The Last Evening Of Peace

"I can't believe they actually ditched us," Ashley said with a deadpan expression.

Lily folded her arms and sighed. "Boys will be boys, I guess."

"Who cares?" Sky rolled her eyes. "We don't need them anyways."

"So, then, what do we do now?" Sera asked.

"No clue," Sky admitted. "Lily, what do you think?"

"Good question. Hope, what do we do?"

Hope stepped back, taken off guard as all the girls turned to look at her. They were out in the parking lot of the mall now, having watched Kenny and the other boys run off with Kyle. Their leaving had basically thrown Lily off her flow, and she no longer knew what to do for the day. "Why do I have to be the one to pick?" She sighed and rubbed her chin when the other girls just shrugged. "Well, they said they were going off to have a guy's night. Why don't we just do the reverse, then?"

"Like a girl's night?" Sky questioned.

"Exactly!"

Silence hung around them. "So, what's a girl's night?" Sera asked awkwardly.

"Huh! What do you mean by 'what's a girl's night?' Have you never had a sleepover!" Ashley said in shock.

Lily chuckled and shook her head. "None of us really got to do normal stuff growing up. Sera is like me and Sky. The three of us all had hero parents. Ashley, you and Hope are the first people to get superpowers in your family, but for people like us, we mostly had to keep to ourselves since the parents didn't want to worry about their kids in the hands of some other hero. I guess it would be like a doctor wishing to be there for their child if they got hurt instead of some other doctor."

"I never got to do a sleepover either," Hope said sheepishly. "Well, I mean a girl's sleepover. Armin and I hung out all the time when we were kids, but I never had any girls my age that I could be friends with."

"Are you and Armin dating?" Sera asked, surprised.

"Ew! No! Just ew!"

Sky tapped her foot down in annoyance. "I guess that means you're in charge, Ashley. What do we do?!"

This time, it was Ashley's turn to shrink back as everyone looked at her. She let out a nervous laugh, trying to come up with something. "Well, to start with, we need to decide whose house we're staying at."

Lily snapped her fingers and smirked. "That should be pretty obvious!"

That was how the five of them found themselves crossing the bridge connecting Oleander and Lillian. Lillian was almost nothing like Oleander. The buildings were way smaller, and the city looked far richer. Every house was practically a manor, and it was wide and open. A steady stream of traffic was present at all times down below, and even as the sun was reaching its peak, turning into the evening soon, people seemed to be going to and from work.

Thanks to the watches Boy Genius made, all of them were able to find a spot out of sight in Oleander and change into their costumes. They got into Lillian thanks to a mix of Oxide's and Poseidon's powers. Oxide created a large metal ramp with railings across it and seats they could hold onto. Poseidon wrapped it up in a bubble of water and used her power over gravity to cause the thing to rise up, and she carried it, almost seeming to fly.

Hope had to admit she was a bit jealous. Part of her still really wanted to learn how to fly, something that still seemed to keep itself just out of her grasp. Sure, she could boost herself through the air thanks to her explosions, but it wasn't the same. Of course, she was still learning new tricks to her power every day...

As they flew through the air, they saw a few other heroes. Lillian didn't have a Sub Enforcer team. Besides Rose, it was the only other city that did not have one. It did have its own hero team, though—the Reservoir. They saw a few members of this mighty team. Namely, Doctor Kraken, who stood on some big metal machine that phased through the ground, letting him swim through the dirt, and Hydro Cannon, who flew through the air being carried by two powerful jet streams of water that she used to fly. Hope didn't get too good a look at either of them, but she knew enough of Ocean Empress's team to know that both of them were no joke.

Finally, though, Poseidon came down to the ground where a large manor loomed over the street. Hope openly gawked at it and shot Sky a look. "You didn't tell me you were rich!"

"I'm rich," Sky said dryly.

The manor was one of the biggest ones she had seen so far. Even bigger than Kyle's. It had a large, vast field of green that stretched out and a house so big that Hope was sure she could fit her entire extended family in one room and not even take up half the space. A massive garden was off to the side, wrapping around part of the house, and dozens of machines, the same kind that were in the Nightshade prison, worked on the field. In the front of the manor, a large statue stood. It was one that was clearly taken care of often.

It showed off a tall man—one dressed in armor shaped like a knight and wielding a massive great sword on his back—the hero known as Shark Knight. Husband of Ocean Empress, he died fifteen years ago during the war with the Emperor. He is said to have gone toe to toe with the legendary villain himself. He held the Emperor off long enough, buying time for his entire city to evacuate and escape.

"Not to be rude or anything," Ashley piped up. "But how is it that no one knows you guys are Superheroes? You have a literal statue of one in your front yard and actual robots working on your house as butlers."

Lily pointed up to the sky above, and Ashley and Hope looked up. Above them, the air almost seemed to shimmer a bit, a weird dome of see-through energy going around the house.

"Boy Genius created a massive field of illusions that he installs under most heroes' homes," Sera explained casually. "Although illusion isn't the right word exactly. It causes normal people to not be able to really pay attention to the spot, letting heroes leave their homes in full costume and return without being spotted by normies. It doesn't really work on other Supers, though, and so the field also provides services to create fake images. If a Super were to fly over this spot, they'd just see a normal manor, no robots or anything like that. It isn't until you pass through you can see everything."

"I really need to get one of those things built at my house." Ashley whistled.

Lily stepped off the metal platform and removed her costume, changing back into her civilian clothes with the press of a button. The rest of them followed suit, and the metal slowly sunk into the ground, vanishing once they were all off. The girl turned to them all and placed her hands on her hips, giving a large smile. "Alright, then." She announced loudly. "Who wants to watch a movie?"

The inside of Sky and Lily's house was just as impressive. It had a large entryway that led further into the manner, massive stairs that went up several floors, and it had a large dining hall and a kitchen instead of a combination of the two like her mother's apartment had. There were a few pictures hanging up on the walls showing off more old heroes like Mr. Sini and the like. One was a group photo that held the Sini family all out of costume. It was just River and her daughters at that point, though. Sky was very young in the picture and had a large smile on her face.

Hope glanced at the picture and then turned back to Sky. "Huh."

"What?" Sky asked.

"Nothing. It's just I've never seen you smile like that. It was adorable." Sky whacked her on the back of the head and turned away with a huff.

They soon found themselves in the movie room. Yes, a movie room—a thing totally normal people have. The back wall had a massive TV hung up on it, and just turning it on was enough to flood the place with blue light. The room had a large couch, which they all piled onto. They were all shoulder to shoulder, and Lily put on some sort of horror movie.

The movie took place in some cabin out near a lake where a masked man ran around trying to kill everyone. Even if she had been a kid, she doubted it would have scared her all that much. After all, a hero would have shown up to stop whatever the monster was. Now that she was a Super, though, the movie was sort of boring. Even as the sun got close to setting and it became dark, none of them really took it seriously, making fun of the bad effects and design.

It was fun, though. She couldn't help but look at the others. Ashley seemed a little bored, while Lily and Sera kept joking about how they could see the strings. Sky paid attention, though. Now that the girl had her eyes back, she didn't take her sight for granted. Even a bad movie like this kept her attention.

"Do you think the others are having any fun?" Sky asked her.

"You mean the boys?"

"Yeah."

She shrugged her shoulders and watched as the main female lead in the movie discovered all the dead bodies of her friends and ran around screaming as the killer slowly chased her. "I guess they'd be having fun. I wonder what they're up to."

"Guy stuff, probably."

Over in the Pantheon base, Armin banged his arms down on the table. They had decided to hang out there when they started their guy's night and were now doing one of the most important things ever.

"Alright, Asmon, the unbreakable. This is it. Daimon has just finished his dark summoning magic! However, due to your abilities, you get a single attack of opportunity. It all comes to this. Roll!"

Kyle gulped and picked up his dice. "Don't let me down." He threw them out, and they rolled across the table. Slowly, they came to a stop.

"NAT TWENTY!" Rowan and Kenny cheered out, kicking up the table and causing it to crash back down.

"Asmon swings his sword, and in one swift motion, he beheads the dark wizard, finally taking revenge for his lost family!"

"YEAH!"

Hope snorted, resting back on the couch as she tried to imagine what the guys did when they hung out. "I bet they're playing DnD or something like that."

"DnD?"

"Oh my God, do you guys not know what that is? Grab some dice!"

***

Thaddeus threw the ball out as hard as he could. It rolled across the lane and smashed through the pins with ease, knocking them down.

Lois sighed, and her eye twitched a bit. Even with the ability to see the future, she was losing. "Geez. How are you so good at this?"

"Years of practice." Thaddeus readied another ball and tossed it out. They were back in the abandoned bowling arena. The one he had taken his team to when he needed to reward them with a day off. It was just him and Lois this time, though. "My dad used to take my brother and me here all the time when we were kids. After I joined the Sub Enforcers, we had a leader called Red Iron who also took us out to places like this every once in a while. Money Tree and I would always try to outdo each other. I never liked using my powers to get an edge, so I just practiced until I was so good I could get a strike first try every time." He looked down at the bowling ball he held and couldn't help the faint smile that came onto his face. "What about you?"

"I mean, I've bowled a couple of times." Lois shrugged, throwing her own ball down the lane and watching it take out half the pins. "I never really had any crazy hobbies. Now that I've bought that bike, though, I've been having a blast riding around on it."

"You've only had it for less than a day?"

"And I've never been happier."

Thaddeus chuckled and rolled his ball, getting a perfect strike again. It was all but certain he was winning this match. "If you don't mind me asking, did your dad ever take you out to do things like this?" Lois's smile faded, and she nearly dropped the ball but managed to catch it thanks to her sight. "Sorry. I guess that's a sore topic." He winced a bit and looked away.

Lois sighed and shook her head. "No. It's fine. To answer your question, hell no! My dad never bothered taking me out anywhere, and my mom was even worse. Ms. River would sometimes take me to the park, though, whenever she was in town, so that was fun."

Thaddeus nodded his head. Ocean Empress was the definition of a good person if you were to ask him. She dropped out of the war to take care of dozens of kids who lost their parents to the Emperor. She not only raised her own kid by herself but also took care of the children who belonged to Supers. Even villain's kids. She had adopted Sky, the daughter of the Emperor, willingly and took care of Wyvern, who was forced to turn into a monster at a young age. It was thanks to her that people like Bad Wolf and a few other Monsters were able to turn over a new leaf and join hero teams.

By comparison, the Victorian was nearly the total opposite. She was almost like a machine. She saved those who best helped society and did so without emotion. Truly, she was the number one hero due to her overwhelming power and drive to save the world.

"I can't imagine what your life must have been like."

"It really wasn't that bad," Lois grumbled. "That's what makes me really mad more than anything. Compared to someone like Armin, who lost his mother, you, who lost both their parents or Hope, who is losing her father, my life wasn't all that difficult."

"Just because it could have been worse doesn't mean you have to accept it."

"Oh, I know." She threw her ball once more and, this time, knocked over only a single pin, causing her to grit her teeth a bit. "Dad was around sometimes. When he wasn't in costume, he tried. He really did. He spent more time chasing after Mom than he spent with me, though. I don't even know how the two of them ended up. Part of me wonders if she ever even loved him or just wanted to have a child with a Lord. I think she expected me to be strong. To be as strong, or even stronger than her. She was around a lot in the beginning. It's so hard to remember, but sometimes I can recall her smiling, always looking at me with a grin. But as the years passed and my powers didn't make me stronger, she spent less time with me. Then, when it became clear that my powers simply reached their peak, she stopped showing up altogether. I think she forgot she even had a kid. She barely even pays attention to her Ex-husband. Too busy shaking up with Lady Time or Mister Man. Sorry for ranting."

"It's fine." Thaddeus gripped down on his bowling ball, his fingers digging into it and nearly cracking it. Slowly, though, he managed to calm down. "Heroes... Heroes often make bad parents, I think. Ocean Empress might be the exception. She's human. Something I think most Supers give up when they get their powers."

"Your dad wasn't bad, though, was he?"

"No. I guess not. He was a good man."

"Was he a good parent?"

"He was a damn good man. Good men are allowed to be shit fathers. That's what my brother always said. My dad was around. Sometimes. More than yours, that's for sure. Hero work took most of his attention, though. That and his library." Dust sprinkled onto the floor as the bowling ball he held nearly shattered. "I think that's why I liked this place so much. Here, he was able to unwind. Here, he was able to just be my dad."

Lois quietly placed her ball down and walked over, setting a hand on his shoulder. Silence hung in the air for a moment. "Your brother. Do you remember what he said about the Beast?"

He thought back and found himself back on the Enforcer's ship, staring at his tall sibling. "It's about the Beast," his brother said quietly.

Myth's eyes instantly narrowed. "Alright. Go on." Snowdawn and Whisper both stood shocked, their ears ringing. First the Emperor, and now this.

Fable slowly moved his lion pelt to the side, showing off his chest. Despite being tall and skinny, he had some muscle on him, as well as very large abs. He also had one of the worst scars Snowdawn had ever seen: a nasty black mark on the side of a basketball placed directly above the man's stomach and below his chest. It circled around Fable's entire body and looked painful and fresh despite being old.

"Two years ago, when I fought the Beast, my gut was punctured. I would have died that day if not for Paragon's powers awakening. However, this mark was unable to be fully healed. It still clings to me and aches. Every now and then, though, it truly burns. Recently, it's felt like it's on fire. It's nothing more than a gut feeling, but I believe that the Beast could be paying Earth a visit once more. As to what city, I do not know."

Myth grit his teeth and balled his hand into a fist. "Do the others know?"

"I informed Boy Genius. If the Beast is truly on the way, it will take months. In the past, we usually had three to four months before we had to worry about it when it got moving. He is going to look into it when we get back and make sure we don't need to get ready for war. The people will be stressed enough when they learn of the Emperor. This is another matter altogether."

Myth nodded slowly. "I understand. I'll do what I can-"

"That's why I wanted to speak to you." Fable cut his older brother off and stared down at the smaller man. "If it is true and my hunch of the Beast does turn out to be real, I'd like to ask you a favor."

"What is it?"

"Don't show up."

The memory ended, and he found himself back in the present, his bowling ball finally shattering and breaking to bits. "Are you going to listen to him?" Lois asked quietly. "Are you going to stay out of the fight with the Beast if it does turn out he's heading our way?"

"He's my little brother." Thaddeus hummed. "It is the job of an older brother to ignore the requests from the younger sibling."

***

"You just picked a bard so you could try and flirt with Hope, didn't you," Lily asked, narrowing her eyes.

Sky just let out an innocent whistle and rolled her dice, trying to seduce the barmaid. "Is a nine good?"

"No," Hope said, shaking her head.

"Damn it!"

"There's a lot of math and talking in this game," Ashley muttered, looking down at her character sheet and trying to figure out what each number meant.

"Oh, sweet!" Sera said, reading over her spells. This says I can make stuff small or big. I basically get my powers in my made-up dude!"

They were all seated around the dining room table now as Hope did her best to teach them the wonders of tabletop gaming. Sadly, it wasn't going that well. The only one who even seemed to get a good idea of how things worked was Sera, who was very chaotic and actively burning everything down. She was still somehow better than the other girls, who were just sort of picking stuff and going with the flow. It didn't help that she didn't really know what she was doing herself. They had none of the books, and Armin was always the one who would come up with the plot and monsters when she and him played.

The sound of the front door opening echoed down the manner, and Lily stood up, dropping her sheet. "Looks like mom is back. I'm going to go check on her. We sort of ditched her and forgot her at the mall. I'm sure she's wondering what happened to us."

"It isn't like her not to text us." Sky checked her phone but still had no notification from her mom. "Maybe she ran out of battery on her phone? Who knows? I'll let Destiny play your character while you're gone. He's been staring down at us, wanting to play for a while now."

As if on cue, the red bird landed down on the table and pecked at Lily's dice, squawking. Hope shrugged. "Yeah, I don't speak, bird; I have no idea what you're trying to do."

Sky shivered a bit. "Turns out Sera's playing a saint compared to what Destiny wants to do to the people in this bar."

That was the last thing Lily heard as she left the room and headed for the front of the house. "Mom!" She heard a loud crash up ahead and turned around the corner just in time to see her mother standing straight in front of the door with wide eyes. She looked almost like a deer caught in the headlights. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah! I am fine! Just fine! Just me!" Her mother said, obviously lying.

Lily shrugged her shoulders. "Right. Hey, I'm sorry we left without saying anything. A lot happened, and I got totally distracted. I hope you didn't have to wait outside for too long before you realized we ditched you."

"Ditched me?" Realization suddenly dawned in the woman's eyes. "Oh, that's right! I was supposed to pick you up, wasn't I?"

"You forgot?"

"I got a bit distracted, myself." The woman admitted.

Lily raised an eyebrow. Her mom was acting weird all of a sudden. "I invited some of my friends over. Is it okay if they stay the night?"

"Sure? I didn't know you had friends."

"Mom!"

"I'm kidding. Mostly. But yeah, I don't mind. Just try not to be too loud and get to bed on time, okay?"

"Yeah, I will." Lily turned away, waving her hand. "Thanks, Mom."

River watched her daughter leave before she slowly stepped back out onto the front porch of the manor. "You can stop hiding, now."

"No, I can't." She looked down and found Jack's legs were poking up out of a thorn bush. "You shoved me into this!"

"I didn't think anyone would be home! I panicked and had to stop her from seeing you!"

"Is it really that bad to be seen with me?"

"Yes."

"Ouch! I can't tell what hurts more! This bush or your words!"

"Keep your voice down." She waved her hand, and a tendril of water picked the man up, dragging him out and setting him down. Jack dusted off a few drops of blood from his shirt. "So, I guess you'll be heading home?" She asked.

"Yeah, it looks like it." He turned away, giving a lazy wave. "I'm guessing the kid is in there. Make sure she doesn't do anything stupid."

"Will do." He stepped off the porch and was about to leave, but she called out to him, "Wait. Lari—Jack."

He turned to look back at her. "Yeah?"

"This day was fun. We should do it again sometime."

'Two weeks left to live.'

Jack turned away, not meeting her eyes. "Yeah. We should."