Gonna say this right now.
I know that sewers aren't anything like what fiction describes them as, convenient escapes and tunnels. But I don't care, because it's a useful trope, so I'm going to use it =P
Chapter 3
"And we come to you live in the skies above Newfoundland..."
The reporter in the helicopter talked about the ongoing situation, and in the far distance flashes of light, explosions and crashing noises raged. Leviathan was attacking Newfoundland, and the first responders to the battle were currently trying to buy time for the capes responsible for bringing in volunteers to do so. And Valerie sat there, leaning against Melody and holding her hand, watching the events unfold. She knew it was coming, she knew she could have tried to do something, and maybe she would have saved lives. Or, maybe, she would have caused more problems than she solved.
She refused to feel responsible for what happened, but she did still feel miserable, knowing that so many people were about to die. Newfoundland had a population in the hundreds of thousands, and so many of them would never leave the island. Cuddling closer to Melody, she felt the arm around her tighten, even as her mother focused on the television, and on what was happening. Her phone rang, and Valerie watched as she took it out and stared at it for a moment before answering. "I saw the news, but I can't go."
She could hear some kind of argument being yelled through the phone, and for a moment, Valerie feared that her mother wouldn't listen to her, but no, she put her foot down. "I made a promise to my daughter, I can't do that to her." Another noise came through the phone, and Valerie saw as her mother's face darkened. "You don't get to say that to me, not after what I've done, what I lost in that battle. Don't call me again, ever." Melody ended the call and put the phone on the table, pulling her closer and hugging her. She hadn't heard what was said, but it obviously had a major effect on her mother.
Turning, she reached around with her arm and hugged her, feeling Melody rest her forehead against her. "That was the PRT, they wanted to know when I'd be ready for transport. They said something pretty...bad. You already know I was there when Behemoth attacked Lyon, don't you?" Confused, Valerie nodded, wondering what had happened. "There was an explosion, a piece of rebar..." Melody said quietly, breaking her grasp to lift up her shirt, exposing a puffy white oval, a scar, on the right side of her stomach. "That's why I couldn't have children. And the...person on the other side of that phone saw fit to tell me that I'd witnessed Behemoth and Leviathan attacking firsthand, so I would know how much help my power could be against an Endbringer, as if what I'd lost didn't matter."
Snuggling against Melody, Valerie draped Melody's right arm over her, laying against her and closing her eyes, listening to her heartbeat as she spoke. "But then you saved me, you became my mother." She said softly, feeling Melody tense for a brief moment before settling again. "You were there after what happened, and you helped me put myself back together again. I might not have come from you, but that doesn't matter, you're mom, in every way that matters." Smiling, she felt as Melody caressed her head gently, even as the television showed an unwinnable battle that she would have been at...would have almost certainly died at.
They stayed like that, witnesses to Leviathan's rampage as the island itself was sunk beneath the waves, taking an untold number of lives as the colossus departed back under the waves, leaving a decimated populace in its wake. As it happened, the only sound was the dull house of the helicopter rotor. Nobody was speaking, everyone was just stunned. Six years ago, Kyushu was taken under the waves by Leviathan, and now, he repeated his previous act but on an island three times the size. Sure, the population of Newfoundland was way below the population of Kyushu, but the fact Leviathan had sank it just like that...was terrifying, as if everybody was holding their breath and hoping it was all a bad dream.
Eventually, the reporter started talking again, but that didn't matter. "Val, you are my little lucky star." Ducking her head a little, Valerie felt the kiss placed on her forehead, and despite what they'd just witnessed, she smiled. "I was a bit confused by what you said but...I can see what you meant. And don't worry, it was 'just a nightmare'." Valerie giggled as Melody tapped on her nose with a finger. "But you need to promise you'll tell me if you ever get a nightmare like that again, okay honey?"
Valerie nodded, frowning at even the vague implication that she wouldn't do so.
"Happy birthday sweetheart."
Smiling at her mother as she came out of her room, Valerie vaguely yawned out a response, rubbing at her eyes. Seventeen years old, one year closer to Scion losing his shit and destroying the world. Just thinking about it was enough to dampen her spirits, not that she let that show. Over the past months, she'd been going over every change that had happened from her appearance, and realized that just by her existing, she had changed things.
Heartbreaker didn't exist, she'd confirmed that multiple times. That meant Jean-Paul Vasil didn't exist, better know as Alec or Regent. With him not being a part of the Undersiders, a massive butterfly was already flapping wings in the past and causing hurricanes in the future. Any hope of keeping canon together was already gone, that one change meant countless other things wouldn't work. His abrasive and sarcastic self not being on that team meant any number of things could change, which could easily end up with Taylor Hebert killed by Lung, or the Undersiders failing to escape from Lung after robbing him. Canon was already gone, it had just taken her a while to realize that fact.
Alongside that, her replacing Heartbreaker quite possibly meant that Canary might not get railroaded for having the power to command others, since Heartbreaker didn't exist as an example of what a master capable of controlling humans could do. That wasn't something she intended to leave up to chance, she would be keeping an eye on Canary when she made her debut, and if Canary was slated to go to the birdcage, Valerie would intervene for her.
Then there was Fleur, murdered by an E88 grunt in her civilian identity. A part of her wanted to save her, but another part didn't want New Wave to continue pushing for capes to unmask and reveal their identities. It was, on so many levels, utterly retarded. She could genuinely see where they were coming from regarding it, but it was so utterly stupid that they were willing to expose their children like that...that she honestly wanted to order them to beat themselves up for being so brainlessly dumb.
On and on the list went. Saving Annette, stopping Emma Barnes from becoming a psycho bitch, making Sophia Hess walk in front of a truck, so many little events that would further alter the story. Her taking Heartbreaker's place was just the lynchpin for it all, because she had already irreparably altered the course of the entire story, just by existing. But each change threatened even more of the story. Saving Annette would drastically adjust how Taylor grew up, or even just making it so Emma stayed her friend, or at least didn't bully her, all of that would mean Taylor almost certainly would never trigger.
Without Taylor...Valerie would need to do it. She'd already come to that conclusion weeks ago. Using her memories, she would have to find each individual lynchpin of the story, and make sure they either did or didn't do the things that would mean she could save the world. For instance, she would need to find Bakuda and stop her from blowing up half of Brockton Bay. Instead, Bakuda would work on anti-Endbringer bombs.
The Dragonslayers would never come to existence, she would make sure to hunt down Geoff and turn him around, helping instead of hindering. As far as she knew it all worked out somehow for Dragon, but Valerie had no idea what actually happened in-lore, so leaving it to chance wasn't an option, not when so much was going to change. As for the Slaughterhouse Nine, well, she was very dubious regarding them. The Siberian was her biggest fear, since she was just a projection, Valerie's power would probably not reach the man behind the beast. Hatchetface was also a questionable prospect, and so was Crawler. Jack Slash...was not quite as worrying to her really, his power helped him avoid danger or something like that, but as long as her power still connected to him, she would be a-okay.
Forcing a smile on her face and pushing away those dark thoughts, she reached out and gave Melody a one-armed hug, spying a plate of breakfast already on the table for her. Sitting down and digging in, she listened as her mother talked about the plan for the day. First, they were going to go to 'Musée du Chocolat' which was apparently a pretty fancy chocolate shop and museum combo. Then, they were going to go shopping for a while, which Melody made clear was pretty much just a big excuse for buying whatever she wanted, within reason. Finally, dinner at a little Italian restaurant with a table overlooking the river.
And while Melody probably thought she was being sneaky, Valerie noted that there was no mention of presents. Coupled with dinner, and she had a sneaking suspicion that when they came back, there was going to be a surprise waiting. But still, she played along and pretended she hadn't noticed as they bounced across the city a few times over the day. The chocolate was pretty damn good, both because of the store and also because for her birthday she was utterly forsaking any kind of self-control or adherence to her diet, as displayed by the extra-large hot chocolate she got.
She and her mother lost most of the day wandering around the shopping center, heading into random stores and just spending time together, occasionally buying things, until by the end of it, the trunk of the car was pretty much full of bags, mostly clothes along with some baubles and other items. And the restaurant was perfect, the sound of the river and the ambiance was just stunning, whilst the food itself was pretty damn good, especially after the excitement of the day. But there was a certain energy, a certain...excitement that Valerie could feel from how Melody acted, that told her the guess she'd made earlier in the day was bang-on.
Still she played along, acting oblivious as Melody told her to leave the bags in the car, then let her enter the darkened apartment first, the lights flicking on to reveal Cherry standing next to the table, a few wrapped presents and a cake with two unlit candles reading out 17. "Happy birthday to you~." Cherry and Melody began singing, Cherry lighting the candles and picking up the cake as Melody came in behind her. Valerie stood there awkwardly with a smile on her face, happy and embarrassed at the same time as they sang that awkward song for her.
When they finished, it was with relief that she blew out the candles, silently making her wish. "Happy birthday Val." Cherry said, putting down the cake and giving her a friendly hug. "Now, I can't stay long, I need to get home, but I did get you a little something." Cherry then picked up one of the presents and handed it over, keeping ahold of it for a moment. "But don't treat this like a toy, okay?" Nodding, Valerie pulled open the wrapping paper, revealing a cylinder that confused her for a moment before she realized it was a baton. "You're strong now, and I know you can be trusted, so I wanted to get you something practical. I'll be teaching you how to use it, so don't worry about knocking yourself out with it. Got to go now, but I hope you had a great birthday, and I'll see you on Monday."
Accepting another hug from Cherry, Valerie watched her give her mother a hug as well before leaving. "So, which one should I open first?" She asked towards Melody, earning herself a smile that set off alarm bells in her head as her mother picked up a present seemingly at random and gave it to her. "Hmm, I have no idea what this is." She said faux-inquisitively, rolling the present over itself a few times before opening it and flushing brightly. "Seriously mom?" She squeaked out, pinching the gift package as if it was a smelly pair of underwear.
"Sweetheart, you forget I was your age just six and a half...okay fine, seven years ago. And with everything that happened-" Valerie stiffened a little but kept listening. "-you obviously aren't going to grow up looking at boys the same way normal girls do. It might be embarrassing, but I'd rather buy you something like this than for you to hurt yourself 'improvising'." Sensing an embarrassing story there, Valerie put it aside as quickly as she put aside the box of 'marital aids', or in other words, a whole bunch of various sex toys.
It was probably an inappropriate thing to give her, but she wasn't about to say anything. Viking had definitely soured sex for her, at least until she'd had soome more time to handle what he'd done to her, but that didn't mean she didn't get horny, and Melody didn't know that she'd already used a few innocuous objects as sex toys. Having actual toys to use instead was definitely a life-saver, since she couldn't buy them herself yet, and asking was a mortifying prospect. She would much rather keep using improvised toys than ask her mother to buy sex toys for her, that was just something that would never happen. "...Thanks, mom...it's embarrassing but...well, you said it yourself, you were my age not long ago."
That in turn led Melody to flush a little, and Valerie grinned in response even as she got playfully bonked on the head. "Anyway, I promise none of the other gifts are quite as awkward." Smiling, Valerie opened the second, blinking as she pulled out a beautiful wool scarf, black with red lines woven through it. Bundling it up in her hand, Valerie rubbed her cheek against it, luxuriating in the soft material. "Well I'm glad to see you like it, I wove that myself." Valerie turned highly skeptical eyes towards Melody, who merely shrugged at her. "I grew up learning how to do that kind of stuff, weaving and stitching, tailor work."
Pinning one end of the scarf under her chin, Valerie wound it around herself, wrapping up her neck and then tucking in the end, before rocking her head to the side and rubbing herself against the scarf some more. "I love it!" She announced gleefully, toying with the scarf, shifting and twisting it and admiring the way the red dove through the darkness intermittently. Opening the next present revealed a nail polish kit including an electric nail polisher, a nail lamp and a rainbow of different paint bottles.
"Okay, be careful with this one, this one was the most expensive by far to get." Nodding solemnly, Valerie took the last present from her mother and began to delicately peel away at it, revealing a rectangular black box about the size of her hand. Opening that revealed a small glass bottle with red liquid inside, encased in plenty of padding. Looking up at Melody, she saw the smile on her face. "You remember when you asked me if you could dye your hair a different colour, and I told you maybe, then asked what colour you'd want?" The parts snapped together immediately, and after ever so gently putting down the box, she gave her mother a hug which was returned happily. "Happy birthday sweetheart." Melody whispered softly, lifting her face and brushing a hand over her hair. "Do you want to use it now?"
Nodding, Valerie picked up the box again, looking intently at the bottle. "It's made by a tinker, he does all kinds of cosmetic stuff, and don't worry, nobody has ever had any issues with his products. All you do, and yes, I triple-checked to make sure, is drink the contents. After a period that can last between 2 to 8 hours, your hair will start to change colours permanently." Staring at the bottle, Valerie opened it and took a sniff, smelling nothing. It didn't smell like paint or egg or grass or anything, there was no discernable smell.
Looking at her mother, Valerie smiled, then put the bottle to her lips and in one go swallowed down the entire concoction, gulping a few more times just to be sure. Even in her mouth, it had no taste, nor was there an aftertaste as it settled in her stomach. "How much did this even cost? I mean, I know it's not a weapon or anything groundbreaking, but still." Melody rolled her eyes, making it clear she wouldn't answer a question about exactly how much something cost. It was her birthday, and telling her the price was unnecessary as far as Melody was concerned.
And so, Valerie made sure she would get enough money to at least buy a nice gift for her mother's birthday in a few months.
Tapping at her keyboard, Valerie sent off another email, marked a new meeting on the calendar, then leaned back and cracked her fingers against her shoulder.
After her birthday, she registered for the necessary GED tests and passed them all, which meant that she was now fully able to be legally employed at 17. It didn't take long before she managed to hook herself up a job as a secretary. It didn't mean facing too many people at once, only a handful at a time, and it was a job that had basically zero risk of danger. The fact she only had one arm hampered her typing speed, but she was quick enough at typing beforehand that after she'd gotten used to having half the fingers to type with, she was still able to keep a respectable typing speed.
The fact she was also a deft hand at using Excel and could use it to make an easily-edited system, allowing her boss to change numbers and get whatever information he wanted, definitely helped there. She didn't discount the idea that she was also eye-candy of a sort, considering how Cherry made sure she stayed physically fit, her hair was cherry red which really attracted attention, and, though it was probably narcissistic to admit, she was fairly pleasing to the eye even without makeup.
As for the company she was working for, it was a chipset development and manufacturing business, a wealthy company but one that criminals wouldn't really attack for money. Even if they did, they wouldn't pick an administrative office to attack, and if they got it in their heads to find a valuable hostage, her boss wasn't exactly that. Sure, he was a manager, but that was just for his own team, he was still a long way down on the totem pole compared to other targets in the building.
Rolling her shoulders, Valerie skimmed her email, then continued her previous task of organizing the data that the team had forwarded her, collating it into the preferred format of her boss for ease of reading and summarizing the important data points, at least for the initial report, since he could always read the rest if he felt like it. When the phone went off, she picked it up and pinned it using her left shoulder, using her right to type out any pertinent information that was mentioned. It was a meeting between all team-level managers, alongside the date and time.
Of course, the selected date and time meant she'd have to shift around an appointment that could only be done on that day which meant moving a different appointment to accommodate to a different but still acceptable day, and she could already tell she was going to be on the phone for at least an hour trying to get people to agree to the changed schedule. The worst part was that she highly suspected that the manager who had sat in for her interview was the one responsible, a rather grotesque bitch of a woman called Annie who was probably projecting all her personal issues onto Valerie.
Whereas Valerie was thin but in shape, Annie was overweight in every sense of the word. Annie was...well, ugly was a harsh word, but it was true. Plus, the woman didn't even put any effort in. She wore clothes that did literally worse than nothing to her image, her hair was ratty and clearly just yanked into a frizzy bun every day, and her 'lunch' was pretty much made of fat and sugar. And Valerie got the wonderful experience of being the one who had to deal with all the petty bullshit that messed up whatever scheduling she'd made pretty much every day without fail.
She didn't even consider seriously trying to get Annie in trouble, everything that had been done, whilst annoying, was still reasonable. Annie could just point at her own schedule and say that she had a gap in that place, and if that meant an overlap with what Valerie had done, then it just had to be fixed. Not that she let it get her down, or make her want to quit. The job she had was pretty much perfect for her in terms of avoiding people and not having to work around her missing limb.
And that was a definite sticking point for her, she had to have a job that didn't require two arms. Any kind of packing or lifting job was out, doing it with one arm wasn't acceptable on a safety level, she needed both hands to lift and carry things. Sure, she had the strength for it, but she needed to be able to grab things in two places, or else it was a safety hazard. That left a clerk job, but that was too risky, if there was a busy hour, she'd be surrounded by forming bonds, and while she'd gotten better at handling it, she was taking it slowly and tentatively, she didn't want to break down from being near too many people.
It did however mean she had to handle plenty of unwanted attention, concern and even pity toward her lost limb. She was down one limb, but she was obviously managing, so feeling bad for her was just aggravating. Valerie counted herself lucky that her boss only took one explanation to understand that she wasn't looking to leverage her disability to skive off work and do as little as possible, she was there to do a job, and she was going to damn well do it, limb or no limb.
Thinking about that as she took pages of technical jargon and turned it into a few short sentences that got the point across, Valerie wondered if maybe that was one of the reasons Annie disliked her, she was legally disabled and yet she still put in 110% effort, not letting her lost limb influence her work ethic. Possibly overthinking it, but even if she was, what did it matter, she was just wool-gathering. The simple fact was that Annie hated her, and she would just deal with it, because the pay was pretty damn good, an annual salary of $45,600, paid out bi-weekly as $1,900.
Half of that she was going to give to her mother, it seemed only fair after all, and that still left her with $950 every 2 weeks to work with. She had already partitioned it off in her head, $300 would be collected towards her gift fund for her mother's birthday. It was in 7 weeks, and she was going to be paid on that week, so in total she'd have $1,200 to find her mother a good present. After that she'd still retain that fund for buying gifts or expenses involving other people like going out for dinner or whatnot. Another $300 would be put towards her 'Brockton Bay' fund, so if she waited for a full two years before leaving, she would have a total of $14,400 ready and waiting for her, more than enough to fly down to Brockton Bay, find a decent apartment and still have cash left over to start things off.
The other $350 was for any kind of regular purchases, clothes and the like, since Melody would still be buying groceries, that was part of what her $950 every 2 weeks was paying for, the rest covering rent, issues with the apartment itself, unexpected expenditures like the car breaking down, that sort of thing. Maybe others would think she was giving away way too much of her pay to her mother, but Valerie would vehemently disagree. Melody was the one handling all that side of things, so giving her that kind of money for doing it all on top of the rest of her life was more than fair to her.
Sending off the synopsis for the information, along with the full report itself, Valerie set about getting in touch with the individual who had their appointment slot taken, managing to shift it to later in the day and displacing a different appointment after a ten-minute back-and-forth. Of course, then she had to call the second displaced individual and see when they were free, and of course, their schedule was full for the preceding and following days, so she had to work it out with them, mercifully ending her quest as they managed to pick out a free spot in two days time that didn't overlap with any other appointments for that day.
Thanking them and placing the phone down on its cradle, Valerie leaned back in her chair and sighed, jumping like a scared cat when she heard a chuckle come from behind her. "Flicker, I'm expected." Trying to calm her racing heart, Valerie peered suspiciously at the distinctly costumed individual whose voice she didn't recognize as one she'd spoken to over the phone recently, before forcing herself to look away from them and opening up the calendar. As she did so, the aforementioned gentleman walked around her desk and towards her boss's door, looking towards her. Spotting the appointment, Valerie gave him a look before gesturing at the door. "Thank you, my dear."
Watching the door close with a proclamation of 'Flicker!' that sounded distinctly friendly, Valerie patted her chest, feeling her heart going a mile a minute. She really hated capes sometimes, especially ones that seemed to like causing heart attacks by jump-scaring innocent secretaries. She resolved to grab her baton and give him a solid thwack on the humerus if he did it again, forcing herself to focus on her computer, only for a very unwelcome entrant to her office to make itself known about a minute later, with a clearing of her flabby throat. "Yes, Miss Stockton, can I help you?"
Valerie maintained a polite, businesslike tone, making no hint of the despisal she felt for the unwanted intrusion of Annie Stockton. "You can in fact. My secretary couldn't help but to notice that a certain 'Flicker' is due to meet with Mr Stone as of this moment. Has he by chance arrived yet?" While outwardly, Valerie was calm, internally, she was stuck. She felt as though Annie had come with bad intentions, but she couldn't just lie and say Flicker wasn't present, could she? That was just asking for her to get fired for lying to a senior member of staff, one that outranked her own boss twice over.
But if she told her, Valerie could already see the stink that Annie could raise about her boss meeting with a cape who hadn't even checked in at reception. if she told Annie he was in there, and her boss got in trouble or even fired, she was equally fucked, because no manager wanted a secretary who would reveal their private meetings to the higher-ups. She wouldn't barring exceptional circumstances, but Annie would definitely make sure that rumor spread like wildfire. And so, Valerie opted for the safest option. "I haven't seen him yet, and Mr Stone is busy right now. If you'd like, I could give you a call once he's finished or if Flicker turns up?"
She could see the look in Annie's eyes, as someone who just caught a big fish. A look that immediately disappeared into a vague smile as the door opened, with Mr Stone poking his head out. "I thought I heard talking outside. Miss Stockton, for what do I owe the pleasure?" He asked casually, opening the office door further as she approached him, apparently completely at ease as she advanced on him.
"My secretary happened to notice a meeting that was scheduled for you with a certain 'Flicker', so I couldn't help but be curious as to why you are meeting with this individual. Is he by chance present?" Mr Stone gave her a shake of his head, and from her body language, Valerie could tell Annie didn't buy it. "You understand that meeting with people who haven't been searched by security is a grave breach of intellectual security?"
"Miss Stockton, if you recall correctly, I was the very person who pushed for those regulations to be instated, I understand all too well how hard informational security is to maintain nowadays. If it would ease your mind, you could come in and we can discuss it further?" That definitely got a reaction out of the bitch, her back tensed and she almost took a step back, as if caught flatfooted by what he said. Then, with confidence and a quiet agreement, she entered his office, immediately looking around and, from what little she saw before the door closed, finding nothing out of the ordinary. Mr Stone gave her a quick wink as he shut the door, and the instant it was closed, she let out the breath she'd been holding.
Since when did a nice, cushy secretary job become so tense and fucking terrifying?
Watching a costume-clad man pinwheel across the mall, Valerie inwardly asked herself if she was really that damn unlucky.
She'd come out in order to see if she could find anything that would be a nice gift for her mother's birthday in a week, and of course, on the day she picked, there was a cape fight going on. Keeping her head down, Valerie watched as they tore the whole place up, neither side really paying any damn attention to the collateral damage they were causing. The villain group, sure, they were villains, but the fact that the heroes that had shown up were being equally negligent was just stupid.
For a brief flicker of a moment, she considered using her power to make them stop, or at least go fight elsewhere. Equally as quickly as it had come, Valerie snuffed out that thought, watching as another hero arrived, picked up a bench then hurled it at the brute of the villain group, sending them flying and smashing through a wall. She made an adjustment to her plans, making sure that she would order Victoria Dallon to stop being so careless with her power, because witnessing the destruction casually wrought between two superpowered groups definitely had a way of forcing her to pay attention.
Again, she felt drawn to give just one single, simple order. If she just got closer to those capes, just long enough for a bond to form and solidify, she could make their entire conflict into a fake, leaving them available for if she needed heavy-hitters. But she didn't, not until she moved to Brockton BNay, and she again pushed away that thought. A moment later, she realized why those thoughts were cropping up, and it made her nervous.
She knew that shards were drawn to conflict, and the shard connected to her brain was witnessing all this destruction and making her want to get involved in her own way. There was something else there, something important...something she'd forgotten to consider, and even as she watched the ongoing battle, she tried to figure out what she had missed. Even as one of the villains traded blows with a hero and caused a double knock-out, she was more fixated on trying ot find out what was so important, associated with power-use...Amy.
Amy Dallon, her power, and what she'd done to Victoria. She had forgotten quite how important that was, and she completely blamed it on overreading fanfiction where Panacea never got that bad, never did...whatever she did to Victoria. As far as Valerie recalled, Amy turned Victoria into effectively a Case 53, at least from appearance, absolutely destroying her body and warping her mind. And the reason she did that was purely by accident, her power having an opportunity to go wild and taking it.
With a shudder, she recalled what she had done to Viking, indulging herself and using her power on him so completely that it was honestly uncomfortable to think about. But since then, she hadn't used her power actively a single time. Not once had she activated her power and given a command, and...that was probably why she was feeling the urge to use her power, to command those capes to do her bidding. It was coming up on a year since she'd 'awoken' in that horrible cabin, a year of her not using her power.
Even as she moved position to avoid the intensifying battle, Valerie considered what she could do. Doing nothing...was a fucking awful idea, she knew that not using a power would just fuck her the same way it had fucked over Amy Dallon, only worse, since Amy still used her power, just a neutered version of it. So...the only thing she could think of would be to find people, random people, and give them various disguised commands. Maybe she could even play it off and use it at work, telling various people to do various normal things they'd usually do anyway.
But...would that be worse? If not using her power was like...like not 'masturbating' it, then would using it like that be akin to 'edging' her power, and serving only to frustrate it? Maybe...maybe that was why Amy's power blew up so hard, because she was effectively teasing her power, only allowing it to heal and never allowing it more than that. It was a weird way to think about it, but the euphemism fit well enough that she didn't bother trying to find an alternate description for it.
If that was the case, then only giving actual, bonafide commands would suffice, not simply reinforcing an action somebody would already undertake. But that would require subverting their typical action process, and stripping away their free will. Viking deserved it, she despised him and if he had a grave and she knew where it was, she'd happily desecrate it, but doing it to regular people sounded utterly abhorrent.
Yelping as a body flew past only a few feet away from her, Valerie forced her attention back on the fight. The villains were taking hits, but they were dishing out damage as well. The one who had been knocked out was somehow the one that had flown past her, and she watched as he got up, cracked his neck, then started to run back towards the fight. As he got close to her, the speed at which her bond formed with him accelerated, snapping into place while he was still a few steps away from her. In that moment, she had to decide.
He was a villain, he robbed and hurt people, maybe even killed them, she didn't really keep up with the local cape scene. If there was anyone she could command without worry, it was him. But at the same time, it was taking the free will of another person. Forcing herself to make a decision, she opened her mouth and spoke quietly. "Stop." He halted in place, and behind his mask she could see his eyes, confused and turning to suspicious.
"Don't move, don't speak, don't use your powers, don't act in any way negatively towards me." She rapidly prevented him from acting, speaking as she crouched down and 'hid'. "Grab me, act as if you are taking me hostage, then take me back to your base. Don't give any indication whatsoever that it is not entirely your own decision." As he moved towards her, she continued to speak, layering command after command onto him. "Answer any question I ask you honestly. Forget all of my previous and future commands but continue to obey them unfailingly. Can any member of your group ignore master effects?"
"No." He said, and after he did, she made him forget what she asked and what he said as he grabbed ahold of her by the shoulder and lifted her. "Alright, everybody hold it, or the one-winged redhead gets a red hole through her chest!" His sudden yell put a rather sudden stop to the fight, many pairs of eyes coming to look towards the villain and his 'hostage'. His team came over smoothly and swiftly, some carrying large bags, others bloodied but fully hopped-up on adrenaline.
"Now, you fine folks wouldn't want to see that, so we's gonna walk on out of here, and you ain't gonna follow us or you'll be mopping up guts off the floor. Don't worry, we'll be letting her go once we're sure you lot ain't following us. And as for proof, well, the proof is in the fact that I don't much fancy getting myself a kill-order. But if it comes between that and continuing this smack-fest, I'd rather run that risk." He emphasized that by jostling her, putting to bed any notion the heroes might have had for making a rush to try and grab her.
The villains, from what little she could see under their disguises, were pretty surprised at the sudden brashness of their teammate, but they still all vacated the mall just as quickly as they had burst in, the brute in the lead shoving the police car cordon aside and leering towards the police officers in cover on either side, as if daring them to shoot him. Swiftly the group crossed into dense urban streets, through alleyways and across roads until they entered a building, and from there headed into the sewers, the brute sealing off the entrance they'd used with a large manhole and guaranteeing that there would be no pursuit. "Alright Rukrut, what the fuck was that shit?" One of the villains said as they walked through the sewer, her being held over the shoulder of the villain she had commanded.
As he responded, she felt her phone be removed from her pocket. "That 'shit' was the fact that Entropy was on her way to the mall, so I decided we needed to get the fuck out before she got there. We can keep ahold of this one- "He patted her thigh, drawing a quiet growl from her. "-until the heat dies down a bit, then take her a ways away and let her go." Valerie heard a grumble from the guy who spoke, but he didn't say anything else.
No, that honor went to one of the other villains, the brute. "So keep your fuckin' hands to yourselves. Kidnapping a chick as a temporary hostage for a mall robbery, sure, whatever, so long as we let her go quick-like. But you start getting handsy and that's when the PRT guys from down in Montreal decide to come pay us a visit. And we don' want that kinda heat. So don'chu worry your pretty little head firebrand, you'll be home and back to your family before you know it. Maybe even add a story to your collection." He made a vague gesture towards her arm, surprising her a little that he was perceptive enough to notice.
The villain he'd addressed, the one who had named the one carrying her as Rukrut, denied any thoughts of the notion. She'd know soon enough if he was telling the truth since she fully intended to take over the team and make them work for her...well, not quite so, she intended to basically use the team as a release for using her power, ordering them to do jobs that wouldn't get anyone hurt or cause too much property damage. Whether that would help or not since it would be what they would be doing anyway, she had no idea, but she remained hopeful that she would figure it out. If all else failed, she would make them rebrand, rewriting them to be rogues instead of villains.
After a few minutes of walking, the brute took the lead, pushing up a manhole cover and leading the group out of the sewer. They emerged into a fairly stereotypical warehouse lair, random couches and furniture laying around, a few electronics including a television and a coffee maker, then finally a warehouse office in the corner with covered windows. "Put me down on the sofa." She whispered near-silently, Rukrut hearing her and obeying her command whilst also forgetting the command had ever been made.
His brain obviously had made up a reason for his doing so since then he sat down and faced her. "Alright, here's the deal redhead. You are gonna stay here for a few hours, then the big guy is gonna take you away from here and let you go. Don't try to scream or escape, or you'll get hurt. I want you to think carefully, did we hurt anyone other than the heroes that came to stop us?" Valerie feigned confused thoughtfulness for a moment before shaking her head. "So, that should tell you we don't have any interest in hurting you, but if you try to mess with us, we will hurt you, because we'd have to in order to make sure you stop trying, understand?"
Nodding, Valerie curiously glanced around, somewhat regretting not giving her orders when everybody in the group was easily in hearing range. It was too late to change it though, she would just have to make do. Whispering only loud enough for Rukrut to hear, she commanded him. "Find a way to get your entire group together near me." He got up and started walking towards the warehouse office, making her curious about what he's doing.
"Don't start falling for a villain now little firebrand." Jumping in place, Valerie looked towards the brute of the group, watching as he sat down beside her heavily. "Ye don't need to say it, 'he kidnapped me, how could I fall in love with a villain like him'? Stockholm Syndrome might start to warp your mind if you let it. That's why you'll not stay here long. Other factors are involved of course, we don't want ya getting a good grip on our voices or body language, but it's to protect you just as it's to protect us. See Roux over there?" Following the pointed finger, she spotted the smallest member of the group. "Six years ago she was kidnapped and kept like a slave for at least six months. Even now, she still feels love towards her now-deceased captor, has a picture of him with her at all times."
Valerie snorted, drawing his sudden attention. "Viking did this to me." Waggling her left sleeve, she slipped her shirt up over her shoulder, exposing her stump to him before pulling it back down. "He kidnapped me and did the same thing, kept me like a slave for his pleasure. Nearly a year since I was freed from him, I still want to find where he was buried just so I can pour gasoline on his grave and burn it."
The brute merely shrugged. "It affects everybody different, I didn't want to hear a knock in a week's time and you coming back to say thank you with a cake or some crap like that. Nobody chose this life, but we've all done shit that we didn't have to do, an' I wouldn't want a pretty little firecracker like yourself mixed up with us." As he spoke, Rukrut came over with the other members of the group, some settling down on the couches, while two stayed standing, their postures openly confused. "What's up Rukrut, is there something important?"
He moved to speak, and confusion formed as his brain couldn't figure out why it had done what it did. Evidently there were limits to what her commands would actually do, if it was too far from his normal actions his brain wouldn't be able to make a good reason. "Everybody do nothing except breath." She said quietly, in one fell swoop freezing everybody. She began to go through her list of commands, layering them over the entire group. She prevented them from using their powers, from acting in any way opposed to her, from attempting to find any kind of loophole. Next, she made them all forget her existence as a random hostage, and instead made them all remember her as the leader of their group, to whom they all owed their eternal and undying loyalty towards.
She added command after command, leaving not even a slight crack for disobedience, simultaneously preventing them from revealing information about her to anybody else whilst at the same time not neutering their minds in the same crude way she had done to Viking. Her commands left free will but leashed to her, puppets to her will but without losing their ability to think and act for themselves. Finally, she wrapped up with a final command. "Forget that I ever ordered you or used any sort of power on you, forget any order I give you in the future, but follow every previous and future command I give to you."
Sitting back, she felt a bit...weird. She had just rewritten a hell of a lot of the minds of the villains around her. They would all collectively see her as the uncontestable leader of their group, a history that in their minds was absolutely true when none of it existed. "Alright, well, I've got to go now. You all keep on as you are, keep out of trouble and only take on jobs that have minimal risk, alright? Don't make any major purchases or draw any attention to yourselves in either of your identities."
They all made their agreements, and Valerie got the one who'd taken her phone to give it back, then exited the warehouse and headed for home.
Arriving back at home, Valerie's first stop was for the landline.
Picking up the phone, she called her mother, who answered swiftly. Before she could let her mother say anything Valerie spoke. "Mom, it's me, I'm fine, they took my phone battery so I couldn't call you until I got home. They let me go after a little while and didn't do anything to me." Listening, Valerie could hear her mother breathing, and for a brief moment, she wondered if maybe the phone wasn't working right.
"You promise they didn't do anything to you?" Valerie rolled her eyes, quickly affirming what she'd said to her mother. "Okay, I'll be home soon. The police will want you to come in for some questions, just to see if there's any information they can glean from what you saw, okay sweetheart?" Quietly agreeing, she said goodbye to her mother and hung up, heading into her room to flop onto her bed. From being a witness to a cape fight to then using her power to get taken hostage, and then taking over the entire villain group in one fell swoop.
And the worst part was that after she'd done it, the only way she could describe how she was feeling now was...'sated', as if she'd just had a nice, filling meal. And she knew that it was probably just her projecting what she assumed onto her own body, but that didn't change the fact that it felt good to 'stretch her muscles' so to speak in regards to her power. Using it so freely, commanding an entire seven-person group into doing her bidding, it felt almost like she'd had a back cramp for months and managed to finally stretch in just the right way to relieve it. Or a popcorn shell stuck and unnoticed in her teeth, until eventually she found and removed it, that was probably the best way to describe how she felt after flexing her power and using it so much, a relief to an issue she didn't know existed.
Which was a small issue, because now that she knew how it felt, she was going to be drawn to using it again. Only a small issue though, because she intended to use the unnamed group of villains to her advantage. First off, she needed to learn exactly what each of their powers was, and then she could figure out how to use each of them to the fullest. She'd watched them fight in the mall and had a vague idea, but nothing concrete as to what their exact powers were.
Hearing the front door open, Valerie got up and headed out of her room, catching her mother in a one-armed hug as she came towards her bedroom. "Mom, I promise I'm fine, they didn't do anything to me." She said before her mother could speak, knowing that Melody just wanted to make sure she was actually okay. "See? Not a scratch on me, they just wanted to get away from the mall, and once that was done they let me go."
She stood there as Melody checked her over, amused and touched by the concern her mother felt, even if it felt a bit overbearing at the same time. She'd already told her that she was fine, she wasn't about to lie if they'd actually done something to her. But considering her history, Melody being overbearing was perfectly reasonable. "As long as you're safe honey. The police will still want to talk to you, but a villain group would never take you back to their hideout." Outwardly, Valerie didn't react, but inwardly, she was amused. A villain group would never do that, except if they had a master in their midst controlling them. "So why didn't you try to use your baton? Cherry made it clear you could handle most opponents."
"Mom, I might be able to fight people, but they were villains, with any kind of powers available. Plus, a baton is fine against anyone who isn't a brute, but they had a brute, and he went through a wall like it was made of paper. I'm not stupid enough to get into a fight that could easily kill me." Melody gave her a smile then, one that made it obvious she had said exactly what her mother wanted to hear.
Melody gave her a hug, ruffling her hair playfully. "Good girl. I was nervous at first when Cherry suggested teaching you to protect yourself. Not that you'd abuse it, but that you would get overconfident, thinking you could take on the world just because you can hold your own. Have you thought about what I suggested yet?" Nodding, Valerie looked her mother in the eyes.
"I'd like that, and I swear I won't abuse it to fight people I have no right getting into a fight with."
Anyone have any guesses as to what Melody suggested to Valerie?
I'll give you a hint, it's related to self-defense. Also, I'm curious, what would people prefer Valerie to do, because right now she has two major options. She can stay in Quebec City, where she is now, and make money, use her acquired villain group as a weapon, learning them, then go down to Brockton with money and a villain team she is experienced in using. Alternatively, she can go down to Brockton Bay as soon as she's 18, and start setting herself up. She would have less money and no established team to use, but at the same time she would have an extra year to enthrall people and get herself ready for the future. Both have pros and cons, and right now I'm leaning towards her following her original plan, by which she would leave for BB at 19 years old with a nice nest-egg of cash to use.
But that's why I'm asking, I'm curious about your opinions!