Waking up the next morning, I stretched my limbs like a cat.
There was a lot that went on after we got to the PRT building the other day. They let the women covered in blood or dirt clean up in the shower and had the injured ones admitted to an in-house clinic. They provided food, room, and warm if boring beds. I never really thought of the logistics behind what happened to people who got rescued from places like this, and seeing all the work put into it made me feel a little silly for never thinking about it.
The cartoons and the comics never really show that part. Everyone always imagines themselves going in, saving victims if there are any, and then leaving. I guess there's not much glory to be had making sure they get the help they need in the long term. Just one of those little realities that tv never really wastes time teaching you for lots of little, understandable reasons.
Not that I can say that I learned all that much about it by experiencing it firsthand. All the girls my age and younger were treated with the kid's gloves. They had us checked by a doctor on staff, but all I remember about that was being told to take it easy, so I was probably okay.
I didn't really feel okay. When I hit the mattress of the room, I passed out pretty much instantly. I woke up bleary eyed, sore, and not at all feeling well rested. All my summons had faded overnight, and I was unsure what my next move should be, or if I should even be making one.
Yesterday, my summon killed someone against my explicit orders.
I was fine being a villain that didn't hurt anyone because like, I could guarantee that they didn't. Now? I didn't know what to do… My summons were scary, but it was always reassuring to know they were under control.
It felt like now, they really weren't.
Maybe I should just join the PRT?
No, that would never happen. I'm not like, stupid or anything, but there really was no way! Sure, the PRT could overlook a grocery bill from Walmart and an official apology to the Fugly Duck himself, but murder?
How many guys even died yesterday? Oni Lee, that guy the woman shot… maybe those guys outside, the men who were trapped in the burning basement… GAAAAAH! It was frustrating, but I really had no way of knowing, and if even one of the ladies I saved mentioned me for one reason or another, I was unbelievably screwed! The heroes killed people sometimes, and like, this was a kinda reasonable situation it could have happened, but the heroes would never accept someone with a bodycount!
I didn't have a particularly heroic trigger. I wasn't like Legend or Eidolon, who in their darkest moment decided to stand up and fight for what's right. At the time, I just wanted everything to stop hurting. I felt hurt, hollowed out, and betrayed by someone I thought I could trust.
Oni Lee wasn't the only blood on my hands. They would never accept someone like that.
Was Henchmistress going to be okay as an identity now that she had a bodycount? Was I even going to be able to be Henchmistress anymore without my costume?
Oh my god Parian.
The ABB knew my face. I had no idea if someone who saw my face lived or if they kept photos of their captured ladies to show to, ergh, clients. And I'd just killed Oni Lee. The ABB, and Lung by extension, was out for my blood now, and with no way of knowing if they had my face…
I couldn't go back to Sabah's place.
I couldn't know, so I couldn't put her in danger. Somehow, that was the hardest thing for me to accept. Heck, the PRT probably had sci-fi face scanner thingies! They'd be able to find my face in like, a government database! Then the PRT could find Sabah too, and-
Knock Knock!
Oh, someone was at the door. I jumped at the distraction.
"Come in!"
Walking through the door was not a face I expected to see. It was a familiar face.
Panacea.
I was under the impression that she didn't do requests, but then again, these girls were liberated from a… lady house. They deserved the best treatment they could get, and it certainly didn't get any better than the miracle healer herself.
Amy closed the door behind her and turned to look at me with a bored expression on her face.
"I'm obligated to tell you that you have complete privacy. There are no cameras in this room, and any medical decisions you make will not be shared with anyone. Understand?"
Jeez, when she said it like that, it made her sound so… professional. Grumpy wasn't the right word cuz like, most people would call Garfield grumpy even when he's more like, low energy than a real grump. A better word might be curmudgeonly. Choleric? Crabby…
"Hello, earth to girl?"
"Oh, uh, earth to you too. I mean, nice to see you again!"
"...again? Have we met?"
"Um! I mean, who hasn't heard of you before?! I'm like a huuuuge fan. The hugest! Biggest! Fudge!"
Amy's eyes narrowed.
"...whatever. Don't praise me for doing my job. Do I have permission to heal you?"
…well now that I focused on my body, I felt quite sore. Oni Lee did punch me in the face. I'm surprised my teeth were all intact, and I fell and got pushed down a lot… were my ears ringing? I thought that was like a shock thing, but no, they were still ringing…
"Uh, yes. Please."
I held out my hand, and Amy didn't hesitate to grab me. The feeling of getting healed by Amy was… kinda icky? Like, I could feel my body almost squirming without my direct input. Especially around my ears it felt like something was squiggling around as my hearing noticeably improved. I don't really know what I was expecting, but I did feel better.
And Amy was still holding my hand, a look of concentration on her face.
"Uh, you okay there Ames?"
Amy's eyes met mine. I blushed, feeling a little bashful and looking away. Was there something wrong?
Amy leaned in close.
"I know you're a parahuman."
Lying time!
"M-me?! A parahuman? Obviously you're mistaken, hero girl!"
…using my free hand, I facepalmed. Did I just slip into my Henchmistress persona out of force of habit?!
"You!!!"
"M-Me! I mean, um, what about me? I'm pretty? Oh you really shouldn't have hahaha!"
Amy's hand squeezed my own tightly. She glared daggers into me and I uh, I panicked.
Roll: 16: https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Hydro_Mimic_Crane
As though to mock me for my poor attempt at acting, a tall crane made out of water manifested right next to me. It didn't do anything but look down at me with what I felt was an entirely too judgemental stare.
Well fudge you too, bird!
"Henchmistress!"
"Okay I know this looks bad but can you please kinda sorta maybe not tell anyone about this please and thank you?"
"Why the hell would I do that?!"
"Um, because you're a hero and heroes help people?"
Amy's glare sharpened.
"No dice? Oh, um… I could help you out! You liked petting Abomasnow last time? I could summon more stuff for you to pet whenever you want!"
That seemed to get a bit more of her attention as she stopped to consider.
"Like uh, like this!"
Roll: 13: https://totally-accurate-battle-simulator.fandom.com/wiki/Exiled_Sentinel
The red puppet man in obviously evil armor wielding two massive tower shields in either hand didn't seem to mollify her.
"Are you a fucking idiot?"
"I'm starting to think I have a problem maybe, but that's not the point!" I whined. "Look, I don't have my costume, and I was there at the scene of the crime. If the PRT learns my identity, it's over for me!"
"Why the hell would I not want it to be over for you? After the shit you pulled at Arcadia last week? You didn't even wait a day after your stupid mall stunt before going and pulling something like this!"
"Hey, I didn't exactly plan for this!"
"Oh, and what was your stupid plan, genius? Just, impulsively decide to attack the ABB and get lucky."
"N-No! I uh…"
"Well? Not hearing a reason…"
"Okay okay, so I maybe kinda sorta got kidnapped on my way home… and ended up in the basement of the brothel… and had to organize an impromptu escape…"
"...really? I mean, that sucks, but that's not really a reason. You're still a villain."
"Excuse me, who saved a whole bunch of girls from human traffickers? Me!"
"That doesn't mean you aren't still a villain!"
"Oh yeah, well how many villains have you beaten the snot out of?"
"I don't- I don't fight!"
"That sounds like evasion, buster~! So if I beat up more bad guys that makes me more of a hero than owowowow stop twisting!"
"I could give you cancer, you know!" Amy threatened as she pushed me down on the bed. Unwilling to let her actually, literally push me around, I pulled her down and started wrestling with her.
"And here you were telling me to join the Wards? What would the PRT think if I told them Panacea gave me cancer, hmmmm?!" I said as I got Amy into a headlock.
"They wouldn't believe you!" Amy said, biting my arm and rolling around on top of me.
"Oh please! They gotta screen their Wards and stuff. If I cry enough, they might realize it was you who did it!" I shouted as Amy managed to wriggle out of my headlock and pushed me back on the cheap springs of the summer camp tier mattress.
"You know I don't have to put up with this shit! I can just paralyze you with a touch!"
"Your power can't affect brains, so I could just summon stuff and send it to attack you forever so bleh!" I riposted, sticking my tongue out at her.
"You're bluffing!"
"So're you!"
My summons just kinda looked at each other helplessly as I fruitlessly tried to kick Amy off of me. Being so small really sucked in situations like this! Eventually, Amy had enough of me struggling and straddled my waist so I couldn't kick her any more, pinning my arms on either side of my head.
"Alright, listen Henchmistress, here's what's going to happen-!"
"Is everything alright in there?"
I dismissed my minions just in time as the door opened. A female PRT trooper poked her head in… and it occurred to me exactly what this situation must've looked like… and felt like. My face went completely scarlet. Amy wasn't her sister, but like, it was apples and oranges really, and I wasn't picky. I just liked fruit.
And the girl as red as a red delicious currently straddling my waist was making me feel a little fruity indeed.
Amy, meanwhile, was floundering.
"I, um!"
"Panacea! You know why those girls are here. This is wildly inappropriate!"
Hehe, let's see you weasel out of this one buster!
...Wait, if she panics too much, she'll probably just sell me out. Time to lie!
"Oh, no, we know each other! We uh, live on the same street!"
"Is that true, Panacea?" The PRT lady frowned. Amy, thankfully, grabbed the lifeline I extended her.
"Yeah, unfortunately. She's kind of annoying."
"Nuh uh! You're annoying!"
"Oh would you just shut your trap you little shit?!"
"Make me!" I bleh'd.
"Oh I'll shut your trap alright-!"
The PRT lady coughed politely enough to not seem accusatory, but loud enough to still remind us of our propriety.
Briefly.
Amy squeezed my hand in a way she probably intended to be threatening. I felt myself flush warm in the face instead, and Amy's eyes briefly widened before she leapt off me like I was made of lava or something.
"Sorry uh, ma'am, I got a little carried away." Amy sputtered.
The PRT lady chuckled, causing Amy to glower at me in embarrassment as I turned over and kicked my feet like a schoolgirl.
"That's fine. Actually, if she lives nearby, maybe you'd like to drop her off on your way home?"
"YES!" "Absolutely not!"
Amy and I glared at each other. I gave her my bestest, strongest, trademarked puppy dog eyes. I was a small girl for my age, and I was going to weaponize my small puppy syndrome to its fullest extent!
Whether it be my quavering lip, genuine concern for my safety, or the peer pressure of the PRT lady watching, Amy cracked.
"Fucking, fine!" Amy said, throwing her arms up in the air and stomping out of the room. "Be ready when I get back!"
She SLAMMED the door. Well, no extra credit for her bedside manners I guess. Still, it was a huge weight off my shoulders to know I wasn't going to have to fight my way out of the PRT building. I mean, even if they let someone who couldn't control her own murder monsters consistently join up, I didn't feel like that was a choice I could make without a clear head.
And I had way too much on my mind. Why did my power do that? Why did Grubella kill Oni Lee? If I couldn't stop my minions from killing people, then any career as a hero was going to be dangling on a string the whole time. If I wanted to be a real hero eventually, then I needed to find out more about my power and what caused that to happen
And the first step to doing that was getting out of here.
I should have seen this coming.
I don't know why I didn't really.
As I stood awkwardly next to Amy in a cheap T-shirt that still managed to be oversized on me and a pair of sweatpants, I looked up at my lesbian awakening smiling down at me and I felt uncomfortably seen.
Following her around at school as Henchmistress was one thing, but I was just Mina right now. And Mina was a little starstruck at the superheroine who was going to fly me all the way across the city.
Currently, she was badgering Amy.
"Amy, I didn't know you had a friend that lived nearby! Why didn't you say anything?"
Amy's head ground towards me with tightly gritted teeth.
"I don't know, I guess it just never came up for some. Reason!"
"Hi, um, huge fan by the way, hehe…"
Victoria smiled at me smugly before looking back at Amy.
"Oh, that's how it is…" She hummed. Amy, apparently, decided she did not like that at all.
"Need I remind you, Victoria, that she was rescued from an ABB whorehouse?"
"It's uh, they didn't touch me yet. So it was scary, but I'm okay."
I mean, it was way scarier for the other girls and ladies than it was for me, and they were where they needed to be to get the help they needed.
Victoria gave me a gentle smile, and I felt my stomach do a few backflips even though I knew she was kind of pitying me. Amy jabbed me in the ribs, grabbing my hand and pulling me close.
"Are you ready to go?
Amy nodded before stepping behind me and putting her arms over my shoulders, and Victoria came in and scooped her, and by extension me, into a princess carry.
"I'd recommend closing your mouth." Amy muttered, pulling her scarf over her face as Victoria took off into the skies of Brockton Bay.
This would usually be the part where I opined about how amazing it was to be flying in the arms of a beautiful girl while basically cuddling another. That would have been nice.
Instead, the wind whipping across my face made it basically impossible to appreciate. It was so windy flying through the sky! I felt Amy chuckle underneath me, and I elbowed her in her ribs. See how you like it!
"Hey, no fighting while riding the Air-Vicky." Victoria laughed as Amy tried to pinch my side. "And Ames, you never answered my question earlier. When did you meet this girl?"
"We met a week or two ago."
"And you're already such fast friends?"
"No. She's the Henchmistress."
"WHAT?!"
Roll: 8: https://kidicarus.fandom.com/wiki/Hades%27s_Heart
Victoria stopped in mid air just in time for a giant, glowing purple heart that looked like it was made out of star stuff to appear right next to her.
BA-BUMP! BA-Bump-! Ba-bu-!
It fell to the ground, and I quickly dispelled it before it could hit a car or a house or something. The only sound in the air now was the sound of my own heart pounding in my ears. I looked back up at Victoria… floating super high in the air in her arms as she looked at me in surprise and increasing suspicion.
I gave a sheepish smile and a wave.
"...I can explain."
"...and then I woke up."
"Huh." Victoria said as she continued flying, a considering expression on her face.
I, obviously, omitted some details. I told her about the broad strokes, and that Oni Lee had shown up, but not what had happened to him. Victoria was flying slower so I could actually talk, which helped, but now, she just looked pensive.
"...Amy, why did you help her get out?"
"I wasn't trying to help her!"
"Yes you were." I added. Amy pinched me again!
"I was not! You were being annoying, and the PRT trooper was there, and- fuck off!"
"Well, you did a good thing last night…" Victoria said, pursing her lips that I wasn't staring at no ma'am. "I don't really think you're dangerous either."
"Vicky, she's a villain."
"Ames, look me dead in the eyes and tell me she's going to go out and do actual harm."
"Do you just… not remember the giant eyeball?" Amy asked incredulously, yet unable to look Victoria in the eyes like a little coward.
"My giant eyeball? What about him?"
"What the fuck do you mean: 'What about him.'?!?" Amy all but shouted at me. "You fucking put him up to that shit!"
"Put him up to what? I just ordered him to distract you."
"Wait." Victoria interjected. "You mean you didn't tell him to do all that specifically?"
"...oh god, what did he do?"
I was getting a sinking feeling in my stomach.
Grrggrggrggg!
Okay, maybe I was just hungry. That too.
"...can I have something to eat?"
"Don't you have some hole you can crawl into like a sewer rat filled with little debbies or something?" Amy snarked. I pinched her.
"Amy." Victoria hissed. Amy pouted, looking chastised, but not particularly apologetic.
"For your information, no. I was staying with someone, but now that the ABB maybe knows my face, I can't exactly go back! And I don't have my stash anymore after that big rainstorm…"
I looked up at Victoria. Victoria looked at me. Amy looked at the both of us as horror crept up her features.
"...No."
"Please?"
"Absolutely not."
"Pretty please?"
"If I give you twenty dollars will you buy some Wendy's and fuck off!"
"Wendy's doesn't have toys, you dingus."
"Why the fuck do you care about, wait, yes it does?!"
"Pretty please with a cherry on top~?"
Victoria looked down at the two girls in her arms, both trying to sway her one way or the other, and was faced with a choice. Dump the homeless villain girl who had just beaten the tar out of the ABB and saved lives onto the street where she would inevitably either get kidnapped again or have to sleep outside, or don't do that.
Yeah, Amy was screwed.
The Dallon household.
I really wasn't sure what I was expecting. It was a normal looking house with an open living room, a dining room table with a view of the TV, a kitchen, some stairs, yadda yadda yadda. It just kinda looked like a normal family place, which I supposed it really was at the end of the day.
I kicked off my shoes, as you did when you went over to someone else's house, and left them by the door before walking into the kitchen as Victoria walked into the living room. I didn't want to be a rude guest and start rifling through someone else's kitchen without permission even if I was hungry, so I sat at the table very respectfully and waited for Victoria to get back.
Amy sat across from me and was staring daggers into me.
"Um… can I help you?"
"No."
…
Awkwaaaaaard…
Victoria, to my immense relief, came back pretty quickly.
"Hey, um, Henchy?"
"Henchy?" I asked. What kind of nickname was that?!
"Well, okay first what's your name?"
"Oh, uh, I'm Mina."
A part of me wanted to keep that close to the chest, but I mean, come on. It was New Wave. It's not like telling them my real name gave them actual leverage on me or anything.
"Okay, um, what do you want on your pizza?"
Pizza? Real, genuine, warm and cheesy Pizza?!
"Uh, I like cheese pizza. No toppings."
"No toppings? Not even pepperoni?" Amy balked.
"I don't like the texture."
"...you don't like the texture." Amy said in disbelief. "...of fucking pepperoni."
"I don't have to explain myself to you!"
"Actually, I'd like some answers myself." Victoria interjected. "And I've got lots of questions about your power."
I was tempted to bite back… but they did (mostly) graciously invite me into their home and decide to feed me. And they kinda bailed me out of getting arrested or pressed into the Wards. I kinda owed them.
That, and I couldn't really do formal power testing with the PRT for a variety of reasons. If I wanted to learn more about my power, and I did after yesterday, then maybe it behooved me to actually talk about it with someone, and who better to ask than two people who grew up surrounded by capes their whole lives? They'd know powers better than anyone.
"...fine, but only if you let me stay the night. I can't stay up all weekend playing twenty questions only to get kicked out at the end."
"...we weren't going to just kick you out. We're heroes."
As charming and earnest as Victoria's statement was, Amy visibly disagreed.
"So wait, does this make this a sleepover?" I asked. Victoria's face lit up in a smile.
"Oh my god this is a sleepover!"
Amy looked at me like I had just caused armageddon. Somehow, I felt like I had…
In twenty minutes, I found myself sitting on the floor of Amy's room wearing a pair of slightly too large pajamas. A part of me had wanted to ask whose these were, but I ultimately didn't even have to. Somehow, I doubted Amy owned a pair of cat themed pajamas. There was gap moe, sure, but the only gap Amy had was the one she wanted to throw me down so she would never have to interact with me ever again.
Amy's room was… also not that surprising. I didn't think heroes would have their own merch on their walls cuz it seemed kinda arrogant and tacky to me, and I was right. Amy's room was devoid of most decorations, like this was just a place she slept rather than a place she really considered hers.
There were some decorations, mind you, but they were the most 'my family members forced me to pick this at the store' kinds of things ever. Posters for popular, widely advertised movies, actors I doubted Amy could tell me anything about, and bands I didn't recognize. Clothes were haphazardly thrown into a pile in a basket by her bed, her desk was clean not by virtue of her cleanliness or anything, but probably because she didn't get many opportunities to use it.
Victoria sat on the floor across from me on the soft carpet of the room in a casual outfit. Well, casual in the way that fashion magazines had 'casual' outfits, which is to say God, thank you! A pair of comfortable looking boy shorts, a roomy T-shirt, and a pink blanket strewn over her legs.
Amy was also wearing something.
She did look less upset and more just… resigned to her fate. Maybe Amy would feel better if she had something to pet?
Roll: 2: https://sonic.fandom.com/wiki/Spinner(Mina cannot roll something biological to save her life today, christ)
The big ole, spinny bat robot thing that appeared behind me did not look very pettable. Victoria jumped before giving me an exasperated look.
"Mina, why did you summon a robot?"
"I uh, well, Amy really enjoyed petting Abomasnow, so I thought I'd try and summon something for her to pet to make her feel better."
"I liked petting the 'abomasnow' because my power let me examine its biology, you idiot. How the heck am I supposed to do that to a robot?"
I uh…
"Hey uh, Spinner, you aren't secretly not a robot, are you?"
The Spinner spinned back and forth. I guess that was a no.
"Hehe… oops?"
"Actually, that's a pretty good jumping off point for my questions." Victoria said, looking interested all of a sudden as she sat back down on the carpet. "You don't have full control over what your power summons, do you?"
"W-What makes you think I don't?"
Even if I was planning on mostly being honest about my powers, that didn't mean I had to just… give it all away! That wasn't very fun.
"Well, when you were trying to summon a lab partner at school, your power gave you that spider at first. And during the dodgeball game, you could have very easily summoned something more well suited to the game, but instead, you summoned things like that fish and those flying mushrooms."
That was… observant. Well, really, it was a matter of time before the powers that be noticed that my powers were inconsistent. Even with the benefit of my humor villain persona, I can only bumble off so much.
"Okay, yeah, I don't really control what I summon."
"Don't really, or don't at all?" Amy scoffed.
"Um… at all. I just kinda… get what I get?"
"So it's random? You don't get something applicable to a given situation?"
"No. Well, I can, but if I do, it's just luck. Do you think I wanted to summon that giant rat demon thing in the mall to fight that little girl?! I would've loved to summon a cute bunny or a living doll or something for the cameras but noooOOOOooo~!"
"Wait a fucking second, then the kissing booth-"
"Yeah, the bowl of papers was a red herring. You just got super lucky. Congratulations Amy!"
Amy looked like she didn't know how to feel about that.
"So Ameno Sagiri was random too? You didn't mean to summon it?"
"My giant fog eyeball guy? Yeah, what about him?" I asked, a certain trepidation entering my voice since this was the second time he'd been brought up.
Amy looked into her lap pensively. He did something now, I was sure of it. That would put me at two for two on summons not doing what I wanted them to.
…did Witchmon's possession count? I mean, I kinda sorta literally asked for it in the moment. This was so frustrating! Why couldn't my power just work with me and have that be it?! I turned to my Spinner, who had been standing there uselessly.
"Hey Spinner, if I told you not to kill or hurt anyone, would you then proceed to hurt and kill someone?"
My spinner shook back and forth. A no. Well if that's the case, then why the heck could Grubella kill someone against my orders?! Did I forget to tell her not to in the heat of the moment? I've been doing so basically automatically for a while, so I doubted that was it. What the frick?!
"You don't know what you get, right?" Victoria asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.
"Nope. No idea at all."
To demonstrate, I snapped my fingers.
Roll: 8:https://kidicarus.fandom.com/wiki/Reset_Bomb_Pod (...me and my big fucking mouth)
Summon Theme:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCdkX5a_f6M
The house shook a little, and I immediately got a bad feeling. Amy shot to her feet and looked out her window.
Purple.
Sitting in the back yard of the Dallon household, or rather, dominating it, was an enormous, seed looking thing. It was barely visible beneath the protective shell-sheath thing, but it seemed to glow with a rainbow of colors. I thanked my lucky stars it wasn't night time or this thing would be drawing eyes like nothing else. Don't get me wrong, this thing was enormous, but it was on its side. The Dallon house was actually taller than it, making it just barely hideable… kinda sorta.
Hopefully none of the neighbors were here.
"Mina! What is that?!" Victoria yelled as Amy ran down the stairs.
"It's uh, it's apparently called a 'Reset Bomb Pod'."
"A bomb?! You summoned a bomb in our backyard?!?!"
"I guess?!" I said as I commanded the bomb to not explode. I wasn't sure if it could decide not to explode, but better safe than sorry.
"Well, I guess that's evidence enough that you have no idea what you're summoning. Wait- how did you know its name?"
"Well, whenever I summon something, my power will give me a name and a very rough idea of what it can do. 'Reset Bomb Pod' is just what it's called, I don't know why it's like that, but it is."
"That's- there is so much to unpack there…"
*Ding Dong~!*
Oh. Pizza's here.
Victoria glared at me.
"Don't summon anything until I get back."
"Yes ma'am!"
Victoria floated downstairs, and I decided, hey, what the heck? May as well go down and see what Amy was up to. I left my Spinner in Amy's room after commanding it to not touch anything. Unsurprisingly, I found Amy chilling in the backyard, one hand on my reset bomb pod and paying exactly zero attention to anything around her.
"So uh, what do you think?"
"It's similar."
Excuse me?
"What do you mean 'similar'?"
"I mean- do you remember that wood golem you summoned in the gymnasium?"
"Oh, my Forces of Nature Guard?"
"Whatever it's called. That. This thing and that thing are… similar."
"Amy, one's a giant bomb, the other was a golem."
"Not- not on the exterior. It's similar internally. The way things are structured- it's like, you know anything about computer coding?"
"No."
"Okay me neither, but it's a metaphor. Like, it's written in the same programming language. Like different dishes at the same restaurant. Their ingredients come from the same place, even if they're prepared differently."
…it's not like I'd never considered it. I understood, at least on some level, that the things my power summoned could fall into categories and stuff. I had robots, like Spinner and the Funfun, demons like Alice and Sui-Ki. Zombies like the Buccaneers and Baron von Bats, the weird disco creatures like Disko and the Elite Goblins.
Things had certain… similarities when you looked at the big picture. Sure, sometimes something new would pop up and surprise me like the Clow Card did yesterday, but that didn't necessarily mean my power was totally, utterly random in every possible way. I'd spent time in my early days experimenting a bit, and even then I could see certain patterns at times.
"I- I guess?"
…
…
…
"Are you-?"
"Shut up. I'm concentrating."
Okay. Fine. I guess I'll go eat some pizza. I walked back in through the glass sliding door and into the kitchen. Victoria had two boxes of pizza, one large and one small. I knew mine was the small one because I mean, it always was. I wasted no time grabbing a paper plate, grabbing two slices of cheese pizza, a knife and fork, and absolutely gorging myself on it while Victoria brought some pizza out to her sister.
It was so fricking gooooood!
I hadn't had pizza, actual, proper delivery pizza, in months! I loved Sabah, but a professional cook she was not. She ate like a college student, or at least, that's what she told me. I was so happy to be eating something that wasn't stale Cheetos and Kool-Aid that it tasted like ambrosia to me.
But a kinda greasy cheese pizza from Planetman's Pizza? Oh my gosh!
Victoria came back and watched as I inelegantly inhaled pizza with an amused smile on her face. I couldn't even spare the mental energy to be embarrassed because the food tasted so good.
Maybe I was hungrier than I thought.
"So, back on topic-"
"Shorry, what was the topic?" I said, finishing another chew.
"Your summons. They come with names. They come with histories apparently. I mean, you literally summoned actual Pythagoras at the photoshoot, and he had way too many anecdotes. Mole Knight seemed to think he came from an actual knightly order. You don't think any of that is alarming?"
"Well… it's not that I don't, but look at things from my point of view. Most of my summons just kinda show up, do stuff for a few hours, then go away. At some point, learning about their histories just stopped seeming all that important to me."
"But they are history. Doesn't that imply that your summons don't come from nothing? That your power might be getting them from somewhere?"
"I… I guess."
Given Amy's comment about the Guard and the Bomb having similar internal structures, something clicked into place.
"So like, my power is getting its summons from alternate universes or something?"
"Well, yeah! Isn't that exciting?!" Victoria says, floating in the air with a bright grin on her face. "Like, you have to admit it's incredible to think about."
"Isn't it also scary?" I shot back. "I mean, most of the stuff I summon isn't exactly kid friendly. If all the stuff I summon comes from alternate universes like we're assuming, then that means that there are universes out there where the stuff I summon is real. Dark Inferno, Ameno Sagiri, Grubella…"
Nope. Nopenopenope. I did not like that thought. I did not like that thought at all. Victoria didn't either, apparently, because she decided to change the subject.
"So how do you deal with it?"
And oh boy was that a loaded question. Amy walked back inside after that little revelation just in time for me to start ranting.
"So like, originally, I wanted to be a hero right? You know, what little girl doesn't grow up watching Protectorate Pals, Cape Pup, and all the hero shows? But like, how am I supposed to reassure people when I summon stuff that's so terrifying and evil so often? How would the PRT even begin to write that stuff off?"
"Wait, you wanted to be a hero?" Amy frowned. "Why the fuck aren't you one?"
"Well, if you look at the big picture, I kind of am? Or maybe more of a vigilante? Like, I'm sort of cosplay evil. I do illegal stuff, which makes me a villain legally, but from a practical standpoint I fight villains more than heroes, I do my own kind of PR events. I'm like a Rogue who occasionally shoplifts from Dollar Tree. It's complicated, is what I'm saying."
"That's… not exactly the answer I was expecting, I'll admit." Victoria admitted. "I mean, New Wave had a meeting about joke villains after you debuted, and Aunt Sarah mentioned them putting a lot of work into being 'harmless', but I guess I just wasn't expecting that kind of reasoning."
"Well, it's a lot of work, they're right." I huffed. "I have to think about what my summons can do, what I can use them for without relying on my luck, what's too scary or too far, I have to limit property damage to make sure I'm not more trouble than I'm worth, and generally be safe. That's part of why I engage with my PHO page so much. It makes me more approachable. All the stuff the Wards do, I do pretty much, and I'm doing it on literally no budget, so lots of fun games I have no way of doing. Frankly, the Jeopardy game at the mall was a miracle I was even able to pull off…"
"...huh." Amy said, looking like she was evaluating me differently. "Still, why do you need to be a villain for any of that?"
"Well, I mean, real life isn't like the cartoons in one way at least. Villain is less of a moral judgement and more of a legal one. Villains are people who break the law. Sure, the news has other words to use like Vigilante and Rogue when they want to make people think certain ways, but those both carry different implications. Vigilante is like, hero but violent or misguided, and Rogue is kind of a grey area, and the word Rogue has its own implications of suspicion. Words have meaning you know!"
I cut my knife and fork into another slice of pizza as I continued my little tirade.
"But being a joke villain lets me control my own narrative. What's the news gonna do, call me a villain? I'm already doing that! I wanted to use my power to make people smile, and I always loved the joke villains on TV. Protect-A-Rat Adventures was one of my favorites growing up for a reason. It's where I got the idea to be the Henchmistress in the first place. I can hide stuff about my power, make people smile, and still be around to help out when the heroes need help. Everybody wins!"
"Okay, that's great and all. But what I don't understand is why you can't just join the Wards." Amy said.
"Everyone always asks that!" I complain. "Imagine, for just a moment, that you, Amy, are a damsel in distress. Some gunman is holding you hostage, but alas~ he is defeated! You turn to your savior, looking up-"
"Down."
"Shut up! Looking down on her invariably heroic form, only to witness-"
Roll: 8: https://kidicarus.fandom.com/wiki/Tortolunk(Today is just Kid Icarus day ig)
A tripedal turtle thingy with a spiked shell called a Tortolunk appeared, its spike almost touching the roof of the kitchen. Its head was covered in a golden helmet, with large glowing red eyes peering out from either side of its head.
"Some hideous freak of nature is your true savior! You scream and cry and gnash because the situation somehow got worse!"
"What's that one called?" Victoria asked.
"A Tortolunk." I answered. "Anyways, do you see my point?!"
Amy had stopped paying attention and had her hand on my Tortolunk's neck.
"Can't sense this one. Why the fuck is it so arbitrary?!"
"It's not. I'm pretty sure it's an undead or something." I said. My Tortolunk nodded its head in assent and I petted the ugly thing as Amy just threw her hands up in the air and returned to her seat.
"Mina, I still think you're overestimating how much people will freak out." Victoria said. "If you're a known hero, people will understand. Heck, at your mall show, you had a little girl in the ring and summoned… whatever the heck that giant frankenstein monster was, and people still gave you the benefit of the doubt."
"Well, yeah, but that's only because of all the effort I put in to get here. If I was some no name, people wouldn't be that merciful. I got lucky yesterday. Even with a bunch of PR backing me up as a Ward, one bad summon could have the PRT dropping me like a game of hot potato. Even yesterday, things were shaky. The situation was desperate, and I mostly summoned stuff that was immediately useful. Heck, I had to use some giant spiders to scare one of the girls out from under a bed because-"
I cut myself off. Did- how honest was I going to be about what actually happened? If I mentioned fighting Oni Lee, and then they found out he was dead… no, I couldn't be honest about that. I still didn't know how many people had died during my daring escape. They knew I was there, but if I admitted to committing literal murder, they'd throw me in a cage somewhere. And if they found out I couldn't really control my own power, what would happen then?
I didn't want to think about that, so I improvised.
"...-the building was on fire. If she didn't follow me, then she might have died." I said, carefully omitting that I was the one who set the building on fire. Neither sister seemed to notice.
"Mina, I think saving people from that kind of situation makes you a hero." Victoria said gently. Even coming from her of all people, and even feeling like it was a heroic thing to do, I still didn't accept it. Anyone with my power would have done the same thing in my situation. And it didn't change the fact that my power was, in some fundamental way, outside of my control. I couldn't be a hero when my summons could act against my orders for some unknown reason.
It was during my rumination that I heard the sound of a car pulling in. Oh, that must be Flashbang and Brandish. Well, whatever, Victoria probably explained what I was doing here.
Then I looked at her face. Pure, unfiltered panic.
"...Victoria, you told your parents that you were having a friend over, right?"
"Vicky!" Amy shouted.
"I uh, I figured it was better to ask for forgiveness than permission?"
"Mina! Ice your fucking summons!"
"I, uh, are you sure-"
"YES!"
Victoria, perhaps remembering my hesitation to dismiss my own summons, floated up to my Tortolunk, grabbed its head, and spun herself around in mid air like a pinwheel. The Tortolunk's neck snapped after the third rotation and the creature dissolved into a pink and purple dust.
Jesus Christ that was hot.
Victoria then looked out back at the Reset Bomb Pod and flew outside.
"WAIT!" I shouted, not sure if Victoria hitting it would cause it to detonate or not. "That's a bomb, remember?!"
"How big of a bomb?" Victoria asked, eye on the sky. Nonono we were not detonating this thing! I could vaguely tell how dangerous it was, and-
"If that thing explodes it'll wipe Brockton Bay from the map."
"Why would you ever need this?!" Amy cried as she ran up and put her hand on the Bomb. Victoria looked between me and her sister before flying back inside. I felt something inside my bomb shifting before Amy looked back in frustration.
"Mina, just fucking dissmiss this stupid thing. There's so much energy in this seed I can't even begin to use all of it without burning my house down from sheer ambient heat."
"F-Fine…"
I dismissed the bomb… leaving a crater in the backyard where the bomb had presumably hit the ground. A big crater. Oh god, how was I supposed to explain this to their parents?!
"Who's this?"
I turned around, and standing there were Mr. and Ms. Dallon. They were both wearing semi-casual clothes and had serious expressions on their faces. Ms. Dallon raised an eyebrow at the giant crater in the backyard.
Random lies, go!
"Oh, uh, I'm Amy's friend Mina. Victoria was showing off her hero landings because I'm like, the biggest fan of Hero shows, and she accidentally hit the ground too hard. It's my fault ma'am, please don't blame her! She was just trying to make me happy."
One good thing about having grown up like a goody two-shoes was that I was really good at knowing what parents liked to hear. Indeed, it looked like Ms. Dallon was more exasperated than anything else. Her attention rapidly shifted off me and onto… Amy.
"Amy. Why did you not tell me you were inviting a friend over?"
Amy stiffened and her whole posture went from prickly pear to curled up hedgehog real quick.
"I need to tell you every time I have a friend over?"
"Amy Dallon-"
Whatever she was about to say got cut off as Mr. Dallon put his hand on her shoulder. She met her husband's eye and shared a silent conversation with him before she turned back to Amy.
"Fine. But next time, I expect you to tell me when you're inviting someone over. Mina, I'd like to call your parents. If you're going to spend the night, I'm making sure you actually have permission to be here."
My stomach dropped. I didn't have parents anymore, and the reminder still stung, but it also filled me with panic. Maybe I could get out of this?
"I uh, I don't have a cell phone."
Ms. Dallon's brow furrowed in suspicion.
"It's unsafe for a girl your age to not own a phone, especially in Brockton Bay. If something happened, you wouldn't be able to call for help. What if you got kidnapped?"
Lol. Lmao, even.
"I uh, my family isn't well off. We couldn't spare the money to get me a personal phone."
"Your guardian has a phone then, yes? Feel free to borrow mine while you make the call."
I looked to Amy for help. Amy just looked smug at the predicament I'd landed myself in. You were no help at all! Victoria looked like she wanted to say something, but one look from her mom immediately shut her down. Besides, I was Amy's friend in this elaborate lie. What the heck was I supposed to do?!
"Who is this?"
"Um, this is Sabah, Ms. Brandish."
I almost didn't answer the phone. Lots of scam callers in the Bay liked to impersonate local heroes, but I was frankly too worried to care. Mina hadn't come home last night, and none of the news networks mentioned anything about her being captured, so I spent the night tossing and turning, unable to sleep as I wondered what happened to the tiny girl.
After I eventually drifted off to sleep and woke up the next morning, the PRT issued a statement that the Henchmistress got involved in busting open an ABB brothel. A brothel! And apparently, Lung had gone on another rampage last night, and Henchmistress's minions had been sighted there too! My heart had hammered in my chest as I wondered what on earth could have happened to her. I imagined the worst multiple times. Dead. Worse. It was all terribly, agonizingly stressful.
I was hardly able to focus all day as I absentmindedly worked my power to help make merchandise for my store when the call came in. The caller ID said New Wave, and I was so desperate for any kind of information that I picked up the phone anyways.
And I was so glad I did.
"Call me Ms. Dallon." Brandish said. "I'm calling about Mina. She says you gave her permission to sleep over with Amy. Is this true?"
"Mina's there?! Put her on the phone right now!"
"Of course. Mina, it's for you."
There was a sound of rustling as the phone passed hands. Then, a familiar voice sounded through the static.
"Hey Mom."
I all but collapsed bonelessly into my chair.
"Oh my god Mina. Are you alright? Why didn't you come home yesterday? What happened?"
"Oh, uh, well, I got kinda sidetracked? And I couldn't call you until now. I'm sorry."
"You scared the daylights out of me…" I said, holding my hand over my heart as a day's worth of tension bled out of me. "Why are you calling from the Dallon's house?"
"I'm uh, in the middle of a sleepover and need my parent's permission, Mom."
Ah. That would do it.
"Nothing's ever easy with you, is it?"
"Apparently not!" Mina whined. I stifled a giggle as I heard talking in the background of the call.
"I uh, I have to give the phone back now. I'll shoot you a message on PHO when I get the chance." Mina said shyly.
"Alright, I'll talk to her, but you owe me one. Take care of yourself Mina, if for no other reason than to spare me my blood pressure. I'm too young to be worrying about that kind of thing."
"Hehe, I will. Love you!"
"...love you too." I said before Mina handed the phone back to Ms. Dallon.
It didn't matter. If my mother could see me right now she'd be rubbing my face in it, but I didn't care. I was too relieved to feel anything but grateful.
Mina was safe.
As soon as the phone call was over, we beat a hasty retreat back to Amy's room. Ms. Dallon looked like she wanted to interrogate me more, but Mr. Dallon held her back, telling us to enjoy our sleepover. I walked into the room, dismissed my poor Spinner, and sat back down on one of the spare pillows we'd requisitioned.
Victoria immediately wanted to jump right back into power talk, but to be honest, I was starting to think she didn't have the answers I wanted. Sure, she was smart, pretty, and knowledgeable, but she also spoke with the cadence of someone indulging their curiosity moreso than trying to help.
Amy had pretty much stopped trying to help as soon as she could make it Victoria's problem too.
"Can we talk about something else?" I whined, trying to not give away exactly how disappointed I was. "I summon random things, probably things from other dimensions, and I can tell them what to do. That's my power."
"Okay, but, just to clarify something before we move on from that topic: You didn't tell Ameno Sagiri to do anything stupid, did you?"
Yeah, Ameno Sagiri definitely did something stupid alright, I just had no idea what.
"No, just the usual. Don't kill or hurt anybody, don't get hit by dodgeballs, distract the heroes, help me escape. That's pretty much it."
"Yeah, he sure distracted us alright…"
The knowledge that he'd done something stupid without my say so didn't exactly settle well with me, but I just kind of sighed and nuzzled into my blanket. If they didn't want to say, then that was up to them and it also probably wasn't a huge deal. It was just another bit of evidence of how hard being a hero would be for a power like mine if my summons could do stuff without my say so. I either had to be a control freak and focus on giving so many orders that they couldn't really do anything effectively, or I had to let them have their freedom to act at the cost of doing stuff I didn't approve of.
Or I could be a control freak and they would still get around it somehow!
I really needed to think about literally anything else. Actually, we were having a sleepover, right?
"Well, who wants to play a sleepover game?" I asked. "I've only ever hosted sleepovers, and I always ended up watching TV and going to bed before ten."
"It's a sleepover, Mina. You're contractually obligated to stay up anyways." Victoria said, leaning forward and I found the posters on Amy's wall fantastically interesting.
"N- No? When my folks told me to go to bed, I'd go to bed."
"The local infamous supervillain. Eats their cheese pizza with a knife and fork, has entirely too many opinions about a cartoon dog, and actually abides by bedtime. Truly the worst villain in town." Victoria deadpanned.
"Yeah, for a certain definition of worst alright. Ow!" Amy said, barely ducking as Victoria hucked a spare pillow at her.
"Oh yeah, pillow fight!" I shouted, standing up and readying my ammunition.
"No, uh, Mom banned me from doing pillow fights after I accidentally gave Dean a black eye."
All of a sudden I felt a lot less eager to throw pillows with Victoria Dallon.
"We could eat snacks?"
"Mina, you literally ate an entire cheese pizza."
"...what other things are there to do at sleepovers?"
"Oh, there's truth or dare."
"Victoria, we're capes." Amy deadpanned. "I don't see that going well."
"Well, how about spin the bottle?"
"With three people?"
"Aw… I've never actually played spin the bottle…" I admitted.
"...Mina, you do realize that's a teen kissing game, right?"
It's a what?!
"We could still play!" Victoria declared. Amy looked too gobsmacked to notice, but I spied with my little eyes a gleam of trickery in Victoria's gaze as she looked at me.
Welp. I was playing spin the bottle now for sure.
"Please, Victoria. Three people? You need a bare minimum of five or six people to even kinda play spin the bottle." Amy said like she was an expert or something. "Where the hell are we going to find three extra people on short notice?"
"I hate you Mina, I just want you to know that."
"I love you too, Amy."
I sat next to Amy on the floor. Victoria sat opposite from us, and our three guests filled the space between us.
Roll: 20! BOSS ROLL! Source: 1: https://mario.fandom.com/wiki/Jonathan_Jones(Crucial boss roll moment)
Summon Theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wud9_M9g7fU
On my left was Captain Johnathan Jones. A shark guy with some gold bling around his neck, a pirate coat and a red cape. His trident lay on the ground beside him. He was basically wearing a shark over his body if the yellow eyes coming from inside the shark's mouth was any indication, but judging by his flipper tail legs, he clearly wasn't human either.
What did that make him, a dolphin?
Of course, Amy was here, so my power had seen fit to grace me with an attractive female demon for her.
Roll: 18: https://megamitensei.fandom.com/wiki/Nekomata(Amy I swear to god) (SMT 2 design)
Literally a cat girl. Actually literally. She had a whole humanoid body covered in soft looking white fur, clawed hands, a white cat's tail extending from her tailbone, and slitted grey feline eyes. She had lustrously wavy purple hair, a collar with a round gold bell on it, a yellow sleeveless tank top, and nothing else on.
She tried sitting criss-cross apple sauce before Victoria had thrown Amy's comforter at her. I'd commanded Nekomata not to rip it, so she was just watching all of us as her tail swished back and forth.
The last participant wasn't as chatty.
Roll: 3: https://etrian.fandom.com/wiki/Lucifird
I was kind of concerned that its name was 'Lucifird' even if that name was beyond sick. I could tell that my power's control element was doing mad work, because every time this big, human sized bird saw something move, I could see it visibly restraining itself from attacking it on sight.
What a horrible little creature. Thank you power.
Amy ran her hand through the Lucifird's feathers and casually practiced her power on it as Victoria floated up.
"Alright, who here knows how to play?"
…only Nekomata raised her hand. Victoria raised an eyebrow at her.
"...I once belonged to a rich family before becoming a demon. The young master loved playing party games you know~." Nekomata purred.
"I'm not a man for games, myself." Jonathan said. "I'm a pirate, sure, but nothing gets my blood pumping more than a good fight!"
I would have had my Lucifird squawk, but I was kinda scared that it might only have one volume, that being a screech of unholy evil. I just had my bird shrug. Victoria looked put off, but also positively elated.
"Alright, so it's easy. We all take turns spinning the bottle, and whoever it lands on you have to kiss. It's pretty simple."
"Uh, question." I said, raising my hand like I was in class. "What happens if you or Amy spin each other? That would be super weird."
"Yeah, I'm not doing that…" Victoria hummed. Amy made the funniest face, and I immediately started thinking of ways to annoy her into making it more often. "Well, you could always summon something random if that happens?"
"Sure thing!" I said pridefully. This was gonna be fun!
"So, who wants to start us off?" Victoria asked.
"I'll do it." Nekomata said. I mean, it made sense seeing as she's actually seen the game played before. May as well start with experience. Nekomata grabbed the ketchup bottle we were using balanced precariously on a copy of Monopoly that every family owned for some reason, and spun!
Table: (1: Mina, 2: Amy, 3: Victoria, 4: Johnathan, 5: Nekomata, 6: Lucifird)
Roll: 6: Lucifird!
The bottle spun and spun before eventually landing on… the Lucifird. Nekomata licked her lips. Oh right. Cat. She crawled over the board game, and I averted my eyes to avoid getting an eyeful as Nekomata… just kinda bit Lucifird's leg. What was he, a drumstick?!
Lucifird, offended by this action, immediately tried to attack Nekomata. I vanished him into thin air.
"...Nekomata, do you know what kissing means?" I asked.
"It's when humans put their mouths on each other, yeah. It's a taste thing."
"...Vicky, you explain." Amy grunted.
"Well, I guess Lucifird is eliminated for breaking the rules." I remarked.
"You can't get fucking eliminated in Spin the Bottle!"
"Have you ever played before, excluding right now?"
"N-No!"
"Well, it's a house rule. Every family has a different house rule for Monopoly, this is the same thing."
As Amy gave a futile response to my valid argument, I decided to summon another player.
Roll: 14:https://hearthstone.wiki.gg/wiki/Mercenaries/Bladehand_Berserker_2_(65820)
The big, armored Orc fellow with a blade for a hand was not an attractive kissing prospect. I looked at Victoria and Amy. They both shook their heads. Sorry big guy.
I deleted him from existence before he even had a chance to blink. It felt bad, but not that bad. At least Jonathan was fun to talk to.
Maybe it was for the best that the sixth seat stayed eliminated.
"I think I see how this game is supposed to work. It's a test of courage, is it not?" Jonathan said, rubbing his chin. "You'll find no braver a shark in the sea than me!"
Not waiting for confirmation of his turn, Jonathan spun the bottle.
Roll: 1: Mina!
And it landed on me.
This was not the perfect excuse for kissing my crush that I was looking for! There's a reason the kissing booth didn't have me as an option!
…you know, if I had a nickel for every time I used my power to make people kiss things, I'd have two nickels. Please don't let me start a nickel collection, that would be beyond pathetic…
Jonathan was not graceful. He just wrapped a big sharky arm about my waist and… pretty much just bopped my face on his shark nose. You know, I should have considered that not having lips would have made it much harder to actually kiss people. How the heck was he supposed to play if sharks didn't have lips?
Whatever, at least it was quick and painless. Amy and Victoria still laughed at me as Johnathan sat me back down and patted my head.
Whatever! My turn! Come on bottle, big money, no whammies! The bottle slowed down and I tracked where it was pointing religiously.
Roll: 3: Victoria!!! (Cheating activated)
"Dad?!"
I turned toward the door in a panic… only to find it was still closed. Okay, that scared me. I did not need to be outed like that. I turned back to the bottle to see it pointed directly at Amy. My eyes narrowed in suspicion. I was a silly billy, I knew, but I wasn't dumb. That was literally the 'what's that over there!' gag. I'd thought about doing it so many times it was burned into my joke box.
Victoria whistled like an innocent little angel. I thought about calling her out on it, but one, I remembered that she had a boyfriend, and two, game respects game. What is that over there, indeed?
Amy looked… some flavor of outraged? Relieved? She was feeling something alright. I looked at the mousy, freckled face as it cycled between anger at me, her sister, and general confusion. Suddenly the fact that I now had to kiss her suddenly landed and I decided to do the one thing my panicky brain liked doing at a time like this:
Take refuge in audacity!
"Well Amy, you know the rules! Pucker up~ Mmmmmmm!"
I made deliberately obnoxious kissy noises at Amy, trying to shunt all of the embarrassment I was feeling onto her. Yes, I was evil, thank you for noticing. Victoria was trying not to laugh at her sister's predicament as I made her task as difficult as possible. Neither sister had noticed how I skillfully maneuvered the situation so I wouldn't have to do the forward part myself since I was a big baby coward and I knew it.
"Fucking- Fucking fine!"
That was all the warning I got before Amy grabbed me around the shoulder and pulled me in for a kiss. My eyes widened when it actually happened.
People didn't tell you how weird it felt to have someone else's mouth flaps moving over your own. It was weird! I mean, good weird. Definitely good-weird, but still something that took some getting used to. I could feel the happy good chemicals in my brain firing off like little fireworks, the hairs on the back of my neck doing their best impression of a dance party as I felt the tension both bleed out of me and build up at the same time. I kept wondering when it was going to end… but it just wasn't stopping?!
This was officially the greatest game ever created.
And then Victoria let out a wolf whistle, and both of us remembered that we weren't alone in the room. Amy basically jumped back, back hitting the floor. I was still processing what had just happened like a buffering computer in an old school computer lab. I was running off Dell or something as Amy sputtered and started making excuses.
"I- I was concentrating. I could literally see the dopamine receptors in her brain firing off!" Amy lamely excused herself. "I got distracted seeing how it all worked." It was hopeless. "Aren't they supposed to go that long?!" No one believed her lies.
I was vacantly staring off into space. Oh, that's why Amy did that with Lachesis. I got it now. Wow.
"YOUR TURN!!!" Amy shouted, all but shoving the bottle in Victoria's direction and trying to disappear underneath her pink blanket. Victoria wore a crap eating grin as she watched her sister squirm in genuine delight. I was now glad I was an only child.
She looked down at the bottle, around at the room, then with an unusual amount of concentration, spun the bottle.
Roll: 5: Nekomata!
"Y-You're cheating!" I cried as the bottle landed on Nekomata. "You have super strength, you're like, controlling it somehow to roll who you want to roll!"
"My control isn't that good." Victoria denied, but the insincerity and mischievousness of her smile gave her away. I thought you were supposed to be a hero!
"Cheating's a pirate's way, you know!" Jonathan added. "Only a fool plays a rigged game if they aren't the ones doing the rigging."
"You are my summon, why aren't you agreeing with me?!"
"Because you're wrong." Jonathan said straight faced. I got the feeling he was enjoying my suffering. How dare you!
"Ugh!" I slumped. Victoria cackled in delight despite getting caught cheating. "I'll tell on you to your boyfriend!"
"Oh, we're not dating right now." Victoria said as though that excused everything. Wait… then I was denied a kiss with my first crush for no reason?!
Big sisters were cruel, capricious creatures.
Nekomata interrupted her by crawling over on top of her and kissing her. I uh… watched. Respectfully. Very respectfully.
I glanced over at Amy's blanket cocoon. She had her phone out. Her eyes met mine, and she mouthed the word 'Blackmail' before watching as the Nekomata passionately made out with her sister.
…maybe siblings were just scary in general.
Eventually, Nekomata had enough and crawled back to her spot, seemingly unaffected if not for the way her tail was batting back and forth. Victoria looked a little dazed, but her experience showed as she snapped back into her game face with surprising ease.
"Alright, last one. Amy, your turn."
Amy quickly hid her phone under the blanket and pulled it back down, finally letting her face out. She reached out and very unceremoniously spun the bottle.
Roll: 5: Nekomata!
The bottle spun and spun before landing on Nekomata. Again. What was that, three times?! Okay, Victoria literally cheated, but still!
"Nekomata, are you like, secretly a charm demon or something?" I asked.
"No. Oh, but I do know a magic charm spell." Nekomata grinned. Somehow, this launched an entire conversation.
"Oh, actually, in that case do you mind if we do a little experiment?" Victoria asked. "A little known fact about my power is that it makes me very resistant to emotion based influence. I'm curious to see how much it might influence me. I'm also curious if I used my aura-"
"Vicky, I think love and admiration would just compound on each other." Amy snarked. "Also, you reallmmhph?!"
Yup. Nekomata sure was doing it again. Ignoring Amy's panicked flailing, I turned to Victoria, only kinda sorta watching that mess out of the corner of my eyes.
"You were seriously going to volunteer to get hit by a Master effect just to know?"
"Well, kinda? I'm friends with Gallant, and he's hit me with emotion blasts before. The effect is really diminished, I can barely feel a difference at times. I was curious if the emotional effect of whatever charm ability Nekomata has used the same vector of emotion or if it worked differently."
"...Victoria, I'm not having my minion master you."
I did not trust my gay self with that kind of power. That was a step too far, even for me. I didn't want things to get like… weird. Okay, weird-er. It was kinda hard to ignore the half naked catgirl tongue twisting Amy in the background of the conversation.
"Aw come on, please?"
"Nope. My weirdometer is maxed out. I'm done with spin the bottle."
"Can I have the bottle then?" Jonathan asked. "Feeling a bit thirsty me-self."
"...Jonathan, that's ketchup- you know what? Go ahead Captain. You've been patient."
As Jonathan started… drinking the Heinz ketchup, Victoria frowned.
"...if you unsummon him, will all that ketchup just fall to the floor?"
I was about to answer when the door to Amy's room opened. Ms. Dallon poked her head in.
"Victoria, come downstairs with me. I-"
I stared at her in mortified horror. Nekomata was sucking face with one of her daughters. Jonathan paused halfway through drinking a ketchup bottle, and Victoria paled.
Roll: 6: https://megamitensei.fandom.com/wiki/Burning_Beetle
The giant red beetle that appeared in the room?
That did not help matters.
I was sat at the dinner table, looking down at my knees and desperately trying to avoid looking at Ms. Dallon. She did not look happy in the slightest.
Mr. Dallon sat next to her on the opposite side of the table. He had gotten a popsicle for Nekomata and was currently chatting up Captain Jones. Men really liked sharing fight stories huh? Victoria and Amy were both upstairs. They had wanted to stay down, but Ms. Dallon had sent them both upstairs with a stern look.
After seeing her kill my burning beetle with a single light sword, I was pretty much over being combative. Moms were already scary without the ability to summon lightsabers from thin air!
If she was trying to glare me into submission, it was working!
"If this is about Ameno Sagiri, I uh, I didn't tell him to do anything other than distract you guys."
"Ameno Sagiri did more than distract us." Ms. Dallon said coldly. "Trigger Events aren't a joke, and Ameno Sagiri shoved ours in our faces."
"Trigger Events?" I whispered. "But you guys are heroes. Didn't you have heroic crisis points?"
Something in Ms. Dallon's expression shifted.
"Mina. There are no positive trigger events. All of them, hero or villain, are painful and traumatic. There are no exceptions."
Weirdly enough, that… actually kinda made me feel a bit better. And a bit bitter at the cartoons for lying to me. Were Legend and Eidolon really so ashamed of their trigger events they lied about them to children all over the US?
No… the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. If trauma was where powers came from, some ugly-hearted, evil people might get ideas, to say nothing of the average idiot Joe-shmo who might get themselves killed in a misguided belief it would give him superpowers.
What Florida man would do with that information I shuddered to imagine…
Oh right, angry Mother.
"This isn't about Ameno Sagiri specifically, though he is emblematic of a broader point. You are out of control."
I spoke up to defend myself only for her to cut me off.
"Thirty three."
"Thirty three?"
"That's how many ABB members lost their lives yesterday."
"Th-That can't be right!" I panicked. Thirty three?! I'm pretty sure there weren't even thirty three guys that I saw directly! "I didn't kill thirty three people!"
"Not directly, no, but your actions resulted in their deaths regardless."
"That's not fair! I was desperate!"
"There's nothing desperate about assaulting an ABB front. You should have called for help."
"I didn't have a phone. I was only there because they kidnapped me out of costume."
Ms. Dallon didn't seem to know about that if the way her eyes narrowed was any indication. Finally not on the back foot, I pressed further.
"I woke up in a basement in clothes I wasn't wearing before in a pair of handcuffs, and then this guy came in so I had my summons beat him up. And then I realized there were probably other girls and that I couldn't just leave them alone with my kidnappers, so I was organizing an escape and the building caught fire and there were guys with guns and one guy got shot right in front of me and my costume was gone and-"
"The PRT found your costume." Mr. Dallon piped up. "They've got it at their headquarters."
"They found my costume?!"
What?! I couldn't find it back then. Where was it?!
"Yup. Still in your backpack-"
"Mark."
Mr. Dallon quieted down, going back to trading anecdotes with my Shark Pirate Captain as Ms. Dallon refocused on me. No, come back, help me!
"The point is that you clearly can't be out without oversight."
"I know that! I was staying with someone before, but now the ABB knows my face. I can't put anyone else in danger by staying with them."
"And you can't stay here. Neither Sarah nor myself have room to take care of a third child, much less time." Ms. Dallon said sternly. "Which is why tomorrow, you should go-"
"If you're about to say I should join the Wards, I'm gonna scream."
Ms. Dallon remained silent. Figures…
Nekomata dug around in the Dallon freezer looking for another Bomb Pop in the background as Ms. Dallon looked me over.
"You can't stay with us, and you can't stay with a civilian after Oni Lee…"
I paled. What the heck?! She knew?! I wasn't trying to hide my shock, so when Ms. Dallon saw it, she refocused on me.
"Yes, the PRT knows."
"It was an accident."
"All the more reason you need control. Someone to help stop 'accidents' before they happen."
It's not like I could just… explain that I lost control of Grubella! That would just prove her point that I needed help controlling my minions. Ameno Sagiri, Witchmon, Grubella… it was all forming an unfortunate pattern. What's worse, I genuinely did need a place to stay long term. New Wave was out, and logically, that left the Wards.
The ABB wouldn't want me, and I wouldn't want them. E88 wasn't even in consideration. All the other villains in town I had no idea how to even begin to find, and I bet they weren't exactly jumping for joy to have little miss disaster staying with them either now that I painted a big ABB shaped target on my back.
So the Wards.
It's not like I hated the Wards, but with everyone and their mother telling me to join the Wards, I was feeling stubborn. Worse, I was a killer. I couldn't go to the Wards because they'd just throw me in jail or lock me in a box or something. And I'd killed people now. More people.
They'd replace mom and dad. They'd force me back to school. They'd take Henchmistress away from me. They-
A hand met my shoulder.
Roll: 16: https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Tenebrous_Mimesis:_Geovishap_Hatchling
The shadow-lizard thingy appeared in the living room, but aside from telling it to do nothing, my attention was squarely and solely on the woman looking down on me with something similar to concern on her face.
"...alright."
"....alright?"
"Clearly, if the Wards were an option you would willingly pursue, you wouldn't be shaking quite this much. I still think they would be your best option, but there is one other option you can explore first if you'll find it amenable."
Not having any idea what she was talking about, I nodded my head. She walked over to her purse on the rack, dug through it, and pulled out a small business card before handing it over. I grabbed it with my hands- oh my hands really were shaking a bit- and examined it.
"Advent is one of Haven's splinter groups. They formed just this last year, but they're considered clean as far as that whole debacle with the Fallen is concerned."
Ah. That. After the Endbringers disappeared, The Fallen didn't just implode, they exploded. The infighting wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't spilled into the streets and been so severe. Nothing was off limits, even secret identities. Lots of stuff came out about the Fallen, buildings got bombed, genuine horror story stuff. One of the things that happened was a prominent member of Haven being revealed to be a Mathers clan affiliate.
Haven's image went real bad when it was revealed, especially when her identity revealed why nearby Wards teams were targeted by kidnappings. It was pretty bad. The kind of ugly news stuff I only paid attention to because of World Issues class. A part of me thought it was darkly funny that the religious cape team had a schism, but it was still heroes facing more and more problems...
"They're in town?"
"They are, and they do charity work. The card has their address. Explain your situation and they might just agree to put you up." Ms. Dallon said.
"Not tonight though." Mr. Dallon said gently. "We'll put you up for tonight… well, so long as you don't summon any more shadow demons"
He chuckled at his joke. I sent my shadow demon outside in shame telling it to watch for burglars or something…
I was honestly expecting worse from Ms. Dallon. The way Amy talked about her at school made her seem cold, but she didn't seem so bad to me. Then again, maybe Amy wasn't the person to talk to about that. She seemed like the irritable type.
"...okay."
"Good. I can have the PRT deliver your costume if that's alright with you."
"...won't they know I'm here?"
"...Mina, the neighbors already called the PRT. Something about a giant gemstone in the backyard? It's not rocket science, and the PRT isn't going to give you too hard a time considering you just dropped a goldmine of a headline on their laps." Ms. Dallon remarked. "My daughters, on the other hand…"
I am so sorry Victoria. I am mildly sorry Amy.
Nekomata came over and handed Ms. Dallon a Bomb Pop. She was just… passing them out apparently. Ms. Dallon didn't hesitate for long, simply unwrapping it as she walked up the stairs to deliver doom unto her daughters.
…now what?
Mr. Dallon took a seat next to me, Captain Jones following behind him.
"Do ya wanna hear some hero stories?"
I so, so did.
Staring at the dark ceiling, the sticker stars' glow long since faded as I laid in Amy's bed next to her, I couldn't help but wonder what would come next.
I could vaguely hear Mr. Dallon and Captain Jones sharing stories downstairs. Ms. Dallon was understanding, but she was not understanding enough to let Nekomata sleep in our room after she caught her macking on her daughter, so she was sleeping on the couch. The shadow lizard was still watching for intruders from the shadows outside.
I thought about Oni Lee-
Ah, heck with it! There was no use dwelling on all those negative thoughts. That's how you got started down a spiral. No, these kind people had given me a place to sleep for the day. I got to have fun, eat food, and kiss a pretty girl. All around? Ten outta ten evening.
I looked over, or rather, up, at said pretty girl. Amy, as it turned out, was not a still sleeper. She lay draped over me like I was just another pillow. She'd already rolled over the pillow she'd put between us too. It was so weird seeing her face up close without her scowling at me or kissing-
Nope. Turn away. I will not lose to the bad thoughts. The only reason I'm in her bed is because the air mattress had a mysterious, fist sized hole in it. It had Victoria's fingerprints all over it, but you know, I wasn't complaining. Feeling Amy softly breathing on top of me… well, apples were pretty nice after all, I was starting to think.
It made it hard to sleep though, what with all the blushing and intrusive thoughts.
Well, whatever.
For all the ugly stuff in the world, there were still people like the Dallons, like Sabah, who were ready and willing to help a girl in need. This world had monsters, but it also had heroes. Too many people lose sight of that.
And my costume is gonna be here tomorrow. I liked being Mina, sure, but the idea of being Henchmistress again excited me. No matter what power struggles I may have, I shouldn't lose sight of the fact that being Henchmistress makes me happy, and makes other people happy.
I'd figure it out, whatever was going on with my power. And when I did, the villains and heroes of Brockton Bay better watch out…
Tomorrow, the Henchmistress was back in action!
Amy rolled some more, her head coming down right over my left shoulder and getting her hair all over my face. My scarlet, idiot face looked up as the sticker stars judged my every trailing thought as I resisted the instinct to squirm. She settled down again.
…I'm never gonna get to sleep like this, am I?