This fic is the result of a conversation with Zee about what kind of superpowers everybody would have, which somehow evolved into a fic.
This is a genfic. There will be no shipping whatsoever, but lots of very platonic bonding - especially between Levi and Eren and Levi and Erwin.
I hope you enjoy! Comments and criticism are, as always, very welcome.
It had been deceptively easy to fight Levi off, that first time. Levi surprised him when his hands suddenly turned into blades, but Erwin countered by tearing up a piece of floor and throwing it at him. It should have crushed him – screw trying to bring a villain to justice, Erwin had been after him for months now and better have Levi dead than escaped – but Levi didn't even dodge, just turned into liquid and oozed out from underneath, reconstituted himself in a flash and was lunging towards Erwin's throat once more.
Erwin learned several important things in that moment: Levi could do full-body shifting, he could do it fast, and he was quick on the uptake. This explained a lot about how Levi consistently managed to sneak into high-security facilities and steal weapons of mass destruction. Now if only Erwin could survive this fight to share the information with the rest of the Scouts…
This time, when Levi attacked, Erwin pretended to dodge and managed to get him with an electrified dart. Levi jerked back, apparently unprepared for the electricity, and Erwin took the opportunity to jump, slamming upwards through several concrete floors and bounding to the roof where his jet was parked. Intel was the priority, here. As of now, nobody but him knew that Levi was a shapeshifter, and he couldn't risk that information dying with him. Erwin was strong, enough to jump buildings and crumble concrete, but shapeshifters were tricky. It would be easier to take him down with backup.
Erwin didn't like grandstanding. The Scouts worked as a team because they shared a philosophy: get the job done, get it done efficiently. Honor could be doled out when the villains were gone.
Erwin threw himself in and gunned the engine, hearing noises behind him. Time to get out of here. He threw the plane forward and into the sky, just in time to see Levi's dark form scramble onto the roof, extra appendages melting back into his body.
"Widget? This is Commander, do you copy?"
The radio crackled to life immediately with her voice. "Commander? What's your status?"
"Getting the hell out. Levi's a shapeshifter, you hear? I repeat, he's a shifter. He can weaponize his body, he turned liquid and resolidified, he'sfast, he's -" Erwin caught a glimpse of the rearview screen and started cursing.
"What is it?" Widget's voice came sharp and tense.
"He's chasing the jet. He turned into a dragon."
Levi was obviously displeased with his secret being out, and determined to take Erwin down. Not today, though. Erwin flipped a few switches and fired, sending a veritable arsenal of missiles at the dragon.
He was fast enough to follow the plane, but apparently not maneuverable enough to dodge such a large explosion. At least some of the torpedoes must have connected, because Erwin saw a small form dropping from beneath the clouds of smoke. He shot two more homing missiles just to make sure, though it was optimistic to think that Levi'd go down so easily.
At least he hadn't managed to turn into a fire-breathing dragon.
Widget, of course, was insufferable with enthusiasm. "A true shapeshifter? Liquids, inorganics, and a full body transformation? That's amazing! I've never heard of one with that much versatility!" and proceeded to dance off in paroxysms of joy.
"What does he look like?" Mike (excuse me, Bloodhound) asked.
Erwin stretched, calmer now that he was back in the safety of the base, where they could put together a plan to take Levi down once and for all. A better one than last time. Though to be fair, the last plan had gotten them their first direct encounter with Levi and revealed his abilities, so it couldn't be called a waste.
"A bit shorter than me, probably about here," he motioned around nose level. "Pitch black all over, even his teeth were black, except for red eyes. I didn't see any costume lines. Thin build. Very utilitarian, though, no frills, no fangs, nothing standing out except for the eyes. I have no reason to believe that's his true form."
Widget was back. "You mean you think he was double-shifting? Incredible! He might be one of the most advanced shifters in the world."
"Hopefully soon he'll be one of the most dead shifters in the world," Eren growled.
"He'll be a pain to kill," Wildfire chimed in, worrying at the edge of one her gloves. "If he's really that versatile. How will we even find him?"
"I grappled with him. Bloodhound might be able to catch the scent."
Mike's sense of smell was legendary, able to track across entire countries, if given enough time.
"We'll have to take him down fast and hard. Wildfire, your talents might help – fire hot enough could do the trick." Erwin's thoughts spun, trying to come up with ideas. The best way to take down a shifter was with a multi-pronged attack: it was difficult to defend against multiple types of powers at the same time.
Erwin sat back and reviewed his troops, arrayed around the table.
The heaviest hitter on their team was probably Eren (Titan, he reminded himself), with his healing factor and ability to transform into a fifteen-meter-tall giant. The downside, of course, was that his talents were just a bit choppy and unreliable, and he'd gone berserk more than once.
Erwin himself had super-strength, but nothing like the big leaguers who were bulletproof and could fly. The greater superhero community generally looked down on him for supplementing his powers with fancy tech, but he had decided long ago that he gave no damns. He got the job done.
Mike could track almost any scent with his nose, but that was the extent of his supernatural abilities. In combat, he fought with twin blades, and relied on his own human strength, and the gadgetry Widget supplied.
Widget was brilliant at manipulating technology, able to coax almost any kind of machine into turning into some other kind of machine, and with an insatiable curiosity about… everything, really. Anything to do with infiltration, and of course, supplying gadgetry was a cinch, but she had neglected to work up to battle skills on Mike's level. Her whippet-like build didn't give her the advantage Mike's natural bulk did, though she was no slouch at hand-to-hand.
Wildfire was a pyrokinetic (fitting, with her strawberry blond hair just short of a true redhead), and reasonably skilled at throwing fireballs and controlling flames, though she wasn't able to fly either, and couldn't reach the intense heat that some of the others could. Not yet, at least. She seemed sweet, but was a real threat when she got going.
Last was – ah, there was Carnage, just come in. He could manipulate his own blood, and even coax it to be corrosive. A useful talent, though it came with the price of having to damage himself to use it. His arms were already scarred over.
The fact was, none of them were the most powerful on their own, but together, they made an effective team, synchronized in battle on a level most other teams could only dream of. With careful coordination, they could take down this shapeshifter.
(Erwin permitted himself a moment of fantasy: what would it be like to have a shapeshifter of that caliber on his team, what they would be able to achieve…)
"Just get me close enough and I'll corrode him," Carnage was saying.
"He'd stab you before you could do any real damage," Wildfire scolded.
"If he stabbed me, it would be his downfall!" Carnage said. "All I need is some blood-"
"But you'd be dead."
"What kind of name is 'Levi' for a supervillain, anyway?" Titan grumbled.
"It could be his actual name," Mike mused.
"But that's stupid! It's just asking to be found out!"
"It goes along with Commander's idea that he's changing his looks!" Widget was excited once more. "He's supremely confident we won't be able to track him down, so confident he doesn't care about using his own name! We have to find him."
"We need to figure out a way to contain him." When Erwin spoke, everybody else fell silent, listening. "If we can't hand him over to Interpol, we'll take him down. He showed some susceptibility to electricity-"
"Assuming he can't transform into a conductor." Widget's eyes gleamed. She looked far too excited at the prospect.
"If he's a superconductor, we can assume he'd be vulnerable to other things at that moment. Titan and I can take care of the physical side. Most things aren't impervious to flame, so we can count on Wildfire to do damage, or at least help slow him down. And if he can become flame-retardant, that doesn't necessarily mean he's acid-retardant. I doubt we'll be able to do this without hurting him badly, but Widget, please try to come up with options. The more we can keep our distance, the safer we'll be."
Everybody nodded soberly.
"Bloodhound, I'm relying on you to find him. Carnage, try to figure out where he's likely to strike next, so we can intercept him there. Until then, there isn't much for us to do except prepare."
"I'm off to scavenge parts, then! Wildfire, Eren, you coming to help?" Widget said, hopping to her feet (Erwin suppressed the urge to remind her to use codenames). "Let's see if one of those billionaires with the fancy suits has thrown away anything good, lately! I'll try to whip up a freeze ray."
The two of them got to her feet, but a thought made Erwin speak up. "Could Titan join you later? I want to talk to him about something." He only emphasized Eren's codename a little.
"Make sure he's back for dinner!" Wildfire turned back to say.
"Because otherwise there won't be anybody to make it," Eren grumbled. Ever since Wildfire had officially become Eren's foster mother, the boy had calmed down a bit. Erwin had to admit she was doing a good job (despite Eren's constant complaining about how she made him cook). It had been no small sacrifice on Wildfire's part – she was young and unmarried, and it took a special guy to look past her fostering a gangly teenager with rage issues.
Mike and Carnage left as well – Mike to do his nose magic, Carnage to do some hacking and see what he could come up with. That left Erwin and Eren to exit the base, climbing to the roof of the abandoned warehouse that hid it.
Early autumn brought cold to the air and rain had cleared some of the stink from this part of town, but it was still a few months until snow would make it temporarily beautiful. Against the skyline the imposing Steele building was visible, a clear monument to superhero billionaires who could afford fancy headquarters. And that was just the ones who were public about it – Erwin had his suspicions about some of the other goofy rich people who were blatant about their love of partying and just a bit too buff under their expensive suits.
Still, his Scouts were the first to have a shot at taking Levi down, and Erwin knew for a fact that there were several others currently eyeing him.
"So, you wanted me for something…?" Eren said, calling Erwin's attention back.
"Yes." Erwin turned to him, taking in Eren's still-calm expression behind his mask, and considered that perhaps this had been a miscalculation. Eren wouldn't take it well.
He had brought the boy up here, though, so he might as well.
"I thought that, given your background, you might have some thoughts about Levi."
"My… background?" Eren's eyes widened, and he took a step back, arms rising defensively. "My background is nothing like his! I was never a villain! I never cooperated, even when they killed my mother! And when we broke out and the others decided to wipe out humanity, I didn't join them either! I'm not like him!"
"I didn't say you were." Erwin refused to let himself be ruffled. "But you've known people on the other side personally, unlike the rest of us."
"That doesn't mean anything. Why would you even think this Levi asshole is anything like Reiner, Annie, or Bertholdt? What do you want with him? This guy isn't going to come quietly, you said it yourself, he'll be put down one way or another."
Erwin didn't answer, but Eren's jaw dropped open slightly with realization.
"You're crazy! You can't want to recruit him? This isn't some two-bit bank robber who lost his job! He's a supervillain."
"He'd live," Erwin said, a bit reluctantly. He considered the world around him and couldn't help but think that many of the people who misused their powers were misguided and hurt.
Of course, in reality, leopards didn't change their spots and when they were out of prison they went right back to trying to blow up the world or whatever.
That was why the Scouts had more kills than arrests.
"We can't trust him! Why is he different from any other villain we've gotten rid of?"
"Because he's a shifter. He can't be held in a cell. It's death for him either way." Death, or kept in a drugged stupor for the rest of his days.
"Should have thought of that before he became a villain." Eren sniffed in disdain.
The conversation wasn't going anywhere, but still reluctance kept him speaking. "He doesn't actually have any direct kills to his name, based on Interpol's file. He doesn't even strike that often."
"That doesn't make him worth anything," Eren snarled. "He should be crushed. You said yourself that nobody else knows he's a shifter – who knows how many other crimes he's getting away with under other identities?"
Erwin couldn't resist a sigh. "You're right. I'm sorry for taking up your time. We'll proceed with the plan as usual."
Eren watched him suspiciously, then straightened up and smoothed his features, before returning to his normal teenage slouch, hands stuffed in the pockets of his dark green hoodie. "Good," he muttered, and headed inside.
Erwin hadn't planned to be yet another superhero working at a newspaper. In fact, had he known when he started studying journalism that he was going to end up a superhero, he might have seriously considered a change in career, if only to avoid the painful cliché. But by the time his powers showed (later than usual, and no falling-into-radioactive-gunk as an excuse, either) he was already an intern, and after an evening of complaining to Mike and flailing a bit more than he cared to admit, Erwin had decided that he wasn't going to change his life plans entirely just because he could throw cars at people now.
So here he was, an editor at a newspaper, coming into work and pretending he didn't know that Rico from Graphics was actually Lightstream and that Nanaba who covered sports had energy-manipulation powers. They did him the same courtesy.
He appreciated that Rico kept her disapproval of his behavior as a superhero out of the workplace.
Though he had plenty to do, he found himself distracted. He kept replaying the conversation with Eren in his mind, kept remembering the fight with Levi. The right thing to do would be to call up Nile and get Levi's his very own supervillain file updated with his shifter powers. Or perhaps, the responsible thing. The friendly thing. Taking care of the wider superhero community.
Erwin pulled his phone out of his pocket, then slid it back in. Levi wasn't the most notorious of villains, but he was slippery. And quiet. Most superheroes went after the immediate threats of world destruction, not the guys discreetly engaging in villainy on the side, especially when they thought he was a normal. The news that he was a shifter would push him way up the priority list, and while it was accepted that heroes stayed out of each other's way when someone had staked a claim, there was always the chance somebody would forget themselves. Just be in the right place at the right time.
Perhaps he should cultivate Levi as an arch-nemesis. Most of the big names had one, after all. But the fact was that Erwin didn't really believe in letting people run amuck more than once, and tended to end threats one way or another. Changing his tune now would be hypocritical.
He wondered how old Levi was. All his attacks thus far showed patience and calculation – probably someone well out of his teenage years, which threw a wrench in Erwin's desire to see him as young and misguided.
And there he was, speculating about Levi again when he should be editing an article. Erwin scrubbed at his face and rubbed his eyes. He would go to the bathroom, get a coffee, stop thinking about Levi, and get his work done.
Just getting up and walking from his desk to the bathroom was enough to steady himself a little. The mundane noises of the workplace surrounded him, reminding him that his was a plane separate from the one where he wore a mask and fought crime.
While washing his hands he dashed water on his face as well. He would probably regret soaking his shirt collar in a few minutes, but for now it felt good. He straightened up and looked in the mirror, water-combed his hair back into place.
He narrowed his eyes at his reflection. Something seemed… off. Were the bags under his eyes more pronounced than usual? Had he shaved badly that morning?
His reflection frowned back at him, blue eyes stern, same as usual. Erwin blinked, and when his eyelids flickered open his reflection was grinning at him in an expression that had never graced his features – too wide, too gleeful, and certainly not what his face was doing at the moment.
His heart jolted and he couldn't help but take a step back, eyes locked on blue ones that were not his as they faded to red in a black shadow of a face.
"Found you."