Tina frowned, “Why would you do that?”

  I smiled lightly, “Several reasons. You saved my life yesterday with your arrival and song. I’d return the favor in a heartbeat. That’s what a superhero team does, even if you don’t quite trust me personally just yet. After that kind of thing, the enchantment is just a small help, and not all that much. So, for the team, enchantments are just one of the ways I can help make things better and more efficient for everyone.

  “Of course, beyond that truth, it’s also a shameless attempt at a bribe, and I’m hoping it will in some way make up for the unintended horrible first impression I made on you.”

  She rolled her eyes, but her lips quirked too.

  “Fine, I would like that. It is a pain in the ass. You wouldn’t think a bikini and sari are hard to get on, but it can be a pain at times. Especially because it has to be secured just right, well enough to endure a fight.”

  I nodded, “I don’t know if either of you wear jewelry at all, but I’ll need something to enchant. Also, it can only switch outfits when you’re wearing one and want to wear one inside of it. So to load it up with outfits you’re going to want to do that in privacy. You need to put on the clothes, then mentally picture how you look, and the clothes disappearing into the amulet. Regardless, it’ll be the last time you’ll need to do it, at least for the super suit.”

  Her eyes narrowed, “Makes sense, so to swap out what’s in the amulet outside of my suit, I’d have to wear it, take the clothes off, and then put on the replacement outfit, then put it in?”

  “Exactly. It also takes strong focus as you picture it in your mind, and for about three seconds. Otherwise you could wind up in the buff just about anywhere if you randomly thought of your outfit in the enchantment. Another protection from that possibility is to fill it up with outfits. Once it’s full you can’t take off one set of clothes with it, without imagining the replacement set coming out at the same time.”

  Carol’s lips twitched, I almost fainted, a crack in the armor. The conversation also felt a bit awkward at that point, and her twitching lips helped. After all, talking about them accidentally getting naked in public could be construed as sexual harassment.

  They exchanged a glance, and she said, “Wait here, we’ll be right back. Can it be anything? Or just jewelry?”

  “Metal or a gemstone is best because it’s sturdy. I could use a scarf, but a tear in the scarf could break the enchantment. Fabrics also can’t absorb and hold as much of the meta-energy, so it would limit how often you could change in a time frame.”

  She nodded, “Got it, we’ll be right back.”

  I waited at the table, while they went up to their apartments to find something, presumably something they wouldn’t mind wearing twenty-four, seven. I hated the feeling of walking on eggshells, but it was probably just as well. I hadn’t been tempted at all to check out Carol’s five foot seven lissome and flexible body, nor Tina’s mouthwatering rack, which looked almost obscene in proportion to her otherwise five foot six and lithe dancer’s body. Her mesmerizing voice hardly helped with that either.

  Really, I wasn’t that shallow, at least not normally, but superheroines tended to be extremely attractive, and it’d been a while for me. Dating for a super was difficult, and they weren’t hard on the eyes in the least. It was impossible not to notice, what made me not shallow was how I treated them and didn’t act on it. At least, that’s how I saw it, I saw them as more than that.

  I sipped my coffee as I waited.

  When they got back, Tina handed me a solid silver bracelet with blue coral in the setting. Now that I was looking at it, I realized it was part of her superheroine costume, but she probably wasn’t worried about that anymore, since we were all outed anyway, it’d already been in the news. I short, it wouldn’t be a big deal to wear it all the time, including when wearing civilian clothes. Regardless, it was perfect, big enough to hold a lot of energy, and pure silver was very difficult to damage. The enchantment would make it even sturdier.

  Carol handed me a locket, but when she wouldn’t let go of the chain, I looked up into her startlingly dark blue eyes. I also noticed for perhaps the first time that her hair was a blue-black, like the color of a night sky, not a solid black like I’d first thought. Or, could her hair change when she changed into her suit?

  She said softly, “This is a family heirloom, the only thing I have of my mother’s. I never take it off, not until now.”

  I nodded slowly, and said just as gravely, “I’ll take very good care of it, I promise.”

  She studied my face for a second, and then let go of the chain. Damn, she was intense.

  “I’ll try to have them done before training and tonight’s patrol. It shouldn’t be a problem, unless there’s an all hands emergency or something.”

  They just nodded in agreement, and I headed back up to my apartment to get started on it. They took close to an hour each, so it was around one in the afternoon by the time I sat down to lunch. The ladies were in their apartments, so I sent them a text and then made a sandwich.

  Carol examined the locket closely, before giving me a slight smile and a soft thank you, before she retreated from the kitchen, presumably to load the thing up with her clothes and super suit. I got a thank you from Tina as well, along with a quizzical look, as if she wasn’t quite sure what to make of me, before she too left the kitchen.

  I just sighed, and I ate my lunch.

  Small steps. The both of them made Alyssa look like the most trusting and open person on the planet.

  “Did you miss me?” she said in a light teasing voice.

  I smiled, “Would it be clingy to admit that, even if I did?”

  She shook her head.

  I smirked, “I might’ve thought of you once or twice, in passing.”

  She arched an eyebrow.

  I laughed, “Okay, no might about it. You?”

  She smirked, “Nope.”

  I rolled my eyes at the lie, and wondered where this playful imp had been hiding, she had wide smile on her face. Was she really that thrilled to see me? I forced myself to look away from her warm twinkling brown eyes before it got awkward.

  “Shall we go see what tortures are in store?”

  She started to cast her spell to change into her White Witch outfit, and I mentally urged my amulet to put me in the armored suit as well. She looked so sexy in the white diaphanous robes, over the bright white leotard along with her calf high bright white boots with four-inch heels. She was even more exotically beautiful, with white blonde hair and dark gray storm clouds for eyes, but I think I missed the yellow dress and her sweetly and mischievously dancing warm brown eyes.

  Shit, I was so screwed. I missed her eyes when I could feast my eyes on her body instead? Ugh. Falling for her was such a bad idea. We worked together, she was still so young, and we were most definitely going to be friends and teammates. Partners. Yeah, my inner pep-talk didn’t change how I felt at all.

  Still, it was a heady thing, to see how happy she was to be back in my company.

  “Where is it?”

  I replied, “Training room, I think. Rose?”

  Rose said, “That’s correct.”

  I nodded, “Training room.”

  She grinned, “Let’s see what Nate has for us.”

  That was on level two as well, so we headed down the hallway.

  Chapter Ten

  We entered the training room, which had several agents sparring in full tactical dress.

  Nate frowned over at us, and he waved us forward peremptorily. I felt Alyssa tense up a bit, which made me have to suppress a scowl. Why couldn’t we be working with Carina? I had no illusions that the attractive special agent actually liked us, but she didn’t hate us either, and she even managed to smile on occasion. I would’ve far preferred that polite neutrality.

  We walked on over to him.

  He nodded, “When in the field you’ll need to keep track of us at all times. Friendly fire is a true danger, they won’t shoot at you, but always be aware. It is your responsibility to make sure you aren’t shot.”

  White Witch tilted her head, and she didn’t look happy with that.

  Nate sighed, “I know I come across as a hard ass. The truth is Adamantine here could fly in a blur, and then get himself shot in the back if one of my men had aimed and fired at the supervillain he was trying to confront. We are good shots, we do our best, but you two can move faster than we can track, is that clear enough?”

  She nodded slowly, “I’ll buy that. I think the best way to avoid that when we’re together is for us to tag them for you, without closing to range. I would hope if the villain rushes us, and there’s doubt, your men won’t try to take the shot.”

  He grunted, “Of course. You need to watch your path, is all I was saying. If a supervillain engages you and you enter our line of fire while tracking the villain, we wouldn’t pull the trigger. What do you mean, tag?”

  She muttered a four second spell, and a blast of light crossed the room and put the dummy inside a glittering white force field of sorts. Literally, a glowing white blob around the target, with glitter lights pouring off it.

  “That spell will last about five seconds, and it won’t do a damned thing to the target except hold him still, like you asked for. I even made it sparkle, so your men won’t mistake another of my spells for that one. It will pass both plasma and physical rounds from your MFWs without interference.”

  She looked at me, and then winked. A dare to do better?

  I raised my hand and shot my version at the other dummy. It was similarly obnoxious in nature, I didn’t want there to be any doubts or hesitation for Nate’s team either.

  “The red sparkly glow is just illusion, a shoot me now flag if you will. The part of the spell that’s actually holding the dummy is invisible. It’ll last for five seconds, whether or not the target fights to get free. I imagine some few S-classes might break out sooner, but only the truly powerful that you wouldn’t be facing in the first place.”

  I returned her wink subtly, I didn’t really want Nate to see our byplay.

  Nate grunted, “We’ll see how it performs in the field, but I am impressed you both followed through so quickly on yesterday’s conversation. Okay, so you’ll have the high ground in the sky, while we’ll be engaging on the ground…” he continued reading us in on a second scenario.

  The training that afternoon was less real training than simply discussing tactics and expectations. We spent about an hour with him going over several tactical scenarios. Often, what not to do when teaming up with the human tactical team was far more important than what we did do. If that made sense. It was actually the first time I felt Nate had a truly professional attitude with us. Sure, the resting pissed off face had been there the whole time, but I didn’t quite feel like he might put a bullet in my back at the first opportunity anymore.

  Oh, he’d want to, I was sure, but he wouldn’t do it. He cared about his career, his men, and his life far too much to risk it, and as much as he hated the existence of all supers, he obviously understood that if it came up, we would be there to pull his bacon out of the fire.

  After the training class, we went out to patrol. Sadly, I wanted to ask her about her day, but personal conversations would have to wait until later. We exchanged a few looks though, and unless I read her wrong, she had some questions to ask me as well.

  We just didn’t want an audience while doing it. Not that I minded Jenna, she was nice and I got good vibes from her, I just figured it was also being recorded, and who knew who the hell else could be listening when it came down to it. They were obviously keeping a close eye on supers, and paranoid about all of us, so discretion seemed best.

  We were probably about two hours into the patrol, when things got interesting. Who knew we’d be putting those tactics to use so quickly.

  Jenna said, “Nate is requesting assistance. He’s been looking at the last few ex-hero residences to search, and he’s been pinned down by about ten of them. Looks like a trap.”

  Crap, again?

  “Address?”

  Jenna gave an address.

  “Rose?”

  A route popped up on my HUD, apparently she knew what I wanted, and she didn’t say anything at all, which made me wonder. We could get there in two minutes at two hundred and fifty miles an hour.

  She said, “Don’t want to distract you. Didn’t need to speak.”

  I gave her a mental nod of understanding, and I moved on. I could talk to her later about it.

  “How fast can you fly?”

  She grinned, “Faster than you.”

  I laughed, “Fine, follow me then.”

  I blasted off straight up about a thousand feet, and then really hit it and I was going five hundred miles an hour. The strangest thing about gravity drives was with a little stasis and inertial dampening I hardly felt the speed increase at all. There was some sense of motion, but most of it was just visual. The stasis of course kept my legs and arms from flapping around, or me struggling against the wind.

  A person in an armored suit wasn’t exactly aerodynamic.

  I looked over my shoulder, and she was like four feet behind me. She winked, and then faked a yawn as she patted her mouth. Oh, it was on, but later. Of course, that tempted me to up my speed to about Mach five or six, but one, it would be a waste of energy, two, at five hundred miles an hour our ETA had been cut in half, it was already time to slow down or we’d shoot past the house.

  There was no trouble finding them, there were two cars on fire, and there were ten A-class flyers circling a house. One of them had a lightning attack, and luckily hadn’t set the house on fire yet. We saw two downed agents in the front yard, and the others must’ve taken cover in the house.

  As we slowed, we watched one of the ex-heroes fly down at high speed, only to veer off as he took a barrage of plasma and physical rounds.

  She started to cast before they even noticed we were there, they were all focused on the house below them that kept randomly shooting plasma at them. At first, I thought it might be a trap, but according to my sensors those ten supers were the only ones around. At least, anywhere close by.

  When her bright light spell shot out, I fired my own version, and two of the flyers looked like they were stuck in amber, not just frozen, but frozen in place in mid-air.

  The tactical team in the house opened up fire, and they took both of those ex-heroes down as the others scattered in multiple directions and got some awareness discipline. It didn’t take them long to see us.

  I fired a second shot, and the bastard dodged.

  One yelled out, “Retreat!”

  Crap, I hated smart supervillains. Ex-hero or not, they were villains at that point. They exploded outward in eight different directions, some hitting the deck and others shooting for high altitude. On reflex, I shot off a lightning stun attack at one of them, one shot was all I had time for, and I wasn’t willing to risk a miss with a plasma shot, they were already a goodly distance off.

  Supers were fast.

  My lightning hit one of the flyers, and he started to fall out of the sky. I knew it would just stun him for a few seconds, so I went to maximum acceleration and exploded in his direction. It was less than three seconds later when I flew past, kicking him in the head on the way by.

  Boom!

  He slammed into the ground, and dirt and grass were tossed up into the air. I hoped that guy liked supers, or he was going to be pissed about his front lawn. I judged his energy remaining, and fired off two rail gun rounds, the second one was automatically adjusted to finish him off. I followed that with a cuff spell, and I went down to grab him.

  When I got back to the house, White Witch was casting magic. I took in the scene, and it looked like four more of them inside the house had been critically injured. I had my healing ring, but I wouldn’t need it, as her spell blasted into all four of them at once, and I watched as their twisted arms, broken legs, and other injuries just disappeared.

  Hell, her magic was a lot faster than my ring too.

  Unfortunately, the two that were on the lawn still weren’t moving. At all.

  Shit. I tossed my collar next to the other two, which had already been cuffed by Nate and his other three team members. I waited until they cuffed him too, and I failed to notice one of the guys kick him in the head. I’d be pissed too, if I’d lost two of my team. Still, I was only willing to be so blind, fortunately none of them did anything else. I went ahead and cancelled the spell, once he was in solid suppression cuffs.

  Nate looked murderous.

  Jenna said, “Bring it in, now. All of you. Millicent wants a report on what happened.”

  I’d never heard Jenna sound so professional before, and I knew that wasn’t a good thing.

  Nate looked at us, “Thanks for the assist, return to base. We’ll bring these in.”

  I nodded, and White Witch and I exchanged a dubious glance as we took back off into the sky.

  Millicent looked livid as we marched into command center. We’d taken the time to grab a drink from the kitchen, and change back into normal clothes, but we were still there first. It’d take a while for Nate’s team to get back. The conference room was stifling as we waited, and Carina joined us before Nate did as well. Still, it was only about ten minutes before he made it back.

  Nate nodded, “My men are locking up the three we got, and they’ll be calling supermax for pickup.”

  Millicent said, “Sit. This is a clusterfuck. This station has been live for less than forty-eight hours, and we already have two deaths. What the hell happened?”

  Nate looked at us, “They’re not cleared for this.”