WHEN THEY ALL LAUNCHED I BECAME THEIR GOD

Chapter 10

She answered the call, keeping her voice clipped and businesslike. 

“I'm busy. I'll call you back later.”

She knew what Derek was going to say before he even said it. He'd been pestering her for days about  Damian's apartment. Now that Damian was gone, Derek probably wanted to know when she was going to sell it so they could split whatever money came from it.

She didn't have the energy to deal with that conversation right now.

Her finger moved toward the red button to end the call.

“No, no, no, no, no! Don't end the call! Don't end it!”

Derek's voice came through the phone so loud and frantic that Megan pulled it away from her ear slightly. Maxwell glanced over, one eyebrow raised.

“What's wrong with him?” Maxwell muttered.

Megan brought the phone back to her ear cautiously. “Derek, I said I'm—”

“Something strange happened!” Derek's voice was high-pitched, almost panicked. “You didn't tell me that good-for-nothing Damian is an awakener now! Why didn't you tell me?”

Megan's jaw tightened with irritation. “I'm not in the mood for this. I'm not in the mood for hearing whatever nonsense you're saying. I'll call you back later.”

She moved to end the call again, but Derek's voice exploded through the speaker before she could press the button.

“No, no, no, no, no! Don't end it! Hold on a minute!” Derek's words tumbled over each other in his panic. 

“You think I'm joking? Do you think this is me playing around? Seriously, why didn't you tell me that Damian has an awakened ability?”

Megan paused, her finger hovering over the screen. Something in Derek's voice the raw urgency, the genuine fear—made her hesitate. This wasn't his usual complaining or whining. He sounded... shaken.

“What the hell are you talking about?” She kept her tone skeptical, dismissive. “Is this some kind of joke? Are you serious right now?”

“I'm serious!” Derek's voice cracked. “I'm damn serious! You need to see what happened. Do you remember? You told me I could go sell that house and keep the money for myself. You said that.”

“So?” Megan's impatience bled through.

“So I figured you must have divorced that good-for-nothing bastard by now, right? So I went to the house today to check it out, get it ready to sell.” Derek's breathing was heavy, like he'd been running. “And to my surprise, he was there. Damian was there with that brat daughter of his.”

Megan's stomach clenched, but she kept her voice steady. “And?”

“And you know Marcus, right? My friend? The one whose family uses the Iron Fist techniques? The ones with insane physical strength?” Derek's voice climbed higher. “Marcus threw a punch at Damian—a full-power punch that could break concrete, and Damian took it like it was nothing. Didn't even flinch.”

“That's impossible,” Megan said flatly. “Damian doesn't have an ability. He's never awakened. He's—”

“Listen to me!” Derek shouted. “Damian defeated Marcus with just a slap. One slap, Megan! You needed to be there to see it. My friend as I'm speaking to you right now he's in a coma. He can't speak, can't move, nothing. All of his teeth are gone. The doctor said it's a miracle he even survived.”

The words hit Megan like ice water.

Her hand went numb around the phone. Her mind rejected what she was hearing even as something deep in her gut told her it was true.

“Are you serious about this?” Her voice came out smaller than she intended.

“Yes! Extremely serious! One hundred percent serious!” Derek's panic was palpable through the phone. “You never told me he had an awakened ability! You never warned me! I could have died, Megan! That bastard could have killed me!”

Megan's thoughts were spinning too fast to catch. Damian? Awakened? That was impossible. She'd lived with him for three years. She would have known. She would have sensed something, seen some sign—Unless he'd just awakened. Recently. Very recently.

Her breath caught.

The warehouse. The beating. She'd left him there broken and dying, blood pooling around his body, his hands crushed beyond repair.

And somehow he'd survived. Somehow he'd awakened. Somehow he'd.

“I'll call you back,” she said abruptly. “I'll call you back later.”

“Wait, Megan—”

She ended the call before Derek could finish, her hands shaking slightly as she lowered the phone.

Maxwell was watching her with a frown, one hand still on the steering wheel. “What was that about?”

Megan turned to face him, her eyes wide. 

“You wouldn't believe what just happened.” Her voice came out breathless, almost disbelieving. “That good-for-nothing bastard actually survived. And my brother just called me saying he's awakened an ability now.” She shook her head. “How is that even possible? How did he survive?”

Maxwell's expression went blank with shock. Then his face twisted with confusion and something that might have been fear.

“No.” He shook his head slowly. “This has to be a joke, right? How would he survive?” His hands tightened on the steering wheel. “My eyes my ability—it told me he had less than two minutes to live when we left that warehouse. His internal organs were failing. His bones were shattered. There's no way he could have survived that without immediate medical intervention.” His voice rose. “How would he survive miraculously? This has to be a joke. You're kidding me, right?”

Immediately Megan shook her head, her expression serious. “No, this doesn't sound like a joke. My brother is not sounding as if he's kidding. He told me that one of his friends got slapped by Damian and he's in a coma. And that friend of his is strong. He comes from a warrior family, a martial arts family that uses Iron Fist techniques. And he said Damian slapped him and he's in a coma now as we speak. How did he survive?”

At that moment Maxwell couldn't even say anything. He was just looking at Megan, utterly surprised. His mouth opened but no words came out.

Megan continued, her voice rising with disbelief. 

“How? Now he's awakened? That is not possible. I need to see this myself.”

Maxwell finally found his voice. He immediately brought out his phone, his fingers moving quickly across the screen as he made a call. After speaking briefly, he turned to Megan with a determined expression.

“We need to go to that house immediately and see it for ourselves. I need to understand what is going on.”