10: Reunion
Previously on We’re Not in Edison City Anymore, Sam Superlative Jr had just evacuated the lunar colony he had helped defend against an alien invasion and now finds himself alone on a new world! We now jump thirty years ahead and back to Earth to the aftermath of John Cute’s defeat at the hands of the Green Moth, the Malevolent Med-Student, and the rest! Before we do that, a brief commercial word!
Edison City, Present Day
Peter A. Hawkins, Special Agent, D.E.R.P., was running on little to no sleep, a severe lack of good coffee, and the thrumming anxiety of reports not yet filed but already being demanded by his superiors, and this combination made him more than usually irritable. He was in the Cupertino parking garage still trying to figure out just where on God’s green Earth John Cute had gone off to when his phone chirped yet again. “Look, if this is Dave from the Record I told you before I really don’t have the time for an interview-”
“No, sir, this is, uh, Sergeant Reed down at Central? A cape just walked in, asked for help, and given the bulletin you guys put out I thought you might want to, you know, talk to him.”
“Who is he?” Agent Hawkins said, reaching for his car keys.
“Well, he says he’s Mr. Superlative, senior, sir.”
Hawkins actually dropped his keys in surprise, and then nearly dropped his phone as he dove to snatch them up from the muddy pavement. “You hold him, I’ll be right there!”
As he scrambled into his car, he paused, then looked back at the hospital. “Actually I’ll be almost right there, so to speak; I gotta grab someone. You make sure that cape stays put, you hear me?” The last he had heard, the Wombat and his team were celebrating in the cafeteria; he hoped to all heaven they were still there.
Sam Superlative, no the Third, no Jr, and not Samuel that was for sure, was the type who could’ve intimidated a room full of people even if he hadn’t been gifted with a whole trainload of superpowers. With the abilities, though, he could really intimidate when he wanted to, and he was in full intimidation mode now. Standing arms crossed in front of the main desk at ECPD, he glowered down upon the shaking Sergeant Reed. “Look, I just want to know where my son is,” he said, in a rumble that sent tremors through the floor beneath the sergeant’s boots. “Now.”
“Scuse me,” Agent Hawkins said, waving from the revolving door at the station entrance where' he’d just come in. “I think I can help with that.”
“Who’re you?” Mr. Superlative said, turning on the D.E.R.P agent. To his surprise, Hawkins didn’t even blink. Usually when he rounded on people with the full force of his wrath, people screamed and ran away, or at least trembled and looked fearful. This man just looked back at him.
“Special Agent Hawkins, Department of Engagement with Risk-enhanced Persons,” he said. “Got someone you’ll want to meet.”
He stepped aside, making room for a tall figure in familiar red boots, a man who looked almost but not quite like-
“Son?” Mr. Superlative said.
“Ah, no,” the man said. “No, sir. I had hoped to do this differently, but under the circumstances…” he made a helpless sort of gesture with his hands. “I’m Samuel Superlative the Third. Your, ah, grandson, sir.”
Mr. Superlative stared. He could see it. Hell, if he wanted to, he could look clear all the way to the subatomic level and confirm the DNA sequence matched, but there was no point to that anyway because he knew. He could see his son in this kid’s eyes, the powers, the way he carried himself, even if the timing made no sense and for sure some sort of alien genomes had gotten dug in there somewhere. But… “So if you’re here,” he said, “Where’s Sam?”
He was still thinking location; he was only just beginning to get a grip on timelines. Then an unfamiliar look came over Samuel’s face (well, all this kid’s looks would be unfamiliar, after all he just showed up and Sam had been around not two days before). Mr. Superlative hadn’t even had the chance to explain to Hawkins, never mind this guy, about what had happened to him himself, and he still needed to do that, and all at once he realized that his grandson hadn’t answered his question yet. A very small worry began to poke around in back of his mind.
“Wait,” he said. “Sam, he’s still alive, right?”
Even when the Scarlet Shapeshifter had attacked him with powers she had no reason to have, he hadn’t been afraid. He felt it now, watching Samuel work out- work through how to answer. The kid was getting emotional. Why-
Why would-
No.
Oh no!!! Sam! 😳😭
NOOO.