Chapter Text
"I've been thinking." Chad started
"Everyone lookout; the Chadster is thinking again." Diego, or Flora, within the fairness association, muttered, which earned a quick snort from a few team members.
"What if…" Chad continued, either ignoring the comment or too oblivious to notice, "What if Escape Hatch is still alive."
The room fell silent for a moment. It had been only a week since Morgan strategically planned, or abandoned is the better word. Morgan or Escape Hatch in the eternity area with The S Tier. Everyone knew there was no possible chance of the sidekick still being alive.
"I mean," Chad continued, "We've all seen how crafty they can be. What if, however, slim the chance they found a way to survive."
"Chadster," Chad's mother or Firebird began treading carefully with her words, "We have all seen S tier in a battle against an army of heroes. All of us here combined don't stand a chance. Not with all the numbers we could ever have."
"We grieve with you, Chadster. Morgan was one of the best sidekicks we've ever had. They were crafty, resourceful, ingenious, and an unbelievable person in our team. It's a tragedy they had to sacrifice themselves for the greater good, but that is part of the job. And given the circumstance, anyone at this table would've done the same thing." Dave comforted even though he was still unsure about how the situation went down.
"What they are trying to say is that there is no conceivable way that Morgan is still alive," Diego added. It wouldn't be clear to anyone who didn't know her, but she was barely keeping it together.
"Well, there are certainly better ways of saying it-" Firebird commented quickly, getting interrupted by The Chadster, clearly still too deep in thought to pay attention to anything anyone was saying.
"But what if they are alive? What if S tier chose one of her many reasons why she couldn't be bothered to kill them? They don't depend on their power nearly as much as the rest of us, and we've never seen S Tier without their power, so maybe they found a way to survive."
"Chadster, I know we all mourn in different ways, but if we open a link to the eternity area, even to check, the S tier will escape, and we'll be right back where we started." Firebird continued, "It's not what he would've wanted."
"And when have you ever cared about what they wanted." Diego spat, "You never cared about them or anything they wanted or wished. You clearly don't care about them now."
"Flora, please-" Dave began feining resistance. He knew if he didn't try to stop Flora from protecting Morgan's wishes, then someone else would, and he didn't know if they would make it back alive.
"No! They spent their whole life doing whatever you two wanted them to do! They never wanted to be a stupid sidekick or a hero and didn't want to be the 'stain' on the family name!!!" Diego was screaming at this point. Years and years of repressed thoughts poured out, along with the tears rushing down her face. She missed her sibling so much and was hit with everything she could've done for them. She had the power; she could've got them out of this hellscape. Now she couldn't do anything but leave this shit show behind her.
"We never forced him to do anything. He just knew what was right," Firebird bit back.
"Now we are all very hurt, but we can't go after each other like this," JustIce commented, trying to de-escalate the situation.
"I can go after whoever I want! The only reason they died in that god-forsaken place is that it was better than carrying on with their miserable life here!" Her words were daggers. Even though it was only directed at two people, everyone fell silent. The air was heavy. Everyone knew Morgan and how they never wanted to be in this situation but never thought it would lead to something like this. Flora sighed and tapped her husband's shoulder as she walked out.
"I'm leaving as well. I won't be a part of an organization that leads one of its members to be cannon fodder." Leader USA quickly followed her out, dropping their shikanium shield on the way out.