Untitled Hero Story
Part 1 — A Hero's Injection
Since she’d been recruited as a hero, Penny couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt fully rested. It hadn’t been much of a choice, there weren’t many job offers available for trans women, but she took pride in her work. But on days off, her life felt empty. She needed to get out more.
She heard a knock at the door. Shit, she’d paid her rent, hadn’t she? Penny tentatively opened the door, preparing for the worst. But it was worse than she could have feared.
Standing there, hands rested inside the pockets of a ragged black hoodie, was her. Synapse. Her biggest (well, only, she was still pretty new at this) enemy. A master manipulator, Penny had never been able to apprehend her, only to disrupt her schemes. The day before, Penny finally managed to corner her, only for her to vanish without a trace. And yet, she was here. She took a step back.
“W-what are you doing here?” Penny stammered.
“Well, are you gonna let me in?” Synapse smirked, taking a step forward so she was just outside the door frame.
“And if I don’t?” Penny replied. If she used her powers here, she’d lose her home. And where would she go? Her parents wouldn’t want her back. And she couldn’t go back to being him. Playing along with Synapse wasn’t just her best option, it was her only option. “I guess you’ll come in anyway,” she sighed, stepping aside.
“Don’t worry, this isn’t a work visit,” Synapse asserted, stepping into the apartment and casually flicking the lights on like she’d been here dozens of times. “Working in the dark isn’t great for your eyesight, you know.” She casually sat on the couch, pulling off her backpack and taking off her hoodie.
“So why are you here?” Penny asked. There was no way she was going to trust Synapse. This was either a power play or a trap, and the sooner she figured out which, the sooner she could figure out what to do.
Besides, didn’t they see each other enough on the job? Not that being a supervillain was much of a job to begin with. Self-employed, maybe. Did Synapse have health insurance?
“Of course I do,” Synapse smirked. It was bad enough that her archnemesis was here, but did she have to tresspass on her mind too? “And no, this isn’t a trap. Just,” Synapse sighed, “give me a second.” She rummaged through her backpack, looking for something. “Actually, could you do me a favor?”
“That’s what you’re here for, isn’t it?”
“No, I’m here to do you a favor. Can you grab your laptop? I forgot mine at home.”
“Give you my laptop? And let you install spyware on there? No thanks,” Penny replied. Did Synapse really think she was that stupid?
“You’re not stupid, just naive and stubborn. Sorry!” Synapse shrugged. “It’s hard not to read your thoughts when there’s nothing else going on.” Penny chastised herself. She needed to be more aware of her thoughts, before she gave any important secrets away.
“So focus on something else!” Penny exclaimed, taking a step back. She didn’t want to leave the room, didn’t want to let Synapse out of her sight.
“Come on,” Synapse sighed. She closed her eyes, and took a deep breath before opening them again. Her voice was simultaneously sweet and commanding. “Be a good girl and grab your laptop for me.”
What was the worst she could do? Giving Synapse what she wanted was the best—No! She wasn’t going to let Synapse influence her.
“Sorry!” Synapse exclaimed again, acting as if apologies meant anything if she was going to keep repeating her transgressions. “If it helps, stop thinking of me as Synapse. It’s Quinn,” she smiled. There was no way that Synapse would expose her identity so casually. It had to be fake, right? But, Penny supposed, it was a little bit awkward to keep calling her Synapse.
“If you say so, Quinn.” She would have to look into that name later. Sure, it was definitely fake, but there might be something there.
“Look, it’s about your hormones. I took a peek through your file. The levels they have you at? They’re killing you. You can’t just tank your testosterone without supplementing it, but those bastards,” Quinn gestured wildly, “would rather neuter you and let you die in combat than let you transition.”
“What are you talking about?” Penny asked, feeling the flood of information wash over her. “And you can’t just look at confidential medical information whenever you want!”
“Please, I’m a villain! Perks of the job.” Quinn reached into her bag again, before placing a small vial onto the coffee table in front of her. “Let me guess, they want your levels no higher than 200? That’s the lowest they should go. Are you even taking those pills sublingually?”
“Isn’t that risky?”
“No! The only risk is having the pills actually do something. Now come on,” Quinn patted the couch next to her. “Sit.” Penny awkwardly walked towards the couch, glancing at the unlabelled bottle. Probably poisoned. There was no way she was going to let Quinn put anything inside of her.
Quinn finished taking supplies out of her bag and tossed it on the floor. She leaned forward, wiping the top of the vial. Her back was exposed. Was this a test?
“Don’t,” Quinn ordered. “If I have to, I’ll tie you down for this. I’m here to help you, don’t make me regret it.”
“But why?”
“Because you’re mine. And I want you at your best when I finish you for good.” She attached a needle to the syringe. “Sterilize the vial first, then put the needle on. Before you take the cap off, draw up the amount you’re going to inject. Let’s start you off with eight miligrams. This vial has 40 in a mililiter. So how much are we going to draw up?”
“U-um,” Penny was speechless. Less than 24 hours ago she’d caught Quinn, no, Synapse, breaking into a secure research facility. For what purpose, she hadn’t been able to figure out. Quinn saw the world as a game, one she delighted in playing. Was that the point of this? To have some fun, stir up some chaos?
“You’re not even trying to figure it out,” Quinn smirked. She patted Penny’s thigh with her free hand. “Pants. Off.”
“W-what? And um, point two mililiters.”
“That’s correct!” Quinn patted her head gently before returning her attention to the vial, carefully drawing air into it. “It’s just your pants. How else am I supposed to inject this?” She uncapped the needle. “You want to stick it in the vial at an angle, and then straighten it out as you go in. Don’t let the needle touch the estrogen yet.”
Was she being serious? This had to be a trap. But then again, what if it wasn’t? Penny’s transition had been dragging its’ feet. Hero work left little time for voice training or money for new outfits, and her body wasn’t changing like expected. She assumed it was because of her powers, but was Quinn telling the truth? Were her levels too low? And if so, why was she being lied to?
“You need to put some air back into the vial, or you’ll create a vacuum seal,” Quinn explained. “Now, take your pants off before I do it myself.” Penny unbuttoned her pants, slowly taking them off before carefully placing them next to her. She hated feeling like this. Exposed. More than anything else, she wished she had tucked that morning.
“Please, you’ve got nothing down there that I don’t,” Quinn smirked. Was she also trans? That would explain why she knew so much about hormones, at least. “You couldn’t tell? I’m flattered. Mastering my powers meant mastering my voice, and getting your voice right does wonders for passing. Next time we can work on that too, if you want.” What did she mean, next time? Was she just going to keep inviting herself in?
“You can’t just keep coming back here anytime you want, Quinn.”
“Not all of us are good girls like you. I can do whatever I want. And right now, that’s to draw point two mils of estradiol valerate. You want to flip everything over, so the vial’s on top, and slowly draw it back. You’ll draw some air in too, so push that back out and draw in some more until you’ve got enough.” She finished up, capping the needle before replacing it with a shorter one. “Now, left or right?”
“Um, left?” Penny replied, confused.
“You’ll want to rotate injection sites each time,” Quinn replied. She grabbed onto Penny’s thigh, squeezing some of the fat. “Wipe this down with an alcohol pad for me, won’t you?” She gestured towards the table.
Was she really going to do this? Trust the woman who had done nothing but deceive her time after time, to walk straight into her trap? But she had no choice. If there was even a chance of this working, Penny had to take it. She wiped down her thigh.
“Good girl,” Quinn cooed. She pinched down on the fat of Penny’s thigh again. “You’ll want to inject at a 45 degree angle.” As she smoothly slid the needle inside, Penny let out a small breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. Penny hadn’t realized just how much she’d needed this. Even if she was the one doing it. “Then you push the plunger in gently, you can start to unpinch your skin as you go.”
Quinn smoothly pulled out the needle, and a tiny bead of blood began to form, a stark contrast to her pale skin. “As much as I’d love to taste your blood,” she said, “safety comes first.” She wiped away the blood before covering the site with a band-aid. She took the needle off, placing it back into her bag. “Normally you’d throw these into a sharps container,” she explained, “but I want this one for my collection.”
Was that what this was about, then? Was she trying to get a sample of Penny’s DNA? No, there would be simpler ways to do that, wouldn’t there? This couldn’t be a trap, she needed it too much.
“I’ll bring you some more supplies next week, but the vial’s all yours,” Quinn offered. Next week? Penny couldn’t decide if that was too soon, or not soon enough. What was she thinking? Quinn wasn’t a friend, she was her enemy. She’d broken the law countless times, violating the sanctity of people’s minds to make them her pawns. That was it, wasn’t it? These weren’t her own thoughts.
“You’re cute, you know, when you’re lost in your thoughts like that,” Quinn teased, “and you’ll be even cuter, now that your hormones can finally start doing their thing.”
It was hard to see Quinn as a villain. She was—no! These weren’t her thoughts, they couldn’t be. She was a hero, wasn’t she? She couldn’t let herself be corrupted.
“Next week, you can do the injection yourself,” Quinn called out from the front of her apartment. How had she gotten there so fast? “And if you ever get tired of being the government’s good girl, I’ve got the perfect position for you.”