Empathy [Ben Hargreeves]

Episode Five. Part II.

"Number Five"

Eloise rolled off the living room couch when she was startled awake by loud banging and arguing that echoed through the mansion from upstairs. She groaned and clutched her head as she used the damaged coffee table to pull herself to her feet.

Eloise rubbed the sleep out of her eyes after her alcohol-induced nap. She stumbled up the stairs to find the source of the commotion.

"What the hell is going on in here?" she demanded of her two noisy as fuck adoptive brothers.

Five was pointing the end of a sniper towards Luther who was holding Delores out the open window of Five's bedroom. Elle's brothers ignored her and continued their stare down.

"Put... her... down," Five snarled. The top half of the Gimble's mannequin was the love of his life for fifty years when he was stuck in the future.

"Put the gun down," Luther negotiated. "You're not killing anyone."

Now Elle was a little more awake. Five was planning on killing someone? She slid farther into the room in her socks and tasted the air.

Five was thrumming with barely bottled anger. Luther was determined with a heavy sprinkle of confidence.

"I know she's important to you, so don't make me do this." At Five's scoff, Luther continued, "It's either her or the gun. You decide."

After a beat of silence, Luther dropped the mannequin out the window, and Five spacial jumped in a flash of blue light. He reappeared with Delores safely in his grasp, but Luther now had the gun.

The blond Hargreeves looked proud of himself. "I could keep doing this all day," he boasted.

Elle snatched the sniper from Luther's hand because he wasn't paying attention to her or using his super strength. "Let's not and say we did." She turned on her heel and disappeared down the hall.

Luther let her go after a sigh of annoyance so that he could continue his talk with Five. "Dammit, Eloise," he grumbled.

☆☆☆

Elle hid the sniper in an abandoned room on the fourth floor of the old umbrella factory. The boys could sort themselves out without the weapon. Each of the Academy children were deadly enough with their special abilities or just their fists.

Brushing her fingers through her hair to tame the blonde strands, Elle walked down the stairs to get food to hopefully settle her upset stomach. Without Mom, the kitchen seemed cold and stale, so Elle grabbed her leather jacket from the back of the chair and headed out the front door. She walked to Griddy's Doughnuts and ordered a chocolate cruller.

When she stepped out of the shop into the parking lot, her half-eaten donut almost slipped from her fingers as an arm yanked her roughly behind a van. She itched to react with physical violence, but instead, she turned her ruby red eyes to look at the man with the familiar aura.