TCR 49) The Meeting

Dinner was good.

Or at least the food was. Tasty, large portions.

I dug in and did my best to ignore the undercurrent of looks being exchanged between the parents and their daughters.

Whatever drama was going on with them didn’t seem to involve me, and I was hoping it would stay that way.

Bravada seemed to feel the same way as she kept bringing up new subjects to talk about and forcing me into the conversation to distract everyone else.

“So do you raise anything commercially on your land?”

I took a sip of water to gather my thoughts. “Well the Ayam Cemani chickens, there is a small market for them as a novelty at specialized restaurants since even their meat is black. But I make almost as much money from them selling the fertilized eggs for people that want to try raising them themselves."

“I used to grow some produce for the farmer’s markets, but the underground hot houses killed that market. I do can some things like parsnips that Core Values doesn't stock, but I only bother to do that for some friends and again some restaurants.”

Her husband started to say something, but Bravada cut him off. “So you’ve never tried becoming a full time commercial grower?”

I shook my head. “The fact is I just don’t need the money. The house is paid for, again. I don't have any property tax due to Roosevelt's proclamation, the well still brings up pure water, and I bought a home fission cell to replace the old solar panels and the windmill. I raise most of my food, and the wireless signal from the Yucatan Quarter reaches the ranch with the signal booster.”

Scooping up another forkful of something I had missed getting the name up, I shrugged, "Other than pocket money and for the occasional necessities, money just isn't an issue for me.”

The Brute 5 looked over to her husband, “You aren't going to object to someone having generation wealth are you Kevin?”

Light Knight twisted his lip around but then smiled at his wife. “Certainly not. If your family works hard to make things easier for their descendants, then their descendants deserve what they have.”

Shimmer rolled her eyes at both of her parents. “Can you two not start that up again? We have a guest.”

Scorn spoke up for what was probably the first time that night. “Yes. Please.”

That made her parents exchange guilty looks before her father murmured "Sorry kiddo.”

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

The rest of the evening consisted of clearing off the table, putting the dirty dishes into the washer, and heading down to Light Knight's personal Pub for a few rounds of board games.

We started with Risk since we had five people, while me and Knight never did finish the pool game.

Then me and Scorn headed home.

In the truck, I reached over and took Scorn's hand for a moment as we sat in the parking lot. "I don't want to ask what was going on with your family, but if you want me to know, I can get the low down from Shimmer.”

She shook her head after a moment. “Just leave it for now, it’s too much to unpack.”

I just held her in bed that night, thinking about how lucky I was to have her in my life for her to feel it until she drifted off to sleep.

The next day, Core’s lawyers gave their closing statements which amounted to a final argument that our society needed to take things slow for matters that could have such a long lasting impact on our society.

Then my lawyer went on a tear “If not now, then when? If not us, then who?”

The Judge called it for the weekend to make his final decision.

I was so close to being done with this.

Of course, this was important, but other than being here to show my support, which could have been done by propping up my white armor on its own, there wasn't a reason for me to be here. I didn't have anything to offer to the case.

And I would have liked to sleep in that morning, it looked like I might have a late night coming up.

The day before I had made a call to my sister. “Hey brat, I need a car that a vapid young woman with a bunch of someone else's money would buy for themselves. And I need it bought locally. So I immediately thought of you. Can you hook your brother up?"

That got me an irritated. “What are you doing?”

“Secret Superhero stuff.”

She snorted at that. “Do I get a budget, or are you expecting me to cover this?”

An hour later she called me back. “Seriously? Some guys just showed up with a hundred grand in cash?”

“Yep, try to find something in red. There’s a theme going on.”

What was waiting for me in the factory we were using for my drop off point was something red with a broken up double white skunk stripe going down the middle and a snake on the front of a grill.

Checking the back at least it was a Ford.

And it was exactly what a teenage girl on her own with a half million in cash would waste her money on.

It was also freshly washed as both my sister, Manifest, and T-Rex had spent the afternoon “test driving” it at the Bonneville Salt Flats while I was stuck in court.

And of course, none of them had bothered to top off the tank, probably at my sister's insistence. She was probably also responsible for the fast food trash in the passenger seat's foot space.

I had to break open the gate at the old factory to get the car out of the fenced off lot. I guess I could have lifted the thing and jumped the fence with a Brute 4 strength, but my hands would probably wreck something important on the car trying to carry it over.

I admit. I did floor it in the late night relatively isolated industrial area, and I almost lost control of it. The thing didn’t handle at all like a truck.

Other than getting Pyrope a fancy new ride, and a fresh vest without holes in it, I didn’t bother to change her appearance. I figured that she would wear working clothes on the job.

I realized someone had the foresight to add a few extra keys to the key chain for appearances as I handed off my keys to a valet.

Inside the club, I headed for the back where the sleazy looking balding guy I had met before nodded me towards a back door and openly looked at my butt as I walked past him down the dimly lit hallway.

Should I do something here? It’s not like I care, but it’s not my body being objectified, just the one I’ve taken responsibility for.

I guess I'll just put up with it for now, but if he touches me anywhere? Well, Pyrope isn’t the type of girl to put up people laying their hands on her without permission. Besides, laying into sleazy might give me a clue what his power set is, or if he’s just a norm.

The door at the far end of the hall had a camera above it that I looked up at before a buzzing sound indicated I was able to open it up and step in.

Inside Falco sat at the head of a table with Buzz and one of the women from the club two days ago, who seemed to be a Mental, standing behind him.

At the other end of the table…

A familiar head of green feathers instead of hair Super villain.