“Yep, we’re almost there. I think I can see the skyline now.” Alice clutched her backpack into her lap as the bus rattled and rolled over another series of potholes, careful to lean away from the passenger next to her. “I -- yes, I’ll keep in touch. Yes, I have a place to stay lined up. Yes, I’m all set to start work on Monday.” All bald-faced lies, but her mother didn’t need to know that. “OK, I love you too, talk to you soon. Yep. Bye!”

With that, she closed out of the call, sparing a glance at the approaching Portland cityscape before turning back to her phone. At the top of her camera roll sat a pair of pictures -- the pair of pictures that she’d already spent most of the trip staring at.

The first picture was downloaded from her old phone, showing a high school Halloween party -- the timestamp said 2019, only six short years ago, but for the life of her Alice couldn’t imagine it being that recent. She was still wearing her hair long back then, for starters, not to mention she had her arm around Camden’s shoulder. Now that got a chuckle out of her. The most important part of the image, though, was just to the right of center frame  -- Oliver Campbell, the quiet kid in class, had somehow put together an incredibly impressive superhero costume from scratch.

The other picture, meanwhile, was taken about five weeks back, from a road just off the I-5 highway leading into Portland. It clearly showed a smiling driver standing in front of his car, next to a woman in a masked superhero costume giving a thumbs up. Behind the pair, deep furrows were clear leading from a ditch behind the car. According to the caption, the woman in the picture had somehow single-handedly pushed the car out of the ditch, struck a pose, and puttered off on a moped. Absurd, but not the strangest thing about the image.

As best Alice could tell, the suit in that picture was almost a perfect match for the one Oliver was wearing at the party six years back.

Not that they were identical, mind. Obviously, the wearer of the suit in the new image had a different build -- slighter, more feminine, a hair taller, and the suit itself sported a skirt -- but even beyond that, the paint job was more complex, and the outer armor appeared to be metallic instead of plastic. Still, the key components matched perfectly -- the sky blue chestpiece, the white gloves and boots, the large, rounded, golden eyes… even the crest atop the mask’s forehead was more or less identical.

When she had first seen the picture, she had been intending to write it off as a novelty, but ultimately her curiosity only grew as she stewed on it. Her immediate guess was that Oliver had handed the suit off to a friend or loved one, but that only raised further questions -- namely, who? And why?

Like Alice, Oliver had been very detached back in high school. Nice enough, but indifferent to socialization. Could his time in college have given him a good reason to loan the suit out? Alternatively, it was possible he sold the rights for marketing or something, but then surely it would have made the news at some point, no?

Each possible answer only piqued Alice’s interest further, so when the data entry job she was interviewing for finally got back to her, it was a simple matter to request a position in Portland. That being said, of course, unraveling this candy-colored mystery was only a part of her decision to travel to the Pacific Northwest.

Simply put, she didn’t really have friends to fall back on after college, desperately needed somewhere to start building a social circle back up, and a high school acquaintance -- particularly a celebrity high school acquaintance -- was as good a place as any. Imagine, being in the inner circle of a regional hero, getting to tag along to all sorts of events…

As she concluded her review of the situation, the bus pulled to a stop. Alice took a moment to collect her things, a second moment to adjust her scarf, then one last moment to collect and adjust her expectations. Stepping out and breathing in the cool air, she made a promise to herself as she scanned the city skyline. This is going to work out.

A week and a half later, things hadn’t remotely “worked out”.

Alice’s job was… fine. Barely worth considering, really -- it was the pleasantly mind-dulling kind of spreadsheet wrangling that she could probably fritter away a lifetime on without feeling anything worse than mild boredom. Her housing, however, was not -- her first plans had fallen through horribly, so now she was stuck blowing her emergency funds on motel costs every night. And, infuriatingly, she was barely any closer at all to finding out what on earth was going on with the mysterious masked superheroine prowling the streets.

Swallowing her frustration, Alice returned her attention to her work computer, settling in to sort yet another expenses account. Her fingers took up the task easily, and after the first couple entries, her muscle memory took over, letting her mind drift, yet again. She winced internally as her mind replayed her conversations of the last couple days -- most notably, Camden’s reaction when she asked for other pictures of Oliver. He didn’t understand just what a big deal this might be!

Ugh, that’s it. Now her mind was stuck on it again. Once again, Alice set the spreadsheet to automate and whipped out her phone to run a few more searches. “Portland Superhero.” No, that’s just something about some tech company’s environmental initiative. “Portland Superhero Woman.” Nope, that’s just a picture of a scientist from said company. “Portland Blue Superhero.” A local little league team. “Portland Sky Blue Superhero Woman.” Nope, just another set of random links to -- hello, what’s this?

Near the very bottom of the first page of search results sat a Twitter link. The connected account bore the name of @SkyHorizonOfficial, and… Jackpot! Almost every post on the account was a retweet of an image just like the one that had led Alice here, with the mystery woman posing alongside random people -- an old lady standing at the top of some stairs with a bag of groceries, the superhero delivering a lost dog to some kids. Better yet, the account’s bio linked to a Patreon, though one barely reconfigured from its default settings.

“Hi! I’m Sky Horizon, a masked hero with a mind for community service! I do what I do because I love it, but if you want to support what I do, donations help me put food on the table and spend more time helping people. Thanks!”

Well, that gave Alice a name, at least. And indeed, searching up Sky Horizon got her a good few more hits -- mostly appreciative locals or fans documenting “Portland’s Best-Kept Secret”. Apparently, donating to the Patreon got you insider access to “Action Shots” of Sky Horizon jumping off buildings or driving her moped, as well as a podcast recorded from her talking to herself when on patrol.

“Alice, are you quite alright?” Her boss’s voice made her jump, and she snapped off her phone immediately, smiling placatingly. He simply shakes his head. “You’re doing good work, and we appreciate having you here, but just… try your best to stay focused, okay?” Alice nodded along, and gave her all to put the thoughts of Sky Horizon out of her mind until the day’s end.

The next day Alice came into work, she came prepared, with a pair of earbuds and a subscription to Sky Horizon’s Patreon. Settling in at her seat, she set the podcast to run as she opened yet another spreadsheet.

To her surprise, Sky Horizon’s voice was low and synthesized, though unmistakably feminine. Even more so, she was actually extremely well-spoken, bouncing back and forth between musing on the basics of community support, discussing her favorite comic book heroes, and listing off the best places to eat in the city.

In spite of herself, Alice found herself endeared to this strange conversationalist, burning through the full backlog of episodes by the end of the work week. It wasn’t strictly helpful to her search, perhaps, but it was perhaps even more valuable -- it amplified her resolve to keep searching, pushing her on when she was about to give up.

Originally, her goal was simple social climbing, being able to name-drop a celebrity when trying to meet new people. Now, however, Sky Horizon herself sat in the forefront of Alice’s mind, a burning desire to meet and pick her brain growing hotter with each day.

A theory had begun to coalesce -- by Alice’s initial guess, Oliver ended up in a relationship with a community-minded partner, and provided her with his old suit to preserve her anonymity when out and about. If all went well, then upon meeting her in person, she could cite her old acquaintanceship with Oliver as an ‘in’ to start hanging out with her. However, that didn’t account for the (reported) feats of strength and speed Sky Horizon was capable of -- according to eyewitness accounts, she did indeed have some sort of superpowers.

So, what then? Some theories on the internet claimed that Sky Horizon wasn’t human at all, citing her synthesized-sounding voice, but most of those were shouted down in the comments -- not infrequently by Alice herself -- as (according to Alice’s sources) creating even a remote-controlled robot that sophisticated was years and years away, let alone an AI, while creating a suit of powered armor was well within the reach of modern technology.

Through all of these, one word kept coming up -- “Tokusatsu.” Sky Horizon’s fans brought the term up constantly, and Alice couldn’t quite get a grip on what it referred to -- most of the searches she conducted just pulled up clips of, as best she could tell, english-subtitled Power Rangers episodes. It made sense, though -- Sky Horizon’s suit seemed to be based off that style.

The pieces of the puzzle were coming together. Surely, surely Alice was on the brink of a breakthrough.

As it turned out, Alice had instead been on the brink of a breakdown.

The obvious sign was when she rolled out of bed, her hands unable to stop shaking. Something had to give, and it turns out it was Alice’s body. Her company was nice enough to let her take a few days off, but not nice enough to give her proper sick leave. Determined not to squander her PTO, Alice resolved to put the search for Sky Horizon on hold, if only so that she didn’t waste her week off getting in Twitter arguments.

Finally, on a sunny spring day, she forced herself out the door to explore her new home city. From street to street she drifted, trying to get comfortable with her surroundings and form a mental map. A lighthouse here, a train station there, a coffeehouse… well, really, a coffeehouse on every corner, that’s just how things go here. A park across the way, that might be good for walking when summer comes.

Slowly, gradually, she began to build confidence. If the library is over that way, then that one Chinese place is back on the other side of the street she came from. The one hair salon was up those stairs, so she can loop back as a shortcut on the way home. The bus stop… where was the bus stop? Alice paused, twisting around to look for the bus—

Oh.

A blaring horn overtook each and every one of Alice’s senses with raw panic, rooting her to the spot. Somehow, she had rounded a blind corner and ended up right in the middle of a crosswalk, leaving her goggling at thirty thousand pounds of steel and glass bearing down upon her. She could see the driver staring back at her, mouth open in horror. Instinctively, she looked away, screwed her eyes shut, and…

An impact, a tumble, a sickening crunch.

When Alice’s eyes finally snapped open, she first registered she had been screaming, before breaking off coughing and half-sobbing. As best as she could tell, she'd wound up lying on the pavement.

“Sorry about that. Are you alright?”

A vague figure leaned over her. Alice slowly formed an awareness of something -- someone grabbing her by the shoulders. Her remarkably intact shoulders.

“You should be safe. I’m sorry if I startled you, or if I hurt you when I pushed you out of the way-”

Oh. That explains it.

The figure above Alice slowly faded into relief -- a bright blue helmet, blocking out the sky.

“You’re -- you’re Sky Horizon.” Alice tries to prop herself up, but is gently lowered back down.

The superhero looming over her chuckled. “And you’re at risk for a concussion. Hold still a moment.” Her voice rolled out, indeed, smooth and synthesized, as if a robot got into lounge singing. “Don’t worry -- I was the one who took the hit head on, and my head is plenty tough.” Despite her words, the edges of her helmet had begun to fizzle slightly, as though seen through radio static.

Alice, for her part, complied, holding still and trying not to fidget, and especially trying not to stare at her idol as the latter ran her hands over Alice, checking her vitals.

After a handful of beats, Sky Horizon nodded and began speaking more brightly. “Good news! You shouldn’t have to go to the hospital. That being said, please be sure to look both ways before you cross the street from now on, alright?” As she spoke, she tilted her head slightly to the side -- and at once, her helmet vanished, winking out of existence in a snap of visual noise.

Alice’s eyes widened. She did indeed recognize that face. The hanging ringlets of dark hair were a bit longer, but those eyes, that smile -- “Oliver?” 

The instant Alice breathed the name, the superhero’s eyes go wide, and she recoiled like she was shot by a cannon. Her hands flew up to her face, probing to realize her helmet vanished, and her visible panic only compounded from there.

“I-” Bereft of whatever modulation the helmet had, Sky Horizon’s voice came out cracked and scratchy. “I have to go, sorry!” With that, tears in her eyes, she’s off, sprinting around a corner far faster than Alice could ever hope to catch up.

“Hang on, please… I…” Mouth open, apology dying on her tongue, Alice reached out and then dropped her arm, giving up on asking her to come back. “I’m such an idiot.” Despondent, she squatted on the curb, kicking herself for not realizing sooner why a feminine version of Oliver’s suit might exist.