#fusionmatrix

Katarina Gomez decided her life's purpose at 6 years old. Her dads were surprised, understandably, when she sat them down at the dinner table, quite seriously, and informed them that she would be a lawyer. The career itself was not the shock — because lords knew that girl could debate — nor was it the fact that she continued on to discuss her (unreasonably detailed) plans for law school.

(Okay, her dads were a little surprised about the depth of her plans. Again, this is a 6 year old we're talking about.)

It's just, she also happened to be the daughter of some of the most powerful superheroes the faction of Ingetane had ever seen. Her powers had not yet fully developed — powers, if present, would emerge in response to significant chemical changes in the body, so Ingetane members who were around for Katarina's birth would only know the fact that she would have strong powers. They wouldn't learn the specifics of those powers until just after her 12th birthday, when she evaporated her mattress and bedframe in her sleep.

Her parents had been supportive of her career goals, though not to the point of telling other Ingetane families to back off on pressuring her to become a superhero. Yet, when her powers left her standing groggily in the doorway of her parents' room with a bruised tailbone (and ego), they had no choice but to send her to one of the Heroship Program's schools, rather than following the plan her 6-year-old self had set out.

Katarina did not blame them for that — she was very practical, after all, and knew that powers as intense as hers would need restricting if she would ever be able to go back to her original plan. She had, in fact, considered the possibility back when she first presented her ambitions, yet chose to not speak of them out of fear that they'd take it as leniency. So, she simply nodded and began packing her bags to travel to the Ingetane Heroics Preparatory School.

There, she threw herself into her studies. While heroic preparatory schools were, in many ways, much like any other boarding K-12, they had the unique characteristic of being superpower-proofed. A much needed feature, given Katarina's powers of dissipation and minor air manipulation leading her to accidentally turn much-needed items (ranging from items such as her clothes to things such as the floor) into smoke and (with the help of her air manipulation) blowing it away before someone with reconstruction powers could attend to it.

She did not enjoy IHPS. She would not say she did, at the very least — Katarina was not exactly in the habit of sharing her feelings, regardless — and yet it did, somehow, change her opinion from "heroic training is an obligatory prerequisite to going on with my life" to "I can be a superhero and a lawyer, why not?"

The latter opinion was not an expression of reckless ambition. It was, instead, the culmination of her (usually justifiable, yet oft frustrating) ego, which had developed upon a consistent 5 years of being the obvious top of her class. While schools — especially ones catering towards youth — were not allowed to publicize grades, test scores, and anything of the sort, it was clear she was miles ahead of her peers.

She was, thus, not by any means beloved by her classmates. Granted, they didn't hate her — she helped tutor them, was decently patient, and never bragged (though, in fairness, she wasn't exactly verbalizing her opinions in the first place) — but they viewed her as distinctly foreign. To them, it was unreasonable to aspire to be her, and it was unreasonable to compete with her, so it was best to just ignore her.

Katarina did not mind. If anything, she enjoyed it. Part of the reason she wanted to be a lawyer was because she did, in her own way, care about others — wanted to help others, to be a force for good — but lords did she not want to have to empathize with them. She could understand a problem and either solve or give advice for that problem, depending on her responsibilities.

Plus, she learned very quickly on that because she was so far ahead that the curriculum would not cater to her, she could use her plentiful free time for her own gain.

Thus, she applied for various United Heroship Program's heroic institutes — this time, all outside of her faction, because Ingetane University of Heroics and Nature was, like everything else Ingetane, located in a rural mountain range.

She did not, technically, get into any of UHSP's institutes — because she was offered a direct mentorship with a teamed superhero.

UHSP staffed a grand deal of superheroes (and regular, non-powered heroes, of course), and nearly all of those were from the pool of UHSP university graduates. Most superheroes who became certified through hero schools debuted upon graduation, but were not placed into a team, thus not doing the public-facing work teamed superheroes did. Teams were almost all publicity — a new team was announced, on average, between 5-10 years, and rarely contained more than 5 superheroes. Teams, which focused on specific issues (such as supervillain groups or a rise of mutant sightings), were UHSP's ways of addressing public concerns. They were grouped together in generations — more frivolous publicity, this time dictating who mentored who in an attempt to make new superheroes seem more reliable to the public.

Katarina (named Fusionhaze as part of the mentorship contract — she would have been the one to pick the name had she gone the traditional route, but that was not the case) was mentored by Geney. Or rather, she was supposed to be mentored by Geney.

Geney was part of the Outlook, Research, and Rescue Crew, or ORRC, which was the first team in Gen 4. She could shift the forms of objects — turning, for example, a piece of fabric into a metal, or vice versa — and named herself a mixture of "gene" (which she did not technically have power over) and "genie" (because her gimmick was giving people what they wanted). She was witty, well-endowed, made horrible dad jokes, and her wispy blonde hair was greying despite her not even being 30. 18-year-old Katarina was, naturally, completely smitten.

This was particularly distressing for her, as Katarina was by no means the type to ever be smitten. Still, Geney spent the first year of the mentorship doting on her in a way that toed the line between maternal and flirtatious. Katarina, who was raised by 3 dads and demisexual, had no idea what to do with herself. She enjoyed it, though, and continued to enjoy it, even if it took her almost a full year to come around to the idea.

It was then that things changed. First, Katarina wasn't even sure it had — she thought that maybe, because she was finally so used to receiving affection, it stopped feeling so significant to her. Maybe that was why it felt like Geney was ignoring her. Then, Katarina considered if that Geney had noticed how Katarina felt about her and was backing away to maintain boundaries, but dismissed that possibility as well. Geney, for all her charm, was not the best at reading her. Geney was chaotic, delightful, and bold, and could not relate to Katarina's stringent ways.

So, Katarina at last considered the option that she was simply being ignored. That was fine. Katarina was used to being ignored! She was used to not having her opinions heard, her thoughts not taken seriously! It was fine! Geney could ignore her, and Fusionhaze could still be an incredible hero and lawyer.

(She had, by that point, stopped looking at law schools. She had, by that point, been ignoring her own desires as well.)

Geney was mentoring — unofficially, because she was supposed to only mentor Fusionhaze — a woman who went by the name Willowwisp. Willowwisp formerly had the powers of pyrokinesis and genealogy intuition, the first of which being incredibly powerful, and the latter had... decidedly less use cases for. But, for reasons yet to be known to scientific communities, pyrokinesis would only ever manifest in those badly effected by carcinogens. And, unfortunately, removing the cancer would almost always result in losing the superpower. Such was the case with Willowwisp.

Katarina, while of course not the best at relating emotionally, still felt deeply empathetic towards her. She was glad, on some level, that Geney was there to support Willowwisp as she underwent the debilitating process of treatment, and on a moral level, she was glad Willowwisp would still have access to education and employment. And also, she was so fucking jealous.

She felt strongly about Geney's distance in the way that she always felt strongly about Geney. It didn't matter whether it was affection or indifference, she would always react to Geney. It was just how it was. They had met at such a developmentally important time in Katarina's life, and as good as it was that Willowwisp didn't have to be alone, Katarina was still developing.

She still needed Geney. Katarina couldn't do it alone.

Except, of course, she would. Even without the full attention and guidance she yearned for, Fusionhaze would go on to become one of, if not the most powerful superheroes of her generation. And she was fine.

She was doing so well and was not stuck bitter and spiraling. She was assigned to work with a new hero named Animator (civilian name: Sebastian), grew close to him, accepted his advances, and pretended to believe that he was interested in Katarina, not Fusionhaze. She was later teamed with him, alongside a flesh manipulator named Cicatrix (civilian name: Adel), and was promoted to team leader. Their team debut was well received by all measures, except for the fact that fans were interested in Animator and Cicatrix's relationship, while she... well, she was too busy saving the world for people to care about her.

Animator told her that was not true. And Cicatrix told her that they wanted her, too. Fusionhaze wanted so badly to feel wanted, so she told Cicatrix she reciprocated their feelings.

(She did not — for many years — tell them that she wanted to be a lawyer.)

Willowwisp, as far as she could tell, was flourishing. That was fine. She had been selected to — semi-officially — mentor an up-and-coming pyrokinetic as they debated undergoing treatment and likely losing their powers.

(Ashwing, the pyrokinetic, chose to keep their powers. Fusionhaze learned that during a (very awkward) patrol with Willowwisp, in which the latter broke down crying. Fusionhaze had comforted the woman through her apparent existential, trying to seem empathic and undoubtedly failing. Fusionhaze's sole consolation was that it at least seemed equally as embarrassing for the both of them.)

A member of Ashwing's team, a timid air manipulator with a pocket dimension, had apparently grown quite close to Willowwisp while she mentored their teammate. They were a healer, because, despite not having any healing powers, they had gone to med school and gotten a degree. Willowwisp must have introduced the kid to Geney, because years later, the two were a dynamic duo — Geney would transform battlefield debris into medical tools for them to use.

And Fusionhaze was decently sure Geney was doing the same thing she did with her. The shy young hero had, by all accounts, begun thriving under Geney's tutelage. And they were nearly 10 years older than Fusionhaze had been when she met Geney, probably about 10 times kinder as well. It seemed like this time, Geney stayed.

And that was okay. They deserved her love, they needed it. Fusionhaze, after all, was strong. She could do this on her own. She always had.

(Sebbie and Adel found her, one night, sobbing into the bathroom sink. They had never seen her cry before. They had never known what would bring someone like her to tears.

They had a long, long talk that night. And the morning after. And many days after. The three did, eventually, agree to relationship therapy. Sebastian felt guilty for not noticing, Adel wanted to retry aspects of their relationship now that Katarina was genuinely attracted to them, and if you've read the past 2000 words of this, the reasons Katarina needs therapy certainly go without stating.