Red Fox Action Log 50 cont:

  Gunnar gave a ‘woah!’ Bridgette just gave a ‘hum.’ Sleuth said nothing, and didn’t seem surprised. Cynthia held her hand over her mouth, and looked away as soon as I glanced at her.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t tell y’all sooner,” I said.

  “You sly dog,” Bridgette said.

  “I didn’t do it on purpose,” I said.

  “It doesn’t work unless you have purpose and intention,” Cynthia said.

  “Well, okay, I meant to save Wendel from the beam,” I stammered.

  “What beam?” Bridgette asked.

  “The ones coming from you and Cuthbert. I had to protect him while he worked to stop the vortex. When the beam hit me, I turned into this translucent thing, and diverted it.”

  “Wait,” Cynthia said, rushing to me. She took my hand again, and gazed at the gem. “It’s true. You purified it.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “It was a shadow gem, but you turned it into its former form. You turned it into diamond.”

  “It’s diamond?” I asked. I had an idea of what that meant. It must have had something to do with the former leader of the Gem Brigade.

  “Yeah,” she said, slinking away from me again.

  “What does this mean?” Gunnar asked.

  “It means we’re off the map,” Sleuth said. “If he can learn to control it, he could become as strong as Gem Blade.”

  “Not as strong,” she said. “But close.”

  “I’m not sure it works,” I said. “It somehow got tied into my old powers, the Fox Instinct. I’m not sure I can control it.”

  “Can you still go invisible?” Bridgette asked.

  “Only if I’m in danger,” I said.

  Bridgette grabbed a fork, and threw it directly at my face as hard as she could.

  I stepped aside, and turned invisible. The fork embedded itself into the cabinet. Gunnar and Cynthia gasped. I exited invisible.

  “Well,” I said, “now you know, I guess.”

  “What about the gem? Can you fly?” Gunnar asked.

  “No,” Cynthia responded, “that’s advanced. Can you produce a weapon?”

  “No,” I said. “I think I can do this.”

  I filled myself with the intention to fight. The gem sparked, then a field of rainbow-iridescent light spread from my hand to my entire body. It wasn’t bright, so much as like a dull soap bubble. I grabbed another fork, and plunged it into my leg. The tines snapped and the fork slipped off the field.

  “Think it could stop a bullet?” Bridgette asked.

  “Certainly,” Cynthia said. “But we aren't fighting people with guns. A powerful energy attack can get through.”

  “I mean,” Sleuth added, “we are very much still fighting people with guns. Lovely’s people will have them. And I will remind you that I am not bullet proof.”

  “Neither am I,” Gunnar added.

  “Well, you aren’t going to be in the field,” I said.

  “Didn’t help Parvati,” Gunnar corrected.

  “I’m sorry,” I said.

  “Shut up,” Gunnar hit back.

  “Enough,” Sleuth warned.

  “Anyway,” I said, trying to get us back on track. “We have two options. Go secure John Sulivan. Or…”

  “Or what?” Bridgette asked.

  I took a breath, then jumped into it.

  “Well I’ve been thinking that we could go train somewhere, get me up to speed, and focus on becoming a stronger team. We have very strong players, all of us are. Sleuth is a crack investigator. Gunnar is brilliant at things I didn’t even know he knew. Bronze Boy’s got scary powerful energy projection. And Cyn — I mean, Gem Blade. She’s like a legend right out of the comics, yeah?”

  Gem Blade nodded solemnly.

  “But if the enemy can see our every move,” I continued, “we need to make sure that our next move is a strong one. Hell, it’s got to be damn near perfect. And we just aren’t stronger than the sum of our parts yet.”

  “Where would we go?” Cynthia asked, interest crossing her face.

  “Well,” Sleuth said, picking up my slack. “I have a neighbor out in Georgia. He ostensibly has a prop making shop out there. Used by local and international productions, but also illegal vigilantes.”

  “Right,” Gunnar said. “Hero work isn’t tolerated there, like it is here.”

  “It’s not,” Sleuth said. “He outfits heroes on the sly. He also has plenty of space for us to train — and it’s secluded too.”

  “That’s what, a twelve hour drive?” Gunnar asked.

  “More like ten,” Sleuth said, “if we keep to a strict timetable.”

  “I could fly ahead,” Bronze Boy said. “Or I could doubleback and make sure we aren’t followed.”

  “Not looking forward to a road trip?” Cynthia asked playfully.

  “Well pardon me if it doesn’t sound like my idea of a good time. Only Americans would think driving for 10 hours straight is a trivial thing. I got a cousin out in Leeds. Haven’t seen him in 10 years.”

  “Must be a shitty cousin,” Gunnar mused.

  “No, I loved that punk. Just doesn’t make sense, yeah?”

  “So we think we may want to do it?” I asked.

  “Why not?” Cynthia shrugged. “Sounds fun. It's been years since I’ve spent much time in close quarters with friends. Gotta keep my identity safe after all.”

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  “We’re friends?” I asked.

  “Sure,” she said, smile brightening like a beam of starlight.

  I didn’t say anything for a bit. I was just lost in that smile.

  “Let’s take a break and think on it,” Sleuth said.

  I slipped on my jacket, and made my way down to the street. It had snowed. The snowplow’d gathered it in great dirty gray piles all over.

  People seemed cheery despite the gray. Probably going to snow again soon.

  “Help!” a woman screamed. I had a flashback to my adventure in Kit City. Couldn’t be helped. I had to be present. No suit. That’s bad. Not only would my identity be compromised, but I wouldn’t have my protection.

  I ran across the street, leaping into the air over a car that didn’t stop in time. I turned to dodge a man on a bike. I slid into the alley.

  I will spare you the things the man was screaming at her. They were not nice.

  “Back away from the lady!” I yelled. “And take a deep breath. We can all get out of this the best versions of ourselves.”

  That’s what Sleuth would have said. So that’s what I said too.

  The man turned to me. So did the woman. Already the welt on her face began to swell.

  My blood boiled. I had more power now. That meant that I had to be extra careful.

  He pulled a gun. Ice filled my veins. From hot to cold in an instant. I hated how that made me feel. I went invisible. He didn’t shoot. That was good. I crept close. When I reappeared, I had time to grab the slide, and pull it back just a fraction, then clamp down hard. He tried to pull the trigger, but nothing happened. I clocked him in the jaw.

  The woman screamed. I didn’t like that. I didn’t want to scare her.

  “Run!” I said. “Ask for help!”

  I didn't need help, but she would. Even if they didn’t live together, even if she didn’t need a place to stay, these incidents leave scars. The women's clinic wasn’t well staffed here, but it could help. The kind of person that helps a woman in need would know.

  She ran. We struggled with the gun. I enveloped myself with the light of my gem. The gun went off. Just like the night it had when — I was different. Either it missed, or the field did its job.

  I crushed the gun with my fist. I threw the pieces to the ground. He back peddled.

  “This could have gone another way,” I said.

  He swore at me. I knocked him right out.

  Man. As good as I was, sometimes I had to acknowledge that I still had a lot to learn. Kinda guy that pulls a gun on a stranger, well I didn’t feel bad about clocking him. But I also could have gotten really hurt. She could have gotten hurt.

  But I was so much more powerful now. The strength I had when this gem was on…

  I had thought to grab a zip-tie on my way out. Stupid, why hadn’t I grabbed my full kit? I was getting sloppy.

  I tied his wrists, pulled my phone and made the call to the authorities. Even if they weren’t able to find anyone that could testify to our scuffle, sitting on your ass in an alley nursing a sore face should teach him a lesson.

  After, I walked around the corner. And there was Gem Blade. She had the woman in a tight hug. Good. She looked better, calmer.

  I needed to be like that. Why didn’t I have that?

  She wore her supersuit, for one. The first time I’d seen it in person. Mostly a dark blue, with white highlights and piping, and a white diamond on her chest overlaid with the blue sword. Her new emblem. I liked the old one better. I wondered where she’d hidden the suit. Maybe she projected it from her gem?

  She also had the demeanor and bearing of a hero. So did Sleuth. I had to work on that.

  Gem Blade nodded to me, took the woman’s hands, and they lifted into the sky. She didn’t drag her, just holding her hand was enough to have her levitate alongside her.

  How delightful. I tried not to be too envious.

  I walked to the convenience store seven blocks down the road, comfortable enough distance that I shouldn’t be bothered.

  “Captain Hook!” the man behind the counter said. “What can I do for ya?”

  “That’s not my name,” I said reflexively. I hated that that was my first response, but this was honestly still pretty new to me.

  “Sorry, boss, just trying to keep things light,” he said. Salt and pepper beard, probably South Asian. Easy smile, but tired eyes. I wonder what kept him up at night? Or maybe he slept well, but the tiredness was something else, something in his bones.

  “You’re fine,” I said, smiling my nicest smile. That seemed to cheer him up. “Got a scratch ticket?”

  “Which one?”

  I snagged a soda from the fridge section.

  “The one with the American flag on it. And this.”

  He got me rung up. I paid. Then Gem Blade walked in.

  “Gem Girl!” the man behind the counter crowed. “A real celebrity! In my store!”

  “Just stopping in to see my friend.”

  “Shoulda told me earlier! Would have comped him the soda.”

  “I like to pay anyway,” I said.

  We walked off down the aisle together as I handed her the can. She popped it open for me without a word, and handed it back. I took a sip, savored the cane sugar, then handed it to her. She smiled and took a sip too.

  “Jeeze luise, that’s just straight sugar!”

  “Yeah,” I chuckled. “You say that like you’ve never had one.”

  “Oh I have,” she said, twirling her hair in her index finger absentmindedly. “But not since I got back.”

  “Back from space?”

  “Mhmm.”

  We walked down to a children’s park, sat in the swing sets and talked. A man was here with his kid, a toddler, watching him slide. Kid was still young enough that the man cheered when he went down the ‘big slide.’

  I handed the soda back to Cynthia, and put a quarter up to my hook. I clenched it, then started to scratch the ticket.

  “Get anything good?” she asked.

  “Bubkis!”

  “Drat,” she said.

  I shoved the scratch off in my pocket then took the soda back. I took a sip. I didn’t want to finish it. She’d drank from it. It was silly, childish, but I was holding onto the indirect kiss of it all.

  “How’s the girl?” I asked.

  “He was a friend from school, GCU. I set her up with a shelter for the next couple weeks, and encouraged her to sign up for online classes. No guarantee the authorities will do the right thing. Best she avoid him.”

  “That sucks. She shouldn’t have to change her life just because of him. She doesn’t deserve that.”

  “Certainly. But it’s not about ‘deserve’ is it? It’s about what keeps her safe.”

  I just nodded. The wind blew in cold, stirring her unbound hair. She didn’t seem to mind it being tossed around so much as to blind her. The clouds covered the sun, but just enough light filtered through to highlight the red of her hair. It also showed it to be a fair bit greasy, two days out from a wash. Not that I paid attention to those things.

  In her suit, she was powerful, nostalgic. But she also looks childlike in the swing, and messy, human. As much as a woman made of starlight could be human.

  But hell, maybe I wasn’t giving humanity enough credit. Maybe we’re all made of starlight.

  “Are you angry at me?” I asked.

  “What for?”

  “For taking the gem. Her gem.”

  “Did you take it?” she asked, brushing her hair behind an ear to get a look at me. “Or did you use it in a moment of passion, and find that it chose you?”

  “Well it’s certainly stuck now.”

  “Yep. And now you have more responsibility than I’m sure you bargained for. If you learn to use that thing, you could be stronger than Bronze Boy.”

  “But not stronger than you? Because I don’t have all the pieces.”

  “It’s not really the size of the gem that matters, so much as the shape. The shape is unstable like that. But if you rise to meet it, you can shape yourself to cover for its weaknesses. I’m stronger because I’ve learned how to use it. I don’t stop learning. Though maybe they’ll come a day when you surpass me. But I wouldn’t bet on it.”

  I waved the scratch off to emphasize my point.

  “Not with my luck.”

  She laughed.

  “Why did you decide to follow me?”

  She screwed up her mouth in a contemplative frown.

  “I don’t know if you remember two weeks ago. It feels like forever. But do you remember when I said: ‘ask me about it later?’”

  “What do you mean?”

  “At that robot fight, you said ‘it doesn’t matter who leads.’ And I said, ‘it does matter. Ask me about it later.’”

  “Oh.”

  “That’s when I decided. I was always joining a team. Just didn’t know when you were ready to lead.”

  Her smile split her whole face, and I found myself laughing.

  In that moment it struck me: she’d always wanted someone to lead. If it wasn’t Gem Diamond, HInata, it was Captain Iron. Now me. She was so strong, so wise, so beautiful, but she just didn’t think that she was worth being in charge. But that was silly. I would be lucky to have half her experience as a hero.

  She really trusted me. She looked at me, compared me to Captain Iron, and didn’t find me wanting. That was crazy, right? Could I be worthy of that trust?

  “I’m going to let you down,” I said.

  She cocked her head. Maybe I caught her off guard. But she wasn’t scandalized.

  “I know,” she said. “I’ll be here to catch you when you fall. Just show us the way forward. I’ll be right behind you.”