People tend to exaggerate. She’s dangerous, but

it could be way worse. She could have been way

luckier with her powers.

-Yellow Airstrike, from the Floridian Sector

“And this establishes your work schedule,” Jennie said, as she put yet another stack of papers on top of the wooden table. “You’ll basically work from Monday to Sunday, nine hours a day, except the first and third Sunday of every even month, and the second and fourth Sunday of every odd month.”

Reveca gave it a glance, reading only every third word. She would basically have a morning routine except for Thursdays, in which she would have to work from eight p.m to five a.m.

“If you don’t like it you can always…”

Jennie left her mouth open as Reveca signed the damned thing before slamming it to her right, on top of one the multiple paper towers rising seventy centimeters over the table.

“Nevermind,” Jennie said. She then reached for her bag with her left hand whilst she grabbed her coffee with her right.

Even though Irina’s assistant, because of course she had delegated this part to her assistant, had been signing and reading papers just as much as Reveca, she somehow was able to look half-decent, even with the dark circles below her eyes and the slightly disheveled hair. It’s not like she could complain, since her helmet prevented anyone from seeing the racoon that was behind it.

Despite that, she wanted to.

Reveca, instead of grabbing a drink of her own, put her hands to her helmet, reclining on the office chair she had been sitting on for the past six hours, thinking how had she ended up like this.

It turned out that extraordinary situations also called for extra paperwork, as it was necessary to notify the different sectors of the tower about the decision she had made and what it carried out. Not only that, but the different contracts and clauses that she might have taken a look at in the span of maybe a month or two had compacted all together, since, how to forget, the supposed heads of the company wanted her out there as soon as possible.

(I thought I was going to help people out, not do tedious and unending paperwork)

After giving a good sip to the cup, Jennie threw it to the trash can behind her without looking, first making it bounce on the wall next to the canister. She then passed to the next couple of pages in the pile in front of Reveca, pointing out something with the hand that she had had in her bag, now somehow free. Her lips moved, but Reveca’s ears seemed to miss most of the words, because the only thing she heard was an unintelligible mumble accompanied by one or two coherent things. Her head began to pound, tired of so many words, schedules, percentages and so on.

(I might have to deal with a migraine later.)

Jennie put another stack next to the already started pile.

(Maybe earlier than I thought,) Reveca mentally corrected.

“...twenty percent of the advertisements, you’ll also have to increase the number of interviews, ‘runaways’, and public appearances in total to match a raise of thirty five percent-”

“Wait,” Reveca said, as the words suddenly became understandable. “Didn’t the previous page already detail this?”

“No. The previous page specified the yearly minimum percentage of advertisements that you’ll have to accept, it being twenty and only valid for the ones we propose to you. Don’t you remember?”

“I don’t even know how I haven’t forgotten how to breathe yet! So no. I don’t.” Reveca then sighed as she realized the words that had come out of her mouth. “Sorry, you don’t have the fault for this.”

“Oh, don’t worry. You’re actually one of the nicer ones.”

“That… Honestly doesn't make me feel better. In fact it only makes me feel more sorry for you.”

Jennie laughed.

“I think you guys have it worse. You know, having to face crazy guys with superpowers? Anyways, this here says…”

And in an instant, Reveca stopped hearing what she was saying.

Jennie pointed out to the line under the encyclopedia that was the page, probably saying something important about her professional career. Reveca only nodded before signing it, doing the same for the next couple of pages, and the ones after that, and the ones after that, and the ones after that.

Doing this was probably irresponsible and straight up dumb, but right now having to deal with ten years of legal repercussions seemed a better idea than having to actively listen to legal stuff for ten more minutes.

Her hand went up before doing two loops, ending the signature with an oblique line that wiggled around in a random pattern. Reveca repeated the process what felt like a hundred times, exhausting her hand even more than it was.

The unintelligible mumble was now accompanied by the raspy noise of the pen on paper, its high pitched making the main voice while the words acted as a base despite Jennie’s voice not being exactly deep. The thumping in her head seemed to adopt the rhythm, hitting her brain every time she finished signing a paper. Her breathing started to do the same until something snapped her out of the trance… Had the mumble stopped?

Reveca’s eyes lit up as she focused them on Jennie, who had her hands once again inside her bag. Reveca had the pen on her right hand, waiting for the next damned stack for her to sign. But a new one didn’t come. She looked at the different towers piled up to her right. Something didn’t feel right. Was the pile… Smaller?

Reveca looked in front of her, at Jennie, and saw how she put some of the papers from the stacks into her bag. The simple act filled her with hope.

“Have we finished?” She dared to ask.

“No-”

Reveca downed her head and struck the table with her arms, almost crumbling onto it, making the piles tremble with the sudden weight on the piece of furniture.

“-but there’s only one thing left,” Jennie tried to cheer her up.

Reveca raised her head and looked at her.

“What?” She asked, more a plea than a question.

“You have to choose a symbologist to make you a suit.”

“I already have a suit.”

“Even if the design’s the same, you have to choose one in order to be remade with symbologist marks. Is company policy.”

“Fine,” Reveca said, feeling how her soul left her body.

Jennie had already put the multiple stacks inside her bag when she pulled out a single sheet of paper with words on both sides of the page.

“So, here’s the list of symbologists in the tower, next to a short description of what they can do. There’s about twenty, eight of them being Neighbors. Read them and tell me which one you would like.”

Reveca left the sheet on the table, not even bothering to grab it. She rested her right elbow on the piece of furniture and her head on her right hand, only moving her eyes as she read it.

‘Armada. Gives physical protection.’

That was always nice, not having to worry about some guy punching you in the face. But it felt too general for her to pick. If she was forced to pick one, she would at least choose one that made sense for her.

‘Protein. Boosts physical strength and endurance.’

What kind of name was that? The power was… Again, good, but it’s not like it would benefit her greatly. At least not where she wanted.

‘Lens. Increases the ability to concentrate.’

It was getting closer. Flying whilst doing other things with her power might get harder in stressful situations, and the general ability to focus in chaotic encounters was, simply, really valuable.

‘Iron Boots. Increases the user’s weight.’

Nope.

‘Industria. Changes the type of energy.’

Mmh… This could be interesting… No, it was interesting. If she could use her power to turn aeolic energy into another type depending on the situation, this could work really well with her. There was also her pyrokinesis, too.

Reveca read the rest, some calling her attention, but none like Industria had.

“I think I’ve decided on one.”

“Which?”

“Industria.”

“That’s a… Neighbor.”

“Is there a problem?”

“At all!” Jennie said with an overenthusiastic tone. “Since it’s a Neighbor, you can go on your own to the workshop and tell her what you want. You don’t need me at all to access the higher levels. Most of the symbologists here stay up until late, so you should be fine. I recommend you to put the order for the suit as soon as possible. Some of them are really perfectionists, and the process can take its time. Well, have fun.”

And without letting her protest, Jennie left the conference room as quickly as she could, the table clean as she had also grabbed the sheet of paper in front of Reveca.

(It seems she takes after her boss on that.)

Reveca slowly stood up with a sudden boost of energy as she could see the finish line close by. It only lasted until she got to the elevator, the headache taking its place as she pressed the button in order to go to the third floor. If she remembered correctly, the Neighbor’s workshops were on the same floor as the training facility, having to go through the corridor that veered right instead of left.

The elevator’s door slid open, revealing the lobby that connected the different pathways of the floor. She walked to the passage at her right, giving a side glance to the poor man behind the dark desk who had to endure the night shift.

Glass walls also separated the exterior from the interior here, just like in the hall at the other side of the tower. Reveca looked through it, the light of the tower itself making it quite easy to distinguish the cars and people walking below her, despite it being night time. It must have been ten or eleven p.m, yet the city center was still boiling with people, people coming out of work or entering the different pubs.

Ataki had had different effects on the country. It had tinkered with the military and financial sector, but according to her father, it had also influenced the people. He said they were a bit shier than they had been. It wasn’t a big change, but he could see it in the expressions, in the way people talked.

Of course, Reveca had no idea what he was talking about. To her… Well, everything was the same.

She eventually reached the Neighbor workshops. They greeted her with a steel door and a number pad, the latter being closer to the glass wall, leaving the leftmost side of the corridor empty. Reveca approached the pad before introducing her code.

Every employee had one, just as every employee had a badge with their ID. Heroes tended to prefer the code, since having their identity hanging around them didn’t seem a good idea. Nevertheless, some of the heroes had special badges with only their bar-code. It was a common trend with those of them who spent more time in the tower than out there.

The number pad gave out a long bip as it accepted the code she had entered. The door disappeared with a downwards motion as a gap on the ground sucked it in. Reveca stepped into the adjacent corridor before the it slid up behind her.

She eyed the new hall as she followed the directions of a sign protruding out of the left wall. The walls and floor shared the same light gray color, as well as the strange material. It was similar to the one making out the rest of the tower, but it also appeared metallic as a slight shimmer extended across it.

It only took a few paces to reach the workshops, as shown by the placard incrusted in the wall next to its entrance. She peeked through the doorless and rectangular hole, getting a good first look at the interior of the room and its contents.

Tables filled the entire space, with machines ranging from all types on top of them. With a quick glance, Reveca could tell that the room was divided in three different sections, each having the predominance of the machine related to said activities.

To her left, different rolls of cloths, fabrics and materials fell from the cylinders they enveloped, merely a couple of centimeters away from the ground. Meanwhile, further away from the wall, sewing machines and equipment stood on the floor and the tables closest to the rolls.

The middle section of the room seemed to have most of the machines from the space, as their cables hung from the roof, where they were connected to some of the many plugs. Both walls, the one opposite to her and the one next to her, were filled with shelves, that in turn were filled with mechanical and electrical components as well as copper wiring.

In the end, to the rightmost wall of the room, hammers and chisels took a good portion of the section. The seamless spectrum that they composed as they hung on the wall showed her how many sizes were there. There were also a couple of machines, mechanical hammers that were used in the forge in its majority, as well as one in the corner closest to her, away from all the flammable materials of the leftmost section, but the other two sections had bigger numbers.

Despite the many machines that filled the room, the space was quite silent, as the majority of the five figures were writing something on their pads and tablets, except for one with a particular outfit in the wiring section, who was putting something together.

Reveca entered the room, causing one of the people in the sewing section to look at her. He was wearing normal clothes, a blue sweater with the sleeves rolled up and a pair of black jeans. He also wasn’t wearing any type of mask, since she was able to see his black hair tied in a ponytail and his brown eyes.

“Are you looking for something?” He asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah. I came to put in an order for a suit?”

Every head in the room turned to her.

“Who?” The youngman, who seemed to be around the twenty age mark, then asked, a bit apprehensively.

“Um… Industria?” Reveca slowly answered.

A small woman dressed in a white lab coat raised her hands with verve.

“Woo! Suck on that, losers, you owe me ten bucks!”

The rest of the people in the room swore under their breath, some expressing disappointment while others annoyance before getting back to what they had been doing.

“Why don’t you get over here?” She then asked, inviting Reveca over with her right hand.

Reveca got closer to the young woman, who had short blonde hair and dark eyes, with rounded glasses on top of her head. She was sitting on a stool in the leftmost section, the one with all the manual sewing equipment, her hands on the long workbench against the wall farthest from the entry.

“So, you wanted a new… Wait, do I know you?” Industria asked, putting a hand to her chin. “I swear I’ve seen you before… Oh! You’re the one from the other day at the training room!”

Reveca tried to remember their encounter, as she clearly remembered her. She thought of the day the woman had mentioned, when she had broken both of Friction's hands. There had been other people there, like the two Neighbors that had been sparring against 9-Swords, Yellow Airstrike and two figures at the end of the room that she hadn't recognized… Wait, one of them had also worn a white lab coat.

“Were you with Yellow Airstrike and… I don’t know their name.”

“Amp,” the woman said. “I was making him test a cannon I’d cooked up the day before. You probably don’t recognize me without the mask. Anyway, you came here for a suit?”

“Yeah. I’ve been signing things like crazy and someone told me that I have to put in an order for a new suit?”

“Are you a Neighbor?”

Reveca nodded.

“Is your basic training ending soon?”

“Something like that.”

“It doesn’t have to be a new costume. It can be a piece of equipment, but yeah, I get it. Regardless of the reason, thank you for choosing me.”

“Yeah, um… What was that about? Like, earlier?”

“Oh,” Industria exclaimed as she put on her glasses. “We had made a bet to see who got an order first. The winner got ten dollars from everyone else.”

“Hm… You’re welcome, I guess. So,” Reveca then continued, her mind set on ending this as soon as possible. ”Your description caught my attention because it said you could change energies. Since I’m an aerokinetic, I was wondering if you could turn aeolic energy into another type.”

“Yes, I can. But what did you have in mind?”

“I didn’t really think much about it. I just thought being able to generate different types of energies would be pretty useful, you know? Depending on the situation and all that. Like, I could maybe turn it into kinetic energy and apply it to some heavy object. I don’t know, something like that.”

“Well, first of all, aeolic energy is already kinetic energy, technically, but that’s beyond the point. In that example you just gave, would you use the energy to throw the object or something else?”

“Yeah. Something like that.”

“You have to be more specific, “Industria said as she put her hands parallel to each other. ” I can do a lot, like, I can probably do whatever you tell me to, but you have to tell me what you want. It’s not like I can make something that does everything. I don’t know if you’re familiar with symbologist equipment, but it’s basically like programming. I need parameters to do what you want.”

“I think I get it… Give me a moment and I’ll give you something.”

“Take your time,” Industria said, turning around and continuing with what she had been doing before Reveca came.

She looked around the room, trying to find inspiration inside those four walls, which also had that same strange glimmer than the corridor. She didn’t have to come up with the definitive version on the spot. Jennie had already told her that it could take time, so it was okay if this first version maybe felt a bit simple.

Reveca decided to look at it from a curious angle.

What could help her in order to best Gravity? What could have made the difference, for example, in that chase she had had weeks ago?

Experience would have been a great asset, but only time would give her that. If she tried to think of something simple, being quicker would have certainly made it easier for her. Maybe a burst, like she had said, some kind of boost. Something with electricity would be nice, too. It could help her against atlas. Some kind of taser that recharged while she was flying. That was a good start.

She told Industria what she had thought of.

“Okay. The taser is quite simple. The boost… Will be tricky, but I think it’s doable. Is that it?”

“Can I ask you for modifications on a later note?”

“Sure.”

“Then yes,” Reveca answered, wanting this to end. “That's all for now.”

“Perfect. Can I ask you for a favor, though?”

“What?”

“I’m sure I could find your measurements in your profile, but I like doing them myself. I do also take some that are not ‘standard’, per se.”

“Um…” She said, her eyes getting heavier just by the request. ”Yeah. That's okay,” she then conceded, believing that being obliging would end it sooner than if she denied her request.

“Wonderful. You can change in the locker room that’s just outside,” Industria said, handing her out a white gown.

Reveca hesitated.

“What about the mask?”

“What about it?”

The question made Reveca realize that Industria wasn’t wearing her costume, as the exhaustion probably had avoided her mind to acknowledge the fact. Now that she was thinking about it, the young man from before wasn’t also wearing a mask.

“I mean, what about our identities?” Reveca asked, as she had only seen heroes with masks on in the tower.

“There aren't any cameras here. Also, only heroes and the head of the company can access the workshops, so there’s that trust with each other.”

“There aren’t cameras? Isn’t that dangerous?”

“Not really. There’s nothing of real value here. Everything that is, stays in the vaults of the superior levels. There’s some prototypes, but even then, they’re that, prototypes. Probably the most expensive things are the machines, and getting to them is already quite the hustle. Besides, the walls are reinforced, so nothing below a tank could probably get in.”

“Oh. Alright…”

Reveca went into the locker rooms and changed before leaving them with the gown on and her costume in her hands. She left them on the workbench as she neared Industria.

“This might take some time, okay?” Industria asked as she held measure tape in her hands.

“Sure.”

Industria began measuring her head, looping the tape around it in slightly different angles, writing numbers in a yellow pad she had on the workbench after each measure. Reveca’s eyes became heavier as she had to stand there doing nothing, the sound of screws being bolted in suddenly having a calming tone to it.

“So…” She said, trying to think of something to distract her mind while Industria was at work. “I’m also a pyrokinetic. A low one,” she then finally said, trying to keep the conversation related to the costume. “Maybe it helps with something, I don’t know.”

“It makes things easier,” Industria contributed.

Reveca felt relief due to the fact that she hadn’t refused the conversation. Talking would wake her up a bit, distract her from the creeping sleep.

“How so?”

“Well, certain energies are easier to transform into some than others. For example, kinetic energy is easier to turn into mechanical than into heat, at least for my power. Meanwhile, heat is easier to turn into electrical or nuclear energy.”

“You can create nuclear energy?” Reveca asked as her eyelids became a lot lighter from the surprise.

“Yup.”

“I… If you can do that, then why are you working here? No offense intended, by the way.”

“Because it’s not as effective as the usual methods. Not only that, but it would be more expensive to do it my way. Plus, I don’t generate energy, I just transform it. And this is much more fun than working in god knows where. I basically get to make toys for a living.”

“Is a functional canon a toy?”

“Dangerous toys,” Industria corrected herself. She was now measuring her shoulders and arms. “Talking about not offending, you look like… No offense intended, but you look horrible.”

Reveca sighed in exhaustion.

“I hate contracts.”

“Better not find the Devil, then.”

“Seriously,” Reveca continued, ignoring Industria’s comment. “Who thought so many pages were a good idea? And so many were just… Ugh! I now can be contractually forced to be at someone’s birthday if I don’t want a deduction in my monthly pay. Who…? Aren’t I a hero?

“Technically, no.”

“But I will!”

Industria had already taken measurements of her chest and was now taking her hips’. She didn’t press further at Reveca’s comments.

“Sorry, I… I’m just too tired. I don’t know how you guys handle it, doing so many late nights.”

“Don’t worry. It becomes easier when you have a bed literally three meters away from you.”

Reveca frowned.

“Wait, you have beds here?”

“Yeah. Want to give them a test drive?”

“I…Can I?”

“Sure. Just let me finish.”

Reveca patiently stood, but even though she hadn’t said anything else, Industria increased her pace. She was done a couple of minutes later.

“Okay. And… We’re done. If you are going into one of the rooms, don’t forget to lock your door. They’re there,” Industria then said, pointing out to a door Reveca had missed in her first inspection of the room. It was in the leftmost wall of it if someone were to look at it from the entry.

“What about the gown?”

“Just leave it on the workbench before you leave.”

And with that being the end of the conversation, Reveca quickly grabbed her things from the workbench and entered the hall, where multiple doors, some closed, but for the most part, were open. She picked one in the middle, closing the door and locking it as she entered.

She didn’t even wait a bit.

Reveca threw herself on top of the bed, letting sleep take over her mind as she rested her head on a really comfy pillow.