Awkward Times, Interesting Times
Chapter Two: Coffee and Confrontations
Author’s Notes:
Okay…here we go, chapter two of this twisted little story. Not much here, just Bob Parr meeting “Syndrome’s bastard”. We also get a little bit of David’s background here.
Disclaimer: As usual…don’t own Incredibles, Disney/Pixar does. Don’t own Aberrant, White Wolf does (I think). Don’t own some of the other characters that make a brief appearance, Buena Vista/Disney own them.
[i]Nobody knew what to do about the manifesting novas. Their appearance turned science, religion, and society all on their heads. We didn’t even know what an M-R node was. We were baffled.
That’s when the Aeon Society entered the picture. This philanthropic organization had an extensive, if not widely publicized, history of assisting and backing various large-scale goodwill programs, such as the Red Cross, the World Health Organization, and similar projects. These fellows decided that somebody might be needed to stick up for the novas, and it might as well be they. So they started talking to the UN and a possible solution was worked out.
The Zurich Accord of June 1998 -and you had better believe that this will be on the test- declared novas to be human beings. I know, this sounds like a common-sense thing, but there was a very real case they wouldn’t have all the rights and responsibilities that go with being human.
Can anyone name the movement that disagrees with the Zurich Accord? Anyone? Good, Emily – the Teragen. But we’ll get to them later.
Anyhow, Project Utopia was formed in the wake of the Zurich Accord. Its stated goal was “to utilize the vast powers of novas to better the quality of life for all, human and nova alike, on Planet Earth.”
That’s on page 227 – better memorize that. Utopia also had an environmentalist agenda, but people have benefited from that as much as animals and plants have.
The next step for Project Utopia was twofold. First, it began intervention programs, where Utopia would contact newly erupted novas and invited them to Rashoud facilities, special clinics designed to help novas adjust to their new powers. Then Utopia announced the formation of special team of all-nova operatives, Team Tom-
Ah, there’s the bell. All right, people, finish reading chapter 24! Tomorrow, we’re picking up where we left off, and I don’t want to have to quiz you – but I will if I don’t start hearing some feedback![/i]
-From a Social Sciences lecture, Enka High School, North Carolina
David looked at his foe, a cold murderous gleam in his eye as he spoke. “Okay…you’ve caused me enough pain and suffering, you’ve screwed my plans, destroyed my property, and have pretty much been a pain in my ass for the last time.” He stabbed his finger hard on the left button of his lap-top’s mouse. “DIE!” he laughed manically as he watched the multiple nuclear silos on his computer screen launch their missiles.
Across the table, Zoe Kilmarten brushed her pink hair out of her face as she frantically guided the mouse on her lap top and clicked the multiple missile sites she had stashed around the map. “Oh no you don’t.”
Both screens lit up as explosions destroyed military bases on both screens…one flashing VICTORY while the other screen flashed YOU WERE DEFEATED.
“Dammit,” grumbled David as the game shifted to the win/loss screen. “How the hell can someone with attention deficit disorder beat me so easily at this game?”
The pink haired teen giggled wickedly as she got out of her chair and extended an open hand in his direction. “Less bitching, pay up…Need. More. Mocha. Now…gimme, gimme, gimme…”
David sighed as he handed her a twenty dollar bill. “I hate you,” he grumbled.
“No you don’t…”
“Yes I do.”
“Do not.”
“Do too.”
“Not.”
“Too.”
“Not.”
“Too.”
“How long until my eighteenth birthday?”
“One year, two months, one week, three days, seven hou-ZOE!”
With an evil snicker, the pink-haired speedster zipped off towards the counter. David shook his head and laughed. He wasn’t sure what he had done to deserve Zoe, but he had to admit that running into her at Royal Burger was a good thing…even though they both lost their jobs because he had effectively destroyed the restaurant…well…not destroyed, the restaurant was still there but closed during a pending investigation of some of the owners’ questionable business practices (and their manager/nephew’s habit of trying to get into the pants of under-aged teen hostesses).
Two months later, David had managed to recover some of the financial assets that belonged to his biological father along with certain schematics. Of course, that didn’t sit well with Director Dicker of the NSA, but there was little he could do about it. After all, with his ability to mentally link with computers and his ability to build really cool stuff…it wasn’t that hard for David to track down his biological father’s holdings…at least the ones that weren’t confiscated. He was content with just working his way through college, but after the incident at Royal Burger, he decided he was better off striking out on his own. Dicker had repeatedly warned (in other words, tried to intimidate) David into not using his abilities, and that if he followed in the footsteps of his father, the NSA wouldn’t hesitate to bring him down and lock him back up in the freezer they found his body in.
That didn’t sit well with David…he didn’t like being compared to his father. Buddy Pine…aka Syndrome…was a whiny bitch who kept trying to compensate for something. David had no intention of going down that path, but being compared to that loser was what made him lose his cool. Later that night, Director Rick Dicker found himself registered on every on-line gay singles dating service, along with all his contact numbers (both his NSA and private residence) made available to anyone looking for a date. Things would have gotten even worse if David’s foster-father (who David pretty much thought of as his dad) hadn’t convinced him to undo the damage. Besides, having a bunch of black helicopters hovering above and black SUVs surrounding their home at four in the morning was waking up the entire neighborhood.
Dicker would have taken David and tossed him in the cooler then if David’s foster-father hadn’t intervened and informed Dicker that while he may only be a janitor at the local hospital, he still knew how to “clean up undesirable elements and not leave a trace”. That made the government agent hesitate and had David wondering what exactly Neil did before he became a janitor. David asked him about it when Dicker and his task force left and the response was typical from his adopted “Dad”.
“It was a long time ago, we don’t need to talk about it, and you’re grounded for getting me out of bed this early.”
David chuckled at that memory…Neil was a cool for a foster parent. When David’s cyberkinetic abilities erupted, Neil’s reaction was, “Okay…so you have super abilities, that still doesn’t get you out of doing the dishes.”
So when David moved out and relocated to Metroville, he made sure he used some of his newly acquired money to buy his foster-family a new dishwasher.
What surprised David was running into Zoe again…this time working at a Build-A-Bear in the local mall. For some reason, the pink-haired speedster decided to hang out with him…not that he didn’t mind…she was kind of hot…it’s just she was still under eighteen and she had an overprotective uncle who scared the hell out of him.
So…here he was, two months on his own, starting up his own tech firm with money he liberated from carefully hidden Pine Industries accounts in the Cayman Islands. As usual, Dicker was still being an ass and making sure David knew he was being monitored, but David didn’t care. Unlike his father, David wasn’t interested in trying to kill heroes or try to take over the world…although he had toyed with the idea of hacking Apple and arranging it so everyone got free downloads from I-Tunes for twenty-four hours. The only problem was that Metroville was home to a certain family that might try to cause problems later on.
He could have just laid low and stayed off their radar, but he knew it would be a matter of time before he crossed paths with the Parr family. So, he decided to confront that problem right from the start, despite Dicker’s warnings about it being a bad idea. He had hoped the meeting would have gone off without any problems…simply confront the Parrs, tell them what he was going to do, offer them some sort of truce…and then move on. Unfortunately, it didn’t go that way…it didn’t go too badly, but Bob Parr wasn’t home and Helen Parr looked like she was about to rip David’s head off. Normally, David would have been annoyed at that, but he really didn’t blame her…after all, his father did try to kill them, level their city, and try to kidnap the youngest Parr child.
David glanced at his watch…almost three hours had passed since he had shown up on the Parr’s doorstep. He would give Mr. Incredible another fifteen minutes to show up before heading out. In the meantime, it was time to check in with Neil. He pulled out a cell phone and dialed a number.
“Hello?” The voice who answered sounded like he was in the middle of doing some sort of serious labor.
“Hey, Dad…it’s me, did I catch you at a bad time?”
“Davey! How’s it going, kiddo?” There was the sound of something being dropped to the ground followed by someone screeching “Ow!” in the background.
“Um…Dad…what are you doing?”
“Oh…not much, son…Doctor Dorian got a promotion, it got to his head so I had to-”
“Help him regain some of his humility back,” David finished for his adoptive parent. “I gotcha’…you’re not going to ship him via Fed-Ex to his boss again, are you?”
“Nah…got him in a laundry bag and I’m thinking about hanging him off a flagpole, what do you think?”
“Oooh, old-school stuff…sounds cool.” David chuckled again, imagining that pompous jack-ass Doctor Dorian being hung off a flag-pole in a laundry bag. “It’s too bad I’m not there…otherwise, I’d join you and bring my paint ball gun for target practice.”
“Well…you’re only a couple hours away, I could put him on ice for that time and wait for you to get here.”
“Hmmm, as tempting as that sounds, I’m going to have to pass. I’m in the middle of something kind of important.”
“Oh…I take it you’ve gone ahead and contacted them?” asked Neil, his tone shifting immediately from twisted humor to one of concern. “How’d it go?”
“Not too bad, the big guy wasn’t there, but ran into his wife and their youngest son.”
“Really? Did she threaten you?”
“No, though there was a little tension there and I’m sure she talked to her husband after we left.”
“‘We?’ Oh no…you didn’t take Zoe with you, did you?”
“Yeah…though she behaved.”
“You’re not doing anything to her, are you? I can’t protect you from her uncle if you-”
“Jeez, Dad…what is up with you people? You raised me better than that, I’m more concerned about getting my business off the ground than getting laid. Money and cash-flow first…my love life second.” Then David shuddered as he got a mental image of Zoe’s uncle ripping his head off. “Besides, the last thing I need is her uncle dismembering me, feeding me to his pet wolves, and then using my soul as toilet paper.”
“Yeah…I can see how that would ruin your day. Then again, when you talk to Mr. Parr, maybe you won’t need to worry because he may just kill you first.”
“Not helping, Dad,” said David as he returned his attention to his laptop and started to surf local real estate sites. “Anyway…I just thought I’d call and let you know I’m fine for the most part. By the way, I got a sweet deal on some property.”
“I’m telling you, just buy a run-down motel…they’re relatively cheap and use that for a headquarters.”
“I am not buying a run-down motel.”
“Hey, it worked for Microsoft in the beginning, you never know.”
“Well, times have changed, we’re a little bit more advanced now.”
“Yeah…well…there wasn’t an internet back then either…well, at least not like we have it now.”
David rolled his eyes. “Dad, you’re not going to tell me that your were there when Al Gore supposedly invented it, are you?”
“Of course not,” said Neil. “Gore had nothing to do with it, we ripped the concept off of a starship’s operating system back in the 50s-”
“Good-bye, Dad,” David laughed. He closed his cell-phone and shook his head, Neil’s crazy stories may have sounded like crazed conspiracy theories, but that’s what David loved about his adopted father…especially since there was enough evidence to support most of the claims.
A large shadow suddenly fell over the table, immediately causing his smile to fade. He didn’t even bother to look up as he logged his lap-top off line and closed it. “You know…the whole intimidation thing works on criminals, Mr. Parr…but not me.”
“You were warned to stay away.” The voice was calm, but David could sense the cold threat implied by it. “You should have listened.”
David sighed and looked up at Bob Parr. “I take it you talked to Dicker,” he said as he gestured for Bob to pull up a chair. “Have a seat, Mr. Parr…we need to talk.”
The large man simply stood there, glaring down at David, his right fist slowly clenching and unclenching.
“Oh c’mon,” said David, “I’m not your enemy. I just want to talk and since you’re here, you might as well pull up a chair and have a coffee, I’m buying.” He then lowered his voice. “Besides, the way I see it…I should be thanking you for what you did.”
That admission seemed to have taken the man by surprise. “What do you mean?”
“If it weren’t you and your family, I would probably still be in a freezer somewhere waiting for my sperm-donor to defrost and program me.”
Bob Parr was speechless for a moment. When he was informed about this young man named David Pine Flynn, Dicker only informed him that he was one of Syndrome’s experiments that had gained sentience on his own. Helen was in a panic, almost screaming about how “He walked right up to our doorstep”. He rarely saw her lose it like that…only when the family was threatened did she let her emotions override her thinking. He couldn’t blame her, he felt the same when he heard about the incident.
But, now, here we was confronting what his mind had subconsciously labeled as ‘Syndrome 2.0’ and he was…confused. This David Flynn, while having some of Buddy’s facial features, didn’t seem to match Bob’s mental image. The boy also didn’t seem to have Buddy’s compulsive attitude about trying to impress people.
“What do you mean?” he finally asked after a few seconds of silence.
“Look, can you at least pull up a chair? We’re attracting attention.”
Bob looked around and noticed that other patrons were staring in their direction. Reluctantly, he pulled up a chair and sat down.
“You want anything?” the young man asked again. “I mean…I’m buying and I could write it off as a business expense.”
“No thanks,” Bob replied. “Now…about your…father.”
“Ah, so we’re back to that. Okay, Mr. Parr…long story short, it seems Buddy was in the middle of creating himself a little sidekick using genetic material he had taken from himself and some lady who worked for him. I was aged to about ten years old and living in an artificial reality when you and your family trashed the island. Dicker’s people found me, took me off ice, and placed me with some family.”
“You were on Nomanisan? That was eight years ago.”
“Yeah,” said David as he leaned back in his chair. “Eight years of me being stuck with a foster family…actually, really wasn’t all that bad. Neil’s a pretty cool dad…just don’t borrow his customized tools.” He shuddered as he remembered a near fatal accident with his adopted father’s patented “knife-wrench”.
He suddenly paused for a moment and blinked. “Wow,” he said, “that actually was a lot easier to break down than I thought. I mean, I was afraid it was going to come out as this convoluted drama, but nope…that’s pretty much it.”
“So why exactly do you want to meet with us?” asked Bob.
“I basically want a truce…I mean, it was only a matter of time before we crossed paths and I would prefer it if we got along as opposed to you throwing me into the next state.”
“Well, I have to admit this approach has taken me by surprise,” said Bob. “How do I know this is not a trick to earn our trust before trying to kill us?”
“Aw, c’mon, Mr. Parr…that crap is old and kind of obvious, don’t you think?” A tiny smile formed on David’s lips as he thought of something. Unfortunately, he made the mistake of saying it out loud. “Besides, if I wanted to ‘kill’ you, I’d simply jack in to the IRS and other government databases and list you as ‘Deceased’…or simply erase you.”
Bob felt his anger return. “You’ll do no such thing,” he growled.
“Do you really think I’m that stupid? Dicker would throw my ass back in the cooler and they wouldn’t thaw me out until your youngest son collected his first social security check.”
Despite his anger, Bob couldn’t help chuckling. “Actually, I could see that happening.”
“Look, seriously,” said David as he gently pushed his laptop aside. “I’m not your enemy, I’m not going to try to kill other supers, and I sure as hell am not dreaming of building a legion of killer robots to help me try and take over the world.”
“Do you?” Bob asked.
“Do I what?”
“Have dreams of building a legion of killer robots to help you take over the world?”
David lowered his eyes and frowned slightly. “Not as much, and the therapy sessions are helping.” Then he broke out in laughter. “Just kidding, the only dreams I have-”
“Involve a scantily clad pink-haired speedster and her eighteenth birthday?” piped a female voice. Bob turned his head to see a young woman with pink spiky hair holding a super-sized blended mocha.
“Yeah,” said David before he realized what he had agreed to. “What!?! Zoe!”
The girl called Zoe giggled wickedly as she sat down across from David. It took him a moment, but Bob recognized her. “Wait…I know you, you go to High School with my son.”
“Yeah, and your son’s a jerk,” replied the girl. “He keeps stuffing my friends into lockers…stupid jock. He’s not even a real athlete…using his powers to cheat.”
“Hey now,” said Bob. “He holds back.”
“Maybe if someone slipped some laxative in his Gatorade, it would be fair…Dash Parr, the fastest skid-mark alive.”
“ZOE!” David said sharply.
Zoe merely gave David an evil grin, then went back to drinking her mocha smoothie and surfing the net.
“I take it she’s a super as well?” asked Bob.
David nodded and started to rub the side of his head. “Yeah, for some reason I was cursed with her…don’t know why.”
“Aw…admit it, you love me,” quipped Zoe, not even bothering to look up from her keyboard.
“Do not.”
“Do too.”
“Do not.”
“Do too.”
“Do not.”
“Eighteenth birthday?”
“One year, two months, one week, three days, seven hou-dammit!”
Zoe giggled again, and Bob got the impression that there obviously was some sort of relationship there. In fact this duo was not what he was expecting. He was expecting to meet someone who acted more like Buddy Pine/Syndrome. Instead, he was dealing with two teenagers who obviously weren’t planning anything malicious…at least not intentionally.
“Don’t take this the wrong way,” he said after a few seconds of thought. “I was expecting some sort of confrontation.”
“Oh yeah,” said David. “I still have to get to the whole ‘threaten you if you interfere in my plans’ part.” Then he shook his head. “Nah, too much work involved. Look, I don’t want any trouble. I’m simply trying to make money and I don’t have this super-obsession like Buddy did. He may be my biological father, but that’s it. If you’re expecting me to act like him…you’re going to be disappointed.”
“Eiiiiiiighties haaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiirrrrrrrr…” moaned Zoe dramatically, still typing away on her keyboard. “Flock of Seagullllllllllls…Don Kiiiiiiiiiiiing…”
“Zoe, knock it off! I swear I will go the Lex Luthor route before that happens.”
“Oh! You’re going to loseyourhairinacornfieldduringameteorshower, wreckyourporcshe, alienateyourfriendfromanotherplanetbecauseofanobsessionwithaliens, killyourfather, andtakeoverhisempire?”
Both David and Bob looked at her and blinked for a couple seconds before saying anything.
“Oooookay,” said David as he grabbed Zoe’s half-finished drink. “I think you’ve hit your mocha limit for the day.” He then looked over at Bob. “See what I have to deal with?”
“You can understand that?” asked Bob who was still trying to decipher what the girl had just said.
“Yeah, but this is nothing. You should see her when she downs a couple of Red Bulls after her quad-shot mocha…it’s not pretty.” David extended his hand to Bob. “So, do we have a deal? I’m not asking to be friends or anything, but can we at least be sort of neighbors and not worry about trying to kill each other?”
Bob took a moment to consider the offer. He knew this could be a trick, but there was something about David Flynn that made him certain the boy was not like his father. Oh, he had no doubt that the boy was dangerous and could possibly be an enemy, but he was certainly no 'Syndrome"…he was…different. After a couple seconds of thought, he reached out and shook David’s hand.
“It’s a deal…but if you try anything…”
“Yeah, I know…you’ll throw me into the next state.” David suddenly shuddered at a horrible thought. “Just don’t send me to Utah, okay?”
Outside, sitting in an SUV, two men were watching the conversation between David Flynn and Bob Parr. The man sitting in the driver’s seat was slim, wearing a business suit and had black hair that was slowly starting to go gray, His hawk-like facial features didn’t miss anything as he monitored the conversation that was being relayed to them by one of Project Utopia’s covert surveillance satellites. He frowned as he listened to the conversation. When it was over, Bob Parr, also known as the American nova hero Mr. Incredible, left the building, got into his car, and drove off.
“Is there a problem, Director Lansing?” asked the passenger who, in contrast, was a large man with a muscular build. Unlike Lansing, this man was dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt, along with a baseball cap that covered his shaved head.
Jonathan Lansing shook his head. “No, Caestus,” he said. "It’s just that the boy had taken a route that I had not expected. He is not at all like his father…if he was, there would have been a violent confrontation. "
“Which is why you had the UN pull some strings to have me brought here,” said Caestus Pax, well known superhero and leader of Project Utopia’s own super-team, Team Tomorrow. “It would seem we were both disappointed. I was actually hoping for a go at the old man…see if he actually was as good as his reputation.”
“Yes, well, we were not here to start an incident. We were supposed to intervene on the boy’s behalf and offer him citizenship.” Lansing shook his head and smiled. “Apparently, the boy has his own agenda.”
“So what?” asked Cestus. “He’s a hyper-intelligent nova…we have many of those at Utopia. Why worry about this one?”
“Because this one is a level 5 Nova,” said Lansing. He could have gone into more detail, but his supervisors at Project Proteus would have skinned him alive for revealing this information to their pawns in Project Utopia. “And that makes him a threat.”
Caestus Pax glanced from the small dash-board mounted monitor to the window that David Flynn and his girlfriend were sitting next to. “Him?” he said, trying to keep from laughing too hard. “The girl has more ability than he does. He’s an egghead.”
Lansing momentarily looked up at the nova and shook his head. “You really have no idea what we might be dealing with, do you?” He then returned his attention to the monitor and watched as David Flynn put his lap-top back in its bag before pulling out a cell-phone. “What are you up to, boy?”
Caestus was still chuckling. “Probably calling a 900 number so he could get over his obsession with the girl-” he was interrupted by the chirping of his cell-phone. He reached into the pocket of his sweatshirt and pulled out his cell-phone, still laughing when he answered. “Hello?”
“Oh,” said the voice on the other end. “I’m sorry…I must have the wrong number. I’m looking for a certain arrogant skinhead version of Superman who thinks he’s a badass when he’s really nothing but a glorified front-man for Team Tomorrow.”
“Who the hell is this?” Caestus snarled, his amusement suddenly replaced by anger. “Do you know who I am?”
“Shelby Eisenfaust, aka Caestus Pax, super jarhead with an IQ that is one-third Jennifer Landers’ bra size.” There was a pause. “And don’t even think of getting out of the car, Pax. The UN approved Project Utopia’s request for you to covertly monitor me, make yourself public here and there WILL be an incident.”
Caestus looked back at the window and saw David Flynn now standing up and looking at the parked SUV through the cafe window. “Now, be a good little mindless stormtrooper, switch to speakerphone, and let me talk to your master who is sitting in the driver’s seat.”
“Listen punk, if you think-”
“Okay, that wasn’t a request, so let me make my point…please look at your monitor.”
Caestus did as he was told, then watched as the satellite image they were receiving suddenly went black and the message “signal terminated” flashed across the screen.
“What the hell?” said Lansing as he tried to get the image back. Then he looked up at Caestus. “The signal’s gone…it says that it was taken down at the source, but that could only mean the satellite was destroyed…” Lansing’s eyes widened in realization. “That’s him on the phone, isn’t it?” he asked.
Caestus nodded and hit the speaker button on his cell-phone. “I’m going to kill that punk.”
“Unlikely,” said David Flynn. “Mr. Lansing, I’m assuming that’s you in the SUV, keeping Utopia’s favorite pet gorilla in check?”
“Yes,” said Lansing, trying to keep his composure. Obviously, he too had underestimated the boy. “We were sent to monitor you in case of an incident.”
There was a sigh at the other end of the line. “When we talked last week, Lansing, I said the answer was ‘no’. Guess what, the answer is still ‘no’. But apparently, you thought it was cool to ‘illegally’ bring one of Project Utopia’s satellites in a low orbit to monitor me…big mistake.”
“You can’t prove anything,” snapped Lansing.
“Oh, I know I can’t prove it, especially since I just blasted it out of orbit.”
“How could you have done that?” asked Lansing. “The only way you could do that was-” His eyes widened in horror. “No!”
The young man on the other end of the line chuckled and it chilled Lansing to the bone. “You know, I wonder what certain nations will think if they knew Project Utopia had fully functioning experimental weapons platforms in geo-sync orbit over certain regions?”
“What’s he talking about?” Caestus’ anger had faded somewhat at this revelation. “What weapons platforms?”
“Oh…I’m sorry,” said David. “He doesn’t know about those, does he Lansing? Or do those belong to someone else? Not that it matters…it’s really not my concern. But what you should be concerned with is the fact that the FBI, CIA, and NSA now know you’re here. You’ve got about two minutes before the initial group of cops arrives. However, that will be nothing compared to the media scrutiny you’ll be enduring. So if you want to avoid that, be somewhere else.”
“This isn’t over, boy,” growled Lansing as he started the SUV and began to drive away. He then reached over and snatched the phone from Caestus, switching it back to it’s regular setting. “You’ve made a big mistake here, Flynn.”
“Smart move, Lansing, switching the speaker off, because I know two words that will make you reconsider whatever action you take against me.”
“Really, and what might those be.”
“Proteus revealed. And no…that’s not a bluff. You try anything, and evidence is going to land in everyone’s laps. Imagine the media coup that could be pulled off if someone like…say…the Teragen got their hands on this stuff. Hell, Divis Mal would have a field day and might even do the happy dance on live television.”
“You wouldn’t dare…”
“And I won’t…but if you try anything, you’ll have a war on your hands. Sure, you might kill me, but I can promise you that Project Utopia won’t survive it when the shit about Proteus is revealed. Just think about that the next time you try coming after me.”
Then the line went dead.
Lansing calmly handed the phone back to Caestus. “We’re leaving,” he said.
“You sure?” asked Cestus. “I thought you said he was a level five threat.”
“He’s not Utopia’s problem,” said Lansing, keeping his voice as calm and neutral as possible.
No, he’s not Utopia’s problem, he’s our problem now. Flynn, you want a war with Proteus, you got it…and it’s going to cost you everything.
Okay, thus ends chapter two. Next chapter, more information on “Proteus” and a certain former sidekick/annoyance makes an appearance…[spoil]well most of him anyway…that turbine did chew up an arm[/spoil].
