บท 100: Footbrick
Once everyone is outside and James has finished his keyless hands-free locking of the door, he wastes no time at all in vacating the premises, as if staying a second too long would make Miss Calculated change her mind. He at least had the decency to wave his tablet goodbye at them before peacing out.
'Same dude, same. I certainly lost count of how many times I did roughly the same. Without, you know, super-cool psychic powers, though.'
[...]
'Like you're even remotely surprised.'
[Not in the least bit. I can certainly see the similarities between you two.]
'I'm not sure why, but I feel like you just insulted me, somehow.'
[...You have more important matters to attend to right now.]
'Oh, you definitely insulted me then.'
Even though he isn't directly admitting to it, 427 does replicate a snort in response, which is an admission of sorts.
Attention returning to reality, Lucas realizes that Miss Calculated and Miss Chievous are quietly speaking with each other. Finishing with whatever information she was just sharing, Miss Calculated hands her tablet over to Miss Chievous, who accepts it and cheers.
"Yes! I'm gonna get an extra tail this time… Wait, two! See ya guys there, I'll go get my bag!" Once Miss Chievous has a sufficient grip on the tablet, she vanishes from sight. A moment later, Jonathan's hair seems to suddenly ruffle of its own accord, followed by nearby, sourceless, giggling.
"Hey!" Unamused with the harassment, Jonathan uses both hands to defend his head, followed by smoothing down the molested strands back into a reasonably neat order.
Miss Chievous's giggling continues, slowly trailing off faintly as she finally leaves the area.
[Hmm, a reasonable precaution. While all of you have seem to have established a higher than normal level of trust, there's certainly no reason for them to give you any clue as to where they live.]
'Oh, huh, yeah. Makes sense. But, now I kinda want to change where we're going just to troll her, it must be contagious.'
[I wouldn't be surprised if Jonathan was of similar mind on the matter.]
Snorting out a bit of laughter, Lucas grins and turns his attention over to make eye contact with Miss Calculated.
"Well, you picked a place out, yeah? Ya wanna lead the way, or..?" Without bothering to hide any of the amusement in his voice, Lucas asks Miss Calculated with a raised brow.
Clearing her throat and giving him a smile, she nods once.
"Sure, sorry about that, but I imagine you understand." As she answers, she starts walking towards Lucas. Well, past Lucas, the direction their objective is in is behind him. Before she passes him, he returns a single nod as well.
"Yeah, I get it. Actually, good idea. Here Jon, catch." After a moment of thought, Lucas fishes out the apartment keys and gently tosses them over to Jonathan. Although he was caught off guard, he successfully claims them with his free hand. "No point carryin' all that paperwork all over the place, yeah? Oh, might as well drop this stuff off at home too." After continuing further, Lucas holds the bag out to him as well.
While Jonathan is briefly confused at first, it doesn't take him long to figure out what Lucas was asking him to do. Awkwardly nodding twice, he also vanishes from sight, albeit in a different way than Miss Chievous had.
Miss Calculated looks momentarily surprised, although she composes herself rather quickly. Miss Masher, on the other hand, whistles.
"Damn, he really is fast. One thing to see it for a short distance, but he's just… Gone." Miss Masher scans the area, trying to see if she could find any traces of him, but comes up unsuccessful.
The look that Miss Calculated gives her pretty clearly expresses 'so you knew already?', even for those unfamiliar with the sisters.
"Heh, it'll take him a little bit to get there and back, but not too long. We can keep goin', he won't have any trouble findin' us. And, if he somehow does, we've got our phones. The most time consumin' part is probably gonna be the stupid door." While Lucas says this, he folds his hands behind his head and starts walking down the sidewalk in the direction that Miss Calculated had started going in, trailing off into a few chuckles once he's done speaking.
Further backing Lucas up, Willy gives a happy affirmative bark around his mouthful of toys, wagging his tail a few times.
'More like 011 can just tell 'im.'
[Of course, though that wasn't a bad cover.]
'Ayy, I'm sorta getting the hang of this whole system-coverup-nonsense.'
[Well, I'm sure it wasn't your intention, but sending Jonathan off like that also doubled as a way of proving Miss Chievous would have no hope of tailing him.]
'Eh? That seems... Random?'
[...She hasn't been gone that long, did you really think she just ran straight home?]
'Oh, yeah, she wanted to see our reactions once we thought she was gone, huh?'
[I'd imagine so.]
Miss Calculated and Miss Masher share a look, some sort of silent communication between them. Miss Masher gives a toothy grin and Miss Calculated shrugs, then Miss Calculated makes a few slightly hurried steps to take the lead once again towards their intended destination.
Whether it was a silently agreed conscious decision or pure coincidence, they fall into a triangular formation. With Miss Calculated in the lead and Willy directly behind her, Miss Masher is to Willy's right and Lucas is to Willy's left, on the side closer to the street full of noisily-going-about-its-own-business traffic.
'Humm, I feel like I should bring up a conversation or somethin', but I'm at a total loss. Only things comin' to mind would probably seem invasive to them by this world's standards.'
[...Then it's probably better to just keep your mouth shut.]
'Harsh.'
After approximately two blocks of distance walked, a rogue brick on the sidewalk catches Lucas's attention. Deciding to play a variant of kick the can, he starts amusing himself through their travels.
'...Hey, this level of control is pretty sick. It seems every bit as unreal as the strength and endurance, I'm seriously impressed.'
[Well, it's good that you don't feel that it was a waste of a power choice. However, I can't help but question your word choice..?]
'Eh? I mean, all of this stuff, this whole world, it's pretty crazy. Definitely like some sorta weird dream, yeah?'
[...To everyone else living in it, this is normal. ...ish.]
Lucas snorts as he steps down on the edge of the brick, tipping it up and then kicking it upwards, now starting to treat it like a footbag.
[...It's a good thing those shoes are reinforced, or you would have completely ruined them by now.]
'Eheh, no harm, no foul.'
Willy has been occasionally glancing at his antics.
Miss Masher has been far less subtle in her observations.
'...I kinda want a proper sack now. Forgot how much fun I used to have with these things. No way I'm trying any fancy tricks with a brick.'
[...Some would argue that what you're already doing already counts. No few people have been watching you, you know. It's not just those accompanying you.]
'Meh, whatever. You know, isn't Jon takin' a really long time?'
[...He's on his third minor GDV task now.]
'The fuck!?'
His surprise leads to Lucas slipping, failing to catch the brick after the latest kick up into the air. As it impacts the sidewalk, both it and the concrete of the sidewalk beneath it crack.
'Aww man...'
-----
Lucas kills this chapter: 0
Lucas total kills: 7
Lucas deaths this chapter: 0
Lucas total deaths: 10
Lucas current GDV: 10.49 (+.01 +.01 = +.02 net change)
Lucas's fame level: 4* (Beyond just local, viral meme tier. Local levels have also risen further.)
Lucas's hero suspicion level: 2.5* (More than just passing suspicion for a few paranoid individuals)
Jonathan kills this chapter: 0
Jonathan total kills: 5
Jonathan deaths this chapter: 0
Jonathan total deaths: 2
Jonathan current GDV: 2.41 (+.01 +.1 +.1 +.01 =+.22 net change)
Jonathan's fame level: 2.5* (Mostly just local)
Jonathan's hero suspicion level: 1.5* (Only highly paranoid people)
Willy's fame level: 1* (Anonymous meme fame, local fame as 'Xenoclast's dog')
Supervillain social circle size: 11
-----
Little character theater:
Jonathan, holding his open switchblade to someone's throat: I SAID DROP IT!
Willy is quietly wondering if he should offer Lucas one of his chew toys as a replacement for the damaged brick.
Lucas, stomping on the offending brick to completely shatter it: Hmph.
427, amused by Lucas's temper tantrum against the poor brick: [You probably could have still kept playing with it, you know.]
Author, barely stifling their laughter: It's a good thing we have Lucas to protect us from the tyranny of a random brick, Jonathan should take hero pointers from him.
Mr. Quacks, somehow performing a few tricks in a solo game of freestyle footbag with a tiny plastic bead-filled bag embroidered with a rubber ducky pattern: Quack!
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