He saw the void on the wall, and at the same time he felt the void in his heart. The distance that had grown between his mother and him was now at the point where he needed separation. Pepper grabbed the few items he knew he would need for a couple of days and threw them into his workshop.
The truth was he wanted to move out completely. He just couldn’t afford it. A quick check of his bank account and it only made his spirits sink even more. 2,412 Flex. I’m not even halfway towards rebuilding Mala. The high-gloss shine of the box caught his attention. His new rune card could change everything, but it wouldn’t make any difference if he didn’t have the rest of the pieces to go with it.
It had been months since he’d taken a trip to Kyle’s junkyard… but if there was one place that could get him ahead, and in a hurry, it was there. Pepper got ready and headed for work, but the entire time his mind remained focused on his covert plan. His emotions raged within him, one wolf telling him to not take that path. The other told him the risk was worth the reward that awaited him.
If that emotional battle wasn’t enough, the physical exhaustion from falling out of his hammock and then trying to comfort Meg didn’t help either. It had taken her a while to fall asleep, but thankfully she’d finally felt the safety of her older brother and dozed off. There was a huge part of his heart that wished he could take her with him. His dad was the glue holding them together, but Pepper just wanted to see his mom get the help she needed.
As he sat behind the counter at the store, he thought back to his time at GolemCon. Harmon Cooper’s Queen Donut costume, JoeDan’s epic match, the Duck Squad! His mind wandered for hours over the awesome memories. Though it had been a bit overwhelming for him in the moment, his soul had spoken to him and said, These are my people. We need to get back to them.
He glanced over at one of the items that he considered a piece of art that Rhino had framed and put up on the far wall. It was an original Season 1 Golem League promotional poster. This is when everyone else gives up! This is when everyone else quits. I should have won that match against Tamin… that was my Regional Invitation to achieve. The average joe would throw up his hands and think fate was giving them a sign from the cosmos. But not me! Not Pepper Walker… Pepper Walker doesn’t quit! Pepper Walker doesn’t back down from a fight.
“Does Pepper Walker also help customers?” Summer asked.
Pepper practically jumped out of his chair and out of his skin at the same time. “How long have you been standing there?” he said, grabbing hold of his chest and trying to catch his breath.
“Long enough to hear the motivational speech. I will admit, though, not half bad. I’ve at least heard worse, let’s put it that way.” She rolled her eyes and tilted her head from side to side. But she soon erased the playful expression and returned to her normal genuine smile and soft gaze. She was wearing a colorful pink hoodie that matched the playful attitude she had arrived with.
“What brings you by the shop?”
“Well, probably the fact that you haven’t told me anything about GolemCon and I was curious to hear how it was. Two… I kinda need to ask a favor—like, a major favor, if I could.”
Pepper focused on her. “Okay … what kind of favor exactly?”
“Would it be possible for you to make that Mala statue replica thing for Jackson before Christmas? Like… in a month or two. I kinda wanted to give it to him as a going-away gift for when I head to nursing school.”
Pepper leaned against the glass countertop. His heart sank when he thought about how this would cut into his funds for rebuilding his actual golem. But he had promised to do it. Perhaps I can negotiate with Rhino about my commission for helping rebuild some of our damaged rune cards and other items? If that is the case, I could easily see my income take off if we get another rush or parts in.
His eyes locked onto hers and he could see that she already regretted asking him for the favor. He instinctively knew that she already understood how much she was asking him to sacrifice, and the look on her face was one he hated to see. “Don’t worry about it, Summer. I got you. I can start working on it in a few days.”
Her shoulders eased and an appreciative smile appeared on her face. “Thank you so much, Pepper. This totally just… I can’t tell you how much it means to me.”
He chuckled. “Oh, I think I can tell all right.” He winked at her.
With her major issue out of the way, Summer bombarded him with a hundred questions regarding his time at the convention. It was a great distraction, especially as they didn’t have a single customer for the rest of the day. The time spent with his old friend was something he enjoyed. It was the first time since he had been back that he’d actually taken some time to relax.
Stolen novel; please report.
A small Midwest thunderstorm rolled overhead for about thirty minutes, and when it was over, Summer decided to head out. Her stay at the shop had lasted until Pepper only had an hour left. “So, what you gonna do for the rest of the night?”
Summer closed her eyes and shook her head. “I am, um… having dinner with Brent.”
“What!?” Pepper practically screamed, and his gum fell out of his mouth.
Summer huffed. “I know, I know… gosh, he is so persistent! I mean, I figure I can at least give him a shot. That way, I dunno.” She threw her hands up. “It’s one date, and that is all for now.”
“I leave for a weekend and you two start dating?”
Summer’s hands balled into fists and a playful yet angry expression came over her. “We’re not dating! It’s just one dinner date, hangout, thing… Uhhh! I should have never even told you, Pep!”
“I don’t even know what to do at this point!”
“Well, maybe you can sweep around here or something… it stinks in here, just like your attitude.”
“Way to go, Mom. I am totally the child stuck in between this parental relationship between you and Brent right now!”
“Eww! Gross…” She dragged the word out playfully and started to gag while walking out the door.
Pepper looked over the storefront as she got into her mom’s car and drove off. It doesn’t smell in here! At least nasty… smells like guy; smells like motor oil, rune card technology and awesomeness! He felt a sensation rumble in his stomach and with a smug expression on his face, he lifted his leg and let one rip. “Oh my gaw, that is diabolical!” He quickly walked back to the workbench to retrieve the half-empty can of air freshener and fogged the area worse than if a smoke bomb had gone off.
His mind went back to his original plan. The thunderstorm that had rolled through earlier provided a cloudy sky and darkened the area faster as the sunset was veiled behind it. With the shop finally closed for the night, he started to pedal his bike towards Kyle’s junkyard.
There was a tightness in his muscles, a sense of anxiety and fear, but it wasn’t as bad as it had been the first time. His confidence helped him find balance within himself. I’ve done this before, and I know exactly where to go and what to look for, and I’ll be out before anyone realizes it. Heck, I bet Kyle won’t even be there.
Pepper angled his bike into the turn and immediately noticed it slow by half when he left the roadway. His tires softly dug into the earth, as it had been saturated by the rain that had accompanied the thunderstorm. A slight bit of panic arose as he pumped away on his pedals, trying to speed down the main access road. He turned the far corner and felt the reassurance of the cover of the few scattered trees and the back fence line to the property. A split second later he heard a vehicle approach, but it kept driving past the junkyard’s entrance.
Come on, we got this… there’s no turning back now. Pepper propped his bike up against a tree and began to walk along the fence line. He focused on the small gap he had utilized a few months before and began to shimmy his way underneath. The entire front half of his body immediately soaked up the damp earth and he was covered with a thin layer of mud. Gross… He got to his feet and quietly rushed over to the place where he remembered seeing the loose golem parts.
Pepper was shocked to see Kyle had assorted boxes of rune cards. Some were broken in two, and he quickly discarded those, but multiple crates were stacked one on top of the other with what appeared to be intact cards. When he looked more closely, he saw that Kyle had already sorted them by manufacturer. Centaur, Ronin, Dark Dwarf, Quintek, Tribal… Holy crap! I could practically take any one of these and they would be amazing! Controller card, elemental defense, energy strike … holy— Kyle has a psionic spell rune by Ronin in here!
Pepper was overwhelmed. Though he already knew Kyle’s hauls could aid him, he hadn’t expected there to be so much to choose from. There were choices he had not even contemplated. Fireball, energy beam, water wave—all these runes were ones he wanted to wield within his golem. But he only had three slots available after he added in the controller card and power core. He wasn’t too sure how exactly he was going to utilize the gravity rune he had won from KBVS, but there was this sensation within him that told him that would be the key to his success. There was just a missing puzzle piece. The frustrating part was that he didn’t know what exactly it was.
His fingers fumbled and sifted through the cards until he caught hold of two items. He grabbed hold of the energy refinement runes and held them up to better look them over in the ambient light. “These are Ronin energy refinement… I have to grab these, even if I don’t use them. I know I’ll need them soon,” Pepper said under his breath. He placed the cards in his backpack and moved on to the next crate. A Dark Dwarf energy strike rune… I’m already using that in my combat technique… that and the amount of energy the Dark Dwarf version has is the best out of the other manufacturers I see here.
Pepper placed it in his bag and continued to quickly search. He soon discovered a force blast rune made by Koto and finally chose a Ronin controller rune. There was no lapse in his memory; he knew he still needed a power core and rescanned the area. Pepper then realized Kyle had put the power cores further away, on the other side of a wall of scrap metal.
He figured this was to help protect the rune cards should there be any accidents during the cores extraction process. A thorough inspection of each one and Pepper quickly realized that every power core was severely damaged. The vast majority of them were worthless with the exception of one. The distinct emblem immediately stood out. A Campell Big Mack power core… “Well, hello there,” he muttered.
His fingers gently glided over the power core while his eyes inspected every fine metallic pathway that ran from one microchip to the other. The core was actually intact, and it appeared that there was a chance it could actually function. A large burn spot on the card wafer told him that it would more than likely not, but it gave him an opportunity. The core could easily be passed off as having had a faulty chip that overheated.
Pepper finally placed the core into his bag and turned to leave. He didn’t want to rob Kyle of everything; he was simply trying to take advantage of the situation. The very thought of having to bike home made him feel worse than the theft he was currently partaking in. A quick shimmy under the fence and he was on his bike and quickly pedaling down the access road, back out and onto the street.