Want to make a big impression? Enter on a big metal wolf. Want to make a bigger impression? Fly in on a giant metal wolf. It did my heart good to know that at a school full of mutants with all sorts of powers, I could still present a spectacle. And the best part about presenting a spectacle, while people were stunned at what you'd just done, it gave you time to plead your case, whatever it may be.
Psychological warfare was magical. Not that this was some sort of conflict. Quite the contrary in fact. I came in peace, with a prospect to party. And I brought it to the Hellions – the people I figured would be the most onboard with what I had to say.
"So let me get this straight," Julian said after hearing me out, "You guys want to throw some kind of end-of-exams bash?"
Eddie nodded, still very enthusiastic with the idea, "As many people as we can get in on this thing. If it's even half as good as we want it to be, it's gonna be amazing."
We had talked a lot during the several minutes it had taken us to actually find the Hellions. A lot of ideas had come up, which had only stoked the fires of what had been a spark of a plan.
The silver-skinned girl sat on a picnic table while she'd been listening, "So why come to us?" He asked.
I looked around at the six teenagers in front of me, Eddie, and Wolf, with a vexed look on my face, "Who else would I come to? It's not like there's a whole bunch of people out there that would help," Once I said that, a few of the Hellions looked between each other without saying anything, "What?"
Brian was the first one to speak up, "Dude, you guys don't realize you're on the come-up around here?" He said.
"Huh?" Was all I could think of as a reply. I did not realize that, "What are you talking about?"
"Yeah," Santo chimed in, the large, rocky boy co-signing on his teammate's comment, "All of the shit you guys have been in this semester, you've got some serious cred now. You're almost as cool as we are."
That was news. I certainly hadn't noticed it. Looking over at Eddie and seeing him shrug, I could tell he hadn't either. If anything had changed in regards to our popularity, it hadn't manifested itself in front of our eyes just yet.
Julian took the offer I had presented and ran with it, "Marcher's got a point. Who else knows how to get something like this together but us?"
Santo laughed and held up a fist for Julian to bump, "That's fair. If you wanna get the party started, why not call the Hellions? I like that. I'm in."
The Muslim member of the red squad, Sooraya, raised her hand in order to bow out of the proceedings, "I will choose to sit this out. I do not feel comfortable with the idea of a party."
From interactions with Sooraya, she was a nice girl, but she absolutely didn't fit in with the Hellions. Not that this was a bad thing. There had to be a more levelheaded member of the team to keep things morally straight. As much as possible with a team full of troublemakers at least.
Eddie agreed easily, "That's fair. In that case, don't worry about it. Me and Bel never brought it up to you in particular," There was no need to get anyone in trouble if they didn't want to be involved. There would likely be enough to go around anyway.
From the smile on her face, Cessily was more than willing to take part, "It sounds fun to me. Someone needs to bring up spirits around here. It's too gloomy to be this close to the end of the semester."
Julian addressed the quietest member of his team, the emo-looking guy that Cessily kept closest to, "How about you, Kevin? You want in on this, or are you gonna sit it out?" The leader asked.
Kevin shrank back when all eyes were on him, "Well, it probably will be more fun than than the dance," He didn't sound like he was into it. Not the social type, for whatever reason. Hopefully that would change once we got going.
Eddie snapped his fingers and threw his arms up in celebration, "Yes! Plus, look at it this way. For those hopeless cases like myself, it might be a good chance to find an actual date for that thing."
Once again, Eddie gave me plenty of ammunition to run my mouth, "We're doing the entire school a public service, really," I said, with a confidence that belied the crap that spewed forth from my lips, "Being heroes isn't always about beating up bad guys. Sometimes, it's about helping the little guy, day-to-day."
Even Julian found himself swept up and falling in with our line of B.S., "Of course. And as the upstanding citizens that the Hellions are, there's no way we can let the Paladins do something like that by themselves."
Fantastic. My recruitment drive wound up bearing fruit.