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“As I’ve heard,” she growls.
He glances at me. “She’s a bit… touchy on the subject.”
“We legally aren’t allowed to torture people,” Ellison says. “Asmodeus, you have to see her point.”
Deus drops his feet onto the ground as he hugs his rifle to his chest. “So let me get this straight, you’d rather more innocent people die, innocent men get shot through the head, first responders and medical personnel gettingblownup, all to protect some people who clearly don’t care who they kill? You’d prefer that?” Deus asks, expression dark. Sometimes I wonder what all this man has seen.
“I’m… kind of with Deus on this,” I realize.
Valerie’s head snaps around to me so damn fast, I’ll be shocked if she didn’t give herself whiplash. “Excuse me, August? This is Landon’s influence on you.”
And that was the very thing I needed to hear to be pushed over the edge. “You can’t blame everything you don’t like on Landon. I am my own person and I can have my own opinions.”
“I’m not…” She takes a deep breath. “I’m not blaming Landon. I’m just… there are legal procedures to these things. I understand the frustration. I know we don’t want people to die. So we have to rely on others in order to go about things the legal way.”
“Yeah,” I say, honestly just done with it all. “My head hurts again, I’m just… call me when you need me, I guess.”
Irritated, I head toward the elevator and Deus jumps up to follow me. We’re inside and the doors are closing a moment before Ellison slips inside. He’s quiet as we ride down, but I notice Deus’s glare.
“You supposed to watch us or something?” Deus asks.
Ellison remains silent, looking stoic and all business in his full suit and tie.
“Is he silent treatmenting us?” Deus asks.
“Maybe he just wanted to ride down the elevator?” I ask a moment before the door opens and the three of us step out.
Ellison sighs quite loudly and Deus whips around to face him.
“I know you’re pissy about me,” Deus says. “I saw the look on your face when I was trying to fight Valerie on this. Why don’t you stay up there with her and share stories about how it feels to have a rod up your ass all the time?”
Ellison’s eyes narrow, and I honestly don’t have the energy to deal with this.
“You’re judging me?Again? Don’t you have something else to do?” Deus asks.
Ellison cracks open this massive book of regulations that I’ve seen Valerie tote around a time or two as well. It always ends in some dreadful conversation that drives us all up a wall.
“Oh, there you guys are,” Lex says as he hurries up.
“We’re about to get lectured. You might want to go have fun somewhere else,” Deus says.
“Let me dumb this down a bit for my audience,” Ellison says. “Superheroes are required, by law, to follow the same laws that law enforcement agencies follow when it comes to—”
Deus’s eyes glaze over and Ellison, of course, notices.
Ellison shoves Deus back so Deus slams into the wall. He glowers at Ellison who is holding him against the wall with his massive book that he has shoved against his chest before going back to it like nothing has happened. “They are to follow the same laws, except in the case of an active assault by another person, including supers. In those instances, the members of Superheroes United can take measures to secure the safety of the citizens, allowing them to bypass specific laws and regulations because we don’t know how to make laws that allow superheroes to do things like saving people without jumping through hoops so that our heroes are protected and do not face any charges no matter what they do.”
“I feel like you… added a bit to that last part,” Deus says.
Ellison stares him in the eyes as he slams the book shut. He’s taller than Deus and while he’s not as muscular, his eyes alone flash murder quite well. Deus is quiet for a moment as this all settles in my mind.
“Oh shit… you’re being bad, aren’t you?” Deus realizes.
“You’re saying that as long as we act in the interest of protecting innocent citizens, we can bend the rules,” I say.
“I simply read the rules in a way that those of you who are muchsimpler”—he eyes Deus—“can understand.”
“Let me get this straight,” Lex says. “So if we were to, say… break Nolan out before talking to the men who abducted me and Landon—while declaring that we were doing it to protect other citizens, of course—it would be legal?”
