Work Text
Five Years Ago…
It's funny how quickly a day can change. All it takes to turn an ordinary Tuesday afternoon into the first day of an entirely different life, apparently, is your mom knocking on your bedroom door and saying "can I talk to you about something?"
Little did Hope know as Emma came in and sat down on the bed next to her that this was one of those conversations.
"What is it?" Hope asked, her mom looking at her with a bittersweet intensity she didn't understand. "Is something wrong?"
"No." Emma smiled, shaking her head as she tucked a strand of hair behind her daughter's ear. "You're just growing up so fast."
"Yeah." Hope shrugged.
"And now," Emma shook her head, "you're gonna be a teenager soon, and things are gonna start changing. Your…."
"Oh my gosh, mom." Hope interrupted. "I don't even know what 'the talk' is, but I know I'm not ready for it now."
"Good," Emma said, "but this is a different talk. Over the course of these next few months, you're going to be developing some…
powers."
"Powers?" Hope's nose scrunched up.
"Yeah." Her mom nodded.
"You mean like flying and invisibility and laser eyes?" Hope asked. "Like the heroes on the news?"
Emma laughed a little and nodded.
"Exactly,
like them."
Hope had always looked up to superheroes, wanted to be like them— what kid hadn't? Now that she found out she was like them, it all sounded so great— a little too great to be true.
"How do you know?" Hope asked.
In lieu of an answer, Emma pointed at Hope's nightlight on the other side of the room. The nightlight turned on as if in response, casting projections of dozens of multicolored stars onto the ceiling.
"Woah." Hope looked up, awestruck. "How did you do that?"
"Can you keep a secret?"
She turned back to look at her mom and saw a beam of light shooting from her hand, something she'd seen before, not from her mom, but from a superhero she often saw on the news.
"Saving Grace?" Hope asked. "Mom, you're a superhero?"
Emma nodded.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Hope asked.
"Being a superhero isn't as glamorous as it sounds." Emma said. "There's a lot of responsibilities, some that you can share, and some you have to bear by yourself. Hope, no one can know about my powers, or yours. If you tell anyone…."
"I'll put them and myself in danger, I know." Hope nodded. "I've watched enough movies to know that much."
"Good." Emma said. "And you need to make sure to make the right choices with how you use your powers. It took me a while to realize mine were a gift instead of a burden."
"I understand." Hope said. "What powers will I have?"
"I can't be sure," Emma shook her head, "but supers often inherit traits from their parents."
"Parents?" Hope asked. "Is dad a super too?"
"Super, no." Emma said. "Hero, yes."
Hope then remembered Saving Grace's partner in crime-fighting, Captain Guyliner, a powerless superhero with a high-tech gizmo for a hand and a clever one liner always at the ready.
"My dad is Captain Guyliner?" Hope asked.
"You catch on quick." Emma patted her on the back.
Hope suddenly wished she could forget all the comments the older girls at school had made about their "heartthrob hero," Captain Guyliner, suddenly disgusted at the mere thought of their catty giggles.
The fort in the backyard had been Hope's space to think since the day her dad built it for her. From there, she'd launched all of her childhood adventures, from huge ideas like lemonade stands and sleepovers to little things like playing pirates or princesses or, ironically enough, superheroes.
"Pink leader to Gold leader," Hope said into her walkie talkie, sitting on the fort's worn out carpet. This had always been her place to run to, and there was one friend she'd always run to it with.
"This is Gold leader, clear."
"We need to regroup." Hope responded. "This is a code… orange."
There was a moment of silence before he sent back a reply.
"Code orange? We don't have a code orange."
Hope rolled her eyes. "That's how you know how important this is! It's something we never could've possibly planned for, at least not enough to make a code for it."
"Wouldn't that make it code perriwinkle?"
"Just get over here."
"Over and out."
Hope closed her eyes and hung her head against the wall, wondering if she'd open her eyes and find that it'd all been a dream. If it
was
a dream, then dream-Gideon would need to hear all about it, and if she remembered it and it didn't get too weird, she'd tell real-Gideon about it too.
Either way, real-Gideon was gonna hear about it. She'd never kept a secret from her best friend in her life, and that wasn't gonna start now.
It was only a few minutes before the door to the fort opened, and the boy with shaggy gold hair and a wrinkled brown flannel over his t-shirt joined Hope on the floor— their fort had more than enough chairs for the both of them, so it must be
really
important if they both understood that this was a conversation to be had on the floor.
"What's so important you had to make up a whole new color?" Gideon asked.
"I didn't make up a color." Hope said. "Orange has been a color since we were in kindergarten, but probably longer."
"Okay," Gideon said, "but what's up?"
Mom had told Hope not to tell anyone, but Hope had been told that lots of times before, and it never stopped her from sharing with Gideon.
Besides, this was
life changing,
and Gid would notice if something this big in her life changed. It was better to tell him about it up front then have to explain it all later when he found out anyway.
"Can you keep a secret?" Hope asked.
"Of course." Gideon said. "And not just because you're the only friend I have to share it with."
"And what about if we stop being friends someday?"
"That's never gonna happen." Gideon said. "And even if it did, your secrets are still safe with me."
"Okay." Hope said, "I… I'm developing super powers."
"What?" Gideon asked.
"Super powers." Hope said. "You know, like Saving Grace, or Red Wolf."
"Really?" Gideon smiled. "Code orange isn't code for 'april fools!' right?"
"I'm serious, Gid." Hope said.
"Okay." He said. "What powers do you have?"
"I don't know yet." Hope said. "My mom said I'll start seeing them within the next few months."
"That's awesome." He shook his head in disbelief. "My best friend, Hope Swan-Jones, a superhero! How'd your mom figure that out?"
It was one thing to spill secrets about herself with Gideon, but it was another thing entirely to share secrets about her parents. Right now, her powers were still developing. They might not amount to much anyways, and she hadn't made any enemies yet. This was a secret she
could
share.
But her parents were practically celebrities, as far as heroes go, and that comes with a lot of enemies. If any of them found out Gideon knew their identity, they could use that to hurt them, or to hurt him, and he didn't have powers to protect himself.
"I don't know." Hope shrugged. "Moms just have a way of knowing these things, you know?"
"I guess I'll take your word for that." Gideon looked away, scratching the back of his neck.
"Oh, Gid," Hope said, remembering no sooner than the words were out of her mouth that her friend didn't know about that first-hand, "I'm sorry, I…."
"Nah, I'm sorry." Gideon shook his head. "This isn't meant to be a pity party. This is exciting— you have
superpowers,
Hope. We could save the world, be heroes…."
He turned to her and suddenly stopped, his words caught off track as he squinted at her.
"Why don't you seem very excited?"
Hope shook her head. "All this 'great power; great responsibility' stuff. Being twelve years old is hard enough as is."
"Yeah." Gideon said. "We're too young to drive, and too old for the McDonald's playplace."
"And now I have this added responsibility, and…."
"And you don't have to bear it alone." Gideon said. "I'm here to help you, and so are your parents."
"You can't let my parents know you know." Hope said, quickly remembering her mom's warning. They said I can't tell anyone."
"We've all heard that before." Gideon said. "And as always, your secret is safe with me." He held his hand out to her, pinky finger extended. "I promise."
She wrapped her pinky around it as well, sealing a promise of friendship neither of them would ever dare break.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
"Another happy landing."
Hope thought, as her feet touched the ground in front of the old fort in the backyard, adrenaline still coursing her veins and her favorite song still blasting through her earpiece. She held a travel cup in each hand, but set them down outside the door to free up her hands for opening the rusted old door.
Her fort hadn't changed much in the last five years— or the twelve before them. Sure, the carpet was more worn, as were the chairs and the peeling paint on the wall, but the only change for the better was a door with a keypad lock.
Most of her friends still believed that this was a storage shed her parents had added on recently, her dad not wanting to mow around multiple buildings in the yard but needing the storage space, but only one knew different.
Hope typed in a number on the keypad, and the door opened, not to a bunch of musty old boxes of Christmas decorations, but instead to a high tech and well lit room, complete with a fancy supersuit display case, a divider to change behind, an almost wall-sized computer, and a state of the art gaming chair— complete with a very frazzled guy in the chair.
"Another day saved," Hope said, "and I even had time to grab you coffee on the way back."
She snapped her fingers, and one of the cups she'd left at the door appeared in her hand.
"I don't drink coffee." He said.
"You think I don't know that by now, Gid?" Hope asked. "It's chamomile tea."
Gideon took the cup from her and took a sip as she stepped behind the privacy divider on the opposite corner of the room.
The divider had a full-length mirror behind it, as well as a pile of clothes she'd left in her rush to get out and stop the villain of the week, and a hanger to put her suit back on when she was done with it.
No matter how many times she looked in the mirror and saw herself in her suit, it was always exciting. The shining golden and magenta jumpsuit, complete with a matching mask and the most comfortably practical yet somehow still stylish boots you could find— it all felt so, for lack of a better word,
super.
"Hope, you've gotta be careful out there," Gideon said.
"You worry too much," Hope replied through the privacy screen as she took off her mask, "I had it handled. The Author's just a minor threat, and I put him in his place."
"I beg to differ," Gideon replied.
As Hope unzipped her jumpsuit, she could hear the feedback from the monitor, and looked over the top of divider to see a replay of her battle, reliving her most recent back-injury-due-to-getting-slammed-into-a-building in 4k high definition.
"What's your point?" Hope asked, stepping out of the suit and trying to ignore the pain in the back of her head. She knew either an ibuprofen or a minute to sit down and breathe would patch her up, no problem.
"You're gonna get hurt if you keep doing this," he said.
Hope threw a black t-shirt over her tank top and a pair of off-white pants over her athletic shorts. She tried to shrug off Gideon's over-concerned warning by mumbling along to the music playing in her earpiece.
"This is my show, baby, that's how it's gonna be. This is my show, baby, and it's all abou…."
The volume faded out.
"Hey!" Hope said, poking her head above the divider. "I was listening to that."
"Listen to me." Gideon said. "You're not as invincible as you think. You can't keep picking these fights."
"I'm not picking fights." Hope hung up her suit neatly on the hanger. "They're picking me. Helping people is just, what I do."
"But you don't have to do it alone," Gideon said, "especially not when you're outmatched."
"Hey," Hope threw on her pink leather jacket as she stepped out from behind the divider, "if I was outmatched, would I have made it back here in one piece?"
"That's what worries me." Gideon rolled his eyes.
"You worry too much." Hope flopped into the beanbag chair on the other side of the room.
She pulled a handful of various yet particular friendship bracelets out of her jacket pocket and slid them onto her wrists.
"I just don't know if you should still be out there alone." Gideon said, pulling up a chart on the screen. "I've been charting the crime in this city, and it's on the rise. In the last five years, evil has gone up exponentially, and ever since that dark one entered the playing field, it's only gotten worse."
"So?" Hope asked. She snapped her fingers and her other travel cup from outside appeared in her hand, this one full of hot chocolate, which she smugly sipped.
"Even the great heroes have a sidekick, Hope," he said, "Knave has Wondergirl, Equestria has The Outlaw, Saving Grace has Captain Guyliner…."
"...and I have you," Hope interrupted.
"You have me up to thirty miles away, giving you strategies that you barely listen to anyways."
"Yeah, and it works great." Hope shrugged.
"Let me go with you." Gideon said. "You'd be surprised how much help I could be."
"We've been over this, Gid," Hope said, "besides the fact that you don't have powers…"
"...Neither does Captain Guyliner," Gideon retorted.
Hope ignored him, "...and the fact that I need you here,"
"...Not as much as you need help out there…" Gudeon scoffed.
"...I can't let you take that risk." Hope said. "If my parents saw you out there with me, they'd figure out I told you my secret pretty quickly— and then both of us would be benched from saving the world."
Gideon sighed, the same way he always did when Hope was right.
"Just, try to be more careful, okay?" Gideon said. "I can't help save the world if you're in traction, now, can I?"
"I'll do my best." Hope pulled out her earpiece. "Now, can you please turn my music back on?"
"I'll do you one better." Gideon said. "Surround sound."
Hope smiled as the song she'd been listening to picked back up again, this time not in her earpiece, but over their headquarters speaker system, bass boosted just the way Hope liked it.
"...it's all about me. This is my show. This is my show, baby, and that's how it's gonna be. Oh, and it's all about me…."
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The epic struggle between good and evil was an exciting thing to be a part of.
The epic struggle of quadratic equations and graphing, however, was one that Hope wished she could skip out on. Being a super was a lot like being on a football team— if it got in the way of your schoolwork, your parents would bench you until they improved. After her last D+, Hope had tried to convince her parents that she'd never need this stuff anyways if she was just going to join "the family business" after graduation, but this only led to a long conversation about "finding your own path" and "keeping your options open" and "the league has GPA requirements too."
That had been the most exciting part of that conversation. Up until then, Hope had never even known there was a league for this kind of stuff. Of course, they'd brushed off her follow-up questions with a joking "we could tell you, but we'd have to kill you," and a serious "you'll find out when you're old enough," but it had been enough to give her a finite goal that made the impossible task of understanding mathematics almost worth it.
And besides, she had a friend who was more than willing to help out.
"So, what did you think of that math stuff today?" Hope asked Gideon, handing him her textbook and notebook as they left the classroom.
"Quadratic equations?" Gideon asked, taking them from her as if by second nature as they walked to their lockers. "Simple enough, really. Why don't they give me a challenge next time?"
"You know, you'd have a challenge if you moved up to the advanced classes like your dad's been telling you to."
"What does he know?" Gideon grumbled, then quickly changed his tone. "Besides, if I'm in advanced classes, how would I recognize when
you
have no idea what you're doing and need my help?"
"I understood it fine." Hope defended. "They're called 'quadratic' equations, because
'quad'
means four, and they're four times as likely to make me jump out a window."
Gideon rolled his eyes. "Tutoring session at your house after school?"
"Well, sure." Hope smiled, highlighting her tone with sarcasm. "If you're offering."
"I think I can squeeze it into my oh-so-busy schedule." He sighed, smiling as he opened his locker and swapped out their textbooks. "It's better than letting you jump out a window."
"Oh come on." Hope whispered, checking her reflection in the mirror inside her locker. "I do that all the time."
"That doesn't make the idea of heights any less terrifying for me." Gideon said, eyes darting across the hall. "Besides, you don't usually talk about 'code orange' while we're at school. Isn't that the point of a
secret
identity?"
"Gideon." Hope said, rummaging through her locker. "There's eight hundred students here. Nobody notices us."
She then felt a tap on her shoulder, and turned to see one of the guys from her history class, one who she'd noticed looking at her on more than one occasion.
"Hey," he smiled, "Hope, right?"
"Yeah." Hope said. "Phil, is it?"
"Phillip," he said, then leaned toward her a little, "but you can call me Phil if you want."
Out of the corner of her eye, Hope saw Gideon roll his eyes.
"Uh, sure, Phil," Hope scrunched her brow.
"Anyways," Phillip said, "I was wondering if you wanted to go see a movie this weekend."
Hope panicked.
"I'm busy."
"What about next weekend?"
"Can't." she said.
"The one after that?"
"Ever." Hope said. "Can't ever. Not with… sorry."
She turned back to her locker, hoping she hadn't hurt his feelings.
It wasn't that Phillip wasn't, objectively, a nice looking guy, or that she had any reason to turn him down. He was, and she didn't. But something didn't feel right about going out with a guy she barely knew— in her line of work, you couldn't be too careful— and if she
did
get to know him, that would be one more person a villain could use to hurt her. It was easier this way.
She grabbed an apple and a granola bar out of her locker and closed her locker door, almost in synch with Gideon closing his, then turned back to Phillip.
"Oh, okay." He said, glancing at Gideon, then back at Hope. "I, I see."
"What was that about?" Gideon asked, as Phillip walked away.
"What?" Hope asked, feigning being offended. "You're surprised a guy asked me out?"
"I'm just wondering why you said no." Gideon shook his head. "Phil's a nice enough guy— not good enough for you, of course, but better than most of your options here."
"I just don't wanna see him get hurt." Hope said.
Gideon smiled. "I didn't know you see yourself as such a heartbreaker."
"I don't." Hope said. "I mean that I don't want to see him get tangled up with some baddies who want to hurt him to get to me, and then have to rescue him, but have him find out my real identity in the process, and then I'd have to wipe his memory and erase the fact that he ever knew I existed."
"You realize that's a worse case scenario, right?"
"Besides," Hope said, "I hardly know him. If I ever did risk that worst case scenario, it'd have to be someone I knew I could trust, someone I cared a lot about."
She looked at Gideon and smiled, and he smiled at her in return, then they both looked away from each other, quickly.
"So, uh." Hope said, handing Gideon the apple she'd gotten out of her locker. "Where next?"
Gideon held up their textbooks. "Chemistry."
Hope bit her lip as she unwrapped her granola bar, and they walked to their next class together.
"Oh, by the way," Gideon said, "while we're talking about 'code orange,' I've been doing some digging about that baddie you put away yesterday."
"What did you find?" Hope asked.
"He's not working alone." Gideon said. "If anything, he was just a henchman."
"Just like I told you." Hope said, between bites of her granola bar. "Let me guess who he's working for."
"It's hardly a guess at this point." Gideon said. "Whoever this 'dark one' is, it seems he has his hooks in every villain on the street."
"Unfortunately none of them will tell us anything about him." Hope said, holding out her hand to take her textbook as they neared the classroom door.
"We'll figure it out." Gideon handed her book to her. "I've got a couple other leads to check out this afternoon."
"Let me know what you find."
"You'll be the first to know." Gideon said, with a slight chuckle as the bell rang and he and Hope both took their seats, shifting their focus from protecting the world to protecting their grade point averages.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Hope sat at the dining room table, mindlessly twirling a pencil between her fingers. She was trying her very hardest to focus on the concept Gideon was explaining to her, but her brain was wired for crime fighting, not quadratic equations.
"Does that make sense?" Gideon asked.
"No." Hope sighed. "I'm never gonna get this. If even
you
can't make it make sense, I may as well call it quits. It's just not gonna click for me."
"Maybe you just need some brain food."
She turned to see her dad entering from the kitchen, carrying a tray of cookies.
"Peanut butter chocolate chunk cookies are brain food?" Hope asked, raising an eyebrow. As much as she liked her parents and loved their cookies, she was always nervous when either of them were in the same place as Gideon. It was like leaving a candle in front of one of those air-fresheners with a timer: you never know when it's gonna go off, but if it does, it'll blow up. So far, Gideon hadn't spilled the beans about knowing Hope's secret, and Gideon hadn't caught on about her parents either, but there'd been a few missteps that were a little too close for comfort.
"Sure." Killian said, holding out the plate of cookies to her. Begrudgingly, she took one, hoping it would make her dad leave as soon as possible.
"That is correct, actually." Gideon said, "the protein in the peanut butter boosts your brain power, and the sugar encourages quick thinking. Taking a cookie break like this boosts your serotonin levels too, which makes it easier to stay on track. Your dad's right."
"I knew there was a reason I liked this kid." Killian said, handing the tray to Gideon. "Be sure to take a couple; they're small."
They were not, in fact, small, but Gideon didn't seem to mind as he grabbed several cookies off the tray.
"Thanks, sir." Gideon said, as he took a bite. "These are absolutely fabulous, as always."
"I thought you might say so." Killian said.
"What's your secret?"
He looked around the room as if someone may be listening in, then leaned closer.
"I use a teaspoon of chocolate milk instead of regular milk."
"Brilliant." Gideon said. "I'll have to try that sometime."
"I can make up a copy of the recipe for you," Killian said.
Hope may not have had heat vision or laser eyes, but that didn't stop her from tensely glaring at her father.
"Dad, we've gotta get back to our homework." Hope said.
"Oh." He said, glancing around the table at them. "Right. Make sure I get you a copy of that recipe before you leave, though."
"Yes, sir." Gideon said, with a joking salute.
Killian left the cookies on the table and made a hasty escape.
"And what was that about?" Gideon asked.
"What was what about?" Hope asked.
"Why are you always so weird around your dad?" Gideon clarified. "Your folks are pretty chill."
"Sure," Hope said, biting a chunk off the corner of her cookie, "my parents are chill
now.
But imagine what happens if something slips out and dad finds out that you
know,
ya know? No more 'code orange,' and Golden Girl gets a permanent grounding until she's at least twenty-three."
"Come on," Gideon whispered, "you really don't think your folks would ground a real superhero, would they?"
"No." Hope said, though she knew she couldn't play the "but I'm a
superhero"
card on a couple of experienced superheroes who were also members of the elusive League, "but I don't want to risk it. If I'm grounded, you're grounded too."
She patted his arm and smiled.
"I have other friends I can hang out with." Gideon said.
"Really?" Hope asked, crossing her arms. "Which friends?"
Gideon changed the subject. "Look, you'll be grounded anyways if I don't find a way to get these quadratic equations into your head."
"Fine," Hope sighed.
There were a few beeps from Gideon's smartwatch.
"Ooh." Hope said. "Something important? Something so important algebra will have to wait until later? Oh, what a bummer!"
She threw her hand back on her forehead and sighed for dramatic effect, and he smiled and rolled his eyes before checking the notification.
"Intel finished downloading on," he glanced around the room, as if checking to see if anyone else was watching, "'you-know-who.'"
Hope shook her head. "No I don't."
"Yeah." Gideon said. "He who shall not be named?'"
"Voldemort?" Hope asked. "Gideon, is 'intel' code for pirated copies of 'The Deathly Hallows?'"
"No." Gideon shook his head. "Hope, this is important."
She shook off her joking facade.
"You know that 'dark one' all these low-level lackeys are working for?"
Hope leaned forward with a nod and a smile. Gideon only used alliteration like that when things were about to get exciting.
"I received an intelligence report this morning." Gideon said. "One of them finally broke and shared an encrypted file on his boss."
"So why haven't I heard anything about this?"
"Hope," Gideon shook his head, "I want you to tell me exactly what you think 'encrypted file' actually means."
"It's something like a zip file, right?"
Gideon laughed. "Only if your 'zipper' was locked with seventeen different padlocks, all with a unique combination, as well as a separate key that was lost to time, and all of the information within the file was written in a separate cipher, but you needed the information from all of them in order to make sense of the actual message the cipher was trying to send."
"Okay." Hope said. "How long did it take for you to crack it?"
"Three hours." Gideon blushed a little.
"You mean you've had your hands on the secret to his identity for three hours and haven't told me?"
"I didn't want you to get too excited." Gideon said. "Just because I
was
able to break it doesn't mean I thought I would be. Even with the series of algorithms I have running at this, there was still a chance I wasn't gonna break through."
"Well, I would've believed in you from the get-go." Hope smiled. "You're the best guy-in-the-chair a girl could ask for."
He blushed again, even more than before.
"I'm gonna," he said, speaking so quickly and suddenly that his words tripped over themselves, "gonna go, uh, check the lair computers. For the information that just came through."
"Alright." Hope said.
"Think you can manage the homework on your own?"
"Yeah." Hope nodded. "I think I've got a handle on it. I'll meet you at the fort when I'm done."
"Great." Gideon smiled, and stared at her a moment or two longer than normal before nodding and seeing himself out. Hope then began tackling the math assignment.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Hope finished the homework in record time, partly due to Gideon's prior instruction, and partly due to his absence. She could always focus a lot better when he wasn't there with her— though without him around, the task of doing anything that involved the word "study" was much too daunting to even start.
She was surprised to finish without a single text from Gideon, with a "you're never gonna believe this" or "hurry up; this is INCREDIBLE" or "this is so obvious I can't believe I didn't see it sooner." The fact that Gideon hadn't sent her a single teaser or spoiler in the twenty minutes he'd been sitting on this information was uncharacteristic, but maybe he'd just gotten into computer troubles, or was lost in some bonus research and forgot his own existence. He was frustratingly good at that.
But when she got into their lair, the screen was inactive, and Gideon sat still, staring at the ground in dismay. Any air of joy he'd had when he left had been zapped. He didn't even look Hope in the eyes.
"Gideon," Hope asked, "is something wrong?"
In response, he turned back to the computer and clicked the mouse, revealing a large image on the screen— a grainy, darkened image, almost like security camera footage, of none other than Gideon's father.
"You think your dad would be able to hire a better photographer." Hope said.
"My dad didn't know this picture was being taken." Gideon said. "This— this is the only confirmed photograph of The Dark One."
Hope shook her head. She couldn't remember exactly what the five stages of grief she'd learned about were, but she was sure they'd run through her head at lightning speed in the seconds that followed, and were taking much longer for Gideon.
"Gid, I'm so sorry."
"I should've known." Gideon said, with a laugh that screamed of delusion. "You don't own a mansion running a pawn shop. All those late night meetings with 'associates' who I was never allowed to talk to. All those business trips. The convenience of him never being home to see me sneak out during your battles. It was all
right there.
Gosh, I'm an idiot."
"No, you're not," Hope said, pulling up the lair's other rolling chair and sitting next to him. "You're the smartest boy I've ever met."
"My dad's the head of the largest affiliation of supervillains in the world, and I had no idea." Gideon said. "You call that smart?"
"I call that 'trusting.'" Hope said, and though she'd never done anything like it before, she found her hand reaching for his. "It happens to be one of the things I like most about you."
The self-loathing in his eyes only diminished slightly as his hand gripped hers.
"Really?"
"Of course. After all, you didn't have to trust me with this." She nodded slightly to the blown-up security footage of his dad, and squeezed his hand. "But you did."
"Of course I did. You're my best friend." And a pang of guilt washed over her as he added, "We tell each other everything."
Such a nice sentiment wouldn't have made her feel so guilty if it had actually been true. Maybe he told her everything, but he had no idea that the converse wasn't true, that she'd been lying to him since eighth grade. How many times had she lied to him in the past twenty-four hours alone just to keep her parents' secret identities secret? How many more lies had she scattered through the latter half of their friendship?
Gideon had always been creative and clever and loyal, but what she appreciated most about him was how he'd always been so trusting. She could've confided anything in him, and he'd always trust her on it, but he had no idea he'd only gotten half of the story. Gideon had just found out a horrible secret about his father, and he immediately told her everything. In contrast, Hope had known a wonderful secret about her parents for six years, and had jumped through hoops lying to keep him from knowing. What kind of friendship was that? How would it break him to know the truth?
Her hand slipped out of his grip.
"Is everything okay?"
"I just need some air."
"Hope…."
She knew him well enough to know he knew her well enough, well enough to know that 'I just need some air" was her own way of saying, "I'm upset, and if you ask why, it'll only make things worse."
Usually, when this happened, he would ask her why anyways. He would follow her out of the lair, through the play-pretend fort that had housed their whole childhood, across an overgrown lawn and right through the back door, until she'd tell him what was really on her mind.
But this time, he didn't. In a way, she was relieved, glad that she wouldn't have to watch all that trust and devotion wring itself out of those warm brown eyes as she yelled and cried and told him how she'd been lying to him for half a decade. In a way, she was relieved that she'd had a thirty-minute walk to clear her mind before she had to approach Gideon, that she'd had enough time to figure out how to word the nail in the coffin with the least amount of people getting hurt.
But all that relief washed away into regret when she returned to the lair and found it deserted, finding in the abandoned desk chair a note that said, "you deserve a partner you can trust," laying neatly next to his walkie-talkie from when they were kids.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
When Hope's parents had asked her that night what was wrong, all she'd told them was she and Gideon had gotten into a fight, and maybe they'd get over it, and maybe they wouldn't, but either way she didn't want to talk about it yet.
She had hoped that when she saw Gideon at school the next morning, she could explain everything and put everything back to normal, but for the first time in his life he didn't show. That afternoon she did her homework by herself, sitting in Gideon's abandoned chair in the lair, while simultaneously checking the scanner on the computer for any villain activity.
She was more thankful than ever when the computer beeped its usual danger warning. As terrifying as the idea of a solo fight was, there was nothing better to get her out of a funk than punching out bad guys and locking them up for good, a fact that made her wonder if she either needed a more robust social calendar or a good therapist.
Hope changed quickly into her super suit and rushed for the door, which opened before she got to it. For a moment, she hoped that her guy-in-the-chair had returned. She was disappointed when, instead of a shaggy-haired nerd panting, "I came as soon as I heard," she saw her parents, dressed not as Mr. and Mrs. Swan-Jones, average white picket-fence parents, but as Captain Guyliner and Saving Grace, two heroes ready to take on the world.
"You're coming with us on this one." Hope's mom said, and as Hope glanced at the digital dossier, she knew why. A trio of henchmen— or, in this case, hench
women
— were wreaking havoc at city hall, and it would take a trio of supers to give them an even match.
"Let's do this." Hope smiled.
Neither of Hope's parents could fly, but her dad had a teleportation gadget, which was a much faster means of transport anyways.
"Now, remember," her dad said, "the League didn't approve freelance agents on this one. You came to fight on your own, didn't know we were here, and have only met us in passing."
"Yes, sir." Hope said.
"Stay safe out there." Her mom said.
"As long as you guys do the same."
They gave each other one last hug before her parents teleported into the battle, while Hope waited a few moments on the sidelines before flying in. The agreement on team-ups was simple— only join in on the fight
if needed,
act like you didn't plan on running into each other on this one, and keep the family secret, well,
secret.
She waited her customary moments and watched the fight. The trio of henchwomen were all dressed in black jumpsuits, but other than that, they couldn't be more different. One had a deep red fur collar and seemed to be allspeaking at the nearby animals to get them to fight on her behalf. Another had purple tentacles that packed quite a punch. The third, and probably most terrifying, had seemed unassuming at first— you know, until she started breathing fire and sprouted dragon-esque wings.
That was when Hope knew it was time to jump in. Her parents would have no trouble with a couple powerful villains on the ground, but a flying, fire-breathing, henchdragoness was much more Hope's style.
She cracked her knuckles, readied her fist, and charged at the dragon lady at top speed, with a surprise attack that stopped the fires raining down on her parents for only a moment as the villain flew several feet backwards.
"Thought you two could use a hand." Hope called.
"Appreciate the save as always." Captain Guyliner said, blocking a couple octopus-arm attacks, "watch your head."
Hope looked up to see the dragoness charge her, then ducked, before giving her a powerful kick to the stomach as she passed by overhead.
Her parents, however, didn't seem to be faring quite as well. While fighting in the air, there were infinite directions to dodge, and incredibly limitless mobility. On the streets, however, fighting was in close quarters, and those quarters seemed to get closer and closer by the minute. One moment, this fight seemed like simple, routine hero work, and the next, Hope looked down to see her parents surrounded, not merely by the henchwomen, but the army of stray dogs that had come to the fur collar's call. A pair of handcuffs was thrown on Saving Grace, and given her reaction, it seemed to be of the kind that neutralized powers.
But Hope had problems of her own to deal with, as her fight with the dragoness brought her higher and higher above the streets.
"And what makes you think you've really the power to defeat me?" The villain taunted.
"I almost never think," Hope said, "but I always know— and I know you're no match against the forces of good."
"A noble sentiment, if not inaccurate." She laughed. "Look how well those two precious fools have fared."
Hope looked down to see her parents, slung on the villains' shoulders and carried away.
She then looked up to see the dragon-winged lady charging her at full speed, sending her hurtling to the asphalt below with a terrible crackle.
It felt only a second before she recovered, to some extent, staring at her surroundings as they blurred into view— a street that, while littered with carnage, left no record of heroes, villains, or canine army— just herself and a fearsome dragon henchwoman standing over her.
"The League didn't have you in their files," she said, "but I think you'll make a nice surprise for the boss."
Hope pushed herself up, hoping to ignore the pain in her entire body for long enough to land a crippling blow, but only finding herself crumpling. It would take her a moment to recover, and it didn't look like Hope would have that kind of time.
"Unfortunately for you," she said, "there were no rules against 'extra crispy.'"
She could feel the heat of her fiery breath as it bellowed towards her, then disappeared into a cold powder, followed by an exasperated scream from the dragon lady. Hope looked up to see a new superhero standing over her, a boy about her age in a gold and pink outfit.
"What are you…?"
"Go heal yourself," he said, aiming a fire extinguisher into the henchwoman's mouth.
"But who…?"
"Even the great heroes have a sidekick, Golden Girl," he said, and though his outfit was meant a disguise, there was no way she wouldn't recognize the smile shadowed under his hood, "and you've got me."
Gideon had come back for her.
She slid off to the side, next to a nearby dumpster, and began breathing heavily. Self-healing was a difficult process, and it took almost a full minute and nearly all the focus Hope had. She wasn't sure her new hero could survive in a battle that long, but he'd been pretty clear in his instructions, so she trusted him and began to heal, closing her eyes, finding her health and powers coursing back through her system.
She opened her eyes feeling healthy as ever, only to see Gideon thrown against a wall by the dragon henchwoman. This had its advantage, as it gave Hope exactly the distraction she needed.
"Do you really think you can defeat me, boy?" The dragon lady asked, standing over him. "What do you really have that could possibly outdo me?"
Gideon smiled over her shoulder, his eyes meeting Hope's.
"I have her."
The dragoness turned back to Hope, only for her head to turn back around the other way as she was met by a firm punch in the face.
"Ready for more?" Hope asked.
The dragoness made a noise that sounded like a slogan from an early twenty-tens Hot Topic T-Shirt, then followed with, "you two weren't on my list anyways. You're not worth my trouble."
She flew off into the distance, and Hope found herself helping Gideon off the ground.
"Are you alright?" Gideon asked.
"Me?" Hope asked. "I'm fine, always am.
You
however, look like you got run over by an ambulance. Twice. Both times going forward."
"Gee," he laughed, somewhat sadly, "I didn't know you cared."
"Of course I care, Gid. You're my best friend. At least…." she interrupted her thought with a heavy sigh. "I thought you wanted nothing to do with me."
"I could've said the same thing," Gideon said, "after what I told you yesterday."
"After what
you
told
me?"
Hope asked. "Is that what this is about?"
"Is it not?"
Hope shook her head, but suddenly realized that with two heroes captured, a villain defeated, and a new super on the block, the media would be on the scene faster than you could say a formal apology.
"I'll explain everything on the way out of here." Hope took his hand and led him through a couple sidestreets.
"Please do."
"I'm not upset about your dad," Hope said, "that's something he did— is doing— whatever. I wouldn't judge you for that. I wouldn't judge you for any of it."
"It's not about what I said?" Gideon asked.
"No," Hope said, as they slowed down in front of a nearby gelato place, "It's about what I never said. What kind of hero keeps secrets from her sidekick?"
As she said this, she pulled them both into the nearest alleyway, and he pushed her further in, her back against a wall in the shadows.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
"You've been keeping secrets?"
"Just one." Hope said. "I thought it was for your own good, but after you told me about your dad…."
"What is it?" Gideon asked, staring at her so intently neither of them may as well have been wearing masks.
"My parents." She said. "They're heroes."
"What kind of heroes?"
"The same as me." Hope shook her head.
"Saving Grace and Captain Guyliner?" Gideon asked, and when she nodded in response, he threw his head back in frustration.
"I'm sorry." Hope said. "I've been lying to you for years, and I thought it was protecting you, but nothing has hurt me more than knowing I hurt you. I never wanted you to get hurt."
"I'm not the one you should be worried about." Gideon said. "Your parents are."
"What?"
"I heard my dad mention it this morning, while I was doing a little recon…."
Hope smiled at the rebellious streak he was showing. "You were spying on your dad?"
"I knew he was planning something." Gideon said. "Can you blame me for wanting to know if you were the target? I thought it was fortunate that the only supers left on his list were Saving Grace and Captain Guyliner, but now…."
Hope shook her head again. "I have to go. I have to save them."
Before she got a chance to take off, Gideon grabbed her arm. She looked down at his hand, and then back up at his face.
"We
have to save them." Gideon said.
"No way." Hope said. She'd watched enough movies to know that bringing her powerless best friend into battle might as well be signing his death sentence. "You're not coming with me."
His expression hardened. "I thought you said you still trust me."
"I do." Hope said. "I trust you to always have my back, and I trust you not to steer me wrong, and I trust you to do whatever it takes to help me."
"So let me come with you."
"No." Hope said.
"Why not?" Gideon asked.
"My parents will find out you know my secret identity."
"And what's so wrong with that?" Gideon asked. "Hope, aren't you tired of this? Of all the lies, all the pretending, all the sneaking around behind their backs?"
"Of course I'm tired of it!"
"Then let me help you." He grabbed her hand, adding emphasis to his words. "Let me go out there and fight alongside you. Who cares about code orange? Let your parents find out. You don't know how they'll react. Who knows, maybe they'll even recommend me to the League as well, and we can save the world
together
, Hope. Don't you want that?"
For a moment, she considered it, but then she shook her head.
"No."
"Why not?" Gideon asked, letting go of her hand, and she would've flown off while she still had the chance if he hadn't shaken his head gently and said, "No more secrets, Hope."
"Fine." Hope said. "You wanna know why I don't want you going out there with me?"
"Yes!"
"It's scary out there, Gid." She said, and the rest of a conversation that was years in the making tumbled out of it. "I know I put on a brave face, but sometimes it's almost too much for me—
me
, Gideon. Me with my flying and my clever quips and my right hook and my self healing abilities. There are fights out there that I almost don't win, days when, if I'm being perfectly honest, I don't know if I'll make it back to the lair for a victory cocoa and chamomile tea. I have all these incredible powers, and
I'm
barely strong enough."
The concern in his eyes told her to continue.
"So what happens when you're out there? And you've got no powers, and no computer screen to hide behind, no backups or fail safes or algorithms for when you're up against something too big for you? If I can't even guarantee my own safety, what kind of hero would I be if I let you out there with me?"
She looked down at the ground between them, and added, in a mumbled whisper.
"I don't know what I'd do if I lost you."
"And why do you think I want to be out there with you?"
Hope shrugged, her head still pointed down low.
"Trust me," Gideon continued, "the idea of going head-to-head with another henchman like the dragoness is terrifying. Sure, maybe I'd be safer if I was in an underground bunker, tapping away at a screen and giving you the best advice I can while optimizing your playlists from a safe distance. I'd be so safe if I spent my entire life in the chair— but I wouldn't be any less scared."
Hope looked up at him in surprise. "What do you have to be scared of?"
Gideon sighed, then smiled, then took her hand again.
"Every time you go into battle," Gideon shook his head, "when the little red light beeps in the lair, and you jump into action like it doesn't even faze you, and go out there and risk your life to save the world, I'm just as scared as," he paused, and gave a silent laugh, "well, I suppose as scared as you are. I guess I just know that someday there'll be a fight you can't walk away from, and every time you go out there, I'm afraid it's gonna be the one."
"Gideon, I…."
"You're not invincible, Hope." Gideon said. "Powers or not, you're still human. You're still just a kid—
we're
still just kids, Hope. I don't know, the thought of you going out there, dying alone in the streets at the hands of some villain of the week, and me, a million miles away, and more powerless than ever. A piece of me dies whenever you go out there and risk that."
"Gee," Hope said, and though his words were genuine and beautiful, she could only push out the most genuine, "I didn't know you cared, Gid," she could muster.
His eyes met hers. "I care about you more than you know."
Hope nodded. "I know."
For a moment, they studied each other's expressions, with more fervor than either of them had put into studying anything in their lives.
"I know you want to keep me safe," Gideon said, "but if you care about me at all, don't put me through this anymore. Let me come with you."
Hope nodded. "Okay."
His smile was worth all the risk of losing him. "Thanks."
"We've wasted enough time talking." Hope said.
"Right." Gideon nodded, as though suddenly realizing that all that time spent begging to come to battle was in preparation for this very moment.
But he wasted one more second on talk.
"Thank you for trusting me," he said, "even if it took a little while." He took the risk of planting a precious kiss on her cheek.
Hope tucked a hair behind her ear and smiled.
"Thank you for making it easy." She replied, stealing a moment's gaze into his eyes, planning out a long and beautiful conversation that would need to be had when all was said and done.
"And I trust you too." Gideon smiled. "Always have, always will."
"Good," Hope's hand still in his, she gripped it tighter, "because you're really gonna need to."
Keeping a firm grip on Gideon, making sure she'd never lose him again, Hope jumped in the air and began flying, despite Gideon's screams as they soared above treetops and buildings.
"I didn't realize you were still such a baby about heights." Hope said, judging by the amplitude of Gideon's screams and how tight his grip was on her soon-to-be-broken knuckles that he did
not
enjoy flying as much as she did.
"Not about heights," Gideon screamed, "about
falling from them!"
"You know," Hope said, "Lois Lane never complained like this."
"That's because Superman had an almost limitless amount of strength," Gideon yelled, "and may I remind you, they're in a
comic book!"
"Chill out, Gid." Hope said. With one barely-supercharged pull of her arm, she lifted Gideon a little higher, then slipped both of her arms underneath him, carrying him like Superman would've on all the covers of all the aforementioned comic books.
"That better for ya, Smallville?"
She expected him to still cling to her for dear life, to practically strangle her as he screamed and they'd both start to plummet. But instead, the way he held onto her, much like the way his eyes now held her in their gaze, was something gentle.
"Yeah." He smiled. "A lot."