Sixteen years ago, she was born Molly Hecht.
Unlike many of her peers, she had never enjoyed a good home life. Her father left her mother back when she was a child and moved up to San Francisco, though he did come back every once in a while to look in on his first-born child. Her mother pretty much had stopped being a real mother to her in the wake of that, leaving young Molly to fend pretty much for herself as she grew up. And even in a place like Sweet Valley — a once-WASPish little fish canning town on the Pacific coast near the Santa Ynez Mountains northwest of Los Angeles — there was a bad crowd. A crowd that had drawn Molly in like an innocent moth to a bright flame, snaring her with all sorts of sinful delights that could make her forget — even for a small bit — the hollowness in her soul that girls with supportive families like the Wakefield twins possessed.
And then two years ago…
You really shouldn't do that to yourself. Pretty girls don't need to do that.
That wonderful voice with its cute Japanese accent…
That honest and earnest smile meant to be seen by girls like her…
The heart as vast as a galaxy…
The man who helped so many in Sweet Valley evolve into more than just normal people…
…and had come that day for Molly Hecht.
And for a year, it had been the ultimate high.
While the line she had inherited from the Great Crystal of Power — as a girl, she had taken the battle-name Dominatrix — was often seen as a classical "heel" line, Molly had elected to do something to make her more of a "face"…or an "anti-hero" as people such as the Batman and Wolverine were often called. And it had worked. While the more expressive metas from Sweet Valley had gladly pitched in whenever teams like the Justice League, the Avengers, the Teen Titans and even the Heroes Alliance of Canada had got involved in things that affected their home town, the thirty-sixth Dominatrix of Yiziba often dealt with the darker and seedier side of things whenever they came close to her home town. Working with people such as the Ghost Rider, the Punisher, the Green Lantern Guy Gardner and even the famous Slayer of Sunnydale herself on one occasion, Molly was like a civilian version of Major Raeburn when it came to dealing with the supernatural and those villains who seriously needed to be put down.
And her partners at the time really admired her for it.
"You're one hell of a great girl to have around, Moll," Buffy Summers had told her once after the Dominatrix had gone to Sunnydale to help the Slayer deal with a particularly nasty demon coming out of the local Hellmouth. "Don't worry about the idiots who can't see you for what you really are! In the leathers or out of them!"
And then…
Then…
She was no longer the Dominatrix.
She was just plain old bad girl Molly Hecht.
And that…
That…
"Molly."
The Dominatrix — who, thanks to her possessing sheer levels of power that equalled that of her schoolmate Rampage, made her perhaps one of the most dangerous people on the planet now — tensed on hearing that kind voice from nearby, and then she sighed. "Don't stop me, Lynne," she said in English, her voice hoarse with the mixture of pain and outrage that was billowing from deep within her heart. "Whoever did that to Ataru — and by extension, all of us — is here in this town. I want him."
Standing nearby was a tall and somewhat plain-looking girl with goggles over her dark brown eyes; when she wasn't wearing the colourful jumpsuit with music notes all over it that marked her as the current incarnation of the Minstrel, Lynne Henry wore reading glasses. They — as well as Dana Larson, the lead singer of the Droids in normal life and the Siren as a meta — had teleported from California to Metropolitan Tōkyō a few minutes ago to arrive in a dark place near Tomobiki High School. "We all are angry, Molly," the Minstrel then stated as she kept her voice level; in normal circumstances, the Dominatrix was quite high strung…but when she got angry — which didn't need much in the way of a trigger to light the fuse! — she was a living wrecking machine just waiting to unleash pain and devastation on anyone that got her mad. "We were just as affected as you were when whatever happened to Ataru happened…"
"Do you love him?" the Dominatrix snarled.
The Minstrel winced. "I care for him. He's my friend," she stated, modulating her voice as best as she could to keep her schoolmate calm. "He was just as kind to me as he was to you, Molly. He was that way to all of us, right from Liz and Jess on down."
A snort. "Well, at least you can stay calm about it, Lynne. You know…"
"Ojō-sama! You must reject Moroboshi!"
Nearly at the blink of an eye, a rather handsome man appeared before the Dominatrix, grasping one of her hands as he focused his patented Melts All Girls' Hearts! stare at her; the one that worked for almost every girl he had encountered save for one Redet Lum. As people began to watch this scene, Mendō Shūtarō leaned close to gaze into the Dominatrix's dark grey eyes. "I am not aware of what that lecherous slime…!"
CRACK!
"…diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiid…!"
That was Mendō screaming as he flew straight UP into the sky thanks to a well-aimed rabbit punch from the Dominatrix's OTHER hand!
"Bruce Patman has more class," she said before heading down the street towards Tomobiki High School, walking with a calm gait as she slowly started to gaze left and right upon the people nearby, all of whom began to back away from this living dark kami in black leather skin-tight trousers and a black leather vest with stand collars that was laced up front with silver chains to show that she had no bra on underneath it, the whole ensemble topped with lace up silver boots and arm chains.
Standing nearby, the Minstrel could only shake her head. "Somebody better go get some body bags," she muttered to herself before walking off after her friend…
Near the Tomobiki Ginza…
"Oh, no…don't tell me…!"
He was the best there is at what he did…and what he did wasn't very nice.
In recent years, he had learned that there were those who could challenge such an assertion…and do it with power and panache!
The man born James Howlett in the 1880s in what would eventually be known as Alberta — now known to all his friends as either "Logan" or "Wolverine" — had been asked to go into Tomobiki by the Imperial Palace on the sly to learn what was happening with one Moroboshi Ataru, the man who had been the fifty-seventh and last person to have taken up the Promise of Bunka Go-nen and become a living host for a being even Wolverine's old sensei Ogun would run away from: Moroboshi Negako, AKA the Saikō Jinseijutsu, the spiritual daughter of the Immortal Master himself. And while the first five days of the Second Tag Race had been kind of bland — though Ataru seemed as always to take all the punishment his would-be "wife" dished out at him — there had been no hint as to what was really going with him.
Until not more than an hour ago…
…when Wolverine had smelt HIM.
Grigori Wyszynski. Doctor Destructo.
The man who had guaranteed that, ten years ago, the Promise of Bunka Go-nen would be finally fulfilled thanks to the power of the Seeker's Forge where Dean Raeburn's Power Jewel had first been created. The Forge that was now a planet named Yiziba.
Said planet having been made to seed a LOT of its power to many kids — almost all girls, of course! — across Earth thanks to a rather overeager Moroboshi Ataru.
And one of them — No! THREE of them! Logan instantly realised as he picked up two additional scents with the strange mineral-like tint that indicated a lot of meson was in the area — was now coming his way.
A quick look made the adamantium-augmented Canadian-born mutant wince.
Molly Hecht AKA the Dominatrix.
A girl who hadn't the best home life and had fallen in with bad people until Moroboshi Ataru appeared in her life and gave her a chance to evolve into something more.
And she was here in Tomobiki.
No doubt spoilin' for a fight with anyone who was involved in whatever it was that made Ataru forget his sister and everythin' else, Logan mused to himself as he walked slowly out of the shadows so that he could be spotted by the oncoming meta from California. Noting that there was a taller girl in the standard Yizibajohei-pattern jumpsuit behind her — Lynne Henry AKA the Minstrel — trying to talk to the moody silver-haired girl in the black leathers, Logan could only sigh as he recalled the first time he had run across the Hulk in the Canadian Rockies when the people who had been in charge of Weapon X had tried to capture the transformed Bruce Banner to create a whole new generation of slave super-soldiers. He hadn't mixed it up with the Hecht girl before, but she was said to be the Hulk's equal in strength…and what was worse, she actually LIKED being in pain since such was said to drive her to even GREATER feats of strength. Hope Kasuga gets her airheaded ass back here quick! the X-Man mused as he flexed his wrists and arms to prepare to extend his claws. If she don't…!
A flash of light! "Hey, Domi-chan! What'cha doin' here?!"
Logan relaxed. "About time, darlin'…"
The Dominatrix stared at Infinity. "Where are they?" she asked.
The latter blinked. "Who?"
"The bastards that tried to hurt Ataru-kun, of course," the former then snarled as a battle aura seemed to appear around her. As they were all now in Japan, they were speaking Japanese now; universal translators created by the Academician for those not having the gift of languages or telepathy/clairvoyance made sure they would be understood by all they met no matter which country or planet they visited. "There is no way in hell that he would ever come back to this ass-wipe of a town after he got Negako-sama out of his head and he got away from those useless sacks of flesh he was forced to call parents!" As people listening in on this gasped on hearing such vulgar terms being used by this strange punk-like gaijin girl towards the parents of Tomobiki's most despised resident, the Dominatrix pointed up at the Urusian space yacht in the dark skies over the city. "I may not be the swiftest girl on the block, but I can tell that whatever happened to Ataru-kun — AND ALL OF US, TOO! — was because of THOSE useless sacks of genetic flesh our past-selves always loved to call SAMES!"
Infinity relaxed. "Well, they won't do it anymore," she said.
"Why do you say that?" the Minstrel demanded.
The Kansai-born meta smiled as she raised her hand. A second later, an Infinite Wave burst forth to flood all of Tomobiki with its energy. People around them — save Logan, of course — froze for a moment as the Wave warped through their minds, quickly locating memories that had been suppressed for months thanks to people in black suits and dark RayBan glasses over their eyes…or people in garish robe-like clothes that wouldn't seem out of place in Europe centuries ago. After a moment, Infinity then lowered her hand. "There we go! All fixed around!" she declared.
"What did you do?" Rampage asked.
Infinity hummed before she looked over her shoulder. "Shinobu-chan?!"
Nearby, Miyake Shinobu jolted. "Eh?! Me?!" she asked, pointing to herself.
"Hai! Could you come over here for a moment?"
Ataru's former would-be fiancée blinked, and then she nodded as she walked over. She was quick to sense the smouldering rage in the eyes of the girl in the leather vest and riding pants — not to mention the veiled look of anger in the eyes of the blonde girl in the blue uniform with the pretty white birds all over her arms and legs — but given that Infinity had been the one who had removed the mushrooms threatening Tomobiki, she certainly felt safe around her. Besides, even if the girl in the leathers had smashed Mendō into the sky just now, he HAD tried to molest her with his normal suave act. "What is it, Infinity-san?" Shinobu then asked; she had seen the lemniscate insignia on her chest and understood what that sort of insignia meant.
"Has Moroboshi Ataru-kun been living in Tomobiki at all over the last ten years?"
A shake of the head. "Of course not! He disappeared when he was six; no one knows WHAT happened to him!" She then leaned close to Infinity. "Wait! Have you…?"
She then stopped. "WAIT A MINUTE! HE WAS HERE…!"
"Oh, my God…"
Eyes locked on the Academician. "What?!" Cyclotron demanded.
The elder of the Wakefield twins sighed. "Someone decided to set up a situation where the Oni would never question anything about Ataru-kun being more than just a normal salaryman's son," she stated. "If it was known to ANYONE that Ataru-kun hadn't been living with his parents for the vast majority of the last ten years, it would make people like Lum question other things as well. And if that led to her finding out about our connections to Yiziba, it might have launched a Mother Of All Fight Scenes on the people of Earth…" A sigh. "With all the accompanying casualties."
Silence.
"What is Yiziba…?" Shinobu began, and then she jerked. "Wait! Inaba-kun said that was YOUR home planet!" she said as she gazed on Infinity. "And that Lum's people are scared out of their minds of your people! What do you want with Ataru-kun?!"
"Since when's it any of your business, little girl?"
Shinobu jolted on hearing that cold voice, and then she turned to see the Dominatrix's grey eyes focus on her. "Now, stop that!" Infinity then softly scolded. "Shinobu-chan IS Ataru-kun's oldest childhood friend! She has a right to be concerned about him!"
"If she was a friend of his, then why on Earth didn't he take her to Yiziba to be Gifted like he did all the 'pretty girls' such as us?" Rampage then asked.
More silence.
"Wh-what are you talking about…?" Shinobu stammered.
The Academician sighed. "Miyake-san, we may be Yizibajohei in genetics and powers, but all of us are Terran by birth. Save for Infinity here, all of us are Americans. She herself is Japanese. Over the last ten years, working from Yiziba, Ataru-kun has travelled to Earth many times to help people who won his interest receive 'gifts' of metahuman powers so they could live safe and happy lives. As he was a boy who was quite interested in girls even when he was in elementary school, Ataru-kun almost always targeted 'pretty girls' like all of us. There are 53,727 people like us all over the planet. Save for two that I personally know of, all are girls."
Still more silence.
"Was he living alone?" Shinobu gasped.
"No. He has an adopted older sister named Negako," Trebuchet answered.
"If you are not aware of this, Ataru-kun's parents were often emotionally abusive to him when he was a child before Negako-sama took him away from that home," Cyclotron added. "I'm sure that when he was literally BRAINWASHED for whatever reason to make him weak when he faced the Oni girl in the Tag Race last year, you probably saw incidents like that whenever you visited his home." A smirk. "Such as his mother saying 'I wish I never had him' or words to that effect, for example?"
Shinobu nodded. "Hai, I do. Matter of fact, several months ago when we met Ataru-kun's other 'fiancé,' his parents went all the way to practically selling him off to Lum so they could get good jobs on Lum's home planet for themselves!"
"I'LL KILL THEM…!"
Rampage's hand slammed into the Dominatrix's chest, which staggered the other girl but didn't knock her back too far. "Down, Tex!" she snapped before leaning over to gaze intently into her schoolmate's eyes. "Remember what Ataru-kun always said to us when we asked him why he didn't want to live with his parents anymore?"
The other woman blinked, and then she smirked. "To make them grow old and die alone."
"Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight!" Rampage drawled. "So what are we going to do to make damn sure that hunkmeister we all love so much will definitely WANT to take us to bed and make us scream to the Heavens when he finally decides to make us women?!"
As Shinobu gasped, the Dominatrix shuddered, muttering something quite unintelligible. Rampage blinked, and then she reached up to pat the other girl's head. "Good girl!" she said before she gazed on her twin sister. "Just gotta talk to 'em right!"
The Academician rolled her eyes while Wolverine tried not to laugh as we…
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