Ex Heroes 5 - Chapter 1

(unedited)

The supers of the Citadel surrounded us, watching us with high hopes. Murmurs of our exploits traveled through the crowd and I heard hints of their mentioning the Pyramids of Gurstrag, saving my mother, and of our journey to Junos and fight at Supralines. Their superhero tight-fitting clothes—some in robes—made it hard not to focus on where we were and why we were here. 

This was the center of superhero activity, the force that stood between evil and good. And here, we were already becoming the stuff of legend.

My eyes, when not darting over to Charm and this woman with blue hair and antennae who she had just kissed, were roaming for any sign of my brother. None of the faces looked familiar, yet, and the crowd was making me restless, nervous. 

A sound of metal grinding sounded behind the crowd and they parted. Chatter rose up as the silver-inlaid doors opened from a building that was tall, black and reminded me of a tulip, oddly. A woman with dark, short hair emerged. There was no doubt in my mind that this was Lamb. Something about the way she looked at me, about the interest in her eyes. Her identity was confirmed a moment later when her voice came from my suit, saying, “Ignore the crowd. Come quick.” 

I shared a confused look with my team. It wasn’t just my ladies, which now consisted of Charm, Twitch, Gale, Shimmer, and sort of the android Aegriss. No, we’d come with the other teams we’d picked up on Abaddon. Letha was standing with her arms wrapped in the arms of the man called Rand and her green monster. Trunk had the most playful group, it seemed. Even here they weren’t shy, pressed up against him, whispering something in his ear as if nobody else was around or could tell it was clearly sexual. Did it ever stop for him? At least he’d put on an Abaddon uniform again, though clearly couldn’t wait to get out of it. 

Ezra stood tall, looking every bit the man of the law he so seemed to want to be, but had an uneasy look to his eyes. For too long, he’d unwittingly served the wrong side as a bounty hunter. He’d come with his own very interesting team, the craziest of which was Cheri and had started introducing herself to a couple of the nearest members of the crowd, telling her she was one of the founding members of the Psychobitches. There were others we’d come with as well, nearly two dozen in all, and I glanced back at Lamb, uncertainly.

She nodded. “All of you.” 

I nodded, waving the group over and telling them to follow me. A glance over at Charm and I hesitated. Gale noticed this and grinned, showing a gust of wind at the back of Charm’s head, so that her pink hair whipped about her tall fox ears. 

She spun, saw where we were headed, and grabbed her old friend Laurel by the hand, dragging her toward us. 

“Laurel’s coming,” Charm said. 

“Am I?” Laurel said. 

“Sorry, who is this?” Aegriss asked. 

Laurel, the timid-looking super with her glowing antanae and long, pointy ears, turned first to Aegriss and appeared humored, then at Ezra and frowned. 

“She’s kinda reading his thoughts,” Cheri said in a strange whisper. 

“Something she does,” Charm said with a shrug. Then gestured toward Lamb. “Who’s that?” 

“Lamb,” I replied. 

Charm went wide-eyed, turned as if to walk away, but stopped when Laurel took her by the hand and said, “It’s going to be okay. We have so much to catch up on, so much to… set right.” 

“Set right?” I asked, and when she merely nodded, I frowned. “A bit cryptic, no?”

Charm was too nervous to reply to that, so I let it go. 

Aegriss cleared her throat, and stepped forward, apparently programmed to be a bit protective. Or was it part of how her A.I. was adjusting? I couldn’t be sure, but either way had to step up next to her, motioning that it was okay. 

“Laurel, why don’t you join us? You two can fill us in while we walk.” 

“Sure,” Laurel said, but turned to Charm and waited for a nod form her. 

As we went, I heard her mention what a long time [JS1] it’d been, and how she’d missed her so much, waiting for this day. What had I stumbled into? Suddenly it hit me—her time at Supralines. Could this have been one of the friends Charm had briefly mentioned? Judging by the way they were holding hands, fingers massaging each other, they had been somewhat more than friends. 

“And he is…?” Laurel whispered, the words barely hitting my ears above the crowd. 

“That’s… complicated,” Charm replied. My next step almost caused me to stumble, but I caught myself before anyone noticed, I hoped. 

Complicated? I had to imagine she was just waiting to tell the woman once we were out of this crowd. 

“Mind telling us what’s going on?” Trunk asked, catching up to me. I was surprised to see him without his ladies, and he shrugged, noticing my expression. “Hey, even I need a break sometimes. So?” 

“This is Lamb,” I said, indicating her as we approached, only a few more paces. “She’s going to tell us exactly what’s going on.”

“Lamb.” He frowned, laughed, and said, “Hey, they call me ‘Trunk,’ who’m I to judge?”

“And that’s not your real name?” I replied, not hiding the sarcasm. 

He grinned, wagging a finger my way. “No, and I’ll never tell you what it is, either.” 

“Antonio,” Lamb said, stepping up to greet us. The others had backed off, many turning to watch us. 

“Fuck!” Trunk said, and shrugged. “But to everyone here, it’s Trunk.”

“Of course,” she said with a wink, then turned to address the audience. “Allow me to introduce the second son of Apollo. Breaker.”

Polite applause and wide smiles met her announcement. More than I’d expected. 

“As you can imagine, his brother… and others,” she gave me a knowing smile, and I assumed she meant my mother, “will be excited to see him too. After he’s been briefed, I’m sure he’d like to get to know some of you, fill us all in on what’s been happening, and who knows, maybe show off a skill or two?” 

The crowd cheered at that, and Lamb guided me to massive doors she’d emerged from. 

“We don’t have a lot of time,” I said, following her. 

She paused, titled her head, and said, “You’ll have to fill us in. We’ve been a bit preoccupied.” At that, though, she turned to see Charm and Laurel, and smiled wide. “I see you two have found each other.” 

“I’m—I’m sorry,” Laurel said. “I shouldn’t have read your thoughts to know she was here, but… When Charm entered them, there was no way I could hold back.”

“Completely understood,” Lamb said, and motioned them to continue on. “Charm, I assume you have your memories back, then.” 

Charm froze, the rest going on except for her, me, Laurel, and Lamb. The look of instant regret on Lamb’s face was priceless. 

“I’m sorry?” Her left ear twitched, something I hadn’t noticed it do before. 

“Perhaps we’d best speak at the forward command.” Lamb motioned for the ramp, and this time I was confused. 

“We just got here,” I said. “What do you mean, forward command?” 

Lamb sighed. “It’s where your brother is. Leading the first stage of the battle to get rid of the Nihilist ships. Along with the others.”

“You can’t just drop something and look all guilty and then expect me to wait while we fly—” Charm started.

Laurel put a hand on her arm, whispered something in her ear, and Charm calmed. 

“Trust me, you’ll find out soon enough,” Lamb said with a grateful nod Laurel’s way. “Plus, you’ll soon see that it’s not exactly a long journey. It’s almost instantaneous, actually.” With a look my way, she added, “As is returning, should you choose that route.” 

I considered it, looking up at the ships there, the small explosions we could occasionally make out, and frowned. 

“Charm?” I said. 

She pursed her lips, looking mad at Lamb, but with a glance at Laurel again, then me, she nodded. Together, we entered through the tall, silver inlaid doors, very much looking forward to getting the answers we wanted.