The R Stories

Remi Roe Vs. The Funeral

Prologue:

Picture this: You've got a death ray. We'll get to the hows and whys later. Most important fact right now is that it is a bona fide death ray, and you're pointing it at probably the most important person in the world.

It's a neat thing, your death ray, all shining and copper and neat precise angles. Like a steampunk wet-dream, there are even cogs, though you've been assured they are quite functional. You've built it yourself, based on plans methodically calculated to exploit every weakness of the paragon of humanity standing in front of you.

Right now, you're a nobody, a footnote. Just a frizzy haired girl with a gun in a homemade costume gone baggy in the knees.

You'll be famous. You'll have beaten a god. All you have to do is pull the trigger. All you have to do is kill your best friend.

How was your Monday?

Six months previously...

This story begins with a funeral. Not just any funeral, the greatest celebrity affair since Ethan Keene died. Everybody who was anybody was there, dressed to the nines in their mourning finest, superhero costumes in muted shades of black and grey. Chatting quietly, doing whatever the polite funerary version of gossip was, trying hard not to stare too obviously at the two unmasked teenagers standing closest to the blue and green casket.

Everyone thought that Dazzler was invincible. Despite the lame 80's callsign, she was one of the most powerful super humans on the planet. She went toe to toe with some of the biggest names in villainy and came out on top. She put multiple secret organizations out of business. Her power profile was stunning, including light-based manipulation, flight, laser vision, super speed. Her powers had been passed down from her mother and her mother's mother before her. She was one of the first heroes to go public with her powers after the Great Moleman Uprising. Her merchandise sales alone could have funded a small nation for years, not to mention her healthy sponsorship deals and guest appearances on everything from Good Morning America to the summer's latest blockbuster. No one expected breast cancer.

When the prognosis turned terminal, Dazzler made the stunning, never before seen decision to give up her secret identity and reveal herself as a sweet suburban housewife named Melody, who chronicled the final days of her greatest battle on Instagram. Melody's Instagram photos reveal sides of Dazzler the media had never seen before- those of an ordinary citizen, chemo patient, and mother. She introduced the world to her life beyond the cape, and all of the little tragedies it held.

Camera pans to Harry Dean, son of the late great Melody Dean, looking uncomfortable in a suit and tie tailored just to ever so subtly evoke the lines of his mother's world famous costume. Probably the most famous non-superhero in the country. Standing next to him is short, skinny Remi Roe, fiddling with the lace on the sleeves of her conservatively styled black dress. Me. I shouldn't be here, not practically on the red carpet with all these caped crusaders and Hollywood heroes. I'm just a kid from the suburbs, trying to be there for her best friend who just lost his goddamn mother.

That was the real tragedy of the moment. Sure, Melody Dean was a superheroine of the highest degree, one of Earth's greatest defenders, arguably the most powerful woman on earth- but she was also a mom to a pretty neat guy. And Harry was pretty wrecked. His mom had done a good job of keeping him out of the spotlight as a kid. They hadn't even known of his existence until he'd started to show up in her photos. Losing her and being thrown into the maelstrom of the media circus was almost more than he could handle.

I don't remember much of the funeral itself, just that was trying to keep my shit together and keep an eye on Harry. I was grieving too, y'know? But that took a back seat to protecting my best friend. I definitely do remember pushing a paparazzo out of the way and threatening to punch multiple people.