++++++++++++chapter 4 : Coffee Break Allience

Rainer liked coffee.

In small attempts to keep him " happy" and under control the foundation's most gentle doctors would occasionally allow him to go to the cafeteria and spend some time with the most friendly guards around.

Even after he realized it was just a mind-game to make sure he saw the guards as people, so that he would be less likely to kill them all, his memories of those smiles mixed up with the smell of coffee and donuts had imprinted the love for the damned drink in his head.

So instead of materializing two cups for them both he actually took the time to brew some. It calmed him… and helped to convince his subconscious the next interaction would be a friendly one.

Discretely he glanced the girl sitting on his table, looking at nothing yet giving a feeling of being observing everything. 'She is not normal' he reminded himself, 'Parahumans have their oddities. Her powers may do something to her senses?'

Rainer sure thankfull to live in world where the odd and bizarre could walk among the normal... but he was not used to it. The idea that any person he sees on the street, people his age included, could secreto carry horrors and wonders with them - as he did- was still something that caught him by surprise sometimes.

The power over bugs... did not seem like much, but then again, neither did his powers back when he first got them.

The pleasing sound of his coffee-machine warning that their drink was ready snapped him out of his thoughts.

" I hope you like Puerto Rican coffee." He served her, giving his best smile.

" I- I actually am more of a tea person, but it-"

"No, problem." He interrupted, summoning a portal from which he took a perfectly warm cup of tea from.

" I -you- " she fumbled with words as he put the tee in front of her, and he wondered If he did something wrong, judging by how wide her eyes were." You-your- your power can just make tea? Like not only a cup, but the drink too, and still have it warm?"

" It's not that big of deal?" He tried. Honestly, considering the things he heard some parahumans could do...

"Wait ! It is actually making tea or just taking it from somewhere else? Is there like a place in england where someone just saw their tea be stolen by a random hand ? Or maybe-" She continued talking, sounding way less shy than a minute ago.

And like his noticing broke the spell, she caught herself and shut up, avoiding his gaze and blushing slightly. " Sorry. I... Like talking about powers. Never have much of a chance to talk with another cape before."

Heh, cute.

" No problem. I do not mind explaning it to you. The things I summon generally come in the state I imagined them in. So the cup of tee comes full and ready to drink. Any other question? Feel free to ask."

She seemed to consider it for a little while before looking him in the eye again. "Well... how long have you been a hero?"

Reiner rubbed his shin, he took a good 7 months after arriving here to gather the courage to put on a mask so." 3 months. I think? Around that. "

" Oh ... Your pretty new too them."

"Yup."

" ...But Armsmaster knows you ?"

Rainer was the one to avoid eye contact now. " Heh heh... I - well - yeah, I... " How can he explain this? Should he even? She is going to think he is crazy or something If he actually tells her what happened. " He tried to recruit me for the Protectorate, but we had our differences... I decided to remain independent for now."

She looked at him like she was looking for something. It was kind of off putting, reminded him the way the doctors used to look, so he decided to break the silence. " So... you have just started on the hero business..."

What else do I know? What else?

"... And already picked a fight with Lung. I am here for a month and even I know he is a big deal. You must be pretty strong."

Yes! Great subject-shiffiting! Good job, me!

Her face though, looked more ashamed than proud. "I... don't really- I don't think I am all that. I attacked him because he said he was going to shoot children. I didn't really- " Green eyes stared at her cup with a sadness so clear Reiner could almost taste it. " ... I would have died If you haven't show up." A low chuckle escaped her. " Dead in my first night out. I couldn't be more of fucking failure."

Suffering.

She was suffering. Really suffering. He could recognize that tone almost anywhere... and he couldn't just sit and watch her like. " What is your name?"

" Huh?"

" Your name. Tell it to me."

She eyed me wearily. Rude, but better than a sad face. " Taylor. Taylor Hebert."

" I am Reiner. No matter how low you think of yourself, believe me, I have been lower. And even with how pathetic I felt I managed to save around 50 people's life's in a few months of work. I know is hard to believe sometimes, but there is reason to keep trying." He said, in the firmest, most confident voice he could.

She just stared at him those big eyes, like he had said something big and meaningful. When she gathered herself to speak again, she spat : " You want to form a team with me?"

This is ... is this for real.

Reiner looks at her and she looks to be serious about this.

" I want ... I need to do something. Something good. Something that matters. I want this city to change and I do not want to this alone OR submit myself to a big organization to do that... So I think we should work together."

That was the longest most assertive thing she said since arriving.

Well ... He knows an hero origin story moment when he sees one ( he had read a ton, and was becoming an expert on this PHO fiction thing) and is not his place to deny the protagonists their destiny.

" Yeah, that sounds awsome. " Not very comic book worthy, but screw it, he was going to be hero and was not doing it alone. He was too happy to care about hero-theatrics now.