“I have a wedgie.”

  “Tough, it’s tactical.”

  “How the fuck is a wedgie ‘tactical’?”

  “It’s made from bullet resistant carbon nanotubes and kevlar.”

  “Why’s it got pads for my boobs?!”

  “Ballistics nanogel. Great for support and dispersing force.”

  “It shows off everything!”

  “Your body looks fantastic.”

  “That’s not tactical!”

  “It might distract a bad guy long enough for you to shoot him.”

  “...I don’t want random people staring at my ass.”

  “If they’re staring they’re not shooting.”

  “It doesn’t have pockets…”

  “You realize you can wear other things over it right?”

  “...I’m putting on some pants.”

  ***

  Erika checked herself over in her mirror one last time. The bodysuit was a snug fit like a second skin, barely leaving enough room for her to wear a thong under it, nothing else. It was a high necked thing that covered her arms down to her wrists and her legs to her ankles, a zipper running from just below her bellybutton up to the side of her neck, like a wetsuit. The incorporated pads provided support like a good sports bra. A pair of booties covered her feet and connected to the legs at the ankles with more zippers.

  Posing, she tried a variety of positions and movements. Other than the wedgie she complained about earlier digging in a bit more, every move felt surprisingly easy in the snug piece of clothing.

  Her sponsor was right that it made her body look fantastic. Despite her protests, she really wasn’t that bothered wearing revealing clothing. Still, it wasn’t so much whether or not she was comfortable wearing it outside so much as she could already imagine the comments if a picture of her in this made it onto social media. Such a picture would only make it harder for her to fly under the radar. Raiding her closet, she quickly picked out some clothes to throw on over it.

  A slightly baggy pair of dark green cargo pants solved the lack of pockets and her trusty jean jacket covered her arms while also disguising the tactical gimp suit. A pair of comfortable sneakers over the suit’s booties, the mask she’d gotten from the Bank, and a baseball cap completed the outfit. As she started to head back into the living room, she saw Finn sitting in its holster on her nightstand and belted it around her waist alongside her first aid kit and ammo pouch.

  “There,” Erika said as she walked back out to show Pinpoint, her hands hooked into the gun belt around her waist. “I covered up the stupid gimp suit. I’m guessing we’re going to do some more hero shit?”

  Pinpoint looked her up and down a few times as she nodded. “Good guess, but not quite. We’re not doing anything. You’re going on patrol.”

  “Patrol?”

  “Yup, making yourself visible, hitting the sidewalk, chatting with people, showing you’re out in the community. Basic hero work.”

  “That sounds stupid.”

  “Stupid or not, you’re doing it. Got everything you need?”

  Erika checked herself over. Finn. Gimp suit. Mask. “I just need to grab Kelly.”

  “Earpiece?” Pinpoint asked, tapping her ears.

  “Uh…” Erika thought about the piece of equipment Pinpoint had given her weeks before. When was the last time I had it? She remembered taking it out before showering at Boris’ house that first night. I put it on the bathroom counter and then… fuck. She didn’t remember grabbing it or touching it again after taking it out.

  Spinning around, she rushed to the duffle bag she’d thrown next to her bed when she’d gotten back and dumped it out. Frantically, she looked through the pile of wrinkled clothes, shaking them out and tossing them on the side when nothing came out. It didn’t take long to go through the pile, and still she didn’t find it. Grabbing the bag again, she shook it out and ran her hands through every pocket and compartment. Nothing. Fuck.

  Squashing down the dread she felt at losing what had to be important equipment, Erika squared her shoulders and went back out to face her sponsor. No point trying to hide it, she fucked up. “I lost it,” she said bluntly, bracing for the woman’s anger. Instead, to her surprise she tossed her a small red case that was surprisingly heavy.

  “Figured, don’t worry about it. You needed an upgrade anyways.”

  Opening up the case, she saw a pair of earpieces inside waiting to be put in. It was pretty obvious what to do with them.

  “These earpieces are standard for heroes. They—”

  Before Pinpoint could say anything else, she grabbed them and shoved them into her ears. The earpieces felt a bit awkward in shape for a moment, before they started to change, growing cold and liquid before she felt something crawling in her ears. Sound immediately cut out. Images of some weird alien parasite or something heading for her brain flashed before her eyes. Dropping the case for the earpieces, she reached up to her ears to try and grab the earpieces, only for Pinpoint to grab her wrists and shake her head.

  “—” the hero said something, but Erika couldn’t hear anything except her own pounding heart.

  “What?! Get these things out! I can’t hear anything!” she yelled, trying to wrench her hands free from Pinpoint’s grip. It was a futile effort. Just another reminder of how much more powerful Pinpoint was than her.

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  A series of strange sounds filled her ears. High pitched, low pitched, and everything in between. Some of the sounds lanced her head with pain, while others made her dizzy, and still more seemed almost soothing. With every sound, Erika tried to break free of Pinpoint’s grip only to fail.

  After an especially painful high pitched sound screeched through her brain, Erika tried to throw her sponsor using one of the moves she’d learned, only for the woman to somehow redirect the force with little effort. The stronger woman shook her head again and mouthed something that looked like “wait” to her. The sounds finally stopped, leaving her in silence but for the sound of her hasty breathing and pounding heart. After a few seconds that felt like an eternity passed, the crawling sensation stopped and the sounds of the world came back.

  “Can you hear me now?” Pinpoint asked.

  Erika nodded as all the coiled tension in her body started to release. Her voice seemed like the most beautiful thing she’d heard in a while. “Yeah… what the fuck was that?”

  “This is why you listen to all of the instructions before you rush ahead, idiot.”

  Pinpoint let go of her wrists, revealing two red splotches where she’d held her so tightly. Wincing at the sight, Erika started to poke at one of her wrists only to feel a sharp strike to the middle of her forehead call her attention away. Looking back up, she was just in time to see the other woman’s finger move away after flicking her.

  “Pay attention!” her sponsor growled. “What I tried to say before you just rushed ahead was that these are nanotech earpieces that adapt to their user. The first time you stick them in, they automatically go through a calibration sequence to calculate how sensitive your hearing is and set up an active noise filter to protect your hearing without sacrificing situational awareness. They cannot be removed during calibration.”

  Erika studied her feet in embarrassment as Pinpoint chastised her. Of course the one time she thought she knew what she was doing, she was dead wrong.

  As she started to mentally beat herself up for another mistake, she felt a hand squeeze her shoulder.

  “Look, it’s done and the earpieces are calibrated to you. Go ahead and try to take them out and put them back in a few times.”

  Hesitantly, Erika did just that and slipped the earpieces out. The background noise of her apartment in the middle of the city seemed to double in volume. Slipping the earpieces back in, she braced for another bout of weird sounds and the crawling sensation, only for nothing to change except how quiet some of the background noise became. Still loud enough to be noticed, but soft enough that she could ignore it if she chose.

  “Weird.”

  “That’s super tech. Don’t lose these, they’re expensive to replace. You only get one free set every year.”

  “How much?”

  “Thirty Grand.”

  “How the fuck are they that expensive for a pair?!”

  “Each. Thirty Grand each.”

  ***

  After Erika finished freaking out about having more money in her ears than she would normally make in a year, she finished grabbing her equipment and followed her sponsor down to the car, her guns stashed in a conspicuous carrying case. Last thing she needed was her neighbors freaking out about her having guns now.

  A short drive later, Erika and Pinpoint jumped out and in front of a convenience store near where the portal had emerged weeks ago. The people in the area seemed to be acting normal, as if the site wasn’t where a bunch of civilians got sucked into a portal and ripped apart by monsters. Her old coworker hadn’t been the only casualty. Something like forty people were still declared missing and presumed dead before the government condensed the portal and removed it.

  “Here’s the game plan,” Pinpoint said, handing her something that looked like a badge. It was silver and gold, looking vaguely like a star, but on closer inspection seemed to be a muscular man in spandex and a cape flying. “As a newbie, people don’t know you. Worse, you’re carrying around guns and looking like bad news, not a hero, so you’re going to go on a quick solo patrol and introduce yourself and get a feel for what it’s like to patrol. Wear this around your neck so that people don’t freak out too much, and notify dispatch where you are and what you’re wearing so we don’t have any unfortunate incidents. I’ll be shadowing you, but this is more sink or swim time. I’ll only help you out if things get dangerous. Got it?”

  “Got it.”

  Double tapping one of her new earpieces like how she was shown, Erika waited for the confirmation to come in.

  “Firefly, this is Dispatch, what’s going on?” A familiar sounding woman’s voice said.

  “Dispatch, I’m going on a patrol. Uh, I was told to tell you what I’m wearing so there’s no problems?”

  “Oh, what’re you wearing?” the dispatcher’s professional tone slipped, revealing a flirty undertone.

  Ignoring the implication, Erika rattled off her current outfit, including describing the guns she was carrying.

  “Right, got it. PD’s been notified that you’re operating in the area on patrol. Let us know if anything comes up.”

  “Will do.”

  Patrolling as a superhero sounded interesting, but quickly turned dull. With Pinpoint shadowing her, she didn’t think there’d be any trouble she couldn’t handle. What she didn’t expect was how one note everything would be. Besides the people who freaked out seeing her guns, at least until they noticed the bad around her neck, it was incredibly dull. The first few shops she popped her head into seemed nervous to have her around, but calmed a bit when they saw the badge. She had a short thrill of excitement as she walked past a pair of cops that reached for their weapons before noticing her badge, but otherwise the patrol was uneventful. Until it wasn’t.

  As she strolled past a convenience store she used to walk past to and from work, she decided to pop in and say hi to the middle aged man who ran it. They’d never talked much, but he was always friendly enough. The friendliness would be a change of pace from the wariness and fear she got from other people.

  Walking into the store, she saw the man with his back to her as he stocked a shelf behind the counter with cartons of cigarettes

  “Hi, I’m–“

  “One minute, busy,” he said, interrupting her.

  Quietly standing there, Erika waited patiently for him to finish and hop off his step ladder.

  “Okay, done. What you want?” the store owner asked as he turned around.

  “Hi, I’m Fi–“ she started to introduce herself.

  The man’s eyes widened in fear as he locked onto Kelly slung over her shoulder and her hand resting on Finn’s holster. Quickly pressing a button on the cash register, he backed away from her with his hands raised.

  “I don’t want no trouble! Just take the cash and leave!” he screamed, pointing at the open register.

  “Wait what? I’m not trying to rob you!”

  “Of course not ma’am!” the man screamed, squeezing his eyes shut as he backed away from her. “Please, just take the money and go, please!”

  “What—”

  “Police! Drop the gun!” a man’s voice yelled from behind her as the store clerk dropped to the ground.

  Turning towards the door, Erika saw a man in jeans and a t-shirt pointing a gun at her chest. Flinching at the sight, she instinctively started to raise her shotgun up, only for a loud boom to split the air as something punched her in the tit.

  Pain like she’d just been hit in the chest with a hammer chased the air from her lungs in a pained gasp as she fell to the floor, Kelly slipping from her shoulder as she did.

  “Stand down!”

  “Turn over with your hands behind your back!”

  Erika clutched her chest and tried to take in a breath, but breathing hurt.

  “I said stand down, damnit!”

  The sound of a fist slamming into someone’s face preceded something meaty and heavy falling to the ground, and then Pinpoint was there cradling her. Fingers probed at her chest for a moment before Erika felt something sharp stab into her neck. The familiar burning of a nanoinjector filled her chest for a brief moment before fading away. “You’re good, no penetration.”

  Groaning, Erika pushed herself upright, something metal tumbling to the floor as she did. Glancing down, she saw a small hole in her jacket just below her left collar bone, and a faint scuff mark on the bodysuit below. “What just happened?” she asked, glancing back towards the entrance to the shop to see the man who’d shot her slowly picking himself up, his hand holding his jaw.

  “You got shot by that dumbass,” Pinpoint growled, cracking her knuckles. “Let’s go see what this idiot was thinking.”