“Come on in,” I said, “Welcome to the Devereaux Dungeon!”
Okay, maybe I was enjoying this a bit too much. My family really was crazy at the best of times. Mason seemed so introverted, I wasn’t entirely sure how he was going to handle our raucous crew. I settled my misgivings by planning to keep an extra close eye on him and help him if he got in too deep.
We walked into the house through the entryway that led into our large living room. The floors were wood, lovingly waxed until they shone. I’d spent many a long Saturday buffing those floors after getting caught in some kind of mischief.
Despite the warmth of the day, the night was already getting chilly and a fire was crackling in the hearth. The dining room table had been dragged to the center of the room, and I couldn’t help but smile at the clusters of my family that dotted the first floor.
I could see Mama D and Mama K in the kitchen working on something for dinner. Kaine and Bishop were bickering as they set the table up. They were laying out the battle mat, setting out dice bagsand towers and passing out copies of the D&D Players’ manuals. We were all planning on being here tonight except my sister, Weaver, who was in the Air Force. She was posted down at Wright Patterson Air Force Base. She’d been home on leave the previous week, so I didn’t expect to see her tonight.
“Hey guys!”I yelled over the bickering. “This is Mason.”
The room instantly went quiet, all eyes on us. Mason looked like he was about to puke, his face white as he stood in the doorway frozen under their gazes.
“Uh… Hi…” he squeaked, eyes wide as he took in the chaos.
“Mason, huh?” I saw Mama K walk over to him, wiping her hands on a kitchen towel. She looked him up and down, her eyes piercing. “So, you’re the comic book expert, right?” she asked, her voice still carrying a bit of a Spanish accent, even after all these years in Ohio.
Mama K was short, only about five feet two, and had a very petite frame. Her size had caused many opponents to underestimate her both on and off the mats. She was wearing an old Iron Man t-shirt, which showed the muscles in her arms to her advantage. She was tiny, but she was also fucking fast on the mats. I hated to spar with her when she was teaching self-defense classes, because I always ended up in the role of “threatening man who gets thrown on his ass” as the object lesson. Yep, with my parents, you learned real fast that size didn’t matter.
“Graphic novel,” Mason answered her almost automatically, “ …but, yeah.” He looked kind of terrified. Maybe I shouldn’t have teased him about the biting…
Mama K looked up at him and smiled that devious smile she had when she was up to something. She had long, dark curly hair, and her coloring reflected her Mexican heritage.
“Maybe you could answer a question for me then,” she paused.
I heard Mama D call out from the kitchen.
“Kyra, don’t you drag that boy into this!”
Mom glared back over her shoulder at her partner.
“Hush, D! I’m just asking him for his expert opinion. I’m allowedto ask questions, right?” she said, turning the full force of her innocent smile on him.
“Um,” Mason looked around, eyes scared. “…Yes?” His voice ended on an up note, like he wasn’t sure if that was the right answer.
“Good boy!” Mama K said, linking her arms through Mason’s and smiling, walking him into the living room. “So, who doyouthink would win if a villain made them fight: Iron Man or Captain America?”
I heard Mama D sigh and saw her shake her head, her braided blonde hair swaying back and forth as my mother tried to drag yet another unsuspecting bystander into their longstanding feud over which of the Marvel badasses would win in a fight.
“Um, neither?” Mason ventured, carefully extricating his arm from my mother’s and setting his backpack down next to the door. “I mean, think about it. As smart as Tony Stark is, he still has tons of flaws - alcohol addiction, women, etc. But his abilities with tech are almost magical.”
Mason’s eyes started shining as he began talking faster, obviously on a subject he felt comfortable with.
“Captain America, while all he has is the shield, can strategize way better than Tony can. So he can make use of all kinds of tools if needed to battle Tony, plus he’s got lots of friends,” he continued, “but the thing is, they wouldn’t everreallyfight each other…” he paused and held his finger up to stop Kaine as he tried to disagree. “…not for long, at any rate. They are bothreallysmart guys. If anyone tried to get them to fight each other, they’d probably figure it out pretty quickly, and then work together to turn the tables on the villain who caused it in the first place.”
The room when silent, and I saw Mama D smile as Mama K stood there, dumbstruck. She walked into the living room and smiled, her hand outstretched to shake Mason’s.
“I’m Diana. Welcome to the Devereaux Den. I think you’ll do just fine.”
10
Mason
I groanedand let my head fall until it landed on the wooden top of the dining room table.
“So, what did you roll?” Mama D asked solicitously, her voice carefully neutral as she peered over the top of her laptop at me. If I rolled anything except a one, we had the villain in the bag.
“…One.” I said, glaring at the offending dice.
