Like old times

I take three steps into the room before falling on my knees, finally feeling the fight, and cough up a bit of blood. The two of them run over to help me up. After setting me in a chair, Lidaren kneels in front of me to check me out, “Are you OK? What happened?” I hold my head up and push him away. “Look out the window. He played me, used my anger against me.” Perfectionist opens the blinds to see police scrambling to gather the people who ran off. They both look at me, and I huff. “They ran off, and I accidentally killed one of them.”

Perfectionist snaps at me, “You what, you can’t kill a regular person.” I glare at him, and he picks me up out of the chair. “Why, we need people to trust us. We're already pushing it with Lidaren.” I then see a claw come around me and smack Perfectionist back. “Calm down, you asshat.” I drop back to the ground because I haven’t gathered myself back just yet. Lidaren then goes on, “Don’t forget who started this and why you're even here.”

I pick myself up and place my hand on the Perfectionist's chest, pull him in. “Look, I know I’m shit, but you’re not so sharp either. Now, let's figure out what he’s doing with that weird amulet. I then drag myself out into the hallway to look for a restroom. I slowly wander down the hallway until I find a public shower. I slink in and make my way to a mirror. I take a good look at myself; my face is covered in blood, and my eyes are just as cold as that day.

I reach into my pocket and pull out my cigar. I look down at it, thinking, “Too long have I been using this. Not often is it something this strong.” I light it up and take a deep drag on it as I notice Lidaren walk in behind me. I set the cigar down on the sink and take my tattered overcoat off. “How's mister dick off?” Lidaren steps up to me and grabs my cigar, taking a toke. “It will be OK; he is taking what he saw harder than most.”

I take off my shirt to get out of my raggedy clothes and ask, “Well, what are we going to do?” Lidaren hands me my cigar. “Well, we know that the amulet is a conduit for one of the gods, but we don’t know who.” I toss my stuff in the trash. “I got something that might help, but we need to stop by my place.” Lidaren gives me a funny look. “Your going shirtless?” I laugh while I clean off my face. “Yeah, I am; rippling abs put you off.”

He smiles. “Yeah, they're off-putting.” We walk back to the conference room to see Perfectionist looking over the amulet. He notices us walking in and stands up. “Look, I’m sorry.” I look at Lidaren, then back at Perfectionist. “I’m fucking Devastation, and we’re the goddamn chosen. I may not like it, and you don’t have to like me. Hell, when this gets done, we don’t even have to see each other again, but right now, we need to lay our dicks on the table to show this world-destroying cunt whose boss.”

Even though I felt like an ass, I knew that the two of them need me, and I hate to say it, but I need them to. I pull Lidaren and Perfectionist in close. “Now! What do we know?” Perfectionist pulls up the diagrams of the projector and speaks, “We know he has these four mysterious metal things around, and we got this amulet that seems to have some connection to the gods.” Lidaren adds, “Michael said he has something to help us on that end.” Perfectionist point “Right, let’s not forget that it seems that he wants to mess with our public image for some reason.”

As he’s talking, I feel a missing warmth from the last time, which reminds me of how it used to be. I then stand up. “All right, we are going to need a helicopter.” They both look at me, “What?” I smile. “Well, I can’t go running through the city again, which caused a huge disturbance. Plus, I live in a cave just outside of town.” Perfectionist gets on the intercom, “Alexis, can you get the helicopter ready.” He takes his hand off the intercom. “Well, we got some time.

I settle back in. “Good, now we can catch up a bit. After all, it has been for three years.” They take a seat, and I see them smile for the first time in a while. I think they're happy. Lidaren starts us off, “Well after Greg got killed by the Destroyer’s minions, it left me shattered. Little did I know, that wasn’t even the worst of that day. After the fateful night, when I was in the hospital, my powers fully manifested. This drives me underground.”

Perfectionist comments, “Damn, you really should have come back to me.” Lidaren leans back. “It's tough to form thoughts when you are turning into this.” Gesturing at himself. “Anyways, I then took to studying what the chosen are, and I found out all of our powers are composed of two good and one bad. Honestly, it would do us some good to know what they are for one another since it has been so long since we’ve talked about it.”

I lean in, “That’s a pretty good idea.” Just then, Alexis gets on the intercom, “Helicopters ready.” We stand up, and Perfectionist suggests, “We can talk on the way. Also, can we start using your hero name again?” I sarcastically laugh. “Don’t fucking think about it.” They both laugh as we head to the helicopter to learn more about what this monster is up to.