Going through a portal was weird. One moment she stood in a dimly lit hall that reeked of blood and death, the next she found herself standing in the ordered chaos of humanity during a government response. People in uniforms ran around, multi-colored lights flashed in attention grabbing ways, and the noise was overwhelming. Just a few hours in the strangely quiet world beyond the portal resetting her ability to tune out the noise of a major city.

  The portal floated just off the ground in the middle of the manicured lawn outside John’s cafe. Steel barricades had been thrown up around it, blocking easy access, and dozens of men and women in uniform ran around, though the busiest area was a large tent where a large group of people in medical scrubs and paramedic uniforms ran between beds treating people. Some screamed or shouted, but some were disturbingly still. Her eyes couldn’t help but lock onto one bed as a woman in a stained white coat shook her head and pulled a sheet over one of those too-still forms before she moved on.

  “Miss, over here,” a man said in a too loud voice as a hand grabbed hers, only to suddenly release it. “Whoa! Whoa! Calm down!”

  Erika blinked as her eyes focused on the source of the voice, only to see a panicked man about her age wearing medical scrubs backing away from her.

  “Drop the knife!” A uniformed officer barked as he ran over, his gun already drawn and pointed at her. “Drop it now!”

  Before Erika could even process what was going on, someone darted in front of her as a gunshot cut through the cacophony of noise.

  “Ow,” Pinpoint deadpanned in front of her, her arm in a sling.

  “Goddamnit Bailey, holster your fucking weapon!”

  “Pinpoint?! What—” Erika started to say, only for the hero to motion for silence with her good hand and stare down a nervous looking officer as he holstered his weapon, another older officer staring daggers at him.

  “Trigger discipline is important. Civilians are coming out of a portal where they just fought for their lives. Some of them will have weapons, it doesn’t make them threats.” The hero wrapped her good arm around Erika’s shoulder, making her realize she was a few inches shorter than the C-Classer. “This one here stepped up in there and helped fight monsters. You owe her your respect, not a bullet. Now, apologize.”

  “I-I’m sorry ma’am,” the young officer choked out.

  Pinpoint stared at the young officer as he bowed his head, then turned to the older officer until he did the same. “Good. Now you two, escort Mary here to the secondary triage station. Erika, you’re with me.”

  “W-Wait! Where are you taking her? She didn’t do anything wrong!” Mary yelled as the two officers started to flank her.

  “She did not. But she is carrying portal items on her, so we’ll need to examine them and make sure there's nothing too dangerous. Don’t worry, your friend will be safe with me,” Pinpoint replied with a smile, subtly squeezing Erika’s shoulder. “Now go with the officers.”

  “I’ll meet up with you later Mary,” Erika said with a reassuring smile. She hoped.

  Mary hesitated for a few seconds as her eyes bored into Erika’s. I’ll be fine, Erika mouthed, and Mary seemed to relax a bit. “Okay, find me later alright!”

  Erika didn’t get a chance to respond as Pinpoint steered her in a different direction. “We need to get you registered,” Pinpoint said as soon as they put a bit of distance between themselves and the portal.

  Despite Erika’s fears, the registration was relatively painless and nonintrusive.

  Pinpoint brought her to a bored looking man that was practically falling asleep in his folding chair under a hastily put up tent, though that changed as soon as the C-Class hero rapped her knuckles against the plastic table.

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  “Huh? Wha–“ the man spluttered.

  “Registration. Newly awakened,” Pinpoint said irritably.

  The man blinked at Pinpoint for a few moments before he blushed and scrambled to grab a tablet from a charging pad, tapping the screen hurriedly as he loaded something up. “Right… Right! Congrats on the awakening miss, we always need more awakened first responders!” He said, hurriedly handing Pinpoint a tablet. Despite his fawning words though, Erika could see a tinge of jealousy in the man’s eyes, and maybe even a hint of admiration?

  The hero just stared at it with an eyebrow raised. “Do I look like I need to register?” The hero coolly tapped an ID badge hanging on her chest. “Give it to her.”

  “Right! Uh… here you go ma’am, just fill this out and hand it back to me.”

  Awkwardly taking the tablet, Erika couldn’t help but glance at her erstwhile mentor while she pretended to read the form on it. The dim lighting in the tunnel hadn’t done the woman justice. Even in her paramedic’s uniform covered in gore and grime, Pinpoint looked gorgeous. The woman was just a couple inches taller than her, though that wasn’t saying much, but something about her just made her seem larger than life. Glancing at the woman’s chest, she saw the ID badge that hung there, one that she doubted had been there inside the portal with how clean it seemed. Though it was possible she missed it earlier. It wasn’t like she’d spent a lot of time staring at the other woman’s chest, as shapely as she was.

  “Need help with the forms?” Pinpoint asked, turning her cool gaze to Erika, her eyebrow still quirked up.

  Erika felt her ears warm as she made eye contact with the woman, taking in her emerald green eyes. So pretty, unlike her own boring brown eyes. “No, I got it,” she said firmly, letting her eyes linger on the other woman’s for a bit before glancing back down at the tablet and beginning to fill things out. The forms were pretty straightforward. Name, address, height, weight, gender, eye color, it was like filling out forms for a license. It even had a box to tick if she wanted to register as an organ donor.

  But where it deviated was asking for her power details. Power description, estimated or known class tier. All things she didn’t feel comfortable sharing even as she told Pinpoint and White Knight about it. Her gut told her writing down that she could buy other powers seemed like a terrible idea. Instead, she just selected “General Enhancement” from a drop down menu of common powers. It wasn’t the truth, but it seemed close enough.

  Finally, all that was left was a check box if she’d like to become a superhero and a line for a sponsor’s name. Looking at the question, she glanced at Pinpoint again and thought about the woman’s offer of sponsorship. Despite her hesitation, she was leaning towards becoming a superhero. Becoming one meant getting a government stipend, and from what she remembered it was pretty big. So much so that she’d never have to work a normal job. She could use the money. Besides, registering without signing up was stupid. The C-Classer already knew about her power and some of her secrets. In many ways she’d already chosen to trust the woman. She wasn’t sure what sponsorship truly meant, but as she wrote down Pinpoint’s hero name, she figured she was about to find out. Hopefully she wouldn’t regret it. Signing her name on the final screen, she handed the the tablet back to the man who quickly read it and then looked to Pinpoint.

  “Uh, Pinpoint, ma’am,” he said carefully, nervously swallowing as the hero turned her attention to him. “M-Miss Sato put you down as her sponsor. C-Can you confirm that?”

  “Confirmed.”

  “R-Right, well I’ll n-need you to fill out some forms t-too.” Erika was impressed that the man, nervous as he sounded, barely shuddered as he awkwardly handed the tablet over to the hero as she quirked an eyebrow at him.

  Ignoring the man, Pinpoint turned to Erika. “Go home and rest, I’ll finish up here.”

  “Really? But—”

  “Rest, and don’t use your powers until I come and get you.”

  Before Erika could say anything else, Pinpoint turned back to the man and started going through the tablet with one hand, forcing the nervous man to hold it for her. Shrugging to herself, Erika left, picking her way through the government response. After a brief stop by the triage station to find Mary, she was instead dragged into an examination by the harried medics only to be sent home after they cleared her with just “some scrapes and bruises.” Apparently Mary had been similarly sent home.

  Erika briefly considered trying to grab the rest of her stuff from John’s cafe, but gave up her stuff as lost once she saw the cafe. Or rather what remained of it. The formerly popular coffee spot for well dressed professionals was gone, all that remained of the cafe after the portal just a pile of rubble where the building had partially collapsed, the pile still smouldering and cordoned off by firefighters. As much as losing her wallet and purse sucked, she couldn’t help but take some savage glee in witnessing the destruction. Her bastard ex-boss was too cheap for portal insurance, so as much as it sucked that all her coworkers who’d survived had lost their jobs, John lost so much more.

  Turning away from the pile of rubble, she took even more pleasure in seeing John standing there on crutches with a pained look on his face. Walking past him, she didn’t think he even registered her presence.

  “Why?!” a tortured scream split the late afternoon air behind her.

  Erika felt lighter than ever as she walked home.