"RHETT, WHAT IS U—OH MY GOD!"

Steve threw himself off of Rhett's bed, splaying himself against the wall, his face red as he tried to find some semblance of decency, standing shirtless in front of a shocked teenage girl.

"Finally!" she shrieked, throwing up her arms, "God, it's about time! How long has this been going on?"

Rhett, who had an arm thrown over his eyes, desperately trying to ignore the situation at hand, sighed. "Since Thanksgiving, Diana, and that wasn't the best wake up call."

She motioned towards the bed. "I'm pretty sure you were already awake, I mean..." she pointed towards Steve's lack of a shirt, trying not to stare, "Wow."

"No, we were actually sleeping," Steve stammered, avoiding all eye contact, "Um, can we help you?"

Diana's eyes widened, as if just realizing why she was there. "Oh, yeah! Okay, um, meet us in the living room, we're gonna form a plan."

Rhett lifted his head to check the time; it was a little after noon. "Okay, kid, please just leave and let us get dressed."

Diana pulled out her phone and took a quick picture before running out, slamming the door. "Sweet, okay!"

Steve looked down at Rhett who was trying to sit up. "She's...something."

"She's happy, that's all," Rhett said, shrugging, "When she gets into one of her episodes, she's a lot more mellow."

Steve nodded, remembering the stories Rhett had told him. "Well, I'm glad she's alright. But she's not gonna believe that we just slept, is she?"

Rhett shook his head, pursing his lips. "Nope."

Steve laughed and walked to the closet, stealing some of Rhett's clothes. The other man just stared at the ceiling, taking a deep breath.

It was the weekend and Rhett was glad to just stay inside and hide. During the week he had been out playing with the kids at Central Park, something he had missed dearly, but there had been a sense of danger following him, and he often felt as if he had been watched.

After that night, he had realized he wasn't as strong as he thought he was.

Steve had also been a much larger presence in his life, often staying over as opposed to staying in his apartment. He claimed it was because he was worried, but Rhett knew he liked their loft more; his mind tended to be more cruel when he was alone.

"Come on," Steve said, nudging his leg with his hand, shocking him out of his thoughts, "Get up."

Rhett groaned, hiding his face in his pillow. "No..."

Steve rolled his eyes and braced his leg on the corner of the bed, shoving his arms underneath the other man and lifting him up.

"Put me down!" Rhett shouted, trying to jump down, "We're the same height, this is degrading—"

"I'm stronger," Steve said simply, unable to hide the mirth in his voice.

"Yeah, then how come I'm the one who—"

Before Rhett could finish, Steve was throwing him onto the couch, the other people in the room watching with raised eyebrows, all sitting at the dining table.

Steve looked at all of them, nodding. "Good morning."

"It's noon," Peter pointed out, hunched over a few textbooks, writing in a notebook.

"So it's still early," Diana said, nudging him, "So, uh, Nicky what's the plan?"

"What's the plan even for?" Rhett asked, pushing himself up into a sitting position, looking at them above the back of the couch.

Nicky pursed his lips, his arms crossed over his chest. The serious look on the man's face didn't seem to match his usual disposition, and Steve couldn't help but feel uneasy; there was too much familiarity in the expression for it to be an uncommon occurrence.

"Rhett, you nearly died."

"It wasn't that big of a deal, he just roughed me up a bit—"

"You nearly died!" Nicky shouted, the chair he was sitting on finding its way across the room, towards the kitchen, "Quit ignoring this! You said we'd worry later, well, it's later. And damn it, I know what I said, but I'd rather you have a giant gun than be dead."

Rhett sighed. "I thought we don't use weapons."

"I didn't count on this guy learning how to stop time," Nicky growled, throwing his arms up, "Don't be difficult."

Rhett scoffed. "I wasn't the one who didn't want to make me something—"

"I don't make weapons for us," Nicky shouted, "That's not how it works, I—" he sighed, looking down at Diana, "But we don't really have a choice."

Diana fiddled with her bracelets, frowning. "These were supposed to be a last resort, to protect people. How're you gonna make something to protect Rhett, the guy's got an upper hand at all times."

"Why aren't you able to use your powers anymore?" Steve asked, interrupting, "You never said why you couldn't jump back."

"I don't know," Rhett confessed, coming to stand next to Nicky who turned away from him, "We never could figure out why."

"Maybe you just need a jump start," Peter said, looking up from his notebook, "I mean, you said this guy had a lot more time to show up. We don't know how long he had to wait, but it was enough to get him upset, maybe he had a lot more time to prepare."

Rhett raised an eyebrow; he had a point. Before they jumped, they always had to concentrate some level of energy. When he jumped, he had been rather rushed, and he had prepared himself to the level that he did when he did his small jumps, not decades.

"So how would we jump start it?" Diana asked, "What if you jump too far again and you can't come back?"

"And what if you go to the wrong future?" Peter added, "Or past. I guess you could try to just do something a few minutes in advance, then come back."

"Would you run into your past or future self if you did?" Diana asked, "What're the rules with that, do you just take your body or are you separate, nothing bad has happened with you being here for this long."

"We know that nothing has tried to send him back," Nicky said, interrupting their stream of questions, "and I've looked around, there aren't any records of a Rhett Reiser after the war."

"So if you jump back and, say, walk into your room when you and Steve were inside, there would just be two of you?" Diana asked.

"Yeah, that's it," Rhett said, eyes widening as memories flooded back, "Why didn't I remember that, we worked on that for months."

"You can't even remember being a teenager," Nicky pointed out, "It's no surprise you forgot that."

"Maybe it's a product of the jump," Diana suggested.

Rhett sighed, worrying on his bottom lip, looking towards Steve who was listening intently with his arms crossed. "Yeah."

"So what would he have to do?" Steve asked, "How much time does he have before Hyde comes back? Has he even left?"

Nicky pointed towards his computer. "I'm tracking him as we speak. It's a lot harder for me because he jumps around, but I stuck one on him years before, and it's still somewhat working."

"But it shows up too late," Diana added, crossing her arms, "There's no way to prepare, we have to be on the offensive if we want him gone."

"But we're on the defensive until he shows up," Nicky said, sharp and serious. He softened when she shrunk back, Peter placing a hand on the back of her chair protectively. "Dina, I'm sorry, this is just..."

Rhett shifted towards his roommate, pulling him into a hug, holding him. "We did it once, we did it again."

"I don't think we'll get that lucky again," Nicky mumbled, holding onto his arm, "Like you said, I don't think we can do this again."

"We have to," Rhett sighed, holding him tighter. He looked over at the teenagers, then at Steve, all who were frowning and watching the scene with poorly hidden worry. "We have too much here not to."

"What will you have to do?" Steve asked again, moving to lean against the table, making sure not to move it.

Rhett shrugged, sighing again. "Train, probably? That's all I can do..."

"I'm trying to come up with something," Nicky said, pulling away and smoothing down his shirt, "Good thing I held onto all those test results back when it wasn't just me."

Diana perked up, looking at the two men, then at the others in the room, as if needing clarification. "Wait, there were more of you? Us? The—"

"Hero of Heroes?" Nicky finished, eyebrow raised, "Yeah, how do you think I got where I am so fast? Well, that really just me. But there were others."

"What happened to them?" Peter asked, closing the notebook and setting all his books to one side.

Nicky pursed his lips, expression hardening into a blank stare. "Nothing we need to worry about now. Or anymore."

Diana reached out and took his hand, just holding it. He squeezed it, looking towards Rhett who looked at him sadly. Peter gave him an apologetic look, not trusting himself to speak.

"We weren't really called that," Nicky said, casting a joking smile over to Steve who tried and failed to share it, "That's just what I call us."

"Well, it sounds nice," Steve tried, and Nicky smiled, if not painfully.

Rhett cleared his threat, rubbing his arms. "So I guess we're doing this, huh?"

He watched as the others all looked at each other; Diana glancing over to Peter who nodded, squeezing her shoulder as she nodded towards Nicky who had just shared a look with Steve who nodded towards Peter.

His new battalion. This time, they would all make it out alive. He would make sure of it.

º º º

As Steve showered—he scarcely went home anymore, it seemed—Rhett and Nicky were in the kitchen.

"Do we really wanna bring the kids into this?" he asked, thinking back to Diana who had asked Nicky about the upgrades Tony had given her gauntlets and wings, "I mean, Peter just fought Toomes, and aren't we supposed to make sure he's alright? You know, for Tony?"

Nicky barely glanced up from where he was cooking pasta. "Diana loves you too much to just stay on the sidelines, it's not as if she's really going to be fighting. And Peter is here for emotional support."

Rhett reached out to run a finger along the man's arm. "Everyone's gonna be okay, right?"

Nicky shrugged. "As a professional, I can't give you something that definitive about something I'm unsure about, and, as your partner, I can't give you something that definitive because I love you."

Rhett sighed and dropped his head onto his shoulder. It was an interesting sight, if one was to look in. One man turned towards the stove, cooking, the other turned towards him, leaning against him. Someone looking in wouldn't have any clue that the two were using the other as an anchor and a float, keeping themselves down and up.

Rhett lifted his head, desperate and searching. "How do you even know this is going to work?"

The door to the bathroom opened and Nicky smiled wryly, glancing over his shoulder to where Steve was making his way into Rhett's room.

Leaning close, he whispered into Rhett's ear, "How do you think I knew to help you out on Thanksgiving?"

AUTHOR'S NOTE

( 01.03.18 )

This just in, if you didn't know from Lonely Hearts, Nicky is a sneaky little shit who never tells his friends anything unless it's convenient and has the most shock value.

This chapter was a lot shorter than most, but I think that's okay, because it just acknowledged Rhett's powers and is going to be the stepping off point towards the end of the story which I'm still trying to sort out, but I do know that, story wise, it ends around Christmas, which is like two weeks away in story time, if I remember correctly.

That's all I have to say so...thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!