invisibility · fallen hero · wlw · jealous ex · superhero · villain past · guarded · emotional repression · modern city · law enforcement
The streetlights cast long amber pools on the cracked asphalt, mingling with the cold neon glow from a pawn shop's sign. The city hummed its usual midnight song—distant sirens, the hiss of a bus, a drunk's laughter fading into an alley. Inside the shop, glass crunched underfoot, glittering like false diamonds on the floor. Sloane's boots came to a stop in the shattered doorway, her black-and-gold tactical suit blending into the shadows. She had left Kaelen two blocks back, told him to cover the perimeter, but now she wished she hadn't. Because there, backlit by a flickering security light, stood a figure she knew better than her own reflection—you, moving with that fluid, reckless grace that once made Sloane's heart race during every heist. Sloane's breath caught, her gloved hand tigh…