The Protagonist System
361 Put Chapter Title Here

When our shift at work was done, I dropped The Giant off at his place. Surprisingly, he tried to give me a hug and thanked me for playing with him. I couldn't resist reminding him that it was supposed to be work, not a play date, and we were being paid. He laughed, winked his sole cyclops eye at me, and said goodnight before closing the huge door.

I laughed as well and flew back to the Global Defense Agency to drop off the containers of materials at the supply depot and the helmet with attached air tanks at the White Room for the scientists to check it over and refill the tanks. I flew back to my home city and it was nice to just float around for a while with no obligations or urgency... and then I heard gunshots and smashing concrete.

I sighed and flew over to the national bank and saw two of Machine Head's goons, or I guess they were Titan's goons now. I had forgotten about him tricking me into helping him depose Machine Head to take over his criminal empire. I flew down and the lava guy yelled about me appearing and tried to shoot me with a stream of molten rock.

I blew out freezing breath and his entire form changed from molten rock to just rock. He looked shocked, as did his partner Tentacle Master or whatever he was called, so I flicked his forehead with my finger and knocked him out. It really made me wonder why Invincible had such a hard time with these B-class villains.

I turned to the police huddled behind their police cars and waved. “I apologize for interfering. I was just passing by and heard the ruckus.” I said and walked over to the closest car and leaned against it. “Do you need me to stick around for a witness statement or to help fill out the report on this incident?”

The two police officers stood up and exchanged looks, then nodded.

“Sure. I'll take your statement and Ed can go cuff the suspects.” The cop on the right said.

“How the hell am I supposed to cuff solid rock, Shaun?” Ed asked.

“It's only solid on the outside. I didn't want to kill him for a simple robbery.” I said and they looked surprised. “He'll probably reform into his normal molten state in a few hours.”

“Riiiight. I'll let the transport know they're both still potentially active with powers.” Ed said and went to the trunk of his car to search for a second and closed it. “Does anyone have a tow chain in their kit?”

Two cars over had a cop raise their hand.

“Grab it and give me a hand securing the statue.” Ed said and pulled out two sets of handcuffs from his belt and walked over to the suspects.

The first officer named Shaun pulled out a notepad from his back pocket and I spent the next few minutes giving him my statement. It wasn't much more detailed than what I already stated, except when I added that I had been coming from the Global Defense Agency and showed off my ID, the cop looked both relieved and satisfied. Being accredited by the GDA went a long way with officers, apparently.

I also offered to testify if it went to court and the cop looked shocked, then he enthusiastically wrote it down and thanked me for maintaining my civic duty to ensure criminals were justly prosecuted. I gave him my cell phone number and he shook my hand just as a large transport van drove up.

“If you need a hand moving them, I'll help.” I offered.

Shaun smiled. “You're shattering my normal expectations of heroes, Atlas.”

I had to hold in my laugh at hearing that and he chuckled and motioned towards the transport. We went over to it as the back dropped down and showed off the secured cells inside.

“Nice.” I said and then went over to the chain wrapped rock statue and carefully carried it over to the transport and put it into one of the cells. The other officers carried tentacle guy and tossed him none to gently into the other one. I raised an eyebrow in question at them.

“He grabbed me by the crotch the last time and I couldn't walk straight for a week.” One of them answered.

“Fair enough.” I said and reached out and popped my fist into a quick jab into the villain's crotch. The body jerked and didn't move. “Let's see how he likes it.”

The man nodded and the other cops smiled as both cells were locked and secured. The transport drove away and I looked over at the bank. It looked close to collapsing on that side of the building where most of the bricks were broken out of the wall for the villains to escape through.

“Excuse me for a minute.” I said and flew off to a construction site, pretended to grab a bunch of bricks in case cameras were watching. I was actually just copying a bunch of them and gathered them on a spare pallet and a few containers of mortar mix. I flew the huge palette back to the bank and everyone stared at me as I landed it right beside the huge hole.

I moved at almost super-speed as I made braces first to hold the building up and then quickly rebuilt the wall and filled in all the cracks and holes the broken out wall had. Surprisingly, no one said anything as I worked, not even the bank employees that had come out to gather the money the criminals had stolen.

“You could make a mint working construction!” A man said after I slid the last brick into place and removed the temporary supports.

I turned and smiled at him. “I'm sorry, sir. I'm a hero, not a scab. I'd never take away a job that another hard working citizen needs.”

“You just did!” Someone else shouted and pointed at the repaired wall.

“No, the building was close to collapsing without most of the wall to support it. I just fixed it enough to hold it in place. I'm not certified as a bricklayer or have a permit for construction.” I looked over at the bank employees. “You'll need to hire someone to check it out and sign off on it, or have them replace the wall as it's supposed to be.”

“We'll do that.” The man said. “If only to ensure our insurance still covers it.”

“Exactly!” I said and gave him a thumbs up. “I'm just here to help.”

I walked back over to the officers. “Is there anything else you need from me?”

“No, we got everything.” Ed said. “Thanks, Atlas.”

“Anytime.” I said and floated up into the air, waved at the crowd, and flew off in a random direction. I landed in an alleyway and changed back into my Mark Grayson persona and stepped from there to an alley near the house. I walked out and down the street to where I lived and used the key to enter the house.

“I'm in the kitchen!” My mom shouted.

I shut the door and followed her voice to see her standing in front of the stove and humming happily. I walked over to her and hugged her from behind. “Is it you that smells so good?”

Debbie let out a little chuckle and leaned back against me for a moment, then she stood up straight and turned her head to kiss me on the cheek. “You're so sweet.”

“That wasn't a denial.” I joked and she laughed. “Thanks for agreeing to have a late supper.”

“Mm hmm.” Debbie hummed. “You had Cecil's secretary call and tell me your consulting job was running late. Delaying when we sit down to eat isn't a huge inconvenience.”

“So, it was an inconvenience!” I fake gasped to make her laugh and gave her two cheek kisses. “Thanks, mom.”

“It's nothing.” Debbie said with a huge smile on her face. “The stir-fry is almost done, so grab the casserole out of the oven and set the table.”

“You got it.” I said and went to the drawer in the cabinet beside the stove and grabbed two oven mitts.

Debbie lifted the large frying pan off of the burner and stepped aside to make room for me to open the oven and pull out the large casserole dish. I set it on the large cozy in the middle of the kitchen table and uncovered it, then set aside the cover and the oven mitts.

I set the table for two and she turned off the oven and the stove top as she finished stirring the contents of the frying pan, then she dished out a third for herself and two thirds onto my plate. I gave us each a scoop of casserole and we sat down and enjoyed another family meal.

Debbie was a little shocked when I talked about how I had helped set up an asteroid mining operation and that our accounts were going to have a huge influx of government cash in the next few weeks. Apparently, virgin minerals were worth top dollar, as were the various precious metals that were in very short supply on Earth.

“Are you being serious right now?” Debbie asked me, her eyes wide.

“I'm being totally serious. Since it was my idea, as was using the new government assets of Atlas and The Giant as workers, I'm getting a full 25% of the profits.” I said and her mouth dropped open. “There's barely any overhead costs and only the maintenance for wear and tear on the containers and equipment can be claimed as part of the program.”

Debbie sat there and stared at me, completely at a loss as to what to say.

“The best part? Both Atlas and The Giant are having fun. They think it's like a superhero playdate where they can blow off steam and don't worry about holding their strength back as they smash thousands of tons of raw materials into small and easily harvested chunks.” I said, proudly.

Debbie put her fork down and stood up, walked around the table, and bent over to look me right in the eyes with a bit of a glare. “Mark!”

I didn't dare blink at her very serious look. “Y-yes?”

“Thank you for being so smart and for putting the welfare of your family first.” Debbie said as she lost the glare and then gave me a quick peck on the lips. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” I responded automatically.

Debbie smiled warmly and patted my shoulder, walked back around the table, and sat down to start eating again. It took me a moment to realize she had used her scary mom powers to make me nervous and gained my full attention, then she thanked me and made me feel relief at not being caught at something.

“Damn, you're good.” I whispered with awe and reverence.

Debbie beamed a smile at me and kept eating. I resumed eating as well and she told me about her day at work. It was nowhere near as exciting as mine, even if she did close on a house and earned almost ten grand in commissions.

I figured it was my turn to return the favor and tried to do her tactic back to her, stood up and walked around the table, and glared at her before thanking her for putting the family first. The thing is, this failed miserably. Why? She was giggling the whole time and only stopped laughing long enough to accept the quick peck on the lips.

I did succeed in putting a huge smile on my mom's face for the rest of the meal, though. Debbie decided to have a nice relaxing bath instead of a shower, so instead of relaxing on the couch with her, I had the rest of the evening to myself. I remembered that I had something to do and went upstairs and took out my cell phone, checked Sarah's number in my inventory, and dialed.

“Hi, Mark.” Sarah said right away.

“You weren't sitting by the phone waiting for me to call, were you?” I asked.

“No, my mom was by the phone and passed it to me.”

“Wait, your mom was waiting for me to call? You better put her on!” I joked and she chuckled. There was a whispered question and Sarah whispered back what I said, and I heard a feminine laugh and a short whisper.

“Mom just said you better come over for dinner tomorrow or she'll never forgive you for making her worry about you not calling tonight.” Sarah responded and I could hear the amusement in her voice. There was no way her mom said all of that with only a few words.

I chuckled. “Well, I'd hate to disappoint her.” I said with a chuckle. “Tell her I'll be there promptly at 6 and I'll bring a nice bottle of wine.”

Sara was quiet for a moment. “How are you going to get it?”

“I'm going to swipe it from my own mom, of course.” I lied. I had hundreds of bottles in inventory and could easily copy them as many times as I wanted.

“Don't you dare!” Sarah gasped and then giggled. “That would be funny, though.”

“Moms like sharing.” I added and she laughed.

There was more soft whispering before Sarah spoke again. “If you're no joking, she said to dress up a little. No hoodies or jeans.”

“I can still wear sneakers, right? Shoes might scuff up her floors.”

“Nope, shoes, too.” Sarah said without consulting her mom.

“Damn, she drives a hard bargain.” I said and there were a couple more whispers. “All right, I'll be there. I'll even comb my hair.”

Sarah chuckled. “I'll let her know that important fact as soon as I hang up.”

“No, no. You can tell her now. I'll wait.” I said and started humming some elevator music.

Sarah laughed. “Why couldn't I have met you years ago?”

“I was too ignorant and wrapped up in my own head back then.” I responded without hesitation. “I missed a lot of things that were right in front of my face. It wasn't until recently that I started to realize how screwed up my life has been.”

Sarah was quiet for a moment. “Mark, I... I'm sorry... about your dad.”

“It's okay. It was sudden and took us all by surprise.” I said, truthfully. “I kind of got over it during my time off and I wouldn't have gone back to school if I wasn't ready to move on with my life.”

There was some more muffled whispering and I stayed quiet to let her and her mom talk.

“If you ever need to talk about things, I'm willing to listen.” Sarah eventually said.

“Thanks, Sarah.” I said, gratefully. “I better let you go. I have my own homework to finish before going to bed.”

“Oh! Right, you need to do that, too.” Sarah responded and fell silent for a few seconds. “Don't forget about supper tomorrow.”

“I won't.” I said and smiled. “You'll be reminding me again tomorrow at school, too.”

“Darn right I will.” Sarah said with determination. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.” I responded and hung up. I spent a moment to create the paper and homework answers I needed and put them into my backpack, changed my clothes, and climbed into bed. Tomorrow was going to be a typical school day and I could use a good sleep to replenish myself mentally.

*

Eve sat at the far corner table in the cafeteria and tried to not think about what she couldn't stop thinking about. Word of what Mark did and didn't do with Sarah had spread like wildfire across the entire school. The envious looks Sarah had received really made the girl's ego soar, too. Her friends were a lot less obvious about their envy, probably because Mark was sitting right there with them.

How did he suddenly become so popular? Eve asked herself and absently ate her food, not realizing she had answered her own question already.

“You're looking lost.” Will said as he sat across from her.

Eve let out a sigh and pushed her tasteless food away. “I just can't get over how much we screwed up.”

Will looked over at a laughing Mark and back to her. “Me, either. I didn't realize how much I've been ragging on him about Amber until he pretty much shouted it in my face.”

“I... I know. I...” Eve shook her head. “I automatically associated their breakup with what happened to me, so I put Mark into Rex's role and Amber into mine. I assumed Mark was at fault without even bothering to listen to his side of things. It was wrong and completely unfair.”

“Yeah.” Will said and looked down at the table. “I was wrong, too.”

The pair of them sat there and didn't say anything else for the rest of the lunch period. Without Mark to talk about, they really didn't have anything else in common. When the bell rang, neither of them said goodbye and went their separate ways. By unspoken agreement, it would be the last time either of them would ever meet again.