Heroes

Chapter 3

Monday.

Monday, back to school, back to work. The real question is, why is Monday so far from Friday, yet Friday is so close to Monday? Frankly it was a little hard for our five students to get up this morning, but that's what they get for staying out late the night before.

Richard awoke to a small tapping on his door. He moaned as he turned and glanced at his alarm clock, his eyes widened, he was late. "Shit." He swore as he quickly hopped up and grabbed his school uniform. He hurriedly put on the pants as he heard the light knocking again and rushed to answer the door with his toothbrush stuck in his mouth.

"Good morning Richard." Koriana said happily and then blushed seeing his shirtless, disheveled attire. He smiled, his cheeks a little pink before pulling the toothbrush out of his mouth. "I just wanted to make sure you were up." She said bashfully.

"Yeah, I just need a few more seconds to get ready. For some reason I've been having a hard time getting up in the morning." He trailed off. He would like to blame it on the long nights that he had shared hanging out late with his friends, but the thing is he has been out way later on missions and other things and would still be able to get up early the next day. But in those exceptions when he did reach his bed he would crash immediately, unlike last night where he tossed and turned for most of the night. And the reason for his tossing and turning… well its right in front of him.

"Okay then," Koriana said with a smile, "We shall meet you in the dining hall." She smiled and was about to walk away when he called her name.

"Kori." He began and she turned to face him, but before she could ask what he needed he smiled and slowly walked forward, grabbing her hips and pulled her close to kiss her.

Him not getting a goodnights sleep will take some getting used to, but for her he will manage.

Richard and Koriana met the others at breakfast and only had to rush a little before the bell rung for class. But before they could walk into the classroom Mr. J'onzz stopped them. A new unknown villain has appeared and was wreaking havoc down town. When they asked the name of this criminal, J'onn had plainly said, "He goes by the name Threader."

The name was obviously ridiculous and humorous, but the team couldn't dwell on that at the moment as they rushed to their rooms and suited up. Like firefighters, the team had trained enough to take only a few minutes to change and be out the door.

The young Hero's didn't know a thing about this villain, how dangerous he was, his powers, or his weaknesses. They just hoped he wouldn't be too much trouble for them.

Threader really wasn't hard to find, his appearance was that outlandish. He really was a child that only his mother could love. The best way to describe his wardrobe would be a homeless man wearing a quilted jacket and slacks. The poorly dressed man really didn't seem much of a threat, especially when his powers were revealed to be fabric manipulation, and yes it's as lame as it sounds.

With a wave of his hands a purple glow would evaporate fabric material, thread, and cloth. He didn't even try to rob a bank or jewelry store and instead opted for walking around and humiliating the poor citizens by unthreading and removing their clothing.

The team of Heroes of course confronted him like they did any other villain, but Threader didn't seem fazed as they asked him to surrender quietly. The villain only smirked at them before dramatically waving his fingers towards them in a ridiculous manner.

On instinct they prepared themselves for the impact as the purple power eloped them. Who knows, his powers could have some tricks up its sleeves. Each one watched as the threads of their shirts slowly un-weaved to their waists, leaving them bear chested and exposed. The boys couldn't help but chuckle at the pathetic attempt in fazing them, they had taken down far more difficult criminals than this guy.

"Oh no." Garfield mocked.

"We don't have shirts." Victor added.

"What are we going to do?" Richard joined in.

Threader pouted in irritation at the mockery, "You might not think it's so funny when you realize I just eliminated two members of your team." He smirked as he pointed behind the boys.

The boys turned and saw the bare backs of the girls as they crossed their arms over their chests in embarrassment. Quickly they put all humor aside in respect for their female members as they rushed to help.

"Are you girls okay?"Richard asked.

"I'm alright." Koriana said, her back still turned.

"We're fine, just go." Raven responded before her and Koriana took off in flight for the school. There is no way they could fight like this.

At the academy the girls quickly changed and waited for the boys to return, and it wasn't a pretty sight when they did. As soon as the doors to their loft opened Koriana jumped up from off the couch and flew over towards them eager to know if they were victorious. "How did it go, were you successful, did you defeat Threader?" She asked eagerly, but neither one responded as each boy walked to their rooms, awkwardly hiding themselves behind random street objects.

"I'm ganna take that as a no." Raven responded dryly from the couch before opening back her book.

Once the boys were dressed the team regrouped in the lounge room. They couldn't just let this villain go, or leave him to the authorities. It was their job to take him down. But He was a lot harder than they had expected, and the fact that they were defeated by him was overly embarrassing.

"What if we send Gar out as a tiger, or some sort of animal?" Richard considered out loud.

The others thought about this for a moment before Victor spoke up, "I don't know, this guy might be a pathetic excuse for a villain, but I feel uncomfortable sending Gar out alone."

"Yes, I would prefer a different option." Koriana added.

The room grew silent as they considered what they could do and it forced Richard to think back to the battle. His mind briefly went back to Koriana's bare, smooth back, but he quickly blocked that part out for his best interest, besides… he could always come back to it later. He tried not to think about how embarrassed he was when he was forced to go home practically naked, but that little thought reminded him that even though Victor's uniform had lots of fabric spots, it was mostly metal material, and between himself and Garfield, Victor was the most dressed because of it.

Richard then couldn't help but smirk as he turned to his friends beside him. "Guy's, I have an idea." It suddenly seemed so simple, they just needed to show up wearing different material, anything could work as long as it isn't cotton. They quickly rushed to the wardrobe room and stood outside the door. "So all we need to do is make clothes with non-fabric material." Richard explained. But it wasn't as easy as it sounded as the team separated by the gender specific rooms.

They rushed through the selections grabbing anything that wasn't made with fabric, and it wasn't long before each member walked out of the dressing rooms and looked at themselves in the mirror, just to feel utterly and completely stupid.

Richard looked around at his friends and sighed at their reactions, "I know, I know, but this might be the only way to defeat this guy."

They grumbled and nodded in response before Garfield threw down a chunk of his costume. "Forget this, I'm going tiger." He said, quickly morphing off the outfit.

"You do realize you can't change back then?" Robin asked and Garfield nodded.

"We're going to get laughed at." Raven informed Richard, as if he didn't already know.

"Yep." Richard responded simply, adjusting his bulky uniform.

So the team set out again and hoped they would return this time successful.

Threader was feeling quite confident that no one was going to interrupt his acts of cruelty against the public indecency law as he went on humiliating random citizens.

"Yo Threader, the 70s called, they want their clothes back." Victor hollered as he stood proudly next to his team.

Threader flinched at the comeback before turning around just to point and laugh. "You think you and your new bulky clothes can defeat me?" He laughed, mocking their wardrobe, and they didn't answer. "Hmph, we'll see about that." He huffed, completely unfazed that he was out numbered and there was a tiger in front of him. The team stood still as the villain rolled up his long sleeves and wiggled his fingers in front of them, but his magic did nothing. He tried again and his eyes widened as the heroes stood unfazed. "Oh crud." He spoke before quickly trying to make a break for it, but he didn't get far before he was grabbed, captured and brought to the authorities.

And as soon as they turned him in they rushed back home to change, not only were the clothes they wore humiliating but they were uncomfortable and chafed.

After they reported their victory to J'onn and changed into decent clothes, the baby powder was passed around before they decided to head out to the park. It was a nice day and they needed some time to relax after the morning they had. It was one of those nice cool summer afternoons were the grass was green and the wind blew through the trees.

Victor, being the grilling man that he is, prepared food on the grill, sporting his 'Mister good looken' is cooken', apron that he loved so much. Richard helped by setting out other picnic like items at the table. Raven sat under a shady tree and peacefully read a book, while Koriana was happily playing fetch with Garfield in dog form.

It was the perfect ending for the day… Until Koriana accidently threw the ball way too far with her alien strength, and the others watched as Garfield instinctually ran to fetch it. They knew it would take some time to retrieve the ball but it seemed to almost be taking too long. They all sat at the picnic table and waited for their friend to come back, with or without the ball and they started to get concerned when they realized he wasn't returning. "Do you think he's okay?" Richard asked.

"I'm sure he's fine, with Kori's arm he's probably all the way across town fetching that ball." Victor reassured, flipping the patties on the grill. Richard shrugged and nodded for that was probably true.

Koriana suddenly smiled, standing up, "Look he's back!" She pointed excitedly as the green dog quickly ran up to them, the ball happily in his mouth. Koriana joyfully ran up to him, happy he had returned okay. "Gar, we were starting to worry, I am so happy to see you are alright." She said as the dog jumped into her arms, happily accepting Koriana's affectionate petting.

"Your just in time too Gar, the foods done." Victor said and then turned and watched as the dog didn't stop begging for Koriana's affection. Koriana continued to pet him and giggled as he started licking her face, and that got Richard's attention for this wasn't just a normal dog, this was Garfield. Victor smirked and elbowed him, "You jealous someone's kissing your girl?"

Richard grumbled in response as Koriana got up off the ground and approached the others. "Friends, I'm concerned about Garfield."

"What do you mean Kori?" Victor asked.

"Well it just seems he isn't acting like himself." She noticed gesturing to the dog who rolled mindlessly through the dirt.

"He seems fine to me." Raven drawled from the background.

"Yeah he's fine," Victor blew off before turning back to the picnic table. "Time to eat!" He said rubbing his hands together. Everyone got up and headed towards the table but before anyone could sit the dog hopped up and made a violent mess of the food. "Aug! Gar!" Victor shouted.

"Gross." Raven hissed wiping the mess off her clothes.

But before anyone could complain any further Koriana pointed, "Um friends?..."

Not only was the dog eating cheeseburgers, but the lemonade that was spilt began to wash the green off the dog and revealed brown fur. "Gar?" Victor asked.

"I don't think that's Garfield, Vic." Richard informed him.

"Well if this isn't our friend then…"

"-Where is he?" Raven finished Koriana's question. Suddenly the dog hopped off the table and jumped on her, knocking her over and licking her face. She threw him off her, infuriated but he just jumped back on again.

Victor picked up the dog and Koriana helped Raven to her feet. "So what do we do with Fido?" Victor asked.

"More important, we need to find Garfield." Richard said.

"Maybe he can lead us to him?" Victor suggested as the dog licked his face.

Victor put the dog down just to have him leap onto Raven again, knocking her back on the ground as the dog continued to lick her cheek, "We're off to a great start." She huffed.

They put the dog on a leash and followed him around town in hopes he might lead them to their friend, but it seemed to be a dead lead. The dog clearly wasn't trained in any way and with every passing car or bird he was off. The team was forced to split up in hopes of covering more ground before it got dark.

"Any luck guys?" Richard asked into his phone as he walked down the streets.

"Nope." Raven answered.

"I have had no luck as well." Koriana sighed.

"Vic, what about you?" Richard asked.

"Don't you dare pee on my leg you little-! What? Oh, no sign of him."

"It's ganna get dark soon." Koriana sighed looking up at the sky.

"Let's regroup." Richard suggested and the others agreed. They met in the down town area and sat on the street curb. They were clearly worried and filled with concern over their lost friend. "Have we tried calling him again?" Richard asked as Victor held up his phone and pressed Garfield's speed dial, just for it to immediately go to his voicemail.

"Oh…where could he be?" Koriana asked sadly.

"Where could who be?" Garfield asked causing the others to jump and turn to see him eating an ice cream cone.

Excitedly Koriana jumped up and immediately hugged him, relieved to see he was alright. "Friend!" She screamed, squeezing him tightly.

"Hey, you guys found Dave." Garfield cheered as the dog ran up and hopped into his arms, licking his face.

"Where were you?" Victor asked and the others quickly turned to him wanting an answer.

"Well after I found the ball I ran into Dave in front of the movie theater. I didn't want to ruin the picnic for you guys so I had Dave take my place while I watched a movie." He said petting the dog.

"And you really thought we wouldn't notice?" Richard asked as Garfield put the dog down.

"This isn't the first time I've painted Dave green and had him take my place, frankly I'm shocked you guys haven't figured it out sooner."

Dave quickly jumped up, knocking Raven over again as he licked her face. "Yeah, well, this time we noticed." She huffed in disgust.

Koriana helped her up as they all turned to Garfield with angered faces. "Oh come on guys, it's kind of funny when you think about it."

"Yeah well were not laughing." Richard said sternly.

"Yes, we were worried about you." Koriana said crossing her arms.

"And your mutt here ate all my food." Victor added.

Garfield cowered under their stare. "You guys could have called me." He said sheepishly.

"On your dead phone?" Victor asked.

"It's not dead." He defended pulling it out of his pocket. "Oh… Okay, so I should have told you guys…" He said scratching the back of his head.

"And…" They added.

"And I will never paint Dave again and have him take my place."

"And…"

"And I'm sorry I made you all worry." There angered faces faltered as they each gave him a somewhat forgiving smile. "So am I forgiven?" Garfield asked eagerly, but the others didn't respond as they all turned around and walked back to Victor's car. "Guy's? Oh come on I said I was sorry. "Guy's?!"

Count On Me - Bruno Mars