When the adrenaline wore off Rena entered a deep sleep in bed. She had not taken off any of her clothes and simply landed like a sack on top of the mattress. She had replayed the events in her mind on the way back home, and as soon as she touched her bed she sunk into slumber. 

A crash of bowling pins. More than a day had passed since the events in the convenience store. A day and a few hours. Still, the bowling alley remained unchanged. A few families and friend groups were occupying the lanes, and the alley was filled with the din of mirth and conversation. 

Tomald sprayed a cloud of lavender disinfectant over the shoe rack. Mia was in the kitchen, preparing a few ordered meals for customers. Most meals were simple. Premade pizza from the freezer to the oven, hot dogs eternally sitting in tepid water, the ice cream machine which faithfully turned out three flavors of ice cream without fail. The dullness of this placid life all but erased the memories of Rena’s previous two traumatic events. Events that occurred one day after the other. To Rena, now, the world did not seem any different. Sometimes you work at a bowling alley. Sometimes you get shot at. 

As usual, Rena whittled the hours away on her phone. She was looking at a few of Wren’s escapades from the previous nights the superhero had uploaded to her twitter account. Some of what Wren uploaded on any given day were stunt videos of her doing some particularly challenging acrobatic feat with the assistance of her super powers. Wren did not upload every day, and usually saved an upload for an important event. This time Rena saw an unexpected sight. 

It was evening in the video. Wren used a few cameras, seemingly different phones and security cameras in each of her videos. Rena was unsure if Wren had physically set up hidden cameras or if she somehow tapped into cameras and spliced together the footage to be usable. She also had a body cam that showed her own perspective. It was cool to see her perspective as she glided through the air on threads, or dispatched a bad guy with a few deft blows. At least Rena thought it was cool, and certainly other of Wren’s fans thought so as well. 

The footage started with an overhead shot of a small convenience store downtown. It appeared to be pretty uncrowded. Not any people around. It was already dark but due to the street and store lights telling exactly the time from this angle was a bit difficult. It then cut to inside footage of the store. This had to be from the actual security camera inside the store. Two guys in hoodies appeared in the store and lingered near the door before one pulled out a green raygun. Rena’s eyes widened and she stifled a gasp when she saw it. The video did not have any sound but it was clear the man with the gun was shouting at the guy behind the counter. The camera view then cut to Wren’s bodycam. She was already there, a few seconds after the guys walked in Wren was outside the store, descending. There was a third goon out front who was looking the other way when she struck. She punched him quick in the back of the head which made him tumble to the ground, he spun around and screamed FUCK! The bodycam had audio. 

The guy on the ground screamed something and the whole screen went white. Then the screen went purple. Rena already knew what was happening. The smoke was being dyed with the hue of the bright purple energy blades that were Wren’s signature. Two short blades, though they were very difficult to see in the smoke. The footage cut back to the overhead camera watching over the store. A lot of smoke was expanding from the front door of the store. Soon the entire front of the store was covered, although the smoke did not spread very far. A few purple bolts flashed. Rena assumed that Wren must have thrown her knives at one of the attackers. Then for a second the camera view went white until the lense focused to the new bright light. A green energy lance like a bolt of lightning shot out from inside the store, arcing. It shot twice, then did not fire another time. The camera switched for a final time back to Wren’s bodycam. The smoke was rapidly clearing and two of the guys were on the ground. One of them was tied up in glowing purple thread with a glowing knife in their leg. Wren got close and yanked the knife out. The man yelped. She turned and the smoke was receding to a place. It got smaller until it outlined the shape of a man on the floor. 

The smoke had been coming out of the man’s body, but now that he was unconscious the effect was off. Wren quickly produced a glowing thread from somewhere that was impossible to catch and threw it around the man. It wound around him like a snake and she dragged his body back to the counter where the other two guys were laying, unmoving. The green raygun was on the floor and Wren picked it up. She put a hand to the camera on her chest and pulled it off, she crouched and angled the camera so that it could see her, and the three unconscious men. She posed with the raygun doing the peace sign with two of the gloves fingers loosely holding the gun. The footage ended. 

The text over top the video in the tweet read “Got on the news for this one!”. 

Rena sat back in her seat with the phone face down in her lap. She squeezed her eyes shut and let out a sigh. 

“What’s up with you?” Mia said, coming through the employee door. “Order for Johnsons!” She yelled when she got to the counter, and placed the pizza down.

“Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurg” Rena said with her head hanging back off the seat. 

“Alright cool.” Mia said, sitting down at the counter and immediately turning to the computer screen. 

Tom leaned on the counter next to Mia. “Were you at that party Saturday?” Rena’s eyes shot open. 

“A party? Where? Why wasn’t I invited?” Mia did a fake pout. 

“There’s this big house owned by these girls on, like the edge of town.” Tom went on. Rena sat up in her chair. 

Strange emotions swirled through Rena. Was it a big deal that anyone from work knew about that party? Probably not but… What if they saw me? Was it embarrassment? Fear?

“Uh yeah." Rena said. Were you there?” Trying to play it cool. 

“Nah but I heard some crazy shit went down.” Tom wasn’t looking directly at her. It seemed he didn’t actually know Rena was at the party, but was just trying to initiate small talk. “Did you see any of the action? A friend of mine told me there was a crazy fight.” He was smiling. 

“Uuuuuuuuuh” Rena just stared, stupidly. 

“Oooh actually I think I heard about that too.” Chimed in Mia. “Some weirdos with powers had like, a battle right? That’s wild.” She turned to look at Rena who still had the stupid expression on her face. “You had to have seen that right? Everybody’s been talking about it.”

Rena now remembered she lived in a pretty small town. There were a lot of people at that party. 

“Uuuh. Yeah. I saw it.” What can I say at a time like this? Yeah I started a stupid fight with a crazy psychic and then my psychic roommate who has been stalking me everywhere showed up and they had a showdown? “It was pretty crazy haha.” 

“I know you’re always looking for some action, Rena. I’m not surprised you were there when a brawl jumped off.”Tom was now looking directly at her. 

What does he mean ‘I know you’re always looking for some action’? What the fuck does that mean? “Uuh. What do you mean? Looking for action?” Rena was about to start sweating. 

“You know. I just mean you’re always looking at superhero stuff. I thought you were into that kind of thing right?” Tom shrugged. Was it that obvious? Has he been looking at my phone when I haven’t been paying attention? God damn you, Tomald.

“Yeah you definitely are way into that stuff. You talk about it sometimes. How did it feel to get up close to a real battle?” Mia said. She thinks the same way? Is it really that obvious? What is going on. 

Rena felt her skin prickling, like she was outside in dead heat. Was it possible to keep these things separated? It was a small town that didn’t see much action, of course everyone would be talking about it. Mia and Tom probably both had friends who were there. Or knew somebody who knew somebody. 

“You know, my boyfriend says he sees fights like that all the time. He’s always telling me about some of his friends getting in the middle of stuff like that downtown all the time. He thinks it’s cool.” Mia said. 

“Wait. You have a boyfriend?” Tom said, now directing his attention at Mia. 

“Uh yeah? Pretty sure I’ve mentioned him before.” Mia replied.

“No way have you mentioned him before. This is the first time I’m hearing of it.” Tom said.

Oh thank god. Holy shit. 

“No, I’ve definitely mentioned him before. You’re just never here when I do or you don’t pay attention.” 

“Mmm nah I think I would have remembered that. How long have you been dating? Must be a recent thing.” 

“Well it’s not a recent thing we’ve been dating for… why would I tell you that, it’s your fault you haven’t paid attention.” 

The two continued bickering. The subject of the fight was completely dropped. Clearly they hadn’t cared in the first place and were just making smalltalk. Rena excused herself without saying anything and went into the kitchen. 

A strange heat suffused Rena’s body. It didn’t feel like usual embarrassment, although some of that was mixed in. The thought of them knowing she was involved with that fight. Why did it trouble her so? 

The “back” was a small kitchen with some fridges and freezers, and another door which led into the manager’s office. The kitchen itself had no windows, but there was a window in the manager’s office, though there was no reason for a non-manager to go in there usually. The door was probably locked as Chelsea was not here. There were a couple chairs and a small table in the kitchen, and Rena sat down. 

She opened her phone once again and scrolled through Wren’s account. It was as if her hands moved on their own. She clicked the button to send a DM. Why would she have her DMs open to the public? She did have her DMs open to the public. Rena’s subconscious will typed the message. 

“The guys you took down last night attacked me first. I think you could help me figure out what’s going on with me. I don’t want to waste your time but I’d like to meet.” 

She sent the message. 

Then, she put her head in her hands. Why did I send that? What was I thinking? 

Although Rena did not understand yet, she saw few options before her to begin to understand what was happening to her, and the strange things she was feeling. She could go to Alec’s sensei, who was an unknown quantity. She did not even know Alec, the man who was apparently embroiled in his own strange quest to save his friend. She certainly did not know his teacher, what kind of person he was, other than he was apparently a little strange. I guess you’d have to be a little strange to call yourself sensei Rena thought. Wren was a person Rena at least knew a few things about. Rena was not so delusional as to think she knew Wren, but given the two options, Rena would gladly choose her personal idol. 

Plus, she thought, it was highly unlikely Wren would even respond. Surely a mysterious fly by night vigilante would be too busy to even be checking DMs from random fans. 

Why didn’t I lie? Why didn’t I say I had information she would want or at least something that made her more likely to be interested in talking to me? Rena felt a welling of stress on her brain. Like she was making more and more mistakes for no reason. Well, she was certain that she was making mistakes. Lots of them. But maybe if she kept going things would start to make sense, and she could start making good decisions. But she couldn’t stop. She couldn’t let this strange invisible hand tighten evermore around her, until silently she was crushed beneath the extreme pressure. She could not walk away from a path that she had almost found. 

Wren had defied her expectations. Rena thought it would make more sense logically for Wren to have her DMs closed to the public, she didn’t. Now she was responding within a minute. Rena’s eyes bulged with fear.

“Sure. I start running tonight at 10. Where will you be? I will come to you.”