XII: Blank
"Leo!"
Leo steps back as Bree and Adam excitedly come in for a hug. He holds his hands out, hoping to slow them down.
Thankfully, they heed his warning and slow to a puzzled stop. "Broken ribs. It still kind of hurts," he tells them.
"So, no hugs?" Adam asks sadly.
"Yes hugs, but a very, very gentle one."
Adam grins at that. Then, he carefully embraces his younger brother, Bree following him soon after.
Behind them, Donald and Tasha exchange warm albeit weary smiles.
"We were so worried about you," Bree tells Leo as they disengage. "Douglas couldn't find you, and I was worried that you've gotten hurt."
"Actually, we were kind of worried that you've been offed."
"Adam."
Leo chuckles half-heartedly. During his check-up, his parents filled him in on what his siblings have learned. They also told him that they're confused, a little hurt that he didn't say anything about his father, but in general they're more concerned about him.
"He won't hurt me," Leo assures them. "I know he's supposed to be a bad guy, but at least with me he won't do anything like that. Actually, he saved—"
"What happened to you?" Bree asks, eyeing the brace wrapped around his torso. "That looks horrible. He didn't do that to you. Did he?"
Leo scoffs impatiently, the smile on his face lifting. "Incapacitator is my dad. I know you know," he says, bridling impatience. "You can just ask that. You don't have to keep calling him 'he.' Just ask if my dad hurt me."
"Oh. Uh…" Bree looks at their parents, and it wakes Leo up to how tired he has gotten. He's snappy because he's been awake for way too long.
He guesses he's running on about four hours of sleep. It's just right after lunch now, about 1 PM, so he'd been up for nearly half a day without so much a nap or breakfast or a break from worrying about his father.
Leo sighs. "I'm sorry, Bree. I don't mean to be mean. I'm just - I'm tired." He tries to smile. "Thanks for worrying about me. I'm safe now, though. It's probably better if we worry about Chase."
Bree nods hesitantly. She wants to ask a question, but eventually thinks the better of it. "Okay."
"The superheroes won't tell us what happened," Adam says. "We only found out from the guy with the big head that they found you when he told Mr. Davenport and Tasha you were here."
"Adam, it's not very nice to describe Philip that way," Bree says.
"Oh, I wasn't talking about Philip. I was talking about the first one that came here, the one with the white lab coat on. You know, the one that you've been flirting with?"
"Stop," Bree tells him as he smirks. "Oliver doesn't have a big head."
"Yes he does. He's cocky, just like Chase."
Bree's frown turns thoughtful. Then, her features wrinkle in disgust. She swats Adam's arm. "Gross! He is nothing like Chase."
"He is too like Chase."
"Okay, it may not be a good idea to argue in front of your brother right now, especially when his life is still hanging on the balance?" Donald chimes in.
Leo looks, and on the hospital bed he finds his older brother still unconscious. Their parents told him that they still haven't found a solution to wake Chase up – and they're running out of time. "I promise, I didn't know he was coming to the island either," he unknowingly mutters to Chase.
"We know."
Leo turns towards his family, confused.
Bree smiles sadly. "Douglas showed us the text messages."
"Yeah," Adam adds. "Plus, it just won't make sense for you to be working with a villain – even if he is your dad."
"Wait. You went through my phone?"
Eyes widen. Bree and Adam, surprised, turn to their parents for help.
Tasha's shoulder sags as she sighs. "We had to, honey. We couldn't find you."
"Right. You told the superhero world who I was, too."
"I didn't know Joel—" Tasha pauses to regather her thoughts. "I didn't know your father was a bad guy, okay? I didn't even know you knew him and kept in contact with him all these years. Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because he told me not to tell you. Because I liked the idea that I'm not that kid anymore who didn't have a dad, the kid who would have no one to show up for him when there are school things."
His mother stares at him, stuck in the weird fence of hurt and frustrated.
Like the look he saw from Bree earlier, Leo doesn't like this either. This time, though, he can't blame the exhaustion. "I know I should have told you, but I liked having him around," he adds. "And I know to the superheroes, he's a terrible person, but he had never gotten me involved in any of it. He's been a good dad, mom. A weird guy sometimes for sure, but a good dad."
Tasha seems torn for the longest. She takes his countenance in, as she always does when she's weighing whether a person or a situation is a danger to him, before gesturing to him. "You still haven't answered Bree's question about what happened to you."
"Uh, we were caught in a rumble."
"A rumble?" Adam asks.
"Yeah. What the superheroes and villains call a fight with more than two fighters."
"Oh!"
"Somebody put out a hit on Dad." Leo catches the flicker of worry in his mother's face and oddly finds it comforting. He looks at his stepfather. "The Incapacitator was the first to get to the energy transponder, but he isn't the only one who wants it. Slither, Sonic Shriek, The Ambusher, and this guy who looked like a mobster came to take it away from Dad. I even heard about someone named Mr. Terror. She wants it too."
"Dude," Adam says, an excited grin forming on his mouth. "You know other super villains too?"
"I mean, Incapacitator I understand why he would want it," Donald says, frowning thoughtfully. "He told me – us. But why do the other people want it?"
"I don't know. Sonic Shriek said he wants to see it because he considers your invention a rip-off of his invention..."
"It is not!"
"...but the others I'm not sure. All I know is that they were all willing to eliminate us for it."
"I'm sorry to ask this," says Bree, "but what happened to your dad? Where is he?"
Leo takes a deep breath, the anxiety that ebbed far enough earlier reaching back for him again. "He…He left—"
"He left you in the middle of a fight?!" Tasha screeches.
Leo fights the urge to roll his eyes. "Yes." And I'm worried about why he did that. "I don't know if he still has the transponder, though. It was a war zone at Nana's and Pop's house when Tecton and the rest of the League took me. "
"Nana's and Pop's?" Donald repeats. "You were at your grandparents' house?"
"Yeah." He looks at his mom and adds, "He always talked about his parents. They've been long gone, but he'd been taking care of their house because it was important to him."
It takes a little longer, but the anger in his mother's eyes slowly softened.
"At least, he tried to. The house is probably in shreds," he sighs. His eyes narrow. "None of them ever really said who put out a hit on us. Dad suspected Mr. Terror, but her minion said it's not her."
"Mr. Terror is involved?"
The family turns to the door. There, Tecton, Gamma Girl, and Skylar Storm stand.
Leo glances at his parents first, unsure how to answer. "Tecton. You look well-rested."
"I am."
"Nice. That makes one of us."
"You mentioned Mr. Terror," Tecton prompts again. "Gamma Girl and Blue Tornado saw his main lackey at the scene. Did he want the transponder, too?"
Leo nods slowly as he tries to recall. "Yeah, my dad thinks so." He chuckles. "Although, Mr. Terror is a woman. She wants the transponder."
"No, we have Mr. Terror on record as a man," Gamma Girl corrects. "A spy had been on the phone with him before."
"That's true! In the comics, he's a man!"
The wall of superheroes awkwardly parts as the two teenage doctors wiggle their way into the room. Kaz, the first one in, grins back at the trio. "I'm sorry, Tecton, Gamma Girl – we gotta check in on our patient."
"What Kaz said is right," Oliver tells Leo. "Mr. Terror is a man. Everyone in the superhero world knows that."
"Well, apparently the superhero world is behind," Leo says. "My dad may be on the bad side, but one thing he's not bad at is doing detective work. Joel Jones is thorough. If he says Mr. Terror is a woman, she's a woman."
"Why does he have information on her?" Gamma Girl asks.
Leo shrugs. "Like I said, he doesn't tell me anything. He leaves me out of his plans because he knows I don't want to know." Then, he frowns.
"What?" says Adam.
Leo gauges the room first. He's learned that even the most insignificant-seeming piece of information can turn an outcome around. It appeared harmless at the time, but…
Knowing that suspicion is starting to mount, he turns towards Chase's doctors. "When is Chase going to wake up? He should be okay now."
Kaz and Oliver exchange confused glances. "Uh, we're still trying to find a cure," Oliver says. "To his condition."
"His condition."
"Yeah…?"
Leo frowns. They're qualified for the job, aren't they? Mighty Med's never been one to hire on doctors that lack the skill and the knowledge for the job.
Still, the deer caught in the headlights look on their eyes diminishes his confidence in the hospital a little.
"I get it. It'd been better if Chase was awake," he says anyway. "The only person who can solve a Chase problem is Chase."
"Leo, we need to talk to you," Gamma Girl tells him.
Leo doesn't have to ask why; he already knows.
"He hasn't had time to rest," Tasha comes to his rescue. "He hasn't slept, hasn't eaten. Can't this wait?"
"We won't take long, we promise," Tecton says. The look he gives Leo weighs heavy with desperation. "If the same people that showed up at the house find your father again, there might be another rumble. Thankfully, no one was hurt from the one this morning. We can't guarantee the next one."
Leo knows what he has to do. Still, it holds him back – the one worry he's been carrying since he left Kansas earlier. "Dad said he's in a line of work where people make him retire. If I help you, won't I be helping you in that? My dad, I don't want him to...retire."
A somber expression comes over Gamma Girl's face. Meanwhile, Skylar only looks up to Tecton for the next move.
Tecton thinks about it a moment. Then, he cases the room and determines quickly that there are too many eyes and too many ears for this kind of conversation. "It's probably better if we talk about this in private," he says.
Leo debates it. When he was just assisting his stepsiblings, he doesn't have to think too far ahead to know what's the right thing to do. Thankfully, they're still beginners in this game, and while things can get a little complicated, they're not that tangled.
But the world of superheroes and super villains is a different world entirely. It's a game of chess, where every player's very rarely inept at the game.
It sends a nervous energy all throughout his body. All over again, it makes him hurt. It also scares him, because he's not as good as this as his father.
But something in him moves him to try. It's the only thing to do at this point.
He nods. "I'll be right back," he tells his parents.
Though puzzled, they nod.
With every limb in his body weighing heavier with every step, he follows the superheroes to wherever they plan on taking him. He still remembers his father giving him a kiss on the forehead and telling him everything will be alright and that he loves him.
Where are you, Dad? Leo wonders. I need you right now. Where are you?
