8

Ares looked at the young boy sitting in his office. The boy had shown up at a bank robbery, used himself as a shield, gotten shot 16 times, and was probably responsible for the lack of civilian injuries. The boy was completely unharmed, except for some clothing damage. Whatever the boy’s skin was it was bullet proof, or at least very resistant. None of that really mattered much, another kid that wanted to be a hero wasn’t all that important in the scheme of things. What mattered was that this boy didn’t exist. His birth certificate was fake, his medical records fabrications, his schooling was forged, and his address was an empty lot. The boy’s clothes had all been bought the day before, with a prepaid credit card, and the person doing the buying hadn’t been caught on camera. The boy had attended school exactly one day, today. That wasn’t even getting into the black hole that was his supposedly single mother, who had listed her occupation on the school forms as a private operator, whatever that was suppose to mean.

“We didn’t get the chance to do proper introductions earlier at the bank Keanan. My name is Ares, and I kind of run things around here.”

“I know who you are Mr. Marsh”

“How do you know my name, Keanan?”

“My mother told me when I asked about the pictures.”

“What pictures?”

“The ones on her desk, with you and your wife.”

“Were there any pictures of my daughter?”

“No, she got evasive when I asked about her.”

“Do you know why she had those pictures?”

“I think she likes you.”

Ares relaxed slightly, just a fan then. Probably wasn’t too big of an issue, Alecia would have to be made aware of course, but not much else. He would have liked to have had a better secret identity, but be at it this long and that becomes something of a practical impossibility.

“Why did you say you were running away from home?”

“Because my mother I-“

“Yes Keanan?” Keanan looked nervous, his eyes kept darting to the door.

“I think she’s evil.” Super villain kid, just fucking perfect.

“Can you tell me her name?”  Keanan looked nervous, his eyes kept going to the door. Time for a different tactic then. “Can you tell me why you think she’s evil?”

“On your website she is described as an ultra class threat.” Shitshitshitshitshitshit, Ares hit the silent alarm under his desk. In the distance he could hear the hum of the building going into lockdown.

“How long until she notices you’re gone?”

“Probably already knows.”

“Does she have a way to track you?”

“My cellphone, I left it at school. But she probably already knows i’m here.”

“How?”

“She likes to watch your surveillance cameras and eat popcorn in the evening.” Fuck, one of those villains, probably thought she was funny too.

“Keanan, I’m really going to need to know her name.”

---

“So the kid wasn’t willing to tell us who his mother is, so we don’t have much to go on.”

Ares stood in the middle of the league conference room, surrounded by his wife, oldest friends, and his daughter, who he had called in.

“He won’t tell us his age, but we estimate it to be between eight and ten years old. We don’t know his powers either, won’t tell us. But we think they are probably magic based. She probably has some kind of history with my family, and isn’t a fan of my daughter, which is why she is here today.”

“Completely unnecessary dad, I can take care of myself.”

“I have never seen evidence of that honey.”

“Fine.”

“We do know that Keanan’s mother is listed on our site as an ultra class threat. Of the two hundred and one threats, one hundred and forty six of them are listed. If we remove the men, except Fancier, that leaves us with a possible sixty four. Remove the eight that are physically too young to have kids, and we’re down to fifty six. Also I would like the remove Prysim from the list, she might not be physically incapable of being the mother, but she is borderline, also I don’t want an excuse to feel sorry for her. We can’t remove anyone for geographical concerns, because she might have chosen somewhere outside of her usual area of operations to send her kid. Now the kid does register as a magical being, so of the remaining fifty five thirteen of them are more likely than the others. However considering the circles everyone on that list runs in, we can’t rule any of them out, even if they don’t have magic themselves.”

Alecia decided to chime in, and be as helpful as always. There was a slight possibility she was upset about being called away from work. “What are you going to do with this list? Go knocking on doors? Excuse me miss. I blow shit up with my eyeballs, are you missing your kid?” Ok, she was very ticked.

“No we prepare for any of the people on this list to go rampaging down main street demanding him back.”

“The question is what do we do with Keanan in the meantime.” Uriel, ever the voice of calm.

Oddly Alecia provided an answer. “Just stick him on one of the youth teams, he helped at the bank. It will keep him from anything too dangerous, and have him surrounded by people who can at least delay his mother, if she comes calling.”

“Alecia, we don’t let children anywhere near ultra class threats for a reason. We aren’t going to expose them to this.”

“Fine, let him stay with some established heroes.”

“I can’t ask someone to take the risk of his mother showing up at their home.”

“I guess he can stay with us then, I’ve always wanted a brother.”

“What?”

“It’s simple really, you and mom can handle most anything, and you have too much of a stick up your ass to ask someone else to do it.”

“Language, Alecia. But she is right honey, you wouldn’t feel right asking someone else to take care of him, and we do have the room.”  Alecia smiled at her mother for backing her up.

“Damn it, but whoever Keanan’s mother is, she seems to already know about our family, I’m not going to expose you to more risk Alecia.”

“Dad, I’m really not worried, seriously I can handle myself.”

“But-“

“Fine, you take Keanan, I’ll stay off world for a little while. If nothing happens for two months you can relax and I’ll come back.”

“We can’t ju-“

“End of discussion.” To punctuate her point Alecia turned and stormed out of the room.

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