Chapter 6

I got into school bright and early on Monday and took my usual place. It was a slow start that day and it was quite a while till my arch nemesis turned up. I had begun to hope Tara was ill and would not bother me for the day, until she walked in looking like she was feeling superior. The news coverage over the weekend had obviously pumped up her already stratospheric ego.

She gave me a sneer, then sat with her usual cadre of friends, who all fawned over her like some Vid star from Hollywood. Still, she ignored me. Our truce seeming to hold for now. The day panned out roughly as expected, Some of the rumours Tara had started about me seemed to be dying out, as I wasn't quite so feared. I guess most people find it tough to believe a little girl who barely comes up to their chest could be some sort of threat. People still mostly ignored me, though the new girl gave me a few thoughtful looks which I didn't understand.

Things were going pretty good up until lunch time. Lessons had been okay and even PE was not too bad. But after I finished my lunch and was walking over to the library to catch up on a spot of homework, I was waylaid by a group of MORFS survivors with Tara at the helm.

"Hey, Lardo!" she called from behind me.

I turned to see her and a group of four others from her little club. The Supers, though just the more disreputable types. Most of the supers didn't bother with other people, feeling they were beneath them. They almost all had a powerful dislike of the Pures, who were anti MORFS bigots. But as for the rest of the so called normal people, they called them mundanes, or caterpillars, and mostly ignored them.

They had different approaches to MORFS survivors. Some were friendly with all, others ignored all but the powerful, and some seemed to feel if you were not at the level of a super, you were at best little more than a normal person, at worst, a failure in some way, not having the strength to gain powers, and therefore someone to be shunned or bullied. It seemed Tara had recruited most of the last group as her new backup against me.

I felt a shove from thin air as Tara used her powers to give me a push, sending me staggering back against a set of lockers on the wall.

"Ah ah ah! So, you little pervert. Not so tough now, are you," she said, shoving me.

This, from someone that needed four people to back her up before she would attack a girl half her size.

"HA!" shouted one of the boys behind her, a wiry individual who was known as Scan and was some sort of telepath. His real name was something like Colin, and he was known for not being the sharpest tool in the box. "This little slut used to be a boy!"

I looked at him, confused. It wasn't like I was hiding that fact. Tara eyed him with a similar look of confusion, tinged with a bit of anger, "Yes, we know, you idiot! For pity's sake Colin, do try and keep up!"

Disgruntled, Colin told her, "My name's Scan!!" But he was ignored by the rest of this motley crew.

"She looks light as a feather," said a nasty girl called Laura, who used the name Tempest. "Let's see if she floats on the breeze like one."

She raised her hands and all of a sudden, a terrible wind picked up in the corridor, blowing into me and almost knocking me off my feet. Tempest was living up to her name, causing a massive gale. Only my proximity to the lockers saved me from getting blown out the doors. I grabbed on and held as tightly as I could, though even that didn't help for long. The lockers only had a few protruding parts, and not much to grip onto. The blast of air from Tempest intensified as she tried to knock me on my behind. Out of desperation, I used my powers. The lockers were metal, and heavy, and if I stuck myself to them, it was unlikely I would be blown away.

I pressed my hand against the locker and stuck it there magnetically. I did the same with the leg that was up against it. Held fast against the relentless air, I closed my eyes and waited for things to calm down. Hopefully, Tempest would wear herself out.

After getting harder and harder causing debris to fly down the corridor and rattling the doors and windows. Eventually the artificial gale slowed and I saw my attackers glaring angrily at me, as if refusing to be knocked to the ground by their artificial hurricane was a personal insult to all of them. Once Tempest had taken a go, a few of the others stepped forward to try their luck. Next up were a tall thin girl with long brown hair and dark eyes who called herself Amy Zap, though her real name was Amy Zacowski, an electrical elemental, and a large stocky boy who everyone called Lump, due to his large physique, despite his repeated assertions that he was to be called Carnage. He had some sort of super strength, and his real name was Eric.

These two were winding up to hit me, but they stopped fast when they saw a teacher coming to investigate the mysterious wind that had suddenly picked up in the corridor breaking a window and scattering a load of papers they had been marking.

Intent on having the last word, Tara glared at me. "Remember, pervert. This is OUR school! We are the heroes who change the world. You are the disgusting slime that gets stuck on our boots! Me and my friends will see to it you learn your place at the bottom of the pile!" With that, she dashed off after her friends, not wanting to get in trouble again, given Mrs Thomas' threats.

I made my way on to the library, looking a little wind blown, but otherwise unharmed. Next time I might not be lucky enough to have a nearby metal object I could stick myself to. I sat down to think taking out Kittybot to pet for comfort.

I was pitted against these "Heroes", with no allies of my own, and if said people were heroes, and I was their enemy, what did that make me? 'A villain I suppose, ' I thought.

This seemed an odd thing. I had gone out of my way to be nice and only wanted to acquire some friends, yet it seemed I was the enemy shunned by most of the class, to be treated as a dangerous animal. I was at best ignored, at worst feared. It seemed that despite my own ambitions, everyone was keen to put me in the role of the villain.

'Well if I was going to have to play the villain to Tara's Hero, I might as well do it properly, ' I thought.

Now I thought about it being a villain might not be too bad. Villains at least got some measure of respect. Still what sort of villain could I be? I didn't want to be too bad, since killing and maiming people was not really the sort of thing I wanted to do. It also occurred to me that I lacked any sort of deadly offensive powers, or an intimidating physique to strike fear into my enemies hearts. I had my fairly fearsome teeth, but even then, given my small but sexy body, I doubted that would be enough.

I was disheartened by this realisation for a bit, as no sooner had I decided on my new direction than it seemed to be denied me. I stroked Kittybot for a bit, feeling annoyed. Doing so gave me an idea. I could be a smart villain! The sort who, rather than brute force and flashy powers, used their intellect and cunning to achieve their ends. But how to start on such a path? Could I manipulate others to do my dirty work for me? It seemed unlikely. People didn't like me, and if I couldn't get people to be friends with me, it seemed unlikely I could convince them to fight my battles for me.

Maybe I could use my new body to gain allies? I had seen the boys look at me and think me attractive. Perhaps I could seduce a few, and use them against Tara. I rejected that thought immediately. The thought of flaunting my goods to get boys didn't appeal. They would only do it if they got to touch me, or do other things to me and I felt a little ill at that thought. Besides, I didn't have the first idea how to seduce someone. It probably was more complicated than just flashing my new boobs or bum at the nearest boy. So if I was going to be a smart villain, that wasn't into manipulation, I needed some way to make up for my little body. I regarded Kittybot, and wondered if she was the answer. A legion of robotic warriors at my bidding? Still, I wasn't sure that was such a good idea. Controlling them might be tricky, and besides, it would take ages to build enough to have a decent size legion, what with my school work and all.

Perhaps I could build myself a suit of power armour. It would take me less time than an army of robots, and would make up for my little body. But it occurred to me that to make something capable of doing anything useful would be very, very expensive. I supposed as a super villain I could rob a bank, but then I would have to do it as myself, which would be tricky. It was a sort of chicken and egg scenario. If I had access to some sort of power armour, I could get the money to build it, but without the power armour I couldn't do anything to get the money. I supposed I could build it bit by bit, and skimp and save to build something, but still that might take years. I felt disheartened again and went back to doing some homework.

The rest of the day was okay. Tara was less cocky, without her super powered backup and the teachers watched the two of us like hawks after the previous incident. Even though I couldn't think of a way to become a super villain, I practised my cold super villain stare on the back of her head, just in case. It seemed in lieu of the fact that she couldn't challenge me in class, she turned her malevolent nature on others. The new girl, with her strange need to keep covered, and her slightly odd mannerisms was her new target of choice. I didn't envy her as she got a barrage of insults whenever the authorities were not looking. Tara had never been this bad before, but it seemed that our conflict had awakened her inner bully, and she now wanted to feed it. She used her powers far more openly to torment the poor girl than she had tormented me.

Vicky seemed to be made of far sterner stuff than me, as she mostly ignored it or even laughed at her assailants. This didn't stop them, but angered them, and made me feel very envious of this brave girl. By the end of the day Tara was in a spitting rage as she had completely failed to upset the girl. At least as far as I could tell, she could have been putting on a brave front. I knew only too well from my own experince how she might be a sobbing wreck at home. Still, I hoped that wasn't the case. She seemed nice, and I was beginning to wish I hadn't brushed her off so hard when we could have been friends. Still, as a super villain, friends were a liability, and I was probably better off without them.

I met Dad at the car, and as we drove off, I was smiling. Mum and Dad had to get some more spare parts for their project, so we picked Mum up from the garage then headed to the local wrecker's yard where they hoped to find some of the parts they needed in salvage. The yard was a fascinating place, with all the old cars stripped of most of their parts waiting to be crushed for recycling. Mum and Dad often went there to find old parts that they couldn't get elsewhere.

I stayed close to my parents, knowing that this was a dangerous place if you were not careful, and made sure that Kittybot was safely stowed away in my bag back in the car. Mum was on good terms with the man who ran the place and he knew where all the good stuff was kept, so he led us personally to where he knew there was a cache of the same model of car they were restoring that might have donor parts. The owner was an older man called Mr Madison, a gruff sort of gent with white hair, scraggly beard, and a weathered face. His eyes were green and full of playful mischief. He had a warm smile and a big booming laugh.

To those that didn't know him he might seem a little grumpy and distant, but with friends he was a very warm and funny man. He walked with a slight limp from an injury he had gained on the job, the details of which I didn't know but he had been a friend of Mum for a long time, and he had seen me grow up at various points when she had brought me along on her fairly regular visits. As a result, he insisted I call him Uncle Arthur, even though as far as I knew, he was no relation.

"So then, Mary. Who's this fine young lady with you?" he asked as he walked out to meet us, embracing my Mum fondly and giving my Dad a firm handshake before coming to regard me.

"Oh ye. You've not met Lexi yet. Alex went through MORFS a few weeks back and came out of it as Lexi, so I now have a daughter." Mum said.

"Well, well, I would never have believed it if you hadn't said. It's good to see you, young Lexi. How is life treating you?"

"As well as can be expected, Uncle Arthur," I said with a smile.

"Lexi has been helping us with the work on the beetle," Dad told him. "Doing sterling work on getting the bodywork cleaned and primed ready for repainting."

"Well now, I'm glad to hear that, I guess even though you're a lady now, there's too much of your Mum in you not to take an interest in the family business. Come here and give your old Uncle Arthur a hug." He had to bend down to hug me, the disparity in our heights meaning I only came up to his chest.

"Well then, let's see about finding those parts you need." He led us off into the stacks of old cars waiting to be crushed.

Pretty soon I was standing out the way while my parents looked at one of the cars in the middle of a stack, searching for the part they needed. Uncle Arthur was standing below, chatting away while they looked through the various parts. Nearby, a magnetic crane was being used to lift cars up after most of their parts had been stripped for the next stage in this disassembly line.

The guy operating it seemed to be fairly new, or just not paying much attention and seemed to have only limited control over the machine. So when he put down the chassis of an almost completely stripped car on a stack of four or five others, his positioning was slightly off and as he turned the machine away I saw he had overbalanced the stack. It began to topple, heading straight for Uncle Arthur, Mum, and Dad, sure to kill or at the very least hurt them.