The good thing about indoor intramural soccer was that there weren’t many fans.
The bad thing was that with only a few of us on the court, I was solely responsible for stopping Bianca.
And the worst thing was that her eyes had gone all hyper-competitive. She didn’t even act like she recognized me. I didn’t think I’d ever seen her like this—maybe under her Fursona costume, but not outside of it. Board game nights were nothing compared to this. If I couldn’t stop her, she looked like she’d put the entire team on her back. Maybe Sierra could handle her—she’d chosen to play defense—but I wasn’t sure about that, either.
But, as Coach Sierra had said, I didn’t have to stop her from scoring. I just had to stop her from touching the ball.
From the opening whistle and kick-off, I could tell that’d be a tall order.
The black-and-white ball flew through the air, over my head, and our other defender got it. He dashed forward, aiming straight for Bee, then kicked the ball my way as she jogged toward him. But it had been a trap; as I got control of the ball, she turned and surged toward me with what felt like super-speed. I turned and tried to bounce it off the side wall toward my team’s forwards. But Bee’s foot wormed between my legs and flicked my pass off course before I could.
Bee gave me a smug grin as she ran by, and I pouted back. “Hey, now. Pick on someone with your own experience!”
“I will!” She ran by as I hurried to keep up, pressuring Sierra on defense. I lowered my head and sprinted toward her, only to shoot off-course as Sierra’s hand went up. She was pointing at the other team’s forward, who was uncovered. I tried to get there.
But the ball flew by first, and a moment later, he kicked it into our goal.
One to Zero.
I reset, switching sides with Adam as Bianca moved toward his side of the field. Sierra yelled something about sticking to Bee like glue, and I nodded. My chest was already pumping as I sucked in air, and we’d only been playing for like 5 minutes.
Most of the rest of the game flowed through either Bianca or Sierra, and I couldn’t figure out which one was more important. Bianca had basically locked down the game at half-court, and every time the ball got past her, she went into overdrive. I couldn’t believe how fast she was; I'd be shocked if she wasn’t using superpowers. Fursona was a hybrid speedster/bruiser, so it was within her powerset.
But Sierra matched her. Every attack broke on her or went around her, and I started thinking about the game a little differently. She was back there, along with our other defender. Even Bee would struggle to score on her as long as she held firm. Therefore, what we needed was a chance to score ourselves.
I cheated a little into the yellow team’s territory, pushing my own forward…forward. All I needed was two passes. One from Sierra up to me and one from me to our forward. If I could get them—
The ball zoomed toward me.
I bounced it off my chest and started running. Bee had to be close, and I had to beat her to it. I could practically feel her on my back as I kicked the ball, dribbling it forward. Once. Twice. Three times. Then I reeled back and launched it toward the forward.
A moment later, he’d scored.
One to One.
I turned toward my girlfriend, grinning. But when I saw her sweat-covered face, something had changed. Her eyes weren’t hyper-competitive anymore. They were pissed. If they could speak, they’d scream, ‘How could you embarrass me like that?’ at me.
Then she stilled her expression. “Good job, Annie. That’ll be the last time, though.”
“Not if I have anything to say about it,” I replied. I wanted to win as badly as she did, and I’d found a strategy that just might work.
----------------------------------------
The final score was a blowout.
Twelve to Four.
We’d lost.
So, obviously, that hurt. I hadn’t really expected anything else—losing to my girlfriend and partner was always going to suck, and the reality was that I’d gotten beaten so badly at midfield that it was entirely my fault. But at the same time, everyone knew I’d been outmatched. Sierra had even said as much as I moped after the game. A couple of orange slices weren’t going to make it better.
But they did help.
It sucked losing to Bianca. She was a good sport about it, and she was more than willing to talk about how she’d beaten me and how I could counter it. But the real reason it sucked was that it was the first time I’d lost to her when something was at stake.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Still, after a while, I shrugged it off. The soccer match was important to her, but to me, it was just a thing Annie did. And even losing, it’d been nice to be Annie and lose as her. Besides, I’d have to get used to losing to Bianca—and quickly because this wasn’t my only scheduled loss today.
I suited up, pulling on Mom’s slightly too tight Madame Shockwave Costume. Bee was already ready to go; she’d jammed Kaiju-Sona into her backpack. I had a tougher task. As I pulled my warm clothes over Mom’s spandex costume, I stretched out. Things didn’t move quite right, and I couldn’t wait to get out of my warm stuff and transform.
But I also couldn’t travel around as either Magical Girl Undergrad or Madame Shockwave. The former might implicate me in the crimes Dark Girl Shock and Awe was about to commit, and the latter didn’t have a good movement power for getting me across town.
So, as Bee took off in her Civic, I called an Uber-Plus.
The car showed up a minute later, and I wormed my way into the back. The driver—a big, dark-haired guy—smiled at me and tapped on a convenient sign listing my options for the ride. I picked #1: The Quiet Ride. He nodded. “Where are you going?”
“Thornton. Near the south side,” I replied, pulling out my phone.
“Got it. Half an hour.”
“Thanks.”
The silence pressed in like a comfortable blanket; he was obviously used to it, and I had stuff to do. I pulled out my phone and navigated to the Super Watch site again. The post had a dozen comments on it. Most were speculation about Fanfic’s whereabouts. Two people thought the poster was crazy for wanting to be anywhere near a villain who acted like that. And one…one might have been from the villain themself.
It was cryptic. Nothing definitive. But if I read it right, it sounded like they might be taking the bait. They definitely knew it was bait, but they might be taking it anyway.
It’d be great for us if they did. Fursona and her team wouldn’t get called up to deal with a Fanfic incursion, but every major leaguer would be. That’d leave the field of battle completely clear for us.
I’d said that I shrugged off the orange team’s loss to yellow. That was a lie. I couldn’t help but dwell on it as my Uber-Plus drove through Mid-Town and into the wreckage of Thornton. We were at the bottom of the bragging rights standings now. I’d have to play way harder against green next week.
But even so, Bianca was a great girlfriend and an awesome partner, and I was lucky to have her. She’d set this up so that, even though I’d probably lose to her team, we’d get to complete our secret objective. We’d be able to take the fight into Ilneat territory and give them a taste of what they did to us. What we’d been doing to Extras. Something like that; I couldn’t quite figure out why I was mad. I just was. The damn Diary of Golden Goose had been the final straw. I hoped it was for other supers, too.
I thought about checking, but the Uber-Plus’s brakes squealed, and a moment later, the driver stopped. “Here you are. When you're ready to leave, you have my number in your texts.”
“Thanks. And thanks for the ride menu.”
“No problem. I saw it in a meme, and it seemed like a good idea. Good luck…here.” He gestured at the surrounding slums.
“Thanks again.” I walked away, and his burgundy four-door took off, heading back into Mid-Town—and carefully bypassing the Hot Zone that sprawled out in front of me.
“Okay.” I pulled Tails out of my jacket, where she’d been tucked safely in, and headed for the nearest abandoned building. “Okay. It’s time to make Dark Girl Shock and Awe’s debut.”
I rolled my eyes. “This is the only idea I have, so it’s the best one.” Then, I slipped through a broken window and into the cover of the abandoned apartment building. A few doors were open; I checked each of them, closing them to ensure a little bit of privacy. Then, satisfied, I sent a quick text.
Ten minutes. That’d be enough time. I started up a Transformation Sequence. The air filled with static, and sparks hopped off my spandex-clad body as I spun mid-air. My hair stood upright; when I looked at Tails, her plush had poofed out like someone had rubbed her with a balloon. She hissed angrily but didn’t try to stop me.
A moment later, a thought crashed into my brain. She couldn’t stop me! Nothing could stop me! I was an unknown villain with the perfect plan for my debut! All I had to do was stick to my script!
The static in the air turned into a pulsing Tesla coil of energy around me, then stopped. Tails’s lightning pattern became more and more defined. And when I hit the ground, I wore black, green, and yellow tights, a similarly-shaded skirt and top that left my navel slightly exposed, and retro-style shoulder pads.
“Let’s make it sparky,” I said, trying out a catchphrase.
I glowered at the electro-cat. “Okay. Nine minutes. Let’s go.” I fired up the Casting Call.
A menu popped up, and for the first time, I got to see what a villain saw when they initiated an Episode. The Casting Call looked almost like the others, but every variable had a dial except for the rating. Heroes didn’t get anything like this—not even for Investigative Episodes. I changed stuff and fiddled, typing in the air until it looked right. I checked all the ‘optional’ options, including one called ‘System Updates’ that looked like it had some sort of penalty associated with it.
Then I accepted it.
[Casting Call]
[Episode: Power War: Shock Value - PG-13]
[Role: Shocking Betrayer! Do you accept the role? (Yes/No)]
[Role Focus: Badass+Cunning]
[Shock Value: Act One in Progress]
I’d done a lot of Episodes. I’d even been a villain in a couple. But I’d never run an Episode as a villain before. So, as I strode out and started knocking down abandoned buildings with [Blitz] and [Shock and Awww], sending electricity and sonic booms into already-rickety foundations I left in my wake, I was surprised to get a trio of new pop-ups.
[A Vigilante is Joining the Fight]
[Name: Unknown]
[Heroes are Joining the Fight]
[Name: Unknown]
[Name: Unknown]
Villains got to see basic information about whether heroes were joining? I grinned, bracing myself for Fursona and the team she’d put together. She’d be in for a shock!