135 Interlude: Laura 'Battery' Clark

A/N: This idea lodged itself into my brain and wouldn't leave, I won't apologise.

Also, it's never stated where Brockton Bay is, but the theories I could find put it as most likely either replacing New Hampshire or Atlanta city, I chose the latter cuz it's funny to me to make Taylor from New Jersey :)

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Brockton Bay, New Jersey, April 17th, 18:07.

Inside of a moderate family home, sits a young man with short brown hair, lazily reclining back into a sofa as he watches the news with faint curiosity.

"-However she is actually the oldest of the Slaughterhouse Nine's most recent recruitment drive, the youngest being a former Ward from Columbus, Georgia, by the name of Lucy Darwick."

At this point, another person enters the room, an even younger woman, barely an adult really, with mousey brown hair and green eyes, holding a glass of water. But the young man doesn't notice her entrance, too distracted by the pictures on the TV showing Lucy Darwick's face, an average girl with brown hair, probably 16 at a glance.

"The last of their latest members is likely the most well known as well, for an incident in Columbus, Ohio involving multiple dead capes, and another incident in Denver Colorado, involving a much higher number of dead. The cape, Tear, has since been identified to be one 'Lusia Abel-'"

A sudden sound of glass shattering rings out, making the young man spin around in alarm to face the noise, only to be greeted by the slack jawed face of his partner, staring at the TV in shock, ignoring the pool of water beneath her, slowly spreading.

Jumping to his feet, the man rushes over to her with a half panicked shout.

"Puppy!" He exclaims, wrapping his arms around her as she starts to fall to her knees, "Puppy, what's wrong? Are you ok?"

His worried words snap her out of her stupor, and she turns to him, pointing at the TV as if she's seen a ghost as she whispers out a sentence full of shock.

"L-Lusia. I, I knew her. We went to school together."

Half an hour later, and both of them can be seen dressed up in their Hero costumes, walking urgently through the local PRT HQ with the Director's office as their destination.

"Are you sure you want to do this Puppy? You know she's hardly going to be sympathetic." The man, best known as the Hero Assault, speaks to his partner, Battery, with worry evident in his tone.

However, despite the fact that he can clearly tell that she's a little out of it, he can see that she won't changer her mind.

"She might be a bit of a hard-ass sometimes, but she's not cruel, and she's also our boss, so please be more respectful to her." Battery rolls her eyes as she respond, her voice filled with fond annoyance.

"If you insist. Just know I'm here with you, ok?"

With Assault's words, the conversation comes to an end, and soon enough the reach their destination.

The door itself is nothing different to any of the others, the exception being the placard on the front that simply states what lies beyond.

'Emily Piggot, PRT Director ENE.'

Such a simple set of words, yet they still manage to make Battery hesitate, but with a deep breath and clammy hands, she knocks twice and opens the door, not waiting for a response since she was expected.

The inside of the room is plain and spartan, with little to no personal effects. The only thing in the room that was clearly added as a personal preference being the high end coffee machine to the side.

In the centre of the room, with a large window behind it, lays a large, intimidating desk, filled with paperwork and other effects necessary for office work.

And behind the desk, is a woman.

With bleached blond hair in a bob-cut, she is not a particularly striking woman. She is not scary to look at, or intimidating at a glance. She is not beautiful, being fat and worn, her body reduced to a shell of what it once was ever since her kidney was ruined, forcing her to rely on a dialysis machine just to get by.

Yet, when the woman looks up from her paperwork, and her eyes set on Battery's form, she is immediately reminded of how none of that really matters, because Director Piggot has a 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 about her, severe and unrelenting, that makes it clear that she is not to be trifled with.

It's ironic, that the most intimidating person in the room, is the only one without any powers.

Even the man standing besides her, decked out in high tech armour, with a tinker-tech tablet in hand as he stands by, still as a statue, fails to be as intimidating as the woman, despite being the leader of the local Protectorate, and a figure of national regard.

Giving Armsmaster a curt nod, the young couple walk forward, under their Director's piercing glare, until they are standing in front of her desk, hands behind their backs and heads high.

...At least that is the case for Battery.

Assault's posture is a lot more casual, being one of the few people in the building that does not wilt in the face of her attention.

Understandably really. You can't have worked as a Villain, especially one who deals with the worst of the worst, without developing a resistance to intimidation.

Initiating the conversation, Director Piggot leans forward, resting her elbows on her desk and lacing her fingers as her stern voice sounds out.

"Battery. You said you believe that you could have information regarding an S-class threat," her no-nonsense voice shows just how little humour she will tolerate as she continues, "what is it you've learned?"

Taking another deep breath to clear her thoughts and calm herself, Battery casts her mind to the past, back when she was first entering high school.

"Yeah, I uh, one of the new Slaughterhouse members, Tear. I knew her, we were in the same year in school."

Her words get a raised brow, and a gesture to continue.

"Well, we grew up in Kingston, New York. I didn't know her, at least not personally, until high school, but I knew about her before then. My uh, my dad is a detective, and he was involved with the case on Lusi's father, so I knew of her, at least a little. That's probably the reason I approached her in the first place."

Closing her eyes, Battery can almost imagine the scene, as if she's there all over again.

"She was always odd, though that's to be expected considering the broken home she came from, but she was also incredibly extroverted, and supernaturally good at making friends. By the time I actually found an opportunity to talk to her, she was already the 'popular girl' in our year, despite school only having been open for about a week. She was even making some friends in the upper years by then.

"And that's all it was for the first couple of months, during which I guess you could say I was her closest friend, though I don't know if it could really count, because while she was popular, no one was truly close to her. Admittedly, I sort of just followed her around like a duckling."

Battery scratches the back of her head as she admits that, feeling slightly embarrassed by the fact, but she continues nonetheless.

"But then things all suddenly started changing. It started when she confided something in me, possibly opening up properly for the first time. She told me about her father, and she didn't hold anything back. I'm of the opinion that her mother got drunk and accidentally told Lusi all of this, but she said that her father was 'a massive, spineless pussy' and that the only thing that kept her parents together was the sex, and how her father ran off, disappearing one night after an argument with her mother.

"I think. I think that's where her obsession with love and sex started. I'm no psychologist, but it was like she thought that the only way two people could be happy together, was if they keep having sex. I think she thought that was the reason her dad left, so she hyper focused on it."

Before she can continue any further, Assault interrupts her, raising both of his arms to pause her.

"Hold on a minute, are you saying that her mom basically told her that her dad sucked in bed, and she turned into a nympho because of it?"

Frowning at her partner's crude words, Battery elbows him in the ribs and keeps talking, visibly annoyed at his crass mouth.

"No, not quite. She didn't really have any interest in actually having sex, she just thought other people should be doing so, and no, she was not a voyeur."

Shutting his mouth with a snap, Assault pouts about being predicted so easily.

"Instead, she basically played wingman for anyone who asked and everyone who didn't. She'd pick two people that she thought would go well together, and then she'd, well, she'd manipulate both of them into having crushes on each other. Like I said, I basically just followed her around, and when I say she has always been impossibly charismatic, I mean it.

"She always got what she wanted, and since social credit is the main currency in high school, she was also very scary, because at some point near the end of our freshman year, she changed again. I think it was after she read this book, The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka. She started talking about how everyone around her is only having fun because she's taking care of all the boredom for them, and how she wanted to have fun too, and leave someone else to hold the 'burden.'

"That was when she truly started being scary. She could make anyone popular or send anyone to the bottom rung of the ladder. I think she enjoyed having that power and control over people. She would set up games sometimes, force people into difficult situations, just to watch specific emotions war inside of them.

"One of her favourites was to humiliate someone, but then offer an olive branch, forcing them into a situation where they can either abandon their pride and submit to her, or they can keep their pride and endure humiliation and social isolation. But because of how many relationships she was to thank for, there was far too much gratitude being directed at her for anyone to do anything. She was the 'Queen Bee,' so to speak, and she manipulated everyone around her, understanding and impacting social dynamics with such ease it was almost insulting."

Before she can go any further into her regaling of Lusia's exploits, the Director's own voice cuts her off and Battery can't help the straightening of her back as Piggot's stern voice washes over her.

"You say she manipulates everyone around her, and that you were constantly by her side, possibly more than anyone. Does that mean she was manipulating you too?"

Battery flinches at the accusation, but sighs and nods her head, continuing forward with a more solen tone, one that transitions into a more embarrassed quiver to the end of her statement.

"Yeah, she did. I think she was tying to make me like her, trying to 'teach me her ways' or something. Or maybe she just liked to hear her own voice, but either way, during lunch brakes, we would sit alone, once a week, and she would observe everyone else, telling me all of their secrets, their fears, who they like and what I would have to say and do to get them to do anything I want. It's like I said. She is scary. She understands people with unnatural skill, and isn't afraid to use that information.

"Even worse, is that she can manipulate you even when you know how manipulative she is. You see, when I was fifteen, during our sophomore year, I made the mistake of admitting to her that I had a crush, on a boy called Eric."

Studiously ignoring the look Assault starts giving her, Battery does her best to push down her embarrassment about talking about this in front of not only her partner, but also both of her bosses.

"After I told Lusi, she started acting differently, and it only took her about a month or so before I had a crush on her as well, though at the time I didn't realise that she was so clearly manipulating me. Soon enough, she asked me on a date, and we were tentatively in a relationship when she invited me back to her place and we, well. You know, she uh, took my first. And I'm not even gay."

Finishing her sentence in a voice barely audible, Battery shakes her head and rushes the rest of her words out, wanting to get this over with as quickly as possible.

"What I didn't know was that she was playing me. She was also seducing Eric, and 'dating' him at the same time, though apparently everyone knew about them, and I was the secret. But Lusi eventually managed to convince me into having a, uh, a threesome. With Eric, coincidentally, apparently because she already knew he was my type. I'd imagine that he was in the same situation as me, simply thinking his girlfriend wanted to try something new.

"But then she started manipulating both of us, reigniting my crush on Eric and getting him to see me the same way, all the while she distanced herself from us. Eventually we both decided to 'admit' to her her that we had fallen for each other, but she just smiled, congratulated us and moved on."

As she finishes her story, an awkward silence envelops the room, causing Battery to shift uncomfortably for a minute before she speaks up again, her voice quiet and reserved as she moves on to things that don't involve her deflowering.

"Everyone in school new her, and she had a bunch of nicknames. I'm pretty sure that no one in our year or any of the years above was left virginal by the time she dropped out. There was even that one time that she set up an orgy with about thirty or forty seniors, during which she walked around providing refreshments and stuff instead of actually participating, because that would have made it illegal.

"Basically, no matter how powerful she is as a cape, I firmly believe that it is her mind and way with people that should be the highest priority regarding her, and though her power seems to be a purely Brute one, I'd advocate for her having at least a Thinker/Master rating of 4."

With her speech finally over, the room descends to silence once more as everyone processes her story.

All until Piggot breaks the awkward atmosphere, dismissing Battery, much to the woman's joy.

"I will take your words under advisement, and have someone bring her psych profile to you at some point, during which you will have the authority to edit, add or remove whatever you see fit, following which you will send it back with an addendum explaining your decisions. Dismissed."

Battery all but runs out of the office, her partner following her out at a much more languid pace.

The moment the door that was previously so imposing, and is now nothing but a relief, closes, Assault immediately turns his attention to Battery, a wide grin on his face.

But the moment he opens his mouth to speak, Battery holds up a hand in front of him, reaching under her blue visor to rub at the bridge of her nose.

"Don't. Just, don't."

However, even without any words, his grin speaks a thousand words, and Battery likes none of them.

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A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!

Fun fact, I got the idea for this chap after watching one of those reddit story youtube videos, idk what it was, probably something like 'what was the incident at your school' and I got the idea of adding some Lusia lore.

So yeah, her charisma is au natural, and she has always been obsessed with people having fun, though it was only after her mom being too open that she related sex to fun, and it was only after reading the metamorphosis that she decided that she didn't want to be the Gregor of this story, and that she wants to be having fun too, which means someone else needs to stop having fun to take her place.

And yeah, she's a bit of a bitch, who would have guessed?

I'm so freakin' tired

(5+)Advanced chapters with the links below!

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