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Rain, always the rain. The endless downpour of water as the clouds broke open, smashing their hatred of humanity into the ground.
And within that rain, grace.
Melanie Fitts was a mercenary. Someone who did violence for money. Her clients paid her to deal with problems swiftly and permanently. They didn’t pay her to do it with style, that was the part she did for herself.
So today, she’d cut straight through an old cold-war era bunker, coldly (and cold while) observing as the torrentuous rain entered into the underground complex, joined by a river they’d rerouted. Down there, her targets would be swimming for their lives, moving their way through a complex constantly being churned around by Labyrinth’s abilities. Once they finally reached the surface, they would be too soaked and exhausted to put up much of a fight against the rest of the squad.
A single spark of light shone from down below, matched by a single vial of spit from Newter. Whoever wished to retreat from the place would have to deal with hallucinations in addition to the pouring onslaught of water and Labyinth’s-
Melanie patted at her suit’s pockets, feeling for the source of the movement. Not the professional phone, which meant there wouldn’t be a last-minute change of plans from the employer. Which meant it was her other phone, which was worse.
Faultline stepped back from the battlefield, shifting her mind, trying to get away from badass superpowered merc and into being a twenty-something just out of college. Her parents still thought she’d gotten a Masters in International Quantum Cyber-Chemistry, and she was going to keep it that way.
“Hey mom, it’s me!” she chippered into her phone.
“Hi Mel, how are you doing? I’m great, the dermatologist told me I’ll make a full recovery, but that’s not important, today is about you.”
“I’m fine mom, doing great! Though you know what that new England weather is about, constant rain!”
“Well, that’s good to hear. Did you find a job yet? I know you can do it! And don’t forget about your niece’s wedding next month! Can you believe Katie says Nissa’s already pregnant, and that’s why they’ve pulled it forwards. Can’t believe she’ll be a grandmother before I’ll be. But maybe you can bring along a plus one? Pretend you just don’t want to awkwardly be on your own, then grab your chance when they’re drunk on the free bar?”
“Mom!”
2 mil in the bank and still it was raining Melanie’s head. Life sucked sometimes.
“-eally it’s about communication. Once she understands that our leader has a different set of priorities, she will ease off on the constant reminders. These are simple lifestyle choices that should be respected. Not only is it none of her business but modern technology means that women are ferti-”
“Not helping Gregor,” Newter interjected.
“Maybe I could help out?” Shamrock asked. “Not to presume or anything, but what if I came along to the wedding? If we could deceive her mother into thinking she was sapphic in her interests, perhaps that would make her back off?”
“It won’t,” Melanie said.
“Yeah, we already tried that,” Spitfire added. “Turns out that monster just started calling this Bio-Tinker she found on the internet. I barely got away before she was able to take a blood sample during a birthday party.”
“There is simply no escape” Melanie murmured, hiding behind an array of wooden sticks on her desk. She could solve any problem in the world, but she couldn’t solve her mother. Even bringing Emily along had only made things worse. Which was remarkably progressive but still horrible in its own way.
The worst thing, however, wasn’t that her mother was an incorrigible monster that would never, ever, ever shut up about when she was going to have grandchildren. No, the problem was that Melanie knew the solution to her problem.
It just wasn’t a solution she wanted to put into action. Disappearing, or making her mother disappear, would be preferable to doing that.
But Julia Fitts was too resourceful to hide from, and more stubborn than a cockroach, that woman would never die. Which left her with only one option, to convince her mother that her taste in romantic partners was worse than living without grandchildren. Which meant she had a simple option, one single person to hire. Another cape, another merc. One that didn’t get paid in money, but in dignity.
Lisa Wilbourn, Melanie hated to admit, cleaned up nicely. Hair done up in an elaborate braid that wouldn’t be out of place in a period drama, and wrapped in flowing streams of sky-blue silk, with just a few ( probably stolen ) pieces of jewelry to attract attention to the eyes, and away from the freckles. Tattletale had probably used her power for that, which was cheating.
“I have to say, I’m surprised you had the actual class to dress up,” Melanie said as they finally started to approach the venue, her car splashing through puddles on the country road. The two-hour ride upstate had been awfully awkward, which Tattletale had seemed to delight in, horrible little twat that she was.
Which was the point Melanie reminded herself. No point in bringing someone nice along. Her only opportunity for freedom and solace was to convince her mother that her taste in romantic partners was so bad that the world would be better off if she was perpetually single.
“What, did you expect me to arrive at the wedding in white or something like that?” Tattletale —No, Lisa, she had to remind herself to call her Lisa for now—asked.
Melanie wasn’t certain whether to be horrified or or gleeful at the way her date had put the emphasis in that sentence. Probably both.
“Either way, how are you around spiders? The big fuzzy ones specifically?” Lisa asked.
“Please tell me you didn’t recruit whoever took down Lung together with Armsmaster…”
“Okay, then I won’t tell you,” Tattletale said with that horrible vulpine grin of hers. It was absolutely infuriating, and therefore perfect.
***
Oak Valley Glade was, Melanie had to admit, the perfect wedding venue. Surrounded by forested hills, there was a large open field with a small lake next to it, and an old summer home from somewhere in the gilded age that had been converted to house a large ball-room with an open bar, and sleeping arrangements for both the visitors and the happy couple. Large, old oaks surrounded it, and there was a field filled with a thousand different blooming wildflowers, including a beehive that would provide the freshest of honey to the guests. If she was ever getting married, this would be the kind of place she wouldn’t pick, because the forested hills around it provided enemies with the perfect approach, allowing them to surround the wedding party from the high ground while remaining unseen until the final second.
Lovely, but tactically impermissible.
She parked the car, changed to her heels, then stepped out to see her mother already approaching from the distance. Before the creature could arrive, she moved around the car, opening the passenger side door, helping Lisa out of the vehicle, who took up a perfect pose besides Melanie, linking their arms together.
“Mel dear, so nice to see that you finally made it!” her mother said, moving forwards to give Melanie three kisses on her cheeks, each wetter than the last. “And who’s this lovely young lady?”
“Hi, I’m Lisa,” Tattletale said with an actual curtsy. It looked lovely, but she was grinning. Why was she grinning?
“I’m Julia Fitts, Melanie’s mother, but you must’ve already known that. And can I just compliment you on that lovely dress?”
“It’s really your dress that deserves the compliment,” Tattletale replied, hiding her face behind one hand shyly as she continued. “I mean, it’s so well-tailored, you barely notice the marks!”
Julia froze for a half-second with a wonderful look on her face, then continued like nothing had happened.
“And Mel, I’m just so happy that you finally found someone to bring joy to your life again. I couldn’t bear to see you with that Emily girl, she just wasn’t right for you you know? Too fiery of a personality.”
“Oh I couldn’t possibly live up to that,” Tattletale replied. “I’m way too shy for that.”
Melanie had not been seated on the front row. She had, however, been seated on the second row, which was good enough. Kept her out of the spotlight. The spot itself was beautiful, though perhaps picked more for the ‘gram than for the guests’ comfort, just in front of the lake, in the middle of the wildflower meadow,
On her left side sat a distant cousin from the other side of the family. On the right, Lisa was leaning against her, acting like she was tired while making strange finger movements where nobody could see.
Katie’s groom, a passable young man with a suit that betrayed more cash than style (though it was a lot of cash) stood very still, incredibly tense in his wait for the very first few notes of the music. He looked like a man stuck somewhere halfway between fight and flight, and according to Lisa it’d mostly been unspoken pressure from his family to at least marry the girl before the due date. After all, it was generally known that, though most pregnancies started about nine months before the birth, the first one could take far less time.
The music started, the first clear notes from the piano breaking a tense silence as Lisa perked up. “Remember to be supportive” she mouthed, presuming that Melanie could lipread, which she could. It was one of the most important skills for a top–level superpowered operative to have, right next to combat skills, first aid, and being able to do all of that while holding down immense amounts of expensive liquor.
Melanie held herself very still as the bride slowly walked down the aisle in a resplendent white dress, her hair adorned with pearls and gold while she needed three children to help carry the gown’s train.
It was a very emotional sight as her cousin walked towards her future accompanied by some of the most beautiful piano playing she’d ever heard. Which meant it was shameful that she was still caught by surprise when the bride suddenly started screaming for her life with a shrill sound that pierced through the entire valley.
A large black and brown spider larger than Gregor’s fists was climbing up the front of the bride’s dress, quickly clawing it’s way past legs, hips and slightly showing belly to settle upon the Decolleté.
It was the groom that first sprang into action, leaping to his bride’s rescue after a tiny squeamish yelp. The man had grabbed a bouquet of flowers from the decorations and attacked, quickly managing to get the spider away from his Bride, though he’d managed to create a minor wardrobe malfunction in her dress while doing so.
It was at this point, while everyone was gasping, that Lisa sprang into action, running towards the couple, then breaking out in a heartbreaking howl.
Melanie quickly followed behind her, having been through enough battles to know when to trust when your allies have a plan.
“Tina… please… please be alright Tina,” Lisa spoke in a trembling voice, kneeling before the corpse of the smashed spider, sobbing loudly.
Melanie hugged her quickly, burying Lisa’s body against her own in a sign of faked emotional support and nothing else, and as everyone’s attention had shifted to the sobbing young lady in the middle of the aisle, Melanie walked towards the groom.
This man is probably an arse, but he doesn’t deserve this Melanie’s moral compass shouted, but she ignored that useless little voice as she swung out her arm in a perfect arc, placing her fingers just so for maximum audible impact as they smashed against the man’s bare cheeks.
“You… you killed her, her…” Melanie wasn’t sure what to say, wasn’t even sure how to say it. “You killed Tina the emotional support Tarantula, you monster!”
It had started to rain. Well, not really rain, it was more of a soft drizzle. Not enough to make you run indoors, but enough to make you uncomfortable.
The lucky pair had retreated indoors, where they were performing their first dance, but a large part of the audience was missing.
Several of Melanie’s distant cousins, and some of the Groom’s friends, were busy with shovels, digging a small, deep hole, while one of the bridesmaids had arrived with a small but fancy wooden box that had once carried some sort of wedding supplies.
Even the pianist was still around, playing a sad, somber piece on the Grand Piano, and the rest of the audience was listening in glee as Lisa spun a strange and captivating tale involving being orphaned by two different Endbringers, an evil stepmother, bass-boosted rap music, an organ trafficking ex-boyfriend and several different corrupt government agencies. This all while sobbing tears that Melanie was mostly sure were fake, and sitting in Melanie’s lap, holding the corpse of the large, fuzzy tarantula.
The worst part was that the increased humidity and rain was doing something to the color of Lisa’s dress, washing out the pigments, leaving behind only…
Yeah, Tattletale totally would do that.
Slowly, gently, and with a lot of sobbing, they placed the Tarantula’s body in the tiny box, and as something bumped against one of the legs, Lisa cried out that Tina always jittered with that leg when she was happy , breaking down once more right in Melanie’s arms.
This was getting a bit embarrassing, which was the entire point, she knew.
As part of the audience started throwing dirt on top of the coffin, Melanie tried to look empathic. “Lisa, I hate to see you hurt like this because you are my one and only soulmate. The perfect woman with no flaws that I have always dreamed of.”
“I just… I just wish we could’ve buried him with people that wore better perfumes,” Lisa replied.
In the distance, it became darker, as the power in the house suddenly cut out, while the few remaining lights in the garden somehow kept working perfectly, especially around the area where Melanie was cradling Lisa, whose dress had, by now, completely lost its color, becoming perfectly white.
As everyone left the now dark and terrifying old mansion, Melanie could see their gazes naturally drift towards the two of them, and wondered if there was any limit to the depths of this woman’s evil, evil plans.
She looked down at the girl, bottle-glass green staring right back at her, and asked.
“Lisa my dearest, is there anything I can do for you?” she said in a voice that was certain to carry.
“Melanie my love, Marry me?” Lisa asked, holding a golden ring with a diamond slightly bigger than Katie’s one that she’d hidden somewhere on her person beforehand.
“Of course,” Melanie replied, joining in on the worst thing one could possibly do at a wedding, knowing that her mother would never again nag her about grandchildren. “Of course I’ll marry you.”
Melanie leaned back against the nightclub’s balcony, basking in the rain she loved so much. The plan had worked, and it had been two weeks since her mother had last called her and asked about fertility clinics and other such nonsense.
The only problem was… It had almost worked too well. It had all been a horrible day, but… she needed another festivity, another family outing, an excuse to invite Lisa along and properly drive in that final nail.
Yes, that was definitely the only reason she wanted to invite Lisa along.