Note: This chapter is set in the same universe as Chapter 1. That is, it is set in a universe combining Ordinary Heroes and Superhero.

X X X

The Costume Isn't Everything – The Greatest Nine Year Old In The World

Averia stopped mid-stride and turned to look at the television in the store window. Around her, the rest of her class continued to walk down the street, but the news on the television was just too important to ignore.

According to the news, Rocket Town had just come under attack by an army of evil robots. AVALANCHE was trying to contain the situation, but the report said that there were hundreds, maybe even thousands of robots. That was bad, really, really bad. Averia had a lot of respect for AVALANCHE – she even had an autographed photo of Tifa Lockhart that her Aunt Vanille had gotten her somehow – but there might too many robots to deal with, even for them.

"Come on, Averia," one of the teachers said. "We need to keep walking."

Averia nodded and hurried to catch up to the others, but her mind was already considering all of the possibilities. She really should stay with her class. Right now they were on camp in Nibelheim, but she was already bored out of her mind. The whole point of the trip was to go and see the mountains, but she'd already seen the mountains, and from above too. She would have argued harder about going, but considering the fact that her parents were Ultrawoman and Lady Lightning, arguing wouldn't really have done her much good.

But maybe there was something else she could do. According to her Aunt Vanille, people did all sorts of important research in Rocket Town, which was probably why the robots were there in the first place. And if someone was willing to send that many robots, then the research they were after had to be important. Normally, one of her parents would have gone there by now, but just a few minutes ago, she'd gotten a message from them on the special communicator that she carried with her everywhere. There was something really, really big happening in Nautilus, so her parents and her Aunt Vanille had gone there instead.

She frowned. AVALANCHE needed help, but right now there was no one to give it to them. Or maybe there was. She could do it. Nibelheim wasn't that far from Rocket Town, not for her. She might not be as fast as her parents, but she was still much faster than almost anyone else. And she'd been training a whole lot in the combat simulator, so she knew that fighting robots wouldn't be a problem. If she didn't go then people might get hurt, and her parents were always saying that with great power came great responsibility. Yes, she just had to go. There was just one problem. She didn't have a costume.

What to do?

Averia frowned and looked around for a few moments before a small smile settled on her lips. There was a costume store across the street. Moving at a speed that would make her all but invisible to a normal person, she darted across the street and into the store. With so many kids wandering around, it would be a while until the teachers noticed she was gone, and even if they did notice, she could always show up later and say that she got lost.

Ignoring the stares she got from a few of the customers already in the store, she looked for something, anything that she could use at a disguise. The absolute last thing she wanted to do was to show up in a clown costume or something. That would just be dumb, and a flying clown would probably scare lots of people too.

There was just one problem. All of the good costumes, the ones with capes and masks, cost a lot of money. Of course, she could always just take one and use her super speed to get away before anyone noticed, but that would be stealing, and stealing was wrong. She took out her wallet and winced. There was only one costume she could afford, and she really didn't want to wear it. But what choice did she have? While she was worrying about her costume, people might be getting hurt.

With a sigh, she took the costume to the counter and paid for it. It wasn't what she wanted, but it was better than turning up in her school clothes. It was just a good thing that her communicator had a disguise function built into it too. It wasn't as good as the ones her mom and her Aunt Vanille used, but it should be enough to keep people from recognising her face. All she had to do now was change and then make the short flight to Rocket Town.

X X X

Tifa darted behind a pile of rubble as a hail of gunfire filled the air. She sighed. Just last week, AVALANCHE had gone up against a horde of killer mutants courtesy of Hojo, and now they had to deal with killer robots. It was almost like the script of a bad movie, only it wasn't a movie, it was her life.

"There sure are a lot of them today."

Tifa looked across the street and rolled her eyes. Crouched behind another pile of rubble was Yuffie. The young woman was dressed in stereotypical ninja garb – black clothing that covered almost every part of her except her face. It was hard to believe sometimes, that only a few years ago Yuffie had gone into battle wearing short shorts and a shirt that exposed a great deal of her mid-riff. Still, several years of missions had definitely taught Yuffie the importance of dressing appropriately for battle.

"There are always a lot of them," Tifa replied. She grinned and snuck a look over the rubble in front of her. "After all, we're AVALANCHE. We don't do easy."

There were a dozen robots advancing down the street, firing almost indiscriminately at anything that moved. Thankfully, almost all of the civilians had already been evacuated, which left her and the rest of AVALANCHE free to deal with the robots as they saw fit. Of course, that was easier said than done considering the fact that the robots were three metres tall and armed to the teeth.

"Can you take the six on the left, Yuffie?" Tifa ducked back behind cover. "I'll take the six on the right."

Yuffie grinned and with a flick of her wrists, both her hands were full of shuriken. "Sure, but maybe we could make it interesting." Her grin widened. "Whoever takes care of theirs first has to hand over a technique."

Tifa's lips curled. "Sure. That sounds like fun." Like her, Yuffie was capable of channelling her spiritual energy, but the younger woman's techniques tended to lend themselves more toward stealth than straight up combat. Of course, what Yuffie lacked in brute force, she made up for with ingenuity. The shuriken she favoured were rigged with everything from paralytic poisons to high explosives. "Let's go."

In a burst of speed, Tifa leapt over the rubble and rushed toward the oncoming robots. All twelve of them opened fire at once, but she zigzagged wildly, using what little cover there was to help her close the gap. She ducked behind a battered car, and there was a low hiss as several shuriken streaked through the air. A moment later, three of the robots on the left were gone, lost in an explosion that shook the street and sent bits of half-melted metal and concrete everywhere.

Tifa pushed out from behind the car as the remaining robots staggered about in disarray. More shuriken flew overhead and another three robots dropped to their knees, great arcs of electricity racing over their forms. She bit back a growl. Damn it. She should have known better than to take Yuffie up on her bet. Oh well, it was all in good fun. Whenever she taught Yuffie something, the younger woman always taught her something in return. The bet was just a way to keep things interesting.

As if their job wasn't already interesting enough.

A split-second later and Tifa reached the robot closest to her. It lunged forward, intent on smashing her with one huge fist, but when it's fist smashed into the ground, she was no longer there. Instead, she was airborne, flipping easily through the air. She angled herself toward the robot's head, and spun to drive one heel into the side of the robot's skull. The robot was heavily armoured, but against the spiritual energy that Tifa could use, its armour might as well have been made of paper. The robot toppled to its knees, and Tifa vaulted off its shoulder toward the next one. Practice was all well and good, but there was nothing quite like real combat.

Just under a minute later, and the last of the robots crashed into a nearby building, its entire chest caved in. Tifa took a few seconds to confirm that all of the robots were down, and then relaxed slightly.

"Looks like you owe me a technique," Yuffie said as she skipped over, twirling a shuriken around one finger. "Maybe that one where you punch something and it catches fire… that one was pretty cool

Tifa chuckled. She had absolutely no doubt in her mind that Yuffie would love that technique – and that the rest of AVALANCHE would hate it. The last time she'd taught Yuffie a technique, it had been one that transformed spiritual energy into electricity. Yuffie had spent almost a week going around giving people little shocks. Vincent had been absolutely murderous. "We'll see. I have another technique that –" She froze as the ground began to shake. "Actually, hold that thought. I don't think we're out of the woods yet."

A quick look around confirmed that things hadn't gotten better, they'd gotten much, much worse. Right now, they were in the middle of a three-way intersection, and marching down each of the three streets was a horde of robots.

"For crying out loud," Yuffie growled. "How many robots are there?" She made a face. "I should probably just summon Leviathan and –"

"No," Tifa growled before she sighed and softened her voice. "Not yet. I don't want you summoning Leviathan unless you have to." Yuffie belonged to a secretive clan of ninjas that had somehow survived into modern times. What made them especially notorious was their ability to summon an entity called 'Leviathan'. No one was entirely sure of what Leviathan was – Gast suspected it was some kind of higher-dimensional alien – but the toll it took on Yuffie was enormous. She'd been unconscious for a month the last time she'd called on Leviathan, and Tifa was not about to risk that again unless there was no other choice.

Yuffie made a face. "Fine, but if things get bad, I will summon Leviathan." Her gaze hardened and she locked eyes with Tifa. "I'd rather be unconscious for a few weeks than let you end up dead."

Tifa nodded grimly. "Fine, but not until I give the word."

The robots on all sides picked up the pace. Given their sheer numbers, some of them had chosen to hang back to offer supporting fire as others rushed in for melee combat.

"You know," Yuffie muttered. "It would be nice if we had some reinforcements."

And then the strangest thing happened. As one of the robots broke away from the others and leapt into the air to crush them, there was a boom of thunder from the south and then a flash of lightning before something slammed into the robot, and smashed it into the ground. A cloud of dust billowed out, and the other robots stopped to evaluate the new threat.

"Am I awesome or what?" Yuffie said, grinning at Tifa. "I just say the word and… boom, reinforcements."

Tifa's eyes narrowed. Only one superhero in the world made a habit of appearing in a bolt of lightning. However, as the cloud of dust cleared, Tifa realised that the person in front of them was not Lady Lightning.

Lady Lightning was not that short.

And Lady Lightning definitely did not wear a bright pink tutu.

Even the robots seemed a little taken aback.

And naturally, Yuffie was the first one to speak.

"You're wearing a tutu." The ninja stared at the little girl in front them, struggling to hold back her laughter. "You've been flying around in a pink tutu."

The girl – who had indeed been flying around in a bright pink tutu – turned and gave Yuffie a vicious glare. Eyes still on Yuffie, she kicked the remains of the robot at her feet. The pile of mangled metal thumped down the street, and put an immediate end to Yuffie's laughter. Laughing at a little girl was one thing, laughing at a little girl who could kick a two-ton robot like it was a tin can was another matter.

"It was the only thing I could find," the girl grumbled. "And it wasn't like I could come in my school clothes." She blushed, and Tifa found herself struggling to make out her features. The feeling was actually quite familiar, and that combined with her powers…

"Wait," Tifa said. "Are your parents Lady Lightning and Ultrawoman?"

The girl winced and then looked away. "No…"

That was a yes then.

"Well, that explains something." Yuffie went over and gave the girl a gentle pat on the head. "You certainly take after your parents." She grinned. "Only you haven't got their fashion sense."

"Gah!" The girl waved one fist at Yuffie as the ninja danced out of reach. "Stop making fun of me!"

"Hehehehe." Yuffie giggled. "You're so cute." The girl flushed. "And you're even cuter when you blush too. Heh. Teasing you is almost as fun as teasing Vincent."

Tifa sighed. Yuffie might dress more sensibly for battle, but she still picked the worst times to play around. "Enough." She glanced over at the robots that had once more begun to advance, although more slowly. Whatever their analysis of the girl was, it was clear that they regarded her as a threat. She looked at the girl. "You might have powers, but this is dangerous. Are you sure you can handle it?"

The girl stopped scowling at Yuffie and took a deep breath. "I'm sure." She nodded firmly. "I've trained really hard. I can do this."

"Good." Tifa smiled. "Because I'd hate to get into trouble with your parents."

Yuffie opened her mouth to say something, but the words were lost, as the robots finally began their attack. Bullets and missiles raced towards the three of them, and they split apart, each of them taking one street.

The next few minutes passed by in a blur of explosions and screaming metal. Tifa punched, kicked, and hit anything that she could reach. A missile arced toward her, and she leapt out of the way just in time, taking shelter behind the mangled remains of a robot, before she hurled herself into the next group.

A fresh wave of robots forced her back, and she found herself at the intersection again. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of Yuffie. The ninja was a blur of motion, flipping and spinning crazily from building to building as she rained shuriken down on the robots below her. Now and then, the robots would box her in, only for Yuffie to disappear in a puff of smoke before reappearing somewhere else. Tifa grinned. She might have the edge on Yuffie in direct combat, but Yuffie was definitely better when it came to using spiritual energy for things like teleportation. In fact, that was how Yuffie had met AVALANCHE – she'd broken into their supposedly impregnable headquarters. And as for the little girl… the little girl looked to be having the time of her life.

The girl was wading through the robots, her fists and feet flying out to crush reinforced metal with an ease that was equal parts frightening and impressive. Some of her blows were accompanied by the flash of electricity as lightning raced along her fists. A missile streaked through the air, and the girl blew it apart with a blast of what had to be heat vision, before a second blast melted the robot that had fired.

Tifa chuckled and turned her attention back to her own opponents. Kids these days.

X X X

Averia groaned as she smashed through one building before finally coming to a rest in a second. She was getting tired otherwise that robot never would have landed a hit on her. With a growl, she pulled herself out of the wall, and then bounded back onto the street. Time for revenge. She picked up a car, and used it to club the robot responsible for hitting her into the building.

Flying and moving around didn't take too much energy, but using her heat vision so much along with her lightning had tired her out a lot faster than she expected. A quick look around told her that Yuffie and Tifa were still fighting. They might not recognise her, but she definitely recognised them. They were doing a pretty good job of cutting down the robots, but there were more on the way, and at this rate… she shook her head. She needed to do something.

"Can you two buy me some time?" Averia shouted as she flew to the middle of the intersection. Tifa and Yuffie were there, fighting almost back-to-back.

Tifa punched another robot and nodded. "What have you got in mind?"

"Something big." Averia bit her lip. "I just need a little time."

As Yuffie and Tifa did their best to hold back the onslaught of robots, Averia closed her eyes. She needed something that could take out all of the robots at once, but none of her normal attacks could do that. Even her heat vision wouldn't go through more than two or three at a time, and she'd probably go blind or something if she used it that much. Instead, she'd have to rely on something else, something that her mom had only just started teaching her about.

Averia retreated into herself, and as the sounds of the battle faded away, she found herself alone in a dark corridor lined with titan pillars. Something that was not quite fear rippled through her, but she forced herself to stay calm. Later, when she was older, she would have to come here again if she wanted to be more like her mom, but for now, she just needed to borrow a little power.

She made her way down the corridor until she came to a great crystal throne. There, wrought in finest crystal, was a figure that could almost have been her mom. She gulped.

Please, she thought. I know I'm a little early, but I just need a little help.

The reply thundered through her.

You are my daughter as much as you are hers. You will have help. You know to whom you must call.

Averia's eyes snapped open. She shuddered. Only a few seconds had passed by the looks of it, but it had felt like hours. Above her, the skies had begun to darken, and she felt something inside her stir in response. It was the same power she felt whenever her mom really fought, and now, she could feel it inside herself.

"Great Etro!" Averia cried, her face turned to the sky. "Please grant me your aid. Strike down my enemies!"

What followed was a tempest of thunder and lightning that far surpassed anything that Averia had expected. Electricity rained down from the sky, and blew apart every robot that she could see. The wave of thunder that followed rocked the sky, and flung her out of the air. She hit the ground with enough force to leave behind a crater.

Then she blacked out.

X X X

"Hey, kid, you alive?"

Averia's eyes opened and she scowled. Yuffie was poking her with one of her shuriken. "Stop poking me with that. It's sharp."

"Yeah." Yuffie poked her again and grinned. "But you've got impenetrable skin and all that." She poked Averia again, and the edge of the shuriken bent. "See?"

"Yuffie, that's enough." Averia smiled as Tifa walked over and helped her to her feet. The burgundy-eyed woman smiled warmly. "That was something, all right."

Averia smiled back. "Thanks, but do you think you could maybe keep it to yourself." She winced and wobbled. She tried to summon some lightning and frowned. Nothing. It would be days then, maybe even weeks before she could call up any more of the lightning that her mom was so famous for. Right now, she wasn't even sure if she could fly. "I'm not actually supposed to be doing stuff like that yet."

Yuffie chuckled. "Still, it was pretty cool." She gave Averia a teasing look. "Maybe once you've found something better than a tutu, you might be able to go into the hero business for real."

There was a crack of thunder and Averia gulped as a bolt of lightning raced down from the sky and struck the ground nearby. When it cleared, her mom was standing there, eyes narrowed in a look that promised a great deal of trouble.

"I don't think she's quite ready to go into the hero business just yet."

Tifa nodded at the newcomer. "It's been a while, Lady Lightning."

"Tifa." Lady Lightning nodded back. Her gaze snapped back to Averia. "Now, do you care to explain why you're here and not with your classmates?"

"Well… I heard there was trouble here and I came to help and…" Averia trailed off. Her mom could be really, really scary when she wanted to be. "And…" She looked at Tifa and Yuffie for support. "Well…"

Yuffie shook her head. "Oh, no, kid, you're on your own for this one."

Averia looked back at her mom. "Um…"

"I understand that you want to help," Lady Lightning said. "And I'm very proud of you for doing so well." She reached forward and Averia's eyes widened as she was pulled into her mom's embrace. "And I'm glad that you're safe." She pulled away and scowled, and Averia just knew she was in for it. "But for worrying me and your mommy, and for rushing into danger without even telling us, consider yourself grounded for a month."

"But mom," Averia began. "I was just trying to help…"

Lady Lightning raised one eyebrow. "Would you like to make it two months?"

Averia wisely chose to keep quiet.

Tifa cleared her throat. "Lady Lightning, she really did well today. I mean it. Things would have gone much worse without her here."

Lady Lightning sighed. "Fine, I suppose I could only ground you for three weeks." She lifted Averia into her arms and then nodded at Tifa and Yuffie. "Unless there's anything else, we should be going. This one," she looked at Averia, "Needs to get back to class."

"It's okay, we can handle the cleanup," Tifa replied as Lady Lightning rose into the air. "Have a nice flight."

X X X

Author's Notes

As always, I neither own Final Fantasy, nor am I making any money off of this.

This chapter is a companion piece to the first chapter. A number of people have asked what sort of powers Averia would have, and I have been neglecting her a little, so I thought I'd give her a bit of time in the sun. Unlike Diana who resembles Fang more, Averia is a bit more like Lightning. She is also noticeably stronger than Diana, but three years is a lot of time to develop power-wise (Averia is roughly three years older than Diana). Averia's attack at the end, which took out most of the robots, isn't really representative of her power. She borrowed it from the same place that Lightning received the powers that make her Lady Lightning, but whereas Lightning has – by the time this chapter occurs – full access to that power and full mastery over it, Averia is really just flailing around in the dark. That's why she said she shouldn't really be using it. For those of you wondering what her costume looks like, don't worry – she'll get a proper one eventually.

I also introduced Yuffie here even though she hasn't appeared in Superhero yet. I needed someone to be Tifa's partner during this chapter, and I settled on Yuffie, because I've always had a soft spot for her, and because I wanted to give her the chance to tease Averia (if you ask me, Yuffie and Fang would get on quite well in that regard). Unlike her Final Fantasy VII self she is much-more ninja like in the way she dresses. In terms of powers, she is like Tifa, except her use of spiritual energy takes on a different form. I'll have more extensive notes on her when she appears in Superhero (which is probably going to happen in the next chapter of that story, and if not then, relatively soon).

If you have any comments on previous chapters, or even just suggestions or requests, drop me a line. This story is where I get to muck around a little without worrying too much about the consequences (I shudder to think of what would happen if I applied that approach to some of my other stories, which actually do have coherent plot lines). It's definitely a story I have a lot of fun with (although, I do enjoy writing all of my others, as well).

As always, I appreciate feedback. Reviews and comments are welcome.