Villains Rise

Chapter 5 -- Not as ignorant as I thought

"Yes. But what is said in this room stays in this room. Got it?" He says through clenched teeth. I nod my head.

He rubs his hand across his face, "Then let's get this over with."

***

When you think of a teenage girl getting a make over, you'd imagine she'd get a manicure, pedicure, her make up done, a shopping spree, and her hair dolled up. Usually a teenage boy isn't giving the make over. It's especially not in a secret hideout in an alley.

"So, Owen, where are you from?" I ask as he begins to snap a drape around my neck. I guess it's time to cut my hair. The metal chair isn't as cushioned as my regular hair dresser's is, but I guess complaining is out of the question.

"Grew up here all my life." Owen responds shortly, and proceeds to pin my bangs with a paper clip.

He grabs a pair of scissors from the table in front of me. He's placed a small, stand alone mirror on the table for me to watch as clumps of my hair fall off.

"How's the wife and kids?" I try to joke, but Owen is having no part in my shenanigans.

"I told you I'm only 19." He huffs in exasperation, slowly lifting the scissors up to snip away.

"You could be a lying shapeshifter for all I know." I throw back.

"Are you purposely trying to tick me off? I have scissors half an inch from your neck." Snip. There went most of my hair.

"Okay! Fine! Don't give me a pixie cut, for crying out loud!" I do not look good with a pixie cut.

"You're getting it to your collar bone. End of story." Owen always has the final say.

"So you've been saying you'd explain some things to me..." I begin, hoping to still have some hair left after this.

Owen lays the scissors on the table and rips the drape off of me. He storms off, leaving me to grab the mirror and hold my breath.

Not too bad. Owen didn't do anything special with my white hair, but it was almost refreshing to see a completely different person staring back at me. It was like I was starting over. I just wish it wasn't so I could become a villain.

Owen steps up behind me and watches me look in the mirror. "You like it?" He asks, sounding like he wanted a genuine answer.

"You did great!" I turn around to see he's putting a white board on a stand and grabs a dry erase marker. Is this what he went back in the other room for?

"I'm glad, because that was the first step of many. Your suit is next."

"When can I get out of this tank top and gym shorts?" I've been wearing this for two days now, I'm starting to stink.

"I'll take care of it." He shrugs off. Owen sits at a small table beside the white board. I join him and take a seat, scoping out his little hiding spot. The floors are a blinding white tile with the fluorescent lights shining on them from above.

"Ever heard of a family tree?" He starts.

I take a long glance around the room. A family tree? What does that have to do with anything?

"Yes?" I drag out. Owen nods and the slight curls in his hair bounce. He uncaps the marker and begins to draw out what I assume to be a tree on the whiteboard.

"Let's start with Steel Hawk." Owen scribbles his name at the top of the board. He then draws a line adjacent to the top of the poorly sketched tree.

"Steel Hawk had two sons, one became Red Raven." He draws a line from Steel Hawk's name out to the left side, writes in wife and draws two more lines down from the middle of the connected line. Red Raven is written in and the other spot is left blank.

"So now we'll move on to Steel Hawk's brother, which is Blacklight." He begins to draw another line but I abruptly cut him off.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold up. Blacklight is Red Raven's... uncle? So Blacklight may have been the one to pressure Mickey into avenging Steel Hawk's death? Oh my gosh, Mr. Michaels isn't Mickey's father, it's his uncle!" I was starting to become Ash with all of these questions and assumptions.

Owen stares at me with wide eyes, shocked that I caught on so fast. "Well, yeah, in a way. I guess you're not as ignorant as I thought."

"Excuse me?" I stand up from my chair slightly. His Adam's apple bobs as he swallows.

"That was not supposed to sound as mean as it did." He admits.

I smile, "Wow, you're really not a villain at all." He rolls his eyes and gets back to the family tree.

"So Blacklight, a.k.a. Mr. Michaels, had two sons as well. Twins, actually. But he married a non-super, and somehow the first born received all of the powers." His back turns towards me as he continues to connect the dots.

"Wait, you just said they were twins." My eyebrows furrow in confusion.

Owen purses his lips as he turns back around, "That's the whole issue. The first twin born was only two minutes older than the second one, but he still got the super gene. The younger twin was furious as they got older. He wanted to follow in his father's footsteps and become a villain, but it wasn't completely possible without him having powers. So he left The Undergrounds and legally changed his name, disowning his family."

Owen doesn't make eye contact with me as he says the last sentence, but it's not because he's drawing on the whiteboard again. He's genuinely upset about something.

"Owen, who was the younger twin?" I hesitantly ask. I'm afraid I already know the answer.

"Thomas." He chokes out.

I hold my breath, but ask the next question anyways. "So that makes you...?"

Owen looks me dead in the eyes, "Thomas' older twin."

A/N
Sorry I was a little behind on updating! I had the first four chapters written ahead of time before I published the book in the first place. So I can't promise early updates anymore, and I just hope y'all will be patient with me. This isn't an easy book to write, especially mentally drawing out that family tree! 😂 (Attached above)

My goal is to update every Friday, but I'm on a tight schedule now so it may be a few days later than I say. Let's not even talk about writer's block interfering. 😅

Thank you all for reading! Feel free to comment theories and such! God bless!

Always, Sunny