This is a bit weird, so... After a talk about superheroes, I somehow thought about our trio. I ended up mentioning it to Vapor and we talked about if, why and what kind of heroes they would be. I said I wanted a story about it. Vapor said I should write it myself... yeah... blame her!
It's not really a story what I have in mind, more small sniplets or scenes that have the same topic and are loosely tied to each other, though I don't know if and when I will find time and drive to finish the next part.
For now, enjoy ;)
Rated with T, just to be on the safe side, for the one implied thing and in case I later update other chapters.
It was dark as he arrived home. M-21 didn't bother to switch on the lights, the illumination of the street lamps enough to exchange shoes for slippers. The silence in the house only was disrupted by an enthusiastic voice. He followed it to the small streak of light.
As he entered the living room, he saw Takeo and Tao sit on the couch, the latter talking nonstop. He saw the giddy grin on Tao's face and the silent plea for help in Takeo's eyes as he looked up. Monthes of experience had taught him. He turned around, noiseless footsteps bringing him closer to the door back to the corridor, back to safety.
"`21!" Caught. Resigning to his fate, M-21 turned back to Tao, who jumped up from the couch and bounced over to his side. Yes, the hacker definitely was planning something.
"Do I even want to know what you're doing?"
If the resigned tone bothered Tao, he didn't let it show. Instead, Tao grinned even brighter and M-21 felt a hand grip his left let himself be dragged over to the sitting area. Resistance was futile anyway; Tao would catch him sooner or later.
"I just showed Takeo what I'm working on," Tao explained. M-21's gaze flew over couch and couch table. Except for the area Takeo and Tao sat, every surface was covered with materials. Definitely no technical stuff but fabric. Were that masks in different colours? And that? A cape?
"No."
"But you haven't even seen it!"
"I don't need to see it. I won't wear it."
"That's what I try to explain him since half a hour," mumbled Takeo.
"But I put so much planning into it! And we would look striking! Look, I even made them colour-coded..."
Takeo threw him a long suffering glance; it seemed to be not the first time the sniper was on the receiving end of Tao's rambling. How to ward off whatever Tao planned?M-21 would not wear that red cape Tao now held up or strike poses anywhere people could see him.
"You know why I want to do this." Suddenly, Tao had interrupted his wordy praise of fabric and dropped his cheerful pretense. "There was the incident with the robbed teacher three weeks ago, the student who was beat up, and what happened to the girl last week is just horrible. What if it had been Suyi or Yuna?"
A frightening thought and the reason M-21 just had escorted the children home.
Tao shook his head and nodded his head towards the accumulation of half finished things and costumes. "And I think we're partly to blame for it. We blew up half the city, the residents of this city are worried. So it's our obligation to help out."
"You think the explosions and crumbled buildings due to our fights are the reason for those crimes?" Takeo's question sounded skeptical, but in the way he shifted his body to give Tao his full attention M-21 could read that he was at least willing to listen. Tao jumped into action to unburry his laptop from the pile of fabric. It didn't need the bossy gesture for M-21 to move over to Tao's side to get a good look on the screen.
"Here are the police crime statistics from the last months. See how it spikes?" M-21 looked to the dates Tao pointed to, Takeo leaned in from the other side of the hacker to get a closer look, too. "It's shortly after Cerberus attacked the KSA. People are afraid, and when they are, inhibitions fall and they lash out at other people or take what is not theirs."
That, M-21 could understand. Memories flashed of him and M-24 travelling. If you were afraid to die every minute of the day, it was so easy to give in the temptation to make others feel the same. Tao followed an odd argumentation but it didn't mean he had to be wrong.
"Why not leave it to the police?" It was a justified question, but Takeo didn't sound as irritated as mere minutes before. The slow smile on Tao's lips told M-21 that he had heard it, too.
"Because we are here. We are fast. We can help before something happens. Like those superheroes in the movie we watched with the kids last week."
For people like them the world was a dark place, M-21 had no illusions about this. And if Tao had fun while protecting the children in their care from tripping over the wrong kind of encounter?
M-21 sighed in resignation. He knew he would yield, so no point in keeping up the pretense. With a nod to the masks on the table he asked: "Which one is mine?" With a renewed smile on his face, Tao pointed to the dark grey mask.
"And now to the rest of the costum we will wear," Tao mumbled while digging through the pile of fabrics. M-21 shared a look with Takeo, but he only shrugged his shoulders with a slight glint in his eyes. "As long as there are no capes."