Something must have convinced her, because soon Whistler-wave was part of the clique too. It was four on one on one, with the clique winning most fights—they only lost when Heliopause and Ashen-glow happened to work together. She was quickly catching up though, her abilities canceling out the magic of the others even if she had less flashy or environmentally affecting magic. The change in dynamics was noticed online as well, with lots of speculation on what caused it. He could only wonder, as the clique was pretty quiet on what changed each of their minds.
Albus was walking back from his job one day when he saw a poster—a rally against the Combined Republic's genocidal occupation of Filistia. He had seen it online—the news itself almost always covered it in a positive way, "brave soldiers at war defending freedom" and all that, but there were pictures. Videos. Horrible stuff.
On a whim he stayed downtown, eating out before the protest was to begin rather than heating up leftovers at home. He went out at the time and place, finding a crowd slowly gathering. It had to be thousands of people, if not approaching ten-thousand—all chanting slogans such as "we will not stop, we will not rest", "end the occupation now", "not another nickel, not another dime, no more money for genocide!"
He joined in, one voice among thousands. It was a cause he believed in, albeit not something he ever took action on before, knowing his own country was doing horrible things but being powerless to stop it.
"Hi! I'm Jake." A man walked up to him holding a bunch of papers, handing one to him. "Interested in doing more?" Albus glanced through the beginning and end:
Combined Socialist Party
The Combined Republic's political and economic system is failing the working class
Soldiers are armed with weapons costing tens of millions of dollars to fight in a genocidal war, while millions at home struggle with dangerous working conditions, low wages, and no real democracy.
As socialists we believe we must unite to destroy the reactionaries and that we can collectively, as the working class, take control of our own fates. We must seize economic and political power for ourselves from the capitalists and politicians that serve their interests…
…
…
Come to a new member meeting, next Wednesday evening!
(Zipcode)
"Oh, thanks." He stood there, unsure.
"I hope to see you there!" The man walked off.
Albus was… unsure. It would be nice to do more, the protest was exciting but he couldn't help but think it wouldn't accomplish anything.
——
Another day, another fight, the pace of two or three artifacts appearing every week did not let up. Heliopause made strides towards the object, some sort of pad. It was in a park again, with some light speculators.
"It is I, Beautiful Soldier Ashen-glow! Protector of love and light!" She jumped on the other side of the artifact.
"Looks like just the two of us so far. Maybe the clique won't show up today, eh?"
"About that." Ashen-glow looked a little embarrassed. "I know you've been enjoying the rivalry, and I have too, but it's time to end this. We're all one team and we should act like it. I never should have encouraged the fighting."
"Why should we be? A team I mean. I don't know you all, I certainly don't want to give up my civilian identity. Like if we're a team, who are we a team against?" This change from Ashen-glow was weird, she never showed signs of this before. But they all made a sudden turn around like this, and Ashen-glow in particular always had weird knowledge about them. She would guess mind control, but it's been pretty solidly proven that that's impossible by any known science. Though… these powers they had were pretty extraordinary. Of course there was a simpler explanation: they've been meeting up in civilian form, and something as civilians changed between now and the last meeting.
"I can explain it all, just come and talk. Earthshine has a nice house, we've been meeting there, it's important."
"Tell me now." Heliopause picked up the pad and put it in her pocket. No fighting for it, huh. "Is there a world ending threat like in comic books?"
"No." Several people in the crowd were recording, as always.
"Some sort of evil villain has come to take over the city?"
"Well, no."
"Then I don't care! Just let me be alone. Not everyone has to be friends." Even if she kinda wanted to. Doing so would have kinda felt like lying to them, or she'd have to reveal her real name, or—it couldn't work.
"Look, our destiny is to work together! You have to listen."
"I don't believe in destiny. Like what on earth are you talking about?"
"We tried it your way. Now let's do mine!" Whistle-wave jumped out of a nearby building with a thunder kick. Heliopause quickly put up a shield, but that only blocked the electricity, her foot itself knocking her over. She quickly scrambled to her feet, jumping away and throwing a quick spear of darkness. An artillery barrage of rays came from Ashen-glow only to get blocked with a spray of dark clouds. Whistle-wave caught up with a punch, barely dodged with a shadow knife to the thigh. As the lightning soldier stumbled away she punched her face, knocking her down.
Ashen-glow finally escaped the magic-blocking cloud, a whip wrapping around the dark warrior's waist and pulling her towards the light soldier with a wham of a punch. She dissolved the whip with a pulse, knocking her head into Ashen-glow as hard as she could. The girl stumbled away from her.
"I'm, like, actually bleeding over here. Shit. Can I get some help?" Whistle-wave's leg was slowly oozing blood, the knife gone but the wound very real.
"Oh fuck I'm so sorry. I didn't think, uh," nothing had ever hurt any of them before, not seriously at least.
"You didn't think a fucking anti-magic knife would hurt a magical being?" Ashen-glow disengaged and ran over to Whistle-wave. "It's okay, Earthshine should be here soon, she'll heal it back better than ever."
"I should go." Blood rushed to her cheeks. She didn't really mean to hurt her, but they did attack first. How was she supposed to respond? How was she supposed to know this attack would hurt? Wait, she was always throwing those spears around, but never hit. How bad could that have been?
"Stay here!" Whistle-wave glared at her while Ashen-glow covered the wound with snow, stopping the bleeding. She didn't obey, jumping away to try to find a place to de-transform.
——
Albus scrolled CosmicSoldierWatch, reading through the posts. One person had managed to find an artifact before any of the Cosmic Soldiers did, some sort of flashlight, but it only worked for a few minutes at a time before shutting off. That was odd, he never had a problem even when not transformed. Maybe they just got unlucky and got an item that sucked. Or maybe being a Cosmic Soldier made him into some sort of battery? That implied permanent changes even when not transformed, which was… concerning. As he scrolled he noticed a highly discussed post about a press release by the Cosmic Soldiers. Huh, guess the clique decided to speak to the media about something. He opened the video, a short clip from the whole thing.
All five of them stood in an empty room, a few newscasters with microphones and other equipment in front of them.
"Beautiful Cosmic Soldier Heliopause is a threat, here to steal powerful magic technology which have been lost around the city. We are working full time with the police to have her brought to justice. If you have any information on her civilian identity, please report this to the police, but do not confront her yourself. She is armed and dangerous." Earthshine stood tall and proud, her silver skirt waving in the wind.
What. They were sending the cops after him? This was nonsense, they were making him out to be the villain!
"As for us, we will continue recovering the magic technology to keep it safe. It originates from the Golden Empire whose ruins have been found on the moon, and are important to keep undamaged and unused for the archaeological community. If you find something, please turn it in." Amorphous-ice added.
That part might be true, if misleading. This was some powerful stuff, on par with what they could do today, and made thousands of years ago at that. No one really knew what caused the fall of the Golden Empire other than that society had to begin from scratch, easily gotten magic materials and deposits used up, their own society developing differently with coal deposits and electricity. The government probably wanted to study it, and apparently the other Cosmic Soldiers gave in, as he couldn't imagine they wouldn't be studying the star wands.
He made a post.
The "Hero" Clique is Lying to You
Just a few weeks ago all of the Cosmic Soldiers were fighting each other, and suddenly 5 are on a team and 1 is the bad guy? Something's fishy here.
There were immediate responses, many people siding with the clique, especially fans of any of the 5 previously. But many other people were sceptical as well, especially fans of Heliopause. Both sides pointed out the clique was with the cops, though whether that was a good or bad thing really depended on the person. He pointed out that in the previous video Heliopause was attacked first and only fought in self-defense, not even joining the initial fights between all six of them for several weeks.
He argued for a few hours, eventually giving it up when one man arguing for Heliopause said he was doing it because she was hot. She was hot, but she didn't want men saying they liked her! He finally quit it and went to look at the item he got from the fight.
The artifact was some sort of pad, like a SmartPad of sorts, but with no electronics. Tapping it had a hologram float above it like some sort of sci-fi novel.
"Training hologram activated. Who would you like to see?"
"Um, hello?" The voice came from the pad, but the hologram was just of six stars, colored like the Cosmic Soldier's symbols on their necks.
"Invalid response."
"Heliopause."
"Showing: Heliopause, video one."
The hologram changed, a woman wearing the same outfit as Heliopause appearing in the space above the pad. But it was clearly a different woman, maybe in her forties, pale skin with freckles and pitch black hair. She was forming shields of dark dust, blocking Ashen-light attacks coming from 'off-screen'.
"Woah," he said to himself. How many videos were there? Of all six of them? This was the jackpot, he could never let the others see this. This must be so old, maybe even back from the Golden Empire. He never read that much into it but he never even heard of something like this–then again, not much was known about it in general.
"Watch video two?"
"Yes."
This time the woman was forming knives out of black dust, first demonstrating how it sliced through glowing targets and went right through non-glowing targets. Huh, so it only affected magic stuff, maybe? She then threw the knives at a moving target-board, hitting only the glowing ones.
He transformed, and soon Heliopause stood in her apartment, twirling her skirt once again. She formed a knife and cut it right through her desk, leaving it unharmed. She then took out the umbrella and carefully cut a nick into it–her theory was right! She must have very focused anti-magic powers–that would be very helpful in fighting the other Cosmic Soldiers, now that she knew, but would have to be careful if the government ever came after her. Real soldiers had guns and bullets and she would be unable to do anything against them except maybe use her superior strength and speed. She would also have to be very careful not to point down… it would be catastrophic if she somehow interfered with the magic that kept the clouds afloat and solid.
She spent the rest of the night practicing fine control over her powers, only going to sleep as she noticed dawn approach.
——
Albus nervously walked into the library that the rally's poster had listed. He hoped he had the right place and time. There were around forty chairs set up before a podium–he found one to sit down in, next to a tall girl with blue hair. He wanted to talk to her, but she was on her phone, and he was too nervous. Maybe another time. As people kept shuffling in, some people had to stand–clearly it was a big group. Soon one of the people at the front began to speak.
"Hello, I'm Elizabeth, she/they pronouns, and a leader at The Combined Socialist Party. I'm glad you could all make it today, and would like to go over meeting etiquette first. We will talk "on stack"—raise your hand and I will call you in order you raise your hands in, with privilege towards underrepresented people when necessary. Be mindful of your place, we do not bring the oppressions of capitalism in the meeting room.
"First I would like to go over who we are and what we do…"
She continued on for a while, talking about their labor and tenant union programs in the city along with their big anti-genocide focus right now and their ongoing immigrant rights and feminist working groups. Apparently they even had an elected city council member who was using his position to speak against the war. Soon they moved onto a discussion where everyone had the chance to speak about what they do and don't like about the current ruling parties, and how the CSP's platform differed, along with what the people thought they should be doing to help. Albus didn't speak up, too timid to say anything.
He left the meeting unsure, wanting to join but didn't feel like he had it in him to do anything.
Walking out of the library he bumped into a group of five girls leaving a nearby coffee shop. "Sorry!"
Something looked familiar about them. Wait, he's seen three of them before! Those two girls from the coffee shop earlier, and the angry girl he bumped into. Oddly he remembered their names, unusual for him. Guess something just stuck in his mind.
"Oh, it's alright!" The tall one, who he had not seen before, said. The girls quickly went back to their conversation, ignoring him.
"I can't believe you don't drink coffee!" Jackie, the excitable blonde from the coffee shop, said to another blonde, someone else he hadn't met.
"Well, I used to. But I've been trying to be more healthy. Besides, it doesn't have much effect on me anymore. I have energy for daaaaaaays."
"Don't I know it," Jackie giggled.
"Stop it, not here," Dana, the other girl from the coffee shop, said.
"Oh no one is going to know what we're talking about," Kaen said, much calmer than when she had yelled at him the other day. "We tested it, remember?"
"Yeah, yeah, magic stops anyone else from recognizing us, doesn't mean we shouldn't be careful. The dark one could be nearby," Dana said.
"Magic, or maybe men are just stupid." Kaen laughed. "'The dark one'" –with air quotes– "should look similar to herself, and I don't see anyone she could be nearby."
Wait wait wait. This was the clique? Did they all run into each other in civilian form, as he had been? But they recognize each other. Odd, as until they were more explicit about it, he never would have guessed. They did look an awful lot like the other Cosmic Soldiers, with the exceptions of being shorter, less muscular and with different hair colors. He carefully changed his path to walk behind them to keep listening in. They were awfully touchy, Dana and Kaen holding hands, while Jackie was holding hands with both the other two he didn't know the names of.
Now that he paid attention it was obvious to connect the dots: Jackie was Earthshine, Dana was Amorphous-ice–the two knew each other the longest, so it made sense they were together in the coffee shop so long ago–Kaen was Cool-flame, the tall one was Whistler-wave, and the second blonde was Ashen-glow. They were comfortable with each other. It gave him an internal ache–it had been a long time since he was that close with a group of friends. He followed them onto the bus, hoping they would continue to not notice, but keeping his distance too much to understand what they were saying. Odd, he could hear Kaen just fine from this distance the other day, was his hearing fluctuating? Or was something else going on. Honestly, he wanted answers, and his only lead was them.
He gets off at the same stop as them, only to hear:
"Hey, is that guy following us?" civilian Ashen-glow whispered to Jackie. He quickly started walking the opposite direction of them, heart pounding. He didn't want to be caught, and definitely didn't want to appear to be creepy.
He turned the corner and pulled out his transformation wand, whispering: "Turn me into a normal looking civilian!"
Seconds later she was dressed in jeans and a blouse, looking much like a girl version of Albus. She was tall and lithe with long curly brown hair, and slightly tan skin. She walked back towards the clique, confident they wouldn't recognize her as the same person. They had begun walking again, so she had to speed walk for a bit to catch up and listen in again.
"I think we should start patrols to look for her, she can't hide forever, and we're too much on our toes. I think we can each recognize what it feels like to run into a Cosmic Soldier now," civilian Ashen-glow argued.
"Maybe. I think if that was possible my program would have caught her by now. She must live under a rock," Dana said. Program?
"Well, we can always try both! I think I'd be able to recognize that fat ass anywhere," Jackie said. "Sometimes computer programs just can't compete."
"It worked for the rest of you," she grumbled. The rest of them? So that's how they met up—Amorphous-ice must have made some sort of program which could find them and meet up in person. Why it didn't work to find Albus was obvious—he was the only boy. But how did she convince them to join up and work together?
They stopped at an apartment building, and she slowed her pace to not walk past them too fast, but not stop with them. Jackie pulled out a set of keys and let them in. Must be her apartments. After they went inside, she glanced at the address and wrote it in her phone–that would be good information to have.
——
The next day another artifact activated–it was time to take what she had been learning and put it to action. This time all five of the clique were there, Earthshine already picking up the artifact.
"Hey! Let's fight for it. That, uh" she peered at it, "toaster is mine!"
"Not today, evil fiend." Earthshine put it in her pocket. "Surrender now! We can still talk about this."
"What's this about me being evil?" She was honestly pretty offended. Bad enough to say it to the press, now they were saying it to her face? They knew it wasn't true.
"Well we're the heroes, so you're the villain we have come together to stop."
"What am I doing that you're stopping?"
"Stealing the artifacts!"
"They're not yours!"
Just then, Ashen-glow shot a beam of light directly at her. Heliopause threw a cloud of black dust into the air, blocking it cleanly. As she learned in the videos even a small amount would block any amount of magic, though she would need more for partial magic partial physical attacks like fire or ice.
Speaking of which, a firebolt and lightning bolt were heading towards her right then along with a misty cloud forming. She blocked them both and ran at Earthshine, throwing knives. If videogames taught her anything it was to take out the healer first. One hit her arm, making it bleed, but the other four intercepted her before she could take advantage.
She jumped away, knowing a close up fight would be useless, throwing more dust knives at them to make them scatter. This one on five was as difficult as she expected. Turning around, Earthshine had already healed herself, and was pulling black dust out of the air to throw at her! Surprised, she failed to dodge, her skirt torn and thigh beginning to bleed. Time to make her escape. She created a huge cloud of black dust, escaping under the cover of its anti-magic and sight blocking abilities. Earthshine's ability to copy her powers would be a problem.
——
She would continue to try to fight the five of them, invariably losing, and getting more and more annoyed each time. Did they really have to keep ganging up on her? At least she was getting very good at keeping track of lots of stuff at once, and they hadn't managed to get her yet.
One day, in her civilian form, she spotted the clique tying up a bank robber to the applause of the audience. They were so fucking annoying.
"Cosmic Wand Power, Reveal!" She shot out of an alley, confronting them.
"What do you want?" Whistler-wave said. "There's nothing here."
"You're so set on making me the villain, maybe I decided to actually act like it. Beautiful Cosmic Soldier Heliopause, defender of villainy and crimes!" She spun once. "Let that man go!"
It was ridiculous. He was a criminal, and maybe even an armed one at that—she didn't know. Maybe it was immature of her. But she didn't really care.
"What happened to your principles?" Earthshine asked.
"Maybe defending a bank or insurance company's money was never one of my principles."
"You're really going to bat for a bank robber?"
No. "Yes. After all, I am a villain, right? That's what villains do? C'mon, let's fight. That's what you want right?"
"You're fucking crazy," Cool-flame said. "You're actually insane."
Heliopause put her arms in the air. "Am I? Or am I just fed up with everything!"
She knew it was stupid. She would probably regret it. Protecting a bank robber wasn't a hill she should die on, there's plenty more unjust laws she would rather fight. But this was what was in front of her. She was fed up with this stupid clique and the stupid government. So why shouldn't she be just as stupid? What else could she do, stop being Cosmic Soldier Heliopause? She would rather die.
She stared at the 5 soldiers, daring them to make the first move. They didn't. Fine, then she would. A cloud of black dust burst from her, larger and stronger than ever before. She let it just continue expanding in all directions leaving them all in darkness—and unable to use their magic. She ran towards Amorphous-ice, covering her hand in a gauntlet and punching her out from behind. She collapsed onto the ground, but was visibly breathing. Good. None of the others had shown they could clear out the air from within it.
She searched the fog, running into Earthshine.
"She's over-" a quick punch shut ber up and sent her rolling onto the ground. She quickly went a different way, running into Ashen-light clearly coming to help Earthshine.
She tackled her, the two Cosmic Soldiers wrestling ion the ground.
"You can't beat all of us," Ashen-light grunted. "Plus, even I'm better than you." Ashen-light pinned her to the ground with her legs around her torso and arms pinned above her head. They stayed like that for a moment. Did she have to be so hot? Because this was kinda hot.
"If you think this is hot, just wait 'till you see what I can do in the bedroom."
"I did not mean to say that outloud."
"If you say so, cutie." Ashen-light winked. Heliopause continued struggling, but wasn't strong enough to break out.
"Stop flirting with me!" She formed a knife in her hand, sloppily tossing it forward. Ashen-light easily dodged but it gave her time to get up, just in time for Whistler-wave to finally find them.
She leapt back into the darkness, out of their sight. She then found Cool-flame, punching her out from behind before being found.
"Everyone! We need to get together, out of the fog!" Earthshine shouted, clearly recovered from before.
With the other Cosmic Soldier gone, she strolled over to the thief they captured and snapped his ties. She really didn't care about him, but letting him go meant she won, they lost. And that was what mattered.
She walked out of the fog just to see the clique in front once more, all ready with attacks. A laserbeam, fireball, lightning bolt, and ice shard all hit her shields, the magic fading away and herself barely affected by the residual heat of fire and lightning.
"You've lost! I am the Beautiful Cosmic Soldier Heliopause, protector of principles and darkness, and right now I can say: one principle of mine is to never give in to someone else who claims to know best. Your clique may have declared themselves the heroes? Then I'll be the villain! Defender of villains everywhere!"
After her speech she stepped back into the darkness, breaking into a run away from the team staying close together, Earthshine and Amorphous-ice blowing wet winds to wipe away the fog. But she could create the anti-magic dust just as fast, and kept it around her.
Soon after she de-transformed in the fog herself, confident that he would be indistinguishable from anyone else running around in the confusion.
