Mental Strength

Glory had The Mindfirst dead to rights, given she pulled him out of the giant robot that had destroyed several city blocks.

But then they were both suddenly in a spotlight, onboard of some sort of spaceship. As Glory looked around, Mindfirst was still ranting.

"You can't do this to me! I'm the smartest man in the universe!"

"Good."

Glory felt the word, rather than hearing it, before Mindfirst lifted into the air and the aliens swamped into him.

He wasn't the smartest man in the universe, but he did have a bulletproof ego, which was more important to survive.

The End Of Glory

Glory was one of the most powerful superheroes on the planet, but she knew her limits. There were beings from the cosmos that could snap her like a twig, with just a thought.

So she had her friends, her allies, she called on them when she needed help.

But she didn't waste their time. She knew what she could handle, and would handle it solo.

She was always worried that one day, she'd underestimate a threat and not call on them.

The idea that she'd end when she called for help and no-one came hadn't occured to her at all.

Runaway Cascade

Quite some time after it was all over, Glory came to see me

"Framework, did you actually know it would work?"

I looked up from my work on my pulse gauntlet.

"Probably, what are you referring to?"

"When we fought Endtime, we won because you overloaded his portal machine while he was in mid-transit. Did you know it would work?"

"Of course, I spoke to my timelooped future self that morning, remember, they told me it would. Why?"

"Because your timelooped future self just told me he told you to run away."

"He lied to prevent a paradox", I lied.

Tropical Punch

Glory was ill at ease looking through records and working with the Custodians of Earth's AI, much preferring to get out there and punch criminals.

But too many of her familiar enemies had a connection to a finance company based in an otherwise empty island land.

It took hours of work, but eventually Glory and the AI found the woman behind what turned out to be a ponzi scheme ripping off supervillians.

Glory found it distressing that it was best to leave it running and hope it took down more people when it collapsed.

It wasn't quite the same punch.

The Doctor We Need

Dr. Chaotico turned on his viewscreen and hacked into the Custodians of Earth's base computer.

"Tremble fools, for-"

"Oh thank goodness!"

Dr. Chaotico paused, not expecting one of Earth's heroes to be glad to see him.

"You may pretend to-"

"Look, Doctor, you're on your Moon base, yes?"

"I... I do not have a-"

"Traxodians have encased Earth in a Bubble Universe Sphere, we need you to use your Anti-matter cannon to destroy it."

"Even if I had such a device, why would I help you?"

"Because if Earth is shunted to a bubble universe, you can't conquer it."

"Firing!"

The Strongest Protocol

The four of them were training in Custodian HQ's hololevel when a shadowy figure appeared.

"Let us determine who among you Custodians is the strongest, fight for my-"

Sea Gal was the first to move, lifting a finger to point at Hexionia. Glory and Mainframe quickly followed suit.

"No, you're supposed to fight!" the figure whined.

"Why? We all know she's the strongest." replied Glory.

After a few moments, the figure vanished.

"That Protocol was a good idea, but shouldn't we make it the true strongest one, not just random?" asked Mainframe.

This led to an unpleasant argument, at first.

Unfortunate Reaction

Solstar found Glory sitting on the roof of the Custodian HQ, a piece of paper in her hands.

As he sat, she silently held the paper out to him. He took it and quickly read the hurried handwritten letter.

"This..."

"A fan letter. From a young techie who just developed a new kinetic energy feedback device. She wants to be a superhero just like me.

Maybe if I'd answered this, then Lowbridge would still be standing."

"Her reaction to your action isn't your fault."

"Except I would have maybe understood what she was before I attacked."

His silence spoke volumes.

The Last Round-Up

There was a fire over in the docks that had kept Glory busy, by the time she’d blown out most of the burning buildings and was confident the firefighters were able to handle it, the gunfight she’d heard on the comm was already over.

But when she’d landed to help with the clean-up, she froze as she saw the sole survivor, carefully going to each body and closing their eyes, muttering a soft utterance over each one.

“Gunslinger?”

It was less a question, more a shocked statement. The man, hair long since greyed, face wrinkled, slowly stood up and turned to face her.

“Ah yes, you’re the local flying brick type, yes? Glory, right?”

Glory planted her staff into the ground, trying (and failing) to keep herself calm.

“I am such a huge fan, Sir, as a kid I had my Gunslinger Deputy Badge and recited the pledge every night and it’s an honor!”

“I’m sure it is, but you do know all that was just PR, for the most part, right kid?”

“Oh, absolutely, I know that all too well these days, I spend most of my time doing photo ops and interviews and talk shows and I’m sorry, can I help you? Tracking down one last no good varmint, hey?”

“Sort of. You remember Calamity Joan?”

“Of course, one of your trusty partners who-“

“Was also my wife. Well, once I retired, we finally got hitched. Twenty years, wasn’t all perfect, but it was pretty darn good living. She died a couple months back.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that. You’re tracking down her killer?”

The Gunslinger laughed, soft, dismissive, insulting.

“Nah, not unless you got a time machine. Hyper-radiation cancer, gets a lot of heroes from my time, hanging around too many atomic powered good and bad guys.”

The tone of his voice finally broke through Glory’s haze of fandom and hero worship.

“You know, the Custodians could use an old school hand to help train new-“

“Nah girl, that ain’t me. I need to join Joan.”

Glory picked up her staff slowly.

“You don’t have to do anything stupid here.”

The Gunslinger tilted his head. “What was the last line of the pledge?”

Glory dropped her head, as the Gunslinger went for his magically enhanced Big Iron. She spun the staff, deflecting the bullets back and dropping him.

“A true Gunslinger knows when to holster.”

The Good Superhero

Not even the most ardent supporter of prisoner's rights would have tried to stop her had Glory just let The Unnaturalist go. All that was stopping the supervillian from falling into the collapsing hole in the universe was Glory's grip. She'd come within a few seconds of destroying everything, and she would try again, and again, she was too far lost. For the good of everyone, Glory should just let her go.

But then she couldn't call herself good, so she began to pull her up.

Glory was annoyed she didn't do anything to cause her own death during it.

Bloodmage's Talk With Glory

I found him sitting on top of Everest. I brushed some snow off my jacket's shoulder as I sat down next to him. After a few moments of just the wind blowing, he finally spoke.

"So am I a supervillian now?"

I chose my next words very carefully.

"Not if you come back with me now."

He chuckled.

"Hence the soulbound cuffs?"

He reached up my sleeve and pulled them out, then concentrated and disintegrated them. I took the moment to drag my recently soulbounded fingernail across his throat.

"That made you a supervillian." I told him as he died.

You Don't Have To Twist My Arm

Of all the applicants to join the ranks of the Custodians of Earth, only the kid with the sniffle still remained. Glory led him into a room where a man sat waiting for them on a sofa.

“Your next test is to break this man’s arm.”

The kid glanced between the two of them.

“No.”

Glory nodded.

“Well done, good response, but still, please do so.”

The man smiled.

“Yeah, don’t worry, I’ll be fine.”

The kid finally grabbed the mans arm and twisted, bones audibly snapping.

Given the man was Gel-O and had no bones, this worried Glory immensely.

Not Paid By The Word

The Custodians of Earth were huddled on one side of the Los Francisco, while the Gathering of Forces had the docks. Glory, as the hometown hero, stood to address her fellow heroes, while Louisette spoke to her fellow Gatherers.

Louisette’s speech was long, poetic. She, along with all those she spoke to, were better than the scum that lived in the city. Be it from birth, or from the Empowering, or from years of training, they were better, so why shouldn’t they have everything?

Glory’s was just four words.

“We Must Not Fail!”

Many heroes fell.

But they didn’t fail.

The Mental Scarring Is Worse

Glory had twice now tested every single link of the chains holding her in this unknown room. She was just starting her third one when the sole door opened, a figure slowly entering, torch in hand.

“Oh, it’s you, Cheesecake.”

The former model turned acid victim glared at Glory from behind her mask.

“You’re far too flippant my dear. Soon you will be as hideous as me!”

She pulled off her mask.

Glory’s complete lack of reaction threw Cheesecake so much that Glory had time to grab the torch and begin her escape.

She managed to avoid vomiting until later.

Watching The Crystal

Glory knew as she flew towards the crystal spire glinting in the sunlight that the man she was intent on bringing to justice could manipulate minds. That this mystery man was able to reach into your mind and convince you that black was white, up was down, that good was evil. He’d already used his powers to enslave half the city, but Glory had training from some of the finest minds in the galaxy, and she could resist strong manipulation attempts.

Subtle ones, like convincing her that the villain was the male on the throne, those she still fell for.

Clean Up Crew

The runner doubled back, back to where Glory had subdued his partner, not that it helped.

But she stopped when she saw a figure huddled over said partner, hands near their throat.

“Excuse me?” Glory asked as she landed.

The figure spun round, and the unmistakable glint of a scalpel was dulled slightly by the blood.

“EXCUSE ME?” Glory asked, now extremely furious.

“Well, didn’t you find it odd, all the people you beat up and threw a beacon on, no court appearances? We’re the… Clean Up Crew.”

Glory noted the ‘we’ right as the knife plunged at her back.

The Worst I Got

All of the Custodians of Earth, together, could destroy any threat on the planet, and could defeat most threats from off the planet.

Threats from outside this existence though...

An hour after The Leveler declared it would destroy the planet for power, the Custodians were fighting a seemingly never ending swarm of themselves, from a thousand other universes.

But their hearts were pure, and the Custodians won.

“That the best you got?” Glory shouted, defiant, as The Leveler raised an eyebrow.

“No, that was just the easiest.”

The Leveler closed its eyes, and began to erase the Custodians from existence.

Birthday Girls

For the first time in a long time, Glory was bleeding, hurting, in pain.

In danger.

She slowly, with great effort, pulled herself to her feet, as around her, the four of them floated to the ground. Back at college, the May 5^th Girls had pretty much run the social lives of the entire place, if they decided you were a ‘zero’, you were ostracised before the day was over.

And now, on their twenty-first birthday, they all developed superpowers, and were set to take over the city, or at the very least, kill Glory. They had never liked her or her sister, but Glory hadn’t thought it went this deep.

“Any last words, Slut?” asked Susanna, as she began to form a fireball in her hands.

“Better make them good…” added Alicia, as she mentally spun the zerotium blade floating in front of her.

“Because soon you’ll join your sis…” Felicia chimed in, drawing cosmic radiation into her.

“And we will rule!” Paula finished, electricity flowing throughout her.

Glory sighed, and glanced up at the clock tower.

“One year older.” she muttered, and then sprung forward.

That was when everyone found out the girls’ powers only lasted the day.

Safe And Sound

He was born Brage Blanco, but he had become known as ‘White Noise’ as he began to become more well known in the criminal world as a Posthuman who, in his case, could manipulate sound waves and happened to be albino.

Likewise, Socrates Hublot was known in the same circles, by his real name, as being one of the best bodyguards around, since nothing could penetrate his skin.

They each had successful careers as criminals, keeping under the radar of the Custodians, until their one failed, misguided attempt at working together.

All because ‘Safe and Sound’ had a nice ring…

Hidden Trails

Unity Li-Smith was the accountant, or rather creative money hider for most of the supervillians and mob bosses in Los Francisco. So, when she turned herself in after a pay dispute, there was, unsurprisingly, a mad rush to try and knock her off.

Glory had to stick by her side until she could testify. Glory was able to fend off the simple murder attempts easily, but Unity ended up exposed to small but significant amounts of Zeta radiation, Terrorgas, Moondust, and many other horrible energy sources.

Unity would have been upset, except all that woke what lay dormant inside her…

Leading The Song

I was enjoying a cigar when my window exploded, and a flash of red and blue landed before me.

“I have you now, Conductor!”

I waited a moment.

“You’re paying for that, Miss Glory. And for the last time, I’m not this Conductor, I’m a legitimate businessman, one you and your fellow ‘heroes’ keep harassing-“

She tossed a memory stick at me.

“I just had a very long conversation with the leader of the Black Lotus Gang, about his employment status with you.”

I stood up.

“Excuse me while I call my lawyer.”

“Confessing?”

“No, preparing my lawsuits.” I lied.