That particular night couldn't get any worse. First, she was dumb enough to sign up for overtime at the pool, just to attend a Ziggy Marley concert; once it was over she had to clean up the beach and help a couple find their lost son for an hour. After she clocked out, she just missed the last bus for the night to her side of town. Renee never hailed a cab before, but when she did, the cab driver was about to end his shift and didn't want to drive her all the way to north town. Absolutely frustrated, Renee slammed the yellow cab door shut and stormed away. She was swearing under her breath and cursed her co-workers for talking her into working the concert. Red faced and on the verge of collapsing from the lack of food, Renee took heavy steps to the nearest fast food restaurant, where she could order some food and something to keep her awake. She wasn't much into coffee, but it was one in the morning and she needed to be awake to figure out how to get home. After chugging a large black coffee, she ordered two more, to make sure she would be awake and alert to sort of think her way home.

Renee sat near in the back corner, to avoid any drunk tourist coming up to her and asking dumb questions about being a lifeguard at a "four-diamond" resort. This fast food restaurant was abnormally busy for this night, or maybe it was normal? She didn't know, she didn't work the graveyard shift. Renee exhaled loudly and attempted to calm herself and mask the horrible taste of coffee in her mouth. Ignoring all of the noise around her, she came close to actually regaining her sanity. However, fate had another plan. She didn't notice, but a tall man rushed into the restaurant and ran to the two cashiers. He was wearing all black clothes and had a cotton beanie over his face with holes cut out for his eyes and mouth. He pulled out a handgun and pointed it at the women cashiers. One of them screamed while the man began violently thrusting the gun in their face.

"PUT ALL OF THE MONEY IN THE BAG." he demanded at the women. People behind him suddenly became frantic and panicked. Apparently the noise was irritating him, so he turned around and fired a shot into the ceiling to silence them. Everyone, including Renee, had their eyes on the robber. "EVERYONE ON THE GROUND." was his next command. He walked around all of the tourist and took all of cellphones. Some of the women had expensive jewelry on, so the robber stole those as well. The men all handed the robber their wallets. The cashiers finished emptying the registrars and handed him a "to-go" bag full of cash. He grabbed it and decided to finish rounding up the last of the wallets and jewelry. He approached Renee, in the back corner, and pointed the gun at her. "WHERE'S YOUR WALLET?"

"I lost it," she lied. Maybe it was the fact that this was the worst night in her life, or that the caffeine in those three large coffees was kicking in, but regardless, Renee wasn't about to lose anything to this punk.

"YOU'RE A LIAR. WHERE IS IT?"

"I left it in a cab, it's gone."

"YOU'RE FUCKING LYING." he yanked at her up onto her feet and shoved her against the wall. He pointed the gun at her, but she noticed that it was a sense of false confidence; it seemed like he never fired a weapon at someone before. "LAST CHANCE, HAND IT OVER."

That was the breaking point for Renee. Something, probably to the aid with the coffee, snapped in her. Instead of surrendering her butterfly wallet, she did the last thing anyone expected to see; she stepped towards him. The robber flinched but held his ground.

"If you're going to use that thing-" she gestured to the handgun, "-you better be damn sure that you kill me. Because if you don't, I will beat your ass to an inch of your life."

Her threat caught the robber off guard; and that hesitation was all Renee needed. She used her right hand to slap the robber's gun hand and move the barrel away from her body. The robber squeezed the trigger out of surprise; the loud noise caused Renee to lose her hearing and get a scream-like ringing in her ears. She balled up her fist and slammed it straight into the robbers mask. He wobbled back a step or two, holding his nose. Renee followed him and grabbed the side of his head and used all of her might to bang it against a side wall. He tumbled to the ground, with gun still in hand. His back hit the tile hard, but he never let go of the handgun. Renee used her thick tennis shoes to step onto his wrist and force the robber to release the gun. She quickly kicked it out of his reach and, just to release all of her pint up frustration, she used her dominate foot and kicked him square in the ribs.

Strains of her hair covered her face as Renee took heavy breaths to calm her racing heart. The ringing in her ear was horrible, however, when she looked up at the crowd in the restaurant, she saw the majority of the people were clapping. She couldn't hear anything, but the expressions on their faces said it all. What afterward was nothing more than a blur. She could remember bits and pieces, but not many more details. The police arrived and got statements from everyone, an ambulance came, but the robber refinished to go to a hospital. Even a firetruck drove into the parking lot. The police sent Renee to the ambulance for a quick check-up. The law enforcement's investigation was short, considering the robber was on the security cameras in the restaurant. After regaining her hearing, and the check-up, Renee asked one police officer to take her home once the investigation was concluded.

The sun was just peeking over the mountains by the time Renee finally got home. Her body was about to crash as soon as she entered her apartment building. All she wanted to do was sleep and forget the entire night. She wasn't proud of what she did to the robber, in fact, she could barely remember it. The caffeine high was nearly gone by the time she reached the elevator. While pressing the call button, a mysterious man approached her. His face wasn't hidden, but Renee's vision was beginning to fail her. The only feature she really noticed was the whiteness from his beard and hair that rested on his shoulders. The man's attire was strange, glistening in the soft lobby light, almost like armor. She did her best to look the man in the eye, but she could barely look forward.

"I saw what you did back there," he said, very confident and stern. "Impressive, quick moves. You saved yourself and all of those people."

"What? Oh, yeah. I guess." she mumbled, trying her best not to be rude, but she was leaning on the wall for support.

"Not many Midgardians have what you just displayed; bravery, and a willingness to fight for what you want."

"That's very flattering," she replied, rubbing her eyes to attempt to see the man's face more clear, "But it was just the coffee in my system; normally I would have just gave him my money."

"Modesty, another key trait." she heard the man chuckle a little. At this point Renee was only catching about every other word the man was saying, but she was polite enough to act like she was listening to him. "Here, you must take this." He held out something that was golden to her.

Renee took it, but didn't examine it; fearing her mind would shut down before she made it at least to her sofa. "Thank you, mister." she gave a weak smile.

"In one week, that trinket will signal and you will be brought before me. You must be ready." Pretending to listen, Renee nodded. The elevator finally reached the bottom floor and the doors slid open for her. She uneasily stepped into the bright elevator and turned back to the mysterious man. He nodded at her and said, "Until we meet again, Renee of Midgard."

One last weak smile and a small wave of the hand, the elevator door shut.