Menagerie of Steel 5 (Patreon)

“Hey, Erik,” Sophia softly said as she entered the room. “Winslow started again. Emma had a prank planned for Hebert, but she avoided it. Madison isn't exactly much for muscle and I was late.”

Left unsaid was that she was late because she’d been here, in his hospital room. Sophia sighed, “I just don't see the point anymore. Emma's fixated on Hebert for some reason, but after the thing with your dad and… it just seems pointless. I've been talking to Father O'Connor, over the winter break, and… I think I get why you volunteered so much, even ignoring who your father is. Something about him makes you feel… safe, and when he gets this look in his eye and that smile… part of me thought that it was a Master effect, but if he were a cape then Panacea would have said something.”

Sophia took Erik's hand in hers, staring down at the comatose form of her boyfriend. Panacea had said that the amount of blood he'd lost had been… something about the amount of oxygen in his blood that Sophia didn't understand, but it left him in a coma as his body tried to repair itself. Armsmaster had used some fancy tinkertech scanner once a week and had said that Erik was showing more and more brain activity, so he was hopeful that Erik would wake up soon.

“I miss you,” Sophia whispered, gently squeezing on his hand. She gave a bitter chuckle as she continued, “Here I am, the well known hardass of Winslow and the Wards, spending all my free time in a hospital room because its resident is the one person that feels like they truly give a damn about me.

“My mom’s more interested in getting her next fix, none of the other Wards can stand me, the only members of the Protectorate that don’t treat me like a rabid animal they managed to muzzle are Assault and Armsmaster, and Armsmaster is so socially braindead that he makes Veder look well adjusted. Emma… I don’t know if things changed or it was always this way and I just didn’t notice, but it feels like she’s got this image in her head of how I should be.”

Adjusting her chair, Sophia pulled out a clipboard and her textbooks to start on her homework. Like she’d done so many times since he was admitted, she read her books aloud as she did her homework. She didn’t know if the story about people in a coma being able to hear people talking to them was true, but it made her feel less useless. Like she was actually doing something, instead of just sitting next to the best thing that’d happened to her because she couldn’t punch or shoot a coma away.

She continued that way as she had the days since he’d been permitted visitors. Sitting next to him, filling the air with noise, until visiting hours were over and she was shooed out. Hours later, well past midnight, a towering figure entered the room, sitting in the chair opposite the bed.

“Kaiser’s kept me busy these last few months,” Brad Meadows said quietly, the closest he could physically bring himself to an apology. “Been thinking during that time too. About your girlfriend, about that night, about my parenting.

"You know I don’t buy into the master race bullshit, I just needed the Empire's protection when you were little. With that in mind, and for what little my opinion matters, I like her. She had your back against odds she knew she would lose against, and has been by your side as much as she can. That kind of loyalty is hard to find, especially in a woman."

He sighed, running a hand through his hair, "Given who was there, I'm damn proud of the fight you gave. I've been fighting at that bitch's side for decades, and I've never seen her pushed so much by someone who wasn't a cape. I… I've had some issues with her. Gang politics means I have to keep her close, and as much as I want to I can't tear her in half like I've been wanting to since she started in on you."

He took a moment to collect himself and organize his thoughts, “I'm a shit father, I know that. Had a talk with that priest at the church you volunteer at. Heh, damn if he doesn't have some balls on him. Lectured me about my parenting, and opened said lecture by saying that he didn't give a damn about who I was or how quickly I could turn him into a bloody smear. Shame about the chemo, but I suppose it isn't the worst way to go."

There was silence in the room, before the creaking of the chair as he stood, “You’ll beat this. You’re a fighter, and a damn better man than I’ll ever be. If I don’t get the chance to say this when you’re up and kicking ass, I’m damn proud of you, son.”

Then he left, as if he’d never been there in the first place.

[hr][/hr]

There was a beeping…

My arm ached…

Something in my throat…

I forced my eyelids open, sterile white filled my vision, too blurry to make out details, but it was enough to tell me I was in a hospital. There was a depression on the left side of my body, just past my arm. It took more effort than bench pressing my max load, but I turned my head enough to make out a black shape. I blinked, trying to force my eyes to focus, and my vision cleared up a bit, enough I could make out who it was.

“‘Ho’ia,” I rasped, whatever it was in my throat making it impossible to talk right. Sophia lifted her head from where she’d had it on the hospital bed, looking at me.

Her vision cleared before mine did, and she cried out, “Erik!” before visibly (even to my blurry as fuck vision) restraining herself and pressing a button on the side of the bed.

A nurse and doctor soon came in, and what little strength I had left me. My eyes closed, and I passed out.

[hr][/hr]

I don’t know how long I was out, but when I came to, there was light coming in through the windows and Sophia was sitting in the same spot. I didn’t have whatever it was that had been in my throat, but even so I wasn’t sure I could speak. Sophia had a book opened up in her lap, propped up by a leg crossed over the other, so she could read with one hand. Her other hand was on mine, fingers laced together.

Even ignoring the fact that both times I’d woken up, Sophia had been there, just feeling her hand on mine was like a balm. I squeezed the fingers laced with my own, making Sophia turn to look at me. God, she was beautiful. I wasn’t clear headed enough to understand what she said next, but the way that she let the book fall to the floor as she leaned over and wrapped me in a hug made her thoughts perfectly clear.

I wrapped my arms around her, even feeling weak as a newborn puppy wasn’t going to stop me from hugging her, and savored her being next to me. The last thing I remembered was getting the shit kicked out of me by a bunch of Empire capes, then something that absolutely terrified me, then… darkness.

“Sophia,” I rasped. “What happened?”

“Drink this first,” she said, handing me a water bottle with a straw coming out of the top. I did so, and I don’t remember the last time that simple water tasted so good. As she took the water and placed it on a side table, she took my hand in hers and said, “You’ve been in a coma for the last three months. You… you’re a cape now, Erik.”

Oh, oh shit. The panic must have been visible on my face, because Sophia put a hand on my shoulder and said, “It’s alright. The Protectorate knows about you, you’ve been preemptively made a Ward, with the PRT as your temporary guardian until a permanent residence can be settled on.”

“But… how’d they get my old man to agree to me being a Ward?” I asked, hesitant to voice the fact that I was related to Hookwolf.

“I don’t know the details, but apparently Assault talked to him,” Sophia said, before a man with short cropped brown hair walked into the hospital room.

“My ears are burning,” the man quipped with an easy grin. “Call me Ethan, I heard that our one man menagerie woke up.”

“Huh?” I eloquently responded, thoroughly off balance.

“I’ll explain on the way, ready to get out of here?”

[hr][/hr]

“Didja hear? We’re getting a new teammate,” Dennis asked as he entered the Wards Common Room.

“Is it another girl?” Missy asked, not looking up from where she was working on her homework.

“No clue, but a little birdie told me that they’re a minion Master. Something about rhinos and ostriches, so maybe they grew up in Africa?” the jokester of the team hypothesized.

“Is that racist?” Chris asked, glancing up from where he was fiddling with one of his projects. Turning to the second oldest of the current Wards, he asked, “Hey Carlos, was that racist?”

The team’s brute rolled his eyes before making his way over to one of the computers in the common room. The sound of keys clacking filled the room for a few minutes, before he started reading aloud, “Erik Meadows, sixteen and a junior at Winslow High School. Fell into a coma after his Trigger Event, but preliminary reports say he can create animals from nearby metal, almost like a Master version of Hookwolf. Full extent of his control over his creations is unknown, but some level of subconscious control is necessary based on the fact that he was transported to a safe location by them immediately after Triggering.”

“So not a girl, shame,” Missy grumbled.

Dennis on the other hand had a few questions, “If he’s from Winslow, do you think Sophia knows him? And if his power is like Hookwolf, should we be concerned when he meets her?”

Carlos read a bit further before he answered, “Seeing as this report says that Sophia was present when he was transported to a PRT hospital, I think it’s a pretty good chance that they know each other.”

Further conversation was cut off when the bell chimed, telling them they had thirty seconds to mask up. All four Wards present immediately did so, and were greeted by the unmasked Assault guiding a tall, broad, and muscular young man with blonde hair into the Common Room, the equally unmasked Sophia following behind them.

“Everyone, this here’s Erik. He’ll be your new teammate. His home’s unavailable, so he’ll be staying here. We’re well aware of what his power looks like, so don’t give him a hard time about it,” Assault explained before turning to Erik. “I’ll leave you lot to introduce yourself, Puppy’s got some popcorn waiting for me.”

Assault left, and Dennis immediately asked, “So do you two know each other?”

Tall, jacked, and blonde raised an eyebrow before turning to Sophia and asking, “What do you think? Should we tell them?”

“Say a word and I’ll kick your ass,” Sophia snapped, prompting a grin from Erik.

“I see a loophole!” he said cheerfully before leaning down, wrapping her in a hug, and kissing Sophia.

That in and of itself was shocking to the present Wards, but what made their jaws drop was the fact that after a moment of freezing like a deer in headlights, she wrapped her arms around his neck and returned it. The most prickly and standoffish member of the team was kissing someone and not immediately reaching for the nearest sharp implement. When the two broke apart, you could hear a pin drop as the befuddled and gobsmacked Wards stared at the two.

Erik grunted as Sophia punched him in the stomach, but he kept a grin on his face and said through the pain, “I’ve been waiting three months to do that.”

“You were in a fucking coma the last three months, asshole,” Sophia said with a grumble.

“Which means I’ve got three months of boyfriend duties to make up for,” he immediately returned.

Dennis turned to Missy and asked, “Did I hit my head? Am I dreaming?”

“Ignore this idiot,” Missy said, though she sounded just as surprised as Dennis was. “I’m Vista, you can call me Missy when the masks are off.”

“Aegis, call me Carlos.”

And so the introductions of the present Wards went. Once that was finished, came the inevitable question: “What are your powers?”

Erik hesitated before answering, “With the understanding that I haven’t consciously used my powers yet, I’m apparently a Metal Master. From what I was told about that night, I caused the head of a shovel to grow into a big ass rhino, and the head of a fire ax to turn into a giant flightless bird. I heard something about them resembling some extinct animals, but the details went right over my head.

“I’m apparently scheduled for full power testing next week, once I’ve had a chance to recover some more from being in a coma for a quarter of a year. Once I’ve fully recovered, there is also apparently going to be a full contact sparring thing without powers, between me and the rest of the Wards.”

Sophia snorted upon hearing that. Turning to the rest of the Wards she simply said, “You guys are all so screwed.”

“Why do they want that? It’s not how things normally go,” Chris asked.

“I can only guess, but probably because of who my old man is and some of the things they’ve heard about me coming out of Winslow,” Erik said with a shrug.

“Should I be afraid?” Dennis asked, slowly moving to stand behind Missy. The latter of whom folded space to give him a smack to the back of the head.

“He asked me out after utterly thrashing a dozen seniors with knives in the locker room,” Sophia said with a smirk.

“There were only three of them,” Erik corrected. “And Dae only pulled a knife after I kicked him into the hallway.”

“…so yes, I should be scared,” Dennis said while marching towards his room. “If you will excuse me, I’m going to start writing my Last Will and Testament. Remember me fondly after I get completely and utterly humiliated by the new guy.”

Erik watched him go with a raised eyebrow, before turning to look at Sophia who immediately said, “No, he’s not always like that. Normally his jokes are even dumber.”