Moonstrike Prologue (superdim sequel)

"I need to postpone basic training," Ji Min texted. She was leaning up against the kitchen counter. "Work is sending me out of state." Somewhere outside, a child shrieked. She could hear the beeping of a crosswalk.

The response came quickly. "For how long?"

"Two weeks," she texted back. The prediction she'd been given was 1.5, but these things almost always ran long. Besides, it was best to lie. She hadn't given them her identity yet. Any accurate information was a clue.

"That's unfortunate," messaged Alejandro, the suit who was arranging her government hero training. "We had aligned your training with another new start in the program. You're sure you can't rearrange things with work?"

Ji Min snorted. Well, she was glad to miss that. "Sorry to hear that," she lied. "It's non negotiable. I'll catch up in training as best as I can." She put her burner phone away without waiting to see what the government had to say about that. He'd probably caution that it wasn't going to be that easy, she had to expect a hard time, yada yada. If training was as hard as he kept saying, she'd be genuinely surprised. There were plenty of incompetent heroes bumbling their way through life.

Birds chirped outside. She glanced out the window to confirm that the weather looked idyllic. She wanted to feel the sun on her face, turning her hair hot and warming her shoulders.

She let out a heavy sign and went to her closet to dig out her rain gear.

Ari thumped her way down the stairs and into the living room. She gave Ji Min an amused look. "Good morning."

"Good morning," Ji Min echoed. She snapped open a plastic storage container and started lifting up winter coats in search of what she needed.

"Your rain boots are in the hall closet." Ari opened the fridge and pulled out eggs and bacon. "You start the coffee?"

Ji Min tugged out the rain coat and shoved the box back into the closet. "No, sorry."

"I'll get it, then." She heard a drawer slide open.

"No, no, it's my job." Ji Min closed the closet and followed her sister into the kitchen. "Dark roast okay today?"

The burner flicked on. Ari snickered. "Long day?" The scent of olive oil wafted over as Ari unscrewed the cap.

Ji Min sighed theatrically without pausing in measuring coffee beans. "I've gotta go out of state, do field work after that hurricane." She started the grinder.

"Better you than me." Ari checked the heat of the cast iron pan and started cracking eggs into it.

Ji Min side-eyed her and resisted the urge to tell Ari to crack them into a bowl first. Ari knew that trick, she just didn't want to do it.

"Don't." Ari put the rest of the eggs away.

Ji Min put her hands up. "I didn't say anything!" She protested.

"You were thinking about the egg bowl."

"You don't know what I was thinking," Ji Min lied, and poked her sister in the side with a finger.

Ari made a satisfying shriek and brandished the spatula at her. "I will hit you!" She threatened.

Ji Min rolled her eyes. "Is this the limit of your pacifism?"

"Older sisters are an exception," Ari snapped back. She tossed her hair over her shoulder and proceeded to ignore Ji Min.

Fair enough. Ji Min put bread into the toaster, ready for the magic of transformation. Then she got out everything they needed from the fridge, moving around Ari as she set the table. She breathed in the sweet and spicy scent of fermented kimchi and the savory smell of cream cheese.

"Stop sniffing our breakfast, weirdo," Ari complained.

"I'll sniff what I want." Ji Min scooped out what they needed and mixed them together briskly. She stuck the remainder in the fridge and was spreading the dreamy mixture on toast by the time Ari brought over eggs, ready to slide on top. Ji Min poured the coffee. They ate in silence.

Ji Min was the first to break it, once her toast was gone. "Finals are coming up, right? Three weeks out?"

Ari sighed and looked into her coffee cup. "Yeah." She stirred it unenthusiastically. "I'm going to fail my Econ final. I'll scrape a pass, I did well on the earlier work. But it's not going to be good."

"You are not going to fail," Ji Min said, appalled. "We'd never hear the end of it. What's going wrong?"

Ari shrugged. "It doesn't make sense to me, and I don't have the time to study it enough. I have to prioritize the essays I have. I really don't think I can fit it all in."

Ji Min grimaced. "How many hours are you doing at the café?"

"25 a week." Ari looked up at her. "Why?"

She pointed at her little sister. "If you promise to pass Econ, you can take the next three weeks off, or quit if they don't agree. I don't care. I'll cover you. You're almost to graduation anyway."

"No way," Ari said, but Ji Min could tell she was tempted. "I don't want to leech off of you."

"In three months you'll probably be making more money than me in some firm." Ji Min shrugged. "You can get me a good birthday gift. Do you need a tutor?" She cocked her head. "If the way the professor explained things didn't stick, you're probably not going to get it by banging your head against your books."

Ari sucked in air through her teeth.

That was answer enough. Ji Min stood up, leaving her plate. "I'll leave my blue debit card, take out what you need."

"What's the limit?" Ari asked swiftly.

Ji Min snorted. "I'd pay a lot to keep our family from demanding to know why you didn't do well in one gen ed class." She pursed her lips. "Call me if you need more than a thousand, but I'll laugh at you for getting cheated by the tutor."

"That's fair," Ari said.

"You're doing the dishes."

Ari made a sour face, but she didn't argue. She left the apartment first, en route to a class.

Ji Min had more time. She finished packing and hauled everything to the door. Then she stretched out on the sofa and turned on the T.V. to the news.

She immediately huffed a laugh at how topical the story was. They were recapping the whole alien invasion thing. Ji Min was bored enough to turn up the volume and watch a manic-eyed reporter interview Heatwave. She bit her lower lip, watching the older hero talk.

Most anonymous heroes covered their eyes: he'd taken the opposite route by covering everything else. You could see that he had long lashes, brown skin, and orange eyes. He probably just wore colored contacts in his private life and wound up anonymous.

He was actually one of the impressive ones, an international hero with the U.N. His teammates were probably still engaged with cleanup as he calmly reiterated that there had been no civilian casualties and that the invaders had been successfully repelled.

"They were repelled because they came to Norway and that's atrocious," Ji Min sniffed, and turned the T.V. back off. She knew she was being bitter, but the E.U. had all the top hero teams. It was like soccer: the USA was too stubborn to get involved early on, and now they lagged behind. If they were the top of the pile, Americans would be insufferable about it. But since they sucked, they turned their noses up at international heroism.

It could change, though, she realized. They were putting a lot of money into recruitment. Maybe that was the goal.

Hmm. Would she want to be on a comparable team, maybe for North America or just the Americas in general? Mexican heroism was stylish. She'd work with one of them, for sure.

She thought about it. She was still going back and forth on whether she was genuinely becoming a hero or if she was just grifting the government for supplies and training.

"It would be pretty cool to be a founding member of an international team," Ji Min admitted to herself, toying with the idea.

Despite what Alejandro said… she believed that she was better than the average hero recruit. Maybe what he'd said had even reinforced that, if she was honest. The physical limits he'd mentioned were news to her.

"I might just have been born better than everyone else," she mused. She got up to make another coffee. "It might be nice to show off."

When it was time, she drove to the airport and caught her flight down south. The company had a rental waiting for her. She took it straight to work, going to client homes and businesses until the end of working hours. Only then did she drive to her hotel and check in for the night.

The second day was much the same, except that it was even longer. She drove past a Tiffany's around 3 pm and noted the location. "I'll be back for you, you blue bitch," Ji Min promised, and finished her work day.

She was tempted to go out night-shopping right away. But no… It was better to wait a few days, and days after she'd been working in the area. It was a minor protection, but it would ensure she hadn't been seen there on the day of a crime.

Instead, she got a pizza and stayed in, flipping channels and messaging her fence on her personal phone.

She didn't expect much. They usually just arranged drop offs. But this time, they asked for a call.

Ji Min sat up. She turned the volume down, then changed her mind and turned on a movie and turned the volume up to block any distinctive noises. She was intrigued to find out what was too sensitive to send in a message.

She hit the call button.

Maybe the fence needed to let her know that they were in trouble, or quitting.

Every second felt like an hour as she listened to it ring. "I didn't mean right away," came an annoyed voice. Male? She was pretty sure it was a male voice, but it was on the line in an ambiguous way.

Ji Min laid down on the bed. "I had time. What did you need to say?"

A sigh turned to static in her ear. "Are you up for a job?"

"...I don't work for other people," Ji Min said, but she was intrigued. "Convince me."

"Another sticky fingers type asked me about someone like you." He didn't seem like he was trying that hard to convince her, but her ears perked up nonetheless. She knew other criminals, but not other rogues. "They also work alone, but they have a two person job."

"How can I possibly trust them?" Ji Min frowned at the ceiling. "Could be a hero plant."

The fence snorted. "Could be," he allowed. "It would be a very long game, but there's always a chance. If you take the offer, I get 20 thousand."

Ji Min coughed on nothing.

"Yeah," the guy said dryly. "I imagine you'd get more."

"Must be a big job." She caught her breath and curled her free hand into a fist against the bedding. She forcefully relaxed it when she noticed what she was doing.

"They said they were working with a third to get around security," the fence said. "So it's probably someplace high tech. Anyway." He sounded bored. "If you're at all interested, I'll pass on your number."

Ji Min weighed it up. It was a risk. It could be a sting operation. What if she got caught, unmasked as a criminal right before intake into heroic training? Would they count her as someone worth integrating into the program regardless? Would her ID get out?

"Pass on my number," she said, and hung up the phone.

She wanted to know what it was. What kind of heist would need someone like her and someone on cameras and mic?