Long Way Down - Wordgirl "Rise of Miss Power" One-Shot

Trigger Warning: Sensitive topics - implications / thoughts of self-termination

EDIT: Hey, I made an animation for this one-shot if anyone wants to see it! It was mostly for fun, so it's not completely accurate, and I definitely rushed the end, but hey, why not post it here? https://youtu.be/qmwiH7TxHGs

"You're a ridiculous villain, Tobey! You always have been!"
The words kept ringing in his ears.

He always knew she wasn't fond of him, especially not in the way he was of her- but Wordgirl had always been civil to him, whether he deserved it or not.

And as much as she tried to deny it, she'd enjoyed his presence on occasion, hadn't she?

After all, he could tell she at least somewhat enjoyed the day they'd spent searching for his remote.
At least, he thought she had.

And they'd gotten ice cream once, hadn't they?- Surely she wouldn't have done that for him if she didn't like him at least the slightest bit!
But maybe she'd changed her mind.

Maybe he did have a goofy haircut.

Maybe he did have bad clothes.

And he knew he was afraid of his mother.

And she was Wordgirl. She was supposed to be benevolent and kind and perfect- she had an image to uphold, so of course she'd hold back her real thoughts about him.
And of course that truth would come out eventually.

Maybe that was part of why he liked her so much...even if she did hate him, she'd always kept the worst of her thoughts to herself.

And he was almost positive that, despite everything she'd just said to him, she still had.

But he didn't have time to think about that, not now- because Wordgirl was gone, and in her place was the tall, pale build of her new companion: Miss Power. Her figure was barely distinguishable through Tobey's misted glasses, but he could clearly see her leering grin as she towered over him with the glinting, snake-like eye that wasn't veiled by her long vanilla bangs.

"Looks like it's just you and me, bad-haired baby!" she sneered, smacking her fist against her palm and alighting on the rooftop before him. Tobey choked back a sob, his heart pounding in his ears.

"L-Look, I get the point, I'm sorry, I promise I won't bother you again!" he pleaded, trying his best to feign an apologetic smile. "I was just hoping to see Wordgirl! I wasn't expecting....her...to......" He trailed off.

The strange woman just snickered.

"Oh, boo-hoo, did someone get his little feelings hurt?" She stuck her lip out in a mocking pout. "Don't try to bargain with me, shortstack, I'm not one to play buddy-buddy with villains."

Tobey fell silent.

"Aww, what's wrong? Lost all your vigor? Given up? Wordgirl really was right!" She laughed again, taking another step closer to him. "You are ridiculous."

"I- you- it-" Tobey scoffed, his whole body beginning to shake with rage as he balled up his fists. "SHUT UP! No, I-I'm not! I'm a genius! Someone ridiculous wouldn't be able to create robots like I can! Or- or could be such a formidable foe to Wordgirl! So HA!" His attempt at a smug grin came out as more of an upwards grimace. He gripped his master remote, shakily pointing it towards his tormentor. "ROBUTS, ATT-"

He yelped as Miss Power swung her arm past him, her fingernails digging into his hand as she snatched the remote from his grip. Tobey fell backwards with a squeak, his fearful reaction only seeming to widen Miss Power's crocodilian grin. Silently, she held up the stolen device, narrowed her eyes, and crushed it in her fist as though it were made of tin-foil. "Formidable is one word for it," she leered, opening up her palm to let the remains of his remote- the device Tobey had painstakingly crafted through months of trial and error, the device he'd poured his blood, sweat, and tears into- fall to the ground like nothing more than cookie crumbs.

Tobey paled.

       "Aw, are you really that upset about that little thing? Or is this still about Wordgirl?" Amusement slid into her voice. "Did you really think your stupid crush meant anything?" She scraped the fragments of Tobey's remote away with a heel.

Panic rose in him, and he hugged his chest, as though he was attempting to hide his racing heart.

"Wh- What do you mean?! I don't have a crush on Wordgirl! I-"

"Oh, don't lie to me. It's so obvious, even without everything Wordgirl has said about you."

Tobey felt his body tense. "What?" He rubbed his arm against his teary eyes, his fist haphazardly pushing his glasses out of its way. "She...She told you about me?"

"Oh yeah," Miss Power sneered, seeming to grow taller with every step closer to him she took. "About you, about your dumb robots...Oh, she hates fighting those things, and let me tell ya, it's not because they're a challenge to beat." Not even a moment after she finished, she grabbed Tobey by his shirt collar and lifted him effortlessly into the air, shoving her face into his.

Tobey gulped.

"P-P-Please let me go," he pleaded again, pulling his face as far as he could away from hers. "PLEASE! I promise I'll never bother either of you again! Please let me go, please, PLEASE! You've done enough, haven't you?! There's nothing else you can take from me! I've already lost everything," he moaned, helplessly swinging a fist in Miss Power's direction- a blow that never landed, but wouldn't have done much even if it had.

"Everything? Oh, come on, is your life so meaningless that your dumb crush and useless little toys are all you've got going for yourself?!"

Tobey didn't answer.

The towering woman stared at him in silence for a moment, awaiting a response, before bursting out into condescending cackles. "And here I was thinking I was joking!" she sneered, pulling him closer to her for a moment before staring past him. "...It's a long way down from here, yunno," she noticed, a hint of teasing in her voice. Tobey followed her gaze to the edge of the roof they stood on- to that long, sudden plummet to the hard ground below.

It almost seemed to shimmer in the sunlight.

"....This gets sadder and sadder every minute," Miss Power chuckled, no hint of sadness in her voice.

"Wh- Well, excuse me for being upset!" Tobey snapped, struggling to keep his voice steady. "At least Wordgirl was nice to me!....sometimes! You made her say those things to me, didn't you?!" His voice cracked, and he found himself desperately clinging on to the hope that maybe she hadn't meant the jabs she'd slung at him before- or maybe his tormentor hadn't actually been his beloved Wordgirl, but a replica; after all, Wordgirl had always been the only person to look at him with anything other than contempt in her eyes, and that wouldn't have changed so quickly, would it have?

Would it have?

Miss Power's wordless grin was more of an answer to his silent question than anything she could've said.

"So what are you going to do now that you've supposedly lost everything?" Miss Power stared past him again at the steep drop before them. "You can do whatever you want, can't you? Wordgirl isn't here to stop you now."

She let go of Tobey, letting him drop down to the rooftop they stood on; the boy let out a yelp, despite the drop being no more than a foot or two above the rooftop.

"You're alone with nothing to keep you away from your own desires, aren't you? Isn't that so freeing?"

She looked more and more like a snake with every word.

"If you're going to kill me, please get it over with," Tobey snapped, shakily getting to his feet. Miss Power just smiled.

"Me? Kill you? No, I don't think I need to." Her eyes seemed to bore through him. "I have a feeling someone else will do that for me."

Tobey felt his blood run cold.

Without another word, Miss Power turned away and launched herself into the air, leaving Tobey alone, isolated on a rooftop with nothing but a bunch of robots and his own mind.

His gaze slid downwards as he eyed the ground below him.

She was right.

It was a long way down.

And there was nothing to keep him away from his own desires.