Epilogue
Tana walked down the street, wrapped in her overlarge coat as she tried to seek refuge from the cold. It had been three months since she'd been to that circus—three months of absolute hell. More so than usual. Some of her best hideaways had been busted by the police, she'd narrowly escaped jail several times, she'd taken a knife to the gut from a drunken thug, and there was not a single person who would give her an honest job. She hadn't realized how fast a person could age in three months until now. She no longer fretted over every immoral decision she made, and had long since gotten past the mindset of "it's not fair". Instead, she turned to mastering the profession she'd chosen, and was proving to be quite proficient in the art of thieving, even managing to break into the lower offices of Wayne Industries the other day, with nothing but stealth and a knife. Gotten a good chunk of cash for it, too, even if it wasn't as much as she'd have liked.
Which, too often, was the case. She hated being so small—she hated her lack of experience defending herself. She was trying to learn how to fight, but when it came to the mobsters and crime bosses that she dealt with—there was no way to fight them. They offered low pay, she took low pay, because the alternative was to be lying dead in a gutter. Tana didn't pity herself, instead simply filling with hatred and boiling underneath her cool exterior. Still, she was patient. She was waiting for the day when she could give back every single blow that she'd been so generously given.
She was passing by a dark alleyway when a low voice issued from the shadows. "Hey you, come here."
"Like hell," she snapped, and continued walking.
"No, really. You're that thief girl, right? I gotta proposal for you."
She turned around, but remained wary. The man looked unassuming enough. Loosely cropped scraggy brown beard; dark grey eyes; neither large nor small. One hand was occupied by a large briefcase; the other pulled a dark green cap farther down over his face; he had no weapons at hand. She took the risk of entering the mouth of the alley, until she was out of sight of the road.
"What do you want?"
"Well, you see, it's not really me. I have an employer who's rich and powerful, and he's heard about you. He asked me to come down and find you."
"Really," she said flatly. "So what does he want?"
"He wants to make an investment in your abilities."
The man opened his briefcase and Tana looked inside, before lifting one of the items out. It was a black glove, with odd channels and lines running down the tough, yet flexible fabric. "What does this do?"
"All kinds of things. You're a smart girl, I'm sure you'll figure it out."
"So I suppose that they'll somehow help me in my work, but in return for them, I have to do exactly what your employer says?"
"No, actually. You can have that, he just wants to see what you can do. He'll be offering you jobs, of course. And if you're willing to do a few of them, then well… there's more where that came from."
Unable to suppress a spark of curiosity, Tana pulled the glove on, watching as blue light started to flow down the lines. Flexing her fingers, she felt a jolt of electricity jump between two of her fingertips. Then she clenched her fist and slammed it against the alley wall.
It crashed through.
At first, she was stunned. But as she pulled her hand out of the hole, she began to smirk. "I'm sure we can work something out."
End of Volume 1