Notes:

Taking a lot of clues from the show to demonstrate how Kenning became the villainous Dr. Flug. Feel free to share your headcanons about familial drama, Flug's motivation, Penumbra, etc and I might include them in future chapters.

Chapter Text

Kenning had always wanted to be a hero. And he might have been, if not for the reflection in the glass liquor cabinet.

It was only logical that everyone in the Heart family should work in heroics. Kenning's older brother was a registered hero. His parents were secret agents in a heroic initiative. Everyone wanted to be a protagonist, and the science-wiz had the connections and the brains, and the drive to do good-just none of the brawn.

But, as Kenning's father Devon put the whiskey away, swaying almost imperceptibly, he saw a framed object on the opposite wall reflected in the glass cabinet door.

The middle-aged man turned, weary-eyed, to focus on the thing on the wall that he hadn't seen before. Next to the list of 2010 graduates from the Academy of Heroics-with his oldest son's name highlighted in yellow-there was a framed photo behind glass, with two people, their faces obscured by a reflection of kitchen lighting.

He moved closer. The bar of light appeared to move, revealing the faces. One was a news reporter, holding up a microphone to a skinny teen. Devon recognized the teen as his second son, grinning. Smug. Devon snorted and furrowed his brow, a pang of annoyance hitting him in the gut. He lifted the picture off the wall and carried it down the hall.

"Kenning, did you hang this?" The older man asked as he stepped through the teenager's open door. Kenning was hunched over a microscope in a desk chair, and looked up. He picked up a pair of glasses from his desk and put them on, then turned to squint at the object Devon was holding.

"Oh! Yeah, that's from my interview!" he responded with a wide smile, turning his chair to face his father completely. "About the ultra-light battery I was working on. It was on channel 4."

"I see," Devon said as he tossed the picture to Kenning's immaculately-made bed. He crossed his arms and leaned against the door frame as the teenager's eyes followed the picture. "I don't see why you got on TV for that."

Kenning frowned and crossed his arms. "Well, there can be a lot of practical uses for battery-powered objects, but their size-to-power ratio-"

"Son, do you know what I do?" Devon interrupted.

Ken looked to the left and right, as though someone might be listening. "Yes?"

"I'm on a team that thwarts villains every day. Without our agents, the world could be at stake. But I never get interviewed on TV."

Ken was silent for a moment, and shifted his head to peer at his father from the side. "You can't-you can't talk about secret agent work on TV..."

Devon huffed and strode over to the teen. "The point is, " he diverged, "this is a family of heroes, not nerds. You need to focus on your strength and combat skills if you're ever going to get into The Academy of Heroics."

Kenning looked past his father at the open door. "I can use science to be a-"

"Come with me. We're going on a drive."

Ken sighed and stepped towards the closet. "I don't really want to have this conversation again, Dad."

The older man suddenly took him by the forearm, pulling him down the hall before he could pick up his jacket from the closet. Before he knew it, he had been shoved into the passenger seat of the family sedan. It was freezing in the car, and he quickly turned on the heat and opened the vents as his father struggled with the keys.

As the engine ignited, air blew from the vents on the dashboard onto the pair. But the air was cold.

It seemed like it was always cold when Ken sat with his father.