We aren't who we were.

It seemed like Leaf was a lot more resilient than he appeared. David couldn’t help but be in awe of the kid. Even after taking a beating from Norton who was perhaps the third strongest among his small network of “friends/coworkers.” When he thought about it even among the new generation of supers, both heroes and ECEs, Norton was still in the upper echelon. The problem is that his powers negate physical attacks and redirect them, not only that but he can also erase friction to make it impossible for you to move. All of this meant you had to be able to fly and/or use attacks that didn’t rely on physical contact to inflict damage. He also can only cancel out and redirect the attacks and motion of people he can see, so there are limitations. He also wasn’t bullet proof, but it was a general rule back home that unless the person was a wide scale threat, law enforcement was not to use lethal measures on supers, it was strictly capture and detain.

All of that was to emphasize two things, David could win against Norton in a fight, and the kid was lucky to be alive. This wasn’t a fight to the death but taking blows like that back on Earth would have put him in an early grave, but here there was actual magic. Leaf cast a healing spell on himself.

David once met a supervillain named Unlimited Woman, she could get half her body blown off and regrow it almost instantaneously, this healing magic wasn’t quite as miraculous as that, but if a decent percentage of people could do this then warfare here must have been some different kind of hell.

“Can everyone do this?” Jessie asked as she cradled the injured leaf in her lap.

“It’s not uncommon, I guess. There’s probably at least one healer in every village. I’m actually not the only one in mine, this magic was kind of something I learned in secret.”

He nuzzled his face against her thighs.

“How much longer are you going to lay there, Leaves?” Norton was getting agitated. To be fair, though David was calling Leaf a kid he was definitely at least 18, he just had a young looking face. His hair was brown, curly, and went down past his ears. His clothes resembled the green one piece of Peter Pan, the cape mentioned in his stats was more like a cowl, it barely went past his elbows. Overall his stature was lanky, he was slightly taller than David and Jessie but not as tall as Norton who was about six foot.

“How much more light do you think we have? And is it safe to stay here?” David asked Leaf.

“It will get dangerous at night. It’s when the larger, deadlier monsters are more active. It’s better to sleep during the day.”

Leaf explained that the men of this world had evolved to have better vision at night since generally the men protected the settlements, villages, and towns from those deadly monsters. If they didn’t there was a high chance they would get overtaken and everyone would get trampled or eaten.

“So, are we staying or going?” Norton cut to the point.

“As I understand it, you otherworlders have poor vision at night and like women you are awake during the day and sleep at night. Now would be a good time to get some rest, I’ll wake you up when the nights at it’s darkest or if a large threat is coming our way.”

“What then?”

“We’ll get as close to my village as we can. If they are under attack, we’ll hide out until the monsters retreat.”

“Great. Great. Now, get off!” Norton pulled Leaf off of Jessie and held him by his cowl.

“Owie, I’m still injured, I wasn’t doing anything! Please, Mrs. Jessie, tell this orge to calm down.” Leaf yelled in playful, exaggerated tone.

“Put him down, Norton. He’s being helpful. Leaf, sweetie, I enjoy when my boys fight over me, but please do not antagonize him. We should get along for now, yes?”

Norton huffed and lowered Leaf who flashed his signature cocky grin.

After that excitement we all retreated to our corners and attempted to fall asleep. None of us actually could. We were sleeping on cement and Leaf was leaned against one of the walls. All of us had spent out lives surrounded by enemies who wanted to kill us. We were not heavy sleepers and always had our guards. We were now in unfamiliar territory and surrounded by monsters and despite how well he seemed to be gelling with the group, he still very well could have been a wolf in sheep’s clothing. They would most likely not have a restful nights sleep until they arrived safely back on Earth.

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“You’re all awake?” In the end David had drifted off a few times but the uncomfortable accommodations had kept him from remaining that way. Coincidentally, there was only one blanket in the run down church and Leaf gave it to Jessie.

Jessie feigned a yawn and sat up. We all knew none of us had actually slept.

“I can’t take this! God!” Norton let out a yell and flailed his arms around like he was having a temper tantrum.

“What the hell! Quiet! They’ll hear you.” Leaf was panicked. He ran out into the main corridor to check for monsters.

“You can’t keep doing this.” David was getting a bit tired of Norton’s constant fussing.

“I just can’t with this place! I want to get back to my life!”

“Is this about that Debbie woman at your work.” Jessie was more willing to try to get the heart of the matter than David.

“No! A little! It’s complicated.”

“Did you fall in love?” David could see what Jessie was getting at and beat her to it.

“No, not with Debbie. She legitimately irritates me. It’s everything else. I have stuff to get back to. I never had that when we were running around back in day. It didn’t happen the way I wanted or intended to-”

“We know you were the one who turned everyone in, Norton.” Jessie dropped the bomb, “You don’t have to hide it.” Norton’s mouth flapped open and shut. He looked from Jessie to David.

“You-you don’t blame me.”

“We blamed you, I did at least. For a while, a long, long while.” David confessed.

“It wasn’t easy to move past for me either,” Jessie agreed, “but things were getting heated, Arch would have done something that couldn’t have been undone. You did something good. I started getting in touch with some of the old gang before this. They feel the same. If you hadn’t done something I would have.”

Norton pursed his lips, “I still blame myself for everything. Everyone went to jail and I got off with…”

Jessie crouched down in front of Norton, “We were still criminals. It felt like playing since it was so easy for us. We told ourselves that for so long. People did get hurt by our actions and we had to pay for our part in that.”

David didn’t have much to add to the conversation. It felt like we were living in a cartoon and then suddenly the real world has closed in and swallowed them whole. David’s father had made it all seem so playful. In David’s head he and his friends were putting on a show each week, they all dressed up and invited the heroes to come “play”

The problem was the “villains” kept winning and the years kept passing, the “play villains” became symbols of safety for the actual villains, the murderers, the street thugs, and what happened when some of those people were super too, that’s where to trouble really started and everything went wrong.

“We had to pay for our part.” David muttered.

Right then, Leaf came back in, “Okay, are you ready to leave.”

“Yes.” Norton stood up.

“Hold it together and we’ll get home eventually.” Jessie reassured him.

They got ready to move out.

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The way to Leaf’s village was a long downward climb. The paths were steep and narrow but someone had been maintaining them so it was mostly smooth. This was a holy site after all. The church itself wasn’t used except to collect the heroes that arrived from Earth, still there were a few people who would visit to offer a prayer and there was also big religious event twice a year that was held there since it was the only arrival point in the country.

They walked carefully and steadily. Eventually the path flattened out. After about an hour flickering lights faded into view.

“It’s up ahead. We’re going to observe the situation and then go around the back.”

Just as he said that a howl is heard in the near distance. It seemed the threat hadn’t arrived yet but was right behind them.