My hero

Chapter Five

"Hey? Is that really the best you got Theo, hey?" The newcomer said sharply staring down at him with a stare that could strike fear into the hearts of the boldest of villains, and somehow she was his best friend. She sighed,

"You were doing so well, two years and no trace of Soul Slayer and then go and ruin all of that hard work, and now your helping? You say you just want a normal life and then you go pull a stunt like this? I mean what were you thinking? Do you-"

"Ash," he said stopping her mid-rant "I'm sorry"

"Ok," she said a little calmer "but that's not an explanation."

"I- um" he tried not to glance at his hero, there would be a whole other lecture if she found out about him,

"I know you Theo so don't you dare say I don't know. You wouldn't do this type of thing without something that pushed you, so out with it" his hero shifted slightly under the table, he hoped that ash wouldn't notice but,

"What was that under the table?"

"Oh, it's just..." he tried to quickly think of an excuse "my dog"

"Slayers here," she said excitedly, and yes, he had named his dog after his old persona. And maybe he had used the shortened version only his hero was allowed to call him, what about it?

The excuse he had made quickly fell apart when slayer, hearing her name, bounded over to Ash. as she bent down to pet her she said

"Ok, so what's really under the table"

"Um its, uh" he tried to come up with another excuse but couldn't think of any, he looked over at his hero and nodded his head. He stepped out from under the table,

"Oh," she looked back and forth between us for a second "you know you could have just told me you had a boyfriend"

"Ash, I can ex-" he paused finally registering what she had said, he began to blush.

"Ash was it," his hero spoke up "I'm not his boyfriend, but..." he checked him out and winked. He began to blush harder, he really was out of this whole supervillain thing huh, had he still been in it he wouldn't have been left speechless this many times.

"Right, so not only are we going out again and playing hero we're also bringing strangers down into our secret layer"

"I didn't bring him down here he followed me!" He realized that that, in fact, would not make it any better the moment it left his mouth. Ash had pursued her lips into a tight smile,

"Even better" her tone was calm but she was glaring at him with a stony glare "so he's not your boyfriend and he's not your friend," she leaned over the railing a little, "who is he?

"This is..." he realized he didn't know his heroes name,

"Nick" his hero was named Nick? That was not what he had expected at all, but he liked the name, Nick, it suited him.

Ash, apparently deciding that she needed a closer look jumped off of the balcony and used her weather-controlling powers to drift down by them. He sighed, he doesn't think he had ever seen her use the stairs, but then again she had been trained by him. Nick looked a little taken aback at her for a second, before his eyed widened in recognition,

"You're Storm," he said

"Yes, Commander," she said his name like it tasted bad in her mouth. So she recognized him, this would be interesting. They began to circle each other the intensity built in the room as they both drew on their powers.

"Stop" he stepped in the middle of them, he had a grip on both of their powers pulling just enough to let them know that he could take their powers at any moment

"This isn't your fight, Theo," Ash growled

"Yes it is Storm. I am your mentor any fight that is yours is mine too, but also as your mentor, I am here to teach you when and who not to fight"

"You're defending him, whose side are you on?"

"Yours every time Ash, but Nick isn't the enemy" he looked over at Nick "for now"

"Ash" Nick spoke up tentatively "I'm sorry, I know what I did to you was wrong in every way, but I can't change the past. I'm not proud of what I have done to a lot of people and it will keep me up at night forever with the what-ifs. I understand if you cant forgive me. But I am truly sorry" he nodded a goodbye at me and began to leave.

"Wait" Ash dropped her stance, we both knew she had given up on this fight long ago "I forgive you, I did a long time ago when I realized the fight wasn't worth it" He breathed a sigh of relief glad that Ash had chosen not to fight, he had just started to reconcile with his hero and he would hate for it all to have been in vain.

"So" she turned to him with her hands on her hips "you have yet to explain why you came back and played Hero." Nick turned back around,

"That would be my fault before I realized who he was I asked him for help and he jumped in. I was scared at first but," he shrugged "turns out he's just a big softie"

"I am not! I was the biggest supervillain in this city for years"

"Yeah," Ash said "but your still just a big softie"

"Are you two ganging up on me now, you were enemies literally two seconds ago"

"And..." Nick said, "what's your point? you cant form a better or quicker bond than the one that comes with mutual teasing someone. But I guess you wouldn't know that cause you're a softie" Ash went over and high fived him

"I. Was. A. SUPERVILLAIN!"

"Right," Nick crossed his arms " a supervillain who never attacked hospitals, suburbs, or really any innocent people only going after the corrupt and rotten I couldn't get at. You had your act of a big bad and fooled a lot of people but I saw through it"

"I-uh-" he had no comeback for that and decided to glare at them with the evilest glare he could muster at the moment. Ash and Nick smiled knowing they had won

"Theo," Ash said "I will forgive you this time, but if you ever pull a stunt like this again I will become known as the hero who destroyed Soul Slayer. Have you got that?"

"Mmhm, loud and clear"

"Good. Now that that's settled I will take slayer home and leave you two alone" she began to walk towards one of the tunnels Slayer on her heels "oh and Theo, remember we have that reunion later tonight and as much as you want to I wouldn't recommend bringing Nick as your plus one" Nick turned to him as she disappeared down the hall,

"I'm hungry, want to keep talking over dinner?"