I study her as the sommelier bringS the wine she ordered, offering it first to me, and with a shake of my head, going through the dance of the sniff and taste with her. Somewhere, a thought chases through my head, probably from Henri, that the tasting was irrelevant, that originally, the sniff was just to detect any hint of vinegar to determine if the wine had gone bad, or separated while in storage.
He watched her walk towards the table, her strides confident, and graceful, and oh so sexy. “Leon, knock it off you, wanker. There’s families in ‘ere. You, cowboy, watch where you shin’ those eyes.”
Shit, I hadn’t thought of that day in a long time. Sure had been a different time, back when we had celebrated everything with a case of Toohey’s or maybe Carlton’s and shots of cheap whiskey.
“How did yo’ all, you know, start the Alliance?
The nice thing about upscale restaurants, there isn’t someone hovering over your shoulder. She’d wanted privacy, so privacy we got. Oh, they were watching, but discreetly, and not close enough to hear.
“Well, after Bryce and I got to the area, well, he’d already been obsessed with being a hero.”
“You were too, once,” she interjects quietly.
“Something broke in me a long time ago, Amelia,” I surprise myself by admitting. I sip
the wine, I hadn’t really planned on drinking, but a glass wouldn’t hurt. “We’d been hunting criminals I guess, low level stuff. Well, he was, out on walkabout protecting the people. I stalked along behind, hidden, protecting him. He was just a kid after all, although I wonder sometimes. Anyway, we were summoned, I guess, to listen to this crazy story from some guy claiming to be an alien, with visions of the future. Insane really, but there was no stopping Bryce.”
I pause, looking off into the distance, remembering, and I feel her move her legs, one brushing me under the table, bringing me back to the present.
“He was going to do it, whatever I said. So, well, originally, it was me, Bryce, Henri, William, Robenheim, and Shawna. It was almost four years ago, I guess. Three kids, two idealists, and one old broken soldier.” I sit there for a moment, “Silver Spider, Rook, Titan, Arctic Prince, Gleam Shimmer and Ghost Venom. The Originals!” I sit smiling slightly. She smiles back.
I wait as the waiter brings the bread and…..escargot. Snails….well, I’ve eaten worse.
“Seemed easy to start with, guess it was. I mean, most of those damn criminals were just that. No matter how hardened, just….human. But then we met that fucker Anubis, and well he splattered Titan all over a wall, but well, his electronic consciousness survived I guess. Then, well then there were the attacks, first at the parade, later at the stadium, and as more people transformed into powered beings, things became more dangerous.”
“Shawna was the first casualty. The Circus captured her. Did you know she originally could teleport? Amazing power really, not sure how it worked. I….” I pause, taking 
another drink to compensate for the dryness in my throat and she reaches out, placing a hand on my other forearm. “They tortured her. Had some plan to mystically transfer her mind I guess with their witch. So they could get her powers, control her body. We were…I was….late. I killed several of them, mindless hulks that they were. The witch went mad, trapped in Shawna’s body. Shawna in hers…”
“Eventually, she came back to awareness. Without her original body, she didn’t have any powers, just new….hmm, attributes. She’s tough, though, William designed her an armored suit, and well, she fights with it instead. Brave, loyal, beautiful,” I say, feeling the hand withdraw.
“Henri was wounded next, in a coma for awhile. She came out, changed as well. Weird memories, new knowledge. We found Bryan, he nearly killed me before he realized it was me. He was still with the project, working for English. Met Whitley, fought some more psychos. Fought another alien, traveled to the future, saw the world destroyed, watched friends die, and enemies. Came back and lost Robenhiem and Bryce. Comas for over six months, apparently they were lost in time. Fuck I don’t know, crazy shit. Kind of all blends together after awhile.”
I pop the last snail into my mouth. “Then, well, I guess you saw the news of some of the shit this year, coming home, finding you out were alive, losing Shawna again.”
“I guess that about covers it. Stuff I actually remember anyway. They are all good people, real heroes, regardless of what people say on the news. They have all sacrificed a lot for this community, this world. Even if they put up with me,” I finish bitterly.
“You’re a hero too, you know.” She smiles. “But once, you would have talked about the people, your friends too, not just the wounds,” and her smile fades.
Then she takes a deep breath, before saying, “I guess, well, its my turn.”
Last Dreams 