“And… done.” Alice steps away from Skye, already stowing her makeup kit. “You’re all set.”

“Thank you very much.” There’s a dearth of mirrors in the Pioneer Courthouse lobby, and Skye isn’t about to run off to the bathrooms just to double-check Alice’s handiwork. “Nothing left to do but wait, I suppose?”

“More or less.” Alice looks out the window, early morning sun playing across her nervous face. “While we still have time, though… I wanted to apologize again.”

“Apologize? Why?” Skye crosses her arms, enjoying the feeling of her jacket’s weight re-settling. “About the same concerns as before?”

“No. Well, maybe? It’s just that the more I think about it…” Alice sighs deeply, her face clouding up. “This really was all my fault. If it weren’t for me you could have gone on helping people, and now you’re never getting that back.”

“Mm.” Skye breathes out slowly, a sad smile forming on her face. “I appreciate the sentiment? I don’t really know what to say – I’m still trying to find the words – but I think you’re being too harsh on yourself. If it weren’t for all of this, I never would have gotten to know you, or Kit – or myself.”

Alice sobs openly at that, prompting Skye to step over and pat her on the back.

“I have one last request for you, if it’s not too much to ask,” Skye says quietly. “I know I asked the opposite in the past, but when I step out there, I… there’s…” Skye stammers for a second, gets herself under control with a deep breath, and finally offers the brightest grin she can muster. “Please watch me carefully. I want you, and everyone, to see my transformation.”

Alice sniffs for a few moments, unable to find the words. After several seconds of shaky breaths, she responds with a thumbs-up.

Skye returns the thumbs-up, tears forming in her own eyes, before wrapping Alice in a firm, tight hug, both of them laughing softly.

“Don’t rub your eyes,” Alice mumbles into Skye’s ear. “You’re gonna smudge your makeup.” She makes no effort to break the hug, however, leaning in close and ignoring the few people walking past.

After seconds, minutes, years of this, the silence is broken by Skye’s phone buzzing. Carefully, she untangles herself from the embrace, lifting the device to her ear. “Good morning, Kit. Is it showtime already?”

“You know it. Give ‘em a smack from me and another from Pranavi, okay? We’re right there behind you, 100 percent.”

“Couldn’t be gladder to hear it. Talk to you soon, Kit.” With that, she closes the call and turns to Alice. “This is it, then. Do I look alright?”

Alice finally gets her breathing under control. “Yeah. You look amazing – wait, one last thing.” Alice slowly unwinds her favorite scarf from around her neck, gently lifting Skye’s hair as she puts it on. “There. Now you look perfect. Do you feel ready?”

Skye idly runs a hand over the scarf and looks out the window, to the small crowd gathering in the adjoining square. “As a matter of fact, I do.”

---

 

Kit takes a long, full sip of their water bottle, eyeing the crowd slowly building in front of them. Across the street sits the Pioneer Courthouse itself, but here, the adjacent city block is a massive open-air brick plaza. In front of Kit stretch banks of gentle stairways, down to the main amphitheater- and at the edge of the square, where the historic courthouse sits facing the plaza, wait a handful of onlookers – Kit’s responsibility for the day.

Realistically, if Kit had their way, they know it’d be the other way around. That is, they’d be the one getting the big dramatic revenge on Marco for hurting their loved ones and Skye would be the one making sure nobody gets caught in the crossfire. Helping people is just straight up easier on her than fighting, and frankly she’s better at giving support than Kit is, anyhow.

Still, that’s not really fair. If it was Kit facing down Marco, they know they’d be going straight to brawling, instead of de-escalating like Skye has promised over and over that she’s going to be trying for. Kit’s able to read the writing on the wall; every time they try to force their way in with a big dramatic gesture, someone ends up getting hurt.

Sometimes, that someone is them. Kit gently rubs their wrist, still protected by a cast.

Either way, though. If Skye’s able to force down her flight response and face her fears, then it’s the least Kit can do to force down their fight response and keep an eye on things from a distance. It’s not glamorous, but all the excitement in the world can’t compare to putting genuine good out there. Kit mulls it over, and ends up choking on their water as they hit on a realization: Skye did rub off on them.

Well, that’s just great. Now they owe Alice a tenner. They can actually see her down there, shuffling her way through the crowd, but decide against going down there right now. No doubt Marco’s gonna be arriving bright and early. Instead, Kit adjusts their seating and makes themself comfortable. If they can't play the hero, then fine. They’ll be the best damn sidekick the world’s ever seen.

---

 

Before the crowd gets too big, Alice is able to muscle her way into a prime spot, right near the front. Though the proceedings start today, it’s still about twenty minutes before the initial hearing begins, giving her more than enough time to set up a camera (plus a few extras) trained squarely on the courthouse’s entrance. Right next to her is someone else with the same idea – given his shirt, labeled “I Stand With Omni”, Alice decides against striking up a conversation.

As Kit suspected, at 9:18, twelve minutes before he’s needed, Marco Domini steps out of a chauffeured electric car in his signature white suit, walking up to the courthouse steps. There’s hardly cheering throngs waiting for him, but while Skye was out of commission, the legal case garnered enough press, both positive and negative, that a few cops are forming the suggestion of a barrier between the park and the steps to the courthouse. In all, Alice is joined by some thirty, forty people on this gloomy April day.

Marco, for his part, immediately turns his back to the courthouse and starts mugging to the crowd. “Good morning, Portland! No autographs, please, I know, I’m so sorry.” The celebrity has absolutely gone to his head, Alice realizes. “No, no I’m not gonna do the pose, I can’t do the pose – oh, alright. The indomitable sun! Omni Red! Yeah, whoo!” Plenty of the shouting thrown in his direction is boos, but he certainly doesn’t seem to think there’s such a thing as bad publicity.

It’s a test of Alice’s patience to keep the camera focused squarely on Marco, but through herculean effort she fights back the urge to puke at his grandstanding. It shouldn’t be much longer until that grin gets wiped off his face.

“My fellow countrymen,” Marco pontificates, “Let me be clear. Today is the first step towards a brighter, happier tomorrow. Though I take no pleasure in doing what I must, it is my duty and my responsibility to you.” The cheers and boos intensify in equal measure. “We can’t let ourselves be ruled by fear at the sight of new technology. To fear what is right makes you a fool, and to stand against it makes you a monster. I’ve met with Sky Horizon in person, and I can tell you that he is a fool, a monster, and a coward.”

“Wrong on four counts, Marco.” At the top of the steps, bordered by the courthouse’s entryway, stands Skye Campell, fists clenched. Alice couldn’t get a better shot if she tried. She’s dressed to the absolute peak of what her wardrobe allows, wearing the dress and jacket from the mall trip months ago combined with Alice’s pink scarf. With months of built-up vitriol blazing in her eyes, she cuts an imposing – and unmistakably feminine – figure.

“What?” Marco whirls around, off balance. “Who are – wait, it’s you?” He stumbles back, shocked, as the crowd murmurs in confusion. Who is this? What on earth was Marco talking about? Why does he seem so amazed?

“The one and only.” Skye rolls her shoulders, clearly putting all of her effort into projecting her voice loudly but clearly over the park. “That’s right, I’m Sky Horizon. I would have preferred to remain anonymous, but…” She points down at Marco. “If you force my hand, I won’t let you ruin my good name or hurt anyone else with your hubris.” After a split second of shock, a few crowd members hesitantly cheer.

Marco laughs incredulously, finding his footing in multiple senses. “Alright. Alright, then! Saves me the trouble of hitting you with a subpoena.” He returns her gesture, jabbing his finger in her direction. “Only one problem there, wannabe. In case you forgot, you bet your Quorium and lost. This is gonna be an open-and-shut court case, ‘cause you’re not Sky Horizon anymore! Game over, I win.”

Skye flinches a tiny bit at his words, but sets her jaw. “You’re dead wrong. With or without the suit, I’ll do everything I can to help those around me. That’s never going to change. But more importantly…” She brushes her jacket back, revealing her glowing belt. “I’m not without the suit.”

Now’s the perfect chance. Alice cracks open social media, opening a stream to broadcast on Sky Horizon’s account for a bit before Marco and Skye leave. Around her, the crowd presses forward, a few realizing just what’s about to happen.

Skye keeps going, hands on her hips. “Now, I suggest we go another round with our prior wager. We’ll finish up our legal business here, and then can drive out to the quarry-”

“No.” Marco spits the words. “Not happening.”

Skye tilts her head, caught off guard. “I’m sorry?”

“You should be!” Marco snarls as he roots around in his pockets. “Everything was fine. We had the perfect final battle. My team and I stopped the problem for good, and I was all set to kick back and enjoy the epilogue. But you just had to come back. You couldn’t let your fifteen minutes of fame be over.” He pulls something triumphantly out, clipping it onto his left wrist. “Well, that’s fine by me. If you didn’t get the message last time…” He raises his hand high. “I’ll beat it into you, right here and now! Omni On!”

Skye is frozen, panicked at Marco’s departure from the script. Through her camera, Alice can see her hands shaking. This is bad. This is very bad. Even the cops are backing away from Marco, no doubt aware of just what he can do while transformed.

“Omni Boost Max!” Marco’s transformation finished, he laughs in triumph. “I’m through playing nice with the bad guys.” In a single bound, he lunges up the short staircase, fist swinging directly at Skye’s face – “It’s over, Oliver!”

---

 

“That’s not my name. Engage!” Skye flicks the Skyline’s switch and lifts her hand, only just barely catching the fist in time. As Marco’s eyes widen, blue particles filter at dazzling speed onto her fingertips, then her palm, then her arm, then across the entirety of her body, the transformation progressing over her clothes in a smooth wave rather than in random flakes. Originally, Alice had coded in the alternate transformation solely for dramatic effect, but at this point any tool Skye can use, she will.

Marco gasps, the sound coming out crunched through his helmet’s vocoder. “You think that this changes anything? That you’re doing something useful? You’re just throwing a tantrum.” His words are clearly meant to hurt more than anything else – and they very well might have, but Skye has changed since last they met.

So has her suit, for that matter. While her upgraded variant only sported jets on the elbows, her new armor has thrusters set into the wrists, ankles, and hidden in the knees. Splitting the difference between the pants and original miniskirt, small flaps hang down around the hips. Rather than being a flat blue and white, the color scheme now utilizes a subtle gradient, going from lighter tones at the ends of her limbs to darker at her central torso. As the helmet forms, Skye notes with some surprise that Alice’s scarf isn’t covered up by the armor, instead resting atop the suit.

Most notably, however, the suit is a good bit shorter, huskier, and generally less curvy – in other words, shaped like Skye herself, rather than some unattainable ideal. It took a bit of back-and-forth during the design phase, but ultimately the results speak for themselves. Skye’s whole reason for engaging with Marco is to fight for her own sake, after all.

Immediately, she grabs him by the shoulders, smacking his back against the metal banister in the stairs. “If you insist on fighting now, that’s one thing, but there are people here. At least give them time to clear out.” The rage, the loathing towards him is still there in her heart, but tempered, cooled into something more productive.

“Why’s that?” Marco finds his bearings, grabbing her back and hoisting her off the ground. Even despite her upgrades, he’s still vastly stronger than her. “Afraid everybody’s going to see you lose?” With a grunt, he lifts Skye over his head. “Well, that’s…” The artificial muscles in his suit’s arm hum. “...too…” In one heave, he throws Skye clean over the crowd and the road. “BAD!”

Thanking her lucky stars that she drilled herself on emergency inputs, Skye hits a combination of dials in midair. Instantly, her thrusters flare, blasting unevenly so as to spin Skye and right her before she hits the ground. She lands hard on the brick pavement of the adjoining park, stumbling but still on her feet. She’s faintly aware of Alice’s scarf rippling wildly from the movement – some small part of her prays that it at least looks cool.

Almost immediately, Marco is back in her face, having sprinted through the crowd. As she weaves around his initial assault, Skye notices a few pedestrians he knocked over in his mad charge. Immediately, she snaps on her transceiver. “Alice. Can you get everyone to evacuate the park? I think I may have to fight him here, if only to get matters over and done with.”

“Sure.” Alice’s voice comes through loud and clear, despite the wind whipping around Skye’s ears. “Are you sure you can handle this guy?”

Skye weaves around an over-telegraphed kick and returns fire with a punch to the ribs – at the last second, the rockets attached to her wrist ignite, adding a modicum of extra oomph. “I know I can learn how to handle him. I have far more tricks up my sleeve than he does.” A faster-than-expected jab smacks her between the eyes, and she stumbles back. “Hopefully, at least. Ow.”

“Alright, I trust your judgment.” Alice sounds distracted – she’s probably clearing out of the area herself. “Whatever happens, you’re already our hero. Over and out.”

“Over and out.” With that settled, Skye turns to the other half of her goal; drawing Marco deeper into the park, away from passerby. Switching her radio off, she shouts in between punches. “Shouldn’t you be happy? This is a second chance to recruit me to your team! And yet here you are antagonizing me.”

“The only one doing any antagonizing here is you,” Marco roars, swinging with a mighty haymaker to punctuate. “At first I thought you just didn’t get it! Now I think you were being obtuse on purpose.”

“Funny, I could say the exact same thing,” Sky mutters, too low for her suit to pick up and project. “I wasn’t really listening last time,” she continues at full volume. “I had pulled an all-nighter, I wasn’t really able to focus.” As she talks, she carefully steps back, constantly putting herself just out of Marco’s reach.

Marco scoffs, following Skye’s lead. “Know what I hear? I hear ‘wah, wah, the sun was in my eyes and I had a tummy ache so it didn’t count.’ He digs in his feet – obviously he’s preparing for something big. “At least take the loss like a grown-up!” As he talks, he lunges with superhuman speed, swinging to wrap his hands around Skye’s throat-

But all he grabs is empty air, as Skye ignites the thrusters hidden in her knees and leaps backward at astonishing speed. Skidding to a halt, Skye stifles the urge to giggle at how smoothly her new jets work. “Careful, Marco. You don’t exactly sound like a hero right now.”

Marco is dumbstruck at her surprise, just as she’d hoped. The momentum from his whiffed charge carries him forward, forcing him to stumble. “What – ah. Nice trick. Which show did you pick up the idea from?”

“Not a show, actually – from a friend.” Skye stretches out her wrists, savoring the smoothness of the motion in her joints. “Did you know that most modern passenger trains have two opposite locomotives to go forwards and backwards more agilely?”

Marco just growls. “What I know is that you’d rather let a train run over tons and tons of innocent people just because you’re afraid of getting some blood on your hands!” In the blink of an eye, he closes the distance, skidding a little bit past Skye before turning his momentum into a spinning kick.

“What, the trolley problem again?” Skye leaps over the blow, assisted by her leg rockets, landing a knee strike to Marco’s clavicle on the way down. “I think your entire premise is flawed on that count – you’re imposing a false dichotomy.”

Marco backs off, rolling his neck. “I’m what?”

Skye takes the offensive, rushing in to close the distance. “You’re claiming that the only two options available to you are ‘do nothing’ or ‘arms dealing.’ There’s plenty of ways to help innocent people with no need at all to get any blood on your hands!”

“Shows how much you know about hard decisions,” Marco scoffs, landing an uppercut and forcing Skye back. “In case you forgot, a business has to make money – if we spent all our time helping orphans or whatever, we’d go bankrupt in weeks. That’s just the way it is.”

“Just the way-” Skye sputters, righting herself and dodging around Marco’s follow-up. “You’re literally upper management! Your father is the CEO! If anyone at all is in position to find a workable, safe solution that doesn’t involve blood money, it’s you!”

“That right?” Marco leaps forward, trying to land a dropkick. “You’d be singing a different tune when it comes time to talk to investors.”

“I would not! None of this matters!” Skye’s scarf flicks between them and obscures her movements for just a second – all she needs. She grabs Marco by the leg, flinging him to the ground. “Money is replaceable! Jobs are replaceable! Lives are not replaceable!”

Marco is quiet for a moment, lying on the engraved brick pavement. Skye spares a second to take a look around – the park is more or less empty by this point. Good.

“You have to understand there are other options with less risk,” Skye breathes. Tentatively, she takes a step towards Marco, leaning down slightly. “It’s not too late-” Skye’s enhanced vision picks up Marco’s hand snapping towards his changer. Immediately, she leaps back, the space she was in filled by flashing steel just a moment later.

“I don’t negotiate with villains.” Marco heaves the words as he rises to his feet, brandishing his cherry-red blade. “I know that what you’re saying isn’t – can’t be true. I’m gonna fight, I’m gonna win, and I’m gonna do what needs to be done.”