but was having trouble with it.


    Her hand balled tighter, and she breathed in. She didn’t need a lot of power. She didn’t need an explosive force. She just needed enough to help. Enough to start the ball rolling. She focused her power, feeling a faint heat go from her stomach to her throat, and she spat. Mr. Larison had created lasers at different sizes with different power outputs. She needed to jog rather than sprint. A small ember of flame shot out. It flew through the air like a bullet faster than human eyes could follow and hit the barrel. It blazed into an inferno, causing the man to jump. Several of the men all cheered, and before she could appreciate her handy work, she felt Snowdawn grab her by the shoulder and drag her down another alleyway before anyone could see that they were there.


    “Warn me the next time you plan to do that.” Snowdawn sighed once they were out of sight. She just shrugged, and it caused the hero to huff and roll his eyes. Slowly, snow began to form on his body once more as he created the snowy armor. “Let’s just get back to work. Any idea where to start?”


    “Yeah. Hang tight.” She closed her eyes and began to focus. Her ears started to ring, and gradually she could hear almost everything. Snowdawn’s heartbeat, the radio in the cars on the nearby road, yelling, and- A gunshot rang out, causing her ears to ring.


    “Shots fired,” Snowdawn said in a panic. It had been loud enough to hear without needing super hearing, so it wasn’t super far away. She rubbed at her ears as Snowdawn pulled his phone out and dialed Myth. “We heard a gun west of where we are, sending the location-” More gunshots went off, and she could hear loud screaming now.


    “Stay put, I’m on my way.” Myth said from over the phone.


    “No time.” She shook her head and grabbed Snowdawn, picking him up with ease. “We’ll see you there, sir.”


    Myth let out a sigh. “Understood, even if you’re bulletproof, try not to get shot, and run as soon as you spot someone that looks like a Super.”


    She hung up Snowdawn’s phone and crouched low to the ground. With ease, she jumped up and went blasting through the air, landing on a nearby building. She leapt across the rooftop, the sounds of fighting getting louder. “It’s from down there,” Snowdawn hissed.


    She came to a stop at the edge of the roof and peered down. Her eyes went wide at what she saw. It was a shootout. She couldn’t tell which gang was what, but at one end of the alleyway were five thugs who had several dumpsters pulled out as a makeshift shield. They were firing wildly toward the other side of the alleyway, where there were three other men who were ducking behind the entrance of the alleyway, using it for cover.


    They were all screaming insults at each other, and thankfully no one seemed to have gotten shot yet. “You think you can take those three down there?” She asked.


    Snowdawn gave her a smirk, the snow already starting to cover his body. “Piece of cake. You going to try and take the five on the other side?”


    “I have a few ideas.” She nodded.


    “Alright. I’ll trust you to have my back then.” Snowdawn ran to the other side of the building and peered down at the three men who were in the streets below. The young hero smirked and held out a hand. “Hey!” He shouted as loud as he could. That caused the men to all come to a stop and look up at him. “You guys really need to take a break and chill out.” Before any of them could open fire, a massive glob of snow burst out of Snowdawn’s hand, raining down on the men.


    It was thick and solid, smacking them on the head and shoving the three of them down. More of it piled on, and they were swiftly buried in snow, and before they could stand up, he leaped off the side of the building. It wasn’t a long fall, but he still made sure to land on a soft pile of snow to break his fall.


    Snowdawn balled his hand into a fist and struck at one of the men with his super strength, using just enough power to knock the guy out. His other hand blasted at the entrance to the alleyway, creating a wall of snow to stop the other five goons from shooting at him, just in case Cinder wasn’t able to knock them out in time. He kicked out with his leg and knocked the second one out. The third just about managed to stand up and raise their gun, but the snow caused them to slip and fire blindly into the air. They came down hard and smacked their heads on the curb, knocking themselves out.


    “Well, that was easy.” Snowdawn snorted.


    Over with Cinder, she also dropped down. She fell right into the center of the alleyway. The gunfire had stopped when the wave of snow dropped on the entrance, so she used that as her chance. “Not so fast!” She called out. “You guys need to give up and-” The five men yelled when they saw her and raised their guns about to fire. “Or not…”


    She gritted her teeth and shot forward with inhuman speed. She managed to twirl out of the way of a grunt''s bullet, and in a single punch to the gut, she downed him. The other four stumbled back and fired at her wildly. She threw herself in front of the downed man and raised her arms above her head. A hiss left her lips as the bullets struck her, though none of them were able to put holes in her suit. They felt sort of like getting stung by a bee, though. Bullets dropped to the floor, and the men cursed as their guns clicked.


    Her eyes held a fire, and she spat out, shooting her ember once more. She fired four tiny orbs of flame, and the grunts screamed as their guns burned white-hot, and they were forced to drop them. She could feel a burning on her lips, and her throat was starting to get sore, but she ignored it and charged forward, shoulder-bashing one of the grunts and slamming them into the wall. She was being careful to hold her massive strength back. Just like with the small embers, she wasn’t sprinting; she was jogging, making sure she didn’t break of the men’s bones or shatter the walls of the alleyway. She twisted her body and slammed her palm into another goon''s face, hitting him with a powerful slap that instantly downed them.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    With only two of them left, one of the criminals grabbed his friend and shoved them toward her, likely wanting to buy some time. He took off running like a bat out of hell as he heard his friend getting the snot beat out of them. She rubbed the back of her head watching the man run. She grabbed the lid off of a trash can and chucked it.


    The man reached the end of the alleyway about to escape, but at the last second he was smacked in the back of the head by the lid and crashed to the ground unconscious. “Wow. I’m not too bad when it comes to low-level grunts. I dare say I’m even good.” She noted. The hardest she hit any of the grunts was the one who had been rammed into the wall. It was a nasty hit; the man would need a trip to the hospital, but he’d live.


    “Cinder, you okay?” She allowed herself to relax when Snowdawn came crashing through the wall of snow. Her friend let out a whistle when he saw the five knocked-out men. “Wow. I’m impressed. You didn’t need me at all.”


    She gave him a grin and shot him a thumbs up. She turned back when she heard a groan. One of the men was shakily pushing himself back up to his feet, wobbling a bit. It was the one she had slapped.


    “Stay on the ground. I’m calling my boss. Don’t move, and you won’t get hurt, okay?” She did her best to channel her Mr. Larison wanting to sound cool and badass, but her tone just caused Snowdawn to snort. She pulled her phone out and dialed her boss. “Cinder to Myth.” The second she let her guard down, the man grabbed a knife from his boot and stabbed it at her neck. The knife shattered, and she brought her fist down on his head, knocking him out. She rolled her eyes. “Seriously, if the bullets didn’t work, why would the knife do the trick? Cinder to Myth.”


    “This is Myth. I’m closing in. Be there in a minute. Got caught up with a few guys selling drugs. I trust you handled everything.”


    “Yeah. We got eight guys here. It looks like it was a gang-on-gang attack. Anything we should do, Myth?”


    “Just stay on standby and watch them for now.” Myth responded. “We’ll call the Branch when I’m on scene.”


    “Copy that-” Her phone flew out of her hand, and she winced in pain when the bullet hit her. The alleyway exploded with another gunshot, and she looked up, glaring as a new goon stood at the end holding a large smoking rifle. “That one really hurt!” The bullet had hit her wrist and left a nasty bruise on it. She picked her phone up and let out a sigh of relief when she saw that it still worked. It had a large crack in it and had hung up on Myth, but that was it.


    The man raised his gun about to fire again, but Snowdawn was faster. A wave of snow blasted out of the boy’s palm and slammed into the man, shoving them back and causing the grunt to drop his big gun. The man screamed a series of insults at them and stumbled back up to their feet. They reached into their pocket, and she expected another gun, but instead they pulled out a weird jar of orange liquid.


    It reminded her almost of a potion from an RPG or something. The man even popped the lid off of it and drank it like there was no tomorrow. The glass was crushed in the man’s hands as he let out a loud roar and charged. He moved faster than she expected and threw out a punch towards her. She raised her arms up just in time, but the attack was still strong enough to send her flying across the alleyway, and she crashed into Snowdawn pain shooting through her arms.


    “T- That hurt worse than the bullets.” She winced.


    “Seriously! This guy was a Super?” Snowdawn asked with wide eyes.


    “I don’t think so.” They were back on their feet and separated just in time as the man crashed down between them using an enhanced jump to make it over to them. She had felt pain like this before. The image of Red Ape came to her. He had used something to boost his strength to monstrous levels as well. The villain had gotten it from the Wandering Coin, so this man must have also been part of that group.


    Snowdawn raised his hands up and blasted out with a wave of snow towards the drugged-up man. The guy howled and jumped high into the air again. Her eyes widened. It almost matched her super jump. The grunt’s hand came out and stabbed into the building, and he tore off a wave of debris, which he threw at the cold-based hero. Snowdawn cursed and created a barrier of snow, but that only stopped some of the rocks. Her friend let out a yell as he took a rock to the skull and fell back.


    She grabbed one of the dumpsters and threw it at the man, causing him to fall off of the roof when it rammed into them. The man slammed into the alleyway floor and was back on his feet in an instant. Smoke flowed from his body, and his skin began to turn a nasty red color as he roared. She jumped at him and brought her hands together above her body and slammed them down into the top of his head. This time she didn’t hold her strength back as much. The force of the attack shattered the ground around them and sent a wave of wind blasting out.


    Blood flowed down from the top of the man’s skull, and he stumbled but didn’t fall. They seemed to have enhanced durability now as well. Whatever that drug they took, it was seriously cheating. The grunt pulled his fist back, punching her in the face. She gasped, feeling her skull rattle in her helmet. Despite having powers now, though the man wasn’t quite as strong as her, and she managed to stay on her feet, tanking the punch.


    She wiped some of the blood from her lip and shook her head. “You need to calm down, sir.” She punched him square in the gut and sent the man blasting back. The grunt rolled across the alleyway and out onto the road just in time for a car to come their way. “No!” She shouted in horror at what she did.


    The grunt let out a hiss of rage as the car rammed into them. The car wasn’t able to get past the man-turned-Super, and metal flew as it came to a sudden stop, throwing whoever was driving it around. The Wandering Coin member didn’t stop there though and instead stabbed their hands into the roof of the car and, with all their effort, managed to pick it up. She ran forward, but the man twisted and threw the car at her as hard as they could.


    Her eyes met those of the drivers. It was some older man who was screaming. She had the chance to dodge out of the way of the car but didn’t. Instead, she raised her own arms and caught the vehicle as it smashed into her. She was thrown off her feet and felt her ribs ache, but she took it and managed to balance herself on the balls of her feet, holding the car up. She was a little shocked at how it didn’t even feel all that heavy. She brought the thing down, and instantly the door burst open as the driver threw himself out.


    The driver stared up at her with grateful eyes. “You just saved my life-”


    She opened her mouth about to say something but felt a wave of blinding pain shoot through her as the grunt reached her again and sucker punched her in the back of the head. It seemed to do more damage to them though as their hand shattered on her helmet, unable to break Mr. Larison’s gift. The attack still made her stumble, and before she could recover, the grunt was already picking the car back up and swung it over the driver’s head, ramming it into her back.


    More metal exploded filling the streets, and she was thrown hard across the ground, rolling. She groaned but managed to push herself up, smirking. “Compared to White Lamb, or Intake, this is nothing. You’re not really that strong. Even a loser like Red Ape was scarier than you!”


    The man roared and charged towards her, ready to punch, but was forced to a sudden stop. He grunted and stared down at the ice that kept him rooted in place. “Some ice pun or something, I don’t care! Hit him hard, Cinder!” Snowdawn screamed. He was back up and freezing the ground as much as he could standing at the entrance to the alleyway.


    She took in a gulp of air and focused her power. This time it wasn’t a small ember that she fired though. It was the real deal. She didn’t want to hit the man with the full fire; that’d likely kill him, so instead she did the next best thing. She twisted her body and blasted the fire out of her mouth behind her, angling it so it would go up into the air and not hit any of the buildings. The recoil of the attack was normally something she could handle, but she eased her super strength, causing the force of the fire that poured out of her mouth to rip her off of her feet and send her blasting forward at the same speed Mr. Larison would run. Directly toward the grunt.


    Snowdawn created more snow, forming a large barrier of it around the civilian who ducked down and whimpered. The grunt tried to lift their arms up in order to block the attack, but it was never going to work. At the speed she was going, she could hit far harder than she ever had, and she kicked out with her leg still in the air, putting every ounce of strength she had into the attack.


    The man was blasted high into the air, being shoved through the ice that bound them, and their eyes rolled to the back of their head as the massive shock wave hit them. They went flying past all the buildings and came down hard, ramming through a billboard of the mayor. They hit the end of the street and didn’t get back up, only still alive thanks to the fact they had been turned into a semi-Super.


    She had tried to keep the damage to the street to a minimum, not breaking anything other than the alleyway, but the force of her powerful blow kicked up a powerful wave of wind that shattered several windows, and the ground was cracked and split. She felt really guilty. She had wanted to not repeat the hotel incident, but it was harder than it looked to fire out massive attacks and not break anything. How did someone like the Victorian do it?


    Snowdawn stood there, watching the dust clear. She had dropped to her knees and was breathing heavily, some blood trickling down her chin. She really needed a glass of water. “You did it.” Snowdawn said, a bit stunned. “I’m starting to see where you got the name Cinder from.”


    She rubbed at her throat and groaned, her voice hoarse. “I’m still not that good at using that power quite yet.”


    “That was you not being good!”


    “You saved me.” They both jumped when they heard the voice. Slowly standing up was the man that she had caught. He didn’t look too impressive—an older plump man with a bit of a white beard going on. She jumped a bit when they grabbed her hand and began to shake it.


    “I- I guess I did.” She awkwardly chuckled. She felt bad though, as the entire reason he had been put in danger was because she had thrown that villain out of the alleyway. She’d have to do better. Both in preventing damages to the city and in getting people put in harm''s way. Her ideal version of herself, the version she wanted to be, was a hero that always saved the day. “Sorry about your car.” She winced.


    That was when the man seemed to fully register the fact that his ride was a total mess down, having been shattered in two. The man''s smile faltered, and his eyes were filled with a bunch of different emotions. She sort of wished she had been crazy rich so she could give him the money needed to buy a new car. Not even Armin had that kind of cash on hand, though.


    It just made her guilt feel worse.


    “I’m here!” Myth announced crashing down from a nearby roof and startling all of them.


    “You’re late!” They both yelled.


    “Whoops.”


    ***


    “Battery here. We had to deal with a mild high-speed chase, but that was it.”


    “Copy that.” Myth nodded. “We’ll head our way to you when we’re done here.” The leader of Pantheon closed his phone and pocketed it. “How are you feeling Cinder?”


    She gave a so-so gesture. She rested on the curb, and Snowdawn wrapped a few of her fingers in bandages and used a rag to clean off some of the blood from her busted lip. All the unconscious men were laid on the street. Sirens hung in the distance, the police, and an ambulance on their way.


    She eyed the manmade Super up. He hadn’t gotten back up after she blasted him, and according to Myth, when they knocked Red Ape out, the man’s body had reverted back to normal and lost his enhanced strength. She still wasn’t going to take her eyes off of him though, just in case.


    “He was drugged up like Red Ape.” She muttered. “Hit as hard as he did at least.”


    “Red Ape? You’ve fought a member of Zoo?” Snowdawn asked, raising an eyebrow.


    "Yeah, but don’t worry about it.” She shrugged. “That was a little while ago.” She decided to leave out her battle with Green Wolf and White Lamb. That might have caused her friend to have a panic attack.


    “The Wandering Coin was able to produce more of that power drug.” Myth rubbed his chin, frowning. “I knew that there was a good chance they would eventually create more, but not this soon. Either it wasn’t as strong as the one Red Ape took, or you’ve gotten stronger in a short time. Either way, good work, Cinder. You did good.”


    She felt a ping of pride and couldn’t help but give a small grin. It made all the pain she took worth it in her eyes.


    The sound of a car pulling toward them caused their heads to snap up. They were expecting it to be a cop car or the ambulance, but instead it was a slick black vehicle. The kind you would see important politicians or the like drive in. The windows were tinted, and she couldn’t see the driver, but the sight of it caused Myth’s back to straighten up.


    “Why is she here?” Myth looked uneasy, and his hands shook. She had never seen the strong hero look so shaken before.


    “Who is it?” Snowdawn asked.


    “Stay here.” Myth walked forward towards the car, and she watched as the window rolled down. She tried to peek past him and see who was in the car, but the man’s body blocked it. She heard a feminine voice, however.


    “My, my, I never thought I would see you with your own little team Myth.” The voice was sly and held an air of confidence.


    “Who is that?” She shot a look towards her friend, but he just shrugged.


    “You know Myth. I’m quite shocked that you went through with building your own team.” Her enhanced senses wouldn’t shut off as she heard the conversation. “After all. You know how much the Hero Branch truly hates you.”


    Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, Battery looked up at the night sky, his eyes tracing the cracked moon that hung above. “So, what’s it like?” The voice of Whisper called down to him.


    “What do you mean?” Battery questioned. He was seated on a pile of bodies. Nearly twenty people in total. All totally knocked out from a single golden blast. They had hit a Wandering Coin base near the docks.


    “You know what I mean.” The invisible girl rested near the bottom of the pile. She wasn’t visible thanks to her powers, but he could hear her moving around. “What’s it like being on Myth’s team?”


    Battery lazily shrugged and adjusted himself on the pile of bodies while he waited for the officers to arrive. “It’s not the first team I’ve been on.”


    “Oh?”


    “I was on another one once.” For a moment, a small flicker of emotion seemed to come into the normally stoic man’s voice. “This group is different. A lot different.”


    “It was a hero team, right?” Whisper asked. Battery felt the girl’s fingers suddenly trace his chin. “You know, you’re pretty interesting. Could you be a secret son of the Victorian?”


    “I’m older than her.” Battery said flatly.


    “Darn.” The girl let out a soft snort, and their power turned off, revealing their form. “That golden light is the exact same thing she has. It makes me wonder how you have it, too.”


    “Good genes, I guess.” Battery stood up and stretched, feeling his beating heart settle down. “What about you?”


    “Huh?”


    “What do you think about being on Myth’s team?” The man asked casually.


    Whisper’s smile faltered for a moment, though it couldn’t be seen due to the mask she wore. “Being on Myth’s team is... Well, he’s strong. In fact, I’d say he holds a power the Hero Branch might even fear.”