=== CURT ===

I appeared back into the hotel room. It was the only place I could think to go. I started collecting all of our stuff. More than actually moving it myself, I’d just open portals and let things disappear into them to a a safe place. It was faster and I needed the fucking time. God fucking damn her! God damn you, Kari! You fucking bitch! I raged as I gathered everything I could. I snapped over to where I had stashed Cin. She was laying in a bed, unconscious still. I looked over her body. She was barely breathing. I sighed and snapped over to Des. They were in their apartment with one of Cindi’s bridesmaids whose name I couldn’t be bothered to remember at the moment. When I appeared there, Des jumped up. “Curt! Thank God!”

  They threw their arms around me and I grimaced. The bridesmaid watched me carefully. “How’s Cherry?”

  “Not good. She’s unconscious. Des. I need you. Right away.”

  “Yeah, you’re a mess.” They commented, looking at me. I didn’t bother to do the same. I knew I was in bad shape. I knew I could die. But that didn’t matter. All that mattered was getting Cindi help.

  “Not for me. I’ll be fine,” I lied. “Cindi’s in bad shape. I think one of her lungs collapsed. Where can we take her?”

  Des considered for a moment, frowning. “My practice. I don’t know that I’ll have everything I need. But I’ll do what I can, Curt.”

  “You coming?” I asked the bridesmaid. “Des may need a hand and mine aren’t steady right now.”

  “Yeah,” she said hesitantly. I held out my arm and they both crowded in and grabbed it. I snapped us over to Des’ practice. It’s where I had stashed Cindi anyway. It was the only place I could think of that was safe. Des rushed straight over to my fiancee. The woman was supposed to be my wife right now. I shambled over to a seat in the room and collapsed into it. The bridesmaid glanced over at me, lips pursed, and then went back to helping Cindi. I must have fallen asleep at some point, because eventually, I woke up in a bed, next to Cindi’s. I glanced down. I wasn’t covered in bandages, but all of my wounds had been closed. I shifted uncomfortably and took a better look at myself. I was still bruised and burned in some places, but the cuts had been closed with no stitches. I looked around and Des and the bridesmaid were chatting. Des put their hand on the woman’s wrist. I smiled. I didn’t want to interrupt them, but the bridesmaid looked directly at me and before I could pretend to still be asleep, Des looked over and rushed over to me.

  “Hey, Des. What’s the prognosis?”

  “You were in pretty bad shape. Some internal bleeding from being knocked around. A concussion. You’ve really got to stop fighting with your ex.”

  “Ex?” The bridesmaid asked.

  “He and Smash Gal had a thing.”

  “For like 5 minutes when we were 14. It’s long over.”

  “Yeah, and that definitely has nothing to do with why she literally crashed your wedding,” Des said.

  “Nevermind that. I don’t care about me,” I said, pushing myself out of the bed. I made my way over to Cindi and wrapped my hand around hers. “How is she?”

  “You shouldn’t be out of bed.”

  “If I started listening to you know, it would set a bad precedent. You’d expect me to do it in the future.” I tried to smile, but I couldn’t manage more than a lip twitch.

  “Curt . . . It’s not good. She needs to be taken to a real hospital. With real doctors.”

  “Why? What’s going on?”

  “She’s in a coma, Curt. I only have so much I can do here. I can rebuild you with a flesh reconstructor, but I think her brain is swelling in her head. But I don’t have the right equipment here to check.”

  “Do you have any idea of when she will wake up?” I asked, clutching onto her hand for dear life.

  “I’m sorry, Curt,” Des responded. I closed my eyes, tears leaking down my face.

=== CHUCK ===

Kari was incredibly angry. She was hardly able to contain it. Even with all of her practice with Suiren. She had spent the trip back meditating, trying to force some semblance of calm and control over herself. Bion had continued to cough up dirt and some blood but had transferred to a spare suit in his jet. Techmaster and Jenny both were silent. Techmaster hadn’t really been a great boon here. He helped Reese and Drei, but he wasn’t a heavy-hitter. I sat in my seat and stared out the window. I also hadn’t been helpful. Curt was just so angry. Everyone’s emotions had been running high, but his and Cherry’s emotions were out of control. When we got back to the city, I started flying off and Kari caught back up to me.

  “Hey, Chuck,” she grabbed my arm and turned me. I looked at her. “Are you okay?”

  “No, Kari. I’m sorry. I failed you.”

  “Well . . . Yeah, kind of. What happened? You just shut down and hid during the fight. What the hell was that about?”

  “I . . . I got overwhelmed. I’m sorry.”

  “Overwhelmed from what?”

  “The emotions.”

  “The emotions?”

  “You know how you have to filter out thousands of pieces of sensory data constantly?”

  “Yeah,” Kari nodded.

  “Well, I have to do the same thing with people’s emotions. I can always tell what people are feeling, all the time. And it’s hard. It’s like ignoring a smell or seeing something or something weighing on my chest. And when someone is feeling something so strongly, especially something like rage or hate, it can overwhelm me. I won’t be able to think or focus and I will barely be able to stand.”

  “And that happened at the wedding?”

  “Reese and Drei both hated you. They wanted to kill you. I think that if Curt hadn’t been so hurt, he would’ve.”

  “Their hatred overwhelmed you? It was . . . It was that strong?” Kari asked.

  “Yeah,” I said. “It was terrifying. Between that and all of the fear of the people scattering and your feelings, and Bions. It was just too much. I almost was knocked out from it.”

  “Whoa. I can’t even imagine.”

  “I could show you. If you want.”

  “How?” I got a little closer to her. I gripped her head and stared into her eyes. She blushed and shifted a little. I pressed my fingers into her temples and closed my eyes. I pushed into her mind and created a flow between us. Pushing what I felt into her. “I . . . I can feel what you’re feeling. But I don’t get how you could be overwhelmed by this.”

  “Well, we’re the only ones close by. We’re high up. No one else is around. And my emotions aren’t that potent right now. Not like Curt’s when he’s fighting you. Or yours when you’re fighting him.” I felt a pang of pain tear through the connection.

  “Can you show me? I want to understand. Maybe I can help.”

  “I don’t know. I can extend my range.”

  “Do it. I need to know.”

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because it might be overwhelming. It can be a lot.”

  “I . . . I want to know what you’re going through. I rely on you so much. Maybe it’ll be easier if you know someone else understands.” I considered this for a moment, then sighed. I closed my eyes and extended my emotional sense out. Thousands of feelings flooded into me from below. I continued to extend it so that she might get the scope. She shivered but didn’t move away. There was anger, hatred, love, and lust. Joy and melancholy. I could feel her sifting through it. I gritted my teeth and concentrated hard, extending out my ability to its full extent. I was very good at this. And when I fully extended myself I could cover almost the whole city. This was a lot easier in a lot of ways than creating constructs or reading people’s minds too. A lot more passive.

  There was a strong spike of emotion from somewhere. Grief and anger and hatred. It was across town. I felt Kari grasp at it. She took control of the flow that I was providing to her and pulled it that way. “It’s him!”

  “What?”

  “That’s Curt!” She pushed my hands away and blasted off. I was almost blown away by the sonic wave she sent out. I sped after her. She was faster than I was. But she stopped. There was a shabby office building and she was staring at it.

  “What the hell, Kari?”

  “That’s Curt. It’s got to be.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “That much grief and hatred. You said his emotions are very strong.”

  “Lots of people’s emotions are very strong. Hundreds of people go through traumatic, painful events every day. It could be anyone.” As I was speaking she sank down in the air. She looked back up at me and grinned.

  “It could be anyone, but it isn’t. It’s Curt!” She exclaimed, pointing.

  “That’s impossi-” I started to say, before looking for myself. “Well, I’ll be damned. How did you know?”

  “I don’t know. Just a hunch, really. Let’s go.”

  “Go where?”

  “Arrest him. Turn him in. Like we were planning too.”

  “Kari, didn’t you feel how much pain he’s in? Do you really want to do this?”

  “He’s a criminal, Chuck. We have to take him down. He threatened to kill you today.”

  “Yeah, he did.”

  “So, are you going to come?”

  “Yeah. Of course. You’re right.” She sped off. She tried the window on the third floor, but it didn’t work. So, she just burst through the window. Curt jumped up from the floor. He had been kneeling over a hospital bed. I sensed two other people in the area. I didn’t sense anything from the person in the bed. He glared up at Kari who was floating midair.

  “Curt, surrender. I don’t want to hurt you. Oh, good. Cherry’s here, too. That will save some time.”

  Curt stood tall at first but when Kari mentioned Drei he looked over to her and I could feel him work through the problem. He then shook his head and walked between her and Cherry. “Fuck off, Smash Gal. You’ve done enough for today.”

  “I’ve done enough?” I felt her anger spike at that. But it was dwarfed by the rage coming off of Curt. This man had barely been under control last time and now he was literally shaking with rage. He shook out his arm and the device he wore around his hand shot from his sleeve and wrapped around it. He then took out the pair of glasses he wore out and started to put them on, but Kari sped towards him. He tried to dodge, but she caught him. She grabbed both of his wrists. He struggled, kicking at her.

  “Let me go, you fucking bitch!”

  “This bitch is taking you in!” Kari yelled back. He struggled more and dropped the glasses which spun across the floor. Another person came through the door and looked at it.

  “What the hell is happening?”

  “De-Doctor! You need to get out of here!”

  “Whose that?”

  “None of your fucking business!” Curt shot back and started to snap, but Kari adjusted her grip and wrapped her hand around his. He snapped but she crushed his hand and he cried out in pain.

  “Curt!” The doctor yelled and ran towards them. The two figures popped all around the room at random, fading in and out of existence at random. I shot out a tether and grabbed them both. I strained to keep my hold on them. They stayed still for a moment. Long enough for the doctor to grab them and try and pry them apart. Everything shifted violently. I was jerked forward and I felt like I was being thrown through a tumble cycle. Then there was a blast of air and we were thrown apart. I crashed into a wall and everything went black.

=== CURT ===

I opened my eyes. Wherever I was it was dark. I struggled to sit up and look around. Three other people were around me. Des, someone in plain street clothes, and Kari. The man in street clothes must’ve been Professor Mind. I leaned over Des and started to check for signs of life, grimacing as I stretched out my hand. I looked down at it. It was swollen and crushed awkwardly. There were glints of metal in the limited light. I made my way carefully over to a window and examined it. It was covered in blood and an absolute mess. The bones weren’t right. It hurt, but I didn’t have time to focus on that. More importantly, there were pieces of metal and glass sticking out of it. That’s right. Kari had broken my hand to prevent me from snapping out. Fuck. I started to turn back to Des then I looked back out of the window. It was dark out. We were in some building that was attached to several other buildings by long tubes. But that wasn’t really what had captured my attention. There were two moons. I closed my eyes and shook my head. No, that’s not possible. I probably just hit my head and am not seeing things properly. I looked out again and both of the moons were still there. They weren’t close together, exactly. One was waxing and the other waning. But they were both clearly visible. The stars were also wrong . . . Somehow. Astronomy’s not exactly my strong-suit, but something is fucked up. I looked around. The room we were in was filled with tables and chairs. There was a vending machine, a coffee machine, and seemingly a place to line up for food. There was a thick layer of dirt and dust on everything. I walked over to Des and leaned over them. They were still breathing. I grabbed their shoulder and shook them awake and they jumped and started to shout but I cut them off.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Shh! It’s not safe,” I whispered. They looked around for a moment.

  “Where are we?”

  “No clue. I think . . . I think we might be on a different planet.”

  “Different planet!?” They exclaimed.

  “Shh! Professor Mind and Smash Gal are still around. They’ll probably be awake soon, especially if you keep shouting. You need to pretend that we don’t know each other. That I blackmailed you into helping me.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Because you have a career to think about, moron!” I whispered, annoyed. “I’m an international criminal and I’m not getting out of this. If we get back, I’m probably going away forever. I don’t want you to go down with me.”

  “I think it’s a little late for that,” Smash Gal said from behind me. “Who is she?”

  “They,” I emphasized, “are just a doctor.”

  “I’m his best friend.”

  “God damn it! What did I just say?”

  “You already corrected my pronouns. The cat’s already out of the bag, Curt.”

  “I recognized he-” I glared at the woman, “. . . Them from the wedding anyway, Curt. And it makes sense you have a doctor. Has . . . Have they done anything illegal?”

  “No,” I said immediately.

  “Then I don’t think their career is in danger.”

  “If he’s telling the truth,” the man behind her said, sitting up. I clenched my fists and grimaced.

  “Oh my god! Curt, your hand!” Des exclaimed. They grabbed it and examined it. “I don’t have any of my tools. Fuck!”

  “There’s a first aid kit on the wall and I have a pair of tweezers.”

  “That’s not . . .” Des sighed. “It’s what we have. Why do you have tweezers?”

  “Part of my lockpicking set.”

  “Of course it is.”

  “What did you mean we’re on a different planet?” Smash Gal asked.

  “Use your own fucking eyes,” I muttered, gesturing to the window. The vigilantes both frowned at me, but got up to look.

  “There are two moons. How did we get here? What did you do?” The woman in pink demanded.

  “What did I do!? You broke a delicate piece of equipment because you’re a fucking moron!”

  “You’re blaming me?”

  “Literally everything bad that happened to me today is your fault and I sincerely wish you would fuck off into a cherry tree and die.” I grimaced as Des pulled out pieces of metal and glass from my hand. Blood leaked out of the wound and I grimaced. Part of it had already started to scab over. I must have been unconscious for a while.

  “My fault? If you weren’t a criminal, none of this would have been necessary.”

  “ ‘Necessary’,” I scoffed. “Fuck off and die.”

  “Both of you shut the fuck up. I’m trying to focus here so that you might have use of your hand in the future, dumbass!” Des exclaimed. Professor Mind shifted his clothes to his normal costume. I hadn’t recognized him but that wasn’t a surprise. He had always had kept a tight cap on his secret identity and if I wasn’t going to recognize him when all he wore was a domino mask on his head, recognizing him without it was a lost cause.

  “Do you need any help, doctor?” Mind asked.

  “No, they don’t. You can fuck off and die too!” I shot back.

  “Actually, yeah, I can. Can you light up the area? Or at least turn on a light.” Smash Gal was at the switch in less than a blink of an eye and flicked it a few times.

  “No power. If we’re on a different planet, why can we breathe?” She asked. Professor Mind created a lightbulb that illuminated the room and I grimaced, turning from him and it.

  “Dunno. I think whoever made this place was human, though.”

  “But we’re on a planet with two moons. There was nothing about that on the news. If we had a station on a different planet, don’t you think it’d be big news?”

  “God, you’re an idiot,” I muttered.

  “What was that?” The woman said, charging right up next to Des and I.

  “You’re in my light, Smash Gal,” Des said, exasperated. She shifted to the other side.

  “What did you say, Curt?”

  “Firstly, I told you to keep my name out of your fucking mouth. Remember that. You can call me thief, bastard, Esvanir. But you don’t know Curt Reese anymore.” I couldn’t keep the heat out of my voice at all. “We’re at some off the books endeavor. Looks like a Wan En and EnGin endeavor.”

  “What makes you say that?” Professor Mind inquired, putting a hand on Smash Gal’s shoulder.

  “Everything here was manufactured by a subsidiary of those two companies. The coffee machine is actually EnGin’s proprietary brand. Also, they’re the only two companies in the world that could make it to wherever we are.”

  “How do you know that?” Smash Gal asked.

  “I make it a point to know as much about my enemies and targets as possible. I know all of their public subsidiaries and some portion of the private ones, too.” I winced as Des started wrapping my hand in the gauze. They had splinted my hand and fingers with a bunch of tongue depressors they found and were making sure it’d be tight enough so that I couldn’t move my hand.

  “How is his hand?” Smash Gal asked.

  “Like you give a fuck,” I responded, pushing myself up and wincing.

  “Broken. Badly. I think all of his fingers are broken in at least one place and the bones in his hand are in worse shape. If he doesn’t get real treatment soon, he might lose most of its function.” Des said.

  “Well, that’s unfortunate,” I muttered. My former friend looked at me, but I turned my back on her.

  “Where do you think you’re going?”

  “To figure out where we are and get a way back,” I said.

  “No, you’re not. Prof, shackle him!”

  “What?” Both of us demanded.

  “He might just strand us here. He can’t be trusted. When we find a way out, we’ll bring both of them along.”

  I stumbled into a wall as I laughed at her. “You’re so fucking stupid! You’ve got to be the dumbest person on the planet!”

  Professor Mind shot forth a set of handcuffs that shackled my wrists together. Then another set on my feet. I looked down at them. “Really using kid’s gloves today, aren’t we, Mind Destroyer?”

  “What are you talking about?” Smash Gal demanded, charging forward.

  “Oh? You don’t know? Well, of course, you don’t know. Ask him about Scott Spring and Jean Brown some time. Real highlights of his career,” I said with a grin over her shoulder. Professor Mind didn’t meet my eyes. He looked down and sighed.

  “I haven’t done . . . I haven’t been that person for years, Mr. Reese.”

=== KARI ===

“Yeah, and yet my crimes are enough for Brickhouse Barbie here to ruin my wedding, break my hands, ribs, and face countless times.” I clenched a fist but took a few deep breaths as I listened to Curt spout off this nonsense. He slid down the wall and continued talking. “So, you should probably turn yourself in right next to me. Do the right thing. Maybe you, Bion, and I could all share a cell. Since this is about justice, right? And you never served a fucking day for what you did.”

  I turned away from him. I looked at Chuck and his arms were at his sides. He looked like Curt had hit him. Actually, I think he might look better if Curt actually had hit him.”Whatever. We’re going to go find a way out of here. Get up.”

  “Fuck you,” Curt responded simply. There wasn’t even any anger in it. He then closed his eyes and leaned against the wall.

  “So, you’re not going to help us?”

  “Oh, I’m sure that the mighty Smash Gal and the brilliant Professor Mind can figure out a way back home. After all, you know everything, right, Kari? Surely, you’re smart enough to know how to manage interstellar travel.”

  I turned from him again and huffed. “Fine. Come on, PM. Let’s go.”

  The doctor looked down at he- at their friend and he motioned for them to follow us.

  “Are you sure, Curt?

  “You’ve got to distance yourself from me, Des. This isn’t going to end well. It’s better to be on the side of the ‘good’ guys right now. And you might recognize something they don’t.”

  “Not as well as you could. You’re the genius.”

  “Professor Mind is probably smarter than I am and out of anyone here, you’re the only one I trust to keep me in the loop. And you’re smarter than I am. Always have been.”

  “You’re such a child,” they said, shaking their head and joined up with us. Chuck flew ahead slightly. He seemed really distant now. Whatever Curt was talking about must’ve really hurt him. I caught up with him.

  “Hey, you okay? What’s going on?”

  “It’s nothing, Kar,” he lied. I don’t think he had ever lied to me before. I shook my head. “Look. We can talk about it later, okay? We need to focus on getting out of here.” I shrank back. I don’t think he had ever treated me like this before. I flew next to Doctor Des.

  “So, you’re Curt’s friend?”

  “Yeah,” they said, pointedly looking forward.

  “You know, I’m not a bad person, right?”

  “Never said you were.”

  “I’m just trying to do what’s best for him. I’m trying to help him.”

  “Uh-huh. Sure.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Since you came back into his life, he’s broken twelve ribs, had countless concussions, broken his hands three times, as of today, and on top of that, you bring out the worst in him.”

  “What do you mean? He’s a criminal. He needs to be stopped!”

  “If you say so, Smash Gal.”

  “You don’t agree?”

  “That he’s a criminal? Yeah, he is. Definitely. By the letter of the law, he’s a criminal. He steals stuff.”

  “He’s also dangerous! He kills people.”

  “In self-defense. When they’re trying to kill him. Over property.”

  “He almost killed me!”

  “Yeah, after he thought you killed his girlfriend. After months of you beating the shit out of him.”

  “That’s not-”

  “That’s not what you think happened. I get that. But I’m his friend. Not yours. And I’m going to take his side.”

  “Why do there have to be sides? He breaks the law!”

  “And he saves people, Ms. Stewart.”

  “What?”

  “Oh, come off it,” they said, exasperated. “You know what he does with the things he steals. He gives most of it away. Unless he needs it for some reason, he doesn’t keep any of it. He gives it to people who, quite frankly, need it a lot more than Bion does.”

  “So you think it’s okay? You think he should just be allowed to steal anything he wants?”

  “I . . . I don’t know. I didn’t use to.”

  “What changed?”

  “I saw what he did. I really started looking at how he operates. He never goes out seeking a fight on purpose. He doesn’t try to hurt people unless . . . Unless he loses his temper.”

  “And he’s been losing his temper a lot.”

  “God, I can’t believe he’s right about you. I really didn’t want to believe it.”

  “What? What did he say?”

  “Just forget it.”

  “No, tell me. I need to know.”

  “He said that you’re blind.”

  “I’m not blind! I see what he does. He’s a thief. He justifies it, but that doesn’t make what he’s doing good. And I’m just trying to stop him. He’ll get hurt or killed if he doesn’t stop. I’m going easy on him!”

  “You might’ve had a point. Until that last bit.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You almost killed Buck Cherry. You ruined his wedding. You may not be trying to kill him, but you’re definitely pissing him off. And if it’s not on purpose, you are really as blind as he says you are.”

  “If he would just sto-”

  “Stop what? Ask yourself, Ms. Stewart. What is it you want him to stop doing? Stealing things? The way he sees it, he’s helping people. He’s given people access to clean water, to medical technologies that were just sitting in some building somewhere not doing anything important. It would be like asking you to just sit back and watch people get hurt. You two are so fucking similar and neither of you wants to see it.”

  “He could do that legitimately! He could build all that stuff for people.”

  “Could he?”

  “He’s smart enough. He built a fucking teleporter.”

  “So, why aren’t you a cop, then? Or someone in the military?”

  “What!?” I demanded. My head spun with the thought of being a cop. Someone who . . . Who might have shot Harold. Or me. Or that poor man on fire. I . . . couldn’t do that.

  “What you do is illegal. You go out and assault people and force them to comply with standards that you have set. And you don’t apply them evenly. If he just spent all of his time building things to help people, things that already exist and that the people he’s robbing can’t need anywhere near as much as the people he’s giving them to do, he wouldn’t have time for anything else. All because people like Bion are hoarding their wealth.”

  “So, Bion should just be poor?”

  “No, but he should not hoard life-saving technology for himself for no fucking reason.”

  “He gives away-”

  “Some of what he develops. But if Curt was doing what he’s doing the legal way, people would die while he struggled through red tape.”

  “So, I should just let him go, then? Is that what you’re saying?”

  “Yeah . . .” They stopped and looked down. “I really wish you would. You’ve almost killed him more times in the past few months than I had ever seen before and you’re scary. You’re so fucking scary, Smash Gal. Especially to me. Because I love Curt. He’s great. And I’ve only ever met one person that treats him worse than you do.”

  “Whose that?”

  “Himself.”