Challenge #01495-D034: Super Signals
http://writing-prompt-s.tumblr.com/post/156012408168/you-live-in-a-world-of-superheroes-and
"You live in a world of superheroes and supervillains. Each person gets three marks, one on their right hand to indicate their future arch nemesis, one on their left hand to indicate their side kick/partner, and one on their chest to indicate their powers and insignia. Today your marks show up and they’re… Shocking, to say the least." -- Gallifreya
Everyone gets their Wakening at a different time. The symbol on the chest happens first. Ignore all the rumours going around about how it "burns through" to your super-suit. No. That won't happen. You have to get it copied by a professional.
And trust me, you need a professional. Loads of Supers start out by having their friend copy it, or doing it themselves. They always wind up with their sigil backwards or... hideously mutated. Girls like me get enough crap on the Super Scene. The last thing I need is a bad copy or worse, the hole in the shirt, to show the world who I am.
The chest symbol is a warning both for yourself and everyone around you. You and the authorities have two weeks to get any safety equipment into place. There's even a program for the Supers who Waken while living in poor areas. Governments who don't like funding that one get their own comeuppance. Trillions in property damage tends to really teach people, you know?
Anyway, when I got the sigil for OP Opus, I was more than a little shocked. The rest of my family were in a real hurry to pack me away to the Really Big Bunker. So much for, "We'll love you no matter what your powers are." Parents can be such hypocrites. They were terrified of me. I could tell. That, and they haven't visited once.
The second one's the partner. We call it 'partner' now. Since so very many Supers got the whole Sidekick thing completely wrong. Besides, partner is how it always should be. Shipping or no shipping. The one you work with has your back. There were others down in the Really Big Bunker with me. Other Supers. Older and younger. And some were really cute.
What? I might have the incipient powers of a white hole, but I'm still a healthy girl with healthy hormones and a growing libido. We all have needs.
So I'm training and getting used to my powers, and told day after day after day by the Super tutors that the last OP Opus was only called in when nothing else worked, so I had to learn how to dial it in or learn to love living on that secret Earth Defence base on Ganymede. Blah blah blah blah... and my right hand started itching on its back.
The right hand, on the back, show's who your partner is.
Stella Starfriend. Alien babe and way out of my league. Well. Look-wise. I'm pretty sure she's the only one in the Really Big Bunker who could beat me to a standstill. Well. When we're both at our peak performance. She's in my Living Without Powers: What to do When a Villain Has Your Kryptonite 101 class. And I have devoted weeks to daydreaming about holding her hand.
I'm bi. She's... not. It's tragic, of course. What would a Super story be without at least one team-member with their heart on their sleeve for someone who completely misses every last signal that they're sending? Humanity. Give us super-powers and we still break ourselves again and again for the same old shit.
It took me two days to pluck up the courage to talk to Stella. She's part alien and all gorgeous and her hair literally has starlight in it. Like, actual twinkling stars in her hair. Rumour has it that her mom has a moon. But I never hold with rumour. And anyway, I'd have never gone near her if the damn Bunker Counsellor hadn't literally shoved me into her circle and announced that I, Julie Jackson, had something important to discuss with Stella.
I wanted to die.
Unfortunately, every single OP Opus in history has been patently unkillable. Trust fate to screw me while I'm still a virgin.
Anyway. I was blushing so hard I was steaming, and so tongue-tied that I could probably actually pronounce Gol'farxian. (They're... sort of neighbours, I guess) And all I could look at was her feet. I couldn't say a word. I just held up my right hand so that she could see it and mumbled something like, "this happened". And then I fainted.
Turns out whoever is the OP Opus can still pass out from forgetting to breathe.
When I woke up in the Bunker's hospital floor, there was Stella... and Timmy Tamil. He's one of the psychological fighters. Hit 'em in the brain, kind of thing. His right hand had my sigil. Mine had Stella's. And Stella... had his.
"What? So... we're a super-team or something? A power trio?"
Timmy shrugged. "Worse has happened." Gotta love the optimism of the Shrink Crowd. They've seen what's in our heads, most of them. That has to lead to outright cynicism.
And he was right. Right up until the day that our left hands started itching on the back. I showed his sigil. His showed Stella's. And Stella... she apologised for having mine.
Nobody has ever had this happen before. Never in history. We're trying to work it out, ourselves? But I can kind'a tell already.
All three of us fight like cats in a wet sack.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / altanaka]
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