United [A Superhero AU] - Book Two

Chapter Fifty-Seven - Heroes, Villains, and Rebels

Mr. Vincent paces back and forth across the floor of Cry's office, his jaw clenched so tightly that Cry can almost hear his teeth grinding.  The masked villain sits behind his father's desk, silently thanking whatever God exists that Lili left before he showed up.

    "Where.  Did.  They.  Go?!" Mr. Vincent spits, his hands balled into tight fists at his side.

    "Mark and Jack?  They escaped."  Cry unenthusiastically jazz-hands, his eyes staying dull and uninterested beneath the mask.  "Oh no."

    "Don't sass me, boy."

    "That's 'don't sass me sir' to you, Damien."

    The advisor winds up and punches Cry in the face before the masked villain can even think about protecting himself.  The villain groans, sticking a hand under his mask in order to touch his nose gingerly.  He grits his teeth when his fingers come back red.

    "Saw that one coming," he mumbles to himself.

    "Go out and bring Seán back here.  It's time to resort to our backup plan," Mr. Vincent says, his voice strained in an attempt to stay calm.

    "What's our backup plan?"

    "You'll see when he's here.  Do not disobey me, Cole, because Matthew's life is still on the line."

    The masked villain stares at him for a long time, his body starting to shake from pent up rage.  He shoves his chair back as he gets up, pointing a quivering finger at Vincent.  "Fine, you can bring him in!  Talk to him!  Try to weasel more information out of them!  But mark my words, Damien, the heroes and Jack will win and you will NOT be around to see it."

    With that, he storms out of the room.  He passes hallways and rooms, letting his feet lead him to somewhere else.  As he moves past his bedroom he kicks off his shoes, walking around in just his socks.  His socked feet make a lot less noise than his shoes and he's almost tempted to turn invisible, but he doesn't.  Instead, he slips his mask up so it rests atop his hair and lets his skin start glowing.  His heart rate starts rising, but he forces it to slow.  He needs to do this for his own wellbeing.

    His feet lead him to the cemetery.  Why, he doesn't know. There seems to be a lot of things he doesn't know lately.  Cry pushes the door open to see Matthew sitting on the grass beside Stephanie's headstone, his head leaning on his hand and his eyes distant.  His eyes and cheeks are red, a sure sign that he's been crying.  He glances up when he hears the door open and nearly smiles, but it falls away before it's anything more than a quirk of his lips.

    "Hey," he says, coughing to clear the emotion from his voice.  "You took the mask off."

    "Yeah."  Cry shrugs a bit and sits beside him on the grass.  "I'm trying to get used to taking it off."

    "I'm proud of you."

    "Thanks."

    Matthew's lips turn up into a half smile again and he rests his hand on the grass between the two of them.  After a second, Cry rests his hand on top of his.  They sit there in silence for a long time, watching sunlight dance over Stephanie's grave.  Cry glows, but it's more gentle and less afraid now.

    "We'll be free soon, right?" Matthew asks quietly.

    "I hope so," Cry replies.

    Matthew's hand squeezes his a little harder and Cry glances over, remembering in a flash that the other villain can see his face and the pain in his eyes.  His mouth falls agape ever so slightly and he quickly averts his gaze, biting his lip.

    "It's okay, Cry.  Feeling something as basic as emotion isn't a bad thing," Matthew insists, and it's almost as though he's reading his mind.

    "I know... I just keep forgetting that you can see my face and then I freak out."

    "You'll get used to it."

    "Yeah."

—

    The dining room table murmurs with quiet excitement and nervousness as the heroes and rebels gather round, taking their seats and making themselves comfortable.  Mark and Jack sit with their shoulders touching and their hands intertwined, watching Matthias take his seat at the head of the table.  He clears his throat and the people around the table fall silent.

    "To preface this meeting, I would just like to say that I am very happy to have Mark and Jack with us again.  This group wouldn't be the same without you guys," he says, and agreements rise up from all the heroes and rebels.  Matthias smiles lightly before continuing.  "Now, Mark came to me and suggested that we attack soon.  I personally think that he's right and that we're ready to strike.  After all that's happened, we can't afford to wait any longer."

    "I agree.  I'm ready to kick that advisor's ass!" Hudson exclaims, a wide grin on his face.  The bandage is gone from his shoulder, but beneath his muscle shirt you can see the glaring scar the bullet left behind.

    "Are you sure we're ready?  I mean, we just got Mark and Jack back," Gunner asks.

    "We'll strike in a week.  That gives them a bit more recovery time and it also gives us an opportunity to prepare weapons and other supplies for everyone," Matthias replies.  "And yes, Hudson, Cry's advisor is one of our targets.  However, I also want to take Cry and Matthew into custody and question them a bit before we hand them over to the authorities."

    Mark glances at Jack, expecting a stream of protesting or at least a straight-up refusal.  Instead, the villain just sits there, his fingers tightening around the hero's ever so slightly and his jaw clenching.  Jack meets Mark's eyes and his lips quirk up into the faintest of smiles, melting away all of the American's worries.

    "Anything anyone would like to mention?" Matthias asks.

    Felix leans back in his chair.  "For suits, I believe the heroes are wearing their suits from Curatrix just like they have been already.  Are the rebels dressing how they want?"

    "Yep," Red replies.

    Matthias nearly chuckles.  "Anything else?"

    "Lili and I are staying back.  You'll need healers, and even though it's pretty hard to kill me, it's not impossible," Phil says.

    "Alright.  Is that all?"  When nobody says anything, Matthias claps his hands together.  "Excellent.  Meeting closed."

A/N: I feel like this chapter took really long to come out even though it's only been a few days... Oh well. Also, I'm sorry for the overall poor nature of this chapter. This was one last roadblock before I'm back to the stuff I'm really excited for :3