I drummed my fingers on my arm, frowning down at the superhero trainees who were rightfully contrite in front of me as we sat in the Bureau of Superheroes.
“What was the one thing I told you before I let you go fight?” I asked them.
It had been several days since the breakout. This was the first chance thereafter that I had to talk to them. Amelia couldn’t meet my eyes, and the rest of the trainees were following her lead.
Ivanna, at least, had a spine. “Not to fight villains? We didn’t really fight them, technically. They fought us. Really, it was self-defense,” she tried to argue.
“Yeah. They fought us,” Amelia picked up the argument.
“The cameras that caught the fight have a very different story to tell. It shows you using your powers on them first.” I narrowed my eyes at Amelia, who went beet red as a result.
“I-I don’t know what you are talking about.” Amelia tried to turn to the rest of the trainees for help, but found none.
“Do we need to bring a TV in here to review the footage?” I challenged.
“No.” Amelia sagged. “I just tried to stall him.”
“Otherwise known as engaging the enemy,” I clarified. “So, I let you girls out on your first mission, and you disobeyed the primary directive. The only directive you were given.”
I leaned back in my chair and continued to scowl at the girls.
“We saved so many people, though!” Amelia whined. “Like, hundreds. We did well.” She gave me her best puppy dog impression.
“Your inability to follow orders makes you unreliable in the field at best, regardless of the heroic spirit that you have,” I explained. “Unfortunately, that means you are all going back into training, rather than joining a team,” I stated their punishment, fully expecting the shock that rippled through the room.
“What!” Amelia shouted, echoed by the other girls. “You can’t.”
“I can.” I gave her a look that let her know not to try me.
I waited a moment for it to sink in before adding, “One more week of training, which will include field exercises. It is apparent that you girls lack the experience needed to keep a level head out in the field,” I finished with a smirk tugging at the side of my face.
Amelia’s eyes went wide, and I could have sworn there were little stars shining in them before she rushed to me and wrapped me in a hug.
“Thank you. Thank you. Thank you! We get to go out in the field.” She smashed her face to my chest before realizing how inappropriate it was and jumping back. “Shit. Sorry, Deputy Director. Please don’t take this away.”
I straightened out my shirt. “It’s fine. I’m glad you are excited. There’s a lot of work to be done. You’ll be paired off and join existing teams for their rounds over the next week.”
Pausing, I made eye contact with each of them. “But let me be clear. I better not hear that you failed to follow orders on these patrols. There will be serious consequences if that’s the case. Far more serious than just extending your training.”
The women around the table all nodded with a mix of excitement and determination as they wondered which team they would get assigned to.
And I’d already worked that out.
“Line up. Anastasia and Shinho, you’re to report to Victor today for training with his team. Patty and Ginger, you are with Taylor and her Rocksolid team…” I went through, listing off the various teams until there were only two remaining in the room.
Amelia and Ivanna stood, shuffling their feet.
Melody had been interested in adding Ivanna to our team, and Amelia needed someone to keep a firm hand on her. Amelia liked to steal the spotlight, and the women on my team would help her with that.
“Both of you will be with my team. They are already in training today. Come with me.” I waved for them to follow me as I turned and left the training room.
“Yes!” Amelia shouted. “I knew it. I fucking rock!”
The exuberant young woman certainly had the spirit to be a hero, but she wasn't the strongest among the group. Her powers included flight and the ability to create and manipulate a dark fog. Amelia had her brown hair back in a high ponytail that bounced with each step she took.
Ivanna stood up as well, staying quiet at the news, but I could see a smile curving across her face. She was more quiet-natured than Amelia, but her power packed a punch. She could manipulate water in all three forms, and her body was incredibly tough.
The shy super had surprisingly loud hair, which spilled over her shoulders in loose curls and went from white at her roots down into a vibrant blue.
The two recruits had been part of the hero trainee program, fresh out of college.
Amelia was jabbing punches into the air as she followed me through the Bureau’s white marble halls. “I’m going to train with Demoness and Venus! This is too cool!”
“I hope you still feel that way after conditioning. We patrol in the afternoons, so mornings are spent either in physical conditioning or in practice sessions with another super team. It’s critical to keep your body in top shape, in order to keep your mind and powers in peak condition.”
I approached the gym, and the sliding-glass doors opened up to lots of grunting and the occasional thump of weights hitting the ground.
The gym had traditional plates for those without super strength, but there were also machines designed by mad scientists that used adjustable gravitational plates for supers like Stella.
Looking around, I spotted Stella immediately. She was putting on a good show, doing hip thrusts while Emma leaned on a weight rack nearby.
“Good job, Stella.” I was impressed that she was putting so much effort into exercising.
“Buns of steel!” Stella turned to me with fire in her eyes and did another thrust.
I shook my head, realizing that I had become her motivation.
“Keeping an eye on her?” I asked my previous mentor and former love, Emma. I glanced at the clock. She likely had just rolled in, given that it was only ten.
Emma’s cat ears twitched as she followed my gaze, her lips pursing slightly. Emma hated mornings. She loved to lounge around all morning in the sun, like a cat.
In my therapy, Angelina had coached me that I might consider Emma’s actions in relation to her being my cat, rather than the stray I’d always considered her personality to be.
“Melody had to leave,” Emma replied with a slight show of concern on her face. “She’s still struggling to be around people.”
I winced. Melody had been struggling for the past few days after her transformation.
I would have thought she would have been prepared, given that she had decided to take the monster fruit. She was very happy with her power; not so much with the change in her appearance.
Regardless, I considered her part of my team -- and my household. I would help her through this as well, even if I was frustrated by her decision. When she’d been struggling to live through it, I’d wanted to both smother her in hugs and just smother her.
It was an odd feeling, but at the end of the day, I loved her, and I would not push her away because of a disastrous decision. She had been hurting and reached out for a solution, even if it was a poor one.
“Do you know where she is?” I asked.
“Probably still in the locker room.” Emma pointed towards the door. “She just left.”
I turned to the two trainees. “Emma is in charge. She’ll run you through the workouts. One of my biggest roles as a manager is to make sure all of you stay mentally fit to save people. I need to go.”
Both of the trainees nodded, eyes wide as they took in all the surrounding heroes. I waved over my shoulder as I went to go take care of Melody.
Ducking out of the gym, I headed straight for the locker room. I paused just outside of the women’s locker room, hesitating. But putting on my most professional stance, I swung the door open and stepped inside. I felt those in the space take a momentary pause before movements resumed.
A few of the superheroes sucked in their guts and pushed out their chests as they casually walked by me, many partially dressed.
“Hello, Deputy,” one super commented, swinging her hips a little.
I did my best to keep my eyes focused straight forward and not look when one woman ‘accidentally’ dropped her towel.
“Where’s Melody?” I asked the room, trying to make my intention clear.
“Pulsar? She’s… uh… in the bathroom, I think.” Pyrogirl pointed further into the locker room. The women went back to whatever they had been doing when I’d entered as I headed that way.
One of the TVs in the locker room began playing one of the BSH’s harem ads. I stopped to watch. It was based on work I’d come up with before becoming Deputy Director. But given my new clearance level, I’d learned that the disparity in birth rates between the sexes was getting worse, and the government was trying to find ways to fix the problem.
Mad scientists believed that the best way to fix the problem was by giving men a second power tied to the Y chromosome, hoping conception would be more equal once more. But so far, any of those attempts had backfired.
One of the previous experiments, Project Cerberus, had been my latest headache. A super named Daeva, who I’d been told had been neutralized, had shown up and escaped the city with numerous villains out of a nearby prison. She had three powers: telekinesis, super strength, and some sort of recovery. All three abilities were compatible in strength to Fortress, once the world’s greatest hero.
And she was just the latest headache to come from the government tinkering with genetics. Before that, they’d been funding Libertech’s research to give men a second power, which had led to a villain growing a titan right under our damn city.
And now the government’s failures were our problem, because they’d given the BSH the job of dealing with the mess they’d created. We were officially in charge of the R&D for the gender ratios.
Kim, the BSH’s Director, was justifiably furious, even if she had managed to ride it out until the news for Daeva broke.
And now we had to figure out what we were going to do next. It was like being forced to take over a group science project the night before it was due and being handed a mess. I didn’t appreciate the pressure, and I knew that the higher-ups were quickly going to point any blame to us for whatever Daeva came up with next.
Reaching the bathroom, I let out my power and scanned the stalls for Melody. It wasn’t hard to find her, even though she clearly was trying to hide. She sat on the toilet with her legs up and her head bowed as she tried to stifle her tears.
I sat down outside the stall on the cool tile, giving her a little space. “You know, it draws a lot of attention when you try to hide.”
There was a small sob that escaped her control. “Miles. What are you doing here? This is the girls’ bathroom.”
“They didn’t seem to mind.” I shrugged against the stall. “Besides, I told you I’d be here for you, and by the look of it, you need me.”
“I’m fine,” Melody stated. I heard her wipe at her face, a snotty snort following the movement. “I’m fine. Just adjusting.”
“Sounds like more than just adjusting,” I commented dryly. “Have you talked to Angelina?”
The silence that followed my question told me everything I needed to know.
“Melody?” I pushed her further.
“She wouldn’t understand. Angelina, Stella… they’ve always been mutas. I— I can’t take the way everyone keeps staring. And it isn’t in the good way, like when I was trying to be a model. Besides, I also lost my last modeling contract. They took one look at me and—” She hiccupped around a sob. “Even you look at me differently.”
I hit my head against the stall and blocked out the sound of our conversation from being overheard. “Of course I’m looking at you differently, but it’s not because of how you look. I’m pissed at you. Do you realize how wrecked I was when I thought I was going to lose you? If it weren’t for Doctor Wells’ intervention, you’d be a cancerous giant.” I felt my blood pressure boiling just thinking about it.
We’d tried to keep the entire event under wraps, but it was hard when Melody had so clearly changed. But Doctor Wells, Melody, and I were all sworn to secrecy by Kim. We didn’t want others to get a hold of monster fruit and try to complete the transformation like Melody.
And Doctor Wells and I were hiding another secret beyond that. My power had been critical to keeping Melody alive and taking out the parts trying to turn her into a cancerous giant. And soon, I’d pay the price for Doctor Wells keeping my secret. I was due to start tests to allow her to observe me and my household.
“I’m sorry,” Melody said meekly.
“It doesn’t matter to me if you are sorry. You hit the point that you did something desperate and dangerous to yourself. I won’t let you stay in that mental state. You need to take the time to work on your insecurities, Melody. And Angelina can help you with that.” I would not coddle her.
Using some of my power, I opened the simple latch on the stall door and stepped inside.
“What are you doing?” Melody waved me away as she continued to sit on the toilet, holding her legs.
I leaned down in front of her so that our eyes were level. “How do I look at you now?”
“You're disgusted by me. By my purple skin, like everyone else.”
I ran my finger through her silver hair to show off her pointy ears. “Now, where would you get an idea like that? If you haven’t noticed, I have a thing for mutas. Hell, Angelina is purple too.”
“She’s more like a lavender, and there’s green in her swirls too,” Melody protested weakly.
I didn’t fight her on it; she knew it was a weak retort. And I had a feeling that I knew the real problem. She’d already had issues with her confidence before, but it was based in her weaker power. Now she was stronger, but she no longer considered herself as beautiful. She still struggled with confidence once again.
But to me, Melody was still beautiful, and she needed to hear it. “Is that what you think? That I don’t find you attractive anymore?”
“I’m not,” she whispered, and tried to look down.
But I held her chin up and kissed her, using a little of my power to pick her up and press her against the wall.
“For one, you feel good. If anything, I think your skin is softer.”
She opened up a little and held onto me. “Yeah? What else?”
“Your new pointy ears are actually kind of sexy. Are they sensitive?” I leaned in and let my breath tickle over them.
The way she squirmed told me enough.
“Fine, they are sensitive.” She smacked my chest to get me to stop.
I looked down at her, enjoying the bit of happiness seeping into her eyes as we bantered. “I do think we need to get you a new suit. Purple skin does not go with orange and white.”
She chuckled. “Is that what bothers you most?”
“Absolutely. We need to get you a new super suit, maybe one that goes better with your upgraded powers.” I bounced my eyebrows, trying to cheer her up and reminding her that there were some benefits that went along with her transformation. “Hopefully, you don’t still feel like you are behind everyone else when it comes to power?”
“No.” She grinned. “I don’t feel that. But—”
I put a finger to her lips. “We’ll work on everything else. But I need you to know that I find you attractive. Hell, you may be even more attractive. We just need to work on making you see it, too. The rest will come, including modeling gigs.”
Melody nodded, her breaths much more steady.
“Great, now how many girls do you think are going to assume we just had sex back here?” I looked around the stall.
Melody burst into laughter. “All of them.”
“Great, so let's get out of here and try to salvage my reputation before we go get you a new super suit.” I gave her a little push, and she relented, leading the two of us out of the bathroom.
Thankfully, I seemed to be able to pull her out of these funks, but I needed something more to get her confidence back.