Summary: Miku is one of the world's greatest superheroes, a paragon of hope who stands firm against the forces of evil. Unfortunately, a certain blonde supervillain who happens to lead the aforementioned forces of evil is hellbent on making her job as stressful as super-humanly possible.
The Memoirs of an A-List Superhero
by Atheon
'With great power comes great responsibility.' Those were the last – and only – words her parents left her, written at the bottom of a short letter which they had tucked under the pillows of her crib before sending her away from their dying planet of Crypton. At least, those were the only words she could understand, the rest of the letter was transcribed in an alien tongue Miku presumed to be the language of her people. Of course, with Crypton destroyed and the entire history of her species lost to time, the symbols which seemed almost like letters if you squinted had long since been deprived of any meaning they once possessed.
Nevertheless, Miku took those words to heart and had long since embraced her unique heritage, a heritage that granted her super strength, invulnerability and flight along with a host of other abilities. When she first manifested her powers in middle school, Miku had broken down and waxed lyrical about the prospect of being a freak and not being able to live a normal life. Of course, after a field trip where she had saved the passengers of a crashing plane and heartfelt encouragement from her adoptive parents, Miku steeled her heart and decided to use her powers for the greater good. Thus, the world's first superhero, M-Fate, was born.
Still, Miku had no shortage of friends and family who kept assuring her throughout her teenage years that she was not alone. In fact, almost everyone around her seemed to think that she felt like an outcast due to her powers, a sentiment no doubt fueled by the popularity of the Y-Men movie franchise which detailed a group of misunderstood mutant superheroes. But in all honesty, Miku never felt like she was alone – mostly because she wasn't.
In fact, it was mere weeks after Miku had donned her blue and black outfit as the hero M-Fate that the world's second superhero, a super-powered modern day vampire, revealed themselves to the world. And while Miku made a show of support and camaraderie for the new arrival, she couldn't help but feel a sense of annoyance at the fact that her thunder had been stolen. After all, Rin – or Lady Hyperia as she would later be known – was stronger, faster and outperformed Miku in nearly everything from stopping street crimes to fighting off alien invaders.
However, as time went on, Rin's upbeat personality and happy-go-lucky demeanor eventually melted away Miku's initial dislike for the vampire princess and the two became inseparable to the point of founding the Justice Force, the world's first superhero team. Over the years, the Justice Force would expand to include other would-be heroes that followed and Miku liked to think that their efforts through the years have made the world a safer place for all.
Unfortunately, in a golden age of superpowers, not everyone is interested in doing the right thing and so it was only a matter of time before supervillains entered the scene. And the worse among them was Hyperion Lord, a mischievous and cunning business magnate as well as Rin's evil twin brother and de facto archnemesis. He and his League of Villains had been a source of countless headaches for Miku and the rest of the Justice Force through the years, but Miku was proud to say that at the age of 25, twelve years after first manifesting her powers, they had yet to fail to save the day.
The blaring noises of the alarm snapped Miku out of her magazine-reading trance and she quickly hid her copy of Supergossip Weekly – a guilty pleasure she'd rather keep secret – as Kaito and Luka rushed into the room. The massive television screen overlooking the room flickered to life and revealed Rin's face, a smile noticeably absent from her features and replaced by a look of stress and irritation.
Upon seeing Rin's face, Miku let out a short sigh – there was only one thing, or one person rather, who could cause Rin to adopt that expression. "What's he up to this time?"
Miku's words seemed to trigger an eye-roll from Rin before she answered, "He and the rest of the League of Villains are robbing the main branch of the Pitchloid Banking Company. Meiko is already there, but she can't handle all five of them at once so we need to hurry." Rin paused before speaking again. "I'm only a few kilometers away so I'll meet you guys there."
"Wait. Five of them? Did they get a new member?" Luka questioned as she entered the commands in their short-distance teleporter before joining Kaito and Miku on the teleportation platform.
"Don't know. Maybe. If so, they chose the wrong day to become a villain." Rin half-growled before signing off.
"Wow. Rin's really stressed out, usually she tries to be all inspirational before a fight, but now she just looks like she wants to knock some heads together. Guess wedding planning is taking a bigger toll on her than I thought." Luka said as the teleporter began its countdown.
"No kidding. She hasn't been sleeping properly for days either. Actually, she kind of reminds me of when you were planning your wedding, Miku." Kaito teased as white light surrounded the three of them and the scenery began to change. The light began to give way and the three found themselves in the middle of a downtown street in front of Pitchloid Bank.
"Ugh. Don't remind m-" Miku tried replying before something red collided with her, knocking her back by several meters.
Miku growled as she tried to recover, but her expression turned to one of surprise as she saw what – or rather who – had collided into her. "Meiko?" she questioned.
"Argh. Sorry about that Miku. You guys sure took your sweet time getting here though." Meiko rubbed her temple as she picked herself back up before turning to face a masked green haired girl who was walking up to them with a sly smile on her face. 'Polymer Girl' Miku thought.
"Wow, you must be getting old Flameway, thinking about retiring soon?" the girl said mockingly, prompting a loud growl from Meiko. It was easy enough for Miku to identify the girl – Gumi Megpoid or Polymer Girl – was Hyperion Lord's right hand, a powerful villain with the ability to elongate or stretch her body into nearly any shape she wished.
"Leave her to me; the rest of them are already inside." Meiko whispered before a cascade of flames erupted from her palms towards Gumi. In turn, Miku nodded and flew inside the noisy building where she found Kaito and Luka facing off against a purple-haired swordsman and two of Hyperion Lord's generic doombot helpers.
The purple-haired man was another of their frequent enemies, a master swordsman dubbed Swordshadow by the public for his teleportation abilities, though he preferred to be called by his given name Gackupo.
Seeing that they had yet to notice her, Miku quickly flew up behind one of the robots and slammed her fist through its steel torso, where its battery was located. The robot emitted a long beep as it shut down, but before Miku could pull out her hand, Gackupo suddenly appeared behind her, ready to strike.
Before Miku could react, a wall of ice materialized between her and Gackupo, effectively blocking his sword in the process. Following this, a pink energy blast aimed at Gackupo forced him to teleport away to the other side of the room.
"Are you okay?" Kaito asked between deep breaths as he and Luka ran up beside Miku. She nodded and turned her head to face Kaito. "Yeah, thanks. Are you okay though? Your ice-powers are at their weakest at mid-day, right?"
Kaito gave a small smile and a thumbs up in response, "I'll be fine, it just takes more energy than usual to conjure ice. You should get going though, Hyperion is down back where the vault is, Luka and I can handle Gackupo and the doombot." Miku nodded and dashed through the next set of doors; Gackupo had seemed ready to intercept her, but was kept at bay by Kaito and Luka's combined attacks.
Miku flew quickly through the maze-like inner corridors of the bank, before arriving at a closed set of silver doors with giant hole protruding from its center. A guard lay passed out in the middle of the rubble which was undoubtedly his handiwork.
Floating past the guard and squinting her eyes, Miku slowly made her way through the hole and into the bank's treasury. The hallway on the other side was surprisingly wide, with no lighting and titanium vaults decorating the sides of the walls, though a single vault at the end of the hallway was noticeably wide open. Standing in front of it, was a young man in a black formal suit, his handsome face half-illuminated by the light from within the open vault.
"Fancy seeing you here, Miku" the man said as he walked forward before stopping a few meters directly in front of Miku. "I suppose you're here to stop me from playing Robin Hood."
"Don't call me Miku. Besides, Robin Hood stole from the rich and gave to the poor, you on the other hand, tend to steal from the rich and give to the mega-rich, Hyperion Lord." Miku stated in a flat tone.
The man rolled his eyes. "Really, do you have to be so formal, Miku? And what's wrong with calling you Miku, Miku? By the way, is my sister around, Miku?" Upon seeing her irritated expression, the man flashed a toothy grin at her.
"She's on her way, but tell me, what exactly are you robbing a bank for, Hyperion Lord?" she emphasized. "Not like you don't already have enough mon-" Miku's sentence was cut short by a barrage of sponge-like Nerf bullets aimed at her face.
"Yay! I did it, I hit Mommy! Did you see it, Daddy?" A young girl cheered as she skipped out from behind the open vault to her father's side. The girl possessed the same blonde hair as the man and was wearing what appeared to be a cheap Zorro costume for kids.
The little girl quickly hopped over and stopped just in front of Miku, a cheery smile adorned on her innocent face. In contrast, Miku's face quickly transitioned from cold resolve to shock to anger. "Neru? What are you . . . LEN! You were supposed to take Neru to the daycare! What's she doing here?"
"The daycare was closed today, so Daddy said I could come help him steal from a bank. He showed me how to knock out a guard, then we prepared a trap for Mommy!" Neru said in a voice that made it seem like she was talking about rainbows and unicorns. Len, in turn, made a 'V' sign with his left hand and gave Miku a bright smile.
Furious was an inadequate term to describe what Miku was feeling at this time. She closed her eyes and squeezed the bridge of her nose to try and keep herself from pummeling her husband to death in front of their daughter.
Suddenly, Len's eyes flickered with surprise, as if sensing something. "Oh, it seems Rin's arrived. Neru, sweetie, can you go check if Aunt IA is finished packing up all the money and gold?" At this, Neru hopped out of Miku's arms and ran towards the vault, while Miku once again wore a shell-shocked expression.
"Wait, wait, wait. Did you say IA? As in, your ex-girlfriend IA? Why is she here? What's she doing with you guys?" Miku near-shouted as she dashed towards Len and grabbed him by his shirt collars.
"Ha ha. Relax, Miku. No need to get jealous. Kiyoteru has some business to attend to for the next while, so IA's gonna be helping us out for the foreseeable futu-"
"And you didn't think to tell me about this beforehand." Miku cut him off.
"Wow. Pregnancy and childbirth have not been kind to you, Miku. You've really let yourself go." a beautiful white-haired girl said in a teasing voice as she exited the vault with two full bags of cash. Behind her, Neru followed carrying a smaller bag with both arms.
Miku growled, but before she could respond, a loud explosion was heard as Gumi and Gackupo burst forth from the roof and landed beside Neru and IA. Hot on their trail were Rin, Meiko, Luka and Kaito.
"Hey, get back here you eggplant-wannabe!"
"Wow, I'm impressed at how fast you are despite you old age, Flameway. Still, you shouldn't hold off on retirement for too long!"
"You b****! I ought to–"
"Hi, Aunt Rinnie!"
"Hi, Neru . . . wait, Neru? What are you –"
Amidst the chaos and confusion, Len gently removed Miku's hands from his collars and planted a soft kiss on her lips before she could react. "Well, this was fun, but we gotta run. I'll see you tonight, honey. Love you, bye!"
With that, Len jumped back, grabbing Neru with one hand and Gakupo's shoulder with the other in one swift movement. "Oh, by the way, Neru and I want roasted chicken tonight!" The other villains similarly held onto Gakupo, though Miku angrily noted that IA grabbed Len's shoulder instead, and in an instant, they were gone.
Miku let out a long yawn as she entered their home, a very expensive high rise condominium which often made Miku question how they could afford it – a question that Len had yet to provide a straight answer for. It had been an exhausting day of superhero-ing: after their initial skirmish with the League of Villains, they went on to intercept no less that two more bank robberies and a B-list supervillain's plot for world domination.
"Welcome back, honey!" Len said warmly from the couch where he watched the evening news. Neru, who had been working on her newest coloring book, ran up to greet Miku with a hug. While Miku returned her daughter's hug full force, she acknowledged Len with little more than a 'hmph'.
"I'm not talking to you." Miku stated plainly before collapsing on the other side of the couch from Len. In response, Len rolled his eyes before getting up and sitting back down next to her. He then took her left foot into his lap and began to give it a massage; Miku made no move to stop him. "I just don't get why you're so mad."
The look Miku gave him in response seemed to suggest that he just said the most ridiculous eight words in human history. "Besides, I always thought Neru had the makings of an S-class supervillain and her actions today just confirmed it." He offered weakly, to which Miku let out a low growl in response.
"I loved being a supervillain!" Neru provided happily, joining her parents' conversation.
At this, Miku sighed. "Oh, honey. Being a villain isn't as cool as you think. Wouldn't you rather be a superhero. You have half-Cryptonian and half-vampire blood in you, so when you grow up, you could really do a lot of good in the world. Wouldn't you like that?"
"Yeah, but I get to have robot minions and can take whatever I want if I'm a villain!" Neru countered, much to Len's euphoria.
"Besides, all of Daddy's supervillain friends are really awesome! Aunt Gumi is super nice and made me cookies. Uncle Gakupo is weird, but also super nice. And Aunt IA is really cool and said she'll teach me how to put on makeup next time." Neru continued excitedly.
At the mention of IA's name, Miku's expression turned sour once again, prompting amused laughter from Len. "There will not be a next time." Miku stated in a steely voice while facing Len. "And I hate that woman." she added in a venomous whisper which caused Len to snicker, but seemed to go unheard by their daughter..
"Oh, and Aunt IA, told me to give this to you, Mommy." Neru said as she scrambled to her backpack and pulled out a small pocket book which she then handed to Miku. "The Secret to Effective Weight-Lo – why that b–" she was cut off by Len's hand over her mouth.
Upon seeing the confused look on Neru's face, Miku smiled and held up the pocket book. "Thank you for the package honey, now why don't you go finish your coloring books, okay?"
When Neru had gone back to the dining table, Miku then quickly tore the pocket book in half and said through gritted teeth "I. Hate. That. Woman."
Len replied with a laugh before planting a kiss on her cheek and gently whispering to her ear. "Oh, come on. IA's just teasing you." Seeing the unimpressed expression Miku wore, he continued in a more seductive tone. "Besides, you already know that you're the most beautiful girl in the world." The red spread on Miku's cheeks only served to amplify Len's laughter. There was something amazing about his ability to still make her blush after all this time.
Fortunately, Miku was saved from having to formulate a response by the sudden sound of her cellphone, the ring tone indicating an emergency. "Yes, Miku speaking. What? Skymaster is back? He has a doomsday device in the middle of town? Okay, don't worry, I'm on my way."
"Oh? Piko's back in town? Say, Neru, do you want to go say hi to Uncle Piko?" Len called to which Neru gave a happy shout which could be construed as a 'yes'. In what seemed like movement in Planck time, Len and Neru were already on the balcony and taking off before Miku could react.
"What? No, you two stay here." Miku tried to call as she pursued the two through the skies.
Thanks for reading.
