7. Monologuing
Previously, the Scarlet Shapeshifter, in disguise as Meg Atomic and secretly working for the diabolical Professor Irreconcile Differences, had just manipulated Super Soccer Mom and Captain Happily Married into having a terrible argument! Will their marriage survive?
Meg Atomic ran pell-mell down the street towards the sound of the explosion, all thoughts of Hawkins the D.E.R.P agent forgotten. Her father was down without his powers under attack from a supervillain, and her mother was at a vault site halfway across Edison City. That meant it was up to her. She ran faster, wishing she could fly or teleport or super-speed.
She couldn’t stop running the scenarios in her head. She’d never been able to stop. What did Sunflower want? What could she want? Meg wasn’t fully aware of the past history; she knew Sunflower had been a hero back before the Captain had been the Captain, and something had happened, but that was it. There were so many missing pieces. She couldn’t figure it out.
Meg whipped around the corner onto Turpin Avenue and then all at once someone leapt out of the helicopter she’d been hearing over her head for the past five minutes and swung down a rope line frighteningly fast, catching and slowing themselves just in time so that they landed right in front of her on the sidewalk. Meg skidded to a halt to avoid knocking them over. “Hey, who the-”
“Oh, je m’excuse,” the new arrival said, disconnecting the line. “I am Professor Paris; I heard the Captain’s Mayday and have come to assist.”
“No problem,” Meg said, “I’m Meg Atomic, you can follow me while-wait. What was that you said?”
The woman smiled. “You heard me.”
“I did, and I know that je m’excuse is often considered impolite grammatically. If you’re a French superhero, how come you didn’t know that?”
She shrugged, and quite suddenly her trace of a French accent vanished. “Well, I wasn’t trying very hard. I just wanted to have some fun before the big show.” She pulled a small square control device from her pocket. “So you know, this is linked to the Kaboominator, which is back up in that helicopter. I push this, and the Kaboominator blows up a random city building. Could be an empty warehouse, could be a hospital. I don’t know! Want to find out?”
“Who are you?” Meg said, trying to gain time, trying to work solutions. If she could blast the chopper in a certain way…
“Professor Irreconcilable Differences,” the woman said, with a slight bow. “Accredited by the Committee of Calamity itself. They asked me to teach, did you know? I prefer a more… field-oriented career.”
“Really,” Meg asked. “So what do you have against me?”
“You?” the Professor said. “You’re just a bit player in the larger game! Oh, no, little Meg, I’m not going after you. I’m going after your parents. Or, more precisely, their marriage.”
“Their…what?”
“Oh, yes,” the Professor said. “You’re not the only one stalling for time, you know. While we’ve been talking here and your government friend has been waiting over there, your father and mother are having a really terrible argument thanks to a little encouragement from one of my, shall we say, teaching assistants. With a little luck they might even come to blows!”
Her look of glee at the prospect of violence made Meg’s stomach churn. “They wouldn’t,” she said. “They couldn’t. You don’t know them.”
“Don’t I?” the Professor said. “I did my research. I know the full names of everyone in your incredibly boring family. I know the username your insomniac brother uses when he logs on to TreeFort to fight wood goblins or whatever it is. I know the exact molecular makeup of the Frisbee your sister Tamsin transforms into. And…” she paused dramatically,, “I know that your father at this moment believes that your mother called off the Mayday he sent out, and set up him to be killed by the superhero-turned-villain Sunflower.”
“You don’t know everything,” Meg insisted. She began powering up a graviton pulse that would knock the Professor halfway into the next state.
“True,” the Professor said. “I do, however, know one more thing. You’re very clever with your variables, and you’re very powerful into the bargain. But, and this is key so pay attention please, I know that you’re not invulnerable. Not like your father. I should say, not like he was.”
Meg forgot everything else and lunged forwards. “Don’t you dare-”
The Professor had lied. The Kaboominator hadn’t been trained on the buildings; all that time, it had only been aimed at Meg herself. The Professor pushed the control button and dived for cover. The Kaboominator, with a quiet wirp, fired.
Thank you for reading! For prior episodes and other stories in the world of Edison City, check out the Edison City Index below. Stay tuned for next week as the adventure continues!