Joey Smallwood - Ladders
10:17 pm
The bus left him alone by the bus stop, the neighbourhood tranquil and placid. People were watching T.V. or going to bed after a long, long day of doing shitty work in a shitty building. Joey sighed. Despite all the outrageous bullshit he had just witnessed, he was trying to steel himself for what would come next.
10:32
The light in front of the house was open, keeping vigil. He opened the door, slowly, hoping to make the least sound as possible. To no avail: waiting for him inside were both his parents waiting at the dinner table. His mother looked anxious, if somewhat relieved at his appearance. His father, though, was visibly fuming.
Dad:"Alright young man, we need to talk."
Fuck me.
Fuck me. Fuck me. Fuck me. Fuck me.
Dad: "Where have you been all night?"
Dad: "Hanging out with friends."
That vague shit was just going to make him angrier, but what else can he say. He's certainly not going to say he was hanging out with weirdos from the internet.
"Is that so. Well, care to tell me the rules for hanging out with friends?"
He took a moment to answer. "Always leave a note about where I am going, who I am seeing, and be home before 9, unless it's a sleep over. In case of a sleepover, a phone number to call the friend's parent." he repeated, annoyed.
Dad: "That's right. And what did you do?"
Joey: "Well... I ... uh."
Dad: "Who did you hang out with tonight?"
Joey: "I uh well I hung with Thomas and Jake and Sabrina."
Dad: "Oh is that so? Because I called Thomas, and Jake too, and they said they hadn't seen you all night."
Joey remained silent.
Dad: "Nothing to say young man?"
Joey was looking really hard at the floor. Like, real hard.
Dad: "Are you taking drugs Joey?"
Joey: "Wait what!? I don't take drugs! Why would I take drugs?" he blurted out.
Dad: "Well you are at that age. Young and impressionable, in need of stimulus. You are also always in your room on that damn computer of yours. Your friends are good kids, but I don't want to see you hang out with the wrong crowd."
Joey: "I am not hanging out with the wrong crowd!"
Well, a few in that crowd could be bad.
Dad: "Well then who were you hanging out then?"
Joey: "Well... friends!"
Dad: "What friends?"
Joey: "New friends! You don't know them!"
Dad: "Is that so. Well mister. I don't like you disappearing all night with strangers. You are grounded for the weekend. No internet either. Now go to bed."
And with that the conversation was over. Joey slouched, angry, frustrated, tired and drained. As he walked upstairs he could hear the conversation between his mom and dad continuing.
Mom: "He lied to us. I can't believe he doesn't trust us enough to tell us where he has been all night. I was so worried."
Dad: "He's at that age. Kids start to look to their friends and not their parents. We got to give him some space, but we got to show him the boundaries too. He's not an adult yet."
Joey didn't bother to listen any more than that. At the top of the stairs, he spied Sasha slinking back into her room. So much for making up a cover for him, he thought bitterly.
(...)
The lack of internet didn't bother Joey very much. He was too preoccupied anyway at the moment. He had... a lot to think about. For one he had to come up with a credible excuse to go out and ''train''. He already had one in mind, actually.
Training.
He was going to have his parent pay for a gym pass at a local gym. His father was always bitching that he was unathletic, lethargic, and always in front of his computer. Well, that ought to turn him around a bit . Of course, this was not a complete lie.
He had to get stronger, like, physically. He was weak, and a coward. He was this close to shitting himself back there.
Back there.
What to think of all that stuff that just happened so much? That was trippier than you average dream. Not only that, but now he was in a sort of Misfit scenario. Superpowers, yo! But to his distress it also clearly meant going up against people who were demonstrably god-like. That sucked.
Ruin. Reach. Raid. Regal.
Those words bounced in his head. He would have to ask about their function later. Cool names though. Joey was, admitedly, a bit too self-conscious to experiment with his power. He felt like spider-man, the Sam Reimi one, when he was trying to get his web-shooters to work. He had just... no idea how to use them. More questions for the weirdos, he thought.
(...)
Let's fast forward a bit because shit is getting boring.
Setting: Yami's sweet derelict hangar. His Dad would be a having a aneurysm at this sight. He would be hard pressed to contest that he was hanging out with real shady people. Week-end spent navel-gazing and angsting and playing his guitar. And homework.
Yami is asking for questions. Ladders raises his hand.
Ladders: "Kay kay so, alright - what do these powers do? How do we use them? We're we supposed to get some revelation or intuition about this? Because I didn't get anything. If it wasn't for the fact that you explicitly told us that we had powers, I wouldn't feel any different right about now."