SG: Rad #100 (5/5): Left

[Gary W. Olson]

(continued from part four, preceding...)

                                 ***

     Rumi Moroboshi slid the glass door open as quietly as she could.
Nothing stirred on the backyard deck of the house of Eivandt and Alice
Seconds.  The deck was bathed in soft yellow from the outdoor light on
the wall next to the door, while the lawn was in darkness.  The haze
she had seen earlier that night was gone, and the stars were clear and
sharp.  The moon was higher in the sky, and she could see one edge of
the Magi Crater in its silvery crescent.  She stepped out, and slid
the door shut behind her.
     "Esteban?" she asked, her voice low.
     "Oh, Rumi," came the reply.  "I... what time is it?"
     She saw him on the patio swing that was near the stairs that led
to the lawn.  He looked as if he had just awoken.
     "3... um..."  She checked the internal clock on her implant.
"344 am, Pacific Daylight Time.  Join you?"
     "Sure," he replied, gesturing to the empty two-thirds of the
swing.  She had put back on the violet tank top and jean shorts she
had changed into on arriving at the Seconds' residence, and saw that
Esteban still had on his baggy black shorts and blue t-shirt.  A black
cloth was on his left thigh.  She wondered how long he had been
dozing.
     The 'post-party party' at the house of Eivandt and Alice Seconds
had more attendees than Rumi had expected, though it had lasted barely
three hours.  In addition to Cendra, Miguel, Esteban, and Coco, who
were there until they worked their new address out, Tom McCavish-
Laffalot had dropped by, along with Templar Maccabee and Ross Hagen
(the ex-villain formerly known as The Producer).  Though Shadebeam,
Lemon, and Roog had translocated back to Malaga directly from Dave's
Place, Slithis and Mysanga dropped in, bringing with them boxes of
Bunzai Pizza and bags of Spoonburger burgers.
     When the guests left to go to a bar, Miguel went with them.
Eivandt and Alice retired for the night.  Cendra and Rumi went to what
was--and was now, until further notice--Cendra's room, and talked
until Rumi fell asleep.  Which worked out less well than she had
hoped.
     "Couldn't sleep," said Rumi.  "At least, not after Cendra woke me
and told me to stop snoring.  Which I don't do, but... well, she got
back to sleep, but I didn't.  Where's Coco?"
     "Downstairs, with Los Pantalones," said Esteban.  "He doesn't
sleep inside it, but he likes to be near it."
     "He sleeps?" Rumi asked.
     "He's not a robot," replied Esteban.  "I mean, he's nectarisite,
through and through, but he still sleeps.  And dreams.  Back in my
room at the apartment, he had a little hammock next to my bed."
     Rumi remembered the hammock.  But that was not of interest at the
moment.
     "You fall asleep out here?" she asked.
     "Close to," Esteban admitted.  He grinned, and she could not help
but smile as well.  "I just can't stop thinking.  About everything."
     "About yesterday, or today?"
     "Everything."
     Rumi nodded.  "Me too," she admitted.  "How can one planet be so
off its hoverchair field and still keep going on?"
     "Dr. Gigawatt says it's because Earth, for unknown reasons, has
this high concentration of absurdity," Esteban said.  "Absurdity as a
force that could be investigated through science has been talked about
for centuries, even though it took quantum absurdity to really figure
it out and establish it as one of the five forces of the universe."
     "I thought there were six," said Rumi.  "Gravity,
electromagnetism, weak nuclear, strong nuclear, absurdity, and magic."
     "Gigawatt thinks magic can be explained in terms of absurdity,"
Esteban said.  "True, he says, the classical 'laws of absurdity' never
got how words or gestures or will could make things happen--though
Tesla's scalar absurdity theories came close--but he thinks either he
or Andy Awesome will come up with a grand unified theory that just
needs the five."
     "But the powers of most superguys and other meta-powered humans
have a scientific basis," Rumi replied.  "At least, in terms of how
absurdity interacts with the first four forces on a quantum level.
Not even the Xolchipalians exclude the possibility of magic being a
separate force."
     Esteban shrugged.  "Not my call," he said.  "I just jump into my
giant armored pants and go from there."
     "Gigawatt must've talked your ear off last night," said Rumi.
     "Yeah.  He did."
     "He give you that?" she asked, gesturing to the black cloth on
Esteban's leg.  Esteban looked down at it, then brushed at it until a
corner of a bronze-gold inset rectangle was revealed.
     "Your dad did," Esteban replied.  "He pulled it off of Erasmus
Fancy in the battle.  I think Fancy used it for enhanced vision, and
to keep his identity disguised.  I... haven't tried it yet.  I'm not
even sure why he gave it to me, instead of Dr. Gigawatt or the
Homeland Security people."
     "Maybe he thought you could make better use of it," Rumi
suggested.  "Have you decided if you're going to keep your identity as
'El Guerrero' secret?  It didn't make the news, so it's still an
option."
     "I probably will," said Esteban.  He turned the cloth over in his
hand.  "Just something else I'm trying to get my head around.  'El
Guerrero de los Pantalones.'"
     Esteban leaned back and rested his left arm on the top edge of
the swing as he partially turned to face her.  She thought of her ex-
boyfriend Aran--about how a similar move on his part had led to her
first kiss--and wondered where he was now.  Esteban's orientation made
unlikely a similar moment, and Rumi found, to her surprise, she did
not mind.
     "You took quite a chance tonight," said Rumi.
     "What?"
     *On the lower level of Dave's Place,* she added, switching to
their artificial and shared Los Pantalones-based psi network.
*Kissing Lemon while your brother was just one floor up.  No idea that
someone had come down the stairs and seen it.*
     Esteban's face changed.  The smile disappeared, and his eyes went
down.  Rumi thought of what Cendra said, earlier that evening, and
wondered if Esteban, as implied, would refuse to even discuss the
topic.
     *I... I don't know,* he answered.  *When we're alone, and he just
looks at me... I forget to be afraid.*  He looked up, and Rumi could
tell he was trying to see if she understood.  *Have you ever felt that
way about someone?  A boy... or a girl?*
     *A boy,* Rumi replied.  *Girls... I experimented just enough to
figure out I belonged with the control group that got the placebos.
But thanks for asking.*
     *Like you said before,* noted Esteban, *you might as well just
ask, else wackiness ensues.*
     Rumi smiled.  *Yeah,* she agreed.  *Anyway, the boy I was
thinking of was Aran, my ex.  He was... when I was with him, I forgot
how awkward and ordinary I felt around all the general nubility and
buffness of the average resident of Planet California.  Mom said that
living there's enough to give anyone a complex, but...*
     "Planet... California?" Esteban asked, aloud.
     "Dad said it was talked about in the Schmooze around that time,"
Rumi replied.
     "That paper stop publishing in 2006," said Esteban.  "On paper,
at least.  It's web-only now.  Lemon thinks it's vulnerable, though,
and if the economy tanks, it could fold altogether.  At which point,
he'd buy the rights and relaunch it his way."  Esteban shrugged.  "I
always thought that everything in it was made up."
     "So did most people, outside the super community.  And maybe
eighty percent of it was."  Rumi shrugged.  "How would Lemon afford
it?"
     "He's good at getting cash or whatever online," said Esteban.
"He sticks to the technically-legal stuff, though."
     "Less risk?"
     "I think he just likes a challenge."  His look turned
speculative, and Rumi wondered if he believed that she was another
kind of 'challenge' that Lemon would like.  "If he wanted to do it the
easy way, he'd just get the money out of his dad."
     "He's rich?"
     "He runs the wolfpack," Esteban said.  "And he's the one who bit
Miguel and turned him into a werewolf.  Which indirectly is how we got
invited out to Burning M00se and I ended up meeting Lemon.  Anyway...
the pack has money, yeah.  Most of it is committed to their assorted
Green causes, and a bunch of local programs.  I don't know how it
keeps from running out.  They basically all but paid for the apartment
we had... I'm sure you were wondering how we could afford it."
     Rumi nodded.  She wondered how the pack's task of guarding Los
Pantalones until the battle pants 'recognized' its true owner--
Esteban--fit in with what Esteban described.  She wondered why the
pack had been given that task, and by who.
     "In return, Miguel takes on assignments and stuff for 'em.  He
says they're not to kill or hurt anyone... but he says that could
happen anyway.  Depending on if someone tries to stop him... and how
did we get on this track?"
     Rumi thought back.  *I was talking about my ex, Aran, on Planet
California, which led to the Schmooze, which led to... well.  I was
talking about him, and how I sort of understood how someone could make
you feel... not afraid.  Or inadequate.*
     *You?* Esteban asked.  *Inadequate?  No way!  You're very
pretty.*
     Rumi felt her cheeks grow hot.  *Thanks,* she responded, *but I
thought...*
     *Doesn't mean I don't have eyes,* Esteban replied.  *And as your
new, official gay friend, I say you cannot question my judgement in
this matter.*
     *But...*
     *Ahh, ahh.*  Esteban held up a hand.  *I have spoken.  Or thought
of speaking.  Same diff.*
     She laughed, and he did as well.  When the moment passed,
however, something drew her attention to the darkened back yard.
     *Did you hear that?* she asked.
     *Hear what?*
     Rumi peered into the darkness.  She was sure she had heard
something.  And... there.  There it was.  Still in darkness, though
she could perceive its bioelectric field.  It had just climbed over
the fence that separated the backyard from a neighbor's backyard, and
was maybe fifty feet away.  Its energy was more than human, and seemed
to writhe within the flesh that contained it.
     She had seen something much like it only a day and a half before.
It gave her an idea.
     *Esteban,* she said.  *Do you trust me?*
     Esteban peered at her, wondering, she guessed, what was behind
her question.
     *The Green Lady said I could, so yes.*
     The Green Lady.  Rumi had forgotten that Akane had never
identified herself in her dream visitations to Esteban or Lemon,
instead allowing them to call her the Green Lady, as she tended to
show up in dreams with a greenish tint.
     *No,* she replied, leaning close so that her face was close to
his.  *Forget whatever she said.  Forget we've only known each other
for a day and a half.  Do *you*... trust *me*?*
     His eyes widened, as if from realization.
     "Yes," he breathed.
     *Then close your eyes,* she replied, *and pretend I'm Lemon.*
     She gave him no time to answer.  His lips were lifeless at first,
but then they moved, accepting her kiss and returning it.  Her hand
found her side and rested there.
     There was no life in it, she realized.  No spark.  He was
pretending as hard as he could, but something in him knew the
difference.  And she could feel the gap that left.
     No matter.  It just had to look---
     The footsteps on the deck stairs were quieter than she expected.
Esteban heard them, though, and broke away to see who was there.
     "Er," said Miguel.  "Don't let me... um... interrupt."  He was
clad solely in a pair of black shorts, and had a sweaty sheen over
most of him.  He peered at Esteban, then Rumi, as if someone had
reached into his head and given his expectations a twist.
     "Um... hey, bro," said Esteban.  He looked at Rumi, who was
working really hard at looking innocent.  "We were... I was... how was
the bar?"
     "I can see what you were, and what you was," Miguel replied, a
grin breaking over his features.  "Bar was a bar.  Tom's designated-
driving Templar and Ross to their places, and Slithis and Mysanga are
on a bus heading for New Mexico.  I decided a night jog was great for
getting back.  Now, I'm gonna shower and go to sleep.  'Night."
     They watched as he went inside the house.  Once the door slid
shut, Esteban turned to her.  Rumi was glad he looked merely puzzled,
instead of angry.
     *Bioelectric senses,* she explained.  *I saw him climbing over
the fence.  I recognized his particular kind of energy from yesterday,
when I was looking at everyone's bioelectric stuff during the pseudo-
zombie attack.  And then I got the idea and... what?*
     Of all the reactions he might have come up with, the last Rumi
had expected was stifled laughter.  It was epic, and sometimes escaped
his ability to keep it in.  It took a full minute to pass.
     "The girl of my dreams," said Esteban.  "I didn't think it would
happen this soon."
     "Girl of..." Rumi started.  Then she remembered.  Akane had
visited Esteban in several dreams.  One by-product of her dream-
casting visitations was that the dream environment turn out to be
something of significance, that had happened sometime in the past or
future.  She had also said that Rumi had been in one of Esteban's
dream and that it was the kind of dream where Akane had felt she at
least ought to explain who Rumi was.  Lemon evidently knew of that
dream, for he had teased Esteban, using the 'girl of your dreams'
phrase, only the day before.
     The implications had been broad and suggestive.  But the
revelation of Esteban's nature put them in a new light.  Even
something as simple as a kiss might need to be explained to a boy not
interested in girls.
     Now she started laughing, and had to hold it in.  She slid, her
head landing on Esteban's shoulder as she held her belly and tried not
to burst out.
     "Come heeere, mah leetle bottercop ahf luuuvvv," Esteban teased,
which did nothing to help her keep from laughing.  'Looney Tunes' was
among the Earth television shows she did know, thanks to her dad, and
Esteban's rendition of Pepe Le Pew was spot on.  His arm went over
her, and his hand rested on hers.
     Even without the possibility of more, it felt nice.
     *So,* Esteban thought at her, *how *is* it the Green Lady knows
who you are?  If you only met her in the one dream, I mean.*
     She thought about Akane, wondering what she would want her to
say, and what she wanted to stay hidden.  Not all who knew she was
alive had been told directly by her, she knew.  Rad had told Glum.
Chalandra had told Manny.  And the part Akane most wanted to stay
secret, she had kept secret from everyone--save two, and Rumi did not
know who those two were.
     What it came down to was... did *she* trust *him?*
     She realized the answer as she posed the question, and felt her
eyes slightly widen.  Then she relaxed, and answered.
     *Her name... isn't the Green Lady,* she thought to him.  *It's
Akane.*

                                 ***

     The dawn was a glowing line that barely topped the trees as Rad
descended toward his beach house.  The beach itself was in shadows,
even as the ocean was filling with light, turning it to a brilliant
blue.  Another dawn.  Another day.
     The house itself seemed to have recovered from being visited by
Mighty Guy two mornings before.  Perhaps the ESI knew that Kent and
Key had returned with young Johnny to Megapolis, and that it was now
worth it to let the embedded self-repair systems do their work.  The
Star Yacht that had brought Rad, Glum, and Rumi to Earth was back in
its berth on the north side of the house, where it looked like an
overly-artsy and organically-curved detached garage.
     He landed before its lowered ramp, just in time to catch a large
trunk as it sailed out from the ship.
     "Like, whmmph," he commented.  It felt heavy, and he tried to
remember what had been packed in there.  He did not recall owning a
collection of bowling balls.
     "Darling!" a familiar voice exclaimed.  "I didn't know you
were... oh, nice catch!"
     Rad set the trunk down as Glum flew down the ramp and landed
before him.  She had exchanged her dress for a plush, tiger-striped
bathrobe, and had scrubbed away what little makeup she had worn, but
to Rad she was as beautiful as ever.  Her kiss made his tongue crackle
and his nerves sizzle.
     "Like, not sleepy yet?" he asked.
     "A little," she admitted.  "I think I've finally mostly used up
the spare nectarisitic energy.  After I made sure Kaoru got back to
his hotel okay, and then got back from seeing Elizabeth and Kirby off
at the airship port, I came back here, recalled the Yacht from Jupiter
orbit, and dug in.  Where've you been?"
     He had not returned to the party at Dave's Place, though he and
Glum had exchanged brief updates via their implants.  The look on her
face suggested she expected one kind of story, but what he had for her
was entirely different.
     "Like, 'Miranda Satori' showed up, like, last night, y'know?"
     Glum's eyes widened.  "Aka... um... Miranda?  Here?"
     "Like, just for, like, a while," said Rad.  "She's, like,
disappeared now.  Like, literally.  She had me, like, close my eyes
and, like, think of bacon, y'know?  And then, like, when I, like,
opened them, she was, like, poof."
     "You couldn't have called me down?"
     "Like, she said not to, y'know?" Rad replied.  "I think, like,
she only came, like, to see me, like, because she promised, like,
Rumi, that she would."
     Now Glum looked confused.  "She contacted Rumi?"
     As Rad related what Rumi had told him the morning before about
her dream-vision and Akane's interventions in events, he and Glum
wandered to the beach, where the gathering light was turning to gold.
Glum was less than pleased that Akane had intervened at all, and was
only slightly mollified to learn that those interventions had resulted
in the abatement of Rumi's general surliness toward both her parents
and their favorite planet.  She was further mollified to learn that
Akane would be a little more attentive to her mail-drop in the future,
and that she might be dropping in on Glum in a dream as well.
     He told her what Akane had told him, about coming to Earth to
live the rest of her 'first' lifetime with Ramrod, a bit about what
she had seen in her travels, and a bit about what had happened between
returning to Earth and their disappearance.  When Glum noted that
Akane had been wearing a shirt that belonged to a band that had not
been around when she had disappeared with Ramrod, Rad replied that
Akane had told him she had gotten the clothes from China Moroboshi's
closet, and would be returning them and leaving China a note before
heading back home.
     "But she would not say where she and Ramrod are now?" she asked.
     "Like, nope," Rad replied.  He had tossed his formalwear onto the
deck as they passed it, and was now wearing only his black swim
trunks.  His heavily-tanned arm was around Glum's waist, with her arm
around his back, and together they looked out at the ocean.  "But I
think, like, she's happy, y'know?  And, like, wherever she is, it's,
like, not boring."
     "That's good," Glum agreed.  After watching the ocean a while,
she added, "what's a Pelosiraptor?"
     "Like, no idea," Rad replied.
     "Hmmm."
     They watched the surf coming in.
     "This planet never ceases to surprise me," said Glum.  "We've
only been back, what, three days now, and... it's almost like we've
never left."
     Rad felt he ought to make an equally insightful reply to this.
"Like, yah," he said.  After a moment, he added, "totally."
     Glum looked over her shoulder at the sun, which was just topping
the treeline.  She faced him, coyly smiling.
     "Are you tired?" she asked.
     "Not, like, really," he answered.  He leaned down some to kiss
her.  The contact made his eyes light up, even though they were
closed.  "You, like, need some help, like, working off the last of
that, like, excess energy?"
     "It's like you had a vision of the future," she murmured, before
giving him another kiss.  Then she stepped back, and loosened the knot
in the belt of her robe.
     "Like, alternate your current, babe?" he asked.
     Glum placed a hand on his chest.  "Only for you, darling."  She
paused, her smile taking on a challenging aspect.  "And only if you
can catch me."
     She took off into the sky, rising as fast as allowed by the
tactile telekinesis that gave her her flight powers.  Her robe
fluttered to the beach, narrowly missing the deck.
     Rad was after her a moment later, his psychokinetically-powered
takeoff leaving a crater in the sand behind him.
     And the ocean and the sky filled with light.


                               The End

Many thanks to Messrs. Burns-White, Dickson, Bankert, Brown, Fishbone,
and Van Domelen for the green lights.  Many more thanks to the readers
and authors of the Superguy list.  It's been, on balance, a great
twenty years.

No questions.  Just SUPERGUY.
--
Copyright (c) 2009 by Gary W. Olson.  All Rights Reserved.
--
Gary W. Olson
swede at novitious dot com
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