I watched the two of them go back and forth, making quick quips and snickering like a pair of teenagers. Therapy had never appealed to me, but I was almost certain that this wasn’t how it worked.
“Ah…” I cleared my throat, and the pair snapped their heads up again. “Sorry, but can I borrow Alex for a bit?”
Minnie beamed, glancing at Alex from the side of her eye, before backing away with a small wave. “Of course! We’re done for the day. I’ll see you next week, okay? Have fun and remember what we talked about!”
Alex reached out a hand as if to catch her, but the woman sped off like she was being chased. We stood there for a moment, watching her disappear, before Alex turned around and pursed her lips.
“This is suspicious,” she murmured.
I reared back, and was ready to snap something back, but bit my tongue.
Think before you speak, jackass.
“Your equipment,” I gestured to the small horns that peeked through her black hair. “It hasn’t been upgraded in a while, right?”
“Uh… yeah, I guess you could say that.” She smiled and let out a forced laugh before she rushed out, “Likefouryearsorsomething.”
“What?” I leaned down, positive that I hadn’t heard what I thought I did.
Alex rolled her eyes. “It’s been about four years, or something like that. Maybe five.”
My stomach dropped. “Equipment for Heroes should be updated everysix months.”
“Correct.”
“It’s been five years?”
“Give or take.”
Irritating, irrational, irresponsible?—
Alex threw up her hands. “Alright, smokey!” I hadn’t realized that my skin had started to steam. “Get to the point before you have a literal meltdown.”
I took a deep breath, making sure I had cooled down, before snatching her wrist. “We’re getting you an upgrade.Now.”
She dug in her heels, and although I could still throw her if I wanted to, she put up more resistance than I would have thought. “On whose dime?!”
My head was pounding. I reached into my pocket, pulled out my wallet and displayed the black card that all first-class Heroes were given.
“Mine.” The face she made gave me some sort of confidence, because I leaned down again and gave her my best shit-eating grin. “Relax, Sweetheart. You drive, I’ll pay. Deal?”
She liked that.
In fact, she liked ittoomuch. By the time we made it to the VIA’s medical department, Alex had run three red lights on her bike, and I had had approximately six heart attacks. The woman was single-handedly decreasing my lifespan.
“Absolutely not.”Alex pressed herself against the edge of the room, inching her way toward the door.
I pressed a thumb against my temple and was ready to ask the doctor to sedate me instead. Every time I tried to do something nice, it ended up in a shitshow. Check up on Alex? Fucking traumatize her. Try to get her new equipment to make this next mission easier? Send her into a damn panic attack.
“With how old these implants are, we’re going to need to remove the entire unit,” the tech mused at the scans displayed for us. “It’s not easy, but it has to be done. Keep going like this, and you’re asking to fry your brain.”
The VIA medical department was the best of the best; from bringing back Heroes from near death, to leading the most innovative tech for reducing backlash to Variant abilities. The room was a combination of a doctor's office, a surgery room, and an auto shop. Tools, gears, and scalpels sat on endless trays, with a lifted bed in the center, surrounded by bright white lights.
It had been a week since Alex had gotten information on Splinter, and Dahlia was gearing up to send us to Connecticut. I wasn’t sure what we’d be facing with Lycean or the Crowns Club, and Alex had stretched herself too thin. As far as I knew, whenshe wasn’t at headquarters, she was still working at the hospital and stopping by Nightmyre PD. Sheneededan upgrade before she melted her brain with those damn smelling salts.
“They numb you,” I sighed as she continued to tiptoe around us, as if I wasn’t staring right at her. “They’re good, you’ll be fine, and I’ll be right here.”
Her face was pale. “Listen, I appreciate it; I do. But I remember when they put these fuckers in, and I amnotdoing it again.”
