Untitled Hero Story
Part 2 — A Hero's Friend
Thursday was just like the six days before it. Quiet, too quiet. Since Quinn, no, Synapse—Penny reminded herself—Since Synapse had left her apartment, she’d completely vanished. She spent the week taking care of smaller crimes—store robberies, mostly—but none of her opponents had the signature lifeless gaze of Synapse’s mind control. Penny couldn’t sleep, more than usual—Synapse always loved striking at odd hours to catch her off guard. Synapse had completely taken over her mind—taken over her life—and she hadn’t even had to use her powers.
She had to be nearby. Her powers required line of sight, didn’t they? Unless she’d been faking that weakness, too. Penny was overthinking things. She had to have been nearby, had to have been watching. Why else would she have shown up? Messing with Penny must have been her goal, and she got what she wanted. Just like always.
And so, Penny found herself restlessly pacing back and forth in front of her apartment door. It had been seven days, and Synapse was due to return. She would return, right?
Whatever had been in that injection had worked. Penny couldn’t send the vial into analysis without immediately risking confiscation, but she hadn’t felt so good—despite her Synapse problem—since swallowing her first pill. It was like a weight had been lifted off her mind, and experiencing the full rush of emotions—while overwhelming—had been absolutely exhilerating.
And sure, she could get herself more needles. But what would she do once the vial ran out? She couldn’t exactly go to her doctors and say, “Hey, I’ve been taking grey market hormones for the last few months. Can you hook me up with more?” She needed Synapse.
Maybe she shouldn’t take more. Why would her doctors lie to her? There had to be side effects. Mood instabilities, maybe. She’d have to ask them, get their opinions. A hero needs to stay on the right side of the law; set a clear example.
She needed to stop letting Synapse get into her—a firm knock on the door cut off her thoughts.
“Did you miss me?” Synapse’s asked. The sound of her soothing voice caused the ambient noise of Penny’s apartment to fade away. Right now, nothing mattered but the woman on the other side of the door. She scrambled to open the door.
And there she was. Looking much more put together than the last time Penny had seen her, confidently resting one hand on her hip, was the woman who had stolen away Penny’s week.
“Of course not!” Penny replied.
“We both know you can’t lie to me,” Synapse smirked. “You missed me.” She really had. She’d spent the week looking for her, because she’d missed—No! Synapse was using her powers again, she had to be. “Don’t you remember what I told you last time? This isn’t work business. Right now, it’s Quinn.”
“I might be happier to see you if you’d stop poking around my head every five seconds,” Penny complained. “It’s violating.”
“Violating? Please,” Quinn mused, gazing directly into Penny’s eyes. “If I wanted to violate you, I’d go much deeper into that pretty head of yours.” Penny took a step back. What was her problem, anyway? What gave her the right to—“I’ve got a present for you,” Quinn offered. “Can I come in?”
Great, now she asks for permission. But as much as Penny wanted to be done with Quinn, she wanted her to come inside even more.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” Quinn smirked, striding confidently past Penny straight into her living room. “I’ll try to stop reading your mind when we’re in the apartment, alright?”
“You could stop if you wanted to,” Penny sighed, “but you clearly don’t.”
“Oh, is someone asking me to poke around inside her head?”
“T-that’s not what I meant!” Penny stammered.
“This is what I’ve always loved about you,” Quinn smiled, “no matter how strong those powers make you, there’s nothing about you that I can’t control.”
As usual, Quinn was right. In terms of raw power, Penny ranked among the strongest of heroes. But Quinn was always a step ahead of her. Penny couldn’t help but feel like she had always held back on her.
Quinn casually slipped off her bag onto the table, and began pulling out injection supplies. It was absolutely captivating. Her movements were precise and elegant, as if she’d planned them all out in advance. Which, knowing her, she probably had. Did Quinn spend as much of the last week thinking about this as she had? Penny hoped so.
What was she thinking! Even if she had, nothing good could come from her attention. Penny had to keep reminding herself that Quinn wasn’t just Quinn, she was Synapse. But when she was like this, she just seemed so... normal.
“There’s enough supplies in here for at least a few months, but keep an eye out because they’ll run out at different rates. And no, you don’t have to pay me back for these.”
Paying Quinn back would be the least she could do. Not just for the supplies, but for every—
“Sorry, my control voice slipped in there. I’m serious, you don’t have to pay me back.”
At least Synapse kept slipping back in.
“I’ve only got about an hour today,” Quinn explained. What else did she have on her calendar? More crimes? A girl— “No crimes, promise. Anyway, I’ve only got an hour. Why don’t you walk me through your injection, and then we can start on your voice?”
“Quinn,” Penny sighed, “we can’t keep doing this.”
“What do you mean?”
“Meeting every week. Do you know how much trouble I could get in for conspiring with a villain?”
“Conspiring?” Quinn laughed, “We’re not doing anything illegal!” Penny gestured towards the injection supplies on the table. “I picked those up from the pharmacy on my way over, all perfectly legal. And before you interrupt, estrogen isn’t a controlled substance either.”
“I wasn’t going to—“
“All I’m doing is helping you. Tell you what,” Quinn reached into her bag and pulled out her phone. “Give me your number.”
“W-what?” Penny took a step back. Her hand instinctively slipped into her back pocket, resting on top of her phone. “Do you know how much trouble I could get in for doing that?”
“Do you think I’m an idiot?” Quinn asked. “I’d never message you over an unencrypted channel. Besides, this is to help you. If you’re a good girl today, I’ll send you a warning text before my next move. I know you haven’t been sleeping great recently, and I’d hate for that to be my fault.”
“And why would you do that?”
“Because I don’t want to waste our time together arguing. When we’re here, when I’m like this, I don’t want you to see me as Synapse,” Quinn said as she took a step closer to Penny, “I want you to see me as Quinn.”
“Fine,” Penny sighed. “As long as it’s encrypted.”
“Good girl!” Quinn beamed. “You don’t have to bother giving it to me, by the way. I already have it. I just didn’t want you to be too mad when I started messaging you.”
“You’re the worst,” Penny complained. And she was! It was like Quinn went out of her way to be as infuriating as possible. That was the point though, wasn’t it? To toy with her, to mess with her head. She couldn’t let it get to her head.
“As a villain, I’ll take that as a compliment. But,” Quinn wagged her finger, “you promised to be good, didn’t you? That means you have to be nice to me.”
“Let’s just get this over with...” Penny sighed, sliding past Quinn as she made her way to the table.
“Whenever you’re ready, you can start,” Quinn smiled. Penny got onto her knees so she could comfortably reach the supplies on the table and sterilized the vial, placed the drawing needle onto the syringe, and began to uncap—
“If you’d paid as much attention to the injection last week as you had to me, you’d know that you skipped a step,” Quinn teased. Shit! She had, hadn’t she? She drew air into the needle.
Was Quinn right? Had she not been paying enough attention last week? Sure, she’d been paying attention to Quinn, but she had to! She would never let her guard down around a villain.
Penny slid the needle into the vial at an angle—although she couldn’t do it nearly as elegantly as Quinn had last week—and pushed the air out. She flipped the bottle over and began to pull back on the plunger—much choppier than Quinn’s demonstration, something she chose to blame on the pressure she felt to impress the woman as opposed to her lack of skill—until the syringe was properly filled. She glanced up at Quinn.
“You’re doing great so far,” Quinn smiled, “And as much as I love seeing you on your knees, you’ll want to sit on the couch for this next part. And next time, take your clothes off before starting the injection, or you’ll have to deal with the syringe and your pants at the same time.” She reached her hand out, and Penny gave her the syringe. She stood up, slid her pants off—trying her best not to freak out—and tried to take the syringe back from Quinn.
“Manners,” Quinn chided. “You said you’d be good, didn’t you?”
“Can I have the syringe back?” Penny asked.
“Please,” Quinn corrected.
“Please can I have the syringe back?” Penny relented.
“You may!” Quinn smiled, holding out the syringe for Penny. She must’ve swapped the needle when Penny wasn’t looking. Penny took the syringe, sat down on the couch, and began to wipe her left—
“Right,” Quinn corrected.
“Oh! Right,” Penny began to wipe her right—
“Use a new wipe. Supplies are cheap, infections aren’t,” Quinn corrected, offering a new packet to Penny. Penny wiped down her right thigh, uncapped the needle, pinched her skin, took a deep breath, closed her eyes, counted to three, and—
“You’re stalling.”
“I’m not! I’m just...”
“Nervous? It’s your first injection, that’s okay. It’s different doing it yourself.”
“Were you?”
“What?”
“Your first time. Were you nervous?” Penny asked. Quinn paused for a second before responding.
“I was,” she admitted. “I was absolutely terrified. But I needed this. And you do too. And, if you want...” Quinn grinned, “I can always make you do it.”
“No!” Penny shouted. “No, you can’t. I need to be able to do this without you, isn’t that the whole point?”
“You’re right,” Quinn relented. “How about this then: think about last week. Do you remember how it felt when I injected you?”
“Y-yeah,” Penny replied. “But what if... what if I mess it up?” Quinn sat down onto the couch next to Penny, and began to gently massage her back.
“I know you better than you know yourself,” Quinn smiled. “and I know you can do this.”
Penny sighed. She was a hero! She faced bigger threats than this every single day. Why was a simple needle bothering her so much? She took a deep breath, and slowly plunged the needle into her thigh. She let out a sharp breath, before she began to push down on the plunger. It took more force than she expected—estrogen was surprisingly thick—but the syringe was empty before Penny realized that she was holding her breath again.
She pulled the needle out faster than she should have (“Careful!” Quinn warned her), and quickly placed a band-aid over the injection spot—no blood this time.
“Thank you,” Penny murmurred, “for everything, I mean.” She averted her gaze away from Quinn. Wasn’t it the right thing to do? Quinn had done so much for her, even if she had ulterior motives. Despite all her training screaming at her not to, Penny couldn’t help but want to take Quinn at her word. Sure, it was weird. Whatever... this was between them. Friendship, maybe? She didn’t know too many friends who tried to incapacitate each other every other week. But they weren’t normal people, so maybe this didn’t have to be a normal friendship.
“I’m proud of you,” Quinn smiled. “And no, I don’t know what we are either, at least out there. But in here?” She gestured at the space around her, “In here, we can be friends.”
“I-if you want,” Penny murmured, collecting the injection supplies and clearing off the table. As much as she didn’t want to admit it—futile in the presence of a mind reader—she needed more friends. And while Synapse was her enemy, Quinn could be her friend. If she could afford it, she’d sort that out in therapy.
“And no,” Quinn interrupted her thoughts, “since you were wondering before. I don’t have a girlfriend.”
Penny shifted away from her. What was she doing? Was that what this was about? Sure, Penny found Quinn attractive. It was hard not to. But she’d never date a villain! It went against everything she stood for.
“I wasn’t asking you out,” Quinn teased. “But you were wondering.”
“I was not!” Penny exclaimed.
“Mind reader, remember?” Quinn teased. She glanced at her phone. “Shit!” she muttered. “I’m gonna need a rain check on voice training, something came up.” She slung her bag over her shoulder.
“Is this something I should be worried about?”
“I told you I’d text you when I made my next move, right?” Quinn asked. “I’ll see you next Thursday!” she called out, running out of the apartment.
A few minutes later, Penny’s phone buzzed.
I’d love to take you out on a date. The hospital, 20 minutes. See you there! – S