Southern California, November 2056

  Blackstar hit the showers before breakfast.

  The Danger Complex was built for convenience. Everything they needed within walking distance of each other.

  The gourmet food court was her favorite.

  Pleasurable experiences were hard for her to come by.

  Food was one of her few things.

  “Blackstar! Good session?”

  “Good morning, Tennyson.” She sighed with relief. Without the sound of the chef’s voice and his lazy wave, she wouldn’t have recognized him. That was one less awkward public interaction for the day.

  “How may we fill your hunger today?”

  “Three orders of the mixed protein plate.” She had already picked her meals for the week. “And a large water. With an extra large cookies and cream protein shake to go for after.”

  “Got it!”

  She looked through the window into the kitchen as Tennyson tapped her order into a tablet.

  The first few times she had eaten at the restaurant had been awkward.

  Tennyson and his partner were too similar to each other for her to be able to rely on things like size, color and hair style to tell them apart.

  Fortunately, they were cheerful and good-natured.

  There had been a lot of jokes about her inability to tell Black men apart.

  She had laughed and apologized while dying of cringe on the inside.

  Even now she wasn’t sure who was doing the cooking this morning since Tennyson and his partner had brought on more people as their restaurant grew in popularity.

  The man in the back went to the open window to pick up the order from the tablet on his side and gave her a smile.

  She froze for a moment.

  No wave.

  The smile wasn’t enough.

  She didn’t know the man just by his face.

  There were very few exceptions when it came to people she recognized based solely on their faces.

  Thus, she fell back on her routine and returned the smile confidently.

  She doubted that it was Markus, Tennyson’s partner.

  He of the booming voice and right-handed wave.

  This man was left-handed.

  Plus, Markus always came around the front counter for a hug when it wasn’t busy.

  “My cousin from Chicago. I didn’t know he existed! My mom’s cousin’s son. A master of grilled meats. Literally, a grillmaster. Rashad, this is Blackstar. One of our best! Keeps us safe!”

  “I’ve heard about you. Thank you for your service. It’s great to meet you!”

  She nodded, trying to fix the sound of Rashad’s voice into her memory. “I look forward to tasting your mastery.”

  “Oh, don’t worry! I promise I won’t let you down! You’ll be wanting one more plate! That’s a guarantee!”

  “Setting that high bar, cuz!” Tennyson said.

  “You know it! All day! Everyday! Gotta get those levels!”

  Rashad went to cook after one last bright smile.

  She marked that as well.

  The man liked to smile with all his teeth when not unsure of the social situation.

  “I’m helping him out to broaden his repertoire. Hopefully, he can upgrade his cook class into chef. Or something close enough to grillmaster that he can find a consolidation into something really good. You know?”

  “I don’t.”

  “Oh, yeah, that’s right. Yeah, it sucks for my family. Fucking Americans sent a demigod and rabbit people.” He grimaced. “On the other hand it’s been great getting to know family I didn’t even know was alive. My mom’s really happy! Good to be reunited, but it just sucks it happened this way.”

  “Yeah… it’s unfortunate.”

  They chatted idly while she waited for her food since she had gone really early to beat the crowds.

  Tennyson was still riding the high of finding out he had family he didn’t know existed.

  They had moved from Chicago, having had been forced to abandon the city thanks to the Americans and their deplorable use of the rabbit people as weapons of mass destruction.

  For her part, she kept things surface level and spoke of her early morning training, keeping details out of it for opsec reasons.

  Tennyson pried a bit under the excuse of asking if he needed to increase the restaurant’s supplies and bring on more staff.

  Recent weeks had seen them having to close early on account of running out due to the influx of people using the training complex and in the general support population in their wider base.

  She demurred on account of the opsec and could only tell him to ask the administration running the support side.

  Luckily, he mentioned that he had already done so.

  Conversation grew louder around them as others began to filter in for the morning.

  “Uh oh,” Tennyson grinned. “Our busy day begins!”

  “I’ll get out of your way then.”

  She exchanged nods with the people lining up behind her.

  They seemed to be getting younger everyday.

  Support staff judging by their clothing.

  No name tags and she couldn’t recognize faces.

  So, to avoid awkward interactions she put on her flat business face as she made her way to her usual table.

  Table for two at most.

  Located at the open front of the restaurant.

  She sat with her back to the counter and kitchen.

  Sight lines in both directions of the wide lobby gave her clear firing angles that covered the widest area.

  Thus, she sat straight-backed while she waited for her food and reviewed her morning training in her head.

  “Here you go, ma’am!” Rashad placed the three plates in front of her along with a spotless glass and a pitcher filled iced water and fresh lemon slices.

  “Please, ‘Blackstar’ is okay. I’m not that old.”

  “No, ma’am— Blackstar… sorry. You don’t look a day over 30.”

  She was in fact closer to 50 than 40, let alone 30.

  She regarded the plates.

  Eggs, chicken and steak.

  Just how she liked them.

  Golden yokes, tender and medium with a good char.

  “This looks and smells wonderful.” She took a piece of steak. “Perfect! Don’t tell Tennyson and Markus, but your grillmaster class is showing.”

  “Appreciate it! You come back every day and I’ll take care of all your grilled meat needs! Hell! I’ll even grill for you on the side!” He slipped a card with his contact info on the table. “Not that I’m trying to steal my cousin’s business, but, you know, if you aren’t gonna be coming down here… then…” He shrugged. “I also do meal prep. Only have a couple of clients right now, but I’ll make you a primary one if you’re interested. I also do parties. I have reasonable prices. They mostly cover the cost of ingredients and supplies. I’m looking to gain levels, Skills and experience. To up my game, you know?”

  “Thank you, Rashad. I will keep you in mind.”

  Thankfully, the man knew when to take a hint and he excused himself.

  It was good when people had the ambition to improve both their levels and their skills.

  She ate briskly, but appreciatively.

  Three plates were nothing to her enhanced metabolism.

  She could’ve put down twice as much before it became difficult.

  The one drawback of sitting so close to where people walked was that they waved, nodded or smiled at her.

  She felt bad that she didn’t recognize any of them based on such a quick interaction.

  She needed voices and movement traits that made them unique from each other.

  That or name tags.

  She suggested people wear name tags at all times once a year.

  Sadly, Cal always rejected it.

  …

  Blackstar woke with a start.

  Her fists pointing wildly at imagined threats.

  Bad dream.

  The early days kind.

  She reined in the pounding in her chest, but found it a struggle as long gone sounds and smells filled her bedroom for a moment that felt like an eternity.

  It was always like that when the past sunk its claws into her to drag her back to the days she tried to keep buried in a distant grave.

  “Computer. Send message to Dr. Esteban. Are you available for a quick session this morning—” She checked the clock and her mental calendar. “Between 8 and 9. Send message at 8.”

  “Acknowledged.”

  The dream had thrown her out of her usual schedule by about three hours.

  It was still dark outside her window.

  She considered using the exercises her therapists over the years had taught her, but decided against.

  In less than 15 minutes she stepped out of her suite and headed to the Danger Complex.

  Three hours later, she was back in her home. Her hands and arms throbbed as usual after a vigorous power training session.

  Dr. Esteban’s grandfatherly face appeared through the holographic projector on her office room desk.

  He looked tired.

  It must’ve been busy for him with all the stress generated by the general increase in attacks.

  There was more space down south between the walls and the people than where she lived, but the people still couldn’t get away with the knowledge of their reality thanks to the near constant sounds of battle.

  “Have you given more thought to what we discussed in our last session?”

  “Yes, doctor. I feel that at this time I don’t want to pursue that.”

  “I hear you. Then let’s move on. How heavy would you say your work schedule has been over the last month?”

  She answered, but her thoughts drifted to what the doctor had been suggesting.

  A name.

  A real person name.

  Something other than ‘Blackstar’.

  She had a real name once.

  The one her parents had given her.

  Until a monster had eaten it in the early years of the spires.

  She hadn’t known it at the time, but the thing had been a demon.

  A minor one, otherwise it would’ve eaten more than just her name before she pulped it to pieces.

  The thought of just picking another name had always caused her to react irrationally, angrily.

  Her real name had been the last thing she had of her parents and replacing it felt like losing them for good.

  ‘Blackstar’ didn’t count, so she accepted it as better than nothing.

  The story wasn’t something she shared often.

  Only a handful of people.

  The thought reminded her of her old party.

  Theo, dead for nearly two decades, killed by the Slaver King.

  Kirk, a citizen of Florida— Richellia… she was never going to get used to that change.

  They held a reunion for two on the anniversary of Theo’s death in January.

  She wondered if they were going to miss the next one on account of the war.

  “Blackstar?” Doctor Esteban peered at her intently.

  “Yes, sorry.”

  “I understand that you are vital to the effort.” He sighed. “And that’s understating it. But, consider taking more time to reflect and meditate.”

  “I’ve maintained my routine.”

  An hour a day of quiet contemplation, reflection and meditation outside of what she found through training broken up into four convenient fifteen minute chunks.

  The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “I’m talking about time spent on something other than what you perceive to be necessary.”

  “Hobbies…” she suppressed a grimace.

  It seemed like everyone was on her to get and stick to a hobby.

  There were plenty of activities for her and the rest of the team.

  Cal made sure they had plenty of time.

  Granted, there had been less and less since the demigod bastard had hurt them so badly as conflicts escalated all over the world and right outside their walls.

  She glanced at the small side table and the partially painted miniature science fiction soldiers gathering dust.

  When was the last time she had worked on them?

  Nearly a year?

  With Boy on his Quest there hadn’t been anyone prodding her to work on them by constantly asking her about her progress and excitedly talking about the game one played with them once painted.

  She didn’t quite understand one’s need for the other to be completed first, but it was a hobby.

  “Yes, hobbies. It will be good for you to develop and maintain things that are neither required, nor critical as you perceive it.”

  She had a closet full of Lego sets. Gifts over the years.

  One person found out that exercising her fingers and hands was a good way to strengthen them and deal with the effects of her power, especially as she had grown it stronger over the years.

  Thus, Lego sets every birthday and Christmas and at random times.

  She doubted the effectiveness, so the unopened boxes gathered dust like the tiny space soldiers.

  “I know your days and nights are regimented, which is necessary for you. So, it’s only a suggestion, but consider taking 30 minutes to start from what is necessary to give to something that serves no other purpose than to relax or give enjoyment.”

  “I will do that.”

  She made a mental note to cut her evening exercise short so that she’d have the time just before lights out.

  Her fingers and hands would be sore, so she wondered which of her two shelved hobbies would be easier.

  She could always watch a movie or show.

  Maybe read?

  Did eating count?

  She considered asking the doctor.

  “Thank you, doctor.”

  “My pleasure as always.” He cleared his throat. “I noticed that you haven’t confirmed for our next scheduled session.”

  “Apologies. My mission schedule will be very busy for the foreseeable future. I’ll schedule a session the moment I know I have free time.”

  “Understandable. You do vital work to keep us all safe. But, I’m obligated to remind you that your mental health is important to that work.”

  “Of course, I learned that a long time ago. And there are people on staff here that I can speak to in an emergency.”

  “I know and I’m glad for that.”

  “They’re not as good as you,” she added.

  “I’ve spoken with them. They’re more than qualified.” His smile seemed genuine.

  …

  “Please stop moving them.” The healer’s hands glowed warm green over Blackstar’s.

  “Microfractures on… all of them.” The medic passed a scanner back and forth as the healer worked. “Okay, fingers are done.”

  “Moving to metacarpals and surrounding soft tissue.”

  The two girls seemed to be holding up well under stress.

  The medical chamber was awash with activity as devices beeped and doctors, nurses and other healer-types worked with purpose.

  No one panicked, even if the newer ones were teetering on the verge.

  It was to be expected.

  When their base was under attack in a way that reminded her of the time the demigod had nearly dealt them a death blow.

  The chamber shook occasionally as artillery shells and attack spells impacted the shielding.

  She studied the two working on her hands and arms.

  Their faces were young.

  As usual she couldn’t recognize them.

  No name tags.

  They had badge lanyards around their necks, but those were hidden behind their sleek, lightweight, emergency body armor.

  “What’s your name?” She regarded the healer.

  The healing magic flickered as the girl glanced at her before regaining her concentration.

  “My name is ‘Shalindra’.”

  “Oh…” One of those. “You’re really young.”

  She saw it more and more these days.

  The names of the younger generation getting fantasy and science fiction weird.

  The girl didn’t answer in favor of concentrating.

  “And you?” She eyed the medic.

  “My name is ‘Rebecca’, ma’am. Junior Medic. It’s an honor.”

  “Ah, I remember you from the orientation in September, I believe.” She made an effort to study new additions to their operation.

  Rebecca brightened then blushed.

  “You guys are doing a good job.”

  She saw the question on Rebecca’s lips.

  The main one any person in her current position would have at a time like this.

  “The battle is going well. The shields over this place aren’t in danger of falling.”

  That was all she could share under opsec rules.

  “Blackstar, do you copy?”

  “I copy, command.”

  “We need a hunt and kill. Mostly, a kill. The target is making himself easy to find.”

  “What am I dealing with?”

  “Sending coordinates and live vid. Eidolon of Suiteonemiades. He’s rampaging. Active Skill. Driving every person and monster in a 100 meter radius into violent rage. He’s feeding off it and raging, while remaining cognitive. We’re having to keep people out of his radius and send golems and drones instead.”

  Which the eidolon was tearing apart with superhuman strength or throwing monsters at.

  “Data suggests your top end blasts will hurt him.”

  “Acknowledged. On my way.”

  “Um… I’m not done healing you,” Shalindra said.

  Blackstar focused on the data and vid in her faceplate.

  The eidolon was on a direct track toward their command center, which incidentally was under the main building of the hotel-casino complex where she had a suite.

  She watched machine gun tracers light him up and bounce off his sculpted armor that only looked like bronze.

  “No magic shields?” she mused. Or they didn’t need to activate for something as weak as armor piercing .50 cal.

  They did look to be bouncing off his uncovered palm.

  “You have thirty seconds, Shalindra.”

  The girl squeaked like a mouse then doubled her concentration.

  “Microfractures in radius and ulna are gone. Muscle tears healed,” Rebecca said 29 seconds later.

  “You two keep working hard and you’ll gain good experience.”

  Blackstar hopped out of the chair and headed back into the battle.

  …

  She dropped into a forward roll beneath the swiping claws of a bear-like monster.

  A two-fisted punch blast shot the bear like a cannon ball into the path of the eidolon.

  The two rolled a good distance in a tangled, muscular heap.

  One was rather furry, while the other was only slightly less hairy.

  Readings in her faceplate highlighted the waves of magical rage pulsing out of the eidolon.

  She felt it trying to seize her control and heat it to overflow the pot.

  She engage her armor’s thrusters and leapt up and away.

  Risky with the harpies choking the dark sky and dropping monsters like so much Pokemon.

  More in a literal sense than she had ever experienced before.

  The wing-armed woman emptied bags of gems and crystals that released all sorts of monsters and mutated animals upon breaking on the ground.

  They even had a large mech in the vague shape of a crab with a scorpion tail that fired jets of highly corrosive venom. It was busy at the eastern wall melting a hole for the horde of rabbit people.

  She cursed at them.

  The defensive measures had pushed the golden portals several kilometers from their walls, which meant they had all that space and time to rain fire on the enemy.

  Except there had been so many that more than enough had reached them to pose a serious threat.

  There was even a group of ancient tanks and self-propelled artillery pieces that had somehow escaped Eron’s relentless purge shelling them from a distance.

  Speaking of which.

  Her HUD beeped a warning.

  A shell was projected to land in her general vicinity.

  She raised a clenched fist, relying on her HUD to tell her where to aim and opened her armored gloves with a cybernetic thought to reveal bare skin.

  A black star-shaped blast punched through the shell high in the sky in a bloom of bright orange and dark smoke.

  From being able to hit as hard as she could physically punch to being able to punch through a steel door to beyond.

  Her hard work had clearly been worth it.

  A 0.37% increase in overall power in the last week.

  “Stop running and face me like a warrior!” the Eidolon of Suiteonemiades bellowed.

  Literal hot air from the way his aura resembled the haze coming off a desert road at noon in the summer time.

  100 meters.

  Her HUD tracked the distance to eidolon shrink as he bounded directly at her with each stride the length of a normal human’s longest jump.

  On the upside, a direct head on approach made targeting easy.

  She blasted him in the face.

  Magic shield flashed, but didn’t stop the impact that sent him flying back to where he had started.

  It was time to finish it.

  She charged both fists past the limits of her slightly superhuman physique.

  The black energy coursed through her and gathered in the bones and muscles of her hands and arms, filling them past their capacity to contain.

  The special armor systems around her hands and arms helped contain her power while also absorbing the excess that bled through to funnel back into her upon the moment of release.

  She felt the squeeze as the metallic muscles tightened to help keep everything from bursting out of her skin.

  Two targets.

  Head and chest.

  She tightened her focus.

  The smallest sized star-shaped blasts she could make, but packed with the most power she could generate.

  A bang to rival the artillery guns in the distance sent the monsters in her vicinity flying.

  The recoil of the twin blasts would’ve have sent her flying even with her power’s inherent mitigation of the laws of physics. Only that combined with the thrusters in her armor kept her from sliding back more than a few meters.

  Damage alerts, to both her body and armor, blared in her helmet.

  She silenced the beeping and ignored the flashing red lights.

  She only had eyes for the eidolon.

  He stood for a moment.

  She saw right through the star-shaped hole in his chest.

  She saw the ruined remains of his head before he toppled.

  Her hands and arms throbbed with the pain of a thousand hot needles incessantly jabbing.

  “Good kill, Blackstar. We need you to reinforce the Danger Complex.”

  “Acknowledged.”

  …

  “You are weak for a champion.”

  The eidolon waved her around like a fish on a spear.

  Some kind of ghost spear that went intangible to get through her armor and turned solid while in her guts.

  Healing gel and pain killers flooded her so all she felt was the long blade moving around a bit inside her.

  Unpleasant, but not debilitating.

  It would’ve been nice if the spear didn’t have a cross guard preventing her from sliding all the way down to the smug bastard, but she supposed that was why it was there.

  “Truly, do you have nothing left? This will make for a short song.”

  He wiggled her.

  She tried to hold on and keep it steady.

  Pain and healing gel or not the less slicing and dicing to her guts the better.

  Her eyes darted to each fighter the eidolon had brought with him.

  They had formed a wide circle around her, blocking fire with shields and magic.

  They were kitted out in demigod-provided gear, but they looked and spoke English like Americans.

  It was a shame.

  She didn’t like killing fellow Earthians in most situations.

  The HUD confirmed targets locked.

  Micromissiles screamed out of hidden compartments in her armor.

  Magic shields flashed, but she had launched more than one barrage.

  Before the eidolon could react, she released the black energy she had been building the entire time.

  One fist touched the spear shaft, shattering it.

  The other aimed at the eidolon’s face.

  His helmet had a powerful enchantment according to her readings.

  The blackstar proved superior.

  Two de-headed eidolons in less than 15 minutes.

  Now, that would make for a good song!

  She’d bring it up in the after action briefing.

  They deserved personal songs of their own.

  Jayde used to bring up having theme music made for each of them.

  She regarded the broken spear.

  Unfortunate.

  A ghost spear would’ve made a good Christmas present for Drake.

  She wondered how he and the kids were doing in Manila.

  The HUD screamed at her.

  What was it this time?

  Ah…

  Her vitals.

  Not great.

  Left hand and arm completely broken.

  That was going to be a pain to fix.

  Right had a few more blasts in it or one big one.

  Ironically, the hole in her guts was a lesser concern at the moment since the healing gel was doing its thing.

  The Danger Complex loomed behind her.

  Shields looked good.

  She checked in with the interior.

  No breaches.

  They asked if she needed to go inside for medical attention.

  “Command, this is Blackstar. Am I needed?”

  It took a long moment before she received a response.

  Not good.

  They must’ve been really busy.

  She eyed the golden-shelled crab mech skittering down the inside of their walls. The antique-looking thing was bigger than a house.

  If she could get close and lined up her blast right she could take out two, maybe, three legs.

  “Negative, Blackstar! Your vitals are near critical! Get medical attention, immediately!”

  “Acknowledged.”

  She caught her reflection in the glass of the Danger Complex doors.

  It startled her a moment.

  The fair-skinned woman looked young and in great health if one didn’t count the crimson flowing from her eyes, nose and mouth.

  A few stray strands of hair as dark as her stars had slipped loose and were matted to her forehead.

  She stuck her tongue out to remind herself that the face she didn’t recognize was hers.

  “Hold on, Blackstar! We’re opening the blast doors!”

  A heavy impact drove her into the glass doors, shattering it.

  She turned with fist raised.

  A second stone thundered into the building’s shield like an artillery shell.

  A very large man with thick armor that resembled the rocky surface of cooling lava hurled what appeared to be a pebble for a third time.

  Granted, he was very big, so what was a pebble in his palm was probably closer in size to a tennis ball in hers.

  “Are you craven, champion? Step out from your mother’s womb and face me! I am the eidolon of—”

  A glinting meteor fell out of the sky and flattened the eidolon with the sound of breaking stone and tenderized meat.

  Hammer hefted the huge boomhammer and gave her a head nod.

  When had she last seen the metallic statue of a woman in person?

  It had to have been five years ago.

  In Canada on the other side of one of those Great Lakes.

  The mooseformers thing.

  Hammer looked taller and bigger than she remembered.

  It was good that they were all finding ways to improve themselves.

  She returned the nod and stepped inside the Danger Complex.

  Healing first, then she’d head back out.

  …

  Blackstar blinked.

  The sun’s warmth shined on her head.

  The refreshing scent of a clean ocean blew in with the breeze.

  She sat in a chair amid a crowd.

  At a wedding apparently.

  Boy stood—

  Whatever the healers were doing must’ve been good because this was the most vivid hallucination she had ever experienced.

  Oh… right.

  Cal had asked and she had agreed.

  …

  Blackstar blinked.

  “Are you okay, Miss Blackstar?” The doctor’s blurry face blocked the ceiling lights.

  She wiped the tears.

  “No.”

  The doctor fiddled with his tablet.

  “Scans look okay. It took longer than I liked, but we stopped the internal bleeding and closed all the holes and cuts in your intestine and stomach. Bones are fixed, but since they have been fixed multiple times in the last few hours they will be—”

  “Okay… I’m headed back out then.”

  “Under normal circumstances I’d try to stop you, but…” He shrugged. “I’m sorry. Thank you for all that you’ve done and will do for us.”

  “Where’s my gear?”

  “Blackstar!” A young man she didn’t recognize by face, nor voice stuck his head through the fabric door. “Follow me!”