Cautious Frustration
by Crossroads, ID 11004“Who the hell does he think he is?!” Allyson groused. “Meter maids, indeed....Chaz thinks he is so clever with his words, but that cleverness gets him into trouble more often than not.”
Crossroads actually liked Chaz most of the time, and she knew he was just doing his job. People don’t by newspapers if the news isn’t at least entertaining. But being made fun of always irked her. It reminded her of the bullies back in junior high and high school. She wasn’t the target of the bullies very often. They usually left her alone, either because her older sisters would kick their asses or because Allyson herself would give as good as she got.
If you don’t think the girls in school bullied the other girls, then you don’t know girls at all. They could be brutal, both physically and emotionally. Emotional bullying was as bad, if not worse, than getting beat up. Allyson was able to build an unofficial alliance of upperclassmen in her junior and senior years that defended those being bullied and, at least in her school, bullies became non-existent.
Chaz wasn’t being a bully, though. He didn’t have a mean bone in his body. He was just being Chaz and chasing the story.
Allyson sighed.
It did appear that her league, 5th Precinct: Omniversal Traffic Cops was just sitting back and phoning it in during the first round. But they were up against WMD: Black Order and they realistically had no chance against them. If they went after WMD, all they would do is generate defensive wins for them. They were too strong. Hot Wings, Skelanimal, Slagathor, Damon, Midgardsormr, The Wizard, and Shadow Walker were listed among the Top Ten Heroes in the world. 5th Precinct:OTC was strong, but WMD was in another class altogether. WMD beat them 134 to 0. Not attacking them just made sure that the score wasn’t even worse.
Still, such caution was embarrassing. And also frustrating when you had to explain it to everyone when it should be obvious to them. About the only league who could have gotten some wins from them is Colony 51 and Allyson didn’t think they would win against WMD, regardless.
“Oh, well. At least I didn’t spend too much time in the infirmary this time,” consoled herself.
Colony 51was their next opponent and they would be incredibly tough. Crossroads herself might not get too many wins against the likes of Magnifcent punlork, The Gentleman, Ibo Shin gu, and the others, but at least she had a chance this time if she made the most of her abilities. And make the most of them she would. She was extremely fed up with getting Bronze medals.
She hadn’t gotten a silver medal in a long time, since Frosty League Wars (LW6)!
Allyson was thinking that maybe she should retire from League War competition. After all, it seems that she has reached a point where she can’t get stronger. All the gear and powers she has obtained haven’t made her strong enough. All the practice in The Fight Clubs, KOTM events, and sparring matches haven’t enabled her to beat the very top echelon of heroes. Every time she feels close to breaking through, those top tier heroes show her just how big that gap between her and they are.
A cacophony of voices rose up within her mind. All the Allysons across the multiverse that she had connected with reassured her that they had her back, that quitting was not an option. They knew that Allyson would do her best, all the time, every time. She wouldn’t quit, because it wasn’t in her nature to quit. Sure, she might bitch and moan about the unfairness of it all, but that was just a stress reliever. Allyson was well aware that life wasn’t fair. It never was and never will be. It was just something to deal with and that’s what Allyson would do. Deal with it.
Allyson felt better after that internal pep talk. She went to bed that night vowing to give it her all. She also thought she might owe Chaz an apology for her abruptness and snarky comment about hiding behind a press pass. Chas wasn’t a coward. He was usually in the thick of things when the penny dropped. He had been through as many Villain Raids as any hero, right at the site of battle, not across the world in a news studio watching it on monitors. Chaz was a good man. She should apologize.
Then again, maybe not. He could definitely be a jerk. Maybe he would realize that making fun of someone after suffering a brutal loss isn’t a cool thing to do.
Maybe....but Allyson really doubted it.
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