Everyone but Eva bellowed, so she mustered up as much enthusiasm as she could and joined them. She was happy to see him, truly, after so long; the circumstances were just weird as hell, and now she was feeling extra shaken.
The music managed to get louder somehow, and with a final flourish, Leroy appeared. His suit mimicked his signature costume, yellow with a snakeskin pattern, perfectly tailored to his massive form. His orange-dyed hair was spiked up, and instead of a green mask he wore green shades, but his wrists still sported spiked bands, visible when he raised his fists into the air and roared. Everyone roared back, and he grinned like a fool, and Eva gritted her teeth and sucked in a breath and told herself sternly not to run up and hug him because she’d probably get tackled by his bodyguards.
People at the front of each line prepped the fans for what was apparently a ritual as choreographed as the big fights on the show. Leroy stood off to one side, brightly lit and larger than life, in front of a wall emblazoned with the Crash Sisters logo. A handler took one fan at a time up to meet him, at which point he chatted with them briefly, posed for a holograph, then pretended to punch them out of the way so the next person could be brought up. It was efficient, structured, and monitored by a pair of truateg almost as big as Leroy. The agent waited nearby, two of her four arms crossed, half her eyes on Leroy while the other half seemed to be dealing with business over her comms.
He looks so happy, Eva thought. Calm. Collected. Peaceful. He had hunched when he was on her crew, like he was trying to take up less space, avoid calling attention to himself. He’d pulled on his beard all the time from nerves and ground his teeth in his sleep. Now he stood tall, confident, his whole posture relaxed and his fingers slack instead of balled into fists.
Her thoughts sank back into the muck of Garilia, into shame and regret. Sure, she’d given Leroy a hand when he needed it, but she’d also let him get wrecked by a brain parasite. She’d told herself she was treating him well, but was she? Could she have done better, done more? Every time she talked him down from a fit of rage, or distracted him from a panic attack, was she just keeping him afloat in a pool of shit instead of helping him climb out?
Was it the same for the rest of the crew? Were they holding each other up, or was she holding them back? Especially Vakar, sweet Vakar, who could probably be off somewhere doing real good for the universe, the kind Mari and her Forge amigos thought they were doing. Why was he still with her, after everything? Love? Was that all? Was that enough?
You’re in a spiral, she told herself. Focus. You’re in a room full of sweaty fans, in the universe’s longest continuous convention, and as soon as you get out of here you’re going to talk to Pink and take your meds and get your shit together.
Eva thought about Pink posing for that picture with the dozen people in costume, and it made her chuckle just enough to get a hand over the edge of the pit she’d fallen into. If she could get a hand up, she could climb out.
Before she knew it, Eva was coming to the front of the line, and every question she needed to ask Leroy had fucked off to Casa Carajo. She probably looked wild; her nose turned bright red whenever she cried, and her eyes puffed up, and there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it now because time was up. He, meanwhile, continued to look like his best self, and her eyes teared up again with pride.
He froze for a moment when he noticed her, his mouth open, and Eva regretted coming to see him almost more than anything else she’d done to him. It shouldn’t have been here, not like this. But then he lowered his shades to show his bright-blue eyes, and grinned so widely that relief flooded her body.
“Captain?” he asked. “Hi! Wow! You’re really here?”
Eva nodded mutely, and Leroy pulled her in for a bear hug that took her breath away. His bodyguards took a few steps closer and Leroy waved them off, so they backed up.
“It’s just, wow!” Leroy repeated. “It’s been so long.”
“It has,” Eva agreed. “You look great.”
“Thanks. You look—” His face screwed up like he was trying to find a nice lie, and Eva laughed.
“I look like shit,” she said. “Así es la vida.”
“King, the line,” Leroy’s agent said, raising one of her arms to gesture at the two people still waiting. The woman behind Eva with the pink hair was scowling like Eva had pissed in her protein powder.
Leroy flapped a hand at his agent. “Yeah, it’s cool, I’ll get to them.” He turned back to Eva. “Did you actually do the whole Challenge Room to see me? Is everyone else here? Why didn’t you just call?”
“Your comms code changed again,” Eva said.
“Oh, right, yeah.” His freckled skin turned slightly pink. “Sorry about that, things have been busy, and we’re technically on lockdown anyway. Not supposed to make calls, because memvids, and spoilers.”
“Hey, no worries. Speaking of busy—”
His agent stalked over, resting two hands on Leroy’s expansive back. “King, while it is lovely to see you reconnect with an old friend, we have a schedule, and your real fans are waiting for you.”
The pink-haired woman made an affirmative noise, puffing her cheeks up angrily.
Eva’s neck went hot and she scowled. “I’ve been his fan for longer than you’ve known he existed, mija,” she snapped. “Keep your fancy pants on.”
The agent raised two fingers, and Leroy’s truateg bodyguards immediately flanked Eva. They loomed over her, short as she was, and were doused in synthetic hormones meant to trigger reflexive fear in most humans.
Unfortunately for them, Eva wasn’t most humans, and she was already on edge. She grinned up at them, silently daring them to lay hands on her so she could give them a taste of a real fight.
“Anji, enough,” Leroy said sternly. “I’ll finish when I finish.” He’d been relaxed before, but now he threw his shoulders back and straightened to his full height, just over two meters of solid muscle. For a moment, Eva worried he was going to lose his temper, fall into a rage the way he used to—the way he pretended to for his adoring fans every time he stepped onto a fighting stage.
Instead, he lowered his shades and glared at his agent, who made a gargling noise and threw him an elaborate series of hand signals that he answered with a smile and a middle finger. The truateg backed away, and Leroy turned his smile to Eva, who was momentarily dazzled.
“Sorry, Captain, you know how it is,” he said. His smile faded. “I’m guessing this is something serious, huh?”
“Unfortunately,” Eva said. “Not that I don’t want to hang out, obviously. We all miss you.”
“I know.” The corners of his eyes crinkled. “So what is it?”
“You were here six months ago,” Eva said, rubbing her neck. “We’re looking for a guy named Josh Zafone who was here at the same time.”
“I don’t know him. Who is he?”
“Sue’s brother. The engineer who replaced Vakar, remember?”
Leroy nodded. “Right, she seems nice. But the name isn’t familiar, sorry.”
Eva shrugged, ignoring the glares Anji was shooting at her with her spidery eyes. “It’s okay, it was a long shot. But it was weird because you were both in Medoral at the same time, too, so we figured we’d ask.”