The Glass Knight

The sound of combat, sharp breaths and impact of bodies against bodies, filled the room as Pip threw her punch. She barely connected, knuckles grazing the side of Thomas's side. Her focus just wasn't there.

Across the room, muscles rippled along Violet's back as she threw another boy at the wall.

"What's up with you?" Thomas asked, twisting around to follow Pip's line of vision before she could look somewhere else. His gaze landed on Violet as Pip's cheeks heated up, sure someone would know exactly what she was thinking when looking at the girl.

Not that Pip knew what she was thinking.

Hooking up with Violet… Well, she couldn't say it was a mistake, but it certainly hadn't been in the plan. She was supposed to be focused, not distracted by whatever this was.

"She's not doing anything special," Thomas said, shaking his head. "Honestly, I'm getting kind of bored with this. Don't you think it's time we do something new?"

"Do you know how to use weapons?" Pip asked hopefully. Maybe if she could use her sword, she'd be able to focus.

"No."

"Damn."

"Hey, Professor!" The name rippled through the room as Thomas called it out, turning toward the professor. Fights disengaged, even the enhanced ones in the adjoining room.

"Yes?" Professor Wilson said, not moving from his spot against the wall. Every class, he sat there, watching them. Every so often, he would wander through the room, giving corrections or advice, but not often. He was more than content to let everyone beat each other to shit, and that would somehow turn them into good heroes.

"Why can't we do something different?" Thomas asked. "Haven't we been doing this long enough? We only have so much time here!"

"Be patient," Professor Wilson said, unbothered. "And keep fighting. You're not done until I say so."

With a sigh, Pip fell back into position, keeping her hands loose this time. If they were going to be doing this for the foreseeable future, the least she could do was try and stretch her abilities. There were forms of martial arts she hadn't practiced in a while; might as well give them a try.

Eventually, Professor Wilson called for class to end, and Pip disengaged, staggering away. She took a moment to breathe, waiting for people to filter past her to move. They had Philosophy class after this, so she needed to shower, but first, she needed to talk to somebody.

She opened her eyes in time to catch Violet slipping by, and spun around after her. "Hey."

Violet's gaze flickered to her. "Hey."

"You looked good in there."

"You were watching me? Why?" She shook her head, clearly confused.

"Because, I, uh, like watching you?" Pip said, stumbling over the words. She'd intended them to be smooth, only for Violet not to play along and leave her floundering. What was she supposed to do if Violet didn't flirt back? "I haven't seen you since the other night."

"Been busy," Violet said with a shrug. "And I need to shower before the next class, so…" She pointed off toward the waiting locker rooms. Pip's face heated up as she did. Why on earth did we hook up in there?

"Right, sorry." She hopped to the side, and Violet's eyes followed her, narrowing into slits.

"Why are you being weird?"

"I'm not being weird."

"You are," Violet said. "I wouldn't have hooked up with you if you were going to be weird about it."

"Uh…"

Violet winced, then rubbed a hand across the back of her neck. "Sorry, that came off harsher than I intended. Just don't be weird about it, okay?"

"Right, no, I won't," Pip said, feeling incredibly weird as she said the words. She stood there, hardly able to look at Violet, words that couldn't find form waiting on her tongue. She should say something, shouldn't she? "So, uh… Do you want to sit together in class?"

Violet looked at her like she'd sprouted a second head, and that might have been preferable right now to the reality. "Aren't you going to sit with Viv? That's what you always do. I told you, don't make it weird. It was just a hook-up."

"Just a hook-up."

"Yeah. I mean, this is basically college, and that's what people do. It's not like this was your first time or anything…"

She trailed off as Pip laughed awkwardly, suddenly struck with the desire to swap powers and places with someone. It wasn't like she'd planned on going to college a virgin, but things had just never really worked out with Khione, and it was weird to hook up with someone in your parents' house anyway. Then, Pip had vowed to remain focused throughout school, so she didn't get distracted with things like this.

I should have kept that promise, she thought, cursing her decision making skills. Not only that, but her awkwardness. She was a badass hero, or would be, why couldn't she hook up with someone without being awkward?

"Oh no," Violet said, rubbing a hand across her face. "How are you a virgin? You're a Carter!"

"I don't know!" Pip exclaimed, the words coming out as more of a squeak than anything else. "I just never really got there before! I've only had one girlfriend."

"I thought you and Viv were together."

A blush like a tsunami raced across Pip's face, leaving her stammering for a response. "Why would you think that?" she demanded. "And if you thought that, why'd you hook up with me?"

"Thought you two did that," Violet said with a shrug. "My bad, I was wrong. Uh, sorry. I gotta go shower."

She raced off, leaving Pip staring after her, the sheer embarrassment keeping her rooted in place. Fuck me, she thought, staring after the girl. That wasn't how that was supposed to go.

Pip shifted from foot to foot before racing over to the side of the room to grab her things. She'd shower later, she just couldn't face Violet—or anyone else for that matter—right now.

Half an hour later, she'd calmed down, and decided she was an utter failure to the Carter legacy. Not because of her powers or anything silly like that. Because she was a desperate, embarrassing, no-longer-a-virgin who couldn't tell if someone liked her or not.

It was ridiculous. First she couldn't do the whole girlfriend thing right, and now this. It just wasn't fair.

Despite the fact that she was early, she made her way into the auditorium that hosted Aunt Artemis's Philosophy of Heroes class. Her shoes padded quietly against the floor, alongside her regret at accidentally ruining her lucky pair during her first real sparring session against a peer. Florence still owed her for that.

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Artemis looked up from her spot near the back of the stage, a smile gracing her face at Pip's entrance.

"Hey, Pip," she called out, motioning Pip over to her. "You're early."

"Skipped out on showering," Pip said, climbing the stairs along the side of the stage and trudging up to her aunt.

Artemis wrinkled her nose as she looked at Pip in a new light. "Maybe not your wisest decision."

"I don't seem to be good at those," Pip grumbled. Making her way to the table against the far end of the stage, Pip leaned against the cheap plastic. There were small stacks of papers on the table, probably homework. Was she supposed to have brought in homework today?

"What's the matter?" Artemis asked. Despite her disgust at Pip's state, she reached out, brushing a lock of hair behind Pip's ear. She could remember her aunt doing the same years ago, when Pip was barely more than a toddler, sitting on her aunt's lap and fiddling with a toy Grandpa Grant had brought back from his latest mission. A piece of her wish that period of time had never ended.

"I think I'm stupid."

"Well, that's a condition our family is prone to," Artemis said with a hint of a smile. "I, by some grace, have managed to escape."

Pip snorted. "Right."

"What is it, specifically, that's made you think this?" Artemis asked. "We have a bit of time before class starts, if you want to talk."

Drumming her fingers against the table, she debated for a moment before opening her mouth. "I'm bad at everything. The whole hero training thing. Dating. Girls. Ugh." She slumped against the table, resisting the urge to slam her head down on it. That would probably mess up Artemis's papers, and she didn't want to upset her aunt.

"Hmm," Artemis said. "I don't really know how to help with the girls thing, unfortunately. I've only ever been attracted to men." Pip must have made a face, because Artemis laughed. "Shocking, I know, but true. As for the hero thing… You're not bad at it, Pip. If you were, I would have brought you into my office already to speak with you."

"You would have?" Pip stared up at her, face blank. How many times had Artemis had that conversation? Had she had it this year?

"Yes. Just because you're my niece doesn't mean you get special treatment." Artemis jotted down something in her notebook before closing it, too fast for Pip to get an idea of what she was writing. "There are a few ways to fail here, and you're not close to any of them. You work hard. You have the right temperament. You do what your professors ask and you're trying to do better."

"But I'm not doing well enough."

"According to who?"

"I don't know, me?" Pip threw up her hands and began to pace. She couldn't stand still, not when she felt like this. "I know I should be doing better."

"You just expected to come into the program already knowing everything," Artemis said with a pointed look. "If you let go of that, you're doing… well enough, at least."

"But you know I should be doing better," Pip said, stopping to meet her aunt's eyes. "I'm a Carter. Everyone knows I should be doing better."

Artemis let out a sigh, then glanced at her watch. "You're going to learn to let that go one day, Pip. Being a Carter doesn't matter as much as you think it does."

Pip scoffed. Of course Artemis could say that. She was already a well known and established hero, one who'd had a career long enough to allow her to retire to teaching. Pip didn't have that privilege yet. She still needed to prove herself, needed to make the world see that she was a Carter through and through, not some cheap knockoff.

"Go sit down," Artemis said, giving Pip a gentle nudge. "Class is about to start."

Leaving the stage, Pip milled quietly around the room as people began to filter in, giving her odd stares as they took seats. To her great luck, nobody went to turn in homework, which meant she hadn't forgotten that, at least.

She froze as Violet walked in, passing her without so much as a glance. Vivainne and Harper were right behind her, laughing quietly together over something. A pit formed in Pip's stomach as she watched, suddenly finding herself on the outside once more. It hadn't ever bothered her in school, where she knew none of it really mattered. But this was her world, and here she was, sitting on the outside while everyone else progressed and made friends and relationships and—

"Pip?" Florence stepped out of the main walkway, moving smoothly to the side as he dropped Damien's hand. He gave the dark haired boy the slightest nod, and Damien moved along, taking his usual seat near the front of the class. He almost never spoke up, but always sat up front, watching Artemis like a hawk. "What are you doing here? I didn't see you after combat class."

She shrugged, trying to keep her agitation from the motion. Mai would tell her to breathe. Athena would probably tell her to go run laps. Artemis probably wouldn't like it if Pip started running laps around the auditorium. "Came to talk to Aunt Artemis."

"Is everything okay?"

"I'm stupid."

"Great, so nothing has changed."

A shit eating grin stretched across his face as Pip glared. "Not helpful."

"Is this still about the Viv thing?" Florence asked, dropping his voice low as he flicked his eyes across the room. The fire-like streaks in his eyes seemed to dance as they did so.

"What? No. Maybe a little. I don't know." She groaned, rubbing at her eyes, unable to stare at Vivainne and Harper any longer. Were they going out now? Had Pip missed her chance?

"Tell me about it after class," Florence said. "Your aunt is glaring at us."

He grabbed her elbow, dragging her down the stairs and into the row with Damien. She waved at the boy before sitting back, forcing herself to be still as her aunt stepped up to the waiting podium.

"Good afternoon," she said pleasantly. "I'm glad to see you all survived parents' weekend in one piece."

Faint, polite laughter rippled through the room from the few who thought to respond. Ignoring the lackluster response, Artemis dove straight into her lesson, giving a quick overview of everything they'd covered so far. Then, she picked up one of the stacks of papers she'd made and reached down to the closest student to begin handing them out.

"Today," she said, "we're going to talk about something that will affect you everyday as a hero. Teams. Teams are a matter of life and death as a hero, and I mean that literally. Once you graduate, you'll join a team for your internship period. After that, it will be up to you and your mentor to decide if you stay on that team or join or create a new one."

Just as Artemis opened her mouth to continue, someone raised their hand. One of the boys in Pip's combat training class, someone who could match Violet blow for blow. Eric was his name? "Then how come we see heroes working alone all the time?"

"You don't," Artemis said succinctly. "You may think you do, but that is rarely the case. Even the most well known and powerful heroes have teams. Because one hero cannot fill every role on a team.

"There are multiple styles of teams," Artemis continued. "Rescue teams are quite common. They're the heroes who work together to deal with the aftermath of natural, man-made, and meta-made disasters. Heroes on these teams are generally trained in recovery, first aid, and crowd control, amongst other things. Response teams try to stop natural, man-made, and meta-made disasters before they can turn into rescue situations. Combat teams deal with threats that arise, be it supers or meta-fauna. In a similar vein, scorched earth teams are who you call in when you need to stop someone or something who can't be stopped with normal measures. There are crime response teams, who often work alongside local and federal law enforcement to stop crimes or catch criminals. There are also general patrol teams, who are the heroes you see patrolling the streets. That is where the majority of you will end up, and they are the backbones of our system."

Pip nodded. She'd seen all the teams, except for maybe the crime response teams, in action, and discussed them at length with her mother. Athena had joined a combat team right out of school, despite the multitude of applications for her power. Pip wanted to do the same; a combat team was where she belonged.

"By now, most of you have an idea of what sort of hero you want to be," Artemis said. "This will influence the sort of team you eventually join, but that isn't the end all be all. Over the coming weeks, in conjunction with your power and combat classes, you will be testing your affinity for certain roles and teams within our system. To start, you are going to put together a patrol team for your upcoming practical exam. You will be allowed to select your own team members this time, so begin thinking about who you want on your team and why. Whatever team you land on will be expected to fill out the assignment sheet as a group project, and you will return the paper to me by the end of class. It will be used to grade you for the upcoming exam."

Pip frowned, looking down at the paper in her hand and turning it over. At the top of the paper read the name of the assignment, Patrol Team. Beneath it, there were five empty slots. A team of five, then?

There were no labels on the five slots, but Pip knew instantly what they were supposed to be. Roles. No team was made up of five brawlers. There had to be balance.

She turned immediately to Florence. "I want you on my team."

He scoffed. "Your team?"

"Okay, fine, our team," she said, rolling her eyes. This was her chance to prove she knew what she was talking about, and what she was good at. And she needed his help. "What do you think? Be our captain?"

His eyes lit up at the suggestion, just like she knew they would. He would be good at it too. His parents were some of the best strategists in the world; it was why they'd been chosen to fill out the World Oracle. He had to have some of those genes cooking in his unreasonably tall and narrow body.

Besides, Pip knew that wasn't the role for her. No, she was their combatant, through and through.

"All right," he said, standing up. "Let's go build our team."