Author’s note: This was a one shot of sorts. I adore my HSSCA MC and her twin, and I’ve been wanting to write something but didn’t know what. This is a spin off of my superhero au; same world, different location. (Light MC x Rory/ MC x Ajay)
Summary: Meghan Parker is in the beginning stages of juggling her new superhero identity with everything else, but is it more than she can take?
Word count: 2,004
Meghan felt a sharp poke in her shoulder and quickly sat up. Her opened milk carton tipped over and spilled in her lunch tray and her friends laughed at her alarm. Only Skye gave her a concerned look. “And once again, Sleeping Beauty is with us,” Erin joked from across the table. “Honestly, I don’t know how you do it with all this noise.” Meghan fought back a yawn as her eyes scanned the cafeteria. They landed on her twin as he rubbed at his eyes, hardly keeping up with his girlfriend’s steady stream of chatter. At least they were both suffering together.
“I admire your dedication to the play, Meghan, but you’re of no use to any of us if you don’t get a good night’s sleep,” Ajay interjected, and Meghan felt her cheeks flame. She told herself it nothing to do with her growing crush toward the student director. What did she care what he thought? Besides, there was Rory, her childhood friend to think about. Although lately, she seemed less and less concerned about being around him among other things. “Meghan!” Skye’s harsh whisper kept Meghan from surrendering fully to the lull of sleep, and before she could grasp what was happening, Skye had Meghan by the arm and was dragging her to the bathroom, ignoring the confused looks from everyone else. “Is she okay?” she heard Clint ask Natalie, and she was almost positive that the question was answered with a shrug.
“Alright. Talk. Have you caught him or not?” Skye grilled Meghan once they were alone in the girls’ bathroom. “You know, maybe you should have been the superhero,” Meghan joked, but her best friend wasn’t smiling. If anything, her dark makeup made her look just that much intimidating, but Meghan wasn’t fooled. “Aww, you do care!” Meghan laughed, and Skye rolled her eyes, arms tightly crossed against her chest.
“Yes. I guess I care what happens to your skinny ass.”
“Hey, who you calling skinny?”
Once again her jokes fell on deaf ears and Meghan sighed. She leaned back against the cold wall, growling into her clenched fists. “Skye, we almost had him.” She began to pace. “Malcolm tried to shrink the tube when he shrunk himself, but instead the tube stayed the same size and it smashed against the pavement.” Meghan saw the scene replay in her mind.
“So I took off after him, but then our perp ninja-danced his way up the side of a building!”
“Of course he did,” Skye muttered angrily. “You know,” Meghan sighed again, walking over to the sink to stare at her reflection. “He seems really familiar. Like I know him. Personally.”
“You never said what was in the tube,” Skye walked over but Meghan couldn’t look at her. Instead she picked at the scab on her wrist. Skye never wavered, and finally Meghan spoke up. “I think it’s what gave me and Malcolm our powers.”
Everyone knew LoveHacker and the Super League of Friends, even all the way in Cedar Cove. Their faces were plastered everywhere, their heroic deeds on social media and television for all to see. Meghan especially looked up to HeartRate, who was a lethal combination of sweet, strong, and fierce. Her pink aesthetic and Swiss army knife she kept on her person were heavily inspired by the bubbly blonde. But never had Meghan expected to have superpowers like them. Though, maybe mutant was the technical term. A school trip to the Robert Graham Institute of Science and being in the wrong place at the wrong time had altered the very DNA of the Parker twins.
So while the west coast had the Super League, their eastern neighbors had Atomic Mass and Miss. Justice. “Those were the best names you could come up with?” Skye had balked after Meghan confessed her and her twin’s secret. “That’s what everyone else is calling us!” had been her retort. If Meghan was honest with herself, the only part she enjoyed about her alter ego was the public given name. While being invincible had it perks, and Malcolm could put up a strong case for the benefits of manipulating his size and mass, neither twin could have foreseen how draining it’d all become. Not to mention, the almost daily sneaking in and out of the house most nights, lest their parents discover the truth.
Meghan was barely juggling high school, theater, and some semblance of a social life, but even with Skye covering for her, the fourteen-year-old could feel herself stretched too thin. After school, Meghan found herself practicing lines with Danielle. Suddenly going against the masked vigilante multiple nights in a row didn’t seem so bad.
“Innocent! You think the inhabitants of this forsaken planet are innocent? The wars and bloodshed they’ve caused and endured, by petty means…and all for what?“
“Their way of life is JUST as valid as the way of the Arsai-“
Meghan was interrupted by the chirp of her phone, and quickly pulled it out, scanning the text. It was brother.
Meet me by my locker in 5
Danielle cleared her throat, starring daggers into Meghan’s skull. “I’d put your phone away before Ajay sees it. Besides, don’t you think you’ve been distracted enough already?”Meghan bit her lip, careful not to take the bait as Danielle gave her a sickly, sweet smile.
“What? I’m just being honest.”
“And you wonder why you’re running lines with me and not Rory. I’d stay home too if it meant getting out of working with you,” Meghan snapped, and the lighting tech group nearby covered their mouths to hide their shocked, but amused expressions. Meghan had no clue where Rory was, but she figured she had some leverage to fudge the truth considering she and Rory were next door neighbors.
“Meghan! Danielle!” Both girls’ heads snapped up as Ajay came bounding toward them, his expression thunderous. “Is there a problem?” He looked over Danielle before glaring at Meghan, but rather than glance away and trip over her words, she stood up suddenly. What an awful time for all those sleepless nights to finally catch up to her. “Yeah there’s a problem. You were just looking at it,” Meghan snapped, cutting her eyes at Danielle, who blanched. “I’m going to the bathroom,” Meghan muttered before Ajay could stop her. She passed by Skye who pressed a hand to her temple as she sped off.
“Nice going, Meghan.”
“Not now, Skye!”
Thankfully Malcolm was still at his locker, backpack slung across his shoulder. He threw his hands up in frustration as his sister hurried over. “What took you so long?” Meghan shook her head and kept walking, her suit underneath her clothes. “Don’t follow directly behind me. The cameras in this hallway work again.”
The first bad guy Atomic Mass and Miss. Justice put away was a sorry bank robber, along with his equally sorry daughter-in-law and cousin. The siblings worked as a team, Atomic shrinking in size to slip his way into the main robber’s clothes and throw him off balance while Miss. Justice had taken gun bullets like a champ, each one bouncing off her with leaving a scar or mark. Granted their thrift store suits had just barely masked their true identities, but neither sibling could ignore the high that came from saving the day from those who meant harm. They’d thought that just maybe, they had their powers for a reason.
“So I was talking to Amber before practice and she mentioned that a girl on the cheer squad has connections to someone at the institute.” Meghan plastered a smile on her face to hide her annoyance and heavy heart. While Meghan confided in Skye her secret double life, Malcolm had made his girlfriend the first to know. It wasn’t that Meghan didn’t trust Amber; she was a sweet, if slightly high maintenance girl, and always said hi and hugged Meghan whenever she saw her. However, whether from jealousy or genuine concern for her twin, she didn’t like how attached at the hip the two were. If they broke up and Amber told their secret to all of Cedar Cove…
“You called me out of theater rehearsals to tell me that your girlfriend knows someone who knows someone else that has information that’s irrelevant to our current task? Nice.”
Atomic Mass narrowed his eyes at her sarcasm, but didn’t say anything. When Miss. Justice didn’t respond, he took a step towards her. “I’m sorry, something bothering you?” Miss. Justice shrugged, stuffing her hands in the pockets of her modified suit. A few odds and ends from the costume department and Skye’s assistance has created something more functional and aesthetically pleasing. And pinker.
“Look Meghan…Justice. I didn’t ask for these powers either, but we made a choice.”
Miss. Justice turned on her brother, anger she hadn’t realized she’d been holding bubbled to the surface. “No, you made a choice, and now we’re both dealing with the consequences! Nobody told you to go into the lab!” Try as she might, Meghan couldn’t hold back the gruesome image of her twin convulsing on the floor, the vile amber liquid spreading across his skin like a rash. Physical contact in her impulsive attempt to save him had transferred over to her whatever compound made him react so violently, and the rest of the details of those day became fuzzy at best. Their savior was unknown, and it felt a lot like a fever dream.
She’d thought they were going to die. But here they were, alive. Just barely. “Meg,” Malcolm pleaded, his voice no louder than a whisper. Movement caught her attention, and she looked around her brother to see the ninja fiend, dressed head to toe in sleek black, sneaking around the block. What was he doing in the middle of the day, exposed? “You’re gonna shrink down and I’m gonna flick you over to Black Tights,” Miss. Justice responded, and Atomic knew the conversation had been tabled. With a resigned sigh, he closed his eyes and shrunk to the size of peanut. Meghan picked him, preparing to slingshoot him across to the ninja.
“Justice, wait, maybe we should-“
Atomic’s next words were cut off by his shrill screaming as he flew all the way over to the intended target, landing squarely on his neck. “Bingo,” Miss. Justice grinned, running to meet her brother and take down the mysterious guy for good. The ninja clawed at his covered neck, slapping and scratching. “Hang on, Atomic Mass!” Meghan called, rushing over to help her brother. The ninja turned at the sound of her voice, and took off. He didn’t get very far before Atomic grew back to his normal size, the sudden weight enough to tip both forward. They fell, crashing into the dirt. “Yes!” Meghan pumped her fist, praying she wasn’t celebrating a victory to early. If they could interrogate the ninja, they’d maybe be one step closer to discovering the people responsible for her and Atomic’s powers.
Atomic Mass grimaced as he gingerly pushed himself off the unconscious figure. “Next time, we’re flinging you a thousand miles across the sky,” he glared at his sister. “Okay, let’s see who our perp is,” Meghan ignored him, flipping the ninja over onto his back. Carefully, she pulled off his mask. Atomic stiffened behind her, and she soon followed.
“Justice…”
But Miss. Justice couldn’t feel less than Miss. Justice in that moment. Her words to Skye in the bathroom came rushing back, and she felt sick to her stomach. Right now she just wanted to be Meghan Parker, a normal teenage girl who went to Berry High with her twin and their friends. “No…no! It can’t be,” she jumped back, taking the boy’s identity before her all in. “He wouldn’t…?” her voice was small as she continued to back away. “Meg…” Atomic reached for her, not bothering to use her alibi. But it was in vain, and soon she was running. Running away from her brother. Her super secret life. And now, Rory.