Reboot Fic
I’m pleasantly surprised with the re-launch treatment of Midnighter and Apollo so far. It’s not better, but so far it’s good in a separate way. So I decided to embrace the new version by writing something:
Title: Recalculate
Rating: PG
Summary: Midnighter is just trying to get Apollo away from the superheroes before they indoctrinate him. Jenny puts in her two cents.
SPOILERS: This takes place during Stormwatch issue 4. It has spoilers and probably won’t make any sense if you haven’t read up to that point.
Midnighter was in a good mood as they began to explore the long buried ruins of Alba Umbra. He hated that he had been forced to introduce himself to his partner sooner than he had planned by a bunch of interlopers, but he was having fun. He and Apollo had worked so well together just now.
When Apollo had rushed off into space, the odds that he would be seduced by his first taste of cosmic scale action had been unbearably high. Midnighter couldn’t stand the thought of the only person he had ever wanted to work with getting tangled up with a group of capes. They would overlook Apollo’s unorthodox tendencies in their initial lust for his power, but once he was part of a team, they would try to change him and make him conform to their ineffectual standards. He’d either let them turn him into a tool, and be miserable, or remain defiant and it would be back to being hunted like a dog.
But then Apollo had crashed back to Earth and Midnighter had arranged for a burst of solar energy to recharge him. “I feel incredible!” Apollo had cried, and Midnighter had watched his odds of success climb back into a range he felt comfortable with. Operation First Impression was back on track. There was no way he was going to let these people get their hooks in Apollo, Midnighter smirked as they started down another crumbling street.
Speaking of things he hated about Superheroes, why did they always seem to see nothing wrong with bringing children into war zones? The little girl this group had tagging along with them was climbing a wall twice her height, so Midnighter went over to offer a hand.
“Thanks. You now, as far as first dates go, I think you’re doing ok; saving the world from tentacle monsters is a lot more fun than dinner and a movie. But you might want to throttle back a bit Romeo, or he’s going to think you’re some kind of creeper.”
Seeing the rare look of confusion which crossed Midnighter’s face as he wondered if the girl was a telepath, she tapped her ear. A com-link. She had listened in on his earlier conversation with Apollo.
“You were following him around for a year? That’s romantic, but not in a good way. More like a sparkly vampire kind of way.”
“How old are you?”
“Twelve. I've been told I have an old soul though. ”
“I wasn’t following him like that.”
“If he had a twitter account, The Projectionist would have found it.”
“I had to be sure he had the right attitude. I’d be exponentially more lethal with a partner with that kind of power, but only if he wasn’t afraid of getting his hands bloody like every other super powered person I’ve come across.”
He knew it wasn’t much of an answer. Someone with his abilities should have been able to see if Apollo’s worldview meshed with his own much faster than that. The problem was that no sooner had he decided it had, than he noticed that every time he caught a couple seconds of any cloying pop song, he thought of Apollo. That was a very, very bad sign. The problem wasn’t that he was attracted to Apollo; he’d been aware of that immediately. The man was a god. The problem was that he had apparently become infatuated to the point that it was affecting his judgment. He might have a supercomputer for a brain, but if he couldn’t even trust himself not to hum along to Taylor Swift songs anymore, could he really trust himself not to simply be seeing what he wanted to see when it came to the man he had fallen for? Of course, when someone else had tried to take the decision out of his hands by recruiting Apollo, he had said ‘fuck it, I want him.’ He probably wanted him for the right reasons. He was 98.743% sure by that point.
“How many superheroes have you stalked?” She quirked an eyebrow and Midnighter couldn’t help smiling.
“I followed Booster Gold around for about a week, but it never went anywhere.”
“That corporate whore?” The girl laughed so hard she almost tumbled off some rubble and Midnighter put out a hand to steady her. “In that case, you should give us at least a week. Then you’ll see that we’re different too.”
“Look, Jenny, right?”
“Please just promise you’ll think about it? You and Apollo will both really, really like it on the carrier, I promise! At least come see it before you decide!” Jenny said, suddenly sounding like a normal kid again. One who had just seen a pair of puppies and had her heart set on adopting them. Midnighter was not at all sure how he felt about that.
They activated the artifact at the heart of the city and the monster was frozen into a beautiful glass sculpture. The gleam of admiration in Apollo’s eyes caused Midnighter to grit his teeth as his brain recalculated. The odds of Apollo choosing Stormwatch rose slightly meaning the odds of him choosing Midnighter dropped. The two numbers had never added up to 100%, because there was always the slim chance that one of them would be killed first, but Midnighter realized that the gap now also included a small chance that both Apollo and Midnighter would decide to join Stormwatch.
Title: Recalculate
Rating: PG
Summary: Midnighter is just trying to get Apollo away from the superheroes before they indoctrinate him. Jenny puts in her two cents.
SPOILERS: This takes place during Stormwatch issue 4. It has spoilers and probably won’t make any sense if you haven’t read up to that point.
Midnighter was in a good mood as they began to explore the long buried ruins of Alba Umbra. He hated that he had been forced to introduce himself to his partner sooner than he had planned by a bunch of interlopers, but he was having fun. He and Apollo had worked so well together just now.
When Apollo had rushed off into space, the odds that he would be seduced by his first taste of cosmic scale action had been unbearably high. Midnighter couldn’t stand the thought of the only person he had ever wanted to work with getting tangled up with a group of capes. They would overlook Apollo’s unorthodox tendencies in their initial lust for his power, but once he was part of a team, they would try to change him and make him conform to their ineffectual standards. He’d either let them turn him into a tool, and be miserable, or remain defiant and it would be back to being hunted like a dog.
But then Apollo had crashed back to Earth and Midnighter had arranged for a burst of solar energy to recharge him. “I feel incredible!” Apollo had cried, and Midnighter had watched his odds of success climb back into a range he felt comfortable with. Operation First Impression was back on track. There was no way he was going to let these people get their hooks in Apollo, Midnighter smirked as they started down another crumbling street.
Speaking of things he hated about Superheroes, why did they always seem to see nothing wrong with bringing children into war zones? The little girl this group had tagging along with them was climbing a wall twice her height, so Midnighter went over to offer a hand.
“Thanks. You now, as far as first dates go, I think you’re doing ok; saving the world from tentacle monsters is a lot more fun than dinner and a movie. But you might want to throttle back a bit Romeo, or he’s going to think you’re some kind of creeper.”
Seeing the rare look of confusion which crossed Midnighter’s face as he wondered if the girl was a telepath, she tapped her ear. A com-link. She had listened in on his earlier conversation with Apollo.
“You were following him around for a year? That’s romantic, but not in a good way. More like a sparkly vampire kind of way.”
“How old are you?”
“Twelve. I've been told I have an old soul though. ”
“I wasn’t following him like that.”
“If he had a twitter account, The Projectionist would have found it.”
“I had to be sure he had the right attitude. I’d be exponentially more lethal with a partner with that kind of power, but only if he wasn’t afraid of getting his hands bloody like every other super powered person I’ve come across.”
He knew it wasn’t much of an answer. Someone with his abilities should have been able to see if Apollo’s worldview meshed with his own much faster than that. The problem was that no sooner had he decided it had, than he noticed that every time he caught a couple seconds of any cloying pop song, he thought of Apollo. That was a very, very bad sign. The problem wasn’t that he was attracted to Apollo; he’d been aware of that immediately. The man was a god. The problem was that he had apparently become infatuated to the point that it was affecting his judgment. He might have a supercomputer for a brain, but if he couldn’t even trust himself not to hum along to Taylor Swift songs anymore, could he really trust himself not to simply be seeing what he wanted to see when it came to the man he had fallen for? Of course, when someone else had tried to take the decision out of his hands by recruiting Apollo, he had said ‘fuck it, I want him.’ He probably wanted him for the right reasons. He was 98.743% sure by that point.
“How many superheroes have you stalked?” She quirked an eyebrow and Midnighter couldn’t help smiling.
“I followed Booster Gold around for about a week, but it never went anywhere.”
“That corporate whore?” The girl laughed so hard she almost tumbled off some rubble and Midnighter put out a hand to steady her. “In that case, you should give us at least a week. Then you’ll see that we’re different too.”
“Look, Jenny, right?”
“Please just promise you’ll think about it? You and Apollo will both really, really like it on the carrier, I promise! At least come see it before you decide!” Jenny said, suddenly sounding like a normal kid again. One who had just seen a pair of puppies and had her heart set on adopting them. Midnighter was not at all sure how he felt about that.
They activated the artifact at the heart of the city and the monster was frozen into a beautiful glass sculpture. The gleam of admiration in Apollo’s eyes caused Midnighter to grit his teeth as his brain recalculated. The odds of Apollo choosing Stormwatch rose slightly meaning the odds of him choosing Midnighter dropped. The two numbers had never added up to 100%, because there was always the slim chance that one of them would be killed first, but Midnighter realized that the gap now also included a small chance that both Apollo and Midnighter would decide to join Stormwatch.