It was already dark and if you looked at a clock, it’d tell you that it was past ten.
“Does she know?” asked Theo on the way.
“Oh, nah. She’d yell at me for putting myself in danger,” said Colt. He’d already gone home and changed into something decent. Flight and open windows had a synergy that let you slip in and out undetected, especially if you could fly fast.
Theo had to recruit Valiant for that sweet 50 Point bonus and all of his efforts would be aimed at that. As far as he was aware, the rewards scaled with how difficult it was. Clearly, killing someone was easy while capturing and imprisoning them required far more effort. Then there was recruiting, which was a wholly different and far more difficult matter that’d take a lot more investment than simply getting rid of them once and for all.
Then again, killing would be almost impossible for him.
That reminded him that when the Goddess was explaining the rewards, she told him to take a look later as if there were more.
He willed for the window with Tasks to appear and a single black dot appeared right at the center of his vision. It then unfolded to make a rectangle appear. After it made the black rectangle, all of the text upon it appeared gradually, starting from a dark purple that was almost indistinguishable from the black until it was a comfortable light blue.
Task
Reward
Task
Reward
Defeat Superhuman
5 Points
Destroy City
500 Points
Kill Superhuman
10 Points
Take Over City
1000 Points
Imprison Superhuman
25 Points
Destroy Country
5000 Points
Recruit Superhuman
50 Points
Take Over Country
25000 Points
[Next]
This time, there was a "Next" option to scroll through the various Tasks, and that meant there were more pages. How many of them were there?
“So, just to pass the time, when’d you start doing this hero stuff?” asked Theo as he scrolled through to the next page, which happened as smoothly as ever, with all the text fading to black and the new text slowly appearing out of the darkness.
“Around six months ago,” said Colt.
“That’s good enough,” said Theo and rubbed his chin, not because he was thinking of the implications of Valiant being active for six months without a proper supervillain, but because he was looking at the second screen.
Task
Reward
Task
Reward
Save Human
1 Point
Debut as Superhero
5 Points
Kill Human
1 Point
Debut as Supervillain
10 Points
Imprison Human
2 Points
Escape Mundane Prison
1 Point
Recruit Human
2 Points
Escape Fortified Prison
10 Points
[Previous]
[Next]
Escaping prison granted that much?
Preparing the world by playing the villain was possible and an enticing possibility, but quite frankly, Theo didn’t believe he’d be a good fit for that. Hurting someone, let alone killing them would be difficult. For a measly single Point when he could just fight a Superhuman and gain 5 Points.
If he could just spar with Valiant a bunch of times and beat him to get an infinite number of Points, it’d be easy to break the game. It was possible there was that flaw but Theo doubted it.
She was a Goddess for a reason and it was very likely that she’d thought of that and made it only apply to serious fights instead of spars. Still, there was that slim chance that he could constantly do it to gain an infinite amount of Points with a minimal amount of effort so he’d try it sometime soon.
“What?” asked Colt.
“Nothing. Just thinking about something,” said Theo.
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“So like, are there a lot of them in your world? People with powers, I mean,” asked Colt.
The Tasks Screen split off into a hundred smaller cubes as they came up to a crosswalk for his safety. The pedestrian light was still red, that much he could see. That got him thinking, though. The System gave Points for saving people and he’d just saved two kids. That meant he had to have 2 Points, right?
“A bunch. There are teams of them. Some of them do good and stop crimes, some of them are selfish and they go about using their powers for themselves. They fight every other day. Watching the news is actually fun back home,” said Theo, lying through his teeth.
He was citing media.
Colt explained that he lived close and mostly left through the window after locking his door so his mom wouldn’t find out. It was a decent tactic but one that could endanger those close to him, namely his mother, if a Supervillain caught wind of that.
He had a lot to learn.
But Theo wasn’t one to speak when he didn’t even have any money to afford the rent for a month and no job to apply for or even afford food.
Most of them did background checks unless they were seedy businesses, and while most seedy businesses wouldn’t be an issue for him now, he didn’t want to get tangled up with organized crime or anything of the sort.
“So like, there are enough of them to form groups? That must be fun,” said Colt.
“Yeah, it is. And not to brag or anything, but I was a member of one,” said Theo —another lie.
“Wait, really?” asked Colt as his eyes widened and a grin popped up on his face. Then his smile froze and slowly, but steadily, it formed a frown, “But you can’t even fly.”
“I told you, didn’t I? I just learned how to fly like thirty minutes ago before I met you. I couldn’t fly back then, okay?” reasoned Theo, internally rolling his eyes, “That’s like… something new.”
“Oh, so you got an epiphany,” said Colt and nodded a few times and he started to speak, and with each word, he sped up, “Oh, sorry. It’s just me referring to randomly getting new powers. I could only move fast, and I mean really fast back when I first got my powers but then I learned to fly after a while and- and that’s all. Sorry. I tend to get excited when I’m talking about stuff I like.”
“It’s fine,” said Theo after a while and he noticed the light turn green. There was something he wanted to ask Valiant, though, so he turned to him, “Why’d you wear a hoodie, though? What made you hide your face? I’m not saying it’s bad or anything, but why?”
That was a move someone who actually read comics would do, after all. If there was no fiction that depicted superheroes in this world, then it’d be difficult to think about endangering his family and whatnot.
“Well, I’m on the news a lot and I don’t want mom to find out I’m doing all this,” said Colt, and Theo almost slammed his head into a wall before Colt added, “Since it’s dangerous and all.”
“Makes sense,” said Theo after a soft sigh.
It was so obvious that Theo felt dumb for not thinking about it, and it was relatable.
If he had superpowers back on Earth, he wouldn’t want his parents to find out either. If they’d been alive, that is.
They crossed the road and Colt pointed at a two-story house with a well-mowed lawn and warm yellow paint. It had a porch on the second floor and clearly a backyard, as a wooden fence extended behind it. In the driveway, there was a car that resembled a gray Honda Civic but there was something off about it.
They came up to the start of the short cement road that led to the door and Theo paused for a second. He could see light through the first-floor windows, meaning that someone was inside.
It had been ages since he visited a friend’s place, or rather, a friend’s family.
He’d visited a few apartments back when he was in middle school, but exclusively when there wasn’t anyone home. The last time he’d visited a friend with family present was back when he was in elementary school, probably in second grade, for a birthday party.
The vibe the place gave off was different.
There was something nice about homes where families lived. Not bachelors who’d moved out who recently found someone they can call their spouse. That didn’t give the house that energy a family did. No matter whose house it was, it sparked a sense of nostalgia, reminding all who enter it about their home.
It wasn’t a good memory for Theo.
Rather, it was a good one but the fact that he could never have it again enraged him. Made him want to scream out in frustration and blame whatever God created his world, but deep down, he knew that it wasn’t something that anyone could stop. Even if there were seemingly omnipotent beings like the Goddess, they couldn’t please everyone.
He learned that the hard way when he was back at the orphanage.
Theo noticed that the screen was still in his peripherals as a gajillion black rectangles and willed them to disappear, making them meld into air and smoothy disappear into the background.
Colt casually walked up to the door and pulled it open, and Theo awkwardly followed him so as to not get left behind.
He was a grown-up as far as age went, but socializing was never his favorite part of working in a fast-food franchise so he mostly took care of the cooking. The only reason he worked there instead of somewhere else was the fact that he could get free lunch and dinner if he wanted to with relatively little human contact.
That didn’t help his health, though.
But he had to be a social butterfly if he wanted to get as many points as possible and actually work as a Harbinger, not to mention a chance to completely restart his life. If he got this opportunity and wasted it doing nothing of importance just because he was a little shy, it’d be the only mistake that he’d regret for the rest of his life.
And he’d made a lot of them.
“Mom, I’m home!” shouted Colt as he pulled off his shoes and put on slippers. After rummaging through a wardrobe for a few seconds, he found an extra pair and put them in front of Theo.
Theo pulled off his sneakers and put on the slippers.
His socks would have been wet and so would his shoes if the Goddess hadn’t completely dried him off, not to mention that free cleaning service she provided that made him smell fresh rather than rancid oil.
“Dinner’s almost done!” yelled his mother from the kitchen.
Were both of them this loud?
“Try to act natural. Tell her that you met me in college, okay?” asked Colt and Theo nodded along. After a few seconds, he whispered, “And always call me C.C. Don’t call me Colt, no matter what. It’s something of a no-no word in the house, kay?”
“I think I’ll just stick to Collins. Yeah, I’ll do that. C.C is never coming out of my mouth. Never,” said Theo, to which Colt gave a begrudging groan.
“Fine,” said Colt and walked into the kitchen, which was to the left. The living room was exactly opposite to the kitchen and the stairway was straight forward from the front door, and past that, there was what Theo assumed to be the back door.
A pretty classic design as far as houses went.
Theo followed Colt into the kitchen, who was already seated behind the table. His mother was a fair bit smaller than himself and was wearing an apron, making Theo stifle a chuckle. She had curly hair that made a comfortable afro over her head and there were traces of wrinkles on her face, but not too many.
Theo would wager that she was in her late forties or early fifties.
“He’s the one I was talking about, mom. He ran away from home and needs a place to crash at for a while,” said Colt.
Was that the excuse they were going with?
It was a decent one.
“About time you got a friend,” said Mrs. Colt as she turned around from the stove and placed two plates with spaghetti on the table, one before Theo and the other before Colt. Then she turned around once more and grabbed her own, “So, where’d you run into him? Probably the library.”
“Actually, we were assigned to the same team for an assignment,” said Theo, working off of Colt’s lie, “That’s pretty much the only way you befriend people in college nowadays unless you’re in some sort of club.”
Mrs. Collins shrugged.
“So why’d you choose to go with Physics? It’s a dead field,” said Mrs. Collins, staring at Theo with a small smirk.
“We met in Gen-Ed, mom. The mandatory ones,” said Colt, cutting her off and as he became redder by the second, he added, “He’s in- What was it again, umm-”
“I’m in IT,” said Theo, “The specifics don’t matter. It’s confusing to non-tech-savvy people.”
That’s when he realized that he didn’t give Colt his name. To prevent any mishaps, he had to let Colt know before they left the dining table. There was a natural way to do just that.
“Ah, where are my manners?” Theo mumbled underneath his breath and turned to Colt’s mother, “Nice to meet you, Mrs. Collins. I’m Theo. Theo Lane.”
“Theo, huh? Is that short for anything?” she asked.
“Well, no. Kinda, I guess. I’m technically Theo Theodore Lane, so my parents made it apparent that I wasn’t getting a longer name, no matter what, but I just go by Theodore whenever someone asks,” he explained.
This was only the second time someone had asked him that, and the first was a teacher back in middle school: yet another white lie.
“I see, I see,” said Mrs. Collins and hopped up. She turned around and grabbed three forks from a drawer and placed them on the table, “Sorry about that. Do dig in. It’s getting cold.”
Theo’s stomach had grumbled a few times on the way to Colt’s place. Within a minute, he finished the meal and felt the familiar sensation of being full. This was more than he ate for breakfast and lunch combined.
“So, what made you run away from home?” asked Mrs. Collins after he was done while filling it up with another serving.
“Career choices. They didn’t approve of me becoming a game developer,” said Theo with practiced ease, “It’s like they want to live my life for me. You know the deal. It’s not the first time, either.”
Lying came to him as easy as breathing, partially due to the practice he’d had at the orphanage and school. It all came to bite him in the end but until it did, he made everyone at school think he wasn’t an orphan.
“I remember when C.C ran from home because he wanted to be a Physicist like his papa, but I wouldn’t let him,” said Mrs. Collins after a chuckle. Then she grew quiet as if thinking about something. Slowly, her smile faded and a frown formed in its place.
“I see,” said Theo and dug into the second bowl.
It didn’t take a genius to guess what had happened from all the context clues. Between Colt’s first name being a no-no word and Mrs. Collins quieting down after mentioning Mr. Collins, it was safe to say that Colt’s father was dead.
“Take care of the dishes, C.C. I’m tired,” said Mrs. Collins and walked off to the second floor.
Theo watched her leave, his appetite not as large after he’d finished his first plate. That, and the heavy atmosphere in the house made it difficult. Still, he finished half of the second plate before he was full.
Home-made meals tasted better when you hadn’t had any for a long while, and this was one such case.
“Is the room soundproof?” asked Theo the moment he wiped his mouth, “As in, will she hear when we talk like this?”
“Not if she’s in the bedroom,” said Colt.
“Good. Then let’s get down to business,” said Theo and bit his lips and thought for a while, “If my theory is correct, then a lot of Supers will start popping out soon. Both good and bad, and before then, we need to be ready. And the moment they pop up, we’ll go and recruit them. That means we’ll have to train you.”
“But I don’t need training. I’m fast and I can fly. No one can even beat me. I’m practically invincible,” said Colt.
“Yes, you can. Did you not get what I said just now? I said that more Supers will come around. So what happens if they’re fast and can also fly? That ends up being a matter of how much training you have,” said Theo.
“But what are the odds they’ll be fast and can fly?” asked Colt with a slight smirk and a shrug.
“Collins, one in five Supers I know can fly and one in three Supers I know are fast. They overlap a lot, and that means your powers aren’t special in the grand scheme of things. Compared to a normal human, yes. Compared to other Supers, no, not at all,” explained Theo and stood up, “How strong are you?”
“I mean I can carry an adult around just fine while flying,” said Colt.
“Hit me,” said Theo.
He had Regeneration and his durability wasn’t something to scoff at either, so he wouldn’t be hurt too much. Even if he was hurt, he’d recover quickly.
“Umm, are you sure?” asked Colt as he quickly wiped his mouth and stared at him with one eye wider than the other, “I'm stronger than your run-of-the-mill athlete, you know?”
“So am I,” said Theo and tapped his chest, “Do it.”
Colt reluctantly stood up and came up to him, and lightly tapped Theo with his fist.
“I told you to punch me,” said Theo.
“I can’t. I might hurt you,” said Colt and turned around.
“Come here,” said Theo.
“What?” Colt asked.
“Just come here,” said Theo and beckoned Colt with four fingers, as a martial artist in movies would. Then Theo put his thumb on the nail of his middle finger and pulled it back, held the hand in front of Colt’s forehead, and let it loose.
After a satisfying slapping sound, Colt’s head got slammed back an inch and bopped back into place.
“That hurt,” he hissed.
“I know. I’m strong,” said Theo and rolled his eyes. He walked back to the table and took a seat. It had four chairs, “So if that flick hurt you, then trust me, guns would mess you up.”
“Guns?” asked Colt with the same expression he made when Theo talked about rockets.
“What? You don’t have guns here too?” asked Theo.
“No. What’s that?” asked Colt.
“Well, good for you. If they aren’t in the equation, then it’ll be a lot easier for you to take care of goons. Just so we’re on the same page, what’s the strongest weapon you have here? Most dangerous?” asked Theo and stared at Colt with one eye closed while the other was barely open.
It was like his eyes were closing by themselves.
Why was he this tired?
Maybe flying did that.
“I guess swords and bows, but most criminals use knives,” said Colt, and Theo audibly groaned.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” said Theo and slammed his head into the table, but this wasn’t voluntary. It was like there was no strength left inside him and he couldn’t even keep his head afloat.
He could hear Colt’s voice in the distance but that didn’t stop him from losing consciousness. Theo could feel his body being shaken but that, too, failed to wake him up. And with that, he slumbered.