I wake up in my own bed for once.

Blinking the crust out of my eyes, I sit up slowly. I stretch and yawn and do all the minor things people do when they wake up after a long night. Presence Detection is telling me that someone is in my kitchen, but Danger Sense is telling me that they aren't a threat.

Not a major one anyway.

I meander into the kitchen, met with the sight of an electric-blue haired elf wearing an apron over her calf-length dress. Her white, dainty hands are cooking a basic eggs and bacon breakfast.

She looks over at me and brightens up, gasping with a smile. "Good morning, Alice!" I deign not to answer and sit silently down at my small dining table. Did she bring a second chair in here?

She places the plate down in front of me—a glass of milk on the side. Sitting opposite of me, now apron-less, she begins eating a small fruit salad. Orange juice too.

"Why are you in here, Annabel?" She perks up when I remember her name. A slight ping with Clairvoyance tells me that she's excited that I remembered her name. "How did you get in here?"

She giggles. "I'm here to see you, dummy!" She hums as she continues eating breakfast. Don't think I didn't notice you avoiding the second question and giving a non-answer for the first.

I silently begin eating, making her think that I've accepted her faux explanation, but I use Clairvoyance in its entirety.

She…views the world in an extremely dark light. Shadows seem longer than they should be, and noises are even louder and piercing than they are with my Enhanced Senses. The orange juice in her cup looks slightly redder.

Though she views me as the only true light in this room, illuminating the surroundings with just my presence. Warmth fills her when I'm near. She feels safe. Protected.

She also sees me without clothes on.

I cancel the Clairvoyance, ruminating over this new information. Should I be worried about this elven girl that routinely breaks into my apartment? Yes. Absolutely, and I should ask Thomas and Aria about upgrading my security.

Second, should I be worried about how I'm the only positive thing she sees? Maybe, but if that's true, then there's a lot going on here that's way out of my depth. I'm just a former accountant that decided to be a hero. I can still barely take care of myself!

I know when I'm out of my depth…

I pull out my phone, under the table, shooting Aria a text about possible security upgrades on my apartment.

Aria: What kind of upgrades?

Alice: Cameras, locks, anything that can deter people trying to break in.

Aria: Did someone break in last night?

Alice: Not really. Just a persistence and obsessive elf.

Alice: Persistent*

Aria: Should you…deal with her?

Alice: I kinda went into her mind. She needs help. Mentally.

Aria: Ah. About the security, dad and I will see what we can do.

I turn back to the elf, happily munching on her fruit. I don't really want to lead her TO the Archimedes family. Also need to get her out of here.

*Bzzz…* My phone buzzes. I just texted Aria. Who's texting me now?

Maddy: Hey, Ally! I got the day off today. Wanna go out shopping somewhere?

Bingo.

Ally: Sure, where and is it okay if I bring a +1?

Maddy: I didn't take you for jumping into the dating scene. Especially after recent events…

Ally: No. It's not that. It's that elf girl I brought to the museum. She broke into my apartment.

Maddy: …

Maddy:

She deleted her text. What was she going to say!?

Maddy: That's an issue. Well, bring her along. I guess. Meet me at GCS at 10

Ally: GCS?

Maddy: Grand Central Station.

Ally: Oh.

Ally: Abbreviating stuff doesn't make things faster if I don't know what you're talking about.

Maddy: I got that

————————————————————————————————————

"Oh," Maddy pauses, eyes darting as she searches for her words. "Did you get a tattoo in your eyes? Like that ink stuff some people do?" I guess she would be on the lookout for any new changes on me after my…last one.

"No," I sigh. "That." Pause for dramatic effect. "That would've been less painful. In simple terms, I got sent nowhere."

"Nowhere?"

"And technically everywhere too. Anyway, my eyes still function as before. Kids just stare and sometimes run away now when they see me. Parents drag them away too if they're near. You've met Annabel, right?" It hurts to see children afraid of me. It really does.

"Yeah, I've met her." Maddy gives Annabel the side-eye. I'd be wary of the girl who broke into my best friend's apartment too, and, just to add, Annabel isn't even paying attention. Not to me nor Maddy, no, she's glancing around with awe and wonder. Almost as if this was her first time here.

Or in any densely populated area.

We hop on the subway, starting our journey through the dimly lit tunnels underneath the city. We sit side-by-side, talking about nothing of consequence. Avoiding topics like what I do at my job, and Annabel skirts around what her life at home is like.

"So this kid, human, about like four years old. She stands at the railing, looking into the exhibit, when she drops her toy in there. The audio on the recording was kinda scratchy, but there's this school group there, and the teacher asks this tall and lanky kid if he could reach in and grab the toy."

"What happened next?" Annabel interrupts, but I hit her across the arm, lightly. Why'd she have to interrupt? "Sorry," she whimpers, holding her arm close. I- I didn't hit that hard, right?

"So he reaches in, and right as he grabs the toy, the alarms go off. He looks around, panicked. Then he shoves the toy in the girl's arms and runs away."

"Now at this point, all of us watching the footage are laughing. He looked like he just saw the police and booked it."

"So what happened to the boy?" I ask.

"Nothing. He did nothing wrong. Just panicked. He met up with his friends and continued looking around the exhibits with them."

We continued like this for a while, sharing jokes and stories, all in the confines of the shaky car. We garnered many inappropriate glances from several people nearby, and I confirmed with a little Telepathy. However, the sight of three women, who can all pass as above average for beauty, was deterred by numbers.

Yes, they want to come up and hit on us, but, by staying in a pack, we can avoid all those…unpleasant interactions.

Ugh, I feel like my thoughts sound pretentious with my word choices lately. Maybe I should just go on a cursing spree or something… No. I can't do that. It's not a like hero to do that.

Except maybe Rose.

Oh, wait. Telepathy has found something, or someone to be exact. A very, very ballsy man with the intentions to hit on us. All at the same time. This should be interesting.

"HEeEEy, beautiful," he says, going for Maddy first. He's human, and going for the human first. I don't know if he's racist, or if he's just sure that he has a higher chance of going after someone of the same species.

Maddy pauses, then glares at the offender. "May I…help you, sir?" She says while spitting out each word. She's trying so hard to be amiable, but it's so obvious it's grating on her.

"I don't know. I can think of a few ways a beautiful woman like yourself can help me," he responds with a sleazy smile. His brown hair has flecks of dandruff drifting around. His five o'clock shadow and scent of alcohol gives me an unfavorable impression. The overcoat he's wearing has an unidentifiable green stain. They say don't judge a book by its cover, but this book is showing off its cover.

"Haha. No. Now, if you can, please leave my friends and me alone." Maddy's attempt to placate the man as he sighs and turns to me.

"Why don't you ditch the broads and come with me?" I frown and activate Partial Beast Transformation on my hand, turning it into a wolf's paw with claws and all. The other two pick up on the hint and pull out weaponry I didn't even know they had.

Maddy pulls out a taser gun. She mentioned a taser in one of her work stories. I guess this is that taser.

Annabel pulls out a knife; a knife that's very familiar. It's a kitchen knife that looks like it matches the ones back in my apartment. I'm going to have to ask her for that back later.

The man, for some godforsaken reason, doesn't back down. "Oh, I like women with a little bite." Is he clinically insane? "I like toys, too. What do you think of mine?" He pulls a pistol out of his overcoat. Now, I have to wonder if that thing is registered and legal.

Hmm, it isn't. Oh, it seems he got it illegally because it's such a pain to get ahold of a gun legally in New York. I guess that's one way to go around the law: break it.

"Now why don't yo- UGH!" Before he can carry out his threat, a man wearing a trench coat and bowler hat tackles him. He pins the offender's arms behind his back as he struggles.

"Stay down!"

————————————————————————————————————

The bowler hat guy held the offender down until the train stopped, then promptly took him to the stationmaster who in turn called the police.

Apparently, Richard, the offender, has had a past of similar offenses. Specifically, he was a wife beater. Not the article of clothing, but an actual one. His wife left him, thankfully, but his record only got longer from there.

The four of us had to make a slight detour to the station, luckily not getting interrogated this time, and gave our statements.

"Sorry, that you all had to come here with me. I'm sure it must've been awkward," the bowler hat guy chuckles and rubs the back of his head. A slight mental prod shows that he's actually serious. He wasn't just saving us to try and flirt.

"Eh, it's fine. Thanks for the help," I say. The other two are still on edge.

"Yeah, it always saddens me to see the state of this city, but I just want to help. I wasn't fit enough for the police, and I can't level like heroes. I just try to do what I can where I can."

"That's admirable. Kind of hard to imagine and do, but admirable."

"Yeah." Awkward silence follows. "I, uh, never got your name."

"Alice."

"People call me Archie." Alright, so— "Welp, see ya." He just… left. Okay.

"We should probably go, too." Annabel and Alice nod.

————————————————————————————————————

It's nice. Being out here with friends, looking at clothes, spending hundreds on such clothes that we will probably only wear once. It's very fulfilling and a nice break from everything lately.

"Should we get something to eat?" Maddy asks. Annabel's stomach, at that moment, decides to grumble and complain.

"Yes," she simply says. "How about we eat there?" She points to the corner of the street which has a very high-end restaurant sitting right there. High-end as in way out of my budget. Judging from Maddy's face, I don't even need Telepathy to know she's having the same thoughts.

"Uhh," Maddy uhh's. "That place is a little…pricy. Why don't we look somewhere else?"

Annabel decides to ignore Maddy's sound advice and walks forward. "Don't worry about it. I'll cover the bill."

Maddy and I just shrug as we follow after her. I'm not going to be caught in debt though, so I'm just going to keep Thomas on speed dial — just in case.

We walk inside. It's styled like a 1920's jazz diner — might've been one at some point — remodeled to the current century. A soft piano is played by a guy with a fedora in the background, and another guy is loudly playing the harmonica. The finely polished, dark, wooden floors match the soft lighting and black wallpaper.

A woman with a black ponytail and pinstripe suit walks up to us. A stern frown on her face as she pushes up her thin-rimmed, silver glasses. "Excuse me, but our restaurant has a certain clientele to which we serve. I must ask if you have some way of confirming whether you are of said clientele."

Maddy and I just purse our lips and stare. We don't have anything, and we're both feeling like we should just leave. Annabel, however, has other plans. She pulls out an ID card and shows it the the attendant.

The attendant nods and leads us over to a table. "Uh— Annabel, how did we—?"

Annabel just interrupts me by humming a note and smiling. Her eyes are closed, but I can get the message loud and clear. Don't ask questions you don't want the answers to.