Silver Swan More like Mother Hen

Valerie Beaudry knew she was an insecure woman. It was a truth she had carried for as long as she could remember.

Her insecurities had deep roots—her parents had been exposed to dangerous levels of radiation following a series of nuclear tests, and as a result, Valerie had been born with severe physical deformities. Her childhood had been a lonely one, marred by isolation and fear of rejection. People recoiled at her appearance, and though she longed for connection, she withdrew into herself, ashamed of what she saw in the mirror.

Everything had changed the day she met Henry Cobb Armbruster, the charismatic CEO of Armbruster International. Henry had been different from anyone she had ever known. He had seen past her deformities—or at least, that’s what he had made her believe. With his smooth words and confident charm, Henry had promised Valerie he could make her beautiful. All it would take was her willingness to undergo experimental treatments as part of his secretive Project: Silver Swan.

**** to escape her wretched existence, Valerie had leapt at the opportunity to change her life. Volunteering for Project: Silver Swan had felt like her last hope, the final chance to break free from the prison of her deformities and loneliness. The results were nothing short of miraculous. The experiments transformed her from a disfigured, reclusive outcast into a strikingly beautiful woman—a far cry from the ugly duckling she had always seen in the mirror.

But the transformation hadn't stopped at mere physical beauty. The project had granted her powers beyond her wildest dreams. She could now generate and manipulate devastating sonic vibrations, wielding them like a weapon. It was exhilarating, intoxicating even. And standing beside her through it all was Henry—her saviour, her rock. He had become the centre of her world, the reason she existed. For him, Valerie would have done anything.

That blind devotion had driven her into battle against Wonder Woman, a disastrous attempt to prove her worth to Henry. It was a battle she never stood a chance of winning, but her hatred of the Amazon had blinded her to that. She envied Wonder Woman with an intensity that consumed her. How could she not? Wonder Woman was everything Valerie had never been—strong, admired, untouchable.

Perfect.

Valerie’s bitterness had festered, fuelling her rage. She couldn’t help but hate the Amazon, not just for beating her, but for embodying everything Valerie wished she could be. The envy that burned inside her was like a slow, simmering fire, always there, waiting for a spark to ignite it into something uncontrollable.

But that had been then. And this was now.

Now, everything had changed again.

The strange, overwhelming **** that had crashed through her mind—the deafening, near-constant pressure that had pounded inside her skull since the boy’s arrival—was growing. The vibrations in her head throbbed louder and louder, drowning out everything else. But with that pain came something new, something unexpected. Amongst the anguish and fear, Valerie felt a strange warmth kindling deep within her, an instinct she hadn't known she possessed. Maternal instincts.

They started as faint embers but quickly ignited into a raging fire, consuming her completely. Valerie had always been unstable, her insecurities festering beneath the surface, leaving her **** to manipulation. But now, that weakness seemed to fill with purpose. The hollow ache she had carried for so long—the void inside her—was gone, replaced by an all-encompassing urge to protect.

And as the lab's equipment malfunctioned, sending sparks and chaos throughout the facility, Valerie found herself drawn to the source of her torment. The boy.

She spotted him through the thick, reinforced glass of his cell—a young man, no, a boy, cowering in the corner, trembling with fear. Panic radiated from him in waves. Valerie’s heart swelled. She knew, with utter certainty, that this was her son. He was the one who had called out to her in the depths of his terror, the one she was meant to save.

Her lips curled into a soft, almost delirious smile. She was going to protect him, to rescue him from the horrors of this place.

As the equipment around her sputtered and short-circuited, Valerie amplified the damage with subtle pulses of her sonic powers. It wasn’t long before the lab’s systems began to overload, delicate instruments frying, and alarms blaring. Soon, the power cut out completely, plunging the lab into darkness.

She could feel the boy’s fear spike—his breathing quickened, and his body stiffened in the pitch-black void. It pained her to know he was frightened, but Valerie knew this was necessary. Once they were free, once she had him in her arms, everything would be perfect.

The cell door clicked open, and Valerie moved toward him, her footsteps eerily soft against the cold metal floor. She knelt beside him, wrapping her arms around his trembling form. He felt so small, so fragile in her grasp, and her heart ached with a fierce protective love.

"It's going to be alright, sweetie," she whispered, her voice soft, almost musical. She pressed his head against her chest, cradling him as if he were an infant. The vibrations from her voice began to grow, resonating through her body and into the walls of the lab.

The building shuddered as her powers rippled outward, cracks forming in the walls, shaking the very foundation of Armbruster International’s secretive operation. Valerie held the boy tighter, her smile widening as she imagined the ruins of this place buried beneath the earth, her past obliterated, leaving nothing behind but a fresh start.

They would walk out of here together, mother and son, into a new start.

Valerie’s voice dropped to a soothing hum as the lab continued to collapse around them, the destruction she wrought barely an afterthought now. "We're going to be free," she cooed, stroking the boy's hair. "Just you and me. Away from all this."

The walls groaned, and the ceiling began to crack above them, but Valerie remained calm. Everything would be alright. It had to be. She would make sure of it.