Interlude - Pathfinder

Gemma punches the boxing bag as sweat glistens on her face and rest of her body.

“Ha!” cries Gemma as she finally finishes the last hour of her self-imposed training.

She has been excising for ten hours, most of the day, and is barely feeling tired. Some might call it a waste of a Sunday, but Gemma enjoys the fact she has proof that her body is fit, healthy, physically strong and tough.

She lacks the beauty of all those Aphrodites, but at least she can outdo them in physical prowess.

“Done yet?” asks Ava from a treadmill.

Gemma glances over at her new Aphrodite teammate. Given how Ava reacted to her manifestation and how Gemma was caught up in it, their friendship had a bit of a rocky start. But after just a week, both girls are getting very well with each other.

It is a shame we can’t hang out together publicly, but that is one of the downsides of having a secret identity. Oh well, we can still be friends in private.

Hmm. If we could hang out in public, she could use her power to upgrade my wardrobe free of course, but I can’t just bring her around my house. Too much unwanted attention and questions.

Wait a moment, I could just pack up all the clothing I want to upgrade and bring it here so she can do it in private.

“Yeah,” replies Gemma, “It has been ten hours of non-stop excise with only minute long breaks once an hour for a drinks and one five minute long one for food.”

“Wow,” replies Ava, impressed, “I didn’t know that was part of your powers.”

“It is an aspect of my Bellator body,” explains Gemma as she stretches, “I might lack the beauty of your Aphrodite body, but I have my perks.”

“It’s a shame that my other powers allow me to outdo you in that regard,” says Ava.

“Yeah,” mutters Gemma as she feels a twinge of jealous, “Don’t remind me.”

“Sorry,” says Ava as she notices Gemma’s reaction, “I didn’t mean to-”

“Don’t worry about it,” says Gemma as she cuts Ava off, “I’m a single power C+ while you’re A+ Aphrodite with multiple powers across the board. I’m know that you’re much more powerful than me. It just doesn’t make it any less annoying though.”

“I would still like to meet your family,” says Ava, “Are you sure I can’t just come round your house?”

“Definitely,” replies Gemma, “I have a secret identity and would like to keep it.”

“Are we getting change now?” asks Ava.

“Yeah, I ought to be going home now,” replies Gemma, “Would you mind-”

“Not at all,” replies Ava as she hops off the treadmill.

Gemma braces herself as she knows what is coming next.

Doesn’t make it any easier when Ava’s power cause me to lose control of my body. I can still feel my body and everything it does, but it doesn’t respond to what I tell it to do. At least Ava doesn’t alter my mind when she does it now.

Gemma feels a slight sensation of joy as her body begins dancing of its own accord as Ava also starts dancing.

Her workout clothes morph into a pair of jeans, a yellow long sleeved shirt in addition to her underwear.

The lower half at least.

“Umm,” says Gemma as she does a twirl, “You forgot my bra.”

“Sorry,” replies Ava as her clothes turn into a silky aqua gown, “I don’t need those anymore so I kind of forget.”

“Must be nice to not worry about having to look good,” says Gemma with a sigh as Ava corrects her mistake.

“Oh, you have no idea,” replies Ava as she dances over to Gemma, ignoring her sour look, “Want to dance for a bit before we leave?”

“What is with you and wanting to dance all the time?” asks Gemma, “But sure, why not?”

“Thanks,” replies Ava as she pulls Gemma into a dance.

Wait is she-oh no.

Gemma shivers as she tries to resist the flow of happy and relaxing feelings that overtake her mind and body, but is unable to resist her friend’s power, not even enough to even warn Ava of what she is sub-consciously doing.

It continues for a few minutes until their dance draws to a close. As their movements die down, Gemma, still in a blissful state under Ava’s power, leans in close to her friend and kisses Ava straight on the lips.

A stunned Ava pushes Gemma away forceful before staggering back. Unfortunately for Gemma, Ava has C+ super strength and sends her flying into the wall.

Gemma cries out in pain as she slams into the wall and crashing to the floor.

“What the hell?” demands an angry Ava, “What was that Gemma?”

“You using your power to mess with my mind,” replies Gemma as she sits upright against the wall before groaning, “I’m helpless against you when you use her powers against me you know.”

“I’m-urr, I didn’t mean to use my power on you,” says Ava apologetically, her anger draining away and turning into guilt as she realise her part in what happened, “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” replies Gemma, resisting the urge to wince in pain as she gets to her feet, “I’m a Bellator remember.”

Ave doesn’t need to know that she actually hurt me. I don’t want to make my friend feel even worse.

“Do you want to talk about what happened?” asks Ava nervously.

“Just forget about it,” replies Gemma as she heads for the door.

“Not even about the kis-” starts Ava.

“I said just forget about it,” says Gemma again, but more forcefully before leaving the gym.

I hate the fact I have a crush on Ava. No, I don’t, I just hate the fact she is straight and doesn’t return my feelings.

1.8 Dances Part 5

“I can try and bring it back if you want?” offers Ava.

“I wouldn’t mind if you tried,” answers Guardian.

“Okay,” says Ava and Guardian feels her dress disappearing and a set of armour appearing over her.

But while it may look like Guardian’s power armour, it isn’t. Instead, Guardian is now wearing a plastic copy of her armour without any of the electronics or other devices.

“This isn’t my armour,” says Guardian in disappointment, “Just a powerless pale imitation. Please bring back the dress. That would be preferable to this.”

“Okay,” says Ava as Guardian’s outfit changes back into the blue one strap dress, “Sorry.”

“I got a spare,” replies Guardian, trying to keep the bitterness out of her voice.

“Sorry,” says Ava again as she looks up at Guardian, “Things have all been going wrong today.”

“You can try and make things better by seeing if you can stop you using your powers on people,” suggests Guardian.

“Okay,” says Ava as she sits on the end of her bed, “I can feel them you know. I can’t explain it, but I can just sense everybody I’m using my power on.”

“Yeah,” agrees Guardian, “It is the same for me when I’m using my technopathy except it is machines in the network rather than people. Can you make your power stop affecting them?”

“Yeah,” replies Ava, “That’s easy. I could probably do more to them if I wanted to, but I don’t.”

“What do you want if you don’t mind asking?” inquires Guardian.

“Two things really,” answers Ava, “I want to dance and I want to make people happy.

That would explain what her powers do. Or least what she is actually doing with them.

Yeah, making people dance and putting them in a state of bliss.

Indeed. If her powers are based off of her wishes, it would explain a lot. We should ask her if she knows why Quicksteel and his gang try to drug her. That is unusual behaviour for dealers.

That seems like too serious a subject to broach now. I was thinking I should ask her if she can give me dancing lessons in the future.

Legacy! Focus on doing your duty.

“Hey Ava,” says Guardian, “I would recommend joining the Junior Heroes Union. At least as a reserve or part-time member.”

“Why?” asks Ava as she looks Guardian in the eye.

“Because you are an extremely powerful parahuman,” replies Guardian, “Even if your power is based around dancing. If you were trying to hurt people, there wouldn’t be much we could do to stop you.”

“I guess that would be best,” says Ava, “I hope I won’t get into too much trouble.”

“I hope you don’t either and you haven’t intentionally used your power on people,” says Guardian, “May I ask you something?”

“You only been nice to me so far, so sure,” replies Ava.

“Once all of this sorted, I would like to learn how to dance,” says Guardian, “I would like it you would teach me.”

“Absolutely,” agrees Ava as she brightens up considerably, “We could consider it repayment for me destroying your armour.”

“Great!” exclaims Guardian.

I am going to learn how to dance! I am going to learn how to dance! I am going to learn how to dance!

***

“So you had a little adventure in Chicago this morning,” says Leo to Legacy as he leads her down a corridor of their base that afternoon.

I suppose the fact I lost my armour and gained a dress is a giveaway.

You’re still wearing the dress.

It’s not like I have had reason to change!

“Did Allison tell you about it?” inquires Legacy.

“A mixture of her, the news and some illegal hacking,” answers Leo, “Ava isn’t in any serious trouble by the way. The government has decided it would be a bad idea to risk pissing off a parahuman that is willing to work for them.”

“That is good to hear,” says Legacy, “So you mentioned you met someone today in Grand Rapids.”

“Actually they sought me out,” replies Leo, “And to be frank, they could possibly be the most powerful parahuman yet.”

“Really?” asks Legacy, her curiosity piqued.

“Yeah,” says Leo, “She is a reality warper. Effectively unlimited. Well, she has a few limits and that is why she approached me.”

“What are those limits?” inquires Legacy as they reach the door.

“I’ll let Naomi explain her powers to you herself,” says Leo as he opens the door.

An Aphrodite girl is waiting in the room, sitting in a chair whilst looking through a book. She looks up as they enter the room.

So this is the reality warper.

Reality warpers are extremely dangerous. We have immunity to direct effects, but...

We have immunity to reality warping? That is pretty useful.

Except for the situations where being affected would be useful.

Everything has its ups and downs.

Very true. That is an important thing to remember.

“Hello Guardian!” says the girl as she gets out of her seat, “I’ve been waiting to meet you!”

“Hello,” replies Legacy, “While you may know who I am, I don’t know who you are.”

“Oh right,” says the girl as she flushes, “I’m Naomi Fisher. As I’m sure Leo has told you, I’m a reality warper. Any book I’m-when I’m holding a book, I can make it so it contains reality in it. And then I can change what is written in the book and that changes reality to fit what I have changed in the book. And I don’t need to worry about the changes making sense as reality makes itself work with what I have changed. And I don’t have any limits so far as what I can do. Well, actually I discovered that a few people are immune to my powers. People such as Darkness and Leo are, well, I can’t directly affect them and my ability to indirectly affect them is also hampered. Actually, I can affect the Darkness some of the time. Not sure what determines when he is immune or not. And you, well, take a look for yourself.”

She pauses for a moment before tossing the book in her hands to Legacy, who catches it. The book is a green hardback and Legacy reads the cover.

What in the name of Deltae is this?

Interesting. Very interesting.

Guardian 28,708,648: Legacy of Guardian. 

1.8 Dances Part 4

Guardian curses under her breath as she finally catches up Dancing Queen, following the trail of blissfully dancing people that she is leaving in her wake.

My feet hurt. The strips of clothes aren’t as helpful as I thought they were.

I could have told you that.

So why didn’t-oh no.

Guardian comes to a halt as finds Pathfinder dancing in the street, recognising the superhero via her bio-scan. She is wearing a red ball gown.

I am glad I’m not wearing that. Wait, doesn’t Pathfinder have a secret identity?

Indeed. And that dress doesn’t have a mask.

We should try and do something about that!

“Pathfinder,” says Guardian as she runs towards the superhero, “Can you hear me?”

But the mind controlled Pathfinder just ignores her.

Look out!

What?

Guardian shields her face with her arm as Dancing Queen goes flying backwards down the street as she is blasted by a beam of yellow energy.

“Hey!” yells Guardian as she moves towards Dancing Queen as she changes her clothes into a pale blue gown, “Don’t forget about Pathfinder’s secret identity!”

Dancing Queen looks up at Guardian as she gets to her feet.

“Leave me alone!” yells Dancing Queen as something comes hurtling down in front of Guardian.

Guardian comes to a halt as Glowbug lands in front her. As with the other victims of Dancing Queen, she has a blissfully blank look over her face. Her costume has been replaced by a short black dress with golden sequins and Glowbug is using her powers to give herself a faint golden glow.

“Heya cute stuff,” giggles Glowbug as Guardian feels her body begin moving involuntarily and her height increase as the strips of cloth are turned into the high heeled dancing shoes.

Breaking Dancing-

Wait! Not yet!

Why?

Because Glowbug’s power is healing the injuries my feet have suffered and I, ah, I am enjoying it. I would like to go along with this for a moment or two.

Fine.

Thanks Ceta. I’m enjoying dancing.

So you retained that?

What do you mean?

It’s nothing-No, I won’t keep secrets from you. Before you became the Guardian, dancing was one of the things you enjoyed most in life.

That is nice to know.

You should be aware that Glowbug is also enjoying it and more than just what Dancing Queen’s power is making her feel.

What do you mean?

According to the bio-scanner, which I am using on her, her heartbeat has increased and her adrenaline is increased amongst other things. Glowbug’s gaze is also split between your eyes and your chest with some straying towards your hips.

What does all of that mean?

It means that Glowbug is attracted to you combined with her past actions towards you and that she called you ‘cute stuff’.

Oh. Okay.

It has been two seconds. Do wish for me to break the control now?

Just a little longer.

Dancing Queen is getting away.

Fine. Let’s go.

“I’m going after Dancing Queen now,” Guardian tells Glowbug as she regains control of her limbs.

“Okay,” replies Glowbug absentmindedly before giving Guardian a kiss on the lips.

Guardian blinks and darts around Glowbug, towards Pathfinder as she kicks her high heels off of her feet again. Pathfinder is no longer wearing a ball gown, but a red masquerade dress completely with a white mask to conceal her identity.

At least Dancing Queen listened to me on that account.

“Guardian!” says Pathfinder as she does a twirl, “Dancing Queen went that way!”

Pathfinder ends her twirl with a pointing motion.

“Thanks!” says Guardian as she follows Pathfinder’s direction.

“No problem!” Guardian hears Pathfinder yell, “Try and get Dancing Queen to stop all of this! This is so embarrassing!”

“I’ll do my best!” replies Guardian as she spots Dancing Queen go into a building.

She follows her target into the building, a house to belonging to a family that isn’t currently home.

Do you think this is her house? Dancing Queen had the key and she has just gone straight up stairs and into a room.

I would consider that a likely possibility. We should be careful. We have been pursuing her and have followed her to the place she should feel most secure.

I wouldn’t take kindly to anyone who chased me breaking into the basement.

Guardian comes to a halt outside the room and decides on the best course of action.

“Maybe I come in?” asks Guardian as she knocks on the door.

“Who is it?” comes the tearful reply.

“Guardian,” answers Guardian, “I only wish to speak with you. I just want to help you.”

“Come in,” says Dancing Queen and Guardian opens the door.

She looks around the room as she enters and spots Dancing Queen curled up in a ball on the bed.

“Is this your bedroom?” asks Guardian.

“Yeah,” mutters Dancing Queen.

“What’s your name?” asks Guardian, “I assume it isn’t Dancing Queen?”

“It’s Ava,” answers Dancing Queen, “Why is everybody calling me Dancing Queen?”

“Well Ava,” replies Guardian, “We didn’t know your name and we needed a name by which to refer to you by and Defender decided to call you Dancing Queen due to the nature of your powers.”

“You’re immune to them right?” asks Ava as she looks up at Guardian with tearful eyes.

“Pretty much except for when it comes to clothing,” says Guardian as she indicates her dress with her hands.

“Sorry about that,” says Ava, her voice apologetic.

“Yeah,” mutters Guardian, struggling to keep an accusatory tone out of her voice. 

1.8 Dances Part 2

A completely different person has suddenly replaced the convulsing girl.

No, she has just manifested. That is still the same person.

Is that what happens? I thought there would be more to it.

There is, but that is for the only the person gaining power to see. We, the outsiders, don’t see the process, only the results.

Oh.

We should check on her.

Guardian bends down over the girl. She never really got a good look at the girl.

At least my armour will contain records of what she looked like before.

Guardian checks out the appearance of the girl. She is clearly an Aphrodite like Alexandria, Glowbug and Iris.

Is it just me or does it seem like there are more female parahumans than males one?

Statistically speaking, there are generally two females for every male when it comes to parahumans.

How do you know that?

Using data that I have collected over time.

Anything else I should be aware of?

Adolescents are more likely to become parabeings. In the case of humans, that means teenagers.

That I have noticed already.

You might find it interest to know that over half of parahumans will be bisexual with a third of the rest being homosexual, another third being asexual and only the remaining third will be straight.

That could be useful to know. Maybe.

You might also want to know that parahumans are also more likely to be attracted to power regardless of their orientation.

Now that I’m sure will be useful someday.

The girl has long shiny black hair and glistering blue eyes in addition to her sleek and slender body. Her top seems strained due to her new chest while her jeans are now too short and tight.

“A little help please Guardian,” says Defender as she continues to fight the parahuman drug dealer.

Guardian pulls out a flashbang from her utility belt and throws it at the duo. It goes off, blinding the dealer while Defender’s armour filters it out.

With a furious swing, Defender’s armoured fist connects with the jaw of the dealer, knocking the man off his feet. Defender grabs the man’s leg and swing him over her shoulder and into the ground.

“Did the girl manifest or something?” asks Defender as she looks at the curled up girl, “Because I’m sure she didn’t look like that before.”

“She did,” answers Guardian, “I’m going to call Alexandria so she can arrest the parahuman dealer and help out this girl. She’ll be able to do it better than we can.”

“Is this normal to you?” asks Defender as she indicates the scene around them, “We go to take down some drug dealers and end up dealing with a pair of parahumans. And you just act so calmly about it.”

“I suppose this sort of thing is normal for me,” replies Guardian as she calls Alexandria’s number, “I haven’t experienced another type of life so this is all I know. Now please excuse me as Alexandria is answering. Hello Alexandria, this is Guardian.”

“Hello Guardian,” replies Alexandria, “What do I owe the pleasure of this call to?”

“Defender and I have taken down a parahuman drug dealer,” explains Guardian, “We also have a newly manifested parahuman girl on our hands and I feel that you would be better suited to dealing with her.”

“Okay,” replies Alexandria, “Flamefly and I were just about to go on patrol anyway. We’ll just swing by to your coordinates.”

“I’ll send you them now,” Guardian tells her as she does that.

“Thanks,” says Alexandria, “See you in a bit.”

Guardian ends the call.

“Alexandria and Flamefly are on their way,” says Guardian to her teammate, “Have you fought villains other than this one?”

“Not really,” replies Defender, “Protector and I did help Mr and Mrs Fowler fight off Vampiric and Invicta. But we arrived late to the fight and it wasn’t before long Darkness called them off. What about you? The first supervillain that you fought was Metal Man right?”

“That is correct,” confirms Guardian as she uses a bio-scanner on the girl, “Despite what people may believe, I feel that Metal Man defeated me that day.”

The girl is physically fine. There is nothing we can do help her.

I am aware.

“But didn’t you take him down and left him to get arrest?” asks Defender.

“No,” replies Guardian as she sends off the scan, “Contrary to popular belief, I walked into a trap and was lucky to get out alive. When I took down Metal Man and his gang, it was an act of desperation to give me the opportunity to get away with my life. I was expecting to end up taking his gang down over the course of the next couple of weeks.”

“Huh,” mutters Defender as she crosses her arms, “I’m- I’m not actually sure how to feel about that.”

“It isn’t a big deal,” replies Guardian.

“I wouldn’t spread that around if I were you,” says Defender, “Your attitude and reputation are doing you wonders.”

“What do you mean?” inquire Guardian.

“Well, you’re pretty cold and intimidating as the Guardian,” explains Defender, “Having been with you out of costume I know that isn’t the case, but that would be how the rest of the world sees you. Just a pragmatic and dangerous vigilante going around beating up people with minimal speaking.”

“I see your point,” replies Guardian, “I personally feel indifferent to how others perceive me.”

“Yeah,” agrees Defender, “I never really cared about how other folk have seen me. Especially since my accident. What matters was what I thought about myself.”

“That is a good outlook to have,” replies Guardian.

“Kind of the opposite of what we’re been told,” says Alexandria as she floats down with Flamefly trailing behind her as the weaker parahuman struggles to keep up with Alexandria, “PR is one of the things our bosses worry about the most and also want us to worry about.”

“We just focus on helping people and trying to do the right thing,” replies Guardian.

“We also try to do that, but we just have to look good while doing so,” replies Alexandria as she lands and bends over the girl, “So-”

***

Reboot Successful.

1.8 Dances Part 1

“Woo hoo!” yells Defender as she flies through the skies of Chicago with Guardian trailing behind.

Why is she going faster than us? We’re using the same technology.

The maximum speed of our armour is different to what our safest maximum speed is. The limits of what our body can withstand is different to limits of what our technology can do. As a result, Defender is able to take more stress and withstand more damage than we can and that in turn increases the safety maximum speed that she can go at.

So she will be better at using the armour than us?

No, our technopathy gives us an edge when using technology that very few can replicate.

Is it wrong that I’m glad that Defender isn’t better than us?

No, there is nothing wrong with not wanting to be outdone in your area of expertise.

Good.

“Enjoying it?” asks Guardian.

“Yeah!” yells back Defender, “Flying is awesome! Makes me wish that I could fly as part of my powers!”

“So what do you want to do?” asks Guardian, “I’m thinking we should take out this group of drug dealers. They’re a bit out of my usual territory, but they’re getting too bold and powerful for my liking.”

“So they need to be taken down a notch?” replies Defender as she looks over her shoulder Guardian, “I like the sound of that.”

“They are also being uncharacteristically aggressive in getting customers,” says Guardian, “I should also probably mention that I believe they are selling a power-created drug. Follow me. You will need to slow down so I can take the lead.”

“Can’t you just speed up?” asks Defender with sigh, but she slows down anyway.

“No,” answers Guardian, “Going this fast is already straining my body. Please remember that my body isn’t as good as yours.”

“I know that, but why does-no wait, never mind,” says Defender, “I did do science in school.”

“That is good to hear,” replies Guardian, “It would be annoying to have an unintelligent teammate.”

“Lucky for you I’m smart,” says Defender, “I’m at the top of my class actually. The third best as a matter of fact.”

“I assume Gears is the top of your class,” replies Guardian.

“That he is,” answers Defender, “Are we close?”

“Yes, we are,” replies Guardian as she comes to a halt mid-air, “Down there on the corner. You see the group of men?”

There are five in the group, all wearing in their twenties or thirties. There is a group of about eight watching them and one of the gang members is holding a-

“Is that a girl they got there?” asks Defender distastefully.

“Looks like it,” replies Guardian, “And by the way she is struggling, she doesn’t seem to be there willing.”

“I’m surprise nobody has spotted us yet,” says Defender, “All they have to do is look up.”

“We are pretty high up and not many people spend their time looking for people in the sky,” replies Guardian, “Given out unlikely it is to be someone flying, people would generally dismiss us as birds or some other more mundane flying object.”

“That makes sense,” replies Defender, “Shall we go and introduce ourselves now?”

“Let’s,” agrees Guardian as she flies downwards.

Guardian hits the ground with both stun batons drawn. Her landing takes down two members of the crowd and a couple of strikes from her batons fell two more.

She doesn’t know if any members of the crowd are criminals, but if they are just willing to watch whatever the dealers are planning to do with the girl then Guardian will just treat as co-conspirators.

Guardian looks over at the dealers as Defender lands within their midst. Her fellow Guardsmen punches one in the face while slamming her fist into another’s gut.

She is pulling her punches. Good.

Not that this filth would be missed if she wasn’t.

Guardian swings her leg out as she briefly activates her KEPs. Her spinning kick catches three of the four remaining members of the crowd, sending them flying.

As the last flees, Guardian decides to make sure the girl they saw earlier is okay.

That’s not good.

It turns out that one of the dealers is a parahuman judging by how he is taking on Defender.

The man looks devilishly handsome with smooth brown hair and a light stubble as he darts around much faster than Guardian can.

But Guardian can still track him using her tech with ease and the guy must certainly isn’t faster than Defender.

Yet with his ability to control metal, the superpowered drug dealer is still holding his own against Defender.

Should we help her?

She doesn’t seem to need it and the remaining two drug dealers are attempting to flee.

It could be argued that we are helping her by taking out the last two foes.

Guardian activates her KEPs to slam into the closer of the two cowardly men, smashing him to the ground. She swings with both stun batons at the other before he can get out of range.

The first of her strikes miss, but the second catches the dealer in the face. Guardian is certain the man’s nose is broken as he goes tumbling backwards.

Now to see how the girl is.

There and she doesn’t look good.

Following the directions of Ceta, Guardian spots the girl curled up on the floor, spasming and convulsing.

What happened?

Judging by the needle next to her, I would say that the dealers were going to use her as an example of what their product does?

Hmm, that is unusual behaviour for them. We ought to collect these drugs from we can test them rather than just destroying them as we usually do.

After we tend to the girl of course.

That goes without saying.

But as Guardian approaches the girl, something very unexpected happens.