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It put power into every single blow.
FROM NIX’S JOURNAL
ON BEING WHO WE ARE
(BEFORE FIRE & ASH)
Benny isn’t like he used to be.
I know I’m not.
Chong’s changing too. Since we’ve come out to the Ruin, he’s gotten tougher. But also more afraid. It’s weird, because both things seem to be happening at the same time in him.
Even Lilah’s changing. She used to be so sure about everything. I guess living alone for so long and having no one to answer to will do that. Now she’s part of us, and she’s part of a couple. Her and Chong. And she’s part of a quest.
And we’re all Tom’s samurai. Even with him gone. Or maybe more so because he’s gone.
We’re all changing into something else.
It’s scary.
But I like it.
Hero Town
1
Then
New York City
(On First Night, fourteen years before Rot & Ruin)
Rachael Elle was a superhero.
Except when she was an elf queen.
Or when she was a sociopathic assassin clone.
Rachael was a lot of people.
Sixty-two people so far, with more planned.
Her friends included Star Wars stormtroopers, the many incarnations of Doctor Who and all his companions, tragic princesses from politically unstable fantasy lands, Jedi and Sith warriors, various members of the Avengers, the Justice League, the X-Men, the Guardians of the Galaxy, the crew of Serenity, the bridge crew of the Enterprise, hobbits, wizards, and at least one member each from Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw.
She had interesting friends.
Currently Rachael was dressed in skintight dark-blue trousers, a snug jacket, gun belt, and fingerless gloves. Her dark hair was pulled back into a severe ponytail, and there was a wicked cut on her cheek and another above her eye. Leftovers from when a mind-controlled Hawkeye invaded the SHIELD Helicarrier to free Loki.
Today Rachael was not Rachael. She was Maria Hill, a SHIELD agent and staunch supporter of freedom despite the constant and insidious threat of HYDRA.
Or she would be Maria Hill if she could get the grommet tool to work right so she could attach the holster to the leather gun belt. The holster, the belt, and the rest of the outfit had been made by her over many nights of painstaking research, design, materials shopping, measuring, cutting, and sewing. It was the eleventh of twelve outfits she had brought with her to New York for the big Comic Con at the Javits Center. The costumes hung on reinforced hangers that filled the closet in the small hotel room. Accessories were piled on both of the room’s twin beds or arranged in careful groupings on the floor. Rachael stood in front of the mirror and studied her costume. The fit, the colors, the match between her version and the one worn by the actress in the Avengers movies and the SHIELD TV show. She rather thought hers was better. Cobie Smulders, though very pretty, was rail-thin. Rachael had a better figure and more muscle. She knew she rocked the costume. Brett, the nineteen-year-old who was going to be Thor for most of the weekend—styles from two different movie costumes, and four variations from the comics—would appreciate it, she was certain.
She certainly liked the way he fit his Asgardian clothes. He was tall, tan, and had a face a true Norse god would kill for, blue eyes that could stop the sun in the sky, and shoulder-length hair that wasn’t a wig. He was Thor.
So, yes, Rachael wanted Brett to appreciate more than her costume-making skills. She’d caught him looking, especially when she wore something tight or low-cut. When they went as Peeta and Katniss, he really paid attention to her. Working his role as her “boyfriend,” at least in cosplay terms. Though frankly Rachael wasn’t sure that it was just acting, that maybe Brett wasn’t just role-playing his interest.
She certainly wasn’t.
