Aha, Hi. Late yeah, but i hit a bit of a snag, (exams suck and art block coincides w/ stress so yeah, it may be until monday before i update again. Thank you SO much everyone who reviewed. please keep doing so! I really appreciate it!

Oh and by the way, Tomas = Scotland, Finnigan = Ireland, Jean-Mark= Quebec, and Nickolas = Newfoundland


Ch. 6 Birth of a Reaper.

That stupid buzzing sound was there again. Where the hell was it coming from? Matthew pawed around, slamming the 'off' button on his alarm, and snuggled back into his covers.

Wait, why was his alarm on? Today was Saturday, and he was damned if he was going to get up early on Saturday. Creaking open one sleep wary eye, the blond noticed that it was indeed well past noon.

'Another few hours' Matthew thought fleetingly, until something made him open his eyes again.

"SHIT!"

Matthew fell out of bed; he was supposed to meet up with Koaru an hour ago! Augh! It hurt to move! The Canadian scrambled around to find a pair of jeans and some sort of shirt, stopping when he heard the doorbell ring.

"Coming!" Matthew called downstairs, tripping over his half pulled up pants. He didn't even grab his glasses. Kuma followed his master with mild interest.

The doorbell rang again, whoever was on the other side really wanted Matthew to answer. Matthew slid into his front room, slipping past the door, and swiftly backtracking to the door handle.

Turning the silver knob, he opened the door, too revved up to realize his dark wash jeans were ridding down his thighs.

"Koaru! Man I am so sorry! I slept in way too late…. You Ok?" He opened the door wider to let the shorter boy in.

The brunet didn't say anything; he just walked into Matthew's kitchen.

"K-Koaru?" Matthew was getting worried. Koaru never acted like this. It got even weirder as the brunet began to pull foodstuffs out of his cupboards and began to make a massive looking lunch. Not knowing exactly what to do, Matthew sat down at his table.

Koaru didn't say a word until he had placed a large mound of food in front of Matthew.

"Eat, then I will explain." Koaru held up a mug of green tea. The Canadian blushed when he heard his stomach growl at the prospect of food.

After a filling lunch, Koaru pulled out a newspaper. A blurry black and white photo dominated the entire front page.

"'Grim Reaper Appears On Halloween Night.'… Whats this?" Matthew looked up at Koaru. The brunet simple nodded for him to look at the photo.

"Oh no." Matthew mumbled. There, on the paper was a photo of Matthew, in his mission clothes. A dark hood covering the top half of his face, the bottom of his nose and his mouth set in a frown, barely visible. He looked sinister with a full moon behind him. The photo was an up shot, making Matthew look intimidating and just a bit unearthly. Actually, the sweet, kind, martyr of a Canadian, looked exactly like the angel of death himself. Helped by the fact that he was holding a scythe.

It had to have been taken sometime last night. Matthew couldn't recall when a photographic reporter was nearby.

Koaru spoke up, "I do believe they misinterpreted your weapon."

"How? It's a hockey stick! How the hell did they confuse it with a weapon of mass destruction?"

Koaru just stared at him.

"Ok, a weapon of MORE mass destruction." In the newspapers defense at the angle Matthew was holding the stick, it did look like the grim reapers weapon.

"Will your mentor punish you for this?" Koaru looked wary.

"Tomas? I really hope not. Nick had the same problem before, so I think as long as my face wasn't seen I'm good." He groaned. "I can't do much about this now, though. So the best thing is to go along as if it never happened and try not to give away anything."

Koaru nodded, then looked at Matthew.

"I'm still half out of my pants aren't I?" Matthew guessed. Koaru nodded again. The blond stood up and fastened his pants this time.

Kuma was at his pants leg, "Food," The bear stared up at Matthew. "Food, bruise, food."

"Bruise? Wha?... How'd I get that?" There was a nice, black and blue bruise on his shoulder, trailing down his back in the shape of an eggplant.

"High pain tolerance." Koaru noted. "More than likely it was a hit from a matter controller, judging by the shape and severity of the wound." he typed this all into a miniature, holographic computer. The size of deck of cards, it projected over 5 screens; all of them touch sensetive, was capable of internet access, and could hold up to 160 gigabits at a time. The actual body of the device served as the keyboard.

"Eff. I'm gonna have to wear hoodies for a week! Ah!" Matthew tried to sit down, hitting the wounded part of his back on the chair.

"Slow down." Koaru waited till his friend had gotten reasonably comfy. "Report?"

Matthew took a deep breath. "Started in Downtown quarter 1…-"


It was after 8 pm when Matthew's communicator went off. A little crest flashing in the corner of his touch screen told him who was calling. Koaru had gone home hours ago, and Kuma was snoozing on the couch in the den, reruns of M*a*s*h playing.

Pushing a button on the side, a man's face, probably in his early 30's, came up. Red hair and a slight beard, he looked just a bit scruffy, but still held a dignified grace about him.

"Hello?" Matthew held the phone like a grenade about to go off.

"Well hello there Mr. Grim Reaper! Look's like your making headlines!" He said in a cheery demeanor.

Thump Head? Meet Desk. You two will be seeing more of each other in the future.

"First off, I did NOT see that reporter, second-"

"It's alright laddie. As long as yer face wasn't seen, you're fine. This is a really good photo, I wonder who took it?" Great, he was getting off topic. His cousin Tomas was way to happy about this new development.

"Did Jean-Mark and Nickolas see?" Please no, please no! He could deal with their normal teasing, but this would be ridiculous. (Although it may be karmatic balance considering all the names he calls them.)

"Yep, and it's stuck, Mr. Reaper."

"Oh CRAP." Tomas jumped at his normally quiet cousin's out burst.

A loud groan came from the blond. "But that aside, yer' doin' alright laddie?"

Matthew sighed. "Besides badly needing a publicist I'm fine."

"Aha, alright I know yer' not happy, but this is exactly how Nick got his name, if it makes ye feel better. And besides, it gives me n' Finn an idea of what to get ye for Christmas this year. I got to go Mata, have a good Sunday!"

"Tom, you aren't serious are you? Tom? TOM!" Too late, the screen went dark.

How the hell had he gotten into this mess? One minute he was too shy to say excuse me, the next he's running around the city like a freaking living shadow.

Oh yeah, last March. He almost got dusted, until Tomas saved his ass. After that, he was on a two and a half month long training run, and making some cash as a soldier for hire.

Why had his eldest cousins have to be anti heros?

"Ah! My friggen back!"


Twenty blocks west, In Francis' basement.

Francis sat in his basement with Antonio and Gilbert, talking about last night's events.

"Mn, I don't know what to do, my dear Lovi won't tell me he loves me back." Antonio was sobbing into his stuffed tomato plush.

"Oh, don't fret Mon ami! Perhaps he just doesn't feel he can trust you? Him being a hero and all."

"Bu-But I told him my super villain name! And my powers! I'm not sure how much more open I can be! Sob"

"He will come around eventually. Right Gilbert...Gilbert?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Totally." The albino was on the floor, a Daily Compass spread out in front of him.

"Gilbert you haven't listened to a word I have said! Even last night your mind was somewhere else! What has got your head in the clouds?"

He pointed the photo. "This guy! He completely dominated today's news! He is so unawesomely taking our street cred!"

Francis peered over his shoulder. "Hmn? Is that not the same man who eluded you not a month ago? You called him 'Birdie", non?"

"NO!" He wasn't red, but you could see a pale tint of pink on Gilbert's cheekbones.

Antonio stopped crying to tease his best friend. "Birdie. Isn't that the same name you called out a few nights ago when I went to go get a midnight snack?"

"WHAT?" Gilbert yelled. Now he was a nice red.

"I'm joking amigo. I'm joking." Antonio patted his friends back, obviously over his latest existential crisis.

"Well this is odd." Francis mumbled. "According to the reporter, this 'Grim Reaper' not only defeated villains last night, but…hero's as well." He said, reading ahead a few paragraphs.

"What? Where does it say that?" It was true! About 2 paragraphs in, it had a detailed account of how he took down both sides. But, how could someone like that be against both factions of the school? It just didn't work! The three shared an apprehensive look.

Gilbert set his jaw. "Reaper..." He stared into the pixilated black hood "What's your game?"


Uh so yeah, more detail on what his eldest cousins do and how they're helping 5 (soon to be 7) young non meta's grow up a bit! Can you guess who's not a meta? PLACE YOUR BETS!