“Are you sure you don’t want to have a picnic?” Roman asked.
“Why do you think your joke would work a second time when it didn’t work the first time?” his teacher shot back.
Casper snickered, but didn’t say anything.
“No picnic. I want you to animate one of these rocks. How about that one?” Ava nodded her chin at the largest rock in the vicinity, a gray boulder smooth on its left surface, chipped and crackly on its right.
“And do what with it?” Roman asked.
“I want you to give it consciousness,” she explained. “This is a test to see just how powerful you are, if you can sustain something that large. I’ve been wondering if your power has anything to do with the size of the object. Is it easier for you to, say, animate Casper? What about animating an entire wall?”
“I’ve done that before,” Roman told her. “It doesn’t seem to take too much power. What seems to take the most power is…” Roman paused for a moment, deciding how he should state this. “My state of mind.”
“Or lack thereof,” Casper added.
“I knew your emotions had some part in it, but you think they play that large a part?”
“When I’m relaxed, my powers don’t seem to be as taxing. But if we were suddenly attacked and I had all three of my dolls activated, and I was also wielding some elemental force, I would definitely be feeling it. I don’t know how long I could last in that state.”
“That is definitely something you’ll need to start considering,” Ava said as she placed her hand on one of the rocks. “It’s important to stay calm, but it’s equally important to know your weaknesses. Anyway, how about this rock? Can you animate it?”
Ava’s hair caught fire, the flames spreading down her neck and her shoulders over her arms and into her fingertips.
“Are you planning to attack it?” Roman asked.
“No, I just want to be ready for anything.”
“What about us?” Coma asked.
“Yeah,” Casper chimed in.
“Why is everyone all of a sudden scared of what I can create? If I give it life, I can simply take it away.”
“Better safe than sorry, always,” Ava said as she lifted a few feet up in the air. “Besides, I feel like floating.”
“So the truth comes out,” Roman said as he focused on the core of the giant boulder.
The ground shook as a portion of the boulder tore out of the soil, bits of rock falling as it morphed into a big arm with a huge fist on its end. The boulder formed another arm like this, with another enormous fist and sharp knuckles. It pressed both fists into the ground to push more of its core out of the land.
Something that resembled a face, if the face were drawn by a five-year-old, began to take shape on the front of the rock. There was something comical about it, at least to Casper, anyway.
“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve seen all day,” she said with a laugh.
Ava didn’t find it so funny, backing up a little bit as the increasingly sentient rock continued to free itself from the soil. Eventually, Roman focused on the land itself, swirling it around the rock and allowing it to unearth its lower half, which was about a quarter the size of its top half.
“Hello, rock,” Roman said.
“Hello,” the rock replied, its makeshift eyebrows tilting upward as it looked from Roman to Ava.
“That’s amazing,” Ava said. “Roman, that’s just…”
“It’s not taking as much power as I thought it would,” Roman said, looking down at his power dial. He saw that the green bar was a little higher than normal, but the red bar wasn’t much higher than it was when he had all three dolls activated. “What’s next?” he asked his teacher.
Ava lowered a little. “I really don’t know; I just wanted to see if you could actually animate something this large.”
“I could animate another rock and have them fight?” Roman suggested.
“Could you?” Ava asked, exchanging glances with Coma, who simply nodded.
“I’ve done it before back in my office, with paperclips. It’s pretty entertaining.”
Casper laughed again. “Big rock fight? Count me in.”
“You should not have been animating paperclips to fight in your office,” Ava said. “You weren’t supposed to use your powers in public.”
“I was bored,” Roman said with a shrug.
“That’s beside the point, but sure, animate another rock and let’s let them duke it out. I will be sure to step to the side—Coma?”
“Yep,” Coma said as she joined Ava, Roman’s teacher still with flames flickering off her body.
“I’m staying put,” Casper said to anyone who was paying attention to her.
Roman turned to the giant boulder. ““I’m going to animate a rock for you to fight, got it?”
“Do I have to fight it?” the creature asked in a low, rumbly voice.
“No, but it would be nice. Have fun. It won’t last very long.”
Not sure of what else he should tell the giant rock with consciousness, Roman stepped away and found a relatively smaller boulder, this one about the height of a one-story building.
Casting his hand at the rock, he began to animate it. Arms sprouted from its side as the rock pushed itself out of the soil, the end of its body a sort of serpent’s tail. Rather than adjust this, Roman simply kept it on, pulling legs from the front of the rock so that the tail would act almost like a lizard’s.
The bigger rock grunted and took a huge step toward the smaller rock, the ground vibrating.
The smaller rock bolted to the side, uprooting a tree and skidding across a smooth surface. It launched itself at the big rock, their forms slapping together as its tail whipped around, the sound echoing into the forest.
They both hit the ground with their second collision, dirt and rock spraying into the air.
Ava landed next to Roman, watching as the boulders pounded each other, the smaller boulder using its tail as leverage to sweep the big one off its feet.
“This is definitely one of the top six battles I’ve seen,” she said over the cacophony. The little boulder was pummeling the larger with fists, the big one struggling to free itself.
“Top six?” Roman asked her, wondering why she had chosen that number.
“Yeah, top six.”
“Now!” Coma shouted to the larger boulder.
The smaller rock sidestepped its punch, feinting a jab that the larger rock naturally tried to block. This gave the smaller one the time it needed to move to the side and sweep its tail at the larger boulder, bringing it to the ground. Cracks spread across the large rock’s body.
Roman called off the fight once he saw that the larger boulder was frowning, experiencing pain. That was the last thing Roman wanted, even if they were just boulders.
“So I can do that,” Roman said, sweat on his brow.
He hadn’t paid much attention to his power dial during their fight, but he realized now that this had definitely taken some of his energy.
“That was great,” Ava said with a clap. “I’ll have to put this in your file as well, that you are able to do something like this.”
“Any chance I can ever see that file?” Roman asked her.
She shook her head. “That’s not for you; it’s for me, and your future supervisor.”
“I kind of like the unemployed life, though.” Roman made his way over to the smaller boulder, placing his hand on its surface.
“Can confirm,” Casper added.
Both rocks were inactive now, albeit in different locations than they had been before.
If there was an especially observant park ranger in the area, he would definitely wonder what the hell had happened here.
“Seeing this also makes me think you could be valuable on a public works team,” Ava said. “You know, if the first two options don’t work out.”
“Please, no,” said Roman. “I don’t want to use this power for making sculptures and rebuilding structur
es.”
“Someone has to do it,” she told him, giving Roman a funny look.
“I agree, as long as that person isn’t me.”
“So dinner is off the table, so to speak, but do you have time for lunch?” Ava asked as he turned back to the main path.
Roman looked out over the horizon, trees in the distance, the sound of chirping birds and a bubbling stream meeting his ears. He took a deep breath in, instantly missing the East, wishing again that he didn’t have to do what he’d planned to do tonight.
But it was his destiny, something he had to see through to completion.
“Not today,” he finally told her. “I need to get Celia, and the coordinator at the sex-doll shop always…”
“Always what?”
“She always has something she’s going on about, plus I have a custom order I’ve put in, so I want to check on that,” he told her, glad to be looking away from his teacher so he didn’t have to lie to her face. “And like I said earlier, I’m tired. Last night took a lot out of me.”
Ava smiled. “You aren’t the only one.”
Chapter Thirty-Three: Temporary
“It’s only temporary,” Emelia reminded him.
“I’m aware.” Roman opened his arms and Celia practically jumped into them, hugging him and kissing his neck and cheek. Her new body was shorter than her previous one, her hips wider, breasts rounder.
She still looked incredible, just different.
But Roman knew he would get used to it at some point, and besides, like Emelia said, the body was temporary, a solution that would work until replicas with light metal bones were made.
“Do you approve?” Emelia’s gray hair was in a topknot at the moment, her dress long and sleek, red buttons down its center.
“It’s fine, she looks wonderful,” Roman said, smiling down at Celia. “I’m just happy you are back.”
“Did I miss anything?” Celia asked.
Roman hesitated for a moment, which elicited a snort from Emelia.
“Stay out of my mind,” he reminded the woman as he felt the telepathic tendrils skirting on the edge of his psyche. “You haven’t missed much,” Roman told Celia, “aside from the fact that we’re going after Margo tonight.”
“All of us?”
“Maybe you should stay back,” said Coma. “Roman will be able to get more of his power to me if you do.”
“I’m definitely taking part in this fight; you guys can’t keep deanimating me whenever you want,” Casper chimed in.
“I want to go too,” Celia told him. “I know I’m not as strong as Coma, but I can help you.”
Roman hesitated for a moment. He was already taking a significant risk in what he was doing, and he knew adding another doll or two to the mix would only strip him of more of his power.
“No,” he said with finality as he placed his hand on Celia’s shoulder. “But we will spend the afternoon together, just you and I.”
“I didn’t hear my name in there,” Casper said.
“This is no laughing matter,” Roman told his dolls. “We only have one shot here, one strike.”
“Speaking of which,” Emelia said, interrupting Casper, who was about to give Roman a piece of her mind. “I am off in a few hours, and we should probably meet your other friend to go over the details. You are sure that she will be there?”
“Catherine will be there. I’m scratching her back, and she’s scratching mine.”
“Are you sure that’s the only thing you’re scratching?” Casper asked.
“Enough,” Roman said, the tiny doll falling limp.
“She’s not that bad,” Emelia said.
“Normally, I kind of like her banter—well, not always, but sometimes. Anyway, today is not the day. And I think there will be a time in the future, if I make it through this, when Casper will be useful.”
“You’ll make it through,” Celia said under her breath.
“But I can’t see how Casper would be useful in this particular scenario. I even thought about using her as a spy, but after we surveyed the parameters, I don’t know how much spying will need to be involved. Just action at that point.”
“You’re right,” Emelia said. “I will contact you when I’m off.”
With that, the strange empath turned to the back room. She stopped in front of the door and looked over her shoulder at Roman. “Let’s finish this once and for all tonight.”
“I plan to,” Roman told her as she slipped inside the other room.
He left the sex-doll shop, Celia on his right and Coma on his left.
“It’s so great she wants to be involved,” Celia said as they navigated the streets of the red-light district.
“It really is; she doesn’t have to help, but having her there will allow us to better understand the area, and to see how many eyes are watching.”
“I’m ready to do whatever I have to do to make this happen,” said Coma once they turned back onto a main street.
Aside from the accident and his wife going into her coma, most of the weeks of Roman’s life had gone by with nothing really happening, his only excitement in the last two years coming from who he could pick up from a club—whatever piece of ass made itself available.
And then he’d gotten the Hero Lottery ticket.
It seemed that every day there was a new issue Roman had to address, and he was well aware that his current issue was self-made.
He knew he could just wait it out and see how Centralia handled the affair, but as Ava had said, they were reactive, not proactive, and who knew when or if they would actually do something. Here he was, taking destiny into his own hands again, setting fire to the game and watching it burn rather than letting the pieces land.
And in that moment, Roman realized this truly may be his last afternoon as a free man, or even worse, as a man who was alive and well.
He had already gone over the scenarios of how this would end, or at least he had formulated a few of them, and he didn’t want to dwell on these likely outcomes.
For now, he just wanted to enjoy the afternoon, which was why he ignored an incoming message from Nadine. He figured she’d be warning him not to do anything drastic, and that was exactly what he was planning to do.
As he walked to a local park, a small patch of green known as Empyrean Park, Roman held Celia’s hand.
Coma let them go ahead some, just keeping guard on the perimeter as the two enjoyed their afternoon walk, Celia’s other arm swinging, the sweet doll beaming a smile to anyone that dared to look at them.
No one knew.
To anyone else, he was just a man with white hair walking alongside a beautiful woman wearing a superhero costume. The rain clouds from earlier had moved away, and while it wasn’t quite warm, some of the chill had left the air. It was a nice afternoon if there ever was one.
Nothing to see here. Just a normal day.
As Roman entered the park, he caught a glimpse of a statue on the right. He stopped in front of the statue for a moment, looking up at a man named Cornelius Knight, a non-exemplar who had founded one of Centralia’s most successful corporations.
Last Roman heard, Cornelius’s granddaughter had taken over as CEO and was head of the board. He’d seen pictures of her in a magazine, but that was about it. From what he could recall, she had gray hair similar to Emelia’s, and she was quite lean.
Roman smiled as he looked at the statue, coming to peace with the fact that there would never be a statue in his honor. There was nothing honorable about him, and he didn’t have enough money to buy prestige.
Not that he truly wanted a statue of himself in some fancy park in a Centralian subdivision, but he had never thought of this before, which was why it was nice coming to the understanding. It was humbling in a way, to realize that even with the power he had been given, his legacy would not live on.
Some of the better things he had done in his life, even the brave things like rescuing Nadine from an Eastern Province military installation, wo
uld all be kept in a file somewhere.
That was it.
And the thought of this made Roman laugh, so hard that Celia soon joined in, laughing alongside him.
Roman took her hand, a smile on his face, and led her to the grass, finding a perfect place to lie down. He took off his jacket and smoothed it out, giving Celia a place to sit.
Coma knew her role in this affair, and Roman had promised Celia that he would spend the afternoon with her, so the combat doll merely held back, sitting at a park bench near the statue staring off into the distance.
Roman looked over to her every now and then, having to remind himself that Coma didn’t experience human emotions the same way a normal person did. She didn’t seem at all lonely sitting there while Celia and Roman were lying on the grass, Celia now resting against Roman’s body, her ear pressed onto his chest.
Coma didn’t get jealous; Coma was Roman’s killer instinct.
And he was happy that she was focused on tonight while Roman cut himself some slack for the time he’d promised Celia he would spend with her.
After all, there was a very real chance that this was the last afternoon things would ever be this easy again.
Chapter Thirty-Four: The Nightmare to Come
There wasn’t supposed to be anyone in the twilight meadow, only Celia and Roman.
But they weren’t alone.
Joining them was a woman Roman had met twice before, her hands morphing into gnarled tree trunks as she latched on to the land and prevented it from splitting, stopping Roman from falling through the crack in the soil as he’d done so many times before.
He glanced right to see Celia was gone and he was alone with the woman.
“What are you doing here?” Roman asked Abby, the exemplar he thought was a psychometrist.
Then he remembered—or at least he thought the conversation had taken place—that Nadine had told him she was a dream walker.
“This is one of my many talents,” Abby told him.
She looked the same as she did in real life, short hair parted at the side, dressed as a sexy tomboy with a bolo tie. Everything accurate aside from her tree-trunk arms keeping the dreamscape together.
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