What is a hero supposed to do when her only healthy relationship is with her villian?
For Galaxy Girl and Toxic, their entire lives mirrored in the grandiose rivalry of their fathers. Both playing their parts of arch enemies as the world expected of...
"GET OFF OF HER!" A deep, angry voice ordered. It was Toxic
Green eyes glowing with a furious radioactive rage, the likes of which, she'd never seen before, fully garbed in his costume, except for one gloveless hand. He gripped onto the well-built shoulder of the so called hero, intent on pulling him off of her. Dauntless, Instead of turning around and crushing the Villain's not so indestructible bones to dust like Toxic had predicted, the burly Hero gasped in pain and fell to the floor, completely unconscious.
Toxic didn't glory in the fact that for some weird reason, he had subdued a supposedly impervious hero with just one hand. The only thoughts coursing through his ever busy mind were of Galaxy Girl. She stood there, shaking in fear and running her hands up and down her arms as if trying to ward off a chill. To her villain, she looked so completely out of it.
"Are you ok?" He asked placing both of his hands on her shoulders. She flinched at his touch, causing him to pull back. It killed him to see her like this. Galaxy should never have to endure pain that I didn't cause her. He thought protectively. The Villain remembered that thing that happened on the plane after they had used the altificator; his first hug, and how that had calmed him down from an overdose of emotions.
Toxic once again held his arms apart. She stared at him, eyes still glazed, before crumbling into his arms and starting to cry uncontrollably. Her rival could feel the front of his shirt growing wet with her tears, right around the location of his radioactive emblem. She was trembling uncontrollably and mumbling something incomprehensible into his chest.
A strange instinct took control of him, and he found himself wrapping his hand around the back of her head and pulling her in closer. "Ssshhh it's ok Galaxy, it's ok." He whispered soothingly into her hair, trying his best to comfort her. "I failed Toxic." She whimpered. "I...I tried to fight the Speeders, but I froze. I had a panic attack and... And I ran away." The Hero explained through sobs. Toxic came to a spot diagnosis: his Hero was suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. "Then I ran into him and he... he....." Was all she got out before gripping his torso even tighter and starting to sob harder, and more violently.
Toxic stood there for as long as she needed and just silently held her as she cried. Eventually Galaxy Girl pulled away; wiping the tears out from under her mask with the back of her sleeve.
"Thank you." She was a mess, and he knew she was broken on the inside. By Dauntless, of all people! It genuinely disturbed him. For Toxic it was one thing him to see her physically broken like he many times had, but he discovered right there, in a dirty alleyway in Paris, that to see her mentally distraught was a whole different ball game.
He'd always seen her as a rock, happily stomping out evil with a pride filled laugh, and cheesy heroic banter. Now he was seeing another layer, a frightened, lonely, teenage girl. He gripped her shoulders again and forced her to look up at him.
"Are you ok?" He asked again. Much to his surprising relief, she gave him a bit of a half grin. "Better now." Her eyes burned from the salty tears she had shed as she glanced down towards Dauntless, who lay still unconscious at her feet.
"That's quite a twist. Attacked by a hero, and saved by a villain!" As Toxic looked down at the red and silver clad sleeping form of the other superhero, and his body was again filled with hatred. The guy who’d always prided himself on power over emotion took a deep breath, for his nemesis sake, he’d keep calm!
The Villain knelt down and pulled back one of Dauntless's eyelids to inspect his oculus. "He'll be alright. He’d only remain unconscious for a while. I'm pretty certain that with his extraordinarily high blood alcohol level, he won't remember a thing that happened within the last 6 hours." He diagnosed. "How lucky for us..." She sighed, once again, rubbing her shoulders. The guilt empath stood up and wrapped an arm around the distraught shoulder of his hero. She was important to him, and it worried him a bit. "Come on, I'll take you back to the hotel." He said softly, before he quietly escorted her back to the car.
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A/N: Hey guys. :) Hope you all enjoyed this update. I'm gonna try to post to this story daily from now on, and any days I forget will get two chapters the next.
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