Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It's been a week since I got hospitalized. Now I’m discharged and free to go. Dad picked me up at the parking lot and we drove home, silence interrupted with quiet comfortable small talk. Dad asks if I want takeout from a drive-thru. I feel like that's my chance.

“I bet fugly’s line is packed, wanna go for Pierre’s?” I say

“Little owl, you know Pierre’s has longer lines. Fugly’s move faster.”

“Well, it's on then? And I'll say I told you so when we waste half an hour in Fugly’s.” Dad chuckles at that and drives towards the Boardwalk. When we get there, as I predicted, there's a long line to the Fugly’s drive-thru. Dad doesn't visit the Boardwalk on Sundays a lot, of course he'd assume Pierre’s would be packed cause people go there for work lunch on weekdays. When dad looks at me, I'm sporting a smug grin. He huffs out a laugh as I mouth “told you so” as we get pizza pockets from Pierre’s.

Dad is happy that we got through the line quickly. I'm happy because we got pizza pockets and I got a small boost. I felt like I could get subtle gut feelings about what's about to happen and a very, very tiny boost to my physical body. So I press on. By the time we reach home, we've played guess the state by the number plate and how many stoplights will be red before we get to the suburbs. Dad seems to be in a much better mood than when he came to pick me up.

When we're home, I give dad a hug and put my next plan in motion.

“Wanna play some chess?” I ask, no ulterior motive in mind, none at all.

“What's with the sudden competitive spirit, kiddo?” He asks, surprised. We haven't spent much time together before the incident. He was drowning in grief and was failing to connect with me. I wasn't being cooperative either, trying to avoid questions about school. But now, the cat's out of the bag and I have nothing to hide. Well, something to hide, but it's so much easier to hide that I have powers than it is to hide that I'm being bullied by my best friend.

“I dunno. I was just… so bored in the hospital. I want to spend some time with you,” I say, which seems to satisfy his curiosity.

“Okay, kiddo, let's dust out the old board.” I smile at him as I rush down into the basement and look for the chess board. I tentatively try lifting dad’s old workout equipment. Yep. I got marginally stronger, but nowhere near what a cape would need. Still in the average human range. That's because I was, admittedly, below average in strength before. But I still feel like the strength boost is underwhelming.

We play for an hour before dad gets tired and wants to go to bed. He's good at chess, given how often he plays with the dockworkers during lunch breaks. But I cheat, like a cheating cheater. I use my minor precog power to see if the move is good or not. That earns me two victories out of three games and another minor boost to my physical body and a slight improvement to my precog power, which I decide to call Hunch. So far I get gut feelings for stuff that's about to happen within a minute or so. Like a move that immediately results in an important piece getting taken, or a short-term setup. I can also guess what dad is about to say right before he says it. Aside from that I feel like I'm getting a bit of dad’s administrative skills with each bet I win, and what seems like shadows of former military training and stuff. Kind of like Empire’s Victor, huh. I hope I'm not taking them away from dad and just copying them. The DWU is finally facing a windfall and I won't forgive myself if my wanton use of powers ruins dad’s chances at reviving the ferry.

For the next week, I hound dad for more bets and board games whenever I can. His mood seems to be improving by the day and I can even see a pep in his step when he comes back home. No longer is he holding a pack of beer when he gets out of his car. He talks about how DWU can afford more workers and that he's reaching out to other unions in town. I like to think that I also played some part in lifting his spirits.

Then comes Sunday again. Just one day before I have to go back to Winslow. My personal circle of hell on earth. I go down to the basement and clean dad’s workout gear. I can lift significantly more than before. It's still very much average for an adult dockworker, but a hundred and sixty pounds is four times more than I could lift before. And I got to this point by only playing board games with dad! For a week! But I'm starting to feel like I'm reaching a limit of how much I can gain from safe bets with dad. And the riskier the bet, the bigger the reward. My Hunch got much better too. Now I get vague knowledge of what's about to happen in the next ten-ish minutes and can even look at hypothetical futures. Like what would I see if I opened the kitchen drawer? I would know even without opening it.

That is how I know that if I enter Winslow right now, I’ll meet face to face with Maddison. She’s small potatoes without Miss Verbal Artillery Barnes or Miss Punch You In The Everywhere Hess. But she’ll see me and she’ll tell others that she saw me. If I want my plan to work, I need to get to Sophia without Emma intercepting me. So I circle around and enter through the sports field. I don’t feel like I’ll find her on the first floor so I take the stairs up. I see her at the lockers, emptying her backpack from textbooks for the day. I approach her with no hesitation, Hunch tells me it’s now or never.

“Hey, Sophia,” I say from just out of arm's reach.

“Shit,” she startles and whirls around to face me, “Fuck, Hebert, don’t sneak up on me! The fuck you want?” She winds up a fist. I know it's a feint and she’ll punch me for real if I flinch. She looks surprised and off balance by that and still sends a punch at my arm. Ouch.

“I want to make a bet with you.” She looks at me skeptically. “I win, you leave me alone for a week. You win, I’ll say whatever you want on camera. Nothing criminally incriminating but yeah, anything else is game.” That caught her interest.

“Whatchu wanna bet on?”

“We play hoops. I know you’re not in the basketball team, you know I’m not in the basketball team. It’s fair.” I know it’s not fair and she knows it too. Between us two she’s the one with muscles and physical superiority. But I cheat. So it’s fair again.

“Sure,” She says, a sadistic smile spreading across her face. She must be thinking about what she’ll make me say already. “Come to the indoor PE gym at lunch.” She says, and turns back to sorting through her textbooks. Hoo boy. I might have fucked myself in a major, major way.

Chapter Text

Classes go by without incident. Maddison giggles at me from time to time, discussing something with Julia. Others don’t pay attention to me as long as they don’t need to look good in front of Emma. And as I’m not sharing any classes with her today, I am spared. Lunchtime comes and, with heavy steps, I go towards the gym. I don’t bother dressing in the PE uniform cause I don’t think this’ll last long. I go to the storage closet and take out a couple basketballs. The only time I’ve played it, I’ve been slammed more times than during the one football practice I tried out at freshman year. Either that or I get benched and people throw their sweaty towels at me. Yeah, no. PE is my least favorite class.

I try throwing the ball unassisted. I know you just have to hit the box above the ring. At least, that’s what people say. I fail miserably. A couple times the ball hits the ring, a couple times the ball hits the box but bounces away instead of into the ring. So I cheat. My Hunch tells me the outcome of a throw if I don’t do any adjustments. And it takes a couple minutes at first to get it right. But next tries become easier to adjust, like the first try was some kinda calibration.

Sophia entered the gym right when I was trying 3-pointers. She saw how the ball bounced off the ring and landed a couple steps away from me with a smirk.

“You ready to get trounced, Hebert? So what’s the rules?” Right, I kinda glossed over that in my rush to get away in the morning.

“We take turns throwing the ball. We do it ten times each and the one who scores higher wins.” I say

“Huh. Easy enough. I hope you’re ready,” She says, taking out a sheet of paper from her backpack. “You’ll need your best acting skills for this one.”

We go for free throws first. Sophia scores 3 out of 3, I land two. I decided to miss one on purpose so that I don’t win by scoring full points in the end, but I feel like I made a mistake. We get further away and do three more throws each. Sophia hits 3 out of 3. I hit 3 out of 3. Oh. Oh no. That’s 9 to 8. We move even further back and I’m praying for Sophia to miss. I score a 3-pointer. She scores a 3-pointer. I score another. Sophia does too. My last throw hits home. Sophia picks the ball up and saunters to my spot. Please, god, do something! If there’s anything holy left in this world, let her miss! She readies for a throw, she takes aim, she’s taking her sweet time and savoring my imminent defeat, and when she finally decides to throw-

“The fuck you doin ‘ere, squirts?” Our PE teacher startles Sophia and the ball goes wide. “Clean the shit up and get out of the gym! Next time, book it like everyone else!” He yells at us and goes into his office to play poker with the janitor, like he usually does.

“Fuck! That doesn’t count, Hebert! I’ll throw again!” Sophia growls and reaches for the ball.

“Sure,” I say, my Hunch telling me she’ll miss again. And she does.

“Fuck this! I’m just off balance cause fatty Johnson surprised me!” Good excuse, Soph. But it’s my win. “Ugh, whatever.” She walks up to me and pokes me in the chest. Ouch, “Next week, don’t expect to get a Hail Mary save again. We do it after class, outside.” And she walks off. And stops mid-way to say, “And I’m modifying the script!”

Uh. Okay. I don’t even know what’s in it. Well, I know what’s in it but she doesn’t know I do. I shudder at the thought of saying all that on camera. I also shudder from the surge of strength and the feeling of a new power. Oh hell yeah!

I didn't get much physical strength from Sophia, but I could tell my stamina and speed improved drastically just from one wager. It's true then! The riskier the bet, the better the rewards! And I got another boost to my combat skills.

The rest of the classes go smoothly. Once done, I grab my backpack and run to the docks. I gotta test my new power! I am positively giddy at the thought of using them. Hunch proved to be such a nice power that I wonder what this one will give me. Once deep in the Boat Graveyard, I activate it. At first, I didn't feel much but then I noticed parts of me that aren't under direct sunlight going semi transparent, darker. Oh. I turn to shadow in the dark! Yes! Yes yes yes yes! A stealth power! Sophia, you're my least hated bully now! But it does give me some pause. Since I won a probability based bet with dad and got a precog power, shouldn't I have gotten something physical from a physical skill based bet with Sophia? Why did it give me shadow powers? Wait.

“Is… Oh god. My power is racist!” I exclaim in shock.

“Is that so?” I hear from behind me and cry out in surprise! Gah! Who would sneak up on an innocent totally not a cape? “I believe your powers would be a great addition to our forces, then” Says Victor, the Fuck You guy. I turn around, assuming a defensive stance I didn’t know I knew.

“Woah, hey! I’m not a nazi!” Yeah! Bitch?! If you insist, I'll fight back. I have the power of a fully grown man and like half a teenage girl in me! That didn’t sound right. “I’m not even a villain!”

“Truly? We aren’t villains either.” Victor says, sugar and honey spilling from his mouth, metaphorically. Like I’d believe that bullshit. “We only look out for our kind, the prosperity of the common white man.” Ew. “But alright. If you insist, how about we wager a bit? When you go out in costume for your first night, I’ll be waiting for you. If you manage to stop three separate crimes before I can tag you, I’ll leave you alone.”

“And if you tag me I’ll literally die.” Asshole, I don’t voice out.

“Oh, none of that. After all, we have the better healer of the Bay.” Now he’s shitting me for real.

“I’m pretty sure Panacea heals more people.”

“She can’t do brains.” Ah, fair. “And Othala only heals the right sort. So if I tag you, our men will drag you in front of Kaiser where you’ll willingly join our righteous cause.” That’s not- Ugh, don’t worry, Panpan, you’ll always remain as my favorite catholic nun appropriator cape. And my favorite healer of course. Hmm, Panpan the nun. Shit, I got lost in thought in front of a proximity and time based skill thief!

“Okay, sure. I’ll send a call to the closest anti-antifa office when I go out. Bye!” I say, running off in the fastest sprint I can muster. He stays in place, for sure smiling like the smug bitch he thinks he is. I’m the superior thinker here! I’m literally you but better! I’ll have my revenge for… you startling me! I’ll get you! Nobody press-gangs me!

Chapter Text

How do I tell my dad that I got approached by a super powered neo-nazi who gave me the softest recruitment pitch in the history of their organization. I fully expected to be beaten within an inch of my life and dragged over sharp rocks before I’m thrown bodily in front of good cop Kaiser and bad cop Hookwolf. The nastiest carrot and one heck of a stick. But it didn’t happen! And now a cape knows my face, oh fuck me. I spend the rest of my day doing some regular workouts. If my theory is right, I’ll still get marginally stronger if I gain muscle. And I’ll look good. Maybe not Miss Militia level good, muscles alone can’t give those curves. But hey, at least Battery level good.

Dad came home late, and I heated up the dinner I made for today. He groggily ruffled my hair and went to bed. No chess today. Oh well, time to come up with a costume. Since my powers evolve and change, I might as well pick a random theme and stick to it. My eyes drift towards my super secret forbidden notebook. The one I never showed Emma cause even when I trusted her as my best friend, I wouldn’t trust her with it. There, in the final drafts, the last pages of the notebook, was my fursona. A centipede spider hybrid. My… BUGsona. I colored it red and black before mom found out and told me about how those are Empire colors. I have hated nazis ever since that day. 

So yellow and green it is. The colors wouldn’t matter cause I can turn transparent in the dark. Or… semi-transparent. Potato potahto. I grab my pencil and start sketching a more practical version of my bugsona. I’m keeping the mandibles and the antennae, no need to remove ALL the aesthetics for practicality. A cape that looks like spider silk receives a resounding yes from me. I coil a yellow centipede around my left leg, across my body and into my right arm, the kind that has gangly legs and looks all sharp and dangerous. I sprinkle yellow spider webs across the green expanse not covered by the centipede. A glove with retractable claws sounds metal. Spider leg stilettos sound even more metal. Gotta find someone who's great at fighting in heels.

Sketch done, I go sleep now. Tomorrow is a promising but boring day. Emma leaves me to simmer in anxiety, Sophia leaves me alone too. Madison tries to start shit but I don't care about her much. Madi-who? Fuck her.

A week goes by and next monday I'm back to ground zero with Sophia. She shoots me a venomous look that promises violence if I run after school. But I want more of her sweet stealth. I stay. When I enter the gym, she's already there, sitting in the unlit room. Little weirdo. I find out that I see slightly better in the dark. That's neat.

“Hi, Sophia,” I says as I turn on the lights.

“Fuck you,” says Sophia, startled that I called her out. “We do 3-pointers from the start now. All ten shots.”

“Okay, I don't mind,” I agree, I got better at aiming after our last bet. And I didn't fuck around the last week and played backgammon and checkers with dad till I couldn't gain any more power ups. I'll keep playing with him, of course, I fucking love my only remaining parent, he's great!

“Of course you don't, wimp,” she bites out. Whoa, where did that come from? Anyway, Sophia goes first, scoring a hit. I go next. I don't miss either. That goes on until Sophia misses her eighth shot. She stares at the ball in fury like her eyes could incinerate it if she tried hard enough. *Slaps roof of Sophia* This bad girl can fit so much anger.

She didn’t appreciate me patting her back and slapped my hand away. “Alright. Spill. How long did you train for this?” She finally says.

“Uhhh, since I got released from the hospital.”

“Ha! So you did train! I knew it!” She looks triumphantly at me.

“And you didn’t after your loss last week?”

“Wh- of course not! I don’t need to train to beat the likes of you!” She pokes my chest again. Ouch.

“Do you like touching my chest so much? I never noticed before.” Oh wow she pulled her hand away like my shirt was on fire.

“NO!” She fumes for a couple seconds, and smirks “Besides, it’s not like there’s anything there to touch.” Oi!

“Well, you lost again, so you do need to train to beat the likes of me.” Oi! Sophia thinks.

“Oh, it’s on bitch. Call it. Any sports. I’ll wipe the FLOOR with you!” She reaches to poke me and pulls her hand away. Wow. All I had to do to stop her from bullying me is insinuate that she’s groping me? Grope away, Sophia, please, as long as you leave me alone after. Yikes, no.

“Okay. Okay. How about a rematch though? Train up for a week, and we’ll spice up the competition.”

“Go on.”

“We start at the 3 pointer line. And each time we score, we move one foot back. The first to miss loses.”

“Fine. But I’m making you wear something embarrassing if you lose.” She says after mulling it over a bit. Ah, upping the stakes, I see. I can feel my power chomping at the bit for me to win. Yeesh, calm down. I gotta find some other way to get stronger, dad isn’t boosting me much lately.

So I go looking for the gym after classes. Somewhere cheap and affordable. I decided on a shabby looking Laborn Boxing, a place that looks like it’s a refurbished warehouse. Just the two weeks of physical training did little for me and I feel like dad’s weights don’t do much. He’s not the most athletic man.

A month-long abonnement to the club is a hundred bucks. I pickpocket a couple tourists from the Boardwalk and suddenly I can afford. Deciding to familiarize myself with the club, I grab my workout clothes, which is just my least sweaty t-shirt and my least dirty pair of sweatpants. It’s not like I need to look pretty for anyone around here. My eyes fall on the sweet sweet stack of twenty five, thirty five pound plates. Exactly what I needed. I put around two hundred on a barbell and think just for a second. Why do one thing when I can do two at once? My eyes fall on a very neat looking guy going at the punching bags in the corner. His whole being screams “please don’t bother me”. So I go to bother him.

“Heyyy, I’m Taylor.” I say after sneaking up to him.

“Wuh! Uh, hi… I’m Brian.” he responds after getting over his surprise. I love you, Sophia! As long as you give me more stealth powers, I’ll play any sports with you.

“Hi, Brian. Listen, I don’t really want to bother you,” He looks at me with a deadpan stare, “But could you spot me? Just for a couple sets, I swear!” That takes him by surprise, again. A very surpriseable guy, this Brian.

“Uh, sure. Let’s go?” He offers. Such a gentleman. His relaxed smile disappears when he sees my barbell. “There’s no way you’re lifting that.” He says.

“Wanna bet?” I ask, a grin spreading across my face. Oh, he doesn’t like the grin. Squirm, Brian. You’re my power up battery for today!

Chapter Text

“... How?” Asks Brian, stupefied and perplexed by the two hundred pounds I’m deadlifting right now. I do ten reps and set the bar down.

“Well, I’m training for basketball against this girl, she’s a real diehard, I tell you. Said she’ll dress me up all weird if I lose. So I’m really invested in winning, you know?” I say, doing a stretch, “You also owe me fifty bucks, you lost the bet.” I add.

“Okay, yeah. You look like a basketball player alright,” He chuckles, eyeing me up and down, “I’ll pay you once I’m out of the gym, all my money’s in the locker room…” He pauses, watching me haul the bar up, “Are you sure you need a spotter? I don’t think you’re even struggling, like DAMN girl.” Wow, that’s a lot of attention all of a sudden.

“Yeah, that’s kind of a rule, right? You can’t lift past a certain weight without a spotter no matter how confident you are? Besides, it’s my first time in a gym. Like, any gym.”

“Really? That’s… wow. You must have one heck of a home routine?”

“Yeaah, dad’s a dockworker, so he’s used to lifting weights around.” Brian gets this far away look. Probably imagining my dad like some kind of hulking bodybuilder guy. Good! Form more misconceptions about me! He looks back at who looks like the owner of the gym and also its cashier. Oh, they kinda look alike. No, Taylor, they don’t!

“That’s my dad over there.” He points at the gym owner. Ah. They do. “He’s also kind of a gym nut and beat the love for weights in me from a young age.” Yikes, word choice! Yyyiikes! Deflect. Deflect!

“So this is primarily a boxing gym, right?” He nods carefully, “So, do you..?”

“Box? Uhh, yeah. Yeah, dad taught me everything he knows… Wanna, uh, wanna try it?” He asks, after hesitating for a brief moment. Bingo! He takes me to the ring and I put on the soft boxing gloves and the practice helmet. I swindle another couple of bets from Brian during practice and, shockingly, he’s a decent boxing teacher! He said he visits the gym twice a week, I looked at my schedule and noticed that we match since I plan to visit it four times a week, every weekday except wednesday. He asks for my number, but I don’t have a phone. I tell him I’ll share my number with him when I get a phone, he cringes a bit and backpedals.

Once I’m a couple blocks away, I try turning on the new power I got. A thick black fog envelops my body- hey! What's with all the darkness?! Are you actually racist, power? Or is that MY theme? Do I only get darkness themed stuff? Anyway, a thick black fog envelops my body. I feel like I can manipulate it with a thought. So I turn it into a cloak. Then cover my face. Siiiick! I can don a mask anytime I want. I still want my bugsuit though. I fiddle with the fog a bit before it takes my desired shape. Shadow mandibles, shadow insect limbs across my body. I make long scaly wings flutter behind me. Wow. My silhouette looks awesome.

“Hey there!” I hear from above me. Oh fuck! This is either Glory Girl or Purity! Any way I'm fucked! I look up. Hm. White. Doesn't tell me much besides wear shorts you dumbass! “You don't look like a hero to me.” Says Glory Girl in a voice that tells me she supports police brutality.

“Will you believe me if I say I am?”

“No. Heroes don't carry duffel bags. That's awfully sus of you,” she squints at me, probably already imagining me as a wet puddle on the road. Oh!

“Are you willing to bet on it though? What if I tell you I just left the gym after a sweaty sweaty workout with a hot hunk of a boy?” she sputters at that.

“No way! I don't believe you.”

“Then you're betting?”

“... Sure.”

“Okay. If it turns out that it's really gym clothes, I get a kiss on the cheeks from you.” She squawks indignantly, “And an apology.” She squawks louder.

“Well alright! If I win, I'm brutalizing you and sending you to the PRT!” Such an honest girl. I like her. In a platonic way.

“Sure.” I take off the duffel bag and open it up, “See?” I say, and see my duffel bag full of money. “Uhh… I can explain?”

“Ugh! You little! I almost believed you!” And now Alexandria lite is flying at my face. I duck out of the way as her fist whooshes over me. No fucking way. What kind of fucked up Murphy's law bullshit just happened?! I dig into the bag and grab one of the wads of cash. I take a closer look as Glory Girl pulls herself out of a wall.

“Wait! Wait wait wait wait wait! Look!” She slows to a stop from going almost supersonic right in front of my face as she looks at the unrolled wad of cash I'm holding. On it in bold words it says “National Bank of Pranks”.

“... Oh.” Is all she says. She almost looks disappointed. Oh boo hoo, you don't get to cave my face in today! “Well… I'll get going then…”

“Wait the fuck up?!” I yell indignantly. “Where's my kiss?” Aaand she's gone. Great. Victoria Dallon goes into my shit list today.

I dismiss my makeshift costume and go home. Dad is waiting for me with a stern face.

“And where have you been, young lady?” He asks. Uh oh. I forgot to tell him about the-

“I went to the gym!” Yeah, I wasn't partying or doing drugs, just innocent gym rat activity! “There's a real cheap one at the docks!” He uncrosses his arms at that.

“Oh, what's it called?”

“Laborn Boxing Club,” I say quickly. Oh, he looks like he just got whiplash. “Went there cause I kinda outgrew your basement weights.” Oooh, double whiplash.

“You lift?!” He asks incredulously.

“Uh huh.”

“And- and more than a hundred pounds?!” That's his full barbell. I had to cannibalize his dumbbell plates to get it to 160.

“Yeah. I lift a solid two hundies now,” I say proudly. He gapes at me for a long moment. Then looks me up and down, disbelief clear on his face.

“Don't get me wrong. I want to believe you but… you know. It sounds ridiculous. When did you even start lifting? I never knew you were into that!"

“Well. It's been some time since you stopped paying attention to me,” I say slowly and watch him flinch. “Yeah, I started a while ago,” I lied, just to see him flinch stronger. That'd be more believable than if I said I started two weeks ago.

“Oh, kiddo. I'm sorry I didn't notice. Uhh, how much was the gym membership? You must have saved up for it from your lunch money,” he says, reaching for his wallet.

“Just a hundred bucks. That's only ten missed lunches,” lots of flinching today, daddy-o. “It's not like I could actually eat one in comfort anyway.”

“Oh, honey. I'm so sorry,” he wraps me in a tight hug. I press into it as hard as I can. It's been… so long. “I'll push for your transfer again.” And there you go, ruining this tender moment with your sensible decisions! God damnit!

Chapter Text

I pull myself out of the hug and stare at him, unimpressed. “Why?”

“W- well, little owl, you don't like going to Winslow, right? I could- I could get you to Clarendon?” He asks, a bit of desperation in his voice. Oh man. All my hard work getting him out of his dark place right down the gutter.

“Listen, dad. Just listen.” I breathe evenly and loudly, making him repeat his breathing after me. “It's been a year since I tried transferring. My grades are too low for the only high school that I thought was better than Winslow. Clarendon and Immaculata are not an option for me, dad. Wherever I go, kids have already formed their little cliques and I'll be the odd one out.” He moves his jaw to say something but I interrupt him. “It's okay, dad. I think I already made a friend.” Oh, that surprised him.

“Really, little owl?” He asks.

“Yeah. Her name is Sophia, Sophia Hess,” there he goes freezing again. “We play in the gym every week. Today we played hoops. Next week we'll step it up. And maybe next-next week we'll play something else. But she's been nice to me and she's the reason I haven't been bullied since I came back to school!” Technically, it's true. It's just that she's also the reason I WAS bullied in the first place. But he doesn't need to know that.

“Oh. That makes sense, I guess.” Yes, finally! Okay, operation dadstract activate!

“Okay. Do you wanna play uno? I think we still got that old pack somewhere.” I offer.

“Sure, kiddo.”

I get another tiny boost to my strength and we wrap it up. I meet Brian again on Thursday and scam another three bets from him and get to learn some boxing. I bump into Sophia on Friday and she huffs something out that sounds an awful lot like “sup bitch?” which is a major improvement from “that's twice for flinching, queef!” So I take it as the victory it is. 

I found out that I can make the Shroud, that’s what I decided to call the black fog, any hardness I want. I can make it soft, I can make it squishy, I can make it hard too. How did I find out? Right now, I’m sitting in a toilet stall and hugging a very soft giant isopod. It is now my favorite emotional support plushy. I needed that a lot after Emma cornered me with her cronies and spouted really hurtful things at me.

I could fight back, really. I could just go full Carrie on their asses. But! Then I would lose my connection to Sophia! And Emma seems to catch onto me. Next time we play ball, I will have to keep an eye on the doors. But that’s a concern for Monday. Before that, I feel like I need to get just a little boost. 

Which is why I am going out. It’s a Friday night, a perfect day for villainy. But Victor thinks I’m a vigilante so I have to do some good to lure him out. I thicken the Shroud around me and go out running. I am now well beyond humanly possible limits of physical strength and speed. I’m like two grown adults’ strengths combined! I try out a couple trial long jumps and, seeing how it IS enough to jump a narrow alley’s worth of distance between rooftops, I set off on a run.

I go to Downtown, just a couple blocks away from Empire territory. I want to be noticed, but I don’t want to make it too easy for the bastard. This is a prime area for muggings. Too deep into Empire grounds and you won’t see a speck of skin darker than paper white, too far and you won’t see a single shaved head. This is the perfect Goldy Locks zone. And I’m proven right when I hear a woman’s cry that is cut short. When I reach the area, I see a dark skinned middle aged woman being surrounded by four skinheads. Perfect!

I turn on Stealth and slide down to ground level, cushioning my fall with a big-ish Shroud plush pillow. The skinheads are discussing who gets to lynch the lade and oh heck no! No lynchings on my watch! I Shroud a sizable baseball bat and swing it at the closest dude’s shining sweaty bald head.

“Woah! Holy shit!” Cries out one of them, pulling out a switchblade. Hey! Those are illegal! “Cape!” He cries out once he sees me. Wh- why did he do that? I didn’t see anyone around that would respond to his cries. Do they just have an Empire cape within shouting distance, ready to interfere if a cape comes to brutalize them?

The other two are also pulling out their knives and inching closer to me. They see the baseball bat and seem to think I can’t do much else… which is true! I can’t! But the bat is quite enough to deal with them.

I dodge the first knife thrust at me and do a quick tap at the guy’s nose with the bat. It bursts into a fountain of blood and snot. “You got a lot of fucking nerve going out so far from your stomping grounds,” I say.

“Hey! We’re a block away!” Exclaims one of them. Well, that might be true, but…

“One block is one block too far, bitch boy,” I say, swinging the bat at his kneecaps. With one last guy standing, I move away from the alley exit and closer to the woman. He gets that as a silent consent to skedaddle, grabs his injured friends and slinks away.

“Oh, thank you so much,” says the lady, “I don’t know what I’d have done without you! Are you a new vigilante?” She asks.

“Oh, no. I’m a villain.” She pauses.

“Pardon?”

“Yeah, empty your pockets. I’m mugging you now.” I say, matter of factly.

“But- uh.” She looks around and sighs, “Okaaay.” She takes out her wallet, “Can I keep my ID at least?” She asks.

“Uh, yeah, I have no need for any of your cards. Just the cash please.” I do grabby motions with my empty hand and she places all her cash, which is only around a hundred bucks. Well, beggars can’t be choosers. I start making makeshift ladder handles on the wall and climb onto the roof. My Stealth back on, I am basically invisible at night. Just a person-shaped shadow. That’s how I bump into another person shaped shadow and now we’re both on our asses. Ouch.

“Ugh! Who the fuck are you?” Says Shadow Stalker, training her crossbow on me. Okay. What do I do? Lie!

“I’m a vigilante, duh.” Yes! It worked the last couple of times!

“Like I’d believe you!” And she shoots the bolt at me. Hey! It thunks into my Shroud with a springy sound.

“Ask Glory Girl, then.” I say, sounding unimpressed, while hyperventilating in my mind. What the fuck?! She just shot me!

“Argh! Fuck you! I don’t have time to deal with you!” She jumps away from me, flickering between shadow state and human state, and dives right into the alley I exited. Uh oh. That woman might have been someone really important if a Ward was rushing to her rescue! Time to go! I put Stealth back on and book it. I’ll find more muggings before the night ends, I’m sure.

Chapter Text

And I was right! I moved a couple blocks down and there is another mugging going on! But when I move to jump down, something whistles near my foot and a spark makes me partially visible again. I look around for the source of the spark and don’t find anyone. But my Hunch tells me to duck, so I do. I hear another whistle rush past my head. Oh shit! Victor’s here! I thicken the Shroud around my head. Holy shit! He went for the headshot right off the bat! I jump down when my Hunch tells me it’s safe to. Cushioning my fall, I decide to give the muggers a chance now.

“Hey boys. How about we make a deal? I’ll stop brutalizing you the moment you exit this alley. But if you can’t get out, you gotta buy your freedom,” I say, materializing a baseball bat again. I’m starting to like it! There are only three of them this time, but I see one of them pulling out a gun. Uh oh. Their victim ducks behind the trash bags strewn around the alley and I rush to swipe the gun out of the skinhead’s hand. He gets three shots out before I turn his arm bones into fine paste, my Hunch letting me dodge the bullets with just a bit of struggling. You don’t joke with two-grownups’ worth of strength in one small body. You know what they say. You don’t make it big in cape life until ‘just a dude with a gun’ can’t hurt you anymore.

The other two draw their knives but their fates are already sealed. That is, until I go for the swing and instead jump away from where I was standing, as a bullet shoots past the center of my body and right into the knee of a skinhead. Oof! I strike the remaining thug and pull them away from the sniper bastard’s line of sight. “Okay folks! Cough up all your ill-gotten gains for today, and maybe I’ll let you call an ambulance!” I say, hefting my bat in front of them. I roughed them up alright. Maybe they have Othala on call, but they won’t get a chance if I just call the PRT on them. I gather their generous donations into a wad and hide it inside my fanny pack. What? It’s not like I already made myself a tool belt! Which, I will! Bug themed and all. Okay, now it’s time to mug the victim. They won’t mind, right? It’s much better than that money getting into Empire stashes.

“Hey there, citizen, fear not as… Pompie is here to your rescue! Uhh, I’m workshopping the name but Tarantula Hawk sounds fucking awesome, if you ask me!” My heroic introduction that would lead to this person’s unheroic mugging is interrupted when my Hunch goes off. I step away just in time for a glinting kama to whip out from beneath the trash as Fucking Cricket?! to jump out after me. I thicken the plate on my shoulder right when another sniper round hits me, pushing me away from Cricket’s attack. Oof, that shoulder is going to be sore tomorrow.

“ It is pretty cool, yes, ” I hear Cricket’s metallic voicebox say as she takes a short break to size me up.

I decide to use this opportunity to get some more fun stuff. “Say what, since you weren’t in on the bet with Victor, how about we make one of our own?” She tilts her head in curiosity as her blades come whooshing towards me. I go to dodge but a wave of nausea hits me and she grazes my collar. Hey! That’s my third favorite body part! “So what do you say to the same deal as the thugs?” She motions with her kama to ‘go on?’. “I beat you up till you flee the alley. If you can’t, you gotsa buy your freedom out. Hope you brought money with you.”

She wheeze-laughs and says, “ And what’s in it for me? ”

“Uhh, I give you all the money I got and do whatever you tell me to, if you beat me?” I say, confident that I won’t lose. She’s a Thinker-Shaker with regular human strength. I’m a Thinker-Shaker twice her strength. Quick math!

She rushes at me, grabbing her kamas by the chains, giving me less avenue to dodge, but I don’t need to! A quick application of Shroud do shield me from them later, I swing my bat at her and turn it into a flail in mid-air. Nausea hits me again as I start hearing a high pitched whine, but I don’t need to be precise with it. Cricket was moving to dodge a bat, so the flail’s spiked end clocks her right on her shoulder. She lets out a voiceless cry, more like opening her mouth wide and exhaling, and moves to flee. Oh, not so fast, bitch! The flail turns into a spiked whip as I wrap it around one of her legs and pull. Another bullet hits me square in the chest and knocks the wind out of me, but the whip has already transformed into thick chains, welded shut around Cricker’s legs. She swings a kama at me and I kick it out of the way and swing a bat at her caged face. The cage dents noticeably and she crumples to the ground. I pull her towards her fellow thugs who were kind of just chilling nearby. Who cares? I search her pockets and only find a brick phone. Eugh. She’s a pit fighter, is she not? Why can’t she carry some cash on her? My reputation will be in tatters if people find out I fought her and came out of the fight with nothing! I point my bat at the thugs.

“You there! I know you have money left on you. Cough it up as ransom for Cricket, chop-chop!” I make chopping motions, momentarily transforming the bat into an axe. That, and my very cool fight with Cricket seems to encourage them towards the life of honesty as they scrounge together another fifty bucks between them. “Thaaat’s what I’m talking about!” I say, happy not only with the money but with my bet counting as completed. Oh sweet sweet new powers. I love rigged gambling! The house always wins, bitch!

With a newfound boost in speed and strength, I rush away to find my last crime for the night. I jump over Victor’s shot as my skin crawls in part-fear, part-astonishment, because what the fuck, Victor?! I felt like if I just thickened my Shroud, I’ll be mighty fine, but no! That bastard started using armor piercing rounds! And bigger ones too! How many rifles did he bring with him?

I turn a corner right as another bullet whooshes past me and cracks the asphalt. Yeah, nope. Not getting hit by that is my main priority now! I use my new power and sound rushes into my ears. I can hear Victor reloading his rifle, somehow while moving without making a sound. I hear several car engines around the block… there! I hear a weak cry for help and several thugs! Cricket, you absolute mad lady! You did it! You gave me a decent power and proved one of my theories! I CAN force people to pay their dues! Or complete the bet without their consent! Hell yeah!

I jump kick the first thug I see, and now that I got a decent look at them, they aren’t wearing Empire colors! Green and red, huh? Sorry, guys, it seems like you picked a bad time to push territories! I make quick work of them and also knock out their victim, just in case it’s like… Crusader in disguise or something. I loot them, cause duh! And when I exit the alley, a bullet grazes my chest. I feel sort of insulted and at the same time, relieved. I whip around to see Victor flying on a… particularly large manhole cover along with another cape, Rune, most likely. Oh, that’s how he’s been following me.

“Well, it looks like I win our bet, Vicky-boy,” I shout at him. He cringes a bit at the nickname and steadies his rifle on me.

“It seems like that. You win, fraulein,” He says and another, more potent wave of strength washes over me. Right, this bet wasn’t made by me, had high stakes and took more time to complete. I should keep track of those. “But I fear this is where our little game ends and you peacefully come with me.” Huh? Hey! What the fuck?!

Chapter Text

I duck back into the alley, a bullet hitting me in the shoulder. I feel the searing pain of getting a gunshot wound for the first time in my life. It looks like the bullet shot straight through me. And that was the safest option for me too! God damnit, Hunch! Why didn't you warn me about it! Oh look, the Bites You in the Face dog did the unthinkable! It bit you in the face! I cycle through variations of Shroud in the vague shape of a pistol until I get one that works. Why the heck did the power I got from Victor only work with Shroud-made stuff? That’s just… am I really just a shadow-based cape?

Gun successfully acquired, I dash into the other street, Rune’s manhole cover in hot pursuit. Now, Victor is trained in many arts (or rather, he stole skills from people trained in many arts), getting into a shootout with him would be the dumbest idea I've ever had. We both can shoot well now, but he can also dodge like a pro.

I line up the shot and pull the trigger. It takes me a full five minutes of running and juking and dodging until I hit the mark - I shoot the street lamp. In the darkness, I go Stealth and take cover. Now I take much less time to line up the shot. Right when the goggles on Victor’s face start glowing orange, which looks like some sort of thermal sensor, I take my shot.

Victor drops like a kite with its strings cut. That is, he drops because Rune lost control of the manhole cover as she got shot right in the groin. The manhole cover was floating at around twenty feet high, just enough so that Victor always had a clear sight of me. That worked against them in this situation.

No matter how skillfully Victor broke his fall, he didn't land completely unharmed. I capitalized on his moment of vulnerability and ran for my life. He's hurt, but I'm hurt too. And no matter, stolen or not, Victor has more experience in cape fights than I do.

I run a couple more blocks before I'm closer to the Boardwalk than to Downtown, and buy bandages and disinfectants from a dinghy pharmacy. The cashier looks at my torn hoodie and points at the first aid booklets.

I took a look at the gsw section and bought a couple more things. I don't dally and apply the first aid right in the narrow space behind the pharmacy. Hurt and regretful, I sneak back home and fall asleep.

The next day, I sleep through most of my classes before lunch. Madison tried bothering me but I couldn't care less. And getting no response from me at her spitballs, she gave up. Yeah, I've dodged worse shit from worse people.

Lunch comes and I eat my sandwich in peace. I haven't seen Emma for a while. Well, I have SEEN her, but the bitch suspiciously didn't try to do her usual verbal abuse routine. Which is why I ate in peace on the bleachers and cuddled Mr Isopod for the rest of the lunch break. He's the only emotional support I need.

Weirdly, I started looking forward to Mondays. That might be the weird high stakes bets I have with Sophia. I still don't know what she has written in the paper but it feels like it's something so malicious that my power considers it a risk higher than Cricket. Which… holy shit.

I take stock of the powers I’ve gathered so far and think about how to cheat this time. My left shoulder muscles are torn, I can’t line up a proper ball throw if my life depended on it. Buuut! The power I got from Victor could let me cheat just a little bit. Looks like physical fitness was also one of the many things Victor got not on his own. I got a fraction of all of his stolen skills, and the guy loved draining athletes. So that got me a significant boost in strength. I could one-hand it, totally could.

Classes end and my dreaded moment comes. Sophia is waiting for me at the gym. A duffel bag at her side. She grins at me, but I don’t feel as much hostility from that grin as I felt before we started this whole thing. Now that I think about it, Emma never does sports activities with Sophia, does she? Did… did Sophia just want to get physical in any way possible and the only outlet was… ME?! Oh my fucking god! I’d play with you literally every day if you stopped punching me! 

My irritation must have shown on my face as Sophia steels her expression back to the stoic bad bitch face she usually has on around Emma. “You ready to get trounced, Hebert?” She asks, walking towards the ball rack.

“You wish,” I bite back and take my spot at the 3-pointer line. She approaches me and stands just an inch away. Her throw lands and it’s my turn. I take the ball in my right hand. In the corner of my vision I see Sophia looking at me with a cocked eyebrow. “What?”

“Why one-handed all of a sudden?” She asks, which I knew she would. Not out of concern but maybe a perceived slight or offense. Who knows?

“Don’t need them both to beat you,” I say, which gets a confident snort from her and throw the ball.

“We’ll see about that, beanpole.” We take a step back and throw another couple of balls, then step back again. I’m flagging. My throws jostle my bandages, making me flinch. By the time our backs hit the gym walls, we’re panting. Sophia from overexertion of throwing the ball across the entire court, me from the pain. I can feel the quick stitchwork I did to close the wound getting loose. My vision is going blurry. Strength of like… four grown adults is not quite enough to soldier the pain. I fumble. My throw goes wide and lands just in the middle of the court. Sophia looks at me triumphantly.

“Looks like you did need both hands, sucker,” She says happily and reaches for the duffel bag. “Now, at first I just wanted to humiliate you. Film you on camera and spread around school for the AUDACITY to challenge me. But you surprised me, Hebert.” She takes out a sheet of paper and I feel like I can’t refuse it. I take it in my hand. “So no embarrassing costumes today. But you gotta do everything that the paper says.”

I read what’s in it and I freeze. Oh. Oh no. If I was any other person with any other power, I would have laughed Sophia in the face for the naivete of what's written in it. But I lost the bet and I have to deliver.

“Answer all my questions truthfully,” the paper says. And I do.

Chapter Text

I could be fighting Hookwolf right now and my heart rate would be lower. Instead I'm staring, first at the 5 innocuous questions, then at the girl who wrote them. I know that if I don't answer them, something terrible will happen to me. And I don't mean it in some karmic metaphorical sense. I mean, a piano would fall on my head RIGHT NOW. I look up. And yep. There's a genuine piano just hanging on the framework of the gym rooftop. How did it get there? Fuck if I know. Can I dodge it in time if I move right now? No. Will it still fall if I answer all the questions truthfully? Maybe!

“Okay. Sure. Okay.” I psych myself up.

“Fucking get on with it, nerd. I don't have all day!” says Sophia, not noticing the piano swaying precariously above me.

“Okay! Okay! I didn't train before I challenged you.” The rope makes a stretching noise, “But I did a couple test throws before you entered the gym!” The rope relaxes.

“Huh. Well, damn, girl. Go on.”

“No, Panacea didn't buff me up with any cape shit.” She squints at that. “It's true! She didn't even touch me!” That satisfies her. I take a deep breath. Did you train before the challenge and did you get Panpanbuffs done with, time for the actual nerve wracking questions. Why didn't you fight back before?

“I didn't fight back before getting hospitalized because I knew I couldn't do anything.” She frowns at that.

“That's some weak ass answer, Hebert. Elaborate.”

“What can I say that you don't know already? Emma was my only friend, but she had friends besides me! She could…” I flail my arms, “ socialize! She knew how to people, she's pretty, and people listened to her! By the time I realized you're not leaving me alone, she had the whole school against me! And I couldn't even get physical cause you were there and you'd just beat me up harder, and between us two, I'm the only one who'd get in trouble!”

She laughs. “That's just stupid. Had you fought back-”

“I'd have been expelled or worse. Sent to juvie by some crazy spin Emma puts to the story. And you'd go scot free cause it's the entire school’s words against mine. And the entire school would pick your side.”

“Then what was your fucking plan? Just lay down and take it?!” Sophia moves closer to me, trying to loom over me menacingly. I don't flinch. She's shorter than me. And I have stared down scarier people than her.

“Yeah!” That surprised her and looks like it also disappointed her. Well boo hoo. I suck! Deal with it. “I'd have kept my head low and just fucking weathered the storm until I graduated. And then I'd be gone! Go to Boston, New York, fucking anywhere that's not this hellhole!”

Sophia scoffs, “I'm surprised you even planned to live that long with that limp dick attitude, Hebert.”

“Well ain't I full of surprises, Hess.”

“Fuck you too. Just fucking… finish the damn paper.” She huffs.

“Why did I decide to fight back now?” She nods for me to go on. I close my eyes, focusing on the piano above me. Its copper wires humming slightly from the motion. Is it worth getting hospitalized? I feel like it doesn't matter if I answer this or not. I'll get hospitalized either way. I sigh deeply. “I don't even think this counts as fighting back. If I knew all it took for you to leave me alone was to do sports with you, I'd have joined the damn track team two years ago!” She blinks. The rope tightens, a couple fibers ripping. “But no. The real answer is that I felt like the playing field got evened out… to an extent.” The fibers ripping sounds pause. I look Sophia in the eyes.

“How so?” she asks, eyes wavering only for a second before she steeled herself to meet my stare with one of her own.

“Emma could destroy my life so thoroughly because I trusted her. Because she knew all of my deepest secrets. And you had an unfair advantage against me,” she raises an eyebrow, “in a legal way, Hess!”

“So what changed?”

“Well. I now have something she doesn't know about. Something a bit more personal and a bit more secret.” I lean closer to her. “And I also know a couple secrets myself. Something that could destroy a life.” She looks hesitant, doubtful. Maybe I'm bluffing. Maybe not. Well, I know I'm not bluffing cause the goddamn piano is still hanging and not crushing my gangly body. But she looks like she's about to lunge at my throat. Her muscles visibly tensing, her breathing quickening.

“Bold fucking words, bitch! So what? You're planning to blackmail me? Good fucking luck with that!” Huh? What?

“You?” Yeah, where did that come from? “What do you mean?”

“Huh? You mean… you don't have compromising evidence against me? That would… legally fuck me up?” Sophia asks, hope prominent in her voice.

“No. No, I mean… Ugh. Forget about it, Hess. I don't have any ‘dirt’” I do air quotes with one hand, “on you. It's something personal against Emma so that she can't take legal action against me if I decide to punch her in the face. Or you, if I'm being honest.” Sophia visibly deflates, tension leaving her body and she gets this goofy smile on her face.

“Oh, really?” she asks, her voice gaining a weird lilt I never heard from her before.

“So… yeah. To answer your last question, I do actually plan on keeping challenging you.”

“Oh yeah?” her voice grows softer.

“... Yeah. I just said that.”

“Oh… right.” she seems to collect herself after her rather embarrassing… what do you even call that? Almost admitting to some heinous shit just because I implied I have blackmail on her? Well… I can't really hold it against her, I'm a criminal myself.

“Okay.” I clap my hands, which sends a jolt across my shoulder because fuck me that's why. I forgot about my wound. “Fuck. Can we move away from the goddamn cartoon trap piano now?”

Sophia looks up at me like I just said the stupidest thing in the world. “We're in the gym. What piano are you talking about?” I point up. “Ah. Oh shit! That's been just hanging there?!” I nod. “This whole time?!” I nod again, somberly.

“What else, dumbass? Someone came and hung it while we were playing? Of course it was there the whole time!”

“Okay okay, jeez, no need to get so snarky.” I frown and raise my fist. She just smirks at it before remembering the piano and taking wide steps back. I follow her, fist now lowered. The moment we stepped away from its splash zone, the piano dropped with the loudest crash possible. And once the dust had settled, we could see that it broke through the gym floor and really just… stopped resembling a piano.

“Who the fuck put it up there?!” Sophia asks.

“I want to know that too, but you know what's more important right now?” She looks at me. “Run before fatty Johnson gets here!” And I'm already sprinting away before I finish my sentence.

Chapter Text

Sophia.

Sophia was conflicted. On the one hand, the Hebert girl, no, Taylor, just confessed to having some sort of trump card she can play against her best friend. On the other hand, oh thank god . She was so tired of the perpetual cycle of bullying. Like sure, letting off some steam after a boring patrol the previous night was nice. But you can only beat a dead horse with a stick so many times before it gets boring. It was fun thinking up ways to ruin someone's life with a friend she... had really complicated feelings about. But there are limits. When something is going on for ten months, one has to stop and think: what the hell are they doing with their goddamn life? Isn't her entire philosophy revolving around being at the top of the food chain? Then why is her only prey at school - the lowest of the low? Is there nobody else beneath her? Why isn't Emma targeting literally anyone else? And if that's not the case, then what? Is Taylor somehow better than others? No. No way.

And it's not like Sophia never tried leading Emma to... Uh, greener pastures... She means plumper prey. No. Emma was laser focused on Taylor. And like Sisyphus, Emma would push Taylor to a brink, putting effort into ruining the girl's life. And Taylor would go right back to how she was before. She was timid, true. Weak and frail, even. She acted pathetically, groveling towards the person who has effectively betrayed her. Sophia hated her for it, so she took no pity on the girl before.

But the girl really was a rock to Emma's Sisyphus. Emma never succeeded in pushing her enough. And at some point, Sophia's opinion of the two flipped. Emma has lowered herself to Taylor's level by tunnel visioning on her instead of looking up. And Taylor has, despite ten months of torture, kept coming back for more. Sophia even started to suspect that she was some kind of masochist.

And that terrifying revelation brought Sophia many sleepless nights. Because, if Emma is so pathetic for following Sophia's advice, is it Emma who's fucked up, or is it the advice? By Emma's claims, she was a very well adjusted kid before the incident. Was it the incident that fucked her up or the advice?

Sophia stares at her phone screen. Her finger hovers above the send button. She takes a deep breath and presses delete and throws her phone at the foot of her bed. It chimes once from receiving a message. It chimes twice more before she kicks it off the edge of the bed. She lays there, staring at the ceiling. Tonight is going to be yet another sleepless night.

PRT ENE Wards HQ

Sophia enters the lounge to see the entire Wards roster assembled near the couches, evidently waiting for her to enter as they start inching towards her.

“W-what? The fuck’s going on?” She asks defensively. Did Hebert actually know her identity and decided to rat her out? Did someone find out she’s been leading a pathetic civilian life this whole time? Are they here to mock her? Did they finally snap and decide to beat her up for all her snarky comments?

“Sophia,” Aegis begins, voice soft and inquisitive, “Is… is everything alright? How is your shoulder?” Shoulder?

“What are you talking about? I’m perfectly fine!” She feels a quick jab at her shoulder and sees the receding distortions of Missy’s space warping. “Did you just… oi!” She covers her shoulders with her hands, “That was uncalled for!” Now everyone is looking concerned.

“Soph, are you really okay? You didn’t even move to punch Missy,” Dennis asks, concerned.

“Hey!” Missy says, clearly not wanting to get punched but also concerned for Sophia. But Dean is the one definitely giving her the most worried look.

“What? I just… realized some deep stuff about myself lately, okay? I’m trying to be better.” She says and everyone looks at her in horror. “I feel like we are having a serious misunderstanding here.”

“Okay. Okay, I’ll say it!” Says Dennis, unable to hold back anymore. “Sophia, your late night date with Victor is going viral.”

“WHAT?!”

“I know it’s a surprise to you, it is to us! And we are very concerned for you, Sophia,” Chimes in Aegis.

“No. No no no, this is bullshit. Do you… Have you seen me?!” She pulls off her mask, “ME? AND VICTOR?”

“Yeah, the news is spreading that he’s… uh, divorcing Othala because she found out he’s cheating on her with a certain shadowy cape that is very much not white.”

“Well it’s clearly not me!” Fuck her new resolutions or whatever. She’ll go out today and kick the faces of whoever is spreading those OBVIOUS lies!

“Now, it’s not our place to judge you for what you do in your civilian life, but you’ve been seen in costume,” Continues Aegis. “And… you are aware that he’s like… an adult… right?”

“Okay, Carlos. I’m going to count to three.” She holds up three fingers, “If you’re still spouting this nonsense by that time, I’m punching you. Hard. One.” She puts one finger down.

“Let’s not get physical here, Soph, he’s just speaking out of concern for you. You know… given how Victor is kind of a nazi?” Gallant decides to put his five cents in.

“Two.” She puts the second finger down.

“Did you hear there’s rumors going around that he’s having such a bad identity crisis that it’s messing with his powers?” Adds Chris from the console. Sophia puts the last finger down, clenches them with her thumb and lunges.

Later. PRT ENE Conference room.

“We have a new cape in town,” Says Armsmaster, pulling up much greater resolution images of the cape Victor has fought and exchanged hard to hear words with. “Clearly, they are not aligned with the Empire, if our intel is correct.”

“I fucking told you!” Exclaims Sophia from her involuntary full body cast. Fighting ALL the Wards was not her brightest of moments. Dennis muffles something from under his full face bandage wrapping. If she could, she would have put a broadhead bolt through his tongue for calling her a reverse snow bunny. Missy got off lightly, but Sophia will make sure to tease her extra hard for the next month. Really lay down the pipsqueak talk, call out her high pitched voice, her height, just everything the girl is insecure- nope. No. Pipe down, Sophia. You promised to do better. 

“... The cape reportedly can manifest hard light constructs, or rather, hard shadow constructs of any shape or form.” Armsmaster switches to a still image of the new cape in her bug costume and Sophia recognizes it. “Her affiliations and status are yet unknown, so be vigilant around her.” He says.

“I know her,” Sophia speaks up again and everybody turns towards her, again. Director Piggot raises an inquisitorial eyebrow. God, she wants to punch her pudgy face so hard- No, Sophia! Butterflies and flowers. Butterflies and flowers . “She mugged my mom. I ran into her on my way to where mom’s beacon got activated. She told me she was about to get lynched by some skinheads, but the new cape swooped in and beat them all to a pulp… and then mugged her.”

“Are you certain?” Asks Miss Militia, “It wasn’t any other shadow cape that mugged your mother and this one just ended up being around?”

Sophia scoffs. “Right, Grue just decided to go out solo that night to mug a lonely lady instead of his usual MO. MM, I would know! He’s my nemesis! That was NOT Grue.”

“Alright. Then we’re tentatively labeling this cape Umbral,” Says Armsmaster, giving her the second lamest fucking shadow cape name she’s ever heard, right behind Grue . It’s like someone retched in front of him and he decided ‘yeah, that’s me now, GREUGH . Sophia grumbles quietly as she gets wheeled away to get Panahealed.

Chapter Text

I didn't go out caping after that night. On Wednesday, Sophia invited me to the track team. I refused. She looked angry at first, but I told her that I’m recovering from a torn muscle and she acquiesced surprisingly quickly. She then seemed to have some sort of falling out with Emma on Thursday, as the whole school now talked about how Sophia suggested therapy to Emma and called her mentally unstable. Emma is in shambles, and my Hunch tells me it’s not just because of that accusation. Uh- were they dating?! That explains so much! Of course Emma would turn on me if it meant dating Sophia! But now it looks like they broke up and that remains the second hottest topic in Winslow for the next two weeks. Next Monday, Sophia refuses my challenge to arm wrestle, although reluctantly. She’s been sulking since last Thursday. Emma skips school for the entire next week. Madison looks… just lost. Like she doesn’t know what to do anymore. Whatever happened between Sophia and Emma last week, I can’t be any happier about it. And so another week passes without me getting bullied! I keep up my routine with dad and Brian, now focusing more on legs. Too bad I can’t keep one upping myself to scam Brian. But he seems very receptive to just nonsense bets like “treat me to coffee if you lose in time to me on the stairmaster”. Bless his heart. It’s on a gym Thursday that he calls me over after I exit the changing room, ready to head home.

“Hey, Taylor, you got a minute?” Well, do I? For my second favorite power battery? Always!

“Oh sure! What’s up?”

“Me and a couple friends were gonna hang out in the mall on Saturday, just hang around, maybe do some window shopping, watch a movie?” He sort of gets quieter the longer he goes on, his confidence deflating just a bit.

“Yeah?”

“Do you, uh… do you want to join us? I wanted to get to know you better, is all.” 

“Hmm.” Social interaction with people I have never met before? “Sure! Count me in.” I might hate every waking second of it, but maybe one of them pings on my radar for bets!

And so I find myself picking clothes for my outing. Ugh. Fashion was never my strong forte and my Hunch seems to not have any style either. So I do what I do best! Ehehehe! I grab a white blouse with yellow patterns of curled up grubs across it, a bee brooch to match, I’ve replaced the buttons for tiny metal bugs with foldable wings on springs, and grab my favorite pair of jeans that I spent embroidering with all kinds of centipedes and spiders in all colors. Dad once showed me how people carve pearls into shapes like skulls, and I knew what I’d do once I have more pocket money that I don’t have to spend on replacing my clothes constantly. That is, tiny pearl ladybug bracelets and pearl ladybug ear studs. Now, I know I could totally go for dangly earrings, and I have a perfect pair of dangling medical titanium butterflies, but I don’t have butterflies anywhere else on my outfit so they stay untouched. Soon, my babies. I wear one plain ring on each middle finger just to hide my Shroud under in case I need to fight someone in civvies. You never know! And I apparently can only use the power I got from Victor paired with Shroud. This wasn’t my best-best outfit, but I’m not wearing that anywhere yet! After all, I’m waiting for warmer weather.

When I get to the mall, I see Brian fidgeting on a chair in front of a coffee shop. A stunning blonde and an effeminate guy walk up to him and sit at his table. Damn, boy! I didn’t know your entire friend group were supermodels?! Now that I look at him, Brian also looks conventionally attractive. Although, very skittish and anxious. Ah, social interactions, am I right?

“Hey there,” I walk up to them and wave my hand, “Hi, Brian. How are you doing?”

“Taylor!” He exclaims, looking like he didn’t actually expect me to come. Who do you take me for? A liar? I don’t go back on my deals (Apparently!)! “Uh- hey there!” And the moment he stands up to greet me, I feel another surge of strength. Huh? Did we bet on it? No, right? But I hear the shuffling of paper across the two of his friends and a hint of suspicion creeps up on me. Did they… bet on whether I would come or not?? And it gave me benefits? For coming? HUH?? That changes EVERYTHING! Also, doesn’t that mean I’ll get penalized too? For a bet I’m not aware of? Or was I aware of the bet? I need a bigger sample size!

“Do you want to introduce your friends?” I ask him after he just stands there staring at me for a solid minute, clearly admiring my awesome outfit. What can I say? I dress to impress!

I hear the blonde giggle and whisper to the boy, “Oh, he’s so screwed.”

“Right! Taylor, this is Lisa and Alec… my work friends. Lisa and Alec, this is Taylor, we go to the same gym and Taylor does heavy lifting.” I wave at them again.

“Hi again. Nice to meet you.”

“Likewise,” Lisa smiles warmly, making her freckles crinkle in a cute way.

“Sup,” says Alec nonchalantly, already pulling out his phone. Well, alright. I leave their side and go to get some tea for myself. Meanwhile, I can eavesdrop on what they’re talking about when I’m away. Heh heh heh, Cricket really gave me her best power, huh?

“She came!” said Brian, heaving a deep sigh. “I thought she won’t show up.” Well why wouldn’t I?

“She seems… nice ,” Lisa gives her last word a weird inflection, “Heavy lifting, you say? How much?”

“Oh, well,” Brian chuckles, “Last time she went for two seventy.” Lisa whistles at that.

“Wow, that much, huh?” I can hear her smile through her words. “So is she… you know?” She does something I can’t hear, either a gesture or facial expression. Huh? Am I what?

“Uh, no. No, just… normal.” Hey! I am actually quite special, thank you very much! “Do you Think she is?” He asks, the capital T audible in his words.

“Who knows? We’ll find out soon enough, don’t we?” Okay. I no longer like her. They’re scheming something. And that something targets me! If this turns out to be some weird social game Brian is playing on me to impress his popular friends, he can say goodbye to his kneecaps. Forever!

I hear Lisa, in a much lower voice, say “Yeah, he’s fucked. She doesn’t see this as a date at all. I told him to invite her alone, but nooo, it would have been hella sus and our presence makes it a safer hangout.” She tells Alec and WHAT? I squeezed the cup I just grabbed a bit too hard and now I have to order another one. Is this a fucking double date?! I’m on a date?! With Brian?! I need to fix this. How do I let him down gently? I grab my second cup and walk up to them.

“Hey Taylor, ready to go see the movies?” Asks Brian, chipperly.

“Hey Brian, I’m gay.” I say, and hear another set of papers shuffle between Alec and Lisa.

Chapter Text

Why the hell did I just say that? AM I? Am I gay?! No! I mean, I don’t know! I never sat down and thought about my sexuality! I was kind of busy being the social pariah? I thought it would never come to the point where I need to worry about that!

“Huh?” Brian summarizes my thought process succinctly. Yeah, Brian, I don’t fucking know. I don’t even know why I said what I said. What about letting him down gently? This is like throwing a brick at his face.

“Uh, yeah, sorry. I kinda thought we’ll just hang out as friends, but this… uhh” I wave my hands at him and his friends, “This feels like a double date or something.”

“Wuh- wait. But didn’t we go on after-gym dates a couple times now?” 

“Dates?” Huhhh? What the fuck are you talking about? Oh, he looks distraught. Man is devastated by the revelation.

I take a glance at Lisa and Alec and see them giggling silently. 

“Sorry, sorry. I just… I can’t,” Lisa spits out in between her giggling fits. “But no, this girl?” She points at herself, “Doesn’t do dates.” I nod at her in approval. I suddenly don’t hate her as much as I thought I do. That’s the most sensible thing anyone has said today. I glance at Alec.

“Oh, no no. I do dates. I do all the dates. Girls, boys, girln’ts and and boyn’ts and et cetera, et cetera… just not these clowns.” Alec says matter of factly, pointing at his friends. Brian is hiding his face behind his hands by this point and Lisa is debating on whether to nod or to punch Alec’s shoulder. 

“Oh god. I’m so sorry, Taylor. I… uh, must have misunderstood you when you asked me to treat you to coffee.”

“Well, yeah. That was just for a bet.” I say, also matter of factly.

“Bet?” He and Lisa ask in unison. “You, like, lost a bet and were told to do that?” Asks Brian alone.

“What? No. I just like making bets and winning them.” I explain, “But it doesn’t feel like a win if I don’t get anything out of it, you know?”

“Oh.” exhales Brian. “For a second I thought Aisha talked you into it.” Well that’s just extra drama I’m not equipped to process. Good luck, Brian. You’re on your own.

“Oh god, she’s a gambling addict,” mutters Lisa under her nose. Huh? Waaait. Wait wait wait. Holy shit! I can... can’t I? I can gamble!

“Well! I don’t know about you all, but I feel like watching Mean Girls 2 or the Craigslist Killer. Since y’all are busy with whatever this is, I’m getting us tickets.” Says Alec, standing up from his seat.

The Craigslist Killer was awful. Not the criminal, that’s in Boston and none of my business, but the movie. Eugh. I don’t think even Alec enjoyed watching it. But given his goofy smile, he did enjoy people’s reactions around him. Which is probably why he picked the far back seats. Brian spent the entire movie attentively inspecting the dirt under his nails or the threadcount of the seat covers in front of us. We got ourselves soft tacos and talked about stuff.

I learned that Lisa likes dubstep and rave music because it helps with her chronic headaches, which is certainly A Choice. And that Alec spends most of his free time playing video games. “Something about controlling a character’s every action brings joy to me,” he says.

I’ve known that Brian’s interests end with gym and his work that he still refuses to elaborate on despite alluding to it several times now. And what kind of work employs teenagers? Alec looks my age, for fucks sake! Lisa giggles and tells me that I’ll find out soon. Despite me being absolutely sure I did not just ask that question out loud. Oh well. Must have been written on my fucking face huh? So I am easy to read, bitch? Am I?.. woah. That was a lot of emotions. I gotta watch myself, maybe some anger management. Where did that even come from? I excuse myself and go back home.

Dad is away at work again so I brew myself some tea and relax. Nope. Can’t. I need to go out. I need to DO shit. I put on my shittier hoodie and pants and go out to the Boardwalk. I don’t need it, but I want it. I can’t order it for obvious reasons, so I’ll steal it. What “it”, you ask? A bodysuit to wear under my Shroud. Now, random shops don’t just sell spandex bodysuits on the regular, who the heck even buys those except capes and cosplayers? So I’m about to raid a sporting goods store for a pair of diving wetsuits. Then I’ll bleach and redye it whenever.

I walk into the sporting goods store in my full Shroud. The cashier is looking at me weird and is already calling someone. Well. I can still pretend to be a vigilante. Ugh, that would mean paying for the wetsuit. I’m not exactly swimming in money here! Hehe, swimming.

After a couple bad fits, I finally found one that sits properly on me. By the time I’m out and paid a hundred bucks for it, a pair of capes is already waiting for me outside the shop. A guy in a red and white suit with a shield logo on his chest, and… another guy in a red suit, power armor this time, on a hoverboard. Gosh, who’s their designer? Why are there so many red bodysuit capes in our town? My judgemental stare must have transcended such paltry obstacles as a full face mask because Aegis coughs awkwardly and flies a bit closer to me.

“Uh, hey there! Are you new around here?” He asks carefully.

“Hmm. Yeah. I’m Entoma.” I introduce myself. Yeah, that sounds right. Like an Entomologist. 

“Hero?” He asks.

“Nope,” I pop the P. He chokes his next question and instead inches away from me.

“So, you robbed the store?”

“No. Paid fair and square,” I wave the receipt in front of him.

“Then… you didn’t do any crimes yet?”

“Not today, no. Unless you’re fashion police all of a sudden?” I ask.

“I… can’t really bring you in for just saying you’re a villain, no crime, no arrest. But I strongly suggest you reconsider your life choices. If it’s about money, Wards offer decent pay and even contribute towards you college fund!” Hmm.

“Sorry. I’m in it only for the love of the game, honestly.” He stutters again. “What? If I was in it for the money or something, I would have robbed a jewelry store or a bank or something!”

“Then… then what’s stopping you from being a hero?” Kid Win interjects.

“Oh, I don’t know. Haven’t even considered being a hero. You know, with how the biggest hero organisation is controlled by the government and how smaller hero teams slowly get absorbed either into PRT or Wards or get stifled by law hard enough that they don’t have a choice but to either go villain or again, join the PRT. I decided, why go through all that trouble and just cut the middleman?”

“That’s a rather bleak outlook on your situation. Why… uh. Maybe we could change your mind?” Says Aegis forlornly.

“Tell you what. Let’s make a bet. If a week goes by and not one Protectorate hero tries to pitch me a Wards position, I will consider being a vigilante or even a hero. But if they do… hmm. Last time a hero kind of flunked on their bet with me. How about this? If you lose this bet, Kid Win here lets me borrow his hoverboard for a week.” I say, pointing at the Tinker. “Ooor. Make me a lightsaber.” It’s like a rite of passage for any Tinker, right? Everyone made a lightsaber at least once. “But you can’t tell about this bet to the others, or you know. That’d be cheating.”

The pair of Wards seem to contemplate my offer. “Okay.” Kid Win says, clearly having more stakes in the bet than Aegis, “But you can’t break or tamper with my board if you win.” He says, outstretching his hand. I shake it, knowing that by my wording, I could consider becoming a vigilante or hero, and still deny it.

Chapter Text

The next day I stayed home till noon, dying my freshly bleached bodysuit green and yellow. I also sew in a bunch of accessories like embroidering a couple centipedes, adding plastic legs and plastic carapace to them. Lots of stuff. I put some protective padding on my joints and worked on a tight fitting hand wrapping pattern. I won't always be able to use weapons, especially in narrow buildings, so making sure my knuckles don't get damaged is a high priority for me. Brian told me that a boxer is more dangerous wearing soft gloves than with bare knuckles, because they don't have to hold back their punches in fear of damaging their own bones. How convenient that I can soften my Shroud!

That whole deal done, I try the wetsuit on. It fits like a glove, which it's supposed to do by design. I Shroud myself with the rest of my costume. Insectile eye-like visor, a pair of dainty antennae, mandibles along my jawline and a cape behind me, shaped like a spiderweb. I clasp it around me using a giant centipede that wraps around my shoulders. Not the neck! Never the neck! Cloaks that wrap around necks are impractical and dangerous, and could lead to suffocation and put all the cloak’s weight on your arteries which is not nice. I first thought about losing the cape altogether. After all, you listen to Edna Mode if you want to make it big. But I don't face the same troubles as other capes. Hehe. Capes. Cause I can just make mine disappear! So it's fine. I also Shroud greaves and gauntlets that look like they're made of chitin, with insect-like joints and stuff. Hellll yessss. I always wanted a fur- uh bugsuit. As you can guess, unlike most adult furries, I don't work in Lockheed Martin or some other high paying job. So getting a bugsuit before I graduate school was sort of a pipe dream of mine. And now I have it! I should think of some nice gift to give Brian when I meet him next time.

That done, I remove my Shroud and put on something else I bought a little while ago. A nice bespoke suit. Shiny black, but dark green when reflecting light. I spent the last week patterning tiny spiders on it using black thread. The pants I patterned in green. My legs are my second greatest asset, so accentuating them is a must. As is my hair. I eye the butterfly danglies with a look of longing. I need spider themed accessories soon. But for now, we raw dog it. I gather my hair in a braid and put the spider brooch as its cinch. It'll do for now.

By the time I was done, it was just past two in the afternoon and I had plenty of time to do the next part of my plan. I'm gonna rob an Empire front shop. There is a firearm shop between downtown and the docks that I heard dad complain about. It was just out of Lung’s territory and is a big supply spot during gang firefights and helped Empire hold that block for the past couple of years. That's why that place was so important. So obviously, it had a lot of money. And for my next stunt, I needed at least ten grand. I'm sure the place has much more cash than I need, I might even leave half for them so they aren't too angry with me… naw, I'm taking it all lmao. Fuck ‘em.

So here I am, on the rooftop facing the store in my costume. Not the suit. That's for later. I see five guys hanging around the front, acting like they're just shooting shit and talking smack, when in fact they're today’s security detail. Or, part of it. I saw another group at the back entrance, sporting honest to god AK-47s. This is America! Rahhh! How dare they use Russian models! That's what terrorists use in Counter Strike! Where are our patriotic AR-15s? Our Colts and Winchesters?! My blood is boiling at the hypocrisy! I have half a heart to get a giant flag and pretend to be a different cape just so I can beat them up and get cheered on. People won't cheer when a villain beats up other villains! But I need to be out as Entoma as much as possible for the following week. A bet hinges on it. Ugh.

I swoop down like a bootleg Batman I am, cape fluttering in the wind, landing feet first on two of the thugs’ faces. Before one of them can cry out “cape!” which is dumb and cringe and shut up, don't talk to me, I Shroud a half-inch thick belt and proceed to brutalize them like their deadbeat dads used to after coming home drunk when they were teenagers. That is, buckle-first. They are left with red square marks on their… entire bodies as I climb up on the store’s rooftop and do the same to the thugs at the front. There is nothing more satisfying than hearing a high-pitched whine of a grown man crying uncle.

Wow. Okay. I am much more violent today than the last time I went out. I shelve it for later and enter the store, dodging a point blank shotgun shot to the face. Sweeping the store owner off his feet, I elbow drop on his face and disassemble his shotgun. Doesn't he know it's dangerous to play with firearms?

I bust the register and pocket all the money there, that's a solid thousand dollars! Not bad! But I know for a fact they have a bigger bounty hidden somewhere. My Hunch tells me to enter the storage/office rooms and topple a bookshelf. There it is, a steel safe hidden behind a raunchy Fenja and Menja pinup poster… hidden behind a bookshelf. I set my heist skills to work, Shrouding a stethoscope and letting my power do all the hard work. And I'm rewarded by stacks of hundred dollar bills, totalling to forty grand, and a bar of gold! God damn!.. And two custom made golden deagles with uhh… nazi stuff on them. Ugh. Into the melting pot you go!

While I was gathering my spoils into a burlap sack I found in the store, my Hunch goes off, telling me to jump back. Yeowch! A semi transparent spear flies through the wall, a semi transparent person holding it. I dodge around him and swipe the remaining money and dash out of the building. Of course they would send someone here immediately! There I see him, hidden behind his army of ghosts, Crusader floats using two of his clones as carriers. 

“Bet ya didn't expect me today, huh?” I ask, in the mood for banter.

“Bet you thought you'd get away, ******” jeez. I choose to forget whatever he just said in favor of keeping my innocence.

“Well it's just you, what are you gonna do, Casper the Unfriendly Ghost? Huh?” I ask, putting my hand on my hip and cocking it slightly. “You can't catch me and you're a big loser.” I Shroud a nerf gun and shoot him in his mask’s eye socket.

“Argh! You little!” His ghosts start rushing towards me. “I'll catch you alone and you'll regret ridiculing me! Gesellschaft will straighten out your nasty personality! And then I'll make you my bitch when you join the Empire!”

Ew. What the fuck? I switch the nerf gun for a real one and shoot him in the balls. His ghosts drop him to the ground, screaming and clutching a bleeding crotch. “Let's see you try, you weirdo.” I say, turning around and rushing off in a sprint. I feel a bet form. Oh. Damn. I better NOT get caught. Ugh. Eugh. If he catches me for real, I'll have to either kill him or die trying.

His ghosts are following me despite his body being incapacitated. I shoot at them to no avail. Uhh, what was his power? Intangibility to non-living material? Oh! Holy shit! I pivot on the ball of my foot and send a kick at the first ghost’s face. It dissipates into mist. Okay. That works! I can just beat the shit out of him and then escape!

A punch to the gut, a kick to the knee, a finger poke in the eyes and three ghosts are gone just like that. Crusader makes more of them but they look like they have the same injuries as him. Hmm! Hm hm hm! I Shroud a lightest shot put, 6 pounds, and spin in place twice before sending it flying at Crusader’s face. The world record for the heaviest shot put throw is like 70 feet. I'm only fifty feet out and have the strength of like… three to four average men in me. I clear that distance no problem. The shadowy ball passes through his ghosts, but he isn't blocking it at all. Instead, he's trying to drag himself away! Too bad that the shot put lands directly on his hip bone, crushing it. He faints on the spot and his ghosts dissipate. Satisfied, I leave him on the street to get clowned on by civvies while I go hide my ill gotten gains at home. The coal chute hasn't been under use for a while since dad started using electric heating at home. That's what I call coming to riches, damn. Like a true middle class family, not worrying about the house being cold in winter.

That done with, I pocket ten stacks, put on my suit and proceed to my next plan - gambling. That's why I'm standing in front of the Ruby Dreams Casino.

Chapter Text

Trickster.

Being the brats’ emergency escape was kind of a humiliating first mission from his employer. But Krouse has to admit that he is good at making an escape. He just hoped for something more high profile than this. But the boss gave him pocket money to spend on gambling just so he could blend in and stay in the casino longer. He’s just bitter that boss sent him alone. 

The dealer throws another set of cards in front of each player and Krouse quickly swaps one in his hand with a face down card of the woman to his left. He had a shitty hand and she was looking mad cocky, winning the two previous rounds. About time she eats shit!

“I re-raise,” the woman says, pushing ten more chips. Oh man. Poor girl. Thinks Krouse, picking up his face down card and looking at the table. He's got four of a kind! Three in his hand and one at the table. And even before that he had a full house. He's set!

“Call,” he says, pushing his chips to match. The others at the table check out. The dealer waits for another raise that doesn't come. Krouse is confident but he's not That confident. With the current cards on the table, there's no way to get another four of a kind, he's been counting those.

Time comes for the big reveal and Krouse can't wait to wipe that smug look off the woman’s face. The smug stays as she flips her cards. She reveals her cards to be a straight flush. What? How? When? 

His mouth remains agape as she gathers up the chips, giggling happily. “Thanks for going easy on me, guys. This was my first time playing and you clearly knew that, by how easy you made it for me <3.” She did not just say less than three out loud. Ain't no fucking way. No. He can't take that lying down. He stands up to follow the woman who grabbed a bucket of quarters and started walking towards the slot machines.

She manages to pull the lever once before Krouse grabs her by the shoulder. “Hey! I know you were cheating!” He declares, which earns several disapproving looks from the crowd, divided between the woman and Krouse, him for disturbing the peace, her for getting caught cheating. Yeah! At least have the decency to be discreet about it!

She turns to him as the three slots stop at cherries. “And you know that… How exactly?” She asks, her smug grin getting wider. Krouse swears to god if he accidentally stumbled upon a SECOND insufferable Thinker in this town, he won't care for Coil’s plans. He's crashing out there and then.

“Cause I was sure you had a seven there! But you got a straight flush from nine to king!”

“Oh yeah? You were counting cards then?” Asks the woman, eliciting a wave of “oooh”s from the crowd, as her second pull results in three sevens.

“Wh- no! The point is, you cheated!” he repeats instead of trying to dig himself out of the situation.

“Well. We're clearly going nowhere with this.” The woman stands up, grabbing her now significantly heftier bucket and handing it to a dismayed looking guy. She whispers, “99% of gamblers quit before making it big. You can do it!” Then she turns to him, having sufficiently distracted everyone who was listening in, the sounds of slots spinning spreading across the casino. “I could prove it's sheer luck. We can bet on it too.” She points to a different table. “How about Liar’s Cards? I've never heard of those.”

Krouse eyes the table. This is… literally a perfect fit for his powers! How did he not think of that? “Okay. What's the bet?”

“Let's say you win the round. I give you all the chips I earned in my last game. If I win the round, you double my winnings for that round. I'll even roll up my sleeves. But to make it fair. Just so you know. If I see you start cheating, I'll start cheating too~” she teases, taking off her black-green suit and rolling up her light green shirt’s sleeves. Oh, it is on, bitch!

They sit down, the host explains the rules and they get playing. Each player either matches the agreed upon rank with a card and raises the bet or calls out a liar and the round ends. The one caught in the lie or the one who pointed out a false lie are out. The round continues until one player remains. It's a queen's round. Krouse hastily swaps out his dud cards for the first cards played, sure that it's better to try that out than to be left with bad cards. Oh, everyone is lying here. God damn. He doesn't call them out on it, waiting for the woman to place her cards. He swaps them with kings, but sees that her cards were also kings. So she points at her. “Liar.”

He smugly looks on as the host flips the last two cards to reveal… two queens. Oh no fucking way. He throws down his cards and puts his face in his hands. The woman then quickly wins the round, but only after waiting for the bet to raise a bit. She approaches Krouse with fifteen more chips than she started with, a hand outstretched towards him.

“How?” He asks, handing her the chips.

“I'm just built different.” She says and leaves for the roulette table. Krouse watches her figure disappear in the casino crowd and wonders if he has been scammed. 

He goes back to the Liar’s Card table and wins three rounds before other players kick him out. Well, time for more poker, now without that nasty woman.

Colinterlude

Colin sat at the high rollers table, feeling significantly underdressed. Not because his suit looked bad, no. He had it bespoke, tailor made out of the best tinkertech fabric that he could fabricate with his tools - arguable the best tools a Tinker may have. The suit was crammed with as much tech as he could fit in it. And god can he fit tech in stuff. But it wasn't his beloved power armor. And instead of his trusty visor, he was wearing thick rimmed ray-bans with a lesser version of his HUD. 

Right now he's undercover, trying to get closer to Lung by betting high and winning high in his casino. That is bound to pique the warlord’s interest and he'll wish to bet against Colin, rigging the game to prevent Colin from clearing his casino.

That is when a girl in a black green suit walks up to the table with a tray filled to the brim with black chips. She smiles at the host, saying “can you believe I started the night with ten of those?” Colin is as impressed as the others. But he is also full of pity for this girl. His algorithms tell him she must be around 15-16 years old, which is clearly too young to be in this place and that she's going to lose what is probably her parents’ savings. After all, he's built the most sophisticated prediction algorithms known to man, with Dragon’s significant help. He is guaranteed to win. That's what he thinks, placing half his chips in red.

Colin lost half his chips. He got distracted by the girl’s banter and his inner turmoil over not arresting her for underage gambling. He even got roped into an inane bet to play some dice game with the girl, trying to keep an eye on her for her safety. He lost it. Once she left to play some slots, Colin finally had time to collect himself and win back whatever he lost, plus some more. And soon he found himself in a private room with five people. A tall black man in a dark blue suit, a thin middle aged asian man, a totally-not-Lung buff asian man who's totally the owner of the casino. And the girl in a black green suit.

Chapter Text

I had so much fun tonight! I found out that not all people give me powers or even strength, but those who do are a delight! I’ve already used the power I got from that man in a blue suit, who is also secretly a cape just like me! Also, this redeemed my power! The ability to swap two similarly shaped objects is not in any way racially motivated! Is it? I’m sure it’s not. That silly goose, thinking he can cheat me out of my chips! And that weird guy who kept staring at me at the roulette table. But it all pales in comparison to what's in front of me right now. I am in an all you can eat buffet right now. I can get goodies from all four of the people sitting at the table with me.

We are playing mahjong. The proprietor sits the first round out, replacing the player with the lowest score. So I smell an opportunity. I eye the three other players around me and think of who I want to get kicked out. The Krouse guy gives such a sweet power, and I can only swap lightweight stuff for now. I could scam him for more. And he's a fellow cape! The nerdy old man also gave me an amazing power. I can't let him lose too soon. But the middle aged asian guy kinda… he looks like he's good at mahjong- AND that's not just racially motivated I swear! He just looks so excited to be here. And the game IS more popular with asian grannies so it makes sense! Hm. Actually. I squint and look between him and the buff guy. They have matching rings. And that's for sure not their fraternity ring or anything. Oh those silly gooses. I know what to do.

“How about we spice the first round up?” I say, rolling my dice. We're deciding who's prevailing East for this turn and I can't let the middle aged twink get it. He cocks an eyebrow at me, clearly intrigued. “I know what you want to do.” I say, revealing a twelve, matching his dice roll. We reroll.

“Oh? And pray tell what that is?” He asks, a smile creeping up his face. His hand reveals a twelve.

“You want to win within four discards.” I say, rolling a twelve as well.

“Well, obviously I want to win.” He says, matter of factly, even a bit disappointed.

“Yeah but you want to then give your place up,” I say, glancing meaningfully at his ring finger, “To your hubby.” I smile softly, not meaning it as an insult. But it is a tease.

“Heh heh, I like Mah Jong, yes. But sixteen rounds is a bit too much for me now. So I want to get a win before bowing out. We do have five players today, after all.” He says, sheepishly looking back at Mr Kenta. “If that's fine with you?” He asks. Kenta grunts an affirmative and shoots finger guns at him. Mr Lee mimes getting shot in the heart and turns back to us. “So what's your proposition for the first round?” He asks me.

“Well. How about this? I say I can call Mah Jong faster than you. That'll tank my final score, sure, but you are also unconcerned about getting a special hand, no? So if I win, you stay to play one more game.” I say, proud of my brilliant idea. “And Mr Kenta waits another round.” I add, phew. Almost forgot about that. I wanna win at least twice against Mr Lee and others before one of them has to leave. Just winning against them does give me a sweet boost but betting extra makes the boost much more potent.

“Oh?” Mr Kenta pipes up. “So you want to include me in the bet?”

“Well, yeah? Wouldn't you joining in someone else’s place invalidate Mr Lee’s intentions? He wants to bow out because a long game might exhaust him, after all.”

“Hrm. Very well. Then I expect, you have something of value to bet in case you lose?” He asks me.

“I could bow out even if I don't score the least,” I say shrugging. “If that's not enough, be my guest. What would you like me to bet?”

“That's mighty confident of you,” Krouse says. “Got a nice hand?”

“Haven't heard any complaints yet.” I shrug as he starts coughing.

“Well, if you're so confident. How about you do one thing for me if you lose? Specified after the game.” Mr Kenta says after thinking about it for a minute.

I agree and we start the game. I won the dice roll off in the end, rolling a seven when Mr Lee rolled a four, so I get to be prevailing East. Then Krouse and Mr Lee shuffle the tiles and we draw our hand. I surreptitiously swap tiles that my Hunch tells me to swap while they're still face down. I'm so glad there's no puff or flash that accompanies these teleports. I'd be skinned alive if who I suspect is fucking Lung catches me cheating. Krouse and I are hastily looking at the rules pamphlet with all the hand combos, and that draws a chuckle from Mr Lee and the nerd. I glare at Colin, cause how dare he know the game rules beforehand!

I look at the plank in front of me and sign in relief. Hunch didn't give me some asspull winning hand. That would be sus as fuck. Thank you Hunch, you know what's best for me. We do a round of discards and pulls, both Colin and Krouse take from the discard, revealing fours of a kind. I am aiming for something fun. Not a special hand, that would be kinda fucked up and very sus. No. I want my wind tiles and to finish at least one dragon set. That should uhh… double my score like thrice. Right? Right?

The round ends with me somehow scoring like… eight thousand. Which doesn't really matter cause there's a score limit of two kay. I win and feel another surge of strength within me. Oh wow. I could get addicted to this. Mr Lee somehow managed to gather all four South winds and the major bamboos. That sly fox. He looked happy to not win though, probably looking forward to another round but not a whole game. That's fine. I want to prolong this as long as I can. I know the game ends either when everyone but one player is bankrupt or on the 16th round. So 16th round it is. Which means I have to pull Krouse’s head out his ass. He's kind of fumbling.

Mr Lee wins the next round with a much less impressive hand. He probably wanted to get it over with fast. He hands all his chips to Mr Kenta and the real game begins. That is, my Hunch starts telling me that everybody starts cheating. Even the damn nerd! How? When? Are you… are there extra tiles in your sleeves or something? What the fuck do you mean you’re cheating?

Then it dawns on me. He memorized. Each. Tile. And when we shuffled the board, he kept track. Of. Every. Tile. That’s like… twelve by twelve… 144 tiles! Bitch?! And not only that, there’s something on his thumb that erases the tile’s surface and prints a new face on it! So that every time he discards, it’s some weak shit! And every time he picks minor tiles or the ones he doesn’t need, he also wipes them and puts what he really needs! Oh, the gall!

But what’s truly vexing me is Kenta. No Mr for you anymore, you ass! You are ACTUALLY pulling tiles from your sleeve! How… how dare you?!

By round 9 I lose my advantage and Krouse and I are actually losing to these two bastards. Mostly, because Krouse is kind of fucking up my setups by also stealthily swapping tiles. But he’s unaware that Colin is reprinting their faces and Kenta is eating the tiles. I also realize something. Something that kind of makes me sweat bullets. If Colin is swapping minor tiles with majors, dragons and winds. And if Kenta is eating tiles he doesn’t like and swapping them out for… also dragons and winds. In two rounds, even after we shuffle the entire board, we are guaranteed to get duplicate tiles in our hands. When that happens, things will get very, very awkward. Especially since my Hunch tells me they’re both aiming for the same Four Blessings hand. Which means they will both have three of each wind. Which would result in two extra winds, each. And I know for a fact that Krouse will see that and also reveal his hand to be Four Blessings. And then they’ll look at me and I’ll also have to reveal my hand. That is also Four Blessings. I cannot allow that. I can’t. My reputation hangs on it. I need to fucking bankrupt them. But I’m gonna be prevailing wind again and if I somehow force them to lose- Heaven’s Blessing! I can just… fucking! I can win with a starting hand! I’ll have your ass after we’re done here, Colin. And I’ll key Kenta’s car cause fuck him and his ivory diet. How is he even eating them without making a sound?! I look at him right when Hunch tells me that he’s eaten a tile again. He meets my eyes. I try making the subtlest “the fuck you doing?” face at him. He shrugs and shakes his head almost imperceptibly too. The fuck you mean “I don’t know?”!? Oh. Oh you bitch. He didn’t shake his head at me. He just- I HEARD A CRUNCH! He was chewing! Okay. I need to do something about this.

It’s round 11. I know the table has a bunch of extra tiles underneath. That’s how they got the first set out and there were 4 slots for tiles and we only used the one. The moment we finish shuffling, I start hastily swapping everyone’s tiles so that they don’t get Earth’s Blessing somehow. How? I swap my tiles first, sending every dragon and wind I get under the table. Then, I swap my new tiles with the ones someone else is in the process of picking up. I’m sweating bullets. Krouse could have the fucking decency to tell me that it consumes stamina if you start doing it faster. I’ll remember this. Every single cheating bastard here, except me of course, I’ll deal with. Sure, I can’t beat up Lung, but! I can cyberbully him. And I’ll do it too!

We finally finish drawing the tiles and, as I expected, I flip my board, revealing Thirteen Wonders. What happens next kind of feels like it happened in slow motion. Kenta’s suit caught in flames, his hands gripping the table to flip it over. Colin’s watch turned into a fucking halberd, his bowtie expanded to cover his face (a bit too late if you ask me, Armsy), Krouse disappeared right as a giant dog made of loose flesh and bone broke through the door behind him, with what looks like an enormous chew toy in its mouth. I immediately went stealth mode, slinking away into the shadows as Lung and, apparently, Armsmaster, started throwing the biggest baby tantrum over losing the game. I heard Armsmaster shouting something like “You’re under arrest” but I feel like you should have done that a bit sooner, buddy. I see Krouse on top of the building across the street, watching the casino from the gaping hole in its walls, suspiciously dog-shaped.

Well, while that’s going on, I think I’ll just raid their safe. And, as it turns out, I’m not the only one who had that brilliant idea. Because as I round the corner of the casino’s basement towards the giant vault doors, I see a blonde girl in a- buh, wow. That’s a very form-fitting suit. Oh and there’s a boy there too. 

“Oh, hi there.” She says, somehow seeing through my stealth. “Wanna join our heist?”

Chapter Text

I quickly collected my wandering thoughts and got my mind out of the gutter. It’s not even that tight. Also, I squint. They look… so familiar. Almost like I met them yesterday.

“I was kind of hoping for the entire vault for myself.” I say.

“Well, you couldn’t have gotten it without our distraction.” The blonde retorts.

“I would’ve won the Mahjong game against Lung and gotten out with more than my share if I joined you. So I could just beat you up and go back.”

“Yeah, you could. But he’s a big cheater and a bigger sore loser and also would try to recruit you on the spot cause then he’ll know you’re a parahuman.”

I shrug. “I guess I’m joining you then. Step aside, noobs.” I crack my neck and knuckles. But I don’t want to damage my joints so I secretly crush the mahjong tile I took with me instead of actually cracking my neck and knuckles. The vault is just a very complicated safe. And with Victor’s safecracking skills, it takes me less than twenty seconds to open it.

“Could have done it myself.” Blondie says.

“Yet it’s been like five minutes since the dogs attacked and you’re still here. I’m just better.” 

“Burn.” Whispers totally-not-Alec.

“Wow, I hate her.” Whispers totally-not-Lisa. I don’t really feel any heat behind it but sure, Lisa, we can start that beef. Also holy shit I was ogling my barely acquaintance’s ass. 

I kind of fail to get my head out of the gutter and get my shit rocked by walking face first into another vault door. “Ack- who the fuck uses two vault doors?! If a thief broke through the first, they can break through the second!”

“Well this one looks different.” Alec points out. And yeah, instead of a combination lock with a rotating handle, it's a screen and a keyboard. Lisa pushes past me and cracks her knuckles.

“Step aside, noob .” She tells me and looks over the keyboard. “They're amateurs too. Entering the combination in gloves does jack shit if you punch the buttons like they owe you money, which they might, considering where this leads.” She brushes her hand across the keyboard and punches in the keys that were the loosest. “The password is Lung’s favorite car model. Aaand, behold!” She opens the vault door only for a third vault door to block our path.

“Oh for fuck’s sake. Step aside you both.” Alec huffs and pulls out a bag of grey-ish sand. There's some metallic shavings in it. He pours a couple handfuls on the door’s hinges and lights them up. “Thermite.” He says.

I surreptitiously swap a pinch from his leftovers with a pinch of coke I pocketed from one of the visitors. This will come in handy later in the episode.

By the time thermite eats through the hinges, we're joined by two other capes, one of whom is totally-not-Brian, and the other is a pretty muscular girl with a very, very defined jawline. Rawr. She's rocking one of those hide jackets that are fluffy on the inside and leathery on the outside, a thick-strapped beige tank top underneath and a pair of worn jeans. And on top of it all, she's soaking wet. If anybody told me this girl isn't at least a little into other girls, I think I'd weep.

“Judas got the fire hose and gave us an early wash.” Brian says, wringing his clothes of water. I could still smell a bit of burnt leather on them both. I'm not sure if it's their jackets or… their skin.

“Who's that?” The mysterious maybe-butch asks, growling at me. 

“For you? I can be anything you want~” I say, leaning on nothing and almost falling over. Then I remember I have Shroud so I lean on Shroud.

“She's our new teammate.” Says Lisa, rolling her eyes. “By the way, new teammate, got a name?”

“I don't remember discussing any new additions to our team.” Brian states slowly, accusingly. “The fuck are you doing, T?” He whispers to Lisa, pulling her into a whisper huddle.

“Listen. She's fucking bonkers kind of a Stranger, okay? And she's a- a Shaker on top of that! And some kind of Thinker too! Do you want her as your ally or do you want another Spitfire case?! Faultline is still lording that over us.”

“You could have warned me!” Brian accused again.

“Oh, sorry, I had so much fucking time in my hands huh? She just showed up, ready to take the money. It's either she joins us or she kicks our asses using shadow kung fu. And if you haven't noticed, only Rachel has offensive powers here.”

“Yeah, she was full on ready to throw hands.” Alec joins the whisper huddle to Lisa’s right.

“I hundred percent was, too. I'd have wiped the floor with you.” I say, joining the whisper huddle to Brian’s left.

“Why are y'all whispering?” Asks Rachel, closing the whisper huddle circle.

“They’re talking about including me on the team and why Brian is upset about it. You want some snacks?” I offer her, having grabbed a pocketful of beef jerky from the bar in the chaos.

“... Yea. Gimme.” Rachel took all the jerky and stuffed one in her mouth. “I like her. She's the first person who brought snacks to our heists.” Then she fell silent, content with not having to talk but happy to be included in the conversation.

“Hold the fuck up!” Protests Brian. “No bribing my teammates!”

“Did you miss the part where she knows your name?” Asks Alec, not really concerned about it, more amused.

“Yeah, Alec’s right. Set your priorities straight, man. Like your sexuality.” I say.

“Taylor?!” he gasps.

“Brian?!” I mock him.

“Rachel?” Rachel joins in.

“And Lisa.” Lisa bows. “Now that we're done with this bullshit, can we finally get the heist over with?!

“You knew?” Brian’s about to start another chew out session but Lisa interrupts him.

“Apapapap.” She points her index finger up in a shushing motion. “Not now.” She points at herself. “Thinker seven.” She points at the vault. “Money.”

So we rush to collect as much as we can. My Hunch tells me which pile is the best pick so I start shoveling it in my duffel bag. What duffel bag, you ask? My Shroud duffel bag! Hell yeah! Shadow powers are best powers.

When we finally ran out of the basement floor, the fight moved from the third floor to the ground floor. Armsmaster in his ragged suit was brandishing his halberd at a fairly ramped up Lung. I could see Oni Lee trying to teleport but somehow ending up in his clones’ place each time. Oh! Of course, its easy cause they're the same weight! Good thinking, Krouse! So you're only stupid when you gamble.

Both ABB capes distracted, our escape is smooth sailing. Or it should have been, as a canister flies into Brian’s stomach and he doubles over.

“Tear gas!” Lisa warns and kicks it away. Right before Brian floods us in a vantablack cloud, I see Miss Militia stepping inside the casino.

I see her tagging in for Armsy as Armsy rushes over towards us. 

“Undersiders, you're under arrest for breaking in and robbery. Surrender and you might end up in probationary Wards rather than the juvenile detention.” Wait. Oh hoho! Does it count? Does it? I feel a wave of strength, about that of an adolescent boy, wash over me. And a new power takes its place right next to Colin’s. Today is a good day. A good day, I say! I make a little jump and pump the air as an electrified blade passes right next to me.

“Hey! Are you trying to catch us or kill us?” He swings at me again, the electricity arcing towards me. “Also that's Shadow Stalker’s weakness, not mine.”

He pauses. “You're not Shadow Stalker?”

“Wh- why'd you think I am?!”

“Uh… nevermind.” He swings at me again, this time the blade releasing a thin tranq dark that I block with Shroud.

“They suspected her to also be dating Victor for a hot second.” Lisa tells me. “Man, talk about profiling.”

“She's a member of the Wards! With integrity and honesty! We would never suspect her of that!” Miss Militia interjects while pelting Lung with a rocket launcher gatling.

“We'd treat her so much better.” Lisa teases them. “Come to the dark side, Shadow Stalker~, we have cookies, acceptance and validation.”

“She's not here is she?” I ask, looking around.

“No, she's on console duty. And Armsmaster still thought she went rogue. Despite her speaking in his earpiece, what? Five minutes ago?”

“I'll make sure to address my prejudices towards previously uncontrolled murderous vigilantes once we're back in HQ. We have bigger concerns currently.” Armsmaster interrupts and rushes towards me again. Brian closes up our speech bubble and back to the fight I go.

I form a halberd out of Shroud and swap its places with Armsy’s. He must have rushed this one cause it doesn't have an “in case of being stolen, teleport back” schtick his main blades have. So I make the Shroud disappear and stab him in the thigh. He drops like a puppet with cut strings.

We hear sirens in the distance and what looks like Dauntless and Aegis in the air. Whoops. Time to run.

I jump behind Rachel and wrap my arms around her waist. Just… to not fall off the dog. Nothing else.

Brian creates a smokescreen for us to hide in as we expeditiously exit the casino and its immediate vicinity.

While we're running, I take stock of the powers I got today.

Chapter Text

So my first power is Hunch, I got it from dad. it lets me know the vague or sometimes very specific knowledge of what’s gonna happen in the next half an hour. I can kind of overclock it with “what if I do this?”es but that quickly results in me having a killer migraine so I do it either sparingly or only to check the next minute or so.

Then there’s Stealth from Sophia. Right now it lets me become a shadowy silhouette when I’m at a certain level of illumination. So the darker it is, the harder it is for people to see me. And lately, after our last bet, I also feel lighter when I’m not under sunlight.

Shroud I got from Brian and now I’m sure my power isn’t racist. His power is racist. My power just used his as a bad role model. It let me create shadowy objects of variable hardness and any shape limited only by total volume that kept rising each time I won a bet against him. Right now I can Shroud around three walk-in fridges at the same time.

Winning my bet against Victor let me gain expert skills in any object I create with Shroud. So I make a knife? I’m an awesome fucking knife thrower. I make a sword? Boom. Pro fencer. I make a vague shape of thieves’ tools (lockpicks, a crowbar, a thin eye mask and a striped shirt)? Well now I know everything a seasoned criminal would. I haven’t found every combination of tools but so far I can be an expert underground shady doctor in a pinch. Also any kind of hand accessory or even cloth wrapped around my knuckles just gives me kickass martial arts skills. Same with feet.

Cricket gave me around thirty feet range of enhanced hearing and a sense of balance, but if balance was a gatorade flavor. Like I know it’s supposed to be there, but it’s just… flavor .

Crusader gave me something very nice. But again, his bet just upgraded Shroud. Which, I’m not complaining. It’s better this way so that I don’t have to bet against him anymore, just gotta pester Brian more. And since we’re in the same team, I can do it constantly. Now I can make Shroud move independently and even create Shroud clones of myself. It’s fucking awesome, is what it is. And guess what else is awesome? Fully articulate fluffy giant isopod! Fully articulate bug mask! That moves with a thought! I can make a giant millipede snuggle me! Oh, I can! I can give myself a hug!

I wipe the moisture from my face. Is it raining? Maybe. That’s just sweat from Rachel’s hair, for sure.

These victories set me at around four times an average person’s strength, which just about put me on the same level as top athletes. But today’s haul is nothing to sneeze at either. Krouse’s power alone is an A-tier standalone power. It lets me swap two identically shaped and weighing objects, as long as at least one of them is not under direct illumination. It’s not even line of sight, which is kind of crazy. It’s range is kind of shit though. Just thirty feet. My victories against Krouse increased the max weight of the swaps to around two hundred pounds, but it did nothing to change the range. Maybe the range will begin increasing if I max out the weight limit? We’ll have to see.

Colin gave me an interesting power. I couldn’t test it or even use it in the casino, cause it’s the first power that needs prep time and resources that I got. It’s also the only power that came as a secondary power with no primary to connect to. Which is bullshit if you ask me! It lets me cram much more tinkertech into anything I build. But here’s the thing. I can’t build shit!

Same with Kid Win’s! Oh, I can more easily make interchangeable tech? What tech? Huh? That’s right. None! I was scammed! Both the mentor and the mentee are frauds!

But Mr Lee did not disappoint. His power also enhanced Shroud, which I don’t mind at all! He’s so considerate, both in person and as a power giver. Such a sweet old man. Now I can teleport my Shroud-made creations up to a hundred feet. On its own it sounds like a weak power, right? Just the objects and not myself? Well! That’s cause it pairs so well with Crusader’s! I can just make my own clone, teleport it within 30 feet of me and swap with it!

But the cherry on top is Lung. His one is a standalone power. It gives me a major boost in physical strength. And I know for a fact that it scales with my regular strength increases! Both from workouts and from bets. And on top of that, the more physically dangerous the bet I make from now on - the more strength I get from it. Right now I’m pretty sure I can bench press one of these dogs. And that’s just from the initial boost.

Once I’m done inventorying my powers, the dogs finally stop. We get off them and they start shaking off the extra bits of flesh. Rachel helps them climb out of their egg sacs and everyone turns to look at me.

“So, you still didn’t tell us your name, you know, your cape name.” Clarifies Lisa.

“I haven’t really chosen one for sure. I was thinking either Entoma or Gambit.” I say.

“Entoma is a maid from the weebest anime, and Gambit is trademarked and Disney will have your skin if you pick it.” Says Alec.

“Gee thanks, Alec. Daredevil?”

“Also trademarked.”

“Damn. Ace?”

“That’d be me.” Says Lisa.

“Roulette?”

“Taken, Russian Shaker girl from Vegas.” Alec says again.

“Oh my fucking god.” I groan into my cupped hands.

“Let’s get inside first. I have questions.” Brian says sternly. So we do. Once inside, Lisa grabs a box of pizza and we each grab a slice. “How long have you been a cape?” He asks me when we sit down on the couches.

“Eh, a month, give or take.”

“So you were a cape when we met?”

“Yup.”

“Did you know?”

“That you were a cape too? No. Just thought ‘this guy looks gullible’ and went from there.” He looks offended at that while Lisa and Alec burst out laughing. Brian looks at Lisa for confirmation and she nods, still shaking from laughing.

“Yea, she didn’t know we were capes at all.” She confirms. Thank you.

“I’m not gullible, am I?”

“Well, no. But you lost like two hundred bucks across our bets.” I say.

“Of course! You’re a minor Brute on top of being… what, a Stranger, Shaker and Thinker?”

“She’s a Trump. Nothing insect related, actually.” Lisa says.

“Oh yeah, that’s all me.” I take off my bug helmet. Eating through it is fun as hell, but I think it’s freaking everyone else out. “This is my bugsona.” I say seriously. “I’m an anthropod.”

“What, like a furry?” Alec asks.

“Uh, yeah? Just with bugs.”

“Cool, cool. So what’s your power?”

“Eh, I make bets and when I win them, I get a random power and a bit of a boost to my physical stats. Strength, speed, durability, stamina, et cetera, et cetera. Right now I’ve got eleven powers, but uhh.. Actually I’ve only got like 5. I got this from Brian.” I form the Shroud. “And it got upgraded by Victor, Crusader and Mr Lee, Lung’s husband. First gives me cracked pro skills with any item I make with Shroud, second lets me make them move on their own, third lets me teleport them a short distance.”

“Do you mean… Oni Lee?” Lisa asks

“No. Those are different Lee’s, I’m sure. That’d also be dumb as fuck. Like if Victor’s civvy name was Viktor.”

“Okay sure. So what you’re saying is, Brian’s power is the top in that… power frouple?” Lisa snickers.

“Oh sure, a black guy and three racists walk into a bar. They’re a frouple, says the horse.”

“I’m more of a fox, thank you very much.”

“Then why the long face?” 

“Har har.” she throws an olive piece at me and I catch it with my mouth.

“Then I got a minor precog power, lets me know what happens in the next ten-ish minutes, or what hypothetically happens within a minute if I do something specific.”

“That’s… that’s not minor at all, what the fuck? Like, is it vague images or something?” Lisa asks, suddenly agitated.

“... No? Just.. knowledge. Like I just know something will happen, no images no nothing.”

“ Can you be more vague? ” Me and Lisa speak at the same time. “ Cucumber, uppercut, seventy two, boop boop beep. ” By the end I started going ahead of her. “Okay, that’s kind of bullshit. That alone is bonkers.”

“I also got Trickster’s power. Just more limited.”

“When did you- oh, the casino. Well, what do you guys think?” Lisa addresses her teammates.

“She knows our names anyway. I say yay.” Alec shrugs.

“She brought snacks. I say yay.” Rachel says, still nibbling on the jerky. Okay, I made a mental note to make her some homemade snacks next time we go out.

“I-” Brian pauses. “Honestly, you’d be a great addition to our team. Now that I know what your powers are.” He says in the end. That reminds me of something.

“So what are you guys’ powers?” And they tell me, with the same amount of detail. That over and done with, I grab my share of the haul and walk back home. Dad is sitting on the sofa with a glass of lemonade in one hand and a laptop on his lap.

“Hey, kiddo. You’re late today. Went out with friends?” He asks. “That Sophia girl?”

“Oh, no, there’s this guy…” he raises an eyebrow, “I met him at the gym, he spots me when I try the heavier weights. He invited me to an outing with his friends, two girls and another boy.”

“Oh? Do you want to invite him to dinner?”

“Dad.” I say, raising my voice in a ‘are you being fr right now?’ tone. “I’m gay.”

He chuckles. “Didn’t you say you aren’t, a month ago?”

“Well, I reconsidered.” After today, for sure for sure.

“Okay, little owl. Just know that I love you no matter what and you have the right to be anything you want.” He stands up to give me a hug, putting the laptop on the coffee table. This is nice. I squeeze him just a bit. “Oof, easy there supergirl.” He pats my back and I let go. “So how’d you enjoy Downtown? Won any gambles?”

“I went to the casino with like a hundred bucks and won ten grand.” I say, pulling out a single stack of hundreds from my suit and putting it on the table. I hid the rest by sending them down the coal chute. “How did you know?”

“Oh, you know. Just a Hunch.” He says, smiling, and goes back to his laptop.

Chapter Text

It’s Monday, and I have to go back to Winslow. There used to be a time when I dreaded this day of the week. But now? I’m looking forward to it. I’m looking forward to what Sophia will think of my idea.

But my good mood is dashed before I can even enter the school. Emma is waiting for me at the entrance. There’s a couple girls around her, but not the kind of entourage that she usually has. Maybe five times smaller than usual, actually. She blocks my path, stepping in front of me when I try to go around her.

“What do you want, Emma? Please just fuck off, kindly.” She looks taken aback by it but she still decides to follow through with her plan. She grabs me by the collar of my shirt, trying and failing to pull me closer. Instead, it’s her who shifts.

“What did you do to Sophia, you bitch?” She asks me.

“What do you mean?” I ask genuinely confused.

“She broke all contact with me. She told me to go to fuckign therapy!”

“Well maybe you should!”

“She always said therapy is for weak shits! This is abnormal behavior for her! And you have something to do with it!”

“The fuck I don’t!”

“And you! You also became more abrasive and violent!”

“The fuck I didn’t!”

“Yes you did! Just last friday you shoulder checked Julia and didn’t even look back! You never did that!”

“Well, maybe I do now. People change, Emma. It’s just you who’s gonna be stuck in her high school era. You’ve got your whole life already decided for you. Miss Honey Bee of Winslow, peaked in high school, married a finance bro five years older than her and popped out two to three kids for him and is failing to keep her modelling career after being caught yelling at a fast food joint cashier for having slightly burnt fries.” She looks absolutely livid. Well, you don’t get to… womanhandle me anymore, Emma.

I grab her by the wrist and squeeze. She doesn’t have any other choice but to let go when her arm starts straining to not break. I shoulder check her on my way in. But my mind is racing. Emma is rarely right or even truthful. But I did shoulder check Julia. I didn’t even pay that any mind before. But… wasn’t I kind of swearing violent retribution upon the people at the casino for cheating, when I was cheating myself? I’ve become more hypocritical, more impulsive, more violent . Also didn’t I want to be a hero? If I ever got powers? But the moment I got them, it was like “wow crime is amazing, let’s do it more!” Which, where did that even come from? Also I wasn’t so open about being gay before. Like yeah, I was gay but I wouldn’t fucking advertise it in nazi fucking central?! But now I’m just openly ogling pretty girls and enjoying dog rides with prettier girls.

Somewhere in the loft, Lisa suddenly feels wronged.

I might need to watch myself. If my power is affecting my behavior, who can I trust then? It’s the kind of power that grants knowledge and skills out of nothing, of course it can alter my behavior. I’ll have to watch out for any negative influences in my li- Oh! Sophia’s there! “Hey Soph.” I greet her with a light punch to her shoulder.

“Hey Taylor.” She greets me rather reservedly.

“What’s up?”

“No, nothing. I’ve got an idea for the competition.” She’s still kind of looking sullen. “How about we visit Arcadia after school ends?”

Huh. “Okay. I also had a fun idea, but it’s the first time we’re changing things up from throwing hoops, so why not?”

“Sweet. See you there then.” So she leaves.

I spend the rest of school time thinking about ways to bet with the Undersiders. Classes done with, I meet up with Sophia and we walk to Arcadia. I didn't choose that. I'd rather ride a bus. But Sophia kept dancing around a topic and just being a major tease in general. Like… If you want to say something, just say it! Stop keeping me on the edge of my seat!

So we walked in silence, Sophia occasionally getting the guts to speak up and immediately veer towards some random topic. Until-

“Let's… spice it up.” She says, hesitantly. “How about you choose what you'll do if you lose?”

“And you do you?”

“And I do me…”

“I dunno. My main goal when I started it was to get you to punch me less.” She flinches.

“Uh. Yeah. I told you I'm not gonna do that anymore.”

“Cause I ‘proved myself’?” I do air quotes. She flinches again.

“No, I- nevermind. I'll tell you a secret of mine if you win, how about that?” She says.

“Huh. Okay, sure. Secret for secret then. I'll tell you mine if I lose.”

“Okay. Yeah. That works.” She turns her face away from me and we keep walking.

When we got there, Sophia led me to their locker room and gave me a Winslow baseball jersey and green and yellow cargo shorts. At my questioning brow, she huffed. “It's a spare, should be your size. You don't just go out in your daily outfit to play. And I booked us a field.”

“How'd you do that, actually?” I ask, genuinely curious.

“I have… acquaintances here. I don't ask them much so when I did, they were too surprised to deny.”

“Wow. You got friends?”

“ Acquaintances .” She grinds out.

Fair enough. I put the jersey and shorts on, very much aware of how Sophia’s so very interested in the floor tile patterns on the other side of the room.

Done getting dressed, we go out to the field to see three guys waiting for us on the bleachers. The redhead stands up and jogs up to us.

“Hey Soph, what's up?”

“Awh, you are friends. Look at how happy he is to see you.”

“We’re not friends.” Sophia bites out and passes me the bat. “We go till the third strike. The one who scores most wins.”

And I guess we just go at it.

“You didn't train for it?”

“No. You got baseball experience?”

“Nope.”

“Then it's fair, right?”

I nod and get in position.

“You girls need a catcher?” Dennis asks.

“Uh, we got a net, no worries.”

“I insist.” He comes to stand behind me, already pulling on that apron thing.

“Well then don't fucking ask? Bitch?”

“Yeesh. Damn, you are Sophia’s friend, huh?”

“What's that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing, nothing!” He raises his hands in surrender. That's right. Try talking shit to the girl with a bat again. I dare you.

I use Hunch to look a bit forward in time to see where the ball’s gonna hit and, after two strikes, I find a flowstate and hit twelve balls in a row. It’s the last throw that Sophia does something to, that curves weird and I miss it no matter what I do. And it's my turn to pitch now.

Dennis asks Sophia something that earns him a gut punch that he feels even through the armored apron. That's when the two other boys in baseball jerseys approach our net.

“Hey there, you new recruits? Never saw you before.” One of them shouts.

“Also those are wrong colors. It's blue and white, not green and yellow.” The other says less loudly, mostly to his friends.

“Uh, no.”

“No, seriously, I saw you guys play for a while. You should join us! You've got some crazy talent!”

Ugh. He's so sleazy. We're both so obviously amateurs. I'm not even using my Shroud so I’m as skillful as any John and Jane from the street, just a bit more accurate. I’ve got no technique, no experience. I don’t know what to expect except for what Sophia can do.

“No.” Sophia growls out. “I'm batting for the other team.”

“Ah. Understandable. Arcadia is a very open and accepting space. Please feel free to express yourselves here.” The first guy shouts, backpedaling away from the field. What a tool. Say it louder for the Empire boys to hear.

“Winslow! I meant fucking Winslow team!” Sophia says, suddenly realizing what she just said.

I guess that exchange put her off balance, cause she lost on the ninth throw. Dennis was suddenly much more… subdued is not the right word. Like he’s more at peace somehow. Well, you got to ogle two girls' asses today, of course you'll be at peace.

“I guess I won.” I say, putting the ball back in the basket.

“I guess you did.” Sophia says, nervous. “Let's… let's do this after we're back in our normal clothes. I'm kinda not liking the boys here. They aren't used to getting their balls kicked.”

So we do. And right outside Arcadia, Sophia stops me and takes a deep breath. Oh finally. Please just get it over with.

“I'm sorry for bullying you for two years and for being a terrible person I see my mistake now and promise to be better and I'm seeing a therapist now and I hope you can forgive me.” She rattles out in one breath and takes off in a sprint away from me.

Wait no! You gotta tell me a secret! No! Sophia! You bitch! You're gonna die!

I look around for any errant moving companies lifting pianos in flimsy ropes or a fucking anvil being pushed off a window. I don't see none but I take off running after Sophia anyway.

I catch up to her twenty minutes later and this bitch isn't even winded. I jump and tackle her to the grass as we somehow ran all the way from Arcadia to Captain’s Hill.

“Sophia!” I grab her by the arms and pin her to the ground.

“No! Let me go! I'm feeling sick.” She thrashes ineffectively. Yeah, a bit tough to fight against like nine guys’ worth of strength.

“Sophia, this is important.”

“No it's not! You heard nothing and I said nothing!”

“You have to tell me an actual secret, Sophia!” I say, shaking her a bit.

She tries struggling again, and when that doesn’t bear fruit, she blurts “I do bat for the other team!”

“I know that!” You are not subtle with your stares, girl. Everyone in Winslow knew you had hots for Emma.

“Not Winslow! I'm gay!”

“I KNOW THAT! ” Like you had to specify that! You don’t even play baseball! So there was no room for misunderstandings!

“No you didn't! No you didn't!” She’s beginning to hyperventilate.

“Yes I did. You wear doc martens and go climbing on Tuesdays. And you trim your nails, and everybody thinks it's for the tough bitch act but I know! You're textbook lesbian.”

“I don't climb! That carabineer is just an accessory!”

“Sophia, this is important. Tell me a secret or something horrible is gonna happen. Look… fuck. I’m a cape! My power is getting stronger after winning bets! But if the other participant loses and doesn’t deliver, they’ll get absolutely fucked! That piano? At the Winslow gym? That was my power threatening ME if I tried lying to you!”

Realization dawns on Sophia’s face and she looks around for wild pianos hiding in the bushes. Me too, girl, me too. Fuck pianos. “Okay! Okay! I think I have a crush on you!”

…

“... Pardon?” Is all that comes to mind right now.

“No, shit! Wait! Is concussive amnesia a thing?” She seems to truly believe it is. Which it might be, I'm not an expert.

I feel like I’d regret it if I said yes. “... No?”

“Fuck! Urghhh.” She groans and tries to roll away from my grasp, which is easy considering my arms are limper than noodles now. I stood up after her. We stare at each other for what seems to be ages before she looks at something behind me and shouts “Oh shit, what’s that?”, pointing at it. I… don’t look, but Sophia doesn’t seem to care as she turns heel and sprints away from me.

Chapter Text

Sophia.

Sophia tears herself away from Taylor, the taller girl releasing her without putting up a fight. She doesn't look back to see what Taylor's doing, how she reacted after fully processing Sophia's words or how her face looks now. She has... better things to do.

She looks around the park, but sees that nobody seemed to pay attention to them. Even when Taylor outed herself. Out loud. Just to keep Sophia from getting a piano dropped on her.

Across the street at one of the museums, Sophia sees something extremely conspicuous. A truck with a loading company logo transporting an honest to god medieval siege weapon. She eyes the piano being… loaded into a trebuchet. She walks up to the moving company guys.

“What the fuck are you doing?” She demands.

“Oh, hey there kid. Uh. We’re just saving space, ya know? The museum won’t move itself and we want to save on round trips. So Charlie here got the brilliant idea of putting the piano on the trebuchet!”

“It’s loaded!” She also wonders if she could have just phased through it instinctively.

“Oh fuck! It is?” The man, Charlie, looks at the trebuchet right as it launches the piano straight towards Captain’s Hill. “Gotta admit, putting that weird electric wire tinkertech in the piano might not have been a good idea.”

The last statement sends shivers down Sophia’s back. No, she couldn’t phase through it. She runs back to check on Taylor, but she’s safe. She’s standing five-ish feet away from the ruins of the musical instrument of doom that is sending arcs of electricity in the air, looking at it perplexed. So she didn’t lie. Sophia thinks, confirming again that Taylor is a bonkers passive probability manipulation cape. Like Shamrock from Vegas. Pretender was bitching about her in his recent exchange event. But it’s a subtle and useful power. Taylor will be fine. Sophia thinks.

Once home, she ignores her brother’s questioning of why she’s sweaty and covered in grass bits. “I’m in track and field, dumbass.” Is her answer. Which is true. Just not for this specific scenario.

Shutting the door to her room and blocking the handle with a chair, she plops down on her bed and screams into the pillow for what feels like an hour. When her throat starts to hurt, she stops to take a breath and plunges back into the pillow, to scream again. How fucking pathetic it is to get trigger flashbacks from confessing to your crush? The way Taylor pinned her down, or chased her across the city. That felt nothing like Steven. Taylor did it out of concern. Steven… is not part of her family anymore. And Taylor outed herself. For Sophia’s sake. Granted, they got in that situation because of Taylor’s power to begin with. But she could have just left Sophia to face whatever tribulation her bullshit power came up with. She deserved it, after all.

Sophia cries herself to sleep early.

She wakes up in the dead of night, eyes crusty and still stinging. She decides to go on another unsanctioned patrol. In the violence against God there is no cover against the burning sand and rain, and the sinners must keep walking. Even when the burning sand is the pins and needles from incorrect running form when she fled Taylor. And the rain is just her tears. She must walk, she must patrol. She must do something to prove herself that she's bringing some good to the world along with her evil.

She jumps roof to roof, still agonizing over how she handled that situation. She fled after blurting out her apology. She deflected until Taylor had no choice but to reveal her secret, when it was Sophia’s turn. And she feels like Taylor gave away more than she did. Oh Sophia’s got a crush on her? Big fucking deal. But Taylor gave away one secret that’s signified as intimacy in the cape world. You only unmask to your teammates. And even then, sometimes you don’t. And Taylor did it in a heartbeat. 

And what did Sophia do? Torment her for the past two years. Called her names. Pushed her. Punched her. And for what? Validation from her crush who didn't even return her feelings? The crush that kissed Taylor in the lips and told her how she loved her, right before pushing her into that disgusting locker? Would Emma do that to her as well? If Sophia confessed? And she would have confessed. On Valentine's day. Today. She would have confessed to Emma today. If not for that incident in January.

Then Sophia realized that she's not helping a hurt girl free herself from her shackles, from people that are pulling her down. She pulled the girl down and broke the rope she was hanging from. That Taylor was happy to hold still, even when it was dangling empty. She popped her lifesaver. And she drowned her. And then she let Emma pull Taylor down as well. She's a murderer in more than one way.

She can't do this. She can't be jumping around pretending to be a hero, like it would absolve her sins.

She looks up the biggest ongoing Empire rally and rushes towards it.

Chapter Text

Rachel.

She sat on the rooftop, one hand on her tactical chihuahua, ready to boost her at any moment. Her other hand in the bag of trail mix Taylor brought her. It's got dried fruits, nuts, berries and marshmallows. Taylor also brought her a lunch box of quesadillas that Rachel inhaled before setting out.

Taylor was nice. Rachel takes a mental note to bring her something good when she comes back. She doesn't know exactly what would be considered good. Her own judgement proved that other people and her had a very different definition of good. But that was fine. She doesn't need to know what other people think is good as long as she thinks she's good. And she's good. She isn't hurt. She has a good pack. She has shelter. She isn't hungry. She's content.

Still, seeing other dogs go without any of those five, it makes her heart clench. So she goes out at night to fix that. Others don't want to bother. Rachel doesn't go to save people from ABB farms either, so she doesn't think it's unfair. She still thinks it's concerning, so maybe she'll bring it up with the team later. She rarely speaks up, but they listen when she does. They make her words matter. Even Alec hears her out. And he's more vegetable than human or dog. That's why Rachel refuses to eat cucumbers. Because Alec said he's as cool as one. So it's out of solidarity. Not pickiness. And Taylor did good by not placing any in the trail mix. They'd get the rest of it soggy.

Her musings are interrupted by a shadow blinking in her peripheral vision. She turns her attention to it's source and sees Shadow Stalker. Or so she thinks before the girl jumps down into the thick of the Empire rally she was monitoring. Shadow Stalker never did that. Or fight like this girl does. So either Shadow Stalker changed her fighting style, which Brian wouldn't be happy about. Or this is a new girl.

No matter what, Rachel’s stakeout (hmm, she wants steak now) is over and it's action time. She pats Bulldozer and lets her grow. Bulldozer is a patient girl. That's why Rachel took her along this time. But she's also a violent girl, recently rescued from a similar dog fighting ring. Rachel thinks this outing will help Bulldozer out. Teaches her that sometimes you can just sit and wait instead of constantly fighting.

Bulldozer jumps down the roof and smashes through the ceiling right above where Hookwolf was fighting Shadow Stalker/new girl. Rachel isn't dismissing either idea but there's something about the girl that isn't quite right. Wrong stance, wrong jumps. But she got the same mask, same crossbows.

Rachel focuses on the two dogs that were fighting. Her power doesn't work so well at range, but she doesn't need to make them as big as Bulldozer. Just big enough to cause more chaos in the Empire’s midst. Today they've gathered in a big crowd, after all.

And if those won’t be enough, she’s still got that gift from Taylor. But she'll only use that in case of an emergency. It's not a one off thing but Alec taught her that sandbagging is good sometimes. Who is she to doubt the master of sandbagging? But her plans had to get cut short. While the shadow girl is fighting Hookwolf’s team, she’s greeted by Crusader and Alabaster. They must have guessed that she must be nearby and on a rooftop and went looking. 

So she thought about dogs. That was easy. Thinking about dogs appearing out of thin air was a bit harder. Taylor approached her at the loft and asked to play a game with her. She said it’s a game of pure chance so Rachel doesn’t really need to think too hard about imaginary rules. Just that big numbers are good. But she set such weird conditions. Like to make her dogs maul Taylor if she loses. Then giving Rachel a part of her powers if she loses. And Rachel could have sworn Taylor cheated to lose. She still won a bunch of times, so Rachel now owes Taylor sixteen hours of Taylor Time. That is she’ll have to do what Taylor wants for one full hour anytime she asks, sixteen times. Taylor has already spent the first hour washing Rachel’s hair and giving her a pedicure. It was annoying but felt nice afterwards. Like the Thai massage Alec brought her to once. So she’s extra confused on how that benefits Taylor. Lisa drags her around her business stuff without letting her dogs maul her in exchange. So Taylor’s good in Rachel’s books. And she got her the trail mix as a bribe. That’s how she got to where she is now. Taylor wanted to test something, whether her power works on ALL the dogs. Which is ridiculous. Of course it works on all the dogs. Even on shadow dogs.

A pack of twelve shadow dogs appear around her, and her original power tells her she can affect them. So she does and they start growing. Much faster than regular dogs. And they’re part of her, so she doesn’t need to give them commands out loud. Which is disconcerting, like suddenly not having to move her legs to be able to walk. Or like the first time she learned about automatic doors or escalators. She splits off two of them to victimize Alabaster and sends five of them towards Crusader. His ghosts pop in contact with the dog shades, but dog shades also get smaller when they pop the ghosts. Rachel never got tired empowering dogs, but she’s getting tired now. So she wants to finish the fight soon.

A pair of dogs reach Crusader’s true form and grab him by the legs. She can have him killed right there and then but Lisa told her not to. She sends seven dog shades down into the fray, keeping one beside her for security and emergency mobility. This is nice. She can, technically, do stuff on her own now. If she counts dog shades as extensions of herself. Now she won’t get caught lacking, with no bitches.

And it wouldn’t be nice to leave the new girl fumbling against three capes with only one trained dog and two emergency hires. So she jumps down to the ground floor with her last dog shade. She can’t see through them so it’s still like having twelve more limbs but no eyes or ears attached to them.

“You bitch!” Someone calls her. Hookwolf. He’s one of the few people that do call her by her name. But he’s still a horrible person, polite or not. So she rushes him with seven of her dog shades. The two that shoved Alabaster into a dumpster have returned and are attacking Cricket now. Bulldozer and the other two dog shades are handling Stormtiger. Once he’s dealt with, they’ll dogpile on Cricket. 

She relaxes her power on the two fighting dogs once the crowd thins enough that her other dogs can deal with the stragglers. She won’t kill them. But maiming is fine. They got Othala. So when they’re finally dealt with, Rachel goes to the other room, where they were keeping the dogs for today’s pit fights. And starts moving them into the van Brian has brought. When she sees the new girl still standing there, lost in thought, Rachel approaches her and gives her a nudge.

“Come, move the dogs with me.” Including other people in her activities is the right thing. It’s good. And the girl does look like a lost puppy. So they set about moving dogs from their cages into the cages in the van. Once done, Brian drives away. He’s agreed to help her out from time to time. But not all the time. Cause he’s busy.

“Why’d you do it?” Asks not-quite-Shadow-Stalker. Shadow Stalker never asks questions. So one more point in Rachel’s tally that she's a new girl. “You get dogs out to use them with your power later?”

“I take them to rehabilitate.” Rachel pats Bulldozer. “They’re hurt but they can be fixed.”

“Is that a chihuahua?” She asks incredulously when Bulldozer shrinks back down to her original size. They’re leaving the premises in case Empire or PRT comes with reinforcements.

“Deer headed chihuahua. Much healthier than apple headed chihuahuas. Longer snouts, thicker legs. Not too inbred.” Rachel explains, putting Bulldozer on a yellow light reflecting leash. And putting a wig on herself. That won’t change much since the new girl is still in costume.

“That’s still a chihuahua though.”

“Yes?” Rachel doesn’t understand where the new girl’s going with this.

“Aren’t they.. You know. Aggressive? Like little balls of anger.”

“They lash out often, yes. That’s because people don’t respect their boundaries. Because they’re small and can’t defend themselves. So they lash out because they’re upset. Because if they act angry and violent, people will touch them less often. Pick them up less often. It makes them feel bigger, safer.”

“Oh.” She falls silent, but keeps walking along. That’s good? Was that enough of an answer? Rachel could go on about proper raising and training for small breeds but that’s when Lisa pretends she’s not falling asleep. “And yours is different?”

Rachel looks down at Bulldoze. “No? And yes?” She’s not sure what kind of difference this girl means. “It’s the same breed. She eats the same food as others. She sleeps and shits and pisses like others. I just give her the respect she deserves. Treat her like I treat everyone else. Pat her when she wants pats or deserves pats. Don’t pat her when she wants personal space. Give her food in a separate tray so other dogs don’t steal it. So she’s happy.”

“That’s nice. Nurture versus nature huh?”

“It’s always nurture versus nature.” She looks back in the dog fighting ring's direction. “Fighting dogs were never meant to be fighting dogs. People made them into fighting dogs cause they’re cruel. They’d hit them and not give them food so the dogs start lashing out. Cause if they lash out they’re hit less. And if they kill other dogs they get fed. They learn, cause they don’t have another choice.”

“And you think you can fix them?”

“Not all of them. Some of them are too far gone. Those, I have to put down.”

“My uncle used to own a chicken farm. He’d hit the roosters with a stick, jostle them, not let them be at peace. Cause he wanted a fighting cock. And one day they pecked his eyes out. Cause he got careless.”

Rachel isn’t sure why she brought it up, but it’s related to the dog fighting she talked about. So she’s sharing a similar experience. That’s nice. That’s a good instrument for bonding. So she nods.

“That’s what you get for bullying anyone. They get angry and lash out.”

The new girl pauses for a second. “Not everyone though.”

If that isn’t an invitation to ask the girl to elaborate, Rachel doesn’t know what is. Lisa also liked hinting at something but not saying it outright, cause she wanted someone to ask her a question. So she led the girl to the park. Captain’s Hill. She walked her dogs around here a lot.

“Wanna talk about it?”

They sit down on a bench and Rachel takes out her trail mix ziploc bag. She offers the new girl some. That’s proper etiquette. If she expects others to offer her snacks, she also should offer others snacks.

The girl takes her mask off and pulls the hood of her cloak down. She looks like she’s been crying, puffy eyes and tear stained cheeks. She takes a handful of cashews and starts eating piece by piece. Her stomach growls a bit. Yeah. Rachel’s judgement is accurate as always.

“I used to be a horrible person. I- I am still. There’s this girl in school. I- I wanted to impress her so I helped her bully another girl. For- ugh, f-for fifteen months. I realized I was being shitty too late. She got hospitalized a month or so ago, because I stood by and let her get shoved in a locker.” She sobs. “Locker filled with all kinds of trash.”

Rachel nods. That’s shitty behavior, yes.

“And I didn’t know how to fix it. But then she came back different. Changed. More confident and so- so… She challenged me. And she won. Didn’t even train to do it. Then she kept challenging me. And I couldn’t- I don’t know. I hated losing but I liked the competition. And- she was honest with me. She kept me at arm’s length cause I hurt her but she kept challenging me even after I told her I’ll never bully her again. And I think I started… seeing her for the first time? Past her just being ‘a target to bully to look nice in front of… others’. And I didn’t know if I liked-liked her or just liked her. Maybe- maybe I just wanted to be friends? I definitely wanted to be at least friends with her.”

Rachel nods. But the topic has moved into romance stuff. And Rachel was bad at relationship advice. She told Brian just to ask his crush out, maybe offer to fuck. Who knows? She might have been blind and accepted his advances. But he came back so sad. She rejected him and now he couldn’t go back to that gym ever again. Such is life, Brian. You are now exiled from your dad’s gym. For being a horndog.

“But then… stuff happened. I found out that she’s a cape. And part of her powers were that I had to follow through with my promise.”

“Like Bargain. If you shake his hand, you gotta do what you agreed on or else…” Rachel kept track of local capes when she was on the run. But Bargain left for Vegas half a year ago.

“Yeah. Or else. And I promised her to tell her a secret. I wanted to apologize this way and make it… like… seem more truthful or some shit cause she earned it in a victory… I know it sounds dumb. It was dumb.” Rachel nods. It was dumb, yes. “But it wasn’t really a secret. It was like… a statement. S-so she chased me down the city to demand a secret cause otherwise a piano would fall on me and- and a piano was there! Electrified! Ready to fall on me! And I only found out after the fact. And- and when I told her I like her, she…” Her voice broke. Ah. It was very recent. That’s why she’s spilling her soul to a girl she just met. Recent wounds bleed a lot. Rachel gave her a pat on the head. That seemed to both encourage the girl to cry harder, but also relax her shoulders. “I don't know if I should have.”

Oh. Rachel was even less equipped to handle this. Give her romance troubles any day! Not this… 

“I should just be put down.” The girl says into her hands. Rachel wraps an arm around her back. She doesn’t know what to say. But what would Lisa say? She’s good at sounding smart. Sometimes she even is smart.

“Have you talked to her since?” She decides to ask.

“No! No. I- I don’t- I caused her trigger! Her worse than worst day of her life! I can’t come near her! What if I make it worse?”

“Then text her. Apologize. Ask her how you can fix this. If you don’t do anything, it will get worse. If you do something , it’ll either get worse or better. 50/50 is better than 0.” That’s what Lisa said. But she talked about the casino heist. And not fixing stuff but getting richer.

“... I don’t have her number.”

“Then find it. You wanna fix this right?” She nods. “So put effort.”

She takes a deep breath. “Okay. Okay, I will.”

Then Rachel remembers something. “By the way, don’t pretend you’re a different cape. Shadow Stalker is kind of an asshole and will attack you with lethal crossbows if she finds out. Almost killed Grue like that.”

“Oh. Right. Right. ” The new girl walks away.

Chapter Text

I… am not sure what just happened. I swear to god someone just told me the funniest thing in the world. Oh, Sophia, you prankster. You silly. Nobody would like me in a way that wouldn't hurt me in some way. So you must be mistaken. You don't have a crush on me. That's a normal people thing! You’re probably just horny or something. I’ll have to double check.

But I have bigger concerns now. That is, my powers changed again. I shouldn’t be surprised at this point and Sophia did lose the bet. Hm. Should I avoid her for a bit? Out of sight, out of mind. That’s right. I go home and prepare a lunch box of quesadillas and a ziploc bag of dried fruits, nuts and all other kinds of stuff. I cut the cucumbers thinly and hid them in the quesadillas. Rachel seems like someone who doesn’t quite like her veggies. Which I can respect. Meat is the single most important food in life. But our ancestors didn’t cure scurvy hundreds of years ago just for us to get it in the year of our lord 2011. And many other vitamin deficiency diseases. Yeah. But dried oranges and lemons should work just fine for now.

The loft provided me with the much needed respite and time to process stuff. My eyes fell on the box of Monopoly. Or I could gamble instead. Grabbing the box, I walked up to Rachel.

“Hey. Wanna play?” She eyed the box I set down on the table in front of her and pulled the quesadilla she was eating further away from me. I chuckle. “We won’t bet food.”

“Yeah. Okay. Explain the rules to me first.” She scooched a bit so I could sit beside her and I began explaining.

“Okay.” Rachel breathed. “So we’re moving pieces across the board, I can buy imaginary property if I can afford it for imaginary money, if my piece stops at that property, and whoever stops at it later has to pay me the toll. And if I bankrupt you, I win.”

“Yep.” That’s pretty much the entire game.

“So whoever manages to buy up property early on then keeps getting richer while those who were late or rolled low keep getting poorer?”

“Well, there’s turnabouts sometimes but yeah. You get your hands on the big name streets and you basically win as long as people keep stepping on them. But sometimes luck is just a real bitch and nobody lands on your big streets.”

“So it’s better to buy out a bunch of low cost streets.” She points at the brown and light blue.

“There’s a balance to keep. Like yeah if you buy a bunch of low cost streets, you’re almost guaranteed to earn a bit every turn. But it’s not as much as other streets and you’ll have to invest much more money to develop many bad pieces than several above average.”

“So that’s why people keep complaining about property values when my dogs pass by.”

“Uh, yeah, actually.”

“So if we make a habit out of getting into fights or just passing by a certain street, its property values will drop. So we could… Lisa could buy them off and then we would stop fighting there and they would rise back up.”

“... Rachel?” I look up at her as she looks up at me, game forgotten in favor of the brilliant idea that was just uttered.

“... Yes?”

“You are a genius.”

She scoffs. “Well yeah? I’m smart. Just… not eloquent about it.”

“We absolutely could do that! We just gotta convince Lisa. She can convince others.”

“Okay. Okay. Do you still want to play though?”

“Oh yeah. Sure. How about we bet? If I win, you’ll owe me an hour of Taylor Time. That’s one hour where we get to do anything I want. Can’t be anything harmful to you or the dogs.” She nods. “If you win, I’ll make you one full course meal of any kind you want. And you get to maul me with your dogs-”

“Is the mauling necessary?”

“Yes. Ramped up dogs.”

“... Sure.” She pats Angelica and makes her grow to about half-a-cow size.

“You can get bigger though.”

“Oh no.” Whispers Alec from in front of the TV.

“What if it’s too big? It could hurt you.” Rachel asks, frowning.

“Oh god, I can’t.” Mutters Alec, shoulders shaking.

“Don’t worry, I can handle it.” I reassure Rachel. And she pats Angelica again, making her grow to her monstrous size.

“That’s what she said!” Shouts Alec and moves to dodge my tiny Shroud dicks. With him pacified, a thumb-long shadow dick stuck on his forehead, we start the game.

By the end of the day, I’ve made sixteen hours of Taylor Time and immediately spent one of them on giving Rachel a spa day. Her hair needed that untangling and that conditioner. And I even did her nails and we wore avocado face masks together. She grumbled throughout the entire hour but it was worth it. Next time I’m taking her out for an actual spa. Maybe Lisa would tag along. And it was the first time I did girly things with someone who didn’t ruin my life. Wow. We should try makeou- makeUP! We should try makeup next! I slap myself in the face, hard. No! Taylor, no! Bad!

This little game night proved two things. I get stronger if there is physical danger in the bet, like promised. I get stronger proportionally to said physical danger, up to a point. That’s cool. That’s nice. That’s absolutely fantastic. I felt my body become tougher as well, a true Brute rather than just a strong girl. So that means that I can’t keep doing the same thing to keep getting stronger this way. At some point the dangers of yesterday would become a non-issue of today. I need to take increasingly dangerous bets. Like exponentially increasing. Still, I am like… so upset about not getting flight from Glory Girl. That’s… interesting, actually. From all the capes I know so far, I got powers similar to theirs. Krouse, I got almost the same ability as his, just weaker. I got the increased strength from Lung and… and Lee has the stupidest cape name possible. Same with Victor and even Crusader. Wait a fucking second! Everyone I got powers from is a cape except for Sophia! So either she’s an exception or a lying liar!

The second thing I found out is that if I bet something not quite quantifiable like giving Rachel half of my Shroud power in case I lose, it still works. That's… massive. And I'm like 95% sure I couldn't do that before. I don't know if it works the other way around and I don't want to test it in case I can't give it back for some reason. This opens so many doors. I could boost up and distribute powers between them… and boost back up again! I felt Shroud shrink in half when I lost the round to Rachel, but I felt like… it's hard to explain. Like it didn't decrease my max capacity for Shroud and that I can fill it back up by betting with Brian.

I also got a fun power from Rachel. And it's directly tied to my newfound power expression. If I deliberately lose a portion of my powers to someone, that someone will get a significantly boosted version of it that ties to their power. So if I make Shroud dogs, Rachel can't quite empower them. But if she's the one who makes them, she can 1. Make more of them at once, and 2. Empower them with her own power! So it massively saves on Shroud volume per dog! I should figure out a shorthand for this whole process. Something like Boost Gifts. Yeah, sounds about right.

I’m back home almost at the same time that dad is. I heated up soft tacos I made from whatever didn’t go into quesadillas and turned the TV on some news channel. 

“So,” Dad begins. “You had fun with your new friends?”

“Oh yeah, I kinda got confessed to after school and had to decompress.” I sigh, falling deeper into the couch.

“Any boys I should keep away with a shotgun?.. Or girls?” He teases.

“Maybe? I don’t know. The last time someone told me they lo- like me, was when Emma shoved me into the locker. A-and now? I thought… I don’t know. That I was making friends? And now- will she also do some horrible shh-stuff to me?”

“It won’t happen if I can help it, sweetie.” Dad ruffles my hair and pulls me into a hug. I hug him back, which kicks all the air out of his lungs. “Whoof, supergirl, did you digivolve from little owl to owlbear now?”

“That’s such a nerd thing to say, dad.” I laugh softly into his sweater. “I’ll deal with it myself. Don’t worry about me, really.”

“If you say so, kiddo.” He pats my back.

We stayed like that for a couple minutes before I let him go and called it a day.

I didn't go to Winslow today. Too much baggage, too much stress. I skipped out on it to do something much more productive! So today, I’ll be catching up with Brian. I spent about half the power I got from him which I’m planning on earning back. For that, we’ll need to figure out something dangerous to do together. That’s how we find ourselves above an industrial metal crusher, me balancing on a tightrope and Brian shitting his pants from the safety of solid ground.

“Are you absolutely, positively, a hundred percent sure this is the only way?” He asks like a total killjoy.

“A hundo percento.” I give him an a-ok sign. Our today’s deal is as follows: if he knocks me out before I reach the other end, I owe him ten grand and have to help him out at home, plus I’ll get mauled by the metal crusher and will be crippled forever. If I do reach the other end, dodging at least three earnest pistol shots WHILE covered in Grue’s darkness, the shots that he must genuinely aim to hit me, then he owes me help in getting revenge on Glory Girl.

“Okay then. Don't come crying to- you know what. You might actually die here. Maybe we could -”

“Shoot me or I'm telling the gang that you wear booty shorts to the gym.” 

“On it.” And a bullet wheezes past me at the same time I hear the gunshot.

“Aim better, hoochie daddy shorts man.” I say, beads of sweat forming on my temples. Only Hunch lets me dodge the bullet that would have hit my temple.

“Say what?”

“Nothing!” I make a step on the jump rope as darkness blankets me. Another shot. I dodge.

“You sure? I swear I heard you say something.” Brian left a tiny tunnel for me to hear him from just to say that.

“You look so… eugh… manly when you lift those weights!” Another shot.

“Was that a retch?” Shot. Shot.

“Uh, no!? Just… exertion. You know. It's so-” Shot. “Hard to walk that I-” Shot-shot. “groan from all that STRAIN!” Shot-shot-shot.

“Really?”

“Did you know you make a funny face when you do squats?” Silence.

“Oh. Yeah I can't let you live with that knowledge, Tay.” And he starts spraying. Oh god. Why did I start this? I run screaming across the rest of the tightrope as Brian probably maybe genuinely wants to make me fall into the metal crusher. Once I get down, I see Brian holding the gun up and contemplating something.

“Well that was fun.” I say, wiping sweat off my face.

“I think… being able to finally shoot someone who gets on my nerves might have just fixed something in me. I should get a gun range subscription. Do they do subscriptions? Or is it just a case by case kinda thing? Come to think of it, I'm technically of a gun owning age, and god bless America that age is lower than the drinking age.”

I raise an eyebrow at him. “Are you?”

“Uhh, no. But my fake id is! And I'll soon be. In june this summer.”

“Okay, perfect. You're helping me honey trap Victoria Dallon then.” I say, turning away from him and switching the metal crusher off.

“Uhh, I’m not sure she’s single?” He says, unsuspecting.

“She’s absolutely not. That’s why I need your help, actually.”

“Oh, so I won’t need to flirt with death- I mean with Alexandria junior?”

“Of course not, don’t worry about it.” The trap is set.

He breathes a sigh of relief. “Okay. Yeah. I agree.” And he took the bite.

Chapter Text

That same evening I opened my old PHO account, or one of my old PHO accounts. When Emma convinced her friend group that sending me hundreds of hate mail would be the funniest thing in the world, I started making alt accounts. Eventually she'd find them and hate mail would fill my inboxes again. So now I had dozens of alt accounts just lying there. But you know what's best about them? You can change your username, but the creation date will remain.

I used Hunch and the power up I got from Lisa to track down and contact every person that I felt would contribute to the prank. Not directly, of course. But I would nudge them, hit them up and tell a fun fact, make friends, enemies, flirt and troll. I didn't do it all from one account or even one device. No, that's where being rich comes handy.

Then I set up the most important account. B0Xcutter is made for one very, very important purpose. And I beg Lisa to help me set it up right in exchange for one hour of Lisa Time. She liked my idea from yesterday and decided that she also would want someone she could boss around with absolute certainty for an entire hour. And the other one I set up for Brian. That is, I pretend to be Dean Stansfield’s alt account, LegAIIyBlonde, with capital i’s instead of l’s.

Now I just need to figure out how to steal their phones and delete their dialogue history later on. Or I could set up an algorithm to forward their messages to the intended recipient… yeah. My last resort would be blowing up the ENE PHO server rooms. Preparations done, I contacted Brian.

“Hey B-man. Are you free this Saturday for The Plan?” I ask, which piques Alec’s interest, who was sitting on the couch beside me when I called Brian. He likes doing nothing but he likes participating in pranks a bit more. So he's roped in now too. I think we're gonna be such a great team.

“Uh, hey. I'm really sorry, Tay, but I've got sudden plans for Saturday and..  maybe we could do the prank on Sunday?” Oh, prank, you say? You poor boy, you don't even know what I've prepared for you- I mean for Glory Girl.

“Aw, okaay. That's sooo unfortunate.” I stretch out my words, the plan coming along perfectly. Me and Lisa bet on it, her claiming that there are too many moving pieces for it to work, me being sure that even if only half the events play out as I expect them to, victory-A is in the bag.

“I… don't like how that sounded.” Brian points out.

“Aw don't worry B-boy. Enjoy your date~”

“Hold on, how do you-” I hang up and look at Alec.

“You got my attention.” He says, a lazy grin spreading across his face.

“How many… slipups… do you think is a realistic amount of slipups for a…” I whisper hushed words into his ear. “Hm?”

“... No.” He looks at me in disbelief.

“And if there's… two of them at the same time.”

“No fucking waaay…”

“I knoooow.”

“Taylor?”

“Yes?”

“You might have just become my second favorite Undersider… after Rachel.”

“I appreciate that. So, are you in?”

“Heck yeah?!”

That done with, I dress up and run out of the loft. I've got… stuff to do.

I go back home and unwrap the package that was delivered right on time. A hundred and fifty thousand lumen flashlight. It eats AA batteries like they’re shotgun shells. Its sixteen LED lights burn through its battery in five seconds. That’s why I also stocked up on batteries and the most important thing - painted glass pieces. I glued them to the flashlight and let the glue rest. With it ready, I can proceed with the rest of my plan.

⚀⚁⚂⚃⚄⚅⚄⚃⚂⚁⚀

Brad was having a shitty week. Just two nights ago his biggest dog fighting ring got raided by that Hellhound bitch. And she shacked up with Shadow Stalker of all people and got new shadow dog powers. So when he heard a report that another one of his businesses was under attack, he rushed out to murder whoever had the balls to do it. Melody and Cliff followed him out.

The scene they saw when they finally arrived shocked them, however, almost taking the fight out of them. There, a shadowy cape floated on comically large and thin spider legs and was shooting their normies with some kind of rainbow gun. Each time they pulled a trigger, they would shout “Gay Beam” and immediately reload. Whoever was hit with it would fall on their hands and knees and cry ugly tears of despair.

The trio wasted no time rushing up to the cape and attempted to take her down. Cutting off her spider legs was easy, but she just grew new ones. So Brad let Cliff take point and fight her in the air while he looked for a fire escape ladder to climb up. Up on the roof, he sped up and tackled the cape to the ground, kicking the air out of her lungs in the process. But before he could do anything else, a blinding rainbow light hit his Changer form and, right behind it, Stormtiger. When his vision cleared, the cape was fifty feet away, posing triumphantly at them.

“You just got Gay Beamed by Shenanigan! Go fuck yourselves, nazi shits!” She shouts and runs away.

Brad shifts back to his human form and growls loudly. “I’ll get that little dyke! That’s a fucking promi-” A hand lands heavily on his but cheek. He looks back to see Cliff standing behind him, confused. “The fuck you doing, Cliff?”

“I-I swear to god, Brad! My hand! It moved on its own!”

“Like I’d believe that shi-” He pauses again, suddenly feeling his hand cupping Cliff’s crotch. “Wh-what the fuck?!”

“It must be the Gay Beam!” Cliff exclaims as a certain sound vibrates in his pocket. He falls silent, looking Brad right in the eyes through both of their masks.

“Cliff.”

“I can explain.”

“Was that a Grindr notif?”

“I swear to god I didn’t have it before!.. Uh, The Gay Beam! It turned my phone gay!” He flounders, hand still cupping Brad’s ass.

“Uh huh?”

“Wait a second.” He suddenly realizes as Brad starts sweating bullets. “How do YOU know how a Grindr notification sounds?”

“It’s… It’s the Gay Beam’s fault! It fucking airdropped gay knowledge into my brain!” Says Brad as another familiar sound vibrates in HIS pocket.

“Well fuck me, I guess the Gay Beam DID turn us and our phones gay.” Deflects Cliff, awkwardly removing his hand from Brad’s butt. But his hand twitches and suddenly he’s cupping both of his cheeks.

“Well, I guess there is only one way to find out for sure.” Brad muses. “What if it’s just a fluke, you know? We’ll only find out for sure if I climb that Cliff and like it.” He says, biting his lip.

“B- But I’m married.” Cliff looks over to Melody who’s holding up a whiteboard tablet with thick black marker lines spelling YES YES YES YES YES YES DO IT. “O-oh. I guess we do need to make sure it’s legit.” He says, chuckling nervously.

⚀⚁⚂⚃⚄⚅⚄⚃⚂⚁⚀

Somewhere in the outskirts of Brockton Bay, a shady deal was ongoing. Four men stood across each other with arms crossed, eyeing the other group with suspicion.

“You got the papers?” One of them asks. A guy in military fatigues, a green beret and a gun over his shoulder.

“Ja.” Says James, taking out a stack of paperwork and handing it to the green beret guy. He reads through it and nods.

“Looks legit. Where’s the transport?”

“It’s right zere.” James points at his new Volkswagen. Getting it to America was a chore after Leviathan basically crippled intercontinental shipping.

“Forgive me if I’m speaking out of line, but that’s a fucking hatchback?!” Green beret guy asks incredulously.

“Ja, you are speakinkg out of line! Zis is Volkswagen Golf Plus, a compact multi-purpose vehicle, not some hatchback!” James corrects him.

“How the fuck are you going to transport the goods?” The beret guy asks skeptically. “I don’t want to get flak if it gets stolen from you.”

“Zere is no need to vorry.” James assures him. “Ze space between the front seats is perfect to fit ze Westinghouse sixteen by sixteen assembly.” He points at the nuclear fuel assembly that the beret guy’s associate has taken out of their truck.

“We could have easily just delivered it to your doorstep though.” The beret guy insists.

“Nein, zat vould bringk too much attention to Medhall.” James shakes his head. “An out of town delivery truck driving straightd to a multi-billion dollar company vould raise many villainous individuals’ greed. Zis is safer.”

“Well, alright. Just tell your boss we’re done here. If the package gets lost, that’s all on you.”

“Very vell.” James nods and loads up the nuclear fuel assembly in his car.

“Well, that was easy.” Says Sven, taking the passenger seat.

“Ja, Kaiser vill be very pleased.” James agrees and starts driving towards Medhall. There’s reportedly a traffic jam on the road straight to it so he’ll have to detour through the docks. That might have been their first mistake. Their second mistake was deciding to take another detour through a shiftier street after seeing all the potholes in the main avenue. There they have to stop as there’s rubble blocking their path, most likely from a fight their Empire had with someone recently, and given the amount of scratch marks on the asphalt, Bradley took part in said fight.

That’s when someone knocks on James’s window. Out of curiosity, he rolls it down to see a shadow-clad cape pointing what is obviously a fuckoff tinkertech cannon at him.

“What’s up lads? Get out of the car.” She says, relaxed.

“Uhh.. could ve maybe come to a compromise? Ve could pay you much more zan vhat ze car is vorth.” James tries, already thinking of quietly disposing of the cape once they’re done with the package.

“I don’t think so, buddy. What’s that you have over there?” She points at the nuclear fuel assembly. Oh no.

“Vat even is zis?” James points at the cannon, to distract the cape.

“Oh, this little thing?” She looks at the gun. “It’s The Gay Beam.” She says ominously.

“V-vh-what does The Gay Beam do?” James asks in a panic, momentarily losing his fake German accent. He looks back at Sven and sees him frozen in shock as well.

“Isn’t it quite obvious?” She cocks the cannon, loading a pair of futuristic looking batteries into the chamber like it’s a shotgun. “Whoever it hits with its beams turns gay.”

“Oh nein.” James whispers, despair creeping up in his voice. Sven is already unbuckling his seatbelt.

“Oh ja.” The cape mocks him. “It’s irreversible and permanent.”

“ Oh nein. ” James whispers in a higher pitched voice, also unbuckling his belt. Max would understand. A cape’s loyalty is much more important than a several hundred thousand dollar assembly. He is ready to take a hit to his salary, that’s fine. He’s got stuff saved up and he’s got stocks in several international companies. They both run out of the car with arms raised as the cape trains the cannon on them.

“Good boys. I’ll be taking this. See you around~” She gets in the car and reverses it. They sigh a breath of relief. “Oh, and last thing!” They both stiffen up. “You’ve just been robbed by Shenanigan!” A rainbow beam of the brightest light they’ve ever seen hits Sven as he scrambles to shield his face while screaming, then falls to his hands and knees in despair and confusion. James is just happy he wasn’t the target.

Medhall meeting room 47C.

“...And zat’s ven Victor got hit by Ze Gay Geam.” James finishes his report and sits back down nervously. Max massages the bridge of his nose as the silence in the room stretches uncomfortably long.

“Let me get this straight.” He says.

“Hah, that’s something Victor can’t do now.” Brad interjects. Max shoots him a look. Brad wiggles his eyebrows in response.

“Children. Let me get this straight. Not only did you lose our main energy source for our newly installed mini nuclear factory, the one we decided to build for emergencies and for our potential future Tinker. You also let Victor get shot with…” He waves his hands. “The Gay Beam?!” Everyone looks at Victor, who’s been sitting in silence with a shell shocked look on his face.

“I- I don’t think I feel any different?” He says, confused.

“Ha, that’s cause you were a fag before the beam hit you!” Mocks Brad.

“We don’t even know if that is true! What if that cape was bluffing?! I know her! She’s a combat Thinker and a minor Brute! She couldn’t have built that  Tinkertech gun herself!” Sven insists.

“The lady doth protest too much, methinks.” Says Justin, Crusader.

“No, no, it works.” Cliff says suddenly, much to Sven’s dismay.

“H-how do you know?” He asks, terror apparent in his voice.

“We checked.” Cliff says matter-of-factly.

“We did.” Brad confirms.

They did. I saw it. Writes Melody on her whiteboard.

“... Oh god.”

“In fact, we might need to check with you too.” Says Brad suddenly.

“Wh-what?” 

“Yeah, what if the Gay Beam malfunctioned? You know how unreliable Tinkertech is, right?” He stands up from his seat.

“Very well, the Empire would benefit from ascertaining for sure if Victor’s situation is still salvageable.” Max nods and leads the rest of the capes away, leaving only Sven, Brad, Cliff and Melody in the room. Max presses a button at the door, muffling the sounds from the inside. A shiver runs down his spine as he rushes away from the 47th floor, his subordinates hot on his heels.

“See, Sven Johansen, or should I call you Sven Yo-Handsome?” Brad begins, rounding the table. “I likes you. And I wants you. Now we can do it the easy way, or we can do it the haaard way.”

“Nononono, wait! The booty is mine! It belongs to me! You cannot have my booty!” Shouts Sven, jumping out of his seat.

“Haven’t you been lonely ever since Ophelia left you?” Cliff asks, and when Melody signs something to him, he laughs. “Ah, you didn’t even fuck.”

Brad chuckles. “You didn’t even fuck.” He repeats. “What is up with that ?”

“The booty is mine! It belongs to me! You cannot have my boo-ty!” Sven repeats instead of answering, panic rising in his voice.

“Admit it, Sven. Nothing in you changed from the Gay Beam cause you’ve had hots for Max from the get go. We could… help you release all that stress you got piled up from all the shit you’ve had recently.” Brad says, now at arm’s reach from Sven. “C’mon man.” He opens his arms wide.

“I- oh god.” Sven falls into his embrace, locking their lips in a passionate kiss.

⚀⚁⚂⚃⚄⚅⚄⚃⚂⚁⚀

Amy pauses on her way to the hospital to read the message she just got on her private phone. A villain just made a tinkertech gun that turns people gay. Multiple cases of Empire thugs breaking down and crying was reported as a result. Her breathing quickens. The next message is a candid photo of Stormtiger copping a feel of Hookwolf’s butt as they stare sensually at each other. Her heart rate spikes as foam starts forming in her mouth. She faints peacefully on the sidewalk.

⚀⚁⚂⚃⚄⚅⚄⚃⚂⚁⚀

Madison pauses on her way home from school to read the message she just got on her phone. A villain just made a tinkertech gun that turns people gay. Multiple cases of Empire thugs breaking down and crying was reported as a result. Her breathing quickens. The next message is a candid photo of Stormtiger copping a feel of Hookwolf’s butt as they stare sensually at each other. Her heart rate spikes as foam starts forming in her mouth. She faints peacefully on the sidewalk.

Chapter Text

Down on floor 35, Max took deep breaths and thought of ways to salvage the situation. He could contact the Gesellschaft and ask them to lend him one of their many Master capes. That kind of happens a lot when you take away all agency from the kinds you want to artificially trigger, making Masters and Strangers the most prominent type of capes Gesellschaft has in their roster - one of the reasons they’re so hard to uproot.

“I don’t understand, Max. Why are you letting them perform this… depraved act in your company grounds? In our Empire territory?!” Asks Krieg, unable to  hold back his bile anymore.

“What do you want me to do, James?”

“Something! Do something about it?!”

“When any party exceeds the 30% mark in the population or representation, it is already too late, James. What do you want me to do? Kick out FOUR of our,” Max thinks what is more beneficial, including Purity’s group in the count or not, “of our eleven capes? With Othala gone to Kayden’s group, we’re weaker than ever, having to recuperate our injuries like some commoners. Brad is our scary dog privileges that we cannot afford to lose right now.”

“So you’re ready to spit in our great white race’s values in favor of looking scary?” James looks agitated, ready to do something very ill-advised.

“We can’t lose any more capes than we already have. I’ll try what I can with getting Kayden and…” he shivers. “Dorothy and Geoff, and maybe Othala back with us. Maybe then we can talk some sense into Brad’s team.”

“See to it then, Max. I wouldn’t want to disappoint our German friends. And we should do something about Justin. He was looking at them funny.”

“What do you mean?”

“He’s the only one of us not married or gay. Tie him down before it’s too late.”

“Who do you suggest? Tammi? She’s underage.”

“Did you care about that when approving of Sven’s and Ophelia’s marriage?”

“That’s a Herren clan thing, I had nothing to do with it.”

“Well, Tammy is also a Herren, she won’t mind much.”

“Let’s put that on the backburner. One issue at a time, James. First, we need to get rid of Shenanigan. She is a… problem.”

“One issue at a time. We could do the same you did with Lustrum. Blow her actions out of proportion, paint her in a negative light. If it gets rid of any other major players in the Bay, even better.” Agreed James, unaware of an empty tin can with a string floating behind him.

⚀⚁⚂⚃⚄⚅⚄⚃⚂⚁⚀

“Alright, chucklefucks.” Brad breathed, “There’s two things I feel like I need to clarify and declare.”

He paced around his main gym, the Empire grunts directly under him and his team all gathered in one place. He’s had a long conversation with Melody and Cliff over how to proceed from this point. They’ll need to find whoever took that pic and give them a thrashing. But they did catch a good angle so maybe not too bad of a thrashing. Just ask permission next time and give them all your lunch money. Then you might maybe get off with only a slap on the wrist and a broken ribcage.

“One. I heard there’s concerns running rampant between the normals of the Empire about me being gay.” He looks around the room, seeing slight nods among the bravest of them. “So worry not. I am as straight as an arrow.” A wave of relief washes across the room. “Because to me, everyone less manly than I am is a woman.” He says, and his men’s relief turns to confusion. “See, if you have less testosterone than me? Woman. You look girly? Woman. You don’t look girly but ACT like a bitch? Woman. You THINK you’re manly? What a woman thing to say.” With every statement, the temperature in the room dropped a degree, confusion quickly turning into fear, and fear into terror.

“That leads to my declaration number two. I see any one of y’all pressing our people who’ve got hit with that fucking gay beam? I’m immediately assuming you want to be assfucked. In my metal form, no condom, passionately and all night long. Am I clear on that?” Everyone in the room nods, some more enthusiastically than the others. He’s made sure to vet every brave or crazy bastard who wanted to be part of his team’s grunts himself and knew who here joined the gang for the love of the game and who is an exceptionally violent true believer. The former were more receptive to the recent changes. After all, who cares who you fuck? As long as you are there to kick ass when needed, do whatever you want. But the latter kind is the one who needs reminders. This is not the klan, despite what Max tries to sell everyone, he himself is a poser.

“Declaration number three!” He lifts up three fingers, and everyone tenses up again. Didn’t he say he has only two things to say? “Nah, I’m just fucking with you. At ease. Meeting over. And if I hear a peep of this outside?” He meets the eyes of everyone he suspects will be yapping. “Assfucked.”

⚀⚁⚂⚃⚄⚅⚄⚃⚂⚁⚀

Back in the loft, Alec and I sat back and celebrated our startling success. He was giddy all over from the absolute mess of emotions and sensations the bodies of our victims were feeling, that he partially felt from his connection to them.

“Man, it was like figuring out my sexuality for the first time all over again.” He said, heaving a soft sigh. “Did you know about their phones?”

“No, that was a lucky coincidence. I'm pretty sure the only people in Brockton Bay who use Grindr are either fearless or stupid or both. Especially with the sound on. No, there's actually a gay bar about… fifteen miles out? Somewhere closer to NYC. It's called Rascals. That's where most BB queers gather instead of doing it online.”

“No shit? I didn't know about that.”

“Well, word doesn't spread around and most queers mask a lot around here. Empire has been a thorn in this city’s side for decades. Back when Lustrum was around, at least some braver people were out and about. But then, twelve or so years ago, Lustrum and Galvanate were gone and five-ish years later Lung and Coil took their places… hm. Actually. I feel like Empire used that whole Marquis capture as an excuse to purge the city of their bigger competitors. They were the only major player in the Bay for five entire years during the buffer time.”

“We could do that too.” Says Lisa, casually joining our conversation. “You know, weaken the Empire, somehow get rid of Lung… and… maybe convince some less awful villain gang to split the city with us.”

“What about our secret shadow boss?” Alec asks.

“We’ll see how it goes maybe?” Lisa hedges.

“Maybe, just maybe, we don’t?” Brian says, walking up the stairs. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for getting rid of the nazis. But maybe don’t destabilize the entire cape ecosystem of the city AND stick our heads out? Pick one battle at a time.”

“So if we’d already be counted as major players, you’re saying it’s fine to oust the triple Es?” I say, curious. “What? I can share powers now.”

“Hold on. When did that happen?” Lisa interrupts me.

“Yesterday? I kinda got confessed to and got a power upgrade.” I chuckle. “What?”

“Who's the lucky girl?” Brian asks. “Where- who is it? Do we need to have a talk with her? New member when?”

"I'd usually say fuck it, we don't need more people. But if she's Taylor's mate, she's already pack." Rachel chimes in.

“Nobody. You don’t do shit and-”

“Her name’s Sophia.” Says Lisa, the traitor.

“That’s besides the point.”

“She’s also been bullying Taylor for… ten? Eighteen months now. And was one of the people who caused her trigger.” Says the traitorous traitor.

“Look, I-”

“And she’s not six feet under why now?” Alec asks me, a frown on his face. “Don’t get me wrong, turning the other cheek seems to be the thing you’re going for, and not even the one on your face. But triggering you is a whole other level of fucked.”

“We could ruin her life. Maybe even non-lethally.” Lisa adds, rubbing her hands like a fly.

“Or we could just… fuck her up?” Brian offers, doing a complete 180. Everyone starts piping up with ideas on how to exact revenge on Sophia before I decide to just let all the dogs out.

“GUYS! Please! Just, calm down? She didn't cause my trigger. It was a different girl and she's sufficiently in trouble, I swear.”

“Oh, damn. Hold on.” Lisa pulls up her laptop and begins typing. The gang waits for her verdict with bated breath. "Uh, yep. No. The Barnes guy is fucked twenty times over and is facing criminal negligence charges, and the prime culprit is- whoa. Yeah, I take back my words, you did ruin her life non-lethally."

“Uh, yeah. I- look. I’m- I’ve been watching Sophia? In secret? And she's not that bad, she's just stupid sometimes and- don't get me wrong, I still hold a grudge against her, and I'll get my revenge in due time, but-”

Silence reigned in the loft, even Lisa short circuiting for a moment.

“So, I’ve noticed that I have a very subtle cape detector. Now that I found out Sophia is a cape, I know for sure, like super sure, that I only get the urge to place bets against other capes. It doesn’t quite work on baseline humans.” I explain. “And I kinda get uhh… urges to bet on certain things depending on the cape’s power.”

“Wait, so how does playing Monopoly tie to Rachel of all people?” Asks Brian, eager to change the subject.

“Well, you see. Her power is about buildup… uhh, a bit like Lung’s, but her power progresses faster and has a smaller threshold at which point it soft caps. So, a two-player monopoly, which is kinda fast paced, is the equivalent of Mahjong for Lung, which can be slow or fast, depending on his opponents, which is also his power.”

“We still need to talk about you stalking Shadow Stalker.” Lisa suddenly says.

“Yeah I was about to bring that up too.” Alec agrees, convincing noone.

“I am innocent!” I declare, putting my hands up to stop their assaults of accusations before they can begin. “I was just co- concerned.” That’s the word!

“Lies.” Lisa tattles.

“So wait, you've got hots for the girl who tried to kill me?!” Brian asks indignantly.

“No?! How dare you imply that?”

“She does.” Lisa tattles again.

“Whose side are you on?!” I ask, feeling completely betrayed.

“I’m on the side of the truth.”

“Uh- well! You’re wrong! You’re trying to gaslight everyone!”

“To what ends?”

“I don’t know, your mind is an enigma.”

“So what’s more likely. That I’m trying to pit everyone against you, when I was the one to propose you joining our team. Or that you’re all hot and bothered over one of your bullies?”

“I can just walk out now.” I say, fists balled.

“Okay, let’s all calm down and maybe discuss something else?” Offers Brian, who disappeared somewhere in the middle of this argument and came back with boxes of pizza and paper bags full of junk food. 

“Owh, thank you daddy ~” Alec moans, stuffing himself with a pizza slice.

“... Never say that again in that voice.” Brian monotones.

“Sho I can shay zhat differenthly.” Alec muses, mouth still stuffed with cheesy delight.

“No.”

“Wow, he almost pronounced that period.” Lisa whistles. “So, about the property value fraud Rach and Tay came up with…” She pulls up her laptop and the projector just in time for Rachel to walk in with her now four main dogs in tow and plop herself between Alec and I. “Here’s my twenty minute presentation on how we can make it work. And how turning Nazis gay was one of the best things Taylor could have done to make it possible.”

“Where’ve you been?” Alec asks her.

“Found a new cape. She likes dogs. Hates nazis. Met her again and talked. She’s even worse at figuring out people than me. Got a mad crush on some girl and doesn’t know what to do to apologize. Said my last advice failed cause the other girl doesn’t own a phone or anything. So I told her to bang her.”

“Ayy. Solid advice!” Alec held up his hand for a high five. Rachel looked at it for a second and slapped it. “What’s the cape’s name?”

“Iunno, she didn’t tell. Some Shadow Stalker wannabe.”

I choked on my slice of pizza and died peacefully.

Chapter Text

The next day I skipped school again. Who needs education, after all? Not this bad girl! Not me! And it’s totally not because I’m avoiding a certain someone! Instead, I went to the loft, where I only found Alec and Rachel. Alec had nothing to do most of the time, as it seems, and greatly enjoyed that, playing Tomb Raider Underworld that he pirated from an Aleph leak site. And Rachel had finally finished vetting her new caretaker hires and could rest at ease knowing that they won’t fuck up in their duties, now relaxing with her dogs and watching Alec play. The recent cash grab from the casino did help them both relax, although in different ways. 

So I plopped down between them, resting my legs on Alec’s knees and my head on the armrest. We bonded quite thoroughly during yesterday's escapade and I’ve found that he enjoys physical contact. Or any form of spending quality time together with friends that doesn’t require him to process emotions. We also figured out a couple ways to include Brian in the quality time stuff. He enjoys planning outings, but he sucks at indoor activities. So we’re going camping this Sunday, with BBQ and fishing. He’d appreciate an opportunity to act as the group dad or as a dad in general, we’d enjoy nature and pretend to be normal and also escape the city to lay low. Win win. Lisa was against it, given how we’re gonna be in some real hot shit after the stunt we’re planning for today and Saturday. But when I told her there won’t be any network connection there and the boss can’t call her for any extracurricular sleuthing and spying, she gladly agreed as well.

“You know, it’s kind of crazy how fast you’ve integrated into the group.” Alec mentions, lightly tapping my knee with the controller. “You’ve been with us for less than a week.”

“I think that’s part of my power. Like Rachel with dogs.” I look at her and reach with my hands to tug at her jacket. She slaps my hands away but still huffs and sends Bentley to cuddle me. He plops his head on my chest that knocks air out of my lungs. I give him forehead scritches. “It’s easier to talk to capes and I’ve noticed that capes also find it easier to talk to me.”

“Huh. That’s cool. So, a Master power?”

“I’m not directly affecting you. I just know what to tell you and you clearly understand what I mean cause I know exactly how to say it.”

“So, Thinker.”

“Yeah! Like a cuddlier Lisa power. Just with no information overload.”

“She’d be so pissed if she heard you.” Alec snickers.

“Well, I gave her something nice, I think I’m safe.”

“Fair.” He shrugs and keeps playing.

We stayed like that till noon. Then Rachel got bored and left with her dogs for a walk in the park and I had… important stuff to do. Preparations, preparations.

⚀⚁⚂⚃⚄⚅⚄⚃⚂⚁⚀

Amy dragged Vicky to the school’s entrance. “You don’t get it! They’re villains!” She huffed.

“But their victims are nazis.” Vicky shrugged. She really didn’t get the importance of this whole deal.

“But the sanctity of the mind, Vicky! You know why I don’t do brains! And that beam totally does brains!” Just in a precise and controlled manner which I can’t quite achieve. She thought. “I’ve checked the Empire members that came into the hospital or got caught by the PRT. Guess what? They actually became gay!” She tried to pass off her excitement as agitation. “Don’t you know you can’t just change sexualities at the drop of a hat? That’s something you’re born with! Those villains are upturning someone’s entire life with that weapon!”

“Okay, okay. I get it, Ames. They’re bad people.” Vicky acquiesces.

“Yes! You have to stop them!”

“Me? Not the Protectorate?” She chuckles.

“Well, you’re immune to Master effects, right?” Amy guesses incorrectly. Rather, she knows Vicky isn’t immune. But she’s got it into her head that her awe aura shields her from emotional Master effects. But the Gay Beam is not about emotions.

“Oh shit, you’re right! I’m the perfect fit to fight Shenanigan!”

“Yes! Now go get ‘em!” Amy pushes her off and Vicky, still giggling, flies home to get costumed up.

Amy watched her fly away, and jumped when she heard Dean’s voice behind her.

“Hey Ames, what’s up? I thought Vicky carried you home with her usually?” When she went home after school in the first place . Grumbled Amy in her mind.

“I have a hospital shift today. It’s wednesday, remember? And Vicky kinda has better things to do than being my air taxi.” She starts walking away in the direction of Brockton General.

“Oh, I see. Want me to walk you there? You know, just in case?” Dean asks, walking beside her already.

“Dean. I do this twice a week.”

“But usually Vicky gives you a lift! Either on air or on car. This is just for extra security, you know?”

Amy scoffs. “I’m Panacea. Any idiot that tries to harm me will be in the Protectorate’s shit list forever. Also, that’d mean no healing for them.”

“Yeah, but the Empire has Othala.”

“No they don’t, lmao. Didn’t you hear? She divorced Victor and is playing hero with Purity.”

“Huh. I guess you are pretty safe then. Unless… those new guys? The small-time drug junkies from the Archer’s Bridge? They’re kinda uhh… not in the right state of mind to weigh their options most of the time.”

That gives Amy a pause. “Ugh. Okay. I suppooose.” She keeps walking, Dean trying to engage in small talk beside her. Then, when they’re halfway there to the hospital, a pack of mutant dogs land heavily on the pavement, surrounding them.

“Hey there sweet cheeks!” Said a villain in a bug themed costume, pulling a large black burlap sack over Amy’s body and snatching her up entirely before she could react. Then suddenly, her arms and legs were bound by thick ropes, all through the sack. 

“He’s got a phone with a panic button. Seize him!” A different, smugger voice said. She heard the sounds of struggle and the same happened to Dean before he could do anything. And they were in motion, the dogs not providing the softest form of transportation. Several minutes later, the running stopped and Amy was pulled down to the ground. Not for long though, as she immediately got lifted up by the ropes, feet leaving the ground. The burlap sack disappeared and Amy could finally see what’s going on. She was suspended above a boiling, glowing green liquid, only two of the five villains within her sight.

“Hi, Panpan! How are you doing?” Asks Shenanigan, as who else could it be if not her? She was wearing her bug helmet, the skin-tight bodysuit embroidered with insects, and her shadowy armor on top of it.

“Gh! You know there’s a reason why nobody kidnaps me?” She asks angrily.

“We didn’t kidnap you though.”

“... Are you serious right now? You put me in a bag, dragged me who knows where and you’re dangling me above a pool of acid!”

“Dead serious. This is a jacuzzi with food dye.” Says the blonde villainess, dipping one of her hands into the pool.

“Well, okay. That leaves the first two?!”

“We don’t want to harm you, Panpan.” Shenanigan assures her. Amy scoffs. “Really. We just want something from you.”

“Of course you do!” Amy huffs angrily. “Who do you want healed? Let’s just get this over with.”

“Oh, no. Not healing at all.” Says the blonde.

“... Then what?” Amy asks, wary but curious.

“Oh, it’s something real special.” Says Shenanigan, trailing her finger across Amy’s cheek. Her breathing quickens. Is this happening? These hot villains really kidnapped me to do… horrible things to me? “I want to make a deal with you, Amy.” Shenanigan whispers. “Or rather, a bet.”

“W- wha- what kind of bet?”

“I know you’ve been so very interested in our Gay Beam, haven’t you?”

Amy eyes the cannon hanging on the girl’s shoulder. “N- nooo?”

“Oh she has been. For some very nefarious reasons.”

Amy swallows audibly.

“Say what. If Vicky comes flying to you first, I’ll lend you the Gay Beam. Just for one day, next week. But before that, we’d do the one thing you want the most right now.” Amy looks up at Shenanigan, meeting her compound eyes. “Oh, we know~. But if she comes to her boyfriend first, you’ll have to spend one day with us, and not disclose our identities to anyone, nor try to capture us or harm us.”

“Wh- how do I know you’re not lying?” Amy asks, unsure.

“That’s my whole power. I can’t go back on the deals I make. And the other party can’t either. Oh we sure can try reneging or flunking, but something real shitty will happen to the one who breaks their promise. Like a piano falling down on them out of the blue.”

“... Okay. Yeah. I’ll make that bet.” Amy says, steeling herself.

“Sweet! Well, I’ll have to put this sack over your head for a bit, okay? Don’t worry, pookie, nothing bad will happen to you on my watch.” Her vision goes dark. “And now we make the camera roll.”

⚀⚁⚂⚃⚄⚅⚄⚃⚂⚁⚀

When the sack was finally removed from Dean’s head, he was blinded by a bright light instead. When his vision cleared, he was surrounded by three capes: a tall man in black leather, with a white skull painted on his helmet, a short-haired girl in a cheap dog mask, and a short curly haired boy in a Victorian shirt and a plain white mask.

“Hello Brockton Bay!” Exclaimed the shorter boy jubilantly. “You’re here with us for a hostage situation! But here’s a catch! We don’t need ransom! Only answers! Who would Glory Girl choose to save?” Asks Regent to Dean’s slowly growing dread. “Her not so blood related sister? Or her oh so beloved boyfriend? Over there you can see Panacea hanging above a tank of acid. Over here you can see Dean Stansfield hanging above another tank of acid!” Regent pointed somewhere Dean couldn’t quite see. Oh no. They’ve got Amy! “But here’s the fun part. Both of them are connected through a counterbalance thingamajig our dear dear Shenanigan made. Once one of them is saved, the other one drops. ” Regent’s voice gained an eerie growl by the end. “Unless!” He holds up a finger. “Our dear hostage Dean wins a bet !” Regent chuckles. “We’ll be back with results shortly!”

Grue shuts the camera off and Regent saunters back to Dean. “So, Deanie boy. Are you ready to save the day?”

“Ah, yes! Anything!” He answered honestly. He couldn’t live with himself if his failure forced Vicky to make the very obvious choice. 

“But see, here’s another catch.” Says a new voice as Shenanigan walks into the warehouse building they’re in. “Whatever the bet results in, it will happen. Them’s the rules. I can’t stop it. You can’t stop it. That’s how my power works. So if you win, you win for sure.” She says.

“... Okay! I’ll do it!” This also was very valuable information! The newest villain of Brockton Bay just went and explained a part of her powers!

“Great!” Shenanigan claps her hands. “Who between you and Amy is Vicky more likely to save? Just answer that. If you guess right, and Vicky comes to save the person you choose, both hostages will be saved. If you fail? The unsaved hostage drops right into the tank.” She mimes her hand plunging in the acid tank and makes a sizzling sound with her mouth.

“Okay. Okay. My answer is obvious.” Dean says, assured in victory. Vicky loved her sister more than anyone else. They were inseparable. What’s a couple year long relationship that wasn’t even stable? They kept breaking up for one reason or another. Even if the villains go back on their words, he’d feel fine. Amy is a world class healer, she’s an objectively AND subjectively more correct choice.

“Oh? Let’s hear it then.”

“Of course she will pick Amy.”

“Why not you?”

“Why would she even pick me? I’m just her boyfriend. Amy is her sister.” Dean reasons.

“Okay. let’s hope you're right then~.” Shenanigan pulls the burlap sack over his head and his vision grows dark. He could hear their giggling voices get further and further away.

Chapter Text

Vicky was feeling amped up! She was ready to kick ass and take names! That is, until she got a call on her family-only phone, from Amy.

“Hey Ames! How is it going?” She said, stopping mid flight to reduce the wind noise.

“Hello, Victoria.” Said a deep male voice that was totally not Amy. 

“Who is this?” Her voice dropped an octave, her aura flaring up. Amy never gave her private phone to anyone.

“Would you like to check the link we just sent you?” The man said.

“Now wait a minu-” *doot* *doot* *doot* *doot* The man ended the call. Vicky opened her message app, frantically. There it stood, a link to a PHO post. It got updated just now. The post was made by Throwaway322, one of those accounts that constantly gets hacked and hijacked by randoms to post something they would be flamed for on main.

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♦ Topic: A New Thread
In: Boards ► United States ► Massachusetts ► Brockton Bay
Throwaway322 (Original Poster) (Verified Throwaway)
Posted On Feb 17th 2011:
Enjoy the show. Link. 

The link led to a video on one of the less savory sites. There stood Shenanigan, in her bug mask and the costume Vicky first saw her in.

“Hello, Brockton Bay. Hello, Victoria. First, I would like to talk a little about my fall into villainy. You see, I was an aspiring hero. I wanted to go out and save lives and fight crime. My initial fights with the Empire could attest to that, plus I’m sure Armsmaster has finished his lie detector, didn’t you?” She chuckles at some inside joke.

“But one day, when I was going home from a gym session, I was accosted by Glory Girl, because I had the misfortune to have shadow-themed powers and a duffel bag. My gym duffel bag. She immediately assumed I had money in it, that I robbed a bank or something. I called her ridiculous, and bet that my bag had my gym clothes. But you see, somebody put fake money in it somewhere down the line after I last closed it. Almost like someone set me up.” She looked meaningfully at the camera. Or rather, tilted her head meaningfully at the camera.

“And in the end, I did convince her that the money was fake. And our bet was that she’d kiss me on the cheek. As simple as that. But she ran away.” She shakes her head. “She ran away from the bet. I got so sad, so… devastated, that one of my idols, my model figures, dishonored a bet. Why? Because she’s straight? Over a kiss on the cheek?” A faint red light appeared from the depths of her bug mask. “That’s when I made The Gay Beam. But it seems like she’s not so bothered about it. So I’ve come up with a way to… up the ante.” The white background behind her drops to show two people suspended by ropes, heads covered in black burlap sacks.

“No!” Vicky exclaims. She wants to look around. She wants to know where they are. But she too is a hostage of Shenanigan now. Unable to look away, forced to watch her every move.

“So here’s my challenge to you, Victoria. I’ll let my teammate explain the rules.” She disappears into smoke, a bright flash replacing her with Regent.

“Hello Brockton Bay!” Regent flourishes his scepter. “You’re here with us for a hostage situation! But here’s a catch! We don’t need ransom! Only answers! Who would Glory Girl choose to save?”

“No!” They want Vicky to choose !

“Her not so blood related sister? Or her oh so beloved boyfriend? Over there you can see Panacea hanging above a tank of acid.” Regent points to his left and the half of the screen with Amy pans out to show a dark green warehouse with the graffiti of a dog on its roof.

“Over here you can see Dean Stansfield hanging above another tank of acid!” Dean’s half of the screen pans out to show a dark grey warehouse with a large A sprayed on its roof.

“A dog, a large A. A dog, a large A.” Vicky rocketed towards the docks in hopes of finding at least one of them.

“But here’s the fun part.” Regent’s voice cuts through her frantic search. “Both of them are connected through a counterbalance thingamajig our dear dear Shenanigan made. Once one of them is saved, the other one drops.”

“Oh no, they won’t dare!” Vicky was ready to pull out her hair. They for sure weren’t close to each other.

“Unless!” Regent holds up a finger. “Our dear hostage Dean wins a bet !” Regent chuckles. “We’ll be back with results shortly!”

“What? What?” Vicky paused as Shenanigan appeared on screen again.

“Worry not, Victoria. The countdown hasn’t begun yet. They’re both safe and sound. You’ll just need to hear out the first part of the next clip.” She chuckled and disappeared in a puff of smoke again.

“So, Deanie boy. Are you ready to save the day?” Sounded Regent’s voice, but there was no accompanying video.

“Ah, yes! Anything!”

“Great!” Sounds Shenanigan’s voice as she claps her hands. “Who between you and Amy is Vicky more likely to save? Just answer that. If you guess right, and Vicky comes to save the person you choose, both hostages will be saved. If you fail? The unsaved hostage drops right into the tank.” There is a sizzling noise, like a cruel demonstration that Vicky cannot see. “The countdown begins now.” Says Shenanigan.

Vicky sees the two warehouses three blocks apart. How in the hell did Shenanigan rig them to counterbalance each other, she couldn’t begin to guess. But now she had to take into account who Dean though she’d come to save. Considering his character and how seriously he took training to be the next Wards leader, Vicky figured he would choose Amy. Obviously.

“Okay. Okay. My answer is obvious.” Says Dean, putting Vicky at ease immediately. She rushes to the warehouse with the dog graffiti and breaks right through the dog’s nose. There hangs Amy, dangerously close to the sizzling acid. She dives in and swoops Amy up, ripping out the ropes from the mechanism they hung from. 

“Oh thank god, Amy! Thank god! Those psychos!” Vicky lifts the sack from her face and freezes. Because instead of her precious Amy’s freckled face, she sees a surprised Dean. “W-what?”

“Oh? Let’s hear it then.” Says Shenanigan’s voice.

“Of course she’ll pick me.” Says Dean’s recording, much to current Dean’s widening eyes.

“Why not Amy?” Asks Shenanigan.

“Why would she pick Amy? Amy’s just her sister. I’m her boyfriend.” Says Dean’s recording. Vicky comes back to her senses and flies off towards the other warehouse, breaking through one of its walls. She completely ignores Dean’s pleading words. There she finds Amy, shoulders deep in the vat of acid, completely fine, but looking absolutely shocked.

“Why would she pick Amy?” Sounds Dean’s voice again. “Amy’s just her sister. I’m her boyfriend.”

Amy looks… absolutely devastated, as an old TV set up in front of her displays Vicky breaking through the ceiling and sweeping Dean off the rope. She turns to the real Vicky, feeling utterly betrayed.

“Amy, no! Wait!”

“Vicky! I can explain!” Shouts a winded Dean, following Vicky through the hole she made in the wall.

“What a dramatic reunion. What do you know? Dean actually guessed right!” Says Shenanigan, coming out of one of the office rooms. Or is it the freezer?

“You!” Vicky growls. “You swapped their places!”

“A-and she edited what I said!” Dean says, still coughing from the fastest sprint he ran in his life. Vicky shoots him a disbelieving glare. Of course, blame it all on the villain!

“Me swapping them saved at least one more life though.” Shenanigan shrugs. “I don’t see why you’re complaining.”

“You little!” Vicky rushes to grab her neck, but when her vision clears from the mad dash she took, she finds her hands only gripping a pile of rubble.

“I’m right here, Vicky-poo~” Says Shenanigan from behind Dean. Vicky rushes to her but again, only manages to grab only rubbish as suddenly, there is a sound of electronics winding up, then her vision goes pink, purple and royal blue as she hears “Biiisexual Beam!”

When her vision clears again, Shenanigan is nowhere to be seen. Only Dean, now on his knees, and Amy, looking at both of them wide eyed.

“What the fuck?” She asks, voicing the question all three of them wanted answers to.