Your Little Light (IC)

[Avenger Assembled]

"Um, I gotta go to the bathroom," exclaimed Holly. "Be right back!" She turned and ran up the stairs, signalling to her mother that she was going to make the call to Providence and yes she had it saved in the emergency contacts in her phone just like Richard and Paige had both insisted she do, she wasn't dumb! With just the adults downstairs, Bryant slowly made his way inside, moving with the deliberate care of an elderly man who did not have Anna or Richard's superpowers. 

 

"Thank you so much, dear," said Bryant, patting Paige on the arm lightly. His skin was cold when she touched it, his fingertips pale - how long had he been walking out there? "You always were an excellent daughter-in-law." 

 

He did indeed take a seat at the table, under the stares of the two downstairs speedsters who were obviously eager for him to get to the point of why he was there. He looked at both of them, Richard tense and on the edge of anger, Anna full of a carefully bottled-down contempt and said, "Look at you," he said with a smile, looking from Richard to Anna. "You look so young, Anna, and you, Richard, you look just like your mother. That's good." He laughed, then coughed a dry, hard cough that automatically made Richard step forward and put a hand on his father's back. 

 

"I'm sorry to break in on your holiday," said Bryant, and as he spoke Daphne got the response she wanted from Mother Unit - this was Bryant Haliday, one of the most successful.supervillains of the 1960s - Doc Holiday, a man who had gone into almost complete retirement in the early 1970s, decades ago. "But I have some important news. You see, I'm dying." 

 

"What? But you're-" Richard started to speak, but then stopped. Bryant Haliday had no superpowers, no special gifts save his charisma and intelligence - and he was old enough, he'd told Richard once, to remember the day the Centurion debuted. He was well past 80 already. Of course he wasn't too young to be sick. 

 

"I started having the headaches around the 4th of July last year, and the doctors, well..." Haliday rubbed his temples. "The tumor will have killed me by the next 4th of July. Which is really too bad, because they had this wonderful fireworks display planned with the shape of red white and blue eagles." 

 

Mom! came Holly's thought, broadcast loudly through the telepathic matrix in the room. Nobody's picking up over there!

[Electra]

~Call the Freedom League, baby. Use the special line, tell them what's going on.~ With her face outwardly very composed, Paige poured a cup of coffee and sprinkled cream and nutmeg into it. She set it down in front of Bryant, then walked into the living room and pulled a colorful throw from the back of the couch. As she draped it over the old man's shoulders, she watched her husband and mother-in-law carefully, wondering how they were going to react. It was awkward having Daphne there at this moment, but at the same time it probably didn't hurt to have one extra hero on tap. "I'm very sorry to hear that," she finally said, cutting a slab of pumpkin pie to go with the coffee. "Can they do anything to help you with the pain?" 

[Tiffany Korta]

Well this made thing much more serious and Daphne could help but feel a bit guilty for letting the man in, he seemed so nice it wasn’t like that when the bad guy showed up on television. With a quick look to make sure no one could she what she was doing she stretched her arm up to reach Mother Unit and carefully put the cube back into her backpack. Pulling the backpack onto her shoulders, ready for action if necessary she carefully reached out to Paige.

Is there anything I can do to help? I know that Mr Haliday was a very bad man, are we in any kind of trouble?

[Avenger Assembled]

"The pain's not so bad," said Bryant in a reedy voice. "The headaches are there - but the doctors tell me I'll be myself until just before the end, and that's good. I've seen men in Providence living far worse. Some of them in there are crazy," he confided to Daphne. 

 

"Oh, God, Dad," said Richard, reaching out and putting his hand on his father's arm. "God..." He bent down and embraced the old man, acutely conscious of the frail body beneath the sweater, heedless for the moment of what had to have been yet another escape from Providence. He knew that his family could take care of it. "I'm sorry, Dad." 

 

For her part, Anna watched the father-son embrace, her arms folded across her chest defensively. "That...that can't be right, Bryant," she said, her voice tight and dismissive, her anger and denial burning like a candle to Paige's psychic senses. "You can't just die of cancer! You're a supervillain! For God's sakes," she demanded, "we know gods! And mad scientists. And you, you once made a serum that turned grown men into babies! How can you just die of cancer!?" Her voice was going up, pain creeping into her voice. 

 

"It doesn't always work that way, Ma, and you know it," said Richard, standing up as Bryant slowly and methodically cut himself a slice of pie. "Is that what you did, Dad? Did you make up a batch of stuff, and leave it for the guards?" 

"Yes! I put it in the vents," said Haliday, smiling. "What a surprise they had! Everyone will be fine, though, the inmates were all in their cells, and the guards and inmates will stop thinking they're Pilgrims and Indians as soon as it wears off." He beamed, looking very proud of himself, before adding more seriously, "I wanted us to have...to have a family Thanksgiving, like we never had before." 

 

Somebody's on their way here, Holly shot down to Paige. But there's a big fight at Freedom Hall, and it may take a while. Are you sure Grandpa Haliday is dangerous?