Anh didn't know what to make of the woman named Ash.

  At first glance she appeared to be an abrasive hothead who detested the program and everything it stood for. Yet during their fight she was calm and collected, analyzing his skills and abilities with an almost clinical detachment. And based on her interactions with the commander, she held her fellow operatives and their mission in the highest of esteem.

  She was a tangled mess of contradictions.

  She was also hot, both figuratively and literally. Ash was blessed with the body of an Olympic gymnast, yet cursed with the mouth of a sailor. If Anh was being honest with himself, he didn't know if that combination was a turn off… or incredibly attractive.

  “Alrighty then! I best finish these horseshoes so that old fart won't pitch a fit later.” Ash said with a clap of her hands.

  Anh looked at the woman incredulously. “Do you really think we have time for that?”

  That comment earned him a glare from the blacksmith. Thankfully his mouth didn't earn him another punch to the face or being hoisted up by the throat again. Instead, Ash just sighed and glanced back to her tools with a longing expression.

  “Ordinarily, no, we wouldn't .” She said after a moment. “But the last word I would use to describe any of us would be ‘ordinary’. Observe.”

  At that she bent down and grabbed the hunk of misshapen iron she had been previously working on off the floor. After a few heartbeats of just staring at the lump, it started to glow between her fingers. Like a potter shaping clay, Ash bent and twisted the red hot metal with her bare hands until the familiar shape of a horseshoe was formed. Seemingly satisfied with the effort, she dunked her arm, still clutching the burning iron, into the nearby quench tank. She didn’t even flinch when the flames that erupted from the bubbling oil coiled around her arm and licked her face.

  “There we go. This should only take a minute or so.” She said after extracting her project from the vat of oil.

  “Are you ferrokinetic?” Anh asked. The whole process from heating to quenching took only seconds.

  “Sorta, I can manipulate all metals though, not just those derived from iron.” Ash informed without even looking up from her work. “Although the softer the metal, the easier it is to shape. It's why I’m heating these up first instead of raw-dogging them the whole time.”

  The commander gave a loud cough. “Phrasing!”

  Ash looked up, a twisted smirk on her lips. “Aw… big man not ready for kids yet?”

  “Is the old maid?” He shot back, clearly still flustered at her words.

  Ash scowled for a moment before schooling her features. “Sorry, got carried away a bit there.” She said softly.

  Sam also looked a bit sheepish. “Yeah, I am too. Forgot about your circumstances.” He held out a hand. “Friends?”

  Ash slapped her oiled palm into his larger one. “To the end.” She intoned before giving the big man a wink.

  She got back to work and before long she had a neat stack of nearly identical horseshoes sitting on her table. Despite how obviously rushed she was, Anh noticed the quality was superb. Wiping her stained hands in a towel, she quickly moved towards the door that led into her house proper.

  “I'm just going to shower and pack a duffel. Feel free to grab a couple drinks from the fridge.” She called out as she walked down a hallway.

  Taking her invitation at her word, Captain Edwards strolled over to the large appliance and popped open the door. “No beer. Figures.” He grumbled.

  “Alcohol and fire aren’t exactly known to mix very well.” Anh remarked. “I doubt someone like her is a big fan of losing control of her faculties.”

  During their brief fight, Anh had held onto only a fraction of Ash’s power, a large fraction, but not the entire breadth of what the woman could wield. Just that tiny sliver was enough to completely engulf his mind in an inferno of rage. Even accounting for training and a decade of service, he had no idea how the woman even stayed sane. Perhaps she didn’t.

  “You’re not too far off about the control.” Sam said before tossing a small bottle in Anh's direction. “But I didn’t say she didn’t have any alcohol, just not beer.”

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  Anh examined the label on his beverage and saw it was a premade margarita drink. He looked up in horror to see his commander smirking as he twisted the cap off his own bottle. He gave a little salute to his subordinate before taking great gulps of the bitter fluid.

  On seeing Anh’s questioning stare, he explained. “Alcohol is a relaxant. So taking a little here and there actually helps calm her down.” He sat down on the couch across from Anh. “As for getting drunk. Ashley has never been the type to run away from a challenge. If something was potentially dangerous, rather than avoiding it entirely, she would find ways to safely test exactly where the lines were and which ones to never cross. As a result, she knows her limits intimately, which is one reason why the brass wasn’t too worried about leaving her alone despite how volatile she could be.”

  “That’s… huh…” Anh said sagely. “But why no beer?”

  “Because it tastes like shit.”

  Both men turned to see Ash strolling back into the room, a faint trail of steam wafting out of her long light brown hair. She was still dressed in a light t-shirt, one that hugged her toned frame like a second skin, alongside a pair of baggy cargo pants and a sturdy pair of work boots. She tossed a small duffel bag onto the couch and grabbed her own beverage to match her guests.

  “I like the bright and fruity drinks, sue me.” She said defensively while twisting off the cap. “I've been to plenty of football games to become well and truly sick of the smell of spilled beer. Seriously, how the hell do people even like that stuff?”

  Commander Edwards chuckled. “I think it's more about the company and side effects than the actual taste.”

  Ash's face twisted in disgust. “Fuck that noise.”

  “Are you sure you have everything you need?” Anh asked in an attempt to change the subject.

  Ash quietly finished her drink before thankfully answering his question. “Yep. The base will provide most of what I need, so I only packed the essentials. My laptop, e-reader, handheld, game console, couple controllers…” She ticked off each item with a long and slender finger, quickly finishing a hand and swiftly filling up a second.

  “That's all entertainment! Did you pack a single article of clothing or even toiletries?” Anh blurted out.

  Ash looked at him. “Why should I? You know as well as I do that those are all provided for us. Leisure activities aren’t considered essential, so unless you want a bored pyromancer wreaking havoc inside the compound, these are the things I’ll need far more than military grade panties.”

  Commander Edwards erupted into a fit of giggles, which was quite the sight for a man his size and build. “Never change Ash. Never change.” He said while shaking his head. He patted Anh on the shoulder and made to get up. “Leave it, kid. Sometimes you just gotta trust your fellow soldier knows what they're doing.” He shot Ash a sidelong glance. “And there’s always a chance that Special Operative Wolff is fucking with you. As she said, a bored pyro is something everyone would prefer to avoid.”

  The woman in question gave a grin that fit her surname in its entirety. It took everything Anh had to suppress a shudder at the sight.

  As the group made their way back through the smithy, Anh noticed Ash pick up her completed pile of horseshoes and wrap them in a bag. He looked around the small space and saw a variety of tools, all of them appearing to be well used. A sudden thought struck him, and he voiced it aloud. “If you have the power to shape metal, why bother to do it the mundane way?”

  “Why paint an image of a mountain when you can just take a picture? Why run a marathon when you can just drive a car?” She replied in a tone that implied she had answered this very question numerous times before. “It’s all about improving myself until I reach mastery. The goal isn’t the destination, but the journey itself.” She looked over her shoulder and gave a mischievous grin. “Plus… Hitting shit with a hammer all day does wonders for managing my mood.”

  Anh nodded his head to acknowledge the point. He had his suspicions that the latter explanation was a tad more relevant than the former, but he decided not to press further. She dropped the package with a note by her front door and the three walked up to the waiting vehicle.

  “I’m going to miss this place.” Ash said softly, turning around one last time to look at her modest accommodations.

  The commander patted her gently on the shoulder. “You’ll be back before you know it. Even super soldiers like us are allowed leave.”

  “Don’t lie.” She growled halfheartedly. “If things are so bad that they are willing to drag me back into the pile, then none of us are getting a vacation for a very long time.”

  “You gotta have hope.”

  There was a small snort at his words. “Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment.” She intoned, as if she was quoting some ancient philosopher.

  Sam frowned. “Ever the optimist, I see.”

  It was her turn to clap her friend on the shoulder. “Oh, I am being optimistic. I said nothing about us all dying horribly to some lab-born monstrosity some idiots created because they were messing with forces beyond their comprehension.”

  “That’s… Oddly specific.” Anh observed.

  Ash shrugged. “I’ve seen a lot of shit. Odds are that something like that will come up sooner or later.” She shot the two men a wicked grin before popping open the door and hopping inside. “Now let’s go! I want to see the look on the brass’ faces when you guys stroll in with me in tow.”

  “Should we be worried?” Anh asked his superior, suddenly getting a bad feeling about the whole situation.

  “It’ll be fine… Probably.” The big man said with a halfhearted shrug.

  Anh didn’t like how the words didn’t fill him with confidence in the slightest.