Chapter 21
Chapter twenty-one
Roger/Riven
The common room smelled like stale coffee and the faint metallic tang of last night’s leftovers—the scent of a long night of arguments and half-finished drinks. I watched dust motes swirl in the sunlight, slow and aimless, like they couldn’t decide whether to rise or settle.
The cleaning bots were going to have to work overtime. Mandie had turned them off for several hours yesterday, hijacking them for an "art project."
A low mechanical whir cut through the silence. I looked down. One of the cleaning bots glided past, but it wasn’t its usual sleek self. It was draped with yellow construction paper that fluttered behind it like a cape. On top sat a ball of aluminum foil.
My helmet.
Taped to the front of the helmet was a piece of construction paper with a grin drawn in thick black marker. It was a smile so wide and cheesy it felt like a personal attack.
I scowled at the little machine as it did a slow, dramatic spin in the center of the room. "The cape is too short," I muttered to no one. "And my smile is significantly more charming."
Who knew there was such a menace inside that sarcastic, tattooed, scrappy woman?
My own thoughts felt just as suspended as the dust. Stuck between the weight of what we’d agreed to with Mandie and the absolute absurdity of the situation.
Matt’s back was to me, his broad frame blocking half the cabinet as he sifted through all of Mandie’s food. He pulled out a box and turned it over, squinting at the label like it was written in alien code.
"What the fuck are these?"
Johnny, perched on the counter beside the fridge, craned his neck. "Ah. The princess's Spicy Dill Pickle Goldfish. You probably shouldn't touch those, big guy. She counts them."
Matt’s eyebrow arched. "Whatever happened to regular cheddar? And what about these?" He held up another box.
"Animal crackers," Johnny said, popping a grape into his mouth. "Because they go with the three tubs of Nutella she ordered."
"There are more types of crackers in this cabinet than superheroes are living in this base."
"Yeah, well, that's what was on the list." Johnny grabbed the Goldfish box, shaking it near his ear. "Good. I think they’re all there."
He shifted his feet, and a second bot rumbled gently alongside his boot. This one was covered in hundreds of cotton blue balls glued to it, along with pipe cleaners giving it four blue arms. It gazed up at him with tiny cardboard white teeth that were as sharp as they were white.
Matt looked down at his cotton-ball doppelg?nger, then back at the box in his hand. He looked defeated.
Just then, a third bot zoomed out from under the table, moving significantly faster than the others.
It had jagged yellow paper spikes sticking out in every direction, looking like it had stuck a fork in an outlet.
It zipped in a tight, frantic figure-eight pattern around the kitchen island, vibrating with kinetic energy.
"Okay." Johnny laughed, watching his paper-spiked twin blur past us. "She nailed the energy on that one. Look at him go."
Matt made a face and shoved the crackers back onto the shelf. "She can keep them."
"The cleaning bots or the crackers?" Johnny asked.
“Both,” Matt responded.
I reached over and snatched the coffee pot the machine had just finished filling. "Well, she doesn't have to worry about me eating her snacks. I gotta eat clean if we’re going to beat this Capital Punishment guy. Someone has to stay in peak condition while you two are inhaling sugar."
I took a sip, watching the yellow-napkin bot glide smoothly across the floor, cape fluttering. It was preening. God, she really was mocking me.
Johnny groaned, throwing his head back. "Ugh, healthy. You’re such a buzzkill, Rattler."
"Says the guy who once lived off energy drinks and vindictiveness for a week."
"That was a rough week."
"You two are insufferable," Matt grumbled.
Johnny gasped, clutching his chest. "Me? Insufferable? I’m a delight."
"A delight like a root canal."
"Ouch." Johnny pressed a hand to his heart, mock wounded. "And here I thought we were bonding."
We were. That was the problem.
"Where is Mandie anyway?" I asked, leaning against the island.
Johnny checked his watch. "Morning 'shower' with Doc. Those are the longest showers in recorded history."
As if on cue, a fourth bot rolled slowly out of the hallway. It was dressed in brown paper shaped like a stylish trench coat with pipe-cleaner sunglasses, topped with a paper fedora. A speech bubble bobbed above it on a wire: I am disappointed in your life choices.
We all stared at the mini-Sebastian as it paused to inspect a speck of dirt on the floor before moving on with judgmental efficiency.
The silence that followed wasn’t uncomfortable, exactly, but it was loaded.
We were bonding. Or re-bonding. Or whatever the hell you called it when you’d spent months tearing each other apart and then suddenly, inexplicably, found yourselves standing in a sunlit kitchen, watching paper robots that look like you.
Matt cleared his throat, shifting his weight. "So. Mandie."
Johnny’s smirk faded. He hopped off the counter, landing lightly on his feet. "Yeah."
I watched them both. Matt, with his jaw set like he was bracing for impact, and Johnny, suddenly very interested in the floor tiles.
"You think she’s gonna stick around after all this?" I asked.
Johnny hesitated. "I think she wants to." He picked at a loose thread on his jeans. "But wanting something and actually doing it are two different things. She’s got… a lot of reasons to bail."
Matt’s fingers twitched against his arm. "We all do."
That was the truth of it, wasn’t it? We’d all had moments where walking away would’ve been the smarter choice. But here we were.
Johnny then said the part we were all dreading. "What we really need to consider is… would she stay if she found out the truth? I mean, we are keeping a massive secret from her. When she finds out, she is really going to lose her shit."
"Fuck, I keep forgetting," Matt groaned, rubbing his face.
I crossed my arms. "She’s tougher than she looks."
Johnny snorted. "She’s tougher than all of us. You saw her last night. She didn’t even flinch when Sebastian went full ‘I’m disappointed in you’ dad mode." He pointed to the bot with the glasses. "Just like that little guy."
"My point is," I said, trying to convince myself as much as them, "maybe she would understand that we did what we did because we had to. We can't control what the boss does and doesn't do. It's him she should be mad at."
Matt rubbed his temples. "Can we not talk about the boss right now? My blood pressure can’t take it."
He chuckled, but it was short-lived. His expression sobered as he looked between us. "We good, then? All of us?"
Johnny met his gaze, steady. "Yeah. We’re good."
I should’ve left it at that. Should’ve let the moment sit, unspoiled. But I’ve never been great at leaving well enough alone. "You sure? Because last time we all ‘agreed’ on something, we ended up with a hole in the wall and a three-day silent treatment marathon."
Johnny rolled his eyes. "Okay, dramatic. It wasn’t three days."
"It was two and a half, and I counted."
Matt pinched the bridge of his nose. "Christ, you two are like siblings."
Johnny pointed at him. "See? Bonding."
I groaned, but I was smiling. Because he wasn’t wrong, that was the worst part.
"Speaking of holes in the wall," I said, gesturing to the spackle job near the hallway. "We need to paint over that section Matt destroyed before the boss sees it."
Matt shook his head, looking genuinely embarrassed. "Sorry. I never had sex as Gorath before. I couldn't control the strength."
"I don't think any of us really had sex while using our powers before." I laughed. "Not before Mandie."
"New territory for all of us," Johnny groaned.
He was right. This was new territory. Dangerous territory. But so far? I would say it was going pretty damn well.
I took a sip of my coffee, looking toward the hallway where Mandie and Sebastian were currently occupied.
The only thing I could really think about was when it would be my turn again.