The cool night air soothed bruises and scrapes to a dull ache even as mud and sludge froze over and broke off. In only a few minutes, Valerie was feeling if not quite fine then at least well enough to walk back home. She wondered if the quick recovery was a function of her durability or if the bullets simply hadn't hurt as much as they'd felt to. It wasn't as if she'd had any serious injuries in the past to compare them to.

What didn't improve over time was how slippery the roads were, a near-slip in a patch of ice reminding her once again that just because she could no longer catch a cold, toughness alone was no insulation to the other dangers of Chicago's winter months. It was not yet that late - only a bit past midnight - yet the streets were devoid of traffic and people both, frost creeped up windows and walls and sparse lighting played over thick patches of freezing mist, giving the whole city a haunted quality. Here and there a figure glided through the shadows and Valerie wondered if they were the more stubborn members of the city's normal night life, or people with powers out on a romp like herself.

The tiny source of warmth in her right hand banished such idle thoughts and suddenly she could no longer wait for the privacy of her home; she had to know then and there. Looking furtively around for any watchers as she huddled against a nearby wall, she called up the ring's projected screen once more.

Name: Valerie Grant Bio: 17-year old female Aspect: undetected ENHANCED ATTRIBUTES ENHANCED SKILLS POWERS Strength 1.07 none detected none detected Durability 1.81

Her strength and durability had grown!

Or at least some numbers on a fancy display from an item you don't understand have, the cynical part of her brain provided. You still have no way to check what the numbers mean or if the 'magic ring' isn't just a toy or a clever scam from some villain, remember? But while that was true, the ring's activation had coincided not just with her getting actual, real powers, but also a dangerous brush with a villain. Not to mention properly displaying what her powers were.

Too much of a coincidence, she decided. Until proven false, I will at least take what the ring shows me under consideration. Maybe it had always worked and I just didn't have any powers for it to detect. It was simply too useful not to; where else was she going to get reliable information about these new abilities? The Internet was useless; there was so much fake information and most heroes and villains put so much effort into keeping details of their powers secret for safety reasons that trusting anything online was just asking for trouble.

She'd have to think more about this come morning.

xxxx xxxx

As Valerie finally walked the last couple of blocks to her neighbourhood, a new problem far more terrible, immediate and insurmountable than the nature of her new abilities reared its ugly head; explaining everything she'd done the past few hours to her parents. There's no way her mom wouldn't freak out if she came back at three in the morning, let alone if she saw the bruises. There was just as little chance her dad, who usually stayed up late watching tv, wouldn't tell on her.

Fake a sleepover with Mandy or Lizzie? No, no change of clothes, no way to explain the bruises. And mom would definitely call Mrs Barlow to check. She grasped for some other convenient explanation to mitigate the coming scolding, something to throw them off, but came up with nothing. In her excitement to get out and test her new abilities, thoughts like 'curfew' or 'prearranged excuses' had never entered her mind.

The blonde teenager just stood before the frosted-over entrance to her apartment building, biting her lip in apprehension as the towering edifice of brick, concrete and glass loomed overhead in silent indifference. There was even a gleam of light in the North-western corner of the seventh floor, winking at her mockingly. Probably forgot to turn off the lights when I left, she thought, kicking a snow pile and sending sludge and splinters of greyish ice across the street.

Then it was as if an idea fell off that distant window and struck her in the head, like Isaac Newton and the apple. A simple, awesome, perfect idea that would solve all her problems; her parents wouldn't notice if she got to her room through the window and pretended to have come earlier when they weren't looking - all she had to do was climb.

Shaking off the ice crystals growing on her hair, excitement bubbling in her gut like a soft drink, she reached for the brickwork and pulled. It was... ridiculously easy. There was just enough of a gap between bricks for her fingers to slip in, but dragging around her body by her fingertips was no harder than climbing a narrow, somewhat slippery staircase. Having enough strength in a single finger to handle her own weight and enough durability that brick would break before skin made it a piece of cake.

She got a brief scare when her fingers slipped on ice and she dropped thirty feet to the sidewalk. Then she jumped up with a giggle, dusted herself off and went at it again, hair dancing in the icy wind along with her mood. The drop had not hurt at all! It took two more tries to climb all the way up without slipping, each repetition becoming easier and easier. By the time she finally reached her window, she was rewarded with the "magic" ring getting warm once more.

Bet my powers improved from the workout, she thought with glee.

Then a dull silvery beam struck her in the gut and threw her off the building.

xxxx xxxx

"Halt, criminal scum!"

The boy giving that ominous command did so in a breaking voice shaking from nervousness. Dressed in a purple and silver fashion atrocity of epic proportions, he was peeking over the small crater in the snow Valerie had made upon hitting the ground after the seven-floor drop.

"Are you mad?!" she shot back at him, thoroughly annoyed that all that effort climbing had been ruined at the last second. Then she blinked, noticing the very sharp and real-looking five-foot sword he was vaguely pointing her way. "Get this thing out of my face before you poke someone's eye out!"

"We're heroes!" he proudly proclaimed, the crudely made metal plates of his armor clinking as he took a 'heroic' pose with left hand on hip, right hand holding up his overcompensation-sized sword and his chest puffed out. "And apprehending criminal scum like you is our job!"

"Who's we?" the blonde muttered and looked around, noticing a smaller girl standing behind the "hero" in a concealing robe and hood the exact same colour as the fabric in the boy's armor. The other girl waved in greeting and Valerie sighed. "Anyway, I'm not a criminal, I was just trying to-"

"We saw you! Do not lie," the maybe fifteen-year-old in the armor cut her off, waving his sword enthusiastically and turning to his partner. "You saw her, right Haruspex? She was scaling the building to steal, and stuff."

"I was NOT trying to steal," Valerie growled, towering almost a foot over the obviously younger armored boy as she got up. "Wait, why am I explaining things to you?" she demanded as something occurred to her. "You shot me! You threw me off the building!"

"You were an obvious crimina-"

"Did you even know I'd survive before you pulled the trigger?!" It was her time to speak over the other teen and from how he momentarily cringed the answer was a resounding 'NO'. "Are you trying to get people killed?"

"Are YOU going to surrender," the boy shot back, waving his sword threateningly.

"Make me, stumpy!" was a furious Valerie's succint retort. Instead of continuing the argument - because he knew he'd totally lost - he struck out with his sword. The rather awkward-sized weapon swung through the air audibly, like famous swords are wont to do in movies, and hit his target high in the arm.

"OUCH!" The tall blonde recoiled from the blow with a cry as a sharp jab of pain like the mother of all papercuts bit through skin. She stared at the shallow cut in her bicep with wide eyes, gaping at the trickle of blood. Then she turned around and punched the absolute moron that not only had used potentially lethal force without thinking but had just attacked her again.

"If this scars, I'll make you regret it," she shouted even as the boy practically flew away, armor and all, as if struck by a speeding car. He tumbled through the snow several times, yelling all the way until he struck a parked car head-first, shutting up and crumpling the thin metal with his bucket-like helmet.

Then it was Valerie's time to reel back as the boy's companion fumbled something out of her robes and accidentally dropped it between them. With the sound of breaking glass, blue fluid spattered over the snow-covered curb then spontaneously ignited in a wave of blue flame that coated everything nearby, the blonde included. Instead of burning agony, a deep chill bit through her limbs for the first time that night, sending her teeth chattering.

Before she could recover from both the surprise and the effect, the armored boy swung his sword wildly as he lay on the asphalt. The blade cut nothing but air... but that cut seemed to cross the intervening distance, carrying the force of the swing as it struck Valerie across both legs. It felt like being switched with a wooden cane... except for cutting off the lower inch or two of her yoga pants.

Seeing the torn clothing fall off got the older girl out of her stupor and she proceeded to pick up a sidewalk tile and throw it like a frisbee. The ten-pound ceramic shot almost too fast for the eye to see and clipped the armored boy's shoulder, forcing him to drop his sword in the process. Then Valerie moved across the street in a single leap, both dodging the second exploding projectile the robed girl threw and delivering a kick to the other hero.

The boy had seen her coming and raised a medieval heater shield to parry with. With the metallic grind of a moderately serious car accident the shield dented and he was sent sliding across the snow-covered asphalt, but managed to draw a thin silver rod in the process. As soon as he came to a stop, he aimed that at the rapidly advancing blonde and a dull silver bolt shot out of the business end.

"Not in the face!" said girl squawked, raising both arms in the beam's path. Inexplicably, the bolt just glanced off her palm and flew off in another direction... only to impact somewhere else thirty feet away.

"VIOLET!" the armored boy cried in alarm and as Valerie peeked from between her fingers she winced. The beam that had been somehow deflected had found another target, striking the robed girl in the chest.

Superhuman durability wasn't exactly a rare ability; whether through armor, defensive powers, or innate toughness many heroes and villains could shrug off tremendous punishment. The other girl, however, was not one of them; she cried out in pain and fell even as her companion reached her side...