main character circle, Cole (for now I'm using him as a placeholder but there's a chance he may be the final character)

1 - Cole lives with her superpowered dad, stepmom and brother but has no powers himself. Grew up with many babysitters or alone, very self sufficent because of that. He lives in the middle of a prime superhero living location (haven't figured out anything about it, but basically all supers live there, no normal folk due to fear of super identities being made apparent), so he was quite literally an outcast. Goes to a superhuman oriented school, as nothing else there is offered (because surprise, no normal folk, so there was never a need). He's quite literally surrounded by it. His parents continually try to include him in their adventures, but there's an unfixable separation between them, and as he grows older, he feels less like family (outside of his brother, Alex, with whom he keeps a somewhat close relationship; they've had a close bond since he was very young). The older he gets, the less his parents try to include him, makiung him feel even less like a true part of the group.

2 - He wants a different life, where he's not the outcast, but just like everyone else. New family, who try harder to include him and who he feels truly connected to.

3 - Opportunity falls into his lap; a man working for a company that creates protection for the powerless (EYYY SEE WHERE THIS IS GOING) does a presentation at his school. When Cole interrupts him briefly to improve the invention he brings, he senses greatness in him. After the presentation, he hands Cole a business card and tells him to visit.

4 - Depsite being skeptical & fearful, he goes to see the man; it's somewhere out of his own town, not too far but not overly close. He ends up at Wayne Security; he helps the man whom gave the presentation, Teddy, fix up another project he was working on, to success. He offers Cole an paid internship, who happily agrees.

5 - Over some time, Cole meets the rest of the team at WS (Emily, Jackie, Ron, Van, Wendy), and finds he gels incredibly well with them. They appreciate his skills, as does he appreciate theirs. I have a whole doc of their character dynamics elsewhere, so I do have it planned in a non-clunky way. By the end of it, he considers them family, something else he had been longing for.

6 - Due to all the travel and time spent in Charm City at Wayne Security, his relationship with Alex is quite strained, something they're both unhappy about. However, Cole finds it best that he leave for Charm City permanently, Alex resents him for it. His parents take it very acceptingly.

7 - Through a chain of events I haven't entirely plotted, Alex's newfound resentment at his brother gets in the way of understanding Cole's situation, and he attempts to destroy the WS building (and even Charm City as a whole) with, surprise, his powers. Cole attempts confronting him, but Alex won't listen, and even goes as far as to try attacking Cole. Cole and the Wayne crew then have to fight Alex themselves with the items they had been creating all this time (Charm City does have a few superheroes but this is a very sparrodic battle so.. I'll come up with an excuse for that). This is the big battle scene of the movie, because c'mon, every movie needs one. Just one though.

8 - In the end, Alex doesn't make the ideal choice and accept Cole in Charm City, and fights until he's beaten pretty harshly, when he then flees, setting up the possibility of a return attack at some point, but not confirming it. I haven't entirely figured out Cole's ending, but I do know he ends up staying in Charm City.

NOTES:

- I have some stuff planned in my head that's not here; I'll be setting up that Alex is generally prone to anger, and has physically fought with Cole before, mostly as kids, so it's not an out of the blue thing.

- I also do have notes on Cole's relationship with the Wayne crew, but to sum it up kinda quick, Teddy and Ron sort of like parental figures; they look out for him the most, Ted and Ron were super close friends in Powerless so it makes sense to me. Wendy is sorta like a wild sister telling him to do crazy things and live on the edge, Jackie is the pessimist that balances against Cole's optimism, and Emily.. I dunno actually. That's the only one I've yet to figure out. I'm kinda stumped, but I'll figure it out eventually.

- I have a story for the dad, stepmom, Cole, and his original mom, but I'm unsure if I'll actually use it since it's not required for the main story at all.


IDEAS FOR POSSIBLE SEQUEL STORY?

- During an attack with a duo of villains I haven't figured out, some of the gang is pulled into a dimensional portal (created by one of villains, who is also pulled back in, it's both of their homeland); haven't really figured that one out either. Cole, Wendy and Van stay behind, while Emily, Teddy, Ron and Jackie are pulled through the portal.

SIDE NOTE: One villain has abilities to shift time and space, the other can phase into objects and people. not sure 100% how that's gonna work yet, but I'll figure it out. Deadly combo, essentially.

ANOTHER SIDE NOTE: Teddy has a book filled with knowledge of all the villains that Charm City has endured, which is where their knowledge usually comes from. However, these villains are new to Charm, so no info is had about them.

- While being pulled into the portal, the phaser villain takes over Emily; her body, their powers/mind. She essentially becomes the antagonist of the film. After being pulled through, "Emily" (as the characters assume she is, lacking the knowledge that the villain is controlling) betrays the team, and the team and "Emily" (I really need a better temp name for the evil variation) fight it out. Teddy carries enough gadgets on hand to force her to retreat. The trio looks out onto the world they've stepped into; it's the same world as theirs, but in deep dismay. Imagine a dystopian Charm City.

- Back at the actual city, Cole is distraught at the idea of already losing his new friends, and is doing everything within his power to find an opening to this other dimension. While going through Teddy's possessions for any sort of help, he comes across plans for a machine to travel dimensions.

- Cole, Wendy and Van catch up with Ted, Ron, Jackie and the rest of the resistance against villains (who had taken over the city at this point), made up of both humans and superheroes. This is where Cole finds out what's up with Emily. The resistance had kidnapped Emily's mother; she's a supervillain in Cole's og dimension, but had conveniently been traveling through dimensions when was kidnapped; so yes this is original Emily's mom.

...THAT or it's just alt dimension Em mom. But I think it works better if none of the established characters exist in this dimension naturally. bc then it brings up the "OKAY WELL WHERE ARE THIS DIMENSIONS EMILY/TEDDY/ETC" argument.

- No one seems to be worried about the Emily situation except Cole, as they're all under the impression that she's still just evil. Emily's mom agrees to help Cole (under the condition that he let her go after her job is done), who has the knowledge that "Emily" isn't actually what she seems. She had been to this dimension before and knew the villains personally.

- At some point, Cole gets captured (maybe with Em's mom? unsure); there's gotta be a scene where Cole interacts with Emily under influence of the villain. The villain in said scene rips off a locket Cole had given to Emily months before, and throws it back at him. Not a huge detail for story purposes but I don't wanna forget that.

Emily ripped the locket off of her throat, and threw it at the boy; it bounced off his glasses and fell into his hands.

"A locket for Emily Locke, real cute", she quipped, "I'm sure she was just as unimpressed as I am."

Cole coughed as he spoke, "You act like you know who she is, but you don't. Not by a long shot."

"Did you actually think she liked you?", Emily laughed loudly, "That you were anything more than a coworker? How gullible can you be?"

SIDE NOTE 1: The point of the Cole & "Emily" scene is essentially for her to just play mind tricks with him, make him question the situation and his relationship with these people. I just haven't found a good way to write that yet.

SIDE NOTE 2: Over the course of the movie, the villain essentially uses Emily's body as a puppet; however there are scenes where the villain is not doing that; at some point, a scene where the villain and the actual Emily interact would be great, maybe giving each other some info about themselves or something

- I like the idea of Cole and Emily's mom working together, and I think that's the central pivot of the story, and the big reason I'd like to make this story work. He wants her to do right by Emily, regardless of their rocky past (yeah that exists lmao, I wrote that lil story piece with Em and her mom ages ago - that applies), but Cole also never had a super close maternal figure, with the whole "family is superheroes" thing. I like to think they bond a bit throughout; and while she probably does end up going back to do more less than stellar things after the journey, the two have a much better understanding of one another.

plus evil emily is fucking epic in my mind so that's also a good reason to make this work

I actually have no idea how this story ends?? I have no third act which is worrisome but it's not like I need to rush sooooo