"Give us all your money," the gruff voice said.

  I narrowed my eyes as I backed against the dark alley wall. "Are you sure you're after my money?"

  The big guy hefted a tire iron in his hand and looked at me as though I'd sprouted horns. "What are you talking about? Of course we're after your money. Now pay up or else."

  I breathed a sigh of relief. For a part of town that was supposedly the most crime-ridden area in the state, hell, maybe even in the hemisphere considering the low level hero population the crime statistics in this area were able to support, I was having a hell of a time finding some crime to get victimized by.

  It was enough to make me wonder if the police department was padding numbers in an attempt to inflate their budget, but no. There were so many street heroes out there that there had to be enough petty crime to support them.

  It was a predator and prey relationship. You had to have so many herd animals to support a lion or a wolf, and you had to have a certain baseline of low to high level crime to support a city teeming with a heroic ecosystem as developed as Starlight City.

  Too bad for these guys they’d just run into the apex predator in that metaphor.

  Oh well. Time to trot out the innocent victim act again. This whole incognito thing was pretty fun.

  "But I don't have any money!"

  A couple of the guys behind the big one turned to each other and grinned. The big guy didn't grin, but he did start smacking his tire iron against a big meaty fist.

  "Well now that is a problem," he said. "Because if you can't pay the toll then I'm afraid I'm going to have to hurt you now."

  I threw my head to the sky and screamed at the top of my lungs. "Help! Somebody please help! Oh for the love of God won't somebody save me!"

  The big one raised his tire iron. "You need to shut your mouth right now before you start drawing the wrong kind of attention."

  Now it was my turn to put my hands on my hips and cock my head at this guy.

  "Are you serious?"

  He stopped his advance and the tire iron lowered slightly. He was clearly just as confused as the guy I’d vaporized earlier.

  "What are you talking about?"

  "You're worried I'm going to call a hero down on you, right?"

  "Well… Yeah?"

  "And you're saying that if I don't stop screaming it's going to be bad for me?"

  "Well… Yeah!"

  "But I've already made it clear I don't have any money and you’ve already made it clear that because of my lack of money things are already going to be bad for me. What possible incentive do I have not to yell if you're going to beat the shit out of me no matter what I do?

  The big one raised the tire iron to the side of his head and scratched. I wondered if maybe I'd broken him with logic.

  If so then it was a hell of a lot easier than breaking CORVAC with logic. This guy didn't strike me as the type that did much in the way of critical thinking. Although by the way he handled that tire iron I had the feeling he was something of an artist with it.

  Everyone had their own skills in their own areas. It wasn’t for me to judge. Even if his imperviousness to logic and rational conversation meant he was going to get hurt when we inevitably tangled.

  "Aw hell," he said. "Now I'm going to beat the shit out of you just for being a smartass."

  I shrugged. "Suit yourself."

  I readied my wrist blaster. It didn't look like I was going to get any heroic help. And if I wasn't going to get any heroic help then I was just going to have to rely on the blaster at my side.

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  It was a pity. This was definitely the best chance I was going to get all night to draw Fialux's attention. Zap her with the anti-Newtonian field while she was distracted by a low powered fight with low level street thugs.

  Oh well.

  The big one raised his tire iron and ran towards me with a snarl. I was just about to raise my wrist blaster out of the rags at my side when a shadow descended and a guy next to the ringleader disappeared with a scream.

  My buddy with the tire iron skidded to a halt and looked up into the shadows overhead, searching for whatever had just grabbed his minion.

  I blinked. That definitely wasn't one of my tricks. The other guys standing around the alley with various crowbars and other blunt instruments looked up in terror. One pulled a gun. Not that it would do him a damn bit of good if there was a hero lurking out there.

  From the glares he was getting from his buddies they were well aware of that fact. It was almost a pity. I wanted to see that look on their collective faces when they realized who I was.

  I guess you couldn’t have it all.

  "It's the Wing," one of them whispered.

  “If it's the Wing that's fine by me," the leader said. “He ain’t getting none of ours tonight, and he ain’t got any real powers!”

  I arched an eyebrow. The Wing? I had no idea what they were talking about. A new hero I hadn’t heard of was rare, but to be fair I had been distracted lately.

  The big guy hefted his tire iron and grinned at his buddies. Though it was a sickly grin that didn’t look nearly as confident as he was probably shooting for.

  "I hear the Wing can bleed. Not like that new Fialux chick that’s been shutting down business around the city."

  "You can't make something bleed if you can't hit it," another one said.

  The first one turn to say something, but whatever he said turned to a strangled scream as the shadow descended out of the darkness once again and pulled him up. The sound of someone getting the crap beat out of them drifted down from the shadows above followed by silence.

  The shadow dropped down in the middle of us. It turned towards me and shouted in a gravelly voice.

  "Run!"

  Then it was running forward and engaging the other two guys.

  I crossed my arms under my breasts and rolled my eyes. The Wing. Shadow Wing. I should’ve realized, damn it. I come out here looking for Fialux, and instead I pull a mortal hero who I normally didn’t bother with because I didn’t come to this part of town.

  The criminals down here were nice enough to send me their protection money via electronic transfer so I didn’t have to bother.

  “Someone punch him!” the guy with the tire iron said. “It’s not that hard!”

  I’d put a few mortal heroes out of business myself over the course of my career. Not lately since they’d all learned better than to fuck with yours truly, but once upon a time it’d been a going concern for me.

  Not that many of them lasted long enough to get to me in the first place. Not that I ever bothered with Shadow Wing since he never gave any inclination that he wanted to do any more than beat the shit out of petty thugs.

  Which was something I could respect. Find something you love.

  “Don’t run away! He’s going to hit you with his throwing stars!”

  Usually the mortal heroes ended up dead. Getting killed by a regular thug because they weren’t bullet proof everywhere. Going up against a super villain who didn’t have my reservations about killing unless it was absolutely necessary.

  There were a lot of ways for a normal hero to die in this city. It was a pity Shadow Wing hadn’t shed his mortal coil. If there was already an active hero out here tonight it meant there was less chance Fialux would bother with this part of town. Why get involved in a situation that was already well under control?

  One of the thugs raised a crowbar and was about to get the drop on the hero when he went stock still. Just for a second, but that was long enough for the hero to turn and get in a sucker punch.

  I frowned. It was dark, but I was pretty sure I’d seen what I’d seen. What was that all about? The thug went down with a thunk and Shadow Wing turned to me again.

  "I said run!"

  Even more interesting. That voice was definitely gravelly. That wasn’t a one time thing in the heat of combat. Like someone gave him some bad advice about gargling rocks or smoking too much to sound intimidating.

  He sounded like he needed a sore throat lozenge is what he sounded like.

  The ringleader broke free from the hero and ran towards me screaming with a tire iron raised over his head. He’d somehow managed to last until the very end. Respect. Not that it was going to help him very much.

  Maybe he figured if he was going to get the crap kicked out of him then at least he was going to take me with him. Shadow Wing followed at a sprint, but it was obvious he wasn't going to make it in time.

  The thug’s snarl turned to a wide smile.

  "Damn it! Run!" The hero shouted.

  I let him get within two steps of me before I hit a button on my wrist control and my rags were teleported a few feet to the right revealing my Night Terror suit underneath.

  The head thug skidded to a halt, and if anything the look of terror on his face when he thought he was just dealing with an overeager heroic type turned to one of pure abject horror when he realized he'd just tried to mug Night Terror.

  I grinned and waggled my fingers at him in a friendly wave.

  "That's right buddy," I said. "You and your friends picked the wrong alley to go robbing in."

  He turned and ran in the other direction. Unfortunately the hero’s fist was waiting for him in that direction. There was a loud crack, followed by a grunt as he slammed to the ground.

  The hero knelt in the darkness and looked up at me, his eyes glowing slightly. Must be some sort of night vision device he was using. I had similar toys, although mine didn't make that pesky glow.

  I wasn't sure if that was an aesthetic choice on his part, or if he just didn't have access to some of the more advanced toys I enjoyed. Probably the latter.

  "Night Terror."

  I sketched a little bow. "None other than."