That summer night seemed to extend for eternity. The sky was still luminous with starlight, and the moon was full and bright. Getting off Strykers Island had taken a solid half hour of swimming, so by the time her feet kissed the land again she was exhausted.

Water dripped off Silvia's saturated form. It forced her outfit to stick uncomfortably to her skin and strands of her hair to cling together in a matted clump. Silvia shivered at the unwelcome feeling, wiping her face of the thin sheet of droplets that had covered it.

The girl slipped into the sewers and trudged forward, eyes pleading for sleep but mind still wide awake. The handful of escapees from Stryker's Island were running rampant in Metropolis now and Silvia was delighted to see, once she returned home and booted up her laptop, more hit requests come up on the dark web. Hits worth thousands of dollars posted by angry mob bosses, grief stricken families, you name it.

Silvia wasn't going to let that money get a head start on her. So after suiting up in a dry outfit, grabbing a new load of guns and one of the countless stolen smartphones in her drawer, she pulled a trench coat over her suit, stuffed her mask into a pocket and left.

Her first target was... Arnold Wesker? He was a Gothamite...they called him the Ventriloquist or something. He was a lunatic, and probably going to get transferred over to Arkham before that monster decided to smash his way out and flip the place upside down. Silvia had to take to the internet to figure out what the heck happened, because giant purple monsters weren't her usual thing.

Called the Parasite, that thing had apparently been feeding on cockroaches that managed to find their way into his isolation cell for close to a year, and that got him strong enough to break out. After that, all the guards were just protein bars that made him even stronger. He fed on energy, all types of it. Silvia figured that was why Supes just froze him and didn't beat him up.

Making her way out of Southside, Silvia eyed the info on Wesker that her client provided her with on her cellphone. He apparently had a hideout in some pub's basement in downtown Metropolis. She thought of heading that way to ruffle a few feathers on the street to see who'd spill.

The night was quiet, given that it was around 1 am. The streets were mostly empty as Silvia sprinted through alleyways like a ghost. Her movement didn't make a single sound, so the scarce amount of people still out, despite the police curfew in light of the breakout, would never notice her.

It was all going to plan...until she hit 42nd Street near the main plaza. She saw the wrecks of several cars on the street, smashed to pieces and burnt black. "Oh what now...? Just one quiet night...please?" She muttered to herself.

Silvia stopped, then pulled her mask on just in case. The street damage seemed to be incredible and there were stomp marks engraved in the ground. Suddenly, Silvia felt a familiar gust of wind. She spun on her heel. It was Superman...again. His face was worn in a frustrated and annoyed glare.

"Oh. Hi. Hey, this wasn't me. I just got here. And I don't...my feet aren't big enough." Silvia stammered, stepping a foot into the cracked pavement.

Superman, who was hovering a metre into the air, landed with immense grace and power. "I wasn't here for you...but I'll gladly take you back before you paint the streets red again." He said, seeming slightly less gloomy than he was the other night. To be fair, he was standing over a few dead people that night.

Silvia froze once more, trying to think of something. There was nothing she could do. Nothing... She saw how powerful he was in the prison just a few hours ago. There was no escaping or fighting something like that. So, compelled by helplessness, she put her most useful asset to use; her annoying mouth. "So. Uh. You know what's happening?" She asked awkwardly, pointing at the car and the foot prints.

"Look, this area of this city is dangerous right now. I have to--"

The Man of Steel was cut off mid sentence as a red bolt of energy lanced over from across the street and hit him dead centre in the chest. He let out a faint grunt, before muttering "...I actually felt that..."

Silvia looked over and her blue eyes fell on some kind of robot standing inside one of the gutted buildings. Slowly, others emerged and made their way to each other. There were about a dozen of them. They moved eerily fluid, like real people but slower and more deliberate.

"They're out of control. Leave. We can finish this another night." Superman told Silvia, carefully eyeing the robots.

If they could hurt Superman, and there were like twelve of them, they could kill a lot of innocent people if it wasn't contained, Silvia thought. She knew that Superman couldn't save everyone, so she wasn't about to trust him with this situation. One person alone couldn't keep these machines from moving into populated places. Not even the 'great' Superman.

Silvia pulled her trench coat off and shouldered the belt-fed heavy machine gun she had slung on her back. "Please don't break this one...it costs more than my whole apartment building."

Superman cocked an eyebrow and glanced at Silvia. "What are you doing now?"

"Making sure you don't get someone killed. Someone innocent. I don't really care about the rest."

The broad hero thinned his lips, obviously weighing his choices. Before he could say anything, another bolt was fired their way. Silvia was puzzled to see that Superman didn't move; even she could've dodged that. After further scrutinizing the situation, Silvia realized that if he moved, she would've gotten hit...

With that, a blue streak traced its way over to the closest machine. Superman appeared in its wake; his hand pierced the torso of this machine and tore its vital components out as his eyes glowed bright red. Silvia didn't see any laser beam or anything, just that the robot's head melted into slag within seconds.

Silvia finally snapped out of her awe-induced trance and aimed down her sights at a machine. Its arm, pointed at Superman, began to glow crimson, charging up some kind of energy. She fixed her aim upon the robot's head and fired a series of short, controlled bursts at the metal thing. Silvia had to be careful not to have bullets going stray...with a gun like the one she was using now, it would most likely keep going until it hit someone or something.

She slammed the machine long enough for its head to pop, effectively shutting down its processor. By the time Silvia cheered to herself and moved to a new target, Superman had already torn another three robots in half.

She started looking for a weak point...and she found one. On their backs was a large exhaust grate with slits large enough to fit a grenade inside. Silvia slung her HMG, bolted into the crowd of mechs and pulled two grenades out of her pouch. Twisting and evading each robot's deadly melee attacks, she vaulted over one and slipped an armed grenade into its exhaust port. Before its fuse blew, Silvia had already shoved one into another machine.

With only seconds to spare, she used all of her strength to thrust two other machines into the sabotaged ones, and dove for cover behind one of the totalled cars. Two explosions answered, which tore five machines into scrap. "Sweet! Hell yeah!" Silvia chirped, readying her HMG.

She slipped out of cover as the robots finally started firing on her instead of Superman. She returned flurries of bullets, weaving and working her way through the sprinkles of red energy. One caught her in the ribcage and sent her tumbling over, but she ignored the pain and kept moving.

She hit one in its lightly armoured chest several times, and was pleased to see that it was more effective than shooting its head. The unit sparked then failed, collapsing onto the pavement. Superman then used a pickup truck as a bludgeon, clearing out a large handful of the mechanical monsters. After that, only three others were left. Superman finished them off by crushing the cranium of one, melting one into slag and tearing the last one in half down the middle.

Silvia noticed several black burn marks on Superman's costume... She sighed "Well. That was fun."

Superman looked at Silvia, worried and doubtful, but since he was Superman, still optimistic. He flashed a weak, reassuring smile. "Are you alright?" He said.

"Yep. No problem. All good. Dandy. Had worse."

She watched as his eyes flashed down to where she was tagged by the mechs, then moved back up to her face. "You didn't have to do that."

Silvia cocked her head and rested her machine gun on her shoulder. "I did, actually."

There was a pause as Superman moved to the pieces of robot littered amongst the street. Kneeling, he inspected several pieces as Silvia watched him.

"Why do you do what you do?" He suddenly asked her, pulling to his feet. "Why...?"

Sighing, Silvia shook her head. "It works."

"I need you to stop. I know you're trying to do the right thing, but I can't let you." He crossed his arms, now looking less like he wanted to snap her in half like a pencil.

Silvia growled and slung her HMG onto her back as she snatched up her coat. After she slipped it back on, she spoke "...Would you stop doing what you do if someone thought it was wrong?"

Superman sighed heavily, looking to the ground. There was no answer because one wasn't needed. They both knew it.

"Exactly." Silvia pulled her mask further down as it had jolted into an awkward position during the fight. It had been pulling on her hair the whole time.

Superman stood himself up a little taller as he spoke"...Thank you. Please just..." He exhaled, trying to find the right words. "If you cross the line again, I'll come for you."

"Lovely." There was another pause. "So...is this a...free pass...thing? I get to go? Right?"

"Don't make me regret this."

"You will. Probably. Definitely." The girl replied, the faintest glimmer of a smirk visible only by the dimple that arose on her right cheek.

Silvia turned on her heel and sprinted in the opposite direction, knowing that this was of no use if Superman suddenly changed his mind. If that was the case he'd be in front of her so fast she wouldn't even have time to blink. Thankfully, she made it back to her apartment without that happening.

Fallen leaves littered the walkway, bathing it in dark red and orange, and she stepped on them with a satisfying crunch. The porch light was on, and the familiar yellow glow made the building feel as eerie as it always did. She made no sound on her way up the crumbling staircase, she couldn't say the same for the floorboards that insisted on squeaking whenever her weight shifted.

Her apartment was right at the of the hallway with a door that didn't lock properly and hinges that looked about ready to collapse. Silvia pushed open the frail door and stepped into the room with a large exhale. She lined a nearby chair up against the knob to at least try and keep people from walking straight into her home.

The blonde carefully put her machine gun back into a secure draw and threw her trench coat to the floor. This made little difference as her room was always in a messy state. Finally, she hunched over and brought a hand to her side with a gasped "Fuck."

The wound there burned and she already knew that getting undressed was going to be painful. It wasn't life threatening, nor would it require any medical treatment - but it still stung like a bitch.

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