Chapter Text
Courtney had learned from a young age that she was basically invisible to everyone, even before her powers came in.
Home wasn't a great place for Courtney since she could remember; they weren't abusive by any means, but they definitely weren't built to be parents. Why they had her was a mystery to her, but one thing was for sure: she was most likely a mistake from a drunk night out or something or from a failed condom that broke.
But as far as she remembered, it all started going to absolute shit when her powers kicked in at the age of eight because she had her first asthma attack when the school teacher made her class run around the track.
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Courtney wakes up to a sharp scream and glass shattering onto the ground. She immediately shot up in fear as she sat there silently processing everything. It was gonna be a shit day… Before she could even finish processing, her door slammed wide open, creating a loud bang against the hole in the wall that grew bigger and deeper every day from the handle bashing into it every time. Looking up to face the very person who slammed her door, she saw her father, with a face that could only be described as burning rage. What had she done? Has she done anything recently? Before she could ponder for long, her father decided to speak up.
“Why the fuck aren't you up yet? You have school! Get up, you lazy bitch!!” he shouted, throwing his arms up, a beer bottle hanging in his left grip, so he was drunk again…. At 8 am?
Courtney moved her legs to dangle off the side of the bed before looking at her clock to see it was, in fact, not a few minutes past 8 but instead almost ten… how the fuck did she sleep in so late she had alarms?! Instantly jumping off the bed, starting to panic, she started getting ready for school, hastily grabbing her clothes as she heard her dad mumble something before storming off, before she changed into somewhat of a school uniform, well, not exactly. The school uniform was shit and always felt weird on her skin, instead of a skirt and white blouse with a blazer courtney opted to wear black leggings, a plain white or black shirt, with her favourite cropped jacket.
Okay, maybe it wasn't a school uniform at all, but who cares? Courtney didn't care if she got in trouble it wasn't like her parents cared, not that they do at all.
Running downstairs, Courtney saw her mother was nowhere to be seen, either at another side job to get them some money or she was still in bed herself, grabbing her bag. Courtney went to the kitchen to grab a snack and some lunch, only to open the fridge to see…. Nothing, looks like her dad forgot to buy groceries with his beer, probably spending all the money on crates of them, looks like she was going without any food again.
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After running to school for a good twenty minutes courtney finally got there and was now being questioned by her teacher, Dr Cummins was her teacher, but she calls him Dr Cum or dick head, like seriously, who the fuck has a last name that sounds like that?
After ten minutes of being questioned, " Why were you late to school?” “Is this another one of your terrible excuses?” “This better not happen again” “I should speak to your parents about this behaviour, young lady” the dickhead finally let her into the class. After sitting in her seat, Dr Cummins announced the class was going out on the field to run on the track and do laps.
“Oh fuck my life….” Courtney mumbled, but apparently the teacher heard her mutter as he turned to her.
“Got something to say courtney? It's bad enough you are late and with a bad attitude, I suggest whatever you muttered better be something encouraging”
Courtney rolled her eyes. Should she be a bitch about this and cause more trouble, or should she just let it pass and avoid more trouble… nah fuck it, why not? It's not like her parents will bother to show up to a parent meeting anyway.
“Can't be as encouraging as your marriage, or should I say divorce, since your wife left? Guess you weren't encouraging her enough to stay, were you?”
Dr Cummins glared at her as his face went red from embarrassment and anger, slowly lifting his arm to point at the door, his body shaking with rage as he spoke.
“Get out of my classroom this instance miss Davis…NOW!”
Well, if she didn't get a suspension for this, then she would be surprised.
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Much to Courtney's belief, she was, in fact, not given a suspension for her remark; instead, she was given more laps on the track. Dr Cummins ' cruel way of making a student suffer instead of giving them an easy option like a suspension or an expulsion, while everyone only had ten laps to do across the big ass field, she had twenty, no breaks given, surely that wasn't allowed?
While running her fifth lap courtney felt her breathing was getting shorter and wheezy, her throat felt like it was closing up, and her chest was sore. Trying to slow down, she heard Dr Cummins blow the whistle and yell her name, probably telling her to not stop, although she would maybe understand better if it didn't feel like her heart was beating in her ears so loudly, as her knees buckled and she collapsed onto the floor, wheezing as she tried to get more air into her lungs.
Why couldn't she breathe?!
Was it always this hard to get air into the lungs?
Her vision blurred and darkened around the edges.
She could see someone blurry run in front of her and felt a hand grab her shoulder as she shut her eyes, feeling dizzy and her head sore from lack of oxygen.
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It had been two years since Courtney learned she had asthma and that she had the power to go invisible, only catch? It happens when she holds her breath, pretty ironic, isn't it? Someone with asthma having the power to go invisible only when holding their breath? What kind of fucked up joke was that?! She found out after waking up in the hospital bed with her mom outside the room with a doctor before they had come in and explained that while her asthma attack was happening, she had flickered in and out of sight, after that wasnt much better when they were told about the hospital bill, her mother's jaw went straight down, it could have hit the floor.
Her father wasn't pleased about hearing it either, having to figure out how they were going to pay hospital and health bills. That was a nice beating she got when she went home, overall, her mom managed… barely, courtney got an inhaler and used her powers to her advantage whenever it was needed, one turned out to be stealing, at first courtney did small things like her dads money, snacks from the shop, hell she even stole one of her dads beer right infront of him, to drunk to notice her dad didn’t realize one was missing.
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By the time she was fourteen, Courtney already had a criminal record, just minor things like theft and assault. Of course, her mother was disappointed, wishing her daughter would use her powers for good, but for Courtney, it almost seemed impossible, all she seemed to be good at with her powers was stealing and watching people without them knowing.
Which, in Courtney's defense it was handy to know for blackmailing.
After getting caught robbing the bakery called Granny's Donuts courtney was dragged home by the police and sent inside by her dad, who was absolutely vivid as usual.
It started with a screaming match before her dad escalated it, throwing a beer bottle at her and yelling at her “to get the fuck out of his house”, which is how Courtney was now in her room packing her bag with little things before sneaking out her window, never coming back.
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It had been two months since Courtney left her home. She got better at stealing, taking stuff she needed or fancy shit that she could trade for more money.
But that all changed when she decided to steal from someone well known in Torrance, it was suppose to be a small job, steal the gadget or whatever the fuck it was and sell it on the streets like any other job she did, man was she wrong, the man she stole from was the very leader of the red ring himself, catching her in the act and having her locked in a room, or more so a cell till he decided what he was going to do with her.
Why hadn't he just killed her straight away like usual? He seemed to be the kind of person to do that, so why was she still alive?
After a day of being in the room the man, or known as Shroud, came into the room and offered her a proposition, work for him and she would get protection, roof over her head, food, and even a augment that would allow her to use her powers longer by enhancing her lungs and cure her severe asthma, but she would have to pay it off over time.
How the fuck could she say no to that?!
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Courtney, or known in the red ring as Invisibitch, had been working with Shroud for three years, used to the jobs she would be given and some of the people there.
Toxic was the guy she hung around the most. Of course, they had a dynamic where they could barely stand each other or not at all, but they worked well together when they had a job to do.
Then Shroud talked about the famous hero, Mecha Man, planning a trap for the hero to take back something that was his.
Courtney didn't understand much, but she didn't really care to. They all had their job to do. Toxic was to lure Mecha Man here, and then, while the hero was stuck, she was to plant a bomb on him. How hard could it be to plant a bomb on a dumb robot?
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Apparently it fucking was… when Courtney was to plant a bomb on the thing, she almost fell, gripping onto the metal from the hole toxic made earlier before climbing up only to pause with what she saw inside.
A person…
A living fucking person, not some robot that was coded, not a person controlling it from someplace else, no, there was a pilot in the actual robot, a man in his early thirties by the looks of it, glaring right past her where Shroud presumably was, watching every movement and calculating every outcome or however his fucking thing worked she didn't fucking know.
Climbing back to the top of the robot courtney hesitated, she's never killed a person, this was supposed to be a robot,t not a living person.
Looking towards Shroud, she remembered the debt she had. Was this worth it though? Courtney quickly made up her mind, placing the bomb down between the thrusters before climbing up the chain, but as soon as she got up, she made a run for it.
She was done with this.
With the red ring
Just fuck it, fuck it all.
Invisibitch was done
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Courtney waited in her car by a cliff as she watched the bomb in the air go off. Mecha Man died from a bomb…because of her, she placed a bomb in a blind spot.
She killed Mecha Man.
Courtney felt uneasy realising this.
But she had done what she did, no turning back now.
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Courtney had been committing regular crimes as usual before she joined the red ring, when she noticed her asthma was worse, which confused her. The augment should be working? Was it malfunctioning? Courtney wouldn't know she's no tech scientist or whatever the fuck they were called, she had no fucking clue why it wasn't working.
After finding out the augment could apparently be disabled from working, Courtney didn't know what to do. She certainly couldn't try to fix it herself, nor did she have anyone to fix it for her, and she definitely wasn't going back to the red ring, fuck that and fuck them.
After hearing Mecha Man was alive and in a coma somewhere courtney was a bit relieved she didn't actually kill the guy. Not long after, she saw an advertisement for a place called SDN. Of course, she had heard of it before, but she never fully went to research what they actually did, just that she knew heroes worked there, on the flyer there was a program? The Phoenix Program, made for those who are villains trying for a second chance, a new leaf.
That didn't seem all that bad.
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After getting into contact with them, Courtney was soon met with the famous hero herself, Blonde Blazer. The lady had a kind soul and was so eager that Courtney wanted to try to start over.
After Courtney told Blazer a little about herself and requested that she not ask about her backstory in crime, she would try it. Thankfully, Blazer didn't question it even though it looked like she wanted to and took Courtney in since she was still considered a teen, she was fucking seventeen going onto eighteen soon, teen her ass.
And that's how she became roommates with Blazer, whose civilian name was Mandy, as Courtney learned, and how she started her life at SDN to try to be a hero.