Her issues grew as she was in charge for longer and longer. She never should have been the leader and knew it, and her issues only got worse over time until the compassion was sanded away.
More depressed than mad, I think.
Well, now I gotta write something up.
A Stage Slightly To The Left: Goldnine Soaked Dreams II
By Kermie
Part 1 here.
9:30 PM
Mona's Dreamscape — January 9, 2068
You are Mona Merola-Morales.
After John's recent administration of Ambrosia, (you all heard him wake up in the middle of the night after Bulwark's complaining) you've been trying to no avail to figure out how these people from your Ambrosia got into your head. No luck with that, however.
Instead, you've been telling your DNA donors (Maddie calls them your headmates, John and Ibis are debating on whether to name them Traces or Imprints) about your most recent object of frustration.
Ellie.
The streets inside your mind are well-lit today, black sky lit by a bright, glowing black hole. Everyone in your head has tried and failed to figure out how it glows, without any success. But it provides a good light as you walk down the empty city streets alongside the man you consider your second mentor. Steadfast.
"And then she called me a jerk for talking to her! Which, rude!"
Steadfast walks at a brisk pace, keeping up with you as you hover through the air in costume. "I mean, you made a horrible first impression, what with accidentally insulting her. That's why you should
always read the after-action report."
"You sound like Lady Leizi." you manage to groan out.
"Well, send her my regards. Though if I have to be honest, everybody here can tell that you're attracted to this Ellie girl—"
Before you seriously consider flying into the black hole up there, a deafening
boom interrupts your thoughts. You look up. It's Novalight and Crimson Soprano having a spar. A giant chunk of building falls onto Steadfast, but it just breaks apart on his head.
Steadfast looks at you, a bit amused. "Hm. Guess we can talk later. Go, have some fun."
"Alright, but I just want you to know that I'm
not attracted to Ellie! Whatever you thought you saw, you didn't!"
"I heard from my son that Uiara said
the exact same thing about Valiant Silver—" Nope. You fly up and away, Steadfast's voice draining away into the darkness.
As you ascend past black and yellow lit skyscraper windows, you catch sight of her. Novalight. Crimson Soprano faces her, drawing power from the black hole as a replacement for the sun.
Across from them, you see Soldier X standing on a building nearby, arms crossed. The well-built woman turns to you. "Mona. Novalight offered us an agreement. Go talk with her."
"Thanks! I will!"
As you approach Novalight, you distantly realize that unlike you, she's not in costume, simply floating a generic t-shirt and pair of jeans. Crimson Soprano almost looks a bit silly compared to her, bright colors contrasting with the rest of the dream-environment. She turns her head to you, an intimidating tone clear as she speaks.
"Mona. I wanted to talk."
"Are you going to try and blast me away again?" you ask, a bit of suspicion creeping into your voice, "or chase me down at supersonic speeds?"
She simply shakes her head. "I was just practicing with Bidu over here. I'd like to teach you a few things, so that you can be prepared for what comes next. You're going up against what could be the Leviathan and the Frozen Throne. Admit it, you need all the help you can get."
Crimson Soprano flies right behind you. "She's not lying. She hasn't tried anything nasty against me, and besides, you can't die in this dream. Best take this opportunity before she gets into one of her moods again." And with that, she flies off to join her teammate on the building roof.
You turn to Novalight. "Fine then. I accept. You better teach me something super awesome though, or I'm leaving."
She sighs, and you notice something. She's got… bags underneath her eyes. Huh.
Novalight raises a hand up. "Alright, first let's start with target practice. I'll be starting with the speed of a car, and slowly wind up to sonic speed. Your job is to hit me without even hitting a single one of the skyscrapers below us. Begin!"
She flies to the side, shooting a few warning bolts of heat as a distraction. You strafe diagonally and downwards, before landing a finger blast to her chest. She flinches back a bit, before giving a tiny smile and speeding up. "Good. Now, as we're training, I'd best get up to speed with you."
"You're not funny for that pun, y'know!" you tell, as you chase her through the winding skyscrapers.
She does a loop de loop over you, and you just barely manage to turn around and counter a heat blast from her with one of your own. "Wasn't intended. It's just that I haven't gotten much time to speak with you. But Crimson Soprano told me the basics. What is your problem with Ellie?"
You angrily launch a bolt at her, which she sidesteps. It falls into the street below, blowing up a nonsensical street sign. Who the frick does she think she is, asking that question?! "Nothing you need to know."
Novalight returns fire, scoffing. "
Focus. That blast you just sent out could have hit a civilian in a real combat situation. Do not make that mistake. And Ellie will be one of your teammates, so—"
With a sudden burst of speed, she flies right past you. You just barely hear her as she flies past your head. "
Why are you treating her the same way I treated her mother?"
You fly down, shooting another blast from your fingers up. "Who are you to say that?! And besides, I'm not you!"
She sighs, tilting her head an inch to dodge your attack. "You're not. And that makes
you repeating
my mistakes even worse to see. New Dawn is breaking up— was always broken— because of the conflicts between my faction and Heavenly's."
It's honestly heartbreaking; the second worst person you know just made a great point. (The title of worst goes to Scarlet Maturity.) "…so?"
"So you can't be arguing over nothing or treating her badly just because she's grieving!" she barks out, clearly just a bit annoyed, "Both of you are going to be the pillars of Justice Unlimited, what with your high Tolerances. Breaking it up spells disaster for everyone; you'll bring out the worst in each other."
You bite back a sigh. Frick, this sucks.
…but she's definitely given you a bit to think on.
"…can we just get back to training? I missed when I was able to shoot you."
"I'll stop talking when you land a hit." she drawls out.
"Alright then, here I come!"
10:00 PM
Mona's Dreamscape — January 9, 2068
You are Lamar Thompson. As the training finishes and Mona drifts further into sleep, her visage dissipates, leaving only you and your fellow friends inside the Ambrosia to occupy this strange mindscape. You distantly hear Soldier X and Crimson Soprano leaving to go check out something else. Leaving only you and…
Yelena floats down from behind you. As she slowly steps down from flight, you notice how… tired she looks. "Lamar."
"Yelena."
While Bidu and X definitely have a negative opinion of Yelena, the fact remains that she was genuinely one of your best friends for a while. She doesn't look nearly as wound up as she was during her days leading New Dawn. It's nice to be able to talk with her on even footing for once in a while. "What do you think about Mona?"
She sighs, facepalming. "Agh, I don't even know what I was thinking during those first few weeks of confusion. Chasing her down for being
better than me— same as with Yu, just a lot more physical. She's definitely quite an energetic young lady, though."
You nod impartially, before leaning against a wall. "Definitely. And she could probably rival King with enough training."
"She'll outlive King by decades, eons even. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if she manages to outlive
us! She might end up as the strongest metahuman ever."
She chuckles a bit. It's a sound you didn't think you'd ever hear again in your life— technically it took both your deaths for it to happen. But then her expression turns serious, and you can see the bags underneath her eyes. "But I'm glad for that. Lamar, I left behind nothing. If it wasn't for Wolong, New Dawn would be nothing more than a husk right now. Horizon's going to need somebody like her to carry the slack in the next few years."
"It is a bit of a husk already. Wolong's been running himself ragged from what I've heard at our card nights."
She turns away, a bit ashamed. When she speaks again, it's quieter. "I just hope that she can be different than me. She's got what I never had, that Valiant Red did. That strange, indefinable ability to be a leader. I'm just worried that she'll take up everything on her shoulders like I did. I'm just worried that she'll restart the rivalry between me and Heavenly Astrologian with her and Ellie."
For a second, you think of your son. Rakeem. How him becoming a hero like you was honestly terrifying at first.
"…all we can do is hope that what we teach the ones we love today can help them be better in the future."
She takes a
deep breath out, and nods. "That's definitely a wise piece of advice. Heard it from Rebecca?"
"No, I think Kaitlyn said it once."
"Justiciar? Hmph, sounds about right. Good night, Lamar."
"Good night, Yelena."
Author's Note:
I was inspired and I had some free time.
Before I go, here's some extra headcanons from this AU:
-Steadfast, being the dude thrown into a lot of combos, is in charge of delivering all the "are you ok? How's your host/you doing?" messages. The 1 Potency heroes are second in that regard.
-Each DNA sample represents one psychic trace/memory. Same samples in different plans don't get you clones.
-Since Mona has Extreme Psychic Sensitivity, she has her DNA donors show up every other day. Same with Noelle.
-Any psychic like John Henry or Yara in the future will be able to hear the words of the traces during daily life, though I'm still working on outlining that.
-Bulwark is still salty.
