The Wrong Genre

Alter Ego

Tap tap taptap tap

Vertigo sighed as the latest client finally walked away, glancing over at her coworker who had been tapping his pen through the whole conversation.

"Sorry Emily, I'm bored. It's really slow today," Brian sighed, placing his head down on his counter and instead fiddling with his notepad. She glanced around the nearly empty bank and nodded slightly in agreement. That last client had been quite trying, but he had only been the second of the day so it wasn't so bad. In the moment of silence, Brian observed her and decided to derail her thoughts. "You seem distracted today. Something on your mind?"

"Nothing in particular," she smiled gently, jotting down some information on her notepad in an attempt to stop the conversation that she didn't particularly want to participate in. Usually a little office chatter didn't bother her much, although she'd never been a fan, but today she really was distracted and didn't particularly want to talk.

It had been bothering her for a few days now. The mystery about Zack's last name and why it had sounded so familiar to her. She had asked all of the heroes— but most of them had shrugged and said that they had no clue why she had heard the name. Kyle suggested that it was due to the fact that she had lived in the city since she was a child and perhaps they had been mentioned in some of the police reports or even hero cases if the family was really as involved as Zack claimed. Possible, she supposed, but it didn't seem right.

Flashmob had agreed that it sounded familiar, which backed up Kyle's theory since she and Vertigo were the two who had been raised in the city, but she couldn't place it either. Apparently when she had heard it initially she'd thought she knew where it came from, but had found that she was mistaken when she looked it up later.

Which brought her back to square one with nothing to go on once again.

"You're not even writing anything important," Brian whined, "C'mon, you can tell me. Does it have to do with your other job?"

Vertigo paused, then sighed.

"A little," she acquiesced, looking over at him and searching for something that she could use to derail the conversation.

It wasn't like she wasn't allowed to talk about her job as a hero. It wasn't even a secret, really, and she didn't even wear a mask or anything when she was "Vertigo"... but anytime she would say something no one believed her. Like it was so hard to believe a superhero was also working as a bank teller—it's not like saving random citizens paid very well, they weren't an official organization after all. Full time heroes essentially had to rely on charity to keep them going.

Also it would be awkward if she did say she was a superhero for kicks and then Brian actually believed her, because then he would tell everyone. That's just who he was, and then either they would be offended that she hadn't told them, although none of them would believe her, or they would scold her for telling tall tales to her gullible coworker.

"Picaroon?" She asked, eyes catching on his notepad. On it was scribbled a name in his... honestly beautiful handwriting. Vertigo would always be salty about that, and she glanced at her own chicken scratch in irritation.

"Weird name, right? She's apparently part of the Lladre family, can you believe it?"

"Lladre?" Vertigo asked, the name seeming to spill from her lips easily. She knew the name, of course. Everyone did. The Lladre family was one of the most important families in the entire city, and had been for generations. They had been key in the growth and development, and in fact were usually cited as the reason that the small town of Higko had grown into the small city of Higko. Crime infested as it may be, that was nothing to scoff at.