I'M YOUR PUPPET; invincible

chapter 3

    "Get your hands off me!" Olga, Red Rush's wife said, pushing away from Cecil and Donald.

    "Olga, please," Donald said, reaching for her.

    "You wouldn't even let me see him. Josef is finally standing still, and I still can't see him!"

    Debbie quickly parts from their sides, rushing to Olga's side.

    Mark lifts his free arm, tucking Loren into his side. Her body is stiff, though she seems to relax some in the comforting solitude of his and Eve's presence.

    The redhead glances over her shoulder, looking between the two. "You okay?" She asks with a small frown.

    "Me?" Mark shrugs. "I—I don't know. It just doesn't seem real. That could've been my mom putting my dad in one of those holes, or me." He looks down, seeing how avidly Loren avoids everyone's gaze. "I'm sorry," he said quietly, low enough that only she would hear.

    Loren shrugs, wrapping an arm around his waist. "It's okay. It's a realistic thought. It's scary." She nods, gesturing to her father's coffin as it lowers into the ground. "But I keep telling myself that he would have wanted to go down fighting for something, whatever it was. I like to think maybe he found some peace in that. And we're all here to continue on that legacy."

    Both him and Eve nod solemnly. If anyone else present were to truly understand the weight of the situation—the crushing, bruising realness—it was her. She had not lost a partner, sure, but she had lost her last parent. That was a different kind of pain.

    Mark's gaze seems to be lost, then, as he watches his mother help Olga to her feet. "If this could happen to the Guardian's of the Globe, it means that none of us are..."

———

    After a non-spoken invitation in the motion of Mark not releasing Loren's hand, she goes home with the Grayson's. Following him into the house, she tugs off her jacket, setting it on the back of a chair.

    Nolan glanced between them all. "I'm feeling pizza. I can be to Naples and back before the cheese stops bubbling."

    Mark glances to the girl at his side. Her hands are shaking, though he's not sure if it's from emotion or energy. She places her coat next to his, pausing when she, too, notices the trembling.

    Debbie looks away from the two, placing her hand against her husband's chest. "Honey," she says. "Let the delivery guy do it tonight."

    "Sure." He concedes with a small smile.

    Loren sits at the center of one of the pink sofas, crossing her arms over her chest, staring blankly outside. She turns her attention, however, to the television as it turns on. Omni-Man's speech, of course, is the first thing to appear. And no matter how many channels, it is always the same.

    Debbie says, "Mark. Why don't you go call William?"

    "And do what?" He retorts, leaning forward. "Hang out? Go buy comic books? After this?"

    "Hey," Nolan snaps suddenly. "Watch the tone."

    "It's okay," the woman says, putting a hand out.