Withdrawing her hand from Jonathan's shoulder, Miss Masher slowly draws in and exhales a deep breath, a vacant expression on her face as she stares at the ceiling. Leaning back against the wall again, she's quiet for a few seconds longer before sighing softly.

"Yeah... Uh, Chi is way better at telling stories than I am, but I guess I could try a little? Uhh, so it was actually back while the supe war was still going on... No, first things first, I said our folks kicked us out, but that's not entirely fair to say, there's more to it than that. It wasn't just gettin' our powers that made 'em drive us out, it might have just been an excuse even, still shitty either way though. They were just fosters, to begin with, our real mom and pops were offed fairly early during the war. You know the usual ol' tryin' to but can't have a kid of your own, adopt, lose interest in them the moment you finally have yer own? Whelp, we have a brother so to speak, not that we ever bothered meetin' with him by the time he was born." In response to Miss Masher's family history, Jonathan can't help letting out a groan.

"Tha-that doesn't make them any less of jerks." Miss Masher nods along to Jonathan's declaration, shifts her position a bit, and folds her hands behind her head again as she leans most of her weight against the wall behind her.

"For real. Uh, anyway, as I was sayin', while the war was still goin' on we somehow had to do what we could just to stay alive." Backtracking a few times while she tries to get everything in order, Miss Masher scratches her short hair a bit, sighing again as she recollects a few events.

"We tried to keep goin' to school at first, but it wasn't long till they all closed once one too many villains took kids hostage when fightin' one hero or another. Lots of high pop' public places were gettin' either shut down or blown up one after another, though there was one library we managed to spend a lot of time at for a few months before it finally got blasted. Uhh, caught the edge of an orbital cannon laser blast I think it was? Anyway, Calc got to salvage a few books, on robotics or computers or somethin' like that. She managed to piece together a few broken war bots we found and got it workin' again, with improvements of course, but didn't have a weapon for it. Didn't do us much good, but we did find someone to sell it to, though we probably got really ripped off now that I think back on it..." Lost in her memories for a bit, she chuckles a bit and trails off.

"Oh! Did she keep doing stuff like that to make some money for you guys? But wait, weren't the old soup kitchens one of the first kinda things to get wrecked, how did you guys get enough to eat?" While Jonathan is fully immersed in Miss Masher's storytelling, he's completely lost his stutter, and Miss Masher is too busy trying to remember things to even notice.

"Eh yeah, she started fixin' all sorts of stuff we found. We had to go dumpster divin' more times than I'd like to admit, but at least that's also where we found some of the stuff for her to experiment with. We couldn't find anyone that'd take care of us for real, but lot's o' people at least felt bad enough to give us somethin' to eat every once in a while. Oh! So, one guy that kept buyin' Calc's little inventions turned out to be a villain, he kept takin' what she made and then changin' 'em a bit more and making them into weapons and stuff. One time, while we went by to visit, was when a hero just found the base. Man, I still gotta admit, he was kinda cool. That whole blonde-haired blue-eyed tall and strong deal, really what ya think of when ya think 'hero.' Heheh, don't tell anyone I said that though." Leave it to Miss Masher to change the focus to how strong he was, even when describing his appearance.

"Ooh, did you get to see him fight the villain? That must have been so cool!" Giving Miss Masher his full attention, Jonathan has even rotated his position on the bench enough that his body is mostly facing her, leaning forward a bit subconsciously.

"Hells yeah! Dude just punched his way in through the walls and fuckin' creamed the villain, it was sick!" Full of enthusiasm, Miss Masher punches the air in front of her a few times in demonstration, the elation in her voice unmistakable. Sharing her excitement, Jonathan's eyes have widened to a comical point, a doofy grin on his face as he imagines Lucas bursting through the walls of a supervillain's base and him getting to dash in after him and wreaking his own havoc.

"After seein' that was when I started hoping I could get something cool like strength if I ever got a power. The hero dude seemed kinda surprised to see us once he was done, then he took us to some underground shelter place. We got to stay there for like, I dunno, two months? But eventually, some villains found it and grabbed hostages out of it, so it wasn't good any longer. We always were better off just stayin' on the move, anyway." Shifting her gaze to the floor near her feet, Miss Masher pauses for a moment and sighs lightly before becoming inspired once more.

"Oh, I think it was a little while after that when we bumped into Alley Cat the first time. Calc had some new toys to sell, and they gave us somethin' to eat and helped find buyers, just askin' for a little bit of the money as a finder's fee or whatever. We got a lot more money thanks to their help than that other villain was givin' us, so we kept hangin' out around there whenever we found new stuff for Calc to mess with. Hmm... What else..." Trailing off again as she wracks her mind for something else worth talking about, she starts chewing on her bottom lip and scrunches up her eyebrows while staring up at the ceiling once more.

"Was-was this all before you even had your own powers yet?" Once he's fallen out of the flow state from story-time, Jonathan manages to resume normal levels of self-awareness when asking. Barely taking a moment to think about it, Miss Masher sneers for a moment with narrowed eyes before snorting and continuing her tales.

"Yeah, first day they showed up was a real fuckin' shitty day too. Remind me later when Chi and Calc are around, I dunno if they want anyone to know about what we went through then. I ripped some scumbag's arm off and ended up beating him to death with it, to put it nicely. Besides, I was too busy seein' red at the time, Chi would definitely tell it better. Oh, though once I had my strength for a few months at least I was able to do some odd jobs clearing out rubble, between that and Calc's stuff she was sellin' through Alley Cat we actually were able to start saving up some money. Though that was the old kind of cash, just as we finally had an okay amount is when the economy collapsed after the war. That's when Chi really got to shine, with the chaos goin' on what with the last of the heroes bein' gone, we stopped caring about payin' for stuff. She could just walk up and take things and walk right back out easy peasy, and if anything was in her way I could tear it right open." Clearly frustrated at first, as she continues speaking her mood elevates right back up again. When talking about Miss Chievous casually stealing things, her expression and tone are actually rather boastful.

-----

Lucas kills this chapter: 0

Lucas total kills: 7

Lucas deaths this chapter: 0

Lucas total deaths: 10

Lucas current GDV: 8.98

Lucas's fame level: 2.75* (Mostly just local)

Lucas's hero suspicion level: 1.5* (Only highly paranoid people)

Jonathan kills this chapter: 0

Jonathan total kills: 5

Jonathan deaths this chapter: 0

Jonathan total deaths: 2

Jonathan current GDV: 2.00 (+.01 net change)

Jonathan's fame level: 1.75* (Just local)

Jonathan's hero suspicion level: 1* (Only highly paranoid people)

Supervillain social circle size: 10

-----

Little character theater:

Jonathan, a bit horrified thinking about what kinds of situations she wouldn't be willing to talk about that involved her needing to beat a man to death with his own arm.

Willy, now sporting a cone of shame: BARK BARK! BARK BARK!

Lucas is too busy laughing his ass off at Willy's clear displays of dissatisfaction.

427, digging up some of his own memories and lining them up with Miss Masher's story: [Oh, so those weren't even his own inventions? Heh, Maynard probably would have taken the girls back to a research lab if he knew they were her work, all made out of just second-hand parts at that.]

Author, oddly smug: Who said you need to actually have the protagonist in every chapter, certainly not me. Shh, the theater doesn't count.

Mr. Quacks, spurning the inferior paper currency: Quack.