Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"In this universe, rather than the four nations revolving around Water, Earth, Fire and Air, it's an atypical Earth from the US of A to the rising sun of Japan! In this case, variants of young Katara and her brother and father Sokka and Hakoda, this time with the surname of Innuksuk, had moved from Pangnirtung, Nunavut in Canada to Rockland, Maine in the United States due to a variety of factors such as the death of her mother and her father getting a new job."

"What happened to her mom, exactly?" Em asked out of concern.

"You'll see, soon enough." The Beyonder replied hastily.

He then continued, "Until one day, Katara received extraordinary abilities from Tui, the Moon Spirit! And after being nostalgic for a past pulp superhero, Katara has dedicated her life to fighting crime and the forces of evil thanks to her new superhero persona, The Painted Lady! But that's just a summarization, because here's the full story how she came to be and her very first night of fighting crime as the newly fresh arrival of a superhero; I call this story, Rise of the Painted Lady."

Earth-100507: Rockland, Maine (Bryke-DiMartino International Bank)

On the rooftop of Bryke-DiMartino International Bank, a lone figure jumped onto it with the use of water as a launcher as her hands moved in a rotating position. She landed with one knee on the ground and her foot on the ground.

The young girl, around age thirteen, stood up as she wore a bamboo hat with a weimao veil covering her face which had bright red facial marking make up all over her brown skinned face with a dragon face mask that covered her mouth and a crescent moon painted on her forehead. As well as a red cape that acted as a cloak or a gown that hid an all-blue wetsuit, blue and black gloves, a fanny pack around her waist alongside a water bottle that was attached to a hilt on her right side like a cowboy carrying a gun and appeared barefoot. To which was something of a hindrance as she felt something stab the bottom of her right foot.

With a yelp, she immediately sat down and examined her right bare foot. To her irritation, there were sharp pebbles on the bottom of her foot and her big toe. She quickly removed them and picked out a few more before she brushed her bare foot.

Thinking quickly, she reached into her fanny pack and took out a pair of red chucks. The young girl quickly placed the sneakers on her feet to much comfort and to her relief.

'Being barefoot may had worked for the OG somehow but not if you're in a modern-day state like Maine.' The girl remarked to herself in thought as she tied her shoes.

As she stood up, the girl could feel the chilly night despite being the summer season. She began to walk across the roof after exhaling a sigh. She was a bit nervous. Her first night as a superhero and she was taking a big plunge into it, even the most simple task of taking down burglars.

She then crouched down as she stopped at the edge of the roof. She eyed on a group of men, all dressed entirely in black from the hats to the clothes, had just broke into the bank. To her confusion, neither alarm sounded which the girl could only conclude it had to be an inside job. Not helping matters was the fact that there were a few security guards outside who were unconscious. She was careful enough to avoid being seen as she spied on the men who carried each bag of money to the two vehicles parked outside the front entrance; a black van and a large long nosed black truck with a large gray trailer.

She counted the robbers and her final count ended up being ten guys, which she figured was why there had to be so many men.

As she eyed on the robbers coming back and forth stealing the money, she thought back to how everything had led up to this moment. She thought back to how it had all started.

The young Inuit girl, Katara Innuksuk, was a resident of Pangnirtung, Nunavut. Her mother Kya had died last year. Katara remembered that her family had come across the Fire gang family; the Homura family. An infamous mafia that was run by Ozai Homura, who had been spreading his operations in Japan and the United States, before he eventually extended his influence onto Canda. Pangnirtung unfortunately being next on his sights for his operations.

The Homura family, Ozai in particular at least, after his father Azulon died under "mysterious circumstances" that were known only to the Homura family themselves, he took over operations. When the family had started, illegal betting was their main source of crime and financial benefits. When Ozai took over however, the illegal betting operations remained intact but extended to drug and weapons smuggling among their new deals.

What was worse was Ozai could even buy people their trust and protection from the police. Not helping matters were crooked cops and easily corruptible politicians getting in on Ozai's deals as he paid them well enough.

For Katara's mother Kya, it was only an accident she had discovered whatever misdeeds were being committed. One night, she only intended to make a quick trip to a nearby convenience store for school supplies for her children, Katara and Sokka, such as pencils and backpacks. Young Katara at seven years old, had come with her but opted to wait in the pickup truck while her mother had gone inside the store.

After leaving the store, Kya had heard a violent scuffle. The temptation to see what was the matter was strong but the decision was made for her regardless as a Caucasian man with dark hair dropped to the ground in front of her, appearing like a literal bloody mess. Kya covered her mouth in shock as she dropped the supplies and made a run for the pickup truck as Katara, who had witnessed the murder in shock herself, unlocked the doors quickly as she could.

But as she reached for the door, Katara had heard a loud bang and Kya had felt a sharp pain on her back. Katara cried out the word "mom" as soon as she saw the shocked look on her mother's face as she slumped down to the ground. The young Inuit girl was in tears-fearing the worst, as she instantly got out of the truck to be beside her mother.

"Mom!" Katara remembered the painful moment when she cried for her name. "Mom! Wake up!"

Katara then stared at the assailant who murdered her mom in cold blood; an older Japanese man with dark hair in a bun in a dark suit as he wielded a 9mm pistol and he walked away calmly without saying a single word. He disappeared into the shadows as Katara looked on in tears-distraught, grief and then of anger.

Despite the arrival of the ambulance and the police, Kya was unfortunately dead after arriving to the hospital. Her father and brother, Hakoda and Sokka, were in tears. Immediately grieving Kya's death. Katara grieved most of all, as if her heart had been shattered into a million pieces.

Over the years, Katara had blamed herself for not doing anything enough despite her father's assurance it was not her fault. Sokka was just as angry but did not blame his sister. What did they share however was suspecting the ties to the Homura family given it was no secret their influence had spread there and there were more gangs associated with them. But despite even going to the police, there was nothing they could do. Neither of the Innuksuk family bought it, Katara even suspecting much of the police were bought out by the Homuras. But she could not prove it. She wanted justice. She wanted to find her mother's killer and take down the Homura family empire once and for all. Unfortunately, that day was not now.

Not helped by the fact that relatively recently, when Katara was twelve, her father Hakoda had gotten a new job but it would require moving to Maine as he had gotten a job as a store manager at a local grocery chain. Katara protested as did Sokka on the account it would mean leaving their mother and their spirit. Hakoda sympathized but he had no choice, he had even said he wished Kya joined them. The siblings saw his father in tears and hugged him.

With reluctance, they agreed to go.

Katara and Sokka had given and waved their goodbyes to their friends and classmates from middle school and with all their belongings in the pickup truck and a large trailer attached on the hook of the back end of the truck, they drove away from Pangnirtung, the very place they had once called home.

Finally, they arrived at Rockland, Maine, which was where Hakoda had gotten his new job. They moved into a suburban neighborhood. Vastly different from the homes they were accustomed to in Pangnirtung. In Pangnirtung, the homes were more community based compared to the standard way of American living such as in Maine. Katara was still not happy with the arrangement. But she had to learn to live with it for her father's sake. Sokka felt the same way. He felt had to be strong regardless.

Things did not get any easier when Katara and Sokka started going to Whitman Middle School. Katara felt home sick but Sokka attempted to adjust. Though she did meet who she considered a cute boy from a distance who was named Aang, as he was sympathetic to her as he too, felt like he was an outsider and did not know his family much. It did give her some solace when she met him.

The only other comfort she had upon moving was a next door neighbor of hers. To her delight, she was also from Pangnirtung. A buff and strong Inuit sixteen-year-old girl named Korra, who Katara could only describe as a very friendly jock. Korra was especially sympathetic to her neighbor's plight based on the circumstances she was told. Korra at the very least, was overjoyed either way she had gotten to meet someone else from Pangnirtung.

Katara felt comfortable with presence, now feeling like she was not alone finally. Even comfortable enough to have told Korra the full story of what had been going on in her life. Korra gave her the reassurance the young girl needed, that someday her mother's killer will be brought to justice.

Life had gone on despite the massive changes.

But on one faithful day, something changed.

A hurricane was heading toward Maine. A rare occurrence in the state but one that Maine residents were prepared for should one had come. Earlier in the day, Katara had been at the beach all day, specifically at Birch Point at Owl's Head. She had gone there to clear her mind. It was after an argument she had with her brother about the frustration of not bringing her mother's killer to justice.

A family friend of Hakoda who was a private detective in his own right, had informed them who it was that murdered Kya. It was a man named Yon Rha, on loan from the Yakuza to the Homura family. Not necessarily one of the top ten assassins but was often effective in his assignments but because there was lack of evidence, there was nothing anyone could have done to indict him.

Katara and Sokka overheard such a phone call, which prompted a debate as Katara wanted vengeance but Sokka, a pessimist claiming to be a realist, shot down any attempt to bring him to justice given Yon Rha had total protection by the Homura family. The siblings fought until Katara was fed up and went outside to clear her mind.

Suddenly, the clouds began to darker and the winds began to pick up as well. Katara instantly knew it was bad news. She cursed herself that she had been going out for hours, especially as it was near six o'clock. Immediately, she ran for her life but the tides were coming in strong and the wind picked up immediate speed.

Katara attempted to search for shelter but none were on her path and as a result, she felt as if she were being picked up a few feet off the ground. To her horror, the wind had blown her into the water where immediately, the tides had engulfed her.

She remembered how helpless she felt and how she frantically tried to swim back to shore but to no avail. Katara then remembered after the water came rushing onto her, she was knocked out.

Surprisingly, she did not feel like she had died. She was not responding to anything, yes but she was not dead. Katara remembered she felt weightless, no doubt thanks to being in the water. She then remembered a flood of specific memories coming back to her. It was when she was a little girl, no older than six, it was bedtime and her mother Kya was beside her with a book in her hands.

"Mom…" Katara remembered her six-year-old self talking to her mother. "Can you read The Painted Lady again?"

"Which one sweetheart?" Asked Kya.

Katara remembered her mother was a fan of the pulp superhero from Japan, The Painted Lady. The character first had a collection of novels, before jumping into Manga and then brought over to the United States and Canada as comic books. Two TV shows made in the three aforementioned countries in the 60s, 70s and 80s respectively, and those were after motion picture serials in the 40s, before they evolved into feature films in the 50s. And finally, a divisively received film in 1994 where reception was mixed, fans either liked it or hated it. The general public did not unfortunately seem enthused about it. Not helped it was sandwiched between a hit blockbuster animated film and a hit comedy on its release date. Rumors circulated about a new film adaptation of The Painted Lady roamed about the internet however.

In any case, The Painted Lady was a favorite superhero of her mother, who passed it down to her own daughter. She became Katara's favorite superhero as well. She remembered the book Kya read to her that time; The Sinister Snake. Where The Painted Lady fought against a group of snake themed villains.

Katara remembered next that she was engulfed by a bright light. She remembered finding herself floating mid-air in a bright but endless void. It was there that she saw something peculiar; a white koi fish with a black spot on its head.

"Katara Innuksuk…" The fish spoke to her in a booming voice.

"Who…are you…what are you?!" Katara remembered asking the fish in shock.

"I am Tui." The koi introduced himself. "I am the Moon Spirit."

Katara could only react surprise but did question the existence of such a thing but Tui shot it down on the account of things were unknown for a reason.

"Young Katara, you have much potential. A strong heart but yet, you have gone through so much." She recalled Tui speaking to her. "You care about justice. Do you wish for those to go through what you have?"

"No." She replied. "I don't ever want to see kids lose their parents to murderers."

"Then I will grant you such unbelievable power than you can ever imagine." Tui said. "You will be granted the ability to control water however you please but remember, use this to help others in need. Bring forth justice to those who were wronged."

"Do you accept?" He then asked.

"I do…" Katara replied without a second thought.

"Then you will be granted this extraordinary power." Tui said. "Use my gift wisely and to its fullest potential!"

After another flash of light, Katara then found herself lying on the ground. As she bolted upward whilst gasping for air briefly, she breathed and exhaled to calm herself. Only to see yet another shock of her life. The ocean departed. Katara made a startled gasp at the sight of it all. She then remembered what happened; the Moon Spirit. He granted her the power. Katara slowly and hesitantly brushed her fingers alongside the water and did so with her other hand on the right. She was amazed at the sight of it all; it was like touching through a wall.

She then saw because the water departed into a pathway, it gave a clear way for her to get back to shore. Something did not need to be spoken to her twice. Katara ran down the path and easily landed back on shore. She turned around to see the ocean that was once departed, went back to its normal form.

Katara breathed in amazement. She then looked up to the sky to see it had returned to normal. Katara wondered if the hurricane had fully passed and if it did continue, how long had she been knocked out. Nevertheless, she ran back to her home-figuring her brother and father were worried about her. When she returned home, Katara created a cover story that she had found shelter in a cabin she had found deep in a forest.

Nevertheless, both father and brother were relieved she was fine. Katara figured they would just not believe what had actually happened to her. For now, she had to keep the secret to herself. And Katara knew just what to do with her newfound gifts.

Over the past few months, she had been getting into martial arts training and as well as training her newfound, what she would at least call, waterbending abilities. Where she could control water, even use it for all sorts of methods like a whip or even freeze instantly. Katara had been training in after school, but the cover story she had in mind was she had been taking yoga via YouTube videos. The cover story she told her father and brother, who were none the wiser. It had also given her an excuse to make her costume. Katara had been inspired by The Painted Lady when she had retreated to her room after that faithful day and stared at her collection of Painted Lady novels and comics her mother culminated over the years and was passed down to her own daughter.

And considering she and Sokka shared a room together, making her costume with him around was not an option for her.

But Korra by accident, had discovered what her neighbor was doing and had become when she found Katara training in the woods with her waterbending abilities. Korra had been practicing yoga in solitude but did not count on finding Katara in the same forest she usually practiced in. Thankfully, Korra decided to cover for her neighbor out of respect. She had become Katara's secret keeper and confidant. Katara was relieved to at least tell someone or she would have had gone insane according to her.

In addition, she had finally completed her costume as she managed to complete the rest in Korra's room in confidential terms. With a wetsuit Korra had been able to buy for her and the two pooled their resources for other supplies, Katara had finally managed to complete her costume.

Katara debated with her herself whether to keep a mask for the lower half of her face or not but decided to keep it anyway, just in case of not wanting anyone to recognize her in any way or at least identify her face.

In any case, Katara was satisfied with the costume upon her first fitting as she examined herself in the mirror in Korra's room.

"I'd say that's a good look for you." Katara remembered Korra saying to her that boosted her confidence.

Katara nodded in agreement. And now, tonight was the night. Aside from promising Korra to let her know how her first night as a superhero had went, Katara pretended to be asleep around 11:00 P.M. She had counted on Sokka being a heavy sleeper, which she was not wrong as she threw the covers off, which revealed her superhero costume underneath and as she grabbed her fanny pack after stuffing the red chucks inside, as well as grabbing her water bottle and finally, her bamboo hat with the weimao veil and the dragon face mask, she opened her window, but not before taking a glance at her brother. With that, she leapt out of the window and landed on her two bare feet and ran off into the night to find whatever crimes would come her way.

Katara finally shook her head after pinching the bridge between her nose after much reminiscing about the past. Tonight was the present. As she looked down again at the burglars still robbing the bank with every bag of money imaginable, plus with the gold bars they had decided to include, mainly for the truck. Katara appeared tense but quickly breathed in and exhaled in order to calm herself.

"Well, here it goes." Katara said to herself. "This is it, no turning back now. My first night in the trenches as a superhero."

"That's the last of it." Said one of the men in black to his leader, one slightly bigger than the others, as he placed one of the bags of money into the van and one more gold bar into the truck.

"This was too easy of a job!" He exclaimed greedily.

Suddenly, they noticed a shadow standing upright as it was illuminated by the street lights. They were startled upon the sight and then, as they looked up to the roof, the figure yelled her battle cry as she made her superhero landing-crouching on one knee before she stood up.

An awkward silence soon filled the air as the young girl superhero's eyes nervously darted back and forth.

She cleared her throat and shouted to the burglars, "Alright, nobody move!"

"Who's this brat?" The head burglar, a Caucasian man, asked in disbelief as he recognized it was a thirteen-year-old girl.

"I mean, get down on the floor! And hands up!" Katara shouted, attempting to sound firm.

"You serious?" An African-American male remarked in disbelief as well, borderline chuckling.

"You all heard me!" Katara angrily insisted.

"Yeah, you heard her, boys." The head burglar smirked as he took out a 9mm pistol.

Katara nervously watched all the men either take out guns or knives as they menacingly approached her.

"Go back to playing with dollies, girly." One of the men taunted her.

"Yeah, go do some makeup and stuff like that." Another man condescended to her.

That was enough to upset Katara as if it was bad enough that she had dealt with sexism either from her brother or any dumb male jock on the basketball team at her school.

Immediately, she took the cap off her water bottle and immediately used water as a whip as she hit the man who made the last sexist remark upside his chin, the momentum was enough to knock him out. Followed by whipping away a knife from one of the men and then using her waterbending to hit him in the crotch and sweep his legs.

She did the same maneuver again to another of the burglars and then hit another one directly in the face.

"Hey, man!" The burglar screamed in pain as he grasped his face. "That hurt! I thought water was soft!"

Katara once again used the water to hit him in the crotch like someone using a towel as a whip.

Suddenly, a few of the men fired their guns. With a startled yell, Katara used the water as a shield-even without thinking it. The bullets stopped as soon as they hit the water much to her surprise but then smirked as she used her waterbending to drop the bullets onto the floor.

"Bro, what the hell?!" Another burglar exclaimed to the leading one.

Then, she used the water as a whip again and hit the other men in the face, in the nose and eyes even. Followed by even slapping each of the men in the face via her waterbending before jumping and kicking one of them down and then fighting them in hand-to-hand combat, which she managed to take down with somewhat ease with her waterbending aiding her in the process.

A few of the men now opted to just directly hit her but Katara in turn, either used the water to punch them in the face or directly kick them in the chest or upside their chins with an uppercut punch. She repeated the process but one burglar in particular snuck up on her from behind and grabbed her but managed to butt her head backwards into his face, which caused him to let go of her.

"You broke my nose, you bi-" The man cried out in pain as he grabbed his bleeding nose.

Katara then cut him off as she leapt up and kicked him across the face. Three more of the male burglars lunged at her with a knife or just flat out tried to grab her but Katara once again managed to gain the upper hand as she used the water to freeze his feet in place, a trick she had learned by accident during training.

Immediately, Katara jumped toward his chin and kicked it upside that was enough to knock him out on his back with his frozen feet still stuck to the ground.

Followed by using the water to grab the knife from the second to last man who attempted to lunge at her. And then used the water as a whole fist to punch him in the face and was strong enough to knock him out.

Finally, the last man attempted to just straight up punch but Katara proved fast enough to dodge his blows and promptly used a blast of water to push him, downright blast him to a wall, which promptly knocked him out upon hitting his head.

Satisfied, Katara placed the water back into the bottle as she smirked in triumph.

"That should quinch their thirst." Katara quipped.

Suddenly, she yelped as she was startled by the sound of a shotgun firing. Katara whirled around to see to her shocking realization, she had forgotten about the leader of the burglars. The head burglar fired his shotgun at her at point blank range, to which the young Inuit girl promptly ducked to avoid getting hit. He fired again and again multiple times, just as Katara managed to unleash the water and used her waterbending skills to deflect the bullets away should any come near her.

Finally, the man ran out of shotgun shells and tossed the gun inside and went inside the truck, promptly ditching his men altogether. With the ignition started, the truck began to move forward and drove away.

"No, you don't!" Growled Katara.

With that, she bolted away as she ran after the truck in hot pursuit.

"Did he just ditch us?" One of the men who was previously knocked out groggily asked before he passed out again.

Katara had managed to catch up with the truck and immediately used her waterbending to propel herself on top of the truck like a rocket. The man saw her action on the rearview mirror as he drove fast to get away from her and the crime scene. But he reacted in shock upon seeing the girl propel herself upward with water and attempted to drive faster.

Because the truck was in a tight space as it drove along downtown Rockford, the maneuver of trying to shake her off was out of the question. The lead burglar had to find a more creative way to shake her off. The best maneuver he could think however was speeding up. He did not even care which car he would have had run over. Not helped by the fact that he ran over an empty police car that was parked near a donut shop.

Katara looked on in shock, if only because she realized he was trying to shake her off, especially as she felt a bump that had almost threw her off the truck but managed to keep her feet grounded.

The burglar did not stop driving the car recklessly. He even drove through street lights in the process in his attempt to throw off Katara hoping the impacts would throw her off. And once again, Katara struggled to keep her balance as she could feel like slipping and falling off the trailer truck at every moment. What at least kept her afloat was using the water, even from the sweat she started to have pouring down her face and form into some kind of hook and rope in which she froze the top only after forming it into an arrow and pierced through the top of the trailer truck.

Among those who witnessed the event and managed to keep out of the way was a MacLaren MP4-12C police car with a purple missile launcher on top and a purple symbol of a beak-like insignia with two dashes underneath. The police car eyed on the girl on top and had witnessed her using her waterbending abilities.

"So that's another superhero in this universe." The police car said with a sneer.

Despite her feet firmly being planted into the trailer, she still felt a bit of rocky turbulence. She heard the sound of cars being crushed much to her horror, hoping no one was crushed. Some bystanders had either swerved in different directions, hit the brakes or simply got out of the cars in order to avoid being crushed. Katara slipped at one point before pulling herself up thanks to the frozen water acting as a rope for her.

Finally, she managed to carefully walk her way through the trailer and carefully got on top of the truck itself as she slowly lifted her left foot first and placed it firmly on top, followed by her right and repeated the same. Katara sighed in relief as she had managed to stand up on the moving vehicle. With fierce determination, she prepared to use her water bending again.

As the burglar felt he was home free, he gave out a startled yell as Katara began using the water once again as a whip or more accurately, act as a hammer, to break the glass open.

The truck started to swerve out of control but only for a bit as the burglar still managed to drive straight again. Nevertheless, Katara continued her attempt to break the truck window open. The burglar then pressed on the brakes that halted the truck for a brief moment and Katara as a result fell off the top. She had managed to however, hang onto the long nose front of the truck just as the burglar pressed on the accelerator again to keep on driving.

As a consequence, she had lost most of the water with only half of it had returned to the water bottle. She hung onto the long nosed truck for her dear life and she attempted to think of how to stop the truck. Katara looked around for any potential sources of water to use or consider still trying to break open the window but the latter option she realized would be too risky to pull off.

'Think, think, think, think, think!' Katara rapidly thought in a panic.

Katara then eyed on the truck's wheels and then remembered how much sweat had been pouring out of her head. Combined with what remained of her water bottle, she instantly had an idea. With her right hand free, she lifted it and used the water from the bottle and the sweat. She contorted her fingers to create dagger shaped water and using her forefinger and second finger together, she had managed to create sharp icicles out of them and then threw them at the wheels.

Each of the icicles were sharp enough to puncture through the tires. Strong enough to pop a few of the ones.

The truck finally went out of control and the burglar screamed in terror as not only he could feel the truck got a few inches shorter but was out of control until he finally felt the truck had gotten lighter.

The truck had completely tipped over on its left side with Katara still hanging onto the long nosed front of the truck. It had begun to slide with sparks flying out of the gravel road. Katara herself gritted her teeth as she could not bear the scratching noise. Not helping matters was as she briefly glanced backwards to see much to her horror, the very grocery store her dad was working at as store manager; Sir-Saves-A-Lot. Katara closed her eyes and prayed to herself the truck will not hit the store and cost her father her job.

The truck continued to slide as she hung onto her dear life, she braced herself for potentially the worst as she closed her eyes whilst feeling her heart racing.

Until finally, she felt as if everything had stopped moving. Katara opened her eyes and to her relief, the truck had only managed to cease sliding a few inches away from the store. Nothing had crashed. The truck was not in good shape however but it was to be expected. Katara then leapt up onto the door to see the burglar lying still.

Katara was worried he might have died as killing a man was the last thing she had wanted to do. But upon closer inspection, not only she had seen him breathing but he made a noise of groaning which showed he was still alive, just unconscious.

Katara was relieved this was the case. With that, she promptly opened the door, much to her shock but figured it was the result of the truck being tipped over that the lead burglar might pressed a button that unlocked the doors by accident. Or that he had never locked it all.

Nevertheless, Katara dragged his unconscious body out of the truck and had to do it quickly as possible as she heard police sirens from a distance. While she leapt off the truck, the body went down and hit the ground with a slight thud, something she cringed out of concern and hoped he would not feel any extra pain afterwards.

Katara managed to get him to lay down upright on the top of the truck and gently placed him there. As the police sirens grew closer, Katara ran from the scene and fled to avoid being seen. The police cars had arrived and much of the officers upon leaving their vehicles were left confused over the sight.

"What the hell happened here?" One of the officers, a Chinese-American man, had said in confusion.

"Maybe one of the security cameras can tell us what happened." Said an African-American male police officer.

Katara ran away for an hour or so, desperately avoiding the cops and she tried to keep out of sight. She ran and ducked into each alleyway in the hopes of avoiding detection. And especially hoped she would avoid the cops for long.

In the last alleyway, she narrowly avoided being seen by another incoming police car. Katara could feel more sweat pouring from her face. It somewhat smeared the makeup paint.

"Sweat, can't fix that." She said quietly to herself in disappointment.

Suddenly, she heard a voice cry out for help. Katara peered from the alleyway to see a Caucasian man manhandling a woman of Chinese-Mexican descent in a waitress work uniform which Katara pegged to be from a nearby diner. The event happened at a bus stop. Katara did not expect another event that would require her services as a superhero immediately. But she answered the call as her eyes narrowed-glaring at the man harassing the poor woman.

"Lady!" The man snarled as he started to bruise the woman's wrists. "Go back to your fucking country!"

"Hey!"

The man and the waitress turned around to see Katara standing in the light of a street lamp with her head tilting downward.

"It's past your bed time, little girl!" The man laughed as the waitress looked on in confusion.

Katara's head lifted straight as she showed her death glaring eyes and her facemask.

"I was gonna tell you to let her go," Said Katara. "But it sounds like you won't listen. So we're gonna have to do this the hard way."

"And what are you gonna do to-" The man was about to say in an arrogant smug fashion before he was cut off mid-sentence.

He was hit in the face by the water from what remained of Katara's water bottle like a whip. The man screamed in pain and by accident, he let the waitress go much to her relief. In turn, the waitress used pepper spray on her attacker's eyes, which increased the pain as he continued to scream.

Finally, Katara lunged at the offender and promptly stomped on his foot, knee punched him in the crotch, punched him upside his chin and finally, kicked him across the face. A kick that was powerful enough to knock him out as he landed unconscious on the sidewalk-face first.

"Thanks!" The waitress exclaimed in gratitude.

"You're welcome!" Katara softly smiled, satisfied she had helped someone in need.

"Wait!" The waitress cried out before Katara was going to start running.

She turned to the waitress as she asked, "What's your name?"

Without missing a beat, she replied, "Just call me The Painted Lady!"

With that, she ran off again into the night much to the amazement of the waitress who now knew the name of her savior. With a triumphant cry, she continued to run as Katara felt the adrenaline after helping the waitress.

'Man, that was awesome!' Katara thought to herself as she smiled.

It was around 1 am when Katara returned to her neighborhood, discreetly as she could as she began to walk calmly to avoid suspicion in case anyone was still up. She was thankful however it was the start of the weekend, so she did not have to worry about waking up for school and appear tired and exhausted after not getting enough sleep.

Katara finally found her home after moments of searching, she was starting to feel exhausted after running, especially since it became apparent there was going to be no more crime to fight for the rest of the night.

Finally, Katara had reached her home and tipped toe quietly around to find her bedroom window upstairs. She was thankful however that there was a tree for her to climb on and it was not too high regardless.

With a sigh, she climbed up on the branches of the tree and slowly did so as she did not wish to wake up her brother. She carefully caught up to the window and slowly went inside with her left foot touching the floor. Katara cringed as she was worried about the small creak but nothing that woke him up. She repeated the process again with her right foot slowly and tip toed still to stay quiet as she removed much of her costume and shoved it into the closet and quickly changed into her blue pajamas and quickly got into bed and fell asleep immediately.

The next day had occurred; a Saturday. And Katara woke up feeling a bit refreshed. She eyed on the phone on her night table and stared at a few things in surprise. For one, it was noon. Katara figured she slept a few extra hours due to how tired she was from all that running and crime fighting. And she had especially noticed her brother Sokka had left already as his bed was empty.

The second she noticed was a text message from Korra. She pressed her finger on the message tab and it read:

Dude, have you seen this?!

On her text message, it contained a YouTube link. Katara was instantly intrigued as she sat up to look at the YouTube video.

It was indeed a news report from WABI, one of the local news stations near Rockland where an African-American woman news reporter in a professional suit was standing outside her father's store where the truck was being towed away and the lead burglar arrested after being fully conscious again.

"I'm here at Sir-Saves-A-Lot in Rockland where just now, not only was a Peterbilt truck being towed away but the man responsible for an attempted robbery last night was none other than Isaacs Lemmele, a former security guard who was fired five months ago for unnecessary roughness toward customers."

Katara watched on with interest as she thought, 'Huh, so that was the guy's name.'

The reporter continued on, "But the biggest surprise was what was caught on security cameras on both at Sir-Saves-A-Lot and the Bryke-DiMartino International Bank…"

The news report then cut to Katara's battle with the burglars using her waterbending abilities. As well as cutting to next the moment of the truck sliding toward the Sir-Saves-A-Lot store. Katara watched the news with nervous and anxious yet excitable interest.

"As you can see, a mysterious stranger had not only stopped the robbery but managed to catch all the robbers and avoided what could have been a massive accident despite damage to the various vehicles earlier."

To Katara's pleasant surprise, the footage then cut to the waitress she had saved later in the night.

"The heroics didn't stop there as an eyewitness saw this mysterious girl save her from a hate crime and the surprising identity of the hero herself."

"I was just waiting at the bus stop…" Began the waitress whose caption identified her as Selena Diaz-Chen. "And someone tried to beat me up but then this girl who calls herself The Painted Lady saved my life!"

The footage then cut to the 1994 Painted Lady movie Katara had seen with her mother when she was a child of The Painted Lady herself fighting gangsters shooting at her.

"Could this hero have a connection to the beloved superhero The Painted Lady? Time will tell if that's the case and if she'll show up again." The reporter said. "This is Peggy Wilcox, signing off!"

The video ended with Katara smiling in satisfaction as she laid back in her bed. Despite a few hiccups, she had managed to pull off her first night as a superhero.

"Yo, Katara!" She then heard a new voice that startled her.

Katara fell out of bed and out of fright, she felt her heartbeat which to her relief, it was acting fine despite being startled. She then climbed up to see Korra literally outside the bedroom window as she had climbed all the way up as well.

"See my text?" Asked Korra.

"That I did." Katara replied with a smile and a nod.

Later that night after Katara and Korra gushed over how successful Katara's first night as The Painted Lady had gone as Katara went into all the details as to how she managed to pull it off, which she described as exhilarating but also nerve-wracking, all while drinking mugs of hot chocolate Hakoda had made.

"Wow, that was quite something!" Korra said, impressed with the entire story.

"Thanks." Katara softly smiled. "I think I can pull this off."

"Well you kind of have to now." Said Korra. "Great power and something about responsibility."

Katara nodded in agreement as she took a sip of her hot chocolate.

Later that night, Katara had once again snuck out during the night, this time under the guise of sleeping over at Korra's home. The only hard part was Korra preventing her parents from talking with Hadoka to prevent suspicion his daughter was not at home.

As Katara stood on another rooftop in her costume as The Painted Lady, she eyed on the downtown city below her-searching for whatever crime that could happen at anytime. A thousand thoughts ran through her mind as she hoped things will not suddenly turn to tragedy at any moment. Sure, the first night had went well but the future can be unpredictable. Those were the main worries she had on her mind. But nevertheless, she knew the risks. She always knew there were always going to be risks being a superhero and being given extraordinary powers. Maybe that was really why she was chosen by the Moon Spirit.

Katara was ready for the risks.

Suddenly, she heard screaming. Katara looked down on the right side of the building and noticed a gang in leather and swastika symbols on their arm brands cornering a lesbian couple. Katara's eyes narrowed and promptly jumped down and landed on her own two feet. The Nazi gang turned around and saw The Painted Lady but before any of them had time to react, Katara punched a Nazi directly into his face with a force of rushing water like a large pipe shooting out water.

Helping matters was Katara now being armed with four water bottles. And with that, Katara lunged into action-ready to take down the Nazi themed gang as she let out a scream of righteous fury.

With that, the painting changed back to its original state as it concluded the origin story.

"Alright, her I can get behind!" Said Zarya, impressed with the latest superhero variant.

"SHE'S…SO…AWESOME!" Piper exclaimed in excitement.

"Water powers are so cool with her hitting bad guys in the face!" Piper continued as she made her own water sound effects for emphasis and even demonstrating a kick or two. "Woosh! Splash! Kicking them in the face! Hi-Yah! We should definitely do a superhero team up with her!"

"I can't imagine what it's like to lose a mother." Arkayna said in a somber tone. "I almost lost mine and I was lucky."

Zarya stared at her sister with sympathy in her eyes, completely understanding her position given her adoptive parents. To which Arkayna delivered the expression back.

"We both are." Zarya said.

"Katara certainly had a lot of quick thinking in her first night as a superhero." Em chimed in to lighten the mood a bit.

"I do wish to know though, did Katara ever find her mother's killer?" Arkayna asked.

"As a matter of fact, yes she did." Replied The Beyonder. "Ironically, her mother's killer just so happened to be in Maine three months later. And well, you can imagine Katara taking full advantage of the news."

The painting changed again, this time, the Mysticons had now witnessed the aftermath of a huge battle in a hat factory that was used as a front to cover the fact it had been a homebase of operations for Yon Rha and his own men. Much of his men had been beaten up by The Painted Lady herself. Men were either thrown around, punched or kicked in the face as many of them were knocked unconscious after sustaining various injuries.

Not helped by how wrecked the factory looked during such a big battle. Even despite the rough battles, Katara had been careful enough not to have killed anyone as she figured doing so would not affect her mental health well. Plus, she was no murderer and she knew it.

However, Katara even suffered some injuries of her own as some men managed to lay a few punches to her and suffered some cuts that were slashed across her arms. Katara appeared exhausted as she panted and breathed heavily. She felt a bit of blood dropping from her mouth, to which she wiped off with her left arm.

"Gross." She sighed.

Her eyes then narrowed and morphed into a death glare as Katara saw her target; Yon Rha. He had sustained injuries himself after a much fierce battle with Katara as The Painted Lady. It was a fight for the most part she did not hold back on as she used every waterbending arsenal to fight him and subsequently injure, avoided all his weaponry and even some hand-to-hand combat skills. Katara had fought furiously until she had finally taken him down.

Yon Rha crawled away backwards to get away from The Painted Lady as she menacingly approached him.

"No place to run or hide." Katara said darkly as her angry glare never left her face.

In one desperate attempt, he pulled out a knife to which Katara used her waterbending to slap it away from him. He experienced sharp pain as he yelled when the water was hard enough to give him even a bruise on his right hand.

Finally, Katara used her waterbending out of the two remaining water bottles, other two she had lost during the battle, to create small streams and used them to grab him and wrap around him entirely. She lifted him up and Yon Rha began to feel as if his body was being crushed.

"You murdered an innocent woman in front of her own child." Katara said calmly but in a dark manner and careful enough to avoid her identity being revealed.

"Who did I murder?" Asked Yon Rha.

In response, Katara pounded him onto the pavement-face first before moving him closer face to face. He stared into her eyes with the look of fear on his face. If earlier did not convince him The Painted Lady was not playing things lightly, this would.

"You know damn well who!" Katara snarled in anger as her voice grew deeper. "A little girl was distraught to see her own mother die at your hands…by your gun! And you're telling me you don't remember?!"

Yon Rha stammered, not knowing what to say other than expressing fear or struggling to answer what that would be enough to satisfy her.

"I should kill you myself for what you've done!" Katara darkly said.

Yon Rha screamed in a mad panic as he closed his eyes and braced for what will come.

Suddenly, he made contact with the ground below. He fell on his back he realized as he opened his eyes. Yon Rha looked up to see The Painted Lady herself still glaring at him, still giving him chills to match her cold and glaring demeanor.

"I won't however." Katara said.

"Why…?" He asked.

"One, you were too pathetic to even fight back." Katara began to explain herself. "Two, you were expecting it. You closed your eyes and braced yourself. You were hoping to escape accountability for your actions. I'm not going to allow that. All that just makes you a pathetic worm of a man."

"With all the morals I have in the world," She added. "Even if I did decide to forgo them, you wouldn't be worth it in the end. You're just that pathetic. I rather you live in fear and shame from your peers, living out the rest of your pathetic life like the loser you are. You probably still lived with your mother."

Yon Rha was shocked at the last sentence, how did she even know he had still lived with his mother, he wondered.

Suddenly, without warning, a stream of water shaped like a fist punched him directly into his face and knocked him out completely.

"I'll leave you here for anyone to decide." Katara said as she began to walk away and the water retreating back into one of the water bottles.

Katara then took out from underneath her cape that was taped inside; a hard drive plug. One that contained everything about the Homura family's previous targets including her mother. With an envelope she had that was labeled "Evidence of murders", she placed it inside his jacket as she hoped the police will find it.

With that, she propelled herself out of the factory with the water like a rocket and the visual ended as the painting morphed back into its original form.

"And spoiler alert, it did incriminate him finally." Said The Beyonder. "There, your happy ending! Happy, Piper?"

"Yes!" Piper nodded enthusiastically. "Was that really so hard?"

"You suck the fun out of everything!" Whined The Beyonder, right before he stuck his tongue at Piper.

The Mysticon elf girl promptly did the same much to Em's amusement.

"At least that's one promise he kept." Zarya snarked.

"Were there any others villains she fought?" Arkayna asked The Beyonder.

"Funny you should ask," Replied The Beyonder. "She has all sorts of villains, not just the Homura family."

The painting once again changed and now showed Katara going up against various enemies as The Painted Lady.

There was Katara as The Painted Lady who had encountered a red 1958 Plymouth Fury as on a dark road in Derry, Maine, the car drove toward her just as she stood up after what the Mysticons presumed to be in the middle of a rough battle.

As the car charged at her, she used the water to create a buzzsaw-like shape and froze it, especially to punctuate the bladed tips. As the car attempted to ram into her, it instead rammed itself into the icy buzzsaw and was cut in half. The Mysticons stared in amazement at the sight of it all.

Followed by Katara fighting off against a bald man in a tailored black suit as he fired combustible blasts at her from his third eye on his forehead.

Katara then fought a man in the extravagant clothing of an ancient Pharoah meant to resemble Osiris. Katara was surprised to see him transform into a giant with stone-like skin and attempted to crush her but Katara jumped around to avoid to his incoming fists in an attempt to hit her but she nevertheless used her waterbending and martial arts abilities to fight him off and even used waterbending to hit him in the eyes.

Then there was Katara fighting against a monster who was disguised as a clown. The clown tried shapeshifting into the worst fears of his other victims and hers but she managed to fight back with her waterbending as she used the water as knives to cut him that they formed into icy daggers.

"She even fought the Cybermen, one of the Doctor's greatest foes." The Beyonder added.

Katara then fought against a group of metallic beings as they fired their weaponry at her to which she either dodged jumping or shielded herself with the water.

Next, Katara fought against a group of bikers who called themselves pirates as she managed to throw off each one off their bikes when they lunged at her one by one.

Then on the next scenario, Katara fought against a half-elf and half demon being in blue armor and armed with a large sword to which she fought valiantly against.

"And of course, her greatest nemesis…" Said The Beyonder.

In what appeared to be the damaged remains of a Hibachi restaurant, Katara as The Painted Lady found herself circling a young Japanese girl around her age with her raven black hair tied into a bun and wore red themed regal attire. The two circled each other as Katara had streams of water around her hands while her opponent gave an evil smirk of confidence as her hands emitted blue flames. Katara had a fierce look of determination on her face and the two benders charged at each other and screamed their battle cries as they jumped in mid air and prepared to clash at each other.

With that, the painting morphed back into its original form once again.

"But that one is a story for another time." Said The Beyonder.

"She's sure got a lot of adventures ahead of her then!" Em remarked in amazement.

"I know!" The Beyonder chuckled. "She's gonna go through the usual trials and tribulations of being a superhero."

"Of course, that's always the fun part to behold." He then added. "As often these stories go."

"So, what's next on the tour?" Asked Zarya.

"I'm glad you asked!" The Beyonder replied excitedly. "Because this next one is a doozy!"

"If you follow me, please." He added as he laid down with his hands behind his head in a relaxing position in midair and began to float away whilst grinning.

"Not gonna lie, I'm morbidly curious what he's gonna show us next." Said Zarya.

"Provided he doesn't trick us again." Said Arkayna with a suspicious tone in her voice.

"That too." Zarya nodded in agreement, equally wary of The Beyonder's actions.

"I want to see the next superhero he's gonna show!" Piper exclaimed in excitement. "That Katara is awesome-tacular!"

"I wouldn't mind him talking about the Fantastic Four." Em concurred with her friend.

"Whatever it is, let's keep an eye out." Said Arkayna as she began walking to follow The Beyonder.

As the Mysticons began to follow, a portrait caught Zarya's eye with much interest. She walked over to a portrait of a young woman in her early twenties who wore a red outfit with a red hood, black pants with a few red outlines including the knee pads along with a red domino eye mask as she aimed one of her red tipped arrows at an unseen enemy-ready for action.

Her display plaque read as such,

Thea Queen, Speedy

Of Earth-1

Sister of Oliver Queen, a hero in her own right.

"I'm not changing my nickname. I like Speedy."

Zarya made a noise of interest and said out loud, "Dorky name aside, I'm definitely making a new list. A list of crushes and she's the next one on it!"

"Oh, she looks cool!" Piper chimed in as she suddenly stood next to Zarya.

Zarya gave off a startled yell as she jumped back an inch.

"Don't do that!" Zarya chided her friend.

"Sorry!" Piper apologized. "Guess I have much fun doing that these days."

"It's cool." Said Zarya. "With how it's just the four of us putting aside the Beyonder, this place can get too quiet."

"Don't want to make Kitty jealous though…" Piper sang in a teasing manner.

"She'd get it!" Zarya blushed furiously. "How many times do I have to say that?"

"I'm just teasing!" Piper giggled.

"Want to see who Arkayna is crushing on next?" The elf Mysticon then asked Zarya in a mischievous manner with a grin on her face.

"Really?" Zarya returned the grin with one of her own.

Arkayna had now stopped by a portrait of a large man with dark brown skin, long black hair with an M tattooed across his right eye and short black beard around his mouth. Along with wearing a blue and red bodysuit, complete with a red scarf around his neck, blue boots and blue gloves and wielded a large metallic gun that appeared more advanced and appeared to be ready for action. Arkayna looked on with interest, her eyes having a dreamy look. She then looked at the display plaque and it read as such,

Lucas Bishop, of Earth-1191

Mutant of the future, member of the X-Men

"There's no shame, ever, in choosing not to kill. Especially a friend. If being an X-Man has taught me anything, it's that. We'll find another way to win."

Arkayna was intrigued by the choice of quote provided for the display plaque. It gave the sense that he was a noble warrior of some kind, like a knight. Already she considered this Bishop to be someone respected and considered to be another attractive quality to her. She then eyed on another painting of him that was standing next to it. This time of him firing at what appeared to be to her giant automatons. His display plaque had a different quote:

"Because being a mutant is a constant fight to stay alive."

Arkayna had not heard of the word mutant before and was curious about the context. But immediately, she figured he was a victim of prejudice from others.

'Who would be so cruel to consider him a target?' Arkayna wondered to herself in concern.

"Crushing on the next guy you found, sis?" A familiar voice asked her.

Arkayna yelped in a fright and saw much to her annoyance that it was Zarya who startled her with Piper waving "hello."

"What do you mean?" Arkayna asked as she began to blush in embarassment.

"Because me and Pipes saw you crushing on Bishop." Zarya giggled as did Piper.

"I was not!" Arkayna blushed furiously suddenly.

"You sure?" Zarya teased her sister further as she stifled in between laughs. "Don't want to make Malvaron jealous."

"He'd understand!" Arkayna shouted as she continued to blush.

"I'm just teasing, sis." Said Zarya. "Already I'm building up a new list of crushes for myself, anyway."

"Well, better than the list of people you have a grudge against." Arkayna said as she winced at the memory during the whole ordeal of Zarya turning into a revenge beast.

"Come on, you can't still be sore about that whole mess?" Zarya protested.

To which Arkayna raised her eyebrow skeptically at her with an expression that simply read, "No."

"Okay, okay, you're not." Conceded Zarya. "But get over it, sheesh."

"And I thought I held a grudge." She added whilst grumbling.

"I heard that!" Arkayna shouted.

With Em, she stared in amazement at a marble statue of a man in what appeared to be an all body costume of a specific feline jungle animal with his hands forming an "X" in front of his chest whilst appearing in a regal manner.

T'Challa, Black Panther

The King of Wakanda

"Take your best shot. I will offer no resistance. Then it will be my turn."

"Who's this guy?" Asked Zarya as she, Piper and Arkayna now appeared beside the dwarf Mysticon. "He looks pretty cool."

"Someone called the Black Panther." Replied Em. "I never heard of Wakanda before."

"None of us have." Said Arkayna in a curious manner. "Already I can tell though he makes for a better king than my step brother."

"Totally! Yeah! He's way better!" The rest of the Mysticons murmured in agreement instantly.

"Gawayne would never look this cool!" Piper added.

"Huh." Arkayna then noticed another marble statue before she called over the other Mysticons. "Take a look at this one."

The Mysticons walked over to another marble statue, this time of a woman with long hair, a regal looking costume and eyes to give the illusion they were glowing and behind her were what resembled storm clouds and lightning. The woman's arms spread as if her were hands were controlling them, her feet stood together, all to give the illusion she was floating and flying. And a fierce look of determination in her eyes. Her display plaque read as such,

Ororo Monroe, Storm

Member of the X-Men and the Avengers

Mistress of the Elements, a Goddess

"I am a woman, a mutant, a thief, an X-Man, a lover, a wife, a queen. I am all these things. I am Storm, and for me, there are no such thing as limits."

"Now she already sounds awesome." Zarya said, already enthralled and intrigued by elemental mutant before muttering quietly, "And a new crush."

"I love her hair!" Piper exclaimed.

"So many occupations she has though!" Em cried out in amazement before she whistled to indicate how impressed she was.

"I, wow!" Arkayna breathed in amazement. "This Storm, she calls herself really has done it all!"

"Wonder who are the X-Men though?" She then asked aloud.

"Knowing our luck, I'm sure there's a painting or a statue of them elsewhere." Said Zarya.

"Oh, who's that one?" Piper said as she pointed at another painting.

As the Mysticons approached the painting, they this time saw it was of a figure in all black clothing with a long red cape and red gloves with his right hand glowing green smoke of some sorts, his left hand open as if he were reaching for something, chains and skulls around his cape and around him in general and a black and white mask that glowed green eyes. His display plaque read as such,

Albert "Al" Francis Simmons, Spawn

Of Earth-913175

The Hellspawn

"I remember there was someone. Someone to love. Someone to hate. And I was something. Something special…"

Piper looked visibly nervous. She did not think he sounded like a villain but he was someone intimidating to her as she judged by how he looked.

"I'm not sure about him though." Arkayna remarked uncomfortably.

"What about it?" Zarya asked. "He looks pretty cool to me."

"It's the mask." Arkayna replied with Piper nodding rapidly in agreement. "It reminds me too much of Necrafa."

"The very mask that gave birth to her." Em said as she appeared nervous herself.

"I hope he's on our side." Piper said.

"Me too, Piper." Zarya said in understanding as she noticed her friend appeared visibly nervous upon seeing the Spawn portrait.

"We all do." Arkayna said.

"Hey, what about her?" Piper then exclaimed in excitement as she pointed to another statue.

The Mysticons walked over to the next marble statue and noticed it one similar to the T'Challa Black Panther they had witnessed earlier.

"Didn't we see this one already?" Arkayna remarked in conclusion.

"I don't think it's the same one." Zarya replied. "Because this one is more feminine and has some slight differences in the costume."

Arkayna and the other Mysticons stared closely at the statue and realized to their surprise she was right. This time, the statue appeared similar but with a slimmer body in comparison and more feminine. As well as a boa and a cape added. Her posture this time showed a more dynamic pose that indicated she was ready for a fight. Her display plaque read as such,

Shuri, the Black Panther

Princess of Wakanda, The Greatest of Intellects, the sister of King T'Challa, the Next Black Panther

"You've faced the muscle of Wakanda… Now face its claws."

"Now she also sounds awesome!" Zarya grinned upon reading the display plaque. "She sounds like my kind of princess."

"You don't think I can be awesome?" Arkayna said in an offended manner.

"Somebody's jealous." Zarya smirked. "I'm not! Besides, who says I wouldn't get along with her too? Princess to princess."

"I want to go to Wakanda!" Cried out Piper in excitement.

"So do I!" Em concurred. "Wakanda already sounds cool to me!"

"It wouldn't hurt to go." Arkayna said. "It would be nice to go to another kingdom."

"Oh! I see another cool one!" Cried out Piper as she pointed to another painting.

This time, the Mysticons walked toward another painting and this time, it was of a portrait of a young teenager with dark brown skin, short black hair that was styled into dreadlocks. His costume consisted of a black and blue jacket, blue shades above his white domino eye mask, blue gloves, a black shirt with a golden lightning bolt in the center, blue boots and he rode on a disc for flight. Around him were electrical shocks firing him with his expression and posture showing confidence in himself. His display plaque had read,

Virgil Hawkins, Static Shock

Of Earth-1992

The Hero of Dakota City

"The name's 'Static.' I put a shock to your system."

"I love him already!" Piper immediately exclaimed before she sighed in a romantic fashion. "He's so dreamy…"

"Guy has a cool costume; he's already cool in my book." Said Zarya as she was impressed with the sound of Static.

"He's even flying without a griffin or a dragon!" Em cried out in amazement as she noticed Static was using a disc to fly.

"I wonder what magic he's using to pull off his powers?" Arkayna wondered aloud.

"It ain't magic, baby." A familiar voice rang out.

The Mysticons gave off a startled yell as they jumped in a fright and turned around to see it was of course, The Beyonder floating in front of them.

"See, his origin in a nutshell that involved accidents and chemicals." The Beyonder explained. "Sometimes the bread and butter of becoming a Metahuman, baby."

"What's a Metahuman?" Asked Piper.

"In certain sections of the multiverse, just a fancy name for people with superpowers." Replied The Beyonder. "But that's a story for another time."

"But before we see our next subject, there's something I have to show you first." He then added.

The Mysticons in response raised their eyebrow at him in a skeptical manner.

"Really, now?" Arkayna remarked in sarcasm.

Without saying a word, The Beyonder floated away with a grin on his face.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Zarya said with the rest of the Mysticons nodding in agreement.

Regardless, the Mysticons followed The Beyonder to where he was heading to. And so they did as they found him floating next to another portrait that was covered by a sheet.

"Now, before we move onto our next piece, perhaps there's something you should take a look at." The Beyonder said with a mischievous grin on his face.

"What are you up to now?" Asked Arkayna with her eyebrow raised in skepticism.

"Are you accusing moi of being dishonest?" The Beyonder cried out in an offended manner.

"We know you by now at this point." Zarya counterargued.

"Thing of the matter is, I've heard your little comments about the Fantastic Four, little Moonwolf." The Beyonder said as he unveiled a portrait of four individuals in suited that looked like sweaters with white gloves and boots and the number four in the center with three with white collars and all blue for one of the individuals.

A man with white streaks on the side of his dark hair with a rugged beard sitting on the right side of the couch, a blonde woman who appeared behind him with her arms around him. On the left side of the couch, a man with short blonde hair with a flame on his finger tip and the bottoms of his boots showing the number four on them. Behind him was a large orange rock being and next to them was a little white robot carrying a vodka martini on a circular metal tray.

With the table filled with magazines of the team and behind was the backdrop of a futuristic New York City.

"Yeah?" Zarya inquired skeptically. "And the Fantastic Four still look like dorks."

"Who has numbers on their boots, seriously?" She added a snarky remark.

"Zarya!" Arkayna chided her sister.

"But I like the Fantastic Four already!" Piper protested.

Em was the first to notice, and start appearing nervous, as she noticed the demented smile on The Beyonder's face as he drummed his fingers.

"Um, guys…?" Em nervously spoke up as she pointed to The Beyonder.

The rest of the Mysticons noticed and glanced at the Beyonder. Immediately, their faces were drained of their color as soon as they saw The Beyonder smiling at them. A look they all knew too well what would potentially follow next.

"No!" Arkayna rapidly shook her head as she protested. "No! No! You promised not this again!"

"Toooo laaaate!" The Beyonder exaggerated in a singsong tone to his voice.

The Beyonder snapped his fingers and the Mysticons, without even any time to react, were suddenly engulfed in a tornado-like funnel that was full of bright lights and somehow the sounds of jingle bells heard inside. The tornado funnel swirled around before entering the Fantastic Four portrait and dispersed upon going inside.

One hour later…

The Beyonder had sat around whilst floating in midair as he read the trade paperback of Secret Wars II, which had a previous version of The Beyonder as the main focus of the story.

"Oh me, you should know how to use a bathroom even when you're human!" The Beyonder laughed to himself.

Suddenly, a bright light began to emit from the portrait of the Earth-828 Fantastic Four which signified to him that the mission was over. The comic book trade paperback disappeared from his hands as he then placed his hands behind his back and to appear imposing and dignified.

The light dispersed and the Mysticons once again materialized in front of The Beyonder and back in their original Mysticon forms.

"Thank the Star of Gygax, we're back!" Em exclaimed.

"I wanted to stay with the Fantastic Four though!" Piper whined before she grumbled, "Stupid Beyonder."

"So, you girls learned anything?" Asked The Beyonder.

"Yeah, we survived Cobra Commander and The Master. Again." Replied Zarya in her usual snarky manner. "No thanks to you. Again."

"Oh, don't tell me you haven't learned something." The Beyonder scoffed with a smug grin.

"Yeah, you don't think the Fantastic Four are dorks anymore!" Piper concurred, which such a remark surprised Zarya and the other Mysticons.

"I hate to agree with the Beyonder but…" Arkayna said as she crossed her arms whilst smirking.

"Yeah, Zarya." Em expressed a similar sentiment.

"Okay, okay." Zarya said, completely resigned.

"I don't think they're dorks anymore." She said with a small and soft but visible smile. "I think they're awesome."

"Plus, I got to give them credit they love their kid so much." She added with a hint of passion in her voice.

"I knew you'd see them for the loving and caring heroes they are." Said The Beyonder in his usual smug fashion.

"You could have let us stay with them for Christmas though." Whined Piper, still disappointed she and the Mysticons were called away back to The Beyonder immediately.

"I'm glad we helped the Fantastic Four." Said Arkayna before adding to The Beyonder, "But, this better be the last time you force us to go to another universe."

"Yeah, you better not break your promise again!" Em concurred as she spoke to the Beyonder's face.

"Come on, who do you take me for?!" Said The Beyonder with a grin.

The Mysticons were not convinced as they glared at him that signified a distrust.

"I promise." The Beyonder said with his fingers on his right hand crossed.

"We'll see." Arkayna said with her right eyebrow raised.

"But if you follow me to the next painting for my next story, if you please." The Beyonder said as he smiled whilst gesturing to the next painting.

The Mysticons began to walk toward the next painting but not before Arkayna and Zarya stared at the Beyonder with suspicion before turning away. Almost immediately, The Beyonder grinned evilly as he chuckled to himself. It was not a promise he was going to keep. Ever.

Finally, The Beyonder sped away whilst floating in mid-air to fly past the Mysticons. Finally, the Beyonder stopped by the very painting he had wanted to show them. The next painting intrigued the Mysticons as they saw it was of four children and a red furred creature they had never seen before. The red furred creature was of course, colored red with big ears, large body and a fluffy tail with some white stripes around the red fur.

The children in question were a variety. One was a girl with fair skin, wore a green toque and a green jacket with a gray shirt, braided pig tailed curly brown hair and braces on her teeth, along with wearing green pants and gray slip-on sneakers with black and white checker boards on the bottom sides.

Then another girl with brown skin, brown hair, thick rimmed glasses, black nail polish on her fingers, a yellow shirt with faint brown stripes around it, tanned brown pants and white sneakers.

Then a Korean-Canadian girl with a round figure with long dark hair, a purple headband, purple overalls with flowers on it, a purple sweater and dark purple shoes.

And finally, a boy with black curly hair with a red, white and blue headband, light brown skin who also had braces on his teeth, a purple basketball Jersey with the number 15 on it and had a white shirt underneath, gray shorts and white sneakers with pink tips and some purple patches on it.

All of them were screaming as they fell through a blue colored vortex, all of them screaming for their dear lives as it appeared to be an endless vortex.

"What's that?" Em pointed at the red furred creature.

"That, my fantasy dwarf friend, is called a red panda." Replied The Beyonder. "Only she's not just any red panda."

The Beyonder snapped his fingers and the red panda changed into a little Chinese-Canadian girl with bright red short hair, thin rimmed glasses, a pink shirt, a purple skirt with pink pants and gray sneakers with pink shoelaces. Like her red panda form, she was screaming through the vortex.

The Beyonder then noticed the Mysticons closing their eyes and wincing as if they had expected The Beyonder to send them to another universe.

"Oh, relax!" The Beyonder exclaimed in an exasperated manner. "I'm not sending you to another universe this time!"

The Mysticons opened their eyes with Arkayna opening hers first as her left eye darted back and forth to be sure the surroundings were the same. To her relief, nothing had happened. As did the rest of the Mysticons when they opened their eyes and sighed in relief.

"Hey, now who's that?" Zarya asked The Beyonder as she saw the little girl taking the place of the red panda from earlier.

"It's the red panda." The Beyonder simply replied.

"Really?" Piper asked in disbelief.

"That was her?" Arkayna concurred.

"What?" Em asked in confusion.

"You see," The Beyonder began to explain. "The little girl you see before y'all is one who can change into a red panda at the drop of a hat. The best part being she's next in line from a family lineage where the women in her bloodline transform into red pandas thanks to a gift from the gods who helped their great ancestor in time of need."

"So, a changeling?" Arkayna inquired.

"One way to put it." The Beyonder replied. She can change willy nilly back to human and red panda back and forth."

With that, he snapped his fingers to demonstrate.

"Before, after, before, after, before, after…" The Beyonder repeated as he snapped his fingers-changing the girl in the painting from her human form to red panda form back and forth at each snap.

"I think we get the picture, dude!" Zarya exclaimed in slight annoyance.

"Figured, you'd get it." The Beyonder chuckled as he snapped his fingers again to change the girl back into her red panda form in the painting.

"Honestly, she looks adorable as a red panda." Piper said. "Reminds me Big Z when she turned into a furry revenge monster."

Zarya winced as Piper giggled. Zarya then facepalmed as she knew she still was never going to live that incident down. And then glared at Arkayna when she had started laughing herself.

"Oh you're gonna get a pranking of a lifetime, sis." Zarya threatened her sister. "Slime in your new boots back home!"

"Try it!" Laughed Arkayna.

"If I may continue!" The Beyonder exclaimed, a bit annoyed at the small diversion, the Mysticons now had his attention at last.

He cleared his throat and continued on, "But as you can see, these kids aren't just going on any adventure. It's a lot of adventures of a lifetime through the multiverse!"

"Well already I relate to these kids." Zarya remarked a bit bitterly due to involuntary trips by The Beyonder with the Mysticons nodding in agreement.

"Totally." Em concurred.

"Yup." Arkayna and Piper also chimed in.

The Beyonder frowned for a moment but resumed his usual cheerful demeanor.

"In any case, these kids had many adventures across the greater multiverse!" Said The Beyonder. "This just so happens to tell the tale of one of their many adventures."

He then added as the painting had started to change, "And this my Mysticon friends, is what happened in this specific adventure…"

With that, the painting began to change.

Earth-100507: Camden, Maine (Homura Family Mansion)

In the darkest room of the Homura Family Mansion, surrounded by literal darkness around an older teenage girl of Japanese descent as she sat in a throne-like chair. The Homura family had moved to Maine in Camden specifically as it was a seemingly normal town where they could continue the family's mafia operations without anyone suspecting any wrongdoing.

But at the worst possible time as The Painted Lady had been intruding in on dismantling specific operations tied to the Homura family. And her father Ozai was not happy. And neither was she. For she, Azula, had been promised to take over the family business when the time had come to pass the torch onto her. The Painted Lady had to be stopped, she thought.

Azula had already a few ideas in the works but most of all, she intended to confront this superhero do-gooder herself. And it would all start with a flame as she flickered her fingers like a match and a small flame would appear on her thumb at every flick. Before she would immediately afterwards, have a large blue flame on the palm of her hand and she smiled wickedly; fully confident of her abilities to take down her nemesis. To Azula, this newfound ability was only the beginning.

Earth-082717: Undercity

"It ain't exactly the most fanciest but you got to admit it's better than nothing."

Words said by an elder elf woman as she opened the door to a room in an apartment. The elf woman was the landlord of an apartment complex called L. Carrol Housing in the Undercity. Two individuals alongside the elf woman eyed on the inside of the apartment, one of a larger and taller adult man who was cloaked in a brown hood as if he were a monk. The other, while smaller in comparison and more of a teenage girl, she was one with brown skin with braided twin ponytailed hair and casual clothing of a green jacket, blue shirt, tan brown pants and black and white sneakers.

Alongside them was a young girl in what appeared to be orange pajamas of some sort, blue skin and multiple eyes on her face.

The three eyed on the room before them which had the necessary supplies needed such as a bed, a couch and even some cooking supplies. Thankfully, they had picked a furnished apartment. Things just seemed normal and nothing too out of ordinary.

The man in the hood made a variety of hand gestures, the girl stared at his hands before turning to the elf woman, who was the landlord.

"It'll do, better than nothing." Said the older girl.

"Alrighty." Said the elf woman. "Just remember, rent is due next month."

"Alright." Nodded the older girl as the elf woman walked away.

With the door closed, the trio stepped inside the apartment. To which right on cue, a large dog with brown fur, resembled something like a bulldog except with a tuning fork on his forehead.

"Good boy, Lockjaw." Said the older girl who scratched underneath his chin much to the dog's delight.

The dog, Lockjaw, grunted happily in response.

"The place doesn't seem so bad, Ms. Dani." The multi eyed little girl said as she walked around the apartment.

"Just thankful Black Bolt and myself both have jobs, Blinky." Said Dani Moonstar. "Honestly, it's kind of a miracle despite literally being from another universe, we ended up getting jobs."

As the man, known as Black Bolt, removed his hood and cloak to reveal a blue and black body suit underneath, along with a tuning fork on the forehead of his mask.

He made more motions and gestures with his hands with Dani Moonstar nodding in understanding with Blinky having a curious look on her face.

"What did he say, Ms. Dani?" Asked Blinky.

"He said that hopefully the jobs will last long, especially to pay for what we need." Replied Dani. "Though capitalism and its drawbacks are no different in this universe apparently."

Black Bol nodded in agreement. But then had a look of wistful worry on his face. Dani and Blinky looked on in sympathy.

"Don't worry, dude." Dani said with assurance to her newfound friend. "We'll find your wife."

She added, "If you know Medusa well, she's likely looking for you too."

Black Bolt smiled warmly at the teen Cheyenne girl and the two hugged each other like father and daughter. As did Blinky who joined in on the hug, as did Lockjaw in a way as he nuzzled his owner and friends. Somehow, they were all going to make it through the hard times no matter what.

Earth-38: Oahu, Hawaii

In Oahu, Hawaii, a lone white F-15 jet flew above one of the islands of Hawaii. As the jet flew in for a closer look, it was careful enough not to go too far down and kept at a reasonable distance. As it flew above Oahu, the jet noticed a little Hawaiian girl and what seemed to be a blue furred creature going out for cherry flavored shaved ice. Both being none the wiser about the jet above them.

"This is Ramjet to Megatron, I found the girl and the 626 variant." He reported to the War Monger variant of Megatron.

"Excellent!" The War Monger Megatron exclaimed, pleased with the report. "Soon, the other variants and the original Experiment 626 will be found and be within my grasp."

"What do you want me to do next?" Asked Ramjet.

"Do not strike yet." Replied the War Monger Megatron. "Like the other Decepticons dispatched around the world of this universe, you are to remain incognito unless ordered otherwise."

"Remain on the lookout." He then added. "Destroy any Autobot on sight if you have to but cover your position."

"Understood." Ramjet said as he flew above the sky. "Ramjet out."

In the island itself however, a red firetruck of first generation Hino/Morita that was the Super Gyro Ladder MH variety, drove through the road casually of Oahu. The windows were tinted so as no one could see who was inside.

On the dashboard, a hologram of a young girl dressed in a maroon colored outfit that resembled the uniform of a police woman appeared.

"Any updates on this universe, T-AI?"

"Charlie and Bumblebee arrived in Australia without any problems, Optimus." T-AI replied as she spoke to the Earth-040500 variant of Optimus Prime.

"Good." Said the Optimus variant. "We need all hands on deck given the increase in Decepticon and Predacon activity across the multiverse."

"There has been a lot more infiltration certainly." T-AI said.

"We'll have to be ready for anything." Said the Optimus variant. "And make new friends and allies as possible to aid us and warn them of the incoming threats."

"We have to stay vigilant and stick together." He added.

"That reminds me." T-AI said. "The DEO in Central City is starting to pick up on one of the Autobots staying there incognito."

"Sounds like we will have to make ourselves known to them." Said Optimus. "Get me there when the time comes, T-AI."

"You got it, Optimus." Nodded the AI.

With that, Optimus continued his patrol around Oahu.

061065: White House, Washington D.C.

Inside the White House, a man pounded his fist on his desk in anger in front of two individuals, a man with short white hair in a black business suit, tie and jacket and all. And a woman with long black hair tied into a ponytail, wore yellow sunglasses around her eyes with gold earrings, a white neck collar to match her all white business suit.

A man with brown hair and wore an equally black business suit seethed in anger as he pounded his fist on his desk twice.

"I did not become president just so The Avengers end upstaging me with pro mutant garbage!" The man growled with such venom in his voice.

"I had every voter in the palm of my hands and yet still, I get resistance from these people or these stupid youths who hate me." He added.

"What do you propose then, Creed?" Asked the white haired man.

"That's President Graydon Creed to you, Stryker." He said. "But thankfully, I know exactly what to do to get back at these filthy Avengers and especially the mutants."

Graydon then faced the woman in white.

"Sybil." He called her name.

"Yes, President?" Sybil Zane acknowledged Creed.

"With you as the Secretary of Homeland Security now, commence your order for the arrests of suspicious mutant activity." Graydon ordered Sybil. "Start the Orchis initiative immediately and you can start with Americops."

"It will be done." Nodded Sybil with a small smile.

"But most of all, if the Avengers won't be by my side…" Began Creed as he glanced at William Stryker. "Then you and I will make our own Avengers."

"What do you have in mind?" Asked Stryker.

"It is time to commence the United Patriots initiative." Creed declared. "The true American team that represents true American values."

"Actual American values and none of the DEI crap." He continued. "And American values that don't tolerate mutants, Inhumans or anyone from that New Asgard bullshit."

"Which reminds me, is New Asgard in Greenland?" He asked Stryker and Sybil.

"Actually, in Norway." Stryker replied with Sybil nodding in agreement.

"Then make sure Norway is targeted." Creed said. "I want that country to join our glorious nation. And get Greenland while we're at it! I want us to be the most powerful nation and by God, we will drive away all the freaks of the world!"

"Excellent, Mr. President!" Stryker smiled with sadistic glee. "I will research for the best individuals for the initiative."

"Do it." Said Creed before he turned to Sybil. "And you, get to work."

"It will be a pleasure." Sybil smiled evilly.

"In the meantime, get Peter Krave on commissioning RoxxonU." Said Creed. "We must educate the children on mutants and super powered beings."

"It will be done." Nodded Sybil.

Creed gave the most sickest smile of them all as he reveled in his dark fantasies and goals of power.

Earth-79001: Toronto

In the quiet Toronto suburbs around Milborough, it was a relatively normal night with much of the neighborhood had gone quiet as ever. In the home of the Patterson family, a woman in her mid thirties with brown hair in casual sleepwear, looked over papers that were essentially looking over the list of inventories of various books that were supposed to come at the very bookstore she worked at.

Mainly the lists were for trade paperbacks for superhero and Horror books. As well as books on cryptozoology. The last one she rolled her eyes at.

Elly, the matriarch of the Patterson family, had the TV on as she looked over the papers. The TV had a local news report on the greater Toronto area.

"In other news, we have a new sighting of the Spider-Man of Toronto." Said the newscaster.

Elly looked up with somewhat of an interest as she laughed to herself.

"Okay, what happened this time?" She asked a loud.

"Eyewitness reports have mentioned a mugging foiled by the supposed Spider-Man." The newscaster said.

"He was a rather nice young man." Said in a gracious manner by an old woman who appeared around her sixties. "He even mentioned I reminded him of his aunt."

"From that same night, a passerby managed to get this photograph of the elusive Spider-Man." Said the newscaster as a photo of the so-called Spider-Man was presented.

However, it was a blurry photo that was only illuminated by street lamps and even then, because the photo was taken while the subject was in motion, the picture was hard to tell. Even the faintest idea of webslinging was only implied than outright shown.

Elly shook her head.

'Very typical photo.' She thought in amusement. 'Probably like that one photo that was revealed to be a hoax.'

Elly was thinking of a particular infamous photograph that had been considered the definitive photograph of Spider-Man called The Physician's Photograph, where it looked like a clear shadow of Spider-Man standing in an alleyway. But then a month later, it was revealed to be a hoax. It was pulled off by basically using an action figure and model sets to make it look like an alleyway in Toronto. It was concocted by a bitter photographer who was humiliated by his employer and wanted to get back at him and a physician friend posed as the one who took the photograph as he enjoyed a good prank.

"But a Spider-Man of Toronto, what will they think of next?" She asked aloud with a chuckle.

Unbeknownst to her however, in the greater Toronto area, specifically in Downtown Toronto, a lone figure swung through the buildings of the city without a care in the world. The figure flew across the city with ease and with grace. He flipped like an acrobat before he shot another strand of webbing and continued his webslinging.

It was a figure dressed in all red and blue with black lines as webbing-like and the mask with big white eyes that covered his entire face. Despite his universe destroyed, he never gave up being the hero he became. There were obstacles to behold, sure and personal matters, but he always was persistent in the end. He will always find a way to survive and stay true to his morals through more trials and tribulations.

As he landed on the CV Tower in the middle of Downtown Toronto, he felt exhilarated. He could feel the adrenaline after all that webslinging. Especially it was a good way to blow off steam or even exercise. Suddenly, he heard a cry for help down below. He whirled his head to the direction he heard the screaming and leapt off as he shot another strand of web ono a nearby building.

One thing was for certain, for Peter Parker; he loved being Spider-Man.