Lucky Strike (Super Harem #1) - Catherine Banks Page 0,45

my parents, both wore identical looks to the one Tyson had had.

Yeah, my childhood sucked, but why were they so sad about it? It had been decades.

“Really, it’s okay,” I assured them. “Plus, my parents have decided to reenter my life now. Don’t worry, I don’t plan to help them with any villain plans, but my dad is sick and T is going to try to help him.”

“You keep calling him T. What do you call us to others?” Hurricane asked.

I scowled. “It depends on if I’m talking about you as a hero or you as a person, I guess. I call Gargoyle Austin when we’re on a date, but on a mission, he’s Gargoyle. If that makes sense?”

Vortex nodded, smiling. “It does. You’re just the first person I have heard of who uses both names. Usually, a person just picks one and sticks with it.”

“Wouldn’t it bother you if I only called you Vortex?” I asked.

“Don’t you?” he asked back.

I scowled as I thought about it. I guessed I did. Why? Why did I differentiate between Austin and Tyson’s alter-egos? Was there some deep, subconscious reason?

Probably one I didn’t want to know about.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I’ll try to get better about—”

Hurricane set his hand on mine where it clenched the bottom of my shirt in my lap. “Don’t worry about it. We’re fine just being heroes with you. Hopefully, someday soon, you’ll also view us as the men we are separately.”

We both stared at each other and then he burst into laughter.

“That made it sound so bad!” Vortex laughed beside him. “Oh, man. You’re so bad at talking to girls. See, Lucy, this is why we do things together. He says stupid stuff and I fix it.”

I chuckled. “It’s okay. I knew what you meant.”

“Well, it’s about dinner time. You want to go to the cafeteria with us?” Hurricane said as he stood.

I nodded, stood, and jumped up to kiss his cheek. “Sounds wonderful.”

Vortex pulled me into his arms and kissed my forehead. “I really missed you, Lu-Lu.”

Lu-lu? That was actually cute.

“I missed you, too,” I whispered.

“It’s hard to believe that the maniac who kicked your butt was your dad,” Hurricane said. “I thought I had a messed-up family, but yours takes the cake.”

Together, we walked to the cafeteria, and I was shocked to find many of the heroes approaching me, asking how I was and just interacting with me in a friendly manner.

Of course, Cobalt just glared at me, but I expected nothing less from that moron.

I sat between Hurricane and Vortex and Gargoyle eventually came and sat across from us, smiling. “So, all is well in paradise again?”

I felt my cheeks burn. “Um, yeah? Is that okay?”

He winked at me. “You’re the leader of this group. I’m just a hot accessory.”

The absurdness of his statement had me baying with laughter so hard that I ended up clutching my stomach.

“And here I thought Hurricane was going to be the funny one in our group,” Vortex said, smirking.

“I am funny,” Hurricane said around a mouthful of food. “Don’t count me out just because he was funny once.”

“So, Gargoyle, what are you doing—”

My question was interrupted by the alarm telling us that there was an emergency.

I shoveled food into my mouth as fast as possible, not wanting to be hungry if we had to leave on assignments to fight monsters.

The female announcer voice ordered. “Code Seven. All personnel report immediately.”

My eyes widened and my mouth dropped open. “Seven?” I didn’t know they went that high.

“Crap,” Hurricane said, shoveling food into his mouth as well, then grabbed his plate, and headed towards the exit.

Gargoyle, Vortex, and I followed suit, grabbing our plates and eating as we headed out of the cafeteria.

“What could a code seven be?” I asked around a mouthful of pasta.

“Either something really large and powerful,” Vortex said.

“Or a lot of somethings,” Gargoyle said.

I wasn’t sure which was worse.

Part of me wondered if it was my parents again, but that didn’t make sense. Why would they attack now that we had worked things out?

My phone rang, and I knew it was going to be T before I even looked.

Gargoyle took my empty plate and stacked it beneath his with a wink.

“Hello?” I answered.

“This time you don’t have to keep your phone on you since we have communication devices, right?” he asked with a boatload of sarcasm in his tone.

I cringed. “I left them in my room. I’m sorry.”

“Lucky for you, I equipped Alfred with a communication device this