All's Fair in Love and Hate: Chapter 4

Archie's head flew up as he heard the front door of the brownstone open and the rest of the team trickle in with moans of pain. "Hey, guys!" he greeted them. Several collapsed on the floor near his feet. Jay leaned casually against the foosball table, which Atlanta and Theresa had weakly collapsed against. "Jay push you guys hard?" Archie asked delicately, reaching a hand inside the tub of popcorn he was holding.

Neil muttered something in a muffled voice into the carpet, forsaking his treasured reflection to the opportunity of lying still for the first time in several hours. Odie gave a groan in reply, spread-eagled out in the middle of the floor, and even Herry murmured something pitifully in agreement, the Herculean teen sitting bent almost double on a footstool.

"Any news on Erida, Arch?" Jay asked earnestly, walking over to glance at the TV.

Swiftly grabbing the remote control, Archie changed the channel from an intense betrayal scene in a soap opera to the night-time news. At the blonde newsreader's voice, all seven heroes raised their heads slightly to watch.

"In the heart of New Olympia, several cases of extreme madness have broken out, causing destruction and injury to sweep through the city. Seven people and counting have reportedly caught the mystery disease, issuing injuries to strangers on the street, and even close relatives nearby. All of the victims of the sudden madness claim they do not remember ever harming the people hospitalized, one even going so far as to say that the entire thing has been made up by alien invaders from outer space. Those who have been affected by the apparent disease have been placed in police custody until further notice."

Jay, snatching the remote control, began to flip through the channels, many of which were displaying evening news broadcasts. All of the newsreaders were reading out the horrific results of Erida's work; the hatred-filled people, the injured victims of the blind attacks, the child who had been killed savagely by his own elderly grandfather. As the channels changed, the reports growing more and more frantic, Jay's face grew more grim, until he finally turned off the television.

The leader looked around at his team, who all had troubled looks on their faces. "We have to track her down," he said abruptly.

"Not until tomorrow morning you will," Athena interjected sternly from the doorway. The war goddess stared at the team, wrinkling her nose at their dishevelled appearances. "You need to sleep."

Protesting voices greeted her statement, all of the team voicing their concerns. Hearing about one death was enough to shake them badly. Herry finally broke through with an loudly indignant, "But we can't let - that happen for the next eight hours!"

Athena sighed gently. "It might seem horrible to leave her roaming around," she said softly, "but I'd rather seven well-rested heroes fight a goddess than seven tired, weak teenagers with no plan."

Jay stuck his hands in his pockets, ducking his head. He knew Athena was right, but the very thought of leaving Erida out there to wreak more chaos make him feel sick to the stomach. He knew that the other six would wait for his word before they did anything, but he could tell they wanted to stop the destructive goddess, now.

Finally, he raised his head slowly. "I guess we should all get some sleep, guys," he muttered. The other six stood up wordlessly, and filed upstairs, Theresa sparing a soft "'night Jay," as she disappeared at the top of the stairs. Jay's eyes lingered there for a moment until he looked back at the wise goddess.

Athena smiled at him, the smile reaching her grey eyes filled with knowledge spanning centuries. "You made the wise choice, Jay," she said, and with a motherly squeeze of his shoulder, left him standing there alone in front of the blank television.

Atlanta tossed and turned, catching only a few minutes of sleep at a time before she woke up in bed again. Reaching a hand up to rub her eyes, she finally glanced at the clock, which blinked a steady red 3:42 AM. Atlanta groaned, and turned on her bedside lamp, sitting up and smoothing out her blankets as she got up and stretched. Her mind was far too preoccupied to sleep, and despite what Athena had said before, she didn't feel tired - Atlanta was used to not sleeping for a few days in a row.

The youngest hero sighed as she stripped off her clothes and changed back into a rumpled pair of khakis and a tshirt. She sat down on her bed with the light shining on to her face, staring up at the ceiling. Her eyes travelled to one side, stopping at the edge between the ceiling and the wall, until she forced them to move back up to the ceiling. Atlanta didn't want to think about who was in the room next door at the moment.

The girl sat there, staring up at the ceiling, lost in her thoughts, until someone softly rapped on the door. "Come in," Atlanta muttered, bringing her eyes back down to her hands, which were fiddling nervously. She willed them to stop, which they didn't.

Theresa poked her head in the doorway, then slipped inside, closing the door with a gentle click. "I couldn't sleep," Theresa admitted guiltily, sitting down next to Atlanta on the bed, "I keep thinking about Erida."

Atlanta laughed bitterly. "So do I." Her eyes travelled to the wall from which a loud snoring sound echoed. "Apparently we're the only ones."

Theresa bit her lip, brushing her long red hair out of her face. "Are you okay?" she asked sincerely, scrutinizing the other girl's expression. Atlanta's shoulders sagged as she took a deep breath.

Turning away from Theresa slightly, Atlanta chewed her lip for a long moment, her mind on the blank space in her memory that should have been filled but wasn't. "I'm... confused."

Theresa nodded sagely. "I would be too."

The hunter looked back at the fighter. "I just want to fill in that gap, you know? I don't know why she had to have gotten me, of all people."

Theresa looked startled. "Oh!" she cried, then slapped her hand over her mouth. "I wasn't talking about that," Theresa mumbled, blushing.

Atlanta's eyes narrowed. "What were you talking about, then?" she asked, but Theresa's tell-tale expression gave it all away. Leaping up, Atlanta accusingly stared at Theresa.

"How did you know?" Atlanta cried. She paused to make sure that the snoring from Neil's room continued, then said in a quieter voice, "do the other guys know as well?"

Theresa giggled. "Atlanta," she managed to say before erupting in silent laughter, "everyone knows Archie has liked you since Pan came!"

Atlanta's stunned expression caused Theresa to fall about in more bouts of silent laughter. "How come you didn't know?" Theresa finally giggled.

Slowly, the younger girl sat back down on the bed. "I dunno," Atlanta said awkwardly. "I guess I never really thought about us that way. I mean, he's a great friend and all, but... I didn't know he like liked me until he told me today."

Theresa sighed again, wiping an imaginary tear from her eye. "Okay, Atlanta, I'm going to tell you some stuff I don't know if you've noticed before, okay?"

Atlanta nodded, her expression still frozen in shock.

Holding up a hand, Theresa counted off the things she mentioned. "When Pan was Phil and we all knew you liked him, Archie was insanely jealous, partly because he was about to ask you out."

The younger girl let out a stunned squeak.

"Archie stayed with you when you had the Seeper virus until he had to come to fight it," Theresa continued, watching Atlanta's face carefully, "and when you were hypnotized by Arachne and he told you how much we cared about you, he almost said that he loved you. Do you ever wonder why he's always next to you when we have to fight something?"

"That's what friends do, isn't it?" Atlanta said uncertainly. "I mean, I've never though about me - and Archie - like, you know."

Theresa gave another dramatic sigh, then patted Atlanta's hand. "You have a lot of stuff to learn."

Atlanta held up her hands defensively. "You're the boy-crazy one in the group, not me!"

Theresa made a silly face, then stood up. "I'd better get back before someone catches us here," she said regretfully. "I'll see you in the morning."

Atlanta nodded, and waited until Theresa had left the room before she promptly hit herself over the head with a pillow.

Stumbling downstairs, Odie was greeted with a startling sight- all of the other six heros gathered around the dining table, gathered close and discussing something very seriously. The brainy boy groaned. "Did I miss something?" he asked. "It's five in the morning."

Jay looked up at him. "Odie!" he said cheerfully. "Grab a seat. We're talking about how we can find Erida."

"No 'look Odie, pancakes!' or 'morning Odie!', it's always an 'Odie, we need a plan!'" Odie grumbled under his breath to himself as he sat down. He looked around at the other six, observing a few dark undereye circles and stifled yawns. Jay continued to rattle on about tactics and fighting until Odie finally spoke up. "Why don't we just spring a trap?" he asked irritably.

Jay blinked. His eyes were rather puffy, and he looked as if he'd been up all night. "We need something elaborate," he answered wearily, "she's a smart goddess. Erida won't fall for something simple. And besides, we still don't know how we can stop her scream from affecting us." Jay gave a small smile to the brainy hero, then continued talking about a plan.

However, Odie soon found himself speaking up again. "Jay, you look as if you're about to die of exhaustion any minute. Did you sleep at all last night?"

"No," Jay admitted sheepishly, fidgeting slightly. His six teammates glared at him. "I was too busy thinking about how to trap Erida," he protested.

"Jay," Archie said as calmly as he could, "why don't you leave the tactics and stuff to us? You need sleep as much as we did. You look like a zombie. We can handle this stuff. Don't worry about it."

Herry and Neil pulled their leader out of his chair as he struggled defensively, then weakly let go. "Maybe you're right," Jay said tiredly, and smiled gratefully at his teammates. "Thanks."

Theresa laughed. "Don't thank us," she said, "go get some sleep!"

Jay turned with another tired but grateful smile, and made his way upstairs. Once he was out of sight, Theresa opened the fridge to examine its contents. "Who's up for breakfast?"

All of them raised their hands, and Archie grinned as he began to form a plan on to the blank paper in front of him.