The van moved through the late afternoon light cautiously, and with good reason. The rate these things had been attacked had grown hugely since the Emergence almost two months ago. To be quite honest, I was expecting some sort of change in the way things were done after the rise of people like myself. Maybe that was in the works?

As I waited for the van to make its way towards my trap, I stepped up onto the lip of the roof I was standing on, idly looking down the four storey drop. Something I had discovered at a young age was my utter lack of fear regarding heights. I had used it to my advantage when I was younger to escape my annoying cousins. I smiled fondly at the memory of one particularly annoying cousin trying to follow me up a tree and finding themselves frozen in fear halfway up.

Opening my phone to check the time, I saw I had a message from Caser. We had been messaging off and on every day since they left some twenty one days ago. I missed them, if I was honest. It had been nice to have a friend who was physically present. I hadn’t had a lot of those in the last few years as my degree heated up and my dysphoria grew. I think that was why Kelly’s death hit me so hard, and continues to hit me hard.

Shaking my head to clear the melancholic thoughts from my mind before they took root, I checked on the van and saw it almost at the corner I had marked for my trap. Around the corner out of sight of the van, I spawned an illusory police barricade. The type they were putting up whenever there was an Emerged brawl a block or so away.

The van slowed to a stop before the pretend police cars blocking its way and the driver opened the door slightly to call out to the fake cops who were manning the blockade. It was time for me to make an entrance! With a jump, I launched myself clear of the building and down into the street. I had done a lot of practicing during the last three weeks, including practice with my awesome new armoured legs. So when I neared the ground, instead of hitting it with the crunch of broken bones, the little retrothrusters built into the legs fired and slowed my fall enough for the suspension built into the legs to do the rest.

The legs were great. My feet actually didn’t touch the ground when I wore them, because the whole thing was digitigrade, and so only the tips of my toes were actually in the feet, which were some sort of hoof/paw hybrid. The whole thing was made of carbon fiber and titanium, thus being very hard to break. It gave my Vulptrix persona yet another fox like feature, and I thought it added to my mystique as a whole.

As I hit the ground running and used the momentum to rush up to the distracted man hanging out of the door, stunning him before he could turn to see what the approaching footsteps were about. The driver being down, I lunged past him as he fell to the pavement and sent a shock into his partner in the passenger seat. Phew, that was easier than I thought. Someone should really revamp the way they transport this money.

A quick search later and I had the keys to the back door in my hands. Unlike the last time, where I had just jumped in on the van during an opportunity, I had planned this one out. In an alleyway nearby was a dumpster that appeared to not be in use, and I had hidden several duffel bags within it. I needed to move fast, it looked like more snow was on its way, and the wind seemed to be picking up.

Over the course of the next few minutes I teleported to and from the dumpster, loading up bags with money from inside the van and then hiding them in the dumpster. I got perhaps four duffel bags full of banknotes stashed before the 5th trip landed me in trouble.

Or rather… trouble landed on me. I heard her wingbeats not a moment too soon, and instantly activated my teleport, without any plotting in my mind. I heard the impact of my feathered adversary on the pavement less than a second after I reappeared in reality. I had appeared standing on the footpath behind a parked car, and I whirled to identify my attacker. This would go very differently depending on which feathered friend had leapt onto the scene.

Over the top of the sedan I was using for cover, I saw Nightbinder looking over at me from their landing place, a big grin spread across their achingly beautiful face. It was honestly slightly jarring seeing such a human emotion on the type of face that you only ever saw calmly gazing down on you from a painting.

“Hello Vulptrix,” she growled in an amused tone, “Caught you by surprise huh? That’s a first.”

I gulped and said nothing as she rose from her hero landing crouch, heavy snowflakes beginning to fall around us as she stalked towards me with deadly languid grace. My usual bravado fleeing me as something else happened within me. Her predatory gaze and posture sent a shiver of excitement up my spine that I was wholly unprepared to deal with on a mental level. My eyes involuntarily swept briefly down her body and I felt a furious blush set fire to my face. She was just so fucking hot.

I cleared my throat to speak, but it didn’t entirely help, “A-ahh, yeah.”

She tilted her head to the side and squinted at me, trying to figure out what was going on with me, “Oh? No cheeky fox tonight?”

“Uh,” I started, still trying to get my mind to function again after the surprise of her arrival and her effect on me. It was getting worse.

She didn’t give me a chance to do anything more, leaping over both me and the car at lightning speed and summoning a series of dark chains to bind me against the vehicle. She flipped me around in her shackles so I was facing her and I saw she wore an expression of suspicion.

“What’s the trick now little vixen? I didn’t think catching you would be this easy…” she said with narrowed eyes.

“I, uh. In my defence, you did catch me by surprise,” I managed to squeak out, blinking heavy snowflakes from my eyelashes.

“Uh huh, and this isn’t some trick? You’re not really behind me are you?” she asked, leaning closer.

Too close! I could smell her deodorant, or maybe body wash? It smelled vaguely flowery but I couldn’t place the scent. Gosh she was intimidating, and the way she was leaning in… Wait! I’m a villain! I need to escape! I tried to wriggle free of the chains, but their ethereal bonds just tightened to compensate, and I found myself forced to look into the mesmerising violet eyes of my captor. Those enchanting eyes framed by the dark and wild curly hair that whipped around in the rising wind.

“Uh,” I said, my voice far too breathy for my liking, “Any chance you could let me go?”

“Why? So you can steal more shit, and traumatise the guards while you’re at it?” she asked with an eye roll. The end of her eye roll ended in a lopsided smirk and raised eyebrow combo that sent the fluttery inhabitants of my stomach into overdrive.

I needed to get away, she was causing all sorts of reactions and feelings in me that I was having trouble parsing in the heat of the moment. I know I had been feeling this before when I met her, but being this close to her was another level on top of it all. My wild mind managed to remember that I was able to teleport, and I readied myself to do so. Using the gorgeous violet of her eyes as inspiration, I plotted a path backwards, and activated my teleport.

Pain. My mind wrenched sickeningly and my stomach roiled in protest. I couldn’t think, it felt as though the link between my body and my mind had been severed, and I floated in a sea of agony as I struggled to make sense of what had happened. I felt around in my mind for some clue as to what was wrong. I’d lost contact with every sense, there was just nothing. I felt myself begin to panic, until something broke through. I felt a tingling, in... my toes! My fingers as well!

Next to arrive at the station of my mind was my sense of hearing, although it was just a high ringing sound. Over the course of what felt like hours, I slowly regained my faculties and was better able to take stock of my situation. I’d tried to teleport, and something had gone horribly wrong. Also, what was this weight on top of me?

I gently opened my eyes to find them still unable to see. Oh no… was I blind? Wait… there was a glowing purple smudge in my vision. I shifted my head to see what it was, but I was blocked, there was something next to my head. I reached up with my hands to see if I could get an idea of what was on top of me, but I was again blocked my something.

I explored what it was, reaching around it to get a feel for it, when I felt something so amazingly mundane I almost laughed. A zipper. Nooooo, she couldn’t be! My senses all snapped back into focus as a surge of wild feelings invaded my stomach and flooded my mind with adrenaline.

Nightbinder was leaning on me, fully leaning on me. More like collapsed on me, her full weight was pressed down upon me, and with a start I realised I could feel her breasts pressed against mine through the layers of fabric we wore.

“Nightbinder?” I rasped, my voice not really up to the strenuous task of speech.

I heard, and felt, her groan, the vibrations of the sound she made reaching me through our tightly pressed embrace.

“What… happened?” she asked, her dazed voice devoid of her earlier cocky hero bravado.

“I don’t know,” I whispered, aware now that her ear was right next to my mouth.

That realisation caused a sudden urge to shift my face more towards her, just to be closer. I shoved that urge aside.

“Nightbinder can you please get off me? You can chain me back up after that…” I groaned.

“What?” she asked, evidently still working her way through her own recovery.

Realising she wasn’t going to be much help, I decided to try and push her off myself. When I pushed her, I found her to be much lighter than I had been expecting, all things considered. That miscalculation caused me to push her too hard, and she tipped over backwards on a collision course with the pavement.

Stumbling forward in a vague attempt at a lunge, I caught her around the waist with one shaking arm, the other cradling her neck, and gently let her to the ground. Why was I going through so much trouble to make sure she was alright? She had been trying to capture me and turn me into the police where I would be sent to jail! The answer of course, was surprisingly simple. I was helping her because I’m not a total dick.

With her on the ground, I lay my own malfunctioning body on the ground next to her with a sigh. I could feel various parts of my body spasm and shake in a wholly disturbing manner.

“What actually happened just now?” I asked, more to myself than her, since she seemed to still not have full control right now.

“It felt like all my chains were like... pulling on me. On everything of me... fuck I hurt so bad,” she whimpered.

I made a vague sound that could be interpreted as pretty much anything, and brought my tail around to my face for comfort. It was so nice and soft. It was also covered in snow. We were going to be buried if we kept… Oh no.

“Nightbinder! You need to like, sober the fuck up and so do I,” I exclaimed in alarm.

From my position prone on the ground, I was given a front row seat to the roiling storm clouds above the city. The storm clouds themselves were not the source of my alarm, it was the way they were lit with multi coloured flashes of light, as though some eccentric deity was throwing a rave in the clouds. It was exactly the same as two months ago, when this whole crazy new reality we all lived in had started.

“Oh crap,” said my feathered friend, leaning on her arms and looking up at the sky with wide eyes.

We looked over at each other with matching shocked expressions on our faces and it was all I could do not to grab hold of her for reassurance. It was happening again.

I felt a sense of dread well up from within as I watched the increasing snowfall draw visibility inwards. In the space of ten seconds we were unable to see more than thirty meters in any given direction. The clouds themselves were lost in the darkness, only making their presence known through the huge flashes of coloured light they created.

I believe everyone has moments like this in their lives. Moments where they are confronted by the immovable enormity of nature. This was such a moment.

As I gazed in awe at the majesty of mother nature, I had a sudden thought that urgently pressed itself to the forefront of my mind. With a groan of pain, I levered myself up into a sitting position, and from there into some approximation of upright.

“Hey!” Nightbinder exclaimed, “Where are you going?”

“The drivers are unconscious in the snow,” I stated absently.

Following me with a grumble, she wobbled her way to her feet and stumbled in my wake. The passenger was still in his seat unconscious, but the driver was still laying in a heap on the ground. I stared at the beefy guy for a moment, trying to figure out how to lift him into the van, when I heard a sound of understanding come from my unlikely companion.

“I can lift him I think,” she said uncertainly.

I motioned for her to go ahead and stepped back to allow her passage. She stepped past and reached down to pick the man up, but it became obvious she was going to struggle.

Rushing forward to led a hand, I asked, “Don’t you have like super strength or something?”

“Yeah,” she grunted as we levered him into the van again, “But whatever you did has knocked me around. I feel..”

She suddenly looked at me as we finished our task, taking a defensive stance, “You did that to get me vulnerable!”

“Did what? You had me chained and I tried to teleport!” I said in alarm.

“Wait so you didn’t do this on purpose?”

“No!”

“So you tried to… huh… how does your teleport work? If you don't mind telling a Hero that is?” she asked in a calmer tone.

I blinked at her for a small moment, and then shrugged, “Anything that's touching me that isn't too big comes with me.”

“So maybe… Do you think my chains had some crazy interaction with your teleport?”

“I don't know. There probably isn't anyone who knows,” I sighed.

“Damnit... I swear, if you permanently damaged me…” she vaguely threatened, moving into my personal space with a grim expression.

It was meant to be grim at least… I think? Instead I felt myself react to her closeness, my face flushing and my chest aching with some strange need that sent me half step forward. With that step we were less than a foot apart and I was not the only one with pink cheeks. We both probably had flushed faces because of the cold. Definitely because of the cold.

I tried to be cheeky and witty with my next words, my mind coming up with some flippant remark, but my heart intercepted the package along the way and inserted it’s own message.

“That would be awful! I’d never intentionally do something like that!” I exclaimed breathlessly.

Her expression softened slightly even as her eyes widened, “O-oh. Okay.”

We both took a step back, and unsure what had just happened, I ran my hand through my hair, accidentally knocking my hood off. I couldn’t be bothered replacing it, so I just left back and allowed the snow to settle in my ginger hair. Moving back to the open back door of the car, I withdrew the key from my pocket.

“Oi! What are you doing? You can’t seriously be thinking about stealing more of the money with me right here?” Nightbinder exclaimed incredulously.

“Of course I’m thinking about it!” I giggled, teasing her with a wink “I’m a thief, and this is an opportunity!”

“Oh no you don’t!” she barked in irritation, her wings flaring out slightly along with the words, “I may be having potency issues right now but I’m willing to bet I can still kick your ass!”

I raised my forearms and gave the mental command, the two bars of steel flicking out with a satisfying click sound. Watching the occasional pulse of energy run up their length, I casually said, “Uh huh, sure thing Nightbinder, sure thing.”

She stared at them for a few moments, and then deflated with an angry glare, “Damn fuck shit crap.”

“Yup!” I said happily.

“I am going to tie you down and make you cry out in regret when I can get things working again...” she threatened.

My eyes widened and I looked into her glowing violet eyes with a squeak, “Uhhh, s-sorry, I’m going to need some clarification on that sentence just now.”

“Wha-... Oh! No! I meant li-” she started to say, when the world interrupted her.

The sky erupted in light, bathing everything in harsh hues that blinded the eye, the snow refracting and magnifying the brilliance until all sight was washed out in a sea of stabbing photons. Following closely on the heels of this invasion of light was a pulse of energy that shook my very body. It didn’t come from any one direction, but rather from everywhere, from a direction that my mind was not equipped to comprehend.

As suddenly as it had happened, the light and energy vanished as though it had never been, and the colourful lights in the storm had ceased their mesmerising display. With both the light shows over, the world was suddenly a darker place, more haunted somehow with the snow continuing to pick up and the wind howling through the streets.

I found that I hadn’t moved, and I looked down at the key in my hand absently for a moment, my mind once again playing catch up with the sensations I had experienced. As if moving on previous commands, I gently closed the back door of the van and locked it with the key, before moving back to the driver’s side. I placed the key in the lap of the unconscious driver, and reached in to turn the heater up a bit. The van had been running the whole time, but I expected the heater to could run for long enough that they would wake up.

Closing this door as gently as I did the back one, I turned to find Nightbinder staring at me with a thoughtful expression on her face.

Disregarding whatever she had been thinking about me, she looked up at the sky and said with a note of trepidation, “That was the same. Do you remember? Same as the Emergence.”

“No not really. I had been mugged and was laying beaten in the gutter when it happened,” I said, my voice heavy with emotion.

“Oh. Okay. Sorry. Well uh, it’s the same. Except this time I saw it without the pain,” she said awkwardly.

We stood there in silence for a while, my eyes trained on the ground while she shuffled her feet. Memories of that night were not fond ones, and I fought them off as my breathing rose in both pitch and tempo.

The silence was broken when my sensitive ears picked up the faint sound of screaming. Muffled by the snow as it was, I was still able to discern that it was coming from the next street over. I looked up at Nightbinder to see if she had heard it, but I found her jerking her head away from my face. I’d caught her staring.

“Did you hear that?” I asked.

“Uhh, hear what?” she said, looking back at me.

“That scream, it came from the next street over,” I said, my ears perking up and rotating as i heard it again, “Yup, definitely the next street over. Sounds like a child… You should go and do like, your hero thing.”

“You’re sure?” she asked suspiciously.

“Yeah! There is a child screaming in the next street over! You should go and save them!” I urged. Maybe I could get some more time with the van?

She nodded, but then an evil expression overtook her face, “Oh, but if I’m going, then you’re coming too! Let’s see if this works again!”

With that proclamation, she launched a series of chains out of her hand, wrapping them around my wrist.

“Wait, no! Why?” I stammered.

“Because,” she smirked, reeling me slowly in towards her with a victorious twinkle in her eye, “I don’t trust you alone with that van.”

“What! This isn’t fair! If I try and teleport away I’ll just break us both again! Weren’t you worried about that earlier?” I gasped as the chain inexorably pulled me towards her.

“I am, but I know you won't do it,” she chuckled.

“That’s not… Damn it!” I sighed, “Fine! I’ll come with you to help the kid.”

Chained to her and unwilling to go through the awful consequences of trying to teleport, I followed her around the block as we made our way towards the distressed child, who was now silent, and her cried had been replaced by a strange rhythmic thumping. As we walked I was struck by how surreal it was to be chained to this intimidating fallen angel girl while we walked through the snow swept streets.

I wasn’t looking when it happened, but I felt the chains around my wrist vanish, turning my head just fast enough to catch the wisps slowly fade from view. An instant later, I heard a roar and the whistle of something parting air at high speeds. Nightbinder moved sickeningly fast, slamming me to the ground and covering me with her body as the air around is erupted in whirring shards of stone and concrete.

“What the fuck is that?” she breathed.

From underneath her, trying very hard not to think about the way her boobs were pressing into the back of my head, I tried to see what was happening. The scene was originally hard to parse, due to the strange creature at its center. The thing was some sort of cross between a lizard and a gorilla. It had the structure and physique of the gorilla, with the scales and head of some teethy lizard or dinosaur. It was also huge, easily two stories tall and build to destroy a building of that height. Its hands and feet sported huge claws that looked to be as long as my forearm. The most surreal thing was the mass of scaled, writhing tentacles that sprouted from every surface that could be considered pointing backwards.

The debris around us was the remains of the facade that was previously attached to the side of an upper middle class apartment building. The monster loomed from the darkness as it bore down on a partially destroyed car, the occupants still inside. My mind snapped into focus then as I realised that it had thrown a chunk of building at the passing vehicle, wiping out the engine block and sending it skidding across the slush into a parked car.

Before the monster could do any further harm to the couple in the car, I summoned an illusory version of the creature and had it roar in anger. The illusion did the trick, because the real beast eyed the fake one with wariness and roared back in challenge.

The illusion was apparently too effective when it loomed out of the snow, because Nightbinder cried out, “Fuck there’s two of them!”

“No! That second one is mine! It’s an illusion! I’ll keep the big boy distracted, you sort out the couple in the car!” I told her urgently.

“Wait really? It’s been illusions the whole time? Are you fucking… nevermind! Hurt people first, villain interrogation later!” she said getting up off me with a groan.

She rushed off and began to use her chains and hands to pry the frightened and bloody pair from the wreckage of their car while I dealt with the huge monster. The thing was gearing up to charge the illusion, and I needed to get him to charge somewhere that wouldn’t cause too much damage or worse, hurt to the people who were no doubt in the buildings.

I should have realised really, but instead of charging, the beast picked up a car, it’s tentacles all converging on the thing to give it extra grip and lifting power. With the red sedan held aloft, it threw the car at the illusion with enough force to shear the poor car in two as it flew. Both sections blew through my illusion at speed, and I felt my hold over the illusion tear free. For a brief moment, the illusory monster blinked in confusion, then disappeared as whatever made up it’s incorporeal form failed.

The real nightmare creature frowned in anger, then turned to find a new target. It’s gaze fell on Nightbinder, who had just finished getting the couple to safety.

“Nightbinder!” I cried out desperately in warning.

She heard my cry just in time, ducking at the same mind bending speed she moved with during a fight, and managed to avoid another flying vehicle. The SUV that had briefly become airborne blew past her and straight into the brick and concrete building behind her. I watched in frozen horror as, unnoticed by the achingly beautiful woman with six dark wings, several storeys of facade tilted as though it ran on a slower time scale than the rest of us. She must have seen my expression when she glanced at me, because just before the huge chunks of the old masonry struck her, she glanced up.

Then she was gone. Buried under several feet of broken hard stone.

Oh please no. She was my enemy sure, and someone who had been trying to bring me in for imprisonment beforehand, but she was still a good person. She didn’t deserve to die. She didn’t deserve to go out like that. Not the feisty, angry, gorgeous girl with the strangely great sense of humour. I know she found me irritating, but I’d seen her smile at my ridiculous villain persona.

I moved to rush towards the pile that she was buried under, when it shifted. I watched chunks of brick and masonry tumble off her as she rose from the rubble like a dark phoenix, her eyes filled with a burning rage and her fist clenched tightly around a hunk of brick. The awe inspiring being of beauty and darkness stepped forward, stretched her arm back and took aim with narrowed eyes.

The first I knew of her throw was when the sound of the brick breaking the sound barrier assaulted my ears, then my eyes registered her change in position, from cocked and ready to throw, to easing back from the follow through. Her target, the angry lizard creature, wobbled on its feet, its forehead sporting the vague imprint of a brick.

“Whoa,” I breathed.

The creature swayed on its feet, as though the wind had picked up more than it already was, and then slumped to the ground with a thump that shook the ground. Once prone, the street seemed almost eerily silent, bar a few stray pieces of rubble tumbling free of the damaged building behind nightbinder.

With a face that could only be described as “heroic resolve” she marched towards the fallen horror with a purposeful gait. It was now that I noticed how banged up she was. Scrapes and gashes littered her body, whatever her suit was made of not being entirely up to the task of defending her from a falling building. She trailed blood as she walked, and one of the two uppermost wings was twisted slightly and held close to her body, quivering slightly.

“Wait!” I called out, and rushed forward to stop her.

I reached her a few meters before the unconscious monster, and in a feat of untold bravery, moved in front of her and placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her. I flinched when her hard gaze turned on me, and I stepped back slightly.

“Nightbinder wait! This is a person! I think even a child! The child’s crying stopped when this thing started stomping around!” I said hurriedly, trying to get her to calm down and think.

Her hand rose slightly as though to do something, but with a deep looking into my eyes, she sagged slightly and backed down.

“You’re right. They almost definitely just emerged and lost control of themselves. I’ve heard of too many people from… from the first time this happened who did some awful shit while they were scared,” she said with a shiver, “Do you think they are stuck like that though?”

“I don’t know… but if they transformed because of they were upset, maybe if we try and make them less upset they will turn back into a person?” I asked, unsure of the plan even as I said it.

“No I think you’re right. My first time growing these wings was due to… stress. How can we calm them though?” she nodded, her voice hitching slightly as she mentioned her first transformation.

“I don’t know… maybe petting them? It works for me?” I said thoughtfully.

“Okay. That might work, let’s try it… Wait, it works on you?” she asked, a surprised grin spreading over her face.

“Wait shit! No! I mean… crap, let’s just pet the damn thing!” I exclaimed in embarrassment, my cheeks flaming up for what felt like the millionth time that night.

She moved forward and raised her hand far faster than I could react, slowing to scratch me gently behind the ear… and what a scratch it was. I felt my eyelids flutter and a dreamy smile take over my face for a moment. All over my body my muscles loosened and I felt a bit of tension leave my body.

“O-ohh-hhh,” I moaned.

My moan caused her to draw back with a look of amused surprise, “Oh wow, I figured it might feel nice, but not bedroom voice good. Do I need to get a mop?”

“Shut up! You... arggh! You bloody… Look just pet the fucking hellish abomination would you? Jesus fucking christ,” I exclaimed in fiery embarrassment.

She giggled and shook her head, a huge grin splitting her battered, gorgeous face, “Sure thing little vixen.”

We both knelt next to the unconscious creature, and began to gently stroke its scaled leathery hide. It was honestly a little gross, but we kept going, and I heard Nightbinder whispering gentles words into its ear holes. I brought my fluffy and slightly wet tail up at one point to get some added comfort. It was slower than I thought it would be, but it began to work. First the scaled tentacles receded into the body, then it began to shrink. It was fascinating to watch, the scales merging back into the skin, the skeletal structure morphing almost gently into a small humanoid one. The weirdest part was when a set of blue pajamas rose out of the skin and settled around the body.

When at last it was over, and the creature was replaced by a little boy of no more than five years old, we breathed a sigh of relief.

“That is a garbage power to be given,” my unlikely companion said softly.

“Yeah, that’s pretty awful. Especially for a little kid who doesn’t really understand what is happening,” I agreed.

It was about now that we noticed we had gathered a crowd, and I suddenly felt out of place. I had no business being at the center of a heroic deed like this. Nevertheless, the small crowd of people who had emerged from their homes came forward to see the little boy. Nightbinder stood up, and I followed suit, awkwardly holding my tail to my chest to quell my nervousness.

“Nightbinder!” one man exclaimed, “You were incredible!”

“Nice work you two!” nodded a gruff looking man in a suit.

The comment I had feared eventually came however, from the lips of a frowning older woman, “You! You’re that villain Vulptrix!”

I gulped and stepped back behind my temporary heroic partner.

She looked back at me with another one of her thoughtful gazes, then turned back to the crowd, “I don’t know why folks, but she’s been a great help tonight. Be kind, at least until she commits another villainous act!”

Then she turned back and winked, “Good behaviour deserves to be rewarded after all,” reaching up to mime scratching my ear again.

“Nooooo!” I warned, taking a step back.

She gave another wink and accompanied it with a giggle, “You’re kinda cute you know.”

“I’m…” I started, halting when I lost the words to speak amidst another bout of heavy embarrassment. My whole body was awash in tumultuous emotion, butterflies in my stomach, aching in my chest and warmth in my groin. Damn, this was getting to be a thing around her.

Before she could come up with some other statement that would set my body on fire, I saw a cop car quietly pull to a stop on the other side of the crowd.

“Sorry, Nightbinder, you’ll have to catch me some other day, it’s... time for me to go,” I told her, unable to quell the note of regret that slipped into my words.

She nodded, and I took a deep breath before activating a colour in my mind and teleporting away.