the game

[WP] You are the child of a superhero and your boyfriend/girlfriend is the child of their nemesis. Both your parent and theirs are furious at both of you for dating, but the two of you think that your parents' feud is just stupid.

*****

Growing up around supers you get introduced to a concept called 'the game' that's seldom mentioned outside of costumed circles. The game was the cat and mouse between hero and villain, the constant feud that saw the same forces clashing again and again as the years went on. The game was the status quo and was perpetuated by the understanding that, in the end, neither side was truly trying to win.

It was easy to misunderstand the game and assume that the heroes were doing a bad job if they weren't trying to win, but people needed to understand that there was both a battle and a war when it came to capes. The battle was day-to-day villainy and winnable. The war was where 'the game' showed up because it was a battle of mutually assured destruction. If the strongest heroes and the strongest villains let loose on each other, Earth would lose.

And everyone lived there.

The game had a habit of making people tired. It was hard to maintain enthusiasm when heroes understood that they would beat Vicounter but would just need to send them to prison so they'd escape. The cynicism was why 'the game' was only mentioned in caped communities.

It also led to a lot of teenagers doing stupid shit once they thought they knew better than their parents.

The dumb teenage years were what had led Gravity Girl to the lair of Dr. Rexus, having just rang the doorbell tucked into the side of the mountain.

A moment later the door opened, and Gravity Girl was met with a small allosaur that had been strapped with intelligence-enhancing gear and a small bowtie. Its eyes went as wide as they would go.

"Hey," Gravity Girl pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed, "Allobert- How's the nose?"

"Better now, no thanks to you," Allobert snorted in the poshest British accent on the continent.

"You don't have to fight me you know," Gravity Girl pointed out, "Rexus-"

"Doctor."

"Doctor Rexus was pretty clear that you can leave any time."

"Just because you cannot see the genius of my master and are too simple to understand his glorious vision," Allobart shook his head. "Does not mean that the rest of us are so blind to the future."

Gravity Girl nodded along for a moment. It was impressive that the mad scientist had found a dinosaur too arrogant to use contractions. "Cool. Can I talk to Rexus?

"You may not."

Gravity Girl took a step back and the black glow of the infinite power of space started to wrap around her hand, strip by strip. "I don't wanna do it."

"Ever the barbarian," the dinosaur chided before beginning to remove its bowtie, "very well."

"Letter in," Rexus called from somewhere behind Allobert, his deep southern drawl contrasting against all the dinosaurs he made.

Gravity Girl shook her hands and dissipated the energy around them.

Allobert scoffed, "Very well, you survive another day. Saved by my master's merciful-"

The dinosaur butler shut up as Rexus put a hand on his flank and slipped past the beast. Rexus' lab coat was coated in the discharge from recent experiments, some of which glowed. "Now how can I help ya darlin'?"

"Is Hailey here?" Gravity Girl asked, "she's not answering her phone."

There was a long pause, only interrupted by Allobert taking several steps backward to try to avoid turning around in the hallway. After a moment Rexus finally answered, "Shit."

"Shit?"

"Sam told me they were with you."

"And you didn't call to check?" Gravity Girl snapped.

"You didn't call me."

"You refuse to give me your contact information," Gravity Girl pointed out, "so I need to fucking fly here-"

"Mind your tongue," Allobert cut in as they continued to back up.

"Jesus Christ," Gravity Girl bean under her breath. "Did they say where they were going?"

"No."

"Of course they didn't," Gravity Girl hissed. "And you didn't ask."

"They said they would be with you."

"And-"

"You're the one with your head on straight" Rexus pointed out.

Gravity Girl took a deep breath, yelling or fighting wasn't going to get anything done, and she truly was trying to preserve a day off. She was the responsible one, she could figure it out.

Of course, being the responsible one was a low bar when the other parent was busily finding new and exciting ways to create crimes against nature.

Gravity Girl offered one last huff, "Okay. Alright. Sure," she said mostly to herself. "Mind calling Sam?"

"Is it that-"

"I would love to know where my daughter is-" Gravity Girl pointed out, "and if you say one more thing about free-range kids I am going-" she paused, an open threat wouldn't get her anywhere, so it needed to be thinly veiled, "I'll do something."

"Very specific," Rexus began before nodding along and letting Gravity Girl past him into the base. "they're probably fine."

"Yeah," Gravity Girl was already marching down the hallway toward the center of Dr. Rexus' lair. This wasn't her first time here for Hailey and Sam-related reasons, "but I talked to her about using her powers without a costume and-" Gravity Girl stopped talking when she heard Rexus stop walking.

"They ain't wearing costumes?"

"Hailey is at home in her closet right now," Gravity Girl confirmed.

Dr. Rexus frowned, then scuffed his right boot on the floor. "Kids are so fuckin' stupid."

"Yeah I know," Gravity Girl sighed, "call Sam okay?"

"Right on it," Dr. Rexus pulled out his phone which was only partially covered in slime.

"Perfect," Gravity Girl confirmed, "I'm gonna go change."

"Right," Rexus sighed, the secondary costumes they'd used when out in the world together were so much less streamlined and slick than the ones they had for day-to-day activities.

Here they were again, back for the world's worst team-up episode.

*****

THE END