Vinyl always found it hard to focus on schoolwork, but today it was much harder to do so, suddenly waking up with superpowers would do that. Math, English, History, none of it seemed important. Gym class proved to be a different kind of challenge, instead of trying to get the energy to do it, she actually had to hold back. Though that didn’t stop her from suddenly doing much better at the subject than ever before, and other student’s noting her new build. Even Rainbow Dash shot her a compliment and asked to exchange work out tips sometime.
‘Try suddenly getting powers, that’s how I got abs.’
Besides that highlight, the school day was mostly a blur, it didn’t feel like long until she found herself at Lyra’s house. It was small and in a packed suburb close to the city, but apparently the rent was decent, so Lyra’s folks moved in at the start of the school year. Vinyl now was standing in the garage as Lyra pulled out a notepad and pen.
“Alright! It’s superpower test time! So, we know you can climb up walls, let's see how strong you are now! Hmm….Pick up Ma’s car!”
Vinyl looked at her friend in shock.
“You fucking serious?”
“What? We know you can crush shit like no one’s business. Now see if you can lift!”
Vinyl looked at the car, it was small, didn’t even have backseats, used by Lyra’s Ma when she had to work. She sighed and walked up to the vehicle, placing her hands under it. With only a little bit of effort, Vinyl now found herself holding the car above the ground.
“H-Holy shit!”
“Woah! A-Are you even struggling!?”
“Nope! I could do this all day!”
“Awesome!”
Lyra scribbled something into her notes as Vinyl slowly placed the car back on the ground.
“So, super strength, 110%. Hmm, I wonder what your agility is like. How was gym?”
“Uh, I had to hold back.”
“I’m sorry hold back?”
“Y-Yeah, gym was actually too easy, I didn’t want anyone to get suspicious so I held back. I think I could have easily beaten most of the track records too…”
“Holy shit Vinyl, that’s awesome! So, super agility is a yes! I wonder what else…”
Vinyl rolled her eyes and smirked.
“Someone’s excited. Hey if I’m going to be your test subject for today, at least give me a soda.”
Lyra chuckled and placed her notes down, walking inside to the kitchen. Vinyl stepped over and had a peek at the notes, there were notes on all the powers they knew of so far, along with what seemed to be sketches of some weird looking logos and different colour ideas. Lyra came back with a can of soda only to see Vinyl looking at her work.
“Hey! No peeking!”
She threw the can at her, Vinyl suddenly feeling all the hairs on her body stand up. The was this….buzzing type feeling through her, danger, that’s all her brain would yell, danger. Her body moved out of the way of the can, flipping over and landing on the wall. The can fell to the floor as Lyra’s jaw did the same.
“H-How did you know I was throwing that!”
“I….don’t know. I just, knew that something was happening, so I dodged it.”
“Wait….that could be another power!”
“...what?”
Vinyl relaxed as Lyra scribbled something down in her notes.
“Like, some sort of danger sense! Like your body knows something bad is about to happen!”
“Oh, that actually sounds really cool.”
“This just proves that you have more powers! We could even be missing more!”
“Shit, that would be something.”
Lyra took her seat before looking at her friend with a raised eyebrow.
“V, I think you can get off the wall now”
Vinyl only now realised that she never bothered to get off the wall, she was even almost sitting on it.
“Oh, well, I’m comfy. Besides I don’t feel that uncomfortable.”
“That’s….going to take some getting used to.”
“Yeah….Hey Lyra, what’s with all the drawings in your notes?”
Lyra slightly blushed in embarrassment, before flipping her notepad over to show her.
“Oh you know….costume and hero logo ideas….You know, just in case….”
“Wow, you’re still on the hero train?”
“I mean, think about it V, you have power unlike anyone else. Look I’m not going to force you if you don’t want to, but imma keep working on it, it gives me a new project to do since I’ve already done all my robotics work for the year”
“Shit already? Well, fine, yeah I guess that’s okay”
Lyra fidgeted in her seat, clearing looking to ask something but not wanting to say. Vinyl rolled her eyes.
“What did you wanna ask me, Lyra?”
“Well….CAN I MAKE YOU A MASK??”
“What? Why?”
“I just think it could look cool! Plus you never know!”
Vinyl thought about it, she was right, there could be a time where she needed to hide who she was while using her powers. She sighed and smiled.
“Okay, but just a mask”
The green hair girl squealed and ran off inside to get supplies. Vinyl just sighed and jumped off the wall, looking to the beat up soda can on the ground.
“Awww, it all leaked out…”
-----
Vinyl looked up at the night sky as she walked home, her hand feeling the mask in her hoodie pocket. Lyra had been shockingly quick, as it was a simple design, pure white except the blue, spray paint looking eye shapes on the front. Well, they were much larger than her eyes, but Lyra said it would help express herself better. She reached for her phone and checked the time, 12:14am, Vinyl did choose to stay while Lyra made the mask. She had full costume ideas, even hero names, and this weird gadget idea. But Lyra wouldn’t tell her about that one, saying it was a surprise. She sighed and put her phone back in her jeans, Lyra was always a bit of a dork, so no wonder she was getting excited.
Vinyl thought about what Lyra said, being a hero sounded all fun in theory, but there were real risks involved in that. Vinyl just couldn’t see herself being the type to risk herself day after day for strangers. She was now in the deeper city, Lyra had offered to drive Vinyl home with her actually having a driving license and all but Vinyl said she needed the walk.
Her own inner thoughts were interrupted when she heard a small scream from the alleyway she just passed, she peaked back only to find two men with bars coming closer to this younger woman.
“Please! Get back! I-I’ll beat you both with my bow!”
“Oh please, just hand over your stuff and we won’t have to get rough with ya.”
“Like hell I’ll give you my things.”
“Well then, I didn’t want to kick your teeth in, you seem like a nice girl, but I gotta do what I gotta do.”
Vinyl threw her head out of view and stood against the wall, that poor girl couldn’t beat those two, fuck. Should she call the police? No, knowing those pigs they would just make things worse. She swallowed, she couldn’t do anything, she needed to find someone that could-
Wait a minute.
Vinyl looked to her hands.
She could do something.
She thought against it, this was some random girl, and besides it wasn’t like muggings were a rare thing in this city. Vinyl took a few steps away, before stopping at the sound of another scream.
‘This isn’t your business, Vinyl, you can just walk away.’
Vinyl put her hands in her hoodie, only to feel the mask Lyra made.
‘God fucking damn it.’
-----
One of the two men held the brown haired girl back as the other went through her purse, noting all the cash and cards. He opened a large case the girl was carrying and whistled.
“Damn Joe, think this could go for a good price?”
“Oh shit, yeah I think that’ll earn us a nice payday.”
“YOU LEAVE THAT ALONE-”
She struggled against the man as a figure crawled down the alley wall. Hearing movement, the other man stood and looked up.
“Did you hear that Joe?”
“Huh?”
“I think I hear movement….Hey! Just walk away! This got nothing to do with you!”
The figure crawled down next to the men, sighing.
“Really? You think that’s threatening? I’ve literally seen kindergartners more scary than the two of you.”
The men looked to the wall in surprise, seeing a hoodie covered person with a mask somehow clinging to the wall.
“H-How the fuck? Look you can just walk away, freak!”
“What? You see someone hanging out on a wall and call them a freak? Look that’s harsh man, I got feelings under this mask.”
The man groaned in frustration, swinging his metal pipe at the wall. The figure dodged the attack, grabbing the man’s head and slamming it against the wall as they flipped over him.
“Seriously? You call that an attack? I got bored halfway through.”
The other man, eyes widening at seeing this person, went to grab something from his waist, the additional effort giving just enough room from the girl to escape from his grasp.
“Hey! Get back here girly!”
The man felt a strong fist against his chest, sending him flying against the back wall, out cold
“Girly? Jeez at least have some respect for the person you’re robbing.”
The other man slowly got up, rubbing his head as it pulsed with pain from his sudden meeting against the brick. He turned to see his partner out cold. He started to panic, going for his waist and pulling out a handgun.
“You fucking bitch! Don’t move!”
The girl looked out in fear, looking to her masked helper.
“Watch out!”
Vinyl turned, seeing the gun pointed at her, she threw her hands up. This was it, this is what she got for getting into this.
“Woah woah dude! You don’t gotta go pointing that thing around!”
“You bitch just ruined this nice score! Now say goodnight!”
Vinyl vinced in anticipation, trying to ready herself to dodge, could she even dodge a bullet? Well she was about to find out. Suddenly the man’s eyes widened, pointing his gun all around.
“W-Where the fuck did you go!?”
Vinyl looked at him confused, looking to the side, seeing even the girl look arounded, confused. She looked down at herself and was surprised, she was see-through, besides a thin, blue outline around her. With some caution, she walked up to the man, waving her hand in his face with him noticing.
‘Wait….to them….am I invisible?’
Taking her chance, she threw a right hook into the man’s face, knocking him out. Suddenly the girl gasped behind her.
“Y-You’re back!”
Vinyl turned around, looking at her hands again, she was visible again.
‘Okay, I so gotta tell Lyra about this.’
Before that could happen, she helped the girl up. She brushed herself off before gathering her purse and large case.
“Thank you, just thank you so much! I don’t know what they would have done if you hadn’t shown up! Um….Who are you?”
Vinyl just stood there, she hadn’t thought that far ahead.
“O-Oh you know, someone who just saw you needed help.”
“Oh, well I assumed with the mask you had some sort of them. And the things you did! You’re like a superhero!”
“I-I guess I am”
“Do….you even have a name?”
“Uh, no. Not really”
The girl brought her hand to her chin.
“The way you crawled down, the way you flipped around when you fought….Well if you’re open for suggestions, I guess Spider-Woman would be fitting! All you’re missing are the webs.”
Vinyl thought about it, she liked it, had a nice ring to it. I mean, she could climb like a spider, so it did kinda fit.
“I….I like that!”
“Well, Spider-Woman, thank you for saving me. My name is Octavia”
“It’s no problem at all. Hey Octavia, I guess my name is Spider-Woman!”
The girl smiled at her, Vinyl did have to admit it was nice to have the person she helped out be a real cutie. She snapped herself out of her thoughts.
“I guess I should uh, get going….”
The girl nodded and headed off, not before turning around slightly blushing.
“T-Thank you again”
Vinyl smiled to herself as she watched the girl wonder off.
“....This mask is kinda itchy….”
----
Vinyl laid back on her bed as she texted Lyra, the other girl excited to hear about her fighting crime.
V - Yeah, then she thanked me and walked away.
LyraH - That’s so cool! I’m proud of you for stepping in!
V - It was nothing, really.
LyraH - It’s something!!! You helped her out when she needed it, that counts for something! :D
V - I guess so, well I guess that’s really everything.
LyraH - Got it, make the mask less itchy, sounds good. I’ll get started on that tomorrow after school.
LyraH - I gotta show this new girl around during the day
V - Lol, be sure to tell me if she’s cute
LyraH - Oh you know I will. Have a good might V!
LyraH - *night
V - Might
Lyra - stfu
Lyra - BTW Spider-Woman is such a cool name!!! I can so work with that!!!
Vinyl relaxed in her bed, she still wasn’t sure about the whole being a superhero thing, but she was still happy that she helped that girl out when she did. Before she fell asleep, she opened her chat app again and messaged Lyra one last thing.
V - Oh yeah before I forget
V - I can turn invisible.
It was only half a minute before the other girl messaged back, bringing a smile to Vinyl’s face.
LyraH - YOU CAN FUCKING WHAT?????