Seras little snippet thread

“It was the only thing I could think of.”

These words had defined my life for years. Not that my life before that had been great, but TechMaster the Villain had been a pretty terrible dad.

Until he was killed by his ‘archnemesis.’

That relationship only existed in dear old dads mind of course. That day when Potent had killed my dad to stop him from blowing up a building.

Of course… Well my dad was insane, criminally in fact, but he wasn’t really a murderer. It had just been a scheme gone wrong.

Potent had stopped at our home. In his own way, to the best effort, that I think that man could offer, he apologized.

I suppose if this world was more trope filled I’d have ended up taking on my Dad’s mantle to get revenge for his death.

Or maybe I’d be the up and coming sidekick trying to cast off my fathers reputation.

Me?

I just wanted to get out of highschool so I could get a job.

“Vicky!”

“That’s me.” I mumbled, looking up into Anna’s smiling face.

“Do you mind taking over for me today?”

“Sure.” I mumbled eyes drawing back to my open novel on my desk. Did I want to stay after class to help clean up this mess? No, but Anna was on the hero track, and on top of that she was nice enough.

So I did what I could to not fangirl over her, and give her some slack.

She probably abused it a bit more than I intended, but she was as I said, actually nice, just a bit fluff brained.

I sighed and closed my book. The Autobiography of Evil Prince was about as grandiose and self aggrandizing as I expected.

Not something I’d read, but the teachers thought it was a good ‘modern’ piece on the lives of supervillains.

Rich and powerful, but usually short.

Jail or death was the most common outcome.

Evil Prince was honestly a moron, and reading this absolute puff piece made me want to vomit.

I closed it and looked around my class for a moment. I was in the advanced course which meant I was around a lot of the up and comers.

Kids that had developed powers.

I of course had no powers whatsoever. Definitely not.

Kids with powers had responsibilities and extra classes, and I wanted out of my classes not more.

So I didn’t have powers.

I stood up and got to work. Faster I finished, the faster I could go home.

Why the school had Japanese style cleaning work for an American Academy I had no idea, but every day the students cleaned up.

“You again Vicky?”

“Yeah Anna bailed for Hero stuff.”

“Aw that’s so cool. I wish I could go see.” Lucas whined and I just rolled my eyes.

“They’d just pull you in as Hostage B again.”

“Hey! I make a great hostage B.” He grinned and I couldn’t help but grin back as we clacked our brooms together.

We were the hostage twins, mostly because I refused to join an after school club, so I got ‘voluntold’ to help out the Hero kids whenever they needed someone.

The fact was the Academy was very private, and very picky about who could come here. Unless you had some sort of nepotism.

Or powers.

I of course didn’t have powers, but through the power of nepotism, Potent had basically placed me as a pseudo apology for you know… Killing my Dad.

Lucas was a senator's son.

I forgave him for being the spawn of a politician, and he pretended I’d gotten in on merits, and not nepotism. So we got along.

“Alright! I think that’s it!” Lucas called out looking around pleased and I just sighed, rolled my eyes and pointed at the very definite not done part of the classroom.

“Dangit.”

“Come on, faster we get it done faster you can go fangirl over the hero’s.”

“I don’t do that… And hey! I’m not a girl!”

“Your odd focus on which part you are denying aside.” I teased.

“Hey!”

“Alright alright. Come on.” I stopped teasing him and started sweeping up more junk into the trash cans. You’d think it wouldn’t take long, but Olly had this thing about tearing paper apart. Something about his power, so he left tiny little paper pieces everywhere he went.

Very annoying.

I didn’t even get to say goodbye when we finally finished and Lucas rushed off in a hurry to get to the field to see the hero track kids practice their powers.

I’ll admit sometimes it was fun to see. Powers were… Cool.

Even I thought so.

I stopped at my desk and packed up, dropping Evil Prince’s stupid book into the void of my backpack and looking in.

It stared back.

“Yeah yeah, I know. I know.” I grumbled, and zipped the backpack up.

Stupid Void. Once you stare into it, it always wants more attention.

—--

“How was school?”

“Pretty good. I read a chapter in the book they assigned.”

“Oh?”

“It’s trash you don’t want me to talk about it, and I don’t want to talk about it.” I denied.

Mom looked like she was going to argue but just sighed and nodded.

Mom was… Not great with powers.

Dad hadn’t been evil, despite being a supervillain, but he was a paranoid schizophrenic, and Mom had been the target of his paranoia for a long time.

Kinda hard to run away from a guy that can basically make anything he wants, including tracking sensors and stuff.

So talking about powers, heroes or villains was something I tread lightly around.

“Where’s Mark?”

“He got called in for an emergency, a villain attack over on 2nd, they broke a chunk of the road.”

“Ah.” Mark worked construction, and that was good money in a city with villain attacks.

“So it’ll just be us for dinner! You want anything?” She asked, patting her arm to show off her mom powers to cook anything.

“I’d kill for some italian.”

“That I can do.”

I settled in as mom got to cooking and did my homework as I let the smells fill my head. I looked up and smiled at Mom’s blonde hair done up in her bun. I unfortunately didn’t get my mothers coloring.

Brunette with brown eyes, instead of blonde and blue. It sucked. Especially since I looked like my dad. Oh well, some things just were how they were.

My pencil broke and I sighed, reaching into my backpack.

No. No, no.

No.

Stop handing me that. I need a pencil!

Still no.

When did I even give you that! Jeez!

Finally a pencil touched my hand and I pulled it free, ignoring the momentary feeling of cloying wetness.

Now. Time for Math.

I hate math.

—--

“Okay Victoria will be Hostage A.”

“Expected.” I mumbled as the teacher looked over the crowd.

“And Lucas will be Hostage B.”

“Yes!”

I sighed as I got up and brushed myself off.

Dangit. Was this actually all an evil plot by Potent to torture the daughter of his joke archvillain?

Because it was working. I should have just gone to normal highschool. Sure, The Academy had accelerated classes, and I was actually close to graduating, instead of needing another two years but…

I took my position and sat on the Hostage chair.

I fucking hated the hostage chair. I was going to destroy it and replace it with a much comfier seat if this continued.

Then the hero kids jumped into it.

Olly with his distortion that could blend things, or it could be used as a very powerful shield.

Sure anything going in, was going to come out, but blending a bullet into powder tended to remove the threat.

And light getting blended from some laser, or energy beam tended to come out as harmless too. Just one of the weird quirks of his power.

Anyway I was distracted and Olly’s defense crumbled against Anna.

Not because he was incapable of stopping her. In fact her light beams had been what had taught Olly how to shield against that sort of thing, but the fact was Olly was shy and Anna wasn’t.

Also Anna liked to practice in very tight, very revealing clothing, and her cheerleader training came into play having her leap and cartwheel around.

Olly as did many of the boys got distracted. Kinda hard not to when her hair glowed like fire like that.

I was soon ‘captured’ by Anna who grinned down at me for a moment before shifting to defense, as I looked over to see Lucas also get claimed by Carter.

Benjamin.

Ben was… Annoying as fuck, but I was probably alone in thinking so.

He was the popular boy, with his slicked hair, and top brand clothes. He always had a smile, and was always thinking about his image. He wanted to be the next Potent.

Hero popularity was fickle. Sometimes it was all about flash, but one thing never changed. Lifting a truck or a bus off someone and throwing them a smile telling them it was going to be okay never went out of style.

Bricks were always welcome on hero teams, and Ben was a brick. He just also had the brain of a brick.

He lifted Lucas and the chair up above his head and laughed.

Which was dumb, because Kalie was already throwing her punch. She wasn’t a Brick, but she did store up force and Ben was too busy grandstanding to notice, as she punched forward and knocked him back.

Which also sent Lucas flying from the hostage chair.

It would have ended up in trouble, if Lucas didn’t suddenly stop mid air, as a whistle rang out.

“Penalty! Hostage injury!” Mr. Flex was the hero course teacher. He was a retired hero and pretty good, very no nonsense.

He was also a telekinetic of sorts. I had my suspicion it was more about creating invisible platforms, rather than actual telekinesis. But…

I didn’t get involved in power stuff.

I looked up into the blue sky. Ah, the clouds were nice today. The hero kids ran around claiming their hostages, protecting, and losing them to each other. The reason it was more useful to have people is when I needed to move or whatever. It helped reinforce protecting the hostages to the heroes.

Honestly I think people like Lucas just made it easier to have non powered students join in. Helped bring them into the action so to speak.

“Daydreaming as always Vicky?”

“Ben.” I greeted the boy who’d just managed to pick up Olly and send him rolling away in the dirt with his strength.

“Ugh. Where’s Hostage B. At least he’s paying attention.”

“Do you even remember his name?” I pointed out.

No. He didn’t. Ben was… Well he did have a good heart most of the time. He was just both an idiot and arrogant.

“Whatever!” He grumbled and focused on the other students.

“Whatever.” I mocked back and of course that distracted him. The fact I saw Anna sneaking in from behind had nothing to do with why I was distracting Ben.

“You’re so insufferable! Why are you even here?”

“I refuse to join an afterschool club, so Vice Principal Mary volun-told me for hostage duty.”

“That’s not-You know what I mean! This is the Academy! Heroes come here, and you’re just here to slack off.”

“I’m almost ready to graduate, and you’re still on your first year curriculum. Who is slacking again?” I looked away from the sky to see the boy's face turn red.

“That’s what I’m talking about! You aren’t one of-What!?” Anna had blasted him, sending him face first into the dirt.

“Ben! Take a walk to reset!” Mr. Flex called out. Ben looked up, pissed but stood up brushed himself off and took his walk back to the start area.

Ben was a jerk. He was an idiot, but he was also a hero. He didn’t curse. He didn’t get too angry about stuff…

I might mess with him, but he was alright.

We just didn’t get along cause I didn’t hero worship him.

I sighed. Another day closer to a job and freedom from school.

—--

As such things tended to go, it all started a quiet afternoon. I was sitting in class when an alarm went off overhead, and suddenly Ms. Feely went from boisterous teacher to serious soldier.

“Everyone follow me immediately! We are evacuating.” She ordered and so we grabbed our stuff and got moving.

“What’s going on?” Lucas asked, but I ignored him because I didn’t know either. Eventually we were led out to the parking lot, where two vehicles waited. One, our normal bus, and another was a tech vehicle. Some sort of flying bus from what I can see.

We were lined up and waited just a minute long enough for the teachers to talk before Mr. Flex took charge and spoke up loudly.

“Hero Course students are to enter the FTV. All other students take your normal bus route home, and lock your doors, there is a major threat going on right now.”

“Shouldn’t we stay here then!?” I heard a voice call out, but Mr. Flex wasn’t having it.

“We have reason to believe the Academy could be a target. We are getting everyone off campus immediately.”

And so we did. Lucas and I piled into the normal bus and soon we were off, as we watched the hero students fly off into the distance.

Something serious must be going on to have this sort of reaction. Even bomb threats didn’t cause anything like this. At least from what I heard. There hadn’t been anyone stupid enough to go after the Academy in years.

“I hope they’ll be okay.” Lucas muttered and I just shrugged.

“They’ll be fine. The Defense Union will take care of it.” I said blasely. The strongest Heroes in the world all working together was hard to face, and no way they wouldn’t all be activated for whatever spooked the Academy so much to fly the hero students off campus.

—--

The Defense Union will not take care of it.

“I wish to repeat the message that the remaining members of the Defense Union have sent out. Stay calm. Heroes are on this case, and they will fix this.”

Mind control. Holy shit, that was a new one. Someone had managed to control the big five. The biggest heroes. Including Potent.

Potent right now was robbing banks, and tossing cars at other heroes while the team worked towards some evil villainous plan.

This was… Big.

There were multiple types of villains. The goofballs like my dad. That usually just get sent to jail, usually they’ll be able to break out, and do it again, but they weer treated with… Not quite kid gloves.

Since my dad had been killed.

But they were given lighter punishments in the hope they’d turn over a new leaf. Powers were… Big. Every one of them had the ability to do amazing things.

Sometimes idiots got powers and went villains tried to solve their money problems by knocking over banks without realizing they could be put to work and make millions.

Like my Dad.

Then you had Evil Prince, who was a step up. The real villains. Crime and cruelty. The guys that made gangs, extorted, or blackmailed. The ones that killed.

They were treated harsher, but if even Evil Prince could turn his life around and bank on his reputation to make an award winning movie about himself.

I honestly think it wasn’t very good, but I doubt anyone wanted him to give up film and return to crime.

Plus he was a terrible actor. Main actor and director just didn’t work.

His book was still shit too.

They were bad, but… Then there were the Supervillains.

The Capital S villains. The ones that terrorized people. That killed hundreds or more. The ones that conquered, and murdered as they wanted.

Whoever had mind controlled the Big Five was now a Supervillain, whether he or she understood what that meant or not.

Everyone was freaking out. Mark was home for once. He’d been told by his boss that no construction work was going on until whatever was going on was safe.

No one wanted to be in the middle of rebuilding a road when a Super power fight broke out right there.

So he was watching TV, and Mom was freaking out. But at least, it wasn’t really impacting us. We were in the suburbs, and it’s not like any of the heroes turned villains wanted anything to do with us.

The doorbell of course rang just as that thought crossed my mind.

“I swear if that’s Potent.” I whispered under my breath as I rose up. Mark made to move but I waved him down and headed over.

I checked the eye hole and stared for a second before cursing.

No reason for a hero turned villain, but what about a villain turned villain.

I opened the door. “Uncle Payton.” I whispered as I checked back to make sure Mom or Mark weren’t looking before stepping out and closing the door. “What are you doing here?”

“Came to talk to Milly… Or you I guess. Been a while Kid, uh… How she doing?”

“Uncle Payton. It's been six years. How about we don’t do the meet and greet on my front porch and you just tell me why you’re here?”

“Right right… Sorry kid. Listen, the boys and I… We ain’t taking this lying down. The Doofenders are mucking things up. We aren’t going to just let our archnemesis be-” He sort of flopped his hand. “So we’re gonna hit these mind controlled Doofenders, and-”

“Die?”

“Knock them out, and let the rest of the heroes turn them back. This shit is bad for our business. Whoever this mindbender is, no ones happy right now.”

“Uncle Payton.” I groaned and rubbed my face. “The Big Five are not going to care about the old rules, they’re mind controlled. You’ll die.”

“Pfft. Please, me and the boys have more experience fighting these dorks than anyone on the planet. We can stop them. For real this time. Don’t need to be as gentle. It’s an excuse to really cut loose. Show them all what we can do!”

Uncle Payton was getting worked up and I just stood there staring at a man I only barely knew and realized my life was a fucking mess.

Sweet sweet consumer hell. Give me a McDonalds job over this shit any day.

“Okay. Just don’t die. Please.” I whispered despite him being a villain, and a bit of a screw loose guy at that… Uncle Payton had been nice. Even done some things when Dad died, before he got caught and thrown in prison again.

“Right, that's why I’m here… You uh… Know if your Dad left behind anything? For Potent I mean.”

I blinked because that was the stupidest.

“Uncle Payton it’s been six years, and Potent himself showed up with an army of Defense Union Agents to scour Dads old stuff. Why would I have something?”

“I don’t know. Listen, we’re going against the five and we’re down a man. Potent was always your…”

“My Dads thing. I know.”

“Right.” He said, sounding relieved at not pissing me off with the statement. “Sure we all’ve gone after him once or twice, but your Dad? Your Dad knew every one of Potent's twitches down to what it would mean.”

“I know.”

“Right. So… He leave anything? Buried in the backyard?”

“They dug that up. The Defense guys were thorough. Sorry Uncle Payton. We don’t have anything of Dads. They even took his clothes and stuff just in case.”

“They didn’t leave you his clothes?” He whispered, shocked, and rubbing at his scruffy chin.

“Uncle Payton. You shouldn’t do this.” I started, hoping I could get through to him. I didn’t want to see the man die.

“Now none of that.” He said and instead of sounding angry he smiled. “I’ve chosen this life, Kid. I could have gone and done something safer anytime, but this is what I’m made for… Thanks, Sorry to bother.”

“Without anything of Dads, you going to be okay?”

“Eh, you aren’t our only stop. We got a nice trap set up outside town. You remember your Dads old Wrecker yard?”

“Course. I spent most of my time digging around that trash heap.” Had my share of scars from it too.

“Hah! I remember! We’ve got some old stuff saved up, stuff we don’t use much, but we’re pulling everything. Should be quite the show!”

“Don’t tell me you're recording it again.” I dead panned and he grinned, toothily.

“Damn right we are! You should watch! It’ll be in 4k yeah?”

“Oh god you’re all going to die.” I whispered, palming my face.

“Eh maybe, but we’ll do it by spitting in the eye of the Doofenders. Take care Kid.”

I watched him walk off, and had a realization that this might be the last time I ever saw this man.

If I saw him again it might be in a casket.

Potent wasn’t playing with kid gloves right now, and there had already been… Deaths.

Fuck.

“Fuck.” I whispered and turned inside. The least I could do is watch or something.

I walked inside and headed towards my room.

“Vicky?”

“Nothing, just a friend. He’s gone home.” I called out and entered my room. The black out curtains and red lighting set a mood. I walked around gathering my laptop and placing it on my bed.

Captain Pain, Uncle Paytons alter ego used to run a site where some villains would post their wins or losses against Heroes.

It got shut down all the time for obvious reasons, but it always popped back up.

I found it after a bit of searching, and probably putting myself on a watch list, but I loaded up the site and saw the waiting room for the livestream.

Fuck.

I stood up and paced. This was fucked. Potent mind controlled, and on the warpath. My Uncle figure… Of sorts, planning on going to war purely for the thrill.

They were going to die.

Potent was an absurd brick. Strong enough to throw tanks around and literally brush off that same tanks main cannon. I’d seen the fluff piece video on it.

JoyForce was one of the fastest fliers in the world, and she did it by breaking physics by turning herself into energy. Energy that still carried mass. Big booms. Both audibly, and physically.

Upheaval, a man that could control rock. He could do serious damage, but thankfully his control tended towards the small scale rather than large. Not that pushing a boulder that builds up speed down a mountain while controlling it was small.

ClarionCall the woman that could build anything. Which was a lie, but she had a lot of money flowing into her design. She liked big suits and did not lie. At least according to her oft quoted phrase.

And of course Lightsource. Anna’s mother… Oh, right. Shit.

I totally forgot Anna’s mother was currently being mind controlled. Shit.

Lightsource was like Anna, or the other way around. Energy blasts and light projection.

All against the idiots.

My back made a noise and I just shut my eyes and ears to it. I know.

I know!

I didn’t want to do this. Hero stuff wasn’t… Fun. It was all rules and restrictions, and red tape. I’d read through all the books about it. Villainy was even worse. I didn’t want to spend my life in jail, or dead.

So I decided a long time ago to just do the normal thing. As long as the Defense Union is around they’ll keep the world spinning, and I’ll get a crappy job and hate my life, but at least I won’t hate my LIFE.

“So… Is this my Supervillain Origin Story… Or my Heroic one?” I wondered aloud, realizing I couldn’t just sit here. I looked into my bag, and reached in. Instantly what I wanted touched my hand and I pulled it out.

An old gas mask. Sinister and cruel looking. Dads.

I’d lied to Uncle Payton about having some of Dads stuff. I’d hidden a few things away.

Reaching inside the darkness of my bag I pulled, for the first time in a long time I didn’t pull out an item, instead the void within flowed out, and instantly flooded my entire room. Crawling up walls until the entire area was pitch black, but I could still see.

I could always see.

The void stretched across the room, filling it, and that honestly impressed me.

It was more than I’d had last time I’d done this. A lot more.

I guess my power has been growing as I got older. I’d never noticed.

“Alright, first I need some armor.” I whispered, and reached out to twang one of the dark cords of black goo, as I did it shifted, forming from my imagination, forming into what I needed.

My father had a Tech power, but powers often shifted and evolved, but usually had some similarity.

Anna’s hair glowed unlike her mothers, it let her release more power than her mother, but she had less control.

Me? I wasn’t Techmaster.

I put on the gas mask. Feeling it lock in place around the back of my head.

“I’m Techwizard.” My distorted voice came out more a sinister purr. Dad always did have a high pitched voice that he hated. Of course he made a voice changer.

Now. How to take out the strongest Hero in the world? Easy. My father was obsessed with the man. I’d heard every rant he had every weakness he’d discovered to exploit, and unlike my father I wasn’t insane, and dealing with lacking resources.

Protection, disruption, damage.

“When you find a problem, break it down into segments. Villainy is all about these things. In that order. Without protection, you’ll get stopped without problem. Without disruption you can’t get away, and without damage, well, no one will learn to fear you.”

My fathers words whispered in my ear.

I was reminded I was on a time limit, and I’d need some way to get there… I could do that, Dad made something like that once. I opened my eyes in the darkness and reached out, my fingers dug into the goo, and as I shifted my fingers, light was born, as the void, the essence of nothing became something, at least temporarily.

Technology was just understanding natural forces, and working with what you have to match it.

But what if you didn’t need the physical as much? Weight was well understood, but something could only get so dense, so heavy, but what if it could?

Powers were all given classifications. The list was ridiculous, but the important part was really simple.

Did your power break physics? If it did, then you were top of the class.

My power? I made Physics my bitch.

An orb of metal fell into my hand, I spun it around. Yeah that would be useful, but I needed more.

“Time to get to work.”

—--

Payton Shaw: AKA Captain Pain

The red lightning shot from his hand, and as usual Joyforce was already gone before it reached her.

Damn bitch knew to follow his movements and not the lightning itself.

He ducked and rolled, falling into the perfect spot as she zoomed past where he had been.

One of her weaknesses, she could speed up nice and fast, but she couldn’t redirect herself without stopping and going.

“Still a slow bitch.” He mocked as he rose up, wiping himself down like he hadn’t just rolled in the dirt like an idiot.

“When I kill you, there will be some pleasure that carries over to the weak version of me. You know when she stops screaming for me to stop.”

“Blah blah blah. Doofender garbage blah blah. I don’t care.” He teased, although he was just taking time to catch his breath.

He’d been bait to bring them here, since he had an old tech bike he’d stolen a long time ago. His baby was trash now. At least it got one good last ride to bait them here.

“You obviously have some stupid plan. This old place? Come on Payton, I remember throwing you through the trash heaps here plenty of times.”

“Ah, but this time? This time we aren’t fighting the hero. So we don’t have to hold back.” He grinned his jaw, the only thing that could be seen of his face under his mask, and he knew that it pissed off Joyforce.

She’d always had a thing for him he knew. She never punched his face. He winked at her, and her eyes narrowed.

“I’m going to finally rip out your throat so I never have to hear your annoying voice again. It’s the only part of your power that’s painful.”

He just smirked. That was a good rebuttal. Nice. The stream would catch that perfectly.

Her eyes narrowed and she blurred away, which was a shame, he’d been standing right on the forcefield, but he saw why.

“Running already?” Lora called out, Sinister was as ready as she’d ever been. Her body covered in her chitin and spiked to hell and back.

“Oh I see, you dragged me here for your little losers club to show up. It doesn’t matter. Even with all of you, it won’t be enough.” Joyforce hissed out, and Payton noticed how much this mind control was affecting her. She’d never stop to chat like this normally.

He couldn’t help but wonder if she was fighting her normal instincts somewhere in there.

“Come now Joytoy, don’t call us losers! I remember planting my boot in your ass more than once.” Conner stepped out, already chewing his cigar and looking like a construction worker.

The fact he was, and had taken to turning the work equipment into his costume over the years went unsaid.

Sometimes a villains finances weren’t up to buying high quality body armor.

The man was his teams Brick. Strong and tough, but nowhere near Potent. Conners power was basically alight gravity adjustment. He could make himself heavier so his blows landed harder and the like.

“You.” Joyforce hissed now truly angry.

Ah yeah, the whole boot up the ass had been recorded.

Conner had ended up in prison pretty quickly after that, and Payton had just broken him out today.

“How's the ass love still got my size fifteen marked on it?”

“Work.” She bit out.

“Hey you know the whole thing. It’s Workforce. Just like you.” He winked at her and Payton sighed.

Conner had originally gone to villainy because he’d crushed on Joyforce… Yeah. It led to some annoying mishaps, but the man had over a decade of getting his shit kicked in by her. If anyone could handle her it was him.

“Hey don’t start without me!” Bungler called out, and for a moment everyone just sighed.

The man slipped on something and fell face first into… Whatever that was. Mud and oil probably.

“Ah shoot.”

“Bungler, just drown yourself and save us all the embarrassment.” Joyforce hissed and Payton couldn’t help but chuckle. That had almost sounded like the normal Joyforce!

“It’s okay! I got it. One sec.” He wiped his face with a paper towel and tossed it away and everyone followed it, until it landed with a quiet puff and nothing else happened.

They still watched it for a bit longer but finally everyone turned back to what was going on.

“I was hoping that would have worked.” Bungler whispered, and Payton sighed internally.

That man was chaos, which was good, but sometimes chaos was nothing happening and that could be bad.

“That explains why I was called.” Upheaval called out as he walked through the broken open gate to the scrap yard. “You lot. You know the Boss is willing to allow you to remain in his city, if you follow the rules.”

“Fuck your rules. Both you Doofenders, and your Mind Fucker Boss. We’re the Crew. We don’t follow anyones rules but our own.”

“Always so prideful.” Payton shifted to keep an eye on things and saw that the trap was working.

Lightsource was blazing as she stood on top of the old building.

Bitch couldn’t fly, she just always climbed up onto shit to add more glare to her light with the sun.

Luckily they’d planned for that.

“Was I truly required for this? Answer? No, but the Boss wishes to crush roaches that don’t know to scurry away from the light.” The electronic twine of pistons as Clarioncall around the building. No doubt her stupid struck thing was just around the corner.

If they won this, he was going to piss right into her drivers seat. The germaphobe would hate that.

“Well, looks like the whole crews here. Who wants to start this scrap?” Payton asked, already knowing he wasn’t correct.

But Potent was a show off. He couldn’t help but appear for his customary monologue, and mind control or not, he doubted that would change.

“The whole crew?” And there he was. Walking in from behind. Obviously he’d jumped the fence. Hopefully the cameras had gotten an image of that. Maybe he’d even ate shit while he did it.

No. Mr. Perfect, wouldn’t have fallen.

“Well here it is then. Villains, Vs dumber wannabe villains. See? You lot? You can’t just step on our toes. We’re the villains here… Which is why since you’re playing villains, I guess that makes us the big damned heroes. Isn’t that right Workforce?”

“Sounds about right. Never played at being a hero before. I heard heroes get the babes.” And of course Workforce winked at Joyforce.

She was about to strike, when Potent stepped forward grinning, only his usual glinting smile was sinister considering he’d already killed people while wearing that smile.

“I’m going to enjoy breaking you in half. All of you. I’ve always wanted to do this.”

Suddenly like a smoke bomb went off, black smoke exploded from a corner, and everyone turned to Bungle who raised his hands.

Yeah that hadn’t been anywhere near his dropped paper towel.

Also Bungle didn’t usually deal in tentacles.

What the fuck?

A hissing breathy noise reached Paytons ears, and he felt his heart stop for a second.

No. He was dead.

“Well well. I don’t think we’ve had a full group fight in six years.”

“Sam?” Payton asked, aloud before he could stop because that voice!

Then out of the smoke walked.

No. Too small. Too… Well. It wasn’t Sam walking out of hell, with some weird gadget and ready to go toe to toe with Potent because the shrimp had a ‘thing’ about tough guys.

No it was his sixteen year old daughter swaggering out of the smoke in all black. With massive gauntlets on her hands, and her dads old voicechanger.

Oh fuck. This was Paytons fault. Vicky shouldn’t be here! This was going to be a deathmatch!

“Kid! Get out of here-” Payton was cut off as Potent spoke his voice booming and cutting off any words he could make.

“You? Really? Dressing up in your dead Dads toys? That trash didn’t save him when I snapped his neck like a twig.” Potent offered all sugar sinister sweet.

Payton felt his face warm. Anger flushed through him. Potent killing Sam had been absolutely beyond the norm!

“I’m taking Potent. Unc-Captain Pain. I expect you can get everyone on target.”

“Kid! Hold-”

“I may have forgiven you Potent. But there will always be a part of me that’s the little girl that remembers you walking into my home and telling me you’d just killed my Dad… There will always be a part of me that goes to sleep imagining how I’d beat you. To get a little catharsis… So when this is over. Know that I’m not doing this out of hate… But because some things just need a personal touch.”

Payton blinked because… Damn. That was a solid villain monologue.

He looked to Bungle who nodded.

Totally got that shit on camera. Well fuck. Fuck it. Too late to rescue the kid, and he was a villain anyways. If the Kid wanted to take up her Dads mantle then he would pat her on the back and point her at her first hero.

Maybe not this one though, and maybe not in these circumstances. But it is what it is.

“You heard the girl! Tech Master’s got Potent. Pick your targets.”

“It’s not Techmaster.” She grumbled but then it was too late for any more. Captain Pain tossed a bolt of pain at good old Clarioncall, his power the best to make that fucking annoying bitch scream.

—--

I wasn’t sure if I was surprised or not, that when the battle kicked off. Potent just remained standing there looking at me, like he was figuring out how to rip my spine out and beat me with it…

Oh wait.

I adjusted the power gloves. For a quick idea they were going to be the clinch on whether I won this, but first, I needed to survive.

“Potent, likes to test things before jumping into the fight.” My Dad’s voice whispered, not to me, really, but to himself, and I’d just been there. “Against an unknown he’ll throw something. A test.”

My gauntlet hid what I was holding, and I was ready.

“Well. Come on then. Impotent, I don’t have all day. It’s a school night.”

I immediately throw the round orb into the dirt at my feet full force, just in time.

An old fridge had been grabbed with one hand punching through its side and then lobbed at me with enough force to turn me into a splat.

The Shield Grenade activated perfectly. A hexagon of shining lights appeared around me, and the fridge instead of splattering me, splattered against solid shielding.

Then it crashed and I figured since I had some time to prepare to do that.

Also keep mocking him.

“Having some trouble there Impotent? Can’t quite get it up?”

“Childish insults from a child. A dead child.” He purred and threw something else, which also bounced off the shield, although he’d noticed it.

The shift in the color.

He burst forward, his leg muscles letting him leap insane distances as he simply punched into my forcefield.

The crack of metal on stone was the closest I could think of as he punched away and then he stepped back. Looking at the much redder shield that had once been sky blue.

“How many more hits do you think? Before I can rip you apart?”

“It’s got about one more.” I admitted freely, the noise in my ear signaling the gauntlet was ready meant it had done its job.

He grinned all teeth and slammed a fist forward.

I did the same. The shield shattered, and he stared down my gauntlet. The massive thing was thankfully as light as a feather to me, but it wasn’t to him.

It slammed into him, and he didn’t even flinch.

“Is that it? Really? You think-” Which is when the repulser activated. I winced my shoulders aching a bit, but Impotent was currently buried across the scrap yard having just disrupted Joyforce’s battle as he’d flown past in a blur.

I twisted my wrist and with a clanking noise out came a cartridge.

I only had one more of those in the gauntlets. I hadn’t had space for everything I needed.

“If you piss off Potent, and he knows your trick, or thinks he does, he’ll leap for you. That’s when I get him. Doesn’t matter how strong he is, if he can’t move in the air, he’s helpless.”

I heard it, the sound of the scrap car that he’d been knocked into tearing apart as he stepped out. His suit wasn’t even damaged, not a scratch on him.

But yeah, he was pissed.

Now was my chance. Possibly my only chance.

I was a teenager and not trained to fight. I couldn’t beat America’s strongest hero except in very specific circumstances.

Please have those circumstances be now.

The Crew, my Aunt and Uncles, were… Actually doing pretty well.

Hidden forcefield traps. Blasters. Even one use teleporters were going off. They’d come to this fight prepared. Pulling out every trick and piece of tech they’d saved after decades of being villains.

The most powerful man jumped just as I’d hoped. My gauntlets whirred, as they started glowing as their true purpose activated. I only had a few moments.

I waited and as the punch came I reached up and caught it. The force dissipated. As strong as Potent was, there was only so much force a flying man could bring.

Then I reached up to block the much more dangerous second punch.

I winced, my shoulder rocked back from the force, my gauntlet not quite managing to diminish all the force hitting me. That was going to be super bruised.

And then we stood there in an odd tableau.

“Really?”

My gauntlet shifted, releasing me as I stepped back and then took a few more steps back to get distance. As they shifted and morphed. Then the strongest Brick dropped to his knees as his hands hit the floor.

“What is going-?”

“You’re pretty strong. But even you have your limits. Welcome to the weight of the earth connected through those gauntlets… Or should I say shackles?”

He looked up and glared and obviously tried to smash his hands together to break the shackle gauntlets, but he couldn’t. They were locked in place. Even as his biceps bulged to try and move them.

Before he could react, I ran around him and kicked his ankle. My boot wrapped around him, and then locked his foot down using the same trick.

“You little bitch! I’ll-”

I kicked his other foot, and snapped. Infinite force shifted as the four pieces of tech tried to get as far away from each other as possible.

“Sorry Impotent. I can’t hear you from up here.” I hissed my foot smashed into the back of his head pushing him into the ground cutting him off from anything but mumbling.

Did I walk over and step on the man who killed my Dads head while glaring down at him.

Yes.

Was it the right thing to do? Probably not. But he deserved a little humiliation.

I looked around. Everyone was busy and distracted. No one had noticed my win yet.

Grabbing my backpack I reached into it. I needed information, and hopefully a cure.

“Now, let’s see if I can’t work out how to break this mind control.” The sinister laugh was definitely the voice changer and not how I naturally sounded as I reached into my backpack and pulled out void stuff.

Let’s see if I could fix this before anyone dies.

—--

Payton Shaw: AKA Captain Pain

He coughed as he rolled off the broken washing machine.

Pretty sure his spine could do a spin cycle now considering how intimate that thing had just gotten with him.

“No more quips? No more annoying words? Answer, that’s fine. I’ll just enjoy your screams.” Clarioncall spoke in her robot voice as she approached.

Well fuck, this was how he was going to go out? Doing something good? Well okay… Eh, he was getting ad revenue from this. He was alright, at best.

Ribs were fucked, and he wasn’t feeling up to moving around anymore.

Guess this was it.

“It was always a pain, knowing you Clarion.” He managed to rasp out. “Never did get to mushroom stamp that nose of yours like I always promised.” He grinned, he knew even mind controlled that prude would be looking like something died in her nose right that moment.

“Disgusting as always Payton. Now. Scream for me.” She reached out her suits armored hand reaching out large enough to crush him entirely when she was suddenly knocked aside.

He blinked.

“Dead or dying?” Sam?- No, Vicky.

“Neither.” He wheezed and she made a sound that translated to, she didn’t believe him.

“Alright. Stay put for a minute. I’m rebalancing the scales.” She spoke with more confidence than a sixteen year old should have, but as Clayton followed her gaze… Well damn. She’d done it.

Potent was tearing Clarioncalls suit apart…

Maybe he’d get that private moment with the bitch after all.

“He normal?”

“Figured out the mind control. Nanomachines. I disabled them. We’re moving through them now. Sit tight.” And then she was off, charging forward carrying what looked like a blaster of some sort, but as Potent pinned Clarion down Vicky blasted her in the head, and she went limp for a moment, before waking back up with a gasp.

“I-I-I-I-I!”

“Not the time, Clarion. See what you can do to get moving. We need to free everyone else.” Potent ordered and started moving. Vicky following right behind.

Then there was just Clarion, in her banged up suit, and Payton.

She noticed him.

He noticed her.

He grinned, and she glared. His ribs were broken, and his spine was fucked…

He humped the air once and winked at her anyways, no matter how much it hurt.

Heh. That was the red faced rage of his archnemesis. Ah, it was good to be alive.

—--

With Potent at my side, it really didn’t take long. He knew his people, and with everyone working together I blasted each of the heroes.

Suddenly everyone was normal. Looking around, horror setting into the heroes as they remembered what they’d done.

The Villains beaten half to death limped into a pile but they were smiling and laughing.

And then me.

I was definitely the odd teenager out.

Fuck I hurt.

My shoulder was not happy with me, and I was going to have to explain a hospital visit to my Mom in the future.

The heroes had a quick conversation, they seemed to gather themselves back up.

“We’re going after the one who mind controlled us. He own’t be able to get us again. Vic-TechMaster?”

“It’s TechWizard. Techmaster was my Dad. Which you know.” I lead Potent along and he nodded

“Techwizard then. I was hoping we might be able to use your blaster? There are others under control.”

“Yeah fine.” I offered it out, and Potent took it, but Clarioncall nearly instantly snapped it out of his hands, looking it over.

“Well this is… What is this? Let me ju-Eeee!” She shrieked and tossed the blaster away and I winced as it hit the ground for a second.

“Clarion?”

“It-it touched me!”

“Yeah the tentacles. Like I said, Tech ‘Wizard’. Just don’t touch its insides, and it won’t try to touch yours.” I explained, but from the way Clarioncalls face shifted to horrified disgust I don’t think she liked anything I’d just said.

“Is it broken?” Potent asked, more short tempered than I’d ever heard him.

Either he did have a different personality hidden behind his A list actor smile, or his brush with mind control and murder was weighing heavily on him.

“It’s fine.” I assured him. It was still gun shaped and not trying to eat someone. It was fine.

I turned from the heroes.

“Kid.” Uncle Payton called out, roughly, he looked bad, so I hurried over, and he sent me a crooked smile. “Well, how was your first taste of villainy? The first one is always the best.”

“I’m not a villain.”

“You are according to our Livestream. Did you really step on Potents head?”

“I was winning. I’m allowed a bit of self aggrandizement.”

“Hah! Hell yes you do.”

I sat down, practically flopped, next to him. “Not a villain. Not a hero either. I was going to get a normal job.”

“Kid, with what you just pulled off, nothing you do is ever going to just be normal. Face it kid. You’re both an infamous Villain, and maybe a minor Hero right now I guess… For saving the Doofenders.”

I did the only thing I could. I groaned and ignored reality as emergency services showed up.

Funnily enough The Crew were getting the kids gloves of kid gloves.

They had just helped save the Big Five after all.

As I was getting my shoulder checked out, I couldn’t help but wonder what the hell this was going to do to my peaceful life.

Maybe I could skip school?