The Paragons

Chapter 31: Loving One's Self

Back in her room, The Viper was busy gearing herself up to go look for Duncan and Nightclaw, double-checking her gear one more time before she left. 

"Phew! Okay.....got my pistols loaded, my blade cleaned, grappling hook fine-tuned, did some stretches.....think I'm ready to head out!" she said to herself. 

However, when she opened the door, she jumped back slightly as she was met with a surprise. Coldsnap was already standing on the other side, with a sad expression on her face. 

"Oh.....hey.....'Coldsnap', was it? You definitely had quite the ego during the briefing.....you might want to work on that," The Viper pointed out bluntly. "Still.....it's great to have you on our team! That cryokinesis of yours certainly makes you quite powerful." 

"Yeah.....I don't care about that right now," Coldsnap admitted. "I know I put on a tough, confident exterior and all that, but if I'm being honest.....it's just to hide my pain." 

".....What?" 

"Look.....I had a nightmare earlier." 

"About what?" 

Coldsnap took a deep breath. "Can I just come in? Then we can talk about it. I don't feel like this is something anyone else should hear." 

"Umm.....sure," The Viper said as she stepped out of the doorway and ushered her unexpected guest in. 

The two girls sat on the bedside, with The Viper looking Coldsnap right in her icy-blue eyes. "What's wrong?" 

"It was terrible, Viper...." Coldsnap confessed. "I was surrounded on all sides by relentless bullies who would just not let up. They laughed at me, hurled insults at me, threw things at me, and abused me.....when I ran away and got back home, I thought I was safe, but they filled my social media with nothing but hate and threats....all because of.....of....." 

She couldn't even bring herself to finish her thought before breaking down. However, after looking Coldsnap over a few times, The Viper got a general idea of what was troubling her. 

"Is it because of your.....body?" she asked her quietly, appearing to point with her eyes towards Coldsnap's somewhat pudgy figure. 

The icy heroine sniffled and nodded affirmatively. "No matter what I try, I never succeed in losing weight. It's made me very insecure and uncertain about what others may think of me.....whereas you, frankly, have a perfect, slim, attractive body and sharp, piercing eyes that would make even the other girls jealous.  Some people have all the luck, I guess. I suppose my first question would be.....how do you make it look so easy?" 

"'Easy'.....? It's definitely not easy," The Viper replied, not necessarily denying Coldsnap's analysis of her. "Contrary to what you think, looking physically good does have its disadvantages, even though you may not see them right away. There's some creepy people out there, let me tell you....." 

At that moment, dark memories came rushing back to her. 

Sin'lazo's constant attempts to violate her.....and his most recent one, in which he was successful. 

The weird comments---mostly from males---that she would occasionally get whenever her rescues in Mercury Heights went viral on social media. 

Mal'tin and Gor'bari erroneously blaming Sin'lazo's behavior towards her on her revealing costume choice, of all things, during her confrontation with the Opulent back in Hawaii. 

"I don't want to get too deep into it, but just because I have a more 'alluring' figure than you doesn't mean I haven't faced my own challenges," The Viper continued. "Honestly.....these days, there's no winning with us girls anymore. We're either catcalled by creeps or relentlessly bullied and tormented, just because of who we are."