Chương 30: Juggle

Rehearsals began, and it was a fascinating display to say the least. Chris took to his without issue. It got to the point he began suggesting more and more ridiculous initial challenges.

"We should make me juggle other stuff with the axes!" was the first one.

"Do we have a unicycle I could ride at the same time?" was the second. Three, four, five more suggestions later and he began trying what he felt to be the perfect routines. There wasn't a unicycle, so instead he was just balancing on a broomstick stacked on top of some books. While practically dancing around on them, he juggled a trio of bowling pins. Must have come with the balls.

While juggling the pins, he was catching axes lobbed at him by John, which he would then immediately spin and hurl into a wooden target on the other side. The superhuman landed three in at separate angles. While John charged at him, he tossed the bowling pins onto the ends of each axe handle. That one actually impressed me. By the end of tossing the last one, John was mid air, legs both extended.

In a motion I could only notice after the first few goes around, I could see Christian hooking a couple fingers into just John's pant leg and whipping him off the stage, where he landed far better than I would've expected. When he bowed afterwards, everyone except me was clapping. Not because I wasn't impressed, I was just surprised. The crazier part was this was all prepared and coordinated in the span of about twenty minutes. Jairo had a harder time with his.

For this first rehearsal he just had to catch the balls and toss them onto a stacked-up pair of mattresses. The devices that were apparently embedded in the bowling balls weren't working properly, and he kept nearly getting a chest full of bowling ball. He managed to cheat it with the help of May's "pulse" thing she told me about, which made the air crackle in a way I wasn't expecting. It made the air feel like TV static. Dr.

Way examined the devices and pointed out they definitely weren't working right, and would need to workshop them. Jairo's rehearsal was on pause after that point. May's went through without trouble. She couldn't really form a separate object to bat away the baseball with, and instead formed this wide shield over her arm to instead backhand it away. It looked pretty entertaining, and after ten minutes' worth of attempts she had it down to a science. Then it was my turn on stage. I didn't bother with the mask.

Told them it was a matter of visibility. Thanked my lucky stars I didn't have to wear it because of that. Approaching the stage, I was told to bring each heavy item up on stage one at a time. The first I brought up was the safe, which I carried without issue, planting it down. Glancing at Perry, he called out "Just force it open!" Not really sure how to make a show out of that, I just grabbed the handle and yanked the door off. Dropping the door on the stage floor like loose garbage, I looked to Perry again.

"Come on, you can do more than that. Try ripping it in half!" My gaze moved back to the safe. With it open, I did have some handholds. I simply brought my arms apart inside it, practically opening the safe like a book before I dropped it onto the mattresses off the stage that were meant to catch the bowling balls earlier.

"Now the anvil!" He called out. Trudging back off the stage, I brought the anvil up, carrying it on my shoulder onehanded, before placing it down gently.

"No, no, don't be so ginger with it! You want people to know it's heavy! The stage is concrete, just drop it." Picking the anvil back up, I dropped it to produce the thud.

"There we go! Now just mangle the thing!" I then reached down to pick the anvil back up for the third time in the past forty seconds. Bringing my hand on either side, I just squeezed it down until all the extended bits were forced inside it. I tossed that to the mattresses as well...... But then it just fell through the mattresses and put a hole in the floor. Perry stared at it. Tancred looked up from some staffer he was talking to in order to glare at me. And then Tancred yelled.

"This stage is usually used for performances for kids with cancer, you moron! Pay attention to where you're throwing shit! They gotta fix this now! With YOUR pay!" My face scrunched up before looking back at Perry, who shrugged.

"It happens, bud!" Shaking my head, I moved down to the car. With some finagling, I managed to get it overhead, having to awkwardly amble it past the set itself to place the car down.

"Alright, Herc, go to town!" There was no real emotion I could put in, it's just a random thing. Slamming my arms on it, slapping away parts, kicking out a tire, none of it really hard energy. I wasn't sure how to put any energy into this. Just felt awkward. After reducing the car to scrap, Perry's hands sat on his hips.

"Man. I'd want you to try again but we only have two more cars and they're both outside. We're gonna need to figure out how to get you really emotive here. I'll brew up something with Martin and John tonight. You're all set." I just nodded, hopping down from the stage with an admittedly greater feeling of dejection than I would have expected. Tancred was still busy so the briefing would likely have to wait. In the meantime, I sought out someone to talk to.

My focus landed on Jairo, who was mashing his finger on his phone. Approaching him, I spoke.

"What's the matter?" Jairo scratched at his scalp, his mohawk flopping when he turned to face me.

"Oh hey Leohercules." Great save.

"Nothing serious, just my phone won't work. I wanted to text my mom but it's just taking forever for it to go out. And it took forever to turn on too. It's real annoying, I just got it!" The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. My eyebrow went up.

"You think maybe Dr. Way can help?" The boy shrugged, slipping his phone back into his pocket.

"I dunno, probably. But these are new phones, you'd think they would work just fine." The only response I could offer was my own shrug.

"I wouldn't really know. I've never had my own phone before." The mutated teenager's eyebrows both went up.

"They still haven't given you a phone yet?"

"They're probably worried I'd poke holes through the screen," I admitted.

"Oh come on, there's screen protectors. But at least like a flip phone or something for you, bro. How we gonna keep in contact?" Looking at him the way a lot of people probably do in terms of just confused looks, I pointed at my ear.

"Ear piece?" He waved that off.

"Mine hasn't been working right for like two weeks anyway. Agent Tank had to call me on his phone last week because my ear piece wasn't picking it up." That probably was an issue. But I didn't really have the know-how to offer any help, I could only really offer commentary that was as useful as a lighter in Hell.

"Technology and you aren't really friendly, huh?" Jairo shook his head.

"I'm not good with it, but it's usually not this bad. You're not my unlucky charm, at least, since it started before you even came here." Very encouraging.

"I gotta go use the bathroom," I explained before trudging off towards one of the various hallways that splintered off from the auditorium. The halls were a lot more labyrinthine than I had expected, though overhearing a familiar voice, I followed that route.

"Yeah, I'd been hearing circus music on the way home every day. It's gotta be like an ice cream truck or something." said the voice. Peering around the corner, I could see it was John Gabriel talking with a janitor. John was in some sort of exaggerated half-turn, and ended up spotting me, which was then followed by a wave.

"Hey," I greeted, not really used to the idea of waving to random people.

"I spotted some of your performance, I was supposed to do my own little stunt for you to throw me but turns out I had ripped my pants. We're gonna be rehearsing it tomorrow." Giving a nod, I attempted to walk past him before he side-stepped to interrupt my path.

"Oh, also, uh, I just wanted to point out that I can tell you're not really having an easy time with the performance angle. Did you think some tips would help?" I just shrugged, sitting my hands on my hips in hopes if I looked impatient, he'd move. That failed.

"It couldn't hurt." He nodded, patting me on the shoulder.

"Okay, so I think the big thing is you keep forgetting this is a show. You're playing a character. You, you-know-your-name, are not Hercules. You are playing Hercules. Hercules is a superhero. What do you think a superhero, in... these colors... would really do?" My throat hummed as I tried to actually think about that. Nothing came up.

"I don't really know, Hercules isn't who I am." John clicked his tongue, looking off to the side for a second.

"It's not about who you are." He didn't follow up on that. Frankly, he looked like he spaced out. Then his gaze snapped back to me, eyebrows raised.

"Oh, duh! That's how I can explain it to you. It kind of is about who you are, but not necessarily who you are as a superhero. It's who you are in terms of what you think a superhero does. Put yourself behind the eyes of some kid." Don't do that to me.

"Lost," he continued while I internally begged him to stop. I saw prospective parents walking out with others. The looks on my foster parents' faces as they explained that they would've probably adopted me in other circumstances.

"Alone," Further, another drum beat against my skull. Sitting twenty feet away from the others. The looks they'd give, especially the ones who saw what I did to my bed frame the night I got my powers.

"And scared." The last nail in the coffin. The foster home's door shutting in my face.

"In that position, who would you want to see coming out of nowhere to save you? Who could show up and make you think everything was going to be okay?" My gaze lingered on him. I could feel my face tightening as I fought off any expression. Not letting this crack me open.

"For me, it was Guapo Galera. I used the kind of pompous, arrogant kind of swagger for Mr. Heart-Throb. Walked in everywhere like I owned the place. Guys like that can do anything, since they let themselves believe it. What about you? What kind of hero puts that kind of belief in you?" I just shook my head again.

"I don't really know. Gonna just have to think about it, I guess." With that, I just pushed past him. Really more of just a light nudge, any attempt at a push could've killed him. Was well aware of that risk. I didn't even bother going to the bathroom. Didn't need to. I just wandered for what felt like twenty minutes until Tancred's voice cursed my ears with barking out that it was briefing time.

Wandering back to the auditorium, Tancred had gathered with the others, standing in front of them while they all sat at one corner of the seats. Tancred saw me, gesturing for me to come over. I obliged, walking over and just standing by the seats.

"Anyone see you?" Shook my head.

"Janitor, but John was talking to me about playing a character, so he probably thinks I'm an actor." The agent nodded.

"We'll run detail on the janitors and keep an eye on him for a little bit. All staff in the building who are essential had to sign NDAs anyway. Mind you, an NDA is as good as toilet paper with hardened criminals but it's better to have the paper trail. Anyways," He flicked up stacks of paper, tapping them in his hand before holding them out to me.

"Your paperwork on the ADU and the Arboreal Senate. I was waiting until you got here before I went into detail, but the summary I gave them is we questioned all the dopes you caught, and ran as many checks as we could against fingerprints, DNA, all the fun stuff." Looking through the papers, I flipped one over, the first image being that old man who ripped my arms open. Father Pine.

"So the ringleader of this little group was a 'Father Pine,' real name Dexter Jennings. No history with environmental groups. Was actually a hench for years. When we questioned him, he was pretty bought-and-sold on the ADU's ideals. Might have had a religious awakening after his last stint in jail." Chris spoke up.

"So what was up with the wood stuff he was doing?" Tancred nodded to him.

"So that turned out to be some kind of otherworldly phenomenon. The ADU's members have individuals who are gifted with the ability to produce 'Wyrdwood,'" Weird-wood?

"Some magical super-lumber from... we don't know where. But it can appear through wood, loose fibers in the dirt, anywhere, without disturbing the land around it. It's clearly magical, hard as hell, and has the beneficial properties of damn near any type of wood you can think of. Different people handle it differently. Most of them seem to just..." He gestured out the physical motions of pointing a staff out.

"They just shoot wood out or can be teleported by it. Father Pine was able to make anything wooden act in deployable fashion like with those little wood urchins. He implied his 'gift' with it was nothing compared to some others, so you know, we're getting an escalation case." Lovely.

"Lovely," May said, echoing my thoughts.

"And the other guys?" He wiggled his hand a bit, an attempt to mime out turning pages. I just went along with it and flipped the pages, showing four men's mugshots. I recognized all of them. They had to have their heads held up.

"No major priors, but all of them were affiliated with environmental criminal cells, terror groups like the ELF or EF. Nothing tied directly to them, but they were found at events and such. Legal gatherings, but with the ADU they're clearly getting into more actionable territory." Interesting, but not my most important concern.

"What about the Pachira?" I asked. Tancred faced me, his sunglasses hiding his eyes, but not the sharpness of his stare.

"Oh, I'll tell you about the Pachira, alright."