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Cress
For the first time in her life, Cress was happy to be hacking. For once she wasn't looking for information that could cripple the protectors of humanity or looking into known prodigy files so the unfortunate supers could be subjected to letumosis. For once, she was doing something good! And it. Felt. Amazing!
The files on letumosis shone on the screen of her computer. She'd seen them so many times in passing, Cress was willing to bet that she could type them up herself from memory. On another screen were the lists of the powers at the Lunars disposal, and on another was all their weapons and prodigy artefacts in their possession.
Cress leaned back in her chair and sighed in contentment. It felt so good to be working against the Lunars for once.
A sharp knock on her door made her start and her chair swivelled alarmingly. Without waiting for her answer, the visitor pushed open the door and stepped into the room.
It took all of Cress's willpower not to hide behind the backrest of her chair.
Thorne's blue eyes glinted in the light of the room as they looked her up and down. Cheeks flushing, Cress stood in what she hoped was a smooth, graceful movement and smiled at him. "What is it, Captain?"
Thorne smirked at the use of the nickname. "The team leader wants us all to get together for lunch. You know, seeing as you've only just got here and know absolutely nothing about us."
I know you once let out a tiger in the zoo because it looked miserable in its enclosure. Cress thought.
Aloud, she said, "That would be great! When are we going?"
"Now."
"Now?"
Thorne chuckled. "Cress, it's one in the afternoon."
"Already?" Cress breathed. She'd been working for hours!
"Yep. The team's all gathered in the lobby. I think the Crown Prince of Heroism is taking us out. Hopefully he pays for us."
"You probably would if he didn't." Cress breathed without thinking.
Thorne blinked at her, obviously caught off guard with her statement. "Oh yeah, you definitely need this get-together session."
He turned to leave, pausing in the doorway to call over his shoulder, "The short hair. It works."
Cress held her breath as his footsteps receded down the hall. She didn't trust herself not to squeal with joy, though she couldn't stop the broad grin spreading across her face as she closed all her computers.
"So what's the story with the new haircut?" Iko asked Cress.
"Oh, I was just thinking about how easy it was for that soldier to grab me because of how long it was." Cress explained.
"Well it was an excellent choice! No offence, but before your hair was all anyone could really see of you. Now everyone will notice your pretty face!"
Cress beamed at her teammate. No-one had ever complimented her looks before. It was a wonderful feeling! And if it was true, then maybe, just maybe, Thorne will start to take an interest in her…
"Alright everyone!" Kai yelled from a little way ahead, "This is the spot!"
Cress jogged up so she was standing next to Kai and she gasped. She was looking at the most beautiful lake in the world! The water glimmered as though it was full of stars and lay perfectly still and calm, not a ripple on its pristine surface. Tentatively, Cress reached out a finger to poke the water, and her reflected image wobbled and fractured with the tiny waves.
"Cinder and I found this place a few days ago." Kai told them with a grin, "Thought it would be the perfect place for a picnic."
Scarlet grinned at him mischievously. "Cinder and you found it? There was no-one else with you guys? Just the two of you, gazing out over this lake?"
Kai looked away, a pink tinge growing over his cheeks. Cinder, seemingly unaffected, glared at Scarlet. "It wasn't like that!"
"Sure it wasn't." The redhead replied.
"While you guys are being stupid, can the rest of us eat?" Jacin grumbled, "I skipped breakfast this morning, and I'm starving!"
Winter frowned at him disapprovingly. "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day!"
"Like you never skip it."
Ignoring the ache of her too-full stomach, Cress stuffed the rest of her chocolate bar into her mouth and lay back with a sigh of contentment.
"I told you it was a bad idea to introduce her to chocolate." Jacin told Iko.
Iko rolled her eyes. "What, and leave her to a dull and bleak existence? I'm a superhero, not a villain!"
"I'm with Iko," Scarlet piped up, "let Cress eat chocolate."
"And hope her system can deal with its first encounter of sugar." Cinder smirked.
"I remember my first sugar-high," Thorne said, smiling fondly at the memory, "not a single china ornament in the house was left un-smashed."
Kai's eyes lit up with interest. "You were born with your powers?"
"Yep, to my parents' infinite disappointment." Thorne snorted, "They tried to scare me out of using my powers by planting all these ideas in my head that they were an evil and bad thing that should never be used. So, of course, I used them all the time."
Cinder rolled her eyes. "Why does that not surprise me."
Thorne smirked at her. "And what's your origin story Madame-Metal? I'm willing to bet five bucks that it's pretty epic."
"Since when do you risk losing money?" Kai grinned.
"Hey, if this plays out the way I think it will, I get five bucks!"
Cinder sighed and glanced down at her gloved hands. "Well, you're going to be disappointed. It was a car crash, a bad one. It killed both my parents, and I think it's pretty obvious what it did to me."
"Wait, you got a built-in connection to the internet and a lie detector because of a car crash?" Scarlet asked.
Cinder shrugged. "I don't answer for the scientists that operated on me."
"She does have a point though." Jacin frowned. "This story is a bit questionable."
"What about you?" Kai asked him, "What's your origin story?"
"I spent a lot of time around Winter and I built up a natural immunity to her abilities." Jacin said simply. "It was kind of like building an immunity to an allergy."
"I was born a prodigy," Winter murmured quietly. She set down the hunk of chocolate she was holding, ignoring the curious flies that immediately buzzed over to it. "but I wasn't born an empath.
"My original power was telepathy, but I hated that ability with a passion. It isn't right, to peer unrestrained into a person's innermost thoughts and delve through their secrets, or to make them move in ways and believe in things that they never would if left alone. Maybe if my power was more like Kai's I could of stood it, only listening to passing thoughts and opinions. But I couldn't, so I stopped using it altogether. But the neglect of a power so closely related to the mind doesn't come without its consequences."
Jacin reached for Winter and rested a hand on her shoulder. "Winter, you don't have to do this." His voice was softer than Cress had ever heard it.
Winter smiled at him but continued her story. "I started having visions, horrible visions of monsters and blood followed me everywhere I went. My only consolation was that everyone else was safe from my powers. But even that thought couldn't comfort me for long, as my powers soon remanifested as the thankfully less harmful empathy."
Silence followed the end of Winter's story. After the last couple stories, this sudden onslaught of trauma chased away any words from the listeners throats.
Jacin put a comforting arm around Winter's shoulders and she gratefully leaned into his touch.
Kai cleared his throat awkwardly, breaking the spell and turned to Cress with a forced smile. "What about you Cress? Were you born with your powers?"
"Er, yes." Cress hurriedly answered, "But my parents were anti-prodigy, like Thorne's. When the Lunars came for collection, they handed me off without a second thought."
Scarlet whistled. "And I thought my parents were bad."
"They were anti-prodigy too?" Iko asked.
"Nah, I wasn't born a prodigy anyway so it wouldn't matter if they were."
"Well then, tell us your origin story." The blue-haired girl prompted impatiently.
Scarlet leaned back on her hands and stared up at the sky. "My grand-mère used to be a military pilot, and on my eleventh birthday she gave me her badge as a present. I was so honoured and carried it with me everywhere.
"One day, I was out for a walk and I was holding the badge in my hand. This was near the end of the Blood Moon time, and with vigilante acts of super heroism showing up pretty much every day on the news I felt a lot safer than I should, so I took a shortcut down a pretty shifty neighbourhood. A small gang showed up out of nowhere and immediately started threatening me and demanding that I turn out my pockets. I wasn't about to let them near the badge, so I tried to get away." Scarlet snorted. "Apparently I was making one stupid decision after another that day. They chased after me, now convinced that I had something valuable on me. And elven year old versus a bunch of grown stupid men. Guess who won that race."
"Not you?" Thorne suggested.
"Congratulations, you get a cookie." Scarlet snapped at him. "Anyway, as Thorne so intelligently guessed, they caught up to me and pinned my arms so that I couldn't fight back while they searched my pockets and forced my hands open, breaking a few fingers in the process."
The entire group flinched in pain at this.
"Eventually they managed to get the badge. Of course they were disappointed that it wasn't anything valuable, but they still debated whether or not it would fetch a few coins at a pawn shop. Obviously I wasn't just going to stand by and let them have their way. That badge belonged to my grand-mère! It was as precious to her as it was to me! So, I charged at the punk holding my badge. He wasn't expecting that, let me tell you, and that dumbfounded look on his face is one of the happiest memories of my childhood. The only reason it isn't the happiest is because he then slashed my neck open with the badge I was trying to get."
As she spoke, Scarlet traced a line down her neck, where Cress could vaguely make out a long, thin scar.
"It wasn't deep enough to kill me, but there was still a lot of blood. I was properly scared now. For the first time, dying seemed like a real possibility. But I kept attacking him. So, he kept slashing, drawing cut after cut after cut."
For the first time, Scarlet's voice cracked as her fingers traced more thin pale lines along her neck. Cress brought her knees up to her chest, trying to imagine herself in the shoes of young Scarlet, desperately fighting far tougher and stronger criminals just for the sake of retrieving her possession. Was there anything in Cress's life that she would fight so hard for? Would there ever be?
Scarlet swallowed and tilted her chin up, almost in defiance of her earlier flash of fear. "With each scratch, a new image popped into my mind. Clouds racing past me as I tore through a clear blue sky and miniscule fields and forests seen from above. And I felt an exhilaration, a joy that I'd never know before."
Scarlet grinned and hovered a foot of the ground. "And then I was flying."
Iko whistled, impressed. "Great skies, talk about an origin story!"
"I'm sure yours is almost as cool." Scarlet smirked at her.
"Just as cool I'd like to think. I was born a prodigy you see. I don't know what happened to my parents, if they were prodigy haters or dead or what, but all my earliest memories are from an orphanage. Eventually, a man named Garan Linh adopted me. His wife was a little less-than-enthusiastic about me, same went for his eldest daughter, but the youngest was good to me. And, when he adopted yet another orphaned prodigy, she was nice to her too." Iko grinned at Cinder, who rolled her eyes and shoved the other girl in the shoulder.
Cress's eyes widened. "Wait, you two are sisters?"
Cinder nodded. "By adoption, yeah."
Cress gaped at the two of them. She knew they were close, that much was obvious, but family? That was a whole other level! Maybe she should have researched her fellow teammates more thoroughly.
Thorne turned to smirk at Kai. "Alright Team Leader, we've all spilled our origin stories, now it's your turn. Fess up."
Kai grinned. "Trust me, it's nothing special. I was born with my powers, so I haven't got any stories about hallucinations or fighting gangs, and my life's story isn't half as interesting as yours or Cress's."
"Not an excuse. Come on, spill."
"Alright, but don't say I didn't warn you." Kai chuckled. "At first, I didn't even know I was a prodigy. I just assumed everybody heard voices in their head when no-one was speaking."
Cinder raised a teasing eyebrow at him. "Are you sure you're alright?"
"Ha ha. Anyway, I eventually figured out that I was hearing other people's thoughts, but all this discovery did was make me annoyed when people didn't reply to me when I tried to think conversations with them. I only found out I was an actual prodigy when I told President Star that I didn't like the present he got me for my birthday a week before my actual birthday." He chuckled. "It was quite funny, watching everyone freak out once they realised I could read their minds. My parents spent hours and hours telling me to stay out of people's heads and give them their privacy."
"And you actually did?" Thorne rolled his eyes. "Hopeless."
Cress giggled. This lunch had turned out even better than she'd hoped!
A/N: Origin stories! I know some of them are longer than others (*cough* Scarlet and Winter *cough*) but they have the most detailed origin stories that can be revealed at this moment. You guys obviously already knew Cinder's origin story and had a good idea of Cress's. The other origin stories will be added to for more depth over the course of the rest of this fic, so bear with me until then.
Please review!