78 Morning After 2 Electric Boogaloo

All around there is only steaming rubble forming a wasteland hundreds of metres wide.

If not for the ruined buildings surrounding this wasteland and the undamaged buildings behind even them, it would be understandable for one to confuse the scene with that of a warzone rather than the city centre that it is.

In the distance the sounds of hundreds of sirens echo faintly, growing louder as they close in on what could only be the location of a natural disaster. Except there is nothing natural about it.

However, walking on this barren stretch of land is a single man. He has a bag slung over his shoulder and is dressed in fire retardant clothes and boots to resist the still molten floor that gives way under his every bootstep, like snow's exact opposite.

After walking for a short while, the man eventually comes across a macabre sight.

The remains of a body that can only be described as a desiccated corpse. It's lower half is entirely missing, leaving it's sick, grey organs to trail out from it's visible ribs.

What skin is left is dry and grey, clearly belonging to a corpse, even the bodies hair has lost all shine and turned a muted white, splayed around the wrinkled, dried up and eyeless face.

Despite the bodies nudity, one wouldn't even be able to tell it's gender from sight alone, as there is nothing but skin and bones to see.

Truly, it can only be described as the sight of a corpse long since passing the point of being able to be saved.

The man audibly sighs and drops his bag on the floor beside him while he himself kneels down next to the body.

"You sure know how to cause a mess huh? Now if only you were a little less reckless in how you run from your own boredom." He sighs one more time and brings his arms forward to pick up the body.

"Idiot." His soft whisper is followed by him putting the body in his bag and zipping it up.

When he stands, he casts a quick glance around and spots another body lying not too far away, this one looking far more fresh.

With one final put upon sigh, the man walks over and picks up the body, taking them both away to places unknown.

=============

"This is Christine Everhart reporting at the scene of what locals are already starting to call 'a scene of two suns'. Yesterday, at approximately ten minutes past seven in the afternoon the Hero known as Extinction was called in response to a bank robbery happening in the US Bank Branch on 27th Street.

"According to eyewitness testimonies, he arrived to the scene with Denver's Protectorate leader, Jet and was greeted by the would-be robber themselves, a known Villain who was recently seen fighting with the Butcher in New York.

"Eyewitnesses report that the Villain actually surrendered immediately after seeing the Heroes. It should be noted that on the 29th of December last year this very same Hero did something similar, where she started robbing a bank only to surrender as soon as the Heroes arrived.

"However, instead of accepting her surrender, Extinction chose to attack, hitting her hard enough that she broke the wall of the building itself. That was all our eyewitnesses saw before they smartly chose to escape the building.

"It is unknown what exactly followed or the motivation behind it, but Extinction proceeded to attack Tear with lethal intent and while their fight was short it was still incredibly destructive. So far the initial estimates for the property damage caused is at $300 million dollars with that number expected to increase once everything has bee accounted for.

"But that is not all that has been lost. More than an entire city blocks worth of land has been completely destroyed, including Denver Union Station and it's train tracks. Most importantly, the loss of life from this tragic event is already confirmed to be in the thousands and that number is rising rapidly with the number of injured being too high to have an accurate count as of now.

"There is talk of building a monument to remember the lives unjustly lost today once the rebuilding efforts begin, but the question on my mind, and I'm sure a lot of you are thinking the same thing, is. Why did this happen? Unfortunately, so far no one seems to have an answer to this or to why a Hero would cause such devastation.

"So far the PRT is refusing to answer any questions as they conduct their own investigations. But what does it say about them that something like this happened on their watch without them even knowing the cause? The PRT has a lot to answer for with this disaster and we here at CNN will do everything in our power to ensure that you, the people, are not left in the dark.

"That is all for now. Expect a more thorough update at five once we've had time to sort out all of the details. This has been Christine Everhart, CNN. Back to you in the studio."

Once the reporter finishes their piece, the TV clicks off, allowing the now black screen to reflect the contents of the room.

It's nothing extraordinary. Just an ordinary living room for all intents and purposes with only a single man sitting on the sofa in front of the TV who leans back into his seat with and raises a hand to drag his palm over his face with a tired sigh.

"Look mom, I'm on TV.~"

In response to the weak and dry voice, the man jumps to his feet with incredible speed and spins around to face an open doorway, where a sickly looking woman is leaning, with a shout on his lips.

"Lusia!"

As for the now named Lusia, there is only a single persistent thought going through her head at the man's shout.

𝘖𝘸𝘸𝘸𝘸.

My head hurts so fucking much already. Adding loud noises on top of that is not pleasant.

I open my mouth to greet Jinx but before I can even get a word out he is already in front of me, wrapping me in a tight hug that actually does hurt a little even though he is just a normal human in terms of strength.

God, I guess I don't just feel like absolute shit if this is any indication. Guess I still need more time to heal then.

"You are such an idiot, you know that? I thought you were going to die." He mumbles into my shoulder and my smile grows warm as I return the hug for a bit.

"Alright, alright. That's enough already. I'm fine, ok? Now would you mind helping me fill in some blanks please?" I state as I break off the hug and slowly make my way over to the couch on unsteady feet.

"You're fine? Fine? Bitch please." He scoffs at me and I can't help the chuckle that comes out of me as he does so, making him give me a dry glare.

"Do you have any idea the condition you were in when I got to you? The fact that you're even alive is a fucking miracle."

I only pay half a mind to his ranting as I get comfortable sinking into the couch and try to fight off the migraine trying to tear my brain into pieces.

"Yeah yeah," I wave him off with a smile. "I got better though so it's fine. Now do you mind helping me out or do you just want to moan at me like you're my mom?"

Upsettingly, he doesn't seem to see the humour of the situation like I do and he moves to stand in front of me with his arms crossed.

"Maybe I should act like your mom if you're going to be so reckless. Why should I leave you to your own devices if this is going to be the result hm?"

Ok now this is starting to be a bit annoying.

My humour leaves me but my smile remains, turning far less friendly and far more subtly threatening as I return his glare with one of my own.

"Because I do what I want, not what I'm told. And if you want to be my mom then fine, I'll just have to rip your dick off so you can play the part. How does that sound, hm?"

We hold eye contact for a brief moment before he breaks it by turning his sight to the floor and letting out a deep sigh. He moves over to me and collapses onto the sofa while his entire body relaxes as if a great burden was lifted.

"Haaah, sorry. It's just. You were so- I just." He stops himself and sighs once more and when he speaks again, his voice is quiet but much more composed. "You are the first friend I've had in 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 Lucy. When I saw you, you looked like a corpse and I'm not saying that figuratively. You were missing everything below your ribs and had basically zero muscle mass and your organs looked all necrotic and gross."

His head turns to me and I meet his stare without a word.

"I thought you were dead. That my curse finally got to you and that I was going to be all alone again. So I'm sorry for acting like that earlier, I let my fear of losing you get the better of me."

Damn, that almost sounds like he's confessing to me or something.

I don't like this whole serious atmosphere though, so I decide to bring back some of the levity that I love, while also asking a semi important question.

"Oh my~ it almost sounds like you love me or something.~ You know, I'm quite weak right now, if you were to force yourself on me I'm sure there is nothing I would be able to do about it.~"

I finish the sentence with a suggestive wink to match my grin but he just deadpans at me with his lip twitching up slightly.

"I'm good, thanks. I firmly believe in the age old adage of 'don't stick your dick in crazy'. I care about you as a friend sure, so if you yourself have some hidden feelings you are to shy to confess, I'm afraid I shall not be returning them."

Heh. A snort leaves me at his words as a grin of his own comes to mirror mine.

"Gah!" I exclaim while putting my hands over my heart as if wounded. "Mine heart doth bleed at thine cruel and merciless attacks of the soul. How couldst thee say things of such unfathomable, uhh, fuck. Um, meanness?" I finish with an awkward chuckle as I fail to think of a good Shakespearian ending to my exaggerated act.

We both share a laugh for a moment before I speak up again, my voice sharp and dangerous.

"Hey, what do you mean 'don't stick your dick in crazy'? Are you calling me crazy?" I accuse.

"Yup. Batshit." He doesn't even hesitate, even popping the 'p' and looking completely unapologetic about it but my face quickly morphs into that of a victorious smirk.

"Well, that should be fine anyway. After all, who said anything about you being the one to do the 'poking'?" I ask with a raised brow while sweat starts gathering on his forehead.

"Uhhh. I'm gay?" His response brings about a momentary silence before neither of us can take it anymore.

"Hahahahahahahahahaha!" We both burst out laughing and it feels good to do so, as if the laughter is soothing my pain.

If the way Jinx seems to relax is any indication, he feels the same way about it.

Eventually however, we get back to the earlier conversation.

"So all I remember is up to my fight with Extinction. I remember flying in the sky and seeing him next to me. Everything after that is a blank up 'till a few minutes ago where I wake up here."

His face shows that he isn't entirely comfortable with the topic of conversation, but he answers anyway.

"Well, that was probably the hit that literally everyone in the city saw the results of and was probably what had you so fucked up. There's not really much to say after that. I was already in the area and I had some people move to slow down anyone else from arriving so I could pick you up. That was about 17 hours ago and since then you've just been sleeping and healing."

If I really was as fucked up as he says then it's probably only thanks to my regenerative abilities that I'm even still alive. Jinx as well of course, for binging me some place safe to heal.

I'm still feeling weaker than I think I have ever been since getting my powers, but I am also absolutely starving so I'll probably be fine after binge eating a little bit.

Speaking of food. I mean. Speaking of people.

"What about Extinction? Did he survive? 'Cuz despite everything I think I could get him to join us. I think he'd even fit in pretty well once I get him to realise he doesn't need to burden himself with useless things. What do you think?"

I can't hide my excitement at the thought of him joining us, because while yes we did fight, but I'm sure I can convince him of how fun it was to let loose.

Not to mention, if he joins us then it won't only be a massive benefit to the Clowns as a whole but then I'll be able to fight him whenever I want! It's like what I could have had with Butcher.

Great, now I'm sad. Why did I have to think about him?

"...About that. Extinctions body hasn't been found. People are saying that he probably overwhelmed his Manton Limit or something with that last attack and blew himself to smithereens. So unless you somehow made friends with the Faerie Queen without me noticing, I don't think that's likely."

Damn, that sucks. Ah well.

He does bring up something interesting though. The Faerie Queen.

There are two boogey men in this world, or really boogey women considering neither of them are men.

The one everyone knows is the Faerie Queen and her 'court' of dead capes.

She's like Eidolon but statistically far more likely to kill you. By which I mean she will kill you, while Eidolon is the Strongest Hero, so he probably won't.

As for the other boogey woman, well, I don't actually know anything about her. She's an actual boogey woman, rather than just a pants shittingly terrifying cape in that nobody knows jack shit about her.

In fact, I didn't even know about her 'till it came up in conversation with Clara one time. Apparently she's only a boogey woman to capes and all that is known about her is that she is 'the woman in the suit' or 'the woman in a fedora'.

Apparently seeing her is death and that you cannot win no matter what your power is.

Naturally, I am very interested to know if she is even real and whether or not I can meet her, because she sounds like a blast of a time.

"You know." Jinx's contemplative voice brings me out of my thoughts. "You really did almost die. If not for me you would be dead for sure~ and you haven't even said a word of thanks."

I roll my eyes at the little huff that leaves his throat as he finishes speaking.

"Do you really think anything can put me in a situation where I could die without me allowing it? I knew the risk was there and I wouldn't have taken it if I wasn't prepared to pay the price. You can't truly live if you spend all your time fearing death. I taught 𝘺𝘰𝘶 that, remember?"

A moment after I finish speaking I notice his eyes widen minutely and the next words he speaks are whispered faintly as if he is talking to himself rather than me.

"Oh. That's why you explained your whole plan here for your job with the Elite isn't it? So that I could finish it if you died."

I don't bother to answer, choosing instead to just allow myself to relax as I wait for the pain in my stomach to grow enough to motivate me to move and grab myself some food.

Ah, shit. I just remembered that I am actually in the middle of a large scheme and that there are probably people looking for 'me' right now.

Haaah.

With a deep sigh I get to my feet.

Time to eat I guess.

No rest for the wicked and all that.

=================

A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!

This chap is 2.8k words instead of my usual 2k. I thought about cutting it around the 2k mark and using the rest to help me quickly finish another chapter, but eh, fuck it. I'll just force myself to write even more because you all know I hate myself by now lol.

Also imma give you a fun fact and I want people to comment on this para with their theories on who it is cuz I'm curious if any of y'all can guess it right. There are only 2 capes that Lusia NEEDS to eat in order to survive this fic. One of them shouldn't be too hard to guess for my worm enjoyers, but the other is less obvious. :)

(5+)Advanced chapters with the links below!

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