[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/rFsVPbQ.png[/img][/center]
[center][b][url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5191022]Previously On Create-A-Hero[/url][/b][/center]
[center][b]Aubrey Adkins | Will Grant[/b][/center]
[center][b]One Day Before the Arlaaekan Invasion[/b][/center]
[center][b]Columbus, OH[/b][/center]

	The wedding reception was in full swing. All the guests had already consumed their dinner and endured listening to the the embarrassing stories from the best man and the maid of honor. Once the bride and the groom had concluded the first dance, many guests stormed the dance floor. With a mix of both recent hits and classic beats, everyone had something to dance to.

	After several songs had passed, I dragged Will back to the table where we had been seated for much of the reception so I could take a quick break before returning to the dance floor. We both relaxed in our seats and began sipping on the water we had left over from dinner. Yet Will’s sister, Sarah, had already beaten us to the table long before I even thought to retire from the dance floor. Her eyes were glued to her cell phone.

	However, before I could take advantage of my break, I noticed a crowd of women were gathering on the main floor. The bride was among them and holding a bouquet. It was obvious that the bouquet throw was about to happen. I don’t know where she came from, but Will’s mother had noticed that we were still at the table.

	“Sarah, go join your cousins,” Mrs. Grant ordered her daughter once she had arrived at our table. “You, too, Aubrey.”

	Sarah groaned as she rolled her eyes and pulled herself out of her chair. I just shrugged my shoulders and stood up. Before I headed towards the crowd of women, I turned to Will for a brief moment.

	[color=b22222]“I’ll be right back. Don’t let anyone steal my seat.”[/color]

	We just barely arrived at where the other ladies were gathered before the bride released the bouquet. Sarah and I were lounging on our feet in the back since we were late arrivals. Sarah was still preoccupied with her cell phone, showing how little she cared. One the bundle of flowers were released, it tumbled through the air, end over end. Just like a Hail Mary pass attempted at the end of a tight football game, some girls in front of us tried to leap up and snatch the bouquet out of the air. However, they weren’t blessed with the catching ability of an NFL-caliber receiver. The floral prop was tipped off their hands and tossed further backwards.

	Through sheer luck, the bouquet just so happened to have ricocheted right into my arms. I honestly did not know what had happened until I realized I was holding those flowers in my hands. I cracked an awkward smile as I held the bouquet, since it felt like everyone’s eyes were locked on me. The rest of the ladies begrudgedly dispersed after they had failed to secure the prize.

	Well, almost everyone was disappointed to some degree, at least.

	“Thank God it didn’t come my way,” Sarah muttered as she walked back towards her seat, still looking at her phone. “Who really wants some rando stranger putting their hands up your skirt. Or worse, one of my cousins. Gross!”

	As I skirted over to the side, all the bachelors took the floor. Instead of a garter that’s usually tossed after the bouquet, Will’s cousin was holding a standard football. Will mentioned to me his cousin had played quarterback at a small, local college, so this choice was not entirely out of left field. This change in tradition probably was for the best, for, if I am to be honest, throwing a used garter into a throng of singles guys is kind of weird.

	Anyways, Will’s cousin wound up and placed a perfect touch on the ball. The football drilled through the air in a perfect spiral. Yet, the lob was not heading towards the mass of men in the center of the room. Instead, just like a pitcher who had tossed the ball to the first baseman to tag out a runner trying to get a head start to second base, he threw the football to somebody standing several feet to the side of the rest of the guys: it was Will. I wouldn’t have been surprised if this was planned after I caught the bouquet.

	After Will caught the football, it was time for the last wedding tradition related to the bouquet and garter. I’ll be honest, since Will’s not the most athletic person in the world, I was praying the ball wouldn’t beam him in the face or something like that; I was relieved when he caught it. A chair had been pulled out to the main floor. Once I had taken a seat, one of the bridesmaids handed Will a garter. Once Will slipped the garter past my ankle, I wasn’t surprised when he stopped right above my knee. While I am clearly not a telepath, I knew Will well enough to guess that he was too shy or embarrassed to have his hands up the skirt of my dress while a room filled with hundred of guests were watching. I yanked up on the garter through the fabric of my dress until it felt comfortable, if wearing someone else’s garter could ever be described as such.

	An applause erupted in the hall after this ceremony had completed. The DJ restarted the music to entertain the wedding guests until the cake was ready to be cut by the bride and the groom. I therefore dragged Will back onto the dance floor.

	As we danced, a [url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/4475312]memory[/url] from one of my parallel selves flashed in my head. I found myself back at my senior prom, or rather this Aubrey’s senior prom. Nostalgia filled my ears as Lady Gaga’s recorded voice belted the verses of [i]Just Dance[/i] through the music speakers.

	Yet not everything was right that night. The sky glowed with an eerie green tint and the screams of confused teenagers filled the air. Doctor Diplodoc’s metahuman domes had already started to mutate random individuals. I began to panic as I realized that the skirt of my prom dress, now in tatters, revealed my arachnid lower body.

	“Are you alright?” I heard Will ask me. His voice immediately snapped me out of this dreamlike state and dropped me back into the wedding reception. 

	[color=b22222]“Just peachy,”[/color] I replied while I formed a smile on my face. Yet, while this vision was not exactly how I received my powers, even reliving that Aubrey’s experience left me a little unnerved.  So, I tried to distract myself with the festivities of the reception. Nothing bad could happen here.

	Right?

[hr]
[center][b]Day of the Arlaaekan Invasion[/b][/center]
[center][b]The Columbus Zoo & Aquarium[/b][/center]
[center][b]Powell, Ohio[/b][/center]

	On the day after the wedding, Will and I decided to take the opportunity to visit the Columbus Zoo once more before we needed to start flying back West. Sure, we have the San Diego Zoo on the West Coast, but, as native Ohioans, nothing quite compares to the Columbus Zoo. This is especially true considering how much the zoological park had developed over the past couple decades.

	Once we had finished strolling through both the Congo Expedition and Australia & Islands sections of the park, we started to head back towards the Shores & Aquarium section so we could venture through the Eastern portion of the zoo. As we were passing by the carousel, we made a quick stop at the Aldabra Tortoise exhibit, even though we had seen it on our way into this side of the zoo.

	The carnival music and the laughter of children from the zoo-themed carousel filled the air around us. The two tortoises on the other side of the fence meandered around their pin, like a bunch of Sunday drivers in a hurry to go nowhere. One was chowing down on some leafy greens, while the other seemed like it was trying to find just the right spot for basking in the sun. They looked like they didn’t have a care in the world. And why would they? They were a bunch of turtles.

	[color=b22222]“I won’t lie, but when I caught that bouquet, I thought your family was going to drag us to the altar right there and then.”[/color]

	“I think they were just relieved that you actually existed,” Will answered me back.

	I then reached out and placed my hand on top of Will’s as it rested on the fence in front of us. Yet, out of the corner of my eyes, I noticed something peculiar happen. Both of the Aldabra tortoises, almost as if they were doing it synchronized, stopped what they had been doing and turned their heads up towards the sky. I always thought turtles were supposed to be slow and lumbering animals, but I was surprised at how quickly these little guys withdrew their legs and heads into their shells.

	[color=b22222]“What got them all spooked?”[/color]

	“Some animals can sense bad weather from miles away, but we’re in the middle of Ohio and there’s barely a cloud in the sky.”

	Then our cell phones began to buzz inside our pockets. When I saw the news notifications that had popped up on my phone’s screen, I couldn’t believe what I read. Several cities worldwide were blow off the face of the earth in a mere instance. And apparently aliens were behind all this destruction. From the murmuring from the other zoo guests, it sounded like they couldn’t comprehend the possibility of little green men going all nuclear on our planet, but considering the things I have seen, I don’t think anything would surprise me nowadays.

	But when in the distance, just within eyeshot, a single Arlaaekan ship zoomed past the city of Columbus, as if it were either just scouting for the rest of the invasion fleet, or trying to spread fear by its mere presence, reality quickly set in for everyone. Confusion broke out as parents tried to scoop up their children and families were rushing this way and that. Everyone wanted to save whatever was dear to them.

	“So, I guess you gotta do your thing now?” Will finally spoke up after he too saw the news reports. Although he did not say it with words, his face and the tone of his voice painted an entirely different picture: one of fear and anxiety.

	I wasn’t sure what made me do what I was about to say. Maybe the impending alien apocalypse drove the words out of my lips. Or maybe the decade’s worth of memories from my elseworld counterparts influenced my decision. Whatever the cause was, the words just slipped out.

	[color=b22222]“Let’s get married,”[/color] I blurred out.

	“Wait, what?” Will asked.

	[color=b22222]“Will you marry me?”[/color]

	My heart sunk as I saw Will drag his feet with a response. Certainly I had popped the question way too quickly. With all the scattered memories of my parallel universe selves in my head, it was easy to forget that our relationship had only begun back in March. Yet those memories made it seem like we’ve been together for years. Heck, I even have a memory of another Will proposing to me.

	Or maybe Will wasn’t as comfortable with my spider side as he made himself seem to be. Having a sexy spider girl as a girlfriend was one thing, but he might not be ready to commit himself to a life with an eight-legged freak like me. How could I not see this coming? Will always insisted on sleeping on the couch whenever he visited. Did he not want to wake up next to a ginormous spider? Sure, the girl of his dreams was attached to that spider, but there still was that giant monster.

	[color=b22222]“You know what, forget I mentioned it,”[/color] I muttered as I turned away from Will. [color=b22222]“I’m sure Athena will be here soon.”[/color]

	“Aubrey, wait,” Will said. He reached out and grabbed my wrist. Yet, he didn’t yank on my arm.

	[color=b22222]“It’s okay, Will. I jumped too quickly into this.”[/color]

	“No, no. Let’s do it,” Will answered back. I could tell the sincerity in his eyes and his voice. “But I don’t want our love to be rooted in fear. We’re not making this commitment just because aliens are raining out of the sky. I want this proposal to be a pledge of hope: a promise that, after you and your friends have kicked these little green men off our front lawn, we will have a future together.”

	As soon as Will had finished speaking, I threw my arms over his shoulders and planted a kiss on his lips. My heart was no longer burdened by the anxiety over whether I jumped the gun by popping the question. Sure, we looked out of place while everyone else were panicking over the alien invasion, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t about ready to allow anyone, including little green men, to ruin our moment.

	[color=b22222]“We still have the same priest at our parish when you used to live here,”[/color] I mentioned after we parted lips. [color=b22222]“I’m sure we could ask him to tie the knot for us.”[/color]

	“Maybe we should stop at the courthouse first. I’m sure we’re not the only ones who thought of this idea.”

	[color=b22222]“Oh, right. I guess we better get going.”[/color]