Rockets waved down from above and smashed into the wall of ice that Armin created. The wall shook, and large chunks of it snapped off, but it held strong. Hope crouched down next to her friend, who nodded at her. She took a breath and jumped out from behind the wall as the explosions died down.


    Instantly, she was met head-on with a punch. She narrowly tried to block the strike but felt wind smash into her as Sera rammed her palm forward, blasting the Pantheon member with compressed air. She slid back a bit and kicked out with her leg, but Sera easily jumped over the strike. The younger girl had been a hero for far longer and had practiced hand-to-hand combat every day, something that became clear as she danced circles around Hope.


    Every strike Hope unleashed was strong, easily breaking apart the ground, but it simply didn''t matter if it couldn''t hit. She seriously needed to practice more at hand to hand. Sera struck out again with a wave of compressed air, throwing Hope back. Armin jumped out of his cover and jabbed out with his own punch, but Sera easily dodged that as well, redirecting the attack with her wind.


    "Seriously, how are you so good at this!" Armin asked with wide eyes.


    "Years of practice!" Metal Ronin called out from up above them. After the battle with Wish, or rather his utter loss to the hands of Wish, Rowan had spent nearly three days straight creating a brand-new set of armor. It was taller than his old one, standing at eight feet tall. It was also bulkier, with bigger, longer arms, legs, and a thick protective chest plate on the front. He had lost some of his weapons but made up for it with a set of large foldable cannons that would come out of his shoulders, and he still had one of his swords, though the blade was now nearly five feet in length and burned with a white-hot beam of energy. "Remember it was you two who offered to help me practice and test out my new suit."


    It had been only three days since the fight with Wish—three days of waiting and planning, trying to see what would happen. The Wandering Coin had seemingly gone dead silent, not wanting to get involved now that they lost some of their best warriors. Even the low-level goons that stayed in the warehouses and sold drugs had dried up.


    Bad Timers was seemingly gone for good, and Zoo was also lying low. Usually, she’d be glad there was nothing going on, but the constant silence and lack of action were starting to get to her. Myth had been busy planning and speaking with people because they could all feel it. Soon, a storm would be arriving. A storm that could shake everything up.


    During this silent time, she had decided that no matter what, she was going to improve and get even stronger. She had the image of what her ideal hero was, and she hadn''t yet reached that point, so the only thing to do was train and grow stronger. That was why she found herself in the Sub Enforcers base.


    Metal Ronin had been looking to practice with his new suit, but most of his team members were still recovering and being healed by Sky. She offered to help, as did Armin. Sera had also seemingly jumped at the chance to beat up some Pantheon members, and so they turned it into a sort of two-on-two battle. They didn''t have any of their gear or armor aside from Metal Ronin, and they were mainly trying to use their powers as little as possible in order to work on their physical stats and skills.


    It was quickly becoming clear though that team Sub Enforcers had simply been trained more as Pantheon was losing this friendly match.


    Sera engaged with Armin once more. The young girl dropped to a crouch and kicked out with her legs smashing into Armin''s ankle and causing the boy to fall. As he dropped, he twisted his body around and landed on his palms, freezing the ground around him and causing Sera to slip and fall. "Don''t get too cocky!" He announced proudly. "I''ve been working like a dog with Poseidon and know a couple of new tricks!" He used the sliding ice to his advantage and came down on Sera with an elbow smashing into the girl.


    "Y- You''re not supposed to hit girls as hard as you can." Sera squeaked out.


    "Screw that!" Armin announced and rapidly pinned the younger girl down. "I''m playing to win; morals can kiss my ass!"


    Hope giggled and stood up, dusting herself off. She twisted herself out of the way just in time as Metal Ronin brought his large sword down on her. She turned and unleashed a powerful punch, ramming it into the older teen and causing him to go sliding back, but he still held his ground. His suit was a little dented and cracked, but it still worked. The cannons unfolded from his shoulder and pointed at her about to fire.


    She jumped back about to dodge, but the ground around her suddenly rumbled and changed. The Sub Enforcer’s base was held inside of another pocket realm. She was starting to get a bit sick of them with how many she ran into now. It had taken on the form of a massive manor, and in one of the rooms was the massive training room they were now in. It was a plain square-shaped room that stretched out far with nothing in it.


    That was until Metal Ronin casually pressed a button on his gauntlet. The floor shook and changed, and she suddenly found herself surrounded by large gray walls that appeared on either side of her, boxing her in and stopping her from being able to escape as the hero charged up his laser blasts. She had no way of avoiding it now. Purple energy spilled out to the cannons, and Metal Ronin gave a dry chuckle.


    “Don’t worry. It’s set to stun.” The cannons fired out a massive wave of energy toward her.


    She closed her eyes and felt her power surge forward. In an instant, her hair was cloaked in golden fire, and her eyes ignited with a red fury. She vanished in a flash, far faster than the lasers could move. She appeared in front of Metal Ronin and with ease ripped the shoulder cannons off of the boy’s suit. He went to strike out, but she vanished again, appearing behind him. She was moving so fast she was literally setting the ground on fire and leaving an afterimage, something that fooled the tech-based hero as his blade swung through the image she left behind. She reached out and gently flicked him on the back of his helm.


    Metal Ronin dropped forward, his mask shattering from the force of the attack, revealing the face of Rowan. "That feels a little unfair." He grunted out.


    Hope sheepishly rubbed the back of his head, feeling her energy surge through her. "Maybe a little. This form is sort of a cheat code." She was strong in her normal form. Able to go toe-to-toe with most bad guys, but she simply felt like a god in her golden form. She was sure that normally she was now strong enough to level a building or two with a punch, but in her golden form she had been able to keep up with Wyvern. Max Lightning once told her the Enforcers were strong enough to protect an entire city as well as bring one down if they needed to. Did that mean she was able to destroy a city in this form? The thought of being anywhere close to the Victorian in terms of power really excited her. "I''m just built different." Her hair and eyes reverted to normal as she dropped out of her Lord state.


    "You''re built like an asshole." Rowin grunted. "Seriously, it''s just not fair using the power of a Lord like that!”


    “Sorry?”


    “No, it’s fine.” He shook his head and folded his arms. “I’m just a little ticked off, is all. I feel like this new suit is barely better than my old one. I want to do better. Next time I see that girl, I’ll be ready for her.”


    “You’re not the only one with a grudge.” Hope looked down at her hand, watching as fire seeped out of the tips of her finger. “For my next fight, I’ve decided I’m winning no matter what. Not just winning but dominating. I’m tired of how much stronger everyone feels. I’m going to improve and get better. No matter what!” She was getting better with her powers. There were still some things she could only do when she actively channeled her Lord powers, but basic stuff with fire was becoming a breeze. “By the way.” Her voice trailed off a bit, and she winced. “How is—Well, actually, I don’t really know their real names. Um, how are your friends doing?”


    Armin and Sera had both stopped fighting as well and were in the process of helping each other stand up on the slippery ice. Instantly, Sera''s look turned into a mix of sourness and depression at the mention of her teammates.


    Metal Ronin slumped down in his large armor, and the sword he held slowly went out as he pocketed. He let out a heavy sigh. “Money Tree is fine. He’s still on bed rest, but he can move around. He lost his arm, though, and I’m doing my best to make a prosthetic for him to use. I’m thinking something cool and badass, like laser claws or a gun that shoots chainsaws or something. Still workshopping it.”


    "Please make sure it doesn''t explode." Sera said, letting out a sigh. The young girl tapped her foot down and stared at the ground. "I wish I had been brave enough to arrive on time. I might have helped him." The young girl hissed.


    "It''s not your fault." Armin said, shaking his head and patting the girl on her shoulder. "It''s that one girl''s fault. That girl is seriously a frigid bitch."


    "You''re still making puns?"


    "It''s how I cope. Pretty cool?"


    "No."


    “And Wasp Nest?” Hope asked, steering the conversation back on track. "How is he doing?"


    She winced a little as Metal Ronin’s slouch and mood got far worse alongside Sera. Metal Ronin was silent for several seconds, and she almost regretted asking. Finally, he answered, though. “He uh... He’s not doing well.” She could hear his voice break for a second. “Paragon did her best, but she vanished in the middle of healing him. By the time the heroes found where she went, it was almost too late. His body had to be placed into a deep sleep to heal slower. He could be out for months if he’s lucky, years if he isn’t.”


    “He was your friend, wasn’t he?”


    “My best friend. He was practically my brother. I was sure that within a year, he would be the new leader of the Sub Enforcers or be a high-ranking member of the Watch Dogs or something.” His fist grew tighter around the handle of his sword. “I’m going to make that woman pay.”


    Her thoughts briefly drifted over to Wish, and she silently fidgeted. There were so many questions she wanted to know about that girl. She never got evil. If you had powers, why on Earth wouldn’t you use them to be an incredible superhero? Wish was something that went beyond evil, though. The girl was a true monster.


    “I’m still shocked this girl turned out to be a Lord.” Sera said, nudging her with an elbow. “I think I figured it out when you lent some of your power to me. Money Tree was also suspicious then, but for you to just randomly confirm it.”


    She sheepishly scratched her chin. Now that she passed the Enforcers test, she didn’t have to worry about hiding who she was. It was still being kept under wraps from the public, and she didn’t plan to make it common knowledge who she really was for fear of what the villains would do, but she no longer needed to hide that fact from BB’s team, which was nice as she and the size-changing girl had become sort of friends.


    Her thoughts suddenly stopped when she heard an alarm go off. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a new phone Lois had gifted her. “I gotta go. I’m going to be late.”


    “Where are you going?”


    "She''s got a date!" Armin called out.


    "It''s not a date." Hope huffed. “I’m meeting up with a friend.”


    "Sounds like a date." Sera nodded. The girl looked to Armin. "So, you think she and Sky are..."


    "Yes. Without doubt. One hundred percent."


    "You two are the worst." Hope sighed.


    Metal Ronin gave a nod and put his weapons up. “I’ll head out as well then. Tell Myth that if he needs any more members for a mission soon, I’m ready to go.”


    “Will do.” She watched the boys and one girl slowly leave, and she stood in the metal room of the Sub Enforcers training arena by herself. She looked down at her clothes. They were just basic civilian clothes since her hero costume was still being remade. She’d need a shower first. This was an important meeting, after all. “Here goes nothing… It’s totally not a date. Right?”


    ***


    When Full Monarch had died, people visited his grave for months. Even now, it still constantly gets visitors. Or rather, the place people think his grave is at. The real body is, of course, not kept on Earth. Old Dog’s death was very different from Full Monarch’s, though. His body was actually at his grave.


    Jack placed the flowers down and stepped away, folding his arms. In the movies, the weather would be bad. It would be pouring down rain, and dozens of people would be standing in front of the grave in suits. That wasn’t how it went, though.


    The weather was fine. In fact, it was strangely nice today. Despite the brisk winter wind, it wasn’t too cold nor was it too hot. The sun lit everything up in a golden glow, and most importantly, there weren’t dozens of people lined up in suits. Three days ago, there were a lot of people paying their respects. The day after, there was less, and the day after that, there was practically none. Now, here he stood three days after that event, and no one bothered to attend.


    Jack didn’t say anything. He didn’t need to. He simply stood there and stared down at the stone. It was very pretty, carved with stuff like when Old Dog had been born and when he died, and had a few cheesy things on it like ‘gone but not forgotten.’ The kind of things the hero would have hated. Natural causes. Adam Sini, the man who lived through two different wars, who had no superpowers of his own, who had been infected by Wish, in the end, died of natural causes.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    “Lucky bastard.” Jack rubbed the back of his neck. He could feel his own time was starting to run out. How long did he have left? Nine months? Less. A month? A week? A day? A few hours? What was stopping him from just dropping dead? How many people would show up at his funeral? None? It’s what he would deserve.


    ‘I’m kind of sad he’s gone. I rather liked Old Dog, you know.’


    “You’re back?” He almost sighed when he heard the voice. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the man’s cape. Full Monarch casually rested on one of the rocks just out of the edge of his vision. “I thought I told you to leave me alone. Stop pretending to be him.”


    ‘Am I pretending? Maybe I’m haunting you. Maybe I’m some of his consciousness taking over, or maybe I am just your insecurities manifested. Does it really matter? I’m not going anywhere, after all.’


    “Would you just leave me alone?”


    ‘Why on Earth would I do that, Jack?’


    “The real him would never call me Jack.”


    ‘Then would you like me to call you by your proper name? Alpha?”


    He stuffed his hands into his pockets and didn’t say anything. “So. How long are you going to be standing there watching me talk to myself like I’m insane?”


    He heard footsteps on the grass, and slowly a woman stood beside him. She was a young woman with black hair that had been neatly brushed. She was dressed in a simple suit as well and also held flowers. Normally, her hair was blue, and she was covered in flowing water, but today, Ocean Empress wasn’t a hero. Today she was River Sini. A daughter who lost her father.


    The woman placed her own flowers down at Old Dog’s grave and stepped back. “How long have you been here?” She asked. The man had been here yesterday before she arrived, and he had stayed when she left. Now, the next day she came back, he was still just standing there.


    “I left to get some flowers and came back.” Jack shrugged. “If I use my power, I''m able to store energy, which I can use to improve my stats or fire my attacks out. That’s why I’m called Battery. By consuming my energy, though, and using my golden light’s healing power, I can negate things like sleep and the need to eat.”


    “That doesn’t sound healthy.” The woman frowned.


    “I felt like I wanted to stay here for a little longer.” He ran his fingers through the messy and wild red beard that was starting to come back. He’d need to shave again soon. "Old Dog was a good hero. Fifteen years ago, I always saw him on the battlefield."


    "You mean when you were an enemy of mankind."


    Silence hung in the air at her words. Jack didn''t look at her. He kept his head low, staring at the grave. Finally, he nodded. "Yeah. When I was an enemy of mankind."


    "Were you in control?"


    "Huh?''


    Her eyes slowly turned towards him. "As a Monster. Were you in control? Did you decide to be evil? Bad Wolf is also a monster, but she''s good. Polaron was a very evil man and also a monster. Does being a monster make you evil, or are some monsters also just evil?"


    "I don''t know." Jack shrugged. "I don''t remember much of my time to tell you the truth. It''s all a bit of a blur. I guess it was like a bad dream. A nightmare that I''m glad is over."


    "I don''t like you."


    "I understand."


    "I don''t think you do." The woman shook her head. "I think that I might even hate you. I keep wondering if I saw you. Fought you. Watched you murder anyone. I was there fifteen years ago. I remember fighting the Emperor himself. I remember the way my best friend screamed when she discovered her father''s corpse. The way her body broke and twisted as she was nearly torn in half by that Devil. The ash rained down for days, and I thought that the world was going to truly end. Do you know what that''s like?"


    "I was there. Of course I do."


    "Right... I guess you would." Silence hung in the air for a moment. “You’re a bad person.”


    “Yeah.” His shoulders slumped. “And you’re a good person.”


    “I’m not-”


    “You are.” Jack let out a dry chuckle. “Let’s face it. The Victorian isn’t winning any parent of the year awards. I remember all the news years ago. You changed your name from Mermaid to Ocean Empress. You also happened to adopt a lot of kids. Poseidon was your biological child, but you went out of your way to take care of people like Sky or Wyvern and her little brother. It was you who convinced the Hero Branch to not get rid of the Monster kids that had been created by the Emperor. It was you who allowed someone like Wyvern or Bad Wolf to become high-ranking heroes. You’re a good person. That’s why I don’t blame you one bit for disliking me. Someone as pure as you must have good reasons.”


    River scowled a bit and looked away from her father''s tomb. “When I said I hated you earlier, it might have been a broad term… I’m a hero. That means I help people. I’ll help you if you ask me to.”


    “Why?”


    He flinched a bit when he felt her hand brush his wrist. "I guess I''m glad someone came here, though. Even if it had to be an edgy secretive weirdo like you."


    "Thank you?"


    "It wasn''t a compliment."


    "I know."


    He couldn''t help but crack a small smile. They stayed out there for a little bit longer. It was nice to not be alone.


    ***


    “I’m not late, am I?” Hope asked, taking a seat.


    “How could you be late?” Sky mumbled. The girl’s face was down on the table, her head resting in her folded arms. “I just asked if you wanted to hang out.”


    “Yeah, I know, but I didn’t want to keep you waiting for too long.” She sheepishly shrugged.


    They never did get that food. Over a month ago, when they had been in the hospital, Sky had suggested they go out to eat, and with everything that happened, a rain check had been put on it. She didn’t think too much of it until Sky messaged her out of the blue and asked if she wanted to go get food at that restaurant. Well, ‘restaurant’ wasn’t the best way to put it. The place was just a fast-food burger joint.


    The kind of place that made food that would likely eventually kill you if you ate too much of it. It was created by an old Enforcer member named Feast who died during the war with the Emperor. They were still a fast food chain years later. Despite being a healer, Sky didn’t really seem to be a health freak if this was the girl’s chosen location for a hangout spot.


    Speaking of which, the girl didn’t look that well at the moment. Her skin had gone paler, and her hair was a bit messy. She didn’t have Destiny with her, and her sunglasses blocked her blind eyes. The weather wasn’t that bad today, but Sky was still dressed for a blizzard, wearing heavy coats and gloves that covered almost all of her skin. The girl looked tired, though. Exhausted even.


    “Are you doing okay?” She asked slowly.


    “Yeah.”


    “I can tell when you’re lying. I literally hear your heart twitch and beat.”


    Sky huffed and slowly pushed herself back up. She leaned on her elbow as they waited for their food to be dropped off at their table. “I’m just tired. Like really tired.” The girl yawned a bit and stretched. “I really haven’t had a chance to stop and rest all that much. I wake up and find that a bunch of heroes are wounded, and then my powers can barely help fix them. Worse yet, the month I was out cold, Lillian needed a bunch of people to be fixed up from villain attacks, and apparently, Oleander also needed a bunch of help. Other cities are also asking, or rather demanding, that I go and heal their people, too. I’ll do it, of course, but jet lag is starting to hit me.”


    “Geez. I didn’t know it was that bad.” She winced a little. Healing powers were rare. Powers on the level of Sky''s were seldom seen. The girl could heal almost anything, the only exception being things on the level of the Lords, like the Dead Virus or the Lord of Life. Now that she thought about it, Sky was the daughter of the Princess of Life. “I’m glad you decided to take a break now, though. You needed it from the sounds of it.”


    “If I’m being honest, it isn’t my choice.” The girl’s hands balled into a fist. “I wanted to help more people. It seems no matter how many times I help, I never make an actual dent. I’m not strong like my sister or you. Things like this are all that I can do. Lily told me to take a break, though. Practically demanded I go ‘hang out with friends,’ as she put it.”


    “So that’s why I’m here.” She chuckled. Despite that, though, she shuddered a bit at the mention of Poseidon. She had known she was going to meet with Sky. Poseidon had talked to her before she talked to Sky.


    It had been yesterday, and she had been in the middle of training. The door to Pantheon’s base had practically been kicked open, and the Lord of the Sea and Depths had stormed in. Poseidon had dropped by their base a few times over the course of the three days in order to see Armin, but this time it was different. The girl stormed over to her, and she found herself slammed into a wall by Poseidon.


    “Why do people keep doing this to me? First Wyvern, now you!” She threw her arms out wildly as the water-based hero frowned. “Be gentle, okay!” She said, squeezing her eyes shut.


    “I need your help.”


    “Huh?” Her eyes opened.


    Poseidon’s look softened, and the girl sighed. “I don’t like you, but I need your help, okay?” She flinched a little at the hero’s words. Ever since the mall incident, it seemed like any good faith she had gained with Poseidon had gone down the drain. Now, the girl confirmed it to her face.


    She debated throwing the hero off of her, but the look in Poseidon’s eyes caused her to stop. She sighed and nodded. “What do you need my help with?” She was a hero after all.


    “It’s about Sky.” The girl frowned. “After you were taken by Wyvern, she also vanished. We know you weren’t behind it, but the timing is awfully strange still. We looked at the footage, but she just vanished. It’s like she was teleported or something. We found her shivering out in the cold hours later, but by then, it was too late. Kenny... He...” She winced as Poseidon’s fingers dug into her shoulder. “She won’t say where she went or what happened. She refuses to talk about it. I want you to talk to her and see if you can get her to open up to you.”


    “Why me?” She asked, confused.


    “You mean you don’t know?”


    “Know what?”


    Poseidon snorted and dropped her. The hero turned away and flicked her hand. “Just talk to her. I’ll set something up and give you the chance. Try not to make it obvious. Oh, and don’t blow your chance. I’m already really, really mad.”


    She shook her head, the memory fading. She glanced over at the table at Sky, who played with her food. The girl was stacking pretty much everything on her burger, from french fries to chicken nuggets. She was about to say something, but Sky beat her to it. “I heard you were kidnapped by Wyvern and Boy Genius.”


    She froze for a moment, then snorted. “Yeah. It wasn’t really kidnapping, though. They wanted to test me and see how strong I was.”


    “Is it about you being a you-know-what?”


    “You know I’m a Lord?” Much like her secret identity, it seemed she sucked at hiding that fact.


    Sky picked her monstrously stacked burger up and took a bite out of it. “I had a feeling due to my power. I was pretty confident you were one. My dream confirmed it, though.”


    “Your dream?”


    The girl wiped her hands off and then slowly reached over. She flinched a little as Sky’s gloved hands brushed her forehead. The place Wish had punched her. The girl’s fist had shattered her helmet and left a scar. It was across her forehead, though it wasn’t that deep or bad-looking. It was still there. A permanent line. “I saw it. In my dreams. Your fight with that Lord.”


    “Seriously? Can you still see through Wish?”


    Sky pulled away. “Maybe. When I was healing Wasp Nest, I ended up falling asleep, and I-” The girl stopped and folded her arms in on herself.


    “Is that when you vanished?”


    “Yeah.” Sky nodded. “I don’t want to talk about it though.”


    She gulped a little. Hopefully, Poseidon wouldn’t be too mad. She took a bite out of her own burger and quietly set it down. “Wyvern and Boy Genius put me through an interesting test. I think I became a lot stronger. I saw the Victorian, too.”


    “That’s good.”


    “Yeah. No... Actually, it isn’t.” She glanced down at her hands and frowned. “I- I actually managed to touch her. It was the greatest thing I’ve ever done. I even managed to get the courage to ask the woman to make me her sidekick. It didn’t go well, though. She just stared at me and then flew off. I think I made her mad.” She chuckled. She stopped though and slowly frowned. “Sky. When you vanished, did you see Wish?”


    The red-haired girl quietly ate more of her food before slowly nodding her head after some time. “Yeah. I did. I even spoke to her.”


    “And you didn’t tell anyone?”


    Sky shook her head. “I- I didn’t like speaking to her. I don’t like thinking about it either. When I looked at her, part of me felt like I was looking at myself.” The girl shrunk down in her chair. “I know she isn’t me. I know she is someone else. But my dreams and my powers. The more I watched her, the more I found myself wondering about something disturbing. Could I do what she does? She doesn’t care how her powers harm people. If I had that mindset, would my powers be the same as hers? And if they are the same as hers, then what makes me, me, and her, her?”


    “That’s a dumb question.” Her blunt response caused Sky to snort. She reached up and pressed a finger to the girl’s chest. “I guess this is cheesy, but it’s your heart, obviously. People with powers always have a choice. You have to decide for yourself whether you use your power to help others or you use it to hurt people. Wish might look like you, and her powers might be similar or even the same, but you’ve worked yourself to exhaustion, helping hundreds of people every day. People that no other hero could help. Wish, on the other hand, goes out of her way to hurt people. Not only does she hurt people, she makes other people stoop down to her level. People like Kevin. He was never good, but he was never evil either. You’re good, though, Sky. You’ve saved more people than I ever have.”


    Sky was silent, maybe thinking on her words. Slowly, though, the girl spoke. “Hope.”


    “Yeah?”


    “Can you stop touching my breast?”


    Her hand yanked away, and she pulled it back to her side. “Sorry.” She said sheepishly. She forgot Paragon didn’t like being touched.


    Sky brushed her coat down and gave a sly smile after some time. “I guess I liked hearing that, though. Sometimes, I wonder if I really am helping people. It’s nice to know I have a higher save count than you, though.”


    “Hey! I’ll get a higher save count eventually! I’m still a rookie to this all! Just you wait! One day, I’ll be a cool hero! Even cooler than you.”


    “Don’t push your luck.”


    She tried to keep a straight face but couldn’t, letting out a giggle. Sky snorted and then also laughed. It took them a moment to calm down, and slowly silence filled their table once more. They ate the rest of their food mostly in silence, just happy to have someone across from them.


    Eventually they left the fast food place with slightly bigger stomachs. Sky and her walked down the streets of Oleander City. The blind girl was gripping her arm tightly, which confused her a bit since Sky had brought her cane and didn’t seem like the person who needed help getting around, yet the blind girl still kept an iron grip on her arm.


    “The day is still young, you know.” Sky hummed as they walked. “We could go do some other things?”


    “I’m down for that.” She said, rubbing the back of her neck with her free hand. It felt a little weird having someone cling to her limb so tightly. “I don’t have any hero work or anything until tonight, and school was shut down due to a giant earthquake that was caused when the Victorian battled some giant mountain monster on the other side of the world.”


    “At Lillian, our schools normally stay open no matter what.” Sky hummed.


    “Really? That’s cool. Oleander seems like it looks for any excuse to give its students a day off.” She giggled.


    “Oleander is different from Lillain.” Sky agreed with a low hum.


    She went to say something but stopped when she saw something. “No way!”


    “What is it?” Sky asked.


    They had been walking for a bit and made it all the way over to the part of Oleander that had a lot of retro stores. One of which caught her eye. It was an action figure shop and had two hero figures standing side by side in the window. “I’ll be right back!”


    “Huh?”


    Sky stood there awkwardly as Hope left her grasp and entered the shop. The blind girl made a bit of a face and waited before her friend returned a few moments later.


    “You know I’m blind, right?" Sky said flatly. “Whatever you just got, I can’t see.”


    “Then feel it!”


    Sky felt something be shoved into her hands, and she ran her finger along it mostly in silence, taking it in. She felt plastic and could tell she was holding some sort of hero figure of a female hero, if the small bumps she felt were any indication. “What is it?”


    “A hero figure!” Hope said proudly. “There were two side by side, and I bought them both! That one is yours to keep.”


    “Who’s it of?” Sky asked slowly, setting the figure in her bag. She had never been the type of person to collect the figures, but Hope had gone out of her way to gift it to her, so she wasn’t going to turn it down.


    “It’s a secret.” Hope said with a cheeky grin.


    “What? You’re not going to tell me?” Sky complained.


    “Nope. You’ll have to find out yourself.”


    “That’s kind of mean. What one did you get?”


    “It’s also a secret.” Hope looked down at the figure she held. She could also see Sky’s tucked away in the girl’s bag. Her figure was of the newest healer, the one and only Paragon. As for the one she gave Sky, it was Oleander’s newest flame-based hero, Cinder. Paragon and Cinder were currently being sold together. She smiled and played with the hair on her figure for a moment before setting it in her bag. “Sky. There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you for a while now.” She trailed off a bit, feeling awkward all of a sudden. “I mean, I guess this is kind of weird to ask, but would you consider maybe joining-”


    A loud buzz echoed through her pocket, cutting her off. She pulled her phone out and stared down at it.


    “What’s wrong?” Sky asked.


    “Myth.” She said slowly. “He’s requesting all members of Pantheon return to base. Looks like Pantheon is ready to go once more.”