Part Seven: Trial By Fire

There was only one thing on Catherine's mind as she let herself into her apartment after work: 'It was time.' She slipped off her raincoat and hung it to dry in the closet, then kicked off her shoes. It was time to make up with Noel for sure. She's have done it sooner, but at first she'd still been upset, and what with the kidnapping, and school and work and aikido and now training with the Winter Mage, the only thing she still wanted to do was crash at home.

But today was the day. There was no point in putting it off any longer; the last thing she wanted was for Noel to think that she didn't care at all. Not after everything Noel had done for her.

First though, food and a change of clothes. She had nothing against her work uniform of a logo-ed dark blue shirt and khakis but there was no need to be in it any longer than necessary. One quick change into jeans and a faded red t-shirt, and a sandwich later she knocked on Noel's apartment door, butterflies in her stomach. Noel opened the door and stuck her head out, then smiled and opened the door fully. "Oh, hi! Come in!"

Catherine smiled as well and followed Noel in, looking around curiously as she did. Her friend changed the look of her apartment whenever the whim took her; last time she had been there everything from the paint to the animal figurines on the coffee table were in bright, primary colors. Now the apartment was in transition to an ocean theme in various hues of blue. Both looked odd with the steel grey carpet, but Noel showed no signs of caring.

"I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"

"No. Why?" Noel gestured to a padded wooden chair, then turned to the cabinets above the kitchen counter and looked over her shoulder. "Do you want something to drink? You look like you could use one. What's going on?"

Catherine took a seat and a deep breath. "Just water is fine. And there's nothing going on... I just wanted to say I'm sorry for the other day. I've, uh, come to terms with myself since then. I was out of line."

Noel handed the glass of water to Catherine, then leaned against the countertop. She was silent for a moment, then, "What do you mean?"

"It's... been an interesting past few days. Let's just put it that way. But... I accept what happened, and what I am now." She laughed bitterly. "Not like I have much choice in the matter."

Noel nodded. "I shouldn't have been so quick to judge. I should know better than that, living here in Paragon my whole life. Things are never what they seem here. More than that, you're my friend. I should have trusted you. I'm sorry."

Catherine stuck out her right hand. "Truce?"

Noel nodded. "Truce."

"So, uh, what's been going on in the meantime? Do you and Liz and the others still go bowling?"

"Mhmm. Still Wednesday nights."

Catherine stared at the ceiling for a minute, mentally arranging her schedule. "Still at eight?"

Noel nodded.

"I might be a little late, but I can make it. I've got class at PCC Wednesdays."

Noel laughed. "Tired of working at SaveMart already?"

Catherine shrugged. "I used to work as shift manager at a grocery store, before. But it's not enough here- I want to be able to support myself. I'm tired of still having to depend on Harrison."

"Who's Harrison?"

"I didn't tell you? Well..."

The next day Catherine tugged her rain jacket tighter around her as the wind picked up once more. It had rained off and on all day, and the only good thing that could be said about it was was that the sky was finally clearing. As far as she was concerned if she wanted to get wet she would take a shower.

She sighed and huddled underneath the eaves of the monorail building for a second longer, then set off at a jog towards a side alley several blocks north, passing the statue of Cyrus Thompson as she did. The Winter Mage didn't yet trust her enough to give her the actual location of the warehouse, which wasn't really surprising considering she'd only had three training sessions with her. And after that first time, things hadn't quite been the same between them.

Thankfully, not long after she came to a halt in the cramped and windowless alley there was the bright flash of light that signaled the Winter Mage's arrival. The heroine scanned the alleyway, then smiled. "Right on time, as always."

Catherine smiled. "Never been a fan of being late."

The Winter Mage extended her hand. "Shall we?"

"Yeah."

Catherine steadied herself and took deep breaths until the nausea passed. At least this time she'd managed not to throw up on her shoes this time. It hadn't been a good way to start her last training session, and it had only gone downhill from there.

"As soon as you are ready you can start your meditation."

Catherine sighed and made her way to her mat, shedding her coat as she did so. She placed it carefully on the floor next to her to dry, then leaned against the wall behind her and crossed her legs. Once again at her mentor's instruction she closed her eyes and began to breathe deeply.

At the Winter Mage's direction she envisioned the seat of her magic, the same set of pillars she had encountered before in that had been the demon's domain. She knew instinctively that putting out the pillar's fire would rid her of her magic forever, but as tempting as it was, it wasn't an option if she wanted to stay alive. Either way Faculus would probably still kill her.

The trick, according to the Winter Mage, was to put up a barrier around the pillars, which would suppress the magic she radiated, but would also allow her to call up her powers if and when she needed them. This was turning out to be easier said than done; a rather energetic explosion rose up guiltily in her memory.

But focusing on the past wasn't going to help her now. She slowed her breathing again, which had started to rise at the thought of the incident from her last training session and set about creating her barrier. It was apparently unique to every person; what worked for one had no guarantee of working for another. Catherine knew she was on the right track with the smooth glass enclosure she had attempted before, but there was something about it that wasn't right.

Slowly she built up the glass from the ground up, stopping when she felt her magic push against it. That was the problem right there- the glass sphere wasn't supposed to contain, but work more like a resistor, allowing only a small amount of energy through. She drew her consciousness back, taking in the construct as a whole. After a few minute's consideration she had it. Thin silver lines appeared, spaced an inch or so apart and running both horizontally and vertically around the entirety of the sphere. The resistance stopped. Instead, if she strained, she could feel the slightest amount of magic still leaking through. In the privacy of her own head she smiled.

The job wasn't done though. Not yet. She wondered briefly what the expression on her mentor's face would be when she saw her student had done it on her second try. Whatever it was, it would be good, she was sure. If there was one thing she'd found the few times she'd interacted with the Winter Mage, it was that her moniker fit her very well. She wasn't one to show her emotions at all, which frustrated Catherine to no end.

She sighed mentally and focused her attention on the task at hand. She brought the height of the sphere higher and higher until she felt resistance again, then once again stepped back to take a look at the construct as a whole. The silver lines pulsed with power, bright enough to blind if she had any eyes at that point to be blinded in at that point, then duller and duller until they were almost black, then bright again. Was she missing something? No, she decided, and closed the glass barrier.

The lines went from dull to light once more, but instead of dulling again the lines grew brighter and brighter until the whole sphere began to shake violently. Catherine struggled to reinforce the construct, but within seconds it was too much.

She opened her eyes just in time to watch a white-hot fireball the size of her head dissipate against the ceiling. She swore and scrambled out of the way as bits and pieces of metal fell and fortunately bounced off the Winter Mage's purple shield.

"Oh, man. Are you okay?"

The Winter Mage nodded. "Do you know where you went wrong?"

Catherine sighed and shook her head. "I thought I had it. I swear I did. But it didn't work right, and somehow it overloaded."

"Do you feel comfortable trying again?"

"Yeah, sure."

"First..."

Catherine sighed again. "Right."

She grabbed the broom from its place next to her mat and began to sweep up the mess she had unwittingly created.

"So... I've got a question for you. What's the difference between me and you? I mean, you're teaching me how to control my magic, and you use your own as a heroine, but that doesn't make me one, does it?"

"Not unless you want to be. As far as the law is concerned, a super hero is a person that is registered at City Hall in Atlas Park and maintains that registration actively. If anyone uses their abilities without that license in anything other than self-defense, they can be charged under the law."

"So... this is what, a grey area?"

"I am training you to use your powers only in self-defense. If you wanted to use them in any other way you would have to be licensed, or I would not help you."

"Makes sense, I guess. What made you want to become a hero?"

"Magic runs in my family. My mother taught me, as her mother taught her, as far back as we can trace our ancestry. It's expected of the oldest daughter to follow in her mother's footsteps."

"But what if you didn't want to learn?"

The Winter Mage smiled. "I had an opportunity to not only follow in my mothers' and grandmothers' and great-grandmothers' footsteps, but to protect the city I live in. To make it better for my descendants and for everyone else who lives here. How could I turn that down?"

Catherine looked thoughtful. "At least you grew up around it. This is still a lot to get used to. Every day there's something that couldn't possibly happen in my universe, but it happens here all the time."

"Oh?"

"You name it, and it's different. No magic, science and technology aren't nearly as advanced. No mutants either. Or people trying to kill me."

All of the sudden, a deafening alarm erupted all around them. Catherine took one look at the building shaking around her and hit the deck once again, as the Winter Mage brought up her shield for the second time in fifteen minutes.

As soon as the siren ended a man's voice came on over the emergency warning system. "This is a Vanguard alert. Rikti invasion forces have been spotted in King's Row. All non-combatants are advised to take cover."

Catherine peered out at the Winter Mage from her protected position. "What's going on?"

"The Rikti are invading. Stay here. This building will stand up even to a Rikti bomb. I'll come back for you when the invasion is over."

Catherine got to her feet slowly, heart and mind racing. Harrison had told her about them her second day in her new universe; aliens from outer space with a grudge against humanity that no one was quite sure why they had. They'd come out of the blue one day almost seven years before and decimated the city and its heroes, starting a war that lasted most of the year before the Alpha and Omega teams had put an end to it. There'd been a second invasion five years later, and the Rikti still showed up from time to time to bomb the city. Everything she'd heard about the Rikti said they were fearsome warriors, equal in strength to the city's hero population. Boomtown, Crey's Folly, and the Rikti War Zone would never be the same again.

"Wait, wait!"

The Winter Mage didn't even slow down. "Stay here!"

One flash of light later and the heroine was gone, leaving Catherine alone. She winced as another explosion in the distance made the building shake. The thought of trying to meditate again briefly passed through her mind, but there was no way she'd be able to calm herself down enough to actually relax, not with what sounded like the end of the world going on outside.

Anger flared. The Winter Mage had just left her! There was no way she was going to let that happen, license or no. She had the ability to help so she would, paperwork be damned. There were only two problems. One, she had no idea where to go. And two, even if she did know where to go, she didn't have a costume, and she'd be damned if she'd put any else's life in danger because someone recognized her.

She looked at the ceiling, where there was a new scorch mark on top of the old mark from her last training session, then around the warehouse. She stared thoughtfully at a black duffel bag that presumably belonged to her mentor, tucked neatly away beside some wooden crates. She'd seen glimpses of a second costume in it; it would certainly fit in with the Winter Mage's policy of being prepared for whatever came her way. She hurried over and unzipped it, and sure enough, a full costume was inside.

Minutes later Catherine stepped out onto the streets of Kings Row, hood up as far as she could get it to go. She tugged at the robe, trying in vain to make the garment looser. While the two women were roughly the same height, the Winter Mage had a smaller frame than she did. She was distracted, however, by the sickly green sky above her and the the hulking shape of a Rikti Dropship on a bombing raid in the distance.

People streamed around her, men, women and children, some screaming, some not. One had blood streaming down his forehead, another hobbled as fast as she could using a pair of crutches. It was the quiet ones that made her blood run cold; they ran with a singlemindedness that spoke of experience, and knew that screaming would do them no good.

She paled. What on earth had she gotten herself into? She turned and looked at the door behind her. She'd completely lost her mind, that was for certain. If she changed now, the Winter Mage would never even know.

"Thank you miss, thank you so much!"

Catherine whirled around, never more happy for something obscuring her face than right then. Whoever had spoken hadn't stuck around to be identified, and there were half a dozen women that she could see running down the street. She shook her head slowly. That settled it then. There were people relying on her. Whether that was a good idea was yet to be seen, but for the moment the simple fact that she had a costume on was enough for some people.

She took a deep breath and broke into a run down the street, against the flow of civilians, to where she could see the signs of fighting in the distance. She skidded to a halt roughly half a block from where a dozen or so heroes were duking it out with more Rikti than she cared to count. She put her hands on her knees, breathing heavily.

It was one thing to have the Rikti described to her, and another completely to see them in the flesh. They towered over all but the tallest of the heroes massed against them, wielding gunswords or energy rifles almost as big as they were. One in dark red and grey armor stood off to the side, closer to the steps leading to the plaza. It had its hands to its head, but nothing seemed to be happening.

Blue Steel, decked out in his usual armored blue police uniform and badge-shaped shield stood a few feet from the fray, barking commands she could hear even over the almost deafening noise. A stray energy beam from a Rikti in grey and green's plasma gun lanced in his direction, but it bounced harmlessly off of his shield. Another alien, this one in green and blue, dodged the blast, but found itself in the path of an arc of lightning from a caped heroine wearing mechanical gloves.

"I've gone insane," she muttered. "I am out of my mind and probably going to die."

Blue Steel saw her and called out. "Hurry! Take the left side!"

"Definitely insane."

Seconds later there was no time for second thoughts as a Rikti, with its broadly swept back skull and encased in green and grey armor from the neck down, broke away from the edge of the battle and turned to point its energy rifle at her. Catherine flinched, screamed, and reflexively sent a stream of negative energy lancing out at the invader. The blast dissipated harmlessly against the alien's armor, only angering it further.

She swore and turned to look for someone, anyone, to help her out, only to find that she was on her own. What was she supposed to do now?

Out of the corner of her eye she caught a glimpse of movement from her opponent. She whirled to face it and launched a softball sized ball of white-hot fire at its chest, then a second, and a third. The first dissipated, just as the stream of negative energy had, but the second and third turned its armor red hot. The alien roared in anger and advanced, bringing its rifle to bear on the hapless woman.

Catherine blanched and tried to back up a pace, but there was a solid object behind her. The solid object said "Ow! Watch out!"

"Sorry!"

She hesitated, and the only thing that prevented her from dying right then and there was the fact that Rikti weaponry didn't charge quickly. As realization dawned she dodged in close, put both hands against its breastplate, then sent a blast of negative energy straight into its chest. It staggered back a pace and dropped to one knee and Catherine cheered.

Heartened, she summoned another fireball and launched the white-hot projectile at her foe. For a long moment nothing happened and the newfound heroine readied for another blast. Then it put its hands to its chest and fell forward, unmoving.

She gasped and shook her head. Had she really done it? Had she really just killed? The fact that it had been trying to kill her wasn't reassuring. The thought of checking its pulse briefly flashed through her mind, but how would that work? There was no way of knowing if the thing had heart, let alone one in the same rough place as humans did.

A male voice cried out behind her, and she whirled around to find a Rikti blade hurtling towards her neck. She screamed; it was too late to move out of the way. All of the sudden a giant hammer swung within in inches of her face, intercepting the blade and shattering it into pieces. A second swing from the stone weapon to the alien invader's chest was all it took to lay the offending Rikti out cold on the ground.

A man her height, dressed in padded clothes in shades of brown, clapped her on the shoulder.

"Are you okay?"

Catherine nodded shakily. "Yeah. Thanks."

The man shouldered his hammer, which was easily bigger than his head. Catherine wondered for a moment how on earth he could wield the thing as easily as he did. "Stonebreaker."

Catherine blinked and stared, mind racing. The thought of what she was going to call herself hadn't even crossed her mind.

Stonebreaker smiled. "Not a talker, eh? I understand."

"No! I... I'm, uh, just a little new at this, I guess. I haven't really decided what to call myself yet- watch out!"

She sidestepped around the heavily muscled hero and launched a fireball at yet another Rikti, this one in red and grey. The Rikti staggered back a pace, then regained its balance and resumed its advance.

Stonebreaker put a hand on her shoulder and gently pushed her to one side as he grasped his hammer tightly with the other. "My turn."

With that he took his hand from her shoulder and strode forward, then swung with all of his might. The Rikti roared in pain as its chest armor shattered and dropped its sword as it was flung from its feet into the air to arc over the crowd to land in the street. Whether it was dead or merely stunned she didn't know, but it didn't move.

When he turned back around to face her he was smiling widely. "Shall we work together?"

Catherine smiled and nodded. "We shall."

The rest of the battle was a whirlwind of fire and energy and the sound of solid stone on metal as the two fought side by side in the crush of alien invaders and their opponents. At long last the sky lightened and the cry of "The War Walls are back!" came from a hero in green. The last of the aliens either teleported out in a flash of neon green light or found themselves at the wrong end of an increasing number of very angry heroes.

Catherine worked her way to the edge of the crowd, took a deep, shuddering breath and looked around, worry lining her face. Scattered here and there the wounded were being helped to their feet, or in a few cases, teleported into the hospital down the street. Luckily, the Winter Mage didn't seem to be among them. Either that, or she'd been transported during the battle.

Someone tapped her on the shoulder, making her jump and spin around, hands up and ready to summon her magic. Stonebreaker took a step back and held up his own hands, looking apologetic. "Sorry, sorry."

Catherine sighed and shook her head. "It's okay. I'm just a little jumpy, that's all. Have you seen a woman in a black hooded robe, with blue edging?"

Stonebreaker looked at the sky for a moment, then back at Catherine. "No, I don't think so. What about a woman about your height in a green tunic?"

"No, I'm sorry, I haven't."

Stonebreaker nodded. "I'll see you around, then. It was good working with you."

"Yeah. Thanks for saving my life."

He smiled. "The same." With that he headed slowly towards the small crowd around Blue Steel, who had sheathed his sword and flipped up his visor, and seemed to be talking animatedly about something. She pursed her lips, then walked slowly towards the crowd, scanning the area for her mentor.

There was no sign of the Winter Mage, but as she drew closer Blue Steel's words became audible. "… on our own turf. Together, united in our efforts, we have once again proved that our enemies will not stand. For that the city, the police, and I are in your debt."

With that, the policeman shouldered his sword and shield and walked up the steps towards the police station. The crowd stayed for a moment, then dispersed slowly, in singles and small groups until five minutes later Catherine was alone in the middle of the street.

She sighed and sat down on the steps leading to the plaza, then looked up at the blue sky for a moment and shook her head. Why the weather had to be nice only after an invasion she didn't know.

Where could the Winter Mage have gone? In the chaos of the battle there were a thousand things that could have happened, and her imagination worked overtime to provide ideas: maybe she had simply been waylaid by a civilian on they way, or maybe she'd tripped and broken a leg, or maybe she'd been on the wrong end of a Rikti blade and her broken remains were laying in the hospital unclaimed.

She frowned. Where was the nearest hospital? She didn't know the area well enough, but that was easily fixable, at least. Now that the War Walls were back up again and the Rikti mopped up for the moment, a handful of policemen had left the sanctuary of the station to stand in the sunshine and smoke.

She levered herself to her feet and wandered over the the nearest policeman, a heavily muscled man with a shaved head and a cigar held loosely in his left hand. "Excuse me, do you know where the wounded heroes would have gone from a minute ago?"

The policeman nodded. "The hospital is right behind the station," he said in a gravelly voice.

"Thanks."

Catherine strode up the stairs and towards the side of the police station. After half a dozen strides she broke into a jog, then into a run. Luckily for the Skull death cultists and the Vazhilok zombies who normally hung around the pools of water outside the entrance, there were none in sight, because she was in no mood to deal lightly with anything in her way.

"Please let her be okay," she panted, hand on her knees.

She straightened up, took a deep breath to steady her nerves and reached for the door, only to pull her arm back as the door opened from the inside. She stepped back to give whoever it was room, then lunged forward, arms wide when she saw who it was. "You're alive!"