Chapter 77
“Hey, what’s up with that?” June asked the group as she pointed her thumb over at the curious spectacle taking place on the dance floor. The rest of the Challengers who were sitting and drinking in their VIP booth glanced over to see what she was referencing and wondered the exact same thing simultaneously: “What.. the.. fuck?”
Jax was the first one to voice it aloud, albeit in a slightly more tactful way, “When did those two become friends?”
Out in plain view of the public and of the cameras, Ashley and Bailey were dancing with reckless abandon, laughing together, seemingly enjoying every moment.
“Right? What’s the over-under on that imploding in spectacular fashion,” Bobby asked as he approached the table.
“I give it a week,” June answered after less than a second of thought.
“I’ll take the under,” Bobby smiled. “So, how’s it been going since I’ve been gone? Shooting the shit?”
“Pretty much,” Jax responded. Then, with a mock lovey-dovey tone, he added, “Although Dreamy Z has been busy giving autographs to his adoring masses.”
Joel’s cheeks flushed yet again, “It was only a couple‘a selfies. I keep telling these guys to switch seats with me. I think I’m the only one of us that people have an unobstructed view of.”
“And put an end to the enjoyment for all the pretty girls in the place? Never!” June laughed as she took a sip of her drink. She had ordered some bright pink monstrosity that Bobby had always mocked while growing up at his bar in Austin.
Ralph cut in, slightly annoyed that the conversation had gotten off track with Bobby’s arrival, “We were discussing our Top 3 Herald vs. Villain battles.” He turned to the Bradley boy, “You were saying something about Solarized?”
To Ralph’s dismay and annoyance, a different Bradley twin was the first to speak, “Okay, I’m out.” June placed her drink on the table and grabbed Ken’s wrist, “Come on, big boy, twirl me around until I get the spins from something other than that sickly sweet adult treat.”
“Oh. I am not the best dancer in the..” Ken started.
“No one is. Take it all in,” she motioned up and down her curvy yet athletic body. “If you don’t dance with me, someone else will.”
Ken didn’t require any more cajoling. He looked June in the eyes as he surrendered and stood up. “Would you grant me the pleasure?”
“Why Ken!” She fluttered her eyelashes. “I thought you’d never ask.”
The rest of the group watched as June pulled Ken onto the dance floor.
“Well, that was disturbing,” Jax said, jamming his pointer finger toward his mouth and sticking out his tongue, mimicking puking.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“I think they’re sweet,” Joel disagreed. “It would be crazy awesome if someone found love in the midst of all this madness.” As he was saying this, he noticed Athena walk into the club and look around. He once again flashed back to the conversation they had had in his team’s base earlier that day. She had truly gone to the mat to gain his trust. Battling Samurai Tortoise was no joke. Joel wondered if she was at the club to continue their conversation. “I’ll be right back,” he distractedly muttered as he got up from the table to intercept the mighty All-Star before she got lost in the neon haze of the club.
Ralph attempted to get the conversation back on track once again. The numbers in the booth were dwindling, with only himself, Jax, Bobby, and Connor remaining. He wondered why Connor was even there, considering all his close friends had abandoned him for the comfort of their beds and restful slumber. But it didn’t really matter, and without the more distracting members of their group, Ralph could finally get into the real issues of the day: Herald fights! “So, Jax. You were saying Solarized was one of your top 3?”
Jax snapped back to attention. Many would find Ralph’s insistence on this stupid icebreaker annoying, but not Jax. He loved this shit. “Oh. Right. Yeah, he’d be my third. Solarized going crazy after being away from the Sun for too long and rampaging through DC, only to be taken down by Eclipse…Classic.”
Connor seemed to agree. “Makes sense. That’d probably be in my top as well. The only caveat would be that being away from the solar rays also made him weaker over time, so Eclipse kicking his ass wasn’t as impressive as maybe it seemed.” Ralph considered the point. It may have been the smartest thing he had heard Connor say.
“Good point,” Jax affirmed. “Still, though. The fight between the current and former Seed was pretty epic.”
Ralph chimed in with his two cents, “True. But not as epic as the blood feud between Aurora and Glacia. The council’s Shadow trying to kill its Healer would automatically make it Top 3 worthy. And the fact that they are twin sisters to boot…!”
“Yeah, that was definitely going to be on my list, too,” Jax confirmed. “The only knock is that a lot of it took place behind the scenes. Glacia’s status as our nation’s top spy ensured that it would all happen in the shadows rather than out in the open.”
“But the mystery alone…” Ralph started to add as Bobby surprisingly broke in: “Whatever happened, after all the public fighting, neither of them could confirm what had occurred without having to give up their council seats. The murkiness surrounding how the feud actually ended has basically become an urban legend. I heard that Aurora hunted Glacia down and killed her before fleeing to Canada.”
Ralph disagreed, “Aurora killing Glacia makes no sense. She’s our Healer. She’s never had a recorded kill. I certainly doubt her twin sister was her first.
“I’m with UFO,” Jax laughed at the fact that he was siding with the odd duck, “I don't think Aurora would ever do that. I heard they staged the whole thing and fled to Greenland.”
“Fled what?” Connor asked. “I mean, why would they have staged and perpetuated such a long-running, elaborate hoax?”
“I dunno. But, if you believe that we know all the Herald secrets, you’ve gotta be crazy!” It was possible that stress was starting to take its toll on Bobby as he misdirected his frustration at Connor. He wasn’t quite yelling, but his reaction was definitely disproportionate.
“Well, duh. But I did grow up around The Show, Dorian Dusk, and Ricky Diamond. They would come over to my dad’s shop a lot when I was younger. They may have secrets, but operating at such a high level would demand some secrecy. Plus, when you are trying to make things better, for people in places controlled by bad people, sometimes you have to operate in gray areas.”
Bobby relaxed a bit. These guys didn’t deserve his animosity. His life was complicated, but that was nothing new. Now that he was getting close to some answers, an edge had crept back into his emotional state. That edginess needed to be dealt with appropriately. He decided to contain his reactions for the rest of the night, so he simply responded, “True.”
Jax, always the mediator, brought the discourse back on topic, “So, what’s the third? If Solarized and The Ice Twins are definitely in the Top 3 rivalries ever, who else we got?”
“Could be Gentle Nuke at the Superbowl,” Ralph threw it out there, happy to help de-escalate the discussion.
“Meh, It was definitely crazy, but Gentle Nuke against a bomb he had set himself isn’t really a rivalry,” Connor said offhand as he tossed back another shot of fireball. “Did make for a cool halftime show, though.”
When Bobby laughed and said, “Talk about a technical malfunction!” everyone’s shoulders eased. “For my money, it would have to be the entire Council of Heralds versus Michael and The Fallen. Even though it happened before I was born, a group of former council members trying to lead a mutiny against the current council must have been dramatic.”
“I guess that could count, but Solarized versus Eclipse sorta started there, right?” Connor asked.
“No,” Ralph answered, “Solarized actually fought against The Council on that one. He and Eclipse, working together, were probably the difference makers. I heard it was how Eclipse got his name. Before that, he was called something like Nightshine or something lame like that.”
Bobby knew it wasn’t Nightshine, but for reasons of his own, he didn’t feel the need to correct the record. He was sorta over the conversation as a whole and didn’t want to come off like a superfan know-it-all. Most importantly, however, he didn’t want to put more heat on the secret he and Joel were keeping. If Joel accidentally ended up in someone else’s nightmare, he didn’t want anyone to remember that Eclipse’s early Herald alias was not Nightshine. It was Dream Walker.