(Every character depicted in the story below is a consenting legal adult over the age of 18)

A/N: Poor Courtney heh.

-x-X-x-

“You’re gonna be a hero, Courtney. You and me, heroes together… like we always said.”

As Mandy’s words wash over her, phone tucked against her ear, Courtney stares blankly forward. Distant memories come flooding back. Memories of long ago, when her and Mandy were children. They’d been ostracized by the other kids, of course. After all, Mandy was Quirkless and Courtney might as well have been. Her own body had betrayed her, developing a serious case of asthma when her entire Quirk revolved around being able to hold her breath.

Combine that with the fact that Courtney’s Quirk was ‘just’ invisibility and came with such a stupid restriction and… well, yeah, nobody had ever thought she’d make much of herself. And to be fair… she never had. She’d wound up being exactly the scum of the Earth that everyone always thought she would be.

But at least she’d have Mandy, or so she’d always thought. Unfortunately for her, Mandy hadn’t turned out to be Quirkless at all… just a late bloomer. One day she’d been Courtney’s athletic best friend who went the distance trying to make something of herself despite being Quirkless… and the next Mandy had become Blonde Blazer, an amazon of a woman with super strength and the ability to fucking fly. Oh yeah, and she’d gone from brunette to blonde too, on top of adding a foot to her height.

Courtney had tried her best not to be jealous. Especially when Mandy had still been so… Mandy about it. Even with power, Mandy was still a good person. Moral and upstanding to the hilt. And she had still wanted them to be heroes together. She’d still wanted them to fulfill their silly childhood promises to one another.

Of course, Courtney had gone and ruined that by getting herself a criminal record. Assault, larceny, robbery. She may or may not have ruined her life a little bit, yeah. Soo… that was right out.

Except even then, Mandy hadn’t stopped trying. In fact, Courtney sometimes suspected that this whole ‘Phoenix Program’ idea of hers was literally just Mandy’s latest attempt to save Courtney from herself…

“Court? You there?”

Blinking out of her thoughts, Courtney realizes she’s been frozen up ever since Mandy’s last words. Clearing her throat, she forces herself to fake a smile. Even if the other woman can’t see it, everyone knows you can hear that shit in voices.

“Heh, yeah sorry. Guess you caught me off guard. Phoenix Program actually happening huh? Sure, that sounds… cool. Save me a spot, yeah?”

Mandy’s answering scoff makes it clear that was never in question.

“Of course you have a spot, Courtney! You’re exactly who the Phoenix Program is made for! You deserve a second chance, and with this you’ll finally get it! You’ll finally be the hero I’ve always known you could be!”

Fucking hell…

“Y-Yeah. That sounds… good. Uh… talk to me about the deets later, okay? Got something going on right now.”

“Oh sure… yeah, we’ll talk later. I can tell you all about it when I get back to the apartment tonight!”

“… Sure.”

“Alright! Talk to you then!”

With that, the call ends. Courtney keeps staring forward… though she’s not exactly staring at nothing. Rather, she’s staring at the warehouse in front of her where she’s got a meeting to get to. Only, if Mandy is to be believed… she should just turn around and walk away.

That’s the thing though. Courtney trusts Mandy… she just doesn’t trust the rest of it. The Phoenix Program? PDN? The whole damn system? There was no way it would work out. Especially since she couldn’t even trust herself. She… wasn’t hero material. Full stop.

With a sigh that ends in a wheeze, Courtney puts her phone away and takes out her inhaler, sucking in a pair of puffs before holding her breath and moving forward. Invisible to the naked eye, she lips into the warehouse a moment later, moving as stealthily as she can. Only…

“Welcome.”

She’s called out almost immediately by the woman standing in the center of the warehouse. A woman Courtney recognizes quite well given her face is all over the news and what not. For a brief moment, Courtney freezes up, still holding her breath… but Lady Nagant the Hero Killer and the first person to escape from Tartarus in who knew how many years… is staring right at her.

Finally letting herself breathe again, Courtney straightens up as she becomes visible once more. Lifting up a hand, she gives a little wave.

“Uh… sup.”

“Invisibitch, was it? You’re early.”

Courtney flushes at the surprise in the other woman’s voice. What, like she thought she’d be late or something? Nah, Courtney wanted to have enough time to case the joint. You know, get the lay of the land or whatever. Unfortunately, she’d been caught almost immediately. Fortunately, she WAS supposed to be here.

“Yeah well… figured I’d put my best foot forward. Or something.”

The look that Lady Nagant gives her makes it clear that she doesn’t fully believe Courtney on that. Which given she caught her snooping, wasn’t entirely unfair. But Courtney bullshits with the best of them so she just flashes a grin and shrugs as if to say ‘what can you do?’.

In the end, the other woman seems to let it go, nodding sharply in turn.

“You’ll have to wait a few more minutes, but he should be here soon.”

Courtney perks up at that, walking a little closer.

“Yeah? The main man himself, huh? The big boss? He’s who broke you out of Tartarus, right?”

Lady Nagant’s eyes narrow, but after a moment she responds.

“Yes. Shroud caused the riot in Tartarus and freed me from my imprisonment. He did what no one before him has managed to do. Do keep that in mind when you finally meet him. Make sure to show the proper respect.”

Courtney snaps off a two finger salute at that.

“Aye-aye ma’am. Proper respect is my middle name! Err, my two middle names? You know what I mean.”

She gets the impression that while Lady Nagant does know what she means, she’s also singularly unimpressed. Yeah, Courtney is used to that. But hey, she doesn’t mind being underestimated. Being underestimated can be useful sometimes.

Before she can ask any other questions, however, the air suddenly splits open and a portal appears out of nowhere. Courtney jerks back, eyes wide and a curse leaving her lips, but Lady Nagant is completely unfazed… even as a man wearing an armored trenchcoat steps out. When he turns to look at her, Courtney feels a shiver run down her spine at the intimidating red skeletal mask he’s got on. Judging by the glow in the eyes, its some sort of technology, not just a disguise either.

“Invisigal. Well met.”

Creepy modulated voice is creepy. But to be fair, it fits super well with the rest of his whole getup. Swallowing around her sudden nerves, Courtney offers a wan smile.

“Invisibitch, actually. But yeah, same to you, boss.”

Only, Shroud shakes his head at that.

“Not anymore.”

Narrowing her eyes, Courtney tenses.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Your name. From now on, you can consider ‘Invisibitch’ to be retired. You’ll go by Invisigal.”

That… Courtney’s hackles raise. She can’t help it, even if this Shroud guy can’t possibly know why she finds that idea so… unacceptable. It’s simple really. Invisigal… that’s supposed to be her hero name. That’s the name she would only ever use if she got to be a hero alongside Mandy. Using it for villain work was… just not going to happen.

At the same time though, Courtney needed this job. She needed the money, but more than that, she needed the street cred, the organization, the everything. Plus there’d been a promise of something more than any of that… a personal reward of some kind… her fondest wish granted or whatever.

Courtney didn’t know what that last part even meant, but she did have fond wishes. And if they could be granted, yeah she fucking wanted them granted.

So rather than tell Shroud to ‘fuck off’ like her first instinct says to do, Courtney tries to be… diplomatic.

“I dunno if that’s gonna work for me, boss. Name like Invisigal… doesn’t exactly sound villainous, does it? That’s the sort of thing a hero might use, really. So…”

She trails off, hoping against hope that he buys the excuse. Because if he insists, she really doesn’t know what she’ll do. Walk away? Yeah and get shot in the back by the fucking Hero Killer standing next to him, sure.

But to her surprise, Shroud actually nods. For a moment she begins to hope she’s convinced him… only for his next words to baffle her.

“You’re right. Invisigal is more of a hero name than a villain name. Which is good, because you’re going to be using it to be a hero.”

Wait, what? Courtney’s mouth opens and closes a few times in disbelief before she finally finds her voice.

“Uh… I don’t understand.”

And let it be known, getting her of all people to admit something like that is no simple matter. She’s well and truly confused though now. She was pretty sure this was an interview to join a new villainous organization that Shroud and Lady Nagant were putting together.

She’d heard about it through the grapevine, how the man who had broken someone out of Tartarus was putting out feelers and picking up the remnants of all the other villainous organizations that had come before him. As well as freelancers such as herself who were smart enough not to ever join anything as inane or stupid as the League of Villains in the first place.

But now he was talking about her being a hero and she was officially befuddled, especially after just getting done with her conversation with Mandy.

“Tell me, Invisigal… have you ever heard of the Phoenix Program?”

Oh. Oh no.

“Perhaps not. But I’m sure you’ve heard of PDN, the Pro Hero Defense Network.”

Fuck, fuck, FUCK!

“I have it on good authority that PDN will be starting up a new branch very soon centered around the aforementioned Phoenix Program. And that this Phoenix Program will be taking in villains such as yourself without too much of a criminal record… and doing their best to reform them into proper heroes for the betterment of society.”

Seemingly ignorant to Courtney’s sudden inner turmoil, Shroud spreads his gloved hands apart.

“What I want you to do is rather simple, Invisigal. I want you to infiltrate the Phoenix Program as my agent. I want you to work for me from within PDN and report back to me on everything from their actions to their operating procedures to how Blonde Blazer takes her coffee.”

Two teaspoons of milk, one packet of sugar. No, fuck, focus! This was bad!

“In exchange, you will become a full-fledged, albeit secret member of my new organization with all the benefits that entails. Benefits, protection, steady income… everything your heart could desire.”

This was so fucking bad. He was talking about having her infiltrate Mandy’s pet project. The one thing her best friend and current roommate had wanted more than anything in the world… and a criminal mastermind was asking her to sneak in and be a mole for him.

She couldn’t do it, obviously. She had to find a way to get out of here… maybe even warn Mandy. She had to-

“I can even cure your unfortunate health condition as a sign on bonus. Your asthma could be a thing of the past.”

She- wait… what was that last part? Courtney tenses up, staring at Shroud as he stares back at her from beneath the metal skull mask that conceals his true identity.

“What… what did you just say?”

There’s no visible smile obviously, but Courtney is pretty sure she can hear it in Shroud’s modulated voice all the same. She’d fucking known smiling changed how you sounded…

“You have a lovely Quirk, Invisigal. Having to hold your breath to activate it is a fairly normal drawback in the grand scheme of things. However, your asthma makes what would be a minor drawback into a major one and keeps you from utilizing your Quirk to its full potential. I’m offering to cure you of said asthma, to prove that I can and will support you to the fullest if you decide to work with me.”

A shudder runs down Courtney’s spine. He was really fucking wordy, wasn’t he? And yet… fuck, he was offering something she’d wanted pretty much all her life. Since the very first day that she’d gotten short of breath while using her Quirk, only to be diagnosed with asthma less than a week later.

That diagnosis had honestly felt like the beginning of the end, frankly. Her Quirk, which had seemed so cool initially, had become like a lead weight around her neck. Her own body had decided she wasn’t allowed to have nice things without suffering constantly.

You know what the funniest part is? If Courtney did have a genie in front of her granting wishes, two of those wishes would have been settled by what Shroud is offering her right now. First, to cure her asthma and never struggle to take in a breath of fresh air ever again. And second… to finally be a hero alongside Mandy, to be able to protect people and be the good person Mandy thought she was at long last. To be Invisigal instead of Invisibitch.

The only problem is, her wishes are being twisted on her. She can have her asthma cured and be a hero right alongside Mandy… but the cost is that she’ll be a secret traitor, Shroud’s eyes on the inside of the Phoenix Program. She’ll fight crime right alongside Mandy, all while the other woman is completely unaware that she’s all but stabbing her in the back.

Courtney’s fingers twitch as she shifts from foot to foot. It feels like every fiber of her being is on fire right now. This choice… this deal with the devil… can she really make it? Can she really betray Mandy like this?

“I… w-what are your intentions towards the Phoenix Program, exactly? Would you... want me to sabotage it or something from the inside?"

Shroud’s answer comes swiftly at least.

“No. While my long term plans for the Phoenix Program and PDN must remain a secret, I can tell you honestly that I do not wish you to sabotage anyone. You will only be observing and reporting things to me. Otherwise, I expect you to do your absolute best. Meaning, you’ll be the best damn redemption story that the Phoenix Program has ever seen.”

That… that sounded good. Too good to be true, specifically. And if something was too good to be true, then it probably was. But… what other choice did she have, really? Shroud was offering her everything she’d ever wanted… and Courtney was too desperate to care if the entire thing was a poisoned chalice or not.

“… Fuck it. I’m in.”

-x-X-x-

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