Sam gently awoke from the deepest, most sound sleep he had experienced in recent memory or at least since his meta-breakthrough in any case. He rustled out of the warm “nest”, rubbing his scales absentmindedly and licked his lips in anticipation of his signature morning brew, already bubbling away quietly. Annie had put the pot on a timer as usual, bless her. He ‘inhaled’ his first cup of the day and smiled as his sense of taste and smell instantly became more acute due to the liquid stimuli. Everything else though still felt very slightly fuzzy and alien and had done since their recent foray, but at their mission debriefing Annie had mentioned that this might be expected, normal even, though it may also have been due to sleep deprivation followed by his much needed and long overdue sleep-in.
He looked at his hand and fingers in the dimmed electric lighting, briefly imagining what could be. He then padded at his tablet with a joyful idleness. Any onlookers might have described him as bored-looking at that moment perhaps, but he knew it was due to contentment, not disinterest. The script looked all ready to go; she had improved it a lot since they’d ‘pencilled’ the first draft together late last night while half asleep.
He glanced around his room, scanning the personal trophies and the multitude of material rewards of his career up to now, each triggering memories. His quarters were kept pristine and immaculate, nothing out of place or even a speck of dust. He didn’t know who to thank for that exactly but he had made sure that there were cards and hampers on the way.
Fetching a new pair of Kevlar-fireproof shorts from his chest of drawers, Sam dressed quickly then peeked his head out into the corridor, stomach rumbling. His hand traced the lines of the wall panels on the corridor. He stepped out and headed to the lounge carefully skirting the various pieces of artwork and other ‘homely’ touches the team had added along the corridor, stopping briefly to regard each with either a satisfied nod or sigh. “Talk about taking a walk down memory lane.” he muttered, conflicted yet with a carefully contained bitter-sweetness, a happy-sadness, as impossible as that sounded.
He had rehearsed in his mind a hundred times over what he was going to say, but each time either some words were left unspoken or he’d felt his meaning could have been misinterpreted. All of his public speaking training and experience didn’t seem to help, hence the script. He drew a bolstering deep breath as he proceeded into the reception, where he’d called a whole team meeting for later on. He acted all smiles and casual whereas inside he was all tumultuous.
He took a seat on the couch and booted up the latest video game title (he had no idea what it was actually titled or even what it was about), “playing” it to keep busy and for something to do, welcoming anyone who’d want to join him in a session and enjoying their chit-chat. His mind and heart raced, battling with internal debates about ethics, promises not kept, disappointment, shame and hastily made escape plans, but he was unrelenting.
By a whole team meeting, he’d also meant Bethany, who thankfully had managed to get a day off school, the support team, even the new Balance 2.0 members; it was a regular reunion and something that didn’t happen often and not usually without some extreme circumstance. He’d asked Jeeves to put up a little buffet rather than the usual intel dossiers. Sam made sure to welcome each arrival acting as a gracious host as he chomped on Party Rings between appearances.
After everyone had finally arrived and settled, Sam takes his place temporarily alone at the far end of the room, heart in his mouth. He clinked a glass as if ready to make a toast or a speech of sorts. He cleared his throat and began to read from his tablet even though he’d memorised what he had to say.
“Thank you all for coming, especially at such short notice. As I may have mentioned yesterday, it is very, very nice to see you all.” he raises his glass and lowers it in a small gesture. “There’s no easy way to say this, so I’m just going to go ahead and get it out there.” he paused for a moment.
“I’m officially retiring from meta-heroics.” he made calming gestures as he waited patiently for the rush of gasps and protests to stop.
“Please know that it has been an incredibly difficult decision to make, but something I have been considering for some time now. At this stage I don’t mean to be difficult or divisive but with certain things come to light, I am sincerely hoping that certain others may consider joining me. But of course, I can’t speak for anyone else.” He deliberately emphasised his words and looked at Adam and Annie directly, making clear his intent.
“No doubt you will each want to speak to me privately, but know that I care a lot about all of you and I want to make this period run as smoothly as possible Bethany, I’m sure there’s a lot contractual things we will need to sort out. My future is in your hands.” he said with a smile. Bethany nodded, obviously not totally happy at his decision.
Akira on the other hand looked very thoughtful. What was going through his friend’s mind he wondered? Sam paused for a few moments and a quick momentary troubled frown creased his brow before he again began to speaking.
“It is my intention to stay local to Wessex, the home I have come to know and love, so I’m not disappearing or anything. However,” and with that he discarded his commdot and ID onto the table. “I intend on removing myself from active HCP-status and informing Dispatch at my next, best opportunity.” he stopped for a moment, winced and frowned at his discarded ID card, the sight for the moment painful.
Speaking it all out loud had felt like a great relief, and a large weight lifted from his shoulders. Time seemed to slow as he was entirely captured in the moment, surrounded by friends and family. The reality was, he felt he had somewhat fulfilled the warrior destiny, albeit with some combat mastery yet to obtain.
The Balance 2.0 had already proved themselves more than capable as a replacement, and their transition had been seamless. Wessex was still standing, even without him. Okay, so Beltane and Illustrious would be heading back to their various teams that evening which meant there would be a bit of a gap but surprisingly Frankie, Annie’s computer-turned-personality in its own right had proposed a solution but he elected to allow it (her?) to spring that on the rest of the team herself.
All he desired now was reconciliation, a relative peace and a more wholesome existence. That, and there was so much he still wanted to do in his life, and the call to action was becoming a problematic burden; the capital letter and full stop of each line of their stories.
“That’s all for now, naturally you all might be having a lot of questions. You may think I’ve been brainwashed or you may feel betrayed or something, but I’ll do my best to soothe you. Thank you for your understanding.” He looked at Annie and walked to her side as she addressed the meeting.
She nodded, “It will come as no surprise that I’ll be leaving with him. Ah, Frankie will be staying if you want her and will continue to carry out research for you and I’ll happily act as a paid consultant and team doctor if required but I think Sam’s right, we need some time out to figure out who we are.”
She turned to face Akira, “I’m afraid the bad news is that I, we are going to be taking over the Detective Agency fulltime. With everything that’s been happening, you failed to renew the lease with the owner and you’ll be receiving the eviction notice anytime now.” She smiled, “the reason I know is that I’m the new owner. I bought the whole block a few weeks ago.” Akira looked shocked as she reached behind her and handed over his Steadman Investigations plaque.
“I’m sorry Akira but you were never there and never actually carried out any investigations, leaving that all to me and since I was never your employee, it’s down to the team whether our running our own investigation agency is breaching any confidentiality clauses or poaching anyone. It’s also why I’m changing the name of the company. From today Sam and I will be Third Eye Investigations as in ‘we reveal the hidden, find the lost and uncover the truth – Ask about our pro-bono work.’
Our first contract is to retrieve something my father stole from me at the time of my accident.”
They had expected Akira to protest or at least argue that they would be trading on ‘his good name’ but again he remained quiet, merely nodding as he muttered something about it being for the best. Sam frowned and gave him a curious look. He had anticipated more of a protest from Akira, but he seemed distracted somewhat.
His reaction threw Sam who felt confused, but before he could say anything, he was distracted when Annie clapped her hands and a spaniel-sized tufted-eared cat slinked out of her old office, across to rub itself against her legs, with a stretch and a loud purr that sounded more like a squeaky door hinge. Turning to Sam she explained, “Sorry I forgot to mention, while you were away I got myself a kitten to keep me company…” Sam looked slightly horrified. “That’s not a fucking house cat, that’s some sort of lynx!” Annie smiled, “Sort of, it’s been genetically enhanced…”
Sam lent in and quietly whispered in her ear. “We’ll talk more about this later, honey.”
Frankie interrupted the sudden drawn-out silence that followed. Her disembodied voice speaking out of a series of concealed speakers, <<I hope you do not mind if I use this opportunity to interject but being aware of designation: Young Sam’s dilemma before leaving, I took it upon myself to look at possible additions to the remaining team in preparation. I am aware that neither designations: young Mary/Illustrious or Shona/Beltane, feel ready at this time to undertake moving into new teams so I elected to look further afield for possible new team members. I recently took to sending you information released by someone who was newly HCP-certified. He goes by the designation ‘Locker’, but in reality, he is the older, estranged son of Inspector Marcus Tolliver, Jerome. Inspector Tolliver has asked if the team would consider taking him, quote, ‘under your wing as a favour to him?’ End quote. I felt it best to not relay this message until the whole team was gathered.
I took the liberty of asking him to attend an audition tomorrow. He will meet you at the entrance to Port meadow Park at noon. I hope I have not overstepped? Sentience and making decisions is still something I am trying to come to terms with. >>
Sam couldn’t contain his curiosity and satisfaction at the news. He’d helped set up the search parameters with Frankie just before the team had vanished and he looked forward to a little light-hearted demonstration by Frankie’s recommended replacement, assuming he’d still be welcome to attend? Again, the impact of his decision to leave hit him as he realised he now needed to be invited to be present and not just assume he had the right.
Meanwhile Frankie’s disembodied voice continued, << I believe that only leaves you Adam to relay your news?>>
Adam looked upset as he stood up and in a very shaky voice explained, “I too am leaving the team. Now you have a qualified pilot of your own on the team and Frankie can remotely fly it. I don’t feel you need me around as much so I’m going back to work on R&R with Bethany. Sorry but from what Sam said about my future, I feel it’s for the best. I’ll still be around if you need me but…” he ended awkwardly expecting criticism.
There was none.
When Sam had made his announcement, Mary had looked (and felt) sad. She heaved a sigh, nodded and managed a wry smile. Now she lifted her whiskey-glass in a toast to Sam and his family, “The Balance will sadly miss your kindness and innocence, Big Man,” she said. “Not so many can fight evil and still look for goodness in every soul they meet. Maybe that’s why it’s the right time for you to draw back. You have close family to care for, not like Akira, Mace and myself, and – like us – you’ve glimpsed the future.”
Her gaze darkened with those last words, but then glowed with a moist pride as she turned to look towards the rest of the ‘remainers’ knowing at least one way things might turn out and what that said about the loyalty and courage of the members of ‘New’ Balance and their descendants to be.
“So farewell and long life!” she said as she downed her whiskey in one.
Sam nodded an acknowledgement. “Now, with that all being said and done,” he said, spreading his hands with a dramatic flair and his classic winning cheeky smile, “who wants to hit The Endeavour Pub? I don’t know about you, but I could do with a strong drink!”
Next day the rest of the team and staff woke to a flashing message on their tablets and laptops. When they activated it, a cartoon-like avatar of Akira appeared and a recorded message played. “Don’t try to find me. Trust me I know now that I know nothing. I’ll be back when I do.”
The base cameras showed that Akira had packed some bags and teleported away in the early hours of the morning.
Sam slammed his tablet down on his bedside table. He should have expected something like this from Akira’s weird behaviour the day before. In fact, now he thought about it Akira had been behaving distantly since their return. Perhaps he hadn’t listened when Sam said he had hoped he had not been divisive! It was not uncharacteristic for Akira to pull the occasional disappearing act, perhaps it was just a coincidence and bad timing that it was happening the day after he’d told everyone that he was retiring? Akira mostly gave the impression he knew what he was doing and magic in general was a mysterious beast.
Sam could elect to continue to worry, or let it go. He supposed, as cruel as it sounded, since yesterday – Akira was no longer his problem. He grabbed his bag and headed over to Third Eye to help Annie set up the new office swearing under his breath. How naive was he to think this would go according to plan? Some Balance habits are hard to kick. Well he’d find out more at the audition.
After the leave-takings and valedictories of the previous evening, it came as more of a shock to Mary to receive Akira’s message. Once she had digested the news, she shook her head and tutted. “Always so wayward and stubborn Akira, never talk to anyone in advance, just off and do what you want. First you become a serpent, so what now, a recluse?”
A visit by Mace and Mary to Ffrwd Dylluan, with Mary finally showing off her ‘recently’ acquired piloting skills, revealed that someone appeared to be inside the house but the heath spell prevented anyone from getting close enough to confirm that it was definitely Akira or to speak with him if it was.
Hoping it was as Akira had said a personal choice and not the influence of the brand of Yig returning they had no choice but to leave and hope he would contact them sooner rather than later.
Mary sighed and smiled. “Maybe you’ll bounce back; you’ve made something of a habit of that in the past. We’ll just have to wait and see… and meanwhile we need to get on with business.” Her expression set grim. “We have an apocalypse to abort…”
The team was now down two members, they needed to get back and check out Frankie’s recommended replacement.
A short time later, on a small, tropical island somewhere off the East coast of Africa
When he’d said he planned to retire from The Balance, Sam was pretty damn sure he hadn’t intended becoming a criminal instead. Yet here he was only a couple of weeks later on a secluded equatorial island holding stolen goods whilst being chased by its previous owner’s security staff!
In his defence, the plan certainly seemed like a good one at the time of concept. However, he’d forgot the old adage, ‘No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.’
Okay so the goods, or at least part of it, had been stolen in the first place. He paused as a sudden lethal white furred inhuman assassin leapt out at him from the trees and he was forced to ‘bat’ the leopard-human hybrid away while its equally genetically enhanced companion got into a cat fight with Annie’s ‘Kitten’. Also genetically modified, Kitten already stood a full metre high at the shoulders and was frighteningly intelligent. It was no contest as Kitten made short work of her opponent. He couldn’t hide a “not bad” expression on his face as Kitten again vanished back into the jungle acting as his hidden escort.
Sam looked down at the stolen uterine replicator capsule in his hands as Annie caught up with them with the real prize.
When the ‘accident’ occurred that had destroyed most of her biological body, her father Dr Phillippe Moreau had elected to keep her alive by placing her head inside the robotic shell she’d survived in before her recent secretive upgrade. Seems he had also harvested Annie’s surviving eggs and stored them in cryogenic suspension. For what purpose, neither of them knew for certain but given his role as Biologist Supreme for the criminal organisation known as the Foundry, his role in creating and birthing all sorts of hybrid monsters for use as weapons, they shuddered to think. Annie had decided that the time had come to liberate her ovum, hence the raid on the island in the middle of the night.
Annie had also decided that ‘daddy dearest’ owed her, hence the additional acquisition of one of his portable uterine replicators. They were quite sure the Foundry’s profits would be more than enough to cover their little excursion.
Well at least he now knew how they might one day have a child. Based on his having a granddaughter in the future, he now sort of assumed Annie’s android body must have temporarily retained some of his ‘parental contribution’ which she had frozen and stored somewhere. He didn’t actually ask as that got, well a bit yucky and too close to him having to decide whether or not he actually wanted to be a dad. One bridge at a time, eh Sam.
Okay, so once they made it back to the UK, assuming he and Kitten survived Annie’s haphazard piloting back flying NOE (Nap of the Earth) all of the way to avoid radar contact, their next case would apparently be investigating Joseph Kuang, youngest son of Kuang Ma of the Choy Lok On Tong, also known as Joey Tiamente. Sam wanted to know why had he chosen that particular name and what did it have to do with the multiple deaths in Dragon’s Gate? Admittedly, that had been in the Balance’s Inbox for quite some time, but it had dropped in priority due to other crisis’s emerging.
Yip, nice, quiet retirement, finishing his degree, helping out as a substitute teacher Down Below in Claremont Academy and occasionally (very occasionally) helping out as a bartender at the Endeavour Pub while acting as backup to and a calming influence on the hyperactive, psychotic, justice-seeking love of his life, Annie. Quiet retirement all right, what the hell had he been thinking? Perhaps ‘quiet’ had been the wrong word for what they had in mind. Really, ‘retirement’ was also a stretch.
He smiled. Actually, he was having the absolute time of his life… He reached over, pulled Annie in for a kiss then they ran hand in hand for their craft as Kitten joined them, loping behind them snarling at the crabs on the beach.
Perfect retirement, indeed. He sighed, contented knowing that there would be coffee and a good book waiting for him inside the ship. Maybe he could find the time this week to see if perhaps Akira was finally ready to talk with him?
He thought he’d enjoy that. All of this is going to take some adjustment, some people needed more closure than others did and Sam always had a strong relationship with Akira, or at least he thought he did.
Launching to the sound of flaring engines, red alert lights and screaming alarms, the ship lurched into urgent action. Thinking nothing of it at all, he looked and rolled his fingers, tracing his scales with a single claw gently. How would he even get a measurement from her? What style would she like..? Would they even come to their reception now?
Superhero Adventures, UK Style 