Dang Convergence Vol. 1

Chapter Twenty-three The Passionate Thief

Chapter Twenty-three

The Passionate Thief

A week went by.

Hundreds of billions in damage. That was how badly their fight with Arkanis had affected the city. No lives had been lost, largely because they'd gotten there quickly enough. But entire city blocks had been leveled and it didn't help that Dang had left a massive crater behind. There were significant amounts of investigations into what had happened but since they couldn't exactly announce to the world that a shadow monster was responsible for all the damage, they'd had to concoct a cover-up story, even if no one who resided in California quite believed it themselves.

The cover story was the most cliche one in the book. A gas leak, the news had said. An unprecedented one, and the resulting explosion had been catastrophic.

Tiger and Wombat had been questioned separately by the government about their involvement in the incident. Dang, for obvious reasons, hadn't been part of the questioning and neither had Dante. The two doppelgangers were content with Tiger and Wombat claiming the credits for beating Arkanis since neither one wanted to have the spotlight on them for a number of reasons.

Wombat had made known to the government authorities that Arkanis had managed to slip away and had provided a proper description of the monster so the right agencies could be on the lookout for him.

"He's hard to miss," Wombat had said. "Scrawny little kid with an attitude and ego problem who likes to play with swords and spears made of shadow. You come across him, call this line. The Heroic Heroes will take it from there."

When Wombat had relayed the events of their meeting to the others, Dante had burst into laughter.

"Wait, seriously, you guys call yourself the Heroic Heroes?" Dante asked.

"Yes," Daniel frowned, his hands on his waist. "What's wrong with that? We're heroic and we're heroes. It seems good enough."

"Yeah, sure," Dante said, still laughing.

Dang noticed that Daedalus was observing him. He frowned at his doppelganger and asked. "Is something wrong?"

"No," Daedalus shook his head. "It's just...your energy levels are a little higher than before. They've dropped since your Limit Break, but just not back to their usual levels."

"So, I'm stronger than before?" Dang asked.

"Probably faster too," Daedalus nodded. "It's the same with Daniel and Megan. Whatever energy you used in restoring them, it's given them a tiny boost. Not like yours, but close."

"Sweet," Daniel grinned. He held up a finger and summoned a blue flame, letting it dance on his fingertip.

"Anything on Arkanis yet?" Dang asked, gesturing to the computer at the desk. "If he's still out there, we're going to want to find him before he can go on another rampage. I'm not quite sure the city's ready for something like that again. Hell, I'm not sure I'm ready for that again. I'm still sore from the fight."

"Nothing yet," Daedalus sighed, turning around in his chair to face the computer. "I've conducted scans every day for the past week but there's been nothing yet. He's either somehow hopped back to wherever he came from, or he just hasn't regenerated enough of his energy for the scanners to pick up on him."

"Or he could be dead," Megan suggested.

Everyone turned to look at them with a facial expression that portrayed an are you serious? type of look.

Meg pursed their lips together and furrowed their brows. "What?" They shrugged. "Dang did give him a proper beatdown, it wouldn't be surprising if he's dead, would it?"