Return of the Hero 5 - Penthouse

The wheelchair clacked against the concrete as it was pushed out the doors of the hospital, Lucas hiding his face in his hands as his sister pushed him out of the front doors. Just as she had warned, there were a few people with cameras, snapping pictures of Elizabeth like the celebrity she was. Even with a baseball cap on and out of costume, looking nothing like the pictures and news reels made her look, she was still recognized. That only served to make his situation even more humiliating and mortifying.

"I could have walked myself," he complained. Elizabeth rolled her eyes at him – he couldn't see it, but he could still feel her judgmental eye-roll – as she continued to push.

"And I could have gone with George to the B-Rank gate in Texas, but instead I opted to stay here and help my crippled brother get out of the hospital." she deadpanned. "We didn't need you harassing the staff any more than you already had."

Lucas scoffed, but didn't deny that accusation. He liked to think he had a bit of a reputation amongst the nurses, now. That still didn't change the fact that he didn't necessarily need to be wheeled out of the hospital in a wheelchair. Some of the doctors had insisted he use it for a time, though, and his siblings had all too readily agreed.

It was unprecedented for him to have gotten out of the hospital as quickly as he had, the basics and basic physical rehab taking only a few weeks before Doctor Holt had been forced to declare him fit to be released. He was nowhere near one hundred percent, and wouldn’t be for a few months unless he focused hard on it, but he was good enough and desperately needed to get out of the stupid hospital. There was only so much he could take of the energy in that place.

"Why do they deploy you two to lower-ranked gates? I thought that would be beneath your skill level," Lucas asked, forcibly changing the subject as Elizabeth stopped him in front of a sleek black Mercedes car. A driver in a black suit greeted her, opening the door for both him and his sister.

He waved off her help, standing and slipping into the car on his own, hiding how his foot tried to slip out from underneath him as he sat in the plush leather seats. Elizabeth slid into the back with him after folding and stowing the wheelchair in the back.

"Home, Steven," Elizabeth told the driver as they both slid in, the engine starting with a hum. Lucas tensed as the power in the car flared to life, grating unpleasantly against his senses until he adjusted to it. "It's standard practice for an S-class or two A-class heroes to be present at B-rank gates. There have been a couple of incidents where the interior is actually far more dangerous than our limited sensors can determine, so S or A-classers are there to make sure it all goes smoothly. George will probably only have to enter once, then let the B-classers handle the rest, and just stick around to make sure it doesn’t randomly jump in difficulty." Elizabeth supplied.

Lucas hummed, his train of thought all but lost as his hands gripped the door of the car. It was a very luxurious vehicle, unlike anything he would have ever been able to afford before this, but his spiritual senses were so new in this body he was having trouble enjoying it. The car beneath him felt like...it was hard to describe with mere words. Not unnatural, but the seat beneath him had some sort of foam that tried to suck up his energy, the powerful electronics that coursed through the car buzzing like a hundred bees against his skin.

It was by no means worse than the hospital, or in any way comparable for that matter, but it was still bugging him and different enough he hadn’t braced himself for it. So he latched onto the two topics his mind first came up with.

"Someday you're going to have to show me your magic. And I don't mean the party tricks, I mean the real stuff," he told Elizabeth, fixating his gaze out the window at the world passing by. Predictably, the only acknowledgment she gave that she heard him was a small little grunt. She had George danced around that topic constantly, but Lucas needed to feel it. Magic was the expression of the soul. It would tell him a lot. "And I just thought of this, but what happened to all my stuff? My record player, the guitar, my car - oh god, my car! Please tell me you kept it."

The panic that surged through Lucas at the thought of his car getting mangled in the chaos that was his world now was genuine and strong. He had worked on the Bel Air with both his father and his grandfather. It was more than sentimental, he'd sooner lose his arm than that car. Maybe. Not really. But it was important to him!

"You only just thought of that? You've been awake for weeks. I figured that would be the first thing you asked," Elizabeth said. Lucas scoffed, gesturing out the window, where a man in a bright orange-and-yellow latex suit walked down the street, waving to a few civilians and showing a ball of flame to a few children.

"I've been preoccupied," he deadpanned.

"Fair point. That's Lack Luster, by the way. Nice guy. C-class hero. Actually a very standup dude, despite the poor choice in hero name," she explained.

"You're avoiding my question, Liz. Don't make me tell your driver embarrassing stories," at this, the driver, Steven, glanced in the rearview mirror, then refocused on the road.

"George is taking care of your car. He's got it sparkling clean, trust me. As for the rest of your stuff, we've got it stored in a storage unit downtown, in the hopes that you would wake up," she said, the smile on her face audible in her voice.

"George can't take care of a hamster. I am even more concerned now," Lucas whined, avoiding looking at his sister as he watched the buildings pass them by. The city looked...normal, surprisingly enough. Dirty, for sure, but relatively normal. People walked the streets. The cars were still the same sort of makes and models he remembered, even if there were fewer newer cars. The buildings were still brick or mortar or whatever modern buildings were made out of, not magic metals or stone or anything. Which made sense, if he thought about it. Five years and some months wasn't quite enough time to overhaul entire cities, especially with society itself in the throes of change.

"George has changed," Elizabeth said soft enough Lucas turned to face her. She didn't meet his eyes. "You'd be surprised. This is the most animated I've seen him in a long time." Lucas had nothing to say to that, no comfort to give, especially knowing what he knew. He'd given up the opportunity to get them through the worst of this, to fight his own war.

He wondered, sometimes, if he wouldn't have tried to return sooner, had he known what was happening down here. In his heart of hearts he knew he wouldn't have, but the guilt still weighed heavily upon his soul.

So he went back to staring out the window and trying not to scream at the spiritual energy pounding through the city in unending waves, the chaos of everything driving into his skull like hammers. I have got to figure out where all this coming from. It's going to drive me nuts. He dared not open his senses any further than they already were. He may be a big scary soldier of heaven, but painful things were still painful, no matter how old he was.

***

"Welcome to my apartment," Elizabeth said, gesturing widely as she swung the door open. Lucas whistled in genuine appreciation as he walked in, leaning against a little cane-like thing as he stepped into what was less an apartment, and more a full penthouse. The entry room itself had an entire wall of windows overlooking the city below, a state-of-the-art kitchen covering the entire right wall. Expensive-looking lights hung from the ceiling, and luxurious leather chairs and couches sat in front of a TV that had to be over a hundred inches.

"Apartment?" he echoed.

"Being an s-class hero comes with its perks. Money and luxury just so happens to be one of those perks. I’d better get this much, for all they put me through," She replied, dropping a little suitcase on the nearest chair and marching over to the kitchen. "I'll show you your room, then we can order something to eat. I'm sure you’re tired of hospital food,"

"Yes. God, I miss spice," Lucas moaned. Houyi would make this amazing spicy noodle dish every once in a while in heaven, and gods above how he missed that wonderful burn.

"I don't remember you liking spice," Elizabeth said as she walked further into the penthouse.

"It was a recent development," Lucas replied, which was not really a lie, technically speaking. Crap, had his mortal body not liked spicey food? He actually couldn't remember. Elizabeth showed him around the place, and despite being a big penthouse, it struck Lucas as shockingly empty.

The decor looked like it had come with the place itself, not having any of Elizabeth's personal touch; what he could remember of it. Her bedroom - a truly massive thing with a very small bed - had maybe a few pieces of clothing strewn about, and a suitcase that still had clothes in it. The guest room he would be staying in, one of three, had dust all over the dresser and in the empty closet, visible despite the clear attempt Liz had made at cleaning.

"We'll get some of your stuff from storage in the next few days, but you'll probably need some new clothes. We can go shopping when you feel up to it." She told him, awkwardly standing in the doorway as he explored the room. The bed looked and felt nice enough; a thousand times better than the dumb hospital bed, with sheets that were a hundred percent cotton and felt so much better to his spiritual senses, lacking the itchiness of the polyester hospital blankets.

But it concerned him. The entire penthouse concerned him. He patted a pillow and sat on the bed, turning to face his sister with a trademarked little grin, hiding his concern.

"So, are there any special people in your life that I should be worried about coming over?" It still felt weird that he would be sharing an apartment - penthouse - with his younger sister until he got his feet back under him, but the twins had unanimously agreed that Elizabeth's place would be the better choice.

Which just meant he had to go see George's place and make fun of him for it, eventually. Whatever mess of an apartment/penthouse he had, Lucas had to know.

"Nothing like that. There was this one guy, a few years ago, but he died in a C-rank gate that turned out to be an a-rank." Elizabeth said, voice dead as she stared at her feet. Lucas focused in on her, reading her body language best he could, gauging her reaction. That was a very heavy topic to be dropping out of the blue like that, when he'd been only half joking.

"Don't," she said, looking up, expression pained. Lucas raised an eyebrow. "Don't look at me like that. These things happen in the gates. People die. I don't think you realize how dangerous they can be."

He hummed in the back of his throat, folding his hands in his lap as he considered her statement. There was a lot to unpack there, and a lot he needed to drag out of both his sister and brother. Things he wanted to know. And in many ways he read the statement as a warning to him, her trying to keep him out of the gates. But he was no therapist, and most of all he knew better than to press for things when someone wasn't ready to share. So, he defaulted to his usual standby when situations needed defusing; humor.

"I wasn't looking at you in any way. I was just disappointed that I don't get to play the role of the mafia older brother from out of state again." he whined, dropping his shoulders dramatically and sticking his bottom lip out in a pout.

"Oh, shut up," Liz said with a half-laugh. Lucas wiggled his eyebrows.

"Really I'm just glad your fame didn't go to your head. I'd hate for you to have multiple boyfriends, or girlfriends, I don't judge, and me having to beat them off with a stick," he teased. She snorted out another laugh, then frowned slightly, shifting from one foot to the other as her expression turned cold, as it always did whenever she had something serious on her mind.

"That wouldn't be a problem anyway," she admitted softly, lifting her head to stare not at Lucas, but at the wall behind him. He folded his hands in his lap, straightening up as she began to really talk. "It's rare for me, and George, really, though he’d deny it, to find someone I can actually talk to. The other S-class heroes all have their own quirks and tend to be just work colleagues. Other heroes treat me as some great idol, propping me up on a pedestal. And normal people, or those with power that is so much less than my own," she paused here, meeting Lucas' eyes, then looking away.

"They have trouble with your presence," Lucas suggested softly, recalling how the nurses had tiptoed around her and George.

"They either fear me or think I'm some sort of celebrity. Most the time the former." she said. "I'm described as cold by these people. It's rare to find a normal person who can even look me in the eyes, to say nothing about when I start showing off my powers. Even the government has to be careful around me."

"That's why you and George keep deflecting when I say I want to see your magic powers," Lucas realized, feeling stupid for not having noticed earlier. Like him, they didn’t want their brother to see them in a different light.

"No," Elizabeth lied through her teeth, face blank still. Lucas stood on slightly shaking legs, stepping forward to lay what he hoped was a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Liz, I've literally changed your sheets when you wet yourself from a nightmare," he deadpanned, forcing a choked laugh out of her. She met his eyes, and he smiled as warmly as he could, a touch of his magic leaking out to warm his expression further. "I really doubt that anything you could show me would make me think of you as anything other than my annoying little sister, who used to put glitter in my hair as I slept." That earned him a true laugh, and she lightly shoved him away.

"You looked fabulous." She told him.

"I did," he replied shamelessly.

"There's no way you could know that, though." She shook her head, ponytail waving behind her. "You don't understand. When I get going, I turn into...I just can't show you, Lucas."

"I'm positive I do know that." Lucas knew, because he felt the same thing about his siblings. If, after his soul finished getting settled in his body, he showed the twins his power, then how would they react? There is literally no way they would not change how they viewed him, which is why he considered her concern silly. He had seen far, far more. …once he got settled, he’d show them. They deserved as much. But right now it felt…dangerous? He wasn’t sure how to describe it, but his soul was still a little off, not quite settled, and he didn’t want to accidentally hurt himself. "But I won't pry too much. You can show me when you're ready."

Elizabeth shrugged noncommittally, rubbing her arms and taking a step back.

"Right. Well. Get settled and get some rest. I'll order some food later, there's not much in the kitchen. I don't spend much time here, so just let me know if there's anything you need and I'll put it on the list," she promised, then promptly left the room. Lucas stood at the doorway for a moment, scratching his earlobe and finally allowing himself the chance to dissect what he felt about the conversation.

There was something wrong with Liz and George's magic. He could feel it in his bones; that was why people reacted like they did to them. He could probably help them, but how did he do that naturally? This was a society that had only recently remembered magic; his knowledge was incredibly dangerous in the wrong hands.

No, that was the wrong way to think about it. They had no frame of reference to apply what he had to teach. You didn't start off with teaching nuclear physics to a four-year-old child. Lucas grumbled a little as he stepped forward, out of the hallway and back into the main room to look out the massive windows, trying to figure out how to go about this and likely overthinking it.

The city glowed with light and electricity and movement even at midday. Cars buzzed by on the road below. People moved about their days. Somewhere in the world, rifts in space and time opened, spilling denizens of other realities into this world. The natural magic energy of the world rippled and crashed against him in distinctly unpleasant, borderline painful waves. And in it all, his brother and sister struggled to come to terms with who they were and what they were becoming.

"I need a drink," he decided aloud. If this was a vacation, he was allowed some vices - not like Heracles begrudged him from such things. Or many of the divine beings he'd met and befriended, for that matter. Lucas rested his forehead on the glass window.

He had a lot to do. Help his siblings. Tomorrow, go get his old stuff and visit his parent's graves. The very thought had him choking up a little, despite knowing what awaited them in the afterlife. Then he had to finish physical therapy, find a job, start his mortal life all over again, and even go explore one of the gates to see what he could find out about them.

Lucas straightened and, staring at his feet in thought, walked back to the guest room that was "his." It was high time he contacted Heaven again, see what they had to say for themselves. But not tonight. And tomorrow he doubted he'd be up to it, after seeing the graves.

But soon.