Key:

Narrator speaks

"person speaks"

[Bob/CHF speaks]

'thinking'

(B-D) - scene change

The Definition of Life and Love

It's a bright and beautiful day in Fair City, where all is right with the world, except for one place…

She stood there, barely holding herself together. Violet and Scoops behind her in the church pew, comforting her as much as they could. Her dad, Tim Botsford, his hand on her shoulder as they watched the proceedings. A sob racked through her once again as the pastor spoke. She still couldn't believe what had happened, it seemed like years ago, but it was only last week when her life changed for the worse, and it was all her fault.

(B-D)

Last week, Wordgirl and her sidekick, Captain Huggyface, were on patrol when they heard a scream coming right at them.

Wordgirl stops in mid-flight as her hearing picked up something.

"What is that? I hear screaming."

[Becky, you have incoming!]

"Huh? WHOA!" Wordgirl exclaimed as she dodged a car flying by her. She just happened to notice people in it as it flew by. "Come on, Huggy. We have to save them!"

Wordgirl had been at this for four years, now, and she was adapting to the burgeoning changes that come from early adolescence. A little bit of development here, some more critical thinking there, and she occasionally thanked God that she didn't seem to have the same monthly issues as Earth girls did…yet. She had also hit a bit of a growth spurt as well, as she was now almost eye to nose with her mother. And with this growth came some adjustments to how she used her powers. They had stabilized quite a bit over the years. Her flight speed, in this case, as well as her maneuverability, had their limits raised by at least 25% as Dr. Tubing's tests indicate. With this increase in ability, she was easily able to catch the flying car without hurting the people inside.

"Are you folks Okay?" Wordgirl asked as she gently placed the car on the ground.

"We'll be fine, Wordgirl," answered the obviously shaken father as he glanced back at his two children in the back. They had a grand time flying just then, "but you'd better get to the bridge…"

"HEEELLLP!" yelled a not-so-random civilian. "Some Viking is doing something to the bridge. Wait, is this the police station?"

"You never change, do you?" smiled Wordgirl.

"I'm just unlucky, I guess."

"I'm on it. The police station is that way."

"Thanks." He starts running again, screaming help along the way.

Wordgirl smiled as she and Huggy made their way to the bridge.

She glanced at Huggy. "He said that a Viking was on the bridge. It can't be Nocan, so who could it…" She was interrupted by some sonic waves glancing her left side. "Oof," she grimaced. "Okay, that narrows it down."

[Whammer?]

"Yeah, the Whammer. You ready?"

[Let's do this.]

They arrived just in time to move another car from being blown away from the seemingly random whams flying in every direction. She quickly took stock of the situation, realizing that she'd have to get him away from the bridge that was currently suffering from a traffic jam.

"Huggy, execute plan number 835."

[Roger that!]

Huggy hopped off of her shoulder just as she accelerated into the surprisingly solid form of the Whammer.

"WHAM, that hurt. Oh, hey Wordgirl. What's whammin'?"

"What are you doing, Whammer? Can't you see all the cars on this bridge?"

"Wham, I do. I just wanted to see how far I could wham them."

"THERE ARE PEOPLE IN THOSE CARS!"

"Wha?" Whammer glanced about, only just now noticing the frightened looks of the people inside the cars he had previously used his powers on. "What are they doing in there? I thought I told them to wham out of their cars."

"Did you even give them a chance to get out?"

He placed his chin on his fist, thinking. Wordgirl nodded, and Huggy leaped onto the Whammer's back and pulled the front of his helmet down, covering his eyes, a tried and true tactic that for some reason kept working.

"Why is it so wham all of a sudden?" he shouted as he struggled to get his helmet off. Wordgirl took the opportunity to tackle Whammer and tried to lift him off the ground, hoping to relocate the fight to a safer area. Unfortunately, Whammer had managed to right his helmet just in time to catch her point blank with a fist full of WHAM. Fortunately, one of Wordgirl's increase capabilities was her heightened pain tolerance, as well as endurance, thus she was able to recover quickly. She was faster, stronger, tougher than ever before, but she had forgotten something as she rushed him once more. She had forgotten just how strong the Whammer really was. He braced himself and grabbed with his oversized hands, each glowing with power. "Nice try, Wordgirl," he smiled, "but you ran right into my new move."

Wordgirl struggled against his strength. "And what move is that?"

"The WHAM GRAB! WHAAAaaaaaaaMMM!"

Whammer's hands glowed fiercely and the sonic waves bounced between his hands and through Wordgirl, causing her to scream in pain. What neither had noticed was that the bridge really didn't like all the damage that it was taking, and it was only a matter of time before it could take no more.

About fifty yards away, a car whose path was recently cleared minutes before by an errant sonic wave, aligned itself to face the battle. The boy in the back was trying to encourage his mother to help Wordgirl somehow. The mother, determination in her eyes, told her son to buckle up. Hearing the click of the seatbelt, she floored the gas pedal and picked up a good amount of speed. His back was turned toward them, so she had the element of surprise. She honked just before impact, gaining his attention at the last possible moment, allowing Wordgirl to break his grip as the car hit him square in the back. The car wouldn't be going anywhere for a while, but her mission was accomplished. Whammer lay face down on the ground for a moment as Wordgirl hovered over him, Huggy checking on him from behind. He looked up, smirking.

"Just kidding. WHAM!" He used his sonic blast to propel him up into Wordgirl, trying to grab her again, but they both saw the huge hole he left in the bridge where he was, the car that had hit him had already fallen through. "Uh, oh."

"NOOO!" Wordgirl shouted as she dove after the now familiar vehicle. She couldn't hear the people inside, and the car had almost hit the water below before she was able to roughly grab the car just before impact. She brought the car back up to the edge of the bridge, panting as she placed it down. The airbag had deployed so she couldn't see the driver's face, but she recognized that hair style anywhere. Tearing off the door, she bit down on her panic and gently tilted back the driver's head, confirming her fear. There sat Sally Botsford, face bloodied and unconscious. In the back seat was TJ, Sally's son and Wordgirl's brother, slumped in the back seat. She used her super hearing to find their heartbeats, but heard nothing. "No," she whispered as she took off her glove so she could find a pulse. Again, nothing. Tears swelled in her eyes as she thought the worst. She vaguely noticed a civilian woman running toward her, but her focus went back to the hole. She hovered over to the blue cloth that had caught her attention. It was a piece of Huggy's uniform. She peered over the edge to see Huggy floating face up in the water, his eyes closed. She also noticed some red coloring growing around him. She flew down to retrieve her sidekick, but soon saw that it was too late. It was all too easy to see the blunt force trauma covering his tattered body. He must have been right behind Whammer when he propelled himself up to Wordgirl, and she was so focused on the falling car that she hadn't even seen Huggy fall. She lay her best friend solemnly on the ground.

"What happened?" asked Whammer, concerned as he slowly approached Wordgirl.

She stared at her friend, her advisor, her comfort. She looked back to the car where the woman she somewhat recognized and just finished trying to perform first aid on her mom and brother, but saw her head bowed down in despair. Now the tears broke forth, streaming down her face. They were gone, all three of them. Most of her family, gone in a moment. Whammer took a half step back as Wordgirl snapped a glare at him, her eyes filled with rage as her shoulders shook from the emerging sobs.

"You…" she whispered, pointing at him. Whammer stopped. "You killed them."

"I-I what?"

"YOU KILLED THEM!" she screamed hysterically. "YOU KILLED MY FAMILY!"

Whammer, needless to say, was shocked. "You're what?"

The next thing Whammer knew was that there was a massive flash of pain. From his former wrestling days he knew that he at least had a broken nose, but that was almost literally knocked to the back of his mind as that pain happened again and again. He didn't even notice that he had hit the ground after the second hit. He blinked through the stars to see a pair of red-gloved fists coming at his face again and again, he had never seen anyone so angry in his life. Speaking of which, he didn't think he would be around for much longer considering that she was literally pounding him into a crater in the ground. Lucky for him, though, her berserker rage was spent. She was sitting on his chest, right hand on his neck, the other cocked back for a final punch, likely ready to end him where he was.

"I'll kill you," Wordgirl sobbed as her cocked fist shook, anger once again fueling her strength. "I'LL KILL YOU!"

"Wordgirl, don't!" yelled an outside voice.

The crater they were in was only a few feet deep, but it sounded like she was right next to her. She looked toward the voice to find the woman that had tried to save her family. She had a rather large upper torso, well built, and you could tell that it was from her trunk rather than her chest. She wore a blue button-down dress and her hands were bloodied from when she tried to save her friend.

"Stay out of this!" Wordgirl cried.

"Don't do this, Wordgirl," the woman pleaded. "Don't lower yourself to his level."

"He killed my family," she sobbed, fist still shaking. Whammer was barely functional at this point, just barely able to hear what was going on.

"I know, I saw everything. I'm sorry, Wordgirl, but you do not want to do this. You don't want to have blood on your hands, like he does."

Wordgirl looked back at Whammer, rage still on her face, the fingers of her fist flexing themselves. She totally wanted to follow through and kill the man who had killed her family. She looked him in the eye, seeing fear and anguish. Whammer barely managed to whisper something to her, but her hearing picked it up.

"I'm sorry."

That was it. That was absolutely it. She closed her eyes and opened her hand, dropping the Whammer to the ground, where he finally lost the will to fight the oncoming darkness. Wordgirl turned to the woman that had given her the opportunity to avoid the darkness, tears blurring her vision. The woman embraced the girl, comforting her as much as she could. Her mind finally registered that she knew this woman as Claire, her mother's best friend.

"Just let it out, now," said Claire as she held Wordgirl tightly. "Just let it out."

And she did. Sirens could be heard coming in from the distance, but neither of them noticed as they mourned the loss of their friends and family.

(B-D)

And back to present day…*sniff* Sorry, it's just hard to remember that day, the day Fair City cried for their hero.

Becky stood with her father as the pastor was finishing the graveside service. Before them were two caskets containing the remains of Sally and TJ Botsford. One could barely notice the scratches that had once littered their faces, and both were adorned with smiles. Becky had broken down completely when they closed the caskets for the last time before leaving the church, and now they were being lowered into their final resting place. She flashed back to the small ceremony they held for Bob several days before, and Violet was by her side instantly, Scoops being on the other side of her, both hugging her as she collapsed once again. Another set of arms surrounded her from behind, being careful as they wrapped themselves around her. It was an awkward hug, but it was still comfort from her other friend. Ever since the accident, he had been by every day, trying in his own way to help her grieve while his mother helped Tim with the final arrangements. It was strange for all of them, but he did seem sincere in his actions. Becky just didn't have the strength to rebuff him after what had happened.

"We're here for you, Becky,' said Violet, frying for her distraught friend.

Scoops, for once had no words. He had covered events like this before, but this hit far too close to home for him. All he could offer was his hug and support.

The boy awkwardly hugging her from behind gave her a slightly tighter hug.

"I'm so sorry, Becky."

Becky managed to pull herself together just long enough to thank her friends. "Thank you, Violet, Scoops, Tobey."

(B-D)

Author's Note: So, this my first time writing a fanfic in four years, and this is by far the darkest thing I've ever needed to write. This idea popped into my head and hasn't left me alone since. I was hoping that this would be four chapters, but of course it'll be more as I'm already splitting things up as events unfold. I've never done dark before (it's opposite my nature), but I do have this planned out to a possible ending at least. Let me know what you guys think.