"Do we even need a rear guard?" Steve grumbled, stepping over another unconscious Nazi. He hadn't fired the weird Q-gun once, and the longer this went on, the more useless he felt.
"Because (click) the Director is (click) slicing right through their defenses," Lukas answered, his words mixed with that strange clicking sound. "Hitting them where they're weakest, and we move fast."
Steve whistled, genuinely impressed. "How's he even figuring all that out?"
"Precognition and psychometry," Helena said, her voice casual, almost too calm for someone running through a Moonbase dodging Nazis. "And I love this suit. Seriously, best bra I've ever had."
Steve blinked, trying and failing to find an appropriate response to that. "Uh... good to know?" Bras were not a topic he was equipped to handle, so he shifted gears quickly. "So... what's with the clicking?"
"I (click) am (click) Batman," Lukas said dramatically, a mischievous grin on his face.
"More like Man-Bat," Helena shot back, rolling her eyes. "He uses echolocation."
"I see with my ears," Lukas added. "Seriously, I just copied the bats."
"Psychics can do that?" Steve asked, genuinely curious. He was friends with several psychics, and yet it seemed like new abilities popped up out of nowhere.
"Some can," Helena said, nodding. "It's tricky though."
"Origin of werewolf stories," Lukas added, his tone matter-of-fact.
"That's weird. But also kinda cool," Steve admitted, before a thought hit him. "Wait—so if werewolves are real, what about witches?"
"That's just another name for psychics," Helena replied with a knowing smirk.
"So no working the devil and orgies in woods?" Stev asked with mirrored smirk.
Helena rolled her eyes, but Lukas didn't miss a beat, grinning. "Well, not the devil part, but the orgies? They can happen anywhere. Orgasms break mental barriers. Orgies can really bring people together."
"Okay, moving on," Steve said quickly, shaking his head.
"What about vampires?" he asked, half-joking, but half-curious.
Helena and Lukas exchanged a glance before responding in an almost unsettling chorus, "We don't talk about One."
One. Steve's mind immediately went to Brenner. He could've asked why anyone would name someone with just a number, but technically, his full name was Steven Harrington the Third, which was just a pretentious way of doing the same thing. And technically, before they'd chosen their own names, Helena had been Four, and Lukas had been Five.
The atmosphere thickened after that, the running felt more tense. Perhaps it was the conversation, or maybe because Steve suddenly noticed something about the corridors—they were familiar. He'd been here before. When he'd tried it the first time... with Dr. Smith.
"We're close," Steve said. The realization was both reassuring and unnerving. This mad dash through the Moonbase would soon end, but there was still that monstrously large Nazi spaceship looming. And they had to face it with a stolen Nazi spaceship—a much smaller one.
"You asked (click) a question," Lukas's voice interrupted Steve's spiraling thoughts. The tone was light and teasing, but there was kindness in it too. That was the thing with psychics—they noticed things. Not that Steve was any good at hiding his emotions. His poker face was trash, which was why when he played strip poker, he always ended up naked first. "Can I ask one too?"
Steve nodded, giving Lukas the go-ahead.
"Why were you upset about finding Nancy with Jonathan?" Lukas asked. Steve just stared at him blankly, completely thrown off by the question. Well, Lukas had just been talking about orgies earlier. But what did he expect Steve to do when he caught them? Ask if he could join?
"Are you not three together?" Lukas added innocently.
Steve nearly tripped over his own feet. "I'm not into guys! And I'm definitely not dating Jonathan. Where'd you even get that idea?"