Another Friday, another chapter for you wonderful people.

It makes me glad I wrote a few in advance of publishing; as we get closer to Christmas my panic level gets higher and higher. I still haven't got all the presents I need, and I've yet to wrap the ones I've got. Christmas - wonderful fun but slightly stressful. It's worth all the effort though.

I hope you've been enjoying this story so far, and will enjoy this chapter you're (hopefully!) about to start reading.

As always, I don't own Marvel. I don't think I'd be worrying what I'd get people for Christmas if I did. :)

Trips and needles

The new revelation of Astraea's alter ego hadn't caused the rift between her and Madison that she'd expected. The girls continued in a crazy friendship, bickering and laughing as they progressed with exams. The winter of February progressed into spring and the city seemed ready to burst with new life.

They'd decided to take a day's adventure around Central Park. It was a relatively warm day (for March) and they needed a break. Rainy days and winter chills had kept them inside for most of the past couple of months. The girls needed a trip into the fresh air, and a chance to focus on things other than studies.

The park was buzzing with families, couples, and groups of friends spending the day together. Madison and Astraea had decided to forgo the zoo, deciding that there were likely to be lots of children there. There were closer parks to where the duo lived, but there was something about Central Park. It was something that Astraea had known about before she'd turned up in Manhattan, and had been dying to see for months. They'd never gotten around to it, but today the girls decided to cross it off the list.

So, they bundled up against the chill. Astraea with her wavy black locks tucked into a red beanie that matched her red skater dress, under a black coat with her favourite knee-high boots. Madison had chosen grey jeans, black sneakers, and a sky-blue parka.

First, they headed to the Carousel. Despite their ages, both Madison and Astraea decided to ride, snapping pictures of each other laughing.

"You know," said Astraea, as they clambered off the horses, "that wasn't nearly as good as the one at Beamish."

After her friend's questioning look, Astraea launched into a full explanation about the historical village you could visit, set up as though it were still functioning. Her family went one Christmas, she explained, when Astraea was eight. There was a steam-powered carousel that moved at ridiculously fast speeds, for a carousel.

"That sounds like fun. We'll have to take a road trip to England someday. I'm showing you my birthplace of New York; you can show me England. Show me all your British things," Madison teased, nudging Astraea in the ribs.

By the time noon arrived both girls were starving and frozen. They gladly bundled into the nearest café, ordering hot sandwiches and drinks. As soon as the food came they tucked in, wolfing down a toasted sandwich each and a bowl of chips between them. The café was filled with warm air and chattering voices. Astraea tugged off her coat and gripped her hot chocolate between both hands. This was bliss.

"So –" Madison gave Astraea a pointed look over the rim of her mug as she took a sip of the coffee, "can I call you Captain America Light? CAL for short. Because – I mean, you've kinda got similar abilities. It works." She gave Astraea a dazzling smile, ignoring the look of abject horror on her friend's face. "What?!"

"Maddie!" Astraea hissed, casting a furtive glance around her. "You can't say that. What if someone's listening? I don't want anyone to find. Any of these people could have heard and then they'll tell people. I'll get carted off to a lab and experimented on and … "

"Hey, stop. Don't be so silly, Rhea. Nobody's listening, and it'll be pretty hard to hear anyways. We're in a really busy café, and everyone is talking. Stop worrying, you lovable idiot, and just enjoy yourself. We're having a fun day out, and you don't need to stress about your, uh, secrets." Madison waved a hand flippantly, and step her mug down. "Seriously, stop being a bloody wuss-puss, and live a little. We're fine."

"We're fine," Astraea repeated, rubbing her temples with both hands, "we're fine. Everything is fine. I'm worrying about nothing. I just need to have fun and relax, right? Right?" She turned to Madison, a desperate look in her brown eyes, red-raw from the cold.

Madison gave a tinkling laugh, reaching out to take one of her friend's hands and squeeze it between her own. "Yes. Yes. Come on, Rhea – finish up that drink and we'll go check out that – "

As Madison continued to babble on and suggest new places to go Astraea slowly relaxed, sinking back in her chair and casting a quick glance over the packed room. There was a man in the corner that caught her eye, sitting in the far corner as though he didn't want to be spotted. There was a baseball pulled low over his face – the kind that superheroes always use as a terrible disguise in films. Bright blues eyes stared out, assessing the room. They caught Astraea's gaze and she quickly looked away. Wouldn't want anyone to think she was looking, would she?

Another ten minutes later, and the girls were leaving the café, heading out on their jaunt again. They'd decided to only walk around part of the park – it was a bit too big to wander around all day, and still leave time for breaks. They'd already spent a good couple of hours wandering the section of Central Park closet to their end of Manhattan. The park wasn't that close to their campus, but it still wasn't ridiculously far away.

Astraea had always loved the fact that something like this existed – a space where city dwellers could come and pretend to be in the countryside, even if it was only for a short time. A lot of city kids could grow up without understanding or even know about the nature of their country. A park this size was easily capable of giving the illusion of countryside within a city.

It made Astraea's heart pang with homesickness. She missed the rolling hills of the Yorkshire Dales, and holidays spent clambering around ruined castles and buildings, skipping stones, playing pooh sticks, and pretending to be spies with her little brother. The countryside was beautiful: lush, green grass; rich, purple heather; sparkling rivers; and beautiful valleys. It may have been cold on the beaches most of the time, but there was always fun in racing on the sand and running from the incoming waves. She had loved seeing if she could sneak up on sheep on the dales, and spotting a glance of deer in the woods. Astraea had found a lump of quartz once: having plunged her hand into a river and grabbed a chunk of rock, she'd lifted it up to found the sizeable chunk of gemstone. It wasn't particularly valuable, but that wasn't why Astraea kept it. She kept it for the memories.

The girls wandered in silence for some time, arms linked as they strolled under the leafy trees. The fresh scent of green was everywhere – the smell of spring. Spring could be change, but also the bringer of new life.

Change. Like the way, Astraea had revealed her secret identity to Madison. It certainly brought a new layer to their friendship. Something more. But Astraea couldn't help but wonder, what if that wasn't the biggest change to happen, or the only one? Perhaps something bigger was coming, something that Astraea had no way to counter.

Madison gave Astraea a strange look, jolting Astraea from her conflicting thoughts. "Oh … yeah, sorry. I was just … um, thinking about home, y'know? How much I love my country in spring. I kinda miss that, being in a city and all. I mean, the park is nice. But it's not quite the same."

"No," Madison mused, casting a critical eye over the blooming trees and lush grass, "it's not. It's close. But you've got to miss that wild freedom that comes from being in the countryside. Being surrounded by only nature – not a building in sight. So beautiful. And alone. But beautiful all the same."

"Mmm … We should go out the city – for a weekend break. Escape the concrete and glass and just be free."

"Maybe. If we can get through this semester." Madison gave her trademark laugh, linking her arm with Astraea's. "Come on, we should head on back now. I'm freezing!"

Once night had fallen, Astraea had ducked into her room, retrieving her Nemesis suit for her evening round. She couldn't go out every night, and tried to ensure she got at least four hours sleep each night, but Astraea still wanted to keep the people safe. If that meant sacrificing a little of her free time to protect people in theirs, then that was fine with her. Astraea had enhancements that could be wasted if she didn't use them. And she would use them to do as much good as she could.

As always Nemesis slipped out the window, dropping to the ground and rolling to absorb the fall. Her footsteps were light as she set out, ears listening for trouble. On some days there would be barely anything, on others, she couldn't get to everyone. Ripples to stop a tidal wave, Nemesis recalled, but ripples can build into something bigger.

Sticking to the shadows of rooftops and tiny alleys, Nemesis moved around Midtown Manhattan, protecting her small piece of New York City. She wasn't the only one out and about if the presence of Spider-Man was anything to go by. Still, Nemesis couldn't rely on other vigilantes to do her job. Unofficial job. Whatever the case, she felt strongly that she had to be out on the streets, stopping crimes and presenting herself as a warning. If someone wanted to break laws they had better think of the vigilantes waiting in the shadows to stop them. Permanently, if they had to.

Nemesis didn't like killing if she could avoid it. Every death felt like another bucket of blood, dripping over her body and staining her skin crimson. It was unavoidable, as her role as a street protector. Sometimes people had to be stopped, and sometimes there was only one to do that. There was a part of Nemesis that felt as though she was watching everything happen like it was someone else controlling her body. The other felt like screaming at herself to stop, stop, stop, and think about what she was doing. That part was Astraea, watching herself turn little by little into something much darker than her regular self. The part that wanted hang up the mask, and sit and cry about how much everything hurt to face these things daily.

Absorbed in her thoughts, Nemesis was walking on autopilot, ready to respond to action but not really noticing where she was going. Her ears hurt from all the noise – Nemesis wasn't concentrating on tuning anything out, so everything seemed much louder. She could have been in a busy part of Manhattan, but she didn't have much of an idea. There were a bunch of towering skyscrapers around – palaces of glass and concrete and metal. A proclamation to the world: here I am.

Something moved in the darkness, and Nemesis reacted instantly, listening out for heartbeats in the 13-metre radius she could hear them in. Two stood out the most, what with being the closest to her. Figures clothed in black flitted from shadow to shadow, encircling her. Nemesis raised her hands into a fighting stance, ready to take on whoever it was. Someone laughed, a light sound that quickly faded in the sudden stillness.

Nemesis growled to herself, bouncing on her toes and keeping her fists raised. A light blow landed on her back, and she spun around. Her eyes narrowed behind the mask, and she stepped forward.

"Whoever it is can piss off. Unless you feel like coming out your shadows I want nothing to do with you. Go!" Nemesis hissed the last word in the shadows as she rotated in the spot. "Leave me alone!"

"Oh, honey. I'm afraid it's not going to work that way." A feminine echoed out the darkness, and Nemesis turned towards it. "We'll appreciate your co-operation once the anaesthetic wears off."

"Wait, what?! What anaesthetic do you – "The prick of the needle brought Nemesis' hand to her neck, where a tiny prick was marked on her skin. "Twats," she muttered, before promptly collapsing on the ground, face down on the cobbles.

Thanks for reading, guys.

How do you feel about this cliffhanger? What'll happen next? Stay tuned, and you'll find out. All in good time, my friend, all in good time.

On another note, if case anyone was getting confused, I use 'Nemesis' when Astraea is wearing her supersuit and 'Astraea' when she's dressed or acting as a civilian. Nemesis is her codename and I'm treating it as such. Hence the use when in the field or in the suit. Just to clarify that for anyone.

Look-for-the-miracles