“Two options,” Waves said, the warbled voice distorting around her. “You can either come out yourself, or I can force you out in two seconds. Your choice.”

✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧ 

Rosemary crawled out from under the counter and reached up for the edge to guide herself to a stand. She didn’t know Waves liked to play with his food, so-to-speak, but she wasn’t wasting one of those seconds debating her “choice.” He could go after the whole apartment building if she wasn’t careful!

“Wha…” Rosemary huffed once she stood tall, purse pressed against her chest and body shaking. She stayed behind the counter, as if it could provide some sort of protection by whatever invisible blast he decided to throw her way. “Why can’t you just let me leave?”

What threat does my presence pose? Rosemary thought after. A villain didn’t need a reason to dispose of someone, but she really hadn’t seen much of anything. She didn’t even catch the face of the man Waves was kicking! She would be lying if she said she wasn’t a little curious about the encounter, though, considering Waves’ usual track record. He went for “big chaotic booms,” not individuals. 

“Hmmm,” Waves hummed, and Rosemary swore she could hear the smile behind his ridiculous mask. The mask looked like he’d taken the dome of a space helmet and fashioned it in the front of a fabric-based backing. The design was almost like a fencing mask, but the front was made of a thick glass instead of crisscrossing wires. Hence, “space helmet,” and it contributed to the mass belief that Waves came from outer space.

Waves rose an inch off the ground and floated forward. He moved around the counter and came right up to Rosemary, who stumbled backward in turn. She wanted to keep away from him, but Waves was too quick for her to get around him. He reached a gloved hand right out and wrapped his fingers around the sides of her neck, raising her up as he did so. Except she felt no force from the lift.

She was floating.

Rosemary glared down at her reflection on the silvery dome and pursed her chapped lips, her arms dropping to hang by her sides. Many villains got some kind of sick enjoyment off of causing fear, so Rosemary refused to show it. She would go down strong, if nothing else!

“You’re the one who hid away in this hole, human,” Waves hissed, and the word “human” echoed all around Rosemary. “Don’t you think that’s ‘suspicious?’”

The fabric of Wave’s gloves made Rosemary’s neck itch, and she could feel sweat pooling in her pants. She gripped her purse handle tight, refusing to drop it despite how her body shook. “I-I jus…did-en wanna disturb you, s-s-sir,” Rosemary stammered and clenched her jaw. “I swear I dun know nothing, an’ nobody, th-that’s fo sho…”

Rosemary’s cheeks felt hot. She was starting to take on some of the speech habits her neighbors threw around, which was very unbecoming of her. The space helmet mask tilted to the side, and Rosemary squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath through her nose to calm herself.

“Well then, I suppose it depends on what you can offer me,” Waves said after another beat of silence. His words did not echo this time.

Seriously? Rosemary thought and snapped her eyes open. If this wasn’t such a dire situation, she would’ve rolled her eyes at the mere suggestion. What in the devil’s hell could she offer an all-powerful villain like him? If it was “shelter,” that was an absolute no. Either way, why on Earth would she make a deal with a demon?

“I w-work in healthcare,” Rosemary rasped out after a second of thought, the fingers around her neck rather uncomfortable. “Do you need…coverage?”

The silence made Rosemary mentally kick herself for even suggesting something so silly. Even if the villain had a normal human life behind the mask, why would he expose his identity to her? Goodness gracious was that a dumb question!

But just when Rosemary opened her mouth to take it all back, the smallest chuckle bounced off the walls, and her voice died in her throat. Waves tilted his head to the side, and Rosemary got the distinct feeling that he was smiling again.

“I admire your bravery for that one,” he said. “But that is the least of my concern. What else can your…’position’ do for me?” 

Waves tapped his middle finger ever-so-gently against her jugular and, for a moment, she thought he was gonna make her implode on the spot. She pursed her lips and swallowed her own spit hard. Why couldn’t she have been blessed with abilities when the meteor crashed? Even something as simple as “slipping into the shadows” would’ve helped her immensely!

“I-I-I can’t house you, but I know lots of, er,” Rosemary stammered, the tapping finger disrupting her thought process, “p-people in power that can h-help you find things. Like…anything you’re looking for?”

There had to be a reason Waves was beating up some local punk, right? Perhaps he was looking for some specific information, was what Rosemary thought.

The middle finger paused over her jugular, and Rosemary thought Waves was mulling over the options as he stilled.

“Actually,” he drawled after another moment, and it sounded rather funny through the distorted filter. “You may be useful yet.”

He’s not serious about the coverage, right? Rosemary thought, and felt tears prick at the corners of her eyes. Lord Jesus, please wake me up from this nightmare!

“Listen closely, human,” Waves said, and Rosemary swore he spat in his mask on the last part. She swung her purse a little where it still hung by her side, trying to shake the numbness from her arm, and debated smacking Waves upside his stupid mask with it. “I have a disgusting half-breed out there I need to find, and you’re going to help me find it.”

Wait a minute, Rosemary blanched, is he talking about the new baby boom? How in the hell am I supposed to know who got his offspring?!

“I’m sorry,” Rosemary said, followed by a cough. “But do you even have a clue who could be runnin’ around with yer baby? ‘Cause there's a lot of pregnant wome—”

“Shhh!” Waves bellowed and gave Rosemary a little shake, making her head spin. He nearly choked her out there! “You will do it, or I will destroy everything you love. Human.”

“Y-y-yes, s-s-s-sir!” Rosemary said. One of her tears spilled over, and by some miracle, Waves chose then to release his grip. Rosemary fell to her knees and coughed at the ground as he turned away, white half-cape flitting behind him as he started floating off.

“As for your ‘clue,’” Waves stopped by the door and spoke again, still hovering some inches from the ground. “I’m sure you saw the news, but I’ll repeat it for your forgetful mind. Boom Boom said the little nuisance would be carried by the ‘least expected person,’ whatever that means.”

‘Least expected?’ That could be anyone in Waves’ case! She’d taken calls from all sorts of women looking for coverage now, but every one of them had been ‘least expected.’ Well, she supposed the pregnant man was by far the oddest, but who was to say that was what Boom Boom meant? For once in Rosemary’s life, she wished she’d continued the perinatal nursing program she’d quit before her move. Who knew if this mother was even covered by Superior!

“Y-you mean like, say…” Rosemary stuttered and dragged her fingers across the dusty cracks of the concrete floor, “...a pregnant man?”

The building mosquito noise around her hit too high of a note and popped, like an air bubble that needed to be released. Rosemary shrieked and brought her hands up to her ears.

“What did you say, human?” 

Waves’ distorted voice seeped through her fingers, caressing the ears she so desperately covered. She could feel him draw nearer to her and bend down, leering over her. “Do not make me ask agai—”

“J-just a thought, sir!” she sniffled. Snot sat at the back of her throat, and she debated coughing it up at his feet despite her shaking.

For a heartbeat, Rosemary almost gave the monster before her that poor boy’s name. How easy it would’ve been to throw him under the bus and save herself! But Rosemary wasn’t sure if that caller was the unlucky mother Waves wanted, and even if she was certain, it wouldn’t be right to condemn the stranger. He had a life and family, too, and Rosemary just couldn’t bring herself to do it.

At least, not yet.

“Hmmm,” Waves hummed, still hovering over her. “It is my understanding that only human females can breed. Are you telling me there are males with breeding mutations?”

Waves reached down and grabbed hold of her chin, forcing her to look back up at his reflective, purple mask. “Answer me, woman.”

Rosemary’s eyes stung, and they looked bloodshot in her twisted reflection on the mask, but she chanced a glare anyway. “I’ve only helped scarce few men before, sir. Jus’ somethin’ to consider.”

The two fingers Waves kept under Rosemary’s jaw tapped an unfamiliar beat. She stared into the mask, her normally warm eyes cold and gaze firm. After several suffocating seconds, Waves clicked his tongue and slipped his fingers away, flicking Rosemary’s head back. He rose up again and turned around, cape whipping behind him. The thick fabric would’ve smacked Rosemary had she not ducked!

“We will reconvene here in two weeks, where you will give me an update,” Waves continued when Rosemary said nothing, already in front of the only exit. She thanked the lord that he didn’t expect her to find this woman—or man—that fast. “And don’t think for a second that I won’t find you again if you do not show up. I don’t like to be tested.”

The weather-worn front desk flew up over Rosemary within the next millisecond and crashed into the wall behind her in one loud bang. Rosemary screeched, covering her whole head with her arms and bending forward. Her body shook again, and her breath came out in loud gasps, but that was all she heard.

After another second’s passing, Rosemary sat back on her heels and brought her hand up to her throat to rub the phantom ache away. Chipped pieces of old paint flitted through the air from the desk, but Waves’ tall form had disappeared. He’d left just like that, without so much as a “good-bye,” or even a “good luck.” Just an unnecessary attack. And he expected Rosemary to make progress with the little bit of information that wasn’t even helpful in the slightest.

“Everybody is ‘least expected!’” Rosemary screamed, but it didn’t make her feel the least bit better. Her body still shook, and she gulped down air when the tears returned in full-blown streams. “There ain’t no way in hell I’m gonna find that woman!”

Or man, if the mother is a pregnant man like those poor boys, Rosemary thought in the back of her racing mind.

And again, even if she did find the right victim, her conscience would never let her sacrifice another for her own sake.