Chương 11: Tunnel Run

I wasn't entirely sure how I managed to slip up that badly. The phrasing I put upon May made her look like a deer in headlights. Jairo sprawled out over the chair he was in just so he could tilt his head back and look behind him. It was the kind of move you'd expect from someone's pet lizard being too lazy to look behind itself. That said a lot about what that bug was doing inside him.

"I, uh..." she trailed off, trying to parse my words. It was at that moment I realized the misunderstanding and tried to cough away my embarrassment.

"Sorry, I meant I was told I should go outside and get some air, but I was just told to ask one of you guys to show me the exit." She exhaled and shook her head.

"Oh, thank God, I didn't need that right after dinner. Sure, I can show you the exit. You're actually in the room with it now." At this point I had given in to the fact that my head was going to tilt every time I was mildly confused about something. I wondered how often I must have done this as a child, given I didn't seem to become aware of this habit until recently. Maybe things just weren't so confusing until this all started. Wouldn't surprise me.

If nothing else, it meant I didn't have to ask anything as she noticed my befuddlement.

"Yeah the exit and entrance are both by that foam pit. Lemme show you," she explained before making her way to the pit. She started climbing down into it, sinking surprisingly deep.

"Just how deep is the pit?" I asked.

"I wasn't given a number but it feels like maybe seven or eight feet. So, far enough even if you come in hot you're not going to fall down into the exit." I started climbing down after her, grasping at the walls until I noticed I was just a bit too deep into the pit to actually move down without wriggling. After seconds of this, I managed to feel a metal grate beneath my feet.

"Just a few steps to your left," I heard, and followed along to the command, my foot planted down on what felt like some kind of plastic flap. Gravity took me on a trip straight down, the world flying up past me as I was suddenly in a hallway. I looked up, and saw that above me were the foam cubes in the pit sitting on top of a metal grate and a plastic flap with a hole in it, taut. I saw May's shoes pushing through, and she slipped out soon after.

"Most of the base is underground, we use a lot of old utility tunnels and some new tunnels built just for us." I finally looked down and could verify that in either direction was just... concrete. A long hallway of it. There was illumination by small lights strung up in the ceiling, which sat just high enough I could raise my arms halfway over my head if needed.

"If you go the way behind you, that leads up to the police station. You'll pop out of a fake utility shed by an abandoned tailor shop right near it. Takes about five minutes of walking time. You're only allowed to go out that way if you're in costume, since it's for if we need to answer a call from the cops to come to the station. The other way," she pointed the other way. Out from her finger shot a thin stream of light, almost like a flashlight. Fascinating.

"Is our civilian disguise exit. It loops around and heads South, and pops out into a utility shed in a park. You just walk out from there, and you'll basically be on the other side of town from the station. It's a pretty nice spot, good for walking around and clearing your thoughts. We were told if we get our driver's licenses we can ask for a temporary car that'll be parked there." I didn't even have the foggiest idea of how to drive. I always thought I'd end up stomping holes in the bottom. She continued.

"Christian has his own and he just leaves it there. We also have a normal exit for staff and all that. The base is technically under what's considered an accounting office that books reservations about six months out and that keeps people's eyes off of it." I nodded.

"Surprising amount of secrecy in our hideout, if we're supposed to be public facing," I mused. May shook her head.

"We'll probably get something more public-facing if we do well and have a lot of good PR, but for now I think it's better that our stuff is all being kept under the radar. We're supposed to be able to live semi-normal lives when we're off work. Technically we're supposed to be getting our own apartments but they're saving that for after our first public demo." Head tilt. I didn't care at this point.

"Public demo?" I parroted, and she nodded.

"Yeah, we're gonna end up having some sort of big first demo declaring us to the public. I wouldn't worry about having to talk or anything. They'll probably make you put out some soundbite and then focus on Christian since he's the one who actually likes cameras. Him and Jairo." That stood out to me, and prompted another question.

"So how is Jairo's alter ego thing going to work if he's..." I tapped a hand on my wrist, trying to indicate I was asking about his clear mutations.

"He's not allowed to transform when he's not on the job, and his alibi is he was part of a mad science experiment that changed his looks. And when he's on the job he's supposed to keep his limbs transformed. It'll let him maintain vision but he can't tap into his full strength unless he completely turns over. That plus his costume covers his chest and head when that's not transformed, so he doesn't need to worry about his hair or anything being recognized." Recognizable hair was my main thought about him.

He had a mohawk that made him look like a radioactive chicken. Ridiculous.

"I see," I conceded, and began making my way down the corridor. My exit was interrupted by May's voice.

"Hey, are you not gonna... ask me to come with or anything?" I glanced back towards her.

"I just needed the way out," I clarified. The look on her face reminded me of one people make when they push a pull door.

"You know you were probably told to ask someone for the exit so that they could come with you, right? You probably haven't been in Charlottesville before, you don't want to get lost." I shrugged.

"I have a good sense of direction." You don't control criminal presence in a city without it.

"I just wanted to get some air, anyway," I added on. But she shook her head and approached me.

"There's absolutely no way I'm just letting you wander off by yourself. And I know both me and Jairo would like to get to know you individually instead of just that awkward-as-Hell dinner encounter. You're clearly a one-on-one person." I shrugged as I just started walking again, knowing she was going to follow.

"I'm not an anyone person." I felt a tap on my arm. Looking down, I saw the side of her fist hitting my arm. Her voice, in tandem, hit my ears. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

"I overheard some of your banter with Agent Tank, tough guy. Most anyone else can barely get a sentence out of him. Meanwhile he's talking your head off pretending he's just giving directions. When he showed me around he just pointed at things and said what they were." She put a hand over her upper lip horizontally to mimic the shape of a mustache, pointing off into the darkness. The voice that came from her was scratchier, emulating Tancred's growly cant.

"Cafeteria." She then pointed off to another direction." Admin office." She then pointed in a third direction.

"Government-mandated therapist. Your room's in the basement. Good luck." I actually felt air rush out of my nose from that. First time something actually amused me in who knows how long. Didn't get a laugh out of me, though.

"He mostly spends the time either explaining the obvious or talking smack," I clarified.

"I doubt I have much of an influence on him. And it wouldn't make me a one-on-one kind of person anyway." Her head shook with disagreement.

"Leo, when people first meet, they're usually gonna try to get the most engagement from people they feel some kind of alignment with. They're following along with what they recognize. Psych 101 taught me that. Christian and Jairo and Sam are all in much higher spirits, and while I'm not as cheery as them I'm not as dour and gruff as you and Tank. None of us could get much out of him if he wasn't clearly pissed at us.

But he could always get on with Perry or anyone else who clearly got more out of talking to just one person. So if he sees that in you, you're likely very similar." I shook my head in response.

"You're reading too much into it," I dismissed her claims. She pursed her lips for a moment, watching the concrete fly beneath us with each step, before springing back into speech." Well okay, maybe I am. But if I get to know you, I can get a better read. I did it with everyone else. I've picked pretty much everyone in the building's brains at this point. Perry's favorite movie is My Cousin Vinny and he had a cousin who was an extra in it." Never heard of it.

"Eliza had two separate Vegas weddings and sees them as funny stories now." That explained the grandkids.

"Christian can't swim and for some reason he's proud of that." Nothing surprises me about him already." Jairo wants to use his stipends and potential merch money to fund a video game based off of him." Made sense for someone with the personality I've seen from him.

"And you're divulging people's personal things like that to me why?" I inquired. A hand of hers waved it off dismissively." It's not divulging, I didn't tell you anything they wouldn't tell you themselves. But they told me because I talked to them. I like learning about people, it helps me figure out how to help them better. Like, what's your favorite movie?" I shrugged.

"Don't have one. Didn't like watching TV and I've never been in a theater." She frowned.

"Not even like, Christmas movies? Like Rudolph or Little Drummer Boy?" I shook my head.

"I was never interested in sitting around and watching things. And I wasn't really sitting down in close groups to watch things, distance was maintained for the other kids' safety. I wasn't familiar with my strength yet and no one wanted to put anyone at risk, least of all me." Her frown deepened as she looked back towards the corridor.

"Well, how about what music you like?" I shook my head.

"Anything with a melody is fine to me but I didn't really put much thought into it." She let out an exhale.

"What about books? You read any of those?" I furrowed my brows.

"A little, but I kept ripping pages out so I had to have them read to me, and my foster parents were usually busy so that wasn't often." She nodded, before looking at me with a raised eyebrow.

"So what did you do with your time? You didn't watch TV, you didn't read, you didn't listen to music, from what I can tell you couldn't really play with other kids, what did you do?" I hummed in thought. Nothing really stood out to me. The days blended together after so long. And I'd been so caught up in that one-man crusade on the drug dealers that it took up most of my thoughts.

"Honestly I'm not really sure." Her own head tilted, showing me my curse of needing answers at a forty-five degree angle had spread.

"I mean, you were fighting crime. That requires some kind of training. Were you practicing or something? Like maybe you thought you were gonna have to use your powers that way regardless?" I shrugged.

"I was winging it from day one. I couldn't do play-fights with other kids, I'd cripple them. When you can't get hurt in a fist fight, you can waste your time trying to figure out what works. I just developed the motions naturally from there." The corridor had a light at the end. We were nearing our destination.

"There has to be something you did! You sound articulate so your speech clearly wasn't stunted, and you were smart enough to figure out how to fight crime by yourself so clearly you weren't just sitting there staring into space." I let out an exhale.

"Do you remember every waking moment of your life from nine to eighteen years old?" She shrugged.

"True, I guess. I just feel bad because you clearly have to have some depths, but if even you don't know... I'm having a hard time figuring them out myself." Suddenly, her eyes perked up, slamming the bottom of her fist into her palm like she was putting a stamp on it.

"I know what we can do. There's a hiking trail off east from the park. We can do some exploring somewhere that's not all buildings and drug dealers so you can try something different. It's just walking so you don't have to worry about breaking anything, and since it's a hiking trail it'll just be the two of us. And we'd be right near urban civilization so it's not like we'd be stranded. Just try it once and if you don't like it, I won't make you do it again. I think that sounds fair, right?"

My shoulders bounced in a shrug.

"I guess. I just wanted to get some air, to be honest." She smacked the back of my arm enthusiastically.

"Plenty of air out in the woods! Come on!" She rushed off down the corridor, and I picked up my pace a little, and I could see a metal ladder she had started to climb up. By the time I reached it, she had already made her way up and through another one of those plastic flaps. I followed suit, entering a dark and dank room full of plastic crates and brick walls. It was illuminated by May, whose eyes were shining like stars in the night.

"No electricity in here besides the door lock, so it's a little hard to see." I kept to just nodding, following the glow through the dark until suddenly a great rectangle of light blasted my face. Oh, it was a doorway. My eyes adjusted to the luminescence and I could see rolling grass, people out and about, kites in the air, all sorts.

"Shut the door behind you. It only opens one way, so no one's getting in. Does mean we'll need to ask for a ride back but I think that'll be easy." I nodded, glancing around as I made my way out. Not a cloud in the sky. The sun gently grazed my skin. There weren't buildings to sit under or hide in the crevices of. It felt different. It, honestly, felt kind of nice. May spoke.

"Good place to relax, to be hone-" That comment, and the nice atmosphere, were then interrupted by screams. I turned towards the noise only to see the source, and I frankly couldn't believe what I was seeing. Hulking, humanoid trees, easily twelve feet tall, stomping about the park. Six in total. One yelled in a deep, bellowing voice.

"We, great enforcers of the Arboreal Senate, deem your needless destruction and humiliation of the natural flora of this land a crime punishable by death!" At that moment, I felt it. My heart beating faster. My breath quickened. May wanted to know what I did with my time? The truth was, it was fantasizing about moments exactly like this.