Chapter Text
Courtney was a wild card. So wild that even Shroud couldn’t predict her moves anymore.
At least, that was what she hoped. Because it would make her the only person who could still make a difference.
No matter what, she could not let Shroud take the Astral Pulse.
No pressure, right?
She ran up the half-destroyed stairs, taking them two at a time, suspecting she was already too late yet still praying she wasn’t.
Faster. Faster, for fuck’s sake.
*****
Everything went to shit the day Courtney decided to steal the Pulse.
The moment she pulled it out from that vault, she knew something was wrong. Expecting trouble, she pocketed the vial, hoping the empty case would fool whoever was lurking in the darkness. What she didn’t expect was to come face-to-face with Shroud himself.
There was no satisfaction in the fact that her little stunt had worked. She still lost. She was lying there on the ground, suffocating, Robert’s panicked voice screaming in her earpiece. She desperately wanted to tell him she still had the Pulse, but couldn’t force out a single word.
And then she was suddenly somewhere else, inhaler in hand, vision slowly returning. Chase was there too, and before she fully understood what had happened, he collapsed right in front of her.
The rest of the night was a blur. Chase - the center of it all. The Astral Pulse - forgotten. It wasn’t until Blonde Blazer told Courtney she was suspended that she remembered she still had it on her.
Keeping the Pulse to herself seemed like the most reasonable choice at the time. The thing was her only bargaining chip after all, and she didn’t want to play it just yet. Feeling angry and betrayed, she decided to wait and consider her options first.
Courtney would lie if she said that the idea of turning on SDN hadn’t crossed her mind. All the blame she had gotten felt so fucking unfair. She had been trying to do something good, hadn't she? She knew she’d fucked up. She didn’t need the others giving her shit for it.
After two days, she finally decided to come clean, hoping that Blazer and Z-Team had cooled down. Yet the things she heard in that conference room made her question everything once again. If most of her own team wanted her gone, then she would fucking go.
But of course Robert had to come and defend her in front of them. Of course he had to notice and follow her. Of course he had to be a fucking hero and forgive her after she finally told him what she’d done to him all those months ago.
Ashamed more than ever, she ran away again - another mistake that would haunt her. She should’ve told Robert about the Astral Pulse right then. If she had, then maybe they would’ve avoided what was about to come.
It was only after Shroud and Red Ring launched the all-out attack on the city that she learned Shroud knew she’d stolen the Pulse. And she learned it the hard way - having decided to help her team, she was on her way to the SDN base when she stumbled upon a group of Shroud’s goons.
She’d already been spotted. Even if she escaped this group, others would be on her within minutes. She could either risk that or risk something even crazier.
She didn’t let them take her to Shroud. She asked them to.
*****
It had been going so well. But then Shroud took Beef, and everything fell apart.
Courtney wasn’t sure he believed what he had said about her still working for him. What mattered was that Robert needed help, and Shroud’s words had given her a perfect opportunity to escape his thugs without alerting them. Pretending to be embarrassed, she’d turned invisible right in front of them all.
But it all turned out to be in vain anyway. The moment she pushed the roof access door open and heard the commotion outside, she knew she’d failed.
She almost gasped upon seeing Shroud sparking with renewed power, but somehow managed to hold her breath. She could see the Astral Pulse glowing on the side of his head.
Shit, maybe she could still creep up on him and rip it out? Or would his augments let him predict that now that he had the real Pulse? Did he already know she was here?
She took a hesitant step forward.
Then, all of a sudden, Shroud doubled up and started puking. His knees buckled, and he promptly fell to the ground.
What the fuck?
*****
Back on the boat, Courtney had to fight Shroud. She couldn’t simply give him the Pulse or tell him where it really was - she would’ve blown her cover in front of Robert otherwise. And she figured Shroud could still use her as a mole.
Because that’s what she was. A mole. A sleeper agent. Why else would she have come to Shroud willingly? Why else wouldn’t she have given the Pulse to Robert? Mecha Man would already be out there if she had!
Anyway, since she a) had no way of contacting Shroud, b) suspected SDN would monitor her movements, and c) couldn’t be caught carrying it, she had to hide the vial. Where? In the Mecha Man suit. What? Works on that thing have been suspended, so no one would stumble upon it, and even if they did, they would think it was just one of their shitty prototypes. That way it was safe from both SDN and any potential third parties still hoping to put their hands on it.
Her plan was to simply wait it out and retrieve it once things calmed down. She expected Shroud to contact her eventually. How was she supposed to know he would declare fucking war on the city all of a sudden? He’d been so patient for months!
So yeah, retrieving the Pulse would be a little tricky, but the situation also had its advantages. SDN would not refuse her help now if she showed up to fight off the attackers. They would not blink an eye if she walked into the building. They would be too preoccupied to keep an eye on her there.
Come on, going straight to their base with brute force could tip them off. Much better to do things quietly while all the supes were busy fighting elsewhere. Besides, she would get there much faster on her own.
In and out. The Pulse was practically Shroud’s already.
All of that was absolute bullshit, of course. A gamble. Yet somehow it worked.
Courtney was an excellent bullshitter after all. She wasn’t banned from all the poker dens for nothing. Alright, maybe that was actually because she’d also been robbing them, but still - her poker face was good as fuck.
Shroud, on the other hand, had a tendency to pretend that he knew more than he actually did. His ever-present aura of confidence made him look infallible, but the thing that was currently powering his augments wasn’t perfect. He wasn’t omnipotent. He could be fooled. And she’d managed to do just that.
She didn’t think he trusted her fully, but her plan was sound, and if Shroud wanted to get the Pulse, he had to go with it. Because the one thing he definitely believed was that she didn’t have that thing on her. After all, who would be stupid enough to fuck around carrying it, right? Fucking idiot.
Now all she had to do was pretend to work for SDN while pretending to work for Shroud and bring Robert the vial in the process. The tricky part was that no one could learn the whole truth. A lot of Shroud’s predictions were based on people’s behavior and body language - what others didn’t know, Shroud couldn’t guess. Probably.
Was it a good plan? Maybe not, but it was the best she could come up with. This way she could guarantee that Shroud’s attention would be focused on the SDN base. And if there was a good place to lure a villain, it was a superhero facility. Right?
*****
She stood there, still baffled, as Shroud clawed sloppily at the side of his head, trying to dig the Pulse out. A second vial fell out of his other hand. He reached for it, but only managed to push it further away as another wave of nausea and tremors came over him. Robert crouched and scooped the real Pulse up.
How he had managed to trick Shroud, she had no idea. But he'd done it. They won.
Oh, how satisfying it was to see Shroud trembling on the ground in pain as his augments shut down. To see him waver as he was pathetically trying to pick himself up. To see him so wobbly on his feet, clutching his side, reaching under his coat-
Wait.
“Sorry, kid… We both lose.”
In a quick motion, Shroud pulled out a gun and fired it at Robert.
“NOOOO!”
It didn’t matter that Courtney had already been running. She was too late anyway.
The bullet hit him straight in the heart.