CHAPTER 36

The young hero was being bathed by multiple flashes from different cameras and he did not seem to be intimidated by the paparazzi, almost like he was accustomed to them, he kept posing and signing autographs before heading inside for the event he was there for. 

Tom looked at him from a distance and noticed a fellow by his side who appeared to be a close friend of his from the way they were joking around. They kept laughing and seemed to be enjoying each other's company. 

"So this is what heroes do on their days off." He muttered to himself as he walked further away from his radar, not wanting Beast Boy to come near him because he might recognize his scent. 

After the auction had taken place, the gallery was officially opened and the guests walked around as they mused at the amazing pieces of art that were strategically placed within the gallery. 

The event was filled with rich people, people with aristocratic personalities as they saw themselves above the rest of society. It was clear by the way they carried themselves and talked in a slow and weird manner as if they were implementing an accent to each word that escaped their mouth. 

It felt like this event was more than what it seemed to be, men were shaking hands like they had just closed a deal. Trades and businesses must be taking place on a low key level. 

With both hands in my pocket I strolled through the gallery, taking close examinations to each piece of art that caught my eye. "Hey buddy." An annoyingly familiar voice spoke from behind. 

"Please don't be who I think it is." I muttered with fingers crossed as I turned around slowly. 

'Damn it, Beast Boy.' That was the only thought that came to mind when I saw the green face having a wide smile on it while a fellow stood beside him. 

"Hi." I greeted casually like there wasn't something like bad blood between us and it was our first time meeting. 

"You seem to be the only person here without a plus one, or even held a conversation with anyone since you got here." He spoke while taking a closer look at me. 

"My plus one could not make it today. Moreover, I find it quite comforting to be alone with my thoughts, that way I could understand the information the artist must be sending to the public through them. Afterall, they say an art reflects the soul of the artist." I said to the lad who was currently looking up at the other who just looked around as if surveying the area, he glanced around the gallery, staring at a few personnels in particular. 

"Oh, then you are a loner then." 

"A loner, why the fuck would you think that?" I tried defending myself even though I knew he was dead on target with his assumption about my personality. 

"I'm a peoples person, I might be dense and clueless most times but I know my polar opposite when I see one." He said with a smirk on his face, he tried to put pressure on me so I'd admit to being a loner, which would confirm his intuition about me. 

"Nah, I'm nothing like that… Maybe just a little." 

"I knew it, you better get yourself a friend or you might die lonely."  

"No thanks, I'm good."

"That was quick!" Exclaimed Beast Boy who somehow expected that answer from a full time loner. 

The idea of getting myself a friend wasn't a bad one, but if I said yes then that kid would want to be my friend. 

Friends with that hyperactive kid? No thank you, I'm good. I was never a fan of the bubbly type, not in my previous life, and definitely not in this one. There's something about them that just ticks me the wrong way. They don't know anything about personal space or things like boundaries and privacy. They intrude whenever they want to, so long as they feel like it, they'll want to drag you into whatever bullshit they have going on at that moment. 

"Yeah, I'm not really a people's person." Tom replied as he was just realizing that his introverted nature was that visible to the sight of others. The green kid just met him and had already figured out the kind of person he was, but yet he was still pushing on and intruding on his alone time at the gallery. 

"What do you mean you aren't a people's person, I could make you one with time. After all, I'm likable and also sure I could get rid of that gloomy aura you have all around you."

"Gloomy aura?" I asked him as my eyes crooked a little from his statement.

"How do you think I spotted you from the otherside of the gallery? It is because of your lonesome aura you have all around you, it's totally different from the rest of the people at this event." He said with a mildly creepy smile on his face while he pointed at me. 

"Oh, well if you say so." There was no point arguing with him because he might be right, I don't have friends and I keep to myself a lot without bothering about anything concerning anyone. 

At the moment I was trying to take his mind off getting to know me, and hoped he didn't recognize my scent. 

"Hey, why is your friend looking around like that, is he a cop or something?" I asked Beast Boy who now noticed how less interested Wally was in our conversation and how much he was looking around the area like an undercover cop waiting for shit to go down or in the middle of an operation. 

"Oh that's just him being a little paranoid, but he is a fun and cheerful dude once you get to know him. I've been trying to teach him how to relax every once in a while."

"That's right, guess it's time for introductions." He placed an arm on his chest as he continued. "I'm Gar, and you might know me as the popular hero 'Beast Boy.' Then he tapped Wally and drew his attention over to us." Over here is Wally and he is a really good friend of mine." Gar added. 

Funny how introduction came late after we've had a whole conversation, when normally it is the first thing people do. 

"I'm Tom, it's nice to meet you in person." I responded appropriately as I noticed how upbeat Beast Boy seemed. 

"Hey, how's it going?" Wally stretched out his hand and gestured for a handshake which I responded to, before extending a handshake over to the green kid who still had a wide smile on his face. 

I was curious if his face does not get cramped up from smiling too much, his level of friendliness made me wonder if he was the same kid who transformed into a gorilla and was willing to smash my head against the sidewalk some nights ago. 

I guess the reason Wally had been turning around and observing the event was because it was filled with mobsters, drug lords and top class criminals who have been charged with crimes like extortion, human trafficking, drug trafficking, selling of human parts and rape cases. But they are all walking around freely and not behind bars because they have some kind of power in the corrupt justice system. 

He saw them moving freely without worries from being caught by the police even after all the terrible things they had done. I recognized a few of them from the news and was sure they were tried in court but never ever did they get put in jail. The system usually ruled it off as baseless accusations after every evidence they had against them was made to disappear by cops under their payroll.

 I could tell what he was thinking just by the look he had on his face as he stared at them, that hero instinct of wanting to bring them down, yet he could do nothing but watch them roam around like they owned the town. Technically they do, whoever holds the power are the ones who are able to bend the rules as they see fit. 

That verse was rotten to the core, more like my previous world but a little bit too extreme. Nothing came as a surprise anymore, unlike my first few months here. If it was reported on the news that a school bus full of elementary school kids was hijacked by terrorists, and they demanded over five hundred million dollars or they would start shooting each kid one after the other, I wouldn't be surprised or fazed because it was like the norms around here. 

Oh, the things DC has done to my beautiful mind. I thought to myself as I could feel a little bit of what I would call my humanity, being scraped away, slowly. 

"Anything bothering you, Tom?" Gar asked, pulling me from my thoughts which I seemed to have fallen deep into. 

"Nothing at all, just some random thought living rent free in my head." I shrugged it off. 

"How time run so fast, Wally it's time for us to go." Gar pulled Wally as he checked his wrist watch. 

"It was nice meeting you Tom, I hope we get to hangout some other time." 

"Likewise." I replied as they took their leave. 

… 

[Wally's POV] 

The event was fun and all, but with Gar being the life of the party made it a little bit suffocating. The paparazzi kept taking pictures and Wally left him for a while to take a breather, it was one of the few ways heroes gain more publicity after all.

He couldn't enjoy the event because of the rotten bunch that lurked around with their shoulders held high when they should be rotting in jail serving the punishments for their crimes but there was nothing he could do. 

The strange fellow Gar suddenly made friends with at the gallery seemed awfully familiar to him. His presence, even his voice sounded like he had heard it somewhere before but where, he wondered. 

He thought hard on it and the only thought that came to mind was the night he encountered the vigilante, the height, the physique, and voice all matched his profile from that night. But yet again he could be wrong about that, it was night time after all and the dark could play tricks on one's mind, also he had a little concussion so he couldn't pin it as Tom. 

Then again, maybe it was just his paranoid mind wanting to pick someone as the vigilante, so he'd know what the person who kicked his ass looked like, and could think of how to go forward from there. 

"Gar was right, I think I should relax more and take a break from this hero work for at least a day." He contemplated.