Volume 14!

Troy cleared his throat. "I said, they won't know what hit-"

"Yes, I heard you."

Levi knew he was close to snarling based on simultaneous eyebrow raising from the three people standing around him. Troy was staring at him with a particularly apprehensive expression. "Are you okay?" the hero asked, "You look kind of angry."

"I'm just…" Levi began to say, coughing when his voice came out in a high pitched squeak.

What the hell could he say? He was deep in the bowels of HQ, standing next to his arch-enemy, his brother's arch-enemy, and the only hero who seemed smart enough to put her left shoe on her left foot.

His eyes flicked up at the thought of Firea.

She was staring at him with a slightly less hostile expression, but he couldn't ignore the almost imperceptible quirk of her lips. She was on her guard… as he should be.

"I think I'd like to go home, for now," he said. "This was quite a lot to learn in one day."

The tension in the room dissipated as Volt and Troy both broke out into ruckus laughter, Troy going so far as to slap Levi's shoulder. When they continued to stare at Levi with idiotic grins, he crossed his arms. "What?"

"Go home?" Troy said, "We have to keep you here!"

Levi blinked. "You do?"

"You just found out you're a hero, there's no way to know how your powers are going to manifest. It's much safer to keep you at HQ." Leaning forward, Troy winked. "You'll stay in my room."

Levi stared at him silently for a moment. "Why would I do that?" he said, finally, suppressing a smirk when Volt snorted.

"Because… uh…" Troy spluttered back at him, before wilting as his face drooped in a hang-dog expression. Levi breathed out with a light laugh, but the small amusement was short-lived. He frowned.

So, they were planning an attack on VillainCon? All of them? Levi tried to imagine the HQ army swarming the villains, and the battle that would ensue. Who would win? Well, the heroes no longer had the element of surprise… but they also tended to work in teams better than villains did, what with not stabbing each other in the back all the live long day.

He felt a hand on his shoulder. "Levi," Troy whispered, leaning in conspiratorially towards Levi's ear. He turned them both around so that they were facing away from Volt and Firea. "I know we haven't really talked about the relationship yet…" He was blushing.

"Oh," Levi replied, "I've embarrassed you."

"No, no," Troy eked out, "but if you could just… I mean, I know you probably don't go for public displays of affection…"

Levi narrowed his eyes at Troy, who coughed. "It's just, they know I really like you, and I don't want to look like an idiot in front of them."

"But you are an idiot."

"Levi!"

Rolling his eyes, Levi smirked at the hero before placing a hand on Troy's shoulder, pulling himself upwards. He pressed his lips against Troy's cheek in a kiss, looking through the corner of his eye at the other two heroes. Volt was gawking with an open mouth, and Firea had her arms crossed. Just as he was considering winking at her, Levi jerked when he felt Troy wrap his arm around his waist. He pulled away.

"Good?" he said, cocking an eyebrow.

Troy grinned at him, keeping his arm tightly encircled around Levi. "Perfect."

About to smile back in return, Levi caught himself. He was humoring Troy. Not only that, but he also just did something for someone who wasn't himself. That was called being selfless, wasn't it?

What a disgusting concept.

"Levi, you're glaring again."

Opening his mouth the snap at Troy, he was cut off by a cough from behind them. "Gentlemen?" Volt said, "We do have a schedule to keep. HQ only promised private usage of the training facility for an hour."

Levi narrowed his eyes. Training facility… they were planning on testing his powers. Breathing in, he looked down when he realized that Troy had clasped his hand in a firm hold. Fantastic, now the puppy thought he needed to be comforted. "I suppose the training facility is for me," he drawled.

"Yes, actually," Firea cut in. "A brand new hero, we're all just waiting with breathless anticipation to see what your powers are."

Fighting the urge to growl, he crossed his arms. Were heroes allowed to be sarcastic? He had the nagging feeling that he would like Firea if it weren't for her pesky association with the forces of good. Not to mention… she and rest of the clown parade were planning an attack on VillainCon.

He had a distinct advantage by infiltrating HQ… Yes, he was going to call it 'infiltrating'. No need to admit to anyone that he was invited by his boyfriend.

…Ugh, boyfriend. Levi sighed, he had to remain focused.

What could he lose by showing a little super strength? Break a rock here, jump to a high ledge there- none of it would reveal who he truly was. It would be a small price to pay for finding out exactly what they were planning. He would be heralded as a mastermind for eternity if he pulled this off.

Levi smiled at her. "Then, I am happy to oblige."

''''

He was sent to change his clothes. Apparently heroes kept a stockpile of spandex for training, which seemed prudent enough. It was a highly flammable fabric.

Holding up a neon orange full-body suit, he cringed. "This is…"

"Tacky?"

Levi looked past the suit, and saw a girl standing in front of him. She was wearing a lab coat, her silky brown hair rolled up in a bun. Crossing her arms, she gave Levi a wain smile, the florescent lights of the locker room glinting off her thick-rimmed glasses. He was suddenly reminded of soft lips under flashing lights, and smiled.

"I was going to say an abomination."

Her smile warmed somewhat. "Well, if villains have anything on heroes, it would be fashion sense."

He blinked, losing himself for a moment. "Villains?"

"Supervillains," she replied, raising an eyebrow, "the evil twin of heroes?"

He nodded slowly, inwardly berating himself. There was no possible way for her to know who he was, and it was stupid to stumble over something so insignificant as a comment about the apparel choices of villains. "Ah, yes," he said, forcing himself to relax. "I'm afraid I never caught your name when we met…"

"So, you do remember me," she replied, placing a hand on her hip. "I was kind of hoping you wouldn't."

Levi smirked. "Am I that bad of a kisser?"

"No," she said, "but that wasn't my proudest moment… making out with someone just to get Kristi's attention." Sighing, she tilted her head. "Not that it would have worked in the first place. She's been in love with Troy since they were little kids."

"Has she?" Levi replied, his lips thinning. He closed his eyes. Jealousy, Levi? Really?

When he opened his eyes, he found her smirking at him. "My name is Dee," she said, "I work as a doctor here."

"So, not a hero?"

"Decommissioned," she replied with a shrug, "They felt my aptitude wasn't in fighting." Taking another step towards him, her high heals clacking on the tile floor, she crossed her arms. "I just wanted to talk to you before you go to the training facility, Levi. I think Volt and Triton are being a little cavalier, shoving you into the simulator with no experience." She took another step forward. "Are you nervous?"

What would a normal human say? Something stupid, probably.

"Should I be?" Levi replied with exaggerated bravado. She smiled at him.

"They won't let you get hurt, but they will want to see the extent of your powers."

Nodding, Levi smiled in return. They wouldn't be seeing much.

There was a cough from behind them, and Levi turned to find Troy standing there with his arms crossed. "We've been waiting for you, Levi," he said. His arms were crossed, his back stiff as he stared at Levi and Dee. "What were you two talking about?" he asked, his voice tightening at the end of the sentence.

"I was just checking on him," Dee replied, "No need to get worked up, Troy." She gave Levi one last meaningful glance before click-clacking out of the locker room. Levi watched her retreating back with a raised eyebrow. Was there something more going on? Something she was hinting at?

"She's a lesbian."

Levi looked back at Troy with a smirk. "What do you think of me? That I'm some casanova? I can talk to people without trying to sleep with them."

Walking over to Levi, Troy picked up the orange spandex suit. "You made out with her that one time…"

"Aren't you the one who first brought up an open relationship?" Levi replied, crossing his arms.

Troy had flung the suit over his shoulder, and reached out to Levi's jacket, pulling the zipper down, knocking Levi's arms apart. "That was when I was nervous about sleeping with a guy," he said. He looked up at Levi, their eyes meeting. "I didn't really mean it."

Levi didn't reply, letting Troy push the jacket down his shoulders. It hit the ground with a soft thud, and the hero moved on to pulling Levi's shirt up, his knuckles grazing the villain's skin. "And it's not that I think you want to sleep with everyone, but you've been notoriously cagy about whether we're dating or not."

"We only had sex a week ago!" Levi replied, his voice muffled as Troy pulled his shirt up over his arms.

Vision momentarily blocked by the shirt, it suddenly struck Levi that he was allowing Troy to undress him. This pointed to a level of intimacy and familiarity that he didn't really remember signing up for. A cold dose of fear washed over him. How much of this was playing Troy for the information Levi could get, and how much of it was actually wanting to be with the hero?

When Troy came back into view, Levi stared at him with a passive expression. His jaw was set in a tight line, and he was refusing to meet Levi's gaze. "Look," Levi said, "You know that I just got out of a relationship…" He stopped himself. Bringing up Rage was a terrible idea. If Troy got any inkling that Rex Ragerous was a supervillain…

"I just want to take it slow, ok?" he said.

Troy ignored him, instead reaching for his fly. Sighing, Levi let the hero unzip his pants, and push them to the ground. Troy stepped even closer, slipping his hands down the back of Levi's briefs, gripping the villain's ass.

"I didn't realize one removed underwear this way," Levi said, the corner of his lip curling.

"You're a bastard."

Looking up, Levi found Troy frowning at him. "And you're stepping over the line, kid," he snarled. "I never promised you anything."

"You need me now, Levi," Troy replied, "You may be older than me, but I'm the one who knows what it's like being a superhero."

Levi shut his mouth, looking away from Troy. Oh how tempting it was to throw the hero across the room, to show Troy just how wrong he was... But that would be an egregious error. Levi snorted. So, the kid needed something to hold over Levi, to put them on an equal playing field. Fine.

"I guess you're right," he said, "This is definitely new ground for me."

He felt Troy squeeze tighter, pulling Levi into his chest. "I'm sorry."

Levi blinked. "For what?"

"Volt told me that I've been too overbearing." He sighed. "You think I'm an asshole, don't you?"

Well, isn't that charming. He was only apologizing after Levi admitted defeat. Maybe he was more cunning then Levi was giving him credit for… or maybe this was the puppy's way of letting Levi save face. "Yes," Levi replied drolly.

Troy laughed, slipping Levi's underwear down to the ground. The villain was now completely naked, and he watched with some curiosity as Troy stared at him. "Will that make having sex again a problem?" Troy asked, his eyes still roving Levi's chest.

Smiling, Levi let out an amused snort. "We'll see," he said.

Troy reached up to his shoulder, and pulled off the orange suit. Sitting on the locker room bench, he rolled the suit until he got to the ankles. "Foot."

"I think I can manage this part on my own."

"Foot."

Sighing, Levi lifted his leg. Troy pulled the suit up over his leg, and then gestured at Levi's other foot. Switching sides, Levi watched as Troy tugged the leg of the suit up around his foot. He then stood up slowly, unrolling the suit as it started to cling to Levi's body. When Troy reached his chest, Levi obediently held his arms out, letting Troy pull them through the sleeves.

Troy stepped back to survey his handiwork, and then covered his mouth. Taking this as a hint, Levi looked down at himself.

It was as if his body had turned neon orange. The suit was skin tight, stretching over every muscle as it shimmered in all of it's spandex glory. He craned his neck around, and winced. The suit had molded perfectly around his ass.

"I think it's hot," Troy said, staring at Levi's crotch.

"Shut up," Levi said, sitting down to pull on the matching orange tennis shoes. He paused. "Is this really how you all dress yourselves for training, or am I being made fun of?" He couldn't decide which would be worse.

"Well, sometimes the suits come in pink, but we ran out of those."

"Small favors, I suppose," Levi replied. Standing up, he crossed his arms. "So?"

Troy smiled. "Right this way," he said, gesturing for the door.

''''

He had already seen the sand pit, but apparently that wasn't the 'training facility' everyone was referring to.

"That one is for practice skirmishes," Troy said, leading Levi as they walked through the cavernous main building.

Practice skirmishes? No wonder heroes always had the upper hand on villains. They had state of the art training facilities, they were all allies, all working for a common cause. Levi thought back to the numerous times Kraken and he play-wrestled on the floor of their shitty duplex before lounging in front of the television.

The villains were screwed.

"Everyone must be training hard for this, uh, VillainCon was it?"

Troy nodded. "Yeah, VillianCon. It's where all the supervillians of Capatalia meet to brag and scream at each other for a couple of hours."

Levi's jaw tightened, but he let it go. It wasn't exactly a lie. "Why attack it? It sounds like it's the one time they're not actually breaking any laws."

"We want something permanently done," Troy replied, "We're going to capture them, and keep them here."

Feeling faint for a moment, Levi clenched his fists. He tried to imagine Kraken locked up the bowels of HQ. His brother would go mad. "So, you're just going to lock them all away?"

Troy stopped, possibly sensing a slight hitch in Levi's tone. "The really bad ones, yes. Although, I think Volt wants to rehabilitate some of them."

"What?" Rehabilitate? Not even possible.

Crossing his arms, Troy nodded, a curious expression clouding his face. "Yeah, I don't exactly understand it either. He just told me that he was going to ask HQ for permission to personally oversee some of the villains."

Before Levi could ask which villains, Troy nodded his head towards the hallway. "We need to get this over with," he said, "Volt and Firea are waiting."

Levi nodded, and followed behind Troy as they continued on. His original plan was to alert the villains of the upcoming attack so that they could prepare for the battle, but as Troy's words started to soak in, and the image of whatever "rehabilitation" meant flashed through his mind, he began to think that maybe retreat was key.

He couldn't let Kraken get locked up. With this knowledge, he had the ability to prevent that from happening.

"Here we are," Troy said, breaking Levi from his reverie. They were standing in front of another pair of sterile metal doors. Hitting the panel at the side, Troy held his arm out, gesturing for Levi to go ahead as the doors slid open. The room beyond was as equally cavernous as the main building.

Levi couldn't help but gawk. They were standing on a small platform, and as Levi walked towards the railing, he looked down. It was an all-terrain room, stretching down hundreds of feet with a rock face crowding one wall, and at the other end, a fake city block. In between was a lake-like body of water. "This is amazing," he breathed, genuinely impressed.

"I used to spend three hours a day in here," Troy replied. "We start when we're fifteen."

Nodding, Levi took another step into the room. He was drawn back to the memory of watching Triton and Volt on TV as they fought a different group of villians. Everything about their movements had been beautifully orchestrated, a sign of rigorous training. Once again, Levi wondered if the pair had been going easy on he and his brother. And why?

Filing away the thought for later, he looked back at Troy. The puppy was looking at him with an uncharacteristically guarded expression. Slightly thrown-off, Levi shifted on his feet. "Are we going to do this, or what?"

"Uh, Levi, I just wanted you to know-"

There was a clanking sound, cutting Troy off as the room suddenly came to life. The lights over the fake city street darkened as the windows became illuminated, the the water in the lake started to lap against the shores with increasing ferocity, and the rock face was now trembling, little bits of boulder falling down the sides. He looked at Troy. "What's happening?"

Troy couldn't meet his eyes, which only made him more apprehensive. "We figured, since you and I were able to sleep together without me hurting you, that we should test your strength and endurance first."

We? Troy was discussing their sex life with someone? Well, that was awkward.

"What should I do?"

"To start the simulation, you have to jump down from the platform."

A simulation? Dee wasn't joking, Troy and Volt were certainly expecting a lot from someone who was supposedly human until a week ago. What would human Levi do in a situation such as this one? Would he be scared? "You literally just want me to leap over the edge?"

Troy nodded.

"What if you're all wrong, what if I don't have any powers?"

"Volt said that's impossible. There's no way I wouldn't have hurt you if you were human."

How scientific. Levi rolled his eyes as he turned back to the edge of the platform. Well, it wasn't like he would die… he was super-powered, after all. He stepped up on the ledge, and looked downwards. "And after I jump?"

"You'll be put through several tests."

"Fantastic."

Breathing in, he leapt. The air whipped around his ears as the ground flew up at him. He braced himself for impact, making sure to stagger a little to look like he wasn't experienced in jumping off fatally high ledges. Looking up, he caught Troy staring down at him. He held his thumb up.

Suddenly, an impact hit from the side, sending him flying into the rock face. Dropping to ground, his mind reeled as he clambored to his feet. "What the fuck," he breathed, focusing his gaze on an enormous form in front of him.

It was some sort of robot, three times as large as Levi. There were dents and burn marks on it's hull, from what Levi was assuming were previous training sessions. It's eyes were burning bright red. Did it really need eyes? Heroes were so dramatic.

He didn't have time to dwell on this thought as the machine advanced towards him. Positioning himself in a fighting stance, he blinked as he remembered that he was supposed to be an amateur. They were pitting an amateur against a giant robot? Backing up several feet, his back hit the rock face.

The robot swung it's arm forward, and Levi dodged it, hearing the metal make impact with the rock. A few pebbles fell on his head, and he snarled. Running forward, he ducked under the arm and ran out past the robot. He could hear it's gears grinding as it swung around to follow him.

He was a little at a loss. Should he destroy it? How much power should he show? Also, why the fuck… what were they thinking? This thing was meant to fight heroes who already knew what they were doing.

Trotting farther along the rock face, hearing the robot thud behind him, he finally made a decision. He stopped, and slammed his fist into the rock, dislodging a boulder. Spinning in a tight circle, he lobbed it at the robot. It seemed like an action even a complete plebe could think of.

He watched as the boulder hit the robot, and shattered.

"Ok, then," he breathed, taking a step back. Do robots get angry?

Just as he was considering grabbing another boulder, a compartment in the robot's chest opened, a net launched out. "Shit," Levi said, stumbling to the ground as the net wrapped around his legs. He reached down to rip it away, only to realize it was made of hero metal.

The robot started making a whirring, ominous sound as it began walking away from the rock face, bringing Levi along for the ride. If only he could call Sea Fang and slash through the netting, Levi thought, again futilely attempting to rip the metal. He was so distracted by the net, that he barely registered where the robot was heading.

He hissed as they dropped into the water of the lake. The robot was bringing them down to the lake bed, a cloud of dust rising as it's feet hit the ground. Levi sank down behind it, tensing as he expected another blow. The robot just watched him.

Oh. He was supposed to be drowning.

He kneaded his temples. There was no way in hell he could let any of the heroes know he could breath under water. That hit too close to home. Clamping his mouth shut, he struggled forward towards the robot, using his arms to drag himself. Perhaps he could rip the netting away from the compartment, and swim to the surface.

This hope was dashed as the robot simply backed away from him. Already, his heart was thudding against his chest, begging for oxygen.

What was this? Were they planning to let him drown? His vision was blurring…

Just as he was considering calling Sea Fang, and making a break for it out of HQ, something hit the robot with tremendous force. It staggered backwards, falling to it's back as Triton shoved his spear into the faceplate. Turning around, he zoomed to Levi, and slashed the metal net. He hooked his arm around Levi's waist, and propelled them to the surface. By this time, Levi's brain was screaming, his heart was screaming, everything was begging him to take at least one precious breath.

They flopped on the shore, Levi gasping for air as Triton hovered over him. "No," he snarled when the hero leaned forward to help him, "Don't touch me."

He dragged himself backwards on the sand, away from Triton. Despite knowing there was no real way for him to die, despite knowing he could have gotten away from that robot if he really wanted to, he couldn't help but seethe. Even if he knew all of that, Troy certainly didn't.

Sliding his drenched raven hair out of his eyes, he looked up to glare at Triton. The hero couldn't even meet his eyes. "Why?"

"I wouldn't have let you get hurt-"

"Why?"

Troy finally looked at him. "We didn't have any way of knowing, Levi," he said. "You could have been tricking us. You could have planned all of this from the start. We had to make sure you weren't pretending."

Biting his lip, Levi was the one to look away this time.

He felt Triton grab his hand. "But it's okay now, Levi. I'm so sorry I didn't trust you." Leaning forward, he started kissing Levi's face, who was too shocked to protest. "Everything is fine now, Levi," he said, "Now we know, now we know you're one of us." Levi felt Triton slide his hand under his chin, and tilt his head up so that their eyes met.

"From now on Levi, I'll always protect you."

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wooooo! thanks for reading guys ^^ I also updated VaI a week ago, so make sure to check it out! It is not about stocks LOL