The Pier, New York City
April 2, 2012
08:54 Hours

For the last hour Danel Lee had been attempting to solve the complicated legal puzzle box that is insuring the life of a superhero. His chief problem at the moment was distraction.  He would only get so deep into the legalese before the same thought would derail his train of thought: the New York Knights are back.

Part of him felt like a child on Christmas Eve, impatient to see what mysteries would be discovered upon the morning. Another part felt like that child's parents, inwardly nervous about what those mysteries might bring and knowing that there really isn't a Santa Claus - just hefty credit card bills and, if you were lucky, some zero-interest financing for six months.

Flying commercial wasn't the thrill it had once been. Leah remembered the thrill of excitement she always got at take-off when the jet finally raced forward, hurtling down the runway, inertia pushing her into her seat. And the moment when the rumble of tires across asphalt ceased and the whole airliner tilted for a steep ascent into the sky. There had been few thrills to match it. Now--it couldn't compare to flying under her own power, with the wind in her hair. It was never going to be the same.

Excerpt from Iron Maiden's WordPress blog:

I suppose you've all seen the video by now. It was all over the local news and I don't doubt that it's on You Tube by now.

Hardly a night had gone by since Leah had discovered that she could fly that she hadn't flown. She could hardly believe her good fortune. She'd gained a power she'd dreamed of all her life. There were other gifts as well--strength and invulnerability. Gifts which were arguably more practical, but they paled in comparison to flight.

“I don’t have time for this crap!” Leah said. “I have a date!” She drove her fingers into the metallic forehead of another of Doctor Otaku’s robot minions and wrenched the robot’s head from its neck.

“I have you now, Iron Maiden!”

Leah Wright—known to the world as the superheroine Iron Maiden—paused in mid-scuffle to gape. “What?” Doctor Otaku’s robots continued to try to overwhelm her with numbers. Doctor Otaku himself thrust a glowing green crystal toward Leah with a triumphant grin. A hand grabbed at Leah; she casually knocked it away. “What are you talking about?”

They'd danced until the thunderstorm moved on. The curtain of rain was receding to the west, flickering and grumbling in the distance. Now they stood on the damp concrete ledge with the humidity rising as the rain began to evaporate. The city smelled of rain and ozone and gleamed like new.

"It looks beautiful from up here," Leah said.

"You can't see the warts from this height," Raven replied. "But trust me, they're there."

Leah thought about her own childhood experiences with violence and crime. She glanced at the woman. "I know," Leah said. Raven looked at her sidelong, then nodded without asking more. Leah's stomach growled again.

Raven had stepped back and raised an eyebrow. "Someone's hungry," she said.

Leah's last scheduled event at HudCon this evening was a reading of her most recent short story, Bad Touch. It ran from 8 to 9 pm. Afterward, she spent a few minutes signing copies of her novels and answering questions from a few of the folk who'd attended the reading. By the time she'd shaken off the most persistent, she was more than ready to leave the hotel.