ALEX: The kitchen was buzzing with activity, so Alex tried to stay out of it. His dad was working his magic, pleading with Alex’s mom to taste the sauce and harrumphing when she just shrugged and said it was good.
“You have no palate. Seventeen years of marriage, and I haven’t taught you a thing.”
“I’ve just been spoiled by you,” she smiled teasingly. “How can I have a palate if everything is good all of the time?”
“That makes no sense, but you’re very sweet,” he said.
“Not the flirting,” Alex complained. Rebecca rolled her eyes at him and gestured for him to come over, then handed him a stack of five plates and silverware.
“Set the table for us, kiddo.”
“Mmkay.”
Xavier was putting down the lace tablecloth that Rebecca liked, smoothing it out with his fingers. “When Adrian gets here, we’re going to be so much worse. We could have Tory over and complete the third set.”
The glare Alex shot him could have started a fire, which did nothing but encourage his uncle to keep razzing him as he fixed the tablecloth and arranged the cutlery perfectly. Even with their small weekly family dinners, his mom had standards. And frankly, so did Alex. He liked perfect arrangements.
The doorbell rang, and Xavier’s face lit up.
“I’ll get it, Becca. It’s Adrian.”
Alex went to grab his guitar from the living room, remembering that the last time it had been out during a family dinner, he had been asked to play. He did not want to experience that mortification again.
“Oh!” Xavier squeaked a little. “Brimstone. Hello!”
Alex whirled around to look at their surprise guest.
It was Brimstone. The president of the Paragon Guild was dressed in a suit and tie and his black and red hero mask, his broad, intimidating stature taking up the space in the doorway. The sunset behind him bled into the apartment, a long shadow trailing across the floor. He smiled—though it was difficult to tell if he smiled with his eyes, as they were completely covered by the mask—and shook Xavier’s hand.
“Luminous, it’s good to see you.”
“I—yes, and you.” Xavier hesitated, looking back at Eric and Rebecca with wide, confused eyes before turning back to the president with a big smile.
Alex straightened immediately, returning to his trained resting stance by instinct, his heart pounding in his throat. The last time Alex had seen Brimstone, he had been dismissed from the hero training program by the council. He fought to keep a straight face as remnants of the devastation he had felt that day rose to the surface of his mind.
“I apologize for intruding. I was hoping you could spare some time for me.”
“For the president?” Xavier laughed, and it only sounded a little hysterical. “Of course.”
Brimstone walked into the living room. He noticed Alex’s stance and smiled a little, in kind of a pitiful way, like he was looking at a three-legged cat.
“Trainee. At ease. I remember you. Alex, was it? Revamp and Golden Blade’s boy.” He turned to Eric, shaking his hand heartily. “Golden Blade. I hope your injury from that bank robbery last week is healed up.”
Alex frowned. Brimstone didn’t remember Alex’s alter ego name from when he was in training.
Or perhaps he remembered it, but he refused to use it anymore.
Brimstone had access to every record of every hero in the guild—he was one of the only people in the city who had access to everyone’s secret identities. After Alex had been removed from the guild, his records had been wiped from the database. He wasn’t worth keeping note of anymore, besides as being the family member of Golden Blade and Revamp.
“It is, thank you. We’re lucky to have a healer in the family.” He nodded to Xavier.
Rebecca stayed behind the kitchen bar, putting ingredients away with a smile plastered on, clearly annoyed that someone had broken her Saturday family dinner routine by showing up unannounced. It was clear to Alex, at least, who was watching her left eye twitch like a countdown to a bomb.
“Brimstone! What brings you around?” She called from the kitchen, her voice persuasively gregarious. “We’re about to have dinner.”
“Nothing good, I’m afraid. It’s such a shame I can only come around with bad news. I’d love to see your little family on good days, too.”
“Why don’t you stay and eat with us?” Eric offered, smiling through the pain as Rebecca shot him a glorious glare from over the bar. Brimstone didn’t notice.
“Thank you, that’s very generous, but I won’t be long.”
Brimstone crossed into the living room and sat on the sofa. Somehow he seemed to take up the sofa all on his own, not that he was a particularly large man—it was his presence. He seemed to function like a black hole, sucking in the air around him and making the room shrink and warp, affected by his personal gravity. Alex sat down next to his guitar stand while his uncle and his father sat across from the man.
“Is this about yesterday evening?” Eric asked.
Brimstone’s mouth pursed, the lines in his square-jawed, hardened, pale face deepening. He looked like he had been carved from molten rock, the lines of his face made up of folding magma that cooled before it could smooth out.
“Yes, for starters. We were extremely lucky that Everlux was there to help your boy and the mayor’s son, but the entire situation is...troubling. Vent has sworn that he didn’t act under his own will. He refuses to confess to anything otherwise.” Brimstone shook his head. “I’ve never seen anything quite like it.”
A flare of anger ignited in Alex’s chest, but he smothered it. It wasn’t seemly for someone to correct the president for something so ephemeral as credit. Still, he had been the one to take Vent down. Everlux had just done the finishing touches.
“Right. Tory mentioned something about how Vent wasn’t acting like himself,” Eric said.
Brimstone was in his mid-fifties, and in superhero terms, that was pretty old. One way or another, heroes rarely got wrinkles. They either retired to live a more peaceful life, got forced into retirement from a bad injury or one too many guild infractions, or died. His seniority was partially what had gotten him to his current position.
“I’ve never heard of a power that could rob a person of their free will,” Brimstone said. “We’ve never fought a villain like that. There was a scare back in 2093—a hypnotist supervillain popped up and started wreaking havoc—but that turned out to be a lot of smoke and mirrors. I don’t know what kind of panic it would cause for the public to know that something like that could really exist.”
Alex grimaced, remembering the tears that had been in Vent’s eyes. The pure fear, the horror. It was awful.
“The guild is hard at work trying to find if there are records of any trainees or heroes with an ability that could do something like that, but we’re going to need more hands-on work. Revamp, Golden Blade, Luminous—I know you already have your hands full with patrols, but I came here to personally ask if you would take up extra responsibilities for the guild until this crisis is addressed. If there is a supervillain like this, we need to know, and we need to keep it quiet.”
“Of course. Anything the guild needs,” Eric said. “You know that we’re loyal to the Justice Code.”
“I do know. Your family of heroes has always been the best of the guild.” He shook his head. “Loyal, determined, passionate about the Code. It’s a shame that last night’s victory against Vent had to go to someone such as Everlux.”
The Hale family was quiet, and Alex wondered if they were all thinking about the fact that it was Alex who had done it, or if it was just him. Tension simmered around them, but none of them spoke up against Brimstone.
“Everlux is a scourge. He doesn’t care about the code, he’s a social hero, he collects revenue from advertisements and merchandise, and he taints his costume with sponsorships. As if the material and design of his suit wasn’t already a walking violation.” Brimstone turned to Alex. “My boy, tonight, he is going to be interviewed on Gary Nickelson’s show. I would advise that you watch it and study Everlux’s flippant address. He doesn’t care about the Code. He doesn’t care about heroism. He’s the guild’s living nightmare. If every hero acted the way he did, our city would crumble."
Alex nodded sharply, like a soldier. A large part of him was still eager to please—he wanted to show his loyalty to the Justice Code and to the guild, even when the guild hadn’t wanted him.
There was a smaller part of him that wanted to turn on any stream besides the interview out of spite the moment Brimstone walked out, but he squashed it and put it in the back of his mind.
What would his family think if they knew how petty he really was? When the guild had done so much for them? The guild couldn’t help the fact that Alex didn’t inherit powers—there were rules barring non-paragons from hero work for a reason. It was simply unsafe.
His whole life, he had heard stories of heroes who had broken even the smallest rules of the code and how it had ruined them. Even the smallest costume infraction could result in an accident that could end a hero’s career or even their life.
People like Everlux—people who flaunted their lack of loyalty, who broke the code, who pretended like they didn’t need the guild’s support—were not only ultimately harmful to Gale City’s safety, but also did not seem to care about their own. They hurt Gale City’s unity and they made the city less safe. They were fakes who didn’t deserve respect.
And they somehow had everything, even though Alex had always done his best to follow the code. It was unfair.
“I’ve been on Everlux’s case for some time now. The moment he breaks a law and I can arrest him, I will.”
Alex frowned, the tornado in his mind suddenly dissipating as he remembered what talking to Everlux had actually been like. His smile…
Well. He did seem like he cared.
“I should be on my way, now. Thank you for your time.”
Eric nodded. “No problem. Thank you.”
“Your assignments concerning this will be sent to you shortly.”
The moment the door closed, Xavier sighed and said, “Can’t he call instead of coming over? Cell phones have only existed for over a century.”
“It’s easier to pressure people into taking up more work in the name of guild loyalty without extra pay when you’re talking in person,” Rebecca said. “Your little family. The reason it’s so little is because our parents were in the guild, too, and they...” She swallowed the rest of the sentence down, scowling like it had tasted bitter.
Eric turned to look at her, his eyebrows pinching together as he rose and went to the bar. “Honey.”
She sniffed, indignant. “It’s like he’s flaunting the fact that he knows our identities. He can’t just come here whenever he likes when we’re having family time.”
Eric met Xavier’s eyes. Xavier shrugged. “She has a point.”
Eric frowned. “I know, but the guild fights for the greater good. The Justice Code is all about the greater good, and sometimes for that good, sacrifices have to be made. It’s our duty. Sometimes we have to tolerate a little discomfort so that the gears can keep moving. Our leaders aren’t perfect, but they’re doing their best, and we need to support them. Right, Alex?”
“Hhhh,” Alex grunted noncommittally, sinking into his chair.
“There are so few heroes in this city and so much work that needs to be done. We just need to do our part,” Eric said.
“Next time he comes over unannounced, I’m kicking his ass,” Rebecca muttered, tightening her straw-blond ponytail. “I’ll do my part alright.”
Xavier’s eyebrows shot up, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “Wow. Language.”
“My tender infant ears,” Alex complained with a dry expression.
Eric swung around the counter and planted a kiss on Rebecca’s cheek, smiling at her like her threats were endearing. “My love, you stress me out.”
“Good.” Rebecca almost smiled. “It’s good cardio.”
“Please don’t harass the most powerful people in Gale City out of spite.”
She softened, her eyes settling on him, then darting to Xavier, and finally resting on Alex. “I won’t. You come first.”
. . . . .
After dinner, Alex placed his sauce-embossed plate on his lap precariously, scrolling through the channels and streaming services on the large hologram display in his living room. He intended to watch the interview—not just because Brimstone had recommended it, but also out of personal curiosity.
He saw Everlux’s distressed expression pop up on the Breezy News Network and frowned, pressing play.
“—indication that Vent was going to go rogue?” The blue-suited interviewer, Gary Nickelson, shared a dashing smile with Everlux, and Everlux didn’t smile back, though Alex had a suspicion that if he did, he would absolutely outshine the interviewer. He was already dazzling under the studio lights in his silver and blue supersuit, his blue hair fluffy perfection and his jawline sharp.
Why did this asshole have to be hot?
Alex almost never noticed things like that. He had eyes, of course, but demisexuality meant that he typically appreciated the aesthetic of people without getting wrapped up in attraction until he got to know them. It was a slow and intimate unraveling that was incredibly rare.
So it surprised him every time his gaze snagged on Everlux and he couldn’t look away.
“I have not heard from the responders of any evidence that this was a preplanned event.” Everlux shook his head.
“Then how did you know to come? Does the Ramos family have you on speed dial?” Gary chuckled a little, straightening his red bow tie. “Honestly, at this point, half the city should. Our polls say you’re the most popular hero in our fine city. How wild is that?”
Alex cringed, his hand flying back to his phone to see if he could pull up something different to watch. Brimstone was totally right. He hated interviews like this. They treated the entire incident like it was a climax of a comic and not a situation that could have gotten someone seriously hurt.
Of course Everlux would pull some social hero garbage like this. Capitalizing off of the Ramos’ pain. Whatever.
“I happened to be patrolling very close by. I was lucky. There were two different students who were attacked before I got there, but neither one was seriously hurt.”
Neither one was seriously hurt? Alex wanted to scream. What about Tory?
The interviewer mocked Everlux’s serious expression, squinting at his notes. “It appears Victor Burns was sent to the hospital. You wouldn’t consider that seriously hurt? He is the son of Diane Burns, our fine mayor.”
Everlux’s expression shifted into alarm briefly before he nodded and tried to look more relaxed. “Of course, that was frightening, but I was able to follow up on Victor’s injuries last night. He suffered from some bruising, but it was healed instantly. He was all smiles and jokes when I met with him afterwards.” Alex blinked. When had that...happened...?
“The mayor’s boy is known for that bright personality.” The interviewer grinned.
Alex snorted. Tory was many things—a bright personality?
Continued in next part.
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