A lone woman in a black trenchcoat hastily ran through Brooklyn’s streets at night. Her chestnut colored hair was tied up in a bun and covered with a black fedora. Her light-brown eyes scanned the gloom behind her to make sure she wasn’t being followed. Turning back around, the darkness shrouded all but the sidewalk illuminated by street lights in front of her.

“Fuck my life. Fuck my life. Fuck my life!” Jessica was freaking out. It wasn’t enough that her friend of 15 years, Lena, had handed her, a civilian, a gun for her own protection. No, what really freaked Jessica was the people she saw on Brooklyn Bridge earlier that day.

Ducking into a dead-end alley, she dumped the trenchcoat and fedora in a trashcan before lifting herself on top of the cans and onto an emergency exit ladder on the side of the apartment she lived in.

She looked back at the cans before heading up the stairs. It pained her to ditch expensive clothing, but her safety was worth more than 100 name brand hats or designer coats.

Creeping into her room from the window, she set her phone and wallet down on the bed, before shakily taking the pistol from its holster on her hip and gingerly setting it on her bed as well. Pointed away from her, of course. Her room wasn’t too big, only one in a two bedroom apartment, while her parents shared the other.

She sighed before entrusting her body to a swivel chair that accompanied a compact desk in the corner of her room. Holding her face in her hands, she peeked through her fingers and looked at the smartphone on her bed.

“They totally set off the sensor Lena installed on my phone.” Jessica shakily unplugged her earbuds from her device and gingerly put them on her desk.

“Thank God I was wearing those or else the alarm would have notified them of who I was. I know that one of them was Alison from Lena’s description but…” Jessica tucked some hair behind her ear and frowned.

Who were the others? From what Lena had told Jessica, aside from herself there should only be three other people in the world who could set off that alarm: Alison Walker, Maria Guerrera, and Robert Taylor.

Instead, Jessica had seen a man with snow white hair being smothered in between two gorgeous women and Alison, who was no slouch either, following closely behind.

Slightly annoyed at seeing that ridiculous scene, she unconsciously cocked her pistol, but stopped at any thought of further action after the man had turned and stared her right in the eyes.

It had scared her so badly that she turned and made a beeline for her house on the other side of the bridge, thankful that a whole crowd of people were in-between the two of them. Although from what Lena had told her, if they really wanted her dead then no amount of meat shields would have mattered.

“Eep!” A loud jingle came from the phone she had used as a photon detector not long ago, causing her to jump at the unexpected noise.

“Damn it Lena, are you psychic?” After calming her heart, Jessica finally swiped the touch screen and answered the phone.

“Hey Jess. I wanted to talk to you about the start of next semester. Do you think-”

“Nevermind that Lena! Your stupid thing went off today!” A small ‘huh’ leaked out from the phone’s speaker and caused Jessica to go red with anger.

“The photon sensor you created and installed in my phone without my permission! It went off on Brooklyn Bridge today for a group of strange people.” Jessica heard a crash from the other end of the call and sat up straight in her chair.

“Lena? Lena, are you okay?”

“Shit, shit, shit. No, I fell out of my chair. I thought they would come but not so soon. Well, I can't really blame them after what I did.”

Jessica’s eyebrows raised in surprise. “Um, what exactly did you do Lena? Besides that, you haven’t told me anything about your time in D.C. other than the fact that you hung out with three other people and that they’re ridiculously powerful.”

“Well, among other things I made two agents that were watching me disappear.” This time it was Jessica’s turn to fall out of her chair in shock.

“What the hell Lena! You said you’d be behaving since you got back to New York! Didn’t they give you a dishonorable discharge for a reason!?” Lena sighed through the phone, causing Jessica’s eye to twitch in annoyance.

“Yeah, I know. I’ll explain everything, I promise. Just not now, not over the phone. I’ll come over to your house some time after the first day of the semester and spill everything. Right now I need to make preparations for those guys.” Jessica remembered how the group she encountered differed from what Lena had told her.

“Um, the people I saw aren’t the ones you’re thinking of… not all of them at least. The only one I recognized was Alison. There was a man with white hair and two silver haired twins as well.” Silence followed Jessica’s statement, but was ultimately broken by a slapping sound.

“Ugh, I should have known they’d send in the big guns after me. Listen Jess, if you ever see that man again, turn the other way. Don’t look back, and try to stay as out of sight as possible. Same with those women you saw, although I didn’t know she had a twin... “

Each passing word made Jessica even more nervous and her gaze switched to the gun on her bed. If a gun couldn’t protect her from the dangers of these people, then what could?

“Alright. The semester starts next week so I’ll be in touch at school. Remember our meeting place if you ever need to see me before then as well as our special signal to indicate it.”

Jessica was about to hang up when Lena stopped her. “Also, a word of advice. Lay low until school starts and whatever you do, don’t, and I mean don’t go to the other side of the bridge. I have to make a call now so I’ll talk to you later. Bye.”

Jessica sat back in her chair and stared up at the ceiling. “Lay low, huh?” She thought back to the meeting at the bridge and shuddered.

“How am I supposed to lay low against that thing. He was like… a reaper looking to take my soul.” She shuddered once more then slipped off her clothes and headed into the bathroom. There was no use worrying about what you couldn’t control and right now she was more occupied with getting the chilling sensatoin out of her skin.

———

“Hmm… maybe we should make your code name Reaper?” I gave Dantae a deadpan expression so she giggled and cuddled up closer to me. We were sitting on a pair of chairs in the attic of the house, which Rob had transformed into our intelligence room, complete with the feeds from our various wiretaps and surveillance cameras we had placed all over the city.

“But still,” Dantae continued, “It’s a pretty bad habit you have to listen in on a private conversation between two women, isn’t it? Especially in front of your betrothed.” She smiled, clearly amused by her own joke.

“Please spare me. You know how I feel about you.” I leaned over and kissed her, making sure to intertwine our tongues just the way she liked. We separated, and a happy smile showed on her face.

“I love you too. So,” she said, “what are our next steps.” She started to get up, but I pulled her back by my side and held her close.

“First, we need to meet up with Lena and ask what’s going on. Whether or not she does that peacefully will be up to her. Do you remember Charlotte?”

“The tactical code?” She asked, tilting her head in confusion.

“Yes, that one. I’ll teach it to the others so they can execute it with us if we ever fight her. Plus, is sounds like she has sensor technology, so we may want to lay low and nullify our photon radiation for a bit to avoid them.”

“Okay, so what do we do in the meantime?”

“What we always do on a mission,” I pointed to my head, “use our brains to think of options. You never know when you’ll need a contingency plan, especially in our line of work.”

“And if someone gets in the way of our mission?”

“Crush them and set an example.” I could feel my eyes narrow and my breathing slow down, still annoyed at the fact that anyone would even think of pointing a gun at Dantae.”

She laughed once more. “Maybe Reaper isn’t too far off as a call sign. Oh well, we’ll figure it out later. For now,” she said, moving over to sit on my lap and turning the chair around, “let’s focus on the rest of the city.”

She turned the monitor over to a local station where they showed the ball dropping in Times Square. And like that, in each other’s arms, we welcomed in the new year.