Animal benefactor

Morgan is usually not at home, always leaving at odd times and returning at odder times still. Sometimes she would be off with her business casual clothing as if she were meeting for business. Other times she was casual as if she was off to see her friends but not once had I seen her hero costume. It's a terrible idea to leave your house dressed as your hero counterpart, that's not what I'm talking about. It's the fact that I never saw the suit in person. I have seen it plenty of times on Tv where I would have to take a moment to remember that Morgan is indeed a hero and one pretty liked amongst the people. She has a way of charming everyone with just her presence. I could only imagine how many people have a crush on her.

I have also come to realize who her friend is and scold myself for not realizing sooner. Hell, I should have known since the very beginning it's so damn obvious. Though I had no clue she liked animals so much because every time there's a new animal, Morgan grumbles about her friend turning her house into a zoo. Morgan complains as if she isn't in love with every one of the creatures she brings back. Maybe the animals are more a gift than anything else, I'm not sure. Morgan often complains about this friend being arrogant and prideful and that she should learn to work with a team more. Then there are her jokes about rabbits when she talks about her and the many rabbits she herself seems to collect.

So o have come to a careful and precise conclusion.

Morgan's friend has to be Mirko, it could be no one else. I will be damned if it's not the rabbit hero. Her age lines up perfectly with Morgan's so it's not a far fetch.

I wanna meet her.

"Zen, watch this"

And my peace is interrupted by the one and only. Alissa manifests in my room, plopping onto my bed with this little sphere in her hand. She makes sure I'm watching before she presses the thing and has it expanding out to a pole, almost jabbing me in the neck. She wiggles her eyebrows happily, jumping off the bed to swing the thing around, displaying its sturdiness and strength.

Did she make that?

"It's solid metal, Zen" she grins from ear to ear, carefully handing me her weapon. "And it can retract as easily as it extends with just the push of a button"

I have seen things like this before in my last life, though I never trusted them as they didn't seem very durable. This on the other hand is pretty durable, comprised, as Alissa had so happily exclaimed, of solid metal. You can injure someone with this.

"You made it?"

"Of course I made it" she seems offended that I would think otherwise. "I can make stuff you know"

Knowing that she was into science, engineering, and the likes as well as dealing with one of her smoke bombs is entirely different than actually realizing that she can build legitimate things. I hadn't thought she could, but here we are and I'm quite amazed. She can build stuff. I can have her build something for me.

"What's that look on your face" I'm poked in the cheek by Alissa who questions the smile on my face. She knows well enough that there's something I have in mind.

"Will you build something for me?" I ask

"Will you pay me?" I expected that and I have multiple things I know she'll accept.

"I'll go to that amusement park with you," I say and watch her face light up with joy. If there's one thing about Lissa, it's that she likes spending time with family. Especially me. I don't know why she likes me so much, but she does and it's cute how she gets excited when I agree to do things with her.

"Anything you want, I'll make" she promises with a determined nod. "I'll even build you a space ship"

It's an obvious joke but I do wonder if she actually knows to build one.

"I have something in mind and I think it'll be simple enough for you to pull off" I inform. "I'll draw up a sketch for you"

"Now I really wanna know what it is"

~~~~~~~

Later that day, or better put, later that night Morgan returns home, though not as she usually does. I'm in the living room with food, a pen, and a pad while the TV is playing one thing or another when Morgan drags herself into the room. I don't pay her any mind at first, being very used to this, but there's this subtle pain that settles over me that has me looking at her. It takes a moment for me to register the fact that her shirt is full of blood when she throws herself onto the couch as if her shirt wasn't soaked in blood.

"Morgan the hell? Are you okay?" I almost throw down my food in my haste to get to her, concern this time not being forced by calm.

"More or less, rough day today," she says calmly as if her shirt is not soaked in blood.

"Morgan there's blood" I point out, maybe she isn't aware of this yet. "And something hurts" because that pain is definitely not my own, it's not potent enough to be my own. It's almost unnoticeable, but it's there and I know it's coming from Morgan.

"Yeah, because there's a huge gash across my stomach"

I refrain from slapping the hell out of her for being this calm and move to roll her onto her back. She doesn't resist any, simply going limp and letting me do so. She chuckles when I force her out of her shirt to get a look at her wound and boy, I almost recoil at the sight of it. She does indeed have a bloody gash across her stomach, a pretty big one and that's the reason she's bleeding so much. My question is why she's so carefree about it. Her thoughts don't betray an ounce of concern for her wellbeing, she's simply thinking about how we've been doing today without her.

Woman, you are bleeding out and I am very concerned here.

"Morgan, can you please tell me why you're so calm because I cant understand and this wound looks terrible and I'm pretty worried and if you don't reassure me right now I might cry, so why are you so calm?" You can't just come in the house like this and not tell me what's going on

"Don't worry Zen" she pats my head, an act that has me settling but not relaxing. "It'll be healed up soon, the only reason I'm still bleeding is because I was a bit weakened in the midst of it, but I'm far better now so the wound should fix itself pretty soon"

Okay, that explains why she's so calm, but she could have told me this a long time ago. What is wrong with her? Then I realize she might not be too focused on the here and now when she's bleeding so much and in pain.

"You're losing a lot of blood, though"

She waves me off simply stating that blood loss is no problem because her body quickly resupplies her with the amount she needs to survive no matter how much she bleeds.

That's...

That's freaking impressive.

Despite this, I still take the time to use what medical knowledge my mother has taught me and clean the wound. While doing so I do notice the wound start to heal itself, closing off faster and faster while I get the blood off. It's odd the way her flesh forms and fixes itself, almost like some alien thing that's desperate to keep itself together. The wound fixes itself pretty quickly the last pieces of her flesh connecting and welding together until nothing is left. No sign of the injury whatsoever, not even a scar to show what had happened. During it all, Morgan had fallen asleep, mumbling about how the process is exhausting

I let her sleep, she needs it. I'm putting away everything I used, washing the cloth I dirtied with her blood as well as I can. The first aid kit is put away and I shimmy Morgan into a clean shirt. I take off her shoes because she doesn't like sleeping with shoes, remove her earrings. After all, she doesn't like sleeping with them either and then I turn on the AC before she wakes up to complain about how hot it is. I'm back in the kitchen after all of that, making sure the sink isn't full of blood for the second them when I hear new thoughts entire my mind, a new person, a new presence.

Then there's a loud voice.

"Don't tell me you died!"

Okay, who the hell is in the house?

I silently make my way to the living room, noting our open door and what do I see?

Mirko.

It's actually Mirko in all her muscle bunny glory and she's holding the sleeping Morgen by the collar shaking her until she blearily opens her eyes to look at her. The shouting stops when there are obvious signs of life then Mirko gracelessly drops Morgan to the floor, the latter not even trying to get up off the floor.

"Such an amazing friend" I hear Morgan scoff as she reaches for the blanket I had gotten her, curling up into it on the floor while Mirko nudges her in the side. "Terrible way to wake me up"

"I was making sure you're alive" Mirko retorts with the roll of her eyes. "You left with a big ass cut in your stomach, Fox"

"I healed" Morgan points out.

"I can see that"

Should I do something?

"Who's that?"

It's a miracle I don't end up falling on my face when Lissa appears near me, curiously peering over my shoulder to see Mirko.

"Is this the friend she always talks about?" Israel appears out of nowhere as well, shirtless and with a bottle of water in hand. He was in the gym then, that explains his absence.

But still.

Now they show up?

"Um, yeah, looks like it"

"Why is she here?" Alissa asks, trying to step past me bit Israel and I both pull her back.

"Morgan came home with a big gash on her stomach" I explain.

"She healed?" There's a note of concern in Israel's voice there.

"Yeah, then she fell asleep" I continue. "So I'm in the kitchen fixing stuff and she pops up. I didn't even hear her come in"

How did I not hear her open the door?

"So you're saying people can easily break into the house" is all Israel gets out of this, but he has a point.

Either that or Mirko has a key

"You can't just walk into my house Mir" Morgan groans, finally dragging herself off the floor to reclaim her spot on the couch. She kicks Mirko multiple times to get her off, the latter scowling, but still moving.

"What? Worried I'll scare those kids?" Mirko smirks and Morgan laughs.

"I'm worried they might just attack you," she says this and Mirko only smiles bigger. "My house might accidentally burn down"

"As if they could stand a chance against me"

"Ohohoho, little do you know"

Awe, Morgan believes we can do something against Mirko. That's really nice. Through her thoughts, I learn she mostly believes this because of my mental abilities, but she's very confident in Alissa's capabilities and even more so in her little brother.

"I take offense to this" Mirko lets known, but doesn't say much more after that. She does the weirdest thing by reaching into her jacket pocket and pulling out a puppy

Why is there a puppy in her jacket pocket?

"Did she just pull a puppy out of her jacket pocket?" Alissa has to ask to which I nod.

"A puppy" Israel is just as baffled. "Why does she have a puppy in her pocket?"

You're asking me.

"Really Mir?" Morgan grumbles as the puppy is placed on her chest. "Where did you get this one?"

"That doesn't matter" Mirko shrugs, leans back in her seat, and looks right in our direction, grinning.

Ah damn, I shoulda known she'd seen us.

"Why don't you three stop hiding?" She sounds amused.

"We were not hiding," Israel says, sounding sheepish. Well, that's a first.

"Yes, we were not hiding" grins Alissa, disappearing before reappearing near Morgan.

"We were simply assessing the situation" I inform very calmly, strolling over to them as if I am not completely trying to hold myself back from saying anything stupid to Mirko.

I do not admire any heroes, no, but this woman here, man, this woman here sure has my admiration.

"Yeah, you were assessing" a snort from Morgan as she directs the puppy away from the edge of her stomach before he tumbles off.

"I was"

"We believe you"