PART 3

  Gibbous moon

  2021

  Marlene couldn’t say that she was on board with Hobbes’ planned approach to the Eugenie White situation but she admitted that she and the rest of the group were at such a loss of ways to crack that mystery that she let him have it. They entered the Fountain Square neighborhood under the woos and aahs of all the unsavory people who roamed the streets at this advanced hour of the afternoon, early evening. She waved at them politely, answered a couple exclamations with a thumb up, while Hobbes darted towards the old building where Eugenie White lived without granting them a look.

  “You’re going to buzz her?” she asked.

  “Uugh, I guess” Hobbes was already exasperated, so it was good that he was not going on this mission solo. Marlene listened as the communication opened with the first floor above them. They could have easily leaped to the balcony and crashed her window, or just smashed the building door open unannounced, but they were trying something more discreet. She was pretty sure she heard Eugenie White choke on her breath when she heard who was at the door.

  She was waiting for them at the entrance. Marlene had seen her social media pictures, the typical ones for a woman her age, group photos holding slices of pizza, posing next to a dog, showing a finger peace sign in front of a monument, holding someone else’s baby awkwardly. She had a very kind face and some soothing features, a rather disastrous sense of fashion and, when she opened her mouth to say hello, Marlene heard a deep and accented voice. At the bottom of her sweat pants, she was wearing some slippers with some Halloween pumpkin patterns on them.

  Hobbes passed her without acknowledging her and paced efficiently directly into her flat, but it didn’t seem to trigger any reactions in Eugenie White. Instead, Marlene saw her eyes immediately fall on her and expand half their size, “Uber… woman, madame” Eugenie whispered stepped back, “please come in”.

  Marlene nodded at her. Eugenie White was genuinely awestruck. Usually, she hurriedly put an end to such unbalanced face to faces with her customary warmth and humility, shook a couple of hands and rubbed a couple of shoulders, but now, she had to give space to Hobbes. She showed Eugenie the way into her own home with a quick lift of her chin, “Ms White, I suggest you do what the man says”

  “Uberwoman” Eugenie White didn’t seem able to listen yet, still astonished, a vague smile curling up at the corners of her mouth.

  They convened in the living room. It was a charming place, with the central space being the dining and living, two tall French door windows opening on the balcony, a lot of plants and a cat that was taking a nap on an armchair near one of the windows. “Eugenie White” Hobbes said, “sit down” Was this place where Barry had been kept a prisoner all those months?

  “Pardon?”

  “Is this your apartment?” he asked.

  “Yes”

  “Your cat?” he pointed at the animal rolled into a peaceful loaf.

  “Yes it is, I’m sorry what—”

  “Please, we are just establishing that we are at the right place and addressing the right person” Hobbes continued, camped on his legs like if he was ready to mount a horse. Uberwoman brushed the fireplace with her gloved finger, saw that it was quite clean. “This your parents?” Hobbes straightened a finger at a picture frame on a drawer.

  “My aunt and uncle”

  “You don’t have parents?”

  “in fact, no, I don’t have parents, they died when I was a baby, in a car accident. My aunt and uncle raised me”

  “You get along with your aunt and uncle?”

  “What? Yes!” Eugenie said, her voice high pitched “of course, they’re great people!”

  “Now sit down”

  “In my own home? I mean don’t you want me to bring you a glass of water or some coff—”

  “Be quiet and sit down, please”

  People were always obeying Hobbes’ orders, it was a natural skill he possessed, and why he was the boss of the Team. A holy advantage that they all enjoyed before they had to resort to aggression to solve issues. Eugenie White unrolled the sleeves of the sweater she had rolled up, her hands still humid. She was probably doing the dishes, as a faint scent of lemon floated in the air from the kitchen, before they arrived. She hid her hands inside her sleeves, “hands where I can see them, Ms White” Hobbes said sharply.

  “What?”

  “You’re lucky we didn’t shoot you in the butt with some sleep medicine darts, Eugenie White, and didn’t take you to our station instead of just coming over”

  “Excuse mee?” Eugenie was now horrified and she threw an alarmed look at Marlene. Marlene nodded. She was not used to acting like she was walking around with a broomstick up her own butt, but she was so avid for information about Barry’s fate that she went along.

  Hobbes got closer to the table and to Eugenie and placed his hands on his waist, “may I ask you, Eugenie White, to confirm the following information: you are 40 years old”

  “39” Eugenie whispered.

  “You are single, divorced, as a matter of fact”

  “Yes”

  “You have been living here in this sh— place for about a decade”

  “That’s right”

  “You are a high school teacher”

  “Yes”

  “Now can you please tell my colleague and I how you managed to kidnap the Bolt?”

  Eugenie’s mouth opened as wide as her eyes were already bulging. Some people were good actors, Marlene thought. “Wh—” Silence, she swallowed and squinted, “you mean Barry, the Bolt?”

  “Barry the Bolt? Yes I mean Barry the Bolt”

  “I don’t understand”

  Hobbes pinched the bridge of his nose, “you’re going to have to understand faster, Eugenie White. We have identified that the Bolt spent seventeen months in this very apartment before he recently just… wasn’t anymore” he spread his arms in a motion of vanishing. “What did you do to him?”

  “He left to find you”

  “He left? You mean he escaped?”

  Eugenie chuckled, this time, frowned, “I didn’t kidnap him. You, on the other hand, disappeared and—”

  “What the fuck are you talking about?”

  Disappeared. Marlene tilted her head, glanced at Hobbes. She was becoming very intrigued. At first sight, she couldn’t believe that this high school teacher with her tired hair and her Halloween slippers was a kidnapper, or any kind of criminal, but she had seen some shit, so she could grant to Hobbes that suspicion was key. However, she was providing some interesting answers so far.

  “Yes, seventeen months ago, when Barry needed you, you disappeared!”

  “We went on the moon mission, don’t you read the news?”

  “It was not on the news” Marlene interjected politely, nodded encouragingly to Hobbes.

  “Anyway we thought Barry was dead. We moved on. But then we are currently finding out he was held here”

  “Held?” Eugenie stood up, brought to some real-looking frustration, but Hobbes gestured for her to remain seated.

  “What is your response, then?”

  Eugenie shook her head, “I don’t trust you. You are completely out of your mind”

  Hobbes’ eyebrows touched his hairline, “you will respond, respectfully!”

  “I don’t know you, or rather, I know you, I’ve heard of you, Mr Hobbes, and you sound absolutely unhinged, just like I imagined. Your own conduct is as fishy as the one you are accusing me of right now and I don’t owe you an explanation”

  “Why not?” Marlene asked.

  Eugenie turned to her, seemed to repress another one of her gasps, realizing Uberwoman was still sitting at her table. Her eyes softened, “madame” she spoke gently, “I’m trying to protect Barry, I don’t know what happened and why you guys left him behind, so I’m just being careful”

  “But if your explanations could help Barry?”

  “Of course, but—” Eugenie hesitated and pointed to Hobbes, “is he always like this?”

  “Yes” Marlene sighed.

  Hobbes shrugged, “you’re not making sense at all. Why kidnap Barry?”

  “I didn’t kidnap Barry. He came here”

  “Here?” Hobbes threw a hand designating the living room, “in this flat, he came on his own volition?”

  Eugenie nodded but didn’t say a word. “Is your cat alright, Ms White?” Marlene asked, “he’s not reacting to our… presence”

  “He’s deaf, Uberwoman” Eugenie looked back at her with adoring eyes.

  Marlene allowed herself a small smile, as she loved elderly pets a lot, “cute” she commented.

  “Marlene” Hobbes scolded her. “Eugenie White, I would like to comprehend how Barry, the Bolt, a superhero from our Team of vigilantes extraordinaire watching over this shitty town, happened to show up at your apartment”

  Eugenie took a deep breath and looked like she was debating inside her head, then she looked down at her slippers, “he needed to hide, here. And he couldn’t find you, we looked everywhere for you, for months!”

  “We?”

  “Barry and I” Eugenie said with defiance.

  “Barry lived here for seventeen months?”

  “That’s what I just said”

  “How many bedrooms does your apartment have?”

  “One bedroom but—”

  “Then where did Barry, the Bolt, sleep during all those months?” Hobbes barked the question. Marlene found it bizarre. She could easily tell that the big sofa behind them was a convertible, and that Eugenie’s flat could comfortably accommodate at least two people independently but Hobbes, as a born billionaire, probably wasn’t very aware of such things.

  “On the couch there. It turns into a pretty large bed once you open it”

  “Ah okay” Hobbes scratched his head and Marlene hid a small chuckle behind her hand. “You seem to have an answer for everything” he reproached to her.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  “Because that’s what happened”

  “Barry needed help from what?” Marlene asked. As she was seeing it, it was possible that they had been wrong in their interpretation of the data about Barry’s recent whereabouts, but she was still confused. Why here specifically? Why had Barry ended up here asking help to this unknown woman?

  “From the mraimoumsomething, I think”

  Hobbes jumped on his feet then leaned forward and brought his face, menacingly, to brush against Eugenie’s. She recoiled but attempted to not show any fear, “you’re working for the Mrai Moumous?” Marlene eyed her, her forced backbone. She seemed used to confrontations and holding her ground, for some reason.

  “I… don’t even know what the mraim— those things are!” Eugenie raised her hands in the air helplessly, “some robots from another planet, if I understand correctly, the ones that flew in their big-ass flying saucer into our sky recentl—”

  “You are the new Mrai Moumous leader… agent?” Hobbes spat at her.

  “Hobbes” Marlene called him out, “give her some space, please” Her eyes were trying to tell him, I don’t think that this girl is the new boss of the Mrai Moumous, but he didn’t intercept the message.

  “So if I search this place, I will not find a Bernie device, will I?”

  “A Bernie device?” Eugenie’s mouth formed the words as if they were a slice of the pie that’s still a bit too hot from the oven.

  “She obviously has no idea what a Bernie is, Hobbes”

  “Marlene, you told me to lead, I’m leading!”

  “Alright, alright” She was more and more bothered by the thought that they were having a conversation in two separate languages. One person was asking, ‘what time is it?’ and the other replied, ‘no’. She rolled her eyes and smiled warmly at Eugenie this time, spin her index finger to communicate to her that patience was currently required. Eugenie’s face beamed with love.

  “I have nothing to do with your robots and your device”

  “They are not my robots and my device”

  “Did you see any Mrai Moumous here, Ms White? On the boulevard?”

  “No, not here, Uberwoman” Eugenie replied.

  “So why did Barry come here?”

  “Because he trusted me”

  “You??” It was Hobbes’ turn to recoil from the surprise.

  “Yes me!” Eugenie insisted. “Obviously I am more trust-worthy than you are! I didn’t just disappear when Barry needed help the most!”

  “Hey” Marlene decided to bypass Hobbes, as they were wasting precious time now, arguing like toddlers, “I’m sorry Hobbes, you know that I am on your side, my friend, but we are getting” she switched gear and smiled brightly at Eugenie, “positively nowhere at the moment”

  “Can I pet your cat?” Marlene asked and saw Hobbes shake his head on top of his smoking cup of tea. The mug had some Christmas trees and snowmen on it. That woman, Eugenie White, seemed to like the holidays.

  “Of course!” Eugenie replied, closer to a shriek, “can I take a picture, madame?”

  “Here, Hobbes, hold the phone. Eugenie, join me on the picture”

  “Can we move on please, ladies?” Hobbes grunted after a dozen clicks. They all sat down. “Let’s start from the beginning, Eugenie White. You are telling us that you are not involved with any criminals, mobsters, mrai moumous, etc”

  “Yes I’m telling you that”

  “You didn’t kidnap the Bolt”

  “I didn’t kidnap Barry. How would I be able to kidnap and restrain a mutant?”

  “Fair point” Hobbes glanced at her small frame, her hunched shoulders, “so he showed up here to hide from the Mrai Moumous”

  Eugenie nodded, Marlene asked: “you say that Barry trusted you, how is that possible? Did Barry know you from before?”

  “Of course!” she exclaimed, her hands joined in a gesture of prayer, “Barry used to be my student!”

  “I’m sorry what?”

  “What kind of research do you people claim to do” Eugenie’s eyes fell back on Marlene and she changed her tone, “I mean, no big deal, you’re already so bus— you’re already doing magnificent resear— I mean you can’t look everywhere I guess, I didn’t mean—” she cleared her throat, “but yes, I was Barry’s Geography teacher for three years, that’s all”

  “You teach Geography, nice” Marlene commented. Hobbes glowered like he was surprised it was even a school subject.

  “And from being your student, Barry trusted you? I find this a strange shortcut”

  “ME TOO” Eugenie became agitated on her seat, wriggled her butt and brought her face closer like if she was about to expose a conspiracy, “that’s exactly what I thought, Mr Hobbes. But Barry came here with some sort of... opinions, I would say… reassurances about me, like he had looked me up and knew that—” she looked puzzled, “that he could trust me”

  “Well, Barry’s always been a weirdo” Hobbes said.

  “Yeah, right?” Eugenie and Hobbes were starting to get along, “my thoughts precisely. But in that case I didn’t ever find out how he was so sure that I would help him”

  “What kind of relationship did you have with him when he was your student? Was he a good student?”

  Eugenie snorted, but composed herself, “madame, sir, uh NO”

  “That’s funny” Marlene said, “Barry discovered his superpowers right when he was in high school. Maybe that didn’t help his behavior?”

  “It’s too much for a young boy, alone”

  “SO” Hobbes took a sip of his tea, looked pleasantly surprised, “you said he spent three years as your student, why not the mandatory upper school four years?”

  “He moved on to finish his school experience studying computer science as a senior”

  “You kicked him out?”

  “It was a reorientation” Eugenie looked amused to revisit those memories.

  “And then now like, what? Five or six years later, Barry decides he trusts you to hide him at your house”

  Eugenie White narrowed her eyes for a second and then blurted, “oh my god, I can’t believe I’m forgetting to tell you this, Uberwoman, Mr Hobbes, Barry came here because he had been shot”

  “SHOT?” Hobbes stiffened on his chair and Marlene’s heart skipped a beat.

  “By a gun” Eugenie added, which sent some chills down Marlene’s spine.

  “Are you sure?”

  Eugenie looked at Hobbes blankly for a couple more seconds, “am I sure?”

  “How?”

  “How am I sure?”

  “No, how did he get shot?” Marlene and Hobbes exchanged some baffled looks.

  “He had been fired at by those things, the Mra— whatever they are, on top of the Circle Stadium Tower”

  “Jesus Christ!” Hobbes groaned, “that’s where we searched initially!”

  “You searched for him?”

  “Yes!” Marlene grabbed Eugenie’s hand and squeezed it warmly, “we didn’t abandon him, we looked for him for a whole week, but we—” she felt a lump inside her throat, “ we thought he had died. Some of us hoped that the fact we didn’t locate a body meant that he was still alive, but I was not among those people”

  “I’m sorry you went through this, madame” Eugenie squeezed her hand back.

  Hobbes eyed their hands joined together and seemed to think about adding his to the pile but decided against it, “it is quite a stroll from Circle Stadium to here, Eugenie White”

  She shrugged, “Barry told me that he bolted and then took a bus”

  “A bus?”

  “Mr Hobbes, I thought I was no longer a suspect here”

  Hobbes shook his head, “it’s not that, Eugenie White, it’s just that, as usual, when it comes to Masquevert’s actions, I have a difficult time following. The boy is chaotic”

  “Poor Barry” Marlene sighed, “Eugenie, I do follow, but not the part where he appeared at your door, yours, his former Geography teacher, being hurt”

  “You mean… my balcony”

  “Yes” Marlene sighed, “that sounds more like Barry”

  “Barry knew that I had studied medicine for a very brief period of time, a million years ago, I mean” she looked very embarrassed now, “nursing”

  “Oh, you’re also a nurse?”

  “No-o” she melted into embarrassement, “my internship was terminated back then, I… wasn’t good at it”

  “Why not?”

  “I didn’t have the consistency, I guess. Teaching is more my thing”

  “So you willingly spend all your days in the company of teenagers?” Hobbes joked, but Marlene knew he was genuinely mystified.

  Eugenie had a little laugh, “I like teenagers, actually I… tried primary, I didn’t enjoy it. I don’t know how to communicate with children”

  “And you know how to communicate with teenagers?” Hobbes really wanted to know.

  “I think so but, then again, perhaps Barry would say otherwise”

  Marlene scoffed, “you have all my admiration”

  Really? She read the shock on Eugenie’s face. “Eugenie White, let me guess” Hobbes said with amusement in his tone, “you are a Uberwoman fan”

  “Yes” her face and ears reddened, she looked down, “since I was a child”

  “I am honored, truly” Marlene commented, then she wished to move on and not linger on yet another one of the million mildly-controlled hysteria phenomena she encountered every day, “so Barry got shot, Jesus, and transported himself to here, asking you— Asking you to provide some medical assistance?”

  Eugenie nodded, still horrified, “And you rushed to action, good for you” Hobbes raised his Christmas mug in a toast.

  “Not at first” she said, “you imagine my reaction I’m… I’m not a nurse”

  “How badly was he wounded?” Marlene asked. It was a hard question for her to ask. Now, she had to imagine Barry alive, yes, but stranded alone and feeling completely isolated, dealing with a spicy and deadly situation.

  “That was not pretty, Uberwoman” Eugenie grimaced. “He was shot in the arm and in the stomach, it was horrible, there was blood everywhere. I tried to call an ambulance but he bolted and stole my phone”

  “He bolted inside this apartment?” Hobbes was stunned.

  “Yes he destroyed everything” Hobbes and Marlene looked around at the living room, “he destroyed the bookshelves behind you” they eyed the books, “I got some new ones after that, and he destroyed the table on which you are sitting right now” they both glanced down at the table, “I got a new one too”

  Marlene asked again, “he was shot in the stomach, you are saying?”

  “Yes uh” Eugenie thought about hit, shuddered, “I refused the assignment, obviously, I lost my shit. But he convinced me and… I was scared that he would die if I didn’t help him. To make a long story short”

  “All this… bolting around in a tight space, all this commotion, it didn’t alert people on the street or in the building?” Hobbes questioned.

  “It was storming that day, very loudly, I supposed it worked out for Barry”

  “Aah, that was the day of the storm!” Hobbes facepalmed himself, “I remember Robortor got stuck in a sewer that day and he spent thirty minutes under water”

  “Wow” Eugenie blew some air on top of her tea mug, “Robortor. Isn’t he Barry’s best friend?”

  “Yes, yes he is” Marlene smiled sweetly, “I guess you have heard a lot of stories about us, from Barry, haven’t you?”

  Eugenie darted an unsure look at Hobbes, “yes, a little”

  Marlene chuckled, “you did well if you successfully saved Barry’s life when he’d been shot in the stomach. It’s pretty alarming”

  “Masquevert” Hobbes massaged his forehead.

  “No” Eugenie said, “Barry was fortunate, and so was I. He wasn’t hurt like, deeply, probably thanks to his suit, otherwise, he would be dead” she shivered again.

  “What did you guys do with his suit?”

  “We uh… had to get rid of it” Marlene saw Hobbes deflate a bit, “I know, I know Mr Hobbes, that this suit was a present for you, but I had to cut through it to help Barry”

  “Cut thr—” Hobbes gasped, Marlene hid her smile.

  “I’m so sorry”

  “I understand” Hobbes said with utmost seriousness, “the urgency of the matter. I’m impressed that you delivered, to be frank with you. You must have kept some skills that were not too rusty!”

  Eugenie took the compliment, looking down at her mug awkwardly, “I am still surprised it turned out the way it did, to be honest. I mean the way you see me, right now, having this conversation very calmly, that’s NOT the way I acted back then. I’ve never been so scared in my life”

  “Right. What a crazy story, to tell your friends! Wait”

  “Yeah, are you certain?” Eugenie teased Hobbes, “I’ve been living a double life, all these months”

  “How in the world did Barry know you used to be a nurse? Do you share this information with your students? It’s not anywhere on your social media, or professional account” She was right about their research, Marlene thought. They had not bothered to look deep, only checked a couple of sites and platforms before Hobbes and she decided to just show up and find out the truth for themselves in a direct face-to-face.

  Eugenie shook her head, “I’ve never told my students about this, simply because I barely even think about this period of my life. Barry said that he knew—” she tried to remember, “and that the reason that he knew was confidential” she scanned Hobbes and Marlene, “I figured it had something to do with you guys”

  “Barry Barry Barry” Marlene exhaled cheekily, “I think Barry here, conducted his own investigation”

  “Teenagers can be like that sometimes, when they are bored, they do strange things, I don’t know”

  “Yes, Barry looks like a typical extrovert, but he actually keeps a lot of secrets and enigmas about himself” Marlene remarked.

  “He does?” Hobbes was discovering this. He simply wasn’t a people person.

  Marlene zoned out of the discussion for a brief moment. She thought about Ivan briefly, saying, ‘my tingly sense is tingling’. Her tingly sense was definitely tingling. The mere fact that no one from the Team had ever heard about the existence of Eugenie White meant that she was important for Barry. How? She asked herself. A motherly figure? It was possible. “You had not helped Barry before, when he was your student, had you?”

  “No, madame” Eugenie said, “I couldn’t help him. All I wanted was for him to learn Geography, but he had other activities, at school”

  “Like what?”

  “Anything that was not Geography, pretty much” They all laughed heartily. “Are you… worried about Barry right now?” Eugenie asked.

  Marlene caught a pretty worried glance from Hobbes, “Mm, maybe. That boy is all over the place”

  They thought about it in silence for a while, then Hobbes cleared his throat, “so Barry’s health is now restored?”

  “Yes, he is able to heal very fast” Eugenie said. Marlene and Hobbes nodded, “but I mean he didn’t have much else to do than recover while he was here. It was difficult at first, because as it appeared to me very clearly since the beginning, this place is not a clinic, but he got better eventually. Like much much better”

  “He didn’t go crazy, being cooped up like this?”

  “Barry actually likes to hang out” Marlene informed Hobbes, “he’s a real home bunny. Paradoxically, he is an adrenaline junkie, but when things are chill, he— what did he do all these months?”

  Eugenie shrugged, “I mean he… read some books, played some video games. He assembled my new table, my new bookshelves. We watched some Netflix. He crafted his new suit. We played some Scrabble. He learned to draw sacred geometry, with a compass and a protractor”

  “How about your social life?”

  “Hmmm Eugenie frowned, “you know, it feels so good to finally be able to talk to someone about this madness” she chugged the bottom of her tea like it was a frat party shot of Tequila, “I don’t really have a social life. Maybe that’s also why Barry decided to come here. When you think about it, it looks like an ideal situation” She seemed to be musing on it in a new light herself.

  Marlene granted her some seconds of pensiveness, “you said that this place isn’t a hospital, Eugenie. How did you manage to help Barry?”

  “Yeah, we want the details” Hobbes rubbed his hands together then stopped after sensing Marlene’s reproachful gaze on him.

  “That” Eugenie hesitated, started at her mug like she had never seen it before, “that’s a bit illegal, this part, I don’t know”

  “Your secret is safe with us, you have my word” said Hobbes, which was a complete lie, since he didn’t know what she was about to say and couldn’t promise such things.

  “I… went to my school and stole supplies from the nurse’s office. I even accessed information about Barry like… his old file, his blood type”

  “You—” Marlene was sincerely amazed, didn’t attempt to mask her smile, “you transfused him?”

  “Mmmyes” Eugenie replied timidly, then sighed, “I can’t believe all that shit worked”

  “Here in this apartment?”

  “On this table” beads of sweat were appearing on Eugenie’s temples, testifying of the stress to relive those memories, “at some point the table collapsed, so we finished on the floor” She shook her head, incredulous.

  “That’s bananas” Hobbes commented, elbows on the table Eugenie was mentioning, very into the tale now. Only Marlene was seeing how demanding the narration was of its narrator. She had the expression on her face that people wear after they escape a near brush with death, and they are unable to believe that they are through. PTSD, without a doubt.

  Marlene scratched Eugenie’s hand on the handle of her cup, like the hand was a little hamster, “I’m sorry that we are asking you about those stressful episodes in your life, Eugenie, thank you for being honest with us”

  “You know, actually, it is such a relief to be able to discuss this. I never thought that I would be sitting in front of you, I never thought that Barry would find you guys again and be able to reunite with you!”

  “Is Barry in any shape to fight?”

  “Fight?” Eugenie shivered on her seat.

  “Like, resume his career of superhero?” specified Hobbes.

  “Hell yeah” she said in a whisper.