Super Ted and the Fearsome Fashionista 

Some people are slaves to fashion, others use fashion as a means of control and enslavement. Felicia Trendser was the latter kind of person. She was one of the worst super villains I ever met and she did her evil deeds by exploiting people’s obsession with clothes and fashion. 

Felicia started out as a fashion designer with some very avant guard ideas about what clothes should look like. As a result of this, most of her clothing styles looked strange and weird, sometimes even frightening! Felicia came from a rich family who funded her education at the Fashion Institute and many of her creations even managed to get into fashion shows where they were worn by runway models. Unfortunately for Felicia, her clothes were not well received by critics and the reviews in fashion magazines were very harsh. After her third show, most of the fashion columnists started referring to Felicia as the “Fearsome Fashionista.” 

That label stuck with her and Felicia soon found herself being regarded as a joke rather than the fashion icon that she always dreamed of being—and, boy, did that make her mad! Felicia didn’t like being anyone’s fool and she started thinking of ways that she could get her revenge on everyone. What most people didn’t know about Felicia was that she had once been very interested in Black Magic. When she got rejected by the fashion community she immediately started taking an interest in such things again. 

Felicia soon figured out how to cast a spell that would weave the powers of her words into the very fabrics she created. Felicia knew just how to bewitch everyone and make them yearn to wear her fashions at the very sight of one of her styles. Her method took several months to catch on but her creations eventually became top trends. People from New York to Paris to Tokyo were dressed in Felicia’s attire! 

Most people would think that finally being a world renowned fashion designer would have pleased Felicia—even if she got her success through spells and trickery. But Felicia was far more callous than anyone imagined. She was not satisfied with merely making people want her clothes—she wanted to make people follow her commands. Even worse, she wanted to humiliate people the way that she had been humiliated by the press so she intentionally made the ugliest clothes that she could think up! 

For almost a year she saturated the clothing market with hideous floral dresses and lime green spandex pants. I noticed the sudden trend in people walking around wearing outlandishly colored pants and oddly shaped hats but I didn’t think much about it. Then I noticed that everyone who wore such garments also tended to be very argumentative and rude to others. It seemed strange to me that people were becoming so uncaring and blunt…but I never linked it to the fashion trend until I was requested to visit the Mayor.

I am on good terms with Mayor Williams because he occasionally needs my help when a super villain is on the loose. But this time it was Mayor Williams himself who was a victim—a fashion victim! When I arrived at the Mayor’s estate it became clear to me that his employees had summoned me and not the Mayor himself. When I entered his office I saw Mayor Williams dancing around merrily; he seemed to be enjoying himself but he also looked very silly. He was wearing polka dotted suspenders and orange knee-high socks. He looked more like a clown than a Mayor but he didn’t appear to realize this—he had even required his staff, everyone from the guards to his assistant, to wear the same “uniform.” Needless to say, no one in his staff was happy about his new dress code! 

“He’s lost his mind!” the Mayor’s assistant insisted. 
“I’ll quit my job before I wear socks that shade!” the head of security declared. 
“Polka dots make me look fat!” an accountant cried. 
Mayor Williams looked like he was too busy dancing to his music to pay attention to anything else but he must have heard his staff’s complaints to me because he quickly turned around and screamed at them all: “GET BACK TO WORK NOW!!!”
I was very surprised to hear the Mayor speak to people like that. He was usually very polite! I knew that something was very wrong and I knew I had to help him.
“Mayor Williams!” I yelled over the music. “Can I talk to you?”
“Go away, I’m boogying!” he screamed back. He obviously wasn’t in his right mind so I switched off his tunes.
“What do you think you’re doing?!” he screeched at me. 
“I’m trying to help you! Those clothes are making you act crazy!”
“You’re telling me about crazy clothes?” he sneered. “That cape you’re wearing is SO last year!” 

From there Mayor Williams started making many snide remarks about my costume and cape. He was behaving just like the eons of rude and oddly dressed people I had been noticing recently! I finally realized that I had no choice other than to take action. The Mayor needed help so I provided help for him; I used my laser vision to disintegrate his clothes until he was standing there in nothing but his undergarments! Luckily, the Mayor’s boxer shorts were not a product of Felicia’s clothing line and so, as soon as the other clothes were gone, Mayor Williams was back to his old self…abet very confused and shocked. 

Mayor Williams was very surprised when I told him about what happened. Apparently he did not even remember wearing the strange clothes, disco dancing, or shouting at his employees. 
“The last thing I remember is desperately wanting to go shopping for Felicia Trendser’s new clothing line. Have you seen her work? It’s not my style at all but I craved it after I noticed this woman wearing a coat from the collection. How’s that for strange?”
“It’s strange enough to warrant me paying Felicia Trendser a visit,” I replied. 

I used my phone to do a quick background search on Felicia Trendser, including the address of her clothing factory which was located in my city. I flew to the location immediately. It was a big and imposing looking square brick building that took up the span of an entire city block. All the windows were covered with shades but I could hear noise and see lights coming from inside so I assumed that the factory was open. Normally I would have knocked on the door to get in but I sensed that it would be a bad idea to give whoever was inside any idea that I was coming. Instead, I flew up to the roof and used my super strength to break down the door. I tried to do so as quietly as I could since I wanted to have the element of surprise on my side. 

I crept down the dark and narrow stairwell until I came upon a large room that was full of sewing machines and mannequins. I’ve seen a lot of strange things during my travels as a Superhero but nothing could have prepared me for the scene in the factory: there was not a single worker on duty. Instead, the clothes were flying through the air putting themselves together as if by magic. A tall slender woman was sitting in the center of the factory, looking up at the flying garments and accessories and smirking, clearly pleased by the processes in the factory. I knew straight away that the smirking woman was Felicia Trendser. 

“Felicia Trendser I presume?” I stated aloud and made my presence known. At the sound of my voice the woman jumped in surprise. She might have been magic with her fashions but she definitely wasn’t psychic. 
“Who are you?” she hissed, although I saw fear in her eyes and I knew that she recognized me on sight. 
“Let’s just say that I’m here to inspect your factory,” I replied. “And I have to admit that I’m impressed. You must have some pretty incredible paranormal capabilities to empower clothes to make themselves…and then enchant people into wanting them, because that’s what you do, isn’t it?”
She didn’t answer me but I took her silent resentful glare as an affirmative. 
“But you also do something else, don’t you?” I continued. “You make anyone who is wearing these clothes fight with other people.”
“You ask too many questions!” Felicia suddenly screamed and leapt to her feet. “Be gone from my studio!” 

As she said these words she pointed her perfectly manicured finger at me. Instantly, every article of clothing and fashion accessory in the factory came flying towards me! The purses and hats hit against me while the shirts and pants tried to entwine themselves around my legs and feet! The most dangerous of all the items that flew at me was a pair of spiked high heels that resembled weapons more than shoes! 

I was sure happy to have my super suit with me. Even if it wasn’t exactly high fashion it was highly practical. As soon as Felicia’s fashions started attacking, my cape coiled around my body so I could use it as a protective shield. Even though my cape looks and feels like fabric, it has super-power-induced qualities and it can act as armor when it needs to. As I hide beneath my cape I loudly shouted: “BOOMERANG, RELEASE!” and set forth a sonic force that caused all the fashions to reverse and attack Felicia…like a boomerang turning back on the person who threw it. 

It was obviously the last counterattack she ever expected and she screamed ear piercingly as the fashions reigned down upon her. I used the opportunity to jump up and lung toward her. I tried to grab a hold of her but she sprang out of my way before I could grab her. 
“Get him!” she yelled at her fashions and they directed themselves at me once again.
“Boomerang release!” I shouted for a second time and sent them back her way. 
This went on for quite a while until I managed to create a force field bubble around Felicia that prevented her from sending her brain waves out to the fashions. Her power over the objects were controlled with her mind so once she was encased in the tiny force field dome all the fabrics and shoes and socks fell to the floor, once again just nothing more than regular garments and accessories. 

Felicia was totally infuriated to be captured and she banged on the glass and screamed and hollered and threatened me a thousand times in half a minute. I simply stood there and watched her, letting her get all her rage out. 
“I’m calling the police now,” I informed her. “But, I admit, your case interests me. Just out of curiosity, why did you do all of this?” 
“I wanted to get even with them!” Felicia snapped. I could see in her eyes that she knew she was captured and was willing to tell her motives. 
“Whose them?” I questioned.
“Everyone! Society!” she replied. “When I tried my best to be an honest fashion designer everyone laughed at me! They mocked me so badly that I was too embarrassed to show my face! They humiliated me into giving up everything I love! I couldn’t let them get away with it! I decided to make everyone want the silliest ugliest clothes I could make so that they would all look just as ridiculous as they made me feel! And I wanted everyone to sneer and jeer at everyone else so they would know exactly what it feels like! I wanted them to know what they did to me! I had success, too. For almost a year I have been praised for my worst work while everyone else is scorned!” 

Felicia’s pain was understandable but her hatred made me grateful and glad that I captured her. Felicia was a victim of society’s cruelty but she was also vengeful and vindictive and dangerous. It was clear that she would gladly have taken over the world with her fashion and spread even more resentment and nastiness and misery. I felt sorry for her but I still couldn’t excuse her behavior considering how many people she posed a threat to. 

A few minutes later the police arrived and took her down to the station, still encased in the force field bubble that I had created. In fact, even when Felicia went to prison I had to secure a force field around her jail cell so that she would not use her extraordinary brain power to cause any more problems! 

And so now the Fearsome Fashionista is forced to wear the same black and white striped costume each and every day. Maybe she will repent and try to use her powers for good one day but until then her fashion options will be very limited!