Chapter 282 - 282. Grasping The Situations
The three were taken home as soon as Asher and Caras\' parents arrived. The officers wouldn\'t let any of them leave without their parents. Art was able to sneak by after pointing out that his parents were researchers for hero corp on the upper floors. After some discussion, the officers did some searching and returned letting him on his way. The two officers had gained a much more business like approach.
"Dude, they looked like they were a little afraid of you. That was weird." Asher had noticed the officer\'s mannerisms and wanted to see what Art thought of it.
"I feel like they went and asked my brother about me. He definitely told them that they weren\'t to bother me or whatever." Art knew that his brother had used their family standing to send the officers away and most likely given them some form of deterrence so that they wouldn\'t get further involved with their family.
"Your brother was more or less an older version of you. But skinner. I think you\'re already bigger than him." Cara said this in hopes that Art would feel a little more confident. It was all too clear that Art was acting defeated already since his brother had always loomed over him.
"Thanks...I think after the tournaments I will ask you guys to back me up against him so I can finally give you two a tour of the house." Art was finally over the edge.
"After that incident, I think that\'s a good idea. With what he did with the paperwork, and now that he completely ignored you when you could have been hurt from the villains robbing the mal. I don\'t have any respect for him. He will need to prove that he can be a good brother." Asher had already made up his mind some time ago to back up Art. But reaffirming it after this experience was able to set it all in stone.
Art and Asher shared a fist bump. As far as the two were concerned they were real brothers and nothing was going to change that for the world. They didn\'t need to share parents and they didn\'t need to share blood.
"So, I know you three have your own secrets. But if you need help remember that I am a lawyer and that your mother has a very good ear for things people whisper behind closed doors." The three had been talking while Asher\'s father drove them back while his mother was in the passenger seat.
"Mom, dad, Thank you. But we won\'t ask for help unless we really need it. Art has already taken this on himself. He told me and Jane about it but I am sure our whole group will be there for him when the time comes." Asher explained this and received knowing nods from his parents. They knew that he was committed to his friends and was not going to abandon them.
"We understand. Now, everyone can explain what happened another day. But Cara already told us what you did and how you most likely kept her from having some undesirable memories. But, you are still very very VERY grounded." Asher had already accepted this from his mother and settled in to his one silent thoughts like everyone else.
Everyone was able to call in sick for the next day of school. The school had received the incident report from the officers and accepted that their students would need some time to deal with the incident. There were also a few other students from the school that had hidden in the mall elsewhere that had not gone with Ashers\' group.
All together the media had a field day. But the worst part about everything was that the news report spoke of important documents missing from the hero corp research floors. Specifically revolving around an improved version of the evo shot thought to give multiple super powers.
"See, I told you that the double dose was legit. I have two different powers. Technically Jane has a super strong power." Asher looked at Art and bit his tongue.
"And I have two super powers too. I can manipulate all metals and am resistant to any poisoning effects they have. This was hidden by my brother who is the head of the family because of his super power. He kicked me out and had the paperwork hidden and forged. I need to find out why. My mother doesn\'t know why and says that my older brother has been doing some weird things."
Art finished Ashers\' explanation, "I thought it was time to tell everyone out in the open." Art had been the one to invite everyone over to properly talk about the day before. It was a surprise that everyone was allowed and that even Cara had rushed downstairs when she saw the group chat. Asher and Cara\'s parents had decided to leave them alone and went out to lunch to let the group process what had happened together. It was something that made everyone very impressed and appreciative since having the adults around would put them on edge a little.
"Yeah, we kinda guessed. Like, who would sell gloves with lead in them?" Louis spoke as if it was just too obvious.
"I thought that it was weird too. But I thought that you and ashers\' family was just really close or something. But this makes more sense." Jackson looked a little ashamed since he had mostly been assuming the best. However, no one in the group thought poorly of him since having the silver lining state of mind was a bad thing.
"Well, I think that it is a great motivator to move forward. I wish I had the same drive." Sammy was proud to see how much their group was coming together over the incident at the mall and now hearing the story Art was sharing.
"It is great and all, but if they just had the same evo shot stolen that Arts\' parents are working on in theory. That his brother lied and hid about his powers...isn\'t this all a little….sketchy?" Laura was trying to connect all these doits but realized that it was messy.
"If we had a choice I would say we should avoid it all. But Art is involved and we all know that leaving it be would be out of our realm of curiosity." Cara spoke up and looked at everyone as the oldest of the group. She had long been accepted as part of it and now everyone looked to her for some guidance.
"Exactly, so what we know is that Art\'s mother and probably father are helping research this double dose evo shot which some of us received. It worked and Art\'s brother took over the household kicking him out. Then we all became friends and stuff which is great. Now we have a break in where all the robbers were caught yet there are still missing documents revolving around the double does evo shot. On top of that Art\'s brother who is acting strange was the hero that came there to assist in the capture and we saw Art\'s parents leaving the building empty handed. The officers also acted strangely after they knew Arts\' name and probably spoke to his brother."
Asher said all this in one breath impressing everyone. It was a lot but it was what they knew. "How did we end up in a mystery. I get that my situation was already weird, but now...it\'s complicated weird." Art wiped his face while talking. It was all too much to handle.
"On another note, can we talk about Asher and his minor insanity? We can\'t do much about the other stuff now but we can make sure Asher has at least one working brain cell." Louis realized there was not much left to talk about when it came to Arts\' situation and that they would need more time to understand things.
"I was pretty happy that you showed up but I also wanted to scream at you. Do you k ow what mom and dad would have thought and felt if you got hurt?" Cara jumped in reprimanding him immediately. But Asher could see her smile saying that she was glad. It was something he had never seen on her face before.
"Sammy and I tried to hold back. I was frozen when I saw that grey skinned guy threaten you. But he tripped and fell. You were lucky- it was your stupid super power! Why did I worry?" Jane realized that it was all luck that Asher had survived and would have been surviving the entire time.
"He was definitely dumb when he just walked by me and left." Art nodded along.
"Yup dumb"
"Super dumb"
"Dumb"
"Duummmbb"
Everyone chimed in saying the same. "Yes, it was dumb. But it worked and I won\'t change it even if a time traveler shows up here to take me back and change it. I accept what happened." Asher was holding steady which made everyone shake their heads then shrug. They couldn\'t fight him on it.