The neon lights of Mega City Five glowed bright in the foggy night. On top of a ten story apartment building, the pink hair of a girl named Vivi blew in the wind, illuminated by the lights from below. She looked down on the streets with a hand to her ear,  tuning the frequency on her phone and listening to the police chatter over the airwaves.

Her costume was one that matched her hair, a ripped pastel pink denim jacket with white pants and pink sneakers. Sure, it wasn't much, but she was just a freelance hero after all. A newbie, a rookie, she couldn't afford anything fancy quite yet. Besides, it wasn't like she really needed much. She wouldn't dare go into the downtown district, she wasn't ready for that yet, so all of her crime stopping was restricted to the quieter areas.

It had been a while since she had gotten a chance to help a person in need. More and more heroes were starting to pop up and Vivi was thankful that the crime level had gone down, but it also made it much harder to stand out among the crowd. She didn't have any amazing super power and she didn't have the money to attend a big hero school. She was an android who could take much more punishment than the average person, but that wasn't enough for her. She wanted to get noticed, earn money and upgrade herself so she could one day go into the heavier crime areas to really help people.

But there she was, hoping by some miracle that–

CRASH!

Vivi snapped her head to the corner store where the sound came from. She used the binocular ability in her eyes to zoom in and get a good look. There was a man lying on the ground with shattered glass around him. An oncoming car just managed to swerve to the side, narrowly missing him.

Without thinking, Vivi leapt from the building and landed on the street below, immediately sprinting over to where the commotion was. There were already people helping the man to his feet. She went to the elderly man, speaking quickly. "Are you alright Minki? What happened?"

"Yeah I'm fine. Thanks Vivi." He then pointed in a particular direction. "He went that way, but if I were you I would just let the cops– Hey! Where are you going? You shouldn't mess with this guy!"

Vivi zoomed past the onlookers, heading straight in the direction that he had pointed. Her android body gave her a little boost in speed, but not enough to close the distance with any kind of quickness. She zoomed into the figure ahead. He was running with a black hoodie over his head and a gun in his hand. Even though it scared away the people he passed in the street, it did nothing to deter her as the criminal made a quick turn into a dark alley.

Vivi picked up the pace as she too went into the alley, bringing her wrist to and saying, "Night vision. Stun." There was a beeping noise and a hole in her palm opened up. Everything in her vision became illuminated in pink, allowing her to spot the criminal up ahead. She looked down at her wrist to check how many shots she had at this. The counter read three. 

Vivi lined up her hand. There was a small spark of electricity and she took her first shot but the criminal ducked.

Vivi grimaced and clutched her hand for a second, still not used to the pain that her new weapon sent through her body. Then she breathed a short sigh of relief as she saw a chain fence up ahead, but the relief turned to shock as the criminal ran on the wall and came down on the other side without breaking stride.

"Nail blade." Vivi wasted no time as a short, pink neon blade grew from her index finger. She stopped in front of the fence and cut out a hole before sprinting through it. She put the blade away and looked up, ready to continue her chase but she couldn't see him anywhere. The criminal had disappeared. Her eyes widened as she spotted something out of the corner of her eye. He was running along the opposite wall.

Aiming the gun at her.

The criminal had no eyes, no face, nothing but a dark shadow underneath the hood. He pulled the trigger three times as Vivi just managed to stick her arm up to cover her face. She screamed out in pain as more sparks flew, she felt the bullets lodged in her arm. Trying to ignore the piercing pain, she raised her arm again and charged another shot, but nothing came out. Her arm was broken.

Thinking on her feet, Vivi dodged a tackle by the shadow,  but lost her balance and fell on her back.

"He must be out of bullets," Vivi thought to herself as she tried to rise to her feet. The shadow tried to tackle her again, this time succeeding. Up close, she could hear the sound of his deep voice struggling to get keep her down. He pinned her arms to the ground and brought his arm back, swinging and connecting on her cheek.

Vivi was dazed for a moment, but never let herself get overpowered.

"Dagger." At her command, a larger blade spawned from a slit than ran along her knuckles. She had expected to hear the man scream, but there was nothing. The blade pierced the black sweater where his hand should've been and came out of the other side, but there was no blood.

"What... is this?"

As the shadow let go of her bladed hand and pulled his back with a fist, Vivi tried once again. She slammed her fist against his stomach... and nothing happened. She looked up and saw his fist come down on her again. This time, she felt a piece of her cheek fly off as she tried to block the next one but the shadow's fist went straight through her and connected again.

Her vision became fuzzy, then the night vision faded, leaving her in the dark. She felt the shadow lift his fist again and on instinct, she moved her head to the side and grabbed the shadow's hand. He screamed in agony as she tightened her grip, managing to dodge another one of his punches and getting to her feet.

"He must have full control of when he becomes solid," she thought. "And the parts of his body that are affected. I have to wait until he tries to attack me again, then use that against–"

Out of nowhere, a bright green light appeared from above.

Vivi looked up and the shadow screeched as the light grew brighter, getting bigger and bigger. The light came in the shape of white wings.

Before Vivi had a chance to make out who it was, she saw the shadow fall to the floor and cower in the corner. Then, she watched the back of this winged woman walk over to him and shake her head. Her hair was white and cut short to the level of her chin and she was wearing the usual super hero tights; a green top with black pants. The top was cut narrow at her back to make room for her wings.

"Hey." Vivi put a hand to her cheek where the shadow had punched her, trying to hide her grimace. "Thanks for your... help."

The girl turned around. Vivi almost gasped at the sight of her. It was as if she was looking into the eyes of an angel.

"You're welcome," The winged woman said, smiling widely. "You were really brave trying to take him down. I haven't see you before, what's your name?"

"I'm Vivi. I'm an android. And you?"

"My hero name is Jade Dove," she said, "but you can call me Haseul." She approached her with a look of concern. "Oh you poor thing." Her hand touched Vivi's injured cheek and she looked down at her arm. "He really did a number on you. Is there anywhere we can take you to get this fixed? I'm– I'm really sorry I didn't get here earlier. One of my wings is injured so I couldn't fly as fast as I wanted to." Haseul flexed her right wing a bit. Vivi noticed that the wing wasn't shining as bright as the other one.

"Yeah. I have a friend who helps me out. She can take care of it. Thank you again." Vivi smiled at Haseul again as she heard police sirens. Then she looked over at the shadow on the ground, who was now just a regular man, scared and trying to block the light with his hands. "How did you know that would stop him?"

"I've been chasing him for weeks. My power isn't very strong but ever since I discovered that light was his weakness I decided it would be best for everyone if I focused all of my effort on him."

Vivi nodded in understanding. "I– Ugh!" Vivi felt a sharp pain in her arm where she had blocked the bullets.

"I don't think you should be running around here by yourself," Haseul said, taking Vivi's arm and getting a good look at the damage. There were three separate holes, but no blood and you could see the robotic skeleton moving underneath. "Here." Haseul took out her phone and showed Vivi a phone number. "Put this in your contacts and give me a call when you're better. I'd like to talk with you about what you saw. It could help us with some other villains we're looking for."

"We?" She wanted to ask her more questions but the words got stuck in as Haseul gently took her over to the opposite wall and sat her down. Vivi took out her phone with her good hand and saved the number in her contacts.

"I think it's best if you rest for a bit. You shouldn't stress your body anymore." Haseul continued to hold on to Vivi's arm and took a good look at her palms, her body, and her eyes. Vivi expected her to say something else, but Haseul just stared into her eyes for a bit, as if mesmerized or perhaps noticing something in them. Then she smiled as the police arrived on the scene.

Vivi had never known what it felt like to be short of breath, but that was the closest she had ever gotten. The aura that this girl gave off, not only saving her but also making sure that she was alright, worrying about her wellbeing, and even giving her her phone number. A complete stranger, a nobody. It was all so much to take in.

For the longest time, Vivi wanted to feel like she was making a difference, or at least on her way to something bigger. The uncertainty that had filled her path became enlightened that night, by the girl with wings and her beautiful smile. All she could do was smile back.