Chapter Text
Courtney couldn’t sleep last night. The faces of the night still echoed in her memory: Mecha Man’s enraged face as he made his last stand, Shroud’s blank skull-like mask after she told him she quit, and even her own face reflected in her car’s windshield, detached from all emotion as she watched the fiery explosion streak across the night sky.
The recent ex-villain (as of last night) listened to the noise from the gas station TV as she sorted through the snack aisle. Some news figurehead chattered on about the reported death of Mecha Man Blue, a blow that shook the whole city of Los Angeles. Too many forgot about the man in the machine. They forgot that inside the giant mech that watched over the city for over a decade was a man who could bleed and die. Courtney couldn’t forget now, though not from a lack of trying. Seeing his face through the burning hole in his suit was a stark reminder of the life she took last night.
Holding her breath, she walked out the store without paying behind a tired dad corralling his kids back towards the car. Right past the pimple-faced teen at the register, who also didn’t notice a car door opening on its own. Closing her car door, Courtney took a deep breath as she popped back into existence. She took a moment to catch her breath, then tugged open the packet of Sour Patch Kids and the energy drink she had just tucked into her jacket.
The drive through the city seemed duller than usual, as if the concrete and steel itself mourned the death of its beloved hero. She drove past a child clutching a Mecha Man plushie close to his chest as his mother walked him to school, and couldn't help the scowl that crossed her face. You blow a hero up one time and the world itself won’t let you forget it.
The beat up old car pulled into the parking lot of a large boxy building. A ridiculous banner hung over the entrance, reading “Welcome, Phoenixes!" Courtney snorted at the sight. Phoenixes? That’s what she was now? Despite the absurdity of it all, she walked toward the den swarming with superheroes. One of these heroes might have arrested her before. Maybe this was a mistake. She could turn back now and it would be like nothing ever happened. Suddenly she had to stop before she walked headfirst into the double doors. Last chance to leave. With her heart thumping in her chest, she pushed through the doors and walked up to the receptionist’s table.
“Hi! Welcome to Superhero Dispatch Network, Torrance branch! How can I help you today?” The overly cheery interaction only put her further on edge, but she resisted the urge to turn around and run.
She was suddenly very conscious of the other people in the room. The lobby was hardly crowded but a few heads had lifted at their interaction, her arrival being a break from the monotony of waiting for an appointment. Finally, she muttered, “I’m here for the villain rehabilitation program?” She refused to use that stupid name they gave it.
The receptionist kept her cheery smile, but Courtney didn’t miss the way her eyes just barely narrowed. She was handed a form to fill out and took a seat while the woman at the desk typed rapidly into her computer. In the background, a series of SDN advertisements played on repeat, featuring some of the biggest stars of the company. After watching a few with mild interest, she focused on filling out her form again. They certainly weren’t actors for a reason, she supposed.
Assault, larceny, robbery, … murder, her brain unhelpfully provided. She shook the last thought out of her head and looked around, as if worried that someone would read her thoughts. What if someone in this building could? The receptionist still eyeing her down didn’t escape her attention. She hesitated a moment, then left the last one unmarked on the form. Technically if no one knew and she wasn’t charged then it wasn’t a crime, right? She returned the clipboard to the front desk.
“Our manager will be here to meet you shortly.” The woman behind the desk replied, as she took the form and stashed it away.
Courtney raised an eyebrow, but returned to her spot in the lobby. She hadn’t expected to meet with someone today. Didn’t these things take weeks? Not that she would know, of course. Some snooping on her phone led to her reading up on the recent announcement of the rehabilitation program. The public backlash had been loud and strong. Why would subscribers want a former villain assisting them? She found herself wondering what she was doing here. What could this corporation of heroes want with people like her? She imagined herself sitting all prim and proper in an interview with some balding, boring manager and snorted at the thought.
“Hi! I’m the branch manager for Torrance. Are you here for the Phoenix Program?” She turned around in her seat to face the unexpectedly pleasant voice.
Oh.
Courtney’s brain went quiet for once as a tall blonde woman strolled up to her, wearing a white and blue bodysuit with a short yellow cape. A red gem shone in the center of her golden chest piece. She all but glowed in the sunlight that filled the lobby, and Courtney’s mouth dropped a bit in awe of her presence. This was a real hero. She looked as if she was ripped straight off the billboards found all throughout the city. Hell, she probably really was on those billboards.
Courtney looked down at the hand extended towards her. Then up at the masked face smiling down kindly at her. Then back down at the hand, still held out in between them. Shake it, idiot. She reached out and felt the firm grip under the navy-blue glove. There was an unbelievable amount of strength in that hand that was controlled easily, without a thought.
“Yes,” she replied, dumbstruck. “Yes I am.”
“Great! I’m Blonde Blazer by the way. You can call me Ms. Blazer. Come with me to my office for a quick interview and we’ll get you situated.” She spoke professionally, but Courtney could sense a genuine excitement to her corporate cheeriness. She didn’t seem to hold any weight to Courtney’s past as a villain. This was someone who really believed in this program. Someone who might just believe in her.
“Lead the way, Blondie.” Courtney replied. Blonde Blazer flashed an amused look at the nickname, but otherwise didn’t seem to mind. The ex-villain followed the superhero past the lobby into a series of hallways and cubicles, taking in the sight of teams hard at work and the sound of phones constantly ringing. Chatter filled the air around the pair as Blonde Blazer pointed out highlights of the office and repeated some of the SDN values.
“Here at SDN we’re built around the triple ‘D’s’ -”
Courtney couldn’t help back the snort of laughter that interrupted the monologue. “Triple D’s? Seriously?”
Blazer slowed down and suddenly looked awkward. Finally, a crack in that perfect disposition. “Yes, Dispatching, Documentation, and Diversity,” she held up a finger with each word. “Did I say something wrong?” She leaned in and asked in a concerned voice, suddenly much more human.
“No it’s just- that has connotations, y’know?” At Blazer’s confused look, Courtney cupped her hands up in front of her chest. “Triple D’s?”
The corporate hero tinged red in embarrassment and turned away, stammering a bit before continuing her spiel as some sort of safety blanket. Courtney felt some sort of satisfaction at getting under her skin, but obediently followed Blazer to a spacey office.
After closing the door behind them, Blazer sat down in her chair across the desk and motioned for Courtney to take a seat. She sank into the surprisingly cushy armchair as she took a quick glance around the room. Sunlight streamed in from the windows on either side of Blazer, once again casting her in an almost ethereal glow. Some abstract art hung off the walls on each side of the room, carefully picked to bring a sense of calm to the office. Various awards and certificates lined the shelves behind the woman at the desk, and Courtney felt that hint of nervousness again. This was the real deal. A chance to turn her life around.
“So enough about us at SDN for now, I’m here to learn more about you.” Blazer had flipped open a file containing Courtney’s information. Certain aspects have been highlighted already. Her mugshot peeked out to her from the first page, and her eye twinged at the memory of the black eye that she could see in the picture.
“Invisi… B-word. Why do you want to join the program?”
The idea that this company crawling with superheroes knew anything at all about her made her squeamish. “I’m here to start over. I’m tired of running.” That was the truth. Her current shitty apartment was the latest in a long line of very temporary living spaces. Far too often she’d had to leave at a moment’s notice, sometimes having to sneak back in and take whatever she could with her. She suddenly felt a weight dragging her down into the cushioned seat. She was so tired. That part wasn’t a lie. She took a breath, and looked up to meet Blazer’s inquisitive gaze. Her brilliant blue eyes seemed to read Courtney like a book, slipping through her carefully crafted nonchalance. If she knew of her involvement with the Red Ring, or her role in Mecha Man’s death…
The cold metal of the implants buried in her body were a harsh reminder of her past. Anyone finding out about her Red Ring involvement would put her chance in jeopardy. “Let’s make a deal, Blondie. I’m betting there aren’t many villains lining up to be in your experiment. I’ll join your little program but I don’t want any questions.” Blazer raised an eyebrow at Courtney’s sudden proposal, and she braced herself for the inevitable rejection. There was no way the company would accept someone with her very public criminal history without an interrogation first. She might as well slip away now and quit on her own terms. No shame in disappearing back into the streets, fighting only for herself again.
Blazer hummed thoughtfully, cutting through her doubts. With a hint of some new emotion Courtney couldn’t place, her eyes still bore into the ex-villain’s, like she knew every secret, every crime. “Alright. No questions.”
Courtney blinked in surprise. They must really be desperate to fill their roster then.
“I’m trusting you. Don’t make me regret it.” Blazer said firmly. No doubt any failure from the project would reflect poorly on her. Yet she still gave her a chance, and Courtney couldn’t figure out why.
“We’ll have to change the name, by the way.” Blazer pulled out a sheet from the folder, with a list of more… heroic names for her. “I like Invisigal.” She pointed her pen to the top name on the list.
Courtney read down the list in increasing horror. Invisigal. Invisible Woman. Ghost Girl. The Unseen Fist. The Disappearer. She looked up at Blazer, mouth agape. She could still flee now, and pretend this never happened. That was still an option.
“I came up with these myself. We still have to preserve the brand image of SDN, of course.” Blazer smiled, seemingly oblivious to Courtney’s distress.
“We’ll uh- we’ll workshop it,” Courtney replied. Under no circumstances would she be rescuing people with a moniker like Invisigal.
The rest of the interview passed quickly, with Blazer avoiding digging into her long and troubled past. Before she knew it, Invisigal stood outside the building’s double doors again with a pamphlet highlighting SDN’s generous employee benefits and a copy of a thick employee handbook.
“S’cuse me,” a moving construct of dirt and rubble murmured as it rumbled by her, turning sideways to squeeze through the door.
Well. At least she wouldn’t stand out too much here.
She could get used to this, she thought. A steady paycheck and health insurance didn’t seem too bad. The idea mulled over in her head the whole drive home. Blazer seemed kind too, as a bonus. Her thoughts returned to the way Blazer spoke to her, and the way she all but glowed when they met. She seemed like the type to want to make some good change in the world. Such a hero.
Trudging up the stairs to her dingy shoebox of an apartment, Courtney heard the couple living next to her screaming at each other once again. What about, she couldn’t care less. Somewhere down the hall a dog was barking furiously, and she considered banging on the room’s door to get the owner to shut it up.
She locked the door behind her and collapsed onto her bed without changing. Her body was still sore from the ambush on Mecha Man, and she’d had a long 24 hours. The implants still felt weird and foreign in her chest, and she was suddenly uncomfortably aware of her lungs. Shroud wouldn’t be happy with her leaving, especially if word got back to him of her involvement with SDN. Hopefully blowing up Mecha Man at least cleared her debt to him. The poor man’s masked face filled her brain again and her heart sank at the memory. He didn’t deserve to die, just for wanting to do some good. Soon that could even be her, if she went down this hero route. Though if SDN found out about her actions that night, they’d have her in a cell again before she could even say boom. She dragged her hands down her face as warmth from the midday sun hit her through the blinds. Too many thoughts. Too many secrets. If only her brain would shut up for once and she could get some sleep.
“Get out of my head,” she muttered to herself.
She sat up and blearily opened her eyes again. The SDN materials were still on the bedstand where she had left it. I’m trusting you. Don’t make me regret it. Blazer’s words replayed through her head. Could she really do this? Blazer seemed to think so, at least. Her thoughts settled on the blonde superhero. The memory of the woman’s corporate corniness made Courtney giggle. To herself. Alone in her room like a crazy person. Maybe she wasn’t too fucked up. If the superhero had faith in her, maybe she should start believing in herself too.
She fished out her phone and pulled up a video of a Blonde Blazer interview. The superhero was sweaty and tired, fresh from a daring civilian rescue, but her proud smile was infectious through the screen. Courtney felt her eyes start to droop as she listened. She had a nice voice, she thought.
For the first time in longer than she could remember, Courtney fell asleep with a smile.