Hopelessly Heroic (Rewritten)

three

Powers usually develop in Supers during puberty. You get your period and start shooting fire from your hands at the same time. For Willow, it was a nightmare. She knew so many people dreamed of having powers and becoming the next big Superhero, but when she got her ability, she cried. 

How can you save the world with fire? Who can you help by burning them? There was nothing productive Willow could do to help anyone. It was like the world wanted her to be bad, and gave her the worst power to make sure it would happen. She hid the scars for a while, but it was hard to control, and she ended up accidentally burning her father during an argument about a test that she failed at school.  

She could still remember the look on her parent's faces when it happened. In an instant, she went from their perfect little angel, to a villain. They didn't see it for the accident that it was. They didn't give her the benefit of the doubt, didn't entertain the possibility that maybe their daughter needed help controlling it. She hadn't asked to have a power, especially not one that could only do bad things, but they didn't care.

If there were any people in the world who she thought might understand her, it would be her parents. But after she burned her dad, they never looked at her the same way. They were scared of their own child. The person they created. It was only a couple months after that when they told Willow they wanted her to leave. She was eleven, and had nowhere to go, but she packed some clothes into her school bag and walked out with her head down. It made Willow feel sick, but it also reinforced what she already knew; she was meant to be evil. She could do no good. From that moment on, anyone who knew of her power would think she was a villain, so, after a couple years of moving from abandoned building to abandoned building, she became one. 

The world didn't give her a chance. They thought she was bad, so she was bad. They thought she couldn't be a hero, so she didn't bother trying. She was everything they expected her to be, and they were still disappointed. It made no sense. How can you do everything everyone thinks you should, and be hated for it? 

To Willow, she wasn't the evil one. The world was. Every stupid person on this Earth was evil, right down to the core. They didn't want heroes or villains or justice, they just wanted entertainment. And she could entertain. 

Maybe she wanted to watch the world burn, but she didn't necessarily want to be the one who burned it. Still, she was the best fit for the job. She provided the fun they all needed to survive, and made sure their perfect little hero arrived just in time to steal the crown.

Willow wasn't a hero. She didn't have the tools necessary to be one. But Tidal did, and she seemed to enjoy it, so everything was fine. The world got what they wanted. 

~

Tidal always showed up early, but Willow knew that she would. It was the hero in her trying to stop the show before it started. She probably didn't worry about keeping the people happy. She was probably a perfectly nice little girl who truly wanted world peace or whatever. She probably didn't even care that people loved her. 

Because of this, Willow always watched her cameras to know when Tidal was on her way, and then she would go ahead of her and start. She always picked locations closer to her house than Tidal's for that reason alone. 

This time, though, when Willow saw the first glimpse of Tidal making her way to the spot she gave the police (an hour early, like always), she just watched her. It was obvious she was looking for something, and Willow had a pretty good idea of what it was.

Tidal was walking slower than normal, scanning the surrounding area. Willow's theory was proven correct when Tidal, once again, made eye contact with a camera lens. Willow stiffened, teeth clamping down on her lip. Tidal flew up to the height of the camera, peering in close. The frame shook a bit as she fiddled with it, but she didn't break or disconnect it. 

She went back to the ground and, for the first time, didn't make her way to where a fire would soon be spreading. And, for the first time, Willow didn't go set the fire. She watched from her room as Tidal sat down on the concrete, leaning against the brick wall, glancing up at the camera every so often and shrugging as if to say I'm here, where are you?

Willow almost went to meet her. A few times, she went as far as putting on her gloves and tying her shoes, but she always ended up right back in her chair, just watching. Tidal sat there, doing mostly nothing, for two hours before she left. And she must have flown home, because Willow didn't see her on the cameras again.