# # #
Deadguy walked into the Office of the Professional Heroes the next morning to find a makeshift war room instead. Army personnel were running back and forth with papers and smart tablets. Others were looking over monitors or maps laid out on clear plastic setups. Jill was at her desk, speaking with General Pathitikos. Valkadaidan stood between the two Army soldiers from yesterday and his weapon rack, arms crossed and ready for them to try anything.
“Boss,” Our Hero yelled over the commotion. “What the blueberry pancake HELL is going on?” He felt someone ram into him from behind.
“Move, DeeGee,” Kiri fussed. “You are not making me late for work again.” She pushed past him then stopped. “Military tech,” she muttered in awe, her eyes wide. “Santa's real,” she squealed, rushing into the madness.
Deadguy reached out in a failed attempt to stop her. “Kiri, no. Stop,” he said in a monotone voice.
“Deadguy,” Jill's voice called out from across the office. Our Hero noticed she was waving him over while still talking to the general.
He stopped behind the two soldiers on his way over. “Biggs. Wedge. Just a word of warning: He's fast. Faster than you can ever imagine. Don't. Blink.” The soldiers tensed up as Our Hero walked away, chuckling to himself. “What's up, boss,” he asked as he plopped down in Jill's chair.
“From now on, I'm your boss,” General Pathitikos announced.
He stared at the general, not believing a word. “No you're not,” he argued.
“Yes I am,” the general replied.
“No, you're not. You don't sign my checks, you don't call the shots.”
“But I do,” Jill said. She sighed regretfully. “And the general has been given orders to 'coerce' us into cooperating with him.”
“It's called an Executive Order,” the general corrected.
“Sounds more like forced servitude,” DG remarked.
“Call it whatever you want,” General Pathitikos remarked. “You're still under my command until the threat of Venatores Mali is eliminated.”
“Do I get time off for good behavior,” Deadguy asked.
General Pathitikos glared at Our Hero. He looked back at the general with contempt. “As I was saying, General,” Jill said, breaking up the tension. “What we need is something to draw the entire team out. All the ultimatum did was cause their leader to shake his finger at us.”
The two started discussing strategy while Deadguy looked around the Office. Valkadaidan was still standing guard of his swords, but the two soldiers looked like they were about to either attack him or run for it. Kiri was bouncing around one of the drone monitors, trying to figure out the technology while the army personnel controlling it kept gently pushing her away. Over by his desk, a few soldiers were looking over Masamune, laughing to themselves about it. He thought what would happen if any of them tried to pick it up, but none of them did.
Lost in his own little world, Deadguy snapped back to reality and looked around. Everyone had stopped moving. Sounds had abruptly stopped. Even things being tossed around were suspended in mid-air. “Oh no,” he groaned. “I'm tripping balls again, aren't I?”
“Hello,” a female voice behind him said softly. He jerked around to see the same Chinese woman that he encountered a few weeks back. “It's good to see you again,” she greeted with a soft smile.
“You again,” he exclaimed. “Who are you?”
The woman was briefly taken back, but quickly regained her composer. “It's still there,” she commented. “Listen, Deadguy. You're the only one that can stop this.”
“Stop what?”
“Zionus is this close to declaring war on the Heroes,” she explained. “You need to stop it.”
“And how, exactly, do you know this?”
“You don't remember me. I know you don't,” she explained. “I'm Genia Lee. We use to...that's not important. There's a reason you don't remember, and if you continue this path to war, you may never find out.”
“Can you be any more vague about that,” he snipped. “You mind giving me a few pointers on what to do? Refuse to fight? Go on vacation? Put sleeping pills in Pathitikos' coffee?”
“I don't care what you do,” she replied. “Just end this before it gets worse.”
The area was suddenly abuzz with activity once again. “Deadguy,” Jill called out, snapping Our Hero back to reality. “Did you catch a word of that?”
“Use buttermilk for fluffier pancakes. Got it.”
“No,” she corrected. “Not even close.”
Morning turned to afternoon as the Office of the Professional Heroes was still busy with Army personnel. The mess meant that any sort of actual business had disappeared. With all form of mobile devices having been confiscated, it also meant the Heroes had nothing to do but drink coffee and stare at each other.
Which is exactly what they were doing in the closed break room. Deadguy sat at the table, fighting the urge to say something. Anything. Jill sat across from him, drinking her coffee like it was a normal day. On his right, Valkadaidan was in a deep meditation. On his left, Kiri was doing something under the table.
“Jill, seriously-” DG started, but was stopped once their boss put her finger to her lips. He went back to drumming his fingers on the table.
“Maybe you should have a cup of coffee,” Jill suggested.
“I already had five,” Our Hero stressed. “I can hear colors!”
“And we're clear,” Kiri said.
“Finally,” Deadguy sighed.
“So who was she,” Valk questioned.
Deadguy raised an eyebrow. “Who was who?”
The Dragon-Blooded glared at him. “In the span of a second there appeared the scent of a woman, the scent of ozone, and you were looking around as if something was amiss. Who was she?”
Deadguy sat back. “I don't know. It's...” He began to rub his forehead. “Time stopped, something happened, and then time resumed. I feel like someone was there, but there's nothing there. It's like someone went into my brain and just deleted the person.”
“Huh,” Jill said, not believing him.
Deadguy rubbed the bridge of his nose. “All I know is that she wanted me to stop this war that was about to start between us and them.”
“Them who,” Kiri asked.
Our Hero gave her a look. “One Direction. Who do you think?”
“I don't know,” she defended. “We're always about to go to war with some group or another every week.”
“This is true,” Jill remarked wearily.
“We're taking on Venatores Mali,” Deadguy explained. “Still. Although I have a feeling that it's not going to end well.”
“For us or for them,” Valk asked.
Deadguy drummed his fingers on the table. “I'm not entirely sure.” He got up and went to look in the mini fridge on the counter. “How long had this fried rice been in here?”
“You were the one who put it in there,” Jill replied.
He pulled it out and started eating. “We send out a message that Zionus himself responds to. Get our asses handed to us on a silver platter. He leave once I landed a hit. And now some woman is saying he's about to wage war on us.”
“What would make a god-like being leave after just one hit,” their boss asked.
“He was trying to intimidate us,” Kiri answered. The other Heroes looked at her. “I was looking over the readings from the battle last night. His power is almost off the charts, but they were seriously suppressed while we were fighting.”
“So when I hit him...”Deadguy started.
“He realized he couldn't intimidate us,” Valkadaidan finished.
Our Hero plopped down in his chair. “Wonder how long we have?”
“Before what,” Jill questioned.
General Pathitikos entered. The Heroes all turned suddenly, as if their dad had caught them doing something. “Why do all of you look guilty,” he questioned.
“We're trying to figure out who took the cook
ie from the cookie jar,” Deadguy remarked.
“You don't have a cookie jar,” he observed.
“And you don't have kids,” Jill muttered over her coffee.
“Intel has just reported that Venatores Mali are getting ready for something big,” the general reported.
“How do you know,” Our Hero asked. The room suddenly went dark, and Zionus' head and shoulders appeared before them like a hologram. He was staring at Deadguy.
“Because I told them,” he answered.
“You're an asshole, you know that,” DG snapped.
“Hey,” Jill called out. “You have something to say, say it to me.”
The image spun around to face her. “Very well. I have seen the future as it will happen if you continue to fight us.”
“Two officers are dead,” she stated. “Either cooperate or-”
“You will die,” Zionus stated, cutting her off. “I would recommend you consider your team before your misguided sense of justice.”
“My team? I have an immortal with draconic powers, a wise ass that can't die, and a technological mad woman,” Jill listed.
Kiri cackled.
“You may have the powers of a god, but you are not God. We beat you once, and we'll beat you again and again and again until you give us what we want.”
Zionus looked down on her, unfazed. “Midnight. Downtown. We will end this.” With that, the image disappeared and the lights came back on.
“Who the hell was that,” General Pathitikos asked, pale as a ghost.
Jill looked across at Deadguy. “That was Zionus,” she answered. “The leader of the group you're wanting us to take down.”
“He claims to be a god,” DG continued. “And we're just the atheists to take him down.”
“I'm not atheist,” Jill explained.
Our Hero stood. “It was meant to be one of those bad ass ending statements,” he remarked. “Thanks for ruining the moment. Let's go, we have a war to get ready for.”