Romaine's POV
It was now the morning after my return to the city. I'd decided to sleep over at Cas' house since I couldn't yet bring myself to revisit my house; and it turns out Melany's situation was the same, so we pretty much all slept in Cas' living room.
Since I was up before the others, I took the opportunity to finally get some alone time with Cas.
I slowly approached the sleep deprived scientist, peeking over her shoulder at what she was doing.
"Hard at work as usual huh?" I attempted to open by breaking the ice, "You're really making me concerned with your sleep schedule."
"What do you want Romaine." She firmly dismissed, not even bothering to look at me
"Look, Cas," I sighed, "I'm sorry ok. I know it was selfish of me to be gone for so long without saying anything, and I'm really sorry about it. But I did all of it trusting that you'd be here to protect them all, so that when I came back I'd be more useful to all of you."
"No one said anything about you not being useful." She turned to me, speaking with a gentler tone
"Yeah but I'm not Velocity without my speed, without my powers I'm just a..regular old-"
"Scientist?" She cut me off
"Well um, yeah."
"Well what's so wrong about being a normal scientist? Does the only important job revolve around being on the field?"
"No, that's not what I meant. I'm just not the type of person that's comfortable watching all the action, you know."
"Well, here I was starting to actually enjoy you being around in the lab...before you disappeared and made us all think you were dead."
Just as I stood there contemplating what she'd said, the memories of my Time Remnant replayed in my mind.
Without a second thought I grabbed her by the hand and pulled her closer, stealing a kiss from her. After I pulled away she did nothing but stutter, not even able to form proper syllables.
"Life is short Cas," I whispered to her, "and we can never know what'll happen next; the future is ever changing. So I just wanna let you know,"
I zeroed in on her eyes, struck by how beautiful they were.
"I love you."
I'm not sure if whether at that point she was too shocked to speak or was stuttering too badly to even move her lips, but the look she gave me in her eyes told me everything she felt in her heart.
"I know you feel it too," I smiled, "and I know you're awfully stubborn, which is why I put myself out there first. So now whatever happens is up to you."
She was now helplessly trying to hide her red cheeks, it was kinda cute to be honest.
Almost immediately after, an elevator full of third wheelers opened, startling the others at the sight of this odd scene.
"You mind explaining this weird closeness?" Dondre posed
"Well clearly they were making out or something Dondre." speculated Melany
"It's not what it looks like." Cas defended, pushing me away from her
"Yeah I've heard that line before." Dondre rebutted, "You know what happened after that? Two weeks later I found out I'd be having a little brother. Never again will I trust that line."
The group burst out in laughter, with the exceptions of Donte and Shante who likely are just too young to understand.
"Yeah yeah hilarious." Dondre groaned
And as usual, to interrupt our fun, the crime alert sounded off.
"Who the hell could be committing crimes at 6 in the morning?" complained Dondre
"Hold on, it's no crime." Cas pointed out, "The satellites picked up a speedster's energy signature going through the city."
"Hold on, Black Zero?" I questioned
"No, it's likely Overdrive." stated the Prince
"You're both wrong." said Cas, "It's a new energy signature, and the hue of their energy trail is silver."
"Silver?" Questioned all of us
"Was that even possible?" Shante asked
"I don't see why not. It's completely plausible." Cas responded
"Well what's he doing?" Dondre questioned, "Just randomly running through the city by the looks of it."
"Hold on, I'm zeroing in on their location."
Once she brought up recorded satellite footage of the speedster coming to a stop near a gas station, we were all able to get a much better look at them.
"Wait a minute, that's no he." I pointed out
"It's a lass." added the Prince
The girl seemed to be in her mid teens, with long dark brown hair. There wasn't much we could pick up in terms of details though; she was wearing a dark grey hoodie as well.
"Well she's cute I'll give her that." Dondre commented
"Oh please you can't even see her face." scoffed Melany
"It would probably be smart to go detain her before she starts causing any trouble." Cas suggested
"You're right as always Cas, and as acting team leader, I volunteer." Said Dondre
"'Acting' Team Leader?" I questioned
"Well who do you think was running the speedster team while you were gone?"
"That position was more or less filled by Donte." Cas corrected, "But either way, if you're going then I'm also sending Donte, so he can keep an eye on you."
"You're kidding. This little squirt?"
"It's either that or you don't go at all."
"Alright alright fine."
~~~~~~
After not too long, Donte and Dondre came back to the lab; though as to be expected from Dondre, not alone.
"You can't be serious." Melany sighed
"Dondre," I spoke in a very disappointed tone, "What part of 'detain' wasn't clear enough for your womanizing brain to understand?"
"Hey hey," Dondre chuckled, "be nice now; there's a pretty lady in the room."
"You're just making it worse for yourself lad." The Prince shook his head
"Donte," Cas scolded, "I sent you along with him to prevent something like this from happening."
"I know and I tried but he wouldn't listen." Donte whined
"Classic Dondre." I mumbled
"So uh," the girl spoke softly, peeking from behind Dondre, "are these the 'subordinates' you were telling me about?"
"You told her we were your what?" I belted
"I told her I was the leader and all of you were my subordinates." He stated innocently
"When have you ever done a task even remotely related to leadership?"
"So then," the girl interjected, "he's not the leader of all of you?"
"Of course not." I folded my arms, "I am."
For whatever reason her cheeks got red like Cas' did earlier.
"Anyways," Dondre refocused, "this lovely flower here is called Taylor."
"Taylor Maxwell." She introduced herself
I quickly used the Apple's Eye to scan her aura, ensuring that she had no evil motives for being here, then signaled to the rest of the team that she was clear. We all then proceeded to say our names.
"Romaine Green"
"Donte Johnson"
"Shante Johnson"
" 'Prince' Romaine Green"
"Melany Green"
"Cassandra Bolt"
"And you already know my name's Dondre."
"It's very nice to meet you all, but I'm kind of confused." She admitted, "Why are there two of you? Are you twins?"
"That's...an uncomfortably long story..." I told her
"And more importantly, are all of you in here heroes?"
"Not exactly." Dondre answered, "Cas and the Prince over here are powerless, they're more of the brains of the operation. The rest of us all have superspeed like you. The other Romaine is the formerly known 'Velocity'. Donte is 'Excel', Shante is 'Radical' and Melany isn't officially a hero yet, and I'm Acceleration. You may have heard of me."
"No actually, I had no idea that there were other heroes. Especially so far from Portland."
"You're from Portland? What are you doing so far from home then? Lemme guess, you're an orphan, like literally everyone else in here?"
"Yes...actually...my mother died yesterday."
"Oh- I didn't actually mean- Sorry..."
"Great going idiot." I groaned, knocking him in the head
"No, it's fine." Taylor whispered, "That's why I'm here; to take revenge on the man that killed my mother."