My breathing quickened, and the air felt hot on the back of my throat. My cheeks burned red, and my skin tingled from the heat. But the sensation lasted only a second before defeat flooded and suffocated my flames.

Hydel had a point. When Boss spoke, people listened. She stopped countless villains and saved even more lives. S.H.H.A. members everywhere acknowledged her with respect. As a kid, I believed her reputation traveled the seas to bases Boss had never visited and every corner of the world. She took on enemies far more powerful or intelligent than Hydel without breaking a sweat.

Maxima sure chose right with Boss. She probably never had to deal with people undermining or not trusting her. When Boss was in charge, things were different. Everyone was happier, and although there were hard times, she kept things going. Because unlike me, she had a team that worked together and got along like family. None of them pushed one another away, had family issues that they wouldn't talk about, or were forced to be a member of the team because their sister was the worst leader in the history of S.H.H.A. and couldn't get anyone else to stick around.

She was a hero; I played pretend.

I tightened my sweaty grip around the metal pole in my right hand. It felt like someone had turned the heaters up at least ten degrees, and the trashcan lid crunched around my other arm became more uncomfortable by the second.

What could he possibly know? All he's ever done with his life is sell drugs to people stupid enough to buy them. The thought burned in my brain like a raging fire. A filthy criminal like him couldn't ever understand Boss and me.

"Criminals are semi-humans too," explained Boss. We eyed the semi-human mother doe as she returned to her white-spotted fawn. The fawn bounced around her in circles on impossibly delicate legs. They didn't know their mother stole the shirt and shorts she gifted them. It was probably their first set of human clothes.

Boss stepped back to leave after a long day of tracking the doe. Until then, I hadn't understood why we didn't stop the doe from stealing before. She was a member of a large underground modern guild of sorts we'd been tracking for days, and we had the perfect opportunity to catch her while she was going back home alone.

We turned and walked away, leaving the happy family to enjoy their day. While we headed out, Boss said, "The difference between them and us is so small compared to the similarities, sometimes I forget it exists."

Tears pricked the corners of my eyes, and the memory cleared away. Hydel doesn't know me, I thought. And I don't know him. It will stay that way for now. Just like how Boss always kept it.

"While this conversation has been absolutely delightful," I said, startled by how calm my voice came out albeit the sarcasm, "There are more important matters than whether or not I'm a hypocrite or how Boss would've handled this mess differently than I. Because the answers are an easy yes and yes. What's more important is that if I'm not accounted for by lunch, then my good friend back at camp will send the whole headquarters here. She's a bit of an overreactor."

Seriously? For starters, Ilene and 'overreact' shouldn't be in the same sentence. She's probably lounging in her stupid rolly chair —which was mine and I should really steal back— sipping lemonade or whatever she likes to drink and pretending I'm just a figment of her imagination. Imagination is another thing that doesn't mix well with Ilene. If someone treated me the way I did to her this morning, that's what I'd be doing.

You're being overdramatic, I thought, barely containing an eye roll.

Just saying. Pretty ironic how I wonder why people always get pushed away from me only to spend breakfast snapping at my best friend.

Shut up, voice.

The voice faded to the back of my mind, and I ignored the aggressive mumbling. It'd come back later, and I could deal with it then. Right now, the problem was the massive alligator sprawled across the table, teeth parted in what would have been a successful attempt at frightening me had I not recently fought pterodactyls. Their teeth were far pointer and disgusting, and my intimidation tolerance had risen significantly.

Although he could speak in alligator form, shape-shifting typically marked Hydel's decision to end the conversation. It made it easy to always get in the last comment, and since he'd never beaten S.H.H.A. before, we never lived to regret flaring his temper. I hoped this would be like every other time and really hoped the strange guests in business suits didn't practice martial arts in their spare time because I'd already pushed them to the edge of my focus. Hydel and the two armed guards were enough on their own.

Since I'd battled Hydel a few times —mostly helping out Boss—, I'd learned not to underestimate the speed such a large, awkwardly built creature could move in short dashes. Not as fast as me, but still quick enough to chomp me in half if I missed a beat. And I totally didn't believe humans when they told me I could escape an alligator by moving in zig-zags. I nearly paid the price for that one. Those things can switch directions like a bolt of lightning.

Before Hydel could ready himself to launch, I leaped to my left, swinging my pole at the guard closest to me. So intently focused on searching the shadows for my companions, she didn't even know what hit her when she collapsed to the floor. Without pausing, I ran toward the metal steps, kicking the guard's gun into the shadows in case she woke up.

My eyes caught movement as I passed and made contact with Pudding's gaze from where she crouched behind a box. I quickly glanced away so I wouldn't bring attention to her. That was close, I thought and criticized myself for not taking the guard out sooner. I was so upset by Hydel, I barely paid attention to the two main threats to my companions.

I didn't turn around when a loud ruckus of chairs being knocked aside alerted me of Hydel's charge. Head down and arms swinging by my side, I sprinted up the steps to the platform above, hoping the stairs would slow him down. Gunfire chased me, but I ducked and prayed the guard couldn't get a good aim from below. Stupid human form made me a larger target.

Screech! The horrid sound of claws on metal and banging of Hydel's shoulders and tail against the rail and walls followed a short distance behind me. The steps themselves probably didn't help slow him down, but he didn't fit well in the narrow space.

With any luck, the guard will accidentally shoot him, I wished. Based on how close a few bullets whizzed past me, that wouldn't happen.

"Don't make me chase you, kitty-cat," said Hydel, and I didn't even need to look behind me to picture his terrifying yet very satisfying irked snarl. Perhaps the stairs didn't slow him down, but they still did a good job further building his temper. I'd have to remember that.

I reached the top of the platform only to find a door leading to who knows where. If Hydel and I had anything in common, it was our noise-making capabilities, and guards would probably pour through it any second now. By the railing was a simple metal chair. It overshadowed the room like a thrown. Quickly, I grabbed the chair and wedged it beneath the doorknob, a trick I learned from Mouse.

"She won't get through, right?" I asked the woman standing with her hands on her hips beside me, the child within sparkling in her eyes. Although I allowed the slightest amount of fear to slip out of my voice, my mouth betrayed me and spread into a grin only a kitten prepared to trip someone down the steps would wear.

Of course, the fear was genuine. Mouse would occasionally prank Jade, and I'd sometimes get on her nerves, but we'd never team up against her. This time was an accident, and unlike usual, Mouse decided to help me escape. Jade would not find Mouse's failed glitter bomb trial in the office funny, and if she made it through the door to the storage closet we'd barricaded ourselves in, we'd both be done for.

Mouse, her windblown brown hair flailing every which way, returned the grin. She patted the chair she'd slid beneath the door handle. "You betcha. Just wait and see. They'll have to tear down the entire wall to reach us."

A dull ache in my chest, not from my broken ribs, brought me back to the present. Mouse's barricade held splendidly, just as she'd promised, but we soon grew tired of being cooped up in that room with only the spiders to keep us company. The animal guessing game got old when every animal we either knew well enough to guess with only a few hints or didn't know at all. Jade must have known this because she was waiting outside with a good scolding when we tried to slip out.

While Daisy's scoldings were scary and mostly made up of threats, Jade's were an earful but less intimidating. In fact, she may have struck some sense in our delinquent brains if Mouse weren't smiling the whole time, happy just to be with Jade. I was happy to be with them. All of them.

I shook my head to clear my mind. Not the time, I thought, almost adding "me" to the end. Although the voice may not have influenced my flashbacks, I didn't want to risk verifying its assertions that it was me. That would fuel its ego, and I already had enough ego in my head.

Hydel's claws scraped up the steps, but the gunfire stopped. Carefully, I took a quick peek over the railing, relieved to find Pudding over the guard's unconscious body. She didn't notice me, her eyes flicking between each of the businessmen, not glaring, but sending the silent challenge to try leaving. I didn't see Echo, but the little witch had to be somewhere in the shadows.

With a mischievous smirk I couldn't wipe away, I wrapped my hands around the railing and swung over, landing on the table below and startling a few of the businessmen. Painful buzzing rippled up my broken ribs, but it was worth it for the infuriated growl that followed a few seconds later. Alligator form had its perks, but it sure had its downfalls as well.

Pudding shot me a look that said, Really? Which I responded to with a shrug. It's not like I did it just for the fun of hearing his irritation. But that was definitely a benefit.

"More coming!" shouted Echo from the darkness. They were probably stomping down the steps, and it would be quite the hassle to take care of them and Hydel together.

Before I could voice my decision to take on Hydel myself, a loud crash and the table crumbling beneath me sent me tumbling to the ground. I rolled back on my feet and saw Hydel on the table again, his mouth frighteningly close to where I had stood only a second ago, but this time the table laid flat on the floor, papers blown off or crushed beneath his claws.

Huh, I thought with a hint of amusement. Didn't expect him to jump.

Of course, now is when my voice decided to take its turn. Well, he did, it snapped, And now he's in Pudding's way. If I'd dealt with him on the platform, or better yet, lead him through the door, then he'd be my problem rather than Pudding's and soon Echo's.

Thanks, voice. Real helpful info, I shot back, my amusement now sarcasm. Maybe you should try out for the new captain obvious job opening instead of sitting around in my head like a grown kid who won't move out.

I didn't have time to wait for the voice's reply because Hydel's head snapped in my direction. Quicker than should be possible for a five hundred pound sack of scales and muscles, he charged in my direction, barely giving me enough time to dive to the side. He barely stopped his advance, doing a one-thirty-five-degree turn to face me again. I didn't stop either, barreling into the backdoor and praying to Aurumn it wasn't locked.

Aurumn must have heard my prayer because I burst through the door into a storage room of similar size. Metal shelves packed with crates formed rows from wall to wall, and flickering lights hung from the ceiling, illuminating the dusty halls. Muddy footprints traced the floor from countless boots stomping back and forth, and a musty smell filled the still air.

Immediately upon entering, I swerved to the right, hoping to juke the stupid lizard. Unfortunately, he proved not as unintelligent as I hoped and followed right behind me, his tail making a sickening hiss as it scraped across the concrete ground. His hot breath touched the back of my heel, but his teeth snapped on thin air.

I tried to stay calm, but apparently repeating, oh man, oh man, oh man, in my head had a negative effect on my crazy heartbeat which had an even more negative effect on my ribs. I can't fight him in human form, and there's no way I can shift without him seeing my true identity, I thought, not improving my heart's desire to drill a hole through my throat. Why did we decide to take human form again?

That's when I noticed a set of stairs leading up to a platform against the wall just like in the other room. Only this time, there wasn't another set of stairs leading down on the other side. A dead-end. Without thinking, I bolted up the steps. They were even narrower than before, and the angle Hydel came at further slowed his advance.

When I reached the top, I found this platform had a door as well. Perfect, I thought and reached for the doorknob, not sure where it would lead me but hopefully to another room where I'd have more time to think over a makeshift plan. My sweaty palms curled around the orb, turning it with ease. I pushed the door.

Nothing happened.

Again, I shoved, but nothing budged. With all my might, I slammed its cold, metal face, banging my trashcan lid shield in the process. Soreness spread over my shoulder where I'd have a bruise the next day, but the door remained steady.

It's not locked, the doorknob turned, I thought, desperate to get away from the sound of Hydel's claws scratching up the steps. Is there a lock on the other side? Oh, wait... Realization smacked me right upside the head, and I resisted a groan. This is the other side of the door I blockaded.

If I weren't about to be crushed by the jaws of an oversized lizard, I would've facepalmed. I was trapped. A sitting duck. The pain from jumping down on the other side earlier had been delayed, but now it pulsed through my chest with every heartbeat. If I jumped again, it would take me a few seconds to stand up, and Hydel would be on me in the blink of an eye.

I pushed off the door and ran to the railing. Pressed up against it, going over every possibility, a crazy idea began to form. One that could easily go wrong, but honestly, the odds were —for once— in my favor. Right up my alley.

Beyond me, just out of reach, hung one of the dome ceiling lights gently swaying despite no breeze. It emitted a warm gold glow that, along with the other lights, barely reached the floor below. Much less the dark shelf tops that rose above their shine, such as the one about a yard away from the light. The perfect distance to swing.

The platform trembled, nearly throwing me off balance. Hydel took his last few steps, and I had no time to rethink my insane idea. I tossed my metal pole onto the shelf, praying a soft, "Thank Maxima," when it stopped rolling just inches from falling off the edge. Then, I wrapped my fingers tight around the railing and brought my feet up to sit between my hands. Before I could lose my balance, I let go and jumped, reaching my hands to the light.

Cue mistake number one.

Ever hear of those cheap human lights that you can't keep around fabric or other easily flammable materials because they're hot enough to start flames? Well, I willingly pinched my fingers around the metal that had been absorbing that heat for who knows how long. Smart thinking, me.

I clenched my teeth, too proud to scream. To let go in human form would be suicide, as already stated. Sure, I could shift to cat-form mid-air, but turning bite-sized and giving away my identity didn't tempt me, no matter what my burning fingers thought. Holding on was my only option.

It would've only taken a few seconds, but each second felt like an eternity. Unable to stand it any longer, I let go just a moment too late. Before gravity could take me, I grabbed for the top box, but my fingers couldn't reach far enough. They rubbed down the box, latching onto the shelf's edge instead. I let out a breath of relief and pulled myself up the rest of the way.

Sweat dripped down my arms where I'd wiped them across my forehead. Heat never made me sweat in cat form, both because cats only sweat from their paws and because of my power. I couldn't help but stare at my red hands. With the ability to make my paws scalding hot, I'd only experienced burns in cat form once or twice.

But in human form, only semi-beasts had powers. Not me. Yet, at that moment, my palms fading to a blush shade of pink troubled me. Like a dream I couldn't quite remember, something poked at the edge of my conscious. Either something missing or wrong, I didn't know.

Before distraction took hold, I flicked my vision back to the angry alligator glaring daggers at me. Returning his glare, I blindly reached for the metal pole. Closer than expected, the tips of my fingers bumped the cold metal. It rolled over and fell to the floor with a loud clang!

Nice going, me. I didn't bother opposing the voice. Its sarcasm may have been on point for once.

"What are you planning to do from up there, kitty?" asked Hydel with a hideous sneer. He crawled beneath the railing and dropped to the concrete floor. Who knew alligators were so good at landing on their feet. I thought that was just for cats and squirrels. Don't ask about the squirrels.

"Contemplate life," I said, cringing both because I hadn't planned past that and because my answer felt pretty dang accurate.

Hydel tried to climb the shelf but didn't make it far. He stretched his stumpy front legs up as far as they would go, which wasn't even to the second shelf, pressed his claws against the metal box, and slowly scratched them all the way to the floor, producing a nails on a chalkboard screech!

I shuddered and scowled, barely refraining from covering my ears. How am I supposed to contemplate life with a passive-aggressive alligator making a ruckus below me?

Human form wouldn't work. Maybe if I weren't injured and had a team like the other times I'd fought Hydel, it would've, but this time was different. I needed my power.

I glanced around the room in search of any obvious cameras. There was only one I could see, but it viewed the lower doorway, not up at me. Perfect.

Just to be careful, I still covered my face with my hand and slid to the center of the shelf so Hydel wouldn't see me without my mask and cape on. With a sigh, I took one last glance at my perfectly fit trash can shield. Although the tooth marks pinched my arm and sweat irritated my skin, I did quite like the accessory. Maybe, once I sorted everything out with Ilene, I could ask her to order a custom-fit shield for me.

I pushed the thought aside. Hydel was preparing to claw the boxes again, and if I didn't react, he'd probably grow bored and go pick a fight with Pudding or Echo. With a single thought, I combusted into a spray of dazzling scarlet particles that hid my unmasked form. Since storing my mask and cape in my watch was a new feature, it took me longer to pull them out than my sparkles stayed around. I kept my face pointed toward my paws, hoping hidden cameras wouldn't see.

By the time I'd put my mask and cape on and stuffed my human mask into the watch, Hydel had already started scratching the box again. His claws came to an abrupt stop when my white, orange, and grey calico head peeked over the edge with narrowed blue eyes behind my mask. "Finally," he growled. "I thought I'd have to wait all day!"

"Don't worry," I said, my claws itching to unsheath. "This will be over soon."

With that, I leaped from my high spot and dove down. Hydel couldn't bring his foot back in time to prepare himself before I swiped at his snout with searing red claws. His mouth parted as my toes touched the floor, and I jumped back before his powerful jaws could snap shut. At least I'd landed one hit, creating three lines of blood down his snout.

It didn't take long for his power, Blood Shield, to begin its work. The bright red lines turned dark in an instant, flattening out and solidifying into a tough shell between his muddy blue-green eyes. The more blood I drew, the tougher his armor would become.

Carefully and with calculated steps, I paced around the large lizard. One bite meant certain death in cat form. I considered what would've happened if I had jumped down in human form shield first and grabbed my metal pole off the ground, but I couldn't change the past. Plus, cat form absorbed a lot of the impact from jumping, so my ribs weren't quite as sore as they would've been.

After a few steps, Hydel twisted his head toward me and charged. Just before he could snap his jaw shut around me, I stepped to my corner, between his parted mouth and front foot. Rough scales brushed against my fur, and his damp, heavy breathing blew my fur. Before he could take another try at biting or stomping me with his massive claws, I activated my power and swiped across his left eye. He reeled back, nearly tripping on his legs, and let out a loud, pain-filled croak.

That won't heal, said a tiny voice in the back of my head. I didn't know whether it was the voice or my own, and the thought sent a sickening sensation to my stomach.

Despite that, without any consideration, another, louder voice replied, Good.

Hydel's power activated again, turning his wound into a shield. But it did nothing to ease his pain or bring back his eyesight. He backed into a metal crate behind him, knocking it to the ground. The alligator seemed to have lost touch with the battle, only aware of his injury.

"You're lucky," I said, walking closer to the pained beast. The sickening feeling in my stomach doubled, and a small part of me worried I'd cough up a hairball. "The crimes you've committed deserve far worse than a lifetime in prison."

His good eye widened, and the skin surrounding his injured eye pulled tight. He let out an aggressive hiss and backed further away. How the tables had turned.

Boss wouldn't do this, said the smaller voice which I determined was the voice. I visibly flinched and snapped, Boss is dead!

"Don't step any closer," snarled the alligator. "I should rip off half your face for what you've done."

"You deserve this. Do you have any idea how many people you've harmed?" I asked, steadily allowing my anger to pour out. "Not just the ones you've slaughtered. What about your clients? Do you care at all what happens to them after you sell your drugs?"

"It's their choice," he defended. His tail swung to the other side, knocking another metal box off the shelf. "I didn't force them to buy my products."

"And what about the raccoons? They were children. What choice did you give them?"

"They lived on the streets. I gave them a choice between dying alone, hungry, and cold or getting a job. Protection."

My fur bristled down my back and tail. Not because of fear but because of fury. "Really? That's why the kid we found couldn't even speak your name?"

"Secrecy is important in my line of work," he tried to reason, slowly becoming aware that if he didn't speak carefully, he'd become blind in both eyes. "You must understand that. Your name changes every time you come near me, Sasha. Or is it Leah this time? What about Amanda?"

From the lowest point of my vision sprung a red glow. My power had activated subconsciously, and I didn't care to inactivate it.

Stop it, said the voice. It let out a growl of frustration that rumbled in my mind. Can you just listen to yourself, please!

You're not me!

My paws brought me closer to the frightened alligator, and with each step, the nauseous feeling in my stomach worsened. I didn't know what I would do, but the voices in my head seemed to.

Heroes don't do this, said the quieter voice.

No, said the louder one who I'd taken to be me, but I was having second thoughts. Neither felt like me. S.H.H.A. doesn't do this. Solo heroes do this all the time, and they're perfectly fine. Maybe S.H.H.A. should learn a thing or two.

Okay, the voice relented and changed its approach. If Boss is no longer an option, what about Mouse? What would she do?

I rolled my eyes at the futile attempt. Pack up and disappear. As if Jade and her were never here in the first place.

Without realizing it, I had stopped moving. Heat from my power absorbed by the concrete pricked the pads of my paws, hot enough to scar normal skin. But I didn't notice it, my attention fixated solely on the conversation playing out in my mind.

Then, what would Maxima do?

What? I asked, blinking in shock. Confusion snapped me out of my trance. The fur along my spine flattened, and the glow around my claws faded out. Hydel stood motionless, watching me as if I were a bomb that stopped ticking on one second left.

Maxima saved a criminal dragon from the death penalty, said the voice, but I couldn't determine which one. She sacrificed herself for a rotten criminal.

I paused my breath incase the quieter voice would say something more, but it said nothing. It had no need to.

I'm not Maxima, I tried to tell the voice. You're right, Maxima would've never done this. She chose wrong.

The voice remained quiet, and I held back a growl. Scratching noises came from Hydel's tail as it moved a few inches over the concrete floor. Everything that just happened faded to the back of my mind, looming over my conscious like a storm cloud.

With a sigh, I broke the silence in the large room. Hydel appeared quizzed by what just happened. Same, I thought and prepared a calm voice. No use showing how shaken up I'd become.

"Look," I said. My voice wobbled a little, and since Hydel seemed speechless at the moment, I took the time to stabilize my voice and continue.  "From past experience, I know that you're not one to give up a good fight. But I think we can both agree this hasn't exactly been a 'good' fight. So why don't I give you an out?"

If Hydel was quizzed before, he was now absolutely befuddled. "What?" he asked, unsure whether to be curious or defensive, and his still intact eye lit up as if I'd challenged him.

"Let me give it to you bluntly; there's no way you're working on your own," I explained, sitting down as if I weren't within a huge, angry alligator's biting range and I weren't on the brink of a mental melt down. "You're a drug dealer. Stealing and selling stuff off in the black market is just a side job to raise money for your schemes. Why would someone like you target specific parts that only some mechanical genius engineer would be interested in?"

The question was rhetorical, but Hydel still felt the need to snap back, "What's that supposed to mean? Are you calling me stupid?"

Something like that, I thought, the ominous cloud in the back of my mind suppressing my urge to chuckle. Instead, I continued, "I'm saying someone has cut you a deal that you just couldn't resist. Said someone's probably using you to get the materials, but mostly as a distraction."

For the first time in my life, I witnessed a flabbergasted alligator. His mouth parted and closed like a fish's, unable to form words. Yeah, Hydel wasn't the quickest gator in the congregation, but having been in the unknown mechanic's position before, the truth dawned on him immediately.

Ilene was actually the one to come up with the idea, but she didn't explain everything. All she said was, "Hydel's not a team player."

I pieced it together from there. Hydel wouldn't work with others. He must have either been working for someone or someone who worked for him had an idea he liked. The former was more likely considering, again, Hydel was a drug dealer, not a mechanic.

Whoever got Hydel to work for them must have been extremely charismatic. Either a smooth talker, a dangerous threat, or both. Either way, they presented an amazing reward in exchange for Hydel's service. An unreasonable deal.

"It's simple, Hydel Triant," I said, the throbbing in my chest preventing me from forming a smirk. At least the sick feeling had gone away. "What I would like from you is information. The same information I'm sure I can get from any of your 'clients' in the other room."

"Why would I tell you a thing?" he asked. The question I'd been waiting for since I thought up the idea twenty seconds ago.

"If you give me enough information, I'll let you go with just that scratch to remember me by," I offered before I could rethink my "brilliant" idea. Maybe "that scratch" was a little much to remember me by.

What am I doing? I asked myself, only a little panicked. Does this sound like something Boss would do? Or Maxima?

Nah, but I'm still killing it, replied a voice, but I didn't know if it was "the voice". But I didn't care because I needed its encouragement. They're probably watching me jealous that they never thought to do this.

Really? Because last I checked, making deals with the villain isn't in the hero's rule book.

What am I talking about? I laughed in my head. If there were a hero's rule book, it's not like I'd know what's in it.

"You mean you'll let me leave?" clarified Hydel who was also trying to wrap his head around what I had just said.

"I'll let you leave, yes." With a glance towards the door I had come through, I added, "But they won't. So if you're going to take the deal, then you better snap to it."

"What guarantee do I have?"

"Do I look like the sort to guarantee my deals?" I asked with a fake look of disbelief. My genuine expression would've contained disbelief and disappointment.

Growling, Hydel snapped the best thing I'd heard all day, "Fine."

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Hey readers!

Do ya'll think I should split this into two chapters? It's over 5,000 words as of right now. It's really up to you guys.

Anyway, thanks for reading! Please drop a comment or something to tell me you've made it this far. We're about halfway through the plot now -further through the actual length of the story. Granted, chapters are becoming longer, so it's hard to say exactly where we are.

Until next time!