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Description

A sort of follow-up to my previous submission , featuring a character I originally created to fit into that piece's story, a rookie heroine with superspeed who was around fourteen or fifteen during those events, and is just barely eighteen here. So apparently I've figured out glow effects, but blur and afterimages elude me. Ah well. Also, at the time that I wrote this, I was unaware of the existing speedster hero named Silver Streak. Fuck it.
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Oh come on, Melissa O’Connell thought as she deftly dodged a laser. Don’t I have enough on my plate? I so don’t have time for this.

She really didn’t; she had a doctor’s appointment across town in less than ten minutes. Sure, she was more than fast enough to get across town in half the time- she wasn’t known as the Silver Streak because she had a habit of running around naked- but at the moment, she was a bit preoccupied with not getting her ass fried by… what was his name again? Laserwave? Laserblast?

“YOU SHALL PAY FOR WHAT YOU HAVE DONE TO THE MIGHTY LASERSHOCK, SPEEDSTER!”

Oh, that’s it, now she remembered; Berthold Brightman, a former petty crook with a stolen alien “lightsuit” and an ego the size of Jupiter; which was funnily enough, how big the pregnant heroine was feeling these days. Really, between graduating from high school and having a baby, the until-recently-teenage heroine had more than enough to deal with- she didn’t need some loser trying to kill her for his own screwups. For Christ’s sake, she had only turned eighteen about a month earlier! Before the test had come back positive, she’d been worried about how she was going to balance college and crimefighting; now she had to worry about being a mom on top of everything else. It’s not like she was the first super to have kids; her mentor Victorine had a baby about three years ago- shortly before Melissa had put this loser behind bars, as a matter of fact.

Well, former mentor, actually; they hadn’t spoken in nearly six months.

“So… you said to come to you for advice if I ever needed it, right?” Victorine nodded at her protégée. “The thing is… I’m pregnant.”

They may not have been blood, and she may have had a child of her own, but she almost thought of the younger heroine as her daughter. It only made sense; when they had met, Melissa had been just a scared kid with no mother of her own, and she herself had been gripped by a sadness, a feeling of emptiness brought on by her and her husband’s seeming inability to have a child. And, like a mother watching her child go out into the world, she had been so proud to watch Melissa grow into a confident young heroine. For this same reason, she couldn’t help but feel disappointed in the girl.

“I… I see.” She replied in a clipped tone. “So you’ve come to talk to me about… getting rid of it? I mean, I can understand wanting to talk to another gal about this one, but if you really need emotional guidance, maybe you should talk to your dad about this one? That’s what parents are for, and I seem to recall him taking the whole superhero thing pretty well.”

In truth, she’d already had this same conversation with her father. And while officer O’Connell was disappointed that his daughter hadn’t been careful, he still loved her and was proud of her; whatever decision she made, he would stand by her. She had already made up her mind, long before coming to either of them.

She shook her head and swallowed nervously before continuing.

“No I… I’m not getting rid of the baby. But I’m not going to stop doing this, either.”

For a few moments, the silence was deafening; you could cut the tension with a knife; insert overused cliché about awkward situations here.

“Oh yeah, sure.” Victorine threw her hands up in the air. “That’s a good way to get yourself killed! And not just you, genius; you say you want to raise it, but what kind of mother risks her baby’s life before it’s even born? It’s bad enough that you were irresponsible enough to let this happen, but I didn’t think you were stupid!” Even as the words left her mouth, she regretted them.

“What did you just say to me you sanctimonious old bitch?!” Melissa demanded furiously. “Of all the hypocritical bullshit I’ve heard, that has to be the worst. I was there, remember? You were fighting supervillains and giant monsters until the day Jacob was born!”

“That was different and you know it! I’m invulnerable and you aren’t!” Victoria replied huffily, flicking her student’s shoulder for emphasis.

“Oh cut the crap you old hag!”Mellisa yelled. “You and I both know you aren’t really invulnerable. And I heal just as fast as you do, if not faster!”

“How about you show me some respect, little girl!” Victorine growled.

“Just who the hell do you think you are, my mother?!”

“Obviously not,” the older woman countered. “If I was, you wouldn’t be spreading your legs all over town at seventeen!”

That was the final straw.

Melissa drew back her hand, and slapped Victorine across the face as hard she could. She could have slapped a brick wall for all the damage it did; it probably would have hurt less too. Whatever; she knew the pain would recede quickly enough, and any broken bones would knit themselves back together within an hour or two. To be honest, she could barely even feel the pain over her rage. Blinded by her fury, she could just barely see how deeply the slap had hurt the old hag.

Good.

With her one good hand, she made an obscene gesture before racing off into the night. She could still hear her former mentor calling after her as she ran. She could hear the guilt in her voice.

She didn’t care.

Over the next few months, she ignored Victorine’s attempts to contact her; eventually the older heroine stopped trying.

As she dodged another laser, just missing it by centimeters, she found herself regretting the whole thing, not for the first time, and not just because her life was in danger, though a little help would really come in handy right about now; as fast as she still was, her pregnancy had still slowed her down quite a bit. Light speed wasn’t an option for her any more, and she knew she wouldn’t be able to dodge them forever. It was only a matter of time before-

She cried out in pain as an intense beam of light grazed her lower calf, searing flesh and sending her to her knees. For good measure, the sadistic psychopath razed her other leg. Luckily, the injuries weren’t completely debilitating, and would heal, given the time.

She, however, knew that it was time that she didn’t have. She could hear Lasershock gloating has he came closer.

“Finally… finally! After three long years, THREE! LONG! YEARS! I am going to make you suffer. Oh, you are going to PAY for what you did to me. You and that little brat of yours. In fact, I think that’s what I’m gonna start with, roasting that little brat out of your fat ass. How does that sound, hmm? Any last words before I start having some real fun, bitch?”

“None for you, you sick fuck.” Melissa spat at her impending executioner. Closing her eyes, she wrapped her arms around her belly and silently apologized to her unborn child. Maybe, if she’d just listened to Victorine, everything would have been okay.

She could hear Lasershock’s footsteps getting closer and closer, and even through the lenses of her mask and her tightly clenched eyelids, she could make out the hellish glow of his hands. She supposed that there were worse ways to die than trying to stop a supervillain. And hey, she’d even saved a bunch of innocent civilians from his rampage and landed a few good hits before he had gotten mad. Really, her only regret was that her baby was going to die with her.

She waited for the end to come.

But come it did not; instead, she heard the whoosh of something hurtling through the air past her, followed by several loud thuds and… the sound of Lasershock screaming and begging for mercy? Opening her eyes, Melissa saw a familiar white-and-red-clad figure standing over her foe and pummeling him.

“Victorine...” she whispered breathlessly. Tying a streetlight around the battered supervillain, the elder super turned her attention to her younger.

“Can you stand?” she asked. Melissa nodded weakly, and gratefully accepted the proffered hand. She winced as she got to her feet, though the pain was already beginning to fade.

“Wha, what are you doing here?” she asked meekly.

“Giving you a hand, obviously. I can’t just let you die; you’re pretty much family, you know that? Anyways, I’ve been keeping an eye on you, and I’ve gotta say, I’m impressed; even without powers like mine, you still managed to keep crime under control, belly and all. I guess I owe you an apology.”

“Wait… you’ve been keeping an eye on me?” Melissa queried. “Then why didn’t you try to...?”

Victorine shrugged.

“Sorry, I didn’t want to rush things. I knew you had enough to deal with, because I was once in the exact same place you are. Well, not the exact same place; I know how hard being a pregnant superhero is, and I can’t even imagine how hard it was to deal with school on top of all that. I wanted to wait until you were ready… but this nut job kind of forced my hand.”

Suddenly, Melissa remembered where she had to be.

“Ah crap. Listen, I’d love to stay and chat, but I’ve gotta run. I’m late for an appointment and-”

Victorine shushed her.

“No offense sweetie, but you’re not running anywhere; you can barely stand at the moment . How about I have Michael swing by in the car and I join you? After that, what do you say we get some coffee and catch up?”

“I’ll gladly take the ride, but I think the coffee is a no go.” Melissa patted her bump and laughed. “This little girl is hyper enough without caffeine. But you are right, we do have a lot to talk about. Tell you what; I’ve been craving something sweet all day, and I know this café that has the absolute best donuts.”

It was Victorine’s turn to chuckle.

“Sounds like a plan. Say, have you picked out any names for your little girl?”

Melissa blushed and shuffled awkwardly before answering.

“Well… yeah. I’ve been thinking about naming her… Valerie.”

Victorine was touched. She could feel a tear welling up in her eye and a smile on her lips.

“Come on, Mels, let’s get you to that appointment.”

Description

A sort of follow-up to my previous submission , featuring a character I originally created to fit into that piece's story, a rookie heroine with superspeed who was around fourteen or fifteen during those events, and is just barely eighteen here. So apparently I've figured out glow effects, but blur and afterimages elude me. Ah well. Also, at the time that I wrote this, I was unaware of the existing speedster hero named Silver Streak. Fuck it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oh come on, Melissa O’Connell thought as she deftly dodged a laser. Don’t I have enough on my plate? I so don’t have time for this.

She really didn’t; she had a doctor’s appointment across town in less than ten minutes. Sure, she was more than fast enough to get across town in half the time- she wasn’t known as the Silver Streak because she had a habit of running around naked- but at the moment, she was a bit preoccupied with not getting her ass fried by… what was his name again? Laserwave? Laserblast?

“YOU SHALL PAY FOR WHAT YOU HAVE DONE TO THE MIGHTY LASERSHOCK, SPEEDSTER!”

Oh, that’s it, now she remembered; Berthold Brightman, a former petty crook with a stolen alien “lightsuit” and an ego the size of Jupiter; which was funnily enough, how big the pregnant heroine was feeling these days. Really, between graduating from high school and having a baby, the until-recently-teenage heroine had more than enough to deal with- she didn’t need some loser trying to kill her for his own screwups. For Christ’s sake, she had only turned eighteen about a month earlier! Before the test had come back positive, she’d been worried about how she was going to balance college and crimefighting; now she had to worry about being a mom on top of everything else. It’s not like she was the first super to have kids; her mentor Victorine had a baby about three years ago- shortly before Melissa had put this loser behind bars, as a matter of fact.

Well, former mentor, actually; they hadn’t spoken in nearly six months.

“So… you said to come to you for advice if I ever needed it, right?” Victorine nodded at her protégée. “The thing is… I’m pregnant.”

They may not have been blood, and she may have had a child of her own, but she almost thought of the younger heroine as her daughter. It only made sense; when they had met, Melissa had been just a scared kid with no mother of her own, and she herself had been gripped by a sadness, a feeling of emptiness brought on by her and her husband’s seeming inability to have a child. And, like a mother watching her child go out into the world, she had been so proud to watch Melissa grow into a confident young heroine. For this same reason, she couldn’t help but feel disappointed in the girl.

“I… I see.” She replied in a clipped tone. “So you’ve come to talk to me about… getting rid of it? I mean, I can understand wanting to talk to another gal about this one, but if you really need emotional guidance, maybe you should talk to your dad about this one? That’s what parents are for, and I seem to recall him taking the whole superhero thing pretty well.”

In truth, she’d already had this same conversation with her father. And while officer O’Connell was disappointed that his daughter hadn’t been careful, he still loved her and was proud of her; whatever decision she made, he would stand by her. She had already made up her mind, long before coming to either of them.

She shook her head and swallowed nervously before continuing.

“No I… I’m not getting rid of the baby. But I’m not going to stop doing this, either.”

For a few moments, the silence was deafening; you could cut the tension with a knife; insert overused cliché about awkward situations here.

“Oh yeah, sure.” Victorine threw her hands up in the air. “That’s a good way to get yourself killed! And not just you, genius; you say you want to raise it, but what kind of mother risks her baby’s life before it’s even born? It’s bad enough that you were irresponsible enough to let this happen, but I didn’t think you were stupid!” Even as the words left her mouth, she regretted them.

“What did you just say to me you sanctimonious old bitch?!” Melissa demanded furiously. “Of all the hypocritical bullshit I’ve heard, that has to be the worst. I was there, remember? You were fighting supervillains and giant monsters until the day Jacob was born!”

“That was different and you know it! I’m invulnerable and you aren’t!” Victoria replied huffily, flicking her student’s shoulder for emphasis.

“Oh cut the crap you old hag!”Mellisa yelled. “You and I both know you aren’t really invulnerable. And I heal just as fast as you do, if not faster!”

“How about you show me some respect, little girl!” Victorine growled.

“Just who the hell do you think you are, my mother?!”

“Obviously not,” the older woman countered. “If I was, you wouldn’t be spreading your legs all over town at seventeen!”

That was the final straw.

Melissa drew back her hand, and slapped Victorine across the face as hard she could. She could have slapped a brick wall for all the damage it did; it probably would have hurt less too. Whatever; she knew the pain would recede quickly enough, and any broken bones would knit themselves back together within an hour or two. To be honest, she could barely even feel the pain over her rage. Blinded by her fury, she could just barely see how deeply the slap had hurt the old hag.

Good.

With her one good hand, she made an obscene gesture before racing off into the night. She could still hear her former mentor calling after her as she ran. She could hear the guilt in her voice.

She didn’t care.

Over the next few months, she ignored Victorine’s attempts to contact her; eventually the older heroine stopped trying.

As she dodged another laser, just missing it by centimeters, she found herself regretting the whole thing, not for the first time, and not just because her life was in danger, though a little help would really come in handy right about now; as fast as she still was, her pregnancy had still slowed her down quite a bit. Light speed wasn’t an option for her any more, and she knew she wouldn’t be able to dodge them forever. It was only a matter of time before-

She cried out in pain as an intense beam of light grazed her lower calf, searing flesh and sending her to her knees. For good measure, the sadistic psychopath razed her other leg. Luckily, the injuries weren’t completely debilitating, and would heal, given the time.

She, however, knew that it was time that she didn’t have. She could hear Lasershock gloating has he came closer.

“Finally… finally! After three long years, THREE! LONG! YEARS! I am going to make you suffer. Oh, you are going to PAY for what you did to me. You and that little brat of yours. In fact, I think that’s what I’m gonna start with, roasting that little brat out of your fat ass. How does that sound, hmm? Any last words before I start having some real fun, bitch?”

“None for you, you sick fuck.” Melissa spat at her impending executioner. Closing her eyes, she wrapped her arms around her belly and silently apologized to her unborn child. Maybe, if she’d just listened to Victorine, everything would have been okay.

She could hear Lasershock’s footsteps getting closer and closer, and even through the lenses of her mask and her tightly clenched eyelids, she could make out the hellish glow of his hands. She supposed that there were worse ways to die than trying to stop a supervillain. And hey, she’d even saved a bunch of innocent civilians from his rampage and landed a few good hits before he had gotten mad. Really, her only regret was that her baby was going to die with her.

She waited for the end to come.

But come it did not; instead, she heard the whoosh of something hurtling through the air past her, followed by several loud thuds and… the sound of Lasershock screaming and begging for mercy? Opening her eyes, Melissa saw a familiar white-and-red-clad figure standing over her foe and pummeling him.

“Victorine...” she whispered breathlessly. Tying a streetlight around the battered supervillain, the elder super turned her attention to her younger.

“Can you stand?” she asked. Melissa nodded weakly, and gratefully accepted the proffered hand. She winced as she got to her feet, though the pain was already beginning to fade.

“Wha, what are you doing here?” she asked meekly.

“Giving you a hand, obviously. I can’t just let you die; you’re pretty much family, you know that? Anyways, I’ve been keeping an eye on you, and I’ve gotta say, I’m impressed; even without powers like mine, you still managed to keep crime under control, belly and all. I guess I owe you an apology.”

“Wait… you’ve been keeping an eye on me?” Melissa queried. “Then why didn’t you try to...?”

Victorine shrugged.

“Sorry, I didn’t want to rush things. I knew you had enough to deal with, because I was once in the exact same place you are. Well, not the exact same place; I know how hard being a pregnant superhero is, and I can’t even imagine how hard it was to deal with school on top of all that. I wanted to wait until you were ready… but this nut job kind of forced my hand.”

Suddenly, Melissa remembered where she had to be.

“Ah crap. Listen, I’d love to stay and chat, but I’ve gotta run. I’m late for an appointment and-”

Victorine shushed her.

“No offense sweetie, but you’re not running anywhere; you can barely stand at the moment . How about I have Michael swing by in the car and I join you? After that, what do you say we get some coffee and catch up?”

“I’ll gladly take the ride, but I think the coffee is a no go.” Melissa patted her bump and laughed. “This little girl is hyper enough without caffeine. But you are right, we do have a lot to talk about. Tell you what; I’ve been craving something sweet all day, and I know this café that has the absolute best donuts.”

It was Victorine’s turn to chuckle.

“Sounds like a plan. Say, have you picked out any names for your little girl?”

Melissa blushed and shuffled awkwardly before answering.

“Well… yeah. I’ve been thinking about naming her… Valerie.”

Victorine was touched. She could feel a tear welling up in her eye and a smile on her lips.

“Come on, Mels, let’s get you to that appointment.”