Monday, October 5
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“So, we’ve got options,” Bianca said. We sprawled across my apartment’s floor, the disembodied voice of Doctor Boulder Vicente telling us about taking pratfalls and how best to hit someone with a sword to get the right look and sound without actually hurting them. Our Stage Combat course, like the others, had started recording lessons, and Doctor Vicente was as hilarious on video as in person, but neither of us was really paying attention.
Official school policy on Power Wars—yes, Tokyexico University had a policy for it—matched up pretty well with their policy on full-wall-breach Man vs. Nature situations. The quick version: students didn’t have to attend classes except for practical exams. The longer version was a bit more complicated. In order to keep the identities of heroes and villains secret, the university had to make it less obvious when Bee and I had to skip classes. Their solution? Make in-person classes optional.
They even explained why to the whole student body—not that it was much of a secret. And, based on the few classes we had attended in person, the student body had decided not to attend pretty much unanimously. Class attendance was down 60%; fortunately, that was well within TU’s projections.
“So, option one. We switch to Superpower Legal Issues and dig into the New Gotham Accords. I know you know all about them or whatever, but they’re more or less new to me. And option two: Extra Relations and Public Presentation,” Bee continued. “I’d rather deal with the New Gotham Accords. What are the odds we’ll be managing more Extras when Tele-Portal gets us out there?”
“Pretty high,” I replied, turning off Doctor Vicente midway through another tangent on how the Mid-Town Slam move worked. “Let’s deal with the New Gotham Accords first, though. We’ll do that, then slog through managing whatever hypothetical Extra Relations has for us.”
“Got it.” Bee didn’t take my computer to pull up a lecture. Instead, she grabbed a textbook. Law in a Time of Superpowers: Third Edition covered most of the historical legal issues Launch Day had created in passing. It mainly focused on the three Ilneat Compacts that governed how supers, their producers, and humanity interacted. However, the final chapters covered three different visions of the future.
The first came with a disturbing number of problems. In it, a hero or villain grew powerful enough to take over a major world power or rallied enough supers to their cause that they became the de facto world government. A legal framework was in the works to stop the so-called dictator-by-powers from happening, but its final drafts and debate on it were years out—if not decades. Luckily, Golden Goose didn’t seem interested in the job.
The second seemed almost as unlikely, based on the book. In it, the Ilneats packed up and left, taking their superpowers with them. The world would need some sort of stability during the transition back to regional governments, militaries, and post-Ilneat economic models, and an attempt at resurrecting the old United Nations model was in the works in case that happened.
Today, though, the professors didn’t want us learning about either of those. Neither was super likely, but the New Gotham Accords had a growing groundswell of support.
“In 2038, APPEAL, Anti-Super Alliance, and the Society for Yesterday’s Tomorrow put together the first draft of what would become the New Gotham Accords,” Bianca read. The concept was simple: Supers would be welcome anywhere, but their powers would only be used in a few cities. They initially picked Great Lake City, Yorkston, and Los Francisco—the three biggest cities in North America—to become ‘New Gothams,’ as they referred to cities where superpower use would be allowed.
“The basic idea was simple. By putting supers in those few areas, the Ilneats would get all the Episodes they could ask for, the majority of humanity could go back to their pre-Launch lives, and supers could go all-out without worrying about Extras since everyone living in the ‘New Gothams’ would be there of their own free will. The idea had massive support in 2038, but by 2040, it was clear there were some glaring issues.”
“Yeah, I bet,” I snorted. “Bets on what the issues were?”
“Probably, like, ‘I don’t want to live with that many supers’ and ‘as supers, we shouldn’t be locked away. We’re people, too!”’ Bee said.
“Yep. Two of the major complaints right there.”
Bee flipped the page to keep reading as my phone buzzed. “The communities of Great Lake City, Yorkston, and Los Francisco, in particular, fought back against—“
“Holy shit!” I interrupted, holding my phone up triumphantly.
“What?”
I showed Bee the text I’d gotten.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“Yes!” Bee shouted, pumping her fist like she’d scored a game-winning goal. “I knew he’d turn! I knew it!”
“Hold on, Bee. We don’t know if he’s turning. He’s taken a single step, but he hasn’t texted me, and I doubt he’s talked to Dr. Ayers. We need to approach this carefully.”
“Screw that. Let’s get over there!” Bee dragged me toward the Green Room, all thoughts of classwork forgotten.
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Bee’s excitement was infectious.
As we rocketed through the Tokyexico City skies toward Tottergarten, I couldn’t help but grin. I still wasn’t sure if showing up there would help, but as I saw it, it couldn’t hurt things worse than it already had. So we raced across campus, every flap of Bee’s wings matched by mine, trying to get to Tottergarten before Vigilant Vow could walk away or change his mind.
A pair of cars sat in the parking lot; Mrs. N’s ride wasn’t anything special, but Vigilant Vow clearly came from some money—or he’d cashed in on his time working for Cartman. A brand new Jeep with a lift and everything sat beside her compact car, bright orange paint shining in the afternoon sun. I rolled my eyes; Bee was a professional, minor league hero, and she drove a beat-up Civic. We’d need to fix that!
As we landed and my wings retracted, the door opened, and a familiar face opened the door.
Vigilant Vow still wore his trademark white hoodie, and the scarf familiar still sat wrapped around his neck. He saw me and shot a glare that would have killed me if he’d still had half of Stella-Lunar’s power. A single maroon crystal hovered over his head. The moment he saw us, he reached for it—I raised my wand an inch, and Fursona stiffened.
“What do you two want?” He asked. “Do you just want to follow me around and make my life miserable?”
“No,” I said. I fidgeted a little and lowered the wand again. “I’ve been worried, though. I told you to give me a text if you decided to—“
“Well, I didn’t! I didn’t decide anything. I still haven’t decided anything.” Vigilant Vow’s eyes had teared up, but below the water, they darted wildly back and forth between me, Fursona, his car, and the door. He looked like he wanted to run or fight, but couldn’t decide which to do.
“Easy, Vigilant Vow, easy,” Fursona said. Something felt off with her voice, and it took me a moment to realize that her voice modulator was off. She’d never shut it off for me! I opened my mouth, but a wing on my shoulder convinced me to shut up. “We’re not here to fight you. Understudy and I want to see you make it, whether as a hero that can hold their own in the minors, one who decides Tottergarten work is for them like Honeycomb, or one who retires and lives their best non-super life.”
“Well, you had a funny way of showing that last spring! I was so close! So close to making it!”
Fursona sighed and sat down on the curb. “And what would that have gotten you? You knew Cartman was using you, right?”
“I had him under control! The Agent and I—“
“The Agent was using you, too!” I said. Fursona shot me a look I could feel through her suit; her eagle eyes bored into me, and I clamped my mouth shut.
“Understudy, not now. Vigilant Vow, this is going to sound ridiculous. We set up that final fight so that you’d lose, but we didn’t do it because we wanted you to suffer. You were on a bad path, and I think you knew it. You needed to hit rock bottom before you could start fixing it. Now you’re there, so now you can.”
I eyed the crystal; Vigilant Vow had always used them to summon his stolen familiars, and they’d always been purple. This one, though, was dark red, and it hovered closer to him than any of his purple ones ever had. He noticed me looking and glared. “Fuck you two, you know that? I don’t need your help.”
“Really? Stella-Lunar would disagree,” my mouth moved before my brain could tell it to stop. I clapped a hand over my lips. “Sorry.”
“Whatever.” He pushed past us, climbed into his driver’s seat, and gunned the engine, peeling out of the parking lot and disappearing.
I rolled my eyes. “That went poorly.”
“Yeah. Understudy, if we get another chance, let me take the lead. He hates you more than anyone in the universe, and you’re not helping with that. I’ve got those psychology classes, and—“
“Got it. Understood. Vigilant Vow is your show until he calms down,” I said, face red and fists balled. If I had my way, I’d be fighting him again. Why did I feel that way? It didn’t make sense. “Come on, let’s go talk to Honeycomb.”
But before we could get inside, Honeycomb opened the door, papers in hand. “Did he already leave?”
“Yes,” I said shortly.
“Darn. I’ve got a little more paperwork he needs to fill out to become an employee here. No phone, no address—it’s like he’s got a secret identity he wants to protect or something!” Honeycomb said, grinning. “You two got to talk to him, though. That’s good!”
“Something like that, yeah,” I mumbled. “What did he say to you?”
“Just that he’d had some time to think, and he wanted to try to be better. He’s studio-less right now, and without his Signature Skill, he’s worse off than me! I gave him access to Buzzy on a strict schedule, though.”
“You what!?” I said, flabbergasted. The last thing Vigilant Vow needed was a temptation to use his powers for evil again. It’d be better if he didn’t have any.
Fursona nodded slowly, though. “Understudy, this is literally why you gave him Honeycomb’s number, remember?”
“Right.” I’d sent him to Honeycomb because she was one of the few Magical Girls he hadn’t offended, stolen from, or at least had a contract with. She’d be the most likely to hear him out and sympathize. “I didn’t expect her to hand him the keys to her power. You know what his Signature Skill does, right?”
“Yes, of course!” Honeycomb said, exasperated. “He talked me through what’ll happen when he uses Buzzer, and we came up with a schedule. He’s got two nights a week, both when I have study groups anyway. That’s it. If he uses her outside those two nights, he needs to text me right away, and he has to come here and explain to Mrs. N and me what the emergency was.”
“And if he doesn’t?” Fursona asked.
“Then Mrs. N goes after him. We talked about it together.”
I nodded slowly. That seemed reasonable, to be honest, and Vigilant Vow needed someone to trust him. “Okay. I trust you and Mrs. N. Just be careful, okay? He’s been a villain recently.”
“So have all my co-workers,” Honeycomb said. “I’ve got weak powers, but I’m not a dummy. I’ll keep in touch with you, let you know how he’s doing here, okay?”
“Okay. We might be stuck in some Power Wars Episodes, but we’d appreciate it,” I said. “See you later, Honeycomb.”
As we flew back to the Green Room, I tried to push Vigilant Vow out of my mind and focus on the Power War, my job as an auxiliary, and going full support.