Superheroes VS. Super Villains (A Collection)

The Call

The door shut quietly as Connor walked in. We all waited silently, but he didn't say anything, he just stood there, staring at us. He had a sad look in his eyes. Finally, Lyra spoke up.

"Where is he?"

Connor shrugged and took a seat. "I wouldn't know. He never came back last night."

A series of gasps went around the table. Lyra grabbed onto Xavier's arm and mouthed the word 'awol', and Malcolm and Sampson shared a worried glance. I wasn't sure what I thought. Lawrence Plato was still very new, this kind of hurt might break him and send him back to villainy. We all looked to Connor, our eyes begging for answers on what we should do. To our dismay, he only shrugged.

"I don't know what to tell you guys. I want to give him space, but him being alone right now is dangerous." Xavier crossed his arms.

"Not to mention illegal." Sampson added grimly, leaning forward on the table. Malcolm elbowed him with a 'now is not the time to discuss legality' kind of face.

"We should definitely bring him back." Lyra stated boldly.

"Said the girl who is part of the group who killed the guy in the first place." Malcolm nearly sneered, crossing his bulky arms and leaning back.

"Hey! I didn't kill him, one of Richard's people killed him." Lyra immediately defended herself, leaning forward just a bit and sitting up straighter in order to get her point across.

"Mal's right, Plato's hurt right now. Agent Robin might have been a villain, but they were still best friends. Regardless of the moral correctness behind his actions, he's going to need to mourn him. He needs space."

"You're right," I said, speaking for the first time. "If we bring him back against his will he'll hate us and try to rebel."

Malcolm and Xavier both nodded, but Lyra and Sampson still looked skeptical.

"But if we leave him alone with his thoughts he might get confused and try to become a villain again, to avenge Agent Robin." Sampson put in. "He would try to hurt Richard's crew, and would probably only succeed in getting himself killed."

We all stopped and stared at the table for a minute. Both sides had good points. We couldn't leave him to fester in his deepest thoughts alone, but none of us wanted to push him over the edge either. It was like walking on eggshells.

"How about this," Connor proposed. "Why don't you all take an hour to come up with a plan? Then we'll meet back here and vote on one."

We all nodded. That sounded like a reasonable way to take care of the issue. But I didn't like it. An hour? I didn't like the idea of Law sitting out in the cold, completely alone, doing who knows what? What if he was drunk? What if he was hurt? What if he was crying? As I left the boardroom all I wanted to do was wrap my arms around him and hug all the hurt out of him. He was so good, especially for someone trained to be a villain, he deserved better.

Once back in my room I began to pace, attempting to come up with a decent plan. All I could see the same picture of him crying over his dead friend's body in the heat of battle before Sampson pulled him away. He hadn't cried, of course, but I knew he'd been close. His face was crying, but years of suppressing his emotions kept the actual tears from falling. Was he crying now?

I shook my head and nearly screamed in frustration as I threw myself down on the bed. A ding came from my pocket. I pulled out my phone to see I had a notification, a reminder to buy paper towels.

Then it hit me. He still had the phone Connor had given him. Maybe I wasn't sure if I could see him or not, but calling to show I cared couldn't hurt, right?