Ex Heroes 5 - Chapter 3

(Unedited - subject to change a bit. Ignore the 'JS1' etc)

We were going to get the ladies from the bar when [JS1] a crash sounded from the bar tent, and a man went flying out the front doors, Threed following with a shout of anger. Next came Cheri, laughing. A moment later Charm glanced out through the open door, saw us looking, and ducked back in again.

“Just not sure those three should be allowed to play together,” I said with a groan. 

“Threed has that effect on people,” Drew said. 

But both of our faces contorted and we made eye contact as the realization hit us. 

“Charm told her,” I said, and Drew nodded. “Damn. So much for my plan of gently easing her into it.”

Threed had turned back to the bar, hands out with green smoke rising. “Who else wants to talk shit, huh? Who else wants to try to say something about me or my late sister?” 

She seethed there, but nobody came. Finally, she spun around, looked at me, and glared. A moment passed, and then she was storming off, walking away from the bar with Cheri in tow. 

Charm emerged again, gave me a guilty grin, and then walked over to join us. With a nod to Hadrian, she said, “Anyone else know Plague was Threed’s sister?” 

“Just found out,” I said, grimacing. “Sucks, how it had to go down.”

“But can’t change that now,” Drew said, then nodded after Threed. “I’ll talk to her, see if we can at least… I don’t know… not lose focus.” 

“Her sister just died,” Charm countered. “Losing focus is to be expected.”

He nodded solemnly, then jogged after his teammate. 

“Shit, Charm,” I said. “What happened?” 

“Nobody told me. Did you know?” 

I shook my head. 

“Exactly.” She breathed a heavy sigh, her tail twirling. “So I started telling them what happened after we, you know, swapped some sex stories and all that. Her smile fades and some guy says something that pissed her off. It went downhill fast, and only in the maelstrom of punches and kicks did I learn what had set her off. Fuck. Sorry.”

“Not your fault.” I took her hand and gave it a squeeze, then turned to see Hadrian, waiting for us. “Come on, we can deal with that later. I’ll apologize, or… hell, I don’t know.”

She nodded and we made our way over. 

Hadrian let us into the metal tent, Laurel entering a moment later and reconnecting with Charm. My eyes went to the two of them, and Charm grinned at me, apparently very excited by all of this, while Laurel seemed to be unsure what to make of me so far, weighing me to see if I was worthy of Charm. As far as I was concerned, no man could be worthy of such a lady, but I was going to put my full effort into trying to be. [JS2] [JS3] [JS4] 

The inside of the tent had more sculpted metal and glass, rising out of the surface of this protective bubble we found ourselves on. There were strange patterns on the ground here, I noticed, and when I knelt to get a closer look, my mother stood at my side and said, “It was the first of their ships that we took out. I made it like this, while another super has been keeping us mostly hidden from the enemy.”

“We strike out from here, like daggers in the night,” my father said, taking a seat at one of the metal chairs that looked like a throne befitting a god. It spiraled up with all manner of intricate patterns—clearly made for him by the woman he loved. 

“So you whittle them down?” Twitch asked. “That’s the strategy?”

He nodded. “For now, it’s the best way. We’re taking some of their ships, preparing to launch an assault against them with their own fire power.”

“Our ships can do damage, but not nearly as fast,” my mother said. “And since they can’t get through the Citadel’s defense, taking the longer approach with less casualties works.” 

“It’s time for the Elders to take charge,” Hadrian said. “We repel this invasion, the Elders are named, and we proclaim state of law again. It’s time to put our collective foot down.”

“And the other Elders?” I asked. 

“Some like you, others brought in from Tier Ones who have finally decided it’s time to serve the Citadel fully, such as the man Drew met who goes by Arthur. Others have been chosen… But I have to say, it will be hard to replace the likes of Xin.”

“To be clear, Lamb was gone, you were gone… Is Xin really gone? The others?” 

My father leaned forward. “They are.”

“And I’ll be staying with the Citadel,” my mother said. “To ensure this never happens again.” 

“As one of the Elders,” Hadrian said, beaming. 

A glance at my dad showed he had no such sentiment. It was hard for me to process these two not being together, or the man who shared my blood not being the type to devote himself to something like the citadel, but I had to try to understand it. He was who he was, after all, there was no changing that. 

“I’d like to know what all this means for me,” Gale said. “Sorry to make it personal, but… we didn’t exactly part on the best of terms, me and the Citadel.” 

“You are now part of an Elder’s team,” Hadrian said. “Not officially, yet, but practically. You all have accomplished much, and I can assure you, you have a place here when needed.” 

She nodded, good with that. 

“And these Nihilists?” Twitch chimed in. “We know what they are now? Who?”

“We know they have a similar origin,” my father said. “They were supers, supervillains most likely, who wanted more power and got it, but with a price.”

“But before we go,” Hadrian turned to Charm, his expression melting to one of compassion.

“What?” she asked, licking her lips then brushing at her cheek. “Something on me? A spider?” 

“There are no spiders here,” Hadrian said. 

“It’s time, isn’t it?” Laurel asked her normally wide eyes going even wider. She turned to Charm, a hand to her mouth, and looked torn between hugging her and running away. 

“What’s going on?” I asked. 

Shimmer stood behind them, looking equally perplexed, and Twitch was to her right with a frown. Could this be a bad thing? 

“I—I don’t understand,” Charm said. 

Hadrian stepped forward and said, “It’s time.” 

Charm was still looking at him bewildered for a moment, but then her eyes changed to blue and she blinked, then gasped, sucking in a deep breath as if she’d just emerged from nearly drowning. 

She looked at Laurel, her hand going to her own mouth in a similar way, then threw her arms around the woman. Standing there like that, her eyes rose to meet mine, and she pulled back, looking around at all of us. [JS5] [JS6] 

“Holy hell,” she said, and stumbled away until her back hit the wall. “All this time…”

“What?” I asked. 

She shook her head. “It’s a… a long story.”

Laurel stepped over, taking her hand. “You were so brave.”

“Brave?” Shimmer asked. “I mean, she is, but I’m as confused as Breaker here.”

“I was never meant to go to prison,” Charm said, voice shaky. “I volunteered… to intercept attempts by the enemy to get to the likes of Metallica and others who were on that ship. To essentially do… what we did.” 

“You succeeded,” Hadrian said. “It was a longshot, but you did it.” 

“With some help,” Charm said, gesturing my way. “I mean, I can’t believe it still, but… all that time, I was waiting, basically bait?” 

“Not bait, because they didn’t know you were there by your will. More like an undercover agent waiting to make the call, to act when the time came.” 

“She gave up her life… for this?” Gale asked, and they were all looking at Twitch with mixed awe and confusion. 

“It wasn’t like that,” Charm said. 

“It was exactly like that,” Laurel chimed in. “She helped save the school against her sister, then sacrificed her freedom to get to this point.” 

Charm looked woozy, so I stepped over and put an arm around her for support. She clung to me, as if letting go would mean floating off into a bubble of confusion. 

“But…” I shook my head, no understanding. “Supralines, the stories you told us…?”

“Half-truths, some full,” Charm said. “Mostly because I didn’t have the full truth in my head anyway.”

“And the full truth was?” Twitch asked, for some reason looking more annoyed than the rest of us. 

“It’s a long story,” Charm said. 

“One she can tell you on your way to Earth,” Hadrian interjected. He nodded to my brother. “But first, Drew will take you out to see the enemy, so you know what you’re dealing with.”

As if on cue, Drew entered. He turned to me, smiled, and said, “Brothers, on a mission together at last.” 

I nodded, still distracted by the whole Threed situation, also slightly curious about Charm and Laurel, but then said, “Lead the way,” expecting to go out to another ship or something. 

“This is it,” he said, and Hadrian stepped aside as my mother did her thing and metal warped out of the floor. As it did, the metal moved away and another of those golden pyramids appeared. “We have three of the Per-Neters, but the enemy still has the other three. When this is over, we hope to have remedied that. The Shadow Mystic will be a huge help, if you can find her.”

“And if not?” I asked. 

He frowned. “It’ll be… more costly.”

Lives, he meant. That thought scared me, communicating the message that we simply couldn’t fail. 

I nodded, showing I was ready, but Drew grinned and turned to the door. “My team’s here. We’re ready.”

A glance back showed some of the ladies I’d met when last encountering him, others I wasn’t sure of. The woman with blue glowing eyes was Navani, if I remembered correctly, the one like an angel was Sacrada. There was one that looked like a demon, but unlike Erupa her horns were short, her skin normal aside from some glowing tattoos. Speaking of tattoos, now I was able to actually get a good view of Threed, and she had a very interesting look about her. Her outfit showed off her full legs and arms. I’d noticed the pink hair earlier, but now saw that it was shaved on the sides, with the part on top hanging over. She looked a bit… different, especially with her blue and red mismatched eyes. She couldn’t meet my gaze, and I didn’t blame her.

Accompanying them was Lamb[JS7] , and a woman with cat ears and a cat tail. At first I looked from her to Charm, wondering if there was a connection there, but Charm’s confusion showed otherwise. 

“Don’t worry,” Drew said. “We’ll have time to all get acquainted.” 

“I’m going with them,” Laurel said to Hadrian, and he nodded, not arguing. 

I wasn’t sure what this meant for us, as it still wasn’t clear what the nature of her relationship had been with Charm, but it was very clear that everything was getting very complicated very fast. 

I made an effort to not look Threed in the eyes there, not sure how to avoid telling her everything. Holding secrets was never one of my favorite pastimes. 

Seeing we were ready, Hadrian motioned us to the floating pyramid, or apparently Per-Natar. He went to the doorway with my parents, the ladies moving in and giving them space. Apparently, they already knew of the legends of these people and showed them proper deference. A strange concept, considering two of the three were my parents. 

“Stay alert,” my mother said, offering me a supportive smile as she and my father left. 

They left and the pyramid was glowing brighter, but I held up my hands. “Hold up. Am I the only one totally losing my shit with all of this?” 

Twitch laughed. “Good, I was starting to wonder if it was just me.” 

“We were there,” Drew said, glancing at the light nervously. “Trust me, it’s a steep learning curve but we’re on a rapid trajectory. You’ll have it all figured out in no time.” 

“You all know each other?” Laurel asked. “I mean, of course the brothers, but the rest…?”

“Some of us met briefly,” Twitch said, nodding in respect to Navani. 

“Great. And… everyone here thought Charm was a supervillain until a few minutes ago?”

I chuckled nervously. “We… well, it didn’t fully fit.”

“Thanks,” Charm said, then turned to Drew and his team. “Oh, shit. Sorry—I’m, I’m just a bit overwhelmed, didn’t see you all come in.” She gave a couple of them hugs, the clapped my brother on the shoulder. I’d almost forgotten that she’d shared a little adventure with them. 

“Everything’s okay?” Drew asked. 

She nodded. “Well enough, considering I just remembered having blocked my own memories and sacrificed five years of my life to this fucking war. What’ya say we finish it and move on?” 

Drew laughed. “Finally, a plan I can say I whole-heartedly agree with. And since we’re out of time anyway, prepare yourselves.” 

“What do you mea—” I started, but the light from the Per-Nater shot out, engulfing the room, and again we were taken form the spot to suddenly appear on what looked like a ship, all of us, exactly as we had been, one Nihilist staring directly at me from the back of the room in shock.