Defining Factors

Chapter 12: Gloveless

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Y'all are in for one hell of a chapter

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Warnings: Heh heh heh

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Kinloch and John were cuddling on the couch while Jefferson sat in a nearby chair as they all watched a movie. The Nightmare Before Christmas to be special. When James wandered into the room to join them.

"Oh my God, I've never seen James in pajamas before," Francis grinned.

Fuck you.

"And you're still wearing those gloves? Do you sleep in them?"

Yes. James signed.

"Okay, seriously, what's the deal with the gloves?" Thomas asked, reaching forward to take James' hand. James snatched his hand away and retreated several steps. "What's the big deal? We're all friends. Why do you feel it's so necessary to hide your hands?"

"I'm going to bet prosthetics," Laurens said.

"Too easy," Francis replied right as Jefferson shot James an alarmed look. "No, I bet it's something else. Let's see..your hands are scarred from getting burned in a fire and you're self-conscious." James was looking annoyed now but sat down in his chair.

"Everything he touches dies," John decided.

"Don't be ridiculous," Francis said. "It's obvious he has the golden touch, that's why Thomas is so rich."

"Wouldn't his gloves be gold then?" Thomas asked.

"Shit, you're right. Okay, acid burns," Francis revised.

"He's probably just got this really ugly wart," John said.

Thomas and Francis laughed.

You're all assholes and none of those were right.

"Damn it. Why don't you just tell us then?" Francis asked. "You don't have to show us, just tell us."

James looked at them all for a minute. No. Now shut up and watch the movie.

***

Fredericks had assigned the team to a mystery. Several teams have disappeared and have never been heard from again after being assigned to hunt down this particular target. Fredericks decided that Burr's team would be the most qualified for it.

Of course, that also meant that they would actually have to figure out where the person was. They didn't stay in a city, they lived somewhere out in the middle of nowhere. They had it narrowed down to a one hundred mile radius out in the country of New York. Sure, Madison got them there quickly, but now they had to find exactly where the target was, which was always the hard part. And then considering the fact that every team that had gone after this particular target before had disappeared. It could be anyone. They didn't even know what their power was. It could be anything.

That also meant that the group had a lot of time to actually work together and learn to live with each other. Which was going a lot better than one might think. James was now officially a welcome member of the group, mostly because of the late night stories he could tell.

During the evenings, when it was still light out but they already had camp set up, they went back to their normal training routine. Well, actually, by day three, they had to modify it. Kinloch and Laurens kept sneaking off into the trees. So now, Burr was partnered with Laurens and Kinloch was partnered with Hamilton, which left Thomas and Madison as partners. James very quickly learned that lightning was very hard to dodge. It had to be expected, he had to be teleporting before Jefferson let it off the tips of his fingers. Lightning is fast, that was for sure. Thomas had to adjust for the new fighting style, he was used to Hamilton, who fought head on and used power to overwhelm and conquer. Madison never even threw a hit, just kept dodging until you were too tired to throw anything else at him. It was great endurance practice. He was a fantastic dodger, it was all about anticipation.