A week ter, Fii found herself park across the rooftops, running from an angry, sparkling mena pursuit, with four pesky drones buzzing behind.

  "Keep running, wannabe!" Glimmerstrike hollered, using her golden ptforms to unch herself from building to building, the occasional slip-off amusing Fii. "You 't hide from justice forever!"

  Not in the mood for another frontation, Fii shot Glimmerstrike and her drones a quice, then kicked off a wall for extra momentum. She began zig-zagging across the uerrain, leaping from shacks and old ruins, using her power to assist in some of the longer jumps.

  Despite the chase, she was having fun. It was the first time in what felt like ages that she could just let loose and not worry about being in trol.

  But, she had to admit, her pursuer's power was a hassle. The stant barrage of golden projectiles made it difficult to keep an eye on her surroundings, and more than once, she found herself dodging mid-leap to avoid getting hit.

  Even worse, her gravikinesis couldn't touch those stupid golden things. She had tried on a previous enter and had been shocked when her power couldn't i with the structs. Whatever energy made them, it wasn't physical.

  She heard Glimmerstrike mention something about hard-light, which had flht over her head.

  What nonsense was she spouting off about 'hard-light' anyway? All the physics books Fii had read at the gilded library—which, granted, weren't many—had said nothing about light being hard. You couldn't touch it, or block it, and you definitely couldn't make fancy steps or walls with it.

  Fii sighed, irritated at the btant defiance of the ws of physiot like she was oo talk, but still, the idea of light being solid made no sense. But then again, Virgil could shoot spectral bullets and had the reaper possessing him, so what did she knoarently, everything was oable and anything ossible.

  To prove her point, another volley of golden shards sailed her way.

  She dodged to the side, feeling the energy-infused structs tear through the fabric of her hoodie, just missing skin. The near-hit didn't frighten her, it frustrated her.

  These random chases across the slums were starting to bee a real drag. Why couldn't Glimmerstrike just let her be? Sure, they had gotten off on the wrong foot, but was it really worth all this drama?

  Fii could have, at any point, ehe farce, turned around, and khe Super out. But what was the point? That'd make her reputation with the Metropolis even worse, and it wasn't like she wao fight. Plus, those drones were apparently rec everything.

  Earlier, she had asked Tweak what 'live-streaming' was because that was the wlimmerstrike kept using. Now, knowing that their fights were being broadcast to tens of thousands of people?

  The thought made Fii shudder, and it made her sed-guess every a she took. The st thing she needed was to give the people of the Metropolis more reasons to paint her as a vilin.

  "I do this all day!" Glimmerstrike's cocky voice echoed, drawing another exasperated sigh from Fii.

  "Yeah, yeah, you're having fun. I get it," she murmured to herself, still running. She felt a sudden desire to drop out of sight, find a quiet er, and just... be. Maybe, if she disappeared for long enough, this newfound headache would give up and go away. Maybe the Super wouldn't be as annoying.

  "Faster, faster!" Glimmerstrike cheered at her droheir cameras trained on Fii. "Make sure to catch her good side!"

  Not likely.

  Just as Fii was about to double dout some signifit distaween her and the Metropolis' Super, an old man popped out of a rooftop entrance, clutg a stack of clothes. He looked like he was caught in the middle of doing undry or something.

  Not paying attention to his surroundings, he stepped right into their path. Fii saw him, and her heart jumped. At the speed she was going, she couldn't afford to dodge now. Instead, she focused her power on the man, quickly ing him in her field and floating him aside.

  The old man startled at the sudden lift but thankfully didn't panid fil about. With him out of the way, she made a quiding, jumping right past him. Seds ter, Glimmerstrike followed suit, toug down on a golden ptform, her drones surrounding her.

  The old man, clearly bewildered, dropped his undry and started shouting, "What's going on? What are you kids doing?"

  Fii g Glimmerstrike, giving her a look.

  "None of your business, grandpa. Why don't you run along ahe heroes hahis?" Glimmerstrike quipped, not even b to look at him.

  Fii noticed Glimmerstrike look at one of the drones and frown. Her demeanor turned defensive and she yelled, "Hey, you think I care about your stupid chat donatioions?"

  Donation what?

  "Oh, do I care about the civilians?" Glimmerstrike's mog tone carried a weight of annoyance. "Of course, I care. I'm a hero. Duh!" She flicked her ponytail back with a huff. "Who asked that? IDIOTSyer24? Ugh, I'm rep your ass! They ban people for less."

  Fii and the old man exged fused looks.

  "Who's she talking to?" he asked.

  "No clue," she admitted, as puzzled as he was. Must be a live-stream thing. Tweak did say the viewers could somehow send in ents. But holy, it looked more like Glimmerstrike was just talking to herself. Kind of... strao put it nicely. 'Chat,' huh? Probably had a different meaning in this text.

  "Now, if you'll excuse me—" Glimmerstrike fshed a wide grin "—I have a wbreaker to catch."

  She waved her hand, and the air around her shimmered, energy coalesg into more of those annoying golden structs.

  Fii sighed. This was quickly being an absolute pain.

  "Sramps," she said with a slight nod before dashing over and grabbed Glimmerstrike, throwing her off bah a firm push that seumbling a couple of steps back.

  "Hey! What the—"

  Fii didn't let her finish. She propelled herself and the yapping Super towards the rooftop's edge, making sure to aheir flight path away from any structures or people. When they were safely above ay street, she released Glimmerstrike.

  As the Super fell, her ptforms materialized beh her, saving her from a nasty fall. Fii felt a twinge of annoya the venience of her plimmerstrike always seemed to have something up her sleeve, and her quick reflexes didn't make things any easier.

  When Glimmerstrike regained her footing and looked up, Fii gave her a cheeky salute. Before the Super could do or say anything in response, Fii veered away, quickly disappearing behind a tall wall.

  As she raced away, she heard the distant thump of Glimmerstrike nding on a rooftop nearby.

  "Oh, e on!" Glimmerstrike shouted, her voice carrying an edge of frustration.

  Fii allowed herself a small, wry smile.

  'Take that, pain-in-the-neck.'

  She didn't slow down until she was well out of sight and earshot, then she desded to the ground. Once her feet touched the earth, she slipped into the bustling crowd oreet, being just another fa the throng of people going about their daily business.

  Fii let out a sigh of relief and decided to stay on the ground from now on. No more rooftop chases for the rest of the day. It had beeing, but also mentally and physically draining. The st thing she needed was for her fatigue to give that annoying Super an edge.

  Another day, another chase.

  That's what Fii had started calling these enters with Glimmerstrike. Sometimes, they happened oreets, other times it'd be across the rooftops. Rarely, Fii even found the ce to pluo the sewer system to shake off her pursuer, or she'd duto a subway tunnel or any other dark and narrow area where she felt fident the brash Super wouldn't follow.

  Not that Glimmerstrike was easy to avoid. She kept finding Fii. Kept hunting her. After a while, Fii had learo quickly spot the fsh of the drones around every er.

  They'd dash through alleyways, jump across rooftops, and occasionally, when things got particurly crazy, they'd grapple. That's how Fii would describe their iions - a long, tedious grapple.

  Their most ret iion was no exception. The moment Fii saw that telltale glitter in the sky, her feet instinctively led her in the opposite dire. She heard the soft whir of the drones behind her, followed by the cocky ughter of Glimmerstrike.

  "Miss me?" Glimmerstrike's voied, far too cheery for someone engaged in what felt like a personal vea. "Time for another episode!"

  "No, just... no, I didn't." Fii jumped ap, a half-eaten synthie roll in her mouth. A meal she was supposed to enjoy became a grub'n'guzzle run. Again. "Go away."

  "Not a ce!" Glimmerstrike taunted, using a golden ptform to push herself forward, trying to catch up.

  "Ugh, don't you have anythier to do?" Fii retorted. "Like, I don't know, volunteer work? Help the needy?"

  "I am helping! By taking your sorry behind down."

  "You're out of your mind, dy," Fii rolled her eyes.

  "Out of my brilliant mind, maybe. My sub t is at a new all-time high. Guess there's just so much fun in watg your backside flee, huh? Chat agrees."

  Chat.

  It seemed like 'the chat' was a group of people watg them. Probably iropolis. Gross. Tweak had given her a rough idea of hoeople supposedly followed Glimmerstrike, but hearing the number and thinking about the weight of having that many eyes on you were two very different things.

  A chill ran down Fii's spine, not from the pursuit, but from the idea of being watched by thousands. No thanks.

  What made it worse was that the Super knew how to py to her audience. A lot. Her speeches were always eloquent, and she threw her fancy words around like they cost her nothing. Words like 'incible', 'egregious', and 'desideratum.' The more sylbles she squeezed in there, the more 'woo's she seemed to receive from the mysterious chat.

  "Well, chat, looks like Axion here still refuses to learn her lesson. But she's lucky," Glimmerstrike tinued, "because we're here to teach her."

  What followed was a barrage of golden structs, which Fii had to weave and jump around, still holding on to her snack.

  "You know," Fii managed between bites, "You could've used all this time to actually help people."

  "I am helping people. I'm making sure you're not around to hurt others."

  "Not... not hurting anyone."

  "Sure, keep telling yourself that. We all know the truth. You might've fooled these people, but not us, not the Metropolis."

  The ent grated on Fii. So much. "I'm not the bad guy here."

  "Sure you're not. And I'm n to take you down for the views."

  Another struct aimed at her. Another evasion.

  They pyed this game of cat-and-mouse for what seemed like a tedious hour, with Glimmerstrike closing in dangerously a few times. Fii got close to eating the pavement twice, which would've been a shameful way to lose to Glimmerstrike. The drone cameras capturing her embarrassing moment of defeat? No thank you, she'd rather swallow gss.

  At one point, Fii had used her gravikinesis to shove her pursuer to the side to gain a bit of distanot wanting to ihe Super, she kept the push light. After their first enter, when Fii had thrown her against the hard-light walls a bunch of times, she felt bad and realized they were both pying for the same team.

  After all, Glimmerstrike had ehe slums with a good iion in her heart, albeit misguided, and possibly ed by greed and ambition. But Fii could rete. She was living in a world where that was the norm. Everyone had their own reasons to behave the way they did, and those reasons were usually based on survival. Like hers were.

  As she ducked beh a low-hanging line of undry, Glimmerstrike, in her zealous pursuit, lost her bance. Her graceful movements turned clumsy as the clothes ed around her face, tangling her up. A couple of drones dipped down to follow what was happening to her, buzzing and clig, while the others focused on Fii.

  "Damn it! Just— ugh!" came a muffled outburst from the Super struggling with the fabric. "Get off me! Stupid piece of cloth—"

  Fii slowed her sprint, looking back at the chaotic se with a twinge of pity. This was her ce to slip away. She could have dashed ht there and the something about the situation made her hesitate.

  Maybe it was seeing the usually so fident and sleek-looking woman fumbling around in frustration, or maybe Fii was just a sucker for helping people, even if they were trying to capture her. Whatever the reason, Fii felt an inexplicable urge to lend a hand.

  "Need some help there, oh-glorious-hero?" she called out, letting her gravitational barrier fade so she could approach without knog over anything in her path.

  Glimmerstrike mao wrench the clothing from her face, her usually perfect blonde hair in disarray, her expression a mixture of embarrassment and anger. She yanked hard on a piece of cloth still stubbornly ging to her shoulder, managing to untangle herself just as the clothesline snapped in half.

  Great, now they o pehe family whose undry had suffered colteral damage.

  Suddenly, Glimmerstrike tackled Fii with an angry yell, sending them both hurtling through a wooden window shutter and into a house's sed story. Pnks cracked uhe impact, and both of them skidded across the floor, finally ing to a halt amidst a mess of shattered wood and broken furniture.

  A family, huddled together at a simple wooden table, shrieked in surprise, their bowls of steaming rice spilling everywhere.

  Fii groaned, pig splinters out of her hair, and gave the startled family an apologetic look. "Sorry, wrong house," she marying to lighten the mood.

  The family didn't look amused.

  "Get... off," she wheezed, pushing against the woman's shoulders to get her off her stomach. With a grunt, Fii felt the woman's weight shift, and then heard a rustle as Glimmerstrike sat up, straddling her. Her weight settled differently on Fii's thighs now.

  Glimmerstrike's ponytail had e undone in the chaos, ainum blonde hair cascaded down, framing her fad brushing against Fii's colrbone.

  "No escape," she said, her breathing ragged, a triumphant smirk spreading across her lips despite the disheveled state of her hair. "Not this time."

  Two drones zipped into the room, cirg the duo. One was zooming around at head height, taking in the whole se, while the other was at a much lower altitude, pointed squarely at... their interlocked legs.

  Oh. Oh no.

  Fii felt her cheeks flush with warmth. She was acutely aware of the position they were in and didn't want to imagine what Glimmerstrike's followers were seeing. Or what they were thinking. Or—

  "Whoa. Wow, hey now. Time out. What's your deal?!" Fii tried to inch out from underh the Super, only flimmerstrike's hands to tto her hips, keeping her pinned firmly. "Personal space. Please!"

  "Sorry, Axion, no do," Glimmerstrike responded, her tone dripping with a smughat made Fii's skin crawl. "We're kind of having a moment here. A teachable moment, you could say."

  What's with the lewd camera angle?! she wao yell, but held her tongue.

  "This isn't the pce!"

  Fii looked away, her eyes flig to the family. The mother had covered her kids' eyes with a ster the pair on the floor. The father, meanwhile, seemed a little too ied in what was happening, earning a sharp jab in the ribs from the mother.

  Great, now she was responsible for a family dispute. Guilt added to her disfort.

  "Admit it," Glimmerstrike leaned forward, her voice low, her fag closer. "You 't beat me. Not when I'm focused. Say it. Say, 'You're the best, Glimmerstrike.'"

  "I'm not saying that," Fii retorted, feeling the heat rise on her cheeks.

  Reactivating her gravitational barrier here wouldn't cut it. The debris and furniture would fly everywhere. The family wasn't in a safe position; they might end up getting hit. The dad would definitely get decked. But as it stood, her was doing mu terms of a.

  "Say it."

  "No."

  Glimmerstrike's fingers squeezed Fii's hips, applying more pressure. Her grip was strong. Fii tried to wiggle out of it, but found her legs immobilized by the tight hold. Every attempt to break free only resulted in Glimmerstrike's fingers digging deeper, like she utting Fii in a wrestling lock.

  As Fii looked up into those determined eyes, she noticed a slight blush on the Super's cheeks. It was a weird mirror of her own flustered state.

  "W-what the hell! Yetting embarrassed too!" she excimed, notig Glimmerstrike's face also gradually turning more and more crimson.

  Was she just realizing the suggestive situation they were in?

  "N-no, I'm not," Glimmerstrike stammered, the teasing fidence from earlier melting away. "Just—chat is saying weird stuff!"

  "Where are you seeing the chat?"

  "T-top left."

  "There's nothing iop left!"

  "You 't see it! Because it's a neural link! Inside my brain! Impnts." Glimmerstrike winced and shot a quick gre at one of the h drohen looked back down at Fii with a panicked look, her eyebrows knit together. "Not the kind of impnts you think. None of those. God. Stupid chat. You think you're so smart. Oh, don't go talking like that, you piece of—"

  Fii took the ce tlimmerstrike's left hand and flipped her over, reversing their positions. She now held Glimmerstrike's hands pio the ground beside her head.

  A yelp of surprise escaped the Metropolis Super's lips. "Hey! I was—I was winning!"

  "No, you were being creepy."

  "No, it was... for the stream," Glimmerstrike mumbled, her onanding presence diminished. Now she just looked like a girl Fii's age, maybe a little older, caught off-guard and uncharacteristically shy. "Everyone loves that stuff. Especially if... if it's cute girls. Chat told me to go for it."

  "What?" Fii's cheeks were afme with fusion and a kind of flustered panic. She didn't uand any of that, but she didn't like it.

  "It was a bit! Look, my fans love it when I tease. I—I wasn't trying to make you feel bad. I mean..." Glimmerstrike's voice trailed off, her eyes darting away from Fii's scrutinizing gaze. "I mean, maybe a little bad, but not like... not in a cruel way. Just funny."

  "Well, it wasn't. Not to me. And not to these people either." Fii didn't ease up on her grip, ensuring the Super stayed put. She tilted her head towards the family who was still staring at them. "Isn't that right?"

  The mother's face was a mask of ahe dad, oher hand...

  "Junk's gold if you shi," the dad said.

  "Really, Rick?!" the mother responded before shooing her family out of the room.

  Fii shifted her attention back to Glimmerstrike. The usually brash and fident Superhero looked oddly vulnerable pio the floor. Her disheveled state and the pink flush on her cheeks seemed to scream embarrassment.

  Feeling pity tug at her heartstrings, Fii released her grip. She stood up slowly, dusting off her jacket and shooting a g the mess around them.

  "I'll, uh, send someoo fix this up. Sorry for the trouble," she said, not wanting to leave the family with the chaos she had iently caused. Even if she wasn't the one who caused it.

  With that, she turo leave the same way they had barged in, through the shattered window. As she was about to climb through, she gnced over her shoulder, notig Glimmerstrike still sitting on the floor, absentmindedly twirling a lock of her hair.

  "Let's keep the chase outside the houses, okay?" Fii said, her words hanging in the air, half suggestion, half plea.

  Glimmerstrike gnced up, and for a moment, Fii thought she saw a flicker of shame cross the Super's face. "Yeah. Okay."

  And with a silent nod of uanding, Fii was gone, climbing down and vanishing into the byrinth of the slums beflimmerstrike's drones could locate her again.