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“We’re going to need some sort of scrambler so we can communicate without being monitored,” Martin said as he walked with Sienna and Wendy as they returned to Sienna’s home. “At least if you’re serious.”

“I know,” Wendy said. “I have a couple of ideas for the system but you’ll need to do the coding.” She frowned thoughtfully. “And Sienna will need a costume, as well. Lucy already knows what happened so I think we’ll bring her on board for that.”

“Is that wise?” Sienna asked. “Like you said the more people in a secret–”

“I know,” Wendy interrupted. “But Lucy’s not stupid she knows what happened so she’ll work out who you are pretty quickly and then probably be insulted that you hadn’t let her design and make your costume.”

Sienna began chuckling. “Yeah that’s true.”

“We should probably tell Charlotte as well,” Wendy said. “She’ll work it out as well.”

“Huh, Charlotte’s scared of me,” Sienna said. “I need to talk to her soon and see if she’s better.”

“I’ll do it,” Wendy said. “If she’s scared of you then she might not want to talk to you which would make a conversation difficult. Also we don’t want to do it over the phone for the reasons I mentioned.”

“Wendy is right–” Martin paused. “Is that Lucy’s mother’s car outside your house?”

“Huh?” Sienna stared down the street towards her house and spotted the cherry red Volkswagen sitting outside. “It is! I hope Lucy’s all right.” She sped up a little, hurrying to the front door. Sienna’s mother opened it as they came down the path.

“Welcome back, girls,” she said. She was smiling so it probably wasn’t bad news that brought Lucy’s mother here. “And Martin too. Would you like to stay for dinner? I’m sure Sienna would like that.” Sienna gave a mental groan, she liked Martin well enough as a friend but her mother seemed convinced there was something more there. He’d asked her out once, she’d said no and he’d been fine with it.

“No, thank you, Mrs Munroe,” he said. “I want to get back and check Helen hasn’t let my father back in.”

“Ah! Of course,” Sienna’s mother said. “Another time.” She looked back at Sienna and Wendy. “Good news, Lucy is out of hospital and her mother has brought her over.”

“Lucy!” Sienna raced past her mother into the sitting room where Lucy sat along with her own mother. “How are you? Are you better.”

“They wouldn’t have let her out if she weren’t.” Wendy followed Sienna in more sedately.

“I’m… well I’m not fine but I’m much better,” Lucy said. “I don’t need Oxygen any more and the tests look okay so they let me out but my chest still feels really tight and even walking short distances makes me out of breath which is why mum brought me over.” Her face tightened. “I have an inhaler now as well. I hope the damage isn’t permanent.”

Lucy’s mother Irene laid a reassuring hand on Lucy’s arm. “You know what the doctor’s said, dear. Whatever caused that reaction doesn’t appear to have done any damage but your lungs have been sensitized and need time to calm down. You have an appointment with the specialist to work on your rehabilitation.”

“But my training…” Lucy trailed off unhappily.

“Will have to pause just like if you injured your leg,” her mother said reasonably. “Call your coach in the morning, I’m sure he’ll have some good ideas for rehabilitation.” She stood up. “Anyway I’ll leave you to catch up with Sienna and Wendy and pick you up about nine.”

Lucy stared at her mother for a moment and then nodded. “Thanks, mum. It’s just scary not being able to walk to car without gasping for breath. I’m worried it might never improve to allow me to run again.”

“I know,” her mother said. “But worrying will only make it worse. See you later.” She patted her daughter’s arm again and headed out the door. Lucy watched her go then looked back at Sienna and Wendy. “So how are you? I heard you two saw one of the shootings yesterday. That’s got to be worse than this.”

“We did,” Sienna said. “And I don’t know about Wendy but I don’t want to talk about it. Let’s go upstairs until dinner is ready.”

“Yeah, I don’t imagine you would.” Lucy said. “And sure, upstairs sounds good.”

Watching her usually fit friend climbing the stairs slowly and having to pause at the top to catch her breath really brought home to Sienna how sick Lucy still was. When they got into Sienna’s room Lucy immediately collapsed on to the bed.

“That was so hard,” she said after a pause. At least she was able to speak but she was still breathing heavily. “I hate this.”

“I can imagine.” Wendy said as she shut the door. “But we need to talk to you.”

“Oh?” Lucy said. “You mean about Sienna? I saw the videos people took of what happened yesterday.” She shuddered briefly. “No wonder you don’t want to talk about it, but it definitely makes me believe you about Sienna.”

“Good, because it’ll make this easier.”

“That’s right,” Wendy said. “Can you watch the door, Sienna?”

“Oh, very cloak and dagger,” Lucy said. “What’s so secret?”

Lucy listened in silence as Wendy told her what she wanted to do while Sienna listened for anyone coming up the stairs. When Wendy has finished Lucy started chuckling but it soon segued into a fit of racking coughs and they had to recover her breath before she could speak.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I know I shouldn’t laugh but only you could think that’s a good idea, Wendy.” She sagged backwards onto the bed. “Though suspect you’re right that Sienna will have to fight back against these gunmen at some point and she can’t do it as herself. Not safely anyway.”

“Or by herself,” Wendy said. “Will you design and make her a costume?”

“Of course I will,” Lucy said. “Who else would you ask.” She sat up again and grabbed some paper and a pencil from Sienna’s computer desk and began sketching. “Okay, one thing I am not going to do is make you dress like an acrobat. That’s the big problem with female superheroes in comics. They’re dressed like acrobats. So are the dudes for that matter but that’s not quite as bad – except who fights crime in costumes designed for performance artists?”

“I thought the trouble with female superhero costumes was that they sexed them up,” Sienna said.

“Yes, but that’s because they’re dressed like acrobats as much as anything,” Lucy said. “And having said that it does need to be distinctive and practical move in. A pretty problem” She hummed to herself. “And we don’t want to expose any skin or hair at all.”

“Why not?” Wendy said.

“Forensics,” Lucy said simply.

“Of course!” Wendy hit her forehead with the heel of her hand. “Damn! I should have thought of that. I’m going to have to make some modifications to my armour as well.”

“Sienna do you have some coloured pencils?” Lucy asked. “I need to show the colours I have in mind.”

“I think so,” Sienna said. She went to the cupboard began to search through a box of her old toys from when she was a child. “Ah here they are. They’re just cheap kids ones and I haven’t used them in years.” She tossed them to Lucy.

“They’ll do,” Lucy said. She pulled out a blue one and started shading. “Wendy, if you’re really going to do this could you design some sort of visor display thing for Sienna?”

“A Heads Up Display? Of course I can. My suit already has one I designed.”

“Great! I’ll make that part of the costume then.” Lucy sketched for another few minutes before passing the pad to Sienna. “What do you think?”

Sienna stared at the sketch. It was obviously quickly done but showed a girl of about Sienna’s build wearing a dark grey and blue jumpsuit along with black boots and long gloves. The lower half of her face was covered by a blue cloth mask while her eyes and the upper half of her face were concealed by what looked like ski goggles. The girl in the picture also had bobbed blue hair quite unlike Sienna’s.

“I thought you weren’t going to dress me as a performance artist,” she said. “Though it does look easy to move in.”

“It will be,” Lucy said. “And yes it is dramatic, but for what you intend to do it needs to be.”

“What’s with the hair?” Wendy asked. “I thought you were going to cover it?”

“It is covered,” Lucy replied. “That’s a wig.” She frowned thoughtfully. “But so far nothing about this conceals Sienna’s build.” She chewed on her lips. “A minimiser bra and shoulder pads maybe?”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Wendy said. “Though Sienna’s figure is reasonably average.”

“Hey!” Sienna said.

“I didn’t mean that badly,” Wendy said. “I just mean it’s not distinctive enough to identify you from. Subtle changes should actually throw people.”

“Just don’t make me wear a fat suit,” Sienna said.

“No fat suits,” Lucy said. “Far too hot to run in. No high heels either.” She hummed to herself. “You need to think of a name.”

“I thought you thought this was a bad idea,” Sienna said.

“I do,” Lucy said. “But it’s also so much fun I can’t help getting into it. Now name.”

Sienna put her hand over her eyes and shook her head. “I’m surrounded by crazy people,” she muttered. “I really don’t know.”

“What about Push,” Wendy said.

“Boring,” Lucy said. “I think something like Psychic Avenger would be cool.”

“Ugh, no,” Sienna said. “That’s tacky.” She stared at the picture. “What about Sapphire?”

“It’s the wrong shade of blue,” Lucy said. “At least to what I imagine – I just used the closest pencil. I’m thinking more of an indigo colour.”

“Ooh! It’s indigo and grey!” Wendy said. “Indigo Shadow would be a good name.”

Sienna considered this and then nodded. “I like that. Descriptive of the costume and not tacky.”

“Indigo Shadow it is then,” Wendy said.

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