Description

It'd been a long journey to get here. Not literally: this city was in Lioness' backyard, just a short hop in their specialized aerial transport. 

No, it was a long journey in the other sense. The rigorous training, the agonizing self-doubt at every turn, the botched first sortie where she'd knocked the top off of a building with her elbow. Melinda's death. 

She and her classmates, all rookies, had had to take up a burden they truly weren't ready to carry. To jump in with both feet and learn to swim against a raging current while neck deep within it.

What a blessing to be sitting here now. The monstrous threat wasn't going anywhere, in fact it was getting worse, but she'd learned how to face it. Each launch brought with it the same sick anxiety felt deep within her gut, but it was a practiced routine now to push through it and out to the other side. Clarity came through doing, and she wasn't afraid to begin anymore. Not like when she was still new to this.

The sun was coming up, and it was time to go. Sooner or later, she knew she'd dive back in to wallow in the blood and debris anew.