Slowly I woke up and noticed Lory had gotten up along with Haley. Funk looked at us. Abby let out a shriek, “That was insane!”

Funk looked at her, “What in god’s name just happened?”

Abby blinked a couple of times, “Steve is insane.”

“I heard that Abby.”

She smiled at me, “I am glad you and Captain got to peaceful terms.”

Funk looked at her, “Captain is being peaceful?”

Abby nodded, “Yes he is, you know who is still sleeping.”

Haley looked at me and hugged me, “I am glad we got to you in time dad.”

“Yeah, being chased by a tentacle woman is not my favorite thing to do.”

Lory walked over and kissed me, “This massacre was not entirely your fault.”

I nodded, “but it is, just, all of you, keep this massacre between us. I will take responsibility for it, and I feel ashamed.” Haley nodded and walked away, I knew where she was going. I closed my eyes for a moment.

“Captain, are you there?”

“Yes Steve, things are looking fine.”

“J?”

The adventure dude spoke up, “Huh, you remembered that I asked you to call me that, things are fine mate.”

“A?”

He fluttered his white wings, “I am chilling.”

“Thanos?”

“My scepter, is your scepter,” it spawned in my hand.

“Great, thanks mate.”

“Agent?”

“I am doing fine, if you need some of my smaller guns, ask me, however if you want that rocket launcher, it is going to drain your energy for over a week.”

“Eris?”

She grumbled, “What do you want from me?”

“You are a part of me, cooperate or face the consequences.”

She kept grumbling, “You ate me!”

“No, Thanos ate you.”

He replied, “And she was tasty.”

Eris hung her head, “That is not nice, I don’t have a body anymore, and I will be in this place forever.”

I sighed, “You guys need to get along, Eris, if I request your power set, lend it to me, or else.”

She looked around, “Or else what? I am stuck!”

“You know what else.”

“Fine, I will lend you power whenever you ask.”

Lory stood an inch away from me when I opened my eyes. “Hello there darling.” She smiled at me, “Were you talking to yourself?”

“Yes, I was.”

Funk walked over, “What do you mean, he talks to himself?”

Lory poked my head, “He has multiple Steve’s in there.”

Funk scratched his head, “What, I thought there were three?”

“Look dude, I have a scepter.”

He nodded, “Yay a scepter.”

I grimaced, “Look at this.”

I looked around for a building, I threw the scepter, and the house exploded in grand fashion when the scepter hit the building. Then the scepter came back, drained of energy, but it started to replenish. I put it on my tool belt. Lory gasped, “Was that Thanos?”

I nodded, “Awesome, right?”

Funk looked at the house, then back at me, “who is Thanos?”

Haley walked back with Shirley’s corpse in her arms. “I am ready to go home dad.”

Bella walked over, “The airship is ready, and I see Steve is fine, that is Steve right? I mean, I cannot believe Steve could do this.”

Funk yelled out, “Don’t tell him Bella! It is Steve!”

I gasped and punched him, “you motherfucker, you know what is hiding inside me!”

He punched me back. I spit blood on the floor. I punched him again, and we rolled over the ground, exchanging blows. Lory sighed, “Men.”

Funk stopped my blow, “I cannot tell you that, you are not supposed to know!”

“Who the fuck told you!?”

“Who do you think, ray of sunshine?”

Funk grunted, “He told you?”

“Yes, he told me something is hiding inside of me. Bella knows!?”

She slowly nodded, “You are not going to punch me, right?”

“Well, you hid it from me, maybe some scare tactics will help you,” I stretched my hand and a tentacle appeared out of my wrist and wrapped around Bella.

She screamed, “I fucking hate tentacles.”

I laughed and let go, “I am just kidding,” I let the tentacle come back.

Lory looked at me, “Seriously Steve? Messing with tentacles again?”

I shrugged, “She is lending her power to me.”

Haley nodded, “Because, she is you now.”

Lory looked at me, “Now, that secret, what is it?”

Abby chuckled, she had been leaning against the wall, “We cannot tell you.”

I helped Funk up, then I looked at Abby, “You know as well what is hiding inside of me?”

Abby laughed, “I know everything! Heck, I even know what you are, and where you were born. But, I am keeping my mouth shut.

Bella looked at Abby, “You know more than I do.”

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She nodded, “I do. Should we leave this, grim place?”

I nodded, “Funk?”

“Yes?”

“Brothers in arms?”

He nodded, “Brothers in arms, even if you punch me.”

I chuckled, “I know you have more secrets, I cannot wait to uncover them, then I can punch you again.”

Haley sighed, “Dad? I want to leave this place.”

“Alright munchkin,” I started walking and took Lory’s hand. Bella led us to the airship.

When we boarded the airship, I saw it looked like a new airship. Bella had really done her best to fix her up. Bella smiled, “And do you guys like it?”

“Yes, it looks wonderful Bella, did Funk tell you what happened during our journey?”

Bella nodded, “He did while we waited to see if tentacle you, or you would get up. I don’t like tentacle you, what is that all about?”

Haley sat down, and I noticed she had put her head on Shirley’s body. “I will tell you soon Bella,” I sat down next to Haley. “Hey, how are you doing Haley?”

She seemed to turn a switch in her head and then she started crying. I hugged her, “We will give here a proper burial when we get back to the land below.”

Haley slowly nodded, “She did not deserve to die. I wanted to be with her.”

Lory walked over, “hey Munchkin,” Lory sat down and rubbed her hand over her back.

Haley spoke up while we saw Bella doing some checks. “We only got about a week together. She called it puppy love, we wanted to see if it could grow into something more mature. She feared this would happen, that she would die. You are never going to believe this but, she attacked Brent with a metal bar, to keep his focus away from me. The last thing she did, was make a little love heart with her hands. I knew what was going to happen next. Shirley used to be someone who ran away from conflict, she always took the easy way out.” “And the one time she stood up for what she believed in, she gets killed.”

“She made pizza for me, she cleaned my wounds every night, she cared for me.” Haley let out a sad giggle, “Shirley was very energetic. I would not have even made a move to build something up with her.”

Lory spoke up, “Then how did that happen?”

Haley smiled as seemed to be reliving that memory, “I leaned forward to grab the pen and paper, for the message. Shirley kissed me, she totally misread that sign. It told me enough though. She liked me. The days after that, we started growing closer and closer. The day before she died, she told me,” Haley stuttered and stammered for a while as tears fell down.

“It is alright munchkin, you can tell us.”

Lory nodded, “We are here for you.”

Haley slowly nodded, “She told me, she did not want to die as a virgin. Well, she didn’t, and I told her, I was going to keep her safe, and that I would protect her. That I would not let anything happen to her. I promised her that. And then, I let her die, and failed to avenge her by myself.” She started weeping heavily. She silently spoke up, “Please let me be alone with her for a moment.”

I got up, “Alright Munchkin.”

Lory got up and gestured with her head. I followed her. Lory looked at me, “She is really sad.”

“Yes, it is horrible what happened to her, and Shirley. I am sorry Lory, I cannot fix this.”

She nodded and hugged me, “I know my love. All we can do, is be there for her when she needs us. I hope that burying Shirley, and sending her off properly will give her some closure.”

I looked at her, “This is going to be a lifelong scar for her. We have trained her for a lot, we learned her that sad things might happen, disappointments may come your way. But you cannot prepare someone for the loss they will feel when a person you are falling in love with gets ripped away from you violently.”

The airship started going into the air and Funk walked over, “Is there anything I can do for Haley?”

“Just be there for her if she needs you.”

Abby walked over, “I will get some food and water for her, after we have lifted off.” All four of us looked at the shield cracking that had hovered above Stratos Isle. The void started creeping in, as if it was waiting for this moment.

I sighed, “All the people who are left in that place, are now going to die because of me.”

Lory looked at me, “I asked Bella to keep her mouth shut.”

“Thank you, Lory.”

Abby nodded, “It is best if no one hears about this.”

I shed a single tear, “This might be my darkest moment ever.” I looked at Funk, “Do you think, Alice knew about my secret?”

Funk looked at me, “Where is that coming from?”

“She had a being inside of her, just like me, that is why I asked.”

Funk nodded, “She knew.”

Lory looked at him, “And you can’t tell me?”

Funk shook his head, “The time is not right yet.” Lory nodded and looked up, we all looked up.

Abby let out a weird noise that I could not place, “That is where Alice blew up, do you think she felt a lot of pain?”

Lory giggled, “No, she got instantly vaporized.”