Chapter 21 - Sidekick

With one final loud screeching of protestation from its brakes, the subway train comes to a complete stop. Once the doors slowly open, a few scattered groups of people enter and exit the various train cars. The door that Lucas and Jonathan are waiting near has a trio of people walk out, one of them elbowing Lucas on the way past.

Not even acknowledging them, he takes a deep breath to calm himself. Instead of achieving nirvana, he ends up further tied to the plights of mortality by the pungent bouquet emanating from the foul remnants of human selfishness and indifference.

Recovering from his existential-crisis-triggered coughing fit, Lucas turns towards Jonathan, who seems to have a final exam's worth of questions written on his face while staring at him.

"Ahem. Ah yes, I believe I caught notes of rotten fish that time. Blarg, that's one way of sobering up." Trying to lighten the mood a bit, Lucas gives a small smile before stepping forward to board the subway train car before them.

Jonathan stands in place a few seconds more, head slowly turning to maintain his stare. After blinking a few times he hurries in after Lucas, going over to sit next to the seat he had chosen.

Thanks to no one else boarding with them, the only other person in this car is a middle-aged man in a navy blue suit. Whom is snoring while spread out across three people's worth of seating. Between his flushed look and the large, empty, unlabeled glass bottle rolling under his seat, it's a pretty easy guess as to how he's sleeping so soundly.

The doors close and the train begins its trek onward to the next stop, sparing not even a moment of silence for the two latest corpses beneath it.

'I guess if you're gonna go hard on public day drinking, you might as well dress up for it? ...Probably just got fired, who am I kidding. Hey, it's not Friday, dude must have really fucked up to get booted mid-week, and must've been in the morning too to be this trashed by now. Yeesh, sucks to be you, dude.'

Settled down on bench seats far away from the unconscious man, that Lucas already mentally constructed a full backstory for, it's hard to ignore Jonathan's continued staring.

"I uhhh... I might not have recognized them immediately, but I knew those guys. Real assholes. Totally deserved it." Unfortunately, Lucas still needs to work on his excuses it seems.

"...I-if you don't want to tell me, you could just say so. You don't have to... You don't have to lie about it." Jonathan's expression sinks a little bit while he's saying this, clearly not being particularly fond of Lucas's poor attempts at deception. Maintaining his stare with a slight pout, he crosses his arms.

Lucas can't help an awkward chuckle from slipping out. He reaches up and rubs the back of his own head as a nervous reflex, getting a few small powdery smears of dried colorful paint on his hand for his efforts. Realizing he'd just get even more on his hands if he tried to wipe them off anywhere on his person, he stiffly rubs his hands together a few times to try to knock the flamboyant dust off of them.

"It's just, you know, kinda hard to explain... It wasn't random though, I promise." At least Lucas is sincere this time.

[Real smooth. I'm certainly convinced.]

'Hey, you go over there and explain things to him yourself if you're so concerned. I don't need to ask to know I can't talk about you with other people.'

Finally breaking off his stare, Jonathan turns his attention to the floor in front of his feet. Oh, look, even more graffiti. After about half of a minute spent lost in thought, serenaded by the dulcet tones of getting laid off throughout, Jonathan turns his attention back up to Lucas again.

"Um, did you... Did you go into that store because you knew, um, what I was doing?" As Jonathan asks this, Lucas's obvious flinch is a clear guilty admission.

[Oh, he's pretty quick.]

'That was a terrible pun. Bravo. Fuck though, now what?'

Before Lucas can butcher an attempt at some sort of cover-up, Jonathan leans slightly towards him while continuing.

"That guy with the paint in that alley before too, r-right? Is it somehow related to the... Um, contact was it? That you mentioned before? It's, um, it's got something to do with all of that m-money, right? Did you do something with this... Ability and someone paid you for it? It's not a new kind of superpower, is it? Something like that shouldn't be, um, shouldn't be linked with super-strength, right? So, uh, how?" As Jonathan awkwardly interrogates Lucas, his expression is filled with sheer child-like curiosity. Seems that what was bothering Jonathan was not being able to quite figure it out, and not that he takes any actual issue with Lucas's actions.

'Uhhh... 427, halp!?'

[...Nothing you do or say will help you in this situation.]

'So like, he isn't just a speed type? This is a bit much to put together so quickly no matter how bad at acting I am?'

[No... Your bad acting probably brought it to his attention faster than he'd otherwise try and piece it all together. I ran another scan, his super enhancement truly is purely speed. There just wasn't enough time earlier, so when you suddenly dodged right before getting hit from behind must have really stood out to him. Never mind how clearly angry you were at them too, there didn't seem to be any reason to get that worked up from his perspective. Probably. Just a guess of course.]

'Fuuuck.'

Lucas's self-deprecating laughter is largely covered up by a drunken snort, shortly followed by continued snoring.

'Haah, here goes nothing.'

"Well, yes. You're right. But if I told you any more, I'd have to kill you." Lucas somehow manages to say this while maintaining a solemn expression. Jonathan's eyes light up brightly, and now his whole body is trembling slightly with excitement. Unable to control himself, he grabs onto Lucas's closest arm with both hands.

"After I spend some time working as your sidekick can you tell me? Can I learn to do it too!?" As he says this, Jonathan's enthusiastic pushing and pulling causes Lucas to rock from side to side even more than he had been previously from the movements of the train.

[Aaand there's the big question. Though technically...]

"Well, ahem. I'm not sure how long it would take, but theoretically yes." As Lucas gives this answer, Jonathan releases his grip on his arm and throws his arms up in the air like he's on a roller coaster with a loud wordless shout. To say he looks exultant would be an understatement.

Our jobless day-drinking friend is briefly startled from the sudden loud noise, rolls off of his seat onto the floor, and then resumes snoring. His ability to sleep through all of this is almost commendable. He may need to go to the hospital.

"Sweet! Sign me up! Hehe, awesome." In his joy, Jonathan kicks his feet a bit and hugs Lucas's arm briefly. Realizing what he just did during his enthusiasm, he promptly straightens back upright in his seat and stammers an apology. Now there's some colorful paint dust on him as well, although only a little bit.

[I guess it's official now? Congratulations on finding a sidekick one day after receiving your superhero enhancement... Heh, that's gotta be a new record.]

Lucas is still a bit stunned by Jonathan's enthusiastic response.

"Uhh... Sure?" Lucas is truly an inspiring leader.

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Lucas kills this chapter: 0

Lucas total kills: 6

Lucas deaths this chapter: 0

Lucas total deaths: 6

Lucas current GDV: 4.34 (+.01 net change)

Jonathan current GDV: .65

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Little character theater:

Jonathan is too busy happily humming to himself and rocking from side to side to be of any meaningful contribution in this theater.

Lucas, amused and confused: Didn't I just threaten to kill him?

427, full of confidence: [He just thinks you're a tsundere; confirmed.]

Author, while gently giving the happy Jonathan head-pats: Lucas, you better be sure to take good care of your puppy, ahem, I mean sidekick.