Sweat dripped from Serena's brow as her fist made tact with the pung bag for the thousandth time that m. The sun hadn't even rise, but she'd been iraining facility with Diamond Ace for hours, and she was already feeling the strain.

  Luke stood nearby, his arms crossed and his eyes cold. "You're too slow," he barked. "You o be faster, sharper. Do it again."

  Serena gritted her teeth and resumed her onsught, trying to keep up with the relentless pace Luke was setting. It wasn't just the physical exertion that was wearing her down—it was his stant criticism, his never-ending stream of corres and disapproving looks.

  As she tio pound away at the bag, she couldn't help but feel like she was ba her early training days, beied by Dr. Tanner. She thought she'd left that behind, but here she was, reliving the same nightmare all ain.

  The only difference was that she was doing it by choice this time.

  "Keep yuard up!" Luke snapped as she took a break to wipe the sweat from her eyes. "You leave yourself wide open when you get tired."

  Serena bit back a retort and forced herself to focus on her footwork. She envisioned Axion's smug fa the pung bag, and with renewed vigor, she unleashed a flurry of puhat made the bag sway and creak on its .

  "That's enough," Luke finally said, his voice as sharp as ever. "Let's move on to the obstacle course. I want to see how you handle yourself in a more dynamiviro."

  Serena nodded wearily, following him to the area of the training facility. The obstacle course rawling maze of walls, ramps, and barriers, desigo mimic the chaos of an actual bat situation.

  Luke stood at the edge of the course, his gaze sweeping over the obstacles. "This course is meant to simute a hostage situation. Your objective is to rescue the hostages while ralizing any threats you enter."

  Serena took a deep breath, psyg herself up for the challenge ahead. "Got it. Let's do this."

  Luke's lips twisted into a grim smile. "Oh, and one more thing. I'll be joining you on the course. sider me an uable variable."

  "What? That's not—"

  "Go!" he shouted, cutting her off mid-sentence.

  Serena cursed under her breath and took off, sprinting towards the first obstacle. She scaled a wall with surprising agility, her muscles burning from the effort. As she nded oher side, she found herself face-to-face with a replica of a burning building.

  Without missing a beat, she charged into the fmes, using her powers to create a protective shield around her. Inside, she found a group of mannequins tied to chairs—her 'hostages'.

  She moved to free them when suddenly, Luke came crashing through the wall behind her. She had barely turned around before he had tackled her to the ground.

  "Not a great start. You should have sensed me ing. Your awareness needs work. A lot of work."

  Serena struggled against his grip, but he was to. With a grunt of frustration, she twisted her body, managing to roll him off her. They both scrambled to their feet, cirg each other warily.

  Luke unched himself at her again, but this time she was ready. She enclosed him in a cube-shaped energy shield, trapping him within its fines. He smmed his fists against the barrier, but it held firm.

  Serena smirked at him as she turned back to the mannequins, using her powers to slice through their bonds. But just as she finished freeing the st hostage, Luke's hand puhrough her shield. She stumbled ba surprise as the cube shattered into motes of light.

  "rick with the cage," he said, dusting himself off. "But you o focus on sustaining your structs. If they break that easy, they're not going to save you in an actual fight."

  Easily?! Her energy structs were durable enough to withstand an anti-tank rocket. How the hell did this guy have that much physical strength?

  They tihrough the course, fag off against each other and the various obstacles the facility had to offer. Serena used every trick she ko try and outsmart him, but he was always oep ahead, always finding a way to ter her moves.

  By the time they reached the end, she was exhausted. She colpsed to the ground, panting heavily, her body ag from head to toe. Luke stood over her, not even breaking a sweat.

  "Not bad," he said grudgingly. "But not good either. You're reactive, not proactive. You're allowing your oppos to dictate the flow of the battle. If you want to beat them, you have to force them to react to you, to be on the defensive. You o dictate the ebb and flow of the battle, not follow it."

  Serena couldn't even muster a response; she was too drained. Instead, she just y there, staring up at the ceiling, w how the hell she was going to survive this training regimen.

  "It's a good start," Luke said, his tone softer than it had been all m. "We'll build on this. Be back here tomorrow, same time. And be ready to work even harder."

  Serena groaned inwardly but nodded in response. She had no choice but to grit her teeth and bear it.

  As she limped back to the locker room, she couldn't help but wonder if teaming up with Diamond Ace had been a mistake. But it was too te to back out now—she had signed up for this. For better or worse, she was stuck with him, and she would have to find a way to make it work.

  "Did you get that, Tony?"

  "Yeah, boss, I got it."

  Tony, a cameraman who was responsible for filming live streams and produg high-quality videos, was currently reviewing footage from Glimmerstrike's most ret frontation with Axion. He had been w with her for a few years now, and he was used to her antid dramatics.

  "No, no, not like that," Glimmerstrike said, leaning over his shoulder. "I to be more dynamic, more engaging. Zoom in on her face as she's about to attack, then cut away to me dodging her blow. Make sure the angle is just right—it o look like she almost had me, but I was too quick for her."

  Tony sighed and made the adjustments. "Like this?"

  Glimmerstrike watched the and nodded. "Perfect. That's exactly what I needed. Now, for the part where she throws the dumpster at me—make sure you zoom in on the sparks flying off my structs. It o look like I'm struggling to hold back her attacks."

  Tony couldn't help but roll his eyes. "You were struggling, boss. She had you on the ropes half the time. The way things are going, she'll end up killing you."

  Glimmerstrike shot him a sharp gnce. "Hey, I've got it under trol. I'm just setting the stage for my eventual victory. It's all about the narrative, Tony. People want to see a hero's jourhey want to see me rise to the challenge and e out victorious in the end. And that's exactly what I'm going to give them."

  Tony sighed, his fingers moving over the keyboard. He'd heard it all beflimmerstrike erfeist, obsessed with presenting a carefully crafted image to her followers. He didn't uand her obsession, and frankly, he didn't care. As long as he got paid, he would do whatever she asked.

  Besides, he had to admit that the videos were popur. Millions of people watched them, and the money was rolling in. So if Glimmerstrike wao keep pushing herself to the brink of disaster, he'd just keep filming aing her fights with Axion, no matter how ridiculous it all seemed.

  "How's your training with Diamond Ace going, anyway?" Toured after a while. "Is he really as tough as they say?"

  Glimmerstrike scoffed. "Tough doesn't even begin to cover it. The guy's a sadist. He's been w me to the bone every day, pushing me harder and harder. I've been fighting Axion every other day, and then I spend my dowting the shit kicked out of me by him. I mean, yeah, I've gotteer at holding my own, and he hasn't mao knock me out yet, but... I don't know. It's like he's preparing me for something, something more than just beating Axion. He keeps talking about how I o be ready for anything, how I 't afford to take anything franted. It's creepy."

  Tony raised an eyebrow. "Maybe he's onto something. I mean, you saw what happened with Prime. Axion mao take him down, and he was one of the stro Supers around."

  Glimmerstrike shook her head. "I'm sure it was a fluke, Tony. A one-off. She got lucky, that's all. She'll never ma again."

  "You sure about that, boss? What if she's been training, too? What if she's even stronger now?"

  "Don't be ridiculous," Glimmerstrike snapped. "She's just some slum rat with superpowers. She doesn't have access to the same resources and training facilities that I do. She's not going to catch up to me that easily."

  "Whatever you say, boss. Just don't say I didn't warn you."

  The pair sat in silence, watg the edited video over and ain. It was slid polished, making Glimmerstrike look like the underdog hero fighting against overwhelming odds. It was exactly the kind of tent her followers expected—and it had nothing to do with reality.

  After a while, Glimmerstrike spoke up again. "Do you have anything else on her? Any more footage or info I use?"

  Tony nodded. "Yeah, I got some stuff. Looks like she's beey active tely—getting involved in turf wars between smaller gangs, resg people, that kind of thing." He clicked through a few files on his puter. "It's beeing harder and harder to keep tabs on her with our drohough. They keep getting hacked and crashing into things."

  Glimmerstrike frowned. "What do you mean?"

  "Someone from the slums managed how to hato our drones and take them out. I've been flying them in to get some more footage of Axion in her element, but they always end up in a wreck."

  "How? It's not like those slummers have access to cutting-edge tech. All they have over there are rusty old junk heaps from a tury ago."

  Tony shrugged. "I don't know, boss. But whoever's doing it, they're good. Really good. If I didn't know aer, I'd swear it was someone who had worked in cyber security or espionage, but that couldn't be it. It's the slums, after all."

  Glimmerstrike ran a hand through her hair, clearly frustrated. "Guess she has ckeys, too. Alright, whatever. Keep trying. We need more footage of her, no matter what. If you 't do it with drohen figure out another way. And Tony?"

  "Yeah, boss?"

  "Watch yourself with that footage. The way you have it now, Axion looks like she's a hero or some shit, helping people. Make it look like she's the one causing all the problems. Edit it to make her look like a vilin. Got it?"

  "Sure, boss. Whatever you say."

  With that, Glimmerstrike left the editing room, her heels clig loudly oiled floor. Tony sighed and turned back to his puter, preparing to twist reality to fit Glimmerstrike's narrative. It was what he aid to do, after all.

  But as he begaing, his mind wandered back to when Glimmerstrike wasn't so... desperate. When she was gerying to make a differend be a hero, rather than just putting on a show. She was so different before all this—back when she wasn't Paragoertai's puppet. Back when she wasn't the same hollow shell.

  Now she was just a brand, a odity to be sold to the masses, and that's all that mattered. Tony knew he was just a cog in the mae, but sometimes, he couldn't help but feel dirty, like he was plicit in something ugly and rotten.

  He sifted through early video footage, looking for the clips of her early heroics. Clips of her w with the police to take down some bank robbers. Clips of her helping people when the Hollowed Eagle Building lost power. Clips of her standing up to the very pany that now employed her.

  It was all so different back then, and a part of him couldn't help but wonder if there was a way to get that old Glimmerstrike back—the idealistic young hero who genuinely wao make a difference. But then he remembered the tract she had signed and the way the media had turned her into a celebrity. The way she had ged, being more ed with her image and popurity than doing what was right.

  The way she had lost her way, bit by bit, until she became the fame-obsessed superhero he now worked for.

  Still, he g to a small hope that maybe, just maybe, there was still a glimmer of the old Glimmerstrike left, buried beh the yers of artifid ego. Maybe having to train with Diamond Ace, who ractically the only superhero to refuse corporate sponsorship, would help. He was basically her opposite in that regard and a powerful Superhero in his ht. There was no telling how hard he would push her.

  If she ever came to her seony would be there to help her in whatever way he could—even if it meant putting his own career in jeopardy. After all, he khat the real Serena would not have approved of what she had bee. He still had faith in her, or at least, the person she used to be.

  Maybe I'll finally muster the ce to ask her out, he thought wryly, knowing it was just a fantasy. Still, a small part of him held onto that hope, even if he khe ces of it ever happening were slim. And that small hope kept him going, even as he edited the truth to fit the lie.