Chapter 45

The group was frozen, unsure of what to do, while Sugar Rush continued to stand in front of them, holding out her hand. As much as Tiff wanted nothing to do with a hero, Sidekick or not, she also didn’t want to be suspicious. Or rude. Thankfully, Victoria was used to these sorts of situations and recovered first.

“You can call me T,” she said, grasping Sugar Rush’s hand with a firm grip. “[Bodyguard].”

“Oh, exciting!” Sugar Rush gushed, and she really did seem genuinely excited. “Are you new to the area? I haven’t seen you around. What brings you to Hacienda? Oh! Is this your hero team? Ooh, a little competition, eh?! Well, my team won’t lose so easily! Not that it’s a race!”

Tiff stared at the girl’s grinning face, 100 percent at a loss for words. Once again she’d started in a normal, average tone, but as she continued to talk, the words kept coming faster and faster, and her pitch steadily rose like she was sucking down helium. The whole group seemed rather overwhelmed…something the girl was apparently used to.

“Ah, it happened again, didn’t it?” She said sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head. She controlled her voice to remain normal, speaking slowly with crisp, clear pronunciation. “I’m sorry, I’m not doing a very good job of this, am I?”

“I don’t know what job you’re supposed to be doing,” Candice muttered, “But I think it’s working: I’m distracted.”

Sugar Rush beamed a brilliant smile before becoming serious.

“I suppose part of my job is to be a distraction,” she admitted. “As a speedster, it’s harder for me to get hit. It gives my team openings and disrupts bad guy coordination.”

“Are you…sure you should be telling us this?” Tiff asked with a worried frown.

…not that she was worried about what the girl might try to do to them. Not anymore. If anything, she was worried for Sugar Rush.

“Hey, no harm, no foul, right?” She said with another grin. Tiff had to wonder if “smiling” was this lady’s resting state. “We’re all heroes here, right?” She asked earnestly. “You guys caught the [Enforcers] before I could, so who really cares if it was my team or yours? We’re all working towards the same thing!”

“Definitely,” Amy quickly agreed with a cheeky grin. “We’re definitely working toward the same thing.”

Amy nodded her head up and down rapidly, and, amusingly, Sugar Rush followed her perfectly with her eyes, even nodding near the end too.

“Ignore the runt,” Victoria said with a sigh, pulling Amy into a headlock. “We were passing by; no more, no less. We were following up some leads about a small crew of [Enforcers] terrorizing local businesses and thought we’d ask around. Didn’t actually mean to engage anybody.”

“Oh, so glad somebody else is taking this seriously!” Sugar Rush exclaimed. “There’s only so much my guys can do!”

The [Enforcer] on the ground moaned, and it looked like whatever adrenaline was keeping him steady finally wore out. He slumped over and started snoozing, which was its own set of problems. At least they didn’t have to worry about him putting up a fight or resisting, but now they wouldn’t be able to get any more information out of him.

Not that that was likely now that a Sidekick was here. The kind of interrogation Tiff had in mind might not strictly follow the heroes’ handbook.

Tiff was just wondering what to do with the two unconscious thugs and how she might escape the attention of a grassroots hero agency when something crunched the glass at the broken window. A man in blue jeans and a sleeveless jacket stood there, looking mildly alarmed, his eyes traveling between Sugar Rush and Victoria. Tiff watched her sister tense, subtly repositioning herself in case a second fight broke out, but Sugar Rush did what she did best: smile.

And then she moved.

Tiff nearly did a double take. She was able to keep herself from reacting badly, but her eyes widened in shock. The girl had said she was a Speedster, but Tiff didn’t really have a frame of reference for what that meant. The only other Speedster she’d ever met was Turbo, and she never really got to see him show off. The only time he had, he’d practically teleported across the room and Tiff didn’t see anything. Perhaps that meant Sugar Rush was slower, but for some reason, she felt way more impactful.

Sugar Rush hadn’t even run for the door; she turned around and made her way at a leisurely walk. But her walk was faster than Tiff’s run, on her best days, before her Stats got nerfed. It was faster than most members of the Setma High track team, even those who relied on huge bursts of speed to cover short distances. In some ways, it was quite disturbing, reaching into that uncanny valley effect, because it was like somebody moving in fast-forward.

It was also strangely hypnotic, though that might not be because of the speed.

“Bogard!” Sugar Rush chirped. “You’re here! Fantastic. We’ve got two unconscious [Enforcers]. Can you call it in? We’re gonna want to get a cleanup crew in here to make sure nobody’s hurt and see if anything was stolen-”

“Rush…Rush…Rush!”

The man looked just as windswept as Tiff felt. Seeing his tired look of resignation, and the fact that they seemed to be on a name-by-name basis, this must be one of her teammates.

“Slow down,” he coached gently. “Breathe. Nice and easy…there we go. Now. First and foremost: are you hurt?”

“No, Bogard,” Sugar Rush sighed while doing some rather impressive breathing exercises.

“Good,” he said, looking relieved. He looked through the window into the room and his eyes sharpened. “You do all this?”

Tiff wasn’t sure who the question was directed at. He was technically still addressing the Speedster, but his eyes were boring into Victoria. Tiff’s sister crossed her arms and remained silent.

“Wasn’t me,” Sugar Rush explained cheerfully. “I noticed the glass break when I was on patrol, and things were like this when I popped in.”

Bogard looked at Victoria for confirmation and she decided to play ball.

“T,” she repeated her current choice of pseudonym, “[Bodyguard]. I took care of one, but the other was pretty much down and out before I stepped in. Found out the hard way not to take a Tinker shop lightly.”

Victoria threw her thumb over her shoulder and the guy behind the counter raised the broken Repellenator as evidence. Bogard grimaced.

“A solid case of fafo, if you ask me. I saw the bystanders who got evacuated. Anybody else inside?”

“At least one other employee, to my knowledge,” Victoria said. “Not sure beyond that.”

“Good,” Bogard nodded. Before he could ask any other questions, sirens could be heard moving down the street. After several seconds, two cop cars pulled up in front of the shop, followed quickly by one of those regular-style trucks the fire department cruised around in and an ambulance.

“Looks like it’s Q and A time,” Bogard said. “I don’t know what Rush got up to, so this might be your show. You want to take lead?”

“Honestly? No,” Victoria sighed.

“I get you,” Bogard chuckled, but that didn’t stop them both from talking to the cops.

Tiff found the process rather interesting, if perhaps a little nerve-wracking. The cops pulled people aside, one by one, and asked various questions. Tiff was a little worried about what she might say if they started wading into murky waters, but since she was wearing her normal clothes straight from school, they assumed she was just a bystander to everything. They only asked her a few questions, such as if she knew or had ever seen these men before (which she honestly hadn’t), and when they determined she wasn’t involved, they made sure she wasn’t hurt. Thankfully, they never asked whether she was affiliated with the [Enforcers] or had any business with them, which might have provoked a very different conversation. Amy, Candice, and Victoria all took their turns talking to the cops, where Victoria, as expected, needed to answer the most questions.

As far as Tiff was concerned, today was technically a wash, but she definitely felt like it was a win. Haxus asked her for protection, which she could give. But did that stop the problem at the route? Not quite. She learned that there were [Enforcers] out there preying on her neighborhoods, which felt bad, but she didn’t know who they belonged to, if they were part of a larger group, or how many of them existed in the first place. So far, she had caught two (by which she meant they were lucky to have stumbled across them before Victoria caught them), which sounded low for people ambitious enough to rob multiple stores. In the end, Tiff didn’t have enough information to feel confident about whether she’d done well by her word or not.

But on the other side? Two baddies weren’t going to be so bad for a little bit. They wouldn’t be able to harass local businesses if they were locked up, and Tiff’s little crew made it happen. If that wasn’t something to be proud of, she didn’t know what was.

​

“Sorry about that,” Victoria sighed. After being cleared by the cops, the girls were milling around outside, avoiding a small crowd of gawkers peering past the police cars and taped-off sidewalk. Now that Victoria was done, they could finally call it a day and go home. “That took longer than it should have. The officer seemed to think I was part of the problem and might actually be in league with the [Enforcers]...he was getting a little snippy. Didn’t think I was a [Bodyguard]. I showed him my registration card to get him off my back and he stopped pressing pretty quick. Shame about those [Enforcers], though…now we aren’t going to get the chance to find out what their plans were.”

“Oh, tell me about it!” Sugar Rush said. “Once the cops have them, that’s it! I get that rules are there for a reason and even criminals have their rights, but sometimes it’d be nice to be kept in the loop!”

Tiff blinked. In fact, the whole group blinked. When did the Sidekick get here? She was leaning against the wall, next to Amy and Candice, who looked completely shocked to find a hero standing between them. As far as anybody knew, she hadn’t been there moments before. The girl wasn’t exactly subtle, not with her bright pink uniform and her…heft. How did she sneak past all their guards? Even Victoria looked a little shocked.

“Sugar Rush?” Victoria asked numbly. The Sidekick smiled.

“That’s me!”

“Sure is,” Victoria muttered. “What are you doing here? Can we help you with something?”

“Oh, I’m glad you brought that up! As a matter of fact, you can!”

Tiff couldn’t see her sister’s face, but she could imagine the frown creasing her brows.

“You said you were looking into the appearance of these [Enforcers],” Sugar Rush continued. “So has our team. We should compare notes.”

Absolutely not, was Tiff’s knee-jerk reaction. But she didn’t say anything out loud and neither did Victoria.

“Don’t know about your crew, but we’ve been tracking this group for at least 3 weeks,” Sugar Rush added seriously. “We aren’t getting much closer to finding out what their motivations are or where their hideout is, but we think they might be part of the 5th Street Gang.”

That…changed things. Now, Tiff was suddenly filled with the desire to pick the girl’s brain and find out every single detail she might have on Tiff’s newest acquisition. Victoria glanced down at her and Tiff nodded.

“Sure,” Victoria said. “A little collaboration. Why not?”

Sugar Rush smiled again, and before anybody could politely excuse themselves or set up a future appointment, she beat them to it.

“Great!” She beamed. “I know just the place! There’s an ice cream parlor down the street! They’ve got great afternoon specials and their booths are comfy! Let’s go!”

​

Tiff had to wonder; was this what all extremely social introverts were like? She had her sisters and Candice to draw on, and the evidence looked grim. They somehow always found a way to wedge themselves into other people’s plans before they could protest or make excuses. And by then, it’d be too late, and it felt rude or awkward to ask them to go away. Was this how those internet and cable guys who lurked inside of Best Buy and Walmart managed to get so many people to sign up? Tiff shook her head. Not being able to be bullied was one thing, but she was powerless against cheerful optimism and stubbornness.

Because Victoria hadn’t driven them to the last few stops, they had to walk back to the ice cream shop. At first, Tiff thought they might be able to ditch the Sidekick by playing dumb and pretending not to know which ice cream shop she wanted to take them to, and once she sped away to meet them there, they’d go the opposite direction.

Sugar Rush didn’t abandon them. Instead, she walked with them the whole time, chattering happily while subconsciously showing off. She started by walking alongside Victoria, asking all sorts of innocently offensive questions like, “Are you new?" "How much experience do you have?" "How long have you been a hero?" and “Does your armor get sweaty?" She got bored rather quickly of matching everyone else’s pace, which may have been slightly slower than usual just to annoy the hyper girl, so she proceeded to walk backward, chatting while facing the group.

Candice seemed to take that as a challenge. Even though she didn’t try to walk backward with the girl, she did pick up the pace. Sugar Rush continued to match whatever speed they set, even once they started huffing and puffing in a power walk. And it didn’t matter what obstacles were in her way that she couldn’t see coming, either; Sugar Rush never ran into anything. At one point, Candice skillfully directed her to crash into a pole. But at the last second, Sugar Rush pulled off a backward handspring-into-a-cartwheel maneuver with such effortless grace that left everyone feeling rather defeated. All while wearing a bright smile, too, so they gave up trying to sabotage her.

As Tiff suspected, the ice cream shop was the Michoacana. The old granny was still behind the counter, working her way through a booklet of scratchers, and the few students who were ordering fruit cups after school were long gone. As soon as they set foot inside, the old woman’s eyes lit up and Sugar Rush zoomed up to the counter.

“Abuelita, so good to see you!” Sugar Rush crooned.

​Of course she’d be on friendly terms with the ice cream shop owner. Tiff hazarded a guess that places like this might be frequent stops. Especially after they got done exchanging pleasantries and Sugar Rush ordered her…“usual.”

Girl got a 3-scooper, with a chocolate-dipped waffle cone and sprinkles.

Meanwhile, Candice opted for a small mangonada and stared at it forlornly while occasionally patting her stomach and sneaking glances at the monstrosity of ice cream. She probably had to adhere to a strict training schedule to remain on the cheer team, though right now she looked like she was regretting her life choices.

Tiff and Amy decided to share a banana split, because Amy was a glutton who could eat anything at any time, and as much as Tiff wanted to stuff herself silly with ice cream, she knew she’d regret it later. Victoria opted for a protein smoothie, which kind of defeated the purpose of an ice cream shop, didn’t it?

As Sugar Rush had said, the booths in this place were very comfy. Much better than the hard plastic things found in McDonald’s or other chains, these things had real cushions. The leather might be fake, but at least Tiff’s butt didn’t hurt on sitting down.

And sit down they did. Victoria shoved Tiff into one side and sat next to her, effectively keeping a buffer between her and the Sidekick. Amy and Candice picked up on the plan, sitting across from Tiff, but Sugar Rush didn’t seem to mind and squished them into the booth, sitting across from Victoria. Stuck in the middle, Candice looked like she was about to revolt, but she held her tongue and nursed her drink.

Sugar Rush made herself completely at home, taking off her orange-tinted goggles and flicking her hair out of the ponytail. Now that Tiff could get a clear look at the girl’s face, it was clear she wasn’t much older than them, if at all. She had a lovely heart-shaped face, dimples in her cheeks from always smiling, and her brown eyes sparkled with life. Every time she opened her mouth, she laughed…which was an odd juxtaposition with how she seemed to kick into fast-forward every several minutes and shovel way too much ice cream into her mouth than should be possible in a limited time frame. Before Tiff could eat half of her share of the banana split (a single scoop for Tiff and two for Amy), Sugar Rush had eaten her entire cone. She leaned back and sighed contentedly, waiting patiently for everybody else to finish.

At least, until she sighed.

“You know, I’m kind of grateful for you for not saying what everybody’s thinking,” she said to Tiff, “But your stares aren’t exactly subtle.”

Tiff stiffened. Harsh, she didn’t expect to get called out! It was just that, looking at Sugar Rush…

“I know, I don’t exactly fit the traditional image of a Speedster, do I?” She said with a wry smile, completing Tiff’s thought. Since she was already caught, Tiff nodded.

“Yes,” she admitted. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be!” Sugar Rush laughed. “I am who I am! And trying to blame who I am on anybody else is just plain wrong. Granny back there tries to fatten up all her grandkids, but I’m not exactly saying no to free ice cream, you know what I mean?”

“She’s your grandma?” Tiff asked. Looking at the two, it was sort of hard to tell. At least from a cursory glance.

The woman behind the counter was probably in her 70s; she was a little hunched over and resembled a shriveled prune more than a plump plum. She was about Tiff’s height, which was, as everybody knew, very tall, obviously. A perfectly reasonable height.

Sugar Rush, on the other hand, was…very healthy, and she was probably 5 and a half feet tall, maybe a little taller.

But they both had golden-caramel skin, dark hair and eyes, and similar facial features. Mostly the laugh lines. Also…clearly Hispanic. Which was the interesting thing, because Sugar Rush didn’t have a lick of an accent before saying that one Spanish word. She spoke just as clearly as Candice did…which might actually go in Sugar Rush’s favor, because sometimes Candice was a total Valley Girl, though Tiff sometimes wondered if that was a front.

“Yes,” Sugar Rush nodded happily, before giving Tiff a shrewd look. “Oh, the accent thing, right? What, first you’re going to say a Speedster can’t have a little weight, and then you’re going to say a Latina can’t speak flawless English?”

Actually…yup. Pretty much. Tiff blushed and looked away.

“Ahaha!” Sugar Rush burst out laughing. “Caught! Well, don’t worry, it happens all the time! And like I said, I am who I am, and that includes every part of me! I didn’t use to be this big, but sometimes life throws a wrench, you know? Like you, Miss Cheerleader, I used to be thin as a rail. Track team, here—100-meter dash, 100-meter hurdles, 4-by relay. Then Awakening hits, and it feels like the world’s moving in slow motion. I almost went crazy; it took a while to understand what was happening, but when I finally did, I wanted to laugh and cry. You ever hear of a monkey’s paw wish? Well, I always dreamed of pushing myself further, running faster than ever before…but it came with a price. If I don’t want to live my life at a quarter speed, I need to eat a lot of sugar.”

Tiff stared at the girl, who continued to wear a bright smile, but Tiff could see some sadness hidden behind her eyes.

“Hence the name, Sugar Rush!” She said cheerfully. “I thought about being called Hummingbird, but Sugar Rush felt more fitting.”

“You know,” Victoria said, opening up her visor to finally drink her smoothie, “I can respect that.”

“Oh!” Sugar Rush made a face with a perfectly round O. “You are a woman! I wasn’t sure, you know, because of how deep your voice is in the armor. That’s pretty neat! Some sort of changer? I bet that helps keep creeps at bay! Do you get people hitting on you often? Happens to me all the time. I don’t think a voice changer would help me very much, and most of the time I need to watch out for wandering hands.”

It seemed that the more comfortable Sugar Rush was, the easier it became for her to forget to moderate her vocal cords. Halfway through chatting at Victoria when she started to ramble, Sugar Rush’s voice steadily rose in pitch, speeding up until her last sentence came out as a single, rushed word. Tiff scrunched her eyes and shook her head, parsing out what she could, like watchout and wanderinghands.

“Well, I suppose there’s a few differences between our outfits,” Victoria said with a sigh. It seemed she finally gave up being wary of Sugar Rush. Not that they were suddenly best friends, but if the Sidekick was trying to pull one over on the group, she was either playing a very long game or it wasn’t happening.

Tiff was fairly certain it wasn’t the former.

Sugar Rush ran a hand down her supersuit and wore a wry smile again.

“Wasn’t my first choice,” she admitted.

“Pink?” Amy asked, slightly obliviously.

“Oh! No, that’s totally on me!” Sugar Rush laughed. “It goes with the theme, right? Sugar, cotton candy, bubblegum…sweet things! No, I’m talking about the skinsuit. Took a while to get used to wearing something this tight…it’s like revenge of the yoga pants, you get me? But aerodynamics don’t care about things like modesty. You ever try wearing cargo pants while running at high speeds? A real drag, I’ll tell you.”

No, Tiff never had, actually. But it didn’t take a genius to imagine it, so she trusted the Speedster at her word.

And not that Tiff had any reason to be suspicious of the overly energetic, friendly girl, since it was obvious she could sit and talk somebody’s ear off all day long, but Tiff also realized the conversation wouldn’t move forward unless she willed it to.

“So,” Tiff cleared her throat, pushing the very little remains of her side of the banana split toward Amy. “Let’s talk about [Enforcers].”

Sugar Rush’s smile slipped into a frown as she studied Tiff, eventually turning to Victoria for confirmation. Victoria grinned.

“Hey, what was that about judgment calls? I told you, I’m just the [Bodyguard].”

“Ohhh,” Sugar Rush exclaimed. “Are you a hero, too?”

“No,” Tiff blurted before she could stop herself. Across from her, Candice perked up.

“Not quite,” Candice added smoothly. “I guess you might call us Mercenary? I mean, I’m an [Accountant]; do with that what you will. But we were…investigating the [Enforcers] on somebody else’s behalf. She,” Candice pointed at Tiff, “Is an information specialist.”

Candice paused, put her finger to her chin, and shrugged.

“And she,” she said, pointing at Amy, “Is just along for the ride.”

“For now,” Amy muttered darkly, which made Tiff giggle.

“Ahhh,” Sugar Rush nodded. “I see! Makes sense why you’d have a [Bodyguard], then! And I have to say, it’s so interesting to see somebody doing something with a Support Class! So many times they stay back at base; it’s so rare to see them venture out into the field! Not that there’s anything wrong with either, and you shouldn’t let anybody tell you there is! The world needs more heroes…but we’ll take support, too!”

Tiff smiled at the girl’s genuine enthusiasm. The honesty was refreshing.

“So we got a letter from a…business partner,” Tiff said, mulling the word over. She wasn’t really sure what to call Haxus. “They told us there was a rise in Meta-related crime in the area, specifically from a group of people threatening small businesses and mom-and-pop shops. They said it’s gotten bad enough that some people closed down, and others are trying to pay the [Enforcers] off. But…they also said that some of the targeted businesses might not cut it with cash payments alone.”

Specifically, she was thinking about Phish n Chips, but after today’s visit to the Tinker shop, the possibility of a broader outlook was there.

“Right,” Sugar Rush sighed. “That’s the basics. They just showed up one day…I don’t know why. Maybe somebody was holding them in check? Or did they come in to fill a power vacuum? All I know is that one day, all the neighborhood had to worry about was kids with spray cans, and now we’ve got Meta thugs. Something isn’t right; it doesn’t add up.

Sugar Rush sighed and looked as serious as Tiff had seen her yet.

“They’re too organized to be random. Somebody’s behind the scenes pulling strings. I’ve heard rumors that a real Villain has set up shop in the area,” Sugar Rush said. But then, in classic fashion, she ruined it with a smirk. “I’m not sure how true that is. I think there might be a Quest going around to find out, but that’s not the sort of thing the System gives me!” She added with a laugh.

Tiff wasn’t sure she wanted to know the sort of Quests the girl did receive, but because Sugar Rush was Sugar Rush, she told them anyway.

“I once got a Quest to enter a hot dog eating competition,” the girl admitted sheepishly. “I got 25 Fame for winning.”

The group carefully controlled their expressions. Candice cleared her throat and nodded.

“You know? Good for you.”

“Thanks!” The girl cheered.

“You said you think it’s the 5th Street Gang?” Tiff pressed, trying to steer the conversation. “Don’t you think that’s a little far? 5th Street is…across town?”

“Mmm,” Sugar Rush frowned. “To be honest, it’s just a guess. They’re the biggest gang in the area, and the most organized, too. Maybe they’re branching out? Creating a new chapter? Do you call a gang extension a chapter? Is there another term?”

“Pretty sure it’s not a chapter,” Amy grumped. “That makes me think of Girl Scouts.”

“Ooooh,” Sugar Rush’s eyes lit up. “Samoas and Tagalongs!”

“Not. Helping,” Tiff sighed through gritted teeth. “As it so happens, I happen to know a little bit about the 5th Street Gang. They recently underwent a change in management. I don’t think you’ll have much to worry about from them.”

Not if Tiff had anything to say about it. If she acquired any Meta-thugs, she’d really like to know about it.

“Is this from your information network?” Sugar Rush asked. “That’s good to know. But even so, I think it’d be wise to keep an eye on them, just in case.”

Tiff nodded along; that made a lot of sense. If somebody was running around claiming to act on her authority, she was going to be pissed. Sugar Rush gave Tiff another speculative look and sighed.

“Man, it must be so nice to have an information specialist,” she said wistfully. “Our team is pretty small, but I thought we were well-rounded. We’ve got a frontliner, Bogard, a Tinkerer, and me, a Speedster. None of us are great at collecting information.”

There were lots of things Tiff could have unpacked from that revelation, but an odd one stuck out to her.

“Why not ask the DMA? Surely they have heroic resources.”

“Oh, I’m sure they do,” Sugar Rush laughed sadly, “If you fit into their mold. Surprise, surprise: I don’t. Turns out, they don’t need a 3rd rate, chubby Speedster on Young Justice.”

For some reason, that made Tiff’s blood boil more than she thought it might. Even Victoria seemed a little upset, though she also looked like she’d heard similar things before.

“Hey, keep at it and level up,” Victoria said. “Prove ‘em wrong.”

“I am!” Sugar Rush cheered. “But I’m not the only problem. They wouldn’t take Bogard because he stole his callsign from a fighting game character, and our Tinkerer is only part-time and not interested in moving out of the area.”

Yeah, that would do it. If you weren’t willing to bend the knee to the corporate overlord, they probably didn’t want to waste their time with you.

“Well,” Victoria said, checking the time and scooting out of the booth, “We need to get back. Sugar Rush, good luck out there.”

It was meant to be a final farewell, as the group wouldn’t be having any more dealings with a startup hero company. But either Sugar Rush was oblivious or optimistic, as she ignored the dismissal for what it was.

“Sounds great!” She said, standing up. She touched the middle of her massive belt, which opened up one of the many pockets, and pulled out a phone. Not a business card, not something Tiff could easily lose or ignore, but a phone. “Let’s keep in contact! I’ll let you know if we find anything else out, and you can do the same!”

Every instinct was telling Tiff to decline. Knock the phone out of the girl’s hand.

But she couldn’t. Not immediately, and the longer she thought about it, the more an invasive thought was creeping in.

Would it be so bad to build up a heroic alliance?

The System, for once, wasn’t trying to sway her vote. It wasn’t trying to get her to defeat the Sidekick or trick her into doing Tiff’s bidding. It was, strangely, silent.

Maybe they could use Sugar Rush like a tool before discarding her.

But Tiff knew that thought was weak and fragile, and like the lie it was, it crumbled before Tiff could even complete it.

Because, against all odds, Tiff had started to take a liking to the mismatched Sidekick. Somebody…a little bit like her.

So a truce, then. Until this [Enforcer] madness could get sorted out.

Tiff glanced up at Victoria, who was wearing a perfectly neutral, impossible-to-read expression. It seemed like the entire world wanted her to make this choice. And so she did.

“Sure,” Tiff agreed…nodding at Candice. “We’ll be in touch.”

After all, what good was having a taker of names if they didn’t do their job?

¹

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