"So where is my suit?" Leo asked while using a towel to dry his long red hair.
"Do you need that old piece of trash . . .?" She barked at him with an annoyed tone in her voice.
"Getting jealous?" He teased him for a second.
She was jealous, not from the suit but with that identity represented. "Maybe . . . it is on the kitchen table," Nigredo finally said and then pointed to the kitchen with a long black tendril.
And there it was, on the small crappy wooden table caked with blood and dirt, still smelling like smoke. In terms of damage it was destroyed, one could try to fix it back but it would replace 70% of it with new parts and then try to sew back the kevlar jumpsuit and that never ended up well.
Leo took a deep breath. "Fuck, it is ruined," he finally said, his wallet already hurting from what was to come.
"Plates shattered, the kevlar has cut all over it . . . at least the face mask is alright . . ." Nigredo said while pointing at the damage with a tiny tendril to just then grab his ballistic mask and wear it for an instant.
"We will need a new one," Leo said to the alien tendril wearing his alter ego face.
There was no way that with his shitty job working at an army surplus store he could buy a new suit. Heroes like him didn't get paid and since he did take the money from the criminal he beat . . . Leo was fucked. "I spend my savings on it . . . fuck this is gonna be expensive . . ." he muttered, rubbing his forehead and thinking on what to do.
Nigredo left the mask on the table and then began to change the shape of her head. "Oh this is an excellent time for some rebranding!" She exclaimed , switching between multiple mask designs, a wolf, a spider, something similar to a knight, and so on after leaving the mask on the table.
"We also should get a new super hero name . . . since well, Blackjack doesn't really fit you anymore. You got a whole new set of extremely sexy superpowers now!" she added trying to make as much space possible between that burden and his new future.
He only needed a few seconds to come up with a new name, all thanks to a little tendril organizing his neurons in a correct pattern. "Well . . . you sound like an alchemist component. . . I know! Azoth! Since well, you already have an alchemist name and you heal me from the brink of death and Azoth is the name of a universal medicine!" Leo exclaimed that old and nostalgic name outloud.
"Perfect!" Nigredo said with a smile and she was already making his breakfast.
Oats, nuts and honey with a little bit of cinnamon, just like Leo liked it.
"So, what is up for today?" Nigredo asked while the boy checked his phone.
"My uncle's store is closed for today it seems, the whole block is without electricity and after all that happened last night . . . we should get out and try to help," he muttered while looking at the messages and what Nigredo had sent to his girls while he was out of commission.
"And . . . what . . . did you send it to my contacts?" He asked, reading the messages.
"Oh? Well, the truth? That you have a rough night and you need to rest? It is 9 am so I am sure they think you are still sleeping," Nigredo said with a calm tone while he ate a spoonful of oats.
"Thanks for covering, they would chew my ass if they knew how close I was to kicking the bucket," he answered
"Dont worry, I know that you don't like getting rimjobs," she jocked around.
Leo chuckled and shook his head, feeling a wave of relief. "Neat, honestly I was a little bit scared since well you are a tentacle monster . . ." the boy said, all his video evidence he had about these kinds of creatures worried him a little bit about that.
"Trust me! I will never do something that you would dislike!" Nigredo answered carefully, measuring her words as she was technically right.
"Anyway hmmm . . . we should . . . " he muttered but was interrupted mid thought.
"Go to check on your friends? Training? Taking the day off fucking like pig since you overworker so hard last night that you need a deus ex machina to save your life?" She teased him with a goofy smile.
"I really want to go there and help but . . . yeah I should check on them just to be sure," Leo finally gave in, rushing to fight looters, monsters and villains taking advantage of the situation without a proper suit would just get him killed. He needed to learn the lesson from the last time, his life was valuable for all the people around him.
"Let's see . . . Mila is busy, of course, after all the shit is going on she will be with all hands on deck for at least four days minimum," he muttered, knowing that fellow workaholic too well.
"Yeah, lucky that her power allows her to not have to sleep as much," Nigredo added, always impressed by how much Mila was able to push herself. Her blood should be more magic snake venom than water at this point.
"She will crash out really bad after this is done, should bake those cookies for her," Leo added and felt a chill down his spine. What kind of freak like oatmeal and raising cookies?
("Ok so oatmeal and raisins for Mila, now chocolate chips for Sarah so she doesn't get jealous, peanut butter for Sarah and I wonder what Nigredo likes . . .") he thought.
("Oh Dutch chocolate cookies are my favorites! But you don't need to make them ,just buy me some Zoreos,") Nigredo said in his head, startling for a moment.
("Ah! Oh right, you are in my mind, sorry, I am still not used to that.") He apologized, having to get used to having someone always inside his skull reading his mind. Good thing they were on the same wavelength. Even if Nigredo could read his mind and he couldn't read hers.
"Then we have Barbara-" the conversation was cut short with someone knocking at the door.