บท 101: The Start Of An End
"Are you seriously going to stay like that all day?"
Boy Genius rested in his chair, staring at the screen. His lips were pulled into a thin line, and his eyes never looked away. "Yes," he said casually.
Wyvern sighed and folded her arms. They were in Nightshade, resting in Boy Genius's office. The world's smartest Super had gone without sleep for two days straight, constantly replaying the fight between the Victorian and the Emperor. All of the Enforcers had studied it intensely, but Boy Genius was on another level.
"The only people who ever got to study how the Emperor fought were Full Monarch and Harrison Avalon." Boy Genius explained. His clothes were dirty, and his hair was a tangled mess. Heavy bags were under his bloodshot eyes, and his fingers bled, still playing on a handheld console that had died a while ago. "Full Monarch is dead, and Avalon hogged all of his data to himself, then went and deleted all of it when I joined the Enforcers and tried to hack his system. I did manage to hijack his drone, however, and while the footage was lost, his bugs did allow me to record this fight." The child explained. He held up one of his bloody fingers, and a small, fly-sized robot landed on the tip of it.
Wyvern raised her eyebrow as she studied it. "How did you get it to the battlefield so quickly, though?"
"Oh, that's easy. I've snuck these tiny bots into nearly every Super's clothing and monitored them at all times. The Victorian had one in her outfit and brought it with her."
"What! That's a huge invasion of privacy and illegal!" Wyvern said, horrified. She began to pat down her uniform rapidly, making sure none of them were hidden somewhere on her.
Boy Genius simply shrugged his shoulders. "It's only illegal if I get caught doing it."
"No! This is why the Hero Branch exists." Wyvern exclaimed. "To stop guys like you from doing whatever they want. You doing this sort of thing is why they went and gave Avalon's company to someone else and refused to let you have it."
"I didn't really need the company anyway." Boy Genius shrugged. "What do you think he meant?"
"What?"
The child clicked a button on his chair, and the monitor on the wall began to play audio. It was hard to hear and make out, but the low rumble of the Emperor was ever-present. "I am no longer the Lord of the Land and Life. I died that day, and thus, my title passed on. Something, however, saw fit to bring me back. A great evil. One that granted me a new title. I am now the Ruler of the Dark and the Void."
"Lucy says something similar, doesn't he?" Boy Genius questioned. "He always calls himself a Ruler, too."
"So?"
"So, I just find it weird that two villains who have ties with death would say that." The child hummed and ran his fingers through his hair. "A Ruler is the title of someone who is in charge. Lord means the same thing. It even has the same naming scheme: Lord of the Sky and Weather, Ruler of the Dark and Void."
"Like some sort of opposite Lord title or something?"
"That. Or maybe some sort of inversion..." he trailed off as the video kept going. The Emperor fired an attack—one that had no chance of hitting the Victorian. The man's powers were different from how they used to be—darker and more bizarre. The attack flew high into the air.
"You missed." The Victorian mocked.
"Or maybe I was signaling for help."
Wyvern tapped her foot down as the recording ended and began to loop back to the start once more. "'I was signaling for help,'" she repeated his words. "Victorian arrived on the battlefield after she saw that attack from Cinder, right?"
Boy Genius nodded his head. "Her and I were out in space dealing with some rocks and checking up on Mars to make sure the Beast didn't wake up early when we saw the blast. Cinder had done the same thing she did when you first trained her in the tower. It was pretty clever, signaling the Victorian in that way. If I had been a bit faster, we might have even beaten the Emperor."
"No use dealing with what-ifs." Wyvern shrugged. "That attack, though... You've kept your eye on the Beast, haven't you?"
"I have." Boy Genius nodded. He checked them weekly. The Beast was from Mars, and it took months to arrive on the planet. In the old days, the Beast would show up seemingly at random and destroy a city. The heroes would be too busy trying to evacuate it to stop the monster. Full Monarch had taken to flying into space to watch for the creature daily, something his daughter also did. When he joined the Enforcers, he used his vast Mental powers to build monitors in their solar system. His device would let him find out if the Beast was on the way and get an idea of which city it would attack next, giving them months to get ready. That was one of the reasons he was placed on the Enforcers so quickly. "I'll check it again in a bit-"
A small alarm went off in his office. The entire prison shook a bit, and his monitors changed and shifted, showing the outside of his fortress. Someone floated in front of the giant cube.
Max Lightning folded his arms. "Boy Genius," the man called out. "I need to talk to you."
"What the hell is he doing here?" Wyvern asked, raising an eyebrow. The man was never around to speak to other Enforcers; he always stayed in his own city or hid out in Oleander.
"No clue?" Boy Genius shrugged.
"We don't have much time." Max Lightning yelled out to the camera and robots that watched him. "Check it again. Now."
"Check what?" Wyvern asked.
Boy Genius frowned and turned in his chair, pressing another button on his chair. His monitor stopped showing him the outside of his prison and instead showed him a sea of red. The surface of Mars practically looked like a bloody sandstorm; despite that, though, he could see something. Buried deep beneath the ground, the faintest hint of metal began to slowly rise up, ripping part of the planet's surface away. Massive in size, it towered over the series of satellites that floated in orbit of the red planet.
"Oh," Boy Genius said quietly.
"Oh?" Wyvern questioned, though she knew instantly what it was. Her stomach felt like it was starting to drop.
"He's awake."
"You mean..."
"Yeah," Boy Genius nodded. "Planet Earth is about to lose another city."
***
"-and that was how the reinvention of the wheel was done." Mr. Pluto said in his typical bland teacher tone. His back was to his students, and he wasn't actually paying them any attention, drawing on his chalkboard. "Any questions?"
None of his students were listening, of course. They were all too busy playing on their phones or talking to their friends.
Many considered Mr. Pluto one of the best teachers at their school. He could be harsh and mean when he knew his students needed more push, or he could be calm and keep to himself, letting them play around if he was confident they didn't need his help. At the very least, he was Hope Lauren's favorite teacher.
"How are you holding up?" Hope asked quietly, her voice filled with concern. She was seated in the very back and held her textbook out in front of her, keeping herself slouched so that it covered her mouth. Next to her, Kyle, her best friend, did the same.
"I guess I'm fine," Kyle said after a moment.
"Really?" She raised her eyebrow at the boy.
Kyle seemed to literally deflate. "No." He shook his head, and for a moment, his lip quivered. He was holding himself together somehow.
"Should you even be at school with everything that's happened?"
"I need to be here." Kyle snapped at her, causing her to jump a small bit. "I- I just can't stay in my house right now. Not by myself. Not knowing what to do. I- I'm scared that there is something in my house. Something that he hid that I don't know about. Something horrible I should have seen and would have made it obvious what was going on. I've been staying at Rowan's place for the past two days."
It had been only a single day since they had all hung out. She didn't know what the boys did to try to cheer Kyle up, but it was clear it hadn't worked. Then again, she doubted anything could actually cheer the boy up. He found out his father was a villain and nearly doomed the city. How do you recover from something like that? Can you even recover from something like that?
She hadn't gotten to speak to Armin since he had different classes, and this was the first time she got to speak to Kyle all day. He had been absent at lunch. She'd have to remember to get in touch with Rowan so she could come and visit the boy.
Kyle's words broke her out of her thoughts as he began to speak once again. "I haven't even gotten to see my dad." Kyle stared down at the desk, and his fingers gripped down on his book so hard that his knuckles began to turn white. His father was rotting in a cell somewhere in Oleander. He didn't know what would happen to the house they owned or if he'd be forced to go into adoption.
"I'm sorry," Hope said quietly. She lightly nudged him with her foot, but he didn't nudge back.
"Why?" Kyle asked in a sarcastic tone and rolled his eyes. "You're not the one who caused this to happen. I am."
"It's not your fault-"
"Yes, it is!" he hissed, and a few students jumped and looked back. He lowered himself to the desk and spoke in a quieter tone. "It is my fault. He did it all for me. Call it a dark twist of love or whatever you want, but at the end of the day, everything he did comes to rest on my shoulders. All because I was caught up in a villain's sick and twisted game."
"If it's anyone's fault, it's Lucifer's," she stated. Her blood was already starting to boil, and she absentmindedly found herself playing with the wig that covered up her golden locks. She had managed to get some contacts that hid most of the glow from her, as well as tinted her glasses. She also made sure not to look anyone in the eyes. Luckily, she was so unpopular that no one seemed to notice.
"That's what the others said." Kyle sighed.
"Because they're right." She snorted. "Armin might not be the sharpest knife in the box, but Rowan is a pretty smart cookie. If he says it's not your fault, then it isn't your fault. You aren't in charge of your father and don't control the actions he makes, just as his actions don't control you."
Kyle gave a sad smile, the kind that showed he didn't really believe what she said, but he still nodded his head. "I plan on going and trying to visit him if I can."
She nodded her head and smiled. "If you ever want to talk, then I'm here also."
"Yeah..."
"I'm serious. You're my friend."
"I know." His lips rose slightly, giving the tiniest hint of an actual smile. "If I feel sad, I'll come to my cool superhero friend and have her beat up what's causing me distress."
"You better." She nodded. So much had happened in so little time. The passing of time moved ever on, and with it, they had no choice but to follow. She was confident Kyle would eventually be able to go back to his old cheery self. He might not be a Super, but he was strong. Strong enough that he wouldn't let someone like Lucifer ruin his life. This was just more fuel for her fire. One day, she would kill Lucifer. That was a promise. One she wouldn't let herself break.
She wanted to say more to Kyle but was stopped when a low buzz echoed throughout the room. It was the intercom. The voice of their principal came blasting out of it. "Hope Lauren, please report to the front office."
She frowned a bit and grabbed her bag, standing up. It was the final period of the day, and she hadn't done anything, so she doubted she was in trouble. She said goodbye to Kyle and was excused by Mr. Pluto. The halls of the classroom were mostly abandoned, with only a few students ditching their classes and hiding out. She made her way up to the front of the school and was surprised to see her mother.
Jane Lauren stood in front of the desk, still dressed in her nurse uniform. She worked on these days, and instantly, Hope could tell something was off just by the way her mother looked at her.
"Mom?" She asked.
"Your mother is checking you out of school for the day." The woman behind the front desk said in a bored tone.
"Is something wrong, Mom?"
Jane's eyes held a strange emotion—one she hadn't seen in a long time. When was the last time her mother looked this happy? "It's about your father." She felt her throat close up as her mother spoke. "Something happened."
They rushed over to the hospital right away. She remained silent in the car, and her mother broke every speed sign as they made a beeline for her dad. She had a weird feeling in her gut—one of worry but also something else. That look in her mom's eye wasn't one of dread. It was hope, she realized. She hadn't seen her mother's eyes filled with so much hope in a long time. They reached the hospital and were quickly taken up to her father's room.
The Dead Virus was tricky to deal with. Most Supers died to it in a matter of seconds. Her dad had only absorbed a fraction of that power, though. The Virus would always react and flare up when it was in the presence of life. Near the start, this wasn't a big deal, but as his condition grew worse, it meant they had to limit the amount of time he could be with a person and by how many. Only one person was allowed in her father's room at a time.
That was why she instantly knew something was off when they reached his room, and a line of doctors were coming out of it. "Mrs. Lauren!" One of them called out when they saw her and her mother. It was the doctor who always treated her dad. He managed to get out of the group of doctors and hurry over. "I was waiting for you to come! I- It's- Well, I'm- It's- You just have to see it! I'm left speechless!"
Her mother had to fight through the crowd to get into the room, but Hope simply shoved her way through the crowd, using a tiny bit of her strength to nudge them all out of the way. She felt herself freeze when she saw her dad. The small little man, who could barely move, was sitting up and openly talking to one of the head doctors.
He was still bald and skinny, but he no longer looked like he was on the verge of starving to death. Some of the bags under his eyes were gone, and his pale skin had some of its color back. His arms were waving around as he spoke about the time he caught some massive fish, and most importantly, he had a smile on his face—a smile that only grew larger when he saw his daughter and wife enter.
The head doctor noticed them as well and instantly cleared her throat. "Everyone out." No one budged for a second, but the woman's look caused all the doctors to shrink down. "Now," she demanded. "Get back to work, all of you!" That caused the crowd to finally leave, and the door shut behind them. Besides the Lauren family, only the head doctor remained.
Her mom stepped forward, her eyes wide and her voice trembling. "I missed the call last night, but when I heard the voicemail, I grabbed Hope and went right over! Is it true? Is my husband-"
The doctor held her hand up, causing her mom to grow silent. Alexander managed to give a small smile as he laid back down. "We noticed the change in him last night," the doctor said, reading off of her list. "Your husband claims that someone visited him in the middle of the night. Based on the description, I would assume that it was the hero, Paragon; however, we've been unable to reach her."
Hope felt almost as if she had been slapped in the face. That morning, when she woke up, Sky was still asleep. Lily mentioned Sky slept in a lot. The girl had actually seemingly ditched them all in the middle of the night and crashed on the couch and hadn't woken up all day. Not even when she and Lily moved the girl to her bed. She wanted to stay and speak to Sky, but she had to hitch a ride back to Oleander and get ready for school as it started back up earlier than expected. She had been way too busy and didn't have time to call and check in on Sky either.
When had Sky managed to do this? How had Sky done this? Only the Lord of Life could fix the Dead Virus. And why hadn't Sky said anything about it?
"He isn't cured." The doctor's voice broke her out of her thoughts and nearly shattered her heart. Her mother's legs shook, and the woman nearly collapsed, but she managed to catch her. The doctor held her hand up before they could say anything. "It isn't a cure, but from what we can tell, he is doing a lot better. While he is still infected with the Dead Virus, the disease seems to have regressed."
"W- What do you mean?" Her mother asked with a trembling voice. She helped the woman over to a chair, and her mother instantly sat down.
"Most of the damage the Virus has caused to him has been reversed," the doctor explained. His body has been fully healed for the most part. "That's why I suspect Paragon is at play. That said, he is still infected with the Dead Virus. Think of it almost as a restart. It's almost like he has just now been infected."
"So, I'll have to go through all that horrible treatment, still?" Alex asked, grimacing a bit. "I won't be able to leave the hospital either, will I?"
The doctor only nodded her head. "I'm sorry to say that, but yes. You'll have to remain here and undergo treatments still. Your legs gave out after three days, and they're already starting to break apart once more. There is some good news, though. We know what worked and what didn't, so your stay should be a lot more comfortable. If it was indeed Paragon who saved you, then there is always the chance for her to be able to do this again. I'll be honest with you, Mr. Lauren. For the first time in years, I no longer believe that your chances of survival are zero. You might live to see next year at this rate." The woman said with a small smile.
"I wish I could be a little happier." The man joked.
"I'll give you all some time to talk."
The doctor stepped out, leaving just their family in the room. She walked over to her father's side and took a seat. "Are you really feeling any better?" Her throat felt dry. She had been expecting either the worst news or the best, not this weird middle of the road.
Her dad reached out and rubbed her head. She had to quickly keep her wig from falling off. "I still hurt a bit, but I'm doing better, I think. I was cutting it pretty close, but I actually can get some sleep now, so that's nice."
"Your friend can help him again, right, Hope?" Her mother asked, causing her to jump a bit. Her mother was fanning herself off, still trying to recover from the news. "If Paragon healed him this much, then the next time she uses her power, could it heal him fully? Can you call her to see if she can finish the job? Or if she can keep healing him like this? I know it's a lot to ask, but I'm willing to pay if I have to."
Her dad blinked a few times, processing his wife's words. "Why would Hope be able to call Paragon?"
Both of them froze. His eyes went between them. It suddenly dawned on her that her dad still didn't know she was a superhero. She had told her mother a while ago, but her dad had not learned of what she was doing. He still didn't even know that she had gotten her powers back and was under the assumption she thought she was a normal girl. "W- Well." She cleared her throat, trying to get her mind to come up with something. "After she tried to heal you the first time, I sort of blew up on her and yelled at her, then stormed out." She admitted. It wasn't one of her fondest memories. "I guess you could say fate had other plans, though, because I actually ran into her a few more times after that, and I think we might be friends?"
"You think?" Her father snorted.
"Well, I can't actually tell with her." She admitted. It was mostly the truth, though it left some of the bigger details out. She looked into her father's eyes, and she could tell he was thinking about something.
"Hope."
"Yeah, Dad?"
"Why are your eyes red?"
Her contacts did not hide the full color. She felt herself recoil a bit, and her mind raced once more. "Tell him." Her mother's voice caused her to stop, though. She turned to look back at the woman. "It's okay, Hope." Her mother nodded. "You can tell him. It'll be alright. He'll understand."
"Understand what?" Alex looked between his daughter and wife as they exchanged glances. He had a bad feeling in his gut. One that told him everything he needed to know already. Hope slowly took off her glasses, and the red tint in her eyes grew stronger. Next, she grabbed her hair and pulled it off. Blonde locks rained down, and he felt his eyes go wide. "A wig? Why do you- My God! She's in her emo phase!"
"No!" She took a deep breath and cleared her mind. "Dad. There's something I want to tell you. I think you know already, but I'm a-"
It started with a cup of water. On the stand next to her dad's hospital bed, a glass of ice water shook and then suddenly spilled all over her lap. She yelled and stood up so fast she knocked her chair over. It didn't stop there, though. The nightstand began to shake, as did the window. Then they heard it. A low whine started to grow in size, getting louder. Oleander, like all cities, had a siren. This one was special, though. It had only been used a few times during drills as a test. It wasn't a test this time, though.
Every attack Zoo or the Bad Timers caused never made the siren so much as let out a peep. When Intake had grown to a massive size and rampaged across the city, the siren had still remained silent. Any time a giant monster came to attack, that didn't cause it to go off, either.
Now, though, it screamed at its maximum volume, getting so loud it began to even crack the windows. She was glad her enhanced hearing had decided to stay off, as even with normal human senses, it was almost too much. Her phone roared to life, and she fished it out of her pocket, watching as hundreds of texts and warnings all flooded in. One had come from Myth, though.
It was a simple and small message, yet it caused tears to streak down her face.
Deep in space, more of Mars shattered and broke away as something large and made of metal prepared its trip for Earth.
'The Beast is coming.'
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