Axion patrolled her route through the slums, keeping a for trouble or people in need of help. Most days were slow like this, but today was especially b, as there wasn't much going on.

  But as the m turo the afternoon, she entered several cases of muggings, attempted robberies, and street fights. She helped out in those situations as much as she could. Muggings and robberies were straightforward; she'd jump in, subdue the muggers or thieves, and that was that.

  Street fights, though? They happened every hour of every day.

  In the slums, everyone expected that they'd get robbed, stabbed, or beaten at one point in their lives. It art of the daily grind of survival. But despite their oealing and indiscriminate violence was never accepted by the popuce. Everybody hated them, but they occurred often enough to have bee the norm. Most people developed a system of g, turning a blio them uhey were the victims.

  Street fights were a little different. As long as nobody died or ermaly crippled, nobody cared too much. And the people involved were usually just settling scores and paying back debts. It was a good outlet for relieving stress and boredom. Sometimes, bets were pced and prizes earned, which made street fights even more on.

  As long as the fight didn't involve an adult pig on a kid, roup attag a lone victim, it was fair game. The only problem with that was that some kids picked fights with adults on purpose—something Fii had done in the past.

  As Axion though, she tried not to get involved with street fights.

  One of the slums' unwritten w was: leave them to do as they please uhey're messing with you or your property. This rule applied to street fights, and Axion usually obeyed it, but sometimes she couldn't help herself. She had to intervene when the fighting got too bloody, or when the winner didn't accept the loser's surrender.

  But she was careful not to pick sides, only showing up when both parties wao kill each other. This way, she appeared ral, even-handed, and avoided appearing biased or unfair. In general, she'd subdue all partits, and ohey calmed down, she'd let them go.

  The worst she had to deal with were insults and threats, which she ignored. She did receive a few ents and pints here and there, mostly from the victims. They often ented about her invading their privad intruding on their private matters. To this, she'd politely apologize, and occasionally remind them that she'd saved their lives. They'd scowl or curse iurn, and that would be the end of it.

  Sometimes though, she received grateful responses instead of hostile ones. Whenever she received praise or thanks, she'd give the person a nod. Whether that was the right response or not, she had no clue. It felt appropriate, so she stuck with it.

  Whehe gangs showed up to fight each other, Axion made sure to stay away. She only intervened if i people were caught in the crossfire. Otherwise, she'd let them sort things out amongst themselves. They could kill each other for all she cared; that was the life they'd chosen for themselves.

  Axion sighed softly as she stepped away from another brawl. Today has been peaceful...Well, as peaceful as things could get. Her thoughts wao the question that had been bugging her all m. Did Zoltar tell anyone else what he saw?

  It had been a week sihe i with Zoltar, but there wasn't any news about her being a metahuman anywhere—not even any tin talk. No gangsters had shown up actively looking for her, and no one in the slums seemed to be ag any differently towards her. It was like nothing had ged at all.

  She couldn't believe Zoltar would let this opportunity pass him by. Even if he didn't ect the dots immediately, surely he'd put two and two together and figure out that she was Axion. So why hasn't he done anything about it?

  She had brought this up til during their training session, and the man had merely shrugged, saying that gangsters weren't known for being smart. Zoltar and his crew might have simply fotten or written it off as a halluation. But she doubted that; a perso just fet seeing a metahumaheir abilities in front of them.

  So, what was going on?

  On her patrols, she tried looking for him, but there were no signs of him or the people he was with. The rest of the Gully Rats were still around; their leader, Twitch Marlow, had repced Zoltar with a new lieutenant.

  The echo in the alley floating around was that Zoltar had been killed by the surviving Neon Knights who had it out for him.

  Whether that was true or not, she didn't know, but what mattered was that she was no lo risk of discovery.

  She trusted that Quinn would keep her secret, but she hadn't spoken with him siheir enter with the Gully Rats. She saw him every on a while when she went on her patrols. At least he was alive and didn't mysteriously disappear. Now she just had to find the time to sit with him and expin herself.

  Her mind wao the evenih scolded her after her fight with the Gully Rats. When she first told her about Zoltar's attad expined how she had saved Quinn and herself, Edith went ballistileashing a verbal tirade about the dangers of revealing her secret identity. The lecture sted almost the whole night, and afterward, she banned her from patrolling for several days.

  Virgil had also kept her on a short leash, her to avoid any frontations with the gangs arig her patrols to specific routes. Surprisingly, he had been the least stern and judgmental pared to Edith. Instead, he asked her if she regretted using her abilities to save her friend.

  Axion's answer was 'no'.

  That seemed enough for Virgil because he didn't bring it up again, and the days passed quietly, without further i.

  So, here she was now, patrolling the same familiar streets, keeping watch over the slums, not entering anything out of the ordinary.

  Bored out of her mind, she headed for the water towers to take a quick break before resuming her rounds.

  Axion's fight against 'Cobra' Kasumi and her lieutenant made her realize ohing: she o get more creative with how she used her power. So far, she had only used her power to boost her agility, make herself lighter or heavier, make others heavier hter, deflect projectiles, and make her attacks hit harder.

  Her biggest attack was her Shockwave Stomp, where she smmed her foot into the ground, creating a localized gravitational distortion that sent shockwaves through the earth. She could also adjust the strength of her stomp, ging its iy and range, depending ouation.

  This was the move she came up with after reading through a bunch of books on gravity and physics that Edith handpicked for her. She wasn't a genius like Edith, so it took her a lot of effort and tration to uand them, but eventually, she got the cepts down—or at least enough to implement them.

  Still, even though she was able to do all these things, it felt as if she was only scratg the surface of her power. There were still a lot of things she didn't get yet.

  Whehought about making those bullets orbit her and Quinn, and then fly back to her target, she retty proud of herself. She imagihose gravitational vortexes, instead of repelling the projectiles, creating a sort of gravity tunnel, where the bullets flew straight but followed the curvature of her gravitational field. Then all she o do afterwards was to aim that tu the gangsters ahe bullets free.

  If she could use her power in such a sophisticated way, then what else could she do?

  Acc to Edith, and also from what Axion observed, her gravity field exteo a meter away from her body. It didn't really expin why she could pick up a big object that extended past her field and still affect it, but that's how her power worked, so she accepted that fact.

  But maybe they both overlooked something, or maybe there were some hiddeails that they never sidered.

  What if her field could extend farther than that? What if she could spread her power out to enpass aire building, or aire block, or eveire slums?

  Now THAT would be cool!

  Unfortunately, she still couldn't do anything like that, nor did she uand how to do it. Maybe it'll slowly happen with time as she tio use her power. Who knows?

  For now, she had to work with what she currently had: an invisible aura surroundihat maniputed gravity within a meter's radius.

  So, how else could she use her power?

  It would be o eventually fly around. She could kind of do that already, but only in a limited sense. When she made herself lighter, she could jump higher and farther, hover in mid-air, or float while falling. But that didn't seem like actually flying.

  How else could she use gravity to move around?

  As Axion sat atop the water tower, letting her feet dangle over the edge, her mind tio wander. She gnced over at a guy sliding around on a pair of roller skates. The guy looked so rexed as he propelled himself across the ground.

  Huh, that looks fun.

  Axion watched him skate around. She studied the way he moved, notig how he used the ines and dees ierrain to propel himself. She wondered if she could do that.

  Could she trol her gravity field to create a smooth slide using the ground itself? How would that even work?

  Roller skates worked on fri. Because of those wheels on their bottom, they could move across the ground easier than walking.

  Maybe she could try the same thing. But instead of wheels, she could use her gravity to reduce her fri somehow?

  Hmm, but how would she do that? She didn't have a wheel or anything. She only had her feet.

  Hold o retty important here. She could reduce her weight so that she'd have less fri when walking, but then what? She had already been doing that for a while now, it just made her faster and mile.

  What else could she do to move like that?

  Then an idea popped into her mind.

  Axion jumped down from the water tower, nding in a crouch. She straightened up, grinning as she dusted herself off. "Time to do some experimenting."

  She trated, using her gravity field to reduce her weight like she'd doo increase her speed and agility.

  Alright, step one: success.

  Axion started running like normal. She picked up speed, the familiar sensation of lightness under her feet making each step feel like a brush against the ground. She felt the subtle tug of gravity, the way it anchored her even as she willed herself lighter.

  Right, this was the easy part. She was just l her weight and moving faster. She could do that normally. Now what? She was faster, sure, but she didn't have the gliding motion she was aiming for.

  "Okay, think... what gives skaters that smooth glide?" she murmured to herself.

  She thought back to the roller skater, how his movements had a fluidity, a rhythm that seemed to dah the terrain. Axion tried to mimic that, adding a slight sway to her steps, but it wasn't quite right. It was too... normal.

  Her brow furrowed in tration. What if she didn’t just reduce her weight but maniputed the gravitational pull around her feet more dynamically? The idea was like a spark igniting in her mind.

  Pausing, she focused on her feet, envisioning a gentle wave of energy emanating from each sole, iing with the enviro, adjusting the pull of gravity ever so slightly to create a natural slipstream beh her soles—the gravitational field under her feet being asymmetric, stro the back, weaker at the front.

  Axioively pushed off the ground with her right foot, trying to feel the differeo her surprise, she slid forward a few extra timeters.

  And then, suddenly, it clicked. She twisted her foot slightly, angling her graviton field, a herself glide smoothly to the left. A small shift to the right, and she curved back, trag a graceful ar the asphalt.

  A grin spread across her face. This was it! She took a tentative step forward, then another. It was awkward at first, like learning to walk again, but she soon found her footing.

  Now for the real test.

  She began to run again, this time altering the gravitational field with each step. She pushed off with her left foot, then her right, each time extending the slide, allowio cover mround in fewer strides.

  The first few attempts were clumsy. She veered off too sharply, almost stumbling, her arms filing for bance.

  Her legs began to ache from the stant motion, and her feet felt like they were being rubbed raw.

  [TSFI: 0.53]

  Yeah, yeah. I know.

  She slowed down, pag herself.

  Now, for dire. She remembered the skater's subtle shifts i, how he leao steer.

  Mimig that, Axion angled her foot slightly, feeling the subtle shift irajectory. Then she repeated the maneuver with her other foot, leaning forward this time, and swiveling her hips to add momentum to her turns.

  She experimented, varying her lean, sometimes sharp fht turns, sometimes gentle for wide, sweeping arcs. It was like learning a new dance, her body adapting to the rhythm of her gravitational manipution. She even altered the gravity around her hands to increase her bance, providira support as she turned. Just like rudders, she could trol her dire by angling her hands a, maniputing their localized gravitational fields with subtle movements.

  With each step, her fidence grew. She spun in a tight arc, pig up speed as she zipped past the startled bystanders.

  Axio out a giddy ugh. "This is great! It's not flying, but it's so fun! I might o give myself a name for this style, hmm, something with the wlide' in it, I guess. Gravity Glide! Okay, I work with that."

  She practiced for a while, skating bad forth through the slums, her mind rag as she pondered how she could incorporate this teique into bat.

  As she finally slowed to a stop, Axion stood there for a moment, catg her breath and marveling at what she'd just achieved. A rush of excitement coursed through her, and she couldn't help but grin.

  She looked back at the roller skater in the distaill gliding around on his wheels.

  Thanks for the inspiration, slumshine. But this, this is my own spin.

  As exg as this discovery was, she o keep in mind that she was doing this for a reason, and that was to help the people of the slums. Plus, if she let herself get too distracted, she might end up ing her duties a bad guys do whatever they want. She should go back to what she does best.

  Luckily, that came easily for her.

  But…maybe she could slide around just a little bit longer.

  Axion tinued her gravity-defying dash through the slums, her feet barely toug the ground as she slid around ers and down alleys. But as she maneuvered through the byrinth of streets, a naggiion began to grow. Something was off.

  At first, she thought it was just the strain of using her powers in such a tinuous, demanding way. But then she felt it—a slight stiess with each step, a drag that hadn't been there before.

  She skidded to a stop, looking down at her boots. The soles were wearing thin—and these were supposed to be sturdy. The fri of her slides, despite being reduced, was taking its toll.

  "Aww...son of a—"