#Fern is a bit famous and infamous among the teen heroes

[christaspirit]

It hurt.

Jamie had known that their parents didn't love them. They were the last priority for their siblings. The only one in their family of six without a power. Their parents had tested them when they were ten and still showed no sign.

Jamie had tried to make up for it. Straight A's, a 4.0 GPA, Charity work, doing all the chores when their family failed to return home after heading out for patrol...

It was never enough.

Jamie looked around the room they were held hostage in. It was... unexpected. Lady Arsenic was well known for being rich, beautiful, deadly. Always flaunting her wealth, but cunning and manipulative. A talent for tech.

Also, she was supposedly dead.

The Lady Arsenic that had taken them... well, she was beautiful, at the very least. Her hair was pulled into an intricate braid, hair strands pulled in front of the cat mask attached to her face, with eyes that conveyed her emotions.

Lady Arsenic was supposed to be rich. This was a dingy warehouse in a rough neighborhood that you could probably buy for like, ten bucks.

She was supposed to be manipulative and clever, but this plan... wasn't very well thought out, considering she should have known that if she wanted to get to one of the heroes, she should have gone for one of the sidekicks, or even the younger children that they'd had. Jamie was an easy target, yes, but not a very good one.

Lady Arsenic had been at large for the last two months, and people were terrified. But she hadn't done anything to warrant that fear. People were scared of her reputation.

She had three henchmen, and all three couldn't be older than 16, walking around with a dazed look.

Lady Arsenic was known for her mind control, but...

Currently, Lady Arsenic was pacing, muttering under her breath.

"They aren't coming," Jamie said.

Lady Arsenic stopped.

"You'd think the famous Rainbow family would rescue their youngest child," Lady Arsenic muttered.

Jamie chuckled.

"No, they couldn't care less," Jamie said.

Lady Arsenic tensed, grabbing her arms.

"...so aren't you supposed to be dead?"

She flinched, and looked over at them.

"Uh..."

"Like... your house was destroyed. Everything burned down. They found your body."

Jamie had read the article released.

Mom had done that. She and the League of Heroes wouldn't never admit to killing one of their villains, the hypocrites, but they had done it.

"My death was... greatly exaggerated."

Jamie blinked.

"Did... did you just quote Megamind on me?"

Lady Arsenic froze.

"Um... no?"

"You did!"

Beneath her mask, Lady Arsenic's cheeks flushed.

"Sh-shut up!" she stammered.

Jamie laughed.

"Ugh! You're my hostage! A hostage situation is supposed to have ransom demands met, or heroes breaking in!" Lady Arsenic said, stomping her foot. "Not... this."

"You act like this is your first day doing this," Jamie said.

Lady Arsenic was quiet.

Well, now that wasn't right.

Lady Arsenic had held many people hostage before, sometimes killing them if it took too long to meet her demands. It was part of why she had been viewed as such a big threat. Five years ago, she was supposedly killed...

Jamie frowned.

Come to think of it...

She looked far too young. Lady Arsenic was supposedly in her late thirties, maybe her early forties. She was obsessed with looking young, so Jamie had brushed it off but... Lady Arsenic didn't look any older than them. Maybe a sophomore in high school.

Lady Arsenic had left now though, so Jamie sighed.

Back to contemplating their predicament.

They'd always been closest to their sister, Izzie, who was a year older than them. Codename: Indigo Screen, though everyone just called her Indigo, or Indie. Powers around technology. She could control it, create it, put herself inside of it, the whole shebang. Izzie wasn't a frontline fighter, often staying to the sidelines. She'd stayed closer to Jamie after they found out Jamie didn't have a power, but as the years went on and she got deeper into the hero stuff, they hadn't been able to hang out as much. Izzie should've been a Junior, but she had switched to online school to spend more time doing hero stuff. She'd been the one to create the new line of comms that most of the heroes used, and had created a line of affordable phones.

She should've noticed that Jamie had been caught. Especially because a ransom video had been recorded.

The whole family had a color theme. It's why they were called the Rainbow family. Dad was Red Fist, Mom was Orange Blaze, Jamie's oldest sister Jasmine was Yellow Ghost, their brother Noah was Green Energy, and their other sister Vivian was Blue Sky. The names had been picked in the order of the Rainbow, going down from oldest to youngest.

Jamie had been set to join them as Purple something.

Obviously, that was never going to happen now.

Purple was still their favorite color though, and was what they defaulted to every time they drew.

It would've been so easy for someone to come get them. Was there something else going on they weren't aware of?

Another day passed. Then another. It had been almost a week.

Thank goodness it was summer break.

Lady Arsenic just seemed confused and frustrated every time she came back, only to find that no one had come to save Jamie.

Day seven of capture. A whole week.

Anytime any of Jamie's siblings had been caught (most of the time it was Izzie) they were out in a few hours.

"This was supposed to be easy..." Lady Arsenic muttered, sitting on the floor next to Jamie, legs swept to the side. She looked so young...

Jamie doubted this was the original Lady Arsenic. She looked far too young, and things just weren't lining up with what Jamie had seen and heard of Lady Arsenic from a few years ago. She'd quickly risen to power, was almost impossible to track down, and could do most of it secretly. The heroes had taken her down because they were unable to properly beat her. She damaged their reputation.

This Lady Arsenic was clearly frustrated, had no clue what she was doing, and certainly didn't have the funds to achieve it. Jamie had seen her wear the same fancy white dress the entire time they'd been held captive. It had a high collar, short sleeves, and went down fairly low. She wore nude wedge heels, and had on long gloves, covering most of her arm.

"...you aren't the original Lady Arsenic, are you?" Jamie asked.

She flinched, but didn't deny it.

"...what led you to impersonating her?"

"...I had introduced myself with my name when trying to talk with some other villains to team up a few months ago. They misheard me."

"They misheard you say something else as Arsenic?"

"No." She pulled her knees into her chest. "They misheard my first name as Lady."

"...are you her daughter?"

Her silence spoke volumes.

"Why are you doing this?" Jamie asked.

"...I want to be like her," she said. "Maybe-" she sighed. "She didn't pay much attention to us-me. Then the house burned down..." she grabbed her legs and her left side. Jamie noticed that she was wearing tights. "I tried to do well at school. The School for Future Villains... it's where mom wanted me to go. It's where I met my friends. But they betrayed me, and then I got expelled..." she scowled.

"You're trying to prove yourself," Jamie guessed.

"W-what? No! I want this!" she stammered, turning to face them. "I want this. I want to be a villain. To have power, and be feared!"

Jamie glanced around the warehouse.

"Well you aren't very good at this whole villain thing," they said. "I get it, honestly. I would do anything for my parents to give me the time of day."

Jamie got the distinct feeling as Lady Arsenic crossed her arms that she was rolling her eyes.

An alarm blared, and she glanced back.

"Finally!" she said. "Someone's here to rescue you!"

Jamie... was surprised. Honestly, they'd expected to remain a hostage until Lady Arsenic just let them go out of frustration.

The door was blasted open with blue energy (Noah had green, and no one on the League of Heroes had that shade of blue, a bright cyan) and vines rushed into the room. Four heroes appeared. A girl with dark skin, dark purple hair, a black mask, and a yellow suit, with a purple half skirt, arm bands, a black belt, and dark yellow boots. Two cyan gems were also on her costume, on her chest and on her belt. Considering her hand was extended, she must've launched the blast.

Next to her was a boy in a orange and black suit with what must've been a dog theme. He had black hair, and a utility belt.

To the first hero's other side was a that Jamie actually recognized. She had a light blue suit, with a skirt, her light brown hair was pulled into a bun with blue ribbons, and she didn't wear a mask.

"Daybreak?" Jamie asked.

"Zera, actually," she said.

The final hero was clearly younger. She wore a cat mask, her hair was held back by a cat ear headband, she wore a leather jacket over a pawprint shirt, had on leggings and kneepads, cat socks over the leggings, and sneakers. Not a professionally made suit in any way shape or form, but it kind of worked.

"Lady Arsenic, let them go," Zera said. The yellow-suited hero stepped behind her.

Jamie had heard rumors that Fern Amery (Daybreak, or rather Zera's, civilian name) had started her own superhero team. It seemed those rumors were true.

The dog themed boy had something familiar to him... like maybe they'd seen pictures of him on a list somewhere.

"Or what?" Lady Arsenic asked.

Jamie had to admit, she was a good actor. If they hadn't seen her stressing about what she would actually do should a hero actually show up for the last few days, they would think she actually had a plan.

Zera rolled her eyes, and lifted her hand.

Vines shot out from cracks in the floor, and Lady Arsenic's eyes went wide. She dodged the vines.

"Attack!" she shouted.

The three mind-control victims attacked. One of them launched balls of fire, which the heroes dodged. The hero in the yellow suit rose into the air, whilst the other three simply dodged, the dog hero doing a roll.

The cat hero grabbed something from the pocket of her jacket and clicked a button. A net was launched, and bundled the three henchmen together, and unable to fight.

"Hey, you okay?"

Jamie jumped, and looked to the other side.

Another girl, in a purple suit, with white hair, dark skin, yellow eyes, and pointed ears, had snuck up on them.

"Y-yeah, she didn't hurt me," Jamie said.

"Good," she said, and she easily undid the knots. "I'm Silverwolf. You must be Indigo's younger sibling."

Jamie nodded.

"How did-"

"She reached out to Zera," Silverwolf quickly explained.

"Gah!"

Jamie looked back at the action. Zera had landed a hit on Lady Arsenic and she'd fallen to the ground. Her mask had skidded across the floor, and Jamie could see the cracks from here.

"No!"

Her hair had fallen from it's braid, and she hurried over to the mask, muttering under her breath, before pulling it on, and with a glance over her shoulder, fleeing the premises.

"Wait!" the cat hero called.

Lady Arsenic vanished from sight.

"You okay?" the yellow-suited hero asked, hurrying over to her. Noticeably, she didn't have superspeed.

"I'm fine, she didn't hurt me," Jamie said. "Zera, my sister really...?"

Zera nodded, glancing at the door Lady Arsenic left from.

"She said she wasn't allowed to come after you, it was too dangerous, but she was worried," Zera said, "It took her a bit to find me though."

"I mean, you quit, so..." Jamie sighed. "Alright, so I know you, and Silverwolf introduced herself, who are the rest of you?"

"I'm Cardinal!" the yellow-suited hero said, landing on the ground. She was incredibly cheerful considering they'd just performed a rescue mission.

"I'm Shepard," the dog-themed hero said.

"And this is Kitty," Silverwolf said, gesturing to the cat-themed hero, who seemed distracted, but jumped at her name.

"W-what?" she glanced around. "Uh... hi. Um... I'm not on the team, I just..." She looked back in the direction Lady Arsenic had gone. If she wasn't on the team, why was she here?

"You ready to head home?" Zera asked.

"Yeah..." Jamie muttered. "Wait, um, you should probably know, but, that isn't the original Lady Arsenic."

The other heroes grimaced.

"We know," Shepard said.

"She's 15," Zera said. "Kitty hasn't told us much else though."

Jamie glanced at the young hero. The same age as them, roughly. And... she looked very similar to Lady Arsenic.

"I don't think she actually wants this," Jamie muttered. "She wants... I guess she wants her mom to be proud of her?"

Kitty nodded.

"She always had," Kitty muttered. She sighed. "I don't want her to get hurt. Can you run interference so the League doesn't catch her?"

Jamie nodded.

Zera reached into a pocket and handed them a communicator. It wasn't one of Izzie's, didn't have her logo, but it was similar, possibly modeled after it.

"You can get in touch with us there," Zera said. She tapped her ear. "Ava? We got them. Little Arsenic got away though, can you track her?"

"Who's Ava?" Jamie muttered.

"Her girlfriend, and our gal in the chair," Shepard whispered.

"Huh..."

It has been a weird week. Fern having a girlfriend was like... really low on Jamie's list of weird things.

At least they'd finally get to go home.

You were the only child that didn’t have powers in a family of metahumans. Today you got kidnapped by a supervillain… and none of your family came to the rescue.