Chương 12: R&R Ch. 12 — A Simple Retort

Jasmine had discovered that designing a superhero costume was an exhausting endeavor, and she had known what she had wanted. That she would not be a part in making it bothered her, since it meant it would have zero synergy with her own abilities, but it would be ages before her own abilities matched what they could make so it was a trade she had to swallow. Nicholas looked up from his phone as she strolled out of her meeting.

"You done?" His voice still sounded terrible. She felt a little bad. She hadn't realized just how much he had done until she watched the publicity video and realized just how much he had impacted with that first command. She may have had over seventy percent of their team's total kills, but she had done it largely one at a time or in smaller groups outside of her one big attack. Nicholas had impacted everyone in the arena all at once. That was impossible. Well, mostly impossible.

It still made her feel giddy when she remembered that between the two of them they had killed every single Beyonder in the area. None of the other teams had gotten a single point. Hell, most of them had still been searching for their first enemy while she and Nicholas cleaned up.

"Are you still on full rest or were you planning on working on your power?" Jasmine asked, falling into step with her teammate. Nicholas shrugged. They had both been there for the warning. Nicholas wasn't suffering from soul damage, but his power was dangerously close to hurting him. Well, more than destroying his voice hurting him.

"Do you want to help me come up with what to do with you know what?" Jasmine asked, hoping to get him to say yes. Despite his resting to heal, they hadn't hung out once. How was she supposed to comfort her only available friend from the pain he was in if he wasn't going to be around? Nicholas nodded, though he gave her an odd look before doing so.

"And here we have the two supers sweeping the city after their unprecedented record," Horus said, his voice grating on everyone's nerves. Jasmine hated him. And she definitely didn't want to be part of his stupid livestream to gain clout. He was everything wrong with other super scions. And he had been making the effort to annoy her since she embarrassed him. But she had to be polite. She wanted to be someone people believed in.

And a bad clippable moment in his livestream could tank her numbers, so Jasmine put on a smile and waved.

"Hey Horus, how are you today?" Nicholas, for his part, stared suspiciously at the other supers. Horus of course wasn't alone; all of his hangers-on had joined him, and one was holding a phone as Horus did his daily livestream about super life.

"Oh, you know, another day, another life to save," Horus said, turning to the camera to wink. In Jasmine's estimation, the worst part was Horus was actually handsome in the rich kid trying to appear scruffy and down-to-earth way.

"Well, we were just leaving our costume design session, so we'll be leaving," Jasmine said, grabbing Nicholas by the arm and hoping to pull him away. He didn't have the PR training she did, so she was hoping to handle it. And more than that, neither of them wanted their civilian names out there. They would always end up being an open secret, but she didn't want to be the superhero Jasmine. Hence why both of them always wore masks when leaving their apartment.

"Don't be so fast; we had a question. So wouldn't the queen of the hill be so kind as to give some inspiration to those of us struggling?" Horus asked, his voice dripping with venom. Jasmine was impressed; that was a lot of restraint for him. He had spent the past three days campaigning against both of them, his videos always magically including him consistently doing better in classes than either herself or Nicholas. Yes, she was stalking her competition.

But she considered it healthy; she had to see what the public saw when they looked at her, especially if she wanted to pass her grandma.

"What is it?"

"Well, we've seen how you've been doing everywhere else, so my viewers and I came to one conclusion," Horus said, smiling evilly. Jasmine had already let go of her friend at this point as she prepared for whatever this bozo was going to say.

"We wanted to know whose dick did you suck to get all the screen time. Cause it's clear you're not it, babe." Jasmine saw red. Nicholas laughed.

"Sorry about that, just had the thought of whether your viewers watch you to see how much bullshit you spew or because they're dumb enough to believe you?" he said, not sounding apologetic at all. As Jasmine's anger died, Horus fumed.

"What, you think you two obviously being treated special shouldn't be called out? You didn't even do anything." Horus scoffed. Jasmine took a step forward as she considered the best way to ruin this person. She and Nicholas had worked hard.

"I'll cut you a deal, Horus. If you really want some screen time next week, you can always suck me off, and I'll let you have a minute or two of spotlight. And that goes for everyone else who is coasting by. Yeah, your sprint time is better than mine. Dang, it turns out I'm not as fast as a speedster. But you could take ten times as long and still couldn't solve how this all happened." Nicholas said, still laughing. This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

Jasmine whipped her head around to look at Nicholas in shock.

"Oh yeah, how did this happen?"

"We're fucking better than you; we actually care. Told you I figured that out the first day. But we're on day ten, and you still seem to be struggling with that one." Nicholas was nearly cackling with joy. Jasmine whipped her head back to watch the dumpster fire that was Horus's face heating with rage.

"You proud of that retort? Think you're some bigshot, don't you know who my dad is?" Horus asked, doing his best to sound calm.

"Sorry, I'm not into older men, so I won't accept his favors for you to get more screen time. Enjoy your live stream Horus I have training to do. You know? Like someone who actually wants to go hero." Nicholas said, giving him a wave before grabbing Jasmine's hand and pulling her away. Horus called to them, but Jasmine was too busy laughing to hear him. They practically power-walked back to their apartment, and it wasn't till they were safe inside the walls that Nicholas finally let go of her hand.

"Dude, what was that?" Jasmine asked, punching him in the arm in excitement. She had known him for a while, and that wasn't the Nicholas she knew. Nicholas pulled out his phone and typed something out before some app read it aloud for her.

"He irritated me."

"That might be the worst thing I've heard you say about someone," Jasmine said, sitting down on the couch as Nicholas moved to the kitchen. Nicholas shrugged before pulling out some of the food he had prepped this morning along with tea for himself.

"So I have a problem with the Beyonder souls," Jasmine said, moving to the important business.

"You can't use them?"

"What? No, nothing like that. When I make a soul construct, I can basically use it in one of two ways. Use my power to fuel its ability. Or let it self-destruct by consuming itself. But my power can't work on those. So I can only make consumables. So I'm not sure what I should make."

"Bow and arrow?"

"I'm not an archer girlie," Jasmine disagreed as she grabbed a cookie from the platter Nicholas had handed her.

"No clue then." Nicholas tapped out on his phone before setting it on the table and taking another sip of his tea. Jasmine sat up as an idea struck her.

"I could do a gun! And make their souls the bullets!" Before Nicholas could say anything, Jasmine ran off to her bathroom and then to her bedroom, muttering to herself. Nicholas glanced at her before shrugging and propped his feet up on the coffee table as he turned on the TV. He didn't like it per se, but he was enjoying his forced rest break, even if it annoyed him greatly not to practice every day.

When Jasmine returned, she was wearing a bathrobe, a fedora and was holding a hair comb in her hand while pointing it at Nicholas dramatically.

"How do I look?"

"Like a gangster who had a bad hair day and covered it up with a hat instead of fixing it?" Nicholas's phone chirped once he was done typing out his response. Jasmine scowled down at him.

"Don't be ridiculous; you have to use your imagination. Clearly, I'm the lone stranger with a big gun, a cowboy hat and a leather duster. You gotta use your imagination."

"I see."

"Just because you didn't say it doesn't mean I didn't hear your tone of voice," Jasmine replied sharply. Nicholas held up his hands to plead his innocence as Jasmine moved to a mirror to strike a few poses to figure out what she wanted to do. In her mind's eye, the idea was almost right. But she wasn't sure what was missing. Maybe she needed boots. That seemed gunslingery to her. Once she was done with costume theory crafting, Jasmine returned to the front room to join her teammate for relaxing.

Forging their bond was important. And he had the snacks. When her phone rang, interrupting her, Jasmine had to groan. She was busy; there were train wrecks to watch on reality TV!

"Hi Nana, how are you today?" Jasmine asked, walking into the study and closing the door. She wasn't sure what her grandma would say, but the less she could influence her team, the better.

"I wanted to see how you were doing; it looks like your partner went viral at least within your city," Grandma Darlene said, though Jasmine didn't believe her. Nicholas barely interacted with her, let alone anyone else, so how would he have gotten…

"Oh."

"Yes, I would hope your numbers aren't falling behind?"

"Of course not," Jasmine said. She wasn't lying. Last time they checked, she was the higher ranked of the two of them by miles, so it was unlikely that just this would do anything to change her spot. He would just be closer, which was a good thing.

"You do have a name picked out, Jasmine and Retort doesn't sound that good for a duo," Grandma Darlene continued.

"They've named him Retort?"

"Yes, it wouldn't be my choice for him, but it seems to be acceptable." Jasmine thought about it for a second as she thought about it. That was a good name for Nicholas when he was a super.

"I have one, don't worry," Jasmine said, actually lying this time. She had been coming up with superhero names since she could talk, but she didn't know what she was going to pick.

"With you two having proved to be so dominant last week, I am expecting the same again." Darlene said, her voice cold. Jasmine gulped.

"Yes, Grandma." She didn't want to use that strategy. Not only had it hurt Nicholas in a way she couldn't stop, she also felt guilty about doing it again. He hadn't really talked about it though, so maybe they could do a little one. They didn't need everyone to be called, just most. Her grandma wouldn't expect them to get one hundred percent again, just domination, so anything over fifty percent was probably going to be acceptable.

"Anything else?" Jasmine asked, desperate for her grandma to hang up. Wasn't there some asteroid she had to destroy? Probably not; she didn't deal with those. Maybe an army of fish people again.

"You've done acceptably in meeting our family's expectations." Jasmine waited to hear the click before screaming. Who did her grandma think she was? One of the strongest people in the world, which she actually was. But if Jasmine was that strong, she wasn't going to be mean to everyone.

"You okay?" Nicholas asked as she returned.

"Fine," she scowled, flopping into her seat and crossing her arms.

"Obviously not what you did last time we can't have you blowing out your voice every weekend but what are your thoughts on doing little calls just so we stay on top?" Jasmine asked, trying to act as casual as possible.

"No." The robotic voice was cold, but the look in Nicholas's eyes was colder. He wasn't going to hear any debate about it.

"What, why not?" Nicholas looked at her for a second before glaring back and typing something else on his phone.

"Use other people's living souls to make armaments and I'll do it again." Jasmine was fuming. That was different. It was fucked up to do that!

"What do you mean!" she asked, nearly screeching.

"If your ethics aren't for sale, then neither are mine." Nicholas's phone intoned.

"What is the ethical problem to you calling all the monsters to us or just some of them?" Jasmine asked, trying to resist the urge to raise her voice. Nicholas stood up and walked away, returning to his room. It was then Jasmine realized she fucked up. She had let herself get strung along by her grandma again. Just like she had as a little girl. And because of that, she had hurt the only person who wanted to walk alongside the superhero Jasmine wanted to be, not with the descendent of Brynhild.

And she didn't know how to fix it.