“Hey Sarah, I’ll close up, you can go and change.” My boss is a sweet woman named Linda, so it’s not too surprising that I work in a place called Linda’s Diner. The night is already plenty dark outside and I’ve been itching to go out on patrol for well over an hour. The night is a time generally associated with crooks, but anything associated with crime is just as associated with stopping it.

“Thanks Linda! I’ll be in early tomorrow to make up for being late this morning. Sorry, ended up running into some trouble last night.” Most nights patrol consists of walking around, making sure nothings wrong, and going home wishing you hadn’t held out that extra hour just to make sure. There’s no do-overs if it turns out that you went home an hour before a bank robbery. So sometimes you’ll wake up leaning against something on the roof of an apartment complex, and realize its noon and you’re late for work.

Linda knows who I am though, and she knows what I do. She gives supers discounts, and at first, she told me she was tempted to make the diner a place just for supers… but then she realized that we don’t like that kind of exclusivity.

At least I don’t.

Slipping into the back I slink out of the modest waitress’s uniform and stash it away as I grab out my uniform. Some people call it a costume, but being a super heroine to me is a job, it’s a career. I’m not going out for candy, I’m going out to make the world a better place. There’s a very big difference. Even if I try to take everything with a little bit of humor, a little bit of a spark, I still take my patrols very seriously.

One of my old girlfriends, who pretended for awhile that she could stand me risking my life every night of the year, was a seamstress. Thank Sappho for that. Before that I was running around in a silvery figure skating leotard and hot topic combat boots.

That was a costume.

Now, I wear a uniform. It’s not especially flashy, but I’m not an especially flashy super. Its all white, but a dull white so that it contrasts the silver tint of my skin and doesn’t shine the city lights too painfully. It has gloves that go up to my elbows, white heeled boots that come up to my knees with a triangular point, a skirt that comes down to just above my knees, and a v-necked top that falls over the skirt with another one of those triangle points my ex was so fond of making.

I do miss her a little bit every time I slide into the uniform, but it’s too much a part of me to just throw away over a bad breakup. She couldn’t stand that I could go out and not come back. She couldn’t understand that I have a duty, that this is something I have to do…

To her I was just some silly girl playing dress up and running around on dangerous rooftops, scaling fire escapes, and every so often I’d give an old lady back her purse. To be honest, that really is a lot of what I do. Sometimes a week goes by and I don’t even have to pretend to be intimidating. Those are the good weeks.

Sometimes though I have to stop boneheads from robbing jewelry stores, help the police take down a villainous super, and save a fellow super whose in trouble. I’m not the best, but I’m definitely not the worst. What I lack in useful skills I make up for in dedication.

Once I’m all dressed up, I take a glance in the mirror and caress slowly over my own face. Sometimes I really miss how I used to look before my talent started turning me silver. I’m not actually becoming metal or anything silly like that. My skin is still just as soft and fleshy though it does have a metallic sheen to it. Even my irises are slowly starting to be filled with silvery flecks of color.

It’s not so much that I wish I was a normal, its more that I just wish I could pretend to be. I wish I could have a secret identity and actually have a real life. It’s hard for people to treat you like a real person when you look like you have a friend whose a costume makeup artist.

I roll my eyes at myself getting all sentimental and stroll out to behind the counter where Linda is wiping up some spilt ketchup with a wet towel. “I hope you have an uneventful patrol tonight, Sarah.”

“Me too, Linda… Me too. And I’m in uniform, come on, you know to call me Silver Girl.” I brace myself on the counter for a moment before hopping over I with a little bit of a boost, and turning to face my boss with a smile. The place is already almost empty, but like I already said: it really wouldn’t matter if it wasn’t. It’s not like people don’t sometimes come here just to see the silver waitress. “Stay safe!”

We smile for a moment or two more than we probably should before I duck out the front and head a few doors down to climb up the fire escape just like I do every night. Sometimes I think that maybe, just maybe, Linda and I could have something special, but… I’ve had too many normals for girlfriends, and whether that’s why all of those relationships failed or not, I just don’t want to risk a good job and a good friendship. Besides, there’s always the chance I’ll actually make a name for myself, and I don’t want some villain ransacking her diner to get to me. If anything happened to her… Well, it would hurt me a lot.

I let my eyes just scan over the streets below, over each little person, each car, and anything else that draws them and just try to get Linda off of my mind. It’s not good to be on patrol and have your mind on something else, especially something romantic. Love can get a super killed.

So far nothing is really drawing my attention too strongly and it’s a bit disappointing. Even if the boring patrols are the best, I like them the least. I hate the waiting. I hate the feeling that I’m patrolling the wrong block or…

Just as I’m about to start moving on, the sound of breaking glass catches my attention. A building away, just a climb a bit down the fire escape, jumping across to the other building’s, a woman dressed in a very tight black suit is crawling into a broken window. Needless to say, I can’t just stand here. The wait’s over, and I can only hope that this woman is an average burglar.

Without any fanfare I climb just a bit down, jump across the little bit of a gap between buildings, and carefully step over to the broken window, and slide in. The room is dark, but the woman is just standing there. She’s definitely waiting for me and I don’t like that.

After a couple of moments of me just staring at her and her just staring back through the eyeholes in her mask, she reaches up and pulls it off. As soon as she does her cropped short black hair bounces just a bit in a way that makes it shine in the dull lighting. Her lips are just as black as the tight body suit and her skin is so pale that paper could learn a thing or two from her.

Just as I’m about to give her a classic spiel telling her that I’m going to have to apprehend her and she can make this a lot easier by just going along with me, she reaches into her suit, and her hand lingers as her eyes linger over me. Whether she’s sizing me up or checking me out, I really can’t be sure, but from someone who just broke a window I’m not really in the mood for either. When her glance finally starts to get bothersome, she holds out a small white business card and smirks. “She said to give you this. It’s an invitation. She owns the building, so don’t get huffy about the broken window.”

With just how tight my suit is, a great deal is not left too much to the imagination even if my uniform isn’t quite that revealing. “Oh.” I can’t help but flush a little bit, and reach out for that card with a cautious hand. As I pull the card back I let my eyes glance over the woman again. I can’t help but feel just a little worried, just a little curious…

Boots, gloves, tight black body suit, minus the hood. I really shouldn’t be shocked. Its pretty much a standard uniform… “Yeah, I know, but it's not like you supers just leave your numbers lying around though is it?" This girl just screams Goth badass in a way that I could never have hoped to pull off even during my rebellious teenage “black” phase. Most of it still fits, so I have a closet half full of colors, and half full of black.

"Can't. Kind of ruins the whole secret identity thing..." The other girl might not know just how sadly amusing it is, but I can’t help but say it as I look over the card and memorize every last detail of the Goth girl standing before me just incase I need to call up my police contacts.

It has a name of a company, “Chronos”, which if I remember right is the Greek god of time, and an address. I’ll admit, this is piquing my curiosity. "That's Her main office. Just say you're... Silver at the front desk and you'll be the next appointment." She says it all so casually and as if she’s bored already with this mission of giving me an invitation she brushes some lint off of her arm.

"My name is Silver Girl, but I can deal with taking a shortening of my name, but only this once. You did go through a lot of trouble to get this and whoever this ‘she‘ is, she‘s obviously no slouch…" I can’t help but smile a bit, though it grows weaker after just a moment. "Who is she? What does she want with me? And who are you?"

"I just work for her… She owns Chronos. They're a… mercenary company. They hire people like you to do odd jobs." She nods a bit, and something about how she’s acting makes it seems like she’s done this before. She certainly seems bored enough.

For a moment I just watch her, take another look at the card, and then go back to watching her. Something just doesn’t smell quite right about this, and besides, I work at the diner for cash. I do the super gig to make the world better. Those two reasons just don’t sound like they’d cross well. So I nod, and look into this girl’s eyes. "I'm not a mercenary, but she did go through all of the trouble to try and find me, so..." Still, I just don’t like how this smells, so I raise an eyebrow. "Got a name, so I can mention who gave me the card?”

She grins and it’s the sort of grin that normally means there’s going to be trouble. “Dust.” Lucky for me, after she’s done letting that single word fall from her lips she makes a motion with her hand and the whole room fills with obscuring gray dust. On instinct I move into a defensive posture, just incase she’s going to try to throw a blow when I can’t see, but when the dust clears, Dust is gone.

Damn it. I hate it when people make dramatic exits like that. It’s not like I’m very good at stalking after people but I just don’t like them having a big advantage over me when I don’t know what to think about them. If she’s one of the good gals, she just needs to learn a few manners. If she’s one of the other kind, then she’s dangerous.

Mercenaries? Odd jobs? This damned “she” can’t even bother to actually learn my name. It’s not like Silver Girl is that much longer than Silver. Waiting here though isn’t going to do any good, and while I know I should get a hold of one of my contacts and ask if any of them know anything about Chronos, the woman who owns it, or this Dust woman, but I’m too eager to get this over with. All I have to do is tell her that I’m not interested. It’ll be just that quick.

If not, at least I’ll have a reason for actually doing something and not waiting. It’s only Tuesday so I can’t wait for a day off. I don’t want any more of this woman’s goons coming after me. With a shrug and a sigh I climb back out the window and make my way down the fire escape with one eye still staring at that card. This main office isn’t too far, it’ll probably take me less than fifteen minutes to actually get there.

What kind of supers would hire themselves out? No one on the good side of things that I have ever known has ever cared about cash beyond the price of living. Sometimes that means the money to keep updating their gadgets, but it never means they’d hire themselves out for a few extra bucks. If you’re on an “odd job” and there’s a hostage situation nearby involving some supers, and you can’t tear yourself away from the job… I’ll just have to refuse. There’s no other choice that doesn’t violate all of my ethics.

Around just another corner should be that building. Chronos. I really can’t help but be a little bit curious about that, but it really doesn’t matter all that much. Maybe this woman in charge has some sort of time powers for all I know. As long as I don’t underestimate what could go wrong, this should go off without a hitch.

Rounding that corner, I nearly fall on my ass as I see the building. Sky scraper does not adequately describe this building. Sky cutter starts to, but it doesn’t convey the raw power of this building. The lobby is one of those fancy glass lobbies, and there are still clearly a good deal of lights on just inside. They must still be open. That urge to call my contacts grows a bit worse for a moment but then silences after I manage to convince myself that if this woman wasn’t going to play by the rules, that “Dust” would have taken me down and dragged me inside.

With a deep breath and crossed fingers behind my back I start to head for the building. I really wonder why I never noticed this building before, or if I did, why I never wondered about it? Whatever the reason I can’t let it slow me down. I push the door open and look for the receptionist, twirling the card in my hand in a bit of a nervous gesture.

There are cameras everywhere. Whoever these people or this woman is that I’m here to see, they definitely have security in mind. I’m not sure if that makes me feel calmer or worse. There may be cameras, but there’s no one besides the brown haired receptionist peering through her thick glasses at a computer screen as she types away on who knows what. Even if its standard practice for someone on a computer no one can see to check her email and goof off, this place seems to convey a feeling that makes me think she’s far too efficient to be wasting her time like that.

“Hello, I was invited by ‘her’. . . My names Silver Girl.” That Dust girl told me to call myself Silver, but I’m not in the mood to feel any less impressive in a place like this. Even if girl sounds diminutive, it makes my name that much longer.

“Mmmhmmm…” She doesn’t even look up but she also doesn’t stop whatever she’s doing. “Silver? Yes, she’s expecting you. Her office is on the top floor.” She reaches up one of her hands though the other seems to only start typing faster to make up for it, and points at an elevator at the far end of the lobby.

With an awkward shrug I pull the card back and twirl it around a bit more in my hand. Introductions always feel so weird as a super heroine. What the heck am I ever supposed to say? I’m here to save the day, and make an appointment to boot? At least the receptionist isn’t really a demon trapped in cute-girl form so I really shouldn’t be complaining. Thinking too loudly might tempt fate. I nod politely to the receptionist and head towards the elevator.

Just up, down, out. That’s all. I won’t listen to her sales pitch, no matter how good it is. Silver Girl is not for sale, and neither is Sarah LaSilvas.

The elevator is large, it must double as a freight elevator. Most elevators have a smaller weight limit but most elevators also don’t go up to 100 floors. That’s right, 100. This building is not only way taller than any building I’ve ever stepped into, but I have to go all the way to the top. That’s a lot of floors to fall down if someone decides there is no spoon.

Nothing has been too threatening though so I decide to let my guard down and relax a bit. It is pretty amazing to actually go up one hundred stories. At the very least I’ll get a story out of this. With a bit of a sigh I click the last button and settle in for a long ride.

Just as those big doors are about to slide shut though a pale hand slides in and lightly pushes on one of the sides. The doors open back up and a black haired woman steps through dressed in a dark gray skirt and a black t-shirt with a white skull in the center and clings to her like a gothic candy wrapper. Something is definitely familiar about her but I can’t quite put my finger on it. Is it her hair, or how pale she is, or… No, this is that woman from earlier out of her uniform. “Oh, you’re here already?”

She definitely doesn’t look threatening, just relaxed in a nonchalant devil may care sort of way. I push a bit of hair out of my face and nod after a moment or two. “Of course. No need to keep… Her waiting, whoever she is.” I nod again with a bit less of a smile, still feeling just a bit paranoid. “Nice to see you again…”

“Likewise. Most people don’t come till the next day. I wasn’t expecting to see you till after your meeting with her.” I still don’t like that this her isn’t being named. Pronoun games aren’t fun even if they’re not gender neutral pronouns. She crosses her arms over her chest and leans back against the wall of the elevator and crosses one ankle over the other. She’s definitely done this before, not this mysterious she, but this woman leaning not to far away from me. It almost makes me a little bit curious just how come I haven’t heard of them yet.

Nodding a little I force my smile up a couple of notches and lean back against one of the other walls. “It would just be rude to wait. With you dressed like that, I suppose you go by another name?” Raising a silvery curious eyebrow I stretch just a bit, not wanting to relax too much.

“Hmmm?” She brushes of her shoulder once and smiles just a bit. “No. I’m just Dust.” She pauses for a moment or two and then brushes her shoulder a bit. It’s around now that I realize that the room is filling with particles, making the room look slowly more thickly full. It’s not like the dust before, it’s different, and oddly enough I don’t feel the need to cough. “It’s my name-name.”

“Aaah…” I look around at all of that dust and frown just a faint little bit, squirming and trying to not make myself cough just because with a room filled with so much dust I just feel like I should be coughing. “Very interesting name to just be a name-name… What does all that dust do, if you don’t mind me asking?”

Dust glances around a bit before laughing. “Huh? Oh. That’s not me. This place is just dirty as hell!” She grins, and that is a wholly different grin from before. It’s not quite the dangerous sort of grin, it’s more of the fun sort. “This is my dust.” She moves slowly, so I don’t know why I don’t do anything to move out of the way, but my feet stay stuck like they’re in quick dry cement as she holds her palm up flat and blows on her empty palm as if something is there and a fine powdery mist rushes towards me. It settles over my face and my shoulders, just a bit itchy, but its strange, it doesn’t feel a bad kind of itchy… But the room is starting to feel a bit too full, like it could use some air.

I laugh just a weak little bit, trying to just play along with that more than friendly grin and even though the particles aren’t filling my lungs I can’t help but cough. “Aaah… ah…” I shake my head to try and clear away this odd growing stuffy feeling before smiling and squirming, trying to act like this is just normal. “Aah… So I see… Very odd sort of feeling it leaves behind, you know…” Before I even realize it, my right hand is itching over my cheek and then slowly down to my shoulder.

“Oh yes. I know.” Dust nods slowly as that dust in the air just keeps flowing into the air, and the stuffy feeling may be getting less, but it feels like its just waiting for something. As much as I try to just ignore the itching beyond just faintly scratching at my shoulder, its spreading out, and I don’t quite like how that feels. “It’s nothing to worry about though. It passes in a few moments, really. Sorry about that.” She grins, and I can’t help but doubt the sincerity of her apology. I glance to the panel with all of the buttons and almost groan that we’ve only just passed floor ten. This is one slow elevator, and I have a long ways yet to go.

The itching is just getting worse and worse no matter if I scratch it or not and I can’t help but whimper. “Well next time be more polite!” I look around everywhere, itch at my own hand, and just try to ignore this feeling. Even if all that the dust was doing was this itchiness, that just wasn’t normal… “So, want to tell me anything about the woman on the top floor?”

“Sorry…” She mutters in a sad sort of voice and brushes off her arms more. At first this seems normal. After all, the whole damned elevator is filled to the brim with dust, but after a moment I realize that she’s the only thing in the whole elevator that’s not dusty. And just as I notice that… My head starts to feel a little light, in that tired sort of way that everyone feels when they just wake up…

Slowly I shake my head just a bit, reaching up my hand to scratch beside my temple and sigh. This isn’t right, but I’m feeling more and more… Light… By the moment. “How is… Everything so dirty, but you’re so clean…? Why won’t you tell me who she is…?”

“What do you mean?” Dust doesn’t actually respond to anything I’ve said. She holds her hand up in front of me in a dainty sort of way, and her creamy clean pale skin is the only thing that isn’t covered with dull gray dust.

The contrast is made even more glaring by just how dark her clothing and her make up is. “Why would I be dirty? I’m perfectly clean…” The itching is spreading up from my shoulders, in from my cheeks, and I can almost… I can feel it spreading inside of my head, as all of that dust just swims and twists in front of me like nothing I’ve ever seen before. “You though, I think you have a dirty mind.” Her hand moves, and in a quick motion pushes my head against the wall of the elevator, and everything starts to grow so distant and so far away.

Everything feels so strange and I try to just latch onto some detail besides her creamy skin, some detail besides that swirling dust, but it’s so hard. I whimper at the difficulty, at the helplessness of the situation and try to find a way to disagree, but Dust’s voice is right. My head feels so dirty, like it’s filling up and clogging with all of that dust… “But… I… You said… It would go away…!”

She doesn’t answer right away, but she does push my head more firmly back against the elevator. She’s the only thing that isn’t fuzzy, the only thing that isn’t swimming around like some bad acid trip. “It will go away…” After her words fight their way through the thick air she moves closer, and I gasp as she moves closer, so close, almost touching but except for that hand she’s just barely far enough away… And just when it feels like maybe she’ll stop, maybe this is all she wants to do, her lips graze my ear, just faintly, and she blows out. Instead of just air though, warm little particles, warm little bits of dust swirl against my ear and slowly file in, sliding inside of my head and filling it.

Without even really thinking about it I cry out, and numbly reach out to try to push her away, trying to squeeze my ears shut, or… I wish I had some sort of power that could stop her, maybe I could try, but it all feels just so… Only the other girl isn’t swirling and it’s frightening. She’s all I have to watch, and closing my eyes feels dangerous, so at least watching her won’t make me sick. I still try to squirm away, but even the elevator wall behind me feels infinitely farther away than it is. “Make it stop, please make it stop!”

“Okay. It’s easy. Just open your mouth.” Her voice is so sweet, and that dust just keeps swarming and swirling as everything feels more and more blurry by the moment.

“Oooh… Alright… Thanks…” Dizzily, trying to push that dust away with my hands I open up my mouth slowly, still staring at her. The dust is even in my eyes, as it itches and fuzzes my head. I’ve never felt anything like this before, and it certainly doesn’t feel very safe.

That dust is everywhere, just everywhere in the world, but it’s starting to feel really, really nice. It’s swirling so deep inside of me, squirming in my head as Dust’s smooth warm body slowly slides against me, pressing slowly against me. “See? Doesn’t it feel nice? You don’t have to worry…” She murmurs just so softly, and her voice is so smooth, like her skin, like that body that’s right against mine…

She’s right again and I can’t help but sigh, feeling all of that smoothness against me, and I nod with my mouth still staying open as it just keeps flowing… I can feel it, feel everything, its like nothing that even has ever existed before, and it’s so irresistible. . .

Just barely out of the corner of my eye I can see the panel light up on floor 50, but right then everything just fades away… Everything feels just so good, so amazing, better than anything I’ve ever felt or imagined having felt before…

It can’t last forever though, and as it all swirls back, I’m half curled against the wall, and Dust is adjusting her top. My lips feel strange, and I reach up a hand half way to my face before I recognize the feeling as lipstick. The doors open up, and in a rush of air almost all of that dust flows out. Right along with the dust, Dust’s heels click away before she turns, and blows me a kiss as I can feel myself slowly turning just a bit more limp. “This will be our little secret…” Before I can say a thing, she steps around the corner, and gone to who knows where, but I’m finally at floor 100.

Fifty floors passed, and I can only imagine what happened…

I slide my tongue nervously over my lips before pressing them together and tasting that lipstick more, tasting what can only be Dust’s lips… There’s no way I can not flush. At least whatever happened my lips were on her lips… With a weak sigh I reach a fingertip to rub it away, and to make sure that it’s black.

It is, but I’m not surprised. Outside of the elevator there’s a water fountain and a bathroom before the office, so at least I have somewhere to try and clean up. I need to clean my face, I just feel so… No. I am not going to think of that woman’s name, especially not as an adjective!

Slowly I make my way to the bathroom and wash my face, working at getting all of that dust. It takes awhile, and just as it’s all off, I tilt my head to the side and… Fine dust starts to pour out of my ear, and it doesn’t stop for at least a minute. I shudder and shake as it slides out with a faint little whine, squirming, and washing off my face again, looking to my faintly glazed eyes with just a bit of a whimper…

I can turn down this woman’s offer, but…Oh that dust still feels so good. I have to resist the urge to slide the pile off of the sink and into my hand to slide it into my ear. If I was at home, I probably wouldn’t resist. The world feels a little bit dizzy, but I’m fine. I step out of the bathroom and stare at the door to the woman in charge’s office.

There’s no way anything like that can happen again, so I just have to be prepared for something worse. But no matter what anyone else says, you can’t expect the unexpected. You can be ready to be surprised, but even that is pushing it.

I take a long deep breath and sigh again, reaching out for the knob. Please, forces that be, just let this be over quick. I already want to just curl up and go to bed. The hours for being a super suck, even if you don’t take into account that we don’t get dental…