Meeting this mysterious not-so-stranger! What does he have on you?

You are standing in a dark alleyway outside of your home apartment, dressed in your new 'Thunderbird' costume, the new heroine identity you had to change to as a result of your mother revoking the rights to be the second Nightingale. Being the chosen successor of a heroine with a famously long, successful career had made you a rising star. Now, your last chance to avoid falling into obscurity is to salvage the creation of an uninspired new heroine team, the 'Weather Watch', which has saddled you with teammates who are openly hostile to you. The only saving grace of your current abominable situation is that you'd been part of a team with just about the ONLY heroine or hero you've worked with so far whose kindness isn't a shallow facade, that being Dr. Rainbow, and now she's been kidnapped by a psychotic villain organization.

The last thing you want to deal with is your dirtbag stepbrother. "I'm not sure who you are," you say, "but you have the wrong person. I'm called Thunderbird. Weren't you paying attention when I introduced myself? This is my first day as a heroine."

"Wow." The man in front of you isn't impressed. He's tall and broad shouldered, but not bulky. Always having had a flair for the dramatic, he is wearing a fluttering maroon trenchcoat and has gauze bandages covering most of his face, but showing his slate-grey eyes burning with spite. "What a coincidence that you look exactly like my sister who started her superheroine career a few months ago, except with her hair colored yellow." He raises a fist. "After all this, after so many years, don't insult me."

"Oh? Whoooo is this?" Red Balloon gleefully floats down from the side door of the van, her body skipping lightly over the ground as if she were filled with helium - which, judging by her voice, many people would indeed assume is the case. "I didn't know you had a brother, Thundie!"

"Don't you dare try to pretend like you didn't set this up." you hiss at her. But she leans backward and puts her hand on her chest. "Noooo, believe me! I have NEVER met this man before in my life and have no idea who he is. You can tell when people are lying by using your super-powers, right? It's one of the things YOU insisted that I include on your list of powers. Since, y'know, throwing your voice and listening well don't seem so great compared to being able to pound your opponents with giant snowmen or create tornadoes, lightning, wind, etc etc etc..."

"Sorry, Red Balloon," you say, turning to her part way through her catty remarks. "I see your mouth moving, but I can't hear you. You're trapped in a bubble of silence right now. This is a private conversation."

You turn back to the man standing in front of you. "Well, if it isn't the idiot baby chick who pushed himself out of the nest and never stopped squawking. When did you get to Acropolis City, Elliot?"

"Oh," he says, raising his voice like he always did whenever he wanted to launch into a self-important filibuster. "It's not just 'Elliot' anymore, Rikki. Since I've gotten here, people have started calling me... Shush. Thanks to my new stealth-suit, easily concealable under clothes of course, I can go anywhere I want and no one can hear a sound."

You roll your eyes. "So, instead of paying Eddie back all of the money you stole from him, you spent it on magic underwear?"

"NO!" he shouts, rage starting to burn in his eyes. "You're NOT going to humiliate me again, you bitch! Again and again, in front of my own father, in front of your mother, in front of my friends... time after time, you mocked me, cut me down, and showed me up. Everything was for YOU, because you were special. And that meant you got away with anything! You could commit ANY crime and they wouldn't even believe me."

"Crime?!" you grit your teeth. "Elliot, you little weasel...! You tried to **** me into helping you embezzle money from your dad's business just so you could waste it on chasing superpowers. Do you know how many people try that every year? Most of them end up scammed out of their money, and more than a few wind up dead or wishing they were. I guess buying some toy to give you a pale imitation of what I can do naturally is the least idiotic way you could've gone about it, but you know what would've been a lot less idiotic than even that? Just giving the money back and apologizing! To dad, and ESPECIALLY to me! After all of this, do you still think you can play hero?"

"Dad? DAD?" Your stepbrother's voice comes out as a disgusted grunt. "That's absolutely disgusting, to hear you use that word. Do you think I haven't seen your little video?"

You swallow. "Well... there's only so much I can read into a note that just says 'I know' in giant letters."

"And as to the rest," Elliot continues. "Who said anything about playing 'hero'?"

Well, fuck. You had a suspicion that's where this was going. And then, hard though it might seem to believe, things get so much worse: a familiar, sweet voice reaches your ear, coming through the electronic earpieces built into the housing of your goggles. "Excuse me, I'm sorry, Miss Thunderbird, are you in trouble? I can't reach you at the moment, but if there's any counseling I could provide..."

As your eyes bug out, you turn away from Elliot, trying to remember if you have a transmit button. "Dr. Rainbow!!" you shout, overjoyed relief mixed with worry. "You... you have one of the radios? We've been trying to find you, why didn't you say anything before?"

"Well," your cutesy partner says over the transmitter, "I was being watched by naughty people, of course. I didn't want them to search me again and find the micro-radio. Really, as many times as these pawn soldier people have been frisking me, it's a wonder they never found it. It's a good thing they never thought to check anywhere except for my hips, thighs, and upper chest. I didn't know you had a step-brother! It sounds like he's upset about something. That's really sad. Even though I'm tied up at the moment... um, literally speaking... isn't there any way I can help the two of you re-establish your bonds of familial love?"

"Hahahahaha!" Elliot giggles manically. "Yes, 'familial love', that's it, isn't it? Oh, perhaps I should mention, I've also started dabbling in hacking. Whoever designed your setup made it absurdly easy to get on your communicator channel. Wouldn't you know it, just a few hours ago, while I was tracking your activities and confirming that you were poking your head out again in a new heroine identity after your latest shameful crime, I come across an anonymous video on the internet that some villains uploaded by accident. Most people would've thought it was just amateur porn, but I saw the date, and I saw your face... and suddenly, a lot more made sense. Let me explain what happened."

"OH NO YOU DON'T!" you say loudly, pinching your fingers together as he steps forward.

"The first thing..." Elliot says, and your jaw drops. You clear your throat and try again, vibrating your vocal chords as you call upon your powers. "...that happened was my stepsister and I had a fight right before she left for college..."

"What the...?!" you say, distraught. "I shouldn't still be able to hear you. Why aren't you muted, damn it?"

"Oh," Elliot says. "My under-suit is also designed in such a way that it interferes with ultrasound and infrasound frequencies at close quarters. I guess that stops your incredible superpowers from working, doesn't it? Sorry, I must've forgotten to tell you."

Looking over, you see Red Balloon giving you a wink and a giggle, confirming that she's been hearing all of this. Your best friend and your worst enemy are about to get to listen to your jealous scumbag of a stepbrother dragging your reputation through the mud as much as he can. You try to bluff. "Don't... don't bother telling stories. They've already seen the video, practically everyone in the League has. I've got nothing to hide." you stammer.

"Let me start over, without interruptions this time..." the bandaged son-of-a-bitch (you and he don't share a mother, and you've never been shy calling him that) in front of you says.