At Charles’ urging, Vivainne saw one of the tower therapists. The more time she spent in the tower, the more impressed she was by the resources there. She’d always viewed the towers as a sort of clubhouse for heroes, but that wasn’t the case at all. Yes, heroes used the tower as a base, but the bottom level of the tower was entirely resources for the public. Education material, help for young or new supers, heroes assigned to non-emergency duty. Then, a daycare for the children of heroes. Therapists. Lawyers. Government liaisons, non-super coordination teams to keep hero operations running smoothly. Tactical teams to plan out responses. Crisis response.

  A far cry from the idea of a hero roaming the streets, fighting any random thug they ran across.

  Safer now, too.

  It was different from what she’d pictured when she imagined being a hero, strong enough to keep herself and others safe.

  She’d hardly imagined what it would mean to be a hero, only that she would be able to get away.

  She needed to think about what being a hero would mean, and how she was going to get there. Looking forward, not looking back.

  To her surprise, the therapist hadn’t wanted to talk about what she’d been through. At least, she hadn’t asked Vivainne to talk about that, like she’d expected. She’d wanted to get to know her, asking about her favorite book, things like that. It was strange, and left her feeling off kilter as she left the room, having gone in prepared for something entirely different.

  Closing the therapist’s office door, she found herself face to face with a familiar super. She hadn’t seen her in uniform before, but even wearing a tight spandex suit and rainbow skirt and a cowl over the bottom half of her face, Vivainne could recognize her.

  Iris.

  “Oh!” The shorter girl stepped backward, eyes lighting up. Unable to see the bottom of her face, she couldn’t be certain if the hero was smiling, but she seemed surprisingly happy to see Viv. “Hi. Vivainne, right?”

  She nodded. “Iris, yeah? Or is that…” she trailed off, uncertain. The girl had introduced herself as Iris, Hero of the Street, out of costume. Was that her hero name then, or her actual name?

  “Iris is the only name I go by these days,” the hero said. She hooked a hand under the cowl, working it down, revealing the bottom half of her face. A bright smile shone up at Vivainne. “What are you doing here?”

  Vivainne motioned behind her, and Iris nodded.

  “Makes sense. I heard about what happened with your mom. I’m sorry about all that.”

  “You… heard about that?” Vivainne asked, taking a half step back. It shouldn’t have been surprising, Iris was a hero after all. But she was the one person that hadn’t known, that Vivainne could pretend to be normal around, and now she didn’t even have that.

  “Yeah,” Iris winced. “Sorry about that. I shouldn’t have brought it up.”

  “Yeah,” Vivainne agreed. “You shouldn’t have.”

  She started down the hallway, hating the way the words twisted in her mouth and the anger bubbling inside. Everything that had boiled up throughout the day, talking to the therapist, not talking about her mother, and now apparently everyone knew what she’d been going through. It was embarrassing. How was she supposed to train and become a hero here if everyone knew everything about her?

  Footsteps pattered down the hallway after her until Iris caught up with her. “I’m sorry,” she said again. “Do you want to get out of here?”

  “What?” The word came out jagged and sharp, and she sucked in a breath before repeating herself, calmer than before. “What?”

  “Do you want to get out of here?” She waved her hand through the air. “Do you have somewhere you have to be after this, or are you just going to be waiting around until whoever you're here with decides it’s time to go home?”

  Vivainne shrugged. Recompense had brought her over to the tower, as Charles, and gone to speak with someone about being reinstated. Stardust and The Path were working. There was her sister, and she’d planned to go find her, but she had no idea whether the tower would let her visit or not.

  “I’m off duty,” Iris said. “Just got off. I can take you home. Or just… out, if you want?”

  Vivainne arched an eyebrow. “Was that your way of asking me out on a date?”

  “It wasn’t, unless you want it to be,” Iris said with a shrug, color creeping into her cheeks. Vivainne laughed at the sight, unable to stay angry any longer.

  “Sure,” she said. It would be better than just waiting around here, feeling people’s eyes on her, everyone judging, everyone wondering what would happen about her mother. She didn’t want to deal with their attention anymore. The attention of one person was better than everyone’s. “Take me out somewhere.”

  “Well, let me go get dressed,” Iris said. “Unless you like the supersuit.”

  Tight spandex, a rainbow skirt, boots that went all the way up to her knees, and a tight headband that matched the shirt to hold her hair back. Not bad, but a totally different vibe than Iris had that night at the club.

  “You can change,” Vivainne said. “Do I need to change?”

  Her blood warmed as Iris swept her eyes up and down her body, taking her in. Maybe attention wasn’t all bad.

  “No,” Iris said, lips curling into a warm grin. “You’re good. Wait for me in the rec room?”

  “Okay,” Viv said, not asking where the rec room was until Iris was long gone and it was too late.

  A quick question led her to the rec room, a spacious, colorful room packed with books, board games, snacks, drinks, and a TV set to a random channel, playing trivia questions. Whoever was in the room before apparently had an interest in music history, hip hop specifically. Vivainne turned the TV off after the second song.

  The longer she spent in the tower, the more she uncovered. New facets of the space that only emphasized how much care had been put into the construction of the tower, and the heroes who spent most of their days there.

  It made sense. While waiting for her meeting with the therapist, she’d flipped through a book on the history of the tower. There were the facts everyone knew, and then there was the history few cared to learn. Five heroes who built the hero system as it was today, stopping the super wars and bringing stability not only to America, but throughout the world. There were still some places, of course, where supers were not so readily accepted, but much of the stability throughout the world had been established by the Titans.

  After that, the Titans established the hero system used across much of the world today, the Unity of Heroes, something not limited by country or nationality. Heroes who banded together to protect their homes from threats and work together to protect the world, and keep each other safe. Evidently, what those Titans had gone through inspired them to build the towers into a safe space, with therapists, snacks, doctors, and daycares.

  Iris walked into the room and Vivainne leapt to her feet, realizing halfway up she was being far too eager, though it was too late to stop. Having changed out of her super suit, Iris wore a pair of purple cargo pants and a gray, pink, and white striped shirt with a low neckline.

  “You ready?” Iris asked.

  “Yeah,” Vivainne said. “Let me just text Charles where I’m going. Where are we going…?”

  “That’s a surprise,” Iris said, a glint in her eyes. “But we’re not leaving the city.”

  “That was an option?” She looked up from her phone, halfway through typing a message.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “Always an option,” Iris said with a shrug. “If you had your passport, we could even be cleared to leave the country, so long as we were headed to another tower.”

  “Really?”

  “Really,” Iris said with a nod. “Though, we try not to abuse that power. It’s seen in bad taste to abuse it.”

  “That makes sense,” Vivainne said. She moved into the hallway, waiting for Iris to take the lead, only for the girl to grab her hand and drag her in the opposite direction.

  “Where are we going?” Viv asked, glancing back to be certain. “The stairs are that way.”

  “We’re not taking the stairs.” Iris flashed her a mischievous smile. She hurried them through the hallway, squeezing past people along the way until they reached a pair of double doors. Iris pushed through, pulling them out onto a balcony Vivainne didn’t know existed.

  Wind blasted against her face, cold and crisp with the sting of salt. From this height, they couldn’t see the ocean she frequently forgot was nearby, but she could certainly feel it. But, what were they doing here?

  “Come here,” Iris said, still holding onto Viv’s hand as she walked to the edge of the balcony. With her free hand, she crafted a rainbow, forming it onto a set of stairs to the top of the railing.

  “What are you doing?” Vivainne demanded as Iris mounted the stairs, standing precariously at the top.

  “We’re going on an adventure,” Iris declared, looking down at her. Short as she was, it was the only time she’d be able to look down at Vivainne like that.

  “Looks like we’re going on a very short one,” Viv said, stepping up to the railing and peering over the edge. They weren’t far enough up that death was certain, but it would be entirely an unpleasant fall. Or impact.

  The air caught in her lungs as she stared at the floor.

  “Live a little, Viv,” Iris said, tugging on her hand. “Don’t you trust me?”

  “I don’t even know you.”

  Iris laughed, the sound drifting off into the wind. “Come on,” she said. “I know you haven’t done anything like this before. It’s time to live your life. So get up on this ledge.”

  Vivainne stared at the stairs, crafted of rainbow light, and let out a groan. “Fine,” she said, stepping onto the rainbow. To her surprise, it felt as solid as stone, unmoving beneath her feet. How did it work? Was it actually a rainbow, or just crafted energy?

  “Okay,” Iris said. She twisted her hand in Viv’s, curling their fingers together. “Now, jump.”

  “What?”

  Before the shout had fully left her mouth, Iris leapt, dragging Vivainne off the ledge and—

  Onto a slide made of rainbows.

  A scream escaped Vivainne’s lips as they slid, carried up into the air as the rainbow extended out before them, growing out right in front of their feet before Viv’s shoes could ever hit the edge.

  A wild laugh leapt from Iris, sheer joy and excitement in her voice as she built the slide in front of them. Soon, their momentum ended, and Iris switched from building a slide to having a solid platform beneath them, moving along at a steady but not sickening pace.

  Getting a hand beneath her, Vivainne pushed herself into a seated position, mouth locked tightly shut against the feeling of motion sickness.

  “You okay?”

  Vivainne nodded, not trusting herself to open her mouth yet.

  “Oh, don’t tell me you get motion sickness,” Iris said.

  “Haven’t yet,” Vivainne managed. She sucked in a deep breath through her nose, releasing it slowly as the nausea faded. Sitting upright, no longer slipping and sliding far too fast for comfort, she managed to fight the feeling off.

  “That’s good,” Iris said. “Throwing up on a date would be a major turnoff.”

  “I can imagine,” Viv said, deadpan as she met Iris’s eyes.

  “Sure, but I’ve had it happen before,” Iris said. “Trust me. Nothing grosser than making out with someone moments before they start to puke.”

  Vivainne grimaced. “That does sound gross.”

  “So,” Iris said, looking out at the distance. They soared above the city, weaving between the skyscrapers, over people stuck in the late evening traffic. “What happened to you the other night? We were having a good time, I thought.”

  “Yeah,” Viv said, dropping her gaze to her hands. She hadn’t said a word to the hero before sneaking off, escaping through a wall only to be found by Darcy and Jordan. “We were. I just… got overwhelmed. Needed to cool off.”

  “I didn’t see you leave,” Iris said.

  “That’s my trick,” Viv admitted. “You’ll never see me disappear.”

  “So that’s your power? Invisibility?”

  “No,” Vivainne said. “I’m a shadow manipulator. I can shift into shadow.”

  “Oh, that’s a good one,” Iris said, “very useful.” She looked over at Vivainne, a grin creeping onto her face. “How would you react if I started singing that magic carpet ride song?”

  “Oh, please don’t,” Vivainne chuckled.

  Somehow managing to refrain from bursting into song, Iris carried them across the city, placing them on the top of a bridge, looking out at the water. A chill wrapped around Vivainne like a blanket and she shivered, but it wasn’t bad. Wrapping her hands up in the sleeves of her shirt, she waited for Iris to speak.

  “I like coming here,” Iris said, lifting a hand, as if wanting to touch the sun setting in the distance. Fire set across the water, burning over the distant waves, sky turning into a tapestry of pink and orange and purple. “It’s a good escape, and a good reminder. I can get away from all the voices, and see how beautiful everything is. What I have to protect. Reminds me even when I don’t like it.”

  Vivainne nodded slowly. “You don’t always want to be a hero?”

  “It’s not that,” Iris said, shaking her head. “Some days are hard. I just have to remember why I’m doing this.”

  “Why are you doing this?” Vivainne asked. She moved closer to Iris, tilting toward her to hear her answer over the howling wind. “I feel like I should know, I’m around enough heroes now, but I haven’t asked.”

  “There’s a few reasons,” Iris said, matching Vivainne and angling her body to face her. “It’s a simple path for supers. Laid out for us by culture and expectation. But I was also a little nonbinary kid who couldn’t defend themself once, and wanted to learn, and I know there are other people out there that feel the same. I know as a hero, I have to protect everyone, but I’m doing it for those little kids.”

  “Oh,” Viv said, blinking and leaning back. She should have asked. That’s what you did, right? “I didn’t realize you were nonbinary.”

  “Oh right, I suppose I didn’t say anything,” Iris said. “But yeah, I told you this was the only name I go by anymore. I use she/her and they/them pronouns, if you are curious.”

  “Okay,” Vivainne said, nodding. She shouldn’t have assumed anything, not that she knew Iris very well at all. “That makes sense, and all. The hero stuff. Do you like it?”

  “I do,” Iris said, smiling once more. “It’s fulfilling, if hard, work. The tower takes good care of you, and you make good money. You get to make a difference, and there are so many different types of work you can do as a hero that even if you’re not a combat type, like everyone seems to think you should be, you can make a difference. Recompense is a great example of that.”

  “Yeah,” Vivainne nodded. It was true. Recompense wasn’t a combat hero, though with his tools, he could function as one. He was a resource and tech hero, using genius and tech control to fight, contain, and obtain information. But Vivainne wasn’t like that. She couldn’t support a team. She couldn’t fight. She could sneak, but that was a power more suited to criminals than heroes. And with a broken core, even her shadow manipulation was limited. There was her original core, if she could ever figure out how to access it, but she didn’t even remember having that power.

  “You’re thinking about going into the hero program, right?”

  “I was,” Viv said with a nod.

  “You aren’t anymore?”

  Vivainne shook her head. Hair fell down her back, loose and knotted from the wind. Without the hair tie that had become such a part of her these past few weeks, she felt unanchored. “I’m not sure. There are some… things that make me wonder if I have the right to try and be a hero, and I also don’t know how useful I’d be.”

  “It sounds like you have a really useful power,” Iris said. “So I’m not sure why you wouldn’t be useful. Anyone can be useful. I mean, fuck, I make rainbows.”

  “Useful rainbows.”

  “Useful shadows.”

  “Touche, I guess,” Vivainne said. She let out a sigh, chuckling halfway through. Iris had a point. If they could be a hero with a power that was crafting rainbows, surely there was a place for someone like Vivainne. “I guess, part of it is that there’s not really a reason for me to try anymore.”

  “Why?” Iris shook their head at the question.

  “Because…” Unable to look at them any longer, Vivainne tilted her head back, staring up at the sky. It had turned dark, stars appearing overhead, barely visible amid the city light and cloudy sky. How to say this in a way that made sense? “I wanted to be a hero so I could get away. Somehow, I was going to become a hero and get away from my mother, stop her, put an end to it. I didn’t really think past that. But in the end, I got help, and I have to wonder if I even still want to be a hero, because I don’t need to be.”

  “That’s a good point,” Iris said, the response so surprising Vivainne brought her eyes back to the hero. “You have options now. You’re safe to choose whatever you want to do and be. Becoming a hero shouldn’t be a decision made out of desperation.”

  A gasp escaped Vivainne. She’d been terrified to admit she wasn’t certain, that she didn’t know what she wanted to do, and Iris hadn’t been judgmental. It didn’t matter that she was a near stranger, having someone listen and understand was enough.

  “Is it funny I feel better about the idea of being a hero now?” Vivainne said with a wet laugh.

  “No,” Iris said, smiling. “Now that you know you don’t have to make the same decision for the same reasons as before you can decide what you want to do now. And really, it’s not bad being a hero.”

  They sat in silence for a mere moment before Iris spoke again. “It’s cold,” she said. “You want to get out of here?”

  “Yes,” Vivainne said, shivering as she spoke. It was chilly before the sunset. In the dark, it was freezing.

  Iris stood up, something Vivainne hardly dared to on the top of the bridge until the hero grabbed her hand and pulled her up. “Where to?”

  “Drinks?” Vivainne suggested.

  That charming laugh rang out from Iris’s mouth again. “How about food first?”