“Is he healthy enough to answer some fucking questions?” asked Melt.
“Melt…” Greenthumb sighed and shook his head. “Would you at least put in the effort not to swear in front of the young lady?”
Melt and Greenthumb were field champions, tasked with hunting down demons and sprytes across normal Champion Authority jurisdiction. Malcolm had encountered them shortly after first gaining his powers, when he had first begun harboring Rose in his apartment.
They had treated him with varying degrees of suspicion. Greenthumb had been polite and trusting from the start. Melt, on the other hand, had acted as though Malcolm was a hostile agent, and had come very close to discovering evidence that would have supported such a theory.
“Thanks, Ben,” said Anna. “Though you of all people should know that I’m not exactly clean mouthed, myself.”
Greenthumb grinned back at her. Malcolm suppressed a smile, along with a joke about her phrasing.
“We don’t have time fuck around here,” said Melt. “Multi says you know something about Clearhand.”
Melt ran a hand through his scraggly beard, rolling one of his shoulders against the confines of his leather jacket. He looked tired, but that was no surprise to Malcolm. Melt had struck him as the kind of champion that only really relaxed when he was deep in the grip of his vices, alcohol and tobacco.
“Clearhand?” asked Malcolm.
“It’s the nickname he gave to Theodore,” said Greenthumb. “The new recruit we were bringing into HQ when we were attacked.”
Greenthumb was tall and skinny, somewhere in his mid-thirties, with a sense of fashion of a man a decade younger. He had on sweatpants, sandals, and green t-shirt with a cannabis leaf logo on the front.
“Teddy…” said Malcolm. He shook his head slightly, wishing that he wasn’t the one who had to break it to the two of them.
“He’s dead… isn’t he?” asked Melt.
Malcolm nodded.
Melt whirled, immediately slamming his fist into the infirmary’s wall with all the strength he could muster. Malcolm flinched back, only relaxing when he saw that the champion had pulled the punch using his power. Melt’s hand had, well, melted on contact with the wall, preventing any serious damage from being done. He gritted his teeth and slowly exhaled as the red goop reformed into a palm and fingers.
“It’s what we expected, Melt,” said Greenthumb. “This, or worse. This is how these kinds of monstrous organizations operate.”
Melt turned his attention back toward Malcolm. The intensity of his eyes was hard to meet, even for just a couple of seconds.
“It was the electric one, wasn’t it?” asked Melt, his voice vibrating with anger. “Or was it the stupid shield bitch?”
“Rain Dancer,” said Malcolm. “The guy with the dreads, lightning powers.”
“Did he make him suffer?” asked Melt.
Malcolm nodded.
He did. And I can’t imagine how these two would have reacted if they’d seen it.
“Melt,” said Greenthumb. “Remember your tricks from anger management. There’s nothing you can do right now. Save that emotion for when we’re actually-”
“Shut the fuck up, Ben,” snapped Melt. “Just… shut the fuck up.”
Greenthumb put an arm around Melt’s shoulder, which was immediately shrugged off. Melt focused on Malcolm again, his eyes smoldering with a dangerous, wild anger.
“How do you feel about this?” asked Melt. “This… monster, who captured you. How do you fucking feel about it, right now?”
Malcolm felt his chest heat up as he thought about Rain Dancer, and about Rose.
“I’m sure you can guess how I feel,” he said, his voice coming out with more anger than he’d expected.
Melt nodded.
“We’re gonna find him,” said Melt. “And we’re gonna kill him. That’s what we do. That’s what we’re fucking good at.”
“Jesus Christ, Melt, would you chill out?” Greenthumb let out an exasperated sigh. “You take this job way too seriously…”
“This job,” said Melt. “Right. It’s all just a job to you, ain’t it, Ben?”
Melt didn’t wait for a response, turning and leaving the infirmary. Greenthumb gestured apologetically.
“He’s been extra high strung since we lost Clearhand,” said Greenthumb. “I think he saw something in that kid.”
“I really wish he’d let me prescribe him something,” muttered Anna.
Malcolm raised an eyebrow at her.
“You can actually, uh, prescribe drugs?” he asked. “Like… legally?”
She stared at him as though he was a complete idiot.
“Did you think I was just playing around with this stuff?” she asked. “I went to med school, Wind Runner.”
Greenthumb smiled at the two of them and gave a quick nod.
“I should check after Melt,” he said. “It was good seeing you again, Anna.”
“Ben.” She smiled sweetly at him as he left, and then continued with Malcolm’s examination.
CHAPTER 27
Anna spent a couple of minutes examining Malcolm’s stabilizer after giving him a clean bill of health. It wasn’t actually broken, and she was able to reverse whatever Rain Dancer had done to it to short circuit it.
He left the infirmary feeling a little aimless. It was late at night, and he still wasn’t interested in heading back to his apartment. The fact that Rose wouldn’t be there waiting for him was weird and painful to consider.
She’ll never be there, waiting for me. In fact, if I ever see her again, the two of us will probably be trying to kill each other.
He headed to the dome’s showers, suddenly feeling the weight of days of accumulated sweat and grime. Malcolm changed out of his clothes and tossed them into a clothes hamper, wondering which of the champions was on laundry duty.
There was a set of plain athletic sweat clothes in his assigned locker, which he set out for when he was finished. The showers were set up almost like a hallway, with rows of spouts on both sides of the narrow room, and no stalls. There was no way to turn them on individually, so he flicked the switch and waited by the nearest one while the water heated up.
It was impossible for him to keep his mind off his emotions, and off Rose. He felt betrayed, but at the same time, it was only because of her intervention that he’d been able to escape. If she’d heeded his call to action and fought against Rain Dancer and Shield Maiden at his side, how would things have ended? Likely with both of them captured, in the same situation they’d been in at the start.
“Malcolm.” Tapestry’s voce caught him off guard, and he jumped slightly. She was standing by the lockers, watching him with a displeased expression on her face.
“Tapestry?” Malcolm scowled, feeling a little embarrassed being exposed in front of her. “What are you doing here? It’s the middle of the night.”
“Multi called to tell me that you’d returned to HQ.”
“That doesn’t answer my question,” said Malcolm. “You could have waited until morning instead of driving all the way out.”
The water had reached a comfortable temperature, and Malcolm stepped into the stream. It felt amazing on his face and shoulders, and only once it had begun to soak into his hair did he get a sense of how dirty he really was.
“He also ran me through the details of the story you fed him,” said Tapestry.
Malcolm didn’t like her tone.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You know exactly what I mean,” said Tapestry. “It was the same after we fought Hothead.”
She was choosing her words carefully, which Malcolm appreciated. Multi and the other champions, as far as Malcolm knew, were still unaware of the fact that the heat demon had been Danny, Malcolm’s brother.