I'm curious about how many people are reading these Author's Notes. I'm not too mad if people aren't actually reading them. Hell, I don't even always read them. But again, if you want to see a character of your own in this story, please leave it in a review or message me. If you don't have a character, review anyway. I hate not getting feedback for two weeks straight.
(Infirmary, some time later)
Will and Mindy woke up at almost the same time in beds right next to each other. Mindy's bed had Dave standing over it while Ornitier and a couple other heroes were surrounding Will's. No one noticed they were awake yet and Will looked over at Mindy and she was smiling. Next thing he noticed was that her jacket was gone and she was covered in bandages. His first thought was that he really did a number on her. But then he looked back at himself and realized she did even more damage to him. Except for his boxers, his clothes were all gone and so was his mask. He was covered from head to toe in bandages and ice packs.
"You're good at what you do, Hit Girl." Will complimented her, still dizzy. When he said that, everyone around him started gushing with happiness and talking about how lucky he should feel to be alive. "Shut up, people." He had a splitting headache and wanted it to be quiet for a short time. Everyone in the room obliged and kept quiet. Then the door slammed open and a man came in. He was wearing a shirt with a playing card texture and a white mask with a red K and each of the four suits on it. His belt had two decks on it and one of them looked like razor sharp metal cards.
"Pay up, Top Shot." the man yelled. "You lost!" Will winced from the yelling, but focused enough to look at Ornitier.
"What happened?" he asked.
"Hit Girl knocked you out but you shot her just enough to make her pass out at the same time." he answered. Will smiled and looked at the man.
"It was a tie, Pokerface. She didn't win." Will said. "You pay up."
"Hey, you bet that you would win. You didn't." Pokerface argued, getting mad.
"No, I bet that Hit Girl wouldn't win." Will said. They argued back and forth for about five minutes, but the arguments made the spectators think they were listening to a broken record. Eventually, Mindy, who was pretending to still be asleep, got annoyed.
"Shut the fuck up, you cunts!" she snapped. Before Dave got excited that she was awake, she stopped him. "You too, Ass." Will sat up in his bed.
"Sorry, Hit Girl." he said, rubbing his head. He put on his clothes, which turned out to be next to the bed, and grabbed a crutch from near the bed and stood up, leaning on it. Even then, he could barely stand.
"He's able to stand up." Dave observed. "You must be slipping, Hit Girl."
"Don't remind me." she said, remembering all the times she screwed up during her exam. Will looked at Pokerface, who was still standing there with his hand out and had an idea.
"Hit Girl, you're a somewhat neutral party." he said. "Who won the bet? Me or Pokerface?" He turned to Pokerface. "Would her decision be okay with you?" He looked uncertain for a few seconds before nodding. They both turned to Mindy, who was unhappy about being used to as a mediator. She looked at both of them and saw that Will was mouthing something to her. She couldn't read lips well but had decided to play along.
"Top Shot won the bet. I may have knocked him out but I couldn't get up either." Mindy admitted. "I didn't win, therefore he was right." Pokerface groaned and pulled out his wallet.
"Here's three hundred dollars." he said, handing three hundred dollars in cash to Will. "I'll win it back tomorrow." He walked out of the room while Will counted his money. He took one hundred fifty of it out and handed it to Mindy.
"Thanks." he said.
"So that's what he said." she thought, pocketing the money.
"Now, I've got a mountain of homework to finish in five hours." he said, limping out the door.
"Actually, you have three hours." Ornitier said. He pointed to the clock and Will realized that he had been unconscious for two hours. He looked at Ornitier with a look that said please. "Okay, I'll help you finish it."
Mindy tried to get up too but had a hard time in doing so. Even if he wasn't as strong as her, Will could still hit hard. She put on her jacket, grabbed a crutch as well and followed him out the door. She caught up to him with Dave right behind her.
"I thought you said I only had to fight twelve guys." Mindy said, remembering that the number she defeated was significantly more than she anticipated. "I took down eighteen."
"Eighteen?" Will said, clearly acting surprised. "Oh, you know what? I must have made a typo and given you twenty one instead of twelve. I guess it must have been a challenge for you to have to adjust so quickly, huh?" He winked as he finished. Mindy smiled.
"I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship." Mindy said. She looked at Dave. "So how did you do?" Ornitier started laughing, which made Dave pout.
"It wasn't that bad." Dave said. "I got knocked out by a heavy pipe that fell on my head." Mindy massaged her temple.
"Please tell me someone threw it at your head." Mindy begged, knowing it probably wasn't true.
"Nope." Ornitier beamed. "It rolled off a box that he was pushed into." He continued laughing but Will didn't see what was funny. "Okay, it wasn't so much that it was funny but it was so unexpected that it tickled. He doesn't remember but he was fighting five guys that he disarmed with his batons. He took down four and almost got the fifth. Then when the lights turned off, the last one pushed him into a box and the pipe fell on his head."
"You disarmed five guys?" Mindy said, suspicious. "You couldn't even do that to one person when I first met you." She poked his arm and then his stomach. Both felt more muscular than she expected. "Have you been training?" Her expression turned to one of mock hurt. "Without me?"
"I'm so sorry, Hit Girl." Dave said, pretending to sound guilty. "I couldn't wait around for you to beat me up anymore so I started taking a martial arts class." Ornitier and Will started to snicker as they watched. "It meant nothing to me. I was thinking of you the whole time. I swear." Mindy pretended to cry. "I honestly never wanted you to find out this way."
"Oh please. You wanted to get caught. Why else would you flaunt around those muscles of yours?" She couldn't take it anymore and burst out laughing. Dave held out a second longer and burst out laughing too, followed by Will, then Ornitier.
"You guys are hilarious." Will said, still laughing.
"More like smartasses." Dave said. "Who are on the same wavelength once in a while."
"Anyway," Ornitier said. "Dave, I'll give you rank six. You're not great but you're good enough to be on the streets."
"What about me?" Hit Girl asked Ornitier.
"I don't know." Ornitier said. "I only conducted the first half of the test. The one who decides is Top Shot." She looked at Will and waited for his answer.
"Rank nine." Top Shot answered. Mindy cheered and pumped her fist.
"So this place goes up nine ranks?" Dave asked.
"No, we have ten ranks." Ornitier corrected him nonchalantly. Mindy stopped celebrating and had a look of shock.
"How could I possibly have gotten a lower score than someone in this dump?" Mindy complained.
"You didn't." Will said. "You passed with flying colors."
"Then why aren't I rank ten?" Mindy asked angrily.
"Because I said so." Will answered simply. Mindy dropped the subject, figuring she could get to rank ten later. Besides, she had to admit to herself that she did make a few different mistakes while testing. "And this place is my home. Don't call it a dump." He stopped at his office and unlocked the door.
"Wait. Are you saying that you live here?" Dave asked.
"For now." Will answered.
"Why don't you live with your parents?" Dave asked carelessly. Mindy slapped the back of his head. He rubbed the spot where Mindy hit him before realizing why.
"Don't worry about it." Will said. "It's not of any concern to you." He went to his backpack and started to unzip it. "Now I have a mountain of homework that I have to get started on." Once it was unzipped, green powder shot out and was caked all over him. Will wiped off his eyes and sighed. Mindy couldn't help but giggle when powder was blown off when he did so. "Change of plans. I'll finish this at school and I'm preparing my revenge now." He looked at Ornitier. "Get me a bunch of shredded cheese."
"We're out of shredded cheese." Ornitier replied.
"Then get me blocks of cheese and a cheese grater." Will ordered. Ornitier ran out of the office while Will pulled out some of the papers which were also covered in the green powder. "This will be tough to explain to teachers." He began dusting it off as best he could and started to write on it. Ornitier quickly came back with ten blocks of cheese, four cheese graters, and an empty bowl. Will smiled and moved all of the papers to the side. He began shredding cheese into the bowl and Ornitier helped. Mindy looked at Dave for a minute, wondering what to do. Eventually, they both shrugged and started helping. "Thank you."
"So, what are you gonna do with this much shredded cheese?" Dave cautiously asked. He was somewhat afraid to know.
"Set up a trap to have it dumped on my arch nemesis along with some other food items." Will answered, grating the cheese faster.
"You have an arch nemesis?" Mindy asked.
"Everyone has an arch nemesis." Will said. "Just not a lot of them can be dealt with using a sidekick and an explosive launcher." Mindy nodded.
"True, but it makes thing so much easier." she said.
"The sidekick, she means." Dave said. "Not the bazooka." Mindy smiled and shook her head no. They continued shredding cheese in silence while Hit Girl pondered why she was reduced to helping in childish pranks. She was probably the best superhero in the city and she was helping someone she just met and fought shred cheese to prank someone. Evidently, Dave was feeling the same. "Why am I helping you with this?"
"We never said you had to." Ornitier pointed out. "You can leave if you want." Dave and Mindy had thought about it but they for some reason felt compelled to keep shredding cheese.
"Let's put on some music." Will said as he picked up a remote and turned on the TV. First thing that was on was a paused video with what looked like a blue phone box and a guy with a bowtie and a fez. Will clicked another button and the video was gone. What took its place was a list of songs. He pushed the play button and a song started to play. Mindy found the song entertaining and bobbed her head to it a little. Then the torture came when Will started to sing along. "As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I take a look at my life and realize there's nuthin' left. Cause I been blastin' and laughin' so long that even my mama thinks that my mind is gone. But I ain't never-"
"Will." Ornitier interrupted. "Stop singing. My ears are bleeding." Dave and Mindy sighed in relief when Will stopped singing. "And it looks like I'm not the only one who agrees."
"Seriously." Dave agreed. "You ruined this song by singing."
"I was just about to threaten to jam a dildo down your throat to shut you up." Mindy said.
"I highly doubt that." Will protested. "Where would you even get one?"
"I don't make idle threats." Mindy said. "I have one in my backpack." Everyone else stopped grating cheese and stared at her, wide eyed.
"Don't get any fucking ideas." Mindy said. "It's only so I can make the threat true if someone thinks I'm bluffing." Everyone just continued and didn't say anything, but there were still some weird looks in Mindy's direction. She found it annoying, but easier to deal with. No one talked for ten more minutes, only a couple other songs from the stereo to cut through the silence. Then they were done with the cheese and put down the graters. Mindy couldn't understand it. "Why did I feel generous enough for that?"
"I don't know. Reverse psychology?" Will suggested. "Or maybe you just like hanging out with us." Ornitier checked his watch.
"We have to be at school in two hours." he said. "I'm gonna get my sleep."
"It's a good idea." Will said. "I have to set up this prank in an hour and a half. I need to sleep for twenty minutes." He went to the wall and pushed a button which caused a bed to pop out about five feet from him. He laid down and was about to drift off to sleep but stopped to look at Dave and Mindy. "You guys are welcome to stay here if you want. Mi casa es su casa. Watch TV, play video games, play pool, just don't break or steal anything."
"It's his one rule with house guests." Ornitier said, laying down on his own bed across the office. "If you guys want to stay, then stay. Nothing wakes us up. But if you want to go, you know where the door is." Dave looked at Mindy, who looked back at him. Then she remembered something.
"Didn't you have to go see your girlfriend?" Mindy asked.
"I sent her a text telling her that you ended up in the emergency room so I took a raincheck." Dave said. "Let's get home. I got a test in about four hours."
(Dave's house)
"Thanks for the ride, Hit Girl." Dave said as they got to the safe house. Mindy parked the car in the garage and unlocked the door. Once inside, she started unpacking all the stuff in her backpack and belt. Dave looked in her backpack to see the contents. "You were serious."
"Of course I was serious." Mindy said, pulling a dildo out of her backpack and putting it in a drawer. "Have you ever known me to lie?" Dave thought back through the time he's known her. She could keep a straight face and hide the truth, but she's never actively lied, at least not to him. She continued pulling guns out and putting them up on the wall. "The only times I've ever lied were when I was undercover or in disguise." She finished putting up all her weapons that she had and grabbed her backpack. She left the crutch she was still using in the safehouse because she felt she didn't need it anymore and walked out the door slowly with Dave following behind her.
"Are gonna be alright on your own?" Dave asked, concerned.
"Yeah, I'll be fine." Mindy said. "I just gotta be careful not to let Marcus find out."
"I still can't believe he let you do this." Dave said.
"Officially, he didn't. He just won't punish me for being out late at night anymore." Mindy clarified. She sat down on her bike and started pedaling. "See ya at school." Then she disappeared into the distance and Dave rode away in his own direction.
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