Karkat x Reader -- God Tiers (Part 1)

             ((Just another something that popped into my head and I wanted to see how this type of universe would work out.
             Warning: Cussing))

      “Miss ____________________, could you solve this problem for us?” The teacher maliciously asked, knowing that you had let yourself space out and trying to get you to admit it. Too bad for him.
      “The answer is x=27 and y=3,” you say immediately. The class was just learning how to solve this set of equations, but you were already a couple of chapters ahead in the book so you figured that you were allowed to let your mind wander in class from time to time. Most of the kids in the class beside you were older than you, but you had tested out of the low level math courses at your school. You continued sketching randomly on the page of notes that you were supposed to be taking.
      The teacher just confirmed that it was correct and then proceeded to explain to the rest of the class how the equation was to be manipulated in order for the answer to be realized. Of course, the second you answered, all throughout the room there were scoffs and even a few people murmuring ‘nerd’. After almost half of a year of this, though, you were used to it. You were also used to having no friends because of it. What Junior would want to make friends with the freak Freshman in their classes? Your goal was to graduate as fast as you could and then leave this town forever. No regrets.
      When the bell rang you were gathering your things and neatly putting them back into your shabby torn up backpack that you’ve probably had since you were in 4th grade. A hand at the edge of your vision quickly swiped the length of your desk, scattering every paper onto the floor, most of them also contained the sketches of your bored subconscious. You looked up.
      “Why don’t you just graduate already so that you can stop annoying everyone in the class with your snarky answers, nerd. At least then we wouldn’t have to see your ugly face all the time,” said Liv. Of everyone that ever gave you crap, she was the worst. You knew that it was just because she was jealous of you, or at least that’s what you told yourself.
       “I really do love how you deliberately seek me out to tell me how much I annoy you, Liv, but I really don’t have time for this now because I have to go to class now. Tell your probation officer that I said hi, will you?” You say back. You know that she’s just jealous, but sometimes you can’t help but snap back.
She’s livid, and she probably would have smacked you if there wasn’t a teacher that was beginning to catch the vibe that something was about to happen. Instead she just flips you off and walks out of the room. She was always so classy, you think to yourself. Several people take it upon themselves to step on your papers and utter insulting words before walking out. You just sigh to yourself and bend down to pick up the papers. You gather them all up in a bunch and then stand up and come face to face with someone. Your eyes widen in surprise.
      Karkat Vantas is staring at you, his expression unreadable as always, holding one of your finer scribbles mixed with a few important math notes. He opens his mouth to say something, but before he can get anything out, you snatch the paper from his troll hands.
      “I don’t need any more criticism, okay? I already know that I’m a fucking freak of nature and that I should just go curl up and die somewhere. Leave me alone already,” you say louder than you intended and then turn and walk quickly out of the room.

      Karkat stands there for a second, still in shock at what just happened.
      “What did you say to that poor girl?” Roxy comes up behind him, shaking her head. “You know, there’s no way you’re going to get her to fall in love with you if that’s how she feels.” Jake and Dirk chuckle quietly in the corner.
      “Shut the fuck up, all of you,” Karkat yells, snapping out of it, “And who says that I want her to fall in love with me anyway?” he says quieter before they all walk out of the room together.

      You idiot, you tell yourself silently when you’re in your next period class, you didn’t even know what he was going to say and yet you chewed him out. Another, darker side of you is telling yourself that he was one of ‘that group’ and that anything he would have said to you would have hurt worse than anything that Liv could ever say because it would actually be intelligent. You’re assuming this because of the group that he hangs out with. No, not just trolls; there just as many trolls mixing in with the kids at the public high school that you go to. Normally you can take anything that anyone has to throw at you, but that group of humans and trolls always made you nervous. They stuck to themselves most of the time and you always felt like there was something different about them. They seemed… better than everyone else that you knew. You knew that it was probably just your imagination, but you couldn’t shake the feeling.
      Trying to put that encounter out of your mind and forcing yourself to not think of the consequences, you focused on your last period art class. This class always seemed to calm you down whenever things got too stressful in classes. At least not everyone in here hated you for not discernible reason. You were doing watercolor landscape portraits and you had to give all of your attention to the tropical birds in trees on your paper or else you would mess something up. At the end of the period, you still hadn’t finished so you borrowed one of the class portfolios to take it home in. You would have to walk fast because you were so into what you were doing that you didn’t see the rain when it started. It wasn’t pouring, but the slow drizzle would make the walk to where you lived even worse than it usually was. You began the trek.

      “Let’s see Miss Perfect try and look down at everyone with a broken nose. She’s so going to get what’s coming to her.” Karkat was just walking by but when he heard those words followed by a wave of obnoxious laughter, he stopped and looked over. Liv turned around from her friends and headed off the school campus. Karkat looked in the direction that she was headed and barely caught a glimpse of you as you disappeared into the rain.
      “Karkat, where are you going in such a hurry?” John asked as Karkat pushed past him, barely even aware that he was there. Karkat stopped for a second when he registered who it was and then kept going, throwing a “None of your fucking business, fuckass.”
      John looked at Dave beside him and there was a silent agreement between them as they caught up to Karkat and blocked him from going any further, pestering him over about where he was going. He was reluctant to tell them what he was doing, but he was getting genuinely angry. It would be some time, though, before John and Dave saw the sincerity and let him go while insisting that they go with him.
      It didn’t take long for the three boys to catch up to Liv and Karkat looked around and saw that you were nowhere in sight. Breathing a sigh of relief, he called to Liv and grabbed her shoulder, stopping her effectively.
      “Where are you going, Liv?” Karkat asked, knowing full well where she was headed.
      “Are you following me?” Liv asked, looking outraged.
      “Just answer the question,” Karkat said, looking down at her with an incredibly un-amused look on his face.
      “That little freshman punk needs to know her place, it’s for her own good,” Liv said, figuring that Karkat knew exactly where she was going. She stood her ground defiantly.
      “Ugh I swear you’re just like Vriska used to be,” Karkat muttered under his breath, then louder he said, “You know what, Liv, that’s just about the most stuck up bullshit that I’ve ever heard come out of your mouth, and that’s fucking saying something. 'That little freshman' has done absolutely nothing to you that you didn’t start so I don’t even know what your fucking problem with her is. You need to just turn your ass right around and go back to whatever hole you came out of.”
      Liv just looked at Karkat in surprise for a few minutes and then started laughing.
      “Wow you actually might have a thing for her even though I’ve never actually seen you say a single word to her. Stop me then.” She walked away.

      You weave the familiar path through the city streets expertly on your way home, thinking about nothing but the destination, you only walk a couple blocks before you can just barely hear the muffled screams over the rain. That snaps you back into your surroundings and you decide to go investigate it doesn’t take long for you to find the source. You turn to corner to see Liv’s wide eyes staring at you through a hand that was covering her mouth. Another arm is snaked around her neck and both of Liv’s hands are trying to pry it away, but even with her athlete’s strength the man is too strong. He was also probably two or three years older than Liv, making him about five years older than you.
      You stop thinking and yell, “Let go of her!” dropping your art portfolio and running forward and stopping just a few feet away from them.
      The man looks up from Liv and then starts laughing, “What are you going to do about it?” he asks, slurring his words in a way that can only mean that he’s drunk.
      “I’ll fuck you up,” you answer, letting the adrenaline of the moment control your bravado.
      “Oh really? Well, I suppose if you’re offering,” he says, still smiling, and then drops Liv, who falls to her knees and takes a few deep breaths in before getting back to her feet and sprinting past you without even looking. You look over to where she disappears and you are about to turn and run after her when a hand grabs the front of your shirt and turns you sharply around.
      “Oh look, she got away,” he says boredom lacing his voice, “Well now I’ve got myself something even better: a little heroine.” You try everything in your power to get yourself free from his hand, but he just keeps laughing and walking forward, making you shuffle back until your back hits the dead end wall. You look around desperately searching for a way out of the situation. Things were looking pretty bad for you right now.
      The man suddenly let go of your shirt and before you had time to process what he did, it snuck around your wrist and clamped down tight. His other hand found your other wrist and did likewise. He pinned your hands at about eye level, and pressed his body up against yours. You could smell the alcohol in his breath now and its vile scent flooded your nostrils as you turned your face away to try and get as far away from him as possible. But at least now you saw your way out.
      You brought your knee up and into his crotch, the man yelled out in pain and his grip loosened just enough for you to yank your arms free of his grip. Then you threw a well-aimed punch right into his nose, hearing the crack as it shattered. You saw your opening and sprinted, betting that you could run faster than a man that was that drunk. This was easier than you thought it would be. You only got about four steps away when hands from the shadows reached out and tackled you around the middle. You and the new addition to this party went down. The guy who tackled you had a nice soft you to land on, you, however, had nothing but unforgiving black cement. The first thing you felt was your shoulder connecting, the jolt of pain made you unintentionally throw your head back, which was the worst possible thing that could have happened. Your head made contact with the ground and you immediately saw the world go fuzzy, only registering a dull ache that slowly spread through your entire body.
      “I think I got her,” a voice said. Although you didn’t think that he would yell, the sound of something that close to your ears was almost unbearably loud. You wanted to scream and put your hands over your ears, but there was some kind of pressure on top of you. You didn’t want to think about it.
      “That little bitch. Bring her over here so that she can get what’s coming to her.”
      The world suddenly started falling away from you. Or maybe somebody was just picking you up from the ground. The only thing you knew was how absolutely screwed you were. You closed your eyes.

      After that little outburst from Karkat and Liv walking away, Karkat, John, and Dave stood there for a few minutes looking at each other. Finally John broke the rainy silence. “Shouldn’t we do something?”
      Karkat looked up, frustrated and growled, “What are we going to do? Go beat up a chick three to one in the rain? We can’t stand out like that and you know it.”
      “Dude, at least go and see if they’re okay. We don’t have to ‘stand out’ or whatever the fuck you’re scared of,” Dave said, rolling his eyes behind his glasses.
      Instead of answering Karkat just pushed past them and kept walking, leaving Dave and John to just follow once again.
      It wasn’t long before they found a figure stumbling through the rain.
      “Liv, what’re you doing? What happened?” Karkat yelled, seeing her shocked face.
      “I got lost… and then there was a…. but then __________________ showed up and,” Liv murmered, not finishing any of her thoughts before moving on. Her eyes were unfocused as she looked down at her feet.
      “Focus, Liv,” Karkat said, giving her a gentle shake, “There was a what?”
      “A man,” Liv mumbled, obviously terrified.
      “And what was that about ___________________?” Karkat’s face was a mask of calm anger.
      “She ran out screaming something. Then….” She pointed. The crazy look in her eyes lessened. That’s all Karkat needed before he turned around to look at John and Dave and the look he gave effectively communicated the problem. They all three took off running in the direction indicated.

      “Hey!” You didn’t dare open your eyes at the voice. Had it been hours since you closed your eyes, or seconds. You couldn’t really tell with your head still spinning from your fall. Wait… that voice sounded vaguely like someone’s that you knew. That gave you something to focus on and so you put all of your muddled thoughts on trying to find out the source of the voice.
      Praying that it wasn’t just some imaginary hero that your head was dreaming up, you cracked your eyes open. You were in someone’s arms, your hero’s maybe? Looking up, you confirmed that you were wrong. There was nothing familiar about the man above you. You took stock of your conditions. Well, at least you still had all your clothes on. You were sure now that you had only closed your eyes for about two seconds. You had to have a concussion of some sort.
      You had almost convinced yourself that you were imagining the voice that was coming to your rescue. You had about two more blissfully terrifying seconds of thinking this before you started falling. Again. At least this time when you hit the ground there wasn’t the additional impact of another body landing on top of you… as weird as that sounded. You were grateful that the way you fell was facing the action because you had absolutely no plans of moving for at least 10 minutes. At least now you could see what was happening while you felt sorry for yourself. You began feeling adrenaline take over and your pain began to dissipate and your vision cleared.
      “What is with all these fucking heroes in a 2 block radius? Just leave us in peace already,” the first man said, getting angry now. “Fuck off, kids, before you get hurt.” He pulled out a small handgun from God knows where and pointed it right at your imaginary hero. Did he always have that? Huh.
      Your eyes followed to gun’s path to see…. Karkat? and two of his friends that you vaguely recognized as John Egbert and Dave Strider. So maybe your imaginary hero wasn’t really imaginary at all. All three of them stopped when they saw the gun be drawn. Good, you thought halfheartedly, don’t be stupid and get yourselves killed, go away.
      They all shared a significant glance and then stood their ground.  
      “Suit yourself,” the man laughed and then fired the gun. Once. Twice. Three times. If talking had hurt your ears before, the gun sound felt like your brain being torn into three separate pieces. But you couldn’t take your eyes away. It didn’t matter anyway because what you saw was impossible.
      The second that the guns fired, the rain all turned sideways, toward you. You registered that there was a huge gust of wind, which was weird in the middle of an alley in the center of the city. Your confusion worsened when it suddenly died down as quickly as it came. You looked up to see that John had stepped in front of Karkat and Dave and had his hand out in front of him. You fully expected him to fall down, supporting several bullet holes, but there was something strange going on. With a closer look you saw the three bullets. They were suspended in the air right in front of John’s outstretched hand. You couldn’t believe what you were seeing, but the most you stared and the more your head cleared you were sure of it.
      Everyone froze for a moment, everyone except for the second guy who took a couple steps forward and also appeared to have a hidden weapon. He pulled the almost identical gun out from inside of his jacket, aimed right for Karkat’s face and pulled the trigger. From out of nowhere, again, something stepped in front of Karkat and there was a flash of sparks.
      “What the fuck is with all these packing assholes?” said… Dave. The second. It only took a look to confirm that there were two exact copies of Dave standing in front of you. One of them was holding a really nice looking sword that he had used to block the oncoming bullets. Without wasting a minute, the other Dave stepped forward and slashed his sword right through the man’s gun, cutting it clean in half.
      While you were laying there dumbfounded, John and Karkat looked as though this was nothing special and they both advanced. Karkat to the first guy and John to the other. They both took down the two drunk men with so much ease that they had to have been trained somewhere. It was over in all about five minutes.
      If you were freaked out before, now you were an emotional mess. Feeling a wall behind you, you leaned heavily on it and slowly stood up to face them. Karkat rushed over to you and put his hands lightly on your shoulders.
      “Hey are you okay?” he asked, worriedly looking into your eyes. “I’ll call an ambulance.”
      He reached into his pocket to pull out a cell phone. You grabbed his hand, stopping him.
      “No I’ll be fine.” You looked over his shoulder at John and Dave. The other Dave was nowhere to be seen. “How did you-“
      “That doesn’t matter. What matters is what you were thinking just now. From what I understand you went all fucking hero randomly, which would have been fucking fine with everyone if you had done it when you found an old lady beating up a fucking two year old, but what the fuck were you thinking challenging two older boys? You never could have won. Hey! Pay attention, dumbass.” You looked away from the other boys and focused on the angry troll in front of you. Karkat was yelling now, though to you he didn’t seem genuinely angry. It was more like he was relieved.
      “But how-,“ you stared again.
      “Not the issue right now, just answer the question.” Karkat yelled. Finally you gave in and stopped thinking about what had happened for now and focused on the answer to the question.
      “What was I supposed to do? Just walk away like I didn’t see anything? Yeah, right,” you say angrily. Now looking straight into his eyes, matching their ferocity.The adrenaline pumping through your veins was fueling your anger.  
      “You don’t just walk into a fight that you know you’ll lose, that’s suicidal. You were supposed to call someone for help. We were right fucking there, if you had screamed we would have heard you and come running.”
      “I didn’t need you. I would have found some other way out of it,” you couldn’t stop yourself from saying angrily. The snorts of John and Dave could be heard even though they were standing a few feet away.
      “Yeah, I’d say you were handling it beautifully,” Karkat said, rolling his eyes. “What kind of martial arts has you laying on the floor, half-knocked out as a technique to get the advantage again? Sorry I must’ve forgotten that one. Excuse my fucking ignorance.”
      “I just don’t understand why you care at all. I didn’t do anything wrong.”
      At those words there were a number of strange things that happened. Karkat’s eyes softened uncharacteristically into what looked like sadness. Behind him, Dave facepalmed and John rolled his eyes and crossed his arms.
      “I can’t believe that you still haven’t even said two words to her, man. Get a fucking move on already,” Dave called out, making Karkat blush and you even more confused.
      “Just maybe this just isn’t a great time, Strider. So just shut the fuck up,” Karkat called back over his shoulder.
      The adrenaline was starting to wear off and you were beginning to feel throbbing in your shoulder and skull. Your vision started blurring again. You slid down the wall into a sitting position.
      “Fuck,” Karkat said bending down to try and catch you. The last thing you remember seeing was his face, close to yours and full of concern.