Different [A Superhero AU] - Book One

Chapter Two - Interruptions

"What a beautiful morning!" Mark says, grinning at his teammates. He looks towards the sunrise, the morning air causing their breaths to come out in puffs of vapour. The metal of the fire escape is chilly against his skin, the cold going through his clothes like knives. Despite the goosebumps on his arms and legs, he finds that he doesn't care too much about the cold.

"It's too early to exist," Ken grumbles, resting his face against the bars in front of him.

Marzia pats his head gently and draws a coffee with her pen, having it appear in her hand seconds later. She hands it to him with a small smile.

"Would this help?" she asks.

"Yeah, thank you," Ken replies, taking the coffee with wide eyes. The steam from the hot drink billows into the air, warming his face and hands.

Felix lowers the binoculars from his eyes and sighs, plopping down on the fire escape between Marzia and Ken. "Why do we need to use binoculars? Matthias has telescopic vision."

"No idea. Matthias is usually busy at HQ," Phil responds, eyeing the railing nervously. He stays far from the edge, his back pressed against the wall behind them.

"Scared of heights, Phil?" Mark asks teasingly.

"No." The Brit glances at him. "Just clumsy. If I go any closer, I could trip on a pebble and fall to my doom."

The team laughs. Mark has learned, over the years he's spent with his team, that everyone has their own little personality quirks that make them the hero they are. Phil is clumsy, Marzia will sometimes accidentally bring things into being if she hasn't drawn in a while, Felix gets really loud and excitable when adrenaline gets in his system, Ken hates mornings, Matthias loves making dad jokes.

"Mark, you're smiling like an idiot again," Felix says, causing him to snap out of his thoughts.

"What? No I'm not," Mark replies, attempting to clear his face of emotion. Felix rolls his eyes and puts the binoculars to his eyes again. Instantly, his jaw slackens.

"What is it?" Marzia asks, her eyebrows knitting together. She stands by his side and looks down, her eyes widening substantially. "Oh boy."

The entire team scrambles to their feet, finally noticing the villains that crouch by the side of a building. Matthias' voice crackles through their earpieces, calm and collected.

"I need you to keep spying on them. Do not engage. They won't do anything with so many civilians around."

The heroes nod, their eyes trained on the set of villains that hide in the shadows. As they watch, Jack pulls his hood over his head and walks into the streets, his hands shoved in his pockets. Cry disappears into thin air, followed by Dan who wears his signature "all black" outfit. The rest of the villains stagger themselves, heading into the street as inconspicuously as possible.

"What's their mission? It makes no sense," Ken comments. "What could they possibly be doing right now?"

"The only intel we can gather about their mission is that they want to bring down Curatrix. We don't know why," Matthias replies. The rapid tapping of his computer keys comes from the background, mixed with a sigh. "They've obviously got a talented programmer on their side who can block hacks easily. This will take some work."

"You've got this, Matthias," Phil says.

Mark keeps his eyes trained on the villains, who have now scattered themselves among the citizens. He does his best to clear his mind, to focus only on the task at hand. Mark has never been a particularly good spy. He's more of a "punch now ask questions later" kind of guy.

That's when he sees them. Three guys, all wearing different outfits emblazoned with singular letters, charge out into the streets. Someone screams, sending everyone around into a panicked chaos. One of the new arrivals attempts to tackle Jack, but the Irishman just zips away looking incredibly confused.

"Not these guys again," Felix groans.

"Stupid anti-heroes," Ken says, rolling his eyes. He transforms into a hawk, flying down to the ground before turning into a dog and racing after the vigilantes.

The others follow, racing out into the street. Mark slows Jack and the anti-hero down, knocking them both to the ground in their hindered state. Jack groans, not even trying to stand up from the ground.

The anti-hero groans, an airy laugh leaving him. "Well that was rude."

"What are you three idiots doing here?" Mark demands, leaning down and picking them both up by the back of their suits.  He sends a pointed glare in the direction of the anti-hero.  "You anti-heroes are corrupting our mission!"

"Two things, big shot muscle man," the man says, holding up a finger. "First, you just admitted to spying on these dudes." He gestures to Jack, who glowers at the two of them. "Second of all, what do you mean, three of us?"

Before Mark can question, the anti-hero separates into two people, one with fluffy, curly hair and one with straight hair of almost the same colour. They grin at his bewildered look, and he doesn't realize that upon separating, he lost hold of their suit.

"Danny and Arin, at your service," they say in sync. Mark and Jack look at each other, but upon realizing that he had the same facial expression as his enemy, Jack returns to glaring.

"It's been lovely," Danny says.

"A real pleasure," Arin adds.

"But we need to go," they say in sync.

Mark goes to say something, but before he can, they both race off. The other anti-heroes, upon noticing the fleeing of their partners, run after them.

Jack takes Mark's moment of distraction to clock him in the face, sending the hero sprawling to the ground. Before Mark can regain his senses, he receives another blow to the face.

"I didn't want to do this, but I think I have to," Jack says, the sound of his voice distant in Mark's ringing ears. He reaches up, pulling off his eyepatch to reveal the Septic Eye, which would have been normal if the sclera had been white instead of green. As soon as the sun hits it, the white of his other eye turns black and the iris turns glowing green. Mark stares, mystified and terrified of the sight before him. He lifts his hands, a twisted, sadistic grin spreading across his face.

"Dance."