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[writingsfromthecactus]

The Impulse Protocol: Part 1 Scene 6

Content Warnings: Violence, blood, death

Archer stood in front of Evan, who was stretching his arms. She cracked her knuckles in response and jumped in place a bit to get the blood flowing through her legs.

“Alright, how does this work?” she asked.

Evan shook his head. “Your new personality will never get old.” A smirk played on his lips. “We’re going to go through a few exercises. You’ve been out for a while and we’re going to make sure you don’t collapse the moment your heart starts beating a little too quickly.”

Archer scoffed, glad she wasn’t trying to hide who he was, at least personality-wise. “You think I’m out of shape because I slept for twenty-four hours and have a concussion?”

“Oh, you think you’re so smart?” Evan replied playfully. “Then why don’t we check your cockiness with a little sparring match? I win, you’re doing this my way. You win, and, well, maybe we don’t need to be doing this at all.” He chuckled.

Archer narrowed her eyes, a grin creeping onto her face. “You’re on, pretty boy.”

His eyebrows shot up.

“No powers?” she countered.

He nodded. “No powers.”

Archer raised her fists, forcing her body into a fighting stance. She would’ve thought that a superhero would be used to one of these, but the muscle memory just wasn’t there. Without her powers, or the muscle memory, she only had her mind to help her out. Maybe this would be a bit harder than she thought it was going to be.

“Impressive. Looks like you’ve been paying attention during our spats with the villains,” Evan said. “But you’re going to need a bit more than that to beat me.” He threw out a punch, but Archer could tell that he was holding back. He didn’t actually expect her to be any good at fighting, and he was also likely going easy on her since she still had a concussion.

She danced back, out of range of his punch. Even without the formal training, Ann’s body was still used to fighting. She recalled Stella’s fighting style. She was trained to pull out of the way, keep distance, and zap people with lightning bolts. But in a sparring match without the use of powers, Archer would have to get close. She just hoped her reaction time could keep up once Evan realized she wasn’t messing around.

He launched another fist and she ducked under it. Once she resurfaced, she pushed his arm away. His weight shifted and she took advantage, pressing the attack. He quickly recovered and blocked her following punches. She pulled back, realizing that she wasn’t as fast nor as experienced as she was in this body, so she’d have to be smarter.

“You’re really serious about this, aren’t you?” he asked.

“Well, ever since I was kidnapped and apparently lost my original personality, I might be a little more focused,” she said.

As she stepped closer to Evan, a blistering pain erupted from her forehead. Forgetting all about the sparring match, she felt her knees buckle and she curled her arms around her head, which softened the blow against it as she toppled to the floor.

The man’s voice reverberated through her head. This is going to be the most fun I’ve had in ages. Maybe you’ll have fun too. His voice warped into laughter befitting of a supervillain that had no end.

All at once, it stopped. Her limbs felt heavy and useless and her head spun in all directions. People were shouting, but her ears had a loud ringing in them that warped all sounds that tried to enter her ears.

“Ann,” she mumbled, her tongue refusing to work properly. “Oh god, Ann, I’m so sorry.” She wasn’t quite sure why she was talking, but her thoughts moved through molasses and it was too late to stop herself from speaking.

“Ann, hey,” someone’s voice said. Was it… Bree? “It’s gonna be okay. Dean is gonna take good care of you. You’re going to be okay.”

Archer thought she was responding directly after Bree spoke, but it was more like a few minutes later as her brain caught up. “What? Are you talking… about?”

Dean’s voice made it through her fog. “Can you hear me? If you can, move your fingers.” She tried to move her fingers, but she couldn’t feel her arms or legs at all.

“Wh- who are you?” Dean asked. Archer couldn’t tell who he was talking to, but her addled brain made her think he was talking to her at the time.

“I’m Ar….Ann. Ann. My name is… Ann,” she said at some point later.

“Don’t worry, Archer,” the man said.

“Get out of my head,” she replied, trying to blink open her eyes to make sure that his voice was all in her head, and he wasn’t standing above her, brandishing his gauntlets.

“Oh, no, don’t worry,” he repeated. “I’ve made some upgrades. Especially now that I realize that I totally forgot about Liminal and the whole pain-between-minds stuff. That should be fixed now, but I’ll have to swap you two back just for a bit to make sure it does work. You’ll get a reprieve for about a day, but then it’s back to the grind, I’m afraid.

“Oh, and I hope you’re wondering if I’m having fun. Because I sure am.” He chuckled. “Have fun in your real body, because it won’t be for long.”

A hand touched her forehead and the pain returned in full force.

She opened her eyes and leaped to her feet before she even realized where she was. Her fist struck a face and she used her other hand to press the person up against a wall. Her vision cleared after a group of familiar voices shouted at her, and she found Germaine before her, pressed to a wall. She took in a deep breath and stumbled back. She felt at her body. Her hair was longer, she was wearing a blouse and jeans, and everything was where she was used to.

“Oh my god,” she mumbled.

“Hey, woah,” Emma said. “Arch, you good?”

“I… I…” She turned around and stared at Emma. She rushed at her and wrapped her in an embrace. “Oh my god.”

“Well,” Germaine said. “I think she’s got her memories back.”

Archer pulled back. “Huh?” she asked.

“Your memories are back, right?” Emma asked, crossing her arms. “I mean you did punch the shit out of Germaine, so that’s a good sign.”

Archer blinked. Ann must’ve pretended to have amnesia in order to avoid arousing too much suspicion. Fear slammed into her throat. Ann was back in her body, knew the identities of the four major villains as well as the location of their hideout, and was likely surrounded by the League and had every opportunity to spill the beans.

“Holy shit, we gotta go,” Archer said, running off through the house and towards her suit. Emma chased after her.

“Woah, what’s going on?” Emma shouted.

“We have a major problem and we need to distract the heroes right now,” she replied.

“Are you sure? What kinda problem?”

Archer grabbed the edge of her chamber, where the Abattoir suit sat, untouched. “I’ll explain everything after this whole mess, but you’ve gotta trust me, because right now, we’re in a whole lot of trouble.” She undressed down to her underwear and started putting her suit on. “Get Drel in here, we need a plan ASAP.”

“Already got them,” Germaine said, dashing in with Drel at his heels. “What do we need to do?”

“We have to base everything on the assumption that we’re compromised, that the base, our identities, everything, is compromised and the League knows everything,” she said as she slipped on her undersuit. “So we do a major hit, all four of us. Drel, you do the bank, maybe a few hostages, and you’re stalling for time. Germaine, the downtown heroes museum, you’re focused on destruction and getting as much attention as possible.”

She paused as she pulled out her leather armor, then continued. “Em, you’ll do a hit at the energy plant. It’ll take longer to get there, obviously, so when you get there, it’s gotta be big, understand?”

“Yeah, okay,” Emma said, gesturing for the others to start putting on their suits. “What are you gonna do?”

Archer stopped moving and steadied herself with a deep breath. “I’m going for the League. There’s a certain electricity-themed hero I’ve gotta have a word with.”

“Stella?” Germaine asked. “Why her?”

“If we get out of this, I’ll tell you everything.” Archer grabbed her swords. “For now, I need Em to also scramble the servers and send everything to our backup. If we buy enough time, we can bring everything else over in the aftermath.” She grabbed her helmet and looked at it. “God,” she hissed. “How could it come to this?”

Emma, already in her suit, wrapped an arm around Archer. “It’ll be okay. We’re in this together. Go to the HQ, we’ll go terrorize the city.”

“Thanks,” she said, wrapping Emma in another hug. She fought the tears that rose to her eyes, then wiped them with a leather-bound arm as she pulled away. “Good luck. Afterwards, meet at the backup.” She nodded at Germaine and Drel, who were also dressed up, then ran outside.

She slid into her car, tossed her helmet and swords into the passenger side and sped off as soon as the car turned on. She had to get downtown as soon as possible and stop Ann from spilling everything. It took all of her effort not to break into tears. She knew that Ann’s morals would supersede keeping her girlfriend’s secrets. She wouldn’t be able to keep it even if she thought she would, and Archer knew it. She just had to hope that she could get close to Ann before that happened and talk some sense into her.

She pulled into the parking lot and scrambled out of her car, her swords and helmet in her arms as she did so. She slammed the door shut with her foot and strapped on her swords and slipped her helmet on before running out and towards the League HQ.

People screamed at the sight of her, diving out of the way as she charged right through them. She jumped up, glad to have her own body’s muscle memory back, and climbed the statue of Impulse, who was the most famous League member, who supposedly had the power to manipulate reality to a certain extent, up until he died of a mysterious illness. Now, there was a convenient place to stand imposingly in front of the HQ. Making sure her voice changer was on, and activating the speaker, she looked up at the floor she figured the heroes were on.

“Yo, heroes!” she called out. “Let’s talk, you and I.”

Her words echoed across the building. She couldn’t spot any movement inside. “Yoo hoo, Visionary? Torchy? Liminal? Stella!” She shouted the last name at the top of her lungs. “You really gonna keep me waiting out here like this? It’s very rude, you know!”

Nothing. She fingered the hilt of one of her swords in worry. If they weren’t in the HQ, then they might already be on their way to ripping apart the hideout. She swore under her breath, although it was picked up by the speakers and was more like a shout. She turned off the speaker and launched herself off of the statue. She tucked into a roll and charged into the building. Her shoulder made contact with the glass and it shattered around her.

She stumbled into the lobby and made eye contact with the trembling receptionist. She stomped up and reached over the counter, grabbing his collar with one hand and pulled him until he was inches away from her face.

“Where the hell are the heroes?” she growled.

The receptionist, in his fright, could only get mumbles and stutters out. Archer tightened her grip on his collar.

“Tell me where they are. And don’t stutter,” she said.

“I-I don’t know,” he stammered. “T-they should b-be on the t-tenth floor.” he pointed towards the elevators. Archer threw him back into his chair, though the force caused him to topple over backwards. She glanced over to the elevators and instead opted for the stairs. She charged up them two at a time, not stopping until she made it all the way to the tenth floor. At the top, she caught her breath and was glad she was in her own body, with her insane amount of endurance. She threw the door open and recognized the hallway. She’d been here in Ann’s body.

Retracing the steps she took earlier that day, she entered the room where she’d woken up by kicking the door in.

On the ground was Dean, who was lying in a pool of blood, his throat ripped out. The bed was empty.

“Oh, shit,” she said. After she’d entered that strange fugue state, the man had come in here and swapped her back, although she realized that he swapped her back without touching both her and Ann’s head. However, he’d come in while Dean was here, and the poor doctor had paid the price.

More importantly, Ann was gone.

Archer slammed her fist into the wall, imprinting a fist-sized hole in the drywall. She turned around at the sound of feet pounding on the floor. One of the lesser heroes, a teenager by the look of him, charged towards her. He must’ve been the new recruit, and although he ran straight for her, she could see the fear in his eyes. She pulled out one of her swords, the familiar weight helping to stabilize her.

She stood her ground, knowing that the longer she stayed here, the more likely it was that Ann revealed everything.

[writingsfromthecactus]

The Impulse Protocol Part 1 Scene 5

Content Warnings: Weapons (knives, swords, a smaller list of weapons (mentioned))

~

A knock on the door stirred Ann from her sleep. She’d been in and out of wakefulness, strange dreams that were hard to identify and parse through drifting through her head. The strongest one involved a date with Archer, only for her to turn into Abattoir and attack her.

“Arch? You awake? We’re coming in,” Emma’s voice filtered through the door.

Ann rubbed at her eyes. The bruises still ached, but at least it was tolerable. As the door opened, she sat up and stretched. Emma strode in holding a plate of scrambled eggs and a muffin. She sat next to Ann and wrapped an arm around her.

“Feeling any better?” she asked.

Ann cleared her throat, worried about the villain sitting next to her. She felt like a sheep in wolf’s clothing, even in the sleepy haze that clouded her head. “A bit,” she said.

“Well, I brought you some food,” Emma continued. “Made the scrambled eggs myself, but the muffin’s definitely not homemade.” She presented the plate, which had a plastic fork on the side. “We spent most of our money on technology and training equipment, so expensive food isn’t really an option.”

Ann accepted the plate and ate the eggs slowly. They weren’t the same quality that she normally ate, but it wasn’t bad, so she ate them while Emma talked.

“I’m guessing you still don’t have your memories, which sucks, but not much we can do. Drel brought up talking to Brainwave, but he’s on a strict DNI kick ever since he escaped League custody, something something ‘I need my brain to recharge’ or whatever the hell he said. Oh, I guess you wouldn’t remember who that is. He’s a villain who could manipulate brainwaves or something. Really cool guy, his eyes were like super trippy. Anyway, he’s not really an option.”

Ann forced herself to swallow the bite of egg in her mouth before she choked. The League was under the impression that Brainwave was dead, and that he’d been that way for five years, but Emma was talking like he was still alive.

“Now, I was thinking we go undercover as civilians and pretend to be super big fans of Liminal, she’s a mind-reading superhero, and beg her to try and fix your memory. It’s a little risky because if she sees into your mind that you’re a villain, she might get a little angry that we tricked her,” Emma continued. Ann’s interest spiked. If Mari could read her mind, it meant she’d know what had happened and might help switch her back.

“I think we should do it,” Ann said. Archer would likely do the same thing if it was her only option.

Emma paused, then grinned. “That’s the spirit, Arch.” She patted her on the back. “The League has Liminal out on press duty at noon, and that’s our best bet for working with her. That gives us about an hour to get ready and go downtown. I’ll leave you to get changed, and the bathroom is the last door at the end of the hallway. Once you’re all ready, we can go over the plan in case she realizes what’s going on.”

She peeled herself away from Ann and left the room.

Ann finished off the muffin and set the plate on the bedside table, her mind whirring about the turn of events. While she had told the League about Archer, and lied that they were no longer seeing each other, they didn’t know what she looked like, and as long as Archer’s name wasn’t mentioned, they shouldn’t be suspicious until she was able to explain what had happened.

Ann stood up and glanced over at the closet. The door was shut. She opened it. Inside, the closet was bare. A small dresser with socks, underwear, sports bras, and pants sat on the ground, and shirts and jackets, as well as a few dresses hung from the top. Sitting on the dresser was a ceramic plate that was broken, though it was sitting on a stand and it was obviously slathered in glue, the words painted on it, ‘For the most gorgeous woman I have ever met,’ and a little heart. Ann’s mouth went a little dry at the sight. Ann had made it for her for an anniversary and broke it on that very same day. She’d expected Archer to throw it out, since it wasn’t a very good plate to begin with. It was also the last time that Ann had tried painting ceramics.

She took a deep breath and parsed through the shirts, grabbing a light blue blouse. She paired it with some jeans and changed clothes as quickly as possible. Once she was dressed, she noticed that, while the closet door was open, she couldn’t see the mirror on the back of the door. After closing the door, she glanced in the mirror. Even with her time in Archer’s body, it was still a bit of a shock to see a different face.

In the mirror, she spotted the desk, and its lock. Her curiosity bubbled up again, and she turned, planning to only see what was inside. She worried that Archer would be mad that she was rooting around in her stuff, which was likely locked for a reason. However, she realized that Archer hadn’t told her that she was a major villain, so she crouched down and pressed her thumb to the lock.

It clicked open, revealing a few items. These included a locket, an old notebook, and a small throwing knife. Ann grabbed the locket first, flipping it open. One one side was a black-and-white photo of someone who looked very similar to Archer, and on the other was a cropped photo that Ann had taken of both her and Archer, so that only Ann’s face was visible. Ann remembered taking that photo, they were visiting an amusement park in Ohio.

Ann wasn’t normally a crier, but Archer apparently was, because her eyes started to water. She felt a rift between her feelings for Archer, and her feelings against Abattoir, and she found it hard to associate both of those to the same person. Despite being a ruthless villain named after a slaughterhouse, just looking around the room, there was evidence that Archer really loved Ann, and there was no way that they could be the same person.

She forced herself to set the locket back down and grabbed the knife. She wasn’t an expert on knives, let alone throwing knives, but it felt pretty well balanced in her hand. It was made of blackened steel with the edges sharp enough to reveal a red shine on them, and the handle was wrapped with a red leather cord. Ann had never seen this knife before, but it reminded her of Abattoir, so she put it back.

The final journal was small, but every page had been written on it, causing the pages to thicken, and the spine was cracked in multiple places. It was leather-bound, and dyed an olive green. Ann felt guilty for picking it up, but once it was in her hands, she couldn’t stop herself from opening it.

Okay, so, uh, my therapist said that writing in a journal every day is a good, healthy way to get things off my chest and, excellent news, nobody else has to read it. Well, except my therapist, but she promised that she wouldn’t tell anyone else (and it’s part of the law?? sick). Anyway, here is… my first entry. Deep breath.

I guess I’ll start with what happened about… eight months ago? I mean, that’s when I noticed it, who knows how long I’ve actually been able to do it for. I have a superpower. I know, right? That’s like, the coolest thing ever to happen to me, and one time my mom won the lottery (yay!) before she divorced my dad (not so yay), so that’s saying something.

But, anyway, onto the whole powers thing. It’s not like your typical ‘oh I’ve got super strength’ bullshit like Visionary. Like, props to her, but I’m just sooo tired of the whole ‘oh, I have super strength so I’m gonna become the leader of a hero league and be the face of literally every piece of league merch ever.’

Sorry, I keep getting distracted. ANYWAY, I’m invited to this larping club (live action role-playing as clarification for my therapist) by one of my high school friends and we each get these foam swords with a rod in the middle so they don’t collapse immediately and we have to use them in the live action part of the role-playing (wow). Anyway, I’m not too into it until the live action dungeon master goes to attack me and out of nowhere I just block her sword like I’m some kind of actual knight, and I’ve got her disarmed in two seconds without even thinking about it.

Now, just to be clear, I’ve never touched a sword in my life. Okay, maybe a wooden one when I was like 10 and literally everyone in elementary school thought they were the coolest shit you could ever own, but I was never a weapons person.

So I was like, yeah, that’s pretty cool, maybe I just got lucky or whatever, but when I start getting into the fighting I’m winning every fight and the other people and the dm were mad at me for ‘cheating’ or whatever so I had to sit out of the fighting for the rest of the day. Afterwards, I was talking with my friend and swearing up and down that I’ve never taken lessons or anything.

She’s like, ‘bet,’ and takes me out a week later to an axe (ax? idk) throwing contest with the prize of $100, which my broke college student ass was very interested in, and guess who got bullseyes every time???? This bitch. So, I’m a master swordfighter (with foam swords) and I can throw axes (axs? no that looks wrong) with deadly accuracy.

We went out and tried like everything we could think of. Knives, nunchucks (those were fun), fists (yes those apparently count as weapons), two handed swords, wolverine claws (holy shit!!) (they were plastic though), bow and arrows, crossbows, and a bunch of other stuff I can’t name. Turns out I can use any weapon like I’ve been training with it for years. Suck on that whoever said practice makes perfect, because I sure haven’t practiced how to throw a goddamn knife before, and I got a little certificate from the Knives ‘n Swords Academy for being too good for their beginner program.

So, long story short, turns out I can actually become a superhero. I can’t wait to show the league what I’m made of.

Ann stopped after that, since the entry ended abruptly and the next one started after an empty line. Her mouth had fallen open. Archer did have a power, but she’d never told Ann, or anyone for that matter, except for her unnamed friend.

Of course, Ann thought. Because it might link her to Abattoir, who was almost superhuman in her fighting skill. Well, it turned out that she was superhuman in her fighting skill. Ann grabbed the knife again. If that was the case, then perhaps Ann had access to it at the moment, since she couldn’t use her lightning abilities.

She straightened her legs from the crouched position, focused on a spot on the far wall, pulled the knife back, and let it fly. She blinked in surprise as the knife flew so quickly that it embedded itself directly at the point she was aiming at. Her heart was pounding in her chest. She had Archer’s—Abattoir’s—power, one that she didn’t even know existed.

Ann grabbed the knife from the wall and studied it. Despite sinking an inch into drywall, the knife wasn’t even scratched. She pressed a thumb to the hole in the wall, rubbing the spot where the knife had gone through.

She shook her head. The sooner she met up with Mari, the sooner she could get back into her body. She replaced the knife and closed the drawer. It locked once it was closed, and she turned to the door.

While freshening up in the bathroom, she avoided looking in the mirror as much as possible, since she felt a wave of dizziness every time she did. She stumbled about a bit; she was still not used to this body, and eventually found her way out into the living room.

Emma was sitting at the kitchen table, the pan she used to cook eggs in front of her, empty. Drel and Germaine were on the couch, Germaine on his phone and Drel playing a first-person shooter on the TV.

Emma glanced up and grinned. “There she is. You ready to talk this over?”

Ann nodded and Emma waved her over to the table. As Ann sat down, Emma pulled out her phone and set it on the table, opening it to reveal a map of the League HQ and the surrounding streets.

“Alright, Liminal will be in front of the League HQ, but will also be surrounded by the press. I’ll go up with you and Germaine, who will be hiding in plain sight, will distract the press just long enough for us to squeeze through.” She motioned on the map where everything would take place. “I’ll do all the talking while I ask Liminal to fix your memory. You just do your best to keep out the fact that you’re a villain and all that stuff.

“If, for some reason, she finds out about the whole villain’s thing, you make sure you break off physical contact as soon as possible, since her powers are touch-based. Drel will be on standby to make an appearance and allow us to make a speedy getaway in the chaos.”

Ann listened, pretending to nod along, but inside, she was a little worried. She’d thought that these four villains worked separately, all with their motives. Now she was realizing that they all were organized enough to plan on a larger scale and use their apparent individuality to their advantage, with the League none the wiser.

“While Drel’s doing their thing, when it comes to that, you and I are going to get out of there as fast as possible and head to a safe house to make sure we weren’t followed. If all goes well, we’ll have your memories back and the League will have no idea that they just allowed Abattoir to return to the spotlight. You’re sure you’re up for this? We’re all for helping you, but if you change your mind, even when it gets right down to it, you’re free to back out, alright?”

She nodded. There was no way she was going to pass up an opportunity to get the whole mess sorted out, and Mari was the best way to do it. If worse came to worst, she knew exactly what to say to convince her to listen.

Emma clapped her hands. “Alright, let’s hit it.” She stood up and grabbed the empty pan, bringing it to the sink. Drel paused their game and stood up, stretching. Ann hadn’t noticed exactly what they were wearing before, but they already had on their Scoundrel suit on, minus the gas mask.

Emma took Ann back out to the car with Germaine following close behind. He got in a different car and drove off before Ann even got into the passenger’s seat. Emma started the car and the two of them drove off.

The trip to the League’s HQ was shorter than Ann thought it would be, and she felt worry rise in her stomach over how close the biggest villains in the city lived to her home. To Ann’s home. She thought back to the time when Archer had told her she lived in the Hills suburb, which was in the complete opposite direction of HQ, but of course she’d lie about where she lived if telling the truth meant revealing she was Abattoir.

Emma parked a few blocks away from the HQ, next to the car that Germaine had taken. Ann supposed they must have a plan in place whenever they met here, although she was getting tired of seeing so much evidence that pointed to their planning skills.

They walked up, Emma’s arm around Ann’s shoulders, to the gaggle of reporters surrounding Mari, who was in her blue and green Liminal suit, the mask covering her face. She was talking to the press about Stella’s absence, how she was taking a break from hero work for a while. Ann’s heart ached at the sight of Mari, who didn’t know that the woman she thought was Ann was actually Abattoir.

Just as they reached the edge of the reporters, the ones near the back scrambling to get to the front, backed off, blinking light out of their eyes, despite the fact that it was cloudy. If anyone was looking, and knew that this was all a setup, they’d recognize the work of UltraViolet. However, nobody spoke up and Emma took charge, plowing through the reporters and tugging Ann along behind her.

“Liminal! Hey!” she called out. “My friend has amnesia, she can’t even remember her own name!”

Mari trailed off, staring down at Emma and Ann. Once they had her attention, the rest of the reporters parted, hoping to get some good footage of Liminal using her powers.

“If you want my help, you can sign up online to receive my help, I’m in the middle of a press conference,” Mari said, the annoyance just barely audible in her voice. “WWW dot Hero League dot com.”

“But the waiting list is months long,” Emma replied, still approaching Liminal. “And she has her mother’s funeral tomorrow and I can’t just bop her on the head and fix it all, please.”

Under the mask, Ann could see Mari clench her jaw. She stared at Ann for a moment in silence, before groaning. “Fine. But don’t think this means anyone can just come up to me and beg for help with my powers.”

Emma tossed Ann closer to Mari and she stumbled a bit on the steps. She caught her balance and looked up at Mari, her breath catching in her throat. She gulped and climbed the last few steps until she was face-to-face with her. Mari rolled her eyes behind her mask and pressed her thumb to Ann’s forehead.

Pain arced up from her skull at the point of contact. Her jaw locked up and she felt as though she had her powers back and they were out of control. Electricity surged through her body. Her eyes were closed, and yet she could still see. She was back in the chair with Archer, staring up at the man as he switched their minds.

Then, everything went dark.

[writingsfromthecactus]

The Impulse Protocol: Part 1 Scene 4

Content Warnings: None

Archer’s dreams were not pleasant. She woke up gasping, the lingering fear that Ann would never want to talk again and that she’d be stuck as Stella for the rest of her life still clinging to her tongue.

Mari, who must have swapped with Torchlight at some point during the night, looked up from her phone. She was sitting in a chair across from the bed, one knee pulled up to her chest.

She raised an eyebrow, causing Archer to frown.

“What?” Archer snapped. “I went through a traumatic event. Not like bad dreams are uncommon.”

This only caused her eyebrow to lift further. “Yeah, but I’ve never known you to ever have bad dreams. Or, if you do, you’re not so… vocal about it.”

Archer’s frown deepened. “Vocal? What, like I was talking in my sleep?”

“You wouldn’t shut up, honestly,” She smirked.

A blush settled onto her cheeks, which only compounded once she remembered it could actually be seen. “And you didn’t think maybe you shouldn’t be listening to me?”

“And miss out on you telling your civilian friend that you love her? Beg her to stay? No way.” She laughed. “I didn’t know you had feelings, honestly. Especially not love.”

Archer crossed her arms and glared at her. “Well, maybe you don’t know me as well as you think you do.”

She raised her hands, her phone still in one, in a shrug that said ‘oh well.’ “Whatever,” she said, then pulled herself off of the chair and stretched her arms out. 

A vibration from the bedside table caught Archer’s attention. She grabbed it, looking at the screen. It unlocked as it caught her face, and she stared at a myriad of texts from someone named Lauren. She remembered Ann mentioning her several times, Lauren being her best friend, but she lived out of town, which is probably why Archer had never actually met her. She scanned the texts. It looked like she was worried about her after something from the news brought up Stella dropped off on the front steps of League Headquarters.

“Oh, Bree wanted a group meeting once you woke up.” Once Mari finished speaking, she walked towards the door, not even waiting for Archer to follow.

Archer jumped out of the bed, leaving the phone, worrying that, without Mari showing her where it is, she’d have no clue where this Bree wanted to meet, which would leave her stumbling around the headquarters in pajamas, which was not a good look for one of the main members of the League. She figured that Ann wouldn’t want her snooping around her phone, either. 

Mari didn’t seem to notice nor care that Archer was following so closely. Her eyes were glued to her phone and she didn’t even look as the other people wandering the hallways had to move out of her way. They did look up at Archer, and gave her surprised looks when she looked back at them, then they quickly looked away.

Archer supposed they didn’t expect to see Stella walking around wearing pajamas and left it at that, instead trying to memorize the layout of the building. It appeared to be more than just heroes in here. Offices comprised the majority of the floor, and this was just the tenth floor.

Mari turned into a large meeting room where Torchlight and Visionary were sitting. Visionary stood up when Archer entered, relief on her face.

“Are you feeling any better?” she asked.

“Not planning on jumping out any windows anytime soon,” Archer replied with a chuckle.

Mari stifled a laugh and jumped into one of the office chairs, propping her legs up on the table. Visionary frowned at her reply.

“Well, it’s been twenty-four hours since you were brought here,” Visionary continued. “So, I thought that your mind should be clear enough to give any details as to what happened two days ago. We need to find whoever is responsible before they take anyone else.”

Archer gulped. “Well, I…” Her stomach rumbled. “I could go for some food, first. I didn’t think I’d be quizzed so soon after waking up.”

Visionary frowned again, as though the option of food had never crossed her mind.

“C’mon, Bree, she’s been out cold for a whole day,” Mari said, not looking up from her phone.

Of course, Visionary’s real name was Bree. Not that Archer thought that she used her real name as her hero name, but her mind was still dizzy with the idea of being stuck in Ann’s body, she just hadn’t connected the dots. With each passing moment, she was learning the true identities of the biggest heroes in the city. Her mind started thinking about how she could use this to her advantage if and when she returned to her body, but that would require working with the heroes, or finding a way to let Emma and the others know what had happened. Archer trusted her friends more than Ann’s, but it might be hard to sneak off.

Bree cleared her throat. “Fine. Evan, a few bites to eat?” she asked.

Torchlight, or Evan, stood up and left the room without another word.

“Mari, can I speak with you for a moment?” Bree asked. “Now,” she added when Mari barely glanced up from her phone. She grumbled and shoved it into her pocket and walked over to the far corner with Bree.

Archer felt hurt that they didn’t trust her, since she was supposed to be one of their closest teammates, and she thought she wasn’t doing that badly at pretending to be Ann. She slipped into a chair and did her best to pretend that she wasn’t eavesdropping. They were whispering, so she couldn’t get every word, but she got the gist of what they were saying.

“Something… changed,” Bree said. “...noticed?”

“No,” Mari said. “I… new Ann.”

“I’m… worried… behavior.”

Archer swore under her breath. Maybe she wasn’t doing as good a job as she’d hoped at impersonating Ann. She tapped her fingers on the table absently. She never was one for acting, and she’d tried in the past. Best to just continue on and hope they assumed it was because of the trauma from that night. She figured it would be too suspicious if she clammed up right after they just spoke about it.

Evan returned with a handful of blueberry muffins and tossed one over to Archer. She caught it and stared at it. It smelled delicious, as if it was homemade. Without any further thought, she took a bite out of it. It was expertly made, definitely better than the grocery store muffins that Emma bought.

Evan passed out the rest of the muffins and Bree broke off her secret conversation with Mari. Mari gratefully sank back into a chair and ate the muffin with one hand and stared at her phone with the other.

Bree cleared her throat and stood at the head of the table. “Okay, Ann, are you satisfied with—” She cut herself off once she noticed that Archer had finished the entire muffin and was absently throwing the wrapper into the trash without getting up.

Archer raised an eyebrow at Bree, who blinked in surprise.

“Well, then, Ann, if you wouldn’t mind telling us everything you remember from two nights ago,” she continued.

Archer nodded. She’d have to word this very carefully. “I remember someone waking me up. I figured it was one of you, but then just as quickly as I woke up, they knocked me out. I woke up tied to a chair with Archer tied up next to me. There was some guy there, someone I didn’t recognize, who was talking about doing something to us for his entertainment. He shocked me, or something, and then I woke up here.”

“Can you describe this man?” Bree asked.

“Uh, pale skin, short black hair, three piece suit, glasses. Just the kind of smug asshole that makes me want to punch him.”

The room was quiet for a moment before Evan burst into laughter. “Are you sure he didn’t do it for our entertainment?”

Archer frowned. “What’s so funny?”

Bree rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Okay, I was hoping to not freak you out with this, since you’ve obviously been through a lot, but…” She took a calming breath. “We think that man did something to change you.”

“Change me?” Archer asked. You mean make me act like Archer? I agree. “What are you talking about?”

“Well, you’re not yourself,” she continued. “I’d say that the Ann we knew before you were dumped on our doorstep wasn’t as crass as you.”

Archer raised her eyebrows. “I don’t feel any different. Are you sure?” Maybe it was a little fun to play this game, and she was lucky they didn’t find her suspicious, or a spy, or a traitor.

“Very sure,” Bree replied. “It’s like you’re a different person. Whatever that man did, it’s likely he had some sort of personality or memory affecting ability. Perhaps both.”

“If that’s true, then why didn’t he erase her memory of seeing him?” Evan asked.

“He wants to be remembered,” Mari said. “He wants her to tell us who she saw, so we’d recognize him. It could be a new villain showing off his cool powers.”

Bree bit the edge of her thumb as she thought. “Maybe. But then he’d give us a name, right?”

“Maybe he’s someone Ann knows and he changed her memory just enough so that she gives enough to make him recognizable but not enough to make her suspicious until he’s ready to reveal himself,” Evan offered.

“There are too many variables,” Bree said. “For now, we carry on, keep an eye out for this man, and make sure Ann recovers. Whatever he’s expecting as entertainment, we’ll make sure it lasts as short as possible.”

Archer suppressed a snort. For as long as she was lying to them, the entertainment would last. Ann probably already revealed herself to Emma and the others, the goody-two-shoes that she was. She felt a twinge of regret for lying to the heroes, for lying to Ann about who she was. It was one thing to keep being a superhero from those you loved, because it would keep them safe. To keep the secret of being a villain, however, was purely selfish.

“Ann?” Bree asked. Archer snapped out of her thoughts.

“Yes?” she replied. “Can I help you?”

“Do you still have your powers?” she continued.

Archer held out her hand towards the wall and focused on sending the energy surging inside of her outwards. A thin lightning bolt slammed into the wall and left a small scorch mark. “I think that means yes,” she said.

Bree scowled at the ruined wall. “Please don’t attack the walls. A simple ‘yes’ would’ve sufficed.”

Archer shrugged. “Sorry.”

“I like the new Ann,” Mari said. “I think she’s got a lot more spunk than when she had that stick up her ass.” She looked up at Archer. “No offense.”

Archer laughed. “None taken.”

“If you two are done?” Bree snapped. She sighed. “Sorry for getting angry. All of this has all come crashing down around me.” She met Archer’s eyes. “I’m worried about you, Ann, that’s all. At least that man didn’t take your powers. Although, I would feel better if you took some lessons from Evan.”

“Lessons?” Archer raised an eyebrow.

“Self-defense,” Bree added. “Your powers are all well and good, but if someone gets the drop on you, perhaps you’ll have a better chance of fighting back.”

Archer stopped herself from rolling her eyes. It was Ann, not Archer, that needed to learn self-defense. Although, if Archer had the use of Ann’s powers, then she likely didn’t have her own ability, and she’d be at a disadvantage.

“Okay. When do we start?” She never was one to shy away from a challenge.

Bree looked at Evan. He stood up. 

“How about right now?”

[writingsfromthecactus]

The Impulse Protocol Part 1 Scene 3

Content Warnings: None

Ann woke up feeling worse than she had been before the man had pressed his hand to her head. Not only did her headache hurt more, but even without opening her eyes, she could tell that her face was bruised. An echoing pain of electric shock bounded through her skull, but it was fading quickly. The normal electric currents she felt due to her powers were completely gone.

She opened her eyes and found herself in a hospital. She breathed a sigh of relief. With a quiet groan, she twisted her head to either side, only to find that she was the only person in the room. Her mind flashed to Archer. Worry crept back into her chest. She wondered if Archer was in another room, or worse, didn’t make it out.

The door slammed open and a woman that Ann didn’t recognize swaggered in. She had Chinese features, and wore a pink t-shirt with a leather jacket, and a pair of jeans. She had her phone out, but she quickly stuffed it into her pocket as her eyes landed on Ann. Behind her was a man with dark skin who wore an olive colored windbreaker and some sweatpants.

“Arch, I would’ve thought for sure whoever took you’d end up here, not the other way around,” the woman said, flopping into the chair next to the bed. She propped her feet up on the bed. “At least the dick had the decency to drop you off at the hospital. And Germaine’s your emergency contact? What the hell? I would’ve thought you’d have the decency to let the doctors call me the next time you get wasted by a worse supervillain.”

Ann frowned, staring at her. “What?” she asked.

The woman sent back a blank stare. “You got a concussion or something?” Her eyes widened. “No… don’t tell me it was a hero that took you? Oh my god, tell me everything. Was it Torchlight? Knew that smug son of a bitch was secretly into kidnapping.”

The man, Germaine, snorted as he leaned against the doorway. “Among other things.”

Ann didn’t ease up on her frown. “I don’t understand.” She didn’t remember who these people were, let alone make one of them her emergency contact, but the more they spoke, the more confused she got.

“Oh, come on, I was joking about the concussion,” the woman said. “For real? I mean, you were out pretty cold according to the sawbones out there, I guess a concussion wouldn’t be out of the question, but who the hell would get the drop on you?” Her eyes fell to Ann’s wrists, and Ann followed them.

She nearly jumped out of the bed in shock when she realized that this wasn’t her normal skin tone. Not only that, her arms were shorter than before. In fact, her hands, which she stared at in shock, reminded her of…

The blood fell from her face. “No…” she whispered. Her mind had been swapped with Archer’s, which meant that she was in her body.

“‘No’ what?” the woman asked. “Do you remember what happened?” She punched her other hand. “We got a target? Let’s kick their ass, right now.”

Her eyes snapped back up to the woman. “No, I…” she trailed off, trying to form the right words. She couldn’t be sure how they’d react if they discovered their friend was no longer in her right mind.

“Amnesia?” Germaine suggested.

“Don’t say that,” the woman said, appalled. “That might make it true.”

Ann nodded, realizing that it might be the safest way to proceed until she either knew she could trust them or if she could find Archer and a way to swap her back into her real body.

“Shit, you made it true,” the woman sighed. “Guess we’ll have to postpone our plans until we can knock the sense back into you. I’ve heard that maybe another whack to the head might solve it. Wanna give it a try?”

Germ raised a hand. “Let’s not try that one.”

The woman shrugged. “Whatever. Don’t say I didn’t suggest it.” She cocked her head. “Well, I guess this calls for introductions.” She pulled her feet off of the bed. “Call me Emma. The man of mystery over there is Germaine.” Her eyes twinkled. “But those are just our given names. Wait until we tell you who we really are.”

Germaine cleared his throat.

“Right. Come on.” Emma stood up. “We’re going home.”

“The doctor hasn’t cleared me to leave,” Ann replied, not moving from her spot on the bed.

“Hmm, looks like Arch without any memories cares what some sawbones has to say.” She laughed. “We’ll take better care of you than those idiots, trust me.”

Archer had never been one to trust doctors, and now she could see why, if these were the people she hung out with. Still, she didn’t want them to get too suspicious of her, so she took hold of the sensors linking her to the EKG and pulled them off, sending the machine into a flatline. She crawled out of bed as Germaine walked over to the cabinet and rummaged through it until he pulled out a pile of clothes and tossed them to her. She fumbled, but caught them, feeling off balance in the new body. Her center of gravity was lower, but the muscles were in incredible shape, a lot more than she’d thought. 

Emma walked over to the door. “Better scram before getting dressed, I don’t think you want the docs or the cops seeing you without anything on.”

Ann gulped. She’d never broken out of a hospital before, but she pressed the clothes close to her chest and watched Germaine yank open a window. He glanced at Ann and gestured with his head for her to go first. At least they were on the first floor. She took one last deep breath and climbed out of the window, landing between two bushes that lined the parking lot. Her bare feet protested as a stone dug into them and she moved onto the asphalt before turning and looking into the window.

Emma was climbing out now and Ann could hear the protests of doctors trying to get into the room while Germaine kept them from forcing their way into the room. She grabbed Ann’s shoulder and turned her towards a car thirty feet away.

“Come on, we’ll grab him on our way outta here.” She took the charge and approached the car, which was a dark blue hatchback with windows tinted so dark that it raised questions about its legality.

She slipped into the driver’s seat and Ann climbed into the passenger’s seat. She kept the clothes on her lap and rested her hands on top of them. Her eyes darted to the side mirror and the worry about Archer came back in full force upon seeing her girlfriend’s face staring back at her. At least she’d be surrounded by the best heroes in the city, although she did worry about the secret having to come out this way. She rubbed the shirt’s tag unconsciously as she wondered how Archer would react once she found out that Ann was a superhero herself.

Emma drove over to the window, where Germaine threw himself out of the window and slipped into the back seat. No sooner than the door had closed, she sped off.

“Never gets old,” Emma sighed, relaxing against the seat. She looked over at Ann. “Arch, you doing okay? I haven’t seen you look this worried, well, ever.”

Ann shook herself out of her thoughts. “It’s not everyday you wake up like this,” she said.

“True that,” she replied with a nod. “Well, you’re lucky you’ve got me and Germaine to back you up. Otherwise you’d just be sitting in that damn hospital, just waiting for them to bill you a million dollars for breathing their air.”

Ann frowned, staring out of the window. As they turned onto the freeway, Ann could see the Hero League Headquarters along the skyline. Archer was in that building someone, in her body, probably confused out of her mind. It meant that she not only knew that Ann was Stella, but she’d learn all of the League’s secret identities. Unless, of course, she came clean with being in the wrong body.

Then came the realization that Ann didn’t tell the League that she had gone back to seeing Archer. Ann’s hands tightened around the shirt. It smelled like Archer, and her heart lurched in her chest.

“So, Germ, how should we tell her?” Emma asked, interrupting Ann’s train of thoughts once again. “Grand presentation? We hire out a skywriter?”

“I say we just tell her once we get back to base. Better to ease her into this one.”

She scoffed. “That doesn’t sound fun, but…” she rolled her eyes, “I guess you’re right. Though, what if the shock just scares the memories back into her? That could be a possible solution.”

“Or it scares her away and we lose our boss forever,” Germaine added, folding his arms.

“Boss?” Ann asked, the word forcing its way out before she could stop it.

Emma’s eyes lit up. “Oh, yeah. We’re just your lowly subordinates, whereas you run the show. If people knew your real name, they’d cower before the mighty Archer!” She shook her fist before devolving into a fit of laughter.

Ann knitted her brows together. Archer hadn’t told her much about her job to begin with, saying that she was doing some freelancing stuff, but she hadn’t mentioned being the boss. But if even Emma and Germaine were being so secretive about it, it had to be some kind of job that, at the very minimum, was skirting the law. Working with drugs, maybe? Smuggling things into the country?

Wait until we tell you who we really are. Emma’s words echoed in Ann’s head. What could she have possibly meant by that?

After fifteen minutes of driving, they pulled into a closed-down restaurant which was undergoing construction work. There was tape over the door and a few forklifts were scattered around the area, and a large shipping truck sat behind the building. Two other cars were in the parking lot, one of which Ann recognized as Archer’s. She could pick that car out of any crowd, a black sedan with a duct-taped backseat window and one headlight that was a different shade than the other.

“Home sweet home,” Emma said, putting the car into park and getting out. Ann stared at Archer’s car for a moment before getting out as well. This couldn’t be Archer’s home, but she’d also never been there. Archer had always said that her home wasn’t the best place, but she hadn’t expected it to be a run-down restaurant under the guise of construction.

Germaine got out and waited for Ann to follow Emma before following as well. She stared up at the ruined sign, wondering what restaurant this had been before being shut down and turned into a base for Archer and these other strangers.

Emma ducked under the tape and entered the building. Inside, the booths were covered with police tape and the tables were stacked on top of each other. The kitchen was also taped off. No lights were on, with the only light being the sunlight filtering in through the boarded up windows.

She approached a closet door and sent a wink back to Ann. She pressed her thumb to the lock below the door handle and then twisted the handle. The door popped open, revealing a stairway leading downwards. A single lightbulb clicked on. Emma continued downward and Ann slowly followed, her claustrophobia settling in. 

The room at the bottom was nothing short of impressive. It managed to stave away the basement feeling with LED bulbs, letting off some blue light. The main area was a living room and kitchen setup. There was an expensive TV and a large set of gaming consoles on the cabinet next to it. The kitchen had state of the art appliances and a large fridge.

One hallway branched off with four closed doors along that hallway. There were two other doors each on either side of the room. One was closed and outfitted with the same lock as the door into the basement, but the other was ajar. Ann positioned herself to see into the room as much as possible and saw a home gym setup. Inside, a figure was running on a treadmill, their back to the door.

“You go tell Drel we’ve got her back. And make sure they know about the whole memory thing, yeah?” Emma asked. Germaine nodded and peeled off to the gym to talk with Drel. She turned to Ann. “Here, I’ll show you to your bedroom and you can get dressed.”

Ann followed her down the first hallway and into the first door on the right. She held the door open and Ann stepped inside.

“I’ll be out here when you’re ready, okay? Then we can get on with the big reveal.” Emma grinned, then shut the door.

Ann set the clothes down on Archer’s bed and looked around. The room was small, equipped with a bed, a desk, and a closet. A computer sat on the desk, which was turned off. There were a few posters on the wall, one of which was an old-timey wanted poster of, strangely, Abattoir in her eerie mask. Another was a canvas that she’d painted for Archer. Her heart ached at the sight, that Archer cared enough about the landscape that she’d hung it up in her weird underground base.

Ann pulled herself away from the bed and looked over at the desk. She pulled open each of the drawers, finding simple office supplies tucked away, and she was surprised at the orderly nature of everything. Archer was normally a bit more sloppy, at least what Ann had seen when they’d been out on their dates.

The final drawer had a lock similar to the other ones in the base, requiring a fingerprint. Ann pulled away, her first thought that she wouldn’t be able to open it, but then she was reminded that she was in Archer’s body, and it would be no problem to break into the drawer. She shook her head and decided she wouldn’t go snooping around in Archer’s life.

Without thinking too much about seeing her girlfriend naked, she pulled off the hospital gown and got dressed in the clothes on the bed, then went to open the door. On the back of the door was a mirror, and that gave her pause. She felt a bit dizzy, looking in the mirror and seeing someone else. Even with her in charge, she found herself naturally sinking into Archer’s relaxed, smug stance. It must have been the body’s muscle memory. She sighed and opened the door, ripping herself away from staring too much at the woman she loved, and also, technically, herself.

Emma was talking with Drel, who was wiping sweat off of their forehead. They had olive skin and short brown hair that was shaved close to their head. They wore a black tank top and some gray joggers.

“Do we know who did this?” they asked, a Greek accent lilting their words.

“I’m on the fence. She was brought to the hospital after, so it could’ve been a hero, but we know for sure that her identity hasn’t been compromised. Either they thought that she was just a civilian that they mishandled, or they got very, very lucky. If it was a villain, however, she could’ve been targeted because of who she is.”

“But why give her amnesia?” Drel asked. “You think something else happened to her that they don’t want her to remember?”

“They could be trying to take her out of the picture. A rogue hero trying something a little less than moral,” Emma chuckled at that, “or a villain mad that she’s got the spotlight.”

Drel’s eyes caught Ann’s and they approached her, pressing their hands to Ann’s shoulders. She froze up under their scrutiny.

“You doing okay?” they asked.

“Yeah,” Ann replied. “This is all a bit… much.”

They hummed and looked into her eyes, their face an inch from hers. “I daresay you do have a concussion.” Their thumb hovered over one of the bruises on her face. “Thankfully, you didn’t go down without a fight.”

“Damn, Drel,” Emma said. “You risked a lot getting that close to her.”

“Well,” they said, stepping back. “If, for some reason, she was lying about the memory loss, then we’d have our answer and I’d have a broken nose. Though, looks like she really is telling the truth.”

“You think she’d lie about that shit around us?” Germaine added. “It was easy to tell she wasn’t herself by the way she barely even speaks.”

Ann listened, fear building up in her stomach, but they seemed convinced that she was still Archer, even without memories. She needed to keep it that way for a bit, even if lying wasn’t her favorite thing to do. Better make sure they wouldn’t try to hurt her before she revealed who she was.

“You ready?” Emma asked Ann. She’d left Drel and Germaine to talk and had sidled up next to her. She nodded and followed Emma over to the other locked room. She unlocked the door with her thumb; it hissed and swung open, and she stepped back and allowed Ann to take the first steps in.

The room was large, about half the size of a high school gymnasium. On one side was a rack of servers and monitors. Most of them were on and had data scrolling across the screens. One of them had a map of the city on it with a few dots moving around on it.

On another end was that answered Ann’s question about what Archer was doing for a living. It had lab equipment that was all neatly stacked away, and beside it was four see-through chambers, each containing a single outfit. She recognized all of them, but the one in the middle she found that she couldn’t take her eyes off of.

It was Abattoir’s suit.

The suit was made out of black leather with splashes of red dyed into it to make it look like splatters of blood. Shiny red metal accented the leather and reinforced it in places, and it all culminated in a cursive ‘A’ on the chest, which was such a deep red that it looked like liquid blood when the light bounced off of it.

Ann’s breath caught in her throat at the sight. This wasn’t some less than legal operation. Archer was working with Abattoir, as well as three other villains, Scoundrel, Hertz, and UltraViolet, according to the other suits. Archer couldn’t have been UltraViolet, who was openly male and was likely Germaine. Scoundrel was also openly non-binary, so it was likely Drel. That left her with two options as to who Archer could be, Hertz or Abattoir. With Emma’s comment that Archer was the boss, that only left her with one option.

Ann felt sick to her stomach at the thought. The woman she’d been dating, willing to spend the rest of her life with, was a major villain, the biggest one in the city. She’d seen the aftermath of the battles with Abattoir, even fought her a few times, and the lengths she was willing to go to complete her schemes were unthinkable.

Emma wrapped her arm around Ann’s shoulders, pulling her close. “I don’t know how much you remember, if at all, but this is your life’s work.”

“You’re villains,” Ann whispered.

“Nice observation,” she replied. “Although we like to think of ourselves as heroes who don’t have to follow the law as closely as those in the League.” She chuckled. “What we’ve got going on is the perfect collaboration. You see, the League thinks that we’re independent villains, each with our own agendas, but we’re actually close coworkers and, dare I say, even closer friends.” She gestured at the monitors. “We pool our resources here to get the most amount of data on the city, specifically, the police and the League.”

Ann gulped as she focused on the map. There were four dots that were bigger than the rest, and all four were in the same location, downtown.

“We have the approximate locations of every police cruiser in town, every freelance hero, and every member of the League. It took a year of work and a moderate amount of hacking into the system to get the tracker information being between the police and the League, but it’s our finest work.”

“You just want me to go along with this?” Ann asked. She forced her voice to be as steady as possible, despite the fear coursing through her veins.

“Well, it’s the safest place for you to stay and recover from whatever happened to you. You aren’t expected to return to villainy until your memory comes back, so don’t worry about that. I can tell the escape from the hospital rattled you enough, and that’s just a minor evasion of a hospital bill. I’m not just going to hand you your swords and tell you to help us rob a bank.”

Ann found herself looking at Abattoir’s swords, which were suspended next to the suit. She knew that Abattoir didn’t have any powers, but she could wield that sword as though she’d been born with it, capable of taking anyone, even heroes.

Despite her mostly calm demeanor on the outside, Ann could tell that she was getting close to fainting, not something she did often. Upon looking down at her hands, she couldn’t help but feel faint as she realized that these hands, Archer’s hands, were the ones that had killed—

“Alright, let’s let you get some rest,” Emma said, turning Ann around. “We can talk later, and maybe with a good night’s sleep, you’ll get some memories back.”

The trip back to her room took a lot less time than she had expected, and before she knew it, she was back in the room, laying on the bed, alone. Her frightened mind managed to work out that this was the beginning of a panic attack.

“Oh, Archer,” she whispered. Why did I have to find out this way? She knew why. The fastest way to get someone to break up, or even run away screaming, was to come out and say that they were the biggest supervillain in the city. Still, maybe she’d be less terrified if she wasn’t part of the Hero League herself.

It was in those thoughts that she drifted off into an uneasy sleep.

[writingsfromthecactus]

The Impulse Protocol Part 1 Scene 2

Content Warnings: Kidnapping (mention, not tagged)

Archer woke up first. She felt strange. Minus the headache and the persistent feeling of electricity running through her body, something was off. She couldn’t put her finger on it through the grogginess that clogged her veins.

One thing she noticed was that she wasn’t chained up anymore. She jerked up, ready to level her fists at anyone in the room, but a firm hand, a lot stronger than she was, pressed her back down onto the… bed?

Where was she? The place was foreign to her. It was a mix between a hospital bed, which she was lying in, and a bedroom, which made up the rest of the room. The only deviation from the bedroom theme was a set of cabinets on the far wall, and a few other hospital beds.

Three people stood above her, people she didn’t recognize. There were two women and one man, and one of the women was pressing down on her shoulder with one hand.

An alarm bell went off in her head. This wasn’t right.

The woman holding her down had dark skin, her dark hair pulled up in a ponytail that reached down to her shoulder blades. She had on a light blue tank top and a set of jeans. The other woman had olive skin, with dark brown hair cropped short to her head. She wore a black hoodie and a set of matching sweatpants. The man had lighter skin  with perfect blond hair that covered his ears, and wore a bright blue polo shirt with a familiar logo on it, and some dress pants.

“Woah, it’s okay,” the woman holding Archer down said. “It’s just us. You took a bad hit to the head.”

“What’s going on? Where am I?” Archer gasped, fighting against the woman’s weight. “Where’s that piece of shit that did this to me? What did you do to my girlfriend?”

The three people above her exchanged a confused look.

“Hey, hey, calm down, you’re safe,” the same woman said. Her voice was so familiar, but Archer couldn’t latch on to a coherent thought at the moment. All she wanted to know was where Ann had gone, and why she was in a room with these strange people. She scratched at the woman’s arm, trying to move it an inch, but it didn’t budge.

“Mari?” the woman asked, glancing over at the other woman. The other woman walked up and pressed a thumb to Archer’s forehead.

Pain blistered up through the contact point. She could recall every excruciating detail of when that man touched her forehead and, though she’d never been struck by a full bolt of  lightning, it certainly made her think she had been electrocuted. The woman who touched her now, Mari, jerked back.

“What the hell?” Mari said, shaking her hand.

Archer collapsed onto the bed, the fight drained out of her. All of her limbs felt heavy, and she doubted she could move them if she tried.

“What?” the woman asked.

“I don’t know. I can’t breach into her mind, like there’s an electric fence set up,” Mari replied. She pressed her thumb into her mouth. “Ann can’t do that with her powers, can she?”

“Where… is she…?” Archer mumbled. Her tongue felt thick in her mouth as she tried to talk.

“Who is she? Was there someone else with you?” the woman asked. “Your… girlfriend?”

Archer blinked, trying to sort through her languid thoughts. “A…Ann…” she mumbled.

The woman’s brow furrowed. “Do you remember who you are?”

Her question sent a spark of fear through Archer. She’d avoided thinking about it, because it was unthinkable, but now there was no ignoring it. The reason why her body felt so strange.

That man had swapped her body with Ann’s.

“I…” she gulped. Her mouth was dry. She looked down at her body and couldn’t take her eyes off of it. Her skin was pale white, her arms and legs longer than she was used to. She managed to raise her arm just enough to feel at her head and run her fingers through her hair, which was short, shaved on the sides. Her whole body was shaking.

Then, she thought of Ann, stuck in Archer’s body, and the worry nearly caused her to faint. “Oh, no…” she whispered. “I’m so sorry…”

“Stay with us,” the woman said, pressing her hand to Archer’s cheek. “Your concussion might be worse than we thought.” She turned to the man. “Can you get Dean back in here?”

He nodded, cast a worried look at Archer, then retreated.

“Ann, look at me,” the woman said. Archer dragged her gaze up to meet her dark eyes, the strange feeling of being in Ann’s body compounded by responding to her name as well.

“Do you know who I am?” she asked.

Archer’s voice stalled in her throat. The voice was so familiar, it was on the tip of her tongue. She desperately tried to think of who she would know the voice of, but not the face.

It hit her. Of course Ann would know three very attractive people who were also concerned about her and yet never tell Archer.

Ann had to be Stella, one of the members of the National Hero League. Which meant that this woman was Visionary, the man, Torchlight, and the other woman, Liminal. Her heart started pounding faster in her chest at the thought. She was in the middle of the League’s headquarters, surrounded by the leaders, who didn’t even try to hide their identities.

Then, as the implications hit her, she once again almost fainted. That meant Ann, the real one, was stuck in Archer’s body, and would likely be surrounded by none other than her friends. And if they found out who Ann really was…

“Ann, stay with me,” Visionary repeated, shaking Archer’s shoulders. “Do you know who I am?” she repeated.

“Visionary,” Archer replied before realizing that Ann would know her real name. If she knew that it was Archer, well, Abattoir, in Ann’s body, she wouldn’t trust Archer for a second, and she needed to avoid getting locked up if she wanted to help Ann out.

Visionary furrowed her brow, but before she could say anything, Torchlight and another man, presumably Dean, walked in. Dean was wearing a lab coat and carried a stethoscope around his neck and a flashlight in his hand.

“Hey, Ann,” Dean said, slipping the stethoscope into his ears and grabbing the other end in his free hand. “Mind if I take a look at you?”

Archer gulped, but nodded. If Liminal, or Mari, as her secret identity suggested, couldn’t read her mind and discover that it wasn’t Ann at all, then a simple doctor wouldn’t be able to figure it out, and it was better to keep everyone’s suspicions down as much as possible.

Dean slipped the end of the stethoscope under Archer’s shirt before she could react and felt the cold metal right on her chest.

“Try to breathe as evenly as possible, if you can,” Dean interrupted her thought process. She nodded, focusing on her breathing and trying to ignore the chill creeping through her chest. Once that was done, Dean flashed the light into both of her eyes, causing her to flinch at the sudden bright light.

“What year is it?” he asked.

Archer responded with the year, unless somehow she’d been unconscious for a whole year, which she doubted.

“And your birthday?” he asked.

She almost responded with her own birthday, but forced her mouth closed to avoid giving anything away. “March fifteenth,” she replied as evenly as she could.

Dean leaned back. “Well, the concussion isn't bad,” he said to Visionary. “It’s still a minor one, though. Make sure she’s drinking plenty of water and not doing anything too mentally taxing. It’s likely she could have a bit of memory loss or confusion. She should recover in a few days.” He met Archer’s gaze. “If you feel worse, like persistent dizziness or long-lasting headaches, please don’t hesitate to call for me.”

Archer watched him leave until Visionary caught her gaze. “I’m so sorry, Ann. I’m glad you’re safe.” She patted Archer’s hand.

“I…” Archer swallowed to try and bring moisture back to her mouth. “What happened?” she asked. At least she had the excuse of having a concussion to avoid any suspicious gaps in memory.

“You went missing late last night,” she said, looking out of the window. “We think it was Abattoir who took you.”

She didn’t, actually, Archer thought to herself.

“The alarm went off that someone had broken in, but by the time all of us were awake, you were gone. We searched the city for you, but we couldn’t find any trace. A few hours ago, we found you dumped on our doorstep, bruised but alive. We were hoping you could tell us what happened,” Visionary continued. She cursed under her breath. “Abattoir will pay for what she’s done.”

“I don’t think it was her,” Archer said. “I… don’t remember much,” she said. “But I didn’t see Abattoir there. Just me and someone I didn’t know.”

“Your… girlfriend?” Visionary asked.

“Oh, um…” If she didn’t know that Ann was dating someone, then it would be very awkward to suddenly reveal that she was dating, especially if she was dating Abattoir. She had to play her cards well, especially if she didn’t want to make Ann mad if they ever got their own bodies back. “I don’t remember. I thought I saw someone, but… I must have mistaken them for someone else.”

Visionary studied her for a moment. “You’re not talking about that girl, Archer?”

Archer’s eyes widened. “Uh…”

She shook her head. “I should’ve known. I told you to break it off, Ann,” she sighed. “This is the stuff that villains pull. They use people who aren’t empowered so they can get to you and hurt you. You’re lucky it didn’t end that way, but now your friend was seriously hurt!”

She winced. “I’m sorry, Vi—” Ann wouldn’t call her coworker by her hero name, would she? “I’m sorry.”

Visionary’s face fell. “I wish you would’ve told us, at least. It’s our fault for letting Abattoir, or whoever took you, into our base. I’m just glad you’re okay.”

Archer’s eyes flitted over to Torchlight, who was glancing between the door and the window, looking more like a security guard than a hero. Mari was sitting on another empty hospital bed, tapping her fingers on her legs, which were pulled up to her chest. It was strange seeing the main members of the League like this, just normal people.

“Well, let’s let her rest,” Visionary said to the others. “If you need anything, I’m right next door.” She nodded her head and led the others out of the room, leaving Archer alone.

After a few minutes with nobody entering, Archer slowly pulled herself out of the bed, taking care not to make any loud noises or to fall over. She felt as though she were drunk as she tried to move around in Ann’s body, but she managed to stand up and walk to the window without issue.

Once she was sure she could stand on her own, she glanced down at her new body. She was wearing the same clothes that Ann would wear to bed, a tank top and short shorts, and she was reminded just how different Ann’s body was from hers. Even just being a few inches taller was messing with her, let alone being in a body that was the complete opposite sex. Not only that, she could still feel those currents of electricity humming through her body. With a deep breath, she tried to direct the currents out of her body.

A jolt of electricity shot out from her hand and she had to grab the windowsill with her other hand to avoid toppling over backwards from the shock, both physically and mentally. Stella could fly and manipulate electricity, so it looked like the powers still worked in Ann’s body even with a different mind in control.

Archer pulled herself closer to the window and glanced outside. She was right where she expected to be, at the National Hero League’s headquarters downtown, on the corner of Richmond Avenue and Feldspar Street. She’d looked up at this building many times, both in costume and out of it. She’d never thought that she’d ever end up inside of it, and yet here she was, unintentionally masquerading as one of their top members.

The reflection on the window caught her eye and it felt unnerving to look into it and see Ann’s face, the love of her life, looking back. She pressed a hand to her cheek without thinking. She started thinking about Ann, how scared she must be, waking up in Archer’s body.

She forced herself to stop thinking about it; there was nothing she could do. At least not while confined in this room. She turned and looked at the door, which was still closed. Then, she opened the window, letting the cool air rush in. She stopped herself from just leaping out of the window, since she was sure Ann wouldn’t be pleased with her body falling ten stories just because Archer was worried about her.

“Okay,” she muttered to herself. “If I could fly, how would I do it?” She jumped up and tried to imagine hovering, but her bare feet just slammed onto the tile floor. “Shit,” she muttered. “Okay…” She tried taking off without jumping, but that didn’t do anything either.

“Ann?” someone asked. Archer jumped in fright and turned around, stumbling against the window as she did. If she was the same size as her own body, she might’ve fallen straight out of it. Instead, the top of her head bumped against the window.

“Yes?” she stuttered. Torchlight was standing at the door, holding a glass of water.

“You’re not trying to escape, are you?” he asked, raising a blond eyebrow.

“Me? Escape?” Her heart pounded against her ribcage as she faced him down. “No, of course not. I just wanted some fresh air.” She let out a nervous laugh.

He frowned. “Are you sure you’re alright, Ann?” he asked, approaching her. He set the glass of water on the table beside the hospital bed, but stopped there as he noticed Archer trying to press herself against the wall.

“Of course. Just, you know, feeling a little stuffy in here, that’s all.” She licked her lips. She wasn’t normally this jumpy, and she felt her cheeks flush at the realization that she was acting incredibly suspicious. Then, she realized that, with Ann’s paler skin, the blush was easily spotted, which only deepened it.

He sighed, crossing his arms. “What is it you’re not telling me?” he asked. “There’s obviously something more going on here.”

“I…” Words refused to come to Archer’s aid, they just faded out before they made it to her mouth.

He advanced, reaching out to grab her. Instinct took over and she ducked under his arm, using his momentum to press him against the wall. His eyes widened, but he didn’t fight back.

“Uh, Ann?” he asked. “Where’d you learn to do that?”

Archer stumbled back. “Sorry, I… don’t know what’s gotten into me.”

Torchlight rubbed his arm where she’d grabbed him and straightened up. “I really suggest you get some rest, maybe you’ll feel better after a nap. Whatever it is you need to escape out of the window for can wait until you’ve fixed up that concussion.”

She wanted to shake her head and argue that it would take days to heal up, but she realized that Ann might not do that, and she was already acting suspiciously. So, she nodded, averting her gaze, and slid back into the bed.

To her dismay, Torchlight didn’t leave the room. Instead, he stopped by the door and leaned up against it.

This was going to be a long few days.

[writingsfromthecactus]

The Impulse Protocol: Part 1 Scene 1

Content Warnings: Kidnapping, violent threats (not tagged)

~

Ann and Archer woke up tied back-to-back in metal chairs that were bolted to the floor. Both of them had splitting headaches, although Archer had several more bumps on the top of her head and bruises across her face. She was the one to let out a groan as she pulled herself back into the realm of consciousness. Ann just blinked her eyes open as she tried to remember how she got here.

“Finally,” a voice drawled, bringing both Ann and Archer’s attention to the man lounging in a more comfortable chair nearby. He was wearing a suave navy blue, three-piece suit with the jacket hanging by a door. He lifted his legs off of the edge of the chair and slipped them into his shoes that were in front of the chair. He suppressed a yawn, then grinned.

“What do you want?” Archer snapped, pulling at the restraints. “Who are you? Where are we?”

“Yes, I can see why it took so many hits to take you out,” he said. He took a moment to stretch and stand up. “Don’t worry, this’ll be…” he pressed a gloved finger to his bottom lip as he thought. “Fun.”

“This is your meaning of fun?” Archer growled. “I’m not finding this fun.”

Ann leaned her head back against Archer’s, who froze up.

“Ann?” she whispered.

“I’m here, Arch,” she replied.

“Oh, what a touching moment,” the man said as he approached them. 

Archer returned to her fury and yanked at her restraints with all of her might. The chains rattled and shrieked, but still held. The man didn’t flinch at her outburst. He just blinked, then smirked. “You’ll be perfect.” His eyes wandered over to Ann. “And you… will also be perfect. That’s why I chose both of you.”

“You get away from her,” Archer snapped, yanking again at the chains. “You’ll answer our questions or—”

“Or what? You’ll attack me? Not before getting those precious answers you want?” His eyes glittered. “I have a grand plan for both of you.”

“Care to enlighten us?” she snarled, glaring daggers at the man. “Unless you’d rather I break out of these chains and throttle you where you stand.”

“Archer, please,” Ann whispered. Archer slammed her jaw shut, but she didn’t drop her angry expression.

“You should listen to your partner,” the man said. “I didn’t spend two hours sitting in that chair just to hear you threaten my life.” he rubbed his forehead. “It’s honestly giving me a headache.”

“Oh, you have a headache?” Archer replied, baring her teeth. “Why don’t you get beaten until you’re unconscious and then see how you feel? Bonus points if you untie me and face me like the man you pretend you are.”

The man sighed. “Is she always like this?” he asked Ann, who was watching him with a layer of concern on her face. As he spoke to her, her expression hardened.

“Hey, bitch,” Archer growled. “You’re talking to me.”

“We’ll speak later, then. When she’s not so… riled up.” He winked and turned back to Archer. “You’ve got a lovely partner,” he said. “You know what they say about opposites attract—”

“How about I attract my fist to your face!” she roared. “Now you’d better explain yourself right now or I promise you I will break these chains and make you wish you’d never even tried to keep me contained.”

The man lifted one eyebrow as he studied her. “Am I allowed to speak or are you going to keep yelling at me? All you’re giving me is justification for keeping you tied up.”

She snarled, but didn’t say anything else.

The man brushed off imaginary dust from his waistcoat and cleared his throat. “Ladies, I have in my possession technology that will augment my already incomprehensible abilities.” He chuckled. “And I’m in the need for some testing before I use it for it’s true purpose. This is where you two come in. You are going to enlighten me, as well as keep me entertained for the next… I don’t know, few weeks? Maybe less? Who knows.”

“Neither of us are going to be your entertainment,” Archer snapped.

“Didn’t you hear what I said?” he sniffed, feigning offense. “This is going to be the most fun I’ve had in ages, trust me. Maybe you’ll have a little fun, who knows?” He raised his right hand and pulled off his glove, revealing a thin metal brace covering it. He did the same with his left, revealing another on that hand. “Gorgeous, aren’t they?” he continued, twisting his hands to let the light gleam off of the metal surface. “Helps with the tremors, too, which was highly appreciated.”

Ann stared at the braces, her mind trying to figure out what they could possibly be for. Archer clenched her jaw at the sight.

“Don’t worry, both of you. My staff have let me know that this process is mostly painless, but they haven’t quite tested out how unwilling participants will react, so don’t quote me on that one.” He reached around and rested his left palm on Ann’s head. The moment the metal touched her skin, she went limp.

“Ann!” Archer shouted. She couldn’t see her, but the slack in the chains had only one explanation. “You let go of her this instant!” she shrieked, yanking at the chains with fervor.

The man smirked, though sweat glistened on his brow as he struggled against an invisible force. His eyes glowed an emerald green, and his left arm had gone rigid, as though an electric current was running through it. He surged his other hand out and pressed it to Archer’s forehead. She went limp, as if she’d passed out, and a horrifying vertigo took over, as if she was plummeting from the sky, her body not responding to the normal human reaction to unexpectedly reaching terminal velocity, which was to flail around in terror. At least it stopped when she passed out.

[writingsfromthecactus]

The Impulse Protocol: Prologue

Here is is, the start of this journey, hope you enjoy!

Content Warnings: Violence, sexual content (mentioned and implied, nothing explicit, not tagged)

~

Abattoir and Stella were locked in battle. It was obvious that if Abattoir could just get in close with her swords, the fight would be over, but Stella kept jumping away, jolts of electricity whizzing by Abattoir at light speed. Considering her swords were metal, she didn’t want to even try to block them that way. At least her boots had rubber soles, so if she was planted on the ground, anything that hit her wouldn’t do as much damage.

“C’mon, Stella, are you that scared of me?” she asked, her voice deepened by the voice changer in her mask. “I promise I won’t bite.”

She could hear Stella’s grunt of frustration, but she didn’t respond. Her eyes narrowed as she threw lightning bolt after lightning bolt at Abattoir, hoping to wear her down that way, and trying to analyze Abattoir’s next moves so she couldn’t close the gap.

“What kind of battle is this?” Abattoir continued. “You won’t even exchange witty banter with me. What are the hero nerds going to rewatch over and over again? Where’s your showmanship?”

Once again, Stella didn’t respond. She leaped up to the top of a light pole, feeling the electricity in her body struggle to leech out into the metal, but she held back. She was just waiting for the right moment. Abattoir ran forwards, towards a building, and used her momentum to run up the wall until she had enough height to grab onto an upper floor balcony. She stood on the railing up until Stella launched a bolt of electricity at it, and Abattoir was forced to jump down behind it, onto the actual balcony.

“Ooh, clever. I should pay more attention to where I’m standing. Thank you so much for reminding me,” she said. With that, she took a running leap off of the balcony to try and tackle Stella. At the last second, Stella jumped into the air, the electricity propelling her up also directing itself into the light pole, and as Abattoir instinctively grabbed onto the pole to avoid dropping the whole fourteen feet, it fled into her body. Her vision went white for a moment as her muscles all locked up and she flew backwards, landing back-first onto the street.

Her vision returned to see Stella standing over her, foot directly over her chest. Her light blue outfit almost sparkled in the direct sunlight, the spandex tight around her body. “Surrender,” she said.

“Man, we really skipped the getting-to-know each other phase and went directly to you stepping on me. Not that I mind, of course, but—” Her jaw slammed shut as a burst of electricity slammed into her, just enough to cause her to lock up for a moment.

“I have a girlfriend,” she said. “Don’t be weird.”

“Why, do you like weird? What about her? I don’t mind joining as a th—” Abattoir bit back a scream as there was another, stronger, burst of electricity.

“Surrender. Now.” Stella said.

Abattoir shook the ringing out of her ears, getting ready to say something else, when a blur tackled Stella. With this opportunity, she scrambled to her feet, grabbing her sword, which had fallen a few feet away, and focused on the fight. It was Scoundrel who now fought with Stella, and they were a much better match against her, since they used the concrete to block each bolt of electricity that hit them instead of just taking them directly. Their outfit was a set of combat armor painted a steel-gray, with a pair of goggles and a gas mask that covered their nose and mouth.

“What a surprise, welcome to the party, Scoundrel!” Abattoir exclaimed. “Where’d you come from?”

“Please leave before you become the world’s first barbequed villain,” they snapped back. “You’re lucky I was nearby.”

“Yeah, yeah, okay,” she replied, then ran back towards an alleyway, where she made sure to lose line of sight with Stella. She then hopped into the back of an unmarked van. Inside, Hertz sat, rolling her eyes.

“You have got to work on your acting,” she said. “That sounded scripted.”

Abattoir removed her mask, undoing the strap on the back and pulling down the hood. “She was in the middle of a fight, there’s no way she caught that.” She shook out her shoulder-length brown hair and ran a gloved hand through it. “The League are morons, they won’t find out we’re working together unless we just straight up tell them.”

“You say that, but…”

“Look, just trust me on this one, okay?” She flashed a bright grun at Hertz.

“Whatever. Don’t you have your thing in a few hours?”

Abattoir straightened up. “Right. Let’s get the hell out of here.” She removed the rest of her outfit, setting each of the dyed leather pieces on the ground, before leaping to the passenger’s seat, wearing yoga pants and a t-shirt.

“You’re not injured?” Hertz asked, crawling into the driver’s seat.

“I’m going to be sore as hell tomorrow, but I’ll be fine,” she replied. “I’ve definitely gone to dates feeling worse than this.” She shook her fingers out, which were tingling.

“One day Ann is going to connect the dots, you being injured the same day that Abattoir has a big fight with the League. You know that, right?”

“I’ll just charm her with my incredible charisma.” Abattoir flashed her a grin.

“You just admitted you liked it when Stella stepped on you. I wouldn’t call that charisma.”

“What? She knows what I like.”

“You’re insane.” Hertz started driving off.

“Yeah, insanely in love.”

“Shut the fuck up before I make you late for your date.”

~

Archer tapped her fingers on the table absently as she stared at the menu. Ann still hadn’t shown up, and worry gnawed at her stomach. They’d been dating for almost one year, there’s no way she’d stand her up, but the anxiety tried to convince her otherwise.

Ann collapsed into the seat opposite her, out of breath. “Sorry,” she said. “Got caught up at work. I would’ve called, but…” She held up a smashed phone. “I’ll need a new phone.”

Archer dropped her menu, smiling. “No worries. Gave me a little breathing room before my date with the hottest woman I know.” She laced her fingers together and leaned across the table.

“Oh, sorry, is this seat taken?” Ann asked, raising an eyebrow. “Didn’t think you’d cheat so openly on me.”

“Oh, yeah. She’s the love of my life, totally hot, and buff. But she’s also a super hard worker and probably got caught working late, as usual, so that she could make tons of money and spend it all on diamonds and jewelry for me.”

Ann smirked. “Tell me more about her, she sounds incredible.”

“I could go on and on, trust me.” She winked and reached across the table, twisting her fingers around Ann’s. “But I guess I’ll have to settle with you.”

“Oh my, settling for me when you have the most amazing woman in your life? I feel honored.” She licked her lips, watching as Archer’s eyes caught the motion.

“Can I get you started with something to drink?” the waiter asked. Ann glanced down at the menu, eyes skimming the drinks.

“I’ll take a moscow mule,” Archer said.

“Hmm, I’ll take the gin and tonic,” Ann said.

When the waiter was gone, they returned their attention to each other.

“So, how was work?” Archer asked. “Let me guess, lonely without me there?”

“Definitely. And it was alright. Paperwork was awful, as usual. And there was the incident with my phone, which was also awful, but this is nice.”

“That does sound awful,” Archer replied. “I hope to make it less awful with this dinner, and then after…?”

Ann tilted her head. “What do you think is going to happen after? Are you going to do something with this other woman who’s the love of your life?”

The waiter set down their drinks and Archer took a deep drink. “Oh, I’m going to do something, for sure,” she said, a fire lighting in her eyes. “If this other woman is okay with it, of course.”

Ann tilted her own glass to her lips to take a sip of her own drink. “I think she’ll be okay with it.”

~

Their lips crashed together in the darkness of Ann’s apartment. They managed to find their way to the couch, where Ann fell on top of Archer, hands on either side of her head, biceps flexing as she lowered herself down to continue the kiss. As she did, Archer’s hands slid up her shirt, feeling her abs as they tightened and relaxed with her movements. When her hands got up to her ribs, Ann pulled back with a wince.

Archer pulled her hands back as if she’d touched a hot stove. “Sorry, is everything okay?” she whispered, the tension pulling her out of her slightly drunken haze.

“Just a bruise, from when my phone broke,” she replied. “Nothing to worry about.”

Relief flooded through her as she returned to kissing Ann, and she made sure to avoid the bruise as she ran her hands back up her shirt.

“I don’t deserve you,” she muttered against Ann’s lips.

“Where’s that other woman now?” Ann replied, pulling back enough to look down at Archer.

“What, the woman who stood me up? Fuck her. I love you more.” Archer wrapped her arms around Ann’s back and pulled her fully down on top of her.

“Good, I’d hate to have to share you with her,” she replied against Archer’s lips. “Because I love you, too.”

Archer moaned as Ann’s lips moved down to her chin, then her neck, her teeth caressing her skin.

Ann collapsed on top of her all of a sudden, and Archer started. “Ann?” she asked, her heart pounding. She moved her head out from under Ann’s and saw a shadowy figure standing above them.

“Good night, Archer,” they said, raising something above their head.

Archer grabbed Ann and pulled both of them out of the way of the weapon, even as Archer hit the ground with a solid thump, aggravating her own forming bruises. She wriggled out from under Ann and caught the next swing of the weapon, which she figured was a baseball bat from the way it felt.

“I should’ve known you wouldn’t go down as easily,” they said. Archer felt a wave of dizziness hit her as they spoke, and they managed to retrieve their bat from her grip. She barely moved out of the way as they swung again, though she could still feel it connect with her skull. She stumbled, her brain moving faster than her body. She was confused as to why she felt so strange, like there was a heavy blanket smothering her whole body, and why she couldn’t fight like she normally could.

Another hit connected and she fell down to her hands and knees, her vision spinning, but she was still conscious. She grabbed the nearest object, which was a picture frame, and launched it at the figure. She heard an exclamation of pain, which meant she’d hit, and tried to use the opening to get to her feet, but her body still wasn’t moving as quickly as she wanted.

A third hit to her head knocked her clean out.

[writingsfromthecactus]

Story Masterlist

Mars the Bringer of War:

A sci-fi tale about a woman who is kidnapped from the past and brought forwards into the future by the space empress, who wants to turn her into her champion. Masterlist here. Status: Completed

The Impulse Protocol

A superhero tale about a couple whose bodies are swapped by a mysterious man with even more mysterious motives and learn who each other truly are: a hero and a villain, which is only one of their problems. Masterlist here. Status: On Hiatus

[writingsfromthecactus]

The Impulse Protocol Masterlist

Intro post: X

Excerpt: X

Prologue: X

Part 1: 1 2 3 4 5

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

[writingsfromthecactus]

The Impulse Protocol: Excerpt

Here is a little preview of what is to come! Please enjoy :]

Content Warnings: None

~

Evan cleared his throat. “We’ve already figured out that Abattoir is more willing to act in her favor, and the others’ favors, rather than Ann’s. You,” he nodded towards Ann, “also said that they have access to all of our locations. It could be a trap, either to those of us who choose to go there, or to those that stay behind.”

Ann gritted her teeth. “Then I’ll go. Alone.”

“No!” Evan and Bree shouted at the same time.

“Your body still has a concussion, and you are not risking your life to chase after the most dangerous villain just because you've known her for a few months,” Bree snapped.

“Years,” Ann replied. The room was silent. “I met her two years ago, and we started dating a year ago. I didn’t tell you all for a while because you were all so adamant about not dating civilians. And guess what, you yelled at me and told me to break it off when you found out a few months ago. I didn’t”

“God damn it, Ann,” Bree said, exasperated. “You of all people did not even make my list of people willing to have a secret love affair.”

“It’s not an affair, I wasn’t dating anyone else.”

“You should be married to your job, or are you really going to choose Abattoir over this city? Over us?”

“Of course not!” Ann snapped. “I… when I met Archer, she treated me like I was the most important person in the world, and she didn’t even know who I really was. It felt nice to be wanted, to be loved, without wondering if it was just someone sidling up to me because I had superpowers.”

“But she might have known from the start!” Bree countered. “That’s why she ‘ran into you’ two years ago.”

“Then why didn’t she do anything at all about it? And don’t tell me she was playing the long game, because I know she has zero patience by the amount of times she’s given up on playing chess within the first five moves.”

“And I don’t get how you can’t see how manipulative she is,” Bree said. “You don’t get to where she is without sacrificing all of your morals. I don’t trust her for a millisecond that she actually ever cared about you.”

Ann swallowed the defensive feelings rising inside of her. If things had gone differently earlier, she wouldn’t have kept them to herself like she did now. But, perhaps Bree was right to not trust her. Still, something bugged her about it.

It’s not like I killed any of your friends, which, by the way, are superheroes. Archer’s voice echoed in her head. “Then what’s our next move?” she just asked.

“Okay, Ann knows the place better than we do. One of us should go with her,” Bree continued, satisfied that she won the argument. “Any takers?”

Evan stood up. “I’ll go. I’ll enable a distress beacon on my suit that’ll go off with a voice command in case we get jumped. That leaves you and Mari here to keep the League safe, plus you have all the other rookies here just in case.”

Bree nodded. “Okay. Ann, put your suit on, I won’t have you revealing your identity to any other supervillains. Evan, you get that distress beacon ready. And good luck. I know this is hard on you.” Ann could tell her heart wasn’t in that last statement, but Bree had never been the empathetic type to begin with.

As Ann stood up, the lights flickered, then went out. A few moments later, they turned back on. She pressed her hand to the wall, feeling for the electricity moving around in the wall, which wasn’t as strong as it normally was. “We’re on backup power,” she said. “Must’ve been a power failure.”

Bree turned and stared out of the window. After a few moments, she shook her head. “Not a failure. A blackout.” She pointed at the billboard, which was normally animated, and instead was completely blank.

“Think it’s another one of Abattoir’s friends?” Liminal offered.

“We haven’t heard from Hertz yet,” Bree said. Just as the words left her mouth, an explosion appeared over the horizon, the loud boom echoing across the city a few seconds later.

“That'll be a yes,” Evan said. “Does this change our plans?”

Bree shook her head. “This could be a ruse to draw us away from the hideout while we clean it out. You two go to the hideout, Mari and I will intercept Hertz and make sure she doesn’t destroy the city’s power supply any more than she already has.” She immediately headed for the door. Mari groaned and followed after her.

“Okay, let’s go,” Evan said. Ann nodded and went to grab her suit from her room. She couldn’t take her mind off of Archer, and how likely it was that she’d actually dated her just to get close to the League.

She hoped it was low, but Bree’s words stuck with her. Maybe she’d been wrong about Archer the whole time.

[writingsfromthecactus]

The Impulse Protocol (Intro Post)

For the second piece I've written (almost) to completion, here is that introduction post. The final name for this project will be titled the Impulse Protocol, and it is a superhero-themed story. Just like in the MtBoW intro post, I will be outlining the plot, the main characters, a CW list, and information on how I plan to post the story and notes moving forwards.

Plot

The Impulse Protocol follows a couple who are kidnapped by a strange villain, but neither of them are prepared for what this villain has in store. The official blurb follows:

Archer and Ann wake up to the sight of a strange man with an even stranger plot. At first, it seems like a simple kidnapping, up until he swaps their bodies, and both of them learn who the other truly is. Ann, a member of the illustrious Hero League, and Archer, the leader of the not so official group of underground villains. With their every move followed by the man who started it all, they must learn how to deal with each other with all of these secrets revealed, and find a way to stay in their own bodies for good.

Characters

Ann (She/Her)- Otherwise known as the hero Stella, she is a stoic and thoughtful woman who cares deeply about doing the right thing, and the only thing that can overshadow that is her love for her partner, Archer, who she has been dating despite disapproval from the Hero League. She likes to think before she acts, but isn't afraid to take action.

Archer (She/Her)- Otherwise known as the villain Abattoir, she is a quick-witted and boisterous woman. Pushed to the edge of her morals by the Hero League, she has taken up arms against them in order to enact her revenge. While she is a woman of many passions, her biggest passion is Ann, whom she loves more than life itself.

Visionary/Bree (She/Her)- The leader of the Hero League, she's known for her super strength and her convictions. Her face appears on anything related to the Hero League, and that is where her dedication lies.

Torchlight/Evan (He/Him)- A member of the Hero League. His signature move is to light himself on fire and streak through the sky. He is more of a follower than a leader, and considered to be the attractive member of the League.

Liminal/Mari (She/They)- A member of the Hero League. She is the youngest member of the League at 19 years old, and gained her status through her unique power of reading people's minds. She is a good fighter, but prefers to stay on the peaceful side of things.

Hertz/Emma (She/Her)- As far as the League knows, she is a solo villain who can weaponize sound waves. She is also one of Archer's best friends, having grown up together. Similarly to Archer, she is on the extroverted side and loves to make jokes.

Ultraviolet/Germaine (He/Him)- As far as the League knows, he is a solo villain who has the ability to blind people and see into the ultraviolet spectrum of light. He is on the quieter side, but is also one of Archer's close friends, and often acts as a mediator when things get heated.

Scoundrel (They/Them)- Another villain, they are able to manipulate rocks and the ground to their advantage. They only go by a shortened version of their villain name, Drel, but they consider themself to be a part of the villain quartet and is fairly close with all of them.

Brainwave (He/Him)- A villain the Hero League believes to be dead, he was one of the most powerful villains to date, with the ability to manipulate brainwaves. His current location is unknown.

Impulse (He/Him)- One of the founding members of the Hero League, Impulse had an ability to manipulate reality to a certain extent, but not enough to cure a rare disease that drove him into retirement, and assumedly, death. He was last seen alive fifteen years ago. He left his powers behind for the League to use if they were ever in dire circumstances.

Content Warnings

This list includes any potentially disturbing or triggering content within this story that I have noted. There may be some that were missed (hopefully nothing major), so if one becomes apparent after posting or while editing, I’ll edit this list to make sure it stays as comprehensive as possible. If any of these are overtly present in each scene that I post, they will be included at the top of the scene and in the tags as a warning as well unless otherwise stated. As of the writing of this post, the story has not been fully completed, so there may be more added as I finish writing.

Blood, Minor descriptions of injuries, and death/murder, including electrocution Violence and weapons (knives, swords, guns, etc.) General cursing Sexual content (Mentioned and implied, nothing explicit) Transphobia Non-consentual mind control/mind manipulation

Moving Forwards

As of right now, three parts have been written, with the fourth part currently being written. Similarly to MtBoW, I will be posting scenes rather than chapters. Depending on my own progress with finishing the story, I will be posting once per day, but may schedule parts for every other day or skip weekends in order to allow myself time to finish without there being a long wait between posting the latest update and the last few scenes.

I will also be creating a masterlist similar to the one for MtBoW that will have links to all of the parts. Rather than pinning this masterlist, I will instead pin a post with a small description of both this and MtBoW as well as links to the masterlists for newcomers to my page so they can check out one or the other or both of my projects.

Notes

Just like with MtBoW, this is a first draft. I am the only editor, and will only be editing this once as I upload each piece. This means there will be errors and mistakes, and I ask that you keep this in mind as you're reading. After it is uploaded, I will not be editing it after the fact unless there is something serious that needs to be edited, such as content warnings. I have no plans to publish this or make any money off of this whatsoever, so I hope you enjoy it, as I wrote it for, mainly, myself.

As with MtBoW, I will not be accepting any constructive criticism on the content of my work. I appreciate general writing advice as I always want to improve, but any asks or messages sent to me containing suggestions or criticism of this story in particular will be ignored and/or deleted.

That being said, if there are any major problems such as the CW list needing to be updated or otherwise unintentional errors that can be rectified, please let me know. I want to share my story in the smoothest and safest way possible, but I can’t catch everything on my own.

Please enjoy! And thank you all for checking this out!

[writingsfromthecactus]

Update: New Writing Project

I have officially decided that the name of this project, originally titled A Fine Line, will instead be called The Impulse Protocol. It is a modern-day superhero story, and I will be posting the intro post within the next few days. I'm looking forward to starting a new journey!

[writingsfromthecactus]

New Writing Project

After uncovering an old, unfinished WIP, I've started writing another full story that I plan to upload on here over the course of the next few months, much as I did with MtBoW. The working title for this project is A Fine Line, but that may be subject to change.

I will be working on an intro post and a masterlist as I start getting ready to upload, so look out for that in the next few days.

[writingsfromthecactus]

Notice: May Writing Challenge

Due to several factors, including busy plans today (Saturday) and my birthday tomorrow (Sunday), both the 21st and the 22nd writing challenges will be delayed for a few days, and posted when I can get them posted.

Sorry to those expecting them! Hope you have a wonderful weekend

[writingsfromthecactus]

May Writing Challenge: May 20th

Prompts are from @deity-prompts 's May Writing Challenge, original post linked here

~

A little look into how the space travel system works, written by someone who definitely does not know how this stuff would actually work in real life. Sera and Ammie get to take a short ship ride to Mars. No spoilers, is canonical!

Content Warnings: None

May 20th: Exaggerating

~

Sera blinked in surprise. “Say that again?”

“The trip to Alpha Centauri takes a half an hour,” Ammie said, leading her into the ship. It was a smaller one, designed to hold five people maximum. The cockpit could hold up to two people. Ammie settled into the main seat up front, gesturing for Sera to take a seat in the copilot’s seat.

“Isn’t that, like… light years away from us?”

“Yes, about four. The average speed of our faster-than-light drives is ten light years per hour, and the extra time includes traveling at sublight speeds so we don’t accidentally shoot past it. The furthest colonized planet in the Empire is about ten thousand light years away, and when we’re traveling there we tend to bring extra fuel so that we can engage the overdrive, and then it still takes about twenty days to get there.”

“You’re exaggerating. Ten thousand light years in less than a month? I thought it took, like, a year or something to get to Mars.”

“I’m afraid I don’t know how fast pre-hyperlink drives went, but it was absolutely at sublight speeds. If you’re going less than one light years per hour, you’re pretty much going to end up in the middle of space for a long, long time.”

“Doesn’t going the speed of light means it takes a year to go one light year? How fast are you going in these things?”

Ammie smiled. “Well, twice the speed of light would mean it takes six months to go one light year, thrice is three months, and so on, so… well over ten times the speed of light? I can’t remember the exact calculation.”

“And the human body can just… sustain this? I remember hearing that if we could go the speed of light, weird things would happen. I don’t know.”

“That’s the beauty of the hyperlink drive. It accelerates space around us, rather than accelerating us through space. While going at superlight speeds, we are technically not moving. There’s a ton of physics stuff going on that I’m not really an expert on, which is why I’m not an engineer. I do know how to turn it on and keep us on course, and that’s all I really know.”

“You’re kidding me.”

She grinned. “Want to see it in action? You said it would take a year to get to Mars? Let’s try for there.” She powered the ship on and left the Imperial hangar, orienting the ship so that Mars was a straight shot. The HUD on the windscreen of the ship, not that there was any wind in space, pointed out Mars’ location.

“Keep that in sight, okay? Try not to blink.” Ammie messed with the controls and the screen flashed with the indication that the hyperlink drive was charging. At 100%, she pulled the throttle and all of a sudden, everything zoomed in. Sera expected to feel the force of moving shove her back in her seat, but there was nothing there. An instant later, the ship was in orbit around Mars. It was as if the small dot on the horizon had zoomed closer in the time it would take someone to blink. Sera started.

“Holy shit,” she said.

Ammie chuckled. “I’m sure you’re impressed at how quickly we got here, but you should be more impressed with my piloting skills. It takes a lot to be able to start moving at superlight speeds only to stop a moment later. WIth any hope, you’ll be as good as I am. That’s partially why the Empress picked me to train you with piloting. No offense meant to her, of course, but I could absolutely win in a race.”

Sera nodded. “This is insane.”

“For the people living in the Empire, it’s everyday life.”

Sera stared down at Mars’ surface, the planet she was named after. On the dusty red rocks below, she could make out buildings and ships flying around. “Are there people down there?”

“Of course, every planet in the Terran System is inhabited. We can visit, if you want?”

Sera nodded. “Sure. Yeah. Didn’t think I’d ever get to actually walk on Mars.”

“If you make it home, your friends would think you’re the one exaggerating,” Ammie joked, but Sera felt sorrow creep into her chest. She forced herself to chuckle.

“Yeah, maybe.”

[writingsfromthecactus]

May Writing Challenge: May 19th

Prompts are from @deity-prompts 's May Writing Challenge, original post linked here

~

Another one from Venus' perspective and containing the prior Mars, in which the empress and the royal spymaster have a conversation about Venus' preferences. No spoilers, and canonical!

Content Warnings: Death/murder mention (not tagged)

May 19th: Companion

~

Empress Venus stared at Mars as he fought off in the latest championship snapshot game. She remembered watching the game back when he’d first been promoted to Mars, and he’d been incredible, the best snapshot player she’d ever seen. He didn’t lose a single bout, and every time, he was chosen for the triple-o. Now, it was exactly the same, but it was boring. Obviously the team would pick Mars for the triple-o, and obviously he would win every bout, even if the rest of his team fell back. Even without the failsafes, it was obvious that her team would win.

Saturn sidled up to Venus, obviously ignoring the unspoken rules that the Empress’ row was to be for her alone. Venus cast her glance over to her. She was the same Saturn from when her mother was still in charge, and she was also the only other person in the whole palace who knew that she’d killed her mother.

“Enjoying the show?” she asked.

“It’s fine.” She propped her chin up with her hand, keeping her eyes on the game.

“Something wrong?” she asked.

“No. Should there be?”

“Well, you just seem a little… what’s the word? Bored. Not into it. Why, one would think that watching their companion win games for them would be exhilarating.”

“Companion?” Venus shifted her gaze to her. “What do you mean by that?”

“Haven’t you heard the rumors?” she asked, feigning surprise and pressing a hand to her chest. “Between you and Mars?”

“I should know better than to listen to rumors from you of all people, spymaster.”

“And yet…?”

Venus sighed, rolling her eyes. “Go ahead.”

“Well, the main one is that Mars killed your mother. Mostly because she disapproved of your relationship with him, so he elevated you to empress so that you two could be closer.”

Venus’ top lip curled up and Saturn noticed, a smile touching her lips.

“I knew it,” she continued.

“What did you know, exactly?”

“You hate Mars.”

“Was this an elaborate scheme to learn how I truly felt about my champion?” Venus asked. “You could have asked me.”

Saturn inhaled, thinking over her words. “You know me, empress, I’m never direct. So, what is it about him, exactly? His personality? How good he is at his job? How…” Her eyebrows shot up. “I’ve got it.” She leaned back.

“What have you learned about me now, Saturn, since I can’t seem to keep a secret?” Venus was certain that she couldn’t see how nervous she was, considering how closed off her body language was, but that didn’t help her emotions any more. She had an inkling over what Saturn had figured out.

“Nothing.” Saturn laced her fingers together. “You’re entitled to your privacy.”

“If you already know, then spit it out. I’m not in the mood for your stupid games.” Venus waved a dismissing hand at her.

“If you command, empress.” She smirked as she spoke, the respect not quite in her words. “It could be that you hate Mars because he’s a man. I seem to recall hearing that you wanted a female Mars when you were younger.”

She bit the inside of her cheek, the one opposite from where Saturn sat. “Is that what you’ve figured out? That I prefer women?”

“Well, if you’re not denying it, I might as well say yes.” She tilted her head. “Honestly, I didn’t connect the dots until now. Did your mother know?”

“Perhaps that’s one of the reasons why her demise came about,” Venus replied.

“It’s 2248 and people are still intolerant,” she shook her head. “Unbelievable.” She shifted in her seat. “In any case, I wonder if something can be arranged.”

“Concerning…?”

“Mars. Not that I want you… responsible for anything. Rumors do spread, after all. Enjoy the rest of your game, empress.” She pulled back, returning to her row and leaving Venus to ponder exactly what she’d been suggesting.

[writingsfromthecactus]

May Writing Challenge: May 18th

Prompts are from @deity-prompts 's May Writing Challenge, original post linked here

~

A continuation of the last scene I wrote and also a callback to May 3rd's scene. It's pretty short, but at least I got something down for today's. Ammie confronts Mars. No spoilers, canonical!

Content Warnings: None

May 18th: “Not everything has to do with you!”

~

Ammie watched as Mars emerged from the restroom. She stretched out her arms, not that her metal one needed to stretch. “Okay. Where were we?”

“We were heading to the circ train,” she replied. “To see the… general.” She frowned. “I was hoping to go somewhere non-work related. Get some nice time away from it all.”

“Right. Well, maybe if we have time afterwards.” Mars took the lead in heading down to the train. Ammie followed.

As they marched down to the elevator, someone charged from around a corner, obviously in a hurry. They failed to see Mars, and as such, ran directly into her. They stumbled back, apologies already on their tongue, when they saw that it was Mars that they’d run into. They were human, pale, so it was obvious when all of the blood drained from their face.

“My—My apologies, champion, I am so ever sorry, please forgive me.” They bowed so deeply that their hair nearly brushed the floor.

Mars shoved them to the side. “You should be.” They hit the wall and fell to the ground, staying down there as Mars walked past.

Ammie helped the person to their feet, whispering an apology, and jogged to catch up with Mars. “Champion,” she started. “I… don’t you think that was a bit harsh?”

“No. They ran into me, they knew the consequences.” She shrugged, continuing on.

“It was unavoidable, it wasn’t their fault.” Ammie worried she was pushing her too far, especially when Mars stopped walking.

Mars tightened her fists. “So what? I’m the champion. Besides, we’re in a rush, we have to get to the circ train. We don’t have time for this.”

“Then we keep moving, we don’t have to antagonize the workers.”

Mars turned on her heel, glaring up at her. “And what about it? I thought you were on my side.”

“Not everything has to do with you!” Ammie shouted. Hurt flashed in Mars’ eyes, the first bit of emotion other than anger that she’d seen in Mars.

“I…” Mars slammed her jaw shut. “Whatever, let’s just go.” She turned back around and continued her marc to the circ train. Ammie opened her mouth to apologize for snapping at her, but Mars was already gone.