Chương 24: Poster

The celebrations of our costumes came to a quiet conclusion, with everyone getting back into their normal clothes, myself included. I had then made the mistake of leaving my room again, only to be accosted by Christian.

"Hey, do you wanna go grab some stuff for your room?" he asked, successfully baffling me. The only response I could muster was a frankly spineless "Aren't we still in a lockdown?" He shook his head.

"Yeah, but Tancred's gonna be in a meeting most of the day apparently. Dr. Way offered to keep an ear on him and warn us through our ear pieces when the meeting's cutting close. You deserve a chance to add some new things to your room to get comfortable in before we start hero work, since college and patrols might keep you busy."

"I don't really need that much-" Chris leveled a finger at me.

"Look, I can tolerate the very serious and stoic aloof act because you're allowed to have a personality, though we're gonna put some pep in your step at some point, but that doesn't mean you need to torture yourself with an empty room. I'm not saying we turn this into a whole fancy mansion or something. Just some posters, a clock, maybe some books and a shelf for them. Simple stuff. Anything you want past that is up to you."

"I don't read," I pointed out due to the whole destroying pages issue.

"You handle paperwork that's been given to you just fine. I think you've developed the grace to not turn books into confetti. And if nothing else it breaks up all the blue on your walls. You can't tell me you like staring at solid blue concrete all day." Didn't like that he had a point. The concrete was already driving me nuts, but I had always been able to tune out things that seriously annoyed me anyway. Worst case I could've just stolen paint cans or something.

"And I imagine you'd like to get some sort of outside time anyway. This is your best shot." This fucking guy wasn't going to give up, was he?

"Fine. But the second I say I'm done; we're done." The grin on his face looked almost cartoonish, and he deployed it alongside a thumbs-up.

"That's fine by me! C'mon!" Chris immediately started strutting off for the foam pit exit in the common room. Regretfully, I followed, knowing full well this was going to be a waste of time. Going through the foam pit and through the underground tunnels, we popped out at the park where I first encountered the Arboreal Senate. Park was empty, likely out of fear of a second attack. Various scorch marks lit segments of the park, which all lined up from where I recall the burning parts of the tree men's bodies landing.

No time to linger, however, as Chris kept walking.

"My car's up in the parking lot, we're just gonna hit the shopping center." That did raise a question to me.

"If you drive your car there, and bring us back to the base, won't we get seen? And don't you normally leave yours in the park? How would you get it back?" Chris waved it off.

"One of the staffers likes to go on walks for his lunch break and I lend him my keys to take my car to the park here. He gets a free walk for the return trip. Win-win." I nodded.

"Made sense." A shocking duration of silence — a whole minute — occurred on the way to the car. It was some manner of sedan, red in color. I wasn't good with identifying cars by make or model.

"Got her as a birthday present at eighteen, you wouldn't even believe she's from the 90s." I would simply because I couldn't really tell what distinguished a 90s car.

"Sounds expensive," I chimed in. He shook his head.

"My dad got the car for like two thousand dollars. I then had to do a lot of oddjobs to pay for fixing it and getting it street legal since it had a lot of random little internal issues. And a missing wheel." It seemed to be in fine condition now, so clearly he was able to muster the funds together. Two thousand still sounded expensive to me. I just nodded as we entered the car. The seats were some fabric material. Everything was grey. Looked almost out of character with his personality. Was clean, at least.

The car coughed to life before he pulled out and drove along the road. I thanked my lucky stars he wasn't like Tancred who kept yanking his steering wheel and swinging the whole thing around. He seemed to actually understand how to drive like a sane person.

"So May told me you don't really watch movies." Of course she did.

"But I do think some posters would help break up the blue, and even if you don't watch movies, there's a store in the shopping center that sells imported and custom movie posters among other stuff. I think maybe you could just pick ones that... look cool. Seems reasonable, right?" he asked. All I could offer was a shrug.

"You're free to try." Chris gave a thumbs up.

"I'm gonna!" Letting out a sigh, I just nodded along. The rest of the ride was a short ten minute transit before we ended up in a plaza with an almost endless wave of small buildings with signs of different colors and styles on them. The two of us left the car and he immediately rushed off to one that had a prominent VHS tape draped in movie theater tickets on it. Rewind was the store's name. Upon entering, I was immediately struck by a tidal wave of the smell of old plastic and cardboard.

This place was emotionally empty. Little boxes containing means to watch movies, TV shows. Merchandise for them. This was a place of worship for things. I wondered how many people had been sacrificed before these altars.

"Lemme know if you need any help!" Mumbled out someone behind the counter. Loudly, but still a mumble. The words fell out of his mouth without coordination. Probably almost never saw anyone.

"Thanks, Maurice!" Except Christian, because of course.

"Posters are in the back," Chris explained to me as he led me to the far end of the store, where shelves containing posters in plastic boxes stacked on top of each other. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

"Let's just try to find you something cool... do you have any color preferences?" I shook my head.

"No, not really." He pursed his lips.

"Well, come on now. At least look through some. I'll do this half, you do that half. I'll cover whatever you get, just don't try to break the bank for me please!" In order to shut him up, I conceded with a nod before giving a half-hearted attempt at looking through the stacks of posters. I lifted up one, examining it. A muscular man, shirt partially torn off, carrying a chainsaw. Too darkly colored, would've just blended into the wall. I looked to the next one. A poster broken into thirds.

The bottom third is of a man in a large cloak standing with a sword. Above him, the back of a man with his arms outstretched, embracing green lightning as it piles on to him. The top third was a grim-faced man with a skull helmet. Almost seemed stylish, but the green felt too bright. Putting it down, I brought up another afterwards. A greatly muscular man in nothing but a loincloth, hoisting a sword into the air while a woman about as dressed as him crouched by his side.

Strange men standing around with bladed weapons seemed popular. Didn't really interest me. Next. Two men in suits, standing side by side, partially facing towards each other while smiling at the camera. One had his hands up, as though ready to fight. The other had his arms crossed. Plain. I did notice that familiar orange and blue in the background of the two of them, though. I moved on to another. A poster of a skull with eyes in the sockets, looking at the viewer pensively.

A cabin sits in the background, lightly illuminated. Wouldn't stand out over a blue background. I was losing patience. A shark's mouth, angled up as it swims towards a boat. Could fit with the river window, at least. I held on to that one as I picked up the next. A man with a concerned face and very frazzled hair. All in greyscale. Didn't need that. A man in a suit, standing on a large bullet flying through the sky. That actually mildly amused me. It joined the shark poster. One last attempt.

A lone tire, sitting in the middle of the road, looming threateningly over a crow while a police car lingers in the background. That would raise some fun questions. Three was enough for me. I turned around, only to see Christian holding a stack of at least five.

"Right I got a bunch of classics and one modern movie I really like. I even found a My Cousin Vinny poster so you can get some brownie points with Perry!"

"I've never even heard of that movie." He waved that off dismissively.

"We'll make you watch it later. Just without Perry because he will spend the entire movie quoting it." The alleged team leader led us both up to the counter, where we placed down the posters. The man behind the counter, who Christian called Maurice, looked over all of them as he hummed in thought.

"You guys got some pretty generic tastes." He tapped a finger on the poster of the tire.

"I will be missing this one though. Anyways, this is gonna be forty bucks, fellas." Chris paid with a card, before splitting up the posters with me to evenly carry them.

"How are we gonna get these into the base?" he gave another dismissive wave as we loaded them back into the car.

"Did you forget my power means I can see where things would be falling around? Just lemme hug 'em all while we go down the chute and they'll be fine." That didn't seem like a good option, but I let it be as we slid them into his car's back seat.

"Where next?" He pointed a thumb at another store, which just had a plain black and white sign, indicating it was a used electronics store.

"We're gonna get you a cheap clock," he told me. Honestly I wasn't gonna argue with that. Heading inside, more of that smell of plastic, but there was an almost ozone smell alongside it now. Plastic exposed to the heat of electricity. The bell rang as we stepped through, but no voice accompanied it. The lack of sounds didn't seem right, given I could see the tops of some shelves occasionally wriggling with movement. Not in a lively sense. Something exterior shaking it.

Couldn't see them or hear them, but there were other people here. Didn't want to be caught in a position of exposing my back, so I immediately took to the furthest wall to my left and followed it as I looked along the shelves. I was about halfway across the store when Chris caught up with me with a confused look on his face.

"We're allowed to be in here, Leo, it's alright." I shook my head.

"Just don't like people coming up behind me." Chris rubbed his face.

"People are coming up behind you all the time, people walk around." He just wasn't getting it.

"Just doesn't feel right," I explained again. He shook his head.

"How about you wait outside then and I'll grab you something simple? Get yourself fresh air." I took the offer immediately just to not be near him for once. Striding outside, I made my way over to his car and just sat on the trunk. Let my legs rest a little. The sun felt nice. The wind kept my skin cool enough. People were milling around, not a problem in the world. Most of them likely didn't process that there was a terrorist cult in the city.

That, or they just felt because everything was concrete here, nothing was going to pop up and harm them. That wasn't an unfair assumption of them to make, but relying on assumptions in a situation like this was high risk. Jesus Christ, even when I tried to relax I couldn't stop thinking of problems. I took a deep breath before putting my mind back on the things around me. Not the contexts behind them. Just the things. The warm sun. The nice breeze. People talking without a care in the world. Kids laughing.

The on-and-off sounds of cars starting, their motors revving as they passed by along the road. Birds chirping and calling out to each other for companionship. My gaze fell past the tree line, watching the cars move by. Across the road was a brick building, the bricks painted over with some sort of sandy color. It looked old, barely seen life. No one around in the overgrown parking lot there, except one car. Why was there a car there? Not a car. Truck. Pick-up, with a covered back. Maybe a groundskeeper.

The man came out carrying with him a bag and a broomstick. Must have been a groundskeeper. But where was the head for the broom? And he had a green hood on. In June. For fucking crying out loud. The second time I managed to get outside.

"You doing alright?" Christian asked, breaking my train of thought.

"You looked kind of spaced out there." I blinked and the man was gone. But his truck was still there. Shit, not a hallucination. My gaze moved towards Christian.

"One of 'em is here." He tilted his head.

"One of who?"

"Them. ADU. Guy in a green hood with a bag and a stick. I saw him going into that building across the street." The warmth on his face dropped, eyes fixed on me.

"You see which way he went in?" I shook my head, sliding off from the car.

"You got my attention while I was watching." He just gave me a nod, opening his car and tossing a plastic bag inside before shutting it.

"They might be trying something. I'll call in Tancred and let him know-" I brought a hand up. The apparent leader's response was to put his hand on my wrist, lowering my arm.

"Look. Just let me try." He brought a hand up to his ear, speaking.

"Hey, Agent Tank. You're gonna be upset at me for this but we snuck out." Silence for about five seconds.

"Leo and me." More silence.

"Thank you for realizing that. The good news you're expecting is we just spotted an ADU guy going into a building. The bad news is he had a bag and some kind of stick. He might be preparing for another attack. Leo and I can intercept him now. The two of us are within ROE." More silence, before Christian nodded and gave a smile.

"Thank you, Agent Tank." The smile then pointed towards me, before washing away.

"Follow ROE, we're going in and apprehending them." Best thing I heard all day.