Mystery from Another World--MHA

Part 150: Massacre

"What an impertinent woman," Best Jeanist said. He looked at Mirko.

"Friend of yours?"

"You know what? Yes." Mirko wasn't taking that from him. "Got a problem with that?"

"Aw," Wally said, "You called her your friend. That just gets me right here." He feigned wiping a tear away and thumping his heart.

"Oh, go eat a happy meal," Mirko told him.

"Are you saying that because he looks like a Wacdonalds clown?" Endeavor had not heard the joke before and still guessed it immediately.

Wally felt kind of demoralized. "I'm not a clown..." he muttered to himself.

"Seriously, she's completely rude," Best Jeanist addressed Endeavor, "You're comfortable with her influencing your son?"

"You know, that is my girlfriend you're talking about there," Wally said, with more annoyance, "so watch it, dude."

Best Jeanist ignored him.

Wally felt snubbed.

"I could wish my son would be influenced by her more," Endeavor said, "I would say more than I ever hoped for has happened since she began teaching him. I know the woman seems like a firebrand, Jeanist, but maybe it takes a firebrand to know another one. Anyway, she gives good advice. It actually worked."

"It did?" Best Jeanist was clearly skeptical.

"Maybe you could learn a thing or two from her," Endeavor suggested, "not about hero work, but about people."

"That is her thing," Wally said.

Mirko was gaping at Endeavor with one eyebrow raised.

"I never knew you had the No. #1 hero in the palm of your hand like that," she hissed to Wally.

"What, got street cred now?" Wally retorted to her conspiratorially, "I'd say Best Jeanist and Edgeshot are the only top pros out of you five we don't have on our side."

"Are you counting Hawks, then?" Mirko didn't even bother objecting to him counting herself.

"Hawks isn't a bad guy, Bunny Girl," Wally said, "just lost. Confused. Pulled too many different ways. I mean, maybe he'll snap, do something really bad...but maybe he won't. Sometimes, when someone is going through something like that, it's better to just try to throw a little understanding their way."

Since Best Jeanist and Endeavor were now moving farther away to continue their conversation, Mirko risked replying.

"I don't want to understand why someone would betray their fellow Pros."

"What would you do to save the world, Mirko?" Wally asked.

Mirko blinked. "Huh?"

"I mean, I'm asking a real question. My League has this rule: We don't kill. We have that rule because some of us could wipe out the whole planet if we tried, so once we cross that killing line, where does it end? Others, they couldn't, but they don't kill because they don't want to bring the kind of hurt on other people that they went through. We have everything from alien warriors to ancient princesses to cage fighters and madmen in our little League."

Mirko perked up at cage fighters. "Is that so? How would you ever function?"

"We don't try to control each other. We're not like Best Jeanist, uniform," Wally said, "We're all more like you, doing our own thing, but we decided we'd be better together. We all still work alone too, but sometimes it takes more than one person to protect the world. And, hey, I'm okay with that now. What makes it work is we're all willing to die, but we're not willing to make other people die to get what we want. You all have a code like that, right?"