Chapter 40: Luck Takes The Wheel

Chapter 40: Luck Takes The Wheel

A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next four chapters are up on my Patreon for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story!

This idea (a comment from one of my patrons heh) was just too good to pass up.

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Well, Thaddeus supposed there wasn’t much point in getting luck-based superpowers if he didn’t use them. And what better time to test them out than in a low stakes situation like this should be? Hopping in the hotel room’s shower, he quickly rinses off and then gets dressed. Then, as he’s heading for the door, Thaddeus focuses on that part of him that feels very, very lucky now... and drifts.

Rather than moving with the intent of getting back to ESU as fast as possible, he instead moves with the intent of seeing what fate itself has in store for him. He’s really letting Lady Luck take the wheel here, but seeing as she already got him into bed with two versions of Domino for the price of one, Thaddeus figures it’s worth giving her some leeway.

He soon finds himself in the elevator, but instead of heading for the garage floor to get a private car back to his dorm, his finger slips and he hits the button for the lobby of the hotel. Eyebrow raising at the obvious application of his new ‘super luck’, Thaddeus waits as the elevator makes its way down to the ground floor and then dings, opening up.

Nobody and nothing seems to be obviously waiting for him on the other side, so Thaddeus just keeps moving on his way, eyes sweeping over the lobby but ultimately his feet taking him towards the doors of the hotel themselves. Maybe he would run into someone just outside that he wouldn’t have otherwise by going to the garage? Or maybe-

“Hey good-looking! Come have a drink with us!”

Blinking, Thaddeus comes to a stop right at the front doors of the hotel, turning on his heel to look over at the hotel bar, where a group of three women are sat at a table. One of them, smiling brightly, is the one who called out to him and is waving him down even now. Oddly enough, there’s also an empty glass bottle on the table between them all, pointed unerringly in his direction.

Well, if this wasn’t an obvious sign, Thaddeus didn’t know what was. Smiling good-naturedly, he just shrugs and saunters over to the women, curious to see what Lady Luck had in store for him.

-x-X-x-

“We did try to warn you, Sue.”

“It was pretty obvious yeah... but still sucks. Sorry you’re dealing with this.”

As her friends both console her and do the ‘I told you so’ thing at the same time, Susan Storm just groans, slumped over the table in the hotel bar the three of them had chosen for this little... excursion. She’d been the one to call Janet and Jennifer to be fair, so this was her own fault in the end. But as Jennifer rubs soothing circles into her back, she can’t really bring herself to regret it. Even if they get to say they told her so, she appreciates their company in these trying times.

“... Yeah. I guess I was stupid for not seeing it earlier. I got so caught up in his brilliance, I suppose I just thought eventually he’d turn that brilliance onto me and give me the time of day, you know?”

Sue is well aware of Janet and Jennifer sharing a glance over the top of her slouched body.

“We know, honey.”

“How could we not know? You’ve literally spent years trying to make wedding bells happen.”

Sue groans at that, while Janet is quick to step in and try to soothe that particular ache.

“It’s a good thing you two didn’t wind up getting married, Sue. Breaking up is hard, but getting a divorce is a whole other ballgame. Little Leagues versus Major Leagues, by a long shot.”

“Yeah Janet is right. I haven’t done much in that area, but I know friends who handle divorce cases specifically and let me tell you, it ain’t no walk in the park most of the time.”

Sue tries not to get too huffy as she lifts her head and looks between her two friends. Out of everyone she knew, these two almost certainly knew what they were talking about when it came to divorce. Janet Van Dyne, aka the Wasp, had been forced to go through a somewhat acrimonious divorce with Hank Pym just a couple years back.

Meanwhile, Jennifer Walters, also known as She-Hulk, was a lawyer by trade, so when she talked about those friends of hers, she was talking about divorce lawyers who’d been in the thick of it.

All three of them were ‘dressed down’ for this occasion to hopefully avoid being recognized. Janet, fashionista that she was, was wearing a stylistic poncho-cape combo that hid her mutation, a pair of beautiful wasp wings, from view. Jennifer, meanwhile, was currently in her non-Hulk form, which while not exactly a secret identity, wasn’t nearly as recognizable or visible as She-Hulk was.

Sue, meanwhile, could only rely on a ball cap and a ponytail to try and hide her distinctive blonde looks. On top of that, she was wearing a brown jacket over a red top and a pair of black pants, about as far as she could possibly get from her signature blue jumpsuit when she was running around as the Invisible Woman, a member of the Fantastic Four.

“Sorry, can’t drink yet... legally, anyways.”

Jennifer and fate would apparently have her robbing the damn cradle! Sue lets out a low keening noise in the back of her throat, while Janet is the first to actually find her voice.

“How old are you, exactly, young man?”

Looking over at the brunette, he shrugs, his grin still remaining.

“Eighteen.”

“Oh! Well that’s alright then! Sit with us anyways! What’s your name, hunk?”

What?! What was Jennifer doing?! Sure, Sue herself was only in her early twenties and so was Jen, with Janet being the oldest of the three women in her late twenties... but hero work had a tendency to age you. They’d both been enough that sometimes it felt like they might as well be in their thirties or forties with the amount of life experience they’d all crammed into the past several years.

Some eighteen year old guy, no matter how handsome and hunky he was, could ever compare!

“I’m Thaddeus. And you all are?”

Huh? He didn’t even recognize them? Sue blinks a little owlishly at that as the now-named Thaddeus sits down at the table at Jennifer’s invitation and flashes them all a cheery smile. In response, the three of them all exchange glances, before Jennifer once again takes over.

“Ah, well I’m Jen, that’s Jan, and this here is Sue.”

Obvious nicknames meant to continue downplaying their real identities. But Thaddeus just takes it in stride with a chuckle.

“Alright then, you guys can call me Thad. So... what caused you to call me over by the way?”

Before Jennifer can answer that, Janet leans forward, peering at the young man.

“You... really don’t recognize us?”

Thad raises an eyebrow, shrugging his broad shoulders.

“Should I?”

But Jennifer is quick to wave that off.

“Haha! Don’t mind her. Jan is just a big fashion designer, Sue is a hot shot scientist, and I’m a pretty good lawyer. But honestly Jan, not everyone has to know everyone~”

There’s a deeper meaning to Jennifer’s voice that makes it clear what she’s trying to do. Specifically, she’s trying to get Sue laid still, with this handsome young man... but without him actually knowing who Sue is.

As Janet settles back, seemingly okay with this, Sue finds herself wondering if SHE’S okay with it. It would be one thing to hop into bed with another guy besides Reed... after all, she and Reed were broken up and it wasn’t like she’d hopped into bed with Reed at any point in recent memory. But to hop into bed under false pretenses... well, it was probably fine if it was just a one night stand sort of situation... right?

Jennifer is chatting the guy up, extolling Sue’s virtues while slowly working towards the idea of setting up a rebound. It’s obvious she’s playing the part of a wingwoman perfectly. But Sue finds herself indecisive. Was she seriously going to let this happen... or should she step in and put a stop to it? At the very least, she should probably be upfront with the guy if she’s really going to sleep with him...

-x-X-x- The Vote: [ ] Sue shuts this all down, she's not going along with it! - 2%[ ] Before they go any further, Sue tells Thad who she is at least - 9%[ ] Sue waits until she and Thad inevitably wind up in private and then tells him - 34%

[X] She doesn't tell him, they don't need to know each other for a simple one-off - 56%

-x-X-x-

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