“Pinpoint! Triage!” Sanctum exclaimed, turning around as Erika’s sponsor as she and the boob-armored space marine cosplayer approached. “How are you ladies doing today?”

  Though he was mostly facing away from her, Erika could’ve sworn he winked at the two women. It made her want to gag.

  “Out of costume again?” Sanctum looked directly at Pinpoint and actually moved his head up and down. .

  “I’ve been taking some time off to train my new protege.” The woman gestured towards Erika. “I see you’ve met Firefly?”

  “I did. Not very talkative, is she?”

  “That’s every woman that’s ever met you Sanctum.”

  “Enough,” the woman called Triage said, her voice crackling and distorted over her helmet’s speakers. “Pinpoint mentioned injured civilians in a walk-in. Which one?”

  Wordlessly, Erika pointed at the battered and bloodstained metal door behind her with one of the cleavers.

  Nodding her thanks, Triage effortlessly slipped behind the counter and past her, not making a sound despite the bulk of her armor. It was impressive.

  As Triage ripped open the door, Erika turned back to listen in on Pinpoint and Sanctum.

  “Stop asking,” her sponsor said coldly.

  “Come on, just one date, I promise you’ll have a great time with me, my spicy little kitty,” Sanctum practically purred.

  “No.”

  “You can bring the cute little kitten along too, my treat.”

  “Still no.”

  Erika retched and looked at her feet, staring at the dead butcher’s unseeing eyes. Even though he was dead, he seemed to silently agree that Sanctum’s flirting was worse than the massacre that’d happened here. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and enjoyed the minty smell offered by her mask from the Bank for a moment before exhaling and straightening back up.

  Only to find Sanctum looking at her over his shoulder with a smile.

  “It’s okay little lady,” Sanctum addressed her. “Hero work can be a bit gruesome. I can give you a few pointers on how to handle it.”

  Erika swallowed back her revulsion at the offer. “No thanks, I’m fine,” she said flatly. It wasn’t the first time she’d dealt with unwanted flirting, but most men gave up if she didn’t show any emotion.

  Sanctum wasn’t most men. “No need to put on a strong front. Every hero was a newbie once. How about you, me, and Pinpoint go get some dinner together and–“

  “No.” Pinpoint and Erika exchanged a look as they gave their answers at the same time. Even with their glasses from the Bank on, Erika knew what the look in her sponsor’s eyes would be if she could see them. It probably mirrored her own glare at the unpleasant hero.

  “You and Triage can finish up here, Firefly and I have other things to do today,” Pinpoint said, motioning for Erika to join her.

  As Erika placed the cleavers down and moved to join her sponsor, Sanctum intercepted her with his arms spread wide. Before she could dodge out of the way, the man wrapped his arms around her in a hug, and she found herself missing the cleavers. She bet she’d get a good amount of EXP for this guy. “Welcome to the hero community,” he said into her ear in an overly friendly tone, his breath moist and unpleasant against her ear.

  “Let go of my mentee,” Pinpoint growled, one of her pistols pressed against the back of Sanctum’s head.

  Erika hadn’t seen her move. She winced as Sanctum’s arms squeezed tighter for a moment, her bones protesting the pressure before he released her and stepped back. As he moved away from her, she casually slipped her hands into her jacket pockets and glared at the gross man.

  “Good boy. Firefly, we’re leaving.”

  “Some people just can’t handle all this charm,” Sanctum muttered as she passed by him. She could feel his eyes locked onto her as she followed her sponsor out.

  As they walked back up the street to where they were dropped off, police in tactical gear moved in squads from door to door. A raptor’s hissing snarl cut through the air only to be cut off by a staccato of gunfire.

  “That guy’s a creep,” Erika said once she thought they were far enough away.

  “Quiet, we’ll talk about it later,” Pinpoint said quietly. “First, we deal with the authorities. Quick lesson. Incidents like this are nasty. Casualties mean there will be an investigation. Mass civilian casualties especially means every responder’s actions will be under a microscope. You can bet that already, every person with a police scanner in a five mile radius will be on their way here to investigate. Some will be reporters and paparazzi, others nosy citizens, and a few will be conspiracy theorists. Take a look around, what do you see?”

  Erika glanced around as they walked down the middle of the street. The first thing she locked onto was a trampled flower lei in a plastic box. Then she noticed the blood splattered on the wall of a bakery next to it. A discarded sneaker. Broken glass. Armed police going door to door. Regular people being escorted out, some relieved, some crying. One by one she called things out.

  “Good, but you missed something big.”

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  Erika examined her surroundings more closely, but she didn’t see what Pinpoint was hinting at. “No I’m not. There’s nothing else!”

  “Look up.” Pinpoint casually gestured into the air with her thumb.

  Following her gesture, Erika looked up into the air and froze in shock. Nothing less than a swarm of drones darted about in the air of all different sizes. Some seemed to be on the larger side, painted black and white with the police department’s logo on it. But most were of differing models and sizes. Some were sleek, expensive looking ones that flew totally silently, but most were on the smaller side, their propellers letting out a chorus of low buzzing that she’d dismissed earlier. “What the fuck? Why are there so many drones?”

  “Police, corpo, and the nuts I told you about. Like I said, incidents like this, assume you always have eyes on you.”

  Erika fought the urge to dart under the nearest awning to hide from the drones overhead. Instead, she hurriedly checked to make sure the mask and glasses were still securely worn before jogging to catch up with Pinpoint who’d kept moving without her. As she shadowed her sponsor and observed how she closed out their involvement with the police and ensured they’d be getting paid as responding heroes, she felt doubly grateful she’d worn the mask and glasses from the Bank.

  It turned out hero work involved far more talking and paperwork than fighting. Fighting the rampaging monster horde had taken them maybe ten minutes. It was over an hour of debriefing, filling out paperwork, and answering questions from five police sergeants, two lieutenants, a captain, and an attorney for the city before they were free from the bureaucracy.

  “I swear these assholes throw so much bureaucracy up to make it as frustrating as possible to get paid,” Erika grumbled as they got back into Pinpoint’s SUV.

  “It’s definitely the most annoying part about being a hero, and they’re going to drag out paying for as long as possible,” Pinpoint sighed, taking off her mask and glasses and taking a dramatic breath. “Ah, that mint smell was starting to get annoying!”

  As Erika took her own mask and glasses off, she found herself disagreeing as the scent of blood mixed with sweat, gunpowder, and a truly overpowering smell of cologne filled her nose. The combined smells were so thick she could taste them. “Ack! What the, no!” Gagging, Erika pressed the mask back on and took several rapid breaths until the mint smell overpowered the stench.

  Pinpoint frowned. “Anyways, I suggest saving as much as possible. The state paid you out pretty fast for the portal items, but outside of the monthly stipends, hero work bonuses don’t get paid out until the police finish their investigations.”

  “How long does that take?”

  “It’ll be a few months. They’re going to go over everything they can to make sure none of the responding heroes set things up and turned villain.”

  “Turned villain?”

  “Set up the incident for whatever reason. Try to make themselves look good and build clout, engineer a situation so they can get paid, or doing it just because they have the powers and think they can get away with it. Some meta incidents and monster incidents have been set up so that a hero could steal something, destroy a business, or kill rivals.” Pinpoint fixed Erika with a stare.

  Erika returned the stare with one of her own, her hands still shoved in her jacket pockets. “What?”

  As the stare off began, their SUV merged onto the freeway, the driver neatly slotting them between two cars at speed.

  Pinpoint quirked an eyebrow up as she held her hand out. “Hand it over.”

  “Hand what over?”

  “You’re surprisingly slick, but not that slick. The only reason Sanctum didn’t notice your hand in his pocket was because I had a gun to his head. Now hand it over.”

  Fuck, Erika thought to herself. She considered trying to deny it for longer, but she was in arm’s reach of the hero inside a moving vehicle. She might have powers that made her stronger than she’d ever been before, but she didn’t want to hop out of a moving vehicle doing freeway speeds. “Bastard deserved it,” she finally said, slapping Sanctum’s wallet into Pinpoint’s hand.

  “Agreed. His cologne smells like a skunk slathered in toothpaste, and he doesn’t understand no,” Pinpoint said as she started to rifle through the wallet. Pulling out a wad of bills, she pocketed the cash. “Looks like our lunch is on Sanctum today.”

  Erika’s eyes widened as she watched her supposedly heroic sponsor casually taking cash from a hero’s stolen wallet. “You’re not… mad I stole his wallet?”

  “Nah,” Pinpoint responded idly, focused on going through the wallet’s contents. “Of course he’s the kind of guy to carry condoms in his wallet,” she muttered. “Credit cards, bank cards, business cards, heh that’s a stupid middle name. Dude really carries around a platinum Shooters VIP club card? Pathetic.”

  “You’re not going to turn me in?”

  Seeing her look, Pinpoint shrugged. “A stolen wallet hardly makes someone a villain,” she said flatly. “Besides, Sanctum did hug you without consent, creepy handsy asshole. I’d say you served a bit of justice in this case.”

  “I won’t get in trouble?”

  “Not if you’re not caught. Which reminds me, if you’re going to pull stuff like this, don’t leave behind evidence. Keoni? Get rid of this,” Pinpoint said, gathering up everything from Sanctum’s wallet and handing it over to the man.

  “Will do, ma’am,” Keoni said, grabbing the wallet and throwing it in a paper bag.

  ***

  “Welcome to the Farm,” Pinpoint announced as they piled out of the SUV.

  The Farm, as Pinpoint called it, had a single two story house, several large buildings that looked like warehouses, and an industrial looking with a large smokestack that belched out a trail of light grey smoke. A large field of knee high grass surrounded the buildings and was sectioned off by fences that contained a few cows and horses. The entire property was enclosed by trees except for the gravel road they’d driven down.

  “What’re we doing here?” Erika asked, following Pinpoint as she started to walk towards the house.

  “Gear.”

  “Gear?”

  “Yup. Weapons, armor, gadgets. You’re decent enough at hand-to-hand, but it takes time and training to hone those skills. Guns are easier to get proficient in.” Stepping up onto the porch of the house, Pinpoint pounded on the door.

  It didn’t take long for it to open, revealing shirtless, muscular man covered in tattoos.

  Erika couldn’t help but admire the view.

  “Beth,” the man said in a deep, gravelly voice that sounded like it could shatter mountains. “Broke them again?”

  “Nope, they’re still good,” Pinpoint said, patting the guns still strapped to her hips. “Brought you a new client.”

  The man’s gaze turned as Pinpoint jerked her head at Erika.

  Locking eyes with him, she saw a sharp intelligence in them looking at her appraisingly. She wasn’t sure what he saw, but he must have liked it enough as he nodded. “Fine. Name?”

  “E…Firefly,” Erika replied, the temporary name feeling awkward on her lips.

  The man frowned and shook her head. “No mask names. Your real one.”

  Erika glanced at Pinpoint for guidance, but the woman just shrugged.

  “Erika S—” she started to say, but the man held up his hand and motioned for her to stop.

  “Erika,” he scoffed. “It’s not your true name, but it’s real enough. I’ll accept you as a client as long as you can pay.”