Hearts of the Multiverse

Chapter Three: The Phoenix

Adding all of Rei's friends to the conversation was easier done than said. Once everyone got back, they decided to have a conversation about this witch. Luz still looked a bit dazed. Whatever the monster that had attacked her and Hunter had done, must've been bad.

The group sat in the living quarters of the shrine. Miles noted that Baldur's Gate was still loaded on the TV. Hopefully he wouldn't burn out the gaming system. But now, all of them were trying to talk about what they had just experienced. Apparently Usagi and her friends were superheroes around Tokyo. They'd been protecting people for a while now—maybe as long as Miles had been protecting Harlem.

"So, you guys are superheroes, too?" Miles asked Rei.

Rei nodded. "It's a secret. We try not to go around broadcasting it."

"Understood."

"How are you feeling?" Katara asked. She'd been searching for her boyfriend earlier and had arrived later than Sokka and Zuko. But she seemed just as concerned.

"I'm fine," Rei assured her. Her face softened. "Thank you for asking."

Usagi held her cracked compact in her hands. She looked ready to cry.

"Hey, sorry about your compact," Miles spoke up. He paused. "It's important, isn't it?"

Usagi nodded. "Without it, I can't transform into Sailor Moon."

"And that's the superhero identity, right?" Josuke confirmed. Usagi nodded. "Damn. That sucks."

"Don't be so glum!" Nemona said. "We'll help you for now!"

"Absolutely," Adora agreed. "Most of us are probably heroes, anyways."

Sure. Totally not a multiversal anomaly. None of that here. But what could it hurt to help? Well, Miguel or any of the other spiders could catch him out in the open. Unless he ran into, maybe, Hobie, he'd be kind of screwed. Still, leaving someone to fight without powers seemed like a jerk move.

"I'll help," Miles offered. "Gotta study whatever power that lady had. Wasn't electricity. I would've been able to shoot it back."

"You can bend electricity?" Zuko asked, almost wearily.

"Yeah. I just learned how to take down forcefields, too," Miles bragged a little. "I wouldn't use it to be evil or whatever, so don't worry."

"And we're just supposed to trust each other? Just like that?" Anne asked. "Seems sketch."

"What other choice do we have?" Arven asked. He handed out a few sandwiches he made. "I can sort of vouch for some people here, especially Miles and Luz. They've been really nice to me."

"And Zuko and Sokka literally saved Rei and Hunter back there," Josuke added.

"In other words, now's not the time for petty mistrust," Giorno said. "There could be a bunch of monsters out there, and we don't even know what those girls in the tree wanted. Could also be dangerous. We don't know, and I hate not-knowing. We should probably do as much research as possible. That might involve fighting more of those things."

"I'm sorry," Lillie spoke up, her voice small and quiet. "You want us to go out and look for a fight with those monsters?"

"Not necessarily," Giorno said. "But if we can learn more about them, they could be easier to stop."