Chapter 1: Shattered 1.1
Chapter Text
Victoria was laser-focused on the game, dodging around the other girls on the court with an ease born of practice and skill. She dribbled left, swept right, and barreled forward, pausing for half a second to launch the ball into the air. It had just, JUST, left her hands when another girl crashed into her, sending them both onto the ground in a painful tangle. She heard the sound of the ball hitting the hoop and going through the net, seconds before she hit the ground and heard the referee's whistle. Would her shot be counted? Had she won the game for her team? She looked to her coach, who gave her a reassuring nod, then to the stands... where her mother was focused on something on her phone.
Her own mother, caring more about her work then her daughter...
Amy, at least, was paying attention--even waving with a rare grin. Well, at least somebody believed in her, at least somebody cared.
"Dallon!"
Victoria shook off her resentment and refocused. "Yes coach!"
"Talked with the ref. You're getting a foul shot."
"Right, thank you coach!"
"Don't thank me. Far as I'm concerned, your shot should have counted. This is your chance to prove me right."
Victoria straightened, nodding with conviction. "Yes, coach, I won't let you down!"
She marched to the position, taking the ball and gathering her concentration. Nothing else mattered but the throw. Not the crowds that pestered her for not being part of New Wave. Not the way her father laid at home most nights. Not even the wish she had for her mother's love and affection.
No, right now, all that mattered was the ball, and the shot.
She took a deep breath... and she tossed the shot, the ball landing directly into the hoop.
The locker room was filled with cheers and praise. Everyone was getting there due, good and bad. There was some light-hearted ribbing, a lot of compliments, and the general pride of women proving they were the real winners in a male-dominated field. And at the center of it all, Victoria was grinning like a loon, the hero of the hour.
"Well, Dallon," the coach said with a small grin, "you certainly proved yourself out there. Keep this up, and we might even make State this year!"
Victoria rolled her eyes, but her grin never faded. It was a running joke that nobody from Brockton Bay ever made it past regional, for reasons mostly related to the gang activities, but that didn't stop them from trying (again, for reasons mostly related to the gang activities). "I was far from alone out there, coach," she pointed out, wrapping an arm around a teammate. "Hell, I'm pretty sure I only scored six or seven points. Chelsea here scored twelve."
"And she was amazing, but you helped your teammates score a lot," the coach replied. "Passing when you needed to, blocking and snatching the other team... you kept your head in the game, Dallon, and you did it with ease. Nobody watching could have missed that."
Victoria's smile dimmed. Anybody watching, sure. But not everyone had been paying attention...
No, actually, screw her. If she wanted to miss out on her daughter's achievements, she could absolutely live with the consequences. Such as...
"Hey Chelsea, you up to hosting a celebration party for the team?"
Chelsea nodded, already texting her parents.
"Is your mom going to be okay with that?" Brianna asked.
"She'll be fine," Victoria declared casually. "It's just hanging out with the team, no biggie."
"If you're sure..."
"It'll be fine!" Victoria promised, turning her phone on silent.
The party lasted for a couple of hours, mostly consisting of the girls eating pizza and chatting amicably with each other. Despite both common movie tropes and the proclivities of Brockton Bay teenagers in particular, there was a surprising lack of drugs, sex, or rock and roll. Granted, Victoria had eaten more than she probably should have, if the way her stomach was twitching was any indication, but she managed to keep it down through sheer force of will.
From the way her mother was glaring at her, however, she might as well have stuck her veins through with the most potent narcotics on the black markets before dancing naked with the nazis.
"Not one call," she ground out. "For two hours. Not even a warning that you'd be late coming home."
Victoria rolled her eyes. "I was hanging out with my team after winning an important game. Perfectly normal."
"And for all I knew you could have been kidnapped, or murdered, or--" Carol took a deep breath. "We need to know where you are at all times. You may not be a member of New Wave, but you are, just by being connected to us, a celebrity. You know what happened with your cousin. And your aunt, if I'm honest."
Victoria scowled. As if any of that was her fault! She was a literal child when the triple B unmasked! She hadn't chosen to be the daughter of a family of unmasked capes! But for more than a decade, her behavior had been policed more stingently than any prisoner, demanding total perfection and obediance for even the slightest of things.
"Clearly this basketball obsession is messing with your critical thinking skills," Carol continued. "If you can't be bothered to keep me in the loop, I'll have no choice but to have you removed from the team."
"You can't do that!" Victoria protested.
"I am your mother. If I think something is interfering with your growth as a person, I am allowed to take steps to make sure it does not do so."
"My grades are fine!" Victoria insisted. "They're great, even! I have a healthy social life, and friends I care about! And you'd rip that away just because I forgot to text you over something so trivial as hanging out with the people who actually give a shit about me for something that isn't who I'm related to?"
"If you're putting your friendship above this family's needs--"
"Oh, like you don't put your career first, Mom," Victoria snapped. "Or should I call you Brandish?"
"Victoria!"
"What? You don't give a crap about me as a person, you just care about New Wave's precious image!"
"Victoria--Victoria get back!" Carol shouted after her. "Get back here now, or I--"
She slammed her bedroom door shut behind her, fell onto her matress, and screamed into her pillow.
Chapter 2: Shatter 1.2
Chapter Text
Mornings, Victoria blearily thought, were a symptom of society's demands eroding the purpose of humanity. Mornings were necessary, sure, but were they so necessary that she needed to drag herself out of bed and take a damned shower before the sun had fully risen? She grumbled to herself as she stripped out her clothing and turned on the water, blearily glancing at the mirror.
Something about her reflection made her blink a bit. She leaned in closer, trying to figure out what it was that had caught her attention. Her face seemed normal, after all, and... oh, she was missing her nipples. Weird, but it waaaaa....
Her thoughts screeched to a halt as she looked in the mirror. Then glanced down, just to confirm. Her breasts, in defiance of all known logic, now seemed to be a pair of peach hemispheres. Even the curved shadows of the underboob were gone, making her appear almost as if she was wearing a sports bra. And, on further investigation, she also seemed to be lacking any lower orifices, all sealed up with simply plain flesh. The end result was that, somehow, Victoria looked almost like a life-size barbie doll.
"What the %^#$?" she muttered, and then blinked. "What the %^#$? %^#$. %^#$! Why can't I say %^#$?"
Her hands had moved to investigate her new appearance almost automatically, and she was relieved to find that, despite visual appearances, everything was still where it was supposed to be, even if it was hidden behind some sort of weird illusion. Which still begged the question of how this had happened. And what she could even say...
"Uh... #$%&@. &#@$. #*%$. Um... @$&&!^?" Victoria swallowed, trying not to freak out. "Not that I ever wanted to say that last one, but..."
Was this some sort of parahuman power? Well, no, duh, it had to be, but what kind of parahuman would sneak in during the night and inflict... this sort of thing on her?! And how would they even sneak in? Ever since aunt Jess died, New Wave had made sure the security on their homes was top-notch. The idea that somebody could have snuck in was almost impossible. And her mom and dad didn't have powers like this--and also, wouldn't use their powers on her without her knowing--so unless she had triggered--
...oh.
"Well crap," Victoria muttered. "Oh, crap is fine," she added sarcastically as she stepped into the shower. "I finally trigger, and it's with an E for Everyone rating." She muttered censored curses to herself as she performed her morning ablutions.
The censored curses would return with vigor a few minutes later, when she realized that she was E-rated in at least one more fashion.
Of course, once it sunk in that she had powers, Victoria had started making a plan to figure out how to test them... a plan that was almost thwarted the moment she came down the stairs and face to face with her mother.
"And just where do you think you're going?"
Victoria took a deep breath. "I was going to head out and hang out with my friends, if you must know."
Carol crossed her arms. "And what friends are these? More of your basketball hooligans?"
Victoria crossed her arms right back. "Actually, they're respectable girls. They follow the law and have a great sense of right and wrong. Which is honestly more than I can say for the sort of people you associate with."
"Excuse me?"
"...You're right," Victoria said dryly, "an evil lawyer joke is in poor taste."
She winced as something new entered her senses, something she couldn't even fully understand for a moment.
"I don't like your attitude," Carol declared. "You are my daughter, and I deserve to know what you are doing--"
"You know something, mom? You do. You do deserve to know what I'm doing. You deserve to be part of my life. That's why I begged you to come to the game yesterday, to see something that I thought was important to me. I'm talking learning a new skill, competing with my peers, making friends, hell, there's been talk of a potential scholarship! And yet, whenever I looked into the audience, I didn't see my mother paying any attention to the game. No, I saw a woman who didn't want to be there choosing to work instead of supporting her daughter. So you know what, Mom? You've lost the right to know where I'm going and what I'm doing. After all, I don't matter to you, not nearly as much as your career."
Carol gaped, her mouth opening and closing rapidly as she tried to say something. "That's--that's not what--"
"Am I wrong?" Victoria demanded. "Look me in the eyes and tell me I'm wrong."
"You're misinterpreting--"
"Look me in the eyes," Victoria repeated, "and tell me I'm wrong."
Carol looked her in the eyes.
She took a breath.
"...Victoria... I care about you. I do. It's just... there are certain... realities about being an open cape, and a lawyer, that mean I am always on call." She sighed. "You remember when I missed your birthday?"
"Which one? My fifth, ninth, or fourteenth?"
"I only ever missed one!"
Victoria crossed her arms. "Fifth birthday: Fighting the Marche. Ninth Birthday: New Wave public appearance. Fourteenth birthday: the Garland court case."
Carol blinked. She pulled out her phone, looking through various news cases with an increasing amount of shock and dismay.
"...alright, I'll admit I haven't been as present as I should have been, but--"
"Save it," Victoria growled, shoving past her. "I'll tell Dad where I'm going. He never missed any of my birthdays."
Half an hour later, Victoria had silently stormed off a bus to a decently isolated former department store. Even before she arrived, she'd realized a few things about her power... or, well, her powers plural, because she certainly hadn't had her metal detector power when she woke up. And that in and of itself was a worrying development. Victoria kept up with all sorts of parahuman research, mostly out of force of habit, and she was well aware of the power classification that 'gain new powers' fell under.
"Of course," she grumbled to herself. "Next thing you know, I'll be able to wave a hand and shoot fire."
She took a moment to contemplate her own words.
Then she experimentally rose a hand and pointed it at a wall, flinching a bit as thin white strands shot out of her fingertips. They stopped as abruptly as they'd started, dropping to the ground in a small pile. Victoria repeated the process with her other hand, sighing as more silk threads emerged. "Well, it's not fire, but it is... something."
She lowered her hands, looking at them intently. Powers. She had powers--weird, nonsensical powers, but powers nonetheless. And... she didn't know exactly when or how she'd gotten them, really. She couldn't remember a trigger event in the past twenty-four hours. Well, she could think of more than a few things that would have caused her trigger, all related to her mother, but all parahumans had a minor blackout whenever a trigger happened around them, and the woman had hardly seemed suspicious or out of sorts. Maybe she'd triggered at the party, when she'd worried about how her mom would react when she got home...?
...actually, yeah, that made the most sense...
Still, that was besides the point, the point was she had powers. Which meant...
"...this is going to be a problem."
Chapter 3: Shatter 1.3
Chapter Text
Victoria had a love-hate relationship with the concept of capes in general.
On the one hand, PEOPLE WITH SUPER POWERS! There was no way that wasn't awesome! And she was in a family with some of those super heroes! When she was young, she thought she was living the dream, and was determined to become a hero herself. But, as time had gone on, she'd grown more and more disillusioned with the idea. The amount of laws parahumans were subjected to, the risks they took, the way they couldn't even live a normal life after what happened to them... being a cape was a job that took everything else away. Eventually, she'd decided to walk away from the cape life, and had even come up with a long-term plan to support herself. She'd finally made the first few steps in her plan, getting herself on the radar for a sports scholarship...
...so of course, she had to get powers now of all times!
Luckily, despite her being a trump of some sort, all her powers seemed pretty low key... or at least, all the powers she knew about. It was clear that she didn't automatically know when she got new powers, but hopefully they would stay lowkey. Victoria didn't want anybody to learn about this--not her school, not the PRT, and certainly not her mother. And gaining a new power when they were watching would just... totally ruin that.
Plus, of course, parahumans had a need to use their powers, so she couldn't just... sit on them and hope nothing happened. She had to go out and... well, maybe not be a hero, rogues were a thing, but definitely not become a villain. That would risk way too much. And her power set didn't seem suited for heroics, yet. Unless she happened to get something powerful right... NOW!
Or... NOW!
Victoria stared at the hand she was thrusting into the air, and the nonexistent sphere she'd cupped her fingers around. "...what the %^#$ am I doing?" she grumbled. "And why can't I %^#$@&* swear?! That has got to be the stupidest power I have ever heard of!" If she could apply the censor to somebody else, sure, Victoria could see how it could be useful, but she couldn't even figure out how to turn it off, let alone put it on somebody else...
With a sigh, Victoria threw up her hands. Alright, so she had powers, and she needed to use them without alerting any of her family. Which, of course, meant she needed a disguise. It couldn't be made of anything she already had at home, since there was a chance her family would notice the missing clothes or hear about the costume the new vigilante/hero/rogue was using and connect the dots...
She glanced down at her hand, willing more strands of silk to come forth. "...I guess I could look up silk-weaving... but that would probably take days to master. And I'd be producing silk the whole time..." She shook her head. "No, not a good idea. I should probably figure out how to make knots anyway, but this is not suitable costume material."
Well, she was in a department store. It couldn't have been picked completely clean, even after all these years. Maybe there was something Victoria could work with... somewhere around here? She still needed to test her metal detection power... maybe it could direct her to some useful scraps that she could use as a base for whatever she wound up wearing. She could probably find something to use as a weapon, at least...
Victoria's metal radar sense wasn't really valuable in finding armored pieces, but it did surprisingly lead her to a few key pieces of her future outfit. The first was... well, it had probably been some sort of fancy tall lamp, but now it was a pole as tall as she was, as thick around as her wrist, and decently heavy to boot. She'd swung it through a few stances, before realizing she was unusually familiar with the handling of a polearm. Like, seriously, she'd seen movies, but she hadn't had any training at all... but somehow she knew how good this long bar of metal would be in a fight, and exactly how to use it.
"Huh." She rested the end of the former lamp on the ground, looking it up and down appreciatively. "Looks like I've got my weapon."
And then, as if to reward her efforts, Victoria felt another sense open up--one with a shorter range, but much more lively and interwoven then her metal-detecting sense, and one that she felt she could actually... grab? Pull on? It was something more than merely passively noting things, but she wasn't sure what it was...
...well, not until she glanced toward something she felt and saw a cockroach crawling across the ground.
"Ew!" She backed up a step, waving her lampstaff at the creature. "Back off!"
Her words were more than just said; they reverberated through her strange new sense, reaching out through the strange bond and reaching the roach--who turned around and scuttled away almost faster than she could blink.
"...Huh." Victoria straightened up. "...Uh... come back."
The roach spun around, quickly scuttling toward her--
"Stay!"
--before freezing in place.
"...Ooookay. Roach control." Victoria nodded slowly, looking around the abandoned room, before her eyes fell on a small crate. She could sense something living in it, something... bigger then a roach. "Hey you, come on out."
At her command, a rat emerged, staring at her with a level of annoyance she had only ever seen on her sister's face before.
"Uh... sorry for the trouble, you can go back to whatever you were doing."
The rat glared at her for a moment, before burrowing back into the abandoned crate.
Not just roaches then. Vermin in general. That was... okay, realistically, that was actually a very potent Master power, if she did her research, but at the same time it still fit the general theme of her powers being underwhelming and random. Which was great, actually, if she flew under the radar neither the PRT or New Wave would make her a priority. Victoria was fine with that. She didn't want to be a hero, after all. Just... an ordinary girl.
Who happened to get powers at random.
"...God, what even is my life?"
Chapter 4: Shatter 1.4
Chapter Text
With the addition of her new underlings, Victoria was able to scour the department store for good pieces to assemble her costume from. Or, well, a bunch of old clothes that would work together if she put in the effort. She also found an old backpack to stuff them in, and was ready to make her way home...
...aside from the glaring issue of figuring out what to say if somebody asked why she was carrying a thick metal pole around.
"What do you think, Basil?" she asked the small mouse sitting on the shelf next to her. "You got any good excuse for me to be lugging this around? Especially in a bus..."
The mouse flicked his whiskers, in a way she somehow recognized was thoroughly exasperated. It was as if he was telling her to just leave and let him get back to his breadcrumbs already.
"I'm just trying to... wait. Wait, I don't have to be the one that takes this home!" Victoria grinned. "Can you tell me where the nearest bunch of raccoons is?"
Once again, the mouse flicked his whiskers, quite thoroughly communicating that it had no idea what these raccoon things were or where to find them, on account of being a mouse that had not needed to name anything at any point in its life. It was followed by a paw running over its ear, which expressed a request to go back to its ordinary life in a manner that practically dripped with irritation and frustration. Victoria got the impression that the mouse was not a fan of humans, especially ones that forced it to waste time answering questions.
"Fine, fine, go back to your life." She sighed as it eagerly scrambled away. "Guess I'll have to find some raccoons on my own..."
Victoria pulled out her phone--an expensive smart phone, one of the few luxuries her mother afforded her--and quickly began a search on the common habits and habitats of her targets. Her search was actually quite short, since she managed to find a den of raccoons not two blocks away from the department store.
"Hey! Can you guys get down here, please?"
The raccoons complied, though they were clearly frustrated by the fact they were complying. One of them was eying her with visible disdain. Another had a calculating look in their eye, as though they were planning exactly how to extract their vengeance.
"Oooookay... look," Victoria pulled out her new lampstand, "I need to get this to my place without people on the bus noticing. It's a fair distance across the city, but I think you guys can sneak it there. Uh, do you need the address?"
The raccoons, to a one, flicked their tails, clearly communicating their disdain for human communication and territory naming practices."
"...right. How about I just... uh... project the location into your minds telepathically... I guess?" Victoria shrugged awkardly. "I think I can do that."
The leader of the group reared up, clasping its forepaws together suspiciously as if to ask what they would get out of the arrangement.
"...I think I can get you some food from the grocery store on the way back home? Like... three, oranges apiece. So, twenty-four oranges. You good with that?"
There was a series of glances, a discussion in chitters, and eventually a sense of resigned acquiescence.
"Great!" Victoria put the lamppost on the ground, pushing the location of her home into their minds. "Take this to that place, and try not to be seen."
The raccoons gave her one last irritated look as they complied.
"Well... that went as well as it could have."
"Why are you carrying so many groceries?" Amy asked as she opened the door.
"Because I don't want to get kicked off the Basketball team for poor life choices," Victoria replied, sidling through the front door. "Besides, I'd love to see how Mom will spin THIS as being irresponsible."
"Probably something about spending money you didn't need to spend. And walking home with so many bags that you're a clear target for muggers." Amy frowned as she shut the door, helping Victoria put the bags on the table. "Can we even fit all this in the fridge?"
"We don't need to fit it all into the fridge. I mean, a lot of this stuff can be kept out." Victoria pulled out a bundle of bananas. "Like these!"
"There's still, like, half this stuff that needs to go in. You can't seriously expect us to eat it all."
"We're teenagers. It'll all be vacuumed up before you know it."
Amy groaned. "Are you expecting me to keep up with your healthy diet? Cause that's not happening."
"You can keep eating your sweets," Victoria reassured her. "I mean, if you can sneak them by Mom." She glanced around as she opened the fridge. "Where is she, anyway?"
"She went to work after... whatever it was that happened this morning." Amy picked up a head of lettuce, examining it warily. "She was acting really weird, though. Like... you know how she always knows where everything is and what everybody's doing?"
"Yeah, she snaps at us if we move an inch out of order," Victoria groused. "So?"
"So... she didn't really do that. She looked at a couple of the pictures on the wall, even while I was eating breakfast, and then when she left, she... forgot to give me my list of tasks for the day."
"That's... odd," Victoria said slowly.
"Yeah. Did..." Amy paused, almost as if she couldn't believe what she was about to ask. "...did you say anything to her? Like, anything that would put her offbalance like that?"
"...I... think I pointed out how she missed three of my birthdays?" Victoria shrugged. "I'm not sure, I was just so pissed with... everything, really. The woman ignores my accomplishments and then has the gall to suggest I'm the one in the wrong, just because I have a life?" She sighed. "I don't know, Ames, it feels like I can't ever do right by her."
"...Huh." Amy frowned. "I mean, I know the feeling, but... I just thought I felt that way because I was adopted. You know, irrational emotions."
"Well, you're my sister, and I love you, and also Mom's... weird." Victoria took a breath as she finally unearthed the oranges. All thirty of them.
"What the fuck why do you need so many oranges?!"
"I just really like oranges."
"There is NO WAY you're going to go through all those in a week."
Victoria grinned mischievously. "Want to bet?" She peeled one open. "I'll bet you I can get rid of all these by this time tomorrow!"
"...you're crazy," Amy deadpanned, turning away.
"Crazy about good health!" Victoria shouted after her.
She waited until she heard Amy's door shut, then started putting four oranges a piece into paper bags. Once she was done, she ran into the backyard, where the raccoons were waiting impatiently with her new weapon.
"Thanks guys." Victoria handed the bags out. "Here's the stuff I promised you."
One of the raccoons chittered, something that suggested that they would very much NOT like to be called upon again, but appreciated that Victoria had upheld her end of the deal.
"Yeah, yeah, I'll figure something out."
Chapter 5: Shatter 1.5
Chapter Text
As Sunday dawned, Victoria braced herself for another rough morning of enduring a lecture from her mother about being a good daughter and propriety and whatever else she wanted to hammer in. Maybe something about wasting money for groceries. But, surprisingly, she said nothing. She didn't even demand that they all sit at the table for breakfast.
Something that they did anyway, it was a morning ritual, but the fact that Carol didn't insist on it was... notable in and of itself.
Then there was her expression, a sort of confused concentration, clearly turning something around in her mind. Victoria wasn't sure how she felt about that.
Eventually, her mother went off to her lawyer job, which... honestly, what did she even do between cases? Just read about more cases, maybe? Whatever, it was probably just busywork.
"So," Dad said, "you girls have any plans for today?"
Victoria and Amy shared a look.
"Homework?" Amy offered awkwardly. "I mean, that's... kind of it, really."
"I might head out later, do some window shopping," Victoria shrugged, "but yeah, I don't really have any plans beyond homework." She turned toward her sister. "You want to come with?"
"For window shopping? Pass."
Dad smiled. "Quiet day in. I can respect that. I'm... probably going to read a book or something."
Right. This was one of Dad's not-bad days, but... it was clear that even talking was taking effort. He'd probably be low energy for the rest of the day. If only there was some way to help him...
Victoria paused, glancing at her hands thoughtfully. She didn't know all the powers she had, but she did know she gained new powers over time. Maybe one of the powers she already had, or one she'd get, would be able to heal her dad...?
Concerns for later, she decided.
"Well, I'm going to go upstairs and start working on my homework," she declared, picking up her plate. "Those history reports won't write themselves."
Victoria actually did complete her homework before starting on anything else. Sure, she might have been interested in understanding her powers, but she was also a straight-A student, and not because Carol insisted on it. No, her mastery of study was a matter of pride, a way to tell the world that she was not just some blonde bimbo with a cape family, but somebody with value in her own right.
Of course, now she had powers. Which was... frustrating.
She put down her pencil with a sigh, turning to the backpack she'd tossed in the corner yesterday. The clothes she'd picked from the abandoned department store were... old, but not entirely plain. She had enough self-respect to make sure they would look good on her, while not matching her normal aesthetic. Even the thin bolt of cloth she'd picked up to use as a mask fit her chosen vibe.
That vibe being 'campy catgirl'.
Victoria had come to the conclusion that the best way to separate her cape identity from her normal life was to act entirely different than she usually would, and to lean into her own powerset a little. Campy was obvious--she was an intelligent, passionate teenager, and acting like Mouse Protector was entirely out of character for her. Catgirl... well, alright, that was more based off the whole 'talks to animals' thing then anything. Did stray cats count as vermin? She didn't think so, but it was easier to be 'catgirl' then 'cockroach girl.'
...although, if she really wanted to separate her personas--
No, no no, catgirl it would have to be. The white hoodie she'd picked up had ears specifically for that. Now all she had to do was convert the cloth into an outfit worth making.
Which meant learning how to tailor. Probably a good idea to get a book for that. And equipment.
"...why does caping have to be so difficult?" Victoria muttered to herself. "I don't even want to do this, but parahumans have to use their powers or they go insane...."
With a sigh, she started putting her proto-costume back into her backpack... then she paused for a moment, considered the hoodie, and took it and the cloth bolt back out, hiding them under her shirt.
Just in case.
Victoria didn't think she'd run into a cape while window-shopping, let alone a villain, but reality had a way of messing with her expectations. But then, the Chorus gang had a habit of ruining perfectly ordinary shopping trips with their 'performances'.
Her thoughts darted to the psuedo-costume under her shirt. Should she put it on? She didn't have any actual combat training, just a bit of self defense training as well as collection of known and unknown powers! But she was here, and the Chorus were causing chaos...
She heard a child scream in fear as Aria roared.
"...%^#$ it."
One of the reasons she'd picked such a simple costume was how easy it was to change into. Just take off her shirt, wrap the cloth around her head, and flip the hoodie up. Seconds counted in emergency situations, after all, and this absolutely was an emergency. With a twitch of her mental power, she ordered some flies buzzing around the trash can to fly around Adagio's eyes before charging at the monstrous form of Aria.
Was it perhaps arrogant to think she could face a woman who could turn herself into a purple fish amazon at will? Maybe. But the fact was the villain happened to be menacing a small collection of children, even if she wasn't actually attacking them. So she lept on the monster's back, clutching at her shoulders--and eliciting a screech of pain when her fingers tore a strip of flesh from Aria's back.
Wait, what?
Victoria looked at her hands, realizing her fingernails had sharpened into claws--very sharp claws, as a matter of fact. She only had a brief moment to process that before Aria reached back and threw her off, spinning around and spitting an array of ice shards at her. Victoria's panicked backward scuttle got her away from the worst of it, but some of the shards still clipped her, making her wince in pain.
Although...
...for some reason the pain seemed to energize her. And that energy... flowed into the scratches and bruises, healing them up slowly and steadily. So she had a Brute power, apparently. That was good.
Victoria bounced up with a cocky grin. "Come on, fishie, this kitty-cat wants some tuna!"
....Note to self. Practice banter.
Chapter 6: Shatter 1.6
Chapter Text
Aria roared, swinging her own claws as she charged at Victoria with murder in her eyes. There was only a few seconds for her to react--seconds she used to back up enough that she could dodge the monster girl's furious swing. The villain had much longer arms then her, so she couldn't risk getting in close, even with claws that might have been sharper then her opponent's.
#^$@, Victoria thought, I should have brought my lamp!
"~Ooo, a new kitty?~" A woman made of water slithered out of a store, eyes gleaming brightly. "~And she's so pretty!~"
"CUT THE SINGING, SONATA, AND DROWN THIS BITCH!"
"~No need to get mad, she's going down bad!~"
The watery manifestation surged toward Victoria, and in an instinctive reaction she held up her hand, grabbing invisibly at something she sensed and tugging it aside. Sonata squeaked in shock as she was thrown offkilter, splashing across a nearby bench before remanifesting with a confused expression on her translucent face.
"~How did she twist me so? Aria, do you know?~"
"Claws and hydrokinesis... fuck," Aria rumbled, "she's a power copier!"
That wasn't quite true, Victoria mused, but what the hell, might as well roll with it. "What's the matter, fishies? Afraid of a little catscratch?"
That, unfortunately, was about the time that Adagio managed to kill the last of the flies assaulting her. With a glare that promised nothing but pain, the leader of the Chorus gang inhaled deeply and screeched at her, a sound powerful enough to tear tiles off the ground and send Victoria flying. She flinched behind her cloth mask as she crashed through a window, into--of all things--a furniture store. Her hoodie thankfully kept most of the glass shards from getting through, although as she hit the ground she made a mental note to line it with something more protective some time soon.
Then her eyes landed on a standing lamp, clearly on display for sale.
"That'll do," she muttered, quickly unplugging it and standing up. "Hey, I'm going to borrow this, but I'll come back to pay for it," she added to a nearby clerk cowering behind some shelves.
"What the hell are you planning on doing with a lamp?!"
"Spearfishing!"
Even as the word left Victoria's mouth, she couldn't help cringing. Spearfishing? Really? Sure, she might be good at it, thanks to her weird powerset making her a master of all polearms, but despite the chorus's obvious siren theming, she wasn't actually a fish-obsessed feline...
But as stupid as her quip was, she was quick to dart back out of the store, instinct guiding her feet in a way beyond adrenaline. Another feeling rose in her chest, one she realized had been there for a while; a feeling of justice, of balance, of karmic retribution. Somehow, even as she dodged around Adagio's second scream, she knew exactly when to duck, when to jump, when to roll, when to use her new lamp weapon to pole vault, until at last the leader of the chorus was within arm's grasp. She reached out, tapping the woman's shoulder and letting a previously unnoticed muscle stretch.
And every last strand of her fluffy orange hair fell off of her head.
...oh #^$@.
Adagio shoved her back, growling, before her eyes fell on the fuzzy pool around her ankles. Slowly, she lifted her hands to her head, shock and horror growing in her eyes as they ran across smooth skin. Aria and Sonata both froze in place, robbery forgotten, gaping at the bald cranium their leader suddenly sported.
Victoria, carefully, rose her hands in the air. "So, uh, I have only had these powers for a couple of days, and this is my first time really using them for anything beyond personal testing--"
Another screech slammed her into a wall, followed quickly by a single sung command. "~THAT CATTY BITCH DESERVES ALL THE HATE, RIP HER APART! DON'T MAKE ME WAIT!~"
"Oh #^$@," Victoria muttered as the hypnotic suggestion settled into the minds of the watching crowd.
Then she was dodging and weaving through semi-mesmerized civilians. It was clear none of them actually wanted to be attacking her, which was why she was using her lamp to shove them back, but it was also clear that they couldn't really help themselves. Then a thick cloud of fog billowed out from Adagio, obscuring the vision of everyone present; Victoria could feel the water in the air as much as she had Sonata's aquatic form, so she was able to create a bubble of clear space, enough for her to see people lunging out of the cloud and dodge them with her basketball experience. Her mind, meanwhile, was focused on the mental image of the lockets and other metal that the Chorus gang wore on their person, guiding her through the fog toward the escaping criminals.
"...should hold for long enough that that bitch won't be able to find us."
"Yeah, but what are we going to do about--LOOK OUT!"
Aria's shouted warning came too late, as Victoria emerged from the cloud swinging her lamp. Adagio went down first, too shocked to dodge the bar to her bald head; Victoria hid a wince as she slammed into the ground. Sonata burst into her water form and rushed over to their leader, while Aria jumped at Victoria with a monstrous snarl. A long, clawed arm swept at at Victoria, only to be expertly parried by the lamp, which followed up with a devastating jab to the jaw, sending the fish amazon reeling back long enough for her to follow with a sweep to the legs that knocked her to the floor. Victoria pounced, leaping onto her chest and ramming the base of the lamp into Aria's jagged teeth again and again and again, too quickly for the woman to react, until at last she fell unconscious from the head trauma.
Sonata had swept away, leader in tow, but as she looked behind she witnessed the strange catgirl in hot pursuit. "~Oh my god are you for real?! What the hell is even your deal?!~" She tried to dodge left and right and through surprised crowds of shoppers, yet Victoria's body, honed by years of exercise, was gaining on her, no matter how much she zigged and zagged. In desperation she jerked left, reaching a water tendril for a random woman--
--but Victoria had already closed the distance, and with the force of her mind alone she jerked the appendage back into Sonata's watery body, before locking it up in her telekinetic grip.
"~...alright, hero, I know when I'm beat.~" Sonata recondensed into her human form. "~Congrats, you've taken the Chorus off the street. We ran and we fought the best that we can, and you beat us fair, but now what's your plan?~"
"I think," Victoria declared as she pulled out her phone, "that the protectorate deserves to have a look at what the cat just dragged in."