Yeah, so the thing about villains is that they’re like weeds. You pull one out, there’s always two more [expletive] to take their place. I’m think [sic] of them as like—alright. Back before supers, we had regular crime, right? Mafia ’n mob ’n and all ‘at. It took six years to get Al Capone arrested. Normal police fighting normal gangs couldn’t take them apart for [expletive] years. Decades.
So what I’m saying is, no, we can’t just “beat the villains.” They’re sneaky. They can break out. There’s always more, even if we kill them. Especially if we kill them.
I know it hurts to see other people hurt.
Believe me.
I know.
- Excerpt from a 2018 interview with Iron Legion, an S-rank Monarch and the head of the Los Angeles Guardians
#
The time was 10:26 AM, and Vivian was on her second 911 call of the day. This was starting to paint a worrying pattern.
Okay, that was a bit of a misrepresentation, but Detective John screaming “OFFICER DOWN!” into his radio was basically the same thing. It just cut out the middleman.
Part of Vivian was grateful that John was calling. She didn’t want to deal with the operator again, and she knew they had her number. It would have been too awwkard to come up with a reasonable explanation for why she the superhero had the number registered to Vivian Li.
The other, much louder part, was busy being horrified by the situation.
Lachlan had included a first-aid kid in the menagerie of equipment he’d purchased for her, but it was all civilian stuff. Vivian had no Synth technology to aid her in dealing with Lisa’s wound, and it quickly became obvious that this was no normal injury.
What’s the first thing you do for a gut wound? Apply pressure? She’d taken first-aid courses multiple times throughout high school, but time and disuse wore away at those skills until there was only a vague recollection now.
Vivian threw a pleading look towards the other officers, realized that they couldn’t see her face through her helmet, then vocalized a request for help.
“Ow ow ow fuck off ow ow,” Jeff said, clutching his limp, bloody arm.
“I don’t have training,” John said apologetically. His face was red from all the shouting he’d done. Fat lot of good that does, you useless shit.
She turned back to Lisa, whose breathing was growing shallower with every passing second.
The impact point was only the width of a finger, but her shirt was so soaked through with blood that it was hard to tell exactly where it was. Her lips and flesh alike were turning a pale shade of blue.
As utterly wrong as it was, Vivian silently thanked the still-convulsing super for delivering an injury that she hadn’t seen before. It was less intense a reminder of the bodies she’d borne witness to already.
Still, she looked at Lisa and—dying flesh necrotizing vomited his guts out can’t save him internal bleeding she’s gone he’s dead you killed him it’s your fault it’s all your fault IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT—she choked back a sob. A guilt too heavy and familiar to be from this emergency alone settled on her shoulders, bringing with it years of crushing doubt.
“Deep breath,” she told herself quietly, hoping the helmet wouldn’t pick it up. The therapists had given her an exercise for this. Inhale, 2, 3, 4. Hold… 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Exhale… 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
She could do this. She could do this. She had to do this.
The next six minutes were the longest of her life.
#
Help came in the form of a Guardian—and unfortunately, there was only one Guardian in Lafayette who could get places speedily.
Alexander arrived at 10:33.
Vivian couldn’t even be mad that it was him that came. She’d had to look up the proper procedures to jog her memory and she was still panicking that she’d done it wrong. Disinfecting the wound had gone find, as had dressing it and putting pressure on it, and then Lisa stopped breathing four minutes in.
Attempts at CPR had done nothing more than engrave the sound of ribs cracking into Vivian’s ears.
I’m going to remember this, she thought numbly. She was wrung out, every drop of emotion squeezed from her body. The panic and the dread and the desperation was her baseline mental state now, which meant it couldn’t distract her out of doing her job.
She knew from experience that she was going to collapse when she stopped moving, so she didn’t stop.
Alexander landed between cycles of compressions guided by half-remembered first aid lessons. His Mover ability to hover above the ground meant he came in quieter than the previous uncostumed super, who was now unconscious and bleeding in a heap on the ground.
When she’d seen Alexander from afar at the Taco Bell parking lot and again in the bank, his costumed had been polished, his mannerisms perfected for the cameras—if any happened to be rolling.
This time, he looked harried. Though his costume hid most of his lower face, his hair was in disarray, his eyes were narrowed to slits and he was tense, even more than he’d been when he discovered Lachlan was passed out on the floor next to Vivian.
“She needs help,” Vivian grunted, continuing her. She desperately hoped the voice modulator in her helmet made her sound more confident than she was. “Badly. You’re late.”
“I see that,” Alexander said distractedly. He put a hand to his ear.
“Who are you talking to?”
“You’ll see.” He dropped down next to Lisa and picked her up bodily, grunting with effort, then hovered over to the other super to do the same. “Good work. I’m taking them to the med center.”
“That’s the one who shot them,” Vivian said. Is Lisa going to be okay? She was too afraid of the answer to ask.
“So it is.”
“Help me!” Jeff complained, further back in the room.
Alexander didn’t even spare him a glance. “You’re not in danger of dying. Get to a hospital fast and maybe they can save your arm. V—er, unregistered Kinetic, I don’t have time or approval to talk. Check your phone. If anyone asks, I didn’t see it.”
And with that said, he flew off, carrying a dying officer in one arm and the super who’d hurt her in the other.
Vivian just stood there, confused. His behavior was so inconsistent. He’d been all PR the first time, then pretend-friendly and then cold in the bank and interrogation room, fake-friendly-but-trust-me-I’m-genuine-this-time afterwards, and now he said he was going to overlook communication with (presumably) Lachlan?
People made no sense. He was hiding something, she was sure of it. Some hidden motivation. But that was an issue for later.
Jeff groaned in pain again.
“Are the two of you going to be okay?” Vivian asked belatedly, remembering she wasn’t alone. “Your cars are outside, right?”
“We’ll be alright, ma’am,” John said. He was visibly shaking. “Thank you.”
“…thanks,” Jeff said reluctantly.
What are you thanking me for? Even in her own mind, Vivian’s voice was bitter. Getting Lisa killed?
“You’re welcome.” Her voice sounded hollow inside her helmet.
As Alexander had suggested, she checked her phone.
New Contact (Suggested name: Lachlan): ty for the number this is
New Contact (Suggested name: Lachlan): Lachlan
Vivian created the contact.
Lachlan: I heard
Lachlan: on the scanner
Lachlan: that u (kinetic)were at museum
Lachlan: evac asap
Lachlan: jackals not coming
Lachlan: txt back when safe
The timestamps on the texts told her that Lachlan had texted five minutes ago.
She called the new number. It didn’t even ring before going to voicemail.
“Hi, this is Lachlan, sometimes better known as Lachlan,” a cheery robotic voice chirped. “If you’re hearing this, I probably asked you to text me. On the off chance I didn’t, well, now I’m telling you. Don’t leave a message. I won’t listen to it.”
Oh.
“Hey,” Vivian said out loud. “An Esper from the Guardians is telling us to evacuate. I’m leaving. Do you need assistance?”
No response.
Vivian shrugged and left, careful to avoid the fallen installations as she walked. The stun gun and the ball bearings were light enough to keep hovering around her, though the capsaicin spray was diluted enough to be useless now so she left that on the ground. Keeping her power moving kept the buzzing at bay. It kept her own mind at bay.
She needed to keep moving. Occupy, deflect, distract—not healthy coping mechanisms, but they worked, and she couldn’t let herself fall apart now.
On the way out, she noticed that one of the cars—the one that had held the officer who’d just let Vivian walk in—was gone. Was that because he was afraid of punishment for also letting the unregistered mist super in, or had he suffered a worse fate than Lisa?
Vivian didn’t want to know. She went back to her texts.
Vivian: hey lachlan got your texts whats up im out of the museum
Vivian: one officer down maybe dying or dead idk
Lachlan: thank god ur safe
Lachlan: hold one lemme
Lachlan: take this call and ill be with u properly
Lachlan: tldr victims safe but not safe
And then he stopped typing.
“Safe but not safe,” Vivian muttered. “The hell does that mean?”
Nothing that she could properly decipher. She kept going.
It was oddly empty outside. No sirens blared, no one was screaming, no powers were flying to and fro. By any account, it was a normal Sunday morning. Usually, Vivian wouldn’t even be awake right now.
The time was 10:35 AM and it was too silent. Silence meant freedom from other people, but it also meant nothing to stop the crash. She could feel it coming. The edges of her working mind frayed, sending a spike of pain straight into her heart.
Keep moving. In times like this, there was one patchwork temporary solution she could always fall back on. I need to keep moving.
Vivian ran. She was out of practice and out of shape and she didn’t even have a real destination, but she ran and ran and ran. Her heart physically ached, pounding so fast she swore she could feel it in her entire body; her legs burned, practically begging her to stop; she could barely breathe, and the helmet wasn’t helping; and still she ran.
The job wasn’t done yet. She couldn’t let herself break until it was done.
When she stopped, she was in a neighborhood she didn’t recognize. The houses around her were faintly Victorian, and it looked like they had been nice once. In the 80s.
She doubled over and took her helmet off, gasping for breath, then stumbled towards the nearest private space, which happened to be an alley between a run-down 7-11 and a sleazy gold-for-cash joint.
Her phone buzzed, jarring her enough to keep her from slipping.
Lachlan: Ok, you have my attention now, I’m at my keyboard.
Lachlan: I can’t call. Still talking details with the Guardians, but Esper stuff means I can multitask.
Vivian: what happened
Lachlan: Killjoy made a play. We think it happened right after the bank robbery, which was supposed to take more of us out than it actually did. Thanks to our (mostly your) actions, it’s not as bad as it could’ve been. I knew it was worth breaking the bank for you :P
Vivian: lol
Vivian: kidnap happened yesterday?
Lachlan: Most likely. We diverted Jackal because the few missing persons cases we got were pretty handily answered when a bunch of new supers attacked Guardian and police institutions at the same time.
Vivian: what does that have to do w anything
She remembered, then, that the super she’d stunned into unconsciousness hadn’t been wearing a costume. He hadn’t even had a mask on. Apart from the power and the blood, he could’ve been a college student.
Oh god. He might’ve been a college student.
Lachlan: He was experimenting. That vial I sent you after? He wasn’t just amping Ephialtes with it. He was trying to make his own supers.
Vivian: jesus
Lachlan: The effect is temporary, and in all cases, it damaged the victim’s body. Seven victims.
Vivian: sarah young
Vivian: was she one of them
Lachlan: Let me check.
Lachlan: Yes. Someone important?
Vivian: fuck
Vivian: is she ok
Lachlan: I’m not linked into the med system. Sorry, really am. I don’t know.
Lachlan: None of the temporary supers are dead, though. A few casualties on our side. All normals.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
Vivian: shit. Might’ve seen one happen
Lachlan: Sorry again. You might not like this. Killjoy skipped town.
Vivian: what
That… that wasn’t what was supposed to happen. Villains’ big plans were meant to accomplish something or send a message or something important.
Killjoy was supposed to be her nemesis. Someone she worked to bring down. Someone whose capture would be worth sending her to Arina to.
After all this pain and suffering, after kidnappings and killings and watching Lisa slip towards death’s cold embrace, it all amounted to an escape?
Lachlan: We don’t know what he stole yet. Too much disarray. But I sensed it. He still has most of the vial, but he’s gone and so is the vial. Last I sensed of him, he was headed towards Indianapolis or Chicago.
Lachlan: Let me repeat. Seven victims. Given the timeframe and the scale of Killjoy’s operation, that could’ve been way, way more.
Lachlan: If you’re anything like me, you’re beating yourself up over the fact that he got away.
Lachlan: Focus on your wins. You stopped more people from getting hurt.
Vivian: So it’s done then
Vivian: That’s it?
Lachlan: For now, yes. Feel free to text me on this number at any time. It’s my personal, not my hero line, so it’s not monitored.
That was a familiar sentiment. Too familiar.
#
Sunrise: Text me whenever you need. I’ll always answer.
How was that supposed to help?
“Mom just drove herself off a fucking cliff,” Vivian shouted at the dimmed screen. “And you can’t put her back together, so FUCK OFF!”
#
Lachlan: You need to get some rest. Seriously. My first mission, well. I’ll spare you the details. But I didn’t rest, and I regretted it.
#
Sunrise: Get some rest. You’ll thank yourself for it tomorrow.
Vivian threw her phone at the wall as hard as she could.
The dent it made was utterly unsatisfying.
#
Vivian: alr
Vivian: u gotta go then
Lachlan: Yeah, we’re going to go hunting for any latent untriggered bits. Talk to you later.
Lachlan: Take care of yourself.
#
Sunrise: Take care of yourself.
The screen was too cracked to read. The tears made it impossible.
#
Vivian quietly put her phone away. She did not cry, because adults had responsibilities and weren’t supposed to cry.
She slumped against the wall, put her head in her knees, and broke.
#
The time was 3:56 PM.
Vivian stared into the mirror. Her face was streaked with tears she hadn’t meant to shed. The dorm was still empty.
#
The time was 6:36 PM.
Scrolling through the same five social media channels again and again and watching classmates spout incorrect theories as to what all the commotion had been about was not healthy. Vivian knew it wasn’t healthy.
She did it anyway.
#
The time was 10:11 PM.
She finally remembered to eat. The dining halls were closed, so she ordered an overpriced rice bowl online. Lachlan still hadn’t updated her on the crisis that had so abruptly screeched to a stop.
She ate half the bowl and threw the rest away.
#
The time was 2:41 AM.
She couldn’t sleep. She hadn’t been able to sleep for hours. So she watched anime and mediocre video essays about media she would never consume. Time passed.
Somewhere between episode 1029 of One Piece and a discussion on the merits of the Star Wars sequel quadrilogy, she fell asleep.
Sleep never came easy, but these days, it was usually blissfully dreamless.
Unfortunately for her, nothing about this day was usual.
Vivian dreamed of her brother and her mother and Jester and Lisa and death.
#
The time was 7:34 AM. ASS class was starting late.
“Before we start, I’m sure you’ve all heard the rumors,” Professor Lionel said.
Of course they had. Even Vivian had, in the half-delirious state she’d suffered through Sunday in.
Vivian nursed the coffee she’d managed to get in the first half hour of the campus Starbucks being open before the deluge of caffeine-starved students could get to it. Her head hurt. Four hours of sleep did not a restful night of sleep make.
She wished she could say she felt better. In some sense, she did. The physical pain of yesterday’s exertion and the utter exhaustion of too little sleep were overwhelming enough presences to drive away the festering thoughts. That would wear off, though.
Need to keep moving. But there was nowhere to move here, so she listened.
“Yes, local Synth Killjoy did abduct a number of West Lafayette and Lafayette citizens, including three Purdue students.” The professor delivered the news in the same tone of voice that a newscaster might. He was invested only as a spectator. They all were. “None of the victims were severely injured—“ that’s a lie, I know what I did, “—and are currently recovering.”
Convenient how he avoided every other important part. Lachlan had only texted one more time, saying the situation was “continuing to develop” and that he wouldn’t be able to communicate until noon today. She still didn’t know if Lisa was alive.
Twenty-four hours ago, she would have said she didn’t give a shit if some random officer lived or died, though obviously living was preferable. But now—now all she could think of were her bloody hands, of Lisa’s desperate gasps as she tried to cling onto what life she had left.
Murmuring broke out amongst the two hundred other students present, so many that they may as well have been talking normally.
Vivian took another sip of her order—hot medium latte—and winced. She was personally connected to this case in more ways than one, and one of those was more readily apparent. Though she hadn’t made a habit of telling everyone who her roommate was, Sarah had introduced what felt like a few dozen people to her.
If the identities of the victims became known, she was going to have to field interest about this one way or another.
Professor Lionel let the class talk amongst themselves for several minutes before speaking again. “As we were discussing the impact of heroic Synths in Friday’s class already, this unfortunate occurrence is actually a great segue into the villainous aspect. Does anyone have any burning questions about the situation they’d like to get out of the way before we start?”
A dozen hands shot up at the same time.
“You in the orange shirt and the glasses.”
Vivian put her head down on her desk, her head already heavy with drowsiness and boredom. This class didn’t matter. None of it—
“I heard there was a new hero yesterday,” the student said. “A student hero.”
If the murmuring had been irritatingly loud before, this time they might as well have been shouting over each other.
For Vivian’s part, she sighed deeply into the crook of her arm. She’d seen this coming. Yesterday, she’d been recognized as a hero by a number of passing students. Add in the fact that she was walking on State Street, coming from the direction of campus, and it didn’t take a genius to put two and two together.
It put her on edge, because how could it not? Too many people were talking at the same time for her to understand everyone, but she could pick out snippets of conversation from the people closest to her.
“—shit, think I saw her—“
“—Lillian posted a pic on her Insta, I love the costume—“
“—heard there’s footage of the fight—“
That last sentence stopped her short. She didn’t bother trying to hide her surprise. It was weirder not to react to the deluge of information pouring into her skull, she was sure.
How could there be footage of her fight? Had someone faked it? Nobody had—oh no.
She honed in on the last person, forcing herself to isolate one voice from the noise. He was only a few seats away from her, so it wasn’t too hard.
“—yeah, body cam,” he said, confirming Vivian’s fears. In response to another boy she didn’t recognize, he said, “Nah, friend of a friend told me. Could be BS. But he said—“
“Alright, I think that’s enough chatter,” Professor Lionel said, his voice amplified more than usual. He must have turned the mic volume up. “Our Guardian liason told us that yes, there was a super that they believe is a student, but no, her identity is not available, and no, she has no super name.
“That will be all the discussion on that. If you have more questions not directly related to Synths, please ask me after class.”
The professor then proceeded to ignore the other still-raised hands and launched into a perfunctory explanation of what had actually happened.
Just like Lachlan had texted her, the bank robbery had been intended to lure Guardians into a trap. Dr. Lionel didn’t mention that Ephialtes had been boosted by one of Killjoy’s drugs, which Vivian was now certain was derived from the vial. Whether that was because he didn’t know or couldn’t share was a mystery.
There was one new piece of information that was new to her, which was that Killjoy’s method of capture had been through an aerosol spray of a potent sedative that only activated in those of a certain genetic makeup.
Thanks to the actions of “brave, anonymous heroes”—Vivian wanted to laugh at that—he’d been delayed long enough that the Guardians had been able to shut down what they had thought was a drug-laced gas leak before it could spread further. As it was, it had still hit a pair of frat houses, a McDonalds, and a closed swimming pool, and Killjoy had managed to take his victims then.
The rest was all stuff she knew already, so she put her head down again. She thanked her lucky stars that there was no further mention of a new student Kinetic during the rest of the lecture.
“By nature, Synths produce alien components necessary for their creations,” she caught Professor Lionel saying. “However, as we saw this weekend, that does not necessarily mean that their components are enough. Human experimentation has long been a favorite of villainous Synths. Can anyone tell me why?”
What an inane question. There was something disturbing about hearing the tumultuous, personally painful events of the last two days filed down into an easily digestible 50-minute lecture.
Vivian tuned out again and did not overhear anything of consequence until lunch.
#
Nobody would shut up about the goddamn kidnappings. Vivian didn’t have many friends, so none of the conversations were hers, but every single overheard conversation was about the same topic.
Some people swore that a friend of a friend personally knew the kidnapping victims and therefore they had insider info, which was almost certainly bullshit—as far as Vivian knew, Sarah was still recovering in a Guardian hospital. Others talked about how terrifying it was that a villain had taken major action in a college town with otherwise very little crime.
Still others were talking about her. The frequency of that conversation seemed to be increasing with time. Vivian passed by a dozen groups of students on her way to the bar-style table meant for lonely diners and more than half of them either mentioned the unknown Kinetic girl or were actively discussing her.
She realized why when she sat down to her meal (beef in mushroom sauce with spaghetti and green beans, which was much less appealing than the dining hall wanted her to believe) and checked her messaging app.
sparrow: yo viv you there
sparrow: u might want to to check this out
Vivian put her earbuds in and tapped into the link Rachel sent her.
It linked to a post on a Reddit subforum that she used to frequent before she’d met Sunrise. The sub featured super footage of all kinds—news, smartphone video captures, leaks—and was easily one of the largest on the site.
[LEAK][Graphic] New unaffiliated hero (Kinetic/Ruler?) puts an anonymous temp-super down
The post had eleven thousand upvotes. The embedded video claimed to have been viewed over a hundred thousand times.
It was body camera footage. From the perspective, it had to be John’s. Vivian watched the whole thing despite herself. She barely recognized the woman in the video. She looked so confident, so sure of herself, and Vivian definitely hadn’t felt any of that.
She winced when John ducked and covered and the video showed Lisa getting hit. The Killjoy-amped power was greater than she’d thought. Lisa’s skin started turning blue immediately, but the camera didn’t stay on her long enough to see the continued effects of it. John looked back up just in time to catch Vivian finishing the fight off with her ball-bearing-pepper-spray-eye-punch-stun-gun combo.
The video cut off as soon as Vivian turned around, freezing on a still frame of her helmet.
I need to get that helmet painted, she thought dully.
vivy77: you have got to be fucking kidding me
sparrow: don’t read the comments
Vivian read the comments.
It was genuinely insane how confidently off the mark the users were. One comment thread, some fifty replies long, was solely about the rank they would assign her. Guesses had run the gamut from high F-rank to mid B-rank, and almost all of them provided a different interpretation of what her power was. The one who guessed that she had “powder manipulation” earned a chuckle out of her, as did the fact that people actually believed them.
The others were insane in less entertaining ways. A number of top-level comments were flooded with anonymous users saying things like I could’ve done better or Why didn’t she think of a better solution?—that second one was always followed by something that she either hadn’t had time for or physically couldn’t do—and most infuriatingly, Can’t believe that a hero just sat there and let an officer get hit by what looks like a potentially lethal shot. What a waste.
Though Vivian might have blamed herself for failing to prevent Lisa from getting shot, reading the same perspective from ElbowLiker997 sent a hot spurt of rage screaming behind her eyes. You weren’t there. You don’t get to judge me from behind your screen, safely at home.
She typed out a response in the comments, thought better of it, and deleted it before going back to the messaging app.
sparrow: you read the comments didn’t you
vivy77: these fucking morons
vivy77: so goddamn cringe
sparrow: yep. Sometimes there’s actual value there but the big super subs are full of people who think their a lot smarter than they actually are
vivy77: they’re*
sparrow: pfft I don’t need english class anymore im a whole ass sru agent now
sparrow: speaking of english, you need a name
Vivian knew what Rachel was doing. If this footage had been released to the public, the actual SRU agent would know more. Her friend was trying to distract her, and she appreciated that.
Not that this distraction was entirely useless. Vivian considered herself generally knowledgeable on supers, but Rachel had always been the powers nerd. Now that she was in the SRU, she knew even more about superheroing than Vivian could hope to learn. The difference between a well-funded government program versus a half-assed ASS class taken for humanities credit and Google was stark.
vivy77: what kind of name would help for applying to arina? also what should I actually do
vivy77: im a D- which is going to be rough and I was going to try to do shit with kj but he left town
sparrow: hmmm I think even the bit of exposure you’re getting rn is generally positive so you can leverage that. how about kinesis? keeping it simple?
vivy77: sure doesnt seem like it
vivy77: and no to kinesis, thats literally just my power
sparrow: Reddit comments aren’t everything, Viv. You’re doing fine. Not glowing commendations or anything, but it’s a better start than supers usually get
sparrow: psyops? whirlwind?
vivy77: those don’t feel right either idk that’s like saturday morning cartoon stuff
vivy77: well a good start’s definitely nice, not sure what I should do next tho
sparrow: ooh I got a good one
vivy77: like the december cycles in like three months and idk if I can get enough of a profile by then to make up for being D-
sparrow: heartbreaker. get it? because you can literally break hearts?
sparrow: tbh you should just train up, the corpos don’t just test powers, it’s makretability and shit too
vivy77: definitely no on heartbreaker, I rlly would rather keep the plausibility breaking part quiet
vivy77: plus it makes me sound like a washer
sparrow: fair
vivy77: train up like how?
sparrow: physical training. I can send you a routine. Also, killjoy is the biggest recent threat, but there’s still some villains, right? U could shut down some gang operations, that always looks good
vivy77: hmmm I guess I can do that
If nothing else, training would keep her busy. She needed that. To be busy. Physical and mental. Tracking down gang operations would help with that too. It would be Pine’s gang she was going after with Killjoy gone. They weren’t terribly disruptive, but they were still villains. Dealing with them would be better than dealing with the ceaseless buzzing and her own mind.
sparrow: I got one more for you
sparrow: shrimp
vivy77: the fuck do you mean “shrfimp”
vivy77: what kind of name is that
sparrow: like MANTIS shrimp
sparrow: that’s what u do in the video so it ownt be too hard to sell
sparrow: mantis shrimp punch rlly hard and
vivy77: ooooh wait I think I know this one
sparrow: they like boil the water and hit their enemies hard with it
sparrow: two word names are in fashion rn too
sparrow: arina is looking for more whimsical stuff right now, brand took a hit when half of their b-rankers crossed too many lines lmao
vivy77: mantis shrimp, then
sparrow: yeah exactly
sparrow: you could even start promo on social media, get your name out there
vivy77: ugh
sparrow: or maybe later. For now, you can talk to the local Guardians to get a name registered. Better announce it sooner than later, though. I’ve heard some nightmare stories about badass supers that got stuck with horrible shitty names because the public decided on calling them like goatlover instead of minotaur
vivy77: ok so register name, pt, get some publicity byh attakcing pines gang
vivy77: sounds like a plan
sparrow: pog
sparrow: Here is my training reg would help but I gtg lunch break is over. Great talking to u best of luck and don’t worry about ur identity I never spill
sparrow: ttyl
vivy77: cya
Vivian’s food was getting cold. She ate it as quickly as she could, surprised at how tolerable today’s lunch was.
She had a plan. A name, maybe, and a plan. Real next steps to take.
Another person might have been optimistic in this moment. Vivian had long since forgotten how to be an optimist.
But she was determined, and for now, that was enough.
Her phone buzzed once more as she polished off the last of her pasta. She opened her texts, expecting it to be an update from Lachlan.
It wasn’t.
Sun: I heard the situation got worse. Sending best wishes. Are you going to be alright? Seriously, I can fly in if you need me.
Vivian blinked. In all the excitement, she’d nearly forgotten Sunrise didn’t know she was a super. And I’d like to keep it that way. Too many people knew already.
Vivian: getting by
That was, thankfully, not entirely a lie.
Vivian: but hold that thought
A gang to take down, a superhero willing to fly halfway across the country to help her, and a plan for applying to Arina.
All the ingredients for a resounding success or failure were on her plate. Now all that remained to be seen was what she could do with it.