#that one orange-blue lighting one looks like he has an Evil Villain eyebrow

[six-demon-bag]

DANIEL BRÜHL as Daniel Berg THE FIFTH ESTATE (2013) dir. Bill Condon

[weirdthinkingdragon]

Welcome To The Family (1/???)

Yandere EraserMic household x reader

Finally decided to start writing it! I’ve never babysat in my life, so if this is incredibly wrong I’m sorry. No warnings for now. No idea how many chapters this is going to be right now, but for sure at least 3-5.

I’m on my way to babysit two new children. Well, a child and later in the day a teenager when they get back from school. It’s beyond astonishing somehow being the one selected to babysit two children of heroes. They’re adopted, but that makes it all the more strange. I can’t complain much though. They’re paying a rather large amount and asked me to keep quiet about it. I have to go there early in the morning and be there most of the day. They also warned me some days I may have to babysit them longer than others. They did also warn me a few of their students may come by to hang out with Eri for a bit. 

My fist knocks on the door four times. Yamada- hopefully, I remembered who is who correctly- opens it. He lets me in with a giant and welcoming smile on his face. In the living room were the other three. Eri, and the other which must be Shinsou, look at me cautiously. Eri hides a bit behind the black-haired adult while Shinsou seems rather watchful and wary of me. I crouch down to her level but stay a bit away to introduce myself. “You must be Eri. I’ve heard a lot about you. My name’s Y/N. I hope to get along with you.” This is true, I’ve been informed by the two about what she has been through. 

The black-haired man confirms with a small nod down to her as she looks up at him. Whatever that was supposed to be about, it helped make her take a step away from him and look at me more. 

Aizawa- hopefully, I’m still correct- looks at the clock. “We need to go now.” the blond nods and leaves for their rather expensive-looking black car. Aizawa leaves as well. Shinsou glares at me one last time before he starts to head towards the door as well. “Don’t do anything you will regret.” He threatens and leaves too. 

Eri sits on the couch still timidly staring at me. To say it felt awkward between us is an understatement. “So, Eri, would you like to show me your favorite toys? Or maybe there’s a show you really like we could watch for a while?” Like a lightswitch, her eyes light up like she was just told she could have all the candy in the world. She then takes off up the stairs for presumably her bedroom. I wait in the living room for her return. I take a moment to examine the living room better. There are hardly any pictures on the walls. There’s only one with the four of them and a bunch of teens. Must be his class. They look like a chaotic and lively bunch. The light gray couch is in the middle of the living room with a large flat screen T.V. in front of it. To the left of the couch and a little behind is a matching gray loveseat with a giant cat tree between it and the wall. Huh, so they have a cat or possibly two. Surprised they’re not in the living room. The black stand under the T.V. matches the coffee table in front of it. There’s a door straight from the main entrance I entered from. My guess is either a bathroom or the kitchen. Next to it is a flight of stairs that Eri went up. That must lead to the bedrooms. There’s another door next to the stairs. A closet maybe? Or maybe another bedroom.

Eri comes down a few minutes later with five stuffed animals in her arms. A green rabbit with matching green eyes, a brown teddy bear with beady eyes, a blue galaxy patterned fox with turquoise eyes,  a yellow dog with blue eyes, and a cute tiny light gray unicorn with glittery pink eyes. It looks like her and seems like her favorite with how it seems a little worn. They’re all so adorable that I think my heart might have melted. 

“Aw, what are their names?” She proudly holds them up and says their names. The one that got me was “Deku”. Doesn’t that mean useless? How would a child know that term? More importantly, how are the adults allowing her to name it that? 

“Deku? Why is it named that?” 

“He saved me. I wanted a stuffed animal like him!” She cheerfully says. I’m not going to question why they chose that name. 

“They sound like amazing people! I can’t wait to meet them someday!” She smiles at me. It quickly becomes sad instead. “But I won’t be going to the school with them anymore…” 

I try to think of how to make her feel better. Those two must be the ones her fathers warned me will come over at some point. “Well, maybe I could ask your parents if they can come over someday after school.” She enthusiastically nods. 

It grows quiet between us again as she holds her stuffed animals. 

I look back at the cat tree. “I see you have a cat tree. Do you know where the cat is?” 

“We have three!” she cheerfully informs. 

“Three? Wow! I bet they keep you safe, huh?” I question. She shrugs. “Mochi is too big to even jump on the bed.” 

“Mochi? Cute name!”

“Mrow” came a sudden voice from the cat tree. There’s a box part on the floor I somehow missed earlier. A rather fat cat saunters out of it. “Mochi!” Eri cheerfully yells and goes over to it. It’s an orange tabby. She tries to pick him up and miraculously succeeds. It’s so comical I can’t help but laugh. A child carrying a cat that’s almost as big as her. She waddles over with it and places them on the couch between us. They just yawn, stretch, and lie down right where they were plopped. They roll over to show their belly. I rub the belly of it. How could I not? Once again, it doesn’t seem to care in the slightest. 

“What are the names of the other two?” I ask. 

“Sundae and Oreo! They’re brothers!” 

“Are they as big as Mochi?” She shakes her head. “No. My dads went to buy things that feed the cats when we are not home.” 

“That’s good! Maybe later we could try finding the other two and have a tea party or something.” She looked like she was nearly screaming in excitement at the news. “Only one of my dads likes to do tea parties with me.” 

I smile. “Well, now you have two that do!”

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Many hours later, she decided she wanted to do the tea party. We were able to find the other two cats which were sleeping on her dads’ bed. Eri told me they were in there since I didn’t go in there out of respect. Unfortunately, I didn’t bring a dress or suit to change into for her. I’ll have to remember that for next week so I can do it when not babysitting. 

Oreo and Sundae were rather difficult to settle down into chairs around the table. They’re tuxedos and an easy way to tell which is who is apparently the white eyebrows on Oreo that makes him look always angry. We just gave up when they decided to sit on the table instead of the chairs.

The tea set is a pastel green with interesting shiny gold lines decorating it. It’s a great contrast to the small dark red table it’s on in her room. She has tons of drawings with her, Shinsou, and the two adults covering her walls. There’s also a few with a green-haired and blond with her. There is nothing in the teacups as she passes one to me. “Why, thank you, Eri!” She smiles and nods. That smile needs to be protected.

It’s hard to think someone could do something so evil to such an innocent bean. I’m beyond glad she’s in a much better home now. I’ve only known her for like half a day, but if something were to happen to her, I’d kill everyone around me and then myself. She looks behind me and lights up more. “Toshi!” 

I turn around to see Shinsou leaning in the doorway with his arms crossed and a glare aimed at me. How long has he been there? Man, he’s incredibly quiet. I understand why he doesn’t trust me yet. I’m still a stranger after all. It would be more concerning if he did trust me immediately. I give him an inviting smile. “Welcome, Shinsou! Why don’t you come to our tea party instead of standing there? I’m sure Eri would be more than happy to have her brother join!” 

“Yes! C’mon Toshi, please?” She begs. He shakes his head. “You two go ahead. I’d rather watch for now.” He says, hardening his glare at me. Eri doesn’t seem to notice his glare and goes back to her chair. How cute though, a protective brother! She deserves nothing less. 

After that, she wanted to show me her favorite show. Shinsou sits rather close to her between us. Seems a bit excessive, but whatever makes him comfortable I guess. Checking the clock above the T.V., it was almost time for me to go. 

Shinsou goes to the bathroom, but something tells me he’s testing me. I mean, I didn't do anything before he came home, and wouldn’t Eri have already run to him if I did do something? Well, with the villains around you can’t be so sure. 

Eri swings her feet while sitting farther up on the couch. “Are you going to come back tomorrow?” 

“Of course! We still have so many things we have to do together!” I reach over and go to rub her head. She flinches so I take my hand away and think for a moment. How can I get her to trust me without any problems occurring? “Hey, Eri?” She looks at me again with trust, yet a hint of unease still in her eyes. Please don’t tell me I just royally screwed up. “How about this. I do to myself what I’m going to do to you, and you can allow it or not. Like this.” I say, and gently rub the top of my head. I bring my hand halfway to her and wait for her reply. 

It takes a moment, but she gives me a small nod. I rub her head, making her give a big smile to me. 

At that moment, the door opened to reveal the two men. They were tense as we locked eyes, but that went away when they noticed Eri was smiling at me. 

“Welcome back you guys! Eri and I had so much fun today. She even brought me to her tea party! Your cats gave us quite a bit of trouble to involve them though.” I inform as Eri goes to hug Yamada and then Aizawa right after. 

Shinsou comes into the room as well. Like a silent conversation, he gives a curt nod to Aizawa, which he returns. 

Yamada smirks at me. “But what’s important is… Did ya succeed?” 

I shrug. “Kind of. We got them to stay on the table instead of the chair.” He snickers. “That’s those devious two!” He looks down at Eri. “Ya must have had a lotta fun, huh? Sad to miss the party!” 

I decide to leave so they get more time as a family before they have to go to bed. I don’t need to interfere with that. I wave to her as I go to the door and put on my shoes. “See you tomorrow, Eri!” She waves back, shocking the two adults. Wonder why they’re shocked about that. Maybe she doesn’t usually trust new people as fast? Well, I’ve always been pretty good with children. 

I wave at the three men as well and leave excited for what tomorrow might bring.

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I have rather big plans for this story. Hopefully I keep up with it, and I promise it will get better later on. 

[blueberry-sunshines]

Small Surpises— Big Brother Shiro x Little Sister Reader

Summary:

You are Shiro's younger sister waiting on him to return from a mission while you reminisce about your life with your big brother which then gets interrupted when he brings you back an unexpected surprise...

Word Count: ~2K

Childhood memories | Brotherly Love

Requested by: @white_skittle on Wattpad

{Your POV}

Honestly, you had never really thought that it would be so boring to be in a half-castle half-spaceship until you were actually in one. It sounds crazy to even think you'd be in one let alone that one exists! One moment you were on earth with Keith trying to figure out these weird radio signals and then the next your brother who'd been missing for a year had crash landed onto earth in an alien pod! And just when you didn't think anything could get any crazier, you found a giant blue lion that whisked you all away into space! That was just the beginning of all the adventures you'd have traveling the universe with your new found family. But as of now, the only thing you could do is wait around the Castle of Lions until the Paladins are back from their mission. To keep your mind off of your boredom and anxiety you tried your best to distract yourself with useless things like wondering the castle and getting lost in your own thoughts.

You were significantly younger than your brother, Shiro. While he was 25, you were only a teenager. You two were always rather close despite your age difference. Shiro was always so cool, you and all of your friends thought he was the most amazing person in the whole world. And if you were being honest with yourself, he still was. I mean, being the paladin of the Black Lion and the leader of Voltron was the coolest thing you could think of! As kids you and Shiro loved playing together, you would play with his soldiers and planes or he'd play dolls with you. You two would spend hours playing little games like hide and seek or just playing pretend.

You would be the princess and Shiro would always be the courageous knight there to protect and save you from evil villains and mystical dragons. Using sticks and pool noodles as swords he would slay any foes that even dared to hurt his little sister. Shiro has always been your hero in more ways than you'd ever realize.

"Fear not, Princess (Y/N)!" He would cry, holding his makeshift sword in the air. "I will slay this dragon to protect you and your kingdom from his evil!" He would then jab at one of your stuffed animals or sometimes even trees, pretending they were the villain.

     As you got older, you two were still super close. Shiro was then entering his teens, going to the Galaxy Garrison to be a pilot. He was so smart and so talented and all you ever wanted to do was impress him. When you didn't think he could get any cooler he always did. But even though he was at the Garrison, he still had never let you down. You have many memories of Shiro picking you up after school and taking you out to your favorite diner. Sitting in a booth across from each other he would ask you about your day while drinking a milkshake in his bright orange Cadet uniform.

"You look silly in your uniform, Takashi." Little you giggled in your memory. You could still see Shiro's face as he pulled away from his Oreo milkshake's straw, as well as the smile that formed on his face as he let out a small chuckle.

"I guess I do look kind of silly, huh?" He agreed, setting down his milkshake softly.

These couple times a week visits made it feel like Shiro had never really left at all. Soon you were able to transfer into the Garrison Cadet program and next thing you remember is staying up late into the night studying with Shiro and practicing your techniques. Shiro was the star of the Garrison and he still remained the star of your life. Sure you had made many friends, but Shiro was still your best friend above all else. You still remember when Shiro had introduced you to Keith and how you two got off to a rocky start. But eventually, it didn't feel like it was just you and Shiro against the world anymore. Soon you had a new honorary brother in Keith. You would all ride around together on Hoverbikes and Landspeeders and you even would take Keith for milkshakes at your diner.

"Hah!" You beamed triumphantly as you swung to a halt on your hoverbike. You looked behind you now as your brother came up to a stop behind you. You laughed triumphantly as you had just beaten Shiro to your designated finish line. "I told you I could beat you!"

"I never doubted you for a second." Shiro told you proudly as he whipped the sweat from his forehead.

You looked now on the other side of you over the edge of the large cliff next to you. "So can I learn the dive now?" You blurted out quickly.

Shiro laughed warmly, "Absolutely not." He said quickly and gave you a teasing smile. "Not until I'm sure you and Keith are both ready." He explained, watching you pout in amusement.

As you were entering your teenage years and Shiro was leaving his, you two had somehow managed to grow even closer. He had come out to you over the course of your time at the Garrison. You still remember him gushing to you all about his, then crush, Adam. You were there for him when coming to terms with his feelings and there when he brought Adam home to your parents for the first time. In return he was always there for you, helping you when you were sick, giving you advice when you were down in the dumps, and he helped you through your first ever breakup.

Time was flying by so quickly and soon, you were an accomplished pilot just like your big brother, and Shiro had asked Adam to marry him. Life was just the way you liked it and you didn't think anything could ruin your wonderful relationship with Shiro. If none of the petty sibling fights you got into or even any of the serious ones could have ruined it, you didn't know what could. But, you could never forget Kerberos...

"We're back!!!" You heard a voice shout from a room over. It was the cherry voice of Lance McClain exclaiming their arrival in the castle. You began running back down the corridor to return to the lounge where you heard the voices coming from.

"Hey, (Y/N)!" Hunk smiled seeing you enter the room. You saw Lance, Pidge, Hunk, Keith, and Allura all standing in the room.

"How did it go out there today?" You asked them all, subconsciously looking around for your brother. The Paladins went to a freed planet to collect some tech that was needed to help the fight against the Galra.

"We collected all the samples we needed." Pidge told you before gesturing behind her, "Coran and Shiro are unloading as we speak." She was unusually smiley, but you brushed it off as her just being happy to have new tech to work with. You were about to leave to go find Shiro when,

"(Y/N)," Keith said your name now, walking over to you, also dawning a small smile. "There's also something we brought back for you, too."

"Hey!" You heard Lance complain, "I wanted to be the one to tell (Y/N)!"

"Too bad." Keith smirked at him and the two began a small, signature squabble as they walked past towards the direction of the showers.

You looked over at Pidge and Hunk now curiously, "What are they talking about?" You asked them, furrowing your brow in thought trying to guess what on earth they could have brought you. You heard them both giggle as they refused to give you any clue before heading towards the showers as well. Your last hope was Allura.

She just looked as confused as you, "I do wonder what they had brought you as well." She said warmly before following you towards the other door the four Paladins had come from originally. As you and Allura made your way down the hallway she tried to offer you ideas as to what they could've brought you, but half the things she said you had no idea what she was talking about.

Once you reached the hangar where the Paladins had come from, you sprinted towards the Black Lion. Coran was placing small metal crates onto a floating cart and Shiro was helping him.

"Shiro, Hey!" You yelled as you got closer, Allura still following suit.

"(Y/N)!" Shiro called your name happily placing down a crate and turning towards you. You laughed as you ran into his arms, you felt him stumble a bit upon impact and you heard him chuckle.

"You really missed me that much?" He teased you as he gave you a tight squeeze before putting you back safely balanced onto your feet.

"Always do." You smiled up at him affectionately. You then cut right to the chase, "Keith said you guys brought me something!"

Shiro raised an eyebrow at you, "He did, did he?" You nodded in response and he let out another laugh. "Alright, you got me." He admitted humbly.

"Is it another crystal?" You asked excitedly. Shiro had brought you small trinkets before from the missions you didn't get to go on. The Paladins often needed your help, but sometimes when there wasn't any risk you'd just stay behind.

"It's better than that." He said mysteriously as he lead you back towards his lion.

"Is it a bigger crystal?" You asked which earned you a laugh in return.

"No... now stop guessing!" He shook his head in amusement. "Wait here, I'll be right back." Shiro instructed you, turning snd disappearing into the lion.

You looked back over to where Allura and Coran were conversing about something while you waited. Once your brother reemerged from Black, he was holding a small box that had some kind of cloth or blanket sticking out from it. You stared at the box in pure curiosity as Shiro grew closer.

"Keep your voice down," he advised as the contents of the box were nearly in full sight. "You don't want to startle him."

You were still not understanding what this could be but now you were thinking it may be alive. Despite not knowing, you listened to your brother and kept quiet. Shiro held the box further down and you saw him.

      You had to hold in a squeal as you saw what Shiro had brought you. It was a small light gray ball of fluff. The creature had long droopy ears, four legs with five tiny toes on his paws. It had four small horns above his closed eyes, a pink nose and cute little pouting mouth. His chest and his face were white and he was all curled up in his long, white, fluffy tail. He sort of reminded you of a chinchilla but much more alien like.

        Gasping you looked back up to Shiro, "No way..." you breathed out finally. Shiro had a large smile on his face.

        "Do you like him?" He asked now, "His breed is concerned to be a loyal partner on Ormaphu. He's a traditional Ormanphian pet called a Bentorm."

         "Shiro I love him!" You gushed looking back down as your sweet, little baby Bentorm.

          "I'm glad, I thought you would."

      When you were kids, you would always beg your parents for a pet but they never let you or Shiro get anything besides fish. Your new Bentorm was the most amazing pet you could think of! Your attention was turned back to the box when you heard him let out a soft yawn as he stretched and uncurled himself. You let out a soft aww, as he sat upright and looked up at you with big, black eyes. He looked as if he was smiling as he looked up at you, he began making a sweet chirping noise and you looked up at Shiro in amazement.

        "You can pick him up." Shiro told you softly, smile still prominent on his face. You reached down and picked him up softly from his tummy, under his arms. You pulled him close to your chest and he quickly snuggled into you, smile on his cute, Bentorm face.

         "From what his breeder told me, they don't get much bigger and they love riding on their owners shoulders as they get older."

       "Allura!" You exclaimed, "Look what Shiro brought me!!"

       

        Allura came over then, in the same awe that you were upon seeing him for the first time. "Is that a Bentorm?" Allura asked looking up at Shiro.

      Shiro nodded and moved the box onto his hip you free one of his hands to pet the Bentorms head.

       "What are you gonna call him?" Shiro asked looking back up to you.

         "Hmmm, I'm not sure..."

_________________

Hi everyone! Thanks for reading this Brother Shiro one shot! It wasn't super long but I think it's pretty cute. Shiro would be the best big brother and I hope I captured that!

Have a great day! Keep requesting please!

[mochasandwords]

It’ll Be Okay

Ok, forewarning, I really had no idea where this is going to go. I was going to do one where everyone was acting, but I felt that that was an easy way out, so... I hope this is descent! I’m not used to writing Roceit, so I hope this is ok!

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Warnings: self-hate, crying, angst to fluff (let me know if i need to add anything!)

Pairings: Roceit

Summary: Janus and Roman talk after the video.

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The glee that Janus felt from being accepted was slowly wearing off, (well, not fully accepted, but having Thomas and most likely Patton, of all sides, accept him was definitely a step in the right direction.) and other emotions started to hit him. Embarrassment for some of the things he had said to Thomas in his glee, nervousness to see how Virgil would react to him being more active, anxiousness to tell Remus -.

Oh Roman, thank god you don’t have a mustache. Otherwise between you and Remus, I wouldn’t know who the evil twin was.

Janus froze in his steps.

“Did – did… I say that?” He whispered, putting a hand to his mouth as he felt his heartbeat speed up. Guilt sheered through him. How could he say that? To his crush no less? To the hero of the Mindscape?

“Say what Double D?” Remus asked, walking into the Dark Side Livingroom. Janus stared at Remus. Roman and him were not alike. Yes they looked similar, but all the sides did. They were both creative, but their interests differed so much. They held themselves differently. They acted differently.

“Dee?” Remus asked, walking closer, hesitant.

“I was accepted partially.” Janus whispered. Remus tilted his head to the point it was laying on his shoulder.

“That’s good! Right?” He asked. Janus nodded slightly.

“But I screwed up.” He gasped, and Remus put a hand on his shoulder, grounding him.

“JD?” Remus whispered. Janus inhaled slowly.

“You know those things we said that we would never say?” Janus asked. Remus nodded.

“Like you said you wouldn’t mention the King or say I was evil or -.”

“Yes. Like those. I – messed up and said something to Roman I shouldn’t have.” Janus admitted. It was so easy to tell the truth when Remus, a side unable to lie, grounded him. His truth seemed to ebb into Janus.

“Janus. Did you compare him to me?” Remus asked, pulling away abruptly.

“No.” He lied, his… curse flowing back into him.

“Janus! Even I don’t bring that up! What the hell?” Remus scolded.

“He insulted my name and there was just so much anger in the room and I was just so…. I put myself out there again and he -.” Janus tried to explain, but he knew that there was no good excuse. Yes, Roman had hit a very sensitive part, but Janus had cut.

“Dee you need to talk to him. He won’t come to you. You know just as much as I do that Thomas needs Roman.” Remus growled. Janus flinched as the anger and hurt in Roman’s eyes flashed before him.

“How? I need your help.”

“No you don’t. You’re Deceit, but also Self-preservation. You can do this, Dee. Do you want him to hate you? You were a blushing mess after filming that courtroom scene. After the anger subsided, at least.” Remus muttered.

“Remus you didn’t see him -.” Janus tried to say. Remus held up a hand.

“Don’t care.” Janus felt his stomach drop as he was forced into the Imagination. Damn it Remus. He looked around, trying to see if there was any path. He looked up, but the sky was blocked by clouds. Dark, dark clouds. Worry wormed its way into Janus.

“Roman?” He called. This wasn’t what he had seen of Roman’s side of the Imagination before. Even when it was night, it was always bright and beautiful. As Janus walked farther into the Imagination, he noticed that the dirt beneath him slowly turned to sand and the trees around him grew thinner and few and far between. He froze as he saw a vast ocean before him. His mouth dropped and slowly started to walk toward it.

The ocean was unnerving. It was very dark blue, almost like the color of the sky right before it goes black and as Janus started to walk toward it, he realized that he couldn’t see anything beneath the waves. It was pitch black and when Janus touched it, he jumped back. This isn’t water. Its… oil?

Janus whipped around, trying to find Roman.

“Roman! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it!” He yelled, “Roman!” He started to run along the beach, yelling louder and louder. He tripped, but caught himself as he saw an orange light ahead.

Janus started to run faster.

Soon, a figure appeared in front of him. It was crouched near the ocean, curled up into a ball. Another, glowing orange figure stood behind the smaller figure.

“Get away from him!” Janus shouted, lunging at Anger. The outcast Dark Side’s head whipped to the side just as Janus tackled him to the ground.

“Janus?” Anger shouted, struggling against the deceitful side, “What are you doing here?”

“I wanted to see Roman and try and apologize. What do you think you’re not doing here?” Janus snarled as Anger rolled them over. He tried to stand up but Janus kicked his legs out from under him and anger fell with a yelp. Janus stood up and walked over to the dazed Roman, his eyes slightly orange and tears streaming down his face. He stood between the two Sides.

“I’m helping Roman. And from what he’s told me, you and the others really hurt him.” Anger grinned, trying to walk closer.

“Back off. You’re not helping him by making him fester in his anger.” Janus said. Anger paused.

“I wasn’t doing that. I was really trying to -.”

“Bull. Shit. I know you Anger. Fuck off.” Janus ordered, forcing Anger to cover his mouth. Anger scowled at him and his free hand clenched into a fist.

“Fime.” Anger muttered, “But I’m gona be beck. You hvn’t won.” He said from behind his hand before vanishing. Janus panted, adrenaline rushing though his body. He whipped around and knelt next to Roman.

“Roman. Roman, don’t-.” He stopped and collected himself, “Roman focus on me. Please.” After a few blinks, Roman’s eyes returned to normal, but still tearful. He inhaled sharply, as if coming back to life, and started coughing. Janus rubbed his back, trying to calm him and help him breathe.

“Deceit…? What are you doing here?” Roman muttered in a raspy voice, some anger still in his voice.

“I… Roman I wanted to say sorry. I shouldn’t have said those things.” Janus whispered. Roman narrowed his eyes.

“You – what? No. Deceit, I provoked you. I – I’m the one in the wrong. I was supposed to be the good prince. I protect everyone! Yet I hurt you. I didn’t make you feel safe. I’ve hurt everyone. I hurt Logan. I hurt Virgil. I hurt Patton and Thomas. I hurt you and my brother. I’m worse than my brother. He knows when to stop when it really counts.” He paused, “He’d be a better light side.” Roman shook his head, and thunder rumbled overhead. Janus shivered at the cold wind. He sat down and turned Roman to look at him. His sad eyes broke Janus’ heart. Roman refused to meet his eyes.

“Roman, no.” Janus grabbed Roman’s arm gently, “You are still the prince of the Mindscape. But even princes mess up.”

“Not as badly as me. I’m always screwing up, Deceit. I can’t do anything right. I’m not chivalrous. I’m the villain.” Roman muttered.

“Ok, that is a big ass lie.” Janus said. Roman raised an eyebrow.

“But… you nodded when I looked at you after Thomas said I was still his hero.”

“Yes, because he was telling the truth.” Roman blinked.

“Wh…what?”

“I sense lies, which means I know when someone is telling the truth. Everything you just said about yourself was a lie, Roman! And Thomas loves you. All of us do! We wouldn’t be full without you.” Janus said, grabbing Roman’s hand. Roman didn’t pull away, he just looked at Janus, the smallest bit of hope in his eyes.

“Roman, I know you’ve been hurting for so long. Those lies… they’re old. Roman, I’m so sorry. I know I hurt you and I probably made the lies worse. Can… I show you what we really see?” He stood up, brushed himself off and reached out his hand once again.

“Can you trust me?” Janus whispered. Roman exhaled and shook his head but reached up to grab Janus’ hand.

“That’s not the saying.” Roman muttered somewhat lightheartedly.

“I know. But I didn’t want to steal your thing.” Janus winked, trying to lighten the mood. Roman rolled his eyes, but Janus noticed the sky grow a bit brighter. Janus pulled Roman up and they sunk out together.

They reappeared in Janus’ room. It was a dimly lit room with gray walls. Gold stars and sparkles were decorated on the wall. Along one of his walls was a huge terrarium which held his snakes. His room was sparse, but it was comfortable. Janus sat Roman down on his bed and stood in front of him.

“What are we doing here?” Roman asked.

“My room enhances my being. Just like everyone else’s. Virgil’s enhances anxiety. Logan’s enhances logic. And so on. Mine though, has two enhancements. It can make people lie or take away their ability to lie. Right now, I think we need truth.” He snapped his fingers, and the stars along his wall started to glow gold.

“I didn’t know you could to this.” Roman gasped, looking around. Janus smiled.

“There are a lot of things you all don’t know about me.” Roman flinched.

“Like your name….” He muttered, “and I made you feel bad by making fun of it.”

“I forgive you, Roman.”

“What?”

“I forgive you. You are beautiful. You are loved. You are worthy.” Janus stated, walking closer to Roman. Roman started to tear up and shook his head.

“I – I’m not-.” Roman gasped. Janus grabbed his face in his hands.

“You’re lost. It’s ok. I was lost once too, but thanks to all of you, life sucks less now.” Janus started to sing softly. Roman’s tears started to roll down his cheeks.

“You feel low. It’s ok. You don’t need to save face in any case. I embrace you. None of us hate you. Everybody’s got flaws but with no you at all we’re incomplete.” Janus wiped Roman’s tears away.

“Now you see. Everybody goes wrong and I put in song so it’s easier to hear it. This puzzle’s tough.”

Roman nodded and added sadly.

“But in time we’ll find where everything fits.” Janus tilted his head and wiped away Roman’s tears with his thumb.

“That’s right. You belong here. We all do. We’re not perfect. You’re not perfect. But that’s ok. Because we’re human.” He whispered.

“I’m just so confused.” Roman said, “My world is falling apart, and I can’t keep up.” Janus sat next to Roman on the bed.

“Let’s look at the facts then.” Janus said, “I’ll go first. My name is Janus and yours is Roman. You are creativity. Thomas loves you. I….” He drifted off.

“You…?”

“I have a crush on you. Yes even after what you said. People fight.” Janus said, waving a hand.

“You can still -.”

“Yes! Oh god Roman, yes. I want to help you realize how lovable you are. Now you say some facts.”

“Uh. Thomas is accepting you guys. The world is not black and white, which is hard for me to understand at times, but I’m trying. You’re here. I’m… still a hero.” Roman whispered.

“Yep, good. That’s good Roman.”

“I… like you too.”

“Ah-. Roman you don’t have to say that.” Janus blushed.

“You’re room is prohibiting me from lying, right? That’s part of the reason I’m beating myself up so much. I like you and I made fun of you. I fucked up and I ruined my chance -.” Roman started to ramble.

“No you didn’t. Like I said, everyone fights. But that doesn’t mean you are terrible.” Janus said, keeping his hands on Roman’s cheeks and staring into his eyes.

“I’m sorry, Janus.”

“I forgive you, Roman Prince. Guardian of the Mindscape. Holder of Thomas’ dreams. Gay beauty -.” Janus was cut off as Roman surged forward and kissed him. Janus started and froze. Roman pulled back immediately.

“I’m sorry, I just got caught up and I didn’t think-.” Roman turned away, blushing. Janus grabbed his face softly and pulled him back.

“I didn’t mind.” He whispered against Roman’s lips, then gave Roman a soft kiss.

“What does this mean?” Roman asked. Janus hummed.

“I would love to be with you, Roman. But I’m also willing to go slow. In fact, I think we should. This is new.” Janus said softly, gripping Roman’s hand. Roman nodded, and his small smile, looked genuine. It warmed Janus’ heart to see that smile. He hadn’t seen it in so long. No one had.

“I love you, Janus.” Roman whispered, pressing his head into Janus’ shoulder. Janus held the shaking prince close.

“I love you too, Roman.”

People who asked me to tag them! I hope this was ok!

@theprettiestflower 

@chronophobica

@blue-dress-and-ready-to-impress

[nancywheelxr]

heaven help the fool who falls in love

( read on AO3 )

They stay there, sitting around the table until all conversations fade out and the only sound is the flickering of the flames. It feels very important to be there, somehow, like something was starting, something big. It feels a little like being at the Dawn of Time, watching the universe being born.

  The flames flicker and Black Lightning is the first one to leave, heading back to Freeland with the promise of returning whenever he was needed, with backup, too, a faint smell of ozone lingering in his wake.

  After that, everyone seems to filter out quietly, going back to their lives, to try and figure out what’s changed and what’s the same, a shared trepidation of finding something’s too irrevocably different, but they’ll all be fine– they’ve got each other’s backs, and honestly, Kara can’t think of anything worse than having Lex Luthor as her boss.

  “Need a lift?” Kate asks, smirking a little, and she’s got her mask back on, wig and all, and Kara can’t help a small smile from blooming. 

  “I feel like I should be the one asking you that,” she counters, watching the sun setting behind her, washing Kate in orange light. It should not be so flattering, considering all the red she's got going. “Gotham’s a long way to walk.”

  Kate raises her eyebrows, head tilting to the side, nodding at a monster of a bike parked nearby. “Who says I’m walking?”

  “Okay, that does not look safe,” Kara says, noting the distinct lack of a helmet, “I think I’ll stick to flying, thank you very much.”

  It earns her a huff of a snicker and for some reason, she feels the urge to do a victory dance. “So, I guess I’ll see you around?”

  “Until the next time the world’s ending,” Kate gives her a two-finger salute, readying herself to drive away on her upgraded bike, key dangling from her fingers.

  “Or before,” Kara ends up blurting out, hands flailing more than she wished they would. Rao, Kate is always so precise, every movement with a destination, with a meaning, with a goal; why can’t Kara be just a bit more graceful? “You know,hopefully.”

“Ha!” Kate snorts, shaking her head, amused, and adds before walking away, “I think I’ll leave the hoping to you.”

  Her bike’s engine roars above the low buzzing of the city and Kara watches her drive out onto the road, back to Gotham and whatever waits for her there. Something in her chest constricts and she has the strange feeling she should probably leave the bravery thing to Kate too.

*

  Things in National City aren’t exactly normal, but there’s something comforting in having Nia and Alex and J’onn and Brainy knowing Lex’s farce, in not being the only one living in an upside-down world and still being so freaking grateful for it. Now, she can trade a look with Alex over the computers and see the same resigned despair reflected on her eyes. 

  It’s only a miracle and very, very careful avoidance that Kara hasn’t run into Lena or Lex yet. She’s not sure she could stomach that, doesn’t want to know what Lex turned Lena into– a puppet? The obedient, starry-eyed sister he wanted? A villain, like him? Kara can’t face that, not yet.

  So yeah, maybe she’s just a tiny bit glad when the alarms start ringing. “Where?” She demands, hiding her relief beneath a mask of professionalism. 

  “The park,” Brainy calls behind his shoulder, fingers flying over the keys, and he’s frowning, “it seems to be a meta-human, he’s freezing the trees.”

  “Okay,” she nods sharply, preparing to take off, “ice powers, got it. It’s time to teach him some chill!”

  As she leaves the DEO behind, Kara hears Alex’s groan and just for a little minute, just while she’s flying, everything feels normal, fine. 

  Not that it stays that way for much longer, of course. The guy with a weird-ass bowl on his head is a pretty good wake-up call. 

  “Okay, okay– hey, ice guy,” she glares, dodging what she supposes is some sort of freeze ray. Behind his goggles, the guy seems to focus on her and away from unsuspecting trees, “I don’t know who you are or what you think you’re doing, but winter is definitely not coming here, pal.”

  “I am Mr. Freeze,” ice guy booms, spreading his arms and encasing a terrified duck in a block of ice as he does it, “and no one will stand in my way!”

  “So, another megalomaniac, yeah, that tracks,” she shrugs, heat pooling behind her eyes, and the world is already tinting red when a blur flies past her, black and red and as fast as a bat. Kara blinks, huffs. “Oh, come on! Again?”

  “Sorry, blondie,” Kate throws her a smirk as she stabs Mr. Freeze with a syringe in the neck where his armor and helmet meet. He crumples in a white-and-blue heap, tied up and ice gun disabled. Never let it be said Batwoman isn’t scarily efficient. “This one’s one of mine.”

  Rolling her eyes, Kara lands in front of her, arms crossed and the best grumpy expression she can manage. “I had it covered, you know.”

  “Yeah, I don’t doubt it,” she says, pocketing her Batarang in her belt, and okay, it’s been only a week since the Crisis, but Kara had forgotten how it felt to be at the end of Kate’s whole laser-focus. Is this how people feel when she uses her laser vision? She hopes not, it’s very odd to feel like this– like she’s lighting up from the inside out, a whole forest fire sparking somewhere in her chest.

  Truthfully, it might just be the turkey sandwich she had earlier, the mayo had tasted a bit off, after all.

  “But Freeze's my problem,” she continues, shrugging, “but you're welcome to handle the cleanup if you want?”

  Kara glances around. Half the lake is frozen and there are at least half a dozen trees melting. “Nah, I think I'll leave that to the DEO, thank you very much.”

  “Right,” Kate grimaces, and now they're slowly moving towards the shade, to one of the benches in the park that isn't wet with melting ice, “and how is that going?”

  “Not very good?” Kara sighs, slumping on her seat, drags a hand across her face, “I mean, Lex is still just– parading around as, as! I don't know! A good person that's not a psychopathic evil genius!”

  A hand falls on her shoulder and Kara looks up, something loosening in her chest. Kate doesn't offer her a smile but her eyes are sympathetic and surprisingly open like she truly doesn't mind being here, away from Gotham, in National City, sitting in a park bench and listening to Kara's stupid problems. Her hand is warm through the gloves, solid and real.  

  “Hey,” says Kate, fingers squeezing her shoulder once, and Kara has to glance away, swallowing thickly, “do you want me to punch him for you?”

  Startled, Kara laughs, picturing Batwoman flying to Luthor’s penthouse and decking him in his stupid smug face. “Thanks, but no,” she shakes her head, “I think– we’ll figure something out, it’ll be fine.”

  “There she is,” Kate grins, leaning back on the bench, apparently very self-satisfied, “that sounds more like our Paragon of Hope.”

  “Maybe I just needed, you know,” she looks up at the sky, stretching indefinitely in all directions, cloudlessly blue, and Kara feels suddenly oddly unmoored. Turning, she catches Kate’s eyes. “A bit of courage.”

  It’s Kate’s turn to look away, red hair falling in a curtain as she turns, and her hand retreats back to her lap. “No,” she stands up, brushing dirt and snowflakes from her uniform, and when she looks back at Kara, there’s something shuttered in her eyes, even as she smiles carefully, “I’m pretty sure you’ve got it covered.”

  *

  Another month goes by and the Lex problem is far from solved but at least the Brainy problem is. It was honestly so weird to have more than one Brainy, she's kinda glad they're down to just their Brainy again.

  Anyway, successfully solving one thing makes her feel better about the rest; maybe slow truly does it, maybe she can do this one day at a time, bit by bit.

  Maybe Kate was right, maybe she does have this covered.

  Maybe she'll even tell Kate that the next time one of her rogues end up in National City– something that, by the way, happened more than she would have expected? Seriously, she ran into Kate at least five other times in this month alone, either fighting someone or following a lead.

  Not that she’s complaining, she appreciates the company.

  “So,” she says, sitting down with her latte and passing Kate her coffee, “I’m sorry your lead went cold, I can keep an eye out for any shady business going on if you want?”

  Kate waves her off, picking up one of the donuts. “No need, Black Mask will turn up soon,” she pauses, moaning around her donut, eyes closing, “shit, you were right, this is the best donut I’ve ever had!”

  Pride swells in her chest and satisfaction brings warmth to her cheeks. “Told you,” she makes the executive decision of leaving the sprinkled one for Kate, “but seriously, are you sure? Because it must’ve been urgent for you to come all the way here.”

  “Maybe I wanted to see you,” Kate winks, playful like she only ever is out of the uniform, and it’s nice to see her like this, no wig and no mask– just Kate. Once again, something shifts inside Kara. “No, but I mean it, let me handle Black Mask.”

  Right, sometimes she forgets how touchy the Bats are about their city. “Okay, your call,” she says mildly, taking a sip of her latte, “but for the record, I am glad you’re here.”

  Kate ducks, smiles, then shakes her head as if dispelling a fog. “Tough morning?”

  “More like, tough week,” Kara huffs, thinking back at the peacocking Lex has been doing all month, rubbing his success on her face, at Lena’s fond eyes, clear of the anger and betrayal that had been swimming there before the world was reset. Shame rises to her throat at how traitorously happy she still feels sometimes at having Lena on her side again, half-wishing things could stay like this– it makes her nauseous, feeling dirty, almost as bad as Lex. 

  “I could still punch him for you?” Kate’s suggestion brings another snort out of her, just like the first time, and also like the first time, Kara’s no doubt she fully means it. It’s nice, she thinks, to have someone in your corner like this. 

  “Thanks,” she exhales, hoping to push her worries away along with the air in her lungs, “how about you handle Black Mask and I’ll handle Lex?”

  “Damn, that’s a shame. I was kinda hoping to get to punch his smug face,” Kate grins, then grows serious, uncharacteristically soft, reaches for Kara’s hands where they’re resting on the table. Her fingers curl around Kara’s wrist, delicate and precise, and Kara wonders why her heart is stuttering like that, wonders if Kate can feel it through the skin, if she can tell why that’s happening. “Hey, you’ll be okay, you’ll beat him. Maybe not today, maybe not next week, but you’re gonna win this shit.”

  Throat tightening oddly, Kara swallows, licks her lips. “Thanks, I– thank you.”

  Kate pulls back, thumb brushing one last circle over on the underside of her wrist. “Don’t thank me yet,” she runs a hand through her hair, tattoos catching Kara’s gaze like always, “I’ve still got a favor to ask.”

  “A favor? What’s is it?” She straightens up, slipping into a more professional mask, “come on, hit me up.”

  Hesitancy crosses Kate’s eyes, but it’s gone in a flash, dismissed as quickly as it materialized, and Kate nods sharply. “I want to come out.”

  Kara chokes a little on her latte. “Excuse me? But I thought–”

  “No, yeah, I’m already out,” Kate snickers, waiting for her to recover before sobering up, “I had some– look, some reporters got in their heads Batwoman is straight and I just can’t stand for that, not when I could be helping people, you know? So, I think it’s past time Batwoman gives an interview.”

  “Oh,” Kara blinks, processing, “that’s– I’m sorry, people do like to just assume stuff.”

  “So you’ll do it? The interview?”

  “Oh,” she says again, “you want me to interview, er, Batwoman?”

  “There’s no one else I’d trust with this,” Kate shrugs, indifferent, and Kara wants to do her victory dance again because, from all she’s learned about the Bats and Gotham and Kate, trust is not something so easily given, but this is not the first time Kate showed her the extent of hers in Kara. It’s– a strange tangle of emotions knots themselves in her ribcage.

  “Then, of course, I’ll do it,” Kara smiles. This she can do. 

  “Thank you,” she says, a grin finally breaking on her face, “I’ll call you later to schedule it?”

  Kara has a feeling Andrea won’t be too mad if she delays a few articles in favor of an exclusive with freaking Batwoman. “Sounds great, whenever you want.”

  Her latte is getting cold but Kara can’t quite bring herself to hurry– if anything, she takes her time eating the donuts, sipping her beverage; the sun is shining especially bright today, reflecting off Kate’s hair and blinding Kara to anything else around the world.

  *

  Gotham is still dark, and grim, and oppressively rude, and Kara, superpowers and all, feels the need to clutch her bag a little tighter and keep her head down as she makes her way to the Kane penthouse– because Kate has a penthouse, that’s a thing, because Kate is rich. How is it that Kara keeps befriending millionaires?

  “Oh, hello,” says the girl who opens the door and is definitely not Kate. She has a friendly smile and very sad eyes, and she reminds Kara a little of Lena, if only a little softer, kinder, friendlier. “I’m Mary, can I help you?”

  Right, Mary Hamilton, Kate’s stepsister. “Hi, I’m Kara Danvers– the reporter? Kate said to just come here instead of Wayne Tower? I’m sorry, I know how this sounds but I swear I’m not just some tabloid–”

  “You’re Kara?” Mary’s whole face lights up and Kara is faintly happy for Kate, she remembers how miserable she had been talking about when her step-sister had been at odds with her. Now, Mary waves her in, grinning wide, “come in, come in, Kate’s talked so much about you! It’s so nice to finally meet you, seriously, I feel like I already know you–”

  This is all happening rather fast, but Kara tries to keep up with Mary’s words, following her to a large, open-concept living room, talking a mile a minute. “Thanks, I– she talked about me? I mean! She talked a lot about you too!”

  “Really? Because I swear, it’s like pulling teeth with her when it comes to this stuff–”

  “Kara!” It’s Kate, rounding a corner and looking sorta alarmed at her sister, eyes going between them as if she’s assessing the situation, and for the first time, Kara thinks she might be a little wrong-footed, even if it’s only for a second. “Thank you for agreeing to this,” she pauses in front of Kara with a small smile and Kara hesitates– should they hug? Shake hands? What’s the protocol here now that there’s no villain to serve as a buffer? She waits too long and the moment passes, Kate turning her focus to Mary and leaving Kara feeling slightly disappointed, bereft. “Don’t start– she’s here for an interview.”

  Mary’s smile becomes sly. “Sure, see you later Kate, it was very nice to meet you Kara, come by anytime. Have fun!”

  She takes her leave like a hurricane, the dull sound of the door closing behind her almost jarring in the silence that stays after her.

  “Sorry about that,” Kate grimaces, half-apologetic, “we're still– she resents Sophie, I think, and she thinks I should have more friends, that's all.”

  Again, Kara tries to match the name with a face, coming up with very little information– ex-girlfriend, married, works in security, messy breakup. Though, messy isn't exactly the word she'd use, not when she clearly hurt Kate then and is most likely hurting her again now. Whoever Sophie is, Kara would very much like to have a few words with her.

  Yeah, after all, Kara knows a little about messy breakups. 

  It’s not the same, though, she reminds herself; her situation with Lena isn’t complicated like Kate’s with Sophie is, like hers with Mon-El had been. If she had more time, if she were alone, perhaps Kara would examine why she’s holding them all to the same level, or why her chest is aching bitterly for no good reason at all.

  Everything is so complicated these days.

  “It's okay, I know how sisters can be,” she smiles, forcing herself to be very still when Kate sits down beside her in the couch, knees touching hers, “so, how do you want to do this?”

  Kate sighs, not quite a scowl on her face but none of the playfulness from before either. “Here is as secure as it can be,” she says, glancing out the large windows, and Kara wants to ask about the Batcave, a few fragmented memories of Oliver mentioning the secrecy around Batman and his dislike of meta-humans in general the only things keeping her away from the topic. She’s not about to pry into someone else’s secret, not when Kate is already going against what her cousin would have liked for their city just by inviting Kara there. 

  Something about Kate– it gives Kara pause, recorder dropping to her lap. There’s a tiredness clinging to the corner of her eyes, taking up space where laughter lines should be, and while she’s going through the motions of this conversation as natural as ever, it’s clear she’s not wholly there. Wherever she is, Kate’s mind must be worrying and unhappy if the way her eyebrows keep knitting minutely, a crinkle in her forehead that Kara is itching to smooth over with her fingers. She wonders if Kate will feel cool to the touch against Kara’s sun-charged skin, Kryptonians always do run a little hotter than most humans. 

  A blink. Jesus, where’s this coming from?

  In any case. “Hey, are you sure you’re okay?” She hovers a little before deciding to place her hand on Kate’s knee, just an inch above the rip on her jeans. It’s more tempting than it has any right to be. “We don’t have to do this today, you look tired.”

  Kate shakes her head, seeming to dispel a stormy cloud of thoughts, and looks warily at Kara, eyes seizing her like she’s still unsure how genuine the question is, how much is out of politeness. It’s almost offensive, really, Kate should know better by now. 

  She really, really should know better by now, considering how long they spent in the Vanishing Point, before the timeline reset, before things hit the fan and then more or less fixed themselves. 

  Then, Kate sighs again, not deflating but maybe unsteeling. “Alice has gone underground,” she admits, running a hand through her hair, “and there’s only so much I can do until she resurfaces again.”

  So she’s probably running herself ragged the whole night. Kara frowns. “I’m sorry,” she says, biting her lip, “it never gets easy, having to stop people you love, family.”

  “She killed Mary’s mother,” the words leave her lips through gritted teeth, and Kate is now glaring at the tiled floor like it’s personally responsible for every bad thing that’s going on. The faraway look in her eyes returns, fogging over, “you know, when I took Bruce’s place I didn’t think– it wasn’t supposed to be Beth.”

  Today is a bad day, Kara recognizes with terrible clarity, one of those where everything weighs a little heavier on your shoulders. There’s not much to be done in those times, she knows from experience. Saying I’m sorry again feels awfully inadequate. Instead, she shuffles a little closer, subtly trying to telegraph I’m here, it doesn’t have to be lonelier than it already is. “Once,” Kara clears her throat, “my aunt and uncle tried to take over the world in the worst way possible and I had to stop them. They’re dead now. My point is– Beth isn’t. There’s still hope. She’ll appear again and you’ll stop her, get her the help she needs.”

  “How can you be so sure?” Kate looks up at her with clear eyes, greenish-blue like a bottomless ocean, tides warring over each other with tall waves of emotion. Kara likes to think this is better than the fog, than the tar-like glaze. You can’t see through fog, but every storm clears eventually. “There’s not many places for hope in Gotham.”

  “That’s okay,” Kara says decidedly, meeting her gaze steadily, head-on, “I can do the hoping for you.”

  Kate smiles, a small, weak, sad thing, brittle, and it’s not a smirk and it’s not the malleable plastic she gives the media. It’s just that, a smile, and Kara commits it to memory like a treasure map.

  *

  Her computer screen gives off blue light, illuminating her face in the rapidly darkening room, but Kara’s fingers still hover unsurely over the keys, the blank page mocking her just like it’s been doing for the past hour.

  Beside her laptop, her recorder sits, red light blinking, and Kara is tempted to run it again, listen to the whole interview one more time to try and find the right words for this. The article is important for Kate, for Batwoman, and for so many people– it could be huge, it could be a great thing, inspiring. But only if Kara gets it right; there’ll be no do-over for this.

  Sure, the main purpose of the interview is for Kate to come out, but they didn’t just talk about that. The lines got blurred. Kate told her about West Point and Sophie, about waiting in her bike for Sophie to come out of the building, a thousand plans for the future already bubbling in her mind, never once thinking about Sophie’s side of things. I was being selfish, she had told Kara, I’m still being selfish, I think. Her voice had been horribly sad and Kara thinks complicated had been both an understatement and exaggeration on the state of things. 

  In turn, Kara had thought it was only fair for her to tell her about Lena and all the snowball of tragedies that brought on, her own voice stilted and cracking at the edges. About Myriad and Andrea and how confusing everything had become at the end.

  Halfway through, though, Luke had texted, calling Kate away to deal with someone they had called Killer Croc over the phone. Kate had been apologetic and guilty, but– here’s the thing, Kara truly gets it. She had told her so, too. Supergirl had had to exit stage left many times over the years.

  It’s nice, she thinks, not to have to lie about that.

  And now, here Kara is, fretting over how to even start the article, how to be truthful to Kate’s story, live up to the trust she’s placing on her. 

  She wonders what it means that she’s worrying so much.

  *

  Thank you, Kate texts her while Kara is still reeling from the outpouring of reactions the article has sparked, and she can’t help grinning madly at her phone, heart running a marathon around her ribs.

  “You look happy,” Nia tells her much later when they’re patrolling together to avoid the DEO and Lex and his lies, “do you want to know what I dreamt about last night?”

  “Shoot,” says Kara, unbothered by her remark.

  “There was a field of wildflowers,” she pauses at the edge of the roof, frowning in concentration, “and a bat was flying high even though the sun was shining very bright in the sky. Do you know what it means?”

  Her chest aches hopefully. Kara thinks she’s beginning to understand now. “I might have an idea.”

  “The sun usually has to do with you,” Nia shrugs, “but I was thinking the bat might have to do with that friend of yours from Gotham. That’s all I got though, sorry.”

  “That’s okay,” Kara smiles, knocking her shoulders with Nia’s in comfort, letting her know it’s alright not to know everything, she’s still learning how to interpret her dreams, after all. “I like a little mystery.”

  Nia blinks. “You really do look happy,” grins, “I’m glad.”

  *

  The months spent in the Vanishing Point are both sharp and fuzzy in her memory. Some days they feel like minutes spent in someplace far away, in suspended animation, a blink compared to the enormity of their task. In others, though, lingering grief turns them into years of stretched out nothingness, a lifetime of blank repetitions.

  Somehow, it always feels like a world of its own– nearly enough to make Kara wonder if it hadn't all been a dreadful nightmare, a delusion from the anti-matter wave.

  But then, she looks at Kate now and it's so painfully familiar, those terrible months have to be real. She remembers Kate training endlessly in the shadows, tiring herself out for days on end, working until she would collapse in a corner somewhere to sleep fitfully, and she remembers curling at her side and feeling a little less alone, red cape still clutched tightly in her fingers.

  When she closes her eyes, she can still hear their whispered conversations, half plans and half rants, too desperate and sad to be anywhere useful. Mostly, it was only to keep the silence at bay.

  To be reminded there was at least one other person in the whole universe.

  Anyway.

  Somedays the Vanishing Point feels very far away, but Kate is always close, sharp in focus, a streak of red in the dull grey landscape.

  Kara resolutely does not think about those months, accepting the shifts in dynamic as only natural, a fast forward of more pleasant times.

  *

  “Alex,” Kara says quietly, huddling closer to her pillow, phone pressed to her ear and a hundred and two thoughts swimming in her head. No, that’s not right, it’s just one, just the one thought about just the one person. 

  Across the line, she hears her sister yawn. “Yeah? Everything alright?”

  “Yes. No. I don’t know,” she closes her eyes, trying to keep everything contained, all the cards laid orderly on the table. Facts, questions, answers– if she goes over it like one of her stories, then it’s easier to figure it out, to see the bigger picture from the puzzle. Or maybe it’s not that Kara can’t finish the puzzle, it’s just that she owes it to Kate to make sure it really fits the image on the box. She exhales and in the same breath, asks, “how do you know you’re in love?”

  “What?” Alex’s frown it’s clear even through the phone, the sounds of the rustling of covers probably meaning she’s sitting up in bed. A low murmur, muffled; Kelly is there, too, then. A door opening and closing. “What’s going on?”

  “How do I know it’s love?” Kara rephrases her question, tries to shift the pieces so it’s easier to make anything out, “I liked James and Carter and Ioved Mon-El, and I think I could’ve fallen in love with Lena– but I didn’t– it’s easier to realize how I felt later, after things were already sorted out. I need to know– how do I know it’s love now?”

  Before I go and say something I don’t mean, before I make a mess of things, before I risk the best thing that’s happened all year, before I hurt someone who’s been hurt too much already.

  Alex pauses. “Did you just say you were in love with Lena?”

  “I said I could have fallen in love with Lena,” she corrects, biting the inside of her cheek, “things– changed. The moment passed, the timing isn’t right anymore.”

  I met someone else, she doesn't add.

  “Yeah, it’s probably– sorry,” Alex sounds rattled, and Kara supposes that’s fair; this is all a lot to dump on someone without warning. “I’m just– is this you coming out?”

  Kara smiles, not necessarily nervous, but still a bit anxious. Did she wait too long to do this? Things were different in Krypton and by the time Kara realized she actually needed to come out and say something, it never felt like the right time. And then Alex came out and it felt– she doesn’t know. Maybe she is nervous after all. “In part, yes. Sorry, I should probably have done this in person.”

  “So you are…” Alex trails off, probably not wanting to assume anything. She’s considerate like that.

  “Bisexual,” Kara says, testing out the word. Yeah, it feels right, saying it out loud. As if that makes it properly real– no, official. Kara Danvers is bisexual. Supergirl is bisexual. “I’m sorry I never said anything sooner, maybe if I had, it would’ve been easier for you, but–”

  “Don’t– there’s nothing to apologize for,” Alex says softly, gently, “everyone has their own time. Thank you for trusting me with this.”

  Kara wonders if this is what Alex had wanted to hear when she first came out. Yeah, Kara really could have handled that one better. “Thank you," she swallows, breathes, “you're the best sister in the world, did you know?”

  There's a quiet huff that Kara recognizes as Alex breathing out a laugh. “I love you too,” she pauses for a second, “so now that we got that out of the way, what's really going on? Is this about Kate?”

  Something cold weights on her gut and Kara chokes on nothing. “Is it that obvious?”

  Am I that obvious?

  “Relax,” now there’s definitely the sound of Alex snickering, “I just know you, I don’t think she’s noticed it yet.”

  Boldened by the rush of relief talking about it brings her, Kara takes a deep breath. “I have feelings for her, I just don’t know if it’s love,” then, she adds quieter, hesitant as if this was the real secret all along, “I really want it to be love.”

  “You know,” Alex begins, “mom used to say you like someone because and love them despite of.”

  “That sounds like she was quoting something,” Kara replies, almost sullenly, “what does it even mean?”

  “She probably was, yeah, but it’s not wrong– it’s easy to like someone because of their qualities, but loving someone means staying despite their flaws. It means knowing all the stuff that annoys you about them, that you don’t necessarily like, and choosing to be there anyway. I like Kelly because she’s beautiful and ridiculously smart, and I love her despite her being a bit of a know-it-all.”

  “Kate’s so beautiful, and smart, and so, so brave,” Kara says, rolling on her bed so she feels less like she’s reciting a prayer, “I like that about her. I like that she’s trying to keep her city safe and still save her sister. I even like how she’s always smirking like she knows something no one does. I like how she cares and how determined she is. I like how she never gives up.”

  Alex sounds like she’s still smiling. “And?”

  “And I don’t know,” Kara whines, plainly whines, covering her face with her arm.

  “I think you do,” Alex counters, mild and steady, “but for the record, you seem a hell of a lot happier now that she’s around.”

  Her conversation with Nia on the roof claws its way to the forefront of her mind and Kara blushes even though no one is there. Nonsensically, she feels sort of guilty about it. As if she shouldn’t get to be this happy when so much is still going on, half-afraid the universe will come collect its due later– so far, her happiness has always been more or less on borrowed time.

  “I have– I need to think about this,” she finally settles, “thanks for listening.”

  “I hope I’ve helped a little,” says Alex, yawning, “will you be okay?”

  “Yeah, I���ll be fine,” glancing out her window, Kara can see the stars, too bright to be swallowed by the city lights, “go back to sleep. And tell Kelly I say hi.”

  Alex is probably rolling her eyes. “See you tomorrow, try and get some sleep too, alright?”

  Sleep does claim her sooner rather than later, and Kara drifts off to dream about a field of wildflowers, two hands reaching for each other, the sun shining warmly over their skin, and Kate’s smile softer than the grass under their feet.

  *

  Movie night is a fairly regular occurrence, especially after the Crisis, and there’s honestly no telling who might show up.

  Tonight, besides Alex, Brainy, Nia, and Kelly, a lot more people are crowded inside Kara’s living room. Barry, Cisco, Sara, and Ray are all spread out on the couches and armchairs, swapping tales of their latest adventures and bitching about their hurdles.

  It’s– nice. More than nice. Better.

  And now, of course–

  “Hey, I come bearing gifts,” Kate grins, holding up a six-pack of beers in each hand, and Kara is taken aback by how unfairly good she looks under the fluorescent lights of her building’s hallway, sharp and bold in her leather jacket, and for a second, Kara stays there, rooted to the spot while her brain reboots. 

  Sara and Cisco push her out of the way first. “Thank you,” Cisco mouths happily as they run off with the booze, disappearing back into the living room.

  “Hi, sorry,” Kara shakes herself into moving, waving Kate in with a smile, “come in, we’re watching The Wizard of Oz tonight. It was Barry’s turn to pick, so. I lucked out, I guess.”

  “That’s your favorite movie, right?” Kate follows her into the fray, throwing a half-hearted greeting to the room before sitting on the floor beside Kara in the conveniently only open seat left. Well, not only, she could have chosen anywhere else in the carpet to seat, after all, but it would be sort of impolite– okay, yeah, this is probably what Alex means about Kara overthinking things. 

  “Yup,” Kara nods, passing Barry the remote, “I know all the songs by heart at this point, really. And the dialogues. Maybe. I might have been in my high school rendition of the musical too.”

  Kate’s eyebrows rise and she stretches her legs, crossing them at the ankle, and Kara forces herself not to track the movement with her eyes. “I would’ve paid a lot of money to see that, please tell me someone recorded the whole thing.”

  “Don’t laugh!” She hits her arm lightly, earning said a huff of said laughter, and hugs the popcorn bowl closer, “you can’t make fun of me, I’m holding the popcorn hostage now.”

  “I’m not! I think it’s cute– actually, it’s adorable,” Kate is grinning, eyes glittering with humor, with mischief, with something, “so will you release the popcorn or is this going to escalate to a hostage negotiation?”

  “I haven’t heard any negotiating yet,” Kara says haughtily, holding the bowl out of reach.

  If possible, Kate’s grin grows wider, sharper. Prettier. Deadlier. “I guess I’ll just have to try harder to convince you.”

  It knocks the breath out of her lungs, something hungry brewing somewhere down her chest, and Kara needs to say something soon before it gets awkward, needs to get her shit together and stop melting every time Kate maybe-flirts with her. This doesn’t have to mean anything. This is just how Kate is. She smirks and teases and, and whatever, but it doesn’t have any deeper meaning. There’s no need for Kara or Alex for that matter, to read anything into it.

  And she really, really needs to stop having a meltdown over it.

  As it is, she is accidentally saved by Sara, who throws popcorn at them with a half-hearted shush.

  Barry, on the other hand, is not helpful at all when he adds, “yeah, quit flirting so loud, the movie’s starting.”

  Now Kara is frigging blushing, she knows she must be because her cheeks feel hot and heat is crawling up her neck, but Kate only laughs, leaning over her to rescue the popcorn bowl from Kara’s numb fingers with a, a playful wink.

  Rao, tonight is going to be the death of her.

  Because now that Kara is aware of her feelings, it’s like she’s opened a door she doesn’t know how to close again. Someone has turned off the lights and Kara sneaks a look at Kate, and she is so close, Kara can’t bring herself to look away, too busy tracing her profile, following the lines of her tattoos down her collarbone, disappearing under her shirt, and something is shifting on her chest like her ribcage is cracking open and all these emotions are pouring out– she looks at Kate and she wants and wants and wants, and it all feels rooted down to her bones, so deep down inside her being that it would bleed her dry to try and pluck them out like wildflowers.

  It feels so much it hurts.

  Can you be addicted to something you never tasted?

  Is this how love aches?

  I shall take the heart, the Tin Woodsman is saying on the screen, and Kara forces herself to look away. It doesn’t matter, anyway, Kate’s image is burned in the back of her eyelids, filling the dark with leather jackets and dangerous smiles.

  *

  “You should tell her,” Alex says, “you really should tell her how you feel.”

  It’s a very rehearsed argument at this point and Kara is tired of explaining there’s little room in Kate’s life, in Kate’s heart, that isn’t Gotham, or Beth, or Sophie. She doesn’t want to be another Reagan. She’d rather wait in silence and, well, hope, than rush in and ruin everything.

  Things are fine now, they’re friends, and Kara genuinely loves being her friend, why should she put that in jeopardy? Friendship isn’t less than a romance. It can be enough; she can be content.

  “It’s not the same as happy, though, is it?” Alex always replies, mouth in a thin line. “Won’t you trust me on this? I’ve seen how she looks at you.”

  Sometimes, she wishes Alex wouldn’t say things like that.

  “You won’t ever be one hundred percent sure, Kara,” she adds, “it’s a leap of faith– you gotta jump and trust she’s going to catch you.”

  Maybe that’s the problem, Kara is too used to be the one doing the catching.

  *

  She’s fine, this is fine, it’s all fine.

  *

  “You’re pining,” Barry tells her, “it’s a little sad to watch– not that I’m one to talk, but. Yeah, it’s kinda sad, you should tell her how you feel.”

  *

  Oliver’s memorial has nothing to say on this matter.

  *

  Not that Oliver would know what to say– he’d probably tell her to talk to Barry about it.

  *

  “Tell her how you feel, oh my god,” Barry groans, draining the last of his milkshake, “seriously, please, just go over to Gotham and confess your undying love, Kate’s been grumpier than usual– she growled at me to get out of her city, Kara. Growled. And I didn’t even want to be there. Just tell her how you feel so I don’t have to fear for my life every time the Trickster decides to wander out of Central City.”

  *

  Somehow Kate owning a gay club comes as less of a surprise than one would think. Sure, she’s got the vigilante gig at night and keeping Wayne Tower in one piece seems to be trouble enough, but Kara can’t think of anything Kate can’t do if she puts her mind to it.

  Especially if it’s out of spite.

  “I could punch that guy for you,” Kara offers after Kate finishes the story, anger simmering under the surface only mitigated by Kate’s own petty vengeance, “seriously, one hit and he’d be out like a light.”

  Kate laughs. The music is loud here but it still somehow rings clearer than anything. “Thanks, but I need him awake to see this place.”

  “Pity, I’m pretty sure punching bigots is in my job description by now,” she shrugs, not-so-fake disappointed. They’re in one of the booths, secluded away from most of the crowd, alone after the others left for the dancefloor; it might have been an excuse, although there’s not enough information for her to be totally sure. “So,” she says, sipping her drink unconcernedly, “Barry said you were in a bad mood last week.”

  To be fair, Kate does look regretful at the reminder, pouring herself another shot. “Yeah, I should probably apologize to him later,” they both look at the crowd, searching for Barry and sharing a laugh at his uncoordinated moves. “Man, you’d think he’d be better at dancing, all things considered.”

  “Maybe it’s a good thing nazis from another dimension crashed his wedding– can you imagine him trying to waltz?”

  “That,” Kate keeps laughing, head tilting back, and Kara watches the curve of her neck, wishes to cover it with kisses until she’s shivering under her lips. “Sounds like a story I want to hear later.”

  She shakes her head. “It’s not a very fun story, really, I shouldn’t have joked,” she hurries to add, “but I did have time to sing before the shoot-out!”

  “Of course you can sing,” Kate huffs, leaning back on her seat, shakes her head, and the way she’s looking at Kara, it’s all a bit too much, it leaves her unsteady, drunk like the alcohol didn’t. It barely registers what an odd thing that is to fixate on. When she continues, it’s just a murmur, probably not meant for Kara to hear, “why wouldn’t you? You’re perfect.”

  Perhaps she should have taken it as a compliment or nothing at all since she wasn’t meant to hear anyway, but Kara still feels vaguely betrayed. Thinking someone is perfect only means you don’t know them at all and she had thought– being hopelessly hopeful, she thought Kate knew her deeper than that, more honest than that, past Supergirl and Kara Danvers down to whatever is left under both.

  “I’m not perfect,” the need to point out is greater than the disappointment swirling in her gut.

  “Oh, no, I know that,” Kate waves her off, leaning back in on her elbows, glass half-empty on her fingers, glinting in the colorful lights, and she just looks so, so painfully beautiful, “you can be self-righteous sometimes and you trust way too easily. You’re too optimistic and also, when you nap, you drool. I know you’re not perfectly perfect, you’re just…” she gestures in her vague direction, making a face and downing the rest of her drink.

  And Kara. She lets the words sink in and thinks oh.

  She thinks oh and she hears Alex’s words on her head, voice wavering into Eliza’s even though she never heard Eliza say that, and she knows with blinding clarity that this cannot be a dream because Kara’s never been more awake in her whole life.

  If anything, it’s as if she’s finally, finally, awake.

  “You brood a lot,” she hears herself saying, “and you can be a little self-centered, and you can be a little arrogant, too.”

  Kate has set her glass down and she’s now staring at Kara like she’s trying to solve a particularly difficult puzzle, “ouch,” she fakes a wince distractedly, “harsh, but you’re not denying the drooling, I see.”

  “Kate,” Kara says, heart trembling in her chest, and maybe this is why Kate is the Paragon of Courage– she feels a lot braver when she’s with her; it’s easy to fall and trust she’ll catch her. “Kate, I could give you infinite reasons why I like you, and I love you despite all I said. I think I could love you despite anything, really, and I’ve been loving you despite that, too.”

  For one terrifying second, Kate says nothing, frozen into perfect stillness, but then she’s rounding the table to stop in front of Kara, looking down at her as if she’s watching the whole universe unfold, openly vulnerable, as if she can’t quite believe this is real, and Kara wants and wants and wants.

  And when Kate finally leans down, she’s already meeting her halfway.

  Her lips are soft and her hands are in Kara’s hair, and Kara was right, Kate’s skin is blessedly cool against her own feverish touch, and the world ends and begins in the inches between them they steal with each new kiss.

  It’s terrifyingly addicting.

  People are all made of stardust, Kara even more so, maybe that’s why for her, Kate feels an awful lot like coming home.

  “Kara,” Kate whispers her name against her lips like a prayer, and her eyes are still shut even as she presses her forehead against Kara’s, “I love you, I do, but I really need you to be sure. Are you sure?”

  Are you sure you can love me, she hears, unsaid.

  “I’m sure,” Kara answers, kissing her softly, a fleeting press of lips, just because she can, and then another, just because prayers are never recited only once, and one more because neither should promises, not if you intend to keep them, “I love you, that’s all.”

  Kate smiles.

  It’s more beautiful than any sun.

  “That’s all,” she echoes, and it’s as simple as that, “I love you,”  she says and holds Kara like she’s a delicate thing, even as her fingers dig wonderfully into her hips.

  In the end, Kara thinks she’ll take the heart too, and with Kate pressing yet another kiss, her mind clears, and she thinks nothing at all.

[bugaboowritings]

Date My Best Friend, You Dumb Cat - Superhero Accidental Reveal Fic

Alya Found Out Adrien's Secret and is MAd that He Isn't Doing His Homework

So... I had this piece in my head since I saw that old Instagram post about Alya and Adrien being partners for a school project and that comic about Adrien and Alya having an accidental Reveal when their glamour dropped. 

May make this a series.. Also have this same thing but with Chloe - Check them out! ( 1 ) and ( 2 )

And then with Marinette/Ladybug and Adrien - ( 1 )

Two months, one week, three days, and seven hours since the new semester started. 

Two months, one week, and twelve hours since Miss Bustier assigned the first group project.

Two months, one week, eleven hours, and forty minutes since Alya Césaire and Adrien Agreste were randomly selected to be partners.

Four minutes after that, Alya teased her best friend mercilessly if she wanted to trade partners. 

Two years, six months, two weeks and twenty-three hours since Ladybug and Chat Noir first appeared in Paris.

Two years, six months, and three weeks since Alya met her best friend, Marinette Dupain-Cheng on the first day of school in a new town. 

Two seconds since she discovered Chat Noir’s identity. 

Two years, six months, and two weeks since Marinette confessed to Alya about her crush on a certain blond she thought Marinette strongly disliked. 

Seven seconds since she found out about Chat’s secret identity. 

Two years and five months since Alya decided to investigate the real-life superheroes patrolling the city. 

Eleven seconds since the mask and the magical spandex fully disintegrated off her skin. 

What happened only moments ago played as if someone clicked freeze-frame on this point of Alya Césaire’s life as her miraculous glamour dropped. 

Leaving Alya Césaire in the cold alley as Rena Rouge vanished into thin air. Ending the superhero illusion when her suit reached its five-minute limit.

The dazzled Lady-blogger watched the little coy Fox God of Illusion twist their expression in amusement. The corners of their mouth turned up in a sharp smile, playfully flicking their tongue at their user. 

“Oh, this is going to be fun explaining to the Leader Lady.” 

-

“You’re-! ADrienN!” Alya choked.

 “How- OH MY GOD! You’re- Oh my god!!” She stuttered, barely grasping what was going on as she tripped over her words while the fatal conclusion hit her gut. Her stomach felt hot and twirled in knots. Her cold, clammy hands traveled to her curls, locking her fingers in her hair as she pulled strands away from her face. Not believing what she just witnessed. 

  Alya swore on this day that she went brain dead before her eyes widened and readjusted to the dark atmosphere. Without her mask, Alya was left without her magical night vision, forced to focus on the scene organically while her glasses slowly dipped off the bridge of her nose. 

 The gears clicked and ground in Alya Césaire’s observant mind, jumping faster to conclusions than a gun could fire a bullet into a clear sunny day. Pinning ideas and theories then shuffling around clues that could make this sound believable to herself. Even as she sat there, sitting in the middle of the alley-way trash bin, watching the aftermath of the Miraculous unfold. 

 GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

   Of course, she JUST HAD to make the grave mistake on dropping into the same alley that Chat Noir did.

   AND OF COURSE!!-, she did it without thinking it through! Not while the adrenaline levels spiked up in the blood in her veins, giving her this deadly sense of invincibility. The same feeling that made her fearless when she leaped over buildings and dropped from heights that could kill her and her courage.

   However, in the heat of the moment, there’s no time left to worry when her necklace gave an urgent beep. Alya remembered thinking that she had more time to spare, yet the second she blinked -her orange suit was already peeling off her body. Causing her to lose her footing in mid-air which led to one of the most ungracefully landings she has ever made. Drawing blood as she scraped her hands hitting the brick wall and almost breaking her neck if she hadn’t landed in the stuffed dumpster or pushed her feet under her weight to cushion her fall. Her sweatshirt returned back on her body and her hair was no longer crimson red, but tree bark brown with fading colored tips. 

Then with a loud THUMP, BOOM, and CRASH, a commotion that surely woke up the surrounding neighborhood and scared off any stray cats in the area, the two heroes fell out of the sky and landed into their civilian selves. 

Of course, Alya didn’t realize she wasn’t the only one that crash-landed in the alley until it was a second too late to do anything about it. 

  Untangling herself from the garbage-bins tagged with graffiti and unsettling stains, Alya puffed and huffed, holding her breath to trap the last bit of fresh air she had stored in her lungs. Only to gasp for air, not because of the grime and disgusting odors around her but she noticed the glow and gleam of green and black across from her. 

  Alya swore that she covered her eyes, for her sake and his- but she recognized that voice as it groaned. Along with those familiar orange shoes that kicked up and around, same with the sweats with a familiar logo stitched on the side. 

The Gabriel Brand. 

Gabriel Agreste. 

THE Gabriel Agreste. 

One of the top lines in fashion.

Practical clothing but at expensive prices. 

A-And that! What he was wearing was part of a new street-wear! One only rumored to exist and if so- it wasn’t hitting the stores for a figure of a few months!! (Thank you, Marinette for your vast knowledge of fashion and launches and your endless rambles about them.)    

Yet, how could-!? How could this sly cat have access to the brand or rumored collection!? How could this leather-wearing flirt have the cash to have anything with the Agreste brand on it?

Was he some sort of business partner? A loyal customer with benefits? Heir to a company that has ties with the Agreste? New money or old?!

No- that can’t be right. Gabriel wouldn’t just hand off his secret collection unless…Unless it was someone worth giving to. 

It wasn’t until the infamous cat raised his head up in a moan that Alya Césaire, local Lady-blogger, saw his face, Chat Noir’s face, without the mask. 

As ungracious this whole situation was, this seemed like the only right way to figure out the kitty’s identity. 

All thanks to a series of unfortunate events and some bad luck. 

Something totally on-brand for him. 

 The blond brushed his hair with the tips of his fingers before lightly rubbing the sore spot over his neck. Rocking his head back and forth and around to alleviate the stinging. His forehead wrinkled as he groaned once more, knitting his eyebrows together. All before opening his acid green eyes wide at the reporter when she released the breath she held in. 

  Adrien Agreste being this cocky superhero that swirled and twirled about the city- the same one that wore a bell and slick black leather- explained so little and left so many questions unanswered.

 It did, however, explain the little details that she looked over when it came to Adrien Agreste. How he jumped into action when he heard the Akuma Alert, how he didn’t run for his life but quickly claim that he needed to go to the bathroom when a giant semi-monster or Akuma loomed over the city, how he seemed to be a true Ladybug Stan since the beginning it all- even when Paris was barely getting used with their new super-reality, how he checked with Alya after almost every blog post if she uploaded something during school hours, the quick comments and awkward praise given about his alter-ego when the Miraculous Duo came to be the topic again in the lunch table. 

The Lady-blogger knew that Chat Noir playing offense when Darkblade came to claim Paris could be a clue, how Chat Noir knew where to take the students when evacuating the school after a nasty Akuma attack when he ‘supposedly’ never been there, and then how Chat Noir called everyone by their name when it was the first time her classmates even had the chance to see him in person and not on a news-recap. 

 Why Adrien had to miss the grand installment of the Miraculous Duo Statue in the park, but he never really missed it because he was THERE! Chat Noir was in her classroom and she didn’t even-!!

Alya gasped. 

“Our project is due before 12!” Cupping her mouth before throwing her hands out to the blond. Yanking him out of the trash by the collar of his jacket.

“Why are you here and not finishing the first draft?!”

Adrien Agreste, still pressed up against the alley wall with his back supported by day-old trash, digested Alya’s words before rolling his eyes. A snarky reply slipped his mouth as he shifted his body into a more comfortable spot after getting squashed in the tight alleyway. 

“An evil super villain possessed a child, Alya. I have priorities.” 

  “And our grade isn’t!” 

Adrien tucked his legs under himself as a cat kwami popped out of his light blue jacket. Struggling to get on his feet from the buzz sensation in his legs after his fall, resting his hands on the dirty concrete before showing more of his superhero persona.

“Again priorities, Alya!” He uttered, ruffling his hair as he took their current situation in. 

Stretching his arms as he stood up to his full height. His hair, messy and tangled, suede one side to the other as Adrien shook his head. 

“I can’t leave my Lady alone when a crazed toddler is on the loose.” 

----

Who would have guessed? 

That the Cat with the dangerously charming grin was the same boy that can’t go out with his friends if work intervened or when his dad flatly said no to his face through a tablet held by his black-suited assistants. The guy that would merciless flirt with the red heroine (he still drinks respect women juice tho) was outside of the world of superheroes and villains, a guy that never went out on a proper date with anyone before. 

God, this would surely make a great article. 

Alya Césaire had uncovered one of the biggest secrets in Paris, all in a matter of some lucky seconds. Not because of her totally-awesome journalist skills, but all because of dumb luck. 

Wait-.

She just lost her secret identity too. 

--Ladybug is going to kill her.

Alya got sick and pale when she thought this situation over, not with her Lady Blogger brain, but with her superhero ego. Forgetting how her project was late or the fact if she didn’t return home quickly her family would worry if they didn’t find her in bed at this hour. 

Ladybug is going to kill them.

 No-... she gonna take away their miraculous FIRST so they then don’t have a chance to fight back and THEN kill them. Most likely after her speech about breaking the most important rule of being a superhero. 

“Keeping your secret identity a secret.”

Alya groaned into her hands as the memory of Ladybug’s lectures and advanced fighting skills played in her head. 

She is so dead.  

Letting that fact sink in before taking in a big deep breath. 

“It’s fine,” she can work with this. She can bounce back. She can just explain this to Ladybug without losing her chance at being a Miraculous Holder. It’s gonna be fine- 

Parting her hands from her face to see Ch-Adrien pull out a little container of cheese for the black kwami nagging and floating by the blond’s head. The tiny god grinned as it nibbled (inhaled) on that snack as it hovered over his Chosen’s shoulder. 

Alya screamed in her palms once more, making her peace on earth.  

---

Alya thanked Adrien for the slice of cheese. Handing it to Trixx to get him ready for another transformation. The duo decided that it was better to wait it out for their Kwamis rather than try to walk home in the middle of nowhere in the dead of night. 

Once Alya came over the shock of finding out Chat Noir’s identity, she bit her tongue before asking any questions. Taking in what was behind the mask, a good observation was key for a reporter since that can tell more than questions itself could.  

His hair was different, it wasn’t the right length (when thinking of his magical alter-ego). Nor did it curl by his ears, but it still had that ‘swish’ and ‘fluff’ texture. His eyes were still that acid green color but seemed more on the light shade and looked more ‘natural’ and ‘safe’ compared to the huge, glowing cat eyes he had before. The same eyes that scared criminals in pit black or lit up a night sky. His face’s silhouette matched the pictures of the hero’s. His jaw was the perfect shape and his height was exactly the same, give or take the added milometers from his boots. Yet, it seemed so weird to see this. 

There, Chat Noir peeled away left Adrien Agreste. Laying against the tagged-up walls and using the crunchy trash bags to break his fall and now as bean-bag chairs as he laughed at something his Kwami whispered. 

“You’re Chat Noir.” 

It was the first sentence she said without coughing or yelping. Scaring Adrien to just hear Alya speak in her stern tone, ruining the silence he thought they (unspokenly) agreed to keep. Nevertheless, Adrien should have known that the quiet could only last for a while before Alya recovered and spit questions with a blink of an eye. 

It was too good to be true if he thought they could just forget about this and walk away. 

 The golden boy bit his bottom lip in what seems to be a mixture of shame, embarrassment, and a dash of amusement. Giving Alya a shy smile before shrugging his shoulders. 

“Guess the cat is out of the bag,” Adrien, no, Chat Noir grinned.

 The Lady-blogger had to stop the burning need to deck him so hard. 

 A thin, yet toothy smile appeared before losing it when Cha- Adrien’s kwami, a tiny grumpy cat-god with two white-ivory fangs that stood out in contrast with his deep purple fur, asked for more cheese before showing the rest of his sharp teeth in an attempt for a wide innocent smile. 

It was terrifying. 

“GOD!” Alya cried, rolling her eyes as her fox kwami fled to talk to Chat Noir, wait no, Adrien’s kwami. Still not over that her classmate was part of the Miraculous Duo. The reporter gasped for air even harder as she reached another conclusion. 

“I knew it was you! AH! Ha! I knew it in the beginning!” Alya uttered, switching from frustrating sounds to a laugh that made Adrien question the report’s ability to handle and process all this before Alya pumped her fist up before cursing the universe out loud. Her painted nails rubbed circles on her temples while she munched on this memory in her own flashback. 

“I-urgh! I knew! I knew you looked too much like Chat Noir, too much to call it ‘chance’. But no!- Marinette brushed me off. Telling me ‘That’s too good to be true!’- and now!” Tossing her hands out to the blond and his kwami. 

The undeniable evidence that landed on her plate. 

“Here you are! Both Chat Noir and Adri-“

A cold hand cupped on Alya’s mouth. Stopping her from shouting even louder or even finishing her sentence.  Pushing her back to the old brick wall. 

The Lady-blogger instinctively fought back, her hands reaching for the fingers over her mouth, but she stopped herself before she scratched the blond or bit his hand (or worse, spit in it). 

“Alya,” Adrien hushed. “I know that you know this- but you can’t tell anyone about this. Living or dead- Not a soul, not in any journal entry, not on your blog or to Nino, ever. Not even to Marinette.” 

Alya nodded at the sudden serious tone. 

“Bad enough that Hawk Moth is still out there with his eye out for our heads. If you or I get akumatized it’s gonna be game over for Ladybug and Paris. You understand that, right?” 

Alya shoved his hand away. 

“First off, your hand smells like Camembert. Gross.” 

“Second,” she sighed. Letting her fingers press against the creases of her forehead before sliding down to her cheek. 

“. . .Does Ladybug know?” 

Adrien’s fingers tugged on his hoodie string as he nibbled on his lips. His nose crinkled in dissatisfaction. 

“We planned to reveal ourselves when Hawk Moth’s gone and defeated . . . “ 

“How noble.” Alya snorted.

Before Alya could ask anything else, Adrien beat her to the punch. His voice filled the air as cars in the background beeped at each other at the late ride home or to work. 

“My turn with this interrogation.” Moving his face a little closer, Adrien Unaware-of-Boundaries-Because-He-Was-Locked-In-A-House-His-Whole-Life Agreste frowned.

 “What do you mean by ‘I knew it” and how does Marinette think- wait, does she know that you’re Rena? Alya did you-” 

Alya pushed Adrien a step off before rolling her eyes. 

  “Of course not!” She scoffed. 

“I tell Mari everything, but - But Ladybug trusted me with the miraculous and I kept my secret and promise  to her.” Twisting her leg in anxiousness before quickly commenting, “ Well it was a secret before THIS happened.” 

----

~Study Session at the Library. Be here by 2

~Same table as always

Adrien clicked on the message, typing out a quick response and a time change. Sweeping his hair back, happy with what he wrote after rewriting twice and finally pressing send. 

-2:15, but I’m still in the locker room. I’m there by 2:30, tops. 

Alya hummed as she saw the little dots on Nino’s phone before disappearing again and then reappearing with a new message. Huffing through her nose before typing a response back. 

~It’s due this week and we are out by 3:45. 

Adrien pulled his clothes from his locker before hearing the soft buzz of his phone in his gym bag. Groaning in defeat before typing out a dull reply. 

-K. 

---

Peeling another sticky note to add to the right corner of the book, not before uncapping her thin felt-tipped marker as Marinette scribbled a slanted question. Looping her y’s and not paying attention to the clicks towards the table since it could just be Rose asking for another pen from Alya. However, a chair scraped across the wooden floor and a gym bag thumped on the ground which sent vibrations up the table. Making her jump, pulling back her hand before she accidentally drew a huge line down the page of her textbook. 

“Thanks for organizing this session, Alya. I’m glad that we managed to meet up even with my schedule.” 

Marinette continued to scribble in her sticky notes. Her handwriting got sloppier as she wrote faster. Her anxiousness escaped from her in her blush and in her quick penmanship. Exhaling sharply, catching Nino’s attention only to lose it as his dirt-colored eyes noticed his best friend. Tugging his headphones off his ears. 

“Dude, nice to see you finally make it to one of our ‘nerd meetings’.” 

“Hard with my Father and all my tutors back home. Are you gonna finally let me play Mega Strike on your phone or wait until your phone is at 5 percent like last time?” 

“Adrien, it was one time!” 

“SHH!” the librarian hushed. Quieting the boys and they slowly mellowed in their chairs. The librarian broke his stare and returned back to the paperwork on his desk. The boys broke their silence and the tension in the table as they couldn’t help the chuckles that came up their lips when they looked at each other. Bring back that light environment when the boys nudged each other playfully. Chuckling under their breath as Adrien set his pens and books out from his school bag. 

Marinette tried her best to keep her eyes on her paper. She can’t be blushing and rambling like she always did. But God, this was gonna be so hard to do since old habits die hard. As hard as she gripped her pen while she carved the words on her notebook page. The music in her earbuds crashed with her emotions. The lofi beats weren’t calming her; it just made her feel like she was on the wrong station. Debating to switch her playlist to something quicker and louder to make her concentrate on her work and not on something more captivating. . .

WAIT,,, NO!!!! BAD MARINETTE! Don’t think that- he is just a friend!!

 Pushing her earbuds in her ear deeper in hopes to drown out his laughter. Her finger swiped across stations and then deciding on to Jagged Stone’s new single. Killing the urge to stare at the model or steal looks at him, but surely looking at him couldn’t hurt-

GOD! WHY DOES SHE HAVE TO BE LIKE THIS!? 

They’re just friends. And “just friends” doesn’t mean that you should stare at each other’s eyes. “Just Friends” means just friends especially when one of the friends looks like a certain blond and is potentially dating someone else-

A pink pen rolled over her notebook. 

Is that- a Ladybug pen?  

Marinette tugged on the wires of her earbuds, letting them fall off her ears and pausing the first verse of Jagged’s song. 

“Ah-could you guys pass me my supplies?”

Marinette’s blue eyes finally did the thing she prayed she wouldn’t do. 

She looked up. 

There, Adrien rushed to pick up his pens, pencils, markers, and highlighters as they rolled off the table. Nino was already crouching down, grabbing the ones that fell under his chair’s legs while Alya picked up the ones that came her way. 

“I didn’t know they sold ladybug stationery?” The lady-blogger grinned, twirling the pen between her painted nails. Wiggling her eyebrows at the flustered blond who try to brush off her looks with an eye roll. Hoping that if he ignores the blush that came up his face, they won’t comment on it. 

“It was in a pack, Alya.” Adrien bit his lip, reaching over to snatching the pen back from Alya. Only to miss her hand completely as she pulled back her arm in the last second. Teasing Adrien with the pen, holding it out of his grasp. Tossing it to Nino when his fingers reached a little too close to the pen. The boys rough-house a minute before earning themselves another scorning from the librarian. 

Over the last two years of going to public school compared to the first day he tried to sneak through the front gates, Adrien Agreste would have died on the spot if he got scorned by an authority figure other than his caregiver, well ‘care’-givers, at Françoise Dupont High School - but with time, Adrien Agreste mellowed into the new role of Adrien, the student. 

Just the student. 

 A different persona from the one that lived at home and bloom when entering school grounds. Adrien would say that he’s more care-free and open than before as he learned how to sneak out and what buttons to press when joking with his closest friends. Like how Nino always fell for the “What’s that?” trick- no matter what or how Kagami liked puns even if she frowned or how Marinette would shot a sarcastic remark if given the chance (so Adrien tried his best to set the joke to hear Mari’s slick comments which often ending with an innocent smile before walking away). 

So it wasn’t unusual for Adrien to act like this, like a teenager and not some super famous model. Just a student who was currently blushing in embarrassment due to his Ladybug stationary. 

“They’re nice.” 

The study group turned to the peep in the corner. Marinette swiped her thumb over the magical ladybug clip on the pen.

 It felt heavy and good in her hand, it had nice weigh to it. All with a slick design that didn’t seem cheesy or cheap. It’s hard to make polka-dots work nicely, but who would know right? 

 “I’m more of Chat Noir fan though.” A small smile slipped out as she spun the pen in her hand one last time. Her face softens as she thought about her partner and how cute it would be to have his cartoon face on sticky notes if it didn’t add to his ego.  Marinette finally passed the pen to Adrien who unconsciously held out his hand when her hand went out to him. 

“Cool,” Adrien answered. Not knowing what to say without giving himself away or boasting about the Miraculous Duo without sounding stiff or awkward. 

That little moment was gone as a voice cleared the air. 

“So you’re a cat stan now?”

-------

“I didn’t know you dig that type of leather, Mari?” Alya purred as she grinned a little too hard as her joke, causing her cheeks to squish the edge of her amber-colored iris. Narrowing her four eyes at her clueless friend. 

“I’m not- why are you making it sound so weird?!” 

“I’m not!” 

“Yes. Yes, you are.” Marinette rolled her eyes before shaking her head. Quickly stepping down the stairs with the reporter on her heels. Blowing her bangs out of her eyes, reminding herself to trim them when she gets home or when she’s free by this weekend. 

“And-stop looking at me like that, Alya!” 

“I wasn-” 

“I can feel your laser vision from here.” 

“Okay, fine! I give, Mari. I can’t lie to you no more.” Throwing her arms around the designer’s neck and tugging her near. Marinette pulled her legs under her before she choked herself with Alya’s hold. 

“The truth is- I’m setting you up with a superhero, but can’t unless I absolutely know that you’re into them.” 

“. . . .what?” 

-------

[herocentral]

Possible Hero 6

Written by Alexander Montgomery

Big Hero 6 & Kim Possible (c) Disney,2020

Intro statement:

Since childhood I have been a fan of Kim Possible on Disney but when it came to an end it seemed short lived but after watching Big Hero 6 (the film) I saw something that looked like it deserved its own series and by some miracle it happened. Then to more joy we find out the producers behind Kim Possible are leading the charge.

Later in the year I kept it in my mind that there could be a potential crossover between the two series and now I’ve decided the time to write this story is now thanks to inspiration from the Marvel Rising shorts, Kingdom Hearts 3 and KP 2019. 

And so the story begins. 

Chapter 1:

New Villain in town:

On a dark moonlit night the clouds and mists part and reveal a large bridge structure standing above the cloud bank and the top of said bridge is shaped a lot like a Japanese building roof. The rest of the bridge bore a strong resemblance to the Golden Gate Bridge. In the distance stood a great metropolis with large metal fish shaped blimps hanging in the sky held down by metal cables. The buildings of the city resembled that of modern and old style Japanese architecture modern ways meets the rising sun. This is the city of San Fransokyo a city of technological advances while keeping true to old ways. 

The city was lit up with light shows shining from the sides of buildings and from the animatronic promotional mascots. However unbeknownst to the populace of the city a shadowy figure ran from rooftop to rooftop in the shadows and silhouetted against the lights in the city. 

Soon the figure arrived at a small warehouse with a ‘K” logo on the front of the warehouse building. This belonged to the hi tech corporation Krei tech industries the biggest technological company of the modern age. The strangers hands then light up with green energy as she cuts a hole in the glass then opens the window from the inside. She slides in and enters the warehouse. The light reveals it to be a woman dressed in a green and black leather suit with black hair pale skin and green eyes. 

It takes her no time at all to find what she’s looking for among all the crates and old projects she found what looked to be a circuit board of advanced design. She smirks knowing she’d found what she was looking for. She was about to take her leave until. 

“You know if you came back in the morning, it be easier to  get in.” Called a voice from behind her she turned around expecting to see a certain teen nemesis however what she saw was a young boy fourteen years old wearing a black suit with purple armour, with knee and shoulder pads and grey boots. His helmet was in the same colour scheme with red stripes reaching down to his visor which was orange in colour. Only his face could be seen faintly he had long black hair with brown eyes. 

“Your mother know your out past your bedtime and little late for Halloween isn’t it.” Shego said. “Oh you looked in the mirror lately?” Said Hiro. Shego’s mood started to change. 

“Funny but you must be pretty confident or stupid if your trying to stop me alone.” She said with a raised eyebrow. Hiro then produced a smirk on his face. “Who said I’m alone especially if I’m part of a team!” Suddenly as if on cue from the darkness skated in a woman wearing yellow, red, and black armour and on her legs were large round wheel like disks with red circles in the middle similar disks were on her arms. Her helmet was more streamlined and aerodynamic. Her visor was orange and she had black hair with purple highlights with brown eyes. 

Then jumping into the scene was a lizard like creature that was blue and orange with three large yellow eyes, circular blue mouth with teeth, a long tail with spikes in the end and spikes on his back. 

“Not so fast evil doers!” He announced dramatically. 

Following him is a rather tall woman with long orange hair wearing bright pink armour with orange dots and a dark pink under suit with pink and dark pink heeled boots. Her visor was pink and she has green eyes and bright pink lipstick. She carries an orange purse with different coloured balls handing off it and in the centre of the purse was a heart symbol and different coloured buttons. She pressed several buttons and pulled out a bright blue ball ready to throw. 

Another figure emerged it was a young man rather bulky, dark skinned and wore light green armour on his chest and arms and wore a small green visor on his face and a red bandana. He had a black under suit and wore blue pants with  a red waist robe like a samurai with black boots that ninjas would wear. He has short black dreadlocks in his hair with brown eyes and a goatee. 

Suddenly crashing in from above was a sixth member of this group he was rather bulky with red armour with purple spots and wings on his back he rises to show his helmet has a blue visor with two circular eyes and a line between them. 

Shego found herself surrounded by these six armoured individuals. “Oh great a team of clowns.” Said a deadpan Shego. 

“We prefer to call ourselves Big Hero 6.” Said Fred confidently in his suit. “Seriously?” Shego said with a raised eyebrow. “Well I could use the work out.” Shego said as she ignited her hands with green energy which surprised everyone in the room. 

“Whoa! Ionised Plasma!” Wasabi said in amazement. 

Shego shot a blast towards the group causing them to scatter. Fredzilla was the first to launch an attack. “SUPER JUMP!” He yelled as he leapt into the air using the enhanced jumping ability of his monster suit. 

“FIRE SPIN!” He cries spinning round breathing fire from his mouth as he defends but Shego just fires a blast hitting him in the chest sending him crashing into some crates. Gogo comes racing in using her electro-mag suspension disks to skate across the room avoiding any energy blasts from Shego.  

She moves in for a close in attack and slides under a slice from Shego avoiding it then quickly turns and throws a disc from her arm which hits Shego in the face. Shego recovers and attacks Gogo in close hand to hand combat Gogo avoids her clawing attacks with her energy blasts. Gogo quickly performs an upper cut and then performs a round house kick hitting Shego in the abs. 

“Oh, finally someone who can fight!” Suddenly coming in from the side was Wasabi armed with his plasma blades slicing at her and Shego defends herself with her energy blasts and Wasabi defends himself with his blades eventually holding each other back. 

“So, I gotta ask, ionised plasma right?” He asked out of interest. “You can tell me it’s totally my thing.” “How about you take a look up close and personal!” Shego smirked as she generated more energy.  With one slice she shorts out Wasabi’s gauntlets disabling his plasma blades and is blasted in the chest. 

“Fire can be dangerous, it can lead to third degree burns or even ignite flammable materials.” Said a certain red armoured robot. 

“Uh that’s kinda the idea!” Shego said as she threw several blasts at Baymax who blocked them with his arms crossed which didn’t burn the armour. “That is hot.” Baymax then said as the blasts did slightly singe the armour on his arms.

Before Shego could fire another blast an orange ball flew in and hit her hand encasing it in an orange goop. She turned to see it was Honey Lemon who threw the Chem ball. 

“That was a mistake!” Shego said as she charged her hand and melted the goop off her hand. Honey Lemon quickly typed in several buttons on her Chem purse and threw several blue coloured balls at Shego as she leapt in to attack. “NOW!” Honey Lemon cried and at that moment Fredzilla jumps in breathing fire at the blue chew-balls. 

“SMOKE SCREEN!” Fred cried and as the fire hit them it created a plume of blue smoke blinding Shego. She finds herself in the smoke and can’t see anything. Suddenly from the smoke one of Gogo’s disks comes spinning in and she manages to avoid it however Gogo speeds in and trips her up with a leg swipe. 

Shego quickly recovers but before she can engage Wasabi quickly grabs her and tries to hold her still only for Shego to grab him by his collar and pulls him to the ground. She’s ready to deliver the finishing blow. Suddenly something hits her from behind causing her to stumble to the ground and sees its a rocket fist launched by Baymax who hovers in the air with his wings and jets.

She sees she’s surrounded by Big Hero 6 and is outnumbered. “You ready to give up?” Gogo asked. Shego could only smirk and shot a massive blast towards the ceiling causing it to cave in on them. She slips away before it hits her  and she smirks in triumph. 

However as the smoke clears it reveals Baymax holding up the ceiling support meant to crush them. 

“Hm, very persistent I like that, but as much as I would love to play kids I have to bail.” Shego said as she jumps up to the window she entered in. 

Hiro acting quickly activates the powerful magnet on his glove and it immediately attracts the cyber circuit which was made of metal. 

Shego turns her back and sees that Hiro has the circuit in his hand and is now frustrated, however before she can double back she hears incoming police sirens and decides to take her leave. 

“Quick after her guys!” Hiro exclaims and so the team exit the warehouse from the main door and pursue the target only to see her escape in a helicopter which disappears from view.

“The target has escaped.” Baymax said. “Well that’s just great.” Said a frustrated Gogo. 

“Yeah but at least now we know who’s been behind the string of break ins at Krei facilities in the city.” Hiro said looking on the bright side. 

“Yeah a green villain who uses ionised plasma!” Wasabi said in both fright and amazement. “Hey guys call me crazy but I swear I’ve seen that green chick before.” Fred said removing the top half of his suit revealing his face. 

“Where at one of your geek conventions?” Gogo sarcastically asked. “Well whoever she is she clearly plays for keeps.” Honey Lemon observes. Suddenly an alert sounds off from Baymax. 

“Hiro, movie night with Aunt Cass is in thirty minutes from now.” Baymax said leaving Hiro paniking. “WHOOPS Let’s go!” Hiro quickly climbs aboard Baymax and the two of them fly away in the direction of the city. Whilst the rest of the team left the site on their own. However they still wondered who their new adversary could be.

Elsewhere:

Across the sea on the other side of the country stood the city of Detroit the automobile capital of the world, still a leading manufacturer in the world today. All was quiet in the night and at a corporate building a special event was taking place. Inside the event-space showroom the CEO of the company is making a statement. 

“As we move forward into the golden age of science and technology things get more advanced, which means the world of the automation must advance too.” The CEO announced, then stood aside to reveal their grand project and the floor rises to reveal a futuristic car with glowing blue lines. It’s overall appearance is a futuristic looking Ferrari white in colour. 

“And so I present to you the Cleo 7000 faster than a corvette but quiet as a panther prowling in the bush.” The CEO announced “utilising the latest prototype engine that cuts down carbon emissions by seventy percent but also super fast and...,” 

Suddenly the announcement was cut off by the sound of engine noises coming from the distance and the crowds looked back in worry and ,all of a sudden, speeding into the scene was a gang of bike riders and behind them a transporter truck. The people quickly scattered to avoid being run over the motorcycle rider leading the bikers rides up onto the stage. 

“AWWWW YEAAAHHH!” He yells. The CEO steps back in fear as the biker removes his helmet. He’s a muscular man wearing a torn up blue shirt, dark blue pants, black boots and gloves and has the word ‘ED’ tattooed on his right arm, he has a long blonde mullet reaching down his back. 

“Oh yeah Motor ED is in the building!” Motor Ed announced “ seriously I am” 

“What is the meaning of this, this is a private event!” The CEO said in anger. 

“Yeah that’s why me and my boys decided to crash it.” Said Motor Ed as the rest of his crew arrived. His attention then turned to the new prototype. 

“We’re here to steal this totally awesome set of wheels, imagine what speeds this could do on the streets, seriously!” Motor Ed said admiring the car. “But you can’t!” The CEO protested. 

“Sure I can I’m Motor Ed most basically car mechanic and villain in the world.” Motor Ed then performs his signature air guitar. “AWWW YEAH!” 

“Really?” Called a voice from above, Motor Ed and his crew looked up and saw someone in the rafters above and he could make out a faint shadow the shadow jumped down to reveal it was none other than Teen hero Kim Possible in her signature green and black mission outfit. 

“Still doing the whole air guitar thing Motor Ed, but then again you’ve always been stuck in the 80’s.” Kim smirked. 

“Red!” Motor Ed exclaimed. Then suddenly dropping from the rafters and falling flat on his face was Kim’s trusted friend/sidekick and his naked mole rat friend. 

“And don’t forget Ron Stoppable and Rufus!” Ron said getting up from the fall and Rufus took up a combat stance. 

“Oh yeah the blonde skinny dude” Ed said just leaving Ron with a frustrated look as not once did any of the villains he or his friend faced remembered his name. 

“Well you ain’t crashing my gig red! Get her!” Ed exclaimed and his biker crew attacked.

Kim flips over the bulked member of the crew then trip him up with a leg swipe and began exchanging blows with another of Motor Ed’s goons with multiple punches and kicks knocking him to the ground but suddenly one of the thugs grabbed her holding her still long enough for one thug to hit her with a crowbar.

Before he could land the blow Kim quickly moved her leg over the thugs foot and grabbed his arm before she flipped him into the incoming thug. As she fought the gang she noticed Motor Ed was about to get into the prototype. 

“Ron the car!” Kim called. “On it KP!” Ron replied and quickly hurried to stop Motor Ed from making off with the car. 

“Not so fast Motor ED!” Ron said trying to look tough. 

“Oh please skinny how you gonna stop me, seriously?” Motor Ed questioned. However he then felt a tap on his shoulder he turned to see Rufus standing on his shoulder. 

“Hello.” Rufus squeaked before he kicked him in the eyes. Ed groaned in pain and frustration as he tried to swat Rufus. 

“Mole rat power that’s how!” Ron answered. 

Kim has just kicked down the last of Motor Ed’s gang however there was one who sped in on his bike swinging a chain in the air. He sped forwards towards Kim and she readied herself for what was coming and as the bike got closer she jumped into the air and it was like the world was now in slow motion as she went into a roll and then quickly twisted in the air and pulled out a red and yellow hair dryer which also doubled as a her signature weapon the grappling hook. Kim fires it and it wraps around the biker and as she lands she gives a great pull yanking the biker off his bike and onto the ground. 

Motor Ed meanwhile is still trying to catch Rufus and he eventually does keeping him in a tight grip. Ron jumps onto Ed’s back and pulls on his hair forcing him to release Rufus. Ed grabs Ron by the arm and flings him to the ground. Ron looks up and sees that Motor Ed is more than angry. 

“No one, messes with, THE MULLET!” He said about to crush Ron when suddenly they heard a motor noise coming towards them. Ed turns around to see an unmanned motor cycle riding towards him. “Aw nuts!” He uttered.

The bike slams right into him and he flies right into a wall and the bike has him pinned down so he can’t move and the shock of the impact didn’t help him either. 

“Ah man wrecked again, seriously.” Motor Ed uttered as he fell unconscious. 

Kim then came up to Ron as Rufus hopped onto his shoulder and saw Motor Ed unconscious. 

“Way to take him for a ride KP.” Ron said. “Well let’s just say he had to pull out.” Kim replied with a smile. 

Soon the local authorities arrived to take Motor Ed and his associates away. Meanwhile Kim and Ron are speaking to the CEO of the company they helped. 

“I don’t know how to thank you miss Possible, if you hadn’t shown up when you did we would have lost a million dollars worth of equipment and research.” The CEO thanked shaking her hand. 

“Oh no big just glad Motor Ed didn’t try to turn it into a hot rod or something.” Kim said humbly. “Yeah but that would look kinda cool but just doing our job.” Ron agreed. 

Suddenly Kim’s kimmunicator sounds off which she pulls out of her pocket to answer. 

“Hey Wa..” “Kimberly Anne Possible” A stern voice interrupted her and Kim recognised that voice all to well, it was her dad Dr. James Possible. 

“Oh hey dad.” She said innocently. “Where have you been I’ve been trying to call you all night.” Her dad said. “Oh sorry Dad this emergency in Detroit came up I couldn’t bail on it.” Kim explained. 

“Well I just called to tell you I have some exciting news for the family and we’re missing a family member.” James explained. “Right well I’m on my way home now dad I’ll see you soon.” Kim said “Okay honey love you.” James said to his daughter as the transmission closed. 

“Wonder what news he’s got?” Ron asked. “I don’t know guess we’ll have to head home and find out.” Kim answered. 

The next day:

It’s now daytime at the Possible household, and in the living room area Kim, her brothers Jim and Tim and her mother, brain surgeon Ann Possible sat down on the couch waiting to hear the news that James had for them. 

“Okay Possibles listen up, I have an announcement to make.” James began and everyone in his family paid attention. “I’ve been asked to give a lecture at the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology this weekend.” He said. 

“San Fransokyo?” Jim and Tim said in unison. “I’ve heard of that city it’s one of the most advanced cities combining the best parts of Tokyo and San Francisco hence its name.” Kim explained. 

“Exactly Kimmy cub and seeing as how you and the boys are on summer break I figured it be good for a family trip” Kims father explained. “Thats wonderful sweetie.” Ann said congratulating her husband. “Yeah ROAD TRIP!” Jim said “Yeah and to a sweet city!” Tim said. 

Just then Ron enters the room. “Morning Possibles.” Ron greeted. “Oh hey Ron.” Kim greeted. “whats all the buzz about?” He then asked “Oh my dads been asked to give a lecture at a university in San Fransokyo.” Kim explained. 

“San Fransokyo! Sweet I hear they have robots there.” Ron said in excitement. “Ronald.” Said James as he looked to Ron. “If your interested your welcome to tag along.” He offered. 

“Hmm, let me just check with my summer chilling consultant.” Ron said refereeing to Rufus who just popped out of his pocket. “Hmm, Road trip!” Rufus cheered.  

Meanwhile in San Fransokyo:

Elsewhere in San Fransokyo at an abandoned warehouse, all is quiet and a certain green and black suited woman enters the warehouse. She walks in only to find it empty but she reaches a wall and twists one of the pipes on the wall, suddenly the wall is revealed to be a secret door concealing a lift. 

The lift takes her down to the deeper sub levels below ground and upon exiting she enters a small makeshift lair below the warehouse. In the back a certain mad scientist dressed in a dark blue lab coat was busy hitting the computer monitor. 

“Gah! cursed thing work already, this is what I get for making a makeshift lair in such a rush!” Drakken said in frustration. 

“Wow.” Drakken jumped in fright as he turned to see Shego standing behind him. “I catch you at a bad time Dr. D?” Shego said teasingly. 

“Shego! what have I told you about sneaking up on me like that!” Drakken complained. “And for your information I was just readjusting the settings!” 

Shego just had a raised eyebrow as she knew her ‘partner’ couldn’t get his makeshift lair in shape.  

“Well just be glad we found this place as a lair the previous tenant must’ve used this as a steam works themed lair.” Shego then said. “Never mind that did you retrieve the cyber circuit?” Drakken then asked. “Yeah that would be a no Dr. D.” Shego replied as she sat down in a chair in the lair. 

“WHAT! I gave you one thing to do whilst I was setting up the lair!” Drakken exclaimed. “Yeah well I had a slight hold up.” Shego explained. “Oh no, don’t tell me Kim Possible?” Drakken dreaded. 

“Nope, just some armatures in suits of armour, I think their name was Big Hero something.” Shego then said filing her nails. “Hm, sounds like the local heroes, our benefactor warned us about.” Drakken pondered. 

“So what they’re amateurs, though that one in yellow was more of a challenge than the others.” Shego retorted. 

“Never the less, if we have caught the attention of this Big Hero 6 we’ll need to tread carefully.” Drakken decided, “Still at least Kim Possible isn’t here.” 

However he couldn’t be more wrong (again).

Soon at the San Fransokyo airport the Possibles and Ron had just disembarked from their flight and headed for the cab to take them to their hotel. On their journey they looked at the many skyscrapers and metal blimps hanging in the sky from cables, not to mention some of the animatronic promotional adds on the buildings. Soon the Possibles arrived at the hotel they would be staying in and everyone got settled in Kim had her own room as did her brothers and Ron. After getting settled in the family goes for an explore of the city. 

However the whole time they were walking around there was one thing that didn’t escape Rons notice. 

“I have not seen a single Bueno Nacho for miles in this city!” Ron complained. “Ron it’s so not the drama if this is the only city without one.”  Kim tried to assure him. 

“Uh a city without Bueno Nacho is a crime against HUMANITY!” Ron exclaimed. “Uh huh yeah!” Rufus agreed. 

“Well sometimes it helps to be open minded, I mean look at that.” Kim then pointed out a small burger place with a giant sign that said Noodle Burger with its mascot Noodle Burger boy. 

“Noodle burger?” Tim said. “This place is totally weird?” Jim agreed. “Noodles and Burgers, hm okay a little judgey.” Ron said pondering but Kim just rolled her eyes as she and the rest of the family explored the city. In the early hours of the afternoon as a cable car passed by down the steep roads the group soon arrives at a small Cafe and on top of it was what looked to be a living space. 

“Hm, the Lucky Cat Cafe.” Ann read. “Sounds pleasant.” “Yeah I could do with a coffee.” Her husband agreed. They entered the Cafe and it had a green interior and on some of the walls were pictures of cats, coffee mugs and Japanese illustrations of lucky cat statues hence the name. 

The Possibles and Ron soon took their seats at a table suited for six. After looking at the menu Anne got up from her seat. “Alright I’ll go take our orders.” Anne said as she went over to the counter. She then noticed a small white overweight cat with orange and grey spots on its face and back. It meows as he wakes up revealing cute green eyes. 

“Aw hello there kitty.” Ann cooed stroking its head. “Hold on I’ll be right with you!” Called the barista. Said Barista wearing a black shirt blue jeans, orange pumps and has short brown hair with dark green eyes, she then went around multiple tables carrying a tray of food and drinks to each table shuffling between chairs. She then collected the empty cups at empty tables and heads back to the counter. However she nearly trips up and nearly drops the cups but manages to catch them all. 

“Whew.” Cass said in relief. “Are you alright?” Anne asked as Cass got up. “Oh don’t worry, I’m…” Cass then looked at the customer who was concerned for her she saw a woman with short orange hair, blue eyes and wore a white doctors coat with purple heels. Something then clicked in Cass she looked at the woman and noticed that she looked a little familiar. 

“Ann?” Cass said in surprise. Anne Possible was more than surprised to know someone knew her name but after looking at the Barista she too saw something familiar then it hit her. 

“Cassie?” She said in surprise and Cass responded to a smile and a nod and they both got ecstatic looks in their eyes. “Oh my god!” Ann said as she pulled Cass into a hug who was more than happy to return it. 

“I can’t believe it’s you I haven’t seen you since high school!” Cass said in amazement. “I know it’s been so long.”

“So what are you doing in San Fransokyo?” Cass asked. “Oh I’m here with my family.” Ann said gesturing to her family sitting at the table. 

“Oh I have to meet them let me sort you guys out.” Cass said  as she went to cook up some meals. Soon Cass served them their meals which were her famous Nachos which satisfied Ron and Rufus to say the least. They spent the rest of the afternoon chatting to each other and Anne told them how she knew Cass from her teenage youth. 

“Seriously we were friends ever since freshman year, Cassie was always the best when it came to home mech class.” Ann said 

“Yeah Anne but you were always the brightest in biology class.” Cass admitted. “Sounds like you two were regular peas in a pod.” Kim said. “Yes Kimmy we were.” Anne told her daughter. 

“Kim.” Cass said and then realised Anne’s new last name. “Kim Possible that teen hero on the news?” Cass asked. “Yep that’s me.” Kim said humbly. “Yeah she can do anything!” Ron declared and Rufus chirped in agreement but then noticed Mochi and hid in Rons pocket in fright. 

“I’m a little surprised you two let your daughter do these missions?” Cass whispered to Anne and James. “Well we were a little concerned at first but we realised our Kimmy cub can look after herself.” James said 

“Well I wouldn’t let my nephew anywhere near that sort of thing.” Cass said. “Your Nephew?” James asked. “Yeah my Sister and brother in law’s child they died a few years ago and I’ve been his guardian ever since.” Cass explained in a slightly depressed mood. 

Both James and Ann couldn’t help but look sympathetic towards Cass. Ann could only place a sympathetic hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry for your loss.” She said and Cass did crack a small smile. 

Just then Cass saw someone heading for the Cafe and could tell in the window who it was. Entering the Cafe was a young boy about 14 years of age, with black messed up hair, brown eyes, wore a dark purple hoodie with a red shirt underneath with beige pants with grey and white shoes. He carried a grey back pack and was pulling what looked like a large red case. 

“Hey Aunt Cass just got back from my study group.” Hiro said to his aunt and noticed that they had company. 

“Ah Hiro perfect timing.” Cass said as she went over to bring her nephew to meet the Possibles. “This is my Nephew Hiro Hamada, Hiro this is Ann Possible and her family.” Cass introduced. “Uh hi nice to meet you.” Hiro said waving nervously. 

“Well nice to meet you Hiro, this is my daughter Kim, my sons Jim and Tim and my husband James.” Ann introduced. “Oh and I’m Ron Stoppable, friend of the family.” Ron then pointed out. 

Just at that moment the mention of the word ‘Possible’ made Hiro realise who he was taking to. 

“Possible, Dr.James Possible the rocket scientist!” Hiro realised 

“ Yes that’s me.” James said “Wow I, I’ve heard about your work in rocket science development it’s amazing.” Hiro said shaking his hand. “Why thank you.” James said humbly. “So what high school do you attend?” Ann asked. 

“Oh I actually attend at SFIT.” Hiro said much to the surprise of the Possibles and Ron. “Wait you attend university?” Kim said in surprise, “But aren’t you supposed to be in high school at fourteen?” 

“Actually I graduated high school at thirteen.” Hiro explained. “Why you a super genius or something?” Ron asked jokingly. Hiro responded with a raised eyebrow and a smirk on his face indicating that was a yes. 

“Oh my god he is!” Ron said in complete surprise. “Sweet!” The Tweebs said in unison. “Okay so what’s your specialism?” James then asked. “Robotics” Hiro said 

Suddenly they hear a yelp from Aunt Cass who was back behind the counter cleaning the espresso machine but accidentally set off the steam burning her right hand. 

“Cass are you alright?” Ann said in worry. “Yeah just a small burn ow.” Cass said but before anything else happened a small beep emerged from the small red case and it opened to reveal a white deflated object which then inflated into a large round white robot with black circular eyes and a line between them. The Possibles, Ron and Rufus were all bewildered by this development. 

The robot stepped out of its charging port and began waddling towards Aunt Cass it hit a loose chair in the cafe. The robot turns to see the chair, picks it up and moves it to the left of the room removing the obstacle in its path. The robot then walked up to Aunt Cass and Ann.

“Hello, I am Baymax, your personal health care companion.” He said with a wave. “I was alerted to the need for medical attention when you said, ow.” 

“Whoa!” Jim breathed. “On a scale of one to ten how would you rate your pain?” Baymax asked Aunt Cass as small emoji icons of different moods from calm to painful appeared on his chest in a scale of one to ten. 

“Uh about a four Baymax.” Cass answered. “Hold still while I scan you.” Baymax said and began scanning Aunt Cass and soon deduced the problem. 

“Scan complete, you have a slight burn on your left hand, icing the area is recommended.” Baymax then placed his hands on Aunt Cass’s left hand cooling it with his built in cooling packs. 

“Amazing, a robotic nurse.” Ann said in surprise. “Yeah this is Baymax one of my robots.” Hiro explained. “Wait wait you built him?” Tim asked. “Well I can’t take all the credit it was all my brothers invention, I just made a few improvements.” Hiro then explained. 

“Your brother?” Kim then asked. “Yeah, Tadashi.” He then said but sounded a little saddened. “Well this is quite impressive I can’t wait to meet him, where is he now.” James then asked. 

However both Hiro and his aunt looked a little saddened when James mentioned that something that Kim noticed. 

“I’m sorry but there was a fire at the SFIT showcase a few months ago and, now he’s gone.” Hiro then said. This shocked everyone in the room even more. 

“Oh, Cass I’m sorry I heard in the news there was a fire but I didn’t think.” Ann then remembered the news cast about the fire even in Middleton. “Yeah but it’s okay he wanted to help people he made Baymax to do that.” Hiro then explained. 

“Those who suffer a loss require support from friends and loved ones.” Baymax then explained. “Okay but how did he make this robot?” Tim then asked. “Yeah best guess he’d have to make sure it knew what medical treatments to perform.” Jim agreed. 

“Hm very observant.” Hiro then said pressing on Baymax’s access port located on the left side of his chest to reveal the port for data chips and one was inserted it was green and had a doctors symbol on the side of it along with the name Tadashi Hamada. 

“Tadashi programmed him with over ten thousand different medical methods, creating Baymax’s health care matrix making Baymax, well Baymax.” Hiro explained which astonished the Tweebs even more. 

Kim took a look at Baymax and poked him to feel the material he was made from. 

“So, vinyl?” Kim asked. “Yeah he wanted a more none threatening huggable sort of thing.” Hiro explained. 

“I see to better comfort the patient.” Ann said to which Hiro nodded. 

“Well its kinda cute, for a walking marshmallow, no offence.” Kim then said 

“I am a robot, I cannot be offended.” Baymax then said. Kims father then took a look at Baymax’s face to examine the cameras. “Hm, hyper spectral cameras.” James observed “Perfect for scanning.” 

Jim and Tim then pressed their faces into Baymax to have an ‘inside look’. “Whoa titanium eco-skeleton” Jim observed. “No way it’s carbon fibre.” Tim corrected. “Yep even lighter.” Hiro said. 

“Look at those actuators!” Tim said, “Yeah how’d you get those!” Jim agreed. “Tadashi made them on campus Baymax can lift over a thousand pounds.” Hiro then explained and the tweets jaws dropped. 

“So lifting disabled or injured patients needn’t be an issue.” Kim observed. “Yep.” Hiro answered “Or to carry a large tone of Nacos!” Ron added “Mmm Nacos!” Rufus chirped and then Baymax looked at the hairless rodent. 

“Your pet is hairless.” Baymax observed. “Uh yeah he’s a naked mole-rat.” Ron explained to which Baymax tilted his head and blinked. 

“Say, what kind of batteries does it use?” Tim asked. “Oh it used to use lithium ion, but I upgraded it to super capacitors.” Hiro explained. “Smart, charge faster and hold more energy.” Jim said. “hm fellow younger geniuses.” Hiro soon caught on. 

“You have no idea.” Kim said rolling her eyes. 

Soon it was getting late and the Possibles and Ron took their leave and headed back to the hotel. In her hotel room Kim was reading a magazine having some downtime. Suddenly the Kimmunicator’s ringtone sounded off and Kim answered it and it was her super genius gadget builder Wade on the line. 

“Go Wade.” Kim answered. “Hey Kim how’s San Fransokyo?” Wade asked “Well it’s certainly been interesting.” Kim said. “Well its actually a good thing your there.” Wade began, “Cause I’ve been hearing about a string of break ins at tech facilities in the city.” 

“Any suspects?” Kim asked. “Well nothing conclusive but I’ll look into it and find out more.” Wade decided. “Please and thank you, until then I’ll keep an eye out.” Kim said before closing the line. 

Elsewhere in a darkened room several monitors lit up the room and looking at them was a man who wore a grey turtle neck under a black waist coat with one left pocket light black pants and black shoes, he has pale skin with ice blue eyes, black hair with a red streak in it. 

He looked to a monitor showing footage of Shego breaking into a Keri tech facility and later fighting Big Hero 6 with her powers. Obake watched with interest at this mysterious newcomer.

“Hm, interesting.” Said Obake and the left side of his face began to glow in a neon purple light.

End of Chapter 1

Well that's the first chapter of the story wrapped up and if it wasn't mentioned in the intro the time frame is season 1 of Big Hero 6 the series and Seasons 2-3 of Kim Possible. I do welcome feedback and if you think Obake is helping Drakken in his latest scheme don't be fooled appearances can be deceiving. I’ll have the next chapter up soon where our teen hero meets the rest of the team. 

Until then To the Power of Six!

[hphm-etched-engraved-everlasting]

3. Clara

Author’s Note/Table of Contents

"No one followed you here, did they?"

Those were the first words he spoke to me the minute I sat at his table in the Hog's Head Inn, early the next morning. No hello, no I'm surprised you're still here--just a raised eyebrow and scowl that was hard to decipher.

Ever since Alastor Moody Disapparated me from the surprise graduation party we held for Bill in the Three Broomsticks a few months back, I always thought he was a little paranoid. I figured it came with the fact that he was a celebrated Auror, as Tonks had mentioned the night before--he always had to be on the lookout for any dark wizards, and there were more of them now with Rakepick's betrayal. Still, to have them stroll around the wizarding world undetected? Was that really possible?

No wonder he'd wanted me to meet with him the minute he managed to lose another enemy's trail. He could only stay for so long before something else happened.

"No, I don't think so." I glanced around uncertainly around the Inn, fists clenching at the mere thought of a known enemy bursting through the door.

"And you didn't tell anyone you were coming to meet me...?" Moody asked me then.

"Only Rowan," I said stiffly.

"Rowan!" Moody's jaw dropped when he heard of it, his eyes widening--er, rather, his normal eye widened while his other brilliant blue eyeball whizzed in his makeshift socket. "Who's Rowan?"

"Rowan Khanna. A friend at Hogwarts," I responded.

That, at least, was true. After Dumbledore's speech, Rowan and I couldn't help but wonder what Dumbledore meant when he said he wanted to let the authorities handle Rakepick and the Cursed Vaults. It had to mean that word about my disappearance had leaked out somehow.

"I'm sure it got back to Dumbledore that Mad-Eye Moody sought me out."

"Mr. Moody, you Disapparated me out of a party in front of all my friends," I told him carefully, placing my trembling hands on the table. "It wasn't exactly a secret."

"Fair enough," Moody said with a shrug. "And call me Mad-Eye. Enough others do."

Not like I didn't know that Mad-Eye didn't have a nickname beforehand, but if he wanted me to address him as such, why not? After all, he did notice that I was wearing a similar outfit to his today--a tan overcoat with a navy blue zip-up sweater inside, belts criss-crossing every which way near my waist, and a pair of navy blue pants and boots to match. Perhaps it was out of respect for those little details. Or it was so he could move the conversation along a lot faster.

"The information I told you, though--you kept that a secret, I hope?" Moody asked me then.

"Yes. You swore me to it," I responded. "That doesn't mean my friends haven't been asking questions, though. In fact, I have some questions, too."

"Really?" Moody didn't seem surprised at that at all. He nodded and took a long sip from a flask attached to his hip, wiping his mouth with his sleeve after. "We've got time for one."

One question? Just one? I've got enough inquiries in mind to last me an entire lifetime--inquiries that not even my most trusted friends could help me figure out. But then again, I didn't know what Mad-Eye Moody already knew in regards to my history, my family's history, my adversaries, and anything that had to do with the Cursed Vaults. I didn't even know if I could trust him yet, either.

"I'd like to know...who do we have in common?" I eventually asked him.

"Well, your Headmaster is one of my closest friends," Moody replied gruffly. "Albus Dumbledore and I fought many battles together during the Wizarding War. And I know the Weasley family, of course--I suppose Arthur didn't mention it."

I figured that he'd work with anyone who'd help further his own cause--anyone trustworthy for that matter. Everyone would.

"And I also worked with your parents," Moody told me as well. "Nice people they are, your mum and dad. Sometimes a little too high-strung--even more than me."

That sounded like my parents, alright.

"So why had you come looking for me?" I questioned. I know he only said one question only, but I had to satisfy my curiosity if it meant reaching the end goal sooner--even if it came with haunting consequences.

"That's a second question," Moody barked. "Just told you we only had time for one. Besides, you never know who around us is listening in."

"Who would be listening, though? Why are you so paranoid?"

"That's a third and fourth question now, lass! Has anyone ever told you that you don't listen?"

Countless times, really. If only Mad-Eye really knew about my history at Hogwarts, he'd know that I was probably more a rebel than I was a star pupil. I automatically braced myself for a possible probe into my brain--what if he was a Legilimens?--but that never came.

"I better go over again what I told you about 'R' before the summer holidays," Moody finally decided. "Then I'll tell you my plans for you."

My stomach was grumbling now in protest, and that was when I knew that there was really no getting out of this meeting in hopes of getting breakfast on time before my first set of classes. The sun was already rising beyond the glaring crimson rays of light over the black horizon--with the glorious oranges and yellows adding onto the canvas of the morning came uncertainty at its sheerest, plaguing the minds of many. Typical students would wonder what interesting things today would bring--between classes, friendships, and anything else that they'd worry about.

Meanwhile, I'd wonder how far into a trap I was walking into.

As Mad-Eye pulled up his chair, we began our intensive review into what he knew about 'R'--and what he told me before the summer. It was information I couldn't tell my friends, and I also couldn't find it in me to tell my sister about 'R', either. Though she asked many questions about 'R', I could only shake my head. It wasn't out of fear that she'd betray me. She's still so young, so innocent. I couldn't let her fall into Rakepick's hands and leave her scarred for life. She already had so much to worry about, any more information could potentially break her.

"One thing's for certain," Moody eventually said. "The race to the final Cursed Vault is on. Whatever's inside the vault is powerful--a cabal as villainous and dangerous as 'R' can't get to it first. And while Patricia Rakepick is only a minor player in 'R', she's still a major threat. She may not have unlocked the secrets of the Buried Vault, but she has the resources of 'R' behind her." He took another swig from his hip flask. "There's a good chance Rakepick could be the first to find the final vault."

What leads did she even have, though? I had a Merperson Trident and a coral key. If 'R' had more leads that proved more useful, then I'd have to be prepared for the ultimate showdown. It would be almost like I've gotten half the map she had a full image of, and she'd have the better chance of getting the glory while I'd be left in the shadows. Even if these resources were not anywhere close to helpful, I couldn't let myself slack off and hope that something in their plan goes horribly wrong. Fate wouldn't always stay on my side for long.

"For so long, I thought 'R' was an actual person, not a group of evil wizards and witches," I mused. "I suppose there were clues..."

"And my understanding is you have clues...to the vault's location."

Ah, so Moody definitely wanted to check into my progress. How much could I bring myself to tell, though?

"Yes, a trident and a coral key," I told him with a nod. "So the vault could be underwater."

Moody grunted in understanding. "I see. While I travel the world trying to take down 'R', I'll be counting on you, Curse-Breaker, to keep searching for it."

"Search for the vault?" I faltered. "But I have to search for my brother...who is searching for Rakepick..."

"All roads lead to the Cursed Vault," Moody said. "Find the vault, and I bet you'll find your brother, too. You, me, Rakepick, Jacob...we're all after the same thing: getting to the Cursed Vault first."

To think that I was in a separate party from my own brother was enough for me to feel doubt's whip sting my heart, but I nodded again.

"I'll come to you whenever I'm able, to keep you posted on my findings...and to prepare you with the knowledge and lessons you'll need to protect yourself and your friends," Moody eventually told me with a final nod.

"Good. I'll need help to protect my friends," I accepted, fists clenching once more. "Especially Ben and Merula, after that last vault. I still haven't seen them. I need to get back to Hogwarts and find them."

With a final wave to Moody and Aberforth Dumbledore, who looked genuinely disappointed I did not stay behind to at least consider purchasing one of his drinks, I departed from the goat-stenched inn and trudged back to Hogwarts.

As I walked through the streets and up the hill, I felt the hollow pang resonate through my heart again, threatening to make me collapse. Regardless of how we were divided, everyone was working towards the same goal, and all for different reasons--find the last Cursed Vault and use whatever was in there to fulfill our deepest desires. It was almost like I had been singled out now, without any allies behind me. What did everyone else think about my supposedly endless quest to find all the Cursed Vaults now?

Would they still care about my endeavours now that I was working alone, almost as a free agent without Rakepick lording over me, or would they wish that they could just move on with their lives and not worry about me anymore?

They wouldn't think of leaving me alone, would they, now that the finale was so close? After all, this last moment was the most crucial one. I had already lost one ally because he was working now as a professional Curse-Breaker at Gringotts in Egypt, and he would probably not be around much to help me. What about everyone else, though? I thought about Rowan--poor Rowan who just wanted to be a good scholar and the youngest professor at Hogwarts--then Penny, Tonks, Barnaby, Badeea, Tulip, Liz...all my friends who just wanted to be normal students, but couldn't because of me. Everyone was swept in the current that was finding the Cursed Vaults.

No. They wouldn't think of leaving me alone to fend for myself. Commitment from friends and people I trusted had to go to the last step. Rakepick already broke this protocol; I just hoped that no one else would.

I steeled myself as I entered the school now, racing towards my dorm to change for class. There was no way I would go to my first class of the day looking like I had just come out of a certain moody wizard's closet.

[spectral-buni]

📺Alice Moon in different Villainous AUs📺(OUTDATED)

I was reading some Baby Hats collection comics(ADORABLE, by the way, should check ‘em out), and thought, I wonder what Alice would be like in those AUs and some... and here we are. So, far I only got a few, so I’ll keep reblogging to add on if I find any cool ones. Also, if you guys have AUs you think I could possibly use, feel free to share them with me, I will credit you!

☀️🐺Heroic🐺☀️AU:

I’m not sure who initially created this AU, but I’ll use @qtarts designs because I love them to death!

Here, Alice Moon is instead Malice(Ma-less) Sun (put a lot of time in that name, not really).

Malice is a holy demon. She died under mysterious circumstances, and accidentally redeemed herself when she saved a life. To this day, she tries to earn her spot back as the strongest demon in Hell

She has a stubby grey tail and can make ears like a wolf’s pop on the top of her head

A notable power of hers are her poisonous tears and her incredible strength

She cannot fly, however, for her wings were ripped off long ago

She owns a small bakery called Bitters N’ Death. It was started to sell villains pastries filled and made with unpleasant ingredients to either give to their heroes or eat them themselves. Unknown to her, her pastries made for great heroic products. She sold it to White Hat, who offered a large sum of money for her small business and cooperation. She makes cakes that can heal, donuts that can increase strength, and some that can wash out evilness to an extent. She had no idea all those bootleg spices she bought off a market would make such good pastries, but continues doing it

Her colors are black, white, and some blue

Her frame is the same as Alice’s, and has light grey eyes with black scleras. Her pupils are inverted crosses. Her teeth blood-stained and sharp(claims it’s blood, but her cherry scented breath tells another story). Her long, grey-white hair is greasy and straightened. Her skin is white, but completely smooth.

Malice is a rude and arrogant woman, closeminded on all aspects and believes her opinion is the only one that counts. She’s got a silver tongue even villains get scared of, and simply put isn’t a nice person. Malice doesn’t follow anyone, she has no ruler or ‘god’ to look up to, except White Hat who she has to respect due to him being her boss

She's very nonchalant, and doesn't show emotion to pretty much anyone. Malice isn't one to react to even the smallest things

White Hat isn’t very giddy about her, but he can tolerate her enough to hire her for her bakery. Sometimes White tries to convince her she’s a really good person, but Malice always denies him that. He’ll ocasionally try to compliment her, only to have to dodge an incoming kick from her

Clemencia has a grudging respect for Malice, but doesn’t like her too much. It’s sort of like stepsisters forced to like each other, but far better than what Demencia and Alice have. For one, Clemencia has never tried to kill Malice. They have their occasional chats about stuff

Slug has respect for her abilities and snark, but he doesn’t enjoy her presence. Trying to get the two to get along is like trying to join two negative poles together, it just won’t work

6.6.6 doesn’t at all like Malice. But 6.6.6 doesn’t like anything

🌕🦉Apathetic🦉🌕 AU

Apathetic AU by @nivilliain and @themcnobody

Here, her name is Alibi(A-ley-bye) Satellite

Alibi is a seraph, but doesn’t take her ranking very seriously(claims she does, but doesn’t)

Her six wings are dark brown and her lips are naturally dark. Alibi’s hair is horned like an owl’s

Two notable powers of hers are invisibility and teleportation, therefore making her impossible to track down

She doesn’t own anything, not a bakery nor a medical degree

She’s very quiet and introverted. She’ll never initiate conversations first, and is cold to others. But Alibi has a very flexible moral code. She has no patience for idiocy and will not give her enemies a second chance

Her colors are yellow, brown, and grey

Her skin and body are the same as Alice’s, scars included. Her arms, however are entirely bionic. Her eyes are also robotic, with the cross- shaped pupils the cornea being a glowing yellow and the rest a metallic grey. Her brown hair is straightened and reaches her chin

Grey Hat was rather annoyed by her presence. She claimed to have gone down from heaven to guide them, but she does very little and none of them have been ‘enlightened’ as she claimed they would be. Full of promises, but no action. Though, she has proved to be a good hitwoman...

Yamencia isn’t at all fond of Alibi. Alibi is also attracted to Grey Hat, so she’s a rival. Only she deserves Grey Hat! Not that seraph scum!

Clug honestly doesn’t really notice her. She’s mostly quiet around him. Though, he’ll catch her do something awful. Clog enjoys this sadistic side of her

E.0.3 appreciates that she’s pretty much indestructible. Alibi is surprisingly patient with him, since he’s a sweet heart with incredible strength like her. They get along fine

⭐️🦊Cowardice🦊⭐️ AU

Cowardice AU by @skribblie

Alisabeth(A-lee-sah-beth) Star

Alisabeth is a cherub

She allows her fox ears peek out, and has a fluffy fox tail

Her colors are orange, grey, white, and green

Similar to the Heroic AU, she’s got a bakery that Fraid bought to sell her ‘heroic pastries’(Well, Glorf was the one who negotiated). She also has experience in the medical field, so no matter how atrocious she may be with the scalp, she manages to do something good out of it

She’s a lazy woman with very little kindness in her heart. What she does have of kindness, she uses it on the gang. She’ll ocasionally say something bordering on straight up cruel, but claims it to be her being honest. She is honest, and a little sadistic. But she tries to be nice for Fraid’s sake. She’s constantly tired, as well

Same physical build as all the other hers. She has her long, orange hair simply braided. She has bright green eyes, and claws. She’s paper white, and is covered from head to toe with scars of all sorts, so she bundles up in bandages

Fraid Hat is a bit frightened by her. She’s still new to the team, but she’s managed to do great with her bakery, no matter how terrifying her cooking process and ingredients can be. But he appreciates that she tries to be nicer around him

Sanity is okay with Alisabeth. She doesn’t really like how she always frightens Fraid Hat, but Alisabeth tries to fix it on her own, so there’s that. They’re iffy with each other

Dr. Glurf and her are on good terms. They both try to protect Fraid Hat while also playing a prank on him every now and then. I mean, one of the two doesn’t do it entirely on purpose

4.0.4? They don’t really talk to each other much, but sometimes the pink bear’ll eat the stuff that’s about to go bad in the bakery, so....?

🌎🐸Inked 🐸🌎AU

Inked AU by @the-mighty-sorceress

(Tell me if I need to change anything about the character)

Ally(Ah-lie, like the word)Earth

She doesn’t have any frog-like appendages, but always rocks a frog hood

Generally, a hippie nerd who loves to recycle. She’s really chill, and doesn’t care about you unless you bring her some Burger King or Carl’s Jr. She likes Java Juice smoothies, and small creatures. She’s asexual and the same romantic orientation as the other hers. She also has a ton of consipracy theories about everything(“I hear Java Juice is secretly governed by a grey alien”)

Her colors are green, blue, black, and yellow orange

Her specialty are some body modifications. Her main job is still making gourmet pastries and drawing, though. She also has a degree in surgery and nursing, so it’s useful in her modifications

Ally has the same frame as all the other variations of her. Her hair is long and dyed a light shade of blue. She wears darker blue cross earrings. Ally has a split tongue, and wears yellow-orange colored contacts. She also has only one tattoo, a small crescent moon on one of her shoulder blades. Ally often draws little crosses on the apples of her cheeks with a eyebrow pencil

Black Ink is chill with her. She can remove body parts and make humans look grotesque! I mean, it’s voluntary, but still! They’ve also been dating for a week, so there’s that too

Demencia adores what she can do. Body modifications?! Sign her up for teeth sharpening and tongue splitting!

Plug likes her. She was nice after he brought her a Java Juice cup, so yeah

8.9.8 doesn’t have an opinion on her. He’s just a dyed bear. But she likes him very much

[katherinesisakproduction]

A9 Final Pitch

Wow! After nine weeks, we’re finally at the end of the quarter...so without further ado, here’s a quick summary of the work behind ‘Origin’. 

Theme: Appearances can be decieving/life isn’t always black and white

Logline: When Dennis -a superhero-obsessed boy- is dragged to his dad’s office for a ‘Take Your Child to Work Day’ he comes face-to-face with some titillating family secrets. Could this be the origin story for Voltaic City’s newest crimefighter? 

Link to final animatic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0V-kj4Sc9Q&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR3npV64LbHoybTt2JF6xB35kJiMK4cPKXZCDfXtOLDYqATOlXm7SUYTqcY

In this version of the animatic, I addressed the notes about establishing (more clearly) the initial setting of the office, as well as changing the design of the desk that Dennis hides behind in order to make it more plausible that Eel Man wouldn’t be able to see him. 

Supplemental Materials: This section ties in well with the characters/world

Dennis: 

To rehiterate, Dennis is a seven-year-old boy who is obsessed with superheroes and comic books. He views his favorite comic book as his ‘guide to life’, believing that the world contained between the pages has the answers to everything. In a way, his attachment to comic books represents the very ‘black-and-white/good-and-evil’ view of the world that people have in their youth, because more traditional comic plotlines (of the past) tend to be very formulaic in that good always triumphs over evil. 

In terms of new material, I reviewed the SCAD Animated Short handbook and developed a rough turnaround sheet and expression page for Dennis. After doing so, when this goes into production, I’m wondering if it might be a good idea to revist the hair design. As much as I enjoy the asymmetrical swoop from the frontal and 3/4 views, since this will be 3D, I’m not entirely certain if it will silhouette well from the sides. 

The expression page for Deninis was a lot of fun to make: since he’s the main character and the type to wear his heart on his sleeve, I got to play with a lot of large facial emotions...His roundness makes him a lot of fun to sketch out. 

Eel Man/The Dad:

Eel Man is the secondary character in the film: he’s a systems analyst for a Tuna Company by day, and a super-their by night. He’s calculating, insecure and has a little bit of an invisibility complex. He began his life of crime after his job cut his benefits and began by selling classified corproate information to rival companies for money. Eventually, he went from hacking/digital theft and branched out into stealing top secret tech that was being developed by other types of companies: his theft of a sonar weapon (mentioned at the end of this short) is his first ‘big’ venture into typical supervillainesque crime which is why it made the news. 

As a mid-level office worker, he feels very stifled and invisible at times. He definitely feels like just another cog in the machine and the noteriety he recieved in the criminal underworld for being a ‘super-theif’ helps stave off his greatest fear, which is going through life forgotten and unimportant. 

Doing the turnaround sheet for him was a little tricky because I’m used to drawing him in poses that allow me to really exagerrate his ‘s-curve’ shape. But since characters are typically kept in a neutral pose for the sheets, it felt a little tricky to ‘straighten him out’, so to speak. 

Unlike his son, Eel Man is a bit of an enigma in the short. He does need to keep a little bit of an ‘air of mystique’ so that it is plausible that Dennis could misinterpret his status of being a villain. Additionally, with the visor, drawing expressions was doubly challenging because it removed two of the main three components that really drive facial expressions (eyes, mouth, eyebrows). I did draw two images of him without the mask to hint at how he emotes around his family.  

To round out the requirements for character in the Animated Short book, here are the action poses I submitted as a part of my pitch package to indicate how the characters will move. To me, I always begin with action poses before I even finalize character designs because it helps me connect character design, movement style and personality together. By drawing out how they behave, it helps me clarify (even to myself) a character’s identity/sense of being. 

Dennis, ever the excitable kid, has very big movements. He puts his entire body into action and is very open with his behavior. I tried to remember how I moved when I was that age and personally, I remember being very impulsive and confident with everything I did: there was no planning or second-guessing, only action.

Eel Man also has exagerrated movements, but in a different way. His ‘s-design’ was chosen to specifically favor poses with strong lines of action: I really wanted to capture the dynamic poses typical to superhero comics, but also soften the seriousness behind the fight scenes by adding a slick, slithery element to his movements. He ‘slips’ and ‘slides’ everywhere. 

The World: Style, Lighting and Color

The short takes place in a corporate office and has two main sets: The cubicle and the lair. The cubicle is a very tight and slightly dreary space, so the colors will be mostly beiges and neutral tones to convey a sense of corprorate drudgery. The lightingin the office (during Act 1) will be fairly even to indicate that this is the ‘mundane world’...The story has not truly taken off at this point. 

The quick color study here is a rough indication of the palette for the transition between sets. It carries over some of the beige/muted orange elements from the office set while the intense blue forshadows the color palette for the lair. This is the still I’m most likely to revist to finesse the color a little more so that it is congruent with the other panels. I’m not entirely sold on the color of the slide and want to explore what a blue-grey might look like...or perhaps a more saturated bronze color. 

In Act 2, when Dennis is looking around the lair and starting to come up with ideas of what this foreign space could possibly be, the color palette changes to a high-pitched, limited palette of blue/blue green. This was heavily inspired by Lou Romano’s color key work on the Incredibles, because the vibrant, limited palette imbues the space with a sense of ‘otherworldliness’, removing it from what both Dennis and the audience associate with our ‘day-to-day’ reality. The lighting is bright and still fairly even because not only do I want the audience to be able to drink in full ‘grandeur’ of the set, but tonally, the emotions of the piece are still largely positive -it’s a moment of discovery. I also want all of the props (such as the giant coin, the costume carousel, the supercomputer etc) to be highly visible. The narrative relies heavily on props to drive the plot (with each component acting as an indicator that the dad is a hero) and its also important to establish props that will come into play during Act 3 when the fight sequence happens. 

In Act 3, however, the lighting changes. As Eel Man (our secret antagonist) enters the set and Dennis gets visual confirmation that his guess was right (sort of), the set darkens a little and the lighting becomes very high contrast to create a visual intensity that foreshadows the conflict. The color palette of the set is still blue, but leaning a little bit away from the turquoise end fo the spectrum.  

These are two production stills for the film. I chose Dennis and Eel Man’s first face-to-face interaction in the film to showcase because their relationship is what lends impact to the revelation off Eel Man’s true identity at the end. I attempted to do a little more color blending to convey a ‘3D’ quality to the image, but I feel like I want to keep working on it because currently, some elements such as Eel Man’s arm and hand could use a little less exposure to the yellow light for higher overall contrast. But overall, it serves its purpose to convey the general lighting in the scene. The scene is illumnated with warm yellow light to be visually misleading, conveying the beginnings of something wonderful and new... 

This is the second production still depicting the big ‘reveal’ when Dennis finds out that his dad is a supervillain. In this scene, he is illuminated by the LED lights of the television that is playing the broadcast that completely turns his worldview upside down. The teal highlights act as a visual calllback back to the palette of the lair,but now, the lighting is darker and far more dramatic to convey the sinister turn of the story. 

Looking ahead, I really want to develop a more concrete color script for this short. What I have now gives a decent indication of color, but I’d like to push the lighting and shading within the style frames to more closely match the quality of light within the production stills. I also feel like at least two more stills (one of the office and one more in the lair during Act 2) would strengthen the color development, giving people a more concrete idea oft the final ‘look’ for the short. However, I did end up prioritizing the fixes to the animatic, as well as the creation of turnaround sheets over a color script at this current time because those items were the ones definitively required by the SCAD Animated Short Handbook.

Why Animation? 

My answer to this question can be found in my description of both the characters and the world. When it came to development, I was favoriting very stylized and exaggerated designs. The character’s shape based design language to inform their acting, as well as the saturated yet limited color palette for the hero world should work in tandem to create a visual universe that far removed from anything that the viewers can easily associate with our ‘day-to-day’ reality (i.e. live-acton). The stylization and exaggeration, which can only be accomplished via animation, serves to make Dennis’s conclusiion that his dad MUST be a hero more believable to the audience by lowering the suspension of disbelief: if the audience doesn’t have a comparison point to explain the unfamiliar space, it excuses Dennis’s runaway imagination. 

Although this story could be done in live action, it would change the tone of the story to something a little more corny (similar to Disney’s live-action film Sky High). Even though I personally enjoy campy superhero stuff, in this case, it would tonally undermine the theme that ‘life isn’t always black and white’, which I would like to avoid. 

Final Notes and What Comes Next: 

Taking this pitch from start to finish was a really interesting endeavor, especially in seeing how the concept evolved over time. I’m a large fan of DC comics, so getting to play around with some of my favorite tropes was a definite plus with this story. I know I personally enjoy hero origin stories a lot...I think the stories people come up with to explain what could drive a person into acts of superhuman heroism/villainy are pretty interesting because they reflect the things that majorly impact people’s lives (loss of family, social injustice etc, etc). 

In a way, Origin, for me is as much of a coming-of-age tale as it is a superhero story. Dennis’s discovery at the end, that his dad was not the man he thought he was is an amplified version of how at a certain age, you realize that your parents are not necessarily these godly, untouchable super-humans who can magically solve all of your problems. Awknowledging that life isn’t always easy is a, difficult, yet essential, part of growing up and I wanted to touch on that in my film. 

But-with that being said- I’m finally going to reveal what I think would happen after the title card! Originally, I had thought of this idea as a pitch for a television show and I think that after the revelation, Dennis would agree to be Eel Man’s sidekick so that he could try and discover WHY his dad would become a villain. I think he would actively try to sabotage his dad’s villainous escapades, because he’s still a good-hearted character, but I think his loyalty to his dad would lead him to agree to be his sidekick so that he could try to better understand his father. I think that if it were further developed into a series, that you could have a lot of fun coming up with various ‘heroes-of-the-week’ that Eel Man and Urchin Boy could encounter...So in a way, this short could double as a good ‘hook’ for a pilot. 

In terms of moving forward with the production of the short, I’m really looking forward to seeing what my future teammates will bring to the production. The thing I enjoy the most about being an animation student at SCAD is being able to discuss and develop ideas wth other people who also love stories and storytelling. Everyone has such a different and unique way of viewing the world, that even being a small part of their stories during the feedback process makes me happy. 

In the end, this was rewarding experience because it reminded me that storytelling is about finding common ground with other people.

Well...Onwards and upwards, I guess!