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AN - I think a lot of you will enjoy this chapter ^^ We have a lot of Kim's perspective.


The meeting to discuss project Velody had continued on for a while, focusing on all the details for the new identity.

It had taken longer than it needed to.

Pratt wasn’t exactly used to hearing new ideas, and Kim was very used to sharing them and pushing them. Their arguments dragged on.

But Kim had a history with the military, back when she was a superhero and they made some nasty calls. So I didn’t step in when she felt she needed to correct Pratt.

It took a few hours, but we finally worked through the details.

Checking the time, I decided I might be able to get back to BSH in time for patrols, so I headed that way.

Pratt had already left, and Melody was off to hide out for the rest of the day, leaving me alone with Kim.

“So, I went to Doctor Wells’ lab this morning. She said she built you a secret machine to get in touch with Void.” I tried to make it sound teasing and hide a little of my genuine curiosity.

Kim had a playful smile at the mention of it. “Yep. Top secret way to get Void’s attention. It’s sure fire to work.”

“Okay, you can’t tease me like that. How do you plan to use it to talk to him?” I asked.

But Kim mimed zipping her lips. “Can’t say or it won’t work.”

Rolling my eyes, I kept on moving back towards the Bureau. Kim had picked a place that wasn’t too far away.

It had felt odd to do top secret planning in a public diner. But it had been reasonably empty, and I was sure there were analysts scraping traces of it.

“Fine. I won’t ask about your newest toy. What do you think about this project?” I asked Kim.

Kim clicked her tongue. “Melody is too soft for this. They should have picked someone else.”

I had been thinking the same things. “Why didn’t they?”

“Her power is just too strong. Even if Pratt gave monster fruit to everyone in the military, it’s unlikely that they could find someone who could survive a fight with her. Villains recognize strength, and Melody has that in a way that you can’t just make.” Kim sighed. “So, we’ll have to teach her the rest. Everything but the power can be taught.”

I thought about what Kim had said. Melody’s power was impressive, especially now. She’d basically become a walking black hole.

She was definitely S grade now, even with just her enhanced gravity powers, not to mention the new one.

“Understood. I’ll do my best to work with her, but I think she’s fragile at the moment. I want to go slow.” I told Kim.

“Fragile how?”

“She’s a little messed up from the transformation. She’s convinced people look at her the wrong way, and part of all the insecurity is that she’s lost all of her modeling gigs. She doesn’t see herself as beautiful anymore.” As I said it, I realized that some of those feelings might actually help her go from faking being a villain to acting out.

Kim nodded. “Keep an eye on her, then. The last thing we need is for this to get a little too real, if you know what I mean. That’s exactly why the bureau was made.”

“Then why let her do this at all? Why put her under this much risk?” I asked. Kim had said she made the bureau to protect heroes.

“Well, because she has you. Somehow you have a growing house of ex villains that are doing some good. Even if she goes to the dark side for a moment, I have faith you’ll bring her back.” Kim raised a fiery red eyebrow at me.

“Angelina will do sessions with her the whole time. If there’s a problem, I’ll pull her out of it ASAP. At the end of the day, Melody is my priority.” I made a commitment to myself with those words.

I would push Melody hard into the role, because the city needed it and I thought it could be good for her. But if ever I thought I couldn’t pull her back out, it was done.

We rounded the corner, and the bureau’s concrete bridge came into view.

Stella saw me and started bouncing as she tried to flag me down.

“See. I can’t believe she was a villain a few weeks ago.” Kim had a strange expression on her face. “Why do you think you’ve had so much success in shifting them onto a better path?”

“I think I just pick the right ones. More than a few times I’ve considered someone and then tossed it aside, just knowing it wouldn’t work.” I replied.

Kim hummed a little and nodded. “You just understand villains differently, I guess.” She stumbled over her words, adding more immediately. “We just all see them for their crimes.”

“Something like that.” I felt awkward, like there was something I was missing in this conversation. But before we could continue, Stella was bounding over and snatching me out of the air. “Miles!”

“Talk to you later, Director.” I called belatedly to Kim as Stella hauled me into the air.

***

Kim shook her head as she watched Miles hauled up into the air by Stella. “Sometimes, I doubt myself.” Flipping open her phone, she glanced at her calendar, which was a maze of colors and meetings. Half of the meetings, she wasn’t even sure what would be discussed.

She had to show up and figure it out later. Thankfully, her assistant color coded them so she didn’t have to decide which meeting to take.

Not like it was any trouble. With her wrathful immortality, her mind was like a steel trap. Very few things faded, even with substantial time.

Kim walked into the bureau, tapping away at her phone.

But halfway up the steps, she could feel someone’s attention and the click-clack of someone running in heels.

Beatrix looked like she was running from a killer. “Director. You. Have. To. See. This.” Beatrix panted and held out her tablet.

“Come into my office. This doesn’t seem like something to talk about out here.” Kim herded Beatrix into the offices and back to her large stately door with her name on a brass placard.

She’d always hated how overdone the room was.

Pushing the panting Beatrix into the office, Kim closed the door behind her and put the privacy device on her desk, turning it on in the process. “What is it B?”

“Director. Sit down. I know you told me not to look into Miles, but—“ Beatrix didn’t get to finish the statement before Kim’s hair sparked with fire.

Kim could feel it happening, but there was no way to stop it when she was emotional. Whether it was anger or an amazing time in the bedroom, sparks always flew off her hair when she got excited.

Right now, she was pissed. Beatrix had just put them in far too much danger. She had been careful about how much she looked into Miles. There was too much she didn’t know about his power and if she left some digital trace or he somehow checked on her and saw she was digging. It would be too much. Even now was an enormous risk.

“B. I thought I explicitly told you not to check into Miles.” Kim pressed a hand to her forehead and immediately went to the bottom drawer of her desk, only to find the whiskey bottle empty.

She cursed, coming up with the empty bottle in her hand and dropping it in the trash.

“Kim. You don’t understand. He’s been lying to us. Look, this video here shows him being kidnapped by the giantesses. Then they go into the building together, but he comes back out alone.” The analyst was scared. Of course she was.

Beatrix continued flipping through the footage on her tablet. “After that, there’s no sign of them on any camera in the city. An unexplained explosion happens here in the video.” Beatrix rambled on and Kim leaned back, knowing that if she didn’t let Beatrix at least get it out, the analyst was going to boil over with her news.

“Here, it’s only a few pixels, but there’s something he drops in the sewer grate.” The video continued as Beatrix zoomed in on that little piece, showing the few pixels falling into the grate, followed by a loud splash.

“Kim, he’s bad news. Somehow, he killed them. I know it. This was before he got the injections from Wells, even. Who knows what kind of monster he could be now?” The analyst was nearly panting.

Kim’s eyes flicked to where she’d grown used to looking at the sketch of Miles Matherson. The boy that killed Fortress.

Fuck.

She had taken it down when Miles noticed it in her office.

If it was him, she couldn’t afford to spook him.

But she’d known for a while now, or at least had a strong suspicion that just kept growing stronger every time she saw him. Her gut was practically screaming at her that Miles was the same kid that got away after the terrible Fortress Incident.

When Kim had walked into the marketing agency and first met Miles, she thought her immortality was going to give out with the mother of all heart attacks.

She didn’t forget a face and his face, his name was etched into her mind. Then his name, Miles fucking Mathers! Either it was the world’s cruelest joke to put his doppleganger with nearly the same name in front of her, or she had finally found her white whale.

If it was him, she was going to catch him.

Kim focused down on her head analyst, who was still panting. “Beatrix, listen to me. I know you are going to poke around, but understand this: if he catches you, if you show any signs that you think he’s not who he says he is, you’ll die. And no one will ever be able to prove it was him.” Kim tried to be very clear and get through to Beatrix, whose eyes grew wide. It was clearly not the reply Beatrix had been expecting.

“You knew. You signed off on his classified approvals, but he didn’t go through any of the vetting. You knew, and you did less due diligence on him?” Beatrix’s voice became louder and higher. “Did you even do a background check?”

“Yeah. He came through squeaky clean.” And that was the truth. Everything checked out in Miles’ background. He had a few speeding tickets, but that was it.

Everything had indicated he wasn’t the Miles she’d been searching for, but her instincts screamed the absolute opposite.

By pulling him into the bureau, Kim had gotten her chance to study him and find out for sure. Stella was the biggest gift basket she could have found in making that happen.

As she thought about it, Kim nearly laughed. Stella would love a gift basket. She put it on her mental to-do list.

But Kim had trusted her gut. Every time she saw Miles, there was this darkness lingering in his eyes, one that didn’t come from living the normal life that his background check suggested.

“But you still signed off? On a murderer?” Beatrix pushed again, baffled.

“I needed him to join the BSH. The rigors of the security clearance check might have spooked him.” Kim replied.

Beatrix frowned. “Spook him? You know he isn’t who he says he is?”

“He absolutely had to join the BSH. There was no margin for error.” Kim’s tone was adamant. Slowly, she’d get him to feel comfortable around her, to trust her. In time, he might even tell her himself. Oh, how sweet that would be. She’d take him under her wing, nurture him like the hero she should have done when she first saw him that day.

Maybe he’d even grow romantically attached and she could teach him other things. That he seemed to have stopped aging two decades ago made her very curious if he was someone that would be able to not grow old with her.

She bit her lip at the thought.

But things had not gone so smoothly. After he joined, several things had gone wrong, but so much had gone right. And Kim had gotten a chance to make amends for her mistake after the battle with Fortress. She told everyone while he was in the room.

When Void had showed up and confirmed he was the Miles she’d been looking for and forgave her, it had taken a giant weight off her shoulders.

For so long, she’d carried around how she’d ruined a young super’s life. If she could give him a better one now, she certainly would. She would look out for him, protect him.

Just the thought of it was making her eyes sting.

And he’d gone above and beyond. She hadn’t expected him to save her when she’d lured The Chimera out of the city, but he did. He destroyed the titan and saved her.

That… that gave her hope.

Kim was the kind of woman that trusted her instincts, and they said that Miles Mathers was Miles Matherson.

“B. I’m about to make a request you can turn down. If Miles finds out, I’ll deny everything, and he will probably kill you. The BSH cannot withstand his anger. But, if you are willing, please look into him. Prove to me who he really is.” Kim let out a sigh and pushed against her desk.

“I thought you said not to look into him.” Beatrix hesitated.

“Those are my official orders. Unofficially, I can see that you won’t let this go. And I want to have my suspicions confirmed.”

Kim let out a frustrated sigh. “I’ve wanted to confirm it for a long time, but I can’t get my hand caught in that cookie jar. If I do, I’m screwed, the BSH is screwed, maybe even the whole city.” Kim made sure to let Beatrix know the stakes.

Beatrix swallowed audibly; it felt like it echoed in the quiet office. “Got it. If I get caught, then you hang me out to dry, wash your hands of it and limit the target of his anger. But you are talking like he’s… he’s…” She struggled to put it to words. “He’s some ridiculously powerful super. Like he has the power of a Titan.”

Beatrix’s eyes met Kim’s as she spoke and put it together. “You think he’s Void?”

Kim didn’t deny the statement.

“But why is he working for the BSH? Why is he working so hard to help villains like Stella or Angelina reform?” Beatrix asked rapid-fire questions.

“If I knew, I’d be 100% confident he was Void. But there’s always small inconsistencies, things that are throwing me. My gut says it’s him, though.” Kim finished and realized that Beatrix was shaking.

“Y-you mean I just picked a fight with Void?” Beatrix’s whole body, including her eyes, were shaking. “I just threatened to look into these files that he deleted.”

Kim really wished she had that drink of whiskey, for both of them.

“This is why I told you not to look into him. What are you going to do now?” Kim asked.

“Act natural?” Beatrix gave a stiff smile that looked like it would shatter the moment she met Miles again. “That was terrible. Help?”

“Yeah. I’ll help you. But what are you going to do?” Kim wanted to know her answer before she left the office.

Beatrix nodded. “My curiosity will get the better of me. I know I’ll look deeper. When I tried to threaten him, it was like his eyes became bottomless pits.” She wrapped her arms around herself. “Is that the darkness you were talking about?”

But Kim only shook her head. “As far as I can tell, Miles has been a harmless, even a positive influence on anyone and everyone except those that touch his secret. That's why I didn’t dig myself.”

The analyst nodded rapidly. “But I’d already gone too far, so why not go further? Who knows, maybe I’ll find his Achilles heel? He seems to like a lot of girls, just not me…” There was a thoughtful pause on her face.

“Just be careful, please. You’ve been my right hand for five years now. I’d like you to keep being my head analyst for years to come.” Kim tried to keep the grimace off her face, but if something happened to Beatrix, it would also be confirmation.

Although with that confirmation, Kim had no way to retaliate. She couldn’t take on Void.

Beatrix’s words made Kim curious, though. Kim wanted to see, feel that darkness again. Heavens knew she deserved it. He could take all the anger he wanted out on her. She’d let him happily.

Until then, she’d have to keep drinking it away. The bottomless ache that filled her when she thought about what she’d done to Miles Matherson. Only whiskey ever seemed to dull it and keep the nightmares away. Because when she saw his power and him destroy Fortress, she was both terrified and excited.

He was the super that could shape generations.


AN - Tada!

Comments

Anonymous

Nobody is talking about Melody’s third power? Her old ones are gravity and emp. What is her third new one? Or I might be wrong about her third power. Bruce, did you replace melody’s emp power with a new one?

Anonymous

The last one is how I persevered it. The impression I got is that her emp power got replaced with a different power.

Anonymous

Frankly I would like it if Miles had a bout of paranoia and decided to replicate a power that is not known to be one of Voids and reveal that as the power he got for the drug (because of the Wells situation and him feeling like his secret is at risk) and for it to spread a ton of doubt for B and Kim and make them freak out and push them to the edge of being convinced that Miles is not Void (and make them think they had hand the keys to the house to some random dude). But frankly I think B is going to have too good a chance of discovering things at are pretty concert as Miles=Void.