MsBlackandBlue

Thanks so much to everyone who has stuck with this story to the end! While I want to do some revisions for a second draft, I'm really proud of myself for pushing through and completing another novel. I'm not sure what my next project will be. I have a major one in mind that's going to take a lot of time and research. But I may try to split my focus between that and something else, so that I have something to post here in the meantime, since seeing everyone's comments is highly motivating. Anyway, thank you all again!

Adeline checked the location on her phone’s GPS, then checked her text messages to make sure she had input the right address, and finally checked the GPS once more. She was in the right place. However, this rundown apartment building sandwiched between an abandoned tattoo parlor and a halal bakery hardly seemed like the sort of location where she could meet with the leader of a supervillain organization.

Of course, that was assuming Tutamaqui truly was a supervillain organization. Details were sketchy and occasionally contradictory. Plus Michelle was still figuring out how to use her new abilities, so she had only been able to assist a little.

What was known for certain was that Tutamaqui had appeared mysteriously during the Heaven Battle to combat Valpurgia’s army of demons. At first, they seemed like a new group of cyborg superheroes, but the truth was revealed a few weeks later when STRIX released a statement acknowledging the existence of the group and asking the public to report encounters with them.

Since then, they had receded into the shadows. Crimes were occasionally attributed to them. An attack on a credit card company’s headquarters, a handful of fairly mundane robberies, the destruction of a few Dawn Industries transports, but nothing that approached the strength they had demonstrated against the demons. When asked about them in interviews, several Nova Legion members had shown disinterest in combating the group, even going so far as to imply that, while it was important to monitor their activities, they weren’t considered a threat at all.

This was where fact and rumor began to blend. It was believed that Tutamaqui was actively recruiting other supervillains into its ranks. At first it had been only minor ones no one had heard of with names like Quetzal or Bodkin, but now even headline-makers like Meteorite and the Visage were said to be members. Even some unlicensed superheroes like Whisper were thought to be associated with Tutamaqui.

Wading deeper in the rumors brought theories about how they operated. Most prominent was the belief that Tutamaqui helped the desperate. Those who owed debt to Arachne, or were being pursued by the police, or were trapped working for cruel supervillains, or cursed by stolen magical artifacts, could seek help from Tutamaqui without having to face punishment for any crimes they may have committed. Of course it was also said that there was a price to pay for their services. Fairfield’s criminal world ran on exchanges of favors, and Tutamaqui was no different. As the last hope for many people, they could ask for almost anything.

After that, the stories turned strange. Supposedly anyone could meet with Tutamaqui’s leader if they came to a certain location at certain times. But when she found the address Adeline had pictured a windowless bunker guarded by cyborgs, not a four-story housing unit bristling with window mounted air conditioners and a wooden door sporting a sign that said “Daisy’s office, apartment 103” along with a cute drawing of a daisy.

The sign did little to put her at ease, but Adeline entered and made her way past the stairs and laundry room to the correct apartment. This one bore a sign which read “Enter the realm of fear if you dare” in elaborate leaders designed to look as if they were dripping or melting. Below it, in someone else’s handwriting, a Post-it note read “Seriously, though, just come on in. No need to knock.”

Inside, in the combined living room and kitchen, there was a woman dressed in jeans and a tank top at the stove, cooking an egg.

“And the yolk is broken,” the woman said. “I guess this isn’t an egg over-easy.”

That was her? This messy-looking twenty-something who was struggling to make an egg was the leader of a powerful group of supervillains?

Daisy Delavore was said to be her name. But according to rumor, she was originally Shudder, the assistant to the infamous Dr. Tlön.

“Ms. Delavore?” Adeline asked.

“Call me Daisy,” Daisy replied. She scooped up the egg with her spatula and placed it on a cream cheese-slathered bagel sitting on a plate nearby, then she turned to face Adeline.

The first thing that struck Adeline was how tall she was. It was hard to tell from what blurry photos and grainy video footage she could find of Shudder, but Adeline hadn’t imagined the supervillain towering over her. However, she wasn’t intimidating and didn’t loom. In fact, she seemed quite friendly.

“I’ve come for…” Adeline hesitated. She hadn’t rehearsed this. Why had she come here? “...advice, I guess.”

Daisy nodded and smiled softly. “Advice is easy enough. Here, follow me.”

She led Adeline to a bedroom which had been converted into an office. A desk dominated the room, covered with a chaotic mess of books, papers, and a couple of old plates. There was a bookshelf, half-full of a mixture of fantasy novels and textbooks about psionics.

Daisy sat down at one side at the desk and gestured for Adeline to take a seat at the other side. Once they were settled, Daisy looked Adeline over and frowned, then opened her mouth as if to speak, seemed to change her mind and turned her attention to the bagel instead, taking a bite.

Adeline decided to speak first. “Is it true that you used to be Shudder? And that you were involved in the Heaven Battle?”

Daisy nodded and swallowed. “I killed Valpurgia. And Doc and I built the device that freed her mind control victims. That’s one of my prouder moments, though at the time we decided to keep it hidden from Lucas and the others, for obvious reasons.”

“Wait, you mean Lucas Delacroix? So the Outcasts were working with Tlön and Valkyrie?”

“And a bunch of other people, yeah,” Daisy replied. “But it was mostly the Outcasts who got us all working together. I keep in touch with them. Lucas is still leading the Outcasts, you know. He’s a good leader, but I think he’s mostly in it to find his missing mother. He’s researching some complicated metaphysical magic that apparently she’s involved with that kept her hidden from Amelia. Sila’s off-planet. They ran away with their fiance and now the two of them are fighting against both of their governments. Wasn’t expecting things to go in that direction. Oh, they took the Aerialist’s grandkid with them, too. My girlfriend updates me on the situation sometimes. Adam—he used to be Prometheus—runs a disability care center that specializes in disabilities relating to the supernatural. After the Heaven stuff, he changed his body and lost a bunch of height and density. He told everyone he wouldn’t be any good as a superhero after that, but really I think he just wanted to do something else.”

That was unexpected. Daisy was supposed to be a supervillain, but she was friends with superheroes? It sounded like a corruption scandal waiting to happen.

“So, what brings you here?” Daisy asked after a pause.

Adeline hesitated. “They say you ask for a price.”

Daisy rolled her eyes. “Look, when we help people, we expect them to help others in return, that’s all. That can mean a lot of things. Sometimes that means helping out Tutamaqui a little, others just do a bit of volunteer work for homeless shelters and stuff.” She sighed. “We’re here to help people who would otherwise give up hope, not rich assholes who want to avoid consequences when they’re caught selling weapons to warlords. You know, you tell a couple of billionaires that you’d be happy to help them if they donated all their money to mutual aid networks and suddenly you’re cast as some deal-making demon. Advice is just a conversation. The whole reason I have this office is so people can talk to me.”

“Yeah, I was wondering about that,” Adeline admitted.

“A lot of Tutamaqui has kind of an intimidating paramilitary vibe,” Daisy explained. “Not exactly an approachable look. So I spend a few hours out here every week so anyone can come in and talk if they need to. Of course, not everyone is safe walking into a place openly associated with Tutamaqui, but it’s part of casting a wide net, trying not to miss anyone who needs our help. Never imagined I was the sort of person who would have ‘office hours’ but…” She shrugged.

“So that’s it?” Adeline asked. “Your goal is just to help people?”

“Oh, no, we’re taking over the world,” Daisy replied.

Adeline found her eyes trailing over to the psionics textbooks on the bookshelf.

“That expression!” Daisy laughed. “I was being hyperbolic. Mostly. I mean, we do try to undermine the government and law enforcement since both encourage the poverty that we’re fighting. In the end, what we want is to change something about how the world operates. In a way, isn’t that ‘taking over the world?’”

“So you’re like some sort of…criminal charity?” Adeline asked. “But what about those books?”

Daisy turned to eye the bookshelf herself. “They’re just some studying I’m doing on the side. Since the Heaven Battle, I’ve sort of become the go-to expert when it comes to mind control. Even superheroes consult with me when they’re dealing with it. Need to study if I’m going to keep up that image. The thing is, I picked up more than I realized working with Doc. She made some major advancements in the field of psionics and I’m way ahead of those textbooks. I picked up some research papers too. They’re helping me close the gap between the wider field and Doc’s work. But it’s an under-researched field. Probably because a lot of psychics tend to lean a little into mysticism. Which actually leads to a hypothesis I’ve had—”

“That psionics exists where physics intersects with magic?” Adeline asked.

Daisy gave her a surprised look. “Yeah. It’s all about the…nature of thought...and...how did you know that? Are you a telepath?”

Adeline stared down at the desk. “Lately, information has been coming to me. Just bits and pieces when I interact with people. It’s not like thoughts, though. More like knowledge.”

Daisy’s eyes widened. “Knowledge that leads to change. The bridge between past and future. No way. You’re her, aren’t you? The new Verdandi.”

Adeline had wondered if Daisy would guess it. “I am.”

Daisy let out a quiet sigh. “I can’t imagine. Suddenly waking up and being an ancient goddess.”

I didn’t ask for any of this,” Adeline said. “I’m just a chemistry student.”

Daisy nodded, her expression concerned. “And then you learn about your predecessors. And the things they did.”

“So I looked for someone who knew them,” Adeline finished. “Hoping to find...I’m not sure. Something.”

Daisy grinned suddenly. “Well, I have more than advice. I have gifts.”

She hopped up from her chair and pushed the chair aside. Then she took one end of the desk and shifted it until the desk sat diagonal to the wall. She kneeled down to where the desk’s leg had sat and began picking at the floorboards, pulling them up one by one until she had created a large hole. Reaching inside, she pulled out a pair of books wrapped in cloth. Then she replaced the floorboards and returned the desk to its original position. Placing the objects on the desk, she unwrapped the first. It was old and worn, with nothing written on the cover.

“This is a record of the past Norns. It’s got names and dates of all the ones before you. The past is Urd’s area, but I guess the history of the Norns themselves falls under Verdandi’s expertise. It’s all complicated and kind of bleeds together, I think, but if you want to know about the other Verdandis, this is the place to start.”

She unwrapped the other. It looked less old, but still far from new.

“So if you’ve done your research, you know all about Tlön. The omega-level supervillain who built a mind control device and tried to take over the world. The mad scientist who manipulated a young homeless girl into being her fanatical follower.”

“She was a monster, from the sound of it,” Adeline said.

Daisy shrugged. “She did monstrous things. They all did. But if you want to know how she got there...” She gestured to the book. “That’s the place to start. That’s Samantha’s journal.”

Adeline picked it up and flipped through the pages, examining the illustrations, noting the way the handwriting and vocabulary changed suddenly.

“I saw glimpses of her,” Daisy said. “Even when we first met. It wasn’t a heartless supervillain who decided to give her test subject clothes and food and medicine. In a way, that made her more dangerous. Made it easy for me to see what I wanted to see in her.”

“But that makes her even worse, doesn’t it?” Adeline asked.

“Maybe,” Daisy replied. “But my point is that there was a time before all that. When she was a woman who worked with others instead of manipulating them. The Norns lost everything. Their home, their friends, two of them lost their freedom for a time. That doesn’t excuse their actions, of course, but I hope at least that it shows you that extreme circumstances drove them to become Valkyrie, Snapshot, and Tlön. There’s no reason to believe you’ll have the same fate.”

Adeline considered this for a moment. It was comforting, yes, but not satisfying. “Then how do I avoid becoming like them?”

“Adam would say it’s easy. Just don’t be a bad guy. He prefers to keep things simple like that.

“Lucas thinks that their mistake was stepping outside of their roles. The Norns are to guide, but not become directly involved in history, or they’re doomed to failure. They were supposed to guide and advise, not directly influence the world. Instead, they tried to build a utopia. And when that utopia failed, Doc and Miriam didn’t stop trying to change the world directly. Instead they became callous and cruel and willing to kill, and they failed once again. Meanwhile Amelia stuck to guiding and advising and, in the end, succeeded in her goals. So the numbers certainly favor that theory.”

“Is that what you think?” Adeline asked.

“I think you should do what you want,” Daisy replied. “If you want to advise, then that’s great. You certainly have a power that’ll help with that. But if you want to change the world more directly, then I don’t see why you should let anyone tell you whether or not you’re meant to. My only advice is that you listen to those you want to help most. Don’t assume you know better than them and don’t try to help them behind their backs and you’ll never be like Tlön.”

It wasn’t a completely unsatisfying answer, at least. “What happened to them in the end? Before the Heaven Battle, Miriam Korris was kidnapping people, wasn’t she? Tlön was in prison before Miriam broke her out. And wasn’t Snapshot a supervillain, too? But then Tutamaqui helped fight Valpurgia and became…” She gestured to Shudder. “This.”

“I think my friends and I helped give them back a little hope,” Daisy explained. “That was valuable enough to convince them to help us fight Heaven. Afterwards, they decided to put me in charge and the three of them returned to their roles as advisors. In the short time we had together, I came to deeply care for each of them. Even Miriam.”

Adeline raised her eyebrows at the confession.

Daisy grinned. “When you’ve done the things I did as a supervillain, it becomes easy to forgive others when they change. That’s what I care about, you know? When someone does something bad, I don’t care if they’re punished. I don’t even really care if they’re sorry. I just care whether they’re going to do it again. If there’s been a change, either to their attitude or circumstances, and they aren’t going to hurt anyone else, isn’t that the most important thing?”

“I think I understand,” Adeline said.

It made her feel better, looking at things in that way. It meant that she didn’t have to be perfect. She might make mistakes. She might even end up hurting people. But she could always change. She could always be better. She could be a good Verdandi.