Chương 27: R&R Ch. 27 — Donning the Snake Skin

Nicholas had thoroughly enjoyed his second day as a superhero. He had spent it cleaning up the areas they had fought in and meeting the people they had saved. It was tradition for new heroes to do that, but he had decided he wanted it to become a regular tradition. He didn't want to stand so high above he forgot why he was doing this. Even if it made his peers look down on him, he was going to keep his feet on the ground and walk alongside them. Sometimes.

Nicholas was fully intending on learning how to fly eventually, but Rend had mentioned not needing to bother making a word for it, so it could be flight was a part of ranking up. Almost every famous superhero could fly, even if they did it rarely. Speedsters were the most common to never use their flight. Which was odd now that he turned his mind toward that conundrum. Could it be a situation like how he would become stronger and faster at the next rank? But far from being a true physical type?

The flight he would gain wouldn't be comparable to someone who had the power of flight, but as he didn't need to be near something to push off with his powers, there wasn't really a problem with that.

"Alright you two, that's all the clean up. Ready to go do something exciting?" Rend asked through the second communicator. Nicholas and Jasmine had both been against giving him access to their soul-made communicators, in no small part to how rough Jasmine's soul situation was. So they had used what Rend offered. Wearing both was a minor hassle, but Rend seemed not all that inclined to help them with tasks.

He hadn't actually joined them for anything, instead going off to deal with threats of his level as they cleaned up their own mess.

"Like what, a night patrol?" Jasmine asked, dusting her hands off before flying up using her gravity armor.

"I'm guessing it's going to be dumber than that," Nicholas said as Jasmine lifted him, flying the two of them through the air and where their mentor had told them to meet up.

"I can feel you two not believing me, which is foolish. I promised I would teach you, and there's something very important you two do need to learn," Rend said with a scoff. That set the duo more on edge.

"You're going to go to a superhero party while I'm going to go to a meeting with all the rank five and above supers who matter," Rend said, confirming their suspicions. There was something going on, and while he was going to be off gallivanting to learn it properly, they had their own lesson. How to gather information.

"Do we wear our super suits or do we wear nice clothes?" Jasmine asked, grimacing. She had been to enough galas with her mom that she was not looking forward to this.

"You two should trust your judgement. We'll head back to the base together as I give you some more information to work with and you'll have three hours to get ready," Rend explained, waving to them as they came into sight of the rendezvous location. Nicholas had no desire to go to a party. Especially if he was supposed to consider it fun.

The two younger supers touched down, and they began the walk to their base, waving to all the people that they walked by while the two mentees hung onto every word of their mentor. Overall, it really wasn't all that much for them to work with. Supposedly all the big movers and shakers of the city were being read in on something important. And the rest of the heroes there were partying since it was a tradition to celebrate before hard missions or during bad news. There would be people already informed at the party.

Those in charge would know, as would everyone important who was going to be on night patrol, since they would have been told before. So there was no reason Nicholas and Jasmine couldn't learn what was going on. They just didn't have an idea on how they were supposed to do that. And Nicholas had no idea what he was supposed to wear to something like this, but he got the impression showing up in full costume would be kind of a dick move.

Jasmine, seeing his plight, had decided it was her job to help him, and Rend had made an offhand comment that there were clothes for each of them besides what they had brought he had commissioned. Since you never knew what outfits would be required to be a hero, or how many changes of pants could get lit on fire in a single day.

"It's too bad you're not a girl, it would be so much easier to style you, I've got way more practice about what a girl should wear to these kinds of things," Jasmine mused as she went through the racks of clothes. The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Despite his desire to do literally anything else, Nicholas was looking as well, setting aside things he thought were potentially nice.

They were told the dress code wasn't actually real, but most people dressed nicely but functional. Emergencies happened. Especially if these parties were known by the public, though this one apparently wasn't.

"Unfortunately, I'm not a girl," Nicholas said dryly.

"Nor am I a shapeshifter." The lightbulb went off for them at the same time.

"How about—""No, I do not have the time to make a whole new word just to be your dress-up doll." Nicholas said with a sigh.

"How about one day? Think about it? We could have girls' nights?" Jasmine said, prattling excitedly. There probably would be uses for having a second form if for no other reason than to go out and buy groceries without having to worry about an identity leak.

"Yeah, maybe eventually," Nicholas finally agreed, giving in to his friend's desires.

"Great, so are we in agreement that you should do the black dress shirt?" Jasmine mused.

"I'm down for literally whatever will get me out of this the fastest." Nicholas admitted.

"Fine, fine, fine, go try this on with the pants you picked out," Jasmine said, shoving the clothes at him. They looked nice, and they went well with his superhero mask he had elected to keep on.

"Is this the winner?" Nicholas asked, hoping he was pretty sure the seventh time was the charm.

"Yeah, I think so. Now help me pick my dress and heels," Jasmine said, moving over to the rack of clothes sized for her.

"Heels?"

"I wanted to be able to kick butt and sprint in heels, so I learned how. It pissed my mom off to no end that I was doing cartwheels and backflips when I was supposed to be ladylike." Jasmine chuckled.

"That sounds difficult," Nicholas said, feeling even more lost. How was he supposed to help her pick a dress?

"It wasn't as bad as doing them in a corset, honestly," Jasmine shrugged. Nicholas's eyes eventually landed on a green dress that was close but not quite the same shade of green as one of his favorite colors. Well, how bad could it be if he screwed up?

"How about this one?" Nicholas asked, holding up the dress.

"I really like the color?" He said as Jasmine stared at it critically. He felt the need to explain his decision, but he didn't know why he was supposed to.

"I like that one; it's the same color as my soul," Jasmine hummed.

"Feels a bit on the nose, but I like it too. I think I saw shoes the same color. Gimme!" Deciding it was better to just ride the wave, he passed it over to her. Now both clad in their outfits for the event, they had another hour to kill.

"Why did we get ready so early?" Nicholas asked as he fiddled with his mask. It was comfortable, but part of him was skeeved out about wearing what should be classified as Nicholas clothes while in his Retort mask.

"Because we had nothing better to do, so now we're just going to watch TV while we wait?" Jasmine shrugged. That sounded about right. Rend had mentioned that he was going to take care of transportation so neither had to worry about that, though Nicholas had been thinking about something.

"Are you going to have any of your weapons ready or just going in blind?" He asked, concerned. Most supers, himself included, could go in blind and not have to worry, but Jasmine needed time to open her soul space. And the only things that could fly out were the two riding swords. Anything else, she would have to grab.

"I thought about that already," Jasmine laughed, showing him a bracelet. It was a silver snake wrapped around her arm in three loops. It even appeared to have sapphire eyes.

"A snake?" Jasmine snapped her wrist like she was whipping something, and a whip of liquid flame shot out, twisting around.

"When did you have the time to make that?"

"It was a boredom killer while I waited for everything to power up," Jasmine admitted, looking away.

"I'm glad you have a subtle item, but you were supposed to not be spending more of your soul," Nicholas said warningly.

"I'm alright, promise. I just felt like I had to get it?" Nicholas nodded even if he wasn't a fan. That anyone, his only superhero friend especially, was cutting up their soul to make weapons bothered him. But he understood her ethical and moral lines when it came to how she could solve it. All he could do was do his best to help her with recovery and make it so the situation never spiraled out. Rend strolled around a corner as the time to go was approaching.

"Are you two ready to go?" he asked his apprentices, hands on his hips as he proudly surveyed them. The two of them were busy gazing at their mentor in shock and hatred. Quite understandably, as Rend's form was magnificent, from the flip-flops adorned with dolphins the most vicious warriors of the sea, to his board shorts with suns emblazoned on them, and to his shirt unbuttoned and flowing in the wind with flowers twisting around. He was the pinnacle of brilliance, and they hadn't even seen his sunglasses yet.

His sword was also strapped to his belt, but really that was as much a part of him as anything else. And he had gotten out the party sheath for his sword and added a little sun charm to the pommel.

"I hate you," Nicholas said, standing up and glaring.

"Yeah, if we could dress up fun, why did you tell us that we were supposed to look nice?" Jasmine asked, staring down at her mentor. With the additional height from the heels, she could finally do it.

"You'll see now, let's go," he said, and with a slice faster than his students could see, space was ripped open and a portal stood before them.

"Really? That's it?" Nicholas asked as they walked through the hole in space.

"That's all we're just going?"

"Yeah, you two need to work on your ability to deal with spies, so I have full faith in you," Rend said, patting his two adorable students on the head.

"Wait, spies?" Jasmine squeaked as they stood in the teleportation bay.

"Yeah, didn't I tell you? There are spies from the other pinnacles here, plus people who want to take over the city. It's a great time, usually at least three fights break out." Rend said cheerfully. They gaped as their mentor vanished, neither able to track his movements.

"So to get this straight," Nicholas said as he and Jasmine walked to the destination.

"After a full day of work, on our second day as superheroes, we have to find out what's causing this gathering, not embarrass ourselves, and now catch and deal with spies trying to harm the city?"

"Yeah, it'll be great!" Jasmine said with false cheer. The two heroes entered the party.