LEGACY ─ marvel

V. Unexpexted Encounters

Chapter Five
Steve

There's only one hotel open this late and it's pretty crappy, but I chose not to voice my complaints. I think if I do Livy will kill me. As soon as we enter into the lobby I get hit with an intense smell of mold, it's enough to make me sneeze violently. Sometimes I hate having heightened senses. Mold isn't the only thing I smell, I also smell vanilla scented perfume, but it's the old kind of perfume that you only smell on old people. The smell is coming from the front desk lady, an ancient looking black woman with large reading glasses on, her eyes narrow as her gaze lifts from the book she's reading onto us.

"What do you want?" She asks crankely.

"A room, one with two beds if possible." Livy asks politely.

The old lady tosses a key onto the counter and returns her attention down to a book in her lap. I peer over the counter to see what the book and see that it's Fifty Shades of Grey. I chose not to think about that any further. Jo notices the book as well and makes gaging gestures.

The room key the old lady gave us says 3B, so we venture towards the elevator and pile inside, clicking the level three button. The elevator is playing old music as we rise through the levels, and I recognize what artist is playing. It's Glenn Miller, one of Mom and Dad's favorites. I've never hated their old taste in music, but it's also never been my favorite. I'll take Brendon Urie over Fred Astaire any day. I said that to Mom once and she looked at me like I had just run over her dog with a car.

The doors open when we get to the second level, revealing two men waiting on the other side. When I lock eyes with these men, I feel my heart stop dead, my breath catching in my chest.

It's Dad and Uncle Khari.

The others freeze as well, but before any of us can speak, Dad holds his finger up and gestures for everyone to get out of the elevator. We do as he says, following him and Uncle Khari back to their hotel room, which is five doors away. It is only once Dad closes and locks the door behind us when he speaks, his voice simmering with anger:

"I told you to stay in Wakanda, I told you not to go after your mother. You have no idea what you're doing, what you're getting yourselves into. This isn't a video game or a book, this is real life, with real stakes."

"We couldn't just sit home and wait to see what would happen to all of you," I argue, setting my backpack down on the floor. "If you were in my position you would have done the same thing."

"Don't spin this around to me, Steven," Dad warns. He never calls me Steven. He must be pissed. "I already have to worry about what's happening to your mother and your uncle, I don't need to worry about what's happening to the four of you," Dad's eyes then fall onto Livy. "I suspected he might try to sneak off, but I thought you would have been smart enough to stop him, not join him."

Livy shuts her eyes and sighs, trying to keep her voice leveled and calm as she replies: "I couldn't sit by and wait either. We were all feeling scared and helpless, we had to do something."

Uncle Khari looks just as pissed as Dad, placing both of his hands on his hips and beginning to scold Jo like Dad is us. "You're fifteen, a child, you've never been on a mission, none of you have, you're putting yourselves at risk for no reason."

"No reason?" Jo asks, mimicking Uncle Khari's stance, placing her hands on her hips. "Baba this is Dad and Aunt Soroya's life we're talking about. Our safety is worth the risk. I may be young but you've trained me my whole life for a situation like this. I know how to handle myself and my powers. I'm not Beth March, Baba."

"So do we. We've been trained our whole lives too and are more than capable of handling ourselves," I point out. "We snuck out using Jo's powers and then I tracked Mom's scent to a private airport. Zy is so good with computers thanks to Aunt Shuri, so he got into the airport's system and got the information about a plane that had been stolen. We tracked the number and it's in London, it landed four hours ago."