Seras little snippet thread

I hissed as the nurse gently prodded my shoulder. I was in a private room after a trip by ambulance.

“Well it’s not broken, and it’s not out of socket. Looks like some tears. We’ll do a check and figure out what healing we can offer.” She offered a little tersely.

“Thanks.” I responded back, I could understand her distance. I was handcuffed to a stretcher as I was being looked over, and I’d been brought in with The Crew.

They weren’t famous, but they were known in the city. They’d been around for a long time after all.

I stayed sitting as she left, just pulling my jacket back over my shoulder.

What a day.

I didn’t like pain, and now I was in a lot of pain, and for what?

Saving Potent and probably the entire city by freeing him and the Big Five of Mind Control?

Yeah okay when I put it that way… I still hurt and didn’t want to anymore,

At least the TV was on to the news, even if it was muted, I could read the subtitles, as the news reporter informed the public the Big Five had been freed of Mind Control, and the man responsible was now heading directly for the Ice Block.

The Super, super prison.

Good for them.

That didn’t mean things were perfect though. The Big Five had been doing a lot of damage. Well it wasn’t my problem. I was now officially retired with a perfect villainous record.

Technically since I defeated the Number 1 hero, I was now the most powerful villain, cause that’s definitely how Vs. discussions worked, and as I was going to retire back to a normal school and work life, I would forever be the most dangerous villain.

I yawned and winced at how it made my shoulder twinge. Of course before I could think about taking a nap or something the door was opened, and a Defense Agent entered my Mom right behind him.

Shiiiiiit.

“Language!”

Oh I’d said that aloud.

“Sorry Mom.”

“Well, Ms. Steel. As you can see your daughter was brought in for medical attention after getting involved in an altercation. Right now we are waiting for the Big Five to inform us of the charges.” The officer offered gruffly, and I snorted, because these idiots still thought I was part of the Crew, and hadn’t just saved the heroes.

“Vicky… Wouldn’t do that.” Mom offered a bit weakly, looking from me to the officer.

“It’s not unusual for teenagers to get powers and try something. She’s just lucky that the Mind Control affecting the Big Five has been confirmed to be stopped, otherwise she could have gotten seriously hurt. The charges that will be brought forth could be mitigated by entry into the Defense Union minor program.”

“Wow you losers don’t even hesitate before jumping into the hard sell, do you.” I spoke and Mom looked at me to tell me to shut up.

My sharp tongue was well known after all, but the officer just glared, that hardened man look, of a guy not appreciating being insulted by a kid.

“I’d be careful of your words Ms. Steel. Villainy committed by a teenager can still be treated harshly by the courts.”

“Whatever dude. Talk to me when you know what to charge me with first.”

“Being noncompliant can and will be noted on your file Ms. Steel.”

“Don’t threaten my daughter.” Mom said suddenly, and she glared down at the officer. “I want my time with her. Shut up and stand in a corner or whatever it is you do.” She hissed and I felt myself smiling a bit.

Go Mom.

Then she looked at me, and her face shifted. Oh, crap.

“I didn’t do anything bad.” I said right away. “I’m not following Dad’s footsteps or anything. I promise. Potent will vouch for me. Nothing to worry about… Sorry. I should have told you before I ran off.”

“What… What were you even doing? Hanging around Payton, and the Crew? They told me who they brought you in with!”

“I… Couldn’t let Uncle Payton get killed.”

“Yes you could have! Should have!”

“I’m okay… Mostly.”

“They told me. Your shoulder?” She asked, Mom voice in full display as I reached up as much as the handcuffs would allow and pulled down my jacket. The mass of purple under my skin made her wince and make gentle noises, as she started checking me over.

“It’s not that bad. It sucks, but I’ll be alright.”

“Why hasn’t she been given healing?”

“Villains don’t get healing unless it’s an emergency. She’ll be offered healing options when she’s processed.” The officer said simply looking ticked off.

“She’s sixteen!”

“That’s policy.”

“It’s bullshit!” Mom burst out, angry, and obviously all the emotions of the day getting to her.

“Please stay calm Ms. Steel.” He responded back deadpan, but threatening.

What an ass.

“My Daughter is injured and yo-”

“Excuse me.” A voice called out as the door opened, and everyone went silent.

“Potent.” I greeted, as the still suited superhero walked in.

“TechWizard. Sorry it took so long. This has been a busy day, and it’s not over, but you deserved…” He offered back at first, with a sort of smile as if he was in on a joke no one else was. Then he frowned as his eyes took everything in. “Why are you handcuffed?”

“Sir?”

“Ah, Agent, why is TechWizard in cuffs?”

“Standard policy for all villainous hospital transports sir. Kid gloves, but secure.”

“Ah.” He said, and I could just detect the cut off ‘Shit’ he didn’t actually say.

“Once you inform the officer of my charges, I’m going to jail. Unless I join the Defense Union to make up for my villainous ways.” I said, chirping as I dug the knife with just an extra twist.

“That…”

“I don’t know what she did. No one will tell us, but let me tell you Potent, don’t think for a second my daughter will be rammed through this shit! Not after everything!” Mom jumped into action, not quite picking up on the subtext as she started poking Potent in the chest, her much smaller size easily dwarfed by the tall muscular frame of Potent.

Although he was the one who looked cowed, not her.

“Ms. Steel, that won’t be necessary.” He cut in, trying to get a word in. “Victoria is not under arrest. No charges are being issued. The opposite, there’s a good chance she’ll be earning the Young Heroes Award.”

“Not a chance.” I instantly responded. Fuck that!

“What?” Mom whispered shocked, and I felt a bit of pride as she looked at me, with something more like hope than horror.

“I’m the one that freed Potent from the Mind Control.” I told the room, and the officer blinked as Potent nodded.

“She did, and the entire Big Five, and she supplied the tech that allowed us to release everyone else taken, it wasn’t just us.”

“I’ll need that back.” I cut in. Not having all of my Void with me, was… Not uncomfortable, but not right either.

Potent I noticed glossed over my request as he looked to the officer. “Please unhandcuff her.”

“A doctor would be appreciated as well.” Mom hissed, and waved at me, and Potent looked uncomfortable.

“Of course. Agent. Once you release her, please go and request Dr. Hoffman.”

“Uh, yes sir.” I winced a bit as I was released and then the agent hurried away as fast as he could without breaking into a jog.

“What… What happened?” Mom demanded as she looked between us.

“I… Wouldn’t mind hearing the story from your perspective as well. Victoria.”

“What’s there to tell? Uncle Payton stopped by, and asked if I had anything of Dads to try and disable Potent. I told him I didn’t… I didn’t have any weapons or anything. Just one of his old masks hidden away.”

I could see Potent wanting to say something, probably along the lines of ‘how did you hide something from us?’

But I just continued on. “I heard that the Crew were going to livestream the fight.”

“Oh no.” Potent whispered And just a tiny hitch in his shoulders showed he wanted to slump.

“Didn’t know it was live streamed?”

“No.”

“Well, take it as a good thing. Everyone got to see you freed in real time from the Mind Control. It’s easier to believe it if people see it.” I added and he took that in for a second before a slight smile.

“I’ll take that silver lining. Thank you Victoria.”

“Yeah whatever.”

“And then you…” Mom asked, and I sighed.

“So I used my Power.”

“You don’t have a power.” Mom whispered half desperately.

“I’ve… Had a power for a long time, Mom.” I admitted. Our eyes met, and that was a conversation I’d never wanted to have. It wasn’t like I hid my power just because of my Mom, but her having such an… Issue with powers and stuff is one of the reasons I never told her.

“Really?” Potent asked and I just rolled my eyes.

“I took apart one of dads blasters once. Pulled out its insides… I wanted to see if I could fix it so it would stop exploding. I… It’s not like I wanted him to win, I just didn’t want him to always end up half exploded.

“It was a common issue.” Potent offered, sending side eyes to my Mom.

Yeah, she was looking half ill at the mention of my Dad.

“Well I took it apart and looked inside, and… You’ve probably seen the insides of my Dads gear.” I said to Potent who nodded.

“Nothing inside made sense. Used to drive Clarioncall wild.”

“Well, I looked into the distorted space, and didn’t look at what was, but what was in between… Something stared back. So yeah. I have a power since back then.”

“Something?”

“Sorry it sounds more scary when I put it like that. My power is semi-sentient. It’s a goop I can use to create materials from and then build stuff.” I explained with a yawn, and a wince.

“Where is that doctor?” Mom asked, and I just waved her off.

“It’s fine Mom. Anyway. I put together some gear I knew I’d need if I wanted to stop Potent. Considering everything I knew I could get you focused on me. Dad told me all about you. Weaknesses habits. All sorts of stuff. So I just made a plan to disable you. Not like I wanted to kill you or anything, so simply locking you down was something I could do.”

“Those Shackles of yours.”

“Neat right? I was kinda proud of the idea.”

“It was extremely effective. I’ll need to watch out for copy cats in the future.” Potent said and I snorted.

“If someone has the ability to tie you down with that much weight, they probably would have tried it already.”

“Not everyone goes after me by countering my strength, the smart ones usually don’t bother.”

“Rude.” I responded back and he smiled a bit his teasing working.

“So… You fought him?”

“I had a one off teleport to the scrap yard, it exploded when I used it.”

“Vicky!”

“Not that kind of explosion. My goo when a device fails it just turns into smoke and tentacles, Void Stuff. It’s fine Harmless… To me.” I whispered that last part while trying to look away.

“Thank you.” I looked up. Potent kneeled down face to face. “This has been an experience I don’t wish to live through again. A week of hell. You saved me Victoria. Despite our relationship.”

“Our relationship is fine. I know what you did and why. I told you I don’t blame you for it.”

“Excuse me.” A new voice. And a doctor, an older man, that had a strange wavering light beneath the skin of his hands.

“Dr. Hoffman. Please meet Victoria Steel. She was injured saving me, and the Five today. I’m hoping you can relieve her of her injuries?”

“Oh my! A young up and coming hero saving the Big Five? Why I won’t allow her to walk out of this room feeling anything but perfect! A pleasure to meet a young Hero.” He offered to me as he walked closer and I snorted.

“I’m not a hero. Thanks though.” I offered, pulling down my jacket and revealing my shoulder.

He clucked a bit and laid glowing hands onto my shoulder almost instantly. I sighed as the pain vanished.

“Hey Potent.” I spoke up after a while, my shoulder feeling much better.

“Yes Victoria.”

“The Crew are probably not being treated well either. I get that some will have warrants, and I think Workforce got broken out of jail this week… But they did work to save you.” My explanation earned me a rather distasteful look on the heroes face.

“Yes. You’re right. I should go. I have a lot of things to check on. Victoria, you… We’ll talk soon.”

“If we have to.” I muttered and then he was off. I was healed up, and only when I wasn’t in pain anymore did Mom wrap me in a very tight hug.

Well, at least I hadn’t ruined our relationship.

—--

“Alright I’m off.”

“Are you sure?” Mom asked, from where she’d been puttering around the kitchen.

“Yeah, as much as I want to skip, I want to graduate more.” I offered, adjusting my backpack on my shoulder and letting her catch my eyes.

“Be safe.”

“I will.”

“Victoria. Have a… Good day at school?”

“Thanks Mark. You have a good day at work.” We nodded at each other, Stepdad, stepdaughter ritual completed I walked out and headed for the bus.

Yesterday I’d fought the best hero in the world. Today I was walking at the crack of dawn to catch the bus.

Why did school start so early? It made no sense.

I put in my ear buds and played up some music as I waited, and then climbed onto the yellow and black machine without a word.

Lucas nodded to me as he climbed on, but he sat with some of his other friends. All was quiet.

I got to school, and of course the main topic was what happened.

“I can’t believe it was The Crew! Those guys are ancient! Has beens!”

“They went toe to toe with the Big Five, I think people forget that despite being jokes, they are only jokes in comparison to the best heroes.”

I flopped into my seat and yawned. I wasn’t really tired, having passed out almost as soon as I could last night, but I was still tired.

Power Healing did that.

Classes to my surprise ended up normal. No one talked to me out of the ordinary. The teachers treated me like normal. And things were blissfully normal.

Even people like Lucas who kept talking about the livestream had watched it ‘dozens of times!’ didn’t bother me.

Awesome. My goal for a normal life was still on track.

Which is why I was daydreaming as fourth period started. P.E.

“Today's exercise!” Mr. Flex called out as the last of the students arrived from the locker room. “Joint exercise!”

“Yes!” Lucas cried out, and us normal kids looked to the hero ones.

Greeeat. Just what I wanted. To compete with kids that took hero athletics courses. The freaks didn’t even drink soda as part of the program.

How would I even survive without mothers milk, High Fructose Corn Syrup?

“But let’s hold on for a second. We have an announcement for today!” Mr. Flex called out smiling oddly, like the cat with the canary.

“I am proud to announce that another of our students have gained their power, and can now take part in the hero track.”

No. Fuck no, I wasn’t stupid there wasn’t anyone else that had been cheering about getting a power! I shook my head at him, as he was obviously side eyeing me, but he just grinned deeper.

These fuckers! This was a Betrayal! How dare they break my secret identity!

There was only one choice.

I’d have to kill them all.

“Don’t give me that look. You made national news. Victoria Steel, AKA TechWizard. Congratulations on your power. Your teachers are proud of you… Also thank you for saving Clarion, she might be a pain in the ass, but she’s an old comrade.

There was dead silence, as everyone turned to look at me.

“I’m going to make you regret this.” I hissed out as darkly as I could, and Mr. Flex actually smiled as if I just gave him a gift.

“It’s been a while since I taught a kid so on the fence. I’ll enjoy pushing you towards heroism.”

“I’ll destroy you and everything you represent!”

“Hah! Well, if I earned myself a new Arch Nemesis that’s fine too!”

“VICKY!” I was tackled from the side before I could start throwing hands as Lucas wrapped me up in a hug. “You fought Potent!”

“Course I did. Idiot got himself Mind Controlled.” I mumbled, looking away.

Then I was tackled on my other side.

“Techwizard! YouSavedMyMom!” Anna smacked into my other side, and she was crying. Crap. I was no good with crying people.

Her assault unbalanced me, and thanks to Lucas on my other side we all three went tumbling.

“Ow.”

“Oh Gosh! I’m sorry! Are you okay?” Anna squeaked, looking me over, I just waved her off.

“I’m fine.”

“But you fought Potent! Aren’t you hurt?”

“I got healing from a doctor last night. I’m fine.” Aww man. I pushed Lucas right on his face as he continued to try and babble until he let go, and managed to get up wiping my gym clothes free of grass. “Did you have to tell everyone?”

“We spoke with your Mom this morning, and she approved of us speaking about it.” Mr. Flex said and I wanted to hiss. My Mom? Betraying me like this? “Don’t give that look kid, This is The Academy, you think you're the first villains kid we’ve had? It’s for the best, someone would have figured it out and that sort of thing never goes well. Being open about it is best.”

“Yeah well it’s not what I wanted!”

“Wait wait.” Benjamin broke in pushing through the crowd of kids. I could see his face looked slack in shock as he looked from Mr. Flex to me. Then back a few times.

“The Slacker? The Slacker girl with a shit attitude.”

“Okay fuck you.”

“Has powers and fought Potent?”

“Language Ms. Steel.”

“Bite my ass, teach. And yep. I’m officially Potent's Archnemesis considering I defeated him along with the entire Big Five. My official rank of supervillain is number one. Also I retired and I’m planning on working an office job. So there.” I stood up and gently waved away Anna’s grasping hands as she was still half crying and Lucas wanting to grab my attention as well.

I’m not a fucking plush toy! Stop grabbing me you shits!

“Cute, but that’s not how that works.” Mr. Flex explained deadpan.

“I beat the Big Five. I say it does. What, you want to fight me about it?” I offered, stretching my arms, which probably did nothing but lessen my threatening demeanor. My noodle arms weren’t there for bad guy punching, but for pencil pushing.

“Cute kid.”

“No, hold on! Bullshit!” Benjamin called out actually cussing which surprised everyone. “There’s no way someone like you can beat Potent!”

“You didn't watch the Mind Controlled Big Five Vs. The Crew video?” Lucas asked, and Benjamin scowled.

“Of course not! I don’t support those villains!”

“Captain Pain is like a distant scruffy Uncle.” I added and then all the eyes were on me, because as famous as Heroes were villains had their own infamy.

“What’s he like?” Lucas asked quietly like he was scared to speak the words.

Ben of course shot him a betrayed look and I snorted.

“He’s a bit of an idiot. But he’s like that one Uncle that shows up every once in a while asking to ride your couch for a bit because he lost his house from too much day drinking.”

“Jesus kid.” Mr. Flex stuffed back a quiet laugh at my description and I sent him a look.

“But if you want something specific… I watched him almost burn down the kitchen while trying to boil water for Mac and Cheese once.”

“Pfft.” Anna fought back a laugh and then she couldn’t and just laughed openly at the image. “Mama’s told me about him sometimes. That he’s one of the more annoying villains to fight. He always has an escape route.”

“Yeah, he’s an idiot, but he’s been a villain that targets the Big Five for more than a decade.”

“He’s a villain!” Ben cried out to the sky as if he was surrounded by insane people.

“And yet. Yesterday he went toe to toe with the Big Five to stop them from going around murdering people while mind controlled.” I cut in, and the field went quiet.

“Yep. Captain Pain is a pain in the rear, but there’s a reason we’ve never really worried about him. He’s a villain for sure, but he’s the type we can deal with.” Mr. Flex cut in.

“You fought him before?” Lucas asked before I could say anything.

“Once or twice. That lightning of his is a pain to deal with.”

“He makes that joke too.” I added deadpan and Mr. Flex smiled.

Ben was still freaking out when Lucas grabbed at me, and I fended him off for a moment before he finally managed to control himself.

“Your power! Come on Vicky! Let me see! You know how it is! Everyone shows off when they first get their power!”

“I’m not showing off.”

“It’s sort of why we’re out here.” Mr. Flex cut in and I glared at him.

“I don’t have a flashy power-”

“You punched Potent through a car!”

“I’ll punch you through a car!” I threatened and Lucas just laughed. His lack of fear was flattering…

But it also incited an urge to crush the pathetic worm beneath me! I’ll show him! I’ll show them all!

“Come on kid. This isn’t just for fun, I’m here to give you a bit of power testing. Just enjoy it and show some stuff off. Tech stuff is always fun. What about those Gauntlets?”

“I don’t have them anymore. Those were made to fight Potent, and I’m not doing that again.”

“Aww.” Lucas whispered, and Ben scoffed.

“Whose side are you on! I don’t want to see weapons made to beat Potent! He’s a Hero!”

“Well I do!” Anna argued glaring and Ben scowled.

“But I guess I could make something.” I mumbled. It was too late to have a peaceful life of unimportance. So… I didn’t have my backpack.

I need something… Lucas, let me borrow your Jacket.” I told the other boy who blinked at the odd request but he instantly shucked off his sports jacket, and I slipped into it.

Everyone was looking confused, as I zipped it up.

Then I pulled out the neck and looked down. At the Void staring back.

“Yeah, give me that.” I told it as I reached up from the bottom of the jacket and pulled out a shield grenade. “Thanks.”

“Whoa!”

“Interesting.” Mr. Flex said and I rolled my eyes at his knowing look.

“If you want the details just ask teach. Anyway, here is one of my tricks. I used it against Potent yesterday. I call them shield grenades.”

“Grenades?” Anna asked, a little concerned, but I scoffed.

“It’s just a one use shield generator. They’re just grenade shaped so you can throw them. Here.” I hit the button and then chucked it straight at my feet, everyone backed away as the shield popped up. “And now none of you can jump on me anymore.” I said proudly, as I took a seat and lay back head in the grass staring up at the sky through the shield panels.

Finally some peace and quiet.

“Whoever can break the shield gets to go to lunch early.”

“Thought you’d never ask Mr. Flex!” Ben called out and I just sighed. Stupid teachers' pets.

Well… This was my life now. I’d just have to learn to live with it.