Diatonic 1.x.5
Missy Biron
Wednesday, April 13, 2011

"I'm home!" she called out, shutting the heavy front door behind her before muttering under her breath, "…not that you even care."

As expected, there was no response from her mother –who was probably holed up in her office– or Andy who wouldn't even be home yet from work.

Rolling her eyes, Missy went upstairs to her bedroom, dropping her backpack on the floor and flopping on her bed face-up.

It had been a long day, between school in the morning, the fight with the Undersiders, debrief at the PRT building, and then her positively embarrassing conversation with Relentless.

Grabbing a pillow from behind her, Missy raised it above her head and then brought it down, smushing it against her face.

God, why had she been like that? Relentless probably thought she was a total weirdo now. She'd probably just been humoring her. Eighteen, nineteen year-old college girl talking to her just because? Yeah, right.

Missy groaned into the pillow. She'd been trying to be mature, but she'd probably just come off as a desperate little girl. Really? Complaining about the Wards? Where the fuck had that even come from, anyways?

It seriously sucked, because Relentless was the first one who actually seemed to get it. She wasn't like Shadow Stalker, who was a complete cunt most of the time, or Miss Militia, who was too old to even understand. Glory Girl was in it for the attention, and Panacea just didn't seem to care at all. Laserdream and Shielder were just doing it for their family.

But Relentless… Relentless wasn't like the others. She had power, and she knew it, but she didn't let it get to her head. She understood that this was real, instead of the cops-and-robbers game that everybody else tried to make it. She didn't play around, she acted. She was serious about what she did, and Brockton needed more people like her if they were ever going to deal with all the assholes here.

And God, people didn't even know what she could really do. Easily one of the most versatile Changer/Strangers and Tinkers she knew of –which would be scary enough separately–, on top of everything else. Relentless was an absolute monster –fitting her name–, and she knew how to use it, and she was probably keeping other abilities a secret as aces. The PRT would fucking flip if they knew what she was really capable of. Not that Missy had any plans of telling them. She'd promised, and she kept her promises.

Especially to the first person who was actually treating Missy with some semblance of what she wanted, reflecting everything she'd done, everything she'd accomplished. Missy had earned her scars, and she was fucking proud of them. But nobody else seemed to even care, they still treated her like some preteen baby.

(she wasn't damnit, she was thirteen)

Relentless just talked to her. Like she was a normal person, nothing particularly special or noteworthy. She wasn't the baby of the team or "that one cute Ward in the green skirt", but an equal of some sort. A colleague.

(a friend?)

It had certainly felt like there was the start of something there. You don't usually go around handing random people your spine.

That had been crazy.

Missy had thought Relentless was just going to show her something small and interesting, like a little sculpture or something. Not to reach into her back and pull out her fucking spine.

A spine made of fucking diamond.

Missy was pretty sure she'd just held some of the largest diamonds in the world –two billion dollars worth, literally priceless, she'd said– and Relentless had acted like it was nothing unusual. Holding that thing had been an experience that would probably stick with her for the rest of her life.

How many people could say they'd held over five pounds of diamond in their hands?

It had certainly shined like it. Missy probably should have expected it, with the weight and reflection and clearness of it, really. What else could it have been? Relentless didn't do things halfway, so why would she with something like that?

And that wasn't even getting into her shapeshifting.

Missy shuddered at the memory. It had been eerie to an uncomfortable level, seeing a silver teenage girl become her, clothes and all, in the blink of eye. And then, instead of her normal Tinker-sounding one, speaking with Missy's voice.

Stranger abilities were the absolute creepiest.

But it meant that Relentless could be literally anybody she walked past on the street, even if Relentless had said the costumed appearance she used was what she was like before her trigger.

At least she'd found out why Relentless hadn't felt like a living thing to her power, even if she had asked her a bit… bluntly.

Yeah. Blunt. That was an understatement if there ever was one.

Shrinking somebody's arm? Anybody would have freaked out from that.

(what the actual fuck had she been thinking?)

She just… hadn't been able to stop thinking about it at all, ever since she'd met Relentless the day before.

At least it hadn't totally backfired?

She really could have done something different, though. She should have done something different. She should have known better than to just randomly use her power on another cape without knowing what it would do.

Dean would have done better. He probably would do better, if he ever met her. If Relentless didn't show up as a living person to Vista's power, it was likely she wouldn't to Gallant's either. Missy winced as she could just imagine the slight frown Dean would have if he ever heard of what had happened today.

Dennis would've just used it as more teasing material, not that he needed any more.

It hadn't ruined everything, though. Well, not after Missy had started freaking out at the thought of having completely soured everything and ended up sharing why she wasn't with anybody else.

…Not that it had done any good for her image.

Missy groaned into the pillow.

Well, at least she had time to try and figure out some way to make it up.


"So how was your day?"

Missy shrugged, poking around at the pasta on her plate.

"You got into that fight at the bank, right? I saw it on the newsfeed I've got running on one of the trading monitors at work," Andy said. "Brought in those villains, the uh… Underwriters?"

"Undersiders," Missy corrected. "Yeah, I guess. Wasn't much of a challenge, with practically all of the Wards, Glory Girl, and Panacea." Who'd actually taken down that blonde girl in the purple suit before she'd even noticed her.

Andy nodded. "Still, pretty cool, and it's good you weren't in too much danger. Not like that fight you had against Hookwolf last year."

Missy huffed, scowling slightly at her food as she continued to eat. She didn't want to be protected. She wanted the challenge. Liked it.

The rest of dinner was blanketed in awkward silence, though they probably thought it was comfortable. She got up as soon as she was done, taking her plate over to the counter, rinsing it, and putting it in the dishwasher.

"Going upstairs," Missy said, turning towards the hall with the stairwell to do just that.

"Don't forget about doing your homework. No falling behind in school just because of these… cape things," her mother said.

She clenched her fists, but didn't respond, simply moving along. It was times like these that she wished she had better parents, ones who could understand. And then she always remembered that her father was even worse.

Missy sighed, and trudged up the stairs.


A/N: Missy's a lot of fun.