Hey y'all, hope you're doing well! Been super busy lately, and the summer is looking to be even busier, so updates are gonna be sporadic, as predicted. Still, I'll try to write whenever I can. Anyways, enjoy the chapter!
"And now, a word from our heroines!" The announcer swept his hands to the side, where Ivy and Kassandra emerged.
Ivy waved at the crowd with a grin while Kassandra walked up, slightly stiff.
"Don't worry. You got this," Ivy whispered without turning her head. Ivy reached the podium first and stood to the left of it, while Kassandra took her place at the center, in front of the mic.
"Thank you, everyone, for coming today," Kassandra started with a deep breath.
Three days ago, in this city, President Harrison was attacked by a group of superpowered terrorists. New York City, which, since my debut as a Superhero, and the subsequent debut of my partner, had been a shining example of the contributions a super can make to society, became a battlefield. Although the attack was unsuccessful, many still lost their lives, both lawmen and civilians." Kassandra took a deep breath.
"Ever since the end of the Golden Age of Supers, crime has run rampant. It seems every week, a new villain crawls out of the woodworks, intent on carving out their own chunk of lawlessness from our world. And try as they might, the law cannot stop them."
Kassandra paused, as cued by her script, and swept her gaze over the crowd. "You all know this to be true. While the authorities may try their best to hold back the tide, it is only with Super, that we can beat back the encroaching villain threat. And even then, we were nearly not enough." Kassandra looked down solemnly.
"The world needs heroes. This has been true since the Advent of supers. And it will remain true so long as we humans remain human, and remain flawed as humans. One out of 70,000 people on this earth is a super. And for every courageous person who stands as a hero, for every five who choose to live their lives normally, there will be ten more who choose selfishness and evil. I cannot change that. But the fact remains, the world needs all the heroes it can get."
Kassandra took another deep breath, hiding her shaking hands from view. This was it. The make-or-break moment. She reached up to her face and pulled off her mask. Shock swept through the crowd like a visible thing, a wave of gasps and exclamations.
"My name is Kassandra King, and I am proud to call myself a superhero." She looked straight at the cameras. "The world needs heroes. So I stand here and ask you today. Be brave. You may not wear a cape. You may not have the greatest powers, or the strongest body, or the sharpest mind. But each and every one of you who chooses to do the right thing, even just once, will make this world a better place. The Golden Age of superheroes might be over, but my fight isn't. As long as there are still people living in helplessness and despair in this world, I will not stop fighting. Until the light of hope shines on every crevice and dark corner of the world."
Kassandra straightened, bringing herself to her full imposing height. Ivy stepped up beside her. "Therefore, I am hereby declaring the formation of the Independent Hero team, Pantheon! I hope those among you who have the power, who have the ability, who have the authority, will aid us."
Kassandra raised an armoured fist into the air. "We are Pantheon, and we will stand fast against the darkness!"
Kassandra raised an armoured fist into the air. "We are Pantheon, and we will stand fast against the darkness!"
The speech was met with resounding applause, but then again, most things nowadays were met with resounding applause. Humans were fickle that way.
As Kassandra stepped back off the stage, Ivy hooked an arm around her shoulder and flashed her a smile. "That was great, Kass."
"You really think so? The ending felt a little cringey." Kassandra said, face flushed red from nerves, embarrassment, and excitement.
"You did great." Ivy patted her on the back. "We got our name out there. It might take a while, but I'm sure people will be looking to join up." It was true. In this life and the last, Kassandra's charisma was almost like gravity. She just couldn't help bu pull people into her orbit.
Ivy frowned discreetly at the thought. It wouldn't do for someone else to try to steal away what was hers. She frowned more at that. Since when did she start thinking of Kassandra as hers?
"Hey, you ok?" Ivy was knocked out of her thoughts by Kassandra's question. She quickly schooled her expression into a distasteful grimace.
"Yeah, just thinking of all the paperwork we'll have to handle now that we're an official organization." Ivy lied as naturally as she breathed.
Kassandra also frowned at that. "Ah… damn it."
***
"We need to hire a secretary," Ivy groaned. "Or ten." The two were looking over the pile of applications coming into their mailbox. People were swept up in a frenzy, applying for all kinds of positions, from heroes to supporters to techies to accountants.
It was never this hard for her to hire henchmen back in the day. Then again, henchmen didn't really need qualifications past "buff".
"Definitely ten," Kassandra groaned back, slumped over her own pile.
Ivy clicked on her laptop, despondent. "Oh, how about this?" She brightened. "We'll sort through the online ones first for secretaries. Then they can handle everything else. Let's see… apply the filter for secretary…"
Kassandra stretched. "Alright, cue the interview montage."
***
"I-I'm a huge fan, Miss Ignatia!" If the girl was animated, she'd definitely have hearts in her eyes.
"No," Ivy flatly declared, snapping the girl out of existence. At Kassandra's scandalized look, she waved her off. "Don't worry, I just sent her back home." Even though she was tempted to snap her into a pile of dust. No one coveted what was hers. And Kassandra most definitely was hers. Her ticket to world conquest, that was. Let it never be said that Ivy was good at being honest with herself. At least she was trying, right?
***
"You're hired." Ivy declared, seeing the bespectacled, stern woman sitting before them.
"Wha…? We didn't even interview her yet," Kassandra protested. The stern woman also looked a bit shocked at how fast she was hired.
"I looked with my power. She's gonna be great." Ivy tossed her folder into the until-now empty pile of accepted applicants. "You start immediately, go through those folders and hire whoever will work well as a secretary, then we'll give you another pile of other applicants to go through."
In reality, Ivy knew this woman as the financial mastermind behind Ignatia's international superhero team in the other timeline. Best to snatch her up early before the butterfly effect catches up.
"Okay?" The stern woman was rather off guard, but recovered admirably and started looking through the folders.
"Great! Kassandra, let's go take a break. I'm not going to look at a fucking piece of paperwork for the next year!" Kassandra was dragged off helplessly to yet another shopping spree."
***
"So… this is an impressive haul." Ivy and Kassandra surveyed the new recruits. These were Ivy's idea, something unique to both timelines. Pantheon Troopers. Regular people without superpowers, decked out in the latest gear and deployed to contain Super threats. A prettier way of dressing up what was essentially a private army, not that anyone could stop her with her current clout. The key, though, would be showing the public how effective they were. And creative interpretations of the law, of course, but that's what the new legal department is for. And they better be good, cause Ivy spent a quarter of her reward money on those guys' first month of retainer fees.
"These guys will need a few months to be trained, but once they are, they'll be really helpful in supporting us," Ivy said to Kassandra, who still wasn't entirely sold on the idea.
"I know that, but… we're almost out of money, with how many people we're hiring. And the new HQ." Kassandra bit her lower lip.
"Don't you worry, I have a plan for that too."
"Yeah, you better, because the donations are nowhere near enough to sustain this operation," Kassandra retorted, glancing down at her phone worriedly. Their financial analysts had just sent in a few dozen spreadsheets, and even an amateur like Kassandra could tell the numbers didn't look good.
"Oh, ye of little faith." Ivy grinned widely. "This is my most brilliant idea yet. It's called… bounty hunting."
Bit shorter this time. The poll on the last chapter was a 50/50 split, so guess what, you guys get shorter chapters AND longer time between updates!!! Mwuhahahaha! In all seriousness, I'm going to try and keep the chapters around 1.5k words each, but as I said before, super busy now, so updates will be slow. That's all for now, have a wonderful day everyone!