The Mundy

You are the only one in a family of superheroes without powers. Being kidnapped by one of the most dangerous villains, you didn't expect them to rescue you. You didn't believe it when they barge in, fury on their faces at your kidnapper.

It takes me a few minutes to get my bearings when I regain consciousness, and while it's happening, I try to rewind and remember what had happened. Starting from that morning.

Wake up an hour or so before anybody else, just so I can use the home gym without commentary from Dad or Jon. Use the shower and start cooking breakfast, which takes some doing given how much needs making. There'd been an argument between Mom and Laura about their upcoming trip back to 'the old country,' which Laura wasn't a fan of, but Dad kept saying "Just do the trip, you know it'll make your mother happy, she gets so much flak from her parents about it," and so on. All the while, Jon barely looked up from his phone.

I'd taken the time to make sure Jon's report was finished for his quarterly final in his history class. He skimmed it while wolfing down his food and mumbled how it looked different, and just grunted when I reminded him he'd almost forgotten the style guide his teacher expected for citing his sources. Mom had started talking about going on a run in Green Bank Park later that morning, but I gently reminded her that she had that meeting at the Langstrom Building at ten, and she needed to be there because it was her annual review, telling her she couldn't expect to rise higher in the Allied Heroes Commission if she kept neglecting her responsibilities.

Laura had tried to leave by using a transportation spell, and I had to point out she forgot her focus charms back in her room. That only got me a snarky response about how I thought I was all smart, "for a mundy." I took that in stride and accepted that the sarcastic "Thaaanks" from her before she left was the best I'd get. Jon had bolted out the door without saying goodbye, and even the parental units had been vague in their own goodbyes before leaving for the day. I'd had just enough time to clean up and everything before needing to get going to my own job.

Now here I am, waking up in an alien lair, suspended in the air in some kind of force-field. I know enough from the news, and stuff I'd seen from Dad's work, to recognize Xenari technology. Even before the tall blue-skinned alien triclops-- definitely one of the Xenari-- steps in front of me, with the bulbous cranium of the intellectual caste. "Ah-h-h, you're awake! I had concerns that the stasis field would have adverse effects on your physiology!"

They almost look disappointed when I don't try to struggle in the suspension field, and continue to fill the silence with their jabbering, gesticulating with spindly limbs and fingers. "So much of my equipment is calibrated for the metahuman capabilities of your Commission heroes that I neglected to consider that it might almost kill you when I put you in stasis. Not to worry!" they interjected, when they see the momentary panic in my features. "I realized it straight away, but it did render you unconscious."

"Why did you even use it on me?" I ask, before adding, even if I think I know the reason, "I'm nobody, I'm not even a meta!"

"Precisely!" The Xenari jabs a finger at me. "You are a baseline human. No active meta-gene. This despite being the child of two Commission heroes." They give an arch little laugh. "Don't look surprised! My scanners tell the truth about it, after comparing your genetics to those of Vanguard and Vixen. One-hundred percent genetic match." They float up to look me in the eye, reaching through the suspension field to grip my jaw and turn my face back and forth. "And your siblings are both active metas, in such diverse ways, while you remain baseline. Why is that?"

"You think I know?" I try to pull myself out of their grip. "I'm no expert on the meta-gene! Hell, even the experts aren't experts, and they've been studying it for the past seventy years!"

The Xenari scoffs. "I would hardly expect your planet's primitive technology to be able to adequately explain it. No, I'll have to perform some tests myself. Xenar's genetic sequencing technology is light-years ahead of Earth's." They pat my cheek in an almost patronizing manner. "Don't expect your family to get past my facility's defenses. No one is coming for you."

"I know."

That isn't what they were expecting. "...What."

I give a bitter laugh. "Do you know what my brother and sister like to call me? 'Mundy.' Short for 'mundane.' As in 'not special.'" The Xenari says nothing for a moment, and now I'm filling the silence with more words. "I'm the disappointment. 'Cuz I can't keep up with Mom when we go out into her nature hikes, and 'cuz my meta-gene never activated. Dad had wanted all of us to be a part of the Commission, and I turned down any offer to get some kind of admin job there."

My smile is brittle. "So, yeah. Pretty sure they'll be glad I'm out of their hair. The disappointing mundy no longer dragging down the family rep."

The Xenari tilts their head, drawing their hand back thoughtfully. "There's a lot to unpack there," they say after a moment. "What if you could activate your meta-gene?" They gesture about at their laboratory around us. "As I said, Xenar's technology is far better than Earth's. Once I work out the quirks in your genetic code, I could unlock it."

I stare at them. Not just because of the temptation of such an offer, but because, "You're not the first to offer power, you know. But I'll tell you what I told them--"

Before I can finish, there's a loud crash from one of the walls, as a broad-shouldered bulk armored in blues and reds, with a stylized 'V' emblem front and center on his chest, comes smashing through the reinforced wall. Vanguard tears a chunk from the wall and sends it hurling at the Xenari, who flies out of the way with surprising speed. The alien raises a gauntleted hand and gestures, activating multiple hidden turrets, which track the Commission Hero, only for what appears to be a bolt of lightning to go crackling through the room from the hole behind Vanguard, jolting across the room, but only after completing a circuit past every single turret.

The bolt remanifests into a figure wearing what looked almost like a blue-and-yellow racing suit, with a similar stylized 'V' emblem, meant to resemble a lightning-bolt. Voltaic almost appears to be moving in slow motion as he comes to a halt, raising a hand and clicking his fingers, whereupon every single turret overloads from a few thousand volts of electricity punching past every piece of insulation. The Xenari pivots to see this, and with another gesture, a technological device detaches itself from their backpack, as they prepare to aim this at the electric speedster.

But then another figure in a similarly-themed suit bounds in, leap-frogging off Vanguard's shoulders to kick the device out of the Xenari's hands. I could just about see the orange-and-blue design of Vixen's own outfit, her red hair bound back into a ponytail, as she uses the point of impact on the device to push off, up, and swing around to grab the alien around the neck. From there, she uses her momentum to bring the Xenari crashing down to the floor, smoothly shifting into a mount, one hand gripping them by the throat, the other poised to bring a fist down with crushing force. I could see the pointed pseudo-fae ears poking out to either side of her head as she growls at them.

Then I feel another presence, looking down to see Vex, in her own purple-and-blue outfit, beneath the violet robes she favored, striding through the suspension field to reach up and rest a hand on my foot. She has her umbral rosary wrapped around one hand, the cord festooned with additional charms, as she speaks arcanic syllables, disabling the field and catching me as I drop, setting me on my feet.

"Is she all right?" Vanguard calls this out, before looking over directly, not to her, but to me. "Are you all right? They didn't hurt you, did they?"

A little bewildered at how quickly everything just changed, I stammer out, "I'm-- I'm fine. They... said something about a stasis gun, calibrated it too strong, or something. It knocked me out."

Vixen's head snaps up, looking over as well, before bounding over to me. I'm vaguely aware of Voltaic almost immediately replacing her in keeping the Xenari pinned. Vixen is cradling my face, turning me this way and that, a nervous energy evident in her bearing that I don't remember ever seeing before. "But you're okay? No headaches or dizziness or--"

"N-nothing that I don't think I wouldn't have from everything that just happened," I burble out, feeling my heart racing. I just blink as Vixen wraps me up in her arms, and then again as Vex does the same. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Word went out on the Commish comms, Doctor Alcomb reported seeing a Xenari in the vicinity of her clinic, not far from DW&F Company," Voltaic shrugs as he glances up. "Only Dad was on duty when the call went out, but when we got confirmation that you'd been grabbed, we all dropped everything to get here."

"Took everything I had not to go charging in solo without waiting for the others," Vanguard grumbles. "No one messes with my kids. Especially not you."

I look at Vex. "But... I'm just the mundy--"

She stops me by gently smacking me upside my skull. "Sis, you might not have powers, but that doesn't make you not a member of this family. Seriously. I give you a hard time, but you're still my sister."

"Don't think we haven't noticed everything you do for us." Vanguard has joined in the group hug by this point. "I don't just mean making breakfast every morning. You keep your mother on-task by reminding her of the responsibilities she's got, so she's not getting too fae to do her job."

"You keep track of all of your sister's little baubles and everything," Vixen adds, "and you even help correct her pronunciation when she's practicing her spells."

Laura giggles a little bit. "Seriously. You don't even study the arcane like I do, and you pick up on this stuff. Doctor Ethereal says I've progressed a lot further than expected, and I don't think I'd have pulled it off if you weren't being super-organized for me." She nods towards our brother. "Plus, you help proofread his homework, and help him cram for his exams."

"For which he didn't thank you," Mom says, a little louder.

"Gimme a break, I forgot! No one's at their best in the morning," Jon groused. "Dad, you mind taking over a sec?" When he did so, my little brother swept me up in a hug of his own. "None of us would be nearly as good at what we do without you holding down the fort at home. You're not just the mundy, you're what keeps us all grounded, Sis."

Numbly, I do mumble out, "Be nice if you all showed it a little more."

"That's on us," Dad agrees, as he nonchalantly bends a few pieces of rebar around the Xenari to keep it bound up. I can already hear the police arriving outside, as Dad comes to join in the hug again. "I'm sorry we don't show our appreciation as much as we should. Just because you don't have any powers, doesn't make you less-than."

I just hug them all back. I think back to what I almost told the Xenari. They weren't the first to offer me power, to unlock my meta-gene, or whatever. Every time, no matter if they were some creature from the astral plane, a mad scientist type, or someone offering arcane power, I told them the same thing. I didn't want power, because in spite of being 'the mundy,' I never felt like I was missing anything. Not in that sense. And now I feel justified in that.