The Metahuman Agency: The Superhuman War

The Next Step

The smell of the burgers could have been a form of torture. Jason had use every once of his willpower to not tear into them on the way back. It didn't help that Laureen took sometime to retrace her path and by the time they rumbled back into the backwoods trails, Jason's stomach felt like it might explode. He tried to think of other things but the smell of beef kept assaulting his senses and all he could think about were burgers, dozens of burgers, juicy, lathered with ketchup...

"You alright?" Laureen asked, her voice breaking his thoughts. Jason looked at her, clutching the bag of food against his rumbling stomach. Laureen cocked an eyebrow at him. "You look kinda pale, dude. In fact, really fucking pale. And you got a weird look in your eye, like your about to go and tear some shit up."

"Why..." Jason moaned. He flopped back in his seat, thrusting his head against the chair. "...Why did you give me these burgers to hold...you hate me, don't you Laureen? You hate me so much you don't want kill me but make me suffer."

Laureen snorted and laughed. "Oh I see. Food smell getting to ya', huh?"

Jason moaned again before nodding. His stomach growled loudly, sounding much like an angry bear.

"That's a 'yes' if I ever fucking heard one. Unfortunately, we don't got a backseat, just a cargo hold. I would say you could put 'em back there, but the doors are missing, so they might just jostled and go flying out. So sorry man, but you gotta hold 'em. Shouldn't be too much longer..." Laureen flashed him a grin. "Provided I can go back quicker than we got here."

Jason just moaned. He closed his eyes and tried in vain to focus through the agonizing hunger, wishing he could close his noise somehow.

Luckily, Laureen was able to remember the way they had came and they soon returned to the spot where they had originally parked the truck. Jason and Laureen got out, Laureen taking a few of the bags and shouldering them. Eager to eat, Jason stumbled forward, trudging up the hills as the chirps of birds echoed across the wildlife preserve. Laureen followed after him, continuing to chuckle at his misery.

A short hike later, they arrived back at The Panther. Even in his groggy, hungry state, Jason was glad to see the plane was unchanged since a few hours ago. No signs of activity, thank god. He slowly trudged up the boarding ramp, his movements quickening in anticipation of finally eating.

Moving inside, Jason saw everyone was mostly in the same spots they had left them. James was still sleeping on some seats, his snores filling the space. Audrey sat a little ways across from him, bent over and scraping her large fingers across the floor. Hiroshi was pacing about the hold, munching on a ration. Max sat at the jet's controls, feet up, hands behind his head.

Hiroshi was the first to react to their return. He spun around as Jason entered and his eyes went wide like dinner plates. He charged across the room and squealed happily, "Food!" Without asking permission, he snatched one of the bags from Jason's hand and flopped to the floor. The kid ripped open the bag and yanked out a burger. He stared at it like he had discovered the most beautiful treasure in the world.

"Its beautiful..." Hiroshi moaned, drooling. He then took a massive bite. The kid closed his eyes, moaning in bliss, swallowing. He gasped, smiling wide before opening his eyes again.

"Oh man..." He moaned. He took a long whiff of the burger before sighing in pleasure. "Oh god...this is the best thing I've ever eaten. Period." With that said, the kid went at his burger like a starving dog, tearing and ripping into it, spraying bits of food everywhere in a messy display.

"Easy now, you don't wanna choke," Laureen chuckled. She raised her own bags. "Who else is hungry?"

Audrey rose, trudging over and quietly took one of the bags from Laureen. She flashed her friend a grateful smile before sitting down. Audrey slid away from Hiroshi a bit, putting some space between them.