Triple Threat

“Leroy Rex. Yours is?” He asked back and yawned again. He then rolled his eyes and decided to demonstrate by making Thomas’ shirt invisible with a flick of his wrist. . “Not bad. Those clothes hide a nice body.” He commented. He could have made the pants invisible too, but he was not going to be that rude.

“Thomas,” he said evenly. Obviously a bit surprised by Leroy’s demonstrations, he pushed off the wall and raised an eyebrow, only to grin a moment later. “Thanks, I try to stay in shape. You’re power seems pretty useful. Did it ever make a good party trick? I know one kid here who would have a field day with this.”

“They do, but apparently not enough since you know so little of me.” He said and laid back on his bed and got comfortable “Hm? That’s a very boring power. I would feel second-hand embarrassment of whoever had that”

“I know a bit. You’re name is Leroy right?” Thomas continued leaning against the wall, eyeing the rest of the room before looking back at the guy. “What is your power then, if it isn’t that - or an exceptionally fantastic physique?”

@firewcrk​

“Mother fuh’er,” Thomas was getting on his knees, stretching himself up to look over furniture. He was practically doing back flips to find this cat. “Coral this is getting old.” The blonde huffed, blowing his hair out of his face. “I swear - who’s a guy gotta kill to get some fucking Temptations.” He’d run out of the cat treats while they were under quarantine, and now his puss was nowhere to be seen. He caught a glimpse of something coming around a corner, but in the flash of a moment his hopes were dashed as it was only a man. To appear put together, Thomas quickly straightened his back and pursed his lips. 

“It wasn’t the knife exactly. Just the knife being inside of me. There are few things that I allow inside of me, and a knife just isn’t one.” Eli turned the shower head off, his feet splashing through the wet floor as he made his way to the towel rack. Rubbing is mop of dripping hair as thoroughly as he could. “I mean. What if the safe of a notorious villain? Maybe he stole some poor town’s gold reserves, and I’m just… Stealing it back? We can flip this into a Robin Hood story to play it off to the boys upstairs if need be.”

I can only imagine what the others are, he thought with a smug expression. Thomas followed not long after Eli, turning off the water and going for something to dry himself off. “I think your imagination is almost as good as your talents at phasing.” He wrapped a towel around his waist and looked on at Eli. “So, here’s where I give you some homework. You should be spending a minimum of a half hour a day on working on your phasing. A half hour to an hour. Think you can manage that?”

He looked at him oddly. “If you thought they were here, then you were thinking they were sleeping with me, which I don’t blame you.” He commented in a rather causal way before yawning. “What if I am?”

“Well, people talk ya know.” Thomas leaned against the doorway. “You look more like a mentor with all the muscles. Is your superpower bulking up?”

You better have a good reason to wake me up because I was having the best dream.” He said as he rubbed his eyes while sitting up to is bed. “And it was not about you.”

“I’ll try not to take that personally.” Thomas looked around the room. “I was looking for someone. I take it they’re not here?” He eyed the man’s form. “You’re one of the proteges, right?”

      atlas was so happy.   the fact that he was outside, and the weather was gorgeous.   he grinned.   “  this,  i can’t believe we get this again.  ”   he said.   he looked over to the person next to him.   “  this is what freedom smells like.  ”  //  open starter

Tom pushed his fingers through his hair and let out a heavy breath. He had a small smile on his face as the man next to him said what he was thinking. “Freedom usually is followed by the smell of smoke, sweat and blood.” The Chimera looked over at the guy. “But I like this more. What’s the first thing you’re gonna do now?”

Jonathan raised his eyebrow and observed the man, before letting out a scoff. “Please, we have a very good wifi connection, I’m sure they can get HD porn if they really wanna pull a quick one.”

Tom shrugged. “It’s always nicer to see what you want in real life and in real time. I’m sure you give a lot of the younger guys here something to aspire to. But looser shirts might not be a bad idea. Maybe those ones with the cutout sleeves.”

“I am offended that you would think so little of me, I’m not some down low, drunk, frat boy. I know how to make a man call me back for more.” Eli winked at Thomas and chuckled, turning back to rinse his hair under the running shower. “Well thank you. Maybe if you stop pointing a knife at me and started with something a little less panic inducing, I could get there a lot faster. I’m pretty good at safes, so if you ever wanted to rob a bank. I’m your inside man.” He said laughing.

“If I recall correctly, my knife was what made you phase. You’re welcome.” He turned back to the wall and started to rinse himself off. “Safes . . . I’ll keep that in mind. I don’t think The Advocates would like to hear that though. Remember, we’re trying to make heroes, not criminals.”

“God, I hope so. She had enough evidence to sue the motel owner for so many levels of negligence. All she needed was one under-dog lawyer to take her case.” Eli chuckled.

His mouth dropped open, but couldn’t keep the grin appearing on his face, relieved Thomas had stopped pressuring for more details, and for the change in conversational topic. “Oh, the blonde Adonis has jokes, does he? I know you’re not trying to read me for my height with that bean-stalk body. You got your own climate up there Goldilocks?” He teased back, tossing a little soapy foam at the man. “Do guys ever make it to your summit? Or they gotta quit halfway up if there’s a bad storm coming in?”

His face had settled back on a small smile. “Blonde Adonis? Nice to know what you think of me.” Thomas kept his head turned to Eli as he scrubbed himself down. “Usually they run out of breath because I’m too hard to handle. What about you? I imagine you just jack-rabbit with guys and then it’s over in a minute? Or is it two?” The man grinned at him. “Hey, it’s pretty cool that you can phase through walls. If you ever learn how to control it, it’ll be pretty useful.”

“She was already robbing the motel owner, she didn’t need to rob a sixteen year old kid.” Eli said chuckling. “Besides, it’s not like I had anything to steal anyway. I had like two shirts and one ripped pair of jeans in a small backpack. I was living what is now considered a ‘minimalist’ life style.”

Eli looked down at the soapy water swirling around his feet, a small grimace on his face. He was a fairly open book, but that didn’t mean there weren’t topics that didn’t made him uncomfortable. He took a moment trying to find the words, “You could say it was sort of a family project. My parents studied dimensions. They were physicists.” Eli blinked, looking at the shining red swatches across his abdomen where he’d been scrubbing his skin raw with the louffa. He let out another sigh.

Raising his eyebrow again, Eli turned to the man. “When you say mercenary, you mean like, criminal for hire? And you’re asking me about things I shouldn’t have done?” He teased, before growing somber once more. This conversation was starting to way heavily on him. He thought he’d have been more over the events that transpired by now. “I mean. I had to do a lot of filching and pick pocketing to be able to pay for my room at the motel. I was caught a number of times… on top of other things I was already being sought after for.”

“That’s the lifestyle where you have to buy the whitest of white breads, and the plainest american cheese that you can find. Quite a life, isn’t it? Let’s hope that cleaning lady is doing better.”

Tom turned his head, curious as to how two parents could let his son get into that. But maybe that was enough of an inquisition for now. He backed off, raising an eyebrow as Eli hit him back. “Hey, do as I say, not as I do. I can do bad things and still tell you not to do ‘em.” The Chimera looked back at Eli again. “So, did going through an inter-dimensional portal stunt your growth? Or was it the lack of greens?” 

“Oh I definitely swam in the pools. Took me maybe three times before I figured out there wasn’t any actual chlorine or cleaning chemicals in the water and I was mostly just swimming in a stale, cloudy cesspool. I was so sick, but thankfully the cleaning brought me that good, home made chicken noodle soup. She was the sweetest woman I’ve ever met.”

Eli was quiet for a moment, placing a hand against the shower wall as a wave of sadness washed over him. Thinking about having to rely on the kindness of a stranger to help feed him when he didn’t even have the energy to snag a few bucks out of the motel safe for delivery. And there had been so many delivery packages piled high in that small room. He shook the feeling off himself, realizing he hadn’t been listening to Thomas, but was thankful to at least catch his question.

“I joined because I was a dirt poor and needed better legal defense. As my powers, I was inside an unstable inter-dimensional portal when it blew up. Boom. Meshed that inter-dimensional goo with my very DNA.” He refrained from mentioning more. “What skills was it the advocates needed? What are your powers anyway? Are you proficient at threatening to stab people?”

“You had a cleaning lady who wasn’t trying to rob your stuff? Lucky dog.” Thomas grinned, laughing a little as he thought about it. “God, I could never go to a motel again in my life and I’d be fine. Those things are like . . . gateways to hell.” 

His eyes widened. He hadn’t heard a story like that in a long time. “How does a guy like you end up in an inter-dimensional portal? As far as I know they’re not on every other block like Starbucks.” He pressed the loofa to his body and started to scrub, occasionally looking back at Eli, seeing barely anything as the steam got thicker. “I grew up learning how to fight and steal. I can get in and out of places without being seen.” He smiled to himself, happy that he could say he had no abilities, except for one. “I’m just a really talented mercenary. So when you say legal defense, does that mean you’ve done things you shouldn’t have?”

“Oh, we got a rich guy here, hotels? I raise you one seedy budget inn motel named ‘Nuttin Special’. Right off the high way, rented by the hour. Bullets still embedded in the wall. And a front desk clerk who hit on anything breathing that came through the lobby.”

Eli turned with a raised eyebrow at Thomas before taking the soap out of his hand. “You don’t even know what a bath bomb is, do you?” He flipped open the cap and took a whiff, finding the scent rather pleasant and relaxing. While there weren’t any grandiose, claw-footed tubs to relax in, Eli had to admit the showers were quite nice. Slick concrete and huge, shining, chrome heads that heated the water up fairly quickly. They even managed to somehow curb the stank of sweat within the locker room. He turned his back to Thomas as he undressed. Small shivers shook him until he finally managed to get under the running water. Letting his soreness melt into the stream.

“How uh… How did you come to join the Advocates, Thomas? I don’t think I ever heard.”

His smile seemed to get bigger as they talked. “Actually I can relate to that. I’ve been in far more motels than I have penthouses. It’s not a glamorous life, is it? Tell me you never swam in the pools, right? That’s how you catch death.”

Thomas dropped the towel and used a shower head opposite to the younger man. “I know what they are. I’ve used ‘em. Not a big fan. They make me itch.” He grabbed a bar of soap, a loofa sponge from the wall and started to rub the two together. He pushed his hair back and soaked his face, giving it a beat before he answered. “The Advocates and I have a common goal in mind. I happen to be quite skilled and they needed skill.” Not everyone needed to know where he came from. The less, the better. It wasn’t like he could trust Eli. “What about you? How’d you get your powers? Toxic-waste? Bitten by a radioactive ghost spider?”

Francis laughed as he heard the other talking to the support member. It wasn’t rude, so Francis saw no reason to interfere, but he did think that it was a little funny and cute exchange between the two. He continued to play on his ipad, still obsessed with Game Pigeon. Playing some things with his son and right hand. 

“Wouldn’t that just taste like apple juice?” He asked the other with a curious expression, but he moved to take a sip of the offered drink and returned it back towards the male. He knew that it was something new to try and he was happy to have a taste. “Hmm, I underestimated that. It’s pretty good.” He laughed and sat his iPad down and turned a bit to look at the other. “What made you decide to try that?” he asked the other curiously, because although it was good it was something that he would have never thought about trying on his own - but maybe the other had an creative mind. 

Thomas eyed the tablet, wondering what he was playing. It seemed to do with birds? Perhaps not his game. “Apple juice is for kids, but Granny’ll get’ch you quite relaxed.” He took the drink back from the man and nodded, tipping it back to sip. He set the cocktail down and pressed his lips together, thinking about why he actually got it. 

“Normally when I drink I’m not doing it to get drunk, so I stick to the same things if I can. That way I know what I’m putting in. But since I’m technically off duty, it seemed like a good time to try something new. What about you? If we’re all here on lock down, what’re you doing to stay sane?”

Eli didn’t take his eyes off the knife, even when Thomas put it away. He was now very wary of the weapon having been on the man, and questioned whether or not Thomas would have actually tried to use it to help him work his powers. “I know they won’t. I just… I don’t know, the whole hero thing didn’t really strike me as being this physically exhausting. I was thinking more fire fighter work. Rescue a kitten out of a tree ordeal. Low level heroism? Is that a thing?”

Sighing with relief, Eli lifted his shirt to wipe the sweat from his face. “Thank god, cause I want to soak in a hot tub and just relax for a bit. Do we have those bath bomb things? Bath salts or scrubs? Or is this a cold gym shower cause everyone else was up in here earlier using the hot water ordeal?”

Thomas shrugged. “I don’t know. But this is what they have you doing. Maybe the idea is to get you physically fit to climb a tree, so you save that kitten.” As the kid talked, The Chimera cracked a small smile. Someone had filled his head with ideas of a cushion-y life, and Thomas wanted to have a word with them. “This place is nicer than most of the hotels I’ve spent my life at. I would not be surprised if they had all that. Why don’t we go and find out.” He patted Eli on the back, walking him out of the training room and to the showers.

-

“They have Dove for Men, is that close to your bath bombs?” Thomas stood with a towel around his waist as he examined the bathrooms. “They also have conditioner, nice.” He hadn’t used their showers much. Usually after training he would leave to go for a post-workout run, then shower in some gym before coming back.Usually a Planet Fitness; the people there were easy to scam.