Kingdom of Heroes by Jay Phillips Page A

television.
    “Not in the past five minutes or so,” he answered, still standing five feet from the closed front door and staring at the place in amazement.
    “Then consider yourself told.” She pointed to a room to his immediate left. “The kitchen is right there. If you’re hungry, there’s food.”
    He was hungry and bloody, not to mention tired. Just a few hours ago, the thought of running around the city with a beautiful former super heroine, getting shot at, and discovering corpses all around the city was truly the last thing he thought he would be doing with his night. Life was strange. He walked into the massive kitchen. Food sat everywhere. There was fruit on the counter and fresh bread next to it; he opened a cookie jar shaped like a bear. It was filled to the top with homemade chocolate chip cookies--- not store bought, actual homemade cookies. He took a couple out and ate as he looked around.
    He walked over to the silver refrigerator and opened it. His jaw dropped open, nearly spilling the half eaten cookie from his mouth. He hadn’t seen this much food in one place in over a decade. The people of the world, neither the normals nor the super powered, didn’t live like this anymore. The war had cancelled trade practices throughout the globe. Economies didn’t support this kind of indulgence. No wonder this guy wanted to kill The Seven, he thought to himself. Maybe the guy was just hungry and was going to use murder as an excuse to raid their cabinets.
    Ice walked into the kitchen. “You find anything to eat?”
    “I found a cookie,” he answered, holding up one of the half eaten chocolate chip concoctions he held in his hand.
    “My personal chef, Juanita, makes those,” she said in return. “Aren’t they fucking delicious?”
    “I had a personal chef in prison,” he said, holding his hand over his mouth to cover the other half of the cookie he was still trying to chew. “His name was Bubba, and he personally poured a ladle of goop onto my tray three times a day, every day.”
    She stopped and looked over at him. “You were in an isolated containment unit in a maximum security prison for super powered individuals. I sincerely doubt there was anyone named ‘Bubba’ there.”
    “There was,” he replied, a slight smirk on his face. “He telekinetically pulled down the porch roof on his family’s double wide, killed his entire family and seven dogs.”
    She visibly tried to hold back a grin. “There are times I hate you.”
    “I know. That’s the usual reaction I get from pretty women.”
    “I can’t imagine why,” she said as she lightly chuckled under her breath.
    The doorbell rung. They both jumped a little as the sound echoed through the massive apartment.
    “That should be Fire,” she said as she walked to leave the kitchen and answer the door.
    “Can’t Jeeves get it?” he asked, knowing the reaction it would evoke.
    “Who the fuck is Jeeves?” she asked as a tiny smile appeared on her face. It was probably there, he assumed, against her will.
    “I just figured you would have a butler named Jeeves.” He followed her out of the kitchen to the living room. “You and Jeeves just made sense together. Maybe he could have married Juanita. Then you would have had a whole indentured servant family. It could’ve been sweet.”
    She looked through the peep hole. “It’s Fire. For God’s sake, please, just be quiet.”
    He put his forefinger next to his lips and made a sound like air leaking from a tire. “I’ll be good, but only because you asked so damn nicely,” he whispered.
    She shook her head from side-to-side and opened the door. A blond woman leapt through the door, throwing a bag on the floor and wrapping Ice in a tight hug.
    “Oh my God,” the blonde cried breathlessly. “Gabby, are you okay?” The blonde pushed Ice back a little and looked over her body, like a mother checking her toddler for boo-boos. “When you told me what happened, I was so worried about