Passing through the security archway, the area's tral zone was . Its high ceiling and windows offered a view of the drizzling night sky beyond. Though the design seemed a bit ostentatious for her taste, Serena had to admit there was a certain fir to it.

  Each floor Serena passed on their ast brought back memories of her enters with the strict Dr. Montoya Tanner and her husband. Those sessions had been a whirlwind of tests, evaluations, and a lot of stific jargon that made Serena feel like she art of an experiment rather than an individual seeking to do some good in the world.

  The elevator dinged, and she stepped off at her destination. They marched past the tral pit where clerks and analysts plowed through mountains of paperwork at their puter stations. Always so busy. Oher side of the walkway, transparent dividers allowed visitors to peer into their diligent work.

  They climbed a flight of stairs leading to the top floor, the hub of administrative offices, and their steps echoed in the hushed atmosphere.

  Then, just like that, the loomiing awaited. Time to face the music. Again.

  "I'll do all the talking," said an authoritarian figure, joining their path.

  His name was Vale—from her agend he looked the part. The man wore a bck suit with a white dress shirt. No tie, though. Not today. Vale had this charming little tic of pushing his wire-rimmed gsses up, and Serena wondered hoairs of gsses he'd broken while angry or in a hurry. Something to ask at a less formal occasion. Ohout a major PR disaster to deal with.

  Another day, another public embarrassment to cover. But hey, that's what they paid him fht?

  Vale shot her a sidelong gnce. "Don't speak unless spoken to. Nod if you uand."

  She offered a brisk nod.

  "Good," Vale turned his head away. "Let's get this over with."

  With that, Vale led them into the meeting room, a pce that seemed more like a war room than anything else, probably thanks to the massive fereable dominating the ter. The surrounding viewss came alive with Paragon's board members' faces, staring down at Serena.

  Uh oh.

  Vale escorted Serena to a seat at the table, his voice carrying an unspoken order to sit, then took his position by her side.

  "Chairman and board, we e here today to resolve the ret troversy surrounding Ms. Holt's frontation with the wanted Super, Axion," he began, his toral. "Paragon's strategy to entrap the fugitive via public appearances in the slums has proven effective, with is involving Ms. Holt and Axion on the rise. However, due to the limitations of Ms. Holt's powers and the i risks involved when engaging in bat with a much more powerful Super, we have yet to effect a successful capture."

  "That is putting it lightly, Mr. Vale," a stern female voice echoed through the speakers. It was Valda Vix, one of Paragoertai's directors. She had a knack for sounding like a teacher who had caught her students cheating.

  "With every csh, our public image suffers. Brand fidence is falling. Iors are retrag their support. 't you see our market values have reached a historic low? Your... strategies have been iive in mitigating our financial losses. Need I remind you that every one of these is tio remind our stituents about Prime's demise?"

  Dr. Tanner's hologram, also projected onto one of the viewss, spoke up, "By now, it's that Prime's untimely demise was not at the hands of a maniacal vilin, but a supposed nobody."

  "Our name," Vix interrupted, "has bee synonymous with fallen heroes. What were we thinking, parading Ms. Holt around the slums, taunting a notorious 'hero-killer'? Was anyone expeg a different oute?"

  "To crify," Vale interjected, his tone slightly strained, "Glimmerstrike is not an enforcer—"

  "Maybe she should be," Vix's retort was swift and sharp. "Ever since Glimmerstrike's public debut, she's ever only engaged in charity work, smile-and-wave sessions, and a few life-saving heroics here and there. Her only crime-fighting accodes to date have been a mere two hundred and fourteen arrests, with a paltry eighty-six pert vi rate. A us at best if we're going by school grades. Some rising star we've bet upon."

  Ouch. Those were some sharp barbs. Serena bit the inside of her cheek. She really hated this board and all their money-driven talk. Every word hit like a shard of gss, especially when the woman suggested re-education. Back to school with the babies. Or, worse, joining those freakshows on the Wall.

  Oh God, I would rather eat mud.

  Another of the board members, Arnold Reinhardt, cleared his throat and spoke, "You don't make a without breaking a few eggs, so the saying goes. Valda, the aim was o apprehend Axion—not a single hero has mahat to date—but to vilify her.

  "Not only do we o sell Glimmerstrike to the public, we also o sell the idea that Axion must be stopped. People needed a reason to hate her. All we've provided them with to date were words. What they needed were as. As that show Axion is not your friendly door neighbor. That she's a violent, sociopathitity."

  Serena could see the logic. Use her as bait, record Axion being Axion, ahe media turn her into the big vilin. The only problem with that? It hadn't gone down that way. Serena could have told them that pn had been stupid from the start, but no one asked her.

  "Yes, and how did that turn out?" Dr. Tanner's hologram shrugged. "From what I've seen of her ret fights, the se seems to be shifting the other way. All these is are reminding people how... iive our hero has been."

  A man named Ketler spoke up , "Serena's good, but she's no Prime."

  Prime—the legendary Superhero with telekiic powers. The one who put the 'Super' in Superheroes. The man who'd been a genuine inspiration for her. Sure, he had been stri his enforts at times, and maybe a bit extreme in some cases, but Serena couldn't imagine him as a heartless murderer.

  Or was he?

  Serena tried to look indifferent, but beh her calm exterior, she felt a surge of irritation. Everything always circled back to Prime.

  "I'm tired of hearing about Prime!" a board member snapped. "He's dead due to his own hubris. Don't pretend that man was some symbol hteousness. Just admit that everyone ow breathe easier since Axion removed that sce from our midst. It's hard to vihe public of how saintly his iions were when half of them openly cheered for his demise."

  Serena could hardly believe what she was hearing. They were actually bad-mouthing a Superhero—a dead o that—someone she had aspired to emute, sitting in the very same room as her! She'd had her own reservations about him, of course, but now her agency seemed to be openly disrespeg the deceased i.

  "You guys realize I'm sitting right here, right?" she finally spoke up.

  Vale's face turern, aended a hand towards her, motionio be quiet. But Serena wasn't having any of it. All the discussions, the sful ents—they weren't just going to get swept uhe rug with another nod of her head.

  "Why don't you drop the ad just tell me to my fauch of a disappoi I am to you?" she quipped, folding her arms across her chest.

  Tanner and Vale both looked surprised.

  "Glimmerstrike—"

  But Serena wasn't do.

  "Enough with the sweet-talk," she pressed, raising her voice a little. "I know you all think I'm a joke. But guess what? You picked me for this job, not the other way around. Maybe if you wao improve, you should focus on trainiter and pointing out the skills I o work on instead of paying hundreds of people to write some long, thought-out hate ents. And believe me, the writing is always too simir for them not to be paid trolls.

  "When was the st time any of you trained someone, or did something about this mess? Instead, you've been wasting your time w about a few critical posts from a bunch of teenagers whose opinions literally don't matter at all."

  She knew she should have shut up after that, but somehow, once she started talking, the words kept flowing. Everything that had been bottled up for so long—she o say it now or risk exploding.

  Vale leaned over, his voice dangerously low, "Glimmerstrike. Hold your tongue. Your tone—"

  Serena turo him, her anger fring. "So what if my tone is disrespectful? Don't they deserve at least a little bit of what they're dishing out?"

  "This meeting is intended for problem resolution, not whining. Behave, or you'll be escorted out," Vale threatened.

  He then turned his attention back to the ss. "Ladies aleme's keep our discussion focused on facts rather than jecture. My team is w diligently oation ma, and we've identified the most iial thought leaders shaping the prevailing narrative. Our top priority is to eh these entities. We're striving to achieve a sensus on a unified message that aligns with our broader brand strategy."

  Tanner interjected once more, her tone acerbic, "That sounds like another way of saying yoing to bribe them."

  "Such a crass oversimplification," Vale retorted with a sigh. "Influencer outreach, thought leader e, pensated product pt, strategic reputation enha—whatever terms you prefer. The ure is hardly relevant here."

  "It's bribing someoo shut up and say something nice," Serena quipped, drumming her fingers oable.

  That ent earned her a sp in the face, shog her out of her righteous indignation. Her mouth fell open as she brought a hand to her cheek, an angry mark where Vale had hit her.

  "Do not humiliate me," Vale hissed quietly, the i his gre promising dire sequences. "Ever."

  The other board members just watched, no one making a move to intercede or ent on the abuse that had just transpired.

  "This is a publicity meeting, not your personal bitg session," he added. Theurning to the ference call and the viewss, Vale re-established his facade of posure, adjusting his gsses meticulously. "Now, if we could tinue in a civilized mahat would be appreciated."

  Serena stewed in her chair, seething at the btant double standard.

  It was only at this point that she realized she might have gone a bit too far. Her gaze dropped to the table, and she leaned ba her chair, sulking.

  Crap... This is probably where I get fired.

  Tanner cleared her throat. "Mr. Vale, thank you. Your services for today will no longer be necessary."

  What?

  "You are hereby assigo manage one of our alents," Dr. Tanner tinued. "A young star by the name of Riley. Now, would you kindly see yourself out?"

  What?

  "But—" Vale stammered.

  "Now, Vale," she stressed.

  Vale couldn't find the words for his protest aually stumbled out of the room, seemingly crestfallen.

  "What just happened?" Serena mao ask after a bewildered moment.

  "I apologize for Mr. Vale's ck of pruidance. You see, it's hard to find quality managers nowadays; too many opportunists and not enough believers. He was better than some, but at the end of the day, a number on a paycheck matters more to him than a citizen's dream."

  Tanner's hologram shifted as if to emute a sigh. "However, you are not without bme yourself. As I recall, you were explicitly instructed not to speak, yet you allowed your emotions to dominate. You knew your words would offend and infme, and you have to live with the sequences of those choices.

  "Oher hand, I have to admit that it was refreshing to see a bit of fire from you. But keep in mind that being a Superhero isn't all glitz and gmour. There are tractual obligations. Responsibilities. Some of them might leave a sour taste in your mouth, but that's part of the job description, sweetheart.

  "Now, let's start over. Hello, Ms. Holt, and thank you for attending today's meeting. Before we begin, I would like to apologize for what transpired earlier. That was not, to my knowledge, acc to protocol. Furthermore, it does not reflect our values at Paragoertai. Could we sider starting this versation anew?"

  Serena sat there, stunned for a moment. Then, she gathered her thoughts, her tone measured. "Sure."

  "Wonderful," Tanner's holographi seemed to lean forward, her body nguage suggesting the initiation of a private discussioweewo of them.

  The other board members suddenly fell silent, some leaning ba their seats or shifting their gaze to the side. It gave the impression of a se frozen in time, like a paused video.

  "Let's set that unpleasantness aside and address the real issues. Serena, your public profile needs serious rehabilitation. We need a boost to your ratings, and you need some allies in this. If I leave your fate to the peanut gallery, who knows what absurdities they'll e up with . So, listen carefully. Here's what we'll do."

  A glimmer of hope flickered in Serena's eyes.

  Was Dr. Tanner—her tormentor from the early days—really going to make an effort to help?

  She quickly reminded herself who she was dealing with, and that hope withered away. Tanner hadn't earned her reputation for passion; this sudden sympathy had to be fake.

  "What are you... suggesting?"

  "I am assigning you to work in tandem with another Superhero: Diamond Ace. The idea is for you two to work together to apprehend Axion. Your colboration with Diamond Ace will serve two primary goals. Firstly, to improve your oabilities. Sedly, to establish a unified front against Axion. And who better to join the campaign against our hero-killer than a prior associate of Prime himself. That should ter the ive optics."