Taylor's Day Out, Part III

I wondered if it was a comment on me that I was faintly surprised there were no gang fights, explosions, or capes as we drove to the park.

Wacky John’s Park ‘O Fun had been a fixture in the Bay since forever. It had an arcade, games of chance, a little water park, which I had no intention of ever setting foot in, and the miniature golf course.

It was also under Truce. First under Marquis, and then when the Empire and ABB had started fighting over it, the owner, Wacky John, had one day, without warning, shut the park down. The sign on the front said that the Park would be for all the Bay or none  of the Bay, and you could make your decision.

The gangs had blinked. Rumors ranged for deciding to not risk the PR hit, to Kaiser hiding in a bathroom from a mob of enraged mothers and crying children. Even Uber and Leet didn’t touch it, rumor said, because Leet had memories of playing in the place as a kid.

Regardless, Wacky John’s ended up a neutral zone, complete with a changing room where someone could take off gang gear and head on in. Even people going to and from the place had some protections, especially if they were with younger kids or were wearing a Wacky John’s membership bracelet.

Those who tried to abuse that, it was said, were punished by their own people.

And that led to an entire halo of legends, from the claim that Kaiser had been seen, fully armored up, playing a game with Lung, or that Hookwolf would occasionally show up in the batting cages.

I doubted that. But it made for an amusing story. With that, we went in.

The main room was full of video games, games from Earth Aleph, staring imaginary heroes like the X-men, stood next to “Alexandria Wars,” where Alexandria took down ever more dangerous villains—mostly silly villains. This was a world of fantasy, where things like the Nine, Endbringers, and Teacher were safely absent—where people could play and fantasize.

Kids were charging back and forth, while some older teens, about our age, tried to look above it all when they weren’t cheering one of their own as he tried to make a high score.

Some pointed at Aisha, but none ran up to her. It was against the rules. Everyone here was… ordinary.

“Love this place!” Aisha said. “Remember that time you took me here, Bro?”

“Uh… Yeah,” Brian said. “Hang on, let me get some tickets.” Brian headed off.

“Isn’t he cute?” Aisha said.

I blinked. “He seems serious…”

Aisha nodded and lowered her voice. “Yeah. He’s doing some training drills with the Wards but got into a little bit of trouble…”

“Oh?”

“He teaches ‘em how to fight dirty. I mean, really dirty. One of Youth Guard’s people didn’t like that.” She looked around. “Bro took me here for my Birthday a couple of years ago. Mom was high, forgot it, and then started screaming at me, and I was… you know, not a big deal, but Brian decided he had enough money and brought me here for the whole day—even had a cake with some friends I brought over.”

“Really.”

Not many people would do that… And Brian was working to get you out of that.  I wonder if he really knows how to have fun given all of his duties…

Well, that was something I could relate to.

A few minutes later, Brian came back with the golf clubs and we headed out onto the first empty course.

The golf course was full of silly displays, including the “gravity hole” where tinkertech gravity blasters tried to knock your ball off course.

They weren’t real tinkertech, just a highly complex set of magnets in the floor, but most people didn’t know or care.

With that, we got to the game, and I realized that whether or not Brian was in on any of Aisha’s plans, he wasn’t in the habit of letting people win.

I wasn’t either, although I wouldn’t use my bugs, just my perception and multitasking.

Just Like Aisha.

Which soon created a problem. We were all sinking holes in one.

“Okay, new plan!” Aisha said. “Since I’m gonna beat you all anyway, we’d better make it fun.”

“We’re tied,” I said.

“Uh-huh, but how about you try to do it standing on one leg?”

“What?”  I asked, Brian’s words echoing mine.

“You know, on one leg?” Aisha put one leg up. “You know, for the challenge, unless you two are chicken.”

“Really. Do you know what we’ll look like?” Brian said. I had to agree.

“Oh, is my big bro worried about his rep?” Aisha said. “Or just worried I’ll kick your ass.”

Brian folded his arms. “I’ve beaten you every time.”

“Not now!” she said. “We’re tied, so we need something else to do to be totally awesome.”

I looked at Brian. He looked at me.

“Fine,” I said.

With that, Aisha started up to her place in an exaggerated skip-walk and then lifted one leg, holding her club carefully, and fired the ball towards the hole—it missed.

“I’m not seeing much kicking of ass,” Brian said. Then he walked forward and did the same thing, his larger body a little more unsteady, but he held his weight with little trouble. His ball was closer to the hole, but it was my time.

I didn’t use my bugs, just my eyes. I could see how the ball might go, but I’d never actually done this, and I wasn’t used to it but…

My ball went sailing into the water hazard.

“Victory!” Aisha said.,

I smiled. “You haven’t beaten your brother, yet.”

“That’s coming!”

Two more strokes and Aisha’s ball joined mine in the water hazard, as Brian’s went into the hole.

“You know, sis, I like this new game.” He grinned at me.

“I agree. Thanks Aisha.”

“Grrr…” She mock pouted, then gestured. “Onward!”

It had been a long while since I’d laughed with other people. Not just because they’d laugh at me but because I knew it’d get back to Emma, and she’d use it.

But Emma was gone.

So we advanced with Aisha’s plans, and I think we sank more balls into the various hazards then we did the holes, and in the middle of the game, Aisha started keeping track of who had the most glorious fail. More than once, one of us ended up on our ass, laughing.

Jesus. How long had it been since I’d laughed like this. Before high school… No, longer than that. I’d sort of laughed at camp but…

Now I was laughing, especially when I and Aisha had to grab Brian when he overbalanced and almost went into the water hazard by the central lake, where Captain Nemo was perched on the front of the Nautilus, forever getting ready to swing at his golf ball.

Before, he’d been fighting a Kraken, but Wacky John had taken that down and changed it in the aftermath of Leviathan’s attack on Japan.

We finally ended up eating pizza on the patio, a party happening in the background.

“Hey, you know Leet offered to build a robot for  the party section?” Aisha said. “That’d be—“

“Horrifying,” I told her. “Leet would do everything he could to make it work. To make it safe. Given Leet’s luck that would result in a Class S disaster with Alexandria dodging antimatter golf balls.”

Brian snorted into his drink.

“Huh.” Aisha frowned. “That actually sounds kinda awesome. Hang on, I’ll be back. Gotta powder my ass--”

“Nose!” Brian said as I turned red.

“Right, that part.”

“She did that deliberately,” I said as Aisha vanished.

“Yeah. Better than she was with Mom. Thanks for that, by the way.”

“No problem,” I said. “How is she…”

“Better.” Brian looked around to make certain nobody was close. “No nightmares, and she’s not as upset at the explosion as she was when the Empire tried to… yeah.” He shook his head. “Said that at least a bomb doesn’t go after you because you’re black. What about… you?”

“Better. I made a idiotic mistake, but I won’t be repeating it. Also…” I gestured around. “I’m on my very first superhero restriction.”

“Your dad knows?”

“About my Investigative activities? Yes.” I laughed. “He took it much better than I thought…until I wandered into a Master’s lair.”

“Could be worse,” Brian said. “When I was… working, one of my first jobs was with a man who hired me to watch him when he was talking to Accord.”

“Interesting. What made it worse?”

“He was a slob.”

My research on Accord ensured that Brian didn’t have to expand on that.

“How did you…”

“By being more professional than I’d ever been and swearing I’d never do something so stupid again.” Brian shook his head. “And then when we walked out, I told the idiot to lose my phone number.”

“I can see why.”

“Still, things worked out. Aisha’s away from Mom, I can support her, and well, yeah… things worked out.”

And before I could say anything else, Aisha came bounding up. “Hey the Dance-Dance machines are open. Wanna see which one of us scares more kids dancing?”

I glanced at Brian and he shrugged. “Okay, but I don’t think that’s the objective.”

“In a boring world, maybe…”

*****

Later that evening, when I returned home, I felt… strange. I didn’t really know the feeling. It was…

I was relaxed, but not exhausted. It was nice to talk with people, especially people who knew enough that they understood, even if they didn’t know about Orb Weaver.

Dad was asleep. He had an early day tomorrow. I made a quick snack and then decided just to turn in.

It didn’t take me long to get to sleep.