An Unlikely Friendship - Part 3

Posted on Wed May 19th, 2021 @ 3:22pm by Watch Leader Frederick Hollywood & Head Mistress Absynthe "Syn" Drake & Unawakened Zosia Galantis & Unawakened Grant Lancer & Private Mattias Tonelly
Edited on on Fri May 28th, 2021 @ 6:33pm

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

Grant sighed as he sat at his booth at the Ace Comic-con, everything started blurring together; shaking hands, taking pictures, and signing autographs. The young man would only find true respite from the cycle, and from the whirlwind, when he was able to talk about his equipment, or to reminisce about the good old days. "Hey Mr. Lancer, what's the story behind that one Screwball video where you..." and even though the circumstances behind the video was actually one of the worst and most humiliating days of his life, he would still talk about it with a smile on his face as if it was a happy and treasured memory.

Thank god some of these places have strict rules about hygiene and body odor...whoever invented Axe body spray needs to be tried for war crimes pretty sure it's some kind of chemical warfare Grant thought as he shook another fan's hand, just more of the same old-same old.

Another corny smile and pose for a picture these guys, they weren't the real heroes they just dressed up like them; pale imitations really, but he did admit some of the women's costumes were really good at the attention to detail especially with the catsuits. "Hey Mr. lancer....do you miss your friends?" Grant heard a kid's voice and looked up from his stupor having snapped out of it, the kid was looking at some old pictures and focused in on him between the two spider-men, the classic one, and a teenager dressed and a red and black version of the classic's costume. The shock of the kid's question made him break character for a brief second. Gone was the social media blogger...the long island "Iced-G" as he called himself, and he just smiled a genuine smile as he made the web-shooting gesture that the three of them were making in the picture, the same one the two spiders taught him what felt like ages ago. "Yeah, I do....every day," he said as the kid handed him a poster of one of the new heroes to sign. It was an action shot and a decent one at that, he could, and had, done better, though.

"What's your name?" he asked, and the kid gave his name. As Grant wrote the kid's name and a quick message, the boy's father reached out with some cash to pay him and Grant held up his hand. "On me my man..." he said simply as he smiled at the kid. "Got a real true believer here!" He said as he ruffled the kid's hair and handed him back the poster.

"Back to the drawing board," he said quietly as he got back into character the same cocky attitude, the dude-bro persona a few "slicking my hair" here and there the fans ate it up, they always did. Just then one of the people in his group came up and whispered in his ear causing grant to simply stand up and start strapping on the various pieces of equipment as he looked at the people in line and turned on his helmet camera and handheld as someone attached a bodycam to his vest. "So, you all wanna see an awesome floor show and watch me stream live to all the true believers around the world?" he asked as the people in his line cheered and followed him out towards said floor show.

Mattias turned his chair too quickly, to get away from Lorde, and the left wheel became tangled up in the legs of the chair nearest that had been toppled by the frightened crowds around them. This caused his chair to tip over, spilling him out onto his face.

Zo hurried to Mattias side, kneeling down she pushed the wheelchair to the side pulling Mattias onto his back. "Hey it's going to be okay." She tried to pull him into a sitting position up against the table legs but struggled. Why was she so weak? The downside of being artist over athletic she supposed. Her anger was slowly rising, readying to explode on the next person within her immediate area.

If it wasn’t for the mask Lorde would have given Wyrmwood a look. “Really? Aren’t you breaking a couple of cardinal rules of being super heroine here? I mean for one agitating a suspect in a heavily crowded place. I mean that’s fairly basic. The second that comes to mind is, it is Comic Con for God’s sake. No one that I know of has ever outright attacked one of these even in my world. I mean, isn't there some unwritten rule or something.”

Then the red and black armor clad villain shrugged. “Of course this outreach program isn’t really going that well. I mean I believe in the Yin and Yang as you know. As in, gotta give something back for what you have taken in this case, but if you want to hand out the rest of these cards I brought I can be on my way.” Lorde held up a box labeled “Marvel Champions - Watchtower”

Then Frederick shook his head and pointed at the kid in the wheelchair. “That said there really is someone in need of your assistance. In more ways than one.”

Mattias, Zosia. Don’t panic, young ones, a soft, soothing voice whispered into the mind of the fallen boy and his sudden protector. The gentle scent of his mama’s perfume seemed to fill his senses, while the sounds of waves lapping lazily against the shore rose in the young woman’s ears. Stay calm, stay still.

Wyrmwood shook her head, and gave a slightly exasperated sigh as she carefully, gracefully stepped to Mattias, placing herself in a protective position over the two young friends. “You really are too much, Lorde,” she said, her voice edged with an animalistic growl. “You’re wanted for crimes against humanity. You should be in prison, not playing mind games with these people.”

Grant finally had made his way over towards the floor show. Looking over his eyes focused on Wrymwood and Lorde. "For the record, you guys are the best cosplayers here today!"

He allowed the cameras to power up, and hitting record, Grant spoke into the mic with his handheld pointed towards his face, "Hey! It's your boi, the Long Island Iced-G here, and we got a new super battle play-by-play for you. Now Ms. Wyrmwood and Mr. Lorde here, well there's no love loss between them, true believers."

With Zo's help, Mattias was able to sit up. He gently held her hand, a part of his mind screaming at how awesome it was to hold a beautiful girl's hand and not have her flinch away! The rest of his mind was angry. Angry for the fall, angry for being weak, angry for not being able to protect Zo from whatever...this was.

Suddenly, his anger began to subside. He heard a soft voice inside his mind that was telling him to calm down and don't move. Then, even though he didn't see her, he smelled Mama's sweet perfume. The kind she had always worn since he was adopted by her and his Dad. When the black-armored woman stepped between he and Zo, and Lorde, he didn't feel. He felt peace and safety. He started to smile a soft grin.

Zosia tensed when she heard the unfamiliar voice in her head. The look on Mattias face told her he had heard it to. She tried to stay calm and do as instructed, the sounds of the ocean foremost the sound that filled her ears, over the crowd and actors. But what if they weren’t actors? Zo squeezed Matt’s hand and took another look at this Lorde character. What if he was the real deal....

Lorde was just about to leave in a hasty way when the YouTube reporter showed up. When an idea came to him. He pointed his sword at the blogger and in a very loud Rick Flair sounding voice he asked, “You know the problem Mister Iced-G? I don’t have a Long Island Iced Tea!”

Okay so it was a bit harder to keep a straight face saying some of this than Lorde had figured. “And do you know why? Because I am the villain. They didn't even put holes in my faceplate so I can have something to drink even if you gave it to me, right?” He beat his chest a little saying that last part.

“The worst part of that is most people don’t even know who the real villains are anymore. Plus they make it out like I have an easy job or something.” He wagged a finger in the direction of the crowd. “Do you have any idea how hard it is trying to make people see a truth that they have denied from the dawn of time?” Then after a short pause he added. “What if I told you big government was at the root of most of the problems you see today? Hell, they even created me!”

Most of the immediate area had been cleared in a large circle by the other heroes, though the crowd was resistant to being led away from what most of them considered to be the main floor show. Others went along willingly, thinking that maybe they were about to see an actual fight scene, and that they were just making room for them. Others made the choice to go ahead and leave on their own, sensing that something just wasn’t quite right, and they didn’t want to risk it, or they felt that their children didn’t need to see it.

He’s stalling, the voice of Wyrmwood’s nano armor AI sounded off in her head.

He’s definitely grandstanding, she replied, darkly. Lorde wasn’t unlike a clown in some ways. Ever the bold...entertainer, he wasn’t shy about snatching people that he thought would be useful to him. And he wasn’t always so worried about the collateral damage his plans often wrought. This would be a lot easier if people would just leave.

The statuesque woman clad in Wyrmwood’s armor, complete with the tracing of gold along each tiny scale, glanced at Grant Lancer. He was more often a thorn in her side, another target that had to be accounted for, but he tended to have good intentions. “Help these two, please,” she said, obviously meaning the two kids trying to hide under the table behind her, appealing to his deepest desire. His longing to be a hero. "Idiot," she added after a brief pause.


Grant nodded and slid under the table making sure to keep the handheld at his side. "Hey kiddos enjoying the show?" He turned to Mattias and Zo grinning like an idiot; "The nice heroine says I gotta get you two to safety.

"But before I do that I need to know your names true believers" Grant turned his helmet camera towards the two of them. Truth was the idiot comment seemed fishy. An actress wouldn't know how Wyrmwood often scolded him. The handheld then turned back to his face

As Grant waited for the kids to answer he would turn the handheld back to his face. "Don't forget to hit that like button and subscribe."

Matt looked uncomfortable. "Can you please not point that camera at me?" He tried to crawl away, but his useless legs kept getting caught on things, causing him to get more and more frustrated. He knew that if his parents saw this footage, they'd never let hi. Out of tHe house again. And if Carlos saw it...he'd be disappointed in how weak he was being. 'Use your arms, Jefe!' He'd say. Though, probably not as politely.

And then there was Zo! What would she think of him, being weak and pathetic. Suddenly, Mattias found a new gear. Turning, he freed his feet and then, using his hard worked upper body, raised up and easily hand walked himself free and clear of the area.

Zo watched Mattias struggle, the action breaking her heart, and then there was the relentless YouTuber pointing his camera in there faces. She wanted to rip it off him and smash it under her boot. Zo stared into that camera, like she was staring down an army of people who would judge her for whatever words came from her mouth.

Instead she rolled her eyes and turned away, walking to Matty shaking her head.

TBC

Frederick Hollywood
Lorde
The Findelian Watch