“Hrk!” Clockblocker choked as I caught his throat. There was a sound like shattering glass and I pulled away before I lost another five to ten minutes.

  “Fuck!” I swore, massaging my temple. “I hate it when you do that.”

  “Still sparring,” he grunted.

  I huffed and raised my fists, feeling the slight pressure on my skin that told me my projection was back already. If this had been a real fight, I'd just hit him with pepper spray or a stun gun, maybe club him with a baton. Hand-to-hand I was basically screwed. Like the Siberian, his power could kill mine; I guess I was on the 'nothing' side of that equation. I had maybe one advantage here... I went low, ducking to avoid his swipe, and grabbed his calf. I squeezed fairly hard, til I felt the muscle twitch, then let go and backpedaled as he fell with a muffled curse.

  “Time,” Clock called, his voice pained. “God dammit Amaranth.”

  “It's just a charlie horse,” I promised. “Trust me to have that much control at least.”

  “It still hurts,” he complained, sticking out his hand. I helped him to his feet with a grunt. “Hell of a grip.”

  “It's literally the only thing I can do,” I countered.

  “And tank a hit or twenty from Leviathan.”

  “That's different,” I retorted. “I can't exactly use that against someone like you, can I? You just touch me and poof, lights out.”

  “You're not practicing against me, you're practicing against the bad guys,” Clockblocker said, shaking his head. “Pretty sure none of them can break your field.”

  “Or they haven't figured out a way,” I groused. “Anyway, if you were a bad guy I'd have probably just broken your wrist or something.”

  “That's why we're practicing,” he sighed. “You rely too much on injuring people. It works but it's not really great, for PR or for the guys getting hurt.”

  “You're really telling me to worry about image right now?”

  “Yeah, I am,” he replied firmly. “And that should tell you how important it really is.” I leaned on the ropes of the ring.

  “Are things actually that bad?” I kept my voice down. “Like, so some capes bought their powers, so what? Why are people up in arms about that if they're mostly heroes?”

  “Is that really how you feel?” I winced at the accusation in his tone.

  “If things had been different, maybe I'd feel differently.” If I hadn't known about it since getting my own powers. “But the way things are, yeah if they want to spend their money on helping people, I can't really bitch too much. Gallant was one, you know?”

  “He told me,” Clockblocker said, a note of bitterness in his voice. “Only right before I took over for him though.”

  “You think he wasn't a hero though?” I asked. “That he didn't want to help people? Does it matter that his powers came from a tube instead of a trigger? Fuck I wish mine did, don't you?” He stared at me quietly for a minute.

  “You're different,” he said at last.

  “Don't give me that,” I snapped, rolling my eyes. “If I'm different it's because all this shit's worn me down to be pragmatic. We team up with actual villains, how are these guys somehow worse?”

  “How is it different?” He asked incredulously. “These guys were supposed to be the good guys, not corrupt. Like, Alexandria?”

  “I guess that was kind of fucked up,” I admitted, wincing. Yeah her heading the branch that was supposed to keep heroes in line was...yeah. “But she's stepping down right? Doing the right thing, that has to count for something.”

  “Never should have happened to start with,” Clockblocker said.

  “Maybe not,” I agreed. “But with everything going on, are you really going to say we don't need them?” He stared silently for a minute, then got out of the ring. I followed a moment later.

  “We're done,” he said flatly. “Hit the showers, good work today.”

  Stolen story; please report.

  “Clock, hey, sorry I--”

  “It's fine,” Clockblocker cut me off. “We don't have to agree on stuff to work together. Better we don't keep fighting til we're at each others throats right?” I stared at him for a moment.

  “You're different.” He snorted and I sighed. “Maybe you're right. I...no hard feelings?”

  “No hard feelings,” he said, nodding. “See you in a couple hours.” I sighed.

  “Right, school scheduling.” I shook my head. “Isn't it like...kind of crazy they're reopening already? The Nine left town what, two weeks ago?”

  “Three,” Clockblocker corrected. “But you're not wrong, it's...something. Try not to mess up our schedules too bad by not showing up for your patrols, huh?”

  “Come on,” I groaned as we got in the elevator and headed down. “You know I left to--”

  “I know,” he cut me off as the doors opened. “Just try and remember we're already down a lot of good people, and I really don't want to lose anymore.”

  “Who else?” I asked as he stepped out. He paused and turned his head, holding the door.

  “Flechette resigned a couple days ago, said she's going independent again.”

  “She what?”

  “I know,” Clockblocker said flatly. “So...yeah, please stick around?”

  I gave him a nod and he let the doors slip shut. I let out a long sigh as the elevator continued down towards the quarters. Why the hell had Lily decided to leave? I thought I'd been pretty clear when she asked my advice, even if I told her to ignore it... Still, she should have known better dammit. At least 'independent' didn't necessarily mean villain, so just maybe I'd avoided giving the Undersiders more firepower.

  Small victories, had to count them for something or I'd go insane...again. We were getting pretty thin on the ground now, how many Wards left who I actually knew relatively? Clockblocker, Kid Win, Vista...no, that couldn't be it, surely. But counting it up in my head, that was all. Weld and Gallant were gone, Shadow Stalker shipped off somewhere on the West Coast, and Glory Girl was probably never coming near here again. Not that she'd been a Ward to begin with, but still. Damn.

  I headed to the washrooms to rinse off the sweat from sparring. It had gone fairly well, though I still had a bit of a headache from Clockblocker breaking my projection half a dozen times. I was getting better at controlling my grip in a fight though, instead of just clamping down until whatever was in my hand crumbled. I was sure he appreciated it.

  One near-panic attack in the shower later, I was relatively clean. I changed into a set of sweats, determined to relax while I had a minute. I headed into the common room to see if there was anything good on, but found the TV already occupied by Chris. I sighed and started to head towards the kitchenette to make a snack instead, but he beckoned for me to join him.

  “Hey Amaranth, or do you prefer Lia out of costume?” I shrugged and leaned on the back of the couch.

  “Lia, I guess,” I replied. “Don't want to get the two confused, you know?” Better to have a nice, firm line to know who you were.

  “Fair enough, I feel kind of the same.” He held up a bowl of popcorn. “Wanna join me? Just started Per Ardua, it's about someone that triggers on a colony ship heading to Antares. Weld told me it was good before...” I grimaced as he trailed off, then hopped over the couch and bounced on the cushion beside him.

  “Yeah okay,” I said, grabbing a handful of popcorn. “It'll be done before the planning meeting?”

  “Oh for sure,” Chris said as I stuffed my face. “Ready?”

  I nodded and he unpaused it. The ship on screen was pretty cool, an elongated cigar shape with large, rotating rings around the outside. It plied through a backdrop of silent stars, light tinkling music playing that was suddenly interrupted by a bassy rumble. The image distorted, then returned to normal, the ship continuing to fly.

  That was the trigger event for Marnie, an engineer aboard the ship and apparently now a Master who could split into three smaller versions of herself. A useful power when most of the crew was in cryostasis. Chris was pretty excited about some of the tech they showed, and I could see why. It wasn't dissimilar to his new setup, with utility drones that helped the Marnies out.

  When I asked, he was pretty eager to talk about it. He was working through some Tinker's block now, figuring out what he could actually do. I thought he already had with the whole jetpack, or hover harness as he corrected, and laser drones combo but that was only the start. I wasn't able to follow along, but I was pretty sure he'd figured out what he was best at. That was pretty cool.

  I ducked out part of the way through the film, feigning a yawn. I wasn't that tired, I just needed a bit of space and didn't want to hurt Chris' feelings. He was pretty cool, treating me so...normal after everything I'd done. Plus, he was someone that the other Amy knew nothing about; I actually stood a chance of being friends or something with him without it being too weird. Still, I was feeling off and wanted to get a chance to relax before figuring out school on top of being a hero.

  School...it still felt weird to think about going back. A low-level of anxiety made my stomach ache, but I did my best to ignore it as I sat at my desk, drumming my fingers. I just wanted to take my mind off things for a little while. My gaze fell on a neglected notebook I'd been given with the room and I grabbed it. Flipping through, I found it totally blank. I smiled.

  It had been a while since I'd picked up a pencil and started drawing, but found the feeling to be just as familiar as I'd hoped. My hands were a little shaky and my lines were crap, but that was fair enough considering the last two months, plus whatever time had been...lost. I was still able to recognize the shapes of the boats in the bay, and the Protectorate headquarters further out, from that park near my house. I sighed and set my pencil down. Should take Amy there sometime, she'd probably like the view.

  I twirled my pencil idly, then started adding details. The downtown skyline to one side, the Docks on the other. All intact, all before everything. I sighed and kept drawing, trying to recreate the image stuck in my mind from when this had all started.

  The scratching of lead on paper filled my room as I tried to get it out.