7: Analysis
Last time in Quarks of the Heart, Meg Atomic had a confrontation with her superhero parents, Captain Happily Married and Super Soccer Mom, over her relationship with the Malevolent Med-Student, aka Keith, a confrontation which culminated in Meg walking out! Read on to find out what happens next!
Meg Atomic kept on walking, cutting straight across the yard and through the grass until she had reached her beat-up old car, which the Captain had carried back from the restaurant (with her and Keith clinging to the seats inside) and deposited on the curb. She flung open the driver’s side door and collapsed into the cracked vinyl seat. Only then did she take a long, shuddering breath, let it out, and try to take in what had just happened.
She had just walked out. She’d left her parents house and walked right out into the night. She didn’t have her stuff, she didn’t have her clothes, she didn’t even have her mask and uniform. What was she going to do?
As usual her powers kicked in, and with extreme reluctance she began sorting the possibilities. These divided themselves neatly into four branches.
She could turn around and go back inside. That would involving explaining and apologizing to her parents. The likelihood of breaking up with the
Malevolent Med-StudentKeith was high in this scenario, unless of course he completely changed his ways overnight. She needed to follow up on that last point.She could go and stay wherever it was that Keith was staying. Many unknown variables entered the calculation here. Where, exactly, was Keith staying? Did he live in a house, an apartment in the city, another standard civilian place, or had he chosen a more classic supervillain residence such as a bunker underneath an active volcano, or perhaps an island shaped like a human skull? Whatever his living situation was, did he reside alone there, or did he have supervillain roommates? (She knew that the Malevolent Med-Student had a henchwoman whose name escaped her at the moment; she was trying not to think about all the possibilities that involved). And if he lived alone and she moved in, well, what would happen then? What about… well…. that? Would she? Could she? The variables were dizzying and endless, impossible to work.
She could go somewhere else. Get a job, a hotel room, strike out on her own for a while. The Keith situation would be up in the air, but at least she’d have somewhere to go. Then again, what sort of job could she get? Her parents had secret identities and day jobs and she could’ve worked connections through them, but obviously that was out now (assuming of course she didn’t go with Option #1). She could venture alone into the vast marketplace, but then what? She hadn’t even finished her classes at the local college yet, and she didn’t exactly have marketable skills. (She could imagine that conversation. “Hi, I can manipulate gravitic forces and calculate probabilities of future events based on variables known to me at any particular instant-” “Ma’am, this is a Wendy’s.”)
That left… what? She sorted through possible scattershot ideas. Then one possibility appeared. Meg swore aloud when it occurred to her. The little jump next to her made her realize that Keith had slid quietly into the passenger seat beside her.
“Oh, Keith,” she said, surprised out of her concentration, “I’m sorry. Forgot about you for a second. I was, ah-”
“Working the variables?” he said, a slight smile on his face.
“How did you know?”
“The Edison City Record did a feature on you all a few years back,” he said, shifting awkwardly around in his seat. “I was intrigued. It sounded like a useful power.”
Meg almost laughed. “I remember that. A lot of my friends said the atomic pulses were more useful. Couldn’t see the point of calculating probabilities.”
The Malevolent Med-Student shrugged. “Most people can’t see the point of anything.”
Meg noticed a slight edge to his voice, and made a note to ask about his story. “So, I have a friend, her name’s Liz. Liz Flask. She’s been my best friend since forever. I think it’d be best if I crashed with her for tonight.” She paused an instant. “You’re welcome to come with? I don’t think she’d mind. She’s got a big place.”
Now it was his turn to think. She could practically see the wheels turning. Then, after a painfully awkward instant as she wondered whether her parents were watching them from the house windows, he spoke. “Yeah. I would. I just… I need to make a call.”
Before she could ask whether he wanted to step outside, he had produced a phone. It didn’t look like a normal cell phone. It had buttons and widgets and even a device that looking like a miniature death ray fixed up on the side. It was definitely a supervillain-type phone. He tapped a button. Candystriper’s gasp of relief was audible even to Meg. “Hey! Mal-Meddie! Where’ve you been? I’ve been all over, I searched the lair and everything and Captain Happily Married was looking for you and I thought maybe you’d been eaten by Behemoth Bob but the stars aren’t right for that and besides I hear he’s on a diet anyway but then again-”
“Candystriper,” Keith said, in a voice that brooked no argument, “I’m sorry. I’m giving up the supervillain game. I’m afraid your services are no longer required. And, I don’t mean that as in I’m about to horribly murder you, I’m well aware that’s what all the supervillains say, but this time I really do mean that in the most literal sense. Er, perhaps I should start again. I’m retiring. Starting now.”
A stunned silence emanated from the other end of the line. “But… but…boss, you can’t…you can’t be serious, you’re Mal-Meddie, you can’t-”
“I am serious, and my name is the Malevolent Med-Student!” Keith said with all the force and delivery of his alter ego. “As I said, I’m retiring, my loyal minion, and therefore your services are no longer required, but if you need a recommendation for another employer, I suggest you ring Fodgel, okay? He’ll be a big help.”
“Fine,” she said. “I’ll do that. See you around, sir.” The line went dead.
Meg raised an eyebrow. “Fodgel?”
“British guy, moved in the city last month, has a thing about lasers,” Keith said casually. “Put the word out that he needed help, minion-wise. I don’t know beyond that. Anyway. Shall we?” He tapped a button on the phone; it immediately emitted an array of bright sparks and fell to pieces. “I’ll, ah, clean that up.”
Meg wondered if she should rethink all this. Then again, he had just disintegrated his supervillain phone and dismissed his henchwoman. Those were good signs, right? She decided that they were, and buckled her seat belt. With the Malevolent Med-Student at her side hopefully contemplating his future as an ex-supervillain, Meg Atomic drove away into the night.
