An Unlikely Friendship - Part 2

Posted on Mon May 17th, 2021 @ 4:39pm by Watch Leader Frederick Hollywood & Head Mistress Absynthe "Syn" Drake & Unawakened Zosia Galantis & Private Mattias Tonelly
Edited on on Fri May 28th, 2021 @ 6:32pm

Mission: The Factions
Location: Ace Comic Con- Long Island NY
Timeline: Present Day

Mattias and Zosia laughed over the pizza, the conversation between the two extending past the meal. Zo wasn’t in a hurry to find her brother and father, she surprisingly rather liked the easy flow of the conversation she was having. Then she realized she didn’t even know his name.

“I’m Zo by the way. I don’t think we introduced ourselves. Ha.”

Blushing heavily, Mattias realized that she was right. "I-I-I-I'm M-m-m" he closed his eyes and took a breath, trying to calm his nerves. Opening his eyes again, looking into Zo's beautiful eyes. "I'm Mattias. You can call me Matt or Matty." He shrugged slightly." While he was still blushing, he started to smile, a pure, happy smile.

Suddenly the entire room went black. Even though light should be pouring in from the daylight outside it was so dark no one could even see their hands. Then red lights appeared to float around the room. They began to pulse as a huge bell began to ring. After three chimes of the bell a voice sounding like it was standing behind everyone in the room at the same time spoke loudly. “I will watch over you!” The lights all came back in a flash and standing in the middle of the room was a black and red power armored figure with a massive bone bladed sword.

First there were surprised gasps and low rumbling of confused conversation, and a couple of screams sounded off as everything went black. More sounds of confusion and fear started to rise as the voice boomed out over them.

When the lights came back up, and the man in the power armor and gigantic sword revealed himself, someone shouted, "Holy shit! It's Lorde!"

After a momentary pause, the crowd erupted in applause, whistles and shouted approval of the skit being put on for them.

Others, however, instinctively moved away from the person in the armor. He was a villain, after all. And while some were obsessed with villains, not everyone was so eager to show support for one that actually created chaos in the world that they lived in.

When the lights went out Zo sat very still, thinking it was just a power surge. But when the bells began and she shot out of her seat sending the chair flying behind her. She couldn’t see anything but red lights. “What the....” she hadn’t realized that she moved to stand near Matthias until the lights came back on.

When she saw the intimidating figure she almost laughed, what a joke. “So I guess the theatrics have begun.” Thinking the whole episode was just a stunt, she didn’t know nor care who the ‘actor’ was and turned to retrieve her chair.

At first, Mattias was excited to be a part of a floor show. Then, when he saw Lorde, something deep in the back of his mind told him that something wasn't quite as it seemed. Without realizing it, he repositioned his chair to put himself between Zo and Lorde.

Lorde walked over to the kid in the wheelchair. He put his hand on the boy's shoulder then held out a sealed pack of trading cards. “Hey man I guarantee you at least one personally signed Lorde card in this pack anyway.” Then he stood back up. “Now I need to find the rest of my team to stop those do gooders.”

When Lorde laid his hand on Mattias's shoulder, he flinched, suddenly seeing a flashback of when Toby Brennen, the senior varsity linebacker, had attacked him. Clamping his eyes shut, Mattias shrunk away from Lorde's touch.

Zo watched the exchange between Matt and this Dark Lord of whatever. She rolled her eyes when he spoke about a signed card, but maybe that would mean a lot to Matt so she didn’t comment out-loud. Instead she sat back down. She had know stunts like this were often done at comic cons but she had no idea they would be so flashy and dramatic.

"P-p-p-please...."Mattias's voice was small. "D-d-don't hurt m-m-m-me ag-g-g-gain!"

Zo stood up again, “Matt he’s not going to hurt you. It’s just a show.” The sudden fear in Matt’s voice put Zo in full protective mode.

“Stop, Lorde!” Someone shouted, and a group of intrepid cosplayers pushed their way through the crowd. The woman that stepped forward in front of her group was tall and dressed up as the hero Wyrmwood, complete with her black-scaled armor, and gold-tipped war-fans. Behind her were three of her known compatriots in their various garb; the alabaster-skinned Solitaire mistress of stone, Tempest, a lithe young man with white-tipped hair that had power over the winds, and Purifyre, a slender, fiery redhead that was hot in more than one sense of the word. These guys were known to win every costume contest that they even showed up to, and it looked like they were up for another win. “Step away from that boy!”

Suddenly, Mattias changed. Instead of fear, rage filled his features. Quickly reaching over with his left hand, he placed his thumb on the back of Lorde's hand, which was still on his right shoulder. He then wrapped his fingers around Lorde's thumb, squeezed his hand into a fist and twisted towards him, using a technique he had learned in karate. "I said don't hurt me again!"

For a moment Lorde’s thumb and hand didn’t move at all. He couldn’t help but think to himself that this was the second caper in a row where he tried to be nice to someone that just really went the other way with it. Then it came back to him that this was just fake and he had to keep up appearances. He let the kid take his hand wherever he might. He looked at the would be superheroes. “Hey hey guys, as you can see I am a little tied up right now. Also it wouldn’t be much of a fair fight five against one and all. Maybe I should call more members of my team to help. What do you think people?” He was also asking the crowd, just to see if he could get some of them going like at some of his favorite festivals.

Things were getting out of hand, and quickly. "Matty let him go, he's not trying to hurt you." Zo wasn't sure how Mattias would react if she touched him so she hoped her voice would do. "It's alright. Just let him go." She wanted to snap at the cosplayers, all of them. Of course they would come rushing in to 'safe the day'. They were just making the situation worse, drawing a larger crowd, getting this Lorde character an even bigger spot light. She didn't give a shit about the show, she could tell something was wrong with Mattias.

Hearing the soft tone of Zo's voice, Mattias's anger suddenly started to fade. Blinking. He realized he was still holding Lorde's hand. Dropping it immediately, he stammered frightened, "I-I-I-I'm s-s-sorry!"

“Why don’t we take this outside, Lorde? Let these fine people get back to their day?” Wyrmwood asked, though it sounded more like an order than a request. The others that were with her began moving out amongst the hyped up crowd, trying to draw attention away from the main event and subtly herd them out of the area.

Stepping closer to the armor-clad man, though carefully, her red-reptilian eyes glanced towards the two young people that were near him. “Villain’s day out is over,” she continued, as her somewhat disturbing gaze returned to the genial madman.


*To be Continued*

Frederick Hollywood
Lorde
The Findelian Watch