As one of the faculty members at Leone Middle School, I'm informed about everything that's going on here; both things that all faculty are supposed to know and what they don't want me to know. When I heard that Alice Grainger was going to work as the school's counselor I wasn't happy about it one bit. I knew her since high school and she always rubbed me the wrong way, even for someone who was a magical girl and was automatically considered a hero because of that status alone. But I also knew her for my time as an upstart villain too; we worked together on an important mission that involved exposing a hero group called H Laws that made us spend time together. After that, I never saw her again…..until now.
(12 years and 4 months ago)
In Alice's office, she's unloading her box filled with some of her possession to make her office space more comfortable. At the same time, she's going over files for potential students that she wants to bring in; most notable are Manny, Frida, Zoe, Sergio, Patches, and Diego. But before she could do anything else, a smoke pellet went off and filled the room with black smoke. Alice grabbed a vacuum that managed to suck in all the smoke. Once it was clear, she realized that Voltura was pointing her laser at her head.
"Hello Carmelita." Alice said with a calm look on her face.
"Any last words before I bow your head off." Voltura said with a menacing-angry tone of voice.
"Look up." Alice said pointing her finger up in the air. Volura looked up and saw swords made up of energy pointing directly at them.
Voltura took a closer look in Alice's eyes and knew that she would more than likely hit her and herself with the energy swords without hesitation. NOt wanting to risk anything, she put her laser down. She said to Alice in disgust. "Damn you."
Once the laser was down, Alice put the energy swords away with a snap of her finger "I may not be in my magical girl form right now but that doesn't mean I don't have a security system. I'll be honest with you, I didn't expect you to come and get me today. I half expected the Titanium Titan or even Sartana of the Dead to arrive here first. Not that I'm flattered it was you who came after me with a death threat."
Voltura said with an angry tone of voice "What are you doing here?".
Alice said as she's making tea for herself and Voltura "My job. I'm going to be counseling students; try to help them with their problems, prepare them for high school, convince kids to think about their careers for when they become adults, etc.".
"Don't get smart with me. You come from money and run a car company; you don't need to work here." Voltura said after she smacked the cup of tea away from her.
"Technically, I run a division of the company; specifically, I run the experimental vehicles that are donated to superheroes. I don't have control over the company directly like most people think." Alice said once she sat down and sipped her tea.
"But you operate it from the shadows; that power you have makes it possible."
"I can neither confirm nor deny that. But enough about that. If you want to know why I'm here, I'll tell you; no sense in keeping it from you since you're bound to find out about it and I feel I owe you for leaving you back in Hawaii without giving you a kiss goodbye."
"Get to the point already."
"I'm being instructed to find new magical girls. Based on my personal research and the Magical Girl Council's information, this is the best place to pick out the next generation for Miracle City. Don't worry, I'm not going to pick Zoe; she doesn't have the potential needed to meet the criteria anyway and I wouldn't subject your daughter to such a "boring" lifestyle."
"Don't act like you care about her."
"How do you know I don't want to care? She's your daughter, Carmelita. I'm not going to hurt her just because she's a villain; nor am I going to convince her to become a hero instead. Despite your feelings toward me, I still hold our time together as sacred to the point that turning your own child against you would taint the memories that we have together."
"You expect me to believe that."
"You can believe what you want to believe; I can't stop you from being suspicious of , on two the second reason I'm here. I offered Rodolfo a chance to lead a superhero team; it'll be sponsored by me but he'll have full control over it."
Voltura started laughing "That twit is incapable of leading a team. Why would you even consider having him leading one?".
"Cause if he doesn't I can't imagine Miracle City being safe for anyone if the H Laws arrive, take over protecting this city and we don't have someone like Rodolfo leading a team that could counter them."
"H-Laws!?" Voltura said with a terrified look on her face; her hand shaking at the thought of the name.
Alice said, showing Voltura a pamphlet titled "H-Law Recruitment" Yeah. They're coming here in a few years. My sources said that they're growing in numbers and have more influence than they originally did. I'm not exactly sure what they're going to do here but I do know that once they're here it's not going to be good. Worst of all, I heard that Saint RIchard is going to lead this team.".
"Seriously, him. "
"Yes. He insists on heading the H Law group that's going to move here. While I'm sure he'll be bringing existing forces, there is no doubt in my mind that he's going to recruit people off the streets."
"What made them decide to come here now? I know for certain that Sartana, General Chapuza, and El Mal Verde's presence have kept them at bay."
"You would think that. However, they're getting help from someone who can actually go against them."
"Like someone from the Magical Girl community?"
Alice explained "That's possible. However, the most immediate cause that's supposedly being run by independent companies that are going to come here, or at least have a foothold in this city are Bravo Industries and HeroCo; the former being a robotics and security company and the latter, as its name suggest, is creating new superheroes with an experimental liqui that'll give people powers automatically with no drawbacks of any kind."
That's impossible; there's no liquid in the world that can just give you a superpower so easily.
"That's what I thought at first. When it comes to superheroes, you either get your powers by accidents related to an experiment, bitten by a radioactive animal or insect of some kind, mystical items of power, suits of power, and cosmic rays from outer space. However, this liquid supposedly comes from an ancient civilization that deals in powers according to some researchers; it's completely organic in nature."
"And you've seen this liquid perform?"
"No, I haven't. I only just learned about it; it was a very tight-lipped secret to the point that Magical Girl Intelligence didn't know about it. While I"m still trying to piece everything together and I have my own theories, I do know that having Rodolfo lead a team of his own that'll more than likely be made up of these individuals is for the best especially if a group like the H-Laws and Saint Richard come here; afterall, I sometimes consider them the same person only Rodolfo is more compassionate and less cultish."
"What's your final reason for being here?"
"This next part you might find a bit "controversial". It involves El Tigre but before you brush it off you should know that it's very important that you know why I'm doing this. If I had to give you a short answer, I need to make sure El Tigre becomes more powerful; it doesn't matter if he'll be a hero or villain because of it."
"You really think I or any villain in Miracle City would want that to happen?
"Under normal circumstances, no. However, Miracle City might require him to become more powerful; heroes, villains, and even the average citizen might need him to become more powerful because…."
"Why did you tell me any of this? I could find a way to sabotage your plans with this information alone."
Alice pulled out a card with a purple cover and the letter "A" on it and threw it toward Voltura; she caught it. Alice then said "Like I've been stating, I value our time together and I want to make sure that you and your family will have a chance to escape, or at least fight back against these changes. I also know that having the Aves family line wiped out because of this would be wrong; afterall, your family was important in building this city regardless if people have forgotten that or not. And lastly, villains such as yourself don't want to explicitly destroy Miracle City; if you wanted to you all would have done it by now. The same applies to your rivalry with Rodolfo and the entire Rivera family. You don't really want to destroy them either; you just enjoy the chance to hurt them emotionally because of how each of them hurt you in the past. Although, from my perspective, only Lady Gobbler has an actual reason to hate Puma Loco and Black Cuervo still has a chance to make things better with El Tigre to the point that their relationship doesn't have to end in a bad romance. You're really the only one that doesn't have a true justification to hate Rodolfo since you were the one that messed; afterall, he didn't exactly care if you were a villain. Tell me, do you still make art of what your life could have been with him if you hadn't messed up".
"You're a monster, Alice." Voltura said with a disgusting tone of voice, hiding her tears in her eyes.
"I know. But everything I do is to prevent other people from ever turning out like me. Unhappy, self loathing, irritated, nearly dead on the inside, lack of belief in people, arrogant."
"Unless you make it worse."
"Hello. Can I come in Ms. Grainger?" A student's voice said, knocking on her door.
Alice said to the student "Of course. Just give me two more minutes; I'm having a discussion with a friend on the phone." She snapped her left fingers and a door opened up that led somewhere else; it was meant for Voltura to escape without anyone knowing she was her. "How about we make the school a neutral zone for us? You won't try to kill me and I won't try to kill you in self defense."
"Fine." Voltura said before she walked into the magical door.
"See you around, Carmelita." Alice said after she closed the door.
(Flock of Fury HQ)
"What do you think, mother?" Voltura said as Lady Gobbler looked at the card Alice gave her with her glass eye/
"This is all accurate; that women knew exactly what she was talking about." Lady Gobbler said putting the card in her pocket.
Voltura said "We need to go; get out of Miracle City now."
"Out of the question. Think about, mija, if Alice Grainger is here then that means they're monitoring her and anyone who she might associate with. Us leaving would raise an alarm, especially if H Laws are involved. For now, I think we should go about like everything is normal but I'll prepare for an exit strategy if and when we'll need to escape. It's a good thing you had a relationship with…" Lady Gobbler said before Voltura interrupted her.
"What Alice and I had wasn't a relationship. I'd sooner call what White Pantera and I had in high school a marriage in comparison.
"I see. So, what are you going to do about her? Afterall, you both are working at the same school and she'll be around you and Zoe."
"Treat the school as a neutral ground for now but still be wary of her. Alice may be fighting on the side of good but she's more dangerous than any other villain. However, as much as I hate to admit it, she's not going to hurt Zoe or anyone near her age.
"Since you know her better than me, I'll defer to your judgement…..for now. That being said, I don't like what she's planning with the Rivera boy." Lady Gobbler said before she got up and grabbed her jetpack.
Voltura asked "Where are you going?".
"To a villain's senior's meeting." Lady Gobbler said before she flew off into the air exit.
"I'm home." Zoe said as she walked into the planning room. Voltura got up from her seat and immediately gave her daughter a hug.
I know it has been a long time since I updated this story too but I hope it's good enough after a long time. I know it doesn't have any action but it delves into the relationship Alice, which is my OC, had with Voltura and how it would somewhat connect to her, Black Cuervo, and some of El Tigre's development in the years to come along with the other stories.