Who Knew? - A Sanders Sides Superhero Au

The Storm

TW: fighting, weapons, cursing

"A-Are you sure I should go? I-I mean—"

"Virgil," Logan explained, eyes serious, "we need a Help Hero on this mission, and you are the best one we have readily available."

Virgil sighed. "Yeah, but this is the Dragon Witch we're talking about."

"I'm assigning the best heroes in combat to this, Virgil," Logan continued. "You will do fine."

"A-And who exactly are your 'best heroes'?" Virgil asked. "I just wanna know who I'm working with here."

"Remy, Valerie, you, and obviously me," Logan said.

Virgil hesitated. "All three of you? I could never compare to you guys. Especially Remy." Virgil had walked in on Remy training once. Remy was like a machine. They knew exactly where to plant their feet and shift their weight at the exact moment they needed to. Not to mention, the added bonus of their powers. Due to their mind reading, they could tell perfectly how an opponent would attack, and, although he'd never seen it, Virgil was acutely aware of Remy's ability to put people to sleep.

"Remy is phenomenal in hand-to-hand combat," Logan agreed, nodding, "but they tend to... fall short when it comes to meta-based attacks. That's where we come in." If you thought Remy was good at fighting, you hadn't seen Logan. Remy was mesmerizing to watch, but Logan was on a whole other level. Supposedly, he'd been training since the day he found out about his powers and had gotten very good at controlling them. With a flick of his wrist, he could shatter glass, and, with much more concentration, he claimed he could shatter every bone in your body as well.

"A-And Valerie?" Virgil asked. He'd only really interacted with Valerie on the one patrol, and even so, he hadn't seen her fight.

"Valerie is..." Logan trailed off as he entered the elevator with Virgil in tow, "well, she's very good at what she does. Her powers allow her to siphon off abilities from other metas, which makes her incredibly powerful. Because of her ability to tap into others' powers, she can sense when they will use them and accurately deflect them for the minimum amount of damage. Simply put, she's our defense. She is an amazing fighter, but we need a good defense on this mission if we wish to succeed."

Virgil nodded as the soft ding of the elevator sounded, alerting them that they arrived. The doors slid open, revealing Valerie tying her boots and Remy cleaning their sunglasses in the corner.

"Hey, guys," Virgil said, stepping out of the elevator.

"Hey, Virge," Remy responded as they shined their sunglasses through the sunlight before securing them on their face. "I can call you that, right?"

Virgil shrugged, opening his locker. "Yeah, that's fine. Anyone wanna tell me about the Dragon Witch?"

Logan sighed as he took off his glasses and ran his hands through his hair. "Virgil, you know everything we know."

"But I know nothing, so—" he paused, realization setting in. "Oh. That's, um, wow. How do you guys know nothing? You've fought her how many times?"

"She's hard to fight," Valerie admitted. "Even with the three of us and Kai, we couldn't get very far."

"Kai?" Virgil asked, absentmindedly suiting up. "Who's that?"

Logan walked out from behind a row of lockers, revealing him fully suited. "Kai is a meta who was formerly employed here. He has the power to remember anything and can amplify others' powers. Absolutely fascinating. Anyway, he was a phenomenal asset because we thought with his added benefit to our powers, we would stand a chance against the Dragon Witch. That... obviously didn't happen. He moved away to live with his girlfriend, Lauren, so we have since lost that advantage."

"Oh," Virgil said, shrugging his hoodie on. "Well, I'm sure we can still do great, right?"

"Keep that optimism up and we just might," Remy said with a sigh as they secured their knife onto their belt.

"What they mean," Valerie said, glaring at her coworker, "is that the Dragon Witch tends to... avoid fighting. It's hard to get to and understand her when she flees so often."

"Well, uh," Virgil cleared his throat, "what do we know about her lair? What should I expect?"

Logan sighed. "One, it's not a 'lair'. Two, don't expect much."

And expect much he didn't.

Except what he definitely didn't expect was a fucking cave.

"This is," Virgil turned around slowly, "this is just a cave. The Dragon Witch just lives in a cave."

Valerie spun her jo staff. "Yeah, a dark cave that none of us can see into."

"Are we just going in?" Remy asked, adjusting their leather jacket. "No strategy, just non-guns blazing?"

"I suppose so," Logan responded with a sigh. "Is everyone ready?" A couple murmured agreements followed before Logan took a deep breath and walked in.

The darkness swallowed them whole until even the cave entrance was no more. Virgil's hands shook as the realization that he had no clue what was coming truly dawned on him.

"I can feel her," Remy whispered. "She's close."

Logan squinted before suddenly brushing away smoke Virgil hadn't realized was there. Now that that was gone, he could see a faint green light ahead.

Remy stiffened. "Shit, she knows we're here."

Loud footsteps of boot on rock echoed throughout the cave as the light got brighter until it hurt Virgil's eyes to keep them open.

"What do you want?" a semi-annoyed voice asked.

"We just wanna talk," Remy's voice answered.

Some shuffling noises could be heard before a loud thud sounded. "That didn't feel like talking," the Dragon Witch said with a groan.

"Mist!" Valerie hissed. "We were getting somewhere!"

The light dissipated just enough right when the footsteps signaled the Dragon Witch fleeing. Virgil's eyes blinked open just in time to see a panicked expression on her face. Suddenly, a second Virgil started running after her and eventually tackled her to the ground.

The Dragon Witch winced and, upon seeing the two Virgils reform, chuckled. "Heh, you're new."

Logan approached with a confused expression on his face. "Are those..." he reached for the dragon wings on her back. "These are fake wings."

The Dragon Witch sighed before picking herself up. "Yeah, no shit, Sherlock. You've been chasing a human. A civvie. Of course, we can't be talented, so all of you assumed I was a meta."

"Wait, you're human?" Remy asked, sheathing their knife. She nodded. "Then, why have you been hiding in a cave?"

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, fun fact, when you're a wanted criminal, you can't exactly live in the open."

"Sorry, I'm new here," Virgil said, raising his hand. "Why are you a wanted criminal?"

"We need to get out of here now," Logan said suddenly, eyes flitting across the cave walls. "The cave is collapsing."

Everybody immediately took off toward the cave entrance and got out just in time to watch the opening crumble in on itself.

"So let's not do that again," Valerie said with a sigh.

Virgil glanced over at the Dragon Witch— the... human Dragon Witch. Virgil was entranced by the prospect. This wasn't an ally. This wasn't a villain. This was a human. A friend.

A/N:
I sprained my wrist :) btw I accidentally leaked this chapter while I was writing it so some of you have already read it but whatever. I wasn't about to rewrite my entire story just cause some people found out the Dragon Witch was human. As always, comments, questions, and theories are very much welcome. Don't forget to hydrate!

~Tulip