The first thing I registered was the warmth. There was a soft, radiating presence that seemed to have enveloped my entire back. I felt a heavy, smooth weight draped over my hip, and a soft puff of air hitting the nape of my neck in a steady, rhythmic sleep-breath.

  I opened one eye, staring at the blurred walls of Yuna's bedroom. My brain, still sluggish from last night's exhilaration, took a full three seconds the process the situation.

  Okay. I am in bed. Yuna is behind me. Yuna is ... spooning me. Yuna is very, very naked. And I am... I blushed, trying to finish my thought. I am very much enjoying this.

  I lay there, stiffer than a frozen pizza as my heart began a frantic drum-roll against my ribs. Stay calm, Kenji. No, Kurumi. I'm Kurumi, now. Stay calm, whomever you are. This is fine. This is totally normal. It's just - uhm - advanced platonic snuggling. Girls do this. I've seen it in ... documentaries. It would be a total creep move to acknowledge how soft her skin is or how perfect it feels to have her body draped over mine. A true gentleman-slash-best friend would stay perfectly still and not acknowledge the potential embarrassment.

  I tried to focus on anything other than Yuna's body. My shoulder throbbed where the bandages were, and my ribs felt like I'd been kicked by a mule. It wasn't quite as bad as I'd been expecting, considering the shape that the Stray left me in last night, but it definitely hurt. As I shifted slightly to ease the pressure, I looked down at my hands resting on the sheets.

  Running across the back of my knuckles and disappearing under the sleeves of the oversized t-shirt were fine, sharp black lines. They looked like professional blackwork tattoos - intricate, geometric circuits that followed up the path of my veins. I carefully pulled the sheet back just an inch and saw a similar line trailing up the back of my calf, perfectly centered like the seam of a vintage silk stocking.

  Permanent markings. Great. I'm officially unable to hide in public.

  Yuna let out a soft, sleepy mumble and squeezed my waist, her face nuzzling into my shoulder blade. I squeezed my eyes shut, my face heating up to a temperature that probably could have boiled water.

  She's just cold, I screamed to myself. She's a victim of a villain attack and she needs the body heat. She's probably still recovering from shock. You're basically just a high-end space heater right now, Kurumi. BE PROFESSIONAL!

  My nipples were hard and a hot, slick heat coiled between my legs as I started to pant, praying that Yuna didn't wake up and see the effect she was having on me. I waited another ten minutes, listening to the hum of the city outside, until finally Yuna let out a long stretch and pulled away.

  "Morning, superstar," she yawned, her voice thick with sleep. She sat up, completely unconcerned about her lack of clothing, and began hunting for her phone on the nightstand. "Ow. My ribs definitely hate me today."

  "You should have stayed in bed," I protested, finally daring to move. My voice was a bit squeaky. I sat up, keeping my back turned as I pretended to be very interested in the black circuit-seam on my leg. "Yuna ... look. These lines didn't go away this time."

  "Oooh," Yuna leaned over my shoulder, her breasts hanging in my face. "Geometric noir? Very cool. I'll bet it's like a 'Level Up' manifestation, something like your body adapting to hold more energy?"

  She finally found her phone - the screen a spiderweb of cracked glass - and tapped it until it flickered to life.

  "Holy shit, Kurumi. Look at this."

  She slid the cracked phone between us and I bent over, my attention on something other than my friend's nudity. The 'Voltana' HeroHub page was blowing up. There were screen-caps of the fight everywhere. The most popular one, by far, was the Reverse Mount finish. I looked like a literal goddess of thunder, half-clothed and dominant, steam rising from my shoulders as I pinned the Stray.

  "The top comment on the HeroHub page is from a guy named 'FaceSitter99,'" Yuna giggled, ignoring her own pain. "He says: While I was happily volunteer my face for our queen's seat any day of the week, those arresting officers were grossly unprofessional. Our girl just beat up a villain and they're treating it like a wet t-shirt content. Give Voltana a raise and fire those chumps!"

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  I felt a weird mix of gratitude for the stranger's defense and absolute mortification that 'FaceSitter99' was now my primary advocate online.

  "I'm using the bounty money to buy you a new phone," I said firmly, standing up and grabbing a robe to hide the stocking seams and everything else. "I got the notification. Fifty thousand credits for the Stray - apparently she's been wanted for over a year with a ton of thefts linked to her. It's the first thing we're doing today."

  "Aww, you're sweet," Yuna said as she finally grabbed a too-large t-shirt and tugged it on over her head. "But we also need to talk about the Mark 2 suit. That hoodie? I have no doubt it's currently being eaten by a sewer rat."

  "Good," I grunted. "I hated that thing. I thought it was what I wanted, but it felt like fighting in a diving suit. I need something I can actually move in. A bodysuit of some kind. Sturdy, flexible ... something that doesn't fall off the moment I throw a punch."

  "I agree on the bodysuit," Yuna said, her eyes lighting up with a dangerous glint. "But it needs vents, Kurumi. For the ionization of your lightning powers. If we trap all that heat, you'll cook yourself. I'm thinking high-tensile polymers, open back for cooling, and maybe some reinforced plating on the shins and forearms to help with blocking. Something ... sleek, yet tactical."

  I nodded, my gamer brain finally taking over the design phase. "Like a high-mobility ninja build." My mind immediately flashed to Ayane of Ninja Gaiden fame, but knew that the reference would be lost on Yuna.

  Yuna grinned, her cracked phone already buzzing with new notifications. "Deal. But just so you know ... the bandeau look from last night? It tripled our follower count overnight. Just something to keep in mind for the branding side of things."

  Scowling, I tried to correct her. "It was a wardrobe malfunction, Yuna! Not a business strategy!"

  She rolled her eyes and cackled. "Same thing, Sparky."

  "Okay, okay, whatever!," i said, waving my hand to dismiss her cackling. "But first, I need-"

  My stomach interrupted me with a sound so loud it practically vibrated the floorboards. It wasn't a normal hunger growl; it was a deep, resonant rumble that sounded like a tectonic plate shifting.

  Yuna stopped laughing at stared at my midriff. "Was that you, or did an earthquake just hit the Western District?"

  "I ... I think I'm dying," I groaned, clutching my stomach. The hunger was sudden and all-consuming, like a void had opened up inside me. "Is this part of being a Super? Am I going to eat us out of house and home?"

  "High output requires high input, Kurumi," Yuna said as she hopped off the bed and headed for the kitchen. "You burned enough calories last night to power an entire apartment building. You need protein, lots of it."

  As I followed her out, my hand brushed against the metal frame of the bedroom door and the lights dimmed for a second.

  *BZZT*.

  A tiny voilet spark jumped from the frame to my knuckle. I gasped, but instead of the usual messy static, the lightning arcing around me, I watched as the black geometric lines on the back of my hand pulsed with a soft, steady violet light. It was clean, controlled, but then faded back to black after a moment.

  "Woah," Yuna whispered, leaning in to look at my hand. "See? Built-in capacitors to let you hold more energy. I'll bet that's why you're hungry. Your body is buildinga bigger battery."

  I stared at the black lines on my skin. Somehow, they felt ... right. Like a piece of gear I'd equipped after grinding for hours to earn it.

  "Speaking of batteries," Yuna said, her tone shifting as she pulled up a frozen frame of the fight on her cracked screen. She pointed to a small, silver cylinder that had fallen out of the Stray's belt during the grapple. It was marked with a minimalist "S" logo in a circle. "One of the fans on your forum page caught this while going frame-by-frame through the playback. That's not street-thief gear. That's S-Korp tech. Specialized energy dampener, apparently."

  "Why was someone going frame-by-frame through the..."

  "Looking for a nipple slip," Yuna said as if it was the most natural thing in the world. "Anyway, the real question is why would a D-Rank villain out robbing warehouses have a million-credit battery just casually tucked into her belt?"

  "Uhm," I raised a hand hesitantly. "I think the real question is did they find a nipple slip."

  Yuna shook her head, grinning, and continued on, "Nope! Lots of disappointed fans over that one." I let out a sigh of relief as she continued. "But this gives us something to investigate - and HeroHub gives generous rewards for heroes who take the initiative and do some investigation work. However, we can't do it in a shredded costume. We eat, we get the phone, then we find a tailor who can build us a better costume."

  I looked down at the black lines tracing my hands and the 'stocking seams' running up my legs and sighed. "Fine. But nothing with a hood. And no more constrictive rubber."

  "Deal," Yuna grinned. "Now let's go eat before your stomach shakes the building down."