InsaneJournal

Marina was the fearless type, and it was often to her detriment. She rarely reached out to people for help even when it was sorely needed, instead placing all the weight on her admittedly strong shoulders.

Tonight was no different. Tonight, she thought she would catch a hardened criminal or two, turn them into the authorities, reap the benefits of the photo op, and head to the nearest after hours party.

But that’s not how things went. Marina, supposedly invincible, found herself splayed on her back, the assailant’s rough hands over mouth and nose and uncompromising against her carotid arter. They must have listened to that stupid fucking theory that went around Twitter about ways to disable her.

“I’m going to kill a superhero tonight,” the man said with a drooly, maniacal grin. What a fucking lame way to die, thought Marina, as her chest tightened.

After an uneventful night of prowling the city as The Phantom, Jess stumbled upon an attack in progress. One benefit of being a ghost was the ability to be unexpected.

In near complete translucency, Jess descended on the man, solidifying to bring him into a headlock and an armlock as she jerked him away from his victim.

As the man struggled, the words that Jess had barely caught before grabbing him clocked in her head. Superhero. Her eyes darted past her captive to his intended kill, and Jess’s hold on the perp tightened when she saw who he’d meant. Marina. Marina tried her best to remove the look of fear in her eyes as she scrambled backward to recover.

“Not tonight,” Jess growled into his ear. “Tonight you get to find out about attempted murder charges. If I feel generous.” Mostly an idle threat, but Jess did add an extra jerk of pressure to make her point.

“Yeah, you little bitch!” Marina said to the man once she was on her feet again.

But then she turned to Jess and added, kind of angrily: “You didn’t have to save me, you know. I was about to handle this.”

“I was in the area.” Which was true. “Besides, I like keeping assholes like this on their toes.” Jess squeezed a string of panicked noises out of the perp, which—amusingly—did bring him onto his tiptoes for a moment.

“Want to help me take this garbage to the correct drop off point?”

“Actually,” Marina yanked the back of the man’s collar and dropped him face down to the ground, prone, a heel in his back.

(“You fucking who—!")

Marina smiled. “You can help me take this garbage to the correct drop off point.”

Jess bit back a laugh of surprise. “As you wish.” She tilted her head, taking in the sight. “You want me to take a picture of this for you?”