Sara Strong

Chapter 2

Something hit Wes in the face and he went from sleeping to alert in a moment.

He recognised the grey, bare walls of his room quickly and managed to relax enough to flop back into his cool sheets.

Blindly, he reached over and patted the bed for whatever was thrown at him. It was the top half of his costume. He vaguely remembered only managing to remove the top half when he came home late last night before passing out.

His blackout currents were pulled open and the light from outside was harsh for his eyes. He groaned in pain and annoyance.

"You may feel that it's within your rights to go sneaking off at night Mr Gervais. I'm not your father, nor your mother and you are now legally considered an adult. But even if that's your decision, you still have to go to school the next morning."

The man at the window was big and bulky, almost certainly ex military. He was wearing dark pants and a black t-shirt that stretched over his large frame. He was older, there were old scars around his hands and neck and slight wrinkling at his eyes. His hair too, had started to grey at the temples. But his gaze was still sharp and the glare he was sporting would have sent anyone running in the other direction.

Wes however, was unfazed. It wasn't that he doubted what this man could do. It was just hard to keep a healthy fear of someone when you had lived with them for years by that point. And heard them singing to Britney Spears in the shower.

"How did you know I was out last night?" Wes asked, his voice low raspy, still half asleep.

John Valler knew this kid was going to trouble the day he had taken him in. He knew it would be hard. And painful. And he knew the would never have a conventional father/son relationship. Neither of them were conventional people. He just hoped he didn't screw up the kid too much. Now he knew the truth. The kid was always going to be screwed up.

That's why he trained him and that's why he gave him the suit and the baton. Despite every time feeling like he was spitting on the memory of the boy's parents.

He just never could have guessed how much he would come to care about the kid all on his own. Every time he left fear tightened around his heart and he prayed to a god he didn't really believe in that he gave him enough protection. Prepared him enough. And He'd come home safe.

"I'm not stupid," he answered. "You really think I don't know about everytime you slip out? Besides the whole world knows about it."

The kid blinked at him confused. But damn, was he slow in the mornings.

The older man nodded to the younger's phone which was blowing up with alerts. "And you better not be hiding any injuries or I'm gonna kick your ass."

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Max Graces pushed through the glass doors of the Lilith Institute. He sighed inwardly as he noticed that there was a new, male and entirely too serious looking security guard standing near the metal detectors.

Shelley, the cheerful receptionist paid him no mind while he struggled to unearth his keycard from his backpack. He tried not to think about the line that was slowly building up behind him, right along with his anxiety.