Chapter 14 - Dennis III

Dennis' knee bounced as he was driven back to his moms house. The director had finally decided to bring her in for questioning and he was supposed to convince her to come peacefully. He hadn't talked with her much since the news about his father broke, just a quick phone call here and there. The delusion that she hadn't heard about what happened had long since been erased. His mother was sounding a lot happier than she had in a long time now that she at least knew that his dad was still alive.

In contrast, the PRT had been in an uproar since his father and his group had taken out the leaders of all major gangs in the city. The PRT had put out a warrant for Markus' and the rest of Pantheon's arrest, trying to get him and his overpowered team in for interrogation as fast as possible. Consequently there had been endless meetings for Dennis, where he told a PRT analyst and Armsmaster everything about his dad.

It had felt like a betrayal at the beginning but after Kaiser had been found dead in his Medhall office looking like he had been in outer space for an extended period of time, his reservations suddenly reduced a lot. The fact that Kaiser was still alive when his father unmasked him meant that he killed him afterwards, when Kaiser was completely incapacitated and he could have easily delivered him with the rest of the Empire to the PRT. His father had literally committed a war crime.

The Wards haven't been allowed to patrol either since then, the gangs didn't even wait a week before they erupted into an internal as well as external gang war. Downtown and the suburbs were thankfully fairly safe but Dennis could hear gunshots most nights now And not just one or two either. The reports about fighting in the streets between different factions had even started to make national news, the talking heads advising people to leave Brockton Bay as soon as possible.

Dennis bitterly chuckled. If people hadn't left by now, no amount of News coverage could change their minds.

His fellow Wards weren't happy with not going out of course, making things even tense in his usual hang out spot. Dennis had tried to act like everything was normal at first but it quickly became apparent that he really wasn't feeling his best. Dean had taken him to the side after his fathers press conference and told him that he would have his back no matter what. Dennis actually felt very touched by his friend's reassurance, easing his mind somewhat.

Missy and Chris, the other two Wards Vista and Kid Win, were also sympathetic, trying to drag him out of his spiraling thoughts. They weren't as successful as his best friend but he still appreciated the effort. Their current Wards leader Aegis had tried to be supportive as well but he just came across as awkward. Dennis had never been close friends with the slightly older teen. They could work with each other without much of an issue but in a casual setting their personalities just clashed. Carlos was always serious and a quiet stoic, the complete opposite of Dennis. At least until recently…

Unfortunately not everyone was as understanding. Sophia had seemed practically giddy, which wasn't a word Dennis would have ever used to describe her before, at watching the Empire fall apart. It sometimes felt like she wanted to join Pantheon herself so Dennis was very annoyed with her for a long time.

The situation came to a head when he confronted her in the hallway to their rooms. He had enough of her telling them that they should do things like his father, really bring the fight to their enemies and break every law in the process. From there on it took Dennis barely a minute to figure out that Sophia hadn't known his last name, and would have surely forgotten it if she ever did know, so she hadn't realized the connection between Dennis and Markus Leon.

That was an awkward exchange, not helped by the fact that since then she had been less hostile towards Dennis. She almost seemed like a normal girl around him, at least sometimes. It weirded him out quite a lot.

He sighed as they finally pulled into the street on which his home was located. Up in Captains Hill, situated at the end of a winding suburban road, each white house was a little bit different in the way slightly upper middle class families liked it.

Dennis didn't know how his parents had afforded something like that, beyond his random trips his dad had never seemed to go anywhere for work. He was mostly holed up in his office. Dennis never found out what he was doing but it paid for groceries and some luxuries. It was enough that he had never felt poor.

Now it was obvious that something illegal was happening. Hopefully his mom had more insights.

Dennis nodded to the two PRT agents with him in the back of the unmarked van. "I'm going to bring her out in a minute." He was currently in his civilian clothes so he didn't worry about being seen as he jumped out of the car and made his way to the front door.

Inserting his key was almost automatic, having lived here for close to his whole life, and the door swung open. He stepped inside, ignored the pictures of their whole family together right at the entrance area and made his way to the arched opening on the left side leading into the living room.

He froze when a bright light blinded him for a moment. The spots in his vision took a moment to resolve, slowly revealing his mother standing on top of their old wooden coffee table. She looked like she had just been looking over her shoulder, a large smile on her face before she turned around to face him.

When she saw him, she also froze. She was practically drenched in sweat, her sportswear sticking to her skin. His mother had always been active before but now she looked like she had put on an extra twenty pounds of muscles, which was quite a lot on her short frame. Her red hair was in disarray, so different from her usual ponytail. The cheeks which had looked more sunken in every passing month were now healthy and full again, making her freckles stand out against her pale skin.

"Mom, what was that? Why do you look like that?" Dennis faintly asked, stepping closer and causing his mother to snap out of her shock.

"D, dennis, I didn't expect you back so soon." She looked to the side and coughed awkwardly into her hand, showing off her newly gained biceps. "I, I would have cooked something."

"Mom, what was that?" Dennis repeated, now within lunging distance. "Was that Purity… Dad?"

"What? No!" His mom exclaimed, a shocked look on her face as she was shaking her head rapidly. "I haven't even talked to him yet."

"Then what was that just now?" He growled, gesturing wildly at where the bright light had been in the middle of their living room. His brain was still in the process of being rebooted after seeing his moms sudden changes, he couldn't even formulate a plan right now.

She chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of her head. "Well, I uhh, I had a trigger, trigger event." His mom explained, her eyes not being able to look at him. "Yes, yes, it just happened a couple hours ago."

Dennis wordlessly stepped forward and embraced his mom, her suddenly more muscular body not diminishing any of the warmth he felt as she borrowed her face in his shoulder. Just the thought that his dads return was stressing his mom out so much… Or was she just so desperate to reconnect with dad… "I'm so sorry mom."

"It's, it's alright. I talked with a doctor and she told me I am better than ever." His mom answered, happily accepting his affection. She didn't seem very distraught but that could be just the shock talking. He himself hadn't been able to process his own trigger event for almost a week.

"...I thought you hated going to a doctor?" Dennis asked her after they had separated from their hug. His mom's eyes widened for a moment before she avoided his gaze again.

"Oh, oh sorry for not telling you, I met her over the internet and she's really exclusive, everything is very confidential... I had to agree to a contract and everything." She answered with a proud smile. "I contacted her recently and she thought I was the perfect client." Her hands were even on her hips and her t-shirt covered chest sticking out.

Oh no, she really wanted to get praised for coming up with such a dumb story.

Dennis sighed, it probably wasn't a good idea to get into it with her right now, she had always been good at distracting him and dad with her nonsensical rambling. But he didn't think it was possible to distract him from her having had a trigger event. Still, she clearly didn't want to talk about it with him. It obviously had something to do with his father though, nothing else had changed in the last six months. "Okay, okay let's put that to the side for now. Do you know what powers you got?"

His mom perked up even more at that question. "Yes, I wanted a Mover power so I could follow you and Markus wherever you go and you won't have to leave me behind ever again."

That, that was sweet but… "Mom, you do know that dad…"

"Is on a different team than you? Of course! I'm sure your dad would allow you to be part of both." She smiled wide, reaching up and patting his shoulder repeatedly. Dennis winced, her usual soft taps suddenly feeling a lot heavier. It was more like she had gotten a Brute power instead of a Mover one.

"Don't you think the Protectorate would be better for you?" He stopped his mothers continuous patting by catching the hand in his own.

She smiled as she squeezed his hand. "It's fine, Pantheon is also a hero group, they have to be with your father leading them."

"They, they killed people, dad killed people. The PRT is after them and they want to charge dad for murder." He argued but he could see from the smile on his mothers face that she wasn't really listening.

"That's just a misunderstanding, you know how the government is. I will talk with Markus and he'll clear everything up."

"Mom, you want to go to dad after everything he put you… us through for the last two years?" Dennis asked incredulously, his moms smile suddenly turning a bit more brittle.

"It, it... Everything will be fine now, your dad finally found what he was looking for and we can be a family again." His mom told him after a moment, her eyes slightly watery as she squeezed his hand tighter, almost desperately. "We are going to join Pantheon and be an awesome superhero family!"

Suddenly Dennis understood. She was trying to convince herself just as much as she was trying to convince him. She really loved his father and they had a relationship for over twenty years, that she hadn't noticed what kind of man Markus really was was extremely unlikely. She must have accepted him a long time ago, otherwise his dad would have left a lot earlier.

Unfortunately Dennis couldn't do the same.

"No. I'm sorry but dad made sure we could never have a normal relationship again." With a heavy heart he couldn't even look at her face as he activated his power and froze his mother in time from where they were still holding hands.

"Need some foam and Brute handcuffs for my mom, she got powers and refuses to come in." He called on his PRT communicator through to the agents outside. He ignored the audible 'Damn' of one of the agents and just stayed with his mom, ready to freeze her again should his power run out.

Dennis continued to watch her even as one agent sprayed her with containment foam up to her waist while the other put the handcuffs on her arms, the band connecting the two large metal sheaths for her hands would pull them together once she could move again.

He felt a certain amount of grief as he doubted that their relationship could ever be the same either after this. His mom was a very happy go lucky person but even she couldn't easily forgive her son delivering her to a cell. And even if she did, it was going to be something that would always be in the back of their minds. She would always wonder if he was going to betray her like that again now that he had shown himself capable of it.

Then his mom jerked, his power having run its course. "Dennis?" She asked as her arms were pulled together and she teetered forward. Her green eyes looked at him in complete shock before her gaze fell onto the four PRT agents surrounding them. She suddenly frowned, her eyebrows knitted in anger.

"Mom, I'm sor…" His heart was almost breaking at the look on her face before his mom suddenly took a deep breath and made a step forward, straight through the containment foam that was harder than cement. It was like she didn't even notice it was there.

"Did you pressure my son to do this?" She asked the agents. She was only focused on them as she took another breath and continued forward, the brute handcuffs bending and crumpling until she could move her arms back to her sides. His mom was showered with even more containment foam but it didn't seem to do anything either.

Dennis had only a moment to think before he threw himself forward and just managed to tag his moms cheek with his finger tips, freezing her in place again. Only to get immediately foamed as well.

"Might want to call Armsmaster." He told the agents as he hung in the hardened substance, a finger continuously touching his mom.

What a shit show.

AN: Ha, Mom can't distract me with her nonsensical stories anymore, I'm a big boy now. *Literally gets distracted the next moment*

And I know Dennis acted rashly there but he is under a lot of stress right now so cut him some slack lol