14| SINGING TO A MINOTAUR ENDS THE MISSION

[ Chapter Fourteen ]

❝Yeah, sorry, I just wanted to make sure you were okay.❞

[Tender Is the Nate]

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Myra ditched her gun in the weapons room before heading to her own to grab her sword, while Sara and Nate took Hank to the med-bay.

Once she'd grabbed it, she headed to the library, where John was supposedly starting research. Sure enough, John was sitting in the library.

"Myra. How were the 1920s?" John asked, greeting her as she walked in.

"Not as fun as I'd hoped, but then again, I spent an annoying amount of time in the catacombs, with two men whose egos would be too large for even this ship to contain." Myra said, and perched herself on one of the desks, setting her sword beside her.

John nodded at her, clearly amused, "I take it from Hank's little trip to the medbay, it didn't go quite as planned."

"You could say that." Myra nodded, "Men and their refusal to gather information before launching themselves straight into danger." Myra suddenly got a whiff of a smell that was not pleasant, "What are you doing, John?"

"Creating an artificial musk of a female Minotaur." John said simply.

"Sounds great." Myra said sarcastically, "Smells even greater."

John chuckled at that but they were interrupted as the others walked in.

"We need to bag ourselves a Minotaur before your dad gets himself killed." Sara stated, as Nate and Charlie walked in behind him.

Myra turned to look at them and widened her eyes at Charlie's outfit before murmuring, "Damn."

"Ugh.What is that smell?" Nate groaned, covering his nose, "What is that smell? Did you guys get a team dog without me, because that was my idea. Bet you guys are having post mission pizza parties now too."

"This is the artificial musk of a female Minotaur." John said, standing up, "See, Minotaurs have a very sharp sense of smell when it comes to tracking prey, but with this little bad boy, I can lure it in by convincing it I'm a potential mate."

"Aww." Myra teased him.

"Then what? You two gonna ride off together, get a nice little flat in Soho?" Charlie teased, and Myra bumped fists with her.

"It's good." Sara nodded, "But we still need a way to tame it and get it to the Bureau."

Nate snapped his fingers, "Taming the Beast. I read about this. I read about this." He bent down to look at the shelves before grabbing a book, "Here we go. 'To ease the Minotaur's rage, his mother would play him a lullaby, on a lute built by Daedalus."

"That's it. We'll lure it out and lull it to sleep." Sara nodded.

"No one gets hurt. Not even the Minotaur." Charlie agreed.

Sara snapped at Myra, "Can you play a lute?"

Myra shook her head, "I can play piano but no string instruments, unfortunately."

"I'll do it." Nate nodded and smiled, "And then we'll have a pizza party."

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Once the group had made a pretty solid plan, they made their way back into the parlour where they found Hank, messing with their D&D board.

"Back on your feet already, Hank?" Sara asked.

"Your gal patched me up real good. I'm just running through our strategy." Hank responded, pointing to the board.

"Oh wait, you let him use our 'D&D' miniatures?" John asked, looking at Zari.

"No, I didn't let him touch Cyndra, Lord of the Dhark Elves." Zari responded.

"You guys 'D&D' without me too?" Nate asked.

Everyone looked sympathetically at him and nodded.

"Son, why are you holding a tiny guitar, or do I even want to know?" Hank asked.

"Oh this-this is a lute." Nate explained.

Mick suddenly woke up from his chair, "Did someone say loot?"

Myra rolled her eyes at him.

"This is what we're going to use to put the Minotaur to sleep." Nate explained further.

"It's actually pretty genius." Myra nodded.

"I thought you said that was loot?" Mick asked.

"I don't understand." Hank said.

"Well, I suppose it is more of a lyre." John explained.

"Everyone's a liar." Mick added.

"This is how we're going to catch our creature, dad." Nate finished.

"That's your plan?" Hank asked.

"Yeah." Nate nodded.

"We're facing a literal monster and you think you can destroy it with a lute?" Hank asked, not impressed.

"Well, in the hands of a master, a lute is a formidable weapon. Just look at Sting, mate." John added.

"Sorry to interrupt but there's a change in the timeline. An attack at Cafe du Dome is imminent. There will be no survivors." Gideon interrupted.

"The Minotaur must be tracking Hemingway's scent." John explained.

"Let's move out." Hank instructed but Nate stepped in front of him, "Nathaniel, get out of my way."

"I don't have to do what you say anymore, Hank." Nate said.

"Really? Because as your superior, I'm telling you to stand down." Hank responded.

Myra looked sympathetically at her best friend. It wasn't easy having your parents tell you what to do, especially as a grown adult, but it was even harder to have your friends watch while they did.

"You're going for the superior thing again. You know, you don't want to listen to me, or understand me. You just want to be better than me." Nate said.

"Well you're one to talk about listening." Hank argued, "You've ignored every lesson, I've ever tried to teach you."

Myra quickly moved to the side of John, and tried not to pay too much attention to the argument happening in front of them.

"Because it's the same lesson over and over again." Nate argued back, "You want me to be more like you Hank. But guess what, I'm not like you. I don't like televised golf, or Tom Clancy books or 70s folk rock. I don't know if you happened to notice, but I'm a grown-ass superhero, who's just trying to play the lute for a Minotaur."

"Fine, don't want to listen to your old man?" Hank said and turned to Sara, "Maybe you'll listen to your Captain."

"Sorry, but I'm with Nate." Sara said, "I know his idea sounds crazy, but he's right. That's what makes him a Legend, no matter where he is. Look, you said you wanted to see a Legends mission. Well, you're about to, and if it goes wrong, well, you go ahead and fire all of us."

Despite herself, Myra had to grin at that.

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Once they got to Cafe du Dome, the Minotaur was already there but they were ready.

"Oy, fuzzball." John called, "Come and have a whiff of this, will you?"

The others looked at Nate who was holding the lute.

"Alright that's your cue." Sara instructed.

"You can do this." Myra smiled, encouragingly at him.

"Okay." Nate nodded, and moved over to John's side, "I haven't had much time to rehearse, but-"

Nate started playing a simple lullaby which started to make the Minotaur sleepy. The Minotaur collapsed to his knees, and Myra thought that it was a mission well done, however Hemingway moved behind him and lifted a gun.

"NO." Sara rushed towards him, kicking his gun so it pointed to the ceiling instead of the Minotaur.

"I'm warning you, I will strike a woman!" Hemingway yelled, lifting his fist, but Sara backhanded him, making him fall to the ground.

"That's for being on my summer eighth grade reading list." Sara said, smirking.

The Minoutar suddenly stood up and growled, staring right at John and Nate.

"Uh guys." Nate exclaimed.

The Minoutar hit Nate straight in the chest with his axe, sending Nate flying into a nearby table. Myra watched in horror, but knew he'd be okay because of his Steel side.

When the Minotaur hit, John, though she screamed, "John!"

Myra unsheathed her sword, twirling it around in one hand before she rushed the Minotaur. However, she wasn't fast enough, and the Minotaur hit her sending her sprawling onto the floor. She winced, watching as the Minotaur destroyed several tables.

"Get behind the bar!" Sara yelled, at several people, before rushing the Minotaur with a chair. The chair effectively startled the Minotaur but he retaliated. Sara quickly dove behind another bar.

Myra got up, and grabbed her sword, "Hey! Over here!"

The Minotaur turned away from Sara to face her and she grinned, "Come on, come get me."

She quickly twirled out of reach as the Minotaur approached her and swung her sword in the direction of his legs, effectively stunning the Minotaur for a moment. However, the Minotaur quickly lost interest in her distraction and started for the artist who had drawn them the original picture. Myra got ready to rush it again, but Hank's voice caught her ear.

"Hey! You leave that weirdo alone!" Hank called, "Your fight is with me!"

Myra's eyes widened as the Minotaur changed trajectory and moved towards Hank. She knew Hank wouldn't be able to defend himself against it.

"Toro!" Nate yelled from the other side of the room, shaking a red table cloth.

"Are you seriously trying the bull fighting technique right now?" Myra called.

"It's worth a shot." Nate defended and clicked his tongue, "Come on. Now the dance begins."

Nate quickly turned to steel as the Minotaur charged him and pushed him up against a wall.

"That's my boy!" Hank yelled proudly.

However, Nate's upper hand didn't last long as the Minotaur quickly lifted him with one hand around his throat, causing Nate to turn back to normal.

"Nate!" Myra called, readying herself to fight the Minotaur again, however, Hank beat her to it.

"Over here!" Hank called, grabbing a guitar from the floor as he started to strum it.

The Minotaur quickly dropped Nate to the floor and while he was distracted, Myra ran over to his side, helping him up.

"Hey, are you okay?" Myra asked as she looked him over, and then looped an arm through his, to make sure he didn't fall over.

Nate nodded, staring at his dad who was now singing. John and Sara walked over to them and looked at Hank, obviously confused.

"What is happening?" Sara asked.

"James Taylor." Nate responded, "And it's good."

The Minotaur walked slowly over to Hank as he continued singing. Nate nudged Myra and they walked over to Hank where Nate whispered, "You got this Dad."

Myra gave him an encouraging smile as Hank sang until the Minotaur fell down on the floor, clearly asleep.

"Now that is how you finish a Legends mission!" Sara exclaimed, impressed.

"You did good, son." Hank smiled at Nate.

"Right back at you." Nate nodded.

"I learned it from you, Nathaniel." Hank responded.

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Once back on the ship, Myra prepared to say goodbye to Nate, before he went back to the Bureau.

"So, I guess you're going to work full time at the Bureau now." Myra said, crossing her arms over her chest, and staring at him.

"I mean, maybe not forever, but yeah." Nate nodded.

"I'm going to miss you so much." Myra said, "But, I will come visit, obviously."

He laughed, "Yeah, you can come whenever."

"I plan on it." Myra nodded.

"Come on." Nate said, opening his arms to hug her.

Myra laughed and hugged him back, "I love you."

"I love you too, Myr." Nate smiled before pulling back, "I should probably talk to Sara before I go."

"Of course." Myra nodded, "I'll see you around."

Myra deposited her sword in her room before changing her clothes and going into the kitchen where there were boxes of pizza on the counter, and the other Legends, minus Sara and Nate were gathered.

"Yes." Myra smiled and sat down, next to John, before grabbing a piece of pizza and a beer, "You guys started without me?"

"I mean-" Zari shrugged.

"I'm kidding, Z." Myra laughed, taking a sip of her beer.

"Yeah, it's a pizza party!" Sara called as she walked into the room followed by Nate, who hadn't gone back to the Bureau yet.

"Hey!" Everyone called as Nate brought another round of beers to the table.

"Welcome back, ugly." Mick said.

"Yes, so what other bright ideas are you going to leave us with before you, uh, bugger off?" John asked, grabbing another beer.

"Softball team!" Nate said, opening his beer.

"Oh no, only electronic sports." Zari shook her head.

"Pinata Fridays." Nate added.

"How many times do I have to say no to that." Sara asked.

Myra grabbed another slice of pizza, having already devoured her first, but nodded, "Yeah, that's a no."

"Unionizing." Nate said, leaning in to Sara.

"Ooh. Don't let Hank hear you say that." Sara teased.

"You know, it's still weird not having you around." Ray said sadly and everyone nodded.

"Aw,man. I'll always be right there big guy, in that giant heart of yours." Nate said softly and then looked at everyone, "And I'll be at the Bureau. So you guys can literally stop by whenever you want." He moved to face the table, "But you know, before I go, I do want to say one thing. When I first stepped onto this ship, I was you know, trying to get away from all my baggage back home, and I can't believe I'm going to say this, Hemingway once wrote, 'Can't get away from yourself by moving from one place to another.' And thanks to you guys, I don't have to run anymore. Being here with you all has turned me into the man I need to be, and uh, this place is special. And you never know when it's going to be over. So, I say, Legends, enjoy the ride while it lasts."

"Hear hear." Sara said, holding up her beer, "Cheers."

Everyone held up there's and cheered in the middle while Nate walked over to speak to Charlie.

Myra grinned at all of them, happy to be with her friends.

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After the pizza party and Nate had left for the Bureau, it was pretty late and Myra found herself knocking on Charlie's door.

"Myra?" Charlie asked, looking her up and down as if she had never seen her before.

"Yeah, sorry, I just wanted to make sure you were okay." Myra said, kind of embarrassed.

"I'm fine." Charlie scoffed.

"Sorry, I just meant that you looked really out of place today and I wanted to see if you needed anything." Myra said.

Charlie raised an eyebrow, "I mean, I was kept in a cage until a little while ago, so yeah, I do feel out of place, but don't worry, I'm fine."

Myra rolled her eyes at her, "Okay, next time, I won't say anything. I was just trying to be nice." Myra shook her head, and made to leave but Charlie grabbed her arm.

"Are you sure there's nothing else you wanted?" Charlie asked, licking her lips slowly.

Myra gulped, her cheeks flushing a little but she shook her head, "No, I don't think there's anything else."

Charlie groaned, "Alright, I guess I'll go to sleep now." She stepped backwards, but Myra grabbed her hand.

"Wait." Myra groaned and then whispered, "Oh screw it," before she stepped forward and kissed her.

Charlie's lips tasted like beer and something sweet that Myra couldn't place. When Charlie finally started kissing her back, Myra immediately gasped and Charlie took the opportunity to smirk and deepen the kiss. When the two came up from air, Myra glanced shyly at the door, scared to ask the question aloud, but at Charlie's nod, she pressed the button, and closed the door.

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Word Count: 2607

Hey guys! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Sorry, it's a day late, but it's a relatively long one.

(The gif at the top was made by me. Please do not steal it.)

What did you guys think? What about that ending scene? (I originally was going to put that kind of scene in the a later chapter, but I just rolled with it)

I love you all and will see you soon with chapter 15.

POSTED ON:

9. 30. 20