6.x

Dean interlude.

Vim as a Cape was inexperienced, naive and overly optimistic. None of that in my mind was a bad thing, in fact I'd consider the optimistic part something good. Her identity as Taylor on the other hand? Well, if I had to choose one word to describe her with, I'd have to go with insecure.

It was almost ridiculous how different her two identities were.

Every Cape had to lead double lives of course but they always brought a bit of themselves from each identity. I liked to think that I brought my sense of justice, Clockblocker had his sense of humor and Shadow Stalker was always just a bit abrasive. There were exceptions to this rule of course, Armsmaster for example never seemed to have a civilian life anymore and Glory Girl was always…. Well, glorious really. It came with the territory of being part of New Wave I supposed.

Vim on the other hand? It felt like I was talking to two different people. With Vim, it was a cloud of energy with barely contained excitement and a small bit of despair buried deep inside. Taylor on the other hand had that same despair brought to the surface with only a spark of fragile hope instead. Her new friends however seemed to fan that flame of hope, from a single spark to a slightly brighter flicker.

It was a careful balancing act.

One that I had already gambled on before.

When Piggot asked me about Sophia, I lied.

I knew she didn't have a crush on Taylor, I knew that she already knew the girl, that her thoughts were of someone who believed someone else was beneath them. It was disdain and arrogance mixed into a vile concoction.

Considering what I knew of Taylor I already knew she had been bullied. At the time when we first met I hadn't known the extent. When Vim turned up at the Rig with Shadow Stalker suddenly feeling panic I quickly realized what was going on. That Sophia was Taylor's bully. So why didn't I call her out on it? Why didn't I bring her to justice? Well to begin with, it was to tease Shadow Stalker, a sort of soft revenge for being as mean as she was to the rest of the Wards.

When I found out that Vim triggered by being bullied? I felt guilty for not telling anyone sooner. What began as a way to protect Taylor and tease Sophia soon turned into a necessity. If the director knew that I had lied to her then she hadn't shown it, her emotions were well controlled. Honestly I was even more surprised that Armsmaster didn't call me out on it, especially since he had that lie detector of his. Well, I hadn't been briefed officially on it yet and had only heard about it from Kid Win. It was possible that it wasn't in use yet.

Regardless of how I felt I realized that my deception was necessary soon after. Because telling the truth about Sophia would break Taylor who was already on the edge. Make her confront her tormentor at such a instrumental moment would've meant disaster. She masked it well but with my powers I could see she was on the verge of shutting down despite her cheery demeanor. Who knows what the damage would've been?

The best case scenario would've been Vim leaving the PRT, becoming disenfranchised with us. The worst case scenario would've been revenge. She would've stopped at nothing to hurt Shadow Stalker, to hurt herself.

And so I continued to hide Shadow Stalker's real history in regards to Vim from the PRT.

As far as teenage rebellion against authority went I'd say I was being pretty modest.

Still, it was a secret I had to keep and I was no stranger to keeping secrets. Panacea and her feelings to her sister while understandable were damaging as well.

Was it odd that both of them needed to be away from Glory Girl? One to build up an emotional resistance and the other because it would literally unmask her.

That last one was a headache. Who knew being in Glory Girl's aura would make anyone glow like that?

Victoria was surprisingly understanding when I told her about it. Honestly it just felt like she was using it as an excuse to get out of school early. After a couple hours of being left alone without any friends to hang out with she simply came back to grab me.

"Vicky! What are you doing here?" I hissed quietly. "You're going to unmask Vim!"

"Pfft, don't worry, she's in another class, I saw her from the outside and don't worry, I made sure to be far away when I checked. So what do you say? Me! You and a movie!"

I gave a defeated sigh. There was almost no arguing with her once she got like this.

"I can't Vicky." I told her. "I've still got to another class to go…"

"Oh come on, just tell the teachers that it's important, maybe tell them it's Cape business."

"Okay, that won't work." I argued. "First they'd call the PRT and find out I was lying, second why can't you just take Amy?" At that she rolled her eyes.

"Already asked her and she's being a stick in the mud." She inspected her nails. "Normally I'd be happy to be on my own, beating up bad guys but for some reason they've all vanished, like they're spooked or something."

"Any news on why?" I asked.

"Dunno, I'd check the TV but dad might notice I'm home early and I don't want mom asking me stuff."

"You could just tell her the truth you know." I shook my head.

"Come on, stop using logic on me! You're like an honor student! Let down your hair! Have fun! Rebel a bit!"

"Brockton Bay sure has it hard, I mean, one of their most beautiful Heroines condones skipping classes."

"One of their most beautiful?" She asked with a smirk. I bowed my head slightly in apology.

"Right, most beautiful in all the world, of course." She beamed at that. While I couldn't see her emotions using my power, it didn't take a Cape to see that she simply glowed when she smiled.

"Coooome oooon Dean, we barely get to go on any dates anymore because all the work you do." Her eyes seemingly glistened as she did her best impression of a sad little puppy. Despite the fact that she literally levitated over me, it was effective. My heart simply couldn't take it.

"..... oh alright, let me just grab my stuff and my homework first…."

"Worst truant ever." She teased me before floating off.

========

It didn't take long for us to reach the theatre. We settled on a high scale place, fancy and expensive near the big Medhall building. With her flying powers and the lack of lines due to every student being in class we found ourselves to be one of the few couples watching a movie. I couldn't remember what the movie was called, only that it was the fourth in a long series of films. The only other thing I could remember was how comfy the first class seats were, how tasty the popcorn was and of course how radiant Victoria was.

The ads for the movie began playing. While a part of me felt guilty for skipping class, another was happy that I got to spend more time around my girlfriend.

"So, what's going to happen to Vim?" She whispered to me. I looked around the mostly deserted theatre. It was inhabited by only three other audience members, none of them our age.

"What do you mean?" I asked once I was sure no one would overhear us.

"Well, if my powers make her glow green then she can't stay in Arcadia." I winced at that. On one hand Taylor deserved some stability in her life. On the other, so did Victoria.

"I'm sure they'll find a way to let you both stay."

"What? Like alternating schedules?" Despite being more than happy to skip class, I knew Vicky loathed to actually leave Arcadia as all her friends attended.

"Maybe." I replied. "Arcadia is a pretty big school, maybe they'll just make you both go to specific classes on the opposite sides of the school?"

She shrugged noncommittally. It was about then that the usual movie reminder to turn off our mobile phones appeared. Dutifully Victoria shut hers off, however when she noticed I hadn't done the same she frowned.

"Aren't you going to shut it down?" She asked.

"I've got it on silent already."

"So?" She seemed pretty upset. "Last time you had it on silent it still vibrated."

"Well it was an emergency, I have to keep it on for the PRT in case there's an emergency." She rolled her eyes at me.

"Yeah and I didn't appreciate it then, besides it's only going to be for a couple hours." Her tone was light but I could see it in her eyes that she was disappointed.

With another defeated sigh I complied with her demand shutting off my phone. I could only hope that the PRT wouldn't send anything important my way. Just add it to the list of things I had to worry about. I still worried about Taylor's depression and Amy's situation of course but all of that was forgotten as I wrapped my arms around Victoria. For the next hour and a half there was only us and the terrible movie to keep us company.

========

"I can't believe they made that garbage!" She complained. "I loved the first two but I hated the third one! Why'd they have to make this one?"

"Why don't you like it?" I didn't really care about the film series myself but I was happy to indulge her. "What's wrong with the third one?"

"It was made by another director! The one that came out next was amazing though! More of a spinoff, but this one? Garbage."

"I dunno, I liked how the dad was worried about their son."

"Which the plot ignored for like half the movie!"

"Yeah I gues- WATCH OUT!" I pushed her out of the way as I sensed a great ball of fear, rage and pain rapidly coming our way.

It was unneeded as whoever flew passed us had overshot, only to collide with the theatre. They bounced off, blood coming from a gaping wound in their stomach.

It was Fenja as identified by the sword she wielded. The shield in her other hand however was burnt to a crisp, only the handle and a few token scraps remained.

"Shit!" I shouted. I didn't like swearing but this was one situation where I felt that it was warranted. "Vicky we have to get out of here! We have to!..." She grabbed me by the shirt and flew away yanking me off my feet. Despite her obvious Cape status I kept forgetting that she didn't need me to protect her, that she was far superior to me physically. It was then that my senses clouded over as I was immersed in a miasma of rage and hate!

It took me a moment to place the source but once I found it I couldn't help but give a strangled cry. It was Lung! He was huge, metallic and currently wrestling with Menja while fighting off the rest of the Empire 88. What were they all doing here! This was supposed to be a low crime area! It was why we went the movies here in the first place!

Despite being completely outnumbered it was clear that Lung had the upper hand. Glancing around I noticed in the distance that Assault, Battery and Velocity were helping to evacuate the civilians with Dauntless and Armsmaster keeping the mundane gang members at bay. It seemed that every Villainous Cape had only eyes for each other.

I could understand not getting the message on my phone in the cinema since I shut it off. I could even understand not getting a message at school due to the faraday cage! But during emergencies like this, the PRT had a direct line to some of the teachers! So why hadn't they been contacted then? Was this really such a new development?

A flash of light and a cape that I quickly identified as Alabaster was suddenly frozen in a block of ice as the area around him exploded. Despite being carried off by Vicky I could still feel how cold it was from up here.

Since when did Oni Lee get ice powers? The ABB assassin disappeared in a puff of smoke and ash only to reappear some distance away.

Another bomb was dropped and this time the concrete around him simply fractured without a sound tripping up a group of other Nazi Capes.

The ABB had a new bomb Tinker now that I thought about it. A bright light flew past and destroyed a series of cars where Oni Lee was standing just before. Purity was going insane!

What was going on? Why didn't I get any messages about this on my phone? I froze then realizing what had happened.

"Hey! Hey! Dean! DEAN!" Victoria screamed at me as we landed on a roof, far from the fighting.

Another explosion lit up in the distance and for a moment I couldn't sense any emotion. What the hell was going on with these bombs? This was overkill! "Oh god, please be okay Dean!"

"I'm… I'm okay! Just… just a bit surprised!" I told her. I quickly fished out my phone and turned it on. The time it took for it to boot up felt like an eternity. "Don't worry about me, just go help the Heroes!"

"What about you! You don't have you armor here!"

"It's okay, I'll find somewhere to hide!" I assured her. Looking back to the fight she glanced back to me before flying off. For a moment I regretted telling her to help the Heroes, regretted sending her into that mess. But then I remembered that this was Vicky I was talking about. She was a Hero through and through. She would've dived in regardless. It still didn't make me feel any better.

"Shit…." I swore to myself as I checked my messages of which there was only one.

-Come to the Rig ASAP-

"I'm in so much trouble…."

"DEAN!" Vicky shouted out. It was only due to her warning did I look up in time to see a giant woman… Menja I noted come flying my way with her head lolling to one side and her spear in splinters. I was too slow to get out of the way and Vicky had already dodged the improvised projectile. It struck me that Lung had too good a throwing arm to have made such a distance.

So…. this was how I was going to die. By being squished to death by a giant Nazi thrown by a Asian Dragon man?

=======

Bit of a shorter chapter here. Things have ramped up! Finally! Some solid conflict!

Thing about Glory Girl is that she never really feels guilty about the reckless stuff she's done. Beating people up and getting Amy to heal them is just one way of covering it up.

That said, I don't think I've ever read a piece of fiction where she blames herself for something that happens to another character.

In canon she does seem pretty torn up about Gallant dying in the Leviathan arc but it wasn't really explored all that much. Then she was goopified and that was pretty much the end of that.

While it's not directly her fault for Dean getting hurt here she'll blame herself. If she didn't nag him to go to the movies then none of this would've happened etc.

As a friend once said.

"Regret is the quick and dirty way to produce character growth!"