Possessive Behavior

"Hey! Have ya heard what happened today?!" Jessica had not even properly entered the room before blurting out that question. With a few practiced hand-motions, she removed her jacket and heels which neatly placed themselves where they belonged.

"You mean the big fight? Yeah. I was there." I didn't really feel the need to hide that particular tidbit. Especially since.....

"Seriously?" She hopped into bed but caught herself an inch off the mattress, using the bracelet to hover above her blanket.

"You're just bluffing to make me think you're cool and awesome, right? Because ya don't have to."

I laughed and shook my head. Seeing her try to balance herself in mid-air was pretty adorable. "Nope, I was there. I hid pretty quickly when it started though. Nothing I want to get involved in."

Jessica nodded furiously and suddenly plopped down on the bed. I let out another chuckle at the resulting pouty face. "Yeah. Ya would've been toast."

She was mistaken, but to be fair it was not her fault. I kept the true extent of my power hidden. Only the Powerbreaker knew of my full potential.

As far as Witchling and the public were concerned, I could only take over "weak" Empowered people for longer periods of time. "Strong" ones would kick me out after a minute or two, and even the non-Empowered maximum was about an hour.

In reality, unless my target had a mental power like myself, whether someone was Empowered or not made no difference whatsoever. It was all about willpower, and even then, with a first-time Possession of someone who was not actively expecting and preparing against me I could almost guarantee at least an hour of full control.

"That big villain guy killed like 6 people or something. What a monster." She had a far-away stare as she said that.

"Leotigris. He is...or I guess was one of the old guard. He was out there doing his thing when I was still in middle school." I added.

Back then I had already decided I wanted to be a hero. But as a kid with only basic mind-reading powers, I didn't think I'd ever rise beyond sidekick. It took until high school for me to achieve Thought, and of course, that's also when I met her.....

"Really now? He was that old? How come he didn't get the death penalty then if he was killing people like a badjillion years ago?"

I was ripped out of my thoughts by Jessica's cheeky comment. "Hey, 36 isn't that old." I laughed.

"If you're 36 then that means I was either a toddler or a sperm cell when ya went to middle school, old lady. But don't worry, I'm way into ancient hags. Mummies are cool."

She caught the pillow I threw at her with her telekinesis and sent it right back at me.

"You're lucky you're cute." I said with a smile and she poked her tongue out at me. When I was imagining what goes on in villain lairs in their off time back when I was a hero, this was definitely not what I had been picturing. "But to get back on topic, he wasn't always a ruthless killer."

At that, Jessica perked up. "Seriously?"

I nodded. "He used to run with the Midnight Pack and the Black Cats for a while. You know, stealing shit, breaking things, being a nuisance, but nothing much worse."

"So what happened? How did he fall off?" By now Jess was using her power to levitate upside down. She always did that when she felt uncomfortable.

"Well, I'm no expert but I think he got poached by EATR while in prison. And while they only do shit once every couple of years or so, it always ends with cannibalism. I guess he acquired a taste."

I still remembered his first solo outing after being kicked out of EATR. It was grisly.

"Hmmmmmmm." was her only reaction. I threw my pillow again and this time it hit her square in the face, followed by a little yelp. "What was that for?" she grumbled.

"What's bothering you?" I asked. Flicking her wrist she turned right side up again and carefully landed on her bed.

"Well....the thing is.....the Black Cats are cool, ya know? The Pack is kind of ick but they're fine, right? I.....I really really love villains. I do. Ring-A-Ding is amazing, the Odd Gentleman is an icon, the Steely Hendrix Band's capers are basically musicals......it's fun, right?"

While she was rambling I went over and sat next to her. "Yeah. I agree. Even some heroes are SHB fans." I had had signed mugshots of the whole band hanging in my room in the Tower of Light.

"But then there's the other kind of villain. Guys like the Nightstalker who take what the Odd Gentleman does and hypercharge it until it's not fun for anyone. Gals like Snake Eyes who make ya bet your life with like 0 chance of success. Even something as awesome and fun and wholesome as music can be fucking ruined by groups like Concerto Finale. But I always kinda separated these types of villains in my noggin ya know?"

I nodded again. Grouping villains into harmless and harmful happened among heroes a ton too.

"But when I hear that people start as one and then turn into the other.....it kinda sucks, ya know? I'm saying ya know too often..."

She blew her hair out of her face and continued.

"Like, I know logically or whatever it's bound to happen. A lot. But every time I'm reminded of that I keep thinking...what if in 10 years it's not enough for me to float money out of people's pockets. I could easily grab someone.-" I felt invisible energy surrounding me. "- lift them up real high,-" I rose few inches into the air. "-and then drop them." I fell back on the bed.

I gently pull her in to lean against me.

"I get you. I do. It's difficult to know your limits. You could be the most fervent pacifist, never even harmed a fly, but there is always the possibility that a monster sleeps deep within you waiting for the right circumstances to wake up."

I gently stroked her hair as I continued.

"But that's a risk inherent to the lifestyle. Yes, a whole lot of terrible serial or mass-murdering villains started out a lot more grounded and laid back. But the fact of the matter is that most of us bad guys stay in our lane from beginning to end. I mean look at your own examples."

She turned her head slightly to look at me.

"Nightstalker was never anything but a killer. Ring-A-Ding became a thing at the same time as The One started out as Daylighter and she has been a weird goofball from day one. And his bandmates may have rotated lots but Steely H. himself has famously been doing his thing since he turned 16. That man is 74 years old, still active, and has a body count of 0."

I was relieved when I saw a small smile forming on her lips.

"I guess. But we can't all be Steely Hendrix."

"Oh, you're right about that. He is a lot more attractive than you for starters." I joked and immediately felt myself being magically lifted in the air and transported back to my own bed by a giggling Jessica.

"Fuck you." She gave me the middle finger and I reacted with faux outrage.

"So..." Jessica started, getting back to the original topic. "Did ya see anything cool? Did ya see Angelica go supernova? I saw a video of someone over in Hollywood and ya could see the lightshow from there." She looked at me with rapt attention, eyes glued to my lips.

I grinned and opened my waist-bag. "I saw very little, actually, mostly hid, but when the fight was done I found something amazing. You're not going to believe it."

With some excitement, I rumbled through the bag searching for my priceless trophy. Staff, mask, cellphone, Army Ant's number, sandwich, aaaaah there we go. Hot to the touch and amazingly sharp.

I quickly grabbed the halo with my fingertips and threw it in front of me on the ground. The room was instantly lit up. I had always wondered how Angelica managed to sleep with this thing. Jessica's eyes nearly bugged out.

"What the what? Is that.........That isn't............ Is it?"

"What it is is pretty cool, right? Do you want to touch it?"

She looked at me like I just told her she was on the International WANTED Registry. With a flick of her wrist, the ring of hard light slowly levitated over to her. She squinted her eyes when it was nearing her face.

"Damn. I thought Angelica losing her heavenly hat was just a dumb rumor." She turned it around, observing it from all sides.

"So this is a halo.....I mean I knew it was going to be bright, but hot damn is it toasty. How did that blonde bimbo manage to have this thing floating like right above her head her whole life without going crazy?"

It was a good question, but then again I had touched the halo plenty of times while I was living with the team in the Tower of Light. Back then it had always felt just lukewarm to me, and the rim was dull and harmless. Maybe it got hotter and sharper with age?

"I really don't know. Maybe she's just hotheaded?"

Witchling started laughing so hard at that objectively mediocre-at-best joke that it started to come off as a little condescending.

Jokes had never been my forte, and everyone around me had not only always known but had been kind enough to let me know immediately whenever I cracked one.

I felt that I preferred honesty to acting like I was actually funny. Anyway, I ignored Jess' forced laughter and focused back on the topic at hand. Pathetically bragging to my younger roommate. "It's also pretty sharp." I threw in.

Witchling looked at me for a second before carefully pressing her index finger against the halo's rim. She instantly withdrew it. "Ah shit, it is."

I shook my head, grinning. "I told you. Now give it back, please. I don't want you to hurt yourself."

Jessica frowned but levitated my prize back into my open bag. "Awww, ya care about me. But what are ya gonna do with it?" she asked, eyeing me curiously.

I shrugged and lay down on my bed. "I don't know. Keep it, I guess." I turned onto my side to face her. "Don't you have some training to do?" I asked with a smirk.

"Oh good lord, the run!" She jumped out of bed and grabbed her discarded broom off the floor. "Don't ya worry MC! By the time your food runs out I, the great Witchling, shall have mastered the broom!" With that, she held it up sideways, let it go, and kept it stable in the air at a comfortable sitting height with her magic. "Ya see? It's just that easy." she said, sat down and immediately slipped off.

With a laugh, i got up myself and helped the clumsy girl back to her feet. My adrenaline was still pumping and helping her out a bit with her training was sure to calm me down at least a little.

In fact, since after today's event I had committed to laying low until the Oculus arrived, the next couple of weeks would be unbearably boring without anyone or anything to pass the time.

Luckily, this silly Witch girl was sure to provide adequate distraction, and while she was out I'd just hang out with some of the other villains in this building.

Now all I had to do was wait.

-------------------

While on the way back to my room I noticed 3 people standing before an open door, chatting with each other. One of them, a tall and handsome young man, probably around Witchling's age, greeted me.

"My oh my, if it isn't the esteemed Master Controller. Fancy meeting you here."

He held out his hand but I didn't take it. Touching him felt.......weird. He wore a very nice-looking white suit and a gold shimmering monocle. His eyebrows were perfectly trimmed and his blonde hair slicked back neatly.

"No, it isn't Smooth Criminal. We both live here. We both work on similar schedules. And we meet each other every day. Nothing fancy about it."

He and his friends were often out and about in the hallways. My guess was that they wanted to keep an eye on the other minor villains here.

He dramatically held his arm in front of his face.

"Alas, your rudeness shall slip off my beautiful skin like all things do. I merely wished to greet a fellow nefarious evil-doer. Have we lost all decorum in the villain community that a common greeting is met with such hostility? Oh for shame."

The other two, a fairly regular-looking woman and a man in a cartoonish-looking army commander outfit, giggled while I rolled my eyes.

Those two were named Slugger and Toy General. I wasn't very familiar with them but I knew that they were in a similar living situation as me and Witchling. They had the building's only 3-bed apartment too.

The three of them had been active a bit longer than me and already had somewhat of a reputation, though that was probably mainly because they were doing runs a lot more often than I did.

"We just wanted to know if you were planning on doing anything soon-ish. We are very interested in your career." Slugger said, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed.

"Yeah, man. Possession is super rare and an asset to almost any group of ne'er-do-wells. But all you do is small-time stuff. Go out there and present yourself a little." A small plastic soldier sitting on Toy General's shoulder was nodding along to what he was saying.

"Whatever. I don't really see how my M.O. is any of your guys' business but maybe my next job will be more your speed. Look forward to it. See you guys later."

I mumbled and moved on. I really didn't want to bother with their antics right now.

"We most certainly will, my dear." Smooth Criminal replied with an overexaggerated farewell bow. Toy General gave me a salute while Slugger just waved.

Back on the other side, I had always been annoyed by heroes who were in character 24/7 and as a villain, I still felt no different.

Well, at least these three seemed to be the silly kind of bad guy, not the murdery kind.

When I finally managed to enter my room I was both nervous and elated. The last couple of weeks had passed surprisingly fast, mostly due to Jess and me working on her levitation training.

I had become so focused even that I had completely forgotten about the Oculus when the BHF message came that my merchandise had arrived.

Just as I took my first step inside my coat was lifted from my body and floated onto the hanger, followed by two biscuits on Jessica's table taking flight. One placed itself into my outstretched hand while the other went up into Witchling's mouth, who was sitting on top of her flying broom drifting around the room lazily in a circle, just as I left her a couple of hours ago.

I couldn't help but smile.

"Welcome home, MC. I stayed up here the entire time ya were away, cross my heart. Read my mind if ya want proof." she babbled excitedly. Her smile was about ten times brighter than mine. She seemed to be really proud of herself. To be honest, so was I.

"No need. I believe you." I said on the way to my bed.

"Does that mean.....?" She looked like she was about to explode with giddiness.

"Yes." I said, sitting down. "You can do the next run with me."

"YEEESSSS!!!" She threw both her hands up, throwing herself off the broom and softly floating back down onto her bed. The broom gently put itself back in the corner. "Awesome! So, what did ya get from good ol' Davey? It's for the run, right?"

I nodded and opened my bag. After a few seconds of rumbling, i pulled out a small red box.

"Ooooh, ya gonna propose to me? I accept!" she joked, clasping her hands together and swooning in an over-the-top motion. I glanced down. It did look a little bit like a ringbox, only bigger.

Without a word, I opened it and showed its contents to her. Inside, nestled on a small velvety pillow, lay an eye. Instead of one, it had three pupils, all colored green.

Jessica let out an "Oooöoooohhhh." and looked back up at me, astounded. "A Third Oculus? How did ya get that? Don't they cost like half a million bucks?"

She crossed her arms and looked up at nothing in particular, contemplating something.

"I know we lawbreakers get stuff much much cheaper, but I can't imagine a Third Oculus being sold for less than two-hundred thousand, even with the fencer's discount."

I gently touched the eye with my finger. It felt soft and fragile. After a few seconds of contact, the pupils moved to look at me.

"You're right. I got it cheap because it's broken. It'll stop working if it's more than 10 feet away from me."

I could feel a searing pain invade my head as the Oculus registered me as its new owner. It started out dull but soon increased in intensity to the point that I had to close my eyes and grit my teeth.

"Man, that really doesn't look fun. One of Dad's friends or work partners or something has a Third Oculus and he told me the registration is the worst pain he ever felt."

While she was talking, with my eyes still closed, I could hear her voice get closer and closer. It had a worried tinge to it. Soon after I felt a soft hand on my shoulder, giving it a reassuring squeeze.

"Thanks, Jess. But it's fine. This is nothing. I'm used to much, much worse." I wasn't even bluffing here. The pain was awful, to be fair, but I have had half a decade to get acclimatized to excruciating daily torture for years on end. Pain like this would've felt like a tropical vacation by comparison back in those days.

Of course, now that my everyday life was relatively painless again, usually that is, the Oculus registration had more of an effect on me than it would've had back in the lab. Still, it was much more bearable than it could've been.

Little by little my vision returned to me. But I was not looking at the eye.

What I was instead seeing before me was a tired, skinny, unkempt, homeless-looking woman in her mid-thirties with a mostly stoic, but very slightly agitated expression on her face, keeping both her eyes shut. I had certainly seen better days.

Looking at myself like that felt surreal. The pain ebbed away slowly and when I opened my eyes again I was a little overwhelmed by my new point of view. It is incredibly hard to describe, seeing through an additional, mostly independent third eye.

By all accounts, the third field of vision should've felt alien and distracting to me but somehow it seemed perfectly natural after a few minutes, as if I'd always been able to see from two different perspectives.

"Does it work? Are ya a triclops now?" Jessica asked, floating upside down before me. I looked at her, but not with my regular eyes. The Oculus slowly lifted itself from the box and turned to face my roommate.

She gave the eye a small wave as she slowly turned right-side up again.

"This is so cool."

I carefully maneuvered the eye back into the box and closed it shut.

The Third Oculus had no eyelid, and mentally ordering it to cease function would not only also temporarily dispel the levitation magic, but sever the nerve connection as well.

Even though the registration pain wasn't too bad I really didn't need to go through that again on a semi-regular basis, so whenever I wanted to "shut" my third eye the Oculus had to go back in the box.

"Right." I started, securing it in my bag. "Do you want to discuss the plan?"

Jessica nodded and sat down beside me leaning towards my ear. "I'm really excited! Are ya too, partner?" she squeed in a strangely high-pitched whisper.

"Sure."

I pulled out my phone and opened a map of LA. With another button press, the city was holographically projected in front of us, depth and all.

I zoomed around until I found the right spot.

"Next week a bunch of rich youngsters from Europe will have a tour of the city followed by a party with the hero team The Yellowbrick Society."

Before Jess could ask how I knew this I pulled up the relevant social media posts. Hero tours had always been popular the world over, but also decently expensive. So of course a lot of people, especially those from younger generations, can't help but brag online about their super cool and expensive day trips.

These events were also considered very safe because you are accompanied by one or more established heroes in broad daylight. Of course, they never planned for the possibility of full Possession.

According to my research, there had only been about 50 people who were born with my or a similar ability in the history of Empowerment. Now, I personally believed that the actual number was far higher and those people just kept their skill a tightly guarded secret, but that was neither here nor there.

The Legendary Los Angeles Legacy Tour was a fairly pricey stroll around LA accompanied by one of many partnered heroes or hero teams depending on the money you spent.

The Yellowbrick Society were lower-midrange in affordability, which meant about 100k for them to show up just at the party, and 250k for both the party and tour.

These kids had paid for the full experience. And to top it off, they were certain to have cash on them.

With the advent of high tech, AI, and sorcery there were a myriad of ways to steal your money from your credit or bank card just by walking by you, no need to even touch anything.

As a result, most people had switched back to carrying physical money around over a century ago.

Witchling whistled. "I did this tour with the Thunder Twins once. Great day that was."

She placed a finger on her chin.

"I mean, it's a fine idea, but how are we gonna deal with the Oz crew? One or two we could probably knock out for long enough to do our thing, but all 5? Doesn't seem feasible. Specially considering ya won't be able to Possess any of them."

I shook my head and looked at her confidently. Time to find a believable loophole for my made-up weakness

"That's where you're wrong, Jess."

I quickly accessed the Public Hero Registry and pulled up the profile I needed. A picture of a man clad in a scarecrow costume popped up. He was additionally dressed like a graduating university student, square cap and all. I pointed to the section where his powers were listed.

Making your powerset info publically accessible was voluntary, and decided during registration. About half of all registered heroes allowed it.

His entry read 'Power Type: Enhance 1 - Intelligence' and nothing else.

"He is smart. That's it. His offensive and defensive capabilities come exclusively from the gear he is carrying around. It should be no problem whatsoever to keep him in my clutches, at least long enough for our plan to succeed."

Jessica gave me a satisfied grin. "Alright. I'm a little bit nervous, but I trust ya! As long as we follow your plan we're sure to pull it off." She gave me a thumbs up.

I responded with a confident nod. This would certainly be my boldest move yet, but Witchling's faith in me spurred me on even more. "Okay, I figure this is how we're going to do it...."

.................

I looked down at the busy street, lightly tapping my staff on the floor with impatience. My Oculus had confirmed that this apartment was empty and Jess had practiced dutifully to pick locks with her bracelet, so getting inside had not been a problem.

From here we had a good view of the Legacy Tour stop our targets were currently busy inside. All we had to do was wait for them to come out.

I sighed. Waiting had always been my least favorite part of being a cape, good or bad, especially in full costume. We were both wearing our villain outfits, the makeup making Jessica look much less bubbly and happy-go-lucky than usual. Still cute though.

She was shaking a little, the poor thing. Nerves are the worst for a beginner. But I could understand her. If everything went right, this would be her first-ever successful crime. Her true debut. I carefully took her hand and squeezed gently. She squeezed back.

"You got this." I said, my voice obscured by the mask.

"....I k-know." she replied with a slight stutter.

Her first job would be to transport my limp post-possession body to a hidden little alleyway a block away for safety. Afterwards she was supposed to hurry back to the tour and attack.

My nifty bag was strapped to her waist, for the money. My role was to simply leave Scarescholar's body after the cash was collected, so I couldn't take anything with me.

"They're here." Jessica whispered, squeezing harder now.

Finally, it was time. The next building over was the original childhood home of The One. A low-rent apartment in one of the cheapest blocks in the city.

By now the whole building had been remodeled into the popular '"Daylighter Museum of Underdog Heroics", showcasing not just him but also many other accomplished heroes hailing from humble origins.

It was a hotspot for tourists and of course a fair number of tour groups as well. Ours had just left the building.

These sycophants had been inside the museum fawning over overidealized people that they had no possible way to even slightly relate to for over an hour, and I was itching to get back into action.

I could count 10, maybe 11 moneybags and 5 flamboyantly dressed overpaid nuisances.

"Let's do this." I whispered and started focusing on the one dressed as a scarecrow.

Soon I could hear his thoughts swimming through the canals of my mind. I smirked when I realized he was drowning out the group of rich douchebags he was here to entertain and instead thought about how to color his recently finished model ship.

Such a cheap and low-tech hobby for someone who was basically swimming in cash. With the Enlightened you were lucky to find someone with a cheap or low-tech hobby, never both.

I forced myself to concentrate on the task at hand as best I could and strengthened our connection, achieving Thought.

I could feel the straw in his costume scratching his arms and legs slightly. Not enough to cause pain, but certainly enough to irritate.

I wanted to explore his deeper thoughts a little more thoroughly, but when I noticed that the group had finished discussing their museum visit and were moving towards the tour bus I knew I had to act before I lost sight of him.

I squeezed Jessica's hand reassuringly one last time before my vision blurred and my mind left my body......