Chapter 108: The Last Day Of Peace
After the battle with Wish, and the Emperor, Ocean Empress had been quick to take her kids back home. They had all gone straight to bed, wanting nothing more than to sleep off the waves of exhaustion that had been built up from all the fighting.
Eventually, though, the sun rose on a new day, and it was time to get out of bed, but she didn't. With everything that had happened, she decided it was best to just take a day off and relax. Fisherman could handle anything that would come Lillian's way. So River Sini did nothing for a full day. She just rested and slept. It wasn't just because she was exhausted. That was part of it for sure, but there was something else as well.
A small spark of anger that hadn't faded. One that had been generated after her last talk with a certain man who had reddish brown hair. It wasn't until the very next day that she finally managed to force herself out of bed.
The robots cleaned her up and dressed her, and River made her way out of her room. She had been trying to think of what to say and what to do for a while now, and she finally settled on something. She knocked on the door to Sky's room.
There was quiet shuffling, and then the door slowly opened. River stared down into Sky's eyes, and Sky stared directly back at her. Her daughter, her beautiful child, could see once more.
"Mom-" Sky was cut off and let out a squeakish eep when she was suddenly pulled in close for a bone-crushing hug.
"I forgot how beautiful your eyes were," River whispered to her daughter.
Sky froze for a moment before gently hugging her mother back. "Yeah. To tell you the truth it's a little weird being able to see again. I had almost forgotten what it was really like."
River gently kissed her daughter on the forehead. "Sorry it took me so long to come to speak with you."
Sky shook her head and pulled away from her mom. "No, I get it. You've been busy. I mean the Emperor is..." Sky stopped talking and made a face. "My dad..."
"He's not your dad." River shook her head and placed a hand on her daughter's shoulder. "That bastard can go fuck himself. I'm not going to let him near you ever again. Also... I wasn't doing anything important. I slept in all day yesterday." River admitted with a sly grin. "Guess I was more exhausted than I thought."
Sky snorted, and slowly, the two of them headed out of the hallway and made their way over to the kitchen. She took a seat at the table and watched as her mother began to cook breakfast. Sometimes, the robots would do it, but most of the time, River liked to cook herself. At the smell of good food, Lily finally left her room.
Poseidon was normally a pretty hero, but Lily had just woken up, dressed only in an overgrown T-shirt and with hair that was wild and untamed. Lily practically tripped her way over to the coffee machine and poured herself a glass, finally waking up after the fifth or sixth sip.
Lily smiled at Sky and patted her sister on the shoulder, looking into Sky's eyes for a moment. "Mom's right, your eyes are cute."
"I know," Sky said smugly. "All of me is cute. I have to be pretty good looking though. After all, the Lord of the Sun and Cosmos is always staring at me. If that's not a compliment then I don't know what is."
River nearly tripped at her daughter's bold exclamation. "That's exactly what I said when I met Lily's father." River flipped a stack of pancakes onto a plate and set it down for her daughters to eat. "How long have you been interested in that Cinder girl?"
"Since Cinder saved her." Lily snorted and began to cut into her pancakes. "Sky's been smitten ever since. Which is shocking cause when they first met they yelled at each other a bunch. I guess enemies to lovers really does work."
"Don't say it so casually," Sky said flatly. "I don't even know if she likes girls."
"Oh, the way she stares at other women, yeah, she's into them." Lily chuckled. "She's a closeted pervert for sure."
Sky rolled her eyes and went to say something but stopped when a loud buzzing came from her phone. It was a little weird pulling it out and looking down at the text that had been sent to her. She normally didn't use her phone anymore since she was blind, but now that she had her eyes back, she was going to have to get used to using it for normal stuff besides just calls and listening to music.
Speaking of eyes, hers widened a bit when she saw the text that had been sent to her, and she felt her cheeks color a bit.
"Who on Earth is texting you this early in the morning?" Lily demanded and looked over her shoulder. Lily let out a soft whistle. "Wow. She's on the move even after my threat."
"Threat? What are you talking about?" River shot her daughter, Lily, a suspicious look.
"Nothing," Sky said quickly.
Lily just grinned. "Hope texted her and asked if she wanted to do anything."
"Like a date?" River asked.
"No." Sky shook her head. "She just asked if I wanted to call and talk. It's nothing like that."
River nodded. "You should ask her out on a date."
"Mom!"
"That's not a bad idea." Lily hummed and rubbed her chin. "Hope is obviously not going to back down, she's not the type, so you ending up in her bed is bound to happen, so I should at least make sure it happens on my own terms."
"Lily!"
Lily nodded. "Yeah, ask her out!"
"What?"
"Better yet, make it a double date!" Lily's eyes sparkled. "I'll get Kenny! Now that he's able to move around again I really want to do something with him! It'll be perfect!"
Sky groaned and pulled her phone out again, looking down at it. She hated to admit it, but part of her did sort of want to see Hope again, even though it hadn't been that long since they talked. Her mother and Lily both peered over her shoulder and stared down at the screen, waiting for her to say something.
"Well, say something!" Her mother urged. "Don't leave the poor girl on read! Trust me that'll break any cute girl's heart!"
"W- What do I say?" Sky asked in a panic.
"Just say something like 'yeah, I'd love to hang out, xoxo love Sky'." Lily offered.
"You're the worst," Sky said flatly. Lily rolled her eyes and then snatched the phone out of Sky's hands. "Hey! Give that back!"
"Nah," Lily smirked and began to rapidly type something out, and then hit send. "And, now you can have it back."
Sky felt her face pale as she took the phone back and stared down at what had been sent to her crush. 'Hey, wanna hang out at the mall in Oleander? You, me, my sister, and her boyfriend? It'd be nice to do a couple thing.' Sky nearly let out a yelp as the screen showed that Hope had read the text and then it showed Hope typing. Both River and Lily stood on either side of her staring down at the phone.
It buzzed as she got the notification.
'Sure. Sounds fun. I'll see you there Sky. xoxo.'
"X- xoxo?" Sky squeaked out.
Lily rubbed her chin. "Damn. Hope is good."
And just like that, a double date had been planned.
***
Mr. Moore, father of Armin Moore aka Snowdawn, and boss of Oleander's Cleanup Squad, stared down at the piece of paper. His lip became a thin line as his eyes roamed over it. "You're sure?"
"Yes, sir." Jack placed his Cleanup Squad uniform on the desk in front of the man. "I'd have liked to give two weeks' notice, but it seems I can't. I'm afraid I'll have to resign immediately due to personal reasons."
"I'll give you a fifty percent raise."
"What?"
"Actually, seventy percent. I'll even throw in two extra days of PTO." Mr. Moore placed the paper down, looking up at Jack. "Mr. Larison. You were here before me. You had every chance to rise up the ranks, yet you never did. You could have easily had my job, but let someone like me take it. You never complained and have come to work on time almost every time for the past seven years that I've been your boss. You've always come in early and stayed late. You've also always turned down my attempts to give you a pay raise."
"Money isn't an issue, sir," Jack said, shaking his head.
"Then what is it? Name it."
Jack held his hand out to the man. "It was an honor to work for you. These past seven years made this career choice work, and there isn't a better man I'd rather work under. If your son is even half the man you are, then there is no doubt in my mind he'll go on to do great things."
Mr. Moore's look broke, and the man lowered his head as his eyes began to sting. He took Jack's hand, shaking it. "His mother died." His voice nearly cracked as he shrank down. "She had been overseas and was caught in one of Lucifer's murder games. She didn't have powers, not like my Armin. He always blamed himself. He had the chance to go with her and turned it down. There isn't a day I'm grateful he did, or I'd have lost him too. I think that's why he does it. He became a hero out of some sense of guilt. When you next see my son, please tell him he doesn't have to hold that burden anymore."
Jack turned away and flashed a thumbs-up.
"Mr. Larison."
"Yeah?" He turned back to look at his former boss.
"You're fired."
Jack let out a snort before he finally closed the door to his boss's office and stepped out into the morning sun. It had just started to rise. He was dressed in a simple white buttoned-up shirt and black dress pants. He didn't stand out at all. No one even paid him a hint of attention as he walked down the street with his hands in his pockets.
"Two." His mind drifted back to Nick's words. The Enforcer airship had dropped everyone back off in Oleander, and he found himself back at his home. Nick's device hummed with a faint blue light.
"Two months left, huh." Jack hummed.
"Weeks." Nick corrected. "Two weeks left." Slowly, the dark-skinned man wrapped his arms around the redhead.
Jack stiffened up a bit. "Uh? What are you doing?"
"Hugging my best friend for what might be the last time." Jack awkwardly patted Nick on the back. "Are you scared?"
Instantly, he remembered the image of a beach, with a woman's hand outstretched for him. "Nah. I've been waiting for this moment for fifteen years."
The memory faded, and Jack looked up at the sky. The sunlight rained down on his skin, and he felt his ankles soaked with water from a wave. Oleander's beach wasn't anything like the one in his dream world—it wasn't even close. He was alone as well, but despite that, he had found himself drawn to it. The Victorian's words echoed around in his mind. She offered him a way out—a promise to save his life.
Yet...
"It was a really shitty life, looking back on it." He chuckled. A street rat and his dog picked up off the side of the road by an insane god who wanted the perfect world. He never got to make much of his own choices, but this was his. This life that should have ended fifteen years ago was finally going to finish its tale. "Just a little bit longer. In a few more days, I will be with her again. In a few more days, I can be happy again. In a few more days, the pain can finally stop. I can see my wife again. I can be happy again."
A ringing echoed in the silence around him. Slowly, he pulled out his phone and answered it. "Mr. Larison." It was the voice of Hope.
"Kid?"
"I have a favor to ask."
"Okay?"
"It's kind of a big one."
He sighed but smiled. The rising sun reflected off the sea, casting it in a golden glow. Even on a beach covered in trash and with cold waters, it somehow looked just as amazing as he dreamed it would. "I'll be right over."
That was how Jack Larison, also known as Battery, perhaps one of the strongest men on Earth, found himself gripping the grab handle of his car. The vehicle screeched as it went down the roadway past the speed limit and nearly hit three cars, which honked at them.
"In the name of Full Monarch! Who the hell taught you how to drive!" The man yelled in a panic.
"No one did! That's kind of the issue." Hope giggled and did her best to do a drift in Jack's car. His car in question was a large four-seater truck that was popular fifteen years ago and was being held together by tape and prayers.
In the backseat of the truck, Armin covered his mouth with his palm as the ride buckled and jumped. "Oh God, I think I'm going to be sick."
"You puke in my car, and I'll skin you alive!" Jack yelled, bouncing off of the seat as Hope took the expressway down the road. The car literally flew through the air. "Okay, yeah, no, we're not doing this anymore! Stop!"
The truck slowly came to a wobbling stop as Hope somehow managed to park it. The girl in question giggled a bit and rubbed the back of her head. "How did I do-"
"Backseat! Now!"
"That's fair." She climbed out of the driver's seat and moved to the back, switching with Armin, who took the front. She had driven once before; that had been Lois's van. Jack's truck was a lot weirder, though. It was hard to figure out the speed because it required some weird stick that kept needing to be altered, and a light breeze would cause the car to shake. "You should really get a new car, Mr. Larison."
"What I should have done was tell you to piss off and not bother me on my day off!" Jack took a deep, calming breath, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I saw what you guys did to Lois's van. Why the hell am I even shocked? The way the two of you constantly break your own bodies, I shouldn't be shocked you wouldn't be delicate with such a precious baby as this." He rubbed the dashboard of his car as his radio glitched out and shot the music disk out. "Aw. There, there, let it out. Daddy's here."
Armin slowly adjusted his seatbelt and gripped the steering wheel. "I'll do my best not to dent your baby, Jacky."
"Call me that again, and you're walking home on broken legs."
"Y- Yes, sir." Armin pulled out of the crash spot Hope had left them in and began to head down the road. "Thanks for letting us borrow your truck, though, sir. Both our parents are busy with work, and it'd have been a long walk. Still, I never expected you to be the kind of person attached to their truck."
"I'm really not a car nut." Jack rubbed the dashboard quietly. "It's just..." Soon, he'd be gone. Soon, this car would belong to someone else. Nick? Nah. Nick would sell it off in under a week. Myth? Yeah. Soon, it would be Myth's. "I just don't see any sense in damaging it if it'll be someone else's soon."
"Someone else's? Are you selling it, sir?"
"Something like that."
Hope frowned as she listened to Mr. Larison's words. He hadn't mentioned anything about the talk he had with the Victorian. He'd do it, right? Accept the deal and live. Even if it meant he had to leave Pantheon and become an Enforcer, it had to be better than dying.
"I think we're here," Armin announced, slowly pulling in front of a familiar mall. In no time at all, the Cleanup Squad had managed to put the thing back together. It looked even better than it used to, standing much taller and having a way bigger parking lot that allowed for a ton of new cars. The Cleanup Squad had somehow doubled in speed. They were now owned by Boy Genius, who instantly got rid of all the out-of-date junk and replaced it with his own better tech as a 'fuck you' to Avalon. The general public didn't know what was happening with Avalon. Not yet, anyway. "Are you sure you're going to be able to sit in the parking lot and chill by yourself? You're free to join us if you want, sir."
Jack shook his head. "I'll manage on my own. Worst case scenario, I go home."
"But then, won't we lose our ride?"
"Guess you'll need to find your own way home then."
Hope giggled and climbed out of the car. "Thanks for doing this, Mr. Larison. Myth said we all have some days off. Make sure you enjoy them as well."
"I'll try." Jack watched the kids leave, and slowly, his smile faded. He climbed out of his car and rested on the roof of his truck. The mall was crowded. There'd be a ton of people wanting to get in. He doubted there'd be an attack this time, though. Pretty much every group in Oleander was dead. His eyes roamed over dozens of cars before finally settling on a very expensive-looking blue sports car. He hopped off of his crappy truck and walked over. He wasn't the only one who had decided to rest on the hood of the car and enjoy the sunshine. "You get suckered into coming, too?"
Today, she wasn't Ocean Empress. She was River Sini. She wore a suit and sunglasses, which she lowered as Jack blocked out the sun. "You're here?" River said, raising an eyebrow.
"Yep." Jack folded his arms and shrugged his shoulders. "The kids asked me to come drop them off at this mall."
"Mine did, too. Oh, they must have planned this, didn't they? They wanted to all hang out."
"What do kids even do at malls?" Jack asked, frowning.
"Shopping or going to some of the attractions in the place. This one has a ton of stuff, like a skating ring and a movie theater. Lily bought tickets to some movies, but I wasn't really paying attention."
Jack nodded slowly. "They're going to be in there for hours, aren't they?"
"Most certainly."
"Damn. Tricked again." He rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. "You said they got a movie theater in this place? Anything good on?"
"I don't know. I didn't check." The woman shrugged. "I was planning on leaving soon and coming back to pick them up when they were done."
"You doing hero work?"
"No. My body hasn't fully recovered yet," the woman said, shaking her head. "Mister Man is covering my city while I'm away. I was planning to just hang around town, I guess, and pay respects to my father's grave."
Jack nodded his head and turned away, walking away. He stopped and looked back at her when he noticed she didn't budge. "Are you coming or what?"
"Huh?"
"You said this place has movies, and you ain't busy. There has to be something to watch, right? Let's go."
The woman blinked a few times before finally rolling her eyes. "Ah, what the hell." She scooted off of the roof of her car and followed after the man. "No action movie, though. Let's watch a romance or horror."
"Yeah, whatever."
Meanwhile, near the mall's entrance, Hope called out when she saw the people waiting for her. "Yo!"
Lily, Ken, and Sky all turned to look at them as they approached. It was a little weird seeing Sky now. The girl wasn't in baggy clothing and didn't have her bird or cane with her. She still covered most of herself up, wearing a long-sleeved shirt and long pants, as well as gloves. And still present in her hair was that single streak of white. Lily, on the other hand, wore a yellow sundress and had her hair done up into a braid. Her arm was hooked around Ken, who had a plain T-shirt and a biker's leather jacket. He was resting on a motorcycle and had one of his arms holding his helmet.
"Finally!" Lily said, rolling her eyes. "You guys took forever!"
"Hey! I wasn't expecting you, man." Kenny said, looking Armin up and down. "You're the snow-based guy, right?"
"Yep. Call me Armin."
"I'm Kenny or Ken. I'm the freaky wasp guy." Both of the boys fist-bumped and instantly created a deep friendship that would never break.
Her and Armin had also gotten dressed up a bit. Armin had seemingly tried to copy Mr. Larison and wore a white buttoned-up dress shirt and a pair of long blue jeans. She, on the other hand, wore one of her Enforcer shirts, a light jacket, and shorts since the weather was nice. Unknown to most, she also wore a wig. Well, it wasn't actually a wig; it was something that went over her hair and covered up the glowing, mimicking her old black hair, which was some weird Super tech that Boy Genius made. As for her eyes, she had replaced her glasses with sunglasses, which blocked out the red.
Sky's eyes slowly wandered over Armin's, and a small frown formed on the girl's lip. "Oh, you brought your friend..."
"Yeah. We all agreed to hang out." Hope nodded, smiling.
"Well, it's just that when I told you I wanted to hang out and my sister and her boyfriend would be coming, I sort of thought you'd get the hint that this was a double- Ah, never mind. It's fine. I'll make it work somehow." Sky did not sound happy.
Hope rubbed the back of her neck and glanced at Armin, but he just shrugged. "Okay?"
Lily snorted, seeing their reaction, and folded her arms. "Well, since there are now five of us instead of four, I guess we can ditch the double date idea and just make this a party. Might as well call up the others!" She pointed up to the sky, smiling. "Tonight, we party!"
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone