Vic woke up feeling disgusting. She remembered why the moment the body beside her rolled over.
After cleaning herself up, she dropped her towel to the floor and observed herself in the bathroom mirror. The grazes on her knees and elbows were scabbing over and there was a small graze along her jaw, near her chin. Turning to her side, she spotted a patchy green bruise between her chest, spreading to her left breast. The worst of the marks on her body were the small, red marks on her neck and collarbone.
She fixed her chest binder on and layered her shirts, a checkered button up over a band tee, before securing a scarf around her neck. In her room, she sat on the bottom of her bed and laced up her boots. Donovan stirred, shrugging off the covers from his naked chest. Vic took a moment to look at him, a dulled expression falling over her face, before sighing and tucking him back in. She crept to her wardrobe and dug through her belongings to reach a locked box. She opened it and took out the contents, an assortment of pure white attire and a mask, stuffing them into a bag she flung over onto her back. Before she left the room, she threw a half-full packet of cigarettes onto the bed beside Donovan, took her phone and walked out the door without looking back.
She checked on her Aunt before she left the house. She was dead to the world, eyes sore with bags and hair not even taken out of the bun she wore to work last night. Donovan would be out of the house before her, Vic decided. She shut the bedroom door carefully, despite knowing she could slam it and not wake her.
Thank god she had the morning shift that day. She had to call in to tell her instructors she wasn't going to be there for her tae kwon do and kickboxing lessons that afternoon, but that wasn't such a big hassle. The biggest issue had to be making it to her gig in time. Depending on how long this was going to take or exactly when the bastards were planning to rob the bank that afternoon, she would be having to make up some excuses to some pretty grumpy faces. But she was going to take the job anyway. It'd been too long since she'd been in a good fight. And besides...
... any step that could get her a little closer to Ρεκαλ, the mystery that already knew enough to know her identity, was a step she was going to take, if only just to sucker punch them in the face for messing with her.
Work went past unnaturally fast for Vic. Soon, Donovan was barging through the door, coming to take over her shift.
"Hey, Vic..." he murmured, not even having time to blink before Vic had strode past him with her board.
"Catch you tonight," she said briskly and jogged down the cramped stairwell, bursting out of the building. She skated her way through back alleys, working herself through a maze of shady paths, until she reached it. It was a shut down deli that had been out of business because of terrible sanitary conditions. All that remained of the place was its dusty, empty, gratified insides. The building had been on lease since forever and teenagers had taken their pent up hormonal rage out on this place. It was definitely going to be hit with a wrecking ball and build up into something new, but in the meantime, this was Vic's phone booth, aka, the place her superhero costume transformations took place in. Yes, there were definitely more glamorous locations, but small fries like Vic couldn't be picky.
With all her might, Vic managed to shove an empty dumpster just enough to reveal the secret entrance. As she slipped through into the building, the smell of old frying oil hit her. Man, she hated this place. She took no time changing into Nobody. Rather than leaving her backpack of clothes and skateboard in there, she took them outside with her and flew up. She shot above the city skyline before pausing, hundreds of feet above the earth's surface, a tiny white beacon to whoever looked up from below.
Vic hid her bag and board upon the roof platform of a skyscraper. Up there, it was much, much less likely to be found and ransacked. She memorized where she put it and flew out above the city, surveying the land. She loved it up here. It made sense that she did, with her powers to control the air around her, up in the sky she could be a god. Sometimes she wondered whether if she tried, she could use her powers to control the weather, or create a natural disaster. Not that she would set a tornado upon the city just to see if she could. Going too far with your powers didn't do anyone good and Vic at least tried to be "good", despite not being the most heroic. She'd stick to flipping up skirts for now.
After a moment of just enjoying herself in the sky, she spied The Prosperity Bank and dissolved into thin air. She spiraled down to the bank and hovered above it, an invisible guardian angel to the people below her. There, she waited.