Happy New Year everybody!

I bring you a new story here, one that takes place in my Heroverse AU. What's this AU about, you may ask? Well, in short, it's an MCU-inspired AU where the Loud kids are all orphans with superpowers, and we follow them on their individual adventures as they become heroes, ultimately aiming at an Avengers type crossover.

This story is the third entry of the Heroverse. The previous two (in order of release) are Ace Savvy: A New Hope (the one that kickstarted the AU, centered around Lincoln with small cameos from Lori, Leni, and maybe some more…) and Power Chord: High School Musical (centered around Luna, Luan, and maybe some more…). However, just to make it clear, you don't need to read those before reading this one. Sure, Lincoln will be here as Ace Savvy so you might wanna learn his backstory or how he met Lori and Leni, but it's not necessary for you to know that to enjoy this story.

I've also drawn several pieces of fanart of my designs and whatnot for the Heroverse, you can look those up by searching "UnderratedHero Heroverse Twitter" or something lol

Anyway, I'm gonna try to keep my promise this time (couldn't do it in the first two fics lol) and try my best to keep the chapters short. So, uh, hopefully, it works out!

Here we go!

Chapter 1: Nova and Eclipse.

I don't remember the crash.

Those instants disappeared from my memory. Or maybe I never managed to understand what was going on until it was too late, until everything settled in and there was nothing I could do. A blank space in my memory that lasts five, ten, maybe twenty seconds.

One moment, Leni and I were talking with each other in the backseat of the family car, looking at pictures from our classmates. Mom was in the passenger's seat, having a casual conversation with dad.

A moment later, I find myself struggling to open my eyes, and all I see is destruction.

My head hurts, and it's a sharp pain like I'd never felt before. All the muscles and bones in my body are shaking with excruciating effort to keep me from falling apart. My hair's standing up, trying to reach the ceiling like a tomahawk, but then the blood pressure in my head and the fact that my arms keep falling up help me realize that something turned the car upside down.

I have trouble breathing, my lungs feel like sacks filled with sand. My eyes finally focus, and I see my hands covered in blood. My blood? Glass splinter cover my clothes and arms. I begin to panic.

I look to my left. Leni doesn't look much better than me. Blood trails fall down her face and arms. She has a painful grimace on her face, and her eyes are fighting to stay open.

"Leni… Leni…"

I achingly lift an arm to grab my sister's hand. She turns her head in my direction and stares at me with tearful eyes.

"L-Lori…"

We hear what sounds like an explosion, and I decide to take a look out the window, realizing how small it looks. Oh, right, it makes sense: the car is crushed, and the ceiling is a whole foot closer to the seats. And then I look beyond, into the street. Two figures are fighting. One of them seems familiar. The other one, burlier and bigger, is new to me, I've never seen anyone like that.

A villain? Is that what crashed our car?

Leni grunts in pain and my older sister instincts kick in. I need to help her. I need to save her. I need to save my family. I try to take the seat belt off, but it's stuck. I press the button, but it won't let me go. I don't understand what's going on until I notice that Leni's hair is fighting gravity. A lightbulb turns on in my head.

"Leni, let go of your powers," I tell her, stroking her hand. "I need to get us out of here."

"I'm scared…"

"It's alright, don't be afraid."

"You're scared too," she says, without accusing me. She's simply pointing out what she knows it's true.

"Yeah," I reply right away, "but I need to get us out of here."

I don't know if she believes I can, but Leni always trusts me. She sighs, and her hair cascades down. My seat belt finally gives in and I fall painfully against the upside-down roof of the car, filled with pieces of glass.

I let out a grunt of pain and take a few seconds to compose myself. The battle on the street continues, but I have more urgent things to worry about. In my new position, I can have a look at the front seats. The image I see will be there in my mind for the rest of my life.

"M-Mom… DAD!" I scream as I begin to cry.

"No… No, NO!" Leni screams at the same time.

She can't see what I see, but she can feel what I feel.

I feel like throwing up. My stomach can't handle this level of stress and dismay. I don't want to believe what my eyes are seeing. I clench my fists and I remove any trace of doubt. I don't care about pretending anymore, damned be the consequences. I need to save my family, I need to save Leni. The doors are completely messed up, they wouldn't open under the weight of the car. I needed to act.

My whole body gets covered in a blue glow. I feel the warmth and energy of the Sun flowing through every fiber of my body. The pain doesn't go away, but the adrenaline helps me to ignore it. I begin to stand up, and soon my head and shoulders hit the floor —now ceiling— of the car. I lift my arms, press my hands against it, and begin to push.

The metal lets out horrible wailing sounds as it begins to crack and bend in ways it isn't supposed to. I've never used my powers like this, I never tried to move something as heavy as a car. But in my mind, it's this or nothing. This is all I can do.

I continue to strain and push myself to my limits, and the doors finally chirr when the pressure on them fades.

"Leni… Get out…" I told her. I can keep the car like this, but I can't do that and help her at the same time.

"It hurts… It hurts so much," she wails, and I'm almost convinced she's not talking about her wounds.

"I know, but… You have to—"

The door next to us is snatched and thrown out of the way like a petal on a flower. It's not Leni's doing, but rather the work of someone who crouches next to the open door. I recognize the boots, the red suit, the blue cape.

He's Ace Savvy.

His face does his best to stay focused and impassive, but I can see the worry in his eyes when he sees Leni, the horror when he takes a look at the front seats, and the shock to see my body covered in an ethereal blueish flame, allowing me to lift several tons of car wreck with my bare arms.

"H-Help… Please," I ask him, tears still falling down my face, not even caring that for the first time someone sees me using my powers. "Please…"

I don't know how often he ran into those situations. I don't know how unusual it was for him. For me? That was a pivotal moment in my life. A before and after. Before, I was a twelve years old child having fun with her sister while we went to the park to have a quiet afternoon.

After that…

"Don't worry," Ace Savvy said to us, looking me in the eye and offering Leni a hand. "You're safe now."

…I became a hero.

My name is Lori Lavigne. I'm also Nova, hero of Royal Woods. And this story is the story of my life: the story of everyday heroes and superheroes offering a helping hand to whoever needs it.

Sorry if I kinda ruined the mood by bringing up the car crash that ended my adoptive parents' life and left me and my sister orphans. Again. I just thought it was important to start with the beginning, right? That day my life changed forever. I wish it never happened, for sure, but if it wasn't for that afternoon, I would have never put on the spandex suit.

Five years later, Leni and I were a duo of heroines in Royal Woods. We'd been playing the role for the past two years, after taking three to train, improve, learn, and get ready until we felt confident in our abilities to face crime without being afraid of the consequences.

Consequences that, in Royal Woods, were much direr and dangerous than anywhere else in the nation. When, at the beginning of the eighties, a cosmic explosion occurred over the planet's atmosphere, metahumans became a reality. They appeared all of a sudden, and the history of the human race changed forever. All across the world, societies changed and had to adapt to the presence of metahumans that took on the roles of heroes and villains. No city managed to stay the same they were before the metas appeared.

But if you had to pick one, it would probably be Royal Woods. Our little hometown is famous for its "curse", as we call the fact that no meta, hero or villain, manages to survive for more than a few years before they mysteriously disappear to never be seen again. That's why we practically have no heroes, and we rarely suffer villain attacks. Our metas —that we for sure have, somewhere— stay hidden. Up until I was twelve, I'd never used my powers out in the open, and I would have never thought about becoming a hero and exposing me and my sister to whatever made metas disappear.

The only hero that had managed to stay safe from the "curse" had been Ace Savvy. Our hero. My mentor.

But Ace Savvy had been killed a year ago, and we couldn't count on him anymore. The common thugs had felt empowered after the death of our greatest hero, and the crime rates had skyrocketed in the following weeks. Ever since then, crushed by the weight of the loss and hopelessness, Leni and I had doubled our efforts as Nova and Eclipse, fighting non-stop to protect the city.

We patrolled the skies and we paid attention to the news to get to the scenes of crimes as soon as possible and save as many citizens as we could. That's how, that afternoon, we ran into the car chase.

I saw it first. As we flew through the skies, feeling the cold air hitting our faces, I noticed the cars speeding down the street, moving dangerously close to pedestrians and other cars.

I wouldn't allow any car crash in my presence.

"Eclipse!" I called, pointing a finger down before diving in. Leni followed me a second later.

I focused my energy to propel me and accelerate my flight. As I approached my objective I began to analyze the scenario. Only one police car chasing a black van. I rolled my eyes; typical bad-guys vehicle. I then scanned the possible escape routes. They were currently driving through a small street, but two blocks from now they'd reach a wide avenue. If they had higher-than-room-temperature IQ they'd take a turn there to have more space to maneuver. I needed to stop them before they got there to reduce collateral damages.

"Who's going? You or me?" Leni asked, keeping up with me.

She knew the answer, but she was polite enough to always ask.

"Me!" I replied, reaching a reasonable distance between me and the van.

First step: reduce the felon's options.

I stretched my right arm with a closed fist and focused my energy. A blue nebula manifested around my wrist and hand, and by simply tensing my muscles and picturing the image in my mind, I managed to release an attack of pure energy. The projectile flew through the air and, with a precision that had taken many years to develop, I managed to destroy the right side-view mirror of the van. I did a twirl in the air to quickly move to the left and I repeated the action, leaving the criminals without means to have better looks at what the police or we were doing behind them.

Second step: control and protect.

For the time being, there were no cars ahead for them to crash with, so the only danger was for them to derail or even intentionally drive into the sidewalks, risking the pedestrian's lives. To discourage them from doing that and to show them what would happen if they got anywhere close to the sidewalks, I quickly punched the air in front of me, sending two new energy beams that blew up to the sides of the van.

The delinquents now had three options: to surrender, to continue their escape, or to double down. Usually, common thugs would just give in to avoid a confrontation that they would never win and that could potentially end really badly for them. Unfortunately, those thugs took the stupidest of decisions. From the passenger's seat, a middle-aged woman took out a pistol and decided to shoot us.

I slowed down for Leni to catch up with me, and she raised the palm of her hand. In front of us, three bullets stopped their trajectory, moving along with us. It was dangerous to simply let them go past us.

I didn't like at all that someone would be willing to shoot me or my sister. What kind of monster takes a gun to attack two teenagers? I would have no qualms in stopping them by any means necessary.

That sentiment was fueled when, noting how pointless it was to shoot at us, she aimed down to shoot at the police. Their windshield shattered, and we heard an explosion right before the car began to lose control.

They'd blown up one of the tires.

"Eclipse, keep them safe! I'll deal with the thugs!"

"But, Nova—" She began, trying to keep me from going on my own.

But I was more than capable of dealing with them alone. "Now!"

She followed up my instructions without arguing. We both accelerated, reducing the distance between our objectives. Right when the police car lost control and got onto a sidewalk, crashing into a trashcan, Leni activated her powers. The car turned left and got back onto the street, and all the trash and the can that had been rammed were frozen for a second, suspended midair. Shortly after, the bin went back to its place, and all the litter gently floated into it. Leni managed to slow the car down until she parked it on the side of the street. She floated down to talk to the officers and make sure they weren't hurt.

Meanwhile, I sprinted until I was right behind the van. If they hit the brakes, I would've broken my nose and I definitely would have been up for an ugly time, but I assumed they wouldn't be cunning enough to figure that out right away. Even then, the golden rule of superheroes was to never give criminals a chance.

I surrounded my fists with energy, and with a warcry to fill myself with courage, I punched the back wheels with all my might. They were crushed, and the van jumped and lost control for a few instants, but I was quick to grab it from under the bumper and I pulled back, acting like a living brake for the vehicle. After about a hundred feet, I managed to stop the van.

I sighed in relief, and I faded the energy that I'd been accumulating in my arms to protect them from the superhuman strain. I still had enough energy reserves to last for the rest of the day, but I needed to be more diligent with the way I used it.

I was alert. These people had no qualms about firing. I couldn't relax for a single second. I needed to neutralize the threats without giving them time to respond. I need—

The back doors blew up on my face, and some kind of invisible punch hit me right on the chest, sending me flying several feet back. I fell on my back against the street and my lungs ran out of air. It took me a second to recover, and when I did, I was already surrounded. Four people had gotten out of the back of the van. Two men, two women. They were all armed, but not with firearms.

They were instead carrying what looked like chromed, metallic bars, and some white gloves with some kind of filling that made their hands look twice as big. I took notice of their movements. At this stage of my professional career as a heroine, I'd faced dozens of talented villains and martial artists, and I knew how to distinguish between great threats and amateurs. Those guys looked pretty average, except for the gloves. Were they some kind of anti-meta equipment? Was that what blasted the doors into my face?

I made my body shine bright with my blue aura and I hovered a few inches over the ground. My eyes sparkled and I spoke clearly to let them know the gravity of their situation.

"Put down your arms and surrender to the police, or I'll be forced to capture you," I warned them.

From the passenger's door, the woman with the gun that had shot the cops got out of the van. Without even wasting a second I raised my arm. I extended the palm of my hand and sent a beam of energy strong enough to knock her unconscious, leaving her out of the fight before she could harm anyone.

The other four immediately launched at me. I shot at the first one, hitting him in the shoulder and making him fall on his butt. Y moved my head to shoot at the girl that came to me from my right, but she raised the metal cane and intercepted my attack. The blue energy was visibly absorbed by that bar, imbuing it with a soft blue hue.

Alright, that wasn't supposed to happen. Since when do common thugs have vanes that could absorb cosmic energy? The three criminals got close enough to get into my melee range, where I'm admittedly not the most skilled fighter. Even then, I didn't hesitate to lunge forward and get a nasty jab onto the first thug that tried to hit me. The girl that had absorbed my attack tried to hit me in the head with the cane, but I managed to catch it in my hand as I kicked the remaining thug away.

I tried to pull the bar away from her hands, but she pressed a button and suddenly I felt an electric shock in my arm that spread to my entire body. I let out a shriek of pain and I lost the energy that kept me hovering from the ground. The electricity left my body for a second, allowing me to let go of the stick, but she then pressed its tip against my back, electrocuting me once again. I tried to use my powers to propel myself away from them, but I was horrified to find that the metal stick seemed to absorb my energy as soon as I produced it around my body.

"I got her, I got her!" The girl yelled, and her buddies soon stood up.

I managed to wriggle out of the cane's end and landed a kick on her stomach, pushing her away from me. I tried to fill my body with energy to fly a few yards up in the air to get out of their range, but the thugs were on me. I managed to throw a beam that knocked one of them out, but I couldn't defend against one of the girls punching me in the chest with those oversized gloves.

I had the displeasure of determining first hand that those gloves had blasted the van doors open, since more than a punch, it felt like a controlled explosion. I tripped over my feet and lost my breath. Without giving me time to recover, another thug hit me in the back, making me drop to my knees. Once there, they pressed two sticks against my shoulders, electrocuting me and dropping me to the ground.

I screamed in pain, feeling my limbs aching and shaking with cramps on every muscle. I tried to stand up, but I couldn't move. I was paralyzed, trapped in a state of perpetual pain. I just needed a second, one small window to free myself and let my powers loose. I tried to overcharge my body, to create so much energy that whatever those metal bars were wouldn't be able to absorb it in time to leave me powerless, but it was hard to gather up all that power without passing out.

"L-Let me go!" I yelled, feeling my suit grinding against the street.

"Oh, the hero's asking for help!" One of the girls mocked me before kicking me in the ribs. "You're in Royal Woods, hon, there's no one here to save you!"

"No heroes!" Another guy yelled. "It's each man on their own! Ace Savvy's dead, this city's doomed! Who's going to protect us? Eclipse and you?"

He kicked me as well, and combined with the pain of the electric shocks coursing through my body, I felt on the edge of passing out. But I couldn't allow that. I couldn't pass out right then. I needed to recover, to stand up as I always did, save the day, and help those in need. That was my job as Royal Wood's oldest hero.

"If you can't protect yourself, there's no way you can protect everyone else!" One of the criminals continued. "Let's end this false hero! We won today!"

I looked up intending to power myself up to where I could free myself from their grip and break his nose with a punch, but a new voice interrupted me.

"Don't count your chips at the flop!"

Four tiny metal sheets stylized as poker cards hit the sticks that were pressed against my back, freeing me from the electric shocks and allowing me to breathe. A second later, a small, red, and blue figure landed from the sky and managed to deliver a bunch of blows and kicks to all the thugs that had surrounded me. By the time I could catch my breath and kneel on the ground, the newcomer had taken a stand next to me.

"Need a hand?" He asked me with a smile, offering to help me stand up.

It was Ace Savvy, but not the legendary hero of Royal Woods that had protected the city for several decades, but rather a child that couldn't be older than twelve-years-old and had taken on the mantle a little less than a year ago. With a suit that honored one of the many classical looks of Ace Savvy, the kid had started his career with some questionable decisions that had annoyed me to no end.

For starters, I was annoyed that he would jump into the superhero life at such a young age. This was a dangerous job that would always put countless lives on the line, not just ours, but the general population's as well. There had already been an incident where Leni and I were forced to intervene to make sure that the kid's mess-ups wouldn't end in a catastrophe.

What bothered me the most, however, was that he would dare to take on the mantle of Ace Savvy. I could understand that Ace had most likely been his idol and greatest inspiration. He was for most of us. Me in particular. But precisely because of that, he shouldn't have taken on his name and compromised his legacy. At least for me, that name was hallowed, and it didn't sit well with me that anyone would use it to their benefit.

He said that he'd done it because people needed an Ace Savvy. That the name was more than just an alter-ego, that it was a symbol of peace, a beacon of hope for a town that had lost most of it. And much to my chagrin, I had to admit that so far he'd shown that he was up to the challenge of keeping up with the mantle. He clearly still had a long way to go to really measure up against the original Ace Savvy, but he'd been growing up incredibly fast.

And Leni trusted him. Which meant that, under any objective standard, I should trust him as well.

Even then, I ignored the hand he extended my way, and instead let a blue glow surround my whole body, powering me up. While the thugs were still trying to recover from Ace Savvy's rampage, I made sure to neutralize them.

I moved through the air fast as lightning, disarming each criminal and making sure to knock them out cold with precise, controlled punches to the solar plexus. A blink of an eye later, all the delinquents were unconscious.

"Oh," Ace Savvy said, taking the hand that had been awkwardly hanging in the air and putting it on his waist to save face. "I was going to suggest that you'd take the ones on the right and I'd handle the ones on the left, but I guess that works, too."

I sighed and reminded myself that he was just trying to help.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, turning around to look at him while trying to stay collected enough. I didn't want him to see how hurt I was after that skirmish.

"Oh, I was just patrolling when I spotted you and Eclipse," he said, walking closer with a big smile and puffing out his chest. "I assumed you'd be heading to the scene of a crime, so I thought you might need some backup."

"We can take care of ourselves," I said right away, perhaps a little harsher than I intended.

His smile faded away and his shoulders dropped. He suddenly didn't look like a little great hero, but rather like the child he truly was. Even if his skin-tight suit showed a body that no child should have.

"I, uh, right, of course you can," he said, sounding a lot more insecure than just a few seconds ago.

"Besides, what are you doing patrolling so early?" I asked while frowning. "You're usually out at night."

"Yeah, but I didn't have anything going on today, so… You know…"

"You shouldn't overexert yourself," I reproached him. "You know Eclipse and I have the city covered every afternoon."

"Yeah, I know."

"You should rest. Or patrol other areas of town. What good does it do if all the heroes are around the same place?"

"I… I'm sorry," he said, looking smaller and smaller. "I didn't want to make you mad."

"I'm not mad," I sternly said.

"Nova!"

The two of us turned to the right, just in time to spot Leni floating down towards us. For some reason, the smile returned to Ace's face, and he stood straight once again. My sister gave him an honest, warm smile.

"Hey, Ace. How you doing?"

"Hi, Eclipse! Oh, you know… Just patrolling town. I saw you fly by and thought I'd come to, uh… see how you handled the situation."

"That's awesome!" Leni said, before turning to look in my direction and tilting her head in confusion. "Why are you mad?"

"I'm not mad!" I said, raising my voice and feeling the warmth in my cheeks.

I didn't say that to trick Leni. Her powers included the ability to read the hearts and emotions of everyone around her, so lying to her had no use. I said it just cause I didn't want to admit it to Ace Savvy Jr.

Leni turned to look at him, and then back at me.

"And he's sad. What did you say to him?"

"I'm not sad!"

I didn't need to be able to read emotions to know that Leni would try to have us talk things through and make amends. Having her as my sister for sixteen years was enough for me to understand her without any power.

"Look Ace, Eclipse and I will handle these thugs and the police. It's gonna take us a while. The city can't be left unprotected while we deal with all the paperwork. Why don't you go out to patrol while we're busy doing this?"

The kid's eyes lit up like two lanterns. "Yeah. Yeah, sure! I can do that! Don't worry, I got this!"

He bid us goodbye by nodding politely at me, and frantically waving a hand at Leni, before turning around and running into the closest building. When he got to the sidewalk, he pulled out a pistol and shot a grappling hook to the edge of the building, pulling himself up to the roof within a second.

I sighed as I saw him jumping from building to building. As hard as it was for me to admit it…

"He's trying his best," Leni softly said to me, clearly interpreting my emotions.

"I know."

"You're kinda harsh with him sometimes."

"I know…"

"I know you wanna do everything by yourself, but if you'd give him a chance—"

"Eclipse," I said, cutting her off. "We've discussed this. He's too young."

"But he's a good hero."

"He's a kid. I'm not gonna tell him not to be a hero, but I'm not gonna hand over any responsibility onto him. We need to act like we're still the only two heroes in town. It's our job to keep the citizens safe."

I could see in her eyes that she wanted to add something, but she didn't say anything. Leni felt in my heart that I knew I was right, and I was convinced of what I said. There wasn't much to argue in that situation. She silently nodded and began to wave her hand in the air. The unconscious bodies of the criminals floated until they all pressed against a light post, and a rope tied them all up together.

"Whatever you say, Nova," she told me. "But at least try to be kinder with him. He really looks up to us, you know? He's always trying to impress us because he wants us to accept him as a hero and to stop looking at him as a kid."

The police arrived shortly after, but it could barely distract me. Ace Savvy was a kid. No matter how well-intended he was, it wouldn't be fair of me to let him ruin his childhood having to fight crime.

My childhood had been ruined. I wouldn't let anyone else go through that.