“Hey Hooks,” I said as I walked into the gym, waving.

  “Mara, ten laps.”

  I frowned but agreed to the flat, almost dismissive order. I took off my jacket so I wouldn’t overheat, the tshirt emblazoned ‘WARD’ was all the ID I needed, then started running. As I circled the gym, I kept an eye on Hooks. She was on the outside of the track, working the heavy bag like it owed her money. I couldn’t quite see from here, but just going by how she was heaving her breaths she must be exhausted.

  The PRT was running ops of course, and Hooks had gone back to the containment teams; but she wasn’t on tactical anymore, I didn’t think it would be that crazy. I made sure to keep my pace up, since she was busy with her own workout, and before long I had worked up a good sweat and was breathing hard. Not nearly as bad as it used to be though, I was actually getting fit with Hooks keeping me on task. I jogged over to her, water bottle in hand.

  “Hey,” I said, raising my voice over the rhythmic ‘thud’ of her gloves crashing into the bag. “All done. We uh, starting on the bag today?”

  “Speed bag, ten minutes,” Hooks snapped, not even looking at me. I frowned.

  “Hey, are you good?” I asked, stepping around to her side. Her eyes were bloodshot, it looked like she hadn’t slept.

  “Just working something out,” she growled. “Between me and the bag, got it?”

  “Uh, sure coach,” I said with a nod, stepping back.

  Okay, Hooks was in a bad mood today, noted. Maybe she was imagining her ex’s face on it or something, but she really looked pissed at the bag. I grabbed my gloves and a stopwatch, then headed over to the teardrop-shaped bag and got to work. Despite the name, speed wasn’t what it was all about, timing was.

  I quickly fell into the steady one-two-three of my boxing, first one hand then the other, not neglecting either. It didn’t matter that I was right-handed, both would be used in the ring for hitting an opponent; outside it too, for that matter. It was a good lesson to learn and one I was grateful Hooks and Bailey were drilling into me.

  Before long, my timer beeped and I took a break to breathe. Ten minutes was a long fucking time to be swinging, and my arms were feeling it. I grabbed my water and stepped behind some equipment, unmasking and chugging it down. Not the healthiest, but when I had to keep my face covered I had to drink what I could, when I could. I made sure it was in place then went back to Hooks who was still hammering the heavy bag.

  “Uh, hey Hooks, I’m done,” I said.

  “Gimme a fuckin’ minute,” Hooks barked between breaths.

  “Been ten, corporal,” I replied evenly. “And you’ve probably been going a lot longer. Time for a break?” She paused and lowered her arms, shoulders heaving as she panted. “Did uh, something happen?”

  “Bailey’s out.”

  “Oh, he doesn’t want to train me anymore? That su—”

  “He’s outta the PRT,” she corrected bitterly. My eyes widened.

  “What happened? Is he okay?” I grabbed her arm, then flinched as she shoved me off.

  “Your girlfriend healed him,” Hooks muttered. “Everything but his head, thing he really needed.”

  “Oh shit,” I said shakily. “But, but he’s alive right?”

  “He can’t walk, can’t feed himself, you call that living?”

  “I don’t…” I trailed off, biting my lip. “What happened?” She tensed.

  “Not supposed to tell you,” Hooks said.

  “You know I can keep a secret,” I replied, lowering my voice. “Come on, I actually liked him. Who did it?”

  “Wotan’s Wolves cape, goes by Hannibal,” she said quietly. “Rotten piece of shit thinks he’s some kinda gladiator. Bailey was point when he got folded. Pandora was on call, but she ‘can’t do brains’ or whatever, so it’s just tough shit I guess.”

  “Fucker,” I swore, feeling my cheeks burn. “Protectorate’s going after him for it right?” She scoffed. “No, don’t fuck with me Hooks, they’ve been fighting them; Sere told me.”

  “Been kid gloves like the old days,” Hooks snapped bitterly. “Bitch-fucking-made, feels like.”

  “I’ll talk to Miss Militia,” I said gravely. “Make sure they at least take him down and toss him in prison or something.” She looked at me, almost hopeful.

  “That’d be cool,” she said with a nod. “Glad at least some of you guys are on our side.” I patted her shoulder.

  “Call it short today?” I asked.

  “Nah, lemme get the pads,” Hooks said with a shake of her head. “Can’t let it drag me down, got to keep moving, keep fighting.”

  “We’ll get him, I swear it,” I promised as I followed her to the ring. “And I need you to teach me how to punch so I can join in.”

  “Miss Militia, ma’am,” I greeted her as I entered her office. “Thanks for seeing me on short notice.”

  “I had some time before my next meeting,” she replied, gesturing to a seat across from her desk which I took. “Did you remember something?” I cocked my head.

  “No I...what do you mean? No, nevermind, not important.” I shook my head and took a breath. “You need to take down Hannibal, the Nazi cape. He seriously injured an officer, permanently in a way that Pandora can’t fix. Like, there has to be consequences.” There was a beat of silence, then she sighed.

  “All of Wotan’s Wolves villains have arrest warrants,” Miss Militia said evenly. “We will continue to try and curtail their operations, and do what we can to bring him to justice.”

  “So...you’ll like, go after him?”

  “If we encounter him, we’ll make efforts to arrest him.” Her gaze hardened. “What we won’t do is go on a crusade across the city or seriously harm people to get him.” My eye twitched.

  “I don’t want a crusade ma’am, I want Hannibal to get what’s coming to him,” I retorted, rising from my seat. I was only at her eye level still. “At least let me go back on patrols. I’ve been doing good, making progress on what you told me to. You can ask Adamant, ask anyone, just...please let me help.” She sighed and shook her head.

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  “I’m sorry Amaranth, we don’t take vengeance,” Miss Militia said. “We’ll bring Hannibal to justice, don’t doubt that. That said, I’ll acknowledge you’ve been improving like we asked you. I’ll speak with Dr. O’Keefe next week and see what he thinks. We’ll discuss this another time.”

  “But I’ve— But the—” I took a deep breath, trying to not say something that would make it two or three weeks. "Fine, okay. Just actually try and take him down?”

  “We will Amaranth,” she said with a nod. “Anything else?”

  “No ma’am,” I said, shaking my head. “I’ll get out of your hair.”

  Fucking bullshit. That was all I could think as I left her office. I was glad my mask covered most of my face, because it meant she couldn’t have seen how furious I was. I stormed to the elevator and slapped the button to head down to my quarters. I scanned my retina once I was in, trying to keep myself from punching something breakable.

  The quarters were empty, good since I really didn’t want to see anyone right now. Amy...no, not even her, if only because I was in a shitty mood and didn’t want to spread it around. I could draw, sure, but what? Amy, maybe Missy, or something else; didn’t have to be a person after all. I grabbed my sketchbook and stared at the page silently for ten, long minutes before throwing it on my bed with an irritated huff.

  So drawing was out, hanging with people was out; and judging by the noises I could hear filtering through my door I was no longer alone. I sighed and grabbed the few bits of homework they’d given us in the first week of school, starting work on that instead. At least I had to focus on it, instead of letting my brain wander. But wander it did, and after finishing half a worksheet for Biology I found myself staring blankly at the ceiling.

  It would be at least a week until I was back out there, probably more since I bet O’Keefe wasn’t going to give his approval just like that. Even then it wasn’t like they’d let me join in on fighting any of the real bad guys in town, so what was the point? As it was, I may as well start fucking going out on my own for all the good the Protectorate was using me for.

  That… No, that was a stupid idea. I lived at the PRT’s headquarters, no way I could sneak out and not get caught. Not to mention what would happen if I did get caught. Of course it was possible to get around the heroes, I knew Shadow Stalker had just by reputation. Maybe that wasn’t the best example to follow, but fuck it, my reputation was in the shitter anyway. If that was the price of taking the fight to the bad guys…

  Even if I wanted to risk it, there was still the problem of actually getting out there and back without getting caught. Well, actually, maybe that was less of an issue than I thought. I spent probably half my nights over with Amy, I could easily tell them I was heading over there, then just...not. Of course if they followed up with her that could come unraveled in a second, but would they? They hadn’t yet, as far as I knew.

  If I did this, I didn’t want to involve her. Amy had enough problems of her own without me causing extra on top of it. Maybe I’d just go out a little earlier in the night, then go to her place late, say I got held up with training, or distracted or whatever. She wasn’t one to pry, and the PRT would have their alibi even if they did look into it.

  My guts squirmed, thinking about lying to Amy’s face. She didn’t deserve that, not at all, but it was for a good reason. She’d understand that the PRT was being a bunch of dipshits, keeping us from doing actual hero work. I still wasn’t going to get her involved right from the start but...well, it was good to know she probably wouldn’t be too pissed if it ever came to light.

  I bounced my foot off the ground, mind racing. It was viable, but it was stupid. Did that matter though? I’d done plenty of stupid things in my career, usually for some decent enough reason. Sometimes it even worked, like with Amy and her sister, or running off with Tattletale at Behemoth. This was arguably just as important, people were dying out there while I sat on my ass. So...maybe. I’d have to be careful, but maybe I could get back out there and help again.

  I wouldn’t know until I tried.

  “You done?” Amy asked as I came out of the clothing store.

  “Yeah just getting some pants and stuff for fall,” I said with a shrug.

  “Cool, we can go?”

  I nodded and took her hand, and she started pulling us along out of the mall. I wasn’t technically lying, I needed pants for me. A couple pairs of loosely fitted jeans took care of that. The other thing I’d grabbed was some stuff for going out on my own. I couldn’t midnight as Amaranth, obviously, so I had to figure out what to wear.

  That was sorted with a pair of tactical pants that promised to be tear-proof, pretty handy if I was going to be fighting, and a dark turtleneck. Didn’t need armour since I was nigh-invincible, and I had a balaclava left over from when I was helping the PRT before I joined. I’d be Anonymous Cape No. 346, to anyone who caught enough of a glimpse to be a witness. Perfect.

  Despite being on a mission, I had enjoyed my day out with Amy. We’d done a little bit of window shopping at a sewing supply store here and I learned that if I wanted to get her a machine I’d either have to consult her or the Image guys to figure out the right one. After that was lunch, then I grabbed what I needed. No one had badgered Amy for healing either, a bonus on top of everything. I sighed as a smile crossed my face, glancing over at a shop we were passing.

  “Hey, hold on,” I said, pausing.

  “What is it?” Amy asked, sounding a little impatient.

  “Just want to look in here,” I said, pointing. “Two minutes, tops?” She sighed and let my hand go, nodding.

  I went into the little ethnic clothing shop, at least I assumed that was what it was considering the clothing on display. The shopkeeper, an older looking woman in a white shirt and colourful vest, gave me a tight smile. I offered an easier one in return, making a beeline for the scarf I’d seen. It was like the one Mark had given me, god, two years ago? Leviathan had destroyed it, another piece of my life lost to the Endbringer.

  I wasn’t sure the blue was me anymore. It was nice, sure, but felt like it would just be...depressing. Not to mention half the reason I’d liked the blue so much was because of the water, and that sure wasn’t a reason to get it now. I picked through the squares of floral-decorated fabric, each as broad as my armspan, considering each of them. My eyes widened as I came across one in brilliant scarlet, little braided tassels of string hanging off it. Beautiful, it was beautiful.

  “Find everything?” the lady at the counter asked as I brought the scarf over.

  “Yeah, saw these and well...they’re pretty cool looking,” I replied as she rang it up. “Used to have one before, you know, everything.”

  “Really?” she asked, arching a brow. “Blue? I saw you lingering.”

  “Uh, yeah actually,” I said with a nod. “But uh, I think this fits me better these days.” Her eyes flicked up and down me.

  “It fits,” she agreed. “Fifty-five dollars.”

  I paid and joined Amy again, now heading out of the mall for real. I had about everything I could want, both for myself and for my new plan. Maybe I could use the scarf to make it look like I was some new hero, but that might be a bad idea with how distinct it was. Anonymous, forgettable, that was the goal. I didn’t need to be flashy to kick ass.

  “What’d you get in there?” Amy asked when we finally sat down on the bus.

  “Oh, here check it,” I said, pulling the scarf out. “I uh, used to have one like it, in blue. Sort of lost because of, well, you know.”

  “It’s nice,” she said, tugging at it. “Decently made too. You don’t wear a lot of colour, so it’d be a nice accent I think.” She held it against my jacket and nodded. “Yeah, it’s a pretty good match for this too. Good choice.”

  “Thanks,” I said, blushing as I put it back in my bag. “Sorry I took so long. So, what do you want to do with the rest of today?”

  “Well I’ve got to go to the hospital in an hour…”

  “Shit, that’s today?”

  “Every Wednesday and Friday.”

  “Need a fucking calendar,” I muttered. “Um, can I hang out at your place while you’re out? Want to work on my homework and stuff and I think it’d be nicer there.”

  “Sure,” Amy said with a shrug. “I uh, don’t be too upset if I’m kind of a bitch when I get home.”

  “If it’s like...rough?” She nodded. “Okay, I’ll try not to be shitty about it. Want me to order pizza or something for when you get back?” She smiled.

  “That’d be nice, I think,” she said, leaning against me. “You don’t have to though, you spend a ton on like, dates and stuff.”

  “Yeah, because I can,” I said simply.

  “Yeah…” Amy sighed. “Still feels kind of weird.”

  “Not bad though?”

  “Nothing does with you,” she murmured, making me blush that much harder.

  “Sap,” I teased, giving her a quick peck. “So pizza and a cozy night with my girlfriend, I think that sounds like a pretty great time.”

  “Me too,” she replied, grinning. “Thanks for putting up with me.”

  “The feeling’s mutual,” I said, running a thumb over the back of her knuckles. “You’re like...the only person I can count on to not give me shit. That means a lot to me, Amy.”

  We settled in for the bus ride, leaning on each other, like we always did.