I inspected myself in the full length mirror beside the door, turning myself this way and that as I checked my costume for any imperfections. It was a simple costume, somewhat amateurish as I hadn't had the opportunity to get one made by a professional. Despite that, I was happy with what I saw.

My face was obscured by a metal mask. Other than the nose and lips, it was mostly featureless except for the flowery decals around the eyes. My long hair was held in a braid that fell across my shoulder, mostly hidden under the hood of my dark grey hoodie and giving less for my enemies to grab onto.

The mask had originally been one of those porcelain masks that you'd see in a theater, but I had decided against having something as fragile as porcelain stuck on my face given my profession and altered it with my power, turning it to metal. An upside to that was that my power now considered the mask a part of me and it changed along with my skin, something I had been happy to find out.

I brought my gaze away from my mask to the rest of my body, Fingerless gloves enveloped my hands, tips of my fingers exposed so as to allow me a way to activate my power more readily, an idea I had gotten from Faultline.

My legs were covered by durable cargo pants held together by a leather belt. A steel buckle sat in the center of the belt, easily in reach in case I needed to toughen up quickly by changing forms. It was mostly there as a backup as I doubted I would ever be in costume and not transformed unless I was at the Palanquin.

That wasn't even mentioning the items held in the numerous pockets of my cargo pants, ready for use whenever I needed them..

While Faultline still hadn't been able to acquire most of the materials I had asked for, apparently the shipping process was taking longer than usual, she had been able to get some of them, most notably the quartz and gallium.

I had been disappointed to find out that using quartz didn't accelerate my healing in any way; apparently my powers didn't consider metaphysical properties as something they were willing to work with and instead just increased my strength. It wasn't a small increase, in fact it was quite massive, it just wasn't what I had been hoping for.

The gallium on the other hand, had been everything I had expected.

Gallium was a liquid metal a lot like mercury. Only unlike mercury, gallium was not only much less toxic, it also had the ability to turn from a solid to a liquid at the slightest change in temperature. My power saw that and apparently decided I should have the ability to switch between those two states as well, only instead of having to wait for a change in temperature, I could do it at will, albeit at the cost of my stamina.

Not only that, but when I was transformed into the metallic material, my shapeshifting abilities were magnified exponentially. Whereas before I was only able to change the side and shape of my limbs and shift around my facial features a bit, now I was able to do so to my entire body by liquifying myself before changing shape. I could also just stay as a wave of silvery liquid, enveloping whatever was in front of me.

The downside was that doing that, liquefying my entire body and changing shape, used a lot of stamina, nearly as much as hot swapping materials two or three times. And while I hadn't had a repeat of the blackout that occurred the first time I experimented with my powers, spending nearly an hour just messing around while transformed like that had made it a near thing. I had spent around a while just laying on my back and trying to catch my breath as my body ached with fatigue.

I had decided to be more careful when using the material in the future, endeavoring to only use it as a last resort. It made sense, there were few threats that would require me to become a tidal wave of liquid metal after all; I had no plans to fight Lung anytime soon.

"And hopefully it will stay that way." I spoke to myself aloud as I turned away from the mirror. I grabbed my phone from the desk beside my bed, silently thanking Faultline for retrieving my belongings from wherever they had been held, and turned on to look at the time.

5:16 am, the screen read and I sighed. The meeting had been set for 7am, and I was due to meet my client at 6am. I had almost a half hour to waste before I even needed to leave the Palanquin.

I took my mask off and placed it on the nightstand before flopping flopped back on my bed with a massive sigh. What was I gonna do for that long? Practically nobody else was in the club, Gregor had gone off to the gym with Newter, and Faultline and Elle had gone shopping leaving the club empty except for me. There was nobody to talk to.

I was startled out of my thoughts by my phone vibrating in my hand, indicating I had a message. I brought the phone to my face, wondering who in the world was texting me this early and at the same time thanking them for the distraction.

1 New Message

From: Christine

"Hey are u awake?"

I blinked in surprise. I was indeed awake, but the fact that Christine happened to be was shocking. It was a Saturday and she was the type of girl to sleep all day given the chance. I shrugged, deciding it must have just been another thing that had changed while we weren't talking.

"Yeah, I'm awake. Did you need something?"

I put my phone down to await her reply only to have to immediately pick it back up again as it vibrated with another message.

"I can't sleep. My parents left for work abt an hour ago and woke me up and now i cant go back to sleep. What r u doing up rn?"

I grimaced at her text speak. I had never been a grammar nazi (Ha! Suck it Empire!) but the way some people texted bothered me a bit.

"I'm just sitting on my bed waiting for 6 to get here. How about you?"

"Same. But i'm not waiting for anything. Why r u waiting?"

I hesitated, wondering if I should tell her given her position in the Empire before shrugging. I'd just keep it vague.

"I've got to meet a client at 6. He hired me as a bodyguard while he's here in the bay."

There, that should be vague enough.

"Oh rly? Is Newter coming with u or did u finally get a solo job?"

"It's just me. Faultline decided I was ready to handle a simple job like this. Though it wouldn't surprise me if she told Newter to shadow me. She's overprotective like that. Enough about me though, why can't you sleep? Something wrong?"

I stared at my phone as I awaited a response, only to frown as those three little dots appeared on her side of the screen and stayed there. I waited almost an entire minute before her response finally appeared.

"No. Nothings wrong."

I frowned harder at the response. Christine of all people taking nearly a minute to type three words, correct punctuation and all? Something was up.

"I don't believe you. What's wrong Chris?"

"Nothing's wrong Val. Don't worry about it."

"Come on dude, we may not have been best friends for the past few years, but I know you. You wouldn't still be up this early unless something was wrong. So spill."

I waited for her response, staring at the white screen in anticipation. One minute passed, then two, and then I nearly dropped my phone as it started ringing in my hands.

Incoming Call

From: Christine

Accept Reject

I blinked in surprise before pressing accept and bringing the phone up to my ear, "Hello?"

"Hey Val." came Christine's voice. She was speaking softly, like she was afraid someone might hear her, "You really can't let anything go can you?

I grinned, shaking my head even though I knew she couldn't see me, "You know me, persistent is my middle name."

She giggled softly though I could tell her heart wasn't in it, "It might as well be." She paused and I could hear her shift on her bed, springs creaking in the background as she adjusted herself, "Are you sure you want me to get into this? I don't want to trouble you right before your first big job."

"I'm sure Chris. If it's got you so worked up you can't sleep, it's probably important. Lay it on me, I'm here for you."

There was a moment of silence where I couldn't hear anything coming from her end and I shifted into a more comfortable position on my bed.

"They've-my bosses I mean, have been putting more pressure on me to join the Empire in a more visible way," she began hesitantly, "They want me to take the initiation test, truly join the cause."

I felt my blood run cold with horror and then hot with rage at what I heard. Empire initiation tests were brutal, bloody things that had more place in a cult than a gang. It required a member, usually one who wanted to move up in the gang, to find a minority and viciously assault them in front of their peers. It often ended in death for the victim as the assailant was egged on by their friends to go further and further.

Christine had been lucky enough not to have to do the initiation as her cousin was one of Kaiser's lieutenants, giving her an instant in with the gang. That's why it made no sense for them to suddenly change their minds.

"Why are they doing it now?" I asked her, mind spinning as I tried to think of a reason for the sudden change.

"I don't know! I just know that Hailey and Trevor have been 'suggesting' we find someone to perform the initiation on when we're out alone! I've been deflecting but they're getting really insistent lately. I'm not sure how much longer I can put it off without raising suspicion. They're already giving me weird looks."

Given the suddenness of their change in attitude, it was possible they already suspected something. Whether it was because she had been friends with me or something else, I had no way of knowing.

"And that's not even the worst thing that's happened recently." She said suddenly.

"What is then?" I asked, wondering what could be worse than what she had already told me.

"I-earlier this morning I overheard my parents talking in the kitchen." She began, "They were talking about ways they could get higher up in the corporate chain at Medhall. They were thinking about calling in favors, blackmail, sabotage, corporate stuff you know. Expected of people that are high up in a company."

I nodded, thinking about the similarities between my contract and my friend's problem.

I heard her take a deep breath, "And then my name was brought up. They started talking about how they could send me to Europe. They talked about how they knew some people over there that could help me 'truly join the cause' like they did with my cousin."

'Kaiser's lieutenant' I remembered.

Her breath hitched, "They were talking about making sure I wasn't too damaged by whatever would happen to me. Like I wasn't their fucking daughter and instead just some asset in their company they didn't want to lose!"

She was crying now, I could hear the hitches in her breath as she tried to force back her tears and speak clearly, "Val, what am I going to do? I don't have any family in the Bay other than them, and they want to send me away to do who knows what to me."

I gripped my phone tightly as I sat up, anger burning hot in my chest at what I had heard, "Hey listen, I am not going to let them do anything to you. I swear Chris, if they so much as put a hand on you, I'll tear that fucking gang apart with my bare hands. I swear I will, Kaiser and the PRT be damned."

Christine and I may not have been on good terms for a little over two years but I still cared about her, probably more than I should all things considered, and I would be damned if the Empire was going to take another thing I care about from me.

I pulled my phone back to look at the time and cursed at what I saw. 5:53 am the screen read, I only had seven minutes to meet my client.

I brought the phone back up to my ear, "Listen, I've got to go and meet with my client. You know where the Palanquin is right?"

"Y-yeah, I think so. It's that nightclub right? The one near the dock?"

I nodded, "Yeah, that's right. If anything happens and you can't reach me, come to the Palanquin, you'll be safe here. I'll make sure they know to let you in ok?"

She sniffled, "Ok…ok. Stay safe Val."

"You too Chris. You too. I'll call you when I get back." I ended the call, mind whirling with all I had learned.

I took a deep breath, taking a moment to calm down before standing and placing my phone into one of the many pockets on my cargo pants. I reached over to the nightstand, grabbing my mask and affixing it to my face and activating my power, turning my skin a metallic silver as I attached the mask to my skin.

I gave myself a once over in the mirror before nodding and making my way out of my room into the halls of the Palanquin proper, beelining to one of the morning staff to make sure they knew of what I had told Christine before I left.

I would deal with everything that had been revealed later, for now I had a client to meet.

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