Williams Residence, Meritas City. October 4th, 2014, 17:30

  “So, first week is over. What’s the verdict so far?”

  Dad and I were sitting back at home, eating. He’d ordered burgers and fries for us as a celebration of the first week being over. I, as always, was eating quietly until he spoke up. He, as always, had asked the question right as I had a mouth full of food.

  “G-good,” I responded, swallowing, “Been a l-lot to get used to b-but otherwise it’s been ok.”

  “Good teacher?”

  “Y-yeah, Red’s great. You remember Red Rabbit, right? The armoured, rabbit-themed hero?”

  He nodded.

  “W-well its her and she’s…eccentric.”

  “What about your classmates? Elena’s with you, who else?”

  “Siobhan and Ant- Anton, they’re the second-years, they seem n-nice. The third-years…” I trailed off.

  Dad leaned in, looking worried. “Are you having problems with them?

  “N-No, no! It’s just that…one of them is Glory, the g-girl I fought…Slaughterhouse with.”

  Dad leaned back. “Oh shoot. That must be good though, right?”

  Fuck, what do I say? I thought. I couldn’t exactly tell him that she tried to kill me on day one, or the conversation I had with Red.

  “She’s kind of…d-doing her own thing a lot of the time.”

  Dad nodded slowly. “...Fair enough, I’d have thought you and her fighting together would’ve helped but I guess not.”

  The conversation trailed off and we went back to eating. He’d put the TV on in the background, a news report playing; neither of us were listening, it was just there as noise.

  Being back home was strange now. The Young Defenders Facility felt like there was always something going on, and there was always a cacophony of people using their powers; if you looked around for a second you’d see something unusual. That combined with my own anxieties, made everything feel like it was running at high speed all the time.

  Home, on the other hand, was familiar and quiet. Dad was always nice to be around, of course. But also, as anxious as I was, I really liked being at the Facility; in the lessons, testing out my powers, spending time with Elena-

  “You get that from a class or something?” Dad had asked. He was pointing at my neck, eyes narrowing. I looked down at what he was pointing at: on my right shoulder there was a faint but noticeable bruise, about the size of my hand. My eyes widened, I hadn’t even noticed or felt it.

  “O-oh I- I don’t know when I got-”

  Then I remembered. It was when Glory had come after me on my first day, slamming me against the tree. It had been hard enough to dislocate the shoulder, I remembered that clear as day. But that had been at the beginning of the week; why was the bruise still there? It should’ve healed by now. I couldn’t regrow limbs, sure, but I knew I could heal faster than most people; I’d had bruises from Martial Arts classes that had healed themselves within a few minutes like nothing had ever happened.

  Why had this one stuck around?

  “Skye?” Dad asked, looking concerned.

  “I uh- I-it was earlier today during Martial Arts. I think M-May Bell must have hit me hard on the sh-shoulder or something, and I just didn’t notice.”

  Dad scoffed. “Jesus, she must be pretty merciless.”

  “S-she’s fine, but it is the ass-kicking class,” I said, laughing nervously, “I’m g-getting better at actually fighting though.”

  Dad laughed. “I feel like saying ‘good’ feels wrong somehow, but it is good.”

  Special Case Room, Young Defenders Training Facility, Meritas City. October 9th, 2014, 15:30

  Most of the next week flew by. The talk Red and I had last week was still echoing in my mind, but I was trying to take it in a positive sense, as hard as that was.

  Mercifully, I’d somehow seen very little of Glory this week. We saw each other at the start of most days, but we didn’t talk. I thought it best to just ignore her as best as I could, for now; I guess she felt the same.

  Maddie was…harder to figure out, still as seemingly-friendly as always. She was still hard to speak to, like every conversation was a trap waiting to snap shut.

  But, classes came and went without much issue; Elena and I were getting to grips with martial arts quickly, and we’d each been spitballing new ways to use our powers, though we’d not had much of a chance to properly put those ideas to the test outside of a class.

  At the end of the Thursday, Elena and I had made our way back to the Special Case room after our last class, Physical Fitness. Where the other two classes were more involved in helping us stay alive - learning how to fight and using our powers properly - this one was like a gym class from hell, helping us build up our physical strength. Useful, sure, but as someone who up until recently hadn’t really given much attention to her physical fitness, these first few sessions of it had sucked.

  The two of us walked - or rather, staggered - into the Special Case room, collapsing into the seats with twin groans.

  “Everything hurts!” Elena moaned, still sweating and sore.

  “I take it you two are not having fun?” Anton’s voice said from the other end of the room. Hadn’t even realised he was in here. With how busy our classes had been and with me not living on-campus, I’d not had a lot of chances to really socialise with him or Siobhan.

  “N-No…” I groaned, “L-like I’m sure it’ll be good in the long run but now it’s just-”

  “It sucks!” She yelled, groaning, “Do I look like I was built for the gym?” she asked, gesturing to herself.

  As if I was answering her question, I found myself looking at her. It wasn’t on purpose, but my eyes lingered on her a little too long as she was sprawled in the seat, still in her workout gear, her cheeks flushed and her eyes tired but bright at the same time. I couldn’t stop taking in how her tank top was clinging to her, how flushed she looked post-workout. My gaze wandered over her stomach, her thighs, her face, how messy and frizzy her hair-

  Oh god I’m staring.

  My face burned red.

  I blinked and looked away quickly, feeling my heart thudding in my chest like I’d been caught in the middle of a crime.

  She didn’t notice, did she? Please tell me she didn’t notice.

  I quickly glanced back. She was still talking to Anton, thank god. She hadn’t noticed.

  “Was not problem for me.” Anton said, shrugging. “Back on my home farm I was always doing work. Can see how big American city makes that more difficult.”

  “You trying to say being a city gal made me soft?”

  “No, that is what I am saying.” He said with a smirk.

  “I can’t even be bothered to throw something at you, man, too sore.” She responded, trying - and failing - to get more comfortable. Anton just laughed.

  I looked around, only now realising that it was only the three of us.

  “Where are the o-others?” I asked.

  “Siobhan is in Training Complex, doing a workout; Jessica and Maddie, I don’t know.” He said, shrugging. “Those two do their own thing, even last year.”

  “Guessing they’re not team players?” Elena asked. Anton just barked a laugh, which got a bit of a scoff out of the both of us.

  The door then shot open with a clack. In walked Siobhan, as if on cue, clearly still sweating from whatever workout she’d done; she was wearing a loose yellow t-shirt and black tracksuit bottoms and black gloves that fully covered her hands, which she always had on whenever she wasn’t in costume. What struck me was her hair, normally down and frayed-looking, looked like it was partly standing on end like she was charged with electricity.

  She gave a lazy wave as she stepped in, dropping into one of the seats next to me.

  “God that felt fantastic, but I’m fuckin’ beat.” She said like it was an announcement, sinking into the seat.

  As she sank into the seat, a large glass of water, suspended on faint glowing strings floated towards her, before it stopped directly above her head. Her eyes focused on it, before they flicked over to Anton.

  “You drop that on my head and I’ll zap your balls off.” She scowled at him, before reaching out and grabbing it from the air, taking a sip.

  Anton laughed, the strings slithering back into his fingers.

  I was slowly starting to piece their powers together, given that I hadn’t had proper classes with them (and it felt rude to just ask).

  Anton’s were pretty straightforward: he could project those strings from his body and use them like extensions of himself to lift and pull things. I hadn’t figured out Siobhan’s deal because she liked to train alone most of the time - though I guessed it had something to do with electricity, based solely on when she gave me static shock when we’d first met, and the name ‘Battery’.

  “So, what are your plans for tomorrow?” Anton asked, glancing at Elena and I.

  Fridays were more of a freeform day; you could pretty much do whatever on campus, so long as you did a decent amount of your mandatory topics recreationally, unless told otherwise.

  “I-I need to experiment more with my powers…” I said, quiet. “Droptail’s given me some good p-pointers.”

  “Dude I need to get in better shape!” Elena groaned; she hadn’t shifted from the position she’d taken when she’d sat down in the chair, I wasn’t entirely sure she could. “So I guess I’ve gotta bust my ass doing more Physical Fitness tomorrow.”

  “Listen, if either of ya need a partner- Sorry, a more experienced partner, hit me up.” Siobhan said, adjusting herself so she was sitting up fully. “Unless Red has some bullshit planned for us, that is.”

  “D-Does she n-normally? She didn’t last week.” I asked.

  “Lot o’ teachers do it,” Siobhan replied, “Fridays being more open gives them a bit of time to give their students more of a personal lesson. Red, bless her, is real keen on it, as much as it can get annoyin’.”

  “I am a fan, personally.” Anton said from across the room, “Keeps us sharp, I like to think.”

  “You just like being busy.” Elena quipped, still stuck in her seat.

  As if on cue, the door clicked open, though less forcefully than when Siobhan opened it, as Red Rabbit stepped inside, her armoured boots clanking on the floor. She was typing something into her armour’s bracer, the tiny high-pitched beeps sounding from her as she looked up at us, then back down again.

  Then she stopped mid-motion, looking around at all of us. There was a pause, before her display screen showed a simple, smiling face.

  “Well, since you’re all here it saves me messaging you!” She beamed, slamming the bracer of her armour shut.

  That made me tense up, especially after what Siobhan had said. What did Red have in store for us?

  “Since Skye and Elena seem to be doing well with their classes,” Red said, stepping towards the podium at the front of the room, “I thought it’d be a good idea to give you guys a good old-fashioned combat trial!” She beamed again, as a tinny sound of a party blower played from her armour, because of course it did.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  The room was dead silent for a second.

  “This soon?” Siobhan said, sounding baffled, “No offense to Skye and Elena, sure they’re doin’ great, but is a combat trial this soon really the best thing to do after last year’s?”

  “Last year’s early combat trial was poor judgement on my part, I accept that-”

  “Because Glory almost put me in a cast.”

  “You did instigate it! And besides, she and Maddie have a patrol assigned to them tomorrow morning, so they won’t be involved.”

  That made me give out a sigh of relief; the absolute last thing I wanted was to have to face Glory in a fight after last week, because I was fairly sure she would just try to kill me.

  Red tapped her bracer. One of the fins on her armour buzzed to life, projecting an image onto the wall next to her. Four icons were there: a white cartoon skull, an orange cartoon frog, a yellow lightning bolt, and a ball of yarn.

  “I’ve been doing some assessments of each of you, especially our new first-years. So rather than what I did last year of having the first and second-years face off against the third-years, this time we’ll have two teams: each one with a first-year and a second-year!”

  I glanced at Elena. I wouldn’t be with her, but fighting against her? That made my heart sink a bit.

  “So here’s the teams based on my assessment,” Red tapped her bracer, causing the icons to glide around: the icons of the skull and the ball of yarn sat next to each other on one side, while the icons of the bolt of lightning and the frog sat on the other.

  “Skye and Anton versus Elena and Siobhan!” Red announced, gleeful. The four of us looked at our respective partners; Anton gave me a warm smile as he walked over, standing off to the side of the room as he watched Red. I could see Siobhan looking Elena up and down before giving a firm nod to her, while Elena looked excited.

  “So, we’ll go over the details tomorrow. 10am start, so don’t be late!” Red said again, before tapping her bracer, causing the projected image to fuzz away.

  Training Complex, Young Defenders Training Facility, Meritas City. October 10th, 2014, 10:30AM

  The four of us - Me, Elena, Siobhan, Anton - stood in the centre of one of the Academic Hall’s many simulation rooms, all of us in our full costumes. The room itself was almost entirely beige, from the floor to the walls and the ceiling, save for what looked like a series of stage lights affixed to the corners of the walls.

  Between us was Red, tapping into her bracer quickly; or rather, it was a projected image of Red, the real Red was in the simulation’s control room.

  “Ok, so!” Red said, putting in the final tap on her bracer with a quick flourish, “Obviously this trial is to assess your combat abilities so far, but it's not going to be a free-for-all slugfest, that just wouldn’t be particularly engaging, especially since you’re in teams.”

  As she spoke, the lights in the corners of the room whirred to life, each one glowing a soft blue-green as the beige walls began to shift. I recognised this immediately, it was near-identical to the simulation from the tryouts.

  The colours were rapidly bleeding into blues and greens, as the shapes of fields, trees, and rivers came into view. Even the sounds of the wind and the birds felt real.

  “So let me set the scene: this idyllic forest in West Virginia is under attack, burning to the ground at the hands of an army of merciless automatons!” She sounded like a narrator setting the stage for a book, or like a kid playing a game of pretend with his friends in a basement.

  “These automatons show no fear, and they’ll take no prisoners. They’ll stop at nothing to-”

  “Uh, Red?” Elena cut her off, looking a bit sheepish.

  Red stopped in her tracks. “What’s up?” Her voice quickly returned to normal.

  “You said this forest is on fire, right?”

  “Yeah?”

  Elena pointed around at the idyllic forests and fields. The forests and fields that were very much not on fire.

  “Oh!” Red gasped, tapping her bracer again. “Give me…a second...aaaand-”

  Almost immediately, the entire simulated forest was ablaze. The change was immediate and intense; the smell of burning wood, the change in heat, even the change in the colour of the scene, now lit up by oranges and yellows.

  “They’ll stop at nothing to burn down anything and anyone in their path.” Red continued, shifting back into her narrator voice. “You four must take down as many of the automatons as you can before the forest burns down!”

  Despite how corny Red sounded, I couldn’t help but smile a bit under my mask.

  “So, your teams will be graded not just on how well you fight, but how efficiently you deal with the problems. For each of the automatons you take down, you’ll be given points. Of course, you will encounter each other, and you absolutely can fight each other if you want. If you fight each other and one of you manages to win against the other, that’ll be taken into account for scoring too.”

  I glanced around, looking at Elena and Siobhan. I felt anxious - shocker, I know - because I didn’t want to have to fight Elena. She didn’t look as torn up about it, grinning.

  “You have two minutes to find a starting position. Once those two minutes are off, we’ll begin.”

  There was a chorus of nods and “yes” from each of us. There was a more palpable excitement from each of us, even me.

  “Two minutes starts now! Find a place to start!”

  Red’s image disappeared immediately.

  “See you guys on the flipside!” Elena shouted, running with Siobhan. The two of them ran towards the burning forest, Elena waving as they went.

  “B-Bye!” I shouted back, as Anton and I started running in the other direction.

  “So, here is what I am thinking:” Anton said as we were running, “I can fight up close, but my strings are better from range, yes? So what I will do is help distract automatons while you go in for kills, yes?”

  I nodded. “Y-yeah. I do pretty w-well in a close fight so that’s g-good.”

  “Fantastic, I was figuring as much. Is there anything about Elena to watch out for?”

  “She- her power’s very- very versatile-” I was suddenly very aware of how difficult I was finding it to speak and run at the same time, I really needed those physical fitness classes, “D-depending on what she eats she- she can spit it out and- and give it weird- weird properties.”

  We rushed through the forest, trying to find parts that were less on fire than the rest of it. Anton was looking up and around at the trees.

  “W-what about Siobhan?” I asked, as Anton kept looking around.

  “She is…tricky, I think is the best word.” He said, not looking at me.

  “Tricky?” That was annoyingly vague.

  “Her power is…not like yours or mine, she cannot turn off and on like a switch. It takes time to charge; is why she is called ‘Battery’.”

  “I j-just thought it was because she had something to do with electricity.”

  “Also true!” Anton said.

  “Ten seconds!” Red’s voice blared over the intercom.

  I focused my power into my arms, going for the old reliable: right arm with an arm-blade, left arm with a dense shield. Next to me, Anton was holding his hands in front of him, ready.

  “Three, two, one!”

  There was a fuzz of blue and green lights, as a series of automatons - similar to the ones in the tryouts, towering brass-coloured humanoid machines, although these ones had large flamethrowers in place of one arm and an axehead in place of the other - appeared in front of us. The first one, maybe ten feet away, immediately turned towards us.

  I started running towards it, raising my arm-shield in front of it as it raised its flamethrower at me. I braced, expecting the burst of heat, before I saw a series of faint glowing strings curl past me, each one wrapping the automaton’s arm, pulling it up and causing the fire to shoot into the canopy. Not wasting time, I slammed my shield into its chest, knocking it off balance, before driving my arm-blade into its chest.

  As it hit the ground, its chest sparking, the light in its eyes went out. I looked down, impressed; that felt way easier than at the tryouts.

  I turned back to Anton, the glowing golden strings swirling around him, emanating from his fingertips.

  “Nice!” He shouted, giving me a thumbs up. I gave him a thumbs up with my right arm, the blade still jutting from it.

  Another one rounded on us. I jumped back before it got a chance to swing. As it raised its arm, Anton’s strings wrapped tightly around its arm, with him fighting the arm like he was trying to rein in an angry horse.

  While it was distracted, I rushed in, stabbing it right in the centre of the chest, the light dimming.

  We kept on running through the burning forests, taking on automaton after automaton. The first few we took on one at a time in a bit of a routine, with Anton pulling at their bodies to catch them off-guard, while I swung in for the kill.

  But as we made our way deeper into the burning forest, the automatons became more densely-packed. One turned to us, immediately firing a jet of flame from its flamethrower-arm, barely giving me enough time to raise my arm-shield in front of me; the flames were simulated but they still felt real, the heat searing through my costume. Though the costume itself was holding up incredibly well under the heat.

  Anton leapt past me, strings shooting from his hands and wrapping around the automaton’s neck. He landed behind it and yanked, causing the automaton to topple to the ground, the light leaving its eyes.

  We barely had a chance to breathe before a much larger group, six in total, emerged from the flames and surrounded us. Anton and I stood back-to-back.

  I jumped at one, its axe-arm coming down for a swing. I raised my arm-shield up at it, catching the blade which cracked against my bones, before I pushed it back. Quickly, I cut into it causing it to spark and collapse, but the two to its left and right charged towards me.

  I held my arms up, but a thought hit me: there was something I’d been wanting to test, and this felt like a good time.

  I focused my power; not into my arms, into my ribs. Immediately I felt them writhe and twitch like worms under my skin, a sickening pressure building up before-

  POP-POP-POP.

  A burst of wet, meaty tearing sounds split the air as eight of my ribs - four on each side - cracked apart and punched out from under my skin in long jagged spear-like lengths. They hit their mark, thudding into metal with a series of sharp THUNK-THUNKS. Sparks flew as the machines convulsed and dropped, their limbs twitching. I barely had time to breathe before my misshapen ribs dragged themselves back under my skin with a series of bloody, squelching sucking sounds, like meat being sucked up a pipe, before snapping back into place and knitting themselves back together like nothing had ever happened.

  I hissed slightly as my ribs sat back into place, the pain kicking in for a moment before subsiding. Hopefully I’d get used to that.

  I turned around to Anton, who had both hands spread out as his strings wrapped one of the automaton’s arms, looking like he was trying to pull it apart, the machine’s body groaning and sparking. I rushed forward, creating a pointed arm-blade on my right arm and stabbing it through the chest, causing it to drop to the ground.

  “Thanks!” Anton said, panting slightly.

  I looked down at his hands as his strings retracted; blood was dripping from his fingers.

  “Y-Your hands, they’re-” I gasped, pointing.

  “Hm?” He looked down at them like he hadn’t noticed.

  “Oh, shit.” He said, wiping them on his sides, causing the red to stain his blue and white costume. “Oh- no this just made it worse.”

  “Are y-you ok?” I asked, still looking at his hands.

  “I am fine!” He said, smiling, “It happens when I try to pull too much weight. Nothing to worry about.”

  I kept glancing down at them. Until I heard something: a distant metallic clang.

  “Y-you think that’s them?” I asked.

  “Think what is them?”

  Clang.

  “Oh wait, now I hear it.” Anton said, his head turning in the direction. “Yes, it's almost definitely them.”

  So we started running. It wasn't hard to follow the regular clang sounds we’d hear, though it didn’t sound as busy as I thought it would be if there were two of them. Within a minute, we found ourselves in a large clearing, surrounded by burning trees. Dead in the centre was an absolutely massive horde of automatons; I couldn’t count exactly but there had to be at least fifty, probably more.

  And at the opposite end of the clearing, perched high up in a tree some fifty feet away, I spotted Elena, rearing back and taking aim. She’d gone up a tree that was pretty far away from the horde, giving her a lot of time to take shots from a distance, as well as staying clear of their flamethrowers.

  “Skye!” She shouted, waving. I gave a bit of a nervous wave back. I looked up at her, grimacing; I really didn’t want to fight her.

  PLEGH!

  That spitting sound told me she didn’t feel the same. My eyes widened as I dove out of the way, her projectile slamming into the ground with a wet thud near where I’d landed.

  She spat again, but this time Anton stepped out in front of me, thrusting his hand out. The golden strings extended out, wrapping around the new projectile Elena had shot out and bringing it to a stop. Then, without missing a beat, he spun around, the golden strings with the projectile trailing behind him before he launched it into the crowd of automatons; it slammed one in the head, before bouncing into another one.

  “T-thanks…” I said, pulling myself.

  “No problem.” Anton replied, shaking his hand.

  I looked up, looking at the automatons, Elena up in the tree and-

  “W-wait,” I said, realising something, “Where’s Siobhan?”

  Elena spat something - a grapefruit sized lump of meat - at one of the automatons, the projectile hitting like a cannonball, hard enough to knock its head clean off its shoulders, the wires in its neck sparking. Then, like she’d been waiting for a cue, Siobhan jumped up from a bush. In one swift motion, she launched herself at the automaton and jammed her hand into its exposed neck, grabbing the sparking wires. Electricity coursed through her, her hair standing up on end. She let out a scream, but not of pain, like a howl of pure ecstasy. The electricity subsided, then she shook herself.

  “O-oh my god?” I gasped quietly, watching this unfold.

  “Ok Elena,” she shouted, breathless, “Think I’m good now!” I saw Elena give a thumbs-up from where she was perched.

  “Oh that’s not good.” Anton groaned from next to me.

  “Wait, w-why?” I started, looking back between him and Siobhan.

  “We should take a step back. She is about to, how she says, ‘cut loose’." He said, though I could hear the smile on his face.

  Siobhan threw her jacket off of her shoulders, leaving it to drift to the dirt as she stood in her full costume, matte black save for the yellow lightning-bolt patterns running up her legs and arms.

  She took a slow, heavy breath, then slammed the side of her costume’s belt with her right hand.

  A mechanical voice blared from her suit: [FULL CHARGE!]

  Immediately, the bolt patterns on her costume ignited, the lines of bright yellow burning bright as electricity sparked across her body, crackling and snapping.

  Siobhan reared her head back, letting out a loud scream as her body surged with lightning. I could hear the crackling sound over her scream as the electricity danced through her, and I felt the immediate urge to rush and help her.

  Then, she stopped screaming, standing perfectly still. Her entire body was sparking with electricity, glowing a soft yellow-white. She let out a long, shaky breath.

  The automatons, which had been just watching this whole event silently, began taking a step forward.

  “I-is…is she-”

  I didn’t get to finish my sentence; a thunderclap split the air with a crack as Siobhan shot forward like a bolt of lightning, electricity trailing behind her.

  The automatons never knew what hit them. There was a scream of metal as something fast tore through the horde, lightning arcing between them. They exploded outward; one went flying into the air, another was cleaved in half, a third simply imploded from the sheer force of the impact. For a split-second I saw the outline of Siobhan, a lightning-covered silhouette with her fist rammed into the automaton’s chest before she rocketed away. Then she kept going, ripping the horde of automatons to shreds one after the other, the sounds of lightning and tearing metal echoing around us.

  From where we were, it looked like a jagged lightning pattern was being carved through the group, cutting through in a rapid, violent zigzag.

  Over a dozen violent takedowns in a few seconds. I couldn’t keep track of Siobhan; she was so fast.

  “Holy shit!” I heard Elena cackle over the cacophony of lightning and breaking metal.

  “She’s so f-fast!” I choked out. I heard Anton let out a grim chuckle next to me.

  There was a flash and another crack of thunder, bright enough that I had to shut my eyes. When it cleared, Siobhan was standing barely five feet in front of us, crackling. The ground in a trail behind her was scorched black, and the air smelt of thick ozone.

  Her entire body was crackling with electricity, which traced up and down her costume like veins, while her hair was standing up on end, buzzing with lightning.

  The thing that struck me, of all things, was the expression on her face. In the almost two weeks that I’d known her, Siobhan was - to be blunt - a bit of a scowly grump, very rarely laughing or smiling.

  But now, standing in front of me? She had this manic grin on her face, so wide that it looked like it was about to split her face in half, her teeth bared. Her eyes, already a dark blue, were wide open and fiercely glowing a bright blue-white, literally alight with a manic joy.

  “God I’ve MISSED THIS!” She howled before she threw her head back, cackling wildly.

  Then, she pounded her fists together, lightning sparking off of them before she stared me directly in the eyes. I felt my own hair beginning to stand on end just by being near her.

  “So, newbie,” She said as she stared me right in the eyes, her voice electric and giddy, “You think you can keep up with me?!”