“I wasn’t liked very well at my school, either. The kids always made fun of my skin, or hair.”
Feelings of hurt from my own school experiences came to the front of my brain. I remember those days vividly, and my heart ached that she’d gone through it too. My parents had the perfect non-Asperger’s child, and had put her in an elite school. I walked in to get her paperwork and felt the eyes around me staring. But I was a grown-up now who was used to that behavior—Emily was not.
“Then you’re okay here. Do you wanna talk about Mom and Dad? Or have questions for me?”
The fidgeting with her hair stopped, and those brown eyes looked up at me with what I could only guess was defiance.
“I don’t wanna talk about them.”
Okay, got it. Mom and Dad were not to be talked about right now. Keeping my mouth closed, I waited until she seemed to calm her thoughts away from the subject.
“But I do wanna know about you.”
I could talk about me. So, I told her everything I could think of: my history with school, college, working at Griffin Enterprises, making Cora and Pops. She thought that was the coolest thing ever, having robots as friends. She liked Arthur, and said she would like to see his warehouse with all the art. Emily liked art. She’d taken a photography class in school and said it was one of her favorite subjects. It made me happy that she liked Arthur because I was pretty sure I was never letting him go after having him here for all of this. He was vital in my life now.
We talked about how I was part of the Hero Society, using my gifts of metal manipulation. I showed her a few of my tricks with the metal ball next to my bed, and she confessed she hoped when she turned sixteen that she got a cool power, too. That made me laugh—it was cool, but it was hard at times, too. But we could discuss it if and when the time came. All I knew is that I would be there for her if it did. No one should go through their transition alone.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Arthur
The girls ended up talking all morning.
I’d woken up to the tales of Gwendolyn’s past and sat by the door to listen. She’d told me most of these things, so I didn’t feel like I was eavesdropping. I’d mostly stayed there because I loved listening to her talk and was appreciating the easy connection she seemed to make with her sister.
After a while, I decided to make everyone some breakfast and delivered it to their bedroom so they could continue talking. Of course, I got dragged into the conversation, but that was fine with me.
The air in the room felt easier than before. Gwendolyn seemed to have relaxed around Emily, and Emily seemed to be genuinely interested in knowing about her new sister.
The things Emily wanted to keep from her previous home were in two large suitcases next to the bed. One would think that she would have wanted to bring everything, but she’d told them that was all she needed.
Closer to lunchtime, I needed to go check on Teddy and my artwork at home, so I left the girls to get to know each other more and took care of business.
Teddy was sitting by my bed when I got home, looking quite grumpy, with his narrowed LED light-up eyes.
He was annoyed with me; the little asshole was quite testy. A chuckle bubbled up from inside me—the whole situation felt like Teddy was a disgruntled wife that stayed home all day to clean, and I was the cheating husband.
“Sorry, dear.” I laughed, not being able to help myself after catching him glaring.
Maybe he just needed a mess to clean up. It was his life’s purpose, after all.
I changed out of my clothes, littering them across the floor as I walked to the bathroom. If robots had the ability to come, I swear Teddy would have orgasmed right in his little robot pants. He liked messes, and I hadn’t been home to make any. He rushed over and started picking up after me. After I changed clothes, I spent about an hour painting, and he was like a kid in the candy store with all the splatters I’d intentionally made.
A call on my communicator told me to meet Phillip at HQ. I heaved a sigh. I’d gotten a few hours’ reprieve from the knowledge of Earth’s imminent devastation. I refused to feel guilty about the time I spent doing what made me happy, but now it was time to focus.
The restaurant above the secret headquarters was busy, as were the rooms below. So much had changed for the Hero Society since their new beginning—it was their second chance to do things right. Up until this point they had been succeeding, but now we faced a challenge that seemed impossible to overcome.
Phillip was waiting for me inside the room that had been dubbed the “containment” room. It was soundproof, and somehow power-proof. I wasn’t able to call the moisture in the air to me, for example, or manipulate the water in the glass on the table.
“Interesting room to meet in.” There was no one else in here but Phillip and me.
His face was pinched together with stress; actually, his whole body seemed to be lacking the normal confidence and swagger of someone who knows all the futures.
“It was the only place here we could talk; I don’t trust us being seen in my office.” He sat at the chair across from the desk, looking like a criminal ready for interrogation.
“All right, lay it on me.” Whatever it was, I doubted it would be good. I pulled the chair out and plopped my ass on it, bracing myself to hear whatever he had to say.
“I see three futures; all have their own set of consequences. I don’t like to share what I’ve seen—normally it never works out well—but I know you, probably better than you think I do, and you are a true hero. You chose to fight for mankind in the battle and made the ultimate sacrifice.” He ran his fingers through his blond hair, and I sensed this was where he would get to the bad part.
“And you might have to do it again. I’ve yet to see someone gifted in the world that could fix this, and all the resources we have now can’t. The only thing we can do is make sure it doesn’t happen in the future. The algae is going to hit the current tomorrow, and that will be it. People will get sick and die as it spreads, plant life will perish, and within ten years Earth will be a wasteland. Completely uninhabitable.”
The weight of what was coming settled on me.
“What do you mean, I might have to do it again?”
“I’ve seen a future where you go into the water, manipulate it to go through you like osmosis, and essentially use your body as a filter, taking the toxins into your body, which of course will begin to fail. There are multiple futures where you die.”
My throat tried to close up, and I felt like the world slipped out from under my feet like a rug.
“But I would save Earth, and…” I couldn’t get the rest of my sentence out, but he knew what I was going to say anyway. Save Gwendolyn, and now Emily. They were my family, whether it was documented or not.
“Yes,” he agreed, but his face looked grim. This was obviously not an easy thing to tell me, but the fate of the world seemed to be literally in my hands.
My throat felt dry, and when I spoke, it came out completely hoarse.
“Any futures where I live?”
“One, and the likelihood is small.”
I wanted him to go into details, but then again, I didn’t. If he told me, then it would only make me focus on that one hopeful future instead of taking in the likely reality that I would die.