I lay there with Eve curled against me, her breath warm against my collarbone, her fingers twitching occasionally against my chest like she was dreaming of holding on even tighter.
My mind wasn't going a thousand miles an hour like it usually does, instead was going slow like a shark lazily cruising its tank. I've never been one for self-deception. Some heroes clung to ideals like they were life rafts in a storm, Mark with his wide-eyed belief in doing the right thing, Cecil with his cold calculus of necessary things. I'm essentially what a normal person would be if they had power and stopped pretending to be morally perfect.
Her eyelashes brushed the front of my collarbone, tiny blinks of awareness.
She was stirring. I grinned into the dark and reached my hand over the swell of her body, tracing a line down her spine, into the dip just above her ass, before squeezing, making her grunt in the nose. "Time to get up, sweetheart," I said, brushing my lips over her jaw.
Eve groaned and buried her face in my chest, trying to hide. I pulled my hand lower and pinched her ass, the flesh still a little tender from the sting of my open palm.
She shrieked, her hips bouncing off my thigh. "Asshole," she snapped, but her legs wrapped around my hips, pulling her hips against me. Without much effort, I turned, rolling off the couch, taking her with me.
She shrieked and wrapped her arms around me, her nails digging in. I dragged her to the bathroom, the shower hissing to life before I'd even reached the door. As I set Eve on the tile, her suit peeled away in wet ribbons under my hands. The fabric clung stubbornly to her breasts until I ripped it the rest of the way off.
"You're crazy," she laughed, but her eyes glowed and she slid her fingers to the front of my boxer briefs.
I pushed her up against the tile. "I know that," I said, grabbing her wrists, dragging them above her head.
She shivered at the contact, her breasts pushing forward. Water cascaded over us, her soft skin warm against my palms as I explored every curve, every quiver. Eve's legs snaked around my hips at once this time, heels pressing in to my lower back as I slid into her, hard and fast.
I was pounding into her from an almost uncomfortable angle, her tightness wrapping hard around my cock while I shoved her into the shower wall. Her soft moans echoed loudly around us, and her nails dug deep grooves into my skin as she reached around to claw my chest. "Oh fuck, Zandale," she moaned, body pressing into each stroke. I didn't stop for breath, didn't give her time to calm, my lips finding hers to take in another of her cries as I thrust into her once more. We kept a rhythm in place of one another, the steady rhythm of water on skin matching my thrusts.
Eve screamed as she climaxed, spasming around me, and I followed close behind, my hips stuttering out as I poured myself into her. We stayed in place for a time, body slumped together in the cooling water, until finally I lowered her legs to the floor. Eve flashed me an unimpressed look at our state, but no true ire in her glare. "You're awful," she muttered, hand moving down my chest as she reached for soap. Eve worked the shampoo through her hair while I washed her back.
By the time we were done, water ran freezing.
"Don't rub holes in your head," I murmured, taking over. Her hair was wet and clinging to her face by the time she stepped out. The smell of her shampoo, strong and floral, stayed with me after she towelled off. Stepping from the bathroom, the apartment smelled like sex and steam when we stepped back into the living room. Eve wrapped herself in a robe while I got dressed.
I felt her watching me through the half-open door, dark patches forming on the robe as her hair dripped down her back. "You're really going to go?" she asked. No accusation, but genuine interest. I crossed the room in two strides and caught her chin between two fingers. "Are you telling me to stay?" I teased, her pulse fluttering hard against my thumb.
I had to suppress a smile, Eve rolling her eyes as she didn't pull away.
I turned to leave, opening the window.
Eve's apartment was on the 43rd floor, but I had gotten used to heights a long time ago. Eve's paper blew from the coffee table in the window. She didn't even try to save it. Her robe hung loosely from her small frame. Her hair was half wet.
She looked at me like a mix of tired and possessive.
My earpiece lit up. Cecil sounded as if he had been in the desert all day. "Tell me you didn't." I put on a faster path, causing the city to blur under me. I didn't change course. "Do what?"
"Stop playing dumb, Randolph." I assume Cecil was pressing the bridge of his nose so hard that it was in danger of snapping. "Atom Eve, Mark's girlfriend. You didn't…."
I banked hard over the river, the water close enough to send up spray. "Two consenting adults, Cecil, you know that's legal, right?" I could hear Cecil moving papers around, I guess his version of pacing.
"You're a public relations nightmare. And Mark..."
"is not her or my boss," I said. The wind took the last word from my mouth. "The world did not end with me getting laid."
A pause. I could hear Cecil exhaling. "Just… be careful. You keep doing this, something will end up exploding." The call died with a click. I smiled and moved up higher. I could see the city lights below.
Cecil was right though; something will end up exploding. Maybe that's the point.
* * *
"You have a new job," Cecil's voice inevitably crackled in my ear again, cutting through the storm, "you're going to Nebraska." I didn't bother to ask why; Cecil's current orders were usually vague right until it all went to hell. The wind roared past me as I punched through another layer of clouds, leaving an orange haze that lingered in the air like a smudge. Cecil sighed, his voice raspy through my ear. "Dinosaurus," he said, as though that would explain it to me.
And somehow, it did.
Below me, the windswept state appeared like a dry, torn-up wound. There were cracks and rivers running across the ground that didn't hold water anymore. Dinosaurus had a good hiding spot: the top of a mountain that protruded like a bullet casing, the entire surface was smooth, as though it had been rubbed until it looked like half a ball. The updrafts whipped my cape, the vibrant orange fabric snapping and fluttering like a flag in the wind. I hovered in place, studying the building, my kinetic senses scanning the area and noting the heat signature of only one figure inside, one far larger than the others, pacing in tight circles. Dinosaurus, the man. Dinosaurus, the myth.
The moment I stepped down to the ground, Dinosaurus loomed over me before any dust could settle. His large, reptilian eyes focused on me, almost like I was an especially persistent fly who refused to get crushed under his foot. "You," he rumbled, the word rolling over the cracked earth like thunder. "I was expecting Grayson, or the Guardians." Dinosaurus' claws dug into the wall behind him. "I did not think I'd get you."
I leaned back and shrugged, my cape falling over my shoulders as I rolled out the kinks in my back. "Mark's injured at the moment. The Guardians are babysitting a senator's brat, I guess you got me." Dinosaurus' teeth clicked as his jaw tightened and his nostrils flared. His pupils dilated to slits, assessing me, my suit, and my cape. He was a monster of flesh and muscle, a hulking, scaled bulk with a tail that whipped back and forth as though he wanted to snap my neck between his jaw. "You're not here to stop me," he rasped, his voice like a car grinding a brick.
"It's up to you," I said, rolling out my neck. I flew into a lazy rotation around the giant. "Are you going to waste my time with the usual hero-versus-villain garbage? Or are we actually going to talk?" He flexed his hand, the claws flexing and the muscle in his arm contracting before he released the wall again. I was sure Dinosaurus was processing the situation, thinking about how best to react to my presence, to me. Finally, Dinosaurus exhaled through his nose, his breath creating clouds that formed and evaporated before he could even finish his sentence. "You don't act like them."
"Because I'm not them." I landed on the dirt between the cracks, raising a dust cloud like the blood of years past. "I know what you're trying to accomplish here. The same story told over and over again; burn the world until something better is risen from the ashes. A classic supervillain move." My gloves sparked as I curled my fingers into fists. "What you may not know is that I don't think you are wrong."
It seemed to completely catch Dinosaurus off guard. He didn't move into his usual stance of readiness but merely stopped, surprised, his tail striking the ground one time, creating minor earthquakes. "You agree with me?" He took a deep, deep breath, taking in my words as he tried to comprehend them, his nostrils flaring and expanding.
"I didn't say that," I laughed, a sharp, brittle sound. "I said you're not wrong. There's a difference." I waved an arm around, my orange eyes glowing faintly in the gloom. "This. A dying world with corrupt governments and half the population choking on their own ignorance. Yes. It's pretty fucked. But this? Solving a version of the world that has been simplified for the sake of your own brain? That's not it."
Dinosaurus bared his teeth, growling deep in his throat. "Do you think I am unaware of all the variables at play?"
"I'm aware you know about variables. That's why I'm here." A smile tugged at the corners of my mouth. "But you don't know anything about people, though. Not the messy, irrational, stubborn-as-fuck reality of billions of idiots who'll fight you just because they can. You want to fix the world? You gotta work with the pieces you've got. Not the ones you wish you had."
Dinosaurus flexed his claws, drawing even deeper into the rock face than before. For a while, the only sound was the wind whistling through the canyon. Then, without warning, he let the air out of his nose in a breath that was almost laughter. "Really," he said. "You're not like the others. Not like Grayson."
I smiled and lifted my shoulders under the cape. "You said it yourself, remember?" My cape flapped in the breeze, flashing orange in the last light of the sunset. "So. We doing this the hard way? Or you wanna hear the rest of my pitch?"
Dinosaurus flicked his tail and said, "Talk."
* * *
Getting Dinosaurus to agree to sit in a chair instead of crushing said chair took more time than the flight to Washington. He walked like a sentient avalanche. The sound of his footsteps reverberated against the shiny surfaces of the Pentagon, his tail flicking back and forth in a synchronized rhythm with the fluorescent lights above us. We had the luxury of Cecil's people clearing the way for us as we walked down the halls, which allowed me the luxury of feeling their gaze upon us through security cameras and walls that had the ability to muffle their voices.
"Feels like a trap," said Dinosaurus. His claws pressed into the tiles of the floor. "Everything's a trap if you're paranoid enough," I said as I leaned against the wall next to him. My cape gathered around my boots as he snorted. "Relax. Cecil's got a hard-on for efficiency, not executions."
We arrived at the conference room. Dinosaurus opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, the door flew open, with Cecil standing at the entrance, his face as impassive as a brick wall. "Randolph," said Cecil. He looked over at the man towering above him. "Dinosaurus."
Cecil didn't move. He didn't say anything. He just stood there in his suit, that very stupid, expensive suit of his, looking at Dinosaurus as if he had just seen an unbalanced tax return, the silence hanging over us for a while. The seconds ticked by, the minutes passed on by. It was the first time, in my life, where I'd seen Cecil swallow a surprise, but he managed, and after a few moments he stepped aside. He pointed at the table. "Sit," he said.
Dinosaurus chuckled. A glass in one of the frame shook from it. "Are you expecting me to sit in a tiny human chair?"
"Then stand," said Cecil, his voice as dry as the desert. "Although I'll hold Randolph's paycheck for any scratches to the floor."
I shook my head and walked inside. Cecil and Dinosaurus followed us in. The conference room was filled with a sense of despair that could only be felt in places of death; where hope went to be killed. I dropped into one of the chairs, and propped my boots on the table as I saw Cecil's left eye twitch. "Don't be such a sorehead, Cecil," I said. "He won't eat anyone. Unless you provoke him."
He breathed through his nostrils, sounding like a steam engine idling. "Not today," he amended. The floor groaned under his weight, his tail coiling around his haunches. Cecil didn't sit. He stood with his arms crossed, eyes trained on Dinosaurus as if the thing before him were nothing more than a stubborn spreadsheet. "Explain."
"Which part?" I asked with a grin, tapping my temple. "The part where I managed to convince a walking extinction event to play nice? Or the part where you're now under obligation to produce a bottle of something pricey?"
Cecil's lips thinned. "The part where I don't have to have both of you thrown into holding cells."
Dinosaurus moved. Behind him, a wall groaned with the movement of his tail. "You misunderstand," he said in a deep growl, his voice rumbled with the sterile acoustics of the room. "I am not 'playing nice.' I am adapting." His claws dug into the marble of the floor to make a new set of scratch marks. "Randolph has shown me the weakness of my own theory: The world isn't simple; it cannot be ended in a single blow; it's complicated, organic."
Cecil's eyebrow rose a little (I noticed it). "You mean… you've agreed to help?"
"No." A snort of hot steam came from the creature's nostrils as his head turned to look at me. "For now, I am consenting to be made use of."
Cecil made an exhalation that nearly amounted to a laugh. "I can't believe it," he moaned, pinching the bridge of his nose until he might have broken the skin. "I can't believe Randolph was the one who made you reconsider."
Dinosaurus's tail slammed into the wall twice and then stopped. "'Reason' is a subjective construct. But I think Randolph is right." The creature flexed its claws on the marble floor once again. "The world will die. If we want to save it, we have to use the tools we have. Not the tools we wish we had."
Cecil was silent for a long moment. He looked at me. "All right," he said finally. He walked to the door, heading for the exit.
"'All right' is it?" I asked, kicking my boots off the table to follow.
Cecil didn't pause. "Do you want a medal, Randolph?"
"Nah. I'd settle for the bottle of whiskey you owe me," I replied. My cape snapped behind me as I matched his stride.
Dinosaurus's laughter shook the foundation, deep, guttural, and oddly human. "Fascinating," he rumbled, his claws clicking against the marble as he followed. "This… alliance will be fascinating."
I had to agree.