"This," announced Leland McCauley, "is Inferno. She'll be joining the Workforce." The Workforce was McCauley's answer to Brande's Legion of Super-Heroes. His team, however, was dedicated to protecting McCauley's interests, not the universe at large.

He watched her stand, awkward but arrogant, her strawberry blonde hair cut short as if she didn't want to bother with it. Her smile edged close to a sneer as she looked over her teammates. Her uniform was ugly, yellow, with a banded skirt and large shoulder armor. The skirt showed a nice bit of thigh, and her arms were well muscled.

"Hi," said Live Wire, trying to make the best of the bad situation he'd been stuck in since Winath had replaced him in the Legion. "I'm Garth Ranzz, Live Wire." He held out his hand, and she shook it. Others in the group exchanged pleasantries with her, until she knew them all: Jo Nah, Ultra Boy; Sev Tcheru, Evolvo; Val Armorr, Karate Kid; Sussa Paka, Spider Girl.

"I didn't catch your name," Spider Girl said.

"I didn't give it," Inferno answered, in a tone that left no room for more questions.

They had their first fight that evening over which holo program to watch. Inferno yelled, Live Wire shouted; their teammates ducked for cover. Flames met lightning in the center of the room, a duel that left the furniture blackened and burned. Live Wire was almost happy; finally a chance to let out the tension, the anger at his removal from the Legion. Inferno smiled as she sent jets of fire at him, and he had no idea why.

It enticed him.

"Tell me your name," he asked, after the fight was over, while they both cleaned the rec room and pretended they didn't mind the menial work.

"No."

He wondered how someone so fiery could sound like so much ice.

Sex between them was like their fighting, rough and dangerous. There was no awkwardness between them their first night, no exploration of each other's bodies, no whispered names in the dark. Bodies slammed together, fingers gouged flesh, and if they kissed, they bit each other, and their eyes stayed wide open. Power crackled about them as they fought in bed, lightning arcing along her spine as he dug his hands into her back, flames circling his neck like a noose while she rode him, grinding him down beneath her.

He called her Imra only once, the first time she bothered to stay the night, the first time she let him hold her after sex. She slapped him, hard, power flaring around her, and he bore the burnprint of her hand for the next week across his face. She smiled whenever she saw the burn, and she'd move to caress it, sending pain shooting through his nerves. She wouldn't go to his room until it had healed. When she finally relented, their sex left each other dizzy, exhausted, bleeding. She let him curl around her, licking the blood from her neck.

"Tell me your name," he murmured.

She gave no answer.

He never called her Imra again.

She didn't seem to notice.

He would watch her as she slept. There were times he wondered what he was doing with her, with the Workforce, with his life. When he lost himself in morbid thoughts he would wake her, and they'd fight, or have more sex; sometimes it was hard to tell the difference. She laughed at him when he explained he got confused between the two. "It's very simple. It's the same thing."

If she woke during the night and watched over his sleep, he never knew. If she thought about him when they were apart, she never said. They didn't talk about their relationship. There were good times together spent watching holos or eating dinner at fine restaurants, but even then, they snipped at each other, fought over small things such as who had the remote, who paid for dinner.

"Tell me your name." He didn't always ask, but when he did, it didn't matter. She never answered, whether he asked in the middle of sex or the middle of dinner.

But sometimes she smiled when he asked, the same smile that toyed with her lips when she used her power, the smile she wore when she catalogued the bites and scratches and burns she inflicted on him, or he on her.

And sometimes he asked her name, and she smiled and said no, and it would be enough.

But only sometimes.