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Of Heroes And Villains
In which a superhero meets his match, masks are uncovered and a mad scientist just tries to get some mad science-ing done without getting distracted by the antics of her magical minion.
Fanart by the talented Ian Samson, creator of City of Reality and artist of The Wotch
PsyKick is bored.
This is not unusual. It is, in fact, his entire existence. He lies in his small room, strapped to his bed. Sometimes the doctors come in, and then PsyKick smiles and says all the things they want to hear. They give him books to read and he likes those. But they never free him anymore. When they remove the straps, he is never without supervision.
He shouldn’t try to run so often, then they would take them off more. He knows this. But he can’t help it. When he sees an opportunity to escape and finally Serve his Purpose, he must take it.
His Purpose gnaws at him day and night, telling him that he is Bad for not Serving.
He cannot find anyone to Serve.
They tell him his Mistress is dead. Constance killed her. He is not sure how he feels about that. Sometimes he thinks about this and he smiles, but when Constance comes to visit him, he always lunges at her.
Constance never visits anymore.
His teammates still do, sometimes. Tex will sit beside his bed and talk to him in a low voice for hours. PsyKick will answer normally and they will laugh and it’s just like always. But then PsyKick will ask when Tex will help him escape and Tex will go quiet. Tex tells him he is not well, that he’s sick. He is wrong, PsyKick is just fine. Tex does not understand why PsyKick must Serve. PsyKick hadn’t understood it either, until his Mistress had showed him how much sense it makes.
PsyKick always ends up yelling at Tex for keeping him in here, for being a bad teammate, screaming every unkind thought he’s ever had about his best friend, until the doctors come and shove needles in his arms.
Tex’ visits are getting fewer and fewer.
PsyKick is afraid that one day he will stop coming, too, and then it will be only him and the boredom.
“There’s someone here to see you, Stephen.”
He turns his head, eagerly straining against the straps. Is it Tex? He hasn’t seen his friend in so long.
It’s not Tex.
It’s a woman he has never seen before.
She is beautiful, long blond hair falling down past her waist in luscious curls. It takes him a moment to realize that the red streaks in it are not dye, but petals. Her entire body is covered with them, vines curling up and down her waist to form something akin to a bikini.
And her eyes glow red.
It gives her a very sinister air. PsyKick shivers.
“Leave us,” says the woman, and the doctor obeys. There is a natural authority to her voice that is hard to deny. PsyKick’s Purpose perks up immediately. She looks evil. Evil enough to Serve?
She slowly circles his bed; the movement reminds him of a predator assessing its prey. He keeps her in his line of sight. She comes to a halt at his bedside and leans over him. Then she reaches out, and cups his chin.
“Do you know who I am?”
He shakes his head.
“I am Dionaea.”
Dionaea. The name jolts something in his head and he reviews his photographic memory.
“Dionaea Muscipula. Venus Flytrap.”
She grins widely and for a moment she looks like an eager young girl. “Yes! Finally someone gets it.” Then she clears her throat and the sinister air returns. “Do you know what I am, PsyKick?”
He shakes his head again.
“I am a Villain.”
PsyKick’s heart is beating painfully against his chest. Serve, Serve, Serve, sings his Purpose. Finally someone to Serve.
“And what are you, PsyKick?”
He opens his mouth. His voice is rough and scratchy from disuse. “I’m yours, Mistress.”
PsyKick shades his eyes against the sunlight. It warms his face.
He hasn’t been outside in so long.
He blinks rapidly, his vision blurry. His new Mistress lays a hand on his back. It’s warm, too.
They walk through the flower garden in silence, with him trailing behind her, docile. Where his Mistress steps, the flowers bloom, straining toward her like she is the sun.
His Mistress has explained everything to him. She, like him, was created by Cinder Snow. His old Mistress is alive – he had whimpered at that news – and she has given PsyKick to Dionaea as a gift. So he must serve her now.
Dionaea says she is deep undercover. They must pretend to be Good, for a while, while her plans take form. When he asked what those plans are, she told him it was not his place to know. She is right, of course. PsyKick is only here to Serve, not question.
Then his Mistress did something very strange. She laid her hand on his head and it pulsed with that eerie red glow of her eyes. Then she asked him if he still wanted to Serve her. When he said yes, she looked disappointed. That worries PsyKick. Does she not want him? He has finally found someone to Serve. He mustn’t disappoint her.
He likes her.
She has taken him outside.
PsyKick is starting to suspect that his new Mistress is not very bright.
Sometimes she will point to things and say something blatantly wrong. She will say “Isn’t this smoothie wonderfully bitter?” or “Two times five is eight.” or “Platypus Man would defeat Texplosion in a fight.” (As if Tex would lose to that moron!)
He does not say that, of course. He just says “Yes, Mistress,” and nods.
They are sitting on a bench in the park she takes him to every time she visits. She comes by every few days and he has begun to crave her company. There is such clarity to his thoughts when she is around. He thinks it’s because she fulfills his Purpose.
His Mistress tilts back her head and smiles. “Isn’t the sky a beautiful green today?”
“The sky is blue,” he murmurs.
She grows very still, turning her head slowly, and stares at him intensely.
He realizes what he’s done. “I’m s-sorry,” he stutters while his Purpose screams at him.
“Don’t be,” she drawls, and turns her face toward the sun again. “Would you look at that? It’s blue. You’re right. I was wrong.”
No, he disagreed with her, he is the one who is wrong, and Bad, and…
“You can disagree with me when I’m wrong, Stephen.”
His Purpose quiets down.
She smiles at him and he averts his gaze.
PsyKick glares at his Mistress over his hand, and she smiles back innocently.
“Let’s see ‘em.”
He triumphantly lays out his Full House. She smirks and turns over her cards, revealing a Royal Flush. PsyKick’s mouth falls open.
“That’s it! You are cheating, Mistress!”
“Prove it!” she crows, and gleefully hugs the paper scraps they use as chips to her chest.
They never fasten the straps anymore. PsyKick can move around his room as he pleases, and it’s wonderful. His Purpose still gnaws at him sometimes, but it’s so faint now, he can barely feel it. It’s because of his Mistress; he knows she will come to him, so he doesn’t have to escape to get to her.
He wishes he could go outside by himself, though. Not to escape, just to take a walk.
He hasn’t tried to attack a doctor in weeks. Maybe if he continues to behave they will allow it. He will ask his Mistress about it. She seems to have sway with the doctors; it’s very strange. Maybe she controls their minds, like he’d once been able to, before they implanted the power dampeners.
His Mistress can do anything.
PsyKick is sitting on the bench in the garden. Alone. There’s a book in his lap and he is reading it with a faint smile on his face.
She is Magic.
His Mistress is a liar.
He paces the length of his room.
Doctor Dionaea.
He had heard them calling her Doctor Dionaea!
She was wearing a white coat over her vines, and she was laughing with the other doctors. Laughing at him? For being stupid enough to believe her? No, no, no, he likes his Mistress, she cares for him, how can she betray him like this?
Maybe it’s just her cover story. His rapidly beating heart calms a little. Yes. That must be it.
“Mistress?”
“Yes, Stephen?” She is shuffling the cards. He really shouldn’t let her do that. Whenever she deals the cards, she wins. His Mistress is really quite blatant about her cheating.
“What are your plans?” He forces the words out. He knows it’s not his place to ask, but he has to know. He hasn’t seen her plan much in the way of world domination, as a proper villain should.
She freezes for a moment. The only movement is her neatly arranging the cards into an orderly stack.
“My plan is to get you well.”
He swallows the lump in his throat.
“You are a doctor,” he says in a dull voice. Now she can’t be his Mistress anymore.
“No, I’m not.”
“I heard them calling you Doctor Dionaea.”
She smiles wryly. “A joke. I make them call me that; it grinds their teeth. I have no medical degree.”
He raises his head hopefully. But then he frowns.
“They say I’m sick but I’m not.” They just don’t understand that he has a Purpose.
His Purpose.
It’s very quiet. He cocks his head, straining to hear it.
“I know,” she says gently. “But you aren’t happy either, are you?”
He doesn’t really know what to say. All he knows is that his heart is breaking. If she’s not his Mistress, then he must find someone else. He doesn’t want to.
“I wasn’t lying, you know,” she continues. “Cinder Snow made me. And I was a villain.”
“Was,” he repeats.
“I met this hero. And then I decided I didn’t want to be a villain anymore.” She puts away the stack of cards and reaches out to take his hand. “Wouldn’t you like to do the same?”
“I… I…”
He looks at their entwined hands. He thinks… he thinks he would very much like not being a villain. But how can he stop? He must Serve.
“How did you do it?” he asks in a small voice.
She leans in closer and presses a kiss to his brow. “I just made a choice.”
And then PsyKick starts crying. Silently at first, but then she hugs him and he sobs while she cradles him in his arms and whispers sweet nothings.
He doesn’t want to be like this anymore.
PsyKick is standing on the edge. There is a wind blowing at this altitude, and it rustles his cape. He opens his eyes and gazes out at the city to his feet.
He smiles.
It’s a good day to be a Hero in Paragon City.
Author's Note: I would like to thank all my readers and reviewers; your comments mean more to me than you know! I hope you enjoyed reading my tale as much as I enjoyed writing it.
I know what you're thinking: "But you left so many things unresolved!"
Yes. Yes, I did. Things that shall be resolved in sequels! This was the story of how Diane and Kara fell in love and changed each other for the better. That story is now at an end, but that does not mean that there are not more adventures for them ahead! I have all sorts of deliciousness planned, one of which would, of course, be the Captain/Amethyst story. I'll be posting a few oneshots over the next couple of days and then start the sequel. Allow me to present...
Also, this story has fanart by Ian Samson. Enjoy! (Caution: One picture is NSFW)
And here's a few rough character sketches!
Captain Patriot
Cinder Snow
Amethyst Star
Event Horizon
If you liked this post, you can leave a comment and/or a kudos!
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This story is 2106 words long.
Comments
Fantastic Story
This was a fantastic story. I loved every bit of it and can't wait for others in this universe.
EOF
*jumps up and down excitedly*
I can't wait to share either! The sequel will be different, but I hope still just as entertaining.
Loved it!
Every character, every chapter, every word! I truly can't wait to see more!
Dallas
D. Eden
Dum Vivimus, Vivamus
I hope
...you love the other stories as well as this one ^_^
Great story
I loved every chapter.
*blushes*
Thank you!
Loved It
I love this story. It had everything I could want but the romance was the best.
Diane was my favorite character. I think she was the main ingredient to make this story stand out.
Thanks and kudos.
- Terry
Diane is my fave, too
In case it wasn't completely obvious *laughs* I have a lot of fun writing her.
Thank you for reading!
Thank you!
Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!
That was superb, you are a good person for sharing it with us.
Hugs,
A.
Aw
Thank you very much, I'm really happy my story brightened your days, and I hope the sequels will do the same!
Loved this story but have a few questions =)
In the banner picture that's most associated with this serial, who is who? Amethyst Star, Captain Patriot/Dudebro, Shade, Dionaea and Cinder Snow are obvious, but who are the others? I assume that the lady with rainbow wings is the minor character that was Shade's former girlfriend who fell out of the sky when Amethyst turned off all the powers as Event Horizon--and I don't remember her name =). I don't have any idea about the others, though, such as the guy with a huge nose.
Why didn't Captain Dudebro's hand regrow as a woman's hand? Or was there some other story reason that Diane's healing powers caused Ian to change sex but not others such as David?
Why did Cinder Snow retain her intelligence when Event Horizon had Paragon in the black hole? With the usual superhero fiction genre design, the mad scientists' super power is their intelligence, so I expected that Cinder Snow would become of average intelligence but that her existing machines would still work. So maybe her bad aim and killing thousands of people by chopping a skyscraper in half was caused by not knowing her power armor as well? (Not that she'd ever care about killing others, just about missing her target.)
I loved this story, and you've helped me get through many of my nights of crying and wishing myself dead by letting me escape my gender hell for a while. *hugs*
*hugs tight*
I'm glad I was able to cheer you up, and I hope you find happiness. Learning to accept yourself is a battle, and something that I also still struggle with.
As for your questions!
From left to right, that's Amethyst Star, Dazzling Dawn, Captain Patriot and Platypus Man. Shade and Diane speak for themselves :) Then on the right side we have Fusion Flare, Cinder Snow and Executioner, with Event Horizon's eye in the background.
The Captain's hand regrew normally because he is not a trans woman. Diane's power is not to turn men into women, it's simply to give them the perfectly healthy bodies they were meant to have. In Shade's case, this meant the body of a woman.
Cinder Snow's intelligence is not a superpower, it just, well, is. If she enhanced her mind in some way, that would be a power, but she's just naturally a genius, as is her sister. She also didn't have bad aim, she hit Event Horizon point blank :P If Event Horizon had not absorbed healing powers, she'd have died instantly. Hitting the skyscraper also didn't kill anyone, because Faultline is a deserted waste.
"guy with a huge
"guy with a huge nose"
Wouldn't that be Platypus Man, the most important character of this story!
"Why didn't Captain Dudebro's hand regrow as a woman's hand"
because captain dudebro didn't want to be a man, while shade did
"Cinder Snow retain her intelligence when Event Horizon had Paragon in the black hole"
SCIENCE isn't a superpower, its a brainpower!
or at least that's how I see it
great storry BTW
The whole things has been
The whole things has been awesome. Look forward to next installment.
*smiles*
Thank you very much, I look forward to your comments on the next installments as well!
Very, very well done.
I enjoyed every step of the way, but I especially like the way you ended this, with a redemption and renewal of Psykick. All through the story I felt myself feeling sorry for him and his enforced problem.
Thanks for writing and sharing this great story with us. I look forward to the next series with great anticipation.
Catherine Linda Michel
As a T-woman, I do have a Y chromosome... it's just in cursive, pink script.
*nods*
PsyKick's fate was far too tragic not to revisit, and it just presented itself as the perfect opportunity for Diane to really demonstrate how far she has come whilst still being the same person she's always been!
I have a suspicion you might enjoy who the protagonist of the sequel is... ;)
I can't say
how much I enjoyed this. You included so much I truly love about the superhero genre and more. The characters and their emotions were just spot on! They weren't cardboard cutouts but real complicated people with needs, faults, and all the other things that makes us human.
I have no idea of copyright and other issues relating the late great COH game, but this would make an outstanding book. Sure it might be easy enough to search/replace names, but I get the feeling this was a homage to a great game and place that so many dearly loved. I never played being unable to afford the fees, but that doesn't mean I'm not blown away by not just your story, but by others who wrote eulogies to their characters and Paragon City.
Hugs!
Grover
Grover <3
Your insightful comments are just a neverending source of awesome to me, and I wanted to take a moment to thank you for that ^_^
*hugs back*
Loved It!!
Supers, great characters, wonderful writing, and a return to Paragon. It brought back memories of fun times in CoH which made it more than just a pleasure to read. I eagerly await the sequel!
Paragon forever <3
I just love that city too much to truly leave it.
Happy to hear you enjoyed it!
excellent ending!
I look forward to the next story !
Glad you liked it!
Your comments always brough a smile to my face, Dorothy! Hope to see you around the sequels!
Loved it
Great story, I can't wait for the sequels.
Thank you so much for sharing such a wonderful story.
I hope to share more!
And hope you enjoy it as much as the first part ^_^
Magic. Just magic.
And there's to be more? You are TOO good to us :)
The artwork is a bonus, I hope there will be a little of that to come as well.
Your heroes are (very) human, and engaging. Thank you.
Teri Ann
"Reach for the sun."
So much more!
And the sequel does indeed have more artwork :)
I'm glad you enjoy the characters; I think that no matter how fantastical, a story should have a core of good and realistic characters.
I very much enjoyed this story
And I"m Glad that you'll be continuing to add new stories in this universe. Looking forward to reading your ne stories.
Hugs,
Tamara Jeanne
I very much enjoyed this story
And I"m Glad that you'll be continuing to add new stories in this universe. Looking forward to reading your ne stories.
Hugs,
Tamara Jeanne
^_^
Thank you very much!
great story it kept me
great story it kept me wanting more from beginning to end.
Thank you <3
I'm glad you enjoyed it, and hope you'll find the sequel similiarly captivating!
Interludes?
I noticed that you recently edited the version of the story posted in TG Storytime -- visible changes were adding no less than three interludes; I don't know if there were any other tweaks.
Will this updated version of the story be brought to BigCloset?
Yup!
These interludes used to be a seperate story but the read count told me most people simply never saw them, so I merged them into the main story. With Big Closet's book structure, I can post them as oneshots and merge them into the book with no problem however :)
Ahh.
The new Captain Patriot, David, is nowhere as stupid as he thinks he is. Shade has offered advice, and occasionally help. Plus no one treats David as the person he is except Shade. Nice little vignette here. I also think it's amusing that David actually enjoys how Shade reacts to him as opposed to the hero worship others give him.
Maggie
A little mixup, I take it
*grins*
Yeah, David is far smarter than people give him credit for. He's just not that good with that thing where you make noises with your mouth.
Very satisfying
.
.
The girl in me. She might not always be there any more,
but when she is, she's looking for OHAV :-)
glad to see you still with us, Lora
We miss you when you're not around.
Happy
...to hear you enjoyed my story so much, and I hope to entertain you with the sequels as well :)
Btw, you look gorgeous in that photo!
amazing story
This was an amazing story; so sweet; so entertaining; so... enthralling.
And the epilogue was just as satisfying.
And I am now going to go.and read it again because I like it that much!!
Thank you for sharing this with us!
Xx
Amy
Wow... just wow. I kinda
Wow... just wow. I kinda missed the first story of this series and then I but it on the long bench. Stupid me. This was awesome.
I always wonder why people with Superpowers go and play hero. Most of them aren't even paid for it, but they still risk their lifes to save banks of all things. Honestly, I'd probably cheer on a villain robbing a bank as long as they're not killing people.
Great story, thank you for writing,
Beyogi
Awesome
This is such a great wonderful story, one that I had a great time reading and caused me to stay up way too late the past couple nights. Now, on to the sequel!
-Tas
Charming
That was sweet and funny, with an exciting plot and intriguing character development. Thank you.
---
http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/trismegistusshandy
http://shifti.org/wiki/User:Trismegistus_Shandy
Love the story.
Hi Minikisa,
I read your story on TGS and I must say, that I have never found such a good description of what it is like for a deeply repressed transgender woman. And Dionaea is one of the best characters I have ever read about. This is the best love story I have found anywhere on the TG sites and I love it and come back to it every once in a while with the same pleasure.
I am not a fan of comic/manga/anime though, so I will download the story from TGS to keep. The images here distract me as my mental images of Kara and Diane are a world apart from those here. Other than that, well, fantastic story.
Monique.
Monique S
I am not entirely sure
if you still read comments after all that time, Minikisa. I read this first on TGS a long while ago and downloaded it, because I wanted to read it again. Then, last week, I needed to cheer up a little and saw it here.
I think it is one of the sweetest romances I have ever read. And funniest, too. I absolutely love it. It is brilliant!
Monique.
Monique S
A small personal thanks to the author.
I first read this story when it was coming out- ended up losing track of it shortly before the conclusion of book one.
It was the catalyst to me realizing that I didn't just have a special little kink for feminization; so many of Shade's thoughts felt like they'd been plucked straight from my head.
Now, eight years later, rediscovering and rereading this captivating, compelling, tonally delicious series was the last nudge I needed to give up my excuses and start my own adventure. Thanks, Minikisa, you're a champ.
What a fabulous story
Entertaining from beginning to end. About the only thing I guessed rightly about was the healing of Psykick, and maybe about Shade's transformation. But the explanation that it wasn't Diane's intention to do that was neatly explained. All in all a wonderful experience. I'm a little sad I've only learned about this one 9 years from the posting but even that is ok, given that I need this lift now, more than 9 years ago. Thank you for giving us such fun characters.
>>> Kay