Chapter 33 part 1

Matias

Almost a week passed—Matias, Samuel, and Ellie doing nearly nothing the whole time— when Samuel's phone rang with a random number.

Him and Matias were sitting on the couch while Ellie was back in her room, so Samuel answered and put it on speaker for both of them to hear.

"Samuel?" A familiar voice spoke through the phone.

"Officer Hinton?" Samuel replied.

"Ah, hello" the officer greeted after confirming who he was talking to. "Is Matias with you?"

"Yep" Matias interjected.

He couldn't help but be a bit irritated at the fact that he was calling. He knew it wasn't the officers fault, of course, but any news about the court or about the new villain could very well ruin the peacefulness that had formed around them.

"Perfect" the officer said in a less than bubbly tone. "Well, a day has been set up for you both to talk to your lawyers."

Matias bit his tongue to avoid groaning. He knew it was for the better, but nothing could take away his frustration at having to go to court.

"When?" Samuel asked eagerly.

Matias rolled his eyes as Samuel sat forward in anticipation. He knew that Samuel wasn't exactly happy about court either, but he was definitely more willing to clear the villains name and put the new villain behind bars.

The officer cleared his throat and Matias could feel his hesitation.

"Today, if it's at all possible. Ideally in the next hour or two" he answered, though he sounded confident in his answer.

This time Matias really did groan, throwing his head back and running a hand through his hair.

Samuel elbowed him, but kept from making a sound for Officer Hinton to hear.

"We'll be there" he confirmed politely, though his face was rock hard as he stared at Matias.

"Perfect, it'll be in one of the prison meeting rooms, unfortunately" the officer chuckled before hanging up without getting a response.

Matias groaned, again, and Samuel slapped him on the arm.

"Oh get over yourself" Samuel scoffed. "You know as well as I do how important this is"

Matias almost rolled his eyes, but resisted. "Yeah, yeah" he mumbled before lifting himself off the couch.

"What about Ellie?" He asked, making his way towards the bedroom.

He heard Samuel's footsteps right behind his own, but he didn't give a response for a bit too long.

"I mean, Lexi said she's good with kids, right?"

Matias swore his heart stopped as he turned around to face Samuel.

"Lexi" he repeated in a monotone voice.

Samuel raised his eyebrows and crossed his arms.

"You want Lexi to watch your kid?" Matias finally asked, disbelief coating his tone.

Samuel glanced over to the other side of the room and then back at Matias.

"Should I.. not want her to?" He questioned in response.

Matias considered for a moment. She always behaved very hyper and outgoing, but she could be responsible when it was needed. Besides, surely she wouldn't let anything harm Ellie.

"I guess it'd be fine" he finally answered, "though I can't gaurantee she won't be stoked up on sugar when we come back"

Samuel chuckled, grabbing some clothes from his closet and heading to the bathroom to change.

Matias only brought one half decent outfit with him from his own house, and even that was simply some nice jeans—to his standards— and a not-too-bad long sleeved shirt.

He began to realize how much like 'the villain' he looked in the outfit, but settled on not changing out of it. The jeans were black, as he used to wear each time he fought the hero, and the shirt was so dark of a grey that it might as well have been black too.

When Samuel stepped out of the bathroom he realized just how underdressed he was.

Samuel was dressed in black slacks that appeared expensive and a dark blue button up that fit him perfectly.

"Wow, way to make me look bad" Matias joked half-heartedly.

Samuel covered his face and it became clear he was hiding a laugh.

"I guess it's not like you're seeing anyone but your lawyer" he tried to reassure, but his tone gave him away.

Matias groaned, but wasted no more time discussing it.

The two got Ellie dressed, though she was just in bright blue leggings and a grey shirt with a dog on the front.

"Me and Matias have to go somewhere, but one of his friends is going to watch you while we're gone, okay?" Samuel explained.

Matias thought it was amusing how careful Samuel was, assuring that Ellie was comfortable going to Lexi's house and scanning her face for any sign of disapproval, but he stayed quiet.

It wasn't until they were all loaded into the car that Matias actually called Lexi to assure she was even able to watch Ellie.

On the third ring she finally answered with a muffled and quiet "hello?"

"Did you just wake up?" Matias asked with a laugh.

"So what if I did?" She groaned, suddenly growing defensive.

Matias sighed, resisting the urge to mock her for it. "You said you could watch Ellie, right?"

Lexi hummed as a shuffling came from the other side of the phone—presumably her sitting up in bed.

"Well how about, like.. right now" he awkwardly suggested.

Lexi was silent for a moment, the shuffling stopping.

"Yeah sure it's not like I'm doing anything. But.." she hesitated, "why".

Now it was Matias's turn to fall silent.

"We've got to talk to our lawyers" Samuel interjected after a moment.

"Oh" Lexi quickly mumbled as if she didn't mean to say anything. "Well yeah I can watch her. How long?"

Samuel and Matias looked at each other and then back at the phone.

"I've got no clue" Matias sighed.

"Alright, I'll see you in a bit then" she finalized, hanging up without a goodbye.

Samuel and Matias both stared at the phone for a moment before Samuel finally snapped out of it and started the car.

The warm air turned on, making Matias realize how cold it had been. He couldn't help but glance into the rear view mirror to see Ellie hugging onto her jacket.

He turned up the back seat air a bit, feeling a bit bad that they let her shiver.

The drive to Lexi's house was short, no more than them minutes, and was filled with joyful small talk despite Matias dreading the thought of talking to a lawyer.

As the three of them approached her door, Lexi opened it wide with a beaming smile.

"Oh my gosh, I am so excited" she squealed, "I've got all kinds of snacks, and games, and movies"

Ellie's eyes lit up, glancing up at her father for approval. When Samuel nodded she practically bolted the rest of the way to the front door, standing beside Lexi.

"Hello, my names Lexi" she introduced in a sweet voice, bending over to be closer to Ellie's height.

"I'm Ellie" she announced in turn, practically shaking with excitement.

Samuel let out a soft laugh than pulled Matias's attention and admittedly made him blush a bit.

"Does she have any allergies? I don't want to feed her anything that'll send her into shock" Lexi half-joked.

"Only peaches" Samuel replied, his eyes locked onto Ellie.

Matias held back an amused scoff. He felt like he'd known Ellie for an eternity, but he had no idea she had any allergies.

"You're sure you've got this?" Matias felt the need to confirm.

Lexi scoffed, but nodded nonetheless. "I'm sure. I'll text if anything urgent happens"

With that Samuel and Matias loaded back into the car— only after Ellie gave each of them a whole hearted hug— and went on their way to the prison.

The first few minutes of the ride were silent. It wasn't uncomfortable— not for Matias at least— until he noticed the troubled look on Samuels face.

"You okay?" He asked as casually as he could.

Matias had thought that Samuel was much calmer about this than he was, but now he thought maybe he was wrong.

Samuel only hummed in response, his eyes glued to the road with a look of both anger and worry in them.

"Surly not much will happen, not today at least, and especially not to you. You shouldn't stress about it" Matias tried desperately to help, but found himself struggling to find the right words.

Samuels head shook slightly, but he stayed quiet for a few more seconds.

"I'm not worried about that. I just.." he paused.

"You just?" Matias asked after Samuel hesitated for a bit too long.

It was times like this that made Matias hate his struggle with emotions. His inability to comfort others.

"I just don't know what to do about the new villain situation" he sighed. "I've been keeping up with the news, but nobody has seen her. I mean, imagine what she could be doing!" He began to ramble, the car swerving for a moment before going back on track.

"Samuel" Matias mumbled, his heart racing.

"Doesn't it worry you that we don't know what they're doing? It's been weeks since we last saw anyone or anything suspicious. Last time this happened an entire road exploded!" Samuel shouted, his voice shaking.

"Samuel" Matias spoke once more, a bit louder this time.

He put a hand on his leg and made his voice as gentle as he could.

"Of course it worries me, but what can we do? What would the court think if, while we are actively talking to our lawyers, we get into more trouble. Better yet, what if one of us gets hurt again?"

Samuel kept a worried face, seeming unconvinced.

"The only way we could find anyone or anything one way or another would be to go walking around Greenlake, or alleys where we've seen them before"

Samuel opened his mouth to interrupt, but Matias didn't let him.

"And we both know that would only get us more injured than we already are. We're already in bad condition. We don't need to make it worse." He explained as best he good, his eyes falling into his own lap as he spoke.

As they stopped at a red light, Samuel remained silent. Matias pulled his eyes back up to him, but Samuel wasn't even looking his direction.

Matter of fact, Samuel's eyes had gone wide and he was staring intently at something ahead of them.

"Samuel?" Matias muttered.

Samuel began shaking his head slightly. His mouth fell open and his eyebrows furrowed.

"Samuel?" Matias repeated even louder.

It wasn't until other cars began honking their horns and a few faint screams were heard that Matias actually followed Samuels gaze, finding what he was looking at.

Pedestrians were running in every direction and some cars were speeding away while others were frozen still.

In front of it was a maskless girl with long black hair and a mess of red string-like powers holding her high in the hair.

Meera.

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I have been SO BUSY with school so I haven't been proofreading these, so please excuse any spelling or grammar mistakes!

I have officially finished pre-writing the story though ❤️