It was a morning not unlike any other in Rottenheim; The birds were too scared to sing, the sky was a dreadful orange, and of course, the Mastermind was getting ready to put another one of his nefarious, world-conquering schemes into motion. In the basement of his lair, he stood before a large vehicle with an even larger drill attached to it, proudly showing it off to his three uncertain lackeys.
"...and once we reach the center of the Earth, I'll be able to mold it with my fingers! Thus forcing the world's leaders to succumb to ME!" the conqueror boasted with a villainous laugh.
"Um... Sir, I'm pretty sure that's not how it works..." Claire spoke up, albeit meekly.
"Yeah, that doesn't sound right, but I also don't know enough about this stuff to contest it." Marcus added on.
"And that's why I didn't ask for your opinions!" the Mastermind berated. "The perfect place for any center of control is, as it's title would imply, the center! It's just basic design logic!"
The two minions, knowing they weren't going to change his mind on this, just quieted down. It was because of this that the Mastermind noticed an absence of someone's criticism, and only then looked over to see Ellen, more engrossed in scrolling through her phone than anything he was saying.
"Eh-hrm." he cleared his throat, trying to get her attention. It didn't work. "ELLEN!"
"Hm?" was all she answered with.
"Were you paying attention to anything?!" he scolded.
"Yeah, you got some wacky evil plan that's gonna blow up in your face due to your lack of... in or foresight, which is it today?"
"In." Claire answered, only to hush up when her boss gave her a dirty glare.
The Mastermind just growled in annoyance, not wanting to put up with this today.
"Alright, just get in the drill. All of you!" he commanded, to which his minions complied. But he suddenly got a wicked idea, and stopped Ellen in her tracks. "Actually, I think I have a more 'special' job for you. What're your thoughts on kids?"
"They’re dumb, judgemental, and I can’t stand them.” she answered with brutal honesty"
"Perfect! Here’s the address." the Mastermind exclaimed, shoving a piece of paper in front of her phone. "You’ll be expected there by ten."
"Wait, what’s this about?" she questioned.
"Okay, see, I initially agreed to go to some school to do a presentation on how good it is to be the best villain in the world as a publicity booster." the alien explained. "Then I realized I had this whole ordeal planned for the exact same day, and also I don’t care. But instead of cancelling, I thought it’d be the perfect opportunity to torment one of my miserable minions by making them deal with it instead!"
"You’ve got to be kidding…" Ellen complained. "And why do I got to be the one to do this?"
"Because you’re jaded and cynical, which is hardly enough to call you ‘evil’ but it’s the closest I’m getting out of you three." the Mastermind explained as he turned her attention to his other minions. "Marcus is way too nice, and Claire is… Claire. You’re the only one who’s at least a little on brand."
"And what if I refuse to go?" she questioned further.
"Then either you go back onto the streets or start paying rent!" her boss barked as he made his way into the vehicle. "You know, considering it’s kind of your job to do what I tell you! Now no further questions, I have a planet to conquer!"
And with that, the Mastermind slammed the door to his drilling machine shut, and immediately got it working to burrow into the ground, shaking everything in the process. Ellen just looked back down at the address she was handed. All she could do was release a groan of annoyance.
E.M.I.L.Y. rolled by, remarking "At least you're not stuck cleaning up after him." as she rolled toward the wreckage, her hands replaced with a broom and dustpan.
Eaglewing Elementary was the only elementary school still standing in Rottenheim, due to a combination of villains running rampant, and some child's inherited powers causing the other to collapse. And it was because of these two factors that the school was also heavily regulated, with students being on strict regiments, allegedly for their safety. It was the kind of establishment Ellen wouldn't want to be found dead in, yet here she was, being forced to present herself to a group of people she couldn't care less about. The security didn't give her any trouble, as she simply slinked past them as a shadow on the ground without them noticing. Class 2-E was Ellen's destination, the homeroom of Ms. Linda Orderly. As one could guess from the name, she was very strict and precise, something her students knew first hand.
"Alright, class, we have a very important guest coming today to speak to us, so you all better be on your best behavior!" Ms. Orderly demanded. "Which means giving him your undivided attention, not talking back, and no bathroom breaks during his lecture! Most of you have already used up your three for the day anyhow."
As Orderly's eyes darted around the room to make sure her class was listening, they landed on one student in particular: A young girl named Kristi, who was busier fixing her sock in her shoe than she was looking at her teacher. Annoyed by this, Orderly went up to her desk, moving fast enough to disappear in the blink of an eye, smacking her pointer on the young girl's desk to catch her attention.
"KRISTI! What did I tell you about ignoring the teacher?" Orderly barked, her face suddenly glowing red.
"But I wasn't Ms. Orderly, I-" Kristi tried to claim, only for her defense to fall on deaf ears.
"And talking back too? You've just earned yourself detention, young lady!" the teacher interrupted, slapping a sticker onto her forehead, causing the little girl to slump back into her chair in defeat. She knew what would happen if she pressed on the teacher any further.
Sticking her nose up, Orderly turned around and headed right back to her desk, only to jump back and gawk at the sight of an unfamiliar figure sitting there already.
"Hey." Ellen unenthusiastically greeted.
"ACK! Who the heck are you?!" she squawked. "You better be authorized to be here, or I'll call securit-!"
The shadow woman reached into her pocket and pulled out a note, shoving it into the teacher's face.
"Call me Shady. I'm with the Mastermind." she explained. "He blew you off 'cuz he couldn't be bothered to be here, and I couldn't be bothered to care."
Orderly mumbled as she gripped the note and looked it over, eyeing it intensely before shifting her gaze back on Ellen, who was still sitting at her desk with her arms crossed. The teacher just sneered at her, looking very unimpressed with this turn of events, but decided to roll with it and slammed the note back down on the desk.
"Well all right, miss 'Shady', since you've been entrusted with this and all." she said, not letting up on the stern tone for a second. "But try anything funny and it's going straight to your boss' ears, got it?"
"Doesn't look like I'm gonna have to try, honestly." Ellen remarked. This actually made the teacher step back as she heard the sound of snickering children behind her. Her least favorite sound in the world.
"QUIET!" Orderly snapped at her students, taking a moment after to regain her composure. "...For miss Shady's presentation on the exuberant life of a supervillain."
"Not the word I'd use..."
"Just. Go."
Ellen rolled her eyes and jumped up from her seat, shifting her gaze toward the crowd of fourth graders before her. So far she didn't sense any animosity from them, only confusion and curiosity, but still kept her guard up in preparation for the worst.
"Alright, hello, brats, I'm Shady, a supervillain, I work for Mastermind, and you're probably expecting me to go on about how great it is or whatever. But it's not, it sucks." she began, improvising her speech, with the kids taken aback and the teacher further aggravated by her bluntness. "I could tell you all about it but instead I prepared a visual demonstration to keep your attention for the next two minutes. Any questions first?"
One kid raised their hand and asked, "Are those gloves or are your hands like really burnt or something?"
"...Okay, no more questions." Ellen answered dismissively.
Ellen cast her shadow hands onto the wall behind her, morphing it into one big silhouette of the Mastermind... one clearly made with little effort, but still enough to convey the idea of him.
"Alright, so, this is my boss. He thinks he's hot stuff. But he isn't." she presented, which only befuddled the class further. "'Ragh, Ellen, how dare you speak down of me like that, I'm too busy making machines that blow up on me! Argh, profanity, profanity, profanity-'"
"MISS SHADY." the teacher quickly interrupted, her face lighting up red again. "Will you please take this seriously? You're here to tell us what it's like working for such a prestigious supervillain."
"I am." Ellen responded. "This is pretty much it."
"I've never seen someone talk back to Ms. Orderly and get away with it." one student whispered to another, unaware their conversation was being picked up by her finely tuned ears.
"Yeah, I like that Shady woman, she's a total rebel-" another student whispered back.
"WHO'S CHATTERING DURING CLASS?" Orderly blurted out, her voice now more boisterous, even being accompanied with what sounded like a whistling kettle.
The two chatting children pointed away from themselves, passing the blame onto the students in the next seats over. With blinding speed, Orderly ran past and slapped a sticker with the word "DETENTION" in big, bold letters, then instantly appeared back by Ellen, who looked back at the teacher in disapproval.
"Hey, what'd they do to deserve that?" she protested, having little patience for such unfair treatment, even toward a group she's normally ambivalent toward.
"The same thing that would land YOU in detention if I had the power to do so!" Orderly proclaimed coldly, sticking her ruler in the shadow woman's face. "Now use those freaky hands of yours properly if you don't want any bad words going back to your boss!"
"Bad words already go to him, ya witch..." Ellen muttered to herself as she turned away, now having even less respect for the teacher than she already did - which was an impressive feat.
Begrudgingly, Ellen carried on with her presentation, of which even the children could tell was not very well thought out as she struggled to think of something nice to say about her line of work. Feeling their beady little eyes peering into her soul from behind, she knew she had to come up with something. And after glancing back at the temperamental teacher, she did.
“Alright, you, gonna need a volunteer for this.” Ellen said as her finger pointed toward Kristi, despite the child clearly looking nervous about approaching her teacher. But she eventually did as the shadow woman kept pressuring it. “What’s your name?”
“K-Kristi…” she meekly answered her.
“Alright. Kristi, go give her whatever crud you can find.” Ellen instructed. “And you act like you told her to do that.”
“I do that all the time anyway.” Orderly commented.
“Good, you’re a natural fit for the role then.”
Kristi nervously complied with Ellen’s instruction, giving her teacher small things like a pen or a loose button from her pocket. Orderly didn’t really see what the point of this was… even less so when Ellen started chipping in with giving her things to hold; Things like chairs, bins, even one student’s desk. It didn’t take long for her legs to start buckling under the pressure, only barely mustering the strength to keep herself from collapsing.
“M-Ms… Shady… I don’t… see… what… the point of this… is…!” she said through a strained voice, the veins on her forehead starting to swell up.
“Well, should we show her?” Ellen asked the class, expecting a unanimous response, and instead being met with some kids saying yes, but most of them just spouted unsure murmurs among themselves. “...Love the enthusiasm.”
Ellen stretched out her arm to the edge of the carpet Orderly had been standing on, pulling it out from under her and causing the teacher to scream as she fell, the clutter covering her shortly after. Every student’s eyes nearly bulged out of their skull at the unexpected turn of events. Having no shame in it though, Ellen merely turned to face them in her typical deadpan manner.
“And that’s what it’s like working for Mastermind.” Ellen explained. “Doing a bunch of busywork until it blows up in his-”
“AAAAAAAAAAARGH!” Orderly screamed as everything flew off her her whole body suddenly turned a bright red, with Ellen stepping back in shock and the entire class ducking for cover. After an intense buildup of rage, a loud POP rang out, followed by the teacher emitting smoke from her hair before collapsing backwards. Ellen and Kristi glanced over and looked back down at the teacher as a murmur grew among the students.
“Woah, she just made Ms. Orderly blow a fuse…” a boy in the front row commented. “That’s awesome!”
This caused a chain reaction in the crowd, as they all suddenly started cheering for their presenter for doing the impossible. Ellen was now even more confused, but was distracted from that when even the timid Kristi got into the excitement, trying to lift her arm, though obviously not doing well due to her height.
“She’s the champ of the school!” Kristi proclaimed, riling up the children even more. Ellen still wasn’t sure how to respond, but the sight was too adorable for even her jaded self to not crack a smile.
With a disgruntled groan, Orderly shakily got back to her feet and looked over at her class… seeing a horde of kids stampeding her way to gather around Ellen, getting trampled over shortly after. She managed to get back up again and saw them celebrating the shadow woman, much to her annoyance.
“ALRIGHT, EVERYONE, BACK TO YOUR SEATS!” she barked. But her shouting fell on deaf ears as they simply ignored her. “HEY! I SAID BACK… to your… seats…?”
None of the children paid any mind to her, as they were too busy with their special guest. For the first time in as long as she could remember, she had no control over her class. To say she was not a fan of this would be the understatement of the century, as the cold, hateful glare she was aiming at Ellen would have suggested.
Things only got worse for the teacher from there as the school day went on. She tried her best to keep her students in line, but Ellen was basically a celebrity among them, and her influence over the children was too strong. When they ran in the halls, Ellen would shout “take cover” as Orderly tried to correct it. When they were on recess, Ellen would create shadowy rides that were riskier than any slide. When food fights took place in the cafeteria, Ellen would act as the referee. In spite of everything, the teacher tried to remain calm and control the situation, but it was easy to see she was reaching her boiling point. At one table in particular, Ellen was using her powers to shield the handful of kids who just wanted to eat their lunch, one of which was Krisit, who had grown quite inquisitive.
“Have you ever robbed a bank? Or jaywalked?” Kristi questioned. “Ooh! Have you ever shanked someone?”
“I don’t know whether to be flattered or deeply concerned that you’re so enthusiastic about all that.” said Ellen.
“I’m sorry, Ms. Shady, it’s just that we usually never get to do anything out of line!” the young girl explained.
“I guess that’s fair enough.” Ellen remarked. “Not like I’m one to judge.”
“So what about your hands, Ms. Shady? Are they fancy gloves or what?” Kristi finally asked.
There it was, the question she was dreading. But for the first time, Ellen couldn’t bring herself to just pass it off with a snide remark, not with her beady, optimistic eyes peering into her soul now. She awkwardly shifted around her own eyes, trying to think of a way to get out of this discussion.
“Well, uh…” she stammered. Before she could come up with a proper answer, a cold, wet, slab of mashed potatoes hit her on the back of her head. She glanced back, seeing a particularly rowdy boy laughing. “Hey! No targeting the ref!”
“Okay, you asked for it.” Ellen playfully remarked as she formed her hand into a spoon and flung it back. The boy managed to duck for cover in just amount of time, causing the mash to fly over his head…
SPLAT!
...and right in Ms. Orderly’s face. The entire cafeteria went silent as some of the potatoes slowly dripped off, while the rest were burnt to a crisp by her boiling temper.
Pulling out a ruler and raising it to the sky, a fiery energy began to erupt from her pressence, and then... BOOM! A massive explosion went off around the teacher, sending everyone flying backwards. Sitting up, they all looked to the center of the cafeteria, where Orderly was now standing on top of a table, but now donning a new outfit: What looked like a navy blue military uniform, complete with a cap, an eye mask underneath her glasses, and armor plating around her chest.
“Ms. Shady… You’ve brought enough chaos to Eaglewing Elementary…” Orderly spoke. “Now face the wrath of the EDUDICTATOR!”
Ellen just stared back at the supervillain before her.
“Okay, that’s the stupidest villain name I’ve ever heard-”
Without wasting a second, the Edudictator suddenly let out a shout, sending a concentrated explosion her way. Thinking fast, Ellen pushed Kristi out of the way and turned herself into a full shadow, just barely avoiding the explosion as it destroyed the wall behind her. The shadow woman regained herself, just in time to notice the teacher raising her ruler to swing at her, which she again just narrowly dodged, countering by wrapping her arms around Orderly’s and swinging her aside, all the while the children were watching fearfully and commenting on the situation.
"This seems a little extreme for just making your class rowdy." Ellen remarked.
"Oh, you think that's all it is, huh?" the Edudictator spoke as she got back to her feet. "I'll let you in on a secret: I arranged this special little day just so I could get a shot at taking down the Mastermind and rule this town like it should be! So this is also for throwing a wrench in that plan! But yeah, that's not helping your case either!"
Slamming her ruler onto the ground, the Edudictator sent out another concentrated explosion, this time going off underneath the table Ellen was standing on and launching them both. She refused to let up her assault, shouting repeatedly and shooting out fiery balls at Ellen, who had to really keep on her toes to not only dodge, but grab kids and throw them out of the way.
Eventually, she realized that her attacker wasn’t actually paying attention to where she was casting her explosions, and used that to her advantage by shrinking down into a shadow on the floor and moving in. Once she was right under the Edudictator, a massive fist came out of the shadow to smash the evil teacher through the wall behind her and into a break room, with the staff inside ducking for cover. As she sat up, Ellen’s arm wrapped around her leg to drag her back out, all while the other teachers watched in horror.
“This again?!” one teacher complained. “Why does that nut job still work here?”
“She has tenure, remember?” the other answered.
“Oh, right…”
Orderly was hoisted into the air and slammed down into the ground as hard as Ellen could muster, with the old woman proving surprisingly tough, getting right back up to blast more explosive blasts at her. She kept weaving out of the way, but this time the villain wasn’t planning on letting up on her. Once she ran out of room, Ellen was forced to take one of her explosive blasts, a direct hit that sent her flying back to slam against the nearest wall. The kids could only watch in sheer horror as their teacher’s rage came out front and center. But it wasn’t long before one of them decided to take action, as Kristi started to grab discarded food off the ground.
“Let’s go! We gotta help her!” Kristi proclaimed as she started picking up as much scrapped food as she could carry. She looked back at the crowd of kids, all looking at her as if she’d gone insane. “C’mon! She showed us that Ms. Orderly can’t get away with bullying us all the time! Now we gotta show her that she can’t bully Ms. Shady!”
After an exchange of glances among the crowd, those words were all it took to convince the rest of her class to chip in, grabbing as much as they could.
Winded from taking the brunt of that blast, Ellen just groaned as she laid on the ground, with the Edudictator grinning as she approached her, gripping the ruler tightly in her hand. As she stood over the fallen lackey of the Mastermind, she raised her weapon of choice high into the air.
“The world would be so much better off without nuisances like y-!” the old woman began to proclaim, before she was suddenly cut off with another SPLAT, hitting her in the back of the head. “What the-?!”
“GET HER!” Kristi commanded. The next thing Orderly knew, a stampede of 9th graders were charging her, pelting her with scraps of food and plastic utensils.
Orderly charged another blast, but failed to pull it off when a group of kids suddenly started pulling at the skirt hanging out from her armor, while another group climbed on top, all the while she was still getting barraged by tomatoes, sporks, milk cartons, and whatever else they could get their hands on.
“HEY! STOP IT! OW! GET OFF ME!” she barked at them, only for her demands to go ignored.
“This is for banning chewing gum!” one student proclaimed.
“And this is for giving me five detentions this week!” another shouted.
Ellen blinked her eyes open and came to, shaking off her daze in just enough time to witness the students fighting back against their oppressive teacher. Seeing the kids protesting against her without her aid, it briefly put a smile on her face, until she noticed Orderly was starting to glow brighter and brighter as her anger rose.
“YOU… LITTLE… BRATS!” Orderly screamed, her body now glowing a bright red and giving off some intense heat that blew all of the children back. They looked back at her, seeing her veins pulsing wildly as steam started to emit from her body, all while she started ranting about how much she hated her job and working with children, with way more profanities than anyone in her vicinity should be hearing.
Ellen’s eyes widened as she realized what was about to happen, looking around at the kids who seemed to be regretting their decision at that moment.. In the nick of time, an idea came into her head. A very risky idea, but she knew there was no time to think of anything better. She assumed her shadow form once again, speeding across the ground and beneath the Edudicator, turning her body into a dense black veil and wrapping it around the villain. Doing this only aggravated her further, getting hotter and hotter, until…
KABOOM!
...That happened.
The explosion was successfully contained, but not without some damage in its wake. A crater was left behind in the floor, with Ellen having already passed out from how much she was exerting to pull this off, leaving the Edudictator just standing there and wobbling in a daze, covered head to toe in soot and stammering before she finally fell over. With the teacher defeated, all the kids ran into the crater, all worried for the shadow woman who had saved them. To their relief, she survived, and groaned as she sat up. But seeing her come to, now something else had caught the children’s attention.
“What?” Ellen asked as she tried to raise her hand to rub her head… only for her eyes to widen in horror when she realized what it was they were staring at.
With her shadows dispersed from the blast, Ellen’s arms were fully exposed to reveal the lack of them underneath, both having been amputated up to her elbows. Not wanting her secret to get out, she turned away from the children and quickly formed her shadows back into their place, but upon looking back, she could tell it was too late. The cat was out of the bag, and all she felt she could do now was brace herself for the worst.
"You actually have shadows for hands...?" Kristi asked, finally breaking the silence.
"Okay fine, yes I do." Ellen relented before taking a defensive stance again. "Not that it's any of your business, so just get it over w-"
"THAT IS SO COOL!" Kristi suddenly blurted out, making her stop dead in her train of thought. Ellen just stared back at her for a few seconds, genuinely unsure how to respond as this was the last reaction she was expecting from any of the children. Eventually, she was able to bring down her guard enough to give young Kristi a proper response.
"You... really think so?" she asked.
"Of course!" Kristi answered enthusiastically. "You get to do so many cool things with that!"
"Yeah, like reaching the top shelf!" another kid chimed in.
“Or scratching your back in a spot you can’t reach!” said yet another.
“Or stopping Ms. Orderly from blowing us all up…” one last student brought up.
“Oh right, that too. Yeah, you’re our hero!”
In her mind, Ellen definitely didn’t agree with that term applying to her. But seeing the kids all group around and cheer for her, not even bothered by this revelation, she didn’t feel like contesting it either. It was the first time in a long while that she was surrounded by such positivity, and decided to embrace it, the kids gathering around to admire their cool presenter and her equally cool powers.
"Ms. Shady?" Kristi spoke up, catching her attention.
"You can call me Ellen, Kristi." she said.
"Okay. Ms. Ellen, I wanna be just like you when I grow up!" the child exclaimed.
The shadow woman felt flattered, smiling back at her with a chuckle, but shortly after dropped it to bluntly tell her "No, you don’t. Trust me.”
After a long school day made short by the insane events, Ellen had caught a taxi back to the lair of the Mastermind. Even though things had picked up by the end, a part of her was still glad it was over with. Without bothering to remember the main door's passcode, Ellen formed her whole body into a shadow to simply slip underneath, reforming herself inside.
At first, she was going to just return to her room, until she looked over and saw the Mastermind, Claire, and Marcus, having already returned from their own mission and looking worse for ware. All thee had parts of their outfits or armor burnt black. The aspiring conqueror just leaned back with his arms crossed, looking displeased. Claire sat on the opposite end, hunched forward with her pupils sunken in. And Marcus simply sat between them in awkward silence. Walking up to them, Ellen simply asked "So, how'd the world domination plan go?"
"...There weren't any controls in the Earth's center." the Mastermind begrudgingly admitted. "Only lava."
"We almost died..." Claire added on, still shaken.
"Well, except for me. 'Cuz you know..." Marcus said, failing to read the room until he looked over at his boss and fellow minion. "I mean, uh... Yeah, it was rough."
"At least we all had a miserable time one way or the other." the Mastermind remarked, casting his glance at Ellen.
"Actually, it was pretty fun." she admitted, much to his annoyance. For a few seconds, he didn't even say anything, only responding to her with a deadpan stare.
"...Alright, well, I'm gonna go shower." he said as he stood up. "We better still have some formaldehyde..."
With a silence once again filling the room, Ellen simply sat in her boss' place, turning toward her cohorts.
"If it helps, I technically also died too." she said before pulling out her phone to scroll through again, only drawing looks of confusion from them onto her. But she didn't mind, it was more fun to keep them guessing.
END.
I loved that Ms. Orderly put stickers on their foreheads! What a great visual!