{0}
Monday morning came quicker than I'd liked.
Alex and I had gotten out of the house at around 7:30 AM. While I was alright since I usually woke up about three hours earlier, Alex had barely been able to get herself out of bed, take a shower, and eat a sandwich prepared the night before we left. Then we had to circle back because she'd actually forgotten to bring her ID. I'd told her she didn't need to come with, but she said something along the lines of:
"It's my damn job you're checking out, of course, I have to be there!"
So I ended up just shrugging and accepted it.
We arrived at Winslow where a few students from my class were already lounging about near the building entrance. I stepped out of the car along with Alex and looked into the small crowd. I'd read something online that said that going on field trips without a friend group to stick to sucked. I didn't have friends, period.
It hasn't even been five minutes on campus and I already felt like going home.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to Alex.
"I'm gonna leave you here now so I can get to the office before your bus arrives, alright?"
"Ah. Sure," I said.
She frowned. Then, she sighed. "Look, the field trip wasn't my idea. Nor was it the Director's. The request came from the school and the Secretary didn't really find anything wrong with that. This isn't me trying to push you."
I hadn't really thought of that, though now that she'd brought it up, I had an idea who did: Blackwell. Now that she'd lost a Ward from the powder keg of a school, the woman was probably looking to replace her little local peacekeeper for free.
Unfortunately for her, I wasn't going to give her the satisfaction any time soon.
I was not a hero.
I smiled at her. "I know that," I said. "Look, field trips are just sad when you don't really have friends, alright?"
Alex frowned at that. She opened her mouth but stopped when I shook my head.
"Not for lack of trying," I said. "For some reason, I get treated like some kind of queen—" or cape, I didn't say "—that people generally avoided unless they were trying to ask me out."
I shivered at the memory. I didn't mean to brag but there I'd been asked out at least thrice in the last few weeks. "Perks" of the bloodline, I guess. While I don't think I was opposed to trying to date a guy, starting a relationship with that in mind just made me think that they weren't going to be serious. Say what you will about modern teenage dating habits, I wasn't about to trust myself with someone I wasn't absolutely sure I could enjoy being with for the rest of my life.
… though with me being a Herrscher, that would be a really long time, wouldn't it?
Well, tough luck.
"Naughty girl. Whatever should I do with you?"
I stuck my tongue out at her then the two of us laughed. Alex finally waved her goodbye and clambered back into her car. I watched her car drive through the campus driveway and disappear through the gates. Only then did I turn around and head toward the school.
I reached the edge of the crowd. Suddenly, the noise of conversation began to thin. I looked up. Most of the students present were looking at me. I froze, bewildered by the stares; I don't think I'd done anything to grab their attention like this, not unless saying goodbye to your (foster) mom was an odd activity. We stared at each other until eventually, the crowd began to lose interest and murmurs began circulating again. A familiar face pushed past the throng: Tammi.
"Hey V." She paused, looking me up and down. "Nice outfit today— shows those legs to the world. And you're curvy too? You'd make big bucks from being a fashion model."
I felt my cheeks heat up. It was the first time I'd come to school wearing an actual skirt as per Alex's insistence on dressing up. It was pleated and dark and the wrong size, not in the sense that it didn't fit my waist but that it didn't fit my height, reaching only until my mid-thighs. I'd compensated for the feeling by wearing something plain and long-sleeved for my top. Thankfully, it passed Alex's standard of dressing up.
If I knew that the end result was being complimented— and ogled, I was certain I was being ogled— like this? I would have worn a tracksuit. I may have been a bit of a character designer in my old life but in both lives, I don't think fashion and I had ever met beyond "plain."
Unfortunately, I didn't bring a jacket to hide my body language, so Tammi quickly noticed my discomfort and laughed.
"Just relax. It's not a sin to be pretty."
I rolled my eyes. It didn't get rid of my flush, so I turned and sulked toward a corner. Tammi shrugged and went back to chatting with her own friends. I looked into the crowd, spotting for people I'd recognize. Greg was easy to find thanks to his shiny golden bowl of a head. Taylor was a bit harder, but the sheer volume of black hair made her color distinctive enough if you were looking for it. The rest were familiar faces, but I didn't bother trying to memorize their names.
Gladly and Coach Michelle walked out of the building together, both with hair in a bit of disarray and with a slight flush on their cheeks. It made me want to throw up, just a little. It's just, God, I knew that Gladly was young and still wanted to be the popular kid in high school despite being a teacher but what the fuck.
Soon enough, two buses came along. The drivers walked out and talked with the two teachers before Coach Michelle turned to the wandering students and yelled, "Alright, everyone line up! I want one line for each bus!"
The students began filing into the vehicles. I saw Tammi wave at me. I ignored her. A few other teenagers called out to me and I gave them a similar treatment. Eventually, she went with a few of her other friends and they boarded together. I went into the opposite vehicle.
Having been one of the last to get in, the only seats left were the ones in front. Most of the outgoing students would take the back seat, where most of their activities couldn't be seen by the teacher— we got Coach Michelle— in front. The only ones who would take the front seat on the first go would be either quiet students or teacher-buddies. Michelle wasn't quite someone who was close to the students, so it was the former. Apparently, though, there was quite a number of quiet kids and the front was almost full, all except for the seat beside Taylor Hebert at the very front seat.
Our eyes met as soon as I boarded the bus. I didn't have to look to know that the other free seats would require going through an obstacle of legs and bags to get to, and I knew she knew that too. I saw the moment that she dropped her shoulders as if in surrender and placed the bag she'd had on that seat on her lap.
I sighed emphatically. She was last to have a seatmate because she was a social pariah. My beaning and getting rid of Hess only contributed so much, and even then, the tension between Barnes and myself probably made her a figurative no man's land.
Still, empathy could only get her so far; I still needed to sit. I settled beside her and mimicked her bag-on-lap position. She didn't look at me, but I felt the vaguest sense of an object landing on my shoulder from my spatial perception— a shape I'd associated with a fly.
… that confirmed that she Triggered. With the same powers, even. That was… I didn't know what to think. Was I supposed to be glad that someone was traumatized so she could save the world?
We spent a few more minutes there waiting for the other students. Every once in a while, Coach Michelle would go out and return with a list she would take attendance from, then she'd go back out, presumably to pass it back to Gladly. Finally, we were good to go. Taylor and I didn't exchange a single word the entire time.
The bus took off at around 8:47 AM… and immediately ran into traffic. Right, around this time was the peak of the rush hour. Chatter started and ended all around the bus, teenagers getting bored and talking about mundane things. It was kind of nostalgic. Scratch that, it was very nostalgic. The number of times where I was able to have a normal field trip in this life was three. I was actually remembering field trips in my old life in this nostalgia, a time when I actually had friends in class.
I glanced at Taylor. She was looking outside, face unreadable. I chuckled darkly. Right, fat chance of that ever happening.
We spent the next hour in silence. The bus eventually stopped at the parking lot of an otherwise ordinary-looking building if it weren't for the symbol of a shield embossed with "PRT" placed above the entrance. We filed out of our vehicles and gathered as a crowd at the prompting of our teachers.
Coach Michelle laid down the basic reminders for the trip, something you could summarize as stay together, be respectful, and don't commit a felony. After that, Gladly stepped up.
"With that out of the way, I'll be happy to announce that our tour guides for today will be…"
A bike pulled up in the parking lot behind us. The crowd turned just as the familiar camo-clad, American flag-colored Kurdish hero swung off her motorcycle and walked up to the front beside the teachers. A few seconds later and a red blur— and wasn't that an interesting thing you were doing with time-space?— slowed into a jogging man in a skin-tight red costume and helmet.
"Did we miss anything?" Miss Militia asked, waving a bit at the class.
"Nope," Gladly said, looking a little giddy. The convenient timing probably wasn't planned by him and was just good fortune on his part. "Anyway, introducing our guides for the day, Miss Militia and Velocity!"
There was generous applause from the students from a crowd most known for its delinquents as an actual professional hero showed up instead of some PRT employee. I caught the woman looking at me right before she performed another eye smile.
At least I understood why they were all for accepting the field trip request, at least.
"Alright," Miss Militia began, and it was mind-boggling seeing Winslow students stand in rapt attention. "We'll be coming into the building in two groups. Group A will be led by myself."
"And group B, by me," Velocity finished. "Form up two lines so we can get started."
The class divided itself… rather predictably, actually. Most of the popular girls had gone over to Velocity while the popular boys went to hound Miss Militia. The less popular boys and girls then picked the opposite choices of their counterparts, which was why I ended up in the line following the superheroine alongside Taylor.
The only surprise was that Tammi, who was definitely one of the girls with a big presence, had decided to go along with our group, taking her friends Erika and Theresa with her.
Miss Militia nodded once we finished organizing ourselves. "Finished? Good. We'll be heading into the lobby now and begin with the first part of the tour."
We spent the next few hours listening to Miss Militia explain the fine details of the PRT building. The lobby, for example, actually had hidden containment foam turrets for rude visitors. The hallways were labyrinthine, a strategy that didn't work on me because spatial perception was partly passive, and had several checkpoints to deter any villain that tried to navigate them. There were always a few squads of troopers at all hours of the day. We were taken to areas like the power testing facilities, their garage, and the training field they use for training as units. We weren't allowed into areas like the actual offices (the hallways outside were good enough), inside their armory (to the despair of a few boys), and their research labs (as people were actually working). Of course, there were a few students who looked at the Authorised Personnel Only signs and decided they couldn't read. It led to quite a number of teenagers losing their visitor IDs and getting sent home or being made to stay in the lobby. Some boys made a game about it, one that stopped when one of them actually tried to steal something and led to him and his friend getting put in a cell.
And this was all while Miss Militia was stressing the importance of the mundane troopers in parahuman conflicts.
"Because in a fight between parahumans, it's the normal people who get hit the hardest and it takes normal people for them to recover from it. That is why we have the PRT."
It was an odd feeling to see a hero admit something so fatalistic. Yet she wasn't wrong; when both the heroes and villains wear masks to blur the lines of accountability and project a net of safety for themselves, the only thing that regular people are left with is the power to pick up the pieces and defend their own homes. It was why I admired the spirit of New Wave after I'd read about them; throwing away the masks and putting up with some damn responsibility.
Unfortunately, putting that into practice needed a lot of caution and foresight and that lesson was paid for in blood.
A thought struck me then. If they had joined the Protectorate before revealing their faces to the public, wouldn't that have led to their families falling under government protection? It wouldn't have stopped a determined cape villain, but at the very least it would have stopped Fleur from getting done in by some random Nazi mook.
… it was too late to think about now. Ancient history and all that.
The time for lunch came and the class headed outside to eat at Tony's, a local pizza place, while the heroes had their own lunch at the PRT building. The food tasted cheap and the amount, mildly unfulfilling, especially since there were plenty of boys in my class that were food-inhaling jocks. Then again, it might just be me because as far as I could see, I was the only girl who took a full plate of seconds. The whole meal took an hour, then, we filed back to the PRT to get started on the next leg of the field trip: meeting the Wards.
{0}
The Wards HQ was a domed loft, a spacious and clean area that looked surprisingly more like a hangout for teenagers than a headquarters of a superhero team if you ignored the small pile of network equipment to one side of the room. Most of the walls surrounding the common area had indents that made it clear where the actual, solid walls ended and where the prefabricated sections started. It gave the impression that these walls could easily be taken down and replaced when needed, which made sense given that Wards were expected to graduate into the Protectorate at the age of majority instead of staying as a permanent team.
Despite myself, I wondered if these walls were able to stop Honkai radiation if needed.
The Wards were already there when we walked out of the elevator. Aegis was a muscular boy, clad in red much like Velocity, except he had a full-face mask and was themed with silver shields instead of stripes. Gallant looked like a regular knight with a Dark Souls 3 helmet and light spilling out of the seams of his armor. Clockblocker also wore armor, though his was a lot more modern and had clock motifs inscribed on its most visible parts. Vista was a girl in a padded green dress, hair tied in pigtails, and face covered by a visor.
I wasn't too surprised that all of them were in-costume since the field trip was announced before the weekend, though a suspicious part of me wondered why all of the members that were known to have the most confidence in themselves— sorry Kid Win, your PR makes you come off as a lovable dork— were there to meet us at 1:30 PM. I'd read the flier on the premium commercial tours and it'd said that a peek at the Wards HQ happened only after 2 hours of waiting.
If the class was getting premium treatment through some complex web nepotism involving myself, well… actually, I think that's rather convenient.
Never let it be said I don't take advantage of my privileges. God knows I need some more of it.
Aegis, Vista, and Gallant stood up from where they sat on the couch while Clockblocker only looked up from his homework. "Oh, that's a lot of people," Clockblocker said.
"Clock," Aegis warned.
"Right. Right. Getting up."
Aegis sighed as he turned towards the class, which had significantly fewer students than this morning. The Meet and Greet with the Wards was an optional activity in the signup sheets and I'd been surprised that only a third of the students had signed up for it while the rest just went home.
Although seeing how most of those that signed up were girls, I think I knew why. The only mystery left was why Tammi had also signed on given that she looked like she didn't want to be there.
"So," Aegis began. "Welcome to Wards HQ. I'm Aegis, these are Vista, Gallant and Clockblocker. We just got here from school, so the next patrol is still in half an hour. What do you want to know?"
"Do you have a girlfriend?"
That was how a meeting with heroes from our own age group devolved into a noisy pageantry of teenage fangirls over famous physically and mentally-fit boys. I glanced at Vista, the only girl among them, and sympathized with her when she visibly inched away from the impromptu paparazzi. It made me feel a little bad about circling around the crowd over to her. I also felt a little responsible for taking the only other girl among them out of play.
Still, it had to be Vista. Aegis and Gallant were fine people, but both of them were occupied neither could really level the playing field as much as the local Shaker 9. She was also a fellow Space Enjoyer, with the added benefit of being Certified by the Law.
… fine. I was biased. Truthfully, I could ask an adult, but I was pretty sure that most of the ones I could approach were privy to my situation and can't give an objective opinion.
I caught up to her within moments. Perhaps she'd been using her own spatial perception to sense me because she wasn't surprised at all when I cleared my throat behind her.
"Can I help you?" she asked sharply. I winced, which she noticed. She sighed and raised her hands.
"Sorry, it's just that this entire thing is well—" she winced as a few girls gave excited screeches. I looked over. Something about Aegis and his muscles.
"That," Vista finished lamely.
I nodded in sympathy. She smiled a little.
"Right," I said and put my hands in my— ah, nope, the skirt didn't have functional pockets. "Well, I just wanted to ask one question, really. Why be a hero?"
She looked at me for a moment. If she had made any indication that she'd noticed anything unusual or put something together about me, it was hidden by her visor.
"Well." Vista put her fists on her hips as she began, which was… cute. "It's something like wanting to help, you know? Brockton's my home, but it's suffering from all the villains fu— screwing up people's lives. I'm here. I've got power. I can make things better, so I started doing that."
"Why be a Ward, then?" Both Vista and I turned to see that Tammi had walked into the conversation. "Doesn't sound like you need to put your lot with the PRT to do that."
Vista's mouth twisted as if she'd eaten a lemon. She opened her mouth, closed it, then opened it again. I frowned at Tammi.
"The Wards are the best option," Vista bit out. "We have government backing, reinforcements in the form of the Protectorate, guaranteed income, and an entire team of vetted heroes. Compare that to going at it alone, we can actually make a difference. How else do you think we're holding the line against three entire supervillain gangs?"
"But that's all you can do," Tammi countered, smirking. "You can't get rid of the gangs, can't fix the economy, can't fix the immigration problem. The Wards aren't even allowed to take on the other capes in a fight; all you're good for is being PR machines, and you can't even do that right, can you?"
The fuck is she talking about? The young superheroine was doing well with PR— an advantage of being twelve and a girl. I turned to Vista in concern. If she was affected by the accusation, she didn't show it. In the corner of my eye, I saw the two other boys turn slightly toward our conversation.
"You got your own plan, then?"
Tammi opened her mouth, then closed it, turning red. Vista's lips twitched.
"Thought so," Vista said.
Tammi huffed and crossed her arms, walking away. Vista… didn't look happy at her "victory". Aegis walked over and asked if there was a problem, to which both answered with unconvincing negatives. It struck me then that these people were just teenagers, some barely past being preteens. They'd have signed up with the government with reasonings they barely even knew. In a better world, they'd be back at school, enjoying their lives and learning about their powers, not walking in the streets and keeping watch for the local rage dragon or racist flying artillery. Why did these teenagers have to fight as opposed to letting the other, more responsible adults handle it? Why did they want to fight, to rush headlong into danger for reasons that don't necessitate danger like wanting to help?
… right, I thought bitterly. Shards.
I stepped back from the conversation at that point— couldn't really ask the other Wards what they'd thought when they started heroing when you knew that a large part of it was their parasites pushing them. Aegis was quickly taken by another classmate. Eventually, someone else talked to Vista and it progressed into the usual cape talk of powers, people, and politics, with Vista and the other Wards being evasive while establishing boundaries. Many began losing interest, and it made me chuckle a bit; I was reminded of the saying that you should never meet your heroes.
I looked over to Taylor at some point because she'd also signed up for the visit. She looked… contemplative? I wondered if she'd learned about the "push emotions into the swarm" trick I'd read about at this point because she wasn't giving many tells. I don't think she'd talked to any of the Wards yet. Hopefully, though, she wasn't thinking about overlooking the government-sponsored teenagers because of a flimsy thing like "teen drama" and maybe actually considering joining them. Say what you will about canon, but joining a criminal team of superpowered teenagers was an objectively worse decision than joining the government-sponsored hero team of superpowered teenagers if one wanted to avoid "drama".
Though, to be fair, canon had Taylor's bully run around, free to do as she pleased in the hero team. Fortunately, I took care of that problem. Now, hopefully, the girl would make the better decision.
{0}
The visit ended a few minutes later and everyone filed into the ground floor while waiting for the second school bus to arrive. Teenagers did what teenagers did and clumped themselves according to their cliques. Some stayed in the lobby while others went into the gift shop that was conspicuously out of place in a law enforcement building. Since I wasn't part of one, I also did a teenager thing and stood at a corner near the stairs, somewhere out of the way but not so much that I'd miss it if the bus arrived.
I wasn't the only one who had the same idea. Taylor was also there, though she was sitting on the actual stairs. Her expression had changed back to neutral and unreadable. We… just ignored each other, I guess.
A familiar voice called my attention.
"V? Veronika?"
I turned to see that Alex had come down into the lobby. She was in her lab coat and had her hair tied into a tight bun. I waved, catching her attention, and she zeroed in on me.
"How was the tour?" she asked.
"It's good," I said.
She raised a brow. "That's all?"
I shrugged. "I can say more, like, say, the place looks well-maintained and has tight security. Didn't feel like I needed to."
"Spoilsport," she said. She glanced at my classmates. "You sure you don't want to just wait around and get home together?"
"Pretty sure," I said.
"Alright." Alex ran a hand through her hair, ruining her bun a little. "I'm heading back. See you later."
She turned.
"Wait," I said, making her pause. She looked back and raised a brow.
I fumbled for the words. I'd thought I could get a second opinion or some kind of objective advice from the Wards, but, they were just kids. I'd thought this morning adults like Alex and Arthur were too close, too invested to give objective advice about things like hero-ing. Looking back, though… I think I was just scared— just afraid to open up. Afraid I'd be led astray… like that time so long ago.
Alex worked closely with a type of police establishment and was a nice woman who had been nothing if not accommodating. She was also my legal guardian. That merited at least some trust, right?
"Why'd you pick here?" I asked. "Why'd you work for the PRT?"
Alex blinked. "Well, for one thing, Brockton could always use more help." She held up a finger. "I'd always wanted to be a cape when I was young, but I never became one and this is the next best thing." That was two fingers up. She held up a third and smiled wistfully.
"Someone once showed me that there was something beautiful to be found in taking up responsibility; in doing right by others and doing right by yourself. Told me that was why she wanted to do right by me." Her smile turned rueful. "I wanted to repay the favor after I got my Ph.D., but it was too late by then. So I thought, couldn't I repay it by picking up what she'd believed? Continue her work?"
Her eyes turned tender as she looked at me. "Haven't regretted it ever since."
A lump formed in my throat. She gave me another smile before turning away. I watched her disappear into the crowd, unable to peel my eyes away from the woman.
I didn't know how long I'd been looking after she'd gone. All I knew was that I was only jolted out of my daze when I saw Taylor pass me by. A quick glance around showed me that the rest of the students had started moving; our transport had arrived.
As I made myself comfortable on the bus, I noticed my reflection in the glass.
I was smiling.
---
Notes:
Slumps over in wordcount.
So this is the end of arc 1: Heir. The next chapter will be an interlude, then the start of arc 2: Endeavor.
Arc 1: Heir is a story about beginnings, of contemplating what you were given and what you will do about it. It's about taking a step back and wondering where you're going. The pacing is slow because it is reflective and because I'm not a fan of simply throwing a problem into another problem and watching the whole thing balloon into a bigger problem. Veronika, V, isn't inclined to arrogant recklessness or apathetic condescension as I've seen some want the story to go partly because of who I modeled them after and partly because of the kind of narrative Honkai Impact 3 is and what it meant to me.
In Arc 2: Endeavor, we'll be seeing a lot more of the slightly different Brockton. The ripples in the past have reached the present and we'll be seeing what had changed, what stayed the same, and why all of it matters. V will (finally lmao) be learning about her powers in earnest, meet and form bonds with the actors and agents of the city, and perhaps run into the first bout of— ehem— conflict that you'd expect in a city where the villains outnumber the heroes 3 to 1.
Word of warning: college is starting to pick up again. I don't know if I need a delay because, honestly, I still need to finalize some thoughts— things like candidates for the next Herrscher, when the fuck should I drop them in, did Bet get the benefit of an Elysia in an old cycle or if I'm gonna make something special about it that doesn't feel inconsistent, plotting out how to get a Honkai-based tech industry running, and actually reading Worm (am on 6.7 @ time of writing) instead of cobbling everything together with the power of the wiki, Reddit, and other forums.
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