Work Text:
Of Capes and Kindred Spirits
Edna Mode did not like the woman the minute she laid eyes on her as she walked through the bustle that was New York fashion week. Edna knew the type: Methodical, organized, practical and devoid of even a stitch of creativity within their being. They were usually the floor managers, clipboard in hand and head set on, jabbering away and ordering people around. With them, everything had to be on time, on schedule and on budget and to hell with the creative vision.
They were, Edna had to admit, a necessary evil. After all, if everyone chose to be philosophers and no one plumbers... well, the proverbial you-know-what would pile up pretty fast. However, that certainly did not mean she had to like it.
The woman appeared to be some personal assistant of some very important person of unknown wealth and influence. Had this woman come to Edna’s office or home, she would have been turned away with a door in the face and a boot in the derrière. This, however, had been backstage of fashion week and anyone could get back there if they knew which strings to pull and had enough influence to do so.
Edna had given a dismissive wave to her own current PA with a sharp, “Handle it, darhling.” before turning back to the model’s hair piece that just wasn’t quite right.
And that was how she ended up having dinner with Buddy.
***
Edna liked Buddy the very moment he greeted her personally at the front door of his impressive mansion and that first impression did not deteriorate as they sat down on a terrace overlooking a impressive, colourful garden for afternoon tea. Normally Edna would never accept an invitation to a personal home of a stranger. This was her former PA’s doing -and she wouldn’t be around to make the same mistake for a second time- because, though Buddy Pine didn‘t ring any important bells in Edna‘s head, his name had been enough for the silly girl to immediately agree this appointment. However, once Edna had arrived, she found herself not regretting cancelling. As it turned out, the company, like the view, was very pleasant.
Buddy was young, enthusiastic, brilliant and, though his fashion sense did leave something to be desired, she recognized in him a fellow creative genius. In fact, he reminded her a little of herself in her younger days, back when she had been an unknown and had taken on her first superhero commission to make ends meet. Buddy was ready to take on the world and remodel it into his own image and she found herself listening, enthralled, as he spoke of his vision for the future.
Buddy saw a future with a return of heroes, but not heroes who were just any ordinary person off the street born with the luck of having super powers. No, these would be great men and women who were made super by the power of technology. More than that, Buddy wanted to be the first of this new breed of super hero and for that, he would need a costume.
Ultimately, that is what he wanted from Edna, to design and make him a costume deserving of a hero. Edna was the best and Edna did not deny this statement. It took little persuasion on Buddy’s part to get her to agree immediately, though looking back, she probably should have at least taken a day to think it over. However, as he had laid out his plans with animation, Edna had found an excitement building within herself she had not felt since the old days.
Edna and Buddy had worked through supper and late into the night, drawing and erasing the costume design over and over as they argued back and forth. The biggest contention was the cape. More than anything, Buddy wanted a cape and he could not be dissuaded, not even with Edna’s warnings or her harsh admonishments. Edna had promised herself that she would never make a costume with a cape again but Buddy had wormed his way past her tough exterior and she allowed herself to be persuaded.
***
For the next month, Edna worked on Buddy’s costume with a fervour she had not felt in over a decade. It became her secret obsession, the project she would forsake all others for. She found herself locking herself in her house for days, delegating her other projects to her peons.
Finally, it was done and Edna invited Buddy over for his final fitting. He came out from behind the changing screen in his black unitard with the white S slashed across the chest. Buddy had insisted on the S, though he refused to tell her the significance.
“Have you chosen a name yet, darhling?” Edna asked, as she straightened his mask and stepped back.
“Syndrome,” he said with a gleam in his eyes and his mouth twisted into a shape that was more smirk than smile. In that brief moment, a chill ran down
Edna’s back and a dark sense of dread and foreboding enveloped her whole being.
Then Buddy smiled and the moment had passed. He was just Buddy having a bad hair day and, by the time he’d changed out of the costume and into his street clothes, Edna was able to put aside her feelings and forget her fears.
Edna said good-bye and, with a kiss on the cheek, wished him well. She reminded him to come back and visit and though he promised, he never did. Edna liked to think he would have, if things hadn’t gone so poorly for him.
***
That was the last Edna heard from Buddy but then there wasn’t a lot of time for pleasantries. She had that show in Milan and then there was replacing Robert’s hobo suit, which she tackled with glee. After that, it was like opening a floodgate. Once she started, she couldn’t be stopped. There was a whole family of supers to be outfitted in preparation of a new era. Unfortunately, it was a new era Buddy would not be part of.
It was a sparse and impersonal funeral, not at all what a man such as Buddy deserved. He’d been an only child of a single mother who did not make friends easily and the turnout reflected this sad truth. There was a spattering of old college friends and corporate underlings but, aside from his mother, dressed in black and crying, there was no one except Edna who had truly known him. Or, at least, how she had thought she had known him.
Edna knew she should have felt mad and betrayed. Never before had she made a costume for a super villain, though Edna had not lacked for opportunity as they, like their virtuous counterparts, had once upon a time come banging at her door. However, she only felt sadness at the loss of a brilliant young mind and disappointment in herself. You would have thought that at her age, she would know better than to be charmed by a handsome face and a lively spirit. After all, Buddy was so much like herself at that age, the young designer who dreamed of stars and super heroes.
If only she could have shown Buddy that, there were more ways of changing the world than being a hero in a costume. Because for every hero, there was at least one person behind them, patching their costume or repairing their tech. If only she could have shown Buddy that he would have been the best and super heroes would have been banging down his door for an appointment.
If only she could have shown Buddy that you didn’t need to be super to be great.
End