"One more lap?" Hannah raised a questioning eyebrow at Sebastian who was fighting to take full breaths. The warm puffs of air were clearly visible in the cold morning air.

Sebastian pulled a bottle of water out of his hoodie pocket. "Four was plenty, thanks. Not everyone feels the need to run themselves into the ground during a casual morning run." While Sebastian didn't look like the half dead lump he had been when the two of them had started running together, he was definitely far from perfectly alright. He splashed a good amount of the water over his face and neck.

Around them, other runners and fitness enthusiasts were taking advantage of the empty park in the early morning. Kids would still be in school all day but that wouldn't stop the protesters, influencers, aspiring photographers and the like. The leaves had just started to turn and something about that pulled people out of their homes in droves.

Hannah directed Sebastian to a bench, rolling her eyes. "Come and stretch your bones, old man," she teased. She reached up to pull her hair out of the high pony she'd had it in. The auburn curls fell in a mess that she reconfigured into a bun after running her hands through it a few times. Now that their runs were done she also allowed herself a moment to check her phone. There were the normal app notifications and emails from work, a few messages from Jake with plenty of colorful emojis and words were sprinkled around. Not a single message was the one she'd been waiting for.

Nearly a week had gone by since she'd talked to Zach about Simon Lauder, who she felt had enough evidence to label him as Hijack. If not the man himself then certainly one of his accomplices. Zach had sworn up and down for the first few days that he was working on finding her a way into his home but he'd started ignoring her after becoming increasingly annoyed with her check-ins.

She shoved the phone back into her jacket pocket and started her own stretches. "How's Henry?"

"Busy, as always," Sebastian sighed. "Every time I think I might be able to convince him to take a vacation some new crisis emerges. I even tried to bribe him with mama's cooking to get him to travel back home with me. He is a slave to his job, both of them."

For once, Hannah was glad Jake's job was so simple. Even his trip to Southside had been close enough that she felt if she needed to she could get to him in no time. Henry, Sebastian's boyfriend of nearly five years now, was nearly impossible to convince to stay in one place. If he wasn't flying off to different parts of the country as a pilot for a private airline, he was teleporting all over the city as the Scarlet Owl.

She could still remember learning just how close the two red clad heroes were. They'd all known each other in plain clothes for much longer, Jake had even met Henry on the rare occasions the four of them had dinner together. It wasn't until Crimson Sword had been sent to the infirmary barely breathing that she met him in the mask.

Scarlet Owl rarely showed his face, preferring to play backup along with Moon Fox and Queen Cobra. The only time she'd seen him take an active role was during rescue missions. His ability to transport himself into hard to reach areas gave him a substantial leg up when it came to getting someone out of a tight spot.

"Couldn't you pull rank and bench him?" Hannah asked. She slid onto the seat beside him, hugging one knee to her chest. The muscles in her leg stretched comfortably in the contorted pose.

Sebastian laughed, eyes nearly watering. "Do you think he'd ever speak to me again if I did that to him? You should see what he does when I kick him out of the kitchen. No, I will just practice my patience."

The breeze picked up and shook the leaves from some of the trees in a cascade of brilliant fall colors. "And I get to keep my running partner for longer sessions," Hannah teased. The answering groan sent her into a fit of giggles. "Come on, I owe you coffee for that one."

Their trip for caffeine was a snail's crawl compared to the made dashes they'd done around the park. It left time for Sebastian to again push for Hannah to join his private practice. He'd been on her about it since the first week he'd discovered she was studying to be a nurse. Sebastian's clinic operated on a much smaller scale compared to the hospital. It would have left Hannah with a wide open schedule to work more in the mask and spend more time with Jake.

Just as she always did though, Hannah turned down his offer. "I just don't think it's a good idea for too many of us to be in the same place like that, especially not the two of us. People already think Silver is the sidekick, I don't need people thinking that I'm just the pretty face that passes you things," she said.

"I'm sure people don't really think Silver is anyone's sidekick," Sebastian scoffed.

Hannah stopped him with a hand on his forearm and directed his attention towards an outdoor magazine kiosk. Across at least three of the covers were Crimson Sword standing with his fists on his hips while Silver Shield was reduced to a pixelated image half his size and shoved in the corner. One of them even had a subheading encouraging readers to learn about her hair care routine within the glossy pages.

"Well, they're clearly wrong," he argued. They turned a corner just in time for his phone to go off noisily in his pocket. He gave her a brief apologetic smile and stepped away to answer it. The hurried whispers went by just under her hearing range. Even without clear hearing she knew this would be the end of their morning together.

Sure enough, Sebastian gave her a quick rundown of a patient who so desperately needed to see him. He didn't go into details, and she didn't ask, but he was able to give her the gist of it all. Hannah waved to him as he ran off. For all his whining earlier about being exhausted he was suddenly overcome with energy.

Hannah checked her watch, noting the still early hour. This was one of her rare days off from both jobs but it hadn't fallen on a day Jake was also free. As much as she adored spending every second with him, it was surprisingly nice to have a day to herself. She hadn't even felt the need to drag Claudia out to anything. Maybe it was a good day to get through her ever growing to-do list that she added onto practically daily.

The plan had sounded foolproof until the first wave of police cars tore down the street. Hannah turned towards the direction they were headed, slowly pivoting on one foot. It wasn't unusual for small crimes to happen in the downtown area, everything from public disturbances to purse snatching warranted a call to the police. Another wave of cars went by and she began to worry.

Before she was even fully aware of what she was doing, Hannah was hurrying down the street. Her thick soled shoes pounded against the pavement in an even rhythm. The sirens were getting louder again followed by a skull splitting screech of metal on metal. An arc of electricity stretched across the street from one building to the other side.

Just the sight of the electrical jolt made her skin crawl. Her suit had some protection against the thing that brought her to her knees. Fall was always a rough season for her as the dry air prompted higher levels of static electricity. Even a little kiss with Jake at the wrong time could send a spark between them that set her nerves on fire, in the most unpleasant way. Seeing the large bolt of blue tinged light while she was in her jogging pants and loose shirt was a nightmare.

For once, Hannah felt out of place no matter how much her mind shouted to join the fight. Not even her day job was giving a good enough reason to stick around. She took a tentative step back but had to immediately dive to the side to avoid being hit. The second stray bolt was on a direct path towards her as she readied herself to hit the ground with her shoulder. The pain would be intense but it wouldn't kill her.

She would just need to drag herself out of sight before anyone noticed.

Hannah braced herself for both impacts. Arms wrapped around her and the ground suddenly dropped away from below her as she was vaulted upwards.