Broker

It was the single longest few minutes of her life, sitting there, waiting for the bus to start moving. She did her best to sit still, she really did. She kept her hands pressed between her knees and fixed her feet to the ground as the psec guy and the woman with the clipboard made their way up onto the bus. She glanced into the aisle and saw others talking and looking around, some were just relaxing, while a few looked about as nervous as she felt. The low hum of activity was dizzying, there were so many people here and all of them were at the bare minimum in the rare-tier or had the high potential of getting there.

She felt like she was sitting in the middle of a powder keg.

She needed a distraction and in her desperation turned to the only person who had even so much as acknowledged her existence so far among the others. The blonde guy. She turned towards him and put on her biggest smile, “So what’s your name?” She asked, trying to sound casual even as her heart pounded just about ten miles a minute. He was resting quietly against his seat, his head tilted to look out the window lazily. When she spoke she saw his shoulders tense a little before he shifted and glanced back at her.

“Marc,” He said absently.

“I’m Lillian, nice to meet you!” She said eagerly, holding out a hand.

He raised an amused eyebrow and took her hand, “Huh, sure,” He said his lip twitching a little, was something funny? “You look a little nervous.”

“Do I?” She gasped, losing a bit of volume control, she glanced around and saw a few eyes turned towards her before turning away with a few muted chuckles. She sighed and dipped her head, “Yeah, maybe a little. I’m just so excited to be here.”

“You and me both,” Marc said absently, leaning back against his chair and crossing his arms.

She opened her mouth to ask another question when a chime rang out through the bus. Marc shifted forward and glanced up over the top of the seat ahead of them, she looked his way then followed his gaze to see the woman in glasses standing at the head of the bus. She adjusted her glasses and surveyed everyone for a moment before nodding, “This was our second to last stop, everyone, thank you for your patience,” She said primly, “For those of you who are just now joining us, I am Carla Mint, East Coast administrator for the Pandora Committee.”

“She used to be the liaison to ASTA corp before she got promoted,” Marc muttered under his breath, “Super well connected.”

She glanced his way, Woah, that’s some good info. She thought before looking back at the woman.

“From here we will be making our way directly towards the facility in Green Bank West Virginia,” She said, “It will be about half a day before we arrive, you should take that time to use your phones as much as you can. Greenbank is a signal-free zone. Keep in mind that communications in this vehicle are being monitored and mentioning the location of the camp will result in expulsion. This is non-negotiable,” Miss Mint continued sternly, glancing at a few faces in particular.

“You are now the first generation of East Coast Hero Aspirants, feel free to get to know your neighbors but keep moving in the aisle to a minimum. That is all,” She finished and with a practiced move, turned away to sit down next to the guard.

On cue, the bus began to move, pulling out from the terminal without a word.

“Woah, this is serious,” Lillian breathed before breaking out into a grin, “I can’t friggin wait!” She said and clenched her fists, “Today’s gonna be the day, I know it.”

“Unawakened?” A boy said from above her. She glanced up sharply into the face of a guy with short brown hair and bright lavender-colored eyes. He grinned, “Or are you just sleeping on it?” He asked, raising his eyebrows and waggling them a little. 

She blinked at him a few times, squinting a little. “...huh?”

Another boy popped up next to the first and nudged him, “Dude your puns suck,” He said with a chuckle before looking down at Lillian, he was blonde with messy hair and dark eyes, dark eyes that widened when he took a look at her, “Holy mother of gorgeous,” He breathed, “I mean,” He cleared his throat, “Hey, I’m BLF.” He said, dropping his voice an awkward number of octaves.

Lillian opened her mouth, her confusion only getting worse. What is happening right now? Was that flirting? Dude, come on. 

“His name is Alex,” The pun-guy said, “Don’t bother asking what BLF means, he won’t tell anyone. He thinks it’s cool or something to do that.”

“Hey!” Alex-BLF barked, “At least mine’s a bit original, ‘Gravitic’.”

“It has a certain profundity to it,” Gravitic said, “Name’s Greg, by the way,” He held out a hand.

Lillian took the hand with a breath, finally, an actual lifeline in this confusing conversation, “Lillian, I’m guessing those are your chosen codenames?” She asked with a small smile, “I’m unawakened, yeah, so I haven’t picked one yet. I was hoping to come up with something like Firestorm’s name, though.”

Alex rested his chin on his palm, “Figured you for a fangirl, I like your jacket by the way.”

She beamed up at him, “Thanks!” She said before glancing over at Marc, “Oh! This is Marc!” She hesitated and glanced towards the stoic blonde, “I didn’t get your codename, if you have one, sorry.”

“We’ve met,” Alex grunted, frowning at Marc before turning back to Lillian, “Lilian, huh? You wanna be like Firestorm? Not bad,” He said with a grin, “I’m in it to make a name for myself, maybe do a little good along the way with my team.”

“Team?” Lillian asked, glancing sidelong at Marc who shrugged at the dismissive comment and resumed looking out the window with a small smile on his face. She looked between the two young men who were hovering over her, “You two?”

“Oh not just us,” Greg said, he pointed at a rather plain looking guy with dark hair and slight bags under his eyes. He was wearing the most ordinary white shirt and black tie ensemble she’d ever seen. She half expected him to come up to her and ask her uncomfortable religious questions. “That’s John, just John, don’t let appearances deceive you, his power is nuts.”

Greg then pointed at the red-haired boy sitting next to him in a long sleeve shirt and hoodie. He was tapping his finger on his arm and looking generally impatient, “That’s Val, or Pyrolysis, cool dude, short temper, great in a brawl,” Greg said before leaning forward a little and nodding towards one more person. A girl who looked almost half her size was tucked into the seat across the aisle from her, separated by another guy with glasses and a thin lipped expression. The girl was curled in on herself and had a hood pulled up over her head. She was fixated on the cellphone in her hand.

“That’s Snow,” He cleared his throat, “Hey Snow! New friend!”

Before Lillian knew what was happening, text appeared in the air in the middle of the aisle, it looked like it came right off of a smartphone, little bubble included. 

<Sup?> The text said followed by a genuine ‘winky face’ emoji and a kiss emoji.

Lillian leaned back from the abrupt appearance of the text.

“Snow’s thing is illusions, she’s got the best control of her powers out of everyone on the bus pretty much,” Alex cut in, “Too bad she doesn’t talk much.”

A middle finger emoji popped up next. <At least I don’t flirt like a middle schooler.>

“Oh yeah, you wanna go short stuff?” Alex asked, climbing up on his seat a little.

“Mister Ellis?” A sharp voice rang out. He froze and turned his head slowly in the direction of a very unhappy looking Carla Mint looking back at him from over her seat. She narrowed her eyes, “Sit. Down.”

He grinned, “Ah, yeah, mhm, doing that, right now, look at me go!” He babbled, turning a bit red as he slid back down into his seat. Lillian barely made out the poor guy cover his head with his hands. “Why is she so scary?” He whined.

“Because you’re a simp,” Greg grunted and turned back to Lillian, “So yeah, that's all of us, straight out of Nashville.”

Lillian blinked a few more times, taking it all in as a bubble of excitement welled up in her chest. She couldn’t contain it after only a heartbeat, “Already forming a team! That’s crazy! What are your powers? I mean, besides Snow’s, hers are amazing by the way. That’s so cool!” She enthused. She hadn’t even thought that far ahead. What kind of team could she be on? Would she have teammates as cool as Bandit or Lifesaver? What role would she play? There was so much to think about!

Greg raised an eyebrow as a winky-face emoji appeared next to Lillian. “Think mine’s pretty easy to figure out,” He said.

“Gravity, right?” She asked.

“Something like that,” He said with a grin before pointing down at Alex, “This poor guy can do weird shit with his body.”

Alex shot up, “Hey! That is not how it works!” He barked, “Don’t make it sound creepy!”

Greg laughed, “As for John and Pyrolysis, they don’t like talking about their powers so I won’t be that guy, sorry.”

She leaned back against her chair, “That’s fine, I understand,” She said before turning to look at Marc, “What about you?”

“Here we go,” Alex grunted and sat back down, “Mister Mythic.”

Her eyes widened, “...you’re a mythic?” She asked the blonde.

Marc glanced her way and smirked, “Only one on this bus, apparently,” He said with a slightly self-satisfied sigh and leaned back. Alex grumbled something on the other side of the chair that Lillian couldn’t make out. “Perfect power to achieve my dream. Like how you want to be like Firestorm, I happen to have a goal of my own.”

Greg, who had stopped paying attention when Marc was talking turned his head and looked down at the guy, “You actually have a goal? I figured it was just ‘show off’.”

Marc snorted, “Hardly,” He made a face and looked down at his hands, “I have someone I want to take down more than anything in the world. To do that, I’ve got to make a big name for myself so I can get picked to be on the strike-force sent after them one day, no, I want to lead it.” He said and clenched his fists tightly. It was a little melodramatic, but Lillian couldn’t help but get caught up in that passion. To make his singular goal of taking down another person, they must be absolutely terrible- “I’m gonna lead the strike team to take down Ishtar.”

His declaration came with a silence that hung throughout their part of the bus. The young man in glasses flinched a little bit out of the corner of Lillian’s eye. Alex sat up from his seat and looked down at him, “Dude, you’re nuts.”

Marc looked up at him and smirked, “Am I? I know the name of my power,” He clenched his fist, “Crown of Gilgamesh. Ishtar’s enemy in myth,” He said, “Seems like destiny to me.”

“Shh!” The guy in the glasses said, “Are you serious? Stop saying her name!” He urged them.

They all looked over at him, Greg speaking first, “What’s your deal, Ollie?”

“Don’t you know? One in thirty people have a connection to that person or know someone connected to her. There’s fifty two of us on the bus, that means at least one person here-” The guy in glasses started only for Alex to hold up his hands.

“Dude, dude, that’s just a conspiracy theory,” Alex said, “Come on man, half the shit they say about her can’t be real.”

Lillian pressed her lips together and looked down at her hands. They clenched into fists as she felt a small twinge of fear run through her. Just thinking about that woman, that person, that monster, sent chills through her. Someone who fought off the worlds greatest heroes and stole away the man ultimately responsible for Firestorm’s death, only to kill him herself afterwards. Cruel, evil, and powerful. Everyone knew her name and it was true that even at home saying it out loud was something of a taboo.

It felt like thinking about her was bad luck.

“I believe it, most of it anyway,” She said with a breath. They all looked at her. “I don’t care if some people think she’s curtailing the villains. I’ve heard it all too,” She said and glanced towards Marc, “If you’re gonna be there to take her down, so am I.”

Marc grinned at her, “Better get a good power and keep up then. She’s mine.”

Now that fired her up, she grinned back at him, “Challenge accepted!”

“Oh great, now we’re in a frigging shonen,” Alex groaned and sat back down, “I for one will be happy just helping some people. No crazy suicidal goals for me, thank you very much.”

Greg rest his arm on the back of his seat and tilted his head, “Just be careful, alright? You’re still unawakened and the camp isn’t going to be easy, not with miss grump overseeing it,” He said and sat down himself.

She felt a flush run up her neck and lowered her head even as she kept her fists clenched. No, she wasn’t going to back down just because it sounded crazy. She let out a breath and leaned back against her seat, giving Marc a sidelong glance, “Thanks.”

He shrugged at her and looked back out the window.

The young man next to her cleared his throat, “I, for one, don’t think that Miss Mint will be our overseer,” He said, adjusting his glasses.

<I agree.> The text from Snow’s illusion appeared next to him. <Probably going to be a top hero, I heard Black Lotus is here in the states. Probably gonna be some recruiters from the big American sponsorship companies too.>

Ollie nodded at the message, “Miss Snow is right,” He said, “It’s pretty safe to say that ASTA will be present, Marian Heroics, Forge Tactical, Wizney,” He named off a few.

Alex snorted, “You really think Wizney’s gonna be here? I am not wearing a goddamn mouse on my hero suit.”

“They’ve got money,” Ollie pointed out.

Lillian tried to keep up with the conversation, there was so much to take in. She blinked a few times before something occurred to her and it felt a little rude that she hadn’t asked yet, “Ollie right?” She chimed in, cutting out a stirring argument between the two.

He glanced her way, “Mm?”

“What is your codename?” She asked, “Are you awakened? I didn’t ask, I’m sorry.”

“M-me?” He asked, blinking a little.

“He’s a heroic,” Alex grunted, “Scary fuckin guy, scarier than the rest of us, ain’t that right, Riot?” He asked and poked his head up, grinning.

Ollie frowned, “I didn’t pick that name,” He protested, “I’ll have you know that karmic threads are more than just something to tug on. It’s an investigative power!”

“I’m just sayi-” Alex started with a laugh before freezing. Everyone froze. Most of all, Lillian froze. She looked down at her hands and blinked, a faint pale-white glow was beginning to rise up off of them. Her eyes widened as she felt something rush into her, a tingling that raced through her muscles and into her very bones. Like a wind, it built up before rushing out of her in a cool breeze. Instincts she didn’t know she had tingled at the back of her head, built in knowledge that told her… next to nothing.

She frowned, “Wait… what?”

Something’s not right. No, that can’t be it, can it? No, that’s not right.

Someone on the far end of the bus sat up, “Who let rip the world's nicest fart?”

Oh no.

 

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