We Could Be Heroes - Ch 3
Sky High AU, but instead, it’s a superhero University.
Summary: It’s the weekend, and the gang decides to have a movie night. Luke brings one (1) string cheese, something mildly catastrophic happens, and Michael becomes a mother.
Chapter: 3/?
CHAPTER INDEX
Word Count: 2,662
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It had been about a month into the semester and the Pablo’s group had grown to be close friends, even Jenna and Luke, who continued to attack each other on a daily basis. Movie night had also become a regular thing for them; they would all meet up on Saturday night in one of their dorms with snacks and drinks and pick a movie on one of their streaming accounts. Tonight, movie night was held in Michael’s dorm.
Michelle was the first one to arrive. It was an unspoken rule that whenever it was just Michelle and Michael, they communicated telepathically due to Michael’s inability to turn off his power, so instead of knocking, she directed her thoughts at him to let him know she was here. He opened the door with a smile and ushered her inside.
“You can put that stuff on my desk,” Michael thought, and moved his laptop and books to the side. Michelle sat the bag down on the clear spot and smiled. “I hope you like Takis, because that’s what I brought.”
“I’ve never had them, but I’m sure I’ll love them. Any idea when the rest of the nerds are going to get here?” Michael wondered. Michelle kicked her shoes off by the door and hummed in thought, pulling her long hair off of her neck and wrapping it into a bun at the top of her head. “I haven’t heard much. Val is currently trying to devise a plan to get Calum to carry her over in his stomach, I’m assuming Ally and Emma are still at the store, I can hear them mentally complaining about the price of gas station candy, Jen just texted me to let me know she’s on her way, and Carly is...right outside.”
Sure enough, a soft knock at the door confirmed that Carly was indeed right outside. Michael opened the door to let her in, greeted her, and pointed to the desk for her to put her things down.
“I brought homemade Sangria!” She sang, proudly pulling a half gallon jug out of her backpack and swirling the red wine and fruit around. “I may end up drinking all of this myself, not gonna lie.”
Before Michelle could threaten to banish Carly from movie night for not sharing, Luke, Ashton, and Jenna entered the room, followed by another girl, one that Michael, Michelle, and Carly had never met.
“I found a stray, I hope it’s alright that I brought her,” Jenna said, moving to stand next to the girl. “This is Viv, she’s in my combat training class, and she’s an absolute badass.”
“Geez, you’re gonna make me blush, stop it,” Viv covered her face and laughed. “I just...use a lot of dirty tricks and dodging.”
“They’re unexpected methods. That’s smart,” Michael gushed, throwing a black bedsheet over his futon. “Ally and Emma are here, can one of you guys open the door?”
Luke turned the knob and swung the door open just as Emma went to knock; she ended up knocking on Luke’s chest instead.
“Woah, now, I’ve had girls try to get into my heart in many different ways, but politely knocking is a new one.”
Michelle and Jenna gagged and shoved Luke out of the way to let Emma and Ally through while Ashton quietly started arranging the snacks and drinks on the desk. Ally joined him and opened her bag, setting out the candies she’d bought and multiplied.
“You’re quiet today, more than usual, I mean. Is everything okay, Ash?” she asked quietly so as not to draw attention from the rest of the group, or the ones that don’t have supersonic hearing, anyway.
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not.”
Ashton turned and looked down at Ally, furrowing his brows in anger and growled, “Oh, so you’re gonna tell me what I am, now? You’re gonna ask me if I’m okay, then call me a liar?”
Unphased by the outburst, she nodded once. “Yes. I am. I know an automatic answer when I hear it.”
He opened his mouth to speak, but then closed it again and inhaled deeply, clenched his jaw, and turned back to the desk, fiddling with one of the bags of chips that Michelle brought.
“I’ll...be okay. I’m just aggravated today, is all. Some personal issues about my power. I don’t really want to talk about it right now. But maybe later, when we don’t about to have a room full of people. Okay?”
“Okay.” Ally placed her hand on top of Ashton’s and squeezed gently, hoping to calm him down a little more. She learned pretty quickly that he had a hard time controlling his temper; he almost brought down the gazebo in the university courtyard with a spastic earthquake simply because one of the third years accidentally stepped on his heel.
“Don’t keep things bottled up for too long, though.”
“Yeah, yeah, I got you.”
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “So, is this everything?”
“I think so.”
“Yeah, I brought some paper plates too, just in case.”
“Wait, Luke, what did you bring?”
Luke hesitated a moment before patting and searching his pockets. He made a happy sound in the back of his throat when he found what he was looking for in the pocket of his S.A.V.E.U. hoodie, reached in, and pulled out a single stick of string cheese.
“Luke, what the fuck?”
“Hey, I didn’t get the chance to go buy something. Besides, Ally can just make more, right?”
Ally scoffed and crossed her arms. “You think you can just use me and my power like that? Is that all you think I’m good for? How dare you treat me like-you know what, fuck yeah, I love string cheese, gimme that.”
She snatched the packaged cheese out of his hand and moved to the table to get to work on duplicating the snack while the rest of the group howled with laughter, all except Michael who was near tears and desperately trying to fuse his headphones to his ears.
“I’m going to kick every last one of you out if you don’t learn to turn down the volume.”
Calum bit his lip and stuck his hands in his pockets. “Shit, Mike. Sorry, we keep forgetting, you’re usually okay with it if you have the plugs in, too.”
“Yeah, but we usually aren’t in small spaces like this, either. The last few movie nights we had were bad, too.”
“Man...and you haven’t made any progress with it? Dulling the sound, I mean?”
Michael shook his head sadly and turned to the TV to set up his cables. “It’s whatever. Can we move on, now?” -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“So, let me get this straight...you can tie and untie shoelaces.”
“Yep.”
“But not like, other kinds of rope.”
“Nope.”
“Just...just shoelaces.”
“Yep.”
Viv popped a few pieces of popcorn into her mouth and shrugged. “I’m not mad about it, though. It’s completely useless and I like it that way. I don’t want to have an extravagant power.”
Luke tossed back the rest of the sangria in his cup and hummed. “I could see how that could be useful, like, if someone is robbing a bank and you-”
“Don’t give my power any kind of usefulness!” Viv giggled and shook her head. “I really do like having a useless power. It means I won’t be volunteered to do things I don’t want to do.”
“God, that’s such a mood,” Val sighed.
“What about your power, Ally?” Viv tilted her head. “What else can you duplicate? Aside from food, I mean.”
Ally hummed and chewed thoughtfully on a piece of chocolate. “I haven’t really thought about it. I mean I know I can do inanimate objects. And I can do plants. That’s really useful on Valentine's Day. I think I can duplicate anything as long as it isn’t too big. I tried making another bicycle once...that didn’t turn out well.”
“What about people?”
“Hm?”
“Can you clone people?”
“You know, I’ve never thought about it, and I’ve never tried it. I don’t think I can.”
“I’d clone myself a Calum that would actually be willing to swallow me,” Val chirped, and Calum groaned in disgusted response. “Please stop, I’m not gonna fucking eat you.”
“Eating implies digesting. I just wanna hang out in your gut for a little bit.”
“Jesus...”
Viv shrugged. “Could always try it now.”
Ally snorted into her cup and coughed. “You’ve gotta be kidding!”
“I mean how else are you gonna know if you can clone people if you don’t try it?”
“Uh, I don’t think it’s such a good idea, and I’m usually all for bad ideas,” Luke squeaked. “I mean, it’s a person we’re talking about.”
“For once, I actually have to agree with Luke,” Jenna balled up an empty chip bag and threw it into the waste basket. “It’s one thing to test your power out on, like, a rock or something, it’s another to test it on a person.”
“You test your power out on me all the time, Nerf Gun.”
“You’re not a person in my eyes, Fluke.”
“Guys, shh, Michael is sleeping, please don’t wake him,” Skyler whispered. Sure enough, Michael was curled up in the corner of his bed with a pillow over his head. “Poor thing barely gets enough sleep as it is.”
“Test it on Michael. He’s asleep, he won’t notice,” Ashton mumbled.
“I can’t do that!” Ally sputtered. “First of all, that’s just rude, second-”
“For real, what’s the worst that could happen? What happened with your failed duplicates?”
“The duplicate just came out deformed. But Michael is a living person, he could get hurt.”
“He could also end up okay.”
"Jesus, fine!” Ally hissed and stood up, storming over to Michael’s sleeping form and thrust her hands out in front of her, placing them on his hip. She stood there for a moment in silence, the rest of the group watched anxiously for something to happen.
“Is it...uh...”
“I’m trying.”
A few seconds passed and not a word was spoken and everyone began to fidget nervously.
Carly stood and took a few slow steps toward Ally and placed her hand on her shoulder. “Okay, so it doesn’t work and Michael is okay, let’s go back...to...uh, you’re burning up...are you-”
“I-I can’t...move...it hurts...”
Viv jumped up and rushed to Ally and Carly. She grabbed a hold of one of Ally’s arms and attempted to pull her away from Michael, but she wouldn’t move. It was as if she was made of stone and fused to the ground.
“Shit, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have told you to do this!”
“I can’t...I can’t stop. H-help!”
Calum, Val, Luke, and Michelle also stood and began to try to pull Ally’s hands away. Ashton sat, frozen in place and eyes wide, brimming with tears. “My fault...it’s my fault...”
Emma grabbed his face in her hands and forced him to look away from the group trying to pull Ally away from Michael. “Hey, hey, calm down, this isn’t your fault, you and Viv made a suggestion but Ally made the decision, it’s no one's fault and it’s definitely not yours, it-Ashton, no, look at me! You’re making the walls shake again, you need to breathe.”
Even with the combined cacophony of the friends struggling to stop Ally and the brick walls vibrating, Michael was still seemingly asleep. Michelle ripped the pillow off of his head to check his breathing.
“Michael’s okay, Ally. Please, try to focus, you need to focus!”
Ally shut her eyes tightly and sobbed, desperately trying to pull herself away from his body.
“Let me try something!” Skyler stepped to the side and put her hand on Michael next to Ally’s and conjured a forcefield, wedging it into the spot where they were connected. Almost instantaneously, Ally’s hand disconnected from Michael’s hip and she fell backwards into Michelle and Luke. Michael sat up and glared at Ally angrily.
“What the fuck were you just trying to do to me? I couldn’t fucking move, or talk, or anything!”
Panting softly, Ally hung her head. “I-I was...I’m sorry, I-”
“It was my fault,” Viv cut her off. “I suggested that she try duplicating a person, and-”
“And you guys decided that I was the best candidate?”
Ashton made a pained noise in the back of his throat and wiped the tears off of his cheeks. “No, I did. I’m so sorry Mike.”
Michael looked at every person in the room before sighing and rubbing his eyes. “It’s...it’s okay. I’m okay. Are you okay, Ally?”
She slowly nodded, sniffling softly.
“Just don’t ever do that shit again.”
“Guys...”
Michael moved to help Ally off of the floor and used his sleeve to wipe tears off of her cheeks.
“Hey, guys?”
“Are you sure you’re okay, Michael?” Calum asked softly.
“Guys!”
“What, Luke?!”
“What the fuck is that?”
The group turned to look under the desk where Luke was pointing. Next to Michael’s backpack was a fleshy pulsating mound about the size and shape of a crudely made rag doll.
“Is Emma trying to prank us again?”
“I’m right here, you dick.”
“Then what is that thing?!”
The fleshy doll-like thing began to take an even more coherent shape, its tiny stub arms began to grow hands and its head began to grow ears. A slit in its face opened up to form a mouth, and two different sized slits opened and a pair of eyes the exact same color as Michael’s peeped back at the group. No one said a word, and no one moved. The tiny being stood on its little feet and took a couple of steps toward Michael and looked up, twisting its little mouth into what could be perceived as a smile, and spoke in a scratchy, throaty voice.
“Mmmahh, mmmm-Mickey!”
Luke jumped backward and let out such a high-pitched scream that the window and the TV screen cracked, and a mug on Michael’s desk broke cleanly in half.
“What the fuck, what the actual fuck??”
“Is that...Michael’s duplicate?” Emma whispered.
The alien-like being swayed back and forth with the weight of its head and blew raspberries at Michael. “Mickey! Am Mickey!”
Michael stood frozen, staring down at his clone with a horrified expression. “He...hello to you, too, Mickey...”
Mickey squealed with happiness and lifted its little arms.
“I think he wants you to pick him up.”
“I...o-okay...”
Michael shakily bent and took hold of Mickey and lifted him in his hands, holding him as far away from his body as he could.
“Gross...what does he feel like?”
“He feels like a...kinda like a newborn baby. Which I guess...that’s what he is, right?”
Ally had backed herself into a corner and rubbed her temples. She couldn’t believe she had actually cloned a person. It was a failed person, but it was still a person, and it sent a million thoughts running through her head. Michael slowly got used to holding Mickey; he sat on the edge of his bed and placed the little clone on his knee, turning his head and inspecting his different sized eyes and ears, his little fingerless hands, his crooked little smile. After the initial shock faded away, Michael even thought that he was kind of cute.
“So how do we get rid of it?”
Michael snapped his head up and glared at Luke. “You will do no such thing.”
Luke scoffed and cringed at Mickey. “But...it’s hideous.”
“So are you, but your mom didn’t get rid of you when you were born.”
“Oh, so now you’re it’s mom?”
Michael took a long look at Mickey, who was currently sucking on one of his hands and looking all around the room and smiling at each student.
“Yeah. I am.”
Ashton giggled for the first time in a while. “So that makes Ally his dad.”
Calum sighed and rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. He just wanted to have one normal movie night. Just one. Without any clone babies or Val begging him to swallow her. Was that too much to ask?
