19 years later
Bryan's POV
Despite everything that's happened in previous years, I couldn't help but only feel numb now.
Everything I did seemed to make my feeling worse, nothing has been the same since the morning Inpu went missing.
On the plus side, heroes were more accepted, so I could use my hero work as my job, but it didn't help, I was still a mess in my private life.
Drinking was something I did often, which I hated that I started, especially since the triplets were born.
From what they told me, whenever I drank, I was more sad over anything, so it often ended up with me passed out on the couch covered in a blanket...which is what happened today.
All I knew of the night before was that I was heavily missing Crystal and my other kid, but I was at the point I felt nothing for Inpu.
Upon waking up, I noticed I was in the empty house, likely because the triplets were at school, so I didn't have much to do as I was off duty for the day.
I was just trying to make myself something to eat so I could hopefully get rid of my hangover quicker, but I was stopped when I heard a knock on the door.
Once I answered the door, I saw River and Elio standing at the door, and considering the memories I had flash in my head were from when River was in the hospital, I did not want to deal with anything at the moment.
"Morning, rough night?" [Elio]
"Let me guess, Atlas called you" [Bryan]
"Yup, said last night you were talking about a strange man and how you still had no idea how you didn't see it coming, so he wanted us to check on you" [River]
"Do you blame me? My fiancée took two of our kids and ran without talking to me at all, I'm going to be upset" [Bryan]
"While you have the right to be mad, you need to let go, no one has had a lead on him in years, Nightmare's name isn't even considered anything bad on the streets anymore" [Elio]
"But what happens if he suddenly shows up or gets arrested, Crystal would be an adult now, but the other one is still a minor, I'd have to make huge adjustments to the household because of that" [Bryan]
"Stop preparing for the ifs, as much as I hate to say it, its really unlikely that they'll show up out of no where" [River]
"Then what am I meant to do? The one who got away for me romantically was also the one villain who caused so much chaos that I feel so much regret for not putting him behind bars" [Bryan]
"But you need to-" [River]
As River was about to continue, we heard the tv switch to a breaking news report from the team that covered villain work.
It started by talking about Inpu's villain story, so I had a feeling I was going to hear news I couldn't wait to hear, but still hearing that Inpu was behind bars now was music to my ears, but I was in disbelief.
Once it finished up, it brought up how his new second in command was still out and about, but most didn't have many hopes since they didn't make themself well known.
"Holy shit, its actually over" [Elio]
"Guess we need to figure out where the kids are, that way we can help them adjust more" [River]
"No, something about this doesn't feel right" [Bryan]
"What do you mean?" [Elio]
"Simple, as much as I feel happy he can't hurt anyone, its too easy, he wouldn't let the police get him, only a hero would be able to" [Bryan]
"So what are you saying?" [River]
"He either needs something, or he has a larger plan that requires him to get something from the prison" [Bryan]
"Then should we go meet with him?" [Elio]
"No, I don't know if I'll be able to face him, I say we give it a few days before we act on anything, we still have our own city to deal with" [Bryan]
"But what if he wants us to wait? We could always send Kaiba and Ashara to meet with him while we stay on patrol, that way we can keep an eye out while we have two in there to get information" [River]
"That could work, but who's going to stay with my three? If their father is in the prison in our town like the news said, I don't want to risk a break out and have them be taken" [Bryan]
"Good point, aren't your parents in town?" [River]
"My mom and step father leave town tomorrow morning, so they are out of the question" [Bryan]
"Then hire someone, I'm sure they wouldn't mind hanging out with someone for a few hours" [Elio]
"My kids are 17 not 7, so that's out of the question, plus their friends aren't heroes to my knowledge, so letting them just hang out with friends isn't exactly a good option" [Bryan]
"So we're at a pause" [River]
We all stayed quiet for a bit, just trying to figure out what we should do since we don't let anyone go solo when any of us are patrolling, but suddenly, there was a knock on the door.
I went to open it, trying to figure out who else would come over this early in the morning, but to my surprise, it was a police officer.
"Hello, can I help you, sir?" [Bryan]
"Good morning, are you Bryan Rosewood?" [Officer]
"Yeah, I'm him, why?" [Bryan]
"A prisoner, Inpu Tombstone, requested to speak with you, said it was urgent" [Officer]
"He's been in jail for like a day, isn't he supposed to be isolated from the outside world for a few days due to villain protocol" [River]
"Normally yes, but he put in his request this morning, and when it was denied, he almost killed three guards and ten prisoners" [Officer]
"Did he give a reason?" [Bryan]
"He did, said something like he had vital information for you, but him getting arrested was the only way he could think to get it to you safely" [Officer]
"Alright, I'll stop by later today, anything else?" [Bryan]
"Simple, he said he wanted to speak with the Angle, not his fiancée" [Officer]
I just nodded and closed the door.
River and Elio had some kind of conversation with me before they left, but I was out of it.
My mind was racing with reasons as to why Inpu wanted to speak with me, but he wanted to speak with hero me, so I just had to treat it as best I could.
