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Devil gave a whine of discomfort as Casey draped a fresh cold towel on his forehead. “Oh, I know, cariño, but it’s to help you get better!” She soothed.
“Jeez, who knew dinosaurs could get the cold?” Lunella exclaimed as she pulled on latex gloves to dispose of a giant, disgusting pile of tissues next to Devil.
“I know right! You poor enomorado,” Casey sang, petting the dino pityingly.
Ping!
Lunella snapped off her gloves to glance at her phone. “Ughhh,” she groaned as she glared at it. “Really? Now?”
“What’s wrong?” Casey asked, looking over.
“A villain is attacking the LES! Now!”
“Eso no es bueno,” Casey winced, bringing her nails up to her teeth. “What are you going to do? Go without devil?”
“I guess I have to,” Lu sighed, snagging her Moon Girl suit that had been sitting on a nearby table.
Devil whined in protest, struggling to stand for a moment before falling back down with a thud that shook the lab.
“I’m sorry, D, but you’re in no shape to be kicking villain butt!” Lunella said, walking towards the exit.
“Don’t worry though, I can handle myself on my own for a day! I’ll be fine!” she declared, giving a dismissive wave. “By the way, you don’t mind staying to take care of Devil for me, do ya Case?”
“Of course not but I don’t know, Lu.” Casey wrung her hands. “Do you really think that’s a good-“
“SorryIcan’thearyoubecauseI’mtotallyfineandtotallygoingtokickvillainbuttallbymyselfokaybyeee!!!” Lunella interrupted quickly, shooting out of the lab before either of her friends could convince her otherwise.
Casey’s hand automatically reached out as she gave an unsure whine. Devil looked at her with concern.
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Lunella whooped as she flew on her skates, passing murals and food carts, waving to familiar faces and doing special skate tricks for delighted kids, until until she finally screeched around a corner to find-
Nothing.
Lu stopped in her tracks.
“Huh?”
She whipped out her Moon Scanner. The villain was two blocks over!
“What?! But he was here a second ago!” Lu exclaimed, pushing the button for her jet pack and taking off in the direction her scanner pointed her. “How is he so fast?”
She weaved between and above colorful buildings before finally coming out on a long stretch of street to see an electric blue blur shoot around the corner of the next block.
“Hey!”
Lunella scrambled to fly after what had to be the villain, but when she dashed past the corner they were already rounding the next.
“What?!” She exclaimed in exasperation, stopping for a moment. She needed to think. “How do I…” she hovered there for a moment, her hand on her chin.
Suddenly, a lightbulb went off in her head and she gasped, bringing a fisted hand down onto her palm for emphasis. “That’s it!” She flew up to perch on the top of one of the taller buildings. “Hey Case?” She said into the intercom in her helmet.
“I’m here Lu,” Came back a slightly frantic voice. “You okay? What’ch you need?”
“Can you show me where this villain has been so far?”
A scoff. “Obviously! I just have to check all the posts about a new villain popping up…” Lunella smiled as furious typing came through the speaker, until “Got ‘em! Okay, putting it through to your goggles now.”
A click, and then a green map of the city with a pink path highlighted along the streets popped into Lu’s vision. “I knew it!” She grinned. “Thanks Case!” She said as she clicked the disconnect button on her Moon Scanner.
“Wait Lu how are you-“ Casey’s voice cut off.
Lunella winced. Oops. She shook herself out of it, though, and zoomed around on the map as she spoke. “I knew there must be a pattern! They’re hitting all the delis!” She cheered. “Dang, that’s one hungry supervillain. What’s their name, the ravenous rampager?” Lunella let out a “Ha!” as she high-fived herself. “You still got it.”
Moments later she was speeding through the air towards what she knew would be the villain’s next target- Ahmed’s Deli. She dropped down in front of the store with her hands on her hips, waiting. No way she was letting her homie be hoagie robbed! Whatever this villain’s mojo was, she was sure she could handle it herself, no problem. How dangerous could a sammie stealing supervillain be, anyway?
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“Wait, Moon Girl’s by herself? Where’s the dinosaur?” Sabrina asked her phone, squinting to make sure she was seeing right in the low(ish) light atop the roof of a building. Sure enough, the news video panned back to Moon Girl as she was thrown into a wall by an electric jolt. Sabrina winced. She- HELLO!!! Beyonder here~
Just dropping in to give some background info on this NEW and
EXITING character!
Her real name- well, you already read that! Sabrina was just a relatively normal girl, (if you leave out her tragic cross-country move all the way from-
Hold on, am I reading this right? Uh, let me see…
Oh. Wow. Yeah, okay. All the way from California.
Dang.
But let’s skip past the boring stuff- she’s a superhero now! That’s right- some of Dr. Strange’s friends were messing around with celestial magic, and accidentally infused them into a spider!
A mere three weeks ago, that spider then bit our “normal” girl, and gave her supernatural powers and abilities that come out every night whether she wants them to or not.
What could Sabrina do but become LCSS’s very own (off-brand) SPIDER-MAN!?
Or, woman, I guess?
Anyway, she’s been helping out the LCS ever since- stopping petty crime or helping old ladies cross the street.
However, she’s been leaving the big stuff to your favorite, my favorite, MOON GIRL! Why, you ask? Well-
Wait, really!? Am I on the wrong…
Nope. DANG, this story bouta be JUICY!
Sabrina’s afraid she’ll mess things up if she tries to help out, so she stays on the sidelines for now.
Anyway, I’ll let you humans get back to your fanfiction or whatever you call it here. Humans hyperfixate in such strange ways…
“Oof, maybe I should go help her…”
A moment later, however, the news footage showed Moon Girl dusting herself off and landing a mean hit with her punching gloves. Sabrina breathed a sigh of relief.
Moon Girl was doing fine…ish. Maybe Sabrina would check back later. But for now…
A gasp from the street below. “HEY! That’s my purse!”
Sabrina smiled and swung down to help.
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Lunella gasped in pain as another electric jolt hit her body, making her muscles spasm for a moment before releasing her again.
“YOU’LL NEVER CATCH THE BLUE LIGHTNING, MOON GIRL!” Lu just barely caught from the villain as she zoomed behind the block corner, only to reappear in front of her, having looped around. Lunella hardly had time to gasp a yelp of surprise before the villain zipped by her by a hair, whipping her around on her skates and causing her to crash into a dumpster.
Lu groaned- she could barely see out of her cracked goggles, her whole body ached from the repeated shocks, and she had only landed a hit, what, five times in the span of 10 minutes?
It felt like her whole body was made of lead, and her legs were shaking like California, but she forced herself up anyway, stepping out into the street, gloves raised for the next attack.
BAM!
Lunella choked for air as a hand slammed around her throat and smashed her, still holding on, into the wall of a building.
Lu kicked frantically, but her legs dangled off the ground. Her specialty gloves had been exhausted a while ago, so she just clawed at her throat.
“For the honor of Kree it is my pleasure to do what my brother failed to- KILL MOON GIRL.”
Bacically mg gets rly beat up blah blah blah Webula comes to help blah blah blah NOW TO THE GOOD STUFF
Sabrina panted as she beamed. She’d done it. She’d actually beaten a villain. A real one. “WOOHOO!” She yelled, shooting a Plasmaball upward as a makeshift firework. As the sparks rained down and tickled her skin, she suddenly remembered who she’d come to help in the first place and looked around.
“Moon Girl?“
She wasn’t anywhere on the street, nor in the air or on the rooftops. Did she leave without Sabrina noticing? Maybe, but… she seemed pretty hurt. “Moon Girl!” She called again, louder this time.
Sabrina’s breathing stuttered as she raced to look around and under the rubble, digging through bricks and using her webs as a pulley to lift pieces of buildings that had broken off during the scuffle. Finally, the last piece fell with a crash! off of its pile- but she wasn’t there.
Sabrina let out a heavy sigh of relief. She’d just left after all! “What the heck was I worried about? She’s Moon Girl!” She laughed. Sabrina checked her phone and sucked air sharply through her teeth at the time on the screen. “Oof, only two hours till sunrise. I’d better get home.”
She took out her phone to find the nearest place with a pubic bathroom to change in while she swung up to a nearby rooftop where she’d stashed her backpack with her street clothes. Sabrina was pleased to see that there was a place just a block over, with a shortcut through an alley just adjacent to the new Moon Girl shaped indent. “Perfect!” She chirped as she swung back down to the street. (She didn’t want to be mid swing when the sun came up and shut off her powers, obviously.)
Sabrina happily hummed a tune that had been stuck in her head for a week as she neared the alley, closing her eyes for a moment as she focused on the melody, her footsteps falling to the beat, until suddenly—
Splash.
Sabrina’s eyes popped open as she looked down— and nearly threw up at the sight that awaited her.
She stumbled into the brick wall beside her as she fought to keep her dinner down, bracing herself against the hard surface as her legs nearly gave out beneath her.
She squeezed her eyes shut as her whole body shook with shook with shock and disgust and dread. Her heart raced, and she gave a whine as her head swam. Suddenly she was on the ground, slumped against the wall. How did that…?
She tried to calm her breathing with an “in, two, th-three, four, out-out, two, three, fo-f-four.” It helped… a little, until she noticed that the shores of her suit were directly in the red liquid, a stain steadily seeping into the fabric. With a gulping gasp she drew them away, wrapping her hands around her knees and finally actually looking at the scene.
Moon Girl lay face up on the ground, a small puddle of red framing her head. There was a large crack in her helmet on the left near Sabrina,
Suddenly Sabrina jerked onto her hands and knees and saw her dinner for a second time.
A tear joined the vomit on the ground, followed by another, and another. Sobs racked her body as she just stayed there, staring at her own mess.
The body was her mess too, really.
She tried to save Moon Girl and failed. She didn’t do enough. Couldn’t do enough.
Maybe if she was more powerful, or more experienced—
Maybe if she was someone else.
A groan.
Sabrina whipped her head towards the noise, using the rush of hope to force herself to sit up through the ringing in her ears and frantically crawl over to the body Moon Girl. Sabrina fumbled to grab Moon Girl’s hand and press her pointer and middle fingers against the inside of her wrist.
It was faint, but a heartbeat was there.
A slow thump. Thump. Thump
She cried out in joy as tears rushed down her cheeks for the second time.
Moon Girl was alive. “Thank god,” she laughed with a sob. She immediately tried to shake her awake. “M-Moon Girl? Moon Girl?”
Nothing.
Sabrina took a shaky breath. Okay. Okay, think! She probably needs to go to the hospital, but she can’t go as Moon Girl because they’ll have to take off her helmet. But she can’t change like this…
Her eyes widened as she whispered, “I have to get her into civilian clothes.” But… that would mean…
Bri didn’t take secret identities lightly, but she also was not about to let Moon Girl bleed out alone in some dark, filthy alleyway at 4 am.
Moon Girl would hate her, she would probably try to get revenge, but that was okay.
Bri deserved it.
She slowly reached for the clasp under Moon Girl’s helmet, dreading each inch her hand came closer to it. It was a simple snap clasp, and just like that Moon Girl’s identity was about to be revealed to a total stranger.
Sabrina clenched her fists,
then started to gently lift it off.
Suddenly a hand grabbed onto her wrist. Bri flinched, but it was so soft, so shakey a grasp she could’ve pulled away without effort.
A small, young, faint voice rasped, “Please… don’t…”
“I… I’m trying to help,” Bri whispered hoarsely. “I have to.”
“Please…”
Bri swallowed, gently pulled away her hand, and took the helmet off.
Her breath caught at the girl that lay underneath.
She was just that— a girl.
Eleven, twelve, maybe thirteen— a child.
Sabrina had nearly killed a child.
She gently pulled off her boots and checked around the ankles of her pants and the ends of her sleeves to see if she had an undersuit, and was relieved to see she had a long sleeve black shirt and black leggings underneath.
By the time Bri began to tug off the girl’s suit she had already slipped back into unconsciousness. Bri hurried to finish, stuffed the suit and boots into her own bag, grabbed the girl’s helmet under her arm, and took out her phone.
“911, what’s your emergency?”
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Casey had stopped herself from calling the Lafayette family about twenty times, reassuring herself that Lu was fine and could take care of herself, but she’d finally cracked at 3 am. Lu hadn’t gone back to the house, and they hadn't heard anything from her, which was when Casey (along with most of the Lafayette family) had begun to panic.
Casey had been pacing before, but after that she’d had to change her shoes so she didn’t get blisters.
They’d called SHIELD first, which came up with nada, then the Hot Tomatoes, also nothing, and then Casey had screamed at the sky until Beyonder showed up.
He looked like he’d seen a ghost. His arms were wrapped around himself, his shoulders drawn together, his eyes bloodshot, wide, and blank. Before Casey had a chance to say a word he whispered, “She’s… at the,” a shuddering gulp, “-a-at the hospital. I… I can take you there.”
Casey froze. It seemed like her stomach had suddenly been filled with dry ice