Work Text:
Things had been fairly quiet lately. Helen hoped that meant they were approaching what Professor Quantum referred to as a lull.
That would be nice. It meant she would have time to work on some of her investigations for the Ridge City Reader. Perhaps find a way to get a new lead on the family that had hosted the Gala. Fornax showing up had thrown a wrench in her plans.
She hadn’t been able to leave him alone in good conscience, not with all those innocent guests around. And seeing how he’d refused to explore with her, she hadn’t been able to investigate them like she'd hoped.
Perhaps she could try to inquire about a follow-up interview about the gala…
Helen glanced around her surroundings. She froze at the sight of her boss standing in the center of the room. He seemed to be showing someone new around. Her eyes narrowed.
What in the world was Fornax doing at her workplace?
It took her only a few moments to reach him.
“And with that please welcome our new photographer, Ivan Parkour.”
There was a scattering of applause. No one else seemed to recognize him.
“Ah, Miss Calestis,” her boss noticed her. “Can I help you?”
Fornax looked at her with a smile that stated oh-so-clearly that he was here for her.
She needed to get him out of here. Out of here and away from her very fragile coworkers.
“I was wondering if our new coworker has had anyone assigned yet to show him around?”
“Oh, I was planning on finding an intern.”
“The last batch of interns just finished last week and the next round don’t start till next week, sir,” Helen reminded him. “Besides, I’m more than happy to show him around.”
“Are you sure? Perhaps I can find someone less busy.”
Helen picked her brain on how to convince him. Before she could, it seemed Fornax had decided to help.
“Helen would be perfect, it would be nice to have a familiar face show me around.”
“You two know each other?”
“We met and shared an intriguing evening together at the Gala,” Fornax stated bluntly. “It was good fortune that I was able to find her again.”
Well, two could play at a game.
“It is so nice to run into you, again. After that evening, I was wondering when we would next collide. I would love to show you around and learn about your current plans.”
“I see how it is,” her manager chortled. “I was young once, too. I’ll let you two be. Just don’t get too distracted.”
He wiggled his eyebrows and walked off before Helen could clarify it wasn’t like that.
Fornax just looked confused by the manager’s comments. Helen had noticed he didn’t seem the most aware of common innuendos and basic metaphors. She tried being as straightforward as possible when talking with him to avoid miscommunications.
“Shall we start our tour, Mr.—” Helen wracked her brain for the name he had used. “Mr. Parkour.”
“Sure.” It seemed he wasn’t going to be any less taciturn than all their previous interactions.
“Follow me,” Helen ordered him.
To her surprise, he followed.
She led him to the roof.
It wasn’t the closest, but the worst collateral damage there was the helicopter. Unless he tried to crash in the roof and, in that case, she just had to hope she could knock him off in time.
Still, she double checked they were alone. Their roof and other surrounding roofs were empty. Helicopter off on some story. The wind was loud though it didn’t seem to bother Fornax either.
“So, why are you here? Did you figure out who I am?” Helen tried to ignore the sudden thrill at the thought that he managed to figure it out. It might explain why he had thrown out his usual playbook. The allure of fighting Lodestar overpowering his normal ambivalence towards mundane life.
Fornax frowned. “You seem to know me and claim to be strong. You asked me to try and figure out who you are. I am merely trying to do exactly that. You ran away before I could succeed last time.”
Great. Just great.
Still, what if he was able to see through the protections?
It wasn’t like she had any surviving family for him to use to hunt her down. Most of her friends these days were capes anyway. A quick shift dealt with any poisons that might bother her. Besides, it wasn’t like Fornax had ever shown any interest in anything other than a straightforward slug-fest with other metas. Doctor Mechaniacal’s influence at the Gala withstanding.
As far as people to figure out her identity went, Fornax, or Ivan as he was calling himself, wasn’t the worst person. Better find out her limits through him than a less straightforward foe.
“I can’t blame you, as I am the one who set you on my trail in the first place. That said, I can’t have you picking fights anywhere near the office or harming anyone who works here. You have never attacked a non-metas before and I will not be the reason you start.”
“That seems reasonable, though I don’t anticipate being around long enough…”
His eyes were glowing with the runes that had given him the name, Fornax.
He frowned.
Helen bit her bottom lip. She vaguely felt something.
He looked at her.
Did he?!
The runes went out.
“It might take longer than I thought. No worries, I will figure this out eventually. Shall you continue the tour?”
He looked tense and his hands were clenched. Helen made a note of that. It seemed using his powers increased his propensity towards violence.
“Do you need to punch something?” she asked. “We can try squaring off without powers.”
She had led him to use his powers. It was up to her to find a safe method for him to release that tension without causing another disaster like Rhode Island.
“I have no interest in fighting someone easily breakable.”
“I’m sturdier than I look,” she teased. “If you do need something to fight.”
It might even be fun comparing their baselines without their powers. Just testing their raw skill against the other.
Fornax took her in trying to connect her with Lodestar. He shook his head. “I won’t cause trouble. You can continue the tour.”
Helen somehow believed him.
“Alright, I guess that means our next stop is my personal break room.”
Helen wasn’t sure what to expect bringing Fornax to her favorite pottery studio. Fornax evidently hadn’t known what to expect either. He stood awkwardly watching her.
“Come sit down,” she told him.
“This is your personal break room?” Fornax looked confused at the handful of other people working on their own art.
“It is. I like to come here when I’m feeling stressed or overwhelmed. I find punching clay clay can be cathartic.”
He continued to watch her roll her ball of clay on the table but otherwise didn’t move.
“This is part of the tour?”
“That is correct. Knowing where and how you can calm down are essential for this line of work.”
Fornax finally sat down.
Helen handed him the other piece of clay she had picked up.
“Give it a try and let me know your thoughts.”
Fornax frowned and finally decided to punch it. It splattered across the studio and both of their faces.
Fornax looked stupefied.
He looked so awkward and human in that moment Helen couldn’t help laughing.
“I seem to have mistaken the amount of force necessary to punch the clay with. I thought it would be stronger.” He started to awkwardly stand up. “I will do my best to gather it back up.”
Before he could another block of clay was dropped in front of him.
“Do not worry,” a very familiar voice told them. Of course, the one of the owners had noticed. “We have plenty of clay to spare. Besides, what is another layer of clay in a room covered in it? Just try to learn your strength faster than this one.”
Helen felt her face turning beet red. Her first attempts at pottery had left just as much of a mess as Ivan’s. Unlike her though, he hadn’t left a crater in a few of the tables. If it wasn’t for the owner’s insistence she keep trying she would have given it up long ago. She didn’t have true super strength on her own but she was still a lot stronger than her form implied.
Ivan looked at Helen appraisingly as if he’d just had some sort of epiphany.
“Good to know. Thank you, ma’am.”
The owner turned to Helen.
“Perhaps you can walk your man through making a pinch pot. Should be a more satisfying first project than endlessly decorating the walls.”
With that, the woman wandered back to check on other clients.
Helen looked at Fornax. Ivan looked at her.
“So how does one… make a pinch pot?”
Helen walked him through the steps starting with turning the clay into a ball.
“Once you’ve got a decent ball shape, you dig in with your thumbs and slowly start to widen it so the hole gets bigger.”
Despite the initial clay explosion, he quickly picked it up without many more mistakes. For someone known for his brute force, it was fascinating how much control he had.
“This is more soothing than I may have previously assumed,” Ivan admitted. “Though I am still unsure how it relates to work.”
“I just figured it would be good to show some of the tools I use when I’m feeling stressed… What do you normally do when you need to be calm and can’t find something to punch?”
Ivan pondered this for a bit. She wondered if he was going to blow her off like at the Gala. She had stilled gotten more from him than she anticipated.
“I try a few things here and there…”
She hadn’t expected an answer.
“Recently I tried learning to cook.”
Her eyes lit up.
“How’s that going?”
Ivan shrugged. “Food is food.”
“Listen, I don’t know how your powers work but if you ever need a fight, my offer of a friendly duel without powers is always open as long as you give me time to prepare a safe place. Also, if you ever want to try something new, I am always happy to help you find something else you might like. Who knows, maybe you will find something you like more than brawling.”
“Listen, I understand I am invading your private life. I will behave myself accordingly while I figure out your meta identity. I will be civil. That I am not interested in being preached at. If I was looking for unnecessary sanctimony, I would bother Lodestar.”
And they were back at square one.
Helen wasn’t dumb enough to think any suggestion would solve his issues, but she knew every little bit helped. If he was here and even partially willing to listen, she had to try.
Babysitting Ivan turned out to be a surprisingly easy job. Helen had worried she would have to keep an eye on him to keep him from murdering someone in a fit of rage. Instead, he was almost normal.
He wasn’t causing trouble. He even seemed to have wholly dedicated himself to his job as a photographer as if he didn’t spend his days regularly getting into fist fights.
He even came in one day with cookies.
Her coworkers had gone from being neutral about the guy to full on adoring him.
To make matters worse, Helen could tell Ivan was just as confused by this change as she was. He wasn’t trying to manipulate anyone, he was just straightforward and as dedicated to the task of fitting in so he could spy on her.
After the third time, his eyes started glowing when he thought no one was looking, Helen cracked.
A quick break later she was standing in front of him and shoving a cheap pair of sunglasses at him.
“Take it,” she told him.
He looked at the sunglasses and at her.
Helen didn’t like lying but seeing as how the truth would cause a mass panic, it seemed a little bit of deception might be necessary.
“For your eye condition,” she told him. “I figured it would help when you get your ticks.”
When they next had the chance, she would explain that it was to hide the glowing runes in his eyes.
Ivan took it and thankfully put it on.
Helen ignored their coworkers who were politely pretending they weren’t watching.
It finally happened: Lodestar got a call to duty while at work.
She barely managed to evade Ivan, who had taken to following her everywhere as if she were the one he was babysitting.
A quick transformation, and she was off to stop the latest city-destroying monster.
She returned to find Ivan looking for her outside the bathroom.
“Everything good?”
He looked confused and frowned. “I didn’t see you leave.”
“Some would think you’re stalking me.”
“I thought I made my goals quite clear.”
They walked to their desks together.
“You were called on Cape business weren’t you?” Ivan finally asked.
Helen paused a moment before answering. “Yes.”
“You needn’t have bothered. Lodestar showed up and took care of it by herself. I got to watch.”
Helen wanted to scream. She took a pottery break in the studio across the road instead.
Weeks passed and she had given up on him figuring it out. However, he had been remarkably well-behaved lately, so she wasn’t going to interfere with his apparent mission to unmask her.
Besides, it was a fun to see how far she could push it without him connecting the dots.
Dropping a fashion magazine in front of him, she pointed at a model with white hair styled after Lodestar’s.
“I wonder how I would look with that color hair.”
Ivan had frowned as he struggled to connect the dots.
“Like a person with white hair?” he finally concluded.
“So close,” Helen sighed and shook her head.
It was kind of fun to tease him.
“Thoughts on going to Hallowville if Spooky Trudy shows this year? Maybe I could dress as Lodestar and you could be … your other self?”
Ivan jolted and then frowned.
“What’s Hallowville?”
So Helen leaned over and explained the mysterious town that appeared every couple of Halloweens.
As she sauntered away, she heard someone ask Ivan when he was going to get around to asking her out.
Helen nearly laughed at the idea of Fornax unknowingly asking Lodestar out.
She was still amused when he came over later that day and asked her if she was free that evening.
It took her a few moments to mentally review her schedule. “I don’t have anything set, so unless I’m called to cover a crisis, I should be available.”
“Then, assuming no sudden crisis appears, be prepared for me to drop by your place to take you out this evening,” Ivan informed her.
This time, it was her who blinked a few times before finally settling on “Okay,”
He was already walking away at that point, though.
Forewarned is forearmed in most cases. Particularly with Helen’s decade of experience as a Cape. Still, even the best Cape can get taken off guard at times.
Helen’s apartment was provided by the AHC. The sheer amount of protections, magical and technological were mind boggling.
So Helen’s assumption that if a known meta criminal, like say Fornax, were to follow her through the gate, an alarm would go off was not an unrealistic expectation.
She hadn’t been counting on Doctor Mechaniacal spending the last three weeks making sure that didn’t happen. After all, it was the perfect chance to prove his talent.
The last thing she remembered was dropping her work bag down and trying to think of what sort of outfit would be good for whatever date Fornax had planned.
She’d turned around and spotted Fornax, mask, runes, and all.
“Don’t move, I’m going to try not to hurt you too badly,” he’d informed her.
He’d moved before she had the time to react and everything went black.
Helen woke up in a derelict warehouse with a pounding head that quickly went away.
It seemed Fornax hadn’t bothered trying to tie her up.
Another glance around confirmed there was no one around, and the only entrance was a wooden door.
It was safe to transform. Helen breathed in, Lodestar breathed out.
Regardless of everything, Fornax had gone too far. It was one thing to try and break through her identity protections at her behest. It was another thing to kidnap a cape while off-duty.
They needed to have a talk, which, knowing Fornax, would likely end in a brawl.
She stormed through the door and paused.
Far from a mere warehouse, someone had transformed the entrance into a medium-sized professional kitchen. Fornax was by the stove, making something that smelled surprisingly delicious.
“So what’s going on here?” Lodestar asked. “Mind explaining why you kidnapped me?”
Fornax didn’t turn around. “I thought you knew. I told you I was taking you out on a date.”
Lodestar felt a thrill. He hadn’t noticed she had transformed. This was new.
“What part of taking me on a date involves kidnapping?”
Fornax paused. “Isn’t that what taking you out means?”
Oh…
Lodestar wondered what his life was like up to now that his default assumption to everything was violence.
“Only in the context of a fight. Dating is not combat. When it comes to dating, it just means waiting by their place and letting them join you on their own two feet or in a vehicle. Breaking into their home and kidnapping them should never come into play. I dearly hope for the sake of your future partners, this was a simple misunderstanding. If not, next time you won’t get away with a simple warning from me.”
“I knew Wade was messing with me.”
She mentally noted the name he had mentioned. She didn’t know anyone named Wade, leastwise a presumed villain, but any clue would help.
“So, was the goal of the date to learn more about me to puzzle out my identity?”
Fornax nodded. “I heard food was a good date activity. So, I decided I would make dinner.”
That was at least straightforward at least.
Before she could decide to transform back, he turned.
There was a pause.
“Lodestar,” Fornax finally stated.
“Fornax,” she replied back.
He looked at her. Looked at where Helen had come from. Then he looked back at her.
“Hold on, I need to check something quickly,” he finally stated.
He teleported before Lodestar could respond. Fortunately, he was back a moment later.
“I seem to have misplaced my date,” he told her. “She was just there in the other room.”
“I am aware,” Lodestar told him. “That’s why I’m here.”
“She was just here, and then she vanished, and you’re here.” Fornax was talking slowly. “All without setting off the wards. Weird.”
“If we’re going to fight, shall we take it outside?”
“I’m not fighting,” Fornax stated. “I’m not supposed to attack my coworkers and she couldn’t have just left. She was right here.”
“Would it help if I put on my glasses?”
“Why would glasses help?” Fornax asked. “You’re the Lodestar. You have perfect vision.”
He checked under the counter and in the back room again.
Lodestar sighed.
“This is on me,” Fornax stated. “I don’t know how I lost a whole person. This is new.”
He checked on the stove. “Just when the food is almost done, too. Do you think you could help me look for her?”
“I can assure you she is fine,” Lodestar told him. “Just don’t start a habit of kidnapping any other of my Capes or else we will have trouble whether you want it or not.”
She prepared to fly away, when Fornax suddenly grabbed her hand.
“Since my original guest is gone, stay for dinner?” he pleaded. “I made too much anyway.”
Lodestar should say no, but it smelled so good. It tasted even better too. Somehow, Fornax was good at fighting and cooking.
It wasn’t until her watch started buzzing that she flew off. Fornax was still looking for his mysteriously vanished “guest”.
Helen wasn’t sure how things would be when she showed up to work the next day.
Between being kidnapped and convincing Professor Quantum she didn’t need to fake her civilian identity’s death and go into witness protection, it had been a late night.
Fornax rarely went after civilians, and he only targeted her because she’d asked him to.
Helen was fine. Which was why she was walking into her office with a massive coffee cup overflowing with sweeteners and caffeine. If only for the placebo effect.
She made it approximately three steps towards her desk before Ivan grabbed her and yanked her into their favorite one-on-one location, the paper closet.
“Where were you last night?” Ivan demanded. “You vanished and Lodestar showed up.”
Helen blinked.
“Have you considered that I’m Lodestar?”
It was way too early for this. Even if it was closer to 9 am than she normally aimed for.
“Lodestar doesn’t wear glasses,” Ivan reminded her.
“I don’t know, I think we look kinda similar.”
“Maybe like you’re sisters?” Ivan seemed genuinely off-put.
Helen took a sip of her coffee. Sweet and creamy. Just the way she liked it.
“Well I’m here now and I’m fine.”
“I gave Lodestar your food.”
“I know, it was delicious.”
Ivan narrowed his eyes. “Next time I find Lodestar, I’ll let her know I found you.”
He left. Helen took a moment of the silence to take another sip. It was good to know he had in fact kept his word.
Time for another hectic day.
The last thing Helen wanted at the end of the week was to be on the wrong end of a stick up.
It happened every once in a while. Criminals deciding they want to take the local newspaper hostage to run their own advertisements or whatever.
This one was a cyborg army and they’d actually disconnected the emergency button before attacking.
Within moments, Ivan was next to her.
“I’ll distract everyone, you get under a desk and summon Lodestar or whatever. I’m not getting trapped here for hours.”
He didn’t give her a chance to respond before charging at the bots.
Helen ducked under a desk.
There was the sound of focused shooting.
Lodestar came up from under the desk.
Time slowed around her.
Fornax grinned wildly at her and then the blasts hit him. He fell though Lodestar was pretty sure he was just acting.
She charged, removing the weapons from the robots and tying them up with the oh-so-convenient chains they kept in the corner for situations like this.
Time speed up back to normal as she called in the attack.
“All is well. Back up will be coming shortly to help with the clean up.”
Then she grabbed Ivan’s prone form before people realized he was still breathing and flew up the stairwell to the roof.
She let him go gently. She had a feeling he would wiggle away if she tried to actually drag him off to jail.
“So, how long have you known?”
Fornax swiped off his sunglasses and smiled at her. His eyes filled with the runes that meant he was using his powers.
“Fight you for that knowledge?” He offered.
Lodestar sighed. Then readied herself for the coming assault.
Fornax grinned widely and charged.
Back to business as usual then.