This World

by Lee, TD

  Dom sighs deeply, she looks like she’s completely bored with everything that’s happening. “Sure, sure. So, we have one more person that we’ll need to recruit for our cause. That person is a frequent customer at a bar called Fatum. It’s located in a rather dangerous part of the town. Street thugs and superpowered street thugs tend to roam those streets especially once it gets dark. We would’ve chosen to go earlier, but again this guy doesn’t go any earlier.”

  “Why are multiple of us needed for this if it’s a simple recruitment?” Kirika asks.

  “Just in case if things get hostile. It’s a sleazy part of the city after all, the more man power we have, the better off we’ll be. Fatum has a track record of being a popular place for violence,” Dom answers.

  “Er, then why am I going? I’m not a fighter,”

  “You will see why you are needed once you arrive. Dom will take the lead as I have business to attend to here. Kirika and Ridley, please accompany Dom. Shiko will also be attending as well,” Adele says, “Dom is informed of everything about this situation so listen to her discretion.”

  “Sounds good, I’ll do my best to support,” Kirika says with a smile.

  “Let’s go then, the sooner we get this done the quicker I can get to bed and go to sleep,” Dom says leading Shiko and Kirika out of the office.

  “Um, Adele,” I say as she’s focusing on the millions of papers scattered all over her desk. “Do you really think I can help out with this?”

  Adele replies while writing several things down on a piece of paper, “Of course Ridley, I would not have accepted your request otherwise. You will see your potential soon, please do not forget the words you exchanged with the Prospector and Grania. They both believe in you as well, so you must try to believe in yourself.”

  “Right, right, okay, thank you,” I say.

  “Better hurry up, Dom is not one for dilly dallying about despite how she may seem,” Adele advises with a smile, “good luck out there and return safely.”

  I leave the office and meet Dom out at the front door. “What took so long?” Dom asks.

  “Just had to ask Adele something, sorry,” I reply.

  “Let’s go then,” Dom says, zipping up her jacket.

  We all start walking through the city. Kirika is wearing an oversized jacket with a hood that she has over her head. She even has large sunglasses on, even though it’s getting darker. Kirika probably doesn’t want anyone to be recognizing her. Dom is her nonchalant self, she even has gum that she’s been chewing and blowing bubbles with. Shiko is following closely, panting happily as his little paws patter on the cement. We have to be a strange group to see walking down the streets.

  I try to make some conversation with Dom, “So, are you a superhero too?”

  Dom scoffs at me, “Superhero? The only thing super about me is my leg.”

  “Your leg?” I question. There was something special about her leg, I don’t know what it is, but I do remember it being shiny for some reason.

  Dom knocks on her right leg, a metallic knock answers back. “Yup, my leg.”

  “Um, how do you have a metal leg?”

  “Long story, ask Adele about it,” Dom answers quickly. “Not that I don’t want to talk about it, I’ve explained it too many times to too many people.”

  “Um, okay.”

  I can’t tell if Dom just isn’t really a talker or this is just her normally. She’s incredibly nonchalant, like she just doesn’t really care about what she’s doing or what she says. And that metal leg, wonder why she has that. I should ask Adele when I can. There’s something about Dom that makes me really want to know more about her, but she’s probably just going to dismiss me away if I tried talking to her some more.

  Maybe I can try talking to Kirika to fill in the silence of this walk. I move a bit closer to Kirika and ask, “Um, so why are you helping Adele out?”

  Kirika doesn’t answer back.

  “Um, Kirika?” I call out to her.

  No reply.

  I tap her on the shoulder which she jumps a bit to and she looks over at me. Her hands reach up to her ears and she pulls out earbuds, no wonder she couldn’t hear me. “Sorry Ridley, just listening to some music.”

  “It’s okay, you must really love music,” I say to her.

  She smiles at me, but something about her smile seems a bit off. Like it’s fake. “Music has been my whole life. I can’t remember a single moment in my life without being surrounded by music,” Kirika responds.

  “Wow, sounds like you really knew what your calling was early on in life,” I remark.

  Kirika nods. “You could say that. The superhero gig definitely makes my life a bit more than just music.”

  “You’ve been in the superhero thing for a while haven’t you?” I ask.

  “Most of my life, almost as long as I can remember,” Kirika answers, “I’m a lot older than you think.”

  “Well, I can’t tell honestly, so it looks like you’re doing something good,” I say, trying to be friendly.

  A small smile forms on Kirka’s lips. “Thank you. So why are you a part of this band of misfits?”

  “Band of misfits? Oh, you mean why I’m helping with Adele?” I question.

  “Precisely,” Kirika responds.

  I take a brief moment to really think about my answer. I honestly answer, “I’m trying to find my purpose in life. I don’t really know what I should be doing at all so I’m helping Adele to maybe find that thing that I’m good at.”

  Kirika stares at me for a moment and widens her smile. “That’s a very genuine a great thing you’re trying to discover about yourself. Everyone needs to have that introspection at some point in their life, maybe even multiple times. It’s great that you’re doing so. I wish you luck and let me know if I can be of any help as well. I’d love to aid you during your journey if you’d like.”

  “Oh, thanks, I’ll let you know,” I say to the strangely overwhelming amount of support Kirika is giving to me. She’s really nice, a part of me was honestly really scared that she was going to be a really stuck-up celebrity considering the whole singing career and all. Good to know she’s not like that. Then again, aren’t most superheroes celebrities in their own right?

  “Anytime, you’re never quite alone in life as long as you keep the door open for others to enter,” Kirika advises, although that sounds like a song lyric she’s trying to work out.

  We continue walking in silence as the sky darkens. We continue walking until we hit a shady part of the city that I never knew existed. There’s a lot of trash around, the air here smells like garbage and sewage, graffiti of all kinds are painted on the walls and roads, it doesn’t look like anything has been cleaned for years. There’s a lot of rubble and destroyed landscapes that haven’t been restored at all. It looks like this place got hit really hard from the Sefirot invasion and has just been ignored since. There’s even lampposts that are resting on the ground. There’s several people wandering about, some of them seem really normal and just living about their days, but others frighten me to my very core. Just looking at them sends me shivers because I’m scared they’re going to come over and punch me for some reason. This part of the city is a completely different dynamic compared to what I’m used to, how is it that I’m in the same city yet not know that this sort of area exists? It doesn’t help that it’s dark out now.

  Dom suddenly warns me, “Don’t touch me.”

  My body moved on its own a bit and I somehow wandered to be really close to Dom. If I got any closer I would literally be smashing into her. I reply back, “Oh, sorry! I didn’t realize I was so close to you.”

  Dom goes silent. What’s with her? I really need to ask Adele about Dom just because she has such a distant personality. I thought I was distant as a person, but she takes it to a whole other level.

  We wander down a shady alley. Garbage backs line up against the walls of the nearby buildings. Flyers and grease permanently are fixed to the ground. As we wa
lk through this alley, a lot of rough looking people stare us down. I do my best not to make any direct eye contact with any of them, don’t want them to fight me or anything because I know I’ll get my ass kicked.

  “We’re heading in there,” Dom says, pointing straight ahead to a bar with semi-working neon lights spelling out Fatum.

  “A bar?” I question, “I’m not old enough to get in there, I’m pretty sure.”

  Dom reassures me, “It’ll be fine.”

  We get walk closer to the bar and I notice the bouncer standing outside of the door. This guy is looking just as gruff and tough as the other people I’ve seen since entering this part of the city. The bouncer is super buff, scarily so, covered in piercings and tattoos—it even looks like he has a horn-like piercing in the middle of his forehead. He has a leather jacket that you would think would be able to hide his musculature, but it makes it more obvious. His pants are tight-fitting jeans that only show off his just as buff legs. The metal chains and spikes don’t help with my obvious feeling of intimidation by this guy. He’s terrifying. I might die.

  Can we stop walking now? Can we just turn back?

  My legs slow down, but Dom, Kirika, and Shiko all continue walking as if they’re unfazed. Guess we’re going in. I’m so gonna die.

  We get closer and closer. The bouncer notices us and sends us a surprising, but also frightening, grin on his face. He greets us, “Dom! Fancy seeing you so soon.”

  “Miss me?” Dom jokes, sharing the same grin as the bouncer.

  “Of course,” the bouncer chuckles, “what can I do for you?”

  “I have business here, it would be great if you can let me and my friends here in,” Dom insists without giving up any sort of information. She sure seems really friendly with this scary bouncer guy.

  The bouncer glances at me and Kirika. He takes a particularly long look at me and remarks, “The baby here and the puppy look a bit too young to be entering this place.”

  Dom rolls her eyes and scoffs, “Oh please, you guys are the ones that has your ‘mascot’ be what? Twelve years-old?”

  “Fifteen,” the bouncer corrects, “but I see your point.”

  “Remember you owe me after that island,” Dom reminds the bouncer of some sort of event. There’s definitely some history with these two and I want to know what it is.

  The bouncer takes a deep sigh, “Fine, fine, you win, as usual. Just this once though.” He steps aside and opens the door.

  “Thanks Taron,” Dom says as we begin to walk through the door.

  As we walk by Taron, he says to Dom, “I’ll hit you up for a fight one of these days.”

  “I’d love to kick your ass again,” Dom says while waving goodbye to Taron.

  “You sure seem friendly with that gentleman,” Kirika remarks as soon as se step through the door.

  “Seems like it doesn’t it?” Dom says stoically. What is with this woman?

  The bar we enter is a bit cramped. Not that it’s super full of patrons because there’s only a few people here and there drinking and smoking, there’s just not a lot of space to move around too well. There’s tables and stools scattered throughout the place. Billiards tables sit in a corner with a dartboard and, strangely high-tech, jukebox. The bar takes up an entire wall where there are stools and plenty of patrons surrounding it. This place even has a second floor. There’s a flimsy, metal railing that can potentially guard people from falling off. The lighting in here is a bit brighter than I expected, but a lot of the lightbulbs are flickering. The only place keeping this place from heating up too much are ceiling fans that rotate slowly. Windows are set high up on the walls, near the ceiling, letting in the night. A couple of large windows face the upper floor. All over the floor and walls are either graffiti or flyers for some indistinguishable event. The air in here is a bit warm and humid, filled with smoke of all kinds. It’s really loud in here, not because people are shouting just to talk to each other, but the music just drowns my ears.

  This place is totally out of my comfort zone. I feel so weird here. Not only do I not belong, I am just so frozen by the shear amount of intimidation I’m feeling. I can hardly move, let alone say anything at this point. It’s terrifying. Oh God, it’s just so uncomfortable here.

  Remind you of something?

  No, no, no! Why am I hearing that voice? There’s no way I’m really hearing that voice. Hiro’s dead body flashes in my head. No, no. I need to get passed this. How do I get passed this? It’s impossible. I can’t do anything. I’m useless. So useless!

  “Ridley?” Kirika’s voice snaps be back to reality, she’s humming a bit too that kinda helps calm my nerves. I’m surprised I can even hear her humming. She melodically speaks asks me, “Are you going to be okay?”

  “Oh, um, yeah. Thanks,” I stutter.

  “Take some deep breaths,” Kirika instructs me. I follow her instructions and take in some smoky air and breathe out. Her continuous humming really is helping me calm down. Just the melody itself really helps, I can’t really explain why.

  “That’s our target right there,” Dom says pointing to a familiar face sitting at the edge of the bar by himself.

  “Meteor?” I question loudly. Meteor is the target? Why is Meteor here of all places?” I question as I stare at the superhero sitting in isolation.

  Meteor’s quietly sipping away at a drink that he’ll swirl around in its short glass when it’s not at his mouth. Periodically he’ll look around the bar to examine his surroundings for a brief moment. He has a nonchalant stare behind his glasses, his eyes look heavy with tiredness. His hair is all disheveled, some facial hair stubble outlines his jaws. Wow, it really looks like he hasn’t really been taking care of himself that well. He knocks back his drink and gestures for another from the bartender.

  “You’re up kid,” Dom says.

  “What?”

  “Adele says you have connections with fire boy over there. You’re the one that’s going to try to get him to help us out with our case,” Dom explains.

  No way this is happening, I’m not ready for this. The words stammer out of my mouth, “B-b-but I-I-I-”

  “But nothing. You want to learn about what Adele does right? Learn her ways? This is how she does it, she dives in. No matter the situation she’ll just do it even if she’s nervous. So get at it otherwise this would’ve been a big waste of time and I hate when people waste my time,” Dom remarks with a bit of agitation in her voice. “Kirika, Shiko, you two are with me upstairs. We’ll be keeping watch, after I get a drink myself.” Dom navigates her way through the patrons of the bar. She’s really a hardheaded person.

  Kirika quietly speaks into my ear, “You can do this. We won’t be far if you need support.” She smiles at me and starts making her way up the stairs with Shiko at her heels.

  My heart is pounding so hard and fast right now. Nervousness completely overtakes my body causing me to tremble. It feels like my legs are about to give out with all of the trembling. I’m not ready for this, I’m really not. Where do I even begin approaching Meteor? I’ve never really talked to the guy so I can’t pretend like I’ve known him personally. Maybe I should approach him as a fan? That might work. People like to hear they have fans right?

  I slowly start walking across the bar floor to make my way to Meteor. My head is going a little light. My vision is becoming a bit blurry and hazy. I’m not even hearing straight. My back can hardly support me anymore. What’s going on?

  “Stop stalling, get to it kid,” Dom’s voice reaches me. I don’t really even pay attention to where she’s going.

  Deep breaths Ridley. Come on, deep breaths. One foot in front of the other. Just basic human things Ridley, it’s not hard to do this. Just walk and breathe. Walk and breathe. Walk and-

  “You need something?” a gruff voice asks me.

  I was so tunneled by my vision that I didn’t realize that I bumped into Meteor. He’s staring at me with a questioning brow raised. Shit, I have to come up with something
quick, this silence is getting more and more awkward as I keep thinking. Think of something, think of something.

  “Um, uh, a-are, you Meteor?”

  “What of it?” he answers, focusing his gaze back to the drink in his hand.

  “I, uh, was wondering if I could talk to you? I-I’m a f-f-f-fan of yours,” I respond.

  Deflecting my response, he asks, “Aren’t you a little young to be in a place like this?”

  “Oh, um, I’m okay,” I slowly answer.

  He annoyingly remarks, “I didn’t ask if you were okay, I asked if you were too young to be in a place like this.”

  What do I say to this guy? It’s like he’s making himself unapproachable. This is so hard. What would Adele do to start a conversation? The words slowly come out of my mouth, “C-can I ask you some stuff? I-I’m really a fan of yours and I really want to t-t-talk to y-you.”

  “Listen kid, I’m not your average super, I don’t deserve any so-called fans,” he grunts while knocking back his drink. He motions for another drink from the bartender.

  “But you do. You’ve done so much throughout your superhero career that you definitely have fans,” I insist, trying my absolute best to break him down enough that he’ll at least let me talk to him about the case.

  “I’ve done shit that I regret more than I can praise. So with that said, it’s best for you to keep your distance from me and never talk to me again,” he responds with a bit of anguish in his voice. He sounds so sad all of the sudden rather than annoyed or angry. “Being a fan of this hollow shell won’t last long anyway.”

  Why won’t this guy accept the fact that he has fans or at least a fan? God, he’s frustrating me. This is weird, don’t most people like the fact that they have a following? Or maybe that’s why he’s sad. He was really popular at one point and that popularity dwindled during his superhero career. There’s definitely something that happened that he knows about, but the masses don’t. I don’t have time to dive into what happened to him, but maybe, just maybe I can get him to believe that he has or had a lifelong fan. Maybe, just maybe.