“Alright, Cure, again, the plan?" Launcher asks, his hands gripping his knees as he bends over attentively. He doesn't want to get a single detail mixed up, and his nervousness shows.

Underneath his mask, the darkly clothed figure being spoken to smiles. Even in the back of the rumbling semi the crew is hidden in, Cure stands so still and gives off such a serene aura that one could almost mistake him as resting. His gloved hands are clasped lightly behind his back, adding slightly to his authoritative presence. 

"Come now, Launcher, no need to be so nervous. You won't be working alone, remember?"

Launcher takes a slow, deep breath, and then gradually lets it all out. Visibly forcing himself to relax, he chuckles slightly. "Yeah... yeah, I know. Just never thought I'd be playing the part of... well, you know."

"Go on, you won't be punished for speaking your mind. Playing the part of what?"

There's a moment of silence. When it's finally broken, it isn't Launcher who speaks. "The villain, I guess."

Cure looks down at the source of the voice - a young man sitting on the hard wooden bench across from Launcher. Contrasting Launcher's bulky and tense form, the man is lanky and giving off an incredible sense of tiredness. His unkempt hair seems repelled from his head, but still reaches the base of his neck in the back. 

"Also, mind keeping it down a little?" the man asks, his voice an exasperated, but quiet whisper. "God knows he won't fall back asleep once he wakes up." He looks down at his lap at what appears to be a young child of roughly eleven or twelve sleeping contently, appearing almost impossibly comfortable on the bench. They're nestled as far against the inside of the cold metal wall of the semi as they can be, their head using the man's legs as a pillow.

Cure laughs, the sound casual and light in opposition to the tenseness in the air. "Not to worry Kevin, we're almost there. Does he have a hard time with grogginess?"

"No, the opposite." Kevin sighs. "He hardly even acknowledges waking up, it scares me every time with how abrupt it is."

Launcher watches wide-eyed at the relaxed dialogue between Cure and Kevin. Even having been a part of the crew for a few months, he still had to work up the courage to speak to Cure, and yet Kevin had no issue asking him to quiet down, of all things. Despite being, physically, more powerful than Kevin. 

"Ah... Cure?" Launcher speaks up once more, choosing his words carefully. Even though he's been show nothing but kindness these last weeks, it's difficult to believe that someone wouldn't have learned about Plaguebringer in school. His deity-like status, along with his seemingly impossible to understand Special, makes most who learn his true identity to shiver with fear. So why doesn't Kevin do the same?

"Oh, yes, I'm sorry Launcher," Cure says, a bit quieter as he turns his attention back to him. "The plan. Well, the first part of the plan is--"

“I make a big wall, right?!” A boy someone might mistake for a child springs out of his seat excitedly, jumping almost comically high before smashing his head against the ceiling, and then falling ungracefully back to the floor. He doesn’t react for a moment, then slowly sits back down on the bench where he'd been peacefully asleep just moments before, tears welling up in his eyes. He looks up at Kevin with a sad expression. “Keviiie…”

Kevin, who hadn't even blinked when the boy erupted into the air, reaches up, sighing as he lightly rubs the area he'd bumped. “Yeah, you make a big wall.” Kevin smiles down at him, his eyes tired. “Think you can do that, Ceal?”

Ceal’s eyes go from watery to bright almost instantly. “Duh! I can also make the wall fall down, and I can make the wall explode, and I can make the wall turn to sand, and I can--”

“No no, Ceal.” Launcher interrupts the listing rant as Kevin's eyes glaze over. He knows exactly how dangerous and powerful Ceal is, but has found it the most safe option to treat him like the annoying child he acts like. For whatever reason, treating the guy who can turn you inside-out like a brat isn't the best way to get yourself turned inside-out. “Just make it as high as you can, alright? And then, if you’d like, Kevin can point out some buildings for you to play with.”

Kevin suddenly whips his head around. “Excuse me I wasn’t told–”

“Keviiiie!” Kevin’s cut off by the all-too-familiar high-pitched voice of Ceal, who then proceeds to reach up to pull back on his hair. “Pleeeease?”

“W-Hold on, wait wait–” Kevin strains to brace himself against the bench, trying not to fall backwards onto the whiny creature. "Ceal, please, I beg of you, let go of my hair--"

“You're no fuuuun,” Ceal whines, letting go of his hair. "But, please?"

Kevin looks up at Cure for assistance. He obliges, "Yes, you may play with a few buildings."

Ceal smiles widely, looking like he wants to clap his hands in excitement, but Cure cuts off his celebration by adding, "But no hospitals, and you have to let Kevin pick them."

The dangerous child giggles abashedly, and then hangs his head a little. "Yeeah, sorry about that, sir..." He peaks up at Cure, straining his eyes. "...what if--"

"No."

Both Ceal and Kevin sigh, almost in unison, though for completely different reasons. Launcher, however, nervously laughs as he leans back against the cold metal of the cargo container.

Suddenly, the semi jars to a stop, lurching both Kevin and Launcher forward. Cure grabs the front of his mask, holding it against his face, even though neither he nor Ceal seem to be affected by the momentum of the lurching. 

Suddenly, a new voice pipes up, seeming to speak directly into their minds. “We’re here, guys. Well, we’re close. Yeah. Wai– huh..?” There’s a moment of silence, and then the voice sighs. “We’re here. I knew that, sorry, just misspoke for a moment.”

Launcher laughs, happy to have found a genuine excuse to do so, and gets to his feet. He walks to the opening of the storage container, and he raps his fist against the closed door three times. The sign that they are alive and well.

The voice continues on. “Good, glad to hear y’all didn't vanish. Well, we’ll come around back and–”

With most everyone listening to the voice, no one but Cure noticed Ceal getting up and ignoring it. He excitedly takes a step towards the large door leading into the container, and reaching out, touches it. With an ear splitting crunch, it folds in on itself, rolling up like it’s made of tinfoil. 

Smiling widely, he points outside as. “Let’s go!” 

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Launcher seems frozen with shock as Cure and Kevin both hop out, Kevin stretching a bit after steadying himself against the grass. After a few moments, he sighs, and then climbs out alongside the two.

“…I take it that means I don’t need to open the door for y’all. Well.” After a few moments, a door opens and closes, and a rather mundane looking brown-haired girl stops in front of the ‘open’ container. “I don't know about all of you, but I'm ready to get things rolling!” she says enthusiastically, pumping her fist.

Awkwardly, no one responds to her statement. Kevin turns around, reaching up to help Ceal out of the container, taking his hand as he steps down to the ground cheerfully.

"Launcher," Cure starts, also ignoring the girl who's looking more and more distraught that her enthusiasm wasn't being matched, "for the benefit of everyone here, would you kindly tell us who all we should be watching out for?"

“Uh…” Launcher clears his throat, then gets to his feet, following after Ceal. After reorienting himself, he continues, “The heroes with really awful names, right? Icemaster, Instathere, Glenda, and Momemtumiblef.”

“Correct.” Cure takes a step back as Launcher jumps out, and while the girl has to take a hurried step back to avoid being landed on, she bumps against Cure. He rests a hand on her shoulder, balancing her. “And, their abilities?” he asks. “Remembering small details like this are vital to the plan. I believe we'll be fine either way, but it will make things run more smoothly, and the more effortlessly we succeed, the more of an impact this will have.”

“Let’s see…” Launcher looks past Cure as he speaks, doing his best to remember the specifics. “Instathere teleports, but can’t seem to teleport through walls. Momentumible can treat most objects like a whip, and swing them with more momentum than they should have. Icemaster builds up and uses static electricity as an offensive tool, and rides around on a hoverboard that he presumably powers with said static. And Glenda…”

“Glenda allows others to understand other people's Specials, to a limited degree,” Cure finishes. “Obviously, I am immune to this, so I’ll be able to carry out my duties well enough. But Ceal may become a target to her specifically, as we’ve gone over. Kevin, keep him out of excessive trouble best you can. Launcher, do your best to cover them if the need arises.”

"Why does anyone at all apply to be a hero, again?" Kevin quips. "I understand the need to have a registry, and the fact that heroes putting numbers in their name is ridiculous, but Icemaster? Instathere? Momentumible?"

"All the good names were taken early on, apparently," Cure says with a laugh. "And for whatever reason, they don't get rid of the names of dead heroes, and since they don't seem to allow heroes with the same name, the heroes have to get creative."

"I hate to interrupt y'alls weirdly timed dialogue..." As though on cue, a messy looking man with black hair stumbles out from beside the large truck, his words interrupted by his needlessly heavy breathing. Nonetheless, he smiles sheepishly at Cure. "But, ah, h-here I am!" He takes a deep breath, and then swallows audibly before continuing. "P- The, ah, the parking brake, wasn't cooperating, and-"

“Ah, wonderful, Mis,” Cure says loudly, cutting him off. As he talks, the girl who he'd rested his hand on walks away, moving to stand over by said-Mis. “Do you remember your part of the plan, Mis?”

“Ah, yes, I’m supposed to be, ah…” He pauses. “I’m supposed to be doing what I do best, right? Me and Clear get to the top of that big fuckin’ tower, and then she yells at people to distract them for about fifteen seconds.”

Cure sighs. “Yes. That’s… what you’re supposed to do. Now, before we begin.” He looks towards Ceal. “Are you ready?”

“Frick yeah!” He pumps his fist up into the air excitedly, Kevin taking a step away to avoid getting an uppercut.

“Launcher?”

“Well, I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”

“Clear?”

“You kiddin’ me? The top of that tower has never looked better, and I’m ready to see that thing up close!” she responds, putting extra emphasis on the words ‘looked’ and ‘see’ as she cracks her knuckles. Launcher notices that she always keeps the side of one foot against Mis's. 

“I’ll assume Mis is ready, so I’m not going to ask.”

“The hell’s up with tha–”

“Kevin, you don’t have a choice.”

“Yeah, I know…”

“The lives of millions are in your hands.”

“I know!”

“Possibly more.”

“I get it!” Kevin angrily responds. After a few moments, he visibly relaxes, sighing before resting a hand on top of Ceal’s head. “Let’s go.”

Cure clasps his gloved hands together, the only indication of his agreement before he takes a few steps away. He looks down on a bustling, bright city from the cliff the semi is stopped on, taking it in in its current state. Everything about the city, from this distance, seems like the epitome of manufactured perfection. Roads lead out of the city from the four cardinal directions, nothing in-between. The divide of "city" to "nature" seems impossibly precise, the perfectly circular foundation of concrete the metropolis is built upon spanning outwards as far as the eye can see.

After a few moments of enjoying the strangely beautiful sight from a distance, he turns around and glances towards Launcher.

Such a shame, Cure thinks to himself.

“Launcher, launch them.”

“Yes, sir!” Launcher smiles widely, ready to do what he does best. He walks up to Clear and Mis, taps both of them on the shoulder, and then turns around, giving a salute to Cure as he takes hold of Mis's arm. “Mis, take us away!”

“Don’t gotta ask twice, I fuckin' love doing this!” Looking towards the tower, Mis bends his knees, and jumps.

The resulting plume of dust that shoots up into the air from where the three were standing causes Kevin to raise a hand, covering his eyes. As soon as the dust has cleared up enough for him to take his hand away, the three are not much more than a speck against the bright blue sky.

Cure walks up to Ceal, then gets down on one knee, speaking sternly. “You're only allowed to play after you've done your part, understood?”

Ceal nods emphatically, his wide smile not having faded the whole time they’ve been outside of the truck. Bending down, he touches the ground with one finger, then stands back up, giggling. Underneath his mask, Cure smiles. He stands up straight, and starts walking leisurely towards the city as the ground begins to rumble.

Ceal’s laughter gets louder as Cure gets further away, and Kevin playfully pushes a bit on his forehead, causing him to fall backwards. 

“So many patients, so little time to tend to them,” Cure mutters to himself, sliding down a particularly steep hill on the balls of his feet. “I so miss the days when I could do everything myself.”

His monologue is cut off by the ground shaking more fiercely, making him have to brace himself. He turns around, just in time to see an enormous lift of dirt in the ground. It inches up slowly, foot by foot, until something breaks. It shoots up into the air, and turning quickly back towards the city, Cure’s breath catches in his throat. A wall of mud and stone, far taller than the highest building in the area, surrounds the city completely in seconds.

“Disease…” He lets out a shaky breath, finally letting his trepidation show. Now that everything has begun, there's no stopping it from continuing. “My job is to get rid of this disease, my job is to help…”

Before he can fully regain his bearings, he hears a very faint, very fear-filled yell growing quickly closer. Looking up, he sees Kevin flailing in the air, the laughing Ceal falling down alongside him. Cure takes a step back, moving out of their trajectory, and then, after raising a hand, snaps his fingers. Suddenly, Kevin is on the ground in front of him, perfectly fine. Ceal, however, continues to fall with a gleeful shout, and before he hits the ground, a rush of wind comes up below him and catches his descent. 

Ceal lands on his feet, laughing as he grabs a confused Kevin’s wrist and starts trying to pull him towards the city, not giving him time to get on his feet. His laughs quickly turn to whines.

“Come oooon!” He grunts with the strain, barely moving Kevin. “I wanna go play, you said I cooould!”

Kevin responds with a muffled sigh, before slowly getting to his feet, brushing himself off with one hand.

Cure blinks behind his mask.

So much power, he thinks to himself. If that one gets out of check, I'll need to cure him sooner rather than later.

Tuning out the two, he turns around, and begins walking towards the city. Yet, if anyone were to watch him, he'd seem to be inexplicably moving fifty feet forward with every casual step he took.