“What!”

I inhale deeply, staring back at myself in the rather dirty mirror the motel provided this morning. I’ve got on my best impression of a gangbanger on, something that’ll make people take me seriously despite my short height and the baby fat on my face.

Brown leather jacket with a white top underneath, a beige scarf from the pile of clothes Paige and I stole earlier and some tight black biker gloves, recently purchased.

“Vern! You can’t have me tire myself out on this one, you’ve got to answer me!”

I let out a sigh, twirl about and strike a pose, “What do you think? Do I look ‘not to be fucked with’ enough?”

She rolls her eyes at me from the bed as she scoffs, “You’re like a kid playing dress up.”

For the most part, that’s entirely true.

“Answer me Vern, why are you rushing this? It’s barely been a week since you got messed up by Steve and T.V!” She claps her hands as she says this, important stuff I’m guessing.

“It’s been four days, and we have no way of knowing how close Neil is to sniffing you and I out of our hiding spots here in Invincibill’s territory.”

“So?”

“So, he could be on the next block asking questions right now.”

She huffs, “I don’t think Neil is that much of a sick pervert to go all the way into Invincibill’s territory just to hunt me down, but that aside, it doesn’t answer why the heck you woke up this morning, walked to the store, bought those ugly gloves and declared you’d be headed over the meet Invincibill.”

“I didn’t just decide on the way to the store that’ll it’ll be a good idea to meet Invincibill today, I decided yesterday.” At this she gapes so I add, “And I thought about it all night and all morning too, reviewing the decision over and over again and concluded there isn’t any real reason to waste any more precious time.”

I pull on the gloves, quite liking the snug feel of it on my hands, “And, these gloves are for in case I lose my gun, my fingerprints are all over the police database and right now, we don’t have a supervillain boss to pressure the police into not jailing me.”

“Vern.” She starts softly, the edge in her voice gone and I feel like I’ve committed the greatest sin in the world. Whenever she goes quiet like this, she always makes me see things her way.

I’m starting to think she might have some mind control powers too.

“You didn’t discuss any of that with me. You just decided? How? Why? I get you’re looking out for the both of us but don’t you think I should at least be taken along for the ride as well?”

Ahh there it is. Piercing guilt.

“I didn’t want you to talk me out of it.” I mutter, my butt hitting the floor dejectedly.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

She raises an eyebrow at me as she crawls down from the bed to come sit with me, “If you knew I could talk you out of it then it must be a pretty bad decision, no?”

Yup, that’s about it.

I heave a sigh, groaning as my shoulders suddenly feel so much heavier than usual.

“Yeah, I guess so.”

She gives me a knowing, smirkish smile as she nods satisfied.

Sorry to burst your bubble, Paige.

“But I’ve still got to do it and quick.”

She’s so surprised by my bite back she turns mute for a second. “Uh…I, what? No!”

“Neil, T.V and Steve, not to mention a safe livelihood, can’t live in motels our whole lives, can we?”

“Vern…” She starts, rubbing her temples.

“Besides, I’ve got my powers now, better than ever, I can control it!”

She nods, agreeing but ultimately ready to disagree, “Yes, but your powers aren’t trained, your body still hurts like hell, doesn’t it?” She makes her point by poking a particularly sore area of my chest.

I try not to flinch but it hurts.

“See? And you said you were certain these bruises were from your extended use of your powers; you came back covered in blood!”

“Yes, but this is just an introduction, I won’t be taking on the entire gang or whatever and if I really have to, I can escape! I freeze time for crap’s sake, it shouldn’t be too hard to give a couple of frozen folks the slip.”

“What if they have inhibitors?” she challenges, arms folded over those large chests and smug look locked and loaded for when I don’t have a sensible comeback.

Sorry to disappoint Paige, but I do.

“Why the heck would a gang led by a supervillain have inhibitors near them? Not to talk of how outrageously expensive those things are, sell the entire city and you likely wouldn’t be able to afford them still.”

She rolls her eyes at me, “They could have stolen some.” She offers.

“And not be deep within the Hole by now?” is my rebuttal, I scoff at the thought, “Hell, the heroes would use the inhibitors they stole to chain them up!”

I treat myself to an outright laugh at her face at this as she groans.

“Sounds like you have it all figured out huh.”

I shrug, feeling fly for winning an argument with Paige even after she’d used that voice of hers, “Pretty much I’d say.”

“Really?” she sounds doubtful.

What am I missing?

I think she sees the panicked look on my face at the thought that I hadn’t considered something rather crucial to meeting the gang because her victorious, condescending look returns.

“You haven’t mentioned how you plan on meeting a freaking C-list Villain as a common civilian kid?”

It’s my turn to go mute as I hadn’t really considered this. Rather Ironic as I didn’t figure out the ‘meeting’ part of meeting Invincibill.

“Isn’t he like, a D-lister?” I murmur, trying to deflect.

It doesn’t work, her gaze is fixed solely on me, not up in her head pulling out news facts and online facts about the heroes and villain metas of this country and some other parts of the world.

“Fine, I’ll just step out for a quick survey of the gang, there’s got to be an area where they’re highly concentrated with their forces, there’s likely to be their little HQ, I’ll ask questions from there.”

She puts on a smile at this and breathes a sigh of relief, “See? We probably would’ve come to that conclusion had we spoken about this yesterday when you up and decided to be dumb.”

She gets off the floor and starts rustling through the wardrobe.

“Wait, what are you doing?”

She chuckles wryly, “What am I doing?” she pops out of the wardrobe with her white fur coat, the most expensive thing she’s got and the only thing she has from two-hundred years ago. “Well, I’m going to survey the area with you!”

“But-!”

“No, I don’t want to stay here and watch the news or order room service.” She answers before I can even ask, looking at me with a dry expectant look in her eyes, “What I want to do is be next to you when you’re up and making decisions all on your own, maybe if I’m close by you’ll remember I have a voice and an opinion.”

“Ugghhh” I groan, wiping my face with my hand, “You’re not going to let this go, are you?”

She giggles, doing a little dance in her coat, “Not for at least a few weeks or so. Now, how do I look?”