After Alex had packed enough clothes for a month, Stefani hoisted him up and began to fly them away. She held him by the belt buckle, assuring Alex that it was definitely the safest means of transportation for him, with his luggage and all. She lied.
Finally after what seemed like forever to Alex, she gently placed him on the ground.
By Stefani's standards, that meant dropping him butt first on the hard concrete that was the sidewalk.
"Ouch!"
"Alright listen," Stefani disregarded his glare. She dusted off her hands. "Hazel's already inside, and so is our final member of the team. " she began walking, carrying one of Alex's suitcases.
"Team?" He hoisted his bags and followed after her. "Wait, so who's the other person? Do I know them??"
Stefani didn't answer but kept walking. He struggled to make sense of it all.
"This is my fathers estate, so try to stay on your best behavior. "
"You said we're going to yours!?" He huffed.
"Do you always get hung up on details?"
"No..." He suddenly realized how old fashioned, yet classy the area was. It was huge, but not enough to be called a mansion. As they flew in Alex noted how nice of a view the place had. It was situated on a ledge, just on the outskirts of the woods. Below the ledge was a large body of water that stretched out to the beach of Hollow City. The driveway the two were trekking up led all the way up to the house, which sat behind a gate.
He had to guess that her father was more of an independent type of guy, as his house was somewhat isolated from the city.
Just then he realized just how steep of a walk it was to her fathers house.
He sighed and grit his teeth.
-
-
-
-
The two finally neared the gate after walking in silence.
Glancing over her shoulder, Stefani realized Alex didn't seem tired, just annoyed.
She shrugged. "Dad wouldn't be too happy if I just landed on his yard y'know?"
Alex grumbled in response as she opened the gate and led him to the front door.
"Okay listen. This is for real, so I need you to take this seriously. Are you in?"
"Do I even have a choice?"
"That's the spirit!"
She opened the door and ushered him inside. "We're here!"
-
-
-
-
Alex stood awkwardly in the middle of the living room. To his right stood Hazel, who warmly smiled at him upon his entry. He returned the gesture. To her side sat a man whom he had never met but immediately fixed his gaze on him. Alex stared back confused. The man was tall, had black hair and piercing blue eyes that stared deep into his own brown orbs. The two held eye contact until the guy coughed nervously and looked away. Alex tilted his head in confusion for a moment before he felt a slight tugging from the bottom of his coat.
"Excuse me," spoke a gentle voice. He turned to see who it was. A young boy peaked nervously up at him, eyes soft but just as sharp as Stefani's. He couldn't have been much older than 12 but he looked kind.
"Hello," Alex greeted. "Can I help you?"
The boy held his hands out, pointing towards Alex's bags.
"Actually, I'm just here to help you with those." He took them all and flew away and into another room. They all watched in awe as the young boy effortlessly flew while carrying bags Alex struggled with.
Stefani re entered the living room and paused, looking at everybody as they sat slack jawed. She watched their sight as the young boy flew back out and down to join them. She laughed.
"Don't be so surprised everybody. This is Sam, my younger brother." The boy gave a small bow of his head. Hazel spoke.
"Those looked pretty heavy...But you managed to carry them all at once? You're pretty strong!"
Alex nodded and sat next to her. Stefani had a look of pride and the man Alex had never met just sat in silence.
"Yeah, he's pretty tough, especially for a kid his age. Sassy though. He's training to succeed me one day when he's old enough." She waved her hands in the air. "It'll be a grand spectacle; he'll graduate from highschool, I'll hand him my red belt and give an amazing, grand ol' speech and then I'll be off and into retirement!" She emphasized by elbowing Sam in the side gently, who in turn rolled his eyes and walked off somewhere.
"Well anyway," she began and turned back to the three. All of them trained their eyes on her, especially the blue eyed man. "I've decided that as heroes, we need to boost our careers, and most importantly our reputations.."
"Reputations? You don't want to focus on something like ``I dunno, helping the public?"
The man pointed out. Stefani nodded. "Of course I do, that's valuable to me. Don't get it twisted Jason."
"So that's his name." Alex murmured. Jason in turn faced him. "Yeah, it is. What about you, though? What's your gig? I dont think ive seen you around before.."
Hazel cleared her throat.
"This is Alex, Jason," she said. "Alex, this is Jason Brennon. You probably recognize him from his family's business…"
"..."
"Brennon Industries? Have you..Don't tell me.." She sighed. Alex shook his head, still confused. Jason just stared.
"Anyway!" Stefani clapped, grabbing their attention once more. "I have a proposition for each of you, a pitch if you will," the minute she crossed her legs, Alex knew that she wasn't giving them the leisure of choice. It was more so her gently telling them what she had already set in motion.
"Join my team, train with me, grow as heroes and individuals alongside me, and in return I can pull strings for each of you. As the 3rd ranked B-Class Hero that I am, I'm one of the best in the game right now.." She turned to Alex. "I have contacts in high places, and friends who are sitting comfortably under the Coalition." She turned to Jason. "Besides, how often do you get the chance to become acquaintances with somebody like me? This kind of thing doesn't happen every day you know.."
She held up her glass of whiskey to them and took a sip. A certain air of unease and tension had arisen.
"Do we….Even have a say in the matter?!" Hazel questioned. The other woman looked at her and simply responded,
"No."
Her three guests nearly fell back in their chairs.
"What the hell is the point of this then?! You bring us here under the assumption that you're going to hire us, but you already have?! What's the deal?!" Jason began shouting, his face a comical shade of red. Hazel, for all her patience, did appear irritated. A vein was visible appearing from her forehead.
Stefani scratched the back of her neck sheepishly as both Hazel and Jason gave her "what the hell?!" Looks.
"Guys guys c'mon! Don't look at me like that! I just needed to gauge who's in and who's not!"
"Such a terrible leader.." Jason groaned.
"Right.." Hazel shook her head.
"B-Class isn't even that great...You talk like you're an S-Rank.." he murmured.
"PARDON?!" Stefani yelled as the two simply rolled their eyes. Alex could do nothing else but smile at the scene.
'If it's gonna be like this from now on...Maybe I could get used to it..'
-
-
-
-
That night, after they had all eaten dinner and were resting in the living room, Stefani walked the halls, holding a covered plate. While she hadn't grown up in the house it did hold a very special place in her heart, the various photos of their families and paintings her father liked adorned the walls.
As she continued on, she heard soft footsteps approach from the shadows behind her. Smiling, she turned to face her brother.
"You're way too heavy to attempt any sort of sneaking around, Sam. " She remarked with a raised eyebrow.
"Hey!" The young boy raised his voice a tad bit. "Am not! Anyway, you didn't have to be so weird today. Why were you talking about giving me your belt?"
At this, she smiled,"Just go back to bed." And with that she walked off, leaving Sam in a state of confusion and mild annoyance.
-
-
-
-
She rounded the corner of the walkway and down the long, dark hallway. She gently knocked on the door before pushing it open and stepping inside. The room was much larger than one would expect, big enough to host a work desk, a king sized mattress, a miniature library with a ladder and a fireplace. Her attention was brought to the active fire as a man sat on the ground before it, tending to the active flames.
"Father.." She began. When he didn't respond she kept going. "I've got dinner for you. One of my teammates, Jason, is actually an excellent cook. He made this pasta salad dish out of-"
"What do you want.." He questioned, voice cutting through her enthusiasm as if it were butter.
"I..?" She fumbled with her words. "It's just dinner-"
Her father faced her, his dark eyes enhanced by the light of the fire. She almost turned away at their sheer intensity, as they seemed to dig into her very soul.
"I'm not talking about the food, Stefani…" He trailed off, aggressively grabbing the plate anyway.
"You know what I'm talking about."
"..."
After a beat of silence, Stefani bowed. "I hope you enjoy the meal.."
He stood in silence watching her leave.