Chapter Text
Life went back to normal, actual normal, after that. There was a lull in monster activity, and the Starblaster crew was left to develop their research and work on their fighting.
“We need a name for this being,” Magnus said one day, in the middle of clearing up a table, “we know it’s a being, right, and not some weird disease.”
“Bastard.” Taako said, not looking up from the cookbook he was reading, he had a piece of paper and a pen beside him, and he was noting down potential recipes to add to the Starblaster’s menu.
“What about The Hunger?” Lucretia said, sorting out the change from the till, “because of what happened to Brian.”
“Leave it to the English major to think of a fancy name,” Davenport said, he was still in the process of rebooting all of the data that Jenkins had messed with.
“Think of the astrophysics major to not name something at all.” Lucretia said back, sticking her tongue out at Davenport whilst he wasn’t looking. They fell into silence for a while, until Taako looked up at the clock and spoke.
“Uhh, heads up, guys, we might have a visitor in a few minutes.”
“What do you mean?” Davenport said, “you can invite friends to the cafe during work hours. This isn’t a formal business, Taako.”
“No, it’s not a friend, it’s my sister.” Taako sounded smaller than he usually did, like he was unsure of himself, “I think she’s one of us.” Everyone stopped what they were doing to look at him.
“Why didn’t you tell us sooner?” Lucretia asked, more cautious than accusatory.
“Well, at first, I didn’t actually know what this “pull” you guys were talking about actually was,” Taako explained, “and then I realised that I could feel it towards her. It just seemed so dangerous and I didn’t want both of us to get hurt, or worse. There needs to be one of us at home.”
“Hey, it’s okay.” Lucretia said, “there’s gonna be a bunch of people that have the potential for having powers that we don’t have to employ.”
“Yeah, there’s been a few kids at dog training that I’m pretty sure have powers, but there’s no way I’m making them fight.” Magnus said. “If you want, we can just hang out, she doesn’t need to know.”
“What’s she like?” Merle asked, “I wanna know how she’s gonna fit in the team dynamic we’ve got going here.”
“I think you’ll be able to tell when you see her.” Taako said, and with that, the door opened.
Lup looked exactly like Taako. They were twins, presumably. Her hair was shorter, though, and she dressed in darker colours. Lucretia wasn’t sure what the pull felt like herself, but she she saw the boys look at each other, conforming their suspicions.
“Taako, you didn’t tell me your boss was a total babe.” Okay, so that’s what Taako meant.
Lucretia and Davenport looked at each other, simultaneously raising their eyebrows to imply that she was talking to the other one of them.
“Hello Lup,” Davenport said, “we think we have something to tell you.” Magnus nodded, they definitely did. Davenport got out the charts, and prepared himself for another long explanation, but Taako dragged Lup to the side and gave her the condensed version.
“There’s monsters, you have superpowers, help us save the world.” Taako said. Lup looked at him for a second, and then at the other people in the room.
“I know,” Lup said, to the surprise of everyone. “I’ve seen you guys fighting. I’ve seen the weird furry ears that Taako gets sometimes.”
“Okay,” Lucretia said, “well there was no way we were going to hide it from everyone.”
Lup looked down at the pendant, and it glowed, the slightest, faintest amount, before going back to normal. “Alright, superpowers, cool. Who do we fight?”
“Hunger.” Merle said.
“The Hunger,” Lucretia corrected, “it’s an entity? A force? That corrupts animals and now even humans, and makes them destroy everything in sight. We’re researching it, and keeping it at bay, but it’s growing stronger. We need more people on our side.”
“I’m the tank of our super team.” Magnus said.
“I’m a wizard of some sort.” Taako said, refusing to get down from Magnus’s shoulders.
“And I’m a healer, I think.” Merle finished off.
“And together you are?”
“Tres horny boys,” Magnus said, “We fought just a whole bunch of spiders.”
“We can’t exactly have you join them until we know you have powers.” Davenport said.
Lup didn’t seem all that bothered. “Makes sense. Should I just leave you all to it?”
“No, you can stay,” Lucretia said, perhaps a touch too urgently, “you don’t have to help us shut down, but you can have some coffee.”
“Only if I’m with you when I’m drinking it.” Lup winked. Lucretia felt a strange feeling in her heart. The same one that appeared when Merle used healing magic, or when she was too close to someone when they were transforming. Magnus nudged her.
“I can take over your jobs if you want,” he whispered, “you should spend time with her. For science.” Lucretia nodded, almost unsure of herself, and started formulating a last minute date plan in her head.
“Actually, why don’t we head down somewhere else?” She said, “I don’t want to get in the way of these guys.”
“Hell yeah, boys night!” Magnus said, and Davenport shook his head, already tired. Lup laughed, and took Lucretia by the hand, leading her out of the cafe, and into the street.
“What were you thinking of by somewhere else?” She asked.
“There’s a food truck in the park that’s open late. They make some really good donuts.”
“Alright, a walk in the park and some donuts, I like where this is going.” Lup took Lucretia by the hand and lead her down the road. Lucretia felt almost compelled to fall into step with her, and appreciate the newly night sky, and how Lup’s hand felt in hers, and the sound of the wind through the trees, and how Lup was really pulling off that denim jacket, and how Lucretia couldn’t find the words to describe the park so she didn’t focus on that, just Lup.
Just Lup and her roughly cut hair. Just Lup and the three piercings she had in each ear. Just Lup and the way the light danced in her eyes like fire. Just Lup and how she laughed, how she walked, how she, how she…
Lucretia stopped dead, shaking her head to get rid of the feeling. She could almost see the pink clearing from the edges of her vision.
“You’re one of us,” Lucretia said, she still wasn’t fully lucid.
Lup looked confused. “What do you mean?” She said, “I don’t know what’s happening. Last week I collapsed in class and ever since, everyone’s been acting weird, even Taako!”
“What happened when you collapsed, Lup.” Lucretia said, taking Lup’s hand again. The air became slightly heavier and there was a sweet scent around her, but Lucretia did her best to push down those feelings.
“There was a light? Yeah, a light, and when I woke up they said nothing was wrong with me. I’ve never fainted before, they asked if anyone in our family had a history of fainting.” She paused to laugh. “Their guess is as good as mine.”
“And since then?” Lucretia prompted.
“Everyone’s been acting… weird,” Lup said, “they’re scared of me, or they say I tricked them, which I don’t want to do!”
“Lup, this might be powers manifesting in a weird way,” Lucretia explained. Lup looked terrified.
“I don’t want them,” she said, almost whispered, “I just want to be able to talk to people, I don’t want to save the world. I’ve seen the shit Taako does.”
“Hey, it’s okay.” Lucretia held her arms out, offering a hug. Lup wrapped her arms around Lucretia and Lucretia could hear her trying to hold back tears. “We can help you control your powers, and you don’t have to fight if you don’t want to.”
“Can we go back to getting donuts?” Lup asked, and Lucretia chuckled.
“Of course.”
They sat on a park bench in relative silence, watching the few remaining animals make their way home, and Lucretia quietly pondered about what Lup’s powers could be. From what Lup had said, and from what Lucretia herself had experienced, she could, almost without thinking, deceive, scare, and attract people. She’d never really seen powers manifesting in that way before, but then again, she had only seen four different variations of it.
“How’d you even come about discovering this superpower business?” Lup asked after a few minutes had passed.
“Coincidence,” Lucretia explained, “Davenport was researching for his degree and he kept coming across these anomalies, they were faint, but they were consistent, and he couldn’t explain them. He showed them to me, and we started research into this energy, which lead us to a series of unexplained deaths. It started with animals with no injuries or illnesses, and then people started going missing. It was only a few months ago that we saw one of the Hunger’s creatures in the flesh.”
“Makes sense,” Lup said, “and they’re getting stronger, I presume. They can infect people now, and those people can infect others.”
“So far only a person that previously had powers has been infected, everything’s too new to know any definites.”
“I might want to join,” Lup said, “at the very least, I want to put these powers to good use.” Lup smiled, and Lucretia felt that overwhelming infatuation again. She giggled, and apparently their hands were intertwined? Lucretia wasn’t entirely sure what was going on, but Lup was there, so everything was fine.
A loud scream broke the illusion, and Lucretia jumped to her feet, immediately alert. The ground was torn apart by what appeared to be tree roots, which then sprouted vines, ensnaring anyone unlucky enough to by near them. A woman with a raven’s mask covering her face stepped around the vines casually. Her clothes were black and torn, save for the green sash around her waist. It was tied in a bow and seemed to float behind her.
She had magic, and yet Lucretia had never seen her in her life. In the few seconds it took to register this, the woman turned towards them, and the eyes of her mask glowed bright yellow. More vines sprung up from around them, and they dragged Lucretia to the ground. The woman walked up to them, then kneeled to be at Lucretia’s level. When she spoke, her voice was layered, and almost certainly not her own.
“Stop fighting back.”
Before Lucretia could say anything else, the woman ran off, calling out commands in a language even Lucretia couldn’t comprehend, and more destruction sprung up around her. The vines were slowly creeping up Lucretia’s arms and legs, and were growing increasingly tighter. All around them, people were being released from the vines, stumbling, zombie like, towards the raven woman.
“Hey Lup? If you’re going to make a decision, now would be a great time!”