Of Heroes And Villains:
The Paths Not Taken

By Minikisa

There are moments that change a life forever. And within those moments, heroes and villains alike are born of choice.

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Paragon City.

A shining monument to humanity’s greatest achievements.

Capitol of the spandex industry.

And a huge pain in the ass to live in if you didn’t have laser beams shooting out of various orifices.

The window of the coffee shop shattered as a villain was thrown through it, crashing into one of the tables. Wood splintered and glass shards rained down upon the customers who, used to catastrophe as they were, immediately took appropriate action: cowering beneath the tables. Some, more pro-active than others, started running and screaming.

The villain growled menacingly, his palms crackling with freaky mutant magic or whatever.

“Now don’t make me throw you through another window,” said Captain Patriot. “Because I will. Collateral damage is fun, who cares about the civilians, LOL.”

“He did not say lol,” Elaine interrupted, lips curved into an amused smile.

“Would you let me tell the story? And stop smirking. It was deeply traumatic.”

Elaine raised her hands in a pacifying gesture, and let Jeffrey finish his daring tale of narrowly avoiding danger and skillfully dodging every opportunity for marginal bravery. Reading between the lines it was evident he’d been caught in a small skirmish without serious injuries, but he was hyperventilating nonetheless.

“…and that’s why I’m late. Ugh. I can’t wait to get out of here.”

Paragon was an acquired taste. The city was so used to doomsday scenarios that every single building had elaborate evacuation plans that could be put into motion within seconds. To stroll down its streets was to flirt with excitement and danger – without having to put out with mortal peril. Heroes kept casualties remarkably low.

Well, at least they used to.

She lightly patted Jeffrey’s hand and held out her – as of yet untouched – cup of coffee as a peace offering. She’d make do without caffeine, somehow. And if not, there would always be a hero at hand to stop her addiction-fueled rampage.

“Well, only two more exams to go and you just might.” She lightly tapped the book lying forgotten on the table, their study session somewhat removed from its purpose to dedicate time to Jeff’s epic tale of woe.

He squinted at her. “And you won’t?”

Elaine shrugged and smiled. “I like it here.”

When she’d moved here for college, it had taken her all of a day to fall deeply in love with the city of heroes. Even now, with time, experience and rising villains slowly eroding its shine, she could not imagine going back to living elsewhere.

Yes, it put her in danger of facing the worst of humanity.

But it also brought her close to the very best.

Elaine, being of the rather average persuasion, was neither. But she could aspire.

“Seriously though, we should get started on this sometime this afternoon lest we both end up failing miserably and are forced to become the Dominatrix’ minions to make ends meet. And let’s face it, while I would rock that uniform, you definitely wouldn’t.” Jeff made a lewd gesture at her but grinned nonetheless. Her phone started ringing. “…right after this.”

Elaine glanced at the caller ID, and then hung up, laying the phone back on the table.

“Never mind.”

It rang again.

Elaine sighed, resigned, and picked it up, waving vaguely at Jeff as she excused herself to the kitchen for some measure of privacy.

“Hello, Elaine.” The voice was low and subdued, in stark contrast to the gregarious personality it belonged to.

“John.” Elaine carefully modulated her voice to give it just the right inflection. Why hello there, stranger who is calling my phone, you have not been occupying my thoughts at all, so much so that your continued existence completely slipped my mind until you, just now, reminded me of it.

At least, that’s what she hoped it conveyed. Considering her thoughts were spiraling into a hyperactive frenzy, analyzing all the reasons he might be calling her, she cared about his existence a little more than that. Maybe.

The last time she’d seen him, he’d been fighting a villain on national TV, with Miss Chief at his side.

The last time she’d actually seen him in person, he’d been apologetically trying to explain just why Elaine had caught him in bed with Miss Chief.

Elaine admired superheroes greatly. To make friends with one had been a dream come true. She’d gotten to know him as a person, a brave, wonderful person – whom she could never fully understand because she did not share his lifestyle.

Elaine still admired superheroes.

But she’d decided that she would admire them from afar.

Elaine blinked when she realized he hadn’t interrupted her musings. The only thing she heard was tense silence crackling in her ear.

“What’s up? Or did you just call to hear my angelic voice?”

“…Wildfire broke out of prison this morning.”

She closed her eyes, her mouth suddenly very dry. “And that is relevant to my interests because…?” Please don’t say, please don’t say it.

“She’ll probably come after you.” The words seemed to have been extracted from him with tweezers, dragged reluctantly into the open.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Elaine’s voice was cold enough to put John’s ice blasts to shame.

Being the love interest of a major hero marked a person for constant kidnapping attempts by archnemesis, lesser archnemeses and, really, just any villain who wanted to get Freeze Flash’s attention. Elaine had learned far more about restraints, ropes and knots than she ever cared to know. On the plus side, she now had the expertise to have an exciting career as a domme if she were so inclined.

“We were still together when I defeated her,” John mumbled, sounding even more apologetic.

“Does this woman not fact check?!”

“Well…”

Stupid question, really. Wildfire was known for one thing and one thing only: being hot. The lab that had turned her into a living weapon had not seen fit to equip her with anything resembling higher thought processes. It was meant to make her docile and easy to control, but instead it created a very destructive idiot with poor impulse control. As her creators had found out when she had burned the lab down.

And she held a very special grudge against Freeze Flash.

John cleared his throat. “If you could come in for protective custody until she’s caught, that would be great. It won’t take long,” he rushed to add. “You know she has all subtlety of, well, a raging inferno. We’ll find her soon.”

The thought of going to The Wardens’ headquarter made Elaine’s stomach twist with anxiety.

They had been her friends – or so she’d thought.

It turned out that most superheroes were convinced that relationships with civilians were simply doomed from the start. They’d been expecting things to fall apart, and while they had been very friendly to Elaine, they, unlike her, had never gotten attached. Or at least gotten less attached than they were to their teammate Miss Chief, who had joined a year after Elaine had become a part of John’s – and The Wardens’ – life.

“Yeah,” she said in a dull voice. “Sure. I’ll be right over.”

As mortifying as this was shaping up to be, Elaine was neither dumb nor suicidal enough to turn down the protection she apparently needed.

She hung up without another word, and gazed over her shoulder at Jeff.

Building a new social circle was hard even when the old one didn’t keep casting its shadow over her.


***


Elaine slung her bag over her shoulder, adjusting the strap, and fell into a brisk walk. She’d decided going home would be too much of a risk; she could probably ask one of the Wardens to get her clothes and whatever else she might need. The thought of making Miss Chief play fetch brought a brief smile to her face, before she admonished herself for being petty.

The most frustrating part about being betrayed by people who spent their days rescuing kittens and orphans from burning buildings was that she couldn’t even properly rant about what awful people they were. Not even in her own head.

She sighed, dejected, and focused on the path ahead as she made her way toward the docks. It was a chilly autumn day, yet a warm breeze made her skin tingle pleasantly.

Too warm.

Elaine froze for a fraction of a second, then accelerated her pace. She just had to get to the hidden teleportation pad to gain entrance to the headquarters; they were sprinkled all over the city and this one was closest. Only a few hundred more feet and she’d be fine.

The narrow alley ahead of her caught fire, blocking her path.

Elaine whirled around, but another thin line of fire had flickered to life behind her.

Trapped.

Her knuckles briefly turned white as she clutched her bag, but then she forced herself to relax. She exhaled. She straightened her back. And then she spoke.

“You’ve got the wrong girl, Wildfire.”

A coquettish giggle was her only answer as a costumed woman casually stepped through the flames, tossing her long blond hair. She was smiling wildly.

“No, I think I have you, like, exactly where I want you.”

“He cheated on me,” Elaine said flatly.

Wildfire blinked, taken aback. Then her demeanor shifted instantly. “Oh, honey.”

“Yeah.”

“Men are jerks,” Wildfire said sympathetically.

Elaine nodded, not quite trusting herself to speak as the villainess wrapped an arm around her shoulder and squeezed.

“There, there. Did you dump him?”

“I did.”

“Good for you.”

“Yeah.” She tried to summon tears, which, thanks to the smoke burning in her eyes, came surprisingly easily. “He won’t come for me.”

Wildfire patted her cheek. “Oh, honey.” She smiled. “Nice try. Like a hero would just leave you to die.”

Elaine exhaled, the tears drying as quickly as they’d appeared. “Can’t blame me for trying.” And then she kicked Wildfire’s shin and swept her leg, unbalancing the villainess. Then Elaine, dropping her bag and already stripping out of her jacket, ran toward the fire. The barrier was thin, thin enough to run through, and whatever minor burns she might sustain were surely preferable to whatever notoriously unstable Wildfire might do in a fit of rage.

She covered her mouth and eyes with her jacket and jumped.

Flames licked at her skin, and she definitely smelled burned hair – but then it was gone and she was in the clear. The sleeves of her coat were on fire so she discarded it, and broke into a sprint.

A tremor ran down her spine and she stumbled, her vision going white.

Her hands closed around the alien device, the metal cracking under her considerable strength. One of the insectoid soldier screeched at her in a language she did not know. Her only response was a cold smile, baring her teeth. She was certain that destroying the beacon would cut off the steady stream of reinforcement so she tightened her grip until sparks flew. A tremor ran down her spine.

Elaine blinked, disoriented, and shook her head. She was lying on the pavement, her knees scraped open, and she scrambled to get back up. The click of high heels behind her heralded Wildfire’s approach, she had to get away, it was only a few hundred feet to the base entrance, she just had to –

She blacked out.


***


There was something under her skin. Itching. No, sizzling.

Elaine groaned softly, bracing herself for pain.

There was none.

In fact, she felt amazing.

She pushed herself up, her green eyes unfocused as she stared at her hands. Gloves. White gloves. She was wearing white gloves.

Elaine was fairly certain she didn’t even own white gloves.

She sat back on her knees, absently noticing that they didn’t hurt anymore, and blinked rapidly as she surveyed her surroundings. Her brain appeared to have thrown its hands up and given up on this processing things business, because it took quite some time for the sight to sink in.

The docks. Or what was left of them. Elaine was kneeling in the middle of a smoking crater.

Her lips parted.

Had Wildfire done this?

But how had Elaine survived?

She pushed herself to stand up, incredulously noting the knee-high combat boots. Something brushed the back of her elbow and she turned her head.

Cape.

Elaine was wearing a cape.

Finally, her brain formulated a highly sophisticated response to her situation.

What.

Suddenly the air was filled with the hum of rocket boots and the high-pitched whine of laser cannons being charged. Elaine craned her neck, gazing up at the armored PPD descending all around the crater. The heavy division of the Paragon Police Department wore highly advanced combat armor, giving each of them firepower and durability surpassing that of tanks. These squads were deployed only for the most dangerous of villains, Threat Level Six and up.

No doubt the explosion had drawn their attention.

Elaine tentatively took a step toward them, but then she realized they were aiming their cannons at her.

“Event Horizon,” snarled a heavily distorted voice from beneath a helmet. “You are under arrest for murder.”

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Author's Note: And thus begins the third adventure Of Heroes And Villains =D To all my new readers, welcome! To all my faithful readers, welcome back! While I strive to make my stories as self-contained as possible, if you have not read the previous stories in this series, I strongly recommend it, else many of the characters might lack critical context. Remember that comments, speculation and reviews feed the muse, and I hope you all enjoy the tale I have in store for you!