Moonstrike 10: 3 way fight (unsexy, panicked, embarrassing for everyone)

The first thing she did was take careful steps backwards, away from the impending confrontation. The mugger's wary attention was split between her and the new mask.

…because he knew where she'd come from.

Ji Min felt a cold sweat.

'He was going to rob me because he knew I came from that conference. He's looking for expensive equipment. Pretty much everything in this bag is illegal for me to have. I wish this hero would mind his own business.'

The hero alighted on the pavement and slid one foot towards the mugger. She could see his cocky grin in profile below his blue half mask. "Why don't you apologize to the lady and we all go our own way?" He suggested in a leading tone that said he really would prefer the fight.

'Go,' Ji Min urged the would-be mugger with her eyes. 'If this guy learns where we came from, he's going to know to take us both more seriously.'

"Doesn't that shit give you a wedgie?" The mugger said, unimpressed.

She wanted to scream. How the fuck did she have entirely useless telepathy?

He gestured dismissively at the extremely tight costume the hero wannabe had on. "Nice foam abs, man." Something clicked.

Her gaze went straight from the man’s cocky smile to the lump in his pocket. That’s where the sound had come from.

Oh, fuck. That click was a weapon in the guy’s pocket.

The vigilante (or hero?) reacted quicker than Ji Min could have. He could have darted forward to put the mugger down before he raised whatever weapon he'd cocked. But instead he snatched up Ji Min by her waist and the underside of her thighs and darted away.

Her arms went to his shoulders automatically, but the choice to dig her fingertips in painfully was deliberate. She went bright red with anger and embarrassment, staring at his jaw in shock from inches away. He was still running.

He winked at her and braced for a jump.

The smart thing to do would have been to go with it. He was trying to get her out of the line of fire. Maybe she'd be able to collect the bags before the hero looked at them, or maybe she could just run away and be gone before he realized she had contraband.

Ji Min cracked her palm against his jaw and kicked out to break his grip on her legs.

Spit flew. He grunted in surprise. Her legs were stronger than his grip on her legs. He stumbled to a stop as she broke away.

The mugger let out a loud "HA!" that made Ji Min grin a little reluctantly. She caught her balance on the ground and pushed the hero backwards with a palm on his stomach to get some space.

"Fuck, lady!" She couldn't see his eyes but she had the sense they were wide with innocent offense and shock.

"Personal space!" Ji Min snapped back, and rolled away on a hard won judo reflex.

‘Fuck, I have a big mouth,’ she chastised herself a moment too late. ‘He might recognize my voice.’

"Go bad bitch!" heckled the mugger.

‘At least one of us is having a good time.’

She snatched the bags and ran down the alley towards the main street. The contact with cement had pressed sharp pebbles into her skin. She could feel them fall off as she ran.

"Stop!" The mugger was suddenly not on her side. “Hey, I still want those!” Something shattered. She honestly admired his persistence, but he wasn’t getting these fucking bags.

Ji Min dodged to the side in case the mugger was firing. Instead of weapon fire, she heard the sound of a fist landing on flesh. The hero was up and moving, then. She didn’t have much time.

She turned left onto the main road and didn't look back. Her heart rate was barely elevated but her mind was going a hundred miles an hour churning risk assessments.

The bottom line was that she wanted that hero to never see her again. The best case scenario is that this became a funny story for him about saving some ungrateful shopper.

Now there was an idea.

She jogged for a few blocks and kept an eye out for a store that would have multiple exits. She went into a department store and didn't even look at the jewelry counter as she passed.

Ji Min had really only been thinking that she needed to get off the street, to not be visible when that hero got up on the rooftops looking for her. But she had cash.

She was fast about picking out a sundress, strappy sandals, and a wide brimmed hat. Her purse was as conventional as possible so she didn't bother replacing it. Instead she headed directly to the checkout counter.

"Good afternoon," came the cheerful greeting from behind the register.

Ji Min was careful to smile back without looking too engaged. Normal. Not memorable. "Hello." She put her clothes on the counter. "Can you cut the tags off for me?"

The cashier took them with a smile. "Sure. Would you like a bag?"

"Yeah," Ji Min said blandly. "Actually, can I get a couple really big ones?" She hefted up the bags from the convention center demonstratively, careful not to raise them high enough for the cashier to see the logo on the white bag. "This plastic is so thin."

"That'll be 7 cents a bag." She scanned everything up expertly and reached under the counter for scissors. "Here you are. Do you have a points card with us?"

"No," Ji Min lied, "and I'm in a hurry, sorry."

The cashier flashed her a practiced smile, attention already flickering to the next customer in line. "I understand. Have a great day."

"Thank you." Ji Min took the empty bags and clothes on a beeline for the bathroom she'd spotted earlier. She pulled the stall door shut with a bang. It took only a few minutes to change and stuff everything into the department store bags. Except her heels. They didn't fit. She hefted the bags on her left forearm and sashayed out to the mirrors. She dropped the heels in a trash can with a pang and turned to pout at her reflection.

Women came and left the bathroom past the mirror alcove. Ji Min pretended not to notice the stream of people but she kept checking in the mirror to make sure no one was looking at her too much.

She pursed her lips at herself and regretted that she hadn't done anything with her hair this morning. If she'd had it up, she could have used the hairband or pins to make a different look. She took a minute to regret that her hair color was a little memorable. It would have been better if she didn’t have her hair bleached. There were a lot of Asian women around, but most of them didn’t have blonde hair.

She did what she could. She put the hat down and parted her hair sharply to the side and twisted her hair until it sat in loose curls down one shoulder. She had to use some water to achieve the texture.

She didn't look like a different person. But on camera she would present a different impression. If she could ditch the huge bags, that would totally change her profile. Theoretically she could hide them and come back later…

'Too risky. What if someone finds them before I can get them back? Anyone– but that suit in particular. He'd know what I have. Fuck, if that was me, I'd stake it out until I came back for it.'

So there was nothing for it. She would leave with the huge bulky bags. Before she left the bathroom, she dug out her phone and sent a message to Alex.

"Something came up. I’m going to stay at the hotel. See you this evening!"

She made her way back to the hotel with her head down. She made an attempt at using different body language – shoulders curled in, smaller steps– and had to just trust that no one was good enough to watch all the cameras that could have caught her.

His response came back quickly. It was waiting by the time she got seated on the train.

"Everything okay?"

"Yeah, totally fine," she sent back. "Someone tried to mug me and I'm annoyed with humanity. Gonna relax a bit."

She didn't know what she expected. But it wasn't,

"Tried to mug y o u??? I hope he's doing alright 😟"

Ji Min gave an offended huff. The business person to her right looked at her sharply, attention dragged away from their phone. She pretended not to see.

"I'm the victim here," Ji Min typed back, fingers moving furiously. "I'm god's most special little baby. I don't care how many limbs he has left and neither should you!"

He tried to call her. She rejected it and typed back, "I'm on public transportation now."

He gave a thumbs up. That was all she heard from him until he knocked on her door a while later. Ji Min answered with her hair wet and a towel over her shoulders, TV blaring in the background.

Alex was pink-faced and a little sweaty at the end of his day. His blonde hair had deflated a bit from its perfect style. "Hey," he said unnecessarily.

She crossed her arms. "Hey."

Alex cracked a smile. "You seem okay?" He peered around her into her room. "I'm sorry my stuff got you in trouble."

"Could have just been after my purse." She narrowed her eyes, at him, wondering for one wild moment if he'd set her up. She ignored his hint that he wanted his stuff back.

He blinked and then laughed. "Oh, right, you carry a purse." He shrugged.

'Head empty,' Ji Min diagnosed. 'I could be wrong but I don't think he's got a criminal bone in his body. If he was discerning at all he'd have at least asked me how I got invited to a criminal convention. Even a criminal pretending to be harmless would recognize it's actively more suspicious to just be fine with this outing.'

Sure, she'd had a plan for explaining things away, but she hadn't needed it….

“I’ll get your things,” Ji Min sighed, and ducked away to do that. He took them gratefully and took a step back.

“I’ll put these away, and then let’s go get dinner?” Alex suggested. “Maybe drinks?”

“No to drinks, yes to dinner,” Ji Min decided. She didn’t want to impair her senses now. She didn’t notice the disappointment on Alex’s face. “Is there anywhere you wanna go?”

“No.” He shuffled his feet. “But I can look something up. Or you could choose. I don’t care.”

“Any allergies or cuisines you dislike?” Ji Min dug her phone out of her back pocket.

“Shellfish are a no go, and I don’t love spicy food.”

She grinned up at him. “A cajun crab shack, got it.”

He pouted at her before he turned away.

They actually ended up at a bar a few blocks away. Alex nursed a beer and Ji Min threw back lemon water. They place their first order and then ended up talking about the people they’d seen at the conference.

“I think this is the guy who kept asking why he couldn’t make radioactive lasers at home.” Alex angled his phone to show her. “He kept blustering that the safety guidelines didn’t really apply to criminals.”

She squinted at the photo. “He looks like a tool,” she decided.

Alex burst out laughing. “He was,” he crowed. “A total tool. I bet anything he’s got half a dozen deconstructed lasers at home he’s trying to assemble into one master lasergun.”

Ji Min put her hand on her face. “Do you think he’s local?” she asked through her fingers. “He’s sort of off-limits if so, but if he traveled for this…”

“I’ll try to find out more tomorrow,” Alex said. “I think he would talk about his laser building ambitions to anyone who showed the slightest bit of interest.” He snorted. “Can’t believe it’s me that got raided for a harmless little online search when this maniac is out here stocking up on plutoni-”

“Oh, the entrees,” Ji Min cut him off before someone could hear their topic of conversation. “Thank you, here’s fine.” She flashed a grin at the server. They went back to their phones after the server left.

It didn’t take long to get sucked down the rabbithole of rogue, supervillain, and vigilante social media profiles. They were hoping they’d eventually find the man who had tried to help Ji Min yesterday, but they mostly ended up looking at glutes.

"Look at this asshole," Ji Min muttered incredulously at one particularly egregious account. "Does he post every day- oh my god, he's thirst trapping with a post pretending to ask if people can see underwear lines through his super suit."

Alex grabbed at her phone to see. "...I don't think he's wearing underwear," he said appreciatively. "Either that or he's about to drop an underwear line that I would buy from. The lines are so bad." He squirmed in his chair. Then he searched up that profile on his own account and hit follow.

She gave him an incredulous side-eye.

‘My bet is no underwear. This is the kind of guy Alex is into? Yikes. That’s what the feds should have cracked down on him for, not the bomb thing.’ Ji Min felt her lips thin out and she fought hard to not say anything scathing. She wanted to have a friendly relationship with Alex. She left that profile. "I don't think that's the guy I saw," she settled with. "Do you really think he'll be on social media?"

"Uh, yeah." He glanced at her dubiously. "Every hero maintains some kind of online presence. Most vigilantes even do it."

Every hero?

What.

"The fuck?" Ji Min blew out air, sending her hair fluttering away from her face. "Wait, do we have to? Do we- we have to maintain some kind of personal brand?"

She whispered the words "personal brand" the quietly horrified way other people might say "cancerous mole."

"It's recommended," Alex said cautiously. He cleared his throat. "No one wants to be impersonated online and misrepresented, or have the general public think they're someone hostile or unrelatable."

She hated that she agreed with him.

'I'm turning into Hammer,' Ji Min thought, sick with horror. 'I'm going to end up doing sponsorships and partnerships and caring about what people think of me. This is so bad.'

"I can see the reasoning," she said faintly. "I'm going to be sick." She hung her head and dug her fingertips into her temples.

'I- I want to compete with him. What the fuck. I want to be more popular than he is. Christ, am I jealous of Hammer?'

Alex leaned away from her, lifting his arm off the table to keep it out of the line of fire.

"Not literally," she clarified, miserable. "I'm undergoing a personal crisis, I'm not explosively incontinent."

"So." His voice came out thick. "You don't feel excited about starting an online persona for work?" He was obviously aiming for neutral.

"I'm so keyed up with dismay that I want to fight god," Ji Min said pleasantly. "I can't deal with the public, Alex. If people give me negative feedback I'm going to show up at their house with printed copies to shove up their-"

Alex wheezed.

She stopped and really peered at him, suspicious enough to snap out of her personal cycle of mental violence. "You're acting weird."

"Uhh…."

The obvious weakness caught her full attention. Ji Min focused on him fully.

He smiled nervously under the intensity of her attention. "I already did that. For you. For us. Well, not us us, we don't have a team name. But when we do, I'll make accounts for that as well." His body somehow shrank away from her, like he might be about to run.

She cut off his babble with a sharp hand. "You did what?" Before he could say anything she cut him off with, "You made social media accounts for Moonstrike?" Her tone came out more disbelieving than she meant it to.

He looked away, face reddening. "Was it creepy? I figured that you have to snatch these things up."

"I'm not mad," Ji Min sounded out slowly. It was just really weird, that was all. "So, uh. You think I should start using accounts with my hero handle?"

"You can keep it set on private and never post a thing," Alex reassured. "If you don't want the interaction. But now no one can impersonate you online." He paused. "Not that easily, anyway."

If it was already done, then it was already done. And no one else would think it was cringe of her to have social media.

She nodded, chewing that over mentally. They sat in silence for a little bit and worked on the last of the food.

She wanted to post. She wanted to see if people would like her hero persona. She loved winning. She swallowed, face a little hot.

'Hammer is going to love this, it’s what he’s wanted from me. Unless I'm better than him. That's the only way I'd win.'

There was no way to say that that wasn't a little embarrassing. The idea of expressing that she wanted something was too mortifying to bear.

"Let me try to get a cool candid for your profile," Alex said suddenly. "I have some ideas. I’m thinking a shot from behind against the sunset. We can keep your face out of it but show you doing something that other people can’t do." He pulled out his wallet. “I’ll get this. Think on it a moment?” He raised his hand. The server had clearly been waiting eagerly. They swooped to take Alex’s card and the check.

She blinked, startled from her thoughts.

Her teammate was examining her with an unusually thoughtful expression. He wiped it away for a blandly pleasant smile as soon as he noticed her attention had shifted to him. "If it's a good photo, you can post it. No harm, very little effort. The worst that happens is that it doesn't get much attention. Then you can just put it back on private again." The receipt and card came back, so they left the bar.

Ji Min hummed. She logged into the account while they walked and scrolled around. It was a blank slate following no one, with no photos, and one message request.

Hey wait, the fuck? She didn't have any friends or followers.

"Someone messaged me," she said, and waved the phone. "Do you think it's a prospective sugar daddy or just a hot single bot account in my area?"

Alex choked on air.

She opened the message and was immediately surprised. "It's a conspiracy theory." Ji Min cocked her head, frowning a little as she read it. "Someone calling themselves an anonymous investigator thinks that there's a human trafficking operation in Rat City. Why are they telling me this?"

"I don’t know, but the location is convenient," Alex said deadpan. "You can stop over on your way out of town."

She thought about it for a minute and estimated, "Yeah, like a twenty minute detour." She backed out of the message request but didn't delete or block it.

…Alex was probably joking, but Ji Min had time for everything in the world but minding her own fucking business. Maybe she’d contact this guy and look into it.

'Besides, what if it's true?' She rolled her eyes at her weak justification, but couldn't stop her train of thought. 'That would be an impressive case to break open. And it could make a big impact on people's lives. I'd like to do that. I'd like to save people.'

"Here's a good location." Alex held his phone up to her. "Are you up for some climbing? It would be a flex to balance up there. You can hold yourself with one hand, right?"

Ji Min dragged her attention back to the present and checked out the inspiration photo. "Looks good. Let's do it."