Supers Wear Spandex *third book to Heroes Wear Capes

Chapter 9 - Character role call

"You get unshackled by a commitment to this thing that people call love"

~ X

When Taylor got the news she'd been hoping for, she called a meeting at Xander's house. It had been locked up since they'd found him, so he hadn't moved an inch. A small part of Taylor hoped that maybe he woke himself up out of whatever was going on inside his head while they were gone, that she'd break into his house to find Xander up and making a sandwich or asking when he could see his mom in the hospital, but no such luck.

It was also a precaution for Ross's sake. At the Wild Fire cave his nemesis still sat in a cage. Taylor didn't know if Ross wanted to discuss plans in front of a the girl he had a complicated history with, and she didn't want to force him to be near her if he wasn't ready.

She also didn't like to go back to the cave. It reminded Taylor too much of Mera.

It was hard to think of the idea of mourning someone when you spent so much time trying to hate them. When people died only the good parts of their lives were remembered. The scandals and questionable decisions were forgotten so that the persons' memory lived on in the light. Mera had broken her heart and thrown Taylor under the bus because she was too scared of the truth. Mera was never going to forgive Taylor for choosing to risk her life instead of staying in the safe lane with Mera, and Taylor was never going to forgive Mera for making her make that choice, but somewhere down the road reconciliation might've been possible. Now there was no way to know.

So, instead of letting herself dwell on impossible worlds where Mera wasn't gone, Taylor focused on fixing the problems of the present.

"Is there a reason you had me come here?" Ian asked, glancing over at Xander's unconscious form on the ground.

(Xander was unconscious, no reason for him to take up the precious couch space.)

(They did give him a pillow in case he woke up though.)

Taylor nodded, not looking up from her phone. "I have some news, but we're waiting on a couple people."

Ian's leg started to shake up and down impatiently. He stared down Taylor and she looked up to narrow her eyes. "Yes?"

"What's taking them so long? I have other important things to get to."

"About that. I actually have one of them-"

The front door opened and Ross Gustin finally decided to grace the room with his presence, but he wasn't alone.

"I see someone let Killer Frost out of her cage," Taylor fired.

Arctic Frost, Celeste, kept her arms crossed around her stomach. She actually seemed nervous, not an emotion you'd usually associate with super villains. It was weird to associate this girl with the villain you sometimes saw on the news. It was even weirder to see her comfortably standing next to her arch nemesis. Ross put his hand on her back and guided her to another couch in the living room. She seemed just a bit out of place, and everyone in the room was aware of it.

(Well, everyone besides Xander. Mendez wasn't really aware of anything at the moment.)

"Why'd you invite Elsa?" Taylor asked Ross, not mad, just curious.

Ross took a breath and delivered a speech Taylor suspected he practiced in the mirror before coming, "Celeste wants to help. We could use another asset at the moment seeing as Xander is down and White Knight is dead. X is not only a threat to the heroes of this city, but to everyone in the city – even the villains. I assume this meeting you're calling has at least something to do with X."