"Eeee, I got an Autograph from Miss Medusa!" A young girl, age twelve or so said happily as she clutched the piece of cardboard that held her signature as she walked away with her (presumed) parent.
And she was just one of many who had gotten one over the last hour or so as Medusa had been giving those out along with answering questions, and receiving thanks from the many, many people who had arrived on the boardwalk, several with… unique things to be signed.
Honestly, it felt… nice, to see the impact she was having on people.
Certainly stroked her ego, obviously, but on a more basic level, the gratefulness of the people showed she was actually having a real, tangible effect in her efforts of making the world a better place.
It was just nice.
Surprisingly relaxing.
Verity understood now why TT told her to do this, it was her own subtle way of telling her to de-stress and do some PR at the same time.
Lisa sure was one smart cookie… oh yes, she was going to make cookies as a thanks, and a welcome treat for the others later.
As for those others…
Well, Brian and Aisha were easy, compared to Rachel.
The poor thing had been shuffled through the foster system as a damn near feral child who had, at her second foster home, been 'taught a lesson on violence of every kind' in Lisa's words, and her last one had been another absolute monster who was both incredibly strict and enough of a bitch to make Cruella seem reasonable.
Trying to drown a kid's puppy right in front of them… god, she couldn't even remotely blame Rachel for triggering and killing her there. Didn't make it better, but she couldn't see herself doing anything different in the same situation.
The poor thing was 13 for fuck's sake, no wonder she seemed so standoffish now!
Verity was dead set on helping her, and the others, through their issues into being the best them they could be.
Step One: Remove Coil from the equation.
…That seemed to be the first step in a lot of her plans, lately.
At least her long term ones.
She couldn't exactly plan to make the world better when there was some Xanatos/Moriarty acting bastard behind the scenes actively making the world worse and trying to undo all her progress for his own twisted goals.
Which reminded her.
She needed to talk to that PRT Therapist like, yesterday, because her anger now literally caused a physical change in her body, on top of the… control issues that strong emotions brought with super strength in general.
Not even negative ones, as the morning reminded her.
She really liked that pan…
And so the meet and greet continued on, people seemed to really love her (which felt foreign, but… really, really good) and were comforted by her presence, thankful for her taking down the E88 and most of the other supervillains in the city, saying that they hadn't felt this safe in years even in wake of the unprecedented recent attacks.
And as the allotted time came to a close she did get a surprise visit.
"Hey biggest V," Vicky said with a smile as she came flying in.
"Medium V!" Verity greeted with a matching smile. "What's brought you down to the Boardwalk?"
"Well no school, still closed until tomorrow, so shopping." Verity took notice of the bags on her arm, and the lack of costume. "And then I saw you, didn't know you were doing a PR thing."
"Gotcha, and honestly I'm just out here to actually meet some of the people we're protecting, the PR benefits are tertiary."
"That's cool," She responded.
"Yeah, so you just come over to say hi?" Verity asked. "Or did you want an autograph too?" She asked with a shit-eating grin.
"Just to say hi from up high." Vicky said back. "Not into having paraphernalia myself."
"Fair, fair." Verity said with a nod. "Well, don't let me hold you up Medium V, have fun shoppin'!"
"See ya~!" She said as she flew away before landing 60 feet away in front of a store and going in.
Good kid.
Reminded Verity of her own sister.
…Oh great, now she was sad.
…Okay, no more beating around the bush, she was going to schedule with that PRT therapist…
The next two or so days passed without issue.
It was nice.
It really allowed her to destress from all the back to back action, and she could even relax regarding Coil a little as Colin had said he was working a file for all the others and the Director so that they could nail that oily snake.
She had also gotten to check up on Sophia and little Cynthia to see how they were doing, and thankfully they were doing… okay. Cynthia had trouble understanding why her mom and brother weren't going to pick them up. With Sophia coming to terms with loss herself as it finally settled in that while she didn't have the best relationship with her mother and brother, she had still loved them.
She had cried into Verity's shoulder after those words had left the young teen's mouth.
Verity had, among other things, gently talked her into scheduling a therapy session of her own later.
Speaking of therapy.
"Hello Verity, my name is Jessica Yamada, I am the therapist on rotation for this month."
"Hi Jessica! Nice to meet you." Verity greeted easily.
"So normally I will say that the pace of our talks are set by you, but most of the time these sessions are mandatory for the Cape, but you went and requested a session of your own volition, so I assume there is a specific thing you want to talk about with me?"
"Yeah, uh, three things really." Verity said as she sat back on her tail. "First off… I probably should have done this sooner, to check in on my mental health, because 53 and all."
"Most don't think about therapy."
"Fair. Second thing was that uh… you know that grow-y thing I did on Sunday? Where I got massive?"
"Yes I saw that on my feed, you got quite large."
"Yeah that… that was activated by extreme anger and has been… acting up since when I feel anger even close to that level." Verity admitted. "I should probably add that I did have anger issues when I was a kid that I got lessons for, but with all the rapid stress going on lately it's been… hard."
"Keeping control of one's emotions is hard at the best of times. Stress does not help, so do you want assistance in anger management so as to not… grow out of control?" Jessica asked.
"Yeah, pretty much." Verity agreed.
"That I can help with, other patients of mine, not to name any names of course deal with similar issues, so I can provide assistance on that," Jessica coughed into her arm. "So the third thing."
"Yeah, uh… I don't wanna beat around the bush too much with this but uh…" She took a deep breath. "I think I might be developing multiple personality disorder."
"Dissociative Identity Disorder is the proper name, and what might make you think that?"
"I've been…it's… odd." She said. "It's not… there's not like holes in my memory of me doing things, but it feels like I'm three different people sometimes. Verity, the human. Medusa, the hero. And…"
"And?"
"And… Gorgon… the monster." She said quietly.
"I see… well thankfully we can actually test for stuff like that, now while I don't have the questionnaire with me," Jessica said as she leaned forward, making it clear she had her undivided attention. "What makes you think Verity, Medusa, and the Gorgon are all distinct personalities and not just different masks you put on to deal with various levels of stress?"
"That's what I thought when it was just Verity and Medusa." She answered. "I… one was me, unfiltered, and the other was me putting in my best to be a hero. But… after the 88 attack…" She paused. "I…haven't been the most mentally stable, the last few weeks, after the Bakuda bombing and some mind-shattering revelations I'd rather not get into right now, and when I thought… I saw so many people die and I… I wanted to…"
"Wanted to be somebody who could actually deal with the problem? A monster to fight the monsters?"
"...I wanted to kill them."
"That is a very human reaction, Verity."
"But I'm not."
"...Now I know that Case53's such as yourself, have trouble with that, I deal with many on the regular, that is my primary job actually, but you are all still as human as you were before your bodies were changed."
"Really? Can a human outrun a car? Can a human throw a car without much strain? Can a human turn people to stone by opening their eyes? Does a human have scales? Venomous fangs? Claws?" It wasn't denial in her voice, clawing out for an answer.
It was desperation.
"Some Humans used to only have one eye color, or be unable to drink milk past a certain age. Now we have multiple eye colors, and many can drink milk through their entire life without issue, sure those changes aren't as extreme as you went through, but that did not stop them from being human. But that is probably not the answer you want, so I'll turn the question around." Jessica took in a quick breath. "You're close to Weaver of the Wards here, yes?"
She sat up straighter unconsciously at the name. "Perhaps. Why? What does it matter to you?"
"So in your words, because she can grow and turn her legs into a spider's body, she is no longer human?"
"She's a changer. Shapeshifter. She's still human."
"Are you not one too? You grew taller and a snake's lower body?"
"I can't- I can't make this go away." She motioned to herself with her hands, the blue scales and claws standing out more than ever.
"Are you actually sure about that?" Jessica asked, causing her brain to stall. "Powers are fascinating things, you didn't know you could grow bigger until you hit the right emotional high, what is there to say you can't go in reverse? You're already unusual compared to most Case53s, you have most of your memories still despite some holes, who is to say you, unlike most others sadly, are stuck?"
"..." She… had never thought of that before.
She immediately drew her attention inwards. Focusing on the feeling of when she turned into her 'lamia' mode or back. And tried to picture herself without the snake features.
Plop!
She fell on her ass.
"It- it worked?" She asked, staring at her hands.
Her hands.
Her fleshy, unscaled hands.
"Yes, but… huh, not quite in the direction I expected," Jessica said.
"What-what do you mean?" She asked as she got to her feet- her unscaled legs were a little unstable as she did, she'd gotten used to walking with the extra balance of a tail.
"The mirror."
She looked in the mirror.
It was… it was her new face.
But… without the scales, and smaller.
Smaller?
She looked down at herself, and noticed she was actually quite a bit smaller.
A bit too small.
"...Oh!"
"Yes, oh, I didn't think you would shrink that much in size, maybe you can reach an inbetween with a bit of training, but I think this is good progress," Jessica commented.
"Yeah, it is… oh my god I can sit in chairs again…!" Verity said excitedly. "This is way more immediately helpful than I thought it would be, you're a miracle worker! Therapy's awesome!"
"That it is, though I do still want you to take the test just in case still, and a few others to get a read on any other issues," Jessica stated.
"Yeah, of course! When can we schedule the follow up for, next week? Little later?" Verity asked, feeling… like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.
Or her spine.
Definitely her spine.
"Two weeks from now, I need time to get all the proper materials," Jessica answered.
"Of course, of course! I need to go talk to- wait." Verity looked down at herself again and realized her specially tail-adapted wardrobe was in no way fitting for her now… what, 4-foot something height? "Probably shouldn't go out like this…"
"Yes, you can shrink now, but you would probably end up naked in the hallway."
"Ha, I learned to shrink from the shrink…!" Verity couldn't help but laugh.
"...Yes, that is funny."
A few minutes later, a properly sized Verity walked out of the room feeling fantastic.
"Okay, so apparently I'm a lot more of a changer than I thought I was… who to tell first…" Verity thought for a moment before grinning and heading to Colin's office/lab/workshop/thing.
And like she assumed, he was present as the man really didn't spend time anywhere else when he wasn't patrolling.
She really needed to invite him over for dinner sometime, maybe the whole team? Make it a party?
That was for later, though.
"Ah, Verity, is there something I can help you with?" The Tinkering Tinker asked as he turned around, the man standing by his lifted-into-the-air bike.
"Hey Colin, watch this." Verity said, holding her arms out to the sides before concentrating and shrinking.
"..."
"Ta-da!" Verity said as she finished. "Snake now comes in mini-form!"
"Small."
"Yeah, the shrink taught me the secret of her arts."
"Right the therapy… truly sometimes a third-eye reveals secrets others couldn't think about," Colin said. "Hmm… most people consider the powers that Case53s have to be broken, and with what we now know about Powers in a bottle, Case53, are probably ones that got the 'Bad Batch' so to say. And now I think your 'Bottle' probably wasn't as bad as they thought it was when they… labeled you."
"Oh… wait… bad batch…" Verity thought about that for a moment. "Can you show me the normal symbol for that again Colin? It's been a while since I've thought about it."
Colin hit a button on his large computer console and instantly an image of the Case53 mark was brought up on the screen.
Verity tilted her head to the side.
"That is a fucking Omega symbol." Verity confirmed as she stared at it. "It's an omega. The end. Does that mean we're not the bad batch, we're the end product? Or maybe Alpha's the best and therefore Omega is the worst? Like seriously, Colin, rotate it so the arms are facing down."
Colin did so. "Huh… It is. I've never noticed before."
"It's always been oriented like a C right?"
"Yes."
"That's probably why, but come on there has to have been a Greek Case53 before, someone should have noticed, right?"
"I do not know of any Greek Case53s," Colin answered. "But if there was one they probably thought it meant Omega."
"Well, if we hadn't already figured out that it's a behind the scenes power selling thing, I think that would have told us right there it's a thing people are doing and not nature." Verity said. "But anyway, you think that maybe 53's are the bad batch?"
"Why else would your and their memories be erased? Can't have people babbling about a bad product or being kidnapped for experimentation."
"Makes sense, makes sense." Verity agreed. "And obviously the success stories would never speak up."
"Correct, or get silenced."
"Like Canary?"
"Like Canary, and that is probably why she got hammered so hard, she was a message to others to keep in line," Colin said. "Dammit. And now she is in the Birdcage, with the worst murderers in American History."
"And because she's technically there lawfully there's nothing we can do to get her out."
"Without everybody else getting free as well."
"Can Dragon communicate with her? You said she's the one who runs that place right?"
"Yes, she can, and yes she is." Colin answered.
"...But we can't bring her into the loop without using telecommunications or physically going to Canada… dammit…"
"For the moment we will have to do this without her assistance." Colin said, sounding displeased about that fact.
Verity sighed. "Yeah… oh, speaking of assistance!" She motioned to her costume that was still hanging off her body. "Is there a way we can make this downsize too? I apparently don't store clothing when I shrink or grow, just if the limbs change completely like with my legs."
"Powers be weird like that," Colin said. "And for clothes that can fit all your forms that is being worked on, as there are few Protectorate and International Heroes that have the… same issue."
Verity sighed as she began to shift back. "Well, alright. I'll wait on the whole 'costume under clothes' thing for later."
"Yes, and also meeting on Sunday to inform others of the other snake problem."
"Got it, Sunday." Verity said with a nod as she adjusted her dress a bit as she grew back to 'normal'- the tail was almost an issue, but it was open down there for a reason, Colin already distracted by his bike before she had begun. "Welp, have a good night Colin, I'm gonna go surprise everyone else with this now, make sure you get some sleep okay?"
"You are not my mother Verity."
"Of course I'm not, you're like, old enough to be my dad, but I like to think we're friends and I care about your wellbeing."
"That… that we are, and I will take your advice under consideration."
Verity smiled at him admitting they were friends. Success! "Goodnight~!" She said as she left.
—
"You… are… adorable!" Sabah squeed as she picked up the much, much smaller Verity and squeezed her.
"Well, certainly hope this doesn't awaken anything in me." Verity thought as she was held for the first time in over a decade and a half. "Yes, I'm adorable, praise me." She said jokingly.
"And you've turned into a mesugaki."
"No idea what that means babe."
"...Okay don't talk like that when you look like that, that is just weird. But anyway, how?"
"Therapy is magic, Sabs." Verity said sagely. "Therapy is magic."
"The shrink made you shrink?"
"Heheha, I made the same joke!" Verity laughed. "Oh we are perfect for each other aren't we? Especially now that I can model in multiple sizes!"
"That you can!"
"On that note, could we find something cute for me to wear for tonight, and go mess with the Hebert's a little?" Verity asked. "I've been meaning to check in on them and also you're the only person in the house who can legally drive."
"True, and you're a naughty girl," Sabah replied. "Let's get down into my studio and I start cooking up an outfit." She said as she started to put Verity down.
"Actually, can you carry me down?" Verity asked, face turning beet red. "I've always… wanted to do princess carry…"
"As the princess?"
"You've seen how big I normally am, I wasn't that much smaller before turning." Verity said. "Also, I tried walking like this and I kept tripping on my clothes."
"Just once then."
And princess carried Verity was.
"What the fuck?" Lisa asked. "Why… why you smoll?"
"The power of Im-ag-in-a-tion." Verity said like a certain yellow bob, using jokes to divert from the embarrassment she was feeling at forgetting there were other people who could see this.
"I… what?"
"Why is Sabah carrying a smaller version of Verity," Brian asked as he stepped out of his room at the commotion outside of it.
"I'm Verity Jr!" Verity said, absolutely reveling in the harmless chaos.
"...I am going back to sleep to wake up from this dream." He closed the door.
"So you can shrink as well as grow?" Aisha asked.
"Apparently! Therapy is amazing."
"Can this therapy thing do the opposite?" Aisha asked.
"What, make you grow?"
"Yeah, I don't wanna wait to get taller."
"Yes you do." Verity said with utmost seriousness. "Enjoy being 'small' while it lasts. If you're anything like your brother you'll be shooting up in height within a year or two and then you'll be regretting wanting it."
"Really?"
"I was almost 6 feet tall by the time I stopped being your age, so yes, really."
"Damn girl." Aisha said in shock as she probably imagined herself being as tall as Verity.
"Honestly, best way of getting taller or at least having less issues when you do is drink a lot of milk to build strong bones."
"That's a myth." Lisa said. "You get more calcium from other things than milk."
"Ah, but can you drink those things frequently enough to match the calcium content of milk, hmm?" Verity immediately fired back at her.
"No but you can eat Broccoli, and Brussels Sprouts, any time during the day." Lisa responded.
Which made Aisha start gagging at the thought, which caused Verity to send a smug look towards Lisa.
"Eat healthy people," She said with a sigh. "Milk is disgusting."
"You're the one suggesting people eat each other."
"Okay we're done here, let's get you a pretty dress, my princess," Sabah said.
"Oh god don't say that!" Verity said, immediately turning into a tomato.
—
There were so many things she'd missed about a fully human body.
Like feeling things? She knew her sense of touch was dulled with her scales, but feeling her hand on Sabah's was… quite different when she could actually feel it beyond just pressure.
Or wearing clothes that didn't have a tail slit.
It had taken them a solid hour and change to decide on what she would wear out for her first outing as a human in a long time, a pale teal sweater, a black ruffled skirt with red accents, and navy thigh-high socks because she could put them on without ripping them.
And then a quick stop at a shoe store she didn't catch the name of to get some shoes- closed toe shoes! She hadn't had those at all since coming here.
And she'd even done up her hair in a different style with Sabah's help, something her snakes hadn't let her do before but now she could go down to no snakes instead of her normal minimum of one, so she could actually style her hair!
And then the car.
The car!
She hadn't actually ridden in a car since coming here, she was either running herself or in the back of PRT transport resting on her tail like a spring in a way that was never quite comfortable in a moving vehicle.
Verity never thought she'd be so happy to be in the passenger seat of someone else's car.
And so they had pulled up at the Hebert house, next to the wreckage of her old house (she took a moment of silence to remember its valiant sacrifice!) before she all but skipped up to the Hebert household's door, grinned back at Sabah who had stayed back for this to work, and then rang the bell.
It took under a minute for the door to be opened by Taylor who first looked around confused for a second before she looked down, her face going to harder confusion.
"Can… I… help you?" She asked, again the confusion was very, very obvious in her voice.
"Hi Aunty Taylor, Mama sent me back in time to say hello!" Verity said in her most innocently enthusiastic voice possible.
"...Waaaa?"
She couldn't help it and started laughing.
"Wait, wha?" She sounded so lost and confused.
"Nah, I'm just messin' with you Tay." Verity said with a massive grin as she forced herself to stop laughing. "Is me, your favorite snake, just in compact form."
"Oh… that… of course you can do that now, why not."
"You're actually the reason I figured it out, but anyway, can me and Sabs come in? And maybe mess with your dad? Would it be mean to act like I'm his kid from the future?"
Taylor clapped her cheeks to bring herself into focus. "No I think that would give him an actual heart attack. And yeah you can come in, but he isn't home just yet." Taylor said.
"Okay!" Verity said, turning around and giving the signal to Sabah who got out of the car and walked up, amused but not as much as Verity was feeling. "We've got some stuff to get caught up on Tay."
"Yeah let's talk, missed you."
"Aww, I missed you too Tay. Must be weird not having me next door any more." Verity said as they got seated (she could sit on a couch! Without breaking the couch!).
"It is, walking past it is weird, and it's only been like four days." She said.
Had it only been four days? It felt like so much longer to Verity… but then again, she'd been thinking the same about most stretches of time since waking up in Brockton Bay.
"Hey, you know I'm always still here to help if you need me." Verity said, putting a comforting hand on her arm.
"I know, well I didn't really get to mention it, but I've moved schools to Arcadia now," She said.
"Nice! How's that treating you? Transfer student and all that?"
"Not the only one, have to not be outed immediately," She answered. "And only two days, was supposed to start on monday, but you know Nazis went Sunday Crazy."
"I'm assuming it's nicer though?"
"Doesn't smell like drugs, cigs and alcohol."
"Yeesh, I forgot about that… I need to clean that place up eventually…"
"That place is a lost cause," Taylor replied.
"Despite evidence to the contrary, I try to deal with the root cause of a problem instead of just punching. With rampaging bad guys the answer is punching a lot of the time, but for systemic issues like that it's not something likely to change while you're still in high school." Verity said. She'd done a lot of research into how to actually make things better like she'd said.
"Wish it was."
"Me too, Taylor," Sabah added. "But we just have to work on making it better for the next ones."
"Exactly. Big thing about when you reach adulthood Tay: it's all about making things better for the next generation." Verity paused. "And taxes."
"Dad says those suck, because they don't actually tell you how much you actually owe, you have to guess."
"That's actually what I was studying to do before I came here, I could help teach you how they work? After quickly refreshing myself on the Maine laws for them, every state does it differently, but when the time comes I'd be happy to help you out with them."
"If anybody needs help with taxes, it's…" Came the voice of Danny who stopped talking as he entered the living room. "...Did you get shrunk in the wash, Verity?"
