"as though nothing could fall" - Part Two
| Part One |
The line between the superhero's secret identity and their true persona can be blurred. Some may start to see their pseudonym as their real selves and their hero identity as nothing more than a day job. Fighting fires is what a firefighter does, but it is not who he is. The dual identity can also cause the Hero’s personality to fragment as was seen with Lifeline who lost his entire family to Colossus Moon and suffered a breakdown as a result, unable to remember that he had any power at all and instead believing that he was merely a diner owner named Harry Bloomfield. Colossus Moon was able to target and kill Lifeline and other members of Lifeline’s team as a direct result.
- Excerpt from “Behind the Cape - Final Essay by J. Ackles”
Jared has never before felt sentimental enough to watch someone sleep but Jensen is different. He's so restrained in his day to day life that it's a treat to see him sprawl, hog the covers and drool. It's awful and enchanting all at the same time and when Jensen snorts awake in a completely undignified way and wipes the back of his hand over his mouth with a disgruntled rumble Jared can't help but grin helplessly at him.
"Urgh," Jensen manages. "Do not tell me you're a morning person."
Jared jostles Jensen, bouncing on the mattress a little and gets a fist in his direction that doesn't even come close to hitting him. "Always have been I'm afraid," Jared says, shaking his head over Jensen, raining droplets of water from his shower over Jensen’s exposed back and making Jensen retreat under the covers with a startled yelp. "My parents weren’t happy about it because I never was one to entertain myself either."
"You were the kid that jumped on his parent's bed and managed to land on his Dad's nuts four times out of five right?"
"If my Dad had nuts, yes I suppose I would have been. Turned out he was smooth as a Ken doll, unfortunate side affect of his power."
"You're joking," Jensen says slowly, emerging from the covers to blink owlishly.
"'Course I am," Jared laughs and gets another fist in his direction. This only misses by a small amount. Jensen's aim is improving as he becomes more alert. "What are we doing today?"
"I don't know about you but I'm having a shower as long as the bathroom is marginally more hygienic than your living room," Jensen says, hand idly rubbing at the dried mess of his stomach that had been a direct result of the night before. "Then I'm going back to my apartment to sleep another eighteen hours."
"Boo, no fun," Jared protests, pouting mightily and stills when Jensen reaches out a much more careful hand this time to thumb at Jared's protruding bottom lip.
"Is this real?"
"Isn't it too early to have a deep discussion about our relationship?" Jared asks, jostling Jensen again with a smile.
"Not... I meant this?" Jensen asks, tugging at Jared's lip. "I mean, you're a shapeshifter right? Do I even know what you really look like?"
Jared has been asked that question before but he's never felt a coldness settle in the pit of his stomach like he does now. "I'm sorry?"
"I've just been wondering is all," Jensen says, shrugging. The movement shifts the sheets a little.
"Let me get this straight, you've been wondering what I actually look like?"
Jensen blinks and sits up halfway, resting on his elbows. "It's a reasonable question."
"Is your name really Jensen?" Jared snaps in return and Jensen frowns.
"What kind of question is that?"
"Of course this is my fucking face," Jared says hotly, getting up from the bed and stalking across the room. He's wishing for something a little more sturdy than pizza boxes to kick about to release some tension. "Do you actually think I would lie like that?"
"You think that would be lying?" Jensen asks, looking confused at Jared's anger.
“Yes!” Jared says, flailing his arms.
“I don’t understand why you’re getting upset,” Jensen says and he looks so genuinely baffled that Jared almost, almost forgives him.
“Yeah, that I believe,” he snaps and now Jensen’s face darkens to match his own.
“What do you mean by that?” he asks slowly, eyes narrowing.
Jared can see it, as perfectly as if he was a psychic. He can say, nothing, sorry, I’m overreacting and being a jerk and they can both smile at each other in an exasperated way and go to breakfast. They can play footsie under the table and come back and have another round of mind-blowing sex, maybe Jared can get his mouth on Jensen instead of Jensen going off as soon as he got a hand on him. He can see it so clearly that he can’t really believe it when he says, “If you weren’t such a secretive robot-“
“A what?” Jensen interrupts.
“You hide everything from me,” Jared says. “You’re a real hypocrite asking what’s real about me.”
“Maybe if you asked me an actual goddamn question-“
“What’s your power?”
Jensen just stares at him for a second, high spots of color rising on his cheeks and looking like he’s been slapped. “Why is that so important to you?” he asks slowly.
“It’s the only thing you won’t tell me,” Jared says and Jensen gets up, shoving his feet through his pants that he's rescued from the floor and yanking them on in an annoyed jerk.
“Maybe you should ask yourself why that’s the only thing you’re concerned about.”
“It’s not,” Jared says, feeling defensive, casting about on his floor for his robe and finding it tangled with Jensen’s shirt that Jensen snatches out of his grasp.
“How do you know it’s the only question I won’t answer? Have you actually asked me anything else?”
“What else-“
“What’s my favorite color? What’s my favorite song? What makes me do my happy dance?”
“You have a happy dance?” Jared asks, temporarily derailed from his anger by the visual that pops into his head. Now he knows what Jensen looks like naked, the happy dance is understandably, a naked one.
“Don’t be cute,” Jensen snaps, looking anything but charmed.
“Why are you so defensive about this? Morgan thought it was because you didn’t actually have a power but-“ Jared knows without a shadow of a doubt that he’s made a horrendous mistake as soon as he mentions Morgan. Jensen’s face darkens and his fists clench at his sides. He looks like he’s physically holding himself back from punching Jared in the face and it looks like it’s taking some effort.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you’d discussed this, that you’d had some kind of forum.”
“It wasn’t like that,” Jared says. “Morgan was just concerned. He just wanted to make sure you weren’t...” Jared flails a hand, helpless and Jensen snorts, an ugly sound that Jared never wants to hear directed at him again.
“Dangerous?” Jensen prompts. “He wanted to make sure I wasn’t dangerous, right?” Jensen sits only long enough to pull his shoes on, not even taking the time to put his socks on first. He stands and advances on Jared who backs up, horrified by how Jensen looks so appalled and disappointed. “I’ve got news for you Jared. We’re all dangerous given the right circumstances. The sooner you realize that, the safer this world will be.”
“What happened to make you this way?” Jared asks slowly and Jensen's face is open and startled for a moment before any and all expression drops off his face.
“We all walk around with fucking blinders on. It’s how Bay City happened.”
“Jensen-“
“We’re so concerned with costumes and names and whether we’ll be on the six o’clock news. Men like The Fisher don’t care about stuff like that which is why the real world isn’t like the movies or comic books. In the real world the bad guys sometimes win.”
“What do you want me to say?” Jared asks, wondering how Jensen suddenly became the injured party, how Jensen asking if he actually used his own face had been turned around. All he wanted was to ask how they could rewind, restart the morning and do it right.
Not end up in this awful place.
“I’ve clearly made a mistake,” Jensen says. “Maybe we should just return to a strictly professional relationship.”
“What professional relationship?” Jared huffs. “Apparently all the Heroes and Sidekicks got the memo about not taking the whole assigning thing seriously except us. Everyone thinks we’re ludicrous.”
“Do you?”
“I don’t know. Do I really need an assistant?” Jared asks, stepping into his monster slippers. Jensen bites his lip and he looks like he’s fighting a smile.
“You need looking after,” Jensen says and then winces. “I mean, the Group needs looking after.” Jensen digs his hands into his pockets and shuffles his feet. “You really need to come up with a better name.”
“Look who’s changed their tune,” Jared teases and Jensen smiles a little now, letting it through, letting the argument and the hurt go as quickly as it started.
“Obviously this was... nice but a disaster. I think we work together well. I’d like to keep doing that.”
“Sure,” Jared agrees even though it’s not what he wants to say. He’s met people before that he’s had chemistry with but it was volatile and didn’t work out despite their best efforts. Jared really thinks Jensen would be different but they argue too easily, their points of view not meshing at all. Despite that, Jared doesn't want to give up with one argument but he can sense that he just needs to give Jensen space, help him find his comfortable place.
He doesn't want to chase him away and he knows backing off is the best plan.
Can we ever really claim to know them? They live beyond the limits of society, outside its norms and practices. They are not able to be judged, they do not accept sanction and they have their own laws. The rise of the supervillain is proof positive that this layer of the populace does not do this effectively.
- Excerpt from “Behind the Cape - Final Essay by J. Ackles”
“You’re my best friend, how can you say that?”
“I’m really not,” Danneel says, eying Jared over her large coffee mug. Jensen had sent through a file of everyone’s contact details in the Group to his email and when Jared finally figured out how to open it, he discovered that Danneel lived only three blocks from his apartment. She has a nice place, sunny and bright and Jared desperately misses his sister and so turns up on her doorstep when he can't face returning to an empty apartment after awkward goodbyes with Jensen.
The unannounced part might not have been his best call but Jared is pretty sure he's charming enough to get away with it until Danneel tells him, in no uncertain terms, that he is an idiot.
“I thought Milo was your best friend.”
“We hung out because he could burp... it’s a whole thing,” Jared says when Danneel scrunches up her nose. “He can’t give me relationship advice, especially about another guy.”
“What makes you think I can?” Danneel asks and when Jared just stares at her, she waggles her eyebrows.
“Oh... oh,” Jared finally says and grimaces. “Sorry, I’m an idiot.”
“Yes, well, we’ve established that already,” Danneel says with a grin and leans forward to pat Jared’s knee. “Hon, you’re obviously head over heels for him. Sam and I knew that the moment we saw you both.”
“Really?” Jared says, surprised. “You could’ve let me know.”
“At least you’ve consummated. You might’ve messed it up after but it would have been more pathetic if you’d still been pining.”
“I think I would have preferred the pining. It would hurt less.”
“He obviously still cares about you too,” Danneel adds gently. “Despite you having this huge fight, he’s still going to work with us. I’ve quit jobs for less. And I was getting paid for them.”
“True,” Jared agrees, nodding. He likes Danneel. She does actually remind him of his sister and she has a no nonsense air about her that he finds appealing. “Maybe we’ve been going about this all the wrong way.”
“What’s this?” Jensen asks the next day when Jared sets a box of chocolates down onto his desk.
“I figured it out.”
“What exactly did you figure out?” Jensen asks, nudging the box aside with his pen like he’s scared it’s going to try something.
“We just jumped straight from barely tolerating each other to blowjobs. That’s a terrible way to start any kind of romantic liaison.”
“I keep thinking,” Jensen says, resting his chin on one fist and narrowing his eyes. “That you can’t possibly be the oddest person in the world considering there is a guy out there called Time Traveling Tongue but you are really giving him a run for his money.”
“Time Traveling Tongue? Really?” Jared says, momentarily derailed.
“It’s only the guy’s tongue that time travels, or so he claims,” Jensen elaborates. “It all sounds a little sketchy to me but he swears he can taste the past.”
“Anyway,” Jared continues, determined to get back on track. “What I wanted to say was that we should go on a date.”
“A date?” Jensen’s eyebrows climb so high towards his hairline that they are in danger of disappearing. “Like dinner and a movie?”
“If that’s what you’d like, yes,” Jared says, nodding. He’s determined to take Jensen not refusing immediately as a good sign. He already knows Jensen finds him attractive, considering the fantastic previously mentioned blow job but what he’s not sure of exactly is if Jensen finds him at all endearing as a person. His momma has always assured him that he was sweet as pie and no one could resist him but he suspects she's biased.
“Are we really date people?” Jensen asks and Jared can hear the air quotes around the word date even though Jensen doesn’t stoop to actually making them. He and Morgan must practice or something. Jensen sees something on Jared’s face that makes him quickly add, “I mean, I didn’t think we would be date people but I’ve been known to be wrong.”
“How about a beer. No work talk. I know a dirty little place that you’ll hate.”
“Really?” Jensen says, looking intrigued.
They agree to meet at eight that night, no one picking anyone up because Jensen made a face at that. Jared nearly falls off the stool he’s perched on when Jensen walks into the bar and he’s wearing faded jeans that hug his thighs obscenely and a black button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up. His hair is a little messier than usual and Jared spares a glance for the half-finished beer at his elbow before he gets up and meets Jensen halfway.
“We’re not date people,” Jared practically growls, fisting Jensen’s shirt and dragging him close. “Unless you consider a good night out to be getting arrested while I fuck you on top of that table over there.”
Jensen’s eyes widen and darken and a smirk touches his lips. Jared is drawn to the day Jensen because of his practicality and efficiency but the night Jensen, the one that turns up on his doorstep and to the bar that Jared picked just to rattle him is the one he can’t resist at all. “Can we go to your place?” Jared asks and the heat in Jensen’s eyes dims for a second.
“I’m good with yours,” he says and even though Jared knows it’s probably something they should talk about later, Jensen is obviously okay with playing dirty pool because he slots their hips together when he says it and grinds up, effectively shutting off any higher brain function Jared might have been clinging to or any possible argument he could have come up with.
“You’re just really not what I thought you were,” Jared manages to get out through clenched teeth, trying not to go off in his pants like an overeager teenager with just that small bit of friction and promise.
“I’ve heard that before,” Jensen says and breaks away from Jared, but not before he gets a finger through Jared’s belt loop to tug him along.
“It would really help me out if your power was teleportation at this point,” Jared grumbles, pressing down on himself as they make their way to the door that leads out onto the street.
“Sorry to disappoint,” Jensen says with a laugh.
“When we’re finished,” Jensen says, backing Jared into his bedroom wall and mouthing at his jaw. His hands are yanking at Jared’s belt, pulling it free from his jeans and tossing it so it lands with a metallic thunk. “I’m just going to put my clothes on and go.”
“Why are you... what?” Jared says, getting hands on Jensen’s face and pulling it away from his throat. Jensen’s thigh is pressed up against his dick and Jensen pushing upwards almost makes Jared forget what he’s saying again.
He’s starting to think it’s some kind of tactic.
“My bathroom really isn’t that bad,” he says.
Jensen just looks at him for a moment before he bursts out laughing, digging his face into Jared’s collarbone. “That’s not what I meant,” he says, voice muffled because his lips are still pressed to Jared’s skin.
“What did you mean then?” Jared asks and Jensen groans and thumps his head on Jared’s chest.
“Are we going to actually fight before the sex this time?”
Jared gets a hold of Jensen’s shirt and manhandles him and his distracting thigh backwards, giving himself some space. “What are you talking about?” Jared asks. His cock is currently asking why he’s still talking at all considering Jensen’s shirt is hanging open and loose and his jeans are half undone, Jared able to see the line of hair disappearing into a shadowed V.
“I just thought if we had the sex and then I got up and dressed, we wouldn’t have the argument that ruins it afterward.”
“Why did you think we would?” Jared asks and when Jensen snorts and flails his hands between them he says, “No, this is all you bringing it up now.”
“It just seems to be a thing we do,” Jensen says.
“It’s not a thing. It happened once. That doesn’t make it a thing.”
“I was just trying to head it off before it became a thing,” Jensen says, sounding exasperated.
“How’s that working out for you?” Jared demands and Jensen snorts, then outright guffaws before he’s dropped to his haunches, face turned into his own bicep to try and stop the giggles. Jared just watches his whole body shake with mirth and he can’t help but smile at the ridiculousness of it all. “I think this is why we needed the date,” he says.
“I think this is why we should never actually talk to each other at all,” Jensen disagrees. "Maybe we could communicate via a system of post-it notes and candy hearts."
“I love those,” Jared says and his stomach growls as if to emphasize his point.
“Did you eat today?” Jensen demands, standing up and looking more like professional Jensen than the dirty Jensen Jared was enjoying so much... until the arguing started.
“I forget sometimes,” Jared admits. “I usually throw something together when I feel lightheaded.”
“That’s extremely healthy,” Jensen says sarcastically. “Let’s see what you have in your cupboards.”
Jared’s left gaping at Jensen’s retreating back, as Jensen makes his way to Jared’s kitchen.
“How about if I agree to a vow of silence?” Jared yells as Jensen disappears down the hallway.
“I was hoping for something a little more... glamorous,” Milo says, carding through the folders spread out in front of them. Sam, Morgan and Danneel all have folders of their own open. Jensen put together a mountain of fairly tame work for them to sort through and decide upon considering they weren’t the run out and stop a bank robbery sort of Heroes.
Jared’s distracted, glancing at Jensen’s corner and him hunched over his laptop until he gets hit in the shoulder with something. He looks around and Milo is squinting at him, frowning. “We can’t exactly stop runaway trains here, what did you expect?” Morgan asks, smacking Milo in the back of the head much like he used to do in class. It makes Jared smile for the first time all day.
“Is it too much to ask for a little action and adventure?” Milo whines and Jared’s about to throw something back at him when Danneel tosses her own folder down and says, “I never thought I’d say this but Lady Man’s right.”
“It’s Ladies Man,” Milo protests at the same time that Jared exclaims, “Danneel!” and she shrugs.
“How about we set aside the disturbing fact that a guy that can put you to sleep with a touch has called himself Ladies Man and concentrate on the fact that I don’t know about you but stopping some guy named...” she reopens her folder for a second to check, “The Forger duping little old ladies out of the social security checks isn’t really pushing my buttons.”
“You’re an illusionist,” Morgan argues as Danneel flicks her hair and crosses her legs. “What are you supposed to do against guns, knives or hell, harsh language?”
“Fuck you Johnny Carson,” she snaps. “I thought I was done being told what I couldn’t do by you when I graduated.”
“When did I ever tell you that you couldn’t do something?” Morgan asks, blinking and Danneel barks out a laugh.
“The minute you tossed me into Class Three,” she snaps. “You were running Categorization when I enrolled. You barely looked at me when you decided what I was going to be doing for the next four years of my life.”
“Danneel,” Morgan breathes and she snaps a dismissive hand at him.
“I just thought going Active would be different but it’s school all over again. I don’t get to go to the cool classes. Instead I have to learn how to make a fire blanket so I can mop up the destruction some kid with premature conflagration causes.”
Everyone just stares at Danneel for a second before they all start laughing. When she can get her own breath back she snaps, “Oh shut up!”
“It’s good to get these things out in the open,” Sam says, squeezing Danneel’s shoulder. “I’m sure Jeff is very sorry he ever dared put you in something as mundane as Class Three.”
“How did they come up with the class system anyway?” Jared asks, his attention finally drawn away from Jensen. He flicks the hair permanently in his face off his forehead as Morgan shifts in his chair.
“It’s a lot neater than it used to be,” Morgan finally says, grimacing. “We used to all bang about until someone froze someone else and then you’d know who to stay away from.”
“Really?” Milo prods, smirking.
“The class system was as much a way to keep the Heroes safe as it was to try and sort out who needed the most attention. Three and below meant we were pretty sure you weren’t going to end the world at some point in the future.”
“Surely it’s a bit of a glass ceiling to stop at six classes?” Jared says, chewing on his pen. Jared has been doodling on the folder he’s been looking at when he felt Jensen’s gaze finally on him, but it's only to frown at him for obviously destroying his hard work. Jared stops immediately.
“We don’t,” Morgan says with a frown. “We stop at Seven.”
“Seven? There were no Sevens when I was there,” Danneel says, eyes bright with curiosity.
“I don’t think we’d had a Seven in years,” Morgan says. “I’ve only heard of...” he trails off, swallowing hard and looking sideways. Sam looks as confused as the rest of them which intrigues Jared greatly. It must be interesting if it’s something Morgan has never mentioned, even to his own wife. Jared sits forward and notices everyone else has edged to the front of their own seats. “Seven’s defy conventional categorization. Their power can’t really be measured, doesn’t really have a limit. There’s an enormous potential for them, but both ways unfortunately.”
“Both ways?” Milo asks and Danneel pokes him in the side.
“Good or evil,” she says and Morgan nods.
“The Fisher.” Jared's been so interested in Morgan’s information that he hasn't even noticed Jensen approach. He turns in his chair to see Jensen standing stock still behind them, a small frown line between his brows. “The Fisher was a Seven.”
“He’s right,” Morgan agrees.
“The Fisher went to school?” Milo asks, raising his eyebrows.
“He had to be a kid at some point,” Jared says.
“I dunno,” Milo says with a shrug. “I thought maybe he just oozed out of a pile of really pissed off goo somewhere.”
“He was a kid who made a decision,” Jensen says. “He had a magnifying glass and a trail of ants and he chose to burn them all instead of just looking at them.”
“That’s grim,” Danneel says, hunching down in her seat, her head disappearing into the fold of her scarves until she’s just a pair of eyes staring over the woven jumble.
Why is it that the supervillain feels compelled to stay where the superhero resides, where they protect? Upper Montopolis, for example, has twenty one active major superheroes. Yet, The Fisher remains predominantly within its limits even though Elkburg has a higher population density and only seven active supers. Is it that someone like The Fisher likes the challenge, that he can only feel like he’s doing his best work in a place where he can feasibly be thwarted. Some have speculated that it is a deep rooted desire to be caught. That the supervillain recognizes the evil they perpetrate must stop and while they want to punish the society that has failed them in some way, they also want to be saved from themselves.
- Excerpt from “Behind the Cape - Final Essay by J. Ackles”
“These aren’t so bad,” Jared says, shuffling the folders into a messy stack when everyone’s left except Jensen. He holds up the folders and waggles them in the air. “I don’t see anything wrong with helping out little old ladies.”
“It’s not exciting enough, I get that,” Jensen huffs. He’s in his own corner, doing whatever it is he does which Jared hasn’t quite figured out yet. He’s efficient at it, whatever it is. “You guys just have to let go of the spandex ideal.”
“Spandex ideal?” Jared says with a laugh and Jensen finally looks at him.
“Everyone who finds out they have a power has that moment where they think about all the great things their destined to do with it. I don’t care if you’re Indestructible Lad or that kid in my class that could talk to goldfish. There’s something about you that’s other, that sets you apart and we all want to be special.”
“We all are special,” Jared says, frowning and Jensen raises an eyebrow at him.
“There’s four hundred and eighty three active shapeshifters in this country alone, Jared. You are not exactly a rare and special snow flake.”
“That’s four hundred out of how many million,” Jared protests, grumpy at what Jensen is saying, something he’s heard for a good chunk of his life. He remembers the disappointment on his parent’s faces. They had been so jazzed that he had inherited power when it had skipped their generation only to find out it was so... inert. So, no flying then his father had said in a way that had made Jared feel impossibly small and ineffective. “How do you know the exact number anyway?”
“I keep track,” Jensen says, tapping the top of his laptop. “I have a spreadsheet.”
“How do you explain me being a Class Six if I’m so common?”
“Your power is flashy, it’s true. It’s... entertaining.”
“Entertaining?” Jared growls.
“Plus, standards have slid somewhat. Every generation the powers get more and more diluted. What were your parents?”
“Nothing,” Jared says. “My grandmother on my dad’s side was a super, she married a Normal. They thought since their kid wasn’t a super that she was going to be the last one.”
“Who was she then?” Jensen asks.
“The Mirror,” Jared says and Jensen raises his eyebrows and his face falls.
“Wow, I’m sorry.”
Jared scowls, hating the way Jensen just seems to know everything about him without even trying and he’s still yet to find out anything about Jensen. “That all happened before I was born so...” he says, shrugging.
“Still,” Jensen says, looking a mixture of unnerved and something Jared can’t identify. “I’m still sorry.”
“You would’ve thought my dad would’ve been happy that I was anything considering he’d been a big fat zip but he still managed to be disappointed in me,” Jared continues. “He kept saying sure you can’t punch through walls, you haven’t even tried.” Jared remembers the bitterness he’d felt that his father had wanted even more from him, that having a super power itself wasn't enough for him. His Grandmother had been pretty badass way he’d heard it, could imitate anything including weapons with moving parts that Jared had never been able to manage. He could do people and simple constructs like a chair or a lamp but nothing too fancy.
He’d tried, lord knows he had, thinking maybe if he’d been able to shift into a giant monster or even a really cool car then his dad would’ve looked at him with something other than disappointment.
Jensen laughs at that and despite everything, Jared does too. “Is that why you worked out until you looked like you could punch through walls?” Jensen asks, reaching forward and squeezing one of Jared’s biceps and then flushing when he obviously realizes what he’s just done.
Jensen’s expression sobers when Jared says, “I had that moment where I thought someday I’d save the world but then my dad made sure to knock that out of me quickly.”
“Maybe he was just scared for you,” Jensen says gently. “You can’t exactly protect yourself.”
“I’m not useless,” Jared says hotly and Jensen holds up his hands, palms forward.
“I wasn’t saying you were useless,” he says.
“You just did,” Jared says and wonders just what it is about Jensen that can get under his skin so easily, why he can burn so hot so fast. He wants to kiss him and punch him all at the same time and it’s infuriating. “You keep telling me that... wait,” Jared says, spins to the table and the folders he’s set down. He picks up the top couple and holds them out in Jensen’s direction, an accusation. “Is that what these are?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Are you protecting me?” Jared hisses, tossing the folders so they hit the floor and the contents spill across it, a fan of typed pages with Jensen’s neat notations all over them. “Are you trying to run some kind of daycare for Heroes, picking all the most pathetic ones and making sure we only do jobs with training wheels?”
“Jared, that’s ridiculous,” Jensen snaps but he’s looking sideways, hunted and Jared presses forward after smacking the rest of the folders to the floor.
“Oh my god, that’s it! You’ve got your little spreadsheet and you knew who all of us were. You put us together to what, sideline us? Not get in the way of the real Heroes?”
“Jared, believe me, if I thought it would knock some sense into that giant skull of yours I would let you get punched into the sun by The Incredible Fist. You’re confusing me being sensible with me being overprotective.”
“Guys!” Jared and Jensen spin, seeing Danneel slam back through the warehouse doors. High spots of color are on her cheeks and she’s panting like she just ran a mile. She unwinds her scarf as she approaches, tossing it aside. “Turn on the news.”
Jared and Jensen just look at her for a beat so she rolls her eyes and brushes by them, plucking the remote off the coffee table set in front of the square of warehouse that Jensen had been calling his Information Center and was really just two couches and their television. Danneel clicks the television on and hunts through the channels until she finds what she’s obviously looking for.
Jared sinks onto the couch next to Danneel when he finally realizes just what he’s looking at. The other couch is free but Jensen perches on the arm next to Jared and Jared pushes his shoulder into Jensen’s thigh, needing the contact.
The first thing they notice through the smoke and fire is people running, panicked. The image on the television is shaky and still in turns, like the cameraman runs and pauses, runs and pauses. It’s likely that every time the carnage gets too close, that’s exactly what the guy does.
There’s no reporter, just the images. There’s scrolling text at the bottom but Jared can’t take his eyes off the developing action long enough to read it. The live disaster feed is halted after a few moments and Danneel breathes in a shocky kind of moan when the photos start coming up.
It’s pictures of the various Heroes of Upper Montopolis, all big names. The photos are obviously their studio shots, heroic poses and pristine costumes in place. Under their photos, two words keep appearing in garish red.
Confirmed Deceased.
This gallery of the impossible finishes and the picture flicks to a woman sitting behind a desk. She looks thrown, composure rocked. “Authorities cannot confirm who is responsible or how...” she looks down for a moment at the papers on the desk in front of her then puts a hand to her ear, perhaps touching her ear piece because she can’t believe what she’s hearing herself. “We’ve just had word that Twilight Rider has been confirmed to be amongst the casualties. That’s now...” she pauses again, frowns with her eyes forward. “That’s fifteen confirmed superhero deaths. Professor Tomorrow is the only known survivor of the Integrity League but Felony Fighters have been completely wiped out. Upper Montopolis now has only six active registered Class Six Heroes remaining.”
“Can you believe this shit?”
Jared startles when he hears Milo’s voice almost directly against his ear and he feels Danneel jump beside him. Milo’s hanging over the couch they’re all jammed onto, elbows hooked over the back cushions.
“Shouldn’t we... can we do something?” Danneel asks in a small voice and Milo rolls his eyes.
“What exactly are we supposed to do? If whatever is happening has taken out Speed Train and The Pilgrim then we have no hope in hell.”
“I just thought maybe this was the chance for the plucky underdogs to shine,” she argues, seeming to gather herself in the face of Milo’s dismissal. “I could-“
“This isn’t a movie or even a comic book,” Jensen says, voice hollow. “This is Bay City all over again.”
“What?” Jared asks, tilting his head up so he can see Jensen’s profile. His jaw is set, eyes hard and tracking what’s playing out on the screen. “What do you mean?”
“I know most people remember what happened to Bay City, but that was just aftermath. No one concentrates on the days leading up to the big shebang. He took out any nearby Class Sixes and there were a lot of them because crime had been on the rise and the Heroes go where the action is.”
“He who?” Jared demands, not liking the way Jensen is drawing into himself. Jared can feel himself pressed up against Jensen and becoming untouchable at the same time. There’s a space being created, yawning ever wider and the current events are the catalyst. Jared’s grandmother had had a touch of empath mixed in with her powers, something that allowed her to transition more effectively and his momma had said Jared was always a little more sensitive than most.
“The Fisher,” Jensen says.
| Part Three |