The brother in arms

10:32 a.m.

After a night of making up to the Edge matriarch, Raven had taken the liberty of doing something he had not done in quite a while: sleep in. Sharon had made sure the boys didn’t disturb the peaceful sleep of their father, waking up a few hours earlier to prepare breakfast and get the boys settled. She even caved in by letting the two play the Xbox 360; Raven was a deep sleeper, so she didn’t have to worry about noise waking him up, as long as they didn’t turn the volume too loud. Despite those precautions, however, there was one person she couldn’t stop from waking her husband, one that would not be denied no matter what she did.

“Baby,” Raven moaned as he turned deeper into the soft mattress of he and his wife’s kind sized bed, noticeably sniffing the air in his lethargic state. “Why does it smell like weed in here?” Raven turned over again, this time pulling the comforter over his head in an attempt to block out the smell that permeated his nostrils.

‘Three, two, one,’ a tall person, heavily resembling Raven from his facial features to his build, thought. As a matter of fact, the only truly noticeable differences in this man and Raven were the differing hairstyles, as this man sported a low, tight fade, as well as a slightly darker complexion. The biggest difference, though, was that he had the same tattoo that Raven sported, but it was on his left forearm rather than his right. ‘You always were a light sleeper Rave,’ he thought with a devious grin before taking one final drag off of the marijuana stuffed cigarette that was hanging from his lip, purposely blowing the smoke towards Raven’s head.

‘Wait,’ Raven suddenly thought, now wide awake. ‘Sharon doesn’t smoke weed.’ Raven’s eyes suddenly snapped wide open as he realized where, or in better terms, who, the THC infused smoke was coming from. “Jazz!” Raven yelled, throwing the covers that were over his head off, in the same motion sitting up to look into the eyes of his amused older twin brother. “The hell are you doing here?”

Jasper shook his head as he chuckled at his brother. “You forgot, already?” The only answer he received from Raven was a confused look as the man wiped the sleep from his eyes. “You sent me a message last night? From your work phone?”

“Oh, right,” Raven said, suddenly remembering his attempt at calling Jasper the day prior before leaving the Illumination Church, but it was met with the pleasant sound of his brothers voice mail, hence the message. “We need to talk; I need your help.”

“With?” Jasper asked, a critical look in his eye as he relit the marijuana cigarette.

“Let me get dressed and get some coffee in my system,” Raven said. “I’ll meet you downstairs so we can sit down for this one.” Raven started to get out of bed, but stopped himself upon noticing the lack of movement from his brother. “Do you mind?”

Jasper let a laugh out as he exited the room, shutting the door behind him in the process. ‘Still the same Raven,’ he thought as he made his way downstairs to the kitchen. ‘Wonder what he needs me for this time.’

______________________________________________________

Jasper had not come alone, as Raven soon found out, being blitzed by the combination of his two kids, as well as Jasper’s twelve year old son Taji the second he walked out of his room. Taji, known also as the Taj Mahal to his closer family members, was similar to Roman and Quinton, both in being a futuristic clone of a younger Jasper, as well as his natural physical prowess that came with being Draco. As was usually the case, Taji had a nice looking camera strung around his neck, there for the purposes of Taji's budding photography skills. Right now though, it was being used by the youth to record the three kids' attempt to catch Raven off guard..

Unfortunately, it was next to impossible for the three boys to catch a man with the amount of experience Raven had by surprise, even as a unit, which resulted in the Exemplar catching Taji midair with his left hand in the latter’s attempt to jump at his face, in one motion tossing the boy down the hall as he simultaneously used his right to hold back Quinton from grabbing at his waist. Roman had tried to follow up their surprise attack, but that was thwarted by a ‘light’ spin kick from Raven, whilst tossing Quinton into a just recovering Taji, leaving all three boys in a crumpled heap. “Nice try,” Raven said with an amused grin as the boys moaned from the slight pain of Raven’s counterattack, but more from the failure they had suffered at his hands. “But you’re leagues away from my level.”

“You and Dad are no fair Uncle Rave,” Taji said, holding his head from where it had hit the wall. “Can’t you at least let us get you one time?”

Raven raised an eyebrow at the request. “I could,” he said, the response immediately placing a hopeful look on the faces of the three boys. “But then it wouldn’t be earned, now will it?” Raven gave Quinton a pat on the head to keep him from pouting as the older boys recovered and made their way down the steps. “You’ll get me one day, just not today. Now where did your uncle run off to?”

Quinton pointed to the stairwell to direct his father. “He and Auntie Shonda are in the living room with Mom.” Raven started to move, but Quinton grabbed him by the arm, not finished with his explanation. “Warning; Uncle Jazz all but destroyed the pancakes Mom made this morning.”

“Thanks for the heads up,” Raven said with a grimace. “Now he can pay for the take out I was going to order for lunch.” With that, Raven suddenly came up with a plan to get back at his brother; Jazz had a habit of doing little things that he knew would irk Raven, and finishing off his breakfast ranked up at the top. “Q, can you do me a favor, real quick? I got a prank of my own for your uncle.” Raven had Quinton the second the word prank came out of his mouth, with the young boy instantly all ears. “That’s what I like to see,” Raven said with a mischievous grin that was mirrored by his youngest. “Now, here’s what I need you to do for me…”

_______________________________________________________

“There he is,” Jasper said with a wave from the comfortable seat of Raven’s massive black leather couch, seated next to a beautiful, darker skinned woman with light hazel eyes and long black braids tied up in a bun, his wife LaShonda, who was leaning into his chest as she and Sharon watched the antics of the problem riddled individuals on Maury from the massive flat screen set up in the living room. “Finally got the sleep out of your system?”

“Screw you Jazz,” Raven said, narrowing his eyes at his brother in mirth. “Eating up my breakfast before I have the chance to even smell it.”

“I told him he could,” Sharon said as she waved Raven over to the love seat that she was seated in, placing a loving kiss on his lips when he reached her. “He just had to promise that he would cook up breakfast for you two; it wasn’t like the boys spared any mercy on the breakfast I cooked earlier.”

“Figures,” Raven said, hopping over the back of the loveseat to sit next to his wife. “At least we get to eat some of Jazzo’s fine home cooking.” Raven had no qualms with that proposition, as Jasper happened to be an accomplished chef who owned his own diner in his hometown of Penns Grove, with a wall of awards for his craft nearly filled in his own home. “So Jazz, what’s on the menu? I’m starving?”

“It’s a surprise bro,” Jasper said with a grin before giving his wife a kiss. “But before that, you said we needed to talk business, right?” With that, the two women stood up, having an idea on what kind of business Jasper was referring to. LaShonda, like Sharon, knew about her husband’s Sovrumano roots, as well as Raven’s second occupation as Exemplar, and was used to Raven calling his brother for advice or assistance on that end.

“Well,” LaShonda said, putting her small cream colored purse on her shoulder. “While you boys talk, us girls are going out to the city. You know, shopping, girl stuff?”

“Don’t get hurt,” Jasper said playfully with a wink as LaShonda pushed his head forward. “Just messing around babygirl; you girls go have a good time.”

Sharon and LaShonda had matching grins as the two made their way to the front door. “Don’t worry Jazzo, we can take care of ourselves. The benefit of having strong men like yourselves for husbands is learning how to defend ourselves right?” With that, the women made their way to depart, leaving the two men by themselves so they could talk.

A silence reigned through the room for a minute as Raven gathered his thoughts, trying to find the best way to ask his brother for the help that he needed. Unbeknownst to him, however, it was not needed. “So I hear the Illuminati found themselves something special; mind filling a brother in?” Jasper chuckled a bit upon seeing the look of surprise on Raven’s face. “C’mon,” Jasper said. “You didn’t think I would just drive two and a half hours up here for nothing did you? Your message came a few minutes after Saraya had given me a heads up.”

Raven outright laughed at that; leave it to Saraya to be the one who would pre-empt him. “So what did she tell you?” he asked after getting over his fit of laughter.

Jasper flashed Raven a knowing look before speaking. “She didn’t say much, only that one of the lost relics of the Scions had resurfaced smack in the middle of Ut Puri’s latest conquest, and that you’ve been tasked with its recovery.” Jasper paused to withdraw a small sack of marijuana from his pocket, pulling out a couple of buds to grind up with the decorative hand muller that was sitting on the coffee table in front of him. “Now,” Jasper said as he continued to prepare the weed. “If I know you, and trust me, I do, you called me to ask for back up, am I right?”

“Smart a*s,” Raven said with a small grin as his eyes flashed around the room, making sure none of the kids were in the living room. “But you’re right on the money; I do need your help. In a situation like this, we usually would send in a specialized team, but the person who currently possesses the relic made it clear that he would relinquish it to no one else but an Exemplar. So will you help me out here, as a brother helping a brother?”

Jasper finished grinding up the weed before he made an attempt to answer him. “You still got that beast killer bong from college?” he asked, looking around for said bong.

“I do,” Raven answered with a small smirk as he got up, walking over to the closet to the left of the tv to retrieve it. “House rules still apply by the way big bro.” Raven held up the device, a two and a half foot blown glass two hose bong that was fashioned with the likeness of a roaring medieval dragon, with a visible degree of pride before siting it in front of his brother. The two brothers had won it in their college years from a sophomoric bet, that being who could consume the most marijuana without passing out. The heightened resistance to THC that the brothers possessed from their Draco Supremo heritage, coupled with both men’s avid consumption of the plant, all but guaranteed them that win. Yes, though Raven was an Exemplar and a college professor, he too smoked weed on a near daily basis, finding nothing wrong with the plant that was ludicrously labeled as a Schedule one drug, although his own consumption paled in comparison to Jasper’s, who smoked it to the degree one would a cigarette.

“Good,” Jasper said as he busied himself with packing the bong. “So let me get this straight,” he said, getting back on subject. “You need me, to come with you, to pick up a dangerous relic, which happens to be on the other side of the world and surrounded by Ut Puri forces? That sound about right?”

“Yep,” Raven said with a sigh. “And those forces are being led by Julian Draven himself, just so you know.” Raven watched a range of expressions flash over Jasper’s face as the man finished packing the bong, trying to gauge his brother’s opinion on his request.

Jasper lit the bong and inhaled a decent sized amount of the smoke before he answered, although he had long since made his decision. “Julian Draven you say?” he asked with a glint in his eye, before a wide challenging smile spread across his face. “Count me in. I owe that b*****d a punch to the face anyway.” Jasper passed Raven the unused hose with a smirk, due to both the expression of relief on Raven’s face and the effects of the high quality marijuana that he had put in the bong. “You know I’m not letting you go that deep behind Ut Puri’s lines without the Godfather; that’s too many asses that need a good whooping.”

Raven coughed after taking his own hit from the bong, humored at Jasper’s response. “What?” he asked with a grin. “You don’t think I can handle myself big brother?”

“Please,” Jasper said with a joking tone. “You can’t do squat without the Nycest by your side.” The two brother’s laughed raucously for a moment at the joke. “But seriously,” he said with a pointed look at Raven. “I can’t let you go alone, if nothing else but to make sure you don’t get too far ahead of me in our knock out count.”

“You would say that,” Raven said with a grin, noting the reference to the ongoing lifetime bet the two brothers had, that being who could amass the most knockouts before they both retired. “Thank you though Jazz.”

Jasper smirked as he took another hit from the bong, blowing out the extra smoke to add to the rapidly growing cloud of THC infused smoke in the room. “That’s what family’s all about,” Jasper said as he leaned back to get comfortable, enjoying the feeling of floating from the weed he had smoked. “We stick by each other, no matter what the circumstance.” The two brothers laughed to themselves as they continued to indulge in their habit of choice, in their euphoria not noticing Roman walking into the room behind them, or the kid’s interest in what they were currently doing.

                ‘Standing on the moon and looking down at the earth,’ Roman thought with a small grin as he smelled the marijuana in the air, used to the familiar scene of the two Edge patriarchs getting stoned. ‘Grown-ups get to have all the fun.’ Roman laughed to himself as he made his way past the men to use the bathroom, amused at the sight of his father and uncle cracking up like teenagers. ‘Man I can’t wait to grow up.’