Last week, dear reader, Ginger Snap began her first solo foray into the formal world of superheroism! The femme fatal’s fortunate intervention is about to foster a feeling of felicitous female unity, for her foes are attempting to befoul the purse of a fair maiden in the streets below!

But our fête of congratulations will have to wait, for first Ginger must actually affect the salvation of her fellow female! Shouting a command into her helmet, Ginger’s former ascent sharply reverses.

The bird begins to dive, this time falling straight towards the alley below. Smashing into the walls of the buildings above, the bird sprouts a pair of talons from the tips of the wings that dig into the brick and mortar slowing the decent.

Awestruck, the robbers and victim can only stare up as the metallic being descends. A few moments after arriving, Ginny disarms the thugs with a swift swipe of one massive wing. Then the other pins them to the wall. For a moment, the pair stay pressed into the brick, then the wing pulls back leaving behind a set of metal bonds that affix them to the wall.

In her best heroic tone, Ginny asks, "Okay citizen! You're good right?"

The victim, a woman in a disheveled state, stutters a response, "Who... what... what just happened?" She looks about herself in clear confusion and disbelief, blinking at the sight of Ginger.

Then the woman teeters to her feet, pushing her Liberty University sweatshirt back into order and collecting her purse from where the thugs dropped it. She takes a few moments to pack in the scattered bills and makeup tools and as she does Ginger examines the woman.

She is quite pretty and only a few years older than Ginger. The girl is relatively short, however, and in Ginny’s practiced opinion, her decision to wear modest heels and a jean skirt flirts dangerously with the border of collegiate desperation.

Were it not the afternoon, and were her appearance a bit more disheveled, Ginny would assume she was just finishing a long night studying or partying. As is, her precise makeup and well-maintained brown curls speak more to her intentions for tonight than anything else. In a testament to her composure, neither a strand of hair nor a smudge of makeup is out of place even through her ordeal.

Ginny replies impatiently, "I just saved you, duh! Get with the program lady." With a huff, she crosses her wings over her chest and begins to tap her talon on the ground.

"Oh." The woman looks around still confused. "Oh you did.” Then her face lights up as that dawning moment of comprehension hits her as hard as Ginger hit the thugs. In an excited voice she says, “Thank you! Oh my goodness thank you!"

"No problem." Ginny replies with a smile, albeit one that does not appear through her mask. For a moment, she considers trying to morph the beak into a smile. Then the mental image of her suit contorting in such a fashion appears in her mind and Ginger quickly puts the thought out of her mind.

"Oh my goodness! I can't believe I didn't recognize you, the shape-changing heroine with the red hair! You're Ginger Snap!" The woman exclaims in sudden recognition.

Ginny's response sounds as though it comes through clenched teeth. "Yes, that's what Eldritch called me. I'm Ginger Snap."

"What's she like?" The would-be victim asks breathlessly.

For a second, the alleyway is still as the pair simply stares at one another. Then Ginny breaks the silence.

"Who?" Ginny replies in confusion.

"Eldritch! She's so cool! My sister has a poster of her in our dorm. You know she was there when Eldritch beat The Chauvinist, she was all mind controlled and stuff until Eldritch saved everyone." Animated, the girl waves her hands around during her speech in a weird pantomime of everything she says. She races through her actual words, speaking so fast that Ginny has to pause and actively try to parse out her garbled speech.

"Eldritch saved everyone?" Ginny's tone has a bare hint of anger in it. A hint that goes unnoticed by the lady, who is now gaining steam.

Flipping her brown hair, the girl chatters away. "Yeah! She's so badass! You two probably hang out all the time I bet, what's it like being her sidekick?"

"Sidekick???" Ginger hisses.

"It's too bad you didn't name yourself Iron Maiden. Then you two could be 'Liberty City's Mighty Maids' my sister thinks that's a good name for a team."

"If we were a cleaning service!" Ginny's anger is starting to give way to pure disbelief. Her rescuee continues to gab heedless of her tone or words.

"Oh my gosh, her costume is just so awesome. You know my sister says she can't be that old, she's probably like a freshman at Lib U or something, and the fact that she has all that body confidence? She's just so inspiring!"

She continues to gush over how inspiring Eldritch is for a few moments longer before pausing to catch a breath. In the space between her ramblings, Ginger raises her hand to quiet her so she can speak.

Resigned, Ginger replies, "Does your sister think I'm inspiring?"

"Oh totally. Most girls wouldn't be able to get along as great as you two do. Like she can't be much older than you and I bet you know how girls sometimes get jealous of one another. Especially when one of them is really pretty like Eldritch, she's probably had to deal with lots of backstabbing friends in her unmasked life. But you're so composed about being a sidekick. It's really inspiring to see Eldritch mentoring another girl so selflessly and for you to seek out a teacher like that." The girl wipes a small tear away from the corner of her eye, taking great care not to let her emotion damage her appearance.

"Oh she's selfless is she?" Ginny's loads her tone with sarcasm.

Composing herself, she smiles up at Ginger and speaks with passion, "I mean, it just shows how great the two of you work together. She takes on the tough bad guys like Roman and The Chauvinist and lets you learn the ropes fighting the henchmen and petty criminals like these guys."

At this one of the two crooks nailed to the wall perks up, "That's true. Ever since the Deuces got pinched by Eldritch a lot of us guys been lyin' low. But now that we know she's trainin' a sidekick we figured it was our chance again."

Then he beams at Ginny and makes to move his hand into a thumb up, a decision that would be far more impactful if he had full range of motion in his arm still. "But looks like she's really been trainin' ya pretty good. Ya got us no trouble!"

Then the other one pipes up, "You'll be a real heroine in no time Gingey! Don't forget about us low life types when you're a big shot okay? You can come throw us in jail anytime!"

At this Ginny's wing moves again, passing over the thug's mouths. As it returns, it leaves behind a metal gag. One of the goons winks at Ginny and tries to give another thumb up.

The exchange leaves the brown haired girl’s mouth hanging open in shock and awe. Slowly a light forms in her eyes and she starts to smile. Then she races up close to Ginger and grabs her wings.

"Oh my god, that is like so cool. This must be, like, one of your first crime stopping moments! Can we take a selfie together?” Without waiting for permission, the girl pushes Ginger into a Sorority Squat position and presses her face up close next to her own. Cheek to cheek, Ginger barely has time to react before the light of the girl’s phone camera goes off in her face several times in the space of a few seconds.

In an instant, the girl is away and chattering again as her fingers dance across her phone screen, “I'll post it on my Instagram and my twitter so you can remember this moment forever. It's @Eldritchfan_4554. I know you and Eldritch don't have official accounts so I'll change my settings to public so you can grab a copy."

Then she gasps, her eyes going wide, "Do you think you could maybe print off a poster sized photo and get Eldritch to sign it? Then you could too and my sister and I would have the best dorm on campus! My sorority sisters will literally die of jealousy!" Then she gives Ginger Snap a saucy wink and smiles, "And maybe a few guys will be jealous too, you two have the whole fire and ice pair thing going on." She finishes the last bit with a look at Ginger's red hair. Ginger says nothing, so a few seconds later she clarifies, "You know, because you're a redhead and her costume is all white? Is she a blonde? It would be perfect if she was a blonde!" The girl lets out a high pitched squeal of excitement and stares at Ginger expectantly.

Inside the suit, Ginny is crying internally. "I'll see what I can do about the photo." She replies in a deadpan tone, choosing to ignore the girl's question on Eldritch's hair color.

The brown haired girl’s face lights up and she continues in a breathy tone, "Will you really? Thank you sooooo much! You're like, my heroine!" The girl hugs Ginny and then presses her cheek up against the Ginny's metal face before snapping another string of selfies.

As she pauses to edit this next batch, Ginny exits the alley post-haste unwilling to spend another moment in the presence of the rabid fan.

Once away, she speaks to her suit, “I hate that stupid Eldritch Maiden so very, very much.”

Away from prying eyes, she moves her arm out of one of the wings. It continues to fly on autopilot as she reaches into her clothing on the inside of the suit and pulls out her phone. Grumbling and afraid of what she might see, she opens up her Instagram app and searches for a certain recent selfie in which she features.

After a moment reading the caption, she screams in frustration and rage and then throws the phone down towards the ground below.

On the screen is a photo of her standing next to the would-be-victim with a pair of thugs in the background, both trying to give a thumb up, and a caption reading, "Got to meet #Ginger_Snap today! She rescued me from the two bad boys behind me. Eldritch doing a great job training her to be a great superheroine! #bestsidekickever #Ginger_Snap #Eldritch #Eldritch_Maiden.

Then the phone collides and breaks upon the roof of the nearby building, mere inches from a masked man in black. He sports a full military getup including a slew of weapons. But most important of all is the design on his helmet. A spade adorns one side, and on the other a stylized 'A,' there can be no doubt, this man is an Ace!

But we scarce have time for ruminations on his appearance, for even now he unpacks a powerful looking sniper rifle and checks his thermal imaging scope trained high in the sky above at the bright image of a girl flying about in a metal suit!

It seems that Ginger Snap's wish is answered! She has enemies, albeit ones without powers, yet still dangerous foes indeed. The Aces may prove too much for a nascent superheroine and father Napp may obtain nothing but regret in return for his dangerous decision to cavort with The Deck. We shall see next week in... "The River!"