Last of the big four, Lady Nova sits alone in her penthouse office overlooking this city she's a slave to while nursing a tumbler of scotch. New Cassiepeia's just as much a slave to her, a symbiosis of well conducted crime and timely arrests, Nova getting her hands so dirty she could never quite wash out the stains. Controlling narratives was simple enough really, and the results spoke for themselves. A theatre on such a grand scale deterred those who'd commit less predictable acts, she truly believed that citizens were safer under her golden rule even if a lot of the perceived acts of heroism are... white lies of justice, so to speak. 

So why is this woman thinking in past tense all of a sudden? She scoffs and sets down the scotch, lamenting the fact that her body seems too super to let her enjoy a good buzz. Even if it feels like walls are closing in right now, that's all just a crude joke isn't it? They can take as many of Nova's marketable heroes away from her as they want, hell they can clean out the entire agency and every small timer working the streets below, it wouldn't matter a lick. This paranoia is impractical, really, because she has no doubt that she can subdue any threat no matter the size. She was forged inside of a hole in space blacker than her own name, ripped apart by gravity no living being could ever imagine. Whatever cosmic contrivance it was that spared her from a nonexistence she had been destined for gave her an overwhelming gravity of her own, capable of crushing anything that would dare to go against her golden will. 

And still she feels doubt, Nicole welcoming the old feeling and enjoying pitiful reunion in the privacy of her penthouse. Eyes flick up to that photograph on her desk and she remembers those words that spilled from Joy Williams' lips before she managed to return to whatever dark corner she crept in from. 

"Is this all you, Misty?" Nova stares down at the snapshot of a woman long lost, wondering if she could have done anything to stop her wife from disappearing like that, only to reappear as a petty thief. Emphasis on petty, Nicole just wants Misty back in this tower even she has to chain her down, throw away the key. She misses her scent, her laugh, her warmth. Soft hazel that could convince her of anything given enough time and gin. This is a dreadfully cold room without. 

Once did they cross paths after the transition from Misty to Miss Murmur, though Nova only remembers pieces of the encounter in her turbulent dreams. Damn woman didn't even kiss her on the lips, left humiliating black mark against her cheek after lingering there for all too long. Nova didn't mind, she really did miss that scent. 

If this play for power is Murmur's doing, Nova won't hesitate to nip this in the bud at long last, come what may. She's offered carrot long enough, that Joy girl was to bring her in unharmed and the ungrateful other half made the poor rookie her plaything. With a gentle smirk, tilting the glass on her desk idly, Nova considers that she was doing just the same. Her golden apple really was as mythical as it seemed, turned around to Murmur's cause was it? What cause is that? The golden goddess is far less kind to the tumbler in this turn of mood, like a changing of wind, throwing the glass against her office door and watching it shatter into sharp pieces as jagged as her fraying nerves. 

Before she can stand to clean up her mess, having sent the rest of the building's staff home early due to all the distracting noise they were making even stories down from her, a sudden noise fills the empty air and steals Lady Nova's attention. 

Riiiiiiiiiiing!

That isn't a number given to many folks out there, this office is hardly a reception after all and Nova is such a busy woman that she rarely finds this seat under her in use. This call, however, is not all too surprising to the woman after she recovers from her initial startlement. After all, she had been expecting it. Why else would she be here in this lonely room, fantasising about the days in which she could still be defeated by fine spirits? It didn't take Nova long to figure out that the force moving against her, this Murmur woman, must be taking refuge in one of Hivemind's many safehouses. Instead of tearing up the city in search and risking a blow to her image she also deduced that they'd have the ability to contact her even if Hive alone has been forced into submission, or if Helena chose to betray her outright. You do not make such big plays and then lie low, not now, so Nova figured that either a ransom call or some lure into petty trap would soon be on its way. Which'll it be, Misty?

"This is Nova, who am I talking to?" The woman answers the call and speaks immediately, wanting to get this over with as quickly as possible so she can return to her plotting. Even should something happen to Rosary, Hive and Mint... they're ultimately replaceable, though all at once would need quite the laborious cover story. 

After a short pause, the voice on the other end of the line finally speaks up and makes itself known. "Hello dear, it's been a while since we properly spoke. It'd have been nice to do so face to face, but we both know how that'd go down under the present circumstances. Such a sorry state of affairs, though I can't say that I'm very sorry." She sounds like Misty, but doesn't talk like her. Nova manages to keep her calm and remain silent during Murmur's response but immediately follows it up with a bitter tongue. 

"What the hell is wrong with you, huh? There's an order to these things, woman, you're going to end up making a mess I can't clean up all too nicely. Think that'll earn you my favour? What do you want?" She taps at her desk impatiently, neurotically, beside those splinters she created during the surprise visit from Miss Williams. 

Another obnoxious delay that makes Nova want to yell down the receiver before remembering that getting worked up only emboldens criminals on calls like these. That's all this Murmur woman is, a criminal who needs to see justice. She tries to remind herself of this, the photograph across the desk giving her an evil grin. 

"There's an order to things, yes, and what happens when that order is disrupted? Chaos! That's what we want, Nicole, to see this city--"

"Don't call me that, whoever you are. You're not really in charge here are you? Sound too much like you're reading of a script, the woman I knew wasn't so stiff and you're meant to have twice her confidence aren't you? Confident enough to have taken on the very pillars of safety in this city and expect to come out on top, to not be pounded into concrete and dragged down into the dirt you crawled out from. Who am I talking to really, huh? What... what did you do to my Misty?" She never considered there could be a tangible face and name to the crow circling above her wife's unfortunate head, though realises she may be getting her hopes up in the search for a suitable scapegoat for the woman's affliction. 

There's a sound of the phone being passed over that Nova recognises all too well, tapping at oak that could buckle under the strength of her superpowered fingers should she apply any more pressure. After a short pause, another familiar voice rings out, though not one she had been expecting to hear. Nova had meant for the queen to pass over to a king, not a pawn. 

"You're a verrrrry perceptive woman, Miss Black." Speaks that rookie runt she almost took under her wing before everything went south, sounding quite different to when they last spoke. Nova doesn't forget voices, nor faces, even when they shift. "I've been enjoying a lot of your uhm, private moments, in my mental playback here in the orchard! You were holding back on me with the strap... no love in that compared to the way you'd go at it with your w--"

"Girl, don't test me. Not all villains are locked away you know? Some aren't found, we've all manner of stories to tell the press but you know what that means don't you? You're a bright girl, so I'm sure you do." Nova's livid, not even caring whether Joy's teasing words are fabricated or truthful. If her mental powers developed enough to swap places with Hive she knows that scouring memory could be very possible, part of her wanting to start quizzing the girl on moles. 

"I don't wanna test you, Lady Nova, I mean to break you. Sorry, ehe, that sounds really evil doesn't it? But you're just as bad as I am so I think we can throw heroics out of the window for now okay? Me and you won't fight because of some misbegotten hero rhetoric you like to tell yourself and the people you overlook, no, we'll be trading blows for more personal reasons. I really idolised you once and now through Murmur's memory I can see how rotten to the core you are, an apple fit for nothing but compost. And you, you've reason enough to wanna throw down right? I've taken what's yours, your heroes, your wife. I could run your image through the mud so fucking easily but I don't need to hover that over your head to make you mad enough to beat me into pulp should you get the chance. No, because I have a seeeecret you're gonna want to know~" This Joy girl sounds unstable, Nova's heartrate picking up as she paces around her office, tense and uncomfortable. 

"Spit it out, if it'll make you feel better, your words aren't going to do either of us any good but you can keep deluding yourself if you'd like. My phone automatically traces your location so I can check the moment we're done and give you the beating you seem so set on receiving. Sound good, Joy?" Nova clicks her tongue and glances over at her laptop, she could check the trace now but she's far too distracted, the girl certainly has her attention if nothing else. 

"I'm Envy, miss! Not Miss Envy, though, as that sounds a little flat. Hmm, I'm more of an empress, you could be my empire apple, that tower certainly seems appealing as a base of a new and unified city. New New Cassiepeia, no that needs reworking. Oh right, the secret, hehe. I've discovered the origin of the crows, Lady Nova."

"What..."

"Oh you know what I'm talking about, don't play coy with me now. There's so many of them in my garden they're blotting out the light, casting darkness, a real murder of them if I do say so myself... which I do of course, why do people say that again? Well whatever, we're talking about these corvid companions that left a pretty big stain on both of our lives even if they're noncorporeal, just a matter of metaphor with no matter of their own to really matter to me and mine. Or you and yours, and yet, and yet... I think there's too many of them flapping around to think right now. I'm terribly sorry, I think I'm finding the limits of my current capacity haha, all this mental overload is making me sound a lunatic. I'm very much not, okay? I promise, scouts honour. I was a girl scout once, sold so many cookies I felt like an empress back then too, my empire of crappy cookies wasn't quite as gracious or benevolent as my current offerings though! Oh who am I kidding... they were quite delicious, I even got to visit one of the bakeries that participated in the annual production efforts and... and oh my gosh you don't care about this, sorry, I got way off track there." 

"You were talking about crows." Nova feels herself a fool for entertaining this girl who would be her peer in such a role, wanting so badly for this erratic 'empress' to reach her final point.

"Yes I was, good girl. Hmm... Murmur's power, you know the one that let her see into the future? She avoided capture night after night with such ease, she even knew I'd be in that vault waiting for her. I thought it was weird how unsurprised she was, the nonchalance only helped her get into my head faster hehe. I should warn you that I already know I'm going to win our fight, Nova, it's only fair that I let you prepare hehehe. So many crows here now, my entire garden is a dark maelstrom of desire, the circling crows are just temptation right? Murmur explained the metaphor, said you must have seen the way temptation tainted the woman's heart long before she did. How it pulled her deeper into the story, hm? Now she's right in the middle of it, swarmed by crows that make us all want to do nothing but bad things. Misdeeds and the like. I can't help but wonder, and this is just a theory, if Murmur hadn't peered into this future with her power way back when, bored out of her fucking mind at that desk you stowed her away on. Can't help but wonder if she took a crow back with her, though I suppose that's a paradox of sorts isn't it? What do you think?"

Nova sighs out in frustration and has to make sure she doesn't accidentally crush the handset in her straining grip. "I think you're talking a hell of a lot for a woman who's itching for a fight, and I think your theory's full of shit. Misty's visions weren't a superpower, but superstition. I love her for all the good and the bad, you can't just offload that onto someone else in the far future and clean your hands of it. Now come on and tell me where you'd like to throw down or I'll just go and find out for myself, you've tested my patience enough already." 

"Hm? Oh uh, well. We called your office phone and you picked up haha." 

"Yes?"

"So like... we know exactly where you are, silly. Knock, knock."

The handset falls from Nova's hand before Envy can speak another word, though intuitively she's figured out that the time for words is already over. Even with her speed she's too late to turn towards the source of that sudden noise, large thorny vines smashing through the reinforced glass window with scorching hot trails. The girl crashes into Nova's office like a comet, rushing right through her desk with a charging speed Nova hasn't had to contend with since that stupid speedster she accidentally put into a coma in her early days. Turns out his recovery hasn't been as speedy as his abilities had been. Nova feels Vines wrap tight around her waist as reinforced arms hook under hers and carry her through the building, heels dragging on the floor. Her eyes trace the stranger's through the dark lens of her mask, a face unrecognisable in its overlapping state. The two crash through doorways and walls until breaking through the glass on the other side of the tower's top floor, two strongest women in the city sailing down as wind resistance flaps their hair. 

Just as Nova is about to take flight and show this overzealous rookie how it's really done, fireworks begin to fire off on a timer from the roofs of nearby buildings, Envy having taken advantage of the fanfare left by Murmur's initial plan. The spectacle attracts a crowd, faces shifting in the windows of buildings and pedestrians staring up to find the falling heroes. 

Envy seizes this opportunity and takes full advantage of Nova's vain distraction to coil roots around the woman tightly in freefall and drag the city's most powerful hero into her orchard of temptation. 

Nova lands onto the grass with force, the momentum carried over from her very real fall still taking place. Golden eyes scan her surroundings with a serious, unimpressed look on her face that makes Envy stomp her feet in dissatisfaction. 

"Ugh, can't you complement a fellow hero for anything? I've decided to accelerate us just a little in here so keep up if you can, is... is that impressive? I think I've got a praise kink so please, Nova, work with me here!" Envy materialises in her dark garden and crouches down, lifting the woman's face by her chin with a hand clad in fishnet. Her mind is working overtime to ensure they've the adequate time to finish things up in here before going splat on the ground below. Neither of them would die given Nova's strength and Envy's healing factor, but it'd sure be ugly. 

Nova growls in a similar fashion to Rose and lunges for the girl who vanishes like mist, the woman whipping her head around to find where she reappears, tracing the sound of soft footsteps. Back on her feet in this mental projection as they hurtle down towards cold and unforgiving concrete, Nova hesitates in her next attack and scowls at the sight before her. Is this girl really going to stoop so low?

Envy stands behind Miss Murmur herself, arms wrapped around the woman possessively and tongue dragging up her neck in a lewd showing. Power in this place is dictated by the strength of one's will, Envy intending to break Nova's into pieces as she toys with the woman's lost love. "She really is an obedient creature now, aren't you pet?" The villainess hooks a vine under Murmur's dress, a recreation of that baby blue one she spied in Nova's photograph. Her sickening face is shaded by the woman's matching sunhat, dark circles finally gone at last. Nova's fingers twitch, teeth sinking into the inside of her lip. 

"Oh, yes... Empress." Murmur smiles placidly even when Envy bites into her neck, her nails creeping over the woman's shoulder and pulling the dress over it teasingly. As the fabric hangs down, one of Misty's breasts becomes exposed to Nicole, no underwear beneath that unassuming sundress she's been dressed in like the doll she is. The vine snaking up from underneath that flowing dress wraps around the base of Misty's breast and squeezes it tight, Envy reaching around to roll the stiffening nipple in circles with the tip of her painted red nail. 

"This is what she likes, Nic, not a good for nothing wife who won't even give her the time of day. I gave her the oblivion she asked you for, and look how much happier she is for it. Big smile now, doll." Envy manipulates her doll as she pleases, Misty giving her biggest smile before her owner turns her head and pulls her into an indecent kiss in front of their stupefied spectator. Tight moans fill the room and Envy notices how it weakens the woman across from her, another tendril slithering up Misty's leg to fuck the doll so thoroughly she'd be unable to stand if more didn't come in to keep her held upright. As Nova takes a step forwards with fists tightly clenched and her golden glow waning just a little, an opportunistic Envy takes this as her que to begin eating out the raven haired doll's ear, causing her to writhe and moan like a pornstar in just the way she was instructed to. Wet slapping noises from Misty's ear fill the garden in a loud echo, Envy turning that ear into a microphone that projects the act out with obnoxious volume that gives Lady Nova pause yet again. 

Some tendrils curling around Misty's form sport sharp thorns that tear through that bright sundress and lightly graze her skin, others smooth and leaking heady sap that glaze the woman's suddenly naked front. She's a statue, bronze and begging. She's a slut, begging and beholden. She's a slave, beholden to the whim of her master, her mistress. Mistress pleasure beckons and the doll skips ahead, body beaming as much as it's buckling, a woman ruined.

Nova's will must be hitting the seafloor by now, thinks a confident Envy, who makes copy of herself to approach the distracted hero from behind and guide a plunging blow that should reduce inflated ego into rubble. Just as she had with Murmur, lights out.

Before Envy is able to land her killing blow, the atmosphere in the garden abruptly changes. A strange pressure fills the space, then an overwhelming weight that pulls her body and her roots down, flat against the grass. Gravity. Unbearable gravity forces all but Nova down onto the floor, her skin a radiant gold that looks lethal to the touch. Molten rage, Envy had forgotten that gold has a low melting point. 

As the woman excises her all encompassing will over this petty orchard, the garden begins to turn a gaudy golden colour. An explosion of overriding gold like the garden of King Midas, leaves, apples, bark, grass... all turns to gold in a flash. Envy can't begin to understand where this sudden storm hails in from, Nova looking over her shoulder as bright orbs descend upon her shattering psyche with a simple solution. 

Gold. 

Malleable, ductile, Envy remembers the properties of gold like a teacher's pet holding her hand up in class. She's studied for every pop quiz, wanting to impress the goddess who slowly turns her garden into a bright and overbearing shrine to Lady Nova. There's no temptation in a garden of golden law, only discipline and obedience. Were it not for that crushing gravity that pins her to the ground, Envy would prostrate herself at her goddess' boots and apologise for each and every decision she ever made that wasn't in aid of this gorgeous, perfect being. 

"Are you done?" Nova's voice sounds as distorted as this mental realm has become, intimidating tone that bends this unrefined metal into shape. Envy is but a lump of gold in need of melting down and being cast. 

Were it not for one small fact that Nova has forgotten about in her victory, in her catharsis of having finally silenced Misty's pleasured moans, this would spell anticlimactic end to the great showdown at Nova Tower. 

Instead, her fictional gravity is soon put to the test against the real thing. The moment Envy gave in to gold, she could no longer focus on accelerating her realm, could no longer focus on anything but that precious metal infiltrating all thought. Suffice it to say, there's one fatal flaw in Nova's well thought out play here, a fatal floor.

...

...

...

Splat!

"And that's why you should always say no to strangers!" Joy puffs out her chest and then suddenly slumps, the young woman hating the way her traitorous bedroom mirror packs on the pounds. "Ugh.." She turns back and forth in her new costume that practically put her in debt, wondering if she should have just stuck with the homemade one when this custom is almost as scrappy anyway. That's enough rehearsing for tonight, she thinks with a lazy smirk, it's only a school assembly after all and most of those kids aren't going to listen to a one hit wonder like her. Eyes are drawn in like magnets to the source of the background noise she had on, reruns of Lady Nova's televised exploits playing on her cheap flatscreen. Would Nova half ass something like this? No! She turns back towards the mirror only to catch sight of a shadow creeping up on her... the vigilante girl really is light on her feet!

"Surprise!" Just as Joy turns to greet her girlfriend, Laura launches herself into the hero's arms and plants a victorious kiss onto her startled cheek. "I picked the lock, was hoping to catch you flicking it but posing in your cute new costume is just as good hehe."

"Jeez, ever heard of privacy?" Joy can't pretend she isn't happy to see the blonde, feeling around those strong muscles with a well performed lipbite that tells her girlfriend she's in the mood for more than posing. "Just let me get out of this stupid apple costume and we can uh... ehe, take things to the bedroom?"

Laura pouts, seizing Joy's wrists playfully as the girl backs away to get undressed. "Noooo, the costume stays on! I'm wearing mine under this, bad habit, so we could do some kinky roleplay I reckon. Uptight hero seduced by the cutthroat antihero aiming to corrupt her? You'd be perfect for the part." 

"Hey, I'm not uptight. And are you going with antihero now? Sounds a bit exaggerated to me hehe." Tugging Laura by her wrists to guide the girl onto her bed, Joy sighs out and turns away with a sudden shy blush. "I only have one costume, I need it for school tomorrow so you can't ruin it..."

"Oh, Joy." Laura grins, climbing over the girl and pushing her wrists down roughly onto the bed. "Do you think I fucking care?"

"Huh?"

"We don't care about all that crap anymore, remember? Like I said, antihero. You ever see an antihero pick up litter, scrub graffiti or help kids remember their five-a-fuckin'-day? No, we get to do all the fun shit. Together, as one. I can't believe you of all people would forget this..."

"We?" Joy shifts uncomfortably, trying to remember exactly when it was that her and Laura started dating, when they revealed their identities to one another... when her narrative switched over to a third person one. Disconnected. The girl begins to lose all semblance of self, Laura's hands overlapping with hers as the entity known as Envy pieces itself back together against the hard pavement. Ego assembles and conflates, the empress of the garden rising to her feet and wondering what she's going to do with the runt holding her back. 

Nova's cape flaps in the wind, fist a flash that this self proclaimed empress only sees as blur smearing closer and closer until it sends her crashing through the bottom floor of Nova Tower. A large crowd amasses and so the woman decides to try and contain this carnage within the walls of her tower of cards before it all comes crashing down on her head. Image is important here, she has to appear the hero at all times, even while beating the crap out of this snot-nosed kid who'd stoop to such disgusting depths. Gliding through the air with carefully constructed composure she works hard to maintain, Nova finds her prey having collapsed into the reception desk. A fitting place for this tale to end, exactly where it began. No crows overhead now, they're all internal, and she intends to flush them out. 

Envy's body is still attempting to recover from the fall, limbs snapping back into place and eyes blinking in a rainbow of colour before settling on Misty's hazel. With flowing raven hair draped over battered shoulders, Envy tries to sit up only for Nova's fist to send her careening back down into the broken desk. The unstoppable force of gravity, tempered by that crushing mass millions of miles away, slams Envy into the ground and only when she's satisfied with her foe's fatigue is she ready for the final blow. Not a physical attack, of course, but the strongest subjugation tool known to man, the stare of submission. Pinning the girl down just as Laura had Joy in distant daydream, Nova closes her eyes and begins to channel her cosmic power. Murmur once told Envy that the intensity Joy had been subjected to in the past was but a fraction of the stare's full power, that higher intensities are liable to cause lasting damage just as it had with Rose. 

Her back now to the crowd and enough rubble and smoke to hide her indulgent act of retribution, Nova decides not to hold back on this wretched girl who'd dare to take such a reckless swipe at her. This girl who'd desecrate the memory of her happy marriage so enthusiastically, in truth she deserves even worse than this. Golden aura builds around Lady Nova in preparation for the final assault, one this Envy won't be recovering from, rest assured. 

It's because her eyes are closed that she does not catch the aura of the girl below her build in tandem, an arcane glow, light blue hue filling the wrecked reception as Envy's eyes glint with the ultimate satisfaction. She'd been saving this power for this very moment, knowing it would earn her a decisive victory at the very last blow. It's almost unfair, but then, she's simply levelling the playing field. 

And then... 

Gold. 

Nova's eyes open and her stare tears through the space between them like a concentrated beam of destructive submission, intending to reduce this girl into something permanently lesser. Of course, this doesn't happen, magically imbued tachi turning that grievous glare inwards and rendering Nova's self asunder. The woman cannot close her eyes as that reflective mirror of gold undoes her in an instant, she cannot even blink.

The shockwave shatters every window on the building's ground floor, many phones recording the aftermath of a fight that will forever change the history of this doomed city. Envy pulls herself up with her reliable roots and stands over a collapsed Nova who finds herself adrift in a sea of golden spires, wishing the woman well on her voyage. Gravity can be so unkind. 

"What's..." As the dust settles over Nova's body, Envy finds a strange sight in front of her. Stranger than the sight of the city's greatest pillar laying flat on her back, defeated and reduced, is the girl laying cradled in her broken arms. Something happened in that shockwave when the golden beam's bright light exploded into the room. Something happened and now Envy realises she's finally free of all weakness, two for the price of one. 

It really was her moment of victory, not only getting rid of the one woman out there capable of holding her back... but simultaneously managing to discard the one woman inside of her who held the same capability, a coward who had her chance. 

"Did you try to reach out and save her or something silly like that, Joy? You're such a softie at heart, we don't need that right now so you can stay put. I guess Danielle's power came in handy after all, hehe, though it's not quite as even a split as hers was. Well, inequality is something my garden will be getting rid of soon enough!" Envy places her boot onto a naked Joy's shoulder and pushes her onto her back beside the fallen goddess, getting a good look at them both. "I'll be back here soon enough, you're in my tower after all, but those police sirens are getting awfully noisome and I think I still have some mending to do ahahaha. Be seeing you soon unless you know what's good for you, bye for now~" 

And just like that... I find myself alone again.

                                                                  A Murmur of Crows - End

Soft fabric is the first feeling to greet me as consciousness slips back in through myriad cracks, my toes twitching restlessly before the rest of my body unceremoniously follows suit. I groan and clutch at my head, feeling simultaneously well rested and like I've had the worst night's sleep of my adult life. It appears to be getting dark so I can tell my circadian rhythm isn't doing much good at the moment, only then becoming aware of the rest of the room around me. Dim light overhead that suddenly brightens when I sit up. Long hair flowing down past my shoulders telling me a truth I'd rather deny. A headrush that tells me I shouldn't have sat up so damn fast, gown clinging to my form giving the impression of a hospital while this fancy bed says anything but. Where am I? And more importantly, when am I?

My head turns towards the door as the handle slowly creaks in its feeble turning, door creaking open with an aged groan. Judging by the wallpaper to go alongside that old-fashioned door I'd say we're in an old house of some manner, perhaps even a manor. A woman with a cane steps into the room, I recognise her immediately though I can scarcely believe it. Perhaps one of the last people I would have expected to see greet me on my waking from what I can only assume was a long night of rest. 

"Like the house? It's an antique, haha, Misty hated the place but not many people are lucky enough to inherit a mansion. I thought it made me seem sophisticated, but it just told people what an out of touch privileged asshole I truly was. Better they heard it from the house than I, hm?" The woman entertains a smile, eyes fixed upon mine rather fiercely despite the causal demeanour she gives off otherwise. Nicole Black, the retired hero 'Lady Nova', sits down beside my bed and sets down her cane. "Been keeping an eye on you obsessively, detected motion and checked your vitals... aha, she's finally awake, I thought... but then, that's only half the battle. Next is making you look outside."

After a deep breath, I look away from Nicole and stare out into that dusk on the city's outskirts. "Oh, that's..."

"Entire city's like that now, place is a forest too thick to fucking navigate. You won't get far on foot until they swoop in and make you one of them anyway, been like this for months." Nicole reaches into the fruit bowl and picks up an apple, biting into the flesh as her gold-specked eyes blink slowly. "It's a mess... I made such a mess, and I can't even clean it up myself." Envy's deflection made this woman fragile, a phantom of her former self, and now she has this look in her eyes that worries me as I turn back to face her. 

"Y-you mean, I did this? Ah... ahaha, you're not expecting me to be able to fix it too, right? Me? I'm not really that sort of hero, and frankly I'm not your biggest fan anymore either." My head feels so much clearer now, those past weeks before the apparent coma really screwed with my state of mind. I guess I'm just a copy, though, so the real Joy is still just as messed up and calling herself Envy huh? Combining multiple mental states into one being is such a terrible idea, why does she seem to think it'll solve anything? Fuck, I'm talking myself around to wanting to hear Nova out but again... I'm useless. I feel nothing from my roots anymore, so I don't even have my powers. 

"You're probably noticing that your original powers are gone, Joy, but that's alright." Nicole's looking a little gaunt in her retirement, shirt and suspenders is certainly a departure from all the spandex. She bites into the apple again and I catch something strange in that last sentence of hers. 

"Wait... original powers?" Somehow I think I know where this is going... and I'm not sure if I like it. 

"My, you're sharper than I gave you credit for. That's right... you were in a state when my people recovered us, they're much faster than the typical ambulance but even so... A nasty thorn had punctured your gut and you'd already lost a lot of blood. I offered myself for a transfusion, you see where this is going? It... it really shouldn't have transferred anything but perhaps your absorption ability was still hanging on and you took to my blood like a babe suckling teat. I've had you on a drip of yours truly ever since to strengthen the bond, lucky you. Doesn't your body feel great, even when your muscles rightly should have atrophied?"

I flex my arms experimentally and give the woman a reluctant nod, still not sure how I feel about becoming the protégé of Lady fucking Nova herself. Does this mean I have that golden glow she finished herself off with? My eyes flutter closed and I concentrate on those properties I did so love to list, opening them back up and bathing the room in a bright undoing glow. Nova appears immune and understandably unamused, I suppose she's already had much worse intensities than this and so tanks it like a champ. Cutting off the golden glare, I scoff at this rather ironic turn of events. 

"I can't believe this... you really expect me to go out there and fight her? I just woke up, at least let me get some breakfast." I hover up from the bed and land on my feet, eyes wide at the fact that I so casually just did that. My inaugural flight was a casual glide into fluffy slippers, it's laughable really. 

Nicole appears pleased that her efforts in converting me into her carbon copy appear to have bore fruit. Let's just hope it's not a fucking apple this time. The woman fixes her collar from the rush downstairs and sets down her familiar snack. "You can't fight her right away, anyway, that would be tantamount to mental suicide. No, you'll have to at least take down her lieutenants. Such expansion over the city means separating into weaker forms to hold territory, not that the military can make a foothold in her forest. These key targets will be... familiar faces to you, I'm sure, just remember that fighting some sense into them means saving them. Stay objective."

"Hey, I-I didn't agree to anything yet." Laura, Mana, Murmur... who else? The big four no doubt, sans Nova of course. Is that my role now? Neo-Nova? No that sounds racist somehow, I'll have to workshop the name.

"Yes, but you can't just do nothing when this is your responsibility, girl. Not only due to the actions of your other half, but simply due to you having the power to effect change in this current state of affairs. You at least owe it to them, if not me, to try your hand at it." Nicole crosses her arms and I realise she'd have made a good teacher, perhaps she still could. I guess she's rich enough to not have to work but it never stopped her before. 

"Sounds a lot like a guilt trip but I can't say I disagree... fine, I'm in. I'd like my breakfast first though, do you have like... servants?" I'm half joking on account of the fact that my stomach won't stop grumbling, what sort of diet has this woman had me on? She... she has been feeding me, right?

"Oh yes, but the house staff are not currently present on account of the late hour. It's closer to supper time than it is breakfast, but I suppose I could whip you up some eggs. I think I know just the way you like them, haha..." Nicole stands and grabs her walking aid, my head tilting in sudden confusion at her coy statement. 

"Uh, that so?"

"Yes dear, at least there's a chance I might. I can see her in you, it's the eyes." Nicole winks and steps out of the room, I realise I should follow closely behind lest I go missing in my search for the kitchen. Before scrambling after her like the eggs I'm soon to devour, I assess myself in the mirror on the wall and realise she's speaking true. 

Hazel circles that aren't mine. They're not the only gift of Miss Murmur's I've managed to steal away with...

Because I think I remember what's going to happen next.

To Be Continued in... A Garden of Crows!