A Villain's Hero

Chapter 38 - Rowan

It was here. Rowan's, or rather Revenger's, first mission as a hero. As soon as Max had spoken about the situation in Goldby City, Matteo had tried to convince Rowan to stay at home as he was still injured, but his argument was useless once he realised that they had no way of getting into the city without Rowan.

As it turned out, while Ciara and Sawyer were concentrating on getting information out of Matteo and taunting Rowan, Max got a call that bombs had been reported in the city. The Legion thought it was a distraction that could be linked to something bigger, so they called in their team to join the operation, along with the agents who were currently searching the buildings where the bombs had been reported.

So far there had been no known bomb explosions, so the team believed they had plenty of time to get into the city. Fortunately, when they landed on the outskirts of the city, it still seemed like a sound judgement.

"Maybe you should stay here," Matteo tried to reason again as they stepped off the plane and turned to Rowan. He was the only one still in civilian clothes, with Seismic, Vague, Speedsonic and of course Citadel standing in front of him.

"Actually, that doesn't sound like a bad idea," Max chimed in, and Rowan turned to him with a look of disbelief. Before he could protest, Max decided to explain his point quickly. "Nobody knows we're working together yet. If this threat turns out to have nothing to do with Tigress, Mimic and the other traitors we don't know about, we'll lose the element of surprise."

Rowan hated to admit it, but Max was right. "So what am I supposed to do? I'm not just going to sit here."

"Go to our office. You'll be closer if we need your help. Also, you can monitor the situation from there. If you see anything on the cameras or pick up any other needed information, you can inform us before the Legion does," Seismic pointed out.

"I can go with you and then quickly move elsewhere," Speedsonic suggested.

"Just make your decision pronto, because we are wasting time," Vague interjected.

"Fine." He didn't need to hear any more. "I'm coming with you." He turned to the speedy hero. Though he didn't have a computer with him, he had the portable device, which was enough in this situation, and it looked like Sawyer was finally going to make his dream come true and see what it could do.

"Right. Time to split up," Max declared. "If anything happens, keep in touch." He turned to Rowan and Sawyer and then, as they nodded, motioned to Ciara and Matteo that it was time to go.

"Be careful." Matteo's worried eyes shifted to him, looking at him as if he were afraid he'd vanish on the spot.

Rowan rolled his eyes, not bothering to reply, knowing full well by now that it would be pointless. Instead, he grabbed the blond superhero's hand and deftly pulled him towards him, planting a quick kiss on his lips. "I'll be fine," he told him immediately afterwards, stepping back to create a space between them. "Let's go." He moved towards Speedsonic.

Citadel gave him one last worried look, though a soft smile tugged at his lips, and moved towards his part of the team as well.

Fortunately, Max had alerted the Legion that they would need a ride into the city centre, so he gave them a location close to where they had landed to get their cars ready. Apparently he had anticipated that Rowan would not be directly involved in this mission, so there were two black cars waiting for them.

Rowan got behind the wheel, as did Max, and with a nod they said their goodbyes before the two cars sped off in different directions.

It took less than three seconds of driving before Speedsonic decided to start a conversation. "That was bold."