The remainder of the trip back to the Port of Galveston was uneventful; everyone on the ship was either tired, half-dead or just ready to get home. When they pulled back into port, a few hours after Ava had woken up, three black cars were waiting: one for Sam and Ava, one for Luke and Scott, and one for Mr. Johnson.

Ava walked up to the three drivers, who were holding up signs for their intended passengers, and looked at the ones meant for the dead.

“Hey, so, uh… y’all already got paid, right? Because it’s just me and Sam, y’all’s people are dead,” she explained. The other two sighed and put their signs down, then took out cigarettes and took a drag.

“What happened to the boss man?” the driver targeting Mr. Johnson asked.

“Got stabbed. No clue who, no clue why,” Ava explained, lying through her teeth.

“Shit. And I thought he was the safe fare of the three,” the driver said, taking a drag. “Well, fuck, there goes date night with the wife.”

Ava sighed.

“How much was the fare gonna pay?” she asked.

“Five thousand,” he said.

“And you?” she asked, looking at Luke and Scott’s intended driver.

“Same rate,” that driver added.

“Give me your Cash App info and I’ve got you both,” Ava said, resigned. They fished out their phones and showed Ava their usernames.

“…uh, shit, hold on a second,” she said. “Hey, Sam!” she called out behind her.

“What?” Sam asked.

“Is all the money, like, available right now, or do we have to wait? These guys kinda got fucked over and I wanna make them square,” Ava said. Sam thought for a second.

“Check your wallet,” he said. “I think I put the card in there.”

Ava fished through her back pocket, finding her small wallet and opening it, and between her learner’s permit and an old prepaid Visa card sat a new, black-finished aluminum card, with no text or information on it aside from the number, expiration date, and CVC. She held it up to Sam.

“This it?” she asked.

“Yep, that’s the one,” he said, producing his own. “Ten million for each of us.”

As she plugged the info into her phone to connect the card, and sent each of the drivers six thousand dollars, the enormity of the situation struck her. She’d gone from being so poor that being able to eat was a regular concern, to being so rich that she could do practically whatever she wanted, in the space of a single weekend. She finally had a security that she’d never in her life had previously; not only that, but it was a security that allowed her to do things like this, and just drop thousands of dollars on someone at a whim.

Immediately after she pressed the button, she dropped to her knees and cried, as Sam quickly moved in to comfort her.

“You, uh… you okay?” he asked, awkwardly, as he crouched down and rubbed her shoulder. She looked at him, tears streaming down her face.

“I think this is the happiest I’ve ever been,” she said, her words slurred and distorted by the sobbing. “But… two of our friends had to die for it. It feels like shit.”

Sam rubbed Ava’s shoulder firmly, pressing her face into his chest.

“It’s okay,” Sam said. “We got our revenge. And, it’s like you said on the boat. If you need more revenge than we got, we’ve got time before they call you up again. Best served cold, right?”

Ava smiled. The two drivers she’d helped, meanwhile, were almost completely ignoring her and whooping ecstatically as they got into their cars and sped off.

The remaining driver tapped his feet, expectantly. Sam smiled, knowingly.

“Just one moment,” he said, feeling an incoming parasite.

As if on cue, Soo-jin came running up to them.

Shit, I’m not too late, am I? My sponsor dropped me, so I’m gonna need to find my own flight back home to Seoul, and I need somewhere to crash for a few days in the meanwhile, she thought in Ava’s mind.

“She’s coming with us,” Ava said to the driver, gesturing at Soo-jin, and the Korean girl beamed with happiness.

----------------------------------------

When the limo pulled up to the apartment complex, all three got out at the same time, Soo-jin and Ava both sort of awkwardly staring at Sam.

“So, uh, Ava, call me when you wanna go on a date or something, I guess?” Sam said, questioningly. Ava smiled and checked her phone, noticing it was still only about one in the afternoon.

“I mean, are you busy a little later? I don’t have anything on my plate, and Soo-jin’s basically just tagging along for a few days until the next flight out to Seoul. Let’s go do something cool,” she offered.

Sam shrugged.

“Hey, if you’re down, I’m down,” he said. “What’s your suggestion?”

Ava thought for a second.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“You know, I’ve never been to the Galleria when I actually had money to buy anything,” she said. “And I’m gonna guess Soo-jin’s never been there at all.”

What are you guys talking about? Soo-jin asked in Ava’s mind.

Oh, there’s this huge shopping mall downtown called the Galleria, and now that we’re both balls rich, I’m saying we should go flex a little, Ava thought.

What about me!? Soo-jin thought, pleadingly. Not all of us are millionaires, you know!

C’mon, girl, you’re my guest, Ava thought. I’m not gonna make you pay for anything. I’ve got ten million fuckin’ dollars; if you ask me for anything within reason, it’s yours.

Soo-jin nearly shrieked with happiness.

Actually, sidebar to that, uh, how old are you? I know that’s random, but… you kinda look a lot younger than me, and I- Ava started to think.

Oh! I’m sixteen, Soo-jin thought, interrupting her. I’m a first-year high schooler.

Okay, thank fucking god, that’s a relief. You look super young compared to us, Ava thought. Soo-jin smiled at her.

“Are you two doing your weird Newtype communication thing?” Sam asked. “I feel a little lost.”

“I’m just catching her up on what we’re doing. Also, I told her I’m paying for anything she wants within reason, and because I was thinking about it, made sure she’s not actually way younger than us,” Ava explained, bringing Sam up to speed.

“Shit, she’s not? I thought she was like thirteen,” Sam said, incredulous.

“Nope. Sixteen. Same age as us,” Ava confirmed.

“I’ll be damned,” Sam said.

“So, yeah,” Ava said, gesturing at her apartment, up the two flights of stairs in number 1312. “I’m gonna go introduce Mom to Soo-jin, make sure she didn’t burn the apartment down while I was gone, you know the drill. I won’t be that long, so wait down here for me?” she asked, making puppy-dog eyes at him. For all his better impulses, he couldn’t resist.

“Alright, sure,” he said, sitting on the porch as Ava took off up the stairs with Soo-jin.

----------------------------------------

When the two girls got to the top of the stairs, Soo-jin was already panting and swearing in Korean.

I can’t believe you do this every day, she thought into Ava’s mind.

Hey, so much for us Americans all being out of shape, huh? All muscle here, Ava thought, smirking and flexing her bicep at the smaller Korean girl to emphasize her point. Ava’s mother, Lydia, was sitting on the porch, raising her eyebrow at the display in front of her.

“Hey, girl,” Lydia said. “I, uh… new friend, I guess?”

Is she clued in or no? Soo-jin thought into Ava’s mind.

You know what, fuck it, good a time as any, Ava thought.

“So, uh… Mom, we need to talk,” Ava said. Lydia sighed.

“Honey, if you’re a lesbian, it’s totally cool. I get it. I kinda figured, honestly,” she said. Ava turned beet red with shock and embarrassment.

“Actually, I’m pan, and I… think I have a boyfriend, kinda? That’s its own whole complicated thing,” Ava said. “But, no, that’s like, way, way out of left field from what I was gonna tell you. You, uh, you remember that night where I came home super late a few days ago?”

“…no?” Lydia offered. Ava slapped her forehead with annoyance.

“Fucking hell, that’s right, you were asleep,” she said. “Hell, not just asleep, but completely passed out. You were in the same position the next morning.”

“Not one of my prouder moments as a mom, yeah,” Lydia said, her tone darkening a little, before it went back to normal. “But, yeah, what happened?” Ava already knew her mom was going to want the short version, and wasn’t going to have the attention span for the whole story.

“So, basically, I got stung by a weird jellyfish bug, it turned me into one of the X-Men or something, I punched a serial killer into goo, and then I got recruited for some weird superpowered martial arts tournament,” Ava explained. “Right hand to God, this all actually happened. That’s where I was over the weekend. Like, you remember me explaining that I was gonna go fight a bunch of people in Mexico, right?”

“Huh,” Lydia said. “So, this girl, what is she, one of your fans?” She gestured at Soo-jin.

Hi! A cheery, high-pitched voice rang out in Lydia’s mind.

“What the fuck is that!?” she yelled.

“That’s her,” Ava said. “She, uh… she was one of the other fighters. Her whole thing is mind fuckery. When she’s not in a fight, she uses it so she can communicate with people who don’t speak any Korean. Takes some getting used to, but it’s not the worst.”

“You beat her?” Lydia asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Technically,” Ava said. “She didn’t really wanna fight me, and I didn’t really wanna fight her. I had personal reasons to want to get to the finals, and she didn’t give a damn and didn’t want any part of it. So, instead of actually fighting, we kinda put on a show.”

Lydia burst out laughing.

“That’s my girl,” she said. “I knew raising you on Macho Man and Terry Funk was a good idea.”

“Oh, speaking of,” Ava said. “I know you’ll get a kick out of this, I bashed a fake Hulk Hogan’s skull in with a steel chair.”

Lydia got up and high-fived Ava.

“That’s my fucking girl!” she yelled. “Man, fuck Hulk Hogan. Just the absolute worst.”

Ava laughed.

“God, it feels good to be home,” she said. “Oh, yeah, also, I won ten million bucks, so…”

Lydia blinked.

“You’re shitting me,” she said. “Ten mil? Jesus, did you have to kill a guy?”

Ava looked at Soo-jin for a second, and then back at her mother.

“Actually, three guys,” Ava said, and Lydia burst out laughing.

“Jesus fucking Christ, I guess if I make that joke I’m just asking for it,” she said. “So, damn, I guess we’re not gonna have any issues getting groceries for a long while.”

“That’s the idea,” Ava said. “And we’re not gonna have any problems making rent or bills like we used to. Hell, we could just break the lease and buy a damn house with cash if we wanted, right now.”

“And, just so we’re clear, you’re being totally serious right now, not messing with me, mija?” Lydia asked, her eyes wider than dinner plates. “You actually have ten million bucks, straight up, no scam, no bullshit?”

Ava did some quick mental math.

“Well, nine million, nine hundred and eighty-eight thousand, at the moment,” Ava said. “There were drivers waiting for some of our team members who didn’t make it, and they were kinda pissed about not getting the fare, so I took care of them.” Lydia smiled at this.

“I knew I raised you right, girl,” she said.

So, uh… Soo-jin thought into Lydia’s mind. Hi! I’m Soo-jin! I’m sorry I have to talk like this, but, I don’t know if Ava covered it, my English is pretty terrible.

…wait, so how the hell are you thinking in English right now? Lydia thought.

Did Ava explain the whole thing about parasites and superpowers and such? Soo-jin asked. I couldn’t really follow the conversation.

She said she got stung by a jellyfish that turned her into one of the X-Men, Lydia thought. That about cover it?

Yeah, well, my mutant power is this kind of thing, Soo-jin thought. Anyways, it’s nice to meet you! I can see where Ava gets her personality from.

Oh, yeah, my girl’s pretty much a mini-me, Lydia thought. Just, y’know… better at everything than I am. It feels weird being kinda jealous of my own kid. Jesus, ten million fucking dollars? Girl just took us from life-or-death broke to rich as hell in one weekend.

Ava noticed the two of them staring at each other as they walked in, and tapped them on the shoulder.

“We good?” Ava asked. Let’s go back down and meet up with Sam, she thought to Soo-jin, and the Korean girl nodded in turn as they went back down the stairs.

Meanwhile, on the rooftop of the building, someone was watching Ava, radiating killing intent that made Sam shiver even from the opposite porch. He couldn’t detect a parasite, but looking up, he saw the man they’d seen in the limo with Mr. Johnson when they were first picked up, staring him directly in the eyes, crouching on the corner of the roof.

Sam picked up his phone and called an Uber, praying that it would arrive for them quick enough to avoid a fight.