I ducked under the swinging fist of my opponent, bringing my fists close and stepping into their guard, shooting my own fist forward into their ribs. It was a simple maneuver, one most fighters would be able to notice and brace against.

My opponent did neither.

"Gah!" Emily doubled over at my blow, hands coming to clutch at her side and I winced, immediately lowering my arms from my stance as she bent over on the floor.

"Ah shit, sorry Em." I apologized as I leaned down to help her up, "I'm too used to sparring with Newter, he would have dodged that."

She leaned on me, panting with exhaustion and I decided to take pity on her, "I think that's enough for today. Let's take five, or ten with the way you're looking."

Emily let out a relieved groan as she hobbled over to the bench at the side of the room, plopping down on it happily.

I grabbed two water bottles from the nearby cooler before making my way over and sitting beside her. I held one out to her which she took thankfully.

"You hit like a truck even without your powers." She complained as she unscrewed the lid, raising it to her mouth and talking deep gulps.

I shrugged, "I just know where to hit, and you need to learn where to block. That's what we'll be working on next I think."

"Not today though, right?" She practically pleaded.

I chuckled, "No, like I said we're done for today. You did good all things considered. Didn't wimp out on me like Newter's starting to do."

Apparently I played a little too rough for the agile teen during our sparring matches recently as I got better at fighting. The last few bouts had left Newter with bruises where he blocked the strikes he couldn't dodge and so he had started to opt out of sparring sessions while he recovered. Wimp.

As we cooled off on the bench, my mind wandered to the girl beside me. During our last match she had become more and more distracted, an angry look appearing on her face as she struck at me more wildly, no thought behind her attacks.

Something had pissed her off and I knew it wasn't me. She wasn't really seeing me as we fought, eyes instead looking through me, unfocused as the rest of her.

I had a feeling I knew what it was about, and figured there wouldn't be a better time to broach the topic, so I turned to Emily as she gulped down her water beside me.

"Hey so," I began hesitantly, "What was Velocity talking about? With that orphanage, Bluebird was it?"

Spitfire tensed, freezing as she went to take another sip of her water, and I raised my hands in a calming gesture.

"We don't have to talk about it if you don't want to!" I reassured, "I just figured, you know, if it's something that's bothering you we could help. I already told you how much having people at my back helped me, maybe we can help you as well."

She sighed lightly, sitting the water bottle on the bench between us, "It's not a happy story, and it's pretty much wrapped up at this point. You sure you wanna know?" she asked.

I nodded, "It's clearly still bothering you, your head wasn't in that last bout at all.. If venting about it to me will help, I'm all ears. And besides, isn't that why you joined up in the first place, to have people in your corner?"

I smirked, leaning closer to put my arm around her shoulder, "Unless it actually was Newter's ugly mug that got you to join. If that's the case, I won't judge, you're among friends here." I teased.

She flushed, "I have no clue what you're talking about."

"Heh, sure you don't." I grinned.

She fiddled with her water bottle for a moment, before sighing, "I grew up in Bluebird orphanage. I was left there by my mom when I wasn't even old enough to remember much besides sounds and colors. She just dropped me off outside and disappeared, didn't even go in to sign the papers or anything."

I stayed quiet as I listened to her speak, making sure she knew I was paying attention to what she was saying.

"Growing up there was the absolute worst, sometimes I wished my mother had just left me on the street for some rando to find instead of bringing me there. There was never enough food or water, they gave us cardboard mattresses and paper thin sheets to sleep in. The caretakers were either cruel or indifferent, clearly just there to collect a paycheck while doing as little as possible to take care of us all."

"I knew a girl, Amanda, she had cute red pigtails and a gap between her front teeth that was super noticeable when she smiled, which she did a lot.. We were pretty good friends, but then, she was friends with everybody." She smiled lightly as she reminisced.

"She was one of those kids who couldn't be kept down for long, always bouncing back after everything that happened to her. Everyone loved her for it, our little ray of sunshine in that place." Her smile disappeared as suddenly as it had come. "And then she got adopted. Just like that, she was gone, and we were all miserable again. I didn't care personally, I thought that if anybody deserved to find a nice happy family, it was her. I was happy for her, even as a bratty little kid."

She stared down at her water bottle clenched tightly in her hands and spoke quietly, "I saw her on the news a few weeks later, 'rescued in a child trafficking sting,' the headline said. All I can remember is how different she looked from the time I last saw her, she wasn't smiling and her eyes were hollow like all of the innocence had left her in one fell swoop, leaving nothing left."

She took a deep breath, "A week or two later I was snooping around the Matron's office, looking for something to play with or something I can't really remember, and I came across some papers that were hidden in the bottom of a drawer. I was just learning to read so I couldn't make out much except for the word 'Amanda' but to me it was something to do with my friend so I took it with me. It took me a while to learn enough words to read the whole thing, but when I did, I thought I was going to be sick." Her hand suddenly tightened, crushing the bottle in her grip, "The document I took was proof of purchase or whatever amounted to it in a situation like that. The fucking Matron sold her Valerie. She sold Amanda like she was fucking cattle!"

Emily was practically shaking with anger, and I rubbed her back as she breathed deeply to calm down. It took several seconds, and she thanked me softly as I removed my hand from her back.

"When I triggered, the first thing I did was go back to that damn orphanage and burn it to the ground." She took a swig from the crushed bottle, "I didn't care that they were shutting down, I wanted that place gone, burned until not even ashes were left. So I went there as soon as I could and set the place alight. I got lost in a haze and I kept spitting fire until I felt like I was gonna throw up and then spit some more. I practically had to drag myself away when I heard the sirens."

"I-I didn't know there were people still inside." she said quietly, and I placed a hand on her shoulder in a comforting gesture, "Nobody got hurt from what I saw on the news, but if someone had, if there were still kids inside…" She took a shuddering breath, "I don't know what I would have done. I probably would have lost my mind."

"But they weren't. You didn't hurt anybody, least of all those kids." I comforted her, "If you keep wondering about what-ifs, you'll do nothing but drive yourself crazy. You regret what happened or at least how you went about it and that's all that matters. Learn from your mistakes and the next time something like that happens, you'll know what to do differently."

"I guess you're right." Emily sniffed, before she turned to me with a light smile on her face, "Thanks Valerie, you were right when you said venting would help. I feel…lighter if that makes any sense."

"No problem Em, It's what I-what all of us are here for." I smiled back at her. As I looked at her, my eyes caught sight of the same scar on her chin I had seen when I first met her and I was reminded of something.

"Oh hey, I've been meaning to ask," I said suddenly, "that scar on your chin, where'd you get it? Doesn't your power make you fireproof, it doesn't seem to hurt you when you spit."

"Ah, no my skin isn't fireproof." She said, hand coming up to caress the leathery patch of skin under her lips, "The liquid my power makes ignites on contact with a solid surface after leaving my mouth, it isn't always hot. That's why I don't burn my lips when I spit." She explained.

"One of the first times I went out experimenting with my powers, I didn't spit far enough and some of the liquid got on my chin. It ignited on contact and bam, burn scar." she grimaced lightly, "I panicked pretty hard when I realized what happened, I had thought, 'well my powers are fire based so I should be fireproof too.' I guess it's a good thing I didn't jump headfirst into a fire or something stupid like that."

I chuckled, "Yeah, powers are pretty weird like that. Like look at Mush, his power works with trash and only trash, but what qualifies as trash? If I leave a car sitting in a dump for long enough, does it become trash?"

I shook my head, "I once heard somebody say that the one constant with powers seems to be that they make no sense, and I haven't found anything proving otherwise." Emily nodded, taking another sip of her water and I did the same.

"Sometimes they're weird for the better though." I laughed, "Hell, if it wasn't for my own powers fucking with my head in some way, I'm pretty sure I'd be on a one way trip to the Birdcage or something after I tore the city apart to get at the Empire."

"Your powers mess with your head?" She asked in concern and I shrugged.

"I mean probably. My family was killed by Hookwolf and he tried to kill me as well. And yet other than the breakdown I had when I first got to the club and an angry confrontation with a friend, my feelings towards the situation have been…muted I guess. I'm still gonna kill the bastard the next time we meet but like, I know I should be nearly inconsolable with grief yet I'm not."

She was staring at me weirdly, and I realized that probably sounded really bad. I'd better explain myself before she started thinking I was a psychopath or something.

"I mean…I don't really know how to put this into words." I rummaged through my thoughts for a way to speak what I felt, "When I was drowning, I was focused on my own survival, nothing else mattered to me. Not my parents, not Hookwolf, nothing mattered to me except getting out of that trunk. When I triggered, that didn't change." I chuckled lightly, "Looking back, I probably could have found Hookwolf very easily if I had tried, he was there when they sent me off the pier and he couldn't have gone far. And yet I didn't, I just beelined to the pier where Newter found me."

"Recently, I looked back on that day and I just felt nothing but a small pang of anger at what had been done to me and my parents. And even that is slowly going away." I drank the last dregs of water in my bottle, "The other stuff is still there, I still feel the conviction I have when it comes to surviving, still feel protective over what little I have left from my old life, and I still know I'm gonna do my damndest to rip off Hookwolf's head the next time I see him. Everything else though…"

"It's like all of my emotions related to my trigger have been ripped away or something. I can look back on the memories and just know I should be livid and raving angrily and yet… I'm not." I sighed, tossing the water bottle away, "Maybe my power just compartmentalized everything for me, or maybe it got rid of the grief and anger altogether, I'm not really sure, all I know is my feelings aren't what they should be and I can't do anything about it. Not even sure if I want to, to be honest."

"That's…wow." She said, at a loss.

"Yeah, kinda fucked up huh?" I chuckled and she nodded with a small 'yeah'.

There was a bit of awkward silence, before I cleared my throat, "Welp, that got pretty fucking heavy didn't it? How about we change topics. Uhhh, are you nervous about our mission in Boston, any thoughts about it? We leave next week I think."

She scrunched her face, "Are you sure it's a good idea for me to come with you guys? What if I mess things up or something? I can barely last a few minutes with you after all."

I waved her off "Bah, please you're doing fine. Don't take any of our matches into account of your skill, Newter says I'm a freak when it comes to hand to hand so I'm not a good mark to judge by."

I scratched the back of my head in embarrassment, And uh, I'm kinda new to this whole teaching thing and I'm not very good at it yet. Give it a while and I'm sure I'll get better, but in the meantime I can already tell that you shouldn't have many problems with unpowered mooks."

She raised an eyebrow in disbelief, "Valerie you just put me out in one hit."

"Yeah, but like I said I'm apparently a freak. Don't judge yourself based on how you do against me, judge yourself by your progress."

I stood and stretched, "Just keep practicing like you have been and I'm sure you'll do fine. Most new capes don't train like we do and that's what usually does them in according to the boss lady. We've already got a leg up on them in that regard."

I jerked my thumb to the door behind me, "Anyway, it was fun bonding over our trauma Em, but I've got to bounce. I've got a meeting with Parian to grab my new costume that she's been working on so I'm gonna go ahead over."

Emily started, "Oh! Ok yeah, sure. I'm gonna go take a shower and lay down I guess. My body's killing me." she complained.

I winced, "Yeah, sorry again, I'm kind of new to this whole teaching thing. Next time we'll work on blocking before moving to full contact sparring, sound good?"

She chuckled as she stood to follow me out of the room, "As long as 'next time' isn't within the next few days. Give me some time to recover you taskmaster."

I stuck my tongue out at her, "No promises."


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