“Sooo? Who’s the lucky gal? Or is it a guy…?” I teased the armored ex-villain.

He could only sigh in exasperation. “I told you it’s not like that… It’s… really complicated. Not something you have to worry about right now.”

“Uh-huh. Complicated. What, are you secretly dating a villain or something? Some Romeo and Juliet action?”

Fractal froze for a split second before answering with a firm tone. “I. Am. Not Dating. Anyone. Now, please, focus on our mission, will you?”

Suspicious.

“Sure, sure.”

I loved teasing my former boss. It was such a refreshing change of pace from being teased myself. Still, I couldn’t use Fractal’s secret love affair as a distraction forever. I had to face my past at some point. Even if the idea of assaulting my family still made me nervous.

“Let’s go over the basics,” Fractal announced. “Our job is to cause as much distraction as possible. We don’t need to do anything else, just keep them busy while the main force strikes them where it hurts.”

A round of nods followed.

“Now… From what you’ve said, there are at least three people with powers, correct?” my ex-boss addressed me.

“Uh, yeah. They never showed it off to me, but it’s pretty obvious that both my parents and also my sister have powers.”

“Wait, you have a sister? First time hearing that.” Troy raised an eyebrow.

I frowned.

There was a good reason why I’d never mentioned having a sister to my roommate.

“She’s… just like them. A jerk I wouldn’t mind punching in the face.” Then I sighed. “She wasn’t always like that… I vaguely remember playing with her as a kid. But eventually… She just turned into another judgemental ass.”

Fern and Troy exchanged looks.

“Any ideas on their powers?”

I shook my head.

“That might make it a bit complicated… But that’s fine, we can leave dealing with them to the main force, after all.”

I frowned. I didn’t need to confront them during the strike, I could just visit them later in prison or something. But part of me felt like that was cheating.

“With that said, our opponents won’t just be people with powers. Even the unpowered minions can carry dangerous weapons, so I went ahead and tinkered up suits for everyone.”

Fractal did an odd hand gesture and the wall of his workshop opened, revealing four suits of armor.

“Ooh! Superhero suits! Nice!” Troy exclaimed.

“Wait, there’s five of us, though?” Kelly noticed.

“Aster already has her own costume.” The tinker shrugged. “And even without it, she’s probably gonna be fine, all things considered.”

I frowned, remembering my poor toe and nose.

“So which one is mine? And what can they do?” Troy interrupted again.

“Right…” Fractal turned to him before stopping for a second. “Have you three decided on codenames yet, by the way?”

Miranda and Troy exchanged a grimace.

“Yup! For some reason, these two thought it was a good idea to bet against Aster, with the punishment for losing being Aster deciding on their names,” Kelly said with glee.

“That’s… Very foolish…” Fractal carefully said.

“Hey, I was drunk! You can’t blame a drunk man!” Troy argued.

“I… I have no excuse,” Miranda looked to the side, crossing her arms. And blushing.

I grinned, remembering that little ordeal.

“Well, alright. What are the names, then?”

“Alrighty!” I came forward whilst rubbing my hands. ”Since Troy refused to be called a meatshield, I decided to call him something more respectable! Everyone, welcome the Buckler!” My grin widened.

“More respectable, my ass! You just took the lamest sounding synonym and used that! Why can’t I at least be Aegis, or Vanguard, or something!”

I laughed, realizing that he had already accepted being some kind of shield.

“Because you are lame! I had to pick a name that would be in character!”

He growled but didn’t argue anymore. “Fine! I lost the bet, so I’ll take it like a man! I’ll be the greatest Buckler the world has ever seen!”

“Great!” We both grinned at each other.

“Next up!” I turned to his sister. “Since Miranda is already a master at karate and can handle herself, I picked a name that would be a lot mightier and also very fitting!” I stepped to the side gesturing at her in a ta-dah motion. “Everyone, please meet Apefist!”

She just palmed her face and murmured, “Oh my god…” into it.

There was applause from Kelly.

Miranda glared at her. “You traitor!”

Kelly merely giggled.

“Well, that’s that. What about you, though?” Fractal turned to Kelly.

“Well…” She put a finger on her mouth. “I’ve been thinking about it. You know how I’m always trying out your new blasters?”

“Hmm? Yes. You are surprisingly good with those, to be honest.”

“Of course! The last time I went to the shooting range, I scored perfect marks almost every time!”

“Wait, why do you visit a shooting range?” Fern asked.

Kelly just shrugged. “It’s fun?”

“Huh…”

“So I was thinking whether you would let me use these guns of yours in real action rather than just testing them?” Kelly asked, hopeful.

“I wouldn’t mind at all. You’re a better shot than me, and it would be a waste to keep it all to myself if you can use them better.”

“Great!” Kelly beamed. ”Well with that, I thought a good name for my heroic self would be Shockshot.” Kelly mimicked shooting a gun with her fingers.

Huh, Kelly was into this a lot more than I thought.

“Alright then.” Fractal nodded. “With your names decided, we can move to the suits now. They are very similar to what I’d made for Aster back in the day. They are heat insulated, have built-in jetpacks, voice modulator, and a couple of other things.”

Ah, the voice modulator. That sure brought me back.

“They should protect you from any conventional weapons, and even a few exotic ones. It should be more than enough for what we need to do. I can still make some adjustments if needed though.”

“Nice.” It almost felt like there should be a tail wagging behind Troy as he turned to Fractal. “Can we try it on?”

“Sure.”

A bit of scrambling around and looking-away-while-everyone-changed later and four armored figures I would never recognize as my friends and my girlfriend stood in front of me.

“Whoa, it fits perfectly!” Miranda exclaimed.

“This feels amazing!” Troy cheered.

“Awesome,” Kelly agreed.

“Good. Welcome to the team, Buckler, Apefist, Shockshot,” Fractal said with a smile.

The two siblings slumped as Kelly giggled.

“So unfair…”

“She’s the only one with a decent name…”

I kept grinning, but part of me began feeling restless because of the upcoming mission.

I was going to attack my own family.

With the help of my new family.

BottledChaos

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