Gangs that have been around long enough were, ironically, some of the biggest advocates for order in the slums. As the saying goes, if you want to know how to build a system, ask someone who's good at breaking it. They were a distasteful y, as far as Fii was ed.

  However, she erfectly tent with leaving them to their devices as long as they kept to themselves and didn't cause trouble for people outside their ranks. It was the young, ambitious ohe ones with something to prove—who caused the most problems.

  And right now, two such gangs were having a not-so-friendly turf dispute. One of them had a reputation for being a little ter-happy for her liking.

  The gunfire echoed sharply through the slums, sending Fii running towards the sound, her shoes pounding against the uneven pavement. As she rounded a er, she skidded to a halt, taking in the se before her.

  Two rival gangs squared off against each other in the middle of the street. A dozen members oher side, all armed with makeshift guns and other crude ons. One gang wore neon pink bandanas while the other sported blue. Already, a few bodies y crumpled on the ground, blood poolih them.

  Fii's eyes narrowed as she noticed a group of kids huddled behind a dumpster, tears streaking their dirty faces. They were clearly caught in the crossfire, and it was only a matter of time before a stray bullet found them.

  She wasted no time aended her power to envelope all of the gang members and their ons in a field of gravity that pressed them to the ground, rendering them immobile. She didn't use enough force to hurt them, just enough to keep them from moving.

  "What the—?" one of the gangsters grurying to lift his head off the ground. "I 't move!"

  "What's going on?" another yelled, his voice strained with panic.

  Fii strode into the middle of the street, her eyes hard and cold. "That's far enough," she barked, her voice carrying across the now-quiet street. "Anyone moves, I break their legs. Got it?"

  The gangsters muttered and cursed, but no one dared to defy her.

  "Now, you all are gonna sit tight and behave," Fii tiurnitention to the terrified children hiding behind the dumpster. "You kids okay? You hurt?"

  The kids shook their heads, sniffling as they peered out from their hiding spot.

  "Good," Fii said, them a small, reassuring smile. "I want you to ght home, okay? No stopping, no pying around. Just go. Now."

  The kids nodded, wiping their eyes, and quickly scampered off, disappearing down a nearby alleyway. Fii watched them go before turnitention back to the pinned gangsters. There were already a few dead, but there was nothing she could do about that now. The only thing she could do revent more senseless violence.

  She hoisted their guns into the air, clumping them together in a metal sphere and pressing them down to a single, solid ball of scrap. With a flick of her hand, she sent the ball hurtling into a nearby trash heap.

  "Now, as for the rest of you," Fii said, addressing the gangsters once more.

  They all looked closer te, te teens and early twe the test. They weren't wearing any gang emblems or insignias she reized, so it was likely they were just a small, local group fighting over their little piece of turf. The way their eyes darted from her to each other showed her just how inexperiehey were.

  Fii crouched down ahe neon pink gang leader's eyes. He was a nky young man with a shaved head and a scar running across his left cheek. He gred back at her defiantly.

  "This is our turf!" he spat, struggling against the force that held him down. "These bastards think they just muscle in on our territory? We gotta defend what's ours!"

  Fii looked at him ftly. "And what, exactly, do you 'own' here? This neighborhood is home to families, people who have to deal with shitheads like you making their lives miserable. What do you 'own' here, exactly? The garbage? The rats? A few shabby buildings and alleyways? Get real."

  She leaned in closer, her voice low and dangerous. "You're probably older than me, so you should know our rules better. You just broke three of them. One: you 't cim a family neighborhood as your turf. Two: you don't fight in a family neighborhood, especially with guns. And three: if kids are involved, you back the fuck down. Did you really think you could get away with this?"

  The gangster opened his mouth to respond, but Fii didn't let him.

  "Save it," she growled, standing up and looking down at him with disdain. "You're all lucky I was the one who showed up. If it had been one of the more established gangs, they would have put bullets in your heads a you to rot. They don't like upstarts messing with the bance of things."

  She extended her pain, lifting them all off the ground, including the dead. The gangsters cried out in surprise and fear as they were suspended in mid-air.

  "But unlucky for you, I'm not le enough to let you go without any repercussions. Two out of the three rules you broke earned you a spot before a cil. That's the way this works. I'll just be sending you there myself. It'll be a nice, sic trip through the sky, don't worry. And if you struggle too much, I'll drop you a you sptter on the ground. Got it?"

  The gangsters remained silent, fear written pinly on their faces.

  "Good," Fii said, nodding in satisfa. "Now, let's get going."

  With a graceful leap, Fii unched herself into the air, dragging the group of gangsters with her, their forms outlined against the sky like a string of ghastly balloons. She headed towards the outskirts of the slums, where the older and more powerful gangs held court.

  As she flew over the rooftops, Fii's thoughts turned dark. She knew what fate awaited these wannabe gangsters, and while she didn't relish it, she couldn't afford to be too soft. The slums had their own rules, their own way of dealing with those who threatehe delicate bance of survival.

  The established gangs weren't necessarily "good," but they pyed their part in maintaining order. It was an unspoken agreement, a tract between the desperate and the dangerous. You stayed in line, followed the rules, and you could carve out a niche for yourself in the madness. You broke those rules, and you'd find yourself on a one-way trip to a very unpleasant end.

  Fii khis all too well, and that's why she had to enforce the rules, even if she didn't always agree with them. It was the only way to keep the slums from dev themselves from the i. Besides, she could have easily killed them, but she was giving them a ce.

  A ce they didn't deserve, but a oheless.

  From the er of her eye, she spotted the silhouette of that sparkling pain-in-the-ass again. Glimmerstrike. She was following at a distance, her drones buzzing around her, rec everything.

  Fii sighed inwardly. It never ends, does it?

  Glimmerstrike was keeping her distance for the time being. Probably didn't want to start anything while she was handling these idiots, or maybe she just wao keep filming from a safe distance.

  "Great, a celebrity stalker," Fii muttered, shaking her head in annoyance. "Just what I needed."

  She o deal with her first. Having an actual metropolis Super following her into the den of the big gangs? No way. That was just asking for trouble, and not just from them—from her too.

  "Hey sparkles," she called out to her, waving a hand in the air. "Mind telling me what you're doing here?"

  Glimmerstrike leaped from her hard-light ptform, a sed f below her to break her fall. She nded gracefully atop a nearby building, her drones swirling around her. "Just doting the plight of the poor, downtrodden citizens of the slums," she said with a smirk. "You know, for the good of the public."

  Fii rolled her eyes. "Cut the crap. You're just looking to exploit our suffering to make a quick Tink. It's disgusting."

  "Exploit?" Glimmerstrike ughed. "Please. I'm providing a service. The people have a right to know what's going on here. Besides, I'm sure some of that sweet, sweet sympathy will trickle down to your neck of the woods. And what's a 'tink' anyways?"

  "Yeah, right. All the way to the bottom, where it'll be too te and too little to do us any good," Fii shot back. "Now, how about you make yourself useful and stop following me around like a lost puppy? I'm in the middle of something important."

  Glimmerstrike raised an eyebrow, looking pointedly at the group of gangsters still floating behind Fii. "Oh, this? This is important? I thought you were just taking out the trash."

  "Listen, you don't know how things work around here," Fii said firmly. "So either help et out of my way. Ahat camera out of my face."

  Glimmerstrike smirked, nodding to one of her drones. It zoomed in closer to Fii, its camera lens whirring. "Make me."

  Fii's eyes narrowed. "Don't test me."

  Glimmerstrike's smile widened. "Oh, I'm testing you. And I think you're failing." She snapped her fingers, and the drone flew even closer, practically in Fii's face.

  Fii ched her jaw, her anger rising. This Super was really asking for it.

  "I'm not gonna tell you again," Fii warned, her voice low and dangerous. "Back off."

  Glimmerstrike ughed, the sound grating on Fii's nerves. "Or what? You'll drop these guys?" She gestured to the floating gangsters. "Go ahead, I dare you."

  Fii took a deep breath, trying to calm herself dowing angry wouldn't solve anything. "You don't uand. These guys o stand before a cil. It's how things are done here."

  "A cil?"

  If this bitch was gonna keep following her, she might as well know the whole story. But since going to the actual cil was out of the question, going to a smaller unity cil would have to do.

  "Yes. If you want to follow me that badly, then e with me. I'll show you how things are done in the slums."

  Fii leaped off the rooftop, floating through the air and dragging the gangsters behind her. She didn't wait flimmerstrike to respond, already knowing the answer.

  After a short trip through the skies, she nded in front of a dipidated building with a faded sign that read "unity ter" above the entrahe windows were boarded up, and graffiti covered the walls.

  "This is where your precious cil meets?" Glimmerstrike asked, raising an eyebrow as she desded on a ptform of golden light. "How quaint."

  "Shut up and e on."

  Fii released the gangsters from her gravitational hold, and they stumbled to their feet. "All of you, inside."

  The gangsters hesitated, exging nervous gnces.

  Fii's patience was wearing thin. She cracked her knuckles, giving them a threatening gre. "Now."

  Relutly, the garudged through the front door, followed by Fii and Glimmerstrike.

  The interior of the unity ter was just as shabby as the outside. The floor was littered with debris, and the walls were cracked and peeling. In the ter of the room, a group of older residents sat around a rge mahjong table, pying a game.

  One of the pyers, a woman in her seventies with graying hair and a stern expression, looked up as Fii entered. "Well, well, well, look what the cat dragged in."

  "Hey, Grandma Ping," Fii greeted her with a nod. "How's the game going?"

  "Oh, you know," Grandma Ping chuckled. "Beating these old codgers within an inch of their lives, as usual." She turned her attention to the group of gangsters. "And what do we have here?"

  "Rule breakers," Fii said simply, crossing her arms. "Thought they'd take over a family neighborhood, started shooting at each other when they fought back, and nearly hurt some kids. I was gonna take them to a cil with the Big Four, but then sparkles over there," she jerked a thumb at Glimmerstrike, "started following me around. So I thought I'd bring them here instead, have you guys pass judgment."

  Glimmerstrike's eyes narrowed. "You're leaving their fates in the hands of a bunch of old folks?"

  Grandma Ping smmed a palm oable, causing the mahjong tiles to jump. "Who are you calling old, you brat?"

  Glimmerstrike raised her hands defensively. "Hey, I'm just saying—"

  Fii interrupted her, addressing the group at the table. "So, what's the call?"

  An old man with a long, white beard named Lao Hu spoke up. "They broke the rules, they pay the price." He paused, looking at Fii. "How much damage did they cause?"

  "A lot," Fii replied. "They shot the pce up pretty bad. Killed at least three of each other, scared a bunch of kids half to death, and just generally made a mess of things."

  Lao Hu nodded sagely, stroking his beard. "Hmm. Well, normally we'd send a few out to check the damage, see what's what, but since you're the one whht them in, I think we skip that part. We'll have someone look at it ter, but I don't think you'd exaggerate the damage."

  Fii nodded. "I wouldn't. I don't want these shitstains to get away with anything."

  Grandma Ping harrumphed. "Then it's settled." She poi the gangsters. "Yoing to work off the damage you caused. You'll fix what you broke, up the mess, and help out in the area until we're satisfied. If you behave, we'll let you go after that. If you don't, well..." She trailed off, letting the threat hang in the air.

  One of the gangsters opened his mouth to protest, but a sharp lorandma Ping shut him up. "You got something to say, punk?"

  He quickly shook his head, stepping back.

  "That's what I thought."

  Another elderly cil member spoke up. "You'll be assigned a few watchers each. They'll make sure you stick to the tasks and don't cause any more trouble."

  Fii nodded, satisfied with the verdict. "Thanks, guys. I appreciate it."

  Glimmerstrike watched the exge with a mixture of surprise and fusion. "You're not going to, you know, punish them? Send them to jail?"

  "What jail?" Fii asked, incredulous. "There's no jail here, sparkles. There's no polio judges, no courts. We have to make our own justice. And this is it."

  Glimmerstrike didn't seem vinced. "But what if they do it again? What if they hurt someoime?"

  "They won't," Fii assured her. "Believe me. Once you've gohrough a cil like this, you don't want to repeat the experience. Everyone knows somebody who knows somebody else. Almost everyone has a family or friends. They'll find them, and they won't be pleased. This isn't some sp on the wrist, sparkles. This is them being given a ake it right, a ce to learn, and a ce to never screw up again."

  Grandma Ping chimed in, "And if they don't learn, if they cause more trouble, there are... other options. But we don't like to go there unless we have to."

  "Just tell it to her straight," another cil member said. "They'll be branded as a pariah, and everyone will know that they're not to be trusted, helped, or even talked to. If they 't do that, then the step is... more perma."

  Glimmerstrike's eyes widened. "You mean..."

  Grandma Ping shrugged. "Exile, banishment, whatever you want to call it. They'd be driven out, never allowed to return. It's not something we do lightly, but it's a st resort. And trust me, most people would rather die than be banished from the slums. This is the only home they've ever known. Out there in the badnds, it's almost certaih."

  Fii nodded. "That's how it is. So don't go thinking these guys are getting off easy. They've got a hard road ahead of them, but it's better than what they deserve."

  The gangsters iion shuffled unfortably, avoiding eye tact with ahey khey'd screwed up, and they were lucky to be getting a sed ce at all.

  Grandma Ping addressed them again. "Now, you'll be staying in the shelter down the road. We've got some beds set up for you there. You'll work hard, do as you're told, and maybe, just maybe, you'll e out the other side better people. Got it?"

  The gangsters nodded meekly, not daring tue.

  Lao Hu stood up, leaning on his e. "I'll get some of our boys to take them over." He shuffled out of the room, muttering under his breath about "damn kids" and "no respect."

  Once Lao Hu returned with some men—from the Ironcd Legion it looked like—to escort the gangsters away, Grandma Ping turned her attention back to Fii. "So, tell me about your new friend here."

  Fii sighed. "She's not my friend. She's a Super from the Metropolis who thinks she's better than all of us."

  "I do not—" Glimmerstrike started to protest, but Fii cut her off.

  "Please. You're a hero of the metropolis, a Super. You've probably never gone hungry a day in your life. You have no idea what it's like out here."

  Glimmerstrike fell silent, a look of anger and indignation on her face. Fii turned back to Grandma Ping. "Anyway, she's been following me around all day, filmih her stupid drones aing in my way."

  "Well, that's not very nice," Grandma Ping said, frowning at Glimmerstrike. "Why are you doing that, young dy?"

  Glimmerstrike straightened up, regaining some of her posure. "I'm just trying to show the people of the metropolis what life is really like out here. How the gover has abandoned you, how you're struggling to survive."

  Grandma Ping chuckled. "And what makes you think the people iropolis give a damn about us? They've got their shiny lives, their fancy jobs, and their Superheroes to worship. They don't want to think about the poor, dirty folk in the slums."

  "The ratings and views seem to disagree," Glimmerstrike shot back.

  Fii rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Just keep out of my way, sparkles. I don't need you getting underfoot and messing things up even more."

  Glimmerstrike smiled sweetly. "Oh, don't worry about me. I take care of myself."

  Fii snorted. "Sure you ."

  Grandma Ping chuckled again. "Well, it looks like you two have a lot to talk about. Or maybe not talk, as the case may be." She wi Fii, who rolled her eyes in response.

  "We've got nothing to say to each other," Fii said ftly. "I've got work to do."

  With that, Fii turned and walked out of the unity ter, leaving Glimmerstrike behind. The Super followed after her a moment ter, her drones in tow.

  Ohey were outside, Fii rounded on Glimmerstrike. "So, are we gonna scrap today, or what? Let's just get it over with."

  Glimmerstrike ughed, holding up her hands. "Woah there, tiger. I'm not looking for a fight. Not now, at least."

  Fii narrowed her eyes. "Then why the hell are you following me?"

  "Call it professional curiosity," Glimmerstrike said with a shrug. "I'm here to warn you that my audience wants a frontation, and my sponsors demand it. But I think I'll let this py out for a while longer. Let the anticipation build. Make it more iing for my viewers."

  "You're insane," Fii said, shaking her head in disbelief. "You know that, right?"

  "I prefer to think of it as 'creative marketing,'" Glimmerstrike replied with a grin. "Also, I won't be the only one you'll have to worry about. More supers are ing, you know. You're publiemy number one. You should be fttered."

  Fii groaned, rubbiemples. "Yeah, I already know. You're teaming up with someone called Diamond Ace, right?"

  Glimmerstrike blinked in surprise. "How did you—"

  "I've got my sources," Fii said cryptically. "And I'm not worried about your little posse. Bring it on, sparkles. I'll take you all on."

  "Oh, I know you will," Glimmerstrike said, her eyes gleaming with excitement. "And I 't wait to watch you try." With a flick of her wrist, Glimmerstrike summoned a ptform of golden light above her and leaped onto it. She gave Fii a mog salute. "Until we meet again, slumdog vilin."

  And with that, she hopped off into the distance, her ughter eg in the air.

  Fii watched her go with a scowl. "I hate that bitch," she muttered.